“The suspect grabbed the victim and demanded money, and when she said there was no money there, he hit her multiple times and threw her to the floor,” Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk said.

He then forced her to perform a sex act by telling her he had a gun and would shoot her if she refused. The victim did not see a weapon.

The sexual assault was interrupted when a relative of the victim arrived to pick her up, DeBusk said.

In the short time after the incident occurred, KPD officers converged on the business with at least seven cruisers and one SUV parked in front of the business. Police in marked cruisers searched the addresses across the street looking for the suspect who was eventually located. No neighboring businesses appeared to be open and no witnesses were found on the sidewalk or near the business following the incident.

The youth was arrested a short time later at his home, from which he had been earlier reported to police as a runaway, according to police.

Police were able to locate the youth because the description given by the victim matched that of the runaway.

He currently is being held at the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Services Center.

About the shades of nationalism

The notion of “nationalism” has many meanings. An ordinary Russian has always regarded nationalism as a bad attitude towards representatives of other nations and an exaltation of the nation to which the nationalist belongs. In Soviet times, nationalism was interpreted as a wish to isolate and prioritize one’s own nation. Since the 1990s, however, there have been two concepts of nationalism. The first is ethnic nationalism, interpreted as a national policy to achieve the political objective of taking or retaining power. The second tradition is civil nationalism, which is regarded as an aspiration for prosperity of your nation and protection of its interests. When Vladimir Putin calls himself a nationalist [during a recent meeting with political experts, he said: “I am a Russian nationalist, too, and I, too, like the Russian people, don’t wish them ill.”], he is referring to civil nationalism. Previously, Putin spoke about the nation as a community of citizens. In his article “Russia: the National Issue,” he emphasizes the Russian, although he writes that Russia is a multinational country. There are two points here: Putin believes that the Russians are the binding force of the state, which is natural, because the Russians form the majority and the Russian language and culture dominate. Even so, the statement that the Russians are the state-forming nation is ambiguous, because the state is formed by its citizens.

About Dmitry Rogozin’s service

In his article “A Russian Answer to Vladimir Putin,” Dmitry Rogozin attempts to give reasons for the timing of Vladimir Putin’s article and cites two historical examples: the Romanovs, who were trying to enlist the conservatives’ support prior to the 1917 Revolution but were too late; and Joseph Stalin, who appealed to the Russian people in hard times. In other words, Rogozin assumes that the Russians are only remembered when there is a risk of losing power; so the reader might get the idea that the government is somewhat shaky. We, as sociologists, believe that Vladimir Putin’s situation is different and the polls have proved that he does not run these risks. It turns out that Rogozin didn’t do the prime minister any favors. You should not dramatize the national issue.

About the evolution of Russian nationalists

In the mid-2000s, “nationalist” in Russia meant skinheads. They were characterized by clear xenophobic moods, while the movement as a whole must have been controlled by the security services.

At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, “ideologists” became more active alongside extremists, who organized periodical actions. The ideologist category incorporated people of various groups. There is Dmitry Rogozin, who still heads the Congress of Russian Communities and supports Vladimir Putin. Then, there are nationalists connected with left-wing extremists. These include Sergei Baburin, who has long been saying in public that the Russian people have been forsaken. They tend to add habitual remarks about friendship among nations, though. The third group is nationalists with liberal values – Alexei Navalny can be included in this group. Once he said that he was a nationalist, then he called himself a civil nationalist, but his values are always liberal. Finally, there are those who believe that we should have an empire without national republics. Some of these people used to be supporters of the LDPR [Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia].

About the slogan “Russia for the Russians”

According to our sources, this slogan has at times been backed by 58 percent of the population. But then we asked the respondents questions to see how they interpreted the phrase. For instance, when asked whether Russians should have priority for university education and employment, only about 20 percent of the respondents replied in the positive. When we asked about support for the slogan “Russia Only for the Russians,” only 12 percent said they were in favor of this. I assume that this constitutes the maximum electoral base of declared nationalists.

Our institute recently issued a book called “20 Years of Reforms Viewed by the Russians.” The book presents the findings of a mass survey conducted in regions with a predominant Russian population. The respondents were asked about their main concerns. Of the top 20 answers, the leaders were the crisis of the utilities system, low living standards, and deteriorating access to free education. Such concerns as “the increase in the non-Russian population in Russian regions” and “existence of interethnic contradictions” ranked 12th and 14th, respectively, mentioned by less than 20 percent of the respondents. The interests of Russian people thus lie beyond the ethno-national framework, and the same is true for other nationalities.

About the future of nationalism

The politicization of the ethnic theme is obvious, and Russian nationalist trends have been most pronounced recently, along with democratic movements. Yet the nationalists have no single party to unite them; most of their associations are short-lived. Even so, most Russian citizens cannot support the nationalists, because Russians have always taken pride in their ability to live in concord with other nationalities. Even amid the influx of immigrants in the 2000s, the share of people with a negative attitude towards contacts with other nationalities did not exceed 30 percent. Russia can only strengthen its internal bonds by overcoming contradictions through dialogue.

Police have nabbed a teenager who has been on the run for weeks while taunting police on Facebook.

Described by police as violent, Conan Livingstone, 19, has been on the run since he failed to appear in court on January 31.

He had also allegedly removed his electronic bracelet.

Detective Sergeant Steve Brewer of North Shore police said Livingstone was found in Glenfield overnight and was arrested without incident after trying to give police false details.

He had also changed his appearance.

Brewer said Livingstone had used a network of family and friends to avoid capture and police have not ruled out charging those who helped him.

“He’s been very difficult to find.”

Livingstone has been updating his Facebook page while on the run.

In a post on February 11 he wrote “f— the pigs” and “catch me if you can im the ginger bread man (sic)”.

Livingstone also wrote about turning himself in but said he wanted to see his daughter first, and that he was ill and wanted to wait until he was better.

“Im sick [at the moment] so not handing my self in yet lol… dont wana spread the flu inside (sic).”

His last post was on Saturday.

Livingstone appeared in North Shore District Court today on aggravated robbery charges and was remanded in custody to reappear tomorrow.

She joined local women for an hour long session, which included burpees and plank jacks, on the banks of the Pioneer River from 5am (AEST).

The premier, on the third day of the election trail, is visiting central Queensland’s safe seats as she works her way north.

Mackay is held by Agriculture Minister Tim Mulherin by a 16.7 per cent margin.

Ms Bligh will face tough questions on Tuesday on how the ALP selected Peter Watson, 19, for the seat of Southern Downs, after it was discovered he allegedly posted neo-nazi remarks on the blog, Whitelaw Towers.

The Australian reported that Mr Watson, who is the secretary of the Warwick branch of the ALP, had never hidden his racial-based views about Australia.

‘I regard myself as a white nationalist, not a supremacist, and that 40 years of multiculturalism has destroyed this country,’ he told the paper.

‘My views were the same as the trade union movement in the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, particularly with the White Australia policy.’

Mr Watson quit as a candidate on Monday night and Labor will be seeking his resignation from the party.

‘We were unaware of these allegations when he was endorsed late last year,’ state secretary Anthony Chisholm said in a statement.

‘Nonetheless, I have accepted his resignation so this issue does not distract from the important issues confronting Queenslanders during this election campaign.’

The ALP will announce a new candidate for the seat soon, Mr Chisholm says.

The man who wants Ms Bligh’s job, Liberal National Party leader Campbell Newman, has also started his day at the crack of dawn with a work-out in north Queensland.

He went for a run along the Esplanade in Cairns with LNP candidate for the seat Gavin King.

Mr Newman is expected to campaign in the region for three days before returning to Brisbane on Friday.

According to Antoine Boutonnet, head of the National Division for the Fight against Hooliganism (DNLH), “a worrying phenomenon is the return of racism in the stands”.

He cited a fan arrested for making a Nazi salute during a game at Brest on January 28, as well as “six pseudo-Lyon supporters” who were arrested after “spray-painting the cars of Saint-Etienne supporters and a building with signs resembling swastikas”.

“Although the signs are weak for the time being, we’re taking them into account immediately and we are extremely vigilant,” added Boutonnet.

“There is zero tolerance and we won’t hesitate to intervene.”

Boutonnet also revealed that, although instances of hooliganism in and around stadiums had fallen, the use of flares and other pyrotechnic devices had risen sharply.

Since Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 resumed at the start of the season, police have made 432 hooliganism-related arrests and issued 341 stadium banning orders.

Mr Schäuble is, first and foremost, the German finance minister. As such his job is to protect the interests of the German tax-payer, from both the demands of his fellow ministers and the begging bowl held out by his European colleagues. As creditor-in-chief, one would expect him to be toughest in imposing conditions on Greece before granting a second bail-out.

But the Schäuble problem goes beyond this necessary parsimoniousness. Consistently through the crisis, Mr Schäuble has adopted the hardest positions. First it was a papercirculated by his officials calling for the creation of a budget “commissar” with the power to control the Greek budget. Then it was his open talk a Greek default, and the fact that other European countries were “better prepared” to withstand it. Most recently, he suggested that Greece should postpone its elections so that the technocratic government of Lukas Papademos has more time to implement reforms.

Many think Mr Schäuble has been deliberately pushing the Greeks into a chaotic default (one example is here).  Even so, why do it so overtly? Why invite the crude and simplistic accusation the modern Germany is repeating the Nazis’ jackbooted occupation of Greece? It would be so much simpler to let somebody like the Dutch finance minister, Jan Kees de Jager, do the tough talking (see my previous post) while Germany holds back. Every finance minister of a creditor country must demonstrate that he (or she) is driving a hard bargain. Mr Schäuble knows better than most the many doubts that surround even a second vast bailout of Greece (see this report of the IMF’s assessment).  In the end, Mr de Jager’s menaces count for much less than Mr Schauble’s; if Greece is to be cut loose the decision will be taken in Berlin, not The Hague.

The FT’s Quentin Peel recently recently had an interesting piece on the reasons for Germany’s rigidity:

Postwar Germany is both profoundly provincial and committed to Europe. The federal system keeps central government in check, locked into a system of coalition government that is consensual and slow-moving. Both politics and the bureaucracy are dominated by lawyers (Mr Schäuble is one) who believe passionately in the need for rules and respect for the law. It makes for a confusing mixture of compromise and inflexibility. Mixed messages emerge from the different centres of power, not least from the finance ministry and the chancellor’s office, until they can agree a common line.

Some argue that Mr Schäuble’s very pro-Europeanism heightens his sense of betrayal by Greece, and the prospect that it could destroy the European Union’s greatest experiment in integration. There may be truth in this. But I cannot help but feel that that also something of the bad-cop routine in Mr Schäuble’s actions. He must act as if a Greek default is possible, even desirable, in order to turn the pressure on Greek politicians. If that means being portrayed as a Nazi, so be it; the alternative is to let Greek politicians think they are immune because the euro zone will never let them collapse.

Still, Mr Schäuble’s claim that the euro zone is ready for a Greek default sounds implausible. Last year European politicians were bending over backwards to avoid any sort of default, lest it destabilise the whole of the euro zone. Yes, the European Central Bank’s massive liquidity programme for banks (not sovereigns) has taken the edge off the panic. The reforms being enacted in Italy and Spain have helped too.

But nobody thinks the euro zone has yet overcome the crisis. If it were otherwise, why insist on the fiction that the restructuring of private debt is “voluntary” simply to avoid triggering credit-default swaps? And surely, if Germany were serious about cutting off the Greeks it would be doing more to strengthen anti-contagion measures. On the contrary: Germany has so far resisted a proposal to strengthen the rescue fund by maintaining the temporary European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) even after the creation of permanent European Stability Mechanism due later this year.

The conundrum for the fiscal hawks is that issuing a credible threat to Greece requires issuing a credible guarantee that Italy and Spain would be protected from the consequences. But that is something that Germany will not do, for fear of reducing the reformist pressure on Italy and Spain. So through gritted teeth, Greece must be kept afloat in some manner – not at any cost, of course, but for some time yet as long as the price is not too exorbitant. “We continue to believe that Greece can be saved. Or at least we continue to say so,” says one Eurocrat.

The difficulty in imposing discipline and reform and Greece will be familiar to any parent of recalcitrant adolescents who do not want to do their homework. Dad may shout, cajole and threate; the kid may come to hate the parent. But if the kid refuses to study, he cannot be starved, beaten or thrown on to the streets. The parent may enjoy the illusion of infinite power, but authority ultimately involves much bluff.