Egypt: Qatari Deposit Pushes Stock Market Up by 1.08 Percent
Central Bank: pound falls at dollar auction
(ANSAmed) — Rome, January 9 — The stock exchange rose Wednesday after Qatar raised its financial support to Egypt by US$5 billion, Egypt Independent website reports. The sum included $4 billion as a deposit and $1 billion as a non-refundable graft.
The main index, EGX 30, increased by 1.08 percent, reaching 5,866 points, while EGX 70 increased by 0.30 percent, reaching 502.7 points. Meanwhile, EGX 100 increased by 0.47 percent, reaching 844 points.
In the meantime, the Egyptian pound fell at a Central Bank of Egypt auction of dollars Wednesday, the seventh such sale since it introduced a new regime to reduce pressure on its currency.
The bank said the cutoff price at the auction was LE6.4797 to the dollar — a 0.47 percent fall from Tuesday, when the cutoff price was LE6.4492.
The General Petroleum Authority on Wednesday signed an agreement with a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group to receive a US$265 million loan under an Islamic murabaha arrangement. A murabaha is a non-interest-bearing loan.
A statement issued by the Cabinet on Wednesday said that the installment was the second of a loan the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation offered to Egypt in accordance with a framework agreement signed in July amounting to $1 billion. Finance Minister Morsy Hegazy said the government is negotiating with the Islamic Development Bank to get further assistance for infrastructure projects, according to the statement. Meanwhile, Waleed al-Wohaib, CEO for the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, said in the government-issued statement that the institution trusts the Egyptian economy and the government’s ability to meet its obligations.
He added that the corporation has signed two framework agreements with Egypt, the first of which was signed on 8 March and offered $2.2 billion in financing for the GPA and the Supply Commodities Authority. The second framework agreement of $1 billion was signed on 1 July to finance the import of petroleum products and wheat and other foodstuffs.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Monti Blames Tax Hikes on Past ‘Irresponsibility’
Comments likely to be seen as attack on Berlusconi
(see related story) (ANSA) — Rome, January 8 — Outgoing Italian Premier Mario Monti said Tuesday that his emergency technocrat government was “forced” to raise taxes “because irresponsible people” put Italy into a financial crisis. The comments are likely to be interpreted as an attack on his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi, who was forced to resign as premier when Italy’s debt crisis threatened to spiral out of control in November 2011.
“Now the country is safe and there is the prospect of a gradual reduction in taxes,” Monti told Mediaset television.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Pamplona’s Locksmiths Boycott Evictions
Refuse to collaborate with banks, courts: ‘We have our dignity’
(ANSAmed) — MADRID — The Assembly of Professional Locksmiths of the Spanish city of Pamplona, the capital of Navarre, will no longer aid authorities in evicting delinquent homeowners. The locksmiths said they would not assist in evictions that led to at least nine suicides over the past few months, and which have affected 400,000 people since the economic crisis began.
“It will affect us economically, but we have our dignity,” Assembly President Iker de Carlos told reporters. “From now on they will have to call locksmiths outside Navarre. What you see on television is different from when you go there. You know you’re helping to kick people out of their home, to stay on top of a perpetual debt that you will have to keep paying. We know that we will not start a revolution, but we want to serve as a example to Navarre society.” In Spain, locksmiths are called in by the courts to change the locks on a home once its occupants have been evicted.
Locksmiths throughout the country are evaluating the Pamplona action as an example to follow. “We are professionals, but we are people first,” Spanish Federation of Locksmiths President David Ormaechea told El Pais newspaper. “We can no longer participate in these terrible events without having a say.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tax Burden in Italy Among Highest in Europe
Country ranks 5th in eurozone, 7th in EU
(ANSA) — Rome, January 10 — Italy’s tax burden is among the highest in Europe, new data said Thursday.
According to Eurostat, Italy’s 42.8% tax rate was the 5th highest in the 17-member eurozone and the seventh highest in the 27-member European Union, according to data from 2011. That year the tax burden grew from 39.6% to 40% in the EU and from 40.3% to 40.8% in the eurozone. It remained unchanged in Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Clinton Named ‘Father of the Year’
Former President Bill Clinton is getting props for being a good dad.
Clinton was named the “Father of the Year” by the National Father’s Day Council on Wednesday.
The group selected Clinton for his “profound generosity, leadership and tireless dedication to both his public office and many philanthropic organizations,” Dan Orwig, chairman of the National Father’s Day Committee, said in the announcement.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Coulter: Doing the Research the New York Times Won’t Do
In Sunday’s New York Times, Elisabeth Rosenthal claimed, as the title of her article put it, “More Guns = More Killing.” She based this on evidence that would never be permitted in any other context at the Times: (1) anecdotal observations; and (2) bald assertions of an activist, blandly repeated with absolutely no independent fact-checking by the Times.
There is an academic, peer-reviewed, long-term study of the effect of various public policies on public, multiple shootings in all 50 states over a 20-year period performed by renowned economists at the University of Chicago and Yale, William Landes and John Lott. It concluded that the only policy to reduce the incidence of, and casualties from, mass shootings are concealed-carry laws. The Times will never mention this study.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In Washington D.C., the office of the Honorable Joseph Biden was busy phoning up everyone from Mothers Against Pointy Things to the Gay Communist Gun Club of America to Wal-Mart to invite them down for a serious no-holds-barred discussion about doing to the Bill of Rights what his boss had done to the economy.
Meanwhile over in Chicago, the 13th corpse was being scraped off the sidewalk. In just nine days, Obama’s hometown, one of them anyway, was already 15% ahead of last year’s whopping murder rate. East of Second City, in the city that would be Chicago if it wasn’t for a lot of money and a Republican mayor, one of the city’s liberal judges gave civil rights activists a late Christmas present with a verdict against the NYPD’s ‘Stop and Frisk” program in the Bronx.
The Bronx is the part of New York City voted most likely to be Detroit. An ironic fate for a borough that built the city’s biggest zoo and botanical garden as a way of keeping the riffraff out of what was once an exclusive area. It’s the place where you are mostly likely to shoot or be shot at. The Bronx is the fourth smallest borough of the five, but it’s number one in murders, rapes and robberies.
New York’s Finest commute to work from Staten Island, where the homicide rate is less than half that of the Bronx. In the 40th Precinct (you may know its neighbor, the 41st Precinct from the movie, Fort Apache, The Bronx) last year there were 12 murders, 21 rapes, 476 robberies, 387 felony assaults, 1,337 misdemeanor assaults, 62 shooting victims and a partridge in a pear tree.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The warning signs of a tyrannical takeover of our Constitutional Republic have been flashing red for some time now and are now reaching a fever pitch. Despite the flashing signs, the clamor of the alarms and the cries of the watchmen, most Americans of this era remain in denial or have been rendered intellectually catatonic by busily chasing immediate gratification in the form of the newest version of the iPhone, iPad, or whatever “i” device will satisfy their ADHD addled intellect.
Others have simply chosen to adhere to a normalcy bias that is continuously fed by the familiar faces and voices of political pundits who remain dedicated to the lie of the right-left, Republican-Democrat paradigm of American politics, unwilling or unable to look at the larger picture for fear of being shamed by accusations of being part of a conspiracy fringe. Instead, these pundits would rather ignore the lie and squander their ability to make a difference, to educate and inform others of the dangers of the lie they know exists.
We must realize that we are not witnessing the fundamental change of America as represented by the mindless mantra of the Obama campaign, but something much deeper, much more nefarious, and something that will not be rectified through the ballot box. As uncomfortable as it is, what we face cannot and will not wait for the next general election.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Major League Baseball to Require Tougher Drug Tests
Major League Baseball and its players union have reached a deal to expand their drug program, agreeing to in-season blood-testing for human growth hormone and to a new test designed to catch players using testosterone.
The new testing in baseball will allow Commissioner Bud Selig to again argue that his sport, which was faulted for initially moving far too slowly to address the issue of performance-enhancing drugs, now has the toughest testing program of any of the professional leagues in North America.
| [Return to headlines] |
Professor Seidman Wants to Disassemble the Constitution?
Seidman and his wards wish to invent a new world, based upon their own vacuous view that all prior humans human lacked their airy sophistication.
Professor Seidman of Georgetown University has stirred a healthy debate with his New York Times charge that the Constitution is the heart of our problems — fiscal and, supposedly, otherwise. He writes: “But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.”
[…]
Seidman has been so long studying individual cases — which is the process in law schools — that these “trees” have obscured his view of the forest. Law school itself is a major part of the problem, in my opinion. If we look at the Constitution directly, and studies what it says and why, we are on the first degree of familiarity with it. If, as courts have done for decades, they look at what their predecessors have said about the Constitution and the laws it controls, they are on the second degree of familiarity with it. Law schools study cases — primarily Supreme Court cases — not the Constitution itself. Consequently, as Seidman, his students, and all the students in law schools across the nation pursue their studies, they look at what these courts say about what previous courts have said — they are indoctrinating themselves at the third degree of separation from the Constitution. So law schools don’t really teach the Constitution. They teach the courts — and Seidman is correct in condemning the inconsistencies in the courts. But that is not the Constitution itself.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prominent Rifle Manufacturer Killed in Mysterious Car Crash
(NaturalNews) What you are about to read is astonishing. I’m not even sure what’s the right conclusion to draw from it. But here’s what we know so far:
John Noveske is one of the most celebrated battle rifle manufacturers in America. His rifles, found at www.NoveskeRifleworks.com are widely recognized as some of the finest pieces of American-made hardware ever created. (I own one of his rifles, and it’s a masterpiece of a machine that just keeps on running.) Sadly, John Noveske was killed in a mysterious car crash just a few days ago, on January 4, 2013.
According to the Outdoor Wire, his car “traveled across the oncoming lane onto the dirt highway shoulder until it struck two large boulders. The vehicle rolled and Mr. Noveske was ejected.”
But barely a week before this incident, John Noveske posted a lengthy, detailed post on Facebook that listed all the school shootings tied to psychiatric drugs. At the end of the post, he asked, “What drugs was Adam Peter Lanza on?”
That was the last post he ever made. (Full text below.)
John Noveske wasn’t the first prominent gun rights supporter to be killed in the last few days. Keith Ratliff, the creator of a super-popular YouTube channel featuring videos of exotic weapons, was also recently found dead.
The Daily Mail reports that Ratliff was “discovered on a rural road in Carnesville, Georgia. Ratliff had a single gunshot wound the head and police are treating his death as a homicide.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck Hosting Event for Itamar Mayor Moshe Goldsmith
I’ll be hosting an event in Nashville tonight featuring the Mayor of Itamar, Moshe Goldsmith, and his wife, Leah.
You may remember Itamar as as the scene of the horrific massacre of the Fogel family by Palestinian terrorists in March 2011. Well, Itamar survived that unspeakable horror and continues to thrive along with other Jewish communities in the Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria.
If you’re in the Nashville area, come on out tonight and hear about some of the challenges these communities face—including the daily threat of terrorism and the international push to hand their land over to the Palestinians.
For more details, click on my latest blog entry at the link above.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
To the naïve and uninformed, the Environmental Protection Agency exists to ensure clean air and water in the nation. That was its initial mandate when it was created by an executive order by President Nixon in 1970. It has since become a nation killer.
In 2013 a flood of regulations will cost thousands of Americans their jobs and drive more industry overseas to avoid the cost of doing business in America. It will drive up the cost of energy from electricity, along with the cost of gas and diesel fuel. It will effectively kill much of the coal mining industry in a nation that is the Saudi Arabia of coal, an energy source that formerly provided fifty percent of all electricity in America.
The EPA is girding up to kill “fracking”, a technology that has safely been in use for decades and one that holds the promise of further provision of natural gas. The provision of oil is being thwarted as well; mostly famously by Obama’s derailment of the Keystone XL pipeline in a nation laced with energy-providing pipelines. Energy, the lifeblood of the nation, will be under attack as never before.
[…]
The EPA will release regulations on the manufacture of cement—the MACT rule— that would increase the cost of manufacturing this essential element of construction by 22% to 36%. Many such plants would have to close and the U.S. would have to import cement from nations like China.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The New York Times is at it Again.
Apparently the New York Times employs a columnist named Charles Blow — a black man who has a problem with another black man. Me.
Mr. Blow has a problem with me because, during my presidential campaign, I said that I had “left the Democrat plantation” (and yes I did say that) and I said that I don’t believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way. I said that too.
I also said — in the context of political ideology — that blacks in this country have been brainwashed.
These comments on my part serve as self-evident proof, as far as Mr. Blow is concerned, that we are not making progress toward racial harmony.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Airport Debacle Hurts ‘Made in Germany’ Brand
From Berlin’s benighted airport to Hamburg’s hopeless concert hall, Germans are becoming concerned that their fabled international reputation for efficiency is being harmed by delays dogging major several projects around the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Depardieu Plays Hookie From Court for DSK Film Mtgs
No-show at drunk driving hearing, flies to Montenegro instead
(ANSAmed) — PARIS — Having bought a house in Belgium in order to dodge French high income taxes and taken a Russian passport, movie star Gerard Depardieu is now busy dodging French justice as well. Instead of showing up in court on Tuesday to face drunk driving charges, the actor preferred to travel to Podgorica, in Montenegro, to meet with the producers of his new film, based on the sexual scandal which involved former IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn (aka DSK). It is to be shot at the end of the month in New York by director Abel Ferrara, from a script Canal Plus TV reportedly turned down, calling it “sordid” and “mediocre”.
“My client has apologized to the judges for his absence, but he was unable to appear for professional reasons,” Depardieu’s lawyer, Eric de Caumont, told reporters at court. The actor was picked up in Paris on November 29, driving his scooter while under the influence. He now faces stiffer sentencing for not appearing in court. Also on Tuesday, Depardieu met with Culture Minister Branislav Micunovic and Aleksandar Bogdanovic, mayor of Cetinje, the former capital of Montenegro. The film would have been compromised had he missed today’s meetings, de Caumont explained.
“I wanted to do this film on DSK because I don’t like the character,” Depardieu told Russian TV in March last year. “I think he resembles all Frenchmen a little, and I don’t like the French very much.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Kurds Furious. “Erdogan is a Killer”
Chaos outside building where the 3 women were killed
(ANSAmed) — PARIS — “Erdogan is a killer.” “We’re all in the PKK.” “Free Ocalan”. Hundreds of Kurds are chanting these and other slogans outside the building where three Kurdish women, including the co-founder of the PKK were murdered Thursday morning. Chaos and screams of anger erupted as the bodies of the women were carried out. Protestors have formed a procession that is moving toward Strasbourg Saint-Denis in central Paris.
The chief of the Federation of Kurdish Associations in France has pointed the finger at Turkey for the murder of three Kurdish women in Paris Thursday. “It’s a crime of state, or in any case a political crime”, Edhart Leon told ANSA outside the Kurdish Information Centre where the women were killed. “If you were going to point the finger at anyone it would be Turkey”.
Leon, who was in Rome 15 years ago at a large rally for the the Kurdish leader, Ocalan, described the brutal murders of PKK co-founder Sakine Cansiz, 50, Dogan Fidan, 32 and Leyla Söylemez, 20 as “a message.” “Right now the Kurdish community is in deep shock”. “I’m waiting on information. Investigators are in place and are doing their job, but it’s a very difficult test for us”, he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Three Kurdish Women Shot in the Head in Paris
A co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and two other activists were found shot dead Thursday in Paris, a day after it emerged that Turkey and the jailed leader of the banned group were holding peace talks.
The women were found in the early hours with gunshot wounds to the head and neck inside a Kurdish information centre in the 10th district of the French capital, police and the centre’s director said.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls visited the scene of the crime and described the killings as “assassinations”.
“Three women have been shot down, killed, without doubt executed. This is a very serious incident, which is why I am here. It is completely unacceptable,” he told reporters.
Experts on the Kurdish movement in France said the killings could be the result of internal feuding in the PKK, personal score-settling, the work of Turkish agents or even of Turkish far-right extremists.
Hundreds of Kurds gathered on Thursday in front of the centre to protest at the deaths, with some chanting “We are all PKK!” and “Turkey assassin, Hollande complicit”, referring to French President Francois Hollande.
The murders came after Turkish media reported Wednesday that the Turkish government and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan had agreed on a roadmap to end a three-decade-old insurgency that has claimed around 45,000 lives.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Soccer: Northern League Councillor Probed for Racist Chants
Among six suspected over suspension of AC Milan friendly
(see related story) (ANSA) — Milan, January 7 — A young local councillor for the Northern League is among six people being probed over the racist chants that led to AC Milan’s friendly against fourth-tier Pro Patria being abandoned last week. Riccardo Grittini, a 22-year-old student, is also the executive councillor for sport and youth policies for the council of Corbetta, which is near Milan and Pro Patria’s home Busto Arsizio. Opposition parties have called on Grittini to step down but Corbetta Mayor Antonio Balzarotti has said he will stay in his executive for now. The League, which wants strict controls on immigration, has sometimes been accused of xenophobia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Lazio to be Investigated for Racist Chants Against Spurs
UEFA to probe incidents from Europa League match last November
(ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — UEFA launched an investigation on Monday into reports of anti-Semitic abuse by Lazio fans against Tottenham Hotspur supporters during a Europa League match in Rome on November 22.
Lazio supporters, some of who have extreme right leanings, chanted “Juden Tottenham, Juden Tottenham” during the 0-0 draw at Rome’s Olympic Stadium.
The night before the match a group of masked youths attacked a group of Spurs fans while they were drinking in a central Rome pub, causing serious injury to one.
Two AS Roma charged have charged with alleged involvement in the raid, which was a possibly carried out by extremist fans of more than one Italian club.
Tottenham Hotspur traditionally has a strong following from north London’s Jewish community.
The case will be heard by UEFA’s disciplinary body on January 24.
The Spurs are also being probed for “charges related to crowd disturbances”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ILVA Demands to Resume Possession of Finished Products
Follows decree letting pollution-row steel plant carry on
(ANSA) — Taranto, January 4 — Italian steel producer ILVA on Friday asked to resume possession of steel and semi-finished products seized from its troubled Taranto plant on November 26 following the conversion into law of a government decree allowing the factory to remain in production while much-needed environmental upgrades are carried out. This is the second time that the company has filed such a request.
A local investigating judge rejected its initial petition against the court-ordered seizure on grounds that the December 3 decree was not retroactive.
ILVA appealed against that ruling and the appeal is due to be heard on January 8. Meanwhile Taranto prosecutors have also filed their own petition against the decree law with the Constitutional Court, alleging a conflict in the attribution of powers between the judiciary and the executive. ILVA has been at the centre of a political and legal battle since July when local magistrates ordered the partial closure of its Taranto plant due to serious health concerns.
In November seven top managers were arrested as part of a corruption probe.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Catholics to Stand on Centre-Left Party List
PD opens to the Christian left ahead of February polls
(ANSA) — Rome, January 8 — Edo Patriarca, president of the national centre for volunteering, and Ernesto Preziosi, former vice president of Catholic Action and director of the Toniolo Institute at Italy’s prestigious Cattolica university, said Tuesday they had agreed to stand for election to parliament for the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in late February. Their decision followed Monday’s announcement by PD secretary and candidate for the premiership Pier Luigi Bersani that the party’s list would contain several Catholic Democrats. Emma Fattorini, a lecturer in contemporary history at Rome’s La Sapienza University, and Flavia Nardelli, secretary general of the Luigi Sturzo institute dedicated to preserving the heritage of the Italian Christian Democrat party, have also reportedly agreed to stand for the PD.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Secretary of Democratic Party in Puglia Quits Over Lists
Blasi says PD’s national leadership betrayed party membership
(ANSA) — Bari, January 8 — Italy’s center-left Democratic Party (PD) received a blow Tuesday when its secretary in the southern Puglia region quit over the party’s electoral lists.
Sergio Blasi said he was resigning “in full and absolute disagreement with the national leadership of the Democratic Party for betraying the spirit of the primary”.
He accused the party of stacking the lists for his region with “immigrants from the north”.
PD leadership received Blasi’s letter early Tuesday morning as party officials were finalizing their national electoral lists.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bersani Says Democratic Party Worried About Taxes, Budget
If elected, PD would reconsider tax levels, transparency
(ANSA) — Rome, January 9 — If elected, a Democratic Party (PD) government would want to review Italy’s tax system, especially for fairness and transparency, party secretary Pier Luigi Bersani said Wednesday. A PD government would reduce taxes for lower-income earners and shift the burden to those with higher earnings, he said.
“Our real problem is the retention rate of taxes and transparency of the tax system,” said Bersani. He added that he was not trying to drive the rich out of Italy, but rather to reorganize the system.
The center-left PD currently leads in polls
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: I Want to Rule Over Lombardy, Says N. League Secretary
(AGI) Rome, Jan 5 — Northern League secretary Roberto Maroni said in a post on Twitter: “ I will run to become Lombardy’s next governor and I will join forces with the Northern League governors of Veneto and Piedmont so to get our tax money back from the central government.” He then added:” The north comes first. Whoever wins the elections will have to reckon with us.
The revolution has to go through the Nothern Euro-region of Italy.” ..
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Property Tax Introduced on EU Request, Says Monti
(AGI) Rome, Jan 8 — On the Checkpoint programme of TgCom24, outgoing prime minister Mario Monti has commented on the European Commission’s report on Italy’s unified municipal property tax (IMU). He said that “the fundamental sentence states that the property tax was introduced on the request of the European Union. It then praises some aspects of the form of property tax introduced and discusses progressiveness. This is to put the ‘shocking news’ into a bit of perspective….” Monti went on to note that “it was not possible to immediately allocate a greater share of the proceeds deriving from this tax to municipalities.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
More Swedish Men Report Being Raped
Reports of male rape are on the rise in Sweden, new figures show, yet sexual violence experts believe the figures represent only the tip of the iceberg as many men are too ashamed to report the assaults.
Figures from the National Crime Prevention Council (Brottsförebyggande rådet, Brå) show that 132 men reported being raped in 2012, compared with 94 reports filed in 2010 and more than three times as many as the 41 reports filed in 2007.
“We know from research that the rapists are usually heterosexual men; for the offenders the act is not about sexuality but about power,” social work lecturer Hans Knutagård told the Metro newspaper.
He added that male rape victims can sometimes feel that they’ve been “turned into a homosexual”.
Hot lines and sexual health organizations testify to a growing number of men who contact them for help and support following an assault. Yet, many do not go further and report the crime to the police.
“No, they’re too ashamed,” Jane Eriksson, chair of the anti-sexual violence NGO Hopp in Katrineholm, told the newspaper.
The Crime Prevention council estimates that only 23 percent of all rapes are reported to the police, and even fewer make it to trial.
In the first half of 2012, only six of 61 reported rapes against men resulted in criminal indictments.
In 2011, the clearance rate for rapes against men was 10 percent, the same clearance rate as rapes against women.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Morrissey Supports Nigel Farage on Europe and Admits ‘I Nearly Voted UKIP’
Rock star Morrissey has admitted he is a bit of a fan of Ukip and its leader Nigel Farage.
The former Smiths frontman revealed an unlikely admiration for the leader adding “his views are quite logical — especially where Europe is concerned.”
He even toyed with the idea of voting for the party because he supported their ideas on the EU.
He told Loaded magazine: “I nearly voted for Ukip. I like Nigel Farage a great deal.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Town Removes King From Road Name, ‘Symbol of Franco’
Alcano part of association of cities for independence
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JAMUARY 7 — Alcano, a town of Catalonia west of Barcelona with 250 inhabitants, will scrap the name of the king from one of its road. The city council has voted in favour of a request by residents to remove the plaque ‘Calle Juan Carlos I’ from the road. ‘Removing the name of the king is like removing the symbols of the Franco era’, said Mayor Sebastian Ricart.
Juan Carlos, who turned 75 on Sunday, returned to Spain in 1948; in 1969 Francisco Franco, who had restored the monarchy in 1947 thought he had appointed himself as the ruler, indicated him as the heir of the Spanish crown. Juan Carlos was crowned on November 22, 1975, two days after the death of Franco.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Statoil Plans $10-Billion Norwegian Sea Project
Norwegian oil and gas group Statoil and its partners presented plans on Tuesday to develop a Norwegian Sea gas field and build a pipeline at a cost of 57 billion kroner ($10 billion).
Statoil submitted a plan to the Norwegian government to begin development of the Aasta Hansteen field, believed to hold 47 billion cubic metres of gas, starting in late 2017.
The project would require a 480-kilometre deep-sea pipeline, called Polarled, which could become an important link between the current network of Norwegian pipelines further south and future gas fields in the Arctic.
“Polarled will open a new region and facilitate further exploration activities and development of future discoveries in the area,” a senior Statoil official, Eldar Saetre, said in a statement.
The Aasta Hansteen field is located some 300 kilometers from Norway’s north-western coast and lies at a depth of around 1,300 metres. Statoil owns 75 percent of the field, previously known as Luva, while Austria’s OMV owns 15 percent and ConocoPhillips of the US holds 10 percent.
The development cost of the field is estimated at 32 billion kroner, and at full-capacity its production would be 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, Statoil said.
Polarled is meanwhile expected to cost 25 billion kroner, and will be owned by Norwegian groups Statoil, Petoro and Gassco, OMV, Anglo-Dutch Shell, France’s Total and GDF Suez, Germany’s RWE Dea, US groups ConocoPhillips and Edison, and Maersk Oil of Denmark.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Press: Ambassadors’ Meeting Cancelled to Save Money
(ANSAmed) — Belgrade, January 8 — An annual conference of Serbian ambassadors posted worldwide, which traditionally takes place in Belgrade in the first half of January, was cancelled to save money, according to the daily Danas. The paper said the decision was taken by Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic.
The meeting, which has taken place annually since 2008, was aimed at outlining Serbia’s foreign policy priorities and was usually attended by the Serbian president together with a high official of an EU country as guest.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Heaviest Snowfall in Jerusalem Since ‘92
Schools shut; ice brings traffic to a stop
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JANUARY 10 — Experts say that Jerusalem was clobbered Wednesday by the “heaviest snowfall since 1992” after forecasts predicting the downpour proved spot on.
Schools and nurseries were closed and police shut a main motorway linking the city to Tel Aviv because of icey conditions. The city’s emergency response chief, Elisha Peleg, urged people to stay at home and not to go out on the roads. “Between 10 — 15cm of snow fell in the centre of Jerusalem”, Peleg told military radio, “and much more in outlying areas.” “Elderly residents of Jerusalem can’t remember snowfall as heavy as this.” He added that temperatures are expected to rise this afternoon and at that point people may be able to go out to stock up on necessities.
Elsewhere, the rest of the country has been pummeled, including much of Galilee which is under a blanket of snow. Up to 30cm of the white stuff fell in Safed and snowfall also hit further south in Dimona and Neghev.
Rain continues to pour in Tel Aviv as temperatures slide.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hagel-Chaired Think Tank: ‘Post-Mullah’ Iran Should be Viewed as ‘Natural Partner’ For U.S.
The Atlantic Council, a think tank chaired by defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel which last month published a column titled “Israel’s Apartheid Policy,” during the same month predicted that Iran “should be viewed as a potential natural partner” for the U.S.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that the think tank’s December policy paper titled “Envisioning 2030: U.S. Strategy for a Post-Western World,” which was not written by Hagel himself, predicted the following of an Iranian regime that continues to forge ahead with its nuclear program and bankroll both Hamas and Hezbollah terrorism: “A post-mullah dominated government shedding Shia [Muslim] ideology could easily return to being a net contributor to stability by 2030.”
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) has called President Barack Obama’s Hagel’s nomination of Hagel “a blow to U.S.-Israel relations, to the President’s relationship with the American Jewish community, and to U.S. security in the Middle East.”
Glenn Kessler, author of the Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” column, noted that Hagel told the Associated Press after his 1998 Middle East visit that the Israeli government “essentially continues to play games.” Commenting on Palestinian terrorism, the former Nebraska senator said “Desperate men do desperate things when you take hope away.”
Additionally, in 2002, Hagel told CNN regarding Yasser Arafat that he would not “single out the Palestinians and Arafat as the real problem” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because “it doesn’t help when we take public sides on this and castigate and assign all of the responsibility and all the blame to one side
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Iraq: Kurdistan Sells Oil Directly, Challenging Baghdad
The amount sold is minimal but highly symbolic. The first shipment went by road to bypass the Baghdad-controlled Iraq-Turkey pipeline. Economists warn that the step signals the region’s growing frustration with the central government. Political uncertainties are making matters worse.
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Kurdistan has begun to export crude oil directly to world markets through Turkey, posing the biggest challenge yet to Baghdad’s claim to full control over Iraqi oil. For local economists, the move is further evidence of growing frustration in the Kurdish region over its relationship with Baghdad, which is driving it to seek greater economic independence.
Mgr Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk, recently spoke to AsiaNews about the tensions generated by the struggle to control the oil fields of Kurdistan. In view of the situation, he appealed to the parties to engage in “peace and dialogue”.
Iraqi officials in Baghdad said the trade of Kurdish oil, which they view as illegal, would make it more difficult to reach a deal on payments to oil companies operating in the northern region, which the central government has delayed.
The export of crude, in addition to small volumes of niche condensate, demonstrates the autonomous region’s growing frustration with Baghdad as it moves towards ever greater economic independence, industry sources said.
The first crude was delivered by lorry to the Turkish port of Mersin on the Mediterranean.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) “gave us permission to start crude exports from the Taq Taq oilfield,” Genel Energy President Mehmet Sepil said on Monday.
The KRG halted exports through the Baghdad-controlled Iraq-Turkey pipeline last month due to the renewed payment dispute.
And a KRG source said the crude trade through Turkey was likely to keep going because Baghdad is not paying as agreed.
In recent months, because of the tensions between the two levels of government, Iraq’s oil and gas auction largely failed after Baghdad excluded contentious Kurdish area fields from the bidding process.
For experts, the situation is likely to get worse over next few weeks because of the country’s political situation, preventing any further talks over the matter.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: EU Condemns Sri Lankan Nanny’s Execution
Shock in Sri Lanka the day after the beheading of Nafeek
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — The European Union has expressed ‘deep shock’ at the execution of a young Sri Lankan nanny in Saudia Arabia and has stressed its “strong opposition” to the death penalty “in all cases and in all circumstances”.
In Europe, as from various human rights associations, “numerous requests” had been ignored for Rizana Nafeek’s death sentence to be commuted, according to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton. Ashton said that amongst other things it was very likely that Nafeek was “underage” when the baby in her care died and she was sentenced to death. News of the beheading, which took place Wednesday in Riyadh, has sparked a chorus of emotion in Sri Lanka where Parliament observed a minute’s silence in commemoration of Nafeek.
Numerous human rights groups had organised an international campaign to pardon Nafeek.
Sri Lanka’s government too, tried various diplomatic channels. President Mahinda Rajapaksa intervened. And the Saudi government last week made a promise to the Sri Lankan ambassador in Riyahd to look into pleas for clemency. A second appeal to put off the execution pending a deal to compensate the family of the child was brought before Saudi Arabia’s King. And a special “reconciliation committee” was created by the government to grant an out of court settlement. Nafeek arrived in Saudi Arabia in 2005 where she worked for a wealthy family. After only a few months the four month old baby in her care choked to death while being fed from a bottle. A day later Nafeek was arrested and accused of strangling the baby after a dispute with the mother.
Nafeek allegedly made a confession which she said was given under duress. In 2007 a court found her guilty of murder and sentenced her to be beheaded by sword.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Thousands of Christians Trapped in North Aleppo
Food and electricity cut off; situation “grave” says priest
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, JANUARY 10 — Around a thousand Christians including Roman Catholics and those of the Greek-Orthodox faith are trapped in a tiny village in North Aleppo. As heavy fighting rages between loyalist groups and opposition forces, food and electricity supplies to Yaakoubieh have all but been cut off. “They are in a desperate condition; they could be wiped out”, Franciscan priest Father Francois Kouseiffi told Vatican news agency, Fides. Kouseiffi is the pastor of a church in Hamas, Beirut, where around 500 refugees from Syria are being looked after. He first heard of the village’s plight from the refugees in his church, many of who come from Yaakoubieh. Before the war around 3,000 Christians, including Armenians, Orthodox and Catholics, lived in the village. They have all since fled. According to Kouseiffi nuns are trapped in Yaakoubieh too. “The situation is grave. The faithful are trapped. We are desperately trying to help them come to Lebanon.” “Some of our emissaries left a few days ago to go there, but it’s a dangerous journey and after a day they ended up in Aleppo”.
“Contact with the Christians has been sporadic. They sounded the alarm for their survival, but they could die in the silence.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Lifts Sale Ban on Books
(AGI) Istanbul — The ban on several books has been lifted in Turkey. Marx’s Manifest is among the no longer forbidden titles.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Will Obama Demand Israeli Disarmament — Again?
By David P. Goldman (Spengler)
On Jan. 4, Turkish President Abdullah Gul demanded Israeli nuclear disarmament in order to achieve a nuclear free Middle East. Iran’s news agency reported:
TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Ankara believes that Israel’s nuclear disarmament is necessary because it is key to the establishment of a nuclear-free Middle-East.
Speaking to Foreign Affairs magazine, President Gul stressed the importance of eradicating nuclear weapons in the Middle-East and stated that the atomic disarmament of Israel would be the key to resolving outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear energy program.
“That is the way I see it. Because that route will help them solve the fundamental problems in the Middle-East that affect the whole world.”
That is also the policy of the Obama administration, which has been pushing a “nuclear-free Middle East” since the May 2010 United Nations conference on nuclear proliferation. On May 28, 2010, the US cast a “yes” vote for a resolution demanding that Israel adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which would oblige Israel to unilaterally disarm. Israel’s longstanding policy of “nuclear ambiguity” was first adopted in 1969 by then Prime Minister Golda Meir at the request of the Nixon administration. Every American administration since Nixon has backed this policy—until Obama. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to the May 2010 turnaround by calling the UN resolution “deeply flawed and hypocritical,” adding, “It singles out Israel, the Middle East’s only true democracy and the only country threatened with annihilation. Yet the terrorist regime in Iran, which is racing to develop nuclear weapons and which openly threatens to wipe Israel off the map, is not even mentioned in the resolution.”
Obama’s action provoked a storm of protest, and the issue was quietly laid to rest. But it is far from dead. Reuters reported Nov. 24:
LONDON (Reuters) — Britain and the United Nations said on Saturday they hoped a conference aimed at trying to ban nuclear weapons in the Middle East could take place soon after the United States said it would not happen next month as originally planned.
If and when it happens, the conference is likely to be fraught as Iran and Arab states say Israel’s presumed nuclear arsenal is the main threat to security in the region, while Israel and the West see Tehran as the main proliferation danger.
Western diplomats and others believe the conference would make little headway because of that fundamental difference in opinion — something the United States has described as “a deep conceptual gap”.
However, Britain and the conference’s other organizers, which include Russia and the United Nations as well as prospective host Finland, believe it is worth a try anyway and anti-nuclear campaigners would also like to see it take place.
Middle East nuclear disarmament is America’s stated policy. The only question is how to make it happen…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
…in 4 towns & cities in UK
WHITE Brits are now a minority in three more UK towns and cities, a report reveals today.
Soaring immigration has sent their numbers plunging below 50 per cent in the city of Leicester and the towns of Luton and Slough.
The figures follow last month’s revelation that for the first time white Brits form less than half London’s population — 45 per cent.
The percentage calling themselves white British is at 35 in Slough, Berks, and 45 in Luton, Beds, and Leicester.
No ethnic group is in the majority in any of the three.
The Manchester University study says the figure for Birmingham may fall below half within seven years.
The overall white population tops 50 per cent in Leicester and Luton when Eastern European and Irish communities are added.
The latest analysis of 2011 census data in England and Wales, published today by University of Manchester researchers, has revealed the first local authorities outside London where no ethnic group is in the majority.
The research by the University’s Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) shows the towns of Slough and Luton and the city of Leicester are now ‘plural’. Birmingham could join them in the next seven years.
The team, who also find that 23 of London’s 33 boroughs are plural, say towns and cities labelled by politicians as ‘segregated’ are in reality the most diverse.
In the three local authorities, substantial numbers of Irish, Eastern European and other White populations have rendered their White British populations, though still large, as minorities for the first time.
However, the White British population is still the largest in every local authority except Tower Hamlets and Brent, where it is the second biggest.
In addition, the research funded by CoDE and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds:…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
A Kennedy Shocks the Pro-Dope Liberal Media
The major media do not want to cover the issue of marijuana causing mental illness. But because a prominent Democrat, Patrick Kennedy, has raised it, the media have nowhere left to hide. The news that he says marijuana “Destroys the brain and expedites psychosis” was big news and a big headline in The Washington Post.
Kennedy fought alcoholism and an addiction to prescription drugs and is now taking on the marijuana lobby, while getting verbal abuse from the potheads in return. The Marijuana Policy Project calls his new group, SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), the “new threat” and “a dangerous, new national anti-marijuana organization.”
Kennedy, the younger son of Edward M. Kennedy and a former member of Congress from Rhode Island, was strong and direct, telling the Post, “Marijuana destroys the brain and expedites psychosis. It’s just overall a very dangerous drug.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
English Teacher Stomps on American Flag During Class Lecture
Here’s something that will get you to scratch your head and wonder, “What was he thinking?” A high school English teacher is in hot water after he repeatedly stomped on an American flag as part of his classroom lesson. The teacher’s actions have led to a suspension, and more fallout is likely to occur.
As reported by WIS Channel 10 in South Carolina, English teacher Scott Compton, had an unusual lesson planned for his high school classes.
Scott Compton is accused of throwing down the American flag and stomping on it in front of his honors English classes.
[…]
According to Fitsnews.com, the teacher is considered to be a “good” one, but that he is “very liberal.” One source said, “He wears it on his sleeve in the classroom.”
Comment by inluminatuo January 10, 2013 @ 12:54 pm
Our American Flag has no meaning only to those who themselves have meaningless lives of no meaning themselves. Men and women who believe in no power greater than themselves, who in their hearts understand the very meaningless of who and what they are. These people have nothing to live for, and nothing in their lives worth dying for. They are the hollow men of the secular Liberal Progressive cult of self worshippers who REGRESS into their animal instincts, having murdered their own spiritual consciences in order to get by in a semi-insanity called secular Liberal existence. To face their consciences and spiritual side would mean having to admit of a life wasted, a life failed, a life as meaningless as the flag they spit upon and declare meaningless, but which in their jealous heats is the symbol of everything they aspire to be but failed to be, which stands for the personal sacrifice of lives that meant so much in their sacrifice to make the world a better place for that sacrifice, while those deluded liberals only live for the Liberal drug of immediate gratification which is fleeting at best and so self-condemning at worst. So they delude themselves into thinking they are Gods unto themselves. Nit-wit nabobs of Narcissism run amok. Now we would have them lead our nation and teach our Kids. Shame on us for relying on others to do the right thing while we slept in a false security of trusting people unworthy of the word trust!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Planned Parenthood Receives Record Amount of Taxpayer Support
Planned Parenthood reported receiving a record $542 million in taxpayer support in fiscal 2012, marking a steady increase in government funding despite Republican-led efforts at the state and federal levels to cut off that stream.
The funding figures were included in the abortion provider’s annual report released Monday. The numbers showed roughly 45 percent of Planned Parenthood’s budget now comes from taxpayer dollars.
Pro-life groups quickly seized on the report to renew their calls for Congress to “defund” Planned Parenthood.
“Americans are sick and tired of underwriting the nation’s largest abortion business,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List.
Republican Tennessee Rep. Diane Black said the report “underscores the pressing need to cut off all federal funding for Planned Parenthood.”
The Republican-controlled House voted in the last session to strip federal funding for the organization But the measure did not advance.
Separate efforts at the state level to yank funding have been blocked by the courts. Mostly recently, a federal appeals court in October blocked Indiana from carrying out a law to cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood.
According to the latest annual report, the $542 million in taxpayer support last year counted Medicaid money. The total represents a steady increase, up 11 percent from $487 million the year before; that amount was up 34 percent from $363 million the year before that.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Progressives as “Moral Superiors” Who Like to Play God
The most famous eugenicists were the Spartans. Their newborns were allowed to live only if perfectly healthy. The state did not want to be burdened by imperfect babies.
The modern eugenicists advocate infanticide as being no different than abortion. According to an article in The Telegraph, a team of medical ethicists linked to Oxford University maintained that “parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed because they are ‘morally irrelevant.’ (Stephen Adams, February 29, 2012)
The Journal of Medical Ethics published an article, “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?” Francesca Minerva and Alberto Giubilini argued that babies are not “actual persons,” do not have a “moral right to life,” and parents should be allowed to kill their babies if they are disabled.
Prof. Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics labeled those readers who made death threats to the article’s authors as “fanatics opposed to the very values of a liberal society.” Most modern humans must then be fanatics because they reject such a liberal society based on brutal values. We no longer live in Sparta. A sign of civilization is treating life with respect and awe, beginning at conception until death.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Worshiping at the Temple of the Vagina
The 2012 elections are over and the data is in. Catholics in America, those who go to Mass on Sundays throughout the year, overwhelmingly voted to restore the republic, protect religious liberty and safeguard human life from womb to the tomb. So-called Catholics, those who don’t go to Mass, or go on Christmas and Easter (our beloved E&C Catholics), or those who think the Catechism is a ‘cafeteria’ of ideas, one to be taken as one sees fit — those now American Schismatic Catholics overwhelmingly voted to kill the republic by re-electing our own Mussolini: Obama. Don’t melt-down over that; just contemplate for a moment what I am saying: Benito Mussolini was a fascist dictator in Italy from the 1920s until Italy’s capitulation during WWII. Economically, he married the best of capitalism with socialism, which is, by definition, fascism. For today, let’s look at the evidence that American Schismatic Catholics, or the ASC’s, departed from Rome a long time ago and are now, instead of pretending to be seeking relationship with God, are exclusively worshiping at the Temple of the Vagina. From so-called women’s rights to ‘peace and justice,’ the ASCs have only one agenda: Make it easier for all people at all time to join them in worshiping at the Temple of the Vagina.
[…]
What is the Schismatic American Church, then? It is a Church void of the true Living God; one absent of liturgies which are held sacred; it is a church completely void of the meat or the core, rather, of the Four Pillars of Faith. It is made up of a people who neither believe nor obey the Creed; it is a set of Sacraments, those visible accidents of our invisible Lord are profaned — while the people whose sacrilege is ongoing are praised and elevated in the Church; it is the moral life which has been vacated and replaced with what the Roman Pontiff, Benedict the XVI calls: The Dictatorship of Relativism. In fact, the new Schismatic Church is complete with a life full of pretend worship — worship of what the New York Time’s deemed a dead God and the direct worship of women and the destruction of the role of man in the family and more — all of this within the stone-cold walls of their new Temple of the Vagina.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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