Tuesday, January 27, 2015
André Rieu - Holocaust Memorial Day
Auschwitz 70th Anniversary: Survivors Warn of New Crimes
 |
| Child survivors at Auschwitz - still taken from footage by Soviet forces |
"We survivors do not want our past to be our children's future," Roman Kent, born in 1929, told a memorial gathering at the death camp's site in Poland.
Some 300 Auschwitz survivors returned for the ceremony under a giant tent.
Some 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed there between 1940 and 1945, when Soviet troops liberated it. » | Tuesday, January 27, 2015
WHITEHOUSE: Statement by the President on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau » | Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Saudi Dynasty: Security of the West Passes into Shaky Hands
A plain shroud covered his corpse. The monarch was laid in an unmarked grave. His heirs heaped up a small cairn of stones and went away.
It was a farewell obedient to the strict Wahhabi version of Islam that governs Saudi Arabia.
Within hours the new ruling order emerged. The designated successor, Salman, 79, the king’s half-brother, assumed the throne. A younger brother, Muqrin, 69, was named Crown Prince.
And the dynasty appointed Mohammed bin Nayef, a stripling of 55, as Deputy Crown Prince. The edifice of Saudi rule, still the centrepiece of American strategy in the Middle East, looked solid.
US President Barack Obama will cut short a visit to India to travel to Riyadh tomorrow, where he will meet the new monarch. ( video) » | Michael Sheridan and Hala Jaber | The Times | Monday, January 26, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
Wutausbrüche und Alkohol: Schwere Vorwürfe gegen Israels First Lady
Tel Aviv - Wieder einmal macht Israels Ministerpräsident Benjamin Netanyahu in der Öffentlichkeit ein breites Kreuz. Mit deutlichen Worten verteidigt er seine Frau gegen Vorwürfe früherer Angestellter. "Die Hetze gegen meine Ehefrau Sara ist ein neuer Tiefpunkt im Benehmen der Medien, die versuchen, mich zu treffen", hieß es am Montag in einer Stellungnahme Netanyahus.
Israelische Medien hatten am Sonntag ausführlich über Beschwerden ehemaliger Mitarbeiter im Haushalt Netanyahu berichtet. Einer der Angestellten gab an, die First Lady habe ihre Untergebenen mit Wutausbrüchen und übertriebenen Wünschen tyrannisiert. Besonders unter Alkoholeinfluss sei ihr Verhalten unerträglich gewesen. » | ler/dpa | MOntag, 26. Januar 2015
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras on Collision Course with Angela Merkel
Alexis Tsipras was sworn in as the new prime minister of Greece on Monday, after his radical Left-wing movement forged an unwieldy alliance with a far-Right party.
In a low-key ceremony lasting barely 10 minutes, Mr Tsipras promised to protect "the interests of the Greek people" as he signed an official mandate with a Mont Blanc fountain pen.
Well known for his disdain of ties, he arrived wearing an open-necked shirt.
He then went on to the National Resistance Memorial at Kaisariani and laid a wreath to two hundred Greek war dead as his first official act.
In a further break with convention, Mr Tsipras, an atheist, chose not to receive a traditional blessing from the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos II, becoming the first prime minister in the history of the modern Greek state to reject the religious gesture.
Instead of swearing on a Bible, as is customary, he took a non-religious oath. » | Nick Squires, Athens | Monday, January 26, 2015
'Tidal Wave of Snow' Forecast to Cripple North-eastern US
 |
| Winter storm Juno |
A crippling blizzard predicted to dump historic snowfalls swept into the American north-east as shops reported panic buying, airlines cancelled thousands of flights and governors announced states of emergency and travel bans.
Meteorologists forecast up to two feet of snow would fall in New York city in a few hours while 30 inches could carpet Boston.
But just as alarming were the heavy winds that would drive the snow as gusts were expected to reach 50mph in New York and near hurricane-strength 70mph in Cape Cod, whipping up towering drifts and exacerbating the rapid accumulations.
As the storm bore down on America’s most populated corridor, a 250-mile stretch from New Jersey to New England, political leaders had the same message for the 50 million residents in its path: go home and stay there.
“It will be like a tidal wave of snow,” predicted Henry Margusity, a meteorologist with AccuWeather forecasting company, while the National Weather Service described the storm as “life-threatening”. Some regions were expected to be battered by “thundersnow” with thunder and lightning accompanying intense downpours of snow. » | Philip Sherwell, New York | Monday, January 26, 2015
’More Muslims Should Denounce Fundamentalism’
Recently elected ‘Swiss of the year’ by the readers of the Sunday newspaper SonntagsZeitung for his “fight for the cohabitation” of communities, Memeti advocates a liberal Islam that adopts western values without concession.
“I’m afraid that the climate of suspicion and fear will again become more generalised in the times to come,” says Memeti, who hails from Serbia, almost a week after the attacks by Islamic fundamentalists in Paris.
At the forefront of Memeti’s plans is training Muslim preachers in Switzerland and exercising state control over the mosques as a means of fighting radicalisation. In a voice torn with emotion, he espouses with conviction his proposals for Islam in Switzerland. » | Samuel Jaberg | Monday, January 26, 2015
Alfred Hitchcock Holocaust Film to Go on General Release 70 Years after Suppression
An Alfred Hitchcock film showing the first harrowing scenes of Nazi concentration camp and suppressed by the British government is to go on general release to the public almost 70 years after it was made.
The German Concentration Camps Factual Survey was shot at 14 sites in 1945 and was to be the official documentary of the Nazi atrocities that had occurred there.
But the film, described as “of great historical importance”, was shelved amid fears it was too politically sensitive until it was reassembled by experts at the Imperial War Museum (IWM).
Those behind the restoration will announce later this year that they now plan to release it to the public, either in cinemas or on DVD.
The move coincides with the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps, which revealed the full scale of the holocaust atrocities. » | Tom Whitehead | Monday, January 26, 2015
Old Foes Come Together to Pay Tribute to King Abdullah
Old enmities and doubts about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record were cast aside as world leaders paid their respects to its new king, Salman bin Abdulaziz.
David Cameron, whose government only a week ago condemned Saudi Arabia’s public flogging of a liberal writer, Raif Badawi, flew to Riyadh with the Prince of Wales, whose long friendship with the Gulf monarchy is well-established.
Mr Cameron had paid tribute to King Abdullah, King Salman’s older half-brother, who died at the age of 90 in the early hours of Friday morning after ten years on the throne.
But human rights activists and even members of his own party objected. “I have been ashamed to be a Conservative today,” the former Tory MP Louise Mensch said. » | Richard Spencer, Middle East Editor | Sunday, January 25, 2015
What Does Syriza’s Victory Mean for Greece and the Eurozone?
Sunday, January 25, 2015
British Army General 'to Come Out as Gay'
A married British Army general who served in Afghanistan and Iraq is planning to come out as gay, becoming the highest[-]ranking military officer to do so, it has emerged.
The general is hoping to tackle the perception that admitting homosexuality would amount to career suicide.
Homophobic bullying and abuse are still common in the military despite attempts by the Ministry of Defence to improve the Army’s image, he claimed.
“I never considered outing myself until another very senior officer said he believed that admission of homosexuality by a senior officer would be career suicide,” he told the Mail on Sunday.
“I actually felt like saying, ‘Actually I’m gay and it has never prevented me from serving Queen and country’. » | Telegraph staff | Sunday, January 25, 2015
Avigdor Lieberman Urges Supporters to Distribute Copies of Charlie Hebdo
 |
| Avigdor Lieberman called for the move on 'free speech' grounds |
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's combative foreign minister, has urged supporters to distribute copies of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo depicting the Prophet Mohammed after a leading book store cancelled a planned gala sale following complaints by Muslims.
Mr Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, called for the move on "free speech" grounds after Steimatsky, Israel's largest book chain, called off the event at its flagship Ramat Gan shop, near Tel Aviv, after Muslim leaders of Israel's Arab community pleaded with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to intervene.
The store imported 700 copies of the first edition of Charlie Hebdo produced following the murder of 12 people by French jihadists at the magazine's Paris offices on January 7. » | Robert Tait, Jerusalem | Sunday, January 25, 2015
Jewish Leaders Call for Europe-wide Legislation Outlawing Antisemitism
European Jewish leaders, backed by a host of former EU heads of state and governments, are to call this week for pan-European legislation outlawing antisemitism amid a sense of siege and emergency feeding talk of a mass exodus of Europe’s oldest ethnic minority.
A panel of four prestigious international experts on constitutional law have spent three years consulting widely and drafting a 12-page document on “tolerance” that they are lobbying to have converted into law in the 28 countries of the EU.
The proposal would outlaw antisemitism as well as criminalising a host of other activities deemed to be violating fundamental rights on specious religious, cultural, ethnic and gender grounds.
These would include banning the burqa, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, polygamy, denial of the Holocaust and genocide generally, criminalising xenophobia, and creating a new crime of “group libel” – public defamation of ethnic, cultural, or religious groups. Women’s and gay rights would also be covered.
The proposed legislation would also curb, in the wake of the Paris attacks, freedom of expression on grounds of tolerance and in the interests of security. » | Ian Traynor, Europe editor | Sunday, January 25, 2015
Jews, Outnumbered by Muslims, Suffer under Mob Rule
I don't particularly like that advice. I think it would be a tragedy if centuries of Jewish French culture had to die out because Jews were chased out by Islamist thugs. The French government agrees — for now at least — and has posted armed soldiers everywhere Jews live and gather.
Still, what Netanyahu understands is that there is strength in numbers. The more Jews there are in Israel, the stronger Israel will be. The flip side is that the fewer Jews there are in France — or Europe or America — the weaker Jews as a whole will be.
But no matter how you slice it, Jews are at a numerical disadvantage.
People understand that in a democracy there will always be strength in numbers. The politician who gets the most votes wins; the constituency with the most voters gets heard the most, etc. This also tends to be true of intellectuals, activists and businesses. If China didn't have more than 1 billion people, Hollywood wouldn't kowtow to Chinese sensibilities. And if Duke University didn't have a growing number of Muslim students, no one would have thought to broadcast calls to prayers from its chapel bell tower. » | Jonah Goldberg * | Saturday, January 24, 2015
* Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review.
Japan PM Left 'Speechless' After Video Claims Hostage Dead
Shinzo Abe told Japanese broadcaster NHK the government is still reviewing the video, but it was likely authentic. Abe offered his condolences to the family and friends of 42-year-old Haruna Yukawa, who was taken hostage in Syria last year.
Abe did not comment about the message in the latest video that demanded a prisoner exchange for the other hostage, journalist Kenji Goto.
"I am left speechless," he said, stressing he wants Goto released unharmed. "We strongly and totally criticize such acts." (+ FoxNews video) » | FoxNews.com | Saturday, January 24, 2015
Germany’s Pegida Anti-Islam Movement: Can 'Cruella de Vil' Take It Mainstream?
 |
| Kathrin Oertel |
Read the comment here
Gingrich: U.S. ‘Losing the War’ with Radical Islam
“The United States is losing the war with radical Islamists,” said Gingrich in a speech at Rep. Steve King’s Iowa Freedom Summit.
He likened the Obama administration’s approach to extremism to the appeasement of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, and criticized Hillary Clinton’s record on the issue as secretary of state, saying he had given up hope that she would adequately address the threat if she were president.
But the former speaker of the House and candidate for the Republican nomination in 2012 did not reserve his criticism for Democrats alone.
“We have an elite frankly in both parties who won’t tell the truth. …You cant win this war if you won’t admit it’s a war.”
“The State Department was about equally bad under George W. Bush,” he said. » | Ben Schreckinger | Saturday, January 24, 2015
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Baroness Warsi Launches Bitter Assault On Coalition Strategy Towards Muslims
Lady Warsi has delivered a blistering critique of the government’s approach towards Britain’s Muslims, warning that failure to engage properly with communities across the UK has created a climate of suspicion and undermined the fight against extremism.
In her first major intervention on the relationship between Muslims and the rest of society since she resigned from the cabinet five months ago, Warsi says the coalition’s policy of non-engagement has caused deep unease and resentment towards the government.
Writing in the Observer, Warsi warns that the government’s stance is counterproductive at a time of heightened national security. This month has seen warnings from MI5 that an attack on the UK is “highly likely” in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris on 8 January. » | Mark Townsend | Saturday, January 24, 2015
Heidi Munt Speaks at Rally: Islam Critics Set Up by Police
Islam Experts: No-Go Zones Looming for America
The “no-go zones” in some Western nations, where law enforcement has lost control because of the influence of Islamic law, are coming to America.
That’s according to several Islam experts interviewed by WND who believe the kind of Muslim enclaves that have developed in Europe due to a lack of assimilation will eventually arise in the U.S. as the Muslim population grows.
The contention that “no-go” zones exist is controversial, as evidenced by the widespread ridicule that arose when an analyst said in a Fox News interview shortly after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris that the major English city of Birmingham was a “no-go” zone itself.
The analyst apologized, but only for exaggerating his point, not for asserting “no-go” zones exist. » | Bob Unruh | Thursday, January 22, 2015
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)