• Oregon militia member killed, others arrested after standoff with police

    Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, 55, one of the armed antigovernment protesters occupying a remote federal facility in eastern Oregon, has been killed in a shootout with the FBI and state police. The group’s leader, Nevada rancher Ammon Bundy, and five other men were arrested. Those arrested were charged with conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation, or threats.

  • It is 3 minutes to midnight -- still

    The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists yesterday announced that the minute hand of the Bulletin’s closely watched Doomsday Clock will remain at three minutes to midnight, since recent progress in the Iran nuclear agreement and the Paris climate accord “constitute only small bright spots in a darker world situation full of potential for catastrophe.” The Bulletin’s panel of security experts said that “Three minutes (to midnight) is too close. Far too close…” – but that this reflects “world leaders continue to fail to focus their efforts and the world’s attention on reducing the extreme danger posed by nuclear weapons and climate change. When we call these dangers existential, that is exactly what we mean: They threaten the very existence of civilization and therefore should be the first order of business for leaders who care about their constituents and their countries.”

  • Syrian children conscripted into combat, dying on battlefields: UNICEF

    Children under 15 conscripted into combat roles with others killed or maimed in attacks that have destroyed thousands of schools, the UN said. The Middle East regional director of UNICEF also said that water was being used as a weapon of war. Last summer, the Assad regime cut the water supply to the 2.1 million people of Aleppo more than forty times in an effort to weaken the rebel-supporting Sunni population of the city. The practice had just started again.

  • Scholar goes to prison to study religious radicalization

    University of Calgary postdoctoral scholar Ryan Williams never imagined his religious studies degrees would one day lead him to jail. But it turns out prisons provide an important site for learning about the gravest concerns around radicalization and how society can better respond. Williams and two colleagues spent 260 days in two maximum security institutions in the United Kingdom and conducted sixty interviews with staff and 100 with prisoners — some of them convicted for terrorism – better to understand the differences between prison environments that support human growth and those that damage well-being and character. Williams’s studies on prisoners convicted of terrorism open new perspectives on security, marginalization, and society.

  • French police thwarted another Paris terror attack: Interior minister

    France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Islamic terrorists planned to attack another concert in Paris and carry out a mass killing in the city streets. Cazeneuve revealed the information while defending the government’s decision to continue for there more months the state of emergency imposed after the 13 November attacks.

  • Europol bolsters EU’s counterterrorism capabilities

    Europe is currently facing the most significant terrorist threat in over ten years. The Paris attacks on 13 November 2015 indicate a shift toward a clear international dimension of Islamic State to carry out special forces-style attacks in the international environment. This and the growing number of foreign fighters are posing new challenges for EU Member States. Europol says that more attacks in the EU may happen in the future. Therefore, there is a great need within the European Union to strengthen our response to terror, to suspected terrorist networks and foreign fighters, and have an improved strategic understanding of threats.

  • ISIS should be kicked off the open Web: Google official

    Jared Cohen, director at Google Ideas and an advisor to the heads of parent company Alphabet Google, said ISIS should be kicked off the open Web. He noted that the Islamist group is always going to be in a position to use some aspects of the Internet, such as anonymized browsing through Tor and the uncatalogued dark Web, but it should be chased away from the open Web.

  • Young women’s warning to other women: Don’t be fooled by ISIS

    A young woman who converted to Islam after being drawn to ISIS on social media has publicly warned other girls about how the jihadist group uses social media to reach vulnerable individuals such as herself. Her mother called the national hotline and the French police was able to intervene before the two women left for Syria. The young woman has since joined other youngest girls in France’s deradicalization program.

  • FBI investigates Kent State professor for ISIS connection

    Julio Pino, an associate history professor at Kent State University, is currently under FBI and DHS investigation, which includes interviews with faculty members and students. Informed sources say that Pino has allegedly tried to recruit students to join ISIS.

  • Kremlin behind London killing of Putin critic: Inquiry commission

    A public commission looking into the 2006 murder in London of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent who turned into a vociferous critic of Vladimir Putin, has concluded that his poisoning by radioactive materials was ordered by the Kremlin. Russian agents who met with him in November 2006 dropped a small amount of Polonium-210 into the cup of green tea he was drinking. He died three weeks later.

  • UN urges France to protect fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism

    The current state of emergency in France and the law on surveillance of electronic communications impose excessive and disproportionate restrictions on fundamental freedoms, a group of United Nations human rights experts warned yesterday. In a list of concerns shared with the French government, the independent experts stressed the lack of clarity and precision of several provisions of the state of emergency and surveillance laws, related to the nature and scope of restrictions to the legitimate exercise of right to freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association and the right to privacy.

  • Danish town requires public institutions to serve pork

    A small Danish town has passed an ordinance making requiring public institutions to serve pork products. The ordinance was passed against an intensifying conflict over food products in Denmark – in what has been dubbed the “meatball war.” Randers City Council in central Denmark announced it wanted to ensure public institutions, including nurseries, provide “Danish food culture as a central part of the offering — including serving pork on an equal footing with other foods.”

  • ISIS threatens India’s prime minister with death over beef consumption

    ISIS has sent a death threat to India’s prime minister Narenda Modi, over his party’s support for a ban on eating beef. The warning was issued by the Islamist group after Modi announced his support for restrictions on the slaughter and consumption of cows in some Indian states. Hinduism, the dominant religion in India, considers cows sacred and objects to the consumption of beef.

  • Iraq: Staggering death toll, sexual enslavement, killing of child soldiers: UN report

    A UN report released earlier today details the severe and extensive impact on civilians of the ongoing conflict in Iraq, with at least 18,802 civilians killed and another 36,245 wounded between 1 January 2014 and 31 October 2015. Another 3.2 million people have become internally displaced since January 2014, including more than a million children of school age. ISIS is holding estimated 3,500 slaves in Iraq. ISIS has abducted between 800 and 900 children in Mosul for military training children who refused to fight are killed.

  • Cameron supports bans on Muslim face veils

    Prime Minister David Cameron said Muslim women can be banned from wearing veils in schools, courts, and other British institutions. Cameron said he will give his backing to public authorities which put in place “proper and sensible” rules to ban women from wearing face veils in comments which will reignite debates. Camron made his views known as his government is set to announce a series of measures aimed at stop British Muslims becoming radicalized.