Scenes from Putin’s Economic Meltdown

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photo credit: Mitya Aleshkovsky

photo credit: Mitya Aleshkovsky

Get the hot deals while they last! Whatever’s on your holiday shopping list—buy now, it may never be this cheap again! In a single day this past week, the ruble exchange rate dropped from 59 to 80 to the dollar, further eroding confidence in the Russian economy and ensuring a deep recession next year—but also briefly turning Moscow into the shopping capital of the world.

Although this past week’s currency crisis marked the worst fall for the ruble since Russia defaulted on its debt in 1998, no one was waiting in bread lines or starting a run on the bank. Instead, anyone with any cash at all went on a buying spree. Long lines snaked through Ikea branches around Moscow into the early hours of Wednesday morning as people picked up furniture, bedding and other household goods at what had suddenly become bargain-basement prices. Crowds of eager buyers emptied shelves of computer monitors and snapped up flat-screen televisions at consumer electronics chains.

People were purchasing refrigerators, washing machines, cameras—anything that was less likely to lose its value as fast as the plummeting ruble. Cars in some dealerships were being sold at 30 percent to 50 percent above the recommended retail price, yet “people run and bring their last money,” one social network user wrote.

“Yesterday the line for the cash register was to the other end of the hall,” Ravil Daizrakhmanov, an employee of the consumer electronics store M.video, said Wednesday. “They were buying very expensive tech products.”

The ruble has lost over half its value this year as falling oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis hit Russia’s energy-dependent economy. But a drop of 10 percent on Monday and another 10 percent on what has come to be known as “Black Tuesday” further shook consumers, undermined investor confidence and revealed divisions among the country’s elite on how to react. Nonetheless, Russians’ approval for President Vladimir Putin has remained sky-high.

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ISIS Reportedly Selling Christian Artifacts, Turning Churches Into Torture Chambers

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Omar Sanadiki

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Omar Sanadiki

The Islamic State is turning Christian churches in Iraq and Syria into dungeons and torture chambers after stripping them of priceless artifacts to sell on the black market, according to reports.

Ancient relics and even entire murals are being torn from the houses of worship and smuggled out through the same routes previously established for moving oil and weapons in and out of the so-called caliphate, a vast region the jihadist army has claimed as sovereign under Sharia law.

“ISIS has a stated goal to wipe out Christianity,” Jay Sekulow, of the American Center for Law and Justice and the author of “Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can’t Ignore,” told FoxNews.com. “This why they are crucifying Christians — including children — destroying churches and selling artifacts. The fact is, this group will stop at nothing to raise funds for its terrorist mission.”

It’s not clear what items have been stolen, but the terrorist group has sought to destroy religious groups that don’t embrace its twisted and violent interpretation of Islam, and has already blown up several revered Christian sites and monuments.

“In short, ISIS is composed of religiously motivated psychopaths.” – Jay Sekulow, American Center for Law and Justice

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German Researchers Discover Flaw Allows Anyone to Listen to Cell Calls

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Credit - REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Credit – REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

German researchers have discovered security flaws that could let hackers, spies and criminals listen to private phone calls and intercept text messages on a potentially massive scale – even when cellular networks are using the most advanced encryption now available.

The flaws, to be reported at a hacker conference in Hamburg this month, are the latest evidence of widespread insecurity on SS7, the global network that allows the world’s cellular carriers to route calls, texts and other services to each other. Experts say it’s increasingly clear that SS7, first designed in the 1980s, is riddled with serious vulnerabilities that undermine the privacy of the world’s billions of cellular customers.

The flaws discovered by the German researchers are actually functions built into SS7 for other purposes – such as keeping calls connected as users speed down highways, switching from cell tower to cell tower – that hackers can repurpose for surveillance because of the lax security on the network.

Those skilled at the myriad functions built into SS7 can locate callers anywhere in the world, listen to calls as they happen or record hundreds of encrypted calls and texts at a time for later decryption. There also is potential to defraud users and cellular carriers by using SS7 functions, the researchers say.

These vulnerabilities continue to exist even as cellular carriers invest billions of dollars to upgrade to advanced 3G technology aimed, in part, at securing communications against unauthorized eavesdropping. But even as individual carriers harden their systems, they still must communicate with each other over SS7, leaving them open to any of thousands of companies worldwide with access to the network. That means that a single carrier in Congo or Kazakhstan, for example, could be used to hack into cellular networks in the United States, Europe or anywhere else.

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Russian Bear Back on the Prowl: Is NATO Ready?

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Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

BRUSSELS AND STOCKHOLM — A famous 1984 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign commercial warned voters that “there is a bear in the woods.”

It was a reminder that the Soviet Union was a dangerous adversary and that America needed a strong military to oppose the Russian “bear.”

In 2014, there is a bear in the woods again. But this time, NATO and Western Europe seem unprepared.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Western Europe began to disarm. Now, it’s scrambling to rearm.

When a suspected Russian sub was found lurking in Swedish waters in October, Sweden, a NATO “partner,” was unable to find it, perhaps because it scrapped its anti-submarine helicopters.

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Breaking News – Islamic Terrorist Takes Hostages in Sydney

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Credit - Townhall.com

Credit – Townhall.com

The rise of ISIS-inspired terrorist threats in Australia has been a growing problem. Last September, for example, hundreds of officers conducted a series of raids throughout Sydney and Brisbane that authorities claimed stopped a major terrorist plot in its tracks. More than a dozen suspected terrorists were apprehended and detained.

Now, however, a café in the same city has reportedly been overrun by a lone gunman, and civilians are being detained against their will. A black, Arabic flag has also been put on display:

Hostages were being held inside a central Sydney cafe where a black flag with white Arabic writing could be seen in the window, local television showed on Monday, raising fears of an attack linked to Islamic militants.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was convening a meeting of the cabinet’s national security committee for a briefing on what he called a hostage situation in Australia’s commercial capital.

Australia, which is backing the United States and its escalating action against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, is on high alert for attacks by radicalised Muslims or by home-grown fighters returning from the conflict in the Middle East.

Read more from this story HERE.

Americans, Belgians Mark 70th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge

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OLIVIER HOSLET/EPA

OLIVIER HOSLET/EPA

By Associated Press

BASTOGNE, Belgium – Braving snowy weather, Americans and Belgians gathered in the Ardennes region of Belgium on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of one of the biggest and bloodiest U.S. battles of World War II–the Battle of the Bulge.

Jean-Claude Klepper, 62, of Virton, Belgium, and his 15-year-old daughter Aurelie dressed up like World War II GIs to mark the occasion.

“We must never forget what happened in 1944,” the elder Klepper told The Associated Press. “Many American soldiers came here to defend Europe. We must honor them for what they did.”

Stephen Sams, 41, a U.S. soldier based in Germany, said for him the battle waged in the dense forests and narrow valleys of Belgium and neighboring Luxembourg epitomized “the unwillingness of American forces to give up in the face of adversity.”

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Veterans of Battle of the Bulge Gather in the Ardennes to Mark the 70th Anniversary

Starting on Dec. 16, 1944, and for nearly six weeks, more than 600,000 American soldiers, fighting in freezing conditions, took part in desperate efforts to contain, then throw back, a surprise German counteroffensive masterminded by Adolf Hitler himself.

The battle waged in the dense forests and narrow valleys of Belgium and neighboring Luxembourg.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill hailed the ultimate result as “an ever-famous American victory.”

But it came at a high cost: 80,987 U.S. casualties, including 10,276 dead, 47,493 wounded and 23,218 missing, according to the U.S. Army’s official history.

Read more from this story HERE.

Israel Erased from Map by Biggest Children’s Book Publisher

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Times of Israel

Times of Israel

Arab textbooks are not the only ones erasing Israel from their maps. Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books, has also eliminated the Jewish state in a book.

“Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt,” part of the popular Geronimo Stilton children’s series translated from Italian and published by Scholastic in 2012, tells the story of a group of investigative journalists involved in a treasure hunt in Egypt.

The story commences with a map of modern Egypt and its neighboring countries. While Sudan, Libya and Saudi Arabia appear clearly on the map, the territory of Israel is completely covered by Jordan, painted red. A line indicating the Israeli border with the Sinai Peninsula does appear in the book.

Adina Golombek, a Jerusalem resident who emigrated to Israel from Canada last year, said she was shocked to discover Israel’s absence while reading the book with her 7-year-old son.

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Iran Criticizes US for 'Practice of Racism and Inhumane Behavior'

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

There have been two incidents of African Americans being killed by white law enforcement officers of late—Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. Grand juries in both instances decided not to indict the officers, setting off racial riots across the nation. Apparently Iran has taken note.

The Hill reports:

“The U.S. administration has continuously criticized other countries and made an instrumental use of human rights and adopted double-standard criteria in the last few decades, while it has ignored domestic situation at home,” Iranian spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said, according to the country’s semi-official FARS News Agency.

Afkham went on to challenge the Obama administration and U.S. courts “to comply with their duty and take lawful and just actions in dealing with their citizens and stop the practice of racism and inhumane behavior.”

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Report: ISIS Beheads Four Christian Children in Iraq for Refusing to Convert to Islam

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The brutality and barbarism of ISIS – the Islamic State – has been well documented, but the latest report is unspeakable.

The Christian “Vicar of Baghdad,” the Rev. Canon Andrew White, recounted that ISIS jihadists recently beheaded four Christian children.

As the Christian Post reports:

“ISIS turned up and they said to the children, ‘you say the words that you will follow Muhammad.’ The Children, all under 15, four of them, they said, ‘no, we love Yasua [Jesus]. We have always loved Yasua. We have always followed Yasua. Yasua has always been with us.'” White said. “[The Militants] said, ‘say the words!’ [The Children] said, ‘no, we can’t do that.’ They chopped all their heads off.”

“How do you respond to that?” White asked. “You just cry. They are my children. That is what we have been going through. That is what we are going through.”

Often the nonstop news of terrorist beheadings and persecution of Christians coming out of Iraq has had the devastating consequence of desensitizing many Christians here in America.

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Iran: We Will Get The Bomb

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Iran has no intention of reaching a settlement over its illicit nuclear program, the Islamic Republic’s senior strategist revealed last week on his blog.

Instead, the regime has adopted a policy of “elongation” with the 5+1 nations in which it strings along the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany as it develops nuclear weapons, wrote Alireza Forghani.

Forghani is a senior analyst and strategy specialist in the supreme leader’s camp and closely aligned with Mehdi Taeb, who heads the regime’s Ammar Strategic Base, a radical think thank, and thus speaks with the blessing of the Islamic regime.

“Elongation” is Iran’s sole doctrine, Forghani wrote, in which the Geneva negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran were “never supposed to be brought to a successful conclusion … whether positive or negative.” Those talks began in 2006 and have been extended several times as one deadline after another failed to produce a comprehensive agreement. The two sides agreed on Nov. 24 to yet another deadline extension, this time to June 30, 2015.

Forghani warned that soon he will promote the slogan “Nuclear weapon is our definite right,” and that there will be people in the streets demanding a nuclear-armed Iran. He also promised the destruction of Israel, which he claimed “is exactly what Almighty God wants.”

Read more from this story HERE.