Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Woman Beheaded At U.S. Workplace; Police
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsInquirer
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Employees and friends wait behind a tape for word of loved ones as police investigate an incident at Vaughn Foods on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014 in Moore, Okla. Police Friday a man who had been fired from the food processing plant beheaded a woman with a knife and was attacking another worker when he was shot and wounded by a company official. AP

MOORE, Oklahoma — A man who had been fired from a food processing plant in an Oklahoma City suburb beheaded a woman with a knife and was attacking another worker when he was shot and wounded by a company official, police said Friday.

The 30-year-old man, who has not been charged, stabbed Colleen Hufford, 54, severing her head in Thursday’s attack at Vaughan Foods, Moore Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis said.

Lewis said the man then stabbed Traci Johnson, 43, a number of times before being shot by Mark Vaughan, a reserve sheriff’s deputy and the company’s chief operating officer.

While questioning the suspect’s co-workers, investigators learned he had recently started trying to convert several employees to Islam, Lewis said. Moore police have asked the FBI to aid in the investigation and look into the man’s background because of the nature of the attack, Lewis said.

Johnson and the suspect were hospitalized and in stable condition Friday, Lewis said.

Lewis said he does not yet know what charges will be filed, adding that police are waiting until the man is conscious to arrest him.

Oklahoma Department of Corrections records show the suspect, whom The Associated Press is not naming because he has not been charged, has multiple, apparently religious tattoos, including one referencing Jesus and one in Arabic that means “peace be with you.”

Lewis said the suspect had been fired in a building that houses the company’s human resources office, then immediately drove to the entrance of the business. Lewis said he didn’t know why the man was fired.

“This was not going to stop if he didn’t stop it. It could have gotten a lot worse,” Lewis said.

A Vaughan spokeswoman said the company was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the attack.

Turkey Deploys Tanks on Its Borders to Hold Back Human Tide of Syrians Fleeing ISIS
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsMail Online
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

• Turkish military sent armor and soldiers to border with Syria to control influx of refugees fleeing Islamic State
• Thousands of refugees have gathered near Sanliurfa, just a few miles west of IS militant base near Kobani
• Soldiers are also trying to control flow of Kurdish men trying to go in the opposite direction to fight against IS 
• At least 140,000 Kurds have fled into Turkey from Syrian border town in just six days, the UN claims

The Turkish military has deployed tanks to the Syrian border where thousands of refugees - many of them ethnic Kurds - have gathered, fleeing from murderous Islamic State militants.

The porous border is believed to be the main route for Western would-be jihadists to join up with IS and other extremist groups in the Middle East as recruits fly into airports popular with tourists in southern Turkey, before easily slipping over the border into war-torn Syria.

But armed forces have rushed to control the barbed wire territory line which is now a key route of escape for Syrian Kurds.

Meanwhile, Kurdish forces in northern Syria pushed back an advance by Islamic State fighters towards a strategic town on the Turkish border on Thursday and appealed for U.S.-led air strikes to target the insurgents' tanks and heavy armaments.

Terror Laws Clear Senate, Enabling Australian Web to be Monitored and Whistleblowers to be Jailed
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Sydney Morning Herald
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Australian spies will soon have the power to monitor the entire Australian internet with just one warrant, and journalists and whistleblowers will face up to 10 years' jail for disclosing classified information.

The government's first tranche of tougher anti-terrorism bills, which will beef up the powers of the domestic spy agency ASIO, passed the Senate by 44 votes to 12 on Thursday night with bipartisan support from Labor.

Attorney-General George Brandis praised the laws being passed. Photo: Andrew Meares

The bill, the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014, will now be sent to the House of Representatives, where passage is all but guaranteed on Tuesday at the earliest.

Anyone - including journalists, whistleblowers and bloggers - who "recklessly" discloses "information ... [that] relates to a special intelligence operation" faces up to 10 years' jail.

Any operation can be declared "special" by an authorised ASIO officer

This also gives ASIO immunity for criminal and civil liability in certain circumstances.

Many, including lawyers and academics, have said they fear the agency will abuse this power.

Those who identify ASIO agents could also face a decade in prison under the new bill, a tenfold increase on the existing maximum penalty.

The new bill also allows ASIO to seek just one warrant to access a limitless number of computers on a computer network when attempting to monitor a target, which lawyers, rights groups, academics and Australian media organisations have condemned.

They said this would effectively allow the entire internet to be monitored, as it is a "network of networks" and the bill does not specifically define what a computer network is.

ASIO will also be able to copy, delete, or modify the data held on any of the computers it has a warrant to monitor.

The bill also allows ASIO to disrupt target computers, and use innocent third-party computers not targeted in order to access a target computer.

Professor George Williams of the University of NSW has warned previously the bill was too broad.

And, unlike the government's controversial plans to get internet providers to store metadata for up to two years, the bill passed on Thursday allows for the content of communications to be stored.

Most groups that had complained about the new bill also said they feared its disclosure offences went too far, with the Australian Lawyers Alliance saying they would have "not just a chilling effect but a freezing effect" on national security reporting.

Attorney-General George Brandis did not seek to allay their concerns on Thursday but said that, in a "newly dangerous age", it was vital that those protecting Australia were equipped with the powers and capabilities they needed.

When the bill passed on Thursday night, he said it was the most important reform for Australia's intelligence agencies since the late 1970s.

On Wednesday afternoon, Senator Brandis confirmed that, under the legislation, ASIO would be able to use just one warrant to access numerous devices on a network.

The warrant would be issued by the director-general of ASIO or his deputy.

"There is no arbitrary or artificial limit on the number of devices," Senator Brandis told the Senate.

However, Senator Brandis did say on Thursday that the new bills did not target journalists specifically, despite concerns from media organisations that they would be targets.

The new legislation instead targeted those who leaked classified information, such as the former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, Senator Brandis said.

"These provisions have nothing to do with the press."

Despite this, Senator Brandis refused to say whether reporting on cases similar to Australia's foreign spy agency ASIS allegedly bugging East Timor's cabinet and the Australian Signals Directorate tapping the Indonesian president and his wife's mobile phone would result in journalists or whistleblowers being jailed.

The Australian Greens, through Senator Scott Ludlam, put forward an amendment that would limit the number of computers ASIO could access with one warrant to 20 but it failed to gain support from Labor or the government.

Speaking after the bill passed, Senator Ludlam told Fairfax Media he was disappointed.

"What we've seen [tonight] is, I think, a scary, disproportionate and unnecessary expansion of coercive surveillance powers that will not make anybody any safer but that affect freedoms that have been quite hard fought for and hard won over a period of decades," Senator Ludlam said.

"I have very grave concerns about the direction that the Australian government seems to be suddenly taking the country."

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon and Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm also put forward amendments that would protect whistleblowers but these did not gain enough support either.

The legislation, which also covers a number of other issues, addresses many of the recommendations of a joint parliamentary inquiry into Australia's national security laws.

After concerns were raised by Labor and Senator Leyonhjelm, the government agreed to amend the legislation to specifically rule out ASIO using torture.

"ASIO cannot, does not and has never engaged in torture," Senator Brandis said.

The Palmer United Party was also successful in amending the law so anyone who exposes an undercover ASIO operative could face up to 10 years behind bars instead of one.

"The internet poses one of the greatest threats to our existence," Palmer United Party Senator Glen Lazarus said, speaking out against Senator Ludlam's amendment.

The Australian Greens voted against the bill, slamming the new measures as extreme and a "relentless expansion of powers" of the surveillance state.

Senator Leyonhjelm and Senator Xenophon also opposed the legislation, as did independent Senator John Madigan.

One of the amendments put forward by Senator Xenophon would have required ASIO's watchdog, the  Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, to report publicly each year on how many devices ASIO accessed.

But Labor and the government voted against it, with Senator Brandis saying it "would not be appropriate" to report figures as it would reveal information about ASIO's capabilities.

The legal changes come amid growing concern over Islamic State extremists in the Middle East and terrorism threats at home.

Islamic State (also known as ISIL) has ordered followers to target civilian Australians.

In less than a week, police in two states launched the biggest counter-terrorism raids in Australia's history, and shot dead a known terrorist suspect after he stabbed two officers in Melbourne.

A second anti-terrorism bill targeting foreign fighters was introduced in the Senate on Wednesday and will be debated next month.

These changes have opposition support and would make it a criminal office to travel to a terrorist hot-spot without a reasonable excuse.

A third bill enabling the collection of internet and phone metadata for a period of up to two years for warrantless access by law-enforcement and spy agencies will be introduced later this year

Scientist Fired for Amazing Fossil Find
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily Newswww.wayoflife.org
Categories: Creation - Evolution;Contemporary Issues

The following is excerpted from "Evolutionists Evade Critical Thinking," Christian News Network, Sept. 6, 2014: "A Christian author from the Pacific Northwest is adding his voice to a growing discussion across the country as a scientist at California State University is challenging his former employer in court after being fired for presenting fossil evidence undermining evolutionary 'millions of years' theory. As previously reported, Mark Armitage was a scientist at California State University--Northridge (CSUN) up until two years ago, where he worked as a researcher and supervised the school's electron microscope laboratory. He was suddenly terminated after he discovered soft tissue on a Triceratops fossil, the findings of which were also published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. ... He states because of his find and subsequent report, his supervisor entered the lab and declared, 'We will not tolerate your religion in this department!' ... Armitage recently appeared on the radio broadcast Creation Moments after listeners sent him hundreds of letters of support surrounding his legal challenge. '[W]e have the evolutionists on the run,' he said. 'They are scrambling to explain the presence of these delicate and life-like cells and tissues that could in no way survive the ravages of deep time.' ... 'Tell your unsaved friends that you have a friend (me) who has been going on dinosaur digs and is unearthing and publishing his findings of soft tissues. ... Tell them if soft tissues are the norm, then the Earth cannot possibly be old, and that suddenly Genesis is believable as actual history.' ... Daniel Greenup, author of Generation Why?, told Christian News Network on Friday that he is not surprised Armitage was fired over his discovery as evolutionists fear critical thinking. 'All of us were told about the importance of free inquiry, critical thinking and diversity in school, but it's really not true,' he said. 'Universities generally love diversity of skin color and diversity of sexual orientation, but they're not interested in diversity of opinion. They want you to believe what they believe, and they definitely don't want you to critically think about it. So, it comes as no surprise that Mr. Armitage has been fired for his findings.'"

Report: Israel Says Nine Japanese Nationals Have Joined Islamic State
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Japan is looking into an Israeli intelligence tip according to which nine of its nationals have joined Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria, according to The Japan Times.

Tokyo said that the former Israeli ambassador to Japan, Nissim Ben Shitrit, informed the current head of the Japanese air force that Jerusalem had obtained information indicating that nine Japanese nationals had enlisted into the ranks of Islamic State terrorists.

Qatar Says Fight Against Islamic State will Fail If Assad Stays
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has warned that the US-led fight against Islamic State militancy will not succeed as long as Syrian President Bashar Assad remains in power.

US and Arab forces have bombed Islamic State targets in northern and eastern Syria this week, following US strikes on the al-Qaida splinter group in Iraq since early August.

"We have to counter terrorism, yes. But I believe that the main cause of all this is the regime in Syria, and this regime should be punished," Sheikh Tamim said in an interview with CNN broadcast on Thursday.

"...If we think that we're going to get through the terrorist movements and leave those regimes doing what they -- this regime especially, doing what he is doing -- then terrorist movements will come back again," he said, according to a transcript of the interview.

Islamic State fighters have exploited the chaos of Syria's three-year-old civil war, which pits Assad and his allies against mainly Sunni Muslim rebels and Islamist militants, to carve out territory in the country's eastern provinces.

Qatar, which has sent cash and arms to rebels fighting Assad, also supported the US strikes against Islamic State, contributing one plane on the first night of attacks on Tuesday.

Other US allies Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have joined in the strikes. All are ruled by Sunni Muslims and are opponents of Assad, a member of a Shi'ite-derived sect, and his main regional ally, Shi'ite Iran.

The air raids follow growing alarm in Western and Arab capitals after Islamic State, a Sunni militant group, swept through a swath of Iraq in June, proclaimed a "caliphate" ruling over all Muslims, slaughtered prisoners and ordered Shi'ites and non-Muslims to convert or die.

Pentagon to Enlist Illegal Immigrants Approved By Obama
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Washington Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

President Barack Obama speaks to a crowd of military personnel at U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Outbreak of a Respiratory Illness Escalates Among Children and Mystifies Scientists
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe New York Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Nine-year-old Jayden Broadway of Denver being tended to at Children’s Hospital Colorado, which treated about 3,600 children for respiratory illness from Aug. 18 to Sept. 24. Credit Cyrus McCrimmon/Denver Post, via Getty Images

An outbreak of respiratory illness first observed in the Midwest has spread to 38 states, sending children to hospitals and baffling scientists trying to understand its virulent resurgence.

As of Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed 226 cases of infection with enterovirus 68. But it is likely that many times that number have been stricken. One case involved an adult, and no deaths have been linked to the infection.

“What the C.D.C. is reporting is clearly the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Mary Anne Jackson, the division director of infectious diseases at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. The hospital was the first to alert the agency last month to an unusual increase in children with trouble breathing. Since then, Dr. Jackson has received calls from colleagues nationwide seeking guidance. Some report that the influx of children to hospitals is “almost outweighing the resources available,” she said.

Three times in the past month, the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital has had to divert ambulances to other hospitals because its emergency room was filled with children, most of them younger than 5, with severe respiratory illness. Before the outbreak, the hospital had not had to divert ambulances in 10 years, said Dr. Daniel Johnson, the interim section chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the hospital.

Enteroviruses are common, but this strain is not. Symptoms in the current outbreak resemble those of a bad cold, including body aches and cough. But some children progress to wheezing and having breathing difficulties. Scientists say they do not know why it is happening.

“Parents would love to know why this virus is causing severe disease and why there are more cases,” said Rafal Tokarz, an associate research scientist at Columbia University who has studied the virus, “but we won’t be able to answer that until a lot more research is done.”

From Aug. 18 to Sept. 24, roughly 3,600 children were treated at emergency and urgent-care facilities at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Most were sent home, but roughly 10 percent were hospitalized because they needed continuous breathing treatment, supplemental oxygen, or even to be placed on a ventilator in the intensive-care unit.

The hospital has had a “bed crunch” and is struggling to maintain supplies of albuterol, a rescue medication used by asthma sufferers, said Dr. Christine Nyquist, the director for infection prevention and control.

Experts said children should rest at home if they had run-of-the-mill cold symptoms like a runny nose, cough and body aches, but were hydrated, eating and breathing comfortably.

“If your child has mild respiratory cold symptoms, they do not need to be rushed to the E.R.,” said Dr. Marian G. Michaels, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The hospital’s emergency department has seen 50 to 70 more children a day for respiratory illness than is customary this time of year.

But there are signs that a child requires immediate medical care: rapid or labored breathing that involves neck muscles, wheezing, complaining of chest pain or not being able to catch one’s breath, and blue lips. A baby who has to stop drinking from a bottle to breathe should be seen by a doctor. A fever need not be present.

Belabored breathing should be obvious. “Parents aren’t going to miss this,” Dr. Jackson said.

She said many school-aged patients told their parents, “I need to go to the E.R. because I can’t breathe.”

Children with asthma or underlying lung disease are more often sent to intensive-care units, but severe symptoms are “not limited to them,” said Dr. Meg Fisher, medical director at Unterberg Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, N.J.

Dr. Fisher added: “You can’t totally say: ‘My child doesn’t have asthma. I don’t need to worry.’ ” Monitor children who have colds closely, she said, but “let’s not panic.”

She and others urged parents to take standard precautions to avoid spreading enterovirus: Wash hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds. Disinfect toys. Avoid sharing cups or utensils with sick children.

Likud Mk Danon: Israel Should Annex West Bank Settlements in Response to Abbas Drive for Statehood
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

In response to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ threat to unilaterally seek UN Security Council approval for statehood, Likud MK Danny Danon urged the government to annex the Jewish settlements of Judea and Samaria.

“A unilateral step should be met with a unilateral step,” Danon said. “Every unilateral declaration by Abu Mazen needs to be answered by the application of sovereignty over the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.”

Liberman Calls Abbas Diplomatic Terrorist Busy With Slandering Israel
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said on Friday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ remarks before the UN General Assembly in New York showed him to be “Yasser Arafat’s successor in other ways.”

“Abu Mazen’s statements to the UN General Assembly clearly illustrate that he doesn’t want to be – and cannot be – a partner to a diplomatic settlement,” Liberman said. “There’s a reason that Abu Mazen entered into a joint government with Hamas.”

“Abu Mazen complements Hamas in that he is preoccupied with diplomatic terrorism and slanderous claims against Israel,” he said. “As long as Abu Mazen is chairman of the PA, he will lead to a continuation of the conflict. Abu Mazen has once again proven that he is not a man of peace, but rather a successor to Yasser Arafat in other ways.”

In response to Abbas’ threat to unilaterally seek UN Security Council approval for statehood, Likud MK Danny Danon urged the government to annex the Jewish settlements of Judea and Samaria.

“A unilateral step should be met with a unilateral step,” Danon said. “Every unilateral declaration by Abu Mazen needs to be answered by the application of sovereignty over the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.”

In his speech before the General Assembly, Abbas angrily denounced the Israeli government for, among other things, "committing genocide in the Gaza Strip" and for "not missing an opportunity to undermine the chances of peace."

"[Israel] has chosen to defy the entire world by launching its war on Gaza, by which its jets and tanks brutally assassinated lives and devastated the homes, schools and dreams of thousands of Palestinian children, women and men and in reality destroying the remaining hopes for peace," the Palestinian leader said.

"This last war against Gaza was a series of absolute war crimes carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world, moment by moment, in a manner that makes it inconceivable that anyone today can claim that they did not realize the magnitude and horror of the crime," Abbas said. "And, it is inconceivable that some are unable to characterize this situation in real terms and that they suffice with simply declaring their support for Israel’s right to self-defense without regard for the fate of the thousands of victims of our people, ignoring a simple fact that we remind them of today: that the life of a Palestinian is as precious as the life of any other human being."

Let the Headlines Speak
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Vatican accuses UN panel of sowing confusion
The Vatican accused a U.N. human rights committee on Friday of sowing confusion and violating its own norms and the church's religious freedom with a report into the Holy See's record on child sexual abuse.  

Woman beheaded at US workplace—police
he 30-year-old man, who has not been charged, stabbed Colleen Hufford, 54, severing her head in Thursday’s attack at Vaughan Foods, Moore Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis said. Lewis said the man then stabbed Traci Johnson, 43, a number of times before being shot by Mark Vaughan, a reserve sheriff’s deputy and the company’s chief operating officer.  

Earthquake Swarm Rattles California's Mammoth Lakes
The quakes have ranged from imperceptible up to 3.8 magnitude — large enough to be felt by people close to the epicenter but too small to cause damage. “This one (swarm) is a bit larger and more energetic than we’ve seen in the past few years,” said David Shelly, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's California Volcano Observatory who conducts research on earthquake swarms.  

Magnitude 5 quake jolts Catanduanes
MANILA, Philippines—A magnitude 5 earthquake struck off Catanduanes at 12:16 a.m. Saturday, the US Geological Survey said.  

Gohmert: Holder enabled Boston Marathon bombings   “I’ve made no bones about it. I felt like he needed to be impeached. He lied to Congress. He’s just a guy that needed to be gone,” said Gohmert, a member of the House Judiciary Committee and a former judge in Texas. “The attorney general is supposed to be the highest-ranking law enforcement officer, not the highest-ranking blocker and tackler for the president  

Tiny Implants Could Give Humans Self-Healing Superpowers
Wolverine, Ghost Rider, the Incredible Hulk — all of these characters have at least one awesome trait in common: the ability to heal themselves. And now, the Pentagon wants to give ordinary people this superhuman capability. A new military-sponsored program aims to develop a tiny device that can be implanted in the body, where it will use electrical impulses to monitor the body's organs, healing these crucial parts when they become infected or injured.  

Only 1 Person Has Been Cured of HIV: New Study Suggests Why
To this date, only one person is thought to have been cured of HIV — the "Berlin patient" Timothy Ray Brown. But no one is exactly sure which aspect of Brown's treatment may have cured him. Brown's HIV was eradicated in 2007 after he underwent a treatment in Germany for his leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells.  

Who Is the Anti-Christ?
Have you ever thought that the anti-Christ may be one of your best friends? How about sitting next to you at a sporting event? Or how about he may be baby-sitting your children or teaching them at school? Did you know that any atheist is anti-Christ? Also any agnostic is also an anti-Christ! While we are at it let's see what the Bible defines as the anti-Christ.  

88 Senators to Kerry: Hand Gaza to the PA
In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry obtained by the website, the 88 senators write, “We must support efforts to enable the Palestinian Authority to exercise real power in Gaza. Hamas has demonstrated conclusively both that it has no interest in peace with Israel and that it has no concern for the well-being of Gaza residents.”  

For Obama, Holder exit leaves void on civil rights issues
In a speech choked with emotion on Thursday, Holder recounted how he had been part of Team Obama since his friend was a "young senator from Illinois" making "an improbable, idealistic effort" to become president.  

Sierra Leone widens Ebola quarantine to three more districts
Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma has widened a quarantine to include another one million people in an attempt to curb the spread of Ebola.  

FAST-GROWNG SUNSPOT
New sunspot AR2175 didn't exist one day ago. Now it stretches more than 100,000 km across the face of the sun with a primary dark core larger than Earth. The fast-growing region has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares.  

First Infantry Division Headquarters ordered to Iraq
The 1st Infantry Division headquarters will deploy to Iraq in the coming weeks as the U.S. expands its war against the Islamic State, officials announced Thursday. The Big Red One, of Fort Riley, Kansas, will be the first division headquarters to go to Iraq since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011.  

Islamic State crisis: '3,000 European jihadists join fight'
The number of Europeans joining Islamist fighters in Syria and Iraq has risen to more than 3,000, the EU's anti-terrorism chief has told the BBC. Gilles de Kerchove also warned that Western air strikes would increase the risk of retaliatory attacks in Europe. US-led forces have launched more than 200 air strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq since August and on Monday began targeting IS in Syria.  

Obama creates vast Pacific Ocean marine reserve
US President Barack Obama has signed a memorandum to expand a vast marine reserve in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument will become the largest network of oceanic protected areas in the world. The memorandum bans commercial fishing, deep-sea mining and other extraction of underwater resources in the area.  

Russia threatens EU states with gas cut-offs
Russian energy minister Alexander Novak has warned that EU states which re-export gas to Ukraine will face cut-offs, with Hungary already stopping its reverse flow. Novak spoke in German daily Handelsblatt on Friday (26 September) morning ahead of talks in Berlin later the same day between the European Commission and Russian and Ukrainian energy officials.  

History Will Not Be Kind To Eric Holder
Attorney General Eric Holder, who has announced that he will step down, wants to be remembered for his record on civil rights. He will be—but not in the way that he means. From the standpoint of civil rights, historians will regard him as a failure.  

California burns -- and there's worse to come
Wildfires are nothing new in California. But in the third year of a historic drought, the tinder-dry western US state is battling near-record numbers of blazes.  

North Korea leader not at rubber-stamp parliament
North Korea's young leader wasn't in his customary seat as the country convened its rubber-stamp parliament Thursday, adding to South Korean media speculation that Kim Jong Un may be ill.  

ISIS Overruns Iraqi Army Base Near Baghdad, Executes 300 Soldiers
Militants from ISIS have overrun an Iraqi military base near Baghdad and executed 300 soldiers, according to a breaking news report from CNN.  

Iran Begs to Be Allowed in From the Cold
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran contended in his speech at the United Nations on Thursday that his country is among the world’s moderates who fight violence and extremism. Tehran, he indicated, will join the West, despite its failings, in fighting against the extremists. But first a nuclear deal must be struck.  

6.2-magnitude quake strikes near Anchorage
Alaskans were shaken up -- but not, it seems, rattled -- by a 6.2-magnitude earthquake and more than a dozen aftershocks that struck in the state

Iraqi PM Says Islamic State Plans Subway Attacks in U.S. and Paris
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Age
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says he has received "credible" intelligence that Islamic State militants plan to attack subway systems in Paris and the United States.

New York: Iraq has received "credible" intelligence that Islamic State militants plan to attack subway systems in Paris and the United States, Iraq's prime minister said on Thursday, but senior U.S. officials said they had no evidence to back up the claim.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he had received the information Thursday morning from militants captured in Iraq and concluded it was credible after asking for further details. The attacks, he said, were plotted from inside Iraq by "networks" of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

"They plan to have attacks in the metros of Paris and the US," Abadi told a small group of US reporters while in New York for the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly. "I asked for more credible information. I asked for names. I asked for details, for cities, you know, dates. And from the details I have received, yes, it looks credible."

Barack Obama meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi during the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. On Thursday, Abadi spoke of a 'credible' terrorist plot to target subways in the US and Paris. Photo: Reuters

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the White House had not confirmed any plan to attack the US and French subway systems. "We have not confirmed such a plot, and would have to review any information from our Iraqi partners before making further determinations," she said.

Two senior US security officials, contacted following the comments from Abadi, said the United States had no information to support the threat.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said authorities had already begun to beef up security at New York City's mass transit sites before Abadi's comments. The New York City Police Department said it was aware of the prime minister's warning and in close contact with the FBI and other agencies to assess the threat.

There is 'credible' information that Islamic State jihadists plan to attack train systems in Paris and the US, according to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Photo: AP

There had been no credible threats made against Washington DC's rail and bus system, Washington Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said in an email.

The United States and France have both launched air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq as part of a US-led campaign to "degrade and destroy" the radical Sunni militant group, which has seized a third of both Iraq and Syria.

Abadi disclosed the intelligence while making a case for Western and Arab countries to join that campaign. "We want to increase the number of willing countries who would support this," he said. "This is not military. This is intelligence. This is security. The terrorists have a massive international campaign. Don't underestimate it."

Air cover ... US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet lands aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the Persian Gulf. Photo: AP

In the past, the United States had received threats that various militant groups were targeting transportation systems but there is no recent information about an imminent plan by Islamic State, one US official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Cuomo said the enhanced security in New York was part of a bi-state initiative announced on Wednesday with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, in response to possible threats by Islamic State militants.

Abadi also said that Iraq did not want to see foreign "boots on the ground," but stressed the value of providing air cover for the country, saying that the Iraqi air force did not have sufficient capability.

He said that Australia was "very interested" in participating, though he did not provide details. He also voiced optimism about a planned British parliament vote on Friday on the matter, saying "they reckon it will be successful."

Earlier on Thursday, France said it would increase security on transport and in public places after a French tourist was killed in Algeria, and said it was ready to support all states that requested its help to fight terror. 

Gohmert: Obamas Praise for Radical Muslim Cleric is Truly Unsettling
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Washington Free Beacon
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Louie Gohmert / AP

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R., Texas) said that it is “truly unsettling” and “utterly appalling” that President Obama went before the United Nations on Wednesday and praised a controversial Muslim cleric who endorsed a fatwa encouraging the murder of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Obama came under scrutiny yesterday after the Washington Free Beacon reported on his commendation of controversial cleric Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, who the president referred to as a moderate Muslim capable of helping to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL or ISIS) extremist ideology.

Critics noted that the cleric endorsed a 2004 fatwa advocating for the killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and has called “for the death of Jews,” according to terrorism analyst Patrick Poole.

Additionally, Bin Bayyah has served as the vice president of a Muslim scholars group that has reportedly endorsed Hamas and that was founded by a radical Muslim Brotherhood leader who has called “for the death of Jews and Americans,” according to multiple reports.

Gohmert, a vocal critic of radical Islam, told the Free Beacon that Obama’s efforts to boost Bin Bayyah and sell him to the world as a moderate cleric are “truly unsettling” and “utterly appalling.”

“It is truly unsettling that our Commander-in-Chief can praise someone with such a radical ideology in the midst of conducting airstrikes against those that hold the same beliefs, then finish his speech at the U.N. with his best impersonation of a determined George W. Bush,” Gohmert told the Free Beacon in a statement.

“Perhaps it is the people he has advising him, but he still has extraordinary difficulty in discerning our friends from our enemies. Case in point, he continues outreach to Iran while their centrifuges continue to spin future death for the U.S. and Israel,” said Gohmert, who serves as vice chair on the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

Gohmert is particularly miffed that Obama gave a nod to Bin Bayyah from the global stage at the U.N. with the world watching.

“The ideology of ISIL or al Qaeda or Boko Haram will wilt and die if it is consistently exposed, confronted, and refuted in the light of day,” Obama said in his remarks.

“Look at the new Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies—Sheikh bin Bayyah described its purpose: ‘We must declare war on war, so the outcome will be peace upon peace,’” Obama said, quoting the controversial cleric.

“It is utterly appalling that the President of the United States would go before the United Nations and praise a radical Muslim cleric,” he said. “President Obama honored Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah by reading a quote from him on the world stage and grouping this cleric with those who are ‘Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies.’”

Given Bin Bayyah’s controversial views and past statement, “this, by no means, sounds like a moderate Muslim leader,” Gohmert said.

When asked to explain Obama’s remarks on Wednesday, a White House official said that the president’s comments speak for themselves and declined to add anything further.

The Obama administration has come under fire multiple times in the past for promoting Bin Bayyah.

He was included in a 2013 meeting at the White House with Obama’s national security team. The State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau (CT) then promoted Bin Bayyah earlier this year on Twitter. The department later deleted the pro-Bin Bayyah tweet and apologized multiple times for promoting the controversial cleric.

French, U.S. Planes Strike Islamic State, Britain to Join Coalition
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsReuters
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

"I'm not going to tell you who I believe it is," Comey told reporters. He said he knew the person's nationality, but declined to give further details.   

(Reuters) - French fighter jets struck Islamic State targets in Iraq on Thursday, and the United States hit them in Syria, as a U.S.-led coalition to fight the militants gained momentum with an announcement that Britain would join.

The French strikes were a prompt answer to the beheading of a French tourist in Algeria by militants, who said the killing was punishment for Paris' decision last week to become the first European country to join the U.S.-led bombing campaign.

In the United States, FBI Director James Comey said Washington had identified the masked Islamic State militant in videos with a knife at the beheading of two American hostages in recent weeks. Those acts helped galvanize Washington's bombing campaign.

A European government source familiar with the investigation said the accent indicated the man was from London and likely from a community of immigrants. U.S. and European officials said the principal investigative work identifying the man was conducted by British government agencies.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, in New York to attend a U.N. meeting, said on Thursday he had credible intelligence that Islamic State networks in Iraq were plotting to attack U.S. and French subway trains.

Senior U.S. officials and French security services said they had no evidence of the specific threat cited by Abadi. But New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said the department boosted its presence on subways and city streets after the Iraqi warning.

City officials added there was no specific, credible threat, and Mayor Bill de Blasio said: "We are convinced New Yorkers are safe."

Officials in Chicago and Washington, D.C., said they knew of no threats to their transit systems.

Some Iraqi officials in Baghdad questioned Abadi's comments. One high-level Iraqi government official told Reuters it appeared to be based on "ancient intelligence".

France said earlier on Thursday it would boost security on transport and in public places after the killing of French tourist Herve Gourdel by Islamic State sympathizers in Algeria.

Britain, the closest U.S. ally in the past decade's wars, announced on Thursday that it too would join air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, after weeks of weighing its options. Prime Minister David Cameron recalled parliament, which is expected to give its approval on Friday.

While Arab countries have joined the coalition, Washington's traditional Western allies had been slow to answer the call from U.S. President Barack Obama. But since Monday, Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands have said they would send planes.

The Western allies have so far agreed to join air strikes only in Iraq, where the government has asked for help, and not in Syria, where strikes are being carried out without formal permission from President Bashar al-Assad. France said on Thursday it did not rule out extending strikes to Syria, too.

Overnight, U.S.-led air strikes in eastern Syria killed 14 Islamic State fighters, according to a monitoring group, while on the ground, Kurdish forces were reported to have pushed back an advance by the Islamists toward the border town of Kobani.

The air raids follow growing alarm in Western and Arab capitals after Islamic State, a Sunni militant group, swept through a swath of Iraq in June, proclaimed a "caliphate" ruling over all Muslims, slaughtered prisoners and ordered Shi'ites and non-Muslims to convert or die.

More than 120 Islamic scholars from around the world, including many of the most senior figures in Sunni Islam, issued an open letter denouncing Islamic State. Challenging the group with theological arguments, they described its interpretation of the faith as "a great wrong and an offense to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world."

"You have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder," said the letter, signed by figures from across the Muslim world from Indonesia to Morocco.

A third night of air raids by the United States and Arab allies targeted Islamic State-controlled oil refineries in three remote locations in eastern Syria to try to cut off a major source of revenue for the al Qaeda offshoot.

The strikes also seem to be intended to hamper Islamic State's ability to operate across the Syria-Iraq frontier.

Obama has vowed to keep up military pressure against the group, which advanced through Kurdish areas of northern Iraq this week despite the air strikes. Some 140,000 refugees have fled to Turkey over the past week, many telling of villages burnt and captives beheaded.

"The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force, so the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death," Obama said at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday.

One danger the U.S.-led campaign faces in Syria is the lack of strong allies on the ground. Washington remains hostile to the Assad government. It wants other Syrian opponents of Assad to step into the breach as Islamic State is pushed back, but such "moderate opposition" groups have had limited success.

One group that has fought hard against Islamic State on the ground in Syria has been the Kurds, who control an area in the north but complain they have been given no support from the West.

On Thursday, two Kurdish officials said Kurdish forces had pushed back the advance by Islamic State fighters toward the border town of Kobani in overnight clashes. Fighting near the town in recent days had prompted the fastest exodus of refugees of the entire three-year-old Syrian civil war.

Islamic State, which launched a fresh offensive to try to capture Kobani more than a week ago, concentrated its fighters south of the town for a push late on Wednesday, but Kurdish YPG forces repelled them, the Kurdish officials said.

Islamic State fighters also remain to the east and west of the town and fighting continues in the south.

Near Damascus, Assad's Syrian army overran rebels in a town on Thursday, strengthening the Syrian leader's grip on territory around the capital.

Assad's forces, backed by the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, have been gradually extending control over a corridor of territory from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast.

Many Syrian activists and rebels have criticized the United States for focusing on striking Islamic State and other militant groups while doing little to bring down Assad.

Iraq's prime minister told reporters that he conveyed to Syria a message from Washington that U.S. strikes would target Islamic State militants rather than Assad's government.

"What they emphasized is that their aim in Syria is not to destabilize Syria, is not to have a threat of Syrian sovereignty, is not to attack the regime in Syria, but rather to diminish the capabilities of Daesh (and other) terrorist organizations," Abadi said, referring to Islamic State.

Commenting on the fight in Iraq against Islamic State militants, Abadi said that in addition to seeking air cover, Iraqi forces were starting to run low on ammunition and needed a steady supply.

While acknowledging U.S. air strikes on Islamic State forces in the north of the country, he said the United States had not helped in the south.

"The onslaught of Daesh we have stopped and we are reversing it," he said. "It is slow, but we have managed with zero support - I can say - with zero support from the Americans or from anybody else," he said.

"Yes, the Americans ... intervened when Arbil was endangered, but there was no intervention whatsoever in the south," he said. "And of course that was painful at the time.

Farah Mohamed Shirdon, Jihadi from Calgary, Resurfaces With Threats of NY Terror Attack
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Vancouver Sun
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Six weeks after he was declared dead, a Canadian in the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham resurfaced on video Thursday, vowing the terrorist group was preparing to bomb New York and fly its flag over the White House.

Interviewed from Iraq by the U.S. website Vice.com, Farah Mohamed Shirdon, a former Calgary movie theatre employee, appeared erratic and became increasingly enraged as he dished out threats and claimed God was on his side.

“God willing, we will make some attacks in New York soon, a lot of brothers are mobilizing there right now in the West, thanks to Allah,” he said. Smiling, he added they were “mobilizing for a brilliant attack, my friend.”

ISIS was conducting beheadings because “you attack one of us, we will attack one of you,” he said, adding, “We will stop when we behead the kuffar

He is one of several Somali-Canadians thought to have joined ISIS, prompting the Canadian Somali Congress’s Western branch to appeal for government help. A Hamilton, Ont. man presumed dead in ISIS was also a Somali-Canadian.

“No one recruited me. Actually no one spoke a single word to me. All I did, I opened the newspaper, I read the Koran. Very easy,” he said. Five days before he left, Canadian authorities interviewed him, he claimed. “All their intelligence workers are imbeciles,” he said, although he then named the FBI before correcting that it was the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The nephew of the former Prime Minister of Somalia, Mr. Shirdon has made grandiose threats before. After arriving in Iraq, he appeared in an ISIS video in which he burned his passport and threatened Canada and the U.S.

The departure of dozens of Canadian extremists to Syria and Iraq has prompted a crackdown by Ottawa, which has begun cancelling their passports, laying criminal charges and tracking them in case they attempt to return to Canada.

The government added ISIS to its list of outlawed terrorist organizations on Wednesday. The move makes it simpler to investigate, prosecute and deport those who have joined the group or who are otherwise supporting it.

Experts Warn: ISIS Threat from 'Immigration Reform'
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Educrats Now Using Fingerprint Scanners to Control What Kids Eat
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsFrontpage Mag
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Washington’s Puyallup School District spent $38,695 on devices that would map the veins in a student’s palm, and then use that data as a school lunch account identifier.

“To hear those words vein recognition program… it’s very invasive to me,” she said.

The district ended up ending the program because of parent backlash.

But as usual Europe is way ahead of us in Orwellian creepiness.

The Express & Star reports students at Redhill School in Stourbridge, England will be fingerprinted in an attempt to reduce lunch lines and “monitor pupils’ diets.”

The system requires pupils to press a finger against a machine which converts the print into biometric data.

This can then be used to identify individual pupils accounts.

“We will also be able to monitor what children are buying to make sure they are eating a healthy diet.”

That’s the endgame obviously. First a ban on kids sharing lunches because of “allergies”. Then total monitoring to be followed by smart trash cans.

And while we’re still talking about kids, for the social planners the classroom is a model of society at large. The school is a miniature society and much of the creepiness we’re seeing today in society at large originated in schools. Which means that the creepiness in today’s schools, paranoia, lockdowns, white privilege education, total monitoring, thought crimes, are coming to society at large.

Denmark to Send Seven F - 16s to Iraq
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

Denmark will send seven F-16 fighter jets to Iraq as part of the U.S. coalition to dislodge Islamic State extremists, Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said on Friday.She told a news conference she received an official request for assistance from the United States on Thursday evening."The government is therefore ready to quickly send seven F-16 fighter jets to the operation," Thorning-Schmidt said.She said she expected the Danish parliament to approve the country's participation next week, and the planes would start operating right away. The planes will serve only over Iraqi airspace, and not over Syria, she said.

British Parliament Approves Air Strikes Against Islamic State in Iraq
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Britain's parliament on Friday voted to approve air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq by 524 votes to 43, paving the way for the Royal Air Force to join US-led military action with immediate effect.

Six Cyprus-based Tornado GR4 fighter-bombers are on standby to take part in initial strikes after Prime Minister David Cameron recalled parliament from recess to back military action following an official request from the Iraqi government.

Berlin Voices Support for Air Strikes on Islamic State in Syria
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

The German government offered clear support on Friday for US-led air strikes against Islamic State militants' bases inside Syria, with an aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel pointing out that Damascus had not made any protest.

Germany looks unlikely so far to join in the attacks by US and Arab forces against IS militants in northern and eastern Syria, though it has now sent weapons, military trainers and equipment to Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State in Iraq.

"The attacks in northern Syria are not about Syria itself or the Syrian government, it is about helping the Iraqi government to defend Iraq against attacks carried out by IS from Syria," said Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert.

"That is the point of this military operation. The Syrian government was advised beforehand and has made no protest," he told a news conference.

Germany is wary of sending forces overseas and polls show there is still widespread dislike of such missions, rooted in a post-war reaction to Nazi militarism. Germany has taken part in peace missions in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Mali, among others, but not the war in Iraq or air raids on Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

Germany has not been asked to join the Syrian operation and is unlikely to do so, its foreign minister has said.

But the government rejected a spate of media reports that Germany's armed forces are ill-prepared even for their limited role in Iraq, after military flights taking trainers and arms to Kurdish fighters in Iraq were delayed by technical problems.

"We are engaged in 17 operations worldwide, from a training mission in Mali to air surveillance with Eurofighters in the Baltics and we carry out these operations daily, round the clock and on weekends," said defense ministry spokesman Ingo Gerhartz.

Assad Steps Up Bombing As West Strikes Militants in Syria
Sep 26th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

US-led forces hit Islamic State bases in eastern Syria on Friday and a monitoring group said the Syrian army had intensified its bombing campaign in the west.

US and Arab forces began bombing Islamic State militants in northern and eastern Syria on Tuesday, prompting concern among Western-backed opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad that the air campaign could play into his hands.

On Friday US Central Command, which has also been bombing bases of the al-Qaida splinter group in Iraq since last month, said it had destroyed more than a dozen Islamic State vehicles in both countries in its latest round of strikes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict through a network of sources, said the Syrian army targeted areas held by a variety of insurgent groups, including Western-backed rebels.

Syrian warplanes used projectiles, including barrel bombs, in Hama, Idlib, Homs and Aleppo provinces and around Damascus, the Observatory said.

Five people were killed when barrel bombs were dropped on al-Rastan city in the Homs province and nine died in a barrel bomb attack east of Aleppo city, it said.