North Wales Fire Service Employee Quits amid Investigation into Alleged Posts on Far-right Website

DAILY POST: The clerical worker was being probed over allegations they uploaded material onto a Norway-based site

A North Wales fire service employee has quit amid an investigation into alleged anti-Islamic posts made on a far-right website during work time.

The clerical worker, who was based in Colwyn Bay, was being probed over allegations they uploaded material onto a Norway-based website which is described by its critics as “one of the main forums for Islamaphobic debate”.

Articles understood to have been written by the fire service worker included one which suggested that “jihadists” were being recruited by councils in Northern Europe, and the website was allegedly used by them to publicise demonstrations by the far-right English Defence League (EDL).

A raft of other articles apparently written by the worker highlight mainstream UK media stories about offences committed by Muslims.

Other articles focused on crimes committed by immigrants. » | Jez Hemming | Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Ultra-conservative Branch of Islam Growing in Popularity in Wales

Screengrab taken from YouTube of a video showing
Islamist fighters appearing in a recruitment video

WALES ONLINE: Up to six Welsh mosques are now part of the Islamic movement known as Salafism, including Cardiff’s Al-Manar centre

The ultra-conservative strand of Islam followed by two young Cardiff men seen on a jihad-recruiting video from Syria has been growing in popularity in Wales.

Up to six Welsh mosques are now part of the Islamic movement known as Salafism, including Cardiff’s Al-Manar centre, where Nasser Muthana, 20, younger brother Aseel Muthana, 17, and Reyaad Khan, 20, are said to have worshipped.

Nasser and Reyaad appeared in the video by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which now controls huge swathes of territory in the two countries.

Aseel is understood to have travelled to the region after his elder brother.

There is disagreement within Islamic communities in the UK as to the extent to which the growth of Salafism is a concern.

The teachings of Salafism are conservative and impose severe restrictions on everything from women’s rights to music. » | Darren Devine | Thursday, June 26, 2014

British-born Boko Haram 'Ringleader' Was 'Radicalised at UK University'

Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche was held in Sudan on an
international arrest warrant

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, arrested on suspicion of carrying out bomb attacks in Nigeria, threatened to cut off hands of non-believers while living in Britain

A British-born "ringleader" of the Islamist group responsible for the kidnapping of hundreds of school girls in Nigeria was radicalised while studying at a UK unversity, according to friends.

Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, 29, was arrested on Wednesday in connection with two recent bombings carried out by Boko Haram in the Nigerian capital Abuja that killed nearly 100 people.

He is suspected of co-masterminding the attacks - one in the suburb of Nyanya that killed 75 people on April 14 and a second attack just yards away which killed 19 earlier this month.

Interpol put out an international arrest warrant for Mr Ogwuche, who was discovered after a reward of £100,000 led to his discovery in Sudan.

Mr Ogwuche, who is the son of a retired Nigerian colonel, was said by fellow students at University of Glamorgan in Wales to call himself "The Lion of God" and threatened to cut the hands and feet of non-believers while living in Britain. » | Josie Ensor, and Colin Freeman | Friday, May 16, 2014

105mph Wind Recorded as Gales Batter Britain

A man walks through the sandstorm at the Swansea seafront
in south Wales on 12 February 2014

THE GUARDIAN: Wales hit by record wind speed as Thames is set to rise to highest level in 60 years

Strong winds continued to batter the UK on Wednesday, causing disruption to road and rail networks and leaving 21,000 people without power.

A top wind speed of 105mph was recorded in Aberdaron in north-west Wales, and Western Power Distribution said electricity supplies had been hit in south Wales, the south-west and the west Midlands. Gusts of 92mph have already been recorded in the Mumbles on the Gower Peninsula, south-west Wales, the weather forecaster Meteogroup said.

Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol was briefly closed for the first time in its history, and the storms have also brought a number of trees down. Coastal areas could also be battered by large waves, the Met Office said.

The Environment Agency warned that the Thames was set to rise in places to its highest levels in more than 60 years, causing severe disruption to communities in Windsor, Maidenhead and Surrey. » | Haroon Siddique, Matthew Weaver and agencies | Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Churches' Leader in Plea to USA over Attack on Syria

THIS IS SOUTH WALES: A WELSH Christian leader has called on politicians in America to follow their peers in Parliament and steer clear of military intervention in Syria.

The Reverend Ron Williams, president of the Union of Welsh Independent Churches, said he felt "sanity prevailed" in the House of Commons when MPs defeated a Government motion for the principle of military action .

Mr Williams urged all diplomatic measures to bring about a ceasefire.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said America had evidence the nerve agent sarin has been used by the Syrian regime. President Barack Obama is seeking authorisation from Congress for a military strike.

"I sincerely hope that the USA will also step back from the brink and recognise that an attack on Syria could have devastating consequences throughout the Middle East — or even globally," said Mr Williams. » | Richard Youle | Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Schools Threat as Wales Is 'Target for Extremists'
EXPRESS: COUNTER terror experts are targeting schools feared to have been ¬infiltrated by Islamic fundamentalists using Wales as a base for recruitment.

The move comes after the country was identified as having a “very real” threat of terrorist activity.

Experts fear that extremists view Wales as a safe haven compared with London for would-be terrorists.

A leaked “restricted report” called the Wales Contest plan exposes growing radicalisation in Cardiff and proposes extra training in how to spot extremism for staff at schools “identified as having increased risks” of radicalism.

In December 2010, Cardiff brothers Abdul Miah, 25, and Gurukanth Desai, 30, along with Omar Sharif Latif, were arrested after planning a Mumbai-style attack on the London Stock Exchange. They were eventually jailed for a total of 40 years.

Last year Idris Faridi, 32, of Roath, Cardiff, was jailed for nine months after a “terrorist’s manual” called 39 Ways To Serve And Proceed In Jihad was discovered on his computer’s hard drive. He had applied to work at the Millennium Stadium during the Olympic Games.

A Welsh Government spokesman said last night: “In Wales, we work with a wide range of partners from across the public sector to raise awareness of issues relating to extremism and to improve community cohesion.

“As in England, this work includes education sessions for teachers and staff, undertaken by police ‘engagement officers’, which enables any potential issues to be identified and dealt with quickly.” » | Marco Giannangeli & James Fielding | Sunday, April 28, 2013

HT: Robert @ Jihad Watch »

Bibles Burned in Welsh Church
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A vicar has spoken of his shock after intruders broke into his church and set fire to the Bibles.

None of the church's valuable items were taken during the break-in, but a stained glass window was smashed using a vase from the graveyard and Bibles and hymn books were burned.

Rev Goronwy Evans, minister at the church for 46 years, believes that they burned the holy books in an “abysmal” attempt to set the church on fire.

"In this day and age break-ins are a part of life, but it was shocking to see what they had done," he said.

The scene was discovered by a woman who was bringing flowers to her mother's grave in the churchyard at Brondeifi Unitarian Chapel, in Lampeter, Ceredigion, south west Wales. » | Hayley Dixon | Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Terrifying Snowdonia Climbing Accident Caught on Camera
Climber Mark Roberts, who tumbled more than 100 feet down a cliff in Snowdonia after a piece of falling ice caused him to lose his grip, captured a frightening record of his accident on a camera mounted on his helmet.

Read the article here | Monday, March 11, 2013

Sweden's Princess Lilian Dies Aged 97
BBC: Princess Lilian of Sweden, whose romance with husband Prince Bertil became one of Sweden's best-known love stories, has died at the age of 97.

Welsh-born Lilian met Prince Bertil in London during World War II.

However, they faced objections to their relationship because of the prince's obligations to the throne and Lilian's status as a divorced commoner. They had to wait until 1976 to get married.

In 2010, it was announced she had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Princess Lilian was born Lilian Davies in Swansea in August 1915 and moved to London aged 16 to follow a modelling career. She was married to actor Ivan Craig when she met Prince Bertil in London in 1943.

The couple fell in love in what Swedish media described as a real-life Cinderella story. She divorced her British husband two years later.

However, Prince Bertil's father, King Gustaf VI Adolf, refused to give his blessing for the couple to get married. » | Sunday, March 10, 2013



Swansea-born Swedish Princess Dies Peacefully in Her Sleep »

Wele'n Sefyll Rhwng y Mwrtwydd (Ann Griffiths): Cŵm Rhondda: Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer

Happy St. David’s Day! | Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Welsh visitors a very Happy St. David’s Day! Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant Hapus i chwi gyd!

St David's Day: recipes for a feast – Delicious recipes from Welsh chef Bryn Williams »
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Hitler's Welsh Girlfriend Revealed

BBC: A Welsh woman who married into one of Germany's most prominent musical families nearly became Adolf Hitler's wife, a BBC Wales programme has revealed.

Winifred Williams, the daughter of a journalist from Brecon and his German wife, was adopted by relatives of her mother after being orphaned and went to live in Germany in 1908.

By 17, she was married to composer Richard Wagner's homosexual son Siegfried and met one of Wagner's greatest fans - future Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

They grew so close that it was actually Winifred who provided the paper on which Hitler wrote his infamous tract, Mein Kampf, while in jail in the early 1920s.

Following her husband's death in 1930, Hitler and Winifred's friendship intensified and he was described as being like a second father to her four children.

At the time, there was even talk of them getting married. » | Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Horsemeat Scandal: Welsh Firm Recalls Burgers After Tests Show Illicit Meat

THE GUARDIAN: BMC in Builth Wells, Powys, 'devastated' after one-third of FSA beef burger samples test positive for at least 1% horsemeat.

Thousands of beef burgers made by the Burger Manufacturing Company in Powys, Wales, are being withdrawn from cafes, restaurant, hotels and other outlets as well as wholesalers after three of nine samples ordered by the Food Standards Agency tested positive for at least 1% horsemeat.

Much of the meat used by the company was supplied by Farmbox Meats near Aberystwyth, which was raided by police and FSA officials investigating the horsemeat scandal on Tuesday last week. Two men who worked at Farmbox were arrested on Thursday last week.

The FSA said: "Testing carried out by Powys county council, as requested by the FSA, has shown that three samples of beef burger products made by catering supplier, The Burger Manufacturing Company [BMC], have tested positive for at least 1% horse meat. » | James Meikle | Thursday, February 21, 2013

Argentina Turns to Wales for Help with Falkland Islands
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Argentina has held talks with Welsh nationalists about trying to win support among British MPs for the country's bid to win sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

Diplomats from the Argentinian embassy in London invited senior representatives from Plaid Cymru for talks in the past six months.

Elfyn Llwyd MP, the Westminster leader of the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru party, met two senior Argentinian diplomats for coffee.

Mr Llwyd confirmed the meeting had taken place, but he said he firmly rebuffed the approach to join Argentina’s campaign.

He told The Daily Telegraph that he had “no interest” in helping the South American country with its battle to win support for its claim to the islands.

He said: "I expressed no interest in getting involved in this fraught matter. They were trying to get me to introduce them to sympathetic MPs." Read on and comment » | Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent | Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Welsh and Cornish Are the 'Purest Britons', Scientists Claim
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Natives from Wales and Cornwall could hold the title for the "purest" Britons, a scientific study suggests.

Scientists drew up a map of the British Isles revealing the genetic ancestry of people from different rural areas across the UK.

After extensive DNA surveying, they found that Welsh and Cornish people were among the most genetically distinct groups in the country.

One theory for the difference in their DNA is that they are a "relic" population, tracing their ancestry back to the tribes that colonised Britain after the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago.

Welsh genes proved to be similar to those of the French and Irish, suggesting they were connected to the pre-Roman population.

The Cornish were also shown to have a distinctive DNA make-up, different to those from the neighbouring county Devon. » | Harriet Cooke | Sunday, June 17, 2012

Local Elections: Labour Make Gains in England and Wales
BBC: Labour have won a string of victories in English and Welsh local elections - with shadow ministers claiming Ed Miliband is now on course for No 10.

The party is set to add more than 700 seats and has taken control of councils including Birmingham and Cardiff.

Based on results so far, Labour are projected to end up with a 39% national share of the vote, up three points, with the Tories down four on 31%.

The Lib Dems' share of the vote is estimated to be unchanged at 16%.

But the party has lost more than 125 seats - taking its total number of councillors below 3,000 for the first time since the party was formed in 1988. » | Friday, May 04, 2012

My comment:

I think one of the main causes for the Conservatives' drubbing is the fact that this government is perceived to be run for the benefit of the rich. Rich little overgrown schoolboys out to help their own kind. Added to that, Cameron's government endorses greed, and makes ordinary folk pay the high price of all the austerity cuts. Clearly, we are NOT all in this austerity thing together.

Then one has to witness all the U-turns. This, in itself, shows lack of competence. Before Cameron proposes anything, he should first check out its viability. He should ask himself if this policy plan is really do-able.

Further, he throws money around abroad like a drunken sailor, while at the same time cutting everyone else's lifeline at home. Savers, too, are being severely punished for their lifelong sensible approach to living within their means. Interest rates are appallingly low. One isn't even able to safeguard one's capital against the ravages of inflation, still less generate an income to live from. Little wonder the pensioners want Cameron and his clique punished.

For far too long in this country, politicians have been elected into office on a mandate to do one thing, but when they get into office, they do something else. They ignore the people's wishes, and end up doing things for which they have no mandate whatsoever. This government is very guilty of this. It must stop. People are fed up of being ignored.

Then there are all the restrictions we have to put up with. Conservatives are supposed to believe in less government, not more. Cameron, in this regard, is not a true Conservative, since his instincts are more left-wing. He seems to favour more control of everything, just like Labour does.

And what happened to all those useless laws he and Clegg were going to repeal after Blair's useless terms in office? Cameron and Clegg made a big thing upon taking up office of asking the people to let them know which laws they wanted scrapped. We have heard nothing about that ever since. It was all show.

I could go on. I won't. I have written enough for people to 'get my drift'. Cameron has now got a very steep hill to climb. It will be interesting to observe whether he'll be able to climb it. – © Mark

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Happy St. David’s Day! | Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Welsh visitors a very Happy St. David’s Day! Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant Hapus i chwi gyd!
WIKI: Saint David’s Day »

The Last Welsh Martyr »

GUARDIAN – WORD OF MOUTH BLOG: St David's Day: recipes for a feast »

Wales Pays to Replace French-made Breast Implants – But England Won't
THE GUARDIAN: Welsh health minister says not removing defective implants could endanger women's health

The Welsh government says it will pay to replace French-made PIP breast implants for women who were treated privately.

Welsh health minister Lesley Griffiths said not replacing the implants could endanger women's health, given some have already ruptured.

The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, will rule out following suit in England when he updates MPs on the scandal today. » | Denis Campbell | Tuesday, January 10, 2012

US Election: Ann Romney's Relatives in Britain Help Mitt Play the Welsh Card
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: As frontrunner in the Republican White House race, Mitt Romney is seen by many as out of touch. Now his wife Ann's Welsh relatives have come to the rescue.

It is a long way from a small two-bedroom terraced brick home on King's Terrace in the mining village of Nantyffyllon to the colonnaded splendour of the White House. And it is a far cry from a 1920s open-sided charabanc in Porthcawl to Air Force One.

But Ann Romney is drawing on the working-class British roots of her Welsh-born father and her coalminer grandfather to bolster her husband Mitt's bid for the Republican presidential nomination, as was reported last week.

Now the full story of her family's journey from the mines of Glamorgan to the highest echelons of US society can be told for the first time after Mrs Romney's relatives in South Wales talked to The Sunday Telegraph.

For Roddy Evans, watching the election drama unfold from Porthcawl, the prospect of Mrs Romney as America's First Lady is sometimes difficult to imagine.

The former Wales and British Lions rugby union player, 77, is her second cousin and the Romneys and their five sons have been regular visitors over their years.

"I'm very proud of what they've achieved," he said last week at his home, where he received his annual Christmas card from his cousins last month. "It would be wonderful if the first lady had such humble roots in a little mining village in south Wales." » | Philip Sherwell, Manchester, New Hampshire and Ben Leach | Sunday, January 08, 2012

Related »

US Election 2012: Ann Romney's Welsh Connection
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Ann Romney's Welsh cakes on the US election campaign trail in Iowa offered a glimpse into her family's Celtic working class roots.

Amid the bleak concrete strip malls of the first stop on this year's US presidential election campaign trail, they were a delicious reminder of the green grass of home.

Welsh cakes, baked by Mitt Romney's wife Ann, were the talk of freezing Iowa last week among the campaign staff, supporters and journalists lucky enough to catch her eye.

As well as taming the hungry travelling circus around the Republican front-runner's campaign, they also offered a glimpse of the working-class British ancestry of the would-be First Lady of America.

She may now be one half of a glamorous multi-millionaire power couple, but Mrs Romney’s roots stretch back to the tiny mining village of Caerau, near Bridgend.

“I am a coal miner’s granddaughter,” Mrs Romney, 62, said at a campaign stop.

“I feel I am just one foot away from where that mine was and how close we all are, all of us, to the sacrifices of our parents and grandparents who tried to make a better life for us.”

That grandfather, David Davies, emigrated to the US in the 1920s after being crushed in a mining accident. He did whatever work he could find to pay for his family to join him.

His wife, daughter and three sons – one of them 15-year-old Edward Roderick “Rod” Davies, future father of Mrs Romney – arrived in 1929, just as Wall Street crashed and the Great Depression struck. » | Raf Sanchez, Washington and Jon Swaine | Friday, January 06, 2012