Crisis: Spain Hits Record Unemployment Levels
4.8mln jobless in October, up 2.73% from September
(ANSAmed) — MADRID — The number of registered unemployed people in Spain has risen by 12,824 in October to peak at a new 4.8 million record, according to figures released today by the Labour Ministry.
This represents a 2.73% increase on figures from August.
Also according to the data the number of people signing on for benefits in October has fallen by 64,372, to a total of 16.7 million. As a result of seasonal work patterns and tourism the service industry accounts for three out of four of the newly unemployed.
But unemployment has also risen in agriculture (+15.18% compared to October 2011) and industry (+1.69%). Only the construction industry fared better with -0.48%.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Intelligence Report: Aid to Cyprus Could Benefit Russian Oligarchs
Cyprus could soon seek aid from the European Union’s bailout fund. But according to a secret report by Germany’s BND intelligence service, the aid might mainly benefit Russian oligarchs who have parked illegal money in bank accounts in Cyprus, SPIEGEL has learned. Russian deposits there total $26 billion.
The German foreign intelligence agency, the BND, has written a report suggesting that the European Union aid that may soon be paid to Cyprus could mainly benefit Russians who have deposited illegal income in accounts on the Eastern Mediterranean island, SPIEGEL has learned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Begins Three Days of Anti-Austerity Strikes
Workers in Greece have begun a series of strikes to protest against austerity measures. The work stoppages come as the government is set to present its latest package of cuts to parliament.
Trade unions representing public transport workers and journalists were among those who called their members out on strike on Monday morning. Many who did go to work arrived late, as the subway remained closed, however buses continued to operate. Some commuters opted to take their cars, making traffic during the morning rush hour worse than usual.
The journalists’ strike meant a virtual news blackout, with print, broadcast and electronic media off the job for the next 24 hours. Medical services were also disrupted with some staff failing to report for work.
The situation is expected to worsen on Tuesday, when air traffic controllers have a three-hour work stoppage scheduled. Ferry services are to be cut for a period of 48 hours and bus drivers are also expected to walk off the job.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Premier Tells Chinese Leader of Italy’s Progress
Merkel spoke of Monti’s contributions, says Wen
(ANSA) — Vientiane (Laos), November 5 — Italian reforms and healthier public finances are bearing their first fruit, making Italy more “attractive” to foreign investors, Italian Premier Mario Monti told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday.
Monti made the comments, citing data from various international organizations, during a bilateral meeting at the margins of the ninth Asia-Europe Summit of Heads of State and Government (ASEM9) in Laos, which is taking place on Monday and Tuesday.
Wen replied that he had heard from German Chancellor Angela Merkel about Monti’s contributions toward resolving the financial crisis in Italy and the European Union, Italian sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oligarchs and Mafiosi to Benefit From Cyprus Bailout
Oligarchs and “mafiosi” parking their illegal earnings in Cyprus stand to benefit the most from a potential EU bailout, Germany’s intelligence agency (BND) has warned in a secret report, Spiegel writes. The BND estimates Russian nationals hold €20bn in Cypriot accounts, while the EU bailout is expected to total €10bn.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Unemployment Rises to New High
Joblessness in Spain has risen as the recession in the country continues to bite. Spain already has the highest unemployment rate of all industrialized nations, and large-scale relief is not in sight.
Spain’s Labor Ministry reported on Monday that the number of job seekers in the country had risen for a third consecutive month in October. According to the data released, 4.8 million Spaniards are now out of work.
The figure marked a 2.7-percent increase month-on-month, while a year-on-year comparison revealed a drastic 10.8-percent hike in unemployment levels.
The National Statistics Institute (INE) said joblessness among people under 25 year of age reached 52 percent as the fourth-largest economy among the 17 countries using the euro was in its second recession in three years.
Unemployment in October grew particularly fast in the services sector, the Labor Ministry reported. Tens of thousands of jobs were lost in the tourism and related sectors after the end of the holiday season. There was also a marked drop in jobs available in agricultural firms.
Madrid said it expected joblessness throughout the year hovering around 24.6 percent to ease to 23.3 percent in 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Families face forking out more than £1,200 a year to fund Britain’s public sector pensions within five years, according to a report.
Figures produced by a leading pensions expert for the Centre for Policy Studies show that four out of every five pounds paid into the pensions for public workers will be funded by the taxpayer.
Michael Johnson revealed that the shortfall between public sector contributions and pensions that were already being paid would rise 77-fold in 11 years.
The gap will reach £15.4billion in 2016-17, up from only £200million in 2005-06.
Taxpayers will be left footing most of the total bill of public sector pensions to the tune of £32billion or £1,230 for every household in the country.
Employers will meet the rest, around £17.2billion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Sees ECB Chief as ‘Mr Euro’
The US Treasury has lobbied the European Central Bank (ECB) more than any other EU body on the eruo crisis, a new study shows.
The analysis — in a blog by Brussels-based think tank Breugel — looked at official contacts in the diary of US treasury chief Tim Geithner from January 2010 to June 2012.
It noted that he had 114 meetings or phone calls with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), many of which probably concerned the euro crisis. But he had 168 contacts with EU institutions or finance ministries “indicative of the direct involvement of the US administration in European policy discussions.”
He spoke with ECB leaders Jean-Claude Trichet and his successor Mario Draghi 58 times. He also contacted the German finance minister on 36 occasion, the French finance ministry 32 times and the British finance ministry 19 times.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amputee Scales 103 Floors With Mind-Controlled ‘Bionic Leg’
When Zac Vawter put his mind to climbing the 103 floors of Chicago’s iconic Willis Tower, his legs did the rest.
Even the one that isn’t human.
The Seattle resident scaled the skyscraper’s stairway heights on Sunday thanks to what the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago calls the “world’s first neural-controlled bionic leg.”
In other words, when Vawter thinks about going somewhere, it sends a signal to his prosthetic right leg that spurs it to move. This kind of technology has been implemented before in arms and fingers, but never before in a leg.
While Vawter, 31, has been part of the Illinois rehab center’s trial for about a year, this weekend’s fourth annual SkyRise Chicago fundraiser was the first public test of the technology. There was no guarantee he’d successfully climb the entire skyscraper formerly known as the Sears Tower, but he’d certainly give it a shot.
Yet there he was — 53 minutes, 9 seconds after he set off — in the tower’s SkyDeck Chicago, and seemingly on top of the world.
“It was a good goal for the team to shoot for, and we hit it,” he said immediately afterward.
This perch was a far cry from where Vawter found himself three years earlier, in a hospital room after his leg was amputated following a motorcycle accident.
He’d long been a runner, competing for St. Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington, in races like the 800, 3,000 and 5,000 meters as well as in cross-country events.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
I Hope Obama Loses, Even if the Rest of the World Wants Him to Win
by Ruth Dudley Edwards
YouGov has revealed that 70 per cent of British adults would vote for Barack Obama and only seven per cent for Mitt Romney. (I don’t know the figures for my native Ireland, but I’d expected them to be 99 to one.) Now even I — who thought an arrogant, cerebral academic lawyer who had climbed the greasy pole of Chicago politics from community activist to senator in about five minutes singularly unqualified to be president — had a lump in my throat when he was elected. It was, damn it, moving to see a mixed-race man with a black wife being voted in by a largely white electorate.
[…]
[Reader comment by jetlagged on 5 November 2012 at about 1pm.]
A recent poll conducted in Germany showed that 97% of Germans support Obama.. I have lived in Germany for the past 20 years, and a figure like that, which resembles the percentage of the vote dictators usually receive, does not surprise me at all. All media outlets in Germany are left-wing, and this includes the supposedly conservative ones like Die Welt and the FAZ. One has the impression that the sole source of information about political events in the US for German journalists is the New York Times or the Washington Post. Anything that might reflect negatively on Obama — like the Benghazi scandal — is subjected to a media blackout. Anything that might be construed as damaging to Romney, such as the occasional verbal gaffe, is given maximum publicity and the man is made out to be an idiot. It was the same with George Bush. He simply could do nothing right for the liberal hacks in the media.
Anyone who has followed American politics as reported in the weekly magazine “Der Spiegel”, for example, would never know that Obamacare means that Americans will be paying higher insurance premiums and that some companies will be forced to lay off workers or go into bankruptcy as a result. They would never have heard of Fast and Furious or the Rev. Wright or Van Jones or the religious motives of the author of the Fort Hood massacre. They would have no idea that help was denied the US Navy Seals in Benghazi, or that the Obama Administration lied about the Benghazi attack for two weeks after it occurred. Obama was hugely popular in Germany even before he was elected president. He was the antithesis to Bush, he was black, and he promised peace on earth and universal harmony. He was a multiculti liberal’s *** dream.
Obama could run the US economy into the ground, put half the population on welfare and foodstamps, lose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stand by and watch as the Iranians nuked Israel, and as North Africa and the entire Middle East came under the control of Islamists, and he would still enjoy the support of a large majority of Germans, in particular the liberal elites. In fact, that is what many of them want. They dream of America’s downfall. And for them Obama is the most likely architect of this downfall.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Campaign Planning to Proclaim Early Victory to ‘Demoralize Romney Supporters’
New York Times best-selling author Brad Thor, based in Chicago, tells TheBlaze that the Obama campaign may be planning to preemptively announce victory in the presidential election based on early voting numbers in an attempt to “demoralize Mitt Romney supporters.”
Citing a “very solid source” in Chicago, Thor says the Obama campaign is looking to make it appear to voters that they have “this thing sewed up and are less than 24 hours to victory,” according to his source.
Meanwhile, team Obama will also urge voters to get out and vote so they can say they were part of the important 2012 election that resulted in a second term for Obama.
While Thor can’t reveal his source, he told TheBlaze multiple times that the source is very reliable.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Proof: Obama Refused to Call Benghazi ‘Terror, ‘ CBS Covered Up
In an astonishing display of media malpractice, CBS News quietly released proof — two days before the election, far too late to reach the media and the public — that President Barack Obama lied to the public about the Benghazi attack, as well as about his later claim to have called the attack “terrorism” from the beginning.
CBS unveiled additional footage from its 60 Minutes interview with President Obama, conducted on Sep. 12 immediately after Obama had made his statement about the attacks in the Rose Garden, in which Obama quite clearly refuses to call the Benghazi an act of terror when asked a direct question by reporter Steve Kroft:
[…]
Actually, the conclusion to be drawn is quite simple: CBS News, in an effort to assist President Obama’s re-election campaign, corruptly concealed information about two critical issues — namely, a terror attack and the president’s dishonesty about it. When the players in the Libya scandal face investigation, so, too, should CBS News and those in the mainstream media who have wantonly assisted the administration’s shameless lies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: CBS Reports President Obama Winning 2012 Presidential Election Weeks Before It’s Even Held.
short video. Watch it. Caught red handed in Phoenix. Perhaps that same affiliate will now be warned if enough people in that area call them and yell down the roof.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What President Obama Really Said in That ‘60 Minutes’ Interview About Benghazi
(What the American people didn’t see.)
ANALYSIS: Two days before the election, CBS posted additional portions of a Sept. 12 “60 Minutes” interview where President Obama seems to contradict himself on the Benghazi attack. As the Benghazi investigation gets more attention and focus, CBS is once again adding to the Benghazi timeline.
In the interview, according to the latest portions, Obama would not say whether he thought the attack was terrorism. Yet he would later emphasize at a presidential debate that in the Rose Garden the same day, he had declared the attack an act of terror.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Culture in Figures: Nordics Most Engaged
Compared to people from other parts of Europe, Scandinavians are the most inclined to spend their time and money on culture.
The Danes are the biggest spenders. Some 5.5 percent of everything they spend goes into books, films, and other things cultural. They go the cinema more often than any other nation in the EU. In 2006, less than half of Europeans went to see a movie at least once.
On spending, the Danes are followed by the Finns and the Czechs, whose “share of cultural expenditure in total household expenditure,” according to the EU’s latest figures, amounts to five percent each. On average in the EU, that number is around four percent.
The Danes are also among the most creative in the EU, together with the Swedes, the Finns and the Latvians. The Swedes and the Finns boast the most artists and creative writers as a share of population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three UK tourists have appeared in court in Cyprus accused of murdering a young British soldier.
David Lee Collins, 19, from Manchester, was stabbed to death after a fight broke out at a nightclub in the popular resort of Ayia Napa.
Mr Collins, from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was stationed at an Army base in the Dhekelia area of the island.
A local police spokesman said the three men, two aged 17 and one aged 19, appeared at Famagusta District Court where they were remanded in custody for eight days.
They have not been formally charged with the murder and will continue to be detained while detectives investigate the incident, he added.
The soldier’s family told the Manchester Evening News they were ‘devastated’ by his death. It is understood his father has already flown out to the Mediterranean island.
Mr Collins was off-duty with three other soldiers when they became involved in a brawl with three British holidaymakers in the early hours.
One of the tourists allegedly stabbed the soldier with a knife, according to police spokesman Georgios Economou.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said yesterday: ‘It is with great sadness that the MoD must confirm that a soldier from 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers has died in an incident in Cyprus.
‘An investigation is being conducted by Cyprus police and it would be inappropriate to comment any further. The family has been informed and our thoughts are with them.’
Mr Collins’ battalion was due to leave for Afghanistan on Saturday but the mission was delayed for 24 hours, according to reports.
Two of the suspects are reportedly of Pakistani origin while a third is of Somali origin.
Mr Collins had left his base at Dhekelia, with three other off-duty soldiers from 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, for a final night out after their mission was delayed.
But the infantryman was stabbed in the chest following a row with three Britons at the popular Black & White Club, in the resort of Ayia Napa, an area off-limits to British troops.
Mr Collins was given first aid but was pronounced dead on arrival at Famagusta General Hospital in nearby Paralimni.
A fanatical attack on off-duty British soldiers is one motive being considered.
Patrick Mercer MP, the former chairman of the House of Commons counter-terrorism committee, said: ‘The possibility that off-duty British soldiers have been targeted by fanatics is extremely worrying. I hope this does not prove to be the case.’
| — Hat tip: Seneca III | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Poland: Artists Should be Free to ‘Shock’
The European Commission has said that Poland’s prosecution of a rock group for “blasphemy” is against European values.
It said on Wednesday (31 October) in a written statement for EUobserver that “national blasphemy laws are a matter for the domestic legal order of the member states.”
But it added that EU countries must respect international pacts.
It cited the European Convention of Human Rights, a Poland-signatory treaty attached to the Strasbourg-based rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, on freedom of expression.
“This right protects not only information or ideas that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also those that offend, shock or disturb,” the commission said.
The statement comes amid a row in Poland over a heavy metal band called Behemoth.
Its lead singer, Adam Darski, while on stage in 2007, ripped up a Bible and called the Roman Catholic church a “murderous cult.”
In a case with echoes of Pussy Riot in Russia or Mohammed cartoons in Denmark, the Polish supreme court on Monday said prosecutors can go after Darski on the basis of article 196 of Poland’s penal code on “the crime of offending religious sensibilities.”
In theory, he faces two years in prison. But nobody expects a jail sentence if he loses.
“(The decision) is negative and restricts the freedom of speech … We are still arguing that we were dealing with art, which allows more critical and radical statements,” Darski’s lawyer, Jacek Potulski, told Reuters.
“The supreme court said clearly that there are limits for artists which cannot be crossed,” Ryszard Nowak, a former MP for the right-wing Law and Justice opposition party, said on Polish TV.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Former Minister Admits ‘Flaws’ In Merah Case
Former interior minister Claude Guéant has admitted to “flaws” in the way the authorities dealt with Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah.
Speaking to radio station Europe 1, Claude Guéant, interior minister at the time of the incident, said notable failures included the manner of the raid on Merah’s house.
“I recognise that there was one fault during the raid — it was when Merah left his apartment to make a phone call, escaping police, so it would seem, by the basement of the building — which he of course knew very well,” he said.
Guéant also pointed out French intelligence followed Merah before the incident, claiming he was a “complex character”.
“It seemed he was very reserved, weary, isolated and pent-up, but at the same time he was someone who went to nightclubs, occasionally dressed as a punk,” said Guéant.
“He was very difficult to figure out.”
President François Hollande also admitted yesterday in Toulouse, during a memorial service for Merah’s victims, to “flaws” in the case.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Munich-Berlin Train ‘Will Soon Take Four Hours’
The time it takes to travel by train from Munich to Berlin could soon be halved to just four hours, as plans solidify to expand and improve the European rail system.
Sunday’s Tagesspiegel newspaper said the speedier connection between the German and Bavarian capitals should be ready by 2017 and cost €10 billion.
It will be part of the Berlin-Sicily route which will also go through Innsbruck-Verona, Milan, Bologna, Naples-Messina and onto Palermo in Sicily.
The changes are part of an upgrade to the Trans-European Transport Network-Train or TEN-T.
The Berlin-Sicily route is mainly designed for goods traffic, but passengers will be able to travel along selected sections of the route.
The improved route allows for trains to travel as fast as 300 kilometres per hour and will make the train competitive with air traffic, the paper wrote.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Jihadist Internet Propaganda on the Rise
A study by the Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) examines how many jihadists and sympathizers live in Germany as well as the new means by which propaganda is being spread.
On March 2, 2011, 21-year-old Arid Uka shot dead two US soldiers at the Frankfurt airport and severely wounded others. His motive was hatred against soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.
Previously Uka had seen a video on YouTube purporting to show Muslim women being raped by US soldiers. The young man frequented Islamist discussion forums online and regularly watched videos of radical preachers. However, he never had direct contact with jihadists.
Arid Uka represents a typical case of self-radicalization by way of the Internet, says Alexander Eisvogel, vice president of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s internal security agency. Eisvogel told the daily “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” this year that he has observed what he dubs “jihad 2.0 — a kind of virtual jihad.”
The Internet offers a platform for what was once the domain of certain preachers, prayer circles and schools: Indoctrinating a social group against others.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Marzotto Assets Seized in Valentino Sell-Off Probe
65 million euros in property confiscated by investigators
(ANSA) — Milano, November 5 — Thirteen people from the Italian fashion and textile group Marzotto are being investigated for tax evasion in connection with the 2008 sell-off of the Valentino Fashion Group, police said on Monday.
Among the suspects from the Marzotto family being probed are Matteo, Vittorio, Diamante, Maria Rosaria Cristiana and Margherita. Tax auditors allege that capital gains taxes were dodged during the Valentino sale to Permira holdings.
Property assets worth 65 million euros belonging to the Marzotto group have been seized in Rome and the Dolomites resort town of Cortina.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Military Chief: EU Becoming ‘Marginal’ In Asia-Centric World
EU countries must share military resources or become “marginal” powers on the world stage, a Swedish general has said.
Hakan Syren issued the warning after chairing a regular meeting of EU military commanders in Brussels on Wednesday (31 October).
“We have shrinking budgets and we have changing responsibilities. It was shown in the Libya conflict … I would say there’s a new world out there,” he told press.
“The centre of gravity is moving from our continent to the Far East and we must come up with a long-term response to make sure we are not marginalised,” he added.
Syren’s remarks echo US President Barack Obama last year when he said the end of the Cold War and the rise of China mark the beginning of a “Pacific century.”
They also come after former US defence chief Robert Gates said EU countries could not have toppled Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi — “a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country” — without American help.
For his part, Syren said “pooling and sharing” — an EU agreement on military resources — has to be “taken to the next level” in 2013 as a response.
He noted the pooling pact has spawned 15 projects over the past two and half years.
But he added: “There are several, over 12, manufacturers of armoured vehicles (in the EU). Do we need that? We are buying four different types of combat aircraft right now. Do we need that? Do we have the money for that?”
He identified joint EU war schools, joint equipment maintenance and military manoeuvres as future areas for co-operation.
He also referred to joint EU operations in Somalia and Uganda as a “success.”
But he noted that a new operation in Mali will have to be tailor-made rather than using Somalia as a model.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Skeleton of Carrier Pigeon Found in UK Chimney, Still Attached to Mysterious WW2 Message
Experts say the skeletal remains of a pigeon discovered in the chimney of a house in southern England carried a mysterious, long-forgotten message from World War II.
Historians at Britain’s Second World War-era code breaking headquarters say the bird was almost certainly returning from Nazi-occupied France during the June 1944 D-Day invasion.
Bletchley Park says that a radio blackout imposed on Allied forces at the time meant that messages about the progress of the invasion were dispatched by pigeon across the Channel.
What the message says remains unknown. It was coded, an unusual measure generally reserved for the most sensitive secrets.
Bletchley Park said Thursday that one of its curators is now trying to unravel the message using World War II logbooks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Seeks Tougher Penalties for Burglars
Sweden’s Justice Minister Beatrice Ask claimed on Monday to be unsatisfied with the country’s police force, pointing to a drop in effectiveness despite increased funding, and arguing for stricter penalties for burglars.
Since 2006, the proportion of crimes solved by Swedish police has sunk, despite a multi-billion kronor (1 billion kronor = $149 million) injection of funding.
“Of course I am not happy and I am also demanding better results,” Ask told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper (DN).
Swedish police have solved only 3 percent of thefts and home break-ins since 2006, and in order to reverse the trend, Ask is looking to have more police on the beat and stricter penalties for home break-ins.
“I am worried about the break-ins, among other things. A problem is that the penalty is low, and we’re now looking at increasing it for residential and holiday home burglary. This also means the police have more incentive to fight against it,” she explained.
According to the National Police Board (Rikspolisstyrelsen), Swedish police are less effective now than in recent years, with productivity taking a nosedive.
Ask stressed that the police and not the government were to blame for the slump.
“It’s the police who are responsible for criminal investigations and more. On the contrary, we are working very hard on this,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Pupil Bullied Out of School by Classmates Because He Refused to Convert to Islam
Peter is a quiet, unremarkable school pupil. The sixth year pupil enjoys going to school, but for some time a classmate has been making his life in a Winterthur primary school difficult. This is not a matter of the usual teasing, but is, above, a question of religion. Ali (name changed) wants to convince Peter of his religious ideas and convert him to Islam. The teacher’s attempts to intervene remain without success, resulting in the sensitive Peter showing psychosomatic reactions.
In the 1st class Peter and Ali get on very well. It was not important that 14 of the 19 school pupils had a Muslim background. But later Ali, whose father is a Muslim priest, to give Peter religious instruction. If he was a Muslim, they could be friends, said Ali, whose zeal became ever more marked as time went on.
Ali made fun of Christianity. How is it possible that Jesus is the son of God, asked Ali maliciously. As the class visited a mosque during religious instruction, Ali demanded that Peter now pray to Allah. One day Ali gave his classmates a religious pamphlet of the German convert and hate preacher Pierre Vogel, who is banned from travelling to Switzerland.
Now Peter had the courage to tell the whole class that he wasn’t going to let himself be converted to Islam. Ali’s answer: “You are possessed by the devil”. Afterwards other Muslim classmates also turned away from Peter. The conflict climaxed in two classmates holding Peter while Ali threw ping pong balls at him, continually shouting: “Die!”
Peter suffered ever more often from headaches and stomach pains and developed anxiety disorders. For that reason his mother took him out of the school and taught him herself. As a teacher, she was able to do this.
For several months now, Peter has been receiving therapeutic treatment. His psychiatrist confirms that the psychosomatic symptoms were caused by “fear of classmates”. “Because of the adaptation disorder with anxiety and depressive reactions, Peter is currently seriously impaired in his personal and educational development,” writes the doctor in an expert opinion. “In the last three years similar reactions to school attendance were seen based on conflicts that were mostly caused by the sociocultural differences in Peter’s class.”
It is undisputed however that, because of immigration and the mixing of cultures, religious topics are being discussed ever more often and can lead to tensions, as various teachers confirmed in interview.
TA is aware of another case in which a Muslim school pupil, whose female classmates wore short skirts and close-fitting T-shirts, delivered an ultimatum to them to dress more modestly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tobacco Lobby Employs 80 People in EU Capital
The tobacco industry employs 80 people in Brussels and spends €5 million a year on trying to influence EU institutions, pro-transparency NGO Corporate Europe Observatory has said. It added that the figures — based mostly on voluntary disclosure in the EU’s lobbyist register — are “the tip of the iceberg”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Lethal Medical Arrogance Behind the Liverpool Care Pathway
Step by grudging step — and led by this paper — official Britain has begun to wake up to the scandal of the Liverpool Care Pathway.
The LCP is intended to ease the final hours of patients who are close to death and to spare them the suffering associated with invasive treatment.
Numerous relatives have claimed, however, that their loved ones were put on the Pathway — which involves the withdrawal of food and fluids as well as medical treatment — without their consent.
Far worse, they claimed that some of these patients were not in fact dying when they were put on the Pathway, but were then starved and dehydrated to death as a result.
The controversy over the LCP was given fresh impetus in the summer when a group of doctors, led by neurologist Professor Patrick Pullicino from the University of Kent, claimed that death on the LCP was a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ and a form of backdoor euthanasia, being used to get rid of difficult patients and to free hospital beds.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Corruption Reigns in Kosovo Despite EU Millions
The almost €700 million in EU funds spent in Kosovo between 2007 and 2011 to improve the rule of law and rein in corruption have produced dismal results, an EU auditing body said this week.
A lack of co-ordination between the EU and the US, unqualified EU staff and weak anti-corruption bodies in Kosovo are among some of the findings in an investigation conducted by the Luxembourg-based European Court of Auditors.
“Kosovo’s authorities accord insufficient priority to the rule of law and EU support should be more effective,” said Gijs de Vries, the court member responsible for the report, in a statement.
The court says lack of consensus among EU member states on Kosovo’s independence dispels the incentive for the struggling nation to effectively stamp out corruption.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Real World Game of Risk
Real world game of Risk as Benghazi burned, Americans died, and Obama and his spokespeople lied.
There’s a real-life game of Risk being played by Obama and the major powers of the world, and Americans are involved in the game by default. Much like the actual Parker Brothers game of military strategy and world domination, Benghazi acts like a snapshot in time of the players, exposing the armies and their positions on the board. In those terms, it shows that Benghazi was a skirmish of significant import, and reveals the agenda and strategy of a number of players.
As Americans, however, you were not asked whether you wanted to play. Your role was predetermined for you. The color of your army, that of the Muslim Brotherhood, was picked by Obama for you. Unlike the game of Risk, the real life version produces real causalities. Obviously, four Americans are dead, but no one seems to be talking about forty thousand more men, women and children who have been killed in Syria as a result of the real world actions caused, in large part, by Obama’s actions in Libya. Or the tens of thousands refugees created. This is the real world version of Risk.
And therein lies the rub. It is this agenda, this plan, this foreign policy in action that is at the very heart of the events in Benghazi. It is this deliberate course of action that has led us to the brink of a regional conflict in the Middle East that could further ignite World War III. As Fellow Americans, do we really want to be part of another war? Is taking us to the brink of World War III and beyond in our best national interest? If it’s not in our best national interest, then for whom are we doing the dirty work? Let’s look at the players, game board and the game pieces to see if we might find answers.
In this real world game of Risk, Obama appears to be following the instructions of a super secret mission card. The “Benghazi mission” was to facilitate the destabilization of Syria at the hands of “freedom fighters,” overthrowing Assad and the installation of a sympathetic Muslim Brotherhood backed regime. The installation of such a regime is of critical importance here for reasons that will become obvious later.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Christian Doctor Killed in Abu Dhabi: No News, Not Even From India
The Chief of Urology at Ahalia Hospital describes the victim, Dr. Rajan Daniel, as “very religious and a gentleman”. A few hours before his death, the victim wanted to read the Bible. The suspected murderer is a man of Pakistani nationality, maybe a patient.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — A “gentleman” with a strong faith in God and with an unwavering sense of duty: thus Dr. PK Gopinath Menon, Chief of Urology at Ahalia Hospital in Abu Dhabi, describes Dr. Rajan Daniel, the Indian doctor murdered on November 2 by a man of Pakistani origin. There is still no news regarding the case: Mohamed Abdul Jamil, the alleged murderer, is still detained and the police of the United Arab Emirates continue to investigate. Meanwhile, Sajan George, president of Global Council of Indian Christians (Gcic) explains there is ounting amazement at the silence of authorities and media in Kerala, the victim’s country of origin.
According to the testimony of his wife Geetha, the day of the murder Dr. Daniel, 58 years old, came home in the afternoon, after participating in a Conference in Dubai. The couple took a tea; before returning to the hospital for the evening shift, the victim read the Bible for half an hour. “Despite being a very religious man- his wife says — he did not usually do this, having little time. However, I did not want to disturb him”. The murder happened immediately after his return to the hospital: Jamil was waiting for Dr. Daniel, and he attacked him procuring eight stab wounds. It is still unknown whether the suspect was the victim’s patient. .
Last week, the Dr. Daniel’s eldest daughter, Junu, with her family had visited from India. “He told me- says Dr. Menon- that he loved spending time with the two grandchildren, who, unfortunately, he could not see very often because of work commitments”. “Rajan Daniel — the doctor continues — was a gentleman to the core. He would never hurt anyone “.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Georg Jensen Sold to Bahrain Investors
New owners are luxury brand experts that hope to break Georg Jensen into Chinese market
Luxury jewellery and design brand Georg Jensen is being bought by the Bahrain-based Investcorp for 813 million kroner, it was announced today.
The Copenhagen-based company is being sold by the private equity group Axcel Capital Partners, which bought Georg Jensen in 2001.
As part of the deal, Georg Jensen will get a new creative director with David Chu, a luxury brand entrepreneur who earned millions building and selling the clothing company Nautica.
Guy Leymarie, former managing director of DeBeers Diamond Jewellers, Cartier International and Dunhill, will also be joining the board.
It is expected that the new owners will attempt to break Georg Jensen into the lucrative Chinese market, where it has yet to make an impact despite 40 percent of its sales stemming from Asia.
With a portfolio worth about 67 billion kroner, Investcorp is a specialist in luxury brands and owns Gucci and Tiffany and Co.
Its experience in the luxury markets means that expectations under its ownership are high.
In a press release Ulrik Garde Due, managing director of Georg Jensen, said: “Investcorp’s commitment to developing the brand will ensure we are able to further strengthen Georg Jensen’s position globally as the leading Scandinavian luxury lifestyle brand.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Religion Dominates Iraqi Politics
Washington had hoped to turn Iraq into a full-fledged democracy. But the country remains a far cry from that goal. Instead, religion keeps cropping up as the dominant issue in both domestic and foreign policy.
There is no shortage of arms in the Middle East, but for some there seems not to be enough. At least that’s one way of interpreting the visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to Moscow in early October where he sealed a massive deal with the Kremlin to buy Russian arms worth more than 3 billion euros ($3.8 billion).
Maliki’s shopping list included tactical fighter helicopters and rocket systems. A year earlier, Russia had already sold arms to Iraq for about a quarter of a billion euros. While this was a lot, it was little compared to the arms deals Baghdad did with the US, where Iraq purchased arms worth some six billion euros during the same period.
The US arms deals, however, are tied to strict conditions. The US military has mostly withdrawn from the country but Washington still wields enormous influence in the country — and on the possible use of the arms supplied by Washington. The rockets and helicopters from Russia, therefore, have a crucial advantage for the government in Baghdad: They don’t come with strings attached, or at least not with the same ones as from the US.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey and Israel Are Far From Reconciliation
Soured relations between Turkey and Israel are likely to receive another blow this week with the beginning of a controversial trial in a Turkish court against four Israeli generals for killing pro-Palestinian activists.
The Israeli generals are charged with commanding a deadly raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla, which attempted to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip two years ago. The raid killed nine Turkish citizens aboard one of the ships.
Testimony begins in an Istanbul court on Tuesday in the trial of four senior Israeli commanders for their alleged responsibility in the deadly raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla in 2010. The prosecutor has called for each of the four Israeli officers to face nine life sentences. The commanders, including the Chief of the General Staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, are to be tried in absentia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
USA 2012: Ankara Hopes New President Will Defeat Assad
Erdogan frustrated by Obama’s alleged passivity on Syria
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 5 — Whatever the outcome of the US general election, Turkey is pinning its hopes on the new President finally defeating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to local media reports.
Turkey’s Islamic Nationalist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised the US of late for sidelining Syria in favour of the US election campaign. “Ankara has fixed its gaze on the US election campaign, on which the future of Syria could depend”, runs the headline of one Turkish daily, Zaman. Although the vast majority of Turks oppose military intervention in Syria, analysts say that Erdogan wants to impose an area of restricted airspace in the Country as well as protected areas managed by Syrian rebels. When a Turkish fighter jet was shot down on the Syrian coast in June, Erdogan is reported to have urged President Obama to lead coalition against Damascus, to no success. Since then tensions have continued.
A mortar attack in Akcalkale which killed five and was fired from Syrian territory saw Turkey amass troops and tanks along the border. For Erdogan the Syrian crisis has played out along the worst possible lines. Turkey had bet on Assad’s swift defeat — as per the rest of the Arab Spring — and a Sunni leader being elected in his place. His predictions were wrong. 40% of the population still support Assad and his regime is bolstered by Kurdish neutrality. Now more than 100,000 mostly Sunni refugees have arrived on Turkey’s majority Alawite borders, triggering internal tensions.
Crisis in Turkish Kurdistan has exploded yet again.
Separatists from the PKK are ‘armed by Damascus’, claims Ankara.
And on the home front Turkey’s relations with Iran and Russia, its two biggest neighbours, and supporters of Damascus, are strained.
Turkish politics is fracturing under the pressure too.
Opposition leader Kemal Kilicadaroglu even called Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu “an idiot”.
Observers doubt that a new US president will lead an intervention in Syria that could be potentially explosive for the Middle East.
According to analyst Omer Taspinar, one of the biggest fears regarding the Syrian rebels, a growing number of which have linked to Al Qaeda, is a repeat of Afghanistan. There the US initially supported Islamist insurgents in overthrowing the pro-Soviet government, only to pave the way much later for the Taliban.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Demonstrators Protest Alleged Vote Rigging in Ukraine
Opposition supporters have rallied to protest against alleged fraud in Ukraine’s parliamentary election. The EU has also raised concerns about the fact that final results have not been published days after the vote.
The demonstrators gathered outside of the Central Electoral Commission in the capital, Kyiv, after opposition parties called on their supporters to protest against the October 28 election, which they say was rigged.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Tries to Wear Down Japan With Flurry of Low-Level Maneuvers Near Disputed Island Chain
Chinese patrol boats have harried the Japanese Coast Guard many times a week for more than a month in an unusually relentless response to their latest maritime spat.
Four Chinese craft typically push to within hailing distance of Japan’s ships. They flash illuminated signs in Japanese to press Beijing’s argument that it has ancient claims to a set of tiny East China Sea islands now controlled by Tokyo. China says its craft have tried to chase the Japanese away at least once, although Japan denies any of its ships fled.
The huge uptick in incidents has brought the sides into dangerously close proximity, reflecting a campaign by Beijing to wear down Japanese resolve with low-level, non-military maneuvers but also boosting the risk of a clash.
Although China wields a formidable arsenal, it has yet to deploy military assets in such encounters. Instead, Beijing has dispatched ships from government maritime agencies — only one of which is armed — to keep a lid on gunfire. Those agencies are now receiving added attention, with new ships on order and a national call going out for recruits.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
World’s Rarest Whale Seen for the First Time
ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2012) — A whale that is almost unknown to science has been seen for the first time after two individuals — a mother and her male calf — were stranded and died on a New Zealand beach. A report in the November 6th issue of Current Biology offers the first complete description of the spade-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon traversii), a species previously known only from a few bones.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New EU Development Package for Somalia
Following September’s election of a new Somali president the European Union has announced a €158mn development package to improve education, legal systems and security, EU special envoy to Somalia Michele Cervone d’Urso told Reuters. Some funds will be used to repatriate Somali professionals help improve education standards.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boat With 169 Migrants Escorted to Reggio Calabria
Migrants say they are Afghans
(ANSA) — Messina, November 5 — Italian police intercepted a fishing boat with 169 migrants on board near Capo dell’Armi, a point on Italy’s southeastern tip, and escorted it to the city of Reggio Calabria during the night between Sunday and Monday.
Twenty-five women and 33 children were among the passengers. Most of the migrants, who said that they were Afghans and that they had departed from Istanbul three days ago, have been taken to a reception centre. Police have detained around 10 of them and are trying to establish who the migrant traffickers are. An aero-naval division of the Guardia di Finanza police force spotted the boat, which was flying a Greek flag, about 140 miles southeast of Capo Passero, near Siracusa, in Sicily. The police watched and waited until boat entered territorial waters before intercepting it.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
In his weekly column for the “Las Vegas Review-Journal,” writer Glenn Cook has been examining the problems of voter fraud, including felons, the deceased, and noncitizens registering to vote and casting ballots.
This weekend, he wrote about two such noncitizens who tell him they were pressured by their union, Culinary Local 226, to illegally register to vote and then cast ballots. Fearing reprisal from the union and deportation by immigration authorities, the two spoke to Cook as long as he agreed not to identify them. While they speak a modicum of English, the two say they didn’t understand the forms they were completing. He writes:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Somalis Fare Better in the US Than Sweden: Report
Somali immigrants in Sweden have had a harder time finding employment compared to Somalis in the United States and Canada, a new report has found.
Roughly every other Somali immigrant in North America has a job, while only 20 percent of the Somali immigrants in Sweden have jobs, according to a report released on Monday by the government’s Commission on the Future (Framtidskommissionen).
The report, entitled “Somalis in the labour market — does Sweden have something to learn?” (Somalier på arbetsmarknaden — har Sverige något att lära?) and presented on Monday to Integration Minister Erik Ullenhag, was ordered by the government in order to provide proposals for improving the employment situation for Sweden’s rapidly-expanding Somali population.
The report finds that Somalis in the United States and Canada have had an easier time finding work in part because non-government groups with strong ties to the Somali community play a larger role in helping newly arrived immigrants look for work, find housing, and start companies, according to Sveriges Radio (SR).
In an opinion article published in the Expressen newspaper, the author of the report, Benny Carlsson of Lund University, explained that Sweden would be well served to let community-based organizations do more to help integrate Somali immigrants, rather than relying on public agencies to play a leading role.
“In Sweden, government agencies try to integrate individuals. This is problematic, not least when it comes to Somalis, who are often unfamiliar with or have had negative experience with government agencies,” Carlsson wrote.
“Would Swedish government bodies dare hand over some of the responsibility and resources to ethnic-based organizations focused on helping new arrivals or those suffering from social exclusion to navigate Swedish society?”
According to the report, one of the reasons there are so many unemployed Somalis in Sweden is that roughly half have arrived in the last five years and 70 percent have low or unspecified levels of education.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
An illegal immigrant who sexually assaulted a teenager escaped from the UK and went on the run for two years after police let him out on bail.
Mohammed Shah Nawaz-Cheema, 30, escaped from the UK via the Channel Tunnel after he was arrested on suspicion of raping the 19-year old victim in her sleep.
Nawaz-Cheema had been in the UK illegally for seven years when he was arrested and he did not divulge his immigration status to officers and was given bail.
Shortly afterwards he fled to Spain by smuggling himself out of Dover in the back of a caravan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Aarhus Siblings’ Love Child Sets Off Incest Debate
Enhedslisten says government should change “old fashioned” laws and professor argues that sometimes inbreeding can be a good thing
The recent case of a brother and sister in the city of Aarhus who said that they are in love and have a five-month-old child together has raised a national debate about sibling sex. The couple, who share the same father but have different mothers, face jail time for violating Denmark’s current statute prohibiting incest and inbreeding.
Far-left party Enhedslisten said Denmark should look at decriminalising incest.
“It is not the government’s job to interfere in who should have children with whom,” party spokesperson Pernille Skipper told Politiken newspaper. “It is a grotesque and old-fashioned approach to sex and families.”
The possibility of passing on genetic defects and damaging the social order have been the main reasons cited for making it illegal for siblings to have sex and produce offspring. But Niels Tommerup, a professor of genetics at the University of Copenhagen, said that mutations resulting from inbreeding can be both positive and negative.
“Our focus is always on the negative consequences like diseases and malformations,” he told Information newspaper. “But positive mutations help develop the species.”
Tommerup said that mutations like those that occur due to inbreeding can be “biologically positive”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Catholic Church Weighs in Against Gay Marriage
Legalising gay marriage and adoption was central to President François Hollande’s election manifesto. But it is coming against stronger than expected opposition, with the Catholic Church joining calls for the proposed law to be rethought.
The French Catholic Church has joined a chorus of opposition against proposals to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption, which were a cornerstone of Socialist President François Hollande’s election campaign.
The bill is due to be presented at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting — but the parliamentary debates on a law that should have been a walk-through for the president have been postponed to January amid stronger than expected opposition.
Over the weekend Cardinal André Vingt-Trois (pictured), head of the French Council of Bishops, branded gay marriage “the ultimate deceit”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Millions of Lonely People: The Tragic Legacy of the Left’s War on Families
Britain appears to be turning into a disunited kingdom of solitary and lonely people.
Recent figures have shown that ever-increasing numbers of middle-aged men and women are living alone.
According to the Office of National Statistics, almost 2.5 million people aged between 45 and 64 have their own home but no spouse, partner or children to live with them. Since the mid-Nineties, their number has grown by more than 50 per cent.
This disturbing trend was always entirely predictable as one of the baleful effects of family breakdown. For the age group that is so over-represented in these dismal figures is the post-war ‘baby boomer’ generation — those who grew up in the Swinging Sixties and proceeded to throw over the traditional family.
Far worse than the damage the boomers did to themselves, however, has been the damage done to the links between the generations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Quantum Mystery of Light Revealed by New Experiment
Is light made of waves, or particles?
This fundamental question has dogged scientists for decades, because light seems to be both. However, until now, experiments have revealed light to act either like a particle, or a wave, but never the two at once.
Now, for the first time, a new type of experiment has shown light behaving like both a particle and a wave simultaneously, providing a new dimension to the quandary that could help reveal the true nature of light, and of the whole quantum world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
They are trying to get pledges for $12,000 on Kickstarter to get the game into production. The last day for pledges is December 21. (the end of the Mayan calendar…)
The short description of the game:
Yeehawd! is a hilarious board game about religion in which the players take on the role of prophets.
Unleash acts of God upon your mortal foes! Attract new followers with miraculous miracles! Defend yourself with shields of faith!And sabotage your foes by the power of your disbelief!
Since the majority is always right, the prophet with the most followers at the end of the world wins the game and goes to heaven. The others? There´s always room down below.
The game features the prophets: Bean Laden, Pharaoh Bama, Ann Occulter, Hal Gore, Harry Krishna, Lord Keynes and Elrond Hubbard…
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