FINLAND
App helps save reindeer
There’s good news for Rudolph and his friends — an app is helping officials reduce the number of reindeer killed in traffic accidents in Finland. Some 300,000 reindeer freely wander the wilds of Lapland in Arctic Finland. An estimated 4,000 are killed every year through road accidents, officials say, and compensation to reindeer herders can be expensive. Officials are now using a smartphone app called “Porokello,” Finnish for “Reindeer Bell.” And it seems to be working — at least last month, when there were 300 fewer reindeer accidents on the roads of Finnish Lapland compared to the same month in 2015. A simple, one-button interface allows drivers to tap their smartphone screens to register any reindeer spotted near roads. Using GPS technology, it creates a 1-mile warning zone that lasts for an hour.
PHILIPPINES
Nation braces for typhoon
A powerful typhoon was heading for a Christmas Day collision with the central Philippines. Nock-Ten has intensified into a super typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 108 miles per hour and gusts of up to 133 mph as it heads for landfall over Cataduanes Island in the central Bicol region. It’s then forecast to drag across the southern portion of the main Luzon island as it passes close to the capital, Manila, and begins to weaken. Heavy rainfall, damaging winds and battering waves are threatening heavily populated areas. The typhoon strength is equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane in the Atlantic.
TURKEY
Social media users arrested
Turkish authorities have formally arrested 1,656 people in the past six months for allegedly supporting terrorist organizations or insulting officials on social media, and are investigating at least 10,000 others, the Interior Ministry said Saturday. In a statement it said legal action had been taken against 3,710 people identified by police. Beside those arrested, 1,203 people were released on probation, 767 were released and 84 others are still in detention.
TUNISIA
Crowd rallies against jihadis
About 200 people protested in the Tunisian capital against the return of Tunisian jihadis who have fought abroad. The gathering Saturday was prompted by the deadly truck attack in a Berlin Christmas market by Tunisian Anis Amri. Banners at the protest in front of Parliament in Tunis read “Close the doors to terrorism” and “No tolerance, no return.”
Compiled from wire reports