JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU AT THE GRANDE SYNAGOGUE IN FRANCE YESTERDAY-CNA
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) gives a speech during a ceremony at the Grand Synagogue in Paris, for all the victims of the attacks in Paris this week, which claimed 17 lives. (PHOTO: AFP/MATTHIEU ALEXANDRE)
5 DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD-CNA-PIC
UPDATE-JAN 12,2015-05:43PM
NOW THERE SAYING THAT THERE COULD BE 6 ACCOMPLICES STILL OUT THERE FROM THE PARIS ATTACK.AS WELL AS HAYAT IN SYRIA-BACK WITH HER ISIS PALS. LETS SEE.FIRST BACK IN 2001 WAS AL-QUIDA AND OSAMA BIN LADIN.THEN THEY CHANGED THEIR NAMES TO THE TALIBAN.THEN THE TERRORISTS WENT BACK TO THE TALIBAN.NOW THE NAME CHANGE TO AL-QUIDA AND ISIS.THE TERRORIST GROUPS NAMES ALWAYS CHANGE.BUT ITS THE SAME OLD THING.THE ONLY PEOPLE TO GET CONNED BY THE NAME CHANGES OF THE LEADING TERRORIST GROUPS.ARE THE INNOCENT PEOPLE THAT GET KILLED IN THE WESTERN COUNTRIES.AND 1 MILLION COPIES OF THE CHARLIE HEBDO 8 PAGE MAGAZINE WILL BE COMING OUT WEDNEDAY WITH NEW MOHAMMID CARTOON PICTURES.I ALSO HEARD HAYAT BOUMEDDIENE THE WOMAN RADICAL WHO WENT TO SYRIA. IS WAY MORE RADICAL THEN HER KILLED HUSBAND AMEDY COULIBALY. ALL COULIBALY WANTED TO DO WAS PARTY AND HAVE FUN.WHILE HAYAT GOT RIGHT INTO THIS RADICAL HOGWASH NONSENSE.AND WANTED TO LIVE IN A MUSLIM COUNTRY.SO THEY COULD REALLY GET THE FULL RADICAL DOMINATION EFFECT. SO IT WOULD NOT SURPRISE ME IF WE HEAR THAT HAYAT BOUMEDDIENE IS THE FIRST RADICAL MUSLIM WOMAN TO LEAD THE AL- QUIDA- ISIS TEAM UP.AND I MIGHT GO AS FAR AS TO SAY.THAT HAYAT WILL BE CALLED THE LEADER OF THIS NEW ISIS-AL-QUIDA TERRORIST CELL.AND SHE WILL HAVE THE WESTERN GOVERN MENTS AFTER HER.LIKE OSAMA BIN LADIN. AND ANWAR AL-AWALKI.YOU BETTER GET USED TO THE NAME HAYAT BOUMED DIENE.I PREDICT SHE WILL BE THE NEXT LEADER THAT THE WEST WILL CLAIME TO BE ON THEIR TOP TEN LIST.TO CAPTURE FROM THIS ISIS-AL-QUIDA TEAM UP.NOW THE ONLY THING I WONDER WILL HAYAT CHANGE THE NAME OF HER TERRORIST GROUP FROM AL-QUIDA,ISIS MIXTURE.TO SAY WOMAN-AL- POWER- GRAB TERRORIST GROUP.AND THIS WOULD BE THE FIRST WOMAN TO LEAD A TERRORIST GROUP AGAINST THE WEST.AND THE FIRST WOMAN TERRORIST TO BE PUT ON THE WESTERN COUNTRIES HIT LIST.THE LATEST NAME IS THE CYBER CALIPHATE.IF WERE GOING TO BE CONNECTED.WERE GOING TO HAVE TO BE PROTECTED.
AL-QUIDA-YEMEN LEAD THIS FRANCE ATTACKhttp://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/01/09/paris-terror-attack-suspects-reportedly-steal-car-take-hostage-in-northeast/
-PIC-365BORSA.COM-PICTURES OF YOUR NEW AL-QUEDA - ISIS LEADER THAT THE WEST HAS ON THE HIT LIST I PREDICT.THE NEW NAME OF HER LEAD TERRORIST GROUP WILL BE SOMETHING LIKE - WOMAN-AL-POWER-GRAB TERRORIST GROUP. bottom picture of Hayat new terrorist leader-express.co.uk
UPDATE-JAN 12,2015-11:35AM
10,000 TROOPS AND 8,000 POLICE OFFICERS DEPLOYED IN FRANCE.AND 9,000 OF THE POLICE WILL GO TO THE JEWISH AREA OF PARIS.TO PROTECT ISRAELIS FROM ANTI-SEMETIC ATTACKS. AND ALSO TERRORIST HAYAT BOUMEDDIENE HAS BEEN SPOTTED IN SYRIA.AND THE WIFE OF CHERIF KOUACHI SAID.SHES SHOCKED THAT HER HUSBAND WAS INVOLVED IN THESE TERRORIST ATTACKS.SURE YOU ARE.IS MY THOUGHT.YOU TALKED WITH HAYAT 500 DIFFERENT TIMES IN 2014.AND SUDDENLY YOUR SHOCKED THAT YOUR HUSBAND KILLED INNOCENT PEOPLE.GET REAL-I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT LIE WOMAN.ONE BIT.
BOKO HARAM PUT SUICIDE BOMBS ON 1 10 YEAR OLD GIRL SATURDAY.FORCED ANOTHER 2 YOUNG GIRLS SUNDAY TO WEAR SUICIDE VESTS.AND 20 AT LEAST WERE KILLED IN THOSE 2 TERRORIST ATTACKS.BUT THEN BOKO HARAM KILLED AT LEAST 2,000 TO 3,000 SINCE JAN 1,15.AND AT LEAST 2,000 FROM THIS ONE TOWN ALONE.WERE IS THE MODERATE MUSLIMS COMPLAINING ABOUT BOKO HARAM PUTTING VEST BOMBS ON 10 YEAR OLD GIRLS.AND FORCING THEM TO BE KILLED. AND WERE IS THE MODERATES TALKING OUT ABOUT THE 2,000 KILLED IN THIS TOWN.IS MY QUESTION.
Corpses everywhere' as Boko Haram still 'control' Nigeria town-AFP-JAN 12,15-YAHOONEWS
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Boko Haram remains in control of the northeast Nigerian town of Baga more than a week after a massacre feared to be the worst since the insurgency began, a resident said on Monday."I entered Baga around 2:00 am (0100 GMT) today (Monday) and it was still occupied by Boko Haram," fisherman Borye Kime told AFP by telephone from Dubuwa village in neighbouring Chad."They have set up barricades in strategic locations in the town. It is corpses everywhere. The whole town smells of decomposing bodies."Boko Haram first attacked Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad in the far north of Borno State, on January 3 and subsequently razed it and at least 16 surrounding settlements.Local officials have cited huge numbers of dead in the attacks but confirming the figures is currently impossible. Some 20,000 people are said to have been forced to flee.Nigeria's military said on Saturday that the attack could be described as "the deadliest" in the six-year rebellion that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said that a fight-back was being planned. On Friday, Mike Omeri, who speaks for the government on national security, said troops were "actively pursuing" the rebels.But Kime, who said he had returned to Baga to collect his life savings and money entrusted to him for safe-keeping, stashed away in his house, said he did not see any troops."There is not a single soldier in Baga," the 40-year-old added. "All the talk about soldiers fighting to take back Baga is not true."
Boko Haram suspected after girl, 10, blows herself up in NE Nigeria-AFP-By Bukar Hussain with Aminu Abubakar in Kano January 10, 2015 12:34 PM-YAHOONEWS
Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) - Two explosions rocked northeast Nigeria on Saturday, including one by a female suicide bomber thought to be just 10 years old who blew herself up in a crowded market, as the US condemned a bloody spike in Boko Haram violence.At least 19 people were killed at the Monday Market in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, at about 12:40 pm (1140 GMT) when it was packed with shoppers and traders.Hours later, a suspicious vehicle that had been stopped at a checkpoint outside the city of Potiskum, in neighbouring Yobe, exploded at a police station as its driver was being taken in for questioning.A police officer accompanying the car and the driver were killed, an officer said. Potiskum has been a repeated target for militant violence.Both blasts came a week after a major Boko Haram attack on the fishing town of Baga in northern Borno State, which is believed to be the worst in the bloody six-year insurgency.The town and at least 16 nearby settlements in and around Lake Chad were burnt to the ground and at least 20,000 people forced to flee their homes."For five kilometres (three miles), I kept stepping on dead bodies until I reached Malam Karanti village, which was also deserted and burnt," one survivor, fisherman Yanaye Grema, said.But there was no independent corroboration of the huge numbers of dead cited locally.The US State Department said Boko Haram's recent escalation of attacks on civilians "shows no regard for human life" and called for those responsible to be brought to justice."The United States abhors such violence, which continues to take a terrible toll on the people of Nigeria and the broader region, including Cameroon," it added.
- Remotely detonated? -
Boko Haram were seen as behind the attack in Maiduguri as it has increasingly used women and young girls as human bombs in their deadly campaign for a hardline Islamic state.Civilian vigilante Ashiru Mustapha said the blast happened as the girl was being searched at the entrance to the market."The girl was about 10 years old and I doubt if she actually knew what was strapped to her body," he told AFP.Witness Abubakar Bakura said: "The blast split the suicide bomber into two and flung one part across the road."Among the dead are two vigilantes who were searching the girl. I am pretty sure the bomb was remotely controlled."A Red Cross official, who declined to be named, warned: "Many people sustained life-threatening injuries." Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jubrin told reporters 19 people were killed and 18 others were injured but warned that the death toll could rise.The market in the Borno state capital was cordoned off as health officials began the grim task of sifting through the wreckage and collecting body parts.An attack at the same market on December 1 killed more than 10 people, and a week earlier more than 45 people lost their lives in an attack there.On July 1, at least 15 people were killed in another suicide attack there blamed on the militants.
- Female recruits -
Boko Haram launched its first female suicide attack in June last year in the northern state of Gombe and there have been a spate of bombings since, including four in a week in the city of Kano in July.The same month a 10-year-old girl was found in Katsina state wearing a suicide vest, prompting fears that young girls were being forced into becoming human bombs rather than through ideological motivation.Forced conscription of young men and boys by Boko Haram has been well-documented. Last July, three women said to be "female recruiters" for Boko Haram were arrested.An alleged trainer of women bombers was also detained in Kano in August with up to 16 "trainees".Boko Haram, fighting for the creation of an Islamist state, is now said to be in control of all three borders of Borno state with Niger, Chad and Cameroon, as well as dozens of towns and villages in Borno and the neighbouring states of Yobe and Adamawa.Security analysts said the Baga attack was likely against civilian vigilantes assisting the military and was an ominous sign of increasing violence before general elections next month.On Friday, militants fought running battles with troops in the Yobe state capital, Damaturu, leading to the destruction of a mosque, shops and a market.The attack was said to be a reprisal for an offensive by civilian vigilantes and local hunters against a Boko Haram enclave in southern Yobe on Tuesday.
France mobilizes 10,000 troops at home after Paris shootings-Reuters-By Gregory Blachier and John Irish-JAN 12,15-YAHOONEWS
PARIS (Reuters) - France will deploy 10,000 soldiers on home soil by Tuesday and post almost 5,000 extra police officers to protect Jewish sites after the killing of 17 people by Islamist militants in Paris last week, officials said.Speaking a day after the biggest French public demonstration ever recorded, in honor of the victims, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the country remained at risk of further attacks. Soldiers would guard transport hubs, tourism sites and key buildings and mount general street patrols."The threats remain and we have to protect ourselves from them. It is an internal operation that will mobilize almost as many men as we have in our overseas operations," Le Drian told reporters after a cabinet meeting.The victims, including journalists and police, died in three days of violence that began on Wednesday with a shooting attack on the political weekly Charlie Hebdo, known for its satirical attacks on Islam and other religions. Many at Sunday's march wore badges and carried placards declaring "I Am Charlie".The Charlie Hebdo attackers, two French-born brothers of Algerian origin, singled out the weekly for its publication of cartoons depicting and ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad.Charlie Hebdo's remaining members are working on an eight page issue due to come out on Wednesday with a one-million copy print run. Its lawyer, Richard Malka, told France Info radio there would be caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad."We will not give in. The spirit of 'I am Charlie' means the right to blaspheme ," he said, adding that the front page would be released on Monday evening.The three days of bloodshed ended on Friday with a hostage-taking at a Jewish deli in Paris where four hostages and another gunman were killed. That gunman declared allegiance to Islamic State insurgents and said he was acting in response to French military deployments against militant Islamist groups overseas.Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 4,700 police officers would be placed at all 717 Jewish schools across the country in addition to some 4,100 gendarmes already deployed." Synagogues, Jewish schools, but also mosques will be protected because in the past few days there have been a number of attacks against mosques," Prime Minister Manuel Valls told BFM TV.France has Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish communities.The first two attackers, who had traveled to Yemen in 2011 for training, were killed on Friday after a siege north of the capital. Police said all three men were part of the same Paris-based militant Islamist cell.About 1.5 million people marched in Paris on Sunday and 2.5 million more in the provinces. The Paris march was led by dozens of foreign leaders. Some commentators said the last time crowds of this size were seen in the capital was at the Liberation of Paris from Nazi Germany in 1944.
SEARCH FOR ACCOMPLICES
The co-ordinated assaults amounted to the deadliest attack by militant Islamists on a European city since four suicide bombers killed 52 in attacks on London's transport system in 2005.Valls said police were searching for likely accomplices of the French cell. The Turkish government confirmed that the female companion of the supermarket attacker had entered Syria on Jan. 8 from Turkey, having arrived in Istanbul several days before the killings.After an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday to outline Britain's response to the attacks, British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to give security and intelligence services new powers to monitor Internet communications.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Cameron were among 44 foreign leaders marching with French President Francois Hollande on Sunday.Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were also present and walked just a few steps from one another.Netanyahu visited the Jewish supermarket, scene of the hostage taking, on Monday with about 300 people shouting "BB" and singing the French and Israeli national anthems.His invitation to French Jews to migrate to Israel if they wanted irritated some. Valls scrambled to reassure the community it was safe and an integral part of France."It was essential he came to show that he was with us French, Jews of France," said Mauricette Abouchaya. "(But) we're in France, we want to stay in France. It is our country."With growing calls for a comprehensive investigation into whether there had been security failings given that the three gunmen were known to intelligence services, Valls and main opposition leader Nicolas Sarkozy agreed on a bi-partisan parliamentary commission into the attacks.Valls also said the government had begun studying ways to strengthen the fight against "homegrown terrorism". France strengthened anti-terrorism legislation last year to prevent its nationals traveling to Syria and Iraq.The prime minister said one proposal being studied was to isolate radical Islamist inmates from others in the nation's prisons, as repeated cases showed individuals were susceptible to radicalization in jail."There is a lot of work to be done in the prisons. It's a priority," Valls said.(Additional reporting by Chine Labbe, Tom Heneghan, Pauline Mevel; writing by John Irish and Andrew Callus; editing by Ralph Boulton)
BBC Anchor Apologizes for 'Anti-Semitic' Comment at Paris Rally-Anti-hate group rejects 'half apology' from Tim Willcox after comment linking Paris attacks to 'Palestinians suffering at Jewish hands.'By Ari Soffer-First Publish: 1/12/2015, 5:06 PM-ISRAELNATIONALNEWS
A BBC news correspondent has apologized for his "poorly phrased question" during an interview Sunday night at the Paris "million-man march" against terror - comments which were slammed as anti-Semitic by Jewish rights groups.Tim Willcox was interviewing a French woman and daughter of holocaust survivors, who related fears held by many French Jews that anti-Semitism was reaching levels last witnessed in the 1930s, at which point he inexplicably chose to interrupt her by stating that "many critics though of Israel's policy would suggest that the Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well."When his interviewee attempted to respond he appeared to attempt to minimize the crisis felt by French Jews by asking: "you understand everything is seen from different perspectives?"Willcox was pilloried on social media, and the UK-based Campaign Against Antisemitism condemned his "disgraceful" comments, urging supporters to complain to the BBC. The Campaign also said it would be submitting a complaint through its legal team, citing a previous instance in which Willcox appeared to promote anti-Semitic stereotypes during another live interview.On Monday, Willcox took to Twitter to issue a public apology, saying he was "Really sorry for any offence caused by a poorly phrased question in a live interview in Paris yesterday - it was entirely unintentional."But reactions to his apology have been largely negative, with many suggesting he should make a public, on-air apology.The Campaign Against Antisemitism also rejected Willcox's "half apology."The grassroots activist group says it will continue pursuing its complaint regardless, and has also questioned the lack of reaction from the BBC Trust, the corporation's governing body.Media watchdog groups have also picked up the issue, with Honest Reporting - an outfit which seeks to combat anti-Israel bias in the international media - similarly rejecting the complaint and urging readers to lodge an official complaint with the BBC."Tim Willcox must be held accountable for his latest outrageous interview. The BBC must not be allowed to sweep this under the carpet. HonestReporting subscribers must make their voices heard by lodging complaints to the BBC," the group said in a statement.
Millions unite against terrorism in historic French demos-UPDATED: 12 Jan 2015 11:20-CNA
PARIS: Millions marched against terrorism Sunday (Jan 11)in the largest protests France has ever seen, led by world leaders in Paris uniting in tribute to the victims of terrorist attacks as the crowd cried "Not Afraid". The interior ministry said nearly four million people took to the streets across the country, with some estimates putting the number in Paris alone at 1.6 million. At the head of a vast and colourful procession in the capital, President Francois Hollande linked arms with world leaders, including the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president, in an historic display of unity.A sea of humanity flowed through the streets to mourn the victims of three days of terror that began with a slaughter at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday and ended with 17 dead. The vast crowd chanted "Charlie, Charlie", in honour of the cartoonists and journalists killed at Charlie Hebdo over its lampooning of the Prophet Mohammed. The crowd brandished banners saying "I'm French and I'm not scared" and, in tribute to the murdered cartoonists, "Make fun, not war" and "Ink should flow, not blood."Emotions ran high in the grieving City of Light, with many people in tears as they came together under the banner of freedom of speech after France's worst terrorist bloodbath in half a century. Isabelle Dahmani, a French Christian married to a Muslim, Mohamed, brought the couple's three young children to show them there is nothing to fear.Their nine-year-old daughter had burst into tears as she watched TV pictures of heavily armed brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi attacking the magazine's offices, Isabelle said, recalling she had asked if "the bad men are coming to our house?" The victims' mourning families played a prominent role in the march, alongside representatives from around 50 countries.In an emotional scene, Charlie Hebdo columnist Patrick Pelloux fell sobbing into the arms of Hollande. With so many world leaders present, security in the still jittery capital was tight, with police snipers stationed on rooftops and plain-clothes officers among the crowd. "Today, Paris is the capital of the world," Hollande said. "The entire country will rise up."Hundreds of thousands of people turned out in other French cities including Bordeaux and Lyon and marches were held in Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul and Madrid and in US and Canadian cities as well.The crowd in Paris was also mourning four Jews killed when a gunman stormed a kosher supermarket, after he had earlier gunned down a policewoman. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined Hollande at Paris' main synagogue after the march to honour the Jewish victims and praised the "very firm position" taken by French leaders against what he called "the new anti-Semitism and terrorism" in France.
'WE WILL WIN'
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who also marched, predicted Europe would face the threat of extremism "for many years to come", but his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi pledged that the continent "will win the challenge against terrorism". Earlier Renzi had tweeted using the hashtag #jesuischarlie (I am Charlie), which has been used more than five million times.Before the march, interior and security ministers from the European Union and the United States held emergency talks to discuss Islamic extremism. They urged a strengthening of the EU external borders to limit the movement of extremists between Europe and the Middle East and said there was an "urgent need" to share air passenger information. All three of the gunmen in the Paris attacks had a history of extremism and were known to French intelligence services.Hollande has warned his traumatised nation to keep up its guard in the face of possible new assaults. The rampage by the gunmen who claimed to be members of the Al-Qaeda and Islamic State extremist groups was followed by a chilling new threat from the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula that France faced more attacks. Hollande met representatives from the Jewish community who said authorities had agreed to deploy soldiers to protect Jewish schools and synagogues in France "if necessary."US Attorney General Eric Holder, also in Paris, said there was no "credible information" as yet that Al-Qaeda was behind the attacks in France. The White House, meanwhile, announced it was organising a February 18 summit on how to fight "violent extremism around the world." The summit would highlight US and international efforts to prevent the radicalisation and recruitment of followers in the United States and other countries by extremist groups, it said.
BURIALS IN ISRAEL
France's three days of terror started when the Kouachi brothers burst into Charlie Hebdo's offices in central Paris and sprayed bullets into an editorial meeting, killing some of France's best-known cartoonists.They then slaughtered a Muslim policeman as he lay helpless on the ground before fleeing in a car, sparking a manhunt that lasted more than 48 hours. A day later, a third gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, shot dead a policewoman in a Paris suburb.The massive hunt for the attackers culminated Friday in twin hostage dramas that gripped the world. Coulibaly stormed into a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris and seized terrified shoppers.After exchanging fire with police, the two brothers took an employee hostage in a printing firm northeast of Paris. After a tense stand-off police shot them dead as they charged out of the building all guns blazing.Moments later, security forces stormed the kosher supermarket in eastern Paris, killing Coulibaly but making the grisly discovery that four innocent Jews had died during the hostage-taking. All four will be buried in Israel on Tuesday. In a video posted online Sunday, a man who appeared to be Coulibaly said the three gunmen had coordinated their attacks.Investigators have been trying to hunt down Coulibaly's partner, 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene, but a security source in Turkey told AFP she arrived there on January 2, before the attacks, and has probably travelled on to Syria.
'CLEAR FAILINGS'
The shootings have raised questions about how the gunmen slipped through the net of the intelligence services. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls admitted there had been "clear failings" in intelligence after it emerged that the Kouachi brothers had been on a US terror watch list "for years".Coulibaly's mother and sisters condemned his actions, saying "we hope there will not be any confusion between these odious acts and the Muslim religion."- AFP/rw
Video of Paris gunman raises questions of affiliations-Associated Press-By BRIAN ROHAN, LORI HINNANT and DIAA HADID-jan 12,15-yahoonews
PARIS (AP) — Two days after his death, a video emerged Sunday of one of the Paris gunmen pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group, while his two fellow militants have claimed to be from al-Qaida — a fiercely rival extremist organization.That seeming contradiction has raised questions about the connections among the three French attackers, whether they acted with the direct involvement or knowledge of the networks, and whether their friendship allowed them to put aside the rift between the groups.The Islamic State group does not cooperate with al-Qaida's militants and actually fights them for territory in a side conflict of Syria's civil war.In video verified by the SITE Intelligence Group, Amedy Coulibaly said he had worked in coordination with Said and Cherif Kouachi, the "brothers from our team," who carried out the massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday."We did things a bit together and a bit apart, so that it'd have more impact," he said in fluent French, adding that he had helped the brothers financially with "a few thousand euros" for the operation. The video also showed him doing pushups, and featured automatic rifles, pistols and ammunition. He spoke beneath the black-and-white flag used by many Islamic militants.Coulibaly explained why the publication and his target — the kosher supermarket — were selected."What we are doing is completely legitimate, given what they are doing," he said.The video appeared Sunday on militant websites, and two men who dealt drugs with Coulibaly confirmed his identify to The Associated Press. Police said they were investigating the conditions under which the video was posted.Prosecutors said Coulibaly killed four hostages Friday in the supermarket, killed a policewoman, and shot and wounded a jogger. He died when police stormed the market, just minutes after security forces killed the Kouachi brothers.Survivors say the Charlie Hebdo attackers claimed they were from al-Qaida in Yemen, the group the U.S. considers the most dangerous offshoot of that network.But experts cast doubt over whether the attacks could have been coordinated by the rival groups. While Cherif Kouachi was convicted on terrorism charges in 2008, and his brother Said is believed to have trained and fought with al-Qaida forces while in Yemen, no evidence to date has emerged as to whether Coulibaly even went to Syria or Iraq, where IS holds territory. His widow was last traced to a town on the Turkey-Syria border a few days before the Paris attacks unfolded.Since IS broke with al-Qaida last year, militants from the two groups have been locked in a bloody struggle in Iraq and Syria, where IS claims leadership of a universal caliphate of all Muslims and leadership of global jihad. The two groups have fought each other in battles that have left hundreds dead on both sides."It would be a massive surprise," said Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization at King's College London. "The idea that (the two groups) would consciously collaborate on operations abroad seems far-fetched.""If anything, the most likely scenario is that there was some sort of playing off each other. Maybe — if there was synchronizing — it happened at the grassroots level," he said. Coulibaly's attack was far less professional, and appeared to be more spontaneous."He seems to be the prototype of the young, disengaged French Muslim who suffers from this sense of alienation, and then comes (to support an) ideology that makes him feel important, clear-cut and gives him purpose and orientation."Timothy Holman, a researcher at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, said the attackers represented who they wish to be perceived as representing, and had personal ties that likely surpassed the rivalries between the core extremist leadership abroad.The Kouachis' link to Yemen also existed before the rift between IS and al-Qaida.The friendship among the gunmen "predates their militant engagement, and they are fighting as much for each other in some ways as the groups," Holman said."In my opinion, their loyalty is first to their friends and family in the jihadist environment and then to the group. If Coulibaly's primary loyalty was to (IS), it is unlikely he would have acted at the same time as the Kouachi brothers," he added.French police and judicial officials said they believed that while Coulibaly was committed to carrying out an attack, he was less of a strict ideologue or well-honed fighter than were the Kouachis — and could have found inspiration from either al-Qaida or IS.In their internationally aimed propaganda magazines, both extremist groups promote the idea that overseas attacks need not have organizational links to the main leadership, and that "mujahedeen," or holy warriors, should take matters into their own hands.Thousands of young people from Western Europe have headed to the war zones in Syria and Iraq to join extremists. Lawyers and family members of some of those who have gone say many have only a hazy sense of who will meet them when they arrive. But security officials fear that they will return home with new training in warfare, nursing old grievances.While a member of al-Qaida's branch in Yemen said anonymously Friday that the group had directed the Charlie Hebdo attack, the group has not issued an official statement on the matter. Its senior cleric praised the operation but also stopped short of claiming responsibility directly.Regardless, even if the al-Qaida group did not know about the attacks in advance, jihadi fighters in the Middle East have a natural interest to claim such violence and present a unified front to adversaries — even if it sometimes goes against local positioning.SITE reported late Sunday that Moktar Belmoktar, the head of the Mourabitoune group that split from al-Qaida's north Africa wing, had expressed praise in online jihadi forums for the Charlie Hebdo attack.Aymenn al-Tamimi, a Britain-based expert on militant groups in Iraq and Syria, suggested the claims of loyalty to the rival jihadi groups aimed to stir up fears of militants uniting to fight the West.Al-Qaida in Yemen may reject the Islamic State's declared caliphate, he said, "but they have stressed the necessity of supporting each other against the common enemy — which is, of course, the West."Perhaps, al-Tamimi said, it was "to play on a bigger fear that the West has: that al-Qaida and the IS would come together for an attack," he added.___Rohan reported from Cairo, and Hadid reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Joseph Krauss in Cairo contributed.
Pope slams 'deviant forms of religion' after Paris attacks-AFP-By Ella Ide-jan 12,15-yahoonews
Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis on Monday slammed "deviant forms of religion" following deadly attacks by Islamist militants in France last week and dubbed the "never-ending spread of conflicts" around the world a third world war."Losing their freedom, people become enslaved, whether to the latest fads, or to power, money, or even deviant forms of religion," he said, laying the blame on "a culture of rejection" which leads to "the breakdown of society and spawning violence and death.""We see painful evidence of this in the events reported daily in the news, not least the tragic slayings which took place in Paris a few days ago," he said in his yearly speech to the members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.The 78-year-old was speaking after France's bloodiest attacks in half a century, which left 17 people dead.He pointed to "chilling repercussions" from conflicts in the Middle East and "the spread of fundamentalist terrorism in Syria and Iraq.""Religious fundamentalism, even before it eliminates human beings by perpetrating horrendous killings, eliminates God himself, turning him into a mere ideological pretext," he said.Not for the first time, Francis called for "a unanimous response... within the framework of international law" to the so-called Islamic State and also urged the Muslim community to "condemn all fundamentalist and extremist interpretations of religion."
- 'World war fought piecemeal' -
The pope has spoken before about the spread of conflicts around the globe being effectively a sort of third world war, and in this speech, known as his "State of the World" address, he repeated the claim of "a true world war fought piecemeal".He called on the world to remember August 6, 1945, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the day "humanity witnessed one of the most horrendous catastrophes in its history."As Europe began a period of self-reflection on the roots and rise of home-grown terrorism, Francis touched on some of the possible social and cultural issues which may be driving the continent's disillusioned young to jihadism.He pointed to "a model of globalisation which levels out differences and even discards cultures, cutting them off from those factors which shape each people’s identity.""In a drab, anonymous world, it is easy to understand the difficulties and the discouragement felt by many people who have literally lost the sense of being alive," he said.He urged "a renewed spirit of respect for international law" in Ukraine, where Europe's worst conflict since the Balkan wars of the 1990s has left more than 4,700 people dead according to the UN.The pontiff looked to Africa, where he spoke of his sadness over kidnappings in Nigeria and civilian casualties in South Sudan, the Horn of Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.But he said the year had seen some positive developments as well, from the historic rapprochement between the United States and Cuba, to efforts to close Guantanamo Bay.He was also upbeat about Iran, saying he hoped for a definitive agreement with the 5+1 Group "regarding the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes."
EU ministers vow new counter-terrorism rules after Paris attack By Nikolaj Nielsen-BRUSSELS, Today, 09:13-jan 12,15-euobserver
Top officials at an international ministerial meeting in Paris on Sunday (11 January) vowed an immediate response to last week's Charlie Hebdo attack.As well over a million people attended a march in Paris, a handful of EU ministers along with US attorney general Eric Holder announced their intentions to step up counter-terrorism efforts."Only if we work together, through sharing of information, by pooling our resources, will we ultimately be able to defeat those who are in a struggle with us about our fundamental values," said Holder.The meeting, which was also attended by the EU’s counter-terrorism coordinator and the EU commissioner for home affairs, laid out a list of policy priorities to tackle what is seen as the growing threat of foreign fighters returning home.The fear is that the some 2,500 EU nationals that have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight along Islamic militants may come back to the EU even more radicalised.The Jewish museum shootings in Brussels last year and now the Paris attack have led to intensified calls to shore up security at the EU’s external borders, increase Internet surveillance measures, and pass new laws that could criminalise foreign fighters.Ministers from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK attended Sunday’s meeting.Latvia, holding the EU presidency, has called for an EU-wide ministerial meeting of home affairs this week in Brussels to discuss new counter-terrorism measures."The fight against all forms of expression of terrorism is high on my agenda and Latvia as the current Presidency of the Council of the EU will definitely draw specific attention to this issue,” said Latvia's interior minister Rihards Kozlovskis.This includes making travelling for terrorism or related training a serious criminal offence.The idea stems from the legally binding UN security council resolution 2178, adopted last September, which calls upon national governments to insert the offence into their legal systems.EU home affairs ministers backed it in October and then again in December after Gilles de Kerchove, the EU's counter-terrorism coordinator, proposed revising the so-called EU 2002 framework decision on combating terrorism.France inserted the new rules into national law in November. They impose sentences of up to ten years and fines of up to €150,000 on “anyone found to be simultaneously in possession of dangerous objects or substances (such as explosives and weapons), and consulting terrorist websites or receiving terrorist training.”According to transparency NGO La Quadrature du Net, the French government, in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attack, passed further decrees that allows authorities to shut down, without getting a court order, websites advocating or provoking terrorism.Other member states are also in the process of following the UN resolution demands, Spain's interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told the El Pais newspaper on Sunday.Proposals also include tightening the EU’s external borders by amending the Schengen Borders Code governing free movement.National governments already have the right, under strict conditions, to impose temporary internal border controls.Diaz hinted more border controls are needed to counter the jihadist threat.Countering radicalisation on the Internet, widely seen as a recruitment tool for potential jihadists, also figure on the counter-terrorism list.Major internet providers are being asked to help “combat terrorist propaganda” and stop the spread of “hatred and violence” on the web.Ministers also want Belgium to set up a so-called Syria strategic communication advisory team (SSCAT), bankrolled by the EU.The SSCAT would be tasked to help national governments "support messages countering terrorism". Sunday’s ministerial has also added to pressure on the European Parliament to sign off on a EU data-sharing bill that would require airlines to hand over customer details to the police.The bill has been stuck for the past three years, amid concerns by several MEPs that it will violate fundamental rights, like privacy.
Orban demonises immigrants at Paris march By Andrew Rettman-BRUSSELS, Today, 09:29-jan 12,15-euobserver
A French press watchdog has highlighted the hypocrisy of some VIPs at Sunday’s (11 January) march in Paris, while Hungarian PM Viktor Orban used the event to call for a crackdown on immigration.Orban told Hungarian state TV in the margins of the rally, held in support of free speech and tolerance in Europe, that the Charlie Hebdo murders should make the EU restrict access to migrants with “different cultural characteristics”.Referring to the flow of African and Arab migrants to the EU, he said: “Economic immigration is a bad thing in Europe, it should not be seen as having any benefits, because it only brings trouble and danger to the peoples of Europe"."Immigration and cultural questions related to that must be discussed in a much more open, honest and straightforward manner than until now. I hope that a composed, calm analysis of the recent events will guide European leaders and Brussels towards a tough policy restricting immigration”, he added.“While I am PM, Hungary will definitely not become an immigration destination. We don't want to see significantly sized minorities with different cultural characteristics and backgrounds among us. We want to keep Hungary as Hungary".His remarks come amid concerns the Charlie Hebdo killings - carried out in the name of Islam after the magazine published cartoons of Mohammed - will increase the popularity of Europe’s far-right parties and movements.Members and associates of Orban’s Fidesz party have in recent years attracted notoriety for anti-Semitic and anti-Roma statements.Hungary also ranked at just 64 in the 2014 World Press Freedom index published by French NGO Reporters Without Borders - the fourth lowest in the EU after Croatia (65), Greece (99) and Bulgaria (100).In June last year, Hungary imposed a tax on media advertising revenue, hitting independent broadcasters such as RTL Klub, while granting exemptions to loyalist TV stations, such as TV2.The Croatian, Greek, and Bulgarian leaders also attended the Paris rally.Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov told Bulgarian media he might be willing to table new legislation on greater transparency of oligarch ownership of leading media.
But he denied his country has a serious problem.
“With our presence here we showed that we value this freedom and support it”, he said.The French NGO also singled out high-profile visitors from Algeria, Egypt, Gabon, Russia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for criticism.Algeria (ranked 121 in the press freedom ranking) has a blanket ban on public demonstrations, prompting the Algerie-Focus website to note the irony that its foreign minister, Ramtane Lamamra, was on the streets of the French capital.“Marches and public protests are banned in Algeria, but Algerian ministers have the right to march in the streets of ... Paris!”, it said.Gabon is ranked 98. Egypt (159), Russia (148), and Turkey (154) are among the world’s top jailers of critical reporters, while the UAE slipped backward three places to 118 in the French watchdog’s last assessment.“We should show solidarity with Charlie Hebdo without forgetting the world’s other ‘Charlies’,” Reporters Without Borders’ secretary general Christophe Deloire said on Sunday.“It would be intolerable [if] representatives from countries that reduce their journalists to silence profit from this emotional outpouring to … improve their international image”, he added.“We should not allow the predators of the press to spit on the graves of Charlie Hebdo”. Saudi Arabia also sent dignitaries to the Paris event.They attended despite the fact Saudi authorities, on Friday, flogged Raif Badawi, a blogger who writes in support of liberal democracy and free speech, in a public square in Jeddah.An Arabic cartoon published on Twitter on Sunday showed pencils being flayed by whips.One woman at the Paris event also carried a placard which said “I am Raif Badawi, the Saudi journalist who was flogged” in reference to the "I am Charlie" solidarity slogan, British daily The Guardian reports.
Millions march in France for freedom of speech By Peter Teffer-Brussels, Today, 09:29-jan 12,15-euobserver
Between 1.2 and 1.6 million people marched in Paris Sunday to show solidarity with the victims of last week's terror attacks.Many European government leaders were also present at the march, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, British prime minister David Cameron, Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy and Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi.The leaders came to Paris to demonstrate their support for values like freedom of speech.“When these values are threatened we can say only one thing: we have to stand united,” said Merkel.The march was also attended by government leaders of smaller EU nations, like Charles Michel (Belgium), Boyko Borisov (Bulgaria), Zoran Milanovic (Croatia), Bohuslav Sobotka (Czech Republic), Helle Thorning-Schmidt, (Denmark), Antonis Samaras (Greece), Viktor Orban (Hungary), Laimdota Straujuma (Latvia), Mark Rutte (The Netherlands), Pedro Passos Coelho (Portugal), Klaus Iohannis (Romania) and Alexander Stubb (Finland).The three European presidents were there - Jean-Claude Juncker (European commission), Martin Schulz (European parliament) and Donald Tusk (European council)- as was NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.For at least one day, Paris was “capital of the world” French president Francois Hollande said.The crowd, which moved through Paris at very slow pace due to the enormous amount of people, chanted “Je suis Charlie”, sang the national anthem La Marseillaise, and carried banners reading slogans like “Make fun, not war”.Around 2,000 police officers and 1,350 soldiers were on duty in Paris on Sunday, according to France24.According to the French government, between 1.2 and 1.6 million people marched in Paris, and around 3.7 million people in the entire country. It called the numbers “without precedent”.Previous public manifestations of that magnitude in Paris took place for the liberation of the city in 1944, when 1 million people took to the streets, and the 1998 win of the football world championship, reported Le Monde.Elsewhere in Europe, people also marched in solidarity. Around 20,000 marched in Brussels, the seat of the EU institutions, while there were also protests in cities like Berlin and Vienna.
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU AT THE GRANDE SYNAGOGUE IN FRANCE YESTERDAY-CNA Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) gives a speech during a ceremony at the Grand Synagogue in Paris, for all the victims of the attacks in Paris this week, which claimed 17 lives. (PHOTO: AFP/MATTHIEU ALEXANDRE)
5 DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD-CNA-PICUPDATE-JAN 12,2015-05:43PM
NOW THERE SAYING THAT THERE COULD BE 6 ACCOMPLICES STILL OUT THERE FROM THE PARIS ATTACK.AS WELL AS HAYAT IN SYRIA-BACK WITH HER ISIS PALS. LETS SEE.FIRST BACK IN 2001 WAS AL-QUIDA AND OSAMA BIN LADIN.THEN THEY CHANGED THEIR NAMES TO THE TALIBAN.THEN THE TERRORISTS WENT BACK TO THE TALIBAN.NOW THE NAME CHANGE TO AL-QUIDA AND ISIS.THE TERRORIST GROUPS NAMES ALWAYS CHANGE.BUT ITS THE SAME OLD THING.THE ONLY PEOPLE TO GET CONNED BY THE NAME CHANGES OF THE LEADING TERRORIST GROUPS.ARE THE INNOCENT PEOPLE THAT GET KILLED IN THE WESTERN COUNTRIES.AND 1 MILLION COPIES OF THE CHARLIE HEBDO 8 PAGE MAGAZINE WILL BE COMING OUT WEDNEDAY WITH NEW MOHAMMID CARTOON PICTURES.I ALSO HEARD HAYAT BOUMEDDIENE THE WOMAN RADICAL WHO WENT TO SYRIA. IS WAY MORE RADICAL THEN HER KILLED HUSBAND AMEDY COULIBALY. ALL COULIBALY WANTED TO DO WAS PARTY AND HAVE FUN.WHILE HAYAT GOT RIGHT INTO THIS RADICAL HOGWASH NONSENSE.AND WANTED TO LIVE IN A MUSLIM COUNTRY.SO THEY COULD REALLY GET THE FULL RADICAL DOMINATION EFFECT. SO IT WOULD NOT SURPRISE ME IF WE HEAR THAT HAYAT BOUMEDDIENE IS THE FIRST RADICAL MUSLIM WOMAN TO LEAD THE AL- QUIDA- ISIS TEAM UP.AND I MIGHT GO AS FAR AS TO SAY.THAT HAYAT WILL BE CALLED THE LEADER OF THIS NEW ISIS-AL-QUIDA TERRORIST CELL.AND SHE WILL HAVE THE WESTERN GOVERN MENTS AFTER HER.LIKE OSAMA BIN LADIN. AND ANWAR AL-AWALKI.YOU BETTER GET USED TO THE NAME HAYAT BOUMED DIENE.I PREDICT SHE WILL BE THE NEXT LEADER THAT THE WEST WILL CLAIME TO BE ON THEIR TOP TEN LIST.TO CAPTURE FROM THIS ISIS-AL-QUIDA TEAM UP.NOW THE ONLY THING I WONDER WILL HAYAT CHANGE THE NAME OF HER TERRORIST GROUP FROM AL-QUIDA,ISIS MIXTURE.TO SAY WOMAN-AL- POWER- GRAB TERRORIST GROUP.AND THIS WOULD BE THE FIRST WOMAN TO LEAD A TERRORIST GROUP AGAINST THE WEST.AND THE FIRST WOMAN TERRORIST TO BE PUT ON THE WESTERN COUNTRIES HIT LIST.THE LATEST NAME IS THE CYBER CALIPHATE.IF WERE GOING TO BE CONNECTED.WERE GOING TO HAVE TO BE PROTECTED.
AL-QUIDA-YEMEN LEAD THIS FRANCE ATTACKhttp://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/01/09/paris-terror-attack-suspects-reportedly-steal-car-take-hostage-in-northeast/
-PIC-365BORSA.COM-PICTURES OF YOUR NEW AL-QUEDA - ISIS LEADER THAT THE WEST HAS ON THE HIT LIST I PREDICT.THE NEW NAME OF HER LEAD TERRORIST GROUP WILL BE SOMETHING LIKE - WOMAN-AL-POWER-GRAB TERRORIST GROUP. bottom picture of Hayat new terrorist leader-express.co.ukUPDATE-JAN 12,2015-11:35AM
10,000 TROOPS AND 8,000 POLICE OFFICERS DEPLOYED IN FRANCE.AND 9,000 OF THE POLICE WILL GO TO THE JEWISH AREA OF PARIS.TO PROTECT ISRAELIS FROM ANTI-SEMETIC ATTACKS. AND ALSO TERRORIST HAYAT BOUMEDDIENE HAS BEEN SPOTTED IN SYRIA.AND THE WIFE OF CHERIF KOUACHI SAID.SHES SHOCKED THAT HER HUSBAND WAS INVOLVED IN THESE TERRORIST ATTACKS.SURE YOU ARE.IS MY THOUGHT.YOU TALKED WITH HAYAT 500 DIFFERENT TIMES IN 2014.AND SUDDENLY YOUR SHOCKED THAT YOUR HUSBAND KILLED INNOCENT PEOPLE.GET REAL-I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT LIE WOMAN.ONE BIT.
BOKO HARAM PUT SUICIDE BOMBS ON 1 10 YEAR OLD GIRL SATURDAY.FORCED ANOTHER 2 YOUNG GIRLS SUNDAY TO WEAR SUICIDE VESTS.AND 20 AT LEAST WERE KILLED IN THOSE 2 TERRORIST ATTACKS.BUT THEN BOKO HARAM KILLED AT LEAST 2,000 TO 3,000 SINCE JAN 1,15.AND AT LEAST 2,000 FROM THIS ONE TOWN ALONE.WERE IS THE MODERATE MUSLIMS COMPLAINING ABOUT BOKO HARAM PUTTING VEST BOMBS ON 10 YEAR OLD GIRLS.AND FORCING THEM TO BE KILLED. AND WERE IS THE MODERATES TALKING OUT ABOUT THE 2,000 KILLED IN THIS TOWN.IS MY QUESTION.
Corpses everywhere' as Boko Haram still 'control' Nigeria town-AFP-JAN 12,15-YAHOONEWS
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Boko Haram remains in control of the northeast Nigerian town of Baga more than a week after a massacre feared to be the worst since the insurgency began, a resident said on Monday."I entered Baga around 2:00 am (0100 GMT) today (Monday) and it was still occupied by Boko Haram," fisherman Borye Kime told AFP by telephone from Dubuwa village in neighbouring Chad."They have set up barricades in strategic locations in the town. It is corpses everywhere. The whole town smells of decomposing bodies."Boko Haram first attacked Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad in the far north of Borno State, on January 3 and subsequently razed it and at least 16 surrounding settlements.Local officials have cited huge numbers of dead in the attacks but confirming the figures is currently impossible. Some 20,000 people are said to have been forced to flee.Nigeria's military said on Saturday that the attack could be described as "the deadliest" in the six-year rebellion that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said that a fight-back was being planned. On Friday, Mike Omeri, who speaks for the government on national security, said troops were "actively pursuing" the rebels.But Kime, who said he had returned to Baga to collect his life savings and money entrusted to him for safe-keeping, stashed away in his house, said he did not see any troops."There is not a single soldier in Baga," the 40-year-old added. "All the talk about soldiers fighting to take back Baga is not true."
Boko Haram suspected after girl, 10, blows herself up in NE Nigeria-AFP-By Bukar Hussain with Aminu Abubakar in Kano January 10, 2015 12:34 PM-YAHOONEWS
Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) - Two explosions rocked northeast Nigeria on Saturday, including one by a female suicide bomber thought to be just 10 years old who blew herself up in a crowded market, as the US condemned a bloody spike in Boko Haram violence.At least 19 people were killed at the Monday Market in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, at about 12:40 pm (1140 GMT) when it was packed with shoppers and traders.Hours later, a suspicious vehicle that had been stopped at a checkpoint outside the city of Potiskum, in neighbouring Yobe, exploded at a police station as its driver was being taken in for questioning.A police officer accompanying the car and the driver were killed, an officer said. Potiskum has been a repeated target for militant violence.Both blasts came a week after a major Boko Haram attack on the fishing town of Baga in northern Borno State, which is believed to be the worst in the bloody six-year insurgency.The town and at least 16 nearby settlements in and around Lake Chad were burnt to the ground and at least 20,000 people forced to flee their homes."For five kilometres (three miles), I kept stepping on dead bodies until I reached Malam Karanti village, which was also deserted and burnt," one survivor, fisherman Yanaye Grema, said.But there was no independent corroboration of the huge numbers of dead cited locally.The US State Department said Boko Haram's recent escalation of attacks on civilians "shows no regard for human life" and called for those responsible to be brought to justice."The United States abhors such violence, which continues to take a terrible toll on the people of Nigeria and the broader region, including Cameroon," it added.
- Remotely detonated? -
Boko Haram were seen as behind the attack in Maiduguri as it has increasingly used women and young girls as human bombs in their deadly campaign for a hardline Islamic state.Civilian vigilante Ashiru Mustapha said the blast happened as the girl was being searched at the entrance to the market."The girl was about 10 years old and I doubt if she actually knew what was strapped to her body," he told AFP.Witness Abubakar Bakura said: "The blast split the suicide bomber into two and flung one part across the road."Among the dead are two vigilantes who were searching the girl. I am pretty sure the bomb was remotely controlled."A Red Cross official, who declined to be named, warned: "Many people sustained life-threatening injuries." Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jubrin told reporters 19 people were killed and 18 others were injured but warned that the death toll could rise.The market in the Borno state capital was cordoned off as health officials began the grim task of sifting through the wreckage and collecting body parts.An attack at the same market on December 1 killed more than 10 people, and a week earlier more than 45 people lost their lives in an attack there.On July 1, at least 15 people were killed in another suicide attack there blamed on the militants.
- Female recruits -
Boko Haram launched its first female suicide attack in June last year in the northern state of Gombe and there have been a spate of bombings since, including four in a week in the city of Kano in July.The same month a 10-year-old girl was found in Katsina state wearing a suicide vest, prompting fears that young girls were being forced into becoming human bombs rather than through ideological motivation.Forced conscription of young men and boys by Boko Haram has been well-documented. Last July, three women said to be "female recruiters" for Boko Haram were arrested.An alleged trainer of women bombers was also detained in Kano in August with up to 16 "trainees".Boko Haram, fighting for the creation of an Islamist state, is now said to be in control of all three borders of Borno state with Niger, Chad and Cameroon, as well as dozens of towns and villages in Borno and the neighbouring states of Yobe and Adamawa.Security analysts said the Baga attack was likely against civilian vigilantes assisting the military and was an ominous sign of increasing violence before general elections next month.On Friday, militants fought running battles with troops in the Yobe state capital, Damaturu, leading to the destruction of a mosque, shops and a market.The attack was said to be a reprisal for an offensive by civilian vigilantes and local hunters against a Boko Haram enclave in southern Yobe on Tuesday.
France mobilizes 10,000 troops at home after Paris shootings-Reuters-By Gregory Blachier and John Irish-JAN 12,15-YAHOONEWS
PARIS (Reuters) - France will deploy 10,000 soldiers on home soil by Tuesday and post almost 5,000 extra police officers to protect Jewish sites after the killing of 17 people by Islamist militants in Paris last week, officials said.Speaking a day after the biggest French public demonstration ever recorded, in honor of the victims, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the country remained at risk of further attacks. Soldiers would guard transport hubs, tourism sites and key buildings and mount general street patrols."The threats remain and we have to protect ourselves from them. It is an internal operation that will mobilize almost as many men as we have in our overseas operations," Le Drian told reporters after a cabinet meeting.The victims, including journalists and police, died in three days of violence that began on Wednesday with a shooting attack on the political weekly Charlie Hebdo, known for its satirical attacks on Islam and other religions. Many at Sunday's march wore badges and carried placards declaring "I Am Charlie".The Charlie Hebdo attackers, two French-born brothers of Algerian origin, singled out the weekly for its publication of cartoons depicting and ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad.Charlie Hebdo's remaining members are working on an eight page issue due to come out on Wednesday with a one-million copy print run. Its lawyer, Richard Malka, told France Info radio there would be caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad."We will not give in. The spirit of 'I am Charlie' means the right to blaspheme ," he said, adding that the front page would be released on Monday evening.The three days of bloodshed ended on Friday with a hostage-taking at a Jewish deli in Paris where four hostages and another gunman were killed. That gunman declared allegiance to Islamic State insurgents and said he was acting in response to French military deployments against militant Islamist groups overseas.Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 4,700 police officers would be placed at all 717 Jewish schools across the country in addition to some 4,100 gendarmes already deployed." Synagogues, Jewish schools, but also mosques will be protected because in the past few days there have been a number of attacks against mosques," Prime Minister Manuel Valls told BFM TV.France has Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish communities.The first two attackers, who had traveled to Yemen in 2011 for training, were killed on Friday after a siege north of the capital. Police said all three men were part of the same Paris-based militant Islamist cell.About 1.5 million people marched in Paris on Sunday and 2.5 million more in the provinces. The Paris march was led by dozens of foreign leaders. Some commentators said the last time crowds of this size were seen in the capital was at the Liberation of Paris from Nazi Germany in 1944.
SEARCH FOR ACCOMPLICES
The co-ordinated assaults amounted to the deadliest attack by militant Islamists on a European city since four suicide bombers killed 52 in attacks on London's transport system in 2005.Valls said police were searching for likely accomplices of the French cell. The Turkish government confirmed that the female companion of the supermarket attacker had entered Syria on Jan. 8 from Turkey, having arrived in Istanbul several days before the killings.After an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday to outline Britain's response to the attacks, British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to give security and intelligence services new powers to monitor Internet communications.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Cameron were among 44 foreign leaders marching with French President Francois Hollande on Sunday.Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were also present and walked just a few steps from one another.Netanyahu visited the Jewish supermarket, scene of the hostage taking, on Monday with about 300 people shouting "BB" and singing the French and Israeli national anthems.His invitation to French Jews to migrate to Israel if they wanted irritated some. Valls scrambled to reassure the community it was safe and an integral part of France."It was essential he came to show that he was with us French, Jews of France," said Mauricette Abouchaya. "(But) we're in France, we want to stay in France. It is our country."With growing calls for a comprehensive investigation into whether there had been security failings given that the three gunmen were known to intelligence services, Valls and main opposition leader Nicolas Sarkozy agreed on a bi-partisan parliamentary commission into the attacks.Valls also said the government had begun studying ways to strengthen the fight against "homegrown terrorism". France strengthened anti-terrorism legislation last year to prevent its nationals traveling to Syria and Iraq.The prime minister said one proposal being studied was to isolate radical Islamist inmates from others in the nation's prisons, as repeated cases showed individuals were susceptible to radicalization in jail."There is a lot of work to be done in the prisons. It's a priority," Valls said.(Additional reporting by Chine Labbe, Tom Heneghan, Pauline Mevel; writing by John Irish and Andrew Callus; editing by Ralph Boulton)
BBC Anchor Apologizes for 'Anti-Semitic' Comment at Paris Rally-Anti-hate group rejects 'half apology' from Tim Willcox after comment linking Paris attacks to 'Palestinians suffering at Jewish hands.'By Ari Soffer-First Publish: 1/12/2015, 5:06 PM-ISRAELNATIONALNEWS
A BBC news correspondent has apologized for his "poorly phrased question" during an interview Sunday night at the Paris "million-man march" against terror - comments which were slammed as anti-Semitic by Jewish rights groups.Tim Willcox was interviewing a French woman and daughter of holocaust survivors, who related fears held by many French Jews that anti-Semitism was reaching levels last witnessed in the 1930s, at which point he inexplicably chose to interrupt her by stating that "many critics though of Israel's policy would suggest that the Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well."When his interviewee attempted to respond he appeared to attempt to minimize the crisis felt by French Jews by asking: "you understand everything is seen from different perspectives?"Willcox was pilloried on social media, and the UK-based Campaign Against Antisemitism condemned his "disgraceful" comments, urging supporters to complain to the BBC. The Campaign also said it would be submitting a complaint through its legal team, citing a previous instance in which Willcox appeared to promote anti-Semitic stereotypes during another live interview.On Monday, Willcox took to Twitter to issue a public apology, saying he was "Really sorry for any offence caused by a poorly phrased question in a live interview in Paris yesterday - it was entirely unintentional."But reactions to his apology have been largely negative, with many suggesting he should make a public, on-air apology.The Campaign Against Antisemitism also rejected Willcox's "half apology."The grassroots activist group says it will continue pursuing its complaint regardless, and has also questioned the lack of reaction from the BBC Trust, the corporation's governing body.Media watchdog groups have also picked up the issue, with Honest Reporting - an outfit which seeks to combat anti-Israel bias in the international media - similarly rejecting the complaint and urging readers to lodge an official complaint with the BBC."Tim Willcox must be held accountable for his latest outrageous interview. The BBC must not be allowed to sweep this under the carpet. HonestReporting subscribers must make their voices heard by lodging complaints to the BBC," the group said in a statement.
Millions unite against terrorism in historic French demos-UPDATED: 12 Jan 2015 11:20-CNA
PARIS: Millions marched against terrorism Sunday (Jan 11)in the largest protests France has ever seen, led by world leaders in Paris uniting in tribute to the victims of terrorist attacks as the crowd cried "Not Afraid". The interior ministry said nearly four million people took to the streets across the country, with some estimates putting the number in Paris alone at 1.6 million. At the head of a vast and colourful procession in the capital, President Francois Hollande linked arms with world leaders, including the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president, in an historic display of unity.A sea of humanity flowed through the streets to mourn the victims of three days of terror that began with a slaughter at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday and ended with 17 dead. The vast crowd chanted "Charlie, Charlie", in honour of the cartoonists and journalists killed at Charlie Hebdo over its lampooning of the Prophet Mohammed. The crowd brandished banners saying "I'm French and I'm not scared" and, in tribute to the murdered cartoonists, "Make fun, not war" and "Ink should flow, not blood."Emotions ran high in the grieving City of Light, with many people in tears as they came together under the banner of freedom of speech after France's worst terrorist bloodbath in half a century. Isabelle Dahmani, a French Christian married to a Muslim, Mohamed, brought the couple's three young children to show them there is nothing to fear.Their nine-year-old daughter had burst into tears as she watched TV pictures of heavily armed brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi attacking the magazine's offices, Isabelle said, recalling she had asked if "the bad men are coming to our house?" The victims' mourning families played a prominent role in the march, alongside representatives from around 50 countries.In an emotional scene, Charlie Hebdo columnist Patrick Pelloux fell sobbing into the arms of Hollande. With so many world leaders present, security in the still jittery capital was tight, with police snipers stationed on rooftops and plain-clothes officers among the crowd. "Today, Paris is the capital of the world," Hollande said. "The entire country will rise up."Hundreds of thousands of people turned out in other French cities including Bordeaux and Lyon and marches were held in Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul and Madrid and in US and Canadian cities as well.The crowd in Paris was also mourning four Jews killed when a gunman stormed a kosher supermarket, after he had earlier gunned down a policewoman. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined Hollande at Paris' main synagogue after the march to honour the Jewish victims and praised the "very firm position" taken by French leaders against what he called "the new anti-Semitism and terrorism" in France.
'WE WILL WIN'
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who also marched, predicted Europe would face the threat of extremism "for many years to come", but his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi pledged that the continent "will win the challenge against terrorism". Earlier Renzi had tweeted using the hashtag #jesuischarlie (I am Charlie), which has been used more than five million times.Before the march, interior and security ministers from the European Union and the United States held emergency talks to discuss Islamic extremism. They urged a strengthening of the EU external borders to limit the movement of extremists between Europe and the Middle East and said there was an "urgent need" to share air passenger information. All three of the gunmen in the Paris attacks had a history of extremism and were known to French intelligence services.Hollande has warned his traumatised nation to keep up its guard in the face of possible new assaults. The rampage by the gunmen who claimed to be members of the Al-Qaeda and Islamic State extremist groups was followed by a chilling new threat from the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula that France faced more attacks. Hollande met representatives from the Jewish community who said authorities had agreed to deploy soldiers to protect Jewish schools and synagogues in France "if necessary."US Attorney General Eric Holder, also in Paris, said there was no "credible information" as yet that Al-Qaeda was behind the attacks in France. The White House, meanwhile, announced it was organising a February 18 summit on how to fight "violent extremism around the world." The summit would highlight US and international efforts to prevent the radicalisation and recruitment of followers in the United States and other countries by extremist groups, it said.
BURIALS IN ISRAEL
France's three days of terror started when the Kouachi brothers burst into Charlie Hebdo's offices in central Paris and sprayed bullets into an editorial meeting, killing some of France's best-known cartoonists.They then slaughtered a Muslim policeman as he lay helpless on the ground before fleeing in a car, sparking a manhunt that lasted more than 48 hours. A day later, a third gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, shot dead a policewoman in a Paris suburb.The massive hunt for the attackers culminated Friday in twin hostage dramas that gripped the world. Coulibaly stormed into a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris and seized terrified shoppers.After exchanging fire with police, the two brothers took an employee hostage in a printing firm northeast of Paris. After a tense stand-off police shot them dead as they charged out of the building all guns blazing.Moments later, security forces stormed the kosher supermarket in eastern Paris, killing Coulibaly but making the grisly discovery that four innocent Jews had died during the hostage-taking. All four will be buried in Israel on Tuesday. In a video posted online Sunday, a man who appeared to be Coulibaly said the three gunmen had coordinated their attacks.Investigators have been trying to hunt down Coulibaly's partner, 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene, but a security source in Turkey told AFP she arrived there on January 2, before the attacks, and has probably travelled on to Syria.
'CLEAR FAILINGS'
The shootings have raised questions about how the gunmen slipped through the net of the intelligence services. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls admitted there had been "clear failings" in intelligence after it emerged that the Kouachi brothers had been on a US terror watch list "for years".Coulibaly's mother and sisters condemned his actions, saying "we hope there will not be any confusion between these odious acts and the Muslim religion."- AFP/rw
Video of Paris gunman raises questions of affiliations-Associated Press-By BRIAN ROHAN, LORI HINNANT and DIAA HADID-jan 12,15-yahoonews
PARIS (AP) — Two days after his death, a video emerged Sunday of one of the Paris gunmen pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group, while his two fellow militants have claimed to be from al-Qaida — a fiercely rival extremist organization.That seeming contradiction has raised questions about the connections among the three French attackers, whether they acted with the direct involvement or knowledge of the networks, and whether their friendship allowed them to put aside the rift between the groups.The Islamic State group does not cooperate with al-Qaida's militants and actually fights them for territory in a side conflict of Syria's civil war.In video verified by the SITE Intelligence Group, Amedy Coulibaly said he had worked in coordination with Said and Cherif Kouachi, the "brothers from our team," who carried out the massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday."We did things a bit together and a bit apart, so that it'd have more impact," he said in fluent French, adding that he had helped the brothers financially with "a few thousand euros" for the operation. The video also showed him doing pushups, and featured automatic rifles, pistols and ammunition. He spoke beneath the black-and-white flag used by many Islamic militants.Coulibaly explained why the publication and his target — the kosher supermarket — were selected."What we are doing is completely legitimate, given what they are doing," he said.The video appeared Sunday on militant websites, and two men who dealt drugs with Coulibaly confirmed his identify to The Associated Press. Police said they were investigating the conditions under which the video was posted.Prosecutors said Coulibaly killed four hostages Friday in the supermarket, killed a policewoman, and shot and wounded a jogger. He died when police stormed the market, just minutes after security forces killed the Kouachi brothers.Survivors say the Charlie Hebdo attackers claimed they were from al-Qaida in Yemen, the group the U.S. considers the most dangerous offshoot of that network.But experts cast doubt over whether the attacks could have been coordinated by the rival groups. While Cherif Kouachi was convicted on terrorism charges in 2008, and his brother Said is believed to have trained and fought with al-Qaida forces while in Yemen, no evidence to date has emerged as to whether Coulibaly even went to Syria or Iraq, where IS holds territory. His widow was last traced to a town on the Turkey-Syria border a few days before the Paris attacks unfolded.Since IS broke with al-Qaida last year, militants from the two groups have been locked in a bloody struggle in Iraq and Syria, where IS claims leadership of a universal caliphate of all Muslims and leadership of global jihad. The two groups have fought each other in battles that have left hundreds dead on both sides."It would be a massive surprise," said Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization at King's College London. "The idea that (the two groups) would consciously collaborate on operations abroad seems far-fetched.""If anything, the most likely scenario is that there was some sort of playing off each other. Maybe — if there was synchronizing — it happened at the grassroots level," he said. Coulibaly's attack was far less professional, and appeared to be more spontaneous."He seems to be the prototype of the young, disengaged French Muslim who suffers from this sense of alienation, and then comes (to support an) ideology that makes him feel important, clear-cut and gives him purpose and orientation."Timothy Holman, a researcher at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, said the attackers represented who they wish to be perceived as representing, and had personal ties that likely surpassed the rivalries between the core extremist leadership abroad.The Kouachis' link to Yemen also existed before the rift between IS and al-Qaida.The friendship among the gunmen "predates their militant engagement, and they are fighting as much for each other in some ways as the groups," Holman said."In my opinion, their loyalty is first to their friends and family in the jihadist environment and then to the group. If Coulibaly's primary loyalty was to (IS), it is unlikely he would have acted at the same time as the Kouachi brothers," he added.French police and judicial officials said they believed that while Coulibaly was committed to carrying out an attack, he was less of a strict ideologue or well-honed fighter than were the Kouachis — and could have found inspiration from either al-Qaida or IS.In their internationally aimed propaganda magazines, both extremist groups promote the idea that overseas attacks need not have organizational links to the main leadership, and that "mujahedeen," or holy warriors, should take matters into their own hands.Thousands of young people from Western Europe have headed to the war zones in Syria and Iraq to join extremists. Lawyers and family members of some of those who have gone say many have only a hazy sense of who will meet them when they arrive. But security officials fear that they will return home with new training in warfare, nursing old grievances.While a member of al-Qaida's branch in Yemen said anonymously Friday that the group had directed the Charlie Hebdo attack, the group has not issued an official statement on the matter. Its senior cleric praised the operation but also stopped short of claiming responsibility directly.Regardless, even if the al-Qaida group did not know about the attacks in advance, jihadi fighters in the Middle East have a natural interest to claim such violence and present a unified front to adversaries — even if it sometimes goes against local positioning.SITE reported late Sunday that Moktar Belmoktar, the head of the Mourabitoune group that split from al-Qaida's north Africa wing, had expressed praise in online jihadi forums for the Charlie Hebdo attack.Aymenn al-Tamimi, a Britain-based expert on militant groups in Iraq and Syria, suggested the claims of loyalty to the rival jihadi groups aimed to stir up fears of militants uniting to fight the West.Al-Qaida in Yemen may reject the Islamic State's declared caliphate, he said, "but they have stressed the necessity of supporting each other against the common enemy — which is, of course, the West."Perhaps, al-Tamimi said, it was "to play on a bigger fear that the West has: that al-Qaida and the IS would come together for an attack," he added.___Rohan reported from Cairo, and Hadid reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Joseph Krauss in Cairo contributed.
Pope slams 'deviant forms of religion' after Paris attacks-AFP-By Ella Ide-jan 12,15-yahoonews
Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis on Monday slammed "deviant forms of religion" following deadly attacks by Islamist militants in France last week and dubbed the "never-ending spread of conflicts" around the world a third world war."Losing their freedom, people become enslaved, whether to the latest fads, or to power, money, or even deviant forms of religion," he said, laying the blame on "a culture of rejection" which leads to "the breakdown of society and spawning violence and death.""We see painful evidence of this in the events reported daily in the news, not least the tragic slayings which took place in Paris a few days ago," he said in his yearly speech to the members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.The 78-year-old was speaking after France's bloodiest attacks in half a century, which left 17 people dead.He pointed to "chilling repercussions" from conflicts in the Middle East and "the spread of fundamentalist terrorism in Syria and Iraq.""Religious fundamentalism, even before it eliminates human beings by perpetrating horrendous killings, eliminates God himself, turning him into a mere ideological pretext," he said.Not for the first time, Francis called for "a unanimous response... within the framework of international law" to the so-called Islamic State and also urged the Muslim community to "condemn all fundamentalist and extremist interpretations of religion."
- 'World war fought piecemeal' -
The pope has spoken before about the spread of conflicts around the globe being effectively a sort of third world war, and in this speech, known as his "State of the World" address, he repeated the claim of "a true world war fought piecemeal".He called on the world to remember August 6, 1945, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the day "humanity witnessed one of the most horrendous catastrophes in its history."As Europe began a period of self-reflection on the roots and rise of home-grown terrorism, Francis touched on some of the possible social and cultural issues which may be driving the continent's disillusioned young to jihadism.He pointed to "a model of globalisation which levels out differences and even discards cultures, cutting them off from those factors which shape each people’s identity.""In a drab, anonymous world, it is easy to understand the difficulties and the discouragement felt by many people who have literally lost the sense of being alive," he said.He urged "a renewed spirit of respect for international law" in Ukraine, where Europe's worst conflict since the Balkan wars of the 1990s has left more than 4,700 people dead according to the UN.The pontiff looked to Africa, where he spoke of his sadness over kidnappings in Nigeria and civilian casualties in South Sudan, the Horn of Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.But he said the year had seen some positive developments as well, from the historic rapprochement between the United States and Cuba, to efforts to close Guantanamo Bay.He was also upbeat about Iran, saying he hoped for a definitive agreement with the 5+1 Group "regarding the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes."
EU ministers vow new counter-terrorism rules after Paris attack By Nikolaj Nielsen-BRUSSELS, Today, 09:13-jan 12,15-euobserver
Top officials at an international ministerial meeting in Paris on Sunday (11 January) vowed an immediate response to last week's Charlie Hebdo attack.As well over a million people attended a march in Paris, a handful of EU ministers along with US attorney general Eric Holder announced their intentions to step up counter-terrorism efforts."Only if we work together, through sharing of information, by pooling our resources, will we ultimately be able to defeat those who are in a struggle with us about our fundamental values," said Holder.The meeting, which was also attended by the EU’s counter-terrorism coordinator and the EU commissioner for home affairs, laid out a list of policy priorities to tackle what is seen as the growing threat of foreign fighters returning home.The fear is that the some 2,500 EU nationals that have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight along Islamic militants may come back to the EU even more radicalised.The Jewish museum shootings in Brussels last year and now the Paris attack have led to intensified calls to shore up security at the EU’s external borders, increase Internet surveillance measures, and pass new laws that could criminalise foreign fighters.Ministers from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK attended Sunday’s meeting.Latvia, holding the EU presidency, has called for an EU-wide ministerial meeting of home affairs this week in Brussels to discuss new counter-terrorism measures."The fight against all forms of expression of terrorism is high on my agenda and Latvia as the current Presidency of the Council of the EU will definitely draw specific attention to this issue,” said Latvia's interior minister Rihards Kozlovskis.This includes making travelling for terrorism or related training a serious criminal offence.The idea stems from the legally binding UN security council resolution 2178, adopted last September, which calls upon national governments to insert the offence into their legal systems.EU home affairs ministers backed it in October and then again in December after Gilles de Kerchove, the EU's counter-terrorism coordinator, proposed revising the so-called EU 2002 framework decision on combating terrorism.France inserted the new rules into national law in November. They impose sentences of up to ten years and fines of up to €150,000 on “anyone found to be simultaneously in possession of dangerous objects or substances (such as explosives and weapons), and consulting terrorist websites or receiving terrorist training.”According to transparency NGO La Quadrature du Net, the French government, in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attack, passed further decrees that allows authorities to shut down, without getting a court order, websites advocating or provoking terrorism.Other member states are also in the process of following the UN resolution demands, Spain's interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told the El Pais newspaper on Sunday.Proposals also include tightening the EU’s external borders by amending the Schengen Borders Code governing free movement.National governments already have the right, under strict conditions, to impose temporary internal border controls.Diaz hinted more border controls are needed to counter the jihadist threat.Countering radicalisation on the Internet, widely seen as a recruitment tool for potential jihadists, also figure on the counter-terrorism list.Major internet providers are being asked to help “combat terrorist propaganda” and stop the spread of “hatred and violence” on the web.Ministers also want Belgium to set up a so-called Syria strategic communication advisory team (SSCAT), bankrolled by the EU.The SSCAT would be tasked to help national governments "support messages countering terrorism". Sunday’s ministerial has also added to pressure on the European Parliament to sign off on a EU data-sharing bill that would require airlines to hand over customer details to the police.The bill has been stuck for the past three years, amid concerns by several MEPs that it will violate fundamental rights, like privacy.
Orban demonises immigrants at Paris march By Andrew Rettman-BRUSSELS, Today, 09:29-jan 12,15-euobserver
A French press watchdog has highlighted the hypocrisy of some VIPs at Sunday’s (11 January) march in Paris, while Hungarian PM Viktor Orban used the event to call for a crackdown on immigration.Orban told Hungarian state TV in the margins of the rally, held in support of free speech and tolerance in Europe, that the Charlie Hebdo murders should make the EU restrict access to migrants with “different cultural characteristics”.Referring to the flow of African and Arab migrants to the EU, he said: “Economic immigration is a bad thing in Europe, it should not be seen as having any benefits, because it only brings trouble and danger to the peoples of Europe"."Immigration and cultural questions related to that must be discussed in a much more open, honest and straightforward manner than until now. I hope that a composed, calm analysis of the recent events will guide European leaders and Brussels towards a tough policy restricting immigration”, he added.“While I am PM, Hungary will definitely not become an immigration destination. We don't want to see significantly sized minorities with different cultural characteristics and backgrounds among us. We want to keep Hungary as Hungary".His remarks come amid concerns the Charlie Hebdo killings - carried out in the name of Islam after the magazine published cartoons of Mohammed - will increase the popularity of Europe’s far-right parties and movements.Members and associates of Orban’s Fidesz party have in recent years attracted notoriety for anti-Semitic and anti-Roma statements.Hungary also ranked at just 64 in the 2014 World Press Freedom index published by French NGO Reporters Without Borders - the fourth lowest in the EU after Croatia (65), Greece (99) and Bulgaria (100).In June last year, Hungary imposed a tax on media advertising revenue, hitting independent broadcasters such as RTL Klub, while granting exemptions to loyalist TV stations, such as TV2.The Croatian, Greek, and Bulgarian leaders also attended the Paris rally.Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov told Bulgarian media he might be willing to table new legislation on greater transparency of oligarch ownership of leading media.
But he denied his country has a serious problem.
“With our presence here we showed that we value this freedom and support it”, he said.The French NGO also singled out high-profile visitors from Algeria, Egypt, Gabon, Russia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for criticism.Algeria (ranked 121 in the press freedom ranking) has a blanket ban on public demonstrations, prompting the Algerie-Focus website to note the irony that its foreign minister, Ramtane Lamamra, was on the streets of the French capital.“Marches and public protests are banned in Algeria, but Algerian ministers have the right to march in the streets of ... Paris!”, it said.Gabon is ranked 98. Egypt (159), Russia (148), and Turkey (154) are among the world’s top jailers of critical reporters, while the UAE slipped backward three places to 118 in the French watchdog’s last assessment.“We should show solidarity with Charlie Hebdo without forgetting the world’s other ‘Charlies’,” Reporters Without Borders’ secretary general Christophe Deloire said on Sunday.“It would be intolerable [if] representatives from countries that reduce their journalists to silence profit from this emotional outpouring to … improve their international image”, he added.“We should not allow the predators of the press to spit on the graves of Charlie Hebdo”. Saudi Arabia also sent dignitaries to the Paris event.They attended despite the fact Saudi authorities, on Friday, flogged Raif Badawi, a blogger who writes in support of liberal democracy and free speech, in a public square in Jeddah.An Arabic cartoon published on Twitter on Sunday showed pencils being flayed by whips.One woman at the Paris event also carried a placard which said “I am Raif Badawi, the Saudi journalist who was flogged” in reference to the "I am Charlie" solidarity slogan, British daily The Guardian reports.
Millions march in France for freedom of speech By Peter Teffer-Brussels, Today, 09:29-jan 12,15-euobserver
Between 1.2 and 1.6 million people marched in Paris Sunday to show solidarity with the victims of last week's terror attacks.Many European government leaders were also present at the march, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, British prime minister David Cameron, Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy and Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi.The leaders came to Paris to demonstrate their support for values like freedom of speech.“When these values are threatened we can say only one thing: we have to stand united,” said Merkel.The march was also attended by government leaders of smaller EU nations, like Charles Michel (Belgium), Boyko Borisov (Bulgaria), Zoran Milanovic (Croatia), Bohuslav Sobotka (Czech Republic), Helle Thorning-Schmidt, (Denmark), Antonis Samaras (Greece), Viktor Orban (Hungary), Laimdota Straujuma (Latvia), Mark Rutte (The Netherlands), Pedro Passos Coelho (Portugal), Klaus Iohannis (Romania) and Alexander Stubb (Finland).The three European presidents were there - Jean-Claude Juncker (European commission), Martin Schulz (European parliament) and Donald Tusk (European council)- as was NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.For at least one day, Paris was “capital of the world” French president Francois Hollande said.The crowd, which moved through Paris at very slow pace due to the enormous amount of people, chanted “Je suis Charlie”, sang the national anthem La Marseillaise, and carried banners reading slogans like “Make fun, not war”.Around 2,000 police officers and 1,350 soldiers were on duty in Paris on Sunday, according to France24.According to the French government, between 1.2 and 1.6 million people marched in Paris, and around 3.7 million people in the entire country. It called the numbers “without precedent”.Previous public manifestations of that magnitude in Paris took place for the liberation of the city in 1944, when 1 million people took to the streets, and the 1998 win of the football world championship, reported Le Monde.Elsewhere in Europe, people also marched in solidarity. Around 20,000 marched in Brussels, the seat of the EU institutions, while there were also protests in cities like Berlin and Vienna.
