Sweden: NYE chaos in Malmo as revellers battle with fireworks

Turkey: Gunmen dressed as Santa Claus attack Istanbul nightclub *GRAPHIC*

Istanbul's governor says 35 people were killed when at least two gunmen attacked a crowded nightclub packed people celebrating New Year's Eve.

Turkish police converged on the area around the Reina club in Istanbul's Ortakoy area.

Special forces police were reported preparing an operation to secure the facility.

At least one of the two gunmen was described as dressed as Santa Claus.

Turkish police patrol in central Istanbul's Istiklal Avenue, Dec. 31, 2016.

Video posted on social media showed rescue vehicles and police cars rushing to the scene. Wounded people were seen being taken into ambulances.

Security measures had been increased across Turkish cities, with police stopping vehicular traffic from reaching major squares in Istanbul and Ankara.

Both cities have been targeted by several attacks in 2016 carried out by Islamic State group or Kurdish rebels.

Boko Haram Leader Shekau Surfaces In New Video, Says Group Is Safe

LECHAION: THE HARBOUR OF ANCIENT CORINTH

Archaeologists Konstantina Vafeiadou and Matej Školc carry a column drum that once made up the colonnade along the Lechaion's harbor front.

Credit: Vassilis Tsiairis

When nautical visitors sailed into the ancient Grecian city of Lechaion, they would have first encountered a monumental entrance leading to several inland canals, all of which were connected to no fewer than four harbor basins, Greek and Danish archaeologists reported in an announcement last week.

These findings, discovered by underwater divers over the course of three excavation seasons, indicate that Lechaion — one of two harbor towns used by the people of ancient Corinth — was a far more important town than historians previously realized, the researchers said.

During the excavations, the researchers did topographical and geophysical surveys to help them chart the canal zone between the inner and outer harbors, said Bjørn Lovén, the co-director of the Lechaion Harbour Project and an associate professor of archaeology at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. 

"In the process, we discovered that the entrance canal connecting the inner and outer harbors was up to 30 meters [98 feet] wide in the fourth and third century B.C., then grew narrower in later centuries," Lovén said in a statement. "The precise reason why remains to be discovered."

The new assessments show that, in its entirety, the Lechaionharbor was more than 5.3 million square feet (500,000 square meters), the area of about 93 football fields. The new measurement shows that Lechaion was just as large as other harbor towns from that time period, including those in Athens, the port city of Piraeus in the Grecian Attica region and Portus, a Roman-built artificial harbor on the Tiber River.

Conservator Angeliki Zisi cleans and assesses the bulwark's wooden posts.

Credit: Vassilis Tsiairis

During the excavations, divers found a unique wooden bulwark (a defensive wall) just inside of the inner harbor entrance. The bulwark once made up a mole, a massive structure that could have been used as a quay for loading and unloading ships, the researchers said.

"The extremely rare wooden structures we've found in the early stages at Lechaion give us hope that we'll find other organic materials, such as wooden tools, furniture, wooden parts of buildings and shipwrecks," Lovén said. "The potential is immense, and it is important to stress that we almost never find organic material on land in the central Mediterranean region."

The mole is about 150 feet (46 m) offshore in water that's about 3 to 10 feet (1 to 3 m) deep. During the 35 days the divers spent mapping the eastern side of the entrance, they found that the mole was connected to stone foundationsthat were possibly part of a tower that protected the entrance, the researchers said.  

Not too far away from the mole, the divers discovered two column segments, known as drums. It's unclear what purpose the columns served, but researches have found other drums in Roman harbors that supported porticoes (a small structure with a roof supported by columns at a building's entrance) on the harbor front, the researchers said.

Moreover, a structure found in the middle of the inner harbor basin is possibly the base of a lighthousethat guided ships through the harbor, the researchers said.

This map of Greece compares the shortcuts across the Isthmus of Corinth against the seaway south of the Peloponnese.

Credit: Courtesy of Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities University of Copenhagen base map by ASCSA CC BY-SA 2015

They noted that even before the excavations, researchers knew that Lechaionwas a trading hotspot in the ancient world. Ancient Corinth was located about 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) inland, but Lechaion had prime real estate near the isthmus that connects the Peloponnese peninsula to mainland Greece, meaning that ships would sail by the town if they used the isthmus as a shortcut. 

The first-century B.C. author Strabo noted the isthmus's importance when he wrote, "If you see Cape Maleas[at the southeast tip of the Peloponnese peninsula], forget your home," meaning that sailors who took the long way around the peninsula had strayed far from home.

Lechaion endured for about 1,000 years, from about the sixth century B.C. to the sixth century A.D. But the area is earthquake-prone, and several large temblors appear to have damaged the harbor, including one large earthquake in A.D. 551 that destroyed the 590-foot-long (180 m) Basilica of St. Leonidas, one of the largest churches built in Lechaion at that time, the researchers said.

Χριστιανικές κοινότητες στη Συρία γιορτάζουν τα Χριστούγεννα μετα 4 χρονια πολεμου

Ο Ρώσος πρόεδρος Βλαντιμίρ Πούτιν ανακοίνωσε στις 26 Δεκεμβρίου την ημέρα εθνικού πένθους για την απώλεια ζωών στη συντριβή του Tu-154

Ο Ρώσος πρόεδρος Βλαντιμίρ Πούτιν ανακοίνωσε στις 26 Δεκεμβρίου την ημέρα εθνικού πένθους για την απώλεια ζωών στη συντριβή του Tu-154 αεροπλάνο που δεν απέχει πολύ από το Σότσι, αναφέρει TASS.

"Αύριο η Ρωσία θα πρέπει να κηρυχθεί ημέρα εθνικού πένθους ... μια ενδελεχή έρευνα για τα αίτια της συντριβής θα πρέπει να διενεργούνται και κάνει τίποτα για να στηρίξει τις οικογένειες των θυμάτων», - δήλωσε ο αρχηγός του κράτους.

Ο Πούτιν πρόσθεσε ότι η κυβέρνηση ανέθεσε να δημιουργήσει μια επιτροπή για να διερευνήσει την τραγωδία, με επικεφαλής τον Υπουργό Μεταφορών.

Όπως αναφέρθηκε Ruposters, εκπρόσωπος Τύπου του υπουργείου Άμυνας Υποστράτηγος Ιγκόρ Konashenkov επιβεβαίωσε την πτώση του τμήματος αεροσκάφους στη Μαύρη Θάλασσα. Οι διασώστες έχουν ήδη βρει αρκετά πτώματα στην περιοχή της συντριβής και τεκμηριώνει τους δημοσιογράφους του "First Channel". Στο πλοίο επέβαιναν 92 άνθρωποι, ανάμεσά τους - τα οκτώ μέλη του πληρώματος, 68 ηθοποιοί τραγουδιού και του χορού Ensemble του Αλεξάντροφ και εννέα ρωσικά δημοσιογράφους.

71 ΝΕΚΡΟΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΣΙΒΗΡΙΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΚΡΥΟ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΚΑΥΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΜΕΘΑΝΟΛΗΣ

The death toll in Siberia has risen to 71 after more than 100 people bath oil laced with methylated spirits. In total, 117 people were poisoned, of which up to 71 now have died, Irkutsk Regional Health Department spokeswoman Tatiana Lebedeva told Interfax news agency. She said 40 fatalities of poisoning died in medical centres, while the remaining 31 died in their homes. The first cases of poisoning occurred last Saturday. Two days later, the death toll rose to more than 40, which pushed the mayor of Irkutsk, Dmitri Berdnikov, to declare the state of emergency in the city. He also announced a provisional ban on the sale of all kinds of liquids containing alcohol if they are not certified alcoholic beverages. Additionally, the Russian investigation committee ordered the seizure of the product, which on its label clearly indicates that it is only for external use. As part of the investigation, 12 people have been arrested for their alleged role in the mass poisoning. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered stricter governmental measures to crack down on sales of surrogate alcohol. He also wants new rules for compulsory labelling, plus tougher penalties for bootleggers. According to local press due to the economic recession, Russians on low incomes cannot afford to buy legitimate liquor and instead drink alcohol-based products, such as fragrances and lotions. This has increased the number of fatal poisonings, especially during winter, when alcohol consumption usually increases.

Shocking video shows parents sending 7 and 9 year old daughters on suicide missions

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 21 Δεκ 2016

An extremely disturbing video has emerged in which a Syrian mother and father are seen preparing their two daughters, ages 7 and 9, for jihad suicide missions. Later, in Damascus, a suicide bombing occurred in a police station. The bomber was reported to be in the same age range as the girls in the video.