Average Italian Family’s Tax Bill Up 1,450 Euros, Says Study
Italy has third-highest tax burden in EU, claims Confesercenti
(ANSA) — Rome, November 19 — The average Italian household’s tax bill will be 1,450 euros higher this year than it was in 2011, a study by business association Confesercenti said on Monday.
The study said premier Mario Monti’s austerity measures and other budget measures passed in the second half of 2011 by the administration of his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi have taken the country’s overall tax burden up to 44.7%.
The association, which represents small and medium-sized businesses, said this means Italy now has the third-highest tax burden in the European Union after Denmark and Sweden. It added that the burden is 5% higher than the EU average. “There doesn’t seem to be much room for optimistic assessments,” read the report. “According to government forecasts, the tax burden will go up again in 2013, climbing to 45.3%. That will be another nine million euros (in taxes) and a burden of 380 euros for each Italian family”. Confesercenti called on the government to drop a 1% increase in the top band of VAT that will take it up to 22% next year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Troika Asks for Deeper Cuts
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, NOVEMBER 19 — Bailout talks between the troika and Cypriot officials continued yesterday amid reports that the lenders are asking for deeper cuts, as Cyprus Mail reports today. Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly and Central Bank Governor Panicos Demetriades met with the heads of the troika team in Cyprus to discuss issues that concern the island’s banks. The meeting took place amid reports by state broadcaster CyBC that lenders have demanded deeper spending cuts worth 1.2 billion euros instead of 975 million euros sought initially. The troika delegation, in Cyprus since last Friday, was scheduled to leave the island on Sunday, but has now extended its stay to at least Wednesday due to divergences between the two sides on major issues, state television said. House President Yiannakis Omirou said esterday the troika’s demand would lead the country’s economy back to ‘Dark Ages’ and will abolish the sovereignty of the Cypriot state.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Shadow Banking Assets Worth €17 Trillion
The eurozone has the world’s second largest shadow banking system after the United States, with assets worth some €17.2 trillion in 2011.
“The US’ share of the global shadow banking system has declined from 44 percent in 2005 to 35 percent in 2011. This decline has been mirrored mostly by an increase in the shares of the UK and the euro area,” said the Basel, Swizterland-based Financial Stability Board (FSB) in a report released on Sunday (18 November).
The UK takes the largest share in Europe with €7 trillion, while the US, in comparison, has €18 trillion.
The FSB, which monitors international financial sector policies, says such credit transactions “made outside the normal banking system” have continued to increase in size after the 2008-11 financial crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece, Electric Company Cuts Power for Unpaid Bills
Many Greeks “and some Greek schools” face a bleak winter without electricity or heating fuel because they can’t afford to pay the price and the government has offered only a pared-down emergency fuel subsidy program that has also been cut back as part of austerity measures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Companies Face ‘Annihilation’ Amid Debt Crisis
“Returning to 1984 purchasing power levels, 1998 employment levels and 1999 salary levels will not help Greece’s economy in 2013,” said Vassilis Korkidis, chairman of the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce (Esee).
The association, representing a sector which employs nearly 18pc of the Greek workforce, presented an annual study forecasting a further drop in sales and job cuts in an economy where the unemployment rate currently exceeds 25pc.
More than 40pc of limited liability companies and 70.6pc of general and limited partnerships expect a fall in sales, and one in three businesses in both categories expects to shed workers next year, the report showed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar Banks on Recovery in Italy
Qatar will pump 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) into Italy’s economy in hopes the debt-stricken country will soon recover from recession. The move is part of the Gulf state’s drive to invest the spoils of its oil wealth.
Italy’s strategic investment fund Fondo Strategico Italiano and state-owned Qatar Holding were planning to commit 1 billion euros each to the joint fund entitled “IQ Made in Italy Venture,” Italy’s government announced Monday.
The deal was signed during Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti’s visit to the oil-rich Gulf state.
The joint venture would boast an initial capital of 300 million euros, the statement said, and rise in the coming years as the fund would be investing in sectors such as food, fashion and luxury goods, as well as in Italy’s furniture, tourism and leisure industries.
“We have four or five ideas (for investing) that we are studying at the moment,” Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told a new conference in Doha, adding that his government considered Italy a significant partner.
Sheikh Hammad also announced that his government was preparing to sign another agreement with Italy worth 1 billion euros and aimed at supporting small and medium-sized business in Italy. Funding would also be provided equally by both partners, he said.
The small yet wealthy Gulf state is seeking out opportunities to invest its huge and rising oil wealth, while debt-stricken eurozone countries are looking for international funding to finance their way out of a deep recession.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
SAS Close to Deal With Unions on Massive Cuts
Scandinavian airline group SAS has said negotiations with unions on massive job and pay cuts are making progress. There’s only one day left to strike a deal and head off the firm’s insolvency, management says.
Embattled Scandinavian SAS Group, which operates the troubled Scandinavian Airlines, said on Monday marathon talks with trade unions on huge cuts were advancing well.
Management indicated that all but one of the smaller unions had already thrown their weight behind a large package of cost-saving measures the company deems necessary to prevent SAS from having to file for insolvency.
The airline group emphasized that a final deal with all sides concerned had to be reached in the course of Monday, after a former Sunday deadline was extended bilaterally.
SAS has not made a full-year profit since 2007, struggling to keep afloat in the fight against discount carriers such as Ryanair and Norwegian Air Shuttle.
The company said it expected unions to agree to pay cuts of up to 15 percent, depending on which part of the firm they worked in. Cabin crew members for instance would have to accept a 12-percent drop in wages. There would also be cuts in pension claims, the firm added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
SAS Receives Approval From Unions on Massive Cuts
Scandinavian airline group SAS has received approval from eight trade unions on massive job and pay cuts. The newly approved savings plan will help the troubled carrier hold off insolvency.
The ailing airline SAS has received the final green light from all unions for a large package of cost-saving measures the company deems necessary to avoid filing for insolvency.
The Danish union CAU was the last of eight bodies representing pilots and cabin crew in Denmark, Norway and Sweden to sign the agreement on Monday afternoon in Copenhagen, a week after talks began.
SAS wants to secure survival through wage cuts, longer working hours, job cuts and the sale of subsidiaries.
SAS has not made a full-year profit since 2007, struggling to keep afloat in the fight against discount carriers such as Ryanair and Norwegian Air Shuttle.
Prior to the deal the company said it expected unions to agree to pay cuts of up to 15 percent, depending on which part of the firm they worked in. Cabin crew members for instance would have to accept a 12-percent drop in wages. There will also be cuts in pension claims, the firm added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Created in 1913, the Federal Reserve (or FED for short) was created by Congress in the shadows of the 1907 Depression to provide the nation with a “safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system.” (FRB, 2009) The FED however, is neither a Federal agency nor a reserve, but rather hybrid of private banks with limited federal control. “The FED has for one of its four stated goals to control the nations’ monetary policy by influencing the monetary and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.” (FRB, 2009) This certainly sounds like a good policy to follow and with almost a 100 year existence it is relatively easy to see if they have been successful in maintaining stable prices.
According to MeasuringWorth.com, if you bought a commodity in 1791 for $10.00, by 1913 you would pay $8.96 for same item which would largely be explained by the rapid increase of production the United States experienced during the Industrial Revolution. This is actually negative inflation of -1.04% for a 122 year span. This inflation rate happened during a period of time where the US had no central bankers running our monetary policy but instead was based on Free Market principles and a gold standard.
Also according to MeasuringWorth.com, if you were to buy something that cost $10.00 in 1913, it would cost you $233.74 today, that’s an inflation of 2237.4%. That’s maintaining stable prices? Unfortunately, most Americans have come to believe that inflation is normal. But for the first 122 years of our existence, it was not. The inflation we are experiencing since the inception of the FED is the cost we incur for allowing a privately controlled entity to control the nation’s money supply.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britons are facing a nutritional recession as households turn to ‘cheaper’ fatty foods to cope with a hike in food prices and shrinking incomes.
The number of people who consume their ‘five-a-day’ of fruit and vegetables has declined by an estimated 900,000 over the past two years.
Families on the lowest incomes are the worst affected as they are condemned to an increasingly unhealthy diet as they choose products perceived to be cheaper and more ‘filling’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Once upon a time it was the objective of the military to win wars. Now the objective of the military is to avoid incidents.
An incident happens when civilians are killed, prisoners mistreated or some other event that is photographed, videotaped and then flashed around the world. This results in an Incident, capital I, that triggers much artificial soul-searching by the media which spends the next two years beating the incident to death and flogging its corpse across television programs, newspaper articles, books, documentaries and finally, if it’s a big enough incident, a real life movie version that is based on the book, which was based on the article, where the idealistic reporter/lawyer/activist who uncovered the truth about the incident will be played by Matt Damon or George Clooney.
The main objective of the military in most civilized countries is to prevent this chain of articles, programs, books, documentaries, dramatized plays and Matt Damon movies from coming about by making sure that no Incident can ever happen. And the best way to do that is by not fighting. And if the enemy insists on fighting, then he must be fought with razor sharp precision so that no collateral damage takes place. And if someone must die, it had better be our own soldiers, rather than anyone on the other side whose death might be used as an Incident.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The devout Muslim stabbed outside a Queens mosque Sunday bears no ill
will towards the hatemonger who attacked him.
“If somebody’s crazy, what message could you send him?” said Bashir Ahmad, 57, who was recovering in his Flushing apartment.
Instead of matching hate with hate, Ahmad relied on his faith.
“I love my religion,” he said. “It is my heart.”
But cops say the Halal food truck vendor was attacked because of his faith at 4:45 a.m. Sunday as he opened Masjid al-Saaliheen for morning prayer.
“I put the key inside, but it wasn’t going,” Ahmad said. “The guy was coming. One, two, three, four, five, six times in the back! I asked him, ‘What are you doing?’“
The maniac’s response was chilling.
“The guy yelled, ‘F——— Muslim, I’ll kill you!’“ Ahmad said.
Police are still searching for the suspect, described as a Hispanic man in his 40s.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
National Heritage Sites and Agenda 21
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, how many single-family homes damaged by the storm surge will be rebuilt as high density dwellings? This is after all, the Smart Growth trend across the country — destroy traditional homes in the suburbs because they are “unsustainable” and build high rises in inner cities.
Smart Growth meetings across the country at the local level tout “consensus building” where the outcome has already been decided by a small group of “visioning” experts paid by non-governmental organizations with funds to burn from various federal government agencies, including the U.S. Park Service.
The method used by the “visioning” experts is the Delphi technique developed by the Rand Corporation during the Cold War era as a mind-controlling tool, a “consensive process.” The technique was used to lead a targeted group to a pre-determined outcome, while maintaining the illusion that the public had open input.
[…]
These well-crafted environmental buffer zones that are designated in the National Heritage Area seem innocuous and unrelated until citizen’s rights to free use of their private properties clash with their rules. The NGOs indirectly control land zoning and activities by putting pressure on local boards. It is expensive to fight NGOs flush with taxpayer and private cash. As Gary Franchi of WHDN 9 Boston says, “The NGOs syphon off taxpayer dollars to fulfill agendas that they themselves create.“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shaima Alawadi’s Death Was Domestic Violence Not Hate Crime, Husband Arrested
An arrest has been made in the killing of Iraqi-American Shaima Alawadi, 32, of San Diego. What appeared to initially be a hate crime has turned out to be a homicide resulting from domestic violence with her husband Kassim Alhimidi, 48, as the main suspect.
Alhimidi was taken into custody last Thursday after being called into the police station and is held without bail, El Cajon Police reports.
Pleading not guilty to the charges of killing his wife back in March 2012, Alhimidi could face up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted of the crime.
The case drew international attention earlier this year as a hate crime case when a note was found in the home that read: “Go back to your country, you terrorist.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
The Bureaucratization of Everything
Regulation, like the work of a boa constrictor, wraps itself around the American economy and restricts freedom of action, imposing costly burdens which threaten the survival of the American market. Federal bureaucracy coerces and cajoles every market player, diminishing freedom to invent, produce, and market, reducing consumer choice, and creating governmentally planned economies. In the Obama Administration, the federal agencies are headed by individuals predisposed to exercise control over markets and regulate them with a vengeance. Those individuals harbor grave suspicions about the private sector and think it prone to failure and abuse unless kept firmly under federal control. The economies produced as a result of regulatory enforcement are inefficient, failing to meet the best and highest uses. Those economies carry with them ever higher levels of unemployment and loss of private revenue. The bureaucratization of everything private is enslaving and progressively destroying all productive enterprise, particularly small and mid-sized businesses and new market entrants. The bureaucratization of everything is rapidly transforming previously vibrant markets into dull and dysfunctional ones that can neither innovate nor employ those with talent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
TSA Ordering Travelers to Go Through Body Scanners?
Rape victim has genitals groped for opting out
People traveling through the United States have a right to opt out of the dangerous body scanners. However, we have encountered numerous instances of TSA workers implying or outright lying in telling people they have to go through the scanner even if they try to opt out. Another case of this has been sent to us via email, which is reprinted in full below.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Christie Clowns on ‘SNL’ As Residents Suffer
Chris Christie — and his infamous blue fleece — hit “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.
The New Jersey governor made a cameo appearance on the show’s “Weekend Update” to talk Hurricane Sandy recovery and to take a couple pot shots at his signature outfit.
“It’s basically fused to my skin at this point,” Christie joked. “I’m gonna die in this fleece. But that’s OK, it’s a good fleece.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Wolves Close in on Berlin
A pack of wolves has settled near Berlin and has become well established enough to have cubs. Researchers caught them on camera, just 25 kilometres from the capital.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: the ABCs of Political Correctness
Greek authorities have launched an administrative inquiry after a Lefkada kindergarten teacher was accused of allowing “unpatriotic activities” to take place in the classroom.
Parents and representatives of the neofascist Golden Dawn party on the Ionian island allege that during this year’s activities to commemorate the anniversary of Greece’s entry into WWII on October 28, 1940, the teacher put up flags made by the young pupils — including an Albanian one.
“We decided to draw and make the flags. Because the class includes kids from both Greece and Albania, some of them made the flags of both countries,” the teacher said.
On Wednesday evening, the Onassis Cultural Center in the capital hosted an interesting debate around the questions “Are Greeks racist? Does racism begin at school and during our education? Did racism put down roots in family and society years before the crisis began?”
Given the ease with which Golden Dawn has managed to infiltrate schools across the country, one is tempted to answer yes to these questions. The narrow-minded, Greece-centered, sometimes nationalistic and Christian Orthodox-oriented education at schools is almost taken for granted.
From early on youngsters are injected with the conviction that the Greek people are special, that their history has always been great and that the connection of contemporary society with ancient civilization is linear and uninterrupted.
In the context of this dominant culture, testosterone is king, femininity is a must for every woman and homosexuality is divergent behavior.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Golden Dawn Event Sparks Riot
Riot police were summoned from Athens to deal with a violent protest at the inauguration of a new Golden Dawn (Chrysi Avgi) office in north-west Greece.
Agrinio, western Greece
Ekathimerini reported the inauguration of a new branch of Golden Dawn in Agrinio, Aitolokarnania, was disrupted by a group of anti-Golden Dawn protesters clashing with local police.
According to To Vima anti-authoritarians tried to reach the Golden Dawn office and as police prevented them they hurled Molotov cocktails at police. Protesters caused damage to two bank ATM’s, riot police were called, and two people were arrested.
This year Greek media has reported several attacks on Golden Dawn offices throughout Greece. On Sunday “Golden Dawn’s offices in Karditsa and Xanthi in northern Greece were vandalized by unknown assailants” according to Ekathimerini.
The New York Times reported Golden Dawn member of Parliament Nikolaos Michos referred to leftist death threats and the burning of a Golden Dawn office, saying “We’re fighters and we’re not going to back down. But they’re not striking fear into us because every center they destroy, we’ll build new ones.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
In a Referendum 56% of Britons Would Vote to Leave the EU
(AGI) London, Nov. 18 — A poll in the Sunday newspaper, the Observer, reports that 56% of Britons would “definitely” or “probably” vote to leave the EU if there were a referendum.
Eurosceptic sentiment is growing among voters of all parties but is dominant among Conservatives, with 68% in favour of turning away from Brussels, compared with 44% of Labour supporters and 39% of Liberal Democrats. In another poll published by the Independent on Sunday, Labour increased their lead, with Ed Miliband’s party on 43% compared to 31% for Prime Minister David Cameron’s Tories, the widest gap since 2005 when Tony Blair’s New Labour won the election.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Police Seize Unsafe Toys
(AGI) — Ascoli Piceno Nov.18 — Italy’s financial police in Macerata have seized 300 thousand products, mainly toys, which contained substances hazardous to the health of children.
Working in collaboration with the local Chamber of Commerce, the financial police agents decided to test some Chinese toys sold in the area of Macerata in central Italy, for their chemical content and human health risks. The laboratory tests showed that many of the items did not comply with the current legal requirements. Some samples showed high levels of phthalates, the chemical agents used in the plastics industry as plasticizers to make some plastics more flexible and mouldable. According to the Macerata police, “excess use of phthalates may have feminizing properties in newborns and may impair the development of reproductive organs in males.” The Macerata investigation was part of a broader operation to protect the market of goods and services made in Italy and to safeguard consumer health. Police also searched the importer’s headquarters in the Taranto area in southern Italy and premises in other Italian cities. The 300 thousand toys found in Taranto and in shops in Venice, Perugia, and Cosenza were seized immediately and the owner of the company was reported to the Prosecutor of Macerata.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fiat Industrial Makes Last and Final Merger Offer to CNH
Marchionne warns will move forward whether or not accepted
(ANSA) — Turin, November 19 — Fiat Industrial Chairman Sergio Marchionne warned on Monday that Fiat Industrial would move forward on its merger with agricultural machinery maker CNH even if its last and final merger offer is not accepted.
Marchionne said Fiat Industrial “intends to go forward and take all the actions permitted” while “respecting the rights of CNH minority stakeholders” in order to give Fiat Industrial stakeholders “the benefits sought by the operation”.
Fiat Industrial announced its last and final merger offer to CNH on Monday after CNH’s Special Committee rejected Fiat’s original proposal on October 15. The new offer includes a $10 dividend per CNH share to be paid to CNH shareholders prior to the merger, as well as “an accelerated realization of a significant portion of the value of the transaction”. Fiat Industrial said the special dividend represents a 25.6% improvement over the “implied value” of the original proposal made on May 30.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway’s Terror Victims Suffer From Post-Traumatic Stress
It’s been months since Norwegian murderer Anders Breivik was imprisoned for killing 77 people last July. But a study shows that 70 percent of survivors of his crimes suffer psychologically, many showing signs of PTSD.
“There was no qualification in the selection of who died and who survived, it was purely random,” said Tore Bekkedal at a busy café in Oslo, near where he works. Bekkedal considers himself one of the lucky ones in surviving the Utoeya massacre committed by Anders Breivik in July 2011. He told DW he’s been able to return to a more or less normal life.
But it hasn’t been easy. Bekkedal managed to survive the mass shooting by hiding in a toilet block at the camp on Utoeya. When he emerged from his clandestine spot, nearly seventy of his fellow Labour youth party members lay brutally murdered across the small island. “Visions of these unspeakable scenes will stay with him for life”, he said.
“I work as an engineer, so I rely on my mind to work properly, It didn’t do that for the first nine months after this (attack). My body was still in emergency mode and I was always extremely alert and would startle at any sharp sound.”
“That is extremely tiring and after the first four hours of the day, I would be completely exhausted and would have to go home,” he recalls.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Four Charged Over ‘Mistaken’ Malmö Murder
Three women and one man were charged in Malmö for their suspected involvement in the killing of a 48-year-old man who was gunned down in broad daylight in January, apparently by mistake.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland, Italy Near Bilateral Tax Accord
Swiss official says agreement by December 21
(ANSA) — Bern, November 19 — A Swiss diplomat familiar with negotiations said on Monday that Italy and Switzerland were close to reaching a cross-border deal that may help discourage Italian tax evaders holding money in Swiss bank accounts.
The agreement would mean funds in Swiss bank accounts would pay capital gains tax at a rate similar to that of the funds’ country of origin, but the clients who have those accounts would keep their anonymity. “We are confident in finding an agreement by the end of autumn, by December 21,” said Oscar Knapp, an international finance representative for the Swiss government.
The agreement with Italy is modeled on bilateral agreements reached between Switzerland and three other countries — Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: More Police Sought Against Foreign Gangs
Switzerland needs 1,500 more police officers to deal with foreign gangs and rising cases of burglaries and thefts, according to the working group of the conference for cantonal justice and police ministers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tinnitus: Phantom Noise Causes Real Suffering
Constant buzzing, humming and ringing — 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some 4 million Germans suffer from tinnitus, which can make life difficult.
For some, it’s like a pneumatic drill, while others may feel they have a washing machine throbbing inside their head. Those suffering from tinnitus — from the Latin “ringing” — are often unable to satisfactorily describe their symptoms. And no one’s really able to help: For they are the only ones who can hear the sound in their ears.
“It’s not an acoustic noise that can be measured,” Gerhard Goebel explained in an interview with Deutsche Welle. He is the director of the German Tinnitus League, a self-help group. “Even if we disconnected the acoustic nerve, so basically separated the ear from the brain, the noise would remain. So it’s a phantom sound,” Goebel said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Grants Highest Number of EU Citizenships
Over 810,000 people were given EU citizenship in 2010, with Moroccans forming the largest group coming to the EU, followed by Turks, Ecuadorians and Indians.
With 67,000 Moroccans granted nationality, they account for top foreign groups in Belgium, France, Italy and the Netherlands. Turks (49,900 in total) tend to go to Germany, where they they are the top group receiving citizenship. Ecuadorians go to Spain and Indians go to the UK, reflecting longstanding labour, historical or cultural ties.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A pensioner has told how he was shot with a pellet gun before being viciously attacked by a group of yobs on a bus while the driver refused to help because of company safety policy.
Grandfather Fred Gilroy, 68, had already been shot with the gun on the upper deck of the bus before he was punched and kicked to the floor just feet away from the driver’s protected cab.
Mr Gilroy, who had confronted the gang of teenagers about their unruly behaviour, said after they fled the bus by triggering the emergency door release, the driver apologised claiming he wasn’t allowed to leave his cab for health and safety reasons.
[…]
Mr Gilroy had been travelling on the upper deck of the 636 service in Bradford, West Yorkshire when a group of about five teenagers started misbehaving on the back seat.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jail Let-Off for Racist: Cocaine Addict Who Abused Passengers Given ‘Derisory’ Fine
A female passenger who told a black man to “go home to Africa” and spat at and kicked a Polish man saying she could not understand his accent was let off with a £210 fine because a judge did not have the power to jail her.
Judge Michael Snow told Rebecca Afeigan, who is black herself: “This is a truly horrendous crime and you are extremely lucky. You deserve to be sent to prison
“But I am stuck with what I have and an offence where the maximum sentence is a fine, which is derisory.”
Prosecutor Darren Watts said Afeigan, 29, a cocaine addict, launched her torrent of abuse after accusing the black man of pushing her on a packed train.
When a Polish man said her behaviour was unacceptable she told him he was “taking jobs and was a drain on the system”.
The judge told her she was a national embarrassment.
“This is a society based on tolerance and that is its strength,” he said.
“When someone behaves like you, it trashes the image we have held out to the world.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Teenage Burglar Posed With Huge Knife on Facebook and Boasted of How He Could Outrun the Police
A teenager who posed for pictures brandishing a huge knife and boasted on Facebook about his gang’s spree of burglaries has been sentenced to three years in a young offender institute.
Brazen Adam Dutton even joked about how fast he was when he managed to run from police on an occasion when two of his accomplices were caught.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
While debating Mitt Romney this fall, Barack Obama declared that he had decided to embrace the term “Obamacare” — a name originally coined and to that point only used by its detractors to tie the president firmly to the health care fiasco he had spawned. Perhaps he will, therefore, not object if we dub the escalating conflict in the Middle East by a similarly apt name: Obamawar.
After all, frantic efforts underway at the moment by assorted diplomats aimed at containing hostilities between Israel and the terrorist enclave known as the Gaza Strip (primarily by blocking Israel’s decisive retaliation) cannot obscure a dismal reality: The crescendo of rockets and missiles unleashed by the Palestinians on Israeli civilians are a predictable repercussion of President Obama’s reckless defense and foreign policies…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: 84% of Israelis Support Strikes, Says Poll
Haaretz: 30% in favour of ground attacks
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOV 19 — 84% of Israelis support Israel’s ‘Operation Pillar of Cloud’ versus 12% who don’t, according to a poll by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Haaretz published the findings after a sixth day of Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip.
Only 30% of those polled sided with possible ground attacks while 39% believe Israel should continue solely with air bombardments.
Only 19% supported an immediate ceasefire. 63% didn’t see a link between the Gaza strikes and parliamentary elections in January, against 28% who do. “Israelis are sending a clear message of approval to those who ordered the operation — Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defence Ehud Barak,” said Haaretz.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel and the Palestinians: Only Here Do Lovers Stroll on the Beach as Rockets Fly
How can a community become so inured to war that couples can enjoy a beach sunrise under heavy artillery fire, asks Phoebe Greenwood
As dawn broke over the Gaza Strip the morning after the Hamas military chief Ahmed al-Jaabari was assassinated, I looked out of my hotel window over beach to sea, trying to work out where the firing was coming from.
[…]
The main lobby at the Al Deira Hotel in Gaza City has become a newsroom. The ever-patient reception manager Ayman smiles wearily through bloodshot eyes at every anxious bark from a journalist disconnected from the internet on deadline. We live in dread of a coffee shortage. As we sat around a dining table one evening, filing copy and smoking furiously, one of us looked up. The correspondents of major American, Australian, Spanish and British broadsheets were all writing together, all of us women. The remarkable thing, we agreed, is that there is nothing remarkable about that at all.
[JP note: Silly bints.]
[Reader comment by Jeshurun on 19 November 2012 at about 10 am.]
This article is so emotive and partisan it’s unbelievable. Instead of waxing lyrical about the poor, resilient Palestinians, Phoebe Greenwood should stop being an apologist for Islamic terrorism for one moment, and tell it like it really is. Her genial bear of a man, Abu Ahmad, is in reality a thug and murderer, not only of Israeli civilians but Palestinian civilians too. The blood of the innocent people caught in the crossfire is on his hands and the Hamas terrorists like him.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Israeli ambassador is now blaming staffers for mistakenly posting a tweet saying that the government was willing to meet with Hamas in an effort to stop the ongoing missile attacks.
A tweet from the account of Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to America, said that he ‘just appeared on the set of #CNN: #Israel willing to sit down with #Hamas — if they just stop shooting at us’.
The sentiment goes against the government’s stance that Hamas is a militant group that they will not negotiate with, hence the quick turn around made by Oren shortly after.
‘Correction: the earlier tweet about my CNN interview was sent erroneously by a staffer’ he later wrote.
[…]
The problem with his retraction is that it seems less believable given his appearance on CNN.
‘The people and the government and the state of Israel want peace with their neighbors and we’re willing to sit down and negotiate with them if they’re willing to sit down and negotiate with us. Everything’s on the table, we sign on to the two-state solution we’re committed to it, just stop shooting at us,’ he said to CNN’s Don Lemon.
[Comments: Oh yes…the mysterious staffer ruse.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rupert Murdoch Apologises for Snipe at ‘Jewish-Owned Press’ During Twitter Rant Over Gaza Conflict
The avowed supporter of Israel also took to Twitter to call the coverage of events in Gaza by CNN and the AP biased to the point of ‘embarrassment.’
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany, Netherlands May Send Missiles to Protect Turkey
The Netherlands and Germany may send Patriot missiles to help defend Turkey from Syrian attacks, Dutch defence minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert told ANP newswire. “Nato does not exist for nothing,” she said. German newspaper Sueddeutsche reported that Turkey on Monday will ask Nato to set up missiles on its Syrian border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Hacks Into Israel’s Military
The terrorist group Islamic Jihad, which answers to Iran, has launched a massive cyber attack on the Israeli army in the wake of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
According to Mashregh, an Iranian media outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards, Islamic Jihad’s Beitol Moghadas (Jerusalem) unit obtained detailed information on 5,000 high-ranking Israeli military personnel. The information includes names, telephone numbers, addresses, emails and rankings, even within the Israeli intelligence division.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Protesters in Amman Call for Fall of the Regime
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, NOVEMBER 19 — Hundreds of protesters marched in Amman on Monday, calling for fall of the regime and chanting slogans against the government as part of ongoing protests against increased fuel prices.
The protest was organized by the professional association, an umbrella of 14 labour syndicates that includes 1.5 million members out of the kingdom’s 7.5 million population.
Protesters chanted; “Down with the rule of gangsters, “freedom from God, in spite of you (king) Abdullah”.
Other youth groups also took part as well as members of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Several association leaders pulled out from the march because they did not agree with slogans chanted by protesters, according to association leaders.
Security forces continued monitoring protesters as they marched towards the prime ministry. No clashes or arrests took place but a presence of a group of loyalists increased level of tension.
Other protests also set off in several parts of the country including the southern cities of Karak, Tafila and Maan.
The government said Monday it was going ahead with the decision to raise fuel prices and invited citizens to visit ministry of finance and post offices to fill financial aid claims, approved as part of a social aid package to lessen impact of rising fuel prices.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar: Tourism Authority, Foreign Women to Dress Modestly
‘One of Us’ campaign not compatible with 2022 World Cup, web
The flyer of the campaign ‘One of Us’.
(ANSAmed) — DOHA — Some Qatari women want foreign female visitors to respect local clothing traditions and the local penal code, and the Qatar tourist authority has decided to support them, Doha News reported on Monday.
Called ‘One of Us’, the women’s campaign wants to ban shorts, sleeveless shirts, and revealing dresses. “Help us preserve Qatari values and culture. Please dress modestly in public spaces, covering knees and shoulders,” reads the campaign flyer. “We’re not trying to impose the hijab (traditional Gulf-area long black tunic and veil), just a modest way of dressing that won’t force us to see too many body parts when we’re in public,” said campaign organizer Najla Al-Mahmoud. The country’s tourist board decided to sign on to the campaign, which was launched in June, to make tourists feel welcome and help them avoid embarrassing situations, according to Doha News. The emirate’s penal code bans what is considered to be indecent clothing in public.
The Qatari international community, which makes up 95% of the population, commented on social media that such a campaign is not compatible with a country hosting the 2022 World Cup, which will attract thousands of tourists.
Other web commentators pointed out that modest apparel is the least of Qatari women’s problems: the disparity between men’s and women’s salaries rose 22.7% over last year, data from the emirate’s statistics bureau showed. Both Qatari and foreign women are paid 25-50% less than their male colleagues, according to the data.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vladimir Putin Reacts Angrily to Angela Merkel’s Pussy Riot Comments
Vladimir Putin reacted angrily to the German chancellor Angela Merkel’s questioning of the two-year jail sentence for the anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot on Friday, telling her that a member the group had once committed an anti-Semitic act.
Speaking about the band’s performance in a Moscow cathedral, Merkel said the protest would have “generated a debate about whether that should go on in a church, no question”.
But during public talks with the Russian president before the two retreated for closed-door talks she questioned the sentences they received. “Should you really have to spend two years in a labour camp for it, I don’t know. In any case that would not have happened in Germany.”
Putin retorted sharply by saying: “We hear what our partners say. But do they, being so far away, hear about what’s going on?”
“Mrs Chancellor spoke about the girls jailed for their performance in a church. Does she know that one of them had hanged a Jew in effigy and said that Moscow should be rid of such people?” Putin asked. “Neither we, nor you, can support people who assume an anti-Semitic position,” said Putin, who served as a KGB agent in East Germany in the 1980s. “I ask you to keep that in mind.”
Putin has repeatedly supported the sentence against Pussy Riot. Three of the band’s members — Maria Alyokhina, Nadia Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich — were sentenced to two years in prison in August for singing an anti-Putin “punk prayer” inside a Moscow cathedral.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Brought up as an Orthodox Christian by her mother, Aminat Kurbanova looked a picture of happiness at her wedding nine years ago — marrying the man with whom she had fallen in love at drama school.
But she converted to Islam in 2007 and three months ago walked into the house of a Muslim cleric in Dagestan, Russia, wearing a 3lb bomb, and blew herself up — killing eight people including her.
[…]
At least 12 religious leaders have been killed over the last two years in Dagestan — allegedly by militants angry that they are too friendly with the authorities. Atsayev could have been targeted because he spoke against violent Islam.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: World’s Most Expensive Coffee Tainted by ‘Horrific’ Civet Abuse
Asian palm civets are force-fed a debilitating diet of coffee berries to create Kopi Luwak, say animal welfare groups
It’s the world’s most expensive coffee and is made from faeces, but connoisseur drinkers should feel most squeamish about the “horrific” abuse that mars its production process, animal welfare groups have claimed.
Kopi Luwak, or civet coffee, is created mainly in Indonesia from beans of coffee berries that are fed to Asian palm civets — small, cat-like creatures found in south-east Asia.
The brand has experienced a recent surge in popularity, fuelled in part by a memorable appearance in the 2007 film The Bucket List, pushing its export price up to $230 (£145) a pound.
Kopi Luwak has spread from Indonesia to the US and Europe, with a London outlet last year announcing that it will charge patrons £70 for a cup.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: “9/11 the Worst Man-Made Disaster”, Says Former Malaysian Prime Minister
Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today laid bare the repercussions of the 9/11 attacks on America, labelling it as the worst man-made disaster for the world since the end of the last World War in 1945.
He said the events of 9/11 had resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans as well as a few thousand American and British soldiers, besides causing devastation to two Muslim countries .
“It has divided the world into Muslim and non-Muslim, and sowed the seeds of suspicion and hatred between them,” he said, adding that it had also undermined the security of nations which had to spend trillions of dollars on security measures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fraud Fighter: ‘Faked Research is Endemic in China’
Shi-min Fang tells us how risking his life and libel writs to expose scientific misconduct in his native China has just won him the inaugural Maddox prize
You’ve just won the inaugural Maddox prize, awarded for your continuing work exposing scientific misconduct in China despite the threats you face. How does that feel?
I am thrilled and honoured. There are many people who are supporting me and fighting with me, so I consider this award as an acknowledgement of all our efforts, not just mine.
What prompted you to start challenging dubious pseudoscientific claims in China?
In 1998, after eight years studying in the US, I returned to China and was shocked to see it was deluged with pseudosciences, superstitions and scientific misconduct.
What action did you decide to take?
I had created a Chinese website called New Threads in 1994 when I was a graduate student at Michigan State University as a forum for sharing Chinese classics and literature. From 2000, I started to publish articles on the site fighting scientific misconduct and fraud. Eventually, New Threads became a flagship for those fighting pseudoscience, misconduct, fraud and corruption among the Chinese science community.
Are dubious claims a big problem in China?
The majority of cases exposed are plagiarism, the exaggeration of academic credentials and faked research papers, which are endemic in China.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Protests have broken out in Nairobi, after a bus bomb on Sunday was blamed on Somalis. Tensions between Kenyans and Somalis in the country have spiked since Nairobi committed troops to Somalia last year.
Police in Kenya attempted to break up riots in Kenya on Monday with bullets and tear gas, after a bus explosion in Nairobi sparked outrage.
“It’s unfortunate that now people we’re hosting are actually turning against us,” said witness, Maurice Ouma. Police fired in the air to disperse the crowd.
Kenyan nationals hurled stones and broke into Somali homes and shops in Nairobi’s Eastleigh district, which is largely populated by Somalis and is widely referred to as “Little Mogadishu.”
Those demonstrating were venting frustration over a bomb attack which had occurred in the same neighborhood on Sunday: a bomb ripped through a minibus, killing seven people, and the attack was blamed on Somali militants.
Al Shabaab, a Somali militant organization, has in the past warned that Nairobi is the target of large-scale attacks since it decided to send its army into Somalia last year to eliminate the threat posed by al Shabaab rebels, whom Kenya has blamed for attacks on its country.
Kenyahas experienced several episodes of terrorist and militia violence recently. Last weekend, cattle raiders killed at least 32 members of the Kenyan police force in an organized ambush. In July, militia carried out gun and grenade attacks on two churches in Garissa, leaving 17 people dead. In September, Kenyan police also reported that they had seized over 150 detonators in Nairobi.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Argentinians Resist Chinese Soybean Project
Chinese investors want to buy large plots of land in Argentina to use for soy bean plantations. In Patagonia, a local uprising against landgrabbing is beginning to take shape.
The city of Viedma is situated off the Atlantic coast in south-central Argentina, on the banks of the wide River Negro. This is where Patagonia begins.
In the late 1980s, Viedma was at the center of international media attention: The Argentine government had decided to move from Buenos Aires to the small town as a means to develop the country’s deserted south. The plan never took off, however. Ultimately, President Raul Alfonsin’s government lacked the funds for new ministries and a costly move. Viedma was crestfallen, and most of the people who had moved to the town in hopes of a new job left again.
Two years ago, Miguel Saiz, the governor of Rio Negro Province, returned from a visit to Asia, and rumors began to spread that Chinese investors wanted to lease 320,000 hectares of land for 50 years and build docks in the nearby deepwater port of San Antonio to ship soybeans to China. Local businessmen were ecstatic, but the population was appalled.
A dozen activists from the Food Sovereignty group have gathered at a bar on the banks of the Rio Negro. Theirs is a long battle against growing grain for biofuel that pushes food prices to astronomic levels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Some 50,000 Migrants Landed at Lampedusa Port Last Year
Social agencies say journalists must better understand issue
(ANSA) — Racalmuto (Agrigento), November 19 — As many as 50,000 immigrants landed in the Sicilian port of Lampedusa last year, illustrating a phenomena that the Italian population and media should better understand, social agencies said on Monday.
“In 2011, in Lampedusa, 50,000 people landed,” Francesca Ferrandino, the prefect of Agrigento, told a seminar on the issue of immigration and the media.
“This phenomenon…is much larger and more complex…(and) much more complicated than it appears,” said Ferrandino.
As important as tallying the numbers, is remembering that the story involves individuals and families, said Valentina Loiero, president of the Charter of Rome, an organization dedicated to improving the way the media sees and speaks of immigrants.
She said journalists should refrain from using the term “illegal” when speaking of such immigrants.
“These are people who need to be helped and protected,” she said. Refugees risk their lives coming to Italy, added Laura Boldrini, spokesperson for the Italy office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Journalist: TSA Agents Are Wearing Badges Upside Down to Stay Anonymous
A prominent talk radio host and author who has had previous run ins with the TSA noted Sunday that many TSA agents are wearing their identification badges upside down, making it more difficult for travelers and anyone attempting to film the agents to identify them ahead of the Infowars led Opt Out And Film Campaign this week.
Amy Alkon, who is regularly published in over 100 newspapers in North America, described a recent exchange she had with TSA agents at JFK airport, during which agents “groped” her extensively and then refused to identify themselves when asked for their names.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Meat, Cooked Foods Needed for Early Human Brain
Vegetarian, vegan and raw diets can be healthy — likely far healthier than the typical American diet. But to continue to call these diets “natural” for humans, in terms of evolution, is a bit of a stretch, according to two recent, independent studies.
Eating meat and cooking food made us human, the studies suggest, enabling the brains of our prehuman ancestors to grow dramatically over a period of a few million years.
Although this isn’t the first such assertion from archaeologists and evolutionary biologists, the new studies demonstrate, respectively, that it would have been biologically implausible for humans to evolve such a large brain on a raw, vegan diet and that meat-eating was a crucial element of human evolution at least 1 million years before the dawn of humankind.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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