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[Live: Deadly shooting at Paris HQ of French satirical magazine]

Live: Deadly shooting at Paris HQ of French satirical magazine

Shots have been fired at French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in the heart of Paris Wednesday, with Paris officials reporting at least 10 fatalities. Witnesses at the scene reported seeing multiple masked gunmen.






http://www.france24.com/en/20150107-live-blog-gun-shots-french-paris-charlie-hebdo-satirical-magazine/

French PM criticises newspaper attack -

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2011/11/20111122024771429.html

Shooting on Charlie Hebdo Satirical Magazine Office, Roof view.

["there are operations, arrests ...every day to avoid it happening,"]

Swiss authorities have decided to let returning an Islamic State jihadist back into Switzerland with a slap on the wrist. The threat posed by returning jihadists has deeply concerned Western intelligence and law-enforcement agencies due to worries they may launch terror attacks in their home countries.

Just last week, France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve warned that the threat of an attack by returning jihadists was real and that Europeans needed to mobilize against it. In France, "there are operations, arrests ...every day to avoid it happening," he said.," Cazeneuve said after a meeting with of European Union (EU) interior ministers in Brussels to discuss the jihadist threat.

Nonetheless, Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber ordered that a 30-year-old recent convert to Islam from the western Swiss canton of Vaud work 600 hours of community service instead of receiving jail time. Switzerland is not an EU member. The jihadist must receive psychiatric care in addition to performing community service.

The man, whose identity has not been released, left for Syria in December 2013 and stayed in a training camp for two weeks before having second thoughts. The Islamic State held him prisoner for 54 days before releasing him and allowing him to return to Switzerland. Switzerland's Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) says 55 of its citizens have left to fight for jihadist groups since 2001. Of them, 31 left to fight in Iraq or Syria while 24 traveled to Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan or Somalia.

Switzerland is not alone Europe in taking a lenient approach to returning jihadists. Danish authorities similarly have adopted an approach emphasizing rehabilitation rather than punishment. This policy continues despite the fact more Danish citizens have traveled to fight in Syria per capita than anywhere else in Europe. Denmark's second largest city, Aarhus, has welcomed returning jihadists back.

Rather than face arrest, returning Danish jihadists receive free psychological counseling and help finding jobs or university admission. Police in Aarhus have also set up routine meetings this year with a mosque which had connections with approximately 30 jihadists who went to fight in Syria. "In 2013, we had 30 young people go to Syria," Jorgen Ilum, Aarhus's police commissioner, told the Washington Post in October. "This year, to my knowledge, we have had only one."

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4699/returning-swiss-is-jihadist-gets-community-service

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLmgHXHbqpE

Protesters marched in several German cities on Monday against higher levels of immigration and what they see as the growing influence of Islam. The marchers took to the streets in defiance of an appeal from Chancellor Angela Merkel to spurn rallies she views as racist. Some 18-thousand people, the biggest number so far, turned out in Dresden on Monday but similar rallies in Berlin and the western city of Cologne were heavily outnumbered by counter-protesters. They accuse the demonstrators of fanning racism and intolerance




http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/05/us-germany-islam-protests-idUSKBN0KE1TS20150105

[Life on Earth]

Life on Earth has another good 1.75 billion years to go, study says

Earth could continue to host life for at least another 1.75 billion years, as long as nuclear holocaust, an errant asteroid or some other disaster doesn't intervene, a new study calculates.

But even without such dramatic doomsday scenarios, astronomical forces will eventually render the planet uninhabitable. Somewhere between 1.75 billion and 3.25 billion years from now, Earth will travel out of the solar system's habitable zone and into the "hot zone," new research indicates.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/life-earth-has-another-good-1-75-billion-years-go-f4B11199461

["zero-tolerance"]

MINISTERS will today unleash a tough new crackdown to combat rising anti-Semitism in Britain following a surge of sickening attacks against the Jewish community Jewish schools will be given funding for extra security while tough punishments for online hate crime are to be brought in under a "zero-tolerance" approach.

Writing in the Daily Express, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles today, warns that the "dark forces" of anti-Semitism have returned following an upsurge of anti-Semitic attacks this year. In July and August there were 543 incidents, more than the entire previous year, prompting an urgent rethink into how to tackle what Mr Pickles describes as an "ancient evil".

http://shr.gs/6rXIxJY