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US cryptocurrency expert accused of assisting North Korea in evading sanctions

Bitfarms
© Lars Hagberg / AFP - Getty ImagesTwo technicians inspect bitcon mining at Bitfarms in Saint Hyacinthe, Quebec on March 19, 2018.
A man was arrested in California and accused of traveling to North Korea to deliver a presentation on using cryptocurrency and blockchain technology that could help the country evade sanctions, federal prosecutors in New York said Friday.

Virgil Griffith, 36, was arrested Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport after he allegedly traveled North Korea in April and provided technological information that could assist in evading sanctions imposed on the country by the U.S., the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York said in a statement. Griffith was set to appear in federal court in Los Angeles Friday.

Griffith is employed by Ethereum a block-chain operating system which has its own cryptocurrency platforms, public postings show.

Comment: See also:


Handcuffs

Priyanka Reddy case: How police cracked 'Hyderabad Horror' rape-murder in 24 hours

priyanka reddy protest
© Reuters / Vinod BabuPolice officers stand guard as people attend a protest demanding justice over the rape and murder of a 27-year-old veterinarian Priyanka Reddy in Hyderabad, India, November 30, 2019
More chilling details emerged on Sunday in the rape and murder case of the Telangana woman doctor whose charred body was found on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Thursday morning.

The 26-year-old veterinarian was brutally gangraped and killed by four lorry workers before they burned her body on Wednesday night in Telangana's Shamshabad. All the four accused were nabbed from their houses on Friday by Cyberabad police.

The four accused were sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Saturday amid high drama with a large crowd facing off against police. Three cops were suspended on Saturday for a delay in registering an FIR in the case.

Cyberabad police filed the remand report on Sunday, four days after the vet was found with her body burnt under a culvert in Chatanpally on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru national highway.

The gruesome rape and murder case, which is being perceived as another 'Nirbhaya', has sparked national outrage.

The following details are from the latest official report filed by the police. Here's how events unfolded between the fateful night of November 27 (Wednesday) and the morning of November 28 (Thursday), when the vet's body was found.

Comment: All four men have confessed to the rape-murder, which continues to inspire large protests in the region:



Protesters are demanding the men be hanged or burned to death. Authorities are promising to fast-track legal proceedings.


Attention

German special forces discover hoax bomb after hostage standoff with ax-wielding man & his dog at slots hall

germany police
Special operations unit has tackled an ax-wielding man with a hoax bomb who triggered panic and a hostage situation at a slot machine hall in Lower Saxony. So far, authorities see no signs of "political or religious motivation."

Four people, including a manager, were inside when a man armed with an ax and accompanied by a dog entered the small gambling venue in the city of Buchholz around 11:00am local time and started smashing slot machines and threatening patrons. One of the guests failed to flee and had to barricade himself inside a restroom, forcing authorities to cordon off the area and deploy a special operations unit SEK to resolve the potentially dangerous hostage situation.


Several hours into the standoff, armed officers managed to overpower and tackle the attacker, but had to shoot his dog which charged at them amid the raid. No one else was injured in the incident.

During a search, police discovered several "containers with protruding cables" on the man's body, but the bomb disposal team said the device was a hoax.

The 29-year-old suspect was taken to a mental ward for psychiatric evaluation. While his identity and motives remain unclear, authorities were swift to rule out "political or religious motivation," at least at this early stage of the investigation.

Comment: Incidents of people losing it in nonsensical attacks and erratic behavior like this tend to come in clusters. Was there something 'in the air' this weekend?


Star of David

Palestinian shot in back amid laughter in shocking video comes forward to tell the whole story

Karam Qawasmi shot in back idf
© Screencap/Yumna PatelKaram Qawasmi recounts being shot by laughing Israeli soldiers.
A Palestinian man who was recorded last year in a shocking encounter where he was shot in the back while walking away from the camera with his arms stretched above his head has come forward with new allegations of abuse surrounding the incident.

The grainy video was made in 2018 by Israeli soldiers and films Karam Qawasmi in a tunnel as a sponge-tipped bullet strikes him in the back, he then falls to the ground. The clip picks up Qawasmi's screams of pain as well as laughter, which Qawasmi says came from the Israeli soldiers off-camera who fired at him. The video was leaked to media earlier this month.

Comment: Leaked footage shows shocking moment Israeli policewoman shoots Palestinian in the back 'for fun'


X

Rejection rejected: Over 28,000 asylum seekers in Germany applied again after leaving or being deported

Migrants and police
© Migrants from Albania and Kosovo are being deported at the Munich international airport. REUTERS / Michaela RehleMigrants from Albania and Kosovo are being deported at the Munich international airport.
Thousands of foreigners who sought asylum in Germany before leaving the country subsequently returned to apply again, government data shows. Hundreds tried five times of more.

The subject of unwelcome foreigners coming back despite the government's best efforts to get rid of them is topical in Germany at the moment. Last week, a court ordered the expulsion of Ibrahim Miri, a criminal leader of Lebanese origin who sought asylum in Germany despite having been deported just months earlier. After landing back in Beirut, Miri pledged to come back to Germany and try for a third time.

His case stands out somewhat, but is hardly isolated. In fact, government figures show that there are currently 28,283 people seeking asylum in Germany despite having left the country at least once either voluntarily or as part of a deportation process. This year, 3,243 returnees re-applied for asylum.

Pocket Knife

Non-lethal, but dead-on: Watch Russian cops use massive birch log to disarm knife-wielding man

Man with knife
© RT
Known as the Russian national tree, birch also works well as a Taser, apparently - at least this is how these local policemen tackled a violent knifeman, whom they didn't want to shoot because they "pitied" the erratic man.

Starting off as a typical 'meanwhile in Russia' video, the undated clip, which surfaced on social media this week, quickly turns into a tense and thought-provoking standoff. The video begins in the middle of an altercation between three traffic police officers and a man wielding a knife and a traffic baton - which he apparently yanked from the cops.

The profanity-laced exchange, possibly filmed by another officer, involved the traffic police demanding that the man lay down his arms, while threatening to use deadly force. One cop is indeed holding the knifeman at gunpoint.

But the man, clearly acting erratically, keeps advancing while waving his knife and shouting: "Come on, shoot! I don't give a f**k."

Ambulance

19 killed, 21 injured in Russia after commuter bus plummets from bridge into frozen river

Flipped bus
© Siloviki / Telegram
A packed bus ruptured a tire and skidded off a bridge, landing upside down in a frozen river in Russia, killing at least 19 passengers. Rescuers fought to free survivors as the vehicle was still at risk of becoming submerged.

The bus fell six meters (about 20 feet) from a bridge over the Kuenga River while traveling from the city of Chita to Sretensk in Zabaykalsky Region in Russia's Far East on Sunday. Harrowing video footage from the scene shows first responders swarming the damaged bus, which lay upside down on a bloodied snowy surface, with its roof completely smashed in and windows shattered.

Calls for help and wailing were heard in the background. "It's scary," one person said, while walking around the bus.

Arrow Down

Sewer blockage pushes waste into 300 New York City homes

Flooded house
© Cynthia McKenvie via APIn this photo provided by Cynthia McKenvie is sewage backup that flooded her home.
A blocked sewer main flooded basements Saturday with brown filth and left residents in the neighborhood near New York City's Kennedy Airport feeling sickened by the stench.

A water condition caused the backup, pushing human waste into about 300 homes in Jamaica, Queens, officials said.

Cynthia McKenzie said she woke up around 3 a.m. to an odor she thought was a gas leak, only to realize that sewage water was rushing into her basement.

As the water level rose, McKenzie said she raced to move furniture and other belongings โ€” but some electronics couldn't be saved. After a few hours, she said, her whole neighborhood was awash in fetid fluid.

Star of David

Thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv demand Netanyahu's resignation

Estimated 5,000 demonstrators gather in Habima Square bearing signs reading 'Strong democracy, strong Israel,' days after premier's supporters hold tense rally in city
netanyahu protest
© Miriam Alster/FLASH90Left-wing activists protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling on him to resign, at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, on November 30, 2019
Thousands of demonstrators demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation at a Saturday protest in Tel Aviv.

The protesters gathered in the city's Habima Square bearing signs with slogans including "Netanyahu, resign, Israel is more important," and "Strong democracy, strong Israel."

Some 5,000 people were present for the start of the rally, the Ynet news site reported. Israel's Channel 12 estimated that at least 6,000 people were at the gathering.

One protester, a resident of Jerusalem, told Ynet (Hebrew) that he came to the demonstration to "tell the most cowardly prime minister we've ever had that I think he needs to resign and go plead his case in court. Other than that, I don't want to hear anything about him."

Another protester said she was at the demonstration because she was "sick of the corruption."

Comment: Demanding Netanyahu's resignation, even if not for all the right reasons, is the moral thing to do in any circumstances. But from what we have seen from the plethora of officials parading in Israel's positions of power up to now, no change in government will bring the relief and justice that the Palestinians so rightly deserve.

For example: 'A Netanyahu on steroids' describes what a Gantz leadership means for Palestine
or The retired accused war criminal replacing Bibi: Meet Benny Gantz
or Avigdor Lieberman wants to give war a chance
or Israeli FM Lieberman: Behead Arabs disloyal to Israel
or Psychopath Avigdor Lieberman: Israel needs to conquer and thoroughly cleanse Gaza Strip


Attention

Stabbing attack injures 3 minors on busy shopping street in the Hague - 'No indication of terrorism' say media - UPDATE: suspect arrested

hague stabbing
© YouTube / RuptlyPolice cordon off a street in Den Haag following a stabbing
Three people have been injured in a stabbing attack in The Hague. The incident took place on a busy shopping street in the center of the city.

Police are still on the lookout for the attacker, who struck at the heart of the city's shopping district during the Black Friday rush.

The suspect is described as a lightly colored man, between 45 and 50 years old, dressed in a gray tracksuit. In the Netherlands, "lightly colored" usually refers to a person of North African or Middle Eastern descent.

Videos shared on social media showed crowds of panicked shoppers screaming and fleeing from the scene of the attack, as police arrived and cordoned off the street.

Comment: Footage collated by RT:


Further RT reports that there's 'no indication of terrorism' nor of any motive, the victims of the attack were all minors and the suspect is still on the loose:
The three people injured in the stabbing spree on the Hague's busy shopping street are all minors, the police have said. They haven't confirmed or denied the suspect's link to terrorism, while media reports claimed there is none.

"All three victims of the stabbing at Grote Marktstraat are minors. We are in contact with their families," the Hague police have tweeted, without elaborating.

The latest statements suggest that the Dutch police are still looking for the suspect, described as a man in his late forties, and described as someone of North African or Middle Eastern descent.

No information on the suspect's motive has been shared.

However, the Dutch national broadcaster NOS has claimed that "at this moment there is no indication of a terrorist motive," citing its own sources.


Witness accounts and footage from the Hague's commercial district reveal scenes of panic, as people fled down the street. Several clips have been shot by a 16-year-old Emma Evers, who is apparently unrelated to the injured minors.

"I took this video, when I realized something was happening i started running and I was in panic because I couldn't find my mom," Evers tweeted in comments to her videos, adding that they reunited and ran inside a the shopping center thereafter.
A map of other incidents that occurred around Europe yesterday was shared on Twitter:

europe snapshot stabbing

UPDATE: 1st December 2019 @ 15:30 CET

RT reports the suspect has been arrested but the motive is still unclear:
Police in the Dutch city of The Hague have arrested a 35-year-old homeless man, suspected of stabbing three minors on a busy shopping street in the city. He has been taken to a police station for questioning.

Police announced the arrest on Saturday evening. The man, reportedly of Middle Eastern or North African descent allegedly stabbed three minors in a department store during the Black Friday sales rush.

The suspect escaped following the attack, triggering a citywide police manhunt.

The attacker's motives remain unclear. Police have not yet ruled out terrorism, but media reports suggest that "there is no indication" of an extremist link.
It's notable that, while not directly related, there are similarities to a story from October, in Manhattan, where four homeless men were bludgeoned to death by another homeless man.