An Israeli hairdresser has designed a skullcap for Jewish men made out of human hair. The idea is that they can wear a near-invisible kippa and satisfy their religious duties without being vulnerable to anti-Semitic attacks. The caps are especially intended for Jews in Europe.

In other news, the euro dropped to a ten-year low against other currencies in reaction to the possibility that Greece may default on its debt and withdraw from the Eurozone.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Phyllis Chesler, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Coeure Says ECB Would Extend QE if Inflation Impact Not Enough

European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said the institution’s quantitative-easing program could be expanded or extended if the impact on inflation isn’t judged enough.

“If we haven’t achieved what we want to achieve and I should say what we should achieve, because that’s the mandate of the ECB and it’s in the treaty — which is having a firm perspective that inflation goes back to 2 percent, close to 2 percent but below 2 percent as we say it in the medium term — then we’ll have to do more or we have to do it for longer,” Coeure told Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

ECB President Mario Draghi pledged on Thursday to buy 60 billion euros ($68 billion) a month of assets including government bonds through September 2016, adding that buying will “in any case be conducted until we see a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation.”

“It’s intended to last until September 2016 and then we’ll reassess and we’ll see if it is enough or if it is not enough,” Coeure said. “We’ve been able to design it in a way that brings as many people as possible on board. So yes, we’re happy.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



ECB Stimulus Will Boost China’s Exports

(BEIJING) — A senior Chinese official welcomed the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing measures on Friday, saying they will help boost the eurozone economy and in turn benefit China’s exports.

The ECB on Thursday unveiled a programme to buy 60 billion euros ($68 billion) of private and public bonds each month starting in March, a move intended to ward off deflation in the single currency area.

The unprecedented scheme will total over 1.0 trillion euros, compared to the 50 billion euros expected by analysts.

The European Union is China’s largest trade partner. Two-way shipments increased 9.9 percent year-on-year to $615.1 billion in 2014, giving the Asian giant a surplus of $126.6 billion, according to Chinese data.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Euro Drops to 11-Year Low as Greek Vote Adds to Slide on ECB QE

The euro fell to the lowest in more than 11 years versus the dollar on concern an anti-austerity party will take power in Greek elections, exacerbating the currency’s drop after the European Central Bank widened its stimulus program.

The shared currency headed for a sixth weekly decline before the vote on Sunday that may oust Greece’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. ECB President Mario Draghi said on Jan. 22 the institution would buy $60 billion euros ($68 billion) a month of debt. Denmark’s krone was about 0.2 percent from its euro-linked exchange-rate target as the central bank in Copenhagen signaled it’s ready to step up currency-market interventions. Australia’s dollar declined to the lowest since 2009.

“Draghi has managed to squeeze out a really big reaction,” said Jane Foley, a senior strategist at Rabobank International in London, “Another interesting part of this is how other central banks are going to react.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Euro Falls to Multiyear Lows Against Dollar, Yen and Pound

(MarketWatch)—European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s Thursday announcement of a €60-billion-a-month government-bond buying program sent the euro tumbling to multiyear lows against its main rivals.

Following the ECB’s announcement, HSBC reduced its year-end forecast for the shared currency, which further weighed on the euro’s value against the dollar. The bank now expects the euro to hit $1.09 by the end of the year, down from $1.15.

The ECB surprised the market by announcing that the bond purchases would be larger than expected, analysts said. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the European Central Bank’s executive board would propose buying about €50 billion a month in eurozone government bonds for a period of at least a year.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Euro Hits Fresh Lows Against Swiss Franc

The euro dropped to its lowest level ever against the Swiss franc during currency trading on Friday, a day after the European Central Bank introduced a scheme to inject €1.1 trillion into the eurozone’s economy over 18 months.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



EU-US Trade Talks in ‘Troubled Waters’

EU-US trade talks are “in troubled waters” and need a “fresh start for parliament to approve an agreement”, the chairman of the assembly’s international trade committee has said.

EU leaders have given negotiators until the end of 2015 to conclude talks on the pact, which the commission estimates could be worth €100 billion extra to the EU’s GDP.

Talks on the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) have progressed in the 18 months since talks began, with both sides tabling offers to remove almost all remaining tariff barriers and proposing to harmonise standards.

A draft agreement would then spend around a year being scrutinised by lawyers before being put in the hands of lawmakers in Brussels and Washington DC.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Tsipras Vows Greece Will Keep Its Promises to Europe

Syriza rejects Le Pen’s support, ‘against fascism’

(by Patrizio Nissirio) (ANSAmed) — ROME — Any future government under Syriza will maintain Greece’s commitments with Europe on budget regulations and deficit reduction, wrote its leader Alexis Tsipras in a Financial Times editorial on Wednesday. The pledge seems an olive branch extended to EU partners and international creditors by Tsipras, seen in the polls as likely to win Sunday’s elections. His government, he added, will introduce “a new social contract” for the country that includes an end to austerity measures and which will lead to political stability and economic security. Four days ahead of the crucial January 25 vote, following weeks of international concerns expressed on a near-daily basis and the evocation of a possible Greek exit from the eurozone, Tsipras echoed the reassuring tone he had used last month in an editorial published in the Germany Handelsblatt.

“A Syriza government will respect Greece’s obligation, as a eurozone member, to maintain a balanced budget, and will commit to quantitative targets,” he wrote.

Uncertainty over what will happen after the January 25 vote has in recent weeks led to record lows for the country’s government bonds and severe weakness of the Athens stock exchange. For Tsipras — whose lead in the polls over Nea Dimokratia conservatives seems to be rising as the time draws closer — negotiating for a reduction in Greek debt should be neither a tragedy nor a war. “We have a duty to negotiate openly, honestly and as equals with our European partners. There is no sense in each side brandishing its weapons,” he noted. European leaders starting from German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble have said repeatedly that there is no plan to cut Greek debt. However, the left-wing leader feels that the austerity-suffocated Greek economy needs oxygen that only a cut in debt or a moratorium on payments can give. “On existing loans, we demand repayment terms that do not cause recession and do not push the people to more despair and poverty,” he wrote. Tsipras said in the editorial that Syriza’s program “will put the middle class back on its feet. This is the only way to strengthen the eurozone and make the European project attractive to citizens across the continent”.

Otherwise, he warns, the field will be left open to forces like the French Front National and its allies. The support voiced by Front National leader Marine Le Pen, who on Tuesday said that she hoped Syriza would win, was rejected by the Greek movement. “A vote for us serves to change Europe’s policies, freeing it from far-right fascisms and nationalisms,” ANSA was told by the manager of the Greek party, Theofanis Papageorgiou. “Austerity (which Syriza is against) is one of the main sources of fascism,” he added. Tsipras went on to criticize current prime minister Antonis Samaras, saying that continuing in the same direction would only increase the uncertainty of relations between Greece and Europe. “If the Greek people entrust us with their votes, implementing our economic programme will not be a “unilateral” act, but a democratic obligation,” he wrote.

“We must end austerity so as not to let fear kill democracy.”

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Give Iran Diplomacy a Chance, Europeans Urge Congress

(WASHINGTON) — Top European diplomats on Thursday waded into the political fray in Washington over Iran, urging US lawmakers to hold off on new sanctions and pleading for time to allow nuclear talks to succeed.

“Maintaining pressure on Iran through our existing sanctions is essential,” four European foreign policy chiefs warned in a joint op-ed in the Washington Post.

“But introducing new hurdles at this critical stage of the negotiations, including through additional nuclear-related sanctions legislation on Iran, would jeopardize our efforts at a critical juncture.”

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini joined forces with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and his French and German counterparts, Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to urge Congress to give diplomacy “the best possible chance to succeed.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Texas Parents Object to ‘Lebanon’ School

Some parents in the Dallas, Texas, suburban town of Frisco aren’t too keen on the proposed name of their newest school.

Lebanon High, the school board’s choice, is just a bit too, shall we say, foreign.

School district officials picked the name because the building, currently under construction and set to open next year, sits in the middle of what was once an old farming town called Lebanon, before it was incorporated into modern-day Frisco.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



The Sikh Captain America Fights Racial Stereotypes

Most office workers stick to wearing a shirt and trousers. So why has a Sikh man in his 40s been talking to strangers in New York while dressed as Captain America?

“I want to challenge people’s perceptions, I want them to have a mind freak when they see me.”

So says Vishavjit Singh, a mild-mannered software engineer by day and passionate cartoonist by night.

“When I first put on the suit, it was one of the most amazing days of my life. It was like a switch had been flicked. Strangers were embracing me, cops were asking me for photos, I was being dragged into weddings.”

The 43-year-old’s fellow Americans have not always been so welcoming. A devout Sikh, complete with traditional turban and flowing beard, Vishavjit — or Vish as he is known — has always attracted attention.

“I’m still seen by many as the ‘ultimate other’ in American society -a radical Muslim. Harassment goes up and down depending on the news,” he says.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Alexander the Great-Era Tomb Holds Bones of 5 People

The skeletal remains of five people were found in an opulent Greek burial complex that dates to the time of Alexander the Great.

The discoveries raise more questions than they answer about who exactly is buried in the tomb in Amphipolis, a city in Greece’s central Macedonia region.

“It is not possible to tell who these people were and certainly not from the first macroscopic analysis of the skeletal material,” Christina Papageorgopoulou, an anthropologist involved in the excavation, and a professor at the Demokritus University of Thrace in Greece, said in an email.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Another Nun Gives Birth in Italy

A nun has given birth in Italy after going to hospital with a stomach ache, a year after a similar case in a country still strongly influenced by the Catholic Church.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Austria: Islamic School Closed for ‘Endangering Children’

A private Islamic primary school in Vienna’s Brigittenau district has been shut down as the city council believes its students’ welfare was endangered, the Kurier newspaper reports.

This comes after a young girl was knocked over by a classmate and seriously bruised her forehead. The headmistress did not call an ambulance and only reported the incident to the police the following day — when the girl still had significant swelling on her head.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Austria: Serial Bigamist on Trial in Vienna

The trial of a Gambian man who was arrested in Austria on charges of bigamy and fraud has started.

Tijan S., 28, who also used the names Tijan Bojang and Junior Crang, was arrested on October 2nd at Vienna airport after returning from a visit to Gambia, where he has a wife.

He is accused of marrying multiple women in Austria and having relationships with others he picked up across the country, using them for room and board whenever he was nearby and borrowing money from them which he never returned.

He has also been accused of benefits fraud, using photos of friends who were also black to claim thousands of euros from Austrian social services.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Belgian Police Hunt Accomplice in Jewish Museum Attack

Belgian police are seeking a possible accomplice in the deadly shooting attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May, prosecutors say. The man in question was seen with the suspected gunman four days after the attack.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Belgium: Army Tightens Security

Members of the Belgian armed forces are to follow security procedures as a result of the heightened terrorist threat. Army chiefs have called for extra vigilance and checks at military bases will be increased.

The Army, Navy and Air Force have asked armed services personnel to be more discreet when using social media and not to wear their uniforms on their way to and from work.

The measure will remain in forces for a long as the terrorist threat remains at it currently level.

Extra police protection is being given to a number of politicians, including the leader of the Flemish National Party (N-VA) and Mayor of Antwerp Bart De Wever.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Controversial Danish Mosque Praised by Cops

The controversial Grimhøj Mosque in Aarhus is making headlines once again, but this time the news has a distinctly more positive tone.

Aarhus’s Grimhøj Mosque was once again thrust back in the spotlight earlier this month after the airing of a documentary in which mosque leaders said that they want to see an Islamic caliphate established, that they don’t believe in democracy and that a Danish convert who carried out a suicide bomb attack in Iraq is a hero.

The DR documentary led to a fresh round of political calls to shut down the mosque.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Denmark: Carlsberg to Develop World’s First Biodegradable Bottles

In spite of the popular recycling deposit system used in Denmark, many beer bottles end up being thrown out and littering the landscape.

But now Carlsberg has partnered up with the Technical University of Denmark and the Innovation Fund to develop a bottle that is made entirely of natural materials.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Denmark Sees Asylum Numbers Double in 2014

The 14,815 people who sought asylum in Denmark last year is nearly double the number from the year before and an almost fourfold increase from 2009.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Eye on the News

by Theodore Dalrymple

Looking Away from Europe’s Muslim Problem

It’s easier to condemn Steven Emerson than to confront issues of assimilation and culture.

Steven Emerson, the expert on terrorism, has caused a sigh of relief among the bien pensants of the Western world. By making inaccurate and false claims on Fox News, he has enabled them to pour righteous scorn on him and thereby avoid thinking about uncomfortable social realities.

Emerson claimed that Birmingham, the second-largest city in Britain, was “totally” Muslim. In the last census, in 2011, 21.8 percent of the city’s inhabitants said that they were Muslim. This percentage is likely to rise because of higher birth rates among Muslims, immigration, and the departure of white Christians. Residents of Birmingham who identified themselves as “white British” declined by 11 percent between 2001 and 2011, while the “white Irish” declined by 33 percent. The proportion of Christians would have decreased further had it not been for the arrival of Eastern Europeans. Meanwhile, the Muslim Pakistani and Bangladeshi populations increased over those ten years by 40 and 50 percent, respectively, and the Arab population rose to 1 percent from zero percent. Whether this matters, whether it fills you with joy or apprehension, or leaves you indifferent, depends upon your political outlook—and perhaps on where you live.

Since ethnic and religious groups are not scattered evenly throughout Birmingham, moreover, the population in some areas is overwhelmingly Muslim. Emerson referred to some of these areas as “no-go zones.” White women report being verbally abused there, as sluts ex officio as it were, though it would not be true to say that any of the areas are truly “no-go.” One, for example, is notable for its profusion of small, cheap, and good restaurants, patronized by the rest of the population. No part of Birmingham is as cut off from the rest of the city as are some of the banlieues of Paris. Physical (if not social) mixing of populations is evident.

In Britain, Muslim populations like those in Birmingham have relatively poor educational attainment and high rates of youth unemployment, crime, and imprisonment. This is not likely the result of discrimination, because Hindus and Sikhs, present also in large numbers, have lower rates of youth unemployment than whites and much lower levels of crime than whites. The Sikhs have the second-highest average household wealth when such wealth is broken down by religious affiliation. Sikh households are richer than Christian ones; Muslim households are much poorer. The causes of this disparity are a matter of speculation, and of course, group characteristics don’t apply to every individual.

Because of their high rates of consanguineous marriage, Muslim children have relatively high rates of serious genetic conditions, about which a kind of omertÃ has long prevailed, though it is not uniquely medical. In my experience, school inspectors never inquire as to why Muslim girls go missing from school for long periods, though I have known white parents prosecuted because their refractory adolescent child failed to attend school as the law required for only short periods. The same kind of omertÃ was surely one reason for the shameful disregard shown by the police in Rotherham of the systematic sexual abuse of young white girls by Muslim men there—though whether the police were more afraid of Muslim reaction or accusations of racism in the liberal press is uncertain.

Forced marriage (very different from arranged marriage) is common among the Muslims, though it is difficult because of social secrecy to estimate just how common. Certainly I was able to recognize a pattern among my young Muslim female patients, down to the withholding of their passports when they returned “home” to Pakistan, aged between 15 and 20, to marry their first cousin in their “home” village. Resignation to their fate merged by degrees into consent; all of them knew of honor killings of young women such as themselves, which exerted the same psychological effect as lynching did on blacks in the American South.

Supposedly to placate Muslim sentiment, local authorities have sometimes agreed to or imposed measures worthy of an apartheid regime. For example, the Birmingham Central Library provided women-only tables, in practice for the use of Muslim women. I don’t know whether this gesture came in response to a request or was an anticipatory cringe; the argument in its favor would almost certainly have been that without such separate facilities Muslim women would not have been allowed by their males to use the library at all. It is unlikely that such an argument would have succeeded for any other religious or social group, and indeed it would have provoked feminist ire, in this case notably absent, presumably because of fear.

In France, the problems are both similar and different. France is de jure secular, Britain only de facto. This difference leads to opposing views on such matters as the wearing of the veil. The relative inflexibility of French labor laws virtually guarantees a higher unemployment rate, though not necessarily a lower income, among youth of the lowest social class. The geographical and social origins of most of France’s Muslims are different from those of Britain’s: North African rather than Indian subcontinental. Since the fate of immigrants depends on what they bring with them as well as their reception in their new country, and since Islam, whatever its claims, does not exhaust a people’s cultural characteristics, differences are only to be expected.

But similarities are also striking: for example, low levels of educational achievement and high rates of youth unemployment and crime (60 percent to 70 percent of French prisoners are Muslim, on some estimates, and this is unlikely to be the result of prejudice alone, even if such prejudice exists). These are not characteristic of other immigrant groups, for example the Vietnamese.

While some of the banlieues of Paris and other big cities are relatively cut off from their metropolises, as were the townships of South Africa, it would be an exaggeration to call them no-go areas—even if that is what some of the criminal youth would like them to be, so that they can get on with their domination and trafficking with more impunity than they already enjoy. Schools and other state or public institutions remain in these areas. The police and the fire brigade may sometimes be stoned by the grateful recipients of their services, but they are not totally absent. They are therefore not extra-territorial in the most literal sense. Other European countries—Belgium and Sweden, for example—have not dissimilar problems.

But of course the most worrying aspect of the situation is the attraction of jihadi ideology for young Muslims. It is impossible to gauge exactly the degree or strength of support for it: opinion surveys are all but useless. The least one can say, however, is that jihadism attracts both those with bright and dim futures, and according to official calculations, some 2,200 youthful jihadis from France, Britain, and Belgium alone have gone to Syria. This is a far more than sufficient pool of murderous religious ideologues to cause untold havoc in Europe.

By his inaccuracy, distortions, and exaggerations, however, Steven Emerson has provided a convenient and enjoyable distraction for his critics, an excuse for them to indulge in displacement activity, like mice that lick their paws when faced by a cat. It is easier to mock him than to suggest the correct way to deal with the threat of Islamism. It is easier and more fun for the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, to sue Fox News (for what, exactly?) than to improve life in the largely Muslim banlieue of Clichy-sous-Bois. Here is a resident’s testimonial to that suburb of Hidalgo’s city: “A piece of advice: come armed! What I like about Clichy-sous-Bois? No need to look for public toilets. They are under the sky, in the buildings. What don’t I like about Clichy-sous-Bois? What can I say . . . No, it would take too long. I’m going to vomit.”

Theodore Dalrymple is a contributing editor of City Journal and the Dietrich Weismann Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



France to Send ‘Secularism Ambassadors’ To Schools

French education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem will on Thursday unveil plans to create 1,000 “ambassadors of secularism” to be sent to French schools, RTL.fr reports. They are to target children who display worrying behaviour when faced with symbols of French statehood. The measure comes after jihadists murdered Mohammed cartoonists in Paris.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



From Prison, Greece’s Golden Dawn Runs Quiet But Vitriolic Campaign

Nearly three years since entering parliament after rousing rallies and food handouts, Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn is running a much quieter campaign for Sunday’s election from a high-security prison.

With most of its top brass jailed pending trial on charges of being in a criminal gang, Greeks have seen little of one of Europe’s most ardent anti-immigrant parties in recent weeks except for the occasional broadcast and odd leaflet.

Golden Dawn, whose leaders deny neo-Nazi sympathies, taps into the same anger at politicians seen as responsible for austerity, wage cuts and record unemployment that is expected to propel the radical leftist SYRIZA to power.

The party’s resilience on Greece’s turbulent political scene, it ranks as high as third in some polls, raises the prospect of an imprisoned far-right leader being asked to form a government if SYRIZA and the ruling conservatives both fail to win outright or form a coalition.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany: Let’s Officialize Muslim Community: Berlin SPD

Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Raed Saleh wants to create a contract with the Muslim community similar to the one between the town hall and Christian and Jewish groups that grants them official status.

The SPD began drafting a contract with Berlin’s diverse Muslim population of more than 250,000, RBB reported.

Similar contracts with the Christian and Jewish communities allow the groups to regulate religious holidays, funerals, collaborative work at universities and pastoral care.

“We are telling them ‘you are a part of this city, you are at home here,’“ Saleh said.

Hamburg and Bremen already have contracts with their Muslim communities and Lower Saxony is expected to sign one in the spring. Saleh said these could be used as models for Berlin.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



German Pop Royalty Nudge PEGIDA Off Monday Anti-Islam Demo

Germany’s PEGIDA anti-Islam group says its next demonstration will take place this Sunday — not the regular Monday — in the eastern city of Dresden. The reason? An anti-PEGIDA rock concert.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany’s Finance Minister Says No Greek Euro Exit Modeled

Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, has denied reports that the country has modeled a potential Greek exit — the so-called “Grexit” — from the 19-country eurozone.

Speaking at a panel Friday at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, Schaeuble said “we don’t model any exit.”

The potential of a Greek exit from the eurozone has resurfaced ahead of a general election Sunday where opinion polls point to a victory for Greece’s left-wing SYRIZA party. SYRIZA has talked of massive debt forgiveness and riding roughshod over the bailout deals.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany: Catholic Priest Banned From Preaching After Speaking at Anti-Islamization Protest

A Catholic priest in Germany has been banned from preaching after speaking at an anti-Islam protest.

The Rev. Paul Spaetling had taken part in a rally in the western city of Duisburg on Monday. It was organized by a group that associates itself with the organization Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA, which has staged large weekly rallies in Dresden for about three months.

The diocese of Muenster said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that it rejected Spaetling’s comments about Islam.

The bishop of Muenster, Felix Genn, says he’s withdrawing Spaetling’s right to preach or speak on behalf of the Church.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Italy: Six Agents Wounded in Padua Prison Clashes, Union Says

Seppe union concerned over detainees praising ISIS

(ANSA) — Padova, January 23 — Six prison guards have been wounded in separate clashes on Thursday and Friday at a Padova minimum security prison, said Leo Angiulli, regional secretary for UIL prison guards union, on Friday.

Thursday’s attack, in which four guards were wounded, is being called an organized attack in which “many detainees of Arab origin were praising Allah and ISIS”, said Seppe prison guards’ union General Secretary Donato Capece.

“It was organized, seeing as how sticks and homemade knives were found,” Capece said.

Two agents were wounded in another confrontation on Friday in which Angiulli said an Eastern European detainee, who Angiulli claims was also responsible for initiating Thursday’s attack, was brandishing razor blades and then after wounding himself barricaded himself in his own cell. Two of the six wounded agents are in hospital, one with broken ribs and the other with a fractured arm.

None of the approximately 60 detainees housed on the 4th floor where the clashes took place are being held for terrorism.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: PD Rebel Calls for ‘Non Nazareno’ Presidential Runner

Civati calls for opponents to Berlusconi-Renzi deal to unite

(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, January 23 — Pippo Civati, a rebel member of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) who is hostile to Premier Matteo Renzi’s leadership of the group, said Friday that a candidate should be proposed to counter a runner who many expect to emerge from an agreement between Renzi and Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi. “I’m hoping for an NN, non Nazareno, candidate,” Civati said referring to the so-called Nazareno pact Renzi and three-time premier Berlusconi struck last year. “That candidate may be able to get the necessary votes, without being the candidate of this or that group. All those against (the Renzi-Berlusconi pact) should propose a president who is not the product of the Nazareno (deal)”. The Nazareno pact regards a new election law and an overhaul of Italy’s slow, costly political apparatus. But many politicians hostile to it, including Civati and other members of the PD, believe a similar deal is in the pipeline over the next head of State.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Many Young Danes Approve ‘Sugar Dating’

A representative survey among Danes aged 15-20 found high levels of support to the idea of giving sex in exchange for gifts though less readiness to actually follow through on it.

According to a new Gallup survey, 38 percent of Danes aged 15-20 think its OK to pay for sexual services and 23 percent see no problem in giving oral sex in exchange for a gift.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Merkel Says She Wants Greece to ‘Remain Part of Our Story’

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday she wanted Greece to “remain part of our story”, ahead of elections this weekend which could sweep the anti-austerity Syriza party to power and determine whether the country stays in the eurozone.

“At the heart of our principles lies solidarity. I want Greece, despite the difficulties, to remain part of our story,” Merkel said during a press conference in Florence with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Renzi, 40, said he was “not worried about the results of the Greek election. I respect the citizens’ choice and from next week the 27 (EU) partners will work with” whoever wins “with great willingness.”

The election — the second in three years — comes with Greece still locked in talks with its EU-IMF creditors for a 7.2-billion-euro ($8.3-billion) tranche of bailout loans the state needs to stay afloat.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Muslims Pray for France as Reprisals Continue

Muslims at over 2,000 mosques in France will gather at 1:30pm on Friday to pray for France and its future. Meanwhile, there have been more anti-Muslim incidents recorded in the last two weeks in France than in the whole of 2014.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Muslims ‘Will be 8% of EU Population in 2030’

Pew Forum research published by Le Figaro

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JANUARY 23 — The Muslim population of the European Union rises by about 1% every decade. This section of the population accounted for 4% in 1990, is around 6% today and could rise to 8% in 2030, according to a study conducted by the US institute Pew Forum and published on Friday by the French daily Le Figaro. Muslims in Europe tend to be younger than the adherents of other religions. The average age of European Muslims is 32, that of Christians 42 and that of atheists 37. According to the study, coordinated by the demographer Conrad Hackett, France and Germany are the two EU member states with more Muslims on their territory. In 2010, German Muslims totaled 4.8 million, 5.8% of the population. There were instead thought to be 4.7 million in France (7.5% of the population), about 3 million in Great Britain and 2.2 million in Italy.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Netherlands: Private Islamic University in Rotterdam Under Special Supervision

The private Islamic University Rotterdam has been placed under special supervision by education ministry inspectors and the quality of its courses is under investigation, news agency ANP says on Friday. This includes a review of the way in which the university’s vision on ‘citizenship and social integration’ is put into practice, education minister Jet Bussemaker said in answer to MPs questions. Potential foreign funding is also being looked into.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Norway: Firm Ditches PEGIDA Chief for Anti-Islam Views

Max Hermansen, the leader of the Norway branch of the anti-Islam movement Pegida, has been taken off the pay roll by a training organization because of his controversial views.

Hermansen, who has organized two Pegida demonstrations in Oslo this year, has been told he’s no longer welcome to give a scheduled course at Opplæringskontoret, a privately-run apprenticeship training office in Oslo, it emerged on Friday.

The leader, who is also employed as a teacher at two public schools in Oslo, had been booked in to train apprentices working in the service and transport sectors.

“I have based this (decision) on the fact that Hermansen’s view of Islam is not compatible with the training office’s values,” manager Charles Galaasen told TV2.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



One in Three Fears Terror Attack in Sweden

A new poll carried out after the deadly shootings in France this month suggests that one in three Swedes are concerned about a terror attack in their home country.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Poll: One in Three Swedes Fear Terror Attack

More than one in three Swedes believe that Sweden could be hit by a terror attack, that’s according to a new survey by the polling institute TNS Sifo following the terror attacks in Paris two weeks ago.

The poll shows that 36 percent of the just over 1,000 respondents believe that Sweden is likely to suffer a terror attack.

Sixty-seven percent of the respondents who voted for the Sweden Democrats believed it likely that Sweden could be hit by a terror attack, whereas the same number for other voters was between 30 and 42 percent.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Portugal Extends Olive Branch to Jews Violently Expelled in 1536

by Phyllis Chesler

Portugal, which expelled its Jews in 1536, is now poised to adopt a “return law” for the Jewish and non-Jewish descendants of Portugal’s Sephardi Jews. This law was passed in 2013 and is expected to become “effective” by March 2015.

Portugal’s Inquisition against the Jews—especially against those who had converted to Christianity—was brutal and long-lasting. Fiendish methods of torture were employed: racking, “relaxation” (burning at the stake), perpetual slave labor, burning at the stake. All Jewish goods were confiscated. At least 40,000 Jews were tried, impoverished, tortured, murdered, or exiled.

Some Jews managed to flee. Many of these Jews had previously fled Spain during the Spanish Inquisition against the Jews and against Jewish converts to Christianity who were suspected of secretly practicing Judaism. A great hero—actually, a heroine— of the Jewish people, Dona Gracia Ha Nasi (Beatrice de Luna Mendes), saved many of the Jews of Portugal.

Beatrice’s family fled Spain in 1492 and were forcibly baptized in Portugal in 1497. Beatrice was born in 1510, and became enormously wealthy through marriage; in 1536, she fled Portugal for London, Antwerp, Venice, Ferrara, and finally to Constantinople. Dona Gracia funded the “underground” flight of Portuguese Jews, not only to Turkey but also to Salonika…

Sweden: Synagogue to be Fenced in to Repel Antisemites

The few remaining Jews in Malmö are subjected to increasing levels of harassment, and the town’s synagogue has been the target for various hate crimes and vandalism despite hiring private security guards.

Now things are getting so bad the congregation reveals they’re in the final stages for getting approval by the city to erect a sturdy fence around the building to deter further attacks.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Explosion Outside Malmö Apartment Block

Police in Malmö are investigating after an explosion outside an apartment block, the latest in a string of bombings in the city.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Tales of a Davos Barfly: Billionaires, Royals and Scotch Whisky

The real action at Davos happens behind closed doors… over drinks.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: The Muslim Brotherhood Inquiry: What’s Happening?

by Samuel Westrop

There are several reasons the British government may be publishing only the “principal findings” of the report. First, some of the information gathered will have been done so by the intelligence services, so there are assets and agreements to protect. Another is the possibility that by revealing the scope of the Muslim Brotherhood network in full, the government would be revealing its own partnerships with Brotherhood organizations, and providing insights into the vast amount of public funds that has filled the coffers of Brotherhood charities.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Who’s in the Tomb? Greece Wonders if it’s Royalty

Alexander the Great’s Legacy Stirred Up by Excavation

While acknowledging that the tomb is a significant find that deserves public enthusiasm, Mr. Hamilakis and other archaeologists argue that the dig has been conducted hastily and in a way that places media appeal over serious scholarship. The Greek news media have thrived on the story — a rare bright spot in a cycle dominated by austerity and unemployment. Archaeology buffs have taken to the blogosphere, floating their own theories. Last year, “Amphipolis” was the most popular search term on Google in Greece.

Although the official news release said nothing about Alexander the Great, a report on Monday in the Athens daily Kathimerini cited vague sources at the Culture Ministry saying that the female skeleton might be Olympias, Alexander’s mother, who was murdered after his death. The article first appeared under the headline “Amphipolis Scientists Point to Olympias,” but was later revised to read “Skeletons Pose Many Questions.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Hairdresser Creates ‘Invisible’ Skullcap Made From Hair Samples So Jewish Men Can Cover Their Head Without Fear of Being Attacked Following Rise in Anti-Semitism

An Israeli hairdresser has created an ‘invisible’ skullcap made from human hair so Jewish men can cover their heads without fear of being targeted in anti-Semitic attacks.

Barber Shalom Koresh fashioned the skullcap — or kippa in Hebrew — from hair samples to obscure wearers’ identities as Jews following a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe.

The caps are proving particularly popular in France, Mr Koresh says, which has seen a spate of discriminatory attacks in recent years, including the killing of four Jews in the hostage stand-off at a kosher supermarket in Paris earlier this month.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Yemen Chaos Prompts US Staff Reduction

The United States has withdrawn some of its embassy staff members from the Yemeni capital Sanaa. Political turmoil prompted the move and has raised concerns in Washington about its anti-terrorism efforts in Yemen.

Just hours after the resignation of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, US officials reacted by reducing embassy staff.

Uncertainty of who would next lead the Arab country has raised concerns about the future of US anti-terrorism cooperation with Sanaa. Yemen’s government has allowed the US to conduct drone strikes against the al Qaeda branch there, known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Afghanistan Anti-Charlie Hebdo Protest Draws 20,000

At least 20,000 people protested in the western Afghan city of Herat on Friday against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.

The demonstrators burned French flags, chanted death slogans against France and demanded Paris apologise to Muslims in Afghanistan’s biggest rally yet against the weekly.

“No Muslim can tolerate insults to our beloved prophet Mohammed, we demand the French government apologise to all Muslims and punish those who have insulted Islam,” said one protester in Herat.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Thai Junta Deals Double Blow to Ousted PM Yingluck

Thailand’s military-stacked parliament has voted to impeach ousted PM Yingluck Shinawatra over a failed rice subsidy scheme. The move, which bans her from politics for five years, may reignite divisions in the country.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



China: Fake Bank Swindles Customers Out of $32m

A fake bank which was set up to look just like a real one has swindled Chinese savers out of 200m yuan ($32m; £21m), it’s reported.

The fact the “bank” was able to operate for so long has left some Chinese social media users incredulous. “More than a year, it looks like the authorities have gone blind,” says one user on the Weibo social network. “Fake banks, and a fake local government,” comments another user. Police have arrested five people over the scam, including a woman who reportedly high-tailed it to Macau, China’s famous gambling centre, with the customers’ money.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Genghis Khan’s Genetic Legacy Has Competition

The Mongolian leader left a strong footprint in the Y chromosomes of modern descendants — but he was not the only one.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Hundreds Join ‘Je Suis Muslim’ Rally in Sydney

Hundreds of Muslims rallied in Sydney on Friday night to protest negative media coverage of Islam and the French magazine Charlie Hebdo’s depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.

Police said 14 people were moved on from the rally for breaching the peace. But no one was charged and the event was peaceful.

Some of the 800-strong demonstrators in the Muslim enclave of Lakemba held placards with the slogan “Je suis Muslim,” French for “I am Muslim.”

The slogan was a response to Charlie Hebdo’s latest front cover that depicts a tearful Prophet Muhammad holding a sign saying “Je suis Charlie.” The edition is the first since the Jan. 7 terrorist attack on the satirical publication’s Paris office that left 12 dead.

Organisers of the “Our Prophet, Our Honor” rally said it was intended to be “a peaceful and respectful event” to counter negative media coverage of Islam and Charlie Hebdo’s lampooning of their Prophet.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Boko Haram ‘Raping Our Daughters’ In Nigerian Town of Baga

Boko Haram carried out one of its deadliest attacks yet earlier this month, on the Nigerian town of Baga. It is difficult to verify the number of people killed but one woman who survived the attacks has told the BBC Hausa service about life in the town. She managed to escape from Baga and has asked to remain unnamed.

“Boko Haram fighters are currently in control of the town. When they attacked, they destroyed shops and burnt down our houses.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Mali Refuses to Accept Body of French Terrorist

Authorities in Mali have reportedly made a last minute U-turn and refused to accept the body of terrorist Amedy Coulibaly for burial.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Sudanese Air Force Bombs Doctors Without Borders Hospital

Medical NGO denounces ‘indiscriminate bombing campaign’

(ANSA) — Rome, January 23 — Two people were wounded when a Doctors without Borders (MSF) hospital in the African country of Sudan was bombed by nation’s air force, the medical humanitarian NGO said Friday.

The air strike that took place Tuesday in the village of Frandala in Sudan’s South Kordofan region left one MSF staffer and one patient injured, and caused extensive damage to the hospital housing some 100 patients.

MSF says the SAF dropped some 13 bombs, two of which fell inside the hospital and the rest immediately adjacent.

“We condemn this bombing in the most categorical terms,” said MSF Sudan mission chief, Marc Van der Mullen.

“People had absolutely no time to seek shelter”. The NGO denounced what it said is an indiscriminate bombing campaign by the government as it battles rebels in the nearby Nuba mountains.

The Frandala hospital has been in the line of fire before.

The Sudanese military bombed it in June 2014, killing one patient, wounding several, and damaging the building.

“Once again, MSF calls on authorities to respect the assistance we provide,” Van der Mullen said.

“In spite of what happened today we will try to continue bringing aid to the local population, which has found itself in the middle of a war that hardly anyone talks about”.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Jewish Groups Boycott Holocaust Event Over Argentina Prosecutor’s Death

Alberto Nisman had accused government of conspiring with Tehran to protect Iranian officials allegedly involved in deadly 1994 bombing of Jewish association

Uki Goñi in Buenos Aires

Argentina’s Jewish community has announced that none of its representatives will attend an official Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony next week, amid growing anger over the mysterious death of a state prosecutor who was investigating the alleged coverup of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires.

The body of Alberto Nisman was found late on Sunday next to a .22-calibre handgun and a bullet casing on the floor of the bathroom of his flat in Buenos Aires. Nisman had been due to testify to Congress on his allegations that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had conspired to protect Iranian officials implicated in the attack on the Argentinian Jewish Mutual Association, Amia, in which 85 people died.

On Friday, the Amia, the Daia — the country’s affiliate to the World Jewish Congress — the Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires and other groups announced their refusal to send any representatives to the ceremony at the country’s foreign ministry on Tuesday.

“The charges are so gruesome and extend to so many areas of government that it would be an insult to the memory of our victims of the Shoah to attend,” said Waldo Wolff, vicepresident of the DAIA, the son of a Jewish survivor of Nazi Germany who sought refuge in Argentina after Germany’s Kristallnacht anti-Jewish pogroms of 1938.

Anger was focused on the alleged role of the foreign minister, Héctor Timerman, who Nisman alleged had participated in secret talks with Iran — and who is also Jewish.

Recollections of Argentine Prosecutor, Alberto Nisman by Ken Timmerman and Dr. Ronen Bergman

On Monday we posted the recollections of Dr. Charles Jacobs who had interviewed the late Argentine prosecutor, Alberto Nisman in Buenos Aires in 2009, Jewish Hero Found Dead in Buenos Aires. Veteran Iran watcher and author of Dark Forces; The Truth About What Happened in Benghazi, Ken Timmerman, also published an article in Front Page Magazine article, Death of a Prosecutor. Dr. Ronen Bergman, intelligence columnist for Israeli Daily Yedioth Ahronoth had also published on Ynet.com his opinions of Nisman drawn from interviews when the Argentine prosecutor was in Israel in 2007, “Alberto Nisman was a martyr in the fight for justice. Dr. Ronen is the author of The Secret War with Iran: The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against the World’s Most Dangerous Terrorist Power . Read these excerpts from the Timmerman’s FrontPageMagazine and Dr. Bergman’s Ynet.com articles.

Asylum Seeker Requests Soar in Switzerland

The number of requests for asylum by refugees in Switzerland rose in 2014 by 11 percent to 23,765 from the previous year, the highest rate in more than a decade, according to government figures.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Immigrants Swell to Third of Swiss Population

First and second generation immigrants now make up more than a third of Switzerland’s inhabitants over the age of 15, a significant increase in the past decade, statistics released on Thursday show.