A 23-year-old “Frenchman” tried to strangle a policeman while shouting “Allahu akhbar”. The young man attempted the assault while he was in a holding cell after being caught purse-snatching. The victim’s fellow officers saw the attack on CCTV and rushed to save their comrade. His attacker is said to have a history of mental illness. The incident had nothing to do with Islam.

In other news, activists from Boko Haram overran a multi-national military base in northeastern Nigeria. The soldiers defending the base were relieved to learn that the attack had nothing to do with Islam.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, K, Papa Whiskey, RR, 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.

Germany Voices Confidence Greece Will Stand by EU Commitments

Germany is confident that Greece will stand by its commitments to the EU bailout programme, a government spokesman said on Sunday.

“Greece has fulfilled its obligations in the past. The government assumes that Greece will continue to meet its contractual commitments” to its creditors, spokesman Georg Streiter told AFP.

He was responding to a report in the news weekly Der Spiegel which said Chancellor Angela Merkel was prepared to let Greece leave the eurozone should Greeks elect a government that jettisons the country’s current austerity course.

The article, which cited sources close to the German government, came as opinion polls show a radical leftist party leading the field three weeks ahead of a snap election in Greece.

The Syriza party of Alexis Tsipras has pledged to reverse reforms imposed by Greece’s international creditors and renegotiate its bailout deal.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



New Year Could Resolve Argentine Debt Debacle, Or Not

The fine print Argentina blames for failed negotiations with disgruntled creditors expires Thursday, theoretically clearing the way for a deal to lift the country out of default — if the two sides want it.

Even as it careered toward its second debt default in 13 years last July, Argentina insisted it could not swerve away from the precipice because of something called a RUFO, or Rights Upon Future Offers clause.

The RUFO clause is part of Argentina’s 2005 and 2010 debt restructuring agreements, hard-fought deals the South American country reached with creditors who agreed to take steep losses on their bonds after it defaulted on $100 billion in debt during its 2001 economic crisis…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Al Sharpton is Being Paid Thousands of Dollars to Not Cry ‘Racism’ At Large Corporations, It is Claimed

Reverend Al Sharpton is being paid thousands of dollars to not cry ‘racism’ at large corporations that are in the spotlight, it has been claimed.

For more than 10 years, firms have reportedly handed over enormous donations and consulting fees to the activist preacher’s National Action Network (NAN).

In return for their cash, they have received Sharpton’s supposed influence in the black community — or more often, his silence on the matter, it is reported.

‘Al Sharpton has enriched himself and NAN for years by threatening companies with bad publicity if they didn’t come to terms with him,’ said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal & Policy Center, a watchdog group in Virginia that has produced a book on the Harlem minister.

[Naturally we have to go to the British press to find an article like this. — PW]

Black Protesters Storm NYC Restaurants — Target & Harass White People Eating Brunch

Black protesters targeted white people eating brunch today at New York City restaurants. They joined hands and screamed at white patrons.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Wenjian Liu Funeral: Police Snub New York Mayor Again

Hundreds of police officers have turned their backs on the mayor of New York at the funeral of the second of two officers shot dead last month.

Wenjian Liu, a son of Chinese migrants, was killed with his partner Rafael Ramos on 20 December by a gunman with a grievance against the police.

In the street outside, hundreds turned their backs to a video screen when Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke.

Many rank-and-file members of the New York Police Department (NYPD) resent Mr de Blasio’s expressions of sympathy for anti-police protesters in recent months.

Patrick Yoes, a national secretary with the 328,000-member Fraternal Order of Police, said before the new funeral: “Across this country, we seem to be under attack in the law enforcement profession, and the message to take away from this is: We are public servants. We are not public enemies.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



At the Gates of Power: How Marine Le Pen is Unnerving the French Establishment

Under her father, the Front National was the pariah party of France. Now Marine Le Pen has brought it closer to the mainstream — and people are getting worried.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Author Says a Whole Culture — Not a Single ‘Homer’ — Wrote ‘Iliad, ‘ ‘Odyssey’

“It’s a mistake to think of Homer as a person,” says the author of Why Homer Matters

The Iliad and The Odyssey are two of the key works of Western civilization. But almost nothing is known about their author and the date and manner of their creation. In Why Homer Matters, historian and award-winning author Adam Nicolson suggests that Homer be thought of not as a person but as a tradition and that the works attributed to him go back a thousand years earlier than generally believed.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Controversial Swedish Street Artist Attacked

Malmö-based street artist Dan Park was assaulted in Copenhagen on New Year’s Day, it has emerged.

Controversial Swedish street artist Dan Park was attacked in Copenhagen on January 1st, the provocateur wrote on Facebook on Sunday.

“The New Year sure started well, was attacked of six masked ‘anti-fascists’ on Jagtvej, Nørrebro in Copenhagen. Clearly not everyone in Denmark likes my work,” Park wrote.

Copenhagen Police confirmed the attack and said that if it can be proven to be a result of Park’s provocative artwork it could lead to tougher penalties for the attackers.

Speaking to Scandinavian television network TV2, Park said: “I was suddenly attacked with various punches and yelling before they took off. I think it is because of my art. I have been in the media quite a bit”.

Park was the centre of an intense debate on free speech that raged on both sides of the Øresund throughout October.

Nine pieces of artwork that landed Park in a Swedish jail and that were ordered to be destroyed by Swedish authorities were displayed in Copenhagen in a showing organized by the Danish Free Press Society (Trykkefrihedsselskabet)…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Czech Republic: BIS: Suspicious Money Flow Between Islamists

Czech counter-intelligence BIS has registered cases of Islamists supporting radicals in the Czech Republic from abroad and of money being transferred from the Czech Republic to Arab countries, BIS writes in a document to be submitted to the Cabinet, server Ceska justice writes today.

“The counter-intelligence service has focused on a person staying in the Czech Republic who can be described as an Islamic fundamentalist. All of this person’s incomes, which are more or less regular, come from some of the Arab countries and they are used to finance cost-intensive religious activities,” the document says, adding that these activities may be aimed to convert people to the (Islamic) faith.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Czech Politician: Walk Your Pet Pig Near a Mosque

To protest the growing presence and influence of Muslims in his country, Czech opposition leader Tomio Okamura has called on his countrymen to take their pigs for a walk next to mosques. In a Facebook posting, Okamura, head of the Dawn of Direct Democracy movement, listed what he said were “specific instructions” about “how we can protect our democratic way of life and the heritage of our ancestors from Islam,” which has made great inroads into country, “before it’s too late.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Czech President: Maidan Was Not a Democratic Revolution

Czech President Milos Zeman has slammed Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, calling him “a prime minister of war” because he is unwilling to peacefully solve the civil conflict in the country.

“From the statements byPM Yatsenyuk, I think that he is a ‘prime minister of war’, because he does not want a peaceful solution to the crisis [in Ukraine] recommended by the European Commission,” Zeman told Pravo, a Czech daily newspaper.

Yatsenyuk wants to solve Ukrainian conflict “by the use of force,” added the Czech leader.

According to Zeman, the current policy of Kiev authorities has two “faces.” The first is the “face” of the country’s president, Petro Poroshenko, who “may be a man of peace.”

The second “face” is that of PM Yatsenyuk, who has an uncompromising position toward self-defense forces in Eastern Ukraine.

Zeman said he doesn’t’ believe that the February coup, during which then-President Viktor Yanukovich was deposed from power, was a democratic revolution at all.

“Maidan was not a democratic revolution, and I believe that Ukraine is in a state of civil war,” Zeman said, responding to what he described as “poorly informed people” who compared Maidan with Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution in 1989.

In November 2013, the initially peaceful demonstrations which started as a reaction to then-President Viktor Yanukovich’s refusal to sign the EU association deal became violent in early 2014.

Kiev’s central Independence Square — Maidan Nezalezhnosty — was turned into a battlefield as Ukrainian protesters clashed with police through January and February.

The unrest resulted in a coup that toppled Yanukovich and his government in February.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



EU to Set Up Expert Cell to Fight Jihadist Propaganda: Report

(BRUSSELS) — The European Union plans to set up a cell of advisors in Belgium that member governments can tap to fight jihadist propaganda, a top EU official told a newspaper Saturday.

“The idea is for Belgium to welcome a cell of experts who can offer European countries immediate responses to a very serious communications problem,” EU counter-terrorism chief Gilles de Kerchove told Le Soir newspaper.

Social media has become a powerful recruiting tool for jihadists, with the Islamic State group posting several videos online showing grisly beheadings of Western hostages.

The experts taking part in the pilot project will offer “counter-narratives” and other messages to fight the propaganda used by Islamic State and other jihadist groups, de Kerchove said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Greek Fugitive Christodoulos Xiros ‘Planned Jail Raid’

A Greek left-wing extremist recaptured after a year on the run had been planning an armed assault to free inmates from a maximum security prison in Athens, police say.

Christodoulos Xiros, 56, of the Marxist militant group November 17, was arrested on Saturday in Anavyssos.

He went missing after being allowed out of jail in January to visit his family.

Police found a cache of arms and ammunition in his house in Anavyssos, including a grenade launcher.

The cache also had eight Kalashnikov rifles, three handguns, a silencer and explosives.

Police said they also found drawings of the planned attack.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Italy: Priest Arrested in Rome in Argentine Sexual Abuse Case

Police say detention order issued in South America

(ANSA) — Rome, January 2 — Police in Rome said Friday they arrested a priest originally from Argentina allegedly connected to the sexual abuse of a minor there.

Police said they were acting on a detention order issued by authorities in Argentina.

The priest, 46, is a pastor in a church in Rome’s Parioli district.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Man Shouting “God is Great” Tries to Strangle French Police Officer

A man has tried to strangle a police officer while shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), the latest in a spate of attacks in France that have heightened fears of terrorism.

The latest assault took place in the eastern city of Metz on Friday when a man arrested for bag-snatching asked the officer to bring him a glass of water.

When the policeman opened his cell door, the 23-year-old lunged at him and tried to throttle him while shouting “Allahu Akbar”.

Other police officers saw the events on the video surveillance system and rushed to save their colleague, who had been thrown to the ground. His assailant was said to have a history of psychiatric problems.

“The doctor who treated him (the officer) said that just a few seconds more and it would have been too late,” Michael Philippart of the SGP FO police union told L’Est Républicain, a newspaper.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Michel Houellebecq on His Novel About Islam’s Takeover of France

By Steve Sailer

It’s 2022, and France is living in fear. The country is roiled by mysterious troubles. Regular episodes of urban violence are deliberately obscured by the media. Everything is covered up, the public is in the dark … and in a few months the leader of a newly created Muslim party will be elected president. On the evening of June 5, in a second general election—the first having been anulled after widespread voter fraud—Mohammed Ben Abbes handily beats Marine Le Pen with support from both socialists and the right.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: Anti-Terror Plan to Spy on Toddlers ‘Is Heavy-Handed’

Nursery school staff and registered childminders must report toddlers at risk of becoming terrorists, under counter-terrorism measures proposed by the Government.

The directive is contained in a 39-page consultation document issued by the Home Office in a bid to bolster its Prevent anti-terrorism plan.

Critics said the idea was “unworkable” and “heavy-handed”, and accused the Government of treating teachers and carers as “spies”.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



‘We Can’t Protect Every Sausage, ‘ Says German Agriculture Minister Over TTIP Deal

Germany’s Minister of Agriculture, Christian Schmidt, says some German specialties may be stripped of their regional protection due to a free-trade deal with the US. Schmidt claims the EU rules are “very bureaucratic.”

Speaking with the German weekly news magazine, Spiegel, Schmidt said that German specialties could lose their European Union (EU) privileges as a result of the proposed EU-American Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which plans to enable free trade between the EU and America.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Jewish Community Condemns Mass Dedicated to Pavelic

JERUSALEM — Center “Simon Wiesental” condemned today holding of a mass in Zagreb for the pro-Nazi Ustasha leader Ante Pavelic, saying it is a “badge of shame” for the Catholic Church.

“It is hard to believe that in the center of the capital city of a member of the European Union, very close to the Jewish community in Zagreb, hundreds of people gathered yesterday in memory of one of Europe’s biggest mass killers,” said director of the Israeli office of the center, Efraim Zuroff.

Zuroff said that marking 55 years since Pavelic’s death is “an insult to hundreds of thousands of his victims” and that it represents “a badge of shame” for the Catholic Church.

On the anniversary of Ante Pavelic’s death masses are regularly held in Zagreb and Split, reported AFP agency.

Pavelic died in Madrid on December 28 1959, allegedly from wounds he sustained two years earlier in Buenos Aires, where he escaped in 1945.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Egypt: 16 Brotherhood Members Arrested in Giza: Interior Ministry

Sixteen alleged members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested in several districts in Giza on charges of vandalism and inciting in violence, Egypt’s interior ministry said on Sunday.

Since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Egypt’s police has sustained a crackdown on the Brotherhood, arresting thousands of its supporters and killing hundreds while dispersing protests.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Sisi is Just Another Caliphate-Idealizing Apologist for Islam Whose in-Actions Speak Louder Than His Hollow Words

Despite the gushing over Egyptian President Sisi’s New Years Day, 2015 speech (to Al-Azhar University and the Awqaf Ministry), I will remain entirely unimpressed until his rhetoric can be: (I) reconciled with Sisi’s support for Islam’s Caliphate system, accompanied by his vociferous denunciation of Western secularism; (II) matched by concrete actions which demonstrate he is willing to oppose the ongoing application, for example, of Sharia “blasphemy” law directed at hapless Coptic Christians in his own beloved Egypt.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Tomb of Previously Unknown Pharaonic Queen Found in Egypt

Cairo (AFP) — Czech archaeologists have unearthed the tomb of a previously unknown queen believed to have been the wife of Pharaoh Neferefre who ruled 4,500 years ago, officials in Egypt said Sunday.

The tomb was discovered in Abu Sir, an Old Kingdom necropolis southwest of Cairo where there are several pyramids dedicated to pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty, including Neferefre.

The name of his wife had not been known before the find, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty said in a statement.

He identified her as Khentakawess, saying that for the “first time we have discovered the name of this queen who had been unknown before the discovery of her tomb”.

That would make her Khentakawess III, as two previous queens with the same name have already been identified.

Her name and rank had been inscribed on the inner walls of the tomb, probably by the builders, Damaty said.

A Bleak Holiday Season for Petra, Dead Sea Hotels — Hoteliers

The holiday season will not salvage this year for hotels in Petra as in previous years, when the number of visitors used to increase, according to sector representatives.

Describing the situation as “disastrous”, JHA General Manager Yassar Al Majali said the tourism sector is still being impacted by regional turmoil, and tourist sites are the most affected. This has had a negative impact on the industry, leaving hotels with low occupancy rates.

Dead Sea hotels, which usually attract Jordanians who spend the winter holidays there, have also been affected, with a 20 per cent occupancy rate expected on New Year’s Eve, according to Majali.

Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) Director General Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat said in previous remarks to The Jordan Times that JTB will soon release a new three-year plan that aims to promote the country’s tourism sector, and attract more visitors to historical and archaeological sites.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Kuwait: Hundreds of Senior Citizens Abandoned in Hospitals — Relatives Refuse to Take Them Back Home

A high-ranking health ministry official blew the whistle on a very tragic issue, declaring that Kuwaiti public hospitals were full of hundreds of senior citizens who had finished receiving medical care and needed to go back home where family bonds would help cure them and relieve their pain. “Unfortunately, those senior citizens’ relatives have been refusing to take them home,” he revealed.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that the scores of patients aged 60 to 90 had already received the medical treatment they needed and had to be discharged. “Nonetheless, those patients’ ungrateful children or relatives who had not been so visiting them left them in hospital for months,” added the official, noting that many of the patients’ children and relatives had been notified of the need to discharge the patients.

“Some of them promised to take them home, while others got angry for being told so and blamed the hospitals for what they described as ‘interfering in personal affairs’ and immediately started criticizing the medical body for not ‘shouldering its responsibilities towards citizens’,” explained the official.

Moreover, the official explained that most of the senior citizens suffered from chronic diseases that could be dealt with at home, but instead were receiving such care by nurses in private rooms that are badly needed for more critical cases. “We cannot force a citizen out of a private hospital room, but where will they go as long as their relatives refuse taking them?” the official exclaimed.

In addition, the official stressed that these patients’ relatives had been repeatedly reminded that senior citizens get enough social security pensions, including KD 559 to all women over fifty, granting widows their late husbands’ pensions, men’s pension, senior citizens’ care, house call doctors and medical care at home. He added that despite being threatened that such incentives might be stopped if their cases were reported, many of the relatives have not responded and still kept their ageing relatives in hospitals. — Al-Rai

— Hat tip: RR [Return to headlines]



Syrians Constitute One-Fifth of Amman Population — Official Figures

AMMAN — Syrians constitute nearly 20 per cent of Amman’s population, according to officials.

On Monday, Interior Minister Hussein Majali told a group of MPs that there are over 791,000 Syrians residing in the capital, whose overall population has recently been estimated at four million.

In April this year, Amman Mayor Aqel Biltaji said that the population of the capital had risen to around four million due to various factors that include domestic migration and the influx of refugees from neighbouring countries.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



EU Considering Launch of Russian-Language TV Station

Latvian foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics has told BuzzFeed News the EU is considering launching a new Russian-language TV station to counter Russian propaganda in the former Soviet region. He noted it would include entertainment and “very factually accurate news”, but would not amount to a pro-EU “propaganda” vehicle.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Further Sanctions Will Destabilise Russia: Germany

Tougher sanctions may destabilise the situation further in Russia and plunge the country into chaos, German deputy chancellor Sigmar Gabriel warned in a newspaper interview on Sunday.

“The goal was never to push Russia politically and economically into chaos,” Gabriel told the Bild am Sonntag.

“Whoever wants that will provoke a much more dangerous situation for all of us in Europe,” he said, pointing out that Russia was a nuclear power.

“Those who want to destabilise Russia economically and politically even more are pursuing completely different interests,” said Gabriel, who is also Germany’s economy minister.

Some in Europe and in the United States want to see the old arch-rival Russia on its knees, but Gabriel said: “That is not Germany’s or Europe’s interest.”

“We want to help solve the conflict in Ukraine, not to force Russia to its knees,” he said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany Warns Against Tougher Sanctions on Russia

Germany’s deputy chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, has warned against destabilizing Russia through too severe sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. He said an unstable Russia would pose a danger to all of Europe.

The European Union and the United States have imposed heavy economic sanctions on Russia both for its annexation of Crimea early last year and for its alleged role in the Ukraine crisis, accusing it of fueling a pro-Russian insurgency there by supplying the rebels with weapons and troops.

The sanctions, along with plummeting oil prices, sent the ruble into free fall against the dollar last year and raised the specter of a possible deep recession.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Grandmaster Putin: Russia Earns $20 Bln, Recovers Stocks of Its Companies

Russia made an unexpected “knight move”. They tricked everyone and in few days earned $20 billion plus recovered 30% of its companies, Serbian Daily “Novosti” reports.

Prior to this, part of the stocks of Russian energetic companies belonged to the foreign investors (American and European) which meant that almost half of the profit from oil and gas companies did not went to Russian treasury, but to accounts of “financial sharks” in Europe, writes “Novosti”.

Because of the situation in Crimea, ruble began to fall dramatically, but Central Bank did nothing to support the exchange rate of ruble. Rumors appeared that Russia does not have sufficient money stock in order to support the exchange rate of ruble.

Those rumors and Putin’s statement that he will protect Russian speaking population in Ukraine led to a dramatic fall in value of the stocks of Russian energetic companies, and “financial sharks” suddenly started to sell the stocks on the stock market before they completely lost their value.

Putin waited for an entire week and only smiled at press conferences, and when the price of the stocks completely fell, he ordered immediate purchase of all stocks which were in hands of Americans and Europeans…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Russia to Deliver 500 000 Tonnes of Coal Per Month to Ukraine

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak has informed that the country is ready to supply up to one million tonnes of coal per month to Ukraine to help it solve its energy problems.

Kozak, as cited by RIA Novosti, made clear that Russia would supply Ukraine with 500 000 tonnes of coal per month, with an option to double the deliveries, in case an additional agreement was signed on the matter.

Ukraine has been experiencing problems with power generation due to coal shortages…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



China Boosts Investment in Central and Eastern Europe

At the third summit of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), held in Belgrade on 16 and 17 December, China announced new funds and ventures with the region, stressing that the cooperation will be in line with European standards. EurActiv Serbia reports.

Some see the strengthening of cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries as the making of a new “Silk Road,” while others believe it is a way for the Chinese to further their presence in the greater EU market.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Boko Haram Seizes Military Base in Nigeria

(CNN)Hundreds of Islamist militants have seized a multinational military base in northeastern Nigeria, according to a government official.

“Boko Haram overwhelmed the Multinational Joint Task Force and dislodged them from their base outside Baga after hours-long fighting,” said Maina Ma’aji Lawan, a Nigerian senator ?from the state of Borno, where Baga is located.

“They came in huge numbers heavily armed and subdued the multinational troops consisting (of) soldiers from Nigeria, Niger and Chad,” Lawan said.

Boko Haram Seizes Military Base in Nigeria: Witnesses

Suspected Boko Haram militants have seized a military base outside the Nigerian town of Baga near Lake Chad after engaging troops in a fierce battle that lasted several hours, witnesses said on Sunday.

“They (the militants) overwhelmed the troops and forced them to abandon the base which the gunmen took over,” local resident Usman Danssubdu told AFP after fleeing to neighbouring Chad following Saturday’s raid.

The base is used by the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) which was established in 1998 and is made up of troops from Nigeria as well as Niger and Chad.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Nigeria: Christians Debunk Reports That Muslims Protected Christians

By Robert Spencer

The feel-good story was widely reported: on Christmas day in Nigeria, Muslims protected Christians at churches, thereby demonstrating that the vast majority of peaceful Muslims reject the jihad terror agenda and stand with non-Muslims for peace and pluralism. The only problem was that it wasn’t true — it was just another example of mainstream media mythmaking and wishful thinking.

“CAN Debunks Reports Than Muslims Protected Christians,” by Clement Ejiofor, NAIJ.com, December 31, 2014:

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kaduna State debunked reports that some Muslims protected Christians during Christmas celebration.

It would be recalled that earlier this week it was provided that 200 Muslim youths took part in Kaduna church services to protect Christians. The move was reportedly aimed at strengthening peaceful coexistence between the two groups.

However December 31, Reverend Sunday Ibrahim, the secretary of the Kaduna State chapter of CAN, made the refutation in a statement, Sahara Reported informs.

He disclosed that unlike claimed, the usual security agents were drafted for this mission…

— Hat tip: K [Return to headlines]



EU Migration: Traffickers ‘Made $3m’ On Ship to Italy

Police in Italy believe traffickers made some $3m (£1.9m; €2.5m) from 359 illegal migrants found abandoned on a cargo ship in the Mediterranean.

The Ezadeen was towed into the Italian port of Corigliano Calabro after being found by coast guards on Friday.

Most of those aboard appear to be Syrians, in the second such case involving a freighter this week.

Both ships reportedly started in Turkey, in a change from the Libyan route usually favoured by gangs.

The police chief of Cosenza province, Luigi Liguori, said each migrant had paid between $4,000 and $8,000 to board the ship.

Officers say that the smugglers wore hoods and locked the migrants in the ship’s hold before apparently abandoning ship on a lifeboat.

Mr Tomaiuolo told BBC News that one Syrian migrant, who asked for his name not to be given, told him he had paid “Turkish mafia” 7,000 euros for himself and 7,000 euros for his pregnant wife to make the journey.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Italy’s Second ‘Ghost Ship’ Rescue Prompts EU Pledge on Migrants

A cargo ship abandoned by its crew with 359 Syrian refugees on board was towed ashore in Italy on Saturday in the second such rescue this week, prompting calls for stronger European Union action in the face of new tactics by human traffickers.

The Ezadeen, a Sierra-Leone-flagged vessel that had set sail from Turkey, docked in the southern Italian port of Corigliano Calabro. The passengers, including 62 minors, were in good condition and were being transferred to immigration centres and foster homes across Italy, coastguard and police officials said.