At the Leytonstone Underground station in East London, a culture-enriching man went on a spree with a knife or a machete, seriously injuring three people before being tased by police and arrested. He reportedly shouted “This is for Syria” as he was slitting one victim’s throat. The Metropolitan Police are treating the incident as a terrorist act.
In other news, the Italian coast guard rescued more than 1,500 would-be migrants off the coast of Libya, plucking them from ten dinghies and one fishing boat.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Fjordman, Green Infidel, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, LP, Nick, PP, Seneca III, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.
Do You Really Want to Raise Money From a Venture Capitalist?
Who, Then, Are Venture Capitalists?
Perhaps let’s look at the structure of a typical VC fund as this will shine some light on the subject.
What takes place is that a bunch of smart, and sometimes not so smart guys, and sometimes gals, get together and form a company with the objective to get filthy stinking rich and they intend to do this by investing in exciting early stage ventures.
These guys are called the General Partners (GPs) and in order to leverage what they’re doing, they take in partners who wish to co-invest. These partners are passive and called Limited Partners (LPs) and they are usually charged 2% of capital and 20% of the carried interest, which in the industry is commonly known as 2:20…
It can happen where your VCs want that trade sale, or IPO, and you as a founder don’t. Maybe you’ve incurred too much dilution and a trade sale or IPO at the market price, based on your equity, means that VCs with a 2x liquidation preference make money, and you, after working 100-hour workweeks, losing your marriage and friends, after mortgaging your home, end up with nothing. Yep. Nada. Zilcho. It happens. I’d rather it didn’t happen to you.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Money Disappears in a Fractional-Reserve Money System
Printing money only inflicts more damage
Most experts are of the view that the massive monetary pumping by the US central bank during the 2008 financial crisis saved the US and the world from another Great Depression.
On this the Federal Reserve Chairman at the time Ben Bernanke is considered the man that saved the world. Bernanke in turn attributes his actions to the writings of Professor Milton Friedman who blamed the Federal Reserve for causing the Great Depression of 1930s by allowing the money supply to plunge by over 30 percent.
Careful analysis will however show that it is not a collapse in the money stock that sets in motion an economic slump as such, but rather the prior monetary pumping that undermines the pool of real funding that leads to an economic depression.
Improving the Economy Requires Time and Savings
Essentially, the pool of real funding is the quantity of consumer goods available in an economy to support future production. In the simplest of terms: a lone man on an island is able to pick twenty-five apples an hour. With the aid of a picking tool, he is able to raise his output to fifty apples an hour. Making the tool, (adding a stage of production) however, takes time.
During the time he is busy making the tool, the man will not be able to pick any apples. In order to have the tool, therefore, the man must first have enough apples to sustain himself while he is busy making it. His pool of funding is his means of sustenance for this period—the quantity of apples he has saved for this purpose.
The size of this pool determines whether or not a more sophisticated means of production can be introduced. If it requires one year of work for the man to build this tool, but he has only enough apples saved to sustain him for one month, then the tool will not be built—and the man will not be able to increase his productivity.
The island scenario is complicated by the introduction of multiple individuals who trade with each other and use money. The essence, however, remains the same: the size of the pool of funding sets a brake on the implementation of more productive stages of production. When Banks Create the Illusion of More Wealth
Trouble erupts whenever the banking system makes it appear that the pool of real funding is larger than it is in reality. When a central bank expands the money stock, it does not enlarge the pool of funding. It gives rise to the consumption of goods, which is not preceded by production. It leads to less means of sustenance.
As long as the pool of real funding continues to expand, loose monetary policies give the impression that economic activity is being boosted. That this is not the case becomes apparent as soon as the pool of real funding begins to stagnate or shrink. Once this happens, the economy begins its downward plunge. The most aggressive loosening of money will not reverse the plunge (for money cannot replace apples).
The introduction of money and lending to our analysis will not alter the fact that the subject matter remains the pool of the means of sustenance. When an individual lends money, what he in fact lends to borrowers is the goods he has not consumed (money is a claim on real goods). Credit then means that unconsumed goods are loaned by one productive individual to another, to be repaid out of future production.
The existence of the central bank and fractional reserve banking permits commercial banks to generate credit, which is not backed up by real funding (i.e., it is credit created out of “thin air”).
Once the unbacked credit is generated it creates activities that the free market would never approve. That is, these activities are consuming and not producing real wealth. As long as the pool of real funding is expanding and banks are eager to expand credit, various false activities continue to prosper.
Whenever the extensive creation of credit out of “thin air” lifts the pace of real-wealth consumption above the pace of real-wealth production this undermines the pool of real funding.
Consequently, the performance of various activities starts to deteriorate and banks’ bad loans start to rise. In response to this, banks curtail their loans and this in turn sets in motion a decline in the money stock.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ATF Says Weapons Used in San Bernardino Shooting Were Illegal in California
While we hear more grandstanding about the need for more gun control, keep in mind all the current laws that were broken to execute this violent massacre:
The shooters used weapons they did not purchase (sounds like a straw purchase or illegal transfer).
The shooters modified guns to accept high-capacity magazines.
The shooters modified guns for automatic fire.
Can anyone think of a law we could put in place that these homicidal maniacs, or any criminal or homicidal maniac, would follow? I can’t.
And because the media is so stupid about guns, they don’t know that the firearm laws pertain not just to purchases but also to the way a gun is used. That is an inconvenient pill to swallow for the gun grabbers because if they consider the way firearms are used, the focus turns to the person using the gun and not the gun itself. Their propaganda is designed to demonize the gun, not to look at the people who are misusing firearms.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CDC Scientists Held Meeting to Destroy Autism-Vaccine Documents, Reveals CDC Whistleblower
(NaturalNews) The results of a 2004 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered a significant link between the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) and autism in African American boys vaccinated under or around the age 36 months; however, if it weren’t for one whistleblower, you would not have been privy to any of this, because the evidence was deliberately covered up.
Dr. William Thompson, currently a senior scientist at the CDC, recently made a shocking admission that he and his colleagues specifically arranged a meeting to destroy important documents related to the study in an attempt to withhold information from the public regarding a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
As first reported by Sharyl Attkisson, a former CBS News journalist turned independent investigative reporter, Dr. Thompson and the study co-authors “scheduled a meeting to destroy documents related to the study.
“The remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into the meeting room, and reviewed and went through all the hardcopy documents that we had thought we should discard, and put them into a huge garbage can.”
“The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism.” — CDC Senior Science Dr. William Thompson
However, aware that destroying documents in this manner was both illegal and unethical, Dr. Thompson kept hard copies of all the documents that had been disposed of, as well as maintained all associated computer files.
After securing a whistleblower attorney, Dr. Thompson came forward with his admission, providing relevant documents in August 2014 to the office of Rep. Bill Posey (R-Florida), who presented details of the cover-up on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Defeating Domestic Jihad: A Program of Action
by Srdja Trifkovic
With mathematically predictable precision, President Barack Hussein Obama declared that last Wednesday’s slaughter of 17 American attendees of a Christmas party by two Muslims in a community center in California, and the wounding of two-dozen others, was a mystery (“We don’t know the motives)—and that the U.S. needed stricter gun laws. It was a jihadist attack by devout Muslims against Americans, as it happens. It was an eminently jihadist act of murderous aggression by self-starting, home-grown Muslim terrorists.
Enough already of Obama and his ilk. The war against sudden jihad self-generated by Muslim immigrants and their offspring, threatening literally every American, is by now both real and present. It can and must be won, in spite of Obama and his ilk. From now on every Muslim is a legitimate suspect and every non-Muslim is a potential victim, with self-defense strategies understood and applied.
The first task is to start talking frankly about the identity and character of the enemy, Obama’s devious plaitudes notwithstanding. It is essential to discard the taboos and to discuss Islam, Middle Eastern immigration, and the Muslims in general without fear or guilt, or the shackles of mandated thinking. What I am about to state here is not different from what I have said at countless public platforms in the U.S. over the years, or advocates in these pages of Chronicles. This is a summary of many years of study.
The imperative is dictated by rational integrity no less than by the need for self-preservation. We have a moral and intellectual obligation “not to shirk the difficult issues and subjects that some people would place under a sort of taboo,” Bernard Lewis (age 99)—who knows Islam better than any prominent Westerner alive—warned three decades ago, “not to submit to voluntary censorship, but to deal with these matters fairly, honestly, without apologetics, without polemic, and, of course, competently . . . Because, make no mistake, those who are unwilling to confront the past will be unable to understand the present and unfit to face the future.”
Or, to be more precise, unfit to survive very far into the future. Since Lewis wrote those words it has become blatantly obvious that the main threat to Western security comes from the purveyors of “voluntary censorship,” with those among us who have the power to make policy and shape opinions, and who reject his diagnosis and demonize everyone else who agrees with him. Having absorbed postmodernist assumptions, certain only of uncertainty, devoid of any serious faith except that in their own infallibility but loath to be “judgmental,” members of our own elite class treat the jihadist mindset as a pathology that can and should be treated by treating causes external to Islam itself. The result is a plethora of proposed “strategies” that are as likely to succeed in making us safe from jihadism as pretending that Turkey and Saudi Arabia are America’s “allies” in the fight against ISIS will help defeat the Islamic State.
Abroad, we are told, we need to trust Ankara and Riyadh, we need to spread our “values” in the Muslim world, we need to invest more in public diplomacy. At home we need more tolerance, more draconian legal measures against “Islamophobia,” greater inclusiveness, less profiling, and a more determined outreach to the Muslim communities that feel marginalized and stigmatized. The predictable failure of such cures leads to ever more pathological self-scrutiny and morbid self-doubt. This vicious circle is untenable and must be broken. Evidently it costs too many American (and French, English, Spanish . . . ) lives, and the problem will get worse. The magnitude of the threat demands radical responses that fall outside the cognitive parameters of the elite class…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Deluded Anti-Gun Democrats Ignore Facts, Islamic Fanaticism
The smoke has barely cleared from the December 2nd massacre in San Bernardino, CA and operatives of the Democrat party masquerading as journalists like The Washington Post’s Petula Dvorak are busy promoting the knee-jerk, mindlessly Pavlovian response that, once again, the inanimate gun is responsible. She infers, ignore your lying eyes and reasoning brain to the facts: clearly the Islamic and the radicalized (Syed Rizwan Farook is no American name I’ve ever heard of) as well as the unhinged—mostly philosophical Democrats who fill the nation’s prisons—pull the triggers. Like the tool she is, Ms. Dvorak parrots Mr. Obama’s libelous, well established narrative that “those evil Republicans” are really to blame for respecting the Second Amendment; the right of the citizenry to legally bare arms.
A true believer in fantasy, Ms. Dvorak subscribes to idea that if America magically became a gun-free zone à la Sandy Hook elementary school and more recently Paris, gun violence would happen less. On this basis, we should also outlaw rocks—which are even more plentiful than guns—and require no background checks. What she and others of her ilk fail to address is the undeniable reality that by hook or by crook, law-breakers always find a way to arm themselves. Therefore, banning guns actually emboldens criminals thereby making innocents more vulnerable to widespread attacks not less so.
Ms. Dvorak’s tone-deafness to reality mirrors Mr. Obama’s unyielding ideological blindness. The world should be as they want it rather than how it is. Ironically, in Paris (where private gun ownership is forbidden) just three weeks after the mass shooting that killed 130, Mr. Obama ridiculously proclaimed that “these types of attacks” only occur in the United States. (Not true: number one is Norway, followed by Finland, Slovakia, Israel, Switzerland followed by the United States in sixth.)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Friend of Victim: Farook Threatened to Kill Jews, Said “Islam Will Rule the World”
“They aren’t reporting that in the news, I wonder why”.
A close friend of Nicholas Thalasinos, one of the victims of the San Bernardino shooting, said that gunman Sayed Farook had threatened to kill Thalasinos because he was Jewish and asserted that “Islam will rule the world.”
CV Claverie posted the following Facebook message on Thursday evening;
“The islamic terrorist who took the Life of my friend & bro in Christ, Nicholas Thalasinos, on yesterday in San Bernadino, CA, had been threatening him, telling him that islam will rule the world, Christians and Jews deserve to die; and that he (Nicholas) was going to die.”
“But, they aren’t reporting that in the “news” …I wonder why …”
The fact that no mainstream media outlet has reported on Claverie’s statement will fuel charges that the press is downplaying the role that Farook’s devotion to Islam played in the massacre.
Claverie’s claim correlates with a CNN report that explains how Farook had argued with Thalasinos over the latter’s fierce criticism of ISIS.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New details have emerged about the radicalization of a Pakistani woman who along with her American husband killed 14 people in San Bernardino California and pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Tashfeen Malik who moved to the US last year when she married Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, had spent most of her life in Saudi Arabia and relatives say she became more conservative about her Muslim faith three years ago.
Relatives of Malik in Pakistan who are estranged from their wealthy family members who live in Saudi Arabia said that she used to wear Western-style clothing but later switched to more traditional garments such as a burka, which covers the the entire body.
‘I recently heard it from relatives that she has become a religious person and she often tells people to live according to the teachings of Islam,’ Hifza Batool, 35, said of his step-niece, whose age is either 27 or 29.
Saudi Arabia requires the wearing of a hijab, but does not mandate burkas. Pakistan, where Malik returned to study at Bahuddin Zakri University in Multan, does not have a dress code for women.
Batool said that he had not ever actually met Malik because, ‘Tashfreen Malik’s parents are rich and we are poor and they don’t like to meet with their poor relatives’…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
New Horizons Returns First of the Best Images of Pluto
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the first in a series of the sharpest views of Pluto it obtained during its July flyby — and the best close-ups of Pluto that humans may see for decades.
Each week the piano-sized New Horizons spacecraft transmits data stored on its digital recorders from its flight through the Pluto system on July 14. These latest pictures are part of a sequence taken near New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto, with resolutions of about 250-280 feet (77-85 meters) per pixel — revealing features less than half the size of a city block on Pluto’s diverse surface. In these new images, New Horizons captured a wide variety of cratered, mountainous and glacial terrains.
“These close-up images, showing the diversity of terrain on Pluto, demonstrate the power of our robotic planetary explorers to return intriguing data to scientists back here on planet Earth,” said John Grunsfeld, former astronaut and associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “New Horizons thrilled us during the July flyby with the first close images of Pluto, and as the spacecraft transmits the treasure trove of images in its onboard memory back to us, we continue to be amazed by what we see.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Insists US ‘Will Not be Terrorized’ As IS Hails California Attackers
President Barack Obama insisted Saturday that America “will not be terrorized” as the Islamic State group praised the perpetrators of the California mass shooting as “soldiers” of its caliphate.
The president’s pledge and extremists’ praise followed an announcement by the FBI that it was treating the investigation into the San Bernardino rampage as an act of terrorism.
“It is entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalized to commit this act of terror,” Obama said of Syed Farook, 28, and his 29-year-old Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik, who slaughtered 14 people and wounded 21 others at a year-end office party on Wednesday.
In its English-language radio broadcast Saturday, IS stopped short of explicitly claiming the attack but referred to the assailants as soldiers of the Khilafah (caliphate) who were “killed in the path of Allah.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Obama and His Minions Have Lost Their Politically Correct Minds!
In a White House press conference after the shooting in San Bernardino, California, a conversation occurred between a reporter, Peter Doocy and Josh Earnest, the president’s spokesman. A conversation that everyone needs to hear.
Peter Doocy: “President Obama jumped to say that this mass shooting means it is time for common sense gun laws. Does the president really think that common sense gun laws will deter terrorists now that he has admitted these two might be terrorists?”
Josh: “Yes”
Peter Doocy: “The president thinks that when the terrorists are sitting around planning a mass murder they may call it off because President Obama has put in place common sense gun laws?”…
The FBI continues to investigate the couple that instigated the attack in California. The two suspects had traveled out of the country several times to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The handguns used in the attack were legally purchased by Farook, and investigators are looking into who purchased the 2 AR-15’s used in the attack. Back at the suspect’s apartment investigators found 12 IEC pipe-bombs, 2300 assault rounds and 2000 9 millimeter rounds. The estimated cost of their weaponry was over $30,000, all while Syed only made $50,000 per year and his wife, was unemployed. Investigators are looking into who might have financed the weaponry.
[Comment: Perhaps this was another ‘Fast and Furious’ type op…notice how quickly the narrative became gun control…]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) A nine-year-old was suspended for a day for “terrorizing” a fellow pupil at Kermit Elementary School in Odessa, Texas, a fast growing small city of a little over 100,000 residents a few hundred miles or so west of Waco, Texas.
It seems that the boy, nine-year-old Aiden Steward, brought one of the rings he uses for magic tricks to school and play-acted (supposedly) what he had seen only days before with a family viewing of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. In that movie was a magic ring that allows its wearer to turn invisible.
So Aiden reportedly went up to another kid in school and claimed that he could make that kid disappear with the ring and use the ring’s power to rule over everyone there. Hmmm, whether this was exaggerated or taken out of context is unknown.
The principal had him suspended for committing a terrorist act, the NY Daily News reported, and the slant was how it was a gross exaggeration of child play.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Rejects Gun Control Amendments Offered Following San Bernardino Shooting
Gun control bill preceded shooting
The Senate on Thursday voted down two gun control proposals put forward by Democrats in response to this week’s deadly shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., in a series of votes that highlighted the intractable party divide over how to respond to gun violence.
The Senate rejected a measure from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to expand background checks for guns purchased online and at gun shows on a 48 to 50 vote and an amendment from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to prevent individuals on the terror watch list from purchasing firearms on a 45 to 54 vote. The amendments were offered to an Obamacare repeal package currently being debated in the Senate and they needed 60 votes to be adopted.
Feinstein’s amendment was identical to legislation she previously filed on the same topic, while the expansion of background checks for gun purchases mirrored language championed by Sens. Manchin and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) in 2013, following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School three years ago this month.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Texas Secession Resolution Passes GOP Committee
The Lone Star State will find out on Saturday just how eager its Republicans are to reconstitute the Republic of Texas.
A state GOP committee in Austin passed a secession resolution on Friday that will require a full-party vote on Saturday. The non-binding measure would gauge the desire among state Republicans to secede.
“If the federal government continues to disregard the constitution and the sovereignty of the State of Texas, the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation,” the measure reads, the Chronicle reported Friday.
State Republican Executive Committee member Tanya Robertson of Galveston and Brazoria counties introduced the resolution due to constituents’ demands.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Tony Lee
Donald Trump’s ability to remain the undisputed GOP frontrunner in December even though he has hardly spent any money on traditional television advertising that enriches consultants in the permanent political class is why he represents an “existential threat” to the established political order. In the newest CNN/ORC poll that was released Friday, Trump has a commanding 20-point lead, which reportedly marks “Trump’s highest support and widest lead since he first announced his candidacy.”
Trump may indeed be establishing a blueprint that other candidates could follow in the future to put many in the stale permanent political class—many of whom are career mercenaries who care more about using politics to line their pockets than the interests of the candidates they purportedly support—out of business. He even mocked Jeb Bush this week on the campaign trail in Georgia for wasting millions on television ads that have not helped the former Florida governor’s flailing poll numbers and campaign.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Truth About Islamic Terrorism in San Bernardino
The fourteen victims killed and 21 injured in the December 2nd massacre at a San Bernardino, California Christmas Party by two ISIS-inspired Muslim radicals have been honored by the truth declared by FBI director James Comey that it was an act of domestic terrorism. The eight men and six women slain in this act of Islamic terrorism ranged in age from 26 to 60. This act of domestic terrorism was perpetrated by a colleague, self radicalized Muslim and US born citizen Syed Razwin Farooq and his Pakistani-born, Saudi raised wife, Tashfeen Malik. The pair had tried to destroy cell phones and computer drives. Nevertheless, FBI forensic investigations uncovered a pledge of fealty to the self styled founder of the barbarous Islamic State, Abu-Bakr al- Baghdadi. That puts to rest the initial White House and media message that the assault was “workplace violence- related”. Was this equivalent to akin to the US Amy declaration after the November 2009 Fort Hood Jihad massacre by convicted killer, Major Nidal Hassan?…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Two People: Including Officer, Sent to Hospital After Wisconsin Shooting
Two people, including a police officer, were taken to the hospital Saturday after a shooting and four hour-long standoff in a small Wisconsin town that prompted police to evacuate nearby homes and businesses.
Neenah Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson told reporters at a brief afternoon press conference that the officer was okay.
“He’s fine; he’s being checked out,” he said.
The briefing came as local media reported that the standoff had ended with two people in custody.
“The scene has been made safe,” Wilkinson said. He did not say who had been arrested.
No condition was reported on the injured civilian.
The incident began about four hours earlier. Police received a call of shots fired at Eagle Nation Cycles in downtown Neenah shortly before 9 a.m., police said.
When officers arrived at the motorcycle shop they encountered a “subject with a weapon” and “potential hostages,” Wilkinson said.
He said SWAT teams from Neenah and other towns were then brought in to handle the situation…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Uni Official Blasts Political Correctness and Tells ‘Self-Absorbed’ Students to Grow Up
A university official has blasted politically correct students for playing the “victim” when their views are challenged.
Dr Everett Piper hit out at liberal and “self-absorbed” youngsters in a furious open letter, telling them to “grow up”.
He insisted his university is “not a ‘safe space’“, saying those who “want to be enabled rather than confronted” would not be welcome.
His letter was published after a wave of furious protests across American campuses including the University of Missouri.
Dr Piper, the president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, added: “Our culture has actually taught our kids to be this self-absorbed and narcissistic.
“Any time their feelings are hurt, they are the victims.
“Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them ‘feel bad’ about themselves, is a ‘hater’, a ‘bigot’, an ‘oppressor’ and a ‘victimiser’.”
[And of course, a ‘racist’. And ‘far-right’. All code words meaning ‘I can’t deal with the truth!’]
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Trade Deficit Widens on Slower US Sales
Canada posted its 14th consecutive monthly trade deficit in October, as exports to its key trading partner the United States fell, the government statistical agency said Friday.
Missing analysts’ expectations, the trade deficit widened from Can$2.3 billion (US$1.7 billion) in September to Can$2.8 billion (US$2.1 billion) in October, as exports decreased 1.8 percent and imports fell 0.8 percent, said statistics Canada.
Exports to Britain increased in the month, while imports from Saudi Arabia and Japan fell…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Moscow Calls for Removal of Data on Russian Pilots From Canadian Website
Russia has contacted the Canadian authorities over a website that has posted details about Russian pilots involved in counter-terrorism operations in Syria to request the information be removed, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for New Challenges and Threats said Friday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A website registered in the Canadian jurisdiction has published details and photographs of Russian pilots taking part in airstrikes on Islamic State (ISIL, or Daesh in Arabic) targets in Syria.
“We have already requested the relevant authorities in Canada, asking them to remove the information. The Canadian authorities are still considering [the matter],” Ilya Rogachev said at a meeting of the Russian Public Council for International Cooperation and Public Diplomacy.
Moscow will continue to insist on removing the data, Rogachev said.
Since September 30, Russia has been conducting an aerial campaign in Syria against the extremist group Daesh, which is outlawed in Russia, following a request from President Bashar Assad.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
No, Not in Canada. Not in Justin Trudeau’s Canada.
Early Friday morning Toronto police received a call about a suspected impaired driver on the Allen Road in the city’s north end. When officers arrived, a black Mercedes was at the side of the road after being involved in a single car crash. No one was in or around the vehicle at the time. Not an unusual occurrence at that time of the morning.
Police looked in the trunk and found a couple of handguns, a machine gun, two silencers and some ammunition. Not extremely unusual to find guns in a car, especially in that area of the city.
Police also reported there were “religious materials” in the trunk of car but refused to say what these materials were. According to TPS spokesman, Mark Pugash, these materials are not relevant to the investigation. Although police know who owns the car, they have no idea who the occupant or occupants of the vehicle were. Yet they are definite these materials are absolutely and totally irrelevant to the other items found in the trunk. Good police work, huh…
The Toronto police, by mentioning these religious materials but refusing to say what religion was involved, are treating members of the public as complete idiots who are totally incapable of guessing which religion was involved. But the police were too afraid to mention the religion lest some members of that religion become upset.
All of this is consistent with the main function of the Toronto Police Service. While their primary aim used to be the protection of the public it is now to keep Muslims from feeling bad.
Of course it is impossible these materials, combined with the weapons, could have anything to do with terrorism. Not in Justin’s Canada.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
BBC Attacked by MPs for Ludicrous Decision Not to Call ISIS Fighters ‘Terrorists’
The BBC was under fire from MPs today for refusing to use the word ‘terrorists’ when describing Islamic State fighters, and encouraging reporters to use the much softer word ‘militants’.
The broadcaster’s decision has been branded “extraordinary” after choosing to play it safe when referring to ISIS, also known as Daesh, for fear of its impartiality being called into account.
BBC chiefs insist the term risks “implying judgment where there is no clear consensus about the legitimacy of militant political groups”.
Any journalists who flout the rule are apparently quickly told to modify their language by the BBC’s Editorial Policy Unit and to use ‘militants’ or ‘jihadists’ as substitutes.
In recent weeks these ‘militants’ have:
Thrown two men accused of homosexuality from the top of a building. When they reach the ground they are stoned by a waiting crowd. The terrorists say that according to Islamic State Sharia Law being gay is illegal.
The same ‘militants’ decapitated a man in the street — in front of children — after they accused him of SORCERY.
A ‘militants’ propaganda video showed 15 alleged Iraqi spies being forced into a cage and lowered into a pool of water. The camera pans down to show the men all screaming and trying to get out.
Yesterday these self-same ISIS ‘militants’ loaded prisoners into a car which was then blown up with a rocket-propelled grenade. The men can be heard on a ‘militant’ propaganda video screaming as the car burns.
And also this week these ‘militants’ children, who appeared to be no more than eight years old, were shown playing a sickening game of hide and seek as they hunt for prisoners. When they found them they shot them with a pistol at close range.
All the work of mere ‘militants’.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Boris Johnson: Sharia Law is Completely Unacceptable in the UK
Boris Johnson spoke out against Sharia law running in “parallel” with the UK legal system this morning, just hours after Theresa May called for an inquiry into the Muslim code in Britain.
London Mayor Boris Johnson branded Sharia Law in the UK as “absolutely unacceptable” today, as he took a swipe at clerics from the Church of England for supporting the Muslim legal code.
Speaking on LBC radio this morning during his Ask Boris call-in show, Mr Johnson said a Sharia system should not even be allowed to preside over civil cases, such as those involving family disputes.
[This is what BJ said in March — Why is the UK going backwards?]
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
The result will be a nation LESS tolerant than before
‘When I get married — whether it’s to a man or a woman…’ my 11-year-old niece told her grandpa the other day. But I don’t think she thinks she’s a budding lesbian (would she even know at that age?).
It’s just the way she has been taught to think at her impeccably right-on school in the People’s Republic of Brighton.
It reminded me queasily of another niece’s experiences — this time at an overwhelmingly white, Christian state school in Worcester. Her dad had wanted to know why when she said ‘Mohammed’, she automatically added the phrase ‘Peace Be Upon Him’.
‘Oh, it’s what we’re taught we have to say in RE,’ my niece replied.
Did the schools ever consult us on whether we wanted our children’s heads to be filled with such politically correct bilge?
After 25 years’ ongoing exposure to this nonsense, I suppose I should be used to it by now. My elder son’s headmaster explaining to me airily how it just wasn’t the modern way to punish children for not doing their homework; my daughter coming home with the news that her primary teacher had advised her to ‘go veggie’ for a week; my younger boy being co-opted into some grisly global sustainability club, so that his school could win more eco-star ratings from an EU-sponsored green scheme.
Such indoctrination never fails to irritate. More than that, though, I am genuinely terrified about the kind of havoc these brainwashed mini-revolutionaries may wreak in the future…
| — Hat tip: Green Infidel | [Return to headlines] |
France: Sarkozy Rejects Joining Forces With Socialist Party Against Far Right
Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of the conservative Les Républicains, has dismissed the idea of joining forces with the governing Socialist Party to stop the far-right from making any gains in the upcoming regional elections on December 6 and 13.
Sarkozy ruled out the possibility during an interview with France’s Europe 1 radio on Wednesday as he sought to position Les Républicains (formerly the UMP) as the Socialist Party’s (PS) main opposition, just days ahead of the first round of voting.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls, a Socialist, had previously floated the idea as a strategy to beat the far-right National Front (FN) party, which is projected to win at least two out of the 12 regions up for grabs in the elections, according to recent polls. The FN has never before won a regional vote…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France’s Far-Right on Course to Grab Three Regions
The far-right National Front (FN) could take power in three of France’s regions, polls said Friday, two days before the first round of elections which threaten to dramatically alter the country’s political landscape.
Marine Le Pen, the party’s leader, is on course to top the poll in the northern Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region — once a bastion of the left.
Her 25-year-old niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen seems to be heading for an almost identically impressive score in the vast southeastern region that includes the French Riviera…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: ‘Café Psst!’: Brothel in Berlin Closes Its Doors
It was an ‘institution’, but it could not withstand competition
(ANSA) — BERLIN — In Berlin, “Café Psst!” closes its doors for the final time. In the city where brothels are legal, and where you can find them scattered even throughout the bourgeois neighbourhoods, the brothel founded by Felicitas Schirow was a true ‘temple’ of ‘sex for sale’, a significant chapter in “ the history of civil rights of prostitutes in Germany”. That’s what the Sueddeutsche Zeitung says today, reporting the news. The victory in a case dating back to 2000 — against the district administration that had revoked the cafe’s licence — was the essential premise for the law on prostitution in 2002, which improved the protection of the profession by legalising it. Since then, however, the competition has increased, and “Café psst!” went bankrupt, falling victim of its own battles.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ENI Invests 1.3 Bln Euros in Jobs and Environment
(AGI) Taranto, Nov 27 — Safety and staff training are major issues being addressed by Italian oil and gas company Eni. It said investments of 1.3 billion euros were spent on occupational safety and environmental protection last year.
Injuries were 0.25 for every million hours worked. In 2014, 1.125 million hours were spent on training staff and safety.
Eni presented a report on its activities and announced an enhanced training programme at a meeting on Thursday at Taranto university organised by Confindustria. Eni owns a refinery in Taranto, southern Italy, and the meeting focused on an occupational safety code drafted by Ernesto Irace of Tonucci & Partners. Giuseppe Ricci, executive vice president of Health, Environment & Quality, said: “Much has been done from the point of view of plants and facilities as the injury rate proves.
Getting 0.25 every million hours in the first nine months of 2015, means one occupational injury every four million hours worked. These data are quite advanced. Today, however, we have an equally important commitment, namely enhancing the culture of safety so that it may become everyone’s heritage. We wish to announce it to our managers, but above all to our workers and contractors. Eni is now planning a major event which is road shows on safety. Our CEO took part in five of these, because we wish to disseminate this message as much as possible, to prove that the executives are also concerned about this issue, Having printed in one book all the rules on occupational safety, and having a code, means following this right path, thus providing a benchmark for all our workers.” Domenico Noviello, executive vice president of Eni’s associative bodies, said: “Eni as a group does not stop at what laws on safety and environment establish. We try and seek solutions to improve our effectiveness and applicability. In fact, whoever works in oil fields, has the utmost concern for safety for the entire group and for those who work for it. This is the path we are following, and at events such as the one held in Taranto, where Eni is present, they take on a meaning which conveys to all the enterprises attending the sense of our experience.” Luca Amoruso, director of Eni’s refinery in Taranto, said: “Taranto’s specificity has always called our attention to the issues of safety and environment. In November 2013, we signed a MOU with some ministers, in the prefect’s office, which demanded a great amount of work, but now we are reaping results. Taranto’s refinery has reported zero injuries in the past five years. Companies have had no injuries in the past 18 months and we would like to close 2015 with no injuries across the entire system.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ghanaian Man Arrested for Possessing Child Porn
Police deny arrest linked to terrorism
(ANSA) — Frosinone, December 4 — A 26-year-old man from Ghana has been arrested on charges of possessing child pornography, police said Friday.
The man, who was detained in Cassino in Frosinone province, has a valid residency permit.
A judge has certified the arrest and the man remains in prison. Police have searched his home and made clear that the arrest was not linked to terrorism.
“This is not an arrest for terrorist offences but for child pornography,” said Frosinone Police Commissioner Filippo Santarelli, denying various reports. However investigations are continuing given that videos showing scenes of decapitation by jihadists were found on the suspect’s phone.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pilgrims Warned to Watch Out for Jubilee Scams
ISIS not only threat during Holy Year, says Jubilee organiser
(ANSA) — Vatican City, December 4 — Pilgrims visiting Rome for the Jubilee were warned Friday to be on the look out for scams as well as any potential terrorist activity.
“We ask pilgrims to be careful, to avoid scams,” said Monsignor Rino Fisichella, speaking at a press conference ahead of the start of the Holy Year.
“This is also a part of our security planning. There’s not security just to protect against the threat of ISIS; there must also be measures taken to help avoid the pain of having something stolen.” The archbishop warned pilgrims must be on the lookout for improper use of the Jubilee official logo, which only Vatican-approved services and products are able to use legitimately. “There are lots of people who may exploit the event and who aren’t thinking about the spiritual meaning of the Jubilee,” he said. “They prefer to see it as a source of income. The problem is that this source of income isn’t legal.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Groups Banned After ‘Bowing’ Before Mafia Boss House
During local patron saint procession
(ANSA) — Catania, December 4 — The Catania police commissioner has banned two organizing committees from participating in religious processions after some of their members performed a traditional public salute to a Sicilian Mafia family on Thursday, ANSA sources said. Plainclothes police officers observed participants carrying two elaborate statues of St. Barbara in a religious procession in the town of Paterno’ as they stopped at the home of the son of an incarcerated Mafia boss from the Santapaola clan and swung the statues back and forth in a traditional homage to the family.
They completed the gesture with a ritual kiss to demonstrate fealty, police said.
“The incident is a clear show of intimidation typical of Mafia power,” said Police Commissioner Marcello Cardona.
“It gave rise to conduct that is prejudicial to maintaining public safety and order”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Newspaper Sorry for Santa Obituary
Children can rest assured that Santa Claus is alive and well, after Norway’s largest newspaper apologised Friday for announcing that he had died at the age of 227.
An obituary had appeared on Aftenposten’s website Thursday announcing that Santa had passed away after a very long and active life.
The notice added that a funeral for Santa, born on December 12, 1788, would be held on December 28 at the “Chapel of the North Pole”.
It was unclear how the mischievous announcement managed to make it onto Aftenposten’s site, but the newspaper has promised to “review its internal processes to establish what went wrong”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sharia Law is Alive and Well in the UK as Investigation Uncovers Shocking Details
When one woman asked for help with her abusive husband, one judge allegedly laughed and said: “Why did you marry such a person?”
An Islamic judge “laughed” at a domestic violence victim who had gone to him seeking help and asked her “Why did you marry such a man?”, it has been claimed.
The shocking allegations have been revealed in a report into the use of sharia councils in the UK which also claims men only need to say “I divorce you” three times to separate from their wives while women need the sanction of clerics.
Dutch scholar Machteld Zee managed to get unparalleled access to a number of the religious courts currently operating in the UK — thought to number around 30.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Anti-Muslim Prejudice “Is Moving to the Mainstream”
The “counter-jihad” movement in the UK is expanding rapidly, according to new analysis showing that 24 different far-right groups are currently attempting to whip up hatred towards Muslims and provoke a cultural civil war.
The most comprehensive report yet into the alliance of international counter-jihad organisations warns that Islamophobic groups in Britain are capitalising on public concerns following the Paris attacks and ongoing refugee crisis.
Next month, the former leader of the English Defence League, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, often known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, will make his political comeback by fronting the relaunch of the UK arm of Pegida, the German anti-Islam organisation whose provocative rhetoric has prompted attacks on refugees.
The report, by the anti-racist group Hope Not Hate, chronicles 920 anti-Muslim organisations and key Islamophobes in 22 countries, noting that such groups are becoming increasingly well-resourced, particularly in the US, where eight foundations have donated more than £38m since the 9/11 attacks.
Nick Lowles, Hope Not Hate’s chief executive, warned that in Europe the hatred of Muslims “was moving from the margins to the political mainstream” while in the UK violence and prejudice against Muslims was likely to increase as far-right groups exploit tensions over immigration and homegrown jihadism.
“The very fabric of our multi- racial and multifaith societies is going to be severely tested in the next few years and it is incumbent on us all to strengthen the bonds that unify liberal democracies,” he said.
On Friday, Scotland Yard said Islamophobic attacks in London had more than tripled in the wake of the Paris attacks. The Metropolitan Police are still hunting a man who hurled a can of petrol at the Finsbury Park mosque last month in what the Met described as a “clear and deliberate attempt to cause arson”.
Among the UK organisations cited in the report for driving organised hatred against Muslims are the Infidels, an anti-multicultural group with increasing Nazi leanings; the South East Alliance, a non-sectarian group linked to the National Front; and the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based thinktank accused of “making anti-Muslim sentiment seem mainstream”.
Following the decline of the EDL, the report identifies Britain First as the most prolific counter-jihad street protest group in the UK. Despite employing provocative tactics that include invading mosques, it has more than 1.1 million “likes” on Facebook. Yaxley-Lennon, lauded as an inspirational figure by both the militant and political wings of the counter-jihad movement, has more than 109,000 followers on Twitter. Other UK-based groups include Liberty GB, an anti-immigration political party, whose chairman is Paul Weston, the former Ukip parliamentary candidate. He is named as a regular contributor to the Gates of Vienna blog, where he writes about impending civil war against Muslims and “white genocide” in Britain.
One worrying trend, said Lowles, is an attempt to use the publication of images involving the prophet Muhammad with the aim of generating a violent reaction from Muslims. He is concerned that the authorities are not taking things seriously. “Groups are becoming more right-wing, many on the verge of being openly Nazi, and yet they are still categorised as a public order problem rather than as the extreme far right,” Lowles said.
The report, released today, also documents the counter-jihad movement in the US, where there are 42 anti-Muslim groups, such as ACT for America and the New-York based American Freedom Defense Initiative, and in Australia, citing 12 groups, including the Q Society, a Victoria-based grassroots anti-Islamist organisation that claims volunteer-run chapters across the country.
Globally, anti-Muslim sentiment is growing in the wake of the attacks in Paris and concerns over the continuing refugee crisis. A study by the Pew Research Center thinktank in 2014 of seven European Union countries found that at least half of those surveyed in Italy and Greece had a negative opinion of Muslims living in their country, with the most favourable rating of 72% in France. But a YouGov poll in the spring of this year, after the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, showed 40% of French people held negative views of Muslims, the same level as in the UK.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Emy Corbyn Speaks at Anti-Islamaphobia Protest Outside Finsbury Park Mosque
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn used the rally outside Finsbury Park mosque, in London, to underline his position on parliament’s decision to support airstrikes in Syria.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Leytonstone Tube Station Stabbing a ‘Terrorist Incident’
A stabbing at a Tube station in east London is being treated as a “terrorist incident”, the Met Police has said.
Police were called to reports of people being attacked at Leytonstone station just after 19:00 GMT.
A man was arrested after being Tasered by police. One man suffered serious knife injuries while two others received minor injuries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man With Machete Shouts ‘This is for Syria’ As Stabs London Man at Leytonstone Station
A man was stabbed in the ticket hall at Leytonstone station this evening by another man who witnesses say shouted “This is for Syria” as he slashed his throat.
Another three are thought to have been injured.
The Met Police said its counter-terrorism command unit is now investigating the incident.
And as he was coming out this is what he said “This is what happens when you f*** with mother Syria all of your blood will be spilled” — Witness
Police said they used a taser on the suspect as he threatened others with a knife, before they managed to arrest him.
The victim was rushed to hospital in a serious condition with multiple stab wounds, paramedics said.
Frightened witnesses described how their normal Saturday night-out turned into a horror show.
One said the victim was an “elderly” man with a younger female family member while another said the man had a long knife, which looked like a machete…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man Arrested, Heard Shouting ‘This is for Syria, ‘ in Stabbing Attack in London Tube Station
A man was arrested Saturday after allegedly stabbing and seriously injuring one commuter and leaving two others with minor injuries while being heard shouting “this is for Syria” inside a London tube station, Sky News reports.
Police later said the attack, which occurred in the Leytonstone tube station in East London, was being investigated as a “terrorist incident”.
A Twitter user posted video (graphic content warning) obtained by The Evening Standard of the immediate aftermath of the attack, which shows a pool of blood and the suspect being shot with a taser gun by police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A knifeman slashed a man’s throat at a busy London tube station and allegedly shouted ‘this is for Syria’ before being Tasered by police.
The victim suffered serious knife injuries at Leytonstone underground station shortly after 7pm.
Eyewitnesses claimed they could hear ‘this is for Syria’ and ‘all of your blood will be spilled’ during the terrifying attack.
After reportedly slashing his victim’s throat, the man allegedly threatened several other passengers before being confronted by a number of un-armed police officers.
The officers ordered the man to drop his weapon, who continued to wave the large knife.
One of the officers discharged a Tazer and the man dropped to the ground.
A number of police raced to the man and quickly handcuffed him.
Sky News reported that the Met confirmed that the alleged suspect shouted ‘this is for Syria’ during the incident…
| — Hat tip: PP | [Return to headlines] |
Aboca in Morocco to Produce Officinal Plants
Head of Tuscan company against the tide in aftermath of Paris
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, DECEMBER 3 — Innovation for health, reads the slogan and without fomenting further controvery, Valentino Mercati, Mister Aboca, explains his choice.
Swimming against the tide, while the Maghreb region becomes a land of danger and in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, an unholy land even for tourism, the chief of the Tuscan company which provides the health industry with molecular plant extracts derived from organic farming, chooses Morocco.
Born in Arezzo in 1939, Mercati is not new to sursprising turns: in 1978 he left an established car shop to plant 800 hectares of officinal plants in Valtiberina. That was the origin of Aboca, nowadays it boasts 800 employees and renevues worth 120 million.
Now he wants to establish a Moroccan Aboca. Why Morocco? “People who know me are aware that I did everything against the tide, but always at the right time. I’m not crazy. I’ve been studying Morocco for three years and I’ve been exploring the possibilities of finding fields at those latitudes to continue to guarantee the quality of raw materials. Now I am close to the results I was seeking” .
Morocco hosts many companies such as yours, it has a great herbal tradition. Is that why you came here? “There are three main reasons which brought me to Morocco. First, it’s a country that said no to GMOs and this is a great advantage as a starting point.
Don’t just think of the land, dangers can also come from animals feeding on GMO foodstuffs.
A second favourable condition is the climate, that in some areas has the ideal temperatures for the growth of subtropical plants such as aloe for example. Third advantage, which could also be viewed as the first, Morocco has a stable political situation, a well entrenched monarchy and it is a country inspiring confidence to those wishing to invest in it”.
You believe too many pesticides are employed in Italy, but are you sure the situation in Morocco is any better? “To be safe we need great spaces, first of all. At least 500 hectares, so that they can be protected by external pollutants.
I looked for them in Tuscany too, but it’s hard, I need big surfaces in order to cultivate with state-of-the art agricoltural techniques; then, and this is even harder, we need fields that have not been contaminated by GMOs nor by chemical pollutants.
In the last three years, we looked for these fields in Morocco, in the south, in the area of Marrakesh and now Agadir.
We are finally there, close to the sea and the climate is perfect for our purposes.
I already have a team of pharmacists and botanists working for me. Soon we’ll be able to begin cultivating”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Smuggling Costs 3 Billion Dollars a Year
(AGI) Algiers, Dec 4 — Algeria loses three billion dollars every year due to smuggling. In a press release, the Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui emphasised that most illegal trafficking occurs along Algeria’s border with Morocco.
Bedoui went on to say that in the border city of Maghnia, in Tlemcen, government measures to curb smuggling are starting to bear fruit. The press release describes how the authorities have implemented a series of law enforcement and security measures to combat drug trafficking and smuggling. It goes on to state that some of the proceeds going to criminal organisations stem from illegal trading in fuel. Bedoui added that the Algerian government is waging a constant, relentless war against this phenomenon, which does have an impact on the nation’s economy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Moroccan Sociologist and Writer Fatima Mernissi Dies
Feminism, modernity and Islam at the center of her work
RABAT — Fatima Mernissi, one of the most modern voices of Moroccan contemporary literature, has died. She was 75. Her family made the announcement after her funeral, explaining that Mernissi died on November 23.
Feminism, modernity and Islam were at the center of her work and battles. A sociologist and militant, her books had been translated into 25 languages. In Italy, she had published her masterpiece ‘Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood’ and ‘Scheherazade goes West, or: The European Harem’.
She destroyed a European image, as depicted in paintings by Delacroix, Matisse, Picasso and Ingres, of women in harems as sensual and without rights, building feminine characters of great intelligence and depth and opposing them to the “size-38 western-style harem”.
As a sociologist, she understood the role and importance of social media during the Arab springs. Generous with other women, she believed in craftsmanship and did not hesitate to compare her work to embroidery. In Rabat, where she lived, she often organized creative writing courses for young talents.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Only 4.8 Mil Visitors by November 20 2015
A 26% slump compared to last year
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, DECEMBER 3 — “Only 4.8 million foreign tourists visited Tunisia by November 20 2015 a 26% slump with regard to the same period of last year”, said Tunisian Minister of Tourism and Handicraft Salma Elloumi Rekik in Parliament during the debate on the approval of the 2016 budget for her ministry.
The minister explained that the decrease is mainly due to the security situation in the country, but said that Algerian tourists, on the contrary are on the rise, with a 17.2% increase.
Indicators also showed a negative trend for tourist revenues in foreign currencies( -33% with respect to the previous year) and hotel accomodations (-44%). As far as measures to relaunch the sector go, Rekik after announcing the strenghtening of security measures at tourist sights in conjunction with other ministries, also entrusted an international communication agency with the realisation and distribution of a film on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Tunisian National Quartet, on December 10, in Oslo.
Other measures also include the widening of the Tunisian tourist offer to African Countries, Iran and China, the development of air traffic and internal tourism, boosted by the opening of 11 maisons d’hotes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy and Israel Pursue Scientific Cooperation
(AGI) Rome, Dec 2 — Italy and Israel will continue their cooperation in science, industry and publishing in 2016 with two calls for projects to be financed jointly over the next two years. Applications may be submitted by Italian companies, universities and research centres jointly with Israeli partners by Mar. 7 and will cover the priority areas of bilateral cooperation in the fields of medicine, agriculture, the environment, new energy sources, innovative production processes, information technology and space technologies for industrial processes, neurodegenerative diseases of the motor system and new technologies applied to migration (details on this web page). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) is spearheading this initiative on the Italian side and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space (MOST) and the Ministry of Economy (ISERD) for Israel. These two act as coordinating bodies for the implementation of the intergovernmental agreement for industrial, scientific and technological cooperation signed in Bologna in 2000 and that came into force in 2002. “Today, thanks to the tools provided by the Agreement, 127 industrial development projects and 50 basic research projects have been carried out, with the involvement of the best scientific and manufacturing organisations in Italy and Israel. Our aim is to further exploit the potential of the Agreement and this is why, from 2016, the teams that present the request for cooperation for the development of industrial projects will, among other things, have access to an advance of the funds awarded following the evaluation process,” said Roberto Cantone, head of MAECI’s unit for scientific and technological cooperation, as part of a presentation event of the call that took place at the Foreign Ministry in the presence of over 70 research bodies, universities and industrial associations. “Israel is the third most important country in the world for innovative capacity and here Italy is seen as a valuable partner in the industrialisation stage of products and technologies, thanks to the diversification, flexibility and size of its industrial system. These synergies have found direct application in seven joint Italian-Israeli laboratories, that have been possible to set up in under 15 years due to the Agreement in question,” added Stefano Boccaletti, science attache at the Italian embassy in Tel Aviv. One of the innovations in 2016 will be the Rita Levi Montalcini Prize, which aims to encourage the mobility of leading international academics.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Orthodox Israelis Rail Against Women’s Gym in ‘Their’ Area
Intimidation and vandalism against instructor in Benè Braq
(by Aldo Baquis) (ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 4 — A female physical education instructor has been struggling to defend her gym for Jewish women in the Benè Braq area, just outside Tel Aviv.
An influential rabbi initially “beseeched” her to close the gym and then began engaging in a psychological battle, resulting in an intimidating atmosphere in the area. This week the instructor, Sara Ganot, spoke to Israeli non-religiously-affiliated media to denounce the fact that public institutions were making things difficult for her instead of helping her. The accusation was denied by the local authorities.
To set up the gym, Ganot — who has been working in the sector for 10 years — chose the ground floor of a building on Rabbi Bloi Street. Unfortunately, the building is close to Aqiva Street, the busy main street of Benè Braq, an area with 170,000 Orthodox Jews. She soon received a letter from Rabbi Yehoshua Karelitz, who “beseeched” her to give up on the initiative in order to not alter the “modesty” of the area, since the gym would increase the number of women in the street. The rabbi hinted that this would have in turn bothered those attending rabbinic schools in the zone. Ganot said that her clients, all observant Jews, were hassled on the street. ‘Pashqevil’, rabbinic messages stigmatizing the activity, appeared on the walls. Her surveillance videos later caught on tape acts of vandalism, including tampering with locks by young Orthodox Jewish men and, at night, the leaving of rubbish bags on her car. What will become of the gym now seems uncertain. Though located near the liberal Tel Aviv, Benè Braq is a sort of autonomous enclave where the Israeli state and police are often nowhere to be seen, and where the general ‘tone’ is set by the rabbis. A few years ago, Head of State (at that time ) Shimon Peres praised the Ponevizh rabbinic seminary on a visit to Benè Braq, calling it a “large intellectual gym” given its educational activities. Mental gymnastics seem now to be the only type freely practiced in the suburb.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Assad Exit Not Necessary for Syria Transition, Says Fabius
In an interview published on Saturday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he no longer believes that Bashar al-Assad’s departure is a necessary requirement before a political transition can get under way in Syria.
“A united Syria implies a political transition. That does not mean that Bashar al-Assad must leave even before the transition, but there must be assurances for the future,” Fabius told the French regional newspaper Le Progre’s.
France’s top diplomat underscored that “the fight against Daesh is crucial, but it will only be totally effective if all the Syrian and regional forces are united”, he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (IS) group…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Did Turkey Just Invade Iraq to Protect Erdogan’s ISIS Oil Smuggling Routes?
On Friday, Turkey sent troops into Iraq.
Here’s a video of the deployment shared on social media:
What’s different this time around, is that this isn’t a Kurd-chasing mission.
In fact, if you believe the official line, it’s the exact opposite. Turkey has apparently had some 90 troops on the ground in Bashiqa “for two years” on a mission to “train” the Peshmerga. The new troops — around 150 personnel supported by two dozen tanks- will “take over the mission,” according to Hurriyet. “Turkey will have a permanent military base in the Bashiqa region of Mosul as the Turkish forces in the region training the Peshmerga forces have been reinforced,” the daily continues, adding that “the deal regarding the base was signed between Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani and Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu, during the latter’s visit to northern Iraq on Nov. 4.”
Ok, so what’s important to remember here is that although Erdogan is no “fan-o’-Kurds”, Ankara is friendly with the KRG and indeed, Barzani’s 632,000 b/d oil operation (which, you’re reminded, runs independent of SOMO, much to Baghdad’s chagrin) depends heavily on a pipeline that runs from Iraq to Ceyhan. Over the summer, the PKK attacked the pipeline costing the KRG some $250 million in lost revenue. As Rudaw noted at the time, that amounts to an entire month’s worth of salaries for the Peshmerga and other security forces, underscoring the extent to which oil sales via Turkey are crucial to the government in Erbil.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
German Intelligence Fears Turkey’s ‘Double Game’
Germany’s Bundeswehr believes that Turkey is “playing a double game” in the fight against terrorism and may use German intelligence data in its own interests.
Germany is planning to provide Turkey with intelligence data on Syria and Iraq only to a limited extent, despite the fact that both countries are NATO allies, Der Spiegel reported.
On Friday, the German Bundestag approved the deployment of Bundeswehr forces in Syria to fight against Daesh terrorists. The mission is expected to last until December 31, 2016.
As part of the mission, Germany is considering stationing Tornado surveillance planes at the NATO base in Incirlik in Turkey. But despite this, Berlin does not trust Ankara and assumes that Turkey may abuse the information it receives in order to conduct airstrikes on Kurdish positions.
“Indeed, Ankara provided the coalition with eight F-16 fighter jets which participate in the joint airstrikes against Daesh from time to time. However, at the same time Turkey is conducting airstrikes on Kurdish militias […] — the US’ partners, who are fighting against the Islamists in northern Iraq and Syria on the ground.”
According to Spiegel, the Bundeswehr is going to censor the intelligence data and closely monitor to make sure that German Tornado planes are not used in missions on the southern outskirts of Turkey.
“This dilemma shows how complicated relations within the coalition are and how members pursue their own interests under the guise of the anti-terror war,” the magazine wrote.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Hostages Killed by Explosive Necklaces and Blown Up by Rocket Launchers in Sick Footage
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: A series of videos purportedly shows Houthi rebels being slaughtered by extremists in various locations in Yemen.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
‘No Secret Self-Made Oil Pipes Stretch Between Turkish, Syrian Villages’
RT correspondent Harry Fear met the staff of Turkish newspaper Birgün, who dared to publish evidence provided by the Russian Defense Ministry proving the existence of an illegal oil trade between militants and Ankara.
Major Turkish media reflect the views of the authorities with only a few opposition newspapers exposing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his entourage. Such opposition media are hunted down and prosecuted just like the two journalists of the newspaper Cumhuriyet after they printed a report on the alleged supply of weapons by Turkey to the jihadists in Syria. The two journalists now face 45 years in prison.
RT correspondent Harry Fear met and spoke with the staff and the editor of ‘Birgun’ newspaper after they published the evidence provided by Defense Ministry, asking them if they were surprised by the evidence provided by the Defense Ministry.
“Not in the least surprised. Our colleagues, who were on the spot, saw everything with their own eyes. Even today, if you go to the border you will see self-made oil pipes stretched between Turkish and Syrian villages. These are recorded facts, not rumors and speculation,” columnist Ibrahim Varley told RT.
The newspaper earlier this year published an article, for which President Erdogan personally filed a case against it. By publishing the recent evidence, the staff is taking a great risk. “Of course, we are concerned about our destiny, our future. But we had to print the material and we did it,” chief editor Berkant Gultekin said.
In contrast to the opposition newspaper, the pro-government media group office ‘Bugyun’ is highly protected by the state. There are police officers on duty at the entrance and trucks with water cannons parked nearby.
RT contacted the media group requesting an interview and a comment as to why ‘Bugyun’ did not cover the sensational statements of Russia. Although RT could not get any information out of them, Harry Fear met a pro-government columnist for one of the channels. As Erdogan himself, the known journalist denied everything.
“This ‘black’ propaganda has been carried out for the last three years. We are beginning to wake up and say: In the past, these lands belonged to us; we have the right to take part in their fate. Moreover, our relatives live in those regions. We are concerned as to what is happening to them,” columnist for A Haber, Cemil Barlas, told RT.
According to Cemil Barlas, Turkey has a right over Syrian and Iraqi’s natural resources and he thinks that people living there are not profiting from selling oil as it all goes to the ‘dictator.’
Harry Fear reminded him that according to the released documents Erdogan and his relatives are making a profit from such oil deals with the militants.
To that notion, Barlas said, “But in Turkey since the rule of Erdogan per capita income has tripled. So everyone is getting his share,” exclaimed the columnist.
Such statements demonstrate that as long as the economy is growing, it does not bother anyone that Turkey is stealing oil from its war-ravaged neighbor. The journalists who expose such crimes of its government are arrested and punished, noted RT.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Bombs Nearly 1,500 Syrian Targets, Oil Fields: Military
Russian airforce has struck nearly 1,500 targets all over Syria over the past nine days, the military said, its bombers now flying under cover of strategic fighter jets following the downing of a plane by Turkey last week.
Defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a briefing that the Russian air contingent carried out 431 sorties and bombed 1458 targets in several regions of Syria, without mentioning whether any of them were affiliated with the Islamic State jihadist group.
Among the targets was a “command post” near the town of Khnaifess in the Homs region, and a “large ammunitions stockpile” near Morek in Hama region, which was captured from the Syrian army in early November.
The airstrikes also “destroyed a large militant base” at a strategic location near Kassab in Latakia region, leading to Syrian army “taking the high ground,” the ministry said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Surprised by US ‘Blindness’ To Trucks Delivering Daesh Oil to Turkey
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that it was surprised by the “blindness” of US authorities in regard to photo evidence showing trucks delivering Daesh oil to Turkey.
“Finally, our colleagues from the [US] State Department and the Pentagon confirmed that photo evidence we had presented at a briefing (showing the routes of oil smuggling from terrorist-controlled areas) is authentic. However, their claims that they ‘do not see the border crossings with tank trucks that cross the border’, cause a smile, at least because the photo is a static image,” Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
“When US officials claim that they do not see oil smuggled by terrorists to Turkey, it looks like an outright patronage rather than slyness,” Konashenkov added.
Earlier, a US Department of State official told journalists that the Russian Defense Ministry photos showing hundreds of trucks with Daesh oil are authentic. He noted, however, that “what I have not seen is imagery of the border crossing with trucks crossing the border, and that’s because I don’t believe that exists.”
On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry provided satellite images showing Daesh transporting up to 200,000 barrels of oil in at least 1,722 trucks to third-party countries, most notably Turkey on the northern border. Pentagon rejected Russia’s evidence of Turkey’s involvement in oil deals with Daesh militants.
Pentagon has all reconnaissance means necessary to record oil smuggling from the territories controlled by Daesh to Turkey, ministry’s spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
“If even this is not enough for our American colleagues, we advise to watch video from their drones, the number of which, by the way, recently tripled over the Syrian-Turkish border and the oil-bearing regions, controlled by terrorists.”
The recent statements made by US officials concerning the developments in Syria are based on double standards and remind of “theater of the absurd,” Konashenkov said.
“In general, the recent statements by representatives of the Pentagon and the [US] State Department remind of ‘theater of the absurd,’ based on double standards and the wordplay,” Konashenkov said at a press briefing.
“First they see something, then they don’t. They divide the opposition into moderate and non-moderate. Even terrorists, in their view, are bad or very bad,” he added.
The US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter stated earlier that over the last month the US aviation has been destroying only profitable terrorist facilities.
The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman commened on this statement saying that: “Can the statement be treated as the Americans have been eliminating only unprofitable terrorist objects for a year and a half?”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Shelling of Christian Neighborhood of Damascus Leaves at Least 4 Injured
Islamist militants have shelled the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Bab Touma in the Old City of Damascus, injuring at least four civilians, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Saturday.
DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — Three missiles fell near Bab Touma’s square, one of which exploded near a small Sheikh Raslan Mosque, located just outside the old city gate of Damascus neighborhood.
According to the preliminary data, four civilians sustained shrapnel injuries. In particular, two women were wounded standing next to a minibus stop.
A representative of the Syrian armed forces at a Bab Touma checkpoint told RIA Novosti that the ambulances had already arrived at the scene to provide the victims with the first aid.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Turkish Troops on Iraqi Ground Could be Used to Fight Against PKK’
Baghdad is demanding the immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Iraq. Radio Sputnik discussed the issue with political analyst and former advisor to Iraqi President Jalal Talaban, Hiwa Osman.
Earlier, various media reports said that about 130 Turkish military personnel had been deployed to the Mosul area allegedly to provide training to Kurdish Peshmerga.
The deployment “is considered a serious violation of Iraqi sovereignty,” the statement added.
Turkish media earlier reported that around 150 Turkish soldiers backed by 20 to 25 tanks had been transported to the Bashiqa area northeast of Mosul, Daesh’s main hub in Iraq.
Speaking to Sputnik in an exclusive interview, former Iraqi advisor to the president Hiwa Osman said, “It is very difficult to tell right now because the full information is not out, but judging by the statements of the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic it doesn’t seem to be any official Iraqi knowledge. There may have been deals with the Kurdish political party on the ground to come and train some of its forces but that is again according to some Turkish officials.”
Osman further said, “We are yet to hear from the KDP as to exactly what is going on because if they are to enter they will be entering through the KDP territory the political party that is led by Mossaud Barzani, President of the region and we haven’t heard anything from him yet.”
“Judging by their track record over the last year and a half, Turkey is really not serious about fighting ISIL and their number one priority is the PKK the Kurdistan Workers’ Party that is fighting ISIL and they see them as a threat to themselves. One fear is that these troops could later on fight the PKK,” the analyst noted.
“Turkey has done this in the past. They came in the mountainous areas of Iraqi Kurdistan to come after PKK but they weren’t so successful in the past. I don’t think that they will be successful this time.”
Talking about what stance NATO will take on this new development, Osman said that NATO is something that Turkey uses to try and hide behind to avoid fighting ISIL.
“Even with the PKK it has forced many countries to enlist them in their lists of terror because it is using its membership of NATO. They shouldn’t use NATO as carte blanche for everything they want to do. If I was NATO I would seriously reconsider this,” Osman said.
He also said that Turkey started to move only after Russia seriously started to get involved in the war against Daesh (ISIL). “I think they fear that if they don’t do anything, there will be implication that they don’t mind what ISIL is doing in the region.”
He went on to say that since Russia got involved things have started moving faster and had Russia not gotten involved Daesh would have kept growing stronger. “Today there is a serious player i.e. Russia and Vladimir Putin. I think he is the only one in this coalition who knows exactly what he wants and Russian involvement has forced everyone else to be clear in exactly what they want and to find themselves a role.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Businesses Want to Continue Cooperation With Russia — Lavrov
The Italian business community wants to retain its presence in the Russian market.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Italian business community wants to retain its presence in the Russian market, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.
“Italy is one of Russia’s major trading partners. However, the EU’s spiraling sanctions against Russia have led to a significant decline in bilateral trade,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Russian Business Guide magazine.
The trade between Russia and Italy dropped by 35 percent in terms of volume in the first nine months of 2015, with imports from Italy down by 38 percent, Lavrov said, citing official Russian statistics.
“The current situation is a matter of grave concern for the Italian business community, since Italian businesses do not want to leave the Russian market and want cooperation to continue across the board,” the foreign minister said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Majority of World is on Putin’s Side Because US Abandoned Europe’
Obama’s promise not to send any boots on the ground goes against the actions that the US government wants to take. Scott Bennett — former US Army officer and counterterrorism analyst spoke in an exclusive interview with Sputnik regarding this manifestation.
“If the US sends its troops on the ground then that is a declaration of war, bypassing around the US Congress which means it’s unconstitutional and it is a violation for which he should be impeached and Ashton Carter should be arrested and prosecuted, because the United States is not to send its military men and women into combat without declaring war, and the reason for that is that wars are supposed to be very dangerous and deadly and it is a last resort of any political diplomacy,” Bennett told Sputnik in an interview.
He further said, “The US is sending its troops simply to check Russian movements and I think that will not be allowed because Russians will own the battle space and control the territory that the US Special Forces are allowed into.”
“That is going to result in some deaths. Some American soldiers will be sacrificed by going into the wrong places and probably intentionally killed in order to inflate the conflict with Russia and justify all sorts of other political actions.”
“Make no mistake, the US position is not going to change. It will still try to remove Assad and turn Syria into another Libya,” Bennett stressed.
He went on to say that Russia, following the downing of Su-24 bomber by Turkish President Erdogan, has all the ‘moral authority’ to step in with overwhelming technology, man power, missiles and ships to control the situation in the country.
“All of Europe looks at Russia with a nodding sympathy.” The US sees that and that’s why it is trying to, “quickly say that we are a big kid on the block also and we were here first and we are not going to distance ourselves from our land. The US will try and take ownership of a lot of oil fields and refineries,” the analyst explained.
Bennett further said that according to him the next step will be a coup d’état against President Erdogan. “I think his military forces will rise up, remove him and his son and then the Turkish regime will be stable and Russia will have new relationship with Turkey and at that point Turkey will have peace with Assad and Europe will be very thankful because Erdogan has been facilitating this mass refugee invasion and trying to extort Europe for that.”
According to the analyst, “Everything is in Russia’s favor and against the US. That’s why the US is rushing in its last effort to keep control over its crumbling position, but I don’t think it’s going to end well because the moment US forces start getting killed that’s when the entire US Congress and the people will rise up and say we shouldn’t be there in the first place.”
Talking about Russia’s presence in Syria, Bennett said that Russia is there to fight Daesh (ISIL), because if the terrorists go out of control they can seep into the Russian territory.
“President Putin is not going to allow that to happen and he is wisely allying himself with Iran, China and the European nations and the majority of the world is with Russia and on Putin’s side. The majority of Europe is on his side because the US abandoned its post from defending Europe and letting all these refugees in,” Bennett said.
The US on the other hand didn’t combat ISIL for over a year. “We were playing with them, we were funding them and we were dropping supplies with C-130’s to them, so we can’t just step in now and say that we are going to target them. They are a CIA mercenary Mossed force.”
The analyst also said that this entire campaign of the United States since 2001 has been one long permanent military footprint.
“We have foolishly gone into the Middle East to try and control it without any psychological, informational campaign to cultivate the mindset behavior that would be receptive to US presences. We just sort of just stuck our flag into the ground and not made any friends there, not assimilated into a cultural affinity and that is what has led us to be in conflict with these people,” Bennett stressed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Moscow to Sue Kiev if it Fails to Fulfill Debt Obligations Before Dec. 20
If Ukraine fails to fulfill its debt obligations by December 20, Moscow will sue Kiev.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia will sue Ukraine if Kiev fails to fully fulfill debt obligations by December 20, the Russian Finance Ministry said in a statement Saturday.
“This week we received an official refusal of the US government to provide a guarantee for Ukraine’s obligations. In this regard, we have no choice but to file a lawsuit against Ukraine in case of the borrower’s non-fulfillment of its obligations in full by December 20 of this year, which will mean a sovereign default in Ukraine,” the ministry said.
According to the statement, there is a risk that Ukraine may not receive another tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as Kiev has still not adopted budget for 2016 that would be consistent with the parameters of the IMF program.
Moscow made an offer on restructuring Kiev’s $3-billion debt under US, EU or other major global financial institution’s guarantees despite the lack of official address from Ukraine to the Russian government, the ministry added. Conditions offered by Russia were even better than IMF’s, the statement read.
Ukraine’s debt amounts to $70 billion of which some $40 billion the country owes to international money lenders. Of that amount, Ukraine owes Russia $3 billion in Eurobonds. The debt was secured by the previous government of then-President Viktor Yanukovych in late 2013.
In November, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to allow Ukraine not to pay back the $3 billion by the year-end deadline, but to pay $1 billion annually between 2016 and 2018.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Jakarta Can Stop Discrimination But is Unwilling to Do So
The central government could reverse local regulations but instead turns a blind eye. According to the Setara Institute, Indonesia has 57 laws that affect minority rights. For Human Rights Commission official, “Local authorities are the worst violators of religious freedom”. This “shows the weakness of the central government”.
Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The Indonesian government continues to ignore the discrimination and violence endured by religious minorities, this according to Jayadi Damanik, coordinator for the Religion and Faith Desk of the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM*).
Mr Damanik slams Indonesia’s central government for turning a “blind eye” when religious and other minorities are victims of abuses and for failing to repeal local discriminatory regulations. In his view, the central authorities are constitutionally responsible to uphold religious freedom, not local administrations.
“Local authorities are the worst violators of religious freedom,” he explained. “They tend to work for their personal goals and political interests. The existence of discriminatory regulations shows the weakness of the central government when it comes to monitor local governments.”
According to the Setara Institute, an Indonesia-based human rights advocacy group, Indonesia has 57 laws that discriminate against religious minorities and endanger pluralism in the country.
This has led to open discrimination. For example, in Bogor, West Java, the mayor last October banned the Shia festival of Ashura.
One of the most egregious cases of violation of religious freedom involves the GKI** Taman Yasmin Church, also in Bogor, which had its building permit revoked in 2008 following protests by Islamists.
Last October, in Aceh, a group of Muslims attacked Christian churches and set fire to two of them because they claimed that latter did not have a building permit.
According Jayadi Damanik, the government could end all these violations, but “it considers the matter a local issue and turns a blind eye on religious intolerance”.
For Choirul Anam, director of the Human Right Working Group (HRWG), the application process for building permits in the case of places of worship indirectly discriminates against minorities.
At present, applying for a building permit involving a church requires the signature of at least 99 worshipers and the support of at least 60 residents and local chief in the area where the new place of worship is supposed to be build.
Last week, because of the violence, Indonesia’s Interior Minister announced plans to change building permit regulations. “It is my personal opinion that the number of signatures should be reduced, if not eliminated altogether,” he said.
* Komisi Nasional Hak Asasi Manusia, usually abbreviated to Komnas HAM.
** Gereja Kristen Indonesia, i.e. Indonesian Christian Church.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Reports emerged this week that the Taliban leader was killed in a dramatic internal shoot-out after a meeting of commanders of the now divided movement turned sour.
The formerly united group has been severed by a bitter internal turmoil that has seen a splinter cell break away and declare loyalty to ISIS, which is steadily carving a trail of bloody destruction through the Taliban’s Afghanistan territory.
It is believed that members of the ISIS-led breakaway cell could be responsible for the as yet unconfirmed death of the Taliban’s elected leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
His death, if proven, exposes the strife among the Taliban’s top ranks as the group seems to be crumbling under ISIS’ growing strength in Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Want Climate Action? Give US Cash, India Tells Rich Nations
Rich nations responsible for the bulk of the heat-trapping gases mankind has spewed into Earth’s atmosphere must provide cash if they want developing countries to make climate-saving cuts, India insisted Friday.
Developing countries are hamstrung by a poverty-reduction imperative mixed with the expense of energy from renewable sources like wind and water, Indian official Ajay Mathur told AFP at a UN climate summit in Paris.
He touched upon one of the issues most likely to sink the decades-old talks for a pact to stave off calamitous climate change: how to share responsibility between rich and poorer nations for braking greenhouse gas emissions.
“If we were to accelerate it (renewable energy) for climate change reasons, then the countries which put the largest amount of carbon dioxide up in the atmosphere… the higher cost of energy has to be met by them,” said Mathur…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
S Korean Parliament to Require Religions to Pay Income Tax
After 40 years of debate, tax supporters get religious practitioners to pay taxes on property, gifts and “illegal benefits”. For opponents, “Taxing religious practitioners equates religious activities with commercial activities.” Since the new law has a two-year grace period, opponents, especially Protestants, could get it overturned as presidential elections are set for 2017. Since the mid-1990s, Catholic priests already submit to a 10 per cent voluntary tax on their salary.
Seoul (AsiaNews) — After a debate stretching back more than 40 years, South Korea’s parliament has approved a bill that will finally compel the country’s clergy to pay taxes.
The new law was adopted shortly before midnight on Wednesday by 195 votes to 20, with 50 legislators abstaining. Until now, members of the clergy enjoyed a tax exemption regime since the military ruled the country following the civil war (1950-1953).
With the new rules, a sliding bracket means those earning 40 million won (US$ 35,000) or less a year will only be taxed on 20 per cent of their income. At the upper end, those earning more than 150 million won (US$ 130,000) will have to pay tax on 80 per cent of their income.
Property taxes however remain a contentious issue. With the new law, religious property would pay a one-time tax, unless it contained businesses, in which case it would pay the regular business tax.
South Korea has an estimated 360,000 priests and monks whose earnings will be re-classified as “religious income” rather than the current label of “honorarium”.
Not everyone is pleased. “Taxing religious practitioners equates religious activities with commercial activities,” a conservative Protestant group, the Commission of Churches in Korea, said in a statement.
Commission spokesman Choi Kwi-Soo also noted that, unlike monks and Catholic priests, Protestant clergymen generally marry and have families, and would be hardest hit. “They are different from monks or priests who can live on a relatively meagre income. That should be taken into account,” Choi said.
The late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, the highly regarded archbishop of Seoul, had already noted that diocesan priests have been voluntarily paying 10 per cent of their earnings to the state since the mid-1990s.
Many note that the most vocal opponents of the new policy belong to Protestant and Evangelical communities, whose pastors can often earn hefty salaries.
In recent years, some individual Protestant churches have come to boast enormous congregations, especially in Seoul, with considerable wealth generated from deals with various businesses, including the entertainment industry like the K-pop music scene.
In order to lessen any negative impact on religious groups, the government gave the tax bill a two-year grace period.
However, some believe that the real reason for the delay is South Korea’s presidential election at the end of 2017.
Since Protestants wield substantial political clout, they could sway the vote in order to get the new law repealed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ENI and Anadarko Start ‘Unitisation’ of Mozambique Fields
(AGI) Rome, Dec. 3 — Italian oil and gas giant Eni and Anadarko announced on Thursday that, following the signing of the Unitisation and Unit Operating Agreement (UUOA) and in full agreement with all the concessionaries of the projects, a unitisation was set out for the development of natural gas reservoirs straddling Areas 4 and 1 in the Rovuma Basin, offshore Mozambique. Area 4 is operated by Eni East Africa and Area 1 by Anadarko Mozambique Area 1 Ltd. The reservoirs Mamba and Prosperidade, in Area 4 and 1 respectively, cross the boundary. The UUOA specifies that the development will be carried out initially in a separated but coordinated way, until 24 Tcf of natural gas is reached — 12 from each area. Future developments will be jointly pursued by Area 4 and Area 1 concessionaires through a joint operator, within a joint venture between Eni East Africa and Anadarko Mozambique Area 1.
The UUOA, developed in close cooperation with the 11 concessionaires, represents a fair agreement for all parties involved in the two areas. The agreement is subject to final approval by the Mozambique government. Eni is the operator of Area 4 with a 50 percent indirect interest owned through Eni East Africa (EEA), which holds a 70 percent stake in Area 4.
The other concessionaires are Galp Energia, KOGAS and Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) with a 10 percent stake each.
CNPC owns a 20 percent indirect interest in Area 4 through Eni East Africa. Anadarko is the operator in Area 1 with a 26.5 percent stake through Anadarko Mozambique Area 1 (AMA1). The other Concessionaires are ENH (15 percent), Mitsui E&P Mozambique Area 1 (20 percent), Beas Rovuma Energy Mozambique (10 percent), BPRL Ventures Mozambique (10 percent), ONGC Videsh (10 percent) and PTTEP Mozambique Area 1 (8.5 percent).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mourning the Death of the ‘Messiah of Africa’
When Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011, there were scenes of jubilation in Libya. But Jake Wallis Simons didn’t have to go far in Ghana to find those who have fond memories of the executed Libyan leader, and are still mourning his loss.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: Organisations: Government Lambast Rhino Trade Ruling
(AGI) — Cape Town, 27 nov. — Decision of the High Court in Pretoria to overturn the South African governmental moratorium on domestic rhino horn trading, has illicited fierce resistance from government and animal right organisations. The high court granted an order to two South African rhino breeders to set aside the moratorium because there was not adequate public consultation. The moratorium, which came into effect in 2009, was put in place to back up an international ban on rhino horn trading until regulations on how to deal with it had been formulated.
The rhino breeders maintained that the moratorium should be set aside because South Africa’s Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa did not give proper notice of her intentions to members of the public and South Africa 400 registered rhino breeders and owners. The minister intends to appeal the judgment, the department of Environmental Affairs said in a statement. The minister intends to appeal, which means that the operation and execution of the judgement will be suspended in terms of section 18 of the Superior Courts Act, 2013, the department said. In the absence of the moratorium, all trade in rhino horn will be subjected to the issuing of the relevant permits by the relevant provincial conservation department. Commercial international trade in rhino horn is still prohibited under the provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature said the high court ruling would encourage rhino poaching as it would now be possible for individuals to buy rhino horn within South Africa.
This ruling is a blow to the government, which imposed the moratorium in response to a sharp rise in rhino poaching and concerns that the national trade was facilitating the illegal international trade in rhino horn, said Jo Shaw, rhino programme manager for WWF South Africa.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lori Berenson Heading Home to the U.S. From Peru
LIMA, Peru — Putting an end to a two-decade-long journey through radical politics, rebellion and punishment, Lori Berenson prepared to fly home to the United States on Wednesday night, after years of prison and parole for aiding leftist rebels during a period of intense upheaval and violence in Peru and the region.
Ms. Berenson, 46, whose 20-year sentence ended Sunday, was escorted by the police through the Lima airport before her flight. In her arms she carried her 6-year-old son, Salvador, as some bystanders called her a terrorist.
She was reviled by many Peruvians who saw her as a meddling, arrogant outsider and a terrorist. In America, her story was often seen as a cautionary tale of a talented young idealist who paid a heavy price for getting involved with militants in a faraway country.
| [Return to headlines] |
Across Europe With Tommy Robinson: Inside the New Anti-Immigration Movement Coming to Britain
By Jamie Bartlett
Late Monday night in Dresden, Germany, former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson gave a speech to a large group of Pegida supporters. He told the crowd that he’s been working with nationalist groups across Europe in order to coordinate a Europe wide movement that seeks to, in his words, counter the “Islamification of our countries”. The first demo, he said, will be taking place on February 6, 2016, in at least 12 European countries simultaneously, all marching under a single banner: ‘‘Save our Country. Save our Culture. Save Our Future.”
I’ve been following Tommy for the last few months for my next book, Radicals. After he left the EDL a couple of years back, he spent time in jail for mortgage fraud, and had tired of running a near uncontrollable street-based movement. He joined the Quilliam Foundation, an anti-extremism think-tank, but that petered out. The end of his licence period for the fraud case coincided with the refugee crisis, and he decided to get back involved in street politics. He still thinks Islam poses a real and growing risk to the culture and identity of Europe, and that the refugee crisis is bringing this forward.
On November 17, I was with Robinson — whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — as he travelled to the Czech Republic to meet representatives from Pegida and a similar Czech group called “Bloc Against Islam” (which grew out of the “Czech Defence League”, modelled on its English equivalent) to get them to sign up to this idea. Robinson was due to speak at a rally partly organised by the Bloc, but did not because at the last moment a new speaker was announced: the country’s President Milos Zeman, who is an outspoken critic of Islam, immigration and the EU. Six thousand people turned out in Prague to listen…
| — Hat tip: Seneca III | [Return to headlines] |
Female San Bernardino Shooter Reportedly Entered US on ‘Fiance’ Visa With Inaccurate Address
The ISIS-inspired female terrorist in the recent mass killings in San Bernardino, Calif., reportedly entered the country on a so-called “fiancé visa” that listed a false or at least inaccurate foreign home address.
The woman, Tashfeen Malik, listed an address in her home country of Pakistan. This summer, she received her Green Card, which allows immigrants to legally live and work in the United States, according to ABC News.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond Saturday to a Fox News request for comment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Rescues Over 1,500 Migrants Off Libya Coast
Over 1,500 migrants have been rescued off Libya in 11 separate operations, the Italian coastguard said Friday, bringing the number of people plucked from boats in 36 hours to more than 3,500.
The migrants were plucked from 10 dinghies and a fishing boat by the coastguard and navy after a break in bad weather sparked fresh attempts at the perilous Mediterranean crossing.
The rescue followed a lull in arrivals caused by stormy seas, during which only around 400 migrants were picked up in over 10 days — a startlingly low number compared to the summer months, when an average of 760 people a day were rescued…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: The Hard Road Through Bulgaria
As Bulgaria steps up security at its borders, migrants travelling through the country to Serbia face tougher checks from police. The BBC’s Nick Thorpe spoke to some of those who made it to Serbia.
Fear stalks the mountain passes between Bulgaria and Serbia, but it is a different calibre of fear to that on the streets of Paris or Brussels.
The 200 mostly Afghan migrants who make this journey every night are afraid of the Bulgarian police, afraid of the cold, but above all afraid that Europe will not accept them after all.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Gay Refugees Placed in Separate Accommodation After Attacks
Five gay asylum seekers in Amsterdam have been moved to a new location after they were spat on and attacked by other people in their refugee centre, the Parool says on Friday.
The five — three from Syria, one from Iran and one from Iraq — have been moved to a house owned by housing corporation Rochdale. Junior justice minister Klaas Dijkhoff said earlier he did not support separate accommodation for gay refugees because it was ‘stigmatising’.
A spokesman for the Salvation Army, which is in charge of refugee accommodation in the capital, said the men’s safety could not be guaranteed in their former housing…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
This woman looks like she’s on meds. So they will do nothing to prevent it from happening again.
Via Free Beacon:
State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau said Friday that the State Department stands behind the visa process that allowed a terrorist into the United States.
“Are you satisfied that Malik’s application process followed the proper protocol?” one reporter asked Trudeau, referring to San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik, who had previously pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on Facebook.
“Yes,” she said.
“How can you say that with such assurance?” the reporter asked.
Trudeau said that she is confident that this case followed protocol because the State Department is confident in its visa process.
“Because we stand behind our screening process for visas,” she said.
Tashfeen Malik apparently gave a phony address in Pakistan, which no one checked or figured out.
Makes you feel really secure about vetting those Syrian refugees?
[Comment: Mass migration and increased risk of attacks is used to destabilize. End goal, more tyranny and planned destruction of the Republic of the United States.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland Outlines Plan to Limit Immigration From… EU
The unilateral safeguard clause presupposes the independent control of immigration by introducing temporary and targeted restrictions on residence and work permits for individuals from EU and European Free Trade Agreement (EFT) states.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Swiss Federal Council is set to limit immigration from the European Union in a bid to put into practice an initiative that has already been approved by the country’s population, a statement on the Swiss government website said Friday.
In February 2014, some 50.3 percent of Swiss voters backed a right-wing proposal to reintroduce immigration quotas for EU citizens arriving in the country.
“The Federal Council is looking to apply a safeguard clause in order to control the immigration of persons covered by the Agreement on the free movement of persons with the European Union (EU). To do so, it will seek a mutually acceptable solution with the EU,” the statement reads.
“A specific threshold will be set for the immigration of citizens of EU and EFTA states, which, if exceeded, would lead to quantitative limits and quotas being introduced the following year,” it was noted in the statement.
The Swiss Cabinet announced that it would continue its negotiations with the European Union to ensure that any new measures do not contradict the principle of the free movement of persons between the European bloc and Switzerland.
In 1999, Brussels and Bern struck a deal on the principle of freedom of movement, granting each other’s citizens the right to enter, live and work on their respective territories. Over 1 million EU citizens live in Switzerland, and another 230,000 cross the border daily to go to work, according to the EU External Action Service.
At the end of 2013, foreigners constituted almost 24 percent of the Swiss population, one of the highest indices in any Western economy, raising concerns that the situation would lead to discrimination in hiring practices and an imbalance in social benefits for local residents.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Refugee Families Receive a Warm Welcome on the Scottish Isle of Bute
The Isle of Bute is due to welcome 15 Syrian Refugee families as part of the governments plant to give refuge to 20,000 refugees in the UK by 2020.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Real Story on Who the Syrian “Refugees” Are?
Gadowski responded that the true victims of wars are in camps in the Iraqi section of Kurdistan, in southern Turkey, and in Lebanon: Shia, Yazidis, and Christians. In his opinion, the Shia are killed immediately when caught. Yazidi women are raped, Yazidi children are sold into slavery, and their men are killed. The Christians are converted to Islam by force, killed, or taxed Jizya. “These are the most persecuted groups in Syria and Iraq in the Diyala, Anbar, Ninive, and Salah ad Din provinces,” Gadowski alleged.
From the valley of Ninive, 60,000 Christians had to flee from Karakos in one day in order to escape the Islamic State. All fled to the Iraqi Kurdistan, Gadowski added. He recounted how he spoke to a teary-eyed Archbishop Nicodim, the patriarch of Mosul. He explained that religion is treated just like in the Bolshevik revolution days — “hordes enter churches, rob them, deface all the symbols, and destroy them.”
Gadowski said that “the borders of the Islamic State (ISIS) are controlled by troops led by Emir Al-Turki. If anyone tries to flee, the punishment is crucifixion.” If anybody escapes, it is because the Islamic State allows them to flee. Their secret service, AMNI, is very effective, he added. ISIS controls the border because it is a source of income — contraband and border traffic.
Gadowski alleges that ISIS has a budget of $800 million per year and that “The Islamic State sells illegally more than 60,000 barrels of oil per day,” mostly to Turkish and Iranian companies, oil that eventually makes its way to Israel and Europe.”
The young men, flooding Europe, are not refugees. “The real victims of the war are in the camps,” he repeated. “Why are the camp survivors pleading unsuccessfully to obtain visas for various European nations and being denied, while the young men are immediately taken in with open arms and presented as refugees?”
[…]
Gadowski believes that the Islamic State is composed of Saddam Hussein’s officers and prisoners released from Iraqi and Syrian jails. The superior officers morphed from Including Ba’ath Party supporters into Islamists. ISIS is led by Iraqis, not Syrians, Gadowski pointed out. Sunnis, persecuted by Al-Maliki’s Shia government, joined the ranks of ISIS as well. Adding 85,000 from the 100,000 Sunni militias dissolved by Al-Malaki, and some Chechen volunteers, ISIS grew even larger. Money is coming in from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and other sources, Gadowski said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I’m sure all those ‘refugees’ from the Levant will be so glad they left their homeland after they spend a winter stuck on an island off the west coast of Scotland, PMSL …
The next council meeting should be interesting. I imagine they will be applying to build the biggest “community center” with a 5,000 fighter capacity. All thanks to sacks of Saudi cash as needed. Let’s hope the locals find out before the fact what the numerous verses in Mien Koran have in store for them. The plague spreads.
“The most comprehensive report yet into the alliance of international counter-jihad organisations warns that Islamophobic groups in Britain are capitalising on public concerns following the Paris attacks and ongoing refugee crisis.”
Remember this? It’s the anti CJ report that Hope not Hate cobbled together and rushed out before the Draw Mohammed cartoon event that was subsequently cancelled.
I don’t know whether that master of mendacity Nick Lowles and his team have re-hashed the original or whether the Grauniad has been slower than usual to pick up on it.
Either way, I suggest anyone who has been adversely mentioned in the document should take legal action if they have not already done so as the original paper contained much material that I consider to be actionable.
‘Hope’ stands for ‘Hope they don’t cut off my head’ , right?
I wonder how long they will actually stay there on Bute. It would be interesting to run a book and set up some odds on when the first lot grab a ferry and then disappear into one of the foetid occupied territories on the mainland, although when it happens it is likely to be covered up for as long as possible by our traitors within.
There’s still hope in Canada….
http://www.cpr.ca/holiday-train/canada
(I just had to post this somewhere. Watch for a night view of the moving train.)
(December 6 is St. Nick’s Day.)
You could have posted it somewhere else..Oh you were being sarcastic right?..It should be called the Christmas Train..Apologies eh..
???
This element of the site is called the “News Feed.” In new-speak, the item posted would be called “a feature story.” The comments here are well moderated and the management can freely delete anything totally unfitting.
If anyone likes, I can put such things in one of my personal blogs (there are a lot of blog links posted) and then it could be called “a column,” but that would not be so good as my personal blogs are not counter-jihad sites.
Thank you, management for leaving it in. I honestly think some would like the encouragement. 🙂
You’re right, Countess. The news feed is exactly the place to put off-topic information readers find interesting, i.e., subjects that don’t quite fit elsewhere.
BTW, I love that video. I saw it somewhere else yesterday; had I remembered it was December 6th I’d have used it as a feature on our home page, just for some pleasant relief. Besides, it reminds me of one thing I’d always wanted to do and won’t get to accomplish in this life: take the Canadian railway trip that goes across the continent, starting in Toronto…though it would be fun to begin even further east, say at Prince Edward Island and finish up somewhere near Vancouver…
[The northwestern part of the US/southwestern part of Canada is so beneficent that I often wonder if the Native Americans there turned out to be less aggressive toward one another – relatively speaking – than other tribes in the East at least partly because of the climate. And by extrapolation, if the harsh desert climate of the nomadic Arabs didn’t contribute to their cruelty both toward others and toward themselves.]
Even though I’m intellectually aware of how huge our continent is, it would be a wonderful thing to know that experientially.
http://www.johnsteel.com/f3.htm
The only “down side” I can see is that some “devoted” individual casing the place might decide it’s a good target. Other than that, even old-fashioned journalese would call it a good feature worth repeating in a different setting.
Dymphna,
I’ve always wanted to take that trip across Canada too, but by car, until I learned that Canada’s highway along the north of USA border is actually a dirt road! So train would probably be best.
Don’t know that it’ll happen in my lifetime, either. . . sigh.