Search-and-rescue operations are under way off the coast of Hawaii after two Marine CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters on a nighttime training mission collided, with six people aboard each aircraft.
TEL AVIV, Jerusalem — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas this weekend at his headquarters in Ramallah, and declared that Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is not a “terrorist.” Carter said that he would not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because it was a “waste of time,” and that Meshaal not only wanted a “peace process,” but would commit to recognizing Israel as part of a deal brokered by Saudi Arabia.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Secretary of State John Kerry appeared on Israeli television over the weekend, telling seven-million-plus Israelis that critics of the emerging Iran deal were guilty of “hysteria.” Israel, which sits a short missile flight away from potentially nuclear-armed Iranian warheads, and which has seen Iranian soldiers along its borders with Syria and Lebanon, has loudly protested the negotiations that the Obama administration has pursued with the Iranian regime.
Hundreds of captive Yazidis have been shot and killed by Islamic State jihadis near Mosul, Iraq, according to sources from Yazidi and Iraqi officials, and local news outlets.
Vietnam buys cruise missiles from Russia to threaten China; China accuses Vietnam of ‘double-dealing’ with Russia, US; Russia and Vietnam agree to mutual defense cooperation pact to counter China; US requests access to Philippines military bases
Saudi Arabia is still rich, but they are burning through their foreign reserve cash at a record pace due to lower oil prices and an unwillingness to cut the domestic spending that ensures the survival of the royal family. With the nation hemorrhaging cash, Saudi Arabia’s total foreign reserves fell by 5 percent, or $36 billion in just the last two months.
In a startling new interview, a 3-star general and former head of Communist Romania’s secret police who defected to the United States in 1978, claims that the Theology of Liberation was the creation of the KGB, who exported it to Latin America as a way of introducing Marxism into the continent.
Reuters reports that a demonstration against alleged police brutality and racism by Ethiopian immigrants turned violent in Jerusalem on Thursday, leading to at least 13 injuries. Two police officers and five protesters were hurt seriously enough to require hospital attention.
China has passed a new law making it illegal for anyone other than the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) to give weather forecasts.
It looks as if a jihad bombing attack has been thwarted in Germany, where CNN reports the authorities arrested a “radicalized” couple who were evidently planning to set off home-made explosives at a bicycle race near Frankfurt.
The Saudi-led air campaign and escalating battles on the ground in Yemen have left many Yemenis without access to food and fuel needed to power water pumps and generators for hospitals, reports The New York Times (NYT).
Predominantly Sunni Turkey and Shia powerhouse Iran have decided to join forces towards finding a peaceful solution to the chaos in Yemen, reports Turkey’s pro-government Daily Sabah, quoting the Iranian envoy to Turkey.
In a meeting with Christian laypeople Thursday, Pope Francis explained a confusing schedule mix-up by appealing to his fallibility in daily activities.
A spokesman for U.S. Central Command (Centcom), which oversees American-led airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), told reporters that that the jihadist group was on the defensive and losing territory in Iraq.
The Times of India relates an awkward mistake in Pakistan’s much-needed, and generally much-appreciated, relief assistance to survivors of the earthquake in Nepal: “According to media reports, the food items in relief aid sent by Pakistan to Nepal included beef content (beef masala) in the food packets. Eating beef is prohibited in Hindu religion. Nepal is a majority-Hindu nation.”
Malala Yousafzai was just 15 years old when a gang of thugs boarded her school bus and shot her in the head in 2012. Her “crime” involved crusading for the education of young girls living under Taliban oppression. After a trial shrouded in secrecy, it appears that a Pakistani court has dealt life sentences against ten men involved in the attack.
Great Britain has revealed to a United Nations sanctions committee that Iran is attempting to purchase nuclear material through two “blacklisted” companies in direct violation of international sanctions, according to a Reuters report.
South African law enforcement has arrested 198 illegal immigrants in a raid in Johannesburg, following weeks of violent attacks on known foreigners and foreigner-owned small businesses by South African natives for unspecified “criminal activity.” The number of those arrested in one night is about 100 less than the total of those arrested for participating in riots and attacks that have taken the lives of seven and caused an international firestorm against the South African government.
Afshin Ellian has a thing or two to say about terrorism.
He also has a few things to say about Islam – specifically political Islam – but many don’t particularly like to hear it. In fact, the threats against his life from radical Muslims, particularly in the Netherlands, where the Iranian dissident now lives, have become so frequent that at least one bodyguard accompanies him anywhere he goes.
The repercussions from Peter Schweizer’s bombshell book Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich are reaching far beyond the shores of the United States.
Israel, a country of only 8 million people, has the second largest foreign volunteer force (behind India) in assisting Nepalese victims of Saturday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) delegation of over 250 doctors and humanitarian workers touched down in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, on Tuesday to provide treatment for those injured by the deadly quake.
A group of North Korean diplomats nearly prevented the conclusion of a United Nations panel on human rights in the rogue nation Thursday, as one man refused to stop talking over dissidents giving witness to the horrors of the Kim Jong-Un regime until security was called to remove him.
When Baltimore broke out in riots this week, the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) once again took advantage of the turmoil to spread its propaganda on social media.
The PEN award to the survivors of the Charlie Hebdo massacre has drawn some very distinguished fire.
The Nigerian war against jihadist terror group Boko Haram now has two clear fronts: the Sambisa forest, a northeastern enclave said to be the last stronghold of the group; and Lake Chad, whose islands are becoming increasingly easy targets for Boko Haram to hit.
A century of free speech in New York’s most public square — the streets, the buses, the subways — came to a screeching halt last Wednesday when the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) voted to ban all issue and political advertising, solely in order to silence me.
