Initial reports about a mosque fire in Eskilstuna, Sweden indicated that it was caused by arson, and there was a widespread media uproar over the likelihood that right-wing anti-immigration activists or neo-Nazis had set the fire. However, 24 hours later the police say that it is not even definite that the fire was caused by an attack.
In other news, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Turkey has the most press freedom of any country in the world.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Jerry Gordon, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Cheap Oil is Dragging Down the Price of Gold
Gold, the ultimate inflation hedge, isn’t much use to investors these days.
Oil is in a bear-market freefall that began in June, spearheading the longest commodity slump in at least a generation. The collapse means that instead of the surge in consumer prices that gold buyers have been expecting for much of the past decade, the U.S. is “dis-inflating,” according to Bill Gross, who used to run the world’s biggest bond fund.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Unemployment Reaches New High
Unemployment in France reached a record high of 3.488 million people in November, data released on Wednesday (24 December) shows.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Police Oakland Protesters Break Windows, Trash Christmas Tree
(Reuters) — Demonstrators in Oakland, California, broke store windows and vandalized a public Christmas tree during a march protesting police shootings, media reports said.
Vandals who were among about 50 largely peaceful marchers broke store windows in downtown Oakland late on Thursday, looted a liquor store and pulled ornaments and lights off the Christmas tree, the SFGate news website reported.
An Oakland police spokesman said there were no arrests but had no other details about the protest.
The demonstration followed weeks of marches around the San Francisco area after grand juries in Missouri and New York declined to indict white police officers in the killings of unarmed black men…
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Bodies of Grandma, 3 Grandkids Found in Burned Ohio Home
WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio — Three boys who spent the night with their grandmother so she wouldn’t be alone on Christmas died with her Friday morning as a fire engulfed her home, authorities said.
Fayette County coroner Dr. Dennis Mesker said the badly burned bodies were turned over to the Montgomery County coroner’s office for autopsies and confirmation.
They were tentatively identified as 60-year-old Terry Harris and three brothers: 14-year-old Kenyon, 11-year-old Broderick and 9-year-old Braylon Harris. Terry Harris lived alone in the single-story, ranch-style house that was destroyed by the fire reported shortly after 4 a.m. The boys lived two houses down with their parents…
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A massive crowd of mourners, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, paid their respects to Ramos, who was killed along with Officer Wenjian Liu in Brooklyn last weekend, at Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens on Friday.
The wake for hero NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos came Friday with blocks-long lines, his grieving family, a flag-draped casket, plenty of tears and hundreds of fellow cops.
And Mayor de Blasio showed up, although not until the memorial service for the slain officer ended.
The mayor arrived just after 9 p.m. and went into the church an hour before the viewing was to end.
An overflow crowd of family, friends and blue-clad colleagues had gathered for the emotional post-Christmas farewell to Ramos, 40, executed last Saturday alongside Officer Wenjian Liu, 32.
“What happened to my father is a tragedy, but his death will not be in vain,” his oldest son, Justin Ramos, said in an emotional address.
“My father was a man of character, he was a selfless man. He always went above and beyond for his family,” added the college student. “My father was a hero. He touched so many and will continue to do so. I could not ask for a better role model…”
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George H.W. Bush in ‘High Spirits’ But Remains Hospitalized
(CNN) — Former President George H.W. Bush, who was taken to a Houston hospital after experiencing shortness of breath, will remain in the hospital for at least one more night, his spokesman said Friday evening.
Bush is in “high spirits and continues to make progress,” Jim McGrath said, but will remain in the hospital another night.
On Christmas Day, the former president received visits from his wife, Barbara, son Neil and daughter-in-law Maria Bush, McGrath said in a previous statement.
McGrath said Bush “asked that his sincere wishes for a very Merry Christmas be extended to one and all.”
In a statement Wednesday, a day after the hospitalization, McGrath said Bush’s prognosis “remains very positive” and he was remaining at the medical facility “as a precaution.”
Aides stressed this hospitalization is different from what the former president faced two years ago when he had to spend two months, including Christmas, hospitalized after suffering bronchitis and a persistent cough…
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Mega Rich Overwhelmingly Donated to Democrats in 2014
Democrats bagged the bulk of big dollar donations in the 2014 midterm elections according to an analysis by the Associated Press.
Out of the $128 million spent by the top 10 individual donors to outside groups, Democrats hauled in $91 million or 71% of donations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Study: Marijuana Use Has Increased in Colorado
Colorado emerged as the state with the second-highest percentage of regular marijuana users as it began legalizing the drug, according to a new national study.
The Denver Post (http://dpo.st/1BdXt69) reports the study by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found about 1 out of 8 Colorado residents older than 12 had used marijuana in the past month. Only Rhode Island topped Colorado in the percentage of residents who reported using pot as often, according to the study.
The study averaged state-specific data over two-year periods. It found that, for the 2011-2012 period, 10.4 percent of Colorado residents 12 and older said they had used pot in the month before being surveyed. That number jumped to 12.7 percent in the 2012-2013 data. That means about 530,000 people in Colorado use marijuana at least once a month, according to the results.
Nationally, about 7.4 percent of people 12 and older reported monthly marijuana use. That’s an increase of about 4 percent.
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Hayley Nagelberg is a 17 year old Jewish activist who hails from New Jersey. Last week, she attended the 64th International Conference of United Synagogue Youth of the Conservative Movement held in Atlanta last week. She was there with 700 teen age members who came from congregations all over North America. Atlanta also happens to be the headquarters location of CNN which is next door to the conference Omni hotel site. On the morning of December 22, 2014, she and a group of USY attendees had a seminar on the Jewish doctrine of “love you neighbor as yourself”. She endeavored to apply this teaching in an encounter that followed with Richard Davis, the long term Executive Vice President of News Standards and Practices at CNN and Etan Horowitz, CNN’s Mobile Editor. Unfortunately, during an exchange with Davis he accused her of being ‘brain dead”. Why? Because spunky Nagelberg had the chutzpah to call Davis to account for their reportage of the November 18, 2014 Har Nof Jerusalem synagogue murders of American Israeli Rabbis Moshe Twersky, Calman Levine, and Aryeh Kopinsky, British Israeli Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg and Druze first responder Zidan Saif . They were killed by Palestinian cousins Abed Abu Jamal and Ghassan Muhammad Abu Jama in an act of butchery armed with meat cleavers, axes and a gun.
Nagelberg wrote about the encounter with CNN news officials in a Times of Israel blog post, “Today I Was Asked By CNN If I Am Brain Dead”. The trigger for her questions to CNN’s Davis had to do with the cognitive disconnect in their headlines for the Har Nof barbaric attack that many of us caught in the initial CNN news that broke on November 17, 2014. We commend Ms. Nagelberg for her pursuit of truth in media reporting. Problem is that Davis at CNN is part of a large contingent of reporters and news editors in the mainstream media who don’t think twice about demonizing and derogating Israel and Israelis. Israelis, as she pointed out in her blog post already had CNN’s number.:
An Israeli hip hop group (HaDag Nachash) released a song ten years ago called Shirat HaStikar. The song’s lyrics include the lines that appeared on bumper stickers throughout Israel, CNN Mishaker — “CNN lies”. I don’t think anyone could have fathomed ten years ago just how true that line would prove to be.
Kol Hakavod (outstanding) Ms. Nagelberg. Brickbats to Mr. Davis at CNN for his callous disregard for truth in reporting.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Police Believe Shooting at Tanger Outlet Mall May be Gang Related
Two men are in custody, two more are being sought by police and another is in hospital after a Boxing Day gang-related shooting that shut down the Tanger Outlet Mall.
The victim, who is known to police and was being unco-operative with officers, was sent to hospital after being shot in the foot. The two men in custody are also known to police, who believe the shooting is related to the Crips gang.
Officers from the guns and gangs unit were on the scene Friday evening, with police directing traffic as startled shoppers left the mall.
The brazen shooting on the busiest shopping day of the year happened around 3:42 p.m. in the area outdoor mall close to the Adidas, Polo Ralph Lauren and Beauty Box stores. Some shoppers reported that the mall was briefly put on lockdown as police searched for “men running through the mall” after the shooting.
Sierra Laughlin, 16, was in Beauty Box with her mother when she heard a loud noise that sounded as if something had fallen outside the store. She turned to her left where the sound had come from and saw a man pointing a gun before running away. She said the gunman was black, about two metres tall, and was wearing a blue winter vest and a black tuque.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Police Promise ‘Week Without Fines’
Belgium’s police trades unions have launched a week without fines. Belgian police will not be drawing up reports for minor offences. The unions are protesting against failure to make any headway in talks on a new retirement settlement for officers.
Earlier a ruling by Belgium’s Constitutional Court opened the way for an increase in the retirement age for all officers to 62-years of age. In the past some officers could retire as early as 56.
It’s the second time in three months that the unions launch a Fine-free Week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Charles Dickens’s Great-Great-Grandson: Author Was ‘World’s First Superstar’
The “Christmas Carol” author was a champion of the poor. “He’d been there,” says Mark Charles Dickens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch King Calls for Tolerance of Diversity in Christmas Speech
King Willem-Alexander made a plea for tolerance while emphasising the fact that everyone is different in his televised Christmas address to the nation. ‘Unity without diversity is suffocating,’ the kind said. ‘Diversity without unity is grains of sand. The Netherlands is more than 17 million selfies.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Controversial Anti-Homeless Fences Around Benches Dismantled
Disputed fences built around benches in a town in southwest France a day before Christmas to prevent homeless people or dealers from using them were “temporarily” dismantled for “safety reasons” Thursday night, the local council announced Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German is Stabbed in Back by Muslim After Wishing Him and Two Muslim Women Merry Christmas
There is much we can learn about mutual respect and mutual understanding from our religious “superiors.”
As Obama and other Western leaders exhort, “Islam is peace.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Muslims Attack Church-Goers
Yesterday Muslims have attacked Christians attending a Catholic Christmas celebration in the German city of Mönchengladbach-Rheydt. The five Muslims forced their way into the St. Mary’s Church (Photo above) by shouting “F***ing Christians”. Police arrested two perpetrators.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Split on How to Handle Russian Rouble Crisis
Dominant figures on the right and left in Berlin have voiced different views on how the EU should handle Russia’s rouble crisis.
Wolfgang Schaeuble, the finance minister from the centre-right CDU party in the grand coalition, showed little sympathy in an interview with the Rheinische Post daily on Christmas eve (24 December).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Gov’t Condemns Desecration of Jewish Cemetery in Larissa
The government has condemned an attack on the Jewish cemetery of Larissa, central Greece, on Christmas Eve.
In a statement, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos (photo) said the vandalism was an “unacceptable and incomprehensible criminal act.”
Assailants sprayed a swastika on the gates of the cemetery, while scrawling the word “Juden,” the Nazi SS symbol and the phrase “six million more” on the graveyard walls.
The vandals left the tag “Larissa skins.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Group Claims Failed Bank Bomb Amid Fears of New Hit
With police on standby amid fears of a new terrorist hit, an unknown group calling itself “Anarchist Attack Consortium” has claimed responsibility for a failed bomb attack on a bank in the northern Athenian suburb of Halandri on December 10.
In a posting on an anarchist website on Christmas Day, the group said it was acting in solidarity with jailed bank robber and anarchist Nikos Romanos, who ended a month-long hunger strike in demand of educational leave from prison on December 10. The group said the bomb planted outside the Halandri branch of Eurobank failed to go off because of a fault in its construction.
Also on Christmas Day, arsonists damaged the offices of neofascist Golden Dawn in Maroussi, north of Athens, using a gas canister bomb.
Police are bracing for a new hit, possibly against a human target, following a rifle attack on the Israeli Embassy on December 12.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Meet Britain’s First 11-Year-Old Female Bishop
Britain has finally accepted women as bishops in the Church of England, and just last week, The Rev Libby Lane was announced the UK’s first ever female bishop.
But, little does Mrs Lane know that an 11-year-old girl already beat her to the title of Britain’s female bishop.
Rebecca Howarth, a Manchester schoolgirl, became ‘girl bishop’ at the start of this month, meaning she will take charge of her local Oldham Parish Church this month, until the Epiphany on January 6.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Jihadists Go on Hunger Strike
Four suspected jihadists in the terrorists wing of Vught prison have gone on hunger strike, their lawyer said on Tuesday. Among them is Azzedine C who is suspected of recruiting people to fight for Islamic State who went on a short-lived hunger strike in November. The others are from Arnhem and Amsterdam.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police Cannot Confirm Mosque Was Attacked
Police now say to Swedish Radio News. they have no proof the Eskilstuna mosque fire on the 25th of December was started deliberately.
On Christmas Day they said they were looking for a man who had thrown an object through the window just before the fire. But now they say they cannot confirm this information, which they got on the scene from a witness. And local SVT channel had reported a witness saying someone had been seen near the entrance with a bottle of petrol.
The head of the investigation, Lars Franzell, says to Swedish Radio News the oral testimony, taken by a commanding officer on the scene, was in the midst of “chaos” and they have not been able to confirm the claim.
Police have not ruled out the possibility of an attack, but are also looking into other causes. They will need to use dogs to search the wreckage for traces of petrol or other inflammable liquids.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Ministers and Bishop Condemn Mosque Attack
Swedish leaders, including a bishop and three government ministers, have condemned the fire at a mosque in Eskilstuna, which police say was caused by an arson attack.
“It is a disgusting thing to do, and I hope those guilty of it can be arrested,” says Justice Minister Morgan Johansson (Social Democrat) to Swedish Radio News. He adds that the motive is not yet known, but it is hard to think that it can be anything other than hatred against Muslims as a group, and Islam as a religion.
“It is disgusting, it is unacceptable, and society has to intensify the measures we take in this area,” says Home Affairs Minister Anders Yngman (Social Democrat) to news agency TT.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tensions in Sweden After 5 Are Injured in Fire at Mosque
With fears of racially motivated violence on the rise in Europe, political leaders in Sweden on Friday condemned a suspected arson attack at a mosque that injured five people and raised tension in a country where immigration has become a significant political issue.
The fire broke out at the mosque, in a residential area in the town of Eskilstuna, about 70 miles west of Stockholm, on Thursday with 15 to 20 people inside.
The country’s justice minister, Morgan Johansson, called the suspected arson “disgusting” and told Swedish Radio News that he hoped the culprits would be arrested. Though the motive is still unclear, he added that it was hard to ascribe it to anything other than hatred toward Muslims as a group, and Islam as a religion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The End of Tolerance? Anti-Muslim Movement Rattles Germany
Disenchanted German citizens and right-wing extremists are joining forces to form a protest movement to fight what they see as the Islamization of the West. Is this the end of the long-praised German tolerance of recent years?
Meanwhile, the counter-protests are growing. On Monday, anti-Pegida organizers are planning demonstrations in Dresden, Munich, Würzberg and Nuremberg. Similar protests are slated for Cologne, Leipzig, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt in January. There’s even a hashtag for the counter-protests: #niewieda, “never again,” the anti-Nazi slogan that has been a standard rallying cry against right-wing sentiment in Germany since the end of World War II.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Theodore Dalrymple: Imagine No Religion
The French press refuses to see a clear case of Islamic terrorism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Manchester Man Charged Over Hit-and-Run Crash That Killed Two Pedestrians
A 20-year-old man has been charged with dangerous driving over a hit-and-run crash that killed two pedestrians, police said.
Mobein Ali, of Cromwell Avenue, Whalley Range, Manchester, will appear in court on Friday over the incident in nearby Hulme, Greater Manchester Police said.
A 37-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene while a 45-year-old man was taken to hospital in a critical condition but died on Christmas Eve morning.
Both were crossing Princess Road at the junction of Greenheys Lane when they were hit by a blue Vauxhall Corsa at about 10.15pm on Tuesday.
Ali, who is in custody, will appear at Manchester City Magistrates Court on Boxing Day.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia Cleric Accused of Inciting Followers to Fight in Iraq, Syria
SARAJEVO: A radical Muslim cleric in Bosnia accused of encouraging his followers to fight with Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq was charged with terrorism on Thursday, prosecutors said.
Husein Bosnic, from Buzim in the country’s northwest, was arrested in September. Authorities said a number of his followers travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside militants, with some killed there.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo Police Arrest Man Suspected of Planning Terrorist Attack
Police in Kosovo say they have thwarted a possible terrorist attack. The suspect is thought to have been planning a bombing in Pristina on Christmas Day.
Security remains fragile in Kosovo, almost seven years after the former Serbian province unilaterally declared its independence from Belgrade. Around 5,000 NATO troops remain stationed in the small Balkan country, which has been recognized by the US and most EU countries, but not by Serbia. Tensions remain high between Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority and its Serb minority, particularly in the north of the country, where Serbs, who still regard Belgrade as their capital, are in the majority.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo Police Thwart Christmas Car Bomb
PRISTINA: Kosovo authorities said Friday a potential car bombing was thwarted in Pristina on Christmas day when police stopped a Serbian in a vehicle packed with a large quantity of explosives.
Interior Minister Skender Hyseni said in a statement that police had seized more than 12 kilograms of explosives Thursday, and noted had they been “detonated in a public place, human casualties would have been enormous.”
Local media said a possible target could have been the Catholic cathedral the city center close the the arrest site, which was packed with hundreds of Christmas day worshippers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Christians in Egypt on High Alert Following Threats From Jihadists
Catholic Copts in Egypt are marking Christmas amid tight security after threats from Islamist extremist groups.
The Christmas Eve Mass at the Coptic Catholic Church in Cairo was packed despite the alert level being raised.
Churches and Christian neighbourhoods have been the targets of several attacks over the past three years that has seen dozens killed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Bans Exodus Hollywood Film
Egypt has banned a Hollywood film based on the Biblical book of Exodus because of what censors described as “historical inaccuracies”.
The head of the censorship board said these included the film’s depiction of Jews as having built the Pyramids, and that an earthquake, not a miracle by Moses, caused the Red Sea to part.
Exodus: Gods and Kings stars Christian Bale as Moses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Coptic Teen Seized in Libya Found Dead: Hospital
An Egyptian Coptic Christian teenager abducted in Libya by armed men who killed her parents has been found dead, a hospital source said Friday.
Tebeiqa said the attack in Sirte, home town of slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi, might have been motivated by religion as money and jewellery were not taken.
Sirte, 500 kilometres (310 miles) east of Tripoli, is in the hands of Islamist militias including Ansar al-Sharia, which the UN Security Council last month added to its terror list over links to Al-Qaeda and for running Islamic State group training camps.
Several Coptic Christian Egyptians have been killed in Libya in recent years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Maastricht 19-Year-Old is Latest Dutch Jihadi to Die in Syria
Society December 23, 2014 A 19-year-old youth from Maastricht is reported to have become the 20th Dutch jihadi to die fighting with IS forces in Syria and Iraq.
Sultan Berzel, who was also 19 and of Moroccan origin, apparently died last month after blowing himself up in a suicide bombing outside a police station in Baghdad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Keeps Spending, Despite Oil Drop
The Saudi government unveiled a 2015 budget on Thursday that signaled a continuation of a high level of spending despite pressures from a steep fall in oil prices in recent months.
The kingdom, the world’s top oil exporter, depends on oil revenue to fund social spending, helping head off the kind of unrest that has roiled Middle Eastern countries since 2011. A prolonged oil-price slump could threaten such policies here and in other Gulf monarchies.
The kingdom didn’t say on what price of oil it based its 2015 budget. The International Monetary Fund and others estimate a Saudi Arabia’s fiscal break-even price for oil at well above $90 a barrel—it has been trading recently under $60—underlining the country’s vulnerability to changes in the energy market.
The kingdom expects to run a wider deficit of 145 billion riyals to continue with its spending plans, as projected revenue falls by nearly a third to 715 billion riyals, according to a finance ministry statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Has ‘World’s Freest Press’, Erdogan Claims
Turkey has the freest press in the world, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday, brushing off accusations that media freedoms were being eroded under his rule. “Nowhere in the world is the press freer than it is in Turkey. I’m very sure of myself when I say this,” he said in a televised speech to a conference in Ankara.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish President Erdogan: I Was Fooled, Betrayed by Gülen
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly expressed regret over his once-friendly relations with U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, as he likened what he perceived as “betrayal” by Gülen and the Gülenist movement to being stabbed in the back.
“You have witnessed it. You cannot guess from where the attack will come. You cannot predict from where betrayal will come. You cannot see who stabbed you in the back,” said Erdogan on Dec. 26.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Who is ‘Britain’s White Jihadi’?
Youth named as ‘Jonathan Edwards’ is pictured posing with guns alongside terror fighters after he ‘missed out on uni application and joined ISIS instead’
A picture has emerged of a young white male posing with guns who it is claimed joined Isis after missing out on university.
The image, which shows him sitting with a machine gun between two armed men, was posted to Twitter by Abu Dawud this week with the message ‘meet Jonathan Edwards applied for UCAS to (sic) late and wasn’t accepted in any university, so he joined Islamic State’.
The picture, first tweeted on December 2 by user ResistanceER, has yet to be verified as genuine and there’s no concrete information about the white male’s age or nationality.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Does Nobody Want to Play With Turkey?
by Burak Bekdil
Turkey is too big, too Islamist and too un-European for the EU; it is too little Islamist and a disliked former colonial power for most of the Arab street; a sectarian and regional rival for Iran, and a security threat to the bigwigs in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Police Want Reindeer to Help Them Fight Crime
If you’re going to fight crime, fighting it on the back of a reindeer is probably the coolest way to do it.
Russian newspaper Izvestia has reported that police in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district have been asking for a herd of reindeer since 2012, and may actually be permitted to saddle up.
Although they are no strangers to using animals in their work (the navy use ‘combat dolphins’ to locate underwater mines), police in Russia’s frozen arctic tundra typically use snowmobiles for difficult terrain, which can travel of speeds of up to 150mph.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia’s Finance Minister Sees Economy Shrinking 4 Percent in 2015
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday that the Russian economy could contract by 4 percent next year and that the budget could have a deficit of more than 3 percent of gross domestic product if oil prices average $60 a barrel.
Siluanov also told journalists that his ministry had recalculated its budget forecasts to take into account oil prices at $60 a barrel and that he expected the ruble’s average exchange rate to be around 51 rubles per dollar in 2015.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Cuts Train and Bus Services to Crimea, Citing Security Concerns
Ukraine has suspended train and bus services to the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula, citing security concerns.
The state railways company said that trains bound for Crimea’s regional capital of Simferopol and the port of Sevastopol will run only to stations on the mainland near Crimea starting Saturday. The company said the move was taken to ensure “traffic safety.”
In a separate statement, the Infrastructure Ministry issued a directive to bus companies to stop bus services to Crimea starting Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amid Remembrances for 2004 Tsunami Victims, Fear Lurks
Across Asia on Friday, beachside memorials, moments of silence and religious services marked the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed at least 220,000 people in 14 countries. Outside of the doleful remembrances, experts warned that despite millions of dollars spent on early warning systems, shortcomings remain in the region’s disaster preparedness.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Asia Marks 10 Years Since Indian Ocean Tsunami
Crying onlookers took part in beachside memorials and religious services across Asia on Friday to mark the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that left more than a quarter million people dead in one of modern history’s worst natural disasters.
The devastating Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami struck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim, killing about 230,000 people. It eradicated entire coastal communities, decimated families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches the morning after Christmas. Survivors waded through a horror show of corpse-filled waters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ceremony Remembers Swedes Lost in the Tsunami
A ceremony in Thailand will remember the 543 Swedes who died in the south-east Asian tsunami ten years ago.
Hundreds of thousands died after a series of tsunamis struck coasts along the south-east Pacific ten years ago today.
In the tourist area of Khao Lak thousands of Swedish tourists were caught by the waves that hit Thailand.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indian Ocean Tsunami: Remembrance Ceremonies Held
Acts of remembrance have been held for the more than 200,000 people killed exactly 10 years ago by the Boxing Day tsunami. An undersea earthquake triggered powerful waves that swept away dozens of coastal communities in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Security Forces Kill School Massacre Planner in Pakistan Shootout
The alleged planner of the deadly massacre at a school in Pakistan last week has been killed in a gun battle.
Security forces — acting on intelligence information — stormed the Bara area Thursday night and engaged in an hour-long shootout with the militant, known only as “Saddam,” a top Pakistani government official in the Khyber tribal region said. Khyber borders the northwestern city of Peshawar.
Saddam was killed in the raid, and his six accomplices were injured and arrested, head of Khyber police administration Ali Shah said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sri Lanka Recovers Decade After Tsunami
Ten years after a tusnami killed nearly 40,000 people, Sri Lanka has come far along the road to recovery.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes in Thai Tsunami Remembrance
The Swedish embassy and Swedish Church has organized a ceremony on the beach at Khao Lak in Thailand on Friday in remembrance of the devastating 2004 tsunami which claimed almost 228,000 lives, including over 500 Swedes.
The earthquake off Indonesia in the Indian Ocean was one of the most powerful ever recorded. When the subsequent tsunami hit large parts of the Southeast Asian coast hundreds of thousands of people were killed, many more injured and millions homeless.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tsunami Devastation Remembered in Asia, 10 Years on
Asian nations struck by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004 are paying their respects to the victims in a series of memorial services. The disaster killed more than 220,000 people.
The tsunami struck on the morning of December 26, 2004, decimating coastal communities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and beyond. It was sparked by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off Indonesia’s west coast, killing more than 130,000 in that country alone.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Will Indonesia be Ready for the Next Tsunami?
Ten years after catastrophic waves lashed Sumatra, Indonesia has rebuilt. But the risk of another devastating tsunami is high.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Tightens Church Control Ahead of Christmas
Two days before Christmas, members of a rural Christian congregation in eastern China welded pieces of metal into a cross and hoisted it onto the top of a worship hall to replace one that was forcibly removed in October.
Within an hour, township officials and uniformed men barged onto the church ground and tore down the cross.
“They keep a very close watch on us, and there is nothing we can do,” a church official told The Associated Press on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because of fear of government retaliation. “The situation is not good, as any attempt to re-erect the cross will be stopped.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Extends High-Speed Rail Network to Xinjiang
China tied the restive far-western region of Xinjiang closer to the rest of the country Friday, opening a high-speed rail line between its capital Urumqi and Lanzhou, in neighbouring Gansu, nearly 1,800 kilometres away.
A slick bullet train took off from Lanzhou West Railway Station at 10:49 am (0249 GMT), with female attendants in Uighur and other ethnic costumes serving 622 passengers, live footage on state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) showed.
The line, the first high-speed railway in China’s remote and poor northwest, stretches through the high-altitude Qilian mountain range, an ancient section of the Great Wall and five strong wind zones, slashing travel time between the two cities by half to less than 12 hours, CCTV said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Michael Rockefeller Was Eaten by Cannibals in New Guinea Confirms New Documentary
A documentary film which confirms that Michael Rockefeller, the youngest son of former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, was eaten by cannibals in New Guinea in 1961 is set to be released by Netflix in the new year.
The Search For Michael Rockefeller, will be released on the streaming service on February 1 and confirms that one of the most compelling unsolved mysteries of the 20th century ended with the 23-year-old heir being devoured, reports the New York Post.
Rockefeller, whose great-grandfather was the co-founder of Standard Oil and established one of America’s wealthiest dynasties, traveled to New Guinea to photograph the Asmat people and collect their art.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Hong Kong Arrests on Second Night of Renewed Protests
Police in Hong Kong have arrested dozens of people as pro-democracy protesters returned to the city’s streets for a second night. China has praised Hong Kong authorities for maintaining “stability.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Agrees Trilateral Intelligence-Sharing Pact With South Korea and Japan
South Korea, the US and Japan have agreed to sign a rare trilateral intelligence-sharing pact. The aim of the alliance is to better cope with North Korea’s increasing nuclear and missile threats.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mauritania Journalist Sentenced to Death for Apostasy
A court in Mauritania has sentenced a man to death for apostasy for criticizing the Muslim Prophet Muhammed. It has been almost 30 years since the West African nation applied the death penalty.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Girl Refuses to Explode Bomb Belt in Market
A 13-year-old girl has said she was made to wear a bomb belt and taken to a market in Nigeria by Boko Haram extremists but refused to detonate the device.
Zahara’u Adam said her father gave her to the Islamist group, but she told her captors she did not want to be a suicide bomber.
She allowed them to strap the bomb on her because they threatened to bury her alive.
She was taken to a market in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city in the north, with two other girls, who detonated the bombs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Al-Shabaab: Attack on Base Was Revenge for U.S. Airstrike
(CNN) — Al-Shabaab said it attacked an African Union military base in Somalia on Thursday in retaliation for a U.S. airstrike that killed their leader near Barawe in September.
“Al-Shabaab has carried out the AU military base attack to revenge the killing of our leader, Ahmed Godane,” the group’s spokesman Ali Dheere said on Andalus radio,a pro-Al-Shabaab broadcaster, Friday.
Seven Al-Shabaab militants are dead after they attacked Somalia’s largest base for African Union troops, according to the African Union Mission in Somalia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
47 Sacks of Coke: A Charter Pilot’s Run-in With Venezuelan Drug Lords
It started as a routine charter flight. But when the business jet landed in Venezuela, armed men loaded 47 sacks of cocaine on board and forced the crew to fly the cargo back across the Atlantic. Since then, the German pilot has been living under an assumed identity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germans Hit Back at Anti-Immigrant Movement
Business leaders, the political class and average Germans are pushing back against a growing anti-immigrant movement, saying it threatens the values and image the country fought hard to establish since the war.
At counter-demonstrations and on social media, opponents have mobilized against the far-right group which claims Germany is being overrun by Islamic extremists.
President Joachim Gauck, who was a pro-democracy pastor in communist East Germany, devoted his annual Christmas speech to a forceful appeal for compassion and openness toward asylum seekers.
Faced with the emergence of the group “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident”, or PEGIDA, which has been staging weekly marches, Gauck said he was confident the majority of Germans would resist its call.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The greatest innovation in the history of humankind was neither the stone tool nor the steel sword, but the invention of symbolic expression by the first artists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rudimentary Egg and Sperm Cells Made From Stem Cells
A feat achieved for the first time in humans could be a step towards a cure for infertility.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
” In other news, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Turkey has the most press freedom of any country in the world.”
Well, I wish he were lying. I hate to say he is correct because he knows what he is talking about.
He is talking about the atrocities ( bombings, car jihad, lone and packs of wolves and Coyotes, daggers, axes, marathonsbombs, trains bombs, tubesbombs, shoe bombs, butt bombs, . . . ) committed by an “unknown unnamed, entity”.
All western media and cowardly Traitor Class cannot bring themselves to mention the name pf the PERPETRATOR.
Hamas leader shows support with Turkey
“A strong Turkey means a strong Palestine … Inshallah, God is with us and with you on the road to victory,” Mashaal said in his address to the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) annual congress in the Konya province on Dec. 27.”
We are in deep Muslim excrement and we are still importing more daily by the truck and trainload. We put a man on the moon yet we apparently haven’t worked out yet that the meaning of life for this pox on civilization is to degrade and destroy. These are Muslims. Not Vietnamese. What a crock education and information is turning out to be.
As random acts of savagery by culture-enrichers increase in frequency and violence (Nigeria, anyone?) I suspect incidents of mosque-bombings and random attacks on muslims will increase also. The multiculuralists and Sharia-enthusiasts together have sown the seeds of the whirlwind. They will soon reap a bountiful harvest.
You may be right, bbss, and I note that the Swedish media jumped to the conclusion that the mosque fire in Eslkistuna must be a “hate crime” without waiting for the evidence.
Is this different in kind from the knee-jerk reaction of some here on GoV, to the recent tragic accident in Glasgow?
This was “peace loving enrichers” from the same mosque gang. When the EU commies get the West Balkins balls-up- up to speed there will be no guess work or denial or covering up of the hourly tragedies. I am imaging all this of course. 🙁
The Eskilstuna building in question, is being used for recruiting to IS.
Yes Mark it is very different. How? Because the reaction from Sweden is from the state collective and controlled media while those on this site who may have suggested that garbage truck incident as being related to another ‘terrorist’ attack were individuals making an assumption based on their experience and not their ideology, and that is a whole lot different to the reaction of the state controlled media and narrative in its effort to criminalize those who may still have some patriotic fervor left in their character.
Some mosques have been burnt down or blown up in accidents with home-made bombs being prepared inside.
Imagine that. And in a barracks too where the canibals worship the moon god halla itself. Well at least our food chain and water supply is safe.
At some point, some excitable young European white guys, having been marginalised and delegitimised and thoroughly disenfranchised by governments, media, and the electoral process, are going to find more basic and primitive ways of expressing dissent.
I expect Europe will soon be reacquainted with the modern day equivalent of the Viking….
For that to occur there must be a common purpose or goal attached to the actions that unites rather than divides as the culture they have grown up in now does to them. Otherwise, they truly will be the ‘lone wolves’ as painted by the collective media.
Quisling’s Social Minister Johan Andreas Lippestad
Did Anders Breivik already have knowledge about this at the time when he decided to take Geir Lippestad as his defence lawyer?
Minister Lippestad died in 1961, three years before Geir Lippestad was born. Minister Lippestad was important to Vidkun Quisling, not only as his Social Minister, but also as the organizer of the nazi party, Nasjonal Samling, NS, during WW2.
Lawyer Geir Lippestad compares Anders Breivik to “the worst nazis” of WW2, in his book “Det vi kan stå for”, “What we can stand for”
The book, published in 2013, was widely critizised by other lawyers in Norway, as a breach of confidentiality to his client, Anders Behring Breivik.
Saudi-Arabia seem to be planning for oil at $80, in their 2015 budget, which is $20 up from today’s level
SA should have been invaded and taken over on 9/12.
Yes.
First Artists
A symbolic behaviour population choke where symbolism can no longer hold a society together and artefacts and ideas become demonetized.
Sweden is dissolving before our eyes
Prime Minister Löfven changed his mind, and said there will be no new election in March 2015. Before we know it, Sweden is a full islamic state.
What exactly did former Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt mean by saying that the Swedish “borders are just inventions” (“påhitt”)?
Did he mean that islam is conquering the world, so there must not be any borders preventing it? And that he, Reinfeldt, has accepted this, and is preparing for “peace”/subjugating to the Arabian moon-god in Sweden?
Sweden is lost