Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/15/2016

1,700 more migrants landed in various parts of Italy yesterday, making a total of 6,000 new arrivals since Tuesday. Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi pooh-poohed the idea that the immigrants constitute an “invasion”, and reassured his fellow Italians that the total number of migrants this year is only slightly higher than at same time last year.

In other news, the Swiss government announced that it is considering deploying tanks along its border with Italy in the event that the Italians fail to get their migration problem under control.

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

Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, RL, 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
» Italy: End of NPR ‘Bonanza’ With Atlante — Guzzetti
» Stunning Map: Oil Supply Glut Leads to Massive Tanker Traffic Jam: “Would Stretch for 25 Miles”
 
USA
» “How Has the ‘System’ Been Working Out for You and Your Family?” — Trump Blasts Establishment Elite in Mainstream Op-Ed
» CIA Chief More Concerned With Obamaism Than Protecting Americans: Critics
» Inside the Bernie Sanders Pro-Hamas Campaign Attacking Jews and Pandering to Muslims is the Plan.
» Jesus Gutierrez ‘Caught on Video Having Sex With Dog’ is Arrested
» Lawfare: Left-Wing U.S. Attorneys General Wage Legal Blitzkrieg on Science, Freedom and Truth
» Navy Vet Makes the Ultimate Sacrifice — Sets Himself on Fire to Protest the VA’s Lack of Healthcare
» NY Settles With White Student
» Science Guy Bill Nye: Let’s Discuss Criminalizing ‘Climate Deniers’
» The Post Endorses Trump
» The Pentagon’s Counter-Zombie Martial Law Plan: ‘Concentrate Firepower to the Head’
» Union Hypocrisy: Los Angeles Unions Want to be Exempt From $15 Minimum Wage They Fought for
» Video: Student Wearing Empty Holster Cited for ‘Threatening the Safety of Campus’
» Violent Anti-Trump Mob Assaults Trump Supporter
 
Europe and the EU
» ‘Astonishing’ Revelation: UK’s Rich Getting Away With Tax Fraud
» Blaming Policy, Not Islam, For Belgium’s Radicalized Youth
» Germany Grants Turkish Request to Prosecute Comic Over Erdogan Insult
» Germany: AfD Takes Saxony-Anhalt Vice-President
» Italy Has More Poor Than Any EU Member
» Italy: ANAC Finds Rome Improperly Assigned Dog Shelter Contracts
» Italy: Man Arrested for Rome Car Park Rape
» Italy Has 19 Radicalised Prisoners, Association Says
» Italy: FCA Outperforms EU Auto Market
» Merkel Allows Erdogan’s Case Against TV Host to Go Ahead
» Romania to Reimburse Citizens the Pollution Tax
» Study: Junk Food Kills Bacteria That Protects Against Obesity, Heart Disease and Cancer
» Suspected Paris Attacker Possessed Information on German Nuclear Plant
» Sweden: Terror Suspect’s Phone Password ‘Was Jihad’
» Swedish Police and Emergency Personnel Feel Poorly Prepared for Terrorist Attacks
» UK: Lesley Dunford Who Murdered Her Baby Son and Daughter is Jailed for Life
» UK: Man, 26, Arrested at Gatwick Airport on Suspicion of Terror Offences Just Hours After Four People Are Detained in Birmingham
» UK: Newcastle Teens Charged With Kidnap After a Toddler Was Abducted From a Primark Store
 
Middle East
» Advanced Team of Italian Soldiers Get to Mosul Dam
» Kuwaiti Intellectual Risks Blasphemy Trial for Defending Secular State
 
Immigration
» “Norwegian Authorities Fail Muslim Women”
» 3,000 Invaders a Day Landing in Italy
» Austria: Invaders Bring Deadly Fever to Salzburg
» Donkey Paths Through the Alps Being Used as New Migrant Route Into Europe
» Greenpeace Submits Lesvos Cleanup Proposal
» Iranian Migrants Rescued in Aborted English Channel Crossing
» Italy: Renzi Says Migrant Crisis ‘Not an Invasion Underway’
» Migrant Crisis Fuels Macedonia-Greece Discord
» Nearly 6,000 Migrants Reach Italy Since Tuesday: IOM
» Over 1,700 Migrants Land in Different Parts of Italy
» Preparing for ‘Migrant Onslaught, ‘ Switzerland Ready to Post Tanks at Border With Italy
» Resettlement of 20,000 Syrian Refugees Estimated to Cost Half a Billion Pounds
» Spain: “Legal Immigrants” snd ISIS
» Taxpayers Pay $300,000 a Day to Send Illegals Home
» ‘Welcome to the New Lesbos’: Now Sicily is Flooded With 2,000 Migrants Every Day Since the Balkans Route Shut
 
Culture Wars
» Denmark: Amnesty International Intensifies Campaign for Transgender People’s Rights
» US Navy Moves Ship Launching Ceremony Due to ‘Harsh Anti-Gay Laws’ In Mississippi
 
General
» 5 Major Earthquakes in 48 Hours as a Seismologist Warns ‘Catastrophic Mega Earthquakes’ Are Coming
 

Italy: End of NPR ‘Bonanza’ With Atlante — Guzzetti

Major move if followed by decree

(ANSA) — Milan, April 14 — A speculators’ “bonanza” in snapping up Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) at as much as 18-20% interest has been ended by the Italian financial sector’s new Atlante Fund, Cariplo Foundation President Giuseppe Guzzetti said Thursday. The foundation set up the new fund with the Quaestio capital management firm to help weaker banks, with stronger banks chipping in. He said it would be an even more “major” move if backed by a government decree. The financial industry approved a government-backed plan Monday to set up the privately financed fund to buy up shares in struggling Italian lenders and to take on their non-performing loans.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Stunning Map: Oil Supply Glut Leads to Massive Tanker Traffic Jam: “Would Stretch for 25 Miles”

While oil prices have jumped about 50% in recent weeks, there appears to be no real reason for the move other than pure speculation and billion-dollar market cash infusions from unknown plunge protection teams.

But as the mainstream media continues to tout non-existent reduction agreements between oil producing nations, the following evidence suggests that the world remains awash in oil, so much so that there is no space to store it… anywhere on earth.

The following report from Zero Hedge explains just how much oil is currently sitting in limbo while suppliers try to figure out what to do with it:…

While we struggle to figure out why the price of oil has sky rocketed, one can’t help but think there must be some level of manipulation involved.

In a separate report Zero Hedge revealed that the Federal Reserve met with banks who are holding tons of energy related toxic assets on their books and basically told them to hide the losses for as long as they can. Wells Fargo, in particular, reported today that they are on the hook for some $32 billion in exposure to junk rated oil and gas companies.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

“How Has the ‘System’ Been Working Out for You and Your Family?” — Trump Blasts Establishment Elite in Mainstream Op-Ed

“No wonder voters demand change.”

Donald Trump appears to be taking the war to the establishment and he’s talking directly to the American people in a an op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal.

“Let me ask America a question,” Trumps begins. “How has the ‘system’ been working out for you and your family? No wonder voters demand change.”

Taking direct aim at Ted Cruz for bragging about his “voterless” victory in Colorado, Trump blasts the entrenched politicos, donors and the system as a whole:

In recent days, something all too predictable has happened: Politicians furiously defended the system. “These are the rules,” we were told over and over again.If the “rules” can be used to block Coloradans from voting on whether they want better trade deals, or stronger borders, or an end to special-interest vote-buying in Congress-well, that’s just the system and we should embrace it…

I, for one, am not interested in defending a system that for decades has served the interest of political parties at the expense of the people. Members of the club-the consultants, the pollsters, the politicians, the pundits and the special interests-grow rich and powerful while the American people grow poorer and more isolated…

The only antidote to decades of ruinous rule by a small handful of elites is a bold infusion of popular will. On every major issue affecting this country, the people are right and the governing elite are wrong. The elites are wrong on taxes, on the size of government, on trade, on immigration, on foreign policy.

Why should we trust the people who have made every wrong decision to substitute their will for America’s will in this presidential election?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

CIA Chief More Concerned With Obamaism Than Protecting Americans: Critics

CIA Director John Brennan has said that his spy agency will not use controversial interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, even if ordered to do so by a future president. While the news media are applauding his statement, critics believe the time has come for a more devoted warrior rather than a political hack for an administration that prides itself on espousing Obamaism, a/k/a political correctness.

Brennan made the waterboarding statement during an interview on Sunday with the proven Obama-loving NBC News staff. “I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I’ve heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure. I won’t agree to having any CIA officer carrying out waterboarding again.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Inside the Bernie Sanders Pro-Hamas Campaign Attacking Jews and Pandering to Muslims is the Plan.

By Daniel Greenfield

Why won’t Bernie Sanders stop attacking Israel? That’s the question some Jewish supporters are asking as the troubled campaign continues alienating Jews while pandering to haters of the Jewish State.

For the longest time it was all but impossible to get Bernie to even admit he was Jewish. His campaign conducted no outreach to Jewish groups while aggressively pursuing outreach to Muslim groups such as CAIR. CAIR is an anti-Semitic Islamist group with known ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

In New York, the Sanders campaign seemingly had to bow to reality and actually reach out to Jews.

But instead the Sanders campaign set out to offend and alienate Jews in New York, as it had done to Jews all over the country, by selecting an anti-Israel activist who had defended Muslim anti-Semitism.

           — Hat tip: RL [Return to headlines]
 

Jesus Gutierrez ‘Caught on Video Having Sex With Dog’ is Arrested

Jesus Gutierrez, 39, is accused of engaging in sexual conduct with the pet Maltese (file picture) at their Manhattan apartment. His 43-year-old girlfriend set up the camera before going to work.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Lawfare: Left-Wing U.S. Attorneys General Wage Legal Blitzkrieg on Science, Freedom and Truth

So a bunch of left-wing US Attorneys General have held a meeting in New York — presided over by discredited professional climate-alarmist Al Gore — to discuss how best to use the legal system to wipe out climate scepticism once and for all. They did so under the shamelessly political slogan: “AGs for Clean Power.”

Now the Attorney General of the US Virgin Islands — some utter nonentity called Claude Earl Walker — has gone a step further by actually subpoenaing the Competitive Enterprise Institute to give up ten years’ worth of documents pertaining to its relationship with ExxonMobil.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Navy Vet Makes the Ultimate Sacrifice — Sets Himself on Fire to Protest the VA’s Lack of Healthcare

Northfield, NJ — Doused in gasoline, a former chief petty officer stood outside a Veterans Affairs (VA) outpatient clinic when he lit himself on fire and eventually died nine hours later. His wife recently confirmed that her husband was upset with the inadequate care that he had been receiving at the VA facility shortly before his suicide.

A seven-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, Charles Ingram III walked nine miles from his home, past an American Legion park and a military veteran memorial, before arriving at the parking lot of the VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic around 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 19. While standing on a grass lawn near the clinic, the 51-year-old poured several gallons of gasoline on himself before committing self-immolation.

After a bystander and two cops were able to extinguish the flames, Ingram was airlifted to Temple University Burn Center where doctors discovered the veteran had suffered severe burns across 100% of his body. The 51-year-old vet survived for another nine hours before passing away.

Serving in the Navy from 1985 to 1992, Ingram had attained the rank of chief petty officer and was deployed in the Persian Gulf during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He left behind a wife and two young children, ages 3 and 5.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NY Settles With White Student

The New York school district being sued by a white former school pupil for refusing to prevent racially-motivated attacks has agreed to settle out of court rather than go to trial. The decision by the Long Island Brentwood School District to settle without even posing a defense is being widely interpreted as an attempt to hush up the case to prevent similar legal actions being instituted by other whites.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Science Guy Bill Nye: Let’s Discuss Criminalizing ‘Climate Deniers’

Scientists are the new Inquisition.

The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) posted a video to YouTube on Thursday featuring science popularizer Bill Nye “The Science Guy” suggesting that “climate deniers” and energy CEOs should be treated no differently from war criminals.

CFACT publisher Marc Marono quoted environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as saying that “climate deniers” and energy CEOs should be in prison alongside war criminals, and asked Nye whether such rhetoric is too extreme. Nye didn’t seem to think so. “In these cases, for me as a taxpayer and voter, the introduction of this extreme doubt about climate change is affecting my quality of life as a public citizen. So I can see where people are very concerned about this and are pursuing criminal investigations as well as in engaging in discussions like this.”

In other words, Nye, like the rest of the totalitarian left, thinks that it is at least worth seriously contemplating the criminal prosecution of anyone who disagrees with the climate change orthodoxy to which he clings.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Post Endorses Trump

[…]In the general election, we’d expect Trump to stay true to his voters — while reaching out to those he hasn’t won yet.

Trump is now an imperfect messenger carrying a vital message. But he reflects the best of “New York values” — and offers the best hope for all Americans who rightly feel betrayed by the political class.

He has the potential — the skills, the know-how, the values — to live up to his campaign slogan: to make America great again.

For those reasons, The Post today endorses Donald Trump in the GOP primary.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

The Pentagon’s Counter-Zombie Martial Law Plan: ‘Concentrate Firepower to the Head’

What level of hell is in the process of descending upon this earth?

The twisted mind of strategic thinking must consider all contingencies, and prepare to defend against it.

And whether it seems like a joke or not, the Pentagon has a document preparing its forces for the remote possibility — or perhaps imminent cult film future pre-programmed through the media — of an all-out Zombie apocalypse.

Foreign Policy reports:

The U.S. military has always been the one place in government with a plan, forever in preparation mode and ready to yank a blueprint off the shelf for almost any contingency.

Incredibly, the Defense Department has a response if zombies attacked and the armed forces had to eradicate flesh-eating walkers in order to “preserve the sanctity of human life” among all the “non-zombie humans.”… [A Concept Operations document C]alled “CONOP 8888.”

“This plan fulfills fictional contingency planning guidance tasking for U.S. Strategic Command to develop a comprehensive [plan] to undertake military operations to preserve ‘non-zombie’ humans from the threats posed by a zombie horde,” CONOP 8888’s plan summary reads.

American TV viewers know all the twists and turns of the debasing fight against undead hoards of the human race, unconscious automatons intent on eating brains and over-running humanity.

But to spoil the fun before you’ve had it, keep in mind that this entire document, though “real,” holds a double meaning, alluding to the plan for maintaining dominance over the masses, who are largely unthinking and tend to follow propaganda prompts and orders to obey.

As its authors note in the document’s “disclaimer section,” “this plan was not actually designed as a joke.” Military planners assigned to the U.S. Strategic Command … looked for a creative way to devise a planning document to protect citizens in the event of an attack of any kind.The officers used zombies as their muse.

It is essentially a generic blueprint for occupying any major episode of civil unrest, economic collapse or major natural disaster. So what is really coming that the Pentagon isn’t telling us about?

[Comment: the “zombie” is you — the average American citizen who will protest the comming NWO and the destruction of the Republic of the USA. Battle plans are being drawn up to suppress dissidents.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Union Hypocrisy: Los Angeles Unions Want to be Exempt From $15 Minimum Wage They Fought for

The unions fight for a $15 minimum wage but then they don’t want it. So, they help bring on this disastrous policy and then they walk away from it. Well, that’s what unions do best anyway.

What are we talking about? Well, first let’s go back to the summer of 2015. We reported at the time that unions had attempted to become exempt from the $15 minimum wage (SEE: 2 reasons why unions are dangerous proponents of ‘Fight for $15’). This escape clause, which is found in the West Coast, Illinois and Wisconsin, would benefit unions greatly because then they could grow their numbers in companies everywhere.

A union head would approach a business and say he’ll get the staff to work for lower than $15 an hour as long as the company unionizes. A business owner, who would want to lower his labor costs, would cave into this coercion. The unions then have more workers who can pay a membership when they sign up. As we said at the time, it’s all rather sleazy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Video: Student Wearing Empty Holster Cited for ‘Threatening the Safety of Campus’

Two University of South Alabama students were confronted by campus police Wednesday, and one student was cited for “causing alarm” by wearing an empty holster.

“This week is the empty holster protest for Students for Concealed Carry in Alabama to demonstrate that students are defenseless on campus,” D.J. Parten, president of Students for Concealed Carry, told Campus Reform. Along with fellow club member Kenneth Tews, Parten was also promoting an upcoming screening of the movie Can We Take a Joke? when three campus police officers approached their table demanding identification.

Video footage, obtained by Campus Reform, shows one of the police officers asking to search the students, and when they exercise their right to refuse, another officer becoming aggravated and warning that he will find something to charge them with if they remain uncooperative-a threat that is eventually carried out against Parten.

The school’s website states that “all weapons are prohibited in University housing buildings, parking lots, and on University property” adding that “this includes, but is not limited to, bullets, ball bearing bullets, bullet balls, pellets, firearms, guns, knives, paintball guns, air guns, hunting bows, archery bows, swords, martial arts weapons, and replicas of such weapons. Toy and water guns are prohibited.”

Parten protested that nothing in the policy even implies that he is not allowed to wear the empty holster, particularly since he was doing it as a way of drawing attention to the school’s no-gun policy, but made no headway with the intractable officer, who insisted that the empty holster represented a potential safety hazard because it implied the existence of a firearm whose whereabouts he could not ascertain.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Violent Anti-Trump Mob Assaults Trump Supporter

Leftists rip sign, throw punches at man, steal his sunglasses

Video footage shows a leftist anti-Trump mob assaulting a Trump supporter in New York, at one point almost shoving him into a severely disabled man in a wheelchair.

The video begins with the man shouting pro-Second amendment slogans while handing out flyers as the anti-Trump crowd boos him.

“Learn how to defend yourself,” asserts the man.

An African-American man then invades the Trump supporter’s personal space before another individual yanks the flyers out of his hand and throws them away.

The black man and another black woman then begin an effort to physically move the Trump supporter away from the area.

At one minute 11 seconds, the video clearly shows that the black woman pushes the Trump supporter first before he shoves back, stating, “Get away from me!”

Other members of the anti-Trump mob then get in the Trump supporter’s face before someone from behind steals his hat and a woman attempts to tear away the placard that he is wearing.

The Trump supporter is vastly outnumbered by the mob as he is manhandled, almost being shoved into a severely disabled man in a wheelchair.

A man with dreadlocks is then seen swinging punches at the Trump supporter.

Despite being the victim of the mob assault, the Trump supporter is led away by police, who then told him not to return to the area…

As we have previously documented, the media is still spinning the narrative that Trump is responsible for inciting violence at his rallies, when in almost single instance it’s violent pro-Bernie Sanders agitators who are responsible for the mayhem.

[Comment: destabilizing the USA by inciting blacks against whites is a long time goal of the communists. Blacks are being played by people like Soros who are funding the “black Lives mattter” communist agaitation. ]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Astonishing’ Revelation: UK’s Rich Getting Away With Tax Fraud

The UK’s tax and revenue collection service HMRC has come under fire since it emerged that the organization only investigates around 35 “wealthy individuals” each year.

The revelation came about as HMRC were offering assurances that they would increase that number to 100 by 2020. Regardless, current numbers have been branded as “astonishing” by the Conservative MP Steve Baker, who sits on the Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee, adding: “to investigate such a small number of people is bound to cause public outrage, I look forward to the next time we have HMRC at the Treasury committee.”

The information was released as a part of a House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report on tackling tax fraud, which brought to light a number of issues regarding HMRC’s apparent failure to tackle fraud amongst wealthy Brits. The report went on to say:

“HMRC admitted in a previous evidence session that it could not provide a comprehensive answer to the question of how many prosecutions of wealthy individuals and corporates it had made in the past five years because its prosecutions management information system did not include data relating to the status or wealth of specific individuals prosecuted.”

The report itself was published last month, but it has resurfaced amidst the widespread anger following the release of the ‘Panama papers’, a leaked set of 11.5 million documents providing detailed information about offshore companies listed by the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

According to the Chair of the Public Accounts committee, the UK misses out on approximately US$22.5 billion (£16 billion) a year as a direct result of tax evasion, much of which fails to be accounted for due to the often vague interpretation of the difference between tax evasion and tax avoidance — the latter of which is not actually illegal. In a statement from HMRC, the organization resolutely defended its operations, saying:

“HMRC is one of the most effective tax collectors in the world, getting 93 pence of every pound due. Few other countries have a smaller tax gap… We remain relentless and strategic in tracking down the few that try to get out of paying their fair share.”

Given mounting cuts leveled against public services by the UK Government, a number of opposition voices — particularly on the left — have accused the Government of protecting wealthy individuals and large corporations from the full force of the law when it comes to recouping tax revenue. Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, for example, referencing the Panama Papers during this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions said:

“What [the Panama Papers] have driven home, Mr Speaker, is what many people have increasingly felt: there is now one rule for the super-rich, and another for everyone else.”

It is worth noting too, that these revelations fall at an bad time for HMRC, given that they are about to close a number of offices and implement major staff reductions, as a part of its ‘Building Our Future’ plan.

Those cutbacks are due to be debated in Parliament on April 28th, but are highly unlikely to be reversed.

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

Blaming Policy, Not Islam, For Belgium’s Radicalized Youth

Yves Goldstein makes no excuses for Belgium’s failure to find Salah Abdeslam and the other Islamic State recruits who attacked Paris and then bombed Brussels Airport and a subway station.

The problem is not Islam, he insists, but the negligence of government officials like himself in allowing self-contained ethnic ghettos to grow unchallenged, breeding anger, crime and radicalism among youth — a soup of grievances that suits Islamist recruiters.

“Our cities are facing a huge problem, maybe the largest since World War II,” Mr. Goldstein said. “How is it that people who were born here in Brussels, in Paris, can call heroes the people who commit violence and terror? That is the real question we’re facing.”

Friends who teach the equivalent of high school seniors in the predominantly Muslim districts of Molenbeek and Schaerbeek told him that “90 percent of their students, 17, 18 years old, called them heroes,” he said.

Mr. Goldstein, 38, grew up in Schaerbeek, the child of Jewish refugees from Nazism. Now a councilman from Schaerbeek, he is also chief of staff for the minister-president of the Brussels Capital Region.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Grants Turkish Request to Prosecute Comic Over Erdogan Insult

Under Germany’s criminal code the government must authorise prosecutors to pursue a case involving the law against insulting a foreign leader, of which comedian Jan Boehmermann is accused.

“There were different opinions between the coalition partners — the conservatives and the SPD (Social Democrats),” Merkel told reporters at the Chancellery in Berlin.

“The outcome is that the German government will give the authorisation in the current case,” she added, stressing that this was not a decision about the merits of the prosecution’s case against Boehmermann.

However, Merkel also announced that Germany would by 2018 scrap the rarely enforced section 103 of the criminal code involving insulting organs or representatives of foreign states…

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

Germany: AfD Takes Saxony-Anhalt Vice-President

The German state legislature of Saxony-Anhalt elected an Alternatief für Deutschland (AfD) vice-president this week after rebel members of Angela Merkel’s CDU party voted for him to defeat a far left candidate.

The election-which is bound to send shockwaves through German politics and disturb the government coalition even further-saw the AfD win 46 votes to the leftist’s 45.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Has More Poor Than Any EU Member

Almost seven billion people

(ANSA) — Brussels, April 14 — Italy is the Euroepan country with the highest number of people living in “serious material privation”, the institutional definition of poverty, Eurostat said Thursday.

The poverty rate in Europe dropped from 9% in 2014 to 8.2% in 2015, whereas in Italy it edged down from 11.6% to 11.5% — still 6.982 billion people.

The number is much lower in Germany (3.974 million), where the rate is just 5%, and in France (2.824 billion), with a rate of 4.5%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: ANAC Finds Rome Improperly Assigned Dog Shelter Contracts

Rome Mafia defendant’s consortium in bid to run the shelters

(ANSA) — Rome, April 12 — The city of Rome has been improperly handing out contracts to run its animal shelters without tender since 2001, ANAC anti-corruption authority said Tuesday. The authority said the city “systematically and improperly” assigned the contracts directly to specific animal rights NGOs, in violation of competitiveness rules. The probe was sparked when the Association of Porta Portese Dog Shelter Volunteers (AVCPP) reported that in July 2014, a business consortium with no experience in animal care bid on one of the city dog shelter contracts.

The consortium was headed by the June 29 Cooperative, whose founder Salvatore Buzzi is on trial on charges of being one of the key figures in a Rome-based crime ring made up of gangsters, businessmen, and politicians that muscled in on lucrative city contracts.

Prosecution documents in the so-called Rome Mafia case contain a wiretap in which Buzzi boasted over the phone that he “bought (Gaetano) Altamura” — the former chief of the city environmental protection department with authority over the city’s animal shelters.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Man Arrested for Rome Car Park Rape

Nigerian, 30, arrested in 2009 for attempted rape of girl, 7

(ANSA) — Rome, April 13 — A man has been arrested for allegedly raping a woman in a Rome car park on March 30, police said Wednesday.

The 30-year-old Nigerian had already been arrested in 2009 for trying to rape the seven-year-old daughter of a Nigerian couple who was putting him up, police said.

Rightwing politicians reacted with outrage.

Northern League leader Matteo Salvini called for chemical castration for rapists and Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni said would-be rapists should be immediately deported.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Has 19 Radicalised Prisoners, Association Says

449 minors in juvenile detention centres

(ANSA) — Rome, April 15 — Calabria’s Rossano prison holds all 19 of Italy’s “radicalised” prisoners, and there are 200 other prisoners in the Italian prison system labeled as “persons of attention”, according to Patrizio Gonnella, president of the Antigone Association, which released its 12th annual report on Italian prisons on Friday.

Gonnella warned, however, against taking “exacerbated tones on risks and creating tension in prison”.

“Tension produces violence, which in turn brings radicalisation,” Gonnella said.

He said there are 449 juveniles in detention centres in Italy and “the phenomenon (of radicalisation) is easily verifiable and containable” with monitoring for risk.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: FCA Outperforms EU Auto Market

Marchionne sees new alliances ahead

(ANSA) — Turin, April 15 — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) sales jumped 13.3% in March compared to the same period last year, the company said Friday. The positive results were across all brands, with Fiat +14%, Jeep +16.8%, Alfa Romeo and Lancia +0.8%. Market share rose from 5.9% to 6.3% in the period. FCA outperformed the European auto market, which grew 5.7% in March compared to the same period in 2015. The data referred to the EU-28 plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Also on Friday, CEO Sergio Marchionne said that while a deal with General Motors “can’t happen right now” the company is still looking for new partners. These could include Ford, Toyota, or Volkswagen, he said. South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group is “not interested”, Marchionne told reporters.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel Allows Erdogan’s Case Against TV Host to Go Ahead

The German government will allow state prosecutors to prepare a case against satirist Jan Böhmermann under a little-used law against insulting foreign heads of state, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday.

“Issuing permission [for the case to go ahead] does not mean pre-judging the outcome or represent an attack on press or artistic freedom,” Merkel told journalists at a press conference in Berlin.

She added that the government planned to abolish paragraph 103 of the criminal code, the law against insulting foreign heads of state, with effect from 2018. The law is a hangover from German legal codes dating back to the 18th Century that has never been repealed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Romania to Reimburse Citizens the Pollution Tax

1 mln citizens eligible, Eur 671 total. Not in line with Eu law

(ANSA) — BUCAREST — Romania needs to reimburse its citizens the pollution tax they had paid between 2007 and 2013. Around one million Romanians are eligible for the refund, which will be repaid in three annual rates, amounting to a total of 671 million euros (3 bln leu). The tax has been judged as not in line with the EU laws.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Study: Junk Food Kills Bacteria That Protects Against Obesity, Heart Disease and Cancer

A study by a Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College, London has revealed that eating junk food kills stomach bacteria, which protect the human body against obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, inflammatory bowel conditions and autism.

Professor Tim Spector specifically used McDonalds’ food for his study, arriving at this disturbing finding. Telegraph reports that Professor Spector enlisted the help of his son Tom, a 23-year old genetics student, who agreed to spend 10 days on a fast-food-only diet of McDonald’s hamburgers, chips, chicken nuggets and Coca Cola.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Suspected Paris Attacker Possessed Information on German Nuclear Plant

Authorities found documents in Salah Abdeslam’s apartment referring to a nuclear facility in Germany. The report, which officials have denied, comes amid growing concern over terrorists’ use of nuclear weapons.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Terror Suspect’s Phone Password ‘Was Jihad’

The trial of a 20-year-old former teaching student from northern Stockholm started on Friday. He is accused of planning to blow himself up in Sweden.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Police and Emergency Personnel Feel Poorly Prepared for Terrorist Attacks

A terrorist attack is a heart-breaking tragedy, but for police, fire and emergency medical personnel, it is also a highly complex and demanding situation requiring special skills and coordination of services.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Lesley Dunford Who Murdered Her Baby Son and Daughter is Jailed for Life

Lesley Dunford, 37, was jailed for life after admitting murdering her seven-month old son Harley at her home in East Sussex in 2003, just months before she also killed daughter Lucy, three.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Man, 26, Arrested at Gatwick Airport on Suspicion of Terror Offences Just Hours After Four People Are Detained in Birmingham

The 26-year-old was arrested at the West Sussex airport (pictured) in the early hours of Friday morning following the arrest of four people in Birmingham.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Newcastle Teens Charged With Kidnap After a Toddler Was Abducted From a Primark Store

Two teenage girls have appeared in court charged with kidnapping a two-year-old with the intention of committing a sexual offence.

The sisters, aged 13 and 14 from Tyneside, are jointly charged with kidnapping with intent to commit a relevant sexual offence and stealing dummies, a baby bottle, and milk.

The girls are said to have taken the two-year-old, who was a complete stranger to them, from Primark on Northumberland Street, Newcastle, on Wednesday afternoon — sparking a major police search in the city that lasted nearly two hours.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Advanced Team of Italian Soldiers Get to Mosul Dam

Reconnaissance in view of deployment to protect Trevi Group work

(ANSA) — Beirut, April 14 — An advanced team of Italian soldiers has arrived at the Mosul Dam in Iraq to reconnoitre in view of the deployment of an Italian contingent to protect Trevi Group workers as they repair the structure soon, local sources told ANSA Thursday.

Last month the Iraqi government played down reports from the United States and the United Nations that the key Mosul Dam was in danger of imminent collapse.

The alerts are “not correct” and “unrealistic”, said Mahid Rashid, an aide to the Iraqi water resources ministry.

The US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, had reiterated warnings that there could be a “catastrophic collapse” of the dam.

Rashid added that the Italian company Trevi “will start work for maintenance within two months, according to a spokesman for the firm”.

Rashid said the last US report on the dam’s structural state was made a year ago, and it did not highlight any risk of the dam breaking.

He urged the US to “provide the Iraqi government with all reports referring to the possibility of a collapse”.

Rashid added: “The experts from Trevi will visit the dam in the next few days for a first surveillance, and then the work will start in two months’ time”.

If the dam breaks more than a million people could be drowned by its waters.

The UN appealed to “carry out the necessary work” to repair the dam “as soon as possible”, before it is too late.

Italy’s Trevi construction group is set to start repairing the dam under the protection of Italian troops.

On March 2 the Italian foreign ministry said that the Cesena-based Trevi group had signed a contract with Iraqi authorities for consolidation work on the Mosul Dam, following “intense” negotiations with Baghdad.

The contract is worth some 273 million euros, ANSA learned from informed sources in Baghdad.

The repair and strengthening work will last 18 months, they said.

The project was agreed on a recent visit to Rome by Iraqi Premier Haider al-Abadi and was the subject of talks in New York between Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni and US and Iraqi representatives to speed the terms of the contract, the ministry said.

The arrival of some 500 Italian soldiers to protect Trevi’s restructuring work on the dam, whose urgent need for repair has been highlighted by the US, has been scheduled for late spring, either May or June, officials said Monday.

The contingent could be composed of the Garibaldi Brigade bersaglieri with armoured vehicles, plus special forces, sappers and air support.

Reconnaissance and analysis of the area to be secured have already been carried out.

Defence ministry plans to deploy the troops are at an advanced stage.

The Iraqi government and the US Embassy in Baghdad warned local residents on February 29 that the Mosul Dam may collapse, a risk the US called “serious and unprecedented”.

The US said a collapse could cause the deaths of nearly 1.5 million Iraqis living along the Tigris River.

“Prompt evacuation offers the most effective tool to save lives of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis,” the U.S. embassy said at the time.

The US has warned in the past of the potential for collapse.

Built in the 1980s, the dam is situated on soft mineral foundations, easily dissolved by water.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Kuwaiti Intellectual Risks Blasphemy Trial for Defending Secular State

In a television interview Sheikha al-Jassem said that the Constitution is worth more than the Koran and Sharia in regulating the lives of citizens. The Islamic extremist faction in Parliament denounced the woman for “psychological damage”. The prosecutor’s decision to go to trial. If convicted she faces a year in prison.

Kuwait City (AsiaNews / Agencies) — An intellectual, scholar and activist for human rights in Kuwait is likely to be tried for blasphemy after defending the secular nature of the state. The prosecutor general summoned Sheikha al-Jassem, notifying her of the charges laid against her for her words spoken during a recent television interview.

The Kuwaiti intellectual (pictured) said that the national constitution is as true as the Koran and sharia, Islamic law, in regulating the life of the country and its citizens. Now it will be up to the office of the prosecutor — which has laid the charges — to decide whether to remand the woman.

A March 8 interview given by Sheikha al-Jassem to the Kuwaiti channel Al-Shahed TV is at the root of the charges. The human rights activist was invited to speak precisely about the growth of Islamic extremism in the country and the region.

During the interview, Jassem responded to a question concerning the Islamic extremists, that religion is more important than the Constitution of Kuwait. In response, the intellectual explained that it is a “dangerous” point of view and that, in her opinion, politics and religion should be separated into two areas.

Jassem also recalled the wave of violence in the Middle East and the divisions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims within the Muslim world. In this regard she added that if people rely solely on sacred books and puts them at the center of daily life as the only fundamental source of the law, it is impossible to advance society.

Her words raised a wave of indignation within the Islamic extremist faction in parliament, including personal attacks and threats to the woman. In an interview with the BBC Jassem spoke of “terrifying” threats from “not only Kuwait but also from Saudi Arabia.”

In addition to the trial, a part of the extremist Islamic world has also demanded her expulsion from the University of Kuwait, where she teaches philosophy. During the talks, the prosecutor told her that the plaintiff feels “hurt from a psychological point of view” by her statements. The first complaint could be followed by others in coming days.

In the case of a trail and condemnation, the activist faces up to a year in prison. Nevertheless, she says she wants to continue her work and remains convinced of her own ideas, and thanks for the affection and support she has received.

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

“Norwegian Authorities Fail Muslim Women”

When Norwegian law meets Muslim family law, the human rights of Muslim immigrant women are violated. This is one of the findings in a new doctoral dissertation

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

3,000 Invaders a Day Landing in Italy

Up to 3,000 nonwhite invaders-almost all from sub-Saharan Africa-are currently landing every day on the coast of Italy-all fleeing their own self-created chaos and backwardness which they are bringing with them to Europe.

If the current invasion rate is allowed to continue, more than half a million of these low-IQ nonwhites will land in Italy this year alone.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Austria: Invaders Bring Deadly Fever to Salzburg

Nonwhite invaders living in Salzburg have caused an outbreak of a fatal and highly contagious lice-born fever, normally only seen in the Third World and caused by filth and backward living conditions. The disease broke out in the former hotel Kobenzl which is now being used as a “refugee center”-and officials are concerned because the residents have been able to freely move around the city.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Donkey Paths Through the Alps Being Used as New Migrant Route Into Europe

Located deep within the woods above the Brenner Pass connecting Italy and Austria, every night about 50 migrants pay smugglers 200 euros each to be led through the trails.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Greenpeace Submits Lesvos Cleanup Proposal

Greenpeace has submitted a detailed and “affordable”proposal to authorities on Lesvos to resolve the ever-increasing problem of waste on the island and help it “turn a crisis into an opportunity to be innovative and to create jobs while resolving its waste problem.”

The move comes as Lesvos is projected to have 17 tons of extra daily waste to deal with until 2017.

Lesvos has borne the brunt of the refugee crisis with thousands of refugees reaching its shores since last summer sparking a waste management crisis on the island.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iranian Migrants Rescued in Aborted English Channel Crossing

Two Iranian men trying to crossing the English Channel in an inflatable dinghy have been picked up by a British lifeboat. The UK is the destination of choice for thousands of refugees stranded in Calais, northern France.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Renzi Says Migrant Crisis ‘Not an Invasion Underway’

‘Arrivals just slightly higher than last year’

(ANSA) — Rome, April 15 — Italian Premier Matteo Renzi on Friday said that the current migrant crisis in Italy isn’t an “an invasion underway” and that the country has “clear ideas” on how to face it. “The EU is bringing a strategy starting from aid to African countries and blocking the journeys of death,” Renzi said. “I don’t want to minimise, but I do want to give a reliable message. The number of arrivals is just slightly higher than last year. I say to the Italians: common sense and reason”.

Migrants and refugees are massing to cross the Mediterranean to Italy after the route through Greece and the Balkans was closed off by an EU-Turkey deportation and resettlement deal.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Migrant Crisis Fuels Macedonia-Greece Discord

Scenes of desperate migrants being tear-gassed at the Greece-Macedonia border are straining an already testy relationship between the two neighbours, as Skopje also grapples with a political crisis that has seen protesters ransack the president’s office.

With thousands of people camped out on the Greek side of the border in squalid conditions, the two countries have traded increasingly undiplomatic protests, with Greece accusing non-EU Macedonia of unacceptable tactics in its use of tear gas — and rubber bullets according to doctors on the scene — and Macedonia accusing Greece of inaction.

The violent scenes unfolded at the flashpoint Idomeni border crossing last week as hundreds of migrants tried to break through a fence following a rumour the crossing was about to be re-opened.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Nearly 6,000 Migrants Reach Italy Since Tuesday: IOM

Nearly 6,000 migrants who crossed the Mediterranean have reached Italy since Tuesday, the International Organization for Migration said, warning that the surge in arrivals was set to continue.

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

Over 1,700 Migrants Land in Different Parts of Italy

Arrivals in Palermo, Catania, Cagliari, Reggio Calabri

(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 14 — Over 1,700 asylum seekers arrived in different parts of Italy late on Wednesday and early on Thursday. Operations in Palermo to offload, run medical checks and identify almost 900 migrants who were saved by the Norwegian Navy ship Siem Pilot went on through the night. Among the arrivals were 138 unaccompanied minors. A Greek merchant ship with 235 migrants aboard, including 111 women and six children, docked at the Sardinian capital Cagliari.

An Italian coast guard ship, the Dattilo, arrived in Catania carrying 121 migrants who had been rescued in the Channel of Sicily. In addition to assisting the migrants, the authorities in Sicily have also started investigations to identify human traffickers. The Italian Navy ship Cicala Fulgosi P490 landed in the port of Reggio Calabria with 558 people of various nationalities on board.

They include 155 women, 10 of whom are pregnant, and 21 children.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Preparing for ‘Migrant Onslaught, ‘ Switzerland Ready to Post Tanks at Border With Italy

Switzerland has announced it is considering stationing a tank battalion at its southern border with Italy, after news that Austria is ready to completely shut down the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria.

In a matter of just hours, Europe’s migrant crisis has escalated following the unexpected announcement Wednesday night by Austria’s Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil that his country is prepared to close its border if Italy does not get its migrant problem under control.

After Italy sharply criticized the Austrian plan, Switzerland has declared it is considering posting tanks to secure its own border with Italy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Resettlement of 20,000 Syrian Refugees Estimated to Cost Half a Billion Pounds

Resettling 20,000 Syrian refugees in Britain will cost more than half a billion pounds, the Government has revealed.

Syrian Refugee Minister Richard Harrington said he estimated the resettlement scheme set up by David Cameron at the height of the migration crisis would cost at least £589 million up to 2021.

Home Affairs Committee chair Keith Vaz said the cost was “huge” and bemoaned an “unacceptable lack of transparency” over how the money will be used.

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

Spain: “Legal Immigrants” snd ISIS

The seizure of 20,000 new military uniforms-destined for ISIS in Syria-by police in Valencia, Spain, last month, has revealed the full extent of the ISIS support network amongst nonwhite invaders already legally resident in Europe. The uniforms-five tons in all-were hidden under secondhand clothes in two supply containers seized at the city’s port, on their way to Syria.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Taxpayers Pay $300,000 a Day to Send Illegals Home

Taxpayers in the United States have been paying more than $300,000 each and every day to send illegals back to their home countries via commercial flights and private jets, the Daily Mail Online found, in an exclusive investigation of 2015 statistics.

By the numbers: Immigration and Customs Enforcement spent a total of $116 million in 2015 to fly 235,413 back home, more than 40 percent of whom had been convicted of crimes while in the United States. Another 1,000 of those had been identified by officials as members of gangs, the newspaper found, via a Freedom of Information Act request for documents.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Welcome to the New Lesbos’: Now Sicily is Flooded With 2,000 Migrants Every Day Since the Balkans Route Shut

Thousands of migrants are pouring into Sicily by sea every day, sparking fears that the ancient Mediterranean isle has become ‘the new Lesbos’.

Arrivals to the island have increased by 90 per cent in the first three months of the year. In the last three days alone, more than 6,000 migrants have arrived on its shores.

MailOnline went aboard a Norwegian rescue ship that brought 900 migrants to the Sicilian port of Palermo. Thousands more, who had all been picked up on the Mediterranean, were taken ashore simultaneously at other ports on the island.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Amnesty International Intensifies Campaign for Transgender People’s Rights

Thousands signed petition to pressure government into law change

In 1989, Denmark became the first country in the world to legally recognise same-sex unions — a brave new step for LGBTI communities across the world.

And then in 2014, it became the first European country to permit a legal change of gender without the need for a medical expert statement.

But despite its reputation as a pioneer, Denmark still has a long way to go before it can call itself a champion of transgender people’s human rights, claims Amnesty International.

Some of the screenings and observations that transgender people must currently undergo to be approved for hormone therapy, it claims, are “outdated and offensive”, “long-standing and humiliating” and certainly unbecoming of a nation that takes such pride in its progressiveness.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US Navy Moves Ship Launching Ceremony Due to ‘Harsh Anti-Gay Laws’ In Mississippi

The future USS Portland is already in the water, but it has yet to be commissioned. The ceremony to do so was scheduled to be held in Pascagoula, Mississippi at the end of May, but then the state decided to put its hatred, its bigotry, and its antiquated notions about the 1st Amendment on display.

Since we’re a hyper-sensitive society that subsists on faux-outrage, we can’t tolerate any of that “religious freedom” nonsense. Super-important dignitaries refused to attend, so the Navy has determined that the christening simply had to be moved. As CBS reports:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

5 Major Earthquakes in 48 Hours as a Seismologist Warns ‘Catastrophic Mega Earthquakes’ Are Coming

Why is the crust of the Earth shaking so violently all of a sudden?

Over the past 48 hours, there have been five major earthquakes globally, and one prominent seismologist has declared that “catastrophic mega earthquakes” could be on the way. In fact, seismologist Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado has made headlines all over the world by warning that “current conditions might trigger at least four earthquakes greater than 8.0 in magnitude”. If his projections are accurate, our planet could be on the precipice of a wave of natural disasters unlike anything that any of us have ever experienced before.

Since the beginning of 2016, south Asia has been hit by an unusually high number of large earthquakes, and this has scientists groping for an explanation. The following comes from the Express…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

One thought on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/15/2016

Comments are closed.