[FRANCE24] Russian divers on Monday found the main body of the military plane that crashed in the Black Sea with 92 people onboard, as bigwigs said technical or pilot error, not terrorism, likely caused the crash.
Following a massive search that continued overnight, Russian divers on Monday afternoon found several fragments of the plane one mile away from the coast of Sochi and about 25 metres under the sea, according to a statement released by the emergency situations ministry.
The discovery of the plane wreckage came shortly after senior Russian officials said pilot error or a technical fault ‐ not terrorism ‐ is likely to be the cause of the plane crash off the coast of Sochi.
All 84 passengers and eight crew members on the Russian military's Tu-154 plane are believed to have died when it crashed shortly after takeoff early Sunday in good weather from the southern Russian city of Sochi. The passengers included dozens of singers in Russia's world-famous military choir, nine Russian journalists and a Russian doctor known for her charity work in war zones.
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The security forces of the northeastern semi-autonomous state of Puntland have arrested hundreds of people in connection with the murder of the region’s military prosecutor.
The prosecutor of Puntland’s military court Abdikarim Hassan Firdiye was killed in Bosasso on Sunday by two men armed with pistols who escaped on foot from the scene.
The security officers have launched an operation in parts of the city, and netted the suspects who are now held at a police custody in Bosasso for interrogation.
Al-Shabab has claimed the responsibility for the killing of the military prosecutor of Puntland, whose murder was the latest in string of assassinations in the coastal town in two weeks.
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Hundreds of people gathered outside Tunisia's parliament to protest against letting jihadists who fought overseas to return to the country. Protesters in Tunis chanted 'no to freedom for terrorist groups' while others held placards saying 'lock the door to terrorism' and 'no tolerance, no return'.
Organisers said 1,500 people attended the rally.
It was held on the same day authorities said they had tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! three alleged jihadists connected to the suspected Berlin Christmas market attacker, Tunisian Anis Amri.
Protestors slammed Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Islamist Ennahda party, who has in the past supported the idea of allowing Tunisian jihadists who 'repent' and renounce violence to return home.
President Beji Caid Essebsi said earlier this month that Tunisia would refuse to pardon Tunisians who fight for jihadist organizations.
'Many of them want to return, and we can't prevent a Tunisian from returning to his country,' he said. 'But we will be vigilant.'
Following a storm of criticism in the press and on social media, on December 15 he told Tunisian local television that 'we will not be indulgent with the terrorists'.
More than 5,000 Tunisians are fighting for jihadist groups abroad, mainly in Iraq, Syria or neighbouring Libya, according to a UN working group on mercenaries.
On Friday evening, the country's Interior Minister Hedi Majdoub told parliament 800 Tunisian nationals who had fought for bully boy groups abroad had since returned to the country.
Since its 2011 revolution Tunisia has faced repeated jihadist attacks, killing more than 100 soldiers and coppers, as well as about 20 civilians and 59 foreign tourists, according to official figures.
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[IsraelTimes] Kingdom’s interior ministry says 70% have joined Islamic State in Syria, with others in Yemen, Afganistan, Pakistain, Iraq.
More than 2,000 Saudis are fighting abroad with jihadist groups, with over 70 percent of them in Syria, the kingdom’s interior ministry was reported as saying Monday.
"The number of Saudis proven to be in conflict areas is 2,093," interior ministry front man General Mansour al-Turki told daily newspaper al-Hayat.
He said that 1,540 of them were in Syria, where jihadists have flocked since the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group seized control of vast areas in mid-2014.
Another 147 were in Yemen, which is the base of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... , considered by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of the global terror network.
Another 31 were believed to be in Afghanistan or Pakistain, Turki said.
Only five were believed to be in neighboring Iraq, where IS also seized significant territory in 2014.
Turki said 73 Saudis had also been detained abroad "on charges related to acts of terrorism."
[Al Jazeera] Al Jazeera Media Network has denied "fabricated charges" against its news producer who was jugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! in Egypt on Friday.
The Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... -based network on Sunday demanded Mahmoud Hussein's immediate release, saying that he was in Egypt on holiday and not for work.
"Al Jazeera deems all accusations against Hussein, including those which might be added later to the current allegations, to be a result of practices which violate international norms and conventions, and which, unfortunately, prevail in Egypt as exposed by human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... organizations," the network said in a statement.
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A Moroccan security official says that his country's intelligence service warned Germany twice about the risk posed by Anis Amri, the radical Muslim who slaughtered 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin earlier this month.
The official, who spoke to Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah, says that the Germans received two written warnings, one on September 19 and the other on October 1, about Amri's radical Islamic beliefs. He explains:
Correspondence from the Moroccan security agencies had a clear warning about the Tunisian man's desire to carry out a terrorist act.
Earlier this month, Dutch populist Geert Wilders was criticized because he told Angela Merkel in a tweet that she had blood on her hands.
We now know that he was 100% correct. Merkel and the entire German government do have blood on their hands. Not only because they had an open-borders policy that allowed terrorists like Amri to get in, but also because they sat on their hands when they were warned about specific individuals with specific plans.
If Merkel had any sense of honor, she'd resign. Instead, she's eyeing yet another term as German chancellor. Shameful. Leftists have no shame. They will sell you down the river while getting caught and then tell you it is for your own good.
#2
Lots of people out there selling traditional rugelach. Due to my secret ingredients, mine is the very best. Therefore you should buy mine and iggy everyone else's.
#4
Why should they pay anymore attention to warnings about a threat than the FBI to the Boston bombers?
Came here to say that. It looks (semi) obvious to me that higher ups in both countries were told to look the other way & do nothing, lest someone gets called 'racist' or insensitive.
#7
"Germany continues to have a reputation for effective and efficient government administration, despite the fact all the evidence suggests Germany is now run by a collection of thumbless boobs. As someone on Sailer’s site noted, this is not a new thing. Germany has been operating like a drunk on holiday for quite some time. Angela Merkel’s decision to import a million violent low-IQ barbarians is just the most egregious example of the reckless disregard for their duties by the German rulers and the indifference of the German people to it.
It’s not just the Germans, either. The French have been tolerating the importation of useless savages from North Africa for decades. Paris is now a small tourist area surrounded by Bronze Age cavemen. Every election, the French people come out and vote for the guy promising to murder more French citizens, because the alternative risks being called a racist and that’s worse than death. The fact that millions of otherwise sensible people can vote in favor of suicide like this speaks to the power of belief."
[AlAhram] Illegal deportations of migrants colonists seeking to reach western Europe along the so-called Balkans route have been on the rise, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) warned Monday.
Some 1,000 people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa "were expelled in November alone along the Balkans route... more than before", the UNHCR spokeswoman in Serbia, Mirjana Milenkovska, told AFP.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants colonists took the Balkans route through Macedonia and Serbia, Croatia and Hungary as they tried to reach western Europe from Greece before it was largely shut down in March.
Non-governmental human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. organizations and activists also warned that an increasing number of legally-registered migrants colonists were being "illegally deported" from Serbia to Bulgaria and Macedonia.
On December 17 "a seven-member Syrian family, including a two-year old child, 16-year old girl and two women almost froze after being left in a forest in -11 Celsius degrees (12.2 Fahrenheit) to walk towards Bulgaria some one kilometre (half a mile) away," an activist said.
"The family was registered in Belgrade and on its way to a refugee centre, when they were taken off the bus by a police or army unit that tore their documents," said Gordan Paunovic of the Info Park group that provides help to refugees.
They were eventually rescued by a regular police officer from a nearby town who was alerted by activists, Paunovic said.
The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) that represents the family said that the bus driver confirmed the information.
Serbian Defence Minister Zoran Djordjevic denied army involvement in the incident.
Some 7,000 migrants colonists are currently in Serbia. Most are lodged in 13 official reception centres, while some 1,000 are sleeping rough in downtown Belgrade, Milenkovska said.
Some 109 people were reportedly deported in November to Macedonia from Serbia's border migrant transit centre at Presevo.
"They all came back to Belgrade and told us the same story: they were awakened at 4 am, put in a police van and than driven to a field in the middle of a forest on the border with Macedonia," Paunovic said.
Members of Macedonian Youth Lawyers Association (MYLA), who provide legal help to migrants colonists in Macedonia, also "have recorded cases of persons who have been pushed back to Macedonia, although they had asylum papers from Serbia."
#3
Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience and the universal, will of man as a historic entity
-Mussolini
The UN sees itself as the ultimate state, sovereign over all. This, like the ICANN piece, will be the fuel for the next WW N explosion.
[FRANCE24] Surveillance footage confirms that Anis Amri, the suspected Berlin truck attacker bumped off by Italian police, transited through the French city of Lyon by train, a source close to the investigation said on Monday.
"A man corresponding to the killer was spotted on the afternoon of Thursday, December 22, on a platform at the (Lyon-Part-Dieu) station wearing a cap and backpack," the source said, confirming earlier media reports. "He appears alone in these images."
The source said Sherlocks are still trying to determine how Amri, 24, was able to leave the German capital and pass through La Belle France, eventually winding up in Italia.
He was the focus of a four-day Europe-wide manhunt before being rubbed out by police in Milan after firing at officers.
Tracking Amri and the path of the truck was thought to have been complicated by the relative scarcity of security cameras in public places in Germany. Europe's lack of border controls also posed challenges to apprehending him.
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#1
The source said investigators are still trying to determine how Amri, 24, was able to leave the German capital
One still-unasked question is whether Amri was in Berlin in the first place.
[EXPRESS.CO.UK] A SOMALIAN asylum seeker has been detained in hospital after the alleged rape of a woman and an attempted robbery of another in Austria.
The 19-year-old man is under police supervision after being taken for medical care in the city of Klagenfurt following the attack on Christmas eve.
It has been reported locally the man attempted to rape a 23-year-old woman in a bar but she was able to fight off the attacker.
However, he is alleged to have attempted to steal another 22-year-old woman's wallet after going into a female toilet in the bar following the first attack. According to reports the man grabbed the second victim by the throat after she caught him trying to steal her wallet.
He is said to have fled the bar and was later arrested in the Schillerpark of Klagenfurt, sixth-largest city in the country.
He had collapsed after the arrest and was put into an induced coma.
Police were unable to interrogate the individual accused of the attack until this morning and have yet to press charges, it has been claimed. Local reports suggest the man told police that he could not remember the incident.
Both of the victims have again been questioned by the police this afternoon.
However, police do not expect make a decision on charges until Tuesday morning.
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#1
He had collapsed after the arrest and was put into an induced coma
[DAWN] The Ministry of Interior on Monday released a progress report on the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) in 2016.
In a report issued by the ministry, it conceded that NAP was unable to effectively block financial support for gunnies and terrorist organizations.
The report had been authorised by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, who faces increasing criticism for the government's inaction in curbing militancy in the country.
Also Read: Nisar responds to critics: 'I told PM Nawaz I can resign but he declined'
The report further stated that NAP had been unable to stop the re-emergence of 'proscribed organizations' under new names.
It further added that progress has been slow in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... and that 'political reconciliation' with all the stakeholders in the province has yet to be achieved.
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... the report noted that terrorism in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... decreased by 80 per cent, whereas a significant decrease was also seen in incidents of robberies, murders and murder in the city.
A recent report issued by a judicial commission comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa of the Supreme Court had criticised the interior minister for meeting with the heads of some banned groups and 'acceding' to their demands.
After the commission's report was made public, Nisar had addressed a presser and said that he has been "bashed" about his political and personal conduct and that he will tackle that criticism in the coming days.
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India successfully test-fired its longest range nuclear-capable missile, confirming its status in the select group of nations with weapons that can travel from one continent to another.
Agni-V, with a range of more than 5,000 kilometers (3,107 miles), completed its final firing test at the Defence Research and Development Organization’s range on Dr. Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of the eastern state of Odisha on Monday.
"This was the fourth test of Agni-5 missile and the second one from a canister on a Road Mobile Launcher," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. "All the four missions have been successful."
India’s president, Pranab Mukherjee, confirmed the launch with a tweet. "Congratulations DRDO for successfully test firing Agni V. It will enhance our strategic and deterrence capabilities." he wrote. Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon followed with his own tweet: "It will add tremendous strength to our strategic defense."
India’s space and missile programs, along with economic growth of more than 7 percent and a bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, is part of the country’s efforts to build up its defense capabilities and establish itself as a world power. India’s current range of missiles are mostly intended for confrontation with neighboring rivals China and Pakistan.
The locally-developed Agni-V is capable of reaching as far as Beijing, IANS reported in July. India joined a group including the U.S., Russia, China, France and the U.K that have intercontinental ballistic missiles when it first test-fired Agni-V in 2012.
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#1
"The locally-developed Agni-V is capable of reaching as far as Beijing, IANS reported in July."
[RUDAW.NET] Once a thriving community among Iraq's myriad of ancient religious groups, the country's Sabaean population is now facing challenges unmatched in its long and difficult history.
In the 1970s and 80s as Iraq went through a profound economic boom, despite the occasional bloody wars of the time, the Sabaeans, like most other minority groups, were still a relatively integrated community with nearly 10,000 families, the majority of whom lived in Baghdad, Nineveh Plains and Kirkuk.
Ironically, the overthrow of Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, whose brutal reign often resulted in systematic suppression of the Kurds and the Shiites, was paradoxically detrimental for the survival of religious minority groups such as the Sabaeans, the Shabaks and to some extents the Yezidis.
Many of these groups, some of which have been in Iraq even before the country converted to Islam in the 7th century, were assaulted almost immediately by the dominant religious groups after Iraq plunged into a bloody conflict following former regimes' ouster.
Decades later, these groups have seen their number decline dramatically and their communities increasingly dissolved and fragmented. The already strained conditions worsened when the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... bandidosmurderous Moslems rose to power in areas where the Sabaeans and other such religious groups were residing.
"When the ISIS came, things started to change more rapidly for the Sabaean people. Many chose to migrate. Many still want to migrate. There are poor security conditions and there are no jobs for us, especially for our young people," Sabaean public figure, Loai Abdulrazaq told Rudaw.
Abdulrazaq was referring to the Sabaean community in Kirkuk which is now smaller than 50 families. He said they had been more than 200 families only a few years ago.
Abdulrazaq who sees a similar pattern in other areas of the country with Sabaean population, says the ongoing migration could definitely put a tragic end to the history of his people in Iraq.
The rapid decline of Sabaean population in the country has become a theme for the university students in Kirkuk who have been assigned to make scientific research into the cause of their migration.
Iezaz Abbas, who studies at the department for religious studies in Kirkuk told Rudaw she and her fellow students had decided to explore the Sabaean faith and then give an explanation as to why so many of them have decided to migrate despite the relative democracy that the Iraqi constitution has guaranteed.
The Sabaeans along with the Jews and the Christians have been mentioned in the Koran as "the People of the Book" who share the same god with the Moslems and are seen as "believers."
Some scholars believe the Sabaeans have converted to Islam but modern researches have tried to challenge that.
Abdulrazaq says they have urged the Iraqi parliament to empower the Sabaeans by guaranteeing them a seat in the Iraqi parliament and other local legislative bodies.
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[RT] Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has lambasted the upcoming Middle East peace conference in Paris, labeling it a "scheme" designed to hurt Israel’s reputation and likening it to the infamous trial of French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus.
Speaking in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on Monday, Lieberman denounced the plans unveiled by the French foreign minister on Thursday to convene some 70 countries in Paris on January 15 for a peace conference devoted to the settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Lieberman, who has repeatedly made headlines with his controversial statements, compared the conference to the historic trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a French artillery officer of Jewish heritage.
"There is only one difference between what they are planning in Paris [and the Dreyfus affair], last time there was only one Jew on the stand and now all of the people of Israel and the entire state of Israel," Lieberman said, Haaretz reported.
Dreyfus was convicted of treason in 1894 and stood a set of trials which split French society until he was completely cleared of all charges and reinstated in the army in 1906. His trial and conviction has long been seen as a symbol of injustice and anti-Semitiс views held by part of the public and the French media at the time.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Pro-opposition source Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) stated that the residents of Jarablus have been protesting in demand that Turkish-backed Euphrates Shield jihadists leave the city.
Tensions have spiraled after a fighter from Faylaq al-Sham (Sham Legion) killed a civilian and maimed his child.
"Tension still prevails in Jarabulus city in the northeast of Aleppo province at the western banks of Euphrates River, which is controlled by the "Euphrates Shield" forces since the 24th of August 2016. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights was aware that the tension came after a fighter of the rebel and Islamic factions of the "Euphrates Shield" operation backed by Turkish forces and warplanes killed a young man in Jarabulus city. An altercation occurred between the young man and the fighter, and that is when the fighter shot, which killed the young man and maimed one of his children."
The SOHR statement said there had been demonstrations on 24 and 25 December with people burning tyres and demanding that the fighters leave the city and hand over administration to civil committees and local councils.
It was reported that the protestors called for the local factions to immediately leave the city; the prevention of any fighter from entering into the city while carrying arms and wearing uniform; the local court and the civil council handling the regulation of affairs in the city instead of the local factions; the leadership of the Euphrates Shield should issue order to the factions to leave the city.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[FRANCE24] Surveillance footage confirms that Anis Amri, the suspected Berlin truck attacker 
India successfully test-fired its longest range nuclear-capable missile, confirming its status in the select group of nations with weapons that can travel from one continent to another.
