Digital Journal: Tiny Iceland takes on credit card giants in Wikileaks flap
Representatives from Mastercard and Visa were called before a parliamentary committee to explain the credit companies’ refusal to process donations to the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
"People wanted to know on what legal grounds the ban was taken, but no one could answer it," said Robert Marshall, chairman of Iceland’s allsherjanefnd, according to the Reykjavik Grapevine.
Vidar Thorkelsson, CEO of Valitor, which operates Visa and Mastercard in Iceland, said the Icelandic branch had nothing to do with the decision.
Meanwhile, DataCell, the Icelandic-Swiss web host is reporting that donations to Wikileaks have increased in recent days, despite the actions of Mastercard and Visa. The web host has been processing direct bank transfers to help facilitate the donations.
The Mirror: Boy of 12 hauled out of class by police over David Cameron Facebook protest
A schoolboy trying to save his youth club was hauled from class after his plan to protest outside David Cameron's constituency office was spotted - by anti-terror police.
In an astonishing over-reaction, 12-year-old Nicky Wishart was warned he faced ARREST.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "The policeman asked me lots of questions about why we were having a protest and who would be there.
"I said it was simply because we didn't want our youth centre to close - it's a fantastic place to go and there isn't much else for us to do round here."
Washington Post: Venezuela acquires 1,800 antiaircraft missiles from Russia
Russia delivered at least 1,800 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to Venezuela in 2009, U.N. arms control data show, despite vigorous U.S. efforts to stop President Hugo Chavez's stridently anti-American government from acquiring the weapons.
The United States feared that the missiles could be funneled to Marxist guerrillas fighting Colombia's pro-American government or Mexican drug cartels, concerns expressed in U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and first reported in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
It had been unclear how many of the Russian SA-24 missiles were delivered to Venezuela, though the transfer itself was not secret. Chavez showed off a few dozen at a military parade in April 2009, saying they could "deter whatever aerial aggression against our country." A high-level Russian delegation told American officials in Washington in July of that year that 100 of the missiles had been delivered in the first quarter of 2009.
Yahoo: Bangladesh police break up workers protests: three dead
At least three people were killed and more than 250 others were injured when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse wage protests by textile workers in Bangladesh on Sunday, police and doctors said.
Police said three male workers were killed and some 150 were injured in the main port city of Chittagong, some 300 km (190 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka.
Around 50 others were injured in violence in Dhaka and another 50 were hurt in nearby Narayanganj town.
Police earlier said around 4,000 workers attacked police and vandalized at least 20 vehicles, including setting fire to one, in Chittagong.
Telegraph: Police could use water cannon to disperse rioters, Theresa May says
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has opened the way for water cannon to be used on the British mainland for the first time if future demonstrations escalate into uncontrollable violence.
Ministers will not stand in the way if senior officers wanted to use it, she said.
And in the wake of last week’s shocking scenes in central London’s West End Mrs May warned that future demonstrations needed to be policed "robustly."
The sight of an out-of-control mob vandalising parts of Westminster has led to accusations that the Conservatives are weak on law-and-order.
BBC: Kosovo PM Hashim Thaci claims election victory
Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has claimed victory in the country's first parliamentary vote since declaring unilateral independence from Serbia.
He addressed supporters hours after an exit poll gave Mr Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) 31% of the vote.
Its main rival and ex-junior coalition partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), was second with 25%.
If the results are confirmed, Mr Thaci will need support from other parties to form a government.
Washington Post: 6 NATO troops killed in attack in Afghanistan
NATO says six of its service members have been killed in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan.
The international military coalition said in a statement that the incident happened Sunday but did not give further details. The alliance typically waits for individual countries to identify their casualties.
Guardian: WikiLeaks cables paint bleak picture of Tajikistan, central Asia's poorest state
Tajikistan is losing the battle against the flow of drugs from neighbouring Afghanistan and is characterised by "cronyism and corruption" emanating from the president downwards.
A series of leaked US diplomatic dispatches released by WikiLeaks paint a bleak picture of Central Asia's poorest state. They note that it suffers from "earthquakes, floods, droughts, locusts and extreme weather" and is situated next to "obstructive Uzbekistan", "unstable Afghanistan" and the "rough, remote" Pamir mountains next to western China.
But Tajikistan's worst obstacle is the country's venal president Emomali Rahmon, diplomats say. A secret cable dated 16 February 2010, from the US embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan's capital, describes how Rahmon runs the ex-Soviet republic's economy for his own personal profit: "From the president down to the policeman on the street, government is characterized by cronyism and corruption."
BBC: Middle East countries hit by storms
Fierce winds and heavy rain and snow have lashed eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries for a second successive day.
The storms have sunk a ship off the Israeli coast, closed ports and disrupted shipping in the Suez Canal.
Flights have also been delayed to and from many airports in the region.
The storms have ended a long drought in Lebanon, Syria and Israel and come just a week after more than 40 people died in a forest fire.
CNN: Swedish security police: Violence was 'an act of terrorism'
A pair of explosions in central Stockholm, Sweden, was "an act of terrorism," a Swedish police official said Sunday.
Two explosions occurred within minutes of each other Saturday in the district full of Christmas shoppers, Swedish authorities said.
A Swedish news agency and police said they received e-mailed threats 10 minutes before the explosions, which killed one person and injured two others.
Guardian: SKorean fishing boat sank in Antarctic Ocean
Fishing boats searched for 17 missing sailors from a South Korean vessel that sank Monday in the Antarctic Ocean, leaving five dead, officials said. Twenty sailors were rescued.
The 614-ton fishing boat with 42 sailors aboard sank about 4:30 a.m. South Korean time (1930 GMT), some 1,400 miles (2,250 kilometers) south of New Zealand, South Korea's Foreign Ministry and coast guard said.
Maritime New Zealand said 20 survivors were recovered from the South Korean owned and operated No.1 In Sung fishing boat. South Korean and New Zealand fishing vessels were looking for the missing sailors.
On board the sunken vessel were eight South Koreans, eight Chinese, 11 Indonesians, 11 Vietnamese, three Filipinos and one Russian, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Washington Post: Group: Near 14,000 murders in Venezuela last year
Close to 14,000 people were murdered in Venezuela last year and the figure could be significantly higher, a prominent human rights group said Thursday, alluding to the rampant crime that has become a central concern of Venezuelans.
Venezuela has one of Latin America's highest murder rates and the government has stopped releasing complete annual figures, making arriving at an exact figure difficult.
In its annual report, the Provea human rights group said a total of 13,985 people were slain last year, but thousands more in this country of 28 million inhabitants were likely killed. The group accused government officials of using statistical loopholes to "hide the true dimension of the phenomenon."
The report said official homicide figures fail to included the number of "unresolved deaths," a term that means authorities have not yet determined the cause of death. Those deaths topped 4,200 in 2009. Incomplete official statistics also leave out the number of Venezuelans killed during clashes with police, which accounted for 2,685 violent deaths, according to the report.
CBS Minnesota/WCCO: Uproar Over ‘Mass Firings’ At Minn. Chipotle Restaurants
A Minnesota immigration rights group is protesting what it calls "mass firings" of Chipotle workers. According to the group, around 50 of the restaurant’s Latino workers have been fired in the last week.
The Minnesota Immigration Rights Action Committeee (MIRAC), a local group that fights for the legalization of undocumented workers, says employees at local Chipotle stores came forward, saying they were fired over questions about their immigration status.
"We started to piece together there was something larger going on than a few people fired at one store," said MIRAC member Brad Sigal. "It appears to be a statewide attack on immigrant worker who are longtime employees most of them been working there for years."
Brad Sigal says his group confirmed that more than a dozen workers at the Chipotle store on Grand Avenue in St. Paul were let go, along with nearly dozen more at a Richfield Chipotle. He also heard from fired employees at locations in downtown Minneapolis (Skyway and Seven Corners), Golden Valley, Coon Rapids, Stillwater and Hudson, Wis.
USA Today: Metrodome roof collapses in Midwest blizzard
The Minneapolis Metrodome, where the Minnesota Vikings football team plays, has collapsed during a snowstorm.
The Metrodome is operated by the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission. Its executive director, Bill Lester, said Sunday morning the damage is being assessed and the agency will issue a statement later. He says he has no details yet on what happened.
Minneapolis and much of the upper Midwest have been hit by a blizzard that has dumped up to 20 inches of snow in some areas.
The Vikings' Sunday National Football League game against the New York Giants had already been pushed to Monday. It is not clear what will happen to the schedule now.
Chicago Sun-Times: Emergency Room at U of C Hospital Turns Away Ambulances
As University of Chicago Medical Center struggles to unclog its emergency department, one statistic keeps pushing back. Because of overcrowding — a growing, nationwide problem — the hospital turns away ambulances more often than any other ER in Illinois.
The city’s premier South Side hospital turns away ambulances for 13 minutes, on average, each hour. No other hospital comes close, according to Illinois Department of Public Health numbers obtained by the Associated Press.
In addition, some ER patients wait more than 24 hours for a hospital bed to open upstairs in the hospital.
Earlier this year, the hospital agreed to pay a maximum $50,000 fine to settle allegations it had violated federal law when 78-year-old Maurice Ross died in the ER waiting room, after nearly four hours without care. Hospital officials insist the incident was a staff member’s mistake and not part of a systemic problem.
Telegraph: Christmas brings generous bonuses at the House of Commons
While bankers face "stringent" caps on their bonuses by European regulators, officials at the Houses of Parliament have quietly been awarded some tasty little festive perks.
Malcolm Jack, the Clerk of the House, has signed off bonuses worth nearly £250,000 for his 56 top members of staff.
A Freedom of Information request reveals that, on the recommendation of the mysterious "Senior Pay Panel", two individuals will receive £9,375, while 11 have been awarded £6,375.
USA Today: Nixon misjudges Reagan on new tape
In addition to more disparaging Nixon comments about African Americans and Jews, a new batch of tapes also reveals that the 37th president's normally astute political instincts failed him with regard to a rising Republican star.
A fellow named Ronald Reagan.
"Good God," Nixon told aide Charles Colson in an Oval Office conversation in 1973. "Can you imagine -- can you really imagine -- him sitting here?"
Nixon later said, "I can imagine anyone ... but Reagan."