Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/11/2016

During the trial of a culture-enricher in Hannover, Germany, a court heard that the alleged perpetrator cried “Allahu akhbar!” as he brutally raped a 25-year-old student. In possibly unrelated news, a culture-enriching prisoner cried “Allahu akhbar!” as he attacked a guard with the metal seat of a stool in a prison in Washington State. The guard suffered brain damage, and is still recovering from his injuries.

In other news, the precipitous drop in stock market prices has driven investors to buy precious metals. The prices of gold and silver are seeing a sudden increase as a result.

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

Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Dean, DV, Ido, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, LP, Mezgerei, MM, Nick, Seneca III, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» Investors ‘Go Bananas’ For Gold Bars as Global Stock Markets Tumble
» Italy: Renzi Says EU Worse Off After Taking Wrong Direction
 
USA
» “It’s Time!!!!” Cliven Bundy Arrested as FBI Closes in on Malheur Holdouts
» CIA Director Rages When Asked About Spying on Senate
» Corrections Officer Remains in Forks Hospital, Improving
» Don’t be Fooled by Bernie Sanders — He’s a Die Hard Communist
» Five Indicted in Deadly 2015 NYC Gas Explosion That Leveled Buildings
» ‘I Would Do it All Over Again, ‘ Says Hero Fired for Using Concealed Handgun to Save Woman’s Life
» Police: Concealed Permit Holder Saves Officer Surrounded by Mob
» The Latest: Sheriff Shares More Details of Fatal Shootings
» Top Secret Info Handled by Up to 30 Different Accounts on Hillary Clinton’s Server
» What Your Government is Up to While You’re Watching Football
» What Do You Do When the Government Loses Its Legitimacy?
» Wind Turbines Kill Almost 1 Million Bats Per Year, Because They Confuse Them With Trees
 
Canada
» Man Suddenly Remembers Who he is, Solves His Own Cold Case
 
Europe and the EU
» 60% of German Employees Forced to Work Overtime
» Italy: Gravitational Waves Discovered
» Italy: M5S ‘Found 1.2 Bn Euros’ for Cash-Strapped Rome
» Italy: BPM, Banco Popolare Merger Deal Ready
» Italy: ILVA Attracts 29 Expressions of Interest
» Italy: Coop Bank Reform ‘Valid’ Says Federcasse
» Italy: Man Who Wounded Thief Released From Custody
» Italy: HIV Sufferer, Priest Among 11 Arrested in Child-Sex Probe
» Italy: Five Google Execs Probed for Tax Evasion
» Poland Approves Child Benefits to Aid Families, Boost Births
» U.K. Church Leaders: Christians Now Minority
» UK: George Osborne’s Brother Struck Off After Affair With Vulnerable Patient
» UK: Google Right to be Forgotten: Article on Osborne Brother’s Conversion to Islam Removed
» UK: Killers Could Avoid Whole Life Terms by Pleading Guilty, Sentencing Council Suggests
» UK: Police Tried to Keep Identity of ‘Gay’ Jihadi Secret to Protect His Human Rights
 
North Africa
» Tunisia Invests in BIT to Reconquer Italians
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israel Charges Arab Schoolgirls for Stabbing Security Guard
» It’s Official: Israeli Christians Are Now Registered as Arameans Not Arabs
 
Middle East
» Humiliation: Iran Releases Photos of Crying Sailors
» Iran’s Guardian Council Approves Hundreds of Reformist Candidates Ahead of Elections
» Over 900 Turkish Aegean Resorts on Sale Amid Russia Strains, Terror
 
Russia
» Flu: 260 Deaths in Ukraine Since December, Many Due to H1N1
 
South Asia
» India: Rising Violence Against Christians in Uttar Pradesh Ahead of State Elections
 
Far East
» Japan’s Asahi Makes 3bn-Euro Bid for Peroni, Grolsch
 
Latin America
» Zika Hoax Exposed by South American Doctors
 
Immigration
» Algerian Sex Attacker Shouted “Inshallah” — If Allah Wills It — As He Raped a 25-Year-Old German Student
» Erdogan Slams EU, Threatens to Send Refugees Outside Turkey
» EU Draft Wants More Migrant Facilities in Greece and Italy
» EU Plan to Send Asylum Seekers Back to Greece
» Europe on the Brink — Kingdoms of Decay
» ‘Forget it’: EU Migration Policy in Chaos as Turkey Rejects Refugee Deal
» Germany: Report: Christians, Gays, Women Fleeing Asylum Centres Due to Persecution by Muslim Men
» German Labour Minister Says the Country Will Need to Spend Half a Billion Euros to Integrate Just Ten Per Cent of Its Migrant Arrivals Into the Job Market
» NATO Warships Ordered to Patrol the Aegean Sea ‘Without Delay’ After Turkey, Germany and Greece Ask for Help in Stopping Illegal Migration
» Surging Number of Attacks in Germany’s Migrant Centres Sees Christians, Women and Homosexuals Forced to Flee From Muslim Men
» UK: Secondary Schools Face Teaching Crisis: Classrooms Can’t Keep up With the Immigrant Baby Boom
» US Opens Screening Centre for Syrian Refugees in Amman
 
Culture Wars
» Fake Blood and War Chants: Milo Yiannopoulos Event at Rutgers Disrupted by Feminists, Black Lives Matter Activists
» You Can’t Sing if You Don’t Have LGBT Ribbon Says Salvini
 

Investors ‘Go Bananas’ For Gold Bars as Global Stock Markets Tumble

Bullion dealers report record sales as buyers “queue round the block” to purchase the precious metal

BullionByPost, Britain’s biggest online gold dealer, said it has already taken record-day sales of £5.6m as traders pile into gold following fears the world is on the brink of another financial crisis.

Rob Halliday-Stein, founder and managing director of the Birmingham-based company, said takings today had already surpassed the firm’s previous one-day record of £4.4m in October 2014.

BullionByPost, which takes orders of up to £25,000 on the website but takes higher amounts over the phone, explained it had received a few hundred orders overnight and frantic numbers of phone calls this morning.

“The bullion market has been building with interest since the end of last year but this morning things have gone bananas,” said Mr Halliday-Stein. “Some bankers in London are placing unusually large orders for physical gold.”…

           — Hat tip: MM [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Renzi Says EU Worse Off After Taking Wrong Direction

Obama did well, Barroso no, premier tells La Repubblica

(ANSA) — Rome, February 11 — Premier Matteo Renzi said in a letter published by Rome-based daily La Repubblica on Thursday that the European Union was worse off than eight years ago because it had taken the wrong direction by adopting austerity policies rather than trying to foster growth. “In recent years Europe has taken the wrong road,” Renzi wrote in response to a question about a proposal for a so-called ‘super finance minister’ for the eurozone.

“The problem of the European economy is not the super minister, but its direction.

“If we wish the European institutions well, we have to make our voice heard. We are doing this for Europe, not for Italy. “In eight years with a Democratic Party president, the United States has banked on growth, investment and innovation.

Europe (banked on) austerity, currency, rigour. “In economic terms, the United States is better off than eight years ago, Europe is worse off than eight years ago.

“(US President Barack) Obama has done well, (former European Commission President José Manuel) Barroso no. Austerity is not enough”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

“It’s Time!!!!” Cliven Bundy Arrested as FBI Closes in on Malheur Holdouts

Note: This situation is ongoing, and updates to this post are likely as further news breaks.

The Feds are now everywhere surrounding the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. It appears that the final, and potentially tragic, act of the standoff is underway.

Things are coming a head for the four final holdouts inside the building has hosted an occupation against federal land claims for now more than a month.

Hopefully things will remain peaceful. But there is every chance that sparks could fly instead.

Cliven Bundy Arrested Before Arriving At Malheur:

Cliven Bundy, father Ammon and Ryan Bundy who were arrested for their role in leading the Oregon standoff, was en route to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge along with Nevada State Assembly member Michele Fiore to negotiate the peaceful surrender of the four left inside — who agreed to walkout and surrender with Bundy and Fiore there.

Cliven Bundy also called for patriots and militia to join him over the last several hours, issuing a statement on Facebook:

But now, Cliven Bundy was arrested at the Portland airport just hours ago on “conspiracy and weapons charges”, making the resolution of the situation uncertain:…

Meanwhile, it appears that the FBI and other affiliated agencies have strategized their own resolution to the situation, and are moving in agents up to the point of the barriers, positioning snipers and readying crowd control resources.

Unofficially, a martial law atmosphere has descended upon the Eastern Oregon area.

The Feds are portraying their actions as a peaceful, but necessary means to force the situation to a conclusion.

In reality, it is an skittish move that could make someone jumpy or trigger happy, and federal agents proved prone to violence in apprehended LaVoy Finicum and the others traveling with him.

By arresting Bundy, the FBI may have been trying to avert further conflict with the people, but may have conversely set themselves up for a Waco/Ruby Ridge finale.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

CIA Director Rages When Asked About Spying on Senate

(Tech Dirt) If you’re a CIA Director, one would assume that you know how to be cool under fire, right? Apparently that’s not the case for current CIA Director John Brennan who seemed to completely freak out when Senator Ron Wyden started asking questions about the CIA’s infamous decision to spy on the network and computers of Senate Intelligence Committee staffers who were compiling a report on the CIA’s torture program.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Corrections Officer Remains in Forks Hospital, Improving

FORKS — A Clallam Bay Corrections Center officer who suffered serious head injuries last week continued to improve but remained hospitalized Monday.

Correctional Officer Terry Breedlove remained at Forks Community Hospital and will remain there until he can walk, according to his family.

“He’s going to be here longer, I think,” said Breedlove’s mother, Joanne Spaulding.

Breedlove suffered a brain injury during an attack Jan. 25 by inmate Abdinjib Ibraham, 28, of King County, investigators said.

An MRI was performed on Breedlove on Saturday. It showed injuries to two vertebrae, Spaulding said.

Breedlove can stand but experiences difficulty once standing, she said.

Remains on lockdown

The prison, which holds 900 inmates, went on lockdown after the attack and remained on lockdown Monday.

Inmates are confined to their cells and there is no visitation.

Ibraham said “Allahu akbar” (an Islamic phrase meaning “God is greater”) twice — once when he hit the guard, and again after the attack, said Brian King, chief criminal deputy for the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputy Ed Anderson, the West End supervisor for the Sheriff’s Office who is in charge of the investigation into the attack, said he spent most of Monday interviewing witnesses in the prison.

“We’re still gathering information,” Anderson said.

Breedlove was on duty in a medium-security portion of the prison when he was attacked, Anderson said…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Don’t be Fooled by Bernie Sanders — He’s a Die Hard Communist

As polls tighten and self-described socialist Bernie Sanders looks more like a serious contender than a novelty candidate for president, the liberal media elite have suddenly stopped calling him socialist. He’s now cleaned up as a “progressive” or “pragmatist.”

But he’s not even a socialist. He’s a communist.

Mainstreaming Sanders requires whitewashing his radical pro-communist past. It won’t be easy to do.

If Sanders were vying for a Cabinet post, he’d never pass an FBI background check. There’d be too many subversive red flags popping up in his file. He was a communist collaborator during the height of the Cold War.

Rewind to 1964.

While attending the University of Chicago, Sanders joined the Young People¿s Socialist League, the youth wing of the Socialist Party USA. He also organized for a communist front, the United Packinghouse Workers Union, which at the time was under investigation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

After graduating with a political science degree, Sanders moved to Vermont, where he headed the American People’s History Society, an organ for Marxist propaganda. There, he produced a glowing documentary on the life of socialist revolutionary Eugene Debs, who was jailed for espionage during the Red Scare and hailed by the Bolsheviks as — America’s greatest Marxist.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Five Indicted in Deadly 2015 NYC Gas Explosion That Leveled Buildings

A building owner and four others have been indicted on charges that include manslaughter in connection with a gas explosion last year that killed two people and leveled three New York City buildings.

A building owner and four others have been indicted on charges that include manslaughter in connection with a gas explosion last year that killed two people and leveled three New York City buildings.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. and other officials said Thursday that the charges also include criminally negligent homicide and assault. They say the defendants set up an illegal gas delivery system.

Vance says the carnage was caused by “a foreseeable, preventable and completely avoidable gas explosion.”…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

‘I Would Do it All Over Again, ‘ Says Hero Fired for Using Concealed Handgun to Save Woman’s Life

Didarul Sarder lost his job for pulling a gun to rescue a woman who was being stabbed to death, but he never regretted his split-second decision.

“I would do it all over again,” he told Fox affiliate WJBK. “If I could save this woman’s life over a job. I can get another job.”

Fortunately for Sarder, that won’t be necessary.

The 32-year-old has been offered his job back after his bosses at a General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Mich., reversed their unpopular decision, allowing the valet service supervisor to return to work.

The decision was praised by Warren Mayor Jim Fouts, who called Sarder a “hero” in a lengthy Facebook post commending his actions. He noted that Sarder had a valid concealed pistol license and “probably saved” a “woman from being murdered.”

“Had he not legally exercised his second amendment rights this woman would probably not be with us today,” he wrote. “He is employed by a GM contracted valet service. Right after it happened someone in authority asked him off the premises because he violated company rules with a gun. That was absolutely the wrong response to this hero. However that decision was over-ruled by higher ups and he now has his job back.

“Hero’s should be rewarded not terminated,” he added. “Didarul is a resident of Warren and a resident that we can all be proud of!”

Sarder’s wife told the Detroit Free Press that her husband has worked for the valet service for 10 years.

He was arriving at work like any other day Wednesday when he heard a woman — later identified as as Stephanie Kerr — screaming for help, according to WJBK.

WJBK reported that Warren police said the assailant, a 32-year-old woman, had come to see Kerr and that they argued in the building’s lobby, then went outside, where the woman pulled a knife, stabbing Kerr multiple times in the neck, back and abdomen. WJBK reported that the woman was later identified as Kerr’s daughter.

Sarder said he told the younger woman to stay where she was until police arrived.

“The lady kept saying “I’m dying, someone help’ and it was just natural reaction,” Sarder told the station. “I just see this lady getting stabbed. I only had like half a second to think and I unholstered my firearm and pointed it at her to drop the knife.”…

           — Hat tip: Ido [Return to headlines]
 

Police: Concealed Permit Holder Saves Officer Surrounded by Mob

On February 5, an armed citizen saved a police officer who was under assault and encircled by a mob of onlookers

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said “there is no doubt they would have attacked” the officer without the armed citizen’s intervention.

According to Philly.com, the officer was breaking up a fight between two Upper Darby High School students-after school had let out for the day-and one of the students jumped the officer. Superintendent Chitwood said, “As he breaks up the fight, he takes one kid and then the other jumps [on] him. Now he’s fighting two of them and he’s calling for an assist officer at the same time. There’s a crowd of 40 or 50 kids watching the fight, and they all move in towards the officer.”

An area resident with a concealed carry permit saw the officer struggling and the crowd closing in, so he grabbed his gun and ran to the officer’s defense. The resident ordered the kids to get away from the officer and kept them away until sufficient backup arrived. Chitwood said, “He had the gun in his hand, but he didn’t point it at the kids, he just told them to back off. If this guy didn’t come out and come to the aid of the officer, this officer would have had significant problems.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Latest: Sheriff Shares More Details of Fatal Shootings

A Maryland sheriff is sharing more details about the fatal shootings of two deputies and the gunman who killed them.

Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said Thursday that Deputy Patrick Dailey went to the restaurant on Wednesday looking for David Evans and had just begun speaking with him, when Evans pulled out a gun and shot him in the head.

He says Evans fled and Senior Deputy Mark Logsdon approached a car where Evans was spotted. He says shots came from the vehicle, striking Logsdon. He says it appears that Logsdon returned fire and other deputies opened fire, killing Evans.

He says Evans legally purchased the gun in Pennsylvania in 1993.

Gahler says he doesn’t think that Evans was targeting law enforcement officers, but instead he took these actions because he faced arrest…

           — Hat tip: DV [Return to headlines]
 

Top Secret Info Handled by Up to 30 Different Accounts on Hillary Clinton’s Server

The Clinton email scandal is getting bigger again, as Fox News cites a source close to the investigation who says at least a dozen different accounts on Hillary Clinton’s notorious homebrew email server handled Top Secret material. The number of different accounts could be as high as 30.

“The official said the accounts include not only Clinton’s but those of top aides — including Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin, Jake Sullivan and Philippe Reines — as well as State Department Under Secretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy and others. There is no public evidence they were authorized to receive the intelligence some of which was beyond Top Secret,” Fox News reports.

In fact, as former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey pointed out, it’s “counterintuitive to suggest that they all had authorization and access through a non-secure server to information of that sensitivity.”

To put it more bluntly, it’s very unlikely that Clinton’s retinue was cleared to see the material they were handling. The other people with accounts on her server were passing around documents so hot they cannot be released to the public at all.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

What Your Government is Up to While You’re Watching Football

While 111.9 million viewers, making it the third most-watched television event in U.S. history, were watching the Super Bowl—a perfect captive audience for Beyonce’s halftime political tribute to Black Lives Matter and the New Black Panthers, this is what the strong arm of the government was doing.

In the U.S. government agencies were getting ready to impose solitary confinement on all 16 participants in the Oregon standoff, held in custody.

Even most terrorists are spared solitary confinement. But Islamic terrorists have free reign over civilians, not government officials.

The same government that allows terrorists masquerading as ‘refugees’ freedom of movement, tracks domestic dissenters through über surveillance to stop them dead in their tracks as they go about their private lives.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

What Do You Do When the Government Loses Its Legitimacy?

Last month, Americans were treated to the spectacle of our own government executing an American citizen without due process on the side of a public highway in Oregon. There is really no other accurate description to describe the extra-judicial murder of LaVoy Finnicum by agents of the Oregon Highway Patrol, at the behest of the FBI.

To begin with, we should understand that pretty much everything the average person heard from the mainstream media about the Malheur refuge “occupation” is wrong. The media loved to describe the events in Oregon as an “armed takeover of a federal building.” That way, your average viewer living “back East somewhere” got the impression that these were heavily armed paramilitaries with machine guns and rockets taking over a courthouse or something. Actually, the “federal building” in question was a forest station, and was unoccupied at the time the Bundy group came in. Some reports I’ve seen suggest that it was even left unlocked so that anyone who got lost in the wilderness and found the station could get in and take shelter from the elements. To the extent that they were armed, it was with pistols — indeed, when a more serious militia group armed with rifles came to join them, they were asked to leave. The Bundy group regularly gave interviews to the media and often met with various police agencies. If this was an anarchic armed standoff, it must have been the most benevolent and lackadaisical one in history.

So it was with the chain of events that led to Finnicum’s murder at the hands of the police. Most news reports stated that he “went for a gun,” and was shot by police acting in self-defense. Seeing the video, this is patently ridiculous, as is the claim that a man who had his hands up and was being covered by half a dozen armed officers training their weapons on him was going to “go for his gun” like it was some kind of Wild West showdown at high noon on the streets of Dodge. No — LaVoy Finnicum was shot by police looking to make a statement — displease the government, and you’ll end up dead. What we saw that day from the OSP and the FBI was a politically motivated assassination, in essence an act of terrorism by the actual definition of that word.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Wind Turbines Kill Almost 1 Million Bats Per Year, Because They Confuse Them With Trees

“People often ask why we should care about bats. Bats are saving us big bucks by gobbling up insects that eat or damage our crops,” he said. “If we can understand why bats approach wind turbines, we may be able to turn them away.”

Bats that eat bugs by the metric ton are worth about $3 billion a year in pest control for U.S. agriculture, according to a separate report that Cryan helped write in 2011. Cryan went on to explain how the financial boon to agriculture lowers food costs for Americans and is reason enough to give bats more respect and help.

Bats are vision-impaired and many get confused as they attempt to roost in trees at night when those trees turn out to be high wind turbines. But amazingly, while many bats do successfully avoid those huge wind turbine blades, many more are killed by them than birds.

Birds tend to smash into tall buildings with lots of glass on the exterior. The glass confuses their vision. Bats are vision-impaired and use their sonar capabilities to determine the location of large solid obstacles, so glass windows on buildings do not distract them. But they have a hard time with wind turbines’ revolving blades.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Man Suddenly Remembers Who he is, Solves His Own Cold Case

A Canadian man solved his own cold case — by suddenly remembering his identity 30 years after he disappeared.

Edgar Latulip was 21 years old when he vanished from a group home in Kitchener, Ontario, in September 1986.

The last time his mom, Sylvia Wilson, saw her son, he was in a hospital after a failed suicide attempt, and cops figured Wilson, who has the cognitive abilities of a child, traveled to Niagara Falls to kill himself.

His mom suspected foul play, thinking for decades that he may have been abused because of his mental illness, or accidentally killed and his body hidden, she told The Guelph Mercury.

“When Edgar disappeared, I became quite sick. I had to take a leave of absence from work. I was near a nervous breakdown,” she said two years ago. “Having an answer would mean closure.”

But on Wednesday, Waterloo regional police announced that Latulip was alive and well, living 80 miles away from where he disappeared.

His cold case got a big break in January after Latulip told a social worker in St. Catharines that he remembered who he was.

A DNA test performed last week confirmed that it was in fact him.

Police concluded that Latulip had some kind of head injury that caused him to forget who he was.

“It’s the only case, that I know of, where we’ve been able to find someone who has been missing for this period of time,” Detective Duane Gingerich told CTV News.

Officials are now working on arranging a reunion between Latulip and his family…

           — Hat tip: LP [Return to headlines]
 

60% of German Employees Forced to Work Overtime

Report made by trade unions. Hotels and restaurants ranked first

(ANSA) — BERLIN — Around 60% of German citizens are forced to overtime and they work more than what is established in the employment contract. This news was revealed by a report made by the DGB, German Trade Unions, after conducting a survey which was presented today in Berlin.

Among full-time employees, 33% spend more than 45 hours per week at work, and 17% admit to spend more than 48 hours. There are many differences between the different sectors. The employees working in hotels and restaurants (full-time workers are 63%) top the list of those who work overtime, followed by drivers of vehicles used for transport (59%). At the bottom of the barrel, according to this report made by German trade unions, you find those who work in the finance and insurance sectors.

Many of these employees do not voluntarily work overtime, said Annelie Buntenbach, member of the DGB board, commenting on the results: “We need new rules, in order to let workers organize independently and flexibly their working time”, she added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Gravitational Waves Discovered

(ANSA) — Pisa, February 11 — Premier Matteo Renzi on Thursday congratulated the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) after the part-Italian discovery of the gravitational waves theorised by Albert Einstein, INFN President Fernando Ferroni told reporters after taking the phone call.

Gravitational waves caused by two black holes were found by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), and the data also analysed by the part-Italian, part-French VIRGO project at Cascina near Pisa.

VIRGO is run by the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), which was founded and funded by Italy’s National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and the French National Research Council (CNRS).

The first signal of gravitational waves was created by the collision of two black holes a billion years ago. The unprecedented result is doubly surprising, scientists said, because as well as confirming Einstein’s theory of gravitational waves, it also provides the first direct proof of the existence of black holes.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: M5S ‘Found 1.2 Bn Euros’ for Cash-Strapped Rome

Measure involve removing privileges to Vatican

(ANSA) — Rome, February 9 — The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) said Tuesday that it has identified savings that could bolster the budget of the cash-strapped city of Rome by over one billion euros.

The M5S presented the savings at the Lower House ahead of local elections in the Italian capital later this year.

The movement said that, of the 1.189 billion euros in savings it had found, 404 million stemmed from “services offered free to the Vatican and taxes not collected and not contemplated by the Lateran Pacts (regulating relations between Italy and the Holy See)”. Another 216 million would come from a clampdown in evasion of local taxes, while 200 million more would stem from the city’s real-estate assets, following a scandal that revealed the council was renting out many flats in central areas at a pittance. The M5S said it was the first to uncover this scandal.

It said some 10 million more could be saved by cutting chauffeur-driven cars for politicians.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: BPM, Banco Popolare Merger Deal Ready

Would create Italy’s third-largest lender

(ANSA) — Milan, February 10 — A deal has been negotiated to merge Banco Popolare di Milano (BPM) and Verona-based Banco Popolare banks, ANSA learned Wednesday. Executives from both lenders have gone to the Bank of Italy and to the European Central Bank for approval. The boards of both banks will meet to vote on the deal at the weekend, pending approval by both central banks. Under terms of the merger, BPM would be 100% controlled by a new holding company for about three years. The deal would create Italy’s third-largest lender after Intesa and UniCredit, worth 172 billion euros and with 2,484 branches. On Tuesday, Banco Popolare reported it closed out the 2015 financial year with net profits of 430 million euros and proposed dividends of 15 eurocents a share.

The lender also reported it cut its non-performing loans by 200 million euros in the past year, to 14.1 billion euros.

Banco Popolare shares on Wednesday added 11% to close at 7 euros a share, while BPM rose 9.45% to close at 0.60 euros a share.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: ILVA Attracts 29 Expressions of Interest

Including from ArcelorMittal, Arvedi Group, Marcegaglia Group

(ANSA) — Rome, February 10 — There have been 29 expressions of interest in purchasing troubled ILVA steelmaker assets and affiliates, informed sources told ANSA Wednesday. They include offers from Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal, Cremona-based steel manufacturer Arvedi Group, Milan-based steelmaker EUSIDER, and family-owned Marcegaglia Group steel processor. Extraordinary commissioners managing ILVA as the firm undergoes a massive environmental cleanup and financial turnaround project have begun assessing the offers. The deadline for filing under terms of a government decree signed last month is today, February 10. State-controlled investment bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) filed an expression of interest Tuesday.

A court this year declared ILVA insolvent, with debt totalling nearly three billion euros.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Coop Bank Reform ‘Valid’ Says Federcasse

But parliament must improve reforms says Azzi

(ANSA) — Rome, February 11 — The Federcasse federation of cooperative banks (BCCs) on Thursday said the government’s reform of the BCCs was “valid” but voiced concern “on the possibility of allowing BCCs above a certain capitalisation threshold to cede banking activity to a limited company with a 20% enfranchisement of the indivisible reserves. Federcasse President Alessandro Azzi voiced the hope that parliament will “improve” the reforms to make sure the original goal of “consolidating and bolstering Italian banking firms” is achieved. The BCC reform was approved by cabinet Wednesday night.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Man Who Wounded Thief Released From Custody

Arrest warrant agst ex-policeman Bruno Poeti not upheld

(ANSA) — Grosseto, February 11 — A man who shot and wounded one of four Romanian thieves who came onto his land near Grosseto Monday was released from custody Thursday. Bruno Poeti, a 64-year-old former policeman, was accused of attempted murder but a preliminary investigations judge did not uphold the arrest warrant. Three of the thieves are being held for aggravated theft while the fourth is under guard in a hospital.

Poeti allegedly shot at the four Romanians with a 7.65mm caliber semiautomatic pistol after they broke in to his property and tried to drive off in his car, wounding one.

Ion Nicolai Farcas, 39, is hospitalized.

The incident occurred in the small seaside town of Marina di Grosseto in southern Tuscany.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: HIV Sufferer, Priest Among 11 Arrested in Child-Sex Probe

Football trainer, municipal policeman among suspects

(ANSA) — Milan, February 11 — Police on Thursday arrested 11 people, including a HIV sufferer, a priest, a trainer of a youth football team and a municipal policeman on charges of having paid sex with minors.

The arrests were made in the northern regions of Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, where police also carried out searches and seized computers. In total, over 20 people are implicated in the probe. Claudio Tonoli, 56, had previously been arrested weeks ago by police from Montichiari, near Brescia, for allegedly requesting unprotected sex even though he knew he was a HIV carrier.

The suspects, who also included Don Diego Rota from the parish of Solza near Bergamo, are accused of paying for regular sex with four minors, including in parked cars, leisure centres and private homes. The underage youths presented themselves as adults on social networks, investigative sources said.

The local church authorities expressed their “astonishment, dismay and profound pain” at the news.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Five Google Execs Probed for Tax Evasion

Internet giant ‘dodged 227 million in taxes’

(ANSA) — Milan, February 11 — Milan prosecutors have investigated five Google executives for failing to declare 2009-2013 income and evading taxes of 227 million euros, sources said Thursday.

Two of the suspects served as president of Google Italy.

Another two sat on the board of both the Italian affiliate and the parent company, Google Ireland Ltd. The fifth sat on the Irish company board as legal representative. The five will be notified of the close of the investigation against them in the coming weeks.

In Italy, such a notification is usually a prelude to an indictment.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Poland Approves Child Benefits to Aid Families, Boost Births

Opponents say it discriminates against all the first children

(ANSA) — WARSAW (AP) — Polish lawmakers have passed a new child benefit scheme under which the government will make monthly payments of 500 zlotys ($125) for all second and subsequent children in a family.

The passage of the law Thursday in the lower house of parliament fulfils one of the key campaign promises of the populist, conservative Law and Justice party, which swept to power last fall. The aim of the child benefits is to support families and encourage more births in a country with one of the world’s lowest birthrates.

The government says the new law will greatly help struggling families. Political opponents say it discriminates against all the first children who will not receive it; it won’t succeed in raising the birthrate; and paying for it will hurt state finances.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

U.K. Church Leaders: Christians Now Minority

(RT) Practicing Christians are now a minority in the UK and the Catholic and Anglican churches must pull together in order to survive, according to two senior British clerics.

The Right Reverend Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, and Cardinal Vincent Nichols, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, were speaking at an event at Hampton Court Palace, London, on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: George Osborne’s Brother Struck Off After Affair With Vulnerable Patient

Psychiatrist Dr Adam Osborne’s fitness to practice was impaired by misconduct over two-year relationship, medical tribunal found

George Osborne’s psychiatrist brother has been struck off after a two-year relationship with a vulnerable patient he had been treating for anxiety and depression.

A medical tribunal found that the behaviour of Dr Adam Osborne was “profoundly unacceptable” and ruled that his fitness to practise was impaired by reason of misconduct.

The hearing, which began in Manchester on Monday, heard that when Osborne ended the relationship last February, the woman — referred to as Patient A — tried to kill herself days later.

Dr Nigel Callaghan, the chair of the medical tribunal, ruled on Thursday that Osborne had “showed a blatant disregard for the fundamental tenets of the medical profession” and should be struck off the medical register.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Google Right to be Forgotten: Article on Osborne Brother’s Conversion to Islam Removed

A STORY published by the Daily Express five years ago detailing the marriage of Chancellor George Osborne’s brother to a Muslim bride was today censored by Google.

Express.co.uk was today informed that an article published about Dr Adam Osborne on December 7, 2009, has been removed from Google’s search listings.

The 300-word piece detailed how the Chancellor’s younger brother, now 38, had converted to Islam in preparation for his marriage to Bangladeshi-born Rahala Noor, his plastic surgeon girlfriend of 14 years.

The article explained he had been studying the Koran and was praying five times a day and had been given the name Mohammed for the ceremony.

The piece, which did not allow reader comments, still exists on Express.co.uk.

However, it does not appear on Google when a user searches for ‘George Osborne, brother, Islam, Express’ or any variation of those terms.

Bizarrely, the original story, which had been broken by the Mail on Sunday in much greater depth the day before, still appears on Google’s results for MailOnline.

Versions of the article by the Daily Mirror, the Independent and other newspapers also still appear…

           — Hat tip: Seneca III [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Killers Could Avoid Whole Life Terms by Pleading Guilty, Sentencing Council Suggests

The proposal by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales allows the possibility of eventual freedom to even the most evil murderers if they admit their guilt at the earliest opportunity.

[Comment: Increasing the number of criminals on the streets is another thread in the destbilization plan of nation states.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Police Tried to Keep Identity of ‘Gay’ Jihadi Secret to Protect His Human Rights

The disclosure came as Kristen Brekke, Adeel Ulhaq and Forhad Rahman were found guilty at the Old Bailey of helping get Aseel Muthana to Syria

Police and prosecutors attempted to keep the identity and possible homosexuality of a British jihadist a secret to protect his human rights, it can be reported today.

Officers and the Crown Prosecution Service were concerned that should details surrounding Aseel Muthana emerge during a trial of his friends who helped him join Isil it would put his life at risk.

They believed they still had a duty of care under human rights laws to protect the teenager, even though he had run off to join a terror group intent on attacking this country.

           — Hat tip: Mezgerei [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisia Invests in BIT to Reconquer Italians

Flights to Monastir and Djerba, Msc and Costa back in October

(ANSAmed) — MILAN, FEBRUARY 11 — Tunisia will work at international travel fair BIT in Milan to convince the Italian market to cross once again the Mediterranean. “Tunisian tourism is going through a difficult time, like the whole country”, the marketing director of the national tourism agency of Tunisia, Riad Dakhli, told a press conference.

“We are very far from the numbers that we used to make (500,000 Italian visitors a year)”, he said, and 2015 closed below the 100,000-visitor threshold.

“We had not registered such low numbers in 30 years”.

But Tunisians are not giving up. “We have raised security levels at airports and tourist resorts”, he assured.

After attacks at the Bardo museum in Tunis and in Sousse, arrivals plunged. A strategy considered to boost tourism from Italy is to increase connections with the peninsula in 2016.

“From Milan and Bologna towards Djerba and Monastir and from Rome to Monastir”, explained Ali Miaoui, general director for Italy of Tunisair. “If we succeed in filling them up, we will consider opening scheduled flights”, he told ANSAmed on the sidelines of the meeting. Starting in October, meanwhile Costa and Msc — assured Dakhli — will resume cruises. “Finally — concluded the marketing director of the Tunisian national tourism agency — on April 14-17 we have organized an education gathering for 300 Italian tour operators”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Israel Charges Arab Schoolgirls for Stabbing Security Guard

Israel on Thursday charged two Arab Israeli schoolgirls with the attempted murder of a security guard last week, saying they expected to die in the attempt and become martyrs for Islam.

A police statement quoted the charge sheet as saying that the two girls were both aged 14, from the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Ramle, and had been influenced by a wave of Palestinian violence since October.

“On February 3, 2016, after a stabbing attack in which three terrorists were shot dead at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate and because of the wave of terror, the accused agreed to meet the next day, equipped with kitchen knives, to carry out a nationalist stabbing attack,” it said.

“They conspired to become ‘martyrs’ and die in the war for religion.”…

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

It’s Official: Israeli Christians Are Now Registered as Arameans Not Arabs

Hooray!, Israel formally recognizes Israeli Christians as Arameans and not Christian Arabs, as they antedated the great waver of Islamic conquest that swept the region 1,400 years ago. Yet they survived as a distinct religious and linguistic minority. This is a credit to Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Greek Orthodox Priest of Nazareth and current and former IDF Christian serving officers and enlisted personnel.

Financial Spots noted the change in Israel’s Population, Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA) in this brief article, “Israeli Christians Officially Recognized as Arameans, Not Arabs;”…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Humiliation: Iran Releases Photos of Crying Sailors

Tehran has released provocative new photographs and video of the US sailors who were detained in the Persian Gulf hours before President Obama’s State of the Union Address last month, after they strayed into Iranian waters, Sputnik reports.

The photos and video were aired on state television and shared to social media by Iranian reporters. Some of the images feature one of the sailors emotionally wiping away tears.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Iran’s Guardian Council Approves Hundreds of Reformist Candidates Ahead of Elections

The constitutional body readmits 1,400 people at first excluded. The final list of candidates published on February 16, vote scheduled for February 26. The number allowed run rises to 6185 (including 586 women) out of 12 thousand requests. President Rouhani hopes for a moderate reformist victory and to continue the policy of openness and renewal.

Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Several leading reformers are among more than 1,400 candidates that have been readmitted to stand in the upcoming February 26 Parliamentary elections in Iran after being rejected at first.

Yesterday Hossein Ali Amiri, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, confirmed that “those readmitted include reformists, moderates and conservatives.” He did not specify the names, but clarified that the final list of candidates will be released on 16 February.

12 thousand people applied to run in the national vote to win one of the 290 seats in the House and 88 in the Assembly, called to choose the next supreme leader of the country.

The Council of Guardians of the Constitution (the national constitutional body, called upon to assess the suitability of candidates) has therefore reinstated some personalities excluded in the first round and who had appealed against the decision. The Council is dominated by conservatives and has the right of veto on all nominations for each election.

The number of candidates admitted to the election now stands at 6185, about 51% of those who had applied; these include 586 women, just under 10%. “The fact that the Council of Guardians [of the Constitution] has added another 1400 candidate — says Hossein Ali Amiri — shows the effectiveness of monitoring and consultation by the government”.

After a first mass exclusion, the reformists appealed to President (moderate) Hassan Rohani seeking his intervention to verify the lists.

The reformist group has been relegated to the margins of political and social life of the country soon after the massive campaign of repression against the Green Movement following the disputed presidential elections of 2009 (won by the ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) and the parliamentarians of 2012. However, the following Rouhani’s election and the recent historic nuclear deal the hopes of reformers have been raised.

The Iranian head of state needs the parliamentary elections of February 26 to be won by moderates and reformers, who can thus guarantee him a majority in parliament and allow him continue to pursue his policy of openings and renewal. Rouhani hopes to capitalize electorally on the lifting of international sanctions in January, following the July 2015 agreement on Tehran’s atomic program.

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

Over 900 Turkish Aegean Resorts on Sale Amid Russia Strains, Terror

The 35-percent decline in Turkey’s tourism industry is coupled with a fivefold drop in the number of Russian tourists visiting Antalya alone in comparison to last year, according to the Antalyan tourism department.

MOSCOW/ANKARA (Sputnik) — Over 900 Aegean Sea resorts in Turkey have been put on sale valued at an equivalent of $3 billion after tensions with Russia escalated and the country’s stability was shaken last year, a Turkish opposition lawmaker said Thursday.

Reports of Turkey’s tourism industry “imploding” appeared earlier this month, with the Zaman newspaper counting some 1,300 hotels put up for sale across the country, 400 of them in Antalya.

“The government has buried its head in the sand, ignoring the decline in tourism,” Republican People’s Party (CHP) Ankara lawmaker Akin Ustundag said in remarks published on the CHP website, citing a total of 908 resorts on sale on the Aegean coast.

Tourism in Turkey has suffered as the security situation declined amid Islamic State jihadist group and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) separatist violence dating back to last summer.

Tourism continued declining after Russia banned organized travel of its tourist groups to the republic in the wake of the November 24 downing of a Russian Su-24 attack aircraft by turkey over alleged airspace violation.

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

Flu: 260 Deaths in Ukraine Since December, Many Due to H1N1

Most deaths caused by complications arising from virus

(ANSA) — MOSCOW — About 260 people died in Ukraine following flu complications since the beginning of the epidemiological season in December, according to Kiev’s Health Ministry. The ministry spoke of 246 dead two days ago, underlining that most deaths are due to complications arising from the H1N1 virus, called ‘swine flu’.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

India: Rising Violence Against Christians in Uttar Pradesh Ahead of State Elections

The state’s legislative assembly is set for renewal next year. For the Global Council of Indian Christians, acts of violence and incidents of discrimination against the Christian minority have reached a crescendo. A pastor and two worshipers have been arrested in Noida. The pastor of the Mission India Church was held for hours without charges along with 20 other religious leaders in Robertsganj.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) — More Christians have been discriminated in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Police in Noida arrested and detained Rev Rampal and two Christians, named Lalu Gautam and Ranjeet, on false charges of celebrating religious rites without permission. Police in Robertsganj took into custody Rev Sajju K John, a Pentecostal clergyman with the Mission India Church, and held him and 20 other pastors for hours at a local police station without charges.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), said that acts of violence against Christians have seen a sudden rise, all connected to radical right-wing nationalist forces, who are seeking visibility ahead of next year’s state elections.

“Right wing forces are whipping up communal frenzy against the vulnerable minority Christian community on baseless and fabricated conversion charges,” the GCIC president said:

Rev Rampal and the two Christians were arrested during Sunday Mass. Police in Noida interrupted the service and took the men to a local station, accusing them of celebrating the service without a permit since their church is considered unregistered.

In Robertsganj, Rev Sajju K John, a Pentecostal pastor, and 20 other Christian leaders were arrested last Saturday, as they recited their evening prayers. A crowd of Hindu radicals had interrupted the meeting, forced participants into the street, humiliated them and beat them with sticks, until the police took them away. They were released hours later without being charged.

“The GCIC condemns the enthusiasm with which the police intentionally interrupts and stops innocent Christians,” Sajan K George said. “Our greatest concern is the frequency with which such incidents occur in Uttar Pradesh and police inertia vis-Ã -vis sectarian elements who want to impose their own law and order.”

The Christian leader noted that just a few days ago in Orai, also in Uttar Pradesh, pro-Hindutva* Hindu nationalists publicly humiliated a Christian man.

After shaving his hair, beard and eyebrows, they dressed him with garlands of shoes and paraded him through the streets riding a donkey. “He too had been falsely accused of forced conversions,” Mr George said.

In view of the situation, the GCIC has called for action to protect Christians in Uttar Pradesh, especially ahead of next year’s state assembly election.

* Hindutva (“Hindu-ness”) is an ideology that defines what is Indian with what is Hindu.

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

Japan’s Asahi Makes 3bn-Euro Bid for Peroni, Grolsch

Branbs being sold as part of InBev-SABMiller merger

(ANSA) — Tokyo, February 10 — Japanese beer producer Asahi has offered 400 billion euros (just over three billion euros) to buy Italian brand Peroni and Dutch brand Grolsch from SABMiller, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday. Peroni and Grolsch are being sold as part of an asset sale arrangement planned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, which is taking over SABMiller, to ease regulatory authority concerns about the merger. If the deal goes through, it will be the biggest-ever foreign acquisition by a Japanese beer producer. “Addition of two European brands with a long history in the region would allow the company to broaden its overseas strategy, and provide new sales channels to market its signature Super Dry beer,” Nikkei reported.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Zika Hoax Exposed by South American Doctors

Brain deformations caused by larvicide chemical linked to Monsanto; GM mosquitoes a ‘total failure’

(NaturalNews) Despite all the public hoopla, all the cases of microcephaly being discovered in Brazil have never been scientifically linked to the Zika virus. A group of doctors from South America are now saying the brain deformations the world is witnessing are caused by the mass fumigation of low-income Brazilian people with a chemical larvicide, not by mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus.

What we’re seeing with the brain deformations of children, in other words, is more like the history of thalidomide, a prescription medicine given to pregnant women that caused children to be born with limbs missing. But the official narrative on all this is pushing a false link with Zika in order to justify more chemical fumigation, more vaccines and more genetically engineered mosquitoes.

From the doctors at Red Universitaria de Ambiente y Salud (the Red University of Environment and Health), with h/t to GM Watch: (SOURCE document)

A dramatic increase of congenital malformations, especially microcephaly in newborns, was detected and quickly linked to the Zika virus by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. However, they fail to recognise that in the area where most sick persons live, a chemical larvicide producing malformations in mosquitoes has been applied for 18 months, and that this poison (pyroproxyfen) is applied by the State on drinking water used by the affected population.

It looks like the world’s health authorities are using Zika virus mosquitoes as a cover story to conceal the damage caused by toxic chemicals manufactured by powerful globalist corporations.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Algerian Sex Attacker Shouted “Inshallah” — If Allah Wills It — As He Raped a 25-Year-Old German Student

An Algerian man who almost killed his 25-year-old student victim shouted out ‘if Allah wills it’ in Arabic as he raped her in a darkened alley, a court has heard.

The man, identified only by his first name Rheda, is accused of following the student as she walked home from a nightclub at 5am in Hannover, Germany.

Afterwards, with his victim badly beaten, he is alleged to have climbed off her and asked her if she enjoyed it.

The shocking details were revealed at the trial of the 37-year-old asylum seeker from Algeria who has denied rape. Prosecutors say DNA evidence links him to the crime…

She said: ‘He asked me in broken German if I had [the] time. Before I could reply he then grabbed me by the arm and pulled me down an alleyway.

‘He told me “I need sex”. I opened my mouth to scream but he put his hand over my mouth. I had a pepper spray, and I tried to spray it at him but he grabbed it off me, and used it on me instead.

‘Then he threw me onto the ground, and tried to pull off my trousers but he couldn’t do it. Then he started screaming at me to get undressed.’

She told the court she had tried to win time by begging him to leave her alone and hoped that someone would come past.

Nobody did, and when she tried to scream again he started beating her in the face and he sprayed the pepper spray on her face again.

He had banged her head on the ground repeatedly until she was almost unconscious, and she thought she was going to die.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Erdogan Slams EU, Threatens to Send Refugees Outside Turkey

In a speech that stepped up his denunciations of Western policy in the refugee crisis, Erdogan confirmed he had threatened EU leaders at a summit meeting in November that Turkey could say “goodbye” to the refugees.

“We do not have the word ‘idiot’ written on our foreheads. We will be patient but we will do what we have to. Don’t think that the planes and the buses are there for nothing. We will do the necessary,” Erdogan told a business forum in Ankara.

Greek website euro2day.gr had earlier this week reported that at the G20 summit in Antalya in November Erdogan had angrily threatened to EU Commission president Jean Claude Juncker that Turkey could send the refugees to Europe.

The website had quoted Erdogan as telling Juncker: “We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and put the refugees on buses.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

EU Draft Wants More Migrant Facilities in Greece and Italy

‘Deport those lacking right to asylum’; too many from Turkey

Armed conflict in Syria

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — A draft statement for the February 18-19 summit that ANSA has seen says that though improvements have been made through the setting up of ‘hotspots’ in Italy and Greece as concerns migrant identification, registration and fingerprinting, much remains to be done.

It cites the facilities for migrants waiting for their cases to be assessed as one of the major areas to be improved upon. The statement notes that all parts of the Schengen zone must fully apply the rules concerning borders and refuse entry to citizens of third countries that do not meet entrance requirements or that have not asked for asylum despite having had the possibility to do so. It adds that Turkey has made significant progress towards implementing the 3-billion-euro action plan agreed with the EU, through granting refugees access to the labor market and data sharing with the EU. The statement stresses, however, that too many refugees are arriving in Greece from Turkey and that thus additional efforts are required.

The “worst-case scenario in the short term in the region would be a new inflow of 600,000 refugees at the Turkish border” fleeing Aleppo, where over the past 10 days the regime of Bashar al Assad has launched an offensive with the support of Russian air raids, Turkish deputy premier, Numan Kurtulmus, has said. “As a consequence, we are seeing 200,000 people forced to flee, 65,000 towards Turkey and 135,000 inside Syria”, he added.

In the meantime, the UN refugee agency UNHCR has asked Turkey to open its border with Syria to allow the passage of a new inflow of refugees — at the moment 30,000 who have fled from Aleppo — calling on the international community to share the weight of the emergency with Ankara. Turkey, said UNHCR spokesman William Spindler, has allowed in several vulnerable and wounded people. However, many are not allowed to cross the border, he noted asking Turkey to open its borders to all civilians in Syria who are fleeing from danger areas and need international protection. Spindler added he understands concern for the “potential massive” inflow, expressed by Ankara, which already hosts over 2.5 million Syrian refugees.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

EU Plan to Send Asylum Seekers Back to Greece

Tens of thousands of migrants could be sent back to Greece, under plans unveiled by the European Commission on Wednesday.

The EU’s leadership wants to apply a rule, known as the Dublin regulation, that permits EU countries to deport an asylum seeker to the first EU country they reached on their journey.

Some 800,000 people arrived in Greece last year on their way to central Europe, but removals under the Dublin rule have been suspended since 2011 after the European Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Greek asylum system is “degrading”.

It is the latest plank of a strategy that many Greeks fear will turn their country into a “black box” to contain the refugee crisis.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Europe on the Brink — Kingdoms of Decay

While Denmark’s women, and the residents of Aalborg DK enjoying the World’s #1 rated well being and happiness, the story is different up north in Sweden and Norway. Up there things have grown increasingly dire. Especially for Sweden.

In Sweden, Norwegian SSP law enforcement official Benedicte Bjørnland tells all who are wise enough to listen, that western European states who fail to require all non indigenous populations to obey and/or act in accordance with all laws, social acumen and proper sane customs, (within Nordic reason), that their dereliction of duty might result in wide spread European chaos. Hence, failure to implement European societal norms could be the cause of uncontrollable unified events of violent immigrant mass hysteria and thus, might usher in a far right political rebirth. In Sweden, they are completely over run with all manner of refugees and immigrants, some of whom have replaced Sweden’s indigenous population as the primary source of Sweden’s now rampant crime waves. Many of Europe’s pundits point out that if the refugees, the illegal aliens and illegal alien criminal gangs cause enough harm.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Forget it’: EU Migration Policy in Chaos as Turkey Rejects Refugee Deal

The EU’s plans to find a solution to the migration crisis have been thrown into turmoil once again, after Turkey’s ambassador to the EU rejected new proposals that would have seen the bloc take in refugees from Turkey in return for Ankara’s support in patrolling its borders.

In a blow to Brussels, Selim Yenel, Turkey’s ambassador to the EU, rejected Dutch-led proposals which would have seen volunteer EU countries directly resettle 250,000 refugees a year from Turkey, but only if Ankara succeeded in closing sea routes which have seen many thousands of people travel onward to Greece.

“Forget it,” Yenel told the Guardian, saying that such demands were “unacceptable” and “not feasible.”

Ankara Turns Up the Heat

Turkey, which has already spent billions hosting 2.7 billion refugees from Syria, is under pressure from the EU to do more to stem the flow of people traveling to Europe.

“If Turkey is not engaged, not committed and doesn’t start to deliver… it will be very difficult to manage the situation,” Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU commissioner in charge of migration, said.

“If they really want, they can do the job on the ground.”

The comments have been met with disdain in Ankara, with officials angered by EU demands to open its southern borders and let in 70,000 Syrians fleeing conflict, while also being simultaneously urged to close its western and northern borders to stem the flow of people into Europe.

“We’re surprised that the Europeans should say we should open the borders to Syrians from Aleppo when we’ve been doing that for five years,” Yenel said.

“It is all unfolding, another tsunami. How are we going to cope?”

EU Scrambles for Migration Solution

The fallout comes as EU officials desperately try to find an agreement over the refugee crisis, with another mass influx of people expected to travel to the bloc in the warmer months.

EU migration commissioner Avramopoulos put forward plans that would force Greece and Turkey to take back asylum seekers from the rest of Europe, however there are grave fears over such plans given concerns over the state of refugee centers in both countries.

A number of high profile European officials said the EU’s much-touted Schengen zone could come under threat as a result of the influx of people, with mooted plans to extend temporary border controls for up to two years.

Pressure is also being placed on Greece, with many officials in Europe accusing Athens of failing to properly register refugees before they travel onward to Europe.

Greece, which is suffering as a result of its economic crisis, has been threatened with temporary expulsion from the Schengen zone unless it improves it registration of tracking of new arrivals.

These uncertainties over Greece, combined with border checks and a declaration from Austria that it will not accept any more than 37,500 asylum seekers per year has led to concerns of a bottleneck of people in Balkan countries.

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

Germany: Report: Christians, Gays, Women Fleeing Asylum Centres Due to Persecution by Muslim Men

Christians, homosexuals and women are fleeing asylum centres in Germany in ever growing numbers due to acts of violence, intolerance and crime perpetrated by Muslim men.

According to German newspaper Die Welt, the violence toward ethnic minorities, religious minorities and women continues to skyrocket across German asylum centres. Muslim men tear up Bibles and assault Christians, sexually abuse women and children, and beat up homosexuals. The news has led to calls from human rights campaigners to say enough is enough.

In Stuttgart a case of abuse toward an Assyrian Christian by a Muslim roommate led to a petition for separate housing that was signed by over 17,000 people online. The petition, organised by the Central Oriental Christians, asked the City of Stuttgart to, “please accommodate the displaced Christians in Stuttgart-Neugereut and keep them from further distress and persecution to which they are exposed in a decentralised accommodation.”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

German Labour Minister Says the Country Will Need to Spend Half a Billion Euros to Integrate Just Ten Per Cent of Its Migrant Arrivals Into the Job Market

Germany needs 450 million euros to integrate just ten per cent of the migrants and refugees who have arrived in the country in the past year, the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs said.

Andrea Nahles says the money, some £352million, would be used to create jobs for an estimated 100,000 refugees, including the provision of training opportunities and internships.

Germany took in more than one million asylum seekers in 2015, leaving the labour minister with a task ‘impossible to manage with the current budget’.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

NATO Warships Ordered to Patrol the Aegean Sea ‘Without Delay’ After Turkey, Germany and Greece Ask for Help in Stopping Illegal Migration

NATO is sending warships to the Aegean Sea to help Turkey and Greece crack down on criminal networks smuggling migrants and refugees into Europe.

Three military vessels have been ordered to move immediately to the Aegean Sea to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance, Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, said today.

The move is aimed at helping Europe tackle its worst migration crisis since World War II, with more than a million asylum-seekers arriving in Germany alone last year.

Ships from NATO Standing Maritime Group 2 ‘will start to move now’ on orders from U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO’s supreme commander in Europe, Stoltenberg said.

‘This is about helping Greece, Turkey and the European Union with stemming the flow of migrants and refugees and coping with a very demanding situation,’ Stoltenberg said, calling the situation a ‘human tragedy.’

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Surging Number of Attacks in Germany’s Migrant Centres Sees Christians, Women and Homosexuals Forced to Flee From Muslim Men

Christians, women and gay men are among the groups of asylum seekers needing their own accommodation in Germany after facing attacks by fellow migrants.

In Stuttgart, 30 Christians have been moved into their own digs after frequent attacks by other migrant-seeking Muslim men.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Secondary Schools Face Teaching Crisis: Classrooms Can’t Keep up With the Immigrant Baby Boom

A report by the Government’s spending watchdog found that while the number of teachers in Britain has increased over the past ten years, pupil numbers are growing at a higher rate.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US Opens Screening Centre for Syrian Refugees in Amman

(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, FEBRUARY 11 — The US has opened a screening centre for Syrian refugees in Amman to speed up receiving up to 10,000 asylum seekers by year end, according to an official statement by the US embassy.

The centre will look to examine paper work for thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan as part of the resettlement programme promised by Washington.

“As part of the effort to reach the President’s goal of admitting at least 10,000 Syrian refugees to the United States by September 30, 2016, the United States has established a temporary refugee processing center near Amman,” reads the statement. A strict security procedure has been placed near the reception centre as the embassy welcomed refugees to apply for asylum. “Operations are now underway. Access to the site is restricted by invitation to potential resettlement candidates,” it adds.

Obama administration has promised to take honour its commitment of providing asylum to Syrian refugees as part of international efforts to ease pressure on host countries.

Jordan is hosting up to 1.2 million Syrian refugees, while Turkey is also home to more than 2 million and Lebanon is hosting up to 1 million.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Fake Blood and War Chants: Milo Yiannopoulos Event at Rutgers Disrupted by Feminists, Black Lives Matter Activists

Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos’ tour of U.S. university campuses has started off with a bang. His first event, at Rutgers University in New Jersey, was disrupted by feminists and Black Lives Matter protesters, who chanted slogans and smeared fake blood on their faces before storming out of the auditorium.

Yiannopoulos had been invited by the Young Americans For Liberty at Rutgers to speak on “How the Progressive Left Is Destroying Education.” The event drew a huge crowd, with the line of students waiting to enter the venue stretching around campus. It’s the first stage of Yiannopoulos “Dangerous Faggot Tour,” a series of speeches by the Breitbart Tech editor on U.S campuses, which have become hotbeds of regressive-left radicalism in recent months.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

You Can’t Sing if You Don’t Have LGBT Ribbon Says Salvini

A child must have mother and father’ says League leader

(ANSA) — Cagliari, February 11 — Rightwing populist Northern League leader Matteo Salvini on Thursday slammed singers at the Sanremo song fest who performed waving LGBT rainbow ribbons in support of a civil-unions bill now before parliament.

“If you don’t sing with a rainbow ribbon they don’t let you sing,” Salvini said while inaugurating a new office in Cagliari of his ‘Noi Con Salvini’ (Us With Salvini) ticket.

“I respect everyone but a child needs a mother and a father,” said Salvini, whose anti-immigrant, anti-euro party is against the civil-unions bill.

Salvini also accused Premier Matteo Renzi of “contesting the EU but then dropping his trousers every time he goes to Brussels”.

Anti-fascist demonstrators protesting Salvini’s visit clashed with police.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

2 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/11/2016

  1. George Osborne’s brother converts to Islam

    PUBLISHED: 00:00, Mon, Dec 7, 2009

    THE brother George Osborne has converted to Islam to marry his love of 14 years

    Osborne’s younger brother Adam, 33, married Rahala Noor, 31, in a civil ceremony and later in a traditional Muslim celebration.

    Dr Osborne spent months studying the Koranbefore formally being welcomed into the faith last month.

    The doctor, who is a specialist in psychiatric care, has adopted the name Mohammed and prays five times a day.

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    George Osborne’s psychiatric brother struck off after affair with vulnerable patient

    George Osborne’s psychiatrist brother has been struck off for having a relationship with a vulnerable patient.

    A medical tribunal ruled that Dr Adam Osborne’s two-year relationship with the woman, who he was treating for anxiety and depression, was ‘profoundly unacceptable’.

    ====

  2. How long before barricades start appearing to block entrance to buildings and streets and neighbourhoods? “No passeron!”

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