• Assad regime has committed crimes against humanity, war crimes, acts of “extermination”: UN

    In a report issued earlier today (Monday), the UN Human Rights Council has accused the regime of President Bashar al-Assad of actions which amount to “extermination.” “The government has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, and other inhuman acts,” the UN report says. “Based on the same conduct, war crimes have also been committed.”

  • Doubts cast on Continuity IRA's claims of responsibility for Friday’s gang member shooting

    Irish security sources have expressed their doubts over a claim by the Continuity IRA that it had carried out the attack on a boxing weigh-in at a Dublin hotel on Friday. Gang member David Byrne was shot dead and two others were injured in the carefully planned attack at the Regency hotel. The attack was carried out by six gunmen, one dressed as a woman.

  • Battle casualties, desertions reduce ISIS ranks by 20%: U.S.

    A U.S. intelligence report, cited yesterday by a White House spokesman, says that the number of ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq has fallen from about 31,000 to 25,000. Senior U.S. officials point to battlefield casualties and desertions as the main reasons for the roughly 20 percent decline, adding that the intelligence report offers evidence that the U.S.-led campaign, which relies mostly on air attacks on ISIS targets, was working.

  • F-15s to protect skies over Super Bowl 50

    U.S. Air Force planes will be protecting the skies over the Super Bowl this weekend. Civil Air Patrol National Commander Maj. Gen. Joe Vazquez said F-15 Eagles from the Air National Guard will be on the ready to escort any unidentified aircraft from the area.

  • Saudi Arabia to send ground troops to Syria

    Saudi Arabia said it was ready to send ground troops to Syria to fight ISIS. Saudi sources added that thousands of Saudi Special Forces could be deployed, probably in coordination with Turkey. Saudi gains in the war against pro-Iranian rebels in Yemen have freed Saudi resources to be directed to Syria, and the fact that Russia and the Assad regime focus their military effort on fighting the moderate rebels means that these rebels need more outside help to withstand the pressure both from ISIS and the Syrian regime and its allies.

  • Two Israeli teenagers receive long sentences for murdering Palestinian boy

    Two Israeli teenagers were sentenced to long jail terms for kidnapped the Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir in 2014, and burning him to death. The older of the two, aged 17, was sentenced to life in prison, while the other teenager, a 16-year old, was sentenced to twenty-one years. The 16-year-old Abu Khdeir was grabbed off the street and beaten. He was then taken to a forest outside Jerusalem, and was set afire while he was still alive.

  • U.K. regulators to investigate political broadcast critical of Turkey, Muslims

    OFCOM, the U.K. communication regulator, said it was considering more than thirty complaints about a political broadcast by UKIP, the Euro-skeptic, anti-immigration populist party. OFCOM said that UKIP’s Wednesday night broadcast on ITV and the BBC may have crossed the line in giving racial offense, promoting Islamophobia, and engendering bias toward Turkey.

  • Bin Laden’s 9/11 plot “inspired” by EgyptAir flight 990 crash: Al-Qaeda

    Osama bin Laden planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks after being “inspired” by a chance discussion about a plane crash into the Atlantic Ocean. An al-Qaeda publication claims that bin-Lade, discussing EgyptAir Flight 990 — which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean during its journey from Los Angeles to Cairo, killing all 217 people on board – asked: “Why didn’t he crash it into a building?”

  • U.K.’s anti-radicalization program “sowing mistrust and fear” in Muslim communities: Watchdog

    David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of the U.K.. terrorism laws, said that the government’s flagship anti-radicalization program, Prevent, should be reviewed because it is sowing mistrust and fear in the Muslim community. Anderson said that the program, particularly its requirement that schools spot and report signs of radicalization in students, has become a “significant source of grievance” among British Muslims, encouraging “mistrust to spread and to fester.”

  • Florida declares state of emergency in four counties with Zika virus

    Florida Governor Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency in four counties where nine residents have been diagnosed with the Zika virus. Miami-Dade in south Florida, Hillsborough in Tampa Bay, Lee County in southwest Florida, and Santa Rosa County in Florida Panhandle have all been affected under the executive order. Health officials believe, however, that the residents became sick outside the United States.

  • Britain: Russia’s goal in Syria is to carve out Alawite mini-state for Assad

    Philip Hammond, Britain’s foreign minister, has said that Russia’s real goal in Syria was to carve out an Alawite mini-state in Syria for its ally President Bashar al-Assad. Hammond said this was the reason why Russia’s massive bombing raids have targeted the Syrian opposition forces instead of fighting ISIS. Hammond’s comments offered a rare insight into the Western assessment of the Kremlin’s objectives for Syria.

  • Iran nuclear deal: how to ensure compliance?

    The U.S. and European countries lifted nuclear-related sanctions against Iran on 16 January as part of a deal in which the country agreed to limit its nuclear activities and accept a new system of international inspections. The issue now is how the international community can be confident that Iran is not violating the deal. Iran agreed never to develop nuclear weapons when it signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968. There’s no ironclad method to prevent Iran from breaking its promise and developing nuclear weapons, but this new agreement builds in a number of strong protections. In conjunction with U.S. and allied intelligence capabilities, these rules mean even a sophisticated and carefully executed secret plan would carry a high risk of detection.Looking at the deal as a whole, Iran’s best strategy for acquiring nuclear weapons would simply be to wait for restrictions on its declared enrichment program to be lifted. Assuming that the deal does not fall apart sooner, most of those provisions are scheduled to expire in 2030. In the meantime, the deal helps make a nuclear-armed Iran a less immediate prospect.

  • Calls for banning Muslims from entering U.S. impractical, harmful: Expert

    Duke sociologist Christopher Bail, who studies how anti-Muslim organizations use social media, says that calls to ban immigration of Muslims to the United States are missing two important points. First, there is no conceivable mechanism whereby the United States could identify Muslims — short of visual cues such as headdress or religious garb, which are not worn by most Muslims. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it is surprising that people think that groups such as ISIS could not disguise terrorists they want to send to the United States as non-Muslims.

  • DEA, European authorities uncover massive Hezbollah drug, money-laundering operation

    The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) yesterday announced what the agency described as a “significant enforcement activity,” including arrests targeting Lebanese Hezbollah’s External Security Organization Business Affairs Component (BAC), which is involved in international criminal activities such as drug trafficking and drug proceeds money laundering. These proceeds are used to purchase weapons for Hezbollah for its activities in Syria.

  • Aussie stationery chain pulls world globe which names Palestine, omits Israel

    The Australian stationery chain Typo has stumbled into one of the world’s most contentious issues – and had to pull a line of globes which named Palestine but omitted the label “Israel.” Israel’s name was not omitted altogether: The globe was designed so that Israel and twelve other small countries were represented by a number on the map, corresponding to a number in a legend at the base of the globe. The globe sparked charges of anti-Semitism, but the company’s decision to halt production of the globes has led to boycott threats by Palestine advocates.