Early this morning a man armed with a knife entered Chabad-Lubavitch Headquarters in Brooklyn and stabbed a student from Israel after shouting that he wanted to kill Jews. Police were called, and at first the attacker seemed ready to surrender. But then he came at police with the knife, and was shot by one of the cops. He died later in the hospital. The injured Israeli student is in serious condition with bleeding in the brain.

In other news, congressional Democrats and Republicans avoided a government shutdown by agreeing on a last-minute $1.1 trillion spending bill.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Insubria, Mark H, Steen, UB, 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.

Greek Stocks Plunge, Affect Others: Athens -12%, Madrid -2.6

After early presidential vote was announced by PM Samaras

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS/BRUSSELS — A sharp drop in Greek stocks on Tuesday after the country’s government surprised investors by announcing a snap presidential vote is having a major effect on other European stock markets. The Athens stock exchange fell by 12%, Milan by 2.2%, Madrid by 2.6%, Paris by 2% and Frankfurt by 1.9%.

Doubts over Chinese growth also had a negative effect, after a credit squeeze brought in by Beijing. Wall Street began the day weak.

EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici noted that “Samaras knows what he is doing. I believe that the markets should feel safer than they did this morning”.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and government Vice President Evangelos Venizelos decided to bring forward the Presidential election, following the conclusion of the Eurogroup in Brussels which resulted in the two-month technical extension of the bailout program. The decision was taken after consulting with the Minister of Finances Gikas Hardouvelis. There has been some debate as to whether the coalition government could secure the necessary 180 votes, it appears however confident in achieving its goal. The President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias and the President of Parliament Evangelos Meimarakis were informed of the decision.

Former EU Commissioner and former minister Stavros Dimas, 73, will be candidate for President of Hellenic Republic in all three votes, Samaras announced latern on Tuesday.

According to the statement issued, the PM and VP believe that by bringing the elections forward they will clear up the political uncertainty. The Presidential elections process is outlined in Article 32 of the Constitution. A new President is elected in a roll-call vote in a special session called by the President of Parliament, at least one month before the term of the outgoing President ends. The elections take place in one or two phases. The first phase calls for three votes; in the first vote 200 votes (namely two thirds of the total number of MPs) are necessary. If necessary, the process is repeated five days later. A third vote is called five days later if necessary, only this time a three fifths majority is necessary, namely 180 votes. Should this third vote also not result in a President, then Parliament is dissolved within ten days and general elections are called.

After a new government is formed, the second phase of the Presidential election process begins, which also provides three votes. In the first vote, a total of 180 votes are required. If there is no majority, then the process is repeated five days later, with an absolute majority of 151 MPs required. Should Parliament fail to elect a President, a third vote follows five days later, where the two candidates face each other. The one with the most votes is elected President.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: MPS Shares Rise 2% Following ‘Favourable’ HSBC Report

Analysts perform U-turn on recent rating cut for troubled bank

(ANSA) — Milan, December 9 — Troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MSP) gained just over 2% in morning trading Tuesday on the Milan bourse following a U-turn by HSBC analysts.

Just last week, the London-based banking corporation cut its rating of the world’s oldest operating bank from ‘neutral’ to ‘underweight’.

However on Tuesday HSBC reportedly changed its mind, saying shares in the Siena bank — which had dropped as much as 44.8% in market trading value since the start of 2014 — could soon rise. MPS shares rose 4.5% to 0.62 euros per share in early trading Tuesday, before cutting back the gain to settle at 0.6 euros per share (+2.02%) just before midday in response to the news. The Sienese bank is struggling to manage the fallout from a number of failed operations that have drained the bank, particularly since its takeover of the smaller Antonveneta bank in 2008 and subsequent derivatives trades which prosecutors said were made to conceal losses.

More recently, MPS was hit hard on financial markets after stress tests by the European Central Bank (ECB) in late October found it had a capital shortfall of 2.1 billion euros.

MPS had already raised some five billion euros in new capital in early summer in order to repay a State bailout and avoid nationalization, as well as shoring up reserves ahead of the ECB assessment.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Merkel Warns Europe to Avoid Credibility Risk on Budgets

Urges nations to respect limits they set for debt, deficits

(ANSA) — Berlin, December 9 — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday called for European countries to all respect budget rules, or risk raising doubts about the stability of the region. Merkel’s comments to her political party’s congress came at the same time as meetings of European finance ministers to discuss budget issues including debt and deficit limits. “If in the end, we do not respect (rules) we decided on…it will provoke doubts and this will be negative for Europe,” said Merkel. “This is the reason why we want the rules respected”.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Korean Air Executive Resigns Over Nuts on a Plate Row

(CNN) — A Korean Air executive has resigned from some of her duties after she ordered a flight to be turned around to the gate and a flight attendant off the plane because she was served nuts in a bag instead of on a plate.

Heather Cho, whose Korean name is Cho Hyun-ah, resigned Tuesday from the airline’s catering and in-flight sales business, and its cabin service and hotel business divisions, an airline spokesman said.

But she is keeping her title as a vice president of the national carrier, he said.

As for the next steps, the spokesman told CNN there is an investigation going on, so “we will have to see.”

The most annoying type of airline passenger is …

The incident occurred Friday at New York’s JFK airport on a flight due to take off for South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, outside Seoul.

Improperly served nuts force plane delay Cho reportedly demanded that the plane go back to the gate so the crew member who served her macadamia nuts out of a bag rather than on a plate in First Class could be kicked off the flight.

Although her role put her in charge of in-flight service, she was only a passenger on this flight and was not flying in an official capacity…

Lawmakers Agree on $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Time running short, Republicans and Democrats agreed Tuesday on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to avoid a government shutdown and delay a politically-charged struggle over President Barack Obama’s new immigration policy until the new year.

In an unexpected move, lawmakers also agreed on legislation expected to be incorporated into the spending measure that will permit a reduction in benefits for current retirees at economically distressed multiemployer pension plans. Supporters said it was part of an effort to prevent a slow-motion collapse of a system that provides retirement income to millions, but critics objected vehemently.

At 1,603 pages, the spending bill adheres to strict caps negotiated earlier between the White House and deficit- conscious Republicans, and is also salted with GOP policy proposals…

Man Screaming ‘I Want to Kill the Jews!’ Shot Dead by Cops in Brooklyn After Stabbing Student in the Face at Chabad-Lubavitch Headquarters in Brooklyn (Video)

NYPD anti-terror officers swarmed Chabad-Lubavitch in Crown Heights after Israeli student Levi Rosenblat, 22, was stabbed during prayer early Tuesday. Police fatally shot 49-year-old Calvin Peters after a tense confrontation. Rosenblat’s condition was critical with bleeding on the brain, police and sources said.

A deranged man screaming “I want to kill the Jews!” invaded the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn early Tuesday and stabbed a yeshiva student in the head before he was shot dead by police.

Levi Rosenblat was praying when Calvin Peters barged inside, whipped out a knife with a 5-inch blade and attacked him, witnesses said.

“Levi had his hands up, trying to block the individual with his arms,” Mendy Notik, 22, said. “He was saying. ‘I will kill you.’ And after Levi, he went towards another young student and he said ‘I will kill the Jews!’“…

Obama Vows No More Torture, CIA ‘Damaged America’

Techniques were not effective, says Senate report

(ANSA) — New York, December 9 — President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he would make sure that the United States never again resorted to torture after a damning Senate report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program.

The report said that the agency used “brutal” methods and misled policymakers in the White House about them. Furthermore, the report said that the interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects were not even effective. “Today’s report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence details one element of our nation’s response to 9/11 — the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, which I formally ended on one of my first days in office,” Obama said in a statement. “The report documents a troubling program involving enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects in secret facilities outside the United States, and it reinforces my long-held view that these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests.

“I will continue to use my authority as President to make sure we never resort to those methods again”.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Whooping Cough Back With a Vengeance in California

Callie Van Tornhout was about a month old when her mother noticed that she’d developed a dry cough on a Sunday afternoon in January.

Soon the cough worsened, and Callie became pale and started throwing up, Callie’s mother, Katie Van Tornhout told ABC News. By the middle of the week, Callie stopped breathing in her mother’s arms in a pediatrician’s waiting room and was rushed to the hospital.

On Saturday, less than a week after the cough first appeared, Callie died at 37 days old on Jan. 30, 2010. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that tests confirmed the culprit: whooping cough.

That year, the country was in the midst of a major whooping cough outbreak, and all eyes were on California, which was experiencing its largest outbreak in 60 years. But the cough hit other states, too, including Minnesota and Callie’s state: Indiana.

“The CDC was like, ‘Didn’t you have the TDaP vaccine when you were pregnant?’“ Van Tornhout recalled. “We didn’t know what that was.”

Germany’s Interior Ministers to Confer After Massive Anti-Islam March

Berlin (dpa) — The interior ministers of Germany’s 16 federal states are to hold talks this week after an anti-Islam march drew 10,000 people in the eastern city of Dresden, local media reported Tuesday.

“The initiators [of the protest] are using xenophobic and Islamophobic sentiment to fan the flames of fear and prejudice,” Ralf Jaeger, a Social Democrat and head of the interior ministers’ conference, told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper.

The demonstration, organized by anti-Islam group Pegida — an acronym that loosely translates as Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West — passed off relatively peacefully late on Monday, despite the presence of 9,000 counter-demonstrators.

Those who took to the streets included members of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), members of other anti-Islam groups including Hooligans against Salafists, and others opposed to the growing number of asylum seekers in Germany.

The counter-demonstrators included members of Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups, left-wing and anti-facist groups including Dresden Nazifrei, and students.

Jaeger told the newspaper that the movement was causing growing concern among the interior ministers, and that an investigation would be launched into the make-up and motivation of the anti-Islam groups emerging on the German political landscape.

Italy: Algeria’s Cevital to ‘Boost Jobs’ At Lucchini After Purchase

Deal at steelmaker ‘strategic’ for Italy, Renzi says

(ANSA) — Rome, December 9 — Algeria’s Cevital intends to not only maintain all staff at the Lucchini steelmaker but to also “increase employment over the next four years”, company chairman Isaad Rebrab said Tuesday.

Rebrab was in Rome for the signing of a purchase agreement with Italy’s second-largest steelmaker, which employs 2,000 people at its plant in the Tuscan port city of Piombino.

Previously owned by Russia’s Severstal, Lucchini has been under special administration since 2012 after going bankrupt.

Premier Matteo Renzi described the Lucchini-Cevital deal as “strategic” for Italy.

The deal “sends a big message to foreign investors and for the future of a sector that is absolutely decisive for tomorrow”, the premier said. “Piombino is a piece of Italy’s future: the traditional steelmaking, manufacturing industry is a piece of the future and not just of the past,” Renzi added. He also thanked the Tuscan regional and local administrations and the labour unions for their part in the deal.

“It may seem odd that I should express my gratitude to the unions, but I do so willingly,” said Renzi who has been on collision course with the country’s labour representatives in recent months particularly over his controversial Jobs Act. “In an industrial dispute, it is right and important that the unions sit at the negotiating table,” Renzi said, adding however that the budget and other laws were the prerogative of government and parliament.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Rome Mayor Likely 1 Mn Euro Grant for Film Festival

Culture minister says event to complement Venice competition

(ANSA) — Rome, December 9 — Rome Mayor Iganzio Marino said Tuesday that Italy’s culture ministry will likely contribute one million euros to the city’s cinema foundation for its major festival.

Marino spoke after meeting Culture Minister Dario Franceschini.

Rome’s city government is in turmoil amid a police probe into a multimillion euro mafia scandal involving numerous departments and a former mayor.

Franceschini said the Rome event would not conflict with the international Venice film festival because it will no involve a competition itself.

He added that the event will be a “revival” and headed by the Istituto Luce Cinecittà.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: No Extension of 80 Euro Bonus to Pensioners, Sources

Govt says that would risk raising budget above 3% limit

(ANSA) — Rome, December 9 — The Italian government will not extend its 80-euro monthly tax bonus to pensioners because that would put too much strain on the national budget and risk pushing it above the 3% ceiling of deficit to GDP imposed by the European Union, sources said Tuesday.

The bonus has been offered to low-income families and pressure has been growing on the government to include pensioners in the tax plan.

Premier Matteo Renzi had promised in May that it would be extended to pensioners in 2015.

However, as Italy continues to struggle to pull out of its third recession since 2008, the government is finding it has little fiscal room to move.

It has been calling on the EU for more freedom to spend on stimulus programs including tax reductions.

Instead, the European Commission recently warned Renzi’s executive that its 2015 budget bill, which includes 18 billion euros in tax cuts in a bid to boost the recession-hit economy, risks breaching that 3% limit as well as requirements it pay off the national debt of more than two trillion euros.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: High-Speed Rail Links Cities, Fiumicino Airport

Sell-off of shares in Ferrovie completed by 2016, says Elia

(ANSA) — Rome, December 9 — High-speed trains from four major northern Italian cities will connect to Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci international airport under a new plan to make travel easier, the head of Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) rail company said Tuesday.

As well, a new high-speed link with Rome will begin operations on Sunday, Chief Executive Officer Michele Mario Elia said.

The plan will see high-speed Frecciargento trains coming and going between the international airport that is best known as Fiumicino, and the cities of Venice, Padua, Bologna, Florence as well as Rome.

He also announced that the privatization of the State railway agency should be completed by the first half of 2016.

“We continued to follow our timetable,” Elia said at a presentation of the new high-speed rail links plan.

A task force looking into plans to sell shares in several Italian government holdings, including the post office, the national air traffic agency, as well as the railway company, is scheduled to meet on Wednesday.

Elia said that is expected to provide some “clarity” on the privatization plan. “2015 will be the year in which they will work hard to finalize everything,” he said.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Rome Prefect Gets Extra Powers Amid Mafia Probe

Renzi vows not to leave city in ‘hands of thieves’

(ANSA) — Rome, December 9 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has given Rome Prefect Giuseppe Pecoraro extra powers to assess activities of the capital city’s council in relation to alleged mafia infiltration there, sources said Tuesday. The announcement comes amid a major police investigation into mafia activities allegedly reaching to high levels in Rome.

Earlier on Tuesday, Premier Matteo Renzi said he would “not leave Rome in the hands of thieves” as the political world continued to feel the aftershocks of the probe prosecutors revealed last week.

Over 100 people have been placed under investigation in the probe including former Rome center-right mayor Gianni Alemanno. The mafia organisation, allegedly run by ex-right-wing terrorist and gangster Massimo Carminati, allegedly managed to rig city of Rome contracts worth many millions of euros. Speaking to young supporters of his Democratic Party (PD), Renzi expressed his hope that the judiciary would “conduct rapid trials” and that the culprits “would pay to the last cent and to the last day”. Renzi also reaffirmed his commitment to weeding out rotten apples from his own party after it emerged that some PD members were implicated in the scandal.

Mayor Ignazio Marino of the PD has, however, emerged unscathed by investigations so far. “We will not allow anyone in the PD to call into question what we are and what we have achieved,” Renzi said. “We will stay clean because Rome is too great and too beautiful to be left to scum out there,” concluded the premier.

The job of cleaning up the PD has been tasked to national President Matteo Orfini, who was put in charge of the Rome branch of the party after news of the probe broke. Orfini said Tuesday that it was up to Mayor Ignazio Marino to decide whether to reshuffle the city executive. “The mayor makes the executive and he does what he thinks is right,” Orfini told reporters before a meeting with Marino. “That’s OK for us”. On Monday, Marino said Pope Francis was praying for the city.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: No-TAV Activists Facing Further Terror-Related Charges

Allegedly involved in bombing at Chiomonte work site

(ANSA) — Turin, December 9 — Three activists already in custody on terror-related allegations are facing further charges over protests against a high-speed rail (TAV) line being built in Piedmont’s northern Susa Valley, police said Tuesday.

The new charges, related to an attack at a TAV work site in Chiomonte in May 2013, are to be issued by the magistrate in Turin against the trio, who are said to be well-known to authorities as radical anarchists, police said.

Lucio Alberti, 24, Graziano Mazarelli, 23, and Francesco Sala, 26 were arrested one year ago and face charges of producing dangerous weapons and carrying these in a public place.

The new charges against them come following investigations by national anti-terrorism squads. Meanwhile, at a trial last month for four others facing similar charges following the attack in May 2013, prosecutors asked for jail sentences of as much as nine years for terrorism charges.

Police at the time said roughly 30 hooded vandals broke into the construction site under the cover of nightfall and tore down fences and blocked machinery.

In a nearby incident, several other activists confronted police with fireworks and Molotov cocktails.

The incident “was an attack on the State, its choices and basic interests,” prosecutors argued.

“We must evaluate actions, not ideas,” said prosecutors.

“Like it or not…the TAV project is the economic and political choice of a democratic State”.

The high-speed rail line, which will eventually connect Turin to Lyon, has sparked years of protest from locals and other activists who denounce its high cost and damage to the environment.

France and Italy argue it will save money and help the environment in the long run by cutting down on automobile traffic.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Statute of Limitations for Corruption to be Extended

(AGI) Rome, Dec 9 — The Italian cabinet will vote to extend the statute of limitations for the crime of corruption on Thursday, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced on Twitter. “They’re little changes, but quite significant and serious. They convey that there’s a new wind blowing in Italy, and that those who steal and corrupt will be prosecuted to the last day and cent”, Renzi added. “At eight-o’clock on Thursday morning, we will bring four small, but weighty changes to the penal code. The minimum penalty for corruption will be raised from four to six years. Therefore, even if you reach a plea bargain, you’ll have to do a little time”, Renzi warned. “We’re doing things we believe in, because it is unacceptable that someone who appropriates money illegaly can reach a plea deal that grants a ‘get out of jail free card’, like in Monopoly”.

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



Association: 12,000 Serbs Want to Return to Djakovica

BELGRADE — The Association of Djakovica Citizens has stated that the demolished Serb homes in that town in southwestern Kosovo should be rebuilt to allow 12,000 Serbs to return there, because Kosovo’s future lies in multiethnicity.

The association reacted to a recent statement by Djakovica Mayor Mimoza Kusari Ljilja that the demolition of Serb homes was not a political issue by pointing out that Kosovo’s future cannot be built on the suffering on 230,000 Serbs driven out of Kosovo.

“We all know that, both the Serbs and the (Kosovo) Albanians. We are working together to have the Serbs who were forced out of their homes return to them and claim all of the rights they were denied,” the association said in a statement signed by its president, Djokica Stanojevic.

Kusari Ljilja gave a statement recently for channel 2 of Radio and Television of Kosovo, in which she said the local authorities had ordered the demolition of two Serb homes in Djakovica because of the threat of their collapse, and not because they were owned by Serbs.

The owners were not informed about the demolition, only UNMIK, and the local authorities reacted to complaints about a possible collapse of the Serb houses and their threat to safety, she noted.

Serbia’s Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said in an address to the UN Security Council on Thursday that 5 buildings owned by the Serb family Stefic, who had lived in Djakovica for generations, were demolished in late August.

It was done at the order of Kusari Ljilja, which constituted a clear message to Serbs that they were not welcome to return to Djakovica, he said.

Some 12,000 Serbs lived in Djakovica until 1999, while only 4 elderly women remain today, living in the compound of the local monastery, he pointed out.

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



Croatia: ‘Kill the Serb’, Ustasha Graffiti on Serbian Orthodox Church

VINKOVCI — Ustasha graffiti have been painted on the building of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) parish centre in Vinkovc, Croatia.

The graffiti featuring messages of hatred against the Serbs, threats and the Ustasha symbols and mottoes were painted on the SPC parish centre in Vinkovci on Sunday, the Osjek diocese has stated.

The Church believes this is an organised attack on the SPC and its priests that has been going on for about 20 days and continues the persecution of the Christian Orthodox faith and everything Serbian in eastern Croatia.

The statement says that “a democratically enlightened Croat” left his feces on the altar of the Church of St Procopius in Rajevo Selo several days ago.

“Just days later, another incident occurred with very familiar messages from recent times, when the exodus of 200,000 Serbs from Croatia was started, along with stamping out the use of the Serbian Cyrillic script and destruction of SPC property,” says the statement. according to a report from Glas Srpske.

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



Libya: Ansar Al-Sharia Video Shows ‘Haftar Tank Destroyed’

‘30 terrorists killed’ in airstrike near Sirte, army

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 9 — The jihadist propaganda war via video continues even in Libya. The “media department” of Ansar Al-Sharia, active in the eastern part of the country, posted a video on Youtube on Monday showing a tank of the forces under former general Khalifa Haftar that had been hit by an anti-tank round. The video is similar to Islamic State (ISIS) ones in that it uses background music and Quranic verses throughout. Writing underneath the image states that “God helped the fighters to destroy a tank of the despot’s soldiers”. Haftar, who is fighting for the internationally recognized government under PM Abdullah Al-Thinni, is leading the military operation to clear Cyrenaica and Benghazi of jihadist forces. Libyan air force commander Saqr El-Gerushi has meanwhile announced the destruction of a training camp run by the ‘Ikhwan Misr’ (‘Egyptian Brothers’, Ed.) group in Nofaliya, Sirte. Local media say that some 30 fighters were killed in the attack and equipment and vehicles destroyed. Airstrikes have also been conducted on bases held by the Islamist Libya Dawn militias in Zuwara, west of Tripoli, and in Derna, a port city in the east that has become a training ground for Islamic State (ISIS) fighters.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



American Arrested for Allegedly Plotting Attacks on Muslim Sites

Jerusalem (CNN) — An American man has been arrested in Israel for allegedly acquiring explosives stolen from Israel’s military that he planned to use to attack Muslim holy sites, Israeli authorities said Tuesday.

According to Shin Beit, Israel’s internal security service, Adam Livix, 30, was arrested in November under suspicion of possessing explosives with the intent of using them in a terrorist attack.

He was taken into custody with “various types of ammunition and explosives stolen from the IDF” and admitted under interrogation that he had made preliminary surveys of potential targets, Shin Beit announced Tuesday.

Livix had come to the region in 2013 from his native United States, where he was been wanted for suspected drug felonies, the Israeli security service reports.

The Christian man lived in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank communities of Hebron and Bethlehem, where Shin Beit claims that he rebuffed a Palestinian activist’s solicitation to assassinate President Barack Obama during the U.S. leader’s visit to Israel…

Former Muslim to Obama: ‘ISIS Are True Muslims’

US President Barack Obama tried to persuade the world that Islamic State is not Muslim. An expert proves him wrong.

In his address to the nation on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, US President Barack Obama stated that the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) terror group is not Muslim.

“Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, another acronym for ISIS) is not Islamic,” Obama declared. “No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim.”

The other point Obama made was that “ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple, and it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way.”

This second point may be contested by experts on terrorism. However, the first point is contested by a former Muslim who spent more than 20 years studying Islam.

Brother Rachid, a son of an Imam and a former Muslim who converted to Christianity, decided to educate Obama, asserting that ISIL is indeed Muslim. “I can tell you with confidence that ISIL speaks for Islam. Allow me to correct you, Mister President, ISIL is a Muslim organization.”

“Their leader, Abu Bakr Al Bagdadi, holds a Ph.D. in Islamic studies,” he noted. “I doubt you know Islam better than he does.”…

— Hat tip: Mark H [Return to headlines]



Jilted Muslim Youth (Love Jihadi) Sets Hindu Girl on Fire in Denial of Love.

Muslim Love Jihadi sets Hindu girl on fire pouring kerosene in Howrah, West Bengal. Girl in critical condition, culprit at large.

Jaita Dhar | HENB | Howrah | 8 Dec 2014:: An 18-year-old Hindu girl named Neha Choudhury, was set ablaze allegedly by a 26-year-old Muslim perpetrator named Mohammad Imtiaz, after she resisted his attempts to violate her modesty on Monday. Jilted Love Jihadi Imtiaz poured kerosene on Neha when she was retaliating to save her modesty. The school going girl and a resident of Kashi Mondal Lane, in the Belur police station area, suffered nearly 60% burns and is fighting for her life at the T L Jaiswal Hospital.

The girl, a Higher Secondary examinee, has been admitted to a state-run hospital with burns on the upper part of her body. The condition of the patient is critical as known latest.

Police said Mohammad Imtiaz, entered the Neha’s house in Belur’s Kashi Mondal Lane when she was alone around 8.30am. Imtiaz, a resident of the nearby area (Mainuddin Ansari Road, Vot Bagan), is yet to be arrested. Police said that the accused had attacked the school girl “for revenge”…

— Hat tip: UB [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Alishba Bibi, Beaten and Humiliated by a Muslim Family, Calls for a Stop to “Anti-Christian Attacks”

The 30-years-old mother of four children was brutally attacked by powerful local Muslims, dragged in the street, her clothes torn off. Police arrested and then released the accused, changing their initial report. The pre-bail hearing set for last Friday was postponed until today. Under protection, Alishba plans to fight the case for herself and the Christian community.

Faisalabad (AsiaNews) — “I was beaten and humiliated in broad daylight just because I belong to the Christian community. I will fight for justice and put the culprits behind bars, so that other poor Christians like me can be spared this in the future,” said Alishba Bibi, who spoke to AsiaNews about the brutal attack against her by a powerful Muslim family.

Alishba Bibi, a 30-year-old mother of four, lives in Rana Town colony, in the District of Sheikhupura, in Punjab (Pakistan’s most populous province), was brutally assaulted, dragged into the street, her clothes torn off, following a trivial dispute.

“Anti-Christian harassment is common place in the area,” she said. “No one dares to oppose Mushtaq Gondal; he has close ties to politicians and criminals. However, I will not step back; I will fight until I get justice.”

The attack took place on 19 November. As she made her way home with her daughter after picking her up from school, Alishba Bibi was verbally attacked by a woman, Rani Bibi, from a prominent local Muslim family.

As the dispute unfolded, the Muslim woman called her two sons, Muneeb and Mubeen Gondal, for help. Armed with sticks, the two young men unleashed their fury against the Christian woman. After tearing her clothes off, and dragging her into the street, they took a mobile phone and 10,000 rupees from her purse, leaving her unconscious on the ground.

Two local women, Shamim Bibi and Rehana Shaukat, rescued the Christian woman and brought her to the home of one of the two for she got some first aid.

Determined to get justice, Alishba Bibi — with the help of Aslam Parvaiz Sahotra, vice-president of the Human Liberation Commission Pakistan (HLCP) — filed a complaint with police in Ferozwala. However, the officer in charge of the station refused to take the charges seriously. Downplaying the incident, he limited himself with taking a statement.

The father of two men, Mushtaq Gondal, is an influential figure in the area, feared even by the police who released the accused soon after their arrest.

The two were set to appear in court for a pre-bail hearing last Friday, but the additional session judge for Sheikhupura district, Younis Aziz, adjourned the proceedings to today. It was not immediately clear whether Muneeb and Mubeen Gondal would stand trial.

Meanwhile Alishba Bibi lives under protection, in the offices of the HLCP, for fear of retaliation or revenge.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Aslam Parvaiz Sahotra points the finger at the police, who instead of seeking justice have been conniving with the accused.

“In order to defend the accused, the police produced a false report alleging that Alishba stabbed Mubeen Gondal,” he said.

“This is the fifth incident of its kind in the area, at the hands of influential people oppressing poor and helpless Christians.”

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



Uber Halted in Thailand and Spain for Unfair Competition

(AGI) New Delhi, Dec 9 — Thailand has followed India in banning the ridesharing service Uber. After facing widespread protests by taxi drivers in Europe, Uber is now dealing with deeper trouble in Asia after a woman was allegedly raped by her driver in New Delhi, prompting India’s Minister of Home Affairs, Rajnath Singh, to ban the cab service in the city. Indian police arrested the Uber cab driver on Sunday at his home in Uttar Pradesh, where officers also found the car where the alleged sexual assault took place, said New Delhi’s deputy commissioner Madhur Verma. The arrest followed the charges filed by the passenger, a 26-year-old woman who had requested an Uber cab the previous Friday in southern New Delhi. The driver had already been arrested for sexual harassment three years before, and was hired by Uber six months ago without a proper background check, police said. Uber is taking part in the investigation, but according to sources cited by NDTV, the company itself may be found criminally liable. Furthermore, Uber did not have the necessary permits to operate in New Delhi, police added. “Every violation by Uber will be evaluated and we will go for legal recourse”, Verma affirmed. Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick said in a statement: “What happened over the weekend in New Delhi is horrific. Our entire team’s hearts go out to the victim of this despicable crime. We will do everything, I repeat, everything to help bring this perpetrator to justice and to support the victim and her family in her recovery.” Kalanick added, “We will work with the government to establish clear background checks currently absent in their commercial transportation licensing programs. We will also partner closely with the groups who are leading the way on women’s safety here in New Delhi and around the country and invest in technology advances to help make New Delhi a safer city for women”. In Spain, a judge banned Uber from operating in the country after numerous taxi companies filed a case against it. The court found that Uber does not have the necessary authorisations to run its business and that it violates the rules of fair competition.

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



Suspected Bomb Kills 9 on Philippine Passenger Bus

MANILA, Philippines — A suspected bomb explosion Tuesday in a bus in front of a university in the southern Philippines killed at least nine people and wounded more than 20 others, officials said.

The Rural Transit bus had picked up passengers, mostly students, and was passing near the main gate of Central Mindanao University in Maramag town in Bukidnon province when the powerful blast sent shrapnel and debris flying through the vehicle, town safety officer Alejandro Navarro said.

The blast killed nine passengers and wounded 25 others, many of them seriously, he said.

The suspected explosive, probably a mortar round concealed in a bag, went off in an overheard rack, and many passengers who were standing in the overcrowded bus were wounded in the head, Navarro said…

French Hostage Taken by AQIM in Mali in 2011 Released

Lazarevic ‘in good health’, to be repatriated soon

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 9 — The French businessman Serge Lazarevic abducted in Mali in 2011 has been released, announced President Francois Hollande on Tuesday. Lazarevic, 50, had been held captivity by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) since November 24, 2011. Last month a video was released showing him with a long beard, a black turban and a thinner face, in which he called on France to do whatever it could for his release. “There are no more French hostages anywhere in the world,” Hollande said in announcing the man’s liberation. Mr Lazarevic, he said, was in “relatively good health” and would soon be back in France.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Migrants Arriving Dropped, More Italian Moving Abroad

Italians moving away jumped more than 20% in 2013

(ANSA) — Rome, December 9 — Italy attracted fewer immigrants in 2013 as the total number of new arrivals fell by more than 12% compared with the year before, national statistical agency Istat said Tuesday.

At the same time, the number of Italians fleeing their recession-hit homeland jumped by more than 20% last year, the agency said in its latest report on international and internal migration.

It found some 82,000 Italians moved out of their country last year, the highest level in 10 years and well above the 68,000 who migrated in 2012.

The United Kingdom was the favourite destinations of Italians moving away, with the greatest number of migrants found in the age category of 20-to-45 years of age, said Istat.

Germany, Switzerland and France were other popular destinations for Italian migrants.

Meanwhile, the number of new arrivals in Italy in 2013 was about 307,000 — 43,000 fewer than in 2012, or a drop of 12.3%.

The largest number of new entries in 2013 were Romanians, followed by Moroccans, Chinese, and Ukrainians.

The number of Italians returning from abroad fell in 2013 by 28,000 compared to the return rate the previous year, Istat said.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Egypt: TV Station Criticized for Gay Bath House Raid

Led police to ‘den of perversion’; ‘professional journalism’

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 9 — A segment of the television program El-Mestakhabi (‘Hidden’) showing a police raid on a gay men’s bath house in the Egyptian capital has caused an uproar on social media networks. Some 33 men were arrested during the raid on charges of “dissolution”. The journalist Mona Iraqi, who accompanied police on the raid and was photographed using her phone to film those arrested as they were dragged out of the facilities half naked. The broadcaster Al-Qahira Wal-Nas has issued a statement saying that the segment, which aired on Monday evening, was an attempt to “shed light on the group most vulnerable to AIDS” as part of World AIDS Day. It said that the journalist had worked “in compliance with international professional, humane and scientific rules”.

Most Facebook comments accuse Iraqi of “ruining people’s lives for a scoop”, though some support the program with statements to the effect that “‘God is against homosexuality”.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Finland: 13,000 Have Resigned From Church After Vote on Equal Marriage Rights

The supportive comments of Archbishop Kari Mäkinen on equal marriage rights are believed to have contributed to a recent spike in resignations from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

A mass exodus from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland continued on Sunday, with the number of people leaving the church surpassing the previous records from Friday and Saturday.

Eroakirkosta.fi, an online resignation portal, reported that 5,100 people had resigned from the church by 10.20pm on Sunday, equivalent to the number of resignations registered on Saturday and nearly double that registered on Friday.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has thereby lost roughly 13,000 members after the Parliament on Friday voted 105—92 in favour of granting marriage rights to same-sex couples…

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



Bank of America Sees $50 Oil as OPEC Dies

“Our biggest worry is the end of the liquidity cycle. The Fed is done. The reach for yield that we have seen since 2009 is going into reverse”, said Bank of America.

The Opec oil cartel no longer exists in any meaningful sense and crude prices will slump to $50 a barrel over coming months as market forces shake out the weakest producers, Bank of America has warned.

Revolutionary changes sweeping the world’s energy industry will drive down the price of liquefied natural gas (LNG), creating a “multi-year” glut and a mucher cheaper source of gas for Europe.

Francisco Blanch, the bank’s commodity chief, said Opec is “effectively dissolved” after it failed to stabilize prices at its last meeting. “The consequences are profound and long-lasting,” he said.

The free market will now set the global cost of oil, leading to a new era of wild price swings and disorderly trading that benefits only the Mid-East petro-states with deepest pockets such as Saudi Arabia…