Gay Rights Activist Arrested, Banned From International Travel, Assets Seized After Death Stemming From ‘Rainbow Party’ Fireball That Injured 500

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Taiwan gay rights activist and “rainbow party” (Color Play) organizer Zhong Ji Lu was taken into custody by Taiwan police today for his role in the massive, deadly fireball that rained down upon 500 youth celebrating over the weekend. He was questioned and released on NT$1 million bail, with investigations pending.

Zhong Ji Lu is the key founder of Gay Rights Taiwan according to Storm Media Group in Taiwan. Mr. Lu is well known as a gay rights activist according to Liberty Times Net Taiwan. He’s also been the subject of top news on Pridewatch Taiwan as a gay rights activist. Since this link was first publicized, the Pridewatch Taiwan website has been down, likely due to the very large amount of traffic referred by Natural News.

The Color Play Creative Company and Rui Bo Marketing Agency are responsible for this tragedy, reports China Times. Both organizations are owned by Taiwan gay rights activist Zhong Ji Lu, who has been linked to numerous business scandals, according to the Times.

“…[P]rosecutors from New Taipei’s Bali District held event organizer Lu Chung-chi for questioning,” reports the English-language China Post. (The China Post uses a Taiwan spelling structure for Mandarin Chinese names, spelling his name as Chung-chi instead of the more conventional pin-ying spelling of “Zhong Ji.” The two spellings refer to the same person.) “He was later released after posting NT$1 million bail, though he must periodically report to police and is barred from leaving the country pending investigation. Police also released Chiu Po-ming, the technician at the company headed by Lu on NT$300,000 bail” . . .

The weekend catastrophe involved the spontaneous ignition of a multi-colored special effect which was launched into the air by event organizers using air cannons. The “special effect” turned out to be highly explosive particulate corn flour, the same substance frequently responsible for grain silo explosions in the grain belts of the world. The airborne corn flour ignited and burst into flames, raining down fire upon the heads of nearly 500 youth who were attending the event (Read more from “Gay Rights Activist Arrested, Banned From International Travel, Assets Seized After Death Stemming From ‘Rainbow Party’ Fireball That Injured 500” HERE)

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Who’s the “Evil Empire” Now? Russia Says It’s Godless America

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At the height of the Cold War, it was common for American conservatives to label the officially atheist Soviet Union a “godless nation.”

More than two decades on, history has come full circle, as the Kremlin and its allies in the Russian Orthodox Church hurl the same allegation at the West.

“Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent keynote speech. “Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.”

In his state of the nation address in mid-December, Mr. Putin also portrayed Russia as a staunch defender of “traditional values” against what he depicted as the morally bankrupt West. Social and religious conservatism, the former KGB officer insisted, is the only way to prevent the world from slipping into “chaotic darkness.”

As part of this defense of “Christian values,” Russia has adopted a law banning “homosexual propaganda” and another that makes it a criminal offense to “insult” the religious sensibilities of believers. (Read more from “Who’s the “Evil Empire” Now? Russia Says It’s Godless America” HERE)

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The World Is Defenseless Against the Next Financial Crisis, Warns BIS

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The world will be unable to fight the next global financial crash as central banks have used up their ammunition trying to tackle the last crises, the Bank of International Settlements has warned.

The so-called central bank of central banks launched a scatching critique of global monetary policy in its annual report. The BIS claimed that central banks have backed themselves into a corner after repeatedly cutting interest rates to shore up their economies.

These low interest rates have in turn fuelled economic booms, encouraging excessive risk taking. Booms have then turned to busts, which policymakers have responded to with even lower rates.

Claudio Borio, head of the organisation’s monetary and economic department, said: “Persistent exceptionally low rates reflect the central banks’ and market participants’ response to the unusually weak post-crisis recovery as they fumble in the dark in search of new certainties” . . .

Extraordinarily low interest rates are not a “new equilibrium” said Jaime Caruana, general manager of the BIS, rejecting the theory of so-called “secular stagnation” which some economists blame for the continued decline in global lending rates. (Read more from “The World Is Defenceless Against the Next Financial Crisis, Warns BIS” HERE)

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All Greek Banks Closed Today, Euro Nose-Dives

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By Associated Press. Greece’s five-year financial crisis took its most dramatic turn to date Sunday, with the cabinet deciding, after an 8-hour session, that Greek banks would remain shut for six working days and restrictions would be imposed on cash withdrawals.

The Athens Stock Exchange would also not open on Monday, financial sector officials confirmed.

A decree published in the official Government Gazette stipulates banks will not open Monday morning and will remain closed through Monday, July 6. The finance minister could decide to short or extend that period.

Withdrawals from ATM with credit or cash cards will be capped at 60 euros ($66) daily. The decree said ATMs would be working at the latest 12 hours from its publication, meaning cash machines would open by early afternoon, at the latest.

Web banking transactions will be mostly free, allowing people to pay their bills online. However, they cannot move money to accounts abroad. (Read more from “All Greek Banks Closed Today, Here’s Why” HERE)

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Euro, Stocks Plunge as Greece Seen on Course to Default

By Reuters. The euro fell almost 2 percent and share prices tumbled across Asia on Monday as Greece looked set to default on its debt repayment this week, forcing Athens to impose capital controls to halt bank runs.

With the prospect of Greece being forced out of the euro in plain sight, the common currency fell as much as 1.9 percent to $1.0955 , its lowest in almost a month, and last stood down 1.4 percent at $1.1007.

Against the yen, the common currency dropped more than 3 percent to 133.80 yen, a five-week low.

U.S. stock futures dived almost 2 percent at one point to hitting a three-month low, and last traded down 1.6 percent. (Read more from this story HERE)

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People Shocked as Seemingly Normal, Break-Dancing Star Becomes Mass Murderer

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By Times of Israel Staff. The Tunisian gunman who opened fire on tourists at a Tunisian beach resort on Friday, killing at least 39 people, most of them tourists, was reportedly a local “break-dancing star” and a fan of Real Madrid.

Footage obtained by Sky News on Saturday showed him walking calmly along the beach. Sky said the clip was filmed after the massacre, and noted that no members of the Tunisian security forces approached him. He was later shot dead in a confrontation in a side street, the report said.

Authorities identified the attacker as Seifedinne Rezgui, a 23-year-old electrical engineering student from Gaafour, in northwest Tunisia. He was a student at Kairouan University, a city just south of Sousse where the killings occurred.

His bewildered family described a quiet, not-too-religious young man who liked soccer, music and spent time with friends. They said that they last saw him a day before the attack and that nothing seemed amiss.

According to the report, a Facebook account believed to have belonged to Rezgui showed a love for Real Madrid and rap music, but also an admiration for the Islamic State. Several propaganda videos were also posted to the page. (Read more from “People Shocked as Seemingly Normal, Break-Dancing Star Becomes Mass Murderer” HERE)


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Thousands of Tourists Flee Tunisia After Beach Massacre

By AFP. Planeloads of shocked foreign tourists flew home from Tunisia Saturday after a beachside massacre claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group killed at least 38 people and prompted a major security clampdown.

The North African nation, which relies heavily on tourism, announced plans to deploy troops at vulnerable sites and shut dozens of mosques accused of inciting extremism.

Britain said that at least 15 of its citizens were killed in Friday’s gun assault in the popular resort of Port el Kantaoui and that the number “may well rise.”

The attack represents Britain’s worst loss of life in a terror incident since the 2005 London bombings.

The assailant pulled a gun hidden inside a parasol and opened fire on tourists on the sand and by a pool, in the deadliest attack in Tunisia’s recent history. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Israel Decidedly Unhappy With Vatican-Palestine Treaty

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Pope Francis has decided to make the Catholic Church’s feelings about Palestine official.

On Friday, the Vatican signed a comprehensive treaty with Palestinian authorities, formalizing a basic agreement between the Catholic Church and the PLO back in 2000. In essence, it is a formal declaration of the Holy See’s support for the creation of a Palestinian state and the peace process with Israel. “[I]t is my hope that the present agreement may, in some way, be a stimulus to bringing a definitive end to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which continues to cause suffering for both Parties,” wrote Vatican foreign minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

The agreement follows on the Vatican’s decision in May to change the status of its diplomatic relationship with Ramallah, and officially forgo the recognition of the PLO to make way for the State of Palestine. The Catholic Church has referred to a Palestinian state since at least 2012, but the new agreement solidifies the Holy See’s support.

For the Vatican, the decision represents another unabashed and controversial move into the foreign policy arena. It follows efforts to broker Washington’s watershed decision to re-establish relations with Cuba late last year, and the recent release of Pope Francis’ landmark environment-focused encyclical. But it is also a matter of looking after Catholics everywhere. The new agreement specifically notes that it is also meant to deal with “the life and activity of the Church in Palestine.” It also mentions that “Catholics do not seek any privilege other than continued cooperation with their fellow-citizens for the good of society.” As Reuters reported, some 100,000 Catholics live in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and most of them identify as Palestinians. For the Church, assertively backing the Palestinian cause and the cause of peace, then, is about protecting its own.

The news is not going over well in Tel Aviv. “This hasty step damages the prospects for advancing a peace agreement, and harms the international effort to convince the Palestinian Authority to return to direct negotiations with Israel,” said Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon. (Read more from “Israel Decidedly Unhappy With Vatican-Palestine Treaty” HERE)

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Violent Message: ISIS Marks Anniversary of Caliphate Amid Ramadan Calls for Violence

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The Islamic State is marking its first year as a self-proclaimed caliphate by calling on sympathizers around the world to take up arms and commit acts of terror.

It was on June 29, 2014 that the terrorist army then known as ISIS announced it had established a government run by a medieval version of strict Islam in territory that spanned northern Syria and Iraq.

Since then, the group has metastasized throughout the region, recruiting locals and foreign fighters alike and blazing a trail of death and misery. With the beginning of Ramadan on June 17, the terrorist organization has issued a call for stepped up attacks in the Middle East and around the world.

“The ISIS’ Ramadan message specifically preaches that jihad is 10 times more obligatory during Ramadan and that those who die in jihad will be rewarded by Allah ten times as much as during the rest of the year,” said Ryan Mauro, national security analyst and adjunct professor of Homeland Security for the Clarion Project.

“There will be ISIS supporters who have waited to strike until now in order to get the maximum award and those who were considering an attack and will now feel more pressure to actually do it.” (Read more from “Violent Message: ISIS Marks Anniversary of Caliphate Amid Ramadan Calls for Violence” HERE)

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ISIS-Linked Group Said to Issue Leaflets Threatening Christians in Jerusalem

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Leaflets threatening Christians and signed by an organization referring to itself as the “Islamic State in Palestine” were distributed in East Jerusalem Thursday, Israel’s Channel 10 news reported.

The flyers, which displayed an image of the black flag associated with the Islamic State terrorist group, warned Christian residents of the city that “vengeance” will be exacted upon them, the TV report stated . . .

There have been intermittent reports of attempts by IS-affiliated groups to organize in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel, and a trickle of cases of Israeli Arabs journeying to join IS forces elsewhere in the region or being arrested en route to do so.

Earlier this week, an Israeli Arab family from Sakhnin, in the north, contacted authorities for help in locating their son and his family, who they said they believe are trying to enter Syria to join the Islamic State . . .

The cell members were arrested by operatives of the Shin Bet security service and stand accused of launching an unsuccessful attack against IDF soldiers and conspiring to kidnap and kill civilians and military personnel in the West Bank. (Read more from “IS-Linked Group Said to Issue Leaflets Threatening Christians in Jerusalem” HERE)

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Pope’s New Inquisition: You Can’t Make Guns and Call Yourself a Christian

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Pope Francis has to be one of the most Marxist popes the Roman Catholic Church has seen in recent decades. Over the weekend he had the audacity to claim that those who are engaged in gunmaking cannot call themselves Christians.

At a youth rally in Turin, Italy, the pope said, “”It makes me think of … people, managers, businessmen who call themselves Christian and they manufacture weapons,” he said, according to Reuters. “That leads to a bit a distrust, doesn’t it?” . . .

This is the same guy who rides in a bulletproof car. He’s also the same hypocrite whose Vatican danced around with the idea of homosexuality while conducting sodomite orgies, embraced anti-Christ Islam, recognized the terror state of Palestine, pushed for a new world order and even toyed with the idea of evolution.

Furthermore, let’s just ask the glaring question before the entire world… how does man, dressed in the finest of linens, housed in a 1,100 room palace and served hand and foot by servants exemplify the Lord Jesus Christ? How exactly does that work? Not to mention that the palace he lives in was built on the backs of the poor throughout Europe with a bunch of hocus pocus nonsense advanced the papacy and John Tetzel. And why? It was all for the sake of the love of money.

While Francis made several other comments, including those built upon previous comments about World War I and World War II, the reality is that there is a supreme difference between those who manufacture weapons for the protection of the innocent and those who build them for the destruction of the innocent. (Read more from “Pope’s New Inquisition: You Can’t Make Guns and Call Yourself a Christian” HERE)

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Is Europe dead?

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Has the post-war dream of a grand union of democratic states been shattered beyond repair? North American observers might be forgiven for thinking so, given the unprecedented tidal wave of public recriminations, personal insults, and dire predictions spewing forth from the European Union’s panicky and divided leaders.

The principal cause is the imminent climax to the crisis over Greece’s undeclared, de facto bankruptcy. The country is €323 billion ($352.7 billion) in debt — more than 175% of its GDP. It cannot pay what it owes to other European countries and the European Central Bank. Its next big loan repayment, of €1.6bn to the International Monetary Fund, falls due at the end of this month, and may be missed.

The left-wing Syriza government, led by Alexis Tsipras, has confirmed Greece will run out of money by June 30 unless creditors release an additional €7.2 billion in bail-out funds. Yannis Stournaras, Greece’s central bank governor, warned that failure to reach a deal would “mark the beginning of a painful course that would lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country’s exit from the euro area and — most likely — from the European Union.”

If Greece is expelled or otherwise forced to drop out of the eurozone — the group of 19 countries which have adopted the euro as their common currency — the consequences could be catastrophic and far-reaching. For Greeks, it could trigger bank collapses, emergency controls on capital flight, non-payment of salaries, and broad social and economic chaos. For the EU, it could spell the end for the euro if market confidence fails and other severely indebted states decide they, too, can’t or won’t pay up. (Read more from “Is Europe Dead?” HERE)

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