www.bbc.com

Pegida #fundie bbc.com

Right wing protesters in the German city of Dresden have taken to the streets against an anti-war sculpture consisting of three passenger buses placed vertically in the air.

The upturned vehicles are meant to resemble a sniper barricade in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

They are being put into place ahead of the annual memorial of the allied bombing of Dresden in World War Two.

Dresden mayor Dirk Hilbert was booed as he formally inaugurated the sculpture.

Police are investigating anonymous death threats against supporters of the scheme, including Mr Hilbert who has been allocated a police guard.

The inspiration for the imposing monument came from barricades used by rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo, made out of upturned buses which shielded people against the snipers of President Bashar al-Assad.

Thirty-two-year-old Syrian-German artist Manaf Halbouni told the DPA news agency that the monument is intended to represent "peace, freedom and humanity".

"There is no other political message," he said. "It's a peace memorial, a modern Statue of Liberty."

He said the point of the sculpture was to inspire hope - in Dresden and Aleppo - while making the point that "life goes on, despite all the destruction".

But Dresden's far-right anti-Islamic Pegida movement has described the project as idiotic, an abuse of artistic freedom and an attack on their identity.

Protesters from the group jeered and booed Mayor Hilbert, branding him a "traitor" while yelling "shame, shame" during the ceremony. They called for the sculpture to be melted down into scrap metal.

Turkish nationalists, Melih Gokcek #fundie bbc.com

A fashion designer has been charged with inciting hatred on social media and imprisoned - a day after he came under attack at Istanbul's main airport.

Barbaros Sansal is an outspoken critic of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party.

On New Year's Eve, he posted a video on his Twitter account angrily denouncing those out celebrating "while there is so much filth, vileness and poverty" in the country.

He also spoke of "scores of journalists" jailed in Turkey as well as abused children, corruption and bribery.

[...]

As he was leaving the plane in Istanbul, he was attacked by passengers on the same Turkish Airlines flight along with baggage handlers shouting "traitor!"

Mr Sansal was rushed away from the scene by what are believed to have been plainclothes policemen, who had come to arrest him as he landed.

Video footage of the attack on Mr Sansal was shared thousands of times on social media.

How such an attack took place at an international airport has prompted concerns about security failure.

There are also questions about whether it was an organised attack.

Local reports suggested that 20 people identified as airport employees were questioned by police.

"We could not resist our national feelings. We shouted. But due to a police cordon we could not do anything," one of them reportedly said. However, other workers acknowledged that the fashion designer was subjected to physical violence.

And it is Barbaros Sansal who has been detained, in one of the biggest prisons in Turkey, where many imprisoned journalists are being held.

He is accused of "inciting hatred among the public" for his outspoken comments.

Some have praised the treatment he was given. Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek posted footage of the incident calling it "the nation's response".

One tweet read: "The man swears at the country and they defend him. Whoever defends him is also a traitor."

"Whoever you are, if you are not happy about being a Turk or living in this country, no-one forces you to stay here. Just go," read another.

Turkey has a poor record on free speech, with at least 81 journalists behind bars, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and more than 130 media outlets have been shut since the failed coup last July.

Benjamin Netanyahu #conspiracy bbc.com

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a UN call to end illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land is "shameful".

He stressed that Israel would not abide by Friday's vote at the 15-member UN Security Council.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman said the resolution was a "big blow to Israeli policy".

The document was passed after the US refused to veto it, breaking with long-standing American practice.

Washington has traditionally sheltered Israel from condemnatory resolutions.

The Egyptian-drafted resolution had been withdrawn after Israel has asked US President-elect Donald Trump to intervene, but it was proposed again by Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela.

It was adopted by 14 votes to zero, with one abstention.

The issue of Jewish settlements is one of the most contentious between Israel and the Palestinians, who see them as an obstacle to peace.

About 500,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Mr Netanyahu said: "Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms.

"At a time when the Security Council does nothing to stop the slaughter of half-a-million people in Syria, it disgracefully gangs up on the one true democracy in the Middle East, Israel, and calls the Western Wall 'occupied territory'."

Mr Netanyahu said the administration of US President Barack Obama "not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes", and added that he looked forward to working with Mr Trump.

Yevgeny Dzhugashvili #fundie bbc.com

One of the grandsons of Soviet leader Josef Stalin has been found dead in the Russian capital Moscow, ambulance officials say.

The body of Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, 80, was found close to his home in the city. The cause of death is unclear.

Mr Dzhugashvili was an outspoken defender of his grandfather's legacy, frequently using the courts to do so.

In 2015 he lost a case relating to the 1940 Katyn massacre of Polish prisoners at the European Court of Human Rights.

The court rejected a complaint brought by Mr Dzhugashvili over an article accusing the Soviet leader of being a "bloodthirsty cannibal".

Published in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the article said Soviet leaders including Stalin were "bound by much blood" by ordering the execution of about 20,000 Polish prisoners of war at Katyn.

Mr Dzhugashvili argued that the article blackened his grandfather's reputation and was defamatory. He took his case to the European court after various courts in Russia threw it out.

Micah Johnson #racist bbc.com

Micah Xavier Johnson, who was involved in the killing of five US police officers in Dallas before himself being killed by police, was a US army veteran who had served in Afghanistan.

[...]

During negotiations with police, Johnson said he was upset about the recent police shootings of black people, Police Chief David Brown said.

"The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated that he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers," Mr Brown told a news conference.

Johnson's Facebook profile photograph showed him giving a raised fist "black power" salute associated with the Black Panther Party movement, a radical political organisation that emerged during the 1960s in response to police brutality in California.

Nicolas Maduro #conspiracy bbc.com

About 500 Venezuelan women in search of food have broken through border controls separating the western state of Tachira from neighbouring Colombia.

The women said their families were going hungry because of severe food shortages in Venezuela.

Hours later, they crossed back into Venezuela carrying basic goods and singing the Venezuelan anthem.

Venezuela is going through an economic crisis and many Venezuelans say they struggle to feed their families.

[...]

Venezuela closed large parts of its border with Colombia in August 2015 to prevent subsidised good from being smuggled from Venezuela into Colombia.

Venezuelans who want to cross into Colombia in states where the border has been closed need a special permit to do so.

But as the scarcity of food gets worse in Venezuela, many have crossed the porous border illegally.

Colombian officials said a similar incident had happened in Puerto Santander, 60km north of Cucuta, in June, when 400 Venezuelans crossed into Colombia to buy essential goods.

Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin is due to travel to Cucuta on Wednesday to speak to the local authorities about a possible plan of action, officials said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has blamed the shortages on an "economic war" being waged against his government.

At a military parade to mark independence day on Tuesday, he said that Venezuela's military power had to keep growing to counter the "unconventional war" he was facing.

Nurettin Canikli #conspiracy bbc.com

Turkey says Pope Francis' description of the WW1 mass killing of Armenians as genocide shows "the mentality of the Crusades".

The pontiff's remarks have "no relation to reality", Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said.

Armenia and many historians say up to 1.5 million Armenian Christians were killed by Ottoman Turkish forces in 1915.

But Turkey disputes the figure and denies the deaths constituted genocide.

It says the deaths were part of a civil conflict triggered by WW1.

The row continues to sour Turkish-Armenian relations, drawing in other countries such as Germany, whose parliament recently declared the killings to be genocide

Pope Francis made the comments on Friday during a visit to he Armenian capital, Yerevan.

"This tragedy, this genocide, has unfortunately marked the start of a sad series of great catastrophes of the last century," he said.

But Mr Canikli hit back late on Saturday, describing the remarks as "unfortunate".

"It is possible to see all the hallmarks or reflections of the mentality of the Crusades in the Pope's activities," he said, quoted by the state-run Anadolu news agency, referring to military campaigns in Medieval times promoted by the papacy against Muslims in the Middle East.

Pope Francis also used the phrase last year, prompting Turkey to recall its envoy to the Vatican for 10 months.

Michael Steven Sandford #fundie bbc.com

A man who tried to grab a gun at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas at the weekend said he wanted to shoot the candidate, court papers say.

Michael Steven Sandford, 19, who is believed to be British, is expected to appear in a Nevada court shortly.

According to the court papers, he went to a Trump rally on Saturday at the Treasure Island Casino.

He reportedly approached a Las Vegas police officer to say he wanted an autograph from the candidate.

He has a UK driving license and told police he had been in the US for one and a half years, the court papers say.

The detainee reportedly told police he had been planning to try and shoot Mr Trump for about a year but had decided to act now because he finally felt confident enough to do so.

[...]

He told police if he had not tried to kill Mr Trump at this rally he would have tried again at a rally in Phoenix, for which he had already booked tickets, the papers say.

Mathew Emukule #fundie bbc.com

A Kenyan High Court has dismissed a case challenging the legality of anal tests as proof of homosexuality.

Two men who say Kenyan police forced them to undergo the procedure to prove they had had gay sex launched the case, calling for the tests to be declared unconstitutional.

Judge Mathew Emukule in the coastal city Mombasa, said there were grounds in Kenyan law for the testing.

Homosexual acts are illegal in Kenya, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Marlene Malahoo Forte #fundie bbc.com

Jamaica's attorney general has sparked criticism after saying it was "disrespectful" to Jamaican law for the US embassy to fly a rainbow flag following the Orlando shooting.

In response, the US embassy in the capital Kingston asked Marlene Malahoo Forte to explain her legal reasoning.

Forty-nine people died when a gunman opened fire in a gay club in Florida.

Jamaica has laws criminalising gay sex and rights groups have warned LGBT face frequent discrimination.

[...]

In a post that now appears to have been deleted, Ms Malahoo Forte said: "I strongly condemn #OrlandoNightClubShooting but find it disrespectful of Jamaica's laws to have #RainbowFlag flown here. #MyPersonalView."

The US embassy replied: "We're listening. Explain the legal reasoning? It was an attack of terror !!and!! hate, targeting the LGBT community".

She faced a backlash on social media where she was accused of ignorance and bigotry.

Others though defended her right to speak out. "This is her country, not America," said one comment on Facebook.

Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi #fundie bbc.com

At least 24 people have been killed and 40 others injured during clashes between police and squatters in the northern Indian town of Mathura.

Clashes broke out on Thursday as police tried to evict several thousand former members of a religious sect who had occupied a public park for two years.

Two senior police officers were among those killed overnight.

[...]

Members of the Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi (Free India Legal Ideas Revolutionary Protesters) have been occupying Mathura's largest public park Jawahar Bagh for two years.

Reports say the group is headed by Ramvriksha Singh Yadav, but very little is known about him.

Members of the group earlier followed religious guru Baba Jai Gurudev, but since his death in 2012 some had started calling themselves "revolutionaries" and claimed to be followers of Indian independence hero Subhas Chandra Bose.

The group has been making radical demands such as declaring the Indian parliament and the posts of prime minister and president unconstitutional.

They also want the authorities to sell fuel at dirt-cheap prices. In their view 40 litres of petrol or 60 litres of diesel should cost just 1 rupee (about 1.5 cents; one penny).

Ryamizard Ryacudu, Burhanaddin ZR #fundie bbc.com

Indonesia has decided to investigate one of the darkest chapters of its own history. In 1965 at least 500,000 people died in organised killings of suspected communist sympathisers. But, as BBC Indonesian's Rebecca Henschke reports, the new investigation into that bloody time is re-opening old wounds.

[...]

In central Java where most of the killings took place anti-communist banners have been erected. Vigilante groups have shut down discussions about Marxism at universities. Soldiers even briefly detained some students for wearing red T-shirts with a picture of a hammer and sickle inside a coffee cup.

It's also creating divisions in the government.

Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu has met with Islamic vigilante groups and resists these moves to dig up the past.

"I am responsible for security in this country. I need to make sure there are no more conflicts. ...if we keep looking back we are not going to go forward," he told the BBC.

He is worried that those responsible for the massacre could be indicted for crimes against humanity.

[...]

It is easy to find someone who will proudly tell you how many they killed in 1965 and how they did it.

Burhanaddin ZR says he killed more people than he could count and shows no remorse.

"There is no need for reconciliation."

"The only path is they need to let go of their angry feelings," he says of those that lost relatives. "They just want revenge because their family members were victims in our raids."

In the Oscar-nominated documentary The Act of Killing a group of men acted out the murders in horrific detail. In many areas killers live close to the families of the dead. Land and property that was illegally confiscated has never been returned.

Until recently they have always thought of themselves as heroes because they were supported by the government and mainstream media. Many of the executions were directly committed by the security forces. The largest Muslim organisations are also accused of taking part.

Donald Trump #fundie bbc.com

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said he would "cancel" the Paris climate deal in his first major speech on energy policy.

More than 195 countries pledged to reduce carbon emissions in a landmark agreement last year.

The billionaire businessman has said before there is no evidence that humans are responsible for climate change.

He called for more drilling, fewer regulations and the approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.

"Any regulation that's outdated, unnecessary, bad for workers or contrary to the national interest will be scrapped and scrapped completely," Mr Trump said.

"We're going to do all this while taking proper regard for rational environmental concerns."

Donald Trump's desire to see the end of US participation in the Paris climate agreement is increasing the pressure for a rapid ratification around the world.

But that's not easy as the process can often get bogged down in national parliaments. The Obama administration and others believe they are well on the way to securing that level of support which they feel would then make a US withdrawal, in the face of global condemnation, much less likely. But they could be dead wrong about that.

Mr Trump though doesn't have to go to such lengths to end US involvement. He could choose to ignore or reverse or delay Obama's initiatives on climate including the Clean Power Plan. The real strength of the Paris agreement is that it comes from the bottom up, countries decide for themselves what their emissions cutting commitments will be. But this could also be a huge weakness.

If a President Trump doesn't put emissions cutting regulations into place, no one could force him to. Would China or India and others continue to cut their carbon while the US did not? Unlikely.

Before this speech, he had said he would "renegotiate" the global agreement involving nearly all countries, but this time he went further and said the US would pull out.

The climate change deal is "bad for US business" and said the pact allows "foreign bureaucrats control over how much energy we use".

Under the deal, countries set emission limits themselves, not an outside panel.

Mr Trump has called climate change "a hoax" devised by the Chinese government.

It is uncertain whether Mr Trump, if elected, could actually make any changes to the deal.

The accord will have legal force once it is ratified by 55 countries that contribute 55% of global emissions.

If the deal is ratified by January, a new American president would have to wait four years to withdraw from the deal.

While the US is the second-largest greenhouse gas polluter, it has been instrumental in helping other countries such as India reduce emissions.

Mr Trump said on Friday that the US would stop funding these efforts.

Environmental advocates called Mr Trump's proposals "frightening".

"Trump's energy policies would accelerate climate change, protect corporate polluters who profit from poisoning our air and water, and block the transition to clean energy that is necessary to strengthen our economy and protect our climate and health," Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmental activist, told Reuters.

On Thursday, he officially became the presidential nominee for his party, surpassing the 1,238 delegates required.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan #fundie bbc.com

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Muslims to reject contraception and have more children.

In a speech broadcast live on TV, he said "no Muslim family" should consider birth control or family planning.

"We will multiply our descendants," said Mr Erdogan, who became president in August 2014 after serving as prime minister for 12 years.

His AK Party has its roots in Islamism and many of its supporters are conservative Muslims.

In Monday's speech in Istanbul, the Turkish leader placed the onus on women, particularly on "well-educated future mothers", to not use birth control and to ensure the continued growth of Turkey's population.

Mr Erdogan himself is a father of four. He has previously spoken out against contraception, describing it as "treason" when speaking at a wedding ceremony in 2014.

He has also urged women to have at least three children, and has said women cannot be treated as equal to men.

Venezuelan government #conspiracy bbc.com

Gunmen have killed 11 people, including three teenagers and a Colombian national, in Venezuela, officials say.

They say the unidentified attackers ordered the victims out of their homes before shooting them dead in the western Trujillo state on Saturday.

The gunmen then fled the scene in cars and motorcycles.

Non-governmental organisations say Venezuela's crime rates are increasing, as the country's economy is in recession due to falling oil prices.

Last year, the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence group released its report for 2014, recording 24,980 violent deaths. That equated to 82 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, up from 79 in 2013.

The NGO says those are figures for a country at war.

The government disputes the group's findings, saying the rates are much lower.

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority #fundie bbc.com

Pakistani authorities have banned all broadcast advertisements for contraceptives.

The regulator, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), said there had been public complaints that they prompted curiosity in "innocent children".

Pakistan is a socially conservative country and such commercials were already rare.

Last year a specific advert for Josh condoms was banned as "immoral".

Pakistan, the world's sixth most populous nation, has a lower rate of access to birth control than the average for the region, according to the World Health Organization.

Nicolas Maduro, Aristobulo Isturiz, Delcy Rodriguez #conspiracy bbc.com

The head of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, has accused the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of being "a traitor".

In a series of Twitter posts addressed directly to Mr Maduro, Mr Almagro also called him a "petty dictator".

Mr Maduro accused the OAS chief earlier this week of being a CIA agent and a traitor himself.

The Venezuelan president has blamed his country's economic crisis on an axis of enemy forces co-ordinated from the US.

During a three-hour long news conference on Tuesday, Mr Maduro had justified his declaration of a state of emergency by saying Venezuela was under attack from imperialist forces led by the CIA.

He then told journalists: "Almagro, just give up. He has been a traitor for a long time... At some point I will tell his story, I know his secrets. The Americans, the CIA, have played a master move using Almagro as their agent."

[...]

Opposition politicians have handed in a petition with 1.85 million signatures to the electoral authorities requesting a referendum be held to recall Mr Maduro from office.

But Mr Maduro's deputy, Vice-President Aristobulo Isturiz, on Sunday ruled out such a referendum, saying the signatures were "fraudulent".

Mr Almagro said that not letting the referendum go ahead made Mr Maduro "another petty dictator".

While President Maduro did not answer Mr Almagro's tweets directly, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez did.

She wrote, "Mr Almagro, every time you make a statement you express your hatred against Venezuela and its legitimate authorities. You are part of the imperialist detritus."

"You only repeat the scripted words which your imperialist masters dictate to you".

"You will never give orders to Venezuela!"

Nicolas Maduro #conspiracy bbc.com

The Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, has threatened the seizure of factories that have stopped production and the jailing of their owners.

In a speech to supporters in the capital Caracas, he said the country had to recover the means of production, to counter its deep economic crisis.

On Friday, he introduced a new, nationwide state of emergency.

Opposition protesters have been rallying in Caracas to push for a recall vote to eject him from power.

Mr Maduro said the state of emergency was needed to combat foreign aggression, which he blamed for Venezuela's problems.

And he said military exercises would take place next weekend to counter "foreign threats".

[...]

There are severe shortages of food, medicines and basic goods which Mr Maduro argues are due to business leaders and the US waging an economic war against his government.

[...]

The threat to seize closed factories came after Venezuela's largest food and beverage company, the Polar Group, halted production of beer, blaming government mismanagement for stopping it importing barley.

The group's billionaire owner, Lorenzo Mendoza, is a fierce critic of President Maduro.

"We must take all measures to recover productive capacity, which is being paralysed by the bourgeoisie," Mr Maduro told a rally in Caracas.

"Anyone who wants to halt [production] to sabotage the country should get out, and those who do must be handcuffed and sent to the PGV [Venezuelan General Penitentiary]," he said.

"We're going to tell imperialism and the international right that the people are present, with their farm instruments in one hand and a gun in the other... to defend this sacred land," he added.

Sheikh Hasina #fundie bbc.com

A university professor has been hacked to death in Bangladesh, in an attack police say is similar to killings of secular bloggers and atheists by suspected Islamist extremists.

AFM Rezaul Karim Siddique, 58, was a professor of English at Rajshahi University in the country's north-west.

[...]

Siddique is the fourth professor at the university to be have been killed in the past 12 years. It is not clear why they have been targeted and no culprits have been punished.

Earlier this month, a Bangladeshi law student who had expressed secular views online died when he was hacked with machetes and then shot in Dhaka.

The four bloggers killed last year had all appeared on a list of 84 "atheist bloggers" drawn up by Islamic groups in 2013 and widely circulated.

There have also been attacks on members of religious minorities including Shia, Sufi and Ahmadi Muslims, Christians and Hindus.

Several men are under arrest for last year's killings, including some attached to a hardline group called the Ansarullah Bangla Team.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh is officially secular but critics say the government has failed to properly address the attacks.

Last week, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued a stern warning to anyone who criticised religion: "I don't consider such writings as freethinking but filthy words. Why would anyone write such words? It's not at all acceptable if anyone writes against our prophet or other religions."

Brian Bates #fundie bbc.com

A woman in Oklahoma has pleaded guilty to a lewdness charge after being caught on camera by a local "drone vigilante".

Brian Bates used a drone to film Amanda Zolicoffer during a liaison with a man last August.

Mr Bates says this was the only occasion on which he has used a drone to film such an encounter.

A civil liberties campaigner pointed out that filming with drones could raise privacy concerns.

According to court documents seen by the BBC, Zolicoffer was sentenced to a year in state prison for the misdemeanour.

[...]

"I'm sort of known in the Oklahoma City area," Mr Bates told the BBC.

"For the last 20 years I've used a video camera to document street-level and forced prostitution, and human trafficking."

Mr Bates added that on this occasion he felt safer filming the incident via drone and said that it was able to get "very good footage".

Mr Bates runs a website where he publishes videos of alleged sex workers and their clients.

"I am openly referred to as a video vigilante, I don't really shy away from that," he said.

However, Mr Bates also said that he was reluctant to use his drone in many cases because of safety concerns.

In this instance, said Mr Bates, the two individuals were inside a vehicle and the incident occurred away from other members of the public.

Maulana Habib Ur Rehman #fundie bbc.com

The religious leader at Scotland's biggest mosque has praised an extremist who was executed for committing murder in Pakistan, the BBC can reveal.

Imam Maulana Habib Ur Rehman of Glasgow Central Mosque used the messaging platform WhatsApp to show his support for Mumtaz Qadri.

Qadri was hanged in February after murdering a local politician who opposed strict blasphemy laws.

In a statement the imam said the messages had been taken out of context.

He said that he was expressing his opposition to capital punishment.

In messages seen by the BBC, Imam Maulana Habib Ur Rehman says that he is "disturbed" and "upset" at the news of Qadri's execution, before writing "rahmatullahi alai", a religious blessing usually given to devout Muslims and meaning may God's mercy be upon him.

In another, he says: "I cannot hide my pain today. A true Muslim was punished for doing which [sic] the collective will of the nation failed to carry out."

[...]

The BBC has confirmed with members of the group that the messages come from the imam.

Sergey Andreyev #conspiracy bbc.com

Poland is to summon the Russian ambassador over remarks which appeared to suggest he said Poland was partly to blame for the start of World War Two.

Sergey Andreyev said Poland had blocked a coalition against Nazi Germany several times in the run-up to war.

He also said the USSR's invasion of Poland in 1939 was not an aggression.

[...]

In an interview with a private Polish TV station aired on Friday evening, Mr Andreyev said that Poland had stood in the way of an alliance against the Nazis.

"Therefore Poland partly bears responsibility for the catastrophe that ensued in September 1939," he said, referring to the Nazi invasion of Poland.

He appeared to be referring to Poland's refusal to allow the transit of Soviet troops through its territory.

Mr Andreyev also said that the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland later that month was not an aggression but "to ensure the safety of the USSR" when the outcome of the German invasion of Poland was already clear.

The ambassador added that relations between Poland and Russia were at their lowest ebb since 1945, because Poland had frozen political, cultural and humanitarian contacts.

Yahya Jammeh #fundie bbc.com

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has declared his Muslim-majority country an Islamic republic, saying the move marks a break with the colonial past.

Mr Jammeh told state TV the proclamation was in line with Gambia's "religious identity and values".

He added that no dress code would be imposed and citizens of other faiths would be allowed to practise freely.

Some 90% of Gambians are Muslim. The former British colony's economy relies heavily on tourism.

However, relations with the West have soured recently.

The European Union temporarily withheld aid money to Gambia last year over its poor human rights record.

Mr Jammeh has been president of the tiny West African country for 21 years.

"As Muslims are the majority in the country, the Gambia cannot afford to continue the colonial legacy," Mr Jammeh told state TV, explaining his decision to proclaim an Islamic republic.

Other Islamic republics include Iran, Pakistan and - in Africa, Mauritania.

Mr Jammeh withdrew Gambia from the Commonwealth in 2013, describing the organisation as neo-colonial.

In 2007, he claimed to have found a herbal cure for Aids.

Diosdado Cabello #conspiracy bbc.com

The leader of Venezuela's National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, on Monday accused the United States of kidnapping two nephews of first lady Cilia Flores.

The two were arrested in Haiti last week and taken by the US Drug Enforcement Administration to New York and charged with drug trafficking.

Mr Cabello said the arrests were "irregular" and had been carried out to damage the governing party ahead of legislative elections on 6 December.

[...]

Mr Cabello, a powerful figure in the governing United Socialist Party (PSUV), was the first official to speak out about the arrest of the two men last Tuesday.

In an interview with Venezuelan TV, he said that he did not consider it an arrest.

"A plane went to Haiti with six people and they kidnapped two," he said referring to the fact that the four other people on board had not been charged.

"It's the DEA's normal procedure to kidnap lots of people," he alleged.

The aim of the arrests, he added, was "to hurt the Bolivarian revolution" in the midst of an election.

[...]

Mr Cabello said they had acted independently: "These are grown men who can do what they want in life."

Their indictment accuses the men of conspiring to import "five kilograms [11 lb] and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of cocaine" to the US.

But Reuters said a US law enforcement source had told the news agency that the two men had allegedly planned to smuggle a much larger amount, 800kg, to the US.

Scott Johansen #fundie bbc.com

A judge in the US state of Utah has ordered that a foster child be removed from the care of a lesbian couple and placed with a heterosexual family.

The Utah Division of Child and Family Services is searching for ways to challenge Tuesday's decision.

[...]

The decision, made by Judge Scott Johansen in the town of Price, has been criticised by gay rights groups.

In an interview with a local television news station, the couple said that the judge referred to research that children are better off when they are raised by heterosexual parents.

[...]

This is not the first time that Judge Johansen's decision have come under scrutiny.

In 1997, he was reprimanded for slapping a 16-year-old in the face at a courthouse in Price.

And in 2012, he drew attention for ordering a 13-year-old girl's hair cut in exchange for a lighter sentence. The girl was being prosecuted for cutting the hair of another, younger girl.

That same year, he was criticised for sending a teenage boy on probation to jail after he received a poor school report. The boy was on probation for shoplifting a pack of gum.

Benjamin Netanyahu #conspiracy bbc.com

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been criticised for saying a Palestinian leader persuaded the Nazis to carry out the Holocaust.

Mr Netanyahu insisted Adolf Hitler had only wanted to expel Jews from Europe, but that Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini told him: "Burn them."

However, the chief historian at Israel's memorial to the Holocaust said this account was factually incorrect.

[...]

Speaking alongside Mrs Merkel in Berlin, Mr Netanyahu said "no one should deny that Hitler was responsible for the Holocaust".

But Mr Netanyahu insisted the Mufti of Jerusalem "told the Nazis to prevent Jews fleeing from Europe and supported the Final Solution".

Dadri lynch mob #fundie bbc.com

A 50-year-old man in northern India has been killed in a mob lynching allegedly over rumours that his family had been storing and consuming beef at home.

Mohammad Akhlaq was kicked and beaten with stones by a group of men in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh state on Monday night.

Mr Akhlaq's 22-year-old son was also seriously injured in the attack, and has been admitted to a hospital.

Six people have been arrested in connection with the incident. Police are probing who spread the rumour.

Slaughter of cows is a sensitive issue in India as the animal is considered sacred by Hindus, who comprise 80% of the country's 1.2bn people.

Uttar Pradesh is among a number of Indian states who have tightened laws banning cow slaughter and the sale and consumption of beef.

The beef ban has also provoked outrage with many questioning how the government decides what is on their plate.

Mr Akhlaq's family said the family had stored mutton, and not beef in their fridge. The police have taken the meat and sent it for testing, reports said.

[...]

His 18-year-old daughter Sajida told the newspaper that a "group of more than 100 people from the village" reached the house on Monday night.

"They accused us of keeping cow meat, broke down our doors and started beating my father and brother. My father was dragged outside the house and beaten with bricks," she said.

"We had come to know later that an announcement had been made from the temple about us eating beef...There was some mutton in the fridge...The police have taken it for examination."

Olga and Anatoly Makarenko #fundie bbc.com

Concerns that the virus could cut a deadly swathe through the country has mobilised officials to launch a national immunisation campaign that would embrace all children up to 10 years old.

The threat has also mobilised international organizations, as well as Bill Gates, whose foundation promotes increased vaccinations worldwide and who spoke to President Petro Poroshenko about the polio danger last week.

Olga and Anatoly Makarenko demonstrate the potential obstacles the campaign could face. They have decided not to vaccinate any of their children - Dima, seven, Ksenia, five, and Varvara, one.

And despite knowing something of polio's effects and reading reports that the virus may have already reached Kiev, they won't change their minds.

Dima, Olga points out, has already suffered a bout of whooping cough. But it was just a bit longer-lasting than a regular cough - showing, she claimed, there were no negative consequences.

"The vaccinations are much more dangerous than the illnesses that they treat," said Olga on a late summer day, as her children joyously romped in a nearby playground.

"Nobody knows how the vaccines were stored," she continued. "No-one knows if the expiration dates were changed. Vaccines are a serious thing. There are conditions for transporting, storing and producing them."

Russian government #fundie bbc.com

Russia has listed transsexual and transgender people among those who will no longer qualify for driving licences.

Fetishism, exhibitionism and voyeurism are also included as "mental disorders" now barring people from driving.

The government says it is tightening medical controls for drivers because Russia has too many road accidents.

"Pathological" gambling and compulsive stealing are also on the list. Russian psychiatrists and human rights lawyers have condemned the move.

The announcement follows international complaints about Russian harassment of gay-rights activists.

In 2013 Russia made "promoting non-traditional lifestyles" illegal.

Luigi Brugnaro #fundie bbc.com

[Hyperlink removed.]

The mayor of Venice has been quoted as saying that he will try to ban Gay Pride parades in the city, provoking fury from gay rights activists.

"There will be no gay pride in my Venice," Luigi Brugnaro told La Repubblica newspaper, describing the event as farcical and kitsch.

However, he said he was not homophobic, insisting he had friends who were gay.

[...]

In the interview with La Repubblica newspaper (in Italian), Mr Brugnaro said he firmly opposed hosting the parade in Venice.

"Let them go and do it in Milan, or in front of their own homes," he was quoted as saying.

Mr Brugnaro earlier provoked controversy by withdrawing books that depicted same-sex families from Venice's nurseries and primary schools.

God's Will #fundie bbc.com

Top art gallery directors in Russia have denounced vandalism by Orthodox Christian activists who attacked a Moscow art exhibition last week.

In an open letter the gallery chiefs condemned the God's Will group, who damaged sculptures by Soviet-era artist Vadim Sidur on 14 August.

[...]

The God's Will protest at Moscow's Manezh exhibition hall near the Kremlin, was led by Dmitry Tsorionov, also known as Enteo. The activists said the artworks were offensive to Christian worshippers.

A Manezh official, Yelena Karneyeva, said four of Sidur's works were damaged by the group - some of them severely.

Sidur was a non-conformist, avant-garde artist in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 60s. He was a disabled World War Two veteran and died in 1986.

The Manezh exhibition was called "Sculptures we cannot see" - referring to the fact that Sidur's works were censored by the Soviet authorities.

[...]

The God's Will website says the group stands for "the resurrection and development of Russia as an Orthodox Empire, worshipping God the Creator" and "for a Russia without homosexuals, abortions, drug addiction or alcoholism".

Yishai Schlissel #fundie bbc.com

A teenage girl who was stabbed at a Gay Pride march in Jerusalem has died from her wounds, doctors say.

Shira Banki, 16, was one of six people attacked at the event on Thursday.

Yishai Schlissel, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, who carried out a similar attack in 2005, was arrested at the scene.

[...]

Dramatic images of Thursday's attack in Jerusalem showed the suspect reaching inside his coat and raising a knife above his head.

He then began stabbing marchers while screaming, before being tackled by a police officer.

[...]

Schlissel was released from prison just three weeks ago after serving 10 years for the 2005 attack

Nicolas Maduro, Eduardo Saman #conspiracy bbc.com

In 2003, then-President Hugo Chavez introduced price controls for some 40 food and hygiene products to guarantee the poor had access to staple goods.

But lately, in the midst of a cash crisis, price controls seem to have become a headache.

For the first time in years, shortages and inflation have replaced security as the biggest worry for Venezuelans, according to a recent poll by Caracas-based Datanalisis.

[...]

President Nicolas Maduro says shortages are caused by US-backed, far-right groups who smuggle and hoard products in an economic war to destabilise his socialist government.

"Venezuela currently has the necessary goods to feed the people, but there is a problem with distribution," says Eduardo Saman, a former commerce minister in the government of the late Hugo Chavez.

"And distribution is in the hands of companies who operate as a cartel and seek to affect the government," he tells the BBC.

Alexei Mozgovoi #fundie bbc.com

One of the top rebel commanders in eastern Ukraine, Alexei Mozgovoi, has been killed in an attack on his car, Russian and Ukrainian media report.

[...]

Last November Mozgovoi was seen at the head of a summary court system.

He is heard issuing a warning to residents: "Too many women go to restaurants. What kind of example do they show to their children? From now on, we will arrest all women we find in restaurants and cafes."

Nantwich Education Partnership #fundie bbc.com

Head teachers in Cheshire have warned parents they will report them to the authorities if they allow their children to play computer games rated for over-18s.

The letter was sent by the Nantwich Education Partnership group to parents from 16 schools in the county.

The heads claim games such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty contain unsuitable levels of violence.

They warn parents they could be reported for neglect in some cases.

The heads state that playing such games or accessing certain social media sites can increase early sexualised behaviour in youngsters and leave them vulnerable to grooming for sexual exploitation.

Abdurasul Juraboev, Abror Habibov, Akhror Saidakhmetov #fundie bbc.com

The FBI has arrested three foreign nationals living in Brooklyn who agents say sought to join the Islamic State.

Two of the men had threatened to kill police officers and FBI agents in the US if they were unable to travel to Syria, the FBI said.

The men came to the authorities' attention after they posted to Uzbek-language websites in recent months.

In one post, they pledged to kill US President Barack Obama, the FBI said.

Abdurasul Juraboev, 24, and Abror Habibov, 30, both of Uzbekistan; and Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, of Kazakhstan, were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation.

Nicolas Maduro #conspiracy bbc.com

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says the owners of an unnamed chain of shops have been arrested for artificially creating long queues.

Mr Maduro said the owners had reduced the number of employees working on cash tills in order to create queues and "annoy the Venezuelan people".

He has accused Venezuela's business elite of boycotting his government.

The opposition blames the socialist policies of the past 16 years for the worsening economic crisis.

"Yesterday we detected that a famous chain of stores was conspiring, irritating the people," said Mr Maduro.

"We came, we normalized sales, we summoned the owners, we arrested them and they're prisoners for having provoked the people," he said.

Nonhuman Rights Project #fundie bbc.com

A chimpanzee is not entitled to the same rights as people and does not have be freed from captivity by its owner, a US court has ruled.

The appeals court in New York state said caged chimpanzee Tommy could not be recognised as a "legal person" as it "cannot bear any legal duties".

The Nonhuman Rights Project had argued that chimps who had such similar characteristics to the humans deserved basic rights, including freedom.

The rights group said it would appeal.

Faraz Naveed #fundie bbc.com

A Pakistani policeman has been arrested after allegedly killing a man with an axe because he suspected him of committing blasphemy.

Police say Faraz Naveed struck the victim, Tufail Naqvi, on the neck and head after the latter was arrested during a street fight on Wednesday.

The victim is reported to have had a history of mental instability.
[...]
Mohammad Amir, head of Gujrat city's Civil Lines police station, told BBC Urdu that Mr Naveed had been arrested for the killing.

He added that Mr Naqvi, a Shia Muslim, "was not of a sound mind and would hurl abuses at any one". There was some evidence, Mr Amir said, that he had spent time in a mental asylum.

Unnamed Sudanese judge #fundie bbc.com

"We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged to death," the judge told the woman, AFP reports.

Amnesty International condemned the sentence, handed down by a judge in Khartoum, as "appalling and abhorrent".

Local media report the sentence would not be carried out for two years after she has given birth.

Sudan has a majority Muslim population, which is governed by Islamic law. It rules that apostasy - the abandonment of one's religious faith - is a crime.

[...]

The judge also sentenced the woman to 100 lashes after convicting her of adultery - because her marriage to a Christian man was not valid under Islamic law.

[...]

Amnesty International said the woman, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, was raised as an Orthodox Christian, her mother's religion, because her father, a Muslim, was reportedly absent during her childhood.

In court, the judge addressed her by her Muslim name, Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah.

[...]

There were small groups of protesters outside the court - both her supporters and those who back the punishment.

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Abubakar Shekau #fundie bbc.com

Abubakar Shekau, militant leader of Boko Haram in a video about young girls he abducted:

In a video, he states that the girls should not have been in school in the first place, but rather should get married

"God instructed me to sell them, they are his properties and I will carry out his instructions," he said.

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