Kabul (AFP) - An Afghan appeal court has overturned death sentences given to four men for the brutal mob killing in March of a woman falsely accused of blasphemy in Kabul, a judge said Thursday.

The woman, Farkhunda, 27, was savagely beaten and her body set ablaze in broad daylight, triggering protests around the country and drawing global attention to the treatment of Afghan women.

Police arrested 49 people in connection with the attack, including 19 police officers, some of whom were shown standing by doing nothing to stop the lynching in cellphone videos recorded by bystanders.

In May a court sentenced four men to death and eight others were handed 16-year jail terms after a three-day trial broadcast live on national television.

"The appeal court decided to reduce the sentence -- three of them got 20 years in prison and one 10 years," judge Nasir Murid, the head of the Kabul appeals court, told AFP without giving any further details.

The appeal was heard behind closed doors and reportedly reached a verdict on Wednesday, according to local media.

View gallery

Suspects stand before a judge during a Primary Court trial in Kabul on May 2, 2015. The first trial …

Farkhunda's brother Mujibullah told AFP the family had not been told of the court's decision or invited to the session.

"We just heard through media that the appeal court in a secret session has reversed the decision. They didn't inform us. Whatever the decision is we will not accept it." he said.

Eleven Afghan policemen were also sentenced in May to one year in prison for failing to protect Farkhunda from the angry mob.

Farkhunda was attacked on the banks of the Kabul River after an amulet seller, whom she had reportedly castigated for peddling superstition, falsely accused her of burning a copy of the Koran.

Her case become a symbol of the endemic violence that women face in Afghanistan, despite reforms since the hardline Taliban regime fell in 2001.

View gallery

Independent Afghan civil society activist women and Afghan men lower the coffin of Afghan woman Fark …

The backlash highlighted the angst of a post-Taliban generation in Afghanistan -- where nearly two-thirds of the population is under 25 -- that is often torn between conservatism and modernity as the country rebuilds after decades of war.

On Thursday, a number of activists reacted angrily to the court's decision.

"We are planning massive protest against the court ruling on Farkhunda. Lack of justice and transparency is just unacceptable," activist Ramin Anwari wrote on Twitter.

Last October five Afghan men were hanged over a gang rape that sparked a national outcry, though the United Nations and human rights groups called for President Ashraf Ghani to stay the executions.

The trial of suspects in Farkhunda's case drew praise from some for its fast-track nature but also prompted concern over its fairness.

Human Rights Watch said it was "very concerned" over whether due process was followed in the swift trial in which many of the accused did not appear to have lawyers.

Now’s the Time To End Tax Exemptions for Religious Institutions

Mark Oppenheimer writes the biweekly “Beliefs” column for The New York Times and is editor-at-large for Tablet. He also reports for The Atlantic, The Nation, This American Life, and elsewhere.

The Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage makes it clearer than ever that the government shouldn't be subsidizing religion and non-profits

Two weeks ago, with a decision in Obergefell v. Hodges on the way, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah introduced the First Amendment Defense Act, which ensures that religious institutions won’t lose their tax exemptions if they don’t support same-sex marriage. Liberals tend to think Sen. Lee’s fears are unwarranted, and they can even point to Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion in Friday’s case, which promises “that religious organizations and persons [will be] given proper protection.”

But I don’t think Sen. Lee is crazy. In the 1983 Bob Jones University case, the court ruled that a school could lose tax-exempt status if its policies violated “fundamental national public policy.” So far, the Bob Jones reasoning hasn’t been extended to other kinds of discrimination, but someday it could be. I’m a gay-rights supporter who was elated by Friday’s Supreme Court decision — but I honor Sen. Lee’s fears.

I don’t, however, like his solution. And he’s not going to like mine. Rather than try to rescue tax-exempt status for organizations that dissent from settled public policy on matters of race or sexuality, we need to take a more radical step. It’s time to abolish, or greatly diminish, their tax-exempt statuses.

The federal revenue acts of 1909, 1913, and 1917 exempted nonprofits from the corporate excise and income taxes at the same time that they allowed people to deduct charitable contributions from their incomes. In other words, they gave tax-free status to the income of, and to the income donated to, nonprofits. Since then, state and local laws nearly everywhere have exempted nonprofits from all, or most, property tax and state income tax. This system of tax exemptions and deductions took shape partly during World War I, when it was feared that the new income tax, with top rates as high as 77%, might choke off charitable giving. But whatever its intentions, today it’s a mess, for several reasons.

First, the religious exemption has forced the IRS to decide what’s a religion, and thus has entangled church and state in the worst way. Since the world’s great religion scholars can’t agree on what a religion is, it’s absurd to ask a bunch of accountants, no matter how well-meaning. You can read part of the IRS’s guidelines for what’s a bona fide religion here; suffice it to say that it has an easier time saying what’s not a religion. The site gives the example of the rejection of an application from an “outgrowth of a supper club … whose primary activities were holding meetings before supper, sponsoring the supper club, and publishing a newsletter” but which professed a religious doctrine of “ethical egoism.”

On the other hand, the IRS famously caved and awarded the Church of Scientology tax-exempt status. Never mind that the Scientology is secretive, or that it charges for its courses; or that its leader, David Miscavige, lives like a pasha. Indeed, many clergy have mid-six-figure salaries — many university presidents, seven-figure salaries — and the IRS doesn’t trouble their tax-exempt status. And many churches and synagogues sit on exceedingly valuable tracts of land (walk up and down Fifth Avenue to see what I mean). The property taxes they aren’t paying have to be drawn from business owners and private citizens — in a real sense, you and I are subsidizing Mormon temples, Muslims mosques, Methodist churches.

We’re also subsidizing wealthy organizations sitting in the middle of poor towns. Yale University has an endowment of about $25 billion, yet it pays very little to the city of New Haven, which I (as a resident) can assure you needs the money. At the prep school I attended (current endowment: $175 million), faculty houses, owned by the school, were tax-exempt, on the theory that teachers sometimes had students over for dinner, where they talked about history or literature or swim practice.

Meanwhile, although nonprofits can’t endorse political candidates, they can be quite partisan and still thrive on the public dole, in the form of tax exemptions and deductions. Conservatives are footing the bill for taxes that Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit, doesn’t pay — while liberals are making up revenue lost from the National Rifle Association. I could go on. In short, the exemption-and-deduction regime has grown into a pointless, incoherent agglomeration of nonsensical loopholes, which can allow rich organizations to horde plentiful assets in the midst of poverty.

Defenders of tax exemptions and deductions argue that if we got rid of them charitable giving would drop. It surely would, although how much, we can’t say. But of course government revenue would go up, and that money could be used to, say, house the homeless and feed the hungry. We’d have fewer church soup kitchens — but countries that truly care about poverty don’t rely on churches to run soup kitchens.

Exemption advocates also point out that churches would be squeezed out of high-property-value areas. But if it’s important to the people of Fifth Avenue to have a synagogue like Emanu-El or an Episcopal church like St. Thomas in their midst, they should pay full freight for it. They can afford to, more than millions of poorer New Yorkers whose tax bills the synagogue and church exemptions are currently inflating.

So yes, the logic of gay-marriage rights could lead to a reexamination of conservative churches’ tax exemptions (although, as long as the IRS is afraid of challenging Scientology’s exemption, everyone else is probably safe). But when that day comes, it will be long overdue. I can see keeping some exemptions; hospitals, in particular, are an indispensable, and noncontroversial, public good. And localities could always carve out sensible property-tax exceptions for nonprofits their communities need. But it’s time for most nonprofits, like those of us who faithfully cut checks to them, to pay their fair share.

The news immediately followed the release of a video from ISIS insurgents in Syria threatening to turn the Gaza Strip into another one of their Middle East territories and accusing Gaza’s Hamas rulers of selling out Islamic values.

Abu Mousub, an aide to Abu Al-Ayna al-Ansari, a leader of a Salafi group in the Gaza Strip, told WND by phone from Gaza that Al-Ansari’s group will officially announce it is representing ISIS in Gaza.

Until now, Al-Ansari’s jihadi group and other Gaza-based Salafist organizations have hesitated to officially declare themselves part of ISIS, instead preferring to say they were allied with ISIS ideology. This even though their written statements and videos brandished the ISIS flag.

Abu Mousub said if Hamas does not stop its crackdown on Salafists and dedicate itself to ISIS’ Islamic jihadist values, Al-Ansari’s new ISIS group plans to continue attacking Hamas installations with the aim of taking over Gaza from Hamas and incorporating the coastal enclave within ISIS’ self-declared caliphate.

The free WND special report “ISIS Rising,” by Middle East expert and former Department of Defense analyst Michael Maloof, will answer your questions about the jihadist army threatening the West.

Al-Ansari’s new-found confidence comes less than one day after the Information Bureau of the Aleppo Province, affiliated with ISIS, released a new video titled “A message to our folks in Jerusalem” in which ISIS members originally from Gaza declared war on both Israel and Hamas.

In the video, Abu Azzam Al-Ghazzawim who hails originally from Gaza, sent a message to what he called the “tyrants of Hamas”:

“You are nothing in our reckoning. You, Fatah and all the secularists, we count you as nothing. Allah willing, we shall uproot the state of the Jews. You are nothing but froth that will be gone as we move in. Allah willing, Gaza will be governed by Shariah despite you,” he stated.

Abu Qatadah Al-Filistini (Palestinian Abu Qatadah), an ISIS member who leads a faction in Aleppo, Syria, was on video calling on all “monotheists in Gaza to join the convoy of the Muhajidin and to join the State of the Caliphate.”

Abu Qatadah further accused Hamas of “sliding gradually into apostasy, a slide that started with the demolition of the Ibn Taymiyah Mosque.”

“It is a movement that does not seek to govern according to Shariah but seeks to appease Iran and America, the heads of apostasy.”

The developments come after ISIS in the northern Sinai Peninsula, which neighbors Gaza, faced off with the Egyptian military in what media is describing as the deadliest battle on the peninsula since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Egypt’s general command for the armed forces released a statement that the army had killed at least 100 militants in North Sinai while it said 17 of its own soldiers, including four officers, were also killed.

However, Egyptian security sources put the actual number of dead Egyptian soldiers at closer to 65.

Significantly, the ISIS militants in Sinai captured Egyptian tanks, the security sources told WND.

The Egyptian security sources further divulged that for the first time ever, ISIS militants in the Sinai temporarily occupied two towns, Rafah and to Sheikh Zuweid. The sources conceded that as of this report, ISIS is still in some control of pockets of both towns.

The FBI is setting up command centers at all of its 56 field offices across the country ahead of the July 4 weekend, to monitor any potential terrorist threats, law enforcement sources have revealed.

Sources told Fox News that local, state and federal law enforcement agencies will be reporting any information about possible attacks to these command centers, and officials there will decide how to respond.

While the FBI says there has been no specific credible threat so far, it appears they are being more active in their warnings and actions ahead of Independence Day this year than in the past.

The FBI is setting command centers up at each of its 56 field offices across the country ahead of the July 4th weekend, over fears of a possible ISIS-inspired terrorist attack. Above, the FBI field offices not including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico

This global map shows where ISIS has seized land, where it is expanding its support and where it has committed terror attacks. Most worryingly, it also reveals the countries where ISIS terrorists hope to carry out imminent attacks, including America. ISIS also wants to cause deadly disruption to Muslim regions of the world before the holy month of Ramadan ends on July 18

Another law enforcement source told Fox that the FBI has even been working to take known sympathizers for groups like ISIS off the streets of America before the symbolic holiday.

That could mean arresting these alleged sympathizers on U.S. soil on lesser charges and building a broader case while they are temporarily in custody over the holiday weekend.

The FBI is specifically concerned about targets like shopping malls - where there are large groups of people but relatively little security.

Rep Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security has already warned Americans to 'remain vigilant' to terror attacks.

He also said that ISIS was no longer a regionalized threat but a global one.

‘I am extremely concerned that Syrian and ISIS recruiters can use the internet at lightning speeds to recruit followers in the United States, with thousands of followers in the United States, and then activate them to do whatever they want to do,’ he said, during an appearance on Fox News Sunday.

‘Whether it’s military installations, law enforcement or possibly a Fourth of July event parade.’

He added that America’s response had been slow in comparison to extremists’ rapid advancement of their internet presence.

Referring to the terror attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait last Friday, he said: ‘In light of the three attacks in three hours on three continents overseas, (it) shows us that ISIS is not just regionalized like the administration says, only in Iraq and Syria, but rather demonstrates a global threat - that they can conduct external operations and they’re very savvy doing that over the internet.'

A gunman opened fire on a beach packed with tourists in Tunisia, killing 38; a decapitated body was found after an attacker rammed his car into a gas container, triggering an explosion in France, and a suicide bomber attacker a Shiite mosque in Kuwait City, killed 27 and injuring 227. There is as yet no evidence that the attacks were coordinated.

Meanwhile the FBI has issued a warning to local law enforcement officials across America about a heightened risk of terror attacks targeting Independence Day celebrations this weekend.

No specific threat has been made by the terror group but bulletins are frequently issued in advance of major U.S. holidays.

The Institute for the Study of War, an influential think tank based in Washington DC, says that ISIS is soon likely to target other Western nations like the UK, France, Spain and Italy.

A chilling map, predicts just where ISIS is expected to seize new land, strike in the west and awake 'sleeper cells' all before the end of Ramadan.

This week ISIS promised ‘paradise’ and ‘rewards in heaven’ for those who carry out attacks during the holy month for Muslims.

Isis fighters, such as the ones pictured here in Syria, appear to be carrying out their promise to step up attacks for the holy month of Ramadan

Jerusalem (AFP) - A senior Israeli officer said Thursday the militant Palestinian movement Hamas played a part in attacks by the Islamic State group on Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula.

"In the latest attacks Hamas gave support with weapons and organisation to groups supporting IS," Major General Yoav Mordechai, said in an interview in Arabic with Al-Jazeera television.

The Egyptian military said 17 soldiers and 100 militants had been killed but medical and security officials said the death toll was at least 70 people, mostly soldiers. Dozens of jihadists also died.

The Israeli army Thursday ordered the closure until further notice of Route 12, a desert highway along the Sinai border, "in light of the current situation."

Media said the closure would go into effect at 5 am (0200 GMT).

"We have examples of Hamas commanders who actively took part in such support," said Mordechai, quoted in a Hebrew-language summary of the interview released by his office.

"Wael Faraj, a battalion commander in the military wing of Hamas, smuggled wounded from Sinai into the Gaza Strip," it quoted him as telling the Doha-based broadcaster.

"Abdallah Qishta, a senior Hamas military instructor, trained operatives of "the Sinai Province organisation", he added, referring to the Egyptian affiliate of IS.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas, the rulers of the Gaza Strip, which adjoins northern Sinai.

Egyptian authorities have in the past accused Hamas of backing jihadists who have carried out deadly attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.

The Egyptian army says it has destroyed hundreds of tunnels used for smuggling supplies and arms between Sinai and Gaza, also used by militants to infiltrate Egypt.

In August 2011, gunmen sneaked across the frontier into Israel and carried out a series of shooting ambushes on Route 12, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the Red Sea resort of Eilat, killing eight Israelis and wounding 25.