Russian Police Kill 4 Jihadists in North Caucasus

The Chechen warlord Doku Umarov is reported to have been killed by Russian special forces. The claim is made by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov who posted the message on his Instagram account

Doku Umarov has urged his followers to attack the Olympic Games. No proof has been submitted to verify his death (more on log Jan. 24, 2014). 

UPDATE: There were two Islamic terror attacks right before the games in Volgograd followed by counter-terror probes and ops, one that that lead to the death of seven Muslim supremacists. One of the Muslim bus bombers in Russia said, "Leave orphans". Despite this the media reassures us there is “no indication the shooting was connected with the Olympic Games.” It’s not that the media isn’t credible, it’s that they aren’t normal.

Russian police killed four suspected militants, law enforcement officials said on Monday, in a shootout at a house in the North Caucasus, highlighting regional security concerns near the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. The gun fight broke out on Saturday after police surrounded a private house used by militants in the province of Dagestan, which lies some 600 kilometers (380 miles) from Sochi on the other end of the Caucasus Mountain chain. There was no indication the shooting was connected with the Games. President Vladimir Putin, who has invested personal and political prestige to ensure the Games’ success, ordered security forces on high alert after a suicide bomber killed at least 37 in the southern Russian city of Volgograd in December. (Source)

EU Czar Rehn Still Believes in Euro's "Big Bazooka"

This week's verdict by Germany's Constitutional Court is a blistering attack on the ECB, its LTRO policy (Euro equivalent of QE) and its Euro rescuing schemes

Easily missed due to the media's europhile obfuscation the wider public as well as the markets generally missed the impact of this verdict. 

UPDATE: The European Central Bank still has a "big bazooka" with plenty of ammunition to preserve the euro despite a German constitutional court statement that its bond-buying plan is probably illegal, EU economics chief Olli Rehn said on Monday. Rehn also urged the ECB to act to ensure that abnormally low inflation in the euro zone rises towards the bank's target of just below two percent. Speaking at a Reuters Summit on the Euro Zone, the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs said it was right that a European court, not a national court, should have the final say over the ECB's actions. (Source)