Reader’s links for Feb. 1st – 2016

Daily Links Post graphic

In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

This way, under the various posts of the day, conversation can take place without as much ‘noise’ on the various links and articles and ideas in the main posts and all the news links being submitted can be seen under these auto-posts by clicking on the comments-link right below these ones.

Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

71 Replies to “Reader’s links for Feb. 1st – 2016”

  1. EXCLUSIVE – The lawless asylum centre where migrants rule: Inside squalid Swedish shelter that police will not enter, where 10-year-old boy was raped and that has just TWO staff on duty for 600 refugees

    MailOnline reveals rooms ‘so overcrowded that youths were free to rape’

    Migrants claim six people are crammed in on mattresses and bunk beds

    Ten-year-old was sexually abused at Signalisten Asylum Centre in Sweden

    Police were then chased from the corridors after being surrounded by mob

    Officers now refuse to enter and just two staff guard 600 migrants at night

    Activists ten children have been raped because of overcrowding

    Sweden struggling to cope with 160,000 new arrivals

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3425640/The-lawless-asylum-centre-migrants-rule-Inside-squalid-shelter-ten-year-old-boy-raped-police-not-enter-just-TWO-staff-duty-600-refugees.html

  2. White Zimbabwean farming family are driven off their land to make way for black “British” (Zimbabwean) doctor who runs slimming clinic in UK

    Phillip Rankin and his family have farmed in Zimbabwe for decades

    Their farm has been taken from them and given to Sylvester Nyatsuro

    Mr Rankin was handcuffed and dragged away from the property last week as police moved in to enforce the claim

    New owner originally from Zimbabwe but now works as GP in Nottingham

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426266/White-Zimbabwean-farming-family-driven-land-make-way-black-British-doctor.html

  3. Mother of girl, 16, raped by three Somali men tells how rapists’ relatives terrified her throughout the trial

    Muhyadeen Osman, Bilal Ahmed and Mowled Yussuf, all 20, guilty of rape

    Friend cornered victim, 16, in a hotel bedroom and took turns to rape her

    Up to 50 friends and family attended court throughout their two-month trial

    Girl’s mother says she and her husband were ‘intimidated and goaded’

    She said: ‘It was scary. If this is what it does to us, then what would this be like for the victim of a rape case?’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426281/Mother-girl-16-raped-three-Somali-men-tells-rapists-relatives-terrified-trial.html

  4. British scientists granted permission to genetically modify human embryos
    The Francis Crick institute will genetically edit the leftover embryos from from IVF clinics

    British scientists have been granted permission to genetically modify human embryos by the fertility regulator.

    The Francis Crick Institute could begin the controversial experiments as early as March after the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) gave the green light this morning.

    The scientists want to deactivate genes in leftover embryos from IVF clinics to see if it hinders development.

    It will only be the second time in the world that such a procedure has been undertaken and the first time it has been directly approved by a regulator. A Chinese team carried out similar experiments last year to widespread outcry.

    Currently around 50 per cent of fertilised eggs do not develop properly and experts believe that faulty genetic code could be responsible.

    If scientists knew which genes were crucial for healthy cell division, then they could screen out embryos where their DNA was not working properly, potentially preventing miscarriages and aiding fertility.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12133410/British-scientists-granted-permission-to-genetically-modify-human-embryos.html

  5. New Technologies Give Government Ample Means to Track Suspects, Study Finds

    WASHINGTON — For more than two years the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies have warned that encrypted communications are creating a “going dark” crisis that will keep them from tracking terrorists and kidnappers.

    Now, a study in which current and former intelligence officials participated concludes that the warning is wildly overblown, and that a raft of new technologies — like television sets with microphones and web-connected cars — are creating ample opportunities for the government to track suspects, many of them worrying.

    “ ‘Going dark’ does not aptly describe the long-term landscape for government surveillance,” concludes the study, to be published Monday by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/01/us/politics/new-technologies-give-government-ample-means-to-track-suspects-study-finds.html?_r=0

  6. China says U.S. seeks ‘hegemony’ after South China Sea sailing

    February 1, 2016

    BEIJING (Reuters) – China accused the United States on Monday of seeking maritime hegemony in the name of freedom of navigation after a U.S. Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of a disputed island in the South China Sea.

    China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of world trade is shipped every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.

    The guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur passed near Triton Island in the Paracel Islands, in what the Pentagon said was a challenge to attempts by China, Taiwan and Vietnam to restrict navigation rights and freedoms.

    The Chinese government, which moved swiftly to condemn to sailing on Saturday, said the United States was acting dangerously and irresponsibly.

    http://www.oann.com/category/world/

  7. U.N. rights boss urges Turkey to probe shooting by security forces

    February 1, 2016

    By Stephanie Nebehay

    GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations’ top human rights official urged Turkey on Monday to investigate the shooting of unarmed people 10 days ago in its largely Kurdish southeast and said any members of the security forces committing rights abuses should be prosecuted.

    Southeastern Turkey has seen its worst violence in two decades since a 2-1/2-year ceasefire with militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) collapsed last July, reviving a conflict in which 40,000 people have been killed since 1984.

    U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein was referring to an incident on Jan. 20, in which 10 people were wounded in the town of Cizre when their group, including two opposition politicians, came under fire while rescuing people hurt in earlier clashes.

    “I am urging the Turkish authorities to respect the fundamental rights of civilians in its security operations and to promptly investigate the alleged shooting of a group of unarmed people in the southeastern town of Cizre after shocking video footage emerged last week,” Zeid told a news briefing.

    The footage showed the group, including a man and a woman holding white flags, ferrying bodies across a street, watched from an armored vehicle. Gunfire breaks out and they duck for cover. The camera falls to the ground and a pool of blood forms.

    http://www.oann.com/u-n-rights-boss-calls-on-turkey-to-investigate-shooting-by-security-forces/

    • UN calls on Turkey to investigate shooting of civilians (BBC, Jan 1, 2016)
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35460006

      “The top UN human rights official has urged Turkey to investigate an apparent shooting by security forces of unarmed civilians in the city of Cizre.

      Zeid Raad Al Hussein described the incident, in which 10 people were wounded, as “extremely shocking”.

      Cizre has been the focus of an offensive by Turkey’s army against the Kurdish rebel group, the PKK.

      Mr Al Hussein also expressed concern over reports that the man who filmed the incident was arrested.

      “Filming an atrocity is not a crime but shooting unarmed civilians most certainly is,” he said.

      “It is essential that there is a thorough, independent, impartial investigation into this and any other events that have led to the wounding or killing of civilians.”

      The incident in Cizre, a predominantly Kurdish city, occurred on 20 January. Video footage posted online purporting to be of the immediate aftermath of the shooting shows people being loaded into ambulances amid screaming and the sound of explosions…”

  8. Christians who don’t see Mohammed as a prophet: Islamophobes?
    By J.E. Dyer January 31, 2016
    Christians who don’t see Mohammed as a prophet: Islamophobes?

    55 Share Tweet Pin Plus

    There’s a self-professed Christian blogger at Huffington Post who thinks you are an Islamophobe if you don’t agree that it’s perfectly compatible with Christianity to see Mohammed as a prophet.

    Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch calls Craig Considine out for the following passage, in Considine’s post “Why a Christian can view Muhammad as a Prophet” (emphasis added):

    Basically, me admiring Prophet Muhammad isn’t “enough” for Muslims; in their eyes, I must take a few concrete steps towards Islam to be fully recognized as a “true believer.” Otherwise, I’m just a weirdo Christian who respects Muhammad, but doesn’t recognize him as a “the man.” Christians, on the other hand, have called me “pseudo Catholic” and “infidel” for my positive writings about Muhammad. For these Islamophobes, I’m quite simply a heretic. There’s no way around it.

    Spencer parses this precisely:

    Note Considine’s usage of the smear term “Islamophobe.” An “Islamophobe” is supposedly someone who has an irrational hatred of Islam — and for what did his Christian interlocutors earn this label? They called him a “pseudo-Catholic” and “infidel” for his “positive writings about Muhammad.” Considering Islam’s rejection of the divinity, crucifixion, resurrection and salvific mission of Christ, it’s perfectly reasonable for these Christians to have considered Considine to have departed from the faith by writing positively about Muhammad. But to Considine, it only means that they hate Islam.

    Spencer goes on to discuss other aspects of Considine’s basically irrational, impressionistic mish-mash of sentiment, and his critical essay is worth the full read.

    But I want to stay for the moment on the seemingly stray reference to Islamophobia, because it’s not merely something random that doesn’t matter.

    We can expect to see it – or rather hear it – as a drumbeat arising against Christendom. Much of the West’s ruling structure has already bought off on the dynamic of “Islamophobia,” by which all objections to the gradual enforcement of new, “Islamic” social norms are silenced. There can be no principled objections to these norms, which must be allowed to bind non-Muslims. There can only be Islamophobia at work: by definition, an unacceptable hatred, which can’t be the basis for asserting either liberty from “Islamic” norms, or the enforcement of different norms.

  9. ‘My perfect daughter was stitched up’: Father of British jihadi mother jailed for six years for taking toddler to Syria to join ISIS denounces ‘Islamophobic’ verdict and says she will ‘devote herself even more to God

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426254/British-jihadi-mother-posed-toddler-son-ISIS-balaclava-AK47-fleeing-Syria-join-terror-group-jailed-six-years.html#ixzz3yvYUvYyx
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

  10. Chechnya’s Kadyrov puts Putin critic Kasyanov in gunsights (BBC, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35459613

    “Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov has posted an Instagram video showing Russian opposition politician Mikhail Kasyanov in a sniper’s crosshairs.

    Mr Kasyanov, a former prime minister, is a high-profile critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the opposition RPR-Parnas party.

    Recently Mr Kadyrov called Mr Putin’s critics “enemies” and “traitors”.

    Russian opposition politicians have described the posting as a murder threat.

    The Chechen leader said Mr Kasyanov was seeking cash in Strasbourg for the opposition. “Whoever doesn’t get it will get it!” he warned.

    Last March Mr Kadyrov spoke out on Instagram about the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow. That message defended one of the Chechens charged over the shooting.

    A day later President Putin gave Mr Kadyrov a top award…”

  11. Migrant crisis: Finland PM Sipila halts plan to host refugees (BBC, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35458641

    “Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila has put on hold a plan to open his country home to a family of asylum seekers, apparently for security reasons.

    The cabinet security chief told Finnish media that Mr Sipila’s offer last September had made the house “too public” for any family to stay there.

    The prime minister had said everyone should “look in the mirror and ask how we can help” new arrivals in Finland.

    However, anti-immigrant sentiment has hardened in recent months.

    One report by Iltalehti newspaper said there were concerns that the arrival of asylum seekers at the house in Kempele in northern Finland would attract anti-immigration protesters.

    Some 32,000 people applied for asylum in Finland in 2015, double the expected number, and the Finnish government has predicted 20,000 will be deported…”

  12. Iran: $100B in Assets ‘Fully Released’ Under Nuclear Deal (abcnews, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-100b-assets-fully-released-nuclear-deal-36635117

    “Iran said Monday it now has access to more than $100 billion worth of frozen overseas assets following the implementation of a landmark nuclear deal with world powers.

    Government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said much of the money had been piling up in banks in China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey since international sanctions were tightened in 2012 over Tehran’s nuclear program.

    Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency meanwhile quoted central bank official Nasser Hakimi as saying nine Iranian banks are now reconnected to SWIFT, a Belgian-based cooperative that handles wire transfers between financial institutions. No foreign banks operate in Iran, and ATMs in Iran are not yet linked to the global system.

    SWIFT had no immediate comment.

    The historic agreement brought about the lifting of international sanctions last month after the U.N. certified that Iran has met all its commitments to curbing its nuclear activities under last summer’s accord.

    “These assets ($100 billion) have fully been released and we can use them,” Nobakht said in comments posted on the website of state-run Press TV. He said much of the money belongs to Iran’s central bank and National Development Fund. He said Iran will not bring all the money back because it can be spent on purchasing goods.

    Iran expects an economic breakthrough after the lifting of sanctions, which will allow it to access overseas assets and sell crude oil more freely.

    Mohsen Jalalpour, the head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, said on state TV Monday that Iranian businessmen are already able to open letters of credit for transactions in other countries.”

  13. Egyptian Christian Students Stand Trial for Insulting Islam (abcnews, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egyptian-christian-students-stand-trial-insulting-islam-36636328

    “Three Coptic Christian students face charges of insulting Islam and will stand trial this week after appearing in a video mocking Muslim prayers, one of a series of court cases that reflect lingering religious intolerance and Muslim-Christian tensions in Egypt.

    The students, all in high school, will stand trial on Thursday after their teacher was sentenced to three years in prison after a separate trial over the same charges of insulting Islam, according to lawyer Maher Naguib.

    The 30-second video, filmed by the teacher, showed the students pretending to pray with one kneeling on the floor while reciting Quranic verses and two others standing behind him and laughing. One waved his hand under a second’s neck in a sign of beheading.

    Naguib said the video came to light in April 2015, shortly after Islamic State militants in Libya beheaded dozens of Egyptian Christians. The video prompted calls by angry Muslims to evict the students and the teacher from their village. They were detained and the teacher and his family were ordered to leave the village after a meeting of the village elders.

    “The students couldn’t attend school and remained indoors to avoid insults, beating and harassment,” said Naguib, the lawyer. “This is all because of random and spontaneous action by some youngsters inside a bedroom and for only few seconds.”

    Christians make up approximately 10 percent of Egypt’s population. They have long complained of discrimination by the Muslim majority. Christians were among main supporters of the army chief-turned-president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi when he led the military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi amid mass protests against Morsi’s rule.

    The case comes at a time Egypt has witnessed a surge in blasphemy charges in recent months whereas el-Sissi has vowed to purge extremism and modernize Egypt’s religious discourse.”

  14. French ex-justice minister publishes scathing criticism of citizenship debate (france24, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.france24.com/en/20160201-france-former-justice-minister-taubira-publishes-criticism-citizenship-debate

    “France’s former justice minister Christiane Taubira has slammed a government proposal to strip citizenship from French-born dual nationals convicted of terrorism in a new book that will appear in stores on Tuesday.

    Written in secret, 40,000 copies of the text were printed in Spain before being shipped to France to avoid any leaks prior to its publication.

    Titled “Murmures à la jeunesse” (“Murmurings to youth”), the 96-page book is addressed directly to France’s youth, and is a scathing criticism of a government proposal to strip French-born dual nationals of citizenship if convicted of terrorism.

    The book’s release comes less than a week after Taubira resigned from the government over the measure, which was put forward by President François Hollande in the aftermath of the November 13 attacks in Paris. The National Assembly is due to debate the proposal, which would require a constitutional amendment, on Friday.

    In “Murmures à la jeunesse” Taubira describes the measure as “inefficient”, arguing that it will do little to dissuade would-be attackers.

    “Forfeiture of nationality: Perhaps it’s a lot of noise over nothing? Perhaps it would be more reasonable to let it go? I’m not sure of anything, other than that I never would have been able to find peace if I had put a gag order on my conscience,” she writes.

    She also questions the proposal’s symbolism, warning against its broader implications.

    “Let us dare say it: A country should be able to handle its own nationals. What would become of the world if every country deported birthright citizens who are considered undesirable? Should we imagine a landfill where they will all be put together?” she writes.

    Taubira goes on to argue that the proposal also sets a dangerous precedent that can be used to target anyone with dual citizenship.

    “[It’s] a threat: those who are obsessed by differences, maniacs of exclusion … will use it, and have already with their paranoid and conspiratorial comments, to pressure those who are perceived as a fifth column,” she writes, using an old term for a group of people who seek to undermine a nation.

    As justice minister, Taubira was supposed to be in charge of convincing members of parliament to vote for the constitutional amendments needed to turn the proposal into law.

    In addition to the citizenship debate, Taubira also discusses the challenges of tackling the threat of terrorism in more general terms in her text, which was written before her resignation from office.

    A veteran politician known for her oratory skills, Taubira was appointed justice minister by Hollande in 2012 after his election to the presidency. An advocate of equal rights, she has been credited with being the driving force behind the legalisation of same-sex marriage in France in 2013.”

  15. Her father shot her in the head, as an ‘honour killing’ (tribune, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://tribune.com.pk/story/1038008/her-father-shot-her-in-the-head-as-an-honour-killing/

    “Whether it wins or not, the Oscar nominee with the greatest impact — saving lives of perhaps thousands of girls — may be one you’ve never heard of.

    It stars not Leonardo DiCaprio but a real-life 19-year-old Pakistani woman named Saba Qaiser. Her odyssey began when she fell in love against her family’s wishes and ran off to marry her boyfriend. Hours after the marriage, her father and uncle sweet-talked her into their car and took her to a spot along a riverbank to murder her for her defiance — an “honour killing.”

    First they beat Saba, then her uncle held her as her own father pointed a pistol at her head and pulled the trigger. Blood spewed, Saba collapsed and her father and uncle packed her body into a large sack and threw it into the river to sink. They then drove away, thinking they had restored the family’s good name.

    Incredibly, Saba was unconscious but alive. She had jerked her head as the gun went off, and the bullet tore through the left side of her face but didn’t kill her. The river water revived her, and she clawed her way out of the sack and crawled onto land. She staggered toward a gasoline station, and someone called for help.

    About every 90 minutes, an honour killing unfolds somewhere in the world, usually in a Muslim country. Pakistan alone has more than 1,000 a year, and the killers often go unpunished…”

  16. Armed men attack residence of local journalist in Mazar-i-Sharif (khaama, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/armed-men-attack-residence-of-local-journalist-in-mazar-i-sharif-4536

    “A group of unidentified armed men attacked the residence of a local journalist in Mazar-e-Sharif, capital of Balkh province last night.

    They intruded into the house of Yahya Jawahari and severely beaten him.

    The intruders fled after damaging some stuff inside the house.

    Motive behind the attack is unknown.

    This comes as President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has issued orders to the security institutions to use every mean in protecting journalists.

    The Ruling was issued after a Taliban suicide bombing claimed the lives of eight journalists in capital Kabul and later an armed attack took the life of another journalist in eastern Nangarhar province.

    Haji Mohammad Zubair Khaksar who was working for the government-run Nangarhar Radio and Television network came under the attack of armed men while driving in his vehicle in Kharkarano Kala area of Surkh Road District on Friday night.”

  17. Ministry of Interior says Kabul suicide bombing left 10 killed, 20 wounded (khaama, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/breaking-news-heavy-explosion-on-border-police-hq-in-kabul-4536

    “A suicide blast rocked Kabul city around 01:45 PM (local time) on Monday.

    The blast took place in Dehmazang area where compounds of border and civil order police are located.

    Initial reports suggest that the suicide bomber was on foot who planned to get to the entrance of one of the police compounds but security forces fired on him after he was recognized.

    It is yet unknown whether the blast occurred as the result of the firing or the terrorist himself detonated his vest.

    Senior Deputy Interior Minister General Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said it left 10 people killed and 20 others wounded.

    “In the suicide attack that took place an hour before in Dehmazang square, 10 people have been reportedly martyred and 20 wounded. Most of the martyrs and wounded are civilians,” reads a post on the official twitter account of Gen. Salangi.

    No group has yet said it had sent the suicide bomber.

    However, Taliban carried out several explosions in Kabul city last month including a suicide bombing that claimed the lives of seven journalists.”

  18. NDS detains planners of terrorist attacks in Kandahar (khaama, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/nds-detains-planners-of-terrorist-attacks-in-kandahar-4537

    “The National Directorate of Security (NDS) – Afghanistan’s intelligence agency has arrested planners of terrorist attacks in southern Afghanistan.

    A statement released by NDS on Monday states that the 4-member group was busted in the jurisdiction of the capital city of Kandahar province.

    The terrorists are identified as Abdul Ghani S/O Abdul Baqi, Mohammad Zarif S/O Abdul Karim, Ezatullah S/O Musa Jan and Rahmatullah S/O Asadullah.

    According to the statement, the group has accepted involvement in a number of attacks.

    In a footage released by NDS, the detainees say they were assigned by Taliban for anti-government activities.

    NDS statements usually do not contact exact date of the achievement but they usually come after recent operations.”

  19. Germany hands out cartoon etiquette guides at swimming baths after dozens of women were groped by migrants (dailymail, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426142/Germany-hands-cartoon-etiquette-guides-swimming-baths-dozens-women-groped-migrants.html

    “German authorities have resorted to issuing cartoon leaflets in public swimming pools in an attempt to stop gangs of migrants groping women.

    In the wake of the sex assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve and a wave of reported cases of sexual harassment in swimming baths, officials have now created a special cartoon guide on appropriate etiquette.

    The illustrations feature German captions with subtitles in English and Arabic and warn migrants not to wear underwear instead of swimming trunks, harass women, or push them in the water.

    Some 20,000 leaflets in seven languages have been issued across refugee facilities and public pools and a second edition is already in the pipeline.

    A spokesman for Munich public services said the leaflets contained bathing rules and ‘intercultural subjects’, developed in cooperation with the equality office, the anti-discrimination office and the Centre for Intercultural Cooperation of the City of Munich.

    A spokesman added: ‘We had a number of incidents in swimming pools with migrants who could not swim and do not understand our language, written warnings, bans or instructions.

    ‘The principle of acceptance of women – no matter what clothes they’re wearing – was not be respected by all visitors, hence the explicit indication.

    ‘The multilingual information helps the staff communicate and is helping them in prevention work.’

    This comes after migrants were banned from a historic swimming bath in Germany after a gang of men were caught on camera masturbating in a hot tub and sexually assaulting women.

    Several other men were seen ’emptying their bowels’ in the children’s end of the main swimming pool at the Johannisbad baths in Zwickau, Saxony.

    Management at the historic baths are reportedly no longer allowing migrants into the facilities following the allegations while some local swimmers have stayed away after the incidents.

    In response to growing concerns, a leisure centre in Bornheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, became the first in Germany to ban migrants after a schoolgirl was sexually assaulted in a public swimming pool by Syrian teenagers…”

  20. Refugee crisis will cost Germany £38 BILLION by the end of 2017, new study claims (dailymail, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426354/Refugee-crisis-cost-Germany-38BILLION-end-2017-new-study-claims.html

    “A new study in Germany released on Monday puts the cost of the country’s refugee crisis at £38 billion – and rising.

    The German Economic Institute, which is based in Cologne, put together a projection for feeding, housing and educating the children of one million-plus migrants who have entered the country.

    Angela Merkel’s government is reported to already be dreaming up new ways of taxing people – in what is already one of the most heavily taxed countries in the world – to help foot the bill.

    If the Cologne experts are correct, the German finance ministry will have to seek new credit to pay for the migrants by the end of this year.

    ‘A critical review of expenditure is required to avoid new debt,’ wrote the study authors.

    The figures, which are estimates for this year and next,come at a worrying time for the government which is on the ropes following the mass sexual frenzy in Cologne on New Year’s Eve and fighting to restore the trust of voters expected to punish it in vital regional polls in March.

    Tensions remain high among many communities in Germany where migrants are housed and police have warned they fear rising levels of violence in the near future.

    Angela Merkel has been heavily criticized over her ‘open border’ policy, which resulted in 1.1million refugees and migrants entering Germany last year.

    When hundreds of thousands of migrants were arriving in the European Union last year on the shores of Italy and Greece, Germany made a bold decision: all refugees from the civil war in Syria would be welcome, regardless of where or how they entered the EU.

    The Chancellor said Germany was a rich country that could afford to do its part to take in some of the world’s most vulnerable people fleeing war.

    ‘If Europe fails on the question of refugees … then it won’t be the Europe we wish for,’ said Merkel in August.

    However, speaking at at an event in Mainz, near Frankfurt on January 11, Merkel admitted the European refugee crisis was ‘out of control’.

    She said: ‘Now all of a sudden we are facing the challenge that refugees are coming to Europe and we are vulnerable, as we see, because we do not yet have the order, the control, that we would like to have.’ “

  21. The lost generation: Desperate parents reveal hundreds of young men and women have left Kosovo to fight for ISIS in Syria (dailymail, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426369/The-lost-generation-Desperate-parents-reveal-hundreds-young-men-women-left-Kosovo-fight-ISIS-Syria.html

    “Hundreds of young Kosovar men and women are leaving their home country to join ISIS in Syria, leaving behind baffled parents.

    Kosovo parents have told how ‘a generation’ of their teenage daughters have been seduced by radical Islam, following their husbands to Syria and the terrorist organisation.

    Police say some 300 men and 36 women are known to have left the mainly Muslim country of just 1.8 million people to join ISIS – the highest per capita ratio in Europe, along with nearby Bosnia

    Experts say a small but growing number of young Kosovan women, some just in their teens, have joined the radical militant group in Syria and Iraq.

    Some follow husbands whose radical views they often share, but others have gone alone, or tried to, and very few have returned.

    One of the dozens of young women who left is Shqipe Ajdini, 32, but she is also one of the few who came back.

    Speaking to Balkan Insight, her father Iljaz Ajdini reveals that his daughter began wearing a burqa after marrying a man from a nearby village.

    ‘I don’t know what happened with this generation, with our children,’ he said.

    He says Shqipe left Gjilan, east Kosovo for Syria with her husband Sinan Muji, and their young daughter in 2014.

    Shqipe returned in June last year after her husband was killed in combat while fighting for ISIS in Syria.

    ‘I’m happy that my daughter is back, only because of my granddaughter. My daughter’s husband got what he deserved,’ Mr Ajdini said.

    Although over 90 percent of Kosovars identify as ethnic Albanian Muslims, the older generation grew up in socialist Yugoslavia and few were devout. The new constitution is strictly secular.

    After a conflict in the late 1990s the West largely supported Kosovan autonomy from Serbia and then independence in 2008, convincing many here that their closest allies were in Washington and Brussels.

    But all the while, Islamic groups have been gaining influence….”

  22. Immigration is causing serious social breakdown, blasts LEO MCKINSTRY (express, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/leo-mckinstry/639796/Immigration-causing-serious-social-breakdown

    “THE European Union’s vast experiment in open borders, free movement and cultural diversity has been tested to destruction.

    A sense of accelerating chaos now hangs over the continent. As the influx across the eastern Mediterranean grows to more than 3,000 new arrivals every day, on top of all the other waves of mass immigration, the very fabric of European civilisation is disintegrating. The traditional bonds of solidarity and shared identity are collapsing. In their place there are fully justified fears about terrorism, extremism, alien customs and savage misogyny.

    Although Britain is not part of the EU core we are going through the same social revolution as the rest of Europe. The annual rate of immigration to our country officially stands at 630,000 but even that astonishing figure is probably an underestimate given that no fewer than 917,000 National Insurance numbers were dished out to foreigners last year.

    Indeed, white British people are now the minority in many of our urban conurbations including Leicester, Slough and London where almost 60 per cent of births are to migrants. Yet even in the face of all this upheaval – for which no one has ever voted – the supporters of the EU and mass immigration refuse to admit the scale of their failure. Instead of abandoning their lethal ideology, they engage in propaganda to shore up their project.

    Deceit, scaremongering, sentimentality and distraction are their chosen weapons in their campaign to destroy the traditional social order. And they are not above exploiting children in support of their cause. They did so last August when the image of Syrian child Aylan Kurdi found dead on a Turkish beach was used with ruthless cynicism to galvanise public backing for the open floodgates in the name of compassion.

    Now, in the wake of mounting public anger over the string of sexual assaults perpetrated in Germany and Sweden by migrant gangs, it is no coincidence that the cheerleaders for revolution want to switch the focus of the media debate back towards children. Synthetic concern over unaccompanied minors is now deployed to airbrush the monstrous crimes of the predators and to manipulate the public into accepting ever greater numbers.

    But it is an appalling act of deception for, according to the United Nations, more than 70 per cent of these migrants to Europe are able-bodied young men. Nor are many of them genuine refugees. Only last week the EU Vice President Frans Timmermans admitted that 60 per cent of the influx is made up of economic migrants from North Africa. “These are people that you can assume have no reason to apply for refugee status,” he said.

    But this will not halt the emotional blackmail. So the pro-EU ideologues continually seek to portray migrants as victims of “people traffickers” but in truth the smugglers are a symptom, not the cause, of Europe’s self-inflicted crisis. They would not exist if millions were not so eager to reach our shores. Far more offensive is the fondness of the pro-immigration brigade for invoking a parallel between the policies of Nazi Germany towards the Jewish people and current treatment of migrants, as in the manufactured row over the red doors of asylum seekers’ homes in Middlesbrough.

    But this is a desperate moral perversion. The vast majority of migrants are not fleeing persecution at all. Moreover genuine refugees in Europe have been given accommodation, food and welfare, the very opposite of the terrible fate experienced by Jewish people under the Third Reich. Above all the grotesque irony of the open borders approach is that it has led to the import into Europe of a viciously anti-Semitic culture from the Arab world and Asia, which is why attacks in Europe have risen.

    In fact the pro-immigration brigade has no sense of morality at all. It is telling that they were far more noisily indignant last week about David Cameron’s mild phrase “a bunch of migrants” to describe the freeloaders at Calais than they ever were about the brutal sexual assaults in Germany. They ridiculously claim that the membership of the EU makes us “safe” when we can all see that removal of border controls by Brussels has brought jihadism, violent crime, gang warfare and social divisions into our midst.

    The menacing squalor of the migrant camps at Calais and the rioting at Dover on Saturday are twin symbols of the disorder that the EU has inflicted. Just as empty is the Europhiles’ claim that mass immigration has fuelled prosperity. “Free movement is hugely beneficial to our economy,” wrote Labour’s Andy Burnham, ignoring the reality that mass immigration has pushed down living standards and imposed a colossal burden on the civic infrastructure.

    The EU cannot undo the epic mess that it has made. Talk in Brussels about applying an “emergency brake” on migration is meaningless. The EU’s whole existence is predicated on the abolition of patriotism, frontiers, self-government and nationhood. In its drive to create a multicultural superstate it has left us defenceless against the migrant floodtide. Our only hope of escaping this meltdown is to vote for our exit.”

    • Dozens of Russian missiles, warplanes deployed at Latakia

      Satellite images divulged by Israeli Fisher Institute

      (ANSAmed) – TEL AVIV – Russia has deployed a large number of warplanes and missile batteries at Latakia in Syria, where Moscow is supporting the regime of Bashar al-Assad, according to a series of satellite photographs to be shown Tuesday by the Israeli Fisher Institute at a conference on space research at Herzlyia.

      The photos show S400 missile batteries alongside SA22 missile systems. There are also 30 warplanes on runways.

      The Fisher Institute for strategic studies in the air and in space explained in a statement that the photographs it analysed were taken some days ago by the Israeli satellite Eros, which is managed by Isi (ImageSat International).

      According to the director of the space research centre Tal Inbar, the S400 batteries are now operational and SA22 Pantsyr batteries have been installed next to them – a reinforcement of defence measures that the Institute speculates may have been arranged for fear of an eventual military escalation against Turkey.

      On the day the photos were taken Russian warplanes on the Latakia airport runways included 11 Sukhoi 24 jets, 10 Sukhoi 25s, seven Sukhoi 34s and four Sukhoi 30s while other aircraft based at the facility may have been elsewhere on mission, the Insitute said. The Institute added that Sukhoi 24 engines that seized up during repeated attacks in Syria are having new engines installed at the facility.

      http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2016/02/01/dozens-of-russian-missiles-warplanes-deployed-at-latakia_cbfa91f1-706a-49c6-a265-4972c8e8f30b.html
      =======================================================
      Satellite images show ‘Russian SU-24 jets getting new engines’ after intensive Syria flights

      Russian Air Force SU-24 jets have flown so intensively over Syria that they have needed to receive replacement engines, new satellite imagery of a Syrian airbase in Latakia, used to house Russian air assets, has shown.

      The images were made available by the ImageSat International (ISI) company, and taken on January 26 by the Israeli Eros observation satellite. They will be exhibited at a conference held on Tuesday at the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies in Herzliya.

      The images also show various components of the advanced S-400 and the smaller S-22 air defense systems set up by the Russians at the airbase to protect themselves.

      These include the S-400’s ‘Big Bird’ acquisition and battle management radar, and four S-400 interceptor missile launchers, as well as a radar under a camouflage net, according to the Fisher Institute.

      Tal Inbar, head of the Space Research Center at the Fisher institute, said the images show an expanded deployment by Russia in Syria.

      The images show “more than 30 Russian fighter jets parked at the air field, including 11 supersonic attack aircraft of the SU-24 type,” he said.

      The Syrian air force also flies such planes, and one was shot down by an Israeli Patriot battery in 2014. A Russian SU-24 was shot down last November by a Turkish F-16.

      Ten lighter SU-25 attack jets can be seen, as well as seven advanced attack SU-34 fighter jets, and SU-30 interception and attack aircraft, Inbar added.

      “Other planes apparently were on air operations at the time that the satellite took the photograph,” he said.

      “We can also see evidence for a large number of attack sorties, via the maintenance structures set up at the airfield, in which SU-24 jets can be seen getting replacement engines, following erosion caused by high levels of activity by the planes in the Syrian sector,” Inbar noted.

      “From the photographs, we can see that the Russians deployed and began to operate a battery of S-400 missiles, and next to that, they deployed an SA-22 missile System,” he said, noting that Iran has also purchased an SA-22 system.

      The air defense systems at Latakia “are designed to protect the Russian forces from attacks, and the S-400 appeared after the Turkish air force shot down a Russian jet in November,” leading to initial fears of an escalation, Inbar recalled.

      Eros satellites were built by Israel Aerospace Industries, and come equipped with Elbit Electo-Optics (Elbit) Systems cameras.

      ISI has purchased two Eros satellites, and ordered a third in 2015 with significantly more advanced cabapitlies. Images from Eros satellites are sold to civilian and defense clients around the world, including the Israel defense establishment.

      Tuesday’s conference at the Fisher Institute will examine space, and the future of humanity. Astronauts, heads of space agencies, and industry representatives from Israel and around the world are scheduled to attend.

      http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Satellite-images-show-Russian-SU-24-jets-getting-new-engines-after-intensive-Syria-flights-443502

      • Russia Beefs up Air Group in Syria With Advanced Fighters (abcnews, Feb 1, 2016)
        http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russia-beefs-air-group-syria-advanced-fighters-36642388

        “The Russian military has beefed up its air group in Syria with state-of-the art fighter jets amid tensions with Turkey.

        Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Monday that Su-35 fighters have been deployed to Hemeimeem air base in Syria.

        Konashenkov on Monday didn’t say how many Su-35s had been sent to Syria, but Russian media reports said there were four of them and state television showed them parked in Hemeimeem.

        Russian warplanes so far have flown about 6,000 missions since Moscow launched its air campaign four months ago.

        The Kremlin says its planes have struck the Islamic State group and other extremists, but the U.S. and its allies have accused Russia of also targeting moderate opposition groups.

        Russian air strikes have helped Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army win more ground in recent weeks. They have strengthened Assad’s hand just as Syrian peace talks have got underway in Geneva. The negotiations are intended to pave the way for a new constitution and new elections in a year and half.

        Konashenkov said Russian warplanes flew 468 combat missions last week alone.

        He said that all Russian strike aircraft are now being accompanied by Russian or Syrian fighter jets.

        Russia added fighter escorts after a Turkish fighter jet downed a Russian bomber at the border with Syria on Nov. 24. The Russian military has vowed to fend off any future threats to its warplanes with fighters and long-range air defense missiles at Hemeimeem.

        The downing of the Russian jet was the first time in more than half a century that a NATO member had shot down a Russian plane. The incident badly strained previously close ties between the two countries, with Moscow slamming Turkey with an array of economic sanctions.

        Turkey said another Russian warplane violated its airspace Friday, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Moscow that it would be forced to “endure the consequences” if its jets continue to violate Turkish airspace.

        Konashenkov on Monday denied the Turkish claim, adding that Ankara has failed to provide any proof. In his turn, he accused Turkey of using its artillery to shell villages in Syria near the border.”

  23. In Poconos, Turkish Cleric Faces Trial Back Home

    Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen is charged with plotting to overthrow Turkey’s government. Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, denies the allegation. He’s also stirred controversy in the US where supporters run a network of charter schools.

  24. Hungary anti-terror plan is ‘attack on human rights’: Amnesty

    Amnesty International on Monday slammed plans by the Hungarian government to introduce sweeping anti-terror laws including curfews and Internet restrictions, calling the proposal an “attack on human rights”.

    According to a draft leaked to the media last month, the cabinet of right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban wants to amend the constitution by creating a new category of emergency — “terror threat situation” — that if declared would enable it to issue decrees, suspend certain laws, and modify others.

    Among some 30 proposed changes are controls on the Internet, domestic deployment of the army, border closures, and the imposition of curfews in areas affected by a terrorist threat.

    Amnesty said the government proposal “devolves near absolute power on the executive”, which would lead to “a full frontal assault on human rights and the rule of law”, in a report released Monday.

    If adopted, the changes would have “profoundly negative consequences for human rights in Hungary”, the campaign group warned.

    The plans will be debated in parliament when lawmakers reconvene from February 15 following a winter break.

    After losing a parliamentary supermajority last year, Orban’s ruling right-wing Fidesz party needs the support of at least some opposition lawmakers to pass constitutional amendments.

    So far, however, talks between Fidesz and opposition parties have not led to compromise, and the draft will be proposed in its current form, a government official said last week.

    “The positions are very far from each other, hence further talks with the opposition are not expected,” State Secretary Bence Tuzson said in a television interview Friday.

    Last month, several hundred demonstrators protested in the capital, Budapest, against the plans.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/9/186489/World/International/Hungary-antiterror-plan-is-attack-on-human-rights-.aspx

  25. Saudi Man Faces 1,000 Lashes for Having Sex With Vacuum Cleaner

    Riyadh | Saudi police officers in the district of Al-Mansuriyya in the branch municipality of Al-Shifa have arrested a man accused of having sex with his vacuum cleaner, reports the Riyadh Daily.

    The man was caught in full action by his wife of 17 years before she reported her husband to authorities.

    “After 17 years of loyalty, this is how this miscreant treats me,” she told local reporters. “I feel used, I feel dirty,” she added.

    Capital punishment

    As adultery is a crime punishable by death in Islamic law, usually performed by stoning the person to death, experts believe the man’s condemnation is a light one.

    “Due to the peculiar nature of this case of adultery, in which the accused performed sex with a home appliance and not with an animal or a human being, the judge has decided to give him a lighter sentence than usual for this crime” admits legal expert and Middle East specialist, Hakim Ben Ali. “Two years in prison and 1,000 lashes is more than acceptable for the region,” he acknowledges.

    Pleading his innocence

    The man accused of adultery strongly maintained his innocence before the court.

    “We were unable to identify if the suspect performed any sexual act with his vacuum cleaner,” Saeed Saleh Trad, the spokesperson for Al-Shafi police, said. “He was arrested and is held in custody pending further investigations,” he told reporters.

    The case could be a first one for Saudi law as nothing in Islamic law is stated about sexual acts performed onto home appliances but the accusation still applies as an act of adultery, believe experts.

    http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/saudi-man-faces-1000-lashes-for-having-sex-with-vacuum-cleaner/

  26. DAILY MAIL – UK – Levi Bellfield is now a Muslim: Milly Dowler murderer is known as Yusuf Rahim after converting to Islam in move that grants him special privileges

    Triple killer has converted to Islam while being house in HMP Wakefield
    Muslim inmates get the benefit of better meals and more time out their cells
    Bellfield, 47, is serving two life terms for the murder of three young women
    Sister Ann-Marie Bellfield is convinced he killed two other London women
    The 47-year-old is now claiming that he is behind 25 unsolved crimes
    Nine forces are examining supposed jail cell admissions of murderer

    Triple killer Levi Bellfield has converted to Islam in prison – a move which grants him better meals, more time out of his cell and an excuse to withdraw from work and classes.

    Calling himself Yusuf Rahim, the warped murderer is now gorging on much sought-after vegetarian curries and is allowed to avoid his jail duties to attend prayer meetings instead.

    Prison bosses have seen a surge in Muslim inmates in recent years, with one in five of those serving sentences in Britain’s maximum security jails now following Islam.[…]

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3421973/Did-monster-kill-8-women-girls-Levi-Bellfield-linked-murders-Lin-Megan-Russell-multiple-rapes-death-childhood-sweetheart-string-jail-cell-admissions.html

  27. French Demolish Migrant Church, Mosque at Migrant Camp (abcnews, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/french-demolish-migrant-church-mosque-migrant-camp-36642269

    “After allowing believers one last chance to pray, French authorities demolished a makeshift church and mosque Monday as part of a security operation at a camp in Calais populated by thousands of migrants.

    Authorities are trying to re-establish order in the long-lawless camp, and Monday’s operation was the culmination of a two-week effort to clear a 100-meter security zone around the perimeter of the camp, a regional official said.

    The migrants and charity groups helping them were informed Jan. 19 of the pending demolition, the official said, adding that no one was hurt in the operation.

    However, the pastor of the church said authorities had told him the church was “safe” from destruction.

    The Rev. Teferi Shuremo clashed with police holding riot shields as excavation machines crushed the simple structure, leaving an empty muddy field beneath.

    “They are trying to destroy peace,” he told reporters, clinging to a huge wooden cross salvaged from the church.

    About 4,000 people from Syria, Sudan and other countries are estimated to be camped out in Calais as they try to reach Britain, some recently moving into new facilities but most still sleeping in what’s been called Europe’s biggest slum. The French government has come under fire for failing to provide basic care for the migrants, who have built their own shelters, schools, stores and places of worship.

    The regional official, who wasn’t authorized to be publicly named, said the mosque had already been abandoned and no one protested its being razed. He said migrants are free to construct new places of worship.

    Shuremo pledged to build another church. Asked where, he said, “I don’t know. God will give me help.”

    Before the mechanical shovels started their work, churchgoers held one last prayer, hand-in-hand, and worked with volunteer activists to clear the site.

    British volunteer Joshua Williams said activists have worked to protect some shelters from demolition, and salvage wiring and other useful material.

    “This is a church. This is a powerful symbol for these people,” he said in televised remarks.”

  28. Saudi Identifies Egyptian as 2nd Attacker at Shiite Mosque (abcnews, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/saudi-identifies-egyptian-2nd-attacker-shiite-mosque-36644329

    “Saudi authorities have identified an Egyptian national as the second attacker involved in a recent suicide bombing against a Shiite mosque.

    Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said in a statement Monday that the attacker, Talha Hesham Abdo, lived in the kingdom on a visitor visa since 2013.

    Abdo and a Saudi national identified a day earlier as 22-year-old Abdulrahman al-Tuwaijri both were wearing explosive belts. Abdo was wounded and detained after an exchange of gunfire with security forces outside the mosque.

    Al-Tuwaijri died when he detonated his device at the entrance of Imam Reda Mosque in al-Ahsa, killing four people and wounding another 33 during Friday prayers.

    No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamic State militants have targeted the kingdom’s minority Shiites in the past.”

  29. 10,000 Young Migrants Unaccounted for, EU Police Agency Says (abcnews, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/germany-migrants-integrate-face-benefit-cuts-36635058

    “Authorities dealing with Europe’s migrant crisis have lost track of about 10,000 unaccompanied children amid fears that organized crime gangs are beginning to exploit the vulnerable youngsters, a senior official at the European Union’s police agency said Monday.

    Europol Chief of Staff Brian Donald said that the figure “would be a conservative estimate across all the countries that are dealing with this migrant crisis” over the past 12-18 months.

    The revelation that so many youngsters are unaccounted for is the latest worrying development in the migrant crisis and underscores the risks faced by people fleeing conflict, poverty and persecution in the Middle East, Africa and Asia even once they have reached the apparent safety of Europe.

    Donald said the estimate of 10,000 missing was based on reports by law enforcement authorities, governments and non-governmental organizations.

    “They’re lost in the system,” he said of the minors. “I think our concern is that we know that there are people out there who will exploit minors. We know there are people who will take them and use them for their own purposes.”

    Sweden, a popular destination for migrants, already is aware of the problem.

    The Stockholm county government released a report last week citing Swedish Migration Agency statistics that said 1,900 of the 55,000 unaccompanied minors who have applied for asylum in Sweden in the past six years disappeared. The whereabouts of 1,250 of those is still unclear. About 88 percent of those who went missing are boys.

    “There is very little information about what happens after they disappear. These children are particularly vulnerable to being exploited in various ways,” the report said.

    Amir Hashemi-Nik of the Stockholm County Administration said some of those who disappear are believed to be in the grip of human-trafficking rings and end up in prostitution, begging or other criminal activities. some disappear simply because they don’t like the place where they have been assigned and decide to leave, others go when they approach their 18th birthday because they are worried it will be harder to get asylum.

    North African boys are particularly likely to go underground because, unlike Syrians or Afghans, they are unlikely to get asylum.

    “Many of them have lived on the streets in many other countries before coming to Sweden,” the report said. “Many of these children become involved in crime.”

    Last week Britain announced it would accept an unspecified number of refugee children, after charities and opposition politicians pressured the government to help the thousands of unaccompanied minors fleeing conflicts in Syria and elsewhere.

    The charity Save the Children has urged Britain to accept 3,000 children immediately. It estimates 26,000 minors arrived in Europe last year without adults, and are at risk from traffickers and sex abusers.

    The British government, however, says it will take children from refugee camps in the Middle East rather than those already in Europe. It also will provide more funding to the European Asylum Support Office to help Greece and Italy reunite migrants, including children, with family members already in Europe

    Europol analysts studying law enforcement details from across the 28-nation EU are concerned that they are beginning to see cross-pollination between people-smugglers and criminals who traffick and exploit humans.

    “That confirms our understanding of criminal organizations at the European level,” Donald said. “They are very adept at making changes to reflect the current situation. So if the market for them is changing then they will follow that market and at the moment the area of exploitation that’s largely available is the exploitation of migrants.”

    Of the 150,000 migrants and refugees rescued at sea and brought to Italy in 2015, accompanied minors accounted for 12,360, according to the UNHCR office in Rome.

    UNHCR official spokeswoman Carlotta Sami said there is no firm figure on just how many of those have slipped away or might have been exploited.

    “More than disappeared, they are on the move,” often trying to reach relatives or other contacts in northern Europe, not wanting to stay in Italy, Sami said. “There is no certainty where they are” or if they ever reached their destination.

    Save the Children Italy spokesman Michele Prosperi said that Europol, “sounded an alarm that is based on a real risk” because thousands of minors don’t stay within the system of migrant protection.

    “They find themselves in a very vulnerable condition, and can be subject to violence or pressure,” Prosperi said. They look at the traffickers not as a threat but as people who are trying to help them finish their journey, he added, and are very reluctant to tell anything about their treatment to aid workers or officials in Italy for fear that their plans to continue onward will be jeopardized.”

  30. Saudi Government Website Shows 9 US Nationals Arrested (abcnews, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/saudi-government-website-shows-us-nationals-arrested-36642622

    “Nine Americans are currently imprisoned in Saudi jails, with eight detained in the past three months, according to a website belonging to Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry.

    The state-linked newspaper al-Watan reported Saturday that the eight recently detained Americans are being investigated for terrorism-related crimes.

    The detainee list shows four Americans were arrested in November and December of 2015 and another four Americans were detained on Jan. 25. It says the eight are being investigated, but does not provide details about their alleged crimes or where they are being held in the kingdom.

    The names, ages, genders and other personal details of the U.S. detainees were also not listed, however the website shows one U.S. citizen was arrested in March 2007 and convicted and has the right to appeal, though the details of the case are not provided.

    The latest update to the official list, which includes 5,158 detainees who are mostly Saudi nationals, was made on Monday. The list of detainees is posted on the Interior Ministry’s Nafetah website, which helps relatives communicate with detainees.

    It shows that five of the Americans were in Saudi Arabia on resident visas, According to the prisons’ website, three others are listed only as U.S. passport holders, suggesting they could be dual-nationals or were visiting the kingdom at the time of their arrest.

    U.S. State Department officials say they are looking into reports of the arrests.”

  31. CBC – Edmonton Muslim teen says she forgives shop owner who kicked her out

    A Muslim teenager who says she was kicked out of a northeast Edmonton shoe repair shop when wearing a burka […]

    […]Ghalab said her friend was very upset and told her to complain to the mall’s management. Instead, the psychology student decided to write the owner a letter describing how wearing a burka is her way of honouring her ancestors and expressing pride in being Muslim.

    She provided a copy of this letter to CBC.

    […]Our dress is not because we want to seem mysterious or any of this childish play. But it is because this is our identity, our self empowerment, our self expression of who we are.

    […]Ghalab tried to deliver the letter, along with a bouquet of flowers, to the store owner Saturday afternoon. When she arrived at the store, the same man turned her away a second time and escorted her out of the store. He refused to take the letter and the flowers.[…]

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-muslim-teen-says-she-forgives-shop-owner-who-kicked-her-out-1.3427399

  32. Migrant centre banned from holding memorial to Swedish social worker ‘stabbed to death by Somali boy, 15’ in case it upsets refugee children

    Staff at asylum centre banned from holding memorial for murdered woman

    Social workers in Örnsköldsvik also told not to fly flag at half mast

    Council said decision to ban was to secure the well being of the children

    Alexandra Mezher, 22, was stabbed to death in Molndal last Monday

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426793/Migrant-centre-banned-holding-memorial-Swedish-social-worker-stabbed-death-Somali-boy-15-case-upsets-refugee-children.html

  33. Egyptian Christian students stand trial for insulting Islam

    CAIRO (AP) — Three Coptic Christian students face charges of insulting Islam and will stand trial this week after appearing in a video mocking Muslim prayers, one of a series of court cases that reflect lingering religious intolerance and Muslim-Christian tensions in Egypt.

    The students, all in high school, will stand trial on Thursday after their teacher was sentenced to three years in prison after a separate trial over the same charges of insulting Islam, according to lawyer Maher Naguib.

    The 30-second video, filmed by the teacher, showed the students pretending to pray with one kneeling on the floor while reciting Quranic verses and two others standing behind him and laughing. One waved his hand under a second’s neck in a sign of beheading.

    Naguib said the video came to light in April 2015, shortly after Islamic State militants in Libya beheaded dozens of Egyptian Christians. The video prompted calls by angry Muslims to evict the students and the teacher from their village. They were detained and the teacher and his family were ordered to leave the village after a meeting of the village elders.

    “The students couldn’t attend school and remained indoors to avoid insults, beating and harassment,” said Naguib, the lawyer. “This is all because of random and spontaneous action by some youngsters inside a bedroom and for only few seconds.”

    Christians make up approximately 10 percent of Egypt’s population. They have long complained of discrimination by the Muslim majority. Christians were among main supporters of the army chief-turned-president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi when he led the military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi amid mass protests against Morsi’s rule.

    The case comes at a time Egypt has witnessed a surge in blasphemy charges in recent months whereas el-Sissi has vowed to purge extremism and modernize Egypt’s religious discourse.

    http://news.yahoo.com/egyptian-christian-students-stand-trial-insulting-islam-124025143.html

    • Kill ’em.
      Just too stupid. Don’t pass stupid genes down. Copts need to have their wits about them if they’re gonna make it for another thousand years or so.

  34. Shocking footage claims to show a group of migrant men ‘attacking two pensioners who stood up for a woman they were harassing on the Munich subway’

    Video is said to have been recorded in the middle of the day on busy Metro

    Filmed moments after German woman spurned asylum seeker’s advances

    Claims to catch the moment ‘Arab’ men grapple with elderly commuters

    One bald man can be seen held by the arms while another grabbed by neck

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426947/Shocking-footage-claims-group-migrant-men-attacking-two-pensioners-stood-woman-harassing-Munich-subway.html

  35. German Govt. to Spend 600 Million Euros Housing Migrants in Berlin Hotels

    Berlin’s 10,000 homeless population to remain on the streets

    The German government is set to spend €600 million euros housing migrants in upmarket Berlin hotels at a cost of 18,000 per “refugee,” while the city’s 10,000 homeless population will remain on the streets.

    According to a Frankfurter Allgemeine report, “The Berlin Senate is negotiating with a hotel chain over the longer-term leasing of 10,000 hotel places for refugees.” Grand City Hotels will provide 22 hotels which will include Holiday Inn and Wyndham properties.

    The 10,000 figure is noteworthy given that it equates to the homeless population of Berlin.

    The cost for each migrant will be €50 euros a night for the hotel accommodation or €18,000 euros per year and will include an “all inclusive” program of care and integration.

    “Since the Senate has reportedly interested in a multi-year term of the lease, it would amount to a volume of at least €600 million euros,” a source told the newspaper. A Senate spokesperson expressed surprise that Frankfurter Allgemeine had uncovered details of the secret plan, remarking, “That’s not public.”

    The deal is attractive to the hotel chain because the government would guarantee an occupancy rate of 95% compared to the usual figure of 60 to 65 per cent.

    80,000 asylum seekers arrived in Berlin alone last year, part of the 1.1 million that flooded into Germany, a figure eight times Berlin’s homeless population.

    In other words, Berlin could have completely solved its homeless problem eight times over yet will instead use taxpayer money to fund accommodation for non-Germans flooding in from the Middle East and north Africa.

    Critics allege that the deal is wide open to corruption and abuse because it was conducted secretly via no-bid contracts.

    Authorities in Berlin have already confiscated 50 gymnasiums as well as office and bank buildings to house migrants arriving in the city.

    The issue is only likely to increase public opposition to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open border policy. During demonstrations in Neubrandenburg, protesters jeered and booed Merkel.

    http://www.infowars.com/german-govt-to-spend-e600-million-housing-migrants-in-berlin-hotels/

    ======================================
    in German :

    18.000 Euro je Flüchtlingsbett in Berlin?

    Der Senat verhandelt nach Informationen der F.A.Z. mit einer Investorengruppe über die mehrjährige Anmietung von 22 Hotels in der Hauptstadt. Gesamtvolumen des Asyl-Mietvertrags: 600 Millionen Euro.

    Der Berliner Senat verhandelt mit einer Hotelkette über die längerfristige Anmietung von 10.000 Hotelplätzen für Flüchtlinge. Es geht um 22 Hotels der Gesellschaft Grand City Hotels (GCH), wie die F.A.Z. aus Kreisen der Senatskanzlei erfuhr. Für die GCH verhandelt die in London ansässige Hampton Holding Ltd. Nach Informationen der F.A.Z. verlangt der Anbieter je Platz und Nacht eine Miete von 50 Euro, also etwa 1500 Euro im Monat und 18.000 Euro jährlich. Auch ein „All inclusive“-Programm für die Betreuung und Integration werde angeboten.[…]

    http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/anmietung-von-hotels-18-000-euro-je-fluechtlingsbett-in-berlin-14046685.html

  36. Zika virus declared WORLDWIDE public health emergency by WHO (express, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/640123/Zika-virus-worldwide-health-emergency-World-Health-Organization

    “THE Zika virus has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) this evening.

    Officials said the Zika outbreak should be considered a “public health emegency of international concern.”

    It comes as the WHO warned last week the virus was “spreading explosively.”

    The United Nations (UN) health agency estimates that as many as four million people could be infected with the virus this year.

    The WHO is under pressure to react quickly to the Zika virus, after being criticised for its slow response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa last year.

    Following a meeting of an International Health Regulations Emergency Committee, WHO Director General Dr Margaret Chan said: “Members of the committee agree that the situation meets the conditions for a public health emergency of international concern.”

    Dr Chan added: “I have accepted this advice. I am now declaring that the recent cluster of microcephaly and other neurological abnormalities reported in Latin America, following a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014, constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.

    “At present the most important protective measures are the control of mosquito populations and the prevention of mosquito bites in at-risk individuals – especially pregnant women.”

    The first case of Zika in South America was reported in Brazil in May 2015.

    Since then, between 500,000 and 1.5million people have been infected with the virus.

    Zika has now spread to 20 countries in the Americas.

    The spread of the virus has been linked to the huge rise in the number of babies born with microcephaly. The condition causes babies to be born with abnormaly small heads.

    The link between the Zika virus, which goes undected in most people, and microcephaly in babies is still to be confirmed, but Dr Margaret Chan said it is “strongly suspected” and “deeply alarming.”

    On Monday, Brazil’s Health Minister said the Zika crisis was worse than previously thought.

    Marcelo Castro said the outbreak was proving hard to combat because most cases show no symptoms.

    He said: “Eighty percent of the people infected by Zika do not develop significant symptoms. A large number of people have the virus with no symptoms, so the situation is more serious that we can imagine.”

    Mr Castro said improved testing will help Brazilian health officials have a better understanding of Zika and that by next week labs in most states will be adequately equipped to test for the virus.”

  37. ISIS vs SAS: Elite Brit troops TRICK jihadis into desert death trap with DUMMIES (express, Feb 1, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/639728/ISIS-vs-SAS-Elite-Brit-troops-TRICK-jihadis-into-desert-death-trap-with-DUMMIES

    “ELITE SAS troops are slaughtering gullible Islamic State (ISIS) militants by setting traps for them with DUMMIES.

    British soldiers deployed to fight the terror group, also known as Daesh, have been using fake soldiers to lure the fighters out into the open.

    The troopers set up convincing-looking dolls designed to look like Kurdish fighters from a distance.

    But when the jihadi horde descends, coalition troops can open fire – or call in targeted air strikes.

    The British Army has not deployed en-masse to Iraq or Syria – but elite SAS troops are known to be conducting operations behind enemy lines.

    The tactic was used as recently as last week in Dayr az Zawr in Syria, according to a report in the Daily Star Sunday.

    The sneaky move involves dressing the soldiers up in uniform, posing them convincingly and arming them with real weapons.

    ISIS scouts and local contacts take the bait and inform their allies, who then move in for the kill.

    In one single incident where 12 jihadis took the bait, and were gunned down by SAS snipers

    Another time so many ISIS fighters arrived that the SAS decided not to engage directly – and called in an airstrike instead.

    It allows the British forces to strike at their leisure, and keeps the carnage away from civilians.

    Previously troops have struggled to pin down ISIS troops, who have a habit of fleeing in tunnels and sewer pipes….”

    • During WWII the Brits and the Yanks used dummy soldiers, tanks and other equipment to make the Germans think there were more soldiers then really existed. The SAS is just following that tradition.

  38. Germany: Cologne increases security for carnival after NYE assaults

    Following the string of sexual assaults that took place in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, the city’s mayor Henriette Reker and newly appointed police chief Juergen Mathies announced that special security measures were to be implemented for the annual carnival during a press conference in Cologne, Monday.

    SOT, Henriette Reker, Mayor of Cologne (German): “Cologne… I mean we all, sitting here today, consider the accident in Cologne on the New Year’s Eve as a very serious matter. These crimes and especially sexual assaults against girls and women, which also happened in other cities of Germany, have caused a great uncertainty. We all share the common opinion that such accidents, which happened on the New Year’s Eve, must be prevented in Cologne and other cities.”

    SOT, Henriette Reker, Mayor of Cologne (German): “The feeling of safety is very, very important. And we have done everything in order all people can have this feeling here in Cologne. However, everyone of us should remember that it is impossible to provide a 100 percent guarantee.”

    SOT, Juergen Mathies, Cologne Police Chief (German): “Last year, around 50 sexual complaints were filed, which occurred in the period between Weiberfastnacht and Rosenmontag. Secondly, some sexual assaults and sexual harassments were to be classified as criminal acts. That means that we cannot exclude that such crimes can happen this year, we have to understand this.”

    SOT, Juergen Mathies, Cologne Police Chief (German): “Dear ladies and gentlemen, all people take responsibility for themselves. Those who take part in big carnivals, events, where others drink alcohol, cannot be provided with the 100 percent security.”

  39. Sweden defends plan to deport tens of thousands of migrants

    Sweden’s Interior Minister Anders Ygeman defended government plans announced on Wednesday to deport up to 80,000 people whose asylum applications are set to be rejected, around half of the 163,000 asylum requests they received in 2015.

  40. Germany – Migrants sexually harass German School Girls – Mayor dismisses Grandfather: “Don’t provoke them”

    Last Thursday a worried grandfather voiced his concerns about the increasing incidents of sexual harassment of young girls on their way to school by migrants in a meeting in the German town of Bad Schlema. His own granddaughter has been victim of sexual harassment and he fears it will be much worse when girls will wear less clothing in the summer or dress for physical education. The mayor’s reply angered the over 100 citizens who were present: “It’s simple, don’t provoke them and don’t walk in these areas.”

    The crowd went furious, some mocked the absurdity of not being able to walk to school in your own town, some demanded he step down immediately. Later the situation escalated and the Mayor threatened to call the police and clear the room because of incitement of hatred (sources below).

    He said it’s “technically not necessary to walk near the refugee shelters, there are alternative routes.”

    Later the citizens went on how government actions leave them no other choice than drift off to the Right political spectrum. In many cases the so-called “refugees” receive more benefits, better housing and more legal protection than natives. They also face very little legal consequences for sexual harassment, theft and vandalism. Because of the refugee crisis, Germany’s new Right Wing Party “Alternative for Germany” went from under 4% to 12.5% in latest polls.

    In Islam, any woman not wearing a headscarf or not dressing modestly is considered “fair game” and is therefore free to rape. The number of rapes has increased dramatically ever since Germany has opened the flood gates to millions of young Muslim men. Police are instructed to cover up the nationality of rapists – this tower of lies collapsed after the huge scale gang sex attacks in Cologne with over 500 women being attacked simultaneously.

    More and more reports emerge of “refugee” gang rapes of children as young as 3. Just a few months ago a 7 year old girl was brutally raped on a playground in Chemnitz in broad daylight by an African “refugee”.

  41. US Senator: Stop Arms Sales to Saudi Until They Fight ISIS

    Senator Chris Murphy called out Saudi Arabia for funding extremist ideologies internationally through its support of madrassas.

    A Democratic senator called on the U.S. to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia until assurances are given that the Gulf kingdom is tackling ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

    Senator Chris Murphy (D-NY) excoriated the “tsunami of money” used by Saudi Arabia to “export intolerance” worldwide. He identified madrassas in Pakistan as being the best example of how Saudi Arabia is funding extremism worldwide.

    “In 1956, there were 244 madrassas in Pakistan,” he told the Council on Foreign Relations. “Today, there are 24,000. These schools are multiplying all over the globe. These schools, by and large, don’t teach violence. They aren’t the minor leagues for al-Qaeda or ISIS. But they do teach a version of Islam that leads very nicely into an anti-Shia, anti-Western militancy.”

    Saudi Arabia is thought to have spent $100 billion on funding global Wahhabism, the core ideology believed by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, as well as being the official state doctrine of Saudi Arabia.

    “Those 24,000 religious schools in Pakistan thousands of them are funded with money that originates in Saudi Arabia” Murphy added.

    “The uncomfortable truth is for all the positive aspects of our alliance with Saudi Arabia, there is another side to Saudi Arabia that we can no longer afford to ignore as our fight against Islamic extremism becomes more focused and more complicated.”

    http://www.clarionproject.org/news/us-senator-decries-arms-sales-saudi-arabia

    video ( 60 min )

  42. Pentagon chief to unveil mini-drones, anti-IS funds: officials

    US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter will on Tuesday preview the Pentagon’s plans for its 2017 budget, including extra cash to fight the Islamic State group, previously secret mini-drones and a beefed-up US presence in Europe’s east.

    The base budget for fiscal year 2017 is expected to be $524 billion, augmented by $59 billion for an “overseas contingency fund” to pay for ongoing military actions in Afghanistan and against IS, defense officials told AFP on Monday.

    America’s gargantuan military budget far surpasses that of any other country, and exceeds the combined defense spending of the next eight biggest militaries in the world.

    In a speech in Washington, Carter will highlight the world’s changing “threat environment,” one official said, including new risks presented by Russia since its 2014 annexation of Crimea and its subsequent support of pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.

    The official said Carter would announce big increases to the so-called European Reassurance Initiative aimed at countering a Russian threat, and the extra money will be used to pay for significant US troop and equipment increases in countries such as Estonia and Romania.

    Carter also plans to unveil some newly declassified technologies, including a small drone that is capable of flying alongside other units in a sort of swarm, another defense official said.

    The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss Carter’s speech ahead of time.

    A third official said the budget includes $7 billion to fight Islamic State jihadists, an increase of about 35 percent over last year.

    The burgeoning anti-IS budget reflects an expected expansion in the fight against the jihadist group, including in areas beyond Iraq and Syria, like Libya.

    The budget is also likely to detail Pentagon plans for the A-10 ground attack plane. The aircraft, developed in the 1970s, had been slated for retirement but has become invaluable in the US-led effort against IS jihadists.

    A delay in its retirement could have knock-on effects for other cash-thirsty projects, including the costly F-35 fighter.

    Carter is due to give his speech early Tuesday. The full Pentagon budget will be made public next week.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3427371/Pentagon-chief-unveil-mini-drones-anti-IS-funds-officials.html

  43. BBC – Instagram imams are unlikely online hit

    […]an Instagram account that posts pictures of Islamic scholars in everyday situations has become a social media success in Iran and has more than 12,000 followers.

    The page is called “Talabeh Today” – a Talabeh being a seminary student who pursues religious studies and who is supposed to adopt a simple devotional lifestyle.

    It was started by an Iranian seminary student called Masoud Zareian, from the northeastern city of Mashhad, in an attempt to improve the image of conservative clergy and highlight their relevance to contemporary life. […]

    http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35439946

    ================================================

    https://www.instagram.com/talabetoday/

  44. Germany: 3 children injured after being pushed [ by their father ] through windows of refugee shelter

    • Drei Kinder aus Fenster in Flüchtlingsunterkunft geworfen

      In Lohmar sollen am Montag drei Kinder aus dem Fenster einer Flüchtlingsunterkunft geworfen worden sein, der Vater wurde unter Verdacht festgenommen. Schwer verletzt wurden die Kinder mit einem Hubschrauber ins Krankenhaus gebracht.

      […]Der Vater der drei Kinder könnte ihnen das angetan, sie aus den Fenstern im ersten Stock gestoßen oder geworfen haben. Der 35-Jährige aus Syrien wurde Montag von Polizeibeamten noch vor Ort festgenommen, gegen ihn wird wegen eines versuchten Tötungsdeliktes ermittelt. Der Mann habe bei seiner Festnahme keinerlei Widerstand geleistet, erklärte Polizeisprecher Stefan Birk.

      Die schwerst verletzten Siebenjährige und der Fünfjährige wurden mit dem Rettungshubschrauber in Spezialkliniken nach Bonn und Köln-Merheim geflogen. Der einjährige Bruder kam, begleitet durch die Mutter, vorsichtshalber zur Untersuchung in eine Kinderklinik.

      http://www.ksta.de/lohmar/-drei-fluechtlingskinder-aus-sote-fenster-geworfen,15189212,33691658.html
      ======================================================

      http://www.bild.de/regional/koeln/fluechtlingsheim/kinder-aus-fenster-von-heim-geworfen-44394026.bild.html