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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/12/2016 10:24:51 AM

Erdogan threatens to send refugees to EU as NATO steps in

AFP

Two Syrian women and a boy wait in front of Oncupinar crossing gate, near the town of Kilis, Turkey on February 9, 2016 (AFP Photo/Bulent Kilic)


Ankara (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to send the millions of refugees in Turkey to EU member states, as NATO pledged to deploy ships to the Aegean Sea to ease the migrant crisis.

Erdogan stepped up his denunciations of Western policy on migrants in a speech in Ankara, confirming he had threatened EU leaders at a summit meeting in November that Turkey could say "goodbye" to the refugees.

Alarm is growing in EU capitals that thousands of migrants are still crossing the Aegean daily from Turkey after over a million made the perilous journey last year.

NATO has agreed to send a naval group to the Aegean to crack down on people-smugglers feeding the influx of migrants, while Greece is considering sending anyone picked up in the waters back to Turkey.

Turkey, already home to some three million refugees, is also under EU and UN pressure to take in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing regime advances in the Aleppo region.

Erdogan said Turkey had every right to turf the refugees out of the country if it so wished.

"We do not have the word 'idiot' written on our foreheads. We will be patient but we will do what we have to. Don't think that the planes and the buses are there for nothing," Erdogan said.

- 'Defended Turkey's rights' -

Greek website euro2day.gr had reported that Erdogan made the threat to EU Commission president Jean Claude Juncker in November, quoting him as saying: "We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and put the refugees on buses."

"I am proud of what I said. We have defended the rights of Turkey and the refugees. And we told them (the Europeans): 'Sorry, we will open the doors and say 'goodbye' to the migrants'," Erdogan said in his speech Thursday.

Turkey is already hosting 2.5 million refugees from Syria's civil war and hundreds of thousands from Iraq and is increasingly bitter it has been left to shoulder the burden.

The EU has agreed to give Ankara three billion euros ($3.3 billion) in financial aid for the refugees, but the funds have yet to be handed over two-and-a-half months after they were agreed.

Erdogan said Turkey had already spent some $9 billion on hosting refugees and lashed out at the UN for pressing it to let in tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing fighting in Aleppo massed on its border.

The NATO deployment follows a request this week by alliance members Germany, Greece and Turkey for assistance in tackling Europe's biggest migrant crisis since World War II.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), by February 7, 70,365 migrants arrived by sea in Greece from Turkey, an average of 2,000 a day. It said 319 perished on the way.

- Send them back -

Among them was an eight-year-old girl, whose body was found by Turkish security forces Thursday washed up on the shore close to Didim in the Aydin region.

She had been dead for some 15 days, had no clothes and her body was starting to rot, the Radikal online daily said.

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO is "now directing the standing maritime group to move into the Aegean without delay and start maritime surveillance activities".

"This is not about stopping and pushing back (refugee boats)... but about critical surveillance to help counter human trafficking and criminal networks."

The group comprises three ships that are currently under German command.

German Defence Minister Ursula Von der Leyen said "there is a clear accord with Turkey that any refugees picked up will be sent back to Turkey".

Greece, meanwhile, is also considering sending back migrants picked up in the Aegean Sea to Turkey.

A government source told AFP Athens is mulling whether to declare Turkey a "safe third country" which would allow it to return any asylum seekers picked up in the waters.

"No decision has yet been taken", but "it is being looked at", the source said, adding that while Greece might make the decision unilaterally, Turkey would have to agree to it to be put into practice.

"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?
2/12/2016 10:35:58 AM

IMF says West Bank economy dips on slower aid, Israel blockade

AFP

Palestinians work at a construction site to rebuild houses which were destroyed during the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the summer of 2014, in Gaza City's eastern suburb of Al-Shejaiya on July 22, 2015 (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)


Jerusalem (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund said Thursday that economic growth in the Israeli-occupied West Bank slowed to an estimated 2.8 percent in 2015 and was likely to remain below 3.0 percent this year.

In a statement concluding a week-long visit to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the IMF said Gaza rebuilding after the destruction of the 2014 summer war with Israel gave some boost to the coastal strip's economy.

But it said that the recovery was "hampered by slow aid disbursements and (Israeli) restrictions on imports of construction materials, and the humanitarian situation remains dire."

"Unemployment remains stubbornly high in the West Bank and higher still in Gaza, where two-thirds of young people are without a job," it added.

Aid officials say a lack of coordination between Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, dominated by rival Fatah, have also contributed to the slow pace of reconstruction.

"Uncertainty continues to cloud the economic outlook," the IMF statement said.

"Investment remained weak, donor aid declined sharply," it said of the West Bank.

The United Nations warned Wednesday that humanitarian needs elsewhere in the Middle East were a potential threat to funding for the Palestinians.

"GDP growth in the West Bank and Gaza will likely reach 3.3 percent in 2016, with sub-3 percent growth in the West Bank and 5 percent growth in Gaza reflecting continued rebuilding," the IMF said.

"Real GDP in Gaza will not likely return to pre-conflict levels before 2018."

"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?
2/12/2016 10:42:48 AM

Russia boosts ties with Iraq in challenge to U.S. influence

BAGHDAD |


Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari (R) and Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin (L) sign documents in Baghdad, Iraq February 11, 2016.
REUTERS/KHALID AL MOUSILY

Russia is ready to sell civil airliners to Iraq and keep providing it with military aid to fight Islamic State, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Thursday, accompanied on a trip to Baghdad by the biggest Russian delegation in years.

The mission by nearly 100 government and business officials was part of a drive by Moscow to strengthen commercial and security ties with Iraq, potentially eroding U.S. influence in one of the world's most critical regions.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said discussions had revolved around providing military assistance to defeat Islamic State militants, also known as Daesh, who seized a third of Iraq in 2014 and want to redraw the map of the Middle East.

"We need international support from multiple sources, be it from within the international coalition or outside of it," he said, referring to the U.S.-led coalition which has launched thousands of airstrikes and provided training and advice to Iraq's military.

"We need support, training and intelligence-sharing," he told reporters. "Intelligence plays an important role in the war on Daesh, and we've been coordinating for a while now with the Russian side to place this information in the hands of Iraqis."

Russia has invested millions of dollars in Iraq's energy sector and last year opened a command center in Baghdad under an intelligence-sharing agreement with Iraq, Iran and Syria aimed at combating Islamic State.

Rogozin said he had met with his country's envoy to the command center, thought to be a one-star general. He said through a translator that Moscow would continue providing Iraq with military equipment which had helped "raise the combat readiness of the Iraqi armed forces", but provided few details.

He told Russian news agency TASS he hoped military aid would help Iraq retake the northern city of Mosul and other areas held by Islamic State.

Frustrated with the pace and depth of the U.S.-led military campaign against the militants, Iraqi officials have said they would lean heavily on Russia in the struggle to defeat the Sunni Muslim jihadists. The command center has shared intelligence for air strikes in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Four months of Russian air strikes in Syria have tipped momentum toward President Bashar al-Assad in that country's five-year-old civil war, undermining U.S.-backed efforts to revive peace talks.

The officials signed a wide-ranging memorandum of understanding that included measures to more than double bilateral trade and boost Iraq's electricity production, which only meets around 60 percent of its peak demand during the hot summer months.

Trade last year was nearly $2 billion, mostly made up of Russian exports, according to TASS. Rogozin said Russia could provide Sukhoi Superjet airliners for Iraq's civil aviation.

He proposed holding the next meeting in Mosul, which Iraq's government has vowed to recapture from Islamic State this year.

"Economic cooperation must coincide with settling security matters," said Rogozin. "The faster you liberate this city, the sooner we can get (back) to Iraq."

(Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

"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?
2/12/2016 10:55:24 AM

Oregon standoff ends after 41 days with dramatic surrender

Reuters




A sign thanking the FBI hangs in Burns, Oregon February 11, 2016.REUTERS/Jim Urquhart



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By Jimmy Urquhart

BURNS, Ore. (Reuters) - The four holdouts in the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon surrendered on Thursday, with the last protester repeatedly threatening suicide in a dramatic final phone call with mediators before he gave up, ending the 41-day standoff.

David Fry, 27, stayed behind for more than an hour and told supporters by phone he had not agreed with the other three to leave the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon. The call was broadcast live on an audio feed posted on the Internet.

"I'm actually pointing a gun at my head. I'm tired of living," Fry said during the phone call. He later added: "Until you address my grievances, you're probably going to have to watch me be killed, or kill myself."

Fry sounded alternately defiant and tormented during the rambling final call, veering from rants about the federal government to his thoughts on UFOs. He surrendered after taking a final cigarette and cookie and asking his mediators to shout "Hallelujah."

Authorities could be heard over the phone line telling him to put his hands up before the call disconnected. Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward called him a "very troubled young man" at a news conference several hours later.

Federal authorities said the refuge would remain closed for several weeks as agents secured what was now considered a crime scene and scoured it for fugitives or explosives.

The protesters told authorities they left behind booby traps but did not say whether the trip wires and other devices would trigger explosions, a law enforcement official told Reuters.

Materials to create explosives could be found on the property, said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The final four occupiers will face charges of conspiracy to impede federal officers, along with 12 others previously arrested, officials said.

"The occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge has been a long and traumatic episode for the citizens of Harney County and the members of the Burns Paiute tribe," U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said in the statement. "It is a time for healing, reconciliation amongst neighbors and friends, and allowing for life to get back to normal."

CLIVEN BUNDY ARRESTED

The takeover, which began on Jan. 2, was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property in the vicinity of the refuge.

The standoff, which was originally led by brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, came to a head after the arrest on Wednesday in Portland of their father, Cliven Bundy. On Thursday, he was charged with conspiracy, assault on a federal officer and obstruction of justice in connection with a separate 2014 standoff on federal land near his Nevada ranch.

Cliven Bundy was subdued during a brief court appearance in Portland, appearing pale and tired in a jail uniform and eyeglasses. He spoke only to acknowledge his rights to the judge.

The Malheur occupation had also been a protest against federal control over millions of acres (hectares) of public land in the West.

Ammon and Ryan Bundy were arrested in January along with nine other protesters on a snow-covered roadside where a spokesman for the group, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, was shot dead. A 12th member of the group surrendered to police in Arizona.

After Cliven Bundy's arrest, three of four remaining occupiers surrendered to the FBI at the urging of Nevada state Assemblywoman Michele Fiore and the Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of Christian evangelist Billy Graham.

Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada, and married couple Sean Anderson, 48, and Sandy Anderson, 47, of Riggins, Idaho, surrendered peacefully, according to the FBI.

Fiore told Reuters in an interview that she and Graham hugged each of the holdouts as they emerged and that they seemed relieved.

“No one got scratched, no one got thrown on the ground and nothing happened,” Fiore said.

Fry arrived at the occupation within the first week, and told Oregon Public Broadcasting that he was inspired by Finicum. He became one the most outspoken protesters, posting frequent, often angry rants on social media.

The skinny, bespectacled Ohio native from a military family has also expressed outrage when dealing with what appear to be minor criminal offenses in his past. In a YouTube video from September, Fry can be heard saying he refused to pay fines “for smoking marijuana on a river and not wearing a life jacket,” and then sets fire to a debt collection notice.

Fry’s father told Oregon Public Broadcasting his son had also screamed at a police officer who had pulled him over for broken taillights. The elder Fry said his son was bullied in high school because of his Japanese heritage.

(Additional reporting by Shelby Sebens in Portland, Oregon; Barbara Goldberg and Joseph Ax in New York, Julia Edwards in Washington, Eric M. Johnson in Seattle and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sara Catania, Jeffrey Benkoe, Lisa Shumaker and Peter Cooney)


"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?
2/12/2016 1:32:04 PM
Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:15am EST

Pakistan arrests 97 al-Qaeda and other militants; foils jailbreak plan

ISLAMABAD |


Pakistani policemen guard the central jail in Hyderabad, 160 km (100 miles) from Karachi, in this July 10, 2002 file photo.
REUTERS/AKRAM SHAHID/FILES

Pakistan has arrested 97 al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants, including three commanders, in the southern city of Karachi and foiled a planned attack to break U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl's killer out of jail, the army said on Friday.

The men are accused of involvement in major attacks on two Pakistani air bases, the Karachi airport, several regional intelligence headquarters and on police installations between 2009 and 2015, the military said.

The LeJ's Naeem Bokhari and Sabir Khan, as well as Farooq Bhatti, deputy chief of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), were captured by Pakistani forces in recent raids, military spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa said.

"Our conclusion is that all of the terrorist groups are trying to cooperate with each other in order to carry out terrorist attacks," he told a news conference.

The LeJ and AQIS had been working "in collusion" with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, Bajwa added.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is an Islamist group whose sectarian ideology is closely aligned with Islamic State, as it wants to kill or expel Pakistan's minority Shi'ites and establish a Sunni theocracy.

Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent was formed by global al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in September 2014, and is one of dozens of Islamist militant groups, some aligned against Pakistan and others against its neighbors, that operate in the country.

Pakistan has been under domestic and international pressure to crack down on all such groups, and launched a renewed operation against some of them in June 2014.

Bajwa declined to give details of the raids, including their timing.

Several of those arrested, including Bokhari, were in the advanced stages of planning a jailbreak attempt on the Hyderabad Central Jail, Bajwa said.

Khalid Omar Sheikh, who kidnapped and killed the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl in 2002, is being held at that jail and was to be released during the raid, he said.

Six suicide bombers had been enlisted in the attack plan, in addition to 19 involved in facilitating it, Bajwa said. More than 350 kg (772 lb) of explosives had been recovered from a building believed to be a hideout, he said.

The attackers planned to raid the prison compound with two vans filled with explosives, and had a list of about 35 prisoners they planned to kill, Bajwa said, displaying pencil sketches of the prison allegedly made by the militants.

They had a separate list of about 100 prisoners, including Sheikh, whom they were supposed to release, he added.

Video images of the militants' hideout showed blue plastic barrels filled with explosives, washing machines that had been used to transport arms and ammunition, long lengths of detonating cord and dozens of ball bearings.

The footage also showed several rifles that Bajwa said had been stolen from police in earlier targeted attacks.

"This plan was 90 percent ready for execution," he added.

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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

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