‘Boozed-Up’ Plane Passenger Duct-Taped to His Seat to Stop Rampage: Sources
A JFK-bound passenger flying high on duty-free liquor had to be duct-taped to his seat to stop a midair rampage — which included shouts that the plane was going down, sources said yesterday.
Gudmundur Karl Arthorsson, 46, tried to choke and grope several people and was spitting all over the cabin when passengers pounced on him about halfway into the Thursday flight from Reykjavik, Iceland.
“He drank an entire bottle of hard liquor two to three hours into the flight,” said Manhattan resident Andy Ellwood, who posted on his blog a photo of Arthorsson taped to his seat.
Arthorsson looked so loaded, a flight attendant confiscated two liquor bottles, a source said.
The relentless drunk then “went into the seat pocket in front of him and began consuming a variety of mini bottles,” the source added.
His choice of booze included Grand Marnier, whiskey and schnapps, a source said.
Arthorsson was fairly calm until about 4 p.m., nearly two hours before the flight was scheduled to land.
He “became intoxicated, verbally abusive toward the flight crew as well as other passengers,” a police source said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Miguel Caballero has developed bulletproof clothing to protect children from shooting sprees — and the US is his main market. The designer hopes to sell his collection to parents who fear for their children’s safety.
Violence, death and murder are a normal part of day-to-day life for a creative businessman with factories in Mexico and Colombia. Both countries are flashpoints in the Latin American drug war. Some call his choice of locations macabre, others business-minded.
“The US is where the market is for children’s products,” he says. “They have their own problems there.”
And the Colombian designer Caballero believes he has the solutions.
They’re called V-Bag, Puffer Kids, T-Shirt Kids and Safety Vest, and they’re meant to protect children from the kind of attacks that happened recently in Newton, Connecticut.
The “Kids” T-shirt, for example, is constructed of highly modern, bullet-proof polymeric fibers. They’re supposed to be able to withstand the heaviest of bullets. The T-shirt is light and can be worn inconspicuously as an undershirt.
With Caballero’s shirts, blouses and jackets, the children at least have a small chance of survival, the designer says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four Dead in Hostage-Taking in Aurora, Colorado
(Reuters) — Four people were dead including the gunman following a hostage-taking incident on Saturday in Aurora, Colorado, the same town where a man shot dead 12 people and wounded 58 more at a movie theater last July, Denver-area media reported.
Police fired tear gas and entered the home after several hours of failed negotiations with the gunman, who had barricaded himself inside, and shot him dead, KUSA television reported. Inside they found three other people shot dead, media reports said.
The victims were believed to be related to the gunman, the Denver Post reported, citing Aurora police spokeswoman Cassidee Carlson.
Police reached by telephone in Aurora offered no immediate information on the situation.
Police notified neighbors of an emergency around 3 a.m. (1000 GMT) and evacuated several blocks, Carlson told KUSA.
One person inside had escaped and alerted authorities, KUSA said.
The gunman fired on a police vehicle around 8 a.m., leading to an exchange of gunfire, KMGH television said. At that time police saw a lifeless body for the first time…
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Salvors Ready Shell Drill Ship for Tow Attempt
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC will try to move its grounded drill ship out of the worst of the North Pacific’s fury with a towing attempt when conditions allow.
Shell incident commander Sean Churchfield said at a press conference Saturday that naval architects have pronounced the Kulluk fit to be towed. The attempt will depend on weather, tides and readiness, he said.
“I can’t offer you firm times. Right now, the preparation for the tow depends on the weather and operational constraints,” Churchfield said. “We will be looking to move the vessel as soon as we are ready and able.”
If the drill ship can be pulled from the rocks off Sitkalidak Island, it will be towed 30 miles to shelter in Kodiak Island’s Kiliuda Bay, a cove about 43 miles southeast of the city of Kodiak.
The Kulluk is a circular barge 266 feet in diameter with a funnel-shaped, reinforced steel hull that allows it to operate in ice. One of two Shell ships that drilled last year in the Arctic Ocean, it has a 160-foot derrick rising from its center and no propulsion system of its own.
The tow attempt will be made by the same vessel that lost the Kulluk last month while attempting to move it to Seattle. A line between the 360-foot anchor handler, the Aiviq, and the Kulluk broke Dec. 27. Four re-attached lines between the Aiviq or other vessels also broke in stormy weather.
The attempt to rein in the drill ship was complicated by engine failure experienced by the Aiviq’s four engines. A preliminary investigation pointed to bad fuel but that is not conclusive, Churchfield said. The Edison Chouest Offshore crew has treated fuel and changed filters.
“Thus far, we have not seen a repeat of those problems,” he said.
Fuel tanks remain intact on the Kulluk and there are no plans to remove an estimated 150,000 gallons of diesel from the Kulluk, which would present a different set of risks, Churchfield said. Other cargo also will remain.
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Sweden: Centre Party Faces Internal Rebellion
Resistance is growing within the ranks of the Centre Party over a radical new party programme which includes proposals on free immigration, polygamy and an end to compulsory schooling.
Several regional party chapters in southern Sweden are now organizing against the proposed 2013 party programme, reports the newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
In December leading Centre Party members in the southern region of Skåne said they were planning to draft a counter proposal ahead of the party convention in March.
They claimed that the proposed programme shows that there is a great rift between a neo-liberal “Stockholm Centre” and “the classic core voters in rural areas”.
But opinions are split in Stockholm, too.
“There was a crisis even before this proposal came. Where is the support for polygamy?” said Hans Lindqvist, a Stockholm County Council politician.
“I have a hard time seeing that anyone would be against it in the Stockholm region”, said Centre Party MP Fredrick Federley.
Now, a number of regional chapters in southern Sweden are joining forces with Skåne to oppose the proposed programme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Isleworth Stabbing Suspect Charged With Murder
A man has been charged with murder after a 23-year-old was found stabbed to death in west London.
Darryl McClymont was found with knife wounds in Ferney Meade Way, Isleworth, close to midnight on 29 December, and died at the scene.
Mohamed Aradour, 23, of Kennington, south London, is accused of murdering Mr McClymont, who was from Isleworth.
Mr Aradour is due before Camberwell Magistrates’ Court, on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jail for Kosovan Thugs Who Kicked and Stabbed Compatriot
Tottenham, Enfield, North London; Barking, Essex
Five Kosovan thugs who joined a mob that kicked, punched and stabbed a compatriot for being from the wrong part of London are facing jail today (FRI). Ada Alia was left ‘shocked and traumatised’ after he was savagely attacked during Kosovo independence day celebrations in central London. CCTV footage captured Denis Boneri, 19, Armand Krasniqi, 22, Urim Ponari, 21, Dardan Terstena, 18, and Togant Ponazi, 20, chasing Mr Alia until he tripped in a side street off Northumberland Avenue.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Omar Binbasilar: Armed Forces Charity Boss Nicked a Fortune
Epping An armed forces charity chief has been jailed for stealing £43,000 to fund his online gambling addiction. Former soldier Omar Binbasilar, 55, plundered the cash from the Regular Forces Employment Association (RFEA) which helps servicemen and women find work once they leave the forces He faked 58 invoices to syphon the cash out of the charity and into a specially set up account to hide the money Finance director Binbasilar said he turned to gambling after his job became ‘increasingly stressful and demanding.’
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo Bars Entry to Serbian President Nikolic
Pristina has denied entry to Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic in response to Belgrade refusing entry to Kosovar officials. The leader has wanted to visit a monastery for an Orthodox Christmas celebration.
Kosovo officials on Saturday said they had rejected the Serbian president’s entry request to visit to the Gracanica monastery to attend an Orthodox Christian Christmas service on Monday.
The denial of entry to Nikolic was said to have come in response to four Kosovo government ministers being refused entry to Serbia during 2012.
Kosovan Deputy Premier Hajredin Kuci told the newspaper that Nikolic would be allowed to visit only once Serbia permitted Pristina officials to visit ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia.
“Nikolic will be able to visit Kosovo only when (he) provides reciprocity in visits for our leaders,” Kuci told journalists, adding the decision had been made in consultation with international partners.
The message was reinforced by Kosovo, Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi said at a news conference on Saturday. “If our officials are not allowed to go to Serbia certainly we will apply the same measures,” said Rexhepi.
Nikolic, who once headed Serbia’s ruling nationalist Progressive Party, said that the European Union authority had shown bias by allowing Kosovo authorities to make the decision on whether he could enter. EULEX said that it had no jurisdiction over regulating visits, deferring this to authorities in Kosovo.
Most of Kosovo’s population is ethnically Albanian, with Islam the predominant religion.
Serbs celebrate Christmas on January 7 in accordance with the Serbian Orthodox Church which adheres to the Julian calendar instead of the modern, more widely-used Gregorian.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Brotherhood Took ‘Billions’ From Obama: Egypt Lawyers
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has been accused of taking 10 billion Egyptian pounds (U.S. $1.5 billion) from the American government, according to claims by Egyptian lawyers.
An immediate investigation into the accusation was ordered by Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah on Thursday.
The lawyers, Mohamed Ali Abd al-Wahab and Yasser Mohamed Sayab, filed the complaint against the Muslim Brotherhood for the allegedly illegal money transaction, Egypt’s private daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Jan. 3.
The complaint noted that Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for the recent U.S. presidential election, had said that $1.5 billion was given to support Egypt’s Brotherhood by the Obama administration.
In addition, the lawyers accused the Muslim Brotherhood of having armed mercenaries or a “third party,” who have instigated violence during and after the revolutionary uprising in the country.
The armed mercenaries are trained in the desert, which lies between the city of Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh in Egypt, the lawyers alleged.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Building Software to Control Networking Sites
Iran’s police chief says the Islamic Republic is developing new software to control social networking sites.
Gen. Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam was quoted in Iranian newspapers Saturday as saying the new software will prevent Iranians from being exposed to malicious content online while allowing users to enjoy the benefits of the Internet. He did not say when the software would be introduced.
Moghadam also did not specify which social networking sites would be affected, but both Facebook and Twitter are popular in Iran.
Iranians currently have access to most of the Internet, although authorities block some sites affiliated with the opposition, as well as those that are seen as promoting dissent or considered morally corrupt.
Iran created a government agency last year to oversee Internet usage in the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Actor Depardieu in Russia to Meet Putin
(Reuters) — French film star Gérard Depardieu arrived in Russia on Saturday to meet President Vladimir Putin, who granted him citizenship after a public spat in France over his efforts to avoid a potential 75 percent income tax.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two would meet in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where Putin was spending part of the 10-day New Year and Russian Orthodox Christmas holiday.
He said it was possible Putin would hand Depardieu his Russian passport during the meeting.
“It is a private meeting, we will not be releasing any other details,” Peskov said by phone.
Russian media quoted him as saying the meeting would take place on Saturday. Depardieu’s spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
On Thursday, the Kremlin announced that Putin had signed a decree granting Russian citizenship to Depardieu, who objected to Socialist president Francois Hollande’s plan to impose a 75 percent tax rate on millionaires.
Depardieu is a popular figure in Russia, where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns, including for ketchup. He also worked there in 2011 on a film about the eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin.
The star of the movies “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Green Card” was also among the Western celebrities invited in 2012 to celebrate the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed strongman leader of Russia’s Chechnya province who is accused by rights groups of crushing dissent.
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Juvenile Suspect in India Gang Rape Reportedly Ripped Her Intestines Out in Attack
Gruesome details have emerged about the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in India last month, with a report that the youngest of the woman’s six attackers—believed to be a juvenile— was the most brutal, according to a report in the Indian newspaper Hindustan Times.
The paper reported that a charge sheet on the case suggests the juvenile suspect assaulted the female student twice and pulled out her intestines with his bare hands. The juvenile—who Delhi police have not identified while they determine his exact age—also wanted to strip the victim naked and throw her off the moving bus.
Police say the young man subjected the woman to sexual abuse once when she was conscious, and again after she was beaten so severely she lost consciousness.
Police are treating the suspect as a juvenile based on school information, while waiting for a physical report to confirm his age.
While the five other male adult suspects have been charged and may face the death penalty, if the sixth suspect is a juvenile, he could receive a more lenient sentence by law.
“Of all the persons in the bus, two had engaged in the most barbarism — Ram Singh, the main accused in the case, and the juvenile,” an officer told the Hindustan Times.
The victim and her male friend boarded the bus Dec. 16, after seeing a movie. When the bus took a different route, the friend argued with one of the alleged attackers before an altercation ensued.
Police said the juvenile and another suspect hit the male victim in the head with an iron rod which they later inserted into the woman’s body, resulting in severe organ damage.
The woman and her companion were thrown off the bus after the brutal attack. The female victim spent ten days in a New Delhi hospital, where doctors treated her for massive internal injuries. She was later flown to a Singapore hospital specializing in multi-organ transplants, where she died on December 29th.
A hearing on the charges is expected Saturday as part of a new fast-track court developed this week to handle rape cases in New Delhi.
The attack sparked anger and thousands took to the streets across India, demanding stricter laws and police reform in crimes against women.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Warns Citizens Against Fighting in Syria
Australians who take part in the fighting in Syria face up to 20 years in jail, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Bob Carr said on Friday after a Melbourne man was reportedly killed in the conflict.
The spokesman said the government was aware of reports that more than 100 Australians had engaged in the conflict since 2011 but he had “no evidence” of any citizens currently involved.
“Anyone in Australia who recruits someone to fight overseas faces seven years.”
[…]many people travelling to Syria claimed they were providing humanitarian support to the war-torn nation but were instead involved in the fighting.
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Don’t Go to Syria to Fight, Warns Carr
Foreign Minister Bob Carr says he doesn’t believe the war in Syria will lead to tensions within Australia’s ethnic communities.
Members of non-English speaking communities have reportedly been among more than 100 Australians believed to have travelled to Syria to fight in the conflict, born of an anti-government uprising in early 2011.
Senator Carr says he cannot comment on Australian Federal Police investigations into Australians who may have engaged in combat in Syria, and warns that doing so breaks Australian law.
But he says he’s confident members of migrant communities understand they shouldn’t participate in the Syrian conflict.
“We’re in Australia. Common sense prevails. People understand that this is not a dispute for Australians to take up arms about. What we say — and this is our multiculturalism that we value so highly — is that we expect your loyalties to be to Australia and Australian interests. You can be proud of your heritage, but your loyalty has to be to Australia, and if that’s your position, taking arms in the Syrian civil war is wrong.”
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuela Lawmakers Elect Chavez Ally as Assembly Chief
Reuters) — Venezuelan lawmakers re-elected a staunch ally of Hugo Chavez to head the National Assembly on Saturday, putting him in line to be caretaker president if the socialist leader does not recover from cancer surgery.
By choosing the incumbent, Diosdado Cabello, the “Chavista”-dominated legislature cemented the combative ex-soldier’s position as the third most powerful figure in the government, after Chavez and Vice President Nicolas Maduro.
“As a patriot … I swear to be supremely loyal in everything I do, to defend the fatherland, its institutions, and this beautiful revolution led by our Comandante Hugo Chavez,” Cabello said as he took the oath, his hand on the constitution.
He had earlier warned opposition politicians against attempting to use the National Assembly to “conspire” against the people, saying they would be “destroyed” if they tried.
Thousands of the president’s red-clad supporters gathered outside parliament hours before the vote, many chanting: “We are all Chavez! Our comandante will be well! He will return!”
If Chavez had to step down, or died, Cabello would take over the running of the country as Assembly president and a new election would be organized within 30 days. Chavez’s heir apparent, Maduro, would be the ruling Socialist Party candidate.
Chavez, who was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in his pelvic area in mid-2011, has not been seen in public nor heard from in more than three weeks.
Officials say the 58-year-old is in delicate condition and has suffered multiple complications since the December 11 surgery, including unexpected bleeding and severe respiratory problems.
Late on Friday, Maduro gave the clearest indication yet that the government was preparing to delay Chavez’s inauguration for a new six-year term, which is scheduled for Thursday.
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Gay clergy in civil partnerships can become bishops, following an apparent U-turn from the Church of England.
Despite rejecting proposals to allow women to become bishops, a new ruling means homosexual men can be appointed as long as they remain chaste and repent for any past sexual acts.
The Right Reverend Graham James, Bishop of Norwich, released a statement on behalf of the Church yesterday, saying it would be ‘unjust’ to exclude them if they were ‘living in accordance with the teaching of the Church on human sexuality’.
The issue has split the established Church since 2003 when gay cleric Jeffrey John was made Bishop of Reading, but forced to step down after protests.
Now in a chaste civil partnership and serving as Dean of St Albans, he would be allowed to apply for another post.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
English Catholic Bishop Endorses ‘Prophetic’ Humanae Vitae
In a pastoral letter dated December 30, the Church’s feast of the Holy Family, Egan brought up a “very challenging and controversial” subject: that “that sexual intercourse is an integral act for love and for life, and that these two aspects of sexuality — love and life — cannot be divorced.”
Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical letter reiterating the Catholic Church’s longstanding prohibition against artificial contraception was widely vilified in the secular world, and virtually denied even by the Catholic bishops of the time. For years in the lead-up to its release, priests had assumed that the teaching would be changed in the advent of the hormonal birth control pill and the sexual revolution. The encyclical came as a shock to many Catholics who had been expecting a reversal.
“Humanae Vitae was a prophetic document,” Egan wrote. In it, Paul VI warned of “catastrophic consequences” if the dual purposes of sex in marriage were to be separated: the procreation of children and the unity of the spouses.
Now, “45 years on,” Egan wrote, “we can see what he meant in such things as the reduction of sex to a leisure activity, the trafficking of people for prostitution and pornography, broken family relationships, and the explosion of addictive behaviors leading to despair, shame, and guilt.”
“We don’t want to end up like Norway”, Cameron warns as he refuses to give up Britain’s seat at the EU’s table
Mr Cameron explicitly rejected the idea of replicating the status of countries like Norway and Switzerland which have refused to join the EU, but are forced to sign up to many of its rules in order to access the single market.
But he pledged voters would get a ‘real choice’ on Britain’s relationship with the EU, including attempting to claw back powers.
However, UKIP Leader Nigel Farage said the British people could not believe what Mr Cameron says.
Mr Farage said: ‘He sits there and thinks his great extended tease about this forthcoming Europe speech is entertaining, it is not.
No matter what he says now, after so many broken promises, so many “cast-iron guarantees”, can anybody honestly believe that he will be telling the truth this time? The simple fact is that he wants us to stay in the European Union no matter how it is configured.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257047/We-dont-want-end-like-Norway-Cameron-warns-refuses-Britains-seat-EUs-table.html
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Huge Opposition Mounts Against Gay ‘Marriage’ In UK
(PJSaunders) — With the coalition government about to publish their bill to legalise gay marriage in England and Wales there has been a huge increase in opposition to the measure over the last two months.
Over 624,000 people have now signed the Coalition for Marriage (C4M) petition against the redefinition of marriage which simply reads as follows:
‘I support the legal definition of marriage which is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. I oppose any attempt to redefine it.’
The petition has overwhelmed that of the ‘Campaign for equal Marriage’ (C4EM) which has attracted only 64,000 signatures, just over 10% of C4M’s total.
This underlines the growing suspicion that the push to legalise gay marriage is the concern of a small liberal elite which does not speak for the majority.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
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