Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Kiev to express the United States’ support for the new government of Ukraine in its confrontation with Russia. He told the Ukrainians, “You will not walk this road alone.”
In other news, Sweden’s center-right government says that if it wins next September’s elections, it will beef up the Swedish air force to counter the growing aggressiveness of Russia.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, 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.
Apple, Amazon Top Tech Market-Value Losers
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The technology selloff has lopped off huge chunks of value, highlighted by big market cap drops in the sector’s high-fliers led by Apple and Amazon.
Apple has shed about $28 billion in market cap since the beginning of the year, a 6% drop, according to data from FactSet. Amazon gave up about $32 billion, or a decline of 18%. Twitter’s market value has fallen 26%, as its market capitalization fell by $9 billion.
Other big name technology stocks have seen substantial cuts in market value: LinkedIn fell by nearly $5 billion, or a loss of 18%; Yahoo has given up $4.5 billion, or 11%; while Netflix has declined by $1.5 billion, or 7%.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boomers’ Bust: Number of California Adults Moving in With Parents Explodes
A shocking reminder of the Great Recession of 2008 is evident by the over-67 percent increase in the number of Californian Baby Boomers who have been forced to move back in with their aged parents out of economic necessity.
At a time when many Americans are cashing in their nest eggs in preparation for retirement from the corporate rat race, an increasing number of Californians between the ages of 50 and 64 feel as if they are just starting over.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
IMF Sees Portugal’s Economy Improving
Portugal’s economic outlook has improved, but the country faces challenges to make growth sustainable, the IMF said on Monday. It urged the government to keep bringing its spending under tighter control, while calling the 15% unemployment rate “troublingly high”. The EU/IMF bailout programme is due to end in May.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Intesa: Unicredit Reach Deal to Restructure Loans — Update
Pooling bad loans may provide fresh capital
(ANSA) — Rome, April 22 — Italian banks Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit said Tuesday that they have reached a preliminary deal with American private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Coto to unload some of their restructured loans. Italian banks are cleaning up their balance sheets ahead of stress tests on eurozone lenders later this year. A joint statement by the banks said that deal aims to “develop and implement an innovative solution to optimise the performance and maximise the value of a selected corporate loan portfolio under restructuring through proactive management and additional funding at the asset level”. It added that restructuring service adviser Alvares and Marsal was involved and that further details would be provided later as talks about the partnership are ongoing. Last month Intesa Sanpaolo posted huge fourth-quarter losses following big write-downs on bad loans. The Financial Times reported that the deal would enable the banks to pool billions of euros of their bad loans into a vehicle that will provide fresh capital for them.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal Faces Key Tests in Turning Page on Bailout
(LISBON) — Auditors from the EU and IMF begin their final health check on bailed-out Portugal on Tuesday, a day before the country faces an acid test with a return to regular borrowing on the debt market.
Portugal, set next month to follow Ireland and become the second rescued eurozone country to emerge from near bankruptcy and austerity-driven suffering, is expected to pass both tests with confidence.
But ordinary people complain they will go on bearing the brunt of the radical measures imposed by the European Union and International Monetary Fund in return for rescue loans of 78 billion euros ($108 billion).
Those measures, including a new round being applied now, hacked back public spending, cut pensions and enforced structural reforms to make the economy more competitive and boost exports.
Vice Prime Minister Paulo Portas, commenting on Monday on the visit by the auditors from the EU, IMF and European Central Bank, said: “It’s the final check-up. It is the examination which must enable us to win back our political and financial autonomy.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Economist Calls Danes ‘Mediterraneans in Disguise’
In this week’s issue of The Economist, the British magazine echoed William Shakespeare’s old observation that “there is something rotten in the state of Denmark”.
The article ‘Something rotten’ describes Danish mortgage loans and proposes that Danes are no more responsible with their finances than Mediterraneans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Troika Inspectors Return to Portugal for Last Bailout Check
Lenders behind Portugal’s 2011 bailout have returned to the country one more time for a final evaluation of its performance under the rescue deal. The eurozone nation plans to exit the bailout scheme in mid-May.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Charles Murray: An Open Letter to the Students of Azusa Pacific University
I was scheduled to speak to you tomorrow. I was going to talk about my new book, “The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead,” and was looking forward to it. But it has been “postponed.” Why? An email from your president, Jon Wallace, to my employer, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), said “Given the lateness of the semester and the full record of Dr. Murray’s scholarship, I realized we needed more time to prepare for a visit and postponed Wednesday’s conversation.” This, about an appearance that has been planned for months. I also understand from another faculty member that he and the provost were afraid of “hurting our faculty and students of color.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Earth Day Co-Founder Killed, Composted Girlfriend
Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970. Seven years later, police raided his closet and found the “composted” body of his ex-girlfriend inside a trunk.
A self-proclaimed environmental activist, Einhorn made a name for himself among ecological groups during the 1960s and ‘70s by taking on the role of a tie-dye-wearing ecological guru and Philadelphia’s head hippie.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security to Purchase 25 Million Shotgun Rounds
DHS likely gearing up for mass panic in America
Kit Daniels
Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security announced that it is seeking an ammunition dealer who can provide 25 million shotgun rounds to the agency over a five year period.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Karl Denninger: An Inconvenient Truth
“Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.”
Lots of big words in that paragraph.
Let’s distill it down — the argument presented is that America is really no different than Russia; that actual democratic forces, that is, the expression of will by the people, for the people is a chimera and has no actual effect or impact on policy.
However, the 0.01% do; they set policy and then create a shimmer of “belief” that you actually have a voice.
[Note: Who are the major funders of the Democrat Party (and increasingly irrelevant Republican Party)?]
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Milky Way’s Structure Mapped in Unprecedented Detail
Astronomers are one step closer to solving a longstanding mystery — just what our Milky Way galaxy looks like. It may seem odd that a comprehensive understanding of the Milky Way’s structure has so far eluded researchers. But it’s tough to get a broad view of the galaxy from within.
“We are fairly confident that the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, but we don’t know much in detail. At the most basic level, we’d like to be able to make a map that would show in detail what it looks like,” said Mark Reid of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the new study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Navy Plans to Test Electromagnetic Mach 7 Railgun at Sea
The U.S. Navy is preparing new tests for a futuristic deadly weapon: an electromagnetic railgun that could fire shots at seven times the speed of sound.
Navy officials announced this month they plan to install and test a prototype of the railgun aboard a joint high-speed vessel in 2016, marking the first time this technology will be put through its paces at sea.
Instead of relying on explosive propellants, the railgun harnesses electromagnetic energy to accelerate and launch a projectile between two conductive rails. An operational railgun at sea would be able to deliver a lethal blow from 110 nautical miles (185 kilometers) away, striking targets that range from enemy warships and aircraft to small boats and missiles, Navy officials said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nevada Rancher and Former Shoshone Chief’s Range War With BLM Predates Bundy Standoff
Long before Cliven Bundy faced down federal agents in his dispute with the Bureau of Land Management over grazing rights, fellow Nevada rancher Raymond Yowell, an 84-year-old former Shoshone chief, watched as the BLM seize his herd — and since 2008, as it’s taken a piece of his Social Security checks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Browsing through the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings on “Subversive Involvement in Disruption of 1968 Democratic Party National Convention, Part 1,” I came across fascinating Page 2260 (screenshot above). It is testimony from committee staffer James L. Gallagher, who was discussing some of the 82 Old Left to New Left groups and publications (some with ties to foreign Communists) the Committee had identified as fomenting mayhem and violence at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Ramparts was the ninth group on the short list. (Note: Both the convention “disruption” and this congressional hearing took place in 1968; David Horowitz was not yet editor of Ramparts. By his own account, Horowitz was not part of the Ramparts contingent that travelled to Chicago for the convention.)
There are several points of historical interest in this testimony. As Gallagher points out, the pro-Communist and revolutionary Ramparts had come to Chicago to serve as “the principal source of information for the demonstrators in Chicago.” According to Gallagher, however, Ramparts passed on offers of assistance from other subversive groups on the ground to help with Ramparts’ planned press run of 20,000 papers. “Ramparts stated, however, that: ‘David Canter [C-a-n-t-e-r] has lines [sic] our production facilities for us, and has been a great help. We wouldn’t be anywhere without him.’ “ (Emphasis added.)
Both Rampart’s gratitude to Canter and Canter’s “production facilities” are equally worth flagging. By 1968, Canter was already famiiar to the HCUA as a known Communist, having come before it in 1962 to answer questions — or, rather, to be asked questions, since he refused to answer them — about Translation World Publishers, a publishing company Canter co-owned with another known Communist, LeRoy Wolins. (Wolins also stonewalled the Committee in 1962.)
Translation World Publishers, as HCUA counsel Chester D. Smith summarized (above), “was an outlet for the distribution of Soviet propaganda. The committee found that this publishing house was subsidized by Soviet funds and created by known Communists to serve the propaganda interests of the U.S.S.R.” Two payments the committee identified in 1962 total over $40,000 in 2014 dollars.
On p. 2354 of the same 1968 HCUA hearing, it is stressed that Canter “was in charge of organizing the printing of the special issue of The Ramparts newspaper.”
While there is no indication whether Translation World Publishers itself was operational in 1968, the Canter-Ramparts printing link is of interest on a couple of counts, one of which concerns the old question of funding for Ramparts. Did foreign (Soviet) money ever sluice through its coffers — or somehow or other pad its way? Suspicious US authorities searched for Moscow money, apparently in vain. For one week in 1968 at least, there may have been a not so indirect tie-in: Commie Canter, known as a recipient of Soviet money and a conduit of Soviet propaganda — one perfect definition of “agent” — provided crucial assistance to Ramparts, the pro-Communist, pro-Hanoi, pro-Castro revolutionary rag.
There is another reason the Canter-Ramparts link is worth noting.
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Red Planet Roadmap: DC Conference Eyes Manned Mars Missions
Sending astronauts to the surface of Mars has been a longtime goal for NASA and other space exploration agencies. That Martian goal takes center stage in a Washington, D.C. conference, and you can watch it live online.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Supreme Court Upholds Michigan’s Affirmative Action Ban
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Michigan voter initiative that banned racial preferences in admissions to the state’s public universities.
In earlier cases, including one from June concerning the University of Texas, the court has said that race-conscious admissions policies can be constitutionally permissible in states that wish to use them. The new decision concerned the question of whether and how voters may prohibit affirmative action programs.
The Michigan initiative, known as Proposal 2, was a response to Grutter v. Bollinger, a 2003 Supreme Court decision that upheld the use of race as one factor among many in law school admissions to ensure educational diversity.
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Tale of Two Chicagos: Violence Plagues City’s South, West Sides
It’s a classic tale of two Chicagos, one of them safe and prosperous, the other one dangerous and poor—and both of them growing more so.
“We’ve talked about homicide in Chicago at least one million times but I don’t think this has come up,” according Daniel Hertz, a prominent blogger and public policy graduate student at the University of Chicago, who has crunched the citywide data on homicides and income. The “something” is how the murder rate has fallen overall, but fallen unevenly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four men accused of punching and kicking a motorist who accidentally struck a 10-year-old Detroit boy were ordered Monday to stand trial on attempted murder charges, after a judge reviewed their statements to police and witnesses testified about the chaotic mob attack.
As Steve Utash continued to recover in a hospital bed, Judge Thomas Jackson found probable cause to move the case to trial in Wayne County Circuit Court.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Two Teen Girls Show Why Dabbling in Islam a Bad Idea
If you want proof that even dabbling in Islam is a bad idea for young teenage girls, the stories of two young Austrian girls should suffice. Fifteen year-old Sabina Selimovic and Sixteen year-old Samra Kesinovic — who could pass for American teens based on facial features — began visiting a local mosque and are now missing; evidence suggests they may be in Syria.
While there is clearly some dispute about what happened — or is happening — to these girls, one thing is clear. They were curiously drawn to Islam and it did not lead to a good place. The wolf dawned sheep’s clothing and two young sheep were enticed.
It should be noted that these despicable tactics of deceit are being used by Syria’s opposition forces, not the Assad government.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Black Briton Aims to be Estonian MEP
In October Abdul Turay made political history. By winning a seat on Tallinn city council, he became the first black person to hold political office in predominantly white Estonia.
In next month’s European Parliament elections he wants to make another breakthrough, and become a Social Democrat MEP for Estonia. But this time it’s not his race which would make headlines, but his nationality. Mr Turay is British. “My aim is to accelerate the process of European integration,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Turkish Ship Conducts Offshore Seismographic Surveys
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, APRIL 22 — The Turkish research vessel ‘Barbaros Hayrettin Pasa’ is conducting offshore seismographic surveys west of Paphos, as daily Famagusta Gazette online reports. According to reports, the ship is accompanied by another Turkish vessel. The Cyprus’ Foreign Ministry is closely monitoring activities by the vessel which conducted surveys near occupied Karpasia and Famagusta bay between October and December 2013. After Cyprus decided to explore hydrocarbon reserves within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Turkey has escalated its provocations with the EU and the international community criticizing Turkey’s actions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France to Unveil Anti-Radicalisation Plan to Fight Jihadist Threat
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve will submit an anti-radicalisation plan to the cabinet on Wednesday aimed at stopping youths from joining jihadist groups in Syria.
According to the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation the current mobilisation of jihadists bound for Syria is more significant than every other instance of foreign fighter mobilisation since the Afghanistan war in the 1980s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
With the bells of Notre Dame heralding a glorious Easter Sunday morning, a tourist uses a cash point a short stroll from the ancient Paris cathedral.
Within seconds he is surrounded by an aggressive gang of Roma sneak thieves, who make no secret of what they want from him.
Feeling hands on his back and arms, the middle age man turns around in horror to see the utterly fearless gang casually trying to help themselves to his money.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Femen’s ‘Sextremists’ Crash Far-Right Event
Femen’s topless ‘sextremists’, with swastikas painted on their breasts, once again targeted the National Front on Tuesday, turning up outside a far-right party press conference in Paris on Tuesday to protest a “fascism epidemic” in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Muslim Man Walks Into Church During Easter Mass, Unfolds Prayer Mat and Starts Praying
The worshippers present at the scene were dumbfounded. This Sunday morning, in a collegiate church full to bursting, a man wearing a djellaba and headgear came to pray. He laid a carpet to the left of the altar, while the Easter mass was underway.
The man, visibly disturbed, read verses from the Koran before writing some lines in Arabic in the parish register.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘If Britain Goes, Europe is Lost’
In an interview with The Local, one of the leaders of Germany’s eurosceptic party talks about Europe’s future, why Britain is a model country and why he will not work with UKIP’s Nigel Farage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Partner Threatens to Rebel Over Labour Law — Update
NCD says not voting for decree
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, April 22 — The New Centre Right (NCD), a junior partner in Premier Matteo Renzi’s coalition government, on Tuesday threatened to rebel over a decree that is a central part of the executive’s labour-market reforms. “At the moment there is no agreement on the labour decree, we’re not voting for it,” senior NCD lawmaker Fabrizio Cicchitto said. The decree, which parliament will start examining Tuesday, is part of a drive to simplify Italy’s current myriad of different work contracts and benefits and help encourage firms to take on workers, especially young ones.
It includes changes to set employers a limit of five temporary contracts that they can offer new staff members in their first three years with the company.
Under the original version of the legislation, the limit was eight temporary contracts in the three-year period, after which the job must become permanent.
But this was brought down to five contracts due to concerns within Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) that otherwise it could further increase the already high levels of job insecurity for people entering the labour market.
The NCD, however, preferred the original version of the decree, which has been approved by cabinet and now needs to ratified by parliament. “There is an open debate within the PD and we are awaiting clarification on this issue,” said Cicchitto. The government says the decree will help combat unemployment, which has reached a record high of 13%, with over four in 10 under-25s out of work. Renzi is reportedly considering putting the decree to a confidence vote to force critics within the coalition to back down or risk sinking the executive.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Le Pen and UKIP in Spat Over Euro Elections Snub
After a potential alliance went sour, the leader of France’s far-right National Front party has become embroiled in a war of words with Nigel Farage the eurosceptic head of Britain’s right-wing UK Independence Party (UKIP).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Let Swedish Soldiers Cull Boars With AK-47s’
Swedish soldiers with automatic weapons should be let loose on the wild boars in southern Sweden, a member of the national home guard has suggested. One local landowner explains to The Local how it could save the south’s golf courses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: PVV: 43 Percent Agree Fewer Moroccans
Source:
Half of all Dutch people agree with Geert Wilders’ opinion that there should be fewer Moroccans in the country. This comes from research that the PVV requested pollster Maurice de Hond to carry out.
De Hond polled 2500 people, 43 percent of whom expressed that they would rather there be fewer Moroccan people in the Netherlands. Only 3 percent of the people want there to be more Moroccans.
“These numbers speak volumes, millions of Dutch people are in agreement with me. Wonderful that a majority of Dutch people also think that I shouldn’t be persecuted” said a gleeful Wilders in a reaction to the research. The sentiment that Wilders should not be persecuted for his comments is echoed by a 55 percent majority of those questioned. Of the D66 voters, 63 percent do want there to be proceedings.
The poll revealed that the largest chunk of anti-Moroccan Dutch people are PVV-voters: 95 percent. Of PvdA-voters, 27 percent believe there should be fewer Moroccan people. Of the questioned population, a little under half don’t care how many Moroccans live in the country. 71 percent of CDA-voters feel that way. None of the Christian Democrats, however, feel there should be more Moroccans.
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New French Film Tackles Grisly Anti-Semitic Murder
In 2006, the kidnapping and gruesome murder of a young French Jew, Ilan Halimi, shocked France and made front-page news around the world. Now, a new film about the case — and its mishandling by Parisian police — is hitting French screens. It was one of the ugliest crimes in recent French memory.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Syria Genebank Sends Seeds to Svalbard Vault
More than 80 percent of the valuable crop seeds kept in a gene bank in the Syrian city of Aleppo have been shipped to the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard for safekeeping, the bank’s Director General revealed on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway MPs Slammed for Dalai Lama ‘Cowardice’
Norway’s parliament has been accused of cowardice after it declined to offer an official meeting to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, when he visits Norway next month.
In a thundering editorial on Tuesday, Harald Stanghelle, the political editor of the country’s Aftenposten newspaper, accused the parliament’s president Olemic Thommessen of “cowardice and temerity” for his decision not to proffer an invitation.
He also criticised a decision to refuse to allow Members of Parliament who wanted to bring the Tibetan leader into the parliamentary buildings to use the grand Lagting hall, or to allow the Dalai Lama to enter by the main entrance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poll Shows Scottish Independence Camp Gaining Ground
The gap between Yes and No to Scottish independence is narrowing, according to a ICM survey for Scotland on Sunday. The No vote has dropped from 46 percent to 42 percent over the past month while the Yes vote has remained steady at 39 percent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Reintroducing the Death Penalty in Western Europe
Hans Rustad
I’ve just come back from a visit to Lars Hedegaard, the persevering former leader for the Danish Free Speech Society that was attempted assasinated on his own doorstep in februar 2013. Coming into his flat I realize that he lives just like the artist/cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, that drew the famous bomb in the turban-cartoon; cameras, steeldoor, bathroom turned into a secure bunker, with alarm, of course.
How many in Europe live like Hedegaard, Vilks, Westergaard? Almost the whole of Jyllands-Posten does. Their workplace has been transformed into a high security prison. A couple of years ago a Swedish trio arrived in Copenhagen planning to hit Jyllands-Posten, beheading everyone they could find and throwing their heads out on the main city square.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Calls in Experts as Corruption Crisis Grows
Spanish politicians and legal experts are set to thrash out ways to fight corruption in Parliament on Wednesday, just days after 15 new people were called in for questioning over their involvement in a massive fraud case in the country’s south.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden to Beef up Air Force to Counter Russia
Sweden’s centre-right government coalition announced plans on Tuesday to pump more funds into the military if the four parties win the September elections, with an emphasis on more fighter jets and submarines.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Long Waits Still Greeting Would-be Renters
The average wait to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Sweden is 32 months, according to a new report that found many Swedes still waiting years just to secure housing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Proposal: Use Assault Rifles in Wild-Boar Hunt
A major wants to enlist soldiers armed with assault rifles in an effort to stem the rapid growth of Sweden’s wild-boar population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Drink More Homegrown Wine
After several years of decline, the Swiss are finally drinking more of their own wine. Consumption of Swiss wines within Switzerland rose by ten percent in 2013 to 107 million litres, according to figures released by the Federal Office of Agriculture (OFAG) on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Time for an EU Energy Union, Says Polish PM
The European Union must create an energy union to secure its supply and reduce its dependence on Russian gas, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said.
Tusk’s energy blueprint, set out in an article in the Financial Times on Tuesday (22 April), would establish a single European body that would buy gas for the whole 28-nation bloc. This would end a system that currently sees the different countries negotiate their own deal with energy giant Gazprom, the government-backed firm which dominates Russia’s gas market.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Men Killed in Central Sweden Shoot-Out
Five people have been arrested after two men were shot dead and several others were wounded during a shooting in central Sweden that police have called a family feud.
Witnesses said the shootings began as a brawl involving between 20 and 30 people in the Hageby section of Norrköping late Monday evening, news agency TT reported. One man reportedly handed out knives. Two brothers aged between 35 and 40 were killed and six others were brought to hospital.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Shot Dead in Eastern Sweden Brawl
Two people were killed and several injured on Monday night when an estimated 40 people in eastern Sweden broke out in a fight. Four people have since been arrested.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two-Year Average Wait for Rental Homes in Sweden
Anyone hoping for a one-room apartment in Sweden will have to wait an average of 2.5 years, but the wait is far worse in Stockholm, new statistics showed on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Nigel Farage Launches UKIP’s European Election Campaign: Politics Live Blog
Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen, including Nigel Farage launching Ukip’s European election campaign and David Cameron and George Osborne making a joint infrastracture announcement.
10:19 BST
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here. And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today’s paper, are here.
As for the rest of the papers, here’s the PoliticsHome list of top 10 must-reads, here’s the ConservativeHome round-up of the politics stories in today’s papers and here’s the New Statesman’s list of top 10 comment articles.
I’ve already mentioned two Ukip-related articles in the Daily Telegraph. (See 9am and 9.53am.) Here are two more articles relevant to the poster controversy.
Douglas Murray in the Times says Ukip are in tune with public sentiment over immigration.
When it comes to immigration there is one undeniable fact: a chasm has grown between what the public want and what our politicians promise, let alone do. A British Social Attitudes Survey in January found that 77 per cent of the public would like immigration to be reduced. The days in which this could be portrayed as barely sublimated bigotry are past. A majority of first and second- generation migrants (60 per cent) agree that migration into the UK is too high. While the public are not opposed to immigration, all polls show that they are angry about the scale of immigration that has occurred in recent years and especially the low-skill immigration that has soared thanks to the EU’s control of our border policy…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: No More Surrendering to EU Bureaucrats
by Paul Sykes
An outright victory for Nigel Farage will be nothing less than a political earthquake
In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Brutus speaks of a tide in the affairs of men that, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Miss the tide and only shallows and miseries lie in wait.
Next month’s European elections represent such a moment in the life of our nation. Overwhelming public support for Ukip — the only political party advocating immediate withdrawal from the European Union — could mean we catch a tide that will restore our proud tradition of national independence. But if we miss our chance, we will be swept ever further into the shoals and sandbanks of a Federal Europe.
Once a loyal Conservative constituency chairman who served on the Yorkshire area committee, I have spent more than 20 years campaigning against the creeping power grab that lies at the heart of the EU. My initial focus was on keeping the pound in the face of mounting pressure from the political establishment for Britain to join the euro. It was clear to me that a single exchange and interest rate for a mixed bag of European countries, ranging from mighty Germany to struggling Greece, would never work. As we watch the Eurozone limp on towards ultimate failure, it comes as no surprise that I was right.
I have spent a great deal of my own money trying to raise awareness of the ways in which the EU has eroded our national sovereignty, and attempting to win the British people a democratic vote on what has stealthily been done in their name these past two decades.
Nowhere is this more pertinent than in the area of immigration. The Single European Act, signed into UK law in 1986, guarantees the free movement of capital and labour across the borders of the 28 countries that now make up the EU. Disgracefully, this measure was adopted without a referendum of the British people.
It was a cruel and heartless act because competition from people from much poorer countries has forced down the wages of British workers — to the shame of Labour MPs and the trade union movement. It also means 485 million people have the right to move to Britain at any time they please. We may have a UK Border Force. But when it comes to the 27 other countries in the EU, we have no borders, and no force.
Many think that Britain’s boundaries start at the white cliffs of Dover. They do not. They start in places such as Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria; they start wherever impoverished EU governments (Malta being the latest) offer to sell passports to the highest bidder, thereby granting people from all over the world the right to come and settle here.
David Cameron talks of reducing immigration to tens of thousands of people a year. But it is a pipe dream. The latest figures show gross immigration is running at 500,000 a year and net migration (deducting those leaving the country from those arriving) at more than 200,000 a year. This is an unsustainable state of affairs.
Which is why I have promised to do whatever it takes to help Ukip emerge as the winner in the European polls next month. I want to help Nigel Farage deliver what he calls a “political earthquake” on May 22. These European elections offer the chance to support a party — Ukip — that represents a complete break with the past, while the other parties, whatever their merits, remain content to work within the existing Brussels straitjacket.
The other parties cannot do anything about immigration or British workers being undercut by cheap foreign labour; they are vassals of the European Court of Justice and the closely related European Court of Human Rights, which stops us deporting foreign criminals and terrorists. The other parties are about to embrace new European controls over our policing and justice systems, they allow interference in our tax system, and they subcontract more and more of our foreign and defence policies to unelected EU bureaucrats.
True, Mr Cameron has promised an in/out referendum in 2017 if the Conservatives win the 2015 general election outright. But he renders that promise meaningless by insisting that he will recommend staying in irrespective of the outcome of his attempts to renegotiate the terms of membership.
In all but name, May 22 is a referendum on our membership of the EU, with a vote for Ukip being a vote for out. An overwhelming victory for the party will break the political mould in the UK, forcing Labour and the Lib Dems to back a full-scale referendum and intensifying the popular pressure for that to be staged much earlier than 2017. Such a result — combined with massive pressure from backbench MPs — would leave Cameron, Clegg and Miliband no choice but to pass a law setting a date for a referendum within a year.
Which is why I view Ukip’s new advertising campaign — which I am funding to the tune of £1.5 million — as more of an essential public awareness campaign. Yes, it is hard-hitting, in order to capture attention. But its real purpose is to show the British people just how many of their democratic rights and powers successive governments have quietly smuggled away to Brussels.
The time has come to take back control of our country and the right to govern ourselves. May 22 is our chance to catch a tide that can restore our freedoms and carry us forward to a glorious new chapter in our nation’s history.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woman Born Without Fingers is a Master Goldsmith
Annette Gabbedey is a 48-year-old master goldsmith who has been practicing her craft for over 20 years. Even though she was born without fingers, she isn’t disabled and wonders how people with fingers manage without them getting in the way.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UKIP Candidate Voted Onto Keighley Town Council
A UK Independence Party candidate has won a by-election seat on Keighley Town Council. George Firth, 48, won the poll for the vacancy on Fell Lane and Westburn ward by a big margin, picking up 366 votes.
The sole rival candidate, Mohammed Ansar Ali, 35, gained 104 votes. The turnout in yesterday’s by-election was 14.6 per cent. The poll was held to fill a seat left vacant by the death of town councillor Brian Hudson, in January.
Mr Firth, of Whin Knoll Avenue, said: “I’m humbled by all the votes cast for me — I didn’t expect that amount of support. I’d like to offer my condolences to the family of Councillor Hudson. He did a lot of work for the area and I hope to be able to step into his shoes.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UKIP Defends ‘Racist’ Poster Campaign
Ukip leader Nigel Farage has defended his party’s controversial election campaign ahead of the May European elections as “a hard-hitting reflection of reality” after the posters were called “racist”. One billboard depicts a man dressed as a builder begging for spare change next to the words: “EU policy at work.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UKIP is Worse Than the BNP: At Least Nick Griffin Has the Courage of His Racist Convictions
by Dan Hodges
As the row continues to swirl this morning around Ukip’s racist election posters it’s important to keep a few things in perspective. Nigel Farage is not Nick Griffin. Ukip are not the fascist foot soldiers of the BNP.
They’re worse…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US Troops Arrive in Poland for Exercises Across Eastern Europe Amid Ukraine Crisis
WASHINGTON — U.S. Army paratroopers are arriving in Poland to begin a series of military exercises in four countries across Eastern Europe to bolster allies in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula last month.
Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Tuesday that the exercises will last about a month, and initially involve about 600 troops.
An Army company of about 150 soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team based in Vicenza, Italy, will start the exercises Wednesday in Poland. Additional Army companies will head to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and are expected to arrive by Monday for similar land-based exercises in those countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Party Asks Government Not to Repeal Fuel Subsidy
(AGI) Cairo, April 22 — The Egyptian Popular Current, a left-wing party founded by presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi, has asked the government to annul a decree increasing gas prices. The provision should come into effect in May, according to the party, and could be followed by other measures cancelling subsidies and benefits for low-income home renters.
On Sunday, the Egyptian government, currently led by Ibrahim Mehleb, approved a gas price increase of USD 0.06 per cubic metre.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Cairo Left Without US Ambassador for 8 Months
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — For the past eight months there has not been a US ambassador in the Egyptian capital. The office has instead been led by a succession of commercial attaches.
The absence of an ambassador in Washington’s favorite Arab ally for the past 40 years has raised eyebrows, especially as the May 26-27 presidential election approaches with the likely winner to be Field Marshall Abd El-Fattah El-Sisi, a former army chief who ousted Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Abbas Warns He May Dismantle Palestinian Authority if US-Backed Peace Talks Fail
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian president is warning that if peace talks with Israel fail he may dismantle the Palestinian Authority and hand over responsibility for 2.5 million of his people to Israel.
Mahmoud Abbas told a group of visiting Israeli reporters Tuesday that Israeli policies have left his West Bank government powerless. He said if Israel continues its path “let it come and run this authority.”
The nine-month period outlined by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to reach the outlines of a peace accord ends in a week. The sides remain locked in dispute over the terms of extending talks and have made no apparent progress on major issues.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Army ‘Invites’ Arab Christians to Enlist
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it is inviting young Arab-Israeli Christians to enlist.
The minority historically views itself as part of the Palestinian people and considers service in the army as taboo. But a recent push by a Greek Orthodox priest to persuade more Christians to enlist has set off an emotional debate. Father Gabriel Nadaf said Christians must serve in the army if they want to integrate into Israeli society and win access to jobs.
Israeli Arabs make up just over one-fifth of Israel’s 8 million people. Of those about 128,000, or less than 10 percent, are Christians.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinians: Our Blood is More Precious Than Jewish Blood
by Khaled Abu Toameh
“We reject all forms of violence… Palestinian blood is like Israeli blood. It is human blood and precious and no one wants anyone killed.” — Mahmoud al-Habbash, Palestinian Minister of Religious Affairs
“If your blood is like the blood of Zionists, our blood is not.” — Zakariya Zubeidi, former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade.
“We call for lifting his (al-Habbash’s) diplomatic immunity and for prosecuting him immediately for his administrative, financial, and political corruption. We also call on President Abbas to fire him immediately from the Palestinian cabinet.” — Mansour al-Sa’di, Fatah leader.
The angry reactions show that there are many Palestinians who see no problem with a terrorist attack against a Jewish family. Palestinian leaders can blame only themselves.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Almost 3,000 Political Prisoners in Bahrain, Says BCHR
(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 22 — At least 2,853 people are under detention in Bahrain for political reasons, reported the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) in its last newsletter.
The small Gulf emirate has a Shia-majority population but is governed by a dynasty from the Sunni minority. Saudi military helped the country to put down protests during the 2011 uprisings in the Arab world. The BCHR also said that a protestor injured by police during demonstrations in February had died after two months in a coma.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chemical Weapons Watchdog Says Syria Has Surrendered 86 Percent of Its Weapons Stockpile
Syria’s government has disposed of more than 86 percent of its total chemical weapons stockpile, according to the watchdog agency charged with overseeing its removal.
Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says Syria has just surrendered another batch of raw materials used for making chemical weapons.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Rapper-Turned-Jihadist Reported Dead in Syria
A German former rapper who joined jihadists fighting in Syria has been killed in a suicide bombing carried out by rival fighters, jihadist sources and a monitor said Tuesday.
Denis Mamadou Cuspert, who rapped under the name Deso Dogg but took on the name Abu Talha al-Almani in Syria, was reported to have been killed in a suicide attack Sunday in an eastern province.
He was a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and was reportedly killed in a double suicide bombing carried out by Al-Nusra Front, a rival jihadist group that is Al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate. Messages posted on jihadist Internet forums announced his death.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Rapper-Turned-Jihadist ‘Killed in Syria’
A German rapper who joined Islamists fighting in Syria has been killed in a suicide bombing carried out by rival fighters, jihadist sources said on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Oman Fights Saudi Bid for Gulf Hegemony With Iran Pipe Plan
Oman’s plan to build a $1 billion natural-gas pipeline from Iran is the latest sign that Saudi Arabia is failing to bind its smaller Gulf neighbors into a tighter bloc united in hostility to the Islamic Republic.
The accord was signed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Oman last month, and marks the first such deal between Iran and a Gulf Cooperation Council state in more than a decade. Oman is in good standing with the U.S. too: a $2.1 billion purchase of air-defense systems from Raytheon Inc. was announced during a visit by Secretary of State John Kerry last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: For Gregorios III, The Destruction of Ma’aloula Churches is a “War Crime”
The patriarch visited the village of Ma’aloula after the army took it back from the Islamist al-Nusra Front. ““An apocalyptic spectacle presented itself,” he said. The West is watching the destruction of Syria “with criminal indifference”.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — Gregorios III Laham, Greek-Melkite Catholics patriarch of Antioch, described the destruction of Ma’aloula churches as “a war crime”.
On Sunday, he was able to visit the historic Christian village, after the Syrian army retook it from the Islamist al-Nusra Front.
“It is the mystery of iniquity that one sees at work,” he said, unable to find words strong enough to translate the feelings at the sight of desolation before him.
“It is the devastation of the Temple, the mystery of iniquity,” he said in a telephone interview from Beirut, the night of his visit.
The Greek-Catholic patriarch travelled to the village with Greek-Orthodox Patriarch Youhanna Yazigi and representatives of the Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Syriac Catholic Patriarchates, accompanied by some journalists and security officers.
A little later, he also paid a visit to the Syrian head of state, who was also visiting the village.
“An apocalyptic spectacle presented itself. Other churches have been destroyed in Syria, but I have never seen anything like this. I cried and I sought in vain a moment of solitude to pray. I am heartbroken,” the prelate said again.
“Ma’aloula’s four historic churches were hit. Our parish church, dedicated to Saint George, is riddled with bullets. The convent’s dome was damaged in two places. The walls were ripped open by cannon fire. Some parts of the convent is in danger of collapsing and must be rebuilt. The icons are scattered on the floor, dirty, or stolen. It is currently completely uninhabitable.”
“In the Convent of Saints Sarkis and Bakhos (pictured), the historic pagan altar, converted into a Christian altar, the only one of this kind, is broken in two.”
The same spectacle of devastation can be seen in the Greek-Orthodox churches of St Elijah and St Tecla.
In Gregorios III’s opinion, Ma’aloula’s devastation is “an organised crime,” a “war crime.”
The London Charter (1946) defines war crimes as “plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity”.
“There is no military justification for the vandalism,” the patriarch said. “There is an impression that it was orchestrated.”
“Why did they turn our churches into defensive positions?” he wondered, as he tried to understand all these destructions.
With bitterness, Gregorios III accuses the Western world of being blind about the truth of the war in Syria.
In his view, this is absolutely not a “Syrian War” or a “civil war.” Of course, the conflict partly involves Muslims fighting among themselves, but it is not a war between Islam and Christianity. It is an “organised crime.”
In terms of security, Ma’aloula residents can now think about returning, the patriarch said, despite the uncertainty surrounding the situation of utilities (electricity, water, telephones).
Some young people, he added, are returning to inspect the homes and study the possibility of coming back.
However, Gregorios III draws attention to the difficulties that there will be “in repairing the social bond” between Ma’aloula Christians and Muslims.
Some Muslim families in the village sided with Islamist insurgents and the rebuilding of trust will be a problem. Many young people do not want a superficial reconciliation, and “hypocritical hugs.”
The Church has a duty to prevent that the entire Muslim population be assimilated with what some have done. Christians, he believes, should not live in a ghetto.
For him, this is the real conspiracy. It aims at tearing apart the social fabric of Syrian society, which never had discord between Muslims and Christians.
Some behaviours, in his eyes, have been barbarous and can only be explained by a desire to destroy “deep” Syria.
In support of his views, he mentioned the atrocious death, in front of witnesses, of a baker in Adra, a small town near Damascus. The unfortunate man was thrown alive along with his children into the bakery oven in which he had freshly baked bread for the Islamist fighters.
Gregorios III slams the “criminal indifference with which the Western world, under the false pretext of defending democracy, continues to watch this spectacle of destruction.”
Noting that there still is no news about six abducted Ma’aloula residents, or the Greek-Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox bishops of Aleppo, who have been missing for more than a year, he ended saying, “We must absolutely prevent the virus of hatred from spreading”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Over 14,000 Children Missing in Last Five Years
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 22 — A total of 14,412 children have gone missing in Turkey in the last five years, daily Today’s Zaman online reports quoting Gendarmerie Commander Gen.
Servet Yoruk as saying, speaking at a workshop about missing children held on Monday in Ankara under the title “Let’s not lose them.” Yoruk stated that the issue of missing children is among the most serious problems of Turkey and added that “every year thousands of children are kidnapped out of various motives, such as organ transplants, child labor and armed incidents or terrorism across Turkey and around the world. Every year for the last five years, an average of seven children have gone missing in each region under the jurisdiction of the Gendarmerie General Command.” According to official data, a total of 14,412 children went missing across the country, and 834 of those kidnapped or missing children have still not been found by gendarmerie forces.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Biden Offers U. S. Backing to Ukraine
(AGI) Kiev, April 22 — U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has said the United States stands with Ukraine’s new leaders in facing “humiliating threats”. Biden told members of parliament in Kiev they were facing immense problems, and the presidential elections on May 25 may be the most important in the history of the country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Praises New NATO Chief Stoltenberg
Russian president Vladimir Putin has praised Jens Stoltenberg, the incoming head of Nato, as “a very serious, responsible person”, claiming the two have “very good relations, including personal relations”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Opposition Activist Alexei Navalny Found Guilty of Slander
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been found guilty of slandering a municipal lawmaker and ordered to pay a fine. Navalny will be back in court on Thursday to face embezzlement charges.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Social Network Founder Says He Has Been Fired
The founder of Russia’s most popular social network site says he has been fired and that allies of President Putin have taken over his site.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine President Relaunches Anti-Terrorism Operation After Politician Killed
A Ukrainian politician has been found dead after being “brutually tortured,” says Ukraine’s interim president. The move has prompted a relaunch of operations to uprooting pro-Russian separatists from eastern Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Vice President Biden Assures Kyiv of Washington’s Support
US Vice President Joe Biden has told leaders in Kyiv that they must “fight the cancer of corruption” in their government. He said Washington stands with them and is ready to provide economic support.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vladimir Putin Wants to Make the Territory He Took From Ukraine Into Russia’s Version of Vegas
Now that Russia has officially annexed Crimea from Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has big plans for the region — he wants to make it into a gambler’s paradise. According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, on Monday, Putin submitted a bill to the State Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament, to establish a specially designated gambling zone in Crimea.
If approved, Crimea would be the fifth designated gambling zone in the Russian Federation, in addition to the Altai, Kaliningrad, Krasnodar and Primorsky regions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Dhaka: Arson Razes Home of Catholic Family
No one was at home at the time of the fire. In 2008, the family left the village after a 14-year-old granddaughter was raped and murdered by a group of young Muslims. The owner of the house says he is “living in fear.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eight Die in Two Attacks on Police in North-West Pakistan
(AGI) Islamabad, April 22 — Eight people died and dozens were injured in two attacks on police in north-west Pakistan on Tuesday. A remotely controlled motorcycle bomb exploded in Charsadda as a van carrying policemen drove by, killing three civilians. The blast also hit a nearby market, injuring around 30 people. In another attack, a group of armed men fired at a truck near Peshawar, only a few kilometres from Charsadda, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Have to Help the People of Bangladesh’
Asif Mohiuddin is one of Bangladesh’s most famous bloggers. As an open atheist in a mainly Islamic country, he has been attacked and thrown in jail for his beliefs. DW caught up with him after his recent move to Germany.
Mohiuddin recently arrived in Germany on a one-year scholarship. He says that living in Germany now means he can walk the streets safely. But still, he says, he has to keep his location secret.
DW: What did you write on your blog that was so offensive? Can you give us examples of what it might be that Islamists found so blasphemous?
Asif Mohiuddin: I wrote a blog entry about women’s rights which caused problems. In the Koran, Chapter 4, Verse 34, it says that a man can beat his wife, if she doesn’t obey her husband. I criticized that because in modern civilization there is no place for hitting anybody. Also, according to Sharia law, if someone leaves Islam, then that person has to be killed. I don’t think that is a good thing, so I criticized that. And that is why people got angry.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sherpas Abandon Everest Climbing Season After Deadly Avalanche
Most Nepalese Sherpa guides on Mount Everest are planning to leave the mountain after a meeting at which they voted to abandon this year’s climbing season after an avalanche killed at least 13 of their comrades.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Military Takes No Responsibility for Afghan Interpreters
The armed forces has not taken responsibility for the interpreters who have worked for the Swedish military in Afghanistan, according to previously confidential official documents.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Chinese Feelings in Thailand High as Influx of Tourists Angers Locals
With their economy surging, mainland Chinese have become the world’s most common world traveler, with more than 100 million expected to go abroad this year. In 2012, they overtook the Americans and Germans as the top international spenders, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.
But in Chiang Mai and elsewhere, Chinese tourists have acquired the same sort of reputation for loud, uncouth, culturally unaware behaviour that inspired the term “Ugly Americans” decades ago.
Many in the tourism industry are delighted by the influx, but 80 per cent of 2,200 Chiang Mai residents polled by the university in February said they were highly displeased with Chinese behaviour. The survey and numerous comments on Thai social media blamed Chinese for spitting, littering, cutting into lines, flouting traffic laws and allowing their children to relieve themselves in public pools. Some restaurant owners complained of Chinese filling up doggy bags at buffets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Triggers Diplomatic Row With India Again
Nearly 10 days after holding strategic talks with neighbouring India, China has triggered yet another diplomatic row by asking New Delhi not to include any Arunachal youths in the Indian annual youth exchange delegation that will visit Beijing in May. Soon after receiving a letter from the Chinese Embassy in this regard, India has decided to call off the trip.
Talking to the local media in New Delhi, Indian Youth Affairs Minister Jitendra Singh said that he has asked the External Affairs Ministry to stop the entire exchange with its northern neighbour. According to Singh, he also sent a letter to External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, asking him to cancel the trip, if China refuses to drop the condition. “I believe these incremental steps by China to challenge India’s sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh and its other territories must be nipped in the bud, lest these lead to bigger and more direct challenges. Hence, youth from the north-eastern Indian province should form part of the youth delegation from India to China and if this is not acceptable, the exchange of youth delegation should be stopped,” wrote Singh.
The ‘Indian Express’ daily reported that although the Ministry of External Affairs has so far made no response, it has indicated that New Delhi will give a fitting reply to Beijing on the issue in the next few days. According to sources close to the ministry, the government is taking time only because the country is currently in “election mode” and it is not the right time to make a decision on this type of sensitive bilateral issue.
Meanwhile, Singh stressed that India would never allow China to pose a threat to its sovereignty time and again. “I think it is very serious. I find it disturbing and absolutely absurd. How can China dictate whom we can include in our delegation and from where? That is for us to decide. I have taken it up with the external affairs minister and asked him not to allow the delegation to visit China,” he told reporters.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany and China to Boost Cooperation in Energy Technology Sector
In China for a two-day visit, Germany’s Economy and Energy Minister has said firms back home would stand to benefit from Beijing’s planned shift to cleaner energy. But some obstacles had yet to be overcome.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Life on the Margins for China’s Uighur Minority
Members of China’s Uighur minority have long complained they suffer cultural marginalization. Many now also say they are the victims of worsening repression, with accusations of serious human rights abuses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Official Death Toll Tops 100 in South Korea Ferry Disaster
The confirmed number of fatalities in South Korea’s ferry disaster has topped 100, with nearly 200 people still missing. Dive teams have ramped up their search efforts after finding a way into the ship over the weekend.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Signs of North Korean Nuclear Test Preparations, Says South
North Korea may be preparing to carry out its fourth nuclear test, South Korea’s defence ministry said on Tuesday, citing a significant step-up in activity at the North’s main test site. “Our military is currently detecting a lot of activity in and around the Punggye-ri nuclear test site,” said Kim Min-Seok, a ministry spokesman.
Barack Obama is due to arrive in South Korea on Friday for a two-day visit and there has been widespread speculation that the North may stage a provocation to coincide with US president’s trip.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Second Somali MP Killed in Mogadishu in 24 Hours
(AGI) Mogadishu, April 22 — A Somali lawmaker was assassinated in Mogadishu on Tuesday in the second attack targeting a member of parliament in 24 hours. The attacks, thought to be by the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic rebels of al-Shabaab, come as the government is wrapping up a three-day conference on improving security in the capital. MP Abdiaziz Isak was shot several times in the capital’s Madina district by two armed men, who escaped. On Monday, another lawmaker was killed when a bomb concealed in his vehicle exploded, wounding another MP.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Thieves Steal Rhino Horns in South Africa
In a nighttime theft, robbers broke into a South African provincial parks office with a 24-hour security service and used a machine tool called a grinder to break into a safe holding a stockpile of rhino horn worth a fortune on the illegal market in parts of Asia.
The weekend heist in the northeastern city of Nelspruit was a blow to efforts to curb the clandestine trade in rhino horn, which has surged in recent years despite an increase in funding for anti-poaching efforts in South Africa, home to the majority of the world’s rhinos.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico Arrests 46 Criminal Suspects Posing as Vigilantes
Mexican police have arrested 46 people who worked for criminal gangs but posed as members of vigilante “self-defense” groups. The vigilante movement sprang up last year in the western state of Michoacan to fight the Knights Templar drug cartel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Man Seeks Green Card After American Husband Dies
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An Australian man widowed by his American husband of more than three decades made a renewed pitch Monday for a green card after the Obama administration eased policies on gay marriage.
Anthony Sullivan, 72, asked federal immigration authorities in Los Angeles to reopen a 1975 petition filed by his late husband Richard Adams so Sullivan can be awarded residency as the surviving spouse of a U.S. citizen, immigration attorney Lavi Soloway said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Czech People’s Party Lands in Hot Water Over Anti-Immigration Line
Prague — The Czech Christian Democrats’ campaign for the EU elections got off to a rocky start earlier this month after it included a controversial line about immigration in its party programme.
The centre-right party (KDU-CSL), pro-Europeans and part of the governing coalition, presented its programme for the elections with a traditional agenda: united Europe, social-market economy, care for families.
But it was the very last sentence of the short manifesto that brought the party into the spotlight. It focused on immigration, a hot potato theme that features in the domestic campaigns of many of the member states ahead of the May EU vote.
“We don’t want Europe full of inadaptable immigrants who burn cars on the city outskirts, deal drugs and bring radical Islamism with them,” the programme read.
Around the same time as the controversy was playing out, a major polling agency unveiled a survey showing that the majority of Czechs thinks there are “too many” foreigners in the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: More Young Immigrants Rebelling Against Parents
In 2013 the Rehabilitation Centre for Ethnic youth in Denmark received 227 enquiries from young immigrants seeking help dealing with family pressures and threats — three times as many as in 2006.
The statistics show that as many as 25 girls reported a threat of forced marriage, with 11 wanting to escape from an existing one. Other sought help because of family threats, violence and social control, such as not being allowed to have a Danish partner.
Leader for the centre, Anita Johnsen, believes that there is currently a rebellion amongst young immigrants. “They will simply not tolerate that their parents decide who they can be with or what they can or cannot do” she said to Jyllands Posten.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Italy Must Stop Saving Migrants’: Ex-Minister
Italy has rescued over 1,000 migrants over the past 48 hours, the navy said on Tuesday, amid rising criticism from the political right over the high cost of the operation.
The “Mare Nostrum” (Our Sea) operation, launched last October, plucks people from floundering vessels in the Mediterranean almost daily, at a cost of €9 million a month according to Italian media reports.
“This expensive and maniacal operation must be immediately stopped,” said Maurizio Gasparri, a former minister from the centre-right Forza Italia party, describing Mare Nostrum as “a taxi…with people smugglers alerting the Italian navy, which then brings in endless numbers of illegal immigrants.”
The government has warned that the landings are set to increase, estimating this month that up to 600,000 migrants from Africa and the Middle East are ready to set off from Libyan shores.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Authorities Rescue 1,149 Migrants in 48 Hours
Arriving at Augusta, San Giorgio with 321 rescued migrants
(ANSA) — Rome, April 22 — The Italian Navy, with the help of merchant ship Red Sea, said Tuesday that has brought 1,149 migrants to Sicilian ports since Sunday. Navy ship San Giorgio is transporting 321 migrants, including 62 women and five children, to the port of Augusta after they were rescued late Monday in the Straight of Sicily.
During on-board identification procedures, two migrant workers were arrested for contempt and resisting a public official.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: More Migrants Rescued, League Demands Mission’s End
(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 21 — More than 320 migrants were rescued by Italian Navy vessels Monday from the seas south of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, raising the total number saved over the Easter long weekend to more than 1,100 people.
Earlier on the weekend, more than 800 migrants, many fleeing north Africa, were rescued from two boats south of Lampedusa. The rescues came as Northern League secretary Matteo Salvini said Italy must suspend such operations because they are too expensive and represent an “invasion” of Italian shores.
Last week, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that to date this year, more than 20,500 migrants have already landed on Italy’s coasts — an enormous increase over the 2,500 reported during the same period in 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Weighs Curbing Deportations
Tens of thousands of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally but don’t have serious criminal records could be shielded from deportation under a policy change being weighed by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
The change, if adopted following a review ordered by President Barack Obama, could limit removals of people who have little or no criminal record but have committed repeat immigration violations such as re-entering the country illegally after having been deported, or failing to comply with a deportation order.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Animals With Human Rights Make Researchers Run Scared
Legally, dogs and cats are moving closer to personhood. A new book says this poses problems for biomedical researchers and veterinarians.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: A Burial Ground for Lesbians in Berlin
Berlin now has its first lesbian burial ground, launched by a German organization for older lesbians, to remember the dead and celebrate living lesbians. Not every gay woman wants to be buried there, though.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Illegitimate Newborns Murdered and Discarded
In Pakistan, abortion is illegal, and so is adultery — creating a situation where hundreds of children born out of wedlock are secretly killed each year. Their bodies are, literally, thrown out with the garbage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Heartbleed is About to Get Worse, And it Will Slow the Internet to a Crawl
Efforts to fix the notorious Heartbleed bug threaten to cause major disruptions to the Internet over the next several weeks as companies scramble to repair encryption systems on hundreds of thousands of Web sites at the same time, security experts say.
The sheer scale of the work required to fix this aspect of the bug — which makes it possible to steal the “security certificates” that verify that a Web site is authentic — could overwhelm the systems designed to keep the Internet trustworthy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Internet Slowed by Heartbleed Identity Crisis
Many bad things will happen because of Heartbleed. One which will affect nearly everyone is a general slowing of performance owing to the need to revoke and reissue millions of SSL/TLS digital certificates and keys. The volume of such revocations has been increasing in the days since Heartbleed was announced to the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The History of the Big Bang Theory
Just-reported ripples in space may open a window on the very beginning of the universe
By Brian Greene
The Big Bang is often described as the modern scientific theory of creation, the mathematical answer to Genesis. But this notion obscures an essential fallacy: The Big Bang theory does not tell us how the universe began. It tells us how the universe evolved, beginning a tiny fraction of a second after it all started.
The case for inflationary theory has now grown strong, capping a century of upheaval in cosmology. Now, not only do we know the universe is expanding, not only do we have a credible proposal for what ignited the expansion, we’re detecting the imprint of quantum processes that tickled space during that fiery first fraction of a second.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Volcanoes That Act as Air-Conditioning for a Warming World
Many small eruptions over the past decade or so have helped restrain climate change
Such “small” eruptions—along with others at places like Manam, Soufrière Hills, Jebel at Tair and Eyjafjallajökull, to name a few of the 17 between 2000 and 2012—have helped slow the pace of global warming, according to work published in Nature Geoscience.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why We Get Autism But Our Neanderthal Cousins Didn’t
It’s not what you’ve got but how you use it. The first maps of gene expression in two of our extinct cousins flag up important differences between the activity of their genes and our own. The results suggest that brain disorders like schizophrenia and autism may be unique to us.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
One thing worries me about the proposed referendum on the in/out EU membership of the UK. Just suppose UK electors vote to leave the EU, given the totalitarianist concept of the EUSSR, what would prevent the EU from refusing to acknowledge the will of UK citizens and not accepting the result of a NO vote? Would they make us ‘vote again? We will get no help ftom Cameron and his cronies. I still have an address in the UK and have ensured my ability to vote.
I live near Chiang Mai and I have noticed the beligerent behaviour of Chinese tourists. My wife is Thai and all her friends are calm, polite and a pleasure to be with. They do not like loud and loutish behaviour although the Chinese with their Communist supremecist culture are by no means the worst offenders. Russians are far louder and loutish. They are like the Germans used to be in Spanish resorts in the 70s. Also, they refuse to order drinks in restaurants and instead, they take in carrier bags containing duty free spirits. Places like Pattaya and Phuket are little more than sleaze pits brought about by trying to cater to the lowest common denominator of European behaviour. Most bars in Chiang Mai refuse to admit Arabs due to their behaviour towards female bar staff.
” it will beef up the Swedish air force to counter the growing aggressiveness of Russia.”
I thought it would have been something logical like:
it will beef up the Swedish air force to counter the growing aggressiveness of Muslim Invaders. But why should Swedish think Muslims are invaders when they have so much enriched their already rich culture.
The only thing that will be beefed up in Sweden if they want to win the election — the goal of all goals in western countries and nothing else even if their country goes to dogs- – is to beef up invaders to hasten their complete invasion.
Western countries have been declaring one after the other that their country is not Christian but everything and then nothing. . . a failed state. For anyone except their indigenous people.
Which country will take the award for declaring: We were the first country where Caliphate was founded in the western world? Feckless” No, No : Genius.
” Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Kiev to express the United States’ support”
Of course the genius Biden can’t sleep but to create another paradise like: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria … Yeh, Biden, be quick with your new adventure abroad before internal “ranches” explode.
Just when you think democracies will do something good and stop a vice, they promote the vice. British border guards received instructions not ask visitors how long they are going to stay in the vibrant city Londonistan, or Lutonstan, to show the stiff-upper-lipped how civilized they are. Toynbee: come back and rewrite your books… they are all wrong. Charles Darwin: come back and redact your books and ideas to: Survival of The Jihadis not of the sleep-walkers.
Someone who’s way better at photoshop them I am needs to make the following:
[Photo of Biden yammering at some poor Ukrainian official.]
Biden [speech bubble]: You will not walk this road alone.
Ukrainian official [though bubble]: Would ALONE have been that hard to arrange, God???