But the police outside weren’t much use. Overwhelmed by the mass of people in the main square in front of the station and trying to keep the situation under control, the authorities ended up forcing Duncan back into the crowd. From there, she found herself surrounded by another group of young men who started grabbing her body, pulling her hair and trying to push her down.”At that point I was pretty stressed-out, and pretty scared, ” she said.Unbeknownst to the American at the time, she was caught up in an event that would make headlines around the world and throw intense scrutiny on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policies in Germany. Hundreds of women reported being assaulted around the train station that night, mostly by men who appeared to be of North African or Arab descent. Since then, concern has grown in some circles about the possibility of truly integrating Middle Eastern refugees into Germany, and Merkel’s government has ramped up efforts to deport many of them back to their home countries.While the media coverage of that night shed light on many horrifying episodes, it also had the effect of obscuring some of the more positive developments. Duncan’s experience is one such example.After she managed to break away from the crowd, the American once again talked to the police – who, once again, seemed incapable of helping her. Desperate to find her boyfriend, who had her wallet and her phone, she hung around the edges of the crowd, scared and frustrated.Around that time, a young Middle Eastern man came up to her and asked, in German, if he could help her. Since she didn’t speak German and he didn’t speak English, the man called over one of his friends, Hesham Ahmad Mohammad, who did speak English.’We can help you’ Despite the fallout from the events, Ahmad Mohammad says he’s not afraidA 32-year-old former teacher, Ahmad Mohammad had, along with his four friends, braved an arduous journey from his native Syria to reach Germany, where he had been living for six months. The trek had taken the group to Turkey, then to Greece by boat, then through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria, until finally they reached the Bavarian city of Passau.The five men, all of whom now lived in different parts of western Germany and had therefore not seen each other since their arrival, had chosen to reunite in Cologne for New Year’s Eve. But what they saw when they arrived at the central station shocked them. The people were extremely rowdy, Ahmad Mohammad said, and he even witnessed an attempted robbery.”We knew [shortly after we arrived] that that’s a dangerous place for us, because we saw that many people were drinking and they lost their minds,” he told DW.When he and his friends came across Duncan, he said the American was crying and clearly “afraid of all men.”After a while he convinced Duncan to let them help her. “At that time she said to me, ‘I’ve lost my friend and I am alone. I am American. I am here alone.’ I said to her, ‘You must stop crying. We can help you.'”As she set out once more to find her boyfriend, Ahmad Mohammad accompanied her. He said ten other men attempted to harass her, but he shielded her from them. Soon, his other friends also came to her aid, forming a circle around her.
Category Archives: Global Politics
Donald Trump invited to visit London mosque by UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Britain’s opposition leader has invited US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who sparked an outcry by calling for a ban on Muslims from entering the United States, to join him on a visit to a London mosque.The comments from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a socialist who represents a multi-ethnic district of north London, come a day before the British parliament debates a motion calling for a ban on half-Scottish Trump from visiting the country.”I decided to invite Donald Trump on his visit to Britain to come with me to my constituency because he has problems with Mexicans and he has problems with Muslims,” Mr Corbyn told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.”As you know my wife is Mexican and my constituency is very, very multi-cultural so what I was going to do was go down to the mosque with him and let him talk to people there,” he said.
U.S. Imposes New Sanctions Over Iran Missile Tests – The New York Times
The Obama administration announced Sunday that it was imposing new, more limited sanctions on some Iranian citizens and companies for violating United Nations resolutions against ballistic missile tests. The move came less than 24 hours after the White House lifted broader sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program.The announcement, which was prepared several weeks ago but delayed by the Treasury Department, was made shortly after a Swiss plane carrying Americans freed by the Iranian authorities departed Tehran. The release of the Americans came a day after Iran and the United States concluded delicate negotiations on a prisoner exchange tied indirectly to the completion of a nuclear agreement.
Source: U.S. Imposes New Sanctions Over Iran Missile Tests – The New York Times
Fervor in Oregon Compound and Fear Outside It – The New York Times


Unfamiliar people have been stalking refuge employees, idling outside their homes and questioning them at some of the few grocery stores in Burns, said the sheriff, Dave Ward. “While not direct physical threats,” he said in a statement recently, “these activities are clearly designed to try to intimidate.”Tensions escalated over the weekend when another band of outsiders arrived at the refuge’s entrance, toting long guns and promising to act as liaisons between law enforcement officials and the occupiers at Malheur. When the occupiers rebuffed the group, the newcomers headed to the county courthouse, surrounded it and demanded to meet with the sheriff. He acquiesced, but nothing came of the meeting.AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyAdvertisementContinue reading the main storyInside the occupied compound, life has settled into a sort of giddy war-room-style routine, one that mixes the mundane — laundry, snowball fights, nap time for the children — with bellicose talk of facing down federal agents and heading off what some people holed up in the compound say is a government plan to force all Americans to move to cities by 2040.“We expect the federal government to voluntarily step back, observe the Constitution and back off,” Ryan Bundy, who is leading the occupation with his brother Ammon, said in an interview at the compound. “They better back off,” Mr. Bundy continued. “If they don’t, then this is going to continue to happen.”PhotoZoey Justus, 9, came with her parents to meet the occupiers at the wildlife refuge. Credit Julie Turkewitz/The New York TimesOn Tuesday, the occupiers emerged once again at the entrance to the refuge, and a spokesman for the group, LaVoy Finicum, a rancher in his mid-50s from Arizona, stood before the microphone to announce that the protesters would travel to town on Friday evening “to explain to the community why we are here and when we will be leaving.”The refuge sits about 30 miles from Burns, in a remote area past snow-covered ranches and a single restaurant labeled “saloon.” The Bundy brothers, sons of a Nevada rancher named Cliven Bundy who made national news in 2014 for facing down the federal government over grazing fees on public lands, say they came here to support Dwight L. Hammond and his son Steven D. Hammond, who have been jailed for arson for setting fires that burned federal lands. However, the Hammond family and other local ranchers have said they do not welcome the gesture.The protesters, most of them from outside Oregon, have blocked off the entrance road with a conscripted government vehicle, and each morning they haul out a photo-ready horse named Hellboy for a quick news conference with reporters. The landscape is surveyed 24 hours a day by a rotating cast of armed watchmen who climb into a fire tower with broken windows.Each morning at 4, a man named Duane Ehmer takes Hellboy on a pre-dawn inspection of the refuge, an 1860 cavalry pistol clipped to his hip. “I’m looking for anybody that ain’t supposed to be there,” he said.PhotoAmmon Bundy, left, one of the occupation leaders, and one of his sons at the wildlife refuge on Saturday night. Credit Julie Turkewitz/The New York TimesDeeper inside, down an icy, tree-lined road, the group has seized about a dozen buildings, and the Bundy brothers have commandeered the cluttered office of Linda Sue Beck, a government biologist who had been leading a war on invasive carp before the occupiers took over.The heart of the protest, however, is a quarter-mile from the biologist’s office, at a bunkhouse with bedrooms and a large kitchen where women marinate chicken, grill salmon, bake brownies and organize a stockroom that swelling with donations from around the nation. To slip in, a reporter just has to ask.“We are here because we are needed. We were asked to come,” said Debra Bass, 61, a Nevadan who is running the kitchen. Speaking of Harney County ranchers, she said, “Our hope is to lift them up and give them the courage to fight back.”On any given day, there appeared to be about 25 people on the compound, though the number varies with visitors. The Justus family was visiting from Baker City, Ore., where they say they have been frustrated by management coming from Washington, D.C., including a plan they said would close hundreds of miles of roads in their area. “It’s like New York asking me to run a subway,” Mr. Justus said. “It doesn’t make sense.”Other visitors included Matt Wandersee, 26, a barber from Texas; Kristi Jernigan, 44, who described herself as a Christian missionary from Tennessee; and Paul Nelson O’Leary, an Idahoan who came dressed as one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Source: Fervor in Oregon Compound and Fear Outside It – The New York Times
Suicide Bomb Near Polio Center in Pakistan Kills at Least 16 – The New York Times
At least 16 people were killed on Wednesday in a suicide bombing outside a polio vaccination center in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, officials and witnesses said.Thirteen of the victims were police officers, said Syed Imtiaz Shah, a senior official with the Quetta police. He said the officers were there to guard polio workers, who are often targeted by Islamist militants in Pakistan.The attack came on the third day of a vaccination campaign in the province of Baluchistan, of which Quetta is the capital. The bomber, who was also killed, walked up to police officers and detonated what Mr. Shah said amounted to more than 20 pounds of explosives.A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Muhammad Khurrasani, claimed responsibility for the attack on the militants’ behalf. Two civilians and a paramilitary police officer were also killed, and 10 police officers and nine civilians were wounded.
Source: Suicide Bomb Near Polio Center in Pakistan Kills at Least 16 – The New York Times
Marseille anti-Semitic attacks spark debate over wearing skull caps | News | DW.COM | 12.01.2016
A string of anti-Semitic attacks in Marseille has raised questions over whether Jewish men and boys should wear their skullcaps. The city’s Jewish leader Zvi Ammar has urged Jews not to wear a kippa “until better days.”
Source: Marseille anti-Semitic attacks spark debate over wearing skull caps | News | DW.COM | 12.01.2016
Police: Cologne gangs attack foreigners | News | DW.COM | 11.01.2016
Cologne tabloid “Express” reported on Monday that a group of “bikers, hooligans and bouncers” had used Facebook to plan a “human hunt” to “clean up” Cologne’s city center. Early on Monday, a police spokesperson was unable to confirm the reports.On Sunday afternoon, police had received tipoffs about “groups,” which were “specifically looking for provocation,” police said. Officers were deployed in the city center and Cologne’s “Altstadt” quarter in large numbers. As the result of several identity checks, four people were briefly detained, reported a police spokesman. Whether they were among the attackers is yet to be determined. Two people also faced criminal charges.
Source: Police: Cologne gangs attack foreigners | News | DW.COM | 11.01.2016
Who benefits when the police allow white German and “immigrant” thugs to take charge of law and justice? Anyone buying brown shirts in bulk?
Israel Faces New Brand of Terrorism, This Time From Young Settlers – The New York Times
Shin Bet, says the younger Mr. Meyer belongs to a Jewish terrorist network, some of whose members have been charged with grave crimes, including the July arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents in the West Bank village of Duma. The two suspects in that case also spent time in these hills.The existence of the network, known as the Revolt for the title of its manifesto, became known about six months ago, after the arrest of several suspected members. This latest manifestation of Jewish terrorism is the creation of young extremists rebelling against what they view as the inertia of the Israeli establishment, and it has fermented in lawless outposts like Baladim, a tiny encampment outside Maale Shlomo, and Geulat Zion to the north.PhotoMr. Meyer at his lawyer’s office in Jerusalem. Mr. Meyer was held in administrative detention for five months as a suspect in arson attacks before being released last week, and remains under house arrest at night. Credit Rina Castelnuovo for The New York TimesShin Bet says the group poses a continuing danger of violence, and the authorities have gone after it using extraordinary methods that were previously reserved for Palestinians accused of terrorism. Suspects have been imprisoned without charge under administrative detention orders, and have been denied meetings with lawyers for as long as three weeks.
Source: Israel Faces New Brand of Terrorism, This Time From Young Settlers – The New York Times
Mohamed Sheka: The Young Egyptian Behind the Hurghada Attack | Nervana
In sum, regardless of the truth behind what happened in Hurghada, there is no doubt that Mohamed Sheka was a radicalized youth full of hate toward his country and the Western world, even rejecting any lenient explanations of Islamic texts. Sheka is now dead; the question, however, is how many of our youth are radicalized like him? And how can Egypt reverse such a disturbing phenomenon? I am not sure there are any easy answers to those questions.
Source: Mohamed Sheka: The Young Egyptian Behind the Hurghada Attack | Nervana
Jewish settlers bore into Palestinian children’s bedroom | The Electronic Intifada
Israel’s high court has temporarily halted the eviction of the Sub Laban family from their home in the Muslim quarter of occupied Jerusalem’s Old City, but that has not stopped Jewish settlers from harassing the family in an apparent attempt to pressure them to leave.On 3 January the family came home to find that the Jewish settlers who took over the adjacent apartment last month had drilled six large holes into the concrete walls of the children’s bedroom.The video above shows the surreal situation where family members could peer through the holes and see the settlers continuing to bore into the house.According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, the Sub Laban family called the police, who came to the house and asked the settlers to repair the damage, but took no further measures against them.
Source: Jewish settlers bore into Palestinian children’s bedroom | The Electronic Intifada









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