Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, says it is a "matter of time" before there is a systemic attack on the global financial system.
Ben Lawsky, the head of New York's Department of Financial Services. Photo: BLOOMBERG
The world must prepare for an “Armageddon”-style cyber attack, one of America’s most influential regulators has warned.
Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, said it was a “matter of time” before there is a major cyber attack on the global financial system, and that the public needs to invest heavily in preventing disaster now, or pay an even higher price later on.
"They [cyber attackers] are breaking into everything. It is only a matter of time before something happens that is more systematic and problematic,” he said.
“I worry that we are going to have some sort of major cyber-event in the financial system that’s going to cause us all to shudder”.
Mr Lawsky drew comparisons with the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Centre, which killed thousands of people and crippled financial confidence around the world.
"The failure to detect the 9/11 plot was a failure of imagination,” he said. “I worry about the same thing here, is that something will probably happen and we will look back as it and say, 'how did we not do more'.
Speaking at a Bloomberg conference in New York, Mr Lawsky also spoke about the importance of holding individuals to account for financial crime.
"Just damning the entire firm is counter productive. You make it look like the whole firm is to blame, and often the fine is picked up by shareholders. If you are not holding individuals to account, you are not getting the full effect of deterence. You may be getting your pound of flesh but you are not improving the system."
His comments are likely to raise hackles in some quarters. Earlier this year, the New York State Department of Financial Services levied a record $8.9bn fine against the French bank, BNP Paribas, for doing business with countries that are blacklisted by the US. The regulator has also fined Standard Chartered, twice, for poor controls on money laundering.
However, Mr Lawsky argued on Monday that it should do more to crack down on individual wrongdoers. "Individuals make decisions, often based on consequences for them, for their family, for their future,” he said.
(Photo: Zoom Dosso, AFP/Getty Images)
LONDON (AP) — New estimates from the World Health Organization warn the number of Ebola cases could hit 21,000 in six weeks unless efforts to curb the outbreak are ramped up.
Since the first cases were reported six months ago, the tally of cases in West Africa has reached an estimated 5,800 illnesses. WHO officials say cases are continuing to increase exponentially and Ebola could sicken people for years to come without better control measures.
In recent weeks, health officials worldwide have stepped up efforts to provide aid but the virus is still spreading. There aren't enough hospital beds, health workers or even soap and water in the hardest-hit West African countries: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Last week, the U.S. announced it would build more than a dozen medical centers in Liberia and send 3,000 troops to help. Britain and France have also pledged to build treatment centers in Sierra Leone and Guinea and the World Bank and UNICEF have sent more than $1 million worth of supplies to the region.
"We're beginning to see some signs in the response that gives us hope this increase in cases won't happen," said Christopher Dye, WHO's director of strategy and study co-author, who acknowledged the predictions come with a lot of uncertainties.
"This is a bit like weather forecasting. We can do it a few days in advance, but looking a few weeks or months ahead is very difficult."
They also calculated the death rate to be about 70 percent among hospitalized patients but noted many Ebola cases were only identified after they died. So far, about 2,800 deaths have been attributed to Ebola. Dye said there was no proof Ebola was more infectious or deadly than in previous outbreaks.
The new analysis was published online Tuesday by the New England Journal of Medicine — six months after the first infections were reported on March 23.
WHO is just one of the groups that have attempted to calculate the epidemic's future toll.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to release its own predictions for only Liberia and Sierra Leone — the two West African countries that recently have shown the steadiest and most alarming spread of cases.
The CDC calculations are based, in part, on assumptions that cases have been dramatically underreported. Other projections haven't made the same kind of attempt to quantify illnesses that may have been missed in official counts.
CDC scientists conclude there may be as many as 21,000 reported and unreported cases in just those two countries as soon as the end of this month, according to a draft version of the report obtained by The Associated Press. They also predict that the two countries could have a staggering 550,000 to 1.4 million cases by late January.
The agency's numbers seem "somewhat pessimistic" and do not account for infection control efforts already underway, said Dr. Richard Wenzel, a Virginia Commonwealth University scientist who formerly led the International Society for Infectious Diseases.
Other outside experts questioned WHO's projections and said Ebola's spread would ultimately be slowed not only by containment measures but by changes in people's behavior.
"It's a big assumption that nothing will change in the current outbreak response," said Dr. Armand Sprecher, an infectious diseases specialist at Doctors Without Borders.
"Ebola outbreaks usually end when people stop touching the sick," he said. "The outbreak is not going to end tomorrow but there are things we can do to reduce the case count."
Local health officials have launched campaigns to educate people about the symptoms of Ebola and not to touch the sick or the dead. Previous Ebola outbreaks have been in other areas of Africa; this is the first to hit West Africa.
Sprecher was also unconvinced Ebola could continue causing cases for years and said diseases that persist in the environment usually undergo significant changes to become less deadly or transmissible.
Dye and colleagues wrote they expected the numbers of cases and deaths from Ebola to continue rising from hundreds to thousands of cases per week in the coming months — and reach 21,000 by early November. He said it was worrisome that new cases were popping up in areas that hadn't previously reported Ebola, like in parts of Guinea.
"The picture is too unclear at the moment," he said, noting the outbreak is continuing to double in size about every three weeks.
Scientists said the response to Ebola in the next few months would be crucial.
"The window for controlling this outbreak is closing," said Adam Kucharski, a research fellow in infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Qatar supports Hamas tunnels, cyber-warfare against Israel, and ISIS beheaders – but the UNHRC gives it high marks.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad al-Thani with Khaled Mashaal and Mahmoud Abbas
Reuters
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has adopted a report praising Qatar's human rights record – despite the Gulf state's support for ISIS and Hamas.
The UNHRC adopted, on Thursday, the outcomes of the Universal Periodic Review of Qatar, praising its human rights "improvements." Among the 78 countries supporting Qatar were Iran, China and Turkey.
However, Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, an observer NGO at the UNHRC, stated clearly at the session that "the cause of human rights does not support" the praise for Qatar.
Neuer cited the dramatic statistic that "the 1.4 million migrant workers in the country are dying at the rate of one a day from inhuman conditions," and that at the current pace, "more than 4,000 migrant workers will die to build the infrastructure for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup."
Neuer also quoted Germany’s Minister of Development Aid, Gerd Mueller, from August 20th: “Who is financing these troops [of ISIS]? Hint: Qatar.”
Aviad Dadon of Israeli cyber-security firm AdoreGroup elaborated on the aid the Hamas terrorist organization receives from Qatar. In a recent interview with Voice of Israel public radio, Dadon spoke of the extensive use Hamas has made of computer and networking systems in its war against Israel. Not only is Qatar footing the bill, he said, but it has also trained Hamas terrorists how to use sophisticated equipment and systems to manage its extensive terror tunnel system and rocket-firing capabilities.
According to Dadon, “We have sourced 70% of the cyber-attacks on Israeli government sites in recent weeks to IP addresses associated with Qatar.”
UN Watch is an independent human rights group founded in Geneva in 1993.
U.S. Hits ISIS With Airstrikes in Syria
Sep 23rd, 2014
Daily NewsCBS News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues
The U.S. military has launched airstrikes against ISIS in Syria. The U.S. military said five Arab nations had roles in the attacks, which focused on ISIS' heartland around the Syrian province of Raqqa.
Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement Monday evening that fighters, bombers and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles were used.
"The decision to conduct theses strikes was made earlier today by the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commander under authorization granted him by the Commander in Chief," Kirby said.
The strikes hit targets in and around the city of Raqqa and the province with the same name, activists said. Raqqa is the militant group's self-declared capital; it began referring to itself as simply the "Islamic State" during the summer. Video purporting to show a series of strikes in Raqqa surfaced on YouTube, although its authenticity has not been independently verified.
"The strikes destroyed or damaged multiple ISIL targets in the vicinity of Ar Raqqah, Dayr az Zawr, Al Hasakah, and Abu Kamal and included ISIL fighters, training compounds, headquarters and command and control facilities, storage facilities, a finance center, supply trucks and armed vehicles," CENTCOM said in a statement, using an alternate acronym for the group.
The Reuters news agency quoted a group that tracks the war as saying at least 20 ISIS fighters were killed in the strikes.
Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which gathers information from a network of activists on the ground, told the agency at least 50 strikes were carried out on ISIS targets in the Syrian provinces of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour.
The statement released by CENTCOM said Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates "also participated in or supported the airstrikes against ISIL targets." It was not immediately clear what role those nations played.
America's Arab partners did not, however, participate in U.S. airstrikes against another group in Syria which has emerged as a more urgent threat to the U.S. homeland, according to American intelligence officials.
"The United States has also taken action to disrupt the imminent attack plotting against the United States and Western interests conducted by a network of seasoned al-Qa'ida veterans -- sometimes referred to as the Khorasan Group," Centcom confirmed in its statement.
CBS News' Bob Orr reported late last week that Khorasan -- a group of operatives dispatched by al Qaeda's central command in Pakistan to try and link up the terror network's bomb-making experts with Western jihadists who have joined the fight in Syria -- was deemed a more imminent threat to the U.S. than even ISIS.
Khorasan is believed to be a subset of al Qaeda's larger affiliated group in Syria, al-Nusra Front, which has battled against both the Assad regime and ISIS for territory in the country's north.
According to the Syrian Observatory, citing local activists on the ground, at least 30 Nusra fighters were killed in the strikes. The group said eight civilians, including two children, were also killed.
An anti-militant media collective entitled "Raqqa is being silently slaughtered" said targets included the government building used by ISIS militants as their headquarters, and the Brigade 93, a Syrian army base the militants recently seized.
The Syrian foreign ministry said Tuesday that the United States informed Damascus' envoy to the United Nations before launching the airstrikes.
The ministry issued a brief statement, carried by Syrian state media, saying, "The American side informed Syria's permanent envoy to the U.N. that strikes will be launched against the Daesh terrorist organization in Raqqa." Daesh is an Arabic name for ISIS.
The ministry's statement was Damascus' first official reaction after the U.S. and five Arab countries launched the airstrikes on ISIS targets in Syria, expanding a military campaign into a country whose three-year civil war has given the brutal militant group a safe haven.
In the past, Syrian officials have insisted that any strikes against ISIS in the country should come only after coordination with Damascus. Without their consent, Syrian officials have said such airstrikes would be an act of aggression against Syria and a breach of the country's sovereignty.
However, U.S. officials ruled out direct coordination with Syrian President Bashar Assad's government.
"In recent days, over 130,000 civilians fled from over 200 villages raided by ISIS in Syria," the head of the U.S.-backed Syrian Opposition Coalition, or the SNC, President Hadi al-Bahra, told CBS News' Pamela Falk. "These airstrikes may help alleviate the crisis in that area by slowing the extremists' advances."
CBS News/ISW
But, al-Bahra stressed that "what happens after the airstrikes is critical. First, there must be a no-fly zone sustained over the areas of these strikes, so that the regime will not attack civilians in order to create chaos and blame the international coalition for civilian casualties. Additionally, working with our partners, we will accelerate plans and efforts to train and equip mainstream opposition forces to carry on the fight on the ground. And finally, we must engage on multiple fronts with the international community to put pressure on the Assad regime to step aside for a full political transition. Moderate, inclusive governance is needed to suffocate the extremists and prevent them from re-emerging."
President Obama spoke with House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi about the strikes Monday evening, officials said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Committee on Intelligence, was briefed by Vice President Biden earlier in the day.
Since Aug. 8, the U.S. has launched at least 190 strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq. That increased military assistance, including the deployment of more than 1,600 U.S. advisers, has helped Iraqi and Kurdish security forces stem the tide of ISIS' advance, though serious challenges remain.
Over the last several weeks, during which ISIS militants have beheaded two American journalists and a British aid worker, President Obama signaled America's intention to broaden its campaign against the extremist group into Syria. Surveillance flights to gather intelligence on potential targets in Syrian territory were authorized in late August.
Throughout the ongoing operations, Mr. Obama has been steadfast in his insistence that the U.S. would not put boots on the ground in their fight against ISIS. Instead, the U.S. will rely on local forces in Iraq and moderate rebels in Syria to fight the extremists.
The Islamic State, part one
Last week, the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved arming and training moderate Syrian rebels to fight ISIS militants, though the go-ahead is good for less than three months.
After gathering strength and territory in Syria, ISIS militants seized Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, in June and embarked on an aggressive offensive across northern Iraq, forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes and coming dangerously close to heavily populated cities in Iraq's Kurdish region.
In the Sunni-majority territory of Anbar province, the group quickly capitalized on long-standing grievances against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, earning support from local populations.
Throughout their offensive, ISIS has used a sophisticated propaganda operation, harnessing social media and digital technology to both instill fear in target populations and bolster recruitment of jihadists from the region and the West. According to recent U.S. intelligence estimates, ISIS could currently muster up to roughly 30,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State, part two
The group, which formally declared itself an Islamic state in June, is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and is based on a rigid Islamic ideology. Most of its funding comes fromrobbery, extortion and smuggling operations, in addition to outside funding. It also levies taxes on electricity and gasoline in the territories it controls.
Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, were able to retake the strategic Mosul Dam and several small towns since airstrikes began. However, serious challenges remain, since many of the Islamic State fighters have taken refuge in busy cities with high civilian populations, such as Fallujah and Mosul.
In northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters battling the Sunni militant group have begun receiving training from Western allies, including the United States, as they seek to beef up their capabilities, a top Kurdish security official said Monday.
Helgurd Hikmet, general director of the ministry overseeing Kurdish military forces known as Peshmerga, said that France, Italy and Germany are also among countries providing training to help Kurdish forces use new machine guns, mortars, rockets and demining robots they have received.
Jordan's King stresses swift action against the ISIS threat
"We asked all our allies, when they provided us with new weapons, that these weapons need training," Hikmet told The Associated Press Monday. "So now all the allies that provided us with those weapons are providing us with training."
Last week, the French joined in the aerial campaign. A number of European countries have also committed to arming the Kurds and providing humanitarian support for more than a million people displaced by the onslaught of the militant group.
In addition, key Arab allies of the United States - Saudi Arabia, other Gulf states, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon - have pledged to help in the battle against ISIS militants, promising to stop the flow of fighters and funding to the insurgents and possibly to join military action.
Syrian Rebel President: Assad Helping ISIS
Sep 23rd, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues
Shocking claim by rebel leader at UN: Assad wants ISIS to defeat FSA, so the West sees him as the best alternative.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
AFP photo
“Assad is the root cause of ISIS,” stated on Monday Hadi al-Bahra, the President of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, at a press conference at UNHQ in New York, under the auspices of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA).
Al-Bahra, a 55 year-old, American trained engineer, explained in fluent English the dire state his country is in. “We need immediate airstrikes to stem the tide against the ISIS attacks on the Kurdish villages, as of yesterday, 200 Kurdish villages have been overrun, with 130,000 refugees, today, I believe the number of villages ransacked by ISIS is up to 300, with 200,000 refugees. We need immediate help against ISIS. We only need arms and supplies. Nobody wants ‘boots on the ground.’”
Al-Bahra said immediate military and economic help were critical, “We are the first line of defense against ISIS. If they defeat the moderate opposition in Syria, nothing will stop them coming to Europe. And the longer Assad is power, the larger ISIS will grow.”
Al-Bahra commands the Free Syrian Army (FSA) that is the ‘moderate’ group of Syrians that started the revolution against Assad 3½ years ago, and which has been battling ISIS for over a year.
The rebel leader explained the FSA is fighting a “two-front war” against Assad to the West and ISIS to the east.
He said that not only is Assad “the root cause of ISIS,” but also that Assad has become a tactical battle-field ally of ISIS. This claim echoed a New York Times article that described a similar trend in Assad’s target selection. Al-Bahra described how Assad’s drops barrel-bombs and fires scuds at FSA positions and cities, while he leaves ISIS-controlled cities untouched.”
Al-Bahra even said, “while FSA were in battles with ISIS Assad’s planes where dropping bombs on our positions and left ISIS formations alone,” thus helping ISIS defeat the FSA in those battles.
This shows that Assad and ISIS must be sharing battlefield-intelligence that could be detected by American intelligence satellites. So, it may also be clear to American intelligence that Assad has been bolstering ISIS.
President al-Bahra explained Assad’s ‘Destroy-FSA/Bolster-ISIS’ strategy thus: by “destroying the FSA’s forces, Assad gives the West the ‘impression’ that 'It’s either ISIS, or Assad,’ and since Assad is ‘lesser of the two evils,’ go with Assad.”
With 17 million Sunnis still in Syria, and only 3 million Alawites, Assad’s sectarian clan, President al-Bahra confidently stated, “We’re never going away, we’re everywhere in Syria we are the Syrian people,” and the revolution is for all Syrians to “free ourselves of a tyrant.”
But the real fireworks came when asked, “Secretary Kerry has said Iran could help, How Iran could help?” President al-Bahra had a simple answer, “Iran must stop co-partnering with Assad to commit mass-murder war-crimes against the Syrian people. Iran now has Iranian sectarian militias in Syria committing war-crimes against Syrian civilians, and it is arming Assad with fuel and weapons. There is no solution without Iran stopping their war-crimes, and their sectarian influence.”
President al-Bahra sketched out his vision of Syria that he stated was always a “moderate Muslim country” which respected Christianity for millennium, and where “language of Jesus was still spoken today.” He emphasized, “the Syria people want a democratic, non-sectarian peaceful country where everyone respects everyone else. Anybody who forces their religion on someone else by force of arms or threats is an enemy of the Syrian people.”
Pamela Falk, President of UNCA, CBS's head UN correspondent and doyenne of the UN press corps, led the press conference on a wide variety of issues relating to the state of play in Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria should not be conducted without consent of Syrian government.
MOSCOW, September 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a phone conversation with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said that airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria should not be conducted without consent of Syrian government, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
"Vladimir Putin and Ban Ki-moon have exchanged opinions on efforts of the international community joined against the 'Islamic State' group. Russian side emphasized, that airstrikes against the Islamic State terrorists' bases, located on the territory of Syria, should not be conducted without the consent of Syrian government," the Kremlin press service said in a statement.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting against Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories over which it had control.
Earlier in September, US President Barack Obama has announced the formation of an international coalition to fight the IS militants and authorized US airstrikes against IS targets in Syria, while continuing airstrikes in Iraq, which the United States began in August.
Let the Headlines Speak
Sep 23rd, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues
Papua New Guinea Earthquake Today 2014 Strikes Near Kokopo
USGS indicates to news that a 5.4 magnitude Papua New Guinea earthquake today struck just after 1:24 am local time. The quake was shallow. Reps tell news that the quake started only thirty-four miles below ground level. As a result the quake could be felt across the region.
Women killed in Satanic murder-suicide pact, trial told
The killing was allegedly a celebration of Beltane — a Satanic holiday which has been associated with human sacrifice.
Sheriff calls for U.S. troops on Rio Grande
'We can protect Korean border but not our own?' Another border-state sheriff is voicing his frustrations with the Obama administration’s failure to secure the border, saying the lack of action has overwhelmed his county with criminals, drug-cartel members and possible terrorists.
Obama to Enlist U.N. in Fight Against ISIS
Obama will make a wholehearted pitch to the General Assembly for the broadest possible international coalition to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. In face-to-face meetings with several leaders on the sidelines of the Assembly, he will try to nail down specific commitments to the effort, whether military, financial or humanitarian.
Physicists teleport quantum state of photon to crystal over 25 kilometers
Physicists have succeeded in teleporting the quantum state of a photon to a crystal over 25 kilometers of optical fiber. The experiment constitutes a first, and simply pulverizes the previous record of 6 kilometers achieved ten years ago by the same team. Passing from light into matter, using teleportation of a photon to a crystal, shows that, in quantum physics, it is not the composition of a particle which is important, but rather its state,
IS Calls to Kill Westerners, Claims Obama is 'Mule of the Jews'
"If you can kill a disbelieving American or European - especially the spiteful and filthy French - or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be," IS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani urged.
'Not Islamic'?
Obama declared in his recent address to the nation that "ISIL is not Islamic." But how does he know? On what basis did the president of the United States declare the a group of Muslims that calls itself "Islamic State" "not Islamic"?
BROODING GIANT
Solar activity is low. However, new sunspot AR2172 threatens to break the quiet.
WHO forecasts more than 20,000 Ebola cases by November 2
The World Health Organization has warned in a new report that the number of people infected with the Ebola virus could reach 20,000 by the beginning of November if efforts to contain the outbreak are not accelerated. The outbreak has killed around 2,800 people in five West African countries this year.
US, Arab allies launch first wave of strikes in Syria
The United States, joined by five Arab allies, launched an intense campaign of airstrikes, bombings and cruise-missile attacks against the Islamic State and another militant group in Syria Monday night – marking the first U.S. military intervention in Syria since the start of that country’s civil war in 2011.
A Marxist Mistake? AFL-CIO Pushes Get Out The Vote For Mid-Terms Under Soviet-Style Symbol
In 1997, shortly after current AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, along with then-president John Sweeney, took over the AFL-CIO, America’s oldest labor federation lifted the ban on Communists. the special interest group—indirectly funded by union members’ dues—has launched a “get out the vote” page with a symbol that is eerily reminscent of the Soviet-era hammer and sickle.
French tourist Herve Gourdel abducted by Algeria militants
A French tourist has been kidnapped in Algeria by a militant group linked to Islamic State (IS), French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has confirmed. Herve Gourdel, 55, was seized on Sunday in the unsettled north-east Kabylie area. Algerian militant group Jund al-Khilafa threatened to kill him if France did not halt air strikes on Iraq.
Second video of British hostage John Cantlie released
A second video has been released showing British journalist John Cantlie, who is being held hostage by Islamic State (IS) militants. It comes less than a week after his first appearance on screen following his kidnapping in Syria in 2012. The release of the video showing Mr Cantlie comes as the US and its allies launch the first air strikes against IS in Syria.
Venezuela's Maduro launches civilian disarmament plan
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced he is expanding a plan to disarm civilians. Speaking on the International Day of Peace, Mr Maduro said his government would invest $47m (£29m) and create 60 new disarmament centres. According to United Nations figures, Venezuela has the second highest peacetime murder rate in the world after Honduras.
IDF kills two Palestinians wanted for kidnapping, murdering three Jewish teens
The two wanted Palestinians who have been suspected of kidnapping and murdering three Jewish teenagers in Gush Etzion earlier this summer, were shot and killed by the IDF in an exchange of fire on Tuesday morning. Before dawn on Tuesday, soldiers surrounded the building in Hebron where Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha, the two main suspects in the kidnapping and murder, were holed up.
French man Herve Gourdel abducted by Algeria militants
A French man has been kidnapped in Algeria by a militant group linked to Islamic State (IS), French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has confirmed.
Islamic State calls for attacking civilians
Fighters of the Islamic State militant group are ready to battle a U.S.-led military coalition seeking to destroy it, the group’s spokesman said in a new audio recording in which he called on Muslims worldwide to kill civilians of nations that join the fight.
Australia seeks broad new security powers following anti-terror raid
Australia's government will seek broad new security powers to combat what it says is a rising threat from militant Islamists, the attorney general said on Monday, on the heels of sweeping counter-terrorism raids last week involving hundreds of police.
U.S. Airstrikes Against ISIS Expand to Syria
The Pentagon confirmed this evening that the United States has begun airstrikes against ISIS within Syria, opening up a second front in the U.S.-led offensive against the Islamic State.
3 Missing Afghan Soldiers Found At Canadian Border
Three Afghan soldiers who went missing from a Cape Cod military base over the weekend were found today near the US-Canada border, a United States defense official told ABC News.
Islamic State attack on Iraqi base leaves hundreds missing, shows army weaknesses
The army base in Iraq’s western Anbar province had been under siege by Islamic State militants for a week, so when a convoy of armored Humvees rolled up at the gate, the Iraqi soldiers at Camp Saqlawiyah believed saviors had
AMMAN, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The Jordanian army said on Tuesday it had mounted air strikes against "terrorist groups" that were planning attacks in Jordan, an indication Amman had joined U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State in neighboring Syria.
A Jordanian army statement did not say where the air force had struck. "Air force jets destroyed a number of targets that belong to some terrorist groups that sought to commit terror acts inside Jordan," the statement broadcast on state TV said.
AMMAN, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The Jordanian army said on Tuesday it had mounted air strikes against "terrorist groups" that were planning attacks in Jordan, an indication Amman had joined U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State in neighboring Syria.
A Jordanian army statement did not say where the air force had struck. "Air force jets destroyed a number of targets that belong to some terrorist groups that sought to commit terror acts inside Jordan," the statement broadcast on state TV said.
Can Kurdish Fighters Battle Islamic State?
ISLAMIC State fighters are reportedly raping thousands of women in Iraq and Syria to mass-produce spawn who’ll follow in their footsteps.
Young militants are running wild to the chagrin of their more sophisticated and PR-savvy commanders, an Iraqi official told The New York Post.
The motivation of the rapists is said to be twofold: They want to make IS babies — and they are just plain out for the thrills.
“You have these young ISIS fighters carrying machine guns and they . . . want to have sex,” the official said.
But their commanders, who are focused on their savage war, have ordered the young fighters to keep their zippers closed.
“The ISIS commanders take a more official position,” the source said, using an alternative abreviation for the terror group. “They don’t want them to mess around with the women. They only want them to fight.”
The young rebels, however, aren’t listening to their commanders; they claim that they’re answering to a higher calling.
“The fighters say that they’ve been ordered to have sex by a cleric in Saudi Arabia,” the Iraqi official said. “It’s really just an excuse.”
Each rapist’s goal is to impregnate multiple women and breed children within their villages and towns, he said, adding, “They want to intertwine themselves within the communities.
“They want to become part of the fabric of the cities they control so they can live on for generations.”
ISIS, which has taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria, ultimately wants to become a caliphate, or supreme Islamic state, which would rule Muslim communities around the world.
The official insisted that ISIS is already running the cities it’s seized like a regular government.
Growing the caliphate... an image grab taken from an IS propaganda video shows one of its members holding the group's flag during a parade in Syria. Picture: AFP/HO/AHRAR AL-SHAM
“However psychotic and delusional they are, they have put in place their own government that offers services to the residents in these captured territories,” the official said.
“They issue passports to them. They issue license plates to them for their vehicles.
“And they also collect taxes from them, but they are doing that by putting guns to people’s heads. It’s basically extortion.”
ISIS has $2 billion at its disposal, according to the official. Most of the money is coming from the terror group’s takeover of many of Iraq’s rich oil fields.
“ISIS is turning around and selling the oil on the black market,’’ the officials said.
“That’s the primary way that they’re funding their war.”
The spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham called for attacks on Canadians on Sunday in an apparent attempt to deter members of the military alliance that has formed to challenge the terrorist group.
The government has begun invalidating the passports of Canadians who have left to join extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander revealed in an interview on Friday.
The minister told the National Post his department had also revoked the passports of several Canadians who had not yet left the country but who had intended to travel to the volatile region to enlist as foreign fighters.
He would not disclose the number of passports Citizenship and Immigration Canada had revoked over the conflict but said there were “multiple cases.” The government says about 30 Canadians are with extremist groups in Syria and 130 are active elsewhere.
In a 42-minute audio speech, Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani urged ISIS supporters to kill Canadians, Americans, Australians, French and other Europeans, regardless of whether they were civilians or members of the military.
“Rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be. Do not ask for anyone’s advice and do not seek anyone’s verdict. Kill the disbeliever whether he is civilian or military, for they have the same ruling,” he said.
“Both of them are disbelievers. Both of them are considered to be waging war. Both of their blood and wealth is legal for you to destroy, for blood does not become illegal or legal to spill by the clothes being worn.”
Canada is part of a U.S.-led alliance that has begun mobilizing to defeat ISIS, which has been committing widespread atrocities against Syrians and Iraqis in an attempt to impose its barbaric version of Islamic law in the region.
Reacting to the ISIS speech Monday, the Prime Minister’s Office said it would not be “cowed by threats while innocent children, women, men and religious minorities live in fear of these terrorists.
As Barack Obama proposes international effort to stop foreign fighters travelling to the Middle East, US officials admit the FBI is monitoring an unspecified number of returned US jihadists
US National Counterterrorism Center believes that approximately 100 US citizens have gone on jihad Photo: AFP
The FBI is monitoring a number of US citizens who have returned to America after fighting for the jihadist groups in Syria, including the Islamic State (Isil), the US has confirmed for the first time.
An administration official told Time magazine that the US National Counterterrorism Center believes that approximately 100 US citizens have gone on jihad, but declined to specify how many have returned to the US.
“It includes those who’ve gone, those who’ve tried to go, some who’ve come back and are under activeâ?”the FBI is looking at them,” the official said of the overall number. “These are FBI matters, I refer you to them on specifics.” The FBI did not immediately return a request for comment from The Telegraph. It was unclear if the returned fighters were in custody or under surveillance.
Officials have previously acknowledged that approximately 100 US passport holders have gone to fight in Iraq and Syria, but have generally played down any threat they might pose to the US homeland.
The acknowledgement by senior administration officials that some fighters have now returned is likely to raise questions over Barack Obama’s recent assurance in a primetime address to the nation that the US had not “detected specific plotting against our homeland” by Isil.
Last week a Democrat congressman from New York, Tim Bishop, claimed that there were 40 returned fighters in the US, however that number was quickly dismissed by officials as “wildly inaccurate”, although they again declined to provide specific numbers.
This week Mr Obama is due to chair a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly calling on members to take active steps to stem the flow of foreign fighters flowing into the Middle East to take part in Jihad.
Previewing the strategy at the White House last week, Susan Rice, the National Security Adviser, said that US national security agencies took the threat from returning fighters “very seriously” and were working to combat it.
“It’s something we track closely. And we are doing obviously all that we can to both gather the necessary information and take the appropriate precautions to the greatest extent that we possibly can,” she said.
US anti-terror officials estimate that in total some 15,000 foreign fighters from 80 countries have gone to Iraq and Syria, including some 500 British citizens.
David Cameron, in contrast to Mr Obama, has been much more alarmist about the threat posed by Isil and fighters returning to their home countries.
After the beheading of the British hostage David Haines last week, Mr Cameron warned in a statement that the group “have planned and continue to plan attacks across Europe and in our country.”
PARIS- French President Francois Hollande met his Iranian counterpart on Tuesday and said afterwards that he hoped for a swift agreement on Iran's nuclear program.
"The president hopes the negotiations can end quickly," a statement from Hollande's office said after he met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations General Assembly.
France and five other world powers are negotiating with Iran over the nuclear program that the West suspects has military aspects, something Tehran denies.
"Iran must put in place concrete measures that show in a certain and verifiable way that it will not acquire a military nuclear capability," the statement added.
Hamas terrorist Izzat el-Rishq
Reuters
Hamas media reported Tuesday that the terror network's representatives to indirect talks with Israel taking place in Cairo left the talks shortly after they started, in response to the IDF's elimination of the murderers of three Jewish teens in Hevron this morning, and then returned to them one hour later.
The Egyptian-brokered negotiations were to resume Tuesday, as had been agreed in the latest ceasefire pact, about a month ago.
Following the fugitives' deaths, however, the Hamas delegation returned to the hotel in which it is staying.
Izzat al-Rishaq, a senior Hamas figure, denouned the killings and said: “We consider this an Israeli attempt to avoid reaching a ceasefire agreement.”
Shortly thereafter, the representtives returned to the talks.
MK Ze'ev Elkin (Likud), Head of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told Arutz Sheva Monday that Hamas must not reach any economic achievement after it fired missiles at us.”
"If we agree to enable them to achieve any accomplishmrnt, it will only be a matter of time before they fire at us again.”
Extremists' takeovers in Iraq and Syria changing the entire face of Middle Eastern relations, expert says. What does it mean for Israel?
A fighter of the Islamic State (ISIS)
Reuters
Islamic State (IS or ISIS) is changing the Middle East, Middle Eastern affairs expert Dr. Eldad Pardo told Arutz Sheva Tuesday - and the Arab world's response to it will ripple into Israeli foreign relations as well.
Pardo first related to the Iranian nuclear question, noting that cooperation with the US on the diplomatic front "is inconvenient to the Iranian regime," which opposes the US's Middle-Eastern policies in the first place.
"They say American proposals are not serious and that ISIS was established by the US by aiding the Syrian opposition," Pardo said.
He believes that Tehran is sharpening its positions and aggrandizing its power to clarify to Washington and the West - as well as its regional neighbors - that a nuclear deal will not work unless it is a major player in its final form.
"For the Iranians, ISIS is less of a threat than in the Sunni world," he noted. "This is because ISIS cannot conquer Iran - which is both strong and Shi'ite, so too with Jordan and Saudi Arabia."
ISIS may still prove a threat in the long run, however, through a "war of attrition" the terrorist organization is waging by overwhelming Iran's regional partners, Syria and Lebanon.
The ripple effect of ISIS - and its effect on a nuclear deal - may extend so far, he said, to interfere even with Israel's relations with the rest of the Middle East.
"If the United States would give up the nuclear issue, it would be dangerous for Israel and the Sunni world," Pardo stated. "Iranians want to build the ancient Iranian Empire. They see themselves as some kind of Aryans facing the primitive Arabs."
"On the other hand, there is pressure for change from within Iran," he continued. "What Hezbollah [in Lebanon] has been experiencing in recent years and the rise of Sunni extremists will change public opinion in Iran. Economic sanctions drive [change] as well, and perhaps it will lead them to postpone nuclear development for a few years."
"If it happens, Israel will benefit," he added.
ISIS-produced chaos within the Arab world, meanwhile, has given Israel the opportunity to make new diplomatic ties in the Middle East over common security needs, according to Pardo.
The expert noted that ISIS's takeovers in Iraq and Syria could see Israel cooperate - if indirectly - with the Kurds and opposition groups inside Syria, to form an unlikely coalition.
Hezbollah, too, may be placated, according to Pardo - as it "understands when to remain quiet along Israel's borders," like it had with Syria during Syrian President Bashar Assad's rule.
Overall, he said, "all the parties in the Middle East are trying to take advantage of the ISIS crisis to their advantage" - including Israel.
"When fighting against Hamas, the ISIS crisis helped us [in terms of public opinion]," he explained. "The Iranians, also, are seen as moderates in light of what is happening with ISIS, even if they conduct public executions."
"Assad has killed more people than ISIS through gas and violence, but he is proud to reject ISIS," he noted. "There's very much a struggle for image and for basic moral values here."
Liberian nurses prepare to carry the body of an Ebola victim. Photograph: Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA
I wake up each morning – if I have managed to sleep – wondering if this is really happening, or if it is a horror movie. In decades of humanitarian work I have never witnessed such relentless suffering of fellow human beings or felt so completely paralysed and utterly overwhelmed at our inability to provide anything but the most basic, and sometimes less than adequate, care.
I am supervising the suspect tent, which has room for 25 patients who are likely to have Ebola – 80-90% of those we test have the virus. We administer treatment for malaria, start patients on antibiotics, paracetamol, multivitamins, rehydration supplements, food, water and juice while they wait for their results. Sometimes people have arrived too late and die shortly after arriving.
In one afternoon last week I watched five seemingly fit, healthy, young men die. I gave the first a bottle of oral rehydration solution and came back with another for the second. In the half a minute or so in which I had been away the first man died, his bottle of water spilt across the floor. The four others followed in quick succession.
We sometimes have to hold back tears but try to offer patients all the comfort that we can – especially if they are in their last moments. I cannot spend as much time as I would like with each of them due to the intense heat of the personal protective equipment and the sheer number of patients.
My colleagues in logistics are doing a fantastic job of building new extensions and hopefully, in the next week, we will increase our capacity further still. In the meantime, we are only open to admit patients for a couple of hours each day before all our beds are full again. Once admitted, patients spend 10-14 days with us, and if their body beats the virus – and they have three days in which they do not show symptoms – we perform another test to see if they have fully recovered.
Unfortunately, people die before they even reach our centre. It is a difficult and dangerous procedure to remove a body from a vehicle and the team often has to do this many times a day. We have been forced to order an incinerator from Europe because the local crematorium cannot cope with the number of bodies.
Each day this week patients have recovered – in the early stages there were no survivors whatsoever. Yesterday seven people went home, including a young man who had painted the inside of one of our tents red when he arrived because he was bleeding so profusely. Our team had thought he had no hope of survival. It is lovely to see the patients going home with their certificate of discharge, though most have lost family members or friends, and can face stigma upon their return.
I believe MSF is doing a fantastic job, but we are only able to care for a minority of the people in Monrovia who have Ebola. We also work in the north of the country, but every county is now reporting cases and we have absolutely no capacity to respond.
It is extremely sad to see the indifference of the international community with regards to this epidemic. It is great to see an added interest and investment in research for vaccines, but we urgently need experts who are physically present and more structures on the ground here in west Africa, where the situation continues to be catastrophic.
SANLIURFA, Turkey - ISIS is on the rampage again, seizing dozens of villages in northern Syria last week and forcing more than 100,000 people to flee into Turkey.
On Turkey's border with Syria Monday, just a few miles from where ISIS has besieged the town of Kobani, Turkish riot police defended their positions with tear gas.
Turkish riot police defended their position near the border with Syria, but they weren't fighting Islamic extremists.
Instead, they were trying to push back Turkish men who wanted to cross into Syria to fight against the ISIS militants.
Like the refugees, they're members of the Kurdish ethnic minority, and their relationship with Turkey's government is tense.
The confrontation turned farmland into a battle zone and forced the CBS News crew to run for cover.
A mile away, hundreds of Kurdish Syrians waited to cross at another checkpoint Monday.
They said they'd brought their families to safety in Turkey and wanted to go back and defend their land.
Mohammed Ali said he saw ISIS gunmen execute his cousin when the militants captured their village.
The men's families may be safe, but many have nowhere to go.
Camped out on the ground, inside a mosque, CBS News met Najah Khalid. She said she fled here on Thursday with her six children - the youngest her 10 day-old baby girl Nawroz.
"We just want to be safe from those monsters," she said. "We want to be able to go back home."
Many people here in Turkey accuse their government of hypocrisy. Monday, Turkish authorities stopped Kurdish fighters from going to Syria, but thousands if foreign fighters have crossed the border over the last three years, and many of them have joined ISIS.
Greek Orthodox priest Father Gabriel Nadaf defends Israel before the UNHRC, calls on it to end anti-Israel 'witch hunt.'
Father Gabriel Nadaf at the UN
The Face of Israel
Greek Orthodox priest Father Gabriel Nadaf, a leader of the Aramaean Christian minority in Israel, spoke before the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday in a strong show of support for the Jewish state.
Despite speaking before a body that has consistently condemned Israel - recently it appointed a biased committee to investigate claims of "war crimes" against Israel in Gaza, and praised the human rights "achievements" of Hamas and Islamic State (ISIS) supporter Qatar - Nadaf spoke firmly, calling for the world to stand by Israel against terror.
"Across the Middle East, in the last ten years, 100,000 Christians have been murdered each year. That means that every five minutes a Christian is killed because of his faith," reported Nadaf. "Those who can escape persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists have fled. ...Those who remain, exist as second if not third class citizens to their Muslim rulers."
Nadaf continued "in the Middle East today, there is one country where Christianity is not only not persecuted, but affectionately granted freedom of expression, freedom of worship and security. ...It is Israel, the Jewish State. Israel is the only place where Christians in the Middle East are safe."
Speaking immediately after a panel discussion on the "Human Rights Situation in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories," Nadaf called "it is time the world woke up to the fact that those who want to destroy the Jewish State are signing the death warrant on the last free Christians in the Holy Land."
"Leaders of people, seekers of peace, end your witch hunt of the only free country in the region," said Nadaf, throwing the gauntlet at the feet of the UNHRC.
Father Nadaf, a native of Nazareth who heads the Greek Orthodox Church in Yafia near his hometown, has advocated a strong connection to Israel and IDF service for Christian citizens - despite stiff opposition from the official Greek Orthodox church and Arab MKs.
That condemnation has gone as far as the Greek Orthodox patriarchate in Israel banning him from entering Nazareth's Basilica of the Annunciation, and repeatedly threatening to dismiss him from his Yafia post.
Arab MKs have also condemned him, calling him “an agent of Zionism who seeks to divide Arabs.” Nadaf has revealed he has also been threatened with violence, and even death - but he insists that he represents a sizable portion of the Christian Israeli community.
"We feel secure in the state of Israel," Nadaf has said, "and we see ourselves as citizens of the state with all the attendant rights as well as obligations."
Father Nadaf's trip to Geneva was arranged by The Face of Israel, a private organization promoting Israel internationally.
