Italian Interior Minister Faces Kidnap Charges for Refusing Migrant Ship

By Nicholas Sakelaris

The Five Star Movement will vote Monday whether its leader and interior minister Matteo Salvini should stand trial on kidnapping charges. 

(UPI) -- Italian interior minister and senator Matteo Salvini could lose his legal immunity if his own party decides Monday he should face trial on kidnapping charges.

The kidnapping accusations stem from an order Salvini gave in August to hold 150 migrants aboard an Italian coast guard ship for five days. His party, the League, is part of the populist Five Star Movement, an anti-establishment group that seeks to root out corruption in Italy.

The Five Star Movement was set for an online vote among members Monday to see if Salvini should stand trial. Italy's full Senate would have to vote to lift his immunity, as his position exempts him from prosecution.

The Five Star Movement has asked its members to support Salvini, saying his actions were signed off by the government collectively.

"It is an unprecedented case because never in the past has the judiciary asked parliament to authorize a trial for a minister who had acted in the performance of his duties," the group posted on its website.

Salvini has defended himself against the potential charges and has even seen his popularity rise despite the controversy.

"They can do whatever they want," Salvini said, referring to his party. "What I did, I did to defend the safety of citizens, and if necessary I'd do it again."

The online poll asks if Salvini was justified in the decision last summer. A "no" vote favors prosecuting Salvini while a "yes" vote rejects a trial.

The ship was docked at the Catania port for five days while Salvini sought help from other European Union countries who could take in the mostly Eritrean passengers. Eventually, the Catholic church, Ireland and Albania agreed to receive the migrants.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Five Star transport minister Danilo Toninelli were also put under investigation this week for rejecting the migrants.

Obviously this is politically motivated and there should be consequences for abuse of the judicial system. Refusing to allow illegal migrants to vacate a ship in port is something that happens all the time. It happened to thousands of Jews in WWII all over the world.

Mexicans Head to Polls After Violent Campaign Season - >100 Candidates Murdered

Lest there be any doubt about who is running Mexico

- Corruption is Everywhere

Any politician who is seriously anti-corruption in Mexico is already dead!

By Danielle Haynes

Movimiento Regeneracion Nacional candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during the closure of his electoral campaign in Mexico City on Wednesday. Photo by Jorge Nunez/EPA-EFE

UPI -- Mexican voters stand poised to elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador president as they head to the polls Sunday in an election marred by violence.

More than 130 political candidates or their workers have been killed since the start of the campaign season in September, which may be why Obrador, known by his initials, AMLO, and his strong anti-corruption stance has a lead in the polls.

Obrador, who heads the Movimiento Regeneracion Nacional Party, or Morena Party, leads conservative candidate Ricardo Anaya by 20 points as of Friday. He'll likely oust the three parties that have governed Mexico in the three decades since the end of autocratic rule there.

Obrador has promised to root out corrupt government officials during his third bid for the presidency.

His platform includes free access to telecommunications services like the Internet and pension increases for the elderly. He also wants to reverse key reforms made by President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration that opened the country's energy industry to foreign companies.

Nieto can not run for re-election, as Mexico's constitution limits presidents to a single six-year term.

Other presidential contenders are Anaya of the National Action Party, Jose Antonio Meade of the Institutional Revolutionary Party and independent Jamie "El Bronco" Rodriguez.

Sunday's election marks the first time members of the national congress can be re-elected. In congress, 628 spots will be decided along with nine governors, about 1,600 mayors and thousands of lower level lawmakers.

Chinese Regulators Seize Anbang Insurance; Chief Wu to be Tried for Fraud

Corruption is Everywhere - even China

By Ed Adamczyk  

Chinese office workers leave Anbang Insurance's (AD) China headquarters in Beijing on June 14, 2017. AD's chairman and insurance mogul Wu Xiaohui was reported detained in China's continued crack down on corruption, according to a major Chinese magazine. Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

UPI -- The Chinese government on Friday seized the assets of privately-owned Anbang Insurance Group, which owns New York City's Waldorf-Astoria hotel and other global properties.

Anbang founder Wu Xiaohui will be prosecuted for fraud, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission announced. The action, which furthers Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption efforts, is meant to end the acquisition fervor of Chinese tycoons and offer government protection to millions of Chinese citizens who bought Anbang investments. It is also an indication that China will no longer encourage global asset growth and will instead focus on shoring up its internal economic structure, Bloomberg News reported.

Anbang has $315 billion in assets and is among the highest-profile Chinese company in international investments. The company purchased the iconic Waldorf-Astoria in 2014. The hotel, and Anbang's other properties, are now is been overseen by government regulators. A year ago the company was in talks to invest in a company owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and White House adviser.

The seizure is China's largest takeover of a privately owned company.

Wu has been in custody since June, when the government began its crackdown on Chinese tycoons accelerating global mergers and acquisitions.

His detention is meant to distance Wu from his company and prevent purchasers of high-yield Anbang insurance companies from panicking and surrendering policies for cash, the South China Morning Post reported.

Italy's Anti-Corruption Five Star Movement Facing Allegations of... Corruption

Corruption is Everywhere - even in ***** Italy

Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio speaks during a political rally in Naples, Italy, on February 12, 2018.

© Ciro De Luca / Reuters

After fighting against corruption, Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement has a lot to answer for. Around 10 of its MPs have apparently been busted for running a scam to dodge €1 million in financial obligations.

MPs for the party have an obligation to pay half of their salaries into a fund which helps small- and medium-sized businesses. The donations were founded on Five Star's belief that Italian politicians are overpaid.

But actions speak louder than words, and it appears the actions of some 10 lawmakers didn't exactly match up with their commitments. That's according to an investigation by the television program Le Iene (The Hyenas), which airs on a TV station owned by right-wing political rival and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The report said that instead of doing their part, the MPs simply drew up bank orders for the money to leave their accounts. This provided them with receipts to show party bosses, and the transfers also showed up on a website created for transparency. But once all that was done, they merely canceled the transfers and kept the money for themselves.

“We gave back €23 million [US$28 million], while the others pocketed every cent,” party leader Luigi Di Maio said, as quoted by Reuters. He added that he had personally contributed some €370,000 of pay or benefits, and vowed to "root out bad apples."

One MP has already suspended his Five Star membership following the revelation. Two others admitted to not paying enough, but later made up their contribution, according to party MP Barbara Lezzi, who said she was "shocked" and "devastated" to find that fellow party members hadn't given their fair share when she has "paid everything."

Meanwhile, Matteo Renzi, the leader of the ruling center-left Democratic Party and a former prime minister of Italy, accused Di Maio of leading a movement of "scroungers and fraudsters," while urging Italians not to vote for the party in next month's elections.

The Five Star Movement, which has recently enjoyed a surge in popularity, has campaigned on eradicating corruption from Italian politics. It is predicted to win 27 to 28 percent of the vote in the upcoming election on March 4, compared to 22 to 23 percent for the ruling Democratic Party.

Hidden Off-Shore Banking Set to Result in Dramatic Changes to Icelandic Government

Iceland’s Pirate Party poised for

Saturday election win – poll

Anti-elitism in Iceland appears to be more successful than Trump's orange revolution in America

Members of the Icelandic Pirate Party © Píratar / Facebook

Iceland’s national election is likely to bring unprecedented results, with a new poll suggesting the Pirate Party will win. Led by a poet and former WikiLeaks activist, it’s running on an anti-corruption campaign against the financial and political elite.

An opinion poll conducted by the Social Science Research Institute of the University of Iceland and commissioned by Morgunblaðið newspaper found that one in five voters intends to cast their ballot for the Pirate Party on Saturday.

That figure puts the party in first place with 22.6 percent of the votes – 1.5 percent ahead of the center-right Independence Party, which is currently in power. Those numbers would give each of the two parties 15 MPs in the 63-seat parliament.

Such a win would be history-making for the Pirate Party, which is led by Birgitta Jónsdóttir – a poet, web developer, former WikiLeaks activist.

The party's forecast success is largely based on its campaign against perceived corruption among Iceland's elite.

Support for the party increased by a whopping 43 percent after the resignation of Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson in April, after it was revealed that he and his family had sheltered money in offshore accounts. The party's cause was also helped by the Panama Papers, which revealed other prominent Icelandic politicians had done the same.

Earlier this year, Jónsdóttir called her party's success “strange and very exciting,” adding that it was “driven not by fear, but by courage and hope,” the Guardian reported.

However, she has acknowledged that the party – which was created less than four years ago as a movement against global copyright laws – is inexperienced when it comes to the economy.


Birgitta Jónsdóttir © Icelandic Pirate Party / Wikipedia

“We know that we are new to this and it is important that we are extra careful and extra critical on ourselves to not take too much on. I really don't think that we are going to make a lot of ripples in the economy in the first term,” she told Reuters last month.

However, the Pirate Party – whose campaign is largely crowdfunded – is after more than just looser copyright laws and less corruption from politicians. In an effort to get young voters on board, the party has asked the developers of the popular app Pokemon Go to turn polling stations into Pokestops – locations where players can collect the items necessary to catch Pokemon.

The party has also promised to grant asylum to US whistleblower Edward Snowden and accept the bitcoin currency. It has also pledged to give voters a direct say over policy and decriminalize drugs.

One caution for Icelanders: it is one thing to vote out a government that is corrupt, but please make sure the government you vote-in is one you actually want.

The Pirate Party last week ruled out the possibility of entering a coalition with the Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn) or the centrist Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn). Jónsdóttir has suggested she would prefer to be the speaker of the Icelandic parliament, rather than becoming prime minister.

The party's predicted success will be a huge leap from the 2013 general election, when it gained just 5 percent of votes and three seats in parliament. That result was still extremely significant, however, as it made Iceland the only country in the world have members of the Pirate movement in government.

The Pirate Party first began in Sweden in 2006, and was created to bring about digital copyright reform. There are now 40 such parties around the world.