Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/1/2016

At least three terror attacks occurred in the West on New Year’s Day. That’s not counting the Amish terrorists who set fire to the skyscraper in Dubai; technically speaking, that happened on New Year’s Eve. Besides, it’s not in the West.

The first attack was at a street café in Tel Aviv, where a man opened fire on patrons with an automatic weapon, killing two people and wounding seven others. The perpetrator is still at large. Police are mystified as to his motive, although a Koran was reportedly found in his backpack.

The second attack also occurred in Tel Aviv, when a kinetic activist with a knife stabbed two people to death outside a synagogue. The perpetrator was restrained by passersby and is now in custody.

The third attack was at a mosque in France. A North African man drove his car into a group of soldiers guarding the mosque, lightly injuring one of them. The driver was shot by one of the soldiers, but not killed, and is now in custody. His motive remains unknown, but according to at least one report, he shouted “Allahu akhbar” as he drove his car into the soldiers.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, DV, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, KGS, LP, MM, 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.

Financial Crisis
» Gulf Stocks Dive Over Low Oil Prices, Geopolitics
» US Jobless Claims Rise to Nearly 6-Month High
 
USA
» Alaska: The Surprising Thing Ancient Mummies Tell us About What to Eat
» CIA Supporting the Islamic Indoctrination of Our Children
» Family Friend Says Anchorage Plane Crash Was Suicide
» FBI Offers $5,000 Reward After Bacon Found at Vegas Mosque
» George Lucas Sorry for ‘White Slaver’ Comment
» Obama to Meet Monday With AG Lynch About ‘Options’ To Tighten Gun Laws
» Space Plutonium: US Once Again Producing Fuel for Deep-Space Missions
» Talking With Pioneering Planet Hunter, 20 Years After Groundbreaking Find
» The Deadliest Day of the Year is Almost Upon Us
 
Europe and the EU
» France Sees Threefold Hike in Anti-Islam Crimes
» French Soldiers Shoot Car Attacker Outside Mosque
» Iceland’s President to Step Down After 20 Years
» Italy: Rome Has Least Public Rail Transport Among European Capitals
» Italy’s Efficient and Innovative Eco-Firms ‘Best in Europe’
» Lunar Leap: Europe is Reaching for a Moon Base by the 2030s
» Man Attacks Soldiers Guarding French Mosque With His Car
» Man Rams Car Into Soldiers Guarding French Mosque
» Manhunt in Munich for New Year Terror Suspects
» Munich Terror Plot: Police Hunt ‘Seven Suspects’
» Soldiers Open Fire on Car as it Tried to Ram Mosque Twice in France With Bullets Wounding Driver, Passenger and a Nearby Worshipper
» The Amazing Survival of the Baltic Muslims
 
Balkans
» Bosnian Prosecutors Charge Ex-Member of Presidency With War Crimes
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israeli Police: Gunman Opens Fire in Tel Aviv Bar, Wounds Several People; Motive Unclear
» Israel Bans Novel on Arab-Jewish Love Story
» Report: Copy of Koran Found in Tel Aviv Gunman’s Backpack
» Two Dead: Eight Wounded in Shooting on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv
» Two Killed in Tel Aviv Synagogue Attack
» Two Killed: Five Wounded: In Tel Aviv Shooting: Officials
» Was Tel Aviv Shooting First ISIS Terror Attack on Israel? Police Investigate if Terror Group is Behind Double Murder as it is Disclosed Alleged Attacker Had Previously Assaulted a Soldier and Tried to Take His Weapon
 
Middle East
» Bahrain Sentences Shiite to Death, Jails 22 From ‘Terror Group’
» Death Toll in Syria Tops 55,000 in 2015
» Dubai Seeks Cause of Massive Hotel Fire at New Year
» Erdogan Cites Hitler’s Germany to Defend Presidency Plans
» Erdogan Says Hitler’s Germany an Example of Presidential System With Unitary State
» Erdogan Cites Hitler’s Germany as Example of Effective Government
» Fire Engulfs Dubai Skyscraper, Building Fails to Collapse at Free Fall Speed
» Iran Calls for Expanding Missile Program Amid US Talk of Renewed Sanctions
» Iraq Says it Exported More Than 1 Billion Barrels of Oil in 2015
» Islamic State Attacks Iraqi Army Base Near Ramadi
» Turkey’s Erdogan Cites Hitler’s Germany as Example of Presidential System
» UN Says Almost 1,000 Killed in Iraq Violence in December
 
Russia
» EU-Ukraine Trade Deal Sparks Moscow-Kyiv Trade War
» Russia to Sue Ukraine Over Default on $3-Bn Debt
» Russian Banks Face More Pain
 
South Asia
» Delhi Begins Car Rationing to Curb Pollution
» Indian Capital Starts Limiting Cars for 2 Weeks to Clear Air
 
Far East
» Airbus Wins All Nippon as Customer for A380 Superjumbos
» Another Hong Kong Bookseller Goes Missing: Wife
» China Arrests 11 in Connection With Deadly Shenzhen Landslide
» China Building Second Aircraft Carrier With Domestic Technology
» Hong Kong Protesters Air Grievances on New Year’s Day
» Korea Fears it Will Age Into Japan
 
Latin America
» Venezuela State Oil Company Cuts Gas Export to Neighboring Colombia
 
Immigration
» America’s Wish List for 2016
» Germany to Tighten Checks on Syrian Asylum Applicants
» Obama’s New Immigration Plan Offers Work-Permits to Foreigners Slated for Deportation
» Refugees Flee ‘Haunted’ Swedish Migration Centre
» Vetting Isn’t All it’s Cracked Up to be
 
Culture Wars
» Apple Pressured by Investor for Racial Diversity in Senior Ranks
 

Gulf Stocks Dive Over Low Oil Prices, Geopolitics

Stock markets in the Gulf states ended 2015 in negative territory on Thursday, following a massive decline in oil prices and regional turmoil.

The Saudi stock market, the largest in the region, led the slide by shedding 17 percent in 2015 followed by Dubai which dipped 16.5 percent.

The market value of the seven bourses dropped by $110 billion to $930 billion in 2015.

Gulf Cooperation Council states were forced to cut back this year after oil prices fell by more than 60 percent since mid-2014 to below $40 a barrel…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

US Jobless Claims Rise to Nearly 6-Month High

The number of Americans filing for US unemployment insurance benefits jumped to a nearly six-month high last week during the Christmas holiday season, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Initial jobless claims rose by 20,000 to 287,000 in the week ending December 26.

That marked the highest level of new claims, a sign of the pace of layoffs, since the first week of July…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Alaska: The Surprising Thing Ancient Mummies Tell us About What to Eat

Heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S., is often blamed on modern diets and a sedentary lifestyle. According to this thinking, if only people ate the “right” foods and exercised more, they could live longer.

But examinations of the bodies of the Unangans from Kagamil Island and other pre-modern people indicate that, in fact, the modern scourge of heart disease is not at all new, and that people who exercised more than we do as a matter of necessity, and whose diet was free from modern temptations, also suffered striking levels of heart disease, according to the researchers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

CIA Supporting the Islamic Indoctrination of Our Children

According to Brad Hoff, a former US Marine who served during the early years of the Iraq War and as a 9/11 first responder at the Marine Corps Headquarters Battalion in Quantico from 2000 to 2004, the just released Pentagon report for the first time provides stunning affirmation that: “US intelligence predicted the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), but instead of clearly delineating the group as an enemy, the report envisions the terror group as a US strategic asset.”

In the past several weeks 2,000 fighters, 250 vehicles and hundreds of tons of ammo has been sent from Turkey to Islamic terrorists in Syria giving Britain cause to enter the war. US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s warning to the American people about the Obama regimes actions said: “Russia’s installation of their anti-aircraft missile-defense system increases that possibility of — whether it’s intentional or even an accidental event — where one side may shoot down the other side’s plane, and that’s really where the potential is for this devastating nuclear war.”

Now Putin has ordered Russia’s Ilyushin-80 giant command and control aircraft designated for use during nuclear war (otherwise known as the “Doomsday plane”) to prepare for worldwide war operations within a fortnight after military intelligence analysts discovered a “beyond staggering” plot by United States and Turkish government factions to bring down Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan and replace him with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “designated figurehead” Fethullah Gulen—while at the same time utilizing Islamic State terrorists as “leverage”.

As if this information is not enough, another recently released document shows how the CIA is attempting to control the flip of the Turkish government and the Middle East oil while supporting Fethullah Gulen and his Charter schools here in America.

The CIA with full knowledge of who and what Gulen is and the purpose of those schools is in supporting their attempt to rule over Turkey while the Gulen goal is to re-instate the Ottoman Empire while indoctrinating American children to build up their numbers.

This plot to overthrow the current government of Turkey by the CIA was first started in 2008 by the US military-intelligence establishment supported think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) whose board members are a “who’s who” of American military connected individuals, including former US Vice President Richard Cheney, and whose research papers advocated the United States creating what they call a “moderate Muslim” majority in the Middle East to battle Islamic extremists and whose target nation for this action was Turkey.

Aiding the CIA in this goal is of course none other than the leader of the Gulen Charter schools who has been hiding in the Pocono Mountains since 1999 — Fethullah Gulen. The CIA will tell you he came here for “health reasons” but in truth he ran from his government and went into exile when he was accused of attempting to undermine Turkey’s secular regime in order to institute an Islamic state. He obtained his long time visa with the help of former CIA officials.

2015 — Gulen also recently ran afoul again of Turkey’s president, Recip Erdogan. Erdogan accused Gulenists of operating a “parallel state,” and he reportedly lobbied President Obama last month to extradite Gulen back to Turkey. With the current CIA information, we know that is NOT going to happen.

These schools first started appearing the same year Gulen first appeared in 1999 with 17 of the original 165 schools no longer open. Currently, there are 148 Gulen Charter schools operating in the U.S. in 27 different states. Texas (48) and Ohio (17) have the most schools with California and Florida following with 12 and 11 schools respectfully.

Under the leadership of Sheik Mohammad Fethullah Gülen the goal has always been to re-instate the Ottoman Empire by indoctrinating and recruiting American children, especially high school age, to follow their agenda.

[…]

Gulen also owns and operates over three hundred Madrasas around the world, including Pakistan, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. While Gulen’s suspicious and secretive Madrasas have been shut down and or restrained in countries such as Russia, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, based on these governments’ justified suspicions that his schools had more than just education on their agendas, his rapidly and secretively expanding charter school empire here in the US has gone quite unnoticed and unacknowledged by legislators — however the CIA is well aware of what is happening.

[…]

So what can we see as our Muslim president’s goal? We have evidence that over 14K Islamic refugees have vanished from Sweden, but in fact have been transported to the U.S.

[Comment: Long article but well worth reading. Obama is seeding America with terrorists.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Family Friend Says Anchorage Plane Crash Was Suicide

The man who died Tuesday when his plane hit two buildings in downtown Anchorage — including one where his wife worked — committed suicide, a friend of the family says.

Doug Demarest, a licensed pilot, former park ranger and first lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol, crashed the Cessna 172 around 6:18 a.m. Tuesday. That was before his wife, Kate, was at work in the Brady Building on Fourth Avenue.

“There is no reason to think Doug intended to hurt anyone but himself,” said Jahna Lindemuth, a co-worker of Kate Demarest, in an email. She said she believes the death was a suicide. Both women are partners at Dorsey & Whitney, a national law firm with an Anchorage office in the Brady Building…

           — Hat tip: MM [Return to headlines]
 

FBI Offers $5,000 Reward After Bacon Found at Vegas Mosque

The FBI is offering a $5,000 reward for information that helps them find the person who put raw bacon on the door handles of a Las Vegas mosque.

The FBI said in a statement Wednesday that agents are trying to find the man seen in a surveillance video putting the meat on the entrances of the Masjid-e-Tawheed mosque. Authorities call it a desecration of the Islamic worship center.

The Quran, the holy book of Islam, prohibits Muslims from eating pork, and pigs have been used to taunt or offend Muslims.

Both the FBI and Las Vegas police say they’re investigating the case as a possible hate crime.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

George Lucas Sorry for ‘White Slaver’ Comment

George Lucas has apologised for remarks he made in an interview in which he referred to Disney as “white slavers”.

Lucas, the creator of the original Star Wars films, sold the franchise to Disney for $4.05bn in 2012.

Last week, the filmmaker told US TV host Charlie Rose he had sold his “kids… to the white slavers”.

In a statement issued on Thursday, he said he “misspoke and used a very inappropriate analogy”. He added that he had “great respect for the company”.

The latest Star Wars film, The Force Awakens — a sequel to the original trilogy and directed by JJ Abrams — was made by Disney.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama to Meet Monday With AG Lynch About ‘Options’ To Tighten Gun Laws

President Obama said on Friday he’ll meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch next week to discuss how to use White House powers to reduce gun violence, lamenting that Congress has “done nothing” and declaring he has “unfinished business.”

“I get too many letters from parents and teachers and kids to sit around and do nothing,” said Obama, who will meet with Lynch on Monday, after he returns from his Hawaii family vacation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Space Plutonium: US Once Again Producing Fuel for Deep-Space Missions

For the first time in 30 years, the United States produced an isotope of plutonium that powers NASA’s deep-space missions.

A total of 50 grams of plutonium-238 was produced at the Department of Energy (DOE)’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, in the first end-to-end demonstration of the material’s production in the United States since the late 1980s. The small quantity is the first step in producing the energy source for future missions such as the Mars 2020 rover and the Jupiter Europa Orbiter.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Talking With Pioneering Planet Hunter, 20 Years After Groundbreaking Find

It’s been 20 years since scientists first announced the discovery of a planet outside Earth’s solar system orbiting a sunlike star. Since then, the study of exoplanets has grown dramatically. Space.com caught up with Michel Mayor, professor emeritus at the University of Geneva and the Geneva Observatory, to discuss how the understanding of exoplanets has evolved over the last two decades.

In October 1995, Mayor, along with Didier Queloz, also a professor at the University of Geneva, announced the discovery of 51 Pegasi b, a massive Jupiter-sized planet orbiting its sunlike star every four days. Although these “hot” Jupiters (so named because they sit very close to their parent star) are familiar to astronomer today, at that time they were only a theory, and one that not everyone endorsed, Mayor said.

“These were very strange, because these do not exist in the solar system,” he told Space.com at the Extreme Solar Systems III conference in Hawaii.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Deadliest Day of the Year is Almost Upon Us

The seasonality of death — more deaths in the winter, fewer in the summer — is a well-established and long-running public health mystery.

A few years ago, a sociology professor named David Phillips examined 57 million death certificates issued between 1979 and 2004 and made an interesting finding: Not only do more people die in the winter months, but New Year’s Day is actually the deadliest day of all.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France Sees Threefold Hike in Anti-Islam Crimes

There has been an enormous spike in hate crimes against France’s Muslim community this year, according to new figures.

More than 400 hate crimes were recorded against France’s Muslim community in 2015, three times as many as the 133 reported the year before.

The figures come from Dilcra, a government body tasked with monitoring racism in France, and were published by Le Parisien on Wednesday.

“This is a dramatic and very worrying development, which can mainly be explained by the surge in anti-Muslim acts after the January attacks,” Dilcra head Gilbert Clavreul told the paper.

Indeed, directly after the January attacks at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, over 100 anti-Islam incidents were reported in the first two weeks alone.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Soldiers Shoot Car Attacker Outside Mosque

Soldiers opened fire on a man outside a mosque in south-eastern France after he drove a car at them, officials say.

According to the police, the driver injured one of the four soldiers, who were guarding the mosque in Valence.

The driver has been hospitalised after being shot in the arm and leg but his injuries are not life-threatening, the government said.

French security forces remain on high alert following the 13 November attacks in Paris.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iceland’s President to Step Down After 20 Years

In his New Year’s address, the president of Iceland has said he will be stepping down after 20 years in office. The elected head of state said that the move did not mean he was “abandoning ship.”

After 20 years in the role, Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson announced on Friday that he would be stepping down, effectively paving the way for a presidential election in June.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Rome Has Least Public Rail Transport Among European Capitals

Legambiente environmental group calls it ‘an abyssal distance’

(ANSA) — Rome, December 29 — Rome ranks lowest among European capitals in availability of public rail transport methods such as underground, trams, and suburban railways, said Legambiente environmental group on Tuesday.

The group said that without concrete policy change on a national level, the situation is destined to stay the same.

“An abyssal distance clearly emerges (between Rome) with respect to infrastructure allocation in much smaller cities such as Amsterdam, Brussels or Vienna, as well as metropolitan areas like London or Paris,” said Legambiente.

“Rome finds itself behind even with respect to a city like Budapest”.

The group said Rome has an average of 0.07 km of underground, suburban railway and tram lines for every 1,000 residents, representing an absolute low in terms of major European cities.

Rome also has the highest number of cars per resident — 71 — compared to 35 in Berlin and 36 in London.

Legambiente Vice President Edoardo Zanchini said the amount of money the Renzi government has assigned to public transport infrastructure in the country “confirms a total disinterest in urban areas”.

“In the government’s budget bill, no resources were appropriated to buy trains for commuters. (This is) contrary to what all other European countries are doing, because (they’re) aware that urban mobility is a national issue,” Zanchini said.

Legambiente said the situation in Rome won’t change in coming years because there aren’t any plans in the works or money set aside “for even one kilometre of new tram lines, while for underground lines only 3.6 additional kilometres of Metro C have been financed”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy’s Efficient and Innovative Eco-Firms ‘Best in Europe’

Symbola Foundation report reveals ‘Italy in 10 selfies 2016’

(ANSA) — Rome, December 28 — Italy’s pioneering eco-firms are among the best in Europe, outstripping even German companies in terms of environmental innovation, according to excerpts from a report by the Symbola Foundation entitled “Italy in 10 selfies 2016 — a new economy for dealing with the crisis, protagonists of the climate challenge”.

The document contains snapshots of the “talents of Italy,” who look at “a more sustainable economy”.

Italy is one of only five countries in the world with a manufacturing surplus over $110 billion (Italy notched up 134 billion), together with China, Germany, South Korea and Japan, according to the report, while France, Britain and the United States are far away.

Nearly one Italian firm in four has wagered during the recession on the “green economy,” which is worth 102,497 million euros of added value, with competitive advantages in export and innovation, the report said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Lunar Leap: Europe is Reaching for a Moon Base by the 2030s

There is growing interest in Europe to prioritize the moon as humanity’s next deep-space destination.

The moon, supporters say, can serve as a springboard to push the human exploration of the solar system, with Mars as the horizon goal. So Europe is ratcheting up what it sees as the strategic significance of the moon by pushing forward on lunar-exploration missions that would involve both humans and robots.

Calling the effort a “comeback to the moon,” European space planners envision a series of human missions to the lunar vicinity starting in the early 2020s. Those missions, according to the plan, will include coordination between astronauts and robotic systems on the lunar surface. Robots would land first, paving the way for human explorers to set foot on the moon later.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Man Attacks Soldiers Guarding French Mosque With His Car

PARIS — A local official says a man has rammed his car into four soldiers guarding a mosque in the French city of Valence. Mayor Nicolas Daragon says one soldier fired and wounded the attacker who was hospitalized.

Daragon said that the man wasn’t immediately identified, and his motives were being investigated.

The mayor told iTele TV a passerby was wounded in the leg by a bullet,.

The secretary-general of the prosecutor’s office, Frederic Ouiseau, told the station that authorities must be “extremely prudent about the motive” of the attack.

France is on high alert after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people. The soldiers are part of the reinforced security guarding places of worship and other sensitive sites.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Man Rams Car Into Soldiers Guarding French Mosque

A man was shot and injured after attempting to ram his car into soldiers guarding a mosque in the southeastern French city of Valence, the local mayor told French media.

Nicolas Daragon, the mayor of Valence, said the man drove his vehicle at the soldiers twice, before being shot in the leg and arm.

He said the man wasn’t immediately identified, and his motives were being investigated…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Manhunt in Munich for New Year Terror Suspects

Germany was on high alert on Friday as police hunted for up to seven people suspected of plotting a New Year’s Eve suicide attack in Munich in the name of the Isis terrorist group.

Officials said they were tipped off about an imminent attack in the southern German city shortly before midnight as Europe prepared to ring in the New Year in an atmosphere of unprecedented security.

European capitals have been on high alert since November when Islamic State jihadists slaughtered 130 people in a series of gun and suicide attacks in Paris, stoking fears they could stage further attacks over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Munich Terror Plot: Police Hunt ‘Seven Suspects’

More than 500 police officers are hunting for up to seven suspects, thought to be Iraqis, behind a plot targeting train stations

German police are hunting for up to seven people suspected of plotting suicide attacks on people celebrating New Year’s Eve in the city of Munich.

Some 550 police officers were deployed to hunt down the suspects and secure the city, with authorities warning that the threat remains “high”.

A spokesman for German police told the AFP news agency: “We still have many colleagues deployed. There is, as before, a high threat of terror.”

The suspects are believed to be Islamic State militants from Syria and Iraq, according to Joachim Herrman, interior minister for the state of Bavaria.

He said German authorities were tipped off by a “friendly intelligence service” — thought to be France — about an apparent attack, which would have been carried out around midnight.

The “concrete tip” indicated the group was planning a massacre involving suicide bombers targeting train stations in the Bavarian capital.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Soldiers Open Fire on Car as it Tried to Ram Mosque Twice in France With Bullets Wounding Driver, Passenger and a Nearby Worshipper

Soldiers opened fire on a car that tried to ram a mosque in the south eastern French town of Valence today, it has been reported.

The bullets wounded the car’s driver, and a stray bullet struck an innocent worshipper, a 72-year-old man who was shot in the calf. while a soldier was slightly injured in the incident.

A soldier was also hurt.

A photo posted on social media showed one of them being treated at the scene.

The mosque’s spokesman Abdallah Imam Dliouah said the driver, who was ‘unknown to the mosque’, tried to deliberately slam into the four soldiers who were ‘responsible for protecting’ it.

Mayor Nicolas Daragon told the iTELE news channel that the attacker’s man his identity, motives and psychiatric state were not yet known…

           — Hat tip: DV [Return to headlines]
 

The Amazing Survival of the Baltic Muslims

It may not be the kind of place you would expect to stumble upon a mosque, but Muslims have lived among the forests and lakes of Lithuania for more than 600 years — showing that tolerance reigned here in the Middle Ages, even when religious strife was rampant in other parts of Europe.

This is the most European-looking mosque you will ever come across.

If it looks completely at home in this northern European setting, that’s because a mosque has stood here, roughly 20 minutes’ drive south-west of the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, since 1558.

There is a clue in the name of the village, Keturiasdesimt Totoriu. It means Forty Tatars, and legend has it that this is the number of Tatar families that settled here more than 600 years ago, at the invitation of the Lithuanian Grand Duke, Vytautas.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bosnian Prosecutors Charge Ex-Member of Presidency With War Crimes

Prosecutors in Bosnia have charged a former Serb member of the country’s tripartite presidency of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He is the second former Serb president to be tried.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Israeli Police: Gunman Opens Fire in Tel Aviv Bar, Wounds Several People; Motive Unclear

Israeli police say a gunman opened fire at a bar in central Tel Aviv, wounding several people. It was not immediately clear if the attacker was Palestinian or if it was a gangland shooting.

Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says five people were wounded in the shooting Friday afternoon. He says police are investigating the attack and that it isn’t immediately clear who was behind it.

The attack comes amid more than three months of almost daily Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Israel Bans Novel on Arab-Jewish Love Story

Israel’s Ministry of Education has banned a novel that portrays a romantic relationship between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man on the grounds that it “threatens Jewish identity” and encouraged “miscegenation.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Copy of Koran Found in Tel Aviv Gunman’s Backpack

A copy of the Islamic holy text Koran was found inside the backpack being carried by the gunman who opened fire on a crowded Tel Aviv street on Friday, killing at least two people, Channel 10 reported.

Palestinians praise Tel Aviv shooting attack, but no claim of responsibility

           — Hat tip: LP [Return to headlines]
 

Two Dead: Eight Wounded in Shooting on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv

Police arrested a suspicious figure on Gordon street, but the shooter still remains at large. Unclear if attack was nationalistically or criminally motivated.

Two people were killed and eight others were wounded in a shooting attack which took place on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon. According to MDA spokesman Zaki Heller, the shooting took place near a bar located on Dizengoff 130.

Four victims remain in serious condition, three are in moderate condition, and one was lightly injured.

MDA paramedics were on the scene treating the wounded. The injured were taken to Sorasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv and Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.

Police arrested a suspicious figure on Gordon street, but the shooter still remains at large.

Police are warning residents to stay away from the area while they comb the area for the suspect.

The circumstances surrounding the incident remain unclear. Police are still uncertain if the attack was nationalistically motivated, or possibly a hate crime…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Two Killed in Tel Aviv Synagogue Attack

Two people have been killed and one other person was injured in a stabbing attack at a synagogue in south Tel Aviv.

The two victims were later identified as Yisayev Aharon, a 32-year-old from Holon, and Reuven Aviram, a 51-year-old from Ramle.

The injured victim, a man in his 50s, is in moderate condition. He was treated at the scene by Magen David Adom paramedics before being evacuated to Ichilov hospital.

The Arab terrorist who carried out the attack was tackled and held by a civilian until police arrived to arrest him, and sustained light injuries in the course of being captured.

He has been identified as a 36-year-old resident of Dura, close to Hevron, with no previous criminal record and was given a legal work permit to be in Tel Aviv following security checks — he worked at a restaurant in Yafo, a suburb of Tel Aviv to the south.

The attack took place at a synagogue in the Panorama building along Ben Tzvi Street in southern Tel Aviv, as afternoon prayers were being conducted.

Security forces scrambled to the scene initially responded to reports of a possible second terrorist by conducting a sweep of the area, but have confirmed that at this point those claims appear to have been mistaken.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]
 

Two Killed: Five Wounded: In Tel Aviv Shooting: Officials

Two people were killed and at least five others wounded when an unidentified gunman opened fire on Friday in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, police and medical officials said.

An eyewitness told Channel 1 television the assailant used an automatic weapon against people at a pub.

Police said the motive for the shooting — which came amid a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis in recent weeks — was not immediately known and that the assailant remained at large…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Was Tel Aviv Shooting First ISIS Terror Attack on Israel? Police Investigate if Terror Group is Behind Double Murder as it is Disclosed Alleged Attacker Had Previously Assaulted a Soldier and Tried to Take His Weapon

Police are investigating if a shooting which left two dead in a bar in Israel was the first terror attack inspired by ISIS on the country as officers hunt the gunman.

The gunman entered a grocery store in central Tel Aviv, pulled out a gun and opened fire on customers at a nearby restaurant, leaving two dead and at least seven others seriously wounded.

Local media reports have named the alleged suspect as Nashad Milkham, a 29-year-old Arab Israeli man from Wadi Ara, who was arrested for trying to take a soldier’s gun in 2007.

His father, a volunteer with the Israeli police, identified him after watching the CCTV footage and contacted the police.

Yesterday a tweet was posted warning of an attack on the street in Tel Aviv. The tweet claimed to be representing ISIS although the jihadi group have not claimed official responsibility for the attack…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Bahrain Sentences Shiite to Death, Jails 22 From ‘Terror Group’

A Bahraini court Thursday sentenced a Shiite citizen to death and jailed 22 others for life for forming a “terrorist group” that killed two people, including a policeman.

It is the second such ruling this week in the tiny Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom, where members of the Shiite majority population have led an uprising.

The court also revoked the citizenships of the 23 convicts and fined two of them 200,000 dinars ($530,000/480,000 euros), terror crime prosecution chief Ahmed al-Hammadi said in a statement…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Death Toll in Syria Tops 55,000 in 2015

It wasn’t the deadliest year in Syria’s ongoing civil war but more than 55,000 people were killed, including 21,000 civilians. The conflict, now in its fifth year, has left more than 250,000 dead.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dubai Seeks Cause of Massive Hotel Fire at New Year

The authorities in Dubai are trying to find out what caused a spectacular fire to engulf a 63-storey luxury hotel in the city centre on New Year’s Eve.

After battling for more than 20 hours, firefighters appear to have extinguished most of the blaze at the Address Downtown Hotel.

An eyewitness has told the BBC only a couple of small isolated fires are still burning.

The tower was evacuated and 16 people were hurt.

A fireworks show went ahead at the Burj Khalifa tower nearby, the world’s tallest building and an iconic symbol of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Erdogan Cites Hitler’s Germany to Defend Presidency Plans

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cited Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler to defend his controversial push to expand the powers of the presidency, local media reported on Friday.

Erdogan, the strongman of Turkish politics for more than a decade, is seeking a new constitution to transform his post into a powerful US-style executive “super-presidency”.

“In a unitary system (such as Turkey’s) a presidential system can work perfectly,” Erdogan was quoted as telling reporters in Istanbul on Thursday on his return from a visit to Saudi Arabia…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Erdogan Says Hitler’s Germany an Example of Presidential System With Unitary State

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is a strong advocate of a switch to a presidential system, has said the implementation of a presidential system while remaining a unitary state is possible, showing Hitler’s Germany as an example.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Erdogan Cites Hitler’s Germany as Example of Effective Government

Turkey’s president has been pushing for some time for a new presidential system to govern the country, sparring with critics who accuse him of attempting a power grab.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s latest comments in favour of greater executive powers are unlikely to help him bring those critics round. On Friday he was quoted by Turkish media as citing a striking example of an effective presidential system — Germany under Adolf Hitler.

Asked on his return from a visit to Saudi Arabia whether an executive presidential system was possible while maintaining the unitary structure of the state, he said: “There are already examples in the world. You can see it when you look at Hitler’s Germany.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fire Engulfs Dubai Skyscraper, Building Fails to Collapse at Free Fall Speed

Flames spread across 20 stories at five star hotel

The Address Downtown Hotel in Dubai was engulfed in flames Thursday, spreading across more than 20 stories.

The five star hotel, near the site of the city’s New Years celebration, rained burning debris down on the street below.

According to the Daily Mail, “It was not immediately clear what caused the fire at the five star hotel, which is near the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper.”

Despite being covered in flames, the building failed to collapse inward on itself at near-free fall speed.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Iran Calls for Expanding Missile Program Amid US Talk of Renewed Sanctions

Less than six months after a landmark nuclear deal with the US and Iran, the two countries are sparring over a renewed threat of sanctions. Iran’s ballistic missile program is at the center of the latest controversy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq Says it Exported More Than 1 Billion Barrels of Oil in 2015

It sold 99.7 million barrels of oil in December, generating $2.973 billion, after selling a record 100.9 million barrels in November, said oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad. The country sold at an average price of $44.74 a barrel in 2015, Jihad said.

Iraq, with the world’s fifth-biggest oil reserves, needs to keep increasing crude output because lower oil prices have curbed government revenue. Oil prices have slumped in the past year as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries defended market share against production in the U.S.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic State Attacks Iraqi Army Base Near Ramadi

Fighters from so-called Islamic State (IS) have launched an attack on an Iraqi army base near Ramadi, just days after the city was recaptured by government troops.

A military spokesman said suicide car bombers and fighters wearing explosive belts took part in the attack.

The army fought back with the help of air strikes by the US-led coalition.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey’s Erdogan Cites Hitler’s Germany as Example of Presidential System

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who is pushing for executive powers, cites Hitler’s Germany as an example of an effective presidential system, in comments broadcast by Turkish media on Friday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UN Says Almost 1,000 Killed in Iraq Violence in December

The United Nations has said that violence in Iraq had claimed the lives of 980 Iraqis in total in December 2015. The number was up from 888 in November.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU-Ukraine Trade Deal Sparks Moscow-Kyiv Trade War

A free-trade accord giving Ukraine tariff-free access to EU markets has come into effect under an association deal between Brussels and Kyiv. Meanwhile, Russia has banned food imports from its southwestern neighbor.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russia to Sue Ukraine Over Default on $3-Bn Debt

Russia’s finance ministry said Friday it was suing Ukraine for defaulting on a $3-billion debt to Moscow, following an order by President Vladimir Putin.

Kiev is “in a state of default” regarding its obligations toward Moscow and legal proceedings would ensue, the ministry said.

“Russia’s finance ministry (…) has initiated procedures required for an immediate lawsuit against Ukraine,” the statement said, adding that the lawsuit would be heard in a British court…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Russian Banks Face More Pain

A year ago, plunging oil prices sent the ruble spiraling to record lows and bank depositors scrambling to get their cash. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, ran through tremendous amounts of cash to survive a run it dubbed Black December—300 tons of it, 1.3 trillion rubles ($20.8 billion), in a single week. “All we could do was relax and pray,” Sberbank Chief Executive Officer Herman Gref says, recalling the worst moment in his eight years of running the state-controlled lender.

Sberbank’s deep pockets ensured its survival, and the government soon rolled out a 900 billion-ruble plan to bail out other big lenders. Smaller banks weren’t so lucky. This year regulators will shut down or take over a record number of institutions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Delhi Begins Car Rationing to Curb Pollution

Authorities in the Indian capital, Delhi, have launched major restrictions on private cars to curb alarming levels of pollution.

Private cars with even and odd number plates are being allowed on alternate days from Friday in an initial two-week trial.

Emergency vehicles like ambulances, police cars, fire engines and taxis have been exempted from the order.

Delhi has experienced hazardous levels of pollution this winter.

The local government announced the scheme after a court ordered authorities to tackle pollution levels more than 10 times the World Health Organisation’s safe limits.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Indian Capital Starts Limiting Cars for 2 Weeks to Clear Air

The Indian capital on Friday kicked off a sweeping plan to reduce its record-high air pollution by limiting the numbers of cars on the streets for two weeks.

New Delhi is testing a formula where private cars will be allowed on the roads only on alternate days from Jan. 1-15, depending on whether their license plates end in an even or an odd number.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Airbus Wins All Nippon as Customer for A380 Superjumbos

Airbus Group SE won an agreement from ANA Holdings Inc., Japan’s largest airline, to buy three of its A380 superjumbos, said a person familiar with the plan, giving the European planemaker a welcome vote of confidence for an aircraft that hadn’t won a new airline customer in three years.

Airbus has suffered a dearth of orders for its largest plane, whose list price is $428 million and typically seats about 525 passengers, but can carry over 800 depending on the configuration, as many airlines have favored somewhat smaller twin-aisle planes, including Airbus’s A350 and Boeing’s 777. While the order is only for three planes, enough to serve one route, success on that route could lead to further orders, one person said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Another Hong Kong Bookseller Goes Missing: Wife

A Hong Kong employee of a publishing firm known for producing books critical of the Chinese government has gone missing, his wife said Friday, following the earlier apparent disappearance of four colleagues.

It is the latest incident to fuel growing unease in Hong Kong at the erosion of freedoms in the semi-autonomous Chinese city, with fears that the five men may have been detained by Chinese authorities.

Lee Bo, the chief editor of a publisher which produces books on Chinese politics, was a colleague of the four others…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

China Arrests 11 in Connection With Deadly Shenzhen Landslide

Chinese authorities cast a wide net in arresting 11 people in connection with last month’s deadly landslide. The accident has renewed questions about China’s industrial safety standards.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Building Second Aircraft Carrier With Domestic Technology

China is building a second aircraft carrier, with the new ship being designed and constructed domestically, the Defense Ministry said, marking the first time the government has confirmed the long-rumored project.

The vessel is being built in the northern port of Dalian and will carry Chinese-made J-15 fighter jets, the ministry said on its website, citing spokesman Col. Yang Yujun. The ship will have a displacement of approximately 50,000 tons, Yang said. The country’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was commissioned in 2012 and built in a hull purchased from the Ukraine.

China has been expanding its naval prowess as the word’s second-biggest economy extends its economic clout throughout Asia and beyond. China has largely kept the carrier program secret, partly to allay concerns about its ability to test the dominance of the U.S. Navy, which has upheld Asian maritime security since World War II. The Pentagon said in May that China “could build multiple aircraft carriers over the next 15 years.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hong Kong Protesters Air Grievances on New Year’s Day

More than 1,000 people protested in Hong Kong on New Year’s day Friday calling for the city’s leader to resign and to air grievances over issues from expensive construction projects to internet freedoms.

A procession of yellow umbrellas — the symbol of the city’s democracy movement — moved through the city’s downtown with protesters carrying signs reading “fight for the freedom of the next generation” and calling for the resignation of officials who “sold out” the city.

Leading the protest was a large replica of a white elephant with a model of the city’s unpopular leader Leung Chun-ying riding it, symbolising expensive public projects…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Korea Fears it Will Age Into Japan

Sometime in 2016, the size of South Korea’s working-age population will peak at 37 million; then it will likely drop 1.3 percent by decade’s end. “We have fundamental structural problems,” says Kwon Tae Shin, president and chief executive officer of the Korea Economic Research Institute.

“The situation will be similar to Japan,” says Lee Young Wook, a fellow at Korea Development Institute, a think tank in Seoul. Japan’s population reached a high in 2008 and has fallen ever since. One in four Japanese is 65 or older, and the working-age population peaked in 1995. In South Korea, those 65 and older make up 13 percent of the population, up from 10 percent in 2007, according to Statistics Korea. By some measures, the problem is worse: At just 1.2 children per woman, Korea’s birthrate is lower than Japan’s 1.4. (To keep population steady, the rate needs to be just over 2.)

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela State Oil Company Cuts Gas Export to Neighboring Colombia

Colombia’s Mining Ministry says the Venezuelan state oil company is temporarily halting gas exports across the border.

The ministry says that PDVSA notified it that supplies will be suspended as of Friday. It cites the need for gas to generate local electricity due to climate factors in Venezuela, but gives no details.

An agreement calls for Venezuela to send 39 million cubic feet of gas per day to Colombia. That’s about 3 percent of Colombia’s supply.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration says that while Venezuela has enormous natural gas reserves, it’s been consuming more than it produces in recent years. Part is used to generate power and some to help in oil production.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

America’s Wish List for 2016

For 2016, after the seven-year train-wreck Barack Obama engineered against our country, I hope Barack Hussein Obama quickly fades into our rear view mirrors. He proved himself contemptuous of the American people of all colors. Obama usurped our U.S. Constitution by illegally breaking its mandates. He took the law into his own hands with his executive amnesty of millions of illegal aliens who violated our laws and continue to violate our laws…

Along the way, set in motion the importation of 200,000 Muslim Syrian refugees against the will of the majority of the American people, who eventually, if not stopped, those Muslims expect to rain down more terror upon our country. This Muslim president expects to carry out as much violence as possible by seeding our country with his fellow Muslims…

Whether you like him or not, Donald Trump speaks to the America’s future. Not platitudes and bromides! Yes, he’s brash and yes, he gets the job done. He doesn’t blow smoke up your pants like Obama’s “hope and change” idiocy seven years ago that amounted to total incompetence.

“Let’s make America great again” beats anything Obama ever said or did. Let Trump’s ego work for you. He’s a proven leader. He knows how to succeed. When he talks, he follows up with action and results. He’s All-American. I want an American president born in this country by American parents and who grew up in this country—and love America. I want a president who cares about our citizens’ welfare rather than those arriving illegally. I want a president without 13 Muslim aides in the White House working for the overthrow of America.

Obama’s top aide Valerie Jarrett said this in 1977 in the yearbook at Stanford University: “I’m an Iranian by birth and my Islamic faith. I am also an American citizen and I seek to help change America to be a more Islamic country. My faith guides me and I feel like it is going well in the transition of using freedom of religion in America against itself.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Germany to Tighten Checks on Syrian Asylum Applicants

Germany will reinstate individual interviews for Syrian asylum-seekers from Friday, the interior ministry said, essentially tightening an official procedure that had been relaxed for citizens of the war-torn country.

In a bid to swiftly process a million migrants who have arrived in Germany this year alone, Berlin had earlier simplified the asylum seeking procedure for those from war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq.

But the government subsequently decided to reverse the decision due to security concerns, although it had until now not said when the individual interviews would begin again…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s New Immigration Plan Offers Work-Permits to Foreigners Slated for Deportation

There’s little chance that establishment GOP leaders will fight Obama’s pro-migrant, anti-American rule

President Barack Obama’s new 181-page plan to award work-permits to at least 100,000 foreign college-grads also contains a convoluted section that would also sneak work-permits to a huge range of foreign migrants — even after courts have formally ordered their repatriation.

In plain English, the section in the rule would automatically provide updated work-permits to 15 categories of migrants who are appealing judges’ deportation orders.

In plain economics, the rule would increase the number of foreign migrants in U.S. workplaces and impose wage-cutting job competition on ordinary blue-collar Americans so that university-trained, white-collar immigration lawyers could be paid billable-hours by their due-for-deportation, work-permit clients.

“Obama is transferring the jobs and salaries of Americans to foreign nationals, including illegal aliens… [who will be] licensed to take middle class jobs,” said one Hill staffer. The pending rule “highlights the unholy alliance between progressive Democrats, progressive Republicans, and the Obama administration… [so] when it comes to finding a job in America, being native-born in America is a disadvantage,” the staffer said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Refugees Flee ‘Haunted’ Swedish Migration Centre

A group of Syrians have fled in terror from a refugee centre in southern Sweden after a succession of strange, inexplicable happenings left them convinced it was haunted by ghosts.

Thirty five of the 38 refugees housed at a centre in Grännaforsa, a small village in Småland, took refuge in the offices of the Migration Agency in the nearby town of Alvesta on Tuesday, after the incidence of strange activity increased.

“In the last three days it has been getting worse and worse with these ghosts,” Hamid Alojaili from Syria told Sveriges Radio at the centre in Alvesta.

“We are too scared. Last night nobody slept at all, neither the kids nor us.”

Magnus Peterson, head of the Migration Agency in Alvesta, told the local Smålandsposten newspaper that the refugees’ complaint was “surprising”.

“We have had no indications that there would be problems with ghosts before,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Vetting Isn’t All it’s Cracked Up to be

My concern amongst many is that President Obama in typical bigoted, progressive fashion has stepped up efforts to make sure tens of thousands of Muslims file into the United States, while denying entry to Christian refugees from Syria. It does not matter to Mr. Obama or other progressives in general that Christians are being slaughtered for sport, while the black African Christian that aren’t murdered are forced into brutal slavery, per instructions in the little quran.’

We must not forget that president Obama said that he wants to fundamentally change America. One of the efficient ways to change America fundamentally is to flood her with people who have nothing in common with and no desire to assimilate into our country or culture.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Apple Pressured by Investor for Racial Diversity in Senior Ranks

Apple Inc. shareholders could make history next year by deciding whether the company should be forced to increase the number of non-white executives and directors, with a vote on a proposal the iPhone maker has tried to squelch.

A resolution submitted by an investor who lives in New York and London would require Apple to put more “people of color” in such high-profile roles to increase diversity. Apple told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it believes it doesn’t have to include the proposal in its proxy materials, contending it’s an attempt to “micromanage” recruitment. Apple also said that while it’s trying to attract minorities, “the company has no power to ensure that its recruits will accept offers.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

9 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/1/2016

  1. On the Swedish ghost’s I didn’t the “migrants” were that superstitious. Sounds like a good time from some phys-ops.

  2. When we facetiously refer to Muslim terrorists as “Amish”, I think the name “Amish”
    should always be written with punctuation marks to indicate it’s a joke.

    Few people are as peaceable and as far from being like Muslim terrorists as are the
    Amish. The Amish are CHRISTIAN people who live out their LOVE & faith in their everyday lives, a gentle people.

    Muslim Jihadists are MUSLIM people who live out their HATRED of others in their
    everyday lives, a violent people.

    • Yes , that was rather puzzling for me too . What the heck are the Amish doing in the UAE . Doesnt make sense .

    • Obviously. …But, unfortunately not everyone is swiftly on the pick-up or, for that matter, is familiar with the Amish.

  3. Re: 1) “USA: CIA supporting…”. I read the article by Diane Kepuy, cited by JD. No problem with her distrust of Turkish expat, US resident Fatullah Gulen.

    I also followed her links to two, entirely separate stories, one regarding 14k Muslim immigrants “disappearing” from Sweden, the other about the US’ visa waiver programme for Swedes. A classic example of adding two and two and making half a dozen, imho.

    2) “Italy: Rome has least public transport among European Capitals”. Admittedly, the tram tracks are not as good as the mostly sleek vehicles running on them. The metro is more problematical: both existing lines’ construction destroyed ancient buildings which future archeologists might have wished to investigate. Many people will have heard of the “Seven Hills of Rome”; only two, the Capitoline and Palatine, are now distinguishable, because the ground level has risen over two millenia. We have a similar phenomenon here in London; new developments are often delayed while archeologists snatch the, usually brief, opportunity to investigate the newly excavated sites.

  4. Do you have a link to the source of the Valerie Jarrett quote ? Was that in a Stanford Yearbook?

    That quote. if true, is as inflammatory as I’ve seen regarding the motives of the president de facto of the United States.

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