Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/16/2011

Demonstrators in Pakistan burned Pope Benedict in effigy in protest over the pontiff’s criticism of Pakistan’s blasphemy law. They say the Pope must butt out of Pakistan’s affairs and stop insulting Islam.

In other news, hedge funds in Britain are betting that China’s long-running period of strong growth is going to collapse soon — they are, in effect, short-selling China.

Meanwhile, a politician in the Left Party in Germany says that he wants to introduce communism in the country.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DF, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, KGS, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.