Reader’s links for May 7 – 2016

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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

73 Replies to “Reader’s links for May 7 – 2016”

    • JUNE 2013 – RT – – White Flight: Diversity extremes push Londoners’ exodus

      Growing ethnic tension is leading to the white population shrinking in some parts of the UK, including the British capital. RT’s Sara Firth has more on the exodus – and what else might be behind it.

  1. Saudi prince: Getting nukes an option if Iran breaks deal

    By Nicole Gaouette

    Washington (CNN)In a reflection of the change and churn in the Middle East, former high-level officials from Saudi Arabia and Israel — nations that have no formal diplomatic ties — spoke publicly about their shared sense of Iran as a threat, their differences on Palestinians and the role the United States plays in their chaotic region.
    Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, and retired Israeli Army Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror, a former adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke in Washington Thursday night at a discussion arranged by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

    Their joint appearance doesn’t mean the two countries will be normalizing relations anytime soon, Turki warned.
    “We are both exes,” he said, referring to their status as former officials and not current representatives of their governments. Despite that — and the fact that the Saudi kingdom has never formally acknowledged Israel’s existence — the two nations have been quietly cooperating for years, exchanging intelligence on

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/06/politics/saudi-israel-officials-talk-nuclear-u-s-/index.html

    • Since all intelligent people know Iran has already broken the deal according to the Prince is is safe to say Saudi is actively working to get nukes. I know they are buying a nuclear power plant from China and that Pakistan has said that if anyone nukes Saudi they are going to launch against the people who hit Saudi.

      • Anarchists Clash With Police Near Austrian Border (abcnews, May 7, 2016)
        http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/anarchists-clash-police-austrian-border-38952949

        “Dozens of hooded anarchists have clashed with riot police blocking their approach to the Austrian border during a protest against plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants.

        Riot police just hundreds of meters (yards) from Italy’s northern border responded Saturday with tear gas after anarchists who also came with helmets and gas masks threw objects including bricks and firecrackers at police blockade. Italian RAI state television cameras showed police detaining one demonstrator near train tracks.

        The protest spilled over on to the railway, blocking service, and then onto the highway.

        The demonstrations come after Austria announced moves to tighten surveillance of the border out of concern that the flow of migrants to northern Europe will shift to Italy after the closure of the Balkans route.”

    • Italy: Tear gas used, arrests made at pro-refugee protest on Brenner Pass

  2. The Arabs’ Real Grievance against the Jews

    by Fred Maroun
    May 7, 2016 at 5:00 am

    As Arabs, we are very adept at demanding that our human rights be respected, at least when we live in liberal democracies such as in North America, Europe, and Israel. But what about when it comes to our respecting the human rights of others, particularly Jews?

    When we examine our attitude towards Jews, both historically and at present, we realize that it is centered on denying Jews the most fundamental human right, the right without which no other human right is relevant: the right to exist.
    The right to exist in the Middle East before 1948

    Anti-Zionists often repeat the claim that before modern Israel, Jews were able to live in peace in the Middle East, and that it is the establishment of the State of Israel that created Arab hostility towards Jews. That is a lie.

    Before modern Israel, as the historian Martin Gilbert wrote, “Jews held the inferior status of dhimmi, which, despite giving them protection to worship according to their own faith, subjected them to many vexatious and humiliating restrictions in their daily lives.” As another historian, G.E. von Grunebaum, wrote, Jews in the Middle East faced “a lengthy list of persecutions, arbitrary confiscations, attempted forced conversions, or pogroms.”
    The right to exist as an independent state

    Zionism stemmed from the need for Jews to be masters of their own fate; no longer to be the victims of discrimination or massacres simply for being Jews. This project was accepted and formally recognized by the British, who had been granted a mandate over Palestine by the League of Nations. The Arab world, however, never accepted the recognition formulated by Britain in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, and it never accepted the partition plan approved by the United Nations in 1947, which recognized the right of the Jews to their own state.

    The Arab refusal to accept the Jewish state’s right to exist, a right that carries more international legal weight than almost any other country’s right to exist, resulted in several wars, starting with the war of independence in 1948-1949. The Arab world still does not today accept the concept of a Jewish state of any size or any shape. Even Egypt and Jordan, which signed peace agreements with Israel, do not accept that Israel is a Jewish state, and they continue to promote anti-Semitic hatred against Israel.
    The right to exist in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem

    In 2005, Israel evacuated all its troops and all Jewish inhabitants from Gaza, in the hope that this would bring peace at least on that front, and to allow the Gaza Strip, vacated by Jews, to be a flourishing Arab Riviera, or a second Singapore, and perhaps to serve as a model for the West Bank. The experiment failed miserably. This is a case where Jews willingly gave up their right to exist on a piece of land, but sadly the Palestinians of Gaza took it not as opportunity for peace, but as a sign that if you keep on shooting at Jews, they leave — so let’s keep on shooting.

    http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7953/arabs-jews

  3. Channel 4 – FGM: top detective says it should be treated as child abuse

  4. Channel 4 – ISIS notebook: a glimpse into life as part of the Islamic State

  5. ISIS continues to carry out mass murders

    Lara Logan joins ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ to discuss the genocide of the Yezidis by ISIS

  6. Austrian man ‘stuck two pig heads on an Islamic centre and mosque and smeared the minaret with blood’

    A 46-year-old man was arrested in connection with the gruesome attack
    Members of the Graz Islamic Centre left an event to find the pig heads
    The man is allegedly a right-wing extremist known to Austrian authorities
    Six pig heads were put at same sight during construction in 2012

    An Austrian man has been arrested after allegedly putting two bloody pig heads on a fence at an Islamic centre and smearing blood across the walls of its new mosque.

    The 46-year-old, who is known by Austrian police as a right-wing extremist, arrived at the mosque being built in the southern city of Graz on Thursday night allegedly carrying two pigs heads, police said.

    The gruesome act was discovered by members of the Graz Islamic Centre only when they left the building at around 11pm that night.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3578297/Austrian-man-stuck-two-pig-heads-Islamic-centre-mosque-smeared-minaret-blood.html

    • How come they didn’t mention his name, they always mention right wing names?

  7. Chinese province bans religious activity in schools

    Chinese officials criticised the kindergarten in Linxia where the girl read the Islamic religious text.

    A Chinese province with large population of Muslims has ordered kindergartens to enforce a ban on religious activity on campus after a video of a little girl reciting the Quran at a nursery school went viral, according to a media report.

    The education authority in Gansu province criticised the kindergarten in Linxia where the girl read the Islamic religious text.

    The local government said it “strongly condemned the damaging act to the physical and mental health of the younger generation”, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Friday.

    The video was titled “Cute girl reciting scriptures in Gansu.” In the video, the unidentified girl is seen wearing a black Muslim head covering and sitting in a classroom with dozens of other students apparently all in Muslim attire. Many people commenting online were angered by the video, the report said.

    Gansu is home to about 1.6 million Muslims. It has the third highest population of people holding the faith among China’s provinces and regions, behind Xinjiang and Ningxia.

    China’s communist government is atheist, but people are allowed to follow authorised religions under official controls. The Gansu education authority cited the country’s constitution and education laws, which state that “religious activities shall not get in the way of education.”

    Apart from religious institutions with government approval, schools cannot conduct religious activities or preach religion, the statement said.

    “(They) shall not force or induce pupils to convert to a certain religion or establish any religious organisations in schools,” the statement said.

    http://www.deccanchronicle.com/world/neighbours/060516/chinese-province-bans-religious-activity-in-schools.html

  8. Horrific video shows Taliban publicly killing woman over adultery (khaama, May 7, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/horrific-video-shows-taliban-publicly-killing-woman-over-adultery-0865

    “A horrific video has emerged online which purportedly shows the execution of a woman by the Taliban militants in northern Jawzjan province.

    The woman was reportedly executed in Khanqa village in Aqcha district with the footage showing the woman is forced to kneel in a dessert before she is shot dead.

    The execution is carried out by a Taliban insurgent who has covered his face with a scarf and shooting the woman with an Ak-47 rifle from behind.

    The local officials have not commented regarding the report so far to confirm the exact date and location of the incident.

    The brutal killing of the woman refreshes the savagery of the group while they were ruling the country in early 90s….”

  9. 28 militants killed, 30 wounded as major Taliban attack repulsed in Kunar (khaama, May 7, 2016)
    http://www.khaama.com/28-militants-killed-30-wounded-as-major-taliban-attack-repulsed-in-kunar-0864

    “At least 28 Taliban militants were killed and 30 others were wounded as the Afghan security forces repulsed a major offensive by the Taliban group in eastern Kunar province.

    According to the local officials, scores of Taliban insurgents launched the attack in the early hours of Saturday to take control of security posts in Ghaziabad district.

    The provincial governor Wahidullah Kalimzai however said the attack was launched late on Friday night and continued for several hours.

    He said a member of the Afghan National Army lost his life and three others were wounded in the attack….”

  10. Syrian, Russian jets launched a powerful airstrikes on ISIS in northern Palmyra (abna, May 7, 2016)
    http://en.abna24.com/service/middle-east-west-asia/archive/2016/05/07/752620/story.html

    “The Syrian and Russian air forces launched a powerful series of airstrikes over the northern countryside of Palmyra (Tadmur) on Saturday, targeting the ISIS positions at Jabal Al-Sha’ar (Poet Mountains).

    According to a military source at the T-4 Airport, the Syrian and Russian air forces conducted over 20 airstrikes above Jabal Al-Sha’ar, killing several ISIS terrorists and destroying a large number of armored vehicles that were mounted with anti-aircraft machine guns.

    In addition to the airstrikes over Jabal Al-Sha’ar, the Russian Air Force struck ISIS’ positions at the oil rich town of Al-Sukhanah and nearby village of ‘Arak.

    These airstrikes in the Palmyra countryside are meant to propel the Syrian Armed Forces against the ISIS terrorists that captured Al-Sha’ar Gas Fields.”

  11. ISIS advances to Al-Mahr Gas Fields of NE Homs after repelling Syrian Army attack at Al-Sha’ar (abna, May 7, 2016)
    http://en.abna24.com/service/middle-east-west-asia/archive/2016/05/07/752573/story.html

    “The so-called Islamic State (ISIS) repelled the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) counter-attack at the Al-Sha’ar Gas Fields on Friday night, paving the way for their own assault to capture the remaining territory in Jabal Al-Sha’ar (Poet Mountains).

    Since repelling the Syrian Arab Army’s counter-attack, ISIS has improved their positions in Jabhat Al-Sha’ar, advancing as far north as the Al-Mahr Gas Fields in the northeastern countryside of the Homs Governorate.

    ISIS has capitalized on this morning assault at the Al-Mahr Gas Fields, seizing several points at this site in northeastern Homs after a fierce battle with the Syrian Armed Forces.

    Clashes are still ongoing at the Al-Mahr Gas Fields; furthermore, it is ISIS that is still on the offensive.”

  12. Bangladesh Sufi Muslim killed in suspected Islamist attack (france24, May 7, 2016)
    http://www.france24.com/en/20160507-bangladesh-sufi-muslim-killed-suspected-islamist-attack

    “A Sufi Muslim leader has been found hacked to death in Bangladesh in a suspected Islamist killing, police said Saturday, two weeks after the murder of a liberal professor in the same northwestern district claimed by the Islamic State group.

    “He was not a famous Sufi. But there could be a possibility that he was killed by Islamist militants,” Rajshahi district police chief Nisharul Arif said, adding that the killing was “similar” to a recent spate of hacking deaths of religious minorities.”

  13. TERROR WARNING: Experts say ISIS fighters are likely to launch attacks on Euro 2016 fans (express, May 7, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/667975/isis-islamic-state-isil-is-daesh-euro-2016-france-england-football-terror-wales

    “DERANGED Islamic State jihadis are likely to attack fan zones and bars during this summer’s European football Championships, intelligence experts have warned.

    The depraved militants are believed to be planning assaults during the group stage of the tournament – when France will be packed with British fans.

    The Risk Advisory Group made the terrifying claims in a report published last week.

    Henry Wilkinson, the group’s head of intelligence and analysis, said a brutal attack on the tournament would “fit with an emerging pattern” of previous attacks.

    He said: “An attack on a fan zone or bars in a city centre would fit with an emerging trend we are seeing in jihadist attacks on the west.

    “The preferred tactic of terrorists in recent attacks has been for roaming gunmen to kill civilians indiscriminately in crowded public spaces where there are relatively light security measures in place…”

  14. Iranian filmmaker sentenced to 233 lashes for documentary about graffiti in Tehran

    An Iranian director sentenced to 223 lashes for making a film that has never been officially shown in his homeland said Friday he just wanted to be left alone to work rather than “be turned into a hero”.

    Keywan Karimi ran into trouble with Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards over a documentary he shot called “Writing on the City” about graffiti in the capital Tehran.

    He spent 15 days in solitary confinement in 2013 and was accused of making “propaganda against the regime” and “insulting religious values”.

    But since then, the young avant-garde filmmaker told AFP, several other “ridiculous” charges have been added including drinking alcohol, having extramarital affairs and making pornography.

    “All I was doing was filming what was being written on the walls of Tehran,” said the 33-year-old, who comes from the country’s Kurdish minority.

    Karimi was sentenced to six years in prison in 2015 but after an international outcry in which acclaimed Iranian directors including Jafar Panahi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf rallied to his support, five years of the term was suspended.

    The threat of the 233 lashes has not however been lifted, and the prison authorities are now demanding that the punishment be carried out.

    “I am not a political activist,” Karimi told AFP in a telephone interview. “I am not being sent to prison because I oppose the regime but because I am a filmmaker.”

    The police have contacted him several times but have not yet arrested him to bring him to prison to be whipped and serve his sentence, he said.

    “Writing on the City” has since been shown at film festivals in France, Spain and Switzerland and in the meantime Karimi has continued working on another film project.

    “I am waiting for them to come for me. The support I have received helps break the solitude and solidarity from the film world also warms my heart,” he added.

    Karimi said that he could have immigrated “quite easily but I want to remain to defend my right to live my life.

    “The fact that my artistic activity is seen as an act of political opposition says a lot about the situation in Iran,” he added.

    “When the (Turkish Kurdish director) Yilmaz Guney won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for his film ‘Yol’ (in 1982), he said that cinema was a part of his political activism.

    “He was an activist who was part of a political organisation. But what I draw from his experience is that making films is also a kind of struggle, a struggle in defence of the courage to think,” Karimi insisted.

    “I do not want to be turned into a hero. Whether my films are seen and I become well-known is really secondary. Cinema is what gives sense to my life.”

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/5/32/208249/Arts–Culture/Film/Iranian-filmmaker-sentenced-to–lashes-for-documen.aspx

  15. DAILY MAIL – ‘No Muslims on German Soil’: Thousands of right-wing extremists rally outside Berlin train station against city’s influx of refugees

    About 1,000 right-wing extremists have rallied outside Berlin’s train station
    They were protesting against Merkel’s welcoming stance towards refugees
    There were several counter-protests being held in support of her policies

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3578568/Far-right-rally-against-Merkels-migrant-policies-Berlin.html

  16. Pentagon Reveals U.S. Troops Back on the Ground in Yemen

    The Pentagon confirmed Friday that the U.S. has had troops on the ground in Yemen for roughly two weeks.

    The military’s special operation troops are assisting Yemeni and Emirati forces in their fight against al Qaeda.

    The Washington Post reported:

    U.S. military activity in Yemen has been relegated mostly to airstrikes for more than a year following the overthrow of the government in the capital Sanaa by Houthi rebels, but Friday’s announcement signals a new level of involvement in the conflict — one that the Pentagon described as temporary without putting a timeline on it.

    Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that the U.S. is sending a “small number” of military personnel along with “medical teams, maritime support and intelligence-gathering assets including airborne surveillance aircraft” to the Emirati and Yemeni troops.

    “We view this as short term,” Davis told reporters Friday.

    Local forces are fighting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist group’s most lethal branch.

    Last year, the U.S. had special operations forces in Yemen prior to the Houthi rebel overthrow of former president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in 2015, The Hill noted.

    http://freebeacon.com/national-security/602641/

  17. Austria:
    Teacher called Mohammed a child molester: prosecutor investigates!
    7. Mai 2016 06:55
    Bregenz – A middle school teacher allegedly referred to Mohammed as child molester in front of her pupils. The prosecution was informed, the provincial education department now waits for the investigation.

    A Bregenzer teacher is said to have described the founder of Islam as a child molester in front of her students. “Yes, there is this allegation against a teacher,” educational provincial counsellor Bernadette Mennel confirms the corresponding complaint. The school department had immediately forwarded the case to the prosecutor.
    They check whether the allegations are true. Due to the ongoing investigation, no further information on the case are currently available through the state school board. If the allegations were true, the teacher would have to face consequences. “Such statements are unacceptable”, stressed Mennel to VOL.AT. However, they would await the outcome of the prosecution, before making decisions.
    The accusation that Muhammad was a child molester is not new. It refers to Mohammed’s third wife Aischa bint Abi Bakr.
    She was betrothed to Mohammed at the age of six years, the marriage was consummated according to tradition at nine years.
    In the Middle Ages, neither in the East nor in Europe the marriage of underage women for political purposes was unusual. Nowadays, child marriage is illegal in almost all countries of the world,but is still practiced especially in poorer families in the Arab world and India. In 2009, because of comparable statements, FPÖ Member of Parliament Susanne Winter was convicted for incitement of the people.

    http://www.vol.at/lehrerin-bezeichnet-mohammed-als-kinderschaender-staatsanwalt-ermittelt/4713376

    (Note by me, the translator:
    1. I am not aware that child marriage were “not unusual” in medieval Europe, as the article claims)
    2. Vorarlberg Online or VOL.AT is a tiny Austrian regional news portal, probably more coverage to follow in the coming days
    3. there are rumours there could be more behind this case than meets the eye, so best to wait for more information. E.N.)

    • Indeed, in Mideival Europe, girls tended to be married off quite young in affluent families.

      Consider Romeo and Juliet: Lady Capulet tells the 13-year-old Juliet “Many younger than thou happy mothers are made” – so yes, 12 -13 year old girls from affluent families did enter political marriages.

      But not 5-year-olds, nor 9-year-olds.

  18. Afghanistan Faces Tough Battle as Haqqanis Unify the Taliban (abcnews, May 7, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/afghanistan-faces-tough-battle-haqqanis-unify-taliban-38948820

    “A shadowy, Pakistan-based militant faction is on the rise within the Taliban after its leader was appointed deputy and played a key role in unifying the fractured insurgency.

    The ascendency of the Haqqani network, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, could significantly strengthen the Taliban and herald another summer of fierce fighting in Afghanistan. The firepower it brings to the Taliban was shown by a Kabul bombing last month that killed 64 people, the deadliest in the Afghan capital in years, which experts say was too sophisticated for the insurgents to have carried out without the Haqqanis.

    The network’s role could also further poison already tainted relations between Islamabad and Kabul. Afghanistan is pressing Pakistan to crack down on the Haqqanis, accusing it of tolerating the group, a charge the Pakistanis deny.

    An audio recording of a recent meeting of the top Taliban leadership, obtained by The Associated Press, offers a glimpse into the influence the Haqqani network now holds within the movement. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the network’s leader and newly elevated deputy head of the Taliban, tells the gathering that they must end differences and focus on fighting. “It is time to work. The mujahedeen (Islamic holy warriors) are happily going to the battlefield,” he is heard saying. The voice is recognizable as Haqqani’s…”

  19. Abbas confirms PA still paying terrorists’ salaries — reportSame funds still being channeled to Palestinian prisoners, watchdog says, despite assurances to foreign donors that PA no longer involved

    Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas seemingly confirmed this week that the PA continues to pay the salaries of terrorists incarcerated by Israel, despite previously claiming that it had stopped doing so.

    http://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-confirms-pa-still-paying-terrorists-salaries-report/

  20. President Vladimir Putin has ordered free land handouts in Russia’s Far East to be provided with minimal infrastructure. On Monday, he signed a law offering land plots of 1 hectare (2.5 acres) to Russians and naturalized citizens for free.
    “We should work with regional authorities, so that land plots are allocated in areas with at least minimal infrastructure,” Putin said on Wednesday while meeting with Russia’s Far East Development Minister Alexander Galushka.

    Read more
    A view of the town of Nevelsk on Russia’s Sakhalin Island. © Sergey KrasnouhovLand of plenty: Duma committee approves bill for free handover of Russian territory to foreigners
    According to the minister, the infrastructure could be provided to a group of 20 land owners. He said that since the ministry has announced the idea of land development, people have started applying.

    They suggest cooperation of about 200-300 people, said Galushka, adding that then the provision of infrastructure becomes possible, even if it’s not a highly-developed one.

    https://www.rt.com/business/341892-far-east-land-infrastructure/

  21. 2 service members from Romania killed in attack on Afghan base

    The two NATO soldiers killed Saturday by insurgents in Afghanistan were from Romania, Fox News has learned.

    The Romanian soldiers were shot by two insurgents dressed in Afghan Army uniforms, Fox News reported, citing a U.S. defense official.

    Other NATO troops returned fire and killed the shooters.

    The shooting occurred at Kandahar Airfield, the official told Fox News.

    NATO reported the deaths in a statement.

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/05/07/nato-2-service-members-killed-in-attack-on-afghan-base.html?intcmp=hplnws

  22. MADRID (AP) — Three Spanish journalists who went missing while working in Syria in July have been freed from captivity, the Spanish government said Saturday.

    Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s office said in a statement that Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre, who disappeared near the city of Aleppo in northern Syria on July 12, were safe and well.

    Acting Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria had spoken to them by telephone. The statement said

    The government says the intervention of Turkey, Qatar and “other allies and friends” was instrumental in freeing the men, and that a plane was being sent to Turkey to bring them back to Spain.

    http://bigstory.ap.org/article/477613c0652c4ab9b3ca3f6617016070/spain-3-journalists-missing-july-have-been-freed

  23. WASHINGTON: The US State Department has urged Pakistan to take military action against Taliban leaders who allegedly used its territory for cross-border attacks, besides continuing to encourage them to resume peace talks with Kabul.

    Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz told reporters in Islamabad earlier this week that Pakistan could not accept the Afghan demand to abandon its peace efforts and take immediate military action against the Taliban leaders. Instead, Mr Aziz offered to push for resuming the reconciliation talks as soon as possible.

    When asked for comments on the Pakistani position, a State Department official reminded Islamabad that in December last year Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a joint statement, agreeing, “not to allow use of their respective soil against each other”.

    http://www.dawn.com/news/1256874/us-asks-pakistan-to-stop-militants-from-using-its-soil

  24. Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israeli aircraft hit two Hamas targets in Gaza early on Saturday in response to rocket fire as the worst flare-up of violence since a 2014 war entered a fourth day.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket launch and most such fire since 2014 has been carried out by fringe Islamist groups but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all such attacks.

    “Earlier today (Saturday)… a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel,” the army said in a statement.

    “In response… aircraft targeted two Hamas terror infrastructures in the southern Gaza Strip.”

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/israel-targets-hamas-sites-gaza-rocket-fire-army-044734447.html

  25. CAIRO: Seven people were killed and more than 15 wounded by a bomb on Friday in the Yemeni city Marib, east of the capital Sanaa, police said.

    It was not clear who planted the device which went off around midday in the heart of a crowded market where the narcotic leaf qat is sold, they said.

    Marib has most of Yemen’s oil and gas fields and has long been a battleground between factions including local tribesmen, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) insurgents and other Islamists, and government forces.

    https://www.dawn.com/news/1256747/bomb-attack-kills-seven-in-yemen

  26. RIYADH: Saudi King Salman replaced his long-serving oil minister Saturday as part of a major government overhaul which comes as the kingdom grapples with a slump in energy revenues.

    Ali al-Naimi, who held the post of oil minister for more than two decades, was one of the most powerful figures within the OPEC oil cartel.

    But recently his influence appeared to have been curbed by the growing power of Salman’s son Prince Mohammed who has taken charge of economic policy.

    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2016/May-07/351038-saudi-oil-minister-sacked-by-royal-decree-state-media.ashx

  27. CAIRO — Egypt’s Interior Ministry, already under fire over accusations of police brutality and other abuses, heaped new woes onto itself on Tuesday when its press office published, apparently by accident, confidential guidelines that aim to counter a growing tide of news media criticism.

    Memos sent to journalists from the ministry’s official email account contained suggestions about how to counter a “vicious” news media campaign that were triggered by the arrest of two reporters at the journalists’ union headquarters in downtown Cairo late Sunday. One document proposed a rule to stop all coverage related to Giulio Regeni, the Italian graduate student whose brutalized body was found on a Cairo roadside in February.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/world/middleeast/egypts-interior-ministry-in-error-releases-memos-on-restricting-news-media.html?_r=0

  28. NETHERLANDS –

    Extra politie naar Edese wijk Veldhuizen, Marokkaanse jongeren blijven rellen
    ‘Jongens van 12 jaar oud tussen relschoppers, werken volgens een strategie’

    De politie stuurt meer agenten naar de wijk Veldhuizen in Ede. Burgemeester Cees van der Knaap en politiechef Peter van den Berg hebben dat zaterdag laten weten. In de buurt is het al bijna een week onrustig. Marokkaans-Nederlandse jongeren steken auto’s in brand en dagen de politie uit.

    De extra agenten komen ook van buiten Ede. Om hoeveel het gaat, wil de politie niet zeggen. Het rechercheteam dat de autobranden onderzoekt, wordt uitgebreid van twee naar twaalf mensen. Ook is er een speciaal telefoonnummer geopend waar mensen anoniem tips en informatie kunnen doorgeven: 079-3458999.

    De onrust in de achterstandswijk Veldhuizen ontstond vorige week na de sluiting van winkelcentrum Lindenhorst. Daarin was een Marokkaans theehuis gevestigd. “De uitbater vreesde verlies van inkomsten en heeft de onrust voorspeld. Of hij er ook de hand in heeft gehad, laat ik in het midden, maar ik ontken het niet. Ik had gehoopt dat hij meer had gesust”, zegt burgemeester Van der Knaap.

    Afgelopen maandag werden twee agenten in Veldhuizen geconfronteerd met een groep van vijftig jongeren. “De sfeer werd steeds grimmiger”, aldus de politie. Ook in de avonden en nachten erna was het onrustig. Zes jongeren zijn tot nu toe aangehouden. Als zij nog een keer de fout ingaan, moeten ze 2500 euro boete betalen. De zes zijn vijftien tot twintig jaar oud. Een deel komt uit Veldhuizen, een deel uit andere delen van Ede. Volgens de burgemeester zijn ook jongens van twaalf betrokken bij de onlusten.

    Volgens Van der Knaap zit er een strategie achter de onrust. “Een probleem met de openbare orde is veranderd in criminele activiteiten. Ze zijn dusdanig sluw met tactieken bezig. De politie is op de ene plek en vervolgens ontstaat op een hele andere plek brand. De wijk bestaat uit allemaal hofjes, straatjes en doorgangen. Je kunt niet in elke steeg een agent zetten.”

    De Marokkaanse consul heeft deze week een bezoek aan Ede gebracht. Van der Knaap is boos over de ophef daarover. “Hij heeft belangstelling getoond en zijn excuses aangeboden voor het wangedrag. Hij bemoeit zich er niet mee en zegt dat de wet leidend is.”

    http://regio.tpo.nl/2016/05/07/extra-politie-naar-edese-wijk-veldhuizen-marokkaanse-jongeren-blijven-rellen/

    • Police, council officials draft in Moroccan consul over Ede riots

      The Moroccan consul to the Netherlands has been drafted in to speak to a group of youngsters in Ede who have been responsible for a string of car fires and riots, the NRC said on Friday.

      Khalid Guelzim has agreed after talks with council officials and the police to speak directly to the community, the paper quoted news agency ANP as saying.

      Ede, a small town between Arnhem and Utrecht, has been the scene of rioting since last weekend when a group of around 50 youngsters went on the rampage following the closure of a community cafe.

      The shopping centre where the café is located is being demolished. It was a popular hangout with local Dutch Morocan youngsters.

      Council officials, police and the consul met on Friday afternoon to discuss the riots, the work of a group of several dozen youngsters aged 12 to 20, ANP said.

      On Wednesday the mayor introduced a six month ban on public gatherings in an effort to restore order to the area.

      The local mosque and community groups have also condemned the rioting and called for dialogue.

      http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/05/moroccan-consul-called-in-over-ede-riots/

    • Four more cars torched in Ede as unrest continues

      Four more cars were torched in Ede on Friday night as unrest in the Gelderland town continued.

      The fire brigade was alerted to the fires around 02.15am and it took about an hour to put out the flames. The windows in one nearby house and a garage were damaged by the heat, news agency ANP said.

      For over a week, a group of some 50 youngsters, mainly of Moroccan descent, have been setting fires and damaging property in the nearby De Lindenhorst shopping centre which has been closed for demolition.

      The trouble started after a café the youths used to hang out in was shut because of the demolition plans.

      Mosque

      On Friday it emerged that the Moroccan consult general to the Netherlands has been drafted in to try to restore order. The mayor has introduced a local bylaw to stop groups of youths hanging around in parts of the town and a protest march calling for calm has been organised by the local mosque for Sunday.

      The local Christian Democratic party has taken a pragmatic approach to the decision to involve the consul, broadcaster NOS said on Saturday.

      ‘If someone with authority, and that is the consul, wants to contribute to solving the problem by talking, then they are sincerely welcome,’ local leader Jan Pieter van der Schans said.

      The CDA is part of the district’s coalition council along with four other parties. The biggest party in Ede, with seven council seats, is the fundamentalist Christian group SGP but it support is mainly in the outlying Bible belt villages.

      Discretion

      However, local interest party Gemeentebelangen, which is also part of the coalition, has criticised the involvement of an outsider. Leader Peter de Pater said the involvement of the consul should have been kept quiet.

      ‘Before you know it, we’ll have a discussion about outside influence and loyalty,’ he told NOS.

      Ede is a small town with a population of around 65,000. Its economy has been hit by the closure of several nearby army bases and factories and it is increasingly focusing on tourism to the nearby Veluwe heath region as an income source.

      http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/05/four-more-cars-torched-in-ede-as-unrest-continues/

  29. ISIS advances in Libya, seizes villages & crucial crossroads along Mediterranean coast

    Islamic State has made significant advances in the last few days in Libya, seizing villages and crucial crossroads along the Mediterranean coast. The jihadists launched their assault from the group’s stronghold in the city of Sirte.

  30. DAILY MAIL – Saudi prince begs American voters not to vote for Trump and says he ‘cannot believe’ the US could have a president who wants to ban Muslims from entering the country

    Prince Turki al-Faisal urged Americans to ‘make the right choice’ during a foreign policy dinner in Washington, DC on Thursday
    The former ambassador to the United States blasted Trump’s proposal to forbid Muslims from entering the country
    Trump first mentioned it in December and said Wednesday he’d stick with it
    Turki said he couldn’t believe the US could afford to have a president willing to impose such a ban

    A Saudi prince has urged Americans not to vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming general election.

    Turki al-Faisal, who served as Saudia Arabia’s ambassador to the US from 2005 to 2007, spoke against the presumptive Republican nominee during a foreign policy dinner in Washington, DC on Thursday.

    He blasted Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US, which the billionaire first formulated in December last year before renewing his vow on Wednesday.

    ‘For the life of me, I cannot believe that a country like the United States can afford to have someone as president who simply says, “These people are not going to be allowed to come to the United States,”’ […]

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3578552/Prince-Turki-al-Faisal-begs-American-voters-not-make-Donald-Trump-president.html

    • Turki al-Faisal:
      He’s the one who threatened to dump $750B of Saudi investments in the USA if we opened investigations into those 28-pages of evidence regarding the Saudi role in 9/11.
      Everything about that stinks to high heaven. He can take his opinions about our government straight to hell.

  31. BULGARIA – Clashes at Anti-Roma Rally in Radnevo, Bulgaria

    Several policemen and protesters have been injured during clashes at an anti-Roma rally in the southern town of Radnevo that was held after an alleged assault by Roma men on ethnic Bulgarians.

    Three policemen and four protesters suffered injuries after violent clashes broke out the rally in Radnevo, the Bulgarian interior ministry said on Thursday.

    Around 2,000 people joined the protest on Wednesday evening, following an incident in which four men of Roma origin assaulted three Bulgarians in a street row on Monday.

    The violence erupted when the crowd, shouting “Bulgaria for the Bulgarians”, “Bulgarians – heroes”, “Bulgaria above all” and various anti-Roma slogans, reached the Roma neighbourhood of Kantona, which was cordoned off by interior ministry special forces.

    Some of the protesters tried to break through the barricades and enter the Roma neighbourhood, throwing stones and fireworks at the policemen, who responded by dispersing the crowd with batons.

    According to Radnevo’s mayor Tenyo Tenev, the people who tried to break through the barricades were football hooligans from the nearby city of Stara Zagora.

    Speaking to public broadcaster BNT on Thursday, Tenev called on the people of Radnevo, a town of around 13,000 inhabitants, to protest peacefully.

    Tenev alleged that the incident that sparked the tensions was caused by one Roma family.

    “The people are fed up with the wrongdoings of this family, of their shameless, aggressive and arrogant behaviour,” he told media on Wednesday.

    The family has so far made no public response to the mayor’s allegations.

    Four people – a Roma man called Kalcho Ivanov and three of his relatives – were arrested and charged with attempted murder after they allegedly beat up three young men from Radnevo on Monday.

    One of the victims was admitted to hospital with a life-threatening knife-stab wound.

    The suspects’ lawyer claimed however that one of the Roma men, Stefan Ivanov, was severely beaten up by the Bulgarians.

    People in Radnevo are now organising another rally, scheduled for Thursday evening.

    Meanwhile, people from the Roma neighbourhood told media that they are afraid for their lives and most of its inhabitants have temporarily left, moving in with friends and relatives outside Radnevo.

    Wednesday’s clashes were not unprecedented in Bulgaria, where in recent years tensions between people from Roma and ethnic Bulgarian backgrounds have erupted several times, usually over crime-related issues.

    The most violent clashes took place in 2011, when anti-Roma protests were held all over the country following tragic accidents in the southern Bulgarian village of Katunitsa which led to the deaths of two young Bulgarian boys.

    In 2015, protesters also occupied Roma ghettos in the southern Bulgarian village of Garmen, as well as in Sofa’s Orlandovtsi neighbourhood, but police prevented any violence from breaking out.

    http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/ethnic-tensions-provoke-violent-clashes-in-bulgarian-town-radnevo-05-05-2016