Download The Last Chronicles of Planet Earth March 27 2017 Edition written by Frank DiMora
Mar 29
March 29, 2017- IS Threatens Iran in Persian Language Video
Bible prophecy documentary book download proving our generation will see the return of the Lord. Do you want to know what is going to happen in the future before it actually takes place? The Word of God provides you with specific details about our future and all of these things are coming to pass in this generation. If you aren’t saved yet this is a must read! The Last Chronicles of Planet Earth March 27, 2017 Edition written by Frank DiMora
How to Add the Last Chronicles to your Electronic Device
~Scroll down for all the news; be sure to CLICK on the photos next to the prophecy sign for all Bible verses & videos ~
Headline: Israel to withhold $2 million in UN payments in protest
Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Foreign Ministry to cut $ 2 million from Israel’s payments to the UN, in light of hostile proposals adopted by the UN Human Rights Council a few days ago. This amount will be used to deepen and expand Israeli projects in the field of international assistance and will be invested in developing countries that support Israel in international institutions. This decision is part of an Israeli campaign together with allies and headed by the United States, to correct the obsessive discrimination against Israel at the UN and its agencies.
March 29, 2017
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4942483,00.html
Headline: US Planning Unprecedented Peace Summit Between Israel, Palestinians, Arab States: Report
Headline: New PLO ambassador to US has high hopes for Trump era
Headline: US President asks Alan Dershowitz to deliver message to Netanyahu
The Trump administration is reportedly exploring whether or not to hold an Israeli-Palestinian peace summit that would be attended by Arab leaders from the Gulf states. According to Israeli sources quoted by the Jerusalem Post, U.S. officials are quietly looking into the possibility of the summit, but no formal plans have been made. The report added if the summit were to take place, leaders from the Arab Gulf states would join their Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts alongside Israeli officials in public, which would be an unprecedented move. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has demonstrated that he is interested in reviving the peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis, incoming PLO Ambassador to the United States Husam Zomlot told journalists ahead of his departure for Washington. Zomlot, who is flying from Jordan to Washington on Wednesday, spoke to a small group of journalists at a Ramallah hotel last week about the Trump administration and the possibility of reviving the peace process.
March 29, 2017
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/New-PA-ambassador-to-US-has-high-hopes-for-Trump-era-485491
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/227475
Headline: Arab summit to endorse Palestinian positions with eye on US
Headline: At Arab Summit, Abbas Demands Britain Apologize for Balfour Declaration
Arab leaders are gathering for an annual summit where the call for Palestinian statehood is to take center stage. The summit on Wednesday is expected to endorse key Palestinian positions, signaling to President Donald Trump ahead of White House meetings with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan that a deal on Palestinian statehood must precede any Israeli-Arab normalization. The Palestinian issue also serves as a showcase for Arab unity in a fractured region, where leaders often find themselves on opposite sides of long-running conflicts. Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the Arab states to endorse the Palestinian position on statehood and demanded the United Kingdom apologize for granting the Balfour declaration.
March 29, 2017
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1075906/middle-east
http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/1.780220
Headline: Report: Hamas develops new ‘high-powered’ rocket akin to Hezbollah projectiles
Hamas has produced several dozen short-range rockets that can carry a relatively heavy explosive load, Army Radio reported Tuesday. The report described the rocket as “completely different than any weaponry we know from the direction of the Gaza Strip, regarding the weight of the explosive payload.” According to the report, in the event of a future conflict between Israel and Hamas, the new rocket would have the most effect on the Israeli communities bordering the Gaza Strip. Weapons smuggling into the Hamas-run enclave from the Sinai Peninsula has decreased due to the group’s efforts to improve ties with Egypt, leading Hamas to invest in producing its own rockets. Hamas has boasted of its growing arsenal, testing its stockpile on an almost regular basis since the conclusion of 2014’s Operation Protective Edge.
March 28, 2017
Jordan
Headline: UN chief echoes Jordan’s condemnation of ‘settlement activities’
Addressing this year’s Arab League Summit in Amman, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said there can be no peace between Israel and the Palestinians without a two-state solution to the conflict. “There can be no peace nor stability in the region without a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause, the core issue of the Middle East, based on the two-state solution,” Abdullah stated. Moreover, the Jordanian king accused Israel of working to “undermine chances for peace” with its “continued settlement expansion” in Judea and Samaria. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, who also addressed the summit on Wednesday, echoed Abdullah’s remarks. “The two-state solution is the only path to ensure that Palestinians and Israelis can realize their national aspirations and live in peace, security and dignity,” he declared. “There is no Plan B.” “That is why it is important to stop all unilateral actions that can undermine the two-state solution,” he continued. “This is particularly true in relation to the need to stop settlement activities, which are illegal under international law.”
March 29, 2017
https://worldisraelnews.com/king-stooge-say-blah-blah/
Lebanon
Headline: Syrian Army, Hezbollah foil Al-Nusra infiltration attempt near Lebanon’s border
The Syrian Army and the Lebanese Shi’ite paramilitary group, Hezbollah, have foiled an al-Nusra infiltration attempt. The pro-Syrian government forces discovered the terrorist fighters attempting to sneak close to a militrary check point in Jaroud Flita area in western Qalamoun, near the Syria-Lebanon border. The attackers were spotted as they were traveling towards the checkpoint. Pro-government forces targeted, killed and wounded dozens of terrorist fightersm including a field commander. The failed attack and powerful assault by the the Syrian Army and Hezbollah forced al-Nusra to retreat back, ruining their plan to take the checkpoint.
March 29, 2017
Saudi Arabia
Headline: Saudi Arabia shoots down ‘smuggled’ Yemen rebel missiles
Headline: Yemeni Army rocks Saudi airport with medium-range missiles
Headline: Houthi rebels in Yemen threatening strategic strait: US official
Saudi Arabia intercepted four missiles fired by Yemeni rebels on Tuesday, a Saudi-led coalition said, in what it described as evidence of arms smuggling through a rebel-held Red Sea port. The coalition has said previously that it destroyed much of the Shiite rebels’ missile capability early in its two-year-old bombing campaign and says persistent launches show they are receiving new deliveries from abroad. “Early this morning, four missiles were intercepted,” the coalition said. “The ongoing missile attacks on Saudi cities provide clear evidence of the arms smuggling that continues to take place in Yemen, notably through the port of Hodeida.”
March 29, 2017
http://jordantimes.com/news/region/saudi-arabia-shoots-down-smuggled%E2%80%99-yemen-rebel-missiles
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/yemeni-army-rocks-saudi-airport-medium-range-missiles/
Headline: Syrian army captures Islamic State village near Aleppo
The Syrian army captured the small town of Deir Hafer east of Aleppo from Islamic State on Wednesday, a Syrian military source said, part of its operations to drive back the jihadist group and consolidate its control in that area. It was the site of an important Islamic State headquarters and contained a command and control center, an arms manufacturing site, field hospitals and highly engineered fortifications, the source said. The army surrounded and besieged it days ago as part of its campaign to recapture the areas to the east of Aleppo, including an important water supply facility for the city that it took earlier this month, and a military airbase. Turkey-backed rebels who oppose the Syrian army have also seized a pocket of territory along the Turkish frontier to the north of Deir Hafer. A U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, the Syrian Democratic Forces, has captured swathes of land east of the Euphrates and is working to isolate Islamic State’s bastion of Raqqa, which it expects to assault in early April.
March 29, 2017
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-army-idUSKBN1702B0
Headline: Russian Embassy in Damascus being shelled by militants in Jobar
Militants of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization are shelling the Russian embassy in Damascus from the Jobar and Qaboun districts, Head of Russia’s General Staff Main Operations Department Colonel-General Sergei Rudskoi said on Tuesday according to TASS. “The situation in the area of the city’s quarters of Jobar and Qaboun controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra groups remains tense. Precisely from these areas mortar fire continues to be delivered on the Syrian capital’s residential quarters, including the Russian embassy,” Rudskoi said. “The situation is developing far better in another Damascus suburb, in East Qalamoun, where opposition formations who have signed a truce agreement are successfully interacting with the Syrian army,” the general added. “Representatives of the bodies of power and leaders of self-defense groups of most populated areas in that district have signed agreements on joining the ceasefire. Under the agreement, government troops are not committed to these towns and settlements,” the general said.
March 29, 2017
Headline: Syrian Army overruns jihadi groups in northern Hama
The Syrian government forces – backed by local fighters and Russian Air Force – managed to curb the advance made by jihadi groups in northern Hama countryside and began a decisive counter-offensive to recover the lost villages and towns. Today, the government troops recaptured al-Shiha Hiltop located to the north of al-Shiha town, thus paving the way to re-open the strategic Hama-Mahardah road. To the east, jihadi rebels were forced to retreat from the al-Samman Hilltop (Point 50) located to the north of Qamhana, a government-controlled town which has been the main target for rebels for the last few days. Meanwhile, Syrian and Russian fighter jets conducted heavy airstrikes on rebel positions in Halfaya and Al-Lataminah; both towns serve as the launch-pad for rebel forces to attack the Christian city of Mahardah.
March 29, 2017
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-syrian-army-overruns-jihadi-groups-northern-hama/
Headline: Iraqi forces liberate Mosul Stadium amid latest push against ISIL
Headline: Over 280 Iraqi security forces members killed in west Mosul
Headline: Campaign for Mosul March 17 – 29, 2017
The Iraqi Armed Forces took contro of more territory in western Mosul, today, after engagng a large Islamic State (ISIL) unit inside the provincial capital’s historical district. According to local activists, the Iraqi Armed Forces liberated the Mosul Stadium and Qadib l-Ban area of the provincial capita, killing and wounding several Islamic State terrorists in the process of this latest advance. In addition to this advance, the Iraqi Armed Forces are still pushing inside the Old Mosul and Yarmouk districts, where ISIL is attempting to make their last major stand.
March 29, 2017
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/iraqi-forces-liberate-mosul-stadium-amid-latest-push-isil/
http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/campaign-mosul-march-17-29-2017
Headline: Turkmen protest raising Kurdish flag in Kirkuk
Headline: US-led coalition has no intention to create federal Kurdish state in Syria: official
Turkmen protested on Wednesday at Kirkuk province against raising of the Kurdish flag above official facilities in the province, deeming the measure as “illegal” and unilateral. According to Alsumaria News, the demonstrators protested near the province’s administrative building raising Iraqi and Turkmen flags. They also raised banners reading “No for unconstitutional decisions” and “Turkmens reject the governor’s decision on raising the Kurdish flag on facilities” Protesters also said they would submit an official memorandum to the administration of the province against the decision. On Tuesday, Kirkuk provincial council voted yes on the decision by governor Najmaddin Karim to install the Kurdistan flag alongside the Iraqi flag on the government buildings in the city, a decision that was condemned by Iraqi Vice President Osama al-Nujaifi, who described it as ‘breach of national unity’ Twenty-six out of 40 members of Kirkuk’s council voted for the controversial measure, in the absence of Arab and Turkmen representatives. Two weeks ago, the governor issued directives to raise the Kurdish flag beside the Iraqi flag at all government facilities and on national occasions. Kirkuk is one area where Kurdistan region disputes sovereignty with Iraq.
March 29, 2017
http://www.iraqinews.com/features/turkmens-protest-raising-kurdish-flag-kirkuk/
Turkey
Headline: Turkey suddenly ends Euphrates shield invasion of Syria
Headline: US Secretary of State to Visit Ankara at a Critical Time
The Turkish National Security Council Wednesday night announced the end of the ‘Euphrates Shield’ military campaign in northern Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was present. “It was noted that the ‘Euphrates Shield’ operation which was started with the goal of ensuring national security, preventing the threat from Daesh and return of Syrian refugees to their homes has successfully completed,” the statement by the Turkish National Security Council read. DEBKAfile: It remains to be seen when and how quickly Ankara pulls back the Turkish army’s armed, artillery, engineering and infantry brigades from northern Syria which they invaded in August 2016.
March 29, 2017
http://debka.com/newsupdatepopup/20235/Turkey-suddenly-ends-Euphrates-shield-invasion-of-Syria
http://www.voanews.com/a/us-secretary-of-state-to-visit-ankara-at-a-critical-time/3786364.html
Iran
Headline: IS Threatens Iran in Persian Language Video
Islamic State has issued a video threatening Iran and promising to conquer the country soon. The 36-minute, Persian-language video is aimed at Iran’s Sunni Muslim minority and accuses Tehran of persecuting them. But analysts said the intention behind the video released late Monday may be a desperate effort to show that IS, at its weakest since its declaration of a caliphate in June 2014, is still a potent force. “IS was not successful in recruiting Iranian Sunnis when it was at its peak, and such an outreach now seems to be the struggles of a sinking body,” said Alex Vatanka, a senior analyst at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. Iran is deeply involved in efforts by Iraq and Syria to rout Islamic State from their territory, providing Shi’ite militias with funding and equipment. Since 2012, Iran has acted as a major ally of the Syrian regime in Damascus, backing Syrian troops in their war with rebel groups across the country. At times, Iranian forces have been in battles with IS fighters in Syria, according to reports. The video, narrated and hosted by several Persian speakers with heavy Baloch accents, alleges more than 18,000 Iranian Sunnis have been executed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. One of the speakers urges Sunnis to join the group “to defend their dignity and regain back the pride taken away by Iranian Shia authorities.”
March 28, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/islamic-state-threatens-iran-persian-language-video/3785617.html
Headline: All 15 Arab Summit resolutions blast Iran
All 15 resolutions passed by the Arab summit which took place in Jordan Wednesday, March 29, were devoted to an indictment of Iran, its Revolutionary Guards Corps and Lebanese surrogate, Hizballah. They were a testament to the depth of Arab-Iranian animosity and exposed the extent of the rift between the Sunni and Shiite Muslim worlds. Iran was accused of meddling in the internal affairs of Arab nations, inciting Shiites against Sunnis, and arming and training Shiite terrorist groups for operations against legitimate Arab governments. The Arab rulers combined to put Tehran in the dock for its interference in the Syrian civil war and assault on its sovereignty. None of the formal resolutions addressed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. As debkafile reported earlier, this issue is the subject of active exchanges between the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. King Abdullah of Jordan, who hosted the summit and Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi will travel to Washington to report to President Donald Trump on the private discussions on this issue at the session and launch the next stage of the Arab-Israeli peace initiative.
March 29, 2017
http://debka.com/article/25985/All-15-Arab-Summit-resolutions-blast-Iran
Afghanistan
Headline: Afghan Governor Says US Marines’ Deployment Will Reverse Taliban Gains
Headline: Russia, Iran urge dialogue between Afghanistan, Taliban
Headline: Afghan Taliban lists ‘Percent of Country under the control of Mujahideen’
Afghan officials appear confident a planned deployment of about 300 U.S. Marines will help local forces reverse insurgent gains in the embattled southern province of Helmand. Backed by airpower, the Afghan National Army has intensified offensive operations in the largest Afghan poppy-growing province, after the Taliban captured the strategically important district center of Sangin last week, although government officials continue to dispute the claim. Afghan forces in overnight operations are reported to have killed dozens of insurgents and destroyed several narcotics-producing factories in Helmand. The provincial governor, Hayatullah Hayat, says national security forces are prepared, and better placed this year to beat back the Taliban. They already have cleared areas around the provincial capital of Lashkargah and nearby districts. Hayat sounded upbeat about a planned deployment of Marines in Helmand, saying it will boost local efforts to evict the Taliban, which is currently in control of most of the province.
March 29, 2017
Sudan
Headline: Bashir bans Egyptians from entering Sudan
Egyptians have been banned from entering Sudan under a presidential decree which comes into effect immediately. No reason has been given for the decision passed by President Omar Hassan Al Bashir. The ban excludes Egyptian nationals who already have visas to enter the country. The decision is set to increase the tension between the two countries and it follows Sudan accusing Egyptian media of ridiculing and disparaging its historical heritage. The row broke out following an official visit by the Qatari Princess, Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser Al-Missned, which included a trip to the Sudanese pyramids in Merowe in the north of the country. The State of Qatar made a large donation to help Sudan renovate and maintain the 4,600-year-old monuments. However, in response to the visit, sections of the Egyptian media cast doubt on whether Sudan’s Kushite civilisation could have built the pyramids without Egyptian assistance. Last week, the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Professor Ibrahim Ghandour, and his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shukri, issued a joint statement appealing for calm and respect between the two nations. The two minister are scheduled to meet in Khartoum early next month. There has been no official response from the Egyptian government.
March 29, 2017
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170329-bashir-bans-egyptians-from-entering-sudan/
Libya
Headline: Struggle for control of Libya’s oil threatens to deepen conflicts
Headline: US sees a resurgent Russian military expanding into Afghanistan, Libya
A power struggle for control of Libya’s oil is threatening to deepen splits in the country and undermine the fragile authority of the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord, the GNA. The battle has forced the politically neutral chairman of the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) to warn the GNA that it has overstepped its authority both by closing the oil ministry and by trying to take over some of the NOC’s role. The attack by Libyan oil boss Mustafa Sanalla’s may weaken already fraying international support for the Tripoli-based GNA led by Fayed Al Serraj. In a deeply divided country, Sanalla is one of the few public figures treated with respect by all sides. Ambassadors from the five countries with permanent seats on the UN security council issued a rare joint statement on Saturday siding with Sanalla and warning all sides to show retraint, stressing that “the petroleum infrastructure, production and export revenues belong to all the Libyan people and must remain under the stewardship of the NOC”. The ambassadors regard the retention of an apolitical functioning national body responsible for administering Libya’s vast oil revenues as critical to preventing the breakup of the country.
March 29, 2017
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/28/politics/russia-afghanistan-libya-syria/
Morocco
Headline: Governor fired as new violence hits Morocco province
Moroccan authorities fired a provincial governor after angry protesters clashed with police leaving dozens of officers reportedly injured, an interior ministry source told AFP. The disturbances were the latest to rock the northern province of Al-Hoceima since the death of a local fishmonger in a garbage truck last October sparked nationwide protests. Governor Mohammed Zhar was fired during a visit to Hoceima on Tuesday by Interior Minister Mohamed Hassad, the ministry source said. His dismissal was intended to “clear the air” and “meet residents’ expectations for the region’s development”, the source added. During Sunday’s disturbances, stone-throwing protesters attacked a police barracks outside Al-Hoceima then set fire to adjacent buildings. Provincial authorities said they made 14 arrests but said nothing about the identity or motives of the protesters. Moroccan newspapers reported that several dozen police were injured, six of them seriously, after officers were trapped by the blaze and several jumped from the roof to escape the flames. There was no official confirmation of the casualty toll.
March 29, 2017
http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/governor-fired-as-new-violence-hits-morocco-province-20170329
Armenia
Headline: Armenia Looks to Buy Russian Arms to Counter Azeri Military Potential
Armenia is interested in buying weaponry from Russia as deterrence against Azerbaijan’s growing military potential, Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan said Wednesday. In February, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that the presence of the Russian military base in Armenia is Moscow’s and Yerevan’s business, but Baku is taking it into account. “We are interested in military equipment that could balance Azerbaijan’s growing [military] arsenals and prevent the use of a number of weapons systems deployed on combat duty in Azerbaijan,” Sargsyan told reporters. The Erebuni base was formed in 1995 and the MiG-29 Fulcrum multirole fighters were deployed there in 1998, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. In July 2001, the units at Erebuni were incorporated into an air division of the Russian 102nd Military Base in Gyumri, Armenia. Russia has reinforced its military base in Armenia with attack and transport helicopters, the Defense Ministry said earlier.
March 29, 2017
https://sputniknews.com/military/201703291052093010-armenia-azerbaijan-russian-arms/
Headline: Report: North Korea Increasing Activity at Nuclear Test Site
Increased activity at North Korea’s main nuclear test site during the past few days could mean the country is in final preparations for a sixth nuclear bomb test, according to a report from the U.S.-Korea Institute. 38 North, a website published by the U.S.-based think tank, released photos of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site taken March 28 that show vehicles moving around the area and water being pumped from a tunnel, likely to keep it dry for communications and monitoring equipment. In a statement released with the photos, the group said the activity is “consistent with previous reports,” though it noted a large, new contingent of people “standing in formation” in the base’s administrative area. The statement said, “Such a gathering has not been seen since January 4, 2013, which was followed by a nuclear test on February 12.” According to 38 North, the North Koreans generally try to avoid activity when they know satellites are passing overhead, so for the satellites to capture images of them in formation “suggests that Pyongyang is sending a political message.” During the weekend, the website reported the possibility of vehicles and trailers at the site being used to install a nuclear device for an underground test.
March 29, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/report-north-korea-increasing-activity-nuclear-test-site/3786874.html
Headline: The Transformation Of Our Nation Into A Surveillance State Is Almost Complete
Headline: House pulls the plug on internet privacy rules
The headlines are awash with the recent tensions with North Korea, and most are focused intently upon this act of the play that has been running hot for several years, now. Akin to the proverbial frog in cold water, however, we are not paying as much attention to the surveillance state that is continuing to wrap its tentacles around us. Eurasia is our ally, Eastasia is our enemy…and nobody notices that the chocolate ration has been diminished. While everyone focuses on what is reported in the headline news, everybody misses what is happening right before their eyes. Point of Sale is the new jail, the ubiquitous surveillance system that records your every purchase and stores it in a personal database…an algorithm…in the government storage facility in Utah. Look above that register. It doesn’t matter whether you have a debit or credit purchase or not. Paying cash? Your anonymity only lasts until your image is captured in the little black dome camera right above your head…right next to the register. The sale is recorded, as well as your image. Now the biometrics are becoming advanced enough to be able to measure the spacing between your eyes, the shapes of the ears, and other idiosyncrasies that are peculiar to each individual. But these differences do not matter, as long as they can be catalogued. All the states pretty much have Real ID, now, with driver’s licenses all linked into a central database and passed through the fusion centers and police departments at local, state, and national level. 1984 is now.
March 28, 2017
https://www.cnet.com/news/house-votes-to-repeal-internet-privacy-rules-broadband-fcc/
Headline: Article 50: UK set to formally trigger Brexit process
Headline: Scottish lawmakers back independence referendum call
Theresa May has signed the letter that will formally begin the UK’s departure from the European Union. Giving official notice under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, it will be delivered to European Council president Donald Tusk later. In a statement in the Commons, the prime minister will then tell MPs this marks “the moment for the country to come together”. It follows June’s referendum which resulted in a vote to leave the EU. Mrs May’s letter will be delivered at 12:20 BST on Wednesday by the British ambassador to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow. Meanwhile, Scottish lawmakers voted Tuesday to seek a new referendum on independence, presenting the British government with an unwelcome distraction as it prepares to push the European Union exit button. The Edinburgh-based legislature voted 69-59 to ask the U.K. government to sanction an independence vote that would be held within the next two years. Outside, several dozen independence supporters bearing Scottish and EU flags broke into cheers and tears of joy as they heard the news.
March 29, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-39422353
Headline: Price of imported fruit and vegetables ‘will rise by up to 8% after Brexit’
Headline: Fruit and veg prices skyrocket in Algeria
Fruit and vegetables, flowers and olive oil will all become more expensive once the UK leaves the EU, no matter what trade deal is struck, City analysts have calculated. The price of food imported from the EU is likely to rise by up to 8% by the end of any transitional period as Britain is forced to impose extra border controls, making it more difficult to bring in foods that we cannot produce ourselves. Last year the UK imported food and agriculture products worth £47.5bn , of which 71% were from EU nations. The most valuable imports include Dutch and Spanish fruit, vegetables and flowers as well as French wine. Harry Smit, a senior analyst at Rabobank and author of Future Food Security in the UK: the Impact of the Brexit on Food and Agribusiness in Europe and Beyond, said: “UK consumers should brace themselves for some price rises – perhaps by as much as 8% – on those products for which Britain is almost solely reliant on the EU.”
March 29, 2017
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/mar/29/brexit-fruit-vegetable-prices-uk-eu
http://www.freshplaza.com/article/173083/Fruit-and-veg-prices-skyrocket-in-Algeria
March 22, 2017 – Bird flu confirmed in 3 Southern states, including Kentucky
http://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Bird-flu-confirmed-in-3-Southern-states-including-Kentucky-416834273.html
March 22, 2017 – Yellow fever killing thousands of monkeys in Brazil
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170322155611.htm
March 22, 2017 – Thousands of dead fish have been washing ashore on Mallacoota beaches, New South Wales
http://www.naroomanewsonline.com.au/story/4548520/wave-of-dead-fish-washing-up-at-mallacoota/?cs=3843
March 23, 2017 – Hundreds of birds found dead in Zihuatanejo beach Mexico
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fguerrero.quadratin.com.mx%2Fhallan-muertas-cientos-aves-playa-zihuatanejo%2F&edit-text=&act=url
March 23, 2017 – Thousands of dead fish in a lagoon in Villa Mercedes, San Luis Argentina
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdzol.com%2Fvideo%2F724924-sorpresa-en-san-luis-por-la-aparicion-de-miles-de-peces-muertos%2F
March 24, 2017 – Official Says 80 Percent of Livestock Dead in Somaliland
http://www.voanews.com/a/official-says-80-percent-of-livestock-dead-in-somaliland/3780112.html
March 26, 2017 – Bird flu toll in Miyagi, Chiba Japan to 270,000 chickens
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/03/26/national/bird-flu-toll-miyagi-chiba-kept-270000-chickens/
March 27, 2017 – Massive die off of fish in fish farm in Hengxian, China
https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.gxnews.com.cn%2Fstaticpages%2F20170327%2Fnewgx58d8b4d9-16055183.shtml&edit-text=&act=url
March 27, 2017 – Dead turtles appear in Tiscapa Lagoon, Nicaragua
https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tn8.tv%2Fnacionales%2F415881-nicaragua-muerte-tortugas-tiscapa-podria-algas%2F&edit-text=&act=url
March 27, 2017 – Thousands of fish die in reservoir in Chiclayo, Peru
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Frpp.pe%2Fperu%2Flambayeque%2Fmiles-de-peces-murieron-en-reservorio-tras-lluvias-en-chiclayo-noticia-1039798&edit-text=&act=url
March 27, 2017 – Bird flu confirmed in Georgia; 18,000 birds destroyed
http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/35004532/bird-flu-confirmed-in-ga-18000-birds-destroyed
March 27, 2017 – Over 13,000 birds dead due to bird flu on Chiayi Taiwan poultry farm
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201703270029.aspx
Headline: Meningitis outbreak kills nearly 270 in Nigeria: officials
Nearly 270 people, most of them children, have died in the past five months during the latest meningitis outbreak to hit Nigeria, public health officials said Wednesday. “Presently we have 1,828 suspected cases… and we have 269 deaths in about 15 states,” Olubunmi Ojo of the National Center for Disease Control told local television. At least five northern states — Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger — and the Federal Capital Territory have been hit hard and have crossed the threshold for an epidemic, she added. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, director of disease control at the federal ministry of health in Abuja, said those six states accounted for 1,090 infected people and 154 deaths. “Zamfara State alone recorded 590 cases, out of which 29 people have died,” he told AFP. Laboratory tests have confirmed that the disease was of a new Type C strain, he added.
March 29, 2017
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1076031/world
Headline: Warning: Measles spreading across Europe
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned recently of a measles outbreak sweeping across Europe, in places where immunization rates have plummeted. Recently, over 500 cases of measles have been reported in European countries. Out of 559 measles cases reported in January, 474 occurred in seven of the 14 non-immunized areas, which included parts of France, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, and the Ukraine, with the largest outbreaks in Italy and Romania. In Romania, 3,400 cases were recorded since January 2016, and 17 people have died from the disease, which remains a leading cause of death globally. Italy saw 238 cases in January 2017, and a total of 850 during 2016. February also saw a sharp rise in measles cases. “With steady progress towards elimination over the past two years, it is of particular concern hat measles cases are climbing in Europe,” WHO Europe Regional Director Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab said. “Today’s ravel patterns put no person or country beyond the reach of the measles virus.”
March 29, 2017
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/227462
Headline: Vimeo Declares War on Gospel Transformation
If Jesus has changed your life and set you free from homosexual practice, your testimony is not welcome on Vimeo – not now, not ever. And if you see homosexuality as another aspect of sexual brokenness, something for which Jesus died and something from which you can be healed, your opinion is not welcome on Vimeo. Case closed, door shut, end of subject. In the words of Dr. David Kyle Foster, director of Pure Passion Ministries and himself a former homosexual, “This is pure religious bigotry and censorship.” Your statement equating homosexuality to “sexual brokenness” betrays the underlying stance of your organization. To put it plainly, we don’t believe that homosexuality requires a cure and we don’t allow videos on our platform that espouse this point of view. Please remove any and all videos that discuss homosexuality as a condition requiring healing. We also consider this basic viewpoint to display a demeaning attitude toward a specific group, which is something that we do not allow. You can see why Foster described this as “pure religious bigotry and censorship.” Vimeo is forbidding you from agreeing with the Bible when it comes to human sin and brokenness.
March 27, 2017
Headline: Domino’s Will Begin Using Robots to Deliver Pizzas in Europe
Starship Technologies, the London-based company that has created six-wheeled self-driving delivery robots, will begin taking customers Domino’s pizzas in Germany and the Netherlands. Starship, launched in July 2014 by two former Skype co-founders, Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, will whisk pizzas to customers’ doors if they live within a one-mile radius of certain Dominos pizza shops in “select German and Dutch cities,” the company said in a statement. Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd., the world’s largest franchise licence owner of Domino’s Pizza, with operations in markets across Asia and Europe, has formed a group called Domino’s Robotic Unit to oversee the project. Domino’s has tested ground-based autonomous vehicles for pizza delivery in Australia and New Zealand in 2016. In November it also delivered a pizza –peri-peri chicken– by drone in New Zealand. “With our growth plans over the next five to 10 years, we simply won’t have enough delivery drivers if we do not look to add to our fleet through initiatives such as this,” Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Chief Executive Officer Don Meij said in a statement.
March 29, 2017
Headline: Four drown in Peru after Piura river overflows, floods town
At least four people died in Peru’s town of Catacaos after the Piura river overflowed its banks and caused widespread flooding, officials said. Peru’s defense minister, Jorge Nieto, said on Wednesday that most people affected by flooding in the Piura region have been evacuated and that work is now centered on organizing proper shelter for people. Nieto said officials are working to shelter 2,000 people, though the number of people affected is likely much higher. Nieto said heavy rains — though not as strong as ones seen recently that caused the river to overflow — are forecast to fall in the Piura Region, including in Piura city, which is about two miles north-northeast of Catacaos. Peru’s National Institute of Civil Defense reported on Tuesday that at least 97 people have been killed and 348 injured and that another 124,161 people have been left homeless. In addition, 20 people are missing, 14,787 homes have collapsed and 15,065 homes have been left uninhabitable since the start of seasonal rains in December, which have destroyed 227 bridges.
March 29, 2017
Headline: Cyclone Debbie damages homes, cuts power to 63,000 in Australia
Cyclone Debbie injured three people, caused flooding, damaged homes and left tens of thousands without power in northeastern Australia as severe weather is forecast for an additional day, officials said. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology downgraded Debbie to a post-tropical cyclone on Wednesday. More than 63,000 homes have lost power in the state of Queensland in the towns of Mackay, Sarina, Airlie Beach and Proserpine. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said there was significant structural damage in the Whitsunday Islands, off Australia’s northeast coast, and that officials are working to get water to one of them, called Daydream Island, where 300 people are stranded and running shot of supplies. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was aware of one death, which police officials attributed to a car crash caused by severe weather linked to Debbie. One man was seriously injured after a wall collapsed in Proserpine, police said. Officials said relief efforts are limited due to heavy rain, debris, large waves, damaging wind gusts and high tides. The BOM said flooding is likely to occur in Queensland’s coastal areas and that strong winds with gusts up to 62 mph along with heavy rains will continue as Debbie’s remnants move southeastward on Wednesday through Thursday morning.
March 29, 2017
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
~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~
Mar 27
March 27, 2017- U.N. plan to ‘mark’ world population
Bible prophecy documentary book download proving our generation will see the return of the Lord. Do you want to know what is going to happen in the future before it actually takes place? The Word of God provides you with specific details about our future and all of these things are coming to pass in this generation. If you aren’t saved yet this is a must read! The Last Chronicles of Planet Earth March 20, 2017 Edition written by Frank DiMora
How to Add the Last Chronicles to your Electronic Device
~Scroll down for all the news; be sure to CLICK on the photos next to the prophecy sign for all Bible verses & videos ~
Headline: UK Puts UN Human Rights Council ‘On Notice’ for Anti-Israel Bias
British officials put the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) “on notice” Friday after the council passed a series of resolutions singling out Israel for its policies towards the Palestinians while ignoring other countries’ human rights violations. “Today we are putting the Human Rights Council on notice,” U.K. Ambassador Julian Braithwaite told the UNHRC during the closing moments of its latest session. The group approved four resolutions that condemned Israeli policy on the Palestinians, and called on the Jewish state to return control of the Golan Heights to Syria. “If things do not change, in the future we will adopt a policy of voting against all resolutions concerning Israel’s conduct in the occupied Syrian and Palestinian territories,” Braithwaite said. The U.K.’s statement comes three days after the terror attack in London that killed five people and injured dozens more. The attacks resembled the terrorism of the Palestinian wave of car-rammings and stabbings that has plagued Israel in recent years.
March 26, 2017
Headline: Netanyahu: Israel committed to working with Trump to advance peace
In a satellite speech to AIPAC in Washington DC, Prime Minister Netanyahu praised cooperation with the Trump administration and affirmed Israel’s support for the fight against radical Islam; ‘We won’t let them drag humanity away from the promise of a bright future to the misery of a dark past.’ Toward the end of his speech, Netanyahu turned his attention to the Palestinians, Israel’s other moderate Arab neighbors and the prospects for peace. “Israel’s hand, and my hand, is extended to all our neighbors in peace,” Netanyahu stated. “We teach peace to our children and it’s time the Palestinian Authority do the same. It must stop teaching hatred to its children. It must stop paying terrorists. It must stop denying our legitimacy and our history. It must, above all, once and for all, recognize the Jewish state.” “Israel is committed to working with President Trump to advance peace with the Palestinians and with all our neighbors,” he continued. “I believe that the common dangers faced by Israel and many of our Arab neighbors now offer a rare opportunity to build bridges towards a better future—a future more prosperous, more secure and more peaceful. And to achieve that, Israel will stand ever vigilant, never compromising on our security, always ready to defend ourselves.
March 27, 2017
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4941302,00.html
Headline: Hamas closes Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel
Headline: Assassinated Senior Hamas Terrorist Was Planning Attacks On Israel, Gaza Militant Says
It is the first time ever Hamas has closed the crossing since taking over Gaza in 2007. The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry closed the Erez crossing until further notice on Sunday, a day after Hamas accused Israel of assassinating a senior member of its military wing. “The closure of the Beit Hanoun [Erez] crossing comes as a part of the steps being taken by the security apparatus following the crime of assassinating Mazen Fuqaha,” Interior Ministry spokesman Iyad Bazm said. Nonetheless, Bazm later clarified that “humanitarian cases” will be allowed to return to the Gaza Strip. Erez is the only pedestrian crossing between Israel and Gaza. Hamas security forces are also preventing Gazan fishermen from going out to sea, the official PA news site Wafa reported. There are approximately 4,000 fishermen in the Strip, most of whom depend on fishing as their primary source of income. Fuqaha was killed in front of his home in Gaza City’s southern Tel al-Hawa neighborhood late Friday. Hours after the assassination, the Interior Ministry said the parties behind it are “unknown,” adding that the local security services opened an investigation. Hamas, however, accused Israel of assassinating Fuqaha. Israeli officials have not commented on the incident.
March 26, 2017
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Hamas-closes-Erez-crossing-into-Israel-485208
Headline: IDF launches military exercises on two fronts, high alert on third
Israel embarked Sunday on two week-long military exercises – one across the Golan to drill the forces’ preparedness for attack, and the other in Judea and Samaria. Residents were warned the drills will be accompanied by explosions. The troops of the Southern Command and the Gaza region went on high terror alert following Hamas threats Saturday to avenge the gunning down of Mazen Fukaha, a senior member of its armed wing, of which they accuse the Mossad. Fukaha, who was released from jail for multiple terrorist murders in the prisoner exchange for Gilead Shalit, was in charge of Hamas terror operations against Israelis in Judea and Samaria. Four shots from a silenced pistol ended his life outside his home in Gaza.
March 26, 2017
Headline: PM to allow lawmakers to resume Temple Mount visits
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday decided to lift a nearly 18 month-old ban forbidding ministers and lawmakers from visiting the flashpoint Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Channel 2 reported. The decision was apparently made at a meeting on Monday, which was attended by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, Netanyahu confidante Yitzhak Molcho and representatives of the internal security services and police. Visits will be permitted again in three months, after the passage of politically sensitive dates in the Jewish and Muslim calendars, the report said. These include Passover in April, and May’s scheduled celebration of 50 years since the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six Day War, along with the Muslim festival of Ramadan, which ends in late June. The number of visits permitted will rise gradually, subject to conditions on the ground and possibly to police restrictions, Channel 2 News reported.
March 27, 2017
http://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-to-allow-lawmakers-to-resume-temple-mount-visits/
Jordan
Headline: Jordan’s foreign minister says Arab foreign ministers unanimously endorse more than a dozen policy resolutions
Headline: Arab League to adopt the 2002 Saudi peace initiative
Jordan’s foreign minister says Arab foreign ministers unanimously endorsed more than a dozen policy resolutions, including one rejecting unilateral steps that “jeopardize the historic and legal status” of Jerusalem. This was an apparent reference to President Donald Trump’s previously stated intentions to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the city at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians seek a capital in east Jerusalem along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Jordanian minister, Ayman Safadi, said Monday that the resolution is one of “about 17” to be adopted later this week at a gathering of Arab heads of states in Jordan. He says the ministers also reaffirmed the need to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel. A spokesman of the Jordanian government was quoted by Arab media as saying that King Abdullah will travel to Washington after the Arab League Summit to update US President Donald Trump on the decisions made.
March 27, 2017
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4941367,00.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4941052,00.html
Lebanon
Headline: ISIS U-Turns West to Lebanon as Next Target
American helicopters Thursday and Friday, March 23-24, dropped Kurdish and Arab fighters over a region west of the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. Those forces quickly captured at least five villages and so cut jihadist concentrations in the northwestern Syria off from their Raqqa stronghold. debkafile’s military sourcesreport this operation was the opening shot of the US-led campaign to isolate the Islamic State’s Syrian capital before storming it. Raqqa’s liberation is not expected to encounter the same fierce ISIS resistance as the US-led Iraqi army is facing in Mosul. That is partly because the town has gradually emptied of fighting forces ever since ISIS chiefs saw that their time was running out. Instead, ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and his strategists, Iraqi ex-generals, effected a major U-turn: the jihadists fleeing the Syrian and Iraqi fronts, instead of heading for the ISIS bastions in Deir ez-Zour in eastern Syria and Abu Kamal in western Iraqi Anbar province, were given new orders to head in the opposite direction for their next destination: Lebanon. This is a radical change from their former orders to reassemble in the two towns, which straddle the Iraqi-Syrian border and have commanded the Al Qa’im crossing and ISIS supply routes ever since June 2014. Both towns are located in virtual desert regions through which any approaching enemies are visible from afar. Moreover, the dense vegetation of the Euphrates river banks and nearby forests are effective cover for surreptitious movements against aerial and satellite surveillance.
March 25, 2017
http://debka.com/article/25982/ISIS-U-Turns-West-to-Lebanon-as-Next-Target
Saudi Arabia
Headline: At least 11 dead in suicide bombing and gun attack in southern Yemen
Headline: Houthi forces turn the tides in the battle for western Yemen – full report
At least 11 people were killed in a suicide bombing and gun attack by suspected al Qaeda militants on a local government compound in southern Yemen on Monday, a Yemeni government media office said in a statement. The attack is the latest in a series of operations by Islamist militants who have exploited a two-year-civil war to try to expand their control and recruit more followers in the country, which shares a long border with Saudi Arabia. The government media office said security forces confronted a suicide bomber who tried to drive a mini-bus laden with explosives into a government compound in al-Houta, the Lahj provincial capital. Security forces opened fire on the bus and clashed with militants wearing military uniforms who attacked the compound with automatic weapons, it said in the statement, adding that six security personnel and all the attackers died. Officials said there were five attackers in all. “The situation is now under control,” the statement quoted a security official as saying.
March 27, 2017
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN16Y269
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/houthi-forces-turns-tides-battle-western-yemen-full-report/
Egypt
Headline: Egyptian soldiers wounded by ISIS ambush in the Sinai desert
On Saturday, a mine planted by ISIS insurgents near the port city of Al-Arish injured 9 Egyptian soldiers, including 2 officers, according to Amaq Agency. An armored vehicle was destroyed by the blast. The incident occured at the Al-Buraiky checkpoint, south of Al-Arish city. Recently, the Islamic State’s media department posted pictures online showing its militants setting up checkpoints across Sinai province. Although jihadist insurgents regularly target the Egyptian Armed Forces in the Sinai desert, they maintain merely an underground presence and are yet to establish actual control over areas of Egypt. In a propganda video released last month, ISIS called on its followers to slaughter members of the country’s Christian minority, known as Orthodox Copts.
March 26, 2017
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/9-egyptian-soldiers-wounded-isis-ambush-sinai-desert/
Headline: Syria fighters take control of IS-held airbase near Raqqa
A US-backed force of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters has taken control of an Islamic State-held airbase west of the jihadist group’s stronghold of Raqqa. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and a monitoring group said Tabqa airbase had fallen on Sunday evening. US helicopters airlifted hundreds of fighters behind IS lines at the start of the assault last Wednesday. The airbase’s capture is seen as a significant step in the campaign to drive IS militants out of Raqqa. The SDF is also aiming to seize the nearby town of Tabqa and the Tabqa dam, which the US-led multinational coalition has denied damaging in air strikes. The airbase’s capture was part of a wider offensive aimed at also taking control of the Tabqa dam – the largest in Syria and a key source of electricity for the region. The coalition said the dam had been used by IS as a headquarters, as a prison for high-profile hostages, as a training location and to plot attacks outside Syria. On Sunday, IS said coalition air strikes had locked the dam’s gates, causing water levels to rise dangerously behind the structure and placing it at risk of collapse.
March 27, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39401326
Headline: Western-backed rebels take control of large parts of eastern Al-Sweida (Suwayda)
The Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) continued their large-scale advance near the Iraqi border-crossing on Monday, seizing large parts of Al-Sweida’s eastern countryside from the Islamic State (ISIL) forces. Free Syrian Army units operating in Al-Sweida’s Badiyah area launched another powerful assault this weekend, striking the remaining areas under ISIL’ control. According to the Free Syrian Army’s official media wing, their forces seized the Al-Badiyah area of Al-Sweida on Sunday, giving them control of more territory inside the province. On Monday, the Free Syrian Army units managed to reach the Syrian Arab Army’s front-lines in eastern Al-Sweida for the first time since the Islamic State took control of this area in late 2014.
March 27, 2017
Headline: US sending around 200 more troops to Mosul in ISIS fight, official says
Headline: Mortar attack in eastern Mosul kills at least 4 people
Headline: Moscow urges ‘responsible’ US action in Mosul, requests UN Security Council briefing on airstrikes
Two companies from the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division are being deployed to the Mosul to bolster security in Iraq at the request of the top American commander in Baghdad fighting ISIS, a U.S. defense official with knowledge of the order told Fox News. A U.S. defense official told Fox News the 200 additional troops from the 82nd Airborne Division are going to Mosul—“to provide additional ‘advise and assist’ support to our Iraq Partners as they liberate Mosul,” according to the official. In another sign the Pentagon is ramping up the fight against ISIS, jets from the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush began striking ISIS targets on Friday, days after arriving in the Persian Gulf. Last month, Bush conducted airstrikes in Syria from the Eastern Mediterranean. In recent weeks, multiple press reports said upwards of 1,000 additional American troops would deploy to Kuwait or Syria to act as a “reserve force.” These reports were said to be inaccurate by multiple Pentagon officials.
March 27, 2017
https://www.rt.com/news/382477-us-bombing-mosul-lavrov/
Headline: Iraq Situation Report March 1-20, 2017
http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/iraq%20SITREP%202017-03-20%20PDF.pdf
Turkey
Headline: Tensions flare as Greece tells Turkey it is ready to answer any provocation
Fears of tensions mounting in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean Seas reignited after the Turkish president raised the prospect of a referendum on accession talks with the EU and the Greek defence minister said the country was ready for any provocation. Relations between Ankara and European capitals have worsened before the highly charged vote on 16 April on expanding the powers of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Western allies have argued that a vote endorsing the proposed constitutional change would invest him with unparalleled authority and limit checks and balances at a time when they fear the Turkish leader is exhibiting worrying signs of authoritarianism. Erdoğan has been enraged by recent bans on visiting Turkish officials rallying “yes” supporters in Germany and the Netherlands. Highlighting growing friction between Ankara and the bloc, he raised the spectre of a public vote on EU membership at the weekend. “We have a referendum on 16 April. After that we may hold a Brexit-like referendum on the [EU] negotiations,” he told a Turkish-UK forum attended by the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson. “No matter what our nation decides we will obey it. It should be known that our patience, tested in the face of attitudes displayed by some European countries, has limits.”
March 27, 2017
Iran
Headline: Iran Strikes Back at U.S. With ‘Reciprocal’ Sanctions on 15 Companies
Iran on Sunday sanctioned what it described as 15 American companies, alleging they support terrorism, repression and Israel’s occupation of land Palestinians want for a future state, likely in retaliation for sanctions earlier announced by the U.S. The wide-ranging list from an American real estate company to a major arms manufacturer appeared more symbolic than anything else as the firms weren’t immediately known to be doing business anywhere in the Islamic Republic. A Foreign Ministry statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency said the sanctions barred companies from any agreements with Iranian firms and that former and current directors would not be eligible for visas. It also said any of the company’s assets in Iran could be seized. “The sanctioned companies have, directly and/or indirectly, been involved in the brutal atrocities committed by the Zionist regime in the occupied Palestinian territories, or they have supported the regime’s terrorist activities and Israel’s development of Zionist settlements on the Palestinian soil,” the IRNA report said. Meanwhile, a senior Iranian lawmaker said Iran would consider a bill branding the U.S. military and the CIA as terrorist groups if the U.S. Congress passes a bill designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.
March 27, 2017
Afghanistan
Headline: Pakistan Has Started Fencing Off Its Border With Afghanistan
Pakistan has begun work on a fence that will trace its mountainous northwest border with Afghanistan, Islamabad announced Saturday. “A better managed, secure and peaceful border is in mutual interest of both brotherly countries who have given phenomenal sacrifices in war against terrorism,” Pakistan’s army chief, General Qamar Bajwa, said in a statement from the country’s tribal hinterlands, the Wall Street Journal reports. But instead, a border fence could further inflame tensions between Pakistan and its landlocked northeasterly neighbor. For one thing, Afghanistan disputes the legitimacy of much of the border, which was drawn up under British colonial rule; for another, each side accuses the other of harboring terrorists. The measure follows a spate of terrorist attacks in recent weeks that have killed more than 100 people on Pakistani soil. Islamabad blames these on militants that it says have relocated across its porous border, which it closed for more than a month in February, citing “security reasons.”
March 26, 2017
http://time.com/4713582/pakistan-afghanistan-border-fence/
Sudan
Headline: Death toll in attack on South Sudan aid workers rises to 7
The death toll of an attack on aid workers in South Sudan has risen to seven, with the news that the driver also died. David Kim Choop was driving the vehicle when he and six aid workers were ambushed and killed on Saturday, March 25th. The four South Sudanese and three Kenyans worked for a local non-governmental organization called GREDO (Grass Roots Empowerment for Development Organization) and were attacked while on a routine food convoy from Juba, the capital, to Pibor. The ambush caused the highest number of aid workers killed in a single incident since South Sudan’s civil war began in 2013. At least 12 aid workers have been killed so far this year and at least 79 killed since 2013, according to the U.N.
March 27, 2017
Headline: Get ready for Calexit! Now Nigel Farage and the ‘Bad Boys of Brexit’ set their sights on splitting California in two
The ‘Bad Boys of Brexit‘ who led the campaign to break Britain away from the European Union have taken on a new exit challenge: splitting California into two states. Former UKip leader Nigel Farage and Leave backer Arron Banks have just returned from the United States, where they helped raise $1million (£800,000) for a ‘Calexit’ campaign, which would split California into two eastern and western regions. There are several ‘Calexit’ campaigns competing for a referendum in the United States, with one aiming to remove the state from America entirely as a response to President Donald Trump being elected last year. Farage and Banks, who led the ‘Leave.EU’ campaign, appear to be pitting the eastern, more rural side of California against the western ‘coastal elite’ liberals in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
March 27, 2017
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4350388/Nigel-Farage-s-Bad-Boys-Brexit-look-Calexit.html
Headline: Chile pensions protest draws tens of thousands
Tens of thousands of people in Chile have taken part in demonstrations against the country’s controversial privatised pension system. Demonstrators called on the socialist government of Michelle Bachelet to scrap the the system, which is managed by private funds. Critics say the system benefits the rich but leaves poorer Chileans with a pension below the minimum wage. The system was introduced in 1981 under General Augusto Pinochet’s rule. Protest organisers said a total of more than 2 million people had joined marches in most Chilean cities, and that 800,000 people took part in Santiago alone. Chilean police put the number of demonstrators in the capital at 50,000.
March 26, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39401766
Headline: Militia fighters decapitate 40 police officers in DR Congo
Militia fighters in DR Congo have decapitated about 40 police officers in an ambush in the central province of Kasai, local officials say. Fighters from the Kamwina Nsapu group attacked a police convoy. Six policemen who spoke the local Tshiluba were freed, but the rest were killed, Kasai Assembly President Francois Kalamba said. The unrest in Kasai began last August, when security forces killed the Kamwina Nsapu leader. Friday’s attack targeted a police convoy travelling between Tshikapa and Kananga. The state Governor Alexis Nkande Myopompa said an investigation had been launched into the killings.
March 25, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39396196
Headline: Putin Critic Jailed as Mass Rallies Energize Russian Opposition
Headline: White House calls on Russia to release protesters
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was jailed for 15 days after the largest anti-government demonstrations for at least five years energized President Vladimir Putin’s critics as presidential elections loom. Navalny was imprisoned by a Moscow court on Monday after being convicted of disobeying police and fined 20,000 rubles ($352) for organizing an unsanctioned protest after more than 1,000 people were detained in a wave of demonstrations in cities across Russia on Sunday. Despite draconian laws forbidding unsanctioned rallies, at least 60,000 took part in more than 80 protests, according to the independent Ekho Moskvy radio station. The protests were the largest since demonstrations erupted in winter 2011 and spring 2012 against alleged vote-rigging in parliamentary elections and Putin’s return to the presidency for a third term. Putin, 64, is likely to seek a further six years as president in elections next March, though he hasn’t officially said he’ll run. Navalny, 40, has said he’ll be a candidate, but the Kremlin insists he’s ineligible because of a fraud conviction that the opposition activist has dismissed as politically motivated. “This is just the start, and the culmination will be nearer to the presidential elections,” Vladimir Milov, one of the opposition leaders, said in a blog posting Monday. “Now our task is to force them into concessions.” The protests were a “provocation” and police acted “absolutely correctly, professionally and legally” in dealing with them, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Monday. Organizers got people to join the demonstrations on the “lie” that they’d been approved by the authorities, he said.
March 27, 2017
Headline: Sylhet blasts kill six amid Bangladesh militant raid
Six people – two police officers and four civilians – have been killed in twin bombings in north-eastern Bangladesh, officials say. The blasts in Sylhet occurred near an apartment building where commandoes have been trying to flush out a group of suspected Islamist militants. Earlier many civilians were evacuated from the block of flats. The suspects have refused to surrender. Dozens of people were injured in the twin explosions on Saturday. Army units continue to surround the building. The blasts hit a large crowd which had gathered nearby as troops continued to exchange gunfire with the militants. The first explosive device was brought by two men on a motorbike and the second was left in a bag of vegetables, police say. So-called Islamic State (IS) claimed on messaging app Telegram that it was behind one of the blasts. The suspected extremists are hiding out in a five-storey building, from which 78 civilians have been evacuated.
March 26, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39394487
Headline: U.N. plan to ‘mark’ world population
If you believe the Bible is true, then you know it’s going to happen. The “Mark of the Beast” is a staple of prophecy, a development many evangelical Christians would take as a sign the end times have truly begun. And Pastor Carl Gallups believes there are real, concrete indications the United Nations has already started making preparations to develop the very technology that could be used to register every single person on Earth. He sounds the warning in his latest book, “When The Lion Roars: Understanding The Implications Of Ancient Prophecies For Our Time.” Gallups expanded on the international plans under way on a recent episode of “SkyWatchTV.” He cites a report from the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda, including a list of 17 “Global Goals.” One of the goals is “legal identity for all, including birth registration.” The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is also working to implement biometric technology to identify and track refugees. The information will be stored in a central database in Geneva, Switzerland. Such a plan could be expanded to include the global population. When asked if he was saying the U.N. was going to try to register the entire population, Gallups said those are not his words but those of the United Nations.
March 25, 2017
http://www.wnd.com/2017/03/stunner-u-n-plan-to-mark-world-population/
Headline: Dow futures slide 150 points as global markets fall on Trump’s health-care failure
Headline: Dollar skids to four-month low as Trump trade deflates
Wall Street futures underlined a global market sell-off on Monday as investors fretted over the potential knock-on effects of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s surprise failure to deliver on health-care reform. Dow futures were set for triple-digit losses, down around 150 points at 8:45 a.m. ET, after Republicans dramatically pulled their health-care bill on Friday. “The market’s patience is wearing thin,” Vasileios Gkionakis, head of global FX strategy at Unicredit, told CNBC on Monday. “It definitely doubts the U.S. administration’s ability to push forward (with) this so much talked and discussed agenda including the fiscal stimulus, tax deregulation, tax cuts,” Gkionakis added.
March 27, 2017
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-forex-idUSKBN16X135
Headline: Le Pen: I Will Quit Office if French Reject Eurozone Exit
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen says that if her plan to pull France from the euro currency is rejected by the French she will resign. Le Pen, speaking Monday on Europe 1 radio, reiterated her plan to hold a referendum on the euro issue if elected president, and “If it’s no, I will go.” She said that a show of support for the eurozone means the French “choose a model of governance imposed by the European Union” – which Le Pen also wants to exit. It also means, she said, that “70 percent of my project cannot be put in place.” Le Pen is at the top of polls ahead of the April 23 and May 7 voting, along with independent centrist Emmanuel Macron.
March 27, 2017
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/03/27/le-pen-will-quit-office-french-reject-eurozone-exit/
Headline: Scientists Discover Portal Into Parallel Universe
Physicists have discovered a quantum portal into a separate, dark universe, bringing them closer to understanding the first moments of creation. One physicist and man of faith thinks this discovery could offer partial proof of God. Quantum physicists have speculated that in the early days of the universe, visible particles were formed along with hidden, or dark particles, which, though completely unobservable, would have had to exist in order to make the universe expand at the known rate. The dark particles are beyond the limits of scientific observation, but their effects on our universe are enormous, so great that physicists believe that roughly 68 percent of the universe is dark energy, with dark matter making up about 27 percent. The rest, everything observable with man-made instruments, adds up to less than five percent of the universe. Quantum scientists theorized dark matter and dark energy exist in a parallel, though not symmetrical, universe. This separate dark universe is connected to ours via quantum portals. Scientists at the Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe believe they have discovered one of these portals via a newly discovered subatomic particle called a heavy quark. It is believed that heavy quarks have a “dark charge” which allows them to act as a bridge between the two universes, but as scientists are unable to observe dark particles or dark energy, no more is known about the parallel universe other than the fact of its existence.
March 27, 2017
Headline: Cyclone Debbie: Thousands evacuate in Queensland, Australia
About 25,000 people have been told to evacuate as a cyclone carrying winds of up to 275km/h (170 mph) moves towards the Queensland coast. Cyclone Debbie has intensified into a Category 4 system and is due to make landfall early on Tuesday local time. Some people have refused to leave despite warnings the destructive core could be as wide as 100km (62 miles). Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the storm would rival the devastating Cyclone Yasi in 2011. In its latest update, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said the cyclone could “intensify further” as it moved towards the Queensland coast. It is expected to make landfall sometime after 07:00 on Tuesday (20:00 GMT Monday) anywhere in a 265km zone from Townsville to Proserpine.
March 27, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-39402106
Headline: 5.1 SW China earthquake affects 15,000 people
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake that hit southwest China has affected the lives of 15,786 people, according to the latest government tally. The tremor jolted Yangbi County in Yunnan Province at 7:55 a.m. Monday. One person was injured by falling tiles, and has been treated in time. Damage was reported in eight townships under Yangbi. Houses collapsed, cracks appeared on walls, while schools, dams, and water facilities were also impaired. The local government said the lives of 2,105 people in 469 households were seriously affected. Economic loss of the quake was initially estimated at 202 million yuan (29 million U.S. dollars). The epicenter, at depth of about 12 km, was monitored at 25.89 degrees north latitude and 99.8 degrees east longitude, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. Four tremors measuring 3 to 4.7 on the Richter scale hit the same region before and after the magnitude 5.1 quake.
March 27, 2017
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-03/28/c_136162333.htm
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
~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~
Mar 24
March 24, 2017- Balkans to face new war if EU collapses
Bible prophecy documentary book download proving our generation will see the return of the Lord. Do you want to know what is going to happen in the future before it actually takes place? The Word of God provides you with specific details about our future and all of these things are coming to pass in this generation. If you aren’t saved yet this is a must read! The Last Chronicles of Planet Earth March 20, 2017 Edition written by Frank DiMora
How to Add the Last Chronicles to your Electronic Device
~Scroll down for all the news; be sure to CLICK on the photos next to the prophecy sign for all Bible verses & videos ~
Headline: ‘Palestinian cause’ prioritized at 2017 Arab League summit
The “Palestinian cause” will be a major priority in the upcoming Arab League summit, according to a report in the London-based Arabic outlet, Al Sharq al Awsat. “The Palestinian cause will be granted huge attention in the coming Arab summit,” the Arab League’s Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit told the publication. Aboul Gheit added the Palestinians plan to present their own initiative. “They promised to put forward a new plan pertaining to the Palestinian issue in general,” he continued. “There is a desire on the Palestinian side to reformulate some ideas.” Although the Arab League and the Palestinian Authority (PA) seek a PA state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump have yet to commit to such an outcome, though both leaders endorse a regional approach to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The summit agenda also includes: “Arab national security, confronting terrorism, Syrian crisis, Yemen, Libya, enhancing performance of the Arab League.”
March 23, 2017
https://worldisraelnews.com/palestinian-cause-priority-2017-arab-league-summit/
Headline: UN secretary-general reaffirms ancient Jewish ties to Jerusalem
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his recognition of ancient Jewish ties to Jerusalem during a meeting with World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder. A statement Wednesday by the WJC said Lauder and Guterres met earlier in the week in New York, and that Guterres repeated comments he had made to Israeli radio in which he noted the existence of a Jewish temple in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Palestinian leaders in recent decades have sought to deny any ancient Jewish presence in the city. The WJC statement said that Guterres would do what he could to stem anti-Israel initiatives at the United Nations and its affiliates. Guterres said he could not keep the UN Human Rights Council from passing anti-Israel resolutions.
March 24, 2017
http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-secretary-general-reaffirms-ancient-jewish-ties-to-jerusalem/
Headline: Merkel: ‘No reasonable alternative’ to two-state solution
German Chancellor Angel Merkel said on Friday that there is “no reasonable alternative” to a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, and warned that Israeli settlement activity was impeding a resolution to the conflict. She also chided the Palestinians for taking to international forums to “unilaterally denounce” Israel at every turn. In a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Berlin on Friday, Merkel was quoted by Reuters as saying: “I see no reasonable alternative to the goal of a two-state solution.” The German chancellor also warned that in the absence of a two-state solution, Israel cannot remain both “a Jewish and a democratic state,” according to the German dpa news agency. Merkel’s comments appeared to be a rebuke of both the Israeli government and US President Donald Trump, During her meeting with Abbas, which focused on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Merkel also criticized Israel’s settlement policies in the West Bank, saying they are “leading to an erosion of the basis for a two-state solution,” and were “an impediment to the resolution of the conflict.”
March 24, 2017
http://www.timesofisrael.com/merkel-two-state-solution-has-no-reasonable-alternative/
Headline: US stresses ‘concern’ with Israeli settlements after intensive talks
Headline: Texas signs first-ever trade agreement with Samaria region
The Trump administration is encouraging the Israeli government to adapt some of its policies toward the Palestinians in preparation for a new round of peace talks. Senior administration officials conducted four days of intensive talks with their Israeli counterparts focused on “concrete near-term measures to improve the overall climate in order to advance the prospects for a genuine and lasting peace,” both governments said in a joint statement. “A principal focus of the discussions was specific measures that could have a meaningful impact on the economic environment in the West Bank and Gaza, allowing the Palestinians to more fully realize their economic potential,” the White House said, noting Israel’s embrace of the initiative. “The two delegations also discussed Israeli settlement construction, following up on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Washington and Mr. Greenblatt’s recent visit to Israel,” the statement continued. “The United States delegation reiterated President Trump’s concerns regarding settlement activity in the context of moving towards a peace agreement. The Israeli delegation made clear that Israel’s intent going forward is to adopt a policy regarding settlement activity that takes those concerns into consideration.” US President Donald Trump has prioritized making peace between Israelis and Palestinians, characterizing a comprehensive agreement between the two parties as the “deal of all deals.” He has told both parties that now is the time for negotiations.
March 24, 2017
https://worldisraelnews.com/texas-signs-first-ever-trade-agreement-with-samaria-region/
Headline: Sanhedrin Calls on Israel’s Greatest Enemy to Follow Tradition and Build Third Temple
The nascent Sanhedrin has turned a dispute between the Israeli Prime Minister and the Iranian Foreign Minister into an opportunity to invite Israel’s greatest enemy to help build the Third Temple. This offer is not nearly as preposterous as some may think, and has an undeniable precedent the Iranian Minister is quite proud to admit. The international spat began on Purim, two weeks ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a reading of the Megillah (Book of Esther) at a synagogue near his home in Caesarea. While discussing the Biblical story with children in attendance, he assured them, “Today, too, they’re trying [to kill us] in Persia, and today they’re also not going to succeed!” The Iranian minister then went on to claim that his country had saved the Jews three times throughout history. Zarif gave a distorted version of the Book of Esther, claiming that the hero was the Persian King Ahashverosh, and not the Jews, Esther and Mordechai. Zarif also reminded Netanyahu that it was Cyrus, a Persian king, who had facilitated the Jews’ building of the Second Temple. The nascent Sanhedrin choose to see this exchange as an opening and an affirmation of Iranian national pride in helping the Jews build the Temple. The rabbinical court sent a letter to Zarif inviting him to manifest this historic Persian mission. “We were overjoyed to hear of your reference to the wonderful and unique chapter in our nation’s history, in which the Cyrus, as king of the Persian Empire, gave his permission for the building of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem,” the letter read. “It is also recognized that he aided the project by returning the holy vessels that were taken from Solomon’s Temple by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. “It is to be understood from your statements that you support the actions of King Cyrus and that your country supports the establishment of a Temple on Mount Moriah even today. We invite you to opening a dialog regarding this. We will be happy to hear your response to this invitation.”
March 23, 2017
Lebanon
Headline: Israeli bill redefining maritime border with Lebanon labelled a ‘declaration of war’
Lebanese politicians have reacted with anger over a proposed Israeli parliament bill which would redraw the current highly sensitive maritime border with Lebanon. Israel is seeking to annex a zone of 860 square kilometres (330 square miles) of disputed waters between the two neighbours which is believed to be rich in natural gas reserves, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Monday. The move comes after Lebanon’s government – formed at the end of 2016 after two years of political deadlock – recently advertised commercial tenders for oil and gas exploration in the same stretch of the Mediterranean. This week Israel asked the UN to ensure that Lebanon respects international law with regards to the maritime bloc. It is not clear when the bill will be presented to the Knesset. The maritime border has been a hot button topic for decades, as the two countries are technically still in a state of war. UN and US brokered talks over the years have failed to settle on a definite border. The renewed dispute, however, has caused outrage on both sides. Israeli media accused Lebanon of disrupting the status quo by putting out tenders for the seabed exploration work earlier this year.
March 24, 2017
Saudi Arabia
Headline: Saudi Arabia is in ‘serious discussions’ with the NYSE in what could be the biggest IPO ever
Headline: Why Saudi Arabia Must Push OPEC To Extend Production Cuts
Saudi Arabia is having “serious discussions” with the New York Stock Exchange about having the NYSE as one of the exchanges for state oil giant Saudi Aramco’s IPO, the Saudi foreign minister told Fox News on Thursday. “Our objective is to try to complete the IPO sometime in 2018. There are serious discussions with the New York Stock Exchange about having the NYSE be one of the exchanges for the Aramco IPO and I believe the decision will be made on the financial merits,” Adel al-Jubeir told Fox News.
March 24, 2017
http://www.businessinsider.com/aramco-ipo-2017-3
https://www.stratfor.com/geopolitical-diary/why-saudi-arabia-must-push-opec-extend-production-cuts
Headline: Iran steps up support for Houthis in Yemen’s war – sources
Headline: Suicide Drones Have Migrated To The Conflict In Yemen
Iran is sending advanced weapons and military advisers to Yemen’s rebel Houthi movement, stepping up support for its Shi’ite ally in a civil war whose outcome could sway the balance of power in the Middle East, regional and Western sources say. Iran’s enemy Saudi Arabia is leading a Sunni Arab coalition fighting the Houthis in the impoverished state on the tip of the Arabian peninsula – part of the same regional power struggle that is fuelling the war in Syria. Sources with knowledge of the military movements, who declined to be identified, said that in recent months Iran has taken a greater role in the two-year-old conflict by stepping up arms supplies and other support. This mirrors the strategy it has used to support its Lebanese ally Hezbollah in Syria. A senior Iranian official said Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Qods Force – the external arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – met top IRGC officials in Tehran last month to look at ways to “empower” the Houthis. “At this meeting, they agreed to increase the amount of help, through training, arms and financial support,” the official said. “Yemen is where the real proxy war is going on and winning the battle in Yemen will help define the balance of power in the Middle East.”
March 24, 2017
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-iran-houthis-idUSKBN16S22R
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/8586/suicide-drones-have-migrated-to-the-conflict-in-yemen
Egypt
Headline: Egyptian soldiers killed in clashes with jihadists in central Sinai
Ten members of Egyptian security forces were killed during a raid on an “extremely dangerous” jihadist hideout in central Sinai. Ten members of Egypt’s security forces were killed by two improvised roadside bombs during clashes with jihadist militants in central Sinai, the Egyptian army said on Thursday. Fifteen of the Islamist fighters were also killed, while seven others were arrested in the raid on what the Egyptian army describes as “an extremely dangerous” hideout for Islamist fighters. The security forces also discovered and destroyed half a ton of TNT explosives, and took hold of two four-wheelers with hand grenades, and hundreds of mobile phones.
March 23, 2017
https://worldisraelnews.com/10-egyptian-soldiers-killed-clashes-jihadists-central-sinai/
Headline: Syrian opposition calls for direct negotiations at the Geneva talks
After the preliminary talks that took place Thursday, the Geneva talks on Syria are expected to begin on Friday with substantive talks between the participating delegations. In this context, the spokesman of the Supreme Commission for Negotiations Salem al Mosalat expressed the desire of the delegation of Syrian opposition to engage in direct negotiations leading to a political solution to the crisis in Syria. He revealed receiving pledges by UN envoy Staffan de Mistura that the current round will directly address the political transition process, calling on him to fulfill those commitments. Ramzi Ezzidine Ramzi, assistant UN envoy to Syria, said on Thursday that the discussions were objective. “We talked about all the issues that need clarification before we officially start, and in that sense I think it was a positive meeting, so let’s see what happens,” he said. Al Arabiya’s envoy to Geneva said on Thursday that the official opening of the Geneva talks on Syria would be on Friday instead of Thursday as planned, due to the presence of UN envoy Staffan de Mistura in Ankara.
March 24, 2017
Headline: Syrian Troops Besiege IS Held Northern Stronghold in Aleppo
Headline: ISIL’s collapse continues in east Aleppo as Syrian Army units liberate another village
Syrian government forces are besieging the last Islamic State stronghold in the northern province of Aleppo, weeks after launching an offensive to free the entire province from militants. The push on Deir Hafer comes as U.S. aircraft ferried Syrian Kurdish fighters and allies behind IS lines to spearhead a major ground assault on the strategic IS-held town of Tabqa in Raqqa province, which borders Aleppo. That airlift marked a deepening U.S. involvement in Syria’s conflict ahead of a looming battle for IS’s de facto capital, the city of Raqqa. The Syrian Central Military Media says Syrian troops launched the Deir Hafer siege late Wednesday after capturing nearby areas. The opposition’s Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Syrian troops have now cut the road linking Deir Hafer with Raqqa province.
March 24, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/syrian-troops-besiege-is-held-northern-stronghold/3778658.html
Headline: Analysis: Insurgents launch major offensive against Assad regime in Hama province
Headline: Assad regime bolstered in Hama province by Iranian-controlled Iraqi militia
Insurgent organizations — including jihadists, Islamists and rebel groups affiliated with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) — launched a large-scale offensive against Bashar al Assad’s regime in Hama province earlier this week. The battle began on Mar. 21, when the insurgents assaulted more than a dozen towns and villages north of the city of Hama. Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS), al Qaeda’s joint venture in Syria, has produced a stream of content from the offensive. One of the first HTS images posted online showed the group’s leader, a jihadist known as Abu Jaber, rallying his fighters. Sitting to his left was Sheikh Abdullah al Muhaysini, a US-designated terrorist who is a senior HTS sharia official and likely a major figure in al Qaeda’s international network. The photo of Abu Jaber and Muhaysini can be seen at the top of this article. HTS dispatched suicide bombers in vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) during the early hours of the fighting.
March 24, 2017
Headline: Pentagon investigating report that US-led airstrike killed more than 100 civilians in Mosul Iraq
The Pentagon on Friday acknowledged that the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria carried out an airstrike in a western Mosul neighborhood and that it is “looking into” reports that the bombing left more than 100 civilians dead. “We are aware of reports on airstrikes in Mosul resulting in civilian casualties,” Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement to Fox News. “The Coalition conducted several strikes near Mosul and [coalition forces are] looking in to these reports. The Department of Defense takes all reports of civilian casualties very seriously and assesses all incidents as thoroughly as possible.” The suspected civilian body count underscores the problems that Iraqi troops face in their weeks-long campaign to drive out the Sunni militant group from the densely urban part of Iraq’s second-largest city.
March 24, 2017
Headline: Thousands threaten to boycott elections at Baghdad rally- VIDEO
Thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in downtown Baghdad on Friday. The protesters were supporting demands from Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to overhaul the government committee overseeing upcoming provincial elections after claims of institutional corruption. Following al-Sadr’s calls, anti-government protesters have threatened to boycott the elections if the present committee is not replaced. Al-Sadr has taken a leading part in the ‘reform revolution’, which has consisted of a series of mass protests for those dissatisfied with the governance of the country.
March 24, 2017
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/video-thousands-threaten-boycott-elections-baghdad-rally/
Turkey
Headline: Turkey attacks Kurdish villages in Syria’s Afrin, dozens of civilian casualties reported
Turkey’s military forces on Wednesday launched an offensive on the Kurdish district of Afrin in Syria’s northwestern Aleppo Governorate, killing and wounding dozens of civilians, eyewitnesses and officials told ARA News. The Turkish Army initiated the offensive by shelling the villages of Malla Khalil and Der Ballout in the Jinderis area of Afrin. Several houses were destroyed and dozens of civilians were killed or injured during the attack. Also on Wednesday, Turkey’s military forces hit with heavy artillery the Kurdish villages of Ferferk and Qere Baba in the Rajou area in Afrin District. Furthermore, the villages of Anqala and Khalil in the Kurdish Shiya area were also exposed to artillery shelling by the Turkish troops. “The barbaric Turkish attacks on the Kurdish villages of Afrin caused dozens of casualties among civilians, many of them were women and children,” a local human rights activist told ARA News. “The death toll is in increase as many of the injured are in critical condition,” the source said.
March 23, 2017
Iran
Headline: Senate introduces new bill sanctioning Iran and testing its nuclear deal
Bipartisan leadership in the US Senate introduced a bill on Thursday that would severely sanction Iran over its ballistic missile work and its proxy activities regionwide, targeting several Iranian entities that were previously relieved of sanctions under a nuclear accord implemented last year. Passage of the bill “would risk killing the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action],” an Iranian American lobbying group based in Washington said in a statement, referring to the formal title of the nuclear deal. The Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017 would designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization– a move bitterly opposed by Tehran. The National Iranian American Council, which has the ear of senior Iranian government officials, warned that such a move would “risk American lives” and prompt Iranian retaliation against US troops in Iraq. “The bill would also mandate the re-imposition of sanctions on Iranian entities that were de-listed pursuant to the JCPOA– measures that could constitute a clear violation of the nuclear deal,” the lobby argues. Indeed, the law would provide US President Donald Trump with the authority to sanction any individual or entity “engaged in any activity that has materially contributed, or poses a risk of materially contributing, to the activities of the Government of Iran with respect to its ballistic missile program, or any other program in Iran for developing, deploying, or maintaining systems capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction, including any efforts to manufacture, acquire, possess, develop, transport, transfer, or use such capabilities.”
March 24, 2017
Afghanistan
Headline: Afghan Taliban capture crucial town of Sangin
Headline:Russia may be aiding Taliban in Afghanistan, top US general says
The Taliban have captured the crucial south Afghan district of Sangin after a year-long battle, officials say. Government forces say they have made a tactical retreat from the centre of Sangin. A spokesman for Helmand’s governor confirmed the district police and governor’s headquarters were now in militant hands. Almost a quarter of British troops killed during the UK’s combat mission in Afghanistan died defending Sangin. Hundreds of members of the Afghan security forces died there in recent fighting. Separately, at least nine local policemen were killed in an “insider” attack in Kunduz in the north early on Thursday. A guard who officials say was linked to the Taliban reportedly gave access to insurgents at a security checkpoint located on the Kunduz-Kabul highway. The attackers took weapons and ammunition with them.
March 23, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39365330
Sudan
Headline: US warns South Sudan government against ‘deliberate starvation tactics’
The United States warned South Sudan’s government on Thursday that preventing humanitarian aid workers from reaching parts of the war-torn state that are suffering famine could “amount to deliberate starvation tactics.” A civil war erupted in 2013 when President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer, who has fled and is now in South Africa. The United Nations says at least one-quarter of South Sudanese have been displaced. The Security Council said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned about the actions of all parties to the conflict that are perpetuating the humanitarian crisis.” However, the language was toned down from a draft that said the crisis was “the result of the actions of all parties to the conflict.” South Sudan Deputy Ambassador Joseph Mourn Majak Ngor Malok rejected accusations that the government was to blame for the famine, saying “it will spare no efforts to help address the situation and calls upon the international community to assist in addressing this urgent matter.”
March 24, 2017
Libya
Headline: Russian troops ‘on the ground in Libya,’ US general claims
Russian troops are on the ground in Libya supporting the forces of General Khalifa Haftar, the warlord who controls much of the eastern part of the country, a US general said on Friday. Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, said the link between Russia and General Haftar, the head of a group called the Libyan National Army, is “undeniable.” “There are Russians on the ground in the area,” Gen Waldhauser said in a meeting with reporters in the Pentagon. It is the first time US officials have said Russian forces are likely inside Libya. The Russian ministry of defence was not immediately available for comment on Friday evening. Gen Waldhauser’s comments follow reports earlier this month that Russian special forces had been deployed to western Egypt, possibly in order to conduct operations in Libya.
March 24, 2017
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/24/russian-troops-ground-libya-us-general-claims/
Headline: ISIS Claims Responsibility for London Attack but Analysts Remain Skeptical
Headline: Belgium driver on terrorism charge over Antwerp ‘attack’
Headline: UK Parliament terror tied to Antwerp attack
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the terror attack that left four people dead, including the assailant and a police officer, outside of London’s Parliament building on Wednesday, according to the Amaq media agency. “The perpetrator of the attacks yesterday in front of the British Parliament in London is an Islamic State soldier and he carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of the coalition,” the Amaq statement said. The claim of responsibility comes fewer than 24 hours after a man driving an SUV plowed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge near the Parliament building. Two people were killed and more than 30 others injured before the attacker fatally stabbed police officer Keith Palmer on the Parliament’s grounds. Police shot the attacker, who later was pronounced dead. The attacker’s identity has not been revealed, but British Prime Minister Theresa May said he was born in Britain and known to authorities who had once investigated him for links to religious extremism. “Our working assumption is that the attacker was inspired by Islamist ideology,” she told members of Parliament. “We know the threat from Islamist terrorism is very real. But while the public should remain utterly vigilant, they should not and will not be cowed by this threat.”
March 24, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39380527
http://debka.com/article/25976/UK-Parliament-terror-tied-to-Antwerp-attack
Headline: ‘Make America Great Again’ marches planned Saturday; anti-Trump groups vow to stop them
They’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore. So they’re marching. On Saturday, backers of President Trump are planning marches across the country in a show of unity and support for his agenda. In several places, anti-Trump groups are vowing to try to undermine the rallies. Pro-Trump groups say they are tired of all the attacks on a president who has been in office barely three months. “Why are we here is because we have a president that has been in office, by the time of the march, what … 65 days?” asked former Rep. Doreen Costa, a Rhode Island Republican, in a rhetorical question to the Providence Journal. “All this resistance: ‘He’s not my president,'” she continued. “News flash: He is. He is everybody’s president. I did not vote for Barack Obama, but he was still my president. And you can only resist so much and it’s not going to change the outcome of the election.” The marches, dubbed “Make America Great Again,” or “MAGA,” have met with opposition in some areas, with anti-Trump groups planning to counter-demonstrate.
March 24, 2017
Headline: Belarus Leader Vows Harsh Measures as Protest Showdown Looms
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened a harsh crackdown on opponents of his rule amid mass arrests of protesters planning what they say may be the largest demonstration for years in the former Soviet republic. “We don’t shut anyone’s mouth, but one step to the left or to the right away from the law will be stopped in the most severe way possible,” Lukashenko said at a meeting with security officials on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s planned rally in the capital, Minsk. “We’re not scaring anyone and we won’t. But we’ll be very tough in ensuring the country’s laws and constitution are observed.” Nearly 300 people have already been detained, jailed or fined for involvement in anti-government protests that have swept across Belarus since last month over a so-called “parasite tax” on the jobless, according to Viasna, a Minsk-based rights group. Police have started rounding up prominent activists in Minsk before the so-called Freedom Day march, the independent Belsat TV, which is based in neighboring Poland, reported Wednesday.
March 23, 2017
Headline: Chechnya: Russian soldiers killed in clash with insurgents
Headline: Ex-Russian Lawmaker Shot Dead in Kiev; Ukraine Blames Russia
Six Russian soldiers have been killed and several wounded in a clash with armed militants in Russia’s region of Chechnya, security forces say. The Russian National Guard says militants took advantage of heavy fog to try to storm one of its bases overnight on Thursday. Six attackers are also said to have been killed in the gun battle. They still face a low-level insurgency in the mainly Muslim region in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus area. But clashes between the two sides have become less commonplace in recent years, correspondents say. The insurgency has been quelled largely because of Chechnya’s authoritarian leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has ruled Chechnya since his forces, helped by massive Russian firepower, defeated separatist rebels between 1999-2009. His much-feared militia, called the “Kadyrovtsy”, have been accused of kidnapping, torture and other human rights abuses.
March 24, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39377409
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-03-23/former-russian-lawmaker-shot-dead-in-ukraine
Headline: ISIS claims ‘suicide’ blast near Bangladesh airport: SITE
ISIS claimed responsibility late Friday for a suspected suicide bomb attack outside the Bangladeshi capital’s main international airport, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist communications. A bomber was killed in the blast, police said, the third in a series of suspected attacks and the second claimed by ISIS since last week. The bomb, carried by a man on foot, exploded near a police checkpoint monitoring vehicles heading to Hazrat Shahjahal International Airport in Dhaka. “The bomb carrier himself was killed,” a Dhaka police spokesman, Yusuf Ali, told AFP. In an Arabic report, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to U.S.-based monitoring agency SITE Intelligence Group. “A martyrdom-seeking attack targeted a Bangladeshi police checkpoint near the international airport in the city of Dhaka,” the ISIS-linked Amaq news agency said.
March 24, 2017
Headline: North Korea preparing for nuclear test at Punggye-ri, officials say
North Korea may be getting ready for its sixth nuclear test. Intelligence collected from U.S. sources indicates North Korea’s next test “could come as early as the end of the month,” one official told Fox News. There is evidence, according to the report, that North Korea has finished tunnels around the Punggye-ri nuclear test site. But more equipment needs to be moved into the area for a test. North Korea conducted two nuclear tests in 2016. South Korea’s military is generally in agreement with the U.S. assessment. “When North Korea’s top leadership makes the decision, we believe the country is ready to test nuclear weapons at any time,” one official said, according to South Korean news service News 1. The unidentified South Korean military official said the tunnels at the north and west sides of Punggye-ri have been completed, and a southern tunnel has also been drilled. The U.S. military has begun to move the Air Force WC-135 Constant Phoenix to Japan for surveillance purposes. The aircraft will be used to patrol areas surrounding the Korean peninsula. If North Korea completes the miniaturization of nuclear warheads and mounts the weapon on an intercontinental ballistic missile, it will have a weapons capable of striking the U.S. mainland
March 24, 2017
Headline: CIA’s NightSkies tool can hack, remotely control iPhones without user knowing
WikiLeaks has revealed the CIA’s alleged ability to infiltrate and control iPhones through a tool called NightSkies, which is physically installed onto factory fresh iPhones and allows the CIA to monitor and download files from targets’ phones undetected. The revelation is part of WikiLeaks’ latest Vault 7 release named ‘Dark Matter.’ NightSkies works in the background and grants “full remote command and control,” to the CIA, allowing it to upload and download files from iPhones, including details from the owner’s phonebook, text messages and call logs, and to execute actions on the phones as it wishes. In the press release regarding the latest ‘Vault 7’ leak, WikiLeaks claims that NightSkies “is expressly designed to be physically installed onto factory fresh iPhones.” A 2008 document featured in the release explains that NightSkies v1.2 must be physically installed and will only start beaconing information once the user starts to use the phone. Nightskies is made up of three components: an implant, a Listening Post (LP) and a post-processing program. The implant runs undetected on the phone once it has been physically installed. The CIA monitors the phone for activity, including its browser history file, YouTube video cache or mail metadata. Once it is used for the first time, NightSkies kicks in and sends information to a preconfigured LP.
March 23, 2017
https://www.rt.com/viral/382080-nightskies-cia-infiltrate-iphone/
Headline: FBI Grilled On Extent Of Its Facial Recognition Program
The FBI took fire from privacy advocates and members of Congress Wednesday over how it characterizes its face recognition program, which has allowed agents to access and algorithmically match the photos of tens of millions of Americans — including innocent people who have never been charged with a crime. “The only information the FBI has and have collected in our database are criminal mugshot photos,” Del Greco stated, when asked by committee chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) whether the FBI was collecting or storing photos of innocent people from other sources, like social media. “We do not have any other photos in our repository.” “That’s not true,” Chaffetz replied. According to a comprehensive report released last year by researchers at Georgetown Law, roughly half of all Americans have their photos accessible by a law enforcement face recognition system. The report found that 16 states grant the FBI free access to driver’s license photos for its Next Generation Identification and Facial Analysis, Comparison, and Evaluation (FACE) photo-searching systems. The House Oversight Committee also recently learned that two additional states — Arizona and Maryland — have been added, bringing the total to 18 states. The hearing’s panelists quickly concurred that even if the FBI doesn’t directly control some of the photo databases, it can still easily access them with no independent oversight. Agreements with the Department of Motor Vehicles in 18 states currently allow the agency’s face-matching system to freely access residents’ driver’s license photos in order to conduct virtually unlimited face recognition searches, according to Alvaro Bedoya, a surveillance researcher who sat on the panel, and a coauthor of the Georgetown Law face recognition report.
March 22, 2017
http://www.vocativ.com/413934/fbi-facial-recognition-program/
“Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.” (Daniel 2:41-43)
Headline: Balkans to face new war if EU collapses: Juncker warns US against anti-European stance
The chief of the European Commission has warned US president Donald Trump against encouraging countries to copy Britain’s exit from the EU, arguing that a break-up of the bloc could lead to a war in the Balkans. Jean-Claude Juncker, speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, called Trump’s enthusiasm for Britain’s departure from the EU “annoying” and “surprising.” Trump did indeed express his approval for Britain’s departure from the bloc, even labeling himself ‘Mr. Brexit’ during the US presidential campaign. He also became closely associated with the populist right-wing British politician Nigel Farage, then the leader of the UK Independence Party, who was one of those who led the push for the UK’s exit from the EU. Juncker said he delivered his warning via Vice President Mike Pence during his visit to Brussels last month. “I told the vice president, ‘Do not say that, do not invite others to leave, because if the European Union collapses, you will have a new war in the Western Balkans,’” Juncker said. The 62-year-old European Commission president stressed that the prospect of EU membership is extremely important for Balkan countries, so they do not become engaged in another war. “If we leave them alone — Bosnia Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, Macedonia, Albania, all those countries — we will have war again,” he said, referencing the conflict that broke out between Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims in 1991, and ended after a NATO-led intervention. Juncker went on to state that Trump’s “America First” rhetoric had frightened Europeans, noting that “for the first time in post-war history we have an American president giving the impression he is not interested in European affairs.”
March 24, 2017
https://www.rt.com/news/382231-juncker-trump-brexit-balkans/
Headline: Doctors Warn Of New Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Bacteria
Friday marks the United Nations’ World Tuberculosis Day, aimed at raising awareness of a disease that kills an estimated 1.8 million people every year. Six countries account for nearly two-thirds of the cases: India, Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa. “In South Africa, for example, TB is the commonest cause of death and the disease is out of control in Africa,” said Dr. Keertan Dheda, head of the Division of Pulmonology at the University of Cape Town. “For the first time after about four to five decades, we have two drugs. One is called bedaquiline,” Dheda said. “That has now been registered in South Africa and is available to treat many patients with drug-resistant TB. And there’s another new drug called delamanid, that’s not yet licensed in South Africa but is available in other countries.” In a report published in the Lancet medical journal, Dheda and his co-authors warn that the effectiveness of these new drugs could be rapidly lost if they aren’t used correctly. “There are several case reports globally of patients that have already become resistant to both delamanid and bedaquiline. We need to change our strategy,”
March 24, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/world-tuberculosis-day-new-drug-resistant-bacteria/3779980.html
Headline: Taiwan top court hears landmark gay marriage case
A panel of judges at Taiwan’s top court are hearing a case that could make the island the first place in Asia to introduce gay marriage. The case has been brought by a gay activist as well as municipal authorities from the capital, Taipei. Taiwan’s parliament has also been debating whether to pass laws that would allow same-sex marriage. The movement has split society and prompted a conservative backlash, with vocal protests in recent months. A panel of 14 justices are hearing arguments and will debate whether a line in Taiwan’s civil code, which states that marriage is between a man and a woman, is unconstitutional. The hearing lasts only one day, but could be a decisive turning point in Taiwan’s decades-long debate on whether to legalise same-sex marriage. It’s the first time the judiciary is opening the Constitutional Court on the issue. If the judges rule that Taiwan’s current ban is unconstitutional, then parliament will be forced to amend the laws to offer gay couples protection.
March 24, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39376423
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
~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~
Mar 20
March 20, 2017- Real-life Robocops arriving in May 2017!
Bible prophecy documentary book download proving our generation will see the return of the Lord. Do you want to know what is going to happen in the future before it actually takes place? The Word of God provides you with specific details about our future and all of these things are coming to pass in this generation. If you aren’t saved yet this is a must read! The Last Chronicles of Planet Earth March 14, 2017 Edition written by Frank DiMora
How to Add the Last Chronicles to your Electronic Device
~Scroll down for all the news; be sure to CLICK on the photos next to the prophecy sign for all Bible verses & videos ~
Headline: Liberman threatens to ‘destroy’ Syrian air defense systems
Headline: Netanyahu: Syria strikes were to block transfer of weapons to Hezbollah
Headline: Second Russian foreign ministry summons for Israeli ambassador
Headline: Israel said to strike Syria for second time in 24 hours, amid threats from Damascus
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Sunday threatened to destroy Syrian air defense systems after they fired ground-to-air missiles at Israeli warplanes carrying out strikes. “The next time the Syrians use their air defense systems against our planes we will destroy them without the slightest hesitation,” Lieberman said on Israeli public radio. Israeli fighter jets hit several targets in Syria on Friday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the strikes targeted weapons bound for the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon. Syria’s military claimed it downed one of the Israeli planes and hit another as they were carrying out the predawn strikes near the famed desert city of Palmyra that it recaptured from jihadists this month. The IDF denied that any of its planes were hit. The Syrian government has made similar claims in the past. An Israeli army statement said “several anti-aircraft missiles” were fired following the raid but that none hit their targets. One missile was intercepted by Israel’s Arrow missile defense battery, military officials said, in the first reported use of the advanced system. Syria and Iran have asked the United Nations to condemn the air strike. On Saturday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Israel is using ISIS to justify its interference in the Syrian conflict.
March 20, 2017
http://www.timesofisrael.com/liberman-threatens-to-destroy-syrian-air-defense-systems/
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/IDF-denies-claim-that-Syria-shot-down-Israeli-jet-484465
Headline: Syrian UN Envoy: Putin Sent Message to Israel That Its Freedom to Act in Syria Is Over
Headline: Assad to Israel: We have a right to defend our borders
Russia has sent a clear message to Israel that the rules of the game have changed in Syria and its freedom to act in Syrian skies is over, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Sunday night. “Putin sent a clear message,” said Bashar Jaafari, speaking on Syrian television. “The fact is that the Israeli ambassador [to Russia] was summoned for a conversation only a day after he submitted his credentials [to the Russian Foreign Ministry last Thursday], and was told categorically that this game is over.” Syria’s use of anti-aircraft fire against Israel last Thursday night has changed the rules of the game, too, Jaafari said, adding that Syria will not stand idly by in the face of an Israeli threat.
March 20, 2017
http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/1.778343
Headline: Trump administration boycotts UN council session over anti-Israel ‘bias’
The Trump administration said Monday that it is boycotting a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, amid growing concerns by the administration over the U.N.’s anti-Israel stance. The boycott, first reported by The Washington Free Beacon, comes as the council was expected to adopt a number of anti-Israel resolutions Monday. The council has long been criticized as one of the U.N.’s most anti-Israel bodies. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that one particular agenda item — “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories” – was “yet another reminder of that body’s long-standing bias against Israel.” “As an expression of our deeply-held conviction that this bias must be addressed in order for the Council to realize its legitimate purpose, the United States decided not to attend the Council’s Item Seven General Debate session,” Toner said, adding that the U.S. will vote against every resolution under the agenda item, and encourage other countries to do the same. The U.S. decision to boycott the council comes just days after the U.N. withdrew a report written by controversial scholar Richard Falk, calling Israel an “apartheid state.” Falk, a former U.N. special rapporteur to the Palestinian territories, is known for outlandish criticisms of both America and Israel, and has questioned what he calls “the official version of 9/11.”
March 20, 2017
Headline: Israeli airstrike in Syrian Golan said to kill pro-Assad fighter
Headline: Israeli-Russian clash over Hizballah’s Golan grab
An Israeli drone strike reportedly killed a member of a Syrian pro-regime militia Sunday afternoon, amid spiraling tensions between Jerusalem and Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Israeli aircraft struck a truck driving near the town of Khan Arnabeh in the Quneitra province, on the road to Damascus. The National Defense Force, a pro-regime militia set up in 2012, claimed the man killed was from among its ranks, named Yasser Hussien Assayed. The group, reportedly set up with the help of Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, published four pictures it said were from the scene of the alleged airstrike. The group said an Israeli drone carried out the strike. The IDF refused to confirm or deny the reports. debkafile’s military sources reveal that Jerusalem was further alarmed Sunday by discovering that an Iraqi Shiite militia was on the way, under the command of Iran’s Al Qods chief Gen. Qassem Soleiman, to reinforce Hizballah’s Hermon-Golan offensive. This militia, called the Al-Nojba Movement, consisting of 1,500 Iraqi Shiite fighters, is the pet project of Hizballah’s deputy chief Sheikh Naieem Qassem, who sent officers to train them. Since the Al Nojba militia has been deployed in the northern Syrian town of Aleppo, its transfer south to fight with Hizballah could not have gone unnoticed by the Russian officers on the ground. The militia’s landing on the slopes of Hermon would herald the intrusion of additional foreign pro-Iranian Shiite forces in this embattled location on the fringes of the Golan. Israel can be expected to intervene again to put a stop to this dangerous Russian-Iranian-Hizballah ploy to exploit the turbulence in Syria for allowing Israel’s enemies to grab forward assault positions in Syria.
March 20, 2017
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-airstrike-said-to-kill-driver-in-syrian-golan-heights/
http://debka.com/article/25973/Israeli-Russian-clash-over-Hizballah%E2%80%99s-Golan-grab
Lebanon
Headline: Lebanon: PM Hariri forced to flee as protesters send bottles flying at tax hike demo
Headline: Is trouble brewing again in Lebanon?
Protesters threw bottles at Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri as thousands continued to gather in central Beirut, Sunday, rallying for the fourth day in a row against a tax hikes. Hariri attempted to address the protesters, but was booed and ushered away by his security staff as projectiles started to fly. Armed guards stood between the politician and the demonstrators, with the latter pulling down barricades blocking the prime minister’s headquarters, the Grand Serail. The cabinet decided to raise VAT from 10 to 11 percent in order to fund a new salary scale bill, which is estimated to cost LL 1.2 trillion ($800 million). The revenue will fund pay scales for government employees such as judges, teachers and military personnel. SOT, Samer Abou Khalil, protester (Arabic): “We ask Lebanese people today to participate in the demonstration to stop the corruption machine in the government. We hope they do because it is for all Lebanese.
March 20, 2017
Saudi Arabia
Headline: Saudi-led coalition calls for UN supervision of Yemen port
Headline: Arab coalition intercepts Houthi ballistic missile targeting Saudi city of Jazan
A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen called on Sunday for the United Nations to place a strategic port under its supervision after a helicopter attack on a boatload of Somali refugees left 42 dead. The refugees had departed from the western port city of Hodeidah en route to Sudan when the gunship opened fire on Friday, the United Nations refugee agency said. While the Arab alliance denied responsibility for the attack on Friday, it called for jurisdiction over Hodeidah Port to be transferred to the UN. “This would facilitate the flow of humanitarian supplies to the Yemeni people, while at the same time ending the use of the port for weapons smuggling and people trafficking,” it said in a statement. It did not address a call by Somalia to investigate. Meanwhile, The Arab coalition fighting to restore legitimacy in Yemen have has intercepted a ballistic missile that targeted the Saudi city of Jazan. The failed missile attack comes just a day after three men were killed when they attempted to infiltrated Saudi Arabia’s southern border with Yemen. Another ballistic missile fired by Houthi militias on March 16 towards the Yemeni army outpost in al-Dhabbab province in Taiz was also intercepted.
March 20, 2017
http://jordantimes.com/news/region/saudi-led-coalition-calls-un-supervision-yemen-port
Egypt
Headline: Egyptian, Palestinian leaders meet for reconciliation talks
Egyptian and Palestinian leaders are holding talks in Cairo in what Egyptian media reports are branding a “reconciliation” meeting. Relations between Egypt and President Mahmoud Abbas’ administration have been tense over a range of issues, including Cairo’s contacts with factions in the Gaza Strip that did not involve Abbas’ Palestinian Authority. Abbas and Gaza’s rulers, the militant group Hamas, are at sharp odds. Relations also soured when Egypt in December withdrew a draft resolution in the UN. Security Council against Israeli settlements. The draft was later resubmitted by other countries and adopted by the council. Osama Qawasmeh, spokesman for Abbas’ mainstream Fatah faction, said on Monday that relations with Cairo have been “a little bit cold” recently, but the time was right to “restore this very important and strategic relationship.”
March 20, 2017
***SEE ALSO SUDAN BELOW
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4937971,00.html
Headline: Russia strikes deal with Syrian Kurds to set up base-Syrian Kurdish militia
Headline: Russia denies reports it plans to establish military base in Kurdish-controlled region of Syria
Headline:Putin’s Real Syria Agenda
Russia is setting up a military base in northwestern Syria in an agreement with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia that controls the area and will be training YPG fighters as part of the fight against terrorism, the militia’s spokesman said on Monday. YPG spokesman Redur Xelil told Reuters the agreement with Russia was concluded on Sunday, and that Russian troops had already arrived at the position in the northwestern province of Afrin with troop carriers and armored vehicles. “The Russian presence … comes in agreement between (the YPG) and the Russian forces operating in Syria in the framework of cooperation against terrorism and to help train our forces on modern warfare and to build a direct point of contact with Russian forces,” Xelil said in a written statement.
March 20, 2017
https://www.rt.com/news/381499-afrin-base-russia-kurds/
http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/Putin%27s%20Real%20Syria%20Agenda.pdf
Headline: Assad: Oscar-feted White Helmets are part of Al-Qaeda
Syrian President Bashar Assad has hit out at the controversial nonprofit White Helmets, calling it a front for Islamic terrorism, and saying they are an example of Western narratives grotesquely distorting the truth about the conflict in the country. “White Helmets are Al Qaeda members and that’s proven on the net,” Assad told RT during an interview with Russian journalists in Damascus. “The same members are killing or executing or celebrating over dead bodies, at the same time they are humanitarian heroes, and now they have an Oscar.” The White Helmets, which calls itself a civil defense organization, operates in rebel-controlled parts of Syria, where they say they are involved exclusively in peaceful activities such as rescuing civilians after bombing raids. They are part-funded by donations, and by Western governments. Both Damascus and Moscow have repeatedly accused them of functioning as a propaganda operation that stages videos and manipulates coverage to generate sympathy abroad for the rebel cause, and as a jihadist rescue service that operates in tandem with Al Nusra and other radical groups in Syria. The Syrian president said that the unquestioning lionization of the White Helmets is symptomatic of the West’s “double standards,” in which heroes and villains are decided on the basis of “narratives.”
March 20, 2017
https://www.rt.com/news/381542-white-helmets-al-qaeda-members/
Headline: Damascus sees fierce clashes after rebel attack
Headline: Syrian rebels attack Russian embassy in Damascus
Headline: Syrian army retakes Damascus areas captured by rebels
Syrian security forces have engaged in fierce clashes with rebels on the eastern outskirts of Damascus. Artillery shells and rockets landed in the heart of the capital as part of a surprise rebel attack launched in the Jobar district. The assault began early on Sunday with car bombs and suicide attacks, activists said. State media said secret tunnels were also used. The military says it managed to push the rebels back. AFP correspondents in Damascus said the army had closed routes into the strategically important Abbasid Square as explosions reverberated across the city. The Observatory said the rebels had initiated the attack to relieve pressure on fighters under attack from government forces in the districts of Barzeh, Tishreen and Qabun.
March 20, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39321098
http://debka.com/newsupdatepopup/20160/Syrian-rebels-attack-Russian-embassy-in-Damascus
Headline: Syria Situation Report March 9 – 17, 2017
http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/March%2017EDITS%20COT.pdf
Headline: Islamic State uses improvised weapons of war in Mosul, Iraq
Headline: Islamic State militants capture Iraqi police colonel, 8 officers in west Mosul
Headline: Abadi, Trump Set to Discuss Islamic State Battle
The Islamic State’s Ninawa province has released a 30-plus minute video promoting the jihadists’ role in the battle for Mosul, Iraq. The propaganda production is intended to buttress perceptions of the group’s capabilities, even as it loses ground in and around the city. Still, it provides a useful overview of the so-called caliphate’s improvised weapons of war, as well as the tactics the jihadists have employed to prolong the conflict. The Islamic State has become especially adept at turning various makes and models of cars into vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs). Armor is fixed to large and small vehicles alike in order to make it more difficult for Iraqi and American forces to destroy them before they reach their target. The US has been able to take out dozens of VBIEDs before their drivers could complete their missions. But the video showcases some of the jihadists’ more successful bombings. In one instance, one VBIED is driven into a security checkpoint and then a second snakes its way through an apartment complex until reaching the target. The footage is recorded from above, likely using small commercial-style drones, which have become a common tool for both the Islamic State and al Qaeda.
March 20, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/abadi-trump-to-discuss-islamic-state-battle/3773391.html
Headline: Baghdad bomb kills at least 23, wounds dozens
Iraqi officials say a car bomb in Baghdad has killed at least 23 people and wounded 45 others. The police and hospital officials say the attack Monday night targeted a commercial area in Baghdad’s southwestern Amil neighborhood. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.
March 20, 2017
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/03/20/baghdad-bomb-kills-at-least-23-wounds-dozens.html
Headline: Turkey condemns raising Kurdish flag in Kirkuk
The Turkish authorities on Sunday expressed concerns about the raising of Kurdish flag next to the Iraqi flag on official buildings in Kirkuk city, in northern Iraq. “The Kirkuk Governorate’s request from the Kirkuk Provincial Council for a motion to raise the flag of KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] beside the Iraqi flag throughout the official buildings is disconcerting,” Spokesman of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Hüseyin Müftüoğlu said. “The process that should be followed with regard to the disputed internal boundaries is set by Iraq’s Constitution. Unilateral acts on the status of Kirkuk that fail to follow this process would jeopardize the reconciliation and stabilization efforts in the country,” Müftüoğlu said.
March 20, 2017
http://aranews.net/2017/03/turkey-condemns-raising-kurdish-flag-kirkuk/
Headline: Campaign for Mosul March 9 – 16, 2017
http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/campaign-mosul-march-9-16-2017
Turkey
Headline: Germany Turkey: 30,000 Kurds in Frankfurt anti-Erdogan protest
Some 30,000 Turkish Kurds have held a demonstration in the German city of Frankfurt against the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Protesters came from all over Germany ahead of Kurdish new year celebrations. They called for democracy and a No vote in next month’s Turkish referendum on increasing presidential powers. Many carried symbols of the banned PKK. Turkey condemned the gathering as “unacceptable” and accused Germany of hypocrisy for allowing it. A diplomatic row has been escalating between the countries since Germany refused to let Turkish ministers hold pro-government rallies in the country two weeks ago. Mr Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a statement: “It is unacceptable to see PKK symbols and slogans… when Turkish ministers and lawmakers are being prevented from meeting their own citizens. “We once again remind European countries: on April 16 the decision is to be made by the (Turkish nation), not Europe.”
March 18, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39318461
Iran
Headline: Iran in Crisis? Supreme Leader Challenges President, Calls for ‘Resistance Economy’
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Monday for greater self-sufficiency in the nation’s growing economy, criticizing President Hassan Rouhani’s liberal post-nuclear treaty economic policies ahead of May’s presidential elections. Speaking in a televised, pre-recorded message for Nowruz, or the Persian New Year, Khamenei acknowledged Rouhani had made progress by opening the economy after signing the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, by which Iran agreed to significantly limit nuclear development in exchange for relief from international sanctions. However, Khamenei, who holds the most powerful position in the country, argued that Rouhani’s efforts to open the economy to international markets had not adequately addressed existing problems at home. “I feel the pain of the poor and lower class people with my soul, especially because of high prices, unemployment and inequalities,” Khamenei told viewers, according to Reuters.
March 20, 2017
http://www.newsweek.com/iran-khamenei-resistance-economy-persian-new-years-570910?rx=us
Afghanistan
Headline: Afghan soldier killed after shooting, wounding 3 US troops
An Afghan soldier opened fire Sunday inside a base in the southern Helmand province, wounding three US soldiers before being shot dead. Navy Captain Bill Salvin, a US military spokesman, said coalition forces killed the soldier ‘‘to end the attack,’’ but Colonel Mohammad Rasoul Zazai, an Afghan Army spokesman, said the soldier had made a mistake and had not fired deliberately. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents attacked a district headquarters in the Kandahar province Sunday using a suicide car bomb, said Samim Khpolwak, a spokesman for the governor. He declined to say how many people were killed or wounded. A security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information, said six police were killed and five others were wounded in the assault, which was claimed by the Taliban. Two Taliban commanders were killed in an apparent US drone strike Sunday in the Barmal district of the eastern Paktika province, said a spokesman for the provincial governor.
March 19, 2017
Sudan
Headline: Sudan seeks to ‘force Egyptians out’ of disputed area
Sudan has formed a panel to look into “diplomatic” means of forcing Egyptians out of a disputed border area. Abdullah al-Sadeq, the head of the Sudanese technical committee for border demarcation, said the panel has met to set the guidelines for its work regarding the disputed Halayeb and Shalateen Triangle. The meeting also tackled “a roadmap about the region and how to force Egyptians out of the area by diplomacy,” he told the Sudanese Media Center on Sunday. Al-Sadeq said that Khartoum has documents proving that the disputed triangle is a Sudanese territory. The statements came shortly after the Sudanese government reportedly threatened to reply to what it described as insults of Sudan’s civilization by foreign media. Sudanese authorities have criticized the Egyptian media coverage of a recent visit by the mother of Qatar’s Emir to the country. The Halayeb and Shalateen region has long been a sore spot in bilateral relations between Sudan and Egypt. The border dispute was revived after Egypt signed an agreement to cede control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia last year. Though annulled by an Egyptian court in January, Sudan called for similar negotiations to take place on the Halayeb Triangle. Cairo has responded that the triangle is an Egyptian territory.
March 20, 2017
http://aa.com.tr/en/africa/sudan-seeks-to-force-egyptians-out-of-disputed-area/775735
Libya
Headline: Will Libya Become The New Syria Now That Russian Forces Have Arrived?
The Guardian reports that “Russia appears to have deployed special forces to an airbase in western Egypt near the border with Libya in recent days, in a move that adds to US concerns about Moscow’s deepening role in Libya.” Reuters news agency also reported that Russian special forces troops had been seen on the border between Libya and Egypt. The arrival of Russian forces in Libya presents a new problem just like it does in Syria. Egyptian security sources have actually offered more confirmed detail, describing the Russian special forces unit, but declined to discuss its mission. They added that Russia also used another Egyptian base further east in Marsa Matrouh in early February this year. Egypt is straddled by Iraq and Syria to the east and Libya to the west and has a strong interest in arresting any terrorist activity given its own fragile leadership. Like Syria, Russia appears to been asked to assist in the battle against what looks like a new level of upcoming instability in Libya. Whilst ISIS and other terrorist groups have poured into the country during last year, a proxy war between Russia and the West, just like the Syrian conflict could easily flare up. The Libyan president of the house of representatives, confirmed that Russia was assisting Haftar’s forces. The U.S. military declined to comment. U.S. intelligence on Russian military activities is often complicated by its use of contractors or forces without uniforms, officials say. Questions about Russia’s role in north Africa coincide with growing concerns in Washington about Moscow’s intentions in oil-rich Libya. One U.S. intelligence official said Russia’s aim in Libya appeared to be an effort to “regain a toe-hold where the Soviet Union once had an ally in Gaddafi.” “At the same time, as in Syria, they appear to be trying to limit their military involvement and apply enough to force some resolution but not enough to leave them owning the problem,” the official added, speaking on the condition of anonymity. March 20, 2017
Headline: Beijing Goes Global: China Expands Marine Force 400%; First Overseas Military Base Almost Complete
Headline: Amid China-backed turbulence, Japan and Russia hold talks in Tokyo
Headline: Taiwan defense minister says China missiles pose threat
For most of its recent history, China has largely been a land power with no significant naval capabilities. They haven’t been able to exert much military influence beyond their coastline for hundreds of years. In fact, one of the reasons why Western powers had no trouble bullying China during the 19th and 20th centuries, was because the Imperial Navy under the Qing dynasty was incredibly weak. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that lately, China has been putting a lot of effort into building an effective overseas naval force. Not only have they been busy constructing their first combat-ready aircraft carrier, the Chinese have also been developing new aircrafts to accompany it. Of course, a navy can’t really exert much military influence if it doesn’t have soldiers to deploy. That’s why Chinese officials have recently announced that they are preparing to rapidly expand the ranks of the People’s Liberation Army Marine Corps. Chinese media is reporting the People’s Liberation Army’s ambitious new plans following the announcement of a 7 per cent increase to $200 billion in defence spending last week. Among the details to emerge is a move to boost China’s marine corps — highly trained and well equipped troops intended for rapid deployment and offensive missions launched from the sea — from an existing 20,000 troops to more than 100,000. Chinese officials have stated this is to protect arterial maritime trade routes and enforce its growing overseas interests. “What growing overseas interests” you might ask? Well, China has been in the process of building their first overseas military base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa. And that base is expected to be completed this summer.
March 20, 2017
http://www.worldtribune.com/amid-china-backed-turbulence-japan-and-russia-hold-talks-in-tokyo/
Headline: Kim Jong-Un vows to reduce the US ‘to ashes’ with nuke strikes if Donald Trump fires ‘even a single bullet’ at North Korea
KIM Jong-un has threatened to reduce the US “to ashes” as tensions with North Korea continue to increase. The secretive state released a statement earlier this month warning Donald Trump of nuclear destruction if America fires “even a single bullet” towards Pyongyang. The statement said: “The Korean People’s Army will reduce the bases of aggression and provocation to ashes with its invincible Hwasong rockets tipped with nuclear warheads and reliably defend the security of the country and its people’s happiness in case the US and the South Korean puppet forces fire even a single bullet at the territory of the DPRK.” The menacing talk came as South Korea warned that its northern neighbour’s latest rocket-engine test showed “meaningful” progress.
March 20, 2017
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3131278/kim-jong-un-nuclear-weapons-donald-trump-north-korea/
“Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.” (Daniel 2:41-43)
Headline: British PM to begin formal EU exit process March 29
Britain will formally begin protocols to leave the European Union on March 29, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday. The official notification will declare that negotiations should begin as soon as possible, May’s spokesman said. On Monday, Sir Tim Barrow, Britain’s EU representative, notified European Council President Donald Tusk to expect a letter invoking Article 50, the parliamentary procedure triggering the departure process, on March 29. Article 50 forbids any talk on the terms of departure until formal notification of withdrawal is given. It is expected that the 27 other EU member nations will agree to the start date, with an initial response from them with 48 hours, the BBC reported. A two-year timetable is expected to be followed, meaning Britain’s official break with the EU should occur in March 2019.
March 20, 2017
March 15, 2017 – Kelantan Malaysia declares ‘disaster’ over bird flu spread
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/kelantan-declares-disaster-over-bird-flu-spread-no-human/3597448.html
March 16, 2017 – Bird Flu Hits Another Tennessee Chicken Farm Linked to Tyson
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-16/bird-flu-reaches-another-tennessee-chicken-farm-linked-to-tyson
March 17, 2017 – Ministry of Environment confirms mass death of fish in Playa Toro Panama
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prensa.com%2Fprovincias%2FMinisterio-Ambiente-muerte-masiva-anchovetas-Playa-Toro_0_4713278630.html&edit-text=&act=url
March 17, 2017 – Thousands of dead fish washed ashore in Thirthahalli, India
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/fish-kill-in-tirthahalli/article17522887.ece
March 17, 2017 – Millions of pipi washing up on Waihi Beach New Zealand
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/weather-bomb-one-likely-cause-millions-pipi-washing-up-waihi-beach-scientist
March 18, 2017 – Dead dolphin, fish and crustaceans washed ashore in Miri, Malaysia
http://www.theborneopost.com/2017/03/18/dead-dolphin-fish-and-crustaceans-washed-ashore-cause-unknown/
March 18, 2017 – 7 tons of fish died abnormally in Bao Thang, Vietnam
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.giadinhvietnam.com%2Fdoi-song%2Flao-cai7-tan-ca-chet-bat-thuong-nghi-do-o-nhiem-nguon-nuoc-d109396.html&edit-text=&act=url
March 18, 2017 – Kaohsiung Taiwan duck farm infected with bird flu
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201703180028.aspx
March 20, 2017 – Thousands of fish found in streams of West Sumatra Indonesia
http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Fregional.liputan6.com%2Fread%2F2892565%2Fribuan-ikan-mati-misterius-di-sungai-batang-alin
Headline: The homosexualizing of America: ‘Definitive’ study finds nation’s youth swayed by educators, propaganda
Hollywood, schools and the U.S. government have undertaken a broad effort to “homosexualize” the nation’s youth – and it’s working, researchers say. “Teenagers are acquiring homosexual experience and interests at a rapid rate. Young adult homosexuality is growing as well. What our grandparent’s generation tried to protect kids from is now being taught as a ‘civil right’ and an “obligation to support and join with sexual minorities. Our youth are obeying,” two researchers wrote, citing a “massive” and “definitive” 25-year study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “Over the last decade, the relative proportion of U.S. teenagers claiming to be homosexual has increased 85 percent; the relative proportion who have not made up their minds about embracing homosexuality has increased 53 percent; and those claiming interest only in the opposite sex has dropped 6 percent. If you’ve ever wondered if homosexuality is learned, believe it, Paul Cameron, head of the Family Research Institute, and Dr. Kirk Cameron, statistical scientist at the institute, said in a March 17 essay published by WorldNetDaily. “No society has ever pushed homosexuality to its youth. Indeed, all have tried to protect them from it, (In 1950 a U.S. congressional report called homosexuals dangerous deviants who should not be allowed near youth in government employ.) From gay pride parades, to Disney secreting “little gay messages” into its films, to the CDC recommending that all schools have gay/straight clubs, boosting homosexuality is the flavor of our new ‘sensitive society.’ ”
March 19, 2017
Headline: IRS granted Satanic cult tax-exempt status in 10 days, report says
While some conservative groups may wait years for tax-exempt status, the IRS swiftly gave approval for a Satanic cult that sponsored an “After School Satan Club,” according to records obtained by a watchdog group. Documents posted by the conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch late last week show the nonprofit called Reason Alliance, based in Somerville, Mass., operates in the state of Washington as the Satanic Temple of Seattle. The group appeared to have the goal of establishing Satan clubs in public schools throughout Washington in districts which had similar clubs operated by a Christian-based group. Documents obtained by Judicial Watch included the process of establishing an after-school Satan club at Point Defiance Elementary School in Tacoma. Records obtained from the Treasury Department showed that the Satanic cult applied for tax-exempt status on Oct. 21, 2014, and received it on Oct. 31, 2014. The director of the Seattle temple, Lilith X. Starr, established the Point Defiance Elementary Satanic club with the purpose of “character development,” records obtained by Judicial Watch show, adding that adult instructors are vetted by the Satanic Temple’s “Executive Ministry.”
March 20, 2017
Headline: Mini-nukes and mosquito-like robot weapons being primed for future warfare
Several countries are developing nanoweapons that could unleash attacks using mini-nuclear bombs and insect-like lethal robots. While it may be the stuff of science fiction today, the advancement of nanotechnology in the coming years will make it a bigger threat to humanity than conventional nuclear weapons, according to an expert. The U.S., Russia and China are believed to be investing billions on nanoweapons research. “Nanobots are the real concern about wiping out humanity because they can be weapons of mass destruction,” said Louis Del Monte, a Minnesota-based physicist and futurist. He’s the author of a just released book entitled “Nanoweapons: A Growing Threat To Humanity.” One unsettling prediction Del Monte’s made is that terrorists could get their hands on nanoweapons as early as the late 2020s through black market sources. According to Del Monte, nanoweapons are much smaller than a strand of human hair and the insect-like nanobots could be programmed to perform various tasks, including injecting toxins into people or contaminating the water supply of a major city.
March 17, 2017
Headline: Real-life Robocops will soon replace human police
Robot police were once sci-fi fantasy, but soon the real thing will be patrolling the streets of Dubai. The first robot police officer will be on patrol in the wealthy United Arab Emirates city by May this year, Dubai Police have confirmed. Members of the public will be able to report crimes to the multilingual police robot using a touchscreen on its chest. The friendly robot, which can salute and shake hands, can also be used by members of the public to pay traffic fines and submit paperwork. Dubai Police, who unveiled the prototype at the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition last year, want 25 per cent of its force to be robots by 2030. Brigadier Abdullah Bin Sultan told Gulf News: “We are looking to have more robots in the future to handle policing. “By 2030, we are keen to make robots around 25 per cent of the total police force.” Brigadier Khlaid Nasser Al Razouqi added: “We are looking to make everything smart in Dubai Police. “By 2030, we will have the first smart police station which won’t require human employees.”
March 20, 2017
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/03/20/real-life-robocops-will-soon-replace-human-police/
Headline: The first solar eclipse to cross America in 99 years is coming. To some, it’s an act of God
On August 21, 2017, that shadow will sweep across North America as millions revel in a total solar eclipse. It’s the first one to grace the continental United States since 1979 and the first to run from sea to shining sea since 1918. Although a total solar eclipse — when the new moon passes in front of the sun and blocks its bright disk — happens once every year or two somewhere in the world, it’s still a rare sight. Roughly 70 percent of Earth’s surface is covered in oceans, causing many to miss the land. Even then, the moon’s shadow might sweep across the isolated deserts of the Sahara, remote mountaintops in the Sierras, or the war zones in Syria. But this August, the shadow will glide across a strip (roughly 4,000 kilometers long and 120 kilometers wide) of solid and accessible ground. In certain religious communities, the talk surrounding the eclipse has to do with a different sort of preparation. Gary Ray isn’t worried about just travel plans and adequate eye protection. He’s focused on the Rapture. Ray, a writer for the evangelical Christian publication Unsealed, views this eclipse as one of several astronomical signs that the day when Christians will be whisked away from the Earth is fast approaching. “The Bible says a number of times that there’s going to be signs in the heavens before Jesus Christ returns to Earth. We see this as possibly one of those,” Ray said about the eclipse. He is even more interested in another astronomical event that will occur 33 days after the eclipse, on Sept. 23, 2017. The Book of Revelation, which is full of extraordinary imagery, describes a woman “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head” who gives birth to a boy who will “rule all the nations with an iron scepter” while she is threatened by a red, seven-headed dragon. The woman then grows the wings of an eagle and is swallowed up by the earth. Ray says that image will be created in the sky on Sept. 23. The constellation Virgo — representing the woman — will be clothed in sunlight, in a position that is over the moon and under nine stars and three planets. The planet Jupiter, which will have been inside Virgo — in her womb, in Ray’s interpretation — will move out of Virgo, as if she is giving birth. Astronomers don’t see this as a particularly unusual event. But to Ray and others, it could be the sign that the Rapture is ready to happen: “We think it’s God signaling to us that he’s about to make his next move.”
March 20, 2017
***We’d like to point out a few things about these dates: There is NO prophetical feast day (Leviticus 23) on August 21 of 2017. September 21st at sundown is the Feast of Trumpets (also called Rosh Hashanah) and concludes at sundown Sept. 22nd. The only known ‘holiday’ on Sept. 23rd (which is not in Leviticus, therefore not part of God’s Appointed Feasts or Moe’dim) is Shabbat Shuva, which is the only Sabbath during the 10 Days of Repentance between the Feast of Trumpets and Yom Kippur. But as usual, it’s always best to stay on the watch.
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
~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~
Mar 17
March 17, 2017- Bill Unveiled To Suppress Non-Government-Approved Free Speech
Bible prophecy documentary book download proving our generation will see the return of the Lord. Do you want to know what is going to happen in the future before it actually takes place? The Word of God provides you with specific details about our future and all of these things are coming to pass in this generation. If you aren’t saved yet this is a must read! The Last Chronicles of Planet Earth March 14, 2017 Edition written by Frank DiMora
How to Add the Last Chronicles to your Electronic Device
~Scroll down for all the news; be sure to CLICK on the photos next to the prophecy sign for all Bible verses & videos ~
Headline: IDF strikes Gaza targets overnight in response to rocket fire
The Israel air force struck two Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Thursday morning in retaliation for a rocket that landed in the Negev on Wednesday night, the army confirmed on Thursday. There was no damage or injuries from the rocket launched from the Gaza Strip and no siren sounded as the rocket landed in open territory in the Negev, the IDF spokesperson’s Unit said. While there have been around 20 rockets launched in 2016 towards Israel from the Gaza Strip, five rockets have been launched at Israel during the past month alone, including two that the Islamic State Group in Sinai claimed responsibility for.
March 16, 2017
Headline: Syria threatens response to ‘Zionist aggresion’
The Syrian army announced that four Israeli aircraft had entered Syrian airspace overnight and struck a military target near the ancient city of Palmyra. Syria claimed that it shot down one of the four planes. “Four Israeli planes penetrated our air space at 2:40 AM via Lebanese territory and hit a military target on the way to Palmyra,” the army said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA. “Our air defense engaged them and shot down one warplane over occupied territory, hit another one and forced the rest to flee,” the statement added. The IDF confirmed that its aircraft were fired upon over Syria Thursday night. However, the IDF stated that the Arrow-3 missile defense system protected the planes from damage. The IDF statement said that “several anti-aircraft missiles were launched from Syria during the operation. One of the missiles was intercepted by the air defense systems of the IDF.” An explosion from a Syrian anti-aircraft missile was heard in the city of Modiin south of Tel Aviv in central Israel. Two of the missiles reportedly landed in Israel, while a third reportedly landed in Jordan. Syria threatened to respond harshly to the air strike. “This flagrant attack is part of the Zionist enemy’s persistent efforts to support the terrorist gangs of ISIS,” the Syrian army said. “It will be responded to directly with all possible means,” it added.
March 17, 2017
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/226854
Headline: AJC urges Congress to back letter to Trump calling for two-states
Headline: Hamas leader: We want Palestine in its entirety
The American Jewish Committee is rallying support for a congressional letter to President Donald Trump urging him to reaffirm support for a two-state solution, the latest signal that the American Jewish establishment is committed to preserving the policy. On Wednesday, the AJC sent a letter to members of the US House of Representatives asking them to sign on and support the letter authored by Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and David Price, D-N.C., and other measures that preserve peacemaking options even though “current conditions do not provide grounds for optimism.” Meanwhile, Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar recently declared that “removing the Jews from the land they occupied in 1948 is an immutable principle” in the Koran. Speaking to Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV on March 8, Al-Zahar also made clear, “Our position is: Palestine in its entirety, and not a grain of soil less.”
March 17, 2017
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/226838
Headline: Head of UN’s ESCWA resigns over report on “apartheid” Israel
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has asked the UN regional commission that represents most Arab countries to remove a report from its website accusing Israel of practicing an “apartheid regime” against Palestinians, a UN official said on Friday. The report for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, which comprises 18 Arab states, concluded that “Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole.” The accusation—often directed against Israel by its critics—has never before been made by a United Nations body. Rima Khalaf, UN Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary, resigned Friday, after what she described as pressure from the secretary general to withdraw the report. Khalaf announced her resignation at a news conference in Beirut. In her remarks, Khalaf said, “It was expected that Israel and its allies would put enormous pressure on the United Nations secretary general to renounce the report.” Despite pressure, Khalaf stands by the report, calling it the “first of its kind” from a UN agency that sheds light on “the crimes that Israel continues to commit against the Palestinian people, which amount to war crimes against humanity.”
March 17, 2017
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4936865,00.html
Headline: PA furious over terrorist designation
Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday slammed Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s decision to designate the Palestinian National Fund (PNF) as a terrorist organization. A statement issued by Abbas’s bureau said that the PNF is one of the institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which operates according to international agreements and standards. “At a time when the U.S. administration is working through talks with all parties and when President Trump’s envoy is in the region to prepare an atmosphere conducive to peacemaking, this announcement is an attempt by Israel to put obstacles and thwart American efforts,” the statement said. “We strongly oppose this decision and demand that the Israeli government immediately deal with it and cancel it, as this will lead to the collapse of the foundations of the Oslo Agreement and the legal relationship with Israel,” it warned.
March 17, 2017
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/226845
Jordan
Headline: Jordan Refuses Unusual US Demand to Extradite Palestinian Terrorist
The Jordanian government has refused an anomalous U.S. request to extradite a Palestinian terrorist. The Department of Justice’s extradition request for Ahlam Tamimi, who was behind a 2001 terror attack in Jerusalem that resulted in Israeli and American deaths, breaks with past U.S. policy on such terror-related cases. Prior to the Trump administration, legal cases against such terrorists constituted either criminal proceedings in Israeli courts or civil proceedings brought by family members in U.S. courts. The request calls on Jordan to hand over Tamimi, a female Hamas terrorist who had previously been jailed by Israel for her connection to the Sbarro pizza restaurant terror attack in Jerusalem in August 2001, but was released by Israel as part of the controversial 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. The 2001 bombing attack killed 15 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman, and wounded 130. In its refusal of America’s request, Jordan’s government cited a domestic court ruling that forbids the extradition of Jordanian nationals under the Hashemite Kingdom’s constitution.
March 16, 2017
Lebanon
Headline: Hezbollah is preparing Syria as second battlefield against Israel
Hezbollah intends to wage its next war against Israel from deep within Syria, according to a report on a pro-Hezbollah news site last week. The report, found on the web site Ya Sour, quoted Hezbollah sources saying the group intends to fire long-range projectiles at the Jewish state from the Qalamoun and Anti-Lebanon Mountain ranges, areas firmly under the Shiite group’s control on both the Syrian and Lebanese sides of the border. There is reason to suspect that Hezbollah has indeed built up a missile arsenal in those areas, particularly as the city of Baalbek, the heartland of its Beqaa Valley stronghold, lies nearby. Israeli airstrikes against the group in Syria have been concentrated in Qalamoun. Moreover, a spokesman for the opposition’s Syrian National Salvation Front, named Fahd al-Masri, said in Dec. 2016 that Hezbollah was nearing completion of a tunnel in the Zabadani valley linking these two areas. Hezbollah seeks to facilitate the transfer of weapons and “reinforce its presence in the strategically important areas” in the western Damascus countryside, which includes Qalamoun, according to al-Masri. Earlier in 2016, satellite images revealed a Hezbollah weapons warehouse slightly north of that area in Qusayr, where the group reportedly housed Katyusha rockets, mortars and howitzers. Reports also claimed Hezbollah was storing longer-range, Iranian-produced ballistic missiles there, including the Shahab-1, Shahab-2 and Fateh-110/M-600, which the organization could use to strike Israel.
March 16, 2017
Saudi Arabia
Headline: Russia warns against Yemen port attack
The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned that the Saudi-led coalition’s plans to launch an assault on Yemen’s biggest port city, Al Hudaydah, will greatly impact the humanitarian situation in the war-torn country. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement published on the ministry’s official website that the coalition’s plans to attack Yemen’s biggest port of Hudaydah is causing serious concerns. A naval blockade by a Saudi-led coalition carrying out air strikes against the yemeni forces is depriving the population of life-sustaining commodities and services. Zakharova added that battles in this area “would not only inevitably lead to a mass exodus of the [local] population but would also de facto cut the [Yemeni] capital of Sanaa from… food and humanitarian aid supplies.”
March 16, 2017
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/russia-warns-yemen-port-attack/
Headline: Twenty two people killed in mosque attack in Yemen’s Marib
Headline: Apparent military strike hits Somali refugee vessel off Yemen, killing dozens
Twenty two people were killed in an attack on a mosque during Friday prayers inside a military base in Yemen’s Marib province, local officials said. Two missiles were fired at the mosque located inside the military camp of Kofal in the west of Marib after a rocket was fired, the officials said. Most of Marib is under the control of forces loyal to President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi. Iran-allied Houthis are battling his internationally recognised government. Meanwhile, An apparent military strike targeted a boat carrying Somali refugees off the coast of war-battered Yemen, killing dozens of people along a dangerous migrant route that leads to Libya and smuggling ships heading to Europe, U.N. officials said Friday. It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack late Thursday, which claimed at least 32 lives
March 17, 2017
http://www.euronews.com/2017/03/17/twenty-two-people-killed-in-mosque-attack-in-yemens-marib
Egypt
Headline: Cairo, Amman working with Palestinian Authority on two-state solution: Egypt FM
Egypt and Jordan are working with the Palestinian Authority to push for the establishing of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry and his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Al-Safadi said in Cairo on Thursday. The two FMs held a press conference following talks in Cairo to discuss the latest developments in the region, including the Palestinian peace process and Egyptian-Jordanian relations. Al-Safadi, who arrived in Cairo early Thursday, said that he hopes the upcoming Arab League summit to be held in of March in Amman would see a discussion on the Syrian civil conflict.
March 17, 2017
Headline: Intensive meetings by Syrian opposition in Riyadh for Geneva talks
The supreme body of the Syrian Opposition is holding intensive meetings in Riyadh on Friday and Saturday, to discuss the agenda for the next round of the Geneva peace talks due on March 23. Further meetings with the negotiating team will take place on Sunday and Monday. The political body of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces is studying the channels of negotiations in Geneva with Members of the Supreme Commission for negotiations, the negotiating team and advisors and media delegations. In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Fouad Alikou, member of the supreme commission for negotiations, stressed the importance of classifying the peace solutions in the three files: the political transition, the constitution and the elections, with no refusal to seek the cause of terrorism. Alikou was of the opinion that the success rate of the next round was very small to non-existent.
March 17, 2017
Headline: U.S. denies bombing Syrian mosque where dozens died- Aleppo
Headline: Syrian rebels say US-led coalition behind deadly mosque strike
Headline: Russia urges US comment on reports of fatal Syria mosque strike
The U.S. military said it carried out an attack on a building where al-Qaida militants were meeting in Syria, not on a mosque next door where activists say 46 civilians were killed in a bombing. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the incident occurred in the town of al-Jinah in Aleppo’s western countryside. Al-Jinah is located in one of the main rebel-held parts of Syria. U.S. Central Command spokesman Col. John J. Thomas said the intended target was destroyed late Thursday but the mosque near the target was not struck. “We did not target any mosques,” Thomas said. “What we did target was destroyed. There is a mosque within 50 feet of that building that is still standing.” However, local activists and the SOHR said at least 46 people were killed — adding the death toll could rise as some are in critical condition and others are missing. The SOHR said it does not know to what country the warplanes that bombed the mosque belong.
March 17, 2017
https://www.rt.com/news/381144-syria-airstrike-usa-russia/
Headline: Rebel forces advance against ISIS in east Damascus
The Free Syrian Army’s “Ahmad Al-‘Abdo Brigades” continued their offensive against the Islamic State (ISIS) forces in the eastern Qalamoun region of Damascus on Friday, seizing two more hilltops from the terrorist organization. According to opposition activists, the Free Syrian Army, alongside Jaysh Al-Islam, seized the hilltops of Rajm Al-Sawaan and Rajm Al-Doshka along the eastern slopes of the Qalamoun Mountains. This latest advance by the rebel forces comes just 24 hours after they launched their powerful assault to expel the Islamic State militants from this mountainous region.
March 17, 2017
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/rebel-forces-advance-isis-east-damascus/
Headline: Iraqi forces advance into Mosul’s Old City, Nuri mosque in sight
Iraqi forces battling Daesh in Mosul advanced into the Old City and around the al Nuri mosque on Friday trying to seal off a main road to prevent militants sending in suicide bombers.
Troops are meeting fierce resistance as militants retreat into the Old City, where street fighting is expected in the narrow alleyways and around the mosque where Daesh declared its caliphate nearly three years ago. A helicopter fired rockets into the area and heavy gunfire and mortar blasts echoed as troops fought in districts near the Nuri mosque, where Daesh black jihadist flag hangs from its leaning minaret. “Federal police and rapid response forces completely control the Al-Basha mosque, Al-Adala street and Bab Al-Saray market inside the Old City,” a federal police spokesman said. “Forces are trying to isolate the Old City area from all sides and then start an offensive from all sides.”
March 17, 2017
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1069731/middle-east
Turkey
Headline: Turkey Widens War of Words to Include All of EU
Headline: Turkey threatens to send Europe ‘15,000 refugees a month’
Turkey’s president continues to ratchet up tensions with the European Union, as he campaigns ahead of an April referendum to extend his presidential powers. The unprecedented rhetoric is raising concerns as to whether Turkish-EU relations can recover. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having already accused EU members Germany and the Netherlands of being fascists and Nazis, has extended his war of words to the entire bloc. Erdogan accused EU countries of persecuting Muslims like Jews were during World War II, and said that the “spirit of fascism” was running wild on the streets of Europe. In the meantime, his foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, warned that Europe will be the site of what he called “holy wars’ that will ultimately destroy it. Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has threatened to “blow the mind” of Europe by sending 15,000 refugees a month to EU territory, in an intensifying dispute with the bloc.
March 17, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/european-union-turkey-tensions/3770764.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkey-threatens-send-europe-15-000-refugees-month-103814107.html
Afghanistan
Headline: Car bomb hits army base in eastern Afghanistan
Headline: Russia to help strengthen Afghan forces: Lavrov
A suicide car bomb detonated near an army base in the eastern Afghan province of Khost on Friday, killing one soldier and wounding several before the army repelled at attack on the base by four gunmen, the district chief said. The blast, 50 metres (yards) from the base, was heard several miles away and damaged several shops, homes and a school, Akbar Zadran, the chief of Sabari district, told Reuters. Four gunmen attacked the base but were killed after an hour-long gun battle, Zadran said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.The attack follows an assault on a military air base in Khost province last week, and comes just ahead of the normal start of the spring fighting season, when Taliban Islamist insurgents and the Afghan army step up operations.
March 17, 2017
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4936751,00.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-03/17/c_136137669.htm
Headline: Moscow Tells Kabul Ties With Taliban Only to Promote Afghan Peace
Afghanistan’s national security adviser met Friday with senior officials in Russia to discuss counterterrorism cooperation and efforts to promote peace as Taliban insurgents staged fresh deadly attacks in Afghanistan. The high-level talks came amid growing concerns over Russia’s contacts and alleged military assistance to the Taliban to enable the group to fight and contain Islamic State influence in Afghanistan. The two militant groups have regularly clashed in areas where Afghan forces have limited control. Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, however, in talks with national security adviser Haneef Atmar, assured him that Moscow is working only to promote stability in Afghanistan. “Our recent contacts with the armed opposition [Taliban] are aimed only at encouraging the group to join the Afghan government-led peace process,” Atmar’s spokesman, Tawab Ghorzang, quoted the Patrushev as telling the Afghan delegation in Friday’s meeting.
March 17, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/russia-afghanistan-taliban-patrushev-atnar/3770578.html
Sudan
Headline: South Sudan government to blame for famine, still buying arms -U.N. report
South Sudan’s government is mainly to blame for famine in parts of the war-torn country, yet President Salva Kiir is still boosting his forces using millions of dollars from oil sales, according to a confidential United Nations report. U.N. sanctions monitors said 97 percent of South Sudan’s known revenue comes from oil sales, a significant portion of which is now forward oil sales, and that at least half of the budget – “likely substantially more” – is devoted to security. “Revenue from forward oil sales totaled approximately $243 million between late March and late October 2016,” the panel of U.N. monitors said in the report to the U.N. Security Council, seen by Reuters on Thursday. “Despite the scale and scope of the political, humanitarian, and economic crises, the panel continues to uncover evidence of the ongoing procurement of weapons by the … Government for the SPLA (South Sudanese army), the National Security Service, and other associated forces and militias,” the report said.
March 17, 2017
http://news.trust.org/item/20170317040748-z01mu/
Libya
Headline: Thousands stage anti-militia protests in Libya’s capital
Headline: Key forces battling for control in Libya
Thousands of Libyans have staged mass demonstrations in a rare show of defiance against powerful militias encroaching into Libya’s capital, Tripoli, after days of clashes that have effectively chopped the city into warring fiefdoms. This week, four days of intense fighting saw pro-unity government armed forces expand their control in the capital Tripoli, where dozens of militias operate. Further east, troops commanded by military strongman Khalifa Haftar said on Tuesday they had recaptured two important oil installations seized by a rival Islamist-led force in early March. Pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft weapons attacked the Friday protests, forcing many to flee, according to TV network Libya Channel. Protesters chanted slogans against the militias and called for a unified army and police. Some voiced support for the eastern-based army commander Khalifa Hifter, who is opposed by his Tripoli-based rivals which include the U.N.-brokered government and militias in the capital. “We won’t go home until our demands are met,” said 27-year-old protester Mohamed Zein. “We ask for all militias that have come from outside of Tripoli to leave immediately.”
March 17, 2017
http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/key-forces-battling-for-control-in-libya-20170317
Armenia
Headline: Protests in Armenia over activist’s death in jail
Protesters have demonstrated in the Armenian capital of Yerevan over the death in prison of an opposition activist. Over 1,000 people gathered Friday in downtown Yerevan for a second day to criticize the government and demand a proper investigation into the death of 49-year old Artur Sarkisyan. Sarkisyan went on a hunger strike last month to protest his incarceration. He died of heart failure on Thursday. Investigators have opened a criminal case into his death. Sarkisyan was arrested last year, accused of aiding terrorists for delivering food to a group of gunmen who seized a Yerevan police station. The armed radicals called for the release of an opposition leader during a two-week standoff with police that resulted in two deaths and triggered large street protests.
March 17, 2017
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/03/17/protests-in-armenia-over-activist-death-in-jail.html
Headline: Nationwide Protests in Brazil Against Pension Reform
Thousands once again took to the streets in Brazil to protest on Wednesday, this time against the government’s proposed pension reform. In some cities, public transportation came to a halt, leaving millions with no way to go to work. Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva participated in the protest, speaking against the Social Security reform at the end of the rally. According to Lula the current administration wants to end the gains of the working class through labor and welfare reforms. In Rio de Janeiro, protesters concentrated around the Igreja da Candelaria in the late afternoon and marched on to Central do Brasil, Rio’s main train station. Although most of the protest was calm, a group of demonstrators clashed with police in Cinelandia, and military police ended up throwing tear gas demonstrators and clients at the Amarelinho bar one of the most traditional and old in the city. Brasilia, registered some of the most violent clashes with landless rural workers, family farmers as well as those demonstrating against the pension reform demonstrators occupying the Ministry of Finance for nine hours. Demonstrators broke down doors, damaged equipment and scribbled on walls. According to the organizers, 1,500 people participated in the occupation.
March 16, 2017
Headline: Two Pakistani troops killed in cross-border fire
At least two Pakistani security personnel were killed in cross-border fire from Afghanistan Friday, the military said, when gunmen attacked a checkpoint near the frontier in the troubled northwest.
The attack in Khyber tribal district was claimed by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a faction of the umbrella Pakistani Taliban, and came at a time of heightened tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“Terrorists from across the Pak-Bdr attempted physical attack on Pak FC (Frontier Constabulary) Post in Khyber Agency,” said a military statement, adding that six militants were also killed in the exchange of fire. Earlier Friday, Pakistani troops also fought two suicide bombers trying to enter an FC training center in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Suhail Khalid, police chief in Charsadda district, told AFP that the suicide bombers first opened fire at the main gate and then tried to enter the training camp. “One bomber blew himself up, while second was shot dead,” Khalid said. One FC soldier was killed and a second injured, according to a military statement.
March 17, 2017
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1069636/world
Headline: Suicide bomber attacks Bangladesh police special forces base
A suicide bomber injured two Bangladeshi police officers on Friday when he attacked a base being built for the police anti-terrorist unit, officials said. Local media quoting the BBC Bangla service said Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the rare attack on Bangladesh’s security services. Senior Dhaka police official Krishna Pada Roy said police were investigating the incident. It occurred a day after four people linked to a deadly cafe attack in the capital last year were killed when their suicide vests exploded during a raid in the southeastern town of Chittagong. The injured police officers were taken to Dhaka’s military hospital. Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), told reporters that a man aged about 25 had blown himself up when challenged as he tried to enter the police special security force’s base, which is still under construction. Initial evidence suggested he was a member of an extremist group, Khan said.
March 17, 2017
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-bangladesh-militants-idUSKBN16O27Y
Headline: Tillerson refuses to rule out nuclearization of Asian allies to keep North Korea in check
Headline: Tillerson Doesn’t Rule Out Preemptive Strike on North Korea
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in an exclusive interview with Fox News, refused to rule out increased weaponization and even nuclearization of America’s East Asian allies to deter North Korean aggression. “We’re exchanging views,” Tillerson said, while standing a few feet within what is technically North Korean territory inside what is known as the Joint Security Area. “Nothing has been taken off the table,” he said, when asked whether he would rule out nuclearization of the peninsula, during the interview with Fox News. Tillerson, who’s called the past 20 years of diplomacy toward North Korea a failure, has said the world needs a new strategy. “Let me be very clear: the policy of strategic patience has ended,” said Tillerson in a later press availability in Seoul with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se. “If they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level we believe requires action that option is on the table,” Tillerson also said, adding the U.S. wants to avoid military conflict and hopes other measures convince North Korea to suspend its weapons programs.
March 17, 2017
WTO Let us not forget the One World Government is still coming!
Headline: New York Assemblyman Unveils Bill To Suppress Non-Government-Approved Free Speech
In a bill aimed at securing a “right to be forgotten,” introduced by Assemblyman David I. Weprin and (as Senate Bill 4561 by state Sen. Tony Avella), liberal New York politicians would require people to remove ‘inaccurate,’ ‘irrelevant,’ ‘inadequate’ or ‘excessive’ statements about others…
- Within 30 days of a ”request from an individual,”
- “all search engines and online speakers] shall remove … content about such individual, and links or indexes to any of the same, that is ‘inaccurate’, ‘irrelevant’, ‘inadequate’ or ‘excessive,’ ”
- “and without replacing such removed … content with any disclaimer [or] takedown notice.”
- “ ‘[I]naccurate’, ‘irrelevant’, ‘inadequate’, or ‘excessive’ shall mean content,”
- “which after a significant lapse in time from its first publication,”
- “is no longer material to current public debate or discourse,”
- “especially when considered in light of the financial, reputational and/or demonstrable other harm that the information … is causing to the requester’s professional, financial, reputational or other interest,”
- “with the exception of content related to convicted felonies, legal matters relating to violence, or a matter that is of significant current public interest, and as to which the requester’s role with regard to the matter is central and substantial.”
Failure to comply would make the search engines or speakers liable for, at least, statutory damages of $250/day plus attorney fees. As The Washington Post’s Eugene Volokh rages, under this bill, newspapers, scholarly works, copies of books on Google Books and Amazon, online encyclopedias (Wikipedia and others) — all would have to be censored whenever a judge and jury found (or the author expected them to find) that the speech was “no longer material to current public debate or discourse” (except when it was “related to convicted felonies” or “legal matters relating to violence” in which the subject played a “central and substantial” role).
March 17, 2017
Headline: Thousands left homeless after rains, flooding ravage Peru
More than 60 people have been killed in Peru in flooding caused by heavy seasonal rains. Peru’s National Institute of Civil Defense reported on Wednesday that at least 62 people have been killed and 170 injured and that another 72,115 people have been left homeless. In addition, 12 people are missing, 9,018 homes have collapsed and 8,257 homes have been left uninhabitable since the start of seasonal rains in December. Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski declared a state of emergency in affected regions due to the flooding that has worsened in the past week as rivers overflowed and bridges have collapsed. He said the overflows and floods are “many” but are “surpassable.”
March 17, 2017
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
~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~
Mar 15
March 15, 2017- Russian elite units land on Egypt-Libya border
Bible prophecy documentary book download proving our generation will see the return of the Lord. Do you want to know what is going to happen in the future before it actually takes place? The Word of God provides you with specific details about our future and all of these things are coming to pass in this generation. If you aren’t saved yet this is a must read! The Last Chronicles of Planet Earth March 14, 2017 Edition written by Frank DiMora
How to Add the Last Chronicles to your Electronic Devices
~Scroll down for all the news; be sure to CLICK on the photos next to the prophecy sign for all Bible verses & videos ~
Headline: Abbas tells US negotiator he’s committed to peace
Headline: Netanyahu to meet with Trump envoy for second time on Thursday
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas met Tuesday in Ramallah with Jason Greenblatt, US President Donald J. Trump’s Special Representative for International Negotiations. Greenblatt held a five-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the previous day. The US envoy arrived in Jerusalem Monday for what State Department Spokesperson Mark Toner described as “the first of many visits” to the region in order to familiarize himself with the attitudes on both sides. He is not expected to announce any new initiative at this point. Abbas assured Greenblatt that he is fully committed to creating an atmosphere that is conducive to making peace and would heighten his outreach efforts to the Israeli public. Finally, they discussed plans to grow the Palestinian economy and the importance of ensuring economic opportunities for Palestinians, which would enhance the prospects for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace. Abbas stressed to Greenblatt that the Palestinian strategic choice is to achieve a two-state solution.
March 15, 2017
https://worldisraelnews.com/96086-2/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-to-meet-with-trump-envoy-for-second-time-on-thursday/
Headline: UN report: Israel imposes ‘apartheid regime’ on Palestinians
Headline: US demands UN pull report accusing Israel of apartheid
A UN agency published a report on Wednesday accusing Israel of imposing an “apartheid regime” of racial discrimination on the Palestinian people, and said it was the first time a UN body had clearly made the charge. The report commissioned by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) concluded “Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole.” The accusation – often directed at Israel by its critics – is fiercely rejected by the Jewish state. UN Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf said the report was the “first of its type” from a UN body that “clearly and frankly concludes that Israeli is a racist state that has established an apartheid system that persecutes the Palestinian people”. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States on Wednesday demanded that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres withdraw a report by a UN body accusing Israel of imposing apartheid on the Palestinians and of racially dominating them. Guterres distanced himself from the report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) but US Ambassador Nikki Haley said it should be scrapped altogether.
March 15, 2017
http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-demands-un-pull-report-accusing-israel-of-apartheid/
Headline: US Seeks First-Ever Extradition for Palestinian Terror Killer
The U.S. Department of Justice is in the process of announcing its first-ever extradition request of a Palestinian woman behind a 2001 terror attack in Jerusalem that resulted in Israeli and American deaths. The extradition request will call on Jordan to hand over Hamas terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, who had previously been jailed by Israel for her connection to the Sbarro pizza restaurant terror attack in Jerusalem in August 2001, but was released by Israel as part of the controversial 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. The 2001 attack killed 15 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman, and wounded 130. The move by the Justice Department breaks with past policy on such terror-related cases. Prior to the Trump administration, legal cases against such terrorists were either criminal proceedings in Israeli courts or civil proceedings brought by family members in U.S. courts. Shurat HaDin President Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, whose firm is representing the family of victim Chana Nachenberg, who currently still in a coma from the attack, welcomed the move by the Justice Department. “We are glad that the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to move forward against this notorious mass murderer,” Darshan-Leitner said. “We have been requesting for a long time that this unrepentant Palestinian terrorist be rearrested, extradited and prosecuted by American law enforcement officials.”
March 15, 2017
Jordan
Headline: US envoy meet with king of Jordan
Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, met on Wednesday in Amman with Jordan’s King Abdullah II. According to the official Jordanian news agency, Petra, the two discussed efforts to re-launch peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). During the meeting, King Abdullah emphasized the importance of the United States’ role in ending the deadlock in the peace process and re-launching serious and direct negotiations on the basis of the two-state solution. The King told Greenblatt that reaching a just and comprehensive peace that guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state would achieve security and stability for the whole region. Greenblatt said, according to Petra, that achieving peace between Israel and the PA will have a positive impact on the region. He also underlined the importance of Jordan’s role in pushing forward the peace efforts.
March 15, 2017
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/226774
Lebanon
Headline: Revolutionary Guard commander: Hezbollah more prepared than ever to attack Israel
Headline: Has Hezbollah developed a domestic arms industry with Iranian support?
As US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both continue to apply pressure on Iran regarding its controversial, often-discussed nuclear capabilities, an assistant to a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps revealed to Kuwaiti daily publication Al-Jarida that Hezbollah has raised its level of preparedness and is ready to launch a massive attack against Israel with lethal results. The Iranian commander explained that Iran has opened factories in Lebanon for the purpose of manufacturing long-range missiles as well as other munitions and has recently passed ownership of the factories to Hezbollah. Speaking exclusively to Al-Jarida, the Iranian official, who opted to remain anonymous, said that the decision to set up the factories in Lebanon was made due to “Israel’s [alleged destruction] of munition factories in Sudan, as well as the damage caused to munition sources from Syria.” Addressing the Shi’ite terror organization’s repeated threat to launch rockets that could reach every part of the Jewish state, the official quoted Iranian Defense Minister Hoseein Dehghan who has recently heeded that Hezbollah was now capable of manufacturing rockets that could target every spot in Israel, from the very north to the southern border with Egypt.
March 14, 2017
Saudi Arabia
Headline: Saudi Arabia hails ‘historical turning point’ in relations with US
Saudi Arabia’s ties with the United States have been restored, according to a senior adviser to Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who met with President Donald Trump on Tuesday. “This meeting is considered a historical turning point in relations between both countries and which had passed through a period of divergence of views on many issues,” stated a senior adviser to Prince Mohammed. “The meeting today restored issues to their right path and form a big change in relations between both countries in political, military, security and economic issues.” These remarks referred primarily to the existing common ground between Saudi Arabia and the Trump administration regarding Iran. Like Israel, Saudi Arabia clashed with the Obama administration over its decision to push for the implementation of the nuclear agreement that was reached between Iran the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China) in 2015.
March 15, 2017
https://worldisraelnews.com/saudi-arabia-hails-historical-turning-point-relations-us/
Headline: Donald Trump gives Pentagon permission to carry out more raids in Yemen
Donald Trump has reportedly given the Pentagon permission to carry out more raids in Yemen – despite a botched mission in January that resulted in the deaths of 20 civilians and a US Navy Seal. The White House told military leaders they can carry out missions in the Gulf state without specific presidential approval. Negotiations about extending similar permissions to raids in Libya and Somalia are also taking place, CNN reported. Instead of needing Mr Trump to sign off on specific missions, officials told the broadcaster that military leaders will be given the freedom to carry out operations providing they are in line with a broader strategy agreed by the President. US Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the White House had acted to “open up a window of opportunity based upon a set geographical area and a set period in time”. As a result of the change, 40 US airstrikes have been launched in Yemen in the last two weeks. The move comes amid what US officials see as a growing threat from terrorist groups in Yemen, Libya and Somalia.
March 15, 2017
Headline: Astana Talks on Wednesday to Focus on Separation of Terrorists, Syria Opposition
Headline: Key Syrian opposition leader resigns as peace talks falters
Earlier on Tuesday, the Syrian delegation’s representative, Osama Abu Zeid, told Sputnik that the armed opposition decided not to participate in the round of Astana talks. The agenda of the third round of the talks in Astana presupposed that the delegations of the Syrian authorities and armed opposition as well as the international mediators, such as Russia, Turkey and Iran would focus on the map of terrorists’ presence in the war-torn state. The third round of intra-Syrian talks in Astana, taking place on March 14-15, will include consultations on the first day and a plenary session on Wednesday.
March 15, 2017
https://sputniknews.com/politics/201703151051589230-astana-talks-syrian-opposition-terrorists/
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/key-syrian-opposition-leader-resigns-peace-talks-falters/
Headline: Dozens killed in double suicide attack in Damascus
Two suicide bomb attacks killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens more in Damascus on Wednesday, state media reported, in the second such spate of bombings in the Syrian capital in five days. The first suicide bomber targeted the Palace of Justice, the main courthouse in central Damascus near the Old City. Justice Minister Najem al-Ahmad told reporters the initial death toll was 31, mostly civilians. The second suicide blast struck a popular restaurant in the al-Rabweh area of Damascus to the west of the first attack causing several casualties, state media reported. State news agency SANA cited the Damascus police as saying that there were 102 injured in the courthouse attack and 28 injured in the restaurant. The courthouse bomber set off his explosive device at 1:20 p.m. (1120 GMT) as the police tried to search him and stop him from entering the building, state television cited the Damascus police chief as saying. Syrian state television broadcast footage from inside the courthouse showing blood splattered on a floor littered with papers, a shoe and broken tiles and stones. Images from a hospital showed a man in a suit on a stretcher with blood on his clothes. The explosion hit the courthouse “at a time when the area is crowded” with lawyers, judges and civilians, harming a large number of people, Ahmed al-Sayyid, a senior state legal official told state-run al-Ikhbariya TV. As well as the Damascus bombings of recent days, which coincide with the sixth anniversary of the protests that sparked Syria’s civil war, attackers also twice struck the government-held city of Homs in the past few weeks. On Saturday scores of people, most of them Iraqi Shi’ite pilgrims, were killed in a double suicide attack in Damascus claimed by an alliance of jihadist groups known as Tahrir al-Sham.
March 15, 2017
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-blast-idUSKBN16M1J0
Headline: Clashes Between Rival Iraqi Kurds Fuel Fears of Proxy War in Nineveh Province
Headline: Kurdish internal disputes escalate across Syria and Iraq
Fears are growing the mountainous Iraqi Sinjar region is becoming the focal point of a proxy conflict in the region. The conflict turned fatal earlier this month with armed clashes between rival Kurdish groups of peshmergas of the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Kurdistan Workers’ Party- (PKK) backed forces. Ankara is suspected of being behind this month’s inter-Kurdish clashes in Sinjar. The Turkish government has repeatedly warned it will not tolerate the presence of PKK forces in Sinjar, which is close to the Turkish border, fearing it will become a new base for operations against Turkey. Ankara has warned it will militarily intervene in Sinjar if the PKK is not removed. But any operation brings considerable risk. “It will bring Turkey into direct conflict with Shia militia and with Iraqi military and then indirectly with Iran,” warns Haldun Solmazturk, retired Turkish brigadier and now head of the Ankara-based Turkey Twenty-First Century Institute. Ankara has accused the PKK in Sinjar of conspiring with the Iraqi Shia militia, the People’s Mobilization Forces, a charge it has denied. “Sinjar itself, it’s an area where all these regional tensions converge,” observes Selcen. “There is the People’s Mobilization unit nearby and we know they have close contacts if not direct contacts to Tehran, and the Baghdad army is there, also the U.S. [force] is nearby and Barzani’s forces, it’s [a] very intricate proxy conflict.”
March 15, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/iraq-kurds-turkey-proxy-war/3765706.html
http://aranews.net/2017/03/kurdish-internal-disputes-escalate-across-syria-and-iraq/
Headline: Iraqi forces seize Iron Bridge in battle for Mosul
Iraqi government forces battling Islamic State for Mosul took control of a main bridge over the Tigris river on Wednesday and advanced towards the mosque where the group’s leader declared a caliphate in 2014, federal police said. The seizure of the Iron Bridge, linking eastern Mosul with the militant-held Old City on the west side, means the government holds three of the five bridges over the Tigris and bolsters Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s assertion that the battle is reaching its final stages. The bridge, which was damaged in fighting late last year, was captured by federal police and Interior Ministry Rapid Response units, a police statement said. The gains were made in heavy fighting in which troops fought street-by-street against an enemy using suicide car bombs, mortar and sniper fire, and grenade-dropping drones to defend what was once their main stronghold. “Our troops are making a steady advance … and we are now less than 800 meters from the mosque,” a federal police spokesman said. Losing the city would be a huge blow to Islamic State as it has served as the group’s de facto capital since its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed himself head of a caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria from the Nuri Mosque in July 2014. The capture of the mosque would thus be a huge symbolic victory as well as a concrete gain. But many hard days of fighting could still lie ahead as government forces try to make headway in the streets and narrow alleyways of the Old City.
March 15, 2017
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-mosul-idUSKBN16M11Z
Turkey
Headline: EU leaders bash Turkey over the Netherlands
Headline: Ankara Ratchets Up EU Tensions with Refugee Deal Threat
Headline: Free Syrian Army brigade announces support for Erdogan against the Netherlands
European Council chief Donald Tusk and senior MEPs hit back at Turkey in a widening diplomatic dispute between Ankara and the Netherlands. Turkey’s president Erdogan had described the Netherlands as a bastion of Nazi fascism, after Dutch authorities had prevented his ministers from campaigning in the country ahead of an April referendum, which aims to further tighten the Turkish leader’s grip on power. Clashes broke out in Rotterdam last weekend between the Dutch police and Turkish-Dutch citizens who were demonstrating outside the Turkish consulate. The widening rift and war of words from an increasingly authoritarian Erdogan has prompted renewed calls among leading MEPs to once again cut short accession negotiations for Turkey to join the EU. The talks were only temporarily stalled last summer, with the EU parliament voting for a resolution in November asking to formally freeze them. German MEP Manfred Weber, who leads the centre-right group, said that full membership for Turkey was not realistic in “the foreseeable future.” Turkey is a member of Nato and, on Wednesday, German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen warned against rupturing ties. Weber also spoke of trade, noting that Turkey depends on the EU for almost half of its exports. “Forty-four percent of the whole export of Turkey is linked to the European Union and only 2 percent is linked to Russia,” he told reporters. Turkey on Wednesday had also posted its worst budget and unemployment statistics since 2009.
March 15, 2017
https://euobserver.com/enlargement/137254
http://www.voanews.com/a/turkey-ratchets-up-tension-european-union-refugee-deal-threat/3767608.html
Iran
Headline: Iran starts building unit 2 of Bushehr plant
Construction and installation work formally started yesterday at the site of unit 2 of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, Atomproekt, the reactor design subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, announced today. The first foundation stone for units 2 and 3 of the plant was laid in a ceremony held at the construction site in southern Iran in September last year. Bushehr units 2 and 3 are to be completed in 2024 and 2026, respectively. Last September, ASE director Valery Limarenko said Rosatom is keen on the “wide use” of Iranian-made materials and would therefore invite Iranian manufacturing companies to compete to work on the project via contract tenders.
March 15, 2017
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-Iran-starts-building-unit-2-of-Bushehr-15031701.html
Afghanistan
Headline: Pakistani, Afghan Officials Expect London Talks to Resolve Border Dispute
A meeting Britain is hosting Wednesday is expected to resolve the tense border dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials told VOA hours before the talks. Pakistan closed its border with landlocked Afghanistan to all traffic nearly a month ago, after a string of terrorist attacks killed scores of people. Authorities in Pakistan blame the violence on fugitive militants Islamabad says are sheltering in Afghan territory. The border closure fueled bilateral tensions, prompting Britain to intervene and facilitate Wednesday’s meeting. “We expect as a results of the talks in London and the recent contacts that we have had within the government and with the government of Afghanistan we expect this issue [border talks] to be resolved in the coming week,” Pakistani Trade Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan told VOA in Islamabad. He said that efforts are under way to open the Afghan border with “heightened security procedures” so that trading resumes as soon as possible.
March 15, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/pakistan-afghanistan-officials-london-talks/3766726.html
Ethiopia
Headline: South Sudan gunmen ‘kill 28’ in Ethiopia
South Sudanese gunmen killed 28 people and kidnapped 43 children in Ethiopia’s Gambella province, an Ethiopian official says. Men from the Murle community, who crossed into Ethiopia, are being blamed. Feuding communities on both sides of the border have been known to attack each other, often carrying away spoils. A similar incident last April prompted Ethiopia’s army to cross into South Sudan in a hunt for kidnapped children. The latest raids were carried out over two days – first on Sunday and then Monday – in Gambella’s Gog and Jol areas, which border South Sudan, Chol Chany, a spokesman for the Gambella region, is quoted by Reuters as saying. “Murle bandits carried out the attack. They fled along with 43 children,” Mr Chany said. Last year’s incidents in which 100 Ethiopian children were kidnapped was also blamed on members of the Murle community.
March 15, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39281590
Sudan
Headline: UN Report: Rights Violations, Fighting Spike in South Sudan
In a new report presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council, a top U.N. official warned that conditions in South Sudan have gone from bad to worse in the last few months, and urged the council to launch a new investigation into potential human rights violations. Yasmin Sooka, chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, also said a hybrid court, agreed to in a 2015 peace agreement, should be operational by the end of this year. During a regular session of the Human Rights Council Tuesday, Sooka told observers that unlawful arrests and detentions, torture, rape and killings have become the norm in South Sudan, the world’s youngest country. “What’s chilling is that they are occurring in many more parts of the country than before. Whole villages burnt to ashes, attacks on hospitals and churches, bodies dumped in rivers, allegations of young girls held as sexual slaves, women, young and old, gang raped and boys and men forcibly recruited,” Sooka said. The U.N. official is calling for an impartial and independent investigation to be launched by the United Nations to look into reports of crimes committed in South Sudan. Sooka said that unfortunately, impunity is the norm in South Sudan, so the mere knowledge that credible information is being gathered can act as a deterrent to future rights violations.
March 15, 2017
http://www.voanews.com/a/south-sudan-human-rights/3767739.html
Libya
Headline: Russia moving special forces into Libya
Headline: Russian elite units land on Egypt-Libya border
Headline: Libyan National Army liberates Ras Lanuf Oil Port: video
U.S., Egyptian and diplomatic sources say that Russia has apparently been moving special forces to an airbase in western Egypt near the border with Libya in recent days, according to a report by Reuters. The U.S. is concerned that such a Russian deployment may signify Russian support for Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar, who suffered a setback on March 3 when the Benghazi Defense Brigades (BDB) attacked oil ports controlled by his forces. U.S. officials claimed that their surveillance units had observed Russian special operations forces and unmanned aircraft at Sidi Barrani, which is about 100 km from the Egypt-Libya border. The apparent Russian deployments have not been previously reported. The Russian defense ministry did not respond to these claims on Monday and Egypt denied the presence of any Russian contingent on its soil. Mohamed Manfour, commander of the Benina air base near Benghazi in Libya, denied that Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) had received military assistance from the Russian state or from Russian military contractors, and said there were no Russian forces or bases in eastern Libya.
March 15, 2017
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/226649
http://debka.com/article/25963/Russian-elite-units-land-on-Egypt-Libya-border
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/libyan-national-army-liberates-ras-lanuf-oil-port-video/
Headline: Islamic State Expands Into North Africa
A new Islamic State affiliate is gaining strength in sub-Saharan Africa as part of efforts by the Syrian-based Islamist terror group to take over large parts of the continent. A relatively new group known as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has stepped up terrorist attacks in the swath of north Africa known as the Sahel. The Sahel is a semi-arid region that stretches from the western states of Mali and Nigeria, through Niger, Chad, and Sudan and into part of Ethiopia. ISIS-GS, as the group is identified in U.S. intelligence reports, was formed in 2015 from al Murabitun, an Islamist terror group once linked to al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Militants from Murabitun and a second AQIM splinter group called al Mulathamun Battalion founded ISIS-GS. According to a State Department security report, al Murabitun was “one of the more active militant groups in the Sahel” and carried out the November 2015 attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali that killed 20 people.
March 15, 2017
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/islamic-state-expands-north-africa/
Headline: Four suicide bombers kill two in northeast Nigeria’s Maiduguri
Four female teenage suicide bombers killed two people and injured 16 others in a residential area in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, a disaster agency spokesman said on Wednesday. The girls knocked on the door of a house and then detonated their devices, a representative of the state-run emergency service in Borno State said. The focus on individual homes is a new tactic. “Community leaders should create awareness among residents not to open their doors for anybody (if) they are not aware of the visit,” Borno police commissioner, Damian Chukwu, said. The blasts in the Muna Garage area, on the edge of the city worst hit by jihadist group Boko Haram’s eight year insurgency, occurred around 1:15 a.m (0015 GMT), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesman Abdulkadir Ibrahim said. “Four female teenage suicide bombers and two other men died,” he said. The number of attacks or attempted attacks bearing the hallmarks of Boko Haram in crowded areas, such as markets and refugee camps, has escalated since the end of the rainy season in late 2016.
March 15, 2017
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN16M14J-OZATP
Headline: Ukraine announces economic blockade of rebel-held territory
Headline: Russia calls on Ukraine to end blockade of rebel-held region
Ukraine on Wednesday announced a transport blockade of rebel-held areas that is likely to cause serious economic disruption and could threaten a precarious cease-fire in the east of the country. “It will be in place until the occupiers return stolen Ukrainian industry to Ukrainian jurisdiction,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told the country’s national security council in Kiev. The move represents a dramatic U-turn by Poroshenko, who had previously tried to end a transport blockade on the rebel east imposed by nationalist groups. It shows the government’s vulnerability to radical forces, which have increasingly shaped the nation’s policy agenda. Many economic links have been preserved between separatist-controlled areas that are dominated by heavy industry, particularly coal mining and metallurgy, and government-held Ukraine despite a three-year conflict. But the new measures appeared to amount to a full-blown trade ban. All rail and road connections with the rebel-controlled mini-states will be cut from Wednesday, National Security and Defense Council head Oleksander Turchynov told reporters, the Tass news agency reported. The only exception to the new blockade will be for humanitarian deliveries by Ukrainian organizations, the United Nations and the Red Cross.
March 15, 2017
Headline: U.S. carrier joins South Korea drills, North Korea warns of ‘merciless’ strikes
As the USS Carl Vinson plowed through seas off South Korea on Tuesday, rival North Korea warned the United States of “merciless” attacks if the carrier infringes on its sovereignty or dignity during U.S.-South Korean drills. F-18 fighter jets took off from the flight deck of the nuclear-powered carrier in a dramatic display of U.S. firepower amid rising tension with the North, which has alarmed its neighbors with two nuclear tests and a series of missile launches since last year. “While this is a routine deployment for the Carl Vinson strike group, really the centerpiece for us … is this exercise we’re doing with the ROK navy called ‘Foal Eagle’,” Rear Admiral James W. Kilby, commander of the Carrier Strike Group 1, told reporters, referring to South Korea as the Republic of Korea. North Korea said the arrival of the U.S. strike group in the seas off the east of the Korean peninsula was part of a “reckless scheme” to attack it. “If they infringe on the DPRK’s sovereignty and dignity even a bit, its army will launch merciless ultra-precision strikes from ground, air, sea and underwater,” the North’s state news agency KCNA said.
March 14, 2017
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-usa-aircraft-carrier-north-idUSKBN16L0BD
Headline: Russian spy ship spotted back off US coast
The Russian spy ship first spotted off the Delaware coast last month is back. U.S. officials told Fox News on Wednesday that the Russian spy ship Victor Leonov has returned to waters off the East Coast of the United States after a brief stop for fuel and resupply in Havana last week. The ship was spotted by U.S. intelligence officers approximately 23 miles southeast of a U.S. Navy submarine base in Kings Bay, Ga., heading north, officials said. The Russian spy ship has remained in international waters, according to officials. U.S. territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles from shore. Prior to last month’s venture, the Russian spy ship last patrolled off the East Coast of the United States two years ago. The Victor Leonov departed from Russia’s northern fleet based in the Barents Sea near Norway in early January. At one point last month, the Russian spy ship ventured as far north as 30 miles off the coast of Connecticut, home to another U.S. Navy submarine base.
March 15, 2017
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/15/russian-spy-ship-spotted-back-off-us-coast.html
Headline: Fed raises rates amid signs of strengthening economy
Headline: China cuts U.S. treasury holding in January
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday, launching into what investors expect to be a more rapid series of increases that will help ward off the threat of inflation but also raise costs for indebted American households. Fed officials voted nearly unanimously following a two-day policy meeting in Washington to raise the central bank’s key interest rate for overnight lending by a quarter point, from a range of 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent to a range of 0.75 percent to 1.0 percent. The Fed’s decision is meant to head off the prospect of rising inflation, which erodes savings and could destabilize the economy. But higher interest rates will also increase the payments made by Americans who borrow money to finance mortgages, auto loans and credit card purchases. It could also frustrate the ambitious goals of the Trump administration, including boosting growth rates to a pace not seen in years and reviving manufacturing and exports. Yellen said that she didn’t believe the Fed’s move to raise rates would be a point of conflict with the new administration, adding that the Fed would welcome policies from Congress and the administration that would boost productivity growth and raise the economy’s potential “speed limit.”
March 15, 2017
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-03/16/c_136132277.htm
Headline: Venezuela threatens to seize bakeries amid bread shortage
Venezuela’s government has threatened to seize control of bakeries that fail to implement regulations to combat bread shortages. President Nicolas Maduro said the government will expropriate industrial bakeries, which he blames for a “bread war” that has resulted in shortages of bread throughout the country. “They’re going to pay, I swear. Those responsible for the bread war are going to pay and they better not complain that it was a political persecution,” he said on Sunday, according to the BBC. He added “speculators who hide the bread from the people will face the weight of the law.” The government says that bread shortages are caused by bakers who use their allocated flour to bake pastries instead of baguettes or loaves of bread, resulting in long lines at bakeries. “Bakeries which do not follow [the rules] will be occupied by the government,” Vice President Tareck El Aissami said. The baker’s federation, Fevipan, said the shortage is a result of bakeries not receiving enough flour.
March 15, 2017
March 9, 2017 – Taiwan reports new bird flu cases
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201703090031.aspx
March 11, 2017 – 40 dead sea turtles appeared in Uruguay so far in 2017
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elobservador.com.uy%2Faparecieron-40-tortugas-marinas-muertas-lo-que-va-del-ano-n1042806&edit-text=&act=url
March 13, 2017 – H5N1, H5N6 Bird Flu Cases Detected in Viet Nam, over 4,000 birds killed
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/poultrynews/38303/h5n1-h5n6-bird-flu-cases-detected-in-viet-nam/
March 13, 2017 – Nepal reports severe H5N8 bird flu
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-birdflu-idUSKBN16K19X
March 14, 2017 – Thousands of dead fish found in a canal in Tainan, Taiwan
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fudn.com%2Fnews%2Fstory%2F3%2F2340986&edit-text=&act=url
March 14, 2017 – Thousands of dead fish appear in Lake Hafik Sivas, Turkey
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.denizhaber.com.tr%2Fhafik-golunun-buzlari-cozuldu-olu-baliklar-yuzeye-vurdu-haber-73204.htm&edit-text=&act=url
March 14, 2017 – Over 3,000 fish dead in Vasse estuary Australia
http://www.busseltonmail.com.au/story/4530193/vasse-estuary-lagoon-fish-kill-incident-closed/
March 14, 2017 – Poultry breeder Aviagen culls U.S. flock over bird flu fears
https://www.yahoo.com/news/alabama-reports-three-cases-bird-flu-poultry-144549400–finance.html
Headline: China arrests Christian missionaries for North Korea activities
Chinese authorities have detained two South Korean Christian pastors who were assisting North Korean refugees. The arrests come at a time when Beijing has not stopped placing selective sanctions against South Korean companies for a joint U.S.-South Korea decision to deploy the missile defense system THAAD on the peninsula. Pastor Peter Jung, who heads Justice for North Korea in Seoul, told Yonhap news agency Wednesday the two South Korean nationals were “protecting defectors” but were tracked down by Chinese police who promptly arrested the religious clerics and their families. The two pastors have been transferred to the Chinese city of Benxi in Liaoning Province, where they are to await a final decision while in custody. In February, Chinese authorities arrested four Christian missionaries near the North Korea border.
March 15, 2017
Headline: American workers hit 10-year high for drug use: survey
More than 70% of U.S. employers are dealing with the direct impact of prescription drug misuse in their workplaces, according to a new survey of more than 500 companies with 50 or more employees released by the National Safety Council, a nonprofit and nongovernmental agency promoting safety in the workplace. The survey, billed as the first of its kind in the U.S., also found that although a similar percentage of employers agree that prescription drug misuse is a disease that requires treatment, 65% feel it is a justifiable reason to fire an employee. The percentage of workers testing positive for illicit drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines and methamphetamines among the U.S. workforce increased to the largest percentage in a decade in 2015, according to a workplace urine drug test of more than 9.5 million tests of urine samples, among other tests, by Quest Diagnostics, a company that provides national clinical laboratory tests on potential and/or current employees. The positivity rate for 9.5 million urine drug tests in the U.S. workforce increased to 4% in 2015 versus 3.9% the year before. Drug poisonings, largely from opioid painkillers, in the last decade eclipsed car crashes as the leading cause of preventable death among adults. People addicted to drugs are buying them on the street, as they’re often cheap. People with a genuine need for pain medication leave drugs lying around where others have access to them, or they are simply sold.
March 15, 2017
http://nypost.com/2017/03/15/american-workers-hit-10-year-high-for-drug-use-survey/
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
~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~
Mar 14
March 14, 2017 The Warning
Bible prophecy documentary book download proving our generation will see the return of the Lord. Do you want to know what is going to happen in the future before it actually takes place? The Word of God provides you with specific details about our future and all of these things are coming to pass in this generation. If you aren’t saved yet this is a must read! The Last Chronicles of Planet Earth March 11, 2017 Edition written by Frank DiMora