Euro Bailouts Push Up German Debt
The strong economy will allow Berlin to significantly reduce state debt in 2012 — but the cost of the EU bailouts means that from 2013 Germany will have to borrow more than previously anticipated.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Council Accepts 2% Rise in EU 2012 Budget
European Union president Poland said Friday that member governments have accepted a two per cent spending hike in the EU’s 2012 budget, much less than the five percent sought earlier this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Clears Urgent Aid to Save Greece From Default
Eurozone finance ministers cleared the way Saturday for Greece to receive urgent funds to avoid imminent bankruptcy, but warned it would take weeks to conclude a new bailout for the debt-hit nation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Blacks in New York Grow Sick of Being Used as Liberal Pawns
In a sign that the Democratic Party stranglehold over the black community is starting to slip, hundreds of blacks protested in New York this past week against the harmful educational policies that the NAACP and the United Federation of Teachers union are trying to force upon their children.
As reported by Caroline May for The Daily Caller, “charter school parents staged another of several rallies to voice opposition to a lawsuit brought by the UFT and NAACP against the New York City Department of Education. If the organizations are successful with their suit, it would prevent enrollment or re-enrollment in 17 charter schools and stop the closure of 22 public schools.”
The teacher’s union has decided that the plum salaries and benefits enjoyed by their members are more important than whether or not black children receive a good education. They are doing all they can to destroy the charter school movement that has for the first time in generations given minority children a chance to succeed, in order to preserve their monopoly which has decimated the black community with far less than 50% graduation rates in most urban communities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: The Tipping Point: Embracing the Muslim Brotherhood
The Obama administration chose the eve of the holiday marking our Nation’s birth to acknowledge publicly behavior in which it has long been stealthily engaged to the United States’ extreme detriment: Its officials now admit that they are embracing the Muslim Brotherhood (MB or Ikhwan in Arabic). That would be the same international Islamist organization that has the destruction of the United States, Israel and all other parts of the Free World as its explicit objective.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to downplay the momentousness of this major policy shift by portraying it during a stopover in Budapest as follows: “The Obama administration is continuing the approach of limited contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood that have existed on and off for about five or six years.” In fact, as former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy points out in a characteristically brilliant, and scathing, dissection of this announcement, Team Obama’s official, open legitimation of the Brotherhood marks a dramatic break from the U.S. government’s historical refusal to deal formally with the Ikhwan.
To understand why the Obama administration’s embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood is so ominous, consider three insights into the organization’s nature and ambitions:…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Ineligibility: A Vast Conspiracy Against America
I believe Obama and his radical supporters will use all means legal or illegal to win in 2012.
Barack Obama is an illegal President, who has likely committed felonies in office and there is an active conspiracy to prevent the American people from learning the truth.
There is evidence that Obama’s birth documents and Selective Service registrations are forgeries and that he is using a stolen Social Security number.
Yet there are no investigations to ascertain the facts. There is only willful ignorance.
Many of our political leaders and government officials are either actively or passively complicit in this crime against our Constitution and our country.
Attorney Leo Donofrio has documented evidence that Justia.com, the main resource on the web for all things related to United States Supreme Court holdings, has been censoring various references to Minor v. Happersett (1875), the Supreme Court case which proves that Obama is an illegal President.
These revisions, which began prior to the 2008 election, must have been directed by persons with sophisticated legal knowledge and were likely perpetrated by Obama supporters to mislead the American people.
There is no way that it was an accident. As Donofrio writes this is a “red alert moment for our nation.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘Hot-Saucing’ Couple to Pay Damages to Their Kids
A couple in Norrtälje, north of Stockholm, was sentenced to pay damages to their kids after forcing them to swallow Tabasco sauce as punishment for telling lies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Three-Year-Old Car Vandal is Youngest Criminal in Britain
A boy of three has become Britain’s youngest vandal after police caught him damaging cars in a street close to his home, it emerged yesterday.
The toddler, who is an astonishing seven years below the age of criminal responsibility, was seen attacking a string of vehicles.
But because of his age — a child only becomes responsible for their actions at the age of 10 — the police were powerless to take any action.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Breakthrough in Serbia-Kosovo Talks Delivers First Deals
Serbia and Kosovo took a giant step to ease mutual tension Saturday, striking deals to overcome nuts-and-bolts problems for citizens caused by Belgrade’s refusal to recognise Pristina’s independence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Italian Specialists for Botanic Garden
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JUNE 14 — After a two-year closure for construction works, the London garden in Biskra, created at the end of the 19th century by a British nobleman and considered to be an ecological treasure, has reopened; hundreds of plant species, including tropical species, are grown within the garden.
The garden, created by Count Albert London de Langeville, has reopened, with investments totalling some 270 million dinars (about 2.5 million euros), thanks to Italian specialists’ contributions, using Algerian technicians and gardeners. According to ‘El Watan’ newspaper, there is a small lake which houses thousands of bird species in the part of the garden which is still under construction and will be opened to the public in a matter of months.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gaddafi Threatens Attacks in Europe
Libyan leader tells West to ‘retreat before you face catastrophe,’ threatens to launch attacks in Europe should strikes against him persist. ‘If we decide to, we are able to move to Europe like locusts, like bees,’ Gaddafi says
Gaddafi threatens Europe: A defiant Muammar Gaddafi has threatened to carry out attacks in Europe unless NATO halts its campaign of airstrikes against his regime in Libya.
Gaddafi delivered the warning Friday in an audio message played to thousands of supporters gathered in the main square of the capital Tripoli.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Leptis Magna: Archaeological Jewel
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 14 — From captivating token from a past that goes back to a thousand years BC and that UNESCO wants to protect against any price, to shield of an unscrupulous army loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, whose days are counted and who has been abandoned by most of the international community. This is the strange story of Leptis Magna — one of the most beautiful archaeological gems in the world — a city that was covered by desert sand for hundreds of years and that was given back its ancient splendour in the archaeological campaign in the twentieth century. Today armed men and vehicles equipped with rocket launchers are moving among the remains of this priceless treasure looking for shelter, in the certainty that NATO airstrikes will avoid hits on what has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1982. Together with the ancient city of Ghadames, the rocky sites in the natural park Tadrart Akakus and the archaeological sites of Cyrene and Sabratha, Leptis Magna (130 km south-east of Tripoli) is one of the five wonders of Libya. Created as a Phoenician port around 1100 BC as a hub for the flourishing trade in spices, slaves and animals, Leptis Magna was conquered by the Carthaginians who took it from the Romans during the third Punic War (146 BC) and later it was incorporated by Tiberius in the province of Africa. Under the Romans (who added the word ‘Magna’ to its name ‘Leptis’, it became a large metropolis and reached its highest splendor, with more than 100,000 inhabitants, during the period of Septimius Severus (193 AD) who was born in the city. Together with Tripoli and Sabratha, Leptis Magna is one of the three cities that form the basis of the name Tripolitania. When Tripolitania was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century, Leptis Magna lost much of its old magnificence and became a shadow of itself. It was completely abandoned by all but a Byzantine garrison. Slowly it was swallowed by the sand. After a century of archaeological campaigns and restoration work the site has recovered its old splendour, which becomes clear when looking at the magnificent arch of Septimius Severus, built in 203 AD for the visit of the emperor to his birth city. But also from the site’s giant Theatre in stone, built between the first and second century AD, considered to be one of the most ancient of the Roman world with an incredible stage decorated with hundreds of sculptures; and the market place with its Gorgon texts sculptured in marble; and the Baths ordered by Hadrian and opened in 137 AD. In the year 2000 several mosaics were uncovered, considered to be among the best conserved in the world.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tipasa and the Archaeological Park to Protect
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 10 — “No cameras, please. You know the flashes can ruin the sites”. The security official at the entrance to Tipasa archaeological park speaks as if he means business, but when we tell him that we are journalists and not photographers he relaxes.
“You can go in, but no photos,” he repeats. So here is Tipasa, a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about 70 km east of Algiers. The ancient city was founded by the Phoenicians in 1857 BCE on three hills overlooking the sea. Of the original houses, most of which were built on the hill in the middle, no trace is left, but the ruins of three churches are still there, along with two cemeteries, a thermal baths, a theatre and amphitheatre which together make up the archaeological park.
Thanks to its strategic position, (giving the city its name, which meant in Phoenician ‘transit point’), the city earned its place in UNESCO’s world heritage list back in 1982 and it is visited by many tourists every year, attracted not just by the beaches, but also by the remnants of Phoenician, Roman and Christian civilisation. But this sprawling archaeological park is far from well looked after, despite the government’s efforts to invest in tourism over past years, trying at the same time to educate the people of Algeria about the riches present in their own country. And some of the fruits of these efforts are visible in Tipasa. There are plentiful waste bins on the site, as well as signs telling visitors not to leave litter. As well, of course, as the warning about not taking photos. That’s as far as it goes. There are no controls on the ruins themselves, on which the tourists sit posing for photographs, trampling precious mosaics underfoot. “A lot of them have been ruined already. What is the point in preventing people from taking photos when anyone can walk across the ruins?” asks the Algerian guide who often accompanies tourists and journalists to Tipasa and who has witnessed how the city loses another piece of its antique splendour as each year goes by. “There have been improvements: the check point at the entrance being the best one, and the bins and the notices, but these are not enough. You need security guards positioned all over the park and heavy fines for those who despoil it,” he added. Confirming his words, it would appear that a delegation from UNESCO called by on Tipasa not so long ago, making several points about the way the area was being protected.
Tipasa continues to attract tourist every year, but the village, once a transit point for navigators, risks deteriorating and its ruins disappearing. It would be a shame to lose this piece of the mosaic of Algeria’s past.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Who is the Muslim Brotherhood?
The MB has has tried to portray itself as moderate and democratic. But at its core it is anything but. The Brotherhood is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Israel National News thanks StandWithUs for helping bring the Muslim Brotherhood to our readers in its own words: The Muslim Brotherhood logo fits its motto: “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope. Allahu akbar!”
The Brotherhood’s goal is to turn the world into an Islamist empire. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, is a revolutionary fundamentalist movement to restore the caliphate and strict shariah (Islamist) law in Muslim lands and, ultimately, the world. Today, it has chapters in 80 countries. “It is in the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.” -Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Coast Guard Stops Hamas Flotilla
[…]
On Friday, the Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection issued a statement saying that the Minister, C. Papoutsis, decided to prohibit the departure of ships flying either Greek or foreign flags “to the maritime area” of Gaza.
“By orders of the Hellenic Coast Guard Head Quarters to all local Hellenic Coast Guard Authorities, all appropriate measures are taken for the implementation of the said decision,” the statement said.
The Greek ministry said that the “broader maritime area of eastern Mediterranean will be continuously monitored by electronic means for tracking, where applicable, the movements of the ships allegedly participating” in the Gaza flotilla.
While Cyprus had already banned ships headed for Gaza from leaving their ports, the Greeks had not taken this measure until Friday.
A flotilla of boats planning to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip is expected to sail next week, after repeated delays that activists blame on Israeli sabotage. Israel has denied the accusations.
| — Hat tip: 1389AD | [Return to headlines] |
Officials Mum on Pakistani Nukes for Saudis
Turki: Iranian bomb ‘could lead to untold and possibly dramatic consequences’
The Department of Defense and the State Department are refusing to comment on the prospect that Pakistan may be in the process of providing a nuclear umbrella for Sunni Saudi Arabia in the event that Shiite Iran decides to build nuclear weapons, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Informed regional sources said that Sunni Pakistan was prepared to store nuclear weapons at Saudi bases not only for Saudi use but to protect them in the event of terrorist attacks inside Pakistan — even though the Pakistanis claim their nuclear weapons are well-protected.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
India Offers Free Cars in Return for Sterilization
Health officials in the Indian state of Rajasthan are launching a new campaign to try reduce the high population growth in the area.
They are encouraging men and women to volunteer for sterilisation, and in return are offering a car and other prizes for those who come forward.
Among the rewards on offer is the Indian-made Tata Nano — the world’s cheapest car.
[…]
A nationwide campaign was abandoned in the 1970s, however, after complaints that thousands of men and women were forced into having the operation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Minister Demands EU Probe Danish Border Controls
German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has sharply criticised Denmark’s decision to reintroduce border controls and demanded EU officials take action against the Scandinavian country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saddam Hussein’s Torture Doctor Has Been Working in British Hospitals for Seven Years, Immigration Scandal Reveals
A doctor involved in horrific torture by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen is working in British hospitals.
In an astonishing immigration scandal, border officials have allowed the suspected war criminal to treat thousands of British patients.
Dr Mohammed Kassim Al-Byati was given a permit to work as a doctor in the NHS by the Labour government in 2004.
Checks failed to uncover his history of working for the notorious Iraqi Intelligence Agency, which ran the country in a reign of terror during the Saddam years.
His job was to patch up torture victims so that they could be subjected to more appalling treatment.
In 2007, Al-Byati contacted the Home Office to confess to his horrific past so that he could claim asylum.
But, incredibly, this did not prevent him from carrying on earning tens of thousands of pounds working at a hospital in Wales.
Even now, despite his file being referred to a specialist war crimes unit, he remains cleared by the General Medical Council, and has been working in the West Midlands.
The details have only now been unearthed by Home Secretary Theresa May, who was ‘horrified’ to discover what had been taking place.
She has ordered an urgent inquiry, and is planning changes to the rules to stop any similar cases slipping through the net.
There will also be a shake-up of the UK Border Agency war crimes unit.
Whitehall sources say the case shows the total shambles which UKBA became under Labour.
At its heart lies the Human Rights Act and a little-known EU directive which permitted the doctor to work even when his past was known.
It follows the controversy earlier this week of UKBA failing to stop a banned extremist, Raed Salah, from entering the country.
Under Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime countless Iraqis were tortured, maimed and imprisoned.
Favoured methods used by his secret police included eye-gouging; piercing of hands with an electric drill; suspension from a ceiling; electric shock; rape and other forms of sexual abuse; beating of the soles of feet; mock executions; extinguishing cigarettes on the body, and acid baths.
A case history seen by the Mail shows that Al-Byati arrived in Britain on a six-month visitor visa in January 2000, nine years after the end of the first Gulf War which left Saddam in power.
Officials twice extended his leave to stay so he could undertake clinical attachments as a doctor.
In January 2004, by which time Iraq had been invaded again, a work permit was granted and he was employed at a hospital in Wolverhampton until February 2007.
At this point, Al-Byati claimed asylum. In his witness statement he says he worked for the Iraqi Intelligence Agency.
In March 2007, while being interviewed by UKBA, Al-Byati stated that he patched people up after torture and was aware that the victims were returning to torture, but did not feel he could do anything about it.
A month later, his file was referred to the war crimes unit.
In 2008, he applied for permission to work as he had the offer of a four-month contract with a hospital in Wales.
Normally, asylum seekers are barred from working. But there is an EU directive that allows an asylum seeker to work if the case has not been dealt with for 12 months or more through no fault of their own.
As a result, since 2008 Al-Byati has been working full-time as a locum registrar and occasionally as a consultant in the West Midlands.
The scandal was unearthed because UKBA has just given advice to its chief executive that Al-Byati should be granted leave to remain, or asylum.
At this point, the stunned Home Secretary was made aware of what was happening. Leave to remain has not been granted.
A senior source said: ‘The Home Secretary was horrified to find out that this has been allowed to carry on for so long. She dragged the acting chief executive into her office and he got the hairdryer treatment.’
The source continued: ‘We always knew that Labour let the immigration system get out of control but we were genuinely stunned. The Home Secretary is seriously considering having a review of the way the entire agency works.’
The Home Secretary has also been demanding answers from the GMC, which is supposed to check a doctor’s background, but has been frustrated by slow response.
One perversity of the asylum system is that the worse the crimes an applicant has been involved in, the more likely he is to be allowed to stay.
He can claim that, if sent back to the country where the offences were committed, he may be subjected to degrading treatment, which is not allowed under the Human Rights Act.
In the past some asylum seekers have made their past exploits sound worse to bolster their case.
A report last year branded Britain a ‘safe haven’ for war criminals with hundreds of people wanted for murder and torture living here free from prosecution.
The GMC said last night: ‘We have recently become aware of concerns regarding this doctor.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Taxpayers Pick Up £200,000 Bill to Care for Nigerian Mother Who Flew to Britain and Had Quintuplets
A Nigerian mother who flew into Britain when she learned she was pregnant and had quintuplets has cost taxpayers an estimated £200,000.
The health tourism row erupted after it emerged Bimbo Ayelabola, 33, has asked the Home Office for a six-month extension of her visa which expired last Monday.
She claims that the children — boys Tayseel and Samir, and girls, Aqeelah, Binish and Zara — are too fragile to take back to Nigeria.
They were born at Homerton Hospital, in Hackney, east London, by caesarian surgery at 32 weeks on April 28.
Ayelabola also says that all her friends and family live in the UK and she has no ‘support network’ in Lagos where she lived.
Her husband visited her in hospital but flew back home after discovering it was a multiple pregnancy and he faced having to care for his big family.
She said: ‘If I go back I’ll be on my own without even a roof over my head.’
Ayelabola, now living in a two-bedroom flat in Poplar, east London, was reported to have been taking twice the prescribed dose of a fertility drug when she became pregnant.
Soon after discovering she was expecting, Ayelabola quickly obtained a UK visitors’ visa. On arrival, she had an emergency NHS scan which showed she was expecting quads.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Gays Ask the Pope to Reconsider His Position
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 10 — The Spanish Federation of gays, lesbians, transsexuals and bisexuals (Felgtb) wrote a letter to the Pope asking him to “reconsider his position” on homosexual and transsexual relations and to the president of the Spanish Episcopal Confederation, cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, to set up a meeting to “converge on positions”. The letter, as explained to the media by Felgtb president Antonio Poveda, appeals to Benedict XVI to “review his position on relation between people of the same sex and between transsexuals and support the request that these be blessed by the Church. It means that the Church should not take 500 years to recognise the human rights of our community”. An identical letter will be delivered to Catholic authorities in 25 European cities, Vatican City included. The federation’s representatives ask the Spanish Episcopal Confederation to set up a meeting “where we can share points of view and converge on positions that would allow the softening of unnecessary tensions in a democratic society where everyone can fit in”. Along with the letter, Felgtb delivered to Rouco Varela a dossier carried out by the Institute of Youth on figures of the Sociological research centre (Cis) that reports an increase in homophobia amongst the younger generations and the fact that most of the people that discriminate gays and transsexuals state that they are practising Catholics.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Unmasking the ‘International Community’
For many years, the Left in Israel and throughout the world has upheld the so-called “international community” as the arbiter of all things. From Israel’s right to exist to climate change, from American world leadership to genetically modified crops, the Left has maintained that the “international community” is the only body qualified to judge the truth, lawfulness, goodness and justice of all things.
Most of those who uphold this view see the United Nations as the embodiment of the “international community.”
[…]
A glance at UN affairs in recent days is revealing.
Last week UN members elected Qatar President of the General Assembly and Iran one of the body’s vice presidents. Both countries’ representatives will use their platform to advance their regimes’ anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-Western agendas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Faces of Other Races Look Alike
The brain works differently when memorizing the face of a person from one’s own race than when attempting to remember the face of someone of another race, new biological evidence suggests. The well-documented “other-race effect” finds that people are less likely to remember a face from a racial group different from their own. Northwestern University researchers set out to determine what causes this rift in perception and memory by using electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, which measure brain activity, while participants viewed photos of various faces. The researchers found that brain activity increases in the very first 200 to 250 milliseconds when seeing both same-race and other-race faces. Previous research has associated this very early phase, known as the N200 brain potential, with the perceptual process of individuation. That process involves making out the unique facial features of each person, such as the shape of their eyes and nose.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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