Nikola
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Post by Nikola on May 2, 2012 17:08:23 GMT -5
Some uncensored images of the people caught. Apparently, they were all Albanians. Though it all seems fishy. Will have to wait out and see how it all unfolds.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on May 1, 2012 17:42:21 GMT -5
www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/macedonian-police-arrest-20-radical-islamists-in-deaths-of-fishermen/2012/05/01/gIQAluR2tT_story.htmlMacedonian police arrest 20 radical Islamists in deaths of fishermenBy Associated Press, SKOPJE, Macedonia — Police arrested 20 radical Islamists for the murder of five ethnic Macedonian fishermen in an early morning raid Tuesday, authorities said. The killing last month fueled tension in the tiny Balkan country between majority Macedonians and the mostly Muslim Albanian minority. The suspects have been charged with terrorism, Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska said. She did not specify whether they all belonged to the same ethnic group, saying simply that they were all Macedonian citizens. The victims were not directly connected with the suspects, Jankuloska told reporters. “The intention of this crime was to create a sense of insecurity and fear among the general population,” she said. Tensions between ethnic Macedonians and Albanians have simmered since the end of an armed rebellion in 2001, when ethnic Albanian rebels fought Macedonian government forces for about eight months, seeking greater rights for their community. The conflict left 80 people dead, and ended with the intervention of NATO troops. Ethnic Albanians make up a quarter of Macedonia’s population of 2.1 million. Most Macedonians are Christian Orthodox. About 800 police were involved in Tuesday’s operation, called “Monster,” raiding 26 houses around the Macedonian capital of Skopje and seizing weapons, bullet proof vests and Islamic literature, Jankuloska said. All of the suspects had fought in Afghanistan and Pakistan, she said. The suspects were followers “of radical Islam, which is generally a danger for Christianity,” she said. “They all have the capacity to commit such a horrible act.” She did not offer more details, saying the investigation is not yet complete. Police posted a video of armed policemen raiding a house, arresting at least two suspects, one of them sprawled on the floor, and displaying a number of cellphones and SIM cards. The title of the video describes the arrested as “Wahhabis,” a fundamentalist branch of Islam. The five fishermen, all but one in their 20s, were found dead, shot with at least three different firearms, north of Skopje on April 13. Rumors spread quickly that the killings were ethnic-related, forcing authorities to appeal for calm.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Apr 17, 2012 20:04:24 GMT -5
this country will be broke in no time, they will never recoup their expenses through mass tourism becuase of this face lift as they hope. Macedonia (along with Albania) are developing at a tremendous rate in the last few years. They have prepared their economies and laws for foreign investment and the future is looking very promising. Just look at this thread to see how many companies are opening or planning to open factories in Macedonia in the near future. www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=623673&page=18
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Apr 17, 2012 15:24:28 GMT -5
www.b92.net/eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=04&dd=17&nav_id=79817"Albanian army" issues ultimatum to MacedoniaSource: Tanjug April 17, 2012 | 16:38 SKOPJE -- A previously unknown organization calling itself the Army for the Liberation of Occupied Albanian Lands on Tuesday threatened to launch attacks in Macedonia. The group said it would attack what they referred to as "Slavo-Macedonian" army and police unless they retreat from "occupied Albanian lands" within the next two weeks. A statement to this effect was posted on the Albanian-language website Potalb. It further said that this "army" also has its "general staff", which met in Kosovska Mitrovica and decided to issue its ultimatum to the state of Macedonia. The text was published at a time of rising tensions in Macedonia after the murder of five ethnic Macedonian men near Skopje. The investigation into the assassination is still underway and Skopje-based media do not exclude the possibility that the crime was ethnically motivated. The group's statement also claims that rights of ethnic Albanians are "violated on a daily basis in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". The country's prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, is described as being "pro-Serb", and accused of "spreading anti-Albanian ideology and instigating assaults on innocent Albanians", while "Albanian villages are blocked by Macedonian Slavs and nobody among corrupt politicians in Ethnic (Greater) Albania is reacting because they are all traitors to their homeland". The group further threatened "to avenge our brothers", and said this would take the form of "fire against fire, an eye for an eye, an arm for an arm".
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Apr 16, 2012 23:56:23 GMT -5
macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/20816/2/Youth tries to enter Bazaar, police intervenes Monday, 16 April 2012Several hundred Macedonian youths staged a protest against the execution style murder that took place last week in which four 18-20 year olds and one 45 year old were gunned down. The protest escalated when the youths attempted to enter a bazaar which is home to muslim Albanian shop keepers. Police reinforced their numbers in front of the bazaar, so now one can see at least 150 policemen there. Although the MoI has kept it quiet on the ethnicity of the cold blooded murderers, it is widely believed they are ethnic Albanians who may have escaped to Kosovo immediately after the murder. The information their vehicle was found abandoned just 5km from the Kosovo border confirms this fact. Kosovo is a promiseland for all regional criminals, as the province has no functioning police force, therefore it is difficult to find or arrest anyone.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Apr 2, 2012 22:56:58 GMT -5
Thanks again VANiLo. Like you said, a country can be beautiful with amazing architecture and a booming economy but, if the locals are rude and always depressed, it will leave a bad impression on you as the visitor. And on the opposite, you can go to really poor countries sometimes but the friendliness of the people can make you forget about that.
Ultimately, it's the people and their culture that make a country, not their wealth.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Apr 1, 2012 16:34:20 GMT -5
Thanks for the suggestions. I'd like to visit all those cities that you listed. And I'm not concerned about a quiet city, I don't like it if it's too crowded anyway.
Are the Spanish and Italian people friendly? I'm just thinking back to Prague again and how not friendly they were and it lowered the impressiveness of the city as a result.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 29, 2012 10:12:02 GMT -5
make sure you visit Plovdiv in Bulgaria! Check out the picture of that city in the Bulgarian forum.It's in one of the pinned threads. Wow, that's a nice looking city. Might have to look into it. I'm not loaded btw. I was loaded 12 months ago but my job has dried up lately. Maybe it will pick up again soon.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 28, 2012 21:43:18 GMT -5
Lol, I'm imagining a karaoke with some Makedonski pesni in Athens and promptly getting beat up afterwards. I'm sure such a thing wouldn't happen though.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 28, 2012 4:32:47 GMT -5
yo Nikola, great to hear you had a great time! I wish next time you visit your homeland Makedonia. Will visit maybe later this year. And also a few other Balkan countries. You think I could visit Greece as a tourist and be ok?
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 22, 2012 21:33:23 GMT -5
which city had the best old buildings? I would think it's Prague and Paris even though I've never been there. What's it for you? Both Paris and Prague have amazing architecture but I like Paris more. The city is also just so large that you could walk for days at a time and still barely cover half of it. With Prague, you can see the whole city in one day. How did you find communicating in France? Most of the younger French people can speak English but even if they can't, we still somehow managed to communicate. When buying food, I would just point at what I wanted and lift one finger for quantity, and just hand them a bunch of money and hope they give me back the correct change. They were honest people. I actually tried to buy soap from one shop and the guy didn't know what the word "soap" meant in English, so I tried in Macedonian with "sapun", and he understood. Reverting to Macedonian came in handy on more than one occasion. If some beggar or prostitute kept bugging me, I learnt not to respond in English because that just encourages them even more. So I just swore at them in Macedonian and they ran away very quickly. ;D
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 20, 2012 7:07:11 GMT -5
the pictures are in good quality.You took these with your phone? I love old European building.So pretty,so elegant. Yep, took them with the iPhone 4. And I love the old buildings too. Which is why I didn't take any pictures in Frankfurt since it was all modern skyscrapers there. Anyway, this is Nuremberg. Probably the cleanest city I went to.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 19, 2012 21:03:05 GMT -5
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 19, 2012 20:52:56 GMT -5
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 19, 2012 20:42:51 GMT -5
I remember this building... afterhours the duttiest/cheapest w**res of the city would station there.. LOL Yeah, I took that picture was when I walked through the RLD, hence why it's in the dark. As you can see, I was interested in architecture but I felt like a moron taking pictures of the old buildings while everyone else was getting high or laid. Anyway, Prague is next. The city felt mostly unmolested by modern architecture but not by choice I suspect, out of poverty. Still, it was beautiful.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 19, 2012 20:36:14 GMT -5
If you're a driving enthusiast look into the Stelvio Pass (Passo Del Stelvio), North Italy bordering Switzerland . I passed through there last summer, the images and scenes are still fresh in my head. Look online for pics. The Nordschleife must have been a hell of an experience. The track curves to the circumfrance of the earth, you don't get more pro than that! lol I saw the Stelvio pass on Top Gear. I want to drive there but in a sporty car. If I have a normal car I won't bother. Here is the corner I stopped at on the 'ring'. I also took a couple of video of some of the cars roaring past.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 19, 2012 20:22:28 GMT -5
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 19, 2012 20:03:25 GMT -5
Thanks UZ. A car is a good idea. I actually hired an Audi A4 while in Frankfurt and drove to the Nurburgring Nordschleife race track. It was closed to the public but I found a corner to watch as a spectator and spent an hour watching the cars go by.
I also hit 210kmh on the autobahn which was awesome.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 19, 2012 15:29:53 GMT -5
I did this trip by myself. Not the ideal way but it was the situation I found myself in. And even though I did seek out the RLD in Amsterdam (since that's what everybody does when they go there, just to walk through for me), it really put me off. All the girls looked eastern European and I later read that they are mostly Romanian, which made me feel sorry for them. And then to see it again in Frankfurt on an even worse scale really disappointed me. No kebabs for me, I'm not a fan. But I did find a bakery type place that sells bagels which I find really to my liking. On my next trip I will head down to Italy and Spain. I think I will like those countries more than anything in northern Europe. Anyway, a few more pictures of Paris. Such a beautiful city and so charming.
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Nikola
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Post by Nikola on Mar 19, 2012 13:20:55 GMT -5
By Africans I mean black sub-saharans. There were a huge amount of them in Paris and a huge amount of Indians in London. And they all seemed very loud and outspoken. Even at the airport in London, where the customs officer was questioning an Indian woman because she wasn't answering his questions adequately, the Indians in line with me started to get agitated and complain of racism immediately. And then in restaurants they were loud and actually acted tough. It's just weird seeing them like that. I'm used to the quiet and reserved Indians that we get here in Australia.
Now with the Turks, I'm not 100% sure. Maybe they were Kurds but they looked very foreign and had kebab shops in all the seedy areas. And all they seemed to do is hang around in groups all day (and night) and stare you down as you walk past.
Btw, I booked a hotel in Frankfurt near the train station because I figured it's a good location so I can catch the train to the airport when ready, but that was the worst area I could have chosen. It was the red light district and there were prostitutes, drug dealers and all sorts of filth everywhere.
Anyway, I know I'm being racist but I really got sick of it.
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