Reader’s links for May 6 – 2016

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In order to preserve the flow of conversation about various posted items, and also in order to make it easier for visitors to find the list of related links being shared by other readers, regulars and interested parties in one place, each day a post is automatically created at a minute past midnight ET.

This way, under the various posts of the day, conversation can take place without as much ‘noise’ on the various links and articles and ideas in the main posts and all the news links being submitted can be seen under these auto-posts by clicking on the comments-link right below these ones.

Thank you all for those that take the effort to assist this site in keeping the public informed. Below, typically people can find the latest enemy propaganda, news items of related materials from multiple countries and languages, op-eds from many excellent sites who write on our topics, geopolitics and immigration issues and so on.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

46 Replies to “Reader’s links for May 6 – 2016”

  1. Vienna, a student attacked by a gang of four men has accused police of blaming her because she had blonde hair and sexy clothing.

    …She said that from what they had said she understood they were from Afghanistan and that as she lay on the floor in agony nobody on the platform had helped…And her distress had turned to anger when police had told her that she should change her hair colour and should not have been travelling alone after 8pm on public transport.

    http://www.thelocal.at/20160506/attack-victim-claims-police-told-her-to-dye-hair

  2. The Aspiring Novelist Who Became
    Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru

    How Ben Rhodes rewrote the rules of diplomacy for the digital age.

    ……….

    Rhodes’s innovative campaign to sell the Iran deal is likely to be a model for how future administrations explain foreign policy to Congress and the public. The way in which most Americans have heard the story of the Iran deal presented — that the Obama administration began seriously engaging with Iranian officials in 2013 in order to take advantage of a new political reality in Iran, which came about because of elections that brought moderates to power in that country — was largely manufactured for the purpose for selling the deal. Even where the particulars of that story are true, the implications that readers and viewers are encouraged to take away from those particulars are often misleading or false.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html?_r=0

    ***********************************
    Rhodes is bragging about lying to the public. !!!

    • Reminds me of how the guy who sold Americans ‘Obamacare’ bragged about lying literally to the public. If I recall correctly, he stated that had they told the truth about keeping your doctor Etc. it wouldn’t have sold. He was forced to walk it back by the admin.

    • V I L E

      Not only do I want a bath after reading this, I’m craving Sabbath to tend my disheveled spiritual garden. I’ll post again Saturday night or Sunday.

    • This is what you get when you elect far leftists and the far left media refuses to tell the truth about him and his corruption. This is the revenge of the left for the US winning the Cold War, we then trusted the news media to tell us the truth about our candidates and got far leftists who want to recreate the Soviet Union in the US.

  3. Bangladesh professor under 24-hour armed guard after threats

    NEW DELHI (AP) — After a Dhaka University professor asked a woman to remove her veil during his class, Muslim extremists called for his death, posting his personal details online along with tips on how to kill. Today, he remains under constant guard by armed police, stays mostly at home and bars his front door.

    Azizur Rahman is among a growing number of political moderates and intellectuals seeking protection in Bangladesh, where at least 15 writers, activists, religious minorities and foreign aid workers have been killed in targeted attacks since the start of 2015. Islamic extremists have claimed responsibility for the killings, which have prompted some Bangladeshis to go into hiding, and others to seek asylum in the United States and Europe.

    http://bigstory.ap.org/article/eba42f639bef468d931bc7a18043d4ed/bangladesh-professor-under-24-hour-armed-guard-after

  4. The Failure of the Swedish Establishment

    n Sweden’s third largest city, Malmö, the children of illegal migrants receive income support payments from the government, and the unemployment rate among foreign-born men aged 18-24 years is at 41%. In Sweden, those who do not have jobs receive generous welfare payments from the local authorities, and families in the country illegally have their rent paid by the taxpayers. It is an open invitation to more migrants to come to Sweden.

    The Swedish establishment tells Swedes that the more immigrants come to Sweden, the richer Sweden will become — no matter which country these immigrants come from.

    The Swedish establishment is characterized by incompetence combined with an extreme left-wing ideology and a hillbilly-like mentality that refuses to see the rest of the world and the risks involved in it. The Swedish establishment has not dealt with Sweden as if it were a country, but as if it were a village.

    By gross miscalculations, the Swedish establishment has eroded its own legitimacy. Today, fewer than one in four Swedes have confidence in their government. Meanwhile, the Swedish media is a major threat to Sweden’s security today: it downplays the migration crisis with ridiculous arguments.

    http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7860/sweden-establishment

  5. Obama admin draws another red line, says Syria better start removing Assad by Aug. 1

    Secretary of State John Kerry just gave Syria a hard deadline for starting the political transition to get rid of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: Aug. 1.

    Kerry told reporters Tuesday that if Syria doesn’t begin the process of removing Assad by Aug. 1, there will be serious consequences, the Associated Press reports.

    “If Assad does not adhere to this, there will clearly be repercussions,” Kerry said. “One of them may be the total destruction of the cease-fire and then go back to war. I don’t think Russia wants that. I don’t think Assad is going to benefit from that. There may be even other repercussions being discussed. That is for the future.”

    Kerry emphasized opposition rebels will never put up with Assad staying in power.

    “If Assad’s strategy is to somehow think he’s going to just carve out Aleppo and carve out a section of the country, I got news for you and for him: This war doesn’t end,” Kerry said. “As long as Assad is there, the opposition is not going to stop fighting.”

    Kerry is ostensibly working on a truce to end the fighting. The existing transition plan, backed by the United Nations, says nothing about forcing Assad to step down.

    If Syria ignores Kerry’s demands, the U.S. will completely shift its strategy to the war-torn country that has now suffered through five years of destructive civil war. Kerry also directed his remarks to Russia and Iran, two of Syria’s allies that are propping up the current government.

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/05/06/obama-admin-draws-another-red-line-says-syria-better-start-removing-assad-aug-1/

    • If the deadline was after the election I would say that Obama was going to do something to make the situation worse and leave it for Trump to straighten out.

  6. Libya: Massive IS suicide bomb reported amid fierce fighting near Misrata

    Self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants seized control of a number of areas including Abu Qurayn, about 90 km (70 miles) south of Misrata, Thursday, after clashes with militias from Misrata loyal to the Libyan Army. Forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar were seen battling IS fighters just outside Abu Qurayn, amid a huge blast reported to be a car bomb detonated by Islamic State forces.

    A security source reportedly said on Thursday evening that Misrata units called in airstrikes on IS-controlled areas in Abu Qurayn and Jarif, in an attempt to regain areas seized by the militants. The source added that families in Sirte became trapped inside the city, as the main road to Misrata was cut off after the latest IS attack. Fighters from Misrata were reportedly rushed to the scene of the road blockage on Friday to try and dislodge IS fighters.

  7. Islamist Extremism in France (Part I)
    The scourge of radical Islam that is sweeping the country is impacting children as well as adolescents and young adults.

    In 732 A.D., the town of Sens in Burgundy was invaded by the troops of Abd el-Rahman as a diversionary tactic to divide the French armies who went on to defeat the Saracens at the Battle of Poitiers. Thirteen centuries later the town again made the history books when it issued the first curfew of the state of emergency declared in France on November 20, 2015 a number of days after the Paris attacks.

    The curfew followed raids in the Champs-Plaisants district that uncovered stockpiles of weapons and fake identity papers.

    Two weeks later, French law enforcement raided the Lagny-sur-Marne mosque east of Paris and seized a revolver, a hard disk and jihadist documents. The raid led to nine house arrests and travel bans against 22 people. The ex-president of the Lagny Muslim Association had already fled to Egypt in December 2014 with 10 members of his congregation.

    Two other mosques were closed down in Lyon and Gennevilliers, a northern suburb of Paris. Within three weeks of the state of emergency being declared, police carried out 2,235 raids, detained 232 people and seized 234 weapons. This was the first phase in uncovering the radical Islamic ecosystem financed by foreign states and crime that spread throughout France from the 1990s.

    The November 2015 and January 2016 attacks came as no surprise to French security services, who warned in early 2015 that thousands of Islamic radicals “willing and able to out-wait the capacity of the state to dedicate scarce resources to watching them” were ready to strike.

    That assessment proved to be correct. France is now confronted with a permanent threat from a section of its population. Despite the deployment of 10,000 troops and 100,000 police, more attacks will occur. French people no longer live in security in their own country, thanks to 50 years of bad policy decisions.

    https://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamic-extremism-france-primer-part-i

    • Islamist Extremism in France (Part II)
      The experience of the city of Paris and French corporates in dealing with the growing phenomenon of radical Islam in France.

      France has one of the largest Muslim communities in the West (estimated at 10% of the population), and French corporates have more experience than most in dealing with radical Islam.

      City of Paris

      In September 2012, in response to the encroachment of radical Islam, the mayor of Paris set up an Observatory on Secularism to ensure the principles of the 1905 separation of Church and State were being respected by the city’s 73,000 employees.

      The observatory remained dormant but was reactivated in January 2015 after the Islamic terrorist attacks. Saïd Kouachi, one of the Charlie Hebdo killers, worked in the city sanitation department from 2007 to 2009. He was part of an employment program for young people from the ghettoes surrounding Paris.

      A number of these youths were assigned to going door-to-door to inform householders on the benefits of domestic waste segregation. Many created problems for their supervisors due to their increasingly fundamentalist Islamic beliefs: refusing to shake hands with women, bringing prayer mats with them and taking time off to return to their workplaces to pray. Kouachi was moved from district to district as his supervisors, who described him as fundamentalist and unmanageable, became exasperated with his behavior. He was fired in July 2009.

      A supervisor later revealed that city authorities had been notified about Kouachi’s radical behavior on several occasions, but that the subject was taboo. A “Charter on Secularism” was posted in the sanitation workshops and a one-day training program held for supervisors in 2013, but no action was taken to deal with the problem.

      Since January 2015, the Observatory members meet regularly, have issued a 20-page rulebook to municipal employees and interviewed numerous city managers about the problems of radicalization. Departments most affected are sanitation, parks and gardens, public safety and security, and youth and sport. Common issues are praying in the workplace, refusal to shake hands with, look at or follow instructions from female supervisors, demands for work schedule accommodation on Fridays and during Ramadan, wearing of hijabs and other head-coverings.

      https://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/islamist-extremism-france-part-ii

  8. Turkish journalist Can Dündar escapes attempted shooting outside court

    Witness says three shots fired outside court in Istanbul, where verdict was due in trial of Dündar, who is accused of revealing state secrets

    […]Earlier on Friday, Dündar said journalism was on trial as he gave his final defence. Dündar, the editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, and Erdem Gül, its Ankara bureau chief, could face life in jail on espionage charges and attempting to topple the government for publishing footage that purported to show Turkey’s state intelligence agency ferrying weapons into Syria in 2014.[…]

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/06/turkish-journalist-can-dundar-escapes-attempted-shooting-outside-court

    Turkey: Cumhuriyet editor Can Dundar shot at outside Istanbul courthouse

    • Turkey jails Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dundar and Erdem Gul (BBC, May 6, 2016)
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36233282

      “A Turkish court has jailed two prominent journalists for revealing state secrets, in a case widely criticised by international observers.

      Erdem Gul received five years and Can Dundar five years and 10 months.

      Mr Dundar and Mr Gul, editor and Ankara bureau chief of opposition daily Cumhuriyet, had reported that Turkey had tried to ship arms to rebels fighting the Syrian government.

      Shortly before the verdict, a gunman attempted to kill Mr Dundar.

      The assailant fired several shots while Mr Dundar was briefing reporters outside the courthouse. Mr Dundar escaped unharmed and the gunman was arrested. A reporter was lightly injured in the leg.

      Speaking after the verdict, Mr Dundar said the sentence, and the assassination attempt, were “not given only to suppress and silence us” but to “intimidate the Turkish media and make us scared of writing”.

      The two men were acquitted of more serious charge of espionage, which could have carried with it a life sentence. But their very prosecution has proved controversial, drawing sharp criticism from human rights campaigners and fellow journalists.

      The two men are expected to appeal against the verdicts….”

  9. Spain: Police Find 15 Migrant Youths Hidden in Junk Cargo (abcnews, May 6, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/spain-police-find-15-migrant-youths-hidden-junk-38926788

    “Spanish police say they found 15 migrant youths hidden in cargo of junk that was to be shipped from a north African enclave to mainland Spain for processing.

    Civil Guard spokesmen said the migrants, all believed to be minors, were discovered late Thursday during an inspection of the cargo load at Melilla port.

    The officer, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity in keeping with police regulations, said the minors were trying to make it to Spain and possibly elsewhere in Europe.

    He said none was injured.

    The agent said 58 other youths looking to clandestinely board ships headed for Spain were found in the port Thursday.

    Melilla is one of two Spanish enclaves surrounded by Morocco on side and the Mediterranean Sea on the other.”

  10. EU has ‘too many part-time Europeans’ – Juncker (BBC, May 6, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36224839

    “EU leaders say the 28-nation bloc lacks a coherent European vision and is being undermined by national self-interest.

    “We have too many part-time Europeans,” said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. It is the Commission’s job to draft EU laws.

    He and other EU leaders spoke in Rome in a debate on the state of the EU.

    Mr Juncker – a former Prime Minister of Luxembourg – said the old “shared sentiment” of common policy-making in the EU “has totally gone”.

    The man who chairs EU summits, European Council President Donald Tusk, said the EU’s priority must be to make its external borders secure in the current migrant crisis.

    He suggested that there was no point pursuing an ideal of a “European nation”. He spoke of the need for “political common sense”.

    “The idea of one EU state, one vision… was an illusion,” said Mr Tusk, a former Polish Prime Minister.
    Eurosceptic parties, hostile to deeper EU integration, did better than ever in the last European Parliament elections, in 2014. They now account for about a quarter of the 751 MEPs.

    A central theme for Eurosceptics is the fear that the EU is evolving into a European “superstate” sucking sovereign powers away from nation states. They point to eurozone integration as evidence of that.

    Pro-EU politicians meanwhile argue that the 2008 financial crisis, the migrant crisis and environmental threats all point powerfully to the need for joint European action…”

  11. A Third of all Attacks in U.S. in December Were Hate Crimes Against Muslims (moroccoworldnews, May 6, 2016)
    http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2016/05/185900/a-third-of-all-attacks-in-u-s-in-december-were-hate-crimes-against-muslims/

    “Attacks against Muslims in the United States constituted roughly a third of all “attacks” in the country during December 2015, according to a new report by Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding released earlier this week.

    Though the study did not specifically define what kinds of crimes comprise “all attacks last year,” it attributed the rise in hate crimes against Muslims to several overlapping factors that escalated in the past nine months.

    Researchers cited a “surge” of anti-Muslim political rhetoric after the first Republican (GOP) debate in August as contributing factors to approximately 10 reported incidents or threats of violence in September. The incidents included three murders.

    The Syrian refugee crisis and media reports detailing the defiance of numerous Republican governors to host Muslim refugees in their states also played a role in the rise of violence against the minority religious group, the analysts said.

    Donald Trump, now the presumptive GOP nominee for president, added to religious tensions after the Paris attacks – a string of shootings and bombing claimed by the so-called “Islamic State” that left more than 130 people dead in the French capital.

    “Mr. Trump made many anti-Muslim statement during televised appearances on mainstream news outlets, impacting millions across the U.S. and around the world,” the report said, referring to the candidates proposed plans to shut down mosques after the November attacks and the San Bernardino shootings in California in December.

    Trump’s statements initially fueled a threefold rise in attacks against Muslims, around half of which targeted mosques and Islamic centers, according to the report’s figures.

    The study listed the Paris attacks as an “an event that triggered a second surge in Islamophobic rhetoric in addition to the uptick in bias attacks.”

    By December, assaults, vandalism and other forms of hate crimes against believers of Islam occurred “almost daily” and “often” several times in one day.

    In all of 2015, a total of 174 attacks against Muslims has been reported, out of which, there were 12 murders. 29 physical assaults, 50 threats against people or institutions, 54 acts of vandalism or destruction of property, eight arsons and nine shootings and bombings, among other incidents.

    The report added that, though anti-Muslim incidents have been increasing in the past nine months, attacks against Muslims have been prevalent and deadly before the period as well. The murder of three American Muslims near the University of North Caroline-Chapel Hill occurred one month before now-withdrawn Ted Cruz became the first GOP presidential hopeful to declare his candidacy in March 2015.”

    • This is clear propaganda designed to anger the Moslems and get them to go on jihad against the US.

  12. Germany ‘expects Turkey to stick to EU refugee deal’ (thelocal, May 6, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.de/20160506/germany-expects-turkey-to-stick-to-refugee-deal

    “German Chancellor Angela Merkel expects Turkey to stick to a deal to limit refugee flows to the EU even after the announced resignation of its prime minister, her spokesman said Friday.

    “The chancellor has worked very well until now with Turkish Prime Minister (Ahmet) Davutoglu and all Turkish representatives and we assume that this good and constructive cooperation will continue with the new Turkish prime minister,” German government spokesman Georg Streiter told reporters.

    “The EU and Germany will continue to fulfil all their obligations under the agreement and we expect this from the Turkish side as well.”…”

  13. Turkish President Erdogan rejects EU demands, calls for urgent new constitution (DW, May 6, 2016)
    http://www.dw.com/en/turkish-president-erdogan-rejects-eu-demands-calls-for-urgent-new-constitution/a-19240291

    “A day after his prime minister resigned, Turkey’s president has spoken out against the EU’s demands for changes in terror laws. He also said Turkey urgently needs a new constitution and presidential system.

    In a speech broadcast live on television, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, drew particular attention to one of the EU requirements for Turkish citizens to be allowed visa-free travel into the Schengen area.

    Erdogan said Turkey would not reform its anti-terrorism legislation for the sake of visa-free travel for its citizens to Europe.

    There are five issues left out of an original list of 72 from the EU for Turkey to address. The most contentious is “revising the legislation and practices on terrorism in line with European standards.”

    “We will go our way; you go yours,” Erdogan said, addressing an inauguration ceremony in Istanbul on Friday. “The EU is telling us to change our law on combating terrorism. [They] are allowing terrorists to raise tents and then [they] come with requirements.”…”

  14. ‘ISIS militant’ sold TURKEY holiday homes while plotting MASSACRE (express, May 6, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/667589/ISIS-estate-agent-could-face-15-years-behind-bars-Putin-clamps-down

    “A RUSSIAN estate agent selling Turkish holiday homes now faces 15 years behind bars over claims he is an Islamic State (ISIS) militant.

    Aleksei Alekseev, 34, went to Turkey two years ago after an investigation was opened in Russia regarding his activities after he converted to Islam. …”

  15. German spies want right to keep tabs on teens (thelocal, May 6, 2016)
    http://www.thelocal.de/20160506/german-spies-call-for-right-to-keep-tabs-on-teens

    “Spies should have the right to keep communications data relating to minors aged under 16, a senior member of Germany’s domestic intelligence service has said.

    “We have a huge problem,” Stephan Kramer, head of the Thuringian branch of the Verfassungsschutz (VS) told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung on Friday.

    Kramer noted that recent months had seen two acts with potential terrorist links carried out by minors, including a 15-year-old who stabbed a federal police officer in Hanover and two boys arrested over a bomb attack on a Sikh temple in Essen.

    “We see concrete examples in Germany where minors are not only being radicalized, but instrumentalized as weapons,” Kramer said…”

  16. Deadly Pakistan sweets ‘poisoned by shop owner’s brother’ (BBC, May 6, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36223918

    “Pakistani police say the brother of a sweet-shop owner poisoned a batch of sweets that killed more than 30 people last month.

    The brother confessed to mixing pesticide into the sweets after a family dispute, police told the BBC….”

  17. Contemplating War in Europe
    Are the Europeans any match for a Russian assault?

    During one of my recent research trips to Germany, among a small discussion group, a colonel in the German Bundeswehr raised a few eyebrows with an off-the-record observation: If Russian President Putin, he posited, ever unleashed his large and powerful mechanized forces across the North European Plain – through Belarus, Poland, Germany and beyond – nothing would be able to stop them. While such a grim prospect surely centers the mind, it also begs the question: Why would Putin, no matter how aggressive his behavior in recent years has become, ever commit such a staggering and calamitous act?

    Setting that question aside for the moment, it is sobering to acknowledge that the Bundeswehr colonel was on the mark – given Western Europe’s alarmingly poor state of military preparedness, it would be unable to mount a meaningful challenge to a major Russian conventional attack, short of escalating to nuclear weapons. And since the latter option is, well, no option at all, and considering that any conventional resistance put up by NATO alliance members such as Germany, Belgium and France would amount to little more than token resistance, one wonders: Would these countries, and their countrymen, fight to save Berlin, Brussels and Paris, or simply bow to the inevitable and capitulate?

    Of course, if Putin were to send his tanks rumbling westward, U.S. forces in Europe would contribute to its defense, but these forces do not signify the imposing threat they once did, having been reduced to a tiny fraction of their Cold War order of battle. Today (2016), there are barely 65,000 U.S. troops permanently based in Europe, and the value of even this small force was seriously compromised in 2012 and 2013, when the Obama Administration deactivated the U.S. Army’s two heavy brigade combat teams stationed in Germany – effectively eliminating Europe’s primary heavy armored force.

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262734/contemplating-war-europe-dr-craig-luther

  18. To add to the gloom of the article Obama didn’t mothball the US military equipment for the deactivated unites he scrapped them, this means that when the US begins a crash rebuild of the military we will be forced to buy new weapons which will delay the time before we can meaningfully respond.

    The only bright spot for the US is that the civilians are better armed then during WWII and Admiral Yamamoto told the Imperical Staff that it would be madness to invade the US mainland since there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass. That is the only thing standing between the US and a foreign invasion.

  19. Germany: Cologne sexual assault charges dismissed

    The Cologne district court press office spokesperson announced on Friday that a 26-year-old Algerian man and his brother, accused of attempted sexual assault among other misdemeanors on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, were cleared of the charges.

    SOT, Wolfgang Schorn, press office spokesperson (German): “The defendants were found guilty for particularly serious attempted robbery and dealing in stolen goods and were sentenced to six months on probation. The rest of the accused offences, especially the attempted sexual assault, could not be proven during the trial.”

    SOT, Wolfgang Schorn, press office spokesperson (German): “At the moment there are no further pending lawsuits at Cologne district court regarding sexual assault or other sexual offences from New Year’s Eve.”

    SOT, Wolfgang Schorn, press office spokesperson (German): “The warrants against the defendants regarding this issue were lifted. Meaning there is no arrest warrant in the defendants’ names for this matter. Other than that, administrative authorities will decide if they will have to face alien law measures.”

    SOT, Rudiger Buhr, defendant’s lawyer (German): “There was no concrete allegation against my client [regarding sexual crimes] that is why we did not need to deal with the topic intesively. He feels sorry for the women, what happened was of course a terrible thing. But he was in no way involved in it.”

    SOT, Bernhard Scholz, defendant’s lawyer (German): “My client was admittedly accused of these crimes, but it is similar to my colleague, there was no big discussion over it, as my client said he was not involved in it. At all.”

    SOT, Bernhard Scholz, defendant’s lawyer (German): “On one hand you have public pressure, occasionally of course heavy pressure from the press, who have hammered down on the official investigators to prosecute someone with such a thin base of proof. The investigators prosecuted before even the witness could say if she could recognise her assailant or not. And actually originally she had said that she would not be able to even recognise anyone.”

  20. Kenya Closing Camps With Hundreds of Thousands of Refugees (abcnews, May 6, 2016)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kenya-closing-camps-hundreds-thousands-refugees-38938027

    “The Kenyan government said Friday it will close two refugee camps, including one of the world’s biggest, due to a lack of security and economic challenges as human Rights group condemned the plan.

    The closure of the camps will have adverse effects and the international community should collectively take responsibility for the humanitarian needs that arise, Karanja Kibicho, permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry, said.

    The government has disbanded the Department of Refugee Affairs, which works with humanitarian organizations looking after the welfare of refugees, Kibicho said.

    The voluntary repatriation process in an agreement signed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Kenyan government and the Somali government in 2013 has been very slow, Kibicho said.

    He said Kenya has been hosting the refugees for nearly 25 years and it had taken its toll on the country…”

  21. ‘More than 50’ IS mass graves found in Iraq, says UN envoy (BBC, May 7, 2016)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36234542

    “A UN envoy has said more than 50 mass graves have so far been found in parts of Iraq that were previously controlled by so-called Islamic State (IS).

    Jan Kubis told the UN Security Council that it was “evidence of the heinous crimes” IS had committed.

    The graves have been discovered in recent months as territory has been re-captured from IS.

    Most recently, graves found in the city of Ramadi in April may contain the remains of up to 40 people.

    Mr Kubis said the international community should “take steps to ensure the accountability” of IS fighters…”

  22. Hero SAS troops capture sick ISIS chiefs in daring undercover mission in Iraq (express, May 6, 2016)
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/667852/SAS-troops-capture-ISIS-chiefs-Iraq-mission-Daesh

    “SAS operatives have captured three senior Islamic State figures during a major ground offensive in Iraq.

    The men were taken to be grilled by coalition forces following the secret raids in Mosul.

    The night-time operation which was led by British, Australian and US coalition troops was sanctioned by military leaders…”

  23. Exclusive: Video purportedly shows French woman kidnapped in Yemen (france24, May 6, 2016)
    http://www.france24.com/en/20160506-yemen-france-kidnapping-video-hostage-hollande

    “A video purportedly showing French-Tunisian Red Cross employee Nourane Houas pleading with French President François Hollande for her life was obtained by FRANCE 24 Friday. Houas was kidnapped in Yemen in early December.

    In the short video clip, a pale and visibly distressed Houas, dressed in an all-covering black robe, pleads with French and Yemeni authorities for her life.

    “I ask French President François Hollande, the legitimate President of the Republic of Yemen Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the countries of the Arab coalition led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the leaders of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sanaa and Geneva to save me from near death, as soon as possible, by meeting the demands of my captors because my life and my health are in a very precarious state.”

    On the video, Houas states the date of the recording as April 13. She provided no details of her captors or their demands….”