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The Last Chronicles of Planet Earth December 20, 2016 Edition written by Frank DiMora
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~Scroll down for all the news; please be sure to CLICK on the photos for all Bible verses pertaining to each news story~
Headline: ‘Moving embassy to Jerusalem would be great for peace’
Headline: Trump’s pick for US envoy to Israel wants embassy in Jerusalem
Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, on Tuesday welcomed President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, urging the incoming Trump administration to move forward with the move. Speaking at a Hanukkah reception at the Israeli embassy in Washington and quoted by The Associated Press, Dermer said that moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be a “great step forward” for peace. He added that doing so would send a “strong message against delegitimization of Israel.”
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/222038
https://worldisraelnews.com/trumps-pick-for-us-envoy-to-israel-wants-embassy-in-jerusalem/
Headline: Outgoing secretary general says UN is obsessed with Israel
The large volume of anti-Israel resolutions passed in recent years has rendered the United Nations unable to “fulfill its role effectively,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. Addressing the UN Security Council on Dec. 16, Ban said: “Over the last decade I have argued that we cannot have a bias against Israel at the UN. Decades of political maneuvering have created a disproportionate number of resolutions, reports and committees against Israel. “In many cases, instead of helping the Palestinian issue, this reality has foiled the ability of the UN to fulfill its role effectively.” Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, said that in the past decade “the UN passed 223 resolutions condemning Israel, while only eight resolutions condemning the Syrian regime as it has massacred its citizens over the past six years. This is absurd.” “With a new Secretary General set to take office next month, we look forward to the possibility of a new era of fairness at the UN,” Danon added. Ban’s tenure as UN chief ends on Jan. 1. His successor is Antonio Guterres, the former prime minister of Portugal. In his Dec. 16 address, Ban went on to add that “Israel needs to understand the reality that a democratic state which is run by the rule of the law, which continues to militarily occupy the Palestinian people, will still generate criticism and calls to hold her accountable.” The UN recently passed a series of anti-Israel resolutions during its annual “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People”. Those resolutions came amid a period of increased violence by Palestinians against Israelis.
Dec. 20, 2016
http://www.worldtribune.com/outgoing-secretary-general-says-un-is-obsessed-with-israel/
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=55285
Headline: Report: Israeli Defense Chief Wants IDF to Buy New Surface-to-Surface Missiles That Would Bolster Jewish State’s Striking Power
Israel’s defense chief has ordered the IDF to look into purchasing hundreds of new surface-to-surface missiles that would bolster the Jewish state’s striking power, the Hebrew news site nrg reported on Tuesday. The Israeli-made missiles Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman wants the IDF to acquire have a range of 250 kilometers (around 155 miles) and can carry warheads weighing up to 450 kilograms (just under 1,000 pounds). “We have no choice,” an unnamed Israeli security official was quoted by nrg as saying. “I think reality requires us to diversify and missiles of this type give us many options.” The buying of such missiles — with their superior accuracy and potency — would “mark a significant change in our approach and outlook,” the official continued.
Dec. 21, 2016
Headline: ISIS and other terrorist threats besetting Israel from its Golan border in the north and its Sinai border in the southwest, have spread to its southeastern border in Jordan
The city of Berlin and the Jordanian Crusader town of Al-Karak are 3,000km apart, but the distance did not stop Islamic State killers from taking 26 lives, inuring 18 others, some very seriously,in the two countries, and causing the Israeli Dalia Elkayam to disappear. In Berlin, German security is out in force to hunt the terrorist who rammed a hijacked Polish truck into a throng of Christmas gift seekers. They are trying to find a needle in a haystack with no clue as whether he operated alone or was part of a gang ready to strike again, a method of operation that recalls the multiple Paris atrocity which claimed 132 lives before it was over. In Jordan, the terrorists followed up on their first shooting attack on police and the taking of tourists hostage by three days of gun battles with security forces in the alleys of Karak. Four soldiers were killed by ISIS terrorists barricaded in a building. Nonetheless, they Obama administration stuck to its standard refrain, refusing to credit ISIS with the attack in Berlin without corroboration, even after its claim of responsibility – meaning that US intelligence’s failure to identity the perpetrators exculpates ISIS. So Washington can continue to bury its head in the sand. In Jerusalem, too, the government ignored the fighting against rampant Islamic terrorists raging for three days in southern Jordan, just 20km away from the Israeli border – as though it happened on another planet.. Indeed, Israel suddenly finds itself with a new strategic dilemma. Threatened with ISIS and other terrorist groups from its Golan border in the north and its Sinai border in the southwest, Israel is now beset from its southeastern border in Jordan.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://debka.com/article/25847/ISIS-strikes-in-Berlin-Jordan-%E2%80%93-and-Mosul-too
Headline: Report: ISIS in Sinai choking Gaza-based Hamas
ISIS terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula are reportedly fighting and weakening Hamas, the Islamic terror group that rules the Gaza Strip. The Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula has previously cooperated with Gaza’s Hamas terror organization in generating attacks in the area, but now the two groups are feuding, with ISIS shutting down the smuggling tunnels running from Sinai into Gaza, cutting of Hamas’ lifeline. Asharq al-Awsat reported on Monday that ISIS in Sinai, for the past several weeks, has been prohibiting traders from Rafah from bringing commodities into the Gaza Strip ever since Hamas had stopped its coordination with ISIS and arrested hundreds of its supporters. Palestinian sources told the news outlet that ISIS is also confiscating weapons and ammunition as well as raw materials that were en route to Hamas, which are generally used for manufacturing rockets and bombs.
Dec. 21, 2016
https://worldisraelnews.com/report-isis-in-sinai-choking-gaza-based-hamas/
Headline: After Aleppo Victory, Assad Could Try to Retake Israel Border Area
Headline: Israel and Hezbollah’s Golan calculations
The effective surrender of the rebels in Aleppo heralds the end of the battle for the city. The conquest of eastern Aleppo by President Bashar Assad’s regime and the forces supporting him will soon free up the Syrian dictator to address other military objectives, though reorganizing my take time. Assad has been projecting great self-confidence and a readiness to take back most of the territories seized by the rebel groups. The regime currently holds around 30 percent of the country’s area, but 70 percent of the Syrian population lives there, including in the large cities of Damascus, Aleppo, Homs and Hama. His military successes may motivate Assad to take steps – which will require Iranian and Russian backing – to reoccupy the border area with Israel on the Golan Heights. That, of course, is Israel’s most critical point of interest, though it isn’t pleased with the regime’s victory in Aleppo. Today there is almost no presence of anyone identified with Assad near the border, other than on the Syrian part of Mount Hermon and the new town of Quneitra (where Syrian army forces are stationed at some distance from the border) and in the Druze village of Khader (where there are Druze militias connected to the regime). The rest of the territory near the border fence is controlled by local rebel organizations, while the Syrian side of the triangle formed by the borders of Syria, Jordan and Israel, in the southern Golan Heights, is dominated by a branch of ISIS.
Dec. 20, 2016
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.760172
Headline: State files petition to delay Amona evacuation
The State Attorney’s Office filed a petition to the Supreme Court Tuesday evening to delay the evacuation of Amona by 45 days. The petition comes after the government and the residents of Amona approved a compromise solution which would allow 24 families from the community to remain on the same hill. The State Attorney’s Office states in the petition that due to the complexity and sensitivity of the evacuation of more than 40 families and about 200 children from Amona, the state invested extraordinary efforts into finding a solution which would allow the community to be evacuated peacefully and without conflict, while minimizing any damage done to the residents. The Supreme Court has ordered that Amona be demolished by December 25. The state requested the delay in order to have time to prepare alternative housing at the new location for the residents.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/222018
Jordan
Headline: Terror strikes Jordan again
Headline: Authorities crack down on suspected terrorists in Karak, other areas
Headline: Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Shootout at Jordanian Castle
Four Jordanian policemen were killed in clashes with radical militants during a raid on a village near the southern Jordanian city of Karak on Tuesday, said Mohammad Momani, minister of state for media affairs and government spokesman. The violence occurred just two days after a shootout between police and gunmen, holed up in the Crusader castle near Karak, 130 km south of Amman, left 14 people dead — 10 civilians including a Canadian tourist and four terrorists. Daesh claimed responsibility for the strike. Momani said the security agencies arrested a suspect related to the terrorists involved in Sunday’s attack, who confessed to hiding weapons in his apartment. “The police escorted him to his house; he ran inside and started shooting at the police personnel killing one of them. Reinforcements were deployed to the scene. The suspect was joined by other attackers hiding in the house,” Momani said.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1027516/middle-east
http://jordantimes.com/news/local/authorities-crack-down-suspected-terrorists-karak-other-areas
http://www.voanews.com/a/islamic-state-claims-reponsibility-for-jordan-shootout/3643368.html
Lebanon
Headline: Senior Israeli Military Officer: Hezbollah Using US Weaponry in Syria
Israel has informed the United States that Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in Syria are using U.S. armored personnel carriers originally supplied to the Lebanese Army, a senior Israeli military officer said on Wednesday. The U.S. State Department said last month that the American Embassy in Beirut was working to investigate images on social media purporting to show Hezbollah, which supports President Bashar al-Assad, displaying U.S. military equipment in Syria. Those images were widely reported to have been of U.S.-made M113 armored personnel carriers, which the State Department said were extremely common in the region. In an intelligence briefing to foreign reporters in Tel Aviv, the senior officer showed a photograph of military vehicles, which he said included U.S.-made armored personnel carriers (APCs), along a road. “These APCs are of the Hezbollah, while fighting in Syria, that they took from the Lebanese armed forces,” he said in English, describing the guerrilla group as dominant in Lebanon. “We shared this information with other countries, including the U.S. of course, and I can even say that we recognized these specific APCs with some specific parameters that we know … these were given to the Lebanese armed forces. It’s not an assumption,” said the officer, who under the rules of the briefing could not be identified by name, rank or position.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.voanews.com/a/hezbollah-us-weaponry-in-syria/3644974.html
Saudi Arabia
Headline: At least 22 dead in clashes in Yemen’s Taez
At least 22 people were killed in clashes between government forces and rebels on the outskirts of the flashpoint city of Taez in southwest Yemen, military sources said on Tuesday. The fighting late Monday north of Taez, held by loyalists but partly surrounded by Shiite Houthis and their rebel allies, left at least 14 rebels and eight soldiers dead, they said. Residents said relative calm was restored on Tuesday. In the north, two loyalist officers were killed in clashes around the Red Sea port town of Midi, the sources said, while a rights activist said a 13-year-old girl died when a shell fired by rebels crashed into her home in the southern province of Dhaleh. Yemen’s 20-month-old conflict has killed more than 7,000 people and wounded nearly 37,000, the United Nations says.
Dec. 20, 2016
http://jordantimes.com/news/region/least-22-dead-clashes-yemen%E2%80%99s-taez
Headline: Turkish military claims it captured strategic roads in northern Syria
Headline: The last stage of Aleppo’s evacuation begins
Headline: Iran brutalizing Aleppo, executing ‘most atrocious’ war crimes
Turkey’s military said Wednesday morning that Turkish-backed Syrian rebel militias had taken full control of Syrian routes M4 and 212, the main roads connecting the cities of al-Bab and Aleppo. It marked the latest development in the “Euphrates Shield” operation, Ankara’s invasion of northern Syria that is aimed at removing both ISIS and Kurdish forces from Turkey’s southern border. Ankara announced the operation on August 24. Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force is accused of playing an extensive role in the destruction of Aleppo, an Iranian opposition group says in a new intelligence report. Among other things, the country is building a network of stations around the city and sending militia troops from Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon in to execute the brutal killings, the report – which was provided to the Washington Post – read. “The fact is that Aleppo has been occupied by the IRGC and its mercenaries,” the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, the largest opposition group to the Islamic mullahs who rule Iran, said. “Mass executions, preventing the transfer of the civilians, including women and children, [and] attacking the civilians has all been done by the forces of the mullahs’ regime,” they added.
Dec. 21, 2016
Headline: Syrian militia reaches Euphrates River in offensive to free Raqqa from Islamic State
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces militia said it has reached the Euphrates River and seized a large area of territory in the offensive to liberate Raqqa from the Islamic State. The SDF’s “Wrath of Euphrates” offensive is supported by a U.S.-led international coalition, which shares intelligence with allies and conducts airstrikes against the Islamic State, also known as Daesh, ISIL and ISIS. The offensive’s second stage is approaching its second week of operations. In 10 days of the operation’s second stage, the SDF said it freed 97 villages and dozens of other locations in about 500 square miles. “Our fighters have reached the Euphrates after liberating a large area from ISIS groups,” the SDF said in a statement on Tuesday. SDF troops on Sunday reached the bank of the Euphrates River southwest of the village of Tiyasah, which splits up the Islamic States’ territory between its stronghold in Raqqa and other IS-held territory. The SDF hopes to seize the villages of Haniyah, Bir Zaher, Karawan, Bir Zayed, and Toyhana to further expand the buffer zone.
Dec. 21, 2016
Headline: Iraq bomb attack targets Iranian Kurdish opposition party
Seven people have been killed and 15 wounded in a bomb attack on the offices of an Iranian Kurdish opposition party in northern Iraq, security sources say. A parked motorcycle and an explosive device were detonated late on Tuesday next to the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in Koy Sanjaq, east of Irbil. The attack took place as party members celebrated the winter solstice. It was not immediately clear who was behind the blasts. Jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State (IS), whom Kurdish forces are battling in northern Iraq, have carried out similar attacks in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region. But the PDKI, which has been striving for decades for autonomy for predominantly Kurdish areas in north-western Iran, has also been involved in armed clashes with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Fighting near the Iraqi border in June and July left several dead on both sides.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38390417
Turkey
Headline: EU offers Turkey deeper trade ties despite political tensions
The European Commission proposed on Wednesday an expansion of its customs union with Turkey to include services and most agricultural goods despite increased political tensions with Ankara since an attempted military coup in July. The Commission, in a positive gesture after months of criticism of Ankara, said it had asked EU governments to endorse its bid to revamp a limited 1996 accord that eliminated tariffs on trade in industrial goods and processed farm products. The customs union was long seen as a precursor to eventual EU membership for Turkey, but accession talks launched in 2005 moved very slowly amid concerns over human rights and other issues. Those concerns have increased sharply since Turkey’s large-scale purges of state institutions following the failed coup, prompting calls for the membership talks to be frozen. One EU official cast the plans for an updated trade deal, which will include sustainable development policies and public procurement, as a way to retain influence over a geopolitically important candidate country and neighbor. Under the deal, the EU envisages an annual increase of its exports to Turkey, its fifth largest trading partner, worth 27 billion euros ($28.21 billion) and a rise in Turkish exports to the bloc of 5 billion euros, particularly useful as Turkey’s economy slows. The EU is Turkey’s largest trading partner.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-turkey-trade-idUSKBN14A1KF
Iran
Headline: Iran to begin gas injection into new, advanced centrifuges
Iran’s nuclear energy agency indicated Tuesday that Tehran would soon begin injecting gas into the latest generation of advanced centrifuges, IR-8, in a move that marks the next step to make them operational and that Iran says is permitted under the terms of the nuclear deal signed last year with six world powers. “The IR8 tests have come to an end and they will go into the stage of gas injection in the next few weeks,” a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Behrouz Kamalvandi, announced at a press conference on Tuesday, according to the semi-official Fars new agency. The report added that this step will proceed in accordance with “the nuclear deal that allows research activities on the eighth generation of Iran’s centrifuge machines, known as the IR-8.”
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-to-begin-gas-injection-into-new-advanced-centrifuges/
Afghanistan
Headline: China, Britain issue statement on Afghanistan in London
China and the United Kingdom (UK) issued a statement on Afghanistan Wednesday at the 8th China-UK Strategic Dialogue held in London, saying that the two countries remain committed to their long-term support for the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and its people. “The future security and stability of Afghanistan are of vital concern to us, and we will continue to work closely together and with the international community to achieve a prosperous future for Afghanistan,” the statement said. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to support an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led political settlement to the Afghan conflict. As members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, China and the UK would continue to support international efforts to assist the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces in bringing safety and security to Afghanistan. The two countries expressed sympathy with the Afghan victims of the conflict and remain deeply concerned over the increase in civilian casualties. The two sides also paid tribute to the efforts and sacrifices of the international community, including the UN-mandated international security forces, for the peace and reconstruction of Afghanistan. Both sides, along with the government of Afghanistan, agreed to establish trilateral cooperation. On infrastructure development, “we plan to bring together Afghan, British and Chinese expertise to support the development of Afghan institutions and improve delivery of much-needed infrastructure,” the statement said.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1025034.shtml
Ethiopia
Headline: Ethiopia releasing nearly 10,000 detained under state of emergency
Ethiopia said Wednesday it is releasing nearly 10,000 people detained under its ongoing state of emergency but plans to charge almost 2,500 others accused of destabilizing the country. Deputy government spokesman Zadig Abraha told The Associated Press that 9,800 people were being freed. “They have been given lots of trainings … so that they won’t be part of the destructive trend that we have seen in the past,” Zadig said. This East African country declared the state of emergency in October after nearly a year of anti-government protests that human rights groups say left hundreds dead. It was some of the country’s worst violence since Ethiopia’s ruling party came to power in 1991. Rights groups have accused the government of using excessive force. Most of the detainees are from the restive Oromia and Amhara regions. The government has said that under the state of emergency, people detained could be sent to rehabilitation centers without charges.
Dec. 21, 2016
Sudan
Headline: Japan resisting frustrated U.S. lobbying for South Sudan arms embargo
After threatening South Sudan with a U.N. arms embargo to encourage steps toward peace, the United States wants to impose the measure, but the 15-member Security Council is split and Washington cannot even convince ally Japan. U.S. frustration with Tokyo’s resistance to an embargo and additional targeted sanctions spilled over on Monday when Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, publicly questioned the reluctance of Japan, which last month deployed troops to a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. “It’s a highly questionable logic to think that the way to keep your peacekeepers safe is to not support an arms embargo,” Power told reporters. “Why would it be good for your peacekeepers to have a government whose people are starving spend what little money it has on weapons – large weapons systems – instead of on food?” she said. “It is in everyone’s interest, including the peacekeepers, for there to be fewer heavy weapons.” U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Japan privately expressed displeasure, describing Power’s remarks as “not helpful and counterproductive.”
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southsudan-security-un-idUSKBN1492OH
Libya
Headline: US military ends anti-ISIS operation in Libya’s Sirte
The US military has officially ended operations in a former ISIS bastion in Libya, officials announced Tuesday. The Pentagon had launched Operation Odyssey Lightning to help local forces push the militants from the coastal city of Sirte on August 1. “In partnership with the Libyan Government of National Accord, the operation succeeded in its core objective of enabling GNA-aligned forces to drive Daesh (ISIS) out of Sirte,” the US military’s Africa Command said in a statement. US drones, gunships and warplanes had hammered ISIS positions, conducting a total of 495 strikes. “We are proud to have supported this campaign to eliminate ISIL’s hold over the only city it has controlled outside Iraq and Syria,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters, using an alternative ISIS acronym. Officials said the United States would continue to strike ISIS militants if the Libyan unity government asked for help in doing so. Unity government leader Fayez al-Sarraj on Saturday announced that military operations in Sirte were done, but IS still has fighters in Libya and on Sunday conducted a suicide attack in Benghazi.
Dec. 21, 2016
Tunisia
Headline: Tunisians protest murder blamed on Israel
Hundreds protested in Tunis on Tuesday over the murder of a Tunisian engineer last week that Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has blamed on Israel. Mohamed Zaouari, 49, was murdered at the wheel of his car outside his house in Tunisia’s second city Sfax on Thursday. He was hit by 20 bullets. Waving Tunisian and Palestinian flags, more than 200 protesters walked up a main thoroughfare in the Tunisian capital, an AFP correspondent said. “With our soul, with our blood, we will avenge you Palestine,” they chanted. Protester Mohammad Ammar said Zaouari was “a martyr with a capital M” and his murder was “a loss not only for Tunisia but also for Palestine and the Arab nation.”
Dec. 20, 2016
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1027176/middle-east
Morocco
Headline: EU Court says Western Sahara cannot apply to EU-Morocco deal
The European Union’s high court says EU agreements on closer ties and trade with Morocco should not apply to the disputed Western Sahara region, a decision which the Polisario Front independence movement claimed as a victory. The EU’s Court of Justice said Wednesday that any EU deal with Morocco should have specifically referred to the region and that the people there should have consented to being part of such an agreement if both sides wanted it included. The territory’s status is among the most sensitive topics in the North African kingdom. Morocco considers the vast mineral-rich Western Sahara as its “southern provinces” and fiercely defends against anything it considers a threat to its territorial integrity.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4896539,00.html
Luke 21:9-10
Matthew 24:6-7
Mark 13:7-8
Revelation 6:4
Revelation 6:8
Headline: California secession organizers say they’ve opened an embassy — in Moscow
California gained an embassy in Russia last weekend, at least in the eyes of those who have promised to seek a statewide vote on secession, nicknamed “Calexit,” in 2018. Louis Marinelli, a San Diego resident who is the leader of the group promoting an effort to turn the state into an independent country , organized the Moscow event that was publicized on social media. “We want to start laying the groundwork for a dialogue about an independent California joining the United Nations now,” he said in an email Monday. Marinelli is currently working as an English teacher in Russia, and said he is there working on immigration issues related to his wife, who is a Russian national. The effort faces the longest of odds, requiring not only initial approval by California voters in 2018 but a subsequent special election in 2019. Even if successful then, the proposal would have to pass difficult if not insurmountable legal obstacles. Marinelli said he’s not discouraged by the high hurdles. “All major social and political movements in this country take time and inevitably have to overcome failures and setbacks before they are ultimately successful,” he said.
Dec. 21, 2016
Headline: Obama bans oil drilling ‘permanently’ in millions of acres of ocean
Outgoing US President Barack Obama has permanently banned offshore oil and gas drilling in the “vast majority” of US-owned northern waters. Mr Obama designated areas in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans as “indefinitely off limits” to future leasing. The move is widely seen as an attempt to protect the region before Mr Obama leaves office in January. Supporters of president-elect Donald Trump could find it difficult to reverse the decision. Canada also committed to a similar measure in its own Arctic waters, in a joint announcement with Washington. The White House said the decision was for “a strong, sustainable and viable Arctic economy and ecosystem.” It cited native cultural needs, wildlife concerns, and the “vulnerability” of the region to oil spills as some of the reasons for the ban. But while Canada will review the move every five years, the White House insists Mr Obama’s declaration is permanent.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38387525
Headline: Homeland Security gave Somalis tour of airports’ secured areas, documents confirm
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security gave groups of Somalis comprehensive tours of secured areas in at least three major U.S. airports, according to newly released documents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The “community engagement tours,” which included security briefings, were held in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Columbus, Ohio. The records were released after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Judicial Watch. “The briefings provided to the Somali groups were so sensitive that in 14 instances the agency redacted portions of the records under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemption (B)(7)(e), the law-enforcement ‘risk circumvention’ exemption,” Judicial Watch said. Exemption 7(E) of the Freedom of Information Act “affords protection to all law enforcement information that would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law.” During a February 16, 2016, tour of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP), a Somali group was provided briefings of the Global Entry system, APC [Automated Passport Control] system, secondary screening procedures, baggage-screening procedures and given tours of the airport’s holding cells/interview rooms. “The U.S. government has been aware for years that Minnesota is a hotbed of Somali terrorist-cell activity. The behind-the-scenes tours and security briefings of the Minneapolis airport very well could have created a threat to public safety,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Dec. 20, 2016
Headline: Rights group says at least 26 killed in Congo protests
Security forces in Congo have killed at least 26 demonstrators and arrested scores more amid protests against President Joseph Kabila’s hold on power, a rights group says. Military and police forces were firing live bullets, raising fears that more people were killed in the first day after Kabila’s mandate expired, Human Rights Watch said. Its researcher Ida Sawyer said on Twitter late Tuesday that the killings took place in the capital, Kinshasa, the southern city of Lubumbashi and elsewhere. Residents told the group that Republican Guards were carrying out door-to-door searches and arresting youths. Protesters burned the headquarters of the ruling party in Kinshasa. Political talks between the ruling party and opposition, which stalled over the weekend, were expected to resume on Wednesday with mediators from the Catholic church.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/12/21/rights-group-says-at-least-26-killed-in-congo-protests.html
Headline: Protests erupt outside German Chancellor’s office
Crowds have gathered outside the Chancellory in Berlin just two days after the Berlin terror attack. Supporters of the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party are demonstrating outside Angela Merkel’s office. Placards reading “Merkel must go” are being waved in the crowd. Others read “protect borders” and “On Merkel’s hands is the blood of her people”. People are also holding placards with the logo of the far right Identitarian movement (Identitaere Bewegung) reading “It’s enough” and “How many times again”. It comes two days after 12 people were killed in the German capital when a lorry ploughed into a busy Christmas market. AfD party leader Franke Petry said Mrs Merekl is finished in the wake of the terror attack. She said the the country was no longer safe and “radical Islamic terrorism has struck in the heart of Germany” as ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacre. Ms Petry told the Telegraph: “This is a terrible day, but it is not completely unexpected given the warnings from the security authorities, including about the prospect of an attack on Berlin.
Dec. 21, 2016
Headline: Kremlin slams new U.S. sanctions, says may respond
Headline: Russia condemns Netherlands over US military cooperation
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that new sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States would damage relations between the two countries and that Moscow would respond with its own measures. “We regret that Washington is continuing on this destructive path,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. “We believe this damages bilateral relations … Russia will take commensurate measures.” The United States on Tuesday widened sanctions against Russian businessmen and companies adopted after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the conflict in Ukraine.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-sanctions-russia-kremlin-idUSKBN14A0XT
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4896540,00.html
Headline: Indonesia Police Kill 3 Suspected Militants, Defuse Bombs
Indonesian police said three suspected militants who were planning a holiday season suicide bombing were killed in a raid Wednesday on the outskirts of Jakarta in the second imminent attack to be foiled in less than two weeks. A residential neighborhood has been evacuated after several bombs were found in a house used by the men. Jakarta police chief Mochamad Iriawan said explosive experts had defused two bombs and were still in the house. The men planned to stage their attack on Christmas Day or New Year’s Eve, Iriawan said in a televised interview from the neighborhood. They were to stab police officers in order to attract a crowd and then detonate bombs, he said. The three men were killed in a gun battle with the police’s anti-terror squad after refusing an appeal from authorities to surrender and come out of the house in a leafy residential compound in Tangerang, a Jakarta satellite city.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.voanews.com/a/ap-indonesia-police-kill-3-suspected-militants/3644865.html
Headline: Putin VOWS to OBLITERATE ISIS after assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey
Headline: ISIS spreads locations of Russian embassies online to incite more attacks
Headline: ‘Ludicrous claim’: US denies involvement in assassination of Russian envoy to Turkey
He said the assassination of his country’s ambassador to Turkey was “clearly a provocation” and vowed vowed to make those responsible “feel the heat”. Mr Putin said this evening: “This murder is clearly a provocation aimed at undermining the improvement and normalisation of Russian-Turkish relations as well as undermining the peace process in Syria promoted by Russia, Turkey, Iran and other countries interested in solving this conflict in Syria. “The only response we should offer to this murder is stepping up our fight against terror. “The criminals will feel the heat. The Russian investigative committee has already launched an investigation into this killing and has been tasked with forming a working group that will fly to Ankara and join Turkish colleagues investigating this murder, something we agreed on in my phone conversation with the Turkish president just now. Meanwhile, The US roundly denied accusations of being involved in the killing of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, as Ankara links the chilling attack to Fethullah Gulen, a self-exiled Turkish cleric residing in Pennsylvania with Washington’s approval.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/745352/putin-russian-ambassador-turkey-ankara-assassination-isis
https://www.rt.com/news/371097-us-reject-claims-russian-ambassador/
Headline: North Korea prepares ballistic-missile sub for sea worthiness
North Korea’s GORAE-class, experimental, ballistic missile submarine may be preparing to put to sea, possibly heralding further testing of sea-launched ballistic missiles or SLBMs. North Korea has tested SLBMs from land and sea multiple times over the last two years. The most recent test possibly may have been in December of this year from a land-based test site. The netting that once covered the submarine and a submersible test barge has been removed, and North Korea also appears to have completed work on the land area along the waters, a “reconfiguration [that] will allow the stand to test missiles with engines larger than the KN-11 SLBM last tested in August,” reports the website, 38 North. “These two factors suggest that both [submarine and submersible test barge] may have recently been at sea or are preparing to go to sea in the near future.” “There are numerous reasons why the GORAE or test barge would be put to sea other than testing missiles or their components, such as certification of personnel or validation of repairs. Therefore, based on satellite imagery alone, it is not possible to determine whether a SLBM test is imminent.”
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/20/north-korea-prepares-ballistic-missile-subs-sea-wo/
Headline: China Seen Readying for Trade War During Trump Presidency
The possibility of a trade war between the United States and China loomed large over the horizon after the U.S. electoral college confirmed Donald Trump’s presidency on Monday. China is expected to take a series of defensive and retaliatory measures to counter any U.S. moves to restrict the role of Chinese goods and currency movements in the American economy, as Trump has promised to do. “In the event of a trade war with the United States, China’s response would go well beyond tariff increases,” said Mark Williams, Chief Asia Economist for Capital Economics. “U.S. companies would find their products and operations in China subject to tighter regulation that hampered their capacity to do business there.” “U.S. exports of cars and aircraft would be in the firing line,” he said. China might also subject U.S. companies to tighter regulation that hampers their capacity to do business. Beijing may also encourage its exporters by offering tax rebates to overcome any reduction in export demand in the U.S., Williams said. In informal discussions, Chinese officials say there is a lot of uncertainty about how the new U.S. president will handle relations with China, and preparations are being made to deal with varied scenarios.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.voanews.com/a/china-trade-trump/3643830.html
Headline: E. China city reports new human H7N9 case
A new human H7N9 avian flu case was reported in Xiamen City, east China’s Fujian Province, local authorities said Wednesday. The patient, a 44-year-old man from Siming District of Xiamen, was confirmed to have the virus on Sunday. He is being treated in hospital and is stable condition, the city’s diseases prevention and control center said. The district government has ordered a halt to poultry sales in the district as of Thursday to reduce the risk of infection. H7N9 is a bird flu strain first reported to have infected humans in March 2013 in China. It is most likely to strike in winter and spring.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-12/21/c_135923681.htm
Headline: Thousands gather at Stonehenge to celebrate the shortest day of the year
Thousands of people, including pagans and druids dressed in traditional clothing, gathered at Stonehenge to celebrate the shortest day of the year. Spectators gazed up at the sky to witness the beginning of the winter solstice, the point at which the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. Some people offered prayers to gods, while others sounded trumpets, drums and other musical instruments. Visitors were seen rejoicing and embracing each other and kissing the stones, as the sun rose over Stonehenge at 8.13am. Kate Davies from English Heritage, which looks after the prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, said: “We were delighted to welcome approximately 5,000 people to Stonehenge to celebrate winter solstice this morning. “It was a very enjoyable and peaceful celebration and the ancient stone circle was filled with the sound of drumming and chanting.” Although the entire day is typically considered to be the solstice, the precise moment it occurs is when the sun is directly over the line marking the latitude stretching across the southern hemisphere – the Tropic of Capricorn.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/746044/Stonehenge-celebration-shortest-day-druids-pagans
Headline: Ephemeral antimatter atoms pinned down in milestone laser test
Headline: First test of rival to Einstein’s gravity kills off dark matter
In a technical tour-de-force, physicists have made the first measurements of how antimatter atoms absorb light. Researchers at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory outside Geneva, trained an ultraviolet laser on antihydrogen, the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen. They measured the frequency of light needed to jolt a positron — an antielectron — from its lowest energy level to the next level up, and found no discrepancy with the corresponding energy transition in ordinary hydrogen. The null result is still a thrill for researchers who have been working for decades towards antimatter spectroscopy, the study of how light is absorbed and emitted by antimatter. The hope is that this field could provide a new test of a fundamental symmetry of the known laws of physics, called CPT (charge-parity-time) symmetry.
“It is amazing that one can control antimatter to an extent that this is possible,” says Michael Peskin, a theoretical physicist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California.
Dec. 19, 2016
Headline: Naples astride a rumbling mega-volcano
A slumbering Campi Flegrei volcano under the Italian city of Naples shows signs of “reawakening” and may be nearing a critical pressure point, according to a study published Tuesday. Italian and French scientists have for the first time identified a threshold beyond which rising magma under the Earth’s surface could trigger the release of fluids and gases at a 10-fold increased rate. This would cause the injection of high-temperature steam into surrounding rocks, said lead author Giovanni Chiodini, a researcher at Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Bologna. “Hydrothermal rocks, if heated, can ultimately lose their mechanical resistance, causing an acceleration towards critical conditions,” he told AFP by email. It is not possible at this time to say when — or if — the volcano will erupt anew, he said. If it did, however, “it would be very dangerous” for the half-million people living inside and near the caldera, he added, using the scientific name for the bowl-like depression created after a volcano blows its top.
Dec. 21, 2016
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/naples-astride-a-rumbling-mega-volcano/ar-BBxnKLC
Headline: Rare Sahara Desert Snow in Algeria
Snowflakes had been seen briefly only once in recorded history in the Sahara Desert at Ain Sefra, Algeria, and that was in 1979 — until this Monday. This time, snow fell all day and accumulated on the ground. There are no official weather stations in that town, but this is the weather map (GFS Initialization) for Tuesday morning, showing temperatures of 35 degrees in the area. Farther north in Algeria and Morocco, temperatures were below freezing. Snow is unusual, but not rare, in those areas. A map of low temperatures this month in the region shows 37 at Bechar Ouakda Airport, to the Southwest of Ain Sefra, but 30 to the north and west.
Dec. 21, 2016
All earthquakes are instantly posted to the ETRM Facebook page- you do not need to sign up; click the photo below to see the earthquake album ***beginning November 29, 2016, earthquakes of a 5.0 magnitude and higher will be posted
~click the photo to see ALL the maps of the large earthquakes for the current year~
Headline: What’s shaking? 
List & map of USGS Earthquakes~Click the shaking house~