Greece: Memorandum Brings Forward Selloff Projects
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 3 — The new draft of the memorandum of understanding between Athens and its creditors is speeding up planned privatizations by an average of three to six months, depending on the project. The selloffs of train service operator TRAINOSE, Hellenic Post, horse racing organization ODIE, Athens International Airport and others are expected to begin one or two quarters earlier than the previous draft provided for, as daily Kathimerini reported. The November 27 draft now provides for the postal company’s privatization to start in the first quarter of 2013, instead of the second, while the start of the process for the sale of TRAINOSE is brought forward from Q4 to Q2 of next year. The procedure for the sale of ports and regional airports has been accelerated by three months, while the restart of the privatization of Athens airport is to take place six months earlier. The only exception is the privatization of Egnatia Odos, the highway that runs across northern Greece, which has been postponed from the first to the second quarter of next year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Monti Expresses Goal of 287 Basis Points for Italian Spread
Italian premier satisfied with spread plunge below 300 pts
(ANSA) — Rome, December 3 — Italian Premier Mario Monti expressed satisfaction at the Italian bond spread’s decline to less than 300 basis points on Monday, but confessed a goal of seeing it narrow further to 287 basis points. Monti called Monday “a positive day” for the spread between the interest rates on Italian and German bonds, because it “fell below the 300-point mark”.
After Monti spoke, the spread dipped to 292 before rising back to 301.
The spread is an important gauge of market confidence in Italy’s ability to pay down its enormous public debt.
Escalating interest rates on Italian bonds and their vertiginous distance from German bonds precipitated the emergency appointment of Monti in November 2011 to guide Italy through its financial crisis as head of an unelected, technical government.
“I would like to confess that for me (a) spread…of 287 basis points represents an objective and I hope it touches” that level, he added, because it represents “half of the 574 (point) quota with which we began our path”.
Monti spoke from Lyon, where he had concluded a bilateral summit with France.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
BRUSSELS — Europe’s economic crisis is pushing more people to the brink of poverty and social exclusion.
According to figures released on Monday (3 December) by the EU’s statistical office, Eurostat, over 24 percent of the EU population in 2011 was either struggling with low income or have extremely poor living conditions.
“More than 27 percent of children are now at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU, that is much more than the overall population,” said EU employment commissioner Laszlo Andor said in a speech in November
At the bottom of the scale is Bulgaria where nearly half the population is suffering from some form of poverty.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Banks Granted Money From the EU’s ESM Fund
Hours after making a request to finance ministers to receive funds from the European Stability Mechanism to prop up its banking sector, Spain has gotten approval. The money is expected next week.
Eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday agreed to provide Spanish banks with 39.5 billion euros ($51.6 billion) from the ESM after Madrid’s formal request arrived earlier in the day.
Spain’s banking sector has been in dire straits ever since a housing bubble collapse in 2008 left it swimming in bad credit. Four of the country’s biggest banks were nationalized with help from previous installments of international bailout money.
Bankia, Novagalicia, CatalunyaCaixa and Banco de Valencia are to share 37 billion euros of the newly approved money, with 2.5 billion euros going to Spain’s worse-off Sareb, which was established to buy up toxic real estate assets to remove them from other institutions’ books.
“The disbursement will be made in mid-next week,” eurozone president Jean-Claude Juncker said on Monday. “The implementation of the program is well on track.”
The money approved in Brussels on Monday is just the first installment of a 100-billion-euro package designed to prop up Spain’s ailing banks that was agreed to in July. In exchange, the banks are expected to embark on a strict program of austerity, which will likely include reductions in the number of employees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Burgeon, the Hamburger-Making Robot That Makes 360 Burgers an Hour
A hamburger-making robot that can create 360 perfectly made burgers an hour promises to usher a new era for fast food restaurants.
Called Burgeon, the new robot that promises to make fresher, more consistent burgers, could replace thousands of low-paid workers in burger bars across the world.
“The Burgeon can crank out a burger every 16 seconds. It grinds the meat, stamps out the patty, sends it along a conveyor-belt grill, toasts the buns, squirts on the condiments, slices and drops in pickles and tomatoes and lettuce, then pops the finished burger into a bag, all in under five minutes,” reports The Mercury News who’ve seen the robot in action.
Created by Momentum Machines, the team behind the food-bot includes members trained in mechanical engineering, control systems, and physics at top tier institutions in the US; Berkeley, Stanford, UCSB, and the university of Utah.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Couple Convicted of Stealing GM Trade Secrets
DETROIT (AP) — A former General Motors engineer with access to the automaker’s hybrid technology was convicted Friday along with her husband of stealing trade secrets for possible use in China.
Shanshan Du won a transfer within GM in 2003 to be closer to the technology and then copied documents until she accepted a severance offer and left the company in 2005, prosecutors said.
Du, 54, and Yu Qin, 51, were found guilty Friday by a federal jury in Detroit after a trial that lasted weeks. Qin also was convicted of wire fraud and attempting to obstruct justice by shredding documents. They shook each other’s hand after the verdict but declined to comment, as did their attorneys.
Du faces up to 10 years in prison, while her husband faces up to 30. No sentencing date has been set.
Prosecutors told jurors that GM trade secrets were found on at least seven computers owned by the Oakland County couple. The government doesn’t believe the information ever made it to China, although Qin had set up his own company, Millennium Technology International, and claimed to have made contact with GM competitors overseas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: Obama’s Global Makeover
In an impromptu conversation with Joe the Plumber during the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama famously and unintentionally acknowledged his support for redistributing the nation’s wealth. And he has been hard at it ever since.
Mr. Obama has yet to cop, however,to another, arguably even more radical agenda: redistributing the nation’s power. We are, nonetheless, beginning to witness the poisonous fruits of his efforts to enhance the relative might of America¹s adversaries while degrading our own. Call it Obama’ s global makeover.
The most obvious example is in the Middle East, where each day brings fresh evidence of how the Obama administration’s disastrous policy of embracing Islamists is transforming and destabilizing the region. Of particular concern is the Muslim Brotherhood’s accelerating domination of the Egyptian government, which is turning the Arab world¹s most populous nation, one that sits astride the strategic Suez Canal and wields a formidable, American-supplied arsenal, into a shariah-adherent, Islamic supremacist state. This is a formula for mass repression in Egypt, war in the Mideast and increased jihadist terror elsewhere…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Highest US Military Court Ejects Judge in Fort Hood Case for “Bias”
The Military Justice system have handed a politically correct victory to Fort Hood massacre perpetrator, Maj. Nidal Hassan by ejecting the circuit judge in the Court Martial proceeding over the appearance of bias. The AP reported that In a ruling issued yesterday by the Washington, DC US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (USCAAF) in the matter of Hasan v Gross (13-8011 / 13-8012/AR), the highest military court determined that circuit court Judge Col. Gregory Gross had “didn’t appear impartial while presiding over the case of Maj. Nidal Hasan, who faces the death penalty if convicted in the 2009 shootings on the Texas Army post that killed 13 people and wounded more than two dozen others.”
Renowned Forensic Psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Welner, Chairman of the Forensic Panel, was an expert witness for the prosecution in the 2010 Guantanamo military tribunal of Omar Khadr Canadian Al Qaeda killer of US Special Forces medic SFC. Christopher Speer at the Battle of Khost in Afghanistan in August 2002. Welner opined about Maj. Hasan’s jihadist behavior: . . . the motivation was to create a “spectacle”, said that a trauma care worker, even one afflicted with stress, would not be expected to be homicidal toward his patients unless his ideology trumped his Hippocratic oath—and this was borne out in his shouting “Allahu Akhbar” as he killed the unarmed. We wonder what the reactions are to the USCAAF ruling by the wounded survivors and the loved ones of those victims whom Maj. Hasan killed at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009. The mills of military justice have now ground to a halt until presiding circuit judge Col. Gross is replaced with a more impartial officer of this courts martial proceeding at Fort Hood. Pity! Justice is being denied…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Mother and Stepfather ‘Beat to Death Her Seven-Year-Old Son for Not Reading His Bible’
A seven-year-old boy has been beaten to death by his stepfather and mother for not reading his Bible, authorities said.
Markiece Palmer, 34, and Dina Palmer, 27, were charged with murder last week along with other counts of child abuse and neglect.
Roderick Arrington, seven, was taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas last Thursday unconscious and with brain swelling. He died the following day.
The couple admitted to police that they had regularly beaten the child for not reading the Bible or finishing his homework.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Suspect Pleads Guilty in Plot to Bomb NYC Synagogues
A man charged with plotting to blow up synagogues in New York City has pleaded guilty to state terrorism charges.
Ahmed Ferhani entered the plea on Tuesday in the unusual state-level terror case.
Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus says he plans to sentence Ferhani to 10 years in prison. Sentencing is set for Jan. 30.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has said Ferhani wanted to attack a synagogue. Prosecutors say he bought three guns and a grenade to do so. The buy was a sting.
His lawyers previously said Ferhani was mentally unstable. They have said the prosecution was based on insufficient evidence and dubious tactics.
Ferhani and a co-defendant were arrested last year.
A grand jury declined to indict the men on a top-level terror conspiracy charge.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Jihad on Christmas Trees — Welcome to Christmas Cubes!
by Soeren Kern
More than 25,000 people in Belgium have signed a petition denouncing a decision to remove the traditional Christmas tree in the central square in Brussels and replace it with a politically correct structure of abstract minimalist art. Critics accuse the Socialist mayor, Freddy Thielemans, of declaring war on Christmas by installing the “multicultural” structure of lights to placate the city’s burgeoning Muslim population…
Meanwhile, critics of the “electronic winter tree” have called on Muslims in Belgium to sign a petition to show that they do not have anything against the traditional Christmas tree. The petition reads: “The removal of the Christmas tree on the Grand-Place in Brussels aroused strong controversy about the role of Muslims in this decision. I hereby would like to see Muslims sign this petition to show that they are not against this tree. I would like to gather as many signatures as possible to show that Muslims comply with Belgian traditions and do not want to remove this joy at home.” Fewer than 80 of Belgium’s 600,000 Muslims have signed the petition.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bomb Explodes at Offices of Greek Far-Right Party, No Injuries
ATHENS (Reuters) — A makeshift bomb exploded at the offices of the far-right political party Golden Dawn near Athens early on Tuesday, ripping through a wall and smashing the windows of a nearby building but causing no injuries, police said.
Golden Dawn has surged in popularity during Greece’s debt crisis and was catapulted from obscurity to winning 7 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections in June, riding a wave of public anger at austerity, corrupt politicians and immigrants.
Activists and politicians have called for the ultra-nationalist party, whose members have been seen giving Nazi-style salutes and whose emblem resembles a swastika, to be banned.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Police Arrest Two ‘Accomplices’ In Toulouse Gunman Attacks
French police on Tuesday arrested two alleged accomplices of gunman Mohamed Merah, whose al-Qaeda-inspired shooting spree in and around the southern city of Toulouse left seven people dead.
A man, described by police as a member of the traveller community, was arrested in the southern town of Albi, while his former partner was arrested in Toulouse, a police source said. They were detained on suspicion they helped Merah in carrying out his attacks in March, the source said. Merah’s elder brother Abdelghani previously told French media that the gunman had accomplices, including someone from the traveller community who may have been involved in stealing the scooter Merah used in his attacks. Merah shot a rabbi, three Jewish schoolchildren and three French paratroopers in March before being shot dead in a police siege. A petty criminal who was lured into Islamic extremists circles in Toulouse, Merah visited Afghanistan and Pakistan before his attacks…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: Two Arrested in Connection With Toulouse Shootings
French police on Tuesday arrested two alleged accomplices of gunman Mohamed Merah, whose Al-Qaeda-inspired shooting spree in and around the southern city of Toulouse left seven people dead.
A man, described by police as a member of the traveller community, was arrested in the southern town of Albi, while his former partner was arrested in Toulouse, a police source said.
They were detained on suspicion they helped Merah in carrying out his attacks in March, the source said.
Merah’s elder brother Abdelghani previously told French media that the gunman had accomplices, including someone from the traveller community who may have been involved in stealing the scooter Merah used in his attacks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Toulouse Shooting Spree Suspects Arrested
French police on Tuesday arrested two alleged accomplices of gunman Mohamed Merah, whose Al-Qaeda-inspired shooting spree in and around the southern city of Toulouse left seven people dead.
A man, described by police as a member of the traveller community, was arrested in the southern town of Albi, while his former partner was arrested in Toulouse, a police source said.
They were detained on suspicion they helped Merah in carrying out his attacks in March, the source said.
Merah’s elder brother Abdelghani previously told French media that the gunman had accomplices, including someone from the traveller community who may have been involved in stealing the scooter Merah used in his attacks.
Merah shot a rabbi, three Jewish schoolchildren and three French paratroopers in March before being shot dead in a police siege.
A petty criminal who was lured into Islamic extremists circles in Toulouse, Merah visited Afghanistan and Pakistan before his attacks.
Since his shooting spree, it became clear that Merah had been on the radar of France’s security services for years and that authorities under-estimated the extent of his radicalisation following his trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
French intelligence services have been heavily criticised for failing to realise the threat posed by Merah.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Police Nab Couple Suspected of Aiding Toulouse Jewish School Killer
French authorities reportedly have arrested a man and a woman in the Toulouse area on suspicion that they helped Mohammed Merah “commit crimes” that may have included the murder of four people at a Jewish school last year.
According to L’Express, a French daily, the two were arrested Tuesday morning. The French news service AFP named one of the suspects as Charles Mencarelli and reported that he had been arrested in Albi, about 45 miles northeast of Toulouse. AFP described Mencarelli as not having a permanent address. His life partner also was arrested at her home in Toulouse, according to the report.
Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old radical Muslim, killed four Jews — a rabbi and three children — in a pre-planned attack on the Otzar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse on March 19. He gunned them down a few days after killing three French soldiers in two drive-by shootings from a scooter near Toulouse. He was shot dead on March 22 by police as they stormed his home.
The two suspects arrested on Tuesday are not suspected of belonging to a Jihadist network, an unnamed police source told L’Express.
The arrests, which did not require any use of force, according to reports in the French press, were headed by France’s domestic intelligence service, DCRI, and the country’s top SWAT team, the anti-terrorist SDAT unit.
They will be brought for arraignment within 96 hours of their arrest, according to L’Express, during which time they will be interrogated about their links with Mohammed Merah.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Hamburg Plans Europe’s Tallest Lighthouse
The northern city of Hamburg is planning to build the tallest lighthouse in Europe, with a tower nearly 100 metres tall for its busy harbour. Regional NDR radio reported this week that the city’s port authority wanted to start work on the black and white tower as early as next year.
The lighthouse, expected to cost some €10 million, is necessary to protect ship traffic around a new container terminal along the Bubendey-Ufer coast.
At 99.20 metres, the tower would be 16 metres higher than Europe’s current tallest lighthouse which is on France’s Atlantic coast. A second, lower tower in Hamburg would reach 75 metres.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany and Norway Link Up in Renewable Energy Deal
Germany and Norway have signed a contract for a high-voltage undersea cable aimed at exchanging surplus renewable energy. The project is essential for Germany’s plan to phase out nuclear power by 2022.
Construction of the North Sea underwater cable would cost between 1.5 billion and 2 billion euros ($2-2.6 billion), and is expected to be finished by 2018, Germany’s state-owned KfW development bank announced Tuesday.
Alongside KfW, the joint venture includes the Norwegian power-grid operator Statnett and the Dutch grid operator TenneT, which owns large parts of the German electricity distribution network. The new consortium will be half owned by Norway and half by the German parties to the deal.
“This project is a major step toward the integration of German wind power in the country’s energy grid, and a cornerstone of Germany’s shift toward renewable energy generation,” TenneT Chief Executive Martin Fuchs said.
The North Sea cable is scheduled to boast a capacity of 1,400 megawatts — the equivalent of a larger plant. It is intended to transport Norwegian hydropower to Germany in times of low wind and solar supply. Furthermore, the country’s excess power from renewable sources is meant to be transported to Norway to be stored there in dams for later use back in Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Golden Dawn Offices Damaged by Bomb
A makeshift bomb exploded at the offices of the far-Right political party Golden Dawn near Athens in the early hours of Tuesday, ripping through a wall and smashing the windows of an adjacent building but causing no injuries, police said.
A police official, who declined to be named, said the attack was most likely carried out by a far-Left group. “It was a powerful blast that caused a lot of damage,” he said. “It looks like (domestic) terrorism.”
The device packed with dynamite was placed outside the party’s local offices in Aspropyrgos, an industrial suburb west of Athens.
The bombing was the first recorded occasion that the group has been targeted since its surge popularity during Greece’s debt crisis. Riding a wave of public anger at austerity, corrupt politicians and immigration, its members have repeatedly been accused of using violence against immigrants.
There are growing calls for the banning of the ultra-nationalist party, whose members have been seen giving Nazi-style salutes and whose emblem resembles a swastika.
Golden Dawn has said it wants to rid Greece of all foreigners, including what it calls the “stench” of immigrants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary: Democratic Coalition Moves to Ban Jobbik From Parliament
The leftist Democratic Coalition (DK) is seeking the support of parliamentary parties in moving to ban the radical nationalist Jobbik party.
Csaba Molnar told a press conference on Monday that his party would submit a set of proposals to parliament in order to banish anti-Semitic and racist views from parliament. DK will also initiate a ban on radical nationalist Jobbik with the public prosecutor, Molnar said.
Thousands demonstrated over the weekend against remarks made by Marton Gyongyosi, a lawmaker for Jobbik, which holds 44 seats in parliament.
The proposal also calls on the government to revoke the constitution, arguing that it declared March 1944 as the time when the rule of law broke down in Hungary, but Jewish laws predated that. DK said this is unacceptable.
The proposal would also act against naming public spaces after or erecting public statues of anti-Semitic politicians or artists. It also calls on the government to delete “anti-Semitic authors” from the national reading school curriculum.
It calls on parliamentary parties to refrain from cooperation with Jobbik, to ignore their proposals in committees and to vote against them in the house. Similar action was recommended by the party in local governments.
The proposal would ban uniformed demonstrations which raise fear.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy and France Sign TAV and 5 Other Agreements
Leaders and officials meet in bilateral summit in Lyon
(ANSA) — Lyon, December 3 — Italy and France on Monday signed a joint commitment to complete the controversial TAV high-speed rail line from Lyon to Turin according to its previously established schedule.
The countries also sealed five other agreements at the bilateral summit in Lyon, where Italian Premier Mario Monti and French President Francois Hollande gathered along with ministers and high-ranking officials from both sides.
Agreements were sealed on police cooperation, defense operations, higher education, research, and transport.
In addition to the TAV agreement, France and Italy signed transport accords to modify the Frejus tunnel, which connects the two countries, and to make tariffs consistent for the Frejus and Mont Blanc tunnels.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Teen Football Players Arrested for Seriously Beating Up Linesman
Three youths aged 15 and 16 have been arrested for beating up a linesman after an amateur football match between Amsterdam club Nieuw Sloten and Almere club Buitenboys.
The man is said to be in a critical condition in hospital. He was attacked by the Nieuw Sloten players after the match and was taken ill two hours later. He is being kept in an artificial coma, Nos television said.
Nieuw Sloten has removed the team from competition, suspended the boys and passed their names to the football association KNVB.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Linesman Dies After Attack by Teenage Football Players
The 41-year-old linesman reportedly beaten up by three boys aged 15 and 16 after a football match in Almere at the weekend has died.
Richard Nieuwenhuizen was chased and attacked by the youths from Amsterdam club Nieuw Sloten after an amateur football match between the Amsterdammers and Almere club Buitenboys.
He became ill a couple of hours after the attack and was taken to hospital where he was put into an artificial coma. He was declared dead on Monday afternoon.
According to media reports, the police have not ruled out making more arrests. The three boys currently in custody were arrested at their homes on Sunday evening.
Sports minister Edith Schippers issued a statement describing the death as ‘shocking’. The death of the linesman makes the case even worse, Schippers said.
The Dutch football association is investigating the attack. It issued a statement on Monday evening saying ‘it is too insane for words that someone enjoying a hobby is confronted with such aggression.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Fireworks Bomb Destroys Police Station
THE HAGUE, 04/12/12 — Police have arrested four youths for a firework bomb attack on a police station.
On Saturday, the police station in Hilvarenbeek in Brabant was heavily damaged by fireworks. No persons were injured, but the damage was enormous. Bits of rubble from the building was scattered over the street and in gardens of houses.
The suspects are youths from Hilvarenbeek aged 17 and 18 jaar. In house raids, the police seized seven fake firearms and fireworks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Amsterdam to Create ‘Scum Villages’
Amsterdam is to create “Scum villages” where nuisance neighbours and anti-social tenants will be exiled from the city and rehoused in caravans or containers with “minimal services” under constant police supervision.
Holland’s capital already has a special hit squad of municipal officials to identify the worst offenders for a compulsory six month course in how to behave.
Social housing problem families or tenants who do not show an improvement or refuse to go to the special units face eviction and homelessness.
Eberhard van der Laan, Amsterdam’s Labour mayor, has tabled the £810,000 plan to tackle 13,000 complaints of anti-social behaviour every year. He complained that long-term harassment often leads to law abiding tenants, rather than their nuisance neighbours, being driven out.
“This is the world turned upside down,” the mayor said at the weekend.
The project also involves setting up a special hotline and system for victims to report their problems to the authorities.
The new punishment housing camps have been dubbed “scum villages” because the plan echoes a proposal from Geert Wilders, the leader of a populist Dutch Right-wing party, for special units to deal with persistent troublemakers.
“Repeat offenders should be forcibly removed from their neighbourhood and sent to a village for scum,” he suggested last year. “Put all the trash together.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway’s Chess Star Makes History
Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian chess progidy who rose to be ranked tops in the world, now seems to have made history as well. His victories in a chess tournament in London this week have given him a live rating of 2857.4, surpassing the record of 2851 set by the legendary Garry Kasparov in 1999.
“This is fantastic, almost unreal,” Carlsen’s manager, Espen Agdestein, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) Tuesday night.
Kasparov has held the record for being ranked the World’s #1 chess player the most times (23). Carlsen already holds the record for being ranked the World #1 Junior the most times (15). Now Carlsen is closing in on Kasparov’s ratings honour as well.
The official ratings will be published January 1 and that’s what will mean most to the still-young Norwegian chess star. Carlsen, who turned 22 last Friday, is poised to set a new record, and the prospects for winning the London Chess Classic looked good, too.
His rating has been climbing throughout the tournament in London and he achieved a new goal after a match on Tuesday against Gawain Jones. Carlsen was declared the winner after around three hours of play, telling reporters afterwards that he tried to maintain a solid position from the start and felt he had firm control.
Agdestein said Carlsen would take a day off on Wednesday and prepare for the rest of the tournament. Dag Danielsen, a former secretary general of the Norwegian chess federation who has followed Carlsen for years, called his latest achievement “a milestone.”
“Magnus Carlsen has a fundamental understanding of chess that perhaps no one else has had before him,” Danielsen told NRK. “It’s a god’s gift. He is often called ‘the Mozart of chess.’“
Agdestein said Carlsen probably wouldn’t be celebrating with champagne, joking that “he’s a bit boring in that regard.” But Carlsen was surely pleased because he’s long been intent on remaining at the top of his game. NRK reported that he said before he left for London that breaking the record had also been a goal for a long time: “I think it also means a lot that I’m so far ahead of the others in the ratings. Then I send out a message about who’s running the show.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three Swiss Cities in Quality of Life Top Ten
Zurich leads three Swiss cities that are ranked among the top 10 in the world for quality of living, according to an annual ranking from Mercer, the human resource consulting firm.
Switzerland’s largest city is ranked second in the 2012 survey released on Tuesday, just behind Vienna, Austria and ahead of Auckland (New Zealand), Munich and Vancouver.
Geneva is rated in eighth place, while Bern, the Swiss capital, is in 10th place in a global list dominated by European cities, particularly in the area of infrastructure, despite economic problems in the eurozone.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: 21 Years for Bottom Shooting Bandit
Hackney A gunman who left a bullet in a man’s buttock in a row over £500 has been jailed for 21 years. Izaiah Smith, 23, blasted 36 year-old Alrick Huie in the side of the stomach in Hackney, east London, for not lending him £500. Mr Huie miraculously survived after surgeons battled to repair the damage to his internal organs but spent the next five weeks recovering in hospital. The bullet is still lodged in his buttock. Smith was convicted of wounding and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life after an Old Bailey trial and locked up for 21 years.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hunt for Man Who Raped Woman in Clayton
A woman was raped at knifepoint by a man she had asked for a cigarette. The 38-year-old approached her attacker at a bus stop on Ashton New Road in Clayton.
He offered to roll her a cigarette and she walked with him to nearby Stokes Street. But once there he threatened her with a knife and raped her.
He was Somalian, between 28 and 30, 6ft and muscular. He had a bald head with a lump on his forehead and gave his name as Tanasula.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: More Than 500,000 Pensioners ‘Will be Lonely at Christmas’ With Just the Television for Company
One in six is in touch with family, friends and neighbours barely once a week, while one in ten is in contact less than once a month.
Surveys reveal the depth of isolation affecting many over-65s, whose wellbeing is at greater risk during the winter.
Even in relatively mild winters, there are around 8,000 extra deaths for every one degree drop in average temperature.
Spiralling energy bills, the severe cold snap affecting much of the country and poor eating habits pose threats to their health, but charities also want people to make time to care for their emotional needs.
Richard Furze, chief executive of the Friends of the Elderly charity, said: ‘The effects of isolation on older people — including loneliness, depression, feelings of low self-worth, poor health and diet — can be devastating, with isolated individuals being less likely to obtain the services they need or seek help.
‘We understand that people are incredibly busy today, and especially at Christmas, but we urge people to get more involved with the older people around them — and not just at Christmas.’
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Niazi: Jealous Dad Murdered Ex Two Months After Asking to be Deported
Kingston, Surrey A jealous dad bludgeoned his ex-girlfriend to death with a hammer two months after asking to be deported, the Old Bailey heard today (Mon). Muhammad Niazi, 29, told police he wanted to return to his native Pakistan after Charito Cruz, 37, deserted him for another man. Niazi went on to kill Ms Cruz, a nanny and cleaner, in front of their two-year-old daughter, the Old Bailey was told.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Night Bus Driver ‘Groped’ Lone Passenger
Central London; Ilford, Essex A night bus driver groped a tipsy passenger after finding she was still on board at the end of his route, a court heard today (Mon). Gulam Mayat, 54, allegedly put his arm around the blonde woman’s shoulder and squeezed her breast during the assault. The 33-year-old had earlier left a house party in east London and asked Mayat to tell her when his number 25 bus reached its terminus in Oxford Circus.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Number of Recorded Racist Incidents Up by 10 Per Cent in Year
THE number of recorded racist incidents increased by about 10 per cent in a year, according to official figures.
The total grew to 5,349 in 2011-12, up from 4,877 in the previous year, it was revealed in the latest annual Scottish policing performance framework report.
The total is slightly less than the 5,357 recorded in 2007-8, the first year the report was published.
Crimes with an element of racial motivation were also higher at 6,622 in 2011-12, up from 6,109 in the previous year and at a five-year high.
More people are confident that a complaint about racism will be taken seriously by police, the Scottish Government said.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Hunt After Three Sex Assaults
Police are searching for a man who indecently assaulted three women in the space of half an hour.
The women told police a man approached them in either Newarke Close or Eastern Boulevard, near De Montfort University, Leicester, and touched them indecently.
The suspect was aged 50 to 60 and Asian.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
A rap-mad music fan who shouted n***** at a black man has walked free from court after magistrates agreed he had just been using ‘street slang’.
Christopher Jones was arrested after he was overheard aiming the offensive word at a group of men in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on September 10.
But the sign-writer claimed he couldn’t be racist because he listened to hip-hop music, had ‘more black friends than white friends’ and this is what he called everyone.
Police charged him with using racially-aggravated words or behaviour and Jones was hauled before magistrates last week.
And he was cleared of racist abuse after successfully arguing that he regularly uses the word n****r as ‘a term of endearment’ on the streets around his home.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tax and Corporations: One Law for Them
Nearly four years have passed since the Guardian’s tax gap series, as have two since the founding of UK Uncut and one since Occupy. In different ways, each shone a spotlight on the murky world of business tax, and to some extent succeeded — though until now nobody would have called it a mainstream concern. But the tax affairs of Google itself, together with Amazon and Starbucks, are suddenly just that — thanks to the chutzpah of the public accounts committee chair, Margaret Hodge, in hauling corporate colossi over the coals. The report that the committee has published states that the intention was not to single out these three multinationals, only to illustrate wider points. But with voters facing higher VAT, shredded tax credits and swollen energy bills, news that these three big brands coughed up at most 1.5% (Google) and at least 0% (Starbucks) of 2011 UK turnover in corporation tax risks making them public enemies.
None of these companies are charged with breaking the law, and the ethics depend on the detail. Corporation tax, after all, is not meant to be a tax on sales but only profits. Financial flows around global empires are necessarily complex, and pinpointing where a profit — and thus a tax liability — was generated will on occasion be open to real debate. The systematic pushing of profits away from these shores, however, is more a question of distortion than interpretation. The ordinary taxpayer may only half-understand the report on the radio but is left with one clear thought: if I told HMRC to regard my personal earnings as the preserve of my Dutch division or Irish operation, they’d tell me where to get off.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Worcester Park Mosque Plans Kicked Out by Councillors
Planning permission for a mosque in Worcester Park was unanimously turned down by councillors after a lively meeting last night. Councillors said the proposed mosque in Green Road would bring too much traffic to the area and voted to refuse planning permission after hearing arguments from concerned neighbours and from the project’s backers. Around 300 people attended the meeting, as well as several police officers, and there were loud cheers as the councillors voted. During the meeting the chairman had to ask the audience to calm down on several occasions as speakers were interrupted by loud heckling…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Protesters Clash With Police, Morsi Flees Palace
Tear gas on demonstrators, police cordon smashed
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 4 — Egyptian police on Tuesday fired tear gas at demonstrators trying to scale the barbed wire barrier separating them from President Mohamed Morsi’s palace, leaving dozens intoxicated, sources said. The president fled the palace after demonstrators smashed through the police cordon, reaching the palace walls, other sources said. Shortly after, security forces withdrew from the presidential palace perimeter, leaving some Republican guards within the palace itself, sources said. Al Jazeera TV broadcast images of a police armored vehicle followed by officers in riot gear, completely surrounded by protesters. At least 18 of them were intoxicated by tear gas, MENA news agency reported.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: The Obama’s Administration’s PR Campaign for Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood
The elected head of a nation made threatening statements toward Israel. His organization called for jihad and celebrated a bus bombing in Tel Aviv. The United States then hailed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi as a statesman and a moderate last week…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hague Says EU Trade Sanctions Against Israel Not an Option
Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that European trade sanctions against Israel are not an option, Reuters has reported. “I don’t think there is enthusiasm around the European Union … about economic sanctions in Europe on Israel. I don’t believe there would be anywhere near a consensus nor is that our approach,” Mr Hague said. “Nevertheless, if there is no reversal of the decision that has been announced, we will want to consider what further steps European countries should take.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinians: Abbas’s Classic Thug Extortion Trick
by Douglas Murray
Watching Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas make his speech to the UN General Assembly, I suspect the same jolting thought passed through my head as it did for a lot of the viewers’: “Isn’t this guy meant to be the moderate?” Coming so soon after the latest Hamas rocket-barrage against Israel, the almost physical need to hold onto that dead paradigm can still occasionally override most of the facts. On one side are the Palestinian rocket-launching squads about whom nothing apparently can be done. Then on the other side are the other Palestinians, led by moderates, who just want to sit down and negotiate if they could only find time out of their busy schedules…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Gunmen Kill 6 Family Members in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) — Gunmen killed six people from one family in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, an Iraqi Interior Ministry source told Xinhua. The attack occurred in the early hours of the day when gunmen broke into a house in Zaiyounah district in eastern of Iraqi capital and shot dead the householder, his wife and his four children, the source said on condition of anonymity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
NATO to Order Deployment of Patriot Missiles to Turkey’s Border With Syria
Nato will order the deployment of Patriot missiles to Turkey’s border with Syria later today and has warned the Syrian regime that the use of chemical weapons will trigger an immediate response.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato’s secretary general, warned Syria that the international community would not stand by if Bashar al-Assad unleashes chemical warfare against the Syrian people. “The possible use of chemical weapons would be completely unacceptable for the whole international community,” he said. “If anybody resorts to these terrible weapons, then I would expect an immediate reaction.” Despite warnings from Russia that deployment of Patriot missiles would add to tensions in the Syria region, Nato foreign ministers will on Tuesday agree to deploy Patriot missiles to the Turkish-Syrian border…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Regime Fears Social Networks as Means of Triggering Popular Protests
The use of social networking sites has become very common in the Arab world, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Studies conducted in this country have revealed that 38% of the population use social networks, more than in any other Arab country, and that Saudis lead the list of the 100 most influential Arabs on Twitter.(1) Saudi Twitter users include members of the royal family, such as Emir Walid bin Tallal; journalists and intellectuals such as Turki Al-Dakhil and Jamal Al-Khashoggi; and oppositionists such as Sheikhs Salman Al-’Odeh and Muhammad Al-’Arifi.
An example of the widespread use of Twitter in Saudi Arabia was apparent following a recent food crisis in the country and a drastic rise in the price of chicken. In response to the crisis, Saudi citizens organized a “Chicken Campaign” protest on Twitter which was so successful that the regime, sensing a possible threat, quickly curbed the price increase. The students who protested in the kingdom in March 2012 also made use of the social networks, mainly Facebook, to promote their cause.(2) In addition, the Saudi media has recently been warning that the Muslim Brotherhood is using Twitter to incite against the regime. In light of this growing use of social networks, the regime increasingly fears that they could spark social or political unrest, and is consequently monitoring the material posted on them by Saudi citizens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Issues New Warning on Syrian Chemical Weapons
Washington repeated warnings on Monday that President Bashar al-Assad’s “increasingly beleaguered regime” might use chemical weapons against Syrian rebels, a move that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said would “certainly” prompt US action.
By News Wires (text)
The United States warned Monday that Syria had begun mixing deadly sarin gas, and said it was more and more concerned a desperate President Bashar al-Assad could use chemical arms on his own people.
But the Damascus government, hitting back at increasingly explicit and alarming warnings from Washington, pledged never to take such a step, which the Obama administration warns would cross a “red line” and result in US action.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan Horror: A 14-Year-Old Girl is Beheaded
In Afghanistan last week, two brothers slit the throat of Gastina, a seventh-grade girl, for refusing a marriage proposal. It wasn’t an isolated incident.
Fourteen-year-old Gastina probably didn’t realize the imminent danger she was facing.
As the seventh-grade student was fetching drinking water at 9 a.m. from a well some 500 feet from her modest house in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz early this past Tuesday, she was set upon by two men brandishing a hunting knife. The men, who are related to Gastina, jumped on her and brutally slit her throat to the bone. The local police and the provincial director of women’s affairs in the province called her cruel death a beheading.
“They did not give her a chance,” Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar told The Daily Beast by phone. “They didn’t even let her cry out for help.”
“She was very brutally beheaded just for refusing a marriage request,” says Nadiya Guyah, the Kunduz provincial women’s affairs director.
Both men, who are brothers, have been arrested…
| — Hat tip: EO | [Return to headlines] |
Bomb Attack in Southern Afghanistan Kills 2 NATO Service Members
KABUL, Afghanistan — The international military coalition in Afghanistan says two of its service members have been killed in a bomb attack in the country’s south. The NATO-led alliance said in a statement issued late Monday that the blast occurred earlier that day. It did not provide further details or the nationalities of the dead. The coalition usually waits for member nations to identify their dead before providing specifics on attacks…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hindus and Sikhs — Homeless Afghan Citizens
For hundreds of years, Hindus and Sikhs have lived in Afghanistan. But even after the fall of the Islamist Taliban regime, they face growing discrimination, forcing many to leave.
Sometimes you can recognize them on the streets, usually because of their black or wine-red turbans and opulent beards. Others look no different from the rest of the pedestrians, aside from the fact that they may be homeless.
Hindus and Sikhs are a religious minority in Afghanistan. But, despite being there for centuries, they are discriminated against for their beliefs. The war years forced many people belonging to these two non-Muslim minorities to leave the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan’s Disappearing Temples and Churches
Rights activists say that places of worship for minorities in Pakistan are either rapidly disappearing or are subject to negligence by the state. A pre-Partition Hindu temple was recently razed in Karachi.
Hindus in the Pakistani city of Karachi demanded retribution after one of their temples and some houses were reportedly demolished on Sunday in one the busiest areas of the city. Pakistani authorities say that a court order allowed some buildings to be demolished but they deny that the temple was razed.
Ramesh Kumar Vankwani of the Pakistan Hindu Council told the media that there had been a long-running legal dispute between a builder and the Hindu residents of the area over the land. He said that the land belonged to the Hindu residents and not to the builder as claimed by the authorities.
Abdul Hai, a senior official of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Karachi, told DW that the court order did not allow the builder to demolish the buildings. “There is no complete judgment on the dispute yet,” Hai said.
Sikh devotees pray next to the Gurdwara Punja Sahib shrine where thousands of Sikh devotees gathered to celebrate the religious annual festival of Baisakhi in Hasan Abdal, 48 kilometers (30 miles) north of Islamabad, Pakistan (Photo: AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) There are a number of Sikh temples in Pakistan, particularly in the Punjab province
Hindus make up 2.5 percent of the 174 million people living in Pakistan. The majority of them, over 90 percent, live in southern Sindh province.
It is not the first time in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan that a temple or a church has been demolished by members of the majority Muslim community for commercial or religious purposes. Rights organizations in Pakistan report widespread social and cultural discrimination against minorities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Missionary Shot in Pakistan
Gunmen shot a female Christian charity worker from Sweden in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Monday leaving her hospitalized, police said.
Birgitta Almeby, 72, was returning from work when she was attacked by unknown assailants in the upmarket locality where she lives.
“She was returning from her office and was attacked when she arrived in front of her home in the Model Town neighbourhood,” Awais Malik, a senior police official told AFP.
Doctors said Almeby was hit in the chest and was recovering in hospital.
“A bullet hit her in the chest. We have treated her and she is improving now,” Ali Usman, a doctor at the hospital, told AFP.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vietnam Condemns China’s Sea Claims as “Serious Violation”
Vietnam condemned on Tuesday China’s claims to disputed South China Sea islands as a serious violation of its sovereignty after saying it was setting up patrols to protect its fisheries and accusing Chinese boats of sabotage.
The condemnation of China’s claims to the sea and its numerous reefs and tiny islands was the strongest yet from Vietnam since tension flared this year and came after India declared itself ready to send navy ships to safeguard its interests in the disputed waters.
Claims by an increasingly powerful China over most of the South China Sea have set it directly against U.S. allies Vietnam and the Philippines, while Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia also claim parts of the mineral-rich waters.
Vietnam’s condemnation came a day after its state oil and gas company, Petrovietnam, accused Chinese boats of sabotaging an exploration operation by cutting a seismic cable being towed behind a Vietnamese boat.
Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry spokesman condemned the cable cutting as well as some recent Chinese provincial regulations that identified the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands as Chinese, and a map that did the same thing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Days of Boko Haram Over Soon — DD SSS
DIRECTOR General of the Department of State Security, Ekpenyong Ita, yesterday, assured that the service and other security agencies are working with other stakeholders including the media towards ensuring that the activities of the Boko Haram sect are brought under total control for peace to reign in the country. Ita who gave the assurance at the opening of a one week training programe for media practitioners in Abuja, disclosed that activities of the sect have turned to a full scale business venture for its leaders. According to him, recent discovery of the main objective of the terrorist group runs contrary to the earlier claims by the group that they are actually fighting a religious war.
Criminal activities
The group he said actually started as an extremist religious group under the late Mohammed Yusuf, but later transformed into a business venture, as the sect members are now make good living out of their criminal activities…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
South African Farmers Fearing for Their Lives
On Saturday, in an unprecedented move to mark the second anniversary of the slaughter of a farming family, survivors of farm attacks marched in Pretoria and called for attacks on South Africa’s mostly white farmers to be designated a crime of national priority.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brazilian Police Arrest Dozens of Officers for Alleged Collaboration With Drug Dealers
Brazilian law enforcement intelligence agencies responsible for combating organized crime have launched an operation against alleged corruption within the Rio de Janeiro state police force itself.
The Rio state security department says Tuesday’s “Operation Purification” is the result of a year of investigation.
A press release from the security department says that of 65 wanted officers, 59 were arrested Tuesday morning. There are also warrants for 18 alleged drug traffickers, and 11 have been arrested so far.
Among the charges against the officers are that they have been taking monthly bribes from the Red Command, Rio’s most powerful drug trading organization.
Other charges include racketeering, kidnapping and extortion stemming from officers allegedly kidnapping drug dealers and holding them for ransom.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Colombia: FARC Rebels Killed in Military Strike
At least 20 Farc rebels — including a senior commander — have reportedly been killed in a military strike in Colombia, despite ongoing peace talks.
In a raid that indicated President Juan Manuel Santos’s growing impatience with the negotiations, the Colombian army and air force targeted the group’s camp in Narino, near the border with Ecuador. General Jorge Segura confirmed the deaths included that of the Farc ringleader known as Guillermo Pequeño, commander of the Mariscal Sucre unit. The other fatalities were believed to include Pequeño’s personal nurse as well as the third-in-command known only as Mario. General Segura told Caracol Radio: “With the support of the air force, the national army launched a strike that hit the structure of Mariscal Sucre. “There is a report that 20 rebels were killed and their top ringleader Guillermo Pequeño.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico: More Than 25,000 People Disappear in Six Years
Unpublished official figures show cost of chaos and violence enveloping country in fight against drug gangs
Mexico’s Attorney General has compiled a list showing that more than 25,000 adults and children have gone missing in Mexico in the past six years, according to unpublished government documents.
The data sets, submitted by state prosecutors and vetted by the federal government but never released to the public, chronicle the disappearance of tens of thousands of people in the chaos and violence that have enveloped Mexico during its fight against drug mafias and crime gangs.
Families have been left wondering whether their loved ones are alive or among the more than 100,000 victims of homicides recorded during the presidency of Felipe Calderon, who leaves office today.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Fifty-Seven Percent of Mexican Immigrants on Welfare
A report by the Center for Immigration Studies (www.cis.org) reveals some startling figures about welfare use by families headed by immigrants.
“In 2010, 36 percent of immigrant-headed households used at least one major welfare program (primarily food assistance and Medicaid) compared to 23 percent of native households,” summarizes the document which was published by the Center for Immigration Studies and examines a wide variety of topics relating to immigration.
The document breaks down the immigrant families by country of origin and gives specific types of welfare and percentages of the families that used it in 2010. An average fewer than 23 percent of native households use some type of “welfare” which is specifically defined in the study. 36 percent of households headed by immigrants use some type of welfare. Families headed by immigrants from specific countries or areas of the world range from just over 6 percent for those immigrants from Great Britain to more than 57 percent of those from Mexico using some type of welfare.
This comprehensive study suggests there are approximately 40 million immigrants in the United States of which more than a 25 percent of that number, and the largest overall group, originate from Mexico. The study estimates that approximately 28 percent of immigrants, or just over 11 million, are within the United States illegally. The study also suggests that nearly 50 percent of those immigrants originating from Mexico and Central America are here illegally.
This report is very comprehensive and examines various statistics of immigrants currently residing in the United States. Overall, state and federal aid use by immigrant families is much higher than that used by families headed by citizens of the United States.
The large population of immigrants, both legal and illegal in Eastern Washington and even Spokane affects the states budget dramatically.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
George W. Bush: Immigration Reform Needed to Boost Economy
WASHINGTON — Former President George W. Bush stressed the importance of immigration on Tuesday at a speech in Dallas, throwing himself back in the ring as the debate over reform heats up in Washington.
“Immigrants come with new skills and new ideas. They fill a critical part in our labor market. They work hard for a better life,” Bush said at the event, hosted by the George W. Bush Institute and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
His brief speech introduced the groups’ conference, which focused on the need for immigration reform to bolster economic growth.
“Not only do immigrants help build our economy, they help invigorate our soul,” he said later in the speech.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Lord Bilimoria Says UK Immigration Policy is ‘Harming the Nation’
Lord Bilimoria, the founder of Cobra Beer, has said that the UK’s immigration policy is preventing Indian restaurants from recruiting the staff they need.
Writing in British Sunday newspaper The Observer, Lord Bilimoria says that Britain is now a multi-ethnic country which offers opportunity to all. He says that the UK Border Agency has lost control of immigration. It does not know how many illegal immigrants are in the country. He says ‘I am all for clamping down on illegal immigration and bogus colleges, but the government’s cap on immigration numbers is crude and blunt.’ It stifles the good immigration this country has been built on over the centuries.’ He says that the UK’s tough stance on immigration is preventing various industries, including the Indian restaurant industry, from employing the skilled staff that it needs.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
A plan to build on two million acres of countryside to solve Britain’s housing crisis has made planning minister Nick Boles a Tory ‘hate figure’, it was claimed today.
The outspoken minister, promoted by David Cameron in this autumn’s reshuffle, claimed ‘another 2 to 3 per cent of land’ needed to be developed to meet soaring demand for housing fuelled by immigration.
But Tory MP Bob Stewart revealed voters in his Beckenham constituency are furious at the idea, insisting homes should be built on brownfield sites which have been developed before.
Last week Mr Boles said migrants accounted for almost half of the housing demand, and his figures suggest 100,000 new homes a year will be needed to accommodate them. The minister added: ‘We can’t go on like this.’
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants began to swim towards Spanish Coast Guard when they realised a boat from Morocco was also coming to rescue them
Relief etched on their face, these African immigrants say goodbye to their inflatable dinghy, and hello to the reassuring sturdiness of the a Coast Guard boat.
Spanish officials say Coast Guard vessels from southern Spain and Morocco have rescued 27 migrants on four inflatable dinghies in the Strait of Gibraltar in the last 24 hours.
Officials said some of the migrants trying to reach Spain from Morocco jumped into the sea when the two countries’ rescue vessels approached them Monday.
They were desperate to be picked up by the closer Spanish boats that would take them to Europe — instead of back to North Africa.
Each year thousands of suspected illegal immigrants from Africa risk their lives trying to reach Europe on small, flimsy boats.
Spanish authorities said their vessels took 19 sub-Saharan men and two women to the port of Cadiz in southern Spain. Some were suffering from hypothermia.
Whether they will find a new home on this side of the Mediterranean is not known.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
College Says “Men Working” Sign is Sexist
An Ohio community college forced a construction crew to remove its “Men Working” sign after the sign was deemed sexist and non-inclusive by a college administrator.
The construction crew at Sinclair Community College in Dayton was forced to stop working until the sign had been removed.
A spokesman for the college told Fox News that they have a deep commitment to diversity and take it quite seriously.
“While it may not have been necessary to suggest work be stopped, we stand by our commitment to providing an environment that is inclusive and non-discriminatory,” director of public information Adam Murka told Fox News.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Gender Debate Sparks UK-Sweden Media Spat
Claims that a gender-neutral toy catalogue proved Sweden had “lost” a generation of women sparked a fierce war of words between popular Swedish tabloid Expressen and British publication The Telegraph.
“Boys will be girls, as they say in Sweden,” finance writer Thomas Pascoe wrote in a post published last week in the blog section of The Telegraph’s website.
He went on to argue that Sweden’s anti-discrimination laws are “insane” and lead to “bizarre” outcomes which do little to improve the status of women in Swedish society, citing figures showing a persistent wage gap between men and women.
“The result of stripping women of their social roles as mothers has not been the development of a new balance in society which still respects women, but rather a sexual nihilism with which most women are instinctively uncomfortable,” he wrote.
The sideswipe against Sweden’s gender-equality efforts came on the heels of reports that Toys”R”Us had produced a “gender neutral” toy catalogue for consumers in Sweden which features images of boys offering dolls a toy bottle, as well as little girls taking aim with plastic rifles.
“No boy grows up dreaming of being a princess. I find it hard to believe many little girls grow up wanting to shoot people,” wrote Pascoe.
The article prompted a stinging reply published on Saturday in Swedish tabloid Expressen by columnist Jenny Strömstedt.
She explained she was addressing her open letter to “Fred Flinstone”, because Pascoe “seems convinced that we still live in caves”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Human Evolution Enters an Exciting New Phase
If you could escape the human time scale for a moment, and regard evolution from the perspective of deep time, in which the last 10,000 years are a short chapter in a long saga, you’d say: Things are pretty wild right now. In the most massive study of genetic variation yet, researchers estimated the age of more than one million variants, or changes to our DNA code, found across human populations. The vast majority proved to be quite young.
The chronologies tell a story of evolutionary dynamics in recent human history, a period characterized by both narrow reproductive bottlenecks and sudden, enormous population growth. The evolutionary dynamics of these features resulted in a flood of new genetic variation, accumulating so fast that natural selection hasn’t caught up yet. As a species, we are freshly bursting with the raw material of evolution.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Rise and Possible Fall of SMS Text Messaging
SMS text messaging has revolutionized mobile phone communication, ever since it was launched 20 years ago. But more modern, Internet-based technologies appear poised to bring an end to its dominance.
“Come later, still busy. CU XOXO”: a typical message written using the SMS (short message service), complete with well-known abbreviations. The service has become a convenient part of daily communication ever since it was launched on December 3, 1992.
These days, SMS abbreviations like these have become a common part of everyday speech, with most everyone now knowing that “CU” means “See you” and “XOXO” standing in for, of course, “hugs and kisses.”
Keeping it concise is an essential element of the SMS: text messages may not be longer than 160 characters, and for good reason. When the technology was still in its early stages in the 1980s, SMS inventors were guided by analog predecessors like the postcard and telex-newswires, the latter of which were restricted to less than 160 characters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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