During an altercation in a refugee center in Germany, police shot and wounded a Guinean migrant. Germany has welcomed 300,000 immigrants so far this year, and the number is expected to reach half a million before the year is over.
In other news, distillers in China added Viagra to thousands of bottles of spirits, telling customers that it had “health-preserving” qualities. Authorities are investigating.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Upananda Brahmachari, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
ECB Say Eurozone Convergence Disappoints, Italy Weak
Recovery set to broaden further, says central bank
(ANSA) — Rome — Progress towards real convergence among the 12 original eurozone countries has been “disappointing”, with Italy among the laggards, the European Central Bank (ECB) said Thursday. The central bank singled out Italy in particular for its below-average economic growth since the eurozone founding in 1999, contributing to an increased divergence between economies in the euro area.
In an economic bulletin, the ECB also looked at the current economic picture, and said that the nascent recovery in the eurozone is set to broaden. The ECB reported “moderate growth” in the April-to-June period of this year, with the prospect of a further broadening of the economic recovery. Measures taken by the central bank, along with structural reforms, rebalancing of budgets, low oil prices and exports should all help drive domestic demand, the ECB added.
Meanwhile, the goal of economic convergence among the original eurozone members was undermined in weaker States like Italy, the report said.
Such factors as low capital inflows, labour productivity that is “well below the euro average”, and a poor quality of governance of public institutions have all contributed to the economic weakness.
“Little real convergence has taken place among the euro area economies since the establishment of the euro, despite initial expectations that the single currency would act as a catalyst for faster real convergence,” the ECB wrote in the bulletin.
“There is no clear relationship between relative GDP per capita levels in 1999 and their relative growth between 1999 and 2014,” it added. “Italy, initially a higher-income country, recorded the worst performance, suggesting substantial divergence from the high-income group”.
That predated the global economic crisis that began in 2007, suggesting that more deep-rooted factors were at play among the original 12 eurozone members.
The bulletin focussed attention on the “quality of domestic institutions and governance” in relation to their economies’ per capita income growth. The ECB said that countries with a higher ranking in terms of governance tended to also show higher income levels. It added that the euro-area countries that did not show convergence — or, in fact, diverged in the pre-crisis years — were also the States with the poorest rankings in terms of governance.
Those, it said, included Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal.
Such a low ranking “reflected such factors as the effectiveness of government, the quality of the regulatory environment and the size of the informal economy”.
“All these factors have a significant bearing on long-term growth,” added the report.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Indebted US Territory Puerto Rico on Verge of Default
Puerto Rico has failed to make a $58 million bond payment that was due this weekend, the government has said. Its general fund will also run out of liquidity in three months if it fails to reach a deal with creditors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Inflation Steady at 0.2% in July
Annual rate same as in June — provisional data
(ANSA) — Rome, July 31 — Italy’s annual inflation rate was 0.2% this month, the same as in June, according to provisional data released by Istat on Friday. The national statistics agency said, however, that its consumer price index was 0.1% down in July with respect to June.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy PM Defends Labour Reforms as Jobless Rate Rises
Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi defended his labour reform programme Friday, playing down gloomy unemployment data and insisting the debt-laden country was on the right path to growth.
The jobless rate rose in June to 12.7 percent, up 0.2 percent on a month earlier, the National Institute of Statistics said — a figure grasped by opposition parties as proof that Renzi’s ‘Jobs Act’, launched in March, was failing.
The data for youth unemployment was particularly striking, showing it had risen to 44.2 percent in June — the highest level since 1977…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Not Alarmed as Unemployment Climbs to 12.7%
Poletti says jobs data showing early-recovery fluctuations
(ANSA) — Rome, July 31 — Premier Matteo Renzi said there was no cause for alarm after preliminary data released by Istat on Friday showed that Italy’s unemployment rate climbed to 12.7% in June, up 0.2 of a percentage point on the previous month. The national statistics agency said the number of unemployed people was 85,000 (2.7%) higher in June than in the same month last year, while the unemployment rate was 0.3% of a percentage point higher than a year ago. Furthermore, Italy’s youth unemployment rate climbed to 44.2% in June, the highest level since Istat started publishing monthly and quarterly data in this problem at the start of 1977.
The rate of unemployment for under-25s on the job market was 1.9 percentage points higher than in May. However, the number of people considered “inactive” because they are not in work or actively looking for a job dropped 0.2 of a percentage point to 35.9%.
The data was seized on by opposition politicians as evidence that Renzi’s efforts to combat unemployment, including his controversial Jobs Act labour reform that softens the law on unfair dismissal, were not working.
“Renzi superficially promised that the labour market would get going thanks to the epoch-making changes in his Jobs Act,” said Marco Marin, a Senator for Silvio Berlusconi’s opposition centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party.
“Now it’s evident that the mountain gave birth to a mole hill”. Renzi downplayed the importance of Friday’s rise in unemployment, which peaked at 13% last year, saying the jobs market is going to be one of the last things to pick up as Italy gradually recovers from years of recession. “It’s quite understandable because employment is the last thing to get going after a period of crisis,” Renzi told a news conference after a cabinet meeting. “The employment data continues to have positive and negative aspects. They were extraordinary in April, then negative in May and June. “That does not jeopardize the positive signal, but obviously it shows there’s still lots to do”. Those sentiments were echoed by Labour Minister Giuliano Poletti. “The June figures confirm that we are faced with data subject to the fluctuations that characterise an economic recovery that is starting to materialise,” he said. Poletti also stressed that the “employment rate has remained basically unchanged”.
Istat said that in June 2015 22.297 million people were employed in Italy, while 3.233 million were unemployed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Youth Unemployment Climbs to 44.2%, Highest Since 1977
Up 1.9 percentage points on May
(ANSA) — Rome, July 31 — Italy’s youth unemployment rate climbed to 44.2% in June, the highest level since Istat started publishing monthly and quarterly data in this problem at the start of 1977, according to preliminary data released by the national statistics agency on Friday. The rate of unemployment for under-25s on the job market was 1.9 percentage points higher than in May. However, the number of young people considered “inactive” because they are not in work or actively looking for a job dropped 0.2 of a percentage point to 74%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Unemployment Rises to 12.7 Percent
Italy’s unemployment rate rose to 12.7 percent in June, the national statistics office, Istat, said on Friday.
The number of people without jobs in June — 85,000 — was also 2.7 percent higher than in the same month last year, while the unemployment rate was 0.3 percent higher.
The latest figures will come as a blow to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who ushered in controversial labour reforms earlier this year in an effort to boost hiring.
The IMF said on Monday that Italy will need 20 years to bring its jobless rate back down to pre-crisis levels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s South is Worse Off Than Greece
Italy’s impoverished south has the lowest growth rate in the eurozone, lagging far behind even the sick man of Europe, Greece.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poverty-Hit Southern Italy Risks Point of No Return: Study
Italy’s economically-crippled south risks being trapped in a permanent cycle of underdevelopment according to a new study which has left the government red-faced.
The anti-establishment Five Star party called on the country’s economic development minister Friday to address the Senate on the “frankly disastrous situation” south of the capital, from Naples to Sicily, which was outlined in a report by the Svimez Institute.
“Industrial desertification” risks leading to “a lack of human resources, businesses and financial communities” which would “prevent the south from latching onto economic recovery and transform a cyclical crisis into a permanent state of underdevelopment,” the report said.
Gross domestic product in the so-called Mezzogiorno grew just 13 percent between 2000 and 2013, while that of troubled Greece grew 24 percent, the report said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Unemployment Stable in Eurozone in June, 11.1 Percent
Greece highest at 25.6 percent, youth at 53.2 in April
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS — Unemployment is stable in the 19-nation eurozone, with the level of joblessness in June standing at 11.1 percent for the third straight month.
Among the nations that share the euro currency, Greece had the highest level of unemployment, at 25.6 percent. Germany had the lowest level at 4.7 percent. Greece also had the highest level of youth unemployment at 53.2 percent in April, the last month for which it had statistics available. Average eurozone unemployment among those under 25 rose slightly to 22.5 percent.
Italy’s youth unemployment rate climbed to 44.2% in June.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Varoufakis Warns Spain Could ‘Become Greece’
Spain could become like Greece if the same austerity policies are imposed on the country, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said in an interview published Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
California Wildfire Threatens Thousands of Homes
A massive, fast-moving wildfire has destroyed at least 24 homes and threatens another 5,000 in a drought-stricken area about 100 miles north of San Francisco, authorities said Sunday.
The so-called Rocky Fire was only about 5% contained by midday Sunday. It was just one of 21 large wildfires burning statewide, fire officials said.
Fueled by triple-digit temperatures, single-digit humidity and erratic winds, the Rocky Fire more than doubled in size overnight, from just over 20,000 acres on Saturday to 47,000 acres on Sunday, said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CalFire.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Confederate Flag Supporters Rally in North Carolina and Georgia
“We’re not here to promote racism. That’s not what the flag is about”
About 150 Confederate flag supporters rallied in North Carolina on Saturday, the latest challenge to the growing numbers of elected officials and public figures who want to consign the flag to history as they consider it a symbol of slavery and segregation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Does Donald Trump Have Any Friends in the GOP?
As the first Republican debate approaches, Donald Trump, the businessman-turned-politician currently leading national polls, is landing squarely in the cross-hairs of many GOP candidates.
“I’m going to clearly push back and I’m going to push back hard” against Trump, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry promised in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
The Republican presidential candidate, who has himself been the target of heavy Trump criticism, brushed off his competition’s recent popularity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged Sunday that if elected she will build on a new White House clean-energy program and defend it against those she called “Republican doubters and defeatists.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sanders: Biden Would Represent ‘Conventional Establishment Politics’ In Democratic Race
Amid weekend reports that Vice President Biden may be taking a serious look at a presidential bid, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) characterized Biden as being part of “conventional establishment politics” — which Sanders has criticized throughout his campaign for the Democratic nomination.
“I’ve known Joe Biden for many years, and I’m very fond of Joe. But I think the American people … want to go beyond conventional establishment politics,” Sanders said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Biden has never ruled out a presidential run. But speculation about a potential 2016 candidacy grew after New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd reported Saturday that Beau Biden, shortly before his death, had urged his father to run for president again.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Biden could “do very well and maybe win” the Democratic nomination over front-runner Hillary Clinton because of the controversies over Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail account while she was secretary of state.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vet Finds Hateful Note on Car at Local Shopping Center
QUEENSBURY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — A simple trip to the store ended with a veteran getting a hateful letter left on his car.
When a local Iraq War veteran went shopping Thursday morning, he did not expect to find an anonymous note with ugly language left on his car.
The letter blasted the Marine for having a Purple Heart and serving overseas. It stated, “All of you Islamaphobe vets deserve to die.”
The note has people shaking their heads. Some call the author pathetic.
“It’s just shocking,” Ann Lanoir said. “It’s just ignorant. That’s the way I feel. I feel like some punk wrote it.”
“Makes me sick to my stomach,” Navy veteran Robert LaPrairie said. “To me, it’s an act of terrorism really.”
“I just think it’s awful,” John Mohring said. “It’s very terrible. Veterans are our heroes.”
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Topless ‘Bare With Us’ Protest Rally in Canada
Hundreds of Canadian woman joined a topless protest march after three sisters were allegedly stopped by police for cycling without shirts.
Saturday’s “Bare with us” march took place in Waterloo, Ontario. The women say that police told them to cover up whilst cycling in the neighbouring town of Kitchener last month.
They have filed a formal complaint with the police.
It is legal for women to be topless in Ontario after a court ruling in 1996.
Protestors held signs that included the slogans “They are boobs not bombs, chill out” and “Nudity isn’t sexual.”
The three sisters, Tameera, Nadia and Alysha Mohamed, say that they took their shirts off because it was a hot summer day.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Spanish Wine
It was the Romans’ favourite drink, a muse to Picasso and fell victim to the fascist regime of dicator Francisco Franco. Wine blogger Timmer Brown lifts the lid on everything you (probably) didn’t know about Spanish vino.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Intelligence Chief Defends Charges Against Netzpolitik Reporters
Germany’s domestic intelligence chief has defended charges against Netzpolitik reporters to “ensure the fight against extremism and terrorism.” Netzpolitik was to be investigated for publishing “classified” documents.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian State Owns Property Worth Around 59 Billion Euros
Most of assets located in the region of Lazio
(ANSA) — Rome, July 31 — The Italian State owns about 59 billion euros of property assets including buildings and historical and artistic assets, data posted online showed on Friday.
The Agenzia del Demanio, which manages Italian State property, said the majority of assets were in the region around Rome, Lazio, which holds 13.6% of the total.
It’s followed by Veneto with 9% of the total and Puglia with 7.9%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Intesa Sanpaolo Posts Best First-Half Profit Since 2008
Bank says net income more than doubled in first half of 2015
(ANSA) — Milan, July 31 — Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo said on Friday that its net income in the first half of 2015 had more than doubled, rising to over two billion euros from 720 million euros in the same period last year.
It said the result was its highest half-year profit since the first half of 2008.
The bank also confirmed that it would distribute two billion euros of cash dividends in 2015.
“We can affirm that a bank like ours is a growth accelerator capable of making a difference in a year that could represent a turning point for Italy,” Intesa Chief Executive Carlo Messina said.
“The half-year we just ended is the best half-year we have had since the creation of Intesa Sanpaolo,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Inspections Find Irregular Work Conditions in 59% of Firms
Firms failing on protection of working mothers, foreign staff
(ANSA) — Rome, July 28 — Italy’s labour ministry said on Tuesday that 59% of companies that had been inspected in the first half of the year had staff working under irregular conditions, a higher rate than the same period the previous year.
During investigations, inspectors challenged businesses for 18,215 employees who were working off the books, and ordered 3,873 companies to suspend operations due to their use of undeclared staff.
Some of the main violations inspectors dealt with in the January-June period included overtime work infringements and failure to ensure health and safety standards.
The ministry also noted “the significant increase in irregularities of a criminal nature, relating to the protection of working mothers and the use of illegal foreign workers.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Grana Padano Exports Up 10% in First Four Months of 2015
60% increase in US sales
(ANSA) — Rome, July 29 — Exports of Italy’s Grana Padano cheese rose 10% in the first four months of 2015, according to data released on Wednesday by the Consortium for the Protection of Grana Padano.
A total of 660,000 wheels of the protected designation of origin (PDP) semi-fat hard cheese — one of Italy’s most popular — were sold abroad, the consortium said.
Sales to the United States rose a whopping 60%. European Union markets also performed well, in particular Germany and Spain where exports increased by 9%.
Sales to Russia, on the contrary, plunged 80% — equal to a loss of 3.8 million euros — due to an embargo on EU food imports in response to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Polish Plan to Honor Portuguese-Run Supermarket Sparks Anger
Biedronka chain alleged exploitation of workers
(ANSA-AP) — WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s government has postponed plans to bestow a top honor on the Portuguese businessman who runs popular discount supermarket chain Biedronka after a public outcry over the company’s alleged exploitation of workers. The incident exposes growing tensions between Poland’s pro-market government, which in this case wanted to reward a foreign company that has created jobs, and Poles who feel the government’s pro-business policies are enriching corporations to the detriment of workers. Voter anger threatens to unseat the ruling Civic Platform party in fall parliamentary elections.
Poland’s foreign minister had planned to bestow the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland on Pedro Pereira da Silva, director of the Portuguese food distribution group Jeronimo Martins in Poland, on Wednesday. The order is meant to honor foreigners or Poles abroad who have helped Poland’s development.
The ceremony was suddenly called off after the public outcry, though the Foreign Ministry said Friday it was merely postponed “to another mutually convenient date, which at the moment is not yet known.” A group devoted to fighting the exploitation of Biedronka employees had written to Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna to protest the award. “You decided to honor a man whose ‘outstanding contribution’ is the exploitation of thousands of Polish women and men,” the group wrote in the open letter, adding that Biedronka has faced prosecution for crimes against 302 people for failure to pay wages owed or committing other violations of the labor code. Da Silva is to be honored for helping Polish economic development, creating jobs and helping develop trade ties between Poland and Portugal, the Polish Foreign Ministry said. Schetyna defended the decision to honor da Silva on Thursday, arguing that the Jeronimo Martins group has directly hired more than 58,000 people and that its large investments have indirectly created many more jobs.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Reinventing Spain’s ‘Ageless Art’ of Flamenco
Veteran flamenco star, Merche Esmeralda, is the figurehead of the renaissance of Spain’s classic gypsy dance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi King Cuts Short French Holiday After Beach Closure Uproar
Saudi Arabian King Salman left the south of France for Morocco on Sunday, cutting short a planned three-week stay after a petition from some 150,000 residents over the closure of a public beach outside his villa.
A Saudi source said King Salman had arrived in Morocco, saying this was part of his holiday programme and had nothing to do with the media coverage that his visit had attracted.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Teenager Stabbed at Jerusalem Gay Pride March Dies: Hospital
A teenage girl stabbed along with five other people at a Jerusalem Gay Pride march by a suspect identified as an ultra-Orthodox Jew died of her wounds on Sunday, a hospital said. Shira Banki, 16, had been in critical condition since being stabbed in the back during Thursday’s march. The five other victims suffered various degrees of injuries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Troops Killed in ‘Kurdish PKK Suicide Blast’
Two Turkish soldiers have been killed and 31 wounded in a suicide attack by Kurdish PKK militants, the Turkish military says.
A tractor laden with explosives was driven at a military police station, a statement said.
The attack happened early on Sunday near the town of Dogubayezit in Agri province, near the border with Iran.
Since 24 July, Turkey has carried out hundreds of air raids on PKK bases on both sides of the Iraq-Turkey border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A New Hunt for ET Could Well Find AI on Non-Earthlike Worlds
Any intelligence we find on exoplanets is likely to be artificial as living brains are just a prelude to a machine-based culture, says the UK’s Astronomer Royal Martin Rees.
AS WE discover planets across our galaxy — and perhaps beyond — it is right that the search for alien entities should be stepped up. Breakthrough Listen, a $100-million project led by the Russian billionaire and venture capitalist Yuri Milner, is set to reinvigorate the hunt for ET.
The search for planets orbiting other stars usually focuses on finding and scrutinising those that resemble Earth. And while it would be fascinating to find evidence for a biosphere on such a world, we should be open-minded about advanced entities existing in very different environments.
Why? Many people now believe that machine intelligence will eventually surpass human capabilities. Even if this is centuries away on Earth, it is clear that technology advances in an instant compared with the Darwinian selection that led to us.
We should accept that the era of organic intelligence is relatively short, and will be followed by a much longer era dominated by inorganic intelligences. Humans and our intellectual achievements will be a mere precursor to the deeper cogitations of a machine-dominated culture.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia ‘Kills Eight “Islamic State” Militants’ Close to Chechnya
Russia’s counterterrorism forces have killed eight “Islamic State” (IS) militants in North Caucasus. Thousands of Russian citizens are now believed to be fighting for jihadi-affiliated factions in Syria.
The eight men killed by Russian forces were believed to have been part of the Chechen umbrella group, the Caucases Emirates, which in June “pledged allegiance and joined the international terrorist organization IS” and appointed a “governor” of the Caucasus.
They were allegedly responsible for a series of deadly attacks against police in the region.
According to Russian officials more than 1,000 Russian nationals have joined the Islamist militant group and are fighting for factions affiliated with IS jihadists in Syria.
Fears are mounting over the major threat they could pose when they return. Chechen separatists have previously fought a number of wars against the Russian authorities
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Sees ‘Hindu Terror in BJP’ Due to Up-Surging Nationalism Against Radical Islam in India
BJP raking up Hindu terror issue to polarise country: Congress.
IANS | New Delhi | Aug 1, 2015:: The Congress on Saturday said the NDA government was trying to rake up the Hindu terror issue in a bid to divide and polarize the country.
“The comment of the then home minister is being quoted out of context. It is a deliberate attempt on the part of the government, it is the deliberate attempt on the part of the BJP for various reasons — to divide the country, to take up the debate between two religions,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told the media.
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
Death Toll Rises as Monsoon Rains Batter Southeast Asia
Torrential rains in Southeast Asia have decimated thousands of homes and fields. The death toll across India and Myanmar is rising as emergency services fight against the elements to reach those in need.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Bed of Thorns: A Woman’s Journey Through Human Trafficking.
The story of E’s* life is heart-rending. The 30-year-old woman has been victim to forced conversion and marriage, prostitution, violence and trafficking in the last eight years.
Rabia Ali | Tribune Pk | Karachi | Aug 1, 2015:: Her ordeal raises questions about the sad state of women, who continue to remain deprived of basic human rights in society. Sitting in the Madadgaar National Helpline’s office covered from head to toe in a burka on Friday, E* narrated her painful journey, often breaking down into tears.
In 2008, the woman, a Hindu and belonging to Thatta, started talking to Muhammad Rahim on the phone. Rahim proposed to her, painting a rosy picture with a promise of getting married. “He said we would go to court and get married,” she said. But that never happened. According to her, Rahim took her to his village, Muhammad Siddiq Baloch, and locked her up.
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
Japanese Whisky to Make Space Trip
A Japanese distilling company has announced plans to rocket its whisky into space to study the effect of zero gravity on taste. Researchers believe the unique conditions could create a mellower flavor.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Viagra ‘Added to Chinese Alcohol’
Distillers in China added Viagra to thousands of bottles of spirits and told customers it had “health-preserving qualities”, food safety officials say. More than 5,300 bottles of alcohol were seized by the investigators in the southern city of Liuzhou.
China continues to face widespread food safety problems.
In June, police in cities across China seized more than 100,000 tonnes of smuggled meat, some of which was more than 40 years old.
The 2008 tainted milk scandal outraged the nation.
Some 300,000 people were affected and at least six babies died after consuming milk adulterated with melamine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
4 Sub-Saharan Africans Drown While Trying to Swim to Ceuta
Four Sub-Saharan Africans drowned on Sunday as they were trying to swim illegally to the Spanish enclave city of Ceuta on Morocco’s coast, the Moroccan Interior Ministry reported in a communique.
The bodies of the migrants, whose nationality was not specified, were found by a Moroccan Royal Navy patrol boat near Belyunech, on the northern border of Ceuta.
Despite the process of immigration regularization launched by the Moroccan government in 2014, which has permitted the legalization of almost 30,000 migrants, a sizable number of Sub-Saharan Africans have failed to take advantage of it and have preferred to remain hidden in the forested areas near Ceuta and another Spanish enclave city — Melilla — and try to make it into Spanish territory, where they can enjoy the benefits of the European Union’s liberal immigration policy.
The areas around Melilla were cleared of illegal immigrants at the beginning of this year by Moroccan police but not the zone around Ceuta, where Africans can be seen on the local roads begging for handouts from motorists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Refugee Intake Halted at ‘Inhumane’ Camp
Austria’s main refugee processing centre will temporarily halt its intake of asylum seekers at the overcrowded camp, officials said on Friday, after the UN described conditions there as “dangerous and inhumane”.
The centre in Traiskirchen, 20 kilometres south of Vienna, would no longer accept new migrants as of next Wednesday, Lower Austrian governor Erwin Pröll said.
The camp, which is meant to house 1,800 people, currently holds more than twice as many — 4,500 refugees. Nearly half of them do not have a bed.
Austria, a country of 8.5 million people, received more than 28,000 asylum requests in 2014, three times the European average relative to population size.
It expects at least 75,000 asylum seekers to arrive by the end of this year, with a majority coming via Serbia and Hungary.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Calais Migrants Sprayed With Tear Gas
French police have used tear gas to force back a group of migrants who had cut through fencing at the Channel Tunnel terminal in Calais.
A large group approached the railway tracks with the intention of trying to board trains heading to the UK.
Footage showed a crowd of people near fencing shouting: “Open the border” before they were sprayed by police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Group to Publish Pro-Refugee Ads
Roughly 1000 Danes have made private contributions towards a campaign aimed at letting refugees and other countries know that ‘other voices also exist in Denmark’.
A Danish Facebook campaign to gather enough contributions to post pro-refugee advertisements in national and foreign newspapers has thus far managed to raise 100,000 kroner.
The campaign began as a response to the Danish government’s announced intention to post anti-refugee advertisements in foreign newspapers, in an effort to deter such individuals from coming to Denmark.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Companies: Drop Anti-Refugee Ads
Danish businesses fear that the campaign will damage Denmark’s reputation abroad by making the country appear unwelcoming to all foreigners, rather than only refugees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ending Calais Migrants Crisis is ‘Top Priority’
France and Britain vowed on Sunday that ending a crisis which has seen thousands of attempts by migrants to reach England from Calais in recent weeks is a “top priority”.
The joint statement came as a French opposition lawmaker accused British Prime Minister David Cameron of failing to grasp “the severity of the problem”, and said migrants should not be stopped from going to England unless stronger measures were taken.
Hundreds of migrants have tried to make it into the undersea tunnel in recent weeks in the hopes of finding a way onto a train or lorry headed for Britain. At least 10 migrants have died attempting the dangerous journey since June.
Earlier this week, the British government pledged 10 million euros ($11 million) to improve fencing around the Eurotunnel rail terminal in Coquelles, outside Calais.
And Cameron, who has warned that the crisis could last all summer, promised “more fencing, more resources, more sniffer dog teams” to aid French police in their nightly cat-and-mouse game with the migrants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eurotunnel Migrant Activity Down Overnight
French police said on Saturday some 300 migrants in Calais attempted to reach Britain via the cross-Channel tunnel overnight, a significant drop from previous nights as the security presence is beefed up.
Overnight Thursday French authorities faced more than 1,000 attempts by migrants camped out in the port of Calais to reach the Channel tunnel overnight.
France has sent 120 additional police officers to the northern port city to stem the crisis, as the number of deaths since June reached 10.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: July Asylum Applications Hit ‘All-Time Record’
More people applied for asylum in Germany in July than in any previous month on record, the Ministry for Immigration and Refugees announced on Friday.
The 79,000 asylum applications lodged in July made it the month and “all time record” said Ministry for Immigration and Refugees (BAMF) president Manfred Schmidt.
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Germany Introduces Heavier Penalties for Racist Criminals
Germany is introducing stricter laws on racist violence in response to a series of murders blamed on the neo-Nazi cell NSU. The amendments come amid a new wave of xenophobic attacks against refugees.
The new laws, which go into force on Saturday, include granting greater powers to federal prosecutors in cases of “hate crimes,” such as those committed with a racist motivation, and the introduction of heavier penalties for such offenses.
According to information released by the German government, federal prosecutors will also be able to intervene earlier in investigations of crimes where racism or xenophobia are suspected to have been in play.
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Immigration is Europeans’ Biggest Concern, Poll Finds
Immigration is the most pressing concern for Europeans, overtaking the economic situation and unemployment, according to a new Eurobarometer survey.
Thirty-eight percent of Europeans regard immigration as their main policy priority, the spring Eurobarometer poll published on Friday (31 July) found, a 14 point increase from last autumn.
Migration has been pushed up the political agenda as thousands of migrants from north and sub-Saharan Africa cross the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better life in Europe.
According to Frontex, the EU’s border agency, 153,000 migrants had landed in Europe by the end of June this year, a 150 percent increase on 2014. The largest numbers of migrants have come from Syria, Eritrea and Somalia.
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In Pictures: Calais Migrant Crisis Sparks Rival Protests in Folkestone
Rival protests on the Calais migrant crisis were held on Saturday in the sleepy British port town of Folkestone, with some people welcoming the migrants while others demonstrated against their arrival.
The cranking up of the loudspeakers was the cue they had been waiting for. With their Union Jack flags flapping in the breeze and their sound systems blaring out an instrumental version of “God Save the Queen,” a handful of anti-immigrant protesters charged a group of pro-migrant demonstrators who were gathering on the other side of a road leading to the Eurotunnel’s Folkestone terminal.
The anti-immigrant activists, made up of members of the far-right Britain First group and English Defence League (EDL), had gathered in this sleepy English seaside town to stage a rival protest over the growing tide of migrants attempting to storm the Channel Tunnel from France to Britain.
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Increase in Violence in Swedish Asylum Centres
The Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket) has so far this year recorded almost as many reports of threats and violence in asylum accommodation as throughout the whole of 2014, according to the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
The incidents relate not only to threats and violence, but also to vandalism, arson and attempted suicide.
“It’s a very volatile situation,” Monica Karum Bergvall of the Swedish Migration Board. “There are long delays and overcrowding. Many people feel bad and feel a great deal of frustration. Then they may become intimidating to our officers or other residents.”
The surge of migrants into Europe fleeing war-torn regions has increased the pressure on the Swedish migration system.
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Migrant Wounded in German Police Shooting
A Guinean migrant who caused a brawl in a home for asylum seekers in Germany was shot and seriously wounded by police, local media reported.
Germany receives a large proportion of migrants fleeing to Europe to escape poverty, war and persecution.
In 2015 the country is set to receive an estimated 500,000 asylum seekers, which would be a record, according to the German refugees office.
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Migrant Flow to Europe is Result of US, EU Military Ops in Middle East — Czech President
The flow of immigrants to Europe stems from the Western states’ military interventions in Iraq, Libya and Syria, which have contributed to the emergence of terrorist groups in the Middle East, Czech President Milosh Zeman told local media.
“The current wave of migration (to Europe) is rooted in the crazy (US) idea to launch an intervention in Iraq, which allegedly had weapons of mass destruction, but nothing was found,” Zeman said in a video interview with the Czech Repubic’s Blesk newspaper published on Sunday.
On top of this, the US’ desire to “restore order” in Libya and Syria only resulted in the escalation of conflicts in both countries and the emergence of terrorist organizations, prompting people to flee the area, Zeman said.
He added that not only the US was to blame for the migrant chaos, but its Western allies that helped to “coordinate operations in Libya” as well.
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More Than 300,000 Refugees Seek Asylum in Germany in 2015: Report
More than 300,000 asylum seekers have registered in Germany since the start of 2015, German daily “Die Welt” has reported. The country’s states have called for greater federal aid to cope with the influx.
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Report: German Refugee Figures ‘Underestimated’
Germany has hosted more than 300,000 asylum seekers since the start of the year, said the daily Die Welt on Saturday, nearly 50,000 more than first thought, as Berlin prepares for a record influx of refugees in 2015.
Because of its good economic health, Germany has become the leading destination in Europe for migrants, especially for those fleeing poverty, war and persecution.
A huge influx is not without problems in some areas, especially in villages and small towns in eastern Germany where few foreigners live.
Overall since the start of the year, violent incidents against homes or future homes of refugees have increased sharply: 202 between January and June, as many as there were in all of 2014, according to official figures.
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Slovak Village: Not in My Backyard
Bratislava, Aug 2 (CTK) — The inhabitants of Gabcikovo, a village in south Slovakia, refused to temporarily accept some 500 refugees, who are staying in neighboring Austria, in a local referendum held today.
Almost 97 percent of the voters were against the refugees’ stay in their village.
However, the Slovak Interior Ministry announced that it was not obliged to follow the referendum results.
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Sweden Critical of UK Policy on Calais Migrants
The Swedish justice and migration minister, Morgan Johansson, has accused David Cameron of “playing politics” with the migrant crisis in Calais.
The situation in Calais showed “a system that is breaking down”, he told BBC Radio 4’s World This Weekend, adding: “I see a country who don’t want to take the responsibility that they should”.
Migrants in Calais are making nightly bids to cross the Channel.
The UK and French governments have announced they will bolster security around the Eurotunnel site in Calais.
Mr Johansson was critical of Mr Cameron’s rhetoric: “I hear what he is saying about ‘illegal immigrants’ and ‘swarms’ and I think he is trying to divide people, that that is not a constructive way.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend programme, Mr Johansson criticised Mr Cameron for using the word “illegal” about asylum seekers before they have been through asylum the process, and said they were seeking a basic human right.
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UK: Migrants Think Our Streets Are Paved With Gold
Those fleeing Africa for financial gain in Europe have unrealistic ideas about what we can offer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
300.000 WTF? It’s a not so small a city!
Dutch King to fellow citizens
The End of The Welfare State
“Dutch King Willem-Alexander declares the end of the welfare state. Youngest monarch in Europe says people must take responsibility for their own future and create their own social and financial safety nets.”
August 2015
Is this for real? Looks like a little Dutch boy in a a great big throne chair. But there are snippets of un-fun reality. And the wiki looks like him:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem-Alexander_of_the_Netherlands
His interests? water management and the Olympics. The former is a good idea if he plans to hang on to the monarchy. But if he’s calling for his “subjects” to create their own safety nets, he ought to lead by example. Say, behead Beatrix and cut down the Orange tree and those dancing in it limbs.
Just sayin’….