France’s Blighted North Lures Thousands of Chinese Firms
Regional authorities from northeastern France signed a historic deal in China this week that will give thousands of Chinese companies a gateway into the European marketplace and create 3,000 much-needed local jobs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jobless in Swedish Town Paid to Move to Norway
A town in eastern Sweden has launched a creative approach to battling youth unemployment in the area by paying jobless young people to move to Norway.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Pays Jobless Youth to Move to Norway
A Swedish town has taken to paying people to look for work in Norway in an attempt to reduce soaring youth unemployment.
Under a scheme organised by the local authorities in the town of Soderhamn and by Sweden’s national employment office, anyone aged between 18 and 28 can volunteer to take a “Job Journey” to Oslo and attempt track down gainful employment.
Those who sign up get a ticket to the Norwegian capital and are put up in an Oslo youth hostel for a month, with Soderhamn council picking up the £20 a night bill. The package also includes on-the-spot guidance on how to get a job in Sweden’s northern neighbour.
“We had an unemployment rate of over 25 per cent, so we had to find solutions,” Magus Nilsen, the man in charge of the project at Soderhamn council, told the Daily Telegraph. “Going to Norway to find work has always been quite popular with young people, but sometimes they want to go but don’t know how to find a job or accommodation so we thought we’d give them a bit of help with both.”
So far around 100 people have decided to leave Soderhamn, a town of 12,000, 250 kilometres due north of Stockholm, to try their luck in the bright lights of Oslo, and some, at least, have struck gold.
After two years on the dole in his hometown Andreas Larsson opted for a “Job Journey” to Norway and now works as a lorry driver in Oslo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Wealthy Greeks Still Don’t Pay Taxes
Average Greeks are reeling under the strict austerity measures passed in order to balance the country’s budget. Top earners, on the other hand, continue to evade the tax man. Most of the self-employed in Greece significantly underreport their earnings, whereas shipping magnates enjoy generous exemptions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three men know the truth. Four men are dead. A nation’s honor hangs in the balance.
There is much focus on the events following the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, as there should be. Four Americans, including a U.S. Ambassador are dead. Real Americans, real men do not leave other Americans to die mercilessly in the throes of battle, at their time of greatest need. That’s not who we are, individually as people or collectively as a nation. Yet the inquiries of late boil down to one simple but very revealing question that no one in a position of authority has answered: Is this what we’ve become?
This is a question that transcends politics, political parties and agendas. It is much bigger than all of that and all of us, and speaks to the very heart of who we are as a people, a nation, and a brotherhood and sisterhood of soldiers who have entrusted their lives to the men and women leading the greatest nation on earth. It is the very essence of who we are and everything for which we stand. It is about honor, and a man or a nation who has lost honor can lose nothing more.*
[…]
The accounts of the September 11, 2012 meeting in the Oval Office are well documented and undisputed in open source reports. Barack Hussein Obama, Joe Biden and Leon Panetta were meeting in the Oval Office at the very moment in time when the frantic pleas for help were made by our men who were engaged in a battle for their lives. In Benghazi, it was their final battle, but I beseech every American that it must not be ours.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: Benghazi Lies May Determine Election
WASHINGTON DC. Two weeks ago, I reported here that the Obama administration had dug itself into a minefield of lies about the Benghazi terrorist attack that the president would have to cross to get to Election Day. Whether he will do so unscathed remains unclear, but if Barack Obama is re-elected president on November 6, it will be for one reason only. It will be because the US media threw themselves on every Benghazi bombshell that threatened the president, shutting down democracy in the process.
Not all of the media, of course. Fox News, WND.com, Daily Beast, Reuters, CNN, CBS and others have reported most of the key facts now available. These include, first, the revelation that intelligence immediately indicated the US consulate in Benghazi was destroyed in a planned terrorist attack, not as the result of a “spontaneous” protest triggered by a Youtube video. The latter scenario, however, is the demonstrable lie the Obama administration, including President Obama, repeatedly told for weeks. Later, the State Department established the fact that no “protest” at all occurred before the attack. The Obama administration explanation for these and other discrepancies? “Bad intelligence” or “fog of war.” The major media largely agree, no questions asked. Literally.
This past week, a new set of factors emerged darkly underscoring the appearance of a White House cover-up. These include the publication of the email bulletins that alerted the highest administration officials that the US consulate in Benghazi was under terrorist attack. These emails began arriving in Washington within the first hour of what would stretch into an eight-hour battle. We also learned that the Americans under rocket and mortar fire in Libya repeatedly called for military support; that military support was within two hours’ flying time; and that no help was ever deployed. Four Americans, including the US Ambassador, were killed in the attack that left many others wounded.
Did President Obama order the US military not to come to the aid of Americans under attack on 11 September 2012? This is the terrible question that inevitably forms on grasping the newly established sequence of events — only not if you’re a member of the US media elite.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Obama Camp has a plan that makes it all but impossible for Romney and Ryan to win. That plan includes four primary pieces of an overall strategy that combined, will make defeating Obama very difficult to say the least. Obama can win the Electoral College vote by winning twenty states. Romney will have to win at least twenty-nine states to defeat him. And then, the plot for victory is an unprecedented level of outright election fraud.
| 1. | Massive Fraudulent International Campaign Funding a) Hundreds of millions pouring into Obama from overseas donors b) Much of it from stolen U.S. credit and debit card numbers c) All of it in untraceable small denominations d) Or through “bundlers” with no clue where the money is actually coming from | |
| 2. | Suppression of the conservative vote a) Blocking the deployed military vote known to break 80% Republican b) Sending bogus letters to Florida Republican voters telling them they are not registered to vote c) Intimidation practices by Obama groups like the Black Panthers d) Promoting no-votes or 3rd party votes within the anti-Obama voting bloc | |
| 3. | Numerous methods of massive Democrat voter fraud a) Over 2 million new “temporary citizen” illegal alien voters via Executive Order b) Millions of DEAD and felon voters c) Temporarily moving Democrat voters across state lines to vote in swing states d) Foreign observers used to protect the fraudulent Democrat vote e) Duplicate voting by dual resident college students f) Thousands of Somali refugee voters with DNC “interpreters” driving them to polls | |
| 4. | Corrupted voting machines and vote counting a) Rigged voting machines via SEIU machine maintenance contracts b) Boxes of fraudulent paper ballots in the trunk of union officials c) Foreign contracts for vote counting in parts of Europe |
In a close race, reported by most polling services as neck-and-neck, any one of these acts of election fraud could change the outcome of the election. Even a dead Osama Bin Laden was able to donate to the Obama campaign, twice.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mayor Bloomberg Endorses Obama for Re-Election, Citing Climate Change
In a surprise announcement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Thursday that Hurricane Sandy had reshaped his thinking about the presidential campaign, and he announced that he was endorsing President Obama.
Mr. Bloomberg, a political independent in this third term leading New York City, has been sharply critical of both Mr. Obama, a Democrat, and Mitt Romney, the president’s Republican rival, saying that both men have failed to candidly confront the problems afflicting the nation. But he said he had decided over the past several days that Mr. Obama was the best candidate to tackle the global climate change that the mayor believes contributed to the violent storm, which took the lives of at least 37 New Yorkers and caused billions of dollars in damage.
| [Return to headlines] |
New Cell Phone Surveillance Method Raises Privacy Concerns
The FBI is using a new method to access cell phone customer data,but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) contends that the method is overly invasive.
The method,known as “stingrays,” uses a person’s international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) secretly to track someone’s location using stingray devices, known as IMSI catchers. The catcher mimics a cell phone tower, but stingrays track the locations of all mobile devices in a given area,including those which are not being targeted.
NBC reports that a big reason this scares privacy groups is that an IMSI catcher can be built at home for about $1,500, exposing a weakness in cell phone security to which most consumers are oblivious.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
If you cherish freedom, if you want your children to live and breathe free, then you can’t sit this one out.
“ … Obama’s loss of nerve and decision to call off a military strike that could have taken out the Benghazi insurgents, and instead—just letting Americans die an agonizing, lonely death—is the most quintessential aspect of the story. This is because it reveals Barack as he truly is inside—an immoral, gutless, unfeeling, selfish, hypocritical, overly ambitious and hideously uncaring person. Obama ONLY cares about what he personally finds valuable, which obviously does not include individual Americans, or any random human beings.”
The quote above is from a piece by Kelly O’Connell published originally at Canada Free Press.
O’Connell goes on to say: “ Barack is a self-centered, utterly unfeeling, revolution-seeking drone who cannot be bothered with the hard work of genuine leadership. And as terrifying as it sounds, he is a typical Marxist leader who wants to “save humanity,” but finds individuals not important enough to consider. It’s no wonder Barack’s White House loves Mao, a possible role model for crazy, unthinking and ideologically-driven tyranny from the man who murdered 77 million of his own countrymen. Or perhaps Vlad Lenin, first dictator of the USSR is his example, who said—”Any cook should be able to run the country.” Marxists have no respect for democracy, republicanism or capitalism.
Whatever the purpose of Barack’s presidency, he must face the decision of getting beaten at the ballot box in November 2012 or being impeached. Yes America, it has finally come to that after Barack’s murderous high treason!”
O’Connell is a “must read” article. If you don’t read anything else today please read this insightful article at Canada Free Press. [url]
[…]
If you need a little extra incentive, just remember—if Obama is reelected there is a strong possibility that he will be able to appoint at least two new justices to the US Supreme Court. NOW do you see the immanent danger to the US Constitution?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Diana West
As we arrive at Election Day, some of the most crucial questions left unanswered about Benghazi are, in fact, the simplest. They are not “fog of war” questions. They are not questions rendered unanswerable by “conflicting intelligence.” They are questions that probe clear actions taking place not on the roof of a safe house under mortar fire, but inside the fortress-like, orderly and well-lit White House.
Who turned down requests for military relief for Americans under rocket and mortar fire? Who decided to suppress the fact that no protest preceded this attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya that claimed four American lives? Who ordered senior Obama administration officials to lie to the American people for two weeks by blaming a YouTube video for a “spontaneous” outbreak of violence that was, in fact, a coordinated terrorist assault?
President Obama declared he made his priorities about Benghazi clear “the minute I found out what was happening.” He said: “Number one, make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to.” If he issued an unexecuted order to this effect, there was a grievous breakdown in the chain of command that must be exposed. If, on the other hand, Barack Obama is lying, that must be exposed, too. It’s not a hard fact to find out.
But is Thomas Pickering, Obama’s choice to lead the Benghazi investigation, the proper person to search for it? On first glance, Pickering, a retired top diplomat and State Department official, sets off conflict-of-interest alarms for heading an investigation that must focus closely on the State Department. On closer inspection, however, so many red flags pop up around Pickering that his selection becomes another Benghazi-gate scandal in itself.
Pickering is one of those Washington insiders whose public record is less a matter of what he’s done than what he’s been: U.S. ambassador to Russia, Israel, El Salvador, Jordan, India, Nigeria and the United Nations. What such postings may obscure, however, is that the man is a foreign policy establishment leftist. It’s not just that Pickering serves as chairman of the board of trustees of the International Crisis Group, a George Soros group that, for example, advocated engagement with the Shariah-supremacist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Pickering has personally explored opening relations with Hamas; pushed peace talks with the Taliban; argued for getting rid of, or removing to the U.S., all tactical nuclear weapons in Europe (and moving Russia’s to east of the Urals); and promoted bilateral talks with Iran without preconditions. And speaking of Iran, Pickering sits on the boards of two pro-Tehran groups, the American Iranian Council and the National Iranian American Council. The Iranian connections are additionally disturbing since one Benghazi scenario to be explored is whether Iran was involved, possibly in retribution for U.S. support of anti-Assad forces (including jihadists) in Syria.
Pickering’s politics place him squarely inside the Obama foreign policy mainstream, but that’s not the proper point from which to investigate an Obama foreign policy fiasco.
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Police State: Growth Rate of Cops Exceeds Population Growth
The Bureau of Justice Statistics has released a report [url] demonstrating the growth of police in the United States.
Between 1992 and 2008 the numbers of police grew by 25 percent. In 2008 there were 705,000 full-time sworn officers employed in the United States. The number was 564,000 in 1992.
This represents an annual growth rate of 1.6 percent, which exceeds the 1.2 percent population growth rate in the United States, according to the survey.
Law enforcement grew its ranks despite a significant decline in crime. According to FBI statistics, murder, rape and robbery went down in the United States in 2011 for a fifth consecutive year. Compared with 2010, the new figures show violent crime down 3.8 percent overall and property crime was down 0.5 percent, CNN reported on October 29. Justice Department figures show the crime-rate fell to an all-time low in 2011.
Despite the decline in crime, police departments around the country are rapidly transforming into paramilitary organizations. Forbes reported last year that the Department of Homeland Security granted local cops $3 billion that was spent on “necessary tools” like BearCats and armored personnel vehicles.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Redhead Pigment Boosts Skin-Cancer Risk
‘Ginger’ mice more susceptible to melanoma even without ultraviolet radiation.
Fair-skinned, red-haired folks know — sometimes through painful experience — that they are more susceptible to the damaging effects of the Sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays, including sunburn, skin ageing and a higher risk of skin cancers. But a study published today in Nature suggests that in mice, the pigment responsible for this colouring has a role in the development of melanoma.
“There is something about the redhead genetic background that is behaving in a carcinogenic fashion, independent of UV,” says David Fisher, a cancer biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the study. “It means that shielding from UV would not be enough.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Socialist Liberal Democrats Will Destroy America and Sadly the Left Wing Media Will Gladly Help
The current President of the United States is engaged in a plan to abolish our tried and true Constitution and install a communist-like program of redistribution of the wealth. In other words take from the “haves” and give it to the “have-nots” which files In the face of the standards of governance that has allowed America to climb to the highest level of civilized nations in just over 200 years of existence.
Obama is a student and follower of the Socialist — Communist theory and practices of punishing the productive while rewarding the unproductive and incapable. What was once a dream of success and riches after applying oneself to an ethic of hard work and study is long gone and any just rewards for that hard work will be taken from them and given to those who show no attitudes to succeed.
This credo assures that in time you will be successful by doing nothing, but when the hard workers disappear, businesses and then jobs disappear and the level of living drops and poverty becomes the norm. At this pace America will become another third rate nation because all the producers will have moved on to where they can achieve.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Top 20 Reasons to Send Obama Packing
Here are the Top 20 reasons a regime change is imperative, now:
1. $5 Trillion in New Debt — By the end of FY 2012, Obama had added $5.3 trillion to the National Debt — almost one-third of the total ($16 trillion). He rolled up more debt in three years than the first 41 presidents combined, more in four years than George W. Bush did in 8. By 2011, foreigners owned 54% of our total debt — China alone has $1.2 trillion. If Obama is reelected, what exciting times lie ahead — China calls in its debt, the dollar crashes, the U.S. joins Greece and Italy in bankruptcy court? During the 2008 campaign, Obama called Bush’s contribution to the national debt (half of his own) “irresponsible and unpatriotic.” That would make Obama the fiscal equivalent of Charlie Sheen and Jane Fonda.
[…]
6. Benghazi: The Defining Moment in Obama’s Foreign Policy — Just as the Tehran hostage crisis has come to epitomize Jimmy Carter’s feckless foreign policy, the body of a U.S. ambassador being dragged through the streets of Benghazi symbolizes Obama’s. The State Department had live video streaming of the attack. Calls for U.S. military intervention to save the consulate staff were repeatedly rebuffed over the course of seven hours when we had military assets an hour away. And the president lied about the reason for the attack for 10 days. When challenged during the second presidential debate, Obama feigned indignation saying those murdered in Benghazi were “my people,” and he was there “when the coffins came home.” That’s fitting; he helped to fill them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Washington Post Finds Racism Behind Romney Surge
On Friday, October 26, and the following Monday, October 29, The Washington Post resorted to the race card in order to drum up support for Barack Obama. If Obama doesn’t get more white votes, as reflected in current polls, he will go down to defeat on November 6.
“The erosion of support Obama has experienced since his muted performance in the first presidential debate has been particularly acute among white men, whites without college degrees and white independents, the new tracking poll found,” the paper said.
The Post is worried. Its strategy is to accuse whites of racism for opposing Obama’s second term.
[…]
In other words, blacks are sticking with Obama despite the bad economy. So perhaps the racism lies with some of those backing Obama. But the Post can’t acknowledge or see that. The focus of the piece was on whites being racist, even though the paper admits that white support is declining for Obama because he has mismanaged the economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Will Benghazi Lies Determine Election? Not if MSM Have Their Way!
by Diana West
Washington, DC — Two weeks ago, I reported here that the Obama administration had dug itself into a minefield of lies about the Benghazi terrorist attack that the president would have to cross to get to Election Day. Whether he will do so unscathed remains unclear, but if Barack Obama is re-elected president on November 6, it will be for one reason only. It will be because the US media threw themselves on every Benghazi bombshell that threatened the president, shutting down democracy in the process.
Not all of the media, of course. Fox News, WND.com, Daily Beast, Reuters, CNN, CBS and others have reported most of the key facts now available. These include, first, the revelation that intelligence immediately indicated the US consulate in Benghazi was destroyed in a planned terrorist attack, not as the result of a “spontaneous” protest triggered by a Youtube video. The latter scenario, however, is the demonstrable lie the Obama administration, including President Obama, repeatedly told for weeks. Later, the State Department established the fact that no “protest” at all occurred before the attack. The Obama administration explanation for these and other discrepancies? “Bad intelligence” or “fog of war.” The major media largely agree, no questions asked. Literally.
This past week, a new set of factors emerged darkly underscoring the appearance of a White House cover-up. These include the publication of the email bulletins that alerted the highest administration officials that the US consulate in Benghazi was under terrorist attack. These emails began arriving in Washington within the first hour of what would stretch into an eight-hour battle. We also learned that the Americans under rocket and mortar fire in Libya repeatedly called for military support; that military support was within two hours’ flying time; and that no help was ever deployed. Four Americans, including the US Ambassador, were killed in the attack that left many others wounded.
Did President Obama order the US military not to come to the aid of Americans under attack on 11 September 2012? This is the terrible question that inevitably forms on grasping the newly established sequence of events —- only not if you’re a member of the US media elite. Take Brian Williams, the $13-million-per-year anchorman of NBC Nightly News. On Friday, October 26, after news of the email alerts and reports of unheeded distress calls had broken, Williams’ single Benghazi question to the president was the following: “The question becomes: Have you been happy with the intelligence, especially in our post 9-11 world? … Were you happy with what you were able to learn as this [Benghazi] unfolded?
Obama sat for another interview that same day, this time with a reporter in the hotly contested state of Colorado. This far more professional (if less highly paid) local reporter asked Obama whether Americans in Benghazi were denied military relief during the attack — and he asked the question twice. Perhaps flustered, Obama finally replied that he made his priorities clear “the minute I found out what was happening.” He continued: “Number one, make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to.”
If Obama issued ever such a directive, we know it wasn’t carried out. This would be a scandal, a failure in the chain of command that led to many casualties. If, however, Obama didn’t issue this order and is lying, the situation is even worse. Either way, it’s a tremendous news story — only not in the estimation of the editors of the Washington Post, the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. These and other leading newspapers failed to report anything at all about Benghazi in the following days. As for the Sunday political affairs TV shows, every one of these well-known hosts (Fox News’ Chris Wallace excepted) failed to bring up Benghazi. And in most cases (CBS’s Bob Schieffier excepted), they shushed up the guests who did. “On the issue of trust, what is going on with regard to Libya?” one Republican guest asked, bringing up Obama’s Friday comments in Colorado. “Well, let’s get to Libya a little bit later,” said David Gregory, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Later never came…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
British Parliament Rejects EU Budget, Cornering Cameron
Prime Minister David Cameron’s backbenchers have put him on a collision course with Brussels over the next EU budget. The MPs want a “real-term reduction” in EU spending, not the inflation-adjusted freeze proposed.
The British parliament on Wednesday supported a motion calling on Prime Minister David Cameron to demand a reduced EU budget at an upcoming summit in Brussels.
The amendment passed by 307 votes to 294, with early breakdowns suggesting that about 50 members of Cameron’s Conservatives supported a non-binding proposal initially put forward by the euro-skeptic arm of the party.
The parliamentary bill supports a “real-term reduction” in the 2014-2020 EU budget. In an apparent bid to placate the back benches, Cameron said prior to the vote that he would have used his veto on any budget that was “not in the interest” of Britain.
“At best we would like a cut, at worst a freeze,” Cameron said in parliament. “I am quite prepared to use the veto if we do not get a deal that is good for Britain.” He urged his own party members to support negotiations on a long-term deal, saying that setting spending year-by-year in the absence of an agreement would be more costly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan Visit to Berlin Betrays Tensions
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he wants Turkey to be a full member of the EU by 2023. Chancellor Angela Merkel assured him the talks would be “honest.’ Their meeting in Berlin once again showed that relations between Turkey and Germany have become complicated.
At the end of the news conference Angela Merkel narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. Her face seemed to say: What’s he talking about? Next to her, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was talking about Cyprus. It was a mistake, he said, to allow “South Cyprus” into the European Union, and he added that the chancellor shared that view.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Oldest Prehistoric Town Unearthed in Bulgaria
Archaeologists in Bulgaria say they have uncovered the oldest prehistoric town found to date in Europe.
The walled fortified settlement, near the modern town of Provadia, is thought to have been an important centre for salt production.
Its discovery in north-east Bulgaria may explain the huge gold hoard found nearby 40 years ago.
Archaeologists believe that the town was home to some 350 people and dates back to between 4700 and 4200 BC.
The residents boiled water from a local spring and used it to create salt bricks, which were traded and used to preserve meat.
Salt was a hugely valuable commodity at the time, which experts say could help to explain the huge defensive stone walls which ringed the town.
Excavations at the site, beginning in 2005, have also uncovered the remains of two-storey houses, a series of pits used for rituals, as well as parts of a gate and bastion structures.
A small necropolis, or burial ground, was discovered at the site earlier this year and is still being studied by archaeologists.
“We are not talking about a town like the Greek city-states, ancient Rome or medieval settlements, but about what archaeologists agree constituted a town in the fifth millennium BC,” Vasil Nikolov, a researcher with Bulgaria’s National Institute of Archaeology, told the AFP news agency.
Archaeologist Krum Bachvarov from the institute said the latest find was “extremely interesting”.
“The huge walls around the settlement, which were built very tall and with stone blocks… are also something unseen in excavations of prehistoric sites in south-east Europe so far,” he told AFP.
Similar salt mines near Tuzla in Bosnia and Turda in Romania help prove the existence of a series of civilisations which also mined copper and gold in the Carpathian and Balkan mountains during the same period.
BBC Europe correspondent Nick Thorpe says this latest discovery almost certainly explains the treasure found exactly 40 years ago at a cemetery on the outskirts of Varna, 35km (21 miles) away, the oldest hoard of gold objects found anywhere in the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Police Convicted Over Deaths That Sparked Riots
France’s top appeals court on Wednesday overturned a ruling clearing two police officers of involvement in the deaths of two teenagers in a Paris suburb, the spark for weeks of rioting that drew worldwide attention in 2005.
The ruling was hailed by the families of the victims Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traore,15, who were electrocuted when they climbed into an electricity substation as they tried to escape police chasing them in the Paris of suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois in October 2005.
Last year a lower court had dropped charges against the two officers who had been accused of failing to help to rescue the teenagers, citing lack of evidence.
But on Wednesday, the appeals court overturned that decision, saying that the police officers should have checked if the teenagers were indeed in the substation and, if so, come to their aid.
“It’s a great day,” said Traore’s brother Siyakha. “I am relieved, now things will go ahead. I am waiting for explanations.”
Lawyers for the dead youths said the police officers had reason to suspect the two had entered the installation and did not call the emergency services.
“The case will be judged, it will not be snuffed out,” said Jean-Pierre Mignard, adding that youths would now be assured “that there is justice in this country.
“We are sure that these two youths were really victims.”
Clichy-sous-Bois, like many of France’s run-down urban districts, suffers from tension between locals and police.
Radio exchanges between the police revealed one officer saying: “If they enter (the substation) it’s very likely they are going to die.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Hamburg Seals the Deal With Resident Muslims
It’s an historic pact. After 5 years of negotiations, the city state of Hamburg will sign a contract with its Muslim citizens. It sets out in black and white the rights and duties of Muslims living in the city. It’s the first time that Muslim holy days will be recognised in Germany on equal terms with Christian ones which is a significant step in recognising Islam as a part of German society. Our correspondent went to Hamburg to see what the mood was like at this year’s Eid festival.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Drunk But Alert: Students Brew Caffeine Beer
A group of German students has caused a stir in the normally separate worlds of beer brewing and molecular biotechnology. On Sunday they will present their caffeinated, lemon, and sweet beers to a panel of experts in the US.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Wilders Speaks Up for Banned Lawyer Moszkowicz
Geert Wilders spoke up on Tuesday afternoon for lawyer Bram Moszkowicz whose licence to practice was revoked earlier in the day.
The anti-immigration PVV leader, who was defended by Moszkowicz during his trial on hatred and discrimination charges, said: ‘Bram’s defence at my trial was excellent.’ The MP went on to say Moszkowicz is the best lawyer in the Netherlands, according to news agency Novum.
The 58-year-old lawyer still faces a disciplinary hearing on his behaviour during Wilders’ trial where he is accused of insulting the court.
Moszkowicz himself said the decision of the legal profession’s disciplinary council to ban him is ‘over the top’. He says the judicial establishment does not like him because he has become a celebrity.
He has been speculating for months about fronting a television programme, but so far no one has come up with an offer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Migration Board Offices Hit by ‘Activist’ Attacks
Two Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket) offices in opposite parts of the country were damaged late Wednesday night in what police believe were organized attacks.
“We have had confirmation that our Malmö office was targeted. What they have done is sprayed and poured out paint as well as put up some photographs. I have heard that it is quite a lot, quite extensive,” said Migration Board spokesman Fredrik Bengtsson to daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).
Police in opposite ends of the country, in Malmö in the south and in Umeå in the north, received reports early Thursday morning about damages to agency offices, with windows shattered, paint thrown about and “your rejections kill” spray-painted on the walls.
In Umeå in the north of Sweden, a security guard alerted police after discovering what had been done to the building shortly after 2.55am, according to the local Västerbottens-Kuriren (VK) paper.
In a letter sent to several Swedish newspapers, an activist group called “Aktion för en värld utan gränser” (‘Action for a world without borders’) has claimed responsibility for the attacks, reported DN.
The Migration Board has not received any confirmation as to who is behind the deeds but told the paper that it is not the first time the agency has been attacked by activists.
“It happens every now and again. Generally it will be in the bigger towns but it does happen in smaller towns as well,” said Behtsson to DN.
So far the police have carried out a forensic investigation but have made no arrests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Gothenburg Police Arrest Three in Hospital Brawl
Police arrested three suspects after a fight erupted outside of the emergency ward at the Gothenburg Sahlgrenska University hospital in western Sweden late on Wednesday night.
“The members of staff who called us were worried. They described a very threatening atmosphere and were under considerable stress,” said Stefan Gustavsson of the local police to newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (GP). Between fifteen and thirty people were involved in the fight, some reportedly armed with knives.
This is the second time in recent months that a big fight has erupted outside of the Sahlgrenska emergency ward. Over the summer there have also been several incidents when staff have been forced to call police to help deal with brawls between family members that have broken out following a death, according to the paper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In an age where few marriages endure the test of time, 107-year-old Karam and his wife Katari Chand, 100, are proof that happy ever after does exist.
The couple, who have eight children and twenty eight grandchildren together, have lived in wedded bliss for 87 years making them the world’s longest married couple.
The pair say that the key to success is looking after each other in every way possible: ‘My trick is to make Katari laugh. I like to tell jokes and make her smile. Being funny is my way of being romantic.’ says Karam.
‘I have been told laughing makes you live longer… my wife is still alive so it must have worked! I love her so much and I want to spend another 80 years by her side,’ said Karam.
From romantic meals to sharing jokes, the couple, who hail from Punjab, India and now live in Bradford ensure that they do little things for each other to keep the romance alive.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A grandmother of four has been threatened with jail for sweeping the leaves outside her home.
Barbara Ray, 82, was accused of ‘causing a hazard’ by brushing the fallen leaves into a ‘large heap’ for roadsweepers to collect.
She was warned her simple attempts to keep the neighbourhood tidy could leave her facing prosecution for fly-tipping, punishable by a £50,000 fine and a 12-month jail term.
When Mrs Ray queried the letter, she was astonished to discover council contractors had photographed her gardener, who visits once a fortnight, sweeping the leaves into the street.
And the council even defended its stance by claiming that her behaviour was ‘unacceptable’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Minorities Fear End of Secularism in Egypt
When he took office as Egypt’s new president in June, Mohammed Morsi pledged to follow a pluralist policy that respected the rights of women and non-Muslim minorities. But everything he has done since then indicates that he intends to replace the secularist dictatorship of his predecessor with an Islamist one.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan ‘Will be Unable to Run Military Bases Post NATO Withdrawal’
Afghanistan will probably be unable to keep running the military bases its international backers have spent billions building after Nato troops leave, a US Congressional report has said.
Kabul’s military has neither the staff, nor the expertise, to maintain or operate hundreds of bases it will inherit from the coalition troops as they prepare to withdraw combat forces by the end of 2014.
The audit from a Congressional watchdog which checks the billions America has poured into Afghanistan questioned whether the efforts to bolster the Afghan police and army against the Taliban were sustainable.
The Afghan government would “likely be incapable of fully sustaining Afghan national security forces facilities after the transition in 2014 and the expected decrease in US and coalition support” it warned.
Building up the Afghan forces so they can one day assume the fight against the Taliban has been a central pillar of coalition strategy.
Between 2002 and 2012, America has spent $52 billion (£32 billion) to equip, train, house, and sustain the forces, including about $12 billion alone to build bases.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Can Run for the Afghan Presidency
The Afghan election commission has said that the Taliban can stand in the country’s next presidential elections in 2014; a move that experts say can prove to be a double-edged sword for the war-torn nation.
Afghanistan’s next presidential elections are scheduled for April 5, 2014 and are seen by most observers as one of the most crucial elections in Afghanistan’s history, as they could either put the Afghan nation on the path of stability or plunge it into deeper turmoil.
Hamid Karzai, who is serving his second term as Afghanistan’s president, is constitutionally barred from running for president for a third time, and there is no prominent or popular candidate in sight.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Children to Learn Gay Issues at Primary School
As part of a broad raft of measures to help fight homophobia in France, the government has announced plans to include educating primary school children about homosexual relationships and same-sex parenting.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Voluntary Euthanasia Clinic Has Three Inquiries a Week
In total, 456 people have registered with a special clinic set up by the voluntary euthanasia society NVVE in March this year.
After an initial peak in inquires at the time of the launch, the clinic now deals with around three inquiries a week, the NVVE said in a report on the way the clinic has functioned so far. It was set up to help people whose own doctors are opposed to euthanasia or do not think they meet the criteria.
Of the 456 inquiries this year, 51 people have been helped to end their lives, the NVVE said. In 30 cases, the doctor did agree to step in after the NVVE’s involvement. A further 94 requests for help were rejected because the patient did not meet the criteria and 54 died before the clinic could take action. No action has yet been taken on the rest.
Cancer
While terminal cancer is the most common reason patients give for wanting euthanasia on a national scale, the clinic has had few advanced cancer cases to deal with and most inquiries are for ‘non-life threatening’ problems, the report says.
More than half the inquiries are from people with serious physical problems and around one third have psychiatric problems. Some 7% want help in ending their life because they have dementia and 10% say their life has run its course.
Most inquiries — 68% — come from the over 60s while almost one in five were under the age of 30.
Assisted suicide accounts for around 2.8% of all deaths in the Netherlands. Euthanasia is legal under strict conditions. For example, the patient must be ‘suffering unbearably’ and the doctor must be convinced the patient is making an informed choice. The opinion of a second doctor is also required.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Overpopulation is a Eugenics Agenda Lie
Nearly every day, the mainstream media dispenses new articles reinforcing the idea that humans are infesting the earth, overpopulating it like parasites and sucking it dry of resources. The magic number — 7 billion — is thrown at us like an accusation and a curse, as if the mere fact this many people are now living on the planet is an automatic death sentence for the world and everything on it.
[…]
Are we in dire straights? Is the Earth becoming so overburdened by the burgeoning human population that it’s about to plummet out of space?
No. Not even close. In fact, when the actual data is considered, the only thing dropping, and fast, are human birth rates.
Many countries’ have zero or even negative population growth, with birth rates below national replacement rates — the degree upon which a population replaces itself.
As it stands, the Western European countries of Germany, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Sweden have total fertility rates below the replacement rate. Denmark saw 4,400 fewer children born in 2011 than in 2010, with projections in 2012 on track for the nation having its lowest birth rate on record since 1988.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Western Liberals Helped Create Radical Islamism
by Emmet Scott (November 2012)
I vividly recall, just a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, seeing a photograph of the Bin Laden family, or some of the younger members of the family, on holiday in Sweden. The year, I believe, was 1971. Osama was there, as were about fifteen of his brothers (and half-brothers) and sisters. All of them were dressed in typical “gear” of the time, bell-bottomed jeans and tight pullovers. Some of the boys had long hair, as did the girls. None of these were veiled, or betrayed in her attire the slightest hint of Islamic influence. They could have been a group of youngsters from any western country.
Many if not all the newspapers published this photograph, and the question they were asking was: What could have turned Osama from the easy-going modern youth of the picture into the sworn and fanatical enemy of everything modern and everything western? In the opinion of the present writer however the newspapers were asking the wrong question. What they should have been pondering was: What could have transformed not an individual, but a large section of a civilization, into the sworn enemy of everything modern and western? For the journey taken by Bin Laden in the years between 1971 and 2001 was taken also by many millions of his co-religionists throughout the Islamic world; and the thirty to forty years that have elapsed since the 1970s have seen one Muslim society after another systematically reject the modern world and turn the clock back to the seventh century. Whilst by the late 60s, women all over the Islamic world had adopted western fashions and lifestyles, the tide was dramatically reversed by the late 70s, when traditional Islam, with its strict dress code and social outlook, again bestirred itself. One would now be hard-pressed to find any Islamic country where the easy-going attitudes of the 1950s and 60s still prevail.
What then has caused this cultural revolution? A clue, I believe, lies in the fact — almost universally ignored by commentators — that the West has experienced its own cultural revolution in the same period. But the West’s revolution has been of a very different kind. Whilst the Islamic world was regressing deep into the seventh century, the West was plunging headlong into an age of unparalleled license and sexual permissiveness. The fact that these two revolutions happened in parallel with each other is not, I hold, a coincidence: the two are inextricably linked. The revolution in Islam was in very large part a reaction to and against the revolution in the West.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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