Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/8/2011

The IAEA has determined that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing a nuclear weapon. Up until now the agency evidently had no idea what was going on. Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak says that if it became necessary for Israel to undertake a pre-emptive strike on Iran, it could survive the inevitable retaliatory strikes with fewer than 500 Israeli fatalities.

In other news, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is under siege within his own government. Defectors within his conservative coalition are attempting to force a no-confidence vote on the prime minister. According to some reports, Mr. Berlusconi has said that he will resign once the necessary fiscal reforms have been approved. He believes that he is the only Italian politician who can successfully tackle his country’s debt crisis.

Meanwhile, according to recent polls, 58% of the Dutch people would prefer to reinstate the guilder as the country’s official currency.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Egghead, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, Steen, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.