Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/6/2013

Our email service has returned, and the news feed is once again full. The backlog of email is incredible — it’s like I went away on vacation, except that I have no suntan or souvenirs to show for it. If you emailed us between Thursday night and this afternoon, and got a permanent bounce, you may need to resend the message.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has found herself in hot water after being seen with several children in blackface during an Epiphany celebration. It is a Central European tradition for children to dress up as the Three Magi during such celebrations, and one of the magi is usually in blackface to symbolize the tradition that one of the kings was African. Some observers, however, consider the custom racist, and an inappropriate activity for a German chancellor.

In other news, relations between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have worsened after the arrest of at least ten Egyptians in the UAE on charges of spying for the Muslim Brotherhood.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, Kitman, Steen, 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.

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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.