Turkey: Grief-stricken Turks bury Ankara victims, venting anger at Erdogan

Grieving loved ones on Monday laid to rest some of the victims of the double suicide bombings in Ankara that left 97 dead, denouncing the government in the first funerals from modern Turkey's worst attack.

The bombings targeted a peace rally Saturday organised by trade union, leftist and Kurdish groups that had mobilised activists from across the country.

After being identified at the Ankara morgue, the victims' bodies were sent to their home regions for burial.
Funerals were held Monday in Ankara and Istanbul as well as in cities in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast.

The leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas attended several funerals in Istanbul where many coffins were draped in the yellow and red colours of the Kurdish flag.

Demirtas stood stony-faced and was seen solemnly embracing relatives. Two HDP members who were running in the upcoming November 1 parliamentary elections were killed in the twin blasts.

Note EU-Digest: the Kurds who deserve a lot of sympathy following the Ankara murderous explosions and their efforts in helping the allied forces combating ISIS on the ground would get even more support from the non-Kurdish Turkish population and international community, if they would be waving also Turkish flags next to the Kurdish flag at their demonstrations, instead of mainly the Kurdish flag. Many people still associate the Kurdish flag with the outlawed terrorist PKK organization. This might only be a matter of perception, but it would certainly be good PR for the HDP if they want to get more Turkish voters to cast their vote for them in the upcoming Turkish election, and to eventually join a new Turkish coalition Government after Erdogan is ousted.

Read more: Europe - Grief-stricken Turks bury Ankara victims, venting anger at Erdogan - France 24

EU-Digest poll shows 78% consider total failure of US Middle East policy cause of EU refugee crises

In an EU-Digest poll held from September 14 to October 13 close to 79 % consider the total failure of  US Middle East policy as the major cause for the  EU refugee crises.

The lack of a strong EU- wides supported refugee policy is seen by 10.53% of those polled as the cause of the crises.

The fact that most Middle East governments are undemocratic and repressive is only seen by 5.26% as a potential cause for the crises. ISIS also ranks a low 5.26% as a factor influencing the EU refugee crises.

This month's EU-Digest poll looks at possible solutions for the Syria crises.

EU-Digest  

Morality begins at home: There Is no justification for killing, terrorism, collateral damage, torture or murder in any way or form

The Bible, Koran, and the Torah all explicitly mention : THOU SHALL NOT KILL

RE:. ISLAM: "Terrorism or hirabah is forbidden in Islamic law, which groups it with brigandage, highway robbery and extortion rackets– any illicit use of fear and coercion in public spaces for money or power. The principle of forbidding the spreading of terror in the land is based on the Qur’an (Surah al-Ma’ida 5:33–34).

‘Anyone who disturbs free passage in the streets and renders them unsafe to travel, striving to spread corruption in the land by taking money, killing people or violating what God has made it unlawful to violate is guilty of hirabah .

RE: JUDAISM : ” murder is "not the way of the Torah," declared Rabbi Lau in sharp condemnation of the murder, which is thought to have been an act of "revenge" for the murder of three Israeli teens Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha'ar by Hamas terrorists on June 12 this year.

RE CHRISTIANITY: "Even before the codification of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai the murder of other human beings was wrong (Genesis 4:8-12; 4:23-24; 9:4-6; Exodus 1:16-17). While on earth, Jesus spoke out against murder (Matthew 5:21-26; Mark 10:17-19).

We also see in the writings of Paul (Romans 1:18, 29-32; 13:8-10; Galatians 5:19-21), James (James 2:8-11; 4:1-3), Peter (1 Peter 4:15-16) and John (Revelation 9:20-21; 21:7-8; 22:14-15) that murder is wrong."

BOTTOM LINE:  there is no moral justification for murder, killing, terrorism, capital punishment, military "collateral damage",  or even for that matter euthanasia.

The pictures below are only a tip of the iceberg.

Unfortunately man is his own worst enemy and it only seems to be getting worse.

Ryan Lanza who shot  and killed 20 elementary school children and his mother at Sandy Hook CT, USA

Palestine victims after deadly Israeli Gaza bombing:

ISIS mass executionsions 

US Airforce "collateral damage: "Drs without borders" hospital Afghanistan

Turkey, Ankara more than 130 casualties bomb explosions

 EU-Digest

The Netherlands has sixth richest population in the world - by Parvinder Marwaha

People in the Netherlands have been ranked sixth in a listing of the world’s richest countries, by net assets per capita, according to this year's Allianz Global Wealth Report.

Compared with 2014, the Netherlands increased its wealth per capita from 71.430 to 78.063 euros per person, placing the country sixth globally, with Switzerland taking first place with 138.710.

In addition, the world’s top 10 rich list includes three other western European countries: the UK (86.230), Belgium (84.770) and Sweden (82.920).

In the Netherlands, gross financial assets grew from last year by as much as 12,3 percent, driven by a strong increase in insurance and pension assets. The growth in net financial assets was even more exceptional: 21,6 percent.

Allianz Global Wealth Report

Top 10 countries' wealth per capita in 2015
Rank    Country    Net assets in euros

1    Switzerland    157.446
2    USA    138.714
3    UK    86.233
4    Belgium    84.771
5    Sweden    82.925
6    The Netherlands    78.063
7    Canada    76.508
8    Japan    73.547
9    Singapore    73.328
10    Taiwan    72.636

People in the Netherlands have been ranked sixth in a listing of the world’s richest countries, by net assets per capita, according to this year's Allianz Global Wealth Report.
Compared with 2014, the Netherlands increased its wealth per capita from 71.430 to 78.063 euros per person, placing the country sixth globally, with Switzerland taking first place with 138.710.
In addition, the world’s top 10 rich list includes three other western European countries: the UK (86.230), Belgium (84.770) and Sweden (82.920).
In the Netherlands, gross financial assets grew from last year by as much as 12,3 percent, driven by a strong increase in insurance and pension assets. The growth in net financial assets was even more exceptional: 21,6 percent.
- See more at: http://www.iamexpat.nl/read-and-discuss/expat-page/news/netherlands-sixth-richest-population-in-world#sthash.TM4auYCy.dpuf

Read more: The Netherlands has sixth richest population in the world

European Wind Farms: Houston Texas based RigNet wins major contract for European wind farm infrastructure development

Offshore Windparks

The Houston, Texas's based RigNet TSI has been awarded a multi-million EURO contract to deliver communications systems and infrastructure for a high-voltage transmission platform in an offshore wind farm located in the German sector of the North Sea.
 
The award of this contract by a leading UK-based offshore contractor continues RigNet’s long-term success in the delivery of integrated telecommunications and operations support systems for a diverse range of applications and industries.

“As modern wind farms grow in scale and move farther offshore, they begin to resemble deepwater drilling operations in terms of complexity and technology requirements,” said Mark Slaughter, RigNet’s CEO and President. “Through our TSI business unit, RigNet applies its significant track record for offshore performance to help these renewable energy developments meet safety and production targets.”

RigNet TSI’s scope of work includes the integration and delivery of critical facility communications infrastructure, including Structured Cabling, Local Area Network (LAN), Wireless LAN (WLAN), Telephony, Public Address / General Alarm (PAGA), Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), Access Control (ACS), Meteorological Systems, Navigation and Lifeboat Radio support for the platforms.

RigNet TSI is a leading global Provider of managed remote communications, telecoms systems integration and collaborative applications dedicated to the oil and gas industry, focusing on offshore and onshore drilling rigs, energy production facilities and energy maritime vessels. RigNet is based in Houston, Texas.

Read more: RigNet wins Telecoms EPC contract for European wind farm infrastructure development

France - Tourism: visitors to France complain unable to pay with local credit card at most French toll roads

French toll roads not user friendly for tourists

If you are touring France by car, you could be in for a big surprise, specially when using one of their overpriced toll roads, and need to pay for the toll.

The shock will not only come for the high cost of the toll, but also when you want to use your  "home bank" credit card to pay  for the toll, and finding out it won't work. 

Basically the French want you to pay with cash, which is quite inconvenient, because it requires you to carry a large amount of cash with you, which in general is not always a safe thing to do. 

France is quite different in that respect to most other countries in Europe were foreign credit cards are widely accepted with  the exception of the Netherlands, where non-European credit cards are also often frowned upon.

EU-Digest

EU-US Safe Harbor Pact. European court invalidates EU-US Safe Harbor pact - by Peter Sayer

The Safe Harbor agreement on which many businesses rely for the transatlantic transfer of personal data is invalid, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled

While the decision will affect companies like Facebook and Google, it is bad news for small and medium-size companies transferring data from the EU to the U.S., said Mike Weston, CEO of data science consultancy Profusion.

"American companies are going to have to restructure how they manage, store and use data in Europe and this will take a lot of time and money," he said.

The CJEU  provided a summary of the ruling, the full text of which will be published later.

Note EU-Digest: Good move - but the obvious question is what will the US do with all the information they have already collected about and on EU Citizens ?

Read more: European court invalidates EU-US Safe Harbor pact | Computerworld