Five Italian teenagers were accosted on the street by Arabs, who lined them up, fired a gun into the air, and demanded to know whether they were Christians or believed in Allah. When the young people said they didn’t believe in anything, the Arabs left.
In other news, Israeli security forces finally tracked down the suspected Tel Aviv New Year’s Day killer in a house in northern Israel. The perp, an Israeli Arab, opened fire when he emerged from the house, and was shot dead by police.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, DV, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, LP, MC, Nick, Vlad Tepes, WRSA, 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.
China’s Stock Market Crash Indicates Difficulties in Reforms — Moody’s
The latest stock market collapse in China is an indication of difficulties Beijing is facing with implementing economic reforms, Moody’s Investors Service said in a press release on Friday.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — “The latest episode of stock market turmoil in China — the second since mid-2015 — suggests that the Chinese authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile the tensions inherent in designing and implementing credible and effective reform measures while maintaining economic, financial and social stability,” the release stated.
The rating agency noted that the Chinese government should meet its economic targets in the short term and it forecast the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at 6.3 percent in 2016.
Nevertheless, Beijing is likely to face further financial market volatility based on uncertain methods and pace of reforms. Moody’s claimed that the measures the Chinese government has taken to stabilize its stock market have not been effective.
However, “a further marked slowdown in commodity, construction and heavy industry sectors will be offset by significant fiscal and monetary stimulus,” the release added.
Thursday’s seven percent fall at the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges triggered the new Chinese stock market circuit-breaker mechanism for the second time this week, causing a knock-on effect across the world. China’s trade suspension was followed by Wall Street sliding one percent and European stock markets slumping by two percent late Thursday afternoon.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Eurozone Unemployment Falls to 10.5% in November
Youth unemployment also drops to 22.5%
(ANSA) — Brussels, January 7 — Unemployment across eurozone countries fell by 0.1% to 10.5% in November from 10.6% the previous month, Eurostat said Thursday.
This translated into 16.924 million people out of work. Year-on-year figures showed a drop of 0.95% from 11.5% in November 2014. Unemployment across the 28-member European Union also fell by 0.1% month-on-month, from 9.2% in October to 9.1% in November.
This translated into 22.159 million people out of work. Youth unemployment across the eurozone also showed a drop of 0.1% with respect to October, falling to 22.5%, but a rise of 0.1% over September. Year-on-year figures showed a reduction of 0.7% from 23.2% in November 2014.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Inflation Drops to 0.1% in November
Inflation across the Eurozone stable
(ANSA) — Paris, January 7 — Italian inflation fell by 0.2 percentage points over October to 0.1% in November, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Thursday.
Inflation in France also slowed from 0.1% to zero over the same period, according to a statement.
Germany and Britain both saw inflation rise, respectively from 0.3% to 0.4% and from -0.1% to 0.1%. Inflation across the Eurozone remained stable at 0.1% in November.
However preliminary Eurostat estimates for December put it at 0.2%, OECD said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cooperative Credit Banks Transfer 300mn in Toxic Loans
To Antares SPV
(ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — Twenty-eight Cooperative Credit Banks have transferred 300 million euros’ worth of toxic loans to Bayview Fund Management’s Antares SPV, the Central Institute for Cooperative Credit (ICCREA) said Thursday. The toxic loans include home and business mortgages as well as unsecured credits, ICCREA said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Weak World Markets Signal Fresh Global Soros
His speech came as world markets tumbled and oil prices reached new lows after China suspended its stock market when shares fell more than seven percent for the second time this week.
“Unfortunately China has a major adjustment problem and it has a lot of choices and it can actually transfer to the rest of the world its own problems by devaluing its currency — and that is what China is doing,” Soros said of the number-two economy.
A weaker Chinese yuan was “inflicting deflationary pressures” on the rest of the world, he told the Sri Lanka Economic Forum, attended by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
“We are facing a very serious transitional problem which is quite recent and it is, I would say, (something) that amounts to a crisis and we are at the beginning of that,” Soros said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bombshell: In Email, Hillary Ordered Aide to Strip Classified Marking and Send Sensitive Material
by Guy Benson
The State Department waited until the middle of the night to execute its belated, court-ordered release of the latest tranche of Hillary Clinton’s emails — the ones she and her attorneys didn’t unilaterally delete with no oversight, that is. Fox News notices a significant exchange that may point to criminal conduct:
The latest batch of emails released from Hillary Clinton’s personal account from her tenure as secretary of state includes 66 messages deemed classified at some level, the State Department said early Friday. In one email, Clinton even seemed to coach a top adviser on how to send secure information outside secure channels. Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has repeatedly maintained that she did not send or receive classified material on her personal account. The State Department claims none of the emails now marked classified were labled as such at the time they were sent. However, one email thread from June 2011 appears to include Clinton telling her top adviser Jake Sullivan to send secure information through insecure means. In response to Clinton’s request for a set of since-redacted talking points, Sullivan writes, “They say they’ve had issues sending secure fax. They’re working on it.” Clinton responds “If they can’t, turn into nonpaper [with] no identifying heading and send nonsecure.” Ironically, an email thread from four months earlier shows Clinton saying she was “surprised” that a diplomatic oficer named John Godfrey used a personal email account to send a memo on Libya policy after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi.
Where to begin? Let’s start with the least serious revelation, and work our way up: (1) Hillary evinced surprise that a State Department underling had used his personal account to send an official email. How rich. Yes, the State Department had explicitly instructed employees to follow the rules and only use secure means to disseminate official information. State sanctioned at least one top diplomat for disregarding those rules. Mrs. Clinton may have been especially “surprised” at Godfrey’s actions because they came after she’d been issued a dire warning that foreign entities were aggressively targeting State Department officials’ personal, unsecure email accounts. But lest you need reminding, Hillary Clinton exclusively used such accounts to conduct all of her official business — via an improper, unsecure, private server — before and after this urgent red flag was brought to her attention.
(2) “Clinton…has repeatedly maintained that she did not send or receive classified material on her personal account.” This assertion has been disproven by the more than 1,000 classified emails discovered on her private server, including 66 additions from this batch alone. Her myriad excuses for this have been debunked piece by piece.
(3) Her final justification — which is legally irrelevant, as Hillary herself has personally attested — is that none of the sensitive material that she wrongfully transmitted through her unsecure server was “marked classified” at the time. Again, this is meaningless, especially when it comes to highly secret material that she was obligated to recognize and protect as soon as it was produced. But the email chain referenced above includes an instruction from Hillary Clinton to a State Department aide (who now works on her campaign) to strip classified information — it remains redacted to this day — of its classified markings [“identifying heading”] and “send nonsecure.” Ed Morrissey, who posts a screen shot of the exchange, reviews the relevant criminal statute and thinks this looks like a smoking gun:
One wonders how many other emails and memos were improperly wiped clean of classified markings for the purposes of convenience, or what have you. You may recall allegations published last year that this may have been a more routine practice:
That would “constitute a felony,” the source said. Hillary’s entire defense for sending and receiving hundreds upon hundreds of classified emails through unsecure means is that nothing was marked classified, so she didn’t really know what was happening. That’s a bogus and unacceptable explanation in the first place, yet here we have her explicitly asking that a document that was marked classified be un-marked as such and sent anyway.
(4) One last puzzle piece, via Lachlan Markay:
Remember, Blumenthal was Hillary’s off-the-books intel-gatherer who was paid by the Clinton Foundation. The Obama administration had barred him from official work due to his notoriously checkered ethics. He fed Hillary all sorts of information, including intelligence from Libya — some of which was clearly designed to enhance his personal financial interests. Hillary encouraged and solicited his emails (something she later denied), and occasionally kicked his information up the chain…after scrubbing his name from the missives. It was through Blumenthal’s hacked personal emails that we discovered that Hillary had unilaterally deleted work-related content from her private email server, which she swore she hadn’t done. (More evidence that she lied about this is here). Confronted with his evidence, she attempted to massively shift the goalposts of what counts as “work-related,” insisting that Blumenthal was just an old friend whose correspondence was personal in nature. But here we have more evidence of Blumenthal acting as a high-level diplomatic informant, this time on matters related to Egypt. And Hillary quite obviously takes the material seriously, passing it along to other State Department officials for further discussion. This is the veritable definition of work-related material. Everything — everything — Hillary Clinton has said about her improper email scheme is a lie. What else does the FBI know that the public still does not?
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
CNN Op-Ed Calls for Obama to Declare “National State of Emergency” To Gut 2nd Amendment
Martial law-style move would “scare” gun rights groups into submission.
A CNN op-ed piece by a leading gun control advocate has called on President Obama to declare a “national state of emergency” so that he can gut the Second Amendment.
Elliot Fineman, of the National Gun Victims Action Council, wants the president to follow through on his recent gun control efforts by “monitoring ammunition sales and banning those on the terror watch list from buying guns.”
This could be achieved without congressional approval by Obama enacting a “National State of Emergency (that) scares the gun lobby and pro-gun lawmakers,” writes Fineman.
In other words, Fineman is calling on Obama to use martial-law style powers in order to water down the Second Amendment and neutralize efforts by gun rights groups to oppose such a move.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Doctors Urge California Residents “Leave Now… While You Can” As Gas Leak Fears Grow
California Governor Jerry Brown finally declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, concerning the ongoing, currently unstoppable methane gas leak spewing from Aliso Canyon that has created a nightmare for residents of Porter Ranch.
“I will tell you, this goes well beyond Porter Ranch. We’ve had complaints from as far as Chatsworth, Northridge, and Granada Hills,” emphasized Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander during a Porter Ranch town hall meeting on December 28. “Apparently this plume of toxic chemicals and whatever it might be, doesn’t know zip codes […] This is the equivalent of the BP oil spill on land, in a populated community.”
Aliso Canyon sits less than two and a half miles from Porter Ranch and less than 30 miles from the city of Los Angeles — the second most populous city in the United States — whose outlying total statistical area includes nearly 18 million residents, as of 2013.
Brown has been widely criticized for lack of decisive action on the leak, which is erupting from its underground storage area with all the force “of a volcano.” Under Wednesday’s declaration, “all state agencies will utilize state personnel, equipment, and facilities to ensure a continuous and thorough state response to this incident.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former U.S. Marine Officer Confirms Hillary Clinton Lied About Benghazi
Obama White House staff spent their time linking the terror attack to a YouTube video while Americans lay dead or dying in a compound.
It is doubtful that anyone will ever forget the tragic events in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, where a terrorist attack claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Many Americans were left to wonder why CIA agents who could have helped were told to “stand down” when the Benghazi Consulate in Libya was attacked. Also, a former U.S. Marine major says that everyone involved in the public relations aspects of the Benghazi massacre used every deception available including the Democrats’ most popular politician and de facto leader Hillary Rodham Clinton.
For example, released documents revealed that the Obama White House staff spent their time linking the terror attack to a YouTube video while Americans lay dead or dying in a compound that was located in a dangerous part of the world with minimal security, according to the documents that should outrage all true Americans.
“The Obama administration first thought wasn’t a rescue plan or a retaliation but to contact YouTube after the initial reports of the attack,” said counterterrorism analyst Brian Hanratty. “They did that before they bothered to even recover the bodies of the Americans,” said the former police commander.
The documents also show that the Obama minions were looking at a video—The “Pastor Jon” video by Oregon-based Pastor Jon Courson entitled God vs. Allah, a low-key exposition of the Biblical book of Kings. “These documents show the Obama White House rushed to tie yet another video to the Benghazi attack, even before Ambassador Stevens was accounted for. The Obama White House, evidently, was confused as to which Internet video to falsely blame for the Benghazi terrorist attack,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It Was Saul Alinsky Who Taught Obama How to Cry on Cue
In his last year in the now-dysfunctional Oval Office, President Barack Obama is living Saul Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’ to the letter, by digging deep down in the trick bag to cast himself off as the ‘underdog’.
Knowing how the masses always fall for the underdog, conniving Alinsky trains acolytes like Obama and Hillary Clinton to cast themselves in the underdog role, a fact unearthed by savvy Canada Free Press columnist Ray DiLorenzo in reviewing Allinsky’s 12 rules.
“Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. [A well-known union tactic.)
“Hillary Clinton wrote her senior thesis about Saul Alinsky and was offered a job by him. She did not take the position electing instead to go to law school, but she did stay in touch with him for years after. I doubt whether Alinsky would have extended Hillary Rodham a post if he felt she wouldn’t have been a good disciple.”
So when Obama, as a kind of last resort to go for the nation’s guns, turned on his crocodile tears on Monday, he was channeling a mentor whose book, ‘Rules for Radicals’ was dedicated to Satan.
Over the past seven years, Obama has proven he’s anything but a man of good will or good heart.
His contrived tears for the children lost to the Sandy Hook massacre came not within days or weeks of the tragedy, but in fact on his way out the door on January 5, 2016—some three long years later.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Suspected in Philly Cop Shooting Says “Islam’ Was Motive
The gunman suspected of shooting a Philadelphia cop through the window of his squad car admitted to the attempted “execution” and claimed he did it in the name of Islam, according to local media.
Police have not released an official motive in the Thursday night attack and have not said if they are investigating it as terrorism.
Officer Jesse Hartnett suffered a broken arm and nerve damage during the harrowing ambush, but was able to fire back at his assailant. The attack was caught on surveillance video, which showed the shooter fire more than a dozen times as he advanced toward the cop’s car until he was next to the driver’s side window.
Hartnett was shot three times. The 33-year-old has served on the police force for about five years, his aunt Cynthia Hartnett told the Daily News Friday. He is expected to make a full recovery.
“He’s OK. He’s going to be OK,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
When your citizen “town hall” is invitation-only and jointly co-produced by CNN and the Obama White House, every participant is a potted plant.
As I reminded you in my syndicated column before tonight’s Kabuki town hall on guns, both Obama and CNN have a long history as manufactured-narrative gardeners.
Right on cue, or rather left on cue, one of the chosen people allowed to question Obama was radical, race-baiting nutball Catholic priest Fr. Michael Pfleger from Obama’s Chicago.
Yep, it’s that Fr. Pfleger, whose antics I’ve chronicled here for years…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Wasn’t the Only Politician to Get Emotional This Week (Video)
We all know that Obama shed some crocodile tears this week, but you may not be aware of an inspirational speech given by Congressman Greg Walden (R-Ore.), who emotionally called out government overreach and the situation in Oregon, where patriots are fighting to bring attention to the plight of the Hammonds’, as discussed at TrevorLoudon.com (see here and here).
Waldon gave an impassioned speech on the house floor, as excellently reported at OPB.org. While he does not agree with the patriots, who are currently occupying a federal building in the remote Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, he called on Congress to “understand what drives people to do what’s happening tonight in Harney County.”
“ This is a government that has gone too far for too long,” Walden declared. Discussing yet another land takeover in a neighboring county posing as a proposal for a “ monument,” Walden says “ This is outrageous! It flies in the face of the people!”
Here is an excerpt:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oregon Militia Protest Result of Gov’t Mistreating People — Farmers’ Group
The seizing of US federal land by an Oregon militia is a reaction to the many years of the government abusing its citizens, former Oregon Cattlewomen President Melodi Molt told Sputnik on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — “Often, we have had written contracts with the BLM [Bureau of Labor Management], Forest Service, and Refuge management that are disregarded by the Federal employees,” Molt said. “It is that sort of action that creates distrust and downright anger.”
On Saturday, the militia group Citizens for Constitutional Freedom occupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters after a march in support of local ranchers. The move was made in response to the decision of US authorities to increase the jail time for a local farmer’s family on a charge of arson committed in 2006.
Molt said the farmers in Oregon have no problem with a handshake because they believe it’s as good as a written contract. She said, however, given the government’s dishonesty, they are less than happy with actions taken against some of their own in the militia.
“In addition to sending the men of the family to prison for long enough to financially crush the family ranch, the Federal government somehow ends up with a first right of refusal on their ranch land,” Molt said. She said the federal government forced the farmers to sign away their land rights upon being released from prison.
“It is too bad that some of the people in Harney County, that finally took their heads out of the sand, are only screaming for Ammon Bundy to leave,” Molt said.
She said Oregon ranchers should use this opportunity to change things from how they have been.
“If they allow this opportunity to pass, they will be picked off one by one as their former fellow ranchers has been, leaving the western way of life to die a painful and disgraceful death for the lack of courage to stand up for themselves,” Molt concluded.
On Wednesday, the militia group’s website spokesperson John Asturias told Sputnik that their protest continues to remain peaceful and the group is only armed to defend themselves in exercising their Second Amendment rights guaranteed in the US Constitution.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Philadelphia Police Officer Ambushed ‘In the Name of Islam’
A police officer in Philadelphia was ambushed by a man who pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State (IS), officials have said.
Edward Archer fired at least 11 shots at the officer, in an act done “in the name of Islam”, police said.
Despite being shot, Officer Jessie Harnett left his vehicle and was able to to return fire, striking Mr Archer at least once.
Mr Archer escaped on foot but was apprehended by police shortly after.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation will recommend that the Justice Department bring criminal charges against Hillary Clinton and various of her aides, and soon. The evidence consists of materials that the Bureau has gathered in the course of its months-long investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s personal server. The recommendations will come very soon.
The charges will consist of some of the following:
1. Improper disclosure or retention of classified information.
2. Destruction of government records.
3. Lying to federal agents.
4. Lying under oath.
5. Obstruction of justice.
All the counts are familiar to those of us who have followed the Clintons for a quarter of a century, but, as one source familiar with the FBI’s investigation told me, the evidence has now reached a “critical mass.”
There are those who have told me that the FBI has been engaged in a ruse. And that the Bureau will report it has come across nothing criminal. Then the whole imbroglio is expected to blow over.
But such cynics are in the minority. Most sources have told me the investigation is genuine, serious, and all but completed. One told me that it was completed two months ago. The Bureau has put together a case that as one source put it “is locked up. It is solid.”
In the past, as FBI agent I.C. Smith wrote in his book Inside: A Top G-Man Exposes Spies, Lies, and Bureaucratic Bungling Inside the FBI, the Clintons have benefited from a few corrupt agents, usually in Arkansas. But that was years ago, and in Arkansas. This is the FBI in Washington, at the top where there are plenty of utterly professional law enforcement officials. They believe truth matters and so does the pursuit of justice. “They have been building a case that is unassailable,” one source told me. “It is beyond the case against Petraeus.€¦ It is about the violation of federal statutes.”
The only question now is will the recommendations come this month or within sixty days. Politicians with the presidential itch such as Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry hope the FBI’s recommendations will come in a week or so to allow them to get into the race. Other observers say the decision will come later. “The FBI,” said one source, “does not care about politics.” Whether it comes tomorrow or in sixty days, Justice Department policies mandate making such decisions as far in advance of elections as possible. If there are conflicting winds blowing in the Bureau or DOJ, they must avoid the appearance of being motivated by partisan politics.
Yet such is the gravity of the charges and the consequences of neglecting them that they cannot be ignored…
| — Hat tip: WRSA | [Return to headlines] |
US Congress Incapable of Passing New Iran Sanctions Over Presidential Veto
The new Iranian sanctions bill approved by the US House Foreign Affairs Committee will not withstand a presidential veto, top Foreign Affairs Committee Democrat Eliot Engel told Sputnik.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Thursday, the Foreign Affairs Committee advanced legislation that would block the lifting of sanctions on individuals already slated for sanctions relief under the Iran nuclear deal, if they knowingly supported the Iranian ballistic missile program, or alleged acts of terrorism.
“I think it will pass here [in the House] on a partisan vote,” Engel said on Thursday. “I don’t know if it will pass in the Senate, but if it does the president [Barack Obama] will veto it and they won’t have two thirds to override his veto.”
Engel noted that Republicans were eager to pass the bill to “embarrass the president” and set up a series of votes aimed at derailing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to score points with their constituents.
The new sanctions bill was introduced shortly before the United States planned to implement sanctions relief on Iran, as agreed to in the 2015 JCPOA. The new bill was reportedly drafted in response to recent ballistic missile tests by Iran.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US Production a ‘Game Changer’ In Oil Market: API
The top US oil lobby said Tuesday that the oil market’s muted response to the escalating crisis between Saudi Arabia and Iran shows US production has been a “game changer.”
The United States now is the world’s number one crude-oil producer and is “poised to remain a dominant global player, something that was unseen just a decade ago,” said Jack Gerard, president and chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, in an annual speech outlining the state of the industry.
Oil prices extended losses on Tuesday amid the Saudi-Iran diplomatic row as worries about global oversupplies trumped concerns about a potential impact on Middle East oil producers.
Citing experts, Gerard noted that price behavior would have been “much different” years ago in response to conflict in the oil-rich region…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Why Don’t Black and White Americans Live Together?
Legal segregation in the US may have ended more than 50 years ago. But in many parts of the country, Americans of different races aren’t neighbours — they don’t go to the same schools, they don’t shop at the same stores, and they don’t always have access to the same services.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Firm to Sue US Over Keystone Pipeline Rejection
Last November, President Obama decided not to approve the Keystone tar-sands oil pipeline project. Now TransCanada is suing the US government in an attempt to force a reversal of the decision.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Angst as ‘Mein Kampf’ Hits German Bookstores
New copies of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” will hit bookstores in Germany on Friday for the first time since the Second World War, unsettling Jewish community leaders as the copyright of the anti-Semitic manifesto expires.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Cologne-Style’ Attacks on Women Reported in Austria, Switzerland
The victims described the attackers as gangs of intoxicated Arab or North African men between the ages of 15 and 35.
Many of the assaults were apparently meant to distract, allowing attackers to snip wallets, cellphones and other devices. Those who tried to fight off the assailants were told in no uncertain terms to get back or face the consequences.
Media reports said that the attacks appeared to have been organized as around 1,000 young men arrived in large groups, seemingly with the specific intention of carrying out attacks on women.
On Thursday Cologne police said that most of the suspects in the New Year’s Eve attacks had entered the country only recently and had applied for refugee status. Many of them are migrants from Syria and North Africa.
A German ex-policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Cologne-style attacks on women are common and routinely hushed up by the authorities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cologne Police Chief Removed After New Year Eve Attacks
The head of Cologne’s police force is leaving his post “to restore public trust in the police” following scores of attacks on women in the city on New Year’s Eve.
The state interior minister said on Friday that he had placed Wolfgang Albers in temporary retirement.
The police’s handling of the night’s events has been sharply criticised.
The violence outside the main railway station has sparked a debate about Germany’s open door policy on migrants.
Gangs of men described as of North African and Arab appearance were reported to be behind the attacks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cologne Assaults: Police Report Outlines ‘Chaotic and Shameful’ New Year’s Eve
An internal police protocol has revealed the full extent of the violence in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. According to the report, which SPIEGEL has seen, officials were overwhelmed and powerless to help some people calling for help.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cologne Police Face Fresh NYE Cover-Up Claims
Cologne authorities face building pressure over the mass sexual assaults committed against women in the city on New Year’s Eve, with some calling for the police chief to step down after reports he hid asylum seekers’ involvement in the crimes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Did 1,000-Strong Sex Gang Also Strike in Zurich? Police Probe Another String of Attacks
Police are investigating a string of sex attacks that took place in Switzerland’s largest city on New Year’s Eve.
Zurich police revealed six women were allegedly robbed, groped and molested by a “crowd of multiple men with dark coloured skin”.
The number is unusually high for the country, which has one of the lowest crime rates in Europe.
A spokesperson for the police force added that the attacks were “a little bit similar” to the 120 cases of robbery and sexual abuse that took place in the German city of Cologne on the same night.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Flooding Emergency as Heavy Rain Batters North East of Scotland
Residents have been evacuated in parts of the North east of Scotland as further heavy rain brings water levels in some parts to an all-time high.
Motorists advised to make essential journeys only in areas of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, where some rivers have burst their banks.
Sever weather warnings are in place across the north east, with the Met Office warning of continued bad weather into Friday.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
France: Armed Man Shot Dead Trying to Enter Paris Police Station
A man armed with a knife was shot dead by security forces Thursday after attempting to enter a police station in northern Paris.
The shooting took place outside a police station in the Goutte-d’Or area of the French capital’s 18th arrondissement.
A witness who was around 50 metres from the police station told FRANCE 24 that he clearly heard the man cry “Allahu Akbar” (God is great). Police said the man was strapped with a fake explosive vest.
The attack was being investigated as potential terrorism, police said.
Pictures posted on Twitter showed the alleged assailant wearing a camouflage coat, lying on the pavement after being shot. A police bomb disposal robot appeared to be inspecting the body.
The culturally vibrant neighbourhood was on lockdown, including two schools on the same street as the police station, according to education officials. Nearby metro stations were also closed.
“A few locals who live in flats around the police station managed to get into the area, but only after thorough searches from police sources,” said FRANCE 24’s Clovis Casali, who was at the scene.
Casali added that firemen and emergency responders had also arrived at the Goutte d’Or neighbourhood.
The incident took place as France marked the one-year anniversary of last January’s terror attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
France has been on high alert ever since the shootings at the Charlie Hebdo office and at a Jewish supermarket in which 17 people died over three days.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris Attack: Cops Fear ‘More Terrorists at Large’ After Suicide Bomber Shot Dead
Cops have put Paris on lockdown amid fears more assailants are out there after a knifeman ‘suicide bomber’ tried to storm a police station.
An attacker was shot dead wearing a fake suicide belt earlier, on the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.
Now police have placed large swathes of the French capital on lockdown, evacuating public places, closing shops and shutting schools, amid fears more attackers are about to pounce.
Cops were earlier forced to open fire on the knife-wielding attacker as he was running towards the station near Gare du Nord railway station.
Officials said he was wearing a suicide belt, with wires poking out from his body, and he shouted Allahu Akbar — “God is great” in Arabic — as he neared the station.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
France: Man Shot Dead by Paris Police Shouted ‘Allahu Akbar, ‘ May Have Worn Suicide Belt
PARIS — Paris police shot dead a knife-wielding man who tried to enter a police station shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) and who may have been wearing a suicide belt, official and union sources said.
The incident took place just minutes after President Francois Hollande had given a speech to security forces in an another part of Paris to mark the first anniversary of last year’s deadly Islamist militant attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in the French capital.
“The man may have been wearing something that could be a suicide belt,” Interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told BFM TV. “Whether it was operational or not, it is too early to say.”
One of the police union sources said the belt appeared to be fake.
The man had tried to force entry into the police station in the 18th district of northern Paris, an area that Islamic State had said after even deadlier Paris attacks in November that it had been planning to hit.
“According to our colleagues he wanted to blow himself up,” an official at the Alternative Police union said. “He shouted Allahu Akbar and had wires protruding from his clothes. That’s why the police officer opened fire.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Gaddafi’s Grim Prophecy Fulfilled as Terrorism Spreads Across Europe
Turns out Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was right when he told former British Prime Minister Tony Blair that if his regime failed then Islamic extremists would attack Europe, leaked phone conversations between the two leaders revealed, according to the Telegraph.
Gaddafi tried to explain Tony Blair in two phone conversations in February 2011 that if foreign powers helped Libyan rebels to overthrow his government then next thing Europeans would know jihadists would carry out terrorist attacks across the European continent.
“It’s a Jihad situation. They have arms and are terrorizing people in the street… Can’t reason with them. They keep saying things like Mohammad is the profit [the Prophet]. Similar to Bin Laden,” Gaddafi told Blaire, according to excerpts from their 2011 phone conversation, the Telegraph reported.
Gaddafi also welcomed foreign journalists to come over to Libya and see the situation for themselves, so the world would know the truth about those so-called “rebels” who eventually toppled his government.
“Need to explain to the international community. Reporters can come to make sure this is the truth, they are welcome,” Gaddafi told the former Prime Minister.
When Blair told Gaddafi to step down as the head of the state, the former Libyan leader insisted that he was defending his country and the entire North African coast from Islamic extremists.
“We are not fighting them, they are attacking us… The story is simply this: an organization has laid down sleeping cells in North Africa. Called the Al-Qaeda Organization in North Africa,” Gaddafi said.
During his second conversation with Blair, in which the former British Prime Minister re-iterated that Gaddafi must step down to bring peaceful changes to his country, Gaddafi refused to leave and said he’d have to arm troops loyal to him to crush jihadist groups taking over Libya and the Mediterranean Sea.
“Libyan people will die, damage will be on the med, Europe and the whole world these armed groups are using the situation as a justification — and we shall fight them,” Gaddafi said, according to excerpts from their 2011 phone conversation with Blair, the Telegraph reported.
In the end, Gaddafi’s words were ignored and three weeks later NATO began bombing the Libyan Armed Forces, which soon led to the overthrow of the Libyan government.
After Gaddafi’s government was overthrown and Colonel himself killed, the country failed to form a stable government and Libya descended into chaos. Various groups of Islamic extremists, including Daesh (Islamic State), took advantage of the situation and increased their influence in the country.
Gaddafi’s warnings were prophetic. In fact, he predicted everything. As soon as Libya fell into the hands of Islamic extremists, the country became the hotbed of terrorism. In November 2015, Daesh terrorists carried out a series of terrorist attacks in Paris killing 130 people and injuring 368. At the same time, a growing number of jihadists are said to be crossing into Europe from North Africa.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cut-Price Panettone Invades Breakfast Table
Christmas cakes being snatched up at discount prices
(ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — Three-fifths of Italians are currently eating cut-price pandoro or panettone Christmas cake for breakfast instead of the typical biscuits or sweet snacks, the Italian Farmers’ Confederation (CIA) said Thursday.
Consumers are taking advantage of sale prices at supermarkets and discount stores on these two ‘symbols’ of Christmas in Italy. CIA said the trend is in keeping with a general drive among Italians to reduce food waste, particularly during the Christmas season.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Terror Attacks Changing Tourism Habits, Say Industry Experts
Fewer Italians going abroad, more choosing smaller cities
(ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — Terror attacks over the past year are hitting the tourist industry, slowing down and shifting travel habits but not stopping them completely, Italian tourism experts say.
Jacopo De Ria, president of Italian travel and tourism industry association Fiavet, said that slightly fewer Italians were travelling abroad, opting instead to visit cities within Italy.
The threat of terror attacks such as the November 13 assault on Paris which killed 130 people was a problem that travel agencies and tourists were having to learn to deal with, he said.
Luca Battifora, president of tour operator association Astoi Confindustria Viaggi, said that Italian tourists that are still going abroad were tending to avoid major centres, choosing smaller European cities such as Lisbon and the Scandinavian capitals.
He said there had been significant declines in tourist numbers heading to France, Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt.
Among big Italian cities, Rome seems to have suffered the most, with the flow of tourists down about 5% on the year in the period between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, according to the President of hotel operators association Federalberghi in Rome, Giuseppe Roscioli.
He put this down to Pope Francis’ Jubilee discouraging ordinary visitors and the shock of the Paris attacks.
“We know that to recover from these events you need about 2-3 months, so we hope to be through it in February,” he said.
Florence was boosted by the “New Year’s Eve effect” but according to Federalberghi’s Francesco Bechi, tourist presences have collapsed by 50% from January 2.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: New Airbus Not Coming to Fiumicino Friday — Premier’s Office
‘Tech crew only to be used to get it here’
(ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — A new Airbus set to join the State fleet is not arriving Friday at Fiumicino, the Italian premier’s office said Thursday, denying press reports.
The office also stressed that a technical crew not belonging to the State’s staff will only be used for the incoming initial flight and not for subsequent service on State flights.
Critics of Premier Matteo Renzi have criticised the cost of the craft.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Gun-Wielding Arabs Ask Teens if They ‘Believe in Allah’
Italian teens respond they don’t believe in anything
(ANSA) — Modena, January 8 — Five teenagers were reportedly threatened by Arabs from the Maghreb who lined them up, shot a pistol into the air, and asked them whether they believe in Allah or are Christians.
The teens responded that they don’t believe in anything, and the men left.
It is not clear whether or not the gun was real.
Carabinieri police are investigating the incident that took place in the town of Vignola in Modena province.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Athens Denies Extradition for ‘No Expo’ Anarchists
2 out of 5 suspects won’t be handed over — sources
(ANSA) — Milan, January 8 — Judges in Athens have turned down Italy’s extradition request for two out of five Greek anarchists arrested in violent May 1 protests against the opening of the Milan expo world’s fair, judicial sources said Friday.
Legal sources said the ruling may have been due to the fact that the charges against the two, of “pillaging and plundering”, are not on the statute book in Greece.
In Italy they carry jail terms of up to 15 years.
Italian police in November arrested 10 people in Italy and Greece in connection with the anti-Expo clashes that turned violent on May 1, the opening day of the world’s fair.
The suspects — five Italians and five Greeks — face charges of destruction and looting, aggravated resistance to a public official and misrepresentation.
Eight of the suspects — four Greeks and four Italians — were taken into custody, while the remaining two were on the run.
A further five suspects — three Milanese, one person from Como and one Greek national — are out on bail.
The suspects all belong to anarchist groups that infiltrated a peaceful anti-Expo march, lobbing Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police, setting cars on fire, and destroying shop windows.
They were identified after police analysed over 600 GB of photographic and video material.
“We extrapolated hundreds of stills highlighting every smallest detail useful in singling out the authors of the crimes,” police sources said at the time of the arrests.
The Greek anarchist group was pinned down after 14 members drew the attention of cashiers at a Milan supermarket where they were shopping on May 2.
The cashiers called the police.
Investigators say the suspects formed a single ‘black bloc’ that carried out over 100 acts of devastation in complicity “with at least 300 people”.
One of the suspects is Greek anarchist Alexandros Kouros, who investigators say was the most dangerous and active in causing violence.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadi ‘Planned UK Terror Attack if Stopped From Reaching Syria’
A jihadi confided in an undercover officer that he would carry out a terror attack in Britain if he was thwarted from going to Syria, a court has heard.
Gabriel Rasmus was “desperate” to join Islamic State but when he was refused a travel visa he considered doing something “similar to what happened in France and Belgium” instead, the court was told.
The 29-year-old was arrested in April last year when he was found hiding in the back of a lorry at Dover in Kent with Anas Abdalla and Mahamuud Diini, both 26 and from Birmingham.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Katie Hopkins: Shall I Just Buy a Burka and Get it Over With?
Europe’s governments may be desperate to cover it up but Cologne proves that many Muslim men have NO respect for white women — or the cultures of the countries they are invading.
Eight days after all this happened, I am not allowed to say these were migrant gangs with no respect for white women.
The BBC will only say these were men of North African or Arab appearance, a line fed to them by the German authorities.
In time they will say race was not the issue. Just as the police did in Rochdale before the mass grooming of white kids was finally revealed. By nine Asian men.
We are still supposed to buy into the big multicultural ideal which dictates we should welcome migrants with open arms, blow whistles and applaud them as they descend from trains with their iPhones and expectations…
Cologne is a small case study for scenarios playing out all over Europe. It is a story repeated at Calais, across Germany and into France. And in African and Arabic countries where sexual violence is the norm.
White women are nothing to some Islamic and Arabic men. It’s the reason our girls were abused in Rochdale and Oxford and the reason white German women were raped in Cologne.
They see us as white trash. And we are no longer safe. These migrants are a cultural time-bomb, brought up in a different era, Islamic Bernard Mannings — incompatible with modern life.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mattarella Says Italian Flag Also Represents ‘New Italians’
‘New citizens share our love for our homeland’
(ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — President Sergio Mattarella said Thursday — which is Flag Day in Italy — that the national flag also represents the country’s newly naturalized citizens.
Our flag “is now also the flag of the new Italian citizens, who have been living and working with us for years and who share our love for a common homeland,” Mattarella said.
“The symbol of unity is therefore also a symbol of openness — a resource that can help us better face future challenges,” he said. “This identity is our unrenounceable heritage of values, meanings, and common roots. Our flag…represents the emblem of the values of democracy, social justice, respect for human rights, and solidarity affirmed in our Constitution”.
Mattarella went on to say that unity is a primary objective of the republic — unity between Italy’s different regions, of its social body, between generations, and in the exercise and recognition of rights and duties.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Horror Sex Attack Claims: Teen Girls Gang-Raped by Four Syrian Nationals in Germany
THREE Syrians have been arrested in southern Germany for the alleged gang rape of two teenage girls on New Year’s Eve.
It’s the latest in a spate of reported sex attacks in the country which has been rocked by a wave of assaults in Cologne.
Two 14-year-old boys and a 21-year-old man have been held in Weil am Rhein, a small town near the Swiss and German borders, for the suspected rape of a 14 and 15-year-old girl.
The girls were allegedly held for several hours and gang-raped after going to a New Year’s Eve party at the home of a 21-year-old man in the village of Friedlingen.
The arrests only emerged last night, despite the suspects being in custody for several days.Prosecutors say they kept tightlipped to protect the victims’ identities.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Ötzi Ice Mummy Was Suffering From a Stomach Infection
Researchers have found aggressive intestinal bacteria in a 5,250-year-old mummy from the Tyrolian Alps. Today, that strain of Heliobacter pylori is endemic in parts of Asia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Homes Evacuated Amid Heavy Flooding After River Bursts Its Banks
Homes in Aberdeenshire have been evacuated amid heavy flooding after a river burst its banks.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued two severe flood warnings — meaning danger to life — after the River Don suddenly overflowed.
Local residents including elderly people and babies were moved from properties in Inverurie as water levels in some areas hit record highs.
The rail line between Aberdeen and Dundee was closed due to the flooding, and ScotRail said it was unable to offer alternative travel due to water on the roads.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: A Severe Flood Warning Has Been Issued for Inverurie
This means that extensive flooding is expected to properties and businesses including those in Port Elphinstone, along Old Canal, and Inverurie Paper Mill. The Waste Water Treatment Works and railway line will also be significantly affected. Many roads, including the B993, will be impassable in and around Inverurie.
River levels will significantly exceed those experienced in 2002 and 2009 and are not expected to peak until the early hours of Friday morning. Be aware that flooding impacts will also extend up the River Urie where levels are expected to be the highest in recent history. Stay away from flood water and do not take unnecessary risks. Some evacuations have been advised; please follow any advice provided by the emergency services.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland Flooding: Homes Evacuated and Travel Disrupted
Homes in Aberdeenshire have been evacuated after the River Don burst its banks, amid heavy rain across eastern Scotland.
Residents, including elderly people and babies, were moved from properties in Inverurie as some water levels reached record highs.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) issued two severe flood warnings, meaning danger to life.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: More Major Flood Alerts as Another River Bursts Its Banks Amid Heavy Rain
Dozens of people have been forced to evacuate their homes in Aberdeenshire after the River Don burst its banks. Downpours have resulted in flood warnings across Inverurie and Kintore with extreme weather battering the Scottish county. Roads have been closed with trains and flights cancelled as people flee their homes for their own safety.
Peter Summers, who was in Inverurie, told Express.co.uk the flooding could get “incredibly bad” if the deluge continues.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Police Probe New Year Sex Assaults
Fourteen women have reported being assaulted over New Year in the southern Swedish city of Kalmar, but police are playing down comparisons with the mass attacks in Cologne in Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The notorious organisation that backed Jihadi John is now targeting young Muslims at their universities in a sinister campaign, the Mail can reveal.
CAGE — the group that provoked horror after calling the Islamic State killer a ‘beautiful young man’ — was involved in at least 13 student events last term.
Its representatives are being given unchallenged platforms at campuses across the country.
They are using them to tell young Muslims to sabotage the Government’s anti-extremism policy Prevent, claiming it is an attempt by the State to spy on them.
The organisation’s outreach director Moazzam Begg has been given extraordinary access to students — speaking without being challenged on at least 11 separate occasions last term.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hate-Filled Extremists at CAGE Warping Young Minds
The Mail today begins a chilling exposé of extremism on Britain’s university campuses, raising deeply disturbing questions about national security and the radicalisation of the young.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CAGE tried to use a primary school to host an event involving extremist speakers, the Mail can reveal.
Police alerted the school about the planned event two days before it was due to go ahead.
Staff had no idea that its hall had been booked by CAGE or that it was to be used to showcase some of Britain’s most notorious Islamists.
One of the planned speakers was a cleric who has defended stoning and female genital mutilation.
Another was the head of Hizb ut-Tahrir — the organisation that wants to create an Islamic Caliphate with Sharia Law.
The talk was due to be held on the evening of November 5 on the site of the Chobham Academy in Newham, East London.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Probe After Group That Backed Jihadi John ‘Told Students to Sabotage Anti-Extremism Talks’
A controversial human rights group encouraged university students to “sabotage” the Government’s anti-extremism policy, it has been claimed.
Cage director Moazzam Begg, the Guantánamo Bay detainee, allegedly compared the Prevent programme to the Stasi secret police in former East Germany.
Six universities are now facing questions for holding the talks from the group Boris Johnson has accused of being terror apologists.
According to The Telegraph, during one talk Mr Begg said: “These new laws are something the Stasi of East Germany would be proud of. any right minded person will be against Prevent.
“We need to call on and speak to our lecturers and teachers and ask them not to take part in this.”
Russell Group universities the University of Manchester, the University of Birmingham and King’s College London all allowed talks by Cage four times between them.
London University School of Oriental and African Studies had three Cage events, while Bradford University and East London University each had one.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Spend Our Money in This Country Not on Foreign Aid, Blasts Stephen Pollard
You will be pleased to learn that, at a time when so many homes and towns in Britain have been devastated by flooding, we have just completed a multi-million pound flood defence project in a city of about 60,000 people.
Good news, eh? At last the Government is taking flooding seriously. The city’s deputy mayor is thrilled. As he puts it: “We’re grateful to Great Britain and to the British people.” And that slightly odd way of putting it is the giveaway. Because the deputy mayor is not British and the project is not in Britain. It is in the Serbian city of Lazarevac. Little wonder that Bojan Stevic is so delighted. And puzzled.
Because, as he rightly says: “It does seem strange they spent so much money in our country on flood defences yet apparently were not investing enough in their own. It is terrible to see the people of Britain suffering.” Sometimes you have to wonder if our leaders have even the first clue about how to behave. Over the past month too many of our countrymen and women have had to experience for themselves the terrible impact of flooding.
Our hearts go out to them. And so too will our wallets given the cost of cleaning up and rebuilding. But our wallets are also being forcibly opened to hand over our cash to foreigners for their flood defences — and lots more besides. Money that most of us, I am sure, would rather was spent on British flood victims and preventing future flooding.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Students Face Exam Calendar Shake-Up — to Fit Around Ramadan
GCSEs and A-levels may be moved this summer because Ramadan falls at the same time, it has been revealed.
Exam chiefs could re-schedule tests to mornings to help Muslims who observe the holy month by fasting during daytime hours.
GCSE English and Maths may be done earlier in the term between May 16 and June 19.
Ramadan runs from June 7 to July 5 this year.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
A Muslim teenager has been fined after she lied about being punched in the face because she wore a hijab in the days after the Paris terror attacks.
Student Miss Choudhury, 18, said she was attacked on New Street in Birmingham because she was wearing Islamic headwear.
She told police that she was knocked to the floor in the racist attack and that other Muslims in the area were being targeted following the French massacre, which saw ISIS jihadists kill 130 people and injure 352 at various locations in Paris in November last year.
Speaking about the made-up attack on November 23, 2015, Miss Choudhury, who did not want her first name to be revealed, said she had been left too scared to walk through in the city alone…
.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Evil nursery teacher Vanessa George, from Plymouth, Devon, who abused a string of babies and toddlers in her care, was jailed in 2009 but will be eligible for parole in December.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘We Heard a Woman Screaming and Crying’ Brit Girl Recalls Cologne Sex Attack Gang Horror
A British teenage girl has described the New Year’s Eve chaos in Cologne where she witnessed multiple women and young girls groped and assaulted by gangs of men.
Fireworks were set off in the street and girls were being targeted all over, the 17-year-old girl recalled.
According to police over 100 women have now made criminal complaints about sexual assaults and robberies carried out by groups of men near the city’s main railway station on January 31.
Reports suggest around 1,000 men of Arabic or North African heritage split into smaller groups to attack and rob women.
As the females fled their belongings were stolen.
The British girl told the BBC she felt afraid from the minute she arrived at 10pm.
“The main station was full of wobbly teenagers and young adults, of all ages, some possibly below 18, very drunk and unaware of their whereabouts,” she recalled.
“Some had already passed out on the floor in their own vomit. Bottles were smashed on the ground and you could feel shards of glass crunching beneath your feet with every step.
“Fights had taken place in the station and police were trying to contain them, but the amount of fighting made it difficult for the police to focus on every individual dispute.”
The teenager and her boyfriend walked towards the cathedral but the exits were blocked by crowds.
“We heard a woman screaming and crying somewhere in the midst of this crowd, appearing to be escaping from a foreign man, who was shouting back and pointing his finger at her and chasing her with his accomplices,” she said.
“Later on, we saw two men corner women at the cathedral and touch them while they were screaming for help and trying to fight back.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Gunmen Open Fire at Egyptian Hotel Used by Tourists, Wounding 2
Two suspected militants stabbed and wounded two foreign tourists — a Danish and a German — at a hotel in the Red Sea resort city of Hurghada on Friday, Egyptian security officials said.
The officials say policemen opened fire at the attackers, killing one and wounding the other. It was not immediately clear how serious the condition of the tourists is.
Egyptian security sources told Reuters that the attackers arrived by sea to carry out the siege. The identities of the attackers are unknown.
The Friday evening attack came just hours after the local affiliate of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack a day earlier on a hotel in Cairo near the Giza Pyramids.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
No ‘Muscular’ Show in Libya Says Gentiloni
Military intervention ‘may increase confusion’ says FM
(ANSA) — Rome, January 8 — Libya is not a place for “muscular” military action, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Friday.
Libya, he said, “is not a gym for muscular shows”, arguing against “hasty action”“ in the wake of Thursday’s suicide truckbomb attack, claimed by Islamic State (ISIS) militants, which killed at least 74 police cadets in the western city of Zliten.
Military intervention, Gentiloni said, “might be justified by the terrorism alarm today, but it would not leave on the ground what is needed, the beginning of stabilisation, but rather, perhaps, even more confusion”.
In the next few weeks, Gentiloni said, “there is only one plan on our agenda”, the birth of a national-unity government. “Every day that is lost in creating the new government i hope will be born in the next few weeks” the foreign minister said, “is a day that gives more hope to Daesh (ISIS) and the enemies of the accord” agreed at the recent Rome Conference and signed in Morocco by the Libyan sides.
A local Islamic State affiliate has been trying to gain a foothold in Zliten, spreading westward from its central stronghold in the city of Sirte along the North African country’s coast.
The United Nations special envoy to Libya, Martin Kobler, denounced the attack and urged Libyans to “put their differences aside and unite to confront the scourge of terrorism.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack as well as ongoing attacks by the Islamic State group on oil facilities near Sidra and called for a national unity government as “the best way for Libyans to confront terrorism in all its forms.” The bombing was yet another reminder for Libyans that “urgent progress is required” toward empowering a new unity government and rebuilding state bodies, Kobler said in a statement.
In recent years, thousands of migrants seeking a better life in Europe have sailed from Libya on rickety, overcrowded boats.
Hundreds have drowned in those crossings.
Libya slid into chaos following the 2011 toppling and killing of longtime dictator Muammar Geddafi. The oil-rich country is torn between an Islamist government based in the capital, Tripoli, and a rival, internationally recognized administration at Tobruk in the east. Meanwhile, a UN-supported unity government sits in neighbouring Tunisia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The US Helped Overthrow Libya 2011. Here’s What’s Happening There Now
ISIS has seen it’s influence in Libya grow over the past year amid the power vacuum the West created by engineering the demise of Moammar Qaddafi.
“We are helpless and not being able to do anything against this deliberate destruction to the oil installations. NOC urges all faithful and honorable people of this homeland to hurry to rescue what is left from our resources before it is too late.”
That’s from Libya’s National Oil Corp and as you might have guessed, it references the seizure of state oil assets by Islamic State, whose influence in the country has grown over the past year amid the power vacuum the West created by engineering the demise of Moammar Qaddafi.
The latest attacks occurred in Es Sider, a large oil port that’s been closed for at least a year.
Seven guards were killed on Monday in suicide bombings while two more lost their lives on Tuesday as ISIS attacked checkpoints some 20 miles from the port. “Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, Libya’s biggest oil ports, have been closed since December 2014,” Reuters notes. “They are located between the city of Sirte, which is controlled by Islamic State, and the eastern city of Benghazi.”
ISIS also set fire to oil tanks holding hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude. “Four tanks in Es Sider caught fire on Tuesday, and a fifth one in Ras Lanuf the day before,” Ali al-Hassi, a spokesman for the the Petroleum Facilities Guard told Bloomberg over the phone.
Ludovico Carlino, senior analyst at IHS Country Risk says the attacks are “likely diversionary operations” during Islamic State’s takeover of the town of Bin Jawad, a seizure that may enable the group to expand and connect “its controlled territory around Sirte to the ‘oil crescent.’“
Islamic State is pushing east from Sirte in an effort to seize control of the country’s oil infrastructure, much as the group has done in Syria and Iraq. As Middle East Eye wrote last summer”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police: Suspect in Tel Aviv Shooting Killed After Massive Israeli Manhunt
JERUSALEM — Israeli police shot and killed an Arab suspect wanted in a New Year’s Day shooting rampage in Tel Aviv that left three people dead and touched off a massive manhunt, authorities said Friday.
Luba Samri, a police spokeswoman, said the suspect, 31-year-old Nashat Melhem, was traced to a village in northern Israel, where he came out firing at security forces. “They returned fire and he was shot on the spot,” said a statement.
Much of the information on the case — including details on Melhem, an Israeli Arab — is under a court-imposed gag order. Authorities have not said whether they believe Melhem acted alone or had a support network…
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Barbaric ISIS Issue Sickening Fatwa to Mutilate Genitals of Newborn Baby Girls
THE barbaric Islamic State (ISIS) has issued a fatwa ordering that newborn baby girls horrifically have their genitials mutilated.
The terror group ordered that if mothers objected to the female genital mutilation (FGM) for their children they faced being beaten, fined and the operation carried out without consent.
According to the ruling by cruel Daesh, part of the child’s clitoris should be surgically removed immediately after birth.
High-ranking Kurdish politician Ghayas Sorchi, from the Kurdistan Patriotic Union (PUK), revealed the sickening fatwa.
He has several informants in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which has been under ISIS control since August 2014
Mr Sorchi was the representative of the PUK in Mosul before the city was overrun and is known to be very well connected with the underground network.
He said that mothers of newborn babies had been ordered to bring them to hospitals in order to have the operation.
The lawyer and women’s rights activist Falah Murad Khan said: “Last year when this was first suggested nobody believed that this could really be a fatwa, but now it seems with the latest confirmation that it is indeed the truth.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: More and More French Women Join Jihad, 220 and Rising
600 French Jihadists have been counted as Daesh recruits
– PARIS — French women are increasingly present among Isis combatants, said radio France Info referencing sources of the information services.
Quoting a secret report, France Info said 220 women joined the holy war waged by the Islamic State a figure which has kept increasing in the last 2 years.
France Info calculated that 164 left up to September 2015 and that the number has reached the figure of 220 only three months later.
One-third of these women converted to Islam, compared to one-sixth of men.
According to the report, 600 French Jihadists have been counted as Daesh recruits up to December and the proportion of women is on the rise, from 10% in 2013 to the current 35% .
At the moment, these women are not active combatants but travel to Syria to get married or join their husbands.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Fighter Publicly Executes Own Mother, Syrian Activists Say
BEIRUT — Even by Islamic State standards, the accusation seems shocking. Earlier this week, Syrian activists say, a militant from the notoriously brutal group stood in front of a crowd, condemned his own mother and then shot her in the head.
The execution took place in Raqqa, a city in eastern Syria that is the Islamic State’s self-declared capital, according two prominent groups that monitor the Syrian civil war.
One of the groups — the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights — said in a report Friday that the 20-year-old man murdered his mother, who was in her 40s, “in front of hundreds of people near the post office building €¦ where she was employed.”
The Britain-based Observatory said the incident started with an argument between the mother and son over his commitment to the Islamic State. The mother objected to his membership in the group, prompting him to order her arrest.
“His mother spoke with him and asked him to leave ISIS and leave Raqqa to go to a different area of Syria and Turkey,” Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory said in a telephone interview, using an acronym for the Islamic State.
“€¦ After that he told ISIS and, 1-2-3, they arrest his mother.” Although the Islamic State is prolific in publicizing its executions, Abdulrahman said he did not know whether the murder had been filmed.
However, Mohammed al-Saleh, an activist from the Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently group, which also monitors the Syrian conflict, said the reason behind the mother’s arrest is still unclear.
She was accused of apostasy, he said, speculating that she could have been murdered because she was a member of a Syria’s Alawite religious minority. Alawites, whose members dominate the upper echelons of Syria’s government and military, are an offshoot of Shiite Islam and condemned as apostates by hard-line Sunni groups such as the Islamic State.
“This woman is Alawite, yet she somehow managed not to have been arrested or killed for so long while living under Islamic State rule,” said Saleh, a nom de guerre. He declined to give his real name because of threats against his group by the Islamic State, which controls vast territory in parts of Syria and Iraq.
He noted that the son, a resident of Raqqa, has a Sunni father and was known in the city for heavy drinking and public brawling before the Islamic State took over in early 2014.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Philadelphia Police: Attacker ‘Tried to Execute’ Officer, Pledged Allegiance to the Islamic State
A police officer in Philadelphia was shot multiple times late Thursday by an attacker who told authorities he had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State.
The officer survived the “unprovoked” shooting and returned fire, hitting the attacker, who survived and was taken into custody, Richard Ross Jr., the city’s new police commissioner, said at a news conference.
Ross said during a later news conference that the suspect confessed to the shooting and told detectives he did it “in the name of Islam.”
Police also said that the attacker told authorities he was pledging allegiance to the Islamic State, the militant group that has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.
The gun used in the shooting was a stolen police firearm, Ross said.
Officer Jesse Hartnett, 33, was driving through an intersection in West Philadelphia at about 11:40 p.m. Wednesday when a man began firing into the driver’s side window of the police car, Ross said.
“When you look at the video €¦ this is absolutely one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen,” Ross said. “This guy tried to execute the police officer. The police officer had no idea he was coming.”
The unidentified attacker, a 30-year-old man, got so close to the car that at one point, he had his gun “inside the car, firing at the officer,” Ross said. Police believe he fired a total of 13 shots at Hartnett.
Hartnett, who was in uniform, was hit three times in his left arm. Ross said there is “significant damage to his arm,” adding that Hartnett’s arm was broken and he likely had nerve damage.
After the shooting, Hartnett was awake and coherent before being taken into surgery, said Ross, who was sworn in as police commissioner on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Selling Oil Cheap to Europe to Compete With Iran
In its struggle for the global oil market, Saudi Arabia has offered enormous discounts on crude for Europe.
The move came amid the ongoing spat between Riyadh and Tehran after protesters attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Mashhad following the execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. In response, Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic ties with Iran.
Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco has lowered European oil prices by $0.06 and $0.02 a barrel. At the same time, prices for Asian countries rose by $0.06 a barrel while the price for the US stayed the same.
The Saudi move appears to be part of its strategy to compete for European oil markets later this year when Iran is expected to increase oil exports after Western sanctions over its nuclear program are lifted, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Before the EU imposed sanctions against Tehran in 2012, Italy and Spain imported 13 and 16 percent of oil from Iran respectively.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi to Save $7 Bn From Energy Reforms: Report
Saudi Arabia is expected to save $7 billion a year after it introduced unprecedented energy price rises in a bid to offset the low cost of oil, a report said on Wednesday.
Jadwa Investment said direct savings from the kingdom’s price hike on diesel are estimated at $2.75 billion (2.56 billion euros), and gasoline levies are expected to save an additional $2.5 billion.
The rest of the savings will come from price rises on natural gas, fuel oil and propane, it added…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi-Led Coalition Used Cluster Bombs in Yemen: HRW
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in the conflict in Yemen dropped decades-old US-made cluster bombs in a civilian area, independent monitor Human Rights Watch said Thursday, branding it a war crime.
The group’s report included a photograph of a section of casing from a CBU-58 cluster bomb, which it said showed it was manufactured in 1978 at a US ammunition plant in Tennessee.
The United States is a close ally of Saudi Arabia and supplies much of the ordnance its forces use, but it has not exported cluster bombs of the type found in Sanaa for many years…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen to Expel UN Human Rights Official
Yemen has declared the leading UN rights official in the country persona non grata, the UN said Thursday, describing the decision as “an extremely regrettable development.”
George Abu al-Zulof, the head of the UN human rights office in Yemen, “has been doing an excellent job,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
ADVERTISINGYemen’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the UN official had not been “impartial” in his assessments of the human rights situation in the country.
It indicated that Zulof may have been misinformed by his local staff in rebel-held Sanaa…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Conflict Divides Slavic Diaspora in Berlin
Thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union live in Berlin. Collectively referred to as “Russians,” many are Ukrainians. Now, the conflict that began with the annexation of Crimea is catching up with them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan ‘Dancing Boys’ Forced to Dress as Little Girls Before Being Abused by Paedo Gangs
Afghan boys as young as 10 are being forced to dress up as women before they are handed around groups of middle-aged men for sexual pleasure.
Bacha bazi, meaning ‘boy play’, is a tradition found across the country where boys are made to perform.
But the Afghan custom has a darker side that sees the youngsters treated as little more than sex slaves.
The young victims are ‘bought’ by their masters, made to wear dresses and makeup and satisfy their owners’ twisted sexual desires.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Young Muslim Man Who Burnt Copies of the Bible and Sacred Hymns Arrested in Kasur
Akba Azhar, 26, originally from Sialkot, broke into a church and burnt sacred books. Discovered, he tried to flee but was captured by a group of worshippers. Police say that he cannot be tried because he suffers from mental problems. Local Christians disagree, insisting that he is of sound mind.
Kasur (AsiaNews) — A young Muslim man of 26 years was arrested for setting fire to copies of the Bible and to books containing sacred hymns.
The incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon, at the Victory Church in Kasur, a city of nearly 250,000 people about 60 km from Lahore, in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
In November 2014, the area was the scene of a brutal attack on a young Christian couple, parents of four children, who were stoned to death and then burnt alive by an angry mob, incited by an imam after allegations of blasphemy were made against the victims.
According to police, the arsonist, Akba Azhar, suffers from mental problems and therefore cannot be held liable for his actions. Local Christians conversely believe that he is of sound mind and has the capacity to think, reason, and understand for himself.
Two days ago, the day of Epiphany, a group of Christians went to church to pray and saw a young man next to the remains of burnt Bibles and other holy books.
Realising that he had been discovered, Azhar Akba, originally from Sialkot, tried to flee but was surrounded by several men and brought back into the building.
The Christian worshippers called police, who arrived at the scene and took the young man into custody. Some children recognised him because, the night before the arson, he had played with them in the courtyard adjacent to the church.
Christians filed their complaint in accordance with the blasphemy rule against burning of sacred texts.
Police began their investigation, but said little about the evidence, if any, they collected or possible charges until they decided to drop the case saying that the young man appears to suffer from mental problems, and thus cannot be tried (conversely, mentally disabled Christians were indicted in alleged blasphemy cases).
Many local Christians disagree, noting that the young man was of sound mind and fully capable to thinking, reasoning, and understanding for himself when he decided to burn the sacred texts.
Speaking to AsiaNews, Rojar Noor Alam, a Pakistani human rights activist, condemned the Bible burning, saying that the culprit should be pursued as required by law.
Religious leaders, he added, “must play a leading role in maintaining harmony and avoiding sectarian events of this kind.”
For Aila Gill, coordinator of the National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Church of Pakistan (NCJP), the incident is the result of the prevailing climate of intolerance.
“The state,” he added, “must intervene because it is its duty to protect minorities’ places of worship under Article 36 of the Constitution.”
With a population of more than 180 million people (97 per cent Muslim), Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world, the second largest Muslim nation after Indonesia.
About 80 per cent of Muslims are Sunni, whilst Shias are 20 per cent. Hindus are 1.85 per cent, followed by Christians (1.6 per cent) and Sikhs (0.04 per cent).
Scores of violent incidents have occurred in recent years, against entire communities (Gojra in 2009, and Joseph Colony, Lahore, in March 2013), places of worship (Peshawar, September 2013) and individuals ( Sawan Masih, Asia Bibi, Rimsha Masih and Robert Fanish Masih, who died in prison), often perpetrated under the pretext of the country’s blasphemy laws.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Beauty Ad: ‘Just Being White, You Will Win’
(CNN)It’s hard to imagine anything more blatant than this.
A new Thai beauty ad claiming white skin is the key to success has unleashed a storm of criticism in Thailand, especially online, where people complain the ad perpetuates damaging, racist ideas.
“Just being white, you will win,” says Cris Horwang, a smiling pale-skinned actress, in the 50-second spot by Seoul Secret, a Thai beauty company.
Without the advertised pill, “the whiteness I have invested in, will just vanish,” she warns.
On screen, the actress’ expression turns despondent as her skin is digitally altered to turn black.
Horwang promises that the product, called Snowz, “will help you not to return to being dark.”
“Eternally white, I am confident,” she adds.
On Friday evening, Seoul Secret pulled the video from its online platforms and issued a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Could the North Korean Nuclear Test be a Game Changer for Iran’s Ballistic Missile Program?
At 10 AM Local time (6PM ET in the US) North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test at the Punggye-ri, underground test site in the east of the Hermit Kingdom. The blasted registered 5.1 of the Richter scale recorded by seismographic agencies in China, South Korea, Japan and the US Geological Service, effectively a mini-earthquake. The North Korea news agency declared that it was a “perfect” test of a miniaturized hydrogen bomb, which met with both skepticism, yet concern from China, Russia, US, UK and especially at the UN. According to a Guardian report:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi-Iran Row Spills Over Into Africa
Africa has become embroiled in the diplomatic crisis arising from the execution by Saudi Arabia of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Economic considerations play a large role.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Sudan Government and Rebels Reach Agreement on Transitional Government
The two sides, which have been at war for two years, have reached a consensus on the structure of a transitional government. The agreement follows peace talks that lasted months in neighboring Ethiopia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mission Accomplished: Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Recaptured, Mexican President Says
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has confirmed that authorities have captured fugitive drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in his home state of Sinaloa.
“Mission accomplished: we have him,” Peña Nieto tweeted Friday.” I want to inform Mexicans Joaquín Guzmán Loera has been arrested.”
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed to Fox News that Mexican authorities have recaptured Guzmán, who had escaped from a maximum security prison near Mexico City six months ago.
Fox News is told the U.S. will request that Chapo be extradited to the U.S. to face federal charges.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuelan Army Vows Support for Maduro as Political Crisis Deepens
The Venezuelan military has declared its allegiance to President Nicolas Maduro, as the country faces a mounting political and constitutional crisis. Opposition lawmakers are seeking Maduro’s removal.
The National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela (FANB) pledged its loyalty to President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday, amid a standoff between his government and a newly elected legislature dominated by the opposition.
Center right opponents of Maduro’s socialist government have vowed to remove the president from power within six months. It is the first time since 1999 — the year that former President Hugo Chavez came to power — that the assembly has been in the hands of the opposition.
However, defense minister and armed forces chief, General Vladimir Padrino (pictured right, with Maduro), entered the fray on Thursday, saying the military was unwavering in its support for Maduro. The president has himself vowed to resist “with an iron hand,” and has already launched legal action to stop the opposition in its tracks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Grinning asylum seekers taunted police trying to break up the ugly rabble who turned central Cologne into a lawless ‘open toilet’ — by telling them to be ‘nice’ — because they’d been invited by Angela Merkel.
The sex mob of migrant Arab and North African men tore up their temporary residence permits and threw them at officers who battled through New Year’s Eve to regain control of the streets, which were covered in faeces and vomit.
Outside the city’s historic cathedral, where the 1,000 ‘drunk and stoned’ migrants sexually assaulted and robbed 100 women declared: ‘You can’t do anything to me — I will get myself a new one in the morning.’
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Migrant Backlash Feared After Cologne Sex Attacks
Our Observers in Cologne warn that anti-migrant sentiment is on the rise after dozens of women reported being sexually assaulted and mugged in front of Cologne’s city centre on New Year’s Eve, by groups of men that police said were described as looking “North African or Middle Eastern”.
Though no arrests have been made and the city’s mayor has stressed that there is no proof that the attackers were migrants, many media outlets, politicians and commentators have assumed that they are, and used the incident to criticise the German government’s plan to take in one million migrants.
According to the police, about 1,000 men gathered on the square in front of Cologne’s train station, where many New Year’s revellers were partying in the street and coming in and out of the station. They shot fireworks — some of them into the crowd (see the video report inthis article) — and at some point, they broke into smaller groups. Some of these groups, police said, then targeted women, harassing them, mugging them, and brutally groping them. At least 106 criminal complaints have been filed, “at least three-quarters of which have a sexual component,” Cologne police spokesman Christoph Gilles said. In two cases the police are investigating crimes that amount to rape.
The police have been widely criticised for their handling of this situation, the seriousness of which only became clear in the following days New Years, when more and more complaints were filed. On Wednesday, police said they hadidentified three suspects, without giving any further details; no arrests have yet been made.
As details of the attacks emerged, right-wing politicians and publications pointed their fingers at migrants, and criticised Chancellor Angela Merkel for her open-door policy. These rumours have not been contained to Cologne or even to Germany; French far-right groups seized on it, and British tabloids ran headlines like “1,000-strong immigrant gang in frenzied mass sex assaults”.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Turkey $3 Billion Refugees Deal Won’t Work — Orban
The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called for the EU to pay for a new frontier to be erected on the northern Greek border because he does not believe a US$3.4 billion deal to pay Turkey to stem the flow of refugees will work.
European Union leaders have agreed to pay Turkey US$3.4 billion and allow visa-free EU travel for its citizens in return for Ankara doing its utmost to stem the tide of asylum-seekers crossing its borders to reach Europe.
The deal also includes a promise of expediting negotiations over Turkey’s accession into the European Union, but AK Party spokesman Omer Celik said the US$3.4 billion should not be seen as a matter of “political briery”.
However, Orban — who has gained popular support for his tough stance on refugees and was quick to erect razor wires fences along Hungary’s borders in September 2015 — says he does not believe the Turkish plan will be sufficient to deal with the refugee crisis. Orban told public radio in an interview:
“I think the next line of defense that we need to build up lies on the northern border of Greece. I do not think that the deal with Turkey will be sufficient in itself.”
EU Delegation to Ankara
His views were echoed Friday by EU sources who said officials will travel to Ankara on January 10 for talks over what is perceived to be Turkey’s slow progress in stemming the flow of refugees crossing into Greece.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR reported that, on average, 3,333 migrants arrived in Greece every day in December. Although this was a drop on previous months, the agency said it was more attributable to bad weather than to any action taken by the Turkish authorities.
Dimitris Avramopoulos, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, admitted the slow progress on the Turkish deal, as well as the relocation of refugees from Greece and Italy. In a newspaper article for New Europe newspaper this week he wrote: “Unfortunately, things have been moving too slowly”.
“While Member States agreed back in October to relocate 160,000 people in need of protection, today less than 2% of the agreed number of refugees has actually been relocated so far, and only two of the 11 Support Teams meant to be deployed in ‘hotspot’ areas are operational in Lampedusa and Lesvos.”
First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans — who has been leading discussions with Ankara and is due to hold talks there on January 11 — has expressed concern at the number of refugees still entering the EU via Turkey.
“We are a long way from being satisfied,” he said. “Of course we need to do more… the only benchmark, of course, are the figures going down. We are all committed as part of the joint action to bring the numbers substantially down, and it is quite clear that over the last few weeks the figures have remained relatively high.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Finnish Govt Condemns ‘Extremist’ Anti-Migrant Street Patrols
Volunteer street patrols linked to neo-Nazi groups have emerged in several Finnish towns in recent months claiming to protect locals from what they call “Islamic intruders”, a trend the Finnish government condemned on Thursday.
“There are extremist features to carrying out street patrols. It does not increase security,” Finnish Interior Minister Petteri Orpo said in an interview with national broadcaster YLE.
“Volunteers have no right to use force,” he added…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A week after a mob of ‘drunk and stoned’ migrants sexually assaulted and robbed 100 women on the streets of Cologne, a group known as ‘Dusseldorf is Watching’ has gained more than 8,000 Facebook members.
The group says it wants to make the streets safer through ‘presence’ alone but police have warned that ‘searching for offenders is not a job for citizens’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian Leader Says Stop Migrant Flow Totally
Hungary’s prime minister says that the flow of migrants entering the European Union must be fully stopped, not just slowed.
Viktor Orban said Friday on state radio that ending the migrant flow would be “the decisive issue of 2016” and called for the construction of a “European defense line” on Greece’s northern borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria.
Orban said on state radio that “since no one except us Hungarians protected their external Schengen borders, defenses, visa systems, border controls and fences are being created inside” Schengen’s visa-free travel zone.
Orban said “we are increasingly losing the possibility of free movement.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Don’t Abolish Illegal Immigration Crime, Warns Lupi
Illegal immigrants entering Italy ‘must be sent back’
(ANSA) — Rome, January 8 — Abolishing the crime of illegal immigration would be “an error” in current circumstances, the Lower House whip for the centre-right Area Popolare caucus Maurizio Lupi said Friday.
“If anyone enters Italy and is not a genuine refugee, they must be sent back,” Lupi said in reference to an impending decree by Italian Premier Matteo Renzi to depenalise illegal immigration.
“On the one hand we must continue to welcome genuine asylum seekers, but on the other hand we must send out a strong signal,” he warned.
“After what happened in Germany, in light of what’s happening across Europe, we must send a signal that Italy is going in a different direction.” Area Popolare is mainly composed of the New Centre Right (NCD) party, the junior partner in Renzi’s right-left government.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis Means Sweden Now Has Higher Ratio of Teenage Boys-to-Girls Than China
THE migrant crisis means that the ratio of teenage boys aged 16 and 17 to their female counterparts is even greater than the male dominated China.
In Sweden, unaccompanied male minors made up 21 per cent of all new arrivals from the Middle-East and Africa last year.
Among that number there was only one girl for every 11.3 boys, according to figures from the American website Politico.
The figures also showed that from 18,615 refugees who entered Sweden last year, only 2,555 were girls.
Adding those numbers to those of Swedish nationals from the same age group, the total number of boys in the country comes to 121,914 compared to only 99,079 girls.
That disparity is greater than China’s, a country renowned for its male-heavy population, where there are 117 boys for every 100 girls.
Sweden, together with Germany and Denmark, has been one of the most generous European countries when it comes to hosting refugees.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Struggle in Sub-Zero Temperatures
Medics working at refugee aid camps in the Balkans say they are seeing a spike in the number of migrants falling ill as freezing temperatures arrive.
It has fallen to as low as -11C in the region.
The medical charities International Medical Corps and Medecins Sans Frontieres say most patients are suffering with respiratory problems such as bronchitis and flu.
There are also concerns about people refusing or not seeking treatment.
Migrants are offered medical assistance, warm clothes and food at the main refugee points at the Serbian border with Macedonia to the south, and Croatia to the north.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Surprise! Germany’s Refugee Numbers Rise… and So Do Rape Cases…
So Germany, Sweden, heck a lot of European countries, threw open their borders to those poor, helpless Syrian migrants, who marched right in. Most of them were military aged men, by the way, but that didn’t matter for the people with the feels. Remember #RefugeesWelcome? Uh huh, we do.
Well guess what? Muslim men came in. Did they assimilate to the European cultures? Nah, they brought theirs with them and have been exposing Europeans to it ever since. Especially the women. Not in a super friendly way either, but in a rape way. Like this Muslim man bragging about gang-raping a German girl.
We also touched on the massive sexual assaults that took place in Cologne on New Years. Now the larger scope of it is really starting to come out…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Op-Ed: Merkel’s Terrible Blunder
By Jack Engelhard
Merkel and the rest of Europe tried to keep it a secret. Good thing we have social media. Otherwise we’d know nothing.
If we had to rely on the mainstream media they’d have us just where they want us, whitewashed and blacked out from the truth.
But now we know what happened New Year’s Day and Night in Cologne and throughout Germany and elsewhere around the continent.
Diversity has come home to roost.
Blondes have more fun? Not if they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Hordes of men described by victims as “Arabs” and as “men from North Africa” took to the streets to sexually assault the revelers, mostly female. There were rapes and attempted rapes and the women courageous enough to speak up continue to tell it straight and without embellishment of what it was like to be manhandled at an event that was supposed to joyous and festive.
In what used to be Europe.
But Europe did not want us to know. To admit the truth would get Israel off the hook.
To admit that this generation of Arabs is the same gang that torments Israel night and day would be a stretch too far for Europeans.[…]
[Koln — it must have been co-ordinated, but by whom? this was not spontaneous across several cities in central Europe. Rape and groping are not a crime in Islam, Ladies you had better get used to it (or wake up and do something about it)]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
‘Refugees’ In US Found to be Palestinian Jihadists
US authorities said two people with ties to the Islamic State (ISIS) group are due in court Friday in California and Texas, including a migrant from Syria who lied about his travels there.
The arrests come amid heightened security in the United States following last month’s assault by a Muslim couple in California that left 14 people murdered, and the November ISIS terror attacks in Paris that murdered 130 victims.
There is also growing pressure for more scrutiny of migrants from war-ravaged Syria, amid fears that terrorist swill infiltrate the massive influx that US President Barack Obama is pushing for.
Aws Mohammed Younis al-Jayab, an Iraq-born Palestinian Arab arrested Thursday who came to the United States from Syria as a refugee in 2012, traveled to Syria the following year where he fought with various terror groups, according to a criminal complaint.
One of those groups was Al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al-Islam (Partisans of Islam), which once operated in both Iraq and Syria.
Listed as a terrorist organization by the United Nations and the United States, its Iraq faction has since merged with the Islamic State group, though some of its Syrian fighters rejected ISIS.
But US Attorney Benjamin Wagner claimed that “while (Jayab) represented a potential safety threat, there is no indication that he planned any acts of terrorism in this country.”[…]
[innocent until proven guilty — oops — Sorry, too late for the dead and wounded victims. This guy needs to personally guarantee their ‘behaviour’]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Slovakia Vows to Refuse Entry to Muslim Migrants
Responding to the sexual assaults in Cologne and Hamburg, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has reiterated his aim to allow no Muslims into the country. According to reports, some of the attackers were refugees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Arabic Phrasebook Found on an Asylum Seeker Sex Attack Suspect in Cologne
‘Nice breasts’, ‘I want to have sex with you’: The Arabic phrasebook found on an asylum seeker sex attack suspect in Cologne — the in virtual lockdown where women are too frightened to go out alone
Cologne police found an Arabic phrasebook on one of the New Year’s Eve sex attack suspects with German phrases like ‘I’ll kill you’. Reporter Nick Fagge is in the city ‘in virtual lockdown’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Spike in Teenage Migrant Boys Entering Europe Threatens Western Stability, Says Professor
The huge influx of young male migrants into Europe will lead to a gender imbalance that will threaten Western stability, according to a university professor.
Valerie Hudson’s comments come days after it emerged more than 100 women were sexually assaulted in a night of terror in Cologne, Germany by suspects believed to be of “Arab or North African” origin.
Speaking to Politico, Dr Hudson, a professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, says the surge in young men migrating to Europe could create major problems with higher levels of violence in male-dominated societies.
She said: “As many governments, including in the United States, debate how many migrants to accept onto their shores, they would be wise to take gender balance into consideration.
“That might sound sexist on the surface, but years of research has shown that male-dominated societies are less stable, because they are more susceptible to higher levels of violence, insurgence and mistreatment of women.”
Huge numbers of unaccompanied teenage boys have fled the Middle East over the last year as the refugee crisis in Europe worsens.
Dr Hudson said: “According to official counts, a disproportionate number of these migrants are young, unmarried, unaccompanied males. In fact, the sex ratios among migrants are so one-sided—we’re talking worse than those in China, in some cases—that they could radically change the gender balance in European countries in certain age cohorts.”
She added: “In Germany, scores of women recently reported being attacked on New Year’s Eveby men whom the authorities describe as of ‘North African or Arabic’ descent.
“While it is not yet known whether the alleged perpetrators were migrants, the attacks may finally be alerting policymakers to the risks of a male-dominated migration wave. Why would European societies, many of which rank highest on global measures of gender equality and stability and peace, jeopardise those hard-won and enviable rankings?”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Why Germany Can’t Face the Truth About Migrant Sex Attacks
SUE REID finds a nation in denial as a wave of horrific attacks is reported across Europe
The exquisite sound of Cologne’s cathedral choir drifted out into the cool night air of the city’s main square on Wednesday evening. A Holy mass, celebrating baby Jesus’s baptism, was packed with worshippers marking the 12th day of Christmas in this fiercely Christian part of Germany.
As the service ended and families poured out onto the pavement, an 18-year-old German girl called Michelle stood under bright arc lights nearby giving an interview to a television crew.
She and a group of friends had been sexually attacked in the same cathedral square by gangs of marauding men a few days before, on New Year’s Eve. The girls were chased, cornered and intimately groped before their mobiles and wallets were stolen.
‘The men were all foreigners, and when we protested, in German, they did not understand us,’ said Michelle during the interview.
She is just one of 120 women who were abused that horrific night in the square, which is dotted with bars, nightclubs and coffee shops, and is where Cologne locals have seen in the New Year for centuries.
The men, speaking Arabic and seemingly either drunk or high on drugs, moved around in large groups among a gathering of around 1,000 male migrants and deliberately targeted women. The men easily outnumbered the 190 police officers on duty, who were quickly overwhelmed.
In other cities across Germany, including Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin, where a tourist was sexually assaulted by five men right in front of the famous Brandenburg Gate, it was the same disturbing story…
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
“Five Italian teenagers were accosted on the street by Arabs, who lined them up, fired a gun into the air, and demanded to know whether they were Christians or believed in Allah. When the young people said they didn’t believe in anything, the Arabs left.”
Western man is confused. His instinct and his senses tell him one thing, the establishment tells him another – this explains his current toleration of the above.
Note that the rivers in the UK have no been dregged over the last 15 years due to the EU water directive.
On the other side building on flood plains by the big housing builders on cheap land…