A 27-year-old man caused terror on a train in Switzerland today by pouring out an accelerant, igniting it, and then stabbing six people with a knife. The victims were hospitalized, and so was the perpetrator, who was badly burned. No motive for the attack is yet known, but the attacker is said not to have an immigration background, and has “a normal Swiss name”.
In other news, an imam and his associate were shot to death after leaving a mosque in a Muslim neighborhood of Brooklyn. Local residents characterized the murders as a hate crime.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Ava Lon, Dean, EF, Fjordman, JD, LP, MM, Nick, Reader from Chicago, 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.
12 Years Imprisonment for Jaelyn Delshaun Young for Conspiring to Aid Islamic State
ABERDEEN, Miss., Aug. 12 (UPI) — A federal judge sentenced a Mississippi woman to 12 years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State.
Jaelyn Delshaun Young, 20, of Starkville, pleaded guilty to the charge in March, admitting she conspired with Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla, 23, her fiancé, to serve IS as a medic.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 2 Dead, More Than 1,000 Rescued From Gulf Coast Flooding Deemed ‘Historic’
More rain Saturday was expected to swamp already soggy ground across Louisiana and other parts of the Gulf Coast, as Louisiana’s governor announced that crews had rescued more than 1,000 people, some of whom were clinging to trees to stay safe.
Officials said at least two people had died in the floods. Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency as rescue workers in the southeastern part of the state braced for more rain. The state’s emergency management office called it a “historic flood event.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Blacks Will Take Hundreds of Years to Catch Up to White Wealth
The wealth gap between blacks and whites in America will take hundreds of years to close — if ever.
If current trends persist, it will take 228 years for black families to accumulate the same amount of wealth as whites, according to a report released this week from the Corporation for Economic Development and the Institute for Policy Studies. For Latino families, it will take 84 years.
Over the past 30 years, the average household wealth of white families has grown 85% to $656,000, while that of blacks has climbed just 27% to $85,000 and Latinos 69% to $98,000.
“We’re seeing wealth concentrating in fewer and fewer hands and those hands are overwhelmingly white,” said Josh Hoxie, who leads the project on opportunity and taxation at the Institute for Policy Studies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Debate Flares After Black College Students Seek a Non-White Roommate
In most respects, the roommate-wanted notice seemed routine. Three students at the Claremont colleges in Southern California were looking for a fourth this summer to join them in an off-campus house. They added a caveat in parentheses: “POC only,” they said, using a common abbreviation for people of color.
When a classmate challenged that condition, the Pitzer College student who posted the notice on Facebook pushed back. “It’s exclusive [because] I don’t want to live with any white folks,” wrote Karé Ureña, who is black.
The online comments touched off a debate this week over race at Pitzer and neighboring colleges, one that flared into national headlines after the Claremont Independent student magazine wrote about it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Did the DNC Keep Press Silent With Cell Jamming Signal? “Officials Barely Acknowledge They Use it”
Yet another report has emerged in the aftermath of the DNC convention alleging that staffers used sophisticated technologies to blackout negative coverage and literally drown out dissident voices.
Hillary’s 2016 coronation just wouldn’t be the same without the Orwellian overtones.
First there were reports that the convention had installed white noise generators over the sections that were pro-Bernie states. The white noise significantly drowns out the voices of anyone shouting in the radius.
Plenty of people find it hard to believe that such a device would be used against protesters in order to carefully control the DNC convention and make sure that it friendly for Hillary. However, a reporter on the campaign trail pointed out the use of these machines months before convention ever began.
Listen to the difference of before and after (around 9:20) the Clinton event when the white noise generator was switched on to cover-up the speech and make it incoherent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DNC Hacker Posts Contact Information for Nearly 200 Democratic Lawmakers
The hacker Guccifer 2.0 posted phone numbers, email addresses and passwords for nearly 200 sitting and former Democratic lawmakers on Friday, including current members of intelligence and armed services committees.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Boyfriend is Sought for Questioning in Fatal Stabbing of 16-Year-Old Girl
A Pico Rivera mother awoke to the screams of her daughter early Friday and watched in horror as the 16-year-old staggered into her bedroom after being stabbed.
Before the teen collapsed and died, however, Elena Moore — known to friends as “Lily” — managed to speak with her mother, according to authorities.
Based on the girl’s dying words, homicide detectives are now looking to question Moore’s ex-boyfriend, 17-year-old Rory Murga, to determine whether he was involved in the attack, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Murga is a person of interest and detectives are seeking the public’s assistance in locating him for questioning.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Gun Shots at Crabtree Valley Mall Cause Lockdown in Raleigh North Carolina
Shoppers flee as gunshots fired at Crabtree Valley Mall
RALEIGH — A shooting at Crabtree Valley Mall on a busy Saturday afternoon sent terrified shoppers fleeing and left the mall on lockdown.
Police said shots were fired inside the mall, at 4325 Glenwood Ave., about 2:30 p.m.
As of 4:30 p.m., no one with gunshot wounds had been located, police said. No suspects have been arrested.
Soon after the gunfire, shoppers used cell phone video cameras to record patrons fleeing the mall.
Kristen Warring, 26, of Raleigh, said she was shopping with her boyfriend at the GameStop store when they heard shots about 2:30.
“We heard at least 10 shots, maybe more. It was loud. We were close,” Warring said. “We got as low as we could, behind a barricade. Saw a lot of people running and pushing to get out. Texted 911 at that point to let them know there were 30-40 people — about half were children. … They said to keep to low, said police were on the scene.”
Warring said they had to stay in place about 45 minutes.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Imam: Another Man Killed in Double Shooting After Leaving Mosque
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — An imam and a member of his congregation are dead following a double shooting in Queens on Saturday afternoon.
CBS2’s Valerie Castro reported Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and 64-year-old associate, Tharam Uddin, were each shot in the head while on their way home from a local mosque by a man who came up behind them. The shooting took place near Liberty Avenue and 79th Street in Ozone Park around 2 p.m…
| — Hat tip: MM | [Return to headlines] |
Nearly 100 People Shot in Chicago in Less Than a Week
Nearly 100 people have been shot in Chicago in less than a week, pushing the number of shooting victims so far this year to more than 2,500 — about 800 more than this time last year, according to data kept by the Tribune.
Between last Friday afternoon and early Thursday, at least 99 people were shot in the city, 24 of them fatally. At least nine people were killed on Monday alone, the deadliest day in Chicago in 13 years, according to Tribune data. Among the wounded that day was a 10-year-old boy shot in the back as he played on his front porch in Lawndale.
The number of shooting victims in Chicago stood at 2,514 Thursday morning. At this time last year, 1,725 people had been shot.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Mexico Police Officer Slain During Traffic Stop; 3 in Custody
A New Mexico police officer was gunned down during a traffic stop and a motorist was shot during a rest stop carjacking before authorities were able to chase down three suspects and take them into custody, Dona Ana County law enforcement officials say.
The officer was making a traffic stop Friday afternoon in the village of Hatch, about 40 miles northwest of Las Cruces, when a passenger got out of the vehicle and started firing, Dona Ana County sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Jameson said in a news release.
The suspects drove south on Interstate 25 at speeds up to 100 mph, then stopped at a rest stop near Radium Springs, where one of them carjacked a parked Chevrolet Cruze. Jameson said that car’s owner also was shot.
Sheriff’s deputies spotted the Cruze, pursued it and were able to slow it down with “stop sticks”; the suspect crashed the vehicle into a pile of wood and briefly barricaded himself in the car before surrendering to sheriff’s deputies, Jameson said. The suspect had a gunshot wound to the right thigh, she said.
Meanwhile, deputies tracked down the other two suspects in Rincon after being alerted by a passerby of two men “acting suspicious” in the area, the sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Puerto Rico Reports 10,690 Zika Cases Amid Ongoing Epidemic
The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico has reported 1,914 new Zika cases over the past week. Health Secretary Ana Rius said Friday there are 10,690 cases altogether, including 1,035 involving pregnant women. Zika has been tied to severe birth defects.
The newest statistics were released a day after the U.S. surgeon general visited Puerto Rico and said he expected 25 percent of people on the island will be infected by Zika by year’s end.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Beach Man in Sex Assault on Plane Gets 2 Years in Prison, Plans Appeal
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — The South Beach man convicted of sexually assaulting a sleeping female passenger aboard an international flight was sentenced Friday to two years in prison.
Nadeem Mehmood Quraishi, 43, rubbed lotion on the woman’s arms, chest and legs, on her underwear and in her vaginal area before she woke up during the Emirates Airlines flight from Dubai to New York on Oct. 26, said Brooklyn federal prosecutors.
“Here the sexual contact was very serious,” District Judge Carol Bagley Amon said in Brooklyn Federal Court before handing down her decision. “The defendant was sexually abused while she slept. When she woke up, she realized she was grossly violated.”
“The defendant has continued to maintain his innocence,” the judge added. “He’s shown no remorse at all for his conduct.”
After the proceeding, Quraishi’s lawyer, Mark Macron, said he was filing an appeal, and his client should have received a lesser sentence.
“He pleaded not guilty,” Macron said in reference to his client not showing any remorse. “He doesn’t have to grovel to the government.”
Quarishi, dressed in a beige suit, had his wife and friend in the courtroom. He chose not to comment during the nearly hourlong proceeding..
| — Hat tip: EF | [Return to headlines] |
The CFR-controlled administrations of Clinton, Bush I and II, and now Obama, have acted with a degree of lawlessness and impropriety surpassing previous administrations. Donald Trump has shown that the USA is but a shadow of its former self, which explains why most of the American people share his dream of making America great again.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Birth of the Queen of Corruption, Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary’s real personality came through over and over during high school, and I can testify to her arrogance and self-aggrandizement. A perfect example is when she pretended to be a journalist from Time magazine conducting an interview, with herself as the subject. Much of the interview featured her own accomplishments, even interrupting herself to expound on her attributes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Declares Health Emergency in Puerto Rico Over Zika
Health authorities in the United States have declared a public health emergency in Puerto Rico in response to the Zika outbreak. More than 10,000 people have contracted the virus in the tiny US territory.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Warning Issued Over Computer Hacks That Can Injure Motorists
A team of privacy experts is urging a California appeals court to resurrect a case spotlighting the hacking of computers in cars, warning breaches could result not only in stolen identity but physical injury.
“‘Connected vehicles’ expose American drivers to the risks of data breach, auto theft, and physical injury,” the Electronic Privacy Information Center asserted in a friend-of-the-court brief to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
They, and others, are asking that a lawsuit out of San Francisco be restored. The case, Helene Cahen v. Toyota, focuses on the electronic monitoring and Internet connectivity built into cars. A trial judge dismissed the case for lack of standing, but the brief contends the ruling should be reversed.
And it’s no longer just about privacy, it’s about public safety, too, the the brief argues.
“The internal computer systems for these vehicles are subject to hacking, unbounded data collection, and broad-scale cyber attack,” the brief explains. “Despite this extraordinary risk, car manufacturers are expanding the reach of networked vehicles that enable third party access to driver data and vehicle operational systems.
“The plaintiffs in this case seek the opportunity to present legal claims stemming from the defendants’sale of vehicles that place them at risk. That should be allowed to proceed.”
WND reported a year ago when two U.S. senators proposed the SPY Car Act of 2015 to create privacy standards for computer systems that control today’s generation of electronics-heavy vehicles.
The proposal came just as a Wired.com contributor reported hackers who set him up in a new vehicle were able to take over its controls while he was driving at 70 mph.
“As the two hackers remotely toyed with the air-conditioning, radio and windshield wipers, I mentally congratulated myself on my courage under pressure,” wrote Andy Greenberg at Wired in an article headlined “Hackers remotely kill a Jeep on the highway.”
In the 2015 article, he reported, suddenly his vehicle slowed to a crawl, an 18-wheeler — approached from behind and “the experiment had ceased to be fun,” he wrote.
[Comment: Remember Michael Hastings? whowhatwhy.org/2015/02/20/car-hacking-report-refuels-concerns-michael-hastings-crash/, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/michael-hastings-car-hacked_n_3492339.html]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The presence of a Canadian Forces recruitment centre at a downtown London mall has raised suspicion a suspected terrorist killed in Strathroy Wednesday was targeting the military.
The cab company that sent a taxi to pick up Aaron Driver just before the deadly takedown by police has said Driver wanted to go to the CitiPlaza mall in London, Ontario, though it remains unclear if that was his intended final destination.
The RCMP and the military weren’t answering questions about those concerns Friday, but a source with a connection to the investigation said the possibility was raised among law enforcement officials.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Meteorite May be First Visitor From the Kuiper Belt
A fireball that streaked through the sky over a decade ago may have brought the first meteorite from the outskirts of the solar system.
Most meteorites found on Earth are thought to start out in the asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter, but the makeup of the Tagish Lake meteorite, which fell on an icy lake in Canada’s British Columbia in 2000, bears little resemblance to other space rocks.
That might be because it formed much further out in the Kuiper belt, the ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune that has Pluto as its most famous member. NASA recently approved an extension of the New Horizons mission to visit a Kuiper-belt object called 2014 MU69, so having a sample of similar material on Earth could help us understand how this region of the solar system formed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Quebec: Not in My Courtroom — Judge Throws Out Case After Woman Refuses to Remove Headscarf
A JUDGE has refused to hear a case because one of the participants refused to take off her hijab in court.
Rania El-Alloul was attending a hearing trying to recover a car seized by police when her 21-year-old son was caught behind the wheel with a suspended driving licence.
Judge Eliana Marengo asked her to remove her headscarf before the proceedings got under way but she refused.
The judge told her: “The courtroom is a secular place and you are not suitably dressed.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Ancient Teenage Skeleton Unearthed on Mountain Top Could Confirm Darkest Greek Legend
Excavators say it’s too early to speculate on the nature of the teenager’s death but the discovery is remarkable because the remote Mount Lykaion was for centuries associated with the most nefarious of Greek cults: Ancient writers — including Plato — linked it with human sacrifice to Zeus, a practice which has very rarely been confirmed by archaeologists anywhere in the Greek world and never on mainland Greece.
According to legend, a boy was sacrificed with the animals and all the meat was cooked and eaten together. Whoever ate the human part would become a wolf for nine years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Another French Riviera Resort Bans Burqinis
A second resort on France’s Riviera coast, Villeneuve-Loubet, announced on Saturday a ban against burqinis after Cannes banished the full-body swimsuit from its beaches.
The town’s mayor told AFP that he made the decision to bar the burqini worn by some Muslim women because of sanitary reasons.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 6 Hurt After Fire, Stabbing Attack on Swiss Train, Police Say
Police in Switzerland say a Swiss man set a fire and stabbed people on a train in the country’s northeast, wounding six people as well as himself.
Police in St. Gallen say the incident happened at 2:20 local time Saturday afternoon as the train neared the station in Salez, near the border with Liechtenstein.
They say the 27-year-old suspect had at least one knife and poured out a flammable liquid, which caught fire.
Police say the wounded included a 6-year-old child, three women aged 17, 34 and 43, and two men aged 17 and 50. Some of the injuries were said to be serious but there were no further details immediately.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Despite CDU-CSU Push, Germany Can’t Legally Ban Burqas
Several German politicians have called on the country to follow France, Belgium and a Swiss region in banning full-body coverings. But Germany’s constitution prevents this — and hardly anyone wears them here anyway.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Draw Mohammed’ Winner Creates New Cartoon Showing Geert Wilders Locking Up Muslim ‘Prophet’
Bosch Fawstin, winner of the Mohammed Cartoon Contest in Garland, Texas, has made a new Mohammed cartoon showing Dutch politician Geert Wilders putting the Islamic prophet Mohammed behind bars.
Mr Fawstin came first in last April’s contest, which was attacked by Islamic State sympathisers.
Speaking on the new cartoon, Geert Wilders said: “Bosch Fawstin was raised as a Muslim and personally experienced the atrocities of Islam up close.
“He is one of the biggest heroes of our time because he had the courage to leave Islam.
“I am proud that he made another Mohammed cartoon. It shows Mohammed behind bars and myself being satisfied about locking up the danger.
“For me it symbolizes that we urgently have to act against the terrorist Islamic ideology and terrorist attacks by isolating the violent Islamic ideology and de-Islamizing our societies.
“The West is facing an existential threat and weak leaders who are not protecting our people. We cannot afford this appeasement policy anymore and have to act today to preserve the freedom of our countries and security of our people.
“We must close our borders for immigrants from Islamic countries, detain jihadists, and de-Islamize our societies, for example by closing mosques and Islamic schools.”
Many Muslims see graphic depictions Mohammed — and indeed of any living creature — as deeply offensive.
In one of the most famous examples, Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard received death threats for a cartoon of a man with a bomb for a turban which was published in Jyllands-Posten in 2005.
The cartoon sparked protests across the Muslim world, with Mr Westergaard having to live under armed guard.
In 2010, a man wielding a knife and an axe broke into his home, forcing him to take refuge in a panic room.
“My basic feeling has been and still is anger. If you are threatened I think anger is a good feeling because it is like you mentally strike back,” he said.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
EU Super-State: Juncker Plans to Dictate EU Nations Revealed
AN EU Commission stealth plan to dictate to member Governments how they should run their countries has been unearthed by Express.co.uk.
And, as predicted by the Brexit campaign, it appears to be a thinly-veiled attempt by Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to create a homogenised EU super-state.
The plans were in place BEFORE Britain’s historic Brexit vote in June — but they were quietly buried so as not to alert British voters to the longer-term future of the EU.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Charlie Hebdo Threatened After ‘Muslims Loosen Up!’ Cartoon
Charlie Hebdo staff have been threatened with a new attack following the publication of their latest edition, the cover of which features a cartoon naked Muslims at a beach, with the words “Muslims loosen up”.
The latest issue of the controversial satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo features a naked man and woman running towards the shoreline of a beach.
The man’s penis can be seen through his long beard, and the woman is totally naked except for her veil over he head and shoulders.
The caption reads “The reform of Islam: Muslims, loosen up” or “Musulmans decoincez vous”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Nice Court Upholds Burkinis Ban, But Appeal Planned
A French court in Nice has upheld the ban on burkinis imposed by the mayor of Cannes.
The court said the ruling was legal but many religious groups were outraged.
The Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) said it would appeal against the decision in France’s highest administrative court.
Authorities in Cannes and nearby villages voted to ban full-body swimsuits or burkinis from the end of July.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Resort Town Cannes Bans Full-Body ‘Burkini’ Swimsuits From Beaches
The French resort town of Cannes has banned full-body, head-covering swimsuits from its beaches, citing security reasons — a measure some are decrying as a discriminatory anti-Muslim move that only worsens religious tensions.
The ban on so-called burkinis, at the height of the French Riviera’s vacation season, comes as France remains on edge after deadly Islamic extremist attacks in nearby Nice and on a Catholic church in northwest France.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
French Court Charges Man Over Priest Murder
A French court on Friday charged and remanded in custody a 21-year-old man arrested in connection with the jihadist murder of a priest in a Normandy church last month, a judicial source said.
The man, the second to be held in connection with the killing of 85-year-old Jacques Hamel, was charged with “criminal association in connection with terrorism”, after his arrest on Monday in the Toulouse area, the source said.
Just before the July 26th attack, the man had travelled to the Rouen region in northern France where he met Hamel’s killers Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean, both 19 years old, according to a source close to the investigation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Therapy and Prevention: The Race to Stop Youth From Radicalizing
The recent spate of deadly attacks in Germany have highlighted the need to intervene with angry young men before they turn to extremism or violence. But the country has a lot of catching up to do — and the work can be controversial.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Seven people have been injured after a man attacked passengers on a train in Switzerland with ‘fire and a knife’.
Swiss police have confirmed the train has been sealed off an it is understood the county’s interior minister is holding an emergency meeting over the incident.
The man set the train carriage on fire using a flammable liquid and also stabbed passengers, including a six-year-old child, police said.
The attack happened near Salez-Sennwald Train Station on the line between Buchs and Sennwald at around 2.20pm.
The offender, a 27-year-old Swiss citizen, carried out the attack on a train travelling in Switzerland’s far east, along its border with Liechtenstein, and was also injured, regional police in St Gallen said in a statement.
The statement said: ‘According to current information a 27-year-old Swiss man poured out a flammable liquid. He was also armed with at least one knife. The liquid caught fire.’
| — Hat tip: Ava Lon | [Return to headlines] |
New Method Reveals the Secrets of Bog Bodies
Protein analyses on Denmark’s large collection of bog bodies gives archaeologists deeper insights into Iron Age culture and society.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
One Helluva Fella: The Horrifically Contemporary World of Hieronymus Bosch
Impaled heads and burning bodies: Hieronymus Bosch, the great Dutch painter whose images depicted the horrors and terror of the past, present and future, died 500 years ago. In the era of Abu Ghraib and Islamic State, his work feels as contemporary as ever.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Mystery Falling Fish Appear in Aberdeenshire Garden
An Aberdeenshire man has asked for help in identifying fish which have appeared outside his house.
Kevin Bain found about 75 small fish in his back garden on Thursday.
He believes their arrival is the result of a waterspout which sucked the animals from the sea and dropped them on his property.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Knifeman Sets Fire on Train, Injures 6
A knifeman started a fire on Swiss train and stabbed passengers on Saturday, injuring six people including a six-year-old child, police said.
The motive was not immediately clear, but the incident follows a string of violent, often deadly assaults in Europe in recent months, with many claimed by the jihadist Islamic State group.
“We can neither exclude nor affirm that this was a terrorist act,” Saint Gallen regional police spokesman Bruno Metzger told the local St.Galler Tagblatt daily.
Police spokesman Hanspeter Kruesi told AFP the suspected attacker, who used flammable liquid to start the fire, was a Swiss national, and not of immigrant background.
He did not comment on whether the attacker’s religious affiliation was known to police.
“According to the information we have for the time being, the 27-year-old Swiss man poured out a flammable liquid … (which) caught fire,” Saint Gallen police said in a statement.
The man, who “was also armed with at least one knife”, carried out the attack on a moving train near Switzerland’s eastern border with Liechtenstein and Austria, it said.
Seven people including the suspected attacker were admitted to hospital with burn and stab wounds, the statement said.
One woman and the attacker were “very seriously injured”, Kruesi told AFP, adding that both their lives were in danger.
He said no one had overpowered the attacker, but that he had been hurt in the fire.
Kruesi denied reports that the man had targeted one specific woman on the train, dousing her with the flammable liquid.
“That is not correct. This was not directed concretely at one person,” he said, adding that it remained unclear whether the attacker knew any of his victims…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland Salez Attack: Knifeman Sets Fire to Swiss Train
A knifeman has set fire to a train in north-eastern Switzerland, leaving six people in hospital with stab wounds and burns, police say.
The suspected attacker, described as a Swiss man aged 27, was also taken to hospital after the incident near Salez in St Gallen Canton.
He had ignited a flammable liquid before attacking people with a knife.
Among the injured is a child of six. There was no immediate information as to motive or background.
Three rescue helicopters are at the scene. A major police operation is under way.
The attack occurred around 14:20 (12:20 GMT) as the train was approaching Salez station, between the towns of Buchs and Sennwald.
Several dozen passengers were on board at the time of the attack.
Apart from the child, a girl and a boy, both 17, two women aged 34 and 43, and a man aged 50 were hurt.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Revealed: Police ‘Too Scared’ To Stop Vote Rigging in Muslim Areas, Damning Report Finds
VOTE rigging in Muslim communities goes unchallenged because police are too scared of being “politically correct”, a damning Government report has revealed.
The study, headed by Sir Eric Pickles, found that authorities are not doing enough to stamp out bullying and religious intimidation among Asian authorities during the lead up to elections.
The report has even called for a dramatic overhaul of the electoral system, warning the “integrity of democracy” is at stake.
The Electoral Commission also came under fire for making the situation worse by encouraging the use of foreign language, with Sir Eric saying it “leaves the door open to fraud”.
Sir Eric was chosen by David Cameron to head-up the electoral fraud commission following the voting scandal in Tower Hamlets, East London.
Former mayor of Tower Hamlets Luftur Rahman was relieved of his position after he was found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
USA Wants More Modern Nuclear Bombs in Germany: Report
US President Obama had said he wanted to make nuclear disarmament one of his government’s goals. But now the United States intends to modernize the atom bombs that it has stationed in Germany, media report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Wales: Imam: ‘it’s Permissible in Islam to Have Sex Slaves’
(International Business Times) A hardline Cardiff imam suspected of radicalising three young men, has told teenage worshippers that having sex slaves is “permissible in Islam” . An undercover reporter recorded Ali Hammuda, a cleric who organises halaqas (religious study circles) at the Al-Manar mosque was recorded telling children as young as 13 that the world is “close to the end of time” .
His sermon comes two years after the three men, Nasser Muthana and Reyaad Khan, then 20, and Muthana’s younger brother Aseel, then 17, left for Syria, where they are suspected of joining Islamic State (Isis). Before they left Wales worshipped at the mosque where Hammuda still preaches.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Blonde: Blue-Eyed Girls Are Particularly Popular’, Says ISIS Sex Slave Captured in Iraq
A woman who was tortured and enslaved by ISIS terrorists says they are mainly looking to target Western women for sex trafficking.
She said that women with blonde hair and blue eyes are a valuable commodity amongst evil ISIS militants who sexually abuse then sell their kidnapped victims for money.
ISIS are involved in the capture and attempted indoctrination of young girls and women around the world.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Jordanian Writer Faces Arrest Over Offensive Cartoon
Writer Nahed Hattar faces arrest for sharing a cartoon on Facebook deemed deeply offensive to Muslims.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Retreat and Delusion: Is the Islamic State Finally Collapsing?
Terrorist attacks on the West make the Islamic State appear stronger than ever. The reality is that allied forces are well on their way to defeating the group in its core territory. Sources on the ground report that the “caliphate” is disintegrating.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Exclusion of the Pro-Kurd HDP in Post-Coup Turkey
The pro-Kurd Peoples’ Democratic Party has been excluded from Turkey’s post-coup “democracy” rallies and constitution talks. Observers say the HDP is gradually being left out of politics.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Coup Attempt: Nearly 82,000 Sacked or Suspended
Some 5,000 state employees have been sacked and 77,000 suspended in the purge since last month’s failed coup in Turkey, the prime minister says.
Binali Yildirim told reporters in Ankara that more than 3,000 of those sacked were members of the military.
They are suspected of links to exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, he said.
Announcing a visit to Turkey by US Vice-President Joe Biden, he again urged the US to extradite Mr Gulen.
The cleric, a former ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, from where he runs a worldwide network of charities and schools.
He denies any knowledge of or involvement in Turkey’s first coup attempt since 1997, which left 270 people dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Woman Gets 12 Years for Trying to Aid IS
MISSISSIPPI — A US judge on Thursday sentenced a Mississippi woman to 12 years in prison for providing material support to Islamic State after she and her husband conspired with an undercover FBI employee to travel to Syria and aid the group’s media campaign.
Jaelyn Delshaun Young, 20, had pleaded guilty to one count in March as did her co-defendant and husband, Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla, 23.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
US-Backed Fighters Capture ISIS Syria Stronghold; Terrorists Use Civilians as Human Shields
U.S.-backed fighters have seized a key Islamic State stronghold in northern Syria after two months of heavy fighting and freed hundreds of civilians the extremists had used as human shields, Syrian Kurdish officials and an opposition activist group said Saturday.
Nasser Haj Mansour, of the predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces told The Associated Press that the town of Manbij “is under full control,” adding that operations are ongoing to search for any IS militants who might have stayed behind.
The SDF launched its offensive in late May to capture Manbij under the cover of U.S.-led airstrikes. The town lies on a key supply route between the Turkish border and the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the IS group’s self-styled caliphate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Threatens to Sever Ties With Ukraine Amid Rising Tensions in Crimea
Russia’s premier has suggested that President Vladimir Putin may elect to formally sever diplomatic ties with Kyiv. Moscow has sent its latest missile defense system to Crimea amid reports of a mutual military buildup.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Expert on MH370 Disappearance: ‘There is Absolutely No Mystery to What Happened’
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 mysteriously disappeared from radar screens just over two years ago. Now veteran flight-accident investigator Larry Vance believes he knows what happened. He believes one of the pilots hijacked the aircraft.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kyrgyzstan President: ‘Women in Mini Skirts Don’t Become Suicide Bombers’
Women can become radicalised to become terrorists if they put on Islamic dress, the President of Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek Atambayev, has claimed in his most recent intervention in a national debate on cultural identity.
Speaking at a press conference last week, President Atambayev also attacked those in his country, where 80% of the population is Muslim, who are critical of women who wear more revealing outfits.
His remarks followed several weeks of controversy over government-sponsored hoardings or banners put up in the streets of the capital Bishkek to try to dissuade Kyrgyz women from wearing Islamic clothing, notably the hijab, niqab and burka, ahead of a visit to the country by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in mid-July.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Learning From Terrorism in Bangladesh
It’s been more than a month since the devastating Islamic terror attack in Gulshan, Bangladesh, in which 17 foreigners and three wealthy Bangladeshis were killed, according to a new report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The unusual nature of the attackers and the well-to-do standing of the victims have not only Bangladeshis pondering the significance, but the global intelligence community.
Some of those who took part in the killing spree did not fit the pre-conceived mold of Islamic terrorists. They had not attended madrasas. They weren’t poor or refugees. Instead, they were educated in secular institutions. They were rich. They came from cities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysian Police Arrest Nine ‘IS’ Suspects
Nine suspected “IS” militants have been detained in Malaysia, including two implicated in a grenade attack in June. Some 200 Malaysians have been arrested for suspected links to the jihadist group since 2013.
Malaysia has been on particularly high alert since an armed attack by IS-linked extremists in Jakarta, the capital of neighboring Indonesia, in January.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Journalist Investigating Alleged ‘Honour Killing’ Says He Got Death Threats
Raja Waqar was warned in phone calls to stop pursuing information about Bradford woman Samia Shahid who died in Pakistan.
A prominent Pakistani journalist investigating the alleged murder of a British woman in an “honour killing” says he has received death threats.
Samia Shahid, 28, from Bradford, was strangled to death while visiting her family in northern Punjab last month. Her husband, Mukhtar Syed Kazam, said he believed his wife was killed because her family disapproved of their marriage.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Samia Shahid’s Ex-Husband Appears in Court Over Alleged ‘Honour’ Killing
The father and the ex-husband of a British woman who was the victim of an alleged “honour” killing have appeared in court in Pakistan.
Samia Shahid’s first husband, Chaudhry Shakeel, and her father, Mohammad Shahid, were remanded in custody for an initial four days by a judge in the city of Jhelum.
Samia Shahid, 28, from Bradford, died while visiting her family in northern Punjab last month. Her second husband, Mukhtar Syed Kazam, said he believed his wife had been killed because her family disapproved of their marriage. Police launched a murder investigation last week after a forensic examination found she had died from asphyxiation.
Aqeel Abbas, an officer at Mangla police station, said: “We will interrogate the two accused and try to get to the bottom of this case.” He said a third suspect, believed to be Shahid’s cousin Mobin, was still at large.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
China: 18-Yr-Old Gets Life for Buying Replica Rifles Online
(People’s Daily Online) The fate of Liu Dawei that would lead him to a life sentence conviction began on July, 2014. Then 18-year-old, gun enthusiast Liu placed an online order to purchase 24 replica firearms from a Taiwanese website at a cost of 30,540 yuan (around 4602.07 USD). But his parcel never arrived at his home in Quanzhou, southeast China’s Fujian province. Two months later, on September 29, 2014, Liu was arrested for arm trafficking. Police have identified 20 out of the 24 “replica guns” as real guns. On April 30, 2015, Liu has been sentenced to life imprisonment. In the courtroom, Liu Dawei yelled out at the top of his lungs, “Please shoot me with the guns I bought! I’ll admit guilty if I could be killed!”
The judge evoked Article 151 of PRC Criminal Law: “Smuggling arms, ammunitions, nuclear materials, or counterfeit currency notes shall be sentenced to imprisonment of over seven years, with a fine or forfeiture of property. Offenses of an extraordinarily serious nature [… ] should be punished with life imprisonment or death penalty, with forfeiture of property.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Central Bank Plans Push to Increase Yuan’s Global Usage
China’s central bank said it plans to push the yuan’s global use by seeking more cooperation with other countries and improving the infrastructure needed to support wider use of the currency.
The PBOC’s statement Wednesday also said infrastructure for yuan internationalization will be improved, cross-border use under the current account will be increased and channels for yuan financing will be widened. It didn’t elaborate on how it would achieve these goals.
Use of the yuan as a reserve currency also will be increased, the central bank said. The International Monetary Fund will add the yuan to its Special Drawing Rights in October.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Minister Urges African Marshall Plan
On a tour of Senegal, Niger and Rwanda, German Development Minister Gerd Müller repeated his call for a Marshall Plan for Africa. But is a post-World War II-style recovery program realistic or even necessary?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fidel Castro, Cuba’s Retired Lider Maximo, Turns 90
On Saturday, Fidel Castro turns 90. The rebel, statesman and womanizer has long since retired from public life. Many Cubans, however, will celebrate their revolutionary leader’s birthday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Great Survivor: Cuba’s Fidel Castro Turns 90
“I wasn’t born political” Fidel Castro once wrote. “But from very young I observed things that stuck in my mind, that helped me understand the realities of the world.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NZ Migration Spurs Biggest-Ever Population Increase
New Zealand has had it’s biggest ever annual population increase, with figures doubling on the previous year. The population grew by 97,000 people in the year to June 30, making the total population approx 4.7 million. New Zealanders returning home comprised a quarter of the influx, with India, China, the Philippines and the United Kingdom dominating the rest. Statistics New Zealand says there are still more New Zealand citizens leaving, than arriving. They also estimate that by the year 2021, 41% of New Zealanders will be of mixed ethnicity. Some politicians have been questioning why New Zealand needs to bring in so many people, when there is a 5.7 percent unemployment rate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“I Was Born to Have Babies”: U.S. Olympian Sparks Feminist Outrage
Editor’s Note: Apparently enjoying motherhood is controversial. A healthy society rewards and encourages motherhood, knowing that future generations are a necessity. This entire debacle is further evidence that our civilization is profoundly sick.
In a recent interview, U.S. Olympic volleyball star Kerry Walsh Jennings made some comments about having children that Independent Journal called “pretty ballsy.”
“Before I had more kids, I was like, this feels trivial. I’d been playing for so long, and I was like I need balance. All my eggs are in this one basket, and it’s very self-centered and self-focused,” Walsh Jennings said in an interview several months before the start of the 2016 games. “They gave me that perspective and balance I thought I was missing. It took my game and my desire and my passion for life to the next level. I am hugely indebted to my children.”
The gold medalist later told NBC, “I feel like I was born to have babies and play volleyball” — which struck a nerve with many liberals on Twitter.
This isn’t the first time that liberals and “feminists” have criticized successful women for speaking positively about motherhood…
“It’s made overwhelmingly clear, over and over again: these abortion advocates, much as they try to pretend to be “pro-choice,” don’t care about women making their own choices at all,” said Cassy Fiano of Live Action News. “What they are is pro-abortion, which is exactly why any time a successful woman speaks about motherhood as a fulfilling role, the pro-abortion extremists get so angry.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Mark Sameth
Scientists now tell us that gender identity, like sexual orientation, exists on a spectrum. Some of us are in greater or lesser alignment with the gender assigned to us at birth. Some of us are in alignment with both, or with neither. For others of us, alignment requires more of a process.
Gender, as Cousin Paula might have put it, is more like music: Each of us has a key and a range with which we are most comfortable. Attuned to ourselves and to one another, we can find happiness and harmony.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Forget Explanations, Focus on Reason Why West is Losing Against Islam
by Raymond Ibrahim
The most efficient way to solve a problem is to first break it down to its simplest parts—its bare-bone elements.
This was the ultimate point of a recent article in which I asserted that:
When it comes to the connection between Islam and violence against non-Muslims, one fact must be embraced: the majority of those in positions of leadership and authority in the West are either liars or fools, or both.
No other alternative exists.
[A must read — we need more of this.]
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
The West is doomed by its leaders indoctrinated at Harvard-Yale, Cambridge-Oxford and Karl Marx School-Leipzig. The Bushs, the Clintons, Merkel, Tony Blair, Cameron et.al. aim to destroy us. They are liars and fools in love with the corrupt power they wield. The money is nice, too.
** Gender, as Cousin Paula might have put it, is more like music: Each of us has a key and a range with which we are most comfortable. Attuned to ourselves and to one another, we can find happiness and harmony. **
This is unadulterated drivel or, as some would have it, dribble.
It’s a formula for isolation and great pain. It’s on the order of wearing a clown suit to a funeral or keeping 150 cats. Lots of luck finding harmony in your community.
I’m not “attuned” to the president of my homeowner’s association and I’ll never be “attuned” to people who are desperately confused about what team they bat for. Normal people are hard enough to deal with as it is.
I’ve an old friend who’s genuinely transgender, Colonel, though he never went through with having the “snip”. Any problems I have with him are due to his having Aspergers (I suspect), which can make his long and obsessive ‘phone calls hard to take.