According to an economist at the London School of Economics, a total of €60 billion has been stashed by Greek depositors in Swiss banks. He suggests that Greece should work with more powerful European nations to force Switzerland to stop acting as a tax haven for scofflaws.
In other news, in his message for Lent, Pope Francis called for a more equitable distribution of wealth in the world.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, RR, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
China’s Banks ‘Could Trigger Global Meltdown’
The growing problems in the Chinese banking system could spill over into a wider financial crisis, one of the most respected analysts of China’s lenders has warned. Charlene Chu, a former senior analyst at Fitch in Beijing and now the head of Asian research at Autonomous Research, said the rapid expansion of foreign-currency borrowing meant a crisis in China’s financial system was becoming a bigger risk for international banks.
Ms Chu has been warning since 2009 about the growth of a shadow banking system in China that has helped fuel the credit expansion seen in the country in the wake of the Western financial crisis. However, fears are growing that the build-up of foreign borrowing by the Chinese, particularly in US dollars, is creating an even greater build-up of risk than that seen before the crisis of 2008.
Figures published by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in October showed foreign currency loans booked in China, as well as cross-border borrowing by Chinese companies, had reached $US880bn as of March 2013, up from $US270bn in 2009.
Analysts say this figure is now likely to exceed $US1 trillion and is continuing to grow, raising the prospect of the potentially dangerous vulnerability of the Chinese financial system to a rising dollar.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Crisis Has Hit Young Italians Hardest’: Kyenge
Cecile Kyenge, Italy’s integration minister and delegate for youth policies, told The Local on Tuesday that young Italians have been the worst affected by the country’s harsh economic crisis and that preparing them for the workforce, whether in Italy or abroad, was “crucial” for their development.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Elite Insider Predicted Massive Crash in 2012: “Very Large Probability… Around March 4, 2014”
Grady Means is a former advisor to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, a former economist at the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and has managed multi-billion dollar firms over his career. Back in October of 2012 Means penned a commentary and analysis for the Washington Times in which he noted that “America’s fall will take global economies with it.”
But he didn’t stop there. Means gave us a target date.
There is a very large probability that the real end of the world will occur around March 4, 2014.
The doomsday clock will ring then because the U.S. economy may fully crash around that date, which will, in turn, bring down all world economies and all hope of any recovery for the foreseeable future — certainly over the course of most of our lifetimes. Interest rates will skyrocket, businesses will fail, unemployment will go to record levels, material and food shortages will be rampant, and there could be major social unrest.
Any wishful thinking that America is in a “recovery” and that “things are getting better” is an illusion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fresh Aid: Greece Plans to Impress Creditors With Good News
A SPIEGEL report that German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is considering a third rescue package for Greece has electrified the struggling nation. Athens wants to impress its creditors with a stream of good news. But it still has a long list of unkept promises.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Inflation in Italy Stays Flat at 0.7%
Rate remains at lowest level in four years
(ANSA) — Rome, February 4 — Italy’s annual inflation rate remained flat at 0.7% in January, the same as December and November and the lowest level since November 2009, national statistics agency Istat said in its preliminary estimate Tuesday.
Italy’s long recession has dampened price rises.
A two-year run of negative growth ended in the third quarter of last year, when GDP was flat with respect to the April-June period.
Istat said prices were 0.2% higher in January than in December. Istat’s index for the ‘trolley’ of most-frequently bought goods such as food and fuel dropped to 1.1% in January on an annual basis, compared to 1.2% in December.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: League Says Letta Should Forget Museum, Focus on Economy
Premier says Italy considering Islamic centre in Venice
(ANSA) — Rome, February 3 — A proposal to establish a Islamic museum on Venice’s Grand Canal was slammed Monday by the Northern League, which suggested Premier Enrico Letta should focus on the economy and not cultural institutions.
The criticism came soon after Letta said, during a trip to Doha, that his government “made a commitment to explore the opportunity to build an Islamic museum in Venice on the Grand Canal”.
Massimo Bitonci, Senate whip for the regionalist League, accused Letta of working to spread Islam in Italy.
“We do not want any Islamic museum in Venice,” Bitonci said. “Letta would do better to focus on the economic crisis instead of thinking (of ways) to spread Islam,” he added.
He suggested Letta was attempting to distract attention from a major industrial problem involving electrical-appliance multinational Electrolux, which last week announced a shock wage-cut plan it said was necessary to keep its Italian plants running.
Letta’s government held emergency talks last week with company managers over the issue.
Letta has been in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar to drum up investment to help to pull the Italian economy out of its longest postwar recession.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Central Bank Says Stress Tests Will ‘Strengthen Confidence’
Markets will be reassured by ‘soundness’ after ECB examinations
(ANSA) — Rome, February 4 — An assessment of Italian lenders to be conducted by the European Central Bank later this year should help to reassure markets and boost confidence, the Governor of the Bank of Italy Iganzio Visco said Tuesday.
He added that the tests by the ECB, including stress tests, should strengthen credit quality in commercial banks in Italy, “reassuring markets about the soundness”.
The ECB is conducting a deep assessment of banks before it takes over bank supervisor duties for the entire euro area in November.
Mario Draghi, head of the ECB, has said the assessment is crucially important to restoring confidence in the banking system and encouraging economic recovery.
The tests are designed to measure whether banks have adequate capital to withstand future crises, including market shocks.
Weak banks contributed to the eurozone’s financial crisis which in turn led to recessions including Italy’s worst since the post-war period.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Potential Foreign Investors for MPS Foundation Share in Bank
No Italian institutions in the hunt for group’s shares
(ANSA) — Siena, February 4 — The president of the MPS Foundation linked to troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) is in contact with potential foreign buyers for the foundation’s share in the troubled bank, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.
The MPS Foundation controls 33.5% of the bank itself and President Antonella Mansi was quoted as saying there are interested purchasers for the share.
However, she added, none are Italian institutions.
MPS is at the center of a judicial investigation into its acquisition of smaller rival Antonveneta in 2008, allegedly at a suspiciously low price, as well as up to 750 million euros in secret derivatives trades the bank allegedly used to conceal losses.
Former chairman Giuseppe Mussari and former director-general Antonio Vigni, who left in early 2012, are both under investigation for market manipulation, making false statements to the market, and regulatory obstruction in relation to the Antonveneta deal and the derivatives trades.
Both deny any wrongdoing.
The bank has also been hit by massive losses and political furore over the previous Italian government’s 3.9-billion-euro bailout plan to cover its capital needs.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare Will Shrink Workforce by 2 Million, Report Says
Given the new incentives offered by the Affordable Care Act, people will choose to work less in the coming years, nonpartisan budget analysts say — shrinking the workforce by the equivalent of 2 million full-time workers by 2017 and by 2.5 million by 2024.
Republicans, already intent on making the controversial health care law a 2014 campaign issue, seized on the new data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to argue the law is hurting the economy. The White House, however, defended the law, charging the GOP with spinning the facts.
“The middle class is getting squeezed in this economy, and this CBO report confirms that ObamaCare is making it worse,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare Will Push 2 Million Workers Out of Labor Market: CBO
Obamacare will push the equivalent of about 2 million workers out of the labor market by 2017 as employees decide either to work fewer hours or drop out altogether, according to the latest estimates Tuesday from the Congressional Budget Office.
That’s a major jump in the nonpartisan budget agency’s projections and it suggests the health care law’s incentives are driving businesses and people to choose government-sponsored benefits rather than work.
“CBO estimates that the ACA will reduce the total number of hours worked, on net, by about 1.5 to 2 percent during the period from 2017 to 2024, almost entirely because workers will choose to supply less labor — given the new taxes and other incentives they will face and the financial benefits some will receive,” CBO analysts wrote in their new economic outlook.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Suicide Rates Will Skyrocket Due to ObamaCare
Record-high suicides amongst Spain’s unemployed foreshadow what’s to come in America
Suicide rates in the U.S. will increase dramatically as 2.5 million Americans lose their jobs in the next 10 years due to Obamacare, following the current rise of suicides in Spain where over 4.8 million are unemployed.
Today the Congressional Budget Office admitted that Obamacare will lead to 2.5 million fewer workers by 2024, and last Friday, Spain’s National Institute of Statistics revealed that Spain’s suicide rate is the highest in eight years as Spaniards struggle with over 26% unemployment.
Suicide emerged as the leading cause of death amongst young men in Spain as the country’s youth unemployment hit a staggering 57.7% in the past quarter.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Great Unemployment, Food Stamp Lie
One of the greatest lies about unemployment benefits and food stamps is that they are an “economic stimulus.” The claim has been repeated — and embellished — for years by everyone from politicians, to left-wing columnists, to the compassionate clergy. And in the case of food stamps, it’s the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that keeps planting the seeds from which this lie repeatedly sprouts. And with our money…
Back in 2012, the USDA went as far as to claim that if the national participation rate rose 5 percentage points, $1.3 billion in food stamp benefits would create $2.5 billion in new economic activity nationwide.
Call it trickle-down welfare. Call it welfare-driven economics. Or just call it the lie that it is, as Mark J. Perry, a University of Michigan economics and finance professor, did at the time:
“(I)magine the economic stimulus that could be created if the food stamp participation rate increased to 100 percent!,” he wryly noted.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
21% Think Federal Government Has Consent of the Governed
Just 21% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. That’s up four points from the all-time low of 17% last reached in August but is generally in keeping with regular surveying for the past four years. Sixty-three percent (63%) do not believe the federal government has the consent of the governed today, Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ann Coulter: “My Friend’s Sister Died Today Because of ObamaCare”
When pressed on the negative impact Obamacare is having on average folks, Democrats choose to focus on those who are being helped by the healthcare law.
But conservative pundit and authorAnn Coulter highlighted just how devastating the impact can be in a recent appearance on “Fox & Friends.”
“This does have real world consequences: I got up the other morning and got an email from a friend saying, ‘My sister almost died because of Obamacare,’“ Coulter told host Tucker Carlson.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Black America: Stop the Insanity
Remember that spiky-haired blonde lady fitness guru all over TV years ago? Her famous line was “Stop the insanity!” As a common sense thinking black conservative, I offer the same clarion call to fellow black Americans, “Stop the insanity!” Why do you continue sleeping with the enemy; voting for liberal Democrats whose policies imply that you are inferior, stupid and culturally immoral?
When the NAACP and Democrats claim that requiring a photo ID disenfranchises blacks, such implies we are stupid. For the life of me I do not understand why millions of blacks are not highly insulted by this absurd claim. Do blacks fly? Do blacks drive cars? Do blacks cash checks?
When Democrats and liberals accept over 70% out-of-wedlock births and fatherless households as a cultural norm in the black community, I am offended. And yet, I am called a sellout.
Liberal Democrats policies and programs have destroyed the black family and continue to devastate the black community. Meanwhile, blacks vote monolithic for Democrats and politically beat up anyone, black or white, who offers common sense solutions. For crying out loud, stop the insanity!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cesar Chavez National Historic Park is in the Works
With sites in California and Arizona, the proposed park would honor Cesar Chavez and his farm labor movement. One goal is for national parks to resonate with a wider variety of Americans.
Belinda Faustinos, who co-chaired the panel, said it was crucial that all Americans see themselves reflected in the nation’s historic parks. “People shy away from parks where they don’t see their cultural history or anything about themselves,” she said. “We Latinos might stick our heads into Yosemite or Santa Monica Mountains, but there is not much to relate to.… That’s why this is so important.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Colorado High School to Students: No Celebration Honoring America
Ironically, school forces students to recognize Cinco de Mayo
A high school in Colorado denied students’ requests to organize a day in honor of the United States, students attending the school recently revealed.
Students at Fort Collins High School wanted to dedicate one day out of the school’s Winter Spirit Week to celebrating American patriotism. Students declared “Merica Monday” could be a day where people could band together and dress in the colors of the American flag.
School administrators, however, thought the event would be far too exclusive and nixed the proposal.
“They said they didn’t want to offend anyone from other countries or immigrants,” one 16-year-old student council member told Fox News’ Todd Starnes. “They just really did not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable.”…
However, in a shocking indication of the cultural neutralization taking place in American public schools, Starnes reports Fort Collins students are ironically “required to participate in Cinco de Mayo celebrations,” honoring the Mexican culture and heritage.
American public schools being used as tools of indoctrination and political repression is nothing new, but the trend towards demonizing allegiance to America and its Constitutional ideals has seemingly increased in the past few decades.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cops SWAT Innocent Family, Destroy Home Security Cameras to Cover Up Evidence
Armed militarized police in Iowa smashed their way into the home of an innocent family last week and discovered that they were being filmed on home security cameras. The response paints a vivid picture, as one officer ripped a camera from the wall, while another covered up a second camera to prevent the raid being documented.
WHO tv in Des Moines reports that Ankeny police carried out the raid in search of “someone they suspected of using stolen credit cards to buy clothes and electronics.”
The cameras, stationed around the property on the inside and outside, captured the moment that up to a dozen armed police dressed in helmets, ski-masks and riot gear marched up to the home of Sally Prince and prepared to smash her door in over what turned out to be nothing more than unfounded suspicion of minor fraud.
“This is over property purchased with a stolen credit card,” Prince told reporters, noting that if police had knocked she would have allowed them to execute a warrant to search the house. “It doesn’t make any sense to go to such extremes for something that simple.” Prince said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
De Blasio Avoids Eating Pizza ‘Italian Way’ on Daily Show
New York mayor goaded into eating with his hands
(ANSA) — New York, February 4 — New York Mayor Bill de Blasio broke with his Italian roots — and the Italian practice of eating pizza with utensils — to instead eat a slice with his hands during a popular late-night television program in the United States.
The mayor’s appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Monday was his first on the late-night circuit and comes a month after he was sworn in as city chief. Pizza was at the center of the discussion with Stewart, who urged de Blasio to eat his pizza the “right way”, adding that a “man of the people” should eat like one. De Blasio instead pulled a fork and knife out of his jacket, saying that this was how his Italian ancestors had always eaten it. After boos from the studio audience, de Blasio relented, grabbing a slice to eat it with his hands. His fork — used by de Blasio to eat pizza in a Staten Island pizzeria, sparking a controversy — will be auctioned off for charity. Proceeds will go to Sandy Relief, a fund for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
King Co. Sheriff Fires Deputy Who Threatened to Arrest Journalist
A King County Sheriff’s deputy involved in confrontation with a Seattle journalist last year has been fired.
Deputy “K.C.” Patrick Saulet was fired for dishonesty and abuse of authority, according to a termination letter dated January 30.
Saulet threatened to arrest Dominic Holden during a July 30 confrontation. Holden, an editor at The Stranger, was riding by the International District light rail station when he saw a group of officers surrounding and speaking loudly to a young black man. Holden used his smartphone to photograph the scene, which triggered a barrage of threats and sarcastic comments from two of the officers involved.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Maryland Mall Shooter Was a Pothead
The “sweet” young man who killed two people, and then himself, in a Maryland shopping mall on January 25 was a pothead.
But the police revelation that the killer mentions “using marijuana” in a diary has been played down by the media, which in recent months have seemed almost ecstatic about the legalization of the drug in Colorado. President Obama, a one-time heavy user, recently called the drug safer than alcohol.
The link between marijuana and mental illness, documented in the medical literature, is not a popular subject for journalists who themselves may use pot and be reluctant to tell the truth about high potency marijuana and its powerful, psychoactive component.
Just after the murders, the killer, Darion Aguilar, was described in a Washington Post story as a “good kid” with no criminal record who was perceived as “harmless.” His mother called him a “gentle, sweet kid.”
But now the story has dramatically changed.
“Howard County police said on Twitter that Darion Aguilar wrote of using marijuana, expressed ‘thoughts of wanting to die’ and even said he was ‘ready to die,’“ reported The Washington Post. But the marijuana reference was buried in the fifth paragraph, even though it helps explain why a “harmless” young man would turn into a psychotic monster.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Phosphorene Excites Materials Scientists
Physicists look past graphene for atom-thick layers that could be switches in circuits
The work is part of a trend that David Tománek, a condensed-matter theorist at Michigan State University in East Lansing, dubs the “post-graphene age” — in which researchers are exploring alternatives in the hope of overcoming graphene’s deficiencies. The rationale is that phosphorene might be useful for making thin, flexible electronics that could be more easily cooled than silicon ones.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Profile: New U.S. Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) — Janet Yellen won approval from U.S. Senate on Monday to head the Federal Reserve, becoming the first woman to take the helm of the U.S. central bank in its 100-year history…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Satya Nadella Named Microsoft’s New Chief Executive
US technology and software giant Microsoft has appointed Indian-born Satya Nadella as the company’s new chief executive. He’s replacing Steve Ballmer, who announced his withdrawal in August of last year.
While Nadella replaces Steve Ballmer, company founder Bill Gates is leaving his chairman role, with board member John Thompson taking his post. Gates himself will assume a new role as technology adviser.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Passes $1 Trillion Farm Bill Agreement
The Senate on Tuesday passed the long-awaited farm bill, ending two years of partisan rancor and stalled negotiations and clearing what is expected to be the last hurdle for the nearly $1 trillion spending measure.
The bill was passed with strong bipartisan support, 68 to 32. The legislation now heads to the desk of President Obama, who is expected to sign it.
The nearly 1,000-page bill reauthorizes hundreds of programs for agriculture, dairy production, conservation, nutrition and international food aid.
| [Return to headlines] |
CAIR-Can, The NCCM and “The Islamic Victimhood Narrative”
While Canadians exercised their freedom of expression by venting both positive and negative comments about Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent trip to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, a huge controversy has been created by a Muslim organization, which appears to expose the attitude of most Muslims towards Israel and a rise in anti-Semitism. Had this trip been to any other country, probably there would have been no response…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
60 Billion of Greek Deposits in Switzerland
According to French economist Gabriel Zucman
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 3 — The deposits of Greek citizens in Swiss banks are amounting to 60 billion euros, as GreekReporter website writes quoting the economist Gabriel Zucman. The French professor of the London School of Economics and researcher at the University of California, Berkeley published his book ‘The missing Wealth of Nations’ that refers to the transport of capital in tax havens. Zuchman suggests that Greece should collaborate with powerful European countries such as Germany and Italy, to force Switzerland to abandon the policy of banking secrecy. The economist using data from the Swiss National Bank (BNS), revealed that the Greek deposits in Switzerland amount to 60 billion euros while German deposits reach 200 billion. These data show that the total foreign wealth transported in Switzerland is reaching 1.8 trillion euros.
Following Zucman’s allegations, the Greek government is trying to uncover the secret accounts and deposits. The agreement between Greece and Switzerland regarding the taxation of hidden accounts owned by Greeks is expected to be finalized in the next months. Greek Deputy Finance Minister, George Mavraganis recently visited Switzerland in order to reach an agreement with the Swiss government.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Albanian Arms Dealers, Greek Criminals Tied to Terror Cache
Albanian arms dealers and members of the Greek criminal underworld were behind an attempt to provide would-be terrorists with an extensive arms cache that police seized over the weekend, Kathimerini understands.
Ballistics tests on the weapons found in a parked car in the southerns Athens neighborhood of Palaio Faliro on Saturday showed that none of the weapons in the cache — which included rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), a launcher and three Kalashnikov assault rifles — has been used in previous terrorist attacks. However, the launcher is the same type as one found in a safe house linked to the Revolutionary Struggle guerrilla group, police said. The leader of Revolutionary Struggle, Nikos Maziotis, has been at large since July 2012 when he was freed after completing the maximum of 18 months in pretrial custody.
Police sources told Kathimerini that at least three weapons exchanges between Albanian arms dealers and members of anti-establishment groups have taken place over the past year-and-a-half. In all cases, the sale was carried out on the orders of a criminal who has regular contact with members of terrorist groups, jailed and free.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Black Death Likely Altered European Genes
The Black Death of the 14th century may be written into the DNA of survivors’ descendants, new research finds.
The study reveals that Roma people (sometimes known as gypsies, although this is considered a derogatory term) and white Europeans share alterations to their genetic code that occurred after the Roma settled in Europe from northwest India 1,000 years ago. The plague of the 1300s, which killed at least 75 million people, is a likely candidate for forcing this evolutionary change.
“We show that there are some immune receptors that are clearly influenced by evolution in Europe and not in northwest India,” said study leader Mihai Netea, a researcher in experimental internal medicine at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands.
Netea and his colleagues made their discovery by scanning almost 200,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or short segments of DNA that vary among people. They tested people from Romania, as well as Roma people. For social and economic reasons, Netea said, the Roma have lived among Europeans since about A.D. 1000, without much interbreeding between the two groups.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Confindustria Slams ‘Suffocating’ Bureaucracy in Italy
Red tape taking country ‘hostage’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 4 — The head of Italy’s influential industrial confederation said bureaucracy was “suffocating” the country. “Italy is a country that for years has been a hostage to suffocating bureaucracy, one that sucks up vital energy from businesses and citizens and diverts time and resources from more productive uses,” said Confindustria chief Giorgio Squinzi. “We need to change course. Otherwise we’ll float adrift and sink”. Cutting Italy’s notorious red tape is at the center of a recent proposal meant to boost employment by Matteo Renzi, the head of the center-left Democratic Party (PD), the biggest group in parliament.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Digital Independence: NSA Scandal Boosts German Tech Industry
The German IT sector is hoping to profit from trust lost in American technology firms in the aftermath of the NSA spying scandal. But critics warn that plans to create a European routing system could affect the openness of the Internet.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EC Reckons Corruption at 40% of Italian Public Contracts
Italy’s high-speed rail cost six times other places, report says
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 3 — Corruption in large-scale infrastructure projects in Italy is estimated to account for 40% of the total value of the contracts, the European Commission’s first anti-corruption report revealed on Monday.
The EU Anti-Corruption Report warned that large public projects, like the post-earthquake reconstruction of l’Aquila, Milan Expo 2015, and the future Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link were particularly at risk of “criminal infiltration” and “misappropriation of public funds”.
The report placed suspicion on completed high-speed rail construction in Italy, noting that its costs were four to 10 times greater than other locations in Europe and Japan.
In Italy, construction costs for high-speed rail ranged from 47.3 million euros per km for the Rome-Naples link to 96.4 million euros per km for the Bologna-Florence link, and averaged 61 million euros per km overall.
High-speed rail links Paris-Lyon and Madrid-Seville cost 10.2 and 9.8 million euros per km, respectively.
The Tokyo-Osaka high-speed train cost 9.3 million euros per km, the EC said.
The report pointed out that the cost differences in themselves were “inconclusive”, but could turn out to be indicators of “possible mismanagement” or “irregularities” in public procurement tenders. The EC recommended more transparency in Italian public tenders, both before and after they are granted, noting that the same advice was among EC recommendations for Italy in July 2013.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Electrolux ‘Has No Intention of Leaving Italy’
‘But high labor costs must be addressed’ says manufacturer
(ANSA) — Rome, February 4 — Electrical-appliance multinational Electrolux said Tuesday it had no intention of leaving Italy after announcing last week a shock wage-cut plan it said was necessary to keep its Italian plants running.
“We want to stay in Italy. We have no intention of leaving,” the CEO of its Italy division, Ernesto Ferrario, told a hearing before the Senate industry committee. He underlined however that the Swedish company “wants to be sure about the competitive base”. The plan to slash wages towards standards more common in Poland has outraged labor unions and sparked government meetings with company managers and owners. Premier Enrico Letta said Thursday the government must cut labor costs if it wants to keep major manufactures from fleeing.
Electrolux plans to cut wages in Italy by three euros an hour, which it said was an 8% cut and would amount to a reduction of less than 130 euros a month in workers’ net salaries. The company says it has also proposed freezing salary increases due to seniority and other raises linked to the sector’s national collective contract for three years in order to “cool the inflation of labour costs, which is responsible for the continuing growth in the competitive gap with the countries of Eastern Europe”. Electrolux says it is willing to consider “other forms of reducing labour costs with lower or, if possible, no consequences on salaries”.
“We need help reducing the cost of labor in Italy,” Ferrario told the Senate committee. “We don’t want to arrive at the cost of labor in Poland or Romania, (but we must do something about) this constant hike”. The CEO said his company expected a response from the Italian government by April in order for it to make long-term investments in the country. “If we don’t get any information, we can’t make a five-year industrial plan. It will have to be for one year,” he said, specifying they would announce a new plan the following year if such is the case.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Erdogan in Berlin, Europe Needs Turkey
Premier asks Germany for more support in favour of adhesion
(ANSAmed) — BERLIN, FEBRUARY 4 — The EU needs Turkey, Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday during a visit to Berlin, asking Germany to show more support for Ankara in its adhesion process. The prime minister stressed in a speech held at the headquarters of the German Association of Foreign Policy that if Turkey needs the EU, the European Union also needs Turkey.
The country has a population of about 77 million inhabitants. It would be impossible to confront the 21st century without Turkey, he concluded.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Comedian Dieudonne Responds to British Ban With ‘Quenelle’ To Queen
Dieudonne was planning to perform a show in Britain and hold a press conference
French comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala has answered Britain’s decision to ban him from entry by giving Queen Elizabeth II his trademark Nazi-like salute. The comic, who has a string of convictions for hate speech in his homeland, performed the stiff-armed gesture after naming the Queen in a rant during a show in the Swiss town of Nyon…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
French to Make 1 Bn Euro Tax Claim Against Google: Report
(PARIS) — French authorities have decided to make a tax claim of 1 billion euros against Google following a probe into the tax strategies by the US Internet giant, Le Point magazine reported Tuesday. A Google spokesman in France declined to comment on the report, saying the company does not comment on rumours. The French finance ministry also declined to comment, citing tax confidentiality.
France is one of a growing number of cash-strapped nations to pursue more aggressively what they see as abuse of tax and accounting rules that allows some multinational companies to pay less tax.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
GM Golden Rice Yet Another Quack Science Fraud
Citing dozens of published scientific papers, reports, public admissions by insiders and other evidence to back its case, GMWatch.org deconstructs the myth that Golden Rice is at all necessary to cure the ills of the less fortunate among us. Far from the miracle panacea that its developers claim it is, Golden Rice has yet to be proven effective in vitamin A-deficient individuals, for instance, and is still orders of magnitude less viable than other methods already in existence for addressing malnutrition…
First unveiled nearly 14 years ago by a Swiss professor and a German researcher, Golden Rice has become something of a humanitarian icon over the years — the “golden ticket,” if you will, towards a more viable future for the world’s poor and needy. The “Golden Rice Project” has received massive cash infusions over the years from the likes of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for instance, which heavily pushes vaccines as a form of population control.
But all the time, money and effort being poured into the ongoing development of Golden Rice could be used for more viable projects like simply teaching people in the Third World how to cultivate more green leafy vegetables. According to extensive research conducted by the Navdanya Research Foundation, the non-profit run by environmental and agricultural expert Dr. Vandana Shiva, leafy greens naturally contain up to 3,500 percent more beta-carotene than the piddly amount of artificial beta-carotene engineered into Golden Rice.
“World Health Organization programs to combat vitamin A deficiency are cheap, already available — and proven to work,” adds GMWatch.org. “They focus on methods such as educating people to grow green leafy vegetables in kitchen gardens, encouraging breastfeeding of babies, and giving supplements and fortified foods when necessary.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Holder Hails Sweden as Human Rights ‘Champion’
US Attorney General Eric Holder praised Sweden as a “champion of human rights” in a speech at the Riksdag on Tuesday during the first-ever visit to Sweden by the United States’ top legal official.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Intelligence Officials Deny NSA Spying Against Denmark
The US intelligence agency NSA did not spy on Danish diplomats and politicians during the 2009 COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen, according to the Danish external intelligence agency Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste (FE).
A NSA document revealing the agency obtained information from key countries ahead of the conference was leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and published in Information newspaper last week.
The disclosure also revealed that the agency obtained a secret discussion paper from a Danish official, but the government has continually shot down NSA spying allegations against Denmark. The head of FE, Thomas Ahrenkiel, said that the Danish government has no reason to suspect illegal prying against national interests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iron Industry Revered by Romans Discovered During Link Road Dig in East Sussex
Archaeological finds in East Sussex suggest why the Romans would have pushed for control of a sophisticated iron production line
An epicentre of the prehistoric iron industry, coveted by the conquering Romans for its sophisticated production techniques and believed by archaeologists to have been one of the finest sites of its kind in ancient Europe, has been discovered during a major roadbuilding project in Sussex.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: New Alerts as Foul Weather Concedes No Truce
Tiber watch in Rome, Friuli snowed under
(ANSA) — Rome, February 3 — Fresh alerts were issued Monday as torrential rain conceded no truce on a weather-battered Italy.
Rain and snow continued to pelt the whole of the country after a week-long onslaught that claimed six lives in southern Italy over the weekend.
Regional authorities in Lazio around Rome issued an alert on flooding and landslides, saying the soil was “saturated” around the Tiber, Aniene and Liri rivers.
The Tiber was under watch in the capital again as levels crept closer to its banks.
Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino wrote to Lazio Governor Nicola Zingaretti saying many homes showed “irreversible” damage. “The situation is absolutely critical and requires swift and structural action,” Marino said.
Italy’s biggest trade union, the CGIL, voiced “solidarity” with the northeastern Fruili Venezia-Giulia region, vowing to “do all we can to help the region return to normal” after massive snowfalls caused black-outs and the closure of schools.
Nobel Prize-winning playwright Dario Fo headed a list of writers, journalists and artists who petitioned the government to “take all necessary steps” to save the medieval walls of the ancient Etruscan town of Volterra near Pisa, part of which collapsed because of water infiltration Friday. The civil protection department said the bad weather would “lift a little and give Italians some respite on Tuesday and Thursday, but otherwise citizens should brace for more very unseasonal and quasi-extreme events.” Three young women died in a head-on collision under a downpour in the province of Bari at the weekend, while two women and a six-year-old girl were drowned in Sicily. Two women and a girl were among seven aboard an automobile when the driver attempted to ford a rain-swollen stream early Sunday morning. Two families were evacuated in Palermo Monday after rocks fell down from a hillside.
Italy’s Civil Protection agency declared a “critical red” alert Monday for much of northern Italy: Friuli, and the plain of Emilia and central Veneto.
Military pumps have been working since Sunday night to protect Rome’s Fiumicino airport from flooding.
In the inhabited area around the airport, and especially in the coastal town of Fiumicino itself, authorities sent in more soldiers to cope with the emergency, raising their number to more than 50.
Heavy snow blocked roads in the mountains near the ski resort town of Cortina, while heavy rain caused temporary blackouts in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Since January 30, 2,288 volunteers and 40 technicians have fought pitched battles against damage wrought by some of the worst winter weather in years.
On Friday, Romans took to the rooftops, while Venice was plunged under its deepest water this year and a town near Pisa was evacuated as rainstorms wreaked havoc and snow forced the closure of schools across Italy.
More heavy snow is expected in the central-eastern Alps, and rain across Italy is expected to continue for at least another week.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Lufthansa Asks EC to Halt Alitalia-Etihad Deal
Carrier complains State aid used to save Italian airline
(By Sandra Cordon) (ANSA) — Rome, February 3 — German airline giant Lufthansa called on the European Commission on Monday to halt the planned investment of Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways in Italian airline Alitalia, alleging the use of State aid in disguise to break competition rules. The complaint by Frankfurt-based Lufthansa came as Alitalia CEO Gabriele Del Torchio said the troubled Italian carrier was poised to sign a financing deal with banks which was part of a 500-million-euros bailout package organized last fall by the Italian government.
“In a few hours we will sign the contract for financial with the banks, and we will give Alitalia additional financial means,” Del Torchio said early in the day.
It was later revealed that banks pledged about 165 million euros, with a remaining 35 million euros to come later.
That investment is critical to Italy’s cash-strapped national carrier as it struggles to survive until it can find a solvent partner, such as Etihad. However, Monday’s move by Lufthansa, Europe’s largest airline, could throw up a block to the plan by government-owned Etihad to invest in the Italian carrier and establish further roots in the lucrative European market. “We call on the EC to prohibit such roundabout tactics,” Lufthansa said in a statement. In response, Italian transport minister Maurizio Lupi suggested Lufthansa was “afraid of competition”. “We will not allow you to continue to use the European Union as an excuse to block…competition in the air transport sector,” said Lupi. Still, the concerns echoed complaints last fall from other European carriers when Italy’s State-owned post office Poste Italiane pledged to invest 74 million euros in Alitalia as part of the government-engineered bail-out package designed to pull the air carrier back from the brink of bankruptcy.
International Airlines Group, which owns Spanish carrier Iberia as well as British Airways, at the time urged the EC to intervene to suspend what it said was “flagrant State aid”.
Italy denied the allegation but the EC asked for more information about the rescue package — in particular, the controversial cash injection from Italy’s post office.
Etihad confirmed that it was in serious negotiations over a possible investment in Alitalia as Italian Premier Minister Enrico Letta made an official visit to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday.
It set a 30-day deadline to finalize a deal with Alitalia that would see Etihad buy as much as a 40% stake in the Italian carrier, the equivalent of a much-needed capital injection of 350 million euros.
The airlines issued a joint statement saying their negotiations were in “the final phase” and they were trying to arrive at a common strategy in the coming weeks. Letta said the Italian government “strongly supports the positive finalization of this agreement…we will play our part and I am sure that in Italy, all those that have a say in the matter will play their part”.
Etihad has been expanding aggressively into Europe and Alitalia would give it a further foothold in a lucrative market.
After buying 29% of Air Berlin, Germany’s second-largest airline, in 2011, Etihad has taken stakes in carriers across the world, including Air Serbia, Aer Lingus, Darwin Airlines, Virgin Australia, Jet Airways and Air Seychelles.
Alitalia’s struggles have been well publicized.
In October, Alitalia’s board approved a 500-million-euro budget package that included the 300-million-euro capital increase and 200 million euros in new lines of credit.
That included the Poste Italiane investment made in December.
However, Air France-KLM — previously, Alitalia’s largest single stakeholder — refused to participate and has seen its stake in decline to about 7.1% from a previous high of 25%.
Still, Air France-KLM has said it remains committed to its eight-year partnership with Alitalia signed in 2009. Late last month, Del Torchio told unions that Alitalia was facing its “last chance” to create a new business plan to keep the troubled carrier aloft even after the emergency bailout packaged organized by the Italian government.
Sources have said that Alitalia’s revised industrial plan includes deep cost reductions, efficiency gains, and other measures to beef up competitiveness.
That may include 200 million euros in spending cuts and 2,000 layoffs, half of those coming from expiring work contracts.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Letta Accuses Grillo of Barbarism as Tension Soars
Furore over attacks on House Speaker Boldrini
(By Paul Virgo) (ANSA) — Rome, February 3 — Premier Enrico Letta accused Beppe Grillo of barbarism on Monday following an aggressive campaign of insults and protests by the comedian-turned-politician’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S).
There have been chaotic scenes in parliament over the last week, including scuffles and an incident of a male MP striking a female M5S lawmaker in the face, following high-voltage protests by the movement over measures it objects to.
The Internet-based M5S, which rode a wave of disenchantment at an established political class it blames for corruption and economic stagnation to bag around a quarter of the vote in the 2013 year’s general election, last week presented a petition for President Giorgio Napolitano to be impeached.
They are also calling on Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini to resign, arguing that, like Napolitano, she is not an fair arbiter but favours the established parties.
Grillo, M5S members and their supporters intensified their attacks on Boldrini after she stopped filibustering by them to enable a government decree to pass before a deadline.
Amid the storm, Grillo wrote “What would happen if you found yourself in a car with Boldrini?” on his Facebook page and posted a video of a young man in a car with a cardboard cutout of the speaker, giving her a piece of his mind. This was followed by a slew of verbally abusive and sexist comments, some of them calling for her to get beaten up and forced to prostitute herself, others for her to be gang raped by “Africans” and other minorities.
Boldrini, a member of Letta’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said the comments were made by “potential rapists” and amounted to instigation to violence. Grillo has also come under fire for asking allegedly hostile TV host Daria Bignardi “what’s it like to be married to a murderer’s son” on his blog.
Bignardi’s husband Luca Sofri is the son of leftist ex-militant Adriano Sofri, convicted for ordering the murder of a police commissioner in a case that inspired Nobel prize-winner Dario Fo’s best-known play.
After serving his sentence in a case many leftists considered a miscarriage of justice, Adriano Sofri continued his career as an intellectual, writer and journalist, with son Luca following in his footsteps. “It’s scandalous, I cannot refrain from commenting on Grillo’s crazy remarks against Daria Bignardi and her husband,” said Letta during a visit to Doha. The premier said that, faced with the “race towards barbarity taken by Grillo, apparently without end, there can be no tolerance towards this kind of politics”.
Some political pundits have said the M5S’s actions are an attempt to regain the limelight, which of late has been taken up by the PD’s energetic new leader Matteo Renzi.
Renzi has reached a deal with ex-premier and centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi on a new election law to replace the dysfunctional old system that was declared unconstitutional last month and he is working to push through other much-needed institutional reforms to make Italy easier to govern. Renzi, the 39-year-old mayor of Florence, said Monday that the aggressive tactics were being used by Grillo because “he’s in trouble”. Five M5S MPs, meanwhile, distanced themselves from the attacks on Boldrini. “We firmly stigmatize every form of violence and aggression, both verbal and physical,” MPs Lorenzo Battista, Laura Bignami, Monica Casaletto and Luis Alberto Orellana said in a statement. “I feel I should apologize to Boldrini because writing such things evokes scenarios I don’t like at all,” MP Tommaso Currò told a local radio station. Another M5S official, Senate spokesman Claudio Messora, issued a tepid apology for a tweet that added fuel to the fire.
“Dear Laura, relax…even if we were all potential rapists, you’re in no danger at all!” Messora tweeted Sunday.
“I did not mean to offend Laura Boldrini. If it happened because of one of my jokes, I’m sorry. Now let’s get back to business”, Messora tweeted Monday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Venice Mayor Praises Letta Plan for Islamic Museum
Northern League vows to block project on Grand Canal
(ANSA) — Venice, February 3 — Venice Mayor Giorgio Orsoni on Monday thanked Premier Enrico Letta for considering an Islamic Museum for the iconic city’s Grand Canal, while the regionalist Northern League continued to condemn the project.
Orsoni said the concept fitted with Venice’s municipal goal of continuing to bring “great cultural institutions of international (interest) to Venice”.
The city offered “a special thanks to … Letta for his interest in the creation of an Islamic museum of great international scope in Venice, a sign of the history of this city and its openness to dialogue between cultures and religions,” added Orsoni.
Letta said earlier in the day, during a trip to Doha, that his government “made a commitment to explore the opportunity to build an Islamic museum in Venice on the Grand Canal”.
But that was slammed by the Northern League, which said Letta should focus on the economy and not cultural institutions.
Massimo Bitonci, Senate whip for the regionalist League, accused Letta of working to spread Islam in Italy.
“We do not want any Islamic museum in Venice,” Bitonci said. That opinion was buttressed by Lorenzo Fontana, a League Member of the European Parliament who threatened to obstruct such a project.
“We will stay day and night in front of the (project area) and obstruct work,” said Fontana.
“The League will never allow such a mess, the Veneto (region) want independence, not Islamic museums,” he said, adding that such projects threaten to undermine the foundations of Italian society.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
KIA Invests 500 Million Euros in Italy
‘Unprecedented deal’ to create jobs, shows confidence in nation
(ANSAmed) — KUWAIT CITY — The Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) sovereign wealth fund, one of the leading in the world, will invest 500 million euros in the Italian Strategic Fund (FSI) and, through the fund, in Italian companies, Premier Enrico Letta told a press conference in Kuwait City on Tuesday.
The investment in the FSI, part of Italian state lender Cassa dei Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), will be used to “capitalize, re-launch and help Italian enterprises”, said the premier, adding that agreements wrapped up in the Gulf would help Italian firms “to become stronger: they are the best response to rampaging defeatism in our country. Outside Italy, there is confidence in us”.
Letta called the announcement a major achievement of the trip, saying it would help shore up Italian enterprises and create much-needed jobs. Italy’s jobless rate stood at 12.7% in December, the latest data available, alongside youth unemployment close to a soaring 42%.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
League Contests Napolitano at EP
‘No euro, euro kills’ say banners
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, February 4 — MEPs from the anti-euro and anti-immigrant Northern League contested Italian President Giorgio Napolitano during his keynote address to the European Parliament Tuesday.
The League, led by leader Matteo Salvini, waved banners saying “no euro” and “euro kills”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Two Men Released From Jail Pending Syria Terrorist Court Case
A court in Arnhem has released two young men from custody pending their trial for plotting terrorist offences in Syria. The two, aged 26 and 21, were arrested in Germany in August. They were thought to have been on their way to Syria to fight in the civil war which, the public prosecutor says, means they were preparing to take part in terrorist attacks.
The two have been allowed out of jail pending their trial but must wear an ankle tracking device. They have been ordered to remain the Netherlands and stay away from airports.
Over 100 Dutch nationals have travelled to Syria to join the fighting since the war broke out nearly three years ago. Several have been killed. At the end of January, the Dutch counter-terrorism chief confirmed the passports of eight people planning to travel to Syria to fight against president Assad had been confiscated.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Northern League EP Protest ‘Deplorable’ Says Speaker
‘Abuse for electoral ends’ says Schulz
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, February 4 — The Northern League’s protest against Italian President Giorgio Napolitano during a speech to the European Parliament Tuesday was “deplorable” and “purely for electoral motives”, Speaker Martin Schulz told ANSA.
“These MEPs used the plenary assembly…for purely electoral ends and that is an abuse,” the German Social Democrat said.
But he said the anti-euro regionalist party was “totally isolated” in the EP. League MEPs waved banners during Napolitano’s keynote address calling the euro a “killer”.
Separately, League leader Matteo Salvini said Napolitano was “shameless” for defending a currency that had “destroyed jobs, wages and pensions”. Populist anti-euro and anti-austerity parties like the League are expected to score big in May’s EP elections.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Calls for Fair Distribution of Wealth
‘Power, luxury and money can become idols’ says in Lent message
(ANSA) — Vatican City, February 4 — Pope Francis called for a fair distribution of wealth and warned against love of money and power Tuesday.
“When power, luxury and money become idols, they take priority over the need for a fair distribution of wealth,” the pope said in his latest indictment of the ill effects of unbridled capitalism. “Our consciences thus need to be converted to justice, equality, simplicity and sharing,” said the pope in his message for Lent, the period leading up to Easter.
http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/english/2014/02/04/Pope-calls-fair-distribution-wealth_10011654.html
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Reports: NSA First Targeted German Chancellor Schröder, Then Merkel
A joint report by a major German newspaper and regional broadcaster has said that the National Security Agency tapped the telephone communications of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, before Angela Merkel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rise of Eurosceptic Parties Could Put Peace in Europe at Risk, German Foreign Minister Claims
Warning against the type of ‘nationalism’ which caused the First World War, Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the European Union had convinced countries to ‘get together, politically’ after years of conflict.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Bomb Squad Sent to Home of Lars Vilks
Bomb technicians were dispatched to the home of Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has previously received death threats after depicting the prophet Muhammad as a dog, for what turned out to be a false alarm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Nazi Origins of the Olympic Flame Relay
Though dressed up as an ancient Greek tradition, the torch relay ceremony was originally designed to further Hitler’s nationalist propaganda.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Cop Caught Framing Citizen Journalist on Camera
A citizen journalist was assaulted and set up by a UK police officer late last week while covering a fracking protest in Barton Moss, England.
Revealed by a YouTube video, the unknown officer can first be seen assaulting and knocking over the journalist as he attempts to film an arrest by police. Continuing to be shoved away from the scene, the journalist is suddenly accused of drinking, a clear attempt by the officer to intimidate and coerce the man into leaving.
“Are you drunk? Have you been drinking this morning,” the officer begins repeating.
Incredibly, as other police approach the altercation, the officer begins blatantly accusing the journalist of admitting to drinking. Despite the video clearly exonerating the journalist, the officer continues to fabricate claims, next accusing the man of driving drunk.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I have been honoured to receive a number of awards in my career. Yet one which I have especially yearned for has so far eluded me. Now it seems finally within my grasp. Since I began writing I have dearly hoped to catch the eye of the judges for the ‘Islamophobe of the Year’ title. There are a number of reasons. Firstly because one of its earliest recipients was Polly Toynbee. Anything that Polly wins is something I covet…
[Reader comment by Sarka on 3 February 2014.]
Crossing my fingers for you. What’s the prize though? Reminds me of an old Beachcomber joke on comps: “First prize — the Pyramids!”“
“Second Prize — Free burial at sea with the woman of your choice…”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bishop of Stepney Condemns BNP Linked ‘Christian Patrols’ In East End
The nationalist group Britain First drove into Brick Lane in two armoured Gulf War landrovers on Friday with leaflets warning of “Muslim Patrols” in the area. The group was condemned by the Bishop of Stepney who said there was no place for them in Tower Hamlets. Britain First’s chairman, Paul Golding, formerly a senior figure in the BNP, said he hoped to “draw out” Muslim extremists using cigarettes and beer as “bait”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jesus and Mo: It’s Time to Pick a Horse
by Charlie Klendjian
A few weeks ago I appeared on the BBC1 programme The Big Questions to discuss, well, a big question: “Should human rights always outweigh religious rights?” You can watch it on YouTube here…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Long Lines, Crowded Conditions: Millions of Londoners Brace for Chaos as Tube Workers Strike
Snaking lines at taxi ranks, crowded and sweaty buses, long delays into work: Londoners are bracing for all that and worse as workers at the city’s sprawling 150-year-old underground train network — known as the Tube — go on a series of strikes beginning Tuesday night. Some 3.5 million people journey each day on the network’s 11 lines and 270 stations, leading to predictions of widespread travel chaos as much of the capital grinds to a halt for four days.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Nigerian Prisoners in UK Kick Against Transfer Agreement
London — Some Nigerians serving various jail terms in the UK have kicked against the recently signed Prisoner Transfer Agreement between Nigeria and British governments. Dr Dalhatu Tafida, Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the UK, on Tuesday in London confirmed this in an interview. Tafida said that some of the prisoners have expressed concern over returning to the country to complete their terms, citing poor prison facilities and stigma as main reasons…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Six Youths in Court Over Harassment of Worshippers at Mosque
Sandwell Magistrates’ Court heard that the youths are alleged to have been involved in public order offences committed against members of the Muslim community
Six youths have appeared before magistrates charged in connection with a police inquiry into alleged harassment of worshippers travelling to a mosque in the West Midlands. Five of the teenagers, aged between 15 and 17, pleaded not guilty to causing criminal damage to a car during a lengthy court hearing in Oldbury. The sixth defendant, aged 14, denied a charge of racially aggravated harassment…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Why Fiona Millar is a Member of the Blob
By Toby Young
There was a great exchange on Newsnight last night between Fiona Millar, the Left-wing education campaigner, and David Green, the chief executive of Civitas. They were discussing “the Blob”, Michael Gove’s word for the educational establishment, and Jeremy Paxman asked Green if Millar was a member of it. “Yes,” he said, without hesitating. For once, Millar looked sightly lost for words…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Watch the Shocking Moment a Man is Kicked Through the Window of a Double-Decker Bus
This shocking footage shows the moment a man was kicked through the window of a double-decker bus in north London. The man was hit with such force in the midriff that he went through a pane of glass and fell into the road near Finsbury Park…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Young Swedish Women Often ‘Coerced Into Sex’
More than one third of young Swedish women have been forced to perform sexual acts against their will, a new study from Lund University has revealed.
“It’s a high figure, but I’m not totally surprised as we’ve seen that young people are vulnerable and they often choose not to file a report,” Lund University researcher Anette Agardh, who carried out the study, said in a statement. Agardh explained that woman often refrain from reporting unwanted sexual encounters due to feelings of guilt or due to a feeling that there is a lack of support for their predicament from society at large.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Journalist Flees Egypt After Being Placed on Terrorist List
A Dutch journalist has fled Egypt after being accused of giving help to members of a terrorist organisation. Rena Netjes, a freelancer working for BNR News Radio, the Parool and as a producer for Nos television, is included on a list of terrorist suspects that includes other journalists.
She no longer feels safe in Egypt, BNR reports. ‘She was first arrested a year ago on suspicion of being a spy,’ a spokesman for the broadcaster told the Volkskrant. The Egyptian public prosecutor said a week ago that the latest case involves four foreign journalists who work for the Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera but did not name names.
Netjes told Nos she has never worked for Al Jazeera but did have a conversation with one of its staff who is a specialist on radical groups in the Sinai desert. The Dutch embassy in Cairo is thought to have helped Netjes leave Egypt, press reports say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s Interim Leader Says End to ‘Pharoah Presidents’ As Morsi Trial Resumes
Egypt’s deposed leader Mohamed Morsi returns to court to stand trial over accusations that he was responsible for the killing of demonstrators, as interim president says that the days of a “pharaoh president” are over
Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour has said there will be no more “pharaoh presidents,” as the ousted former leader Mohamed Morsi returns to court in Cairo.
Mr Mansour praised the new constitution — which was passed with 98.1 per cent of a public vote last month — saying that it established a new balance of power, making the president accountable to parliament, and giving it the power to depose the executive if necessary…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Summons Qatari, Bosnian Diplomats Over Pro-Morsi Stances
CAIRO, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) — The Egyptian Foreign Ministry summoned Tuesday the charge d’affaires of Qatar over the Gulf state’s supportive stance toward Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi, official news agency MENA reported, adding the ministry will soon summon a Bosnian diplomat over similar matters…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany to ‘Sell Egypt Two More Subs’
Germany is “weeks away” from signing a contract with Egypt to provide the troubled Middle East country with two more submarines in a multi-million euro deal, a defence source told the The Local. The contract for two U-209 submarines follows on from a deal signed in summer 2011 for two of the same submarine types which was worth €920 million.
The 2011 deal angered Egypt’s regional rival Israel which previously bought nine submarines from TKMS and wants to maintain naval dominance in the eastern Mediterranean.
News of a second submarine order is likely to anger Israel further ahead of a visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel to Israel at the end of February.
It comes amid criticism of the German government for approving a huge arms deal to Saudi Arabia for more than 100 patrol boats worth €1.4 billion, reported by Der Spiegel magazine on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘No Interference From EU, US and Italy’, Says Egyptian FM
‘Fight against terrorism and security before all’, Nabil Fahmy
(by Cristiana Missori) (ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 4 — “Egypt will not accept outside interference in its decisions. Not from the US, not from Europe, and certainly not from Italy. I have been very clear on this point with Rome: we will not back down”.
Decisive words spoken by Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, who chose the Italian capital as the first stop of a European tour that will take him to Germany and Holland in the next few hours. On his agenda he had meetings with his Italian counterpart Emma Bonino and Defense Minister Mario Mauro, House and Senate foreign affairs committee chairmen Fabrizio Cicchitto and Pierferdinando Casini, and Economic Development Minister Flavio Zanonato.
As the 48-hour visit draws to a close, he reaps the first economic reward, “setting cooperation in motion, both in the commercial sector and in the private investment sector”. He finds “much more understanding of the Egyptian situation and a greater recognition of the great difficulties our country is going through, from the Italian government as well as politicians and the investor community”, Fahmy told ANSAmed in an interview.
Cairo continues on its slow democratic path, determined to follow through on its road map. The head of Egyptian diplomacy speaks frankly, saying he has been “very clear” with his Italian interlocutors in terms of the fight against terrorism. “We will not backtrack because security comes before everything else”, he reiterates. “Europe and the US must understand that their security depends on ours. Their success depends on our success”.
The Mediterranean, he adds, “is a small sea, and terrorism knows no borders”.
With regards to relations with Washington and its decision in mid-January to restore yearly aid of 1.5 billion dollars to Cairo, which had been partially suspended after the deposition of former president Mohamed Morsi in July, he professes himself not at all surprised.
“It is in the interests of the United States to have good relations with Egypt”, he warned. Things have improved on the bilateral relations front.”There is a willingness on our part and also on the part of the US to move on, because it is in the interests of both countries to overcome the conflicted relations we had recently”.
Egypt has changed, and the Arab world has changed with it, Fahmy concludes. “And this must be recognized”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: 100 Drawings on the Web for Young Imprisoned Artist
Internet campaign points to liberties under new Charter
(by Maria Novella Topi) (ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 4 — A hundred drawings for the freedom of one illustrator: artists from a dozen countries on Tuesday launched an Internet campaign to free young Tunisian artist Jabeur Mejri, incarcerated since March 2012 for blasphemy in drawing caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed. The campaign called “One Hundred Drawings for Jabeur” reminds lawmakers that Tunisia’s newly adopted Constitution, which will be presented Friday in the presence of international heads of State including French President Francois Hollande, guarantees freedom of conscience and of expression. Continuing to hold Mejri, who was sentenced along with colleague Ghazi Beji to seven and a half years behind bars and payment of a 550-euro fine, goes against “the spirit of the new Charter”. Beji broke out and fled to France, where he obtained political asylum.
The site ‘100dessinspourjabeur.org’ has satirical drawings in many styles, but they abound in prison bars, criticism of Salafist fundamentalism, and accusations against President Moncef Marzouki for failing to exercise clemency.
Marzouki has repeatedly said he would like to intervene in favor of the young prisoner, but also pointed to the growing power of extremist jihadist groups as a reason not to.
“There are enormous tensions right now in Tunisia”, he has said. “I would not want such a reprieve to spark more tensions and debates. I will free him, but I need a window of opportunity in which to do so”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
US Circumvents Law to Transfer Aid to Egypt
The US Congress has passed legislation that allows the White House to transfer more than $1 billion in aid money to Egypt. Experts say that Washington is prioritizing Mubarak-era security arrangements over democracy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Kerry’s Israeli Supporters
Once again, on Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry tried to extort Israeli concessions to the PLO by threatening us with a Western economic boycott.
Kerry is obsessed with Israel’s economic success. Last May he told us that we’re too rich to surrender our land. Now he’s saying we’ll be poor if we don’t do so.
The anti-Semitic undertones of Kerry’s constant chatter about Jews having too much money are obvious. But beyond their inherent bigotry, Kerry’s statements serve to legitimize the radical Left’s economic war against the Jewish state. Administration supporters and fundraisers from Code Pink and other pressure groups, as well as the EU understand that if they escalate their economic and political persecution of the Jewish state, their actions will be met with quiet understanding, and even support from the Obama administration.
This is so even if the State Department issues indignant press releases expressing fury that Israeli elected officials have the chutzpah to object to Kerry’s behavior.
Israel has been subjected to plenty of abuse from American secretaries of state. But Kerry’s incessant talk of “illusory” Jewish money is unprecedented.
Why does Kerry believe he can get away with this?
The overwhelming majority of US lawmakers oppose economic warfare against Israel.
The vast majority of Americans support Israel and believe that a Palestinian state will support terrorism and be hostile to Israel.
So if the American public opposes Kerry’s obsessive aggressiveness toward Israel, who is supporting him? Who is giving him cover for his anti-Jewish smears and his irrational focus on Jewish communities beyond the 1949 armistice lines?…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Jerusalem’s status is a bone of contention between Israelis and Palestinians. One flashpoint is the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, a sacred site of Muslim prayer — known as Temple Mount to Jews.
The site of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock is known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims and is their third holiest site. The plaza on which they both sit is known as Judaism’s most holy place — the Temple Mount — where Jews believe the First and Second Temples once stood. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
Today, the site is one of the most contested holy sites in the world and the place of frequent tensions. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently cancelled his visit to the Dome of the Rock, citing security reasons.
The plaza has been the site of repeated violent demonstrations, clashes, stonings and shootings, despite being steeped in religious symbolism for Jews, Christian and Muslims alike.
Non-Muslim visitors are restricted from entering the site of Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, it is rare to have had a glimpse inside either.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pretending Tel Aviv is the Capital of Israel
(Daniel Pipes) Some, especially in the mainstream media, pretend that not Jerusalem but Tel Aviv serves as the capital of Israel. (Tel Aviv hosts the Ministry of Defense but not much else of the central government.) This parallels a tendency lately to pretend there’s a country called Palestine. The weblog entry documents some of those delusions, which are appearing more often, in reverse chronological order:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Arrival of Domesticated Camels in the Southern Levant
Camels are mentioned as pack animals in the biblical stories of Abraham, Joseph, and Jacob. But archaeologists have shown that camels were not domesticated in the Land of Israel until centuries after the Age of the Patriarchs (2000-1500 BCE). In addition to challenging the Bible’s historicity, this anachronism is direct proof that the text was compiled well after the events it describes.
Now Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef and Dr. Lidar Sapir-Hen of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures have used radiocarbon dating to pinpoint the moment when domesticated camels arrived in the southern Levant, pushing it forward from the 12th to the 9th century BCE. The findings, published recently in the journal Tel Aviv, further emphasize the disagreements between Biblical texts and verifiable history, and define a turning point in Israel’s engagement with the rest of the world.
Archaeologists have established that camels were probably domesticated in the Arabian Peninsula for use as pack animals sometime towards the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. In the southern Levant, where Israel is located, the oldest known domesticated camel bones are from the Aravah Valley, which runs along the Israeli-Jordanian border from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea and was an ancient center of copper production. At a 2009 dig, Dr. Ben-Yosef dated an Aravah Valley copper smelting camp where the domesticated camel bones were found to the 11th to 9th century BCE. In 2013, he led another dig in the area.
[This story is interesting for several reasons. The camel is a very important animal in the Middle East, which means that this subject is important in itself. However, notice that two Israeli Jewish scholars have been doing serious scientific and archaeological studies, even though their results contradict the Jewish religious scriptures and a literal reading of the Hebrew Bible. In contrast, no Saudi Muslim scholar would ever publish results based on serious scientific and archaeological studies contradicting Islamic scriptures and a literal reading of the Koran. Archaeological digs are banned in Saudi Arabia, for locals and outsiders alike. — Fjordman]
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ban Ki-Moon Interview: ‘Somewhat Helpless’ In Syria
In an interview, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discusses negotiations with Damascus, the international community’s paralysis on the issue of Syria and why he believes Germany must take on a stronger role in the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Qaida Linked Group Claims Suicide Attack in Beirut’s Suburb
BEIRUT, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) — An al-Qaida linked group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that hit the southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Monday, saying it is targeting a checkpoint of the Shiite movement Hezbollah, local Daily Star reported Tuesday.
A suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt onboard a passenger van in the coastal town of Shoueifat, south of Beirut on Monday, killing himself and wounding at least two people…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Shadowy Iraqi Terrorist Leader Revitalized Militant Group But Rankled Al-Qaida Headquarters
He has commanded a relentless bombing campaign against Iraqi civilians, orchestrated audacious jailbreaks of fellow militants and expanded his hardline Islamist organization’s reach deep into neighboring Syria.
While his may not be a household name, the shadowy figure known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has emerged as one of the world’s most lethal terrorist leaders. He is a renegade within al-Qaida whose maverick streak eventually led its central command to sever ties, deepening a rivalry between his organization and the global terror network.
Al-Baghdadi’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is the main driver of destabilizing violence in Iraq and until recently was the main al-Qaida affiliate there. Al-Qaida’s general command formally disavowed the group this week, saying it “is not responsible for its actions.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Face of the Globalist Agenda in Syria
Our government is out of control by assisting terrorist groups to achieve their own despicable and diabolical ends to reshape the world according to the objectives of the globalists
Take a good long look at the face of this 4-year-old boy. He could be your child, your grandchild or nephew. The photo seems to reflect a childhood innocence, an innocence that is so treasured and so valued that it must be protected at all costs. Who among us could deny that this precious little boy deserves to be protected, deserves to experience the joys of a secure childhood like most of us had so long ago?
Funny, that, for it is the very same people who argue that they are acting “for the children” when instead, they are criminally responsible for destroying their childhood, by ruthlessly and shamelessly exploiting them for their own geopolitical agenda. Worse yet, it’s all being done in your name, in our names, with our collective, tacit approval. For behind this face of innocence is a veil of darkness so black that it should shake you to your core as you look at the next image of this same young boy.
Behind the black mask is the face of the young boy identified only as Muhammad, depicted here shooting an AK-47 in Syria. You’ve probably seen it, or at least heard about it. But do you know the whole story behind it? Do you know that it’s our government — your government — that is behind these unspeakable atrocities? Averting your gaze and claiming that this is mere hyperbole might make you feel more comfortable, but it will not change the fact that many of us have looked away for far too long or clung to the belief that what we are seeing is a centuries-old artifact of Islamic savagery. Whatever helps you sleep at night. However, that does not change the truth, a truth from which you cannot flee…
What you are witnessing here is the extension of the activities that took place in Libya, specifically Benghazi, where the United States, the British, French and Saudi Arabia were involved in the largest arms running operation in the world, all in direct violation of international law. As I have written so many times, Benghazi was never a scandal, but a criminal enterprise conducted by the power elite of Western governments having the objective to topple Assad and destabilize Syria. This is part of a much larger agenda that includes the well planned and finely orchestrated Arab Spring, which was planned years in advance.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Urges German Support for EU Bid
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Germany on Tuesday to step up support for his country’s bid to enter the European Union, but acknowledged Turkey must also press on with reforms.
Erdogan told a Berlin think-tank on a visit to Europe’s top economy that the EU could also benefit from Turkey’s presence at the bloc’s table such as in regional conflict resolution. “We expect and would like also to receive the support from Germany for the path into the EU and the EU admission process,” Erdogan told the German Council on Foreign Relations. “We would like for Germany to campaign (for it) more strongly than up until now,” he added through an interpreter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Election Campaigns Kick Off Amid Security Threats
The murders of two campaign staffers are stirring fears as nation attempts first democratic transfer of power
The assassinations of two campaign staffers ushered in Afghanistan’s presidential election campaigns in ominous fashion, as the newly democratic — but still fragile — nation prepares for its first democratic transfer of power in April and the imminent withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces following an indecisive 13-year war on the Taliban insurgency
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Police Arrest Two Would-be Suicide Bombers
KABUL, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) — Units of police in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province captured two would-be suicide bombers on Monday, a statement of Interior Ministry released here on Tuesday said. “Afghan National Police arrested two suicide bombers before they could reach to a target in the Nari district of eastern Kunar province, yesterday,” the statement said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India’s Prosecution of Marines May Hurt Anti-Pirate Measures
Ashton says EU worried about fallout from Italian case
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, February 4 — The European Union is worried that India’s attempts to prosecute two Italian marines accused of shooting two fishermen while on an anti-piracy mission may hurt efforts to fight the crime, a top EU official said Tuesday.
“The case is likely to have negative impacts on the EU’s efforts and those around the world in the fight against piracy,” the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton said in a letter.
She discussed the case while vowing to keep up pressure on India about the situation of the two marines, in a letter to European Parliament Deputy Speakers Gianni Pittella and Roberta Angelilli.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Indian Prisoner Dies in Pakistani Jail
NEW DELHI, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) — An Indian prisoner was Tuesday found dead in a jail in the Pakistani city of Karachi, local TV channels reported. Kishore Bhagwan, an Indian fisherman, was lodged in Landhi Jail in Karachi…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India to Build World’s Largest Solar Plant
Facility will triple the country’s solar capacity and dwarf existing photovoltaic arrays.
India has pledged to build the world’s most powerful solar plant. With a nominal capacity of 4,000 megawatts, comparable to that of four full-size nuclear reactors, the ‘ultra mega’ project will be more than ten times larger than any other solar project built so far, and it will spread over 77 square kilometres of land — greater than the island of Manhattan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indian Ocean’s Oldest Shipwreck Set for Excavation
The oldest known shipwreck in the Indian Ocean has been sitting on the seafloor off the southern coast of Sri Lanka for some 2,000 years. In just a couple of weeks, scuba-diving archaeologists will embark on a months-long excavation at the site, looking for clues about trade between Rome and Asia during antiquity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesian ‘Hobbit’ Race Developed in Complete Isolation
The genesis of small hominine specimen discovered on the Island of Flores in Indonesia in the beginning of the 21st century remains a subject of debate but certain theories have already been abandoned, Director of the Archaeology and Ethnography Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian branch Academician Anatoly Derevyanko said.
“This is an extraordinary specimen, an extraordinary individual with a brain of an anthropoid ape, approximately 415 cubic centimeters, and a height of about 106 centimeters. It lived 12,000-18,000 years ago in complete isolation,” he said
The remains of the “hobbits”, Homo floresiensis, were found on the Island of Flores in Indonesia in 2003. Scientists learned that the individuals could hunt and make certain tools in spite of their small height.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Narenda Modi: India’s Popular Yet Polarizing Figure
Narendra Modi, prime ministerial candidate of India’s opposition BJP-led alliance in the next general election, is one of the most polarizing figures in the nation. DW takes a look at his political rise.
On February 27, 2002 a train carrying dozens of Hindu activists among others caught fire under mysterious circumstances in the western Indian state of Gujarat resulting in 58 deaths. The incident, coupled with reports that Muslim mobs were involved in the train burning, triggered one of the deadliest outbreaks of religious violence in India in recent history, leaving around 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus dead and several thousand injured.
The communal riots have tarnished the image of Narendra Modi, who has been governing the state since 2001.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Taliban, Gov’t Peace Talks Face Deadlock
ISLAMABAD, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) — The proposed peace talks between the Pakistani Taliban and the government faced deadlock on Tuesday after controversy surfaced over the refusal of two members to join the Taliban negotiations team…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Talking With the Pakistan Taliban is Like Talking to a Black Hole
By Rob Crilly
On one level the prospect of talking to the Pakistan Taliban appears tempting. The umbrella group of Islamic extremists, sectarian thugs and armed gangsters is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. The security forces appear incapable of preventing attacks and the courts cannot secure convictions…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK Probe Finds Role in India Golden Temple Assault Was ‘Limited’
A government investigation has found that the UK had only a “limited impact” on India’s 1984 assault on the Amritsar Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest shrine. The raid’s death toll is still disputed after almost 30 years.
Prime Minister David Cameron had ordered the review into British involvement in the Indian military’s 1984 attack on a Sikh temple this January. This followed his government’s inadvertent release of documents showing that then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had sent an elite Special Air Service (SAS) soldier to advise India on the raid four months before it took place.
On Tuesday, Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament that the Indian military raid on Sikh separatists holed up in the shrine was “entirely different” from plans suggested by the British special forces advisor. “The nature of the UK’s assistance was purely advisory, limited and provided to the Indian government at an early stage,” Hague said. “It had limited impact on the tragic events that unfolded the temple three months later.”
Indian authorities put the death toll from the June 1984 attack on the Golden Temple at Amritsar in the hundreds. Sikh groups say that thousands were killed. The attack enraged Sikhs in India, some of whom were already fighting for an independent state, and ultimately led to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi — shot by two of her Sikh bodyguards on October 31 that year. Gandhi’s killing in turn provoked anti-Sikh riots across much of northern India, while the insurgency continued until the late 1980s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japanese Government Seeks Approval to Dump Fukushima Groundwater Into Sea
The government on Monday sought approval of a nationwide fisheries federation to dump groundwater at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex into the sea on condition that the water’s contamination level is far below the legal limit.
During talks with the head of the National Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations, industry ministry officials explained that they plan to set “strict” operational procedures for the pump system to allay the concerns of fishermen who think the move could deal a blow to their business.
Groundwater will be pumped out before it gets mixed with highly radioactive water accumulating at the basement of reactor buildings, and will be directed to the adjacent Pacific Ocean.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Japanese Singer to Marry Italian Barman
Songstress Hikaru Utada is to tie the knot, she announced on her website, with Japanese media saying her intended is an Italian barman eight years her junior.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ABC Head Mark Scott Admits Mistakes Over Report Claiming Navy Inflicted Asylum Seeker Burns
The ABC has bowed to pressure from the Abbott government and media rivals by admitting it gave too much credence to claims asylum seekers had suffered burns because of treatment by the navy…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
by Geoffrey Luck
To me, the epicene pronoun is the most obscene manifestation of the tyranny of the politically correct. It ranks just ahead of de-genderising common nouns…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Islamic Group Moves to Stop Mosque in Ballarat, Victoria
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — An anti-Islamic group is mobilising against Ballarat’s first mosque. Restore Australia, which describes Islam on its website as a “aggressive totalitarian political ideology”, plans to letterbox people in Ballarat to “mobilise people to write to the council” to oppose the building of a mosque at 116 Elsworth Street East in Ballarat…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Doubts Raised Over Castaway’s 13 Months ‘Lost at Sea’ Claim
Was it all a mirage?
Some experts are challenging the claim by Jose Salvador Alvarenga that he miraculously survived 13 months at sea by eating fish, birds and turtles before washing ashore on the remote Marshall Islands 6,500 miles from Mexico.
“I may have some doubts,” said Gee Bing, acting secretary of foreign affairs for the Marshall Islands, where Alvarenga washed ashore. He noted that Alvarenga looked thin when he was found, but he could walk on his own and was not as emaciated as might be expected considering how little he had to eat or drink. Bing said island officials are investigating Alvarenga’s story.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Facility Needed for Ballarat
By IHSAN UL HAQ BAJWA, Islamic Society of Ballarat president
WE WOULD like to believe that Australia is a modern democratic society where citizens enjoy equal rights, including the right to access facilities of various types and natures. As such, since its inception about seven years ago, the Islamic Society of Ballarat has been toiling to establish a facility where its members can gather for both social and religious purposes…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Growing Fast in Nigeria
Nigeria is among the top ten countries with the fastest increase in Facebook membership, currently put at some 1.2 billion worldwide. Nigerian politicians are now also joining the ranks of Facebook fans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ghana: Police Open Fire on Demonstrators
TWO PERSONS are feared dead and several others sustained various degree of gunshot wounds, when a team of police personnel from the Striking Force Unit opened fire on demonstrators, who were protesting against the deplorable nature of the Kenyase-Abirem road yesterday morning.
About 60 police personnel, armed to the teeth, resorted to the firing of live bullets and tear gas into the thick crowd, to scare the demonstrators who had completely blocked the main road linking the Kenyase-Antoa-Kumasi road…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Death Toll Rises as Suspects Charged After Mombasa Mosque Violence
MOMBASA, KENYA: As 125 suspects captured in Sunday’s violence were hauled to the court on Monday, The Standard has established that no less than six militant youths could have been killed in the storming of the controversial Musa Mosque…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Terror Charges After Mombasa Police Raid Mosque
More than 100 people arrested in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa have appeared in court on charges of membership of Somalia’s Islamist militant group, al-Shabab, police say. Police raided a mosque in the city on Sunday, saying militants were carrying out training there. At least two people are feared dead in ensuing riots, which lasted hours…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brazilian Hospital in Rio De Janeiro Held Up by Gunmen; 20 Patients and Staff Robbed
Brazilian police say heavily armed gunmen barged into a Rio de Janeiro hospital and held up at least 20 patients and staff members.
Citing testimony given by some of the victims, a police officer says at least three gunmen entered the Hospital Norte D’ Or in the coastal city and robbed cellphones, money, watches and jewelry. He would not provide further details. He declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.
No one was hurt during the robbery that occurred Monday night. Police say no arrests have been made.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German School Ship Calls at Cuba
HAVANA, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) — A German ship carrying 30 students has dropped anchor off the coast of Cuba’s western province Pinar del Rio, one of the destinations on its multinational itinerary, the organizers confirmed Monday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Turn-Back Policy ‘Will Stop the Boats’, Says People Smuggler
A convicted people smuggler believes the Abbott government’s hard-line policy of turning back the boats is working as a deterrent for both people smugglers and those seeking passage by boat to Australia.
The Afghan national said people smugglers and their clients were being put off by the prospect of being turned back at sea by the Royal Australian Navy. Asked if he believed the Abbott government’s controversial policy of “turning back the boats” would work, Amiri replied: “Of course it will work, it is working. “It will stop the boats from Indonesia to Australia”, he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Glenn Beck is Sorry He Helped Tear ‘Fragile’ America Apart
Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck, now an older and wiser and richer man, told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly on Tuesday that he regrets having “played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart” during his tenure with the network.
Beck was with Fox from shortly before the 2008 election until 2011, during which time he became notorious for his encouragement of the Tea Party and his far-reaching conspiracy theories about Socialist infiltration of the Obama administration.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Glenn Beck: ‘I Played a Role … in Helping Tear the Country Apart’
What an acceptable apology from the entertainer must include
Glenn Beck has reflected on his time at Fox News, and now says he’s sorry for parts of it. “I remember it as an awful lot of fun and that I made an awful lot of mistakes, and I wish I could go back and be more uniting in my language,” he told Megyn Kelly. “I think I played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart.”
Indeed, he did.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘We Need Concrete Action to Help Migrants’: MPs
Politicians from Italy’s Democratic Party on Tuesday called for a national day to welcome migrants to the country and remember those who have died trying to reach Italy. The proposal comes amid criticism of the government’s failure to act after hundreds of migrants drowned off the Italian coast.
The proposal to add the new date to the Italian calendar was put forward by three Democratic Party (PD) politicians, to highlight the “humanitarian emergency” as thousands of migrants make the perilous sea journey trying to reach Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Income, Criminal Record Checks for Antilleans is Racist: Committee
Plans by the government to introduce income and criminal record checks on people from Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten who want to move to the Netherlands have been condemned by a heavyweight committee of experts.
The plan, which is included in the coalition treaty between the right-wing VVD and the Labour party, is ‘incompatible with international treaties’ on racial discrimination, the Meijers Commission, which focuses on immigration policy, says in a damning report.
This is because the proposal involves treating Dutch nationals in different ways depending on their race, the commission states.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Republicans to Rescue Dems, Betray the Nation
Thomas Sowell likens illegal aliens to embezzlers or burglars ‘living in the shadows’
Some supporters of President Obama may be worried about how he and the Democrats are going to fare politically, as the problems of Obamacare continue to escalate and it looks like the Republicans have a chance to win a majority in the Senate.
But Democrats may not need to worry so much. Republicans may once again come to the rescue of the Democrats, by discrediting themselves and snatching defeat from the very jaws of victory.
The latest bright idea among Republicans inside the Beltway is a new version of amnesty that is virtually certain to lose votes among the Republican base and is unlikely to gain many votes among the Hispanics the Republican leadership is courting.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sotomayor: Labeling Illegal Immigrants Criminals is Insulting
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who grew up poor in New York City, described Monday how she navigated new worlds of Ivy League universities and the nation’s highest court.
Sotomayor was asked at a talk at Yale Law School later in the day about her use of the term “undocumented immigrants” rather than the traditional illegal alien. Sotomayor characterized the issue as a regulatory problem and said labeling immigrants criminals seemed insulting to her. “I think people then paint those individuals as something less than worthy human beings and it changes the conversation,” Sotomayor said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Scam of Amnesty, A Political Hot Potato
Calling an illegal alien an ‘undocumented immigrant’ is like calling a drug dealer an ‘unlicensed pharmacist.’
When 92 million Americans are unemployed, it is hardly wise to import more poverty from Mexico and other third world nations. It is true that they work hard and for lesser wages but they have a wife and several children at home who may draw Social Security benefits, Medicaid, SNAP, EBT, WIC, receive free education for their children, causing a drag on the economy. If there are no jobs for Americans, how will the new immigrants survive without government help? Our government will increase our taxes, and it has, causing us all to live in poverty.
Democrats believe that amnesty will buy them 12 more million votes since South American illegal immigrants believe in socialism and financial dependence on big government, it is the only system they understand.
Republicans believe that amnesty will bring some voters to their side if they change their platform to a left of center ideology and get rid of the “annoying Tea Party.” The GOP will receive support from wealthy donors, the Chamber of Commerce, and Big Business, who clamor for cheap labor.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark Criticised for Discriminating Against Transgendered
Transgendered face operations and psychological examination to get passports and ID cards
A new report from the Danish branch of the human-rights organisation Amnesty International has blasted Denmark for discriminating against the thousands of transgendered individuals who live in the country.
To receive a legally-binding sex change — one that would confer the right to obtain a new CPR number — the transgendered are forced to undergo operations such as sterilisations or castrations, even though many simply want to change their appearance using hormonal treatment.
“We force the transgendered to make an impossible decision,” Helle Jacobsen, a campaign leader for Amnesty International Danmark, said in a press release. “Either they submit to a number of humiliating interventions, such as years of psychological analysis or a risky — and for many — unnecessary operation. Or else they must go on living with a gender that doesn’t fit with their identity or appearance.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Free Speech Wars: The Blasphemy Fashion Police
by Douglas Murray
Meet the latest victim of the “Cartoon Wars”: Maajid Nawaz, head of the counter-extremism Quilliam Foundation and prospective parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrat party. He was on a BBC program discussing free speech and the right to offend, when two students from a London Atheists and Secular Society were present. They were wearing T-shirts with a cartoon strip on them called “Jesus and Mo.”
The wearing of such T-shirts has become a matter of principle for them since students manning the stall of the Atheists and Secularists society at the London School of Economics freshers’ fair last October were asked either to cover their T-shirts up or be physically removed. No prizes for guessing who complained about the T-shirts, but it was not the LSE Christian Society.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Harvard Hosts International LGBTQ Conference
More than 450 participants from more than 35 universities around the world gathered to discuss a variety of LGBTQ issues at a conference this weekend organized by students from Harvard’s graduate schools.
Hosted at the Law School and the Business School, the two-day conference aimed to encourage discussion and action on past successes and current issues in the queer community through a series of speakers, panels, and interactive sessions.
Attendees listened to discourse about a number of varied subjects, including LGBTQ athletes, the military, inclusiveness in the workplace, and support for queer issues in the Republican Party. Speakers included Kristen Beck, a former Navy SEAL and a trans woman, Caitlin Cahow ‘08, a queer women’s hockey player on the U.S. national team, and Gautam Raghavan, LGBTQ liaison to the White House.
AJ Lee, one of the co-chairs of the conference and a student at the Kennedy School ofGovernment, remarked that the organizers made special effort to represent the diversity of the community in both the topics discussed and selection of speakers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hollande Gives up on Controversial Family Law
Opponents of gay marriage cheer, stop to IVF for lesbians
(by Luana De Micco) (ANSAmed) — PARIS — A draft family law has been postponed indefinitely. The official reason cited is an “excessively tight agenda” but the U-turn of the French government is a “victory” for all opponents of President Francois Hollande’s family policies. And in particular for Manif pour Tous (Protest for All), the association which has promoted over the past few months demonstrations against same-sex marriage and which promoted recently protests against assisted fertility treatments for lesbian couples and surrogate motherhood.
“Work to prepare the text will continue”, the government said, but the draft law will not be presented in 2014. It should instead have been discussed by the Council of ministers in April and then debated in Parliament in the second half of the year.
Meanwhile the government called on the national ethics committee to examine the draft measure. The committee will announce results after European elections. “It is a victory because the draft law went against the interest of children and family”, said the president of Manif pour Tous, Ludovine de la Rochere. Tens of thousands of people had taken part in a demonstration Sunday called by the conservative movement. Many families, pensioners, and religious demonstrators, including Muslims, participated in the event.
Manif por Tous received the ironic “congratulations” of far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchin. ‘The left is repudiated’, said the leader of Front de Gauche, calling for “elections inflicting on government lists severe punishment”.
One of the reform’s main measures provided for the formal recognition of step-fathers and step-mothers. But the key issue concerned the potential extension of the right to assisted fertility treatments to lesbian couples, a measure (like surrogate motherhood) which was actually not included in the draft law. But the issue is promoted by Family Minister Dominique Bertinotti and part of the Socialists and strongly divides the majority. The rift was recognized on Monday morning by Interior Minister Manuel Valls who, in order to stifle the controversy, announced that the government would have rejected any potential amendment on the two controversial issues.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Minister to Bring Husband to Sochi
Norway’s most high-profile gay politician plans to bring his husband along to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, despite the deteriorating gay rights situation in Russia.
Bent Høie, Norway’s Health Minister, said on Monday that he would bring his husband Dag Terje Solvang, a senior advertising executive, along with him when he comes to Sochi as Norway’s government representative to the Paralympics in mid-March. “It’s natural to take Dag Terje along when attending this type of event,” he said. “That said, everyone understands what two men who are married think about gay rights.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Study Finds Steroid Use Higher Among Gay, Bisexual Teen Boys
CHICAGO — Gay and bisexual teen boys use illicit steroids at a rate almost six times higher than do straight kids, a “dramatic disparity” that points up a need to reach out to this group, researchers say.
Reasons for the differences are unclear. The study authors said it’s possible gay and bi boys feel more pressure to achieve a bulked-up “ideal” male physique, or that they think muscle-building steroids will help them fend off bullies.
Overall, 21 percent of gay or bisexual boys said they had ever used steroids, versus 4 percent of straight boys. The difference was similar among those who reported moderate use — taking steroid pills or injections up to 40 times: 8 percent of gay or bi teens reported that amount, versus less than 2 percent of straight boys. The heaviest use — 40 or more times — was reported by 4 percent of gays or bi boys, compared with less than 1 percent of straight teens.
The study is billed as the first to examine the problem; previous research has found similar disparities for other substance abuse.
“It’s a bit sad that we saw such a large health disparity,” especially among the most frequent steroid users, said co-author Aaron Blashill, a psychologist and scientist with the Fenway Institute, the research arm of a Boston health center that treats gays and lesbians.
“Given the dramatic disparity … it would seem that this is a population in which greater attention is needed,” the authors said.
Their research was released Monday in the journal Pediatrics…
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
You Can’t Celebrate America, School Says
Students and parents at a Colorado high school are outraged after administrators turned down their request for a spirit week day honoring America because it might offend non-Americans. “They said they didn’t want to offend anyone from other countries or immigrants,” a 16-year-old member of the student council told me. “They just really did not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable.”
The irony, said the students, is that they are required to participate in Cinco de Mayo celebrations. One member of the student council pointed out the hypocrisy — and noted that students were not being forced to dress in red, white and blue for “‘Merica Day.” “We were confused why we couldn’t do one day that was for America,” the student told me.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Shrinking Greenland Glacier Smashes Speed Record
The world’s fastest glacier broke its own speed record again, quadrupling its summer run to the sea between the 1990s and 2012, a new study finds. In summer 2012, Greenland’s Jakobshavn Isbrae Glacier raced more than 150 feet (46 meters) per day, faster than any glacier on Earth. That’s 11 miles (17 kilometers) per year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Evolution of the Social Web
What began 10 years ago as a platform for students has become the biggest social network in the world. Photos, statuses, likes and user profiles — it all adds up to a multi-billion-dollar business for Facebook’s founder.
On February 4, 2004, “The Facebook,” as the social network was originally called, launches from a room in a Harvard dorm. It begins as a communication platform intended only for students, and the central element of each Facebook page is a personal wall.
At its 10th birthday, Facebook is worth $150 billion (110.98 billion euros), and its stock just went up again.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Pope has a point. The distribution of wealth in the world is inequitable, even when we say that `equitable’ means only its Ayn Rand meaning that it’s been got without force or fraud. For much of it is indeed got by a combination of both.
But he, and many others, think that an economy is not only to give people an incentive to work and be creative and thus provide for their own livelihood, and, through trade, that of others. It is also to provide some surplus so that those who cannot fend for themselves can have something too. Especially now that we have machines to do so much of the work, it seems churlish that so many end up with so little, while others have more than Croesus could have dreamed of. And doubly especially, when the making of the consumption goods jacks up atmospheric CO2 and causes other problems for future generations. That would be excusable if it were done so that the present generation could survive and live decently. But—just so that somebody can have a bigger yacht than somebody else?
Indeed so. If you earn $10,000 (or £), pay $6,0oo for essentials, and $1,000 tax, that leaves $3,0oo for discretionary expenditure- holidays, eating out, whatever.
If you earn $100,000, pay the same $6,000 for essentials, and $4,000 tax, that still leaves $90,000 for discretionary expenditure! -and the government 4x more for essentials for everyone; though in practice, richer people spend a smaller proportion of their income on consumables, preferring to save much of it, so it’s better for the economy to let poor people keep as much of their earnings as possible. Not socialism, just common sense.
As to the castaway, of course it’s a fraud. Steven Callaghan wrote a book, “Alive”, about his ordeal crossing most of the Atlantic, at its waist and nearly shortest, in a better equipped boat. And Callaghan barely made it and couldn’t walk when he made landfall. And he knew much, much more about survival, and he had some gear, such as a jury rigged solar still, that turned out to be essential.
@UK: Jesus and Mo: It’s Time to Pick a Horse
Have never been convinced of the Jesus and Mo theme, where Jesus is the comparable sidekick. Indeed doubt that atheistic secularism has the moral backbone or social glue required to defeat islam. The point that is missed by the secular Jesus and Mo aficionados is that Islam is adapt at fighting in secular political environments, due to its moral ambiguity a diverse secular society is probably an easier target of conquest.
Even Paganism would be a better bet than PC atheistic secularism.
RE: Glen Beck and “obscene, alarmist conspiracies”; Mr Beck is no savant, that is for sure. However, many of the stories arriving at this website via Newsmax appear to be flagrantly paranoid, “alarmist”, and frankly, over-the-top. It could be they are useful to Newsmax in marketing various nostrums and snake oils. I know a lady, also no savant,
who is convinced that the AIDS virus was created “in a secret government lab”. I looked her in the eye, and calmly said “I’ve worked with a lot of people in the government. They AREN’T that smart. They REALLY aren’t….” I find GOV to be a wonderful and varied info source, but even here, one needs to common-sensically separate the wheat from the chaff…and some things are really, really chaff.
Reader comment on Islamophobia:
It is used as a threat to silence and threaten people – and to create an invisible forcefield around Muslims to stop them ever being challenged or criticised.
Of course, the money currently on deposit in Swiss banks, will be returned by flying pigs to Greek jurisdiction, ASAP.
“…He suggests that Greece should work with more powerful European nations to force Switzerland to stop acting as a tax haven for scofflaws…”
We live in a world where good is called evil and evil is called good. What would Greece be like should it become a place where all the Swiss would want to stash their money? Would a money-grubbing socialist Swiss government and their lackies in the press then whine that their financial problems are entirely due to people moving their money to Greece?