The first spare aircraft parts in 35 years are being sold to Iran by Boeing. The parts, whose sale has been approved by U.S. authorities, are “for safety purposes”, and therefore acceptable under the current sanctions regime.

In other news, a nurse who was quarantined after returning to New Jersey from an Ebola-stricken region of West Africa is complaining about the “unwelcoming” treatment meted out to her by U.S. authorities.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.

Italy: EC Demands Explanation on Budget ‘Deviation’

Barroso berates Italian media, release of letter

(ANSA) — Rome, October 23 — The Italian government has received a letter from the European Commission asking for clarifications about its 2015 budget bill, the economy ministry said Thursday. In the letter, the European Commission said Italy risks deviating significantly from medium-term budget targets agreed to with the European Union.

“Preliminary analysis…shows Italy has planned a significant deviation from the adjustments requested to reach the medium-term goal (on balancing the budget in structural terms) in 2015,” the letter by European Economic Affairs Commissioner Jyrki Katainen read. Premier Matteo Renzi’s government recently put off the target year for structurally balancing the budget from 2015 to 2017.

The government said the planned reduction in the structural deficit for next year will be 0.1% of GDP. According to some reports, the EC wants a much bigger reduction in the structural deficit — which, unlike the nominal budget deficit figure, is adjusted for the business cycle — of around 0.5% of GDP in order to make inroads into Italy’s massive public debt of over two trillion euros.

The 2015 budget features a 36-billion-euro adjustment, with 18 billion euros in tax cuts and 15 billion euros in cuts generated from a review of public spending and four billion raised from the fight against tax evasion.

Renzi said that around 11 billion euros of financial coverage for the cuts will come from allowing Italy’s deficit-to-GDP ratio to drift up towards the 3% threshold allowed by the EU.

But there is speculation that the European Commission may not see the budget plan as compatible with the EU’s Growth and Stability Pact and ask for corrections.

“The Italian government will respond to the request for clarification by tomorrow,” the ministry said. Renzi said Wednesday that the fact the commission has sent a letter does not mean it is threatening to reject the budget plan, while the Commission itself has also stressed that the “consultations” with Rome do not imply it will issue a negative judgement on the budget.

On Thursday, the central bank weighed in on the issue amid fears of sanctions from the European Commission.

The Italian government made “a reasoned choice” in postponing balancing the budget in structural terms until 2017 to avoid “a downward spiral” in the national economy “given the exceptional duration and depth of the recession,” the Bank of Italy said.

Also on Thursday, outgoing European Commission President José Manuel Barroso berated the release of the letter in Italy.

“The Commission was not in favour because we are in a phase of negotiations and consultations with several governments,” he said, adding that “most” Italian media outlets have published “lies” and “inventions” about work by him and by the EC.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: ‘Amazed at Fuss Over EU Letter’ Says Padoan

‘Austerity out of the picture, emphasis on growth’ minister says

(ANSA) — Naples, October 24 — Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said Friday he was “amazed” at the fuss raised by Italy’s publication of a supposedly confidential letter from the European Commission warning Rome not to overstep fiscal limits in its 2015 budget. “We performed an act of transparency to nip fanciful speculations in the bud,” he said.

The Italian government’s response to the EC’s request for clarification about its 2015 budget bill may be sent on Saturday, rather than Friday as previously promised. “I don’t know if it will be sent by the end of today,” Padoan said. “In the letter (from the Commission) it says that the response should arrive by the end of today (Friday), possibly. And possibly also means that maybe we’ll do it tomorrow. The Commission has been warned about this”.

Padoan added that the executive was willing to improve the budget but not “turn it on its head”. Italy’s 2015 budget should not be seen as “austerity” but as “growth” measures, he added.

“Austerity is not spoken of anymore,” Padoan said at the Confindustria youth chapter’s conference of young industrialists in Naples. Rather, the emphasis is on “how to support growth and investments, especially private (ones)” without which “there is no job creation”. As well, the minister declined to explain Premier Matteo Renzi’s statement that Italy can easily find two billion euros to fill a possible budget gap as suggested by the EC. “I won’t go there,” said Padoan. “It is part of a dialogue with the European Commission. The Commission is assessing the (Italian) budget, we are evaluating it together. I have no more to say”.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



After Negative Ebola Test, Quarantined Nurse Criticizes Treatment at Newark Airport

A nurse who tested negative for the Ebola virus but remained under a 21-day quarantine in a Newark hospital on Saturday is angry and frustrated with how she was treated when she returned to the United States from West Africa.

A first-person account by the nurse, Kaci Hickox, of what happened when she landed at Newark Liberty International Airport about 1 p.m. Friday was published on Saturday on the website of The Dallas Morning News.

Ms. Hickox’s mother, Karen Hickox, said her daughter called her Saturday morning, crying in frustration at being held in a tent at the hospital without being told when she could leave.

“She’s lived in Burma, Sudan, Uganda and Nigeria, and she’s worked for Doctors Without Borders many times,” Ms. Hickox said in a telephone interview Saturday from her home outside Dallas. “I think the frustration is that she went and did her good deed and her passion and her serving spirit, and she comes back to America and I just don’t feel they were very welcoming.”

Hillary Clinton: Corporations and Businesses Don’t Create Jobs

At a Democratic rally Friday in Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton’s attempt to attack “trickle-down economics,” resulted in a spectacularly odd statement, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

Clinton defended raising the minimum wage saying “Don’t let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs, they always say that.”

She went on to state that businesses and corporations are not the job creators of America. “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” the former Secretary of State said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Suspected Nazi War Criminals Got Millions in Social Security

U.S. taxpayers unwittingly bankrolled Nazis, AP says

(ANSA) — New York, October 20 — Dozens of alleged Nazi war criminals continued to collect Social Security payments even after they were expelled from the United States, the Associated Press reported Monday.

The retirement benefits were paid out with the blessing of the Justice Department, who reportedly used them as a means to persuade the Nazis to leave.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Telltale Signs of Life Could be Deepest Yet

Telltale signs of life have been discovered in rocks that were once 12 miles (20 kilometers) below Earth’s surface — some of the deepest chemical evidence for life ever found.

Researchers found carbon isotopes in rocks on Washington state’s South Lopez Island that suggest the minerals grew from fluids flush with microbial methane. Methane from living creatures has distinct levels of carbon isotopes that distinguish it from methane gas that arises from rocks.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Secrets of Dinosaur Ecology Found in Fragile Amber

Ryan McKellar’s research sounds like it was plucked from Jurassic Park: he studies pieces of amber found buried with dinosaur skeletons. But rather than re-creating dinosaurs, McKellar uses the tiny pieces of fossilized tree resin to study the world in which the now-extinct behemoths lived.

New techniques for investigating very tiny pieces of fragile amber buried in dinosaur bonebeds could close the gaps in knowledge about the ecology of the dinosaurs, said McKellar, who is a research scientist at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Saskatchewan, Canada.

“Basically it puts a backdrop to these dinosaur digs, it tells us a bit about the habitat,” said McKellar.

The amber can show what kinds of plants were abundant, and what the atmosphere was like at the time the amber was formed, he explained. Scientists can then put together details regarding what kind of habitat the dinosaur lived in and how the bonebed formed.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Barroso Not in Favour of Release of EC Letter

Better to have consultations in ‘confidential atmosphere’

(ANSA) — Brussels, October 23 — Outgoing European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said Thursday that he was not in favour of the release of the letter the EU executive sent to the Italian government asking for clarifications over its 2015 budget bill. He said releasing the letter was “a unilateral decision by the Italian government”. “The Commission was not in favour because we are in a phase of negotiations and consultations with several governments, and these are technical consultations, which it is better to have in a confidential atmosphere,” he said.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Belgium Chocolate Maker ISIS Needs to Change Its Name Again

(Reuters) — Late last year, a Belgian chocolate maker changed its name from Italo Suisse, because the company no longer had any real association with either country. Now it’s changing the name again — because the new name it picked was ISIS.

ISIS, of course, is also the acronym derived from Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the jihadist group that arose in the Syrian civil war and now has invaded parts of Iraq. The group changed the name to just Islamic State in June, but the chocolate maker was suffering by association.

“We chose ISIS as that was the brand name of our pralines and tablets,” marketing manager Desiree Libeert told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. “Had we known there was a terrorist organization with the same name, we would have never chosen that.

“We had international customers saying that they could no longer stock our chocolate as consumers had only negative associations with the name,” Libeert said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



EU Budget: Britain Must Pay ‘And That’s That’ Says MEP

Europe expects the UK to pay an extra £1.7bn towards the EU budget “and that’s that”, a vice president of the European Parliament has said. Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a German MEP, said the EU would be “exasperated” if the UK tried to avoid payment.

On Friday David Cameron said the EU had “another think coming” if it thought Britain would pay the bill by the 1 December deadline. The EU demanded the extra amount because of growth in the UK economy.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany ‘Evaluating’ Italy Nazi War Crimes Ruling

After Constitutional Court struck down State immunity

(ANSA) — Berlin, October 23 — Germany said Thursday it is analyzing an Italian Constitutional Court ruling that struck down State immunity to civil prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity lodged in other countries.

The court’s decision on Wednesday essentially paved the way for Italian victims of Nazi war crimes to seek reparations from Germany. “The German government is analyzing the ruling,” Foreign Minister Frank-Walter told ANSA.

“We will evaluate any steps needed to apply the German government’s juridical concept, which was upheld by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in February 2012”. The ICJ in 2012 upheld an appeal by Germany against Italy over compensation for victims of Nazi war crimes.

The court in The Hague ruled Italy “failed to recognise the immunity recognised by international law” for the Third Reich’s crimes, and ordered Rome to annul compensation orders by Italy’s courts.

Berlin appealed to the ICJ in 2008 after two landmark rulings brought the issue to the forefront.

In June 2008 the Cassation Court ruled that Germany must pay compensation to 12 Italians who were taken prisoner by Nazi forces and deported to Germany for slave labor after Benito Mussolini fell from power and Italy abandoned its former ally in September 1943.

Around 600,000 Italians, dubbed ‘Hitler’s slaves’, are believed to have been deported, most of them soldiers.

In October that year, the Cassation Court said that Germany must also pay damages to the families of nine civilians killed by German soldiers in three Tuscan villages during WWII.

A total of 203 people were shot dead in the towns of Civitella, Cornia and San Pancrazio on June 29, 1944, in retaliation for the murder of three German soldiers by Italian partisans.

In both cases, judges rejected Germany’s claims that it was exempt from financial liability for crimes committed by Nazi soldiers under accords drawn up in 1947 and 1961.

Meanwhile in Italy, the Jewish community hailed the court’s decision.

“This is a historic, exemplary ruling, a step towards universal freedom and equality and to eliminating any obstructions to the course of justice,” said Jewish Italian Communities Union President Renzo Gattegna. The ruling was written by Justice Giuseppe Tesauro, who is president of the Constitutional Court and whose mandate ends in a few days.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Is Cancelling Jihadi Passports Counter Productive? Dutch Papers

Questions are being asked in the Dutch press about whether cancelling the passports of Dutch jihadis to stop them travelling to join Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq is counter productive.

The questions come in the wake of two incidents in Canada in which three people were killed by radical Muslims whose passports had been confiscated to stop them travelling abroad. The Canadian government considered them ‘high-risk travellers’.

PVV leader Geert Wilders, he points out, has already said government policy is ‘incredibly stupid’.

‘Now they’re walking around on the streets. People who want to wage jihad, chop off heads, carry out terrorist attacks are now walking around among us thanks to the minister’s decision,’ Wilders said several months ago.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Italy Has Hemorrhage-Blocking Anti-Ebola Drug Says Lorenzin

‘Phase I trials over, Emergency NGO wants 1,000 doses’

(ANSA) — Rome, October 22 — A Florence-based military lab has just finished Phase I trials of an experimental hemorrhage-blocking medication that could help treat Ebola patients, Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said Wednesday.

Humanitarian NGO Emergency has already requested 1,000 doses of the new drug to be sent to Sierra Leone, Lorenzin said.

The current outbreak of the virus has already killed more than 4,500 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Alstom to Supply 50 Trams to Strasbourg

41 million euro order for 12 trams by 2016 for first phase

(ANSA) — Rome, October 20 — Italian train-maker Alstom has signed a framework agreement with the Strasbourg public transport company CTS to supply 50 Citadis trams, Alstom announced Monday.

The first part of the agreement, worth 41 million euros, calls for the delivery of 12 trams to begin service by the end of 2016. Manufacture of the Citadis trams will occur mainly in France, while the design of the trams and the production of their traction systems will take place in the northern periphery of Milan, Sesto San Giovanni.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Rome’s ‘Living Room’ Near Piazza Del Popolo Auto-Free

City hall ban cars, scooters from more streets in ‘Trident’ zone

(ANSA) — Rome, October 20 — An extended ban on cars, trucks and even scooters in more streets in Rome’s historic centre took effect Monday morning, with police on patrol in the area to prevent traffic in the “the living room of Rome”.

But they won’t immediately assess the 80-euro fine for breaching the ban in the area of the three major ‘Trident’ zone streets stretching out from Piazza del Popolo: Via di Ripetta, Via del Corso, and Via del Babuino.

Residents will have some time to adjust to the ban, which began Monday at 6:30 a.m. local time, extends weekdays from that hour until 7 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time.

Rome’s city officials in a statement called Piazza del Popolo “the living room” of the city which should be made more “livable” for residents and visitors by reducing traffic.

“Rome is enriched by an important area of multiple vocations: historical, cultural and commercial center,” said the statement on the municipal website. “Starting from Piazza del Popolo — the ‘living room of Rome’ — the three streets that fan out: Babuino, Corso, and Ripetta, and all adjacent streets, with the entry into force of the (pedestrian zone), create new livability for area residents, for citizens, and tourists,” it added. Citizens, some of who are already protesting, can comment on the ban at a meeting Wednesday.

“We cannot figure out where to park,” said one exasperated driver in a Smart car Monday morning.

More parking spots are to be provided for non-residents of the area outside the zone, with prices ranging up to 150 euros per month, or 15 euros per day — rates that some say are exorbitant.

Scooter drivers protested Sunday at Piazza Augusto Imperatore, near the Ara Pacis, while other drivers said they don’t know how they will get to work, since they cannot afford monthly parking fees in a city where many parking spots are free. The permanent ban extends a pedestrian zone put in place in August affecting about 15 small streets around Rome’s popular Spanish Steps and Piazza di Spagna, a move which tourists have hailed as “wonderful” and “marvelous”.

Said one tourist: “In Rome, which is an open-air museum, it should not be otherwise”.

Public transportation will still be permitted in the new pedestrian zone.

The city of Rome, on its official website, has previously said that closing the area to vehicles will help to restore the image of the area to that shown in the popular 1953 film ‘Roman Holiday’, starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.

Parts of the film were shot around the Spanish Steps.

The latest move comes after Rome’s city council agreed last year to strict limits on traffic along the Via dei Fori Imperiali, connecting the iconic Colosseum with Piazza Venezia and running through the Roman Forum.

That also caused protest and controversy but Mayor Ignazio Marino, an avid cyclist, has pressed ahead with plans to ban cars in additional parts of the historic centre.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Rome Mayor Mulling More Pedestrian-Only Zones

Circus Maximus, Palatine Hill next on Marino’s list

(ANSA) — Rome, October 20 — Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said Monday he might make the Circus Maximus and the Palatine hill pedestrian-only. The mayor spoke hours after an extended ban on cars, trucks and scooters in more streets in Rome’s historic centre took effect. The ban extends a pedestrian zone put in place in August affecting 15 small streets around the Spanish Steps. The city last year strictly limited traffic along the Via dei Fori Imperiali, connecting the iconic Colosseum with Piazza Venezia and running through the Roman Forum.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Teachers Who Set Essay on Parents’ Murder Theme Suspended

Children asked ‘who would you kill first, Mum or Dad?’

(ANSA) — Ivrea, October 21 — Authorities have suspended two primary school teachers who asked their pupils to write an essay on the theme ‘who would you kill first, Mum or Dad?,’ school officials said.

The essay was the last in a series of “disconcerting” acts by the female teachers who were denounced to police by parents at the school in Scarmagno in the province of Turin, the officials said.

The public prosecutor’s office decided not to pursue charges against the two, saying it was a disciplinary matter for school authorities.

The regional school board said it was suspending the two as a precaution.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Nun Singing Madonna ‘Reckless’, Says Bishops’ News Agency

Sister Cristina sings ‘Like a Virgin’ to launch career

(ANSA) — Rome, October 22 — Sister Cristina Scucci, who won Italy’s televised singing talent contest The Voice earlier this year, was criticized on Wednesday in an editorial by the Italian Bishops’ News Agency SIR for her choice to cover Madonna’s Like a Virgin.

The news agency called her choice a “reckless and calculated commercial operation”.

“The public is always intrigued by the devil versus holy water theme, but not even the American nuns in Sister Act would have thought of something like this,” the editorial said.

Sister Cristina signed a contract with Universal for an album due out in November, and called the remake, which is one of the singles on the forthcoming album, “a secular prayer”, a comment the news agency dubbed “blessedly naive”.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Assets Worth 900,000 Euros Seized From Cannavaro

Yacht, bank account confiscated from former Italy captain

(ANSA) — Naples, October 22 — Assets worth around 900,000 euros have been seized from Fabio Cannavaro in relation to an alleged tax evasion scam linked to a business for the rental of luxury yachts that the former captain of the Italian national soccer team managed with his wife, judicial sources said Wednesday. The 41-year-old’s wife, Daniela Arenoso, is also being probed by Naples prosecutors, along with his brother-in-law and a fourth person. Naples Finance police confiscated money from bank accounts in Cannavaro’s name and an Itama 38 boat with an estimated value of 180,000 euros. The alleged evasion regards unpaid taxes amounting to over one million euros in the 2005-2010 period. Cannavaro is suspected of using three boats registered with the FD Service company for personal ends rather than for leasing. The fourth person under investigation, Eugenio Tuccillo, acquired the shares of FD Service before putting the company into liquidation, sources said. Cannavaro won the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards after leading Italy to victory at the 2006 World Cup. The former Napoli, Parma, Inter, Juventus and Real Madrid defender played for the Azzurri 136 times between 1997 and 2010.

He retired from football in 2011 after a two-year stint at United Arab Emirates side Al-Ahli.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Bagnara Nougat and Pescavibona Peach Get Pgi Appellation

‘Certificates pillar of quality promotion’, minister says

(ANSA) — Turin, October 23 — Italy’s newest protected geographical indication (PGI) food products, Bagnara nougat from the southern Calabria region and the white-fleshed Pescavibona peach from Sicily, were presented at the Salone del Gusto international food fair on Thursday.

The ‘new entries’ took to 266 the number of Italian agricultural products coming under the schemes of geographical indications and traditional specialities of the European Union. Other products to have obtained EU appellations in 2014 are the potato from Viterbo in upper Lazio, Lombardy Strachitunt cheese and Varese honey. “It is a step forward: certifications are a pillar of the strategy for promoting quality,” Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina said.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Colaninno Accused of Fraud in Alitalia Ticket Sale

Passenger thought flight with Italian carrier, not Romanian

(ANSA) — Rome, October 23 — Alitalia President Roberto Colaninno and six others could face fraud charges for allegedly selling an airline ticket to a customer who expected to fly with the Italian carrier but was in fact on a Romanian craft, prosecutors said Thursday. The case stems from an incident in February 2013 involving a Carpatair flight from Pisa to Rome that slid off the runway at Fiumicino airport.

Several people were injured, including two seriously, in the crash. One passenger was reportedly convinced the plane was Alitalia when it was actually operated by the Romanian company Carpatair firm, which has a co-share agreement with Alitalia. Soon after the crash, Italy’s antitrust authority (AGCM) opened investigations into Alitalia and separate criminal probes into the incident also began. AGCM said at the time it wanted to know whether Alitalia infringed the national consumer code in providing information about partner carriers and code-sharing.

That probe follows complaints by consumer watchdog association Codacons and internal checks.

Alitalia at the time denied the charges.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Former EUR Manager Sent to Trial Over Rome Bus Graft

Riccardo Mancini allegedly took 500,000 euros bribe

(ANSA) — Rome, October 23 — The former CEO of the company that runs the historic EUR district in Rome was sent for trial for alleged graft on bus contracts Thursday.

Riccardo Mancini, ex-CEO of EUR SpA, is charged with accepting a bribe of 500,000 euros from leading bus-maker Breda Menarini to supply Rome with 45 buses.

The accountant Marco Iannilli and Breda Menarini managers Luca D’Aquila and Giuseppe Comes have also been sent to trial. Prosecutors say Iannilli took a 100,000 euro bribe. The trial has been set for February 3, 2016. The case is one of several involving contracts linked to former Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno, who is not accused of wrongdoing.

EUR was built by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as a model district for the 1942 World’s Fair, which was scratched because of WWII.

Many of its buildings have been backdrops for films.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Public Health Doc Shows Up a Month Late, Patient Had Died

Public health employees denied request for emergency home visit

(ANSA) — Lecce, October 24 — Public health advocates in the southern Puglia region said Friday that a 75-year-old Alzheimer’s sufferer died after public health authorities took a month to schedule him a home visit.

The patient’s GP had prescribed an emergency home visit by a geriatric specialist after the old man’s condition precipitated suddenly.

But local public health employees rejected the GP’s request, telling the patient’s wife to file a request for a normal visit instead.

A doctor would come within a week, the employees told her.

Instead he showed up 33 days later, when the patient had already died.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Lavitola Gets 11-Month Plea Bargain for Int’l Corruption

Accused of attempting to coerce Impregilo to build in Panama

(ANSA) — Naples, October 23 — Former newspaper editor and ex-associate of three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi, Valter Lavitola, on Thursday reached a plea bargain with the Naples prosecutor’s office for an eleven-month sentence on charges of international corruption.

Lavitola implicitly admitted attempting to blackmail Italian construction company Impregilo regarding alleged bribes for Panamanian contracts. According to prosecutors, he attempted to coerce Impregilo to build a hospital in Panama by threatening, if it refused, to have the Panamanian president make a negative declaration that could have torpedoed Impregilo’s stock price.

In a separate case, Lavitola was indicted with Berlusconi last October for allegedly bribing former senator Sergio De Gregorio to switch political sides from the centre left to the centre right, a move that led to the collapse of Romano Prodi’s centre-left government in 2008. Lavitola is accused of acting as a go-between for a bribe that allegedly totaled two million euros.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Three Heart Surgeons Accused of Surgical Cover Up in 2013 Death

San Carlo hospital’s chief cardiac surgeon among Potenza arrests

(ANSA) — Potenza, October 24 — Three heart surgeons continued to operate on a woman after finding she was dead, witnesses in the operating room told investigators in the southern Italian city of Potenza.

Suspicion that the surgery continued in order to cover up mistakes made during the procedure led investigators to place the three doctors, including the hospital’s chief surgeon, under house arrest Friday.

Michele Cavone, 61, and Matteo Galatti, 46, who performed the operation the San Carlo hospital of Potenza, are accused of manslaughter. San Carlo’s chief surgeon, Nicola Marraudino, 54, is charged with manslaughter, forgery and fraudulent misrepresentation in a public document. Elisa Presta, 71, died on the operating table May 28, 2013 after suffering complications during a cardiac procedure.

Police opened a probe in November 2013 after receiving an anonymous tip. Police then questioned doctors and nurses who took part in the surgery, as well as Presta’s kin.

On July 14 of this year, a medical examiner’s report was filed.

Then on August 29, the news Web site Basilicata 24 published a recorded conversation with Cavone in which the surgeon admitted to serious misbehavior of himself and the other physicians, including the chief surgeon, during the cardiovascular procedure.

The director later delivered two additional recordings that the supported the “the general picture” painted by the accusations, said a source at the Potenza prosecutor’s office.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Milan Chinatown Arrests for Drugs and Prostitution

Peddled methamphetamine called Shaboo

(ANSA) — Milan, October 24 — Italian police have arrested nine people in connection with a Chinese gang that allegedly extorted money from businesses in Milan’s Chinatown as well as running prostitutes and peddling a methamphetamine called Ice or Shaboo.

Shaboo was said to be popular with the Lombardy capital’s Asian community, especially among Chinese and Filipinos.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Kiruna: The Town Being Moved 3km East So it Doesn’t Fall Into a Mine

Sweden’s most northerly town is being relocated to avoid being swallowed up by the world’s largest iron-ore mine

Cities don’t often decide to pack their bags, get up and move down the road. But that’s exactly what Kiruna, an Arctic town in northern Sweden, is having to do — to avoid being swallowed up into the earth.

“It’s a dystopian choice,” says Krister Lindstedt of White architects, the Stockholm-based firm charged with the biblical task of moving this city of 23,000 people away from a gigantic iron ore mine that is fast gobbling up the ground beneath its streets. “Either the mine must stop digging, creating mass unemployment, or the city has to move — or else face certain destruction. It’s an existential predicament.”

Driven by the insatiable global appetite for construction, the mine has become the world’s largest iron ore extraction site, producing 90% of all the iron in Europe, enough to build more than six Eiffel Towers a day. And demand continues to rise.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Number of Islamic Extremists Growing in Germany

The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency says the number of Islamic extremists in the country is growing rapidly.

He says extremist strands of Islam provide disaffected young people with a sense of belonging and purpose that allows them to hope they’ll go “from being underdogs to top dogs.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Paris Landlord Arrested for Attacking Italian Tenant

Elisabetta, 21, ‘thrown to ground for asking for receipt’

(ANSA) — Paris, October 23 — Police late on Wednesday arrested a Paris landlord on battery charges after he allegedly attacked his Italian tenant, sources said Thursday.

Architecture student Elisabetta, 21, paid the suspect 400 euros a month for a windowless six-square-meter attic room in the Barbes neighborhood near Montmartre.

Elisabetta taught Italian and worked as a cleaning lady to pay the rent, but said she eventually had enough of the tiny room whose ceiling was so low she couldn’t stand up straight once inside.

“I wanted to leave, so I asked for a rent receipt,” the Bologna native told ANSA. “He threw my books out, screamed insults. When I tried to call the police, he threw me to the ground”.

The suspect has a rap sheet for battery and a history of psychiatric problems, police said.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Pope Reiterates Church’s Revolutionary Role

(AGI) Vatican City, Oct. 25- Answering a question concerning “Reform in the Church” during a meeting with members of the Schoenstatt Marian movement, Pope Francis said, “They say the Pope is a revolutionary, but they forget that the Fathers of the Church use to say ‘Ecclesia semper reformanda’.” The Pope added, “The first revolution is holiness. The church’s revolution does not mainly consist of making changes here and there so as to be able to say ‘there is renovation in the Church, the Vatican bank’…” .

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



Surprise! That Russian Submarine in Stockholm Got Away From the Swedish Navy

After spending a week scouring the waters off Stockholm for a reportedly Russian submarine, the Swedish Navy has given up. On Friday, the country’s military reported that the vessel (or vessels) in question have left the Stockholm archipelago and that the intelligence operation, as military officials had insisted on calling it, would be coming to an end.

It’s a frustrating end to what has been a fascinating story. During the last week, Swedish vessels have searched in futility for a Russian submarine while sightings of the submarine have streamed in from the public.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: Taxi Firm Which Offered White Drivers on Demand After Two of Pakistani Origin Were Jailed for Sex-Grooming of Girls Backs Down After Its Asian Drivers Go on Strike

A taxi company which offered white drivers on demand to customers after two of Pakistani origin were jailed for sexual grooming has decided to pull the service after its Asian drivers went on strike.

Minicab firm Car 2000, in Heywood in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, has reversed its decision to offer white or ‘local’ drivers on demand after all of its 55 Asian drivers walked out over the ‘racist and discriminatory’ decision.

Company boss Stephen Campbell, 34, said he had now told the firm’s operators to no longer offer the ‘on request’ service and said he would be meeting with those on strike in an attempt to iron out the issues.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UKIP Launches Hard-Hitting New Rotherham Poster

UKIP has launched a hard-hitting poster that criticises Labour for the Rotherham child abuse scandal in which 1,400 children were abused between 1997 and 2013.

The poster, which forms part of the campaign for Jack Clarkson, UKIP’s candidate in the forthcoming South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner election, depicts a distraught girl and reads “There are 1,400 reasons why you should not trust Labour again.”

The Rotherham scandal was revealed in a report in August, with the town’s Labour-run administration largely blamed for ignoring that scale of the abuse for years. The subsequent public outcry eventually led to South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Shaun Wright resigning, thus forcing a by-election to replace him on 30 October.

— Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



CNN Affiliate TVN1 to Launch in Balkans on 30/10

Production centers in Sarajevo, Zagreb and Belgrade

(ANSAmed) — SARAJEVO, OCTOBER 20 — After Al Jazeera Balkans and the regional office of the Turkish news agency Anadolu, the CNN regional affiliate TVN1 will begin broadcasting in the Balkans on October 30. The main investor of the N1 project is the US United Group, a pay-TV platform leader in southeastern Europe that comprises the major cable television operators in Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia. The three main production centers of the broadcaster, in Sarajevo, Zagreb and Belgrade, will each have its own editorial policy, journalists, studio and web platforms. They will produce local content that will be included in a single regional program when dealing with information of interest to the public of all three countries. The program will include news, interviews, comments, analysis, sports broadcasting and CNN series.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Army Clashes With Ansar Al-Sharia Militias in Benghazi

(AGI) Cairo, Oct 25 — Violent clashes have broken out in Benghazi between the Libyan army and the Islamist militia group Ansar al-Sharia. According to Sky News Arabia’s website, fighting is taking place in the Ras Obeida district in the suburbs of the city, only a day after the army recaptured the extremist stronghold held by the Islamist group Majlis Shura Shabab.

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



Egypt: District Residents Against Brothers, Child Dies

Clashes in Cairo during demo against Brotherhood

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, OCTOBER 24 — A seven-year-old child on Friday died from a gunshot wound to the head during clashes between Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators and residents of the Matarya district north-east of Cairo who oppose their presence, security sources said.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Egypt: Young Catholics: The Revolution Has Been Betrayed, But the Future Belongs to Us

Martine, 26, lives and works in Cairo. The problem of discrimination in Egypt comes from “well defined social classes”. The lessons of equality, respect and compassion in Christian schools “are a benefit for Muslim students.” The 2011 riots “were stolen from the Egyptians” by other countries and (in part) by the military”. It will take 50 years to erase the mistakes of the past.”

Cairo (AsiaNews) — “A more democratic and cleaner Egypt — clean of corruption, waste, pollution, traffic — where health and education are priorities. Because if the environment in which we live debilitates the body, productivity and economy we will all suffer. Education alone helps people to be more creative, civilized, to have new ideas and to respect those of others”. 26 year old Martine, a Greek-Catholic, has clear ideas on how she wants the future of her country to be. She graduated in economics and political science at Cairo University, and after one year of study in France, now works as a project manager in an American company. Unfortunately, however, she adds to AsiaNews, “it will take some time to achieve this, and people have to be patient. In Egypt we have learned to take the easy way out and that is why we are struggling now because there is no easy way out of our problems. “

Martine (pictured second from left) comes from a good family background and has never had particularly negative experiences with people of Islamic faith. “The question — she says — is that social classes in Egypt are very defined. The background you come from and where you grow up affects the very person you will become. I was born and live in Heliopolis, which is a quiet neighborhood of the city, I attended Christian institutions and many of my classmates were Muslims. At school we were taught equality; that there is no difference between human beings, to be compassionate, to respect each other’s religions and ideas”. This, she explains, “was translated into very simple gestures. During the fasting month of Ramadan, we Christians ate discreetly. At big holidays such as Christmas or Easter, Muslims attended in the Mass, in respect and to show that in our school we were one family”.

The only unpleasant memory she has had since childhood dates back to when she was seven. “I took tennis lessons — she says — and a friend of mine was Muslim. One day she came to me and said, ‘I’m sad, because you’ll go to hell’. I asked her why. She said, ‘because are you a Christian and my parents said that Christians will go to hell ‘. I ran home to my mother in tears, who told me that it was not true and that I could no longer be her friend”. In retrospect, Martine admits that what her mother told her “was also wrong. If it had happened later, I would have explained what it means to be a Christian, that what we believe is full of love, and that even if the ‘paths’ of our two religions are different, we both believe in God”.

If the place where you live, as in Martine’s case, means you grow up in a sort of “bubble”, sooner or later you come face to face with reality. In her case this was at university. “I was in the French department — she said — which is twinned with other universities in France. My classmates came from similar backgrounds to mine. But when I attended the classes in Arabic, I met very different people from me: some came from closed social circles, others had studied at home. Others had never met a Christian and thought that we believed in three gods. I also received leaflets advising the girls to wear the veil, to be closer to God”.

Martine’s young adulthood, as many of her peers, is inevitably marked by what has happened in the last three years. She recalls the first period of democratic revolution, which began January 25, 2011, as “a nightmare.” “Mubarak was president of Egypt all my life” — she explains. “He was part of my everyday life. University, however, especially when I started studying economics and political science, opened my mind and changed the way I saw what was happening in my country. I saw a dictatorship, and many injustices. In 2011 I was particularly furious because the last parliamentary elections [2010 ed] Mubarak’s party won 98% of the seats. This not only proved the obvious corruption but also the authority’s complete lack of effort to even try to deceive the people of Egypt. When I spoke about it with my French friends, I was ashamed and angry”.

Then, something changed. In a church in Alexandria, an explosion killed several Christians, including Martine’s friends. Meanwhile, videos were posted on Facebook and social media of people being tortured in police stations. “The people — she explains — and especially young people, begin to realize what was happening and no longer wanted to stand by in silence like their parents’ generation. The older people wanted security, young people wanted a future.”

What happened after the fall of Mubarak, Martine was “confused, unclear and made no sense”. While recognizing the democratic spirit of the revolts which started January 25, 2011, in her opinion the Egyptian “revolution was betrayed” by the “many other actors who benefited from the end of the regime and instability in Egypt”. National figures who seemed to have a more liberal and more open-minded ideology, like Mohamed ElBaradei, “were not strong enough to fight”.

What is certain, is the constant presence — even if behind the scenes — of the military: “The army has played its part since the very first revolution. I doubt that Mubarak resigned in response to the demands of his people. I think, the military allowed the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohamed Morsi win the first democratic elections in 2011. As if the only way to show the world what they were really capable of, was to give them power”.

In fact, “they won, made a lot of mistakes and eventually fell, but not because of another revolution. The Tamarod movement that brought more than 30 million people in the streets to get rid of the Morsi government was a ‘soft revolution’. The only party capable of quickly responding to the demands of the population was the army. It would have been a real revolution if the military authorities had played the role of mediator, facilitating the removal of Morsi and ferrying the country toward free elections, with a president chosen by the people and for the people”.

This was not to be, instead the current president is the former General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who abandoned his military positions before running for office.

The betrayal of the revolution, says Martine, “is not represented by al-Sisi as such, but by what he represents, namely the return to an ideology in which the military authorities hold power. In the last election, I voted with a blank sheet, because I was not convinced by any of the candidates and I was afraid of the power of the army. I am honest: today I have less fear, and while I still see things I do not like I want to give this government a chance, to do some good”. However, a fundamental problem remains: “In fact, while recognizing their experience, we have the same people, the same faces, the same problems as before. Egypt needs its young people, new languages and new ideas. It will take at least 50 years to erase all the mistakes of the past. If you continue to treat the same disease with the same medicine, and see that it does not improve, then maybe it is time to change medicine”.

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



Egypt Declares a State of Emergency in Northern Sinai; 30 Killed

A co-ordinated assault on an army checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula killed 30 Egyptian troops on Friday, making it the deadliest single attack in decades on the military, which has been struggling to stem a wave of violence by Islamic extremists since the overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Libya: Men Flogged by Pro-ISIS Jihadists for Drinking Alcohol

Condemned by an islamic tribunal in eastern city of Derna

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO,OCT 23 — Libyan militias belonging to the Derna “caliphate”, which has sworn allegiance to Isis, flogged youths suspected of drinking alcohol, Libyan media reported Thursday. The youths were been condemned by an islamic tribunal recently established in the town of eastern Libya, where local jihadists announced the rule of an islamic caliphate last week.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



American Jewish Baby Killed by Hamas Terrorist in Jerusalem

Three month Chaya Zisel Braun was run down and killed at the Silwan Light Rail Station in Jerusalem by a Hamas terrorist, 21 year-old Abdel Rahman Al-Shalodi. Eight other persons were injured in the crowd he ploughed into on the station platform. Hamas issued a statement calling Al-Shaludi’s murder of Chaya Zisel an “act of heroism”. Al-Shaludi had served time in an Israeli prison on terrorist-related charges. Chaya Zisel parents and visiting grandparents from America, the Halperins, grieved for their loss. Shimon Halperin and his wife had just arrived in Israel on their first visit after their birth of their granddaughter to see Chaya Zisel. Instead they were rushed to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus Chaya succumbed to her injuries and was laid to rest at a Jerusalem cemetery at midnight, Wednesday, October 22nd. Al -Shaludi’s mother, did not acknowledging her son’s murderous action. The Times of Israel reported 42 year old Inas Sharif saying “I feel [Chaya’s mother’s pain, I am a mother after all. I don’t wish for any mother in the world to lose her child.”

Biased media obfuscated what occurred on Wednesday at the Silwan Light Rail stop in Jerusalem located at the bottom of Ammunition Hill.What passes for the leadership of the Palestinian Authority (PA) stoked the violence that broke out during the recent Sukkoth holiday. The AP had an initial headline, “ Israeli Police shoot man in East Jerusalem” and only after complaints about it being misleading changed it to read, “Palestinian Kills Baby at Jerusalem Station. “ The U.S. consulate in Jerusalem issued statement hours after the event calling it a “traffic incident”. When the news caught up at Foggy Bottom they called it an act of terrorism, but with the usual proviso of “all parties remaining calm.” Wednesday’s vehicular homicide of three month old Chaya Zisel Braun was perpetrated by Hamas terrorist al-Shaludi with PA President Abbas, as an accomplice after the fact for inciting the terrorist act.

For the First Time in 35 Years Boeing Sells Aircraft Parts to Iran

The company said that the sale was allowed by the American government, and involves “spare parts that are for safety purposes” not new aircraft.

Washington (AsiaNews / Agencies) — For the first time in 35 years, Boeing has sold aircraft components to Iran. Breaking the news, the industry itself stated that it has sold “aircraft manuals, drawings, and navigation charts and data” to Iran Air.

The sale, which has yielded Boeing 120 thousand dollars, is the first since 1979, the year of the “hostage crisis” which was followed by United States sanctions on all trade useful to aviation.

The sale, said the company, took place between June and September this year, producing 12 thousand dollars in profits and was possible thanks to a US government license allowing Boeing, for a “limited period of time,” to provide “spare parts that are for safety purposes” to Iran. Boeing is still not allowed to sell new planes to Iran.

The political motivations of the decision are highlighted in the note issued by Boeing stating that the trade in spare parts is “consistent with guidance from the US government in connection with ongoing negotiations”. The reference appears to be an interim agreement between the 5 +1 (the five members of the Security Council plus Germany) and Iran over its nuclear program, which was signed in November.

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



Horror Before the Beheadings: What ISIS Hostages Endured

When James Foley was forced to his knees on a bald hill somewhere in Syria and executed on camera, it was a very public end to a hidden ordeal.

The story of what happened in an underground ISIS prison in Syria, which is now being told for the first time, is one of excruciating suffering. Mr. Foley was one of at least 23 Western hostages from 12 countries who were routinely beaten and subjected to waterboarding. They were starved and threatened with execution by one group of fighters, only to be handed off to members of another group who brought them chocolates and spoke as if they were contemplating freeing them. In their darkest hours, the hostages turned on one another. And they sought comfort in the faith of their kidnappers — embracing Islam and taking Muslim names.

The fates of the 23 diverged once their captors decided to trade them for ransom. Mr. Foley and his American and British cellmates watched as, one by one, 15 of their cellmates, all but one of them European, were freed for cash while they remained chained inside.

Their struggle for survival was pieced together through interviews with former hostages, locals who witnessed their treatment, family members and colleagues of the captives, and a tight circle of advisers who made trips to the region to try to win their release. Crucial details were confirmed by a former member of the Islamic State — the militant Sunni group also known as ISIS — who was initially stationed in the prison where Mr. Foley was held, and who provided previously unknown details of his captivity.

Jordan: Four Imams Banned for Pro-Islamic State Friday Sermons

AMMAN — The Awqaf Ministry has banned four clerics for encouraging citizens to support the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group during Friday sermons earlier this month, the minister, Hayel Dawood, said Wednesday.

Eyewitnesses say the four imams urged citizens to “come to the aid” of IS, in direct violation of the Preaching and Guidance Law, which forbids speech of political, sectarian and extremist nature in Friday sermons.

The four clerics, who were not ministry employees but had received prior authorisation from awqaf officials to preach in under-staffed mosques, face a lifetime ban from delivering sermons in Jordan under a ministry decision.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Kuwait Urges Gulf Reforms as Oil Prices Fall

Kuwait’s oil minister on Saturday called for economic reforms by energy-dependent Gulf states to cope with a drop in oil prices that has hurt their public finances.

Anas al-Saleh urged steps to tackle rising public spending, mainly on wages and subsidies, as well as efforts to boost the role of the private sector.

“Comprehensive economic reforms, including reforming distortions in the public finances, should be enforced,” he said at a meeting of regional finance ministers and central bank chiefs.

Saleh said the Gulf states must diversify their economies and “reduce dependence on oil”.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Lebanon: EU Funding Provides Polio Vaccines to Children

in the framework of the National Immunization Campaign

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 20 — A total of 1.2 million doses of polio vaccines have been provided to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health thanks to European Union funding and with the support of Unhcr. The aim is to vaccinate over 550,000 children under five in Lebanon, regardless of nationality, in order to keep the country polio free.

This initiative, according to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu) comes in the framework of the National Polio Immunization Campaign launched by the Ministry of Public Health, in collaboration with Unicef Lebanon and the World Health Organization Lebanon Office. The campaign stands as a crucial national response to the outbreak of polio in the region.

National Immunization Days kicked off in Tripoli and will be touring Lebanon until October 21.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Lebanon Army Attacks Gunmen in Historic Tripoli Market

Lebanese troops attacked Islamist gunmen holed up in the historic market of the northern city of Tripoli Saturday, after deadly clashes rocked the longtime tourist attraction, an AFP correspondent reported.

A gunman was killed, and nine soldiers and eight civilian bystanders wounded, in the fighting that erupted in the city’s souks late on Friday, a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

It was the first time since the civil war in neighbouring Syria erupted in 2011 that violence in Tripoli had spread to the market, which is listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

The AFP correspondent heard shelling and heavy gunfire as the army launched its assault on the gunmen’s positions.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Numb to Horror: Women Walk Past Headless Corpses in the Street Without Raising an Eyebrow in Shocking Video Depicting Life Under ISIS Rule

For months its brutality has been documented in propaganda designed to frighten the world into considering its terrorist cause.

But footage of life under the rule of ISIS has revealed the lasting effects of the group’s barbarity, with women and children strolling past the decapitated bodies of Syrian soldiers in the city of Raqqa without giving them a second glance.

Unaffected by the sight of the decaying corpses, civilians do not even acknowledge the men’s impaled heads positioned on fences across the city which has become a recruiting hub for extremists.

The decapitated bodies of Syrian soldiers were left scattered in the streets of Raqqa by ISIS fighters.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UN Seeks US$ 2.2 Billion Dollars for Displaced People in Iraq and Syria

Some five million people need urged aid, UN says, including 1.8 million internally displaced people and 1.7 million in conflict areas. As winter approaches, the situation will get worse. An earlier fund-raiser failed to meet its target.

Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The United Nations on Thursday launched a US$ 2.2 billion appeal to assist 5.2 million people who need protection and assistance in conflict-torn Iraq, as do those in Syria.

“The needs of the Iraqi people are immense,” Neill Wright, the UN’s acting humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said in Baghdad.

The United Nation’s revised response plan said there are 1.8 million displaced people nationwide, 1.5 million in the communities hosting the displaced and 1.7 million people living in conflict areas outside of government control who need help.

“An estimated 2.8 million people are in need of food assistance and approximately 800,000 people are in urgent need of emergency shelter assistance,” a UN statement said.

Many of the hundreds of thousands who fled successive waves of violence this year, mostly perpetrated by the Islamic State jihadist group, have found refuge in autonomous Kurdistan.

Winter temperatures in the mountainous region can range from 5 to -16 Celsius and the United Nations has repeatedly voiced alarm at the fate of many displaced who still lack shelter.

In addition to the 1.8 million displaced, the United Nations stressed there were more than 200,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq, as well as an estimated one million Iraqis previously displaced due to violence over the past decade.

A similar appeal made earlier by the world body aimed at raising funds for refugees in Iraq and Syria failed to reach its target.

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



Iran, Russia Plan to Use National Currencies in Bilateral Trade

“Replacing (the US) dollar with ruble in bilateral and multilateral transactions between Iran and Russia tops the agenda of the upcoming visit of an Iranian delegation to Russia,” member of Iran-Russia Parliamentary Friendship Group Hadi Qavami said on Saturday.

Qavami pointed to an upcoming visit of Iran-Russia Parliamentary Friendship Group to Moscow, and said, “The Russia-Iran parliamentary friendship group has recently visited Iran and now the visit of the Iranian delegation will take place at the invitation of the Russian side.”

He noted that the Iranian delegation will discuss setting up banks along Iran-Oman border in a bid to facilitate changing Iran’s oil payments to ruble and rial and to reduce the pressure of sanctions.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Russian Clocks Go Back for Last Time

Russia will turn back its clocks for the last time on Sunday to permanently adopt winter hours.

It will also increase its time zones from nine to 11, from the Pacific to the borders of the European Union.

For the last three years, Russia experimented with keeping permanent summer time, but it proved to be highly unpopular with many Russians.

The Soviet Union introduced Daylight Saving Time in 1981.

In 2011, then President Dmitry Medvedev introduced measures to reduce Russia’s time zones to nine, and to keep summer time all year round.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Trifkovic on Putin Speech on RT International

Srdja Trifkovic interview with RT International on Putin’s foreign affairs speech

Broadcast live on October 24, 2014, 19:06 GMT

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f9yuzoWzpQ&feature=youtu.be

RT: Apart from the very strong rhetoric, Putin said that Russia does not really see a strong menace on the part of the US. Do you think Washington might stop seeing Moscow as a threat?

Srdja Trifkovic: No, I think that U.S. policy is guided by geopolitical intentions, by a strategic design to surround and squeeze Russia at every point, and if possible — in the fullness of time — to engineer regime change in Moscow. So the U.S. policy, and Western policy in general — which is really the result of what U.S. dictates to the Europeans — are not the result of a general perception of a Russian threat. Rather, they are guided by a long term geopolitical game which hasn’t changed since the Cold War.

RT: Why do you think it has not changed towards Russia?

ST: Because in essence the Washingtonian policy-makers do not see any difference in terms of the geopolitical enemy, whether it is the USSR or whether it is Russia. Effectively they look upon Russia as the “other,” not only in political but also in cultural and emotional terms. That is why you have such strong, stridently anti-Russian rhetoric at all levels of the Western establishment, whether it is politics or the media.

RT: Do you think if the Western leadership acted differently towards Russia, then we would see a different stance from Putin?

ST: Absolutely, because all along Russia has been responding to different signals from the West in an appropriate manner. When the rhetoric of the “reset” was all the rage, we saw a clearly reconciliatory response from the Russians.

Even now the Russian response to the sanctions hasn’t been strong enough…

— Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic [Return to headlines]



Indian Lawyer Calls for Anti-Piracy Law in Marines Case

Exacting law holds death penalty as maximum punishment

(ANSA) — New Delhi, October 24 — An Indian lawyer has presented a petition to the Supreme Court of India asking that the rigorous anti-piracy Sua Act, a law with death penalty as the maximum punishment, be applied to Italian marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, both of whom are being held on murder charges for the 2012 deaths of two Indian fishermen in 2012.

In February of this year, prosecutors in the case agreed to drop the request to invoke the law, a move that won praise from the Italian government, which had claimed that its use would have equated Italy with being a terrorist State. Indian lawyer Harshad V. Hameed said he filed the petition “about a month ago” and that he expected it to reach the court docket by November.

Hameed, a lawyer for one of the crew members of the fishing boat involved in the 2012 incident, claims that refusal to apply the anti-piracy law is unconstitutional.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Pakistan’s Bewildering Array of Militants

The sacking of Pakistani Taliban (TTP) spokesman Shahidullah Shahid for supporting Islamic State is the latest sign of divisions in an already fragmented militant movement. Over the years Pakistan’s insurgents have spawned a bewildering array of splinter groups and factions.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Hong Kong Government Threatens Protesters, Ready to Use Force

An anonymous source confirms that doves have “been side-lined while hawks” have gained “the upper hand,” and that “a certain degree of bloodshed would be unavoidable.” So far, talks have failed to produce any result.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — The Hong Kong government has decided to up the ante in its confrontation with demonstrators who have been occupying some of the city’s central districts. It has also threatened them with “tougher measures” if the blockades and sit-in are not cleared.

The warning, which an anonymous source “familiar with the situation” confirmed to the South China Morning Post, was leaked following the failure of talks between a government delegation and representatives of the Federation of Students.

Students, along with the group Scholarism and Occupy Central movement, have been on strike for the past three weeks.

Their protest stems from the democratic demands of the people of Hong Kong who want meaningful universal suffrage and a democratic election of the chief executive in 2017.

Beijing has flatly rejected their demands and pushed its own reform agenda to maintain its own stranglehold over the former British colony.

Since the mainland presented its own proposal in late August, tensions in Hong Kong have risen dramatically. Since then, roadblocks, sit-ins, and demonstrations continue to affect central districts like Admiralty and Mong Kok.

On several occasions police allowed anti-Occupy groups to do whatever they wanted, including violence and intimidation, to turn people away from the streets. Until recently, police have had a formal order to “use patience.” Now things are likely to get worse.

“If the conciliatory approach doesn’t work, doves within the government would be side-lined while hawks would gain the upper hand,” one source said.

“We are worried that the administration would eventually use force to disperse protesters and a certain degree of bloodshed would be unavoidable.”

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



Future Scenarios Show How Easily Ebola Could Explode

Just how bad will the Ebola outbreak in West Africa get? There have been predictions: 20,000 cases by November; more than a million by January. But these are milestones. No one has said how many cases there might be in total by the time the epidemic peaks and tails off, once everyone in reach has been exposed to the virus.

That is because mathematical models of epidemics are notoriously bad at accounting for the uncertainties in such predictions, such as how people’s behaviour changes as an epidemic progresses. But a new model by David Fisman and Ashleigh Tuite of the University of Toronto in Canada — the first to take account of efforts to fight infections — suggests that if things continue as they have been up until now, 700,000 people could have had the virus by the time the epidemic in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone subsides — in early 2016.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Mauritania Closes Border With Mali Over Ebola Fears

Mauritania has closed its border with Mali after the country reported its first Ebola death near the frontier shared by the two countries. The WHO says more than 10,000 people have now been infected with the virus.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Who: Number of Ebola Cases Passes 10,000

The World Health Organization says the number of people believed sickened by Ebola has risen above 10,000.

The U.N. health agency said Saturday that the number of confirmed, probable and suspected cases has risen to 10,141. Of those, 4,922 people have died.

WHO has said repeatedly that even those very high figures are likely an underestimate as many people in the hardest hit countries have been unable or too frightened to seek medical care.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the largest ever outbreak of the disease.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Illegal Immigrants Trying to Reach Britain Have Turned Calais Into a ‘Lawless Jungle’, Says French Far-Right Leader Marine Le Pen

Illegal immigrants making desperate bids to reach Britain have turned the port of Calais into a lawless ‘jungle’, according to the French far-right leader.

Marine Le Pen seized on escalating tensions in the town by calling for the urgent reintroduction of internal border controls that have been banished across much of Europe.

The leader of the anti-immigrant National Front party made the remarks during a visit to the northern port town where riot police this week used teargas to ward off hundreds of immigrants seeking to jump on to lorries bound for Britain.