UK & Euro-Asian News
Conor Kane
Independent.ie
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:55 EST
© Gary O'Neill
Heavy rain over the weekend preceded the landslide which derailed the Wicklow-Dublin train a few hundred metres north of Wicklow station yesterday.
Iarnrod Eireann was yesterday forced to close a busy commuter line
on the same day that its service along the Malahide viaduct re-opened after its
dramatic collapse three months ago.
While the northern service through Malahide resumed yesterday with user numbers "significantly" down, other rail passengers face two weeks of disruption after a train derailed yesterday following a landslide.
Yesterday's incident occurred at about 6am on a stretch of line a few hundred yards south of the Wicklow station, and after a weekend of heavy rain.
The driver of the out-of-service train, which was heading to Arklow, escaped without injury after it derailed when it hit debris caused by a landslide.
The incident occurred less than 48 hours after a different section of the same line was closed when rail staff found an embankment to be unstable, south of Arklow.
BBC News
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:04 EST
© Unknown
Graphic from the computer game "Resident Evil". Have some children literally downloaded violence?
Three youths who tortured a 14-year-old girl in a car park and filmed the attack on a mobile phone have each been sentenced to four years' detention.
The two 14-year-old girls and a 13-year-old boy stripped their victim naked and hit her with stiletto heels during the 45-minute ordeal in January.
The boy compared the aftermath of the attack in Edinburgh to a scene from
Resident Evil.
Judge Lord Malcolm said it had been an attack of "uncontrolled cruelty"
Don Lavery
Independent.ie
Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:47 EST
© Unknown
The Army is gearing up to deal with possible public disorder on our streets.
The Defence Forces are to get new anti-riot equipment at a cost of €300,000. The new kit has been
bought to protect soldiers who have to deal with rioters in Ireland or on peace keeping missions abroad.
But the equipment will only be used here when gardai are unable to cope with demonstrations and call on the Army for support. It will also be used in routine training for soldiers.
Asked if the equipment was being procured to cope with large-scale public demonstrations over government cutbacks and policies a Defence Forces spokesman said: "No. It's being bought to replace existing stocks."
Comment: Notice how the news, that the Irish army is being equipped in preparation for public demonstrations, is cushioned within recollections of army heroics in containing "violent rioters" in foreign lands. We're even told how the brave soldiers protected themselves from "gunmen among the rioters" by aiming sniper rifles at them. Having been trained in crowd control abroad, the soldiers will soon have the opportunity to train their rifles on the "rioters" at home.
PressTV
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:14 EST
Germany is mulling over a withdrawal from Afghanistan, amid rising differences of opinion among NATO members over handling the Afghan mission. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called on Sunday for preliminary work to lay down the foundations of a withdrawal from Afghanistan in the country's next four-year parliamentary term.
"In the life of this parliament, we have to get sufficiently far with the concept of self-sustained security that a perspective for withdrawal comes into view," Westerwelle told ZDF television.
"We don't want to remain in Afghanistan forever," the minister added.
Yossi Melman
Haaretz
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:41 EST
Shabtai Kalmanovitch, an Israeli immigrant from the former Soviet Union who served time in prison for spying for the KGB, was shot and killed while driving in downtown Moscow, news agencies reported on Monday.
According to the Interfax news agency, Kalmanovitch was shot while driving in his Mercedes in the Russian capital.
The report said Kalmanovitch was shot by assailants armed with semi-automatic weapons who drove by in a passing vehicle.
Agence France-Presse
Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:00 EST
Denmark has agreed to increase tenfold the amount of money offered to immigrants who return home permanently to 100,000 kroner (13,443 euros, 20,172 dollars), officials said Monday.
The centre-right minority government reached an agreement with its key ally, the far-right Danish People's Party (DPP), on the issue late Sunday as part of their 2010 budget negotiations.
A financial incentive of 11,000 kroner had until now been offered to immigrants to resettle in their country of origin.
The scheme is aimed at immigrants from outside the European Union and Nordic countries, DPP deputy leader Peter Skaarup told AFP.
"It in practice targets those nationals from non-Western countries who are struggling to adapt to Danish society and who would be tempted by a fairly significant sum to go back home forever," he said.
Alessandra Rizzo
The Associated Press
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:54 EST
© AP Photo
Photo dated Nov. 11, 1937 showing Italian Premier-dictator Benito Mussolini reviewing troops before the national Italian monument in honor of the 68th birthday of King Victor Emmanuel in Rome, Italy.
Benito Mussolini was a fierce anti-Semite, who proudly said that his hatred for Jews preceded Adolf Hitler's and vowed to "destroy them all," according to previously unpublished diaries by the Fascist dictator's longtime mistress.
According to the diaries, Mussolini also talked about the warm reception he received from Hitler at the 1938 Munich conference - he called the German leader a "softy" - and attacked Pope Pius XI for his criticism of Nazism and Fascism.
On a more intimate note, Mussolini was explicit about his sexual appetites for his mistress and said he regretted having affairs with several other women.
The dairies kept by Claretta Petacci, Mussolini's mistress, between 1932 and 1938 are the subject of a book coming out this week entitled
Secret Mussolini. Excerpts were published Monday by Italy's leading daily
Corriere della Sera and confirmed by publisher Rizzoli.
Prestwich and Whitefield Guide
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:04 EST
© Prestwich and Whitefield Guide
JOINING FORCES: PC Chris Grayshon, of the Prestwich neighbourhood policing team, liaises with a member of the CST
A joint operation to deter anti-Semitism and crime during the Jewish High Holy Days has been hailed as the "most successful yet".
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Community Security Trust (CST) undertook a series of actions over a 23-day period to reassure people during the religious festivities.
It involved high-visibility patrols before and after services at synagogues, covering the main pedestrian routes, as well as joint patrols between the police and members of the CST.
The Local
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:47 EST
© The Local
German health authorities on Monday confirmed the deaths of two men in Bavaria from swine flu, but a 55-year-old from the eastern German state of Thuringia did not die after being immunised for the H1N1 virus as had been originally feared.
A 57-year-old and an 18-year-old both passed away in the past week from swine flu complications, Bavarian officials said. The authorities also confirmed suspicions that a 24-year-old woman from Cologne died on November 11 from the virus.
But the man from Thuringia apparently had a heart attack the same day he received his vaccination, the state's Health Ministry said after an autopsy.
The daily
Thüringer Allgemeine reported earlier on Monday that officials were concerned the man had had a adverse reaction to the vaccination.
A 65-year-old German woman with a heart condition died last Tuesday only hours after receiving an immunisation for swine flu.
Peter Oborne and James Jones
The Guardian
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:29 EST
Every year a very grand lunch is given by the
Conservative Friends of Israel at a central London hotel. Anyone who is anyone in the Conservative party makes it their business to be there. It is normally addressed by the party leader.
This year's event took place in June, with the main speech by
David Cameron, and the shadow foreign secretary,
William Hague, in attendance. The dominant event of the previous 12 months had been the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
We were shocked Cameron made no reference in his speech to the massive destruction it caused, or the 1,370 deaths that resulted, or for that matter the invasion itself. Indeed, our likely future prime minister went out of his way to praise Israel because it "strives to protect innocent life". This remark was not intended satirically.
Afterwards, we resolved to ask the question: what are the rules of British political behaviour that cause the Tory leader, his mass of MPs and parliamentary candidates to flock to the Friends of Israel lunch in the year of the Gaza invasion? And what are the rules of media discourse that ensure such an event passes without even being noticed?
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