Europe

El Monte, California is a city of roughly 100,000 residents in East Los Angeles, many of whom struggle to make ends meet with a median household income of ~$39,000 and nearly 25% of people living below the poverty line.  But while most of the people of El Monte struggle to meet monthly expenses, the city's public employees are living the high life courtesy of one of the most egregious taxpayer funded pension plans in the country.  Just ask the retired City Manager, James Mussenden, who told the LA Times that he gets paid $216,000 per year in retirement to tour the w

Submitted by Burak Begdil via The Gatestone Institute,

Last weekend, when commenting on China's public demonstration of its one and only aircraft carrier, which China then proceeded to sail in close proximity to Taiwan to make a clear diplomatic "statement", we noted something tangentially troubling: " a quick look at the latest positioning of US aircraft carriers, amphibious ready groups, and other navies around the globe shows a gaping hole in the region of the East or South China Sea, and even in proximity to Japan, a place where the US navy traditionally has maintained at least one carrier group.  In fact, according to Stratfor, the only ac

The German police are learning from their past mistakes: one year after last year's notorious New Year's Eve mass attacks by migrants on German women in the city of Cologne, security forces in the city said they screened hundreds of North Africans at the main railway station on the last day of 2016 to prevent a repeat of last year's events.

“Hundreds of Nafris [North Africans] screened at main railway station,” Cologne police tweeted.

A manhunt was underway for a gunman who opened fire on people at a packed nightclub on the shores of Istanbul's Bosphorus waterway on New Year's morning, killing at least 39 people, including 15 foreigners, then fled the scene.

The suspect escaped the scene by changing clothes at the club after the attack, according to reports on Turkish media. There have also been rumors that there was a second attacker, but officials are now just talking about one terrorist.