rpannier
rpannier's JournalNorway mosque shooting: One injured, suspect in custody
One person has been injured in a shooting inside a mosque in Norway, police said on Saturday, adding that a suspect had been apprehended.
The suspected shooter at the al-Noor Islamic Centre near the country's capital was described as "a young white man" who appeared to have acted alone, the police added.
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"The man carried two shotgun-like weapons and a pistol. He broke through a glass door and fired shots," he said.
The shooter, who wore body armour and a helmet, was overpowered by members of the mosque before police arrived, Mushtaq added.
link
https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/10/norway-mosque-shooting-one-injured-suspect-in-custody
5 Stories from Europe You May Not Have Seen
1. Greece scraps law banning police from university campuses
Greece’s newly elected, centre-right government has ignored leftists’ protests to overturn a law that had prohibited police from entering universities.
In a stormy debate preceding Thursday’s vote, the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, insisted the old law – regarded as sacrosanct in a country that had once known military rule – had turned campuses into dens of criminality and no-go zones for police.
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In recent years academics have been attacked on university sites, while drug addicts have been seen shooting up in broad daylight on campuses.
The law that has barred security forces from universities for close to 40 years was drafted in response to the decision of Greece’s colonels to send a tank crashing through the gates of Athens’ Polytechnic in 1973 – a move that resulted in the deaths of 23 students.
link
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/08/greece-scraps-law-banning-police-from-university-campuses
2. How a hashtag looks set to offer LGBTI people a #MeToo moment in Poland
Ten days ago, approaching the main city square where Białystok’s first ever LGBTI pride march was due to start, I was met with a scene of chaos
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For many Poles, the level of violence witnessed at the Pride March in Białystok came as a shock but it did not come from nowhere. Over the past few months, the Polish government and pro-government media have been increasingly spreading homophobic and transphobic propaganda and using homophobia as a rallying poing ahead of upcoming general elections.
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Two days ago, a young man called Tomasz tweeted a message suggesting that LGBTI people post photos of themselves “in school or work showing that we are the normal people whom you might meet anywhere: in the shop, on the street, the office”. He added the hashtag #jestemLGBT ("I am LGBT”) and for the last two days, it has been trending at the No.1 spot on Polish twitter, with thousands expressing solidarity by tweeting and re-tweeting.
Poles have used the hashtag on social media to show the people they are behind the labels: students, waitresses, firemen, doctors or just people you sit next to on a bus or pass in the street. “I'm fed up with the way the LGBTI community in Poland are dehumanised” tweeted Alexandra, a student. ”I am just a normal person. I get up, go to work, come home, make dinner for me and my girlfriend, go to a class, then go to bed." Tens of thousands of others are joining in, offering solidarity and support by tweeting #jestemzLGBT (I am with LGBTI) expressing solidarity with LGBTI people.
link
https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/31/how-a-hashtag-looks-set-to-offer-lgbti-people-a-metoo-moment-in-poland-view
3. Bosnia To Start Tracking Migrant Injuries After Alleged Beatings By Croatian Police
Authorities in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina say they will start recording injuries sustained by migrants after 18 of them were allegedly beaten by Croatian police near the two countries' border.
Una Sana Canton’s Health Minister Nermina Cemalovic made the announcement to RFE/RL on August 8, a day after 14 Pakistanis and four Iraqis were found with signs of physical trauma while trying to illegally cross the border into EU-member Croatia.
Bosnian media and a Croatian refugee assistance center said they were beaten by Croatian police, an allegation that Zagreb authorities deny.
link
https://www.rferl.org/a/bosnia-tracking-migrant-injuries-alleged-beatings-croatian-police/30100316.html
4. Two dead in explosion at military testing site in northern Russia: defence ministry
Two people died in an explosion at a military testing site in northern Russia on Thursday, according to RIA news agency, citing the ministry of defence.
Six people were injured in the incident near Severodvinsk in the Arkhangelsk region in the Russian Arctic, it added.
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It was the second accident involving the Russian military this week.
Massive explosions at a Russian military ammunition depot in Siberia injured at least eight people and prompted the evacuation of thousands Monday.
link
https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/08/two-dead-in-explosion-at-military-testing-site-in-northern-russia-defence-ministry
5. Pro-LGBT Coca-Cola adverts spark boycott calls in Hungary
Advertisements by Coca-Cola relating to a popular music festival in Hungary that promote gay acceptance have prompted a boycott call from a senior member of the conservative ruling party.
The posters are timed for the week-long Sziget festival – that takes the theme of “Love Revolution” and starts on Wednesday in Budapest – and show gay people and couples smiling with slogans such as “zero sugar, zero prejudice”.
That has annoyed some supporters of Viktor Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party, which opposes same-sex marriage.
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Tamás Dombos, an advocate with the Háttér gay rights group, said the government was homophobic but also aware of society’s growing acceptance of gay lifestyles.
link
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/05/pro-lgbt-coca-cola-ads-spark-boycott-calls-in-hungary
Thailand's Fugitive Ex-Prime Minister Gets Serbian Citizenship
Serbia has granted citizenship to Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who fled the Southeastern Asian country nearly two years ago to avoid prosecution.
Serbia’s Official Gazette published the notice about the decision on August 8.
The government decided to grant Yingluck citizenship on June 27, citing a legal provision that a foreign citizen can be granted Serbian citizenship if that’s in line with the country's interest.
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With a Serbian passport, the ex-prime minister can travel without a visa to more than 100 countries, including most of members of the European Union.
link:
https://www.rferl.org/a/thailand-s-fugitive-ex-prime-minister-gets-serbian-citizenship/30100018.html
Good for Serbia
Poland's parliament speaker Kuchcinski to resign in private flight scandal
Poland's parliament speaker, Marek Kuchcinski, said on Thursday he would resign after it was revealed that he used government aircraft for private trips by family members.
With elections set for October, the scandal has embarrassed the ruling right-wing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has said it is cleaning up an alleged legacy of graft and communist influence tolerated by previous governments.
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Political analysts said that until Thursday the PiS had adopted a wait and see approach, hoping the scandal would die off amidst the summer holiday lull.
But after Polish media published further details of the flights and pointed to discrepancies in explanations by Kuchcinski and the government, the potential damage became too serious to gloss over.
link
https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/08/poland-s-parliament-speaker-kuchcinski-to-resign-in-private-flight-scandal
'Useless to go ahead with daily quarrels': Italy's coalition government on brink of collapse
Source: euronews
Italy's ruling League party said on Thursday the only alternative to the current government was a fresh election, as it ruled out another cabinet reshuffle in the wake of growing policy differences with its coalition partner.
In reply, 5-Star said in a statement: ""The League note is incomprehensible. They have to clearly state what they want to do. They have to be clear".
The government looked to be nearing the brink of collapse yesterday, when the Italian Senate rejected a motion by 5-Star to block an alpine rail link with France, paving the way for the long-contested project to continue.
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League's leader Matteo Salvini said on Tuesday that tensions with 5-Star meant the government could soon collapse, and the parliamentary debate ahead of the Senate vote exposed the growing gulf between the two parties.
Read more: https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/08/useless-to-go-ahead-with-daily-quarrels-italy-s-coalition-government-on-brink-of-collapse
Has Anyone Seen The Turkmen President Lately?
The big news from Turkmenistan in the last few weeks has been that the country's mercurial president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, has been absent from the news for large periods of time.
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While officially on vacation, that has never stopped Turkmen state media from following Berdymukhammedov around in previous years.
But his absence from nightly Turkmen television newscasts and daily reports in state print media have some people seriously considering rumors that Berdymukhammedov is in poor health or possibly even dead.
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And RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, noted that Berdymukhammedov was wearing exactly the same suit and tie as he wore in a May 10 broadcast on state television, which is strange because he never wears the same suit -- or even the same clothes -- twice in his television appearances.
link
https://www.rferl.org/a/has-anyone-seen-turkmenistan-president/30095576.html
on edit:
Sounds like it's time for Acme Detective Agency to get going
Personally, it's likely he's dead or pretty close
But we'll see if he attends the Caspian Economic Forum, we'll know
Zoran Lazarevic has been crowned the mustache king
At a festival in rural Serbia, retired construction worker Zoran Lazarevic has been crowned the mustache king with white whiskers measuring 140 centimeters.
Video of the man, his 'stache and story at link
https://www.rferl.org/a/serbia-mustache-man/30097954.html
One Dead As Kyrgyz Forces Leave Ex-President's Compound, Hostages Freed
Source: rferl
KOI-TASH, Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyz forces withdrew from the village where former President Almazbek Atambaev resides early on August 8 after an unsuccessful attempt to arrest him in a raid that left one serviceman dead and 45 people hospitalized with injuries.
The decision was based on negotiations with Atambaev supporters who agreed to free all six servicemen whom they had taken hostage during the failed special forces operation on August 7.
Authorities moved on the former president’s compound to carry out a subpoena in an unspecified investigation, but were met with bloody resistance by Atambaev’s supporters.
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After parliament on June 27 voted to strip immunity from prosecution for former presidents, the embattled Atambaev has spent most of his time at his residential compound and has publicly stated that he has weapons.
Read more: https://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyz-police-storm-ex-president-s-house-near-bishkek/30097824.html
Video at link
'I am really shy': introducing Phoenix, the world's first hijab-wearing champion wrestler
Nor Diana can remember vividly the first time she stepped out to make her wrestling debut. Outside the ropes she had always been a quiet and studious hijab-wearing Malaysian woman, but here in the ring, dressed in black leather embossed with flames and as the crowd roared, she suddenly felt like a fire burst from inside her: here she was Phoenix.
Nor, who last month won Malaysia’s biggest wrestling tournament – defeating four men for the title – cuts an unlikely figure for a pro wrestler. A 19-year-old who is just 152cm (5ft) tall and weighs 43kg (94lbs), she speaks softly as she sits in her training centre in the town of Puchong, close to Kuala Lumpur, dressed in her hijab, wide glasses and floral baju kurung, traditional Malaysian dress.
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Indeed, over the past four years Phoenix has steadily grown to be one of the biggest names in Malaysian pro-wrestling, defying stigmas and the expectations often placed on Muslim women in Malaysian society and bringing in a whole new female crowd to the male-dominated sport. “The response has been amazing,” says Nor. “Last year, we had all-female wrestling tryouts and no one turned up. But this week we had tryouts and three hijabi girls came to the training.”
link
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/07/i-am-really-shy-introducing-phoenix-the-worlds-first-hijab-wearing-champion-wrestler
Tsunami Pool at Chinese water park lives up to name, injures dozens with bone-breaking giant wave
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Like a lot of similar facilities, Yulong Shuiyun Water Amusement Park has a wave pool. The park seems particularly proud of the intensity of its attraction, gong so far as to call it the “Tsunami Pool.” Unfortunately, last Monday that turned out to not really be much of an exaggeration, as this video, shot inside the park, shows.
After sending a series of normal-sized waves swimmers’ way, suddenly a much larger mass of water swells. Several times higher than the heads of the people in the pool, the giant wave doesn’t give them a playful push, but slams into them simultaneously from the front and above, carrying the first row of swimmers crashing into the people behind them. People further back can be seen struggling to get out of the way of the advancing mix of water, bodies, and flat rings, but you can only run so fast in water, and it’s only the guests at the far end of the pool, opposite where the wave formed, who aren’t caught in the mess.
In total, 44 guests were injured, including three who suffered broken ribs or legs.
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The Longjiang city government has denied early rumors that operator error was to blame, and is instead saying that its initial findings show that a power cut damaged the Tsunami Pool’s electronic equipment and caused a malfunction, though it’s not currently clear how a loss of power had the end result of making the machine-produced waves larger than intended.
https://soranews24.com/2019/08/02/tsunami-pool-at-chinese-water-park-lives-up-to-name-injures-dozens-with-bone-breaking-giant-wave/
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