The apartment building in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin where an explosion occurred on Monday will have to be demolished, according to city officials. The bomb that went off did a lot of damage, and then bomb experts did a controlled detonation to neutralize the remaining volatile chemicals, which caused even more damage. The body of the man who lived in the apartment, and who is also the alleged maker of the bomb, was so badly damaged that he has not yet been formally identified. However, authorities reassure the public that the incident had nothing to do with terrorism.
In other news, the Afghan asylum seeker who confessed to stabbing four people in Vienna yesterday said that he did it because he was in a bad mood.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Charles Low, Dean, Dora, Insubria, Reader from Chicago, SH, 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.
EC Says Italy Still Has Excessive Macroeconomic Imbalances
Report highlights lack of progress on debt, reforms
(ANSA) — Brussels, March 7 — The European Commission said in a report on Wednesday that Italy is continuing to experience “excessive economic imbalances”, including “high public debt and protracted weak productivity growth in a context of high, though decreasing, non-performing loans (NPLs) and unemployment”. It said Italy’s public debt had stabilized but had not embarked on a downward path because of a deterioration in the structural balance.
The report also said Rome’s drive to approve and implement structural economic reforms has “slowed”.
Italian growth is far below the EU average, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said Wednesday.
“In Italy we have seen that growth strengthened in 2017 and we expect it to remain constant this year, but it is still a long way below the European average, the debt is the second highest in the EU and productivity is low,” he said.
“There are still problems in the banking sector, but they are being tackled”.
In general, he said, there are several “challenges” to be overcome.
The Italian economy grew by 1.5% last year, compared to 2.2% in the eurozone.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Alabama Student Pleads Guilty in ISIS Plot, Obtaining Bomb Making Materials
Aziz Sayyed, a former Huntsville college student, pleaded guilty today in federal court to a charge related to obtaining bomb making materials to blow up a police building on behalf of ISIS.
Federal prosecutors said the former Calhoun Community College student met with an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigationwho he thought was a member of ISIS last year and expressed his desire to assist the terrorist organization.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Beaver Dam Police: Building Where Explosion Took Place Will be Demolished
No evidence Beaver Dam bomb-maker linked to terror organization: source
DODGE COUNTY, Wis. — The Beaver Dam apartment building where a man was killed while working with homemade explosives will be “removed,” police said.
“There are still on-going concerns about remnant explosive materials that still may be inside the entire building. Also, based on investigative findings and structural concerns, the building has been determined a complete loss,” Beaver Dam police said Thursday night.
The surrounding apartment buildings in the complex have been deemed safe and residents can continue to live there.
The man who blew himself to pieces while making a homemade bomb Monday afternoon was a loner with little to no electronic or social media profile, a law enforcement official close to the investigation told WISN 12 NEWS on Thursday.
The badly-damaged body has delayed attempts to positively identify him, but the source said he’s believed to be a man who’d only been in the Beaver Dam area for about six months after previously spending some time in and around Madison. Neighbors and officials said Tuesday that the tenant had only lived in the Village Glen Apartments for about two months.
There is no evidence that he was linked to any terror organization, and the public is not “at risk,” sources said.
That detail is of little solace to Vietnam veteran Richard Koltz, who was home at the time of Monday’s explosion.
“Why was he making the bomb, and if he was successful and made that bomb, where was he going to place that bomb at? Was he going to go to a school or something?” he said. “We’ve got so much of that going on in this country today, you just don’t know…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Man Pleads Guilty to US Terrorism Charges
A Canadian man has admitted aiding jihadists held responsible for a 2009 suicide attack in Iraq that killed five US soldiers.
Faruq Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa pleaded guilty in New York City to providing money to Tunisian suicide bombers.
The charges carried a maximum life sentence, but he will face 26 years in prison then deportation, AP reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Charges: Man Crawled Into Woman’s Bathroom Stall on MCTC Campus
MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) — A 32-year-old Bloomington man is facing multiple charges after he reportedly hid in a women’s bathroom at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, then crawled into a stall in an attempt to sexually assault a woman.
Asad Abu Mohamed of Bloomington is charged with third degree criminal sexual conduct, making terroristic threats and fourth degree assault of a school official.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Have You Been Disowned by Your Family & Friends Over Politics?
This has to stop. It’s eroding the fabric of society & causing untold misery.
Please share your personal experiences in the comments about how you’ve been targeted & ostracised by family & friends for your political views.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Paper: Media Treats Eco-Terrorists Like Rock Stars
The media’s favorable treatment of eco-terrorists leaves a black mark on journalism, according to one energy analyst who works in a city where activism is second nature to its people.
Reporters should remove their blinders and look more objectively at people who work to sabotage oil pipelines and tear up infrastructure, Seattle-based analyst Todd Myers wrote Thursday in a National Review editorial. “In many ways, the media treat them like rock stars,” he added, noting how activists have managed to cajole favorable coverage from reporters.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
San Diego Schools Ordered to Reveal Correspondence With Muslim Advocacy Group
A federal judge ordered the San Diego Unified School District on Tuesday to hand over evidence detailing its correspondence with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) about the implementation of a controversial anti-Islamophobia bullying initiative at San Diego public schools.
The development is the latest in a long-running saga concerning school officials in San Diego coordinating with CAIR, an American-Muslim civil rights and religious organization with known links to a number of anti-Israel groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sheffield Lake Man Who Bought Assault Rifle to Support ISIS Testifies in Terrorism Trial
AKRON, Ohio — A Sheffield Lake man who bought an AK-47 to support the Islamic State testified Thursday that comments made by a man standing trial in another terrorism case during an online chat in 2015 worried him.
Amir Al-Ghazi said a man behind the Twitter account @sham_reason direct messaged him in March, 25, 2015 and told him to use an encrypted app to prevent law enforcement from reading their chats.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Man Admits to Stabbing of 4 People in Vienna
BERLIN — An Afghan man admitted to stabbing and severely injuring a family of three and a 20-year-old compatriot in Vienna because “he was in a bad, aggressive mood and upset about his life’s situation,” Austrian police said Thursday.
Police said in a statement that the 23-year-old said he committed all four stabbings, and denied that any of his attacks were politically motivated.
The attacker was detained shortly after the stabbing of a 20-year-old man, also from Afghanistan, on Wednesday night, police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer told The Associated Press.
An hour earlier, he attacked all three members of a family, the 67-year-old father, the 56-year-old mother and their 17-year-old daughter, also in the city’s downtown area.
Police said that the father was still in a critical condition, but his wife and daughter and the Afghan man were stable. All four remain in the hospital. Their names and the name of the attacker were not given.
While the attack on the Austrian family appeared random, the attacker told police he knew his fourth victim and said he specifically sought him out because “he holds him responsible for his previous drug addiction.”
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Analysis: All Evidence Points to Professionals Behind Skripal Poisoning
by Joseph Fitsanakis
Most state-sponsored assassinations tend to be covert operations, which means that the sponsoring party cannot be conclusively identified, even if it is suspected. Because of their covert nature, assassinations tend to be extremely complex intelligence-led operations, which are designed to provide plausible deniability to their sponsors. Consequently, the planning and implementation of these operations usually involves a large number of people, each with a narrow set of unique skills. But —and herein lies an interesting contradiction— their execution is invariably simple, both in style and method. The attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal last Sunday in England fits the profile of a state-sponsored covert operation in almost every way.
Some have expressed surprise that Skripal, a Russian intelligence officer who was jailed in 2004 for selling Moscow’s secrets to British spies, would have been targeted by the Russian state. Before being allowed to resettle in the British countryside in 2010, Skripal was officially pardoned by the Kremlin. He was then released from prison along with four other Russian double agents, in exchange for 10 Russian deep-cover spies who had been caught in the United States earlier that year. According to this argument, “a swap has been a guarantee of peaceful retirement” in the past. Thus killing a pardoned spy who has been swapped with some of your own violates the tacit rules of espionage, which exist even between bitter rivals like Russia and the United States.
This assumption, however, is baseless. There are no rules in espionage, and swapped spies are no safer than defectors, especially if they are judged to have caused significant damage to their employers. It is also generally assumed that pardoned spies who are allowed to resettle abroad will fade into retirement, not continue to work for their foreign handlers, as was the case with Skripal, who continued to provide his services to British intelligence as a consultant while living in the idyllic surroundings of Wiltshire. Like the late Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London of radioactive poisoning in 2006, Skripal entrusted his personal safety to the British state. But in a country that today hosts nearly half a million Russians of all backgrounds and political persuasions, such a decision is exceedingly risky.
On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police Service announced that Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, had been “targeted specifically” by a nerve agent. The official announcement stopped short of specifying the nerve agent used, but experts point to sarin gas or VX. Both substances are highly toxic and compatible with the clinical symptoms reportedly displayed by the Skripals when they were found in a catatonic state by an ambulance crew and police officers last Sunday. At least one responder, reportedly a police officer, appears to have also been affected by the nerve agent. All three patients are reported to be in a coma. They are lucky to have survived at all, given that nerve agents inhaled through the respiratory system work by debilitating the body’s respiratory muscles, effectively causing the infected organism to die from suffocation…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Fascists Bomb Far-Right Party Headquarters as Tensions Rise After Italy Election
The neo-fascist party’s office in Trento, Italy was attacked yesterday, with a homemade bomb thrown through the front window.
It comes amid rising tensions following the Italian election earlier this month, with the CasaPound party claiming antifascists have moved beyond debate to violence.
The attackers scrawled graffiti on the wall of the party office which read: “The only useful vote is an anti-fascist vote.”
CasaPound, who received 1.44 per cent of the vote in this month’s Italy election after running on an anti-migrant platform, said nobody was hurt in the bombing.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Days After Threatening to Punish Brexit Voters by Grounding Holiday Flights, Ryanair Changes Tune
Days after abrasive Europhile airline boss Michael O’Leary announced his intention to force Brits to see the Brexit debate from his point of view by grounding his aircraft, the Ryanair chief of marketing has spoken out to confirm the company will not actually be deliberately sabotaging its own business out of spite over the EU membership vote.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Euro ‘Irreversible’ Say Draghi on Italy Election
Reinforcing monetary union remains priority says ECB chief
(ANSA) — Rome, March 8 — European Central Bank President Mario Draghi answered a question on the victory of two Euroskeptic parties in Italy’s general election by saying that “the euro is irreversible”. Replying to a question on a win by the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the anti-migrant League just when other EU countries are trying to strengthen the governance of EU institutions, Draghi said “I really don’t want to comment” on the Italian elections.
“I can only say that the euro is irreversible and the reinforcement of economic and monetary union remains a priority”, Draghi said.
He said that the ECB “urges the adoption of specific and decisive measures to complete the Banking Union and that of the capital markets”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Awakens! Now Young Belgians Stand Up to Protect Their Culture and Go Viral
Flemish patriotic youth group “Schild & Vrienden” has launched a video in which they pledge to defend their Flemish heritage and their future.
The footage shows how the group successfully disrupts a leftist pro-immigration protest at a Flemish castle in the city of Ghent. According to the group’s leader, Dries van Langenhove, leftists and their actions “endanger the future of Europe”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
PARIS (AFP) — A third woman has accused prominent Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan of rape, a month after he was indicted over similar charges and remanded into custody, judicial sources told AFP on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Germans Arrest Iraqi Who Allegedly Planned Attacks in UK
BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors say they have issued a formal arrest warrant for a 17-year-old Iraqi citizen who was allegedly planning to commit an extremist attack in either Germany or Britain.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Will Revise Social Media Censor Law
MARCH 8, 2018 BERLIN—A German law requiring social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to quickly remove hate speech from their sites is set to be revised following criticism that too much online content is being blocked, according to officials.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: High-Class Rome Cocaine Ring Busted
21 people arrested
(ANSA) — Rome, March 7 — An operation to bust a ring selling cocaine at high-class Rome venues and in the posh Parioli district of the capital saw 21 people arrested on Wednesday, sources said.
One of the people under investigation allegedly dealt drugs every day in two nightclubs in the area of Via Veneto, one of Rome’s most expensive and elegant areas that featured prominently in Federico Fellini’s classic movie La Dolce Vita.
The alleged pusher distributed drugs in two of Rome’s classiest nightspots, the Jackie O and the Notorious.
The hang allegedly issued death threats to those who were behind on their drug payments, police said. Police said the cocaine was 97% pure, the purist seen in Italy in the last few years.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Balotelli Blasts Black League Senator
‘Perhaps they haven’t told him he is black’ says forward
(ANSA) — Rome, March 7 — Nice’s Italian forward Mario Balotelli on Wednesday attacked Toni Iwobi, a member of the anti-migrant League party who was elected Italy’s first black Senator in Sunday’s general election. “Perhaps I’m blind or perhaps they have not told him yet that he is black. But shame on you!!!,” Balotelli said via Instagram.
Iwobi, a 62-year-old IT entrepreneur originally from Nigeria, responded that “I prefer to ignore him”.
League League Matteo Salvini did not.
“I didn’t like Balotelli on the field, I like him even less off it,” Salvini said.
Balotelli, who scored 13 goals in 33 appearances for Italy, has frequently been the target of racist abuse.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘M5S Won: Give us Basic Income’ Say Puglia Residents
Queues at job centres, union advice offices
(ANSA) — Bari, March 8 — Several residents of Puglia on Wednesday and Thursday went to job centres and union advice offices and demanded the basic income that is a central plank in the platform of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), which came first in Sunday’s general election.
At the Porta Futura job centre in Bari, around 50 people, mainly young persons, asked for the forms to fill out to get the basic income of 780 euros a month.
The M5S is far from having a majority to form a government and leader Luigi Di Maio has appealed to other parties to get behind its government programme, so far without success.
Di Maio said on Italian TV earlier this week that the basic income, if the M5S were to come to power, would probably have to be delayed for at least two years while Italy’s job centres are revamped.
The basic income would be somewhat similar to job seekers’ allowance in some cases, and anyone who turned down three straight jobs would lose it, M5S bigwig Alessandro Di Battista said before the election.
In other cases, it would be given to people to lift them out of poverty, the M5S says.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Sala Should be Tried for Expo, Prosecutors Insist
For awarding tree supply contract to Mantovani without tender
(ANSA) — Milan, March 8 — Milan Mayor was guilty of wrongdoing while Milan Expo 2015 commissioner and should be tried, prosecutors insisted on Thursday. The former Expo CEO allegedly abused his position by breaching a string of norms including Italy’s tenders code, prosecutors Vincenzo Calia and Massimo Gaballo told a preliminary hearing.
They said he did do by directly assigning a contract to supply 6,000 trees to Mantovani SpA firm without holding a public tender.
The prosecutors thus reiterated an indictment request for Sala and others being probed in connection with the so-called Service Platform at the 2015 event.
Sala’s lawyer Salvatore Scuto said Sala should be acquitted by the preliminary hearings judge because he did nothing wrong and the prosecutors are “out of touch with reality”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ryanair Signs First Accord to Recognise Unions
With ANPAC
(ANSA) — Rome, March 8 — Ryanair on Thursday signed its first accord to recognise trade unions in Italy. The Irish budget airline and civil aviation authority ANPAC signed the first formal accord recognising the union representing Ryanair pilots in Italy.
The accord was signed between ANPAC and Ryanair personnel chief Eddie Wilson.
“It is an historic turning point for Ryanair pilots in Italy,” ANPAC said, “who have been fighting for many years to obtain union representation and certain and homogeneous work and salary conditions for their various national bases”.
Wilson said in a statement “we are pleased to announce the accord with ANPAC in recognition of our pilots directly working in Italy.
“This accord (which follows that signed in the UK with BALPA in January) confirms the decision taken in December by the Ryanair board on the desire to recognise unions”.
He welcomed “the positive and constructive work of ANPAC which led to this accord eight weeks after the first meeting.
“Th recognition accord is significant because Italy currently accounts for almost 80 of the around 400 planes in the Ryanair fleet: 20% of Ryanair pilots”.
He voiced the hope of “working with ANPAC and the pilots towards the first collective contract for pilots working in Italy”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Sex Scandal Priest Defrocked
In Padua
(ANSA) — Padua, March 8 — A former priest involved in a sex scandal near Padua has been defrocked, Padua’s archbishop announced on Thursday. The ex-priest, Father Andrea Contin, was defrocked on March 3 and the local Church was informed today, Archbishop Claudio Cipolla said.
Father Contin, former parish priest at Busiago di Campo San Martino, is accused of aggravated private violence in the scandal, in which he is alleged to have had a string of lovers.
Last week Father Contin asked to plea bargain a year’s jail time in a suit brought against him in 2016 by a woman who reported him, sparking the scandal.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Marine Le Pen Destroys MSM Journalist After He Attacks Her About Posting is Atrocities
After an interviewer attacks right-wing politician Marine Le Pen about posting IS images, she hits out and exposes the media’s hypocrisy.
The journalist asks Le Pen frequently if she regrets posting the pictures, because children could have seen them as well.
“Who published the photos of the little boy dead on the beach?” Asks Le Pen. “Could they not have been seen by children also?” She adds that journalists show bloody images from war-torn countries as well “because when it bleeds it leads and the journalists are happy”, she says.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Members of European Parliament Call on EU to Reduce Dependence on Russian Gas
In a joint statement published on Tuesday, March 6, three Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) expressed the opinion that recent actions by Gazprom should push the European Union (EU) to reduce dependence on gas and oil from Russia.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Nuclear Alert: Belgium Distributed Iodine Pills, But Claims There’s ‘No Risk’
Belgium has randomly begun the free distribution of iodine pills to its citizens. Millions of boxes of pills have been delivered, but the Belgium government continues to claim there is no risk of radiation.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Trump Milos Zeman Inaugurated for Second Term as Czech President
PRAGUE (AP) — Milos Zeman, a leading pro-Russian voice in EU politics, has been sworn in for his second term as Czech president.
Zeman was elected to the largely ceremonial post in 2013 during the country’s first direct presidential vote, a victory that returned the former left-leaning prime minister to power. He won re-election in January.
In office, he’s become known for strong anti-migrant rhetoric that united him with the populist right, and has divided the nation with his pro-Russian stance and support for closer ties with China.
He was one of the few European leaders to endorse Donald Trump’s bid for the White House.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Court Slammed for Using Sharia Law to Settle Domestic Violence Case
Swedish legal experts have slammed a court in Solna after it ruled that a Muslim man who was accused of beating his wife was innocent because he came from a “good family” while the woman did not.
The court ruling was passed by two judges who argued that is was “not uncommon for women to falsely claim they have been assaulted”, and said that the Muslim woman reporting the abuse was less credible in her case because she reported the violence to the police rather than attempt to solve it within the Muslim community, Aftonbladet reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Faces Global Banking Isolation Over Terror Financing
With Pakistan set to be placed on the inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force’s “grey” list this June, following a round of farcical diplomacy in Paris last month, the country appears to be edging toward global banking isolation.
Pakistan temporarily avoided being put on the grey list after failing, at the Paris meeting, to present its proposal to counter terror financing and money laundering. But Islamabad’s proposal will be scrutinized in a June meeting, and failing to satisfy the FATF could in fact result in Pakistan being put on the black list, alongside only two other offenders: Iran and North Korea.
Pakistan hasn’t taken the necessary measures, as per the FATF’s instructions, to curb money laundering or combat financing for terrorism — the two domains that the watchdog reviews.
The FATF has “40 plus 9” recommendations for all states — 40 pre-date 9/11; nine came after it. Pakistan falls short on many of those.
“These are crystal clear instructions sent out to all the countries. Pakistan has been failing to fulfill its requirements,” says economist and columnist Farrukh Saleem, who is executive director of the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) in Islamabad.
The FATF judges states on three levels: legislation, institutional capacity and conviction. Speaking to Asia Times, Saleem said Pakistan hasn’t been doing enough of any of those fronts.
“As far as the repercussions [for being put on the FATF grey list] are concerned, no country in the world can live in isolation — it’s a global village now,” he said. “Our imports are worth approximately US$55 billion, exports worth US$20 billion, with around US$20 billion worth of remittances. So roughly there’s US$100 billion worth of business that involves Pakistan — and all of this is through banking channels.
“Once a country is on the grey list, all banking channels are put under scrutiny. This would result in constant delays in transactions. And there is a chance that many banks would simply refuse to do business in Pakistan.”
Last year, Pakistan’s Habib Bank was ordered out of the US, and fined US$225 million, after flaws were found in its systems that “opened the door to the financing of terror.”…
| — Hat tip: Dora | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Agrees to Meet North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un Before May
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has invited President Donald Trump to meet, and the president has agreed to the unprecedented meeting.
South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-Yong, who recently led a delegation to Pyongyang for talks with senior North Korean leadership, briefed the White House on the recent meetings in the North Korean capital Thursday. Chung also delivered a message to Trump from Kim Jong Un personally inviting the president to meet the young dictator.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
University of Auckland Staff Member Fired for Trying to Shake Hands With Muslim Student
A University of Auckland senior staff member has been fired after trying to shake hands with a female Muslim student.
The ousted staff member then filed a complaint of sexual discrimination against her after she refused to shake his hand.
A newsletter from vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon directed to all university staff said the academic had tried to shake her hand with the knowledge that it would be inappropriate.
“He did this knowing that she would consider it culturally or religiously inappropriate to have physical contact with a man who was not a close relative,” the statement read.
“When she declined to shake his hand, he made a complaint of sexual discrimination against her.”
A formal investigation had established his behaviour had amounted to “serious misconduct”.
The incident occurred last year but McCutcheon said he had delayed advising staff of what happened in a bid to protect the privacy of the people involved.
“However, I believe it is important for all members of our community to understand that such behaviours have no place in the University and that if they do occur I will not hesitate to authorise appropriate investigatory and disciplinary procedures.”
McCutcheon’s office told theHerald the University of Auckland would not be commenting on the incident.
The University of Auckland Muslim Students Association issued a statement that it condemned any kind of non-consensual behaviour towards a person.
“Not only do we think every individual should have the right to religious and cultural freedom, but we think every person is entitled to bodily integrity.
“We want every Muslim student to feel safe and comfortable on campus and incidents like this undermine that.”
It continued to say the fact a staff member would do this was a disappointment.
“The reason a Muslim student on campus may feel uncomfortable shaking hands with someone of the opposite gender is due to religious beliefs and boundaries.
“In the Islamic faith, bodily integrity of an individual is a fundamental right.”
Only people who had a significant relationship with a Muslim man or woman had the haq (right) to make physical contact, the statement said.
“We respect the social norms of this society, however, we also expect personal choices and limits to be respected.”
| — Hat tip: SH | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Asylum Seeker Admits to Vienna Stabbings, Says He Did it Because He Was in a ‘Bad Mood’
The 23-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who was arrested in connection with the stabbings of four people Wednesday night in Vienna has confessed to the attacks, saying he stabbed them because he was “in a bad mood”.
The man was arrested Wednesday night after two separate stabbing attacks in Leopoldstadt, the second district of Vienna.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Baltimore will begin to use public funds for legal defense of illegal immigrants facing deportation, Democratic Mayor Catherine Pugh announced Wednesday.
A city spending panel approved $200,000 to pay for attorneys to represent illegal immigrants living in Baltimore who federal immigration authorities have detained, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Half the money will come through a Vera Institute of Justice grant, a New York nonprofit, and the other half will come from the city’s budget. The combined funding is expected to support immigration appeals for about 40 people.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
‘Concrete Commitments’ On Migrants Says Pope
‘Global responsibility’ says Francis
(ANSA) — Vatican City, March 8 — Words must be followed by “concrete commitments” to help migrants, Pope Francis told the International Catholic Migration Commission at an audience in the Vatican Thursday. “We must encourage,” Francis said, “States to agree more adequate and effective responses to the challenges posed by migratory phenomena; and we can do so on the basis of the fundamental principles of the Church’s social doctrine”.
The pontiff said “we must also work to ensure that words are followed by concrete commitments towards a global and shared responsibility”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Meet Some of the Criminal Illegals California Has Set Free
The White House released a list of criminal illegal immigrants set free by the state of California in lieu of allowing ICE to detain them, in a Thursday morning statement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees in the Netherlands Don’t Want to Return Because They Are “Too Westernised”
Three female refugees want to avoid deportation by telling the Dutch court they are “too westernised” to return. The women from Afghanistan and Somalia think their lives are in danger because they no longer live in accordance with the standards for women in their home countries.
Today the women will appear before the highest Dutch administrative court where they will try to avoid deportation to their home countries. They claim their lives could be in danger because they accepted the ‘unacceptable’ Western standards for women.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jail and Deportation Order for Migrant Male Who Beat and Raped Teen Girl in Manchester Hotels
A man has been jailed after subjecting a teenage girl to a brutal rape and beating, following which he forced her to clean up her own blood and filmed it on his mobile phone.
Manchester Crown Court heard that Agampodi Dezoysa waged a month-long campaign of psychological, sexual, and physical abuse after he “latched on” to the girl following a party at which the pair met.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The 18-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker accused of the Parsons Green train bombing had told an immigration centre that he had been ‘trained to kill’ by Islamic State, jurors at the Old Bailey heard.
The court heard that Ahmed Hassan told the Home Office staff in Croydon that, “[Islamic State] trained us how to kill. It was all religious based.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Hungarian Minister Censored by Facebook for Claiming Mass Migration Had Raised Crime Levels
János Lázár’s video, which claimed migrants had made Vienna more dangerous and dirtier, was removed by social media giant Facebook after a massive backlash.
In the video, in which Lázár appears to be visiting the heavily migrant-populated Favoriten district of the Austrian capital, the Hungarian minister said: “It’s clear that the roads are dirtier, the environment is poorer, and the crime rate is much higher,” noting there were few non-European migrants in the area 20 years before.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
So Pope Francis wants actions instead of words regarding “migrants”…
Maybe he can start and lead by example; he should be able to fit a few muslim families with their multiple wives and dozens of kids in his own quarters. After all, a man of God has no need for all that opulence anyway.
This theme is well revealed in the book “The Camp of the Saints” by Jean Raspail
A frightening book. I have read it.
A frighteningly accurate book 30, maybe 40 years ahead of its time.
I can only conclude Jean Raspail has 100% accurate insight into the human mind and behavior because time travel and crystal balls are impossible.
Facebook understandably gets along perfectly with Maoist China but has issues with Freedom of Speech in the dying West?
In Austria, for the arson of a pizzeria, Chechens are tried
https://www.kavkazr.com/a/29085219.html
news in German
https://diepresse.com/home/panorama/wien/5383366/Anschlag-Erpressung_Tschetschenen-angeklagt
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Pew Research Center
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Da Capo on March 10, 2018 said:
Material for another post – small perhaps but terrifiing
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Pew Research Center
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/09/muslims-
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/29/5-facts-about-the-muslim-population-in-europe/
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Three stars
http://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/29/europes-growing-muslim-population/
map 01Present situation – 2016; 4.9 total in Eur0pe
map 02 Estimated 2050; No immigration
map 03 NUMBER OF MUSLIMS 2050-regular immigration
map 04 NUMBER OF MUSLIMS 2050- large immigration
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Doesn’t work:
and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/
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Reply ↓
“In the Islamic faith, bodily integrity of an individual is a fundamental human right.” …?
Bodily integrity has Never been a fundamental right under islam. It is insane hypocrisy that prevents an adult professional from shaking hands, but allows acid attacks, female genital mutilation, and wife beating.
Epidemic or biological weapons?
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The epidemic of the mysterious “jihadist disease” that hit Iraq and Syria after the appearance of the IS was entered into the territory of the former “Islamic state” from Iran
https://news.rambler.ru/middleeast/39271612-uchenye-raskryli-rodinu-irakskoy-epidemii-bolezni-dzhihadistov/?updated
I’m not sure what you’re saying here. ISIS is a Sunni group; Iran, as a Shi’ite entity, would never support them. In fact, ISIS spent some time in Iraq initially killing off the Shi’ites (since they were considered worse) before going on to kill Christians, et al.
This article is about a strange disease (Leishmania major), from which the militants are rotting alive. Or the Universe came out against jihadists, or Iran used biological weapons against them.