News links submitted by readers for Aug. 29 – 2015

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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

61 Replies to “News links submitted by readers for Aug. 29 – 2015”

  1. @ Eeyore: I just LOVE your new banners – wonderful pics.

    @ Everyone:

    Hey, Have you seen this lovely Silver Cross of St. James Matamoros on the right of this blog?

    It’s smaller than it appears there a true little “jewel”, and it allows you to be a very discreet “fighter for the counter jihad”, it just looks lovely lovely lovely. Why do I know this? Because I bought one and am wearing it 🙂 People comment and – depending what “kind of people” they are I either tell them the half truth, or the whole truth.

    I also think it might help our VladTepes Blog a little (financially and morally) if you buy as many as you can afford – Christmas is coming up, and before that the Jewish New Year (I think), and then the retirement of Hillary Clinton, and then – who knows – the elopement of Obama with Adolf Erdogan.. …..so many potential occasions to celebrate !

    • Hi Rita,

      I have listened to using the symbol of the Arabic word for “Christian” daubed on doors by Muslims throughout the Middle East and argued such unvigillant pacifists were the engineers of their own plight that to rescue them would directly cause another Mohammad to walk among them. And here, a plowshare turned into a sword.

      Passive or aggressive.

      You already hold the central ground. Why then take these paths to the left or right?

      This all it takes:
      you don’t have to win, just don’t lose. You don’t have to fix it, it if it isn’t broken.

      Every convert has declared that they gave up their once unhappy life for secure one.
      These are not economic refugees that spread today’s famine but those that for thousands of years have spread spiritual poverty.

      Communists and Muslims can only control Socialism and Islam if they maintain a huge army to enforce their draconian laws of peace onto their populations.

      You need no laws to restrain sane people because they believe in the individual conscience and therefore do unto others they would have done to themselves. To be like branches, interested in sheltering the emerging souls of others.

      The American Constitution is a Republic of free citizens, a union of states, not a dagger of The Christ against Royalty and Serfdom. Don’t tread on me is the motto. That is all.

      The finest Briton I know of is Tommy Robinson – and he led a defensive organization and then watched it crumble into corruption.

      We need not temp or invite by symbols of resistance or aggression, those who are paranoid psychotics to give licence to hurt the innocents trapped by birth and circumstance within islam. We offer, by reason, a better and more rewarding life: The pursuit of Happiness over the productivity quotas of Socialism and the
      submissions of islam.

      All we need to do is stand by values of decency. If we neglect or relinquish those, we lose everything.

      We are feared because we are conscious. 30 million dead Russians and Chinese under Communism and millions of dead heros in lost civilizations under Muhammadism are a testament to the dumbing down of humans.

      Meanwhile, as your back was turned:

      “The University of Tennessee has told its staff and students to stop calling each other ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘him’ and ‘her’ – and to start referring to one another with terms like ‘xe’, ‘zir’ and ‘xyr’ instead.

      The Knoxville branch of the public university, which has 27,400 students, sent a memo round to its members filled with unusual new parts of speech to avoid referring to anybody’s gender.

      According to a gay rights official at the university, the new language regime will make the university ‘welcoming and inclusive’ and stop people feeling ‘marginalized’.”

    • So, would I wear a broach of a scimitar colored in with rainbow strips to declare my resistance to those who have declared their submission to sexual fixations? And would I make myself so compromised that I have to tell half-truths about it?

      No. I just don’t get drawn into their chaos and destructive dalliances. I don’t resist evil for they will disease themselves quite miserably.

      Western governments want their employees to positively advance Common Purpose ideals through fear, until all they will have is superficial dimwits mismanaging everything to ruin and the dimwit-makers are king.

      It is this world of corrupted children and imported savages therefore, that we have to plan for, for even now a communist is being groomed for Savior and a baby muhammad for Messiah.

      Pre-Roman christians used the sign of the fish and not placed onto themselves but daubed discreetly on walls. These gatherers of unblemished souls. This work has never changed.

      Heaven and Earth may be gone, so that all that remains is the sick version of Islam’s paradise and the perversion of socialist society, but Socrates’ enlightenment of reason which gave us Jesus, is the responsibility of ours today.

      • St. James is a significant figure in Spanish folkloric history and a powerful symbol of resistance to islamic conquest. I get that you don’t like it. And it was obvious you would. And perhaps someday I can live up to your moral standard. But for the moment there is this question of existentialism. Perhaps if people can come to realize that all that has been built on the shoulders of the Greeks is in danger of permanent extinction and that life may well go from one of unparalleled freedom and peace to islamic and or communist totalitarianism and fight back, after that I will study at your feet master.

        • Eyoor I can handle a Hitchslap, by rejoycing in what I couldn’t first witness because it was so darn plain to see, (like choosing the cup of the Holy Grail – and pointing to the simplest of hewn goblets – and the host shakes her head and reveals how to cup your own hands to drink), and I get bitchslapped as guru-master instead!

          Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.

          Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body. (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
          https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+7%3A+14-19&version=NIV

          This characterization of Jesus, of the wholesome, insightful, unoffended Jew able to live in a pluralistic, civilized society is exactly the same Mardhi for muslims.

          So hopefully the new Muhammad movie will portray the best of all men as kind, tolerant and forever forgiving – and not the Imams’ killer for the last fourteen hundred years that pressurized the raw nerve of paranoid psychosis.

          Taking the thorn out of their side, from St Paul to the rent-boy sex worker, of the blinding pain that makes them consume off the dead for a sense of life, is all that is needed. The unadorned truth about yourself will set you free.

          You can’t be ‘counter-them’ or else you will become worse than them with more reaching repressive laws. Allah is Greater is this pride of the inferior. Anti-Fascist groups are the new Nazis.

          Now of course there is a point beyond reason, where mass hysteria leads to violence. Muslims and socialists have shown this ‘critical mass’ of humanity for entitlement to steal, murder and rape non-submitters to be 40%. Therefore, at this point forget about psychobabble, remove those emblems, and run for the hills. Those Jesus-stories never happened. There is no King Arthur. He would be dead when getting out of the starting gate in Judah. This blog could not have been created in Pakistan, the Bible was written in Greek, and hate-blogs that open the mind to evidence may soon no longer be tolerated within the compound of the Socialist Protectorate.

          The Christianity in Mark’s Gospel – without virgin birth or ressurection – might have once been a desperate collection of wisdom teachings to prevent an impending genocidal war that all but wiped out the Jews, but in the ruling hands of the demon-driven uneducated illiterate Roman slaves submitting to a panthion of Gods, this was one temptation too good not to myth.

          To educate of the five wise men of How What, When, Why and Who, is preferable to a nation of Chattled Unoffenders indoctrinated to fear and serve the hell of blind outrage and the call, “My Group is Preferential!”

          • The Communists are going to do the same to the Muslims, and we will become a pantheon of sex-serving identity-worshipping slaves.

          • As usual, and I would expect no less, brilliant. The problem I have is where theory overlaps reality. Where an ethical code which is a good, noble and rational one leads to self destruction because it doesn’t take into account the necessary adjustments to cope with a changing reality.

            The War Measures Act in Canada, now defunct sadly, allowed a government to temporarily remove many rights from citizens in order to cope with a threat which would use those rights to achieve the total defeat of Canada as an idea. I view the current threat to classical civilization to be so severe that the cost of not falling to it, let alone defeating it, may be so high that some British TV station could launch a 24/7 debate show on the question of whether or not it was too high. And I bet some day soon, they will if indeed that isn’t the meta-message of the BBC already.

            We will need new ideas and we will need to reclaim some old ones and we will need to make sacrifices. Big ones. And why?

            Read the page called, ‘The Agenda and Views of this Site’ again please and explain to me how its a hate site. The fact that reading evidence and rational analysis of that evidence leads to bad feelings toward the genocidal, indeed ‘historico-cidal’ and even ‘civilization-o-cidal’ ideology that threatens us, makes this site a window. Just one not typically open for public gazing. And the purpose of this site was initially to offer the information to the public in time to make a few brief legislative and perhaps cultural changes so that nothing awful needed to be done. Have we passed the point where that was possible?

            Rather than answer that I might concede that my initial premise was not so much naive as under-informed. The plans by groups like the OIC and the Muslim Brotherhood etc. etc. where massive in scale and deliberate in purpose. Its likely that the point which appears to be on the horizon, 2016 if Maj. Coughlin’s analysis is correct, was inevitable although our refusal to identify the enemy ideology and strategy will cost us.

            I hope I understood your comment well enough that this is a sort of answer. Either way I hope it offers clarity. But the “Bitch-Slap as guru” was very funny.

            • Eeyor: “…an ethical code which is a good, noble and rational one leads to self destruction because it doesn’t take into account the necessary adjustments to cope with a changing reality.”

              This would only be true of monotheism: for example Hinduism-scriptures for the right-brain delivering directly the shot of reassurance through insurance or Buddhism-scriptures for the left-brain right-path guidance that it should fear no evil. For it to work one culture breeds males with the same body-frame as females and the other with edicts of “quiet woman!” The neglect of their opposite hemispheres then brings them (and the opposite gender that crosses over to become them), to the feeling of unconflicted happiness to be alone in a ditch among the stars or huddled with look-alikes and sound-alikes.

              But what if you could simultaneously exist in both worlds so as to not belong to either, to be knowing and unknowning observer?
              Wouldn’t that upset our prophets, overseers and each and every disciple of new identities imaginable?

              Hatred by the world is thus to be expected! To cut off their imaginings an offence.

              China, Russia and India fell because they were feudal systems that championed the stupidity in the masses.

              The dumbing down of The West today is to disarm our children of deploying their two brains.

              I contend it is damaging to draw any pleasure or comfort from a piece of metal, the crutch is no protection, as much as it will attract a smiling predator or provoke the opposite from those that see a clenched fist. Muslims are not our enemies – their mind-control is.

              On the internet this cordiality of distinction is safe behind firewalls and anonymity. In the real world there are enough hadiths to say be very, very careful not to draw attention to yourself.

              Monitoring and surveillance became tolerated once immigration was unrestricted and the populations feared for their safety –
              the beginning of wisdomless.
              The enemy desiring a clear way, now gets a entrance within.

      • Above comment directed to our own Rita!

        In reply to the spirit of this thoughtful comment from the always generous and spirited Judenlieber.

        Though Perfect and Eeyore have their moments…this isn’t one of them.

    • Rita: “I also think it might help our VladTepes Blog a little (financially and morally) if you buy as many as you can afford…”

      This service Eeyor has given us, a platform to express shock, horror and incredulity to the growing battered wife syndrome that is Islam, and the ‘ignore what your father says’ that is socialism… on the shoulders of one individual… is IMPORTANT TO SUPPORT.

      Every contributer helps.

      Western nations of increasingly diseased brains run by children of the 1960s.

      To damage the mind of a child is simply removing one gender out from raising them. This voice silenced by intimidation or discredited as being only a surrogate means within the child’s atrophied brain development they hold only one single ‘are we there yet’ distress call – to be met by those outside the school gates or self-harm.

      Where are the words of Jesus today walking between psychopathic men and sociopathic women, the new ultraorthodox Pharasees and Sadducees respectively – these hate-crime accusers of Pamela Geller, Tommy Robinson and present company included?

      I guess we have to figure it out for ourselves. But the Greeks gave us a head start to avoid a war by blessing the peacemakers who expose the jihad, (mein justification), and wherever the lay people could read their bible it changed the country into many seekers and interpreters, (as it had earlier changed the monks who read into becoming researchers and enquirers).

      But no Religious Study Classes today reads the bible beyond glorifing the chess pieces as sacred worshipped idols, deliberately missing the point of critiquing their role and what they actually did. Muhammad isn’t here, but most are afraid of his agents as though he actually still was. The same for Jesus being everywhere simultaneously in many imaginations.

      This is an information age, and what has happened is children are now being conditioned not to be able to process that information, imbibed with the phobia of never stepping out of collectivist politically-correct think and that to offend – is evil.

      The asymmetric brain: “Ninety-four percent of the unsuccessful psychopaths had that same abnormality, with the right side of the hippocampus larger than the left.” http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/001998.html

      The comments are good too:
      “Please before we start acting in a psychopathic manner ourselves by using this research to act in an indiscriminate manner please let us use our rational minds to learn more and use this information in a conscientious manner for the good of all.
      As the research has shown our hippocampus has to connect and interact with our prefrontal lobe and the two hemispheres have to fire at the correct rate for us to think rationally and make judicious choices. We have to overcome our initial fear and anger response which is there to protect us and use this info wisely. THE BRAIN HAS SHOWN ITSELF BE HIGHLY PLASTIC and NEURON PATHWAYS CAN BE CHANGED. So please let us be open to awareness and growth in this highly important field, while at the same time being also aware to protect ourselves in a manner that is not discriminatory. On that note though I do think that once someone who has committed these type of crimes they should be tested and given the choice, once we have humane treatments for this, whether they want to be treated or stay locked up. I do not agree with letting psychopathic murders and rapists go free.”

  2. U.N. watchdog: Construction spotted at Iranian military site (CNN, Aug 29, 2015)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/28/politics/iaea-report-iran-un/index.html

    “A new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency — the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog — indicates Iran is in broad compliance with its nuclear commitments, but also notes with concern indications of construction activity at the Parchin military site, where Iran is suspected of having carried out covert nuclear-related activities in the past.

    The document — part of the agency’s routine review of Iran’s program — states that the IAEA “has continued to observe, through satellite imagery, the presence of vehicles, equipment and probable construction materials.”

    “In addition,” the report continues, “a small extension to an existing building appears to have been constructed.”

    Critics of the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran are likely to seize on this detail of the report.

    Speaking to reporters on Thursday, State Department spokesman John Kirby would not address the content of the leaked document, a copy of which was obtained by CNN and other news outlets, but remarked that the U.S. views Parchin as “a conventional military site, not a nuclear site.”

    “So there wouldn’t be any IAEA or other restrictions on new construction at that site were they to occur,” he said.

    A senior U.S. intelligence official acknowledged the presence of heavy construction equipment earlier this month, but told CNN such activity could not conceal the presence of radioactive material.

    “The (International Atomic Energy Agency) is familiar with sanitization efforts and the international community has confidence in the IAEA’s technical expertise,” the official said at the time.

    But the IAEA report comes amid renewed scrutiny with regard to the Parchin site after it was revealed that Iranian inspectors would be taking an active role in IAEA-monitored inspections there…”

  3. British Library declines Taliban archive over terror law fears (BBC, Aug 28, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34088661

    “The British Library has declined to store a large collection of Taliban-related documents because of concerns regarding terrorism laws.

    The collection, related to the Afghan Taliban, includes official newspapers, maps and radio broadcasts.

    Academics have criticised the decision saying it would be a valuable resource to understand the ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan.

    The library said it feared it could be in breach of counter-terrorism laws.

    It said it had been legally advised not to make the material accessible.

    Alex Strick van Linschoten, an author and researcher who helped spearhead the project said it was “surprising and disappointing”.

    “There’s no recipes for making bombs or anything like that,” he said….”

  4. Tens of Thousands Rally in Malaysia, Demand Najib Resign (abcnews, Aug 29, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/thousands-gather-rally-urging-malaysian-leader-quit-33397795

    “Defying authorities, tens of thousands of Malaysians wearing yellow T-shirts and blowing horns gathered Saturday in Kuala Lumpur for a major rally to demand the resignation of embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak.

    The crowds were undeterred by heavy police presence after authorities declared the rally illegal, blocked the organizer’s website and banned yellow attire and the logo of Bersih, the coalition for clean and fair elections that’s behind the weekend rallies.

    Najib has been fighting for political survival after leaked documents in July showed he received some $700 million in his private accounts from entities linked to indebted state fund 1MDB. He later said the money was a donation from the Middle East, fired his critical deputy and four other Cabinet members as well as the attorney general investigating him….”

  5. Afghan Official: Taliban Kill 8 Police Officers in Attacks (abcnews, Aug 29, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghan-official-taliban-kill-police-officers-attacks-33398016

    “An Afghan official says at least eight police officers have been killed in separate attacks by Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan.

    Col. Asadullah Ensafi, the deputy police chief in Ghazni province, said Saturday another 15 police officers were wounded in the attacks on police checkpoints in the province’s Andar and Qarabagh districts.

    The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, carried out on Friday. Insurgents have targeted police checkpoints targeted in recent months, resulting in high casualties.

    Separately, Ensafi says an Afghan airstrike killed 16 insurgents and wounded 17 late Friday in Ghazni’s capital.

    The war with the Taliban has been particularly tough this year for Afghan forces, who are fighting without international troops backing them up following the U.S. and NATO ending their combat mission last year.”

    • Worse than party loyalty. Much worse.
      Unless you mean the _Communist Party_.

      “Communist” used here as a swear word, as in ‘better- dead -than -’. Maybe not godless-commies; that’s my home-schooled throwback mode. But so patently un-American they’ve got J.Edgar Hoover warming up the big electric chair in hell for them.

      Disloyal members of Congress don’t have to understand nuclear physics or know enough trade-craft to pass atomic bomb secrets to foreign operatives. We’re thoroughly infiltrated. They just have to make supportive noises and vote their pocket-books.

      Follow the money to the amoral global elites. The paymasters of the unholy MUG trinity: media, university, government.

      ~~ ‘The Narrative’, ‘Eurabia’, ‘Totalitarian Anarchy’, ‘Kapos-Soros-Exponential’ ~~ take us on a magic carpet ride to a mushroom cloud… ~~

      • This is why I keep predicting a civil war, I recently learned that 1100 former special ops personal sent a letter to Obama telling him to stop working to destroy the US. I have been seeing this build since 09 and have seen many warnings sent to DC, not of them did any good. I think the reason they have done no good is because Obama and company want a civil war. I don’t think the think they can win without outside interference by they may be hopping or planning on getting us invaded by some nation that supports them. I have heard others voice the same concern, most of these are other vets who follow international politics.

        I posted likes to some studies on guerrilla war under a different name, that is what is coming to the west with the people supporting freedom as the guerrillas.

  6. BANGKOK – Police arrest Erawan bomb suspect

    Thai police have arrested a young man in connection with the Erawan shrine bombing. He reportedly holds a Turkish passport although it could very well be fake.

    Post Today reports tonight that five rooms were rented out in the apartment under the name AHEMET MEHMMET EMIN AYSE. Police have released more photos of materials found in the apartment and they do look suspicious indeed. It seems quite possible that members of the group involved were planning more attacks.

    In a surprisingly short (3-minute) statement, Police spokesman Pol Lt Gen-Prawut Thavornsiri confirmed that a foreign national of unspecified nationality has been taken into custody and is believed to be involved in both the Erawan shrine bombing and the Sathorn pier bombing. Pol Lt-Gen Prawut also showed photos of various bomb-making materials found in the apartment, including detonaters and a steel pipe. The man, the police say, may not have planted the bombs, but he is part of the network that carried out the operation.
    Police arrest Erawan bomb suspect

    Post Today reports that Thai police have arrested a young man in connection with the Erawan shrine bombing. He reportedly holds a (fake) Turkish passport.

    According to the report, Thai police raided an apartment on Soi Chueam Samphan 11 in Bangkok’s Nong Chok district about two o’clock this afternoon, arresting its occupant. The reports also say bomb-making equipment was found, including ball-bearings very similar to those used in the Erawan shrine bombing.

    http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/673540/police-arrest-erawan-bomb-suspect

    Foreign man arrested over deadly bombing of Erawan Shrine in Bangkok

    THAI authorities arrested a foreign man on Saturday they said had been holed up in a suburban apartment with bomb-making equipment and stacks of passports, the first possible breakthrough in the deadly bombing at a Bangkok shrine nearly two weeks ago.

    All television channels broadcast a televised announcement on Saturday evening on the suspect’s arrest, which came 12 days after the bombing that authorities have called the deadliest attack in Thailand’s modern history.

    Police and soldiers raided the apartment in an eastern Bangkok suburb and found bomb-making materials that matched those used in the Aug. 17 blast at the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok, national police spokesman Prawuth Thavornsiri said in the televised statement.

    “Our preliminary investigation shows that he is related to both bombings,” Prawuth said, as he showed photographs of what police seized, including detonators, ball bearings and a metal pipe that police believe was intended to hold a bomb.

    Police chief Somyot Poompanmoung later told reporters that “the bomb materials are the same, similar or the same type” as those used in both bombings.

    Police also found “a number of passports from one country,” Prawuth said. He did not name the country but photographs shown during the broadcast showed stacks of passports that appeared to be Turkish.

    Earlier, Prawuth said that authorities had not yet determined his nationality and dismissed Thai news reports saying he is Turkish. Images of a Turkish passport with the apparent suspect’s picture were posted on social media.

    “The passport you see is fake,” said Prawuth, referring to the online photos. “We don’t know if he is Turkish or not.”

    http://www.news.com.au/world/foreign-man-arrested-over-deadly-bombing-of-erawan-shrine-in-bangkok/story-fndir2ev-1227504247968

  7. IRAQ – RAW: 60 Iraqi soldiers killed in alleged ISIS attack

    Around 60 Iraqi soldiers and militarymen were killed in an attack on their convoy west of Ramadi. Footage shows explosions during the course of the fighting and images of its aftermath. The attack is believed to have been carried out by ISIS.

  8. Egypt: Al Jazeera journalists sentenced to three years in prison

    Three Al Jazeera journalists were sentenced to three years of “rigorous imprisonment” in Cairo, Saturday. Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed and Peter Greste were tried by the Cairo Supreme Criminal Court for supporting a “terrorist organisation,” namely the Muslim Brotherhood, deemed a terrorist organisation in 2014 after the 2013 Egyptian army coup in as well as falsification of footage that threatened Egypt’s national security. The charges were denied by the journalists as well as the Al Jazeera media network.

  9. Turkey: At least 24 injured as PKK allegedly blow up bus

    At least 24 people, including ten police officers were injured in a bomb attack in the Kiziltepe district of the south-eastern province of Mardin, near the Syrian border with Turkey on Friday night. A bus carrying police forces was targeted by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) insurgents, according to police.

  10. UN brands Dutch ‘Black Pete’ a ‘vestige of slavery’

    The United Nations has called a Dutch character with a black face who appears every Christmas a “vestige of slavery” and said The Netherlands should begin overturning the popular tradition.

    But Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the fate of “Black Pete”, a sidekick of the Dutch Saint Nicholas, is not up to his government, calling the controversy a “social issue” rather than a matter of state.

    “Zwarte Piete”, or Black Pete, appears traditionally dressed in a gaudy medieval costume with a blackened face, red lips and an afro wig to help Saint Nicholas hand out gifts to children.

    The character sparks an annual divide on racism in The Netherlands, with many branding him a racist stereotype dating from the colonial era.

    Black Pete’s defenders say he is black from coming down the chimney, and refuse to admit there might be anything racist about the character.

    The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said in a report Friday that the character was “sometimes portrayed in a way that reflects negative stereotypes” and is seen as “a vestige of slavery” by many people.

    “Considering that even deeply rooted cultural traditions do not justify discriminatory practices and stereotypes, the committee recommends that the state promotes actively removing these characteristics that reflect negative stereotypes,” the report said.

    But Rutte said it was not up to his government to ban popular traditions.

    “This is a social issue and not a political issue,” he said.

    After a particularly heated debate in 2014 other Petes were introduced for the first time: “Cheese Petes” with yellow faces, “Stroopwafel Petes” with striped, light brown faces resembling the traditional Dutch syrup biscuit of the same name and a white-faced “Clown Pete”.

    https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/un-brands-dutch-black-pete-vestige-slavery-060643580.html

  11. Pentagon Not Targeting Islamic State Training Camps

    No airstrikes against 60 camps producing 1,000 fighters monthly

    The Pentagon has not conducted airstrikes against an estimated 60 Islamic State (IS) training camps that are supplying thousands of fighters each month to the terror group, according to defense and intelligence officials.

    The camps are spread throughout Islamic State-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria and are off limits in the U.S.-led international bombing campaign because of concerns about collateral damage, said officials familiar with planning and execution of the yearlong bombing campaign.

    Additionally, the IS (also known as ISIS or ISIL) camps have been so successful that Islamic State leaders are considering expanding the camps to Libya and Yemen. Both states have become largely ungoverned areas in recent years.

    The failure to target the training camps with U.S. and allied airstrikes is raising questions among some defense and intelligence officials about the commitment of President Obama and his senior aides to the current anti-IS strategy of degrading and ultimately destroying the terror group.

    “If we know the location of these camps, and the president wants to destroy ISIS, why are the camps still functioning?” one official critical of the policy asked.

    The camps are regarded by U.S. intelligence analysts as a key element in the terror group’s successes in holding and taking new territory. The main benefit of the training camps is that they are providing a continuous supply of new fighters.

    more on the page :

    http://freebeacon.com/national-security/pentagon-not-targeting-islamic-state-training-camps/

    • That is because Obama doesn’t want to destroy ISIS, only to prevent them from toppling the Iranian puppet in Syria.

  12. BREITBART – Ambassador Says Pope Francis Will Urge U.S. to ‘Open Doors’ for Immigrants

    The U.S. ambassador to the Vatican said that during Pope Francis’ visit to the United States next month, he expects the Pope will urge the U.S. to embrace its history of welcoming immigrants.

    Ambassador Kenneth Hackett said the Pope’s immigration message will be important as lead GOP presidential contender Donald Trump has called for a border fence between Mexico and the United States and the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants, the Associated Press reports.

    “I think he’ll call us to continue to engage with it (the world), don’t throw any walls up around our nation, don’t revert to isolationism,” he said. “We are a nation of welcoming people, so that’s where I think he will put his attention.”

    In addition to immigration, Hackett says Pope Francis will likely wish to discuss income inequality, family issues, and the environment while he is in the country.

    AP also observes that President Barack Obama is about to fully pass the baton of “rock-star status” from himself to Pope Francis, who has “embraced many of the issues Obama has sought to advance, including global warming, poverty, and diplomacy with Iran and Cuba.”

    Pope Francis has “transcended the Roman Catholic community,” AP states, adding that Obama has referred to him as a “transformative leader.”

    Similarly, Vice President Joe Biden has said the pontiff’s visit to the United States next month will be an important event for all Americans, not only Catholics.

    “Pope Francis has breathed new life into what I believe is the central mission of our faith: Catholic social doctrine,” Biden said in a statement. The vice president added the Pope “has become a moral rudder for the world on some of the most important issues of our time, from inequality to climate change.”

    Pope Francis will have a brief visit at the White House during his stay in the United States. He will also visit Cuba on this trip.

    “For Obama, the visit offers a chance to imbue his remaining goals with a sense of moral authority as he approaches the end of his presidency,” AP says.

    Ironically, when Obama visited Pope Francis last year at the Vatican, his description about the meeting contradicted the official Vatican account. While Obama said he and the Pope had not discussed any social issues in detail, Vatican officials said the two leaders discussed religious freedom, life, and conscientious objection – terms often used to mean abortion and the birth control mandate in Obamacare.

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/08/29/ambassador-says-pope-francis-will-urge-u-s-to-open-doors-for-immigrants/

  13. Iranian film on Prophet Mohammad stirs calls for Tehran to ban it

    A film on the life of Prophet Mohammad is expected to break box office records in Shi’ite Muslim Iran after its release on Thursday, but some Sunni Muslim clerics in the Arab world are demanding that Tehran ban it.

    The state-sponsored “Mohammad, Messenger of God”, directed by Oscar-nominated director Majid Majidi, is at $40 million Iran’s most expensive movie to date.

    “I decided to make this film to fight against the new wave of Islamophobia in the West. The Western interpretation of Islam is full of violence and terrorism,” Majidi was quoted as saying by Hezbollah Line, a conservative Iranian magazine.

    The 171-minute movie, the first part of a planned trilogy, focuses on the prophet’s childhood. His face will not be shown on screen, in accordance with traditional Islamic strictures. The camera shows the boy actor playing him only from behind, or only his shadow.

    A steadicam was customised especially to depict Mohammad’s point of view by the movie’s Oscar-winning Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. The identity of the boy playing Mohammad has not been made public.

    Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the most prestigious institute of Sunni Islam, is not satisfied with such precautions and has called on Iran to ban the film.

    “This matter is already settled. Sharia (Islamic law) prohibits embodying the prophets,” said Professor Abdel Fattah Alawari, dean of the Islamic theology faculty at Al-Azhar.

    “It is not permissible in Islam that someone (an actor) has contradictory and conflicting roles; sometimes we see him as a blind drunk, sometimes as a womanizer … and then he embodies a prophet … this is not permissible.”

    Regional rivalry between Sunni power Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran has intensified mutual suspicion between followers of the two branches of Islam in recent decades. There has been no official comment on the movie yet from Saudi Arabia, where Islam was born more than 1,400 years ago.

    “Most of these reactions are political,” Sami Yusuf, who is one of the Islamic world’s biggest musical stars and who sang the soundtrack for the film, told Reuters.

    “I am sure people in Al-Azhar and others who criticise the film haven’t seen it yet. They are against the film only because it’s a cultural export of Iran.”

    He said it was a “shame” there were only two major productions describing the life of Mohammad, in contrast to the many on Jesus Christ and other prophets.

    Old Taboo

    Depictions of Mohammad have often provoked angry unrest after being deemed blasphemous by Muslims. Cartoons published by a Danish newspaper in 2005 were followed by violent protests in which scores of people died, attacks on embassies and consumer boycotts.

    Islamist militants shot dead 12 people at the offices of French magazine Charlie Hebdo in January this year, saying they were avenging its blasphemous cartoon depictions of Mohammad.

    Iran’s late Supreme Leader issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill writer Salman Rushdie in 1988 for “The Satanic Verses”, a novel deemed blasphemous in its treatment of Mohammad and Islam.

    “Mohammad, Messenger of God” is only the second full-length movie drama on the prophet. The first, “The Message” (1976), was directed by Syrian Moustapha al-Akkad. Anthony Quinn played Mohammad’s uncle, Hamza.

    That film did not depict Mohammad’s face on screen, but some Muslims were offended. Akkad was killed in a 2005 suicide bombing in Amman. It is not known whether the attack was related to the movie.

    “You cannot study Mohammad’s life and not fall in love with him and his character. If this film makes people of the world know our prophet better and see how kind he was, we have done our job,” singer Yusuf said.

    “Mohammad, Messenger of God” has been mainly shot in Iran. Mecca was recreated on a large scale and in minute detail. Scenes with elephants were filmed in South Africa, after India refused to let the filmmakers in, fearing the reaction of Muslim countries to the movie.

    Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has visited the film set through the production, in a strong sign of support.

    The film is being released in 143 cinemas in Iran on the same day as it opens at the Montreal Film Festival.

    One cinema in Tehran, which asked not to be named for legal reasons, said the movie was their most popular at the moment.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/139189/World/Region/Iranian-film-on-Prophet-Mohammad-stirs-calls-for-T.aspx

  14. AUSTRALIA – Bendigo mosque: Anti-Islam and anti-racist protester face off in counter rallies

    UGLY scenes erupted in Bendigo as anti-Islam and anti-racism protesters clashed over recently approved plans to build a mosque.

    Frontline police trying to keep the rival groups apart were forced to use pepper spray as tensions boiled over.

    Fearing the protests would turn violent, police pulled out all stops, drawing on members from outlying stations for support in what was dubbed one of the largest Victoria Police ­operations outside Melbourne.

    http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/bendigo-mosque-anti-islam-and-anti-racist-protester-face-off-in-counter-rallies/story-fni0fee2-1227503953987

  15. Harper delivers speech at Canada’s largest national Islamic convention

    MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Stephen Harper’s speech to a large Muslim conference on Friday was billed as prime ministerial, not political, but he still managed to squeeze in some Conservative messaging on Canada’s fight against terrorism.

    The Conservative leader did not do any formal campaigning Friday, choosing instead to address to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at, Canada’s largest national Islamic convention, which kicked off a three-day conference in Mississauga.

    The prime minister, who has Canadian warplanes bombing Islamist insurgents in Iraq and Syria, took the opportunity to embrace a Muslim group at home.

    He praised the Ahmadiyya community for accepting Canadian ways, but he also spoke of terror threats.

    “Last October, we had the brutal experience of ISIS-inspired violence on our own soil,” he said, a reference to the deadly Oct. 22 shooting on Parliament Hill.

    “As we all know, these shocking acts were perpetrated by killers claiming to act in the name of Islam. How important it was that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada quickly, categorically and unequivocally condemned the attacks and the terrorist who committed them.”

    He also thanked the group for its campaign against youth radicalization.

    “By your words and by your actions, Canada’s Ahmadiyya community has earned the respect and the admiration of all Canadians.”

    Harper earlier spent some time in Toronto shooting new TV ads.

    He also put on his prime minister’s hat and seized on the latest government finance data as proof that his government’s economic plan is working.

    The Department of Finance’s monthly Fiscal Monitor reported a $5-billion surplus for the April-to-June period this year.

    In a “statement from the prime minister” released by the Conservative party, Harper said the numbers show that his Conservative government is ahead of the game on its budget plan.

    “This means that we’re actually ahead of the game on our budget plan, while at the same time delivering historic tax relief directly to Canadian families,” he said in the statement. “That’s good for Canada and good for the economy.”

    The report says the federal government posted a surplus of nearly $1.1 billion for June alone, half a billion less than in the same month last year.

    Federal program spending increased by $1.6 billion from a year ago to $21.3 billion in June, partly due to the universal child care benefit, but the rise was offset in part by a drop in public debt charges.

    Harper has been urging voters to stick with his program of lower taxes and a balanced budget, while scorning his opponents as spendthrifts who will raise taxes and upset the economy.

    His opponents, on the other hand, brushed off the Fiscal Monitor data as misleading and not up to date. They said the books are already in a deficit

    http://www.torontosun.com/2015/08/28/harper-delivers-speech-at-canadas-largest-national-islamic-convention

  16. France: European countries to increase ID and baggage checks on trains after thwarted attack

    PARIS – France’s interior minister says European countries will increase ID checks and baggage checks on trains after American passengers thwarted an attack on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris.

    Bernard Cazeneuve said the checks would be carried out “everywhere it is necessary” but did not give other details. He spoke after an emergency meeting Saturday in Paris with top security and transport officials from nine countries and the European Union in the wake of last week’s attack attempt.

    He also called for better co-ordination on intelligence and security across Europe’s border-free travel zone.

    The suspect in last week’s attempted attack had been on the radar of European surveillance but bought his ticket in cash and showed no ID before bringing an automatic rifle and a handgun onboard the train unnoticed.

    http://www.news1130.com/2015/08/29/france-european-countries-to-increase-id-and-baggage-checks-on-trains-after-thwarted-attack/

    • Italy police detain 10 suspected of people trafficking, murder

      Italian police detained 10 men on Friday on suspicion of multiple homicide and aiding illegal immigration after 52 migrants were found suffocated in the hold of a boat this week, a Sicilian prosecutor said.

      Police in the capital Palermo stopped the suspects after they arrived with the corpses of the victims and hundreds of survivors on the Swedish coastguard ship Poseidon.

      Rescuers found the bodies trapped under the deck of a wooden boat this week, shortly before 71 migrants were discovered dead in a truck in Austria.

      Seven Moroccans, two Syrians and one Libyan, all acting as crew on the boat, were charged with murder based on testimony from some of the more than 500 migrants on board.

      Ten survivors said they had been trapped in the hull, which was 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) high and 4 metres long, Palermo prosecutor Maurizio Scala said. They were kicked, punched and threatened with knives if they tried to get out.

      “They were all forced to stay in hellish conditions below decks,” Scala said.

      The prosecutor’s office said in a statement the deaths were caused by oxygen deprivation and inhaling engine fumes, as well as the actions of the crew.

      The migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean in rickety boats are fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, often paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for transport.

      The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday the number crossing this year had passed 300,000, far exceeding last year’s total, while more than 2,500 had died.

      A shipwreck off the coast of Libya on Thursday killed 82 people and left about 100 unaccounted for, a spokesman for the Red Crescent humanitarian organisation said.

      The 10 detained in Italy are being held in prison in Palermo while authorities consider whether to sentence them.

      http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/08/28/uk-europe-migrants-italy-arrests-idUKKCN0QX19A20150828

  17. Man Charged with Fondling 10-Year-Old Girl in Queens Mosque: Prosecutor

    A 63-year-old Queens man is being criminally charged with sexually fondling a preteen girl in the basement of a mosque, the borough’s chief prosecutor said Friday.

    Md Uddin, of 97th Street in the Corona neighborhood, was being held on charges of first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said.

    “These are serious accusations in which an alleged sexual predator stalked his victim in a place of worship and, if true, cannot go unpunished,” said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

    Uddin is accused luring the 10-year-old girl to the basement of the Fultoli Jame Masjid Mosque just before 1 p.m. Thursday and fondling her breasts over and under her clothing, according to the charges.

    “Does this feel good? Do you like this?” he said to the girl, according to the charges. “Don’t tell anyone about this.”

    The victim went home and told a family member who subsequently contacted authorities.

    There was no information as to whether Uddin had obtained a lawyer who could comment on the charges.

    http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Man-Charged-with-Fondling-10-Year-Old-Girl-in-Queens-Mosque-Prosecutor-323267161.html

    Man charged with sexually abusing 10-year-old girl inside Queens mosque

    CORONA (WABC) —
    A Queens man is under arrest and facing charges after authorities say he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl in the basement of a Corona mosque.

    The alleged incident happened around 1 p.m. Thursday inside the Fultoli Jame Masjid Mosque on 101st Avenue.

    Prosecutors say 63-year-old Md Uddin approached the girl and placed his arm around her shoulder before taking her to a corner of the basement.

    He allegedly hugged her from behind and grabbed and squeezed her breasts over and under her clothing while stating, “Does this feel good? Do you like this?”

    Uddin then allegedly kissed her about the forehead and cheeks while telling her not to tell anyone about it.

    The girl went home and told a family member, who then contacted authorities.

    “These are serious accusations in which an alleged sexual predator stalked his victim in a place of worship,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. “And, if true, cannot go unpunished.”

    Uddin is charged with first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.

    http://abc7ny.com/news/man-charged-with-sexually-abusing-10-year-old-girl-inside-queens-mosque/961016/

  18. UK – Burton upon Trent – Burton Plans unveiled for new mosque in Burton that will be ‘biggest and best’ in Europe

    THE Mail can today exclusively reveal plans to build Europe’s ‘biggest’ mosque in Burton.

    Religious leaders hope the new building will allow a minimum of 1,500 people to pray at the same time.

    This would make it double the current capacity of 700 which can currently worship at one time at the Uxbridge Street site.

    Around £200,000 of the £1 million needed has already been raised.

    Architects’ drawings show it will be constructed in the car park of the current mosque, as well as in a neighbouring industrial building already owned by the mosque.

    The plan will then see the current mosque demolished to make way for a car park. It is not yet known the exact size of the building, and planning permission is yet to be applied for and granted.

    The mosque’s chairman Mohammad Riaz, 61, said: “We will try to make it the biggest and best in Europe if Allah wills it.

    “I don’t think there will be any issues with planning permission.

    “It will bring a good image for this area as well, and be a big boost for the community.

    “We hope we can start building as soon as possible.”

    Mr Riaz said the building would be a community-funded project.

    He added: “It is a lot of money, but once we start, a lot of wealthy businessmen will help.

    “I am looking forward to it – we have been trying to do this for a very long time.

    “There are always lots of new people, from Somalia and North Africa coming to our mosque, so now was the time to build it.”

    The new mosque will keep the name of the old one – Central Jamia Masjid Rizvia.

    Another reason behind the proposal is the access to the current mosque.

    Mr Riaz said, at present, it was ‘dangerous to get in and out of’ because of the narrow entrance, with restricted views on to Uxbridge Street.

    The chairman said he hoped the new car park would have a wider entrance, making it easier for cars to get in and out.

    Following meetings in the Muslim community, the designs will be submitted to East Staffordshire Borough Council’s planning department.

    They will then be subject to the same scrutiny as other applications, including an opportunity for public consultation and feedback.

    No date has yet been decided for submission to the council.

    http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/Burton-s-new-mosque-biggest-best-Europe/story-27695929-detail/story.html

    • Remember this is one of the nations Saudi is negotiating with to buy nukes to off set Iran’s.

  19. Boko Haram crisis: Nigeria ‘disrupts Boko Haram airport cell’ (BBC,Aug 29, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34096000

    “Nigeria’s intelligence agency has warned of a possible attack on the airport in its capital after disrupting what it said was a Boko Haram cell.

    Authorities said on Friday that a boy, 14, had been arrested for spying on security procedures at Abuja’s airport.

    Security forces are working to prevent “any possible attack and to ensure adequate security at the airports” in response, the agency said.

    It said agents are still searching for militants who were directing the boy.

    He was instructed to pass on details about “passenger screening, boarding procedures and other processes in the departure and arrival halls,” according to a statement from the Department of State Services (DSS).

    The DSS said the arrest of the 14-year-old had “disrupted a spying network mounted by the Boko Haram terrorists”.

    It said the network was discovered on Monday and it was working with aviation authorities to pre-empt any attack at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport….”

  20. Turkish jets attack IS Syria targets (BBC, Aug 29, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34096642

    “Turkey has carried out its first air strikes as part of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group.

    Turkey’s foreign ministry said its jets began attacking IS targets across the border in Syria late on Friday.

    Turkey has stepped up its operations against the militant group in recent weeks, granting US jets access to a key air base close to the Syrian border.

    The US began operating from Turkey earlier this month with a series of drone strikes from Incirlik airbase….”

  21. France train attack: Europe ‘to tighten rail security’ (BBC, Aug 29, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34092544

    “European ministers have agreed tighter controls at railway stations, the French interior minister has announced.

    Bernard Cazeneuve said there would be increased identity and baggage controls at stations and more police patrols on board international trains.

    France called the emergency meeting in Paris, attended also by security and transport officials, after the foiled attack on a train on 21 August….”

  22. Chad Executes 10 Boko Haram Members 1 Day After Verdict (abcnews, Aug 29, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/chad-delivers-death-sentences-10-boko-haram-members-33399528

    “Chad executed by firing squad 10 members of Boko Haram on Saturday, the security minister said, marking the first use of the death penalty since the country bolstered its anti-terror measures last month.

    The 10 men were sentenced to death on Friday after being convicted of crimes including murder and the use of explosives. They were killed at around 11 a.m., Ahmat Mahamat Bachir, the security minister, said Saturday.

    Those killed included Bahna Fanaye, alias Mahamat Moustapha, who Chadian officials have described as a leader of the Nigeria-based group.

    Chad has vowed to take a leading role in a regional force to fight Boko Haram that is also expected to include soldiers from Cameroon, Benin and Niger in addition to Nigeria. Boko Haram has targeted Nigeria’s neighbors in regular attacks this year….”

  23. London mother and four children heading for Syria, say police (guardian, Aug 29, 2015)
    http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/29/mother-and-four-children-heading-from-britain-to-syria-say-police#img-2

    “A missing mother and her four children are feared to be travelling from Britain to Syria, Scotland Yard has said. Police are trying to trace Zahera Tariq, 33, her sons Muhammad, 12, Amaar, 11, Aadid, 4, and daughter Safiyyah, 9, who were last seen at her home address in Walthamstow, east London, on Tuesday. The police believe they flew from London City airport to Amsterdam later the same day and may be on their way to Syria…”

  24. Egypt’s president Sisi calls for ‘worldwide strategy to combat terrorism’: Russian TV interview (ahram, Aug 28, 2015)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/139124/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-president-Sisi-calls-for-worldwide-strategy.aspx

    “In an interview with Mikhail Gusman of the Russian new agency TASS which aired on Thursday on the Russia 24 TV channel, Egypt’s president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said “the world must come together to fight terrorism.”
    El-Sisi said he and Russian officials discussed many topics during his three day visit to Moscow which ended Thursday, including economic cooperaton between the two countries and the fight against terrorism.

    “I find in His Excellency President Putin great understanding of the situation in the Middle East, and the dangers posed by terrorism and extremism and their impact on the security and stability of the region, which can affect the wider world,” El-Sisi said.

    El-Sisi stressed that terrorism is the “most dangerous of all world threats,” saying that countries can resolve their problems via international politics, while terrorists are not governed by any rules.

    “The [terrorists] do anything they want,” he said. “So we all have to cooperate, not just the Middle Eastern countries, not just the countries of the US-led coalition against ISIS, not just the coalition in Yemen. We are talking about a strong block made up of the world’s powers.”

    El-Sisi said the fight against terrorism must operate not only on the military level, but must also involve using cultural and economic tools.

    “Until now, the efforts of every country have been in vain. The matter requires a global strategy, not from individual countries but from the whole world,” the Egyptian president said.

    Speaking of growing military cooperation with Russia, El-Sisi stressed that Egypt needs to quickly acquire the capacity to defend itself.

    “The danger for Egypt is bigger than for any other country, because Egypt’s large population means a larger extent of damage,” the president said.

    “It has long been the case that the Egyptian army does not initiate aggression and does not enter into conspiracies. Our policy is based on harmony and mutual understanding, ” El-Sisi said.

    He added that a strong Egyptian economy can be brought about by cooperating with the wider world, and invited Russian and international investors to take financial interest in the Suez Canal development project. .

    “Everyone thought that the Suez Canal project only consisted of developing the waterway, the dual canal and of ships passing through it,” he said. “But it was only one step on a long path to create the right conditions to build a strong economy.”

    “There is an industrial hub and we invite Russian companies to operate in it and the Russian government to establish projects there.”

    He addressed Russian investors saying, “We will offer you all there is to be offered, along with all the world’s investors, so that you can establish projects where Egyptians work and everyone can benefit from them.”…”

  25. In first, headscarf-wearing woman named minister in Turkey (ahram, Aug 29, 2015)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/139158/World/Region/In-first,-headscarfwearing-woman-named-minister-in.aspx

    “For the first time in the history of Turkey, a Muslim but secular country, a woman who wears an Islamic headscarf has been named as a government minister.

    Aysen Gurcan, a 52-year-old academic, was appointed Friday to be the minister in charge of family and social policies in the provisional government of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that will run the country until November 1 elections.

    The mother of three is also a member of the board of the Foundation for Youth and Education (TURGEV), of which Bilal Erdogan, a son of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is an executive….”

  26. 16, including former police officer, accused of forming IS linked terrorist cell (ahram, Aug 29, 2015)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/139177/Egypt/Politics-/,-including-former-police-officer,-accused-of-form.aspx

    “Sixteen, including a discharged police officer, were referred to court Saturday on charges of forming a terrorist cell in connection with the Islamic State (IS) group, according to judicial sources.

    The 16, all from Egypt’s Sharqiya governorate, are accused of forming a terrorist cell linked to IS and headed by the former policeman, attempting to overthrow the regime, and recruit Egyptian youth to the militant group.

    The case was referred to one of the court’s terrorism districts, created by Egypt’s new terrorism law to give priority to terrorism-related cases over others.

    Egypt’s judicial system is overloaded with pending trials. Any given case can take years for a final verdict.

    The former policeman accused in the case is Helmi Mohamed Hashem and is alledgedly in contact with the leader of Islamic State, Abu Bakr El-Baghdadi.

    Egypt has been fighting a militant insurgency in North Sinai for a decade. Recently, militant attacks, mostly claimed by IS affiliate Ansar Beit El-Maqdis (also known as Sinai Province), reached other governorates, including the capital.”

  27. IS Cracks Down on Western Iraqi Town After Rare Protest (abcnews, Aug 29, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/roadside-bomb-kills-border-officers-western-iraq-33400679

    “Islamic State militants moved on Saturday to stamp out dissent in a remote western Iraqi town, detaining at least 70 and tying dozens of residents, including tribal leaders, to streetlight poles as a punishment, security officials said.

    The crackdown followed a rare street demonstration on Saturday to protest the extremist group’s execution of a local resident, they said. The protest by hundreds of residents in Rutbah, in Anbar province, was triggered by the execution earlier on Saturday of Munir al-Kobeisi, a civil servant, for killing an IS member. The killing was part of a long-running blood feud between two local clans.

    Eid Amash, a spokesman for Anbar’s provincial government, confirmed al-Kobeisi’s execution and the subsequent protest.

    Relying on sketchy information from Rutbah, in Iraq’s far west near the Jordanian border, the officials said they didn’t know the whereabouts of the detained residents. The militants, they said, tied two residents to each light pole and that the town was gripped by fears that the group would carry out mass executions.

    Elsewhere in Anbar, much of which is under IS control, a roadside bomb on Saturday hit a border guard convoy making its way to the border crossing of Trebil on the Jordanian border, security officials said.

    Five officers were killed in the attack — which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group, whose militants are active in the area near the Jordanian and Syrian borders…”

    • Dresden demonstrators march in support of refugees (BBC, Aug 28, 2015)
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34100662

      “A mass rally in support of refugees has passed off peacefully in the eastern German city of Dresden. The Dresden region has recently been the scene of several violent anti-migrant protests organised by right-wing groups. Chancellor Angela Merkel was booed when she visited a refugee centre in the nearby town of Heidenau last week. The country expects up to 800,000 asylum applications this year – more than any other EU country. Police said 1,000 people joined the protest, which was called by the Anti-Nazi Alliance, but organisers said the number was 5,000.

      Dresden has become the hub of Germany’s “anti-Islamisation” Pegida movement, which has brought thousands on to the streets for protests since October 2014. Up to 25,000 joined protests at the start of the year. Immigration has become a hot topic in Germany this year, amid a surge in the numbers of asylum seekers, fuelled by the wars in Syria and Iraq. Demonstrators marched through the city chanting “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here”.

      Agency reporters said refugees joined in with the rally at a shelter for asylum seekers.
      Mrs Merkel has said there will be zero tolerance for “vile” anti-migrant violence. A poll by public broadcaster ZDF has shown that public opinion is broadly behind her, with 60% of Germans saying that Europe’s biggest economy was capable of hosting the increasing number of asylum-seekers. As a place destroyed in the fight against fascism in World War Two, the modern city was one with core values of “openness to the world and tolerance” Dresden Mayor Helma Orosz said earlier this year.”