Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
US Treasury secretary named in suit over tax-free donations to Israel
(JTA) — A lawsuit naming the U.S. Treasury Department and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew aims to revoke the nonprofit status of groups that the litigants claim have given billions of dollars in tax-exempt donations to Israel.
A group of American citizens filed the suit Dec. 21 in a U.S. court, Al Jazeera reported Wednesday. One of the litigants was identified by Al Jazeera as a Palestinian-American writer and human rights activist, Susan Abulhawa.
The Treasury Department has 60 days to respond. It declined to comment to Al Jazeera, citing the pending litigation. The department is led by Lew, an Orthodox Jew.
According to the suit, about 150 nonprofit groups have sent about $280 billion to Israel over the last 20 years.
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From PressTV
Israeli fighter jets launch airstrikes against Gaza Strip
Israeli warplanes have carried out several airstrikes against the Gaza Strip in another act of aggression against the besieged Palestinian territory.
The early Saturday raids on unspecified targets in Gaza came hours after Tel Aviv claimed that rockets fired from the coastal enclave had hit southern occupied Palestinian territories.
Israeli media said a total of five rockets were fired from Gaza on Friday night, adding that three exploded before they crossed the border.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the other two rockets that hit an open area near the city of Sderot.
The Israeli military frequently bombs the Gaza Strip. The disproportionate force is always used in violation of international law, and civilians are often killed or injured.
In early July 2014, Israel waged a war on the Gaza Strip. The 50-day offensive ended on August 26 with a truce that took effect after indirect negotiations in the Egyptian capital Cairo. Nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children, were killed in Israel’s onslaught. Over 11,100 others – including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people – were also injured.
Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.
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From Russia Today
How not to New Year: 380 injured by fireworks in Philippines, 800 cars torched in France
Published time: 2 Jan, 2016 03:14
A resident uses a water hose on the roof of a house as he tries to extinguish a fire at a residential district, amidst New Year celebrations in Manila January 1, 2016. © Czar Dancel / Reuters
If you think the best thing about New Year’s is all the festive flares and bangs, you might want to reconsider, as firecrackers injured almost 400 people in the Philippines, while 800 cars were set ablaze in France, not to mention the Dubai skyscraper.
Philippine fireworks
A drunken man lit a firecracker called Goodbye Philippines in Manila that reportedly looked like a stick of dynamite. It exploded in his arms and killed him, Janet Garin, Secretary of the Philippine Department of Health, told reporters.
“His jaw was shattered. He was so intoxicated he hugged the Goodbye Philippines,” Garin said, adding that paramedics had transported him to a hospital, where he was declared dead.
Janet Garin has called for “a total ban on all firecrackers.” However, this may be not be feasible since, by tradition, many Philippian revelers believe that firecrackers and loud sounds scare away bad luck and evil spirits.
Germany, Indonesia, and Russia not so firework happy
In Germany fifteen people were injured by fireworks at a New Year’s party, local media reported. A firecracker was accidentally fired right into a crowd of people who had gathered to watch a fireworks display at a country hotel in the town of Datteln. A 24-year-old woman was reportedly injured so badly that she had to have her foot amputated.
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From The Daily Mail
Police ‘illegally logged 22billion car journeys’: Surveillance tsar’s warning over data from network of 8,300 ‘Big Brother’ cameras that capture number plate details and drivers’ faces
- Britain’s surveillance tsar questions legality of police photo database
- 8,300 cameras take photos of about 30million number plates each day
- Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology is fitted to police vehicles
- Motorists may be able to take legal action against the authorities for breaches of privacy
A police database that contains details of 22billion vehicle journeys is illegal, Britain’s surveillance tsar has warned.
A network of around 8,300 ‘Big Brother’ spy cameras takes photos of about 30million number plates each day, with senior officers claiming it is invaluable in preventing and solving serious crimes and terrorist attacks.
The Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology is also fitted to police vehicles, and is used to find stolen cars and tackle uninsured drivers.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israel’s Education Ministry bans novel about Israeli-Palestinian love
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Education Ministry has banned a novel about a romance between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man.
The ministry rejected an advisory panel’s recommendation to include “Gader Haya,” or “Borderlife,” for students in advanced high school literature classes at secular state schools after requests by several teachers, Haaretz reported.
An appeal of the decision was denied recently, according to Haaretz.
The Education Ministry said it rejected the book, Haaretz reported, in part because of the need to maintain what was referred to as “the identity and the heritage of students in every sector” and the belief that “intimate relations between Jews and non-Jews threatens the separate identity.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Hasidic newspaper’s airbrushed WH photo subject of newly released Clinton email
(JTA) — The U.S. State Department released another 5,000 pages of e-mails of former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The emails released on Thursday afternoon are part of a trove of e-mails that Clinton sent and received on a personal e-mail account while serving in the high governmental position. The State Department also announced Thursday that 275 of the emails were upgraded to classified, bringing to 1,274 the number of emails that were newly classified. More emails are scheduled to be released this month.
In one of the emails released on Thursday, from May 2011, Clinton complains about being airbrushed from an official White House photo, for use in a New York-based Yiddish language Hasidic newspaper, the VosIzNeias news website reported. Some Hasdic and haredi Orthodox newspapers have a policy of not publishing photos of women, citing modesty concerns.
In an email with the subject line “Unbelievable” Clinton wrote: “The Jerusalem Post reported today that a NY Hasidic paper Der Zeitung published the sit room photo w/o me (or Audrey T) photoshopped out perhaps because no woman should be in such a place of power or that I am dressed immodestly!!”
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From PressTV
Saudi Arabia executed 157 in 2015, sets record since 1995
Saudi Arabia has carried out 157 executions in 2015, most of which were beheading by sword. This is a record of the most capital punishments conducted in a single year since 1995.
The figure is second only to that of the year 1995 when the government in Riyadh executed 192 people. The Associated Press cited the latest reports by the Amnesty International as its source.
In more recent years, between 79 and 90 people lost their lives annually for “nonlethal offenses, such as drug-related ones.”
According to a November report released by Amnesty, about 40 percent of the total number of executions in 2015 – at least 63, including 45 foreign nationals — were for drug-related crimes. The figure was less than four percent in 2010.
“Foreign nationals, mostly migrant workers from developing countries, are particularly vulnerable as they typically lack knowledge of Arabic and are denied adequate translation during their trials,” said the rights group.
According to an August report, over 2,000 people were executed by Saudi Arabia between 1985 and 2013, half of whom were foreigners.
“Trials in capital cases are often held in secret and defendants rarely have access to lawyers. People may be convicted solely on the basis of ‘confessions’ obtained under torture, other ill-treatment or deception,” added the London-based rights group.
Saudi authorities do not spare people with mental disabilities from the death penalty. Moreover, most executions are performed in public places and in some cases decapitated bodies are left hanging in public squares as a “deterrent,” the report further said.
In another accident in the same city, a firecracker set a stray hut in the Tondo slum district on fire, resulting in about 1,000 shanties being burnt to the ground and several thousand families without a roof over their heads, fire officials said.
