Germany withdraws Patriot missiles from Turkey

Washington (UPI)
Dec 23, 2015

Germany has begun withdrawing its Patriot missile batteries from Turkey, concluding its three-year mandate to support the NATO mission in the region.

The German military initially deployed their Patriot missile systems to Turkey as part of the NATO initiative to bolster its defenses in the country. Germany provided two of the five NATO batteries, in addition to about 250 personnel for the three-year mission, according to Daily Sabah.

While the withdrawal leaves only Spanish Patriot missile systems at the request of the Turkish government, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltengberg says the alliance's mission will continue with air and naval support to boost the country's defense capabilities.

The German government said earlier this year it would not renew its Patriot missile commitment to Turkey, Defense News reports.

While NATO has been supporting Turkish airspace for several years, officials have moved to strengthen their defenses in the wake of the downing of a Russian aircraft that entered Turkish airspace in November.

"This is something we have been working on long before the incident and is separate from the incident," Stoltenberg said.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Germany_withdraws_Patriot_missiles_from_Turkey_999.html.

Nordic countries in annual contest to claim real Santa

December 23, 2015

HELSINKI (AP) — Most kids learn that Santa Claus comes from the North Pole, but children in Scandinavia are taught he lives a bit further south. Where exactly is a matter of much debate, with businesses in Finland, Sweden and Norway competing to cash in on the cachet that comes with claiming Santa's hometown.

Finnish children know his home to be in the mythological Korvatunturi (Ear mountain) in the northern wilderness of the Finnish part of Lapland while Swedes say he hails from the small town of Mora. Norwegians claim he was born hundreds of years ago under a stone in Drobak on the Oslo fjord.

Danes, who enjoy milder and mostly snowless winters, teach their children that Santa's home is on the distant Arctic island of Greenland, a sparsely populated semiautonomous Danish territory. In the battle to beat their Scandinavian neighbors, Finland's public broadcaster YLE every year sends out a video of a red-cloaked Santa leaving his log cabin on a sleigh drawn by a white reindeer in the frozen snowy landscape that reaches millions of viewers worldwide. A regular feature for the past 30 years, it was first broadcast in 1960.

The biggest town in Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi, has been dubbed the official hometown of Santa Claus and depends on the myth for a large part of its yearly tourism turnover of some 210 million euros ($230 million). Situated just south of the Arctic Circle, it attracts more than 300,000 visitors annually — five times the town's population.

"Santa Claus is a very important and known person globally ... and that's a good basis for us to build up this kind of business," Mayor Esko Lotvonen said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

The origins of Santa Claus — widely known elsewhere in Europe also as St. Nicholas — are shrouded in the mists of mythology, but the benevolent figure is believed to be based on St. Nicholas of Myra, a 4th century Greek Christian bishop who lived in a province of the Byzantine Empire that now is Turkey.

Danes, Swedes and Norwegians base their Santa on a mythological figure — a gnome known as a "tomte" or "nisse" in the Scandinavian languages — whereas Finns, who are ethnically and linguistically a different people, know Santa as "joulupukki," a Christmas buck or goat, derived from old pagan Norse mythology.

In the Nordic region, Santa doesn't clamber down chimneys but visits homes on Dec. 24, meeting the children, or if he's too busy leaving behind a bag or basket of presents. Mora in central Sweden has claimed itself as Santa's home since 1984, with some 50,000 visiting Santaworld annually.

Nicklas Lind, director of Santaworld, which includes Santa's house, a troll safari, moose park and restaurants, says the town, known for its knives and an annual 90-kilometer cross-country skiing race, welcomes the extra money brought in by Santa but was unable to give figures.

"It's very important for the region and the town, for hotels and skiing," he said. "We get some millions; that's all I can say." The message that Santa's home is somewhere in the Nordic region has spread far and wide. Santaworld's post office has received 400,000 letters this year addressed to Santa, his post office in Rovaniemi claims more than 500,000 letters with 100,000 more expected before the year-end.

The Norwegian Santa in Drobak is too busy to talk as Christmas approaches. Instead, his cousin Tom picks up the phone but doesn't want to discuss business. "It's time for Christmas cheer not for competition, but we can't be angry if our good colleagues in Sweden, Finland and Greenland think otherwise," he says. "All Norwegian children know the real Santa lives here."

A group of schoolboys enjoying their Christmas break at a shopping mall in Helsinki are just as confident Santa is from Finland. Six-year-old Matias, who doesn't want to give his family name, looks puzzled when asked the question, before blurting out: "He lives in Korvatunturi (Ear mountain), of course."

"And he's coming to see us again, he did last year," Matias says.

Associated Press reporter James Brooks contributed to this report from Rovaniemi.

In a first, rival Cyprus leaders offer joint holiday wishes

December 24, 2015

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — For the first time, the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders of the ethnically divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus took to the airwaves together to send out holiday wishes in both Greek and Turkish.

Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and breakaway Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci said during a televised message Thursday they hoped the new year ushers in a peace accord. Anastasiades expressed hope that next year sees Greek and Turkish Cypriots living peacefully together again in a reunified Cyprus. Akinci said he hoped 2016 would bring lasting peace, calm and prosperity to all.

The messages aimed to reaffirm their commitment to reach a peace deal as negotiations enter their eighth month. Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup aiming at union with Greece.

Sweden's 1st female foreign minister Karin Soder dies at 87

December 27, 2015

HELSINKI (AP) — Sweden's first female foreign minister and party leader, Karin Soder, has died. She was 87.

Center Party spokeswoman Ingrid Brask said Sunday that Soder died in Stockholm on Dec. 19 but gave no cause of death. Soder entered Parliament in 1971 and was a lawmaker for 20 years. She held the foreign minister's position in 1976-1978.

In 1985, she became the first woman in Sweden to lead a political party when elected chairwoman of the Center Party. She quit two years later. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told the TT news agency that Soder was a pioneer in Swedish politics and had "broken new ground."

She led Sweden's member organization of Save the Children between 1983 and 1995. Soder is survived by her husband and three adult children.

Christmas Day cleanup after storms kill 14 in US

Chicago (AFP)
Dec 25, 2015

Rescue workers and heartbroken residents on Friday sifted through what was left of homes wiped out by several ferocious storms and tornadoes that killed at least 14 people in the US southeast.

The storms, feeding on unseasonably warm air, left a trail of destruction in rural communities from Alabama to Illinois, just as Christmas reached its crescendo.

More than a dozen tornadoes were reported in six states, with the southern state of Mississippi hardest hit. Seven people were confirmed dead there and another 60 injured, with one person missing, said the state's emergency management agency.

"We are experiencing some flash flooding today, with storms coming through right now in five counties. And damage assessments are still ongoing," the emergency agency's Brett Carr told AFP.

Among the Mississippi dead was a seven-year-old boy who was killed when a brutal storm picked up and tossed the car he was travelling in, fire chief Kenny Holbrook told reporters in the town of Holly Springs, where thousands greeted Christmas Day without power.

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency in seven counties after the storms caused widespread damage.

Six fatalities were confirmed in neighboring Tennessee, including three people found dead Thursday in a car submerged in a creek, according to the fire department in Columbia, Tennessee.

One person was reportedly killed in Arkansas.

Georgia's governor declared a state of emergency in counties affected by the severe weather.

Debris from ravaged buildings and other structures littered roads, making them impassable in parts of the southeast.

Officials were inviting volunteers to help clean up or make donations as people who fled returned to their homes to see what, if anything, was still standing.

Television footage and pictures posted on social media showed homes flattened across several states, with possessions and Christmas presents strewn on the ground or left in a messy heap.

Power lines, trees and mobile phone towers were also toppled.

Therese Apel, a reporter at Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger newspaper, spoke with a north Mississippi family hard hit by the violent weather.

"The Wilkins family lost everything, but they told me, 'It's still Christmas. It's about family and being grateful,'" Apel posted on Twitter.

The worst appeared to be over, but forecasters at the National Weather Service warned severe weather was possible in several states including Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma. Flash floods in the US southeast were also a possibility.

The East Coast meanwhile was enjoying unseasonably warm weather, with temperatures in New York's iconic Central Park peaking at 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 Celsius) Thursday, the warmest Christmas Eve since records began in 1871.

The location set a Christmas Day record with temperatures reaching 66 degrees (19 Celsius) on Friday.

Atlanta, Georgia was also expected to set a record with temperatures reaching 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 Celsius).

The opposite was happening in other areas of the country.

"Ho Ho Ho! Vegas got snow!" reported the National Weather Service before dawn Friday, saying the trace of white tied the record set in 1941 for Christmas Day snow in normally balmier Las Vegas. That record was also tied in 1988 and 2008.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Christmas_Day_cleanup_after_storms_kill_14_in_US_999.html.

Central American nations announce deal on Cuban migrants

December 29, 2015

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Central American nations have reached a deal to let the first of thousands of stranded Cuban migrants continue their journey north toward the United States next month, officials said Monday.

The humanitarian transfer will airlift an unspecified number of Cubans the first week of January from Costa Rica to El Salvador, from where they will continue by bus toward Mexico, Costa Rica's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Guatemalan government, which hosted a diplomatic meeting earlier in the day to consider the issue, described it as a "pilot" program and said a work group has been tasked with coordinating logistics.

The two governments did not immediately release further details, citing some nations' desire for discretion on what has become a diplomatic flashpoint between Costa Rica and neighboring Nicaragua. The number of Cubans stranded in Costa Rica has reached at least 8,000 since Nicaragua closed its border to them weeks ago. The islanders say they are trying to reach the United States, where favorable migratory policies toward Cubans mean nearly all are allowed to stay and apply for residency.

On Sunday, Pope Francis called for their plight to be resolved. Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez said the measure will be available only to Cubans who are already in Costa Rica. Ministry spokeswoman Melissa Duran told The Associated Press it will be up to the migrants to pay the costs of their travel, but did not give more specifics.

On Dec. 18, Costa Rica stopped issuing transit visas for Cuban migrants and announced that any who arrived after that without a visa would be deported. Cuba has seen a spike in outward migration in the year since it and Washington announced they would re-establish diplomatic ties after more than five decades of open hostility. Many Cuban migrants say they chose now to emigrate out of fear that detente could bring about an end to the U.S. policies that benefit them — although U.S. officials say no change is in the works.

Cuba and its close ally Nicaragua argue that the U.S. policies toward Cubans encourage them to attempt dangerous migratory routes and cause a brain drain on the island.

Associated Press writer E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed.

Putin signs decree on dissolving Federal Space Agency

Moscow (Sputnik)
Dec 28, 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on dissolving the country's Federal Space Agency in line with the creation of Roscosmos state corporation, the Kremlin press service said Monday.

The agency will be dissolved in accordance with a federal law of July 13, 2015, according to the presidential decree, published on Kremlin's official website.

The decree comes into force on January 1, 2016.

Under the decree, the Russian government is due to ensure the continuity of the agency's functioning.

In accordance with the law, in the near future the government should carry out liquidation procedures, as well as provide the agency's employees with legal guarantees and compensation.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Putin_signs_decree_on_dissolving_Federal_Space_Agency_999.html.