Reader’s Links for October 21, 2018

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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

157 Replies to “Reader’s Links for October 21, 2018”

    • Cant watch much of this. its a version of a straw man. Find a guy who argues a true point badly and tear apart that guy and pretend your defeating the point. and for the second or third time “hardy” you are starting to spam this site with time consuming bullsh*t that slowly becomes antisemitic.

      g’bye.

  5. A Hardy,
    A Smarty,
    A man with an axe,
    Sneaking from behind to hide all the facts,
    A little red fox,
    Dressed like a sheep,
    Banished now by chickens,
    With nary a peep.

  6. Apparently this is the 13th ticket machine explosion this year in Germany. Police assumes it’s a single group that does this. They cause 100s of thousands worth of damage, for nickels and dimes.

    Man dies in the explosion of a ticket machine in Halle
    http://www.tellerreport.com/news/–explosions–man-dies-in-the-explosion-of-a-ticket-machine-in-halle-.H1EgxDYjQ.html

    In the explosion of a ticket machine on a S-Bahn station in Halle in Saxony-Anhalt, a man has died. The detonation was so violent that the door of the machine was flung across the platform, the police said. A train driver saw the young man lying bleeding next to the destroyed ticket machine and dialed the emergency call. The injured died a little later in the hospital. At first, it was unclear whether the man had triggered the explosion or was an uninvolved victim.

    • May we know who the perpetrators are? If they are in fact “culture enrichers” then shouldn’t we be told? This would help us make up our mind as to whether enrichment is really a marvellous, wonderful, desirable thing.

      Yeah, it could be homegrown white boys but we want to be told.

        • “No race mentioned it means black or brown.”

          It really has come to this sort of ‘dog whistle’ decoding. Hasn’t it?

          Yust one more yuge reason to starve out legacy media, forever.

    • Man dies in the explosion of a ticket machine in Halle

      It may have involved small change, but for him, it was life-changing!

      [rimshot]

      Pauvre petit chou…

  7. A Hardy
    A smarty
    A sly little fox?
    Sneaking on chickens whilst licking his chops,
    Dressed up in wool
    To resemble a sheep
    But the chickens got wise
    And kicked his sorry sad arse out of the friggin’ barn.

    That there is whatcha call asymmetrical poetry. Very avante-garde.

    Sniff.

  10. Migrant caravan re-forms in Mexico, members vow to reach US

    CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico (AP) — Despite Mexican efforts to stop them at the border, about 2,000 Central American migrants swam or rafted across a river separating that country from Guatemala, re-formed their mass caravan in Mexico and vowed to resume their journey toward the United States.

    The migrants, who said they gave up trying to enter Mexico legally because the asylum application process was too slow, gathered Saturday at a park in the border city of Ciudad Hidalgo. They voted by a show of hands to continue north en masse, then marched to the bridge crossing the Suchiate River and urged those still on it to come join them.

    “We are going to reach the United States,” said Erasmo Duarte, a migrant from Danli, Honduras, despite warnings to turn back this week from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has sought to make the caravan and border security into a campaign issue before the U.S. midterm election in November.

    The decision to re-form the migrant caravan capped a day in wh

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/migrant-caravan-forms-mexico-members-vow-reach-us-040050654.html

    • “Despite Mexican efforts to stop them at the border, about 2,000 Central American migrants swam or rafted across a river separating that country from Guatemala, re-formed their mass caravan in Mexico and vowed to resume their journey toward the United States.”

      Innit curious how the Policía Federal Preventiva (i.e., Mexican Federales) manage to snuff unknown numbers of “new arrivals” crossing Mexico’s southern (Guatemalan) border yet are unable to deal with these same types when they have so politely clustered up against, what can only be termed as, one of the world’s most abjectly hyper-corrupt and violent police forces?

      SOME ANECDOTES: According to legend, whenever Mexico City lists employment opportunities with the federales, there is something in the range of a 100:1 to 1,000:1 ratio of applications for any positions available. Evidently, being a federale is a rather lucrative pasttime.

      Speaking personally, whilst driving end-to-end Baja California in almost precisely 24 hours (try it sometime, with ZERO illicit chemical enhancement)—to observe the 1991 total solar eclipse—I was (at first) slightly taken aback to see Mexican army troops at key points, like filling stations or major intersections, toting automatic long-barrel weapons.

      Upon later reflection—after never having been stopped or shaken down even once during my entire peregrination—I realized that the military was there to keep the local boys from getting a little too rambunctious.

      After all, nothing says “DON’T VISIT MEXICO” like a bunch of disgruntled (is it possible to just be ‘gruntled’?) gringo astronomy professors along with other sundry PhD university instructors and their teaching assistants all returning from South-of-the-Border with well-publicized tales of bribery, graft, and general police festivities that Baja California’s federales are notorious famous for.

      Most hilarious of all was reading articles in scientific journals proclaiming how being even a few degrees off of the Path of Totality (i.e., 100% occultation track) is like “standing outside of the opera house while Pavarotti sings”.

      Imagine my curiosity when, around 04:00 AM I drove through the quaint little pueblo of Todos Santos (All Saints). It was, at the time, mystifying to see a number of buses and vans parked alongside the road.

      Being the (healthy) completionist that I am—and with only 45 miles (76 km) to go—I rubbed the sand out of my eyes and went Full-Goose-Bozo for where the road runs out into the sea (in Cabo San Lucas).

      The eclipse itself was magical (remember, you’re hearing this from a dedicated scientific person). Within minutes, the air cooled by over a dozen degrees. All birds and insects abandoned the sky. I was swigging Pacifico Lager like soda pop. And (safe behind my shade 14 welder’s glass) went about viewing the Baily’s beads (i.e., ‘diamond ring effect’), whereby the sun peeks through valleys twixt lunate mountains and creates gleaming pinpoints all around the eclipse’s periphery.

      Upon reaching planet earth, the sunlight passing through these lunar clefts manifests as wavering diffraction patterns on any expanse of blank pavement or wall. The various interstices of leaves on a tree suddenly become several hundred pinhole cameras and cast many hundreds, if not more) images of the eclipse on any relative blank surface. Please see attached video (below) for a slight approximation of this effect as it depicts the results of an annular eclipse and not a total solar eclipse.

      And now for a bit of fun…

      Imagine running down over 100 miles of laser-beam-straight highway during sundown only to see the glistening, silver ribbon of road ahead of me turn (in my rearview mirror) into an endless stretch of trailing, dull asphalt.

      My first intentional stop after crossing the border was in Santa Rosalia, in Mulegé Municipality, Baja California Sur. Click on link to view interior bracing and trusses designed by Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel.

      Yes, that Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. And, contrary to popular perception, the Eiffel Tower is not built out of Eiffels. Equally amazing was the sumptuous semi-warm lobster salad, graciously served to me by the restaurant’s chef and owner, which powered me down the peninsula.

      From whatever Wiki Wacky Wookie Weirdness: Iglesia de Santa Bárbara is a prefabricated iron church in Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur, Mexico. It was designed by Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel in 1884, and built in 1887.

      Now, (at another time) envision traversing so many hundred miles of utterly desolate desert waste to suddenly encounter the verdant Mulege oasis of countless palm trees in an emerald river valley. But wait, there’s more!

      After arriving in Cabo San Lucas near sunup and going-all-fetal in my hatchback’s rear deck for a few winks of desperately needed sleep, within the hour (as previously noted), I went about my merry way collecting some of the most astonishing astronomical memories in my entire lifetime.

      The punch lines:

      All of those egghead profs and highbrow Ivy League wankers who camped out on the Path of Totality at Todos Santos (claiming that anything less was camping out in the bleacher seats) were greeted with dense fog that prohibited all but IR (Infra Red) viewing of the eclipse-like event.

      If schadenfreude were punishable by law (perhaps not now, but damn-well soon enough, eh?), then I’d likely have been strung up (amidst endless cheers) by all of those supremely frustrated astronomers (et al…) at Todos Santos.

      Finally:

      To close … please try and conceive of the supreme “coincidence”—as in the one-in-a-bazillion-gazillion chances—that the lunar orbit, as in: the moon’s exact diameter, against the sun’s (sol’s) exact in-sky size, all combine to establish a degree of precision which serve to create a Solar Observatory of unimaginably, high precision.

      • Why didn’t the police stop them?

        My guess is that the people who were handing our money at the start of the caravan got to the border first and spend some time handing out more.

  11. Trump says U.S. will pull out of nuke treaty with Russia that limited number of missiles

    WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Saturday he would pull out of a Cold-War era treaty with Russia that limited the number of missiles in each country.

    Trump said Moscow had violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and he would halt the agreement.

    “We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” Trump said when leaving a rally in Nevada Saturday afternoon. He said the U.S. would pull out “and then we are going to develop the weapons” unless Russia and China agree to a new deal, though China isn’t currently a party of the agreement.

    “Russia has violated the agreement. They have been violating it for many years,” the president said. “And we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to.”

    Trump made the revelation as his National Security Adviser John Bolton was headed to Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. His first stop is scheduled in Moscow, where he’ll meet with Russian leaders, including Foreign Ministe

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/10/20/president-trump-pulling-out-nuke-treaty-russia/1712994002/

    • ““We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out,” Trump said when leaving a rally in Nevada Saturday afternoon. He said the U.S. would pull out “and then we are going to develop the weapons” unless Russia and China agree to a new deal, though China isn’t currently a party of the agreement.”

      What an amazing semblance this has to Reagan’s ‘outspend’ and ‘outdevelop’ the USSR until that wretched, Commie hellhole, joyfully imploded. Ha ha, yust kidding!!! Putin and his cronies are still busy killing the West.

      With apologies in advance: How alarming is it that this new Socialist Claque of Ex-KGB Mafia circle-jerkers are, somehow, unable to (like so many lampreys) remain a true service to humanity represent whatever significant contribution to all around them.

      Churchill’s, “So many owing so much to so few.” instantly springs to mind.

      Any other suggestions are entirely welcome.

  12. Britain backs Trump on Russia arms treaty withdrawal

    Britain’s defense secretary says his country stands “absolutely resolute” with the United States as President Donald Trump says he’ll pull out from a landmark arms control agreement with Russia.

    Gavin Williamson blames Russia for endangering the treaty. He’s calling on the Kremlin to “get its house in order.”

    Trump says he’ll exit the agreement because Russia has violated it “for many years” and it’s preventing the U.S. from developing new weapons.

    Backing Trump, Williamson tells the Financial Times that Moscow has made a “mockery” of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

    The 1987 pact prohibits the United States and Russia from possessing, producing or test-flying a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of 300 miles to 3,400 miles

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/21/gavin-williamson-says-britain-backs-donald-trump-u/

  13. Germany urges global minimum tax for digital giants

    Frankfurt am Main (AFP) – German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said in an interview for publication Sunday he backed a global minimum fiscal regime for multinationals as Europe looks to levy tax notably on US tech giants.

    “We need a minumum tax rate valid globally which no state can get out of (applying),” Scholz, a social democrat in conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government, told the “Welt am Sonntag” weekly.

    Europe is trying to devise a strategy to tax profits from the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and digital platforms such as YouTube and Airbnb which currently manage to keep fiscal exposure to a bare minimum.

    Digital platforms “aggravate a problem which we know well from globalisation and which we are trying to counter — the shifting of profits to fiscally beneficial regions,” said Scholz.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/germany-urges-global-minimum-tax-digital-giants-220405598.html

  14. The City That Had Too Much Money

    The black coupe pulled up outside the Starlight Casino in a suburb of Vancouver. The driver got out, greeted a man in a red shirt, and pulled two bulging white plastic bags from the trunk. He led the way into an empty noodle shop next door, where he handed over the bags before returning to the car. The man in the red shirt took the bags into the casino, through a cavernous glass lobby with signs in English and Mandarin. At a cashier’s desk, he opened one of the bags to present his cargo: thousands of green Canadian $20 bills, bound into loose bricks with yellow plastic bands.

    The cashier’s counting machine would need to run continuously for more than 10 minutes to riffle through all the notes, which came to more than C$250,000 ($192,000). Converted into chips that could be cashed out later, whether or not they’d been wagered at the tables, the money would be spendable anywhere in Canada, unimpeded by questions of provenance.

    The transaction at the Starlight on that winter day in 2009, depicted in video footage released this year by the government of British Columbia, was one of thousands made in and around Vancouver over the past decade. Known abroad primarily for its stunning Pacific Coast setting and athletic lifestyle, the city has since become one of the world’s largest sluices for questionable funds moving from Asia into Western economies. One academic terms the process “the Vancouver model”: a seamy mingling of clean and dirty cash in casinos, real estate, and luxury goods made possible by historic ties to China and by Canada’s lax record of fighting financial crime.

    https://www.bloombergquint.com/pursuits/vancouver-is-drowning-in-chinese-money#gs.jwQe46I

    • A great way to launder the money they smuggled out of China.

      The fact that so much Chinese money is making its way into the Western Nations tells us volumes about the state of the Chinese economy and what the rich Chinese think about the chances of keeping their money if it and their families remain in China. To revive an old saying, “Actions speak louder then words”, if you took at peoples actions when their actions are saying something different then their words believe the actions. Especially when those actions involve money.

  15. Chinese broadens its propaganda drive to heartland America

    OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — China’s propaganda machine has taken aim at American soybean farmers as part of its high-stakes trade war with the Trump administration.

    The publication last month of a four-page advertising section in the Des Moines Register opened a new battle line in China’s effort to break the administration’s resolve. U.S. farmers are a key political constituency for Trump, and Beijing has imposed tariffs on American soybeans as retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on hundreds of billions in Chinese imports.

    China regularly disseminates propaganda in the West through its China Daily newspaper to try to influence public opinion. But the advertorial in the Register was unusual for deploying not a national publication in New York or Washington but a newspaper in the farm state of Iowa.

    “It’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this in a heartland city,” said Matt Schrader, who edits the China Brief newsletter for the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington research institute that monitors China’s actions.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-broadens-propaganda-drive-heartland-132238597.html

    • This says the tariffs are hurting China and they are trying to get the US citizens to put pressure on the government to remove them.

  16. In Latest Provocation To Beijing, US Plans New Warship Passage Through Taiwan Strait

    In Washington’s latest attempt to provoke Beijing, the United States is planning to send warships through the Taiwan Strait according to Reuters, a mission meant to ensure “free passage” through the strategic waterway and which will further heighten political tensions with China. Reuters sources did not discuss the potential timing for any fresh passage through the strait.

    The last time the US conducted a similar crossing under the “free passage” umbrella, China responded angrily over what it saw was the latest US incursion in its geopolitical sphere of influence and a fresh mission would only exacerbate the state of affairs between the two superpowers; meanwhile any repeat would be seen in self-ruled Taiwan as a fresh expression of support by President Donald Trump’s government.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-20/latest-provocation-beijing-us-plans-new-warship-passage-through-taiwan-strait

    • You have to admire the consistency that the media shows in trying to make everything Americas fault.

  17. DHS Under Secretary: China, Iran, Russia Risks to Cyber Security in Midterm Elections

    U.S. national security agencies are sounding the alarm amid ongoing cyberattacks from oversees in the run-up to the midterm elections.

    On Friday, DHS under Secretary Chris Krebs says he sees “continued and persistent attempts” by China, Iran, and Russia to use social media to meddle in the U.S. elections.

    https://www.oann.com/dhs-under-secretary-china-iran-russia-risks-to-cyber-security-in-midterm-elections/

    • And they all want the Dems to win, a weak US means they are stronger, a strong US means they are limited in what they can do.

  18. Israeli publicist calls the former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, an idiot–
    Charlotte Knobloch likes it to call at every opportunity the Islam-critical AfD party a “Nazi party” and likes it to present herself with politicians from the left-wing extremist parties GRÜNE and SPD.
    The former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany is now considerably criticized by Jews in Israel and by Jewish fellow citizens in Germany.

    In response to a critical article on Mrs. Knobloch written by Josef Hueber for the Internet portal Philosophia Perennis (tweet below the letter), Hueber received a praising letter from Sarah Honig, until recently editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post. Here is the wording of the letter:
    Read more:
    https://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2018/10/israeli-publicist-calls-former.html

  19. Did Juan Williams libel LU’s Hans Bader?
    By Jerome Woehrle October 20, 2018

    In a recent book that got bad reviews from many readers, Juan Williams attacked LU’s Hans Bader. The book contains some clearly false statements. Williams attributes to Bader things that are the opposite of what Bader in fact said. I am not a libel lawyer, but I wonder if these false statements constitute libel.

    Bader criticized the Obama administration’s school-discipline guidance, which put pressure on school systems to have equal suspension rates for students of different races, even when misbehavior rates aren’t the same. In response, a few school districts, such as Minneapolis, adopted racial quotas in suspensions. They required that the minority suspension rate be reduced over time to the white rate, regardless of students’ actual behavior. Minneapolis had explicit racial double standards. It required that suspensions of minority students — but not white students — be reviewed and approved by the superintendant’s office.

    Bader pointed out in a 2014 column that such quotas and double standards violated a federal appeals court decision. He also argued that given the reality of black-on-black violence, these quotas would harm most black students, who are the innocent victims — not the perpetrators — of school violence and disorder. As he wrote:

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/20/did-juan-williams-libel-hans-bader/

  20. Court docs: FBI used multiple informants, some paid, to investigate Trump aide
    By Daily Caller News Foundation October 20, 2018

    The U.S. government revealed in court filings Friday that the FBI used multiple confidential informants, including some who were paid for their information, as part of its investigation into former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

    “The FBI has protected information that would identify the identities of other confidential sources who provided information or intelligence to the FBI” as well as “information provided by those sources,” wrote David M. Hardy, the head of the FBI’s Record/Information Dissemination Section (RIDS), in court papers submitted Friday.

    Hardy and Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys submitted the filings in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for the FBI’s four applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Page. The DOJ released heavily redacted copies of the four FISA warrant applications on June 20, but USA Today reporter Brad Heath has sued for full copies of the documents.

    Hardy’s declaration acknowledged that the confidential sources used by the FBI were in addition to Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the infamous anti-Trump dossier.

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/10/20/court-docs-fbi-used-multiple-informants-some-paid-to-investigate-trump-aide/

    • Germans will be happy when the jackals completely take over and start gutting white babies for sacrifice to rid themselves of AIDS as they do with albinos in Africa.

      It’s so good to be a minority in your own country. Just ask any South African.

      • The goal of the left is to create absolute chaos so the people will accept a left wing Strongman/Dictator as the national leader. I doubt if this will work in the US but in the nations where the people have been disarmed it probably will work for a while. The flaw in their plan is that during the chaos everyone with any sense will get weapons to defend their families with and they will be very reluctant to turn them over to the government once things have settled down. What they aren’t taking into consideration in their plans (which were made before the new tech was developed) is the way the 3D printers )both plastic and metal) and the computer controlled milling machines have made gun control unworkable. When the equipment to manufacture weapons in any garage is cheaply available gun control is dead. Yes the quality of the weapons will vary according to who makes them and how much that person knows about heat treating/tempering the metal but even the worst can be used to shoot one of the invaders so you can take their weapon.

  21. Unknown Men Storm Canada’s Embassy in Athens – Reports (sputniknews, Oct 21, 2018)
    https://sputniknews.com/europe/201810211069075336-athens-canada-embassy-attack/

    “Earlier, similar raids had been carried out by members of the anarchist group Rubicon; however, no group has claimed responsibility for the incident.

    A group of ten masked men reportedly attacked the Embassy of Canada in Athens, breaking the glass doors of the entrance, Naftemporiki reported.

    Following the reports, the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Canadian embassy attack in a statement, stressing that the authorities are taking all possible measures to find the offenders.

    The incident took place at approximately 6 a.m. local time in Athens; no group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

    The masked intruders threw bottles of paint at the building, wrecked the glass at the entrance with sledgehammers, and then fled the scene, the local media added.

    Police are reportedly investigating the case, but haven’t detained any suspects yet.”

  22. Western Germany: 42 Percent of Children Under Six Come from Migration Background (breitbart, Oct 21, 2018)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/10/21/42-percent-of-children-under-six-come-from-migration-background-in-western-germany/

    “The population of Germany is rapidly transforming according to a new study which shows low birthrates, high emigration, and mass immigration have led to a dramatic decrease in the number of native Germans in the country.

    The data comes from a two-year study by the German Federal Statistical Office which has shown not only has there been a strong increase of migrants coming to Germany from overseas, but also a strong trend of native Germans leaving to move abroad, Die Welt reports.

    The effects are most clearly seen in western Germany where it is estimated that up to 42 percent of children under the age of six now come from a migration background, but the reason for the rapid change in demographics is not down to mass migration alone.

    In 2017, 249,000 German citizens left the country to move abroad, while 167,000 moved back from overseas, leading to a net drain of 82,000 Germans leaving the country — a trend that has been ongoing since 2005.

    Falling birthrates have also led to a decline among the native German population. As well as losing around 217,000 citizens due to emigration over the past two years, 500,000 more Germans died than were born over the same period. The result is a loss of 700,000 Germans in total, over only two years.

    Combined with the pro-mass migration policies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the figures point to a dramatic demographic shift, reflected in cities like Frankfurt where native Germans officially became a minority in June 2017.

    Statistics released earlier this year showed mass migration to be the sole driver of population growth in Germany, a trend that has been seen across other western European countries as well.

    In total, nearly one in four German residents, 19.3 million people, now come from a migration background.”

    • They are preying on the lower class kids and the Middle and Upper class are ignoring the problem because it isn’t happening to their kids.

  24. 1 migrant dead, 200 others climb fence into Spanish enclave (abcnews, Oct 21, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/migrant-dead-200-climb-fence-spanish-enclave-58645016

    “Spanish authorities say one migrant has died and 200 others have entered Spain when a large group of migrants attacked a fence separating Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco.

    A representative of Spain’s government in Melilla says the migrant appears to have died from a heart attack. Officials are waiting for an autopsy to confirm the cause of death.

    The representative says at least three other migrants were injured when some 300 sub-Saharan Africans tried to climb the high border fence on Sunday. The official says 200 migrants managed to reach Spanish territory.

    Spain this year has seen a spike in migrants who try to reach the European Union nation either via its two North African enclaves or by crossing the Mediterranean Sea in small boats.”

  25. 3 rebels, 5 civilians die in Kashmir amid battle, clashes (abcnews, Oct 21, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/rebels-killed-kashmir-35-hurt-amid-anti-india-58644104

    “Three suspected rebels were killed in a gunbattle with Indian government forces in disputed Kashmir on Sunday, and five civilians were killed in an explosion at the site after the fighting was over, officials and residents said.

    The fighting erupted after troops cordoned off a village in the southern Kulgam area on a tip that rebels were hiding there, India’s military said. The exchange lasted for several hours, and three militants were killed and two soldiers injured, the military said.

    Residents said soldiers blasted a civilian home with explosives while fighting the rebels, a common charge by Kashmiris who deeply resent the Indian army’s presence…”

  26. Suspected militants kill 3 workers in Egypt’s Sinai (abcnews, Oct 21, 2018)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/suspected-militants-kill-workers-egypts-sinai-58644646

    “Egyptian security officials say three workers contracted to build a security wall in the northern Sinai city of el-Arish have been shot dead by suspected militants.

    The officials say a fourth worker was wounded in the attack, which took place Saturday outside their homes.

    The officials say six militants have been killed in two separate raids by security forces targeting hideouts in northern Sinai. The Saturday raids left two policemen wounded following shootouts.

    The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

    Egyptian security forces have for years been battling militants, now led by the extremist Islamic State group, in northern Sinai. The insurgency picked up steam after the 2013 ouster of an elected but divisive Islamist president.”

      • “Trump is freeing us from the tyranny of the minority.”

        Too right, Richard. Thank you for reiterating the (priceless) decades-old meme.

  28. Germany seeks to deepen cultural relations with Iran: Envoy (mehrnews, Oct 21, 2018)
    https://en.mehrnews.com/news/138907/Germany-seeks-to-deepen-cultural-relations-with-Iran-Envoy

    “In a Sunday meeting with Iranian Minister of Culture Abbas Salehi, the German envoy pointed to the long history of relations between the two countries in various fields, adding that Germany seeks to deepen and strengthen cultural ties with Iran.

    Iranians love German art and culture, including figures like Goethe, Hegel and Kant, he said, adding that there is need to sing a cultural MoU between the two states.

    Klor-Berchtold hoped that Iranian museums would soon hold loan exhibits in Germany, adding that German relics can simultaneously be displayed in Iran.

    Elsewhere, he criticized US decision on withdrawing from Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), saying that this should not have happened because this international agreement was a UN Security Council resolution.

    Salehi, for his part, said that Iran’s current administration is determined to expand cultural relations with Germany more than before.

    He went on to say that inking a cultural MoU will lead to a better continuation of cultural cooperation.

    Touching upon JCPOA, Salehi said that the European countries, especially Germany, have been good partners in maintaining the agreement, but more effort is needed to rebuild this trust.”

  29. Turkey issues Interpol ‘red notice’ for prominent journalists in exile (thenational, Oct 21, 2018)
    https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/turkey-issues-interpol-red-notice-for-prominent-journalists-in-exile-1.782866

    “Journalism in Turkey has come under renewed scrutiny after an Istanbul court issued an international arrest warrant for two prominent writers living overseas.

    In a hearing against journalists linked to the Cumhuriyet newspaper, the 27th High Criminal Court said it would request the issuance of Interpol “red notices” for Can Dundar and Ilhan Tanir. The order notifies all Interpol member states that the individual has pending arrest warrants.

    Mr Dundar, the newspaper’s former editor-in-chief, and Mr Tanir, its ex-Washington correspondent, currently live in Germany and the US respectively.

    In April, more than a dozen Cumhuriyet staff were convicted of supporting groups such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front and the Gulenist movement, which Ankara holds responsible for a 2016 coup attempt. All three are listed as terrorist organisations in Turkey.

    Mr Dundar, Turkey’s most prominent journalist-in-exile, dismissed the court’s demand for the notices, which are issued by Interpol at the request of a member state, and he said the agency would disregard it because “they know the real intentions” of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    Turkish courts have called for Mr Dundar to be extradited on at least two occasions since he went to Europe in the wake of his May 2016 conviction for revealing state secrets in a Cumhuriyet article documenting the transport of arms to Syria by Turkey’s spy agency.

    Mr Tanir edits the English output of the Ahval news website, which was banned in Turkey in March.

    Henri Barkey, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in the US, warned that they faced the risk of arrest in countries willing to acquiesce to Ankara’s demands.

    “The truth is that they have to be careful about where they travel,” said Prof Barkey, who faces an arrest warrant issued in November over claims he was involved in plotting the coup.

    “There’s a possibility of bilateral warrants being used so they should be careful. Turkey is playing games – it’s a way of putting pressure on them, saying ‘We’re here and we won’t leave you alone.’”

    Since the July 2016 attempted coup, Turkey has emerged as the world’s top jailer of journalists with 73 behind bars in 2017, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

    Reporters Without Borders places the country in 157th place for press freedom out of 180 nations. The Turkey Purge website says more than 300 journalists were among tens of thousands of people jailed after the failed coup while 189 media outlets were closed down.

    Among the latest to face criminal charges over their reporting are two current Cumhuriyet journalists. Alican Uludag and Duygu Guvenc have been accused of denigrating the judiciary by suggesting the release of US pastor Andrew Brunson earlier this month was linked to a back-room deal with Washington.

    Despite the number of journalists languishing in prison, Mr Erdogan has insisted that freedom of expression is protected under his stewardship.

    “Turkey numbers among the world’s leading countries in matters of press freedom, the most advanced communications technologies, social media, the internet and journalism,” he said on Journalists’ Day in January. As well as crackdowns on journalists, the government has at times barred access to social media sites including Twitter and YouTube.

    “Despite having, from time to time, suffered personal harm from the media over my political life, I have fought to enable different voices and different cultures to express themselves and voice their ideas with ease, and will continue to do so.”

    The closure or takeover of opposition media outlets has given Mr Erdogan a near-monopoly of the media with around 90 per cent of TV stations and newspapers run by pro-government figures.

    In March, Turkey’s largest independent media group, which included CNN Turk, Hurriyet newspaper and Dogan News Agency, was bought out by Demiroren Holding. At the time, journalist Kadri Gursel said the purchase had placed most of the media “under the direct political control of President Erdogan.”

    The death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul has highlighted the threat to media workers around the world. Much of the reporting of the case around the world has been based on reports in Turkey’s pro-government newspapers such as Sabah and Yeni Safak that rely on anonymous security sources.

    Despite these outlets’ longstanding reputation for running far-fetched claims, their reporting on the Khashoggi case has been widely repeated in leading Western newspapers.

    “The fact that the New York Times and others haven’t questioned the veracity of their sources is very cavalier,” Prof Barkey said. “Yeni Safak and Sabah are papers that run outlandish stories.””

    • “If the Italian crisis becomes a major crisis, it will mainly implode into the Italian economy … as opposed to spreading around Europe,” he said. “Because of the way that the Italian economy and the Italian banks are financed, it’s going to be an implosion rather than an explosion.”

      He may be right, the EU may be able to take down the Italian economy and keep the major damage inside Italy. But doing this to one nation will scare all of the other nations and they will start preparing for when this is done to them. Also this action will prove that the people who are afraid of the EU bureaucracy are not paranoid, this in turn will generate resistance to everything the EU tries to do.

    • Italy: Salvini deploys police to French border after row over migrants

      Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini announced on Saturday that he was sending Italian police to patrol the border with France, after French authorities allegedly returned migrants to the border town of Claviere last week.

      Footage emerging on Friday purportedly showed a French police van dropping off a man at the border.

    • WaPo – Khashoggi’s death was a ‘rogue operation’ that the crown prince was not aware of, Saudi foreign minister says

      ISTANBUL — Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister denied on Sunday that the kingdom’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, had any prior knowledge of an operation that resulted in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and said that the agents involved “weren’t people closely tied” to the crown prince.

      “This was an operation that was a rogue operation,” Adel al-Jubeir told Fox News. “This was an operation where individuals ended up exceeding the authorities and responsibilities they had. They made a mistake when they killed Jamal Khashoggi.”

      “Even the senior leadership of our intelligence service was not aware of this,” Jubeir added, marking the first public comments by a senior Saudi official since early Saturday, when authorities in Riyadh announced they had arrested 18 people and fired five top officials in connection with the journalist’s death.

      Jubeir said Saudi Arabia does not know where Khashoggi’s body is and that officials have not listened to an audio tape Turkey claims proves Khashoggi’s torture, killing and dismemberment.

      Jubeir spoke shortly after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday he will soon be revealing details of his government’s investigation into the killing of Khashoggi, a move that could directly contradict Saudi Arabia’s official account of what happened inside its consulate in Istanbul.

      Erdogan said he would be explaining the episode “in a very different way” when his ruling party meets on Tuesday, adding to the already intense global pressure Saudi leadership has faced to provide a full picture of how Khashoggi was killed.

      “We seek justice and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth,” Erdogan said, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency. “The incident will be revealed entirely.”

      Turkey and Saudi Arabia have been at odds over what happened inside the consulate ever since Khashoggi, a U.S.-based Washington Post contributing columnist and critic of the Saudi monarchy, disappeared there on Oct. 2.

      Turkish authorities almost immediately concluded Khashoggi was deliberately targeted by a 15-man squad of Saudi agents who killed and dismembered him inside the diplomatic mission. The authorities said their conclusions are based on audio recordings from inside the consulate that provide a clear account of how Khashoggi was killed.

      Saudi Arabia denied any knowledge of his fate for two weeks. On Saturday, the kingdom changed course dramatically, announcing that a preliminary investigation found that Khashoggi was killed after a fistfight inside the consulate.

      Saudi prosecutors said 18 people had been arrested and five top officials fired for their connection to the case. Two of the dismissed officials were among Mohammed’s closest advisers.

      “Why did those 15 people come [to Istanbul]; why were 18 people arrested [in Saudi Arabia]?” Erdogan said Sunday. “This should be explained in full detail.”

      The arrests in Saudi Arabia did little to ease intense global pressure on Mohammed, whose self-styled image as a modernizing reformer has been tarnished by Khashoggi’s killing. The Saudi explanation has also been met with skepticism by European nations and U.S. lawmakers who have expressed concern that the Saudi investigation is solely designed to shield Mohammed from any culpability.

      President Trump initially said the Saudi explanation of Khashoggi’s death was credible. But in an interview with The Post late Saturday, Trump conceded that “there had been deception.” Still, he defended Saudi Arabia as an “incredible ally” and expressed hope that Mohammed was not involved.

      Erdogan’s comments came after a spokesman for his party said Saturday that Turkey would not allow a coverup of Khashoggi’s death. Taken together, it suggests Turkey’s president is seeking to increase his leverage over the Saudis and the Trump administration, which has tried to protect its Saudi allies.

      Seeking to contain the international fallout, which has included calls for a transparent independent investigation and a host of nations and corporations pulling their participation in a high-profile investment conference in Saudi Arabia this week, Jubeir said the shifting Saudi account of what happened was a result of a coverup by the arrested agents.

      “They told us that he left the consulate,” Jubeir said. “They came back to Saudi Arabia; they filed a report to that effect.”

      A public prosecutor launched his investigation after “discrepancies” between the agents’ report and the reports coming out of Turkey, which Jubeir said revealed that the team had falsified its report.

      “The individuals who did this took this outside the scope of their authority. Obviously, it was a tremendous mistake made. And what compounded the mistake was their attempt to cover up.”

      Jubeir added, “This is an aberration, this is a mistake, this is a criminal act, and those responsible for it will be punished.”

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/khashoggis-death-was-a-rogue-operation-that-the-crown-prince-was-not-aware-of-saudi-foreign-minister-says/2018/10/21/97ee4c06-d3d2-11e8-a4db-184311d27129_story.html

    • zero hedge – Saudi Crown Prince Spoke To Khashoggi By Phone Moments Before He Was Killed: Report

      In the latest bombshell report involving the Khashoggi murder, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly spoke on the phone with journalist Jamal Khashoggi moments before he was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish pro-government daily Yeni Safak disclosed the new alleged details of the case in a report on Sunday, contradicting claims by Saudi authorities that Prince Mohammed played no part in Khashoggi’s murder.

      “Khashoggi was detained by the Saudi team inside the consulate building. Then Prince Mohammed contacted Khashoggi by phone and tried to convince him to return to Riyadh,” the report said.

      “Khashoggi refused Prince Mohammed’s offer out of fear he would be arrested and killed if he returned. The assassination team then killed Khashoggi after the conversation ended,” it added.

      While the report is so far unconfirmed, the New Arab reports that so far Turkish pro-government media have been receiving a steady stream of leaks many of which turned out to be accurate, including pictures of the hit team as they entered Turkey and reports of audio recordings of the murder said to be in the possession of Turkish authorities.

      Meanwhile, the Saudi version of events has been changing significantly over the past two weeks with authorities conceded Saturday that Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and a Riyadh critic, was killed inside the kingdom’s Istanbul diplomatic compound following a “brawl”. The admission came after a fortnight of denials with the insistence that the journalist left the consulate alive, starting on October 5, when Crown Prince MBS told Bloomberg that Khashoggi was not inside the consulate and “we are ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises”.

      On Saturday, the kingdom announced it had fired five top officials and arrested 18 others in an investigation into the killing – a move that has widely been viewed as an attempt to cover up the crown prince’s role in the murder.

      The shifting Saudi narrative of the killing has been met with scepticism and condemnation from the international community, and has left the U.S. and other allies struggling for a response on Sunday. As Bloomberg reports, France demanded more information, Germany put arms sales to Riyadh on hold and the Trump administration stressed the vital importance of the kingdom and its economy to the U.S.

      In Sunday radio and TV interviews, Dominic Raab, the U.K. politician in charge of negotiating Britain’s exit from the European Union, described the latest Saudi account as not credible; French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called for “the truth’’; and Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said his government would approve no arms sales so long as the investigation was ongoing.

      Earlier on Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir acknowledged a cover-up attempt. The dramatic reversal, after Saudi officials had previously said the columnist left the building alive, has only complicated the issue for allies.

      Saudi Arabia’s al-Jubeir told Fox News on Sunday that the journalist’s death was an “aberration.”

      “There obviously was a tremendous mistake made and what compounded the mistake was the attempt to cover up,” he said, promising that “those responsible will be punished for it.”

      More importantly, he said that Prince Mohammed had no knowledge of the events, although if the Turkish report is confirmed, it will be yet another major flaw with the official narrative.

      Several senior members of US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party said they believed Prince Mohammed was linked to the killing, and one called for a “collective” Western response if a link is proved. In an interview with The Washington Post, President Trump, too, said the Saudi narrative had been marked by “deception and lies.’’ Yet he also defended Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a “strong person,’’ and said there was no proof of his involvement in Khashoggi’s death. Some members of Congress have questioned his willingness to exonerate the prince.

      “Obviously there’s been deception and there’s been lies,” Trump said on the shifting accounts offered by Riyadh.

      On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to disclose details about the case at a meeting of his AK Party’s parliamentary faction on Tuesday, Haberturk newspaper reported.

      Meanwhile, as Western firms and high-ranked officials scramble to avoid any Saudi involvement, Russia is more than happy to step in and fill the power vacuum void left by the US. As a result, Russian businesses are flocking to attend the investment forum in Saudi Arabia, as Western counterparts pull out.

      Russian President Vladimir Putin has had considerable success boosting Moscow’s influence in the Middle East at U.S. expense, by standing by regimes that fall afoul of the West, including in Syria and Iran. Last week Putin signed a strategic and partnership agreement with Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, backed by $25 billion in loans to build nuclear reactors. Until El-Sisi came to power, Egypt had been closely allied to the U.S.

      Meanwhile, all eyes are fixed squarely on the Crown Prince whose position of power is looking increasingly perilous. Congressional leaders on Sunday dismissed the story proffered earlier by the Saudis, with Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bob Corker of Tennessee saying they believed the crown prince was likely involved in Khashoggi’s death.

      Lawmakers said they believe the U.S. must impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia or take other action if the crown prince is shown to have been involved. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, said the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. should be formally expelled until a third-party investigation is done. He said the U.S. should call on its allies to do the same.

      “Unless the Saudi kingdom understands that civilized countries around the world are going to reject this conduct and make sure that they pay a price for it, they’ll continue doing it,”’ Durbin said.

      The obvious question is what happens and how the Saudi royal family will respond if it is pushed too far, and whether the worst case scenario, a sharp cut in oil exports, could be on the table if MBS feels like he has little to lose from escalating the situation beyond a point of no return.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-21/saudi-crown-prince-spoke-khashoggi-phone-moments-he-was-killed-report

  34. GOP Women’s Group Attacking Trump Funded Solely by Male Democratic Donor
    Republican Women for Progress PAC active in New Jersey, Kentucky, and Michigan

    A new Republican women’s group who is “fed up with Trump” and pouring cash into toss-up congressional districts is bankrolled solely by a male billionaire venture capitalist who is a major donor to Democratic campaigns and causes, Federal Election Commission filings show.

    Republican Women for Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based “grassroots” nonprofit, was founded by Jennifer Pierotti Lim and Meghan Milloy and is comprised of “right-leaning” women who are opposed to President Donald Trump. The group has garnered glowing national media profiles that include a ten-minute segment on CBS News and articles in publications such as Glamour, Slate, and others.

    The group is so far active in competitive congressional districts in New Jersey, Kentucky, and Michigan.

    https://freebeacon.com/politics/gop-womens-group-attacking-trump-funded-solely-by-male-democratic-donor/

  37. 0:03 / 7:39
    ‘This Is Not a Right or Left Issue’: Pirro Echoes Trump’s Threat of Military to Stop Migrant Caravan

  38. “It Is the Quran That Must Be Read”
    Extremist Persecution of Christians, May 2018

    by Raymond Ibrahim
    October 21, 2018 at 5:00 am

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13156/extremist-persecution-christians-may
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    The Extremists’ Slaughter of Christians Inside Churches

    Indonesia: Six suicide bombers from one Muslim family attacked three churches on May 13, during Sunday Mass services; at least 11 worshippers were killed. The suicide bombers consisted of a father, mother, and four children, two boys and two girls, aged 9,12, 16, and 18. According to the report:

    “More than 40 people were injured in the blasts. The first attack that killed four people, including one or more bombers, occurred at the Santa Maria Roman Catholic Church… The father of the family accused of carrying out the suicide bombing had detonated a car bomb during his attack. The incident was followed by a second explosion at the Christian Church of Diponegoro that killed two people. In a third attack, at Pantekosta Church, two more died, police said.”

    A witness described one of the attacks, where the mother and the two youngest jihadis detonated themselves. Because she was carrying two suspicious bags (apparently of explosives), “officers blocked them in front of the churchyard, but the woman ignored them and forced her way inside. Suddenly (the bomb) exploded.” The father “was very active in the mosque,” said an acquaintance; “he never missed any of the five daily prayers, but he avoided discussing religion.” “The four children were studying in schools run by the Muhammadiyah,” long thought the most moderate Islamic school in Indonesia, said a family neighbor. “To me they were normal people,” he added.

  40. The piously politically correct blue state that bankrolls Putin
    By Monica Showalter

    CalPERS, the $326-billion California state pension fund for some two million state cops, firefighters, and bureaucrats, has never been shy about its trumpeting its political correctness. It’s positively famous for its pullouts of tobacco investments, Turkey investments, apartheid South Africa investments, and coal investments, and so famous that you probably would never have heard of the fund were it not for its pullouts. It’s not that they are that awful in themselves – they often try to push back on calls to divest. But they’ve always been seen by leftists as a tool to oppose President Trump. So in general, name the lefty cause, and out they pull.

    Well, with one little exception: Putin’s Russia. On that one, they’ve shelled out nearly half a billion dollars to the Russian government (not companies, but the government) through its bond buys. And hey, they’re one of Russia’s top foreign investors, top ten among foreigners.

    Seth Hettena, in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Ti

    Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/10/the_piously_politically_correct_blue_state_that_bankrolls_putin.html#ixzz5UapAiNT2
    Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

  41. An appalling video showing a student in a French school threatening a teacher with a dummy ‘gun’ in class has shocked France. Questions are being raised about the regularity of such incidents and the authorities’ response.
    The viral footage, initially distributed on Snapchat, shows a class in a school in Creteil commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris. A male student stands in the middle of the classroom and threatens the teacher with an object that looks like a gun, and demands that she write ‘present’, not ‘absent’ in the attendance list. In the background, there is another student making obscene gestures at the camera.

    https://www.timesheadline.com/world/france-in-shock-as-video-of-student-threatening-teacher-with-gun-in-class-goes-viral-25055.html?fbclid=IwAR35VlEXP81tPwMywlp5LZReu-F3OaUg9fznnA5XTaeEL1c35z2gD8z7A-0

  42. A feminist rally featuring protesters demanding abortion ended in violence Sunday as topless women allegedly hurled Molotov cocktails at both a Catholic church and the Trelew City Hall, about 700 miles south of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
    The protest came at the end of the annual National Encounter of Women, a three-day event featuring activities for women and transgendered people. While the National Encounter of Women often culminates in a pro-abortion rally that also promotes legal prostitution, Crux observes that in recent years, the protest has “featured a small yet significant group of demonstrators who throw bottles full of gas into Catholic buildings and leave walls filled with profanities.”

    A tweet by Malvinas Argentinas, a city in the country’s Chubut Province, reported the violence:

    https://www.breitbart.com/latin-america/2018/10/17/feminist-pro-abortion-activists-hurl-firebombs-at-church-in-argentina/

  43. Sent to me by a friend who lives in Arizona.

    We, in Arizona, know you’re boycotting us — but you really should come out here and see our beautiful Sonoran Desert. It’s just gorgeous right now! We know you’d love it and maybe you can share what you saw with the rest of the country so they can love it too!

    This is on an ‘illegal super – highway’ from Mexico to the USA (Tucson) used by human smugglers. This area is located in a wash, approximately 1.5 miles long, just south of Tucson, Arizona. If a flood came, all this would be washed to the river and then onto the sea!

    It is estimated over 5,000 discarded backpacks are in this wash. Countless water containers, food wrappers, clothing, feces, including thousands of soiled baby diapers. And as you can see in this picture, fresh footprints leading right into it.

    https://www.truthorfiction.com/arizona-desert-trash/

  44. Benghazi Hero Smacks Down ‘Disgaceful’ Libs & ‘Leftist Journalists’ In Must See Tweet

    Kris Paronto @KrisParonto

    Leftist journalists & liberalists screaming that the President isn’t doing enough to the Saudi’s because one of their own was killed.Where in the hell were you when @BarackObama left 30+ AMERICANS to die in Benghazi Libya including an Ambassador?!!You all are a disgrace .
    12:50 AM – Oct 20, 2018

    https://flagandcross.com/benghazi-hero-smacks-down-disgaceful-libs-leftist-journalists-in-must-see-tweet/

    Benghazi Hero Chris Tanto Paranto Hillary left us for dead

  47. Two brothers in northern Sweden who were found guilty of raping and sexually exploiting children on more than 1,000 occasions have had their sentences reduced by an appeals court.
    The Court of Appeal for Southern Norrland on Tuesday agreed that the two men had committed several of the incidents the charges were based on, but said the number of incidents had not been proven in court.

    “The information provided by each of the plaintiffs is more or less estimates of the number of acts. The district court largely accepted these estimates. In view of the standard of evidence required in criminal cases, the court of appeal considers that it is not established that the incidents are as numerous as the plaintiffs have estimated,” reads the judgment, quoted by the TT news agency.

    In December Ångermanland District Court found both brothers guilty of hundreds of cases of child rape – in some cases aggravated – and sexual exploitation of minors, as The Local reported at the time. The court heard that the victims were five children aged between three and 14 when the abuse started.

    https://www.thelocal.se/20180314/swedish-appeals-court-cuts-sentence-for-brothers-accused-of-child-rape

  49. A group of around 10 people attacked the Canadian Embassy in the northern Athenian suburb of Halandri on Sunday morning, using sledgehammers to smash glass on the entrance and throwing red and black paint onto the facade.

    The attacks happened at 6.10 a.m. and all the assailants had their faces covered.

    The security guard at the embassy alerted the police, while CCTV footage showed that the assailants had arrived on motorcycles that they had parked at a supermarket around 150 meters away from the embassy.

    http://www.ekathimerini.com/233873/article/ekathimerini/news/canadian-embassy-in-athens-attacked-with-sledgehammers-paint