An Austrian model aircraft enthusiast was seriously injured by his model helicopter, and is now in intensive care. His very expensive helicopter went out of control while flying, and when the man attempted to catch it, he was badly cut by the rotors.
In other Austrian news, Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner announced that Austria would take in an additional 1,000 Syrian refugees, tripling its original quota of 500.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Steen, 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.
France Predicts Growth Despite Budget Cuts
France said on Wednesday it will stick to strict EU budget rules and trim its government spending by the end of next year. Despite the cuts French officials say the economy will grow in the next three years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Debt Swells Again as Samaras Looks to Creditors for Relief
Greek state debt surged to the highest in the euro era last year, underscoring the urgency of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s push to lower the cost of the government’s bailout loans.
The country’s debt pile reached 175.1 percent of gross domestic product in 2013, up from 157.2 percent a year earlier, the EU’s statistics office in Luxembourg said on Wednesday. For the eurozone as a whole, state debt rose to a record 92.6 percent of GDP from 90.7 percent.
“The surge in public indebtedness since Greece’s fiscal crisis erupted in 2009 is staggering,” said Nicholas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy in London. “The fact that, technically speaking, it’s still debatable whether Greece is solvent says much about the management of its crisis.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is the US Military Preparing for the Collapse of the Dollar?
It almost happened in 2008… but as this excerpt from Casey Research’s Meltdown America documentary notes, it appears the US military is preparing for the potential collapse of the US dollar. As Scott Taylor warns, “…if the carrot (of credit worthiness) is fading, and the stick (of military threat) is weak, that empire is going to come down in a hurry…” which leaves a serial economic mis-manager only one option to ‘secure’ the empire.
To see what the consequences of economic mismanagement can be, and how stealthily disaster can creep up on you, watch the 30-minute documentary, Meltdown America. Witness the harrowing tales of three ordinary people who lived through a crisis, and how their experiences warn of the turmoil that could soon reach the US. Click here to watch it now.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Private Sector Hides a Mountain of European Debt
As Europe’s economies recover, debt levels continue to grow. But national budgets are only a few of the trees in a highly flammable forest of private debt, and government austerity may not be able to put out the flames.
For business analyst and financial crisis expert Daniel Stelter, what the West has been living through for the last half-decade is neither a banking crisis nor a case of ballooning public debts. It’s a general debt crisis in the entire Western world. Since 1980, governments, businesses and private households have doubled their debt — from 160 percent to 320 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), Stelter wrote in his book “Die Billionen-Schuldenbombe” (“The trillions debt bomb”).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“This is a Problem for All of America” (Video)
David Knight talks to two different Utah County Commissioners about the federal crackdown in Nevada and what it means for the rest of America.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Little Wine Might Help Kidneys Stay Healthy
“Those (with healthy kidneys) who drank less than one glass of wine a day had a 37 percent lower risk of having chronic kidney disease than those who drank no wine,” said study author Dr. Tapan Mehta, a renal fellow at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, in Aurora. “Those with chronic kidney disease who drank less than one glass a day had a 29 percent lower risk of cardiovascular events (than those who drank no wine),” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Accused Killer Fears ‘Murder’ Tattoo Sends Wrong Message
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man charged with first-degree murder is afraid the tattooed mirror-image letters spelling out the word “murder” across his neck might prejudice a jury, so he is asking for a professional tattoo artist to remove or cover it up.
Prosecutors say they aren’t opposed to Jeffrey Chapman covering his tattoo, but Barton County’s sheriff says he’s against transporting Chapman to a licensed tattoo facility — the only places tattoo artists are allowed to practice under Kansas law.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Agenda 21: The BLM Land Grabbing Endgame
Why is the federal government so obsessed with grabbing more land? After all, the federal government already owns more than 40 percent of the land in 9 different U.S. states. Why are federal bureaucrats so determined to grab even more? Well, the truth is that this all becomes much clearer once you understand that there is a very twisted philosophy behind what they are doing. It is commonly known as “Agenda 21”, although many names and labels are used for this particular philosophy. Basically, those that hold to this form of radical environmentalism believe that humanity is utterly destroying the planet, and therefore the goal should be to create a world where literally everything that we do is tightly monitored and controlled by control freak bureaucrats in the name of “sustainable development”. In their vision of the future, the human population will be greatly reduced and human activity will be limited to strictly regulated urban areas and travel corridors. The rest of the planet will be left to nature. To achieve this goal, a massive transfer of land from private landowners to the federal government will be necessary.
So the conflict between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the BLM is really just the tip of the iceberg. The reality is that the BLM has their eyes on much bigger prizes.
For example, Breitbart is reporting that the BLM is looking at grabbing 90,000 privately-held acres along the Texas/Oklahoma border…
The map that I have posted below is a simulation of what the endgame of Agenda 21 might look like. If these radical environmentalists get their way, the only areas that will be allocated for normal human use will be the areas in green…
Agenda 21 Map
If you do not go along with the “sustainable development” agenda, you risk being labeled a “threat” to be dealt with.
For example, Senator Harry Reid has used the label “domestic terrorists” to describe those that showed up to support Cliven Bundy at his ranch.
Reid could have used lots of other labels. But he specifically chose to call them terrorists. And considering what the law allows the feds to do to “terrorists”, that is quite chilling.
And don’t think that if you just stay quiet that you won’t get labeled as a “terrorist”. In fact, there is a very good chance that you already fit several government criteria for being a terrorist. Just check out the list below. It comes from my previous article entitled “72 Types Of Americans That Are Considered ‘Potential Terrorists’ In Official Government Documents”…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Caught on Tape: Cop Shoves, Trips High School Soccer Fans
Parents were outraged when a central Texas police officer was filmed behaving more like a high school student this past weekend after the conclusion of a state soccer match in Georgetown.
When the Vandegrift High School Lady Vipers won the UIL soccer state championship on Saturday, excited fans jumped the barricades and rushed the field to congratulate the team, but some were in for an unexpected surprise.
In amateur cell phone footage captured by a student, a uniformed Georgetown officer can be seen sticking his leg out to trip people as they swarm the game’s victors. After tripping one person, the officer, who has not been named, attempts to trip another.
In the video, first reported on by KXAN, the officer can also be seen shoving a couple of ladies, and one person is witnessed walking off the field with a limp. Screen capture from Youtube video shows officer failing to trip a high school student.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Coalition of U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Groups Forms Voting Bloc/MB Political Party
The Hamas-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and seven other terror-tied groups have announced the formation of the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), which they describe as an umbrella group that will serve as a “representative voice for Muslims as that faith community seeks to enhance its positive impact on society.”
What kind of presence is the USCMO going to have on the American political scene? Investor’s Business Daily noted that “USCMO also aims to elect Islamists in Washington, with the ultimate objective of ‘institutionalizing policies’ favorable to Islamists — that is, Shariah law.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Elderly Man Calls for Ambulance, Violent Cops Beat Him Instead
An elderly Missouri man dialed 911 and asked for an ambulance to come and help his ailing wife. Instead, the police showed up, threw him to the ground, sat on his head and handcuffed him.
He later received stitches for his injuries.
“I never had anybody jump on me for doing nothing,” said the man, Elbert Breshears of Humansville, Missouri, in a statement to KSPR 33.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
F.C.C., in ‘Net Neutrality’ Turnaround, Plans to Allow Fast Lane
The Federal Communications Commission will propose new rules that allow Internet service providers to offer a faster lane through which to send video and other content to consumers, as long as a content company is willing to pay for it, according to people briefed on the proposals.
The proposed rules are a complete turnaround for the F.C.C. on the subject of so-called net neutrality, the principle that Internet users should have equal ability to see any content they choose, and that no content providers should be discriminated against in providing their offerings to consumers.
The F.C.C.’s previous rules governing net neutrality were thrown out by a federal appeals court this year. The court said those rules had essentially treated Internet service providers as public utilities, which violated a previous F.C.C. ruling that Internet links were not to be governed by the same strict regulation as telephone or electric service.
The new rules, according to the people briefed on them, will allow a company like Comcast or Verizon to negotiate separately with each content company — like Netflix, Amazon, Disney or Google — and charge different companies different amounts for priority service.
| [Return to headlines] |
Genetically Modified Organisms: Killing the Natural World
“The introduction of genetically modified foods (GMO) tampers with the essence of life in an experiment with an unknown outcome and no real way to undue the damage. The FDA purposely does not require labeling of GMO food, since no one who understands the issue would ever purchase it. This makes it all the more difficult to locate healthful food.” Byron J. Richards, The Leptin Diet: How Fit Is Your Fat?
This series exposes the outright fraud against peoples’ lives and the contempt for American citizens (and citizens of the world who eat our grains) with the injection of Genetically Modified Organism foods by the highest representatives in our U.S. Congress.
Call it a “financial cartel” that allows GMOs to be fed to our citizenry, but worse, for the love of money, those power elites accelerate the destruction of our Natural World.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Goodbye Spaceship Earth; Hello Armageddon
What Dr. Francis Schaeffer pointed out was that the Utopian beliefs of the counter culture were based on a faulty philosophical premise that Man is good and that we will naturally evolve into a state of higher consciousness. This Utopian belief in Man’s ability to create Paradise on Earth is against the evidence of history. Every single revolution in history that attempted to bring in a new Utopian order based on humanistic or New Age principles ended up in bloody revolution and totalitarianism. The Illuminati-sponsored French Revolution moved from the lofty ideals of the Enlightenment to a bloodbath of anarchy and guillotines chopping people’s heads off. The Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 created a communist nightmare with countless millions slaughtered and sent to psychiatric hospitals and the Gulags in Siberia. Everywhere you see a communist revolution you see a Cuba, a Berlin Wall, a Tiananmen Square, and death!
This is why the counter culture along with its Free Speech Movement at Berkeley University moved from freedom to one of the most oppressive and fascist ideologies. What the counter culture in America really produced was total censorship of free speech, a society where people lose their jobs for daring to say anything on any subject that deviates from the politically correct dogma of the fascist left. America is following the exact same pattern of every other socialist, communist, and progressive movement in history. All of these movements begin with the promise of Utopia, a workers’ paradise, and a new order, and they all end up bringing in totalitarianism, death squads, imprisonment, poverty, and a loss of freedoms. Despite the clamor of a State-controlled media, freedom of the press has disappeared from television news.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Groups React to Supreme Court Decision Upholding Ban on Race-Based Admissions (+Video)
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Michigan ban on affirmative action. Opponents and supporters of the ban weighed in after the ruling.
“This case is ultimately about whether students of color in Michigan are allowed to compete on the same playing field as all other students. Today, the Supreme Court said they are not,” said Mark Rosenbaum, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who argued the case at the high court to overturn the Michigan ban.
“Proposal 2 unfairly keeps students from asking universities to consider race as one factor in admissions, but allows consideration of factors like legacy status, athletic achievement, and geography,” Mr. Rosenbaum said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Hacking the Constitution’: States Quietly Plan to Ditch Electoral College
Nearly a dozen states have quietly signed onto a plan to effectively ditch the Electoral College and instead, award the White House to the candidate that wins the popular vote.
The National Popular Vote agreement would take effect if states that represent 270 electoral votes all commit. New York has most recently joined the efforts, bringing the number of states to 10 plus the District of Columbia. Altogether, they represent 165 electoral votes.
Without the Electoral College, FoxNews.com digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt said we would have had a whole different trajectory of presidents. If presidents are selected through the popular vote, he said that campaigns will focus on maximizing turnout in urban centers. He said the “plan is to subvert the will of the Constitution and the founders.“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Harry Reid, BLM, And Cliven Bundy
Harry Reid says that the fight between the BLM and Bundy is not over. Reid should know. The Director of BLM is none other than Senator Reid’s former senior policy adviser on land-use issues (2003 to 2011), Neil Kornze. Kornze has no prior experience in federal land management, but Reid has often described him as “perfect for the job.” Indeed, perfect for Harry Reid. Kornze’s decision to call off the cattle seizure and to stand down rather than complete the confiscation conveniently saved Reid from an enormous political embarrassment. There is nothing like an enormous blood bath in Nevada precipitated by a Reid family land grab to stoke political flames enough to consume Reid’s weak popularity in short order. Reid knows that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and so now BLM turns to litigation as its way of obtaining judgments against Bundy that BLM hopes will force Bundy to turn over his ranch as payment.
Truth be told, Harry Reid has a long history of involvement with the BLM, peddling his influence there to achieve benefits for his family and friends…
Chinese magnate Wang Yusuo, with an estimated net worth of $2.2 billion, owns ENN Group. In 2011 Reid ventured to ENN’s headquarters in Langfang, China, to tour the company and then worked to get this enormous company favored by the Chinese Communist government to take on development of a massive solar energy project in southern Nevada that would endeavor to supply California with 30% of its energy needs. Wang spoke at Reid’s Fourth Annual National Clean Energy Summit last year.
Reid’s lawyer son, Rory Reid, has been instrumental in his father’s efforts. Rory helped put together the ENN deal, while Harry pushed a clean energy agenda in Nevada that included promotion of solar power, laying the foundation for allowing the Chinese energy company with ties to the Communist government in China to acquire thousands of acres of Nevada public land and build a massive solar farm on it. The ENN Group boasts that its Nevada solar farm will be the largest in North America. Do you think a solar farm less disruptive to the desert tortoise habitat than a few hundred cows? How happy do you think the Communist leadership of the Peoples Republic are in knowing that none other than the Majority Leader of the United States Senate has through family connections enabled one of that government’s favorite sons, Wang Yusuo, to acquire 9,000 acres of American soil for an enterprise that will funnel funds that might otherwise go to American business back to Communist China.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Harvard Islamic Society Launches Muslim Life Fund Campaign
The Harvard Islamic Society launched its Muslim Life Fund campaign last Friday and hopes to raise $30,000 in 2014. According to HIS Director of Development Hassaan Shahawy ‘16, the Muslim Life Fund is meant to bolster what students call a lack of resources for a growing Muslim student community, particularly by securing a part-time campus chaplain for 2015…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
James Clapper Giving Speeches to Students, Begging Them to Stop Thinking of Ed Snowden as a Hero
A few weeks back, I read a Washington Post story “Inside the admissions process at George Washington University” and noted this interesting tidbit towards the end:
GW also asks students to list a role model and two words to describe themselves. As for herself, Freitag said, she would list “Martha Stewart/Tina Fey” and “sassy/classy.” This year, she’s seeing a lot of Edward Snowden citations.
I had thought about writing it up, but decided it was a pretty small thing, really. It’s not secret that, as a group, younger people have a much more favorable impression of Snowden than older people.
However, apparently it set off alarm bells in James Clapper’s head. He recently gave a keynote speech at the GEOINT conference, and used the opportunity to vent about stupid kids and their stupid love of that stupid Ed Snowden. And apparently he’s going to be doing a lot of that.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Marines Looking for a Few Good Actors to Play Terrorists in Training Exercises
The United States Marine Corps is looking for a few good actors to play terrorists in upcoming training exercises, putting out a casting call that could give clues about what the Pentagon is prepping for.
A solicitation put out this month by the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command sought an actor to play an “Al Qaeda personality,” a French-speaker with a college degree in chemistry and three men who could play “high value insurgent” roles. The actors are needed for training exercises in South Carolina during the next three months.
“Each final exercise is an 8-day training event which will be conducted by members of [Marine Special Operation Company Mike],” a statement of work on the exercise reads. “The exercise is considered to be an important segment of collective training of [Marine Special Operation Company Mike’s] pre-deployment training program.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Military Suicides: Psychiatry’s Greatest Secret Experiment
The U.S. military has been experiencing its highest-ever suicide rates for the past several years, and finally, a new documentary film lays bare not only the history behind psychiatry’s infiltration of the military but also the dangerous and deadly effects of that infiltration, particularly in the form of increasing rates of psychotropic drug-induced suicide, which the Pentagon has labeled an “epidemic.”
The film, The Hidden Enemy: Inside Psychiatry’s Covert Agenda, produced by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), details psychiatry’s rise in the military, including the sinister conspiracy to use men and women in uniform as nothing more than guinea pigs.
Watch it online here.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
MSNBC Smears Bundy Supporters as “Insurgents, “ Attacks Infowars, Drudge
In a 15 minute-long ideological crusade, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes smeared Cliven Bundy supporters as ‘insurgents’ while lamenting the threat posed to the establishment by an Alex Jones-Drudge-Fox News-Rand Paul “axis” that threatens to rock the 2016 presidential race.
Implicitly siding with Harry Reid’s widely derided claim that Cliven Bundy and his supporters are “domestic terrorists,” Hayes linked Nevada Republican Senator Dean Heller’s labeling of Bundy ranch advocates as “patriots” to Alex Jones and Infowars, which he sophomorically described as “a paranoid online haven”.
Similar to other White House fronts like Media Matters, Hayes then whines about the fact that Infowars stories, in particular relating to the Bundy siege, are routinely linked by powerhouse news aggregator the Drudge Report and find their way “into the mainstream GOP establishment” and Fox News, terming this effect the “Alex Jones-ification of the GOP”…
Hayes goes on to imply that Agenda 21, a public United Nations “sustainable development” program is another “Jones backed conspiracy” and doesn’t exist, despite the fact that it appears on the UN’s own official website.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Robert Spencer
Here is yet another attempt to rewrite history and pretend that the 9/11 hijackers were not Islamic jihadists who were inspired by Islamic texts and teachings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) As Natural News readers and fans already know, we’re hot on the trail pinpointing sources of heavy metals and understanding how they impair our physical and mental health. Now a groundbreaking study conducted in the United States on arsenic in drinking water has found something truly astounding: a mere 5 parts per billion (.005 ppm) of arsenic caused “reductions in Full Scale, Working Memory, Perceptual Reasoning and Verbal Comprehension scores” in children.(1)
The research was led by Joseph Graziano, PhD, professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. It involved 272 children from three school districts in Maine.
Graziano summarized the findings by explaining “aspects of performance intelligence, particularly perceptual reasoning and working memory, are impacted by exposure to arsenic in drinking water.”
He goes on to say, “we also observed a steep drop in intelligence scores in the very low range of water arsenic concentrations.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nevada Standoff a Symptom of Increasing Authoritarianism
The nation’s attention has for the past few weeks been riveted by a standoff in Nevada between armed federal agents and the Bundys, a ranching family who believe the federal government is exceeding its authority by accessing “fees” against ranchers who graze cattle on government lands. Outrage over the government’s use of armed agents to forcibly remove the Bundys’ cattle led many Americans to travel to Nevada to engage in non-violent civil disobedience in support of the family.
The protests seem to have worked, at least for now, as the government appears to have backed off from direct confrontation. Sadly, some elected officials have inflamed the situation by labeling the Bundys and their supporters “domestic terrorists,” thus justifying any future use of force by the government. That means there is always the possibility of another deadly Waco-style raid on the Bundys or a similar group in the future.
In a state like Nevada, where 84 percent of the land is owned by the federal government, these types of conflicts are inevitable. Government ownership of land means that land is in theory owned by everyone, but in practice owned by no one. Thus, those who use the land lack the incentives to preserve it for the long term. As a result, land-use rules are set by politicians and bureaucrats. Oftentimes, the so-called “public” land is used in ways that benefit politically-powerful special interests.
Politicians and bureaucrats can, and will, arbitrarily change the rules governing the land. In the 19th currently, some Americans moved to Nevada because the government promised them that they, and their descendants, would always be able to use the federally-owned land. The Nevada ranchers believed they had an implied contract with the government allowing them to use the land for grazing. When government bureaucrats decided they needed to restrict grazing to protect the desert tortoise, they used force to drive most ranchers away.
By contrast, if the Nevada land in question was privately owned, the dispute over whether to allow the ranchers to continue to use the land would have likely been resolved without sending in federal armed agents to remove the Bundys’ cattle from the land. This is one more reason why the federal government should rid itself of all federal land holdings. Selling federal lands would also help reduce the federal deficit.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NY Homeland Security Encourages Businesses to Snitch on Preppers as Terrorists
Purchase of MREs, flashlights & ammunition is a “suspicious activity”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Testifying in Manhattan federal court Tuesday, Eva Hatley swore she never meant for her Oregon ranch to become a training camp for al Qaeda. Her plan, she claimed, was to teach local Muslims to grow and can vegetables…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Police: 2 People Shot Near National Zoo in D.C.
WASHINGTON — Two people were shot and injured near an entrance to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., police confirmed Monday. One victim was injured in the arm, the other in the hand, police said. Both have non-life threatening injuries.
Shots were fired about an hour after thousands were at the zoo to celebrate African American Family Day and Easter Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Psychiatry’s Covert Agenda Exposed in New Documentary
(NaturalNews) The U.S. military has been experiencing its highest-ever suicide rates for the past several years, and a new documentary film lays out shocking evidence that the Pentagon’s reliance on psychotropic antidepressants is feeding the epidemic.
The film, The Hidden Enemy: Inside Psychiatry’s Covert Agenda, produced by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), details psychiatry’s rise in the military, from World Wars I and II to its prominence today, laying bare a sinister conspiracy to use men and women in uniform as nothing more than guinea pigs.
Early in 2013, on the official website of the U.S. Defense Department, officials announced a startling statistic: The number of military suicides in 2012 had far exceeded the total number of personnel killed in action, or an average of nearly one per day.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Racial Equality Loses at the Court
A blinkered view of race in America won out in the Supreme Court on Tuesday when six justices agreed, for various reasons, to allow Michigan voters to ban race-conscious admissions policies in higher education.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Recruiting Thugs for the Police State in New Mexico
The state considers the American people the enemy
Sir Robert Peel is considered the father of modern policing. He was influenced by the legal philosophy of Jeremy Bentham. Bentham called for a centralized and politically neutral police force for the maintenance of social order and protection of people and property against crime.
In the 1850s, in response to public fear of a paramilitary police, Peel organized the cops along civilian lines and made them answerable to the public. Peel and London’s Metropolitan Police Service went out of their way to make sure police uniforms did not resemble military uniforms (blue instead of red). Police were armed with wooden truncheons and rattles to signal the need for assistance. “The police are the public and the public are the police,” was one of the Peelian Principles.
It took Lincoln and the Northern War of Aggression to mutate the role of police in the United States. Police forces became paramilitary, whereas before the war police were non-uniformed and lacked a paramilitary hierarchy.
In 2005, the Peelian philosophy was finally discarded when the Supreme Court ruled the police do not have a constitutiuonal duty to protect citizens.
Due largely to the federal government and the Pentagon, police across the country are now militarized. In 1997, the National Defense Authorization Act included the 1033 program authorizing the Defense Department to dispense surplus military equipment to municipal police departments. Following the 9/11 attacks and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the federal government doled out a staggering $34 billion in “terrorism grants” to local police forces.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, RIP: The Triple Murderer Who Fooled Hollywood
By Larry Elder
Rubin “Hurricane” Carter has died. Sympathetic obituaries say things like “wrongfully convicted” or “exonerated.” But the black middleweight-title-contending boxer was neither.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Teen Stowaway Survives 5-Hour Flight in Wheel Well
“Kid’s lucky to be alive,” FBI spokesman Tom Simon in Honolulu told The Associated Press.
A 15-year-old boy stowed away in the wheel well of a flight from California to Hawaii on Sunday, surviving the trip halfway across the Pacific Ocean unharmed despite frigid temperatures at 38,000 feet and a lack of oxygen, FBI and airline officials said.
Not only was he unharmed, but officials also said he wasn’t even dirty.
FBI spokesman Tom Simon in Honolulu told The Associated Press on Sunday night that the boy was questioned by the FBI after being discovered on the tarmac at the Maui airport with no identification.
“Kid’s lucky to be alive,” Simon said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Teen Hitches Ride to Hawaii in Jet’s Landing Gear — And Lives to Tell the Tale
(CNN) — The questions are many.
But the first has to be, how in the world did a 16-year-old boy survive a five-hour flight in below freezing cold weather at oxygen-depleted heights without dying or falling out of the wheel well of a huge jumbo jet?
Another has to be, how does a 16-year-old even sneak on to an airport and a plane to begin with?
Authorities likely were trying to find the answers to some of their questions Monday. The boy remained in the custody of child welfare services workers in Hawaii. But the FBI says they have no more need to interview the boy as he is no threat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Texas AG Abbott to BLM ‘Come and Take it’
After Breitbart Texas reported on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) intent to seize 90,000 acres belonging to Texas landholders along the Texas/Oklahoma line, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott questioned the BLM’s authority to take such action.
“I am about ready,” General Abbott told Breitbart Texas, “to go to the Red River and raise a ‘Come and Take It’ flag to tell the feds to stay out of Texas.”
Gen. Abbott sent a strongly-worded letter to BLM Director Neil Kornze, asking for answers to a series of questions related to the potential land grab.
“I am deeply concerned about the notion that the Bureau of Land Management believes the federal government has the authority to swoop in and take land that has been owned and cultivated by Texas landowners for generations,” General Abbott wrote. “The BLM’s newly asserted claims to land along the Red River threaten to upset long-settled private property rights and undermine fundamental principles — including the rule of law — that form the foundation of our democracy. Yet, the BLM has failed to disclose either its full intentions or the legal justification for its proposed actions. Decisions of this magnitude must not be made inside a bureaucratic black box.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The American Middle Class is No Longer the World’s Richest
The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction.
While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.
After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Liberty is disappearing from the world, little by little. With taxes going up, real (inflation-adjusted) wages going down, wealth and power consolidating in expansionist governments and global corporations, especially banks but also food leviathans like Monsanto, it is impossible to deny that what some are calling “the deep state” is becoming the prevailing governing structure of our time. The “deep state” encompasses government/military facilities and corporations via myriad hierarchies, overlapping boards and directorships, “think tanks,” and contractual ties.
The police state, moreover, is on the march like never before. There are now hundreds of cases of police brutalizing people, sometimes to death, or shooting to kill on the slightest provocation (important and recent cases here, here, here, here, and here; with a case in New Mexico drawing massive protests here). A once-respected profession is clearly attracting sadists and sociopaths. Homeland Security has militarized police departments around the country, having offered millions in grants for equipment once seen only on battlefields. SWAT teams are being used to go after people selling raw milk or growing food without government authorization. I started to write that in the U.S. you are now in more danger from cops than you are from criminals; but today the only differences are that the former wear uniforms and badges, and collect government paychecks.
This has all happened despite the fact that in the wake of Ron Paul’s efforts, those of groups like Campaign for Liberty and of educational organizations like the Ludwig von Mises Institute, there are now probably more people calling themselves libertarians and more people interested in libertarian ideas than ever before. Ideas about liberty circulate in the blogosphere and on hundreds of websites. Competent speakers travel the country presenting a lucid case for Constitutionally limited government. Their writings are readily available. But they’ve been unable to make headway either within the neocon controlled GOP, in a hostile academic community, or in a culture largely indifferent to the world of ideas…
The only moral system that has showed promise at satisfying all the conditions for liberty is rooted in Christianity. The prevalence of Christianity, in my opinion, goes a long distance towards explaining why liberty emerged in the West and nowhere else. A Christian worldview places God at the center and cites His commands in Scripture as the basis for proper conduct, whether towards oneself, family members, one’s affairs with money and business, and others generally. A debate has raged over to what extent, or whether, the Founding Fathers were building a Christian nation. John Adams, our second president, put it this way in 1798: “[W]e have no government, armed with power, capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Yet during the 1800s, Western civilization slowly replaced the Christian worldview with that of materialistic naturalism (or materialism). This was the third of my Cardinal Errors. By the 1900s, the process was complete in the centers of intellectual influence where those in power looked for their most basic convictions. Materialistic naturalism places Man at the center: Enlightenment rational humanism. But Man is an abstraction; there are many of us, and we are quite different from one another. Our cultures are quite different from one another. Secular theories of morality reflect this. Not one such theory holds up under sustained criticism. Many philosophers followed anthropologists in becoming ethical relativists. According to ethical relativism, moral beliefs are cultural artifacts: useful fictions that compel people to behave but have no deeper truth or significance than stories we tell ourselves.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Design Flaw That Almost Wiped Out an NYC Skyscraper
LeMessurier realized that a major storm could cause a blackout and render the tuned mass damper inoperable. Without the tuned mass damper, LeMessurier calculated that a storm powerful enough to take out the building his New York every 16 years.
In other words, for every year Citicorp Center was standing, there was about a 1-in-16 chance that it would collapse.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Principles of Freedom vs Agenda 21
Agenda 21, according to the Planners, the Greens, and Progressives (I know, I repeat myself) is just an innocuous 20 year old document that has no connection to local planning. Moreover, they tell us it is just a guideline for conservation and “smart growth” of our communities. Nothing more.
In fact, in their own words, they assure us that, “Sustainable communities encourage people to work together to create healthy communities where natural resources and historic resources are preserved, jobs are available, sprawl is contained, neighborhoods are secure, education is lifelong, transportation and health care is accessible, and all citizens have opportunities to improve the quality of their lives.”
It all sounds so innocent. What could possibly be wrong with that? Well, putting these plans into place is where the problems begin.
Here are six leading issues that are rarely mentioned or connected to Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development (especially when we are told that Agenda 21 has nothing to do with federal, state or local government policy). And I’m going to add direct quotes from the proponents of these policies so there can be no doubt of their true purpose and origin.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Zealots Win Again — Charle Krauthammer
The debate over campaign contributions is never-ending for a simple reason: Both sides of the argument have merit. On the one hand, of course money is speech. For most citizens, contributing to politicians or causes is the most effective way to augment and amplify speech with which they agree. The most disdainful dismissers of this argument are editorialists and incumbent politicians who — surprise! — already enjoy access to vast audiences and don’t particularly like their monopoly being invaded by the unwashed masses or the self-made plutocrat.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Air Canada to Fire Handlers Caught Tossing Bags
Two Air Canada baggage handlers apparently will lose their jobs after a passenger captured video of them dropping fliers’ bags off a 20-foot boarding platform while readying a flight for departure.
“The employees involved have been advised that their employment will be terminated pending the outcome of our investigation,” Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah said to the Toronto Star in an e-mail Sunday night.
Passenger Dwayne Stewart captured the video at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport while waiting for his Vancouver-bound flight to push back from the gate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Blinded by Scientific Gobbledygook
Bad chemistry: How fake research journals are scamming the science community
By Tom Spears
I have just written the world’s worst science research paper: More than incompetent, it’s a mess of plagiarism and meaningless garble.
Now science publishers around the world are clamouring to publish it. They will distribute it globally and pretend it is real research, for a fee. It’s untrue? And parts are plagiarized? They’re fine with that.
Welcome to the world of science scams, a fast-growing business that sucks money out of research, undermines genuine scientific knowledge, and provides fake credentials for the desperate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jared Frank Poised to Earn Big Bucks From Kick-in-the-Head Video
Jared Frank, the Regina man who went from hapless tourist to internet sensation over a nine-second YouTube video of a kick to the head, stands to earn a substantial financial windfall from the experience.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Gives Canada Cold Shoulder
Barack Obama waited nine months before replacing the last US ambassador to Canada. The post was empty, and Obama just didn’t care.
He doesn’t much like Stephen Harper — compare Obama’s icy body language towards Harper, to Obama’s deep bow when he met the Saudi king, or his high fives with the Hugo Chavez, the late ruler of Venezuela.
Don’t feel singled out. That’s how Obama treats many of America’s traditional allies. He spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone. The White House’s bust of Winston Churchill was returned to the United Kingdom when Obama became president.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Canadian Foreign Minister Supports a Muslim Brotherhood Leader!
Although Mr. Baird declared that Canada supports Egypt in its fight against terrorism, he did not clarify the sort of information his country needs for the classification of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. In addition to that, Mr. Baird came with shocking recommendations for supporting the Brotherhood and defending them against the Egyptian government!
Amnesty International in Canada sent an open letter to Mr. John Baird before his visit to Egypt, urging him to put pressure on Cairo for the release of the Canadian — Egyptian journalist Mohammed Fahmy. Fahmy, a journalist affiliated to the Al-Jazeera channel, and member of the Brotherhood terrorist organization, is accused of falsifying reports and providing wrong information to the public arena that will lead to the distortion of Egypt’s image on the international stage. The case is called “The Marriott hotel cell” — which we wrote about previously here.
It seems that the Amnesty International dropped all its other business to devote themselves to defend the Muslim Brotherhood and to push Mr. Baird to play the role of a lawyer in this case, under the pretext of defending “human rights”. This despite the fact that “humans” want to live in safety without feeling the permanent threat of death because of the risk of terrorist acts carried out by the Brotherhood and their militias. That ‘humans’ have the ‘right’ to allow their security agencies — which citizens are paying through taxes — to arrest those killers and let the country get rid of their evil.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
19 Arrested for Organized Crime in Austria
VIENNA, April 22 (Xinhua) — Austrian police had arrested 19 people as part of a European Union (EU) campaign against organized crime originating from the western Balkans, police said Tuesday. The suspects were members of three gangs involved in robberies, smuggling, and drug and weapons trafficking, police said in a statement…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Model Helicopter Chops Up Owner
Austrian model aircraft enthusiast Uwe E., 50, is in intensive care after he tried to catch his expensive model helicopter when it suddenly dropped out of the sky in the town of Krenglbach in Upper Austria, and he was badly chopped up by the rotor blades.
Eyewitnesses said the amateur pilot had apparently lost control of the helicopter, worth over 1,000 GBP, when it was about 40 metres in the air, and it started to fall towards the ground. They said that the rotor blades had sliced him open in the stomach area and on the legs leaving him seriously injured.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Indestructible Armoured Police Tank Damaged by Eggs and Tennis Balls
An Austrian manufacturer of a high-tech anti-riot water cannon costing almost 1 million EUR is facing some tough questions after one of the vehicles was badly damaged during a demonstration that involved eggs and tennis balls.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Poacher in Vienna Shoots Five Deer With Bow and Arrow
A poacher is suspected to have killed five animals in Vienna using a bow and arrow, a hunting weapon that is forbidden throughout Austria. Authorities and hunting groups are alarmed at the rise in illegal hunting in the area, which they suspect is being carried out “for fun”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Firm in the Proverbial S*** Over Dung Parcel Terror Alert in Austria
A Czech mail order company that sends elephant poo around the EU could be faced with a hefty bill after a package of dung sparked a terror alert at an Austrian town hall. The Czech website www.darujhovna.cz offers people “joy by giving others s***”, and users who sign up can fill in the name and the address of the person they want to receive an elephant dung parcel — for just 8 GBP.
But the firm’s special delivery failed to impress civil servants at the town hall in Schwechat on the outskirts of Vienna when it turned up addressed to the local Burgermeister Gerhard Frauenberger.
His secretary was immediately suspicious after reading the message in English saying “open immediately after receiving”. She called police, and they advised her to get the building evacuated immediately and called in anti-terror cops to deal with the suspicious package.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Take Leading Role at Global Conference on Internet Governance
BRUSSELS, April 23 (Xinhua) — The European Union (EU) is to take a leading role at the global conference on internet governance in Brazil, the EU said in a statement on Wednesday.
The EU, represented by European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes and EU Special Representative for Human Rights Stavros Lambrinidis at the NETmundial conference in Sao Paulo on April 23-24, sets to join in discussion on the future of internet governance…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: New Far-Right Mayor Moves to Quash Paris Region Mosque
The recently-elected far-right mayor of a Parisian suburb has not wasted any time in following through on one of his campaign promises: upend a project for a new mosque.
Mantes-la-Ville Mayor Cyril Nauth had promised to block the project, citing parking problems in the neighbourhood where the future mosque is supposed to stand, as well as potential financial liabilities for the local government…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
One of France’s most successful rap stars — or “rappeurs” — has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a war of words with a rival performer turned violent.
Rohff, 36, real name Housni Mkouboi, gave himself up to police after he was accused of being part of a gang which savagely beat up a young salesman in a clothes boutique belonging to Booba, another rapper…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Crystal Meth Use Hits Record Level
Consumption of crystal meth in Germany appears to have reached a record level, according to government figures published on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Cork Muslim Community Seeks Replacement Imam
A rapidly expanding community of Muslims wants to hire a new imam, or spiritual leader. The highly specialised job, which has been advertised by the Cork Muslim Society, comes with a €2,500 monthly salary and an immediate start date. The position is open to men only…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Sellers of Roman ‘Dolce Vita’ Hotel Accused of Tax Fraud
(AGI) Rome, April 23 — The owners of Rome’s Ambasciatori Hotel evaded 89 million euros in capital gains taxes from the sale of the hotel, an icon of the Roman ‘Dolce Vita’ during the ‘60s.
The Italian Tax Police seized property and assets worth 15 million euros from three Roman businessmen who sold the Via Veneto hotel. The three men are suspected of different tax crimes, ranging from the deliberate omission to the misrepresentation of data on their income tax returns, as the sums involved exceed the punishabe limits set down in current tax fraud laws.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 12-Year-Old Girl Saves Dad From Suicide
A 12-year-old girl from Lecce in the southern Italian region of Puglia saved her father from suicide after reading a “desperate” text message from him.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy to Declassify Bologna Bomb Files
The Italian government will declassify secret documents relating to terrorist attacks in the country during the 1970s and 1980s, including the deadly Bologna train station bombing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lost Spanish Temple Reveals Scientific Secrets
A mysterious cave-temple built by the original inhabitants of the Spanish Island of Gran Canaria contains evidence of their advanced knowledge of astronomy, a Spanish archaeologist believes.
Archaeologist Julio Cuenca, who has been studying the area since the 1990s, believes the site is the only one of its kind in the world. “It’s like a projector of images from a vanished culture,” Cuenca told Spanish national news agency Efe, referring to the Guanches, or aboriginal inhabitants of Spain’s Canary Islands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Morality Patrols Operating in British Schools
Muslim morality patrols have allegedly been confiscating Easter eggs in a school in Birmingham, England currently being investigated as part of the attempt to Islamize state run schools. A woman whose daughter is at the school spoke to the Daily Express on the condition of anonymity.
She said that the patrols, made up of older boys, were terrorizing younger students and enforcing sharia law in the playground. This included intimidating younger girls into wearing veils.
She told reporters, “My daughter tried to bring in an Easter egg for a friend and one boy grabbed it and smashed it against a wall. Another girl of about 11 brought in a little Easter bunny toy that she wanted to show her friends. They grabbed that off her too. All talk of Christmas and other non-Muslim festivals is banned. The teachers just turn a blind eye to it.”
The plot, which first came to light as the result of a letter said to be from one Islamist to another that was leaked to the media, is said to be an attempt by Islamist extremists to take over a number of state run British schools and use them to impose their interpretations ofsharia and Islam on the pupils of the schools. All the evidence so far suggests that the plot is real, although it is not yet known how widespread it is.
The allegations center on Tahir Alam, chairman of the Park View Education Trust, which runs three of the schools. Alam is an activist for the Muslim Council of Britain. He has denounced the allegations as a “fabrication” and as “Islamophobia.”
Yesterday the former British Home Secretary Jack Straw said that schools with large numbers of Muslim pupils must respect British values. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, Straw said, “We have to accept — and the schools with a majority of Muslim parents have to accept, as they do if they are Hindu, Sikh, Jewish or Christian — that we also live within the United Kingdom.”…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: PVV Leader Wilders Loses Key Aide Over Anti-Moroccan Chanting
Geert Wilders’ personal policy advisor and member of Zuid Holland provincial council has left the PVV.
Stephan Jansen, who has been active for the party since 2006, says in a letter to party workers that his departure is due to the anti-Moroccan statements made by Wilders during and after the local election campaign. A copy of his letter is in the hands of the Volkskrant.
‘The recent statements about Moroccans made by our politicial leader, Mr Wilders, have ensured our party will never be taken seriously again,’ Jansen writes. ‘No other political party will work with us.’
This means a vote for the PVV has become a vote for the left. ‘Parties like the VVD and CDA are forced to look for a left-wing party (as coalition partner) because there is no acceptable right-wing partner available.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Koreans Snubbed by French Cheese College
A bid by North Korea to send experts to a prestigious French cheese-making training school, seemingly at the behest of its fromage-loving leader King Jong-un, has been rejected. It did not fit with the institution’s “priorities or strategy”, it seems.
There was bad news for cheese lovers in North Korea this week, including Kim Jong-un — a supposed Emmental aficionado, when a French college refused to take on three experts from the People’s Republic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: ‘Dalai Lama Meet Would Make China Clash Eternal’
The president of the Norwegian parliament has defended his decision not to meet the Dalai Lama when he comes to Oslo next month, arguing that to do so would destroy years of painstaking work to mend relations with China.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Paris Launches New Battle Against French Jihadists
France’s so-called top cop unveiled a dozen proposals on Wednesday aimed at stemming the flow of its residents toward the jihadist cause in Syria. Though some experts see the plan as a cynical political move ahead of European elections.
The anti-radicalization plan presented by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve seeks to thwart online recruitment efforts and make it harder for would-be fighters, especially the youngest ones, to get out of France. Additionally France wants to work the families left shattered by their loves ones’ departures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Roundup Herbicide’s Health Risks Recognized by Danish Scientists
(NaturalNews) Monsanto’s Roundup is coming under fire in Denmark as scientists awake to its effect on enzymes activities and the gastrointestinal health of mammals. Danish scientists are calling out for further investigation of the weed killer and other glyphosate-containing pesticides. Citing glyphosate’s potential for abuse on the health of livestock, the scientists report that the chemical is most dangerous during a mammal’s sensitive life stages.
Likewise, the weed killer has been proven to inhibit specific enzyme pathways in the guts of mammals — enzymes that play an important role in allowing the body to detoxify naturally.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Spies Step Up Activity in Germany
Russian spies are increasingly targeting potential informants in German politics and business by taking them out to dinner, according to counterintelligence services.
Russian agents posing as embassy workers are infiltrating German politics and business circles, the intelligence service told dpa news agency, confirming a report by the Welt am Sonntag.
“The gathering of information in Germany is more important for the Russians than almost any other intelligence service,” head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) Hans-Georg Maaßen told the paper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Four Brothers Held as Cops Fear Brawl Reprisals
Swedish police fear that several people involved in a brawl in eastern Sweden on Monday night may be seeking revenge after two brothers were shot dead.
The comments came after a violent brawl on Monday night in Norrköping, eastern Sweden. Up to forty people were involved, witnesses said, and two brothers were shot dead.
Police labelled the violence a “family dispute” on Tuesday. Five people were still in police custody on Wednesday afternoon, four of them brothers.
Several of them are believed to have been involved in another fight on Sunday outside a church in the area, and a number of them already have police records.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘Imperfect EU Better Than Revolting Nationalism’
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Wednesday urged young voters to head to the European parliamentary polls on May 25th “to cure the European disease of nationalism”.
“European cooperation has created a foundation where individual rights are paramount, and has created the possibility to move freely,” Reinfeldt told students at Luleå Technical University, adding that his party encouraged diversity. The prime minister said that while the union was not perfect, it was better than the alternative.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes Open Coffin of 850-Year-Old King
Swedish historians spent Wednesday morning readying for a high-profile exhumation. King Erik the Holy died 854 years ago, but scientists just unveiled his skull at Uppsala Cathedral.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘Day-Care Rapist’ Admits Molesting Eight Kids
A 21-year-old man confessed on Wednesday to sex crimes against eight children at a day care where he was working as an intern.
He is suspected of seven cases of aggravated child rape, six cases of aggravated sexual assault against children, and three cases of molesting children.
The case in Kalmar, in southern Sweden, has made waves across the country this month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Heroes Save German Mauled by Shark
Three Swedish men have been hailed as heroes after they dragged a shark attack victim from bloodied waters in Florida.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Politicians’ Trip to Tehran Raises Eyebrows
Six Swiss People’s Party politicians are making headlines after their controversial visit to Iran over Easter. The group of rightwing politicians included two who helped lead the campaign to ban minarets in Switzerland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Sending Troops to Eastern Europe
The U.S. is sending about 600 ground troops to Eastern Europe this week to “reassure” allies there as Washington resumes its campaign of pressure on Russia over the Ukraine standoff.
About 150 soldiers from the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), based in Italy, are being sent to each of four countries — Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — in rotational deployments that the Pentagon says will be sustained until further notice.
The paratroopers will take weapons and ammunition for “infantry exercises” and be in place by the end of the week, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon. The roughly company-sized units will remain in place for about a month, and then new ones will follow them until at least the end of the year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Backlash Over ‘Disrespectful’ UKIP Posters of Union Jack on Fire
A former head of the Army today rounded on Nigel Farage for a poster showing the Union Jack on fire. Lord Dannatt said the Ukip ad was “disrespectful and inappropriate” and treated the national flag as a political football. The intervention of the former Chief of the General Staff is a blow to Mr Farage’s claim to stand up for Britain. It came as David Cameron issued a St George’s Day video message to proclaim his own English patriotism…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fire Brigade Worried About London’s ‘Hidden Homes’
Thousands of people in London are living in hidden homes — often in disturbing conditions — because they cannot afford to live elsewhere. The BBC has found people paying to live in shop storerooms, above car repair garages, on industrial estates and in former warehouses.
This shadow housing market is causing London Fire Brigade “grave concerns”. In the past nine months, firefighters have attended 36 fires in such places and two people have died.
Carlo moved to London from Spain four years ago in search of a better life for his two teenage daughters. Now all three share a cramped room above a car repair shop on an industrial estate in north-west London.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: General Attacks Nigel Farage Over Burning Flag Poster
Ukip poster showing burning Union Flag is ‘disrespectful’, says former head of the British Army Lord Dannatt
Nigel Farage has been condemned by the former head of the British Army over a poster showing the Union Flag on fire. Lord Dannatt, the former Chief of General Staff, said the Ukip campaign poster was “disrespectful and inappropriate”. Soldiers have “given their lives” protecting the flag and it should not be used a political football, he said.
Yesterday Nigel Farage insisted only the “chattering classes” had been offended by Ukip’s posters warning about the threat to British jobs posed by European immigration, as Labour MPs said they were “racist”.
Launching his party’s European election drive, Mr Farage defended a series of adverts warning immigrants are “after” British jobs, saying mainstream politicians are “outraged because we are telling the truth.” Immigration will “dominate” the month-long campaign and Ukip are the only party in tune with the concerns of “real people doing real jobs,” Mr Farage said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: High Fertility in Harlow According to Postcode Data
HARLOW has been named as one of the ten most fertile districts in the UK according to postcode data released by Royal Mail. To mark the 40th anniversary of the allocation of postcodes to every town in the UK, Royal Mail commissioned an analysis of UK’s characteristics through the lens of a postcode…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamic School Militants ‘Confiscated Easter Eggs’
EASTER eggs and bunnies were seized at a school at the centre of a takeover plot by Islamic hardliners, it was claimed yesterday.
A mother of a pupil alleges “morality squads” of older boys confiscated chocolate and toys from younger children. The woman, who asked not be named for fear of reprisals, told the Daily Express:
“Older boys are going round in these morality squads telling off girls if they do not wear veils. They bully the girls and stop them mingling with boys in the playground.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Is London a Safe Destination for UAE Tourists?
Two separate attacks on Emirati tourists in London occurring within the space of three weeks have prompted concerns over whether the British capital is still a safe holiday destination for UAE nationals.
Are Emiratis increasingly becoming targeted in the country?
“If they are being targeted it appears it is because they are presumed to be wealthy,” Chris Doyle, director of the London-based Council for Arab British Understanding told Al Arabiya News on Wednesday.
Microscope Images Come to Life in These Winning Videos
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mosque Leaders Back Lord Mayor’s Campaign Against Domestic Violence
THE President and Imam of York Mosque have visited the Mansion House to show support for the Lord Mayor’s campaign against domestic violence. They were backing a bid for York to be given White Ribbon status, which recognises cities and organisations’ commitment to addressing social norms leading to violent and abusive behaviour against women and children…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: St George’s Day, Celebrating a Mythical Martyr?
But who was St. George and how much do we actually know about him? According to the influential medieval author Jacob de Voraigne’s The Golden Legend (1275), George was a soldier, born in Cappadocia (central Turkey) in the mid-3rd Century AD and martyred in the early 4th Century in Diospolis, Palestine.
All there is, as Pope Gelasius I remarked in the fifth century, is his name.
Everything else is the stuff of legend.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Shakespeare’s 450th Birthday: Now All the World is His Stage
The 450th anniversary of the Bard’s birthday on Wednesday will see an explosion of tributes and performances — how different to 50 years ago. Jonathan Bate explains how the playwright became a global icon.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Vote in Our Poll: Is Islamic Extremism a Threat to Charities?
William Shawcross has said that Islamic extremism is a ‘deadly’ problem for charities — do you agree or disagree? Vote in our poll
William Shawcross, the chairman of the Charity Commission, has said that Islamic extremism is the “most deadly” problem the charity sector faces. Shawcross told the Sunday Times that the commission is taking tough measures against any charity “sending cash to extremist groups in Syria” or “dispatching young Britons for training in Syria by al-Qaeda or other extremist groups”.
Shawcross was frustrated that those with convictions for terrorist offences are not automatically disqualified from serving as a charity trustee and said more measures need to be taken.
Do you agree? and how sure are you of your trustees’ ethical background? Vote in our poll now.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: WWI Artists Sketching Countryside Were Mistaken for Spies
Artists sketching the countryside during the First World War were often accused of spying for Germany and arrested according to a top art historian.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
AS A campaign poster, Ukip’s latest election advertisement depicting a burning Union Flag could not be more inflammatory ahead of next month’s European elections.
Posing the question “Who really runs this country?” in such a calculating way, with the European Union’s defining symbol emerging from the embers of Britain’s flag, it is intended to shore up the Eurosceptic vote — even though some will accuse Ukip of resorting to xenophobia in response to recent allegations about party leader Nigel Farage’s expense claims…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US Sending 600 Troops to Poland, Baltics
The US is deploying about 600 troops to Poland and the Baltics to underscore its commitment to NATO allies amid tensions with Russia over the crisis in Ukraine, the Pentagon says.
A company of 150 soldiers from the US Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy will arrive in Poland on Wednesday and roughly 450 troops are due in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia in coming days as part of a new series of exercises due to last at least through the end of the year, spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a news conference…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Citizens Commission on Benghazi, a self-selected group of former top military officers, CIA insiders and think-tankers, declared Tuesday in Washington that a seven-month review of the deadly 2012 terrorist attack has determined that it could have been prevented — if the U.S. hadn’t been helping to arm al-Qaeda militias throughout Libya a year earlier.
‘The United States switched sides in the war on terror with what we did in Libya, knowingly facilitating the provision of weapons to known al-Qaeda militias and figures,’ Clare Lopez, a member of the commission and a former CIA officer, told MailOnline.
She blamed the Obama administration for failing to stop half of a $1 billion United Arab Emirates arms shipment from reaching al-Qaeda-linked militants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadists Now Control Secretive U.S. Base in Libya
A camp on the Libyan coastline meant to train terror-hunters has instead become a safe haven for terrorists and al Qaeda.
A key jihadist leader and long-time member of al Qaeda has taken control of a secretive training facility set up by U.S. special operations forces on the Libyan coastline to help hunt down Islamic militants, according to local media reports, Jihadist web forums, and U.S. officials.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Policemen, Militant Killed in Egypt
(Reuters) — An Egyptian policeman and a militant were killed when security forces raided a hideout used by radical Islamists near Alexandria on Wednesday, and a senior officer was killed near Cairo when a bomb blew up his car, the Interior Ministry said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation Could Complicate Peace Talks
(AGI) Washington, April 23 — The U.S. has greeted with regret the news of a reconciliation agreement between the two Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah. The Islamist Hamas resistance group has controlled the Gaza Strip for the last seven years, and the Fatah movement dominates the Palestinian National Authority. The State Department sees this as a step that could seriously complicate U.S. efforts to keep the peace talks going, led by the indefatigable John Kerry.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan Vows to Protect Controversial Holy Sites in Jerusalem
AMMAN, April 21 (Xinhua) — Jordan will take all necessary measures to defend Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque and other Islamic and Christian holy sites in the city, Jordan’s Minister of Media Affairs Mohammad Momani said Monday, just a day after Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli security at the mosque, the state- run Petra news agency reported…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Rival Palestinian Factions Agree to Form Unity Government
The two main Palestinian factions announced an agreement on Wednesday to heal a seven-year schism and form a unity government within five weeks that would prepare for Palestinian elections six months later.
The two groups — the Palestine Liberation Organization, which runs the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that dominates the Gaza Strip — have reached similar accords before that were never carried out. But the latest deal comes as the fragile American-brokered peace efforts between the Palestinians and Israel are approaching an April 29 deadline without a resolution in sight. People familiar with the discussions have said the two sides are far apart even on how to extend the talks.
Before the announcement on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel warned Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the P.L.O. and president of the Palestinian Authority, against taking practical steps toward reconciliation with Hamas.
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Watch: Muslims Mob Terrified Jewish Children on Temple Mount
Several dozen hareidi Jews, including children, ascended the Temple Mount Wednesday.
In the course of the tour of the Mount, Muslims began hurling objects at the hareidim, spat at them, hurled shoes and sticks and pulled the sidelocks of one of the children.
The raging Muslim mob terrified some of the children, who began to panic.
The Temple Movement blamed police for failing to disperse the Muslim attackers. “It’s a miracle no one was hurt,” said a movement statement.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Why St George is a Palestinian Hero
As England celebrates the day of its patron saint, many Palestinians are gearing up for their own forthcoming celebrations of the figure they also regard as a hero.
Palestinians have particular reason to display the symbol and revere the early Christian martyr. For them he is a local hero who opposed the persecution of his fellow Christians in the Holy Land.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
20 Killed in Separate Attacks Across Iraq
BAGHDAD, April 22 (Xinhua) — 20 people were killed and 38 others wounded in separate violent attacks across Iraq, including an attack on polling center, police and medical sources said on Tuesday.
In northern Iraq, militants wearing military uniforms carried out an attack late on Monday night on a balloting center at a village near the town of Daqouq near the city of Kirkuk, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tony Blair today warned Britain will pay a ‘heavy price’ for failing to intervene in Syria. The former Prime Minister again defended his decision to invade Iraq and warned of the ‘consequences of non-intervention’.
But he admitted that his military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan had made the West less inclined to tackle radical Islam.
In a major speech in central London, Mr Blair listed nations where he says there is an ‘essential battle’ to be fought against radical Islam, including Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Full Text: Tony Blair’s Speech on Why the Middle East Matters
It is unsurprising that public opinion in the UK and elsewhere, resents the notion that we should engage with the politics of the Middle East and beyond. We have been through painful engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq. After 2008, we have had our own domestic anxieties following the financial crisis. And besides if we want to engage, people reasonably ask: where, how and to what purpose?…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar Says Dispute With Gulf Neighbours ‘Over’
Qatar’s dispute with three fellow Gulf states, which withdrew their envoys from Doha last month, is “over”, the Qatari foreign minister said Wednesday, while insisting his country had made no concessions.
GCC foreign ministers met last week and announced an end to months of unprecedented tensions between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The three countries recalled their ambassadors from Doha after accusing Qatar of meddling in their internal affairs and supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Prison Imam Held for Drug Smuggling
The Makkah Prison Authority has arrested a man for smuggling 500 narcotic tablets into a prison, local media reported. The man, who works as an imam and Qur’an teacher at the prison, was stopped by a guard who noticed he was wearing a different pair of shoes from the ones with which he had arrived…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Muezzin Stabbed Nine Times Inside Mosque
Riyadh police have arrested a man who stabbed a “muezzin” (man who calls Muslims to prayer) nine times inside a local mosque at dawn on Saturday. The incident took place at the Al-Rabiah Mosque in the Sahafa district in what appears to be a crime motivated by family dispute…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: ICT Boosting Activity in Africa to Widen Islamic Finance Appeal
(Reuters) — The private sector arm of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank plans to increase its activities in Africa, part of plans to widen the appeal of Islamic finance across the region, its chief executive said.
Established in 1999, the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) supports the economic development of its 51 member countries by financing private sector projects which follow Islamic principles…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tony Blair Spoke the Truth About Islamism. But Not the Whole Truth
by Douglas Murray
As so often (in my opinion) Tony Blair is almost right. In a wide-ranging speech at Bloomberg this morning he roamed over Syria, Libya, the Middle East and the West’s withdrawal of interest, let alone engagement, in the region…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Regrets Shooting of Liberians, Gol Dispatches Envoy
The Foreign Minister of Turkey His Excellency Professor Ahmet Daavutoglu has expressed his government’s deepest regrets over the shooting incident involving four Liberians that took place in Istanbul earlier this month.
The Turkish Foreign Minister who spoke in a telephone conversation with Liberia’s Foreign Minister Augustine Ngafuan said all efforts are being exerted by security forces in Istanbul to have the perpetrator arrested and brought to justice…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Two-Thirds of Children Live in Extreme Poverty, Study
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 23 — By EU standards, two out of every three children live in extreme poverty in Turkey, which has the highest child poverty rate of 12 selected EU member countries, as daily Today’s Zaman reports quoting a study conducted by Bahcesehir University Center for Economic and Social Research (Betam). In press release, Betam researchers said that the study, which is based on Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) data from a 2011 income and living standards survey, ranks Turkey below Eastern European countries like Hungary and Romania in terms of child poverty.
Extreme poverty among children — defined as lacking four or more of nine items on EU statistics agency Eurostat’s material deprivation criteria — in Turkey stood at 65%, while this rate is 36% in Romania, 29.5% in Hungary and 16.5% in Greece, Betam said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish PM Erdogan Stresses ‘Shared Pain’ In Statement on Armenian Issue
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has highlighted the “shared pain” endured during the 1915 events in an unexpected statement on the Armenian issue, calling to consider history for the “perspective of a just memory.” Erdogan said April 24 “carries a special meaning for (Turkey’s) Armenian citizens and all Armenians throughout the world.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Dutch Suicide Bombers Have Died in Iraq and Syria: Minister
Two Dutch suicide bombers have died in attacks in Iraq and Syria, home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk said on Wednesday at the publication of the secret service’s annual report.
One man was involved in an attack on citizens in Iraq using a wired-up rucksack. The other set off a car bomb in Syria, the minister is quoted as saying. He declined to give any further details.
The security service estimates around 100 Dutch nationals have gone to fight with rebels in Syria and at least 20 have since returned to the Netherlands. This, the AIVD says, brings potential threats with it.
The AIVD report also shows the impact of digital spying on the Netherlands, saying the country is particularly vulnerable because of its high value IT structure.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
According to an Urdu-language daily, the Kuwaiti government has decided to open a military office in Islamabad which will recruit Pakistani military experts to train Kuwaiti soldiers.
It should be noted that several Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar, are also trying to recruit Pakistani military officers to train soldiers in those countries. “The military attache’s of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman are already working in Pakistan (in this regard),” the report added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Will Respond to Ukraine Crisis ‘Like in Georgia’
Foreign Minister Lavrov accuses US of ‘running the show’
(ANSA) — Kiev, April 23 — Russia is ready to respond to the unfolding crisis in Ukraine as it did in Georgia in 2008 if its ‘legitimate’ interests are attacked, Foreign Minister Serghiei Lavrov said Wednesday. “If we are attacked, we would certainly respond,” Lavrov said.
“If our interests, our legitimate interests, the interests of Russians have been attacked directly, like they were in South Ossetia for example, I do not see any other way but to respond in full accordance with international law,” continued Moscow’s chief diplomat.
In summer 2008 Russia attacked Georgia after Georgian troops moved against pro-Russian rebels in the separatist South Ossetia region.
South Ossetia has had de facto independence from Georgia since 1992, since Russian peacekeeping troops have been present.
In the present crisis, Russia has massed thousands of troops along Ukraine’s eastern border and is accused of backing an armed revolt by pro-Russian militants in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions after supporting the secession of, and subsequently annexing, Crimea in March. Lavrov also accused the United States of “running the show” in Ukraine, where Vice President Joe Biden met with the country’s interim authorities on Tuesday. Later that day Ukraine’s interim President Oleksandr Turcinov ordered the resumption of military operations against the militant campaign in a move which Lavrov described as “quite telling”.
“There is no reason not to believe that the Americans are running the show,” he said.
Also on Tuesday American journalist Simon Ostrovski was kidnapped by pro-Russian militants in the eastern city of Sloviansk, a flashpoint in the crisis. His colleagues at Vice News said they were in contact with the US State Department and other government authorities to ensure his safety.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Warns Ukraine About Presidential Elections
(AGI) Moscow, April 23 — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the Ukrainian government’s decision to go ahead with the presidential elections on May 25 without consulting the pro-Russians would be extremely devastating for the country. He stressed that Moscow would only recognise a vote based on a completely inclusive process.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Won’t Import GMOs, Prime Minister Says
Russian President Vladimir Putin is also opposed to GMOs, having told the media that part of his job is to protect the Russian people against industrial food offerings that might harm them. Likewise, Russian Minister of Agriculture Nikolai Fydorov wants to see GMOs completely banned from all Russian territories as well, having referred to them in the media as poison.
“How ironic that a sustainable foods movement should take root in Russia at the behest of the people instead of the so-called ‘democratic’ West, where the will of the people is overturned by money,” wrote one RT.com commenter about Medvedev’s announcement. “I want my food imported from Russia!”
Similar sentiments are reflected in other comments, including one from a Russian woman telling of her experiences eating American food compared to food from her homeland. Besides the bread tasting like “rubber,” in her experience, American food in general simply doesn’t live up to the high-quality standards that are still the norm throughout Russia, standards that promote health and longevity rather than disease and death.
“There are a lot of choice… milk products, proper bread, etc. in Russia,” she writes. “The government of USA doesn’t want Americans to be healthy, giving big monopolies rights to feed people with all this rubbish [for] huge profits.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Student Conference “Reporting the European Union” In Armenia
The student conference “Reporting the European Union”, part of the EU funded “Journalist training and networking” project “Media Neighbourhood”, will take place in Yerevan on April 25 at the American University in Armenia.
Keynote speeches and panel discussions will focus on:
– the role of the media in reporting the EU
Media Neighbourhood is a three-year training programme for journalists, editors and managers from broadcast, print and online. It is funded by the European Union and delivered by a consortium led by BBC Media Action. It is one of three projects funded under the EU’s Regional Communication Programme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Forces Kill 16 Taliban, Bomb Blast Wounds 17 Civilians
KABUL, April 22 (Xinhua) — Afghan security forces fighting the Taliban killed 16 militants on Tuesday when a bomb blast left 17 civilians injured in the militancy-plagued country, officials confirmed.
The government forces in exerting pressure against militants, raided Taliban bankers in Qarabagh district of Ghazni province 125 km south of the national capital Kabul Tuesday morning, leaving a dozen insurgents dead…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Gunmen Kill Five Policemen in Pakistan
Unidentified gunmen have killed five police officers on patrol in Pakistan’s troubled northwest. A civilian driving a passing car was also killed, with two policemen and another civilian left wounded in the attack in the town of Badaber on Monday, a flashpoint for violence in the district of Peshawar…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Jakarta: New Corruption Scandal Overwhelms Audit Agency’s Chief
Poernono Hadi has come under fire of the Anti-Corruption Commission (KBK) for a story in 2004 , when he was head of the Department of Taxation and Treasury. Charged with erasing million dollar tax fine for major bank owned by a Tabaco giant. A prominent personality in the political and economic landscape of the country.
Jakarta (AsiaNews ) — A new corruption scandal has engulfed Indonesian politics and civil society, already marked by controversial cases in the recent past that have touched even the highest institutional and administrative spheres of the country. The Anti-corruption commission (KPK) has targeted Hadi Poernono, the current head of the Court of Auditors of Indonesia (BKP), for a story that dates back to the 2002-2004 biennium when he was director of the Department of Taxation and the Treasury. In a press release issued last night, the KPK confirmed the opening of an investigation for a scandal of “ huge “ proportions . Poernomo is a high profile personality in Indonesia’s economic and financial world, with a power and social status is equal to that of ministers or other senior government officials.
The KPK chief, Abraham Samad confirmed that his team have had Hadi Poernono under surveillance for over a year. Investigators have collected evidence to prove he caused “serious economic damage” to the country . There is talk of a figure of around 375 billion rupees (more than $ 32.5 million) in a legal matter involving the main private bank in Indonesia , PT BCA , owned by PT Djarum, the nation’s second largest tobacco company.
The tobacco giants are among the biggest taxpayers in the nation and the owners of PT Djarum , in particular, are included in the special list of the richest men in Indonesia , both at home and on a regional scale . The charges center on a billion dollar transaction with a 32 million dollar taxation bill that the top of the bank should have paid into state coffers.
However, the intervention of an “invisible hand “ — on orders from the Department then led by Hadi Poernono , allegedly the architect of the operation — led to the cancellation of debt. “Hadi has given the green light to the proceedings in July 2004, “ said Abraham Samad , KPK head, erasing “ the debt that would have been payable by the PT BCA”.
Over the past three years, the Anti-Corruption Commission has carried out a series of successful operations across the country, bringing down high profile public figures in sensational cases of corruption that have involved various sectors including the justice system, politics and the economy. Their victims include a prominent minister of the Executive Board and the President of the Constitutional Court , the oil scandal and intrigues that led to the re-election of former Governor of the Central Bank . Moreover, the issue of corruption will be one of the key issues in the general elections in April and presidential elections in October.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
What Germany Left Behind: A Feeling of Abandonment in North Afghanistan
Six months ago, Germany’s military withdrew from Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. Since then, regional security has eroded and many of those left behind feel abandoned. Some say that the departure came too soon.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China to Get the World’s Fastest Elevators: 95 Floors in 43 Seconds
It’s a country of superlatives: home to the world’s longest wall, largest population, and fastest-growing major economy. Soon, China will have the fastest elevators.
The ultra-high-speed elevators will travel at a pace of 1,200 meters per minute (44.7 miles per hour) up a 440-meter shaft, reaching the 95th floor in about 43 seconds. “Technologies to prevent lateral vibration and to reduce the sensation of ear blockage caused by air pressure differences,” and “brake equipment using braking materials with outstanding heat resistance to safely stop the elevator car “ will be used in the system, Hitachi said in an April 21 press release.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea: The New Generation Losing Faith in the Regime
Six decades after its creation, North Korea remains a totalitarian state, controlling not just the expression and movements of its citizens, but their livelihoods, viewing habits and even haircuts.
A United Nations report released last month warned that the “gravity, scale and nature of (human rights) violations reveal a State that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world”.
“Twenty years ago North Korea was better. Life was comfortable and people didn’t have bad thoughts. Now everybody is angry,” said Chae, 50.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Five People Rescued After Scrawling SOS on Sandbar Off North Queensland Coast
Keswick Island resident Lyn Forbes-Smith told The Courier-Mail she and four others were preparing to spend a night on a rocky outcrop near Wigton Island before being rescued.
The group scrawled a large SOS sign in the highest part of the sand bank and retreated to the highest rocks on the outcrop.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Inquest on Australian Soldiers Will Examine Army Decisions
An inquest on three Australian soldiers killed by a rogue Afghan soldier in 2012 will probe uncomfortable allegations about commander decisions and high-level army procedures, Fairfax Media has learnt.
In June, Queensland Coroner John Lock will hold an inquest on Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, 40, Private Robert Poate, 23, and Sapper James Thomas Martin, 21, who were killed at the Patrol Base Wahabin in Oruzgan province on the evening of August 29…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Armed Attack on Christian Village in Nigeria Kills 17
(AGI) Kano, April 23 — Armed men have killed 17 people in a brutal attack on the prevalently Christian Nigerian village of Kauyen-Yaku in the state of Taraba, police reported. The attack is likely to have been carried out by Musli Fulani shepherds, who entered the village disguised as soldiers, firing at the inhabitants. Many homes were set fire to and another four people were injured.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France Vows to Punish Death of Mali Hostage
French President François Hollande has vowed to find out the truth behind the death of a French hostage in Mali and promised “it will not go unpunished”. It comes after a jihadist group announced on Wednesday the death of Frenchman Gilberto Rodrigues Leal.
One of Mali’s top jihadist groups said on Tuesday a French hostage it had kidnapped in November 2012 was dead.
The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), a splinter group of Al-Qaeda’s regional branch, told AFP Gilberto Rodrigues Leal “is dead, because France is our enemy”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Residents Set Ablaze Embu Thief
A mob at Kiambuthi estate in Embu town has killed a suspected robber who attempted to break into a house last Thursday. Embu West police boss Elvas Korir said the suspect who was with three accomplices was cornered and killed instantly…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigerian Christians Begin Three-Day Fast After Schoolgirls Kidnapped
Christians began a three-day prayer and fasting period after Islamist Boko Haram militants kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria and desperate parents joined the search in a remote forest.
The girls were abducted last week while at school in the Chibok area of Borno State. Initial reports said about 200 were kidnapped, but government officials lowered the figure to 130. On Monday (April 21), school officials said 234 were abducted and 40 girls had managed to escape…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: From Sticks and Machetes to Rocket-Propelled Grenades
Lagos — Nigerians are beginning to adjust to the sad reality that they live in a country where suicide bombers and terrorists could be lurking around the next corner thanks to a ready supply of advanced weapons smuggled through the country’s porous borders. Last week, Ngupar Kemzy’s cousin, Andy Nepli, told him that he planned to spend the Easter holidays with him…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil: Rio Shantytown Violence Spreads to Copacabana Neighborhood
With less than two months to go before the World Cup kicks off in Brazil, the violence that has rocked Rio de Janeiro in the past week escalated on Tuesday as the unrest spread to the city’s internationally famous Copacabana neighborhood.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The violence that began between the Venezuelan government and large segments of the opposition last February has now resulted in a dialogue between the opposing sides.
Although there is much wishful thinking on the side of the opposition represented by the Mesa de Unidad (MUD) coalition, a group that includes most opposition parties, the future is far from certain.
In the two meetings that have taken place between the government and the opposition an agreement was reached to create a Truth Commission to investigate the events of the last two months where 41 people lost their lives, hundreds were wounded, more than 2,000 were arrested, and many were tortured. In principle, the Truth Commission would integrate members of the Assembly with recognized public personalities that are not necessarily from the political arena. However, it has not yet been decided who these individuals will be.
The opposition also agreed to be part of the Pacification Plan aimed (Plan de Pacificacion) at improving citizens’ security in light of increasing crime.
Another aspect of the agreement is that public positions such as members of the National Electoral Council (CNE) or the Supreme Court would be properly elected by a two-thirds majority of the parliament. This particular aspect of the agreement is important because it not only adheres to the constitution of Venezuela but the last time the appointment of three members of the CNE was done it was by automatic extension not by a two thirds majority of the National Assembly…
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Austria to House a Further 1000 Syrian Refugees
An extra 1000 Syrian refugees will be allowed into Austria on top of the original quota of 500, Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner has said.
The UN body for refugees, the UNHCR, is responsible for managing when exactly the refugees from Syria will arrive. Since the civil conflict began in the country in 2011, around 2.6 million people have fled Syria and 6.5 million are IDPs (internally displaced persons). The number of people to have left the country by the end of 2014 is expected to be around 4 million as the situation becomes increasingly violent. Austria has so far accepted 300 Syrian refugees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Latest Trick for Illegal Immigrants: Granting Amnesty in Return for Military Service
Here’s a disturbing new idea from some members of Congress: Trade instant citizenship to illegal immigrants if they’ll agree to serve in the U.S. military.
Serving in the military is a high calling and a privilege — certainly not something to be treated as a bargaining chip in immigration politics. Yet these congressmen are trying to sneak this provision into the larger National Defense Authorization Act, which lays out the budget for the Department of Defense.
What’s more, the immigrants in question would be those who are brought to the U.S. as children — often called DREAMers (after the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act).
“Allowing unlawful immigrants to join the military in exchange for citizenship is a radical and perverse incentive that would encourage more illegal immigration of children,” write Heritage experts David Inserra and Cully Stimson.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Immigration Vote Leaves Foreigners Mired in Confusion
Will I be able to stay in Switzerland? Can my wife work? What will happen to my cross-border status? Could my firm suddenly up sticks? Two months after an anti-immigration vote, confusion still reigns among foreigners living and working in Geneva.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Flagship Borders IT Scheme Will Not Measure Immigration, Ministers Admit
Home Office’s £1.2 billion ‘eBorders’ project is powerless to provide sufficient data on levels of migration, say ministers
The Government’s flagship border security system cannot be used to measure immigration levels because border guards are banned from asking passengers how long they intend to stay in Britain, ministers have admitted.
The Home Office has revealed that its beleaguered eBorders project, which is expected to cost the taxpayer £1.2 billion, will provide “insufficient” data on migrant levels. It also highlighted how European Union rules prohibit immigration officers from asking EU residents about their travel plans — making it impossible to build a full picture of net migration…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Should Learn From India’s Family Values
Looking after loved ones into old age is simply the well-earned return of a favour
The memories of my first trip to India are vivid — how the sun burnt my skin, how the Delhi dust scratched my throat and how beggars lined the street. And how I spent much of that summer holiday crouched on stone floors at my father’s command, touching the feet of elderly relatives as a mark of respect, in compliance with Indian custom. Only on completion of this ritual, which my parents and brother also performed, could the chai and samosas be served.
Such podiatric reverence was probably not uppermost in Simon Hughes’s mind when he cited African and Asian families as models of how the young should look after the old…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Christian Nursery Worker in London Sacked for Expressing a Biblical Opinion
British Christians have increasingly come under attack by homosexuals, baited to give their Biblically based viewpoint and then immediately accused of a hate crime
Sarah Mbuyi had worked at Newpark Childcare in London since April last year. A lesbian woman began work at the four-facility Centre in September and the two women formed a working friendship with Mbuyi claiming the other was intensely interested in her Christian beliefs.
Mbuyi then gave her a Bible because of the other woman’s interest in Christian matters. This sparked a conversation that led to the woman saying she had been discriminated against by Christians before because of her sexual identity and expressed that she thought God condoned gay marriage. She expressed unhappiness about not being able to marry her female partner (even though the legality of gay marriage was only two months away). Mbuyi replied to her “if I tell you that God is OK with that I am lying to you”.
She then continues her account telling Christian Concern “When I said no, God does not condone the practice of homosexuality, but does love you and says you should come to him as you are, she became emotional and went off to report me to my manager. I never ever condemned her, or accused her, but when she asked me directly what I believed, I was open about sharing the Bible’s teaching that homosexual sex (not the people) is wrong. It’s clear that this offended her and she was determined to get me sacked, simply because I expressed traditional Christian beliefs.”
The woman immediately reported Mbuyi to her superiors and at a disciplinary hearing, according to the Daily Telegraph, the employers accused Miss Mbuyi of “harassing” her co-worker, saying such behaviour amounted to “gross misconduct”. Her employers then inquired how she would feel if she was asked to read children’s storybooks featuring same-sex parents. She replied that she would not be able to read such books. She was subsequently dismissed for the gross misconduct charge leaving the relevance of the latter question unclear.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Eight Arguments About Whether the UK is a Christian Country
David Cameron’s remarks that the UK is a “Christian country” were criticised by a group of public figures. What are the arguments for and against the prime minister’s claim?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How the ‘Gay’ Jihad Normalized a Filthy Practice
by Matt Barber
The public career beheading of former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich at the hands of pagan sexual jihadists,coupled with an escalating epidemic of Christian business owners facing harsh government persecution for merely living out their faith, has startled awake an America lulled to sleep by the left’s intentionally deceptive, yet oh-so-sweet sounding serenade of “equality, tolerance and diversity.”
Average folks have finally begun to recognize that America’s “progressive” power class of cultural Marxists and left-wing statists really intends, and always has, to subjugate ideological dissenters through abject inequality and intolerance, while demanding blind obedience to an anti-Christian, sexually anarchist sociopolitical agenda.
The goals of these homosexualists were clearly defined decades ago. Still, for any goal to be successfully attained, clever stratagem and sound methodology must be diligently applied.
And so they have.
In their manuscript, After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the ‘90s (1989, Doubleday/Bantam), Harvard-educated marketing experts Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen meticulously laid out the homosexual lobby’s blueprint for success in what is widely regarded as the handbook for the “gay” agenda.
This ambitious project to demolish the America of our founding and raise, in its place, a twisted hybrid of San Francisco’s Castro District and Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union is nearing fruition.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Meet World’s First Married Lesbian Threesome . . . and They’re Expecting a Baby Due in July
Here comes the bride. And another one. And another one!
The world’s only ‘married’ lesbian threesome are expecting their first child. Doll, Kitten and Brynn, from Massachusetts, were joined together in a marriage-style ceremony last August and are expecting a daughter in July.
Kitten, 27, is pregnant after undergoing IVF treatment using an anonymous sperm donor, and the trio eventually plan to have three children — one for each of them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Minister Claims He Received ‘Strong Nudge From Jesus’ To Announce Support for Homosexuality
Trewhella stated that it is “utter delusion” that Wilson received a “strong nudge from Jesus” to come out in support of homosexuality as Jesus, the Creator Himself, explained that the woman was made for the man.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Labour Councillor Faces Sack for Gay Church View
A councillor from Norway’s Labour Party risks being expelled after he argued on Saturday night that gay people who want to get married in church should start their own splinter sect.
Edward Dawes, a Norwegian-British-Indian politician who serves as a deputy councillor for the Labour Party in Eidsvoll, made the comments on Saturday night.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
XXX Men: The Raping of Hollywood
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A man who allegedly endured sexual abuse by numerous Hollywood executives when he was a teenager has reissued his case against them. Shedding light on the abuse has created a firestorm of controversy in Hollywood.
Jon Bowne explains the current state of affairs and delves into the 32 billion dollar global sex trade industry that claims 1 million children per year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mystery of ‘Ocean Quack Sound’ Solved
The mystery of a bizarre quacking sound heard in the ocean has finally been solved, scientists report. The noise — nicknamed “the bio-duck” — appears in the winter and spring in the Southern Ocean. However, its source has baffled researchers for decades.
Now acoustic recorders have revealed that the sound is in fact the underwater chatter of the Antarctic minke whale.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chris Mackney committed suicide on December 29, 2013 because his ex wife was using the divorce courts in America to torture him and kidnap his children from him. He wrote a 4 page suicide note before killing himself.
http://www.brainsyntax.com/Portal/Material/1/Lasttestamentofalovingfatherabusedbythefamilycourtsystem.pdf
MAKE THIS VIRAL! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE EVER TO HIT THE MRA/MANOSPHERE WORLD. THIS IS WHY YOU NEVER GET MARRIED IN AMERICA!!!!!!!!!
LATEST UPDATE: The ex-wife is such a psychopath that is she trying to copyright her ex husband’s suicide note, in order to prevent it from being circulated on the internet. She is using her lawyers to threaten legal action against websites that published Chris’s suicide letter.
The website “A Voice for Men” also got a letter from her lawyers and wrote an article about it yesterday:
http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/family-courts/here-come-the-lawyers-to-avfm-yet-again/
Full info on his evil ex-wife here
http://dinamackney.com/contact-us/
Her Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dina.mackney?fref=ts
Her Twitter: https://twitter.com/dinamackney
Her LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dina-mackney/6/331/54a
Her personal website: http://dinamackney.com/
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