Wednesday January 8th 2014
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not clear
what had happened to the jihadists who had been at the hospital in the
Qadi Askar district.
Inside, the rebels found dozens of prisoners and the bodies of several men who appeared to have been executed.
Recent days have seen fierce fighting between ISIS and other rebel groups.
More than 270 people, including 46 civilians, have been
killed in the worst rebel-on-rebel violence since the uprising in Syria
began in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory, a UK-based
activist group.
'Save the battlefields'
Attacks on fellow rebels and the abuse of civilian opponents
of President Bashar al-Assad's government by ISIS's predominantly
foreign fighters have led to increasingly frequent confrontations in
recent months.
The latest clashes erupted on Friday when rebels led by the
Islamic Front, a relatively new coalition of Islamist groups, launched
what appeared to a series of co-ordinated strikes against ISIS in
northern and eastern Syria. The offensive was backed by the National
Coalition.
An Afghan girl who says her brother sought to use her as a suicide
bomber is asking President Hamid Karzai to find her a new home.
In
an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, the girl known as
Spozhmai says she fears that if she returns to her family she again will
be asked to blow herself up with an explosives-packed vest. She asked
Karzai to put her "in a good place."
Spozhmai, who
authorities say is 10, was detained by police Monday after what they
described as a botched attempt to blow up a police checkpoint in
southern Khan Nishin district. She is in protective custody in the
Helmand provincial capital Lashkargah. Police continue to search for the
girl's brother, who they say escaped with the suicide vest.
Gunmen killed seven women and five men at a brothel in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, security and medical officials said.
The attack took place at an apartment in the Zayouna area of east Baghdad, where a similar attack took place last year.
On May 22, gunmen attacked a house in Zayouna that was used as a brothel, killing 12 people.
The
week before, gunmen restrained police at a checkpoint in the area, and
then shot dead 12 people at a row of adjoining alcohol shops nearby.
Violence
in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was
just emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings.
It took just five days for this month's death toll to surpass that for all of January last year.
A Palestinian militant
has been killed in an explosion in the Gaza Strip, medics and officials
say, but there are conflicting reports about the cause.
The Hamas-run health ministry said Mohammed al-Ijla, 32, was
killed in an Israeli attack in the eastern Shujaiya district of Gaza
City.
Islamic Jihad confirmed he had been one of its fighters, while his family said that he had died in a drone strike.
However, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces denied any involvement.
"The IDF did not carry out overnight any air strikes nor did it fire artillery into Gaza," she told the BBC.
Two teenagers were also slightly injured in the incident,
which happened not far from the border with Israel, the Gaza health
ministry said.
A Mauritanian website says a terrorist group active in West Africa
has threatened to target the interests of "France and her allies" in
retaliation for France's military intervention in Mali last year.
The
Nouakchott Information Agency, a site that is frequently used by local
jihadists to communicate with the outside world, said Saturday's message
from the Maraboutines group included a rundown of attacks by its
members last year.
The Maraboutines group was formed
in August when terror leader Moktar Belmoktar and the Movement for
Oneness and Jihad in West Africa officially joined forces. He is best
known for masterminding a January 2013 attack on a natural gas plant in
Algeria that killed dozens of foreigners.
France intervened in January 2013 after northern Mali fell under the control of Islamic extremists.
Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has vowed to eradicate al-Qaida
in his country, predicting victory on the eve of an assault against
Sunni Islamist militants who have taken over parts of the city of
Falluja.
Fighters from the al-Qaida affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which is also active across the border in Syria, overran police stations in Falluja and another city in Iraq's western Anbar province last week.
The campaign by al-Qaida gunmen to form a radical Islamic state in parts of Iraq and Syria has rung alarm bells in western capitals and provided further evidence that the Syrian civil war is exporting instability throughout the region.
In
a televised address on Wednesday, Maliki also thanked the international
community for its support in the fight against al-Qaida, and urged the
group's members and supporters to surrender, promising clemency.
This week the US said it would fast-track deliveries
of military hardware, including drones and missiles, to Iraq, but ruled
out sending troops two years after Washington ended nearly 10 years of
occupation.
"The support … is giving us the confidence that we are
moving on the right course and that the result will be clear and
decisive – uprooting this corrupt organisation," Maliki said. "We will
continue this fight because we believe that al-Qaida and its allies
represent evil."
The army deployed more tanks and artillery around
Falluja on Tuesday as local leaders tried to persuade militants to
leave, in an effort to avert an impending offensive that has echoes of
American assaults on the same city in 2004.
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Knesset rejects 'Two-State Solution Bill'
The Knesset voted down the so-called "Two-State Solution Bill" prohibiting the government from unilaterally annexing land, in a preliminary vote Wednesday.
The bill, proposed by MK Hilik Bar (Labor) would have only allowed land in the West Bank or Gaza to be annexed as part of a peace treaty leading to two states.
"You are reaching a moment of truth, in which you have to look in the mirror of history and realize that we need to separate from the Palestinians," opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Labor) said to the coalition. "If you don't take this opportunity now, history will judge you, because we will become an isolated, binational state."
Herzog called for coalition MKs to "overcome narrow political interests and don't make promises you know you can't keep."
"If you don't face the historic challenge, we will replace you and do it ourselves," he added.
Despite Herzog's warnings, the bill was voted down with 44 opposed, including MKs from Hatnua and Yesh Atid, and 25 in favor.
Even as the United States and Iran pursue negotiations on Tehran’s
nuclear program, they find themselves on the same side of a range of
regional issues surrounding an insurgency raging across the Middle East.
While the two governments quietly continue to pursue their
often conflicting interests, they are being drawn together by their
mutual opposition to an international movement of young Sunni fighters,
who with their pickup trucks and Kalashnikovs are raising the black flag
of Al Qaeda along sectarian fault lines in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq,
Afghanistan and Yemen.
The US, reluctant to intervene in bloody, inconclusive
conflicts, is seeing its regional influence decline, while Iraq, which
cost the Americans $1 trillion and more than 4000 lives, is growing
increasingly unstable.
At the same time, Shiite-dominated Iran has its own reasons
to be nervous, with the ragtag army of Sunni militants threatening Syria
and Iraq, both important allies, and the US drawing down its troops in
Afghanistan.
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On Monday, Iran offered to join the US in sending military
aid to the Shiite government in Baghdad, which is embroiled in
street-to-street fighting with radical Sunni militants in Anbar
province. On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry said he could
envision an Iranian role in the coming peace conference on Syria, even
though the meeting is supposed to plan for a Syria after the resignation
of President Bashar al-Assad, an important Iranian ally.
CAIRO: The trial of Egypt's ousted Islamist president on charges of inciting the murder of protesters was adjourned on Wednesday until next month, after security officials said heavy fog grounded the helicopter meant to bring Mohamed Morsi to court.
Two defence lawyers in the case of Morsi, 13 leading Muslim Brotherhood members and an Islamist accused the government of trying to keep the toppled president out of the public eye ahead of a coming constitutional referendum. They also said authorities denied Morsi visits from his family and his defence team.
"The decision was inspired by the political circumstances_ which require that he doesn't appear,'' defence lawyer Osama el-Helw said. Morsi's "appearance will inspire his supporters.''
Wednesday's hearing was to be Morsi's second court appearance since his ouster in a popularly-backed military coup on July 3. In his first appearance, he insisted he was still the country's legitimate president and challenged the legitimacy of the court, regularly interrupting the judges and prosecutors.
Morsi is held in a high security prison in Borg el-Arab, just outside of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, requiring him to be flown in for each of the court appearances in the outskirts of Cairo. Under Egyptian law, a defendant in a criminal trial must be in court for hearings to proceed.
Reported cases of Christians killed for their faith around the world
doubled in 2013 from the year before, with Syria accounting for more
than the whole global total in 2012, according to an annual survey.
Open
Doors, a non-denominational group supporting persecuted Christians
worldwide, said on Wednesday it had documented 2,123 “martyr” killings,
compared with 1,201 in 2012. There were 1,213 such deaths in Syria alone
last year, it said.
“This is a very minimal count based on what has been reported in the
media and we can confirm,” said Frans Veerman, head of research for Open
Doors. Estimates by other Christian groups put the annual figure as
high as 8,000.
The Open Doors report placed North Korea at the top
of its list of 50 most dangerous countries for Christians, a position
it has held since the annual survey began 12 years ago. Somalia, Syria,
Iraq and Afghanistan were the next four in line.
The United
States-based group reported increasing violence against Christians in
Africa and said radical Muslims were the main source of persecution in
36 countries on its list.
“Islamist extremism is the worst persecutor of the worldwide church,” it said.
Christianity
is the largest and most widely spread faith in the world, with 2.2
billion followers, or 32 per cent of the world population, according to a
survey by the U.S.-based Pew Forum on religion and Public Life.
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A US Navy helicopter with five people on board has crashed off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia.
Four of those on board the US Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon have been rescued, according to officials.
US Coast Guard officials said they responded to a downed aircraft report at about 11:00 (16:00 GMT).
In a bizarre coincidence, the incident came a day after
another US military helicopter crashed in the county of Norfolk,
England, killing four people.
The helicopter involved in Tuesday's crash in the UK was a HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter that belonged to the US Air Force.
Naval Station Norfolk
The aircraft in Wednesday's incident went down 18 nautical
miles (33km) east of the Virginia coast. The cause of the crash is not
yet known.
Petty Officer David Weydert said that the missing fifth person was still being sought.
The Coast Guard cutter Shearwater and two MH-60S helicopters are taking part in the search.
The condition of the four rescued personnel has not been given.
The downed helicopter, assigned to Helicopter Mine
Countermeasures Squadron 14 (HM-14), was on a routine training mission,
the commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic said in a statement.
Norfolk, Virginia, is an important hub for the US military,
and is home to Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval complex in the
world.
Investigations have started into the cause of a US Air Force helicopter crash in Norfolk which killed all four people on board.
The HH-60G Pave Hawk, based at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, came down at a nature reserve in Cley next the Sea on Tuesday night.
The aircraft, from the 48th Fighter Wing, was on a low-level training mission and carrying live ammunition.
The bodies of the air crew are unlikely to be recovered until Thursday.
The wreckage, including a "significant" number of bullets
from the crashed aircraft, is scattered over an area the size of a
football pitch, police said.
It will take a number of days to carry out an inquiry, due to the geography of the area and the live munitions.
The public are urged to avoid the site, which lies in
marshland between the A149 and the coastline, while emergency services,
Ministry of Defence, US Air Force and HM Coroner assess the site.
A 1,200ft (400m) area is cordoned off and the A149 through Cley is closed.
Newly published emails reportedly suggest New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie's office was involved in controversial lane closures in a north
Jersey town last fall, giving fresh ammunition to Democrats who claim
the closures were political retribution against the local mayor.
Though he repeatedly has denied involvement, Christie has faced
criticism for months over the bizarre incident in September, when lanes
at the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee, N.J., were closed for
four days. He faced accusations that the lanes were blocked in
retaliation over Mayor Mark Sokolich's refusal to endorse him for
re-election last November.
The New York Times
reported Wednesday that emails indeed show his deputy chief of staff,
Bridget Anne Kelly, suggested closures to the Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey two weeks before the incident.
"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," she wrote to Christie
confidant David Wildstein, according to the Times. At the time,
Wildstein was on the Port Authority; he has since resigned.
The George Washington Bridge, which connects New Jersey and New York
City, is one of the most heavily traveled commuter routes in the
country, handling nearly 300,000 vehicles a day. The closures in
September caused massive gridlock, leaving commuters stuck in traffic
for hours.
It was the Port Authority that ordered the closures, claiming they were part of a traffic study.
GATES RAISES NEW TRUST QUESTIONS FOR EMBATTLED OBAMA - Public confidence in the commander in chief and his team is taking another hit today in the wake of new allegations about President Obama’s political calculations on military strategy. Robert Gates,
Obama’s first-term secretary of Defense, has rattled Washington and
disrupted the president’s intended narrative for the midterm election
year. As the president tries to shift the conversation to an attack on
Republican resistance to expanded welfare spending, Gates’ bombshell
memoir is raising new questions about the trustworthiness of a president
still reeling from the revelation that he misled voters with a claim
that Americans would be able to keep their health insurance
and physicians under ObamaCare. On top of that, there is lingering
public concern about Obama’s expansion of domestic surveillance
programs. The timing for Gates’ claims could hardly be worse. The money
line from the former secretary: “I felt that agreements with the Obama
White House were good for only as long as they were politically
convenient.”Fox News has more.
[WSJ shares the top 10 revelations from Gates’ memoir, read a longer excerpt here.]
If Vice President Biden has serious designs on running for president in 2016, this much is clear: History — as in his own history and the history of vice presidents — will not be on his side.
The latest blast from the past arrived Tuesday in the form of a memoir by Robert Gates. The former defense secretary unleashes an especially brutal appraisal of Biden in his book, saying he thinks he's been "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."
Ouch. Actually, double ouch.
Here's why.
The central question for a Biden 2016 campaign would be this: Can he actually be president? As in, is he serious enough to do the job? Biden's gaffe-prone nature — which may be exaggerated but is nonetheless a big part of his image — and colorful personality promise to raise all sorts of "Is he really ready for this?" questions in the minds of voters.
Gates's appraisal of Biden on what is arguably his signature issue — Biden was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — stands to feed doubts about seriousness and qualifications that have already been planted in the minds of voters across the country.
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A train carrying crude
oil and propane is still burning in the Canadian province of New
Brunswick after partially derailing overnight.
More than 100 residents of nearby Plaster Rock were evacuated
from the village on Tuesday night after 15 cars and one locomotive
derailed.
Officials are using helicopters to determine the full extent of the fire.
A derailment in Quebec last July killed 47 people, prompting concerns about the oil-by-rail business.
Another train carrying crude oil exploded in late December in the US state of North Dakota.
Officials said there had been no injuries or deaths in the
latest derailment on Tuesday as it had taken place in a sparsely
populated area 20 miles (32km) from the US border.
But they were worried about secondary explosions.
"The biggest concern is the propane cars," the Plaster Rock fire chief Tim Corbin told broadcaster CBC.
"If they happen to explode, we're looking at major damage."
Canadian railway officials said four of the cars that derailed were carrying propane and four others had crude oil.
"At this point, we haven't determined to what extent each of
those cars is involved," Canadian National Railway spokesman Jim Feeny
said.
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