Reader’s links for Oct. 30 – 2015

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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

52 Replies to “Reader’s links for Oct. 30 – 2015”

  1. British hate preacher’s son ‘executed by ISIS for cursing the prophet Muhammad’ (express, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/615731/Mohammed-Omar-Bakri-Mohammed-Prophet-Muhammad-ISIS-Islamic-State-Lebanon-Britain-Syria

    “THE BRITISH son of a hate preacher has reportedly been executed while fighting for ISIS for “cursing the prophet Muhammad”, according to reports.

    Mohammed Omar Bakri Mohammed is said to have died in Aleppo province in the north of Syria.

    It is believed he was executed by ISIS for apostasy.

    Mohammed’s father is a notorious hate preacher who founded the Al-Muhajiroun network of Islamic extremists in the UK.

    His family have apparently refused to confirm or deny his death but said they believed he had been fighting in the Homs province.

    A security source also refused to confirm the death, claiming it could not be ruled out that the reports may be a ruse by him in an attempt to turn to Lebanon.

    A picture of Mohammed believed to have been taken in Syria has been circulating on social media accounts.

    He was reportedly fighting under the name Abu Ahmed the Lebanese and was executed for cursing the prophet Muhammad.

    His father Bakri fled the UK in the wake of the London bombings and resurfaced in Lebanon.

    While Mohammed is said to have left Tripoli in Lebanon to join the savage terror group over a year ago….”

    • Iraq violence: Iranian exiles hit by intense rocket fire (BBC, Oct 30, 2015)
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34674185

      “A former military base in Iraq housing exiled Iranian opposition members has come under intense rocket fire, Iraqi and Iranian officials say.

      The People’s Mujahedin of Iran says 23 of its members were killed in the attack in addition to three policemen.

      About 80 missiles struck the former US base known as Camp Liberty, close to Baghdad airport, according to the PMOI.

      No group has yet said it carried out the attack.

      The People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) has been in exile since the Islamic revolution of 1979.

      The Camp Liberty base came under rocket fire in December 2013 and in February 2013.

      PMOI rebels also came under attack from Iraqi troops in 2011…”

  2. Syria conflict: UN’s Ban Ki-moon urges ‘flexibility’ in Vienna talks (BBC, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34673535

    “UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for “flexibility” at talks in Vienna between the countries backing rival sides in the Syrian civil war.

    He urged the five main participants – the US, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – to abandon “national perspectives” for “global leadership”.

    These are the first such talks to include Iran, which – with Russia – backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

    The US and its allies insist Mr Assad cannot be part of any solution…”

  3. Greece Says 21 Die in Migrant Boat Sinkings in Aegean Sea (abcnews, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/greece-21-die-migrant-boat-sinkings-aegean-sea-34844711

    “Greek authorities say 21 people have died after two boats carrying migrants and refugees from Turkey to Greece sank overnight, in the latest deadly incidents in the eastern Aegean Sea.

    The Merchant Marine Ministry said 18 people were killed and 138 people were rescued near the island of Kalymnos, while another three died and six were rescued in a separate incident early Friday off the island of Rhodes.

    The deaths occurred amid a surge of crossings to Greek islands involving migrants and refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and other countries ahead of winter and as European governments weight taking tougher measures to try and limit the number of arrivals in Europe.”

  4. Reports: Iranian-American Arrested in Iran (abcnews, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/reports-iranian-american-arrested-iran-34843756

    “A Dubai-based businessman has become the fourth Iranian-American to be arrested by Iran’s security forces and imprisoned in Tehran, several newspapers reported Thursday.

    Siamak Namazi, believed to be in his early 40s, was arrested earlier this month while visiting a friend in Tehran, a family friend told The Washington Post. It was not immediately clear whether any charges have been brought against Namazi. The friend asked not to be identified.

    The U.S. State Department declined to confirm Namazi’s arrest…”

  5. Shaker Aamer: Last UK Guantanamo Bay detainee released (BBC, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34675324

    “The last British resident being held in Guantanamo Bay is being returned to the UK, having been detained there for 13 years, the foreign secretary has said.

    Philip Hammond said Shaker Aamer had left the US military base and the BBC understands he on his way to the UK.

    The Saudi national, 46, was held in the military prison in Cuba since 2002 but has never been charged or put on trial.

    Mr Aamer, who has four children, has permission to live indefinitely in the UK because his wife is British.

    He was detained in Afghanistan in 2001. US authorities alleged he had led a unit of Taliban fighters and had met former al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

    But Mr Aamer has maintained he was in Afghanistan with his family doing charity work.

    Since 2007 he has been cleared for release twice, by US presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama.

    Andy Worthington, co-director of the We Stand With Shaker campaign, said has was “delighted” Mr Aamer’s “long and unacceptable ordeal has come to an end”.

    “We hope he won’t be detained by the British authorities on his return and gets the psychological and medical care that he needs to be able to resume his life with his family in London,” he said.

    His imminent release was confirmed by the UK government last month, when his daughter, Johina, 17, tweeted: “We can’t believe we might finally see our dad after 14 years.””

  6. Employees of raided Ukrainian library in Moscow say they were framed

    http://www.oann.com/employees-of-raided-ukrainian-library-in-moscow-say-they-were-framed/

    MOSCOW (Reuters) – The shaken employees of a Moscow library specializing in Ukrainian literature accused Russian investigators on Friday of planting banned extremist books on their shelves to create a pretext to raid the library and detain their director.

    Armed, masked police swooped on Moscow’s Library of Ukrainian Literature on Wednesday, carting off about 200 books before detaining its 58-year-old director, Natalya Sharina, on suspicion of distributing anti-Russian literature.

    Investigators confiscated “extremist” writings by Dmytro Korchinskiy, a banned Ukrainian nationalist author, Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.

    Kiev, which accuses Moscow of waging war on its territory on behalf of pro-Russian separatists in a conflict that has killed thousands of people, said the raid showed that the Kremlin had effectively outlawed expressing Ukrainian identity.

    A Kremlin spokesman declined to comment on the case.

    Sharina, the library’s director, is now being investigated to see if she is guilty of inciting ethnic hatred and of “denigrating human dignity”. She faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

    But her employees say she and the library are being framed.

  7. Knife-wielding Palestinians strike in Jerusalem, West Bank, one dead: Israel

    http://www.oann.com/knife-wielding-palestinians-strike-in-jerusalem-west-bank-one-dead-israel/

    JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Knife-wielding Palestinians attacked Israelis in Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank and one of assailants was shot dead, police said.

    Five people, including two suspected Palestinian assailants, were wounded in the incidents at an Israeli paramilitary police checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Nablus and a light rail station in East Jerusalem, ambulance officials said.

    This month’s wave of violence, the worst since the 2014 Gaza war, has in part been spurred by religious and political tensions over a site in Jerusalem’s walled Old City sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

    An increased number of visits by religious Jews to Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque plaza – Islam’s holiest site outside Saudi Arabia and revered in Judaism as the location of two destroyed biblical temples – have spurred Palestinian allegations that Israel is violating a “status quo” under which Jewish prayer there is banned.

    Israel has pledged to abide by the decades-old arrangement at the site and says false allegations by Palestinian officials, echoed in Arab social media, that it intends to encroach on Muslim rights of worship have been inciting violence.

  8. Iran backs six-month Syria ‘transition’ ahead of peace talks

    http://www.oann.com/iran-backs-six-month-syria-transition-ahead-of-peace-talks/

    VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran signaled on Friday that it favored a six-month “transition” period in Syria followed by elections to decide the fate of President Bashar al-Assad, an apparent concession ahead of the first peace conference Tehran was permitted to attend.

    Although sources who described the proposal said it amounted to Tehran dropping its insistence on Assad remaining in power, it was not immediately clear whether it would actually include steps that would remove him.

    Assad’s government held an election as recently as last year, which he easily won. His opponents have always rejected any proposal for a transition unless he is removed from power and barred from standing in any election that followed.

    Nevertheless, a commitment to a defined time limit for a transition would amount to an important new undertaking by Assad’s closest ally, providing a potential basis for future diplomacy at a time when Assad’s position has been strengthened by Russia’s decision to join the war on his side.

  9. Russia says no country can use military force in Syria without government approval

    http://www.oann.com/russia-says-no-country-can-use-military-force-in-syria-without-government-approval/

    MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that no country could use military force in Syria without first securing the agreement of the Syrian government, the TASS news agency reported.

    TASS said Ryabkov was responding to a question about the prospect of the United States launching a ground operation in Syria.

    “The question of using military force in any form without the agreement of Damascus is for us unacceptable,” it quoted him as saying.

  10. China naval chief says minor incident could spark war in South China Sea

    http://www.oann.com/china-naval-chief-says-minor-incident-could-spark-war-in-south-china-sea/

    BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China’s naval commander told his U.S. counterpart that a minor incident could spark war in the South China Sea if the United States did not stop its “provocative acts” in the disputed waterway, the Chinese navy said on Friday.

    Admiral Wu Shengli made the comments to U.S. chief of naval operations Admiral John Richardson during a video teleconference on Thursday, according to a Chinese naval statement.

    The two officers held talks after a U.S. warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of one of Beijing’s man-made islands in the contested Spratly archipelago on Tuesday.

    China has rebuked Washington over the patrol, the most significant U.S. challenge yet to territorial limits China effectively claims around its seven artificial islands in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.

    “If the United States continues with these kinds of dangerous, provocative acts, there could well be a seriously pressing situation between frontline forces from both sides on the sea and in the air, or even a minor incident that sparks war,” the statement paraphrased Wu as saying.

    “(I) hope the U.S. side cherishes the good situation between the Chinese and U.S. navies that has not come easily and avoids these kinds of incidents from happening again,” Wu said.

    • Translation, We don’t care what International Law says let us get away with taking over the South China Sea or risk a major shooting war. The problem is Obama may let them get away with ordering the US around and let them take over the South China Sea.

  11. Ukraine calls deadly depot blast a terrorist act

    http://www.oann.com/ukraine-calls-deadly-depot-blast-a-terrorist-act/

    KIEV (Reuters) – Explosions in a Ukrainian ammunition depot that killed two civilians overnight is being investigated as a terrorist act, the Defence Ministry said on Friday.

    On Thursday, a series of blasts ripped through the military complex in Ukrainian-controlled Svatove, a town around 100 km (62 miles) from the front line with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Luhansk region.

    The fire was started by “the release of a flare that fell onto the territory from outside the base,” the ministry said in a statement, and said the incident was being investigated as a “terrorist act.”

    It did not say who it suspected was behind the alleged attack.

    Nighttime video footage showed huge clouds of smoke billowing up from the depot, which contained 3,500 tonnes of ammunition. Occasional explosions shot fireballs into the sky.

    • TURKEY – Beheaded bodies of Syria anti-IS activist, friend found in Turkey

      The beheaded bodies of a Syrian activist opposed to the Islamic State group and a friend were found early Friday in the southern Turkish city of Sanliurfa, his colleagues said.

      Ibrahim Abdul Qader, 20, and friend Fares Hamadi “were found beheaded at the friend’s house this morning,” Abu Mohammad, a founder of the activist’s “Raqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently” group, told AFP via the Internet.

      The group, which documents abuses in areas under IS control in Syria, accused the jihadist organisation of the murders on its Facebook page.

      According to Abu Mohammad, both men were from Raqa city, the de facto capital of IS in Syria. Hamadi was also in his early twenties.

      Abdul Qader had escaped to Turkey a little over a year ago.

      Members of the activist group had been killed inside Syria in the past, but this is the first time a member has been killed outside the country, Abu Mohammad added.

      Turkey’s Dohan news agency reported Friday that “two Syrian journalists were beheaded” in Sanliurfa, and that seven Syrians had been arrested by Turkish police.

      Sanliurfa is 55 kilometres (35 miles) from Turkey’s border with Syria’s Raqa province, a major IS stronghold in the country.

      Turkey has long been accused by Syrian opposition activists, Kurdish fighters and sometimes even Western partners of allowing IS members to slip back and forth across its 911-kilometre (566-mile) frontier with Syria.

      Bloody bomb attacks in southern Turkey, including an attack in July that claimed 32 lives in Suruc, have been blamed on IS, though the group has never claimed responsibility for the blasts.

      The Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) group was formed in April 2014, not long after IS fighters seized control of Raqa from other opposition groups.

      The city became the first provincial capital to fall from regime control in March 2013 when an array of rebel groups seized it.

      But since IS forced those groups out, it has tightly controlled the city, with activists providing a rare source of information about life in the city and surrounding province.

      RBSS regularly publishes information, photos and videos about IS dictates and behaviour in Raqa, from a jihadist ban on private Internet connections to its decision to begin issuing identity cards.

      Activists documenting IS abuses have regularly been targeted by the group, which deems them “infidels” punishable by death.

      Shortly after the group was formed, IS carried out a campaign of arrests in Raqa, rounding up dozens of people.

      At the time, the group’s members insisted they would continue their work nonetheless.

      “It’s extremely dangerous to oppose IS… but we need to break the wall of fear,” Abu Ibrahim, a founder, told AFP in April 2014.

      “We must make sacrifices, or else they will rule us for good, and that’s just unacceptable.”

      http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/162219/World/Region/Beheaded-bodies-of-Syria-antiIS-activist,-friend-f.aspx

  12. AUSTRIA – VIENNA –

    Erste IMAM-Rede bei Soldaten-Angelobung in Österreich | Nationalfeiertag 26.10.2015

  13. Kadyrov And The Snake

    […]In the skillfully produced clip, a hefty, hissing python slithers right up to Kadyrov. He talks calmly to the snake, grabs it, looks it in the eye and then tosses it aside like a harmless piece of junk. At one point he turns his head, part of the standard Muslim prayer ritual.

    In case anything was lost on viewers of the post, Kadyrov wrote that it has “huge philosophical, ideological and religious meaning.”

    “The snake symbolizes the forces of evil that have taken over huge territories of the globe where millions of people suffer,” Kadyrov explained. “This is Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, African countries. They are trying to draw the people of Ukraine into this abyss.”

    “The forces of the devil play peoples, religions, countries off against each other. They want managed chaos to rule, so that half the world starves, gets poorer, and settles for pitiful handouts,” he wrote. “It should not be like this!”[…]

    http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-chechnya-kadyrov-snake-devil/27320749.html

    • This attitude is simply following the Soviet line that the US is the root of all evil, facts never enter into this attitude and the fact that the US withdrawal from the world has just made matters worse never seems to occur to anyone on the left. This attitude is one of the reasons this war is going to last for a real long time.

  14. EGYPT CAIRO – Groom hurls ‘non-virgin’ bride from 4th floor

    He threw her down on the next day of their wedding

    An Egyptian groom woke up on the next day of his wedding, carried his bride to the balcony and threw her down after discovering she was not virgin.

    Police arrested the man after residents of the building in the capital Cairo reported that they saw the bride falling to her death from her apartment in the fourth floor.

    Newspapers said the groom confessed to killing his bride on the grounds he discovered that she was not virgin.

    http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/groom-hurls-non-virgin-bride-from-4th-floor-2015-10-29-1.608525
    ======================================================
    FRANCE – Le Blanc-Mesnil : Il défenestre sa femme du septième étage puis descend la poignarder

    L’homme est descendu armé d’un couteau pour tenter d’achever sa victime

    Le couple venait de se marier il y a huit jours, croit savoir une voisine citée dans Le Parisien. L’idylle s’est terminée en drame, dimanche soir, vers 19h45 rue Guillaume-Apollinaire au Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis), lorsque l’homme, âgé de 28 ans, a tenté de tuer son épouse en la poussant du 7e étage avant ensuite de descendre, armé d’un couteau, pour tenter de l’achever. Mais il n’a pas eu le temps de passer à l’acte, rapporte Le Parisien. Des témoins se sont interposés et se sont mis à quatre pour le maîtriser.

    La jeune femme, âgée de 25 ans, a été transportée à l’hôpital sous escorte moto. Elle était lundi entre la vie et la mort. Déjà dans l’appartement, son compagnon aurait essayé de la poignarder avant qu’elle ne chute par la fenêtre.

    http://www.20minutes.fr/paris/1717855-20151027-blanc-mesnil-defenestre-femme-septieme-etage-puis-descend-poignarder

    • Germany restricts migrant entry to five points on Austrian border: ministry

      Berlin (AFP) – Germany said Friday that asylum seekers would only be able to enter the country at five points along its border with Austria to better control a mass influx.

      “We would like to have a more orderly procedure,” a spokeswoman for the interior ministry told AFP, saying Germany had reached agreement on the new policy with the Austrian government.

      “The rule will go into effect immediately,” she added.

      Tempers flared between Berlin and Vienna this week when Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Wednesday hit out at Austria for sending asylum seekers to its 800-kilometre-long (500-mile-long) border without any warning.

      Authorities in the southern German state of Bavaria, already struggling to cope with the record numbers, complained that the lack of coordination was leaving them scrambling to find resources to assist the new arrivals.

      But Austrian authorities hit back, with a police spokesman calling it “a joke” that Bavaria was unable to process the new arrivals.

      http://news.yahoo.com/germany-restricts-migrant-entry-five-points-austrian-border-172431759.html

  15. Swedish politician says country ‘facing collapse’ due to mass influx of refugees

    https://www.rt.com/news/320158-sweden-refugees-collapse-catastrophe/

    A leading Swedish politician says the country is facing a refugee catastrophe, which will lead to the “country collapsing.” The bold claims were made by Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who adds the EU needs to do more to take the strain off Stockholm.

    The northern European country expects to accommodate around 190,000 by the turn of the year, but this is putting a strain on the country both economically and socially. Wallstrom says that Stockholm needs more help and intends to put pressure on European Union member states to take a greater share of the burden the continent is facing from the refugee crisis in the Middle East and Africa.

    “I think most people feel that we cannot maintain a system where perhaps 190,000 people will arrive every year – in the long run, our system will collapse. And that welcome is not going to receive popular support,” said Wallstrom, who is also a member of the Social Democrat party.

  16. Yemen refugees choosing to return to a failed state (BBC, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34645877

    “”Refugees and migrants”, a recent report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) noted, “arrive after many hours at sea often traumatised and exhausted, with little or no personal belonging, and in urgent need of food, water and emergency healthcare.”

    This, however, was not about what is happening on the shores of Mediterranean countries, but to do with the thousands of people fleeing in another direction from the fighting in Yemen, and landing on the Horn of Africa…”

  17. Syria conflict: World powers to intensify quest for peace (BBC, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34673535

    “Allies and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have agreed to renew efforts to end the civil war.

    The Vienna talks involved Iran, a key Assad ally, for the first time.

    The ministers agreed to ask the United Nations to start a process that could lead to a ceasefire and new elections. But they disagreed over Mr Assad’s future. New talks are due in two weeks.

    Ahead of the talks, a Syrian government attack on a Damascus suburb left at least 57 people dead…”

  18. Syria conflict: Obama to send special forces to fight IS (BBC, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34681648

    “The US is sending special forces to Syria to assist anti-government rebels in fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS), officials have said.

    There will be “fewer than 50” forces deployed in the region to “train, advise and assist” vetted opposition forces, said officials.

    This will be the first time US troops are working openly on the ground in Syria.

    But there have been US special forces raids on IS militants there.

    A senior administration official told the BBC this does not signal a change in US strategy but an “intensification” of the campaign.

    “Our role fundamentally and the strategy is to enable local forces but does that put US forces in harm’s way? It does, no question about it,” Defence Secretary Ash Carter later told reporters.

    However, Russia’s foreign minister warned that the move increased the risk of a “proxy war” developing in the region and urged greater co-operation between the US and Russian militaries…”

    • Dems, GOP knock Obama plan for troops in Syria (CNN, Oct 30, 2015)
      http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/30/politics/syria-obama-troops-congress-isis/index.html

      “Both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill took issue with President Barack Obama’s decision Friday to deploy U.S. troops to Syria — for different reasons.

      Several Democrats broke with their president to criticize a move that puts American boots on the ground and cautioned against mission creep.

      Some also called on their own chambers to pass a resolution authorizing the use of force against ISIS, something the administration sought earlier in the year but which has stalled in Congress.

      Many Republicans, meanwhile, called Obama’s new anti-ISIS plan too little, too late and questioned its utility.

      And both parties called for the administration to sketch out a more detailed strategy for taking on ISIS, also called ISIL.

      “This commitment of U.S. forces must come with a coherent strategy to defeat ISIL.

      Otherwise, we are likely to see the same results in the region,” newly elected House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said in a statement Friday. “I look forward to reviewing the details of this announcement.”..”

  19. Iraqi Shi’ite militia claims attack on exiled Iranian opposition camp (reuters, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/30/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-iran-idUSKCN0SO14B20151030

    “A Shi’ite Muslim militia in Iraq claimed responsibility on Friday for a deadly rocket attack on an exiled Iranian opposition group housed near Baghdad, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

    At least 15 rockets crashed in and around the camp of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) next to Baghdad International Airport on Thursday, killing 23 members, a Paris-based spokesman said.

    “We warned the members of this terrorist organization to leave Iraq as soon as possible … If they don’t do so, there will be more similar attacks,” al-Mukhtar Army commander Wathiq al-Battat was quoted as saying by Fars.

    Reuters could not independently verify the claim. Al-Mukhtar Army has said it receives funding from Tehran. Fars news agency is close to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps…”

  20. Germany’s ability to act on migrants threatened, Merkel deputy says (reuters, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/30/us-europe-migrants-germany-dispute-idUSKCN0SO0W820151030

    “German’s Social Democrat vice chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, warned on Friday that a dispute among the conservatives over how to handle record inflows of migrants into the country was jeopardising the government’s ability to act.

    Merkel and Horst Seehofer, the leader of her Bavarian sister party, have frequently clashed over how Germany should deal with the estimated 800,000 to 1 million it expects this year, many of them from war zones in the Middle East.

    Merkel, the leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), has favoured an open-door policy and says Germany can cope.

    Seehofer, head of the Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria, the entry point in Germany for many of the migrants, has said the existence of the conservative bloc was at stake if she did not “correct” her asylum policy.

    Gabriel, leader of the Social Democrats, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, said in an interview with Spiegel Online that the conservative parties were acting “irresponsibly” and creating even more uncertainty among the population as concerns mount that Germany cannot deal with the new arrivals.

    “Given the big challenge our country is facing due to strong immigration of refugees, the dispute between the CDU and CSU is now threatening the ability of the government to act,” he said. He cited no examples of government work being held up.

    “The longer the dispute in the conservative bloc lasts, the more people will turn away from politics and the more ground the right-wing radicals will gain,” Gabriel, who is also Germany’s economy minister, said.

    In a development that could help control the flow of refugees into Germany, Thomas Kreuzer, head of the CSU in Bavaria’s regional parliament, said Germany and Austria had agreed on a procedure to deal with those new arrivals coming into the southern state.

    Under the agreement, 50 refugees per hour could cross into Bavaria at five agreed border crossing points, he said…”

  21. Turkey has killed 2,000 militants at home and abroad: Erdogan (reuters, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/30/us-mideast-crisis-turkey-erdogan-idUSKCN0SO2C120151030

    “Turkey has killed around 2,000 militants in recent operations inside and outside its borders and the operations will continue, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

    “Now 2,000 terrorists have been killed inside and outside of the country,” Erdogan said in comments broadcast by television station AHaber.

    Turkey has carried out attacks on Islamic State militants in Syria and also on Kurdish militant positions at home and in northern Iraq.”

  22. ‘Aversion anxiety’ halting Swedish refugee debates (thelocal, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.thelocal.se/20151030/aversion-anxiety-halting-swedish-refugee-talks

    “Swedes are so obsessed with appearing “decent” and pro-immigration, that they’re too afraid to discuss the complexities of the refugee crisis, argues a Norwegian critic living in Sweden who’s causing a stir for his comments.

    Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgård has been increasingly vocal about what he sees as the refusal of the educated middle classes in his adopted home of Sweden to face up to the realities of immigration.

    “In Sweden, my impression is that the desire to be decent, which is in itself laudable, has given people an aversion anxiety against discussing many problems concerning integration and immigration,” he told Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten during a book tour.

    “If you talk about the issues, it means you are somehow automatically critical of immigration.”

    By contrast, he described the anti-immigrant Progress Party in Norway as a “blessing” for politics, arguing that societies must “dare to talk about the problematic aspects of immigration”.

    “I do not agree with their views, but it is good that they are able to express them openly without being demonised,” he said….”

  23. ‘In the long run our system will collapse’ (thelocal, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://www.thelocal.se/20151030/in-the-long-run-our-system-will-collapse-in-sweden

    “Sweden’s outspoken foreign minister, Margot Wallström, has hit out at fellow EU member states over the refugee crisis, saying the union needs to do more to relieve the pressure on her country.Wallström, who was deputy chairperson of the EU commission in 2004-2010, told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper that Sweden would be taking a tougher stance in summits in an attempt to secure financial support and help to accommodate the 140,000-190,000 asylum seekers the country is expected to receive in 2015.

    Sweden is currently campaigning for other EU member states to take in a greater share of refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East and Africa. But the minister said negotiations have so far not produced the desired result.

    “I have to admit that there have been moments recently of very great disappointment. I have heard statements from member states that have been completely astonishing and very discouraging,” Wallström said in the interview which was published on Friday morning.

    An unprecedented number of people are expected to seek asylum in the Nordic nation in 2015 and while Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has widely praised his country’s response to the crisis he has said that Sweden is “approaching the limit” of its reception capacity.

    “I think most people feel that we cannot maintain a system where perhaps 190,000 people will arrive every year – in the long run, our system will collapse. And that welcome is not going to receive popular support,” said Wallström, echoing her Social Democrat colleague’s comments.

    Löfven is expected to push the same argument when he meets his UK counterpart David Cameron, leader of one of the countries reluctant to take in more asylum seekers, on Monday next week…”

  24. 2 Muslim drivers win $240K judgment in discrimination suit (ahram, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/9/162244/World/International/-Muslim-drivers-win-K-judgment-in-discrimination-s.aspx

    “A jury has awarded $240,000 to two Muslim men who say they were fired from an Illinois trucking company after refusing to deliver alcohol.

    A judge found Morton-based Star Transport Inc. violated the religious beliefs of Mahad Abass Mohamed and Abdikarim Hassan Bulshale. A trial to determine whether they were entitled to damages ended Oct. 20 with the jury’s judgment.

    A 2013 lawsuit filed by U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the men were fired in 2009 after they wouldn’t deliver alcohol because it was against their religious values as practicing Muslims. The lawsuit claimed the company didn’t provide them “with a reasonable accommodation and by terminating them because of their religion.”

    Chief U.S. District Judge James Shadid had found in favor of the commission in March, after the company admitted liability. June Calhoun, one of the commission’s attorneys on the case, said Star Transport didn’t provide discrimination training to human resources staff, leading to “catastrophic results” for the two men.

    “They suffered real injustice that needed to be addressed,” Calhoun said in a statement. “By this verdict, the jury remedied the injustice by sending clear messages to Star

    Transport and other employers that they will be held accountable for their unlawful employment practices.”

    The commission had tried to work with Star Transport on the issue a year before the lawsuit was filed, court records say.

    It’s not clear whether the men will get the money, the (Peoria) Journal Star (http://bit.ly/1LGqBtv ) reports. Star Transport went out of business earlier this year.”

  25. Any threat to Saudi Arabia will evoke strong response from Pakistan: army chief (tribune, Oct 30, 2015)
    http://tribune.com.pk/story/982105/any-threat-to-saudi-arabia-will-evoke-strong-response-from-pakistan-army-chief/

    “Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif reiterated on Friday that any threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia will evoke a strong response from Pakistan.

    “Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong and brotherly relations which have a long history of deep rooted cooperation,” the army was quoted as saying in a statement by the military’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR).

    General Raheel’s comments came during his visit to the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Pabbi near Jhelum, where he witnessed the culmination of “Pak-Saudi Joint Training Exercise Al-Shibab”.

    “Al – Shihab focused on counter terrorism training of the special operation forces of Pakistan and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which included cordon and search operations, airdropping and heli lifting of special forces for operations against terrorist’s acts and their hideouts,” the press release said….”

  26. Latest Islamic State video – beheadings + message to Obama in English – from 11 min 27 to the end

    Full graphic copy with beheadings on this page :

    https://esdarat.tv/28319
    ================================================
    censored copy :

    • In New Video ISIS Calls Prison Raid A Failure, Executes Prisoners

      ISIS released a video Friday with a direct message for President Obama, claiming the U.S. military raid to free 70 hostages last week failed to dent the might of the Islamic caliphate, and that ISIS losses were far fewer than among those who’d launched the attack.

      “Obama, you have learned a new lesson,” a masked ISIS fighter speaking English said to the camera, standing in front of a bound hostage who was beheaded at the end of the 15 minute video. “Six of the soldiers of the caliphate faced 400 of your children, they killed and injured them by Allah’s grace. You are probably surprised by this…you did not gain anything. You returned to your bases with losses and humiliation.”

      The video obtained by Vocativ was titled “The Truth of the American Landing,” and showed ISIS’ version of the aftermath of the raid on the prison in Hawijah in northern Iraq. An American commando died from wounds he sustained during the raid, which was carried out alongside Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

      In one scene, an ISIS fighter amid the rubble of the destroyed compound declared the U.S. mission a complete failure. Another sifted through medical supplies, bloodied bandages and syringes that were left behind. The video ends with masked ISIS fighters executing four men in orange jumpsuits ISIS said were Peshmerga soldiers.

      http://www.vocativ.com/news/245043/in-new-video-isis-calls-prison-raid-a-failure-executes-prisoners/?PageSpeed=noscript