Protests continued all over the Islamic world today in response to Charlie Hebdo‘s refusal to stop publishing cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslim activists took to the streets in Yemen, and another group burned a French flag on the Temple Mount. Activists in Niger burned down another church and killed more people. None of the incidents had anything to do with Islam.

In other news, an Iranian newspaper was ordered closed down after it published a photograph of George Clooney wearing a “Je Suis Charlie” button.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Charlie Marteau, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Nick, Papa Whiskey, 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.

ECB: Merkel Talked QE Plan

Bond buying program, Greece out

(ANSA) — Berlin, January 16 — The European Central Bank (ECB) is set to introduce a program of massive sovereign bond buying to stimulate inflation, German magazine Der Spiegel reported Friday.

Such a program, known as quantitative easing, could be outlined by the ECB as early as its next regular meeting on Thursday, a senior official was quoted as telling French newspaper Liberation.

Under the ECB plan, national central banks will only be allowed to buy the sovereign debt of their respective countries, and a ceiling of 20-25% will be set on national debt purchases, the magazine reported.

Greece is said to not be included because it does not fit program criteria. According to Der Spiegel, ECB President Mario Draghi discussed the plan with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble at an informal meeting in Berlin on Wednesday.

The German government later confirmed the meeting had taken place.

Dutch central banker Klaas Knot said he was in favor of putting central banks in charge of a QE plan in their respective countries.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Is Nervous Obama White House Holding Bergdahl Report Hostage?

[…]

To those who have followed all angles of Bergdahl’s case, it appears the Army has a true dilemma on its hands, as does the Obama administration. By now the investigating team has done an in-depth look into the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl’s disappearance from his post, has probably interviewed every witness with credible information, has looked at every piece of physical evidence and has reviewed hundreds of classified intelligence reports regarding his captivity. Its conclusions are long overdue.

[…]

In White House terms, not charging Bergdahl means that he was indeed worth the trade for the Taliban Five. But charging him on any level means that releasing the five Taliban was an error of monstrous proportions, one the administration will never be able to explain away satisfactorily.

[Why shouldn’t one treasonous wimp help out another? — PW]

Meet Strati: The World’s First 3D-Printed Car

The two-seater, made of plastic components and able to go 25 miles per hour, was printed created at an auto show in Detroit

Local Motors, a tech company based in Phoenix, Ariz., may have given us our first glimpse of the future of automobile manufacturing.

This week at the Detroit auto show, the company 3D-printed a car called the Strati. The two-seater is made of plastic components and can go up to 25 miles per hour.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Begins First Stages of Pluto Encounter

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft recently began its long-awaited, historic encounter with Pluto. The spacecraft is entering the first of several approach phases that culminate July 14 with the first close-up flyby of the dwarf planet, 4.67 billion miles (7.5 billion kilometers) from Earth.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



The Organized Islamic Campaign to Silence Criticism of Islam

This article summarizes the Islamic jihad against the freedom of speech that I have spoken and written about for years — you can get a great deal of information about the OIC’s war against free speech in my 2008 book Stealth Jihad and my 2013 book Arab Winter Comes to America.

It is remarkable that the Washington Post, which usually aids and abets this campaign to smear and defame foes of jihad terror, would publish this. They did so because the author is a Muslim with (from the looks of this article) an apparent breezy confidence in an imminent massive reformation of Islam. Thus the Post editors can publish this piece without fear of appearing “Islamophobic” themselves.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Britain on Beheading Alert: Security Stepped up for Police and Jewish Schools as Fears Grow of New Jihadi Strike

Security was dramatically stepped up for police officers and the Jewish community in Britain yesterday amid fears of a terror attack.

Intelligence chiefs are worried that Islamist fanatics could try to copy the atrocities in France last week that cost 17 lives.

Four Jewish people and three police officers were among the dead.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



EU Risks China Solar Power Row Flare-Up

The EU risked reopening a bitter feud with China over solar panel manufacturing after confirming Thursday it had launched a fresh trade probe into a key part of the sector.

Confirming media reports, European Commission spokesman Daniel Rosario said EU trade authorities opened an investigation last month into alleged price dumping by China on solar glass, a key component of solar panels.

A 2013 trade row over solar panels sparked the EU’s biggest-ever trade probe covering a market worth some 21 billion euros ($25 billion) at its zenith…

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



France: Paris Driver Hit and Run on Policewoman at the Presidential Residence of Francois Hollande

A POLICE officer has been “deliberately” hit by a car in Paris, French media have reported.

The motorist ‘intentionally’ drove into the policewoman outside the residence of President Francois Hollande after the driver glared at the officer from behind the wheel.

Le Parisien has claimed the 37-year old policewoman — who has not been named — suffered injuries to her wrist, knee and back.

The car was driven the wrong way through the one-way system to the Élysée Palace.

Four suspects fled the car on foot but officers on motorbikes managed to arrest two of the youths on rue d’Anjou.

Both of those arrested are believed to be from the same Paris suburb as terrorist Amedy Coulibaly.

French President: Muslims Are ‘Main Victims’

Even as the bodies of two dead cartoonists from satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were committed to the ground after a terrorist attack last week which killed twelve, French President Francois Hollande has insisted Muslims remain the “main victims”.

Speaking at the Arab Institute in Paris, the president reminded listeners that Muslims have “the same rights and the same duties as all citizens” and deserved “protection”.

Visiting the conference, which was focussing on the ‘Renewal of the Arab World’, president Hollande said: “It is the Muslims who are the first victims of fanaticism, fundamentalism, and intolerance. We should also remind people, and I do it every time wherever I find myself in the Arab world, that Islam is compatible with democracy”.

Despite his comments, which follow the murder of four Jewish shoppers in a Kosher delicatessen in Paris last week in an attack linked to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, France has now deployed thousands of police and troops to defend Jewish property…

— Hat tip: Charlie Marteau [Return to headlines]



Hundreds of Protesters Rally Against Islam in Czech Capital

PRAGUE (AP) — Hundreds of people are rallying in central Prague against Islam in a first such protest in the Czech Republic.

Organizers from a group called “We do not want Islam in the Czech Republic,” which has more than 100,000 supporters on social media, say last week’s terror attacks in Paris prompted their protest.

Waving Czech flags and banners that read “Islam is Evil,” or “Europe wake up,” the protesters honored Friday the 17 victims killed in the French capital.

Martin Konvicka, a leader of the group, says its aim is “to ban spreading and promoting of Islam.” Konvicka says it has no formal ties with PEGIDA, which organizes bigger anti-Islam marches in Germany.

There were some heated exchanges between the group and two dozen counter-protesters.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Italian Fertility Clinics Forced to Go Abroad for Donor Eggs

Lack of Italian donors means national supply insufficient

(ANSA) — Rome, January 14 — Italy’s fertility clinics lack a sufficient supply of donor eggs to match current demand, which has led many of them to search for donors throughout Europe, a national expert said Wednesday.

“In Italy at the moment there aren’t voluntary egg donors,” said Elisabetta Coccia, president of Cecos Italy, an association of 21 national public and private fertility clinics.

“So the choice to go abroad is the only possible way at the moment to guarantee fertility treatments in our country,” Coccia said.

In April, Italy’s Constitutional Court ruled that a couple’s right to have a child was inviolable even in the case of sterility, overruling a 2004 ban on donor sperm and eggs that did not come from a spouse.

Since the ruling went into effect last June, demand for gametes has soared.

Coccia confirmed that one pregnancy has already resulted from a foreign egg, and that most of the 21 Cecos clinics will be finalizing contracts in coming days with various European gamete banks.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Moroccan Ambassador Says EU Has Failed on Integration

(AGI) Rome, Jan 16 — Morocco’s ambassador to Rome, Hassan Habouyoub, said the European Union has failed in its attempts at integration and must change its policies. “Europe cannot continue to be closed off and it cannot become a fortress. So far all of its policies to integrate diverse cultures have been wrong and these are the results”, he stated in an interview following the signing of an agreement between AGI and Moroccan press agency MAP in Rome. “Europe and its single states don’t have a project to integrate different cultural realities”, he said on Friday, a week after the terrorist attack in Paris.

“The integration process in France has never obtained concrete results”, he commented, also criticising the British model: despite the UK being “the philosophical champion of integration, it has not managed to create space for multicultural expression”, he stated. “Italy can play an important role in the framework of European policies for the Mediterranean, which should be extended to include all of Africa and eastern Europe, from the Gulf of Guinea to the Caspian Sea”, Habouyoub said. “Morocco has a history of peace with Italy”, he noted, recalling the commercial agreements that were already in place at the time of the Republic of Venice.

“This is why we view your country as an ally with whom miracles can be achieved in terms of governance between the North and South”. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between AGI’s CEO, Gianni di Giovanni, and the general manager of MAP, Khalil Hachim Idrissi, entails collaboration on editorial production in terms of primary information, integrated and multimedia communication, and professional training.

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



Italy: Cofferati Denounces ‘Irregularities’ In Liguria Primary

Ex CGIL chief lost to fellow PD candidate Paita by slim margin

(ANSA) — Genoa, January 12 — Democratic Party (PD) MEP Sergio Cofferati on Monday denounced what he said were “serious irregularities” in Sunday’s party primaries to elect a candidate to run for governor in the northwestern Liguria region in May elections.

Current executive regional council member for infrastructure and civil protection, Raffaella Paita, beat former CGIL trade union chief and ex-Bologna mayor Cofferati by a margin of about 4,000 votes. Paita took 28,973 votes against Cofferati’s 24,916. Democratic Center (CD) candidate Massimiliano Tovo got 699 votes. The regional electoral commission’s final tally was of 54,947 votes cast. Of these, 177 were crossed out, 182 were blank, and six were found questionable and annulled.

The regional college of guarantors for primaries confirmed Monday that Cofferati and two others reported “serious irregularities in electoral operational procedure” during the primary, adding it will review the matter and make a decision not before Wednesday.

Angelo Sanza, a member of the CD executive, pointed to “Chinese and Moroccans lining up, asking embarrassed officials at the ballot box where they could pick up the reward the were promised in exchange for voting”.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Docs Remove Healthy Kidney From Woman With Kidney Tumor

Rome public hospital under investigation

(ANSA) — Rome, January 9 — The Lazio region has opened a probe into the case of an 84-year-old woman with a kidney tumor whose healthy kidney was removed instead.

The operation took place January 2 at Rome’s CTO Andrea Alesini Hospital, La Repubblica newspaper reported.

“The region…intends to proceed with utmost severity towards those who made an error of this nature, which is utterly incompatible with the quality and accuracy that the regional public health system guarantees,” authorities said.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: PD Slightly Up: League Overtakes Forza Italia — Poll

Northern League now leading centre-right party

(ANSA) — Rome, January 16 — Premier Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) was slightly up and the rightwing Northern League overtook ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party in Friday’s weekly poll by Ixè for the Rai 3 program Agorà. The PD saw a razor-thin increase from 37.2% last week to 37.6% this week, while the Northern League bested Forza Italia by 1/10th of a percentage point, 13.2% to 13.1%, respectively, making the League now the leading party of the centre-right.

The 5-Star Movement party gained 0.2%, at 18.9% this week.

Here are the standings (change over last week in brackets): PD 37.6% (+0.4%), M5S 18.9% (+0.2%), Northern League 13.2% (+0.2%), Forza Italia 13.1% (-0.2%).

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Govt Denies Ransom Paid to Free Aid Workers

Two young women testify to prosecutors after return

(ANSA) — Rome, January 16 — Rumours suggesting that Italy paid a ransom to free two young hostages kidnapped in Syria last summer are “just conjecture”, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Friday. The Italian government, like its predecessors and in line with international practice, is against paying ransom to free hostages, Gentiloni told the Lower House after welcoming home aid workers Greta Ramelli and Vanessa Marzullo. The two women arrived in Rome early Friday after almost six months in captivity. When their release was announced Thursday, opposition Northern League leader Matteo Salvini referred to media reports suggesting the Italian government paid a 12-million-euro ransom and denounced the practise. Italy has been on the front line against terror since the September 2001 attacks on the United States and “won’t be lectured by anyone on that”, Gentiloni said as he reported to the House on the situation. Rome will reaffirm this stand at an upcoming conference of the coalition fighting Islamic State (ISIS) extremist militants in Syria and Iraq, he added. The women, wearing winter parkas and looking exhausted from their ordeal, were greeted with long hugs from their parents, family and friends, who drove down from Lombardy to meet them in Rome. Marzullo, 21, and Ramelli, 20, arrived in Syria July 28 to volunteer on health and water-related humanitarian aid projects, and were abducted just three days later.

The aid workers arrived in Rome at about 4:20 a.m. Friday after a three-hour flight from Turkey on an Italian military plane. Marzullo was greeted by her parents and brother while Ramelli was welcomed by her parents, her brother and his fiancée, as well as two school friends who are also aid workers.

They later met with prosecutors investigating a case of kidnapping with terrorist intent.

The two young women said they were held in various prisons in northern Syria. Their jailers always covered their faces, but never threatened to kill them. The conditions of their captivity were tough but bearable, and they were not abused or subjected to violence. As well, the two young women reportedly told prosecutors they didn’t know anything about a ransom being paid for their release.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Seven Arrested in Navy Kickbacks Probe

Suspects accused of ‘brutality and shameless arrogance’

(ANSA) — Taranto, January 13 — Carabinieri police on Tuesday arrested seven naval employees, including officers in service, over allegations of official misconduct in relation to alleged participation in a kickback scheme involving companies providing services to the military corps.

The arrests were the result of a probe that began following a denouncement by a contractor which led to the arrest of frigate captain Roberto La Gioia, 46, last March.

The suspects — five officers, one NCO and one civilian employee — allegedly colluded to ensure that contracting companies paid the equivalent of 10% of their profits as kickbacks in money or in kind.

Investigators say the payoffs went directly to La Gioia who then distributed them among the group according to agreed percentages. The preliminary investigations judge described the scheme as a “genuine protection scheme imposed strictly and with brutal and sometimes shameless arrogance, and which caused considerable damage both to the individual companies and to the local economy as a whole, essentially in the manner of organised crime”.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Napolitano ‘One of Worst Presidents’ Says M5S

Anti-establishment group says won’t miss 89-year-old

(ANSA) — Rome, January 14 — Giorgio Napolitano was “one of the worst presidents” in the history of the Italian Republic, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) said in a statement by its Lower House and Senate whips, Andrea Cecconi and Alberto Airola, after the 89-year-old resigned as head of State on Wednesday. The M5S frequently accused Napolitano of not properly conducting his role as an independent arbiter of Italian politics, saying he favoured the established parties, and it failed in a bid to have him impeached. “We won’t miss him,” said the statement by Cecconi and Airola.

They also called on Napolitano to forego his right as an ex-president to become a Life Senator.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Police Across Italy to Strike in Support of Rome Cops

Union says some 8,000 Italian municipalities to take part

(ANSA) — Rome, January 16 — Local police across Italy said Friday they will strike on February 12 in support of Rome cops who are facing investigation for calling in sick in large numbers on New Year’s Eve. Police union Ospol-Csa said officers in 8,000 municipalities will take part in next month’s strike. City officials have said 83% of Rome’s traffic cops called in sick on that night, prompting a furore, although unions have disputed the figure. The prosecutors opened the probe after a petition from consumers association Codacons.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Croatia: Conservative Grabar Kitarovic New President

After close win against outgoing head of State Josipovic

(ANSA) — ZAGREB — The conservative Grabar Kitarovic will be the new president of Croatia. The former diplomat scored a close win — by a few thousand votes — in a runoff against outgoing president Ivo Josipovic. The victory leads to an important turnover not just in the country’s highest institutional position but also a change nobody could have predicted a few weeks ago, which takes the right to the presidency for the first time since 1999. Few believed a woman, a diplomat with an international career, and a conservative, could stand a chance against the popular outgoing head of State, Ivo Josipovic. But Grabar Kitarovic surprised everybody when she won, though by a very small margin, with 50.4% of the vote, with a difference of just 0.8%, or 17,300 votes. Josipovic left his post at the end, visibly disappointed and bitter. But the outcome of these elections was apparently determined not by the choice between the candidates’ programs and promises but rather the state of Croatia’s economy, which has been in recession for six years, with unemployment at 20% and a public debt reaching 80% of GDP.

Josipovic paid the price for widespread dissatisfaction from his center-left people, over the work of the Social Democratic government. The idea that change can provide an opportunity for recovery played in favor of the opposition’s contender, in spite of the fact that the head of State in Croatia has no powers in the economic sector. Turnout was high, mostly thanks to a heated electoral campaign and an eve full of expectations: 59% of the country’s 3.8 million voters cast their ballots, well over the 47% of the first round. Grabar Kitarovic, 46, a Catholic and moderate conservative, promised more “patriotism and respect for traditional values”, as well as a much more dynamic presidential style that will also be critical towards the government. After she will be sworn in mid February, Croatia will experience a difficult cohabitation, which is likely to lead to heated debates between Prime Minsiter Zoran Milanovic, known for his harsh style, and Grabar Kitarovic who will want to impose her role on the domestic political scenario, from which she has been absent for almost seven years after serving as ambassador in Washington from 2008 and subsequently, from 2011, as joint secretary of Nato for public diplomacy. After a university degree in English and Spanish language and literature, and a master’s degree in international relations, Grabar Kitarovic worked from 1993 at the foreign ministry, and then became foreign minister from 2004 until 2008 under Premier Ivo Sanader, who is today detained for a number of corruption cases — a connection that has cast a shadow on her public persona. Her election will also have an important symbolic impact on Croatian internal dynamics. It means her party, Hdz, has paid the price for previous mistakes and that the center-right in Croatia can again eye with hope political elections to be held within a year.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Tunisia: ‘Spring’ Fades Amid Essebsi’s Realpolitik

Elderly statesman called on to erase Ben Ali’s memory

(ANSAmed) — JANUARY 13 — Four years ago, when tear gas was still heavy in the air, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali left a Tunisia rocked by protests calling for his ouster. He fled with his wife, the much-loathed Leila, and the youngest of his sons to prevent a settling of scores that — as the recent history of other uprisings in the Arab world shows — could have led to major bloodshed. Four years have gone by and Tunisia, in order to leave a severe crisis (economic and of values) behind, has opted to move on after the euphoria of the first few months following the end of the Ben Ali era. The period undeniably showed the fragility of a democracy that came on the wave of popular rage hidden for too long, fostered by the anger of seeing a country that could take care of itself instead devoured by a rapacious clique of the dictator’s family and his partners, who took over everything that produced wealth and ignored both laws and respect for others. Ben Ali’s inglorious end restored democracy to Tunisia while setting the country on a path traveled by other nations that — finding themselves from one moment to the next free of a dictatorship — thought that this gave the new leaders a license to take any decision they saw fit. After elections for its Constituent Assembly and power invested in a coalition under the Islamist Ennahdha party, Tunisia dreamed it would get effective governance immediately. Time has shown this to be a mistake: one that made many wistful for Ben Ali’s type of governance, in which corruption ran rife but in which the country at least moved forward.

Strolling down the streets of Tunis or the more intellectual Sousse or cosmopolitan Mahdia, it was not long ago that one could meet those who spoke of Ben Ali’s time with nostalgia. The years under Ennahdha split the country in two, much more than the recent vote showed, sharpening differences between those who considered Islam a cure-all and those calling for a secular state to prevent inequality. The country, suffering emotionally from violent incidents making the headlines, has decided to move backwards and voted for an elderly statesman, Beji Caid Essebsi, who has never hid — nor would he want to — his past under the Bourghiba and Ben Ali regimes. The pragmatic politician will now have to make his fellow citizens understand that the Tunisian ‘spring’ — though it did bring democracy, or at least something akin to it — can no longer condition the life of the country, where Islam must have an important role but must not cramp the freedom of a single Tunisian. This is a concept that is often forgotten by those who, in the name of or on behalf of religion, believed that those not sharing this idea were enemies to be fought.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Muslim Mob on Temple Mount Burns French Flag in Cartoon Rage

The protest in Jerusalem was among a number of demonstrations across the Middle East on Friday, some turning violent, against Charlie Hebdo’s new cover featuring Mohammad.

Hundres of Palestinians attended a rally on Friday afternoon on the Temple Mount against the new cover of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which featured a drawing of the Prophet Mohammad.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Iranian Paper Shut Over Clooney ‘Je Suis Charlie’ Photo

“An Iranian court has ordered the closure of a newspaper that published a picture of George Clooney wearing a badge backing French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which was attacked last week. The Mardom e-Emruz (Today’s People) newspaper ran a picture of the actor headlined “I’m Charlie too”. But conservative elements in Teheran were incensed by a catchphrase they regard as “anti-Islamic”, BBC Middle East analyst Alan Johnston says. Judges said the headline was “obscene”…..”

Radical Islamist or Violent Extremism: “What Difference Does it Make?”

by Bill Narvey and Jerry Gordon

Earlier today, we posted on the purported contrast in responses at yesterday’s White House joint news conference by UK Prime Minister David Cameron and President Obama to a question raised by BBC correspondent, Nick Robinson about “the threat posed by fighters coming back from Syria”. See: UK PM Cameron versus President Obama on Radical Islamic Terror Threat.

We learned early on after 9/11 to let public figures, whether media or political figures define themselves by their actions, not their nuanced words. The same is true for demonstrable Islamic terrorist actions seeking to impose self-censorship by deadly actions. The latest examples were the massacres in Paris at the Charlie Hebdo editorial offices and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket. Then there was the stunning slaughter of thousands in Baga, Nigeria by Boko Haram. Jews in France, Belgium, and the UK have been the subject of Islamic terror attacks by Al Qaeda and Islamic State sympathizers and vets resulting in tens of deaths over the past decade. They no longer feel secure and contend they have no future in countries that cannot protect them. Despite the great play by the media following yesterday’s Joint White House Press Conference where PM Cameron used the “Radical Islamic expression while President Obama painfully avoided it. He choosing instead the opaque expression “violent extremism” full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing. The reality is there is no difference between Cameron and Obama. They both ultimately avoid the “M” word for fear of arousing more unsettling Islamic terrorist actions begetting another round of public self-censorship. Have they e evaded their responsibilities to define the doctrinal Islamist threat. Our Iconoclast post prompted Canadian Lawyer, Bill Narvey to write the following response.The age old wise caution by Sun Tzu, “know your enemy” is obviously very relevant to devising a winning strategy against your enemy. Both Obama and Cameron fail in that regard as aforesaid.

Strategies and tactics to defeat an enemy however are not just about whether you dare to call your enemy by name, describe your enemy’s nature and know what moves them to be your enemy…

Revealed — How the Threat of ISIS is Spreading

Extremist group has DOUBLED the land it controls in just a few months despite more than 800 coalition airstrikes

ISIS has almost doubled the land it controls in Syria since the US-led coalition began airstrikes against the extremist group in the summer, a new map has revealed.

The extremist group has continued to expand its ‘caliphate’, despite more than 800 airstrikes hitting targets in ISIS-controlled areas since last summer.

The map, created by the Coalition for a Democratic Syria (CDS), shows just how much land has fallen to ISIS — which now has a third of the country under its control.

Before the summer, the militants controlled just half that.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Moscow Warns Media Against Religious-Themed Cartoons

Russian authorities warn that offending religious feelings may violate the country’s anti-extremism laws. Meanwhile in Chechnya, Kadyrov plans a mass rally against the cartoons, warning that Russian Muslims will not be patient forever.

Moscow (AsiaNews) — Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor issued a warning to the country’s media on Friday against publishing religious-themed cartoons. Its statement, which does not contain a ban, comes after regional branches began issuing statements about coming bans.

Whilst Russian authorities expressed solidarity with the opponents of extremism and terrorism, it said that the media of the Federation Russian should not publish cartoons that may violate the law.

In its statement, Roskomnadzor warned that offensive cartoons in the media could be qualified as violation of existing media and anti-extremism laws.

For Russia’s media watchdog, the publication of such cartoons has always had the potential — long before the Charlie Hebdo massage — of offending and denigrating the religious beliefs of others and fostering ethnic or religious strife.

In fact, the St Petersburg-based Business News Agency was told to take down pictures of Charlie Hebdo’s latest cover, which features the Prophet Muhammad.

After the Paris attacks, very few in Russia have spoken out in favour of “freedom” to publish religious cartoons.

The Russian Federation is a mosaic of religions and ethnic groups. Muslims are about 7-10 per cent of the population, the second largest religious group after the Orthodox. Some areas, like Tatarstan and the northern Caucasus, have a Muslim majority.

Although the average Russian tends to be very xenophobic and nationalist, given the rising number of Muslims, the Kremlin knows that the country is sitting on a ticking time bomb.

Indeed, in the last fifteen years, Russia has suffered several terrorist attacks linked to Islamic extremist groups in the Caucasus.

In the big cities as in the province, integration is a delicate matter. In more than one occasion, brawls between people of different ethnic background have turned into urban guerrilla.

For their part, Russian authorities have remained cautious over the Charlie Hebdo affair, especially over the concept of “freedom of expression,” an issue that might be overflowing in the pages of the Western press but remains a rather touchy issue in Russia.

Instead, Russia’s mainstream media have tried to portrait the affair as an American “plot” against France, aimed at French President Nicolas Hollande because of his push for weaker sanctions against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.

In Moscow, government officials have said nothing so far about Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s planned Saturday rally against the Muhammad cartoons, an event that is backed by local Muslim religious leaders.

Accused by human rights activists of having de facto imposed Islamic law (Sharia) on Chechnya with the Kremlin’s tacit approval, Kadyrov warned that “we will not allow anyone to insult the prophet, even if it will cost us our lives.” For him, Russian Muslims will not be patient forever.

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



EP Approves Resolution Demanding Marines Return

Mogherini warns case could hit EU-Indian relations

(ANSA) — Strasbourg, January 15 — The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday approved a resolution on the case of two Italian marines accused in India of killing two Indian fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012. The motion called for, among other things, the pair to be allowed to return to Italy and for a change of jurisdiction.

Before the vote, Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, said that the drawn-out case risks hitting EU-Indian relations. “We share values and strategic interests with India and we want to cooperate in the world arena,” former Italian foreign minister Mogherini told the EP.

“But it’s good for everyone to be fully aware of how much of an impact the unresolved dispute of the two Italian Navy officers can have on relations between the EU and India. It is putting them to the test”.

The case has severely strained relations between Italy and New Delhi for three years.

Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone are accused of killing fishermen Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki after allegedly mistaking them for pirates and opening fire on their fishing trawler while guarding the privately owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker MT Enrica Lexie off the coast of Kerala on February 15, 2012. Girone had been barred from leaving India, while the Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday extended by three months a permit for Latorre to stay in Italy for health reasons.

Rome requested an extension after Latorre had heart surgery last week. India granted Latorre four months of leave last year after he suffered a stroke.

Rome has protested the many delays in the case. Formal charges have not yet been presented. Italy successfully fought to ensure New Delhi took the death penalty off the table and dropped the application of a severe anti-terrorism, anti-piracy law, which it said would have equated Italy with a terrorist state. Rome argues the case is not in India’s jurisdiction as the incident took place outside the country’s territorial waters. It also says the marines should be exempt from prosecution in India, because they are servicemen who were working on an anti-piracy mission, and allowed to return home. The EU, meanwhile, has said the dispute endangers international anti-piracy efforts.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Indonesia: Jakarta Ready to Execute Six Drug Traffickers, Four Foreigners

The executions will be carried out at the weekend. A confirmation of the hard line imposed by the reformist president Jokowi. For the general attorney this is a “strong message” to the drug lords. Criticism from the Catholic Church, which asks for forms of punishment that respect the human person.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) — In the next few days in Indonesia six people, including four foreigners will be executed. The Attorney General in Jakarta has confirmed that the six will be put to death after being found guilty of crimes related to drugs. These are the first executions under the new president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who declared open war on drug trafficking. Even a few days ago the head of state spoke on the issue, noting that “there will be no forgiveness” for those who have been convicted of drug offenses and are currently on death row.

Jokowi’s inflexibility in terms of drug trafficking has upset human rights activists and movements, who hoped for a moratorium on the death penalty with the rise to power of a reformist and popular president.

Those who will be executed — by firing squad — this weekend include citizens of Brazil, Malawi, Vietnam and Nigeria (pictured); the other two are an Indonesian citizen and a man whose nationality is uncertain, although the Netherlands Government is reported to have confirmed the man as one of its citizens.

The Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo says this sends a “strong message” to the drug lords, that there will be “no mercy for drug traffickers. For those who disagree with the death penalty, hopefully they can understand that what we are doing is simply to save our nation from the threat of narcotics”.

Also for the Indonesian Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi the executions — which recommenced last year, after a moratorium that began in 2008 — are “in accordance with the law”, despite the wave of protests of activists and the demands to commute the death penalty to life in prison. On 30 December, the president rejected their request for clemency. To date there are 64 other prisoners on death row for drug offenses, waiting to face the Executioner.

Last December the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) also intervened contesting the position of inflexibility and rigor adopted by Jokowi regarding drug-related offenses. “No one has the right to put an end to the life of another,” said Fr. Siswantoko, putting in doubt the real guilt of the condemned and whether they are the real drug “lords” or mere pawns. “The death penalty is not the right way to apply the law with dignity, because it puts an end to the existence of the condemned”.

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



Another Niger Church Burned Down Over Charlie Hebdo

(AGI) Niamey, Jan 17 — The number of churches burned down in Niger as part of violent protests over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has risen to at least seven. On Friday, four people were killed in Zinder, the country’s second largest city. The clashes, which took place the day after Zinder’s ‘black Friday’, began late Saturday morning, when some thousand young people met by the city’s mosque, despite a government ban. The crowd chanted slogans against France and Charlie Hebdo. The building was surrounded by dozens of policemen wearing anti-riot gear including helmets and shields. They tried to break up the crowd using tear gas. Several protesters threw rocks at security forces. They set fire to two police vehicles and the burning tires were thrown at a police station.

The violence then spread to other parts of the city, including a neighbourhood near the Catholic church. Several agencies belonging to French horse racing betting company Pari Mutuel Urbain and French mobile phone company Orange were pillaged, and metal sheets from the damaged kiosks were used to build barricades. Niamey’s French embassy urged citizens to stay home, while United Nations staff were advised to steer clear of any gatherings.

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



Charlie Hebdo Protests: Five Dead as Churches and French Flags Burn in Niger Riots Over Cover

Five people have died including a man burned alive inside a Catholic church in Niger during riots sparked by Charlie Hebdo’s latest cover depicting the Prophet Mohamed.

A police officer and four civilians were killed on Friday in Zinder, the country’s second largest city, as churches burned and Christian homes and a French cultural centre were looted by mobs.

The death toll originally stood at four but rose to five after emergency services discovered a body in one of several churches that had been set on fire.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Argentine President and Foreign Minister in Alleged Cover Up of Iran’s 1994 Amia Jewish Center Bombing

Credit the relentless Argentine Prosecutor Alberto Nisman with endeavoring to bring closure to the 1994 AMIA Jewish Center Bombing in Buenos Aires that took 85 lives and injured hundreds. Nisman now has found both Argentina President Christina de Fernandez Kirchner and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman engaged in a massive cover up of a deal to lift charges against the Iranian regime for planning and perpetrating the AMIA bombing in exchange for oil. Ynet news reported these latest developments in an article, “Prosecutor: Argentine president tried to whitewash 1994 AMIA bombing”:…

Luis Fleischman: In Latin America, Radical Islamic Presence Flourishes While Key Countries Downplay the Threat

As a result of last week’s heinous terrorist attack in France that took the lives of 16 innocent people, President Barack Obama has set in motion plans for a counter-terrorism summit to be held on February 18th in Washington DC.

It is likely that mostly North American and European countries will attend this summit meeting despite the fact that there have been recent terrorist attacks in other parts of the world such as those in Ottawa, Canada and Sidney, Australia and the northern region of Nigeria. In other words, simple logic indicates that these types of attacks could take place anywhere.

Before September 11, 2001 , the deadliest terrorist attacks in the Western Hemisphere took place in Argentina against the Israeli embassy in 1992 and then the Argentinean Jewish community headquarters in 1994.

However, we do not have to go back two decades .to stress the very real presence of terrorism in Latin America…

From Niger to Pakistan Muslims Condemn Charlie Hebdo

Thousands demonstrated across the world Friday and violent clashes erupted in Niger and Pakistan as Muslims vented fury over a new Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) cartoon published by French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Algerian riot police monitors as people take part in a demonstration against French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for publishing a cartoon of the Muslim prophet Mohammed on January 16, 2015 — Photo: Al-Alam

Four people were killed and 45 injured in protests in Niger’s second city of Zinder that turned violent with demonstrators ransacking three churches and torching the French cultural centre, Al-Alam reported.

A doctor in the city’s hospital told AFP that all of the dead and three of the injured had gunshot wounds.

“We’ve never seen that in living memory in Zinder,” a local administration official said. “It’s a black Friday.”

There was also bloodshed in Karachi, Pakistan, where three people were injured when protesters clashed with police outside the French consulate, officials said. Among them was an AFP photographer, who was shot in the back.

As protesters in Dakar and Mauritania torched French flags, Qatar and Bahrain warned that the new Prophet Mohammed cartoon published Wednesday by the French satirical weekly could fuel hatred.

The latest issue of Charlie Hebdo features a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) on its cover holding a “Je Suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) sign under the headline “All is forgiven”.

Jordanians take part in a demonstration against French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for publishing a cartoon of the Muslim prophet Mohammed on January 16, 2015 in the capital Amman. — Photo: Al-Alam

On the Muslim weekly day of prayers, thousands flooded the streets of Bamako in response to calls by leading clerics and Mali’s main Islamic body, chanting “Hands off my prophet” and “I am Muslim and I love my prophet”.

In Jordan’s Amman, around 2,500 protesters set off from Al-Husseini mosque under tight security, holding banners that read “insulting the prophet is global terrorism”.

There were clashes between protesters and riot police in Algiers, where up to 3,000 marchers chanted “We are all Mohammed”, though some shouted their support for the Islamist Kouachi brothers.

AFP photographer Asif Hassan, a policeman and a local TV cameraman were injured in Karachi when clashes broke out there between police and protesters.

A police official said the violence began when authorities prevented some 350 protesters from approaching the French consulate in the sprawling metropolis.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, protesters in Peshawar and Multan burnt French flags on the streets, while rallies were also held in Islamabad and Lahore.

In Dakar, the capital of Senegal, police fired tear gas grenades to disperse about 1,000 protesters who chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) and torched a French flag.

In Nouakchott in Mauritania, thousands marched chanting “We are here to defend the prophet”. Some set fire to a French flag after security forces prevented them from reaching France’s embassy, witnesses said.

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz addressed the marchers, condemning the controversial cartoon as “an attack on our religion and on all religions”.

Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated quietly in East-Al-Quds flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, some with banners reading “Islam is a religion of peace!”

While in Khartoum, hundreds poured out of the Grand Mosque and marched across the adjacent square, chanting “Expel the French ambassador. Victory to the Prophet of God!”

In Lebanon’s flashpoint city of Tripoli, 70 people marched with banners bearing the name of the prophet and chanting.

Prayer leader Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahimi addressed hundreds of worshippers in Baddawi, on the outskirts of the city, saying: “May God punish this newspaper and those who back it”.

Protests also erupted in areas of conflict-hit Syria held by rebels and “jihadists” with demonstrators demanding “respect for religions”, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In Tehran senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ali Movahedi Kermani told Friday worshippers the cartoon’s publication amounted to “savagery”.

Qatar branded as “offensive” the drawing, which was reprinted by several European papers in a show of solidarity with the victims of last week’s attack.

“These disgraceful actions are in the interest of nobody and will only fuel hatred and anger,” the foreign ministry warned.

Bahrain’s foreign ministry echoed that, saying publication of such cartoons “will create fertile ground for the spread of hatred and terrorism”.