Brutal murder of 30 civilians by ISIS in the Syrian village of Al-Mabujeh

#ISIS #jihadists #Syria #Idlib #Raqqa It was a brutal murder of at least 30 civilians by the ISIS militants in the regime-held village of al-Mabujeh in the central Syrian province of Hama. The Sunni-extremist attackers did not spare even the children and resorted to burning, beheading, and firing on them.
This has been confirmed by Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 31 March 2015.

The attack happened in the morning when the ISIS militants launched a massive offensive in the area, beginning near the Youth Housing Camp. The time was around 2.30am and multiple checkpoints were targeted before the jihadis managed to seize control of the National Defense Force positions at around 6.45am.
Syrian government forces had conducted airstrikes and fired surface-to-surface missiles on the rebel-held city of Idlib, killing at least 14. It is believed that the attack in al-Mabujeh was a fallout of that because the militants probably fear that the government could retake the city that it had lost on Saturday.
Idlib has a population of around 165,000 people and it was the second provincial capital to fall to the opposition after Raqqa, which is now in the hands of the Islamic State group.

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Another Bangladesh blogger hacked to death in Dhaka

#Dhaka #Bangladesh #WashiqurRahman #AvijitRoy #blogger Another blogger Washiqur Rahman of Bangladesh has been hacked to death in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka near his home in Begunbari region. This brutal killing has come within a month of murder in broad daylight of another blogger. He was Avijit Roy, a US-blogger and he fell victim to a machete attack while he was visiting Dhaka.
He was a prominent atheist writer and had criticized religious intolerance.
This has been reported in bbc.com dated 30 March 2015.

Two students at an Islamic seminary have reportedly been arrested in connection of the death of Washiqur Rahman. He used to blog under a pen-name, Kucchit Hasher Channa, or Ugly Duckling and had criticized irrational religious beliefs. He was killed on a busy street in Dhaka and two suspects, armed with meat cleavers, were caught near the scene.
These suspects has told the police they had targeted Washiqur Rahman because of his anti-Islamic writing.
These deaths of Avijit Roy and Washiqur Rahman have brought forth concerns about freedom of speech in Bangladesh. Several secular-minded writers have been targeted in the country by militants.

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Bank robber hired a cab, asked the driver to wait, entered the bank, and robbed £3,000 at knifepoint

It was a bank robbery with a difference – the bank robber hurriedly prepared his heist while sitting in a taxi on the way to the bank. He asked the driver to wait while he went inside and robbed £3,000 from the cashier at knifepoint. Then he used the same cab as his getaway vehicle.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 29 March 2015.

The man has been identified as a 24-year-old of no fixed abode. He had boarded a taxi from a McDonald's in Milton Keynes to a NatWest branch in Bletchley, four miles away, on January 12. Once there, he asked the driver to wait, and went into the bank. Once there he handed a note he had scribbled in the back of the taxi to the cashier. It said – ‘remain calm, stay silent, do not cause a panic. I have a knife and I will take hostages if I have to. This is not a joke.'
Well – the man was wearing a smart suit at the time of the robbery and did not look like a bank robber. The cashier gave him £3,379 but also activated the alarm. He even asked the robber if he wanted the money in an envelope.
Anyway, the robber ran back to the taxi and fled to the Channel Islands where the police found him and brought him back to England. The bank robber has been jailed for 21-months.

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Massacre in Mogadishu – at least 20 killed, unknown number taken hostage

#mogadishu #alshabaab #somalia #alqaeda #suicidebomber Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab has taken responsibility for the attack on the Hotel Maka Al Mukaram in Mogadishu – at least nine deaths have been reported with an unspecified number taken hostage.
As per VOA report – death toll is 20 with another 28 injured.
From reports it is revealed that a suicide bomber has detonated an explosives-laden car at the gate of the hotel, and at least four gunmen have taken hostages inside the building following a furious shootout with police.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 27 March 2015.

The hotel is located in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia and is popular with government officials. It is still not clear who the targets were. Police captain Mohamed Hussein has confirmed that he had counted at least nine bodies at the scene, and has indicated that the death toll is likely to rise.
There were the remains of two destroyed cars at the gates of the building and the militants had taken control of the hotel as admitted by Major Ismail Olow, a Mogadishu police officer at the scene. The al-Shabaab fighters were on the top of the building and inside the hotel.

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EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic announce two crew members must in cockpit always

#germanwings # AndreasLubitz #EasyJet #AirbusA320 From available evidence, it is clear that the crash of the Germanwings flight that killed 150 people was an intentional act of the co-pilot who had been suffering from mental problems. In view of this revelation, airlines like EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic have announced changed procedures. Henceforth, there must be two crew members in the cockpit at all times.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 27 March 2015.

It has been revealed that the co-pilot of the Airbus A320 that crashed into the French Alps had locked the pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed the plane and French prosecutors have confirmed that it was 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz's plan to 'destroy the plane'.
Aviation insiders have indicated that the moves of EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic could be enforced on other airlines and made 'mandatory' for all. Norwegian Air Shuttle could also follow suit.
EasyJet has clarified that, in case the pilot or co-pilot has to go to the toilet, a cabin crew member will temporarily be inside the cockpit. There would not be any third trained pilot on board.
These move are because of the directive of the Civil Aviation Authority to review the policies of airlines to avoid the pilot or co-pilot being alone at the controls. It is like locking the stable after the horses have fled.

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60-year-old wife gets four years jail for trying to ‘boil’ her 65-year-old husband

It is difficult to digest but a 60-year-old woman has been put in jail for four years for trying to ‘boil’ her 65-year-old husband as reported in news.sky.com dated 24 March 2015.

The woman is 60-year-old and a former special constable and she poured scalding water over her husband, leaving him with first and second degree burns to his body. The incident took place in their bungalow in Peterborough last April. The reason was that he told her he wanted a divorce.
The man, a retired BT manager, had suffered blistering to 14% of his body – the blistering stretched from his scalp to his lower back, and there are fears that some of the scars may never fade. It was not the first time that she tried to cause bodily harm to him - three weeks before the incident she had, apparently, thrown tea over him as he slept.
It seems their marriage was on the rocks. It had become strained apart from difficulties concerning money, the conduct of the woman and her unrealistic expectation of what he could provide. Incidentally, the two of them had met through ballroom dancing after the death in 2008 of the man’s first wife of more than 30 years.

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Crisis in Calais – illegal migrants may stow away in caravans and enter Britain

#calais #illegalmigrants #caravans #easterholidays There is a crisis again in Calais as illegal immigrants are trying to enter Britain in the Easter Holidays rush and would try to stow away into cars and caravans that would be entering Britain. This is the caution given to British tourists as reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 23 March 2015.

An investigation carried out by MPs have found that the illegal immigrants are headed for Britain and are making it across the entire EU without a single border check.
In order to keep a check, lorries are being told not to stop within 125 miles of the port – that could make it possible for people to clamber aboard. Hence, the targets are cars and caravans.
To the illegal immigrants, Britain is ‘El Dorado’ and, they are being caught at a rate of 100 per day but the numbers that have gathered in squalid camps around Calais has gone to nearly double and stands at around 2,500 in the space of a few months. Many of these immigrants had landed up in the EU via Turkey or Italy and have made their way to Calais without ‘encountering any border controls’.
Since the borders that grant access to the EU are not being properly policed, tens of thousands of people from Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Syria take advantage of the situation and enter via Italy, Greece and Turkey.

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First case of drone used to smuggle drugs and weapons into high-security British prison

#DJIPhantom #prisonsecurity #drones It was the first instance of a night-time attempt of a drone being used to smuggle drugs and weapons into a high-security British prison. The prison was the Bedford Prison and the attempt was thwarted when the machine became entangled in razor wire on a security wall and spotted by the prison staff.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 22 March 2015.
The drone was made in China and was carrying a package that contained drugs, mobile phones, screwdrivers and a knife. It was a DJI Phantom 2 Vision and its weight was just 2.5lbs and it had a range of nearly half a mile. Moreover, it was fitted with a wide-angle camera and procuring one of these is not difficult – it is easily available online or at an electrical retailer for around £900.
These miniature aircraft are already a major concern to the police, who want to be given powers to seize them if they suspect they are being misused. The jail has a capacity of around 500 inmates.
Incidentally, Adam Bailey, of the Association of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, has expressed his opinion that drones make noise and trying to get stuff into prisons by using drones is impractical. A drone sounds like a swarm of bees and has flashing lights – hence, it would be visible.
It may be recalled that drones have been widely used in countries like the United States and Canada to fly drugs into prisons and in October a miniature helicopter packed with pills had crashed into a net guarding the exercise yard of an Irish jail.

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Horror in Damasak - at least 70 dead bodies discovered with throats slit or decapitated

#ISIS #bokoharam #damasak #nigeria #goodluckjonathan After the recapture of the town of Damasak from Boko Haram militants, the authorities have discovered at least 70 dead bodies dumped outside the northeastern town of Nigeria as reported in bbc.com dated 21 March 2015. The city of Damasak had been seized by troops from Niger and Chad thereby bringing to an end months of control by the Islamist militants.
Damasak is a trading town in Borno state near Niger's border and is located roughly 200-Km from the state's main city of Maiduguri. It had been overrun by the militants. It seems many of the dead bodies had their throats slits and some had been decapitated.
The identities of the dead are still not known. However, from the condition of the bodies, it appears that death had occurred quite some time ago since the bodies had been partially mummified by the desert air.
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has already predicted that Boko Haram was becoming a spent force and would lose all territory within a month. "They are getting weaker and weaker by the day," is how he put it.
The motto of Boko Haram is to promote a version of Islam which forbids Muslims to participate in any political or social activity associated with Western society. Incidentally, the group has already pledged allegiance to ISIS militants, who control large parts of Syria and Iraq and are also active in Libya.

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Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

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Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata

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First Russian woman cosmonaut returns to Earth after six-month stay in ISS

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North Korea has nuclear warheads, can launch them if America attacks first

#northkorea #keyresolve #foaleagle #nuclearwarhead North Korea's ambassador to the UK has revealed that it is in possession of nuclear warheads and would not hesitate to use them. This chilling warning that his country would be prepared to use nuclear weapons has been made by Hyun Hak-bong in the course of a talk at the North Korean embassy in west London. This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 20 March 2015. He has claimed that North Korea, the secretive state, could launch a deadly warhead 'anytime'. He has warned that his country is a peace loving country and if a sparkle of a fire is made on the Korean peninsula, it will lead to a nuclear war. It is not that the US has a monopoly on nuclear weapons strikes. Observers feel this threat has come against the backdrop of annual US/South Korean military exercises because the North looks upon it as preparation for a possible invasion. These are annual exercises known as the Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises and these go on for several weeks involving hundreds of thousands of troops from both South Korea and the US.

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17 tourists killed in Tunis museum attack – both gunmen are dead

#BardoNationalMuseum #Tunis #tunisia #gunmen A situation is gradually coming when tourists are not safe from attacks by militants as has been seen in the attack on Bardo National museum in Tunis when 17 tourists were killed. It seems one of the gunmen who had carried out the attack was known to the authorities. The tourists who have been killed in the attack included visitors from Japan, Italy, Colombia, Australia, France, Poland and Spain. A British woman is among those killed.
The museum is a popular tourist destination and, at the time of the attack, it was crowded and more than 40 people, including tourists and Tunisians, were injured. The gunman held the tourists hostage for several hours at the museum. This has been revealed in bbc.com dated 19 March 2015.
Prime Minister Habib Essi has reportedly told RTL Radio that security services had flagged up one of the attackers, Yassine Laabidi. However, they were not aware of "anything specific", or of any links to known militant groups.
One of the two Tunisians involved in the attack was a police officer. Both the gunmen were also killed and a search has been launched for other suspects linked to them because two or three accomplices are believed to still be at large.
It seems on Thursday, three people - two Spanish tourists and one Tunisian museum worker – had been found at the museum. They had hidden there overnight.

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Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

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Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata

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Nashik transforms from a place of pilgrimage to an industrial hub


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The mystery space plane X-37B of the United States

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MQ-1 Predator drone of the US shot down in Syria

#predatordrone #ISIS #Syria #Latakia #PresidentAssad The destruction of a MQ-1 Predator drone in Syria was the first direct attack carried out on any US aircraft. The drone had gone missing and, later, images surfaced that showed burned metal and mangled electronics. These are believed to belong to the first American aircraft to go down in Syria since the U.S. began airstrikes on ISIS inside the country.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 18 March 2015.
The images are thought to be from the coastal city of Latakia which is a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad. His regime is still fighting a bitter civil war against Islamic State militants.
From circumstantial evidence like two charred panels bearing the logo of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc - the company who produce the MQ-1 drone – it is presumed to be the drone that had gone missing. The Pentagon is trying to find out reasons of why the operators lost control of the drone.
It is not clear as to who shot it down – was it ISIS or forces of Syria?

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Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

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Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata
Kumbhmela 2015 in Nashik – guided tours to wineries and vineyards

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The mystery space plane X-37B of the United States

Residents of Los Cabos resort turn to looting after Hurricane Odile strikes

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Serbia arrests seven men linked to 1995 massacre of over 1000 Muslims

#serbia #srebrenica #holocust After a period of 20-years, the Serbian police have arrested seven persons who are accused of taking part in the slaughter of over 1,000 Muslims at a warehouse on the outskirts of Srebrenica in 1995. Tis has been reported in bbc.com dated 18 March 2015.
Serbia had, earlier, detained men who were not directly involved in the killings and the seven now arrested are among the first as revealed by the Serbian and Bosnian prosecutors. It may be recalled that in 2011, it had handed over former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic to an international court – he had been accused of masterminding the massacre. He is at present being tried in The Hague along with former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic.
Nearly 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were killed in Srebrenica over three days in the worst atrocity on European soil since the Holocaust and these killings happened a few months before the end of the Bosnian war. At that time, nearly 20,000 refugees had fled to Srebrenica to escape Serb forces.
One of the arrested is believed to be Nedeljko Milidragovic, the commander who was known as "Nedjo the Butcher" – he has, since then, become a successful businessman in Serbia.

A few more interesting reports -


Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata
Kumbhmela 2015 in Nashik – guided tours to wineries and vineyards

First Russian woman cosmonaut returns to Earth after six-month stay in ISS

The mystery space plane X-37B of the United States

Residents of Los Cabos resort turn to looting after Hurricane Odile strikes

Serial killer of Brazil arrested as he tried to kill his 40th victim

Topless Femen protesters take to the streets as Putin and Porosheko meet in Milan

IS bent upon destroying Iraq’s heritage in Nimrud

Another interesting blog - Citizen Journalist

Another interesting blog - Ramblings

12 Pakistani convicts hanged on same day in different prisons

#deathrow #peshawarschoolattack #taliban Subsequent to the lifting of ban on hangings, Pakistan has hanged 12 convicts in various prisons across the country – it was the largest number of people executed on the same day after the country overturned a ban on executions. This has been reported in bbc.com dated 17 March 2015.
It has been reported by Pakistan's Dawn newspaper that the latest executions took place in Multan, Karachi, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Jhang.
It has been informed by the interior ministry that the men were terrorists, murderers or guilty of "heinous crimes". So far, at least 27 convicts have been executed since the moratorium of hanging was lifted. Most of them were militants. As per estimates, there are over 8,000 Pakistanis on death row.
It may be recalled that a moratorium on hangings was lifted for terror-related crimes because of the attack in a school in Peshawar after a Taliban attack in December. Over 150 people, mostly children, lost their lives in the attack.
The scope of capital punishment policy has been widened to include all prisoners on death row whose appeals had been rejected.

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Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata
Kumbhmela 2015 in Nashik – guided tours to wineries and vineyards

First Russian woman cosmonaut returns to Earth after six-month stay in ISS

The mystery space plane X-37B of the United States

Residents of Los Cabos resort turn to looting after Hurricane Odile strikes

Serial killer of Brazil arrested as he tried to kill his 40th victim

Topless Femen protesters take to the streets as Putin and Porosheko meet in Milan

IS bent upon destroying Iraq’s heritage in Nimrud

Another interesting blog - Citizen Journalist

Another interesting blog - Ramblings

ISIS rampage continues – Saddam Hussein’s burial place now a heap of rubble

#tikrit #ISIS #iraq #ouja #saddamhussein The ISIS is determined to rewrite history and destroy every item that brings back memories, whether they are world heritage sites or the burial place of Saddam Hussein which is now a heap of rubble.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 16 March 2015.
The burial place of Iraq's late dictator Saddam Hussein has been destroyed as a result of heavy clashes between ISIS militants and Iraqi forces in a fight for the control of the city of Tikrit which was Saddam Hussein’s hometown. As per reports, the fighting intensified to the north and south of Tikrit as Iraqi security forces took a decision to reach the center of Tikrit within 48 hours.
Video that has emerged from the village of Ouja, just south of Tikrit, reveals that all that nothing much remains of the once-lavish tomb. The only things that have been spared are the support columns that held up the roof. Poster-sized pictures of Saddam used to once be seen covering the mausoleum and those are nowhere to be seen. It is all a rubble of concrete.
It seems the IS militants have been in control of Tikrit since June last and had set up an ambush in the area for the Iraqis by planting bombs around the tomb and the result was the destruction.

A few more interesting reports -


Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

First Russian woman cosmonaut returns to Earth after six-month stay in ISS

The mystery space plane X-37B of the United States

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Another interesting blog - Citizen Journalist

Another interesting blog - Ramblings

Australia prevents nearly 400 would-be jihadists from leaving every day

#australianpolice #jihadists #ISIS #airport #CounterTerrorism On a conservative estimate, 90 Australians are believed to have joined up with the ISIS and fighting in the Middle East but the counter-terrorist police of Australia have prevented around 76,000 more from leaving the country. This works out to approximately 400 per day over the period August 2014 and February 2015.
This has been reported in bbc.com dated 16 March 2015.
The Australian police are stopping hundreds of people every day at airports so that would-be jihadists do not leave the country.
This has been made possible by the creation of a new counter-terror unit who do not carry out random checking but target potentially suspicious travelers.
This is the Border Force Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) and is a new unit that has been designed to tackle extremists who try to leave the country and join terror groups such as Islamic State (IS). It is understood that CTU teams in Sydney and Melbourne have intercepted at least 11 terror suspects in their first three weeks of operation. They have also seized extremist material apart from evidence of attempted movement of large sums of money.
The Border Force Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) are at present operating at Australia's eight international airports namely Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Cairns, Gold Coast, Adelaide and Darwin.
From the exercise carried out by Australia, other countries can introduce similar checks on outgoing travelers so that the designs of such would-be jihadists can be nipped in the bud.

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Evidence emerges of ISIS using chemical weapons like chlorine gas

#peshmerga #ISIS #kurds #chlorinegas #chemicalweapon It has been claimed by Kurdish authorities that evidence has emerged that will prove that ISIS is using chlorine gas as a chemical weapon in its battle against peshmerga forces in Iraq. This is based on the discovery of ‘20 gas canisters' that had been loaded on the back of a truck that was involved in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq on January 23.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 14 March 2015.
The Kurdistan Region Security Council has revealed that the chemical attack happened on a road between Iraq's second largest city of Mosul and the Syrian border. This was the area where peshmerga fighters were desperately trying to seize the vital supply line that was being used by the militants. The discovery of the chlorine gas canisters was found at that time.
A Kurdish official indicated that many peshmerga fighters were treated for 'dizziness, nausea, vomiting and general weakness' after the attack when the gas cylinders exploded and the gas was released. Traces of chlorine gas were discovered after samples of clothing and soil from the site were analyzed.
It may be recalled that during the Syrian civil war, a chlorine gas attack on the outskirts of Damascus in 2013 had killed hundreds and US was about to launch airstrikes against the government.

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Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

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Bomb blast in Lahore churches leaves at least 10 dead

#Youhanabad #lahoreblast #sundaymass #PakistanTaliban #suicidebomber Christians make up hardly two percent of the population of Pakistan but, two bomb blasts targeting two churches in Lahore, the capital of the densely populated Punjab province, and has left behind at least 10 dead with another 50 injured as reported in bbc.com dated 15 March 2015.
The death toll as per local media has reached 14.
The explosions happened at the Catholic Church and Christ Church in the city's Youhanabad area. There were large crowds already in the area to attend Sunday mass. Incidentally, the Christian community of Pakistan has often been targeted by militants even though the Christians form a negligible percentage.
The responsibility of the attack has been claimed by an offshoot of the Pakistan Taliban that calls itself Jamatul Ahrar.
As per the witnesses, the attack was carried out by suicide bombers but this has not been confirmed by the police. The bombers are believed to have set off their explosives at the gates of the churches.
The bomb blasts led to violence and protesters carrying sticks blocked Lahore's Ferozepur Road and also attacked a bus station.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Mamnoon Hussain have condemned these latest bombings.

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Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

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ISIS gets a taste of its own medicine - Iraqi forces turn the tables on them

#ISIS #tikrit #iraq #martindempsey #CampSpeicher From videos in the social media it appears that ISIS is getting a taste of their own medicine as the advancing Iraqi forces torture, behead and kill ISIS militants in revenge attacks s reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 13 March 2015.
These are believed to be recent images posted on social media reportedly by U.S.-trained Iraqi Special Forces who are advancing against jihadi strongholds. In the videos, there are numerous pictures of severed heads and mutilated bodies. And, these are said to be revenge for the massacre by ISIS of hundreds of military cadets at a base near Tikrit called Camp Speicher in last June.
Such heinous acts constitute Iraqi war crimes and officials of the US are believed to be withholding funds to some of the Iraqi units based on credible information in the past of such atrocities. An Iraqi Army spokesperson has indicated that an investigation would be launched into the allegations.
As revealed by US General Martin Dempsey, nearly 20,000 militiamen may be involved in the ongoing Tikrit operations. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, on his part, has called upon his forces to protect civilians and their property in areas that have been reclaimed from ISIS and has vowed zero tolerance for any violations.
Amnesty International, on its part, has cautioned that it was still too early to tell if Tikrit had been a cleaner operation than usual.

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Fire in shopping mall in Russia kills 30, injures another 40

#kazan #russia #shoppingmall #moscow Fire in a shopping mall in the city of Kazan, located roughly 450-Km from Moscow, left the mall destroyed and five people are confirmed dead while 25 more are missing and presumed to be dead as reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 12 March 2015.
The death toll at the Admiral Centre is based on reports from relatives and workers in the shopping center. Apart from the deaths, at least forty people were injured in the blaze. The cause of the fire has yet to be ascertained but it is presumed that the blaze began in a cafe that was situated next to the shopping center.
As per the officials, the 43,000-square-foot area has been totally destroyed and razed to the ground. Riot police had to be deployed to stop members of the public entering the building.

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Jihadi Jake of Australia killed in suicide bombing in Iraq

#JihadiJake #JihadiJohn #ISIS #Australia #Melbourne Jihadi John of Britain is making headlines, so has Jihadi Jake of Australia. But - the Australian’s coming into prominence is because he has been killed in a suicide attack as reported in news.sky.com dated 12 March 2015.
Jihadi Jake is a teenager from Melbourne who had gone to Iraq to join Islamic State and he has reportedly been killed while carrying out a suicide bombing. This has been revealed through a video that shows a white four-wheel-drive with an inset image of a young man who looks like Jake Bilardi sitting behind the wheel.
Jake Bilardi is Jihadi Jake. He was reported to be a shy but gifted maths student and he converted to Islam after his mother died while he was at high school. He had travelled to the Middle East last year and after two months informed reportedly contacted his family to tell them he was training to become a suicide bomber.
However, he later told them he had changed his mind and was travelling to Syria to fight there. It seems the militants had carried out 13 suicide car bombings on security personnel positions in Ramadi. This is the provincial capital of Anbar province.
In the attack, two soldiers were killed and eight others wounded in the near-simultaneous attacks, Sabah Karhout. Subsequently, in a statement posted online, the IS has admitted to the blasts that had been carried out by foreign fighters from Australia, Belgium, Syria and Uzbekistan.

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ISIS French connection – 13-year-old French child becomes youngest member killed in action

#ISIS #frenchboy #homs #syria We have heard of young boys and girls being used as suicide bombers and the incident of a 13-year-old French boy becoming the first child casualty of ISIS in Syria should make us wake up to the gloomy future of the boys and girls who are growing up in a society that encourages violence. These kids would grow up with a distorted view of what is right and what is wrong.
The 13-year-old from Strasbourg, France, was killed when Government forces attacked a border post in the western city of Homs that he was guarding and he is believed to be the youngest to die fighting for Islamic State in Syria. This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 10 March 2015.
According to David Thomson, a French journalist and author of Les Français jihadistes (The French Jihadists), the boy had died two months ago. The author has revealed that the boy had arrived in Syria with his family and two of his brothers were killed in fighting.
A photo in a social networking site shows him holding a rifle which is too big for him to handle.
Those who are behind the rise of this militant group that loves to shed blood at the drop of a hat needs to be identified and removed from circulation at the earliest. It is a global problem and all leaders should sink their differences and join hands to fight this evil because tomorrow it could be someone close to us who would become a target.

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Another unarmed black teen in shot dead by police, this time in Wisconsin

#blackteen #Wisconsin #unarmedteen Reports of another racist killing has emerged from Madison, Wisconsin, where a 19-year-old black teenager was shot dead by the police. This is as per information in news.sky.com dated 9 March 2015.
Mike Koval, the police chief in Madison, Wisconsin, has revealed that the 19-year-old Tony Robinson Jr was killed in a struggle with police. But, Tony’s mother has said that her son had never been a violent person. He has now become another example of the things that are happening all over the United States.
It was the case of another black kid shot by the police for no reason.
Mike Koval has indicated that more than one shot was fired, and the officer concerned had administered CPR, and Tony Robinson was taken to hospital where he died. Mike Koval has also agreed that Tony Robinson was unarmed.
This death comes in the wake of other killings of young unarmed black men by police officers like the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in Staten Island.
Unless such deaths are prevented, the image of the police will keep getting tarnished.

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Three British jihadi schoolgirls give everyone the slip and arrive in Raqqa

#BritishSchoolgirls #ISIS #Raqqa #Syria #London #ScotlandYard The three British schoolgirls who gave everyone the slip and fled to Syria to join Islamic State are believed to now be in a house in the city of Raqqa. The three of them had gone missing two weeks ago after they had boarded a flight from Gatwick to Istanbul. This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 9 March 2015.
Their journey to Syria has led to plenty of accusations and counter accusations among the authorities because it was an action that could have been prevented if the policing authorities had been more vigilant. From reports, the girls are believed to have crossed from Turkey to Syria through the town of Arai.
Moreover, the girls were reportedly staying with a British girl who is thought to be a pupil from the same school in east London and who had gone missing in December. She is believed to have joined IS.
From their actions it is evident that these girls view such escapades as a sort of picnic not knowing what actually is in store for them. They get carried away by the stories they read on various social websites that glorify the IS and paint a glowing picture of the goodies that are in store fir them once they break out of the shackles and join up.
When realization would dawn, it would be too late for them and others like them and they would be stranded in the point of no return.
As per Scotland Yard, at least 22 young women are feared to have travelled to Syria from the UK over the past 12 months. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has warned that the girls have been lured to Syria by IS and would face sexual abuse at the hands of ‘deeply misogynistic’ militants.

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Human traffickers smuggle people, harvest their organs and sell them in black market

#organsnatchers #humantrafficking #organharvesting The lid has been lifted on a racket of human traffickers who would smuggle people into Britain to harvest their organs and sell them in the black market. This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 7 March 2015.
They are the organ snatchers.
It seems two people of African or Asian origin – one of them was a boy as young as 12 and the other a woman in her 30s – had been brought into Britain last year. They had been smuggled into Britain to have their organs removed and sold on the black market. This has been revealed in an official report and it reveals the extent human traffickers will go to make money from their dirty practices.
The racket survived on the global demand for human organs.
They were rescued by British police or immigration officials who suspected they were being trafficked. It brought out the fact that these weed instances of international people-smuggling.
Incidentally, the first incident of illegal ‘organ harvesting’ in Britain had been reported in 2011. Subsequently, two years later a Somalian girl was brought with the intention of removing her organs and selling them to patients who were desperate for a transplant.
According to statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO), as many as 7,000 kidneys are illegally obtained by gangs each year around the world. The demands are there for human organs like hearts, lungs and livers but, kidneys are the most sought-after organs. This is because one can transplant a kidney from a patient without any serious ill-effects.

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Taiwanese ship missing with 49 people on board near Falkland Islands

#fishingvessel #Taiwan #FalklandIslands #Kaohsiung Hsiang Fu Chun, a Taiwanese 700-tonne squid fishing vessel with 49 people has mysteriously disappeared near the Falkland Islands. It has reportedly vanished shortly after its skipper has intimated that it was taking on water. However, he did not make any mayday call.
The ship had lost contact with its owners soon after reporting about the water leaking on to the deck at around 3am on 26 February.
This is as per information in news.sky.com dated 8 March 2015.
The vessel had a crew of a Taiwanese skipper and chief engineer with 11 Chinese, 21 Indonesians, 13 Filipino and two Vietnamese.
Hsiang Fu Chun had been built 28 years ago and had set sail from Kaohsiung in January. It was believed to have been about 1,700 nautical miles off the coast of the Falkland Islands when it disappeared. This is as per satellite data.
There were doubts that the vessel could have lost power and be drifting or that it could have been hijacked by crew.
However, a Taiwanese search has failed to trace. The area is in a remote area - it takes six days for a boat to go there and 11 hours to reach it and return if a plane is used.
Moreover, the search is facing difficulties due to bad weather. Hence, the Taiwanese authorities have requested for help from Argentina and Britain.

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Ohio man had planned to shoot President Barack Obama in the head

#pipebombs #ISIS #FBI #USCapitol #Ohio 20-year-old Christopher Cornell of Ohio has admitted that if he had not been arrested by FBI agents in January, he would have gone ahead and shot President Barack Obama in the head. He would also have carried out an alleged plot to plant pipe bombs on the Capitol and at the Israeli Embassy.
He has sympathies with the Islamic State militants and appeared to be nonchalant about the whole thing – that is what he has told in a TV interview from his prison cell over the telephone. This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 7 March 2015.
He was arrested and is being held without bail after he researched how to make pipe bombs, purchased a rifle and ammunition and made plans to travel to Washington to carry out the plot. This has been revealed in a court testimony from an informant of FBI.
The charges against him are of attempted murder of government officials, possession of a firearm to commit a crime and solicitation to commit a violent crime.
In the interview he has said that he would have released more bullets on the Senate and the House of Representative members, and also attacked the Israeli Embassy and various other buildings full of kafir.
Kafir is the name given by Muslims to an infidel.
His logic was that the kafirs want to wage war against us Muslims and shed their blood. He has gone on to say that he gets his orders from his brothers overseas in Syria and Iraq. They had apparently asked him to carry out jihad in the West.

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Militant attack kills five in nightclub in Bamako, the capital of Mali

#Bamako #Mali #LaTerrasse #hippodrome #FrancoisHollande Militants carried out a machine-gun and grenade attack on a nightclub in Mali's capital, Bamako, killing five people. The dead are a French national who was shot dead at La Terrasse bar. In addition, two Malian men were killed and the gunmen fled the scene. Moreover, one Belgian man died when a grenade was thrown at his car in a nearby street while a third European died in hospital.
French soldiers arrived post-haste at the scene of the attack on the first-floor nightclub and have confirmed that the man killed at the bar, in the Hippodrome area of the capital popular with expatriates, was a French national. Out of the Malian victims, one is believed to have been a police officer, and the other a security guard.
This has been reported in bbc.com dated 7 March 2015.
The attackers had shouted slogans in the name of God and, as observers say, such an attack has not happened in Bamako till date.
The persons responsible for the attack are not known but al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants have been fighting the Malian army in the north of the country for several years and troops from France and African countries have intervened in the past to check the advance of al-Qaeda south on Bamako.
French President Francois Hollande has condemned the attack and termed it as "cowardly". The foreign minister of France, Laurent Fabius, has added that such actions would strengthen the resolve of France to fight all sorts of terrorism.

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Car-ramming attack injures 6 female soldiers in Jerusalem

#Jerusalem #Israel #terrorattack #femalesoldiers #purim Terrorism has many faces and one of these is of car-ramming. It has happened in Jerusalem when a motorist rammed his car into a group of people who were waiting for a train in east Jerusalem. As a result, seven people were injured - six of them were Israeli female soldiers. The attacker was shot and wounded by guards as reported in foxnews.com dated 6 March 2015.
A police spokeswoman has described the assault as a “terror attack.”
From information available it appears the motorist had plowed his car into the curb after running over the group of people. Subsequently the man got out of his car with a knife and stabbed a pedestrian before he was shot.
The injured and the motorist were taken to the hospital.
The police have identified the attacker as a Palestinian man from east Jerusalem who is believed to be in his twenties. It is difficult to prevent such attacks because these fall in the category of "lone wolf" assailants.
The attack has taken place at a time when Israelis are celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim. Hence, the police have become more alert.

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IS bent upon destroying Iraq’s heritage in Nimrud

#Nimrud #ISIS #Ashurnasirpal #Assyria #Mosul IS militants are behaving like a bull in a China shop and want to rewrite history by destroying existing monuments in ancient Iraq – in their latest attack, they have made use of heavy military vehicles to bulldoze the country's historical heritage. This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 6 March 2015.
It seems the jihadists have gone on the rampage in the city of Nimrud in northern Iraq and have smashed up 3,000 year-old winged statues that are placed at the gates of the Palace of Ashurnasirpal. Nimrud is an ancient city and the second capital of Assyria which was an ancient kingdom that began in 900BC. It is partially in modern-day Iraq. The city on the Tigris River had been destroyed in 612 BC and is located just south of Mosul, which had been captured by ISIS last June.
It may be recalled that in the late 1980s treasures had been discovered in Nimrud's royal tombs and it was hailed as one of the 20th century's most significant archaeological finds.
The attack on Nimrud has come soon after the ISIS had targeted a museum in Mosul where they used power drills and sledgehammers to destroy artefacts.
The militants have already destroyed the Mosque of the Prophet Younis - or Jonah - and the Mosque of the Prophet Jirjis, two revered ancient shrines in Mosul. This they had done last year. They had also threatened to destroy Mosul's 850-year old Crooked Minaret, but did not succeed because the residents rose as one to surround the structure in order to prevent the militants.
Their actions of the ISIS have sparked a global outrage.

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Federal agents crack down on birth tourism hotels in California

#birthtourism #chinesewomen #california #visafraud A lucrative business is flourishing in California where hotels cater to foreigners who come to stay and deliver their babies so that the newborns get the tag of American citizen as reported in bbc.com dated 3 March 2015.
It seems these "birth tourism" hotels, numbering more than a dozen, usually hosted women from China who paid anything from between $15,000 to $50,000 for the services. As per estimates, 40,000 of 300,000 children born to foreign citizens in the US each year are believed to be the product of birth tourism. This is as per the figures that have been quoted in court documents that have been filed by the authorities to obtain search warrants for the schemes.
The Federal agents in California have raided these hotels that cater to pregnant foreigners who want their children to be born US citizens and the raids focused on hotels because it is suspected that they are involved in visa fraud.
In order to get to the bottom, the Federal agents did a sting operation by using an undercover agent who posed as a pregnant mother. The modus operandi was to generate false proof of income and a college diploma. The woman was advised to enter the US through popular destinations like Hawaii or Las Vegas and to make advance reservations with hotels and tours. Subsequently, a China-based "trainer" was assigned to help put together the visa application along with full-length frontal and side photo of the woman’s belly to see how visible her pregnancy was.

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34 killed in rebel attack in Syria – the explosion sounded like an earthquake

#syria #Aleppo #alqaida #SOHM #assadregime It was a deadly al-Qaida-linked terror attack on a Syrian regime intelligence headquarters in Aleppo and it was so massive that it measured 2.3 on the Richter scale and was initially registered as an earthquake as reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 5 March 2015.
The death toll in the attack was at least 20 regime security force members and 14 rebels. The incident occurred west of Aleppo which is the largest city in Syria and the frontline in battles between the Assad regime, the Islamic State, Western-backed rebel groups and the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
The attack is believed to be the work of al-Qaida affiliated Nusra front.
Their targets were apparently the air force intelligence offices. It seems the militants had used a tunnel to detonate bombs and the intensity of the resultant explosion was so huge that the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre labeled it as an earthquake. The intention could have been to storm the building and control it, but they failed. This is how Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, sees the attack.
The attack has been termed as the worst reported violence in Aleppo since the rebels rejected a UN plan to freeze fighting in the northern city. Fighting in Aleppo, the commercial hub of Syria, had erupted in mid-2012, and the city is divided in two parts – the rebels are on the eastern side and the regime in the west.

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