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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
3/2/2015 12:33:39 AM

Israel army launches 'surprise' West Bank drill

AFP

Israeli soldiers detain soldiers in red t-shirts, playing the role of Palestinian rioters, during a drill near the West Bank city of Hebron on March 1, 2015, organized by the Israeli army to simulate dispersing of riots and crowd control (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana)


Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's army said it launched a "surprise exercise" Sunday calling up thousands of reservists for its central region of operations that includes the West Bank.

The military said in a statement that it was mobilising "forces including some 13,000 reserves, 3,000 of whom will physically report for active duty".

The drill, initiated by newly sworn-in chief of staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, comes nearly two months after Israel stopped transferring taxes it collects for the Palestinian Authority (PA), in retaliation for its move to join the International Criminal Court.

The United States has expressed concern over the "viability" of the West Bank-based PA if Israel continued to withhold the funds.

But army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said the drill was "not specifically connected" to possible Israeli fears of an eruption of West Bank unrest due to the Palestinian fiscal crisis.

Lerner said the army carries out such drills on a regular basis, most recently in 2013, acknowledging however the "rare" size of the new drill which he said was the choice of Eisenkot, sworn in last month.

The army had informed Palestinian authorities of the exercise, expected to run two days.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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3/2/2015 10:21:10 AM

North Korea fires missiles in anger at South-US military drills

AFP

US Army M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzers participate in a live firing drill at the army's Rodriguez range in Pocheon, south of the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, in 2012 (AFP Photo/Kim Hong-Ji)

North Korea fired two missiles into the sea on Monday and vowed "merciless" retaliation as the US and South Korea kicked off joint military drills denounced by Pyongyang as recklessly confrontational.

The annual exercises always trigger a surge in military tensions and warlike rhetoric on the divided peninsula, and analysts saw the North's missile tests as a prelude to a concerted campaign of sabre rattling.

"If there is a particularly sharp escalation, we could see the North orchestrating some kind of clash on the maritime border," said Jeung Young-Tae, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

The missile launches came with a stern warning from the nuclear-armed North Korean People's Army (KPA) that this year's military drills would bring the peninsula "towards the brink of war".

The South Korean defence ministry said the two Scud missiles were fired from the western port city of Nampo and fell into the sea off the east coast -- a distance of nearly 500 kilometres (310 miles).

UN resolutions prohibit any ballistic missile test by North Korea, and ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said Pyongyang appeared intent on triggering a "security crisis".

"We will respond sternly and strongly to any provocation," Kim told reporters.

The Japanese government said it had issued a strong protest to the North given the danger such missile launches posed to aviation and shipping.

Missile tests have long been a preferred North Korean method of expressing anger and displeasure with what it views as confrontational behaviour by the South and its allies.

- 'Brink of war' -

"The situation on the Korean peninsula is again inching close to the brink of a war," a spokesman for the KPA General Staff was quoted as saying Monday by the North's official KCNA news agency.

"The only means to cope with the aggression and war by the US imperialists and their followers is neither dialogue nor peace. They should be dealt with only by merciless strikes."

North Korea has threatened attacks, including nuclear strikes, on the US before, although it has never demonstrated a missile capability that would encompass the US mainland.

The largest element of the two South Korea-US drills that began Monday is Foal Eagle, an eight-week exercise involving air, ground and naval field training, with around 200,000 Korean and 3,700 US troops.

The other is a week-long, largely computer-simulated joint drill called Key Resolve.

Seoul and Washington insist the exercises are defence-based in nature, but they are regularly condemned by Pyongyang as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

In a statement later Monday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry labelled the start of the drills an act of "intolerable aggression" and said the North was ready to wage "any form of war" that the US chooses.

- Test moratorium offer -

North Korea has carried out three nuclear tests -- in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

In January, the North offered a moratorium on further tests if this year's joint drills were cancelled -- a proposal rejected by Washington as an "implicit threat" to carry out a fourth atomic detonation.

Analyst Jeung said Pyongyang was unlikely to conduct a fourth test just to protest against the exercises.

"Nuclear tests carry more significance than that," he said, noting that the North's testing schedule was primarily driven by technical development.

"On the other hand, there is the chance of a mid- or long-range missile test," Jeung told AFP.

"I would say that a demonstration that it could deliver a nuclear warhead would be more threatening to the world than an actual nuclear test," he added.

A new research report by US experts published last week estimated that North Korea could be on track to have an arsenal of 100 nuclear weapons by 2020.

In a further sign of rising tensions, the North Korean state-run website, Uriminzokkiri, warned Monday of a fierce response to any attempt by South Korean activists to float anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border by balloon.

"The response might not just be a few shots of gunfire but cannons or missiles," the website said.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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3/2/2015 10:26:04 AM

Video shows Los Angeles police shooting homeless man dead

Reuters

CBS-Losangeles
LAPD Investigates Deadly Skid Row OIS Caught On Video


(Reuters) - A video posted online shows Los Angeles police scuffling with and shooting a homeless man during a confrontation, The Los Angeles Times reported on its web site.

The video, posted on Facebook, shows several uniformed Los Angeles Police Department officers scuffling with a man in a downtown area where homeless people pitch tents at night known as skid row. Once on the ground, the man continues struggling, at which point several shots are fired.

A series of civilian deaths at the hands of police in the past year has become a touchstone for trouble race relations in the United States, most notably in Ferguson, Missouri, when an unarmed teen-ager was shot and killed by a police officer, triggering weeks of protests and some rioting. A grand jury cleared the officer of wrongdoing.

The homeless man in the video was declared dead at a hospital shortly after the shooting, the Times reported, citing police spokesman Sgt. Barry Montgomery. Police could not be reached by Reuters to confirm the report.

The man has not yet been identified.

Witnesses gave varying accounts about the shooting, with some saying the man had reached for one of the officer's guns and one saying he heard an officer saying "He's got my gun." Other witnesses said the police had used a taser on the man before shooting him.

Reached by the Times, Police Commission President Steve Soboroff said "My heart just started pounding just watching" the video. "These situations are just so horrific."

Soboroff said whether the man tried to take an officer's gun was a critical matter in the shooting.

"To me, that would be the only explanation that something would happen that quickly," the Times quoted him as saying.

Soboroff said the LAPD, its independent inspector general and the district attorney's office would all investigate the shooting "very, very carefully," the newspaper reported.

Police were originally called to the area to investigate a robbery.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Nick Macfie)



Deadly L.A. police shooting caught on video


A homeless man is shot and killed during a confrontation with several uniformed officers.
Graphic footage

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
3/2/2015 10:59:06 AM

Iraq forces take on Tikrit in biggest operation yet

AFP

Volunteer Shiite fighters, who are supporting the Iraqi government forces in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group fire a Howitzer artillery canon in the village of Awaynat near the city of Tikrit on February 28, 2015 (AFP Photo/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)


Kirkuk (Iraq) (AFP) - Some 30,000 Iraqi troops and militia backed by aircraft pounded jihadist positions in and around Tikrit on Monday in the biggest offensive yet to retake one of the Islamic State group's main strongholds.

Government forces have been working their way north in recent months, notching up key victories against IS but Tikrit, which has resisted them several times, is their toughest target yet.

Building on recent successes, commanders voiced hope that the broadest operation since IS overran swathes of the country last June would be a step towards the liberation of Mosul, the jihadists' main hub in Iraq.

"Security forces are advancing on three main fronts towards Tikrit, Ad-Dawr (to the south) and Al-Alam (to the north)," a senior army officer on the ground told AFP by telephone.

The operation began in early morning after being announced by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi the previous evening.

The army officer said the forces involved in the battle were from the army, police, counter-terrorism units, a government-controlled volunteer group known as the Popular Mobilisation units and local Sunni tribes opposed to IS.

"The attack is being carried out using fighter jets, helicopters and artillery targeting Tikrit to secure the advance and cut supply routes," he said.

Military sources said Iraqi warplanes were involved but it was not immediately clear whether foreign air support -- Iranian or from the US-led coalition fighting IS -- was also called in.

According to both Iraqi and Iranian media, Qassem Soleimani -- the commander of the Al-Qods Force covert operations unit of Tehran's elite Revolutionary Guards -- was in Salaheddin province to help coordinate operations.

- Appeal to spare civilians -

Abadi urged the security forces on Sunday to spare civilians during the offensive.

Speaking from Samarra, the other main city in Salaheddin province, he appeared to be addressing fears of reprisals against the Tikrit area's Sunni population.

"The priority we gave to the armed forces and all the forces taking part alongside them is to preserve the security of citizens," he told reporters.

On social media, he called "for utmost care in protecting civilian lives and property."

Hadi al-Ameri, the Popular Mobilisation commander and a central figure in Iraq's fightback against IS, appealed to Tikrit residents on Saturday to leave their homes within 48 hours so government forces could "wrap up the battle of the revenge for Speicher."

Speicher is a military base near Tikrit from which hundreds of new, mostly Shiite, recruits were kidnapped before being executed in the early days of the IS offensive that swept through much of the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad last June.

Shiite militias in particular have vowed to avenge the Speicher executions, sparking fears of mass killings against Sunnis if Tikrit were to be recaptured.

Some Sunni tribes in the Tikrit area have been accused of direct involvement in the Speicher massacre.

Abadi appealed to residents to turn against the jihadists, who have suffered a string of military losses since Iraq's foreign partners stepped up their support.

"I call on all those who were misled and made mistakes in the past to lay down their arms today. This may be the last chance," Abadi said, suggesting some could be granted amnesty.

- 'Jihadi John' a target -

Iraqi forces tried and failed several times to wrest back Tikrit, a Sunni Arab city on the Tigris river around 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Baghdad.

The military commander for Salaheddin province, Abdel Wahab Saadi, said Tikrit had both symbolic and strategic importance.

"The aim of course is to liberate Salaheddin to allow for the return of displaced families but it is also going to be a stepping stone on the way to liberating Mosul," he told AFP.

Tikrit is the hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, the remnants of whose Baath party have collaborated with IS in attempting to topple the Shiite-dominated government.

IS declared a "caliphate" last June straddling Iraq and Syria, where the US-led coalition has also been conducting air strikes but not coordinating with any significant ground force.

A senior US senator said on Sunday that US forces were specifically targeting Mohammed Emwazi, the London man dubbed "Jihadi John" believed responsible for videotaped executions of several US and other Western hostages.

"Oh, yes. He's a target. There should be no question about that," former Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein told CBS television's "Face the Nation."

UN efforts to stop the violence that has pitted Bashar al-Assad's regime against an array of rival rebel groups for almost four years suffered a blow on Sunday.

Rebel forces battling government troops in the divided second city of Aleppo rejected a plan drawn up by UN envoy Staffan de Mistura for a freeze in fighting and demanded a comprehensive solution to the conflict.


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
3/2/2015 3:30:33 PM

30,000 marchers in Moscow mourn slain Putin foe

Associated Press

People with Russian national flags march in memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down on Friday, Feb. 27, 2015 near the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, March 1, 2015. Thousands converged Sunday in central Moscow to mourn veteran liberal politician Boris Nemtsov, whose killing on the streets of the capital has shaken Russia’s beleaguered opposition. They carried flowers, portraits and white signs that said “I am not afraid.” (AP Photo/Denis Tyrin)


MOSCOW (AP) — For the tens of thousands bearing flowers and tying black ribbons to railings in honor of slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, the solemn march through the Moscow drizzle on Sunday was a time for silence, not slogans.

The marchers occasionally broke into chants of "Russia without Putin," or "Say no to war," but often the only sound was the steady thwack of police helicopters overhead or the hum of police boats patrolling the shores of the Moscow River.

While the killing of Nemtsov has shaken the Russian opposition, which sees the Kremlin as responsible, it is unclear whether his death will be enough to invigorate the beleaguered movement. Despite the Ukraine conflict and Russia's economic crisis, support for President Vladimir Putin has been above 80 percent in the past year.

Since mass anti-Putin protests brought hundreds of thousands to the streets of Moscow in 2011 and 2012, Putin has marginalized and intimidated his political opponents, jailing some, driving others into exile, and ramping up fines and potential jail time for those detained at protests.

The 55-year-old Nemtsov was among the few prominent opposition figures who refused to be cowed. But while many at the march expressed respect for his long political career and grief at his loss, few believed that his death would spark major change in Russia because of the Kremlin's control over national television, where a vast majority of Russians get their news.

"Maybe if 100 people were to die people would rise up, but I don't really believe in that," said Sergei Musakov, 22. "People are so under the influence of the (TV) box that they will believe anything that television tells them. If it tells them that terrorists from the Islamic State group came to Russia in order to blow up the fifth column, they'll believe it."

The Kremlin had identified Nemtsov as among the leaders of a "fifth column," painting him and other opposition figures as traitors in the service of a hostile West.

About 30,000 people attended the march, making it the largest opposition rally in more than a year. The demonstrators bore Russian flags and signs that read "I am not afraid" or "Propaganda kills." At the site where Nemtsov was killed, a pile of flowers grew by the minute, as mourners tossed down bouquets of every color.

Nemtsov was gunned down shortly before midnight Friday as he walked across a bridge near the Kremlin. The killing came just hours after a radio interview in which he denounced Putin's "mad, aggressive policy" in Ukraine.

At the time of his death, Nemtsov was working on a report that he believed proved that Russian troops were fighting alongside the separatists in Ukraine, despite the official denials.

No one has been arrested in the killing. Investigators said they were looking into several possible motives and have offered 3 million rubles (nearly $50,000) for information about the shooting.

TV Center, a station controlled by the Moscow city government, broadcast a poor-resolution video from one of its web cameras that it said shows Nemtsov and his date shortly before the killing.

The station, which superimposed its own time code on the footage, circled figures that it said were Nemtsov and the woman walking across the bridge on a rainy night. A snowplow that moved slowly behind the couple obscured the view of the shooting.

TV Center then circled what it said was the suspected killer jumping into a passing car. The authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed.

Investigators said Sunday they were again questioning the woman, Ukrainian citizen Anna Duritskaya. Russian media have identified her as a model and shown photos of her in alluring poses.

Fellow opposition activists said they hoped Nemtsov's death would encourage people to take action, rather than intimidate them.

"Essentially it is an act of terror," said Ilya Yashin, an opposition leader and friend. "It is a political murder aimed at frightening the population, or the part of the population that supported Nemtsov or did not agree with the government. I hope we won't get scared, that we will continue what Boris was doing."

Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister who joined the opposition, told the crowd the killing should be a turning point for Russia "for the simple reason that people who before thought that they could quietly sit in their kitchens and simply discuss problems within the family, now will start reconsidering everything that's going on in our country."

Since Nemtsov's death, investigators, politicians and political commentators on state television have suggested numerous motives for the attack. The most popular theory seemed to be that Western secret services were behind the hit, with the aim of destabilizing Russia. Putin's spokesman said the president saw the attack as a "provocation" against the state.

Some bristled at Western coverage that suggested Nemtsov was killed for his relentless opposition to Putin.

"We haven't even recovered, the man hasn't even been buried, and the West is shoving down our throats that Russia supposedly has killed a key opposition politician," Dmitry Kiselyov, an influential television anchor famous for his anti-Western broadcasts, said on his Sunday evening show.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had no intelligence on who was behind the shooting.

"The bottom line is we hope there will be a thorough, transparent, real investigation, not just of who actually fired the shots, but who, if anyone, may have ordered or instructed this or been behind this," Kerry said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

Kiselyov noted that while Nemtsov was known in Russia from his political activity in the 1990s, when he served as a deputy prime minister overseeing reforms, he was no longer popular. The anchor suggested that the West may have believed his death would resonate more with average Russians than his political activity: "When he was alive, Nemtsov was no longer necessary to the West, he had no prospects. But dead, he was a lot more interesting."

For those at the march, it's that rhetoric on state television that makes the prospects for change dim.

"From my experience, trying to convince people isn't possible," said Mikhail Trofimenko, a 42-year-old screenwriter. "I think things will only get worse, but I hope that by some miracle Russia will not fall apart and remain a united country."

He held up a painting of the Russian flag riddled with four bullet holes, the number found in Nemtsov's body.

Another mourning march was held earlier Sunday in St. Petersburg, drawing several thousand people.

Nelly Prusskaya, a 66-year-old doctor, said she came to pay her respects to Nemtsov. "I also came to say that I'm against the war in Ukraine," she said. "I'm against political murders."

___

Lynn Berry in Moscow and Irina Titova in St. Petersburg, Russia, contributed to this report.


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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