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Showing posts from September 8, 2019

Drone attacks on Saudi Arabia's Aramco facility, oilfield spark major blaze; investigation underway, says State media

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Drones attacked the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and a major oilfield operated by Saudi Aramco early Saturday, the kingdom's interior ministry said, sparking a huge fire at a processor crucial to global energy supplies Dubai : Drones attacked the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and a major oilfield operated by Saudi Aramco early Saturday, the kingdom's interior ministry said, sparking a huge fire at a processor crucial to global energy supplies. Smoke billows after a fire at an Aramco factory in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday. Reuters No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in Buqyaq and the Khurais oil field, though Yemen's Houthi rebels previously launched drone assaults deep inside of the kingdom. It was not clear if there were any injuries in the attacks, nor what effect it would have on oil production in the kingdom. The attack will likely heighten tensions further across the wi

White House says bin Laden son killed in US operation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House announced Saturday that   Hamza bin Laden   , the son of the late al-Qaida leader who had become an increasingly prominent figure in the terrorist organization, was killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. A statement issued in President Donald Trump's name gave no further details, such as when Hamza bin Laden was killed or how the United States had confirmed his death. Administration officials would provide no more information beyond the three-sentence statement from the White House. American officials have said there are indications that the CIA, not the U.S. military, conducted the strike. The White House statement said Hamza bin Laden's death "not only deprives al-Qaida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group." It said Osama bin Laden's son "was responsible for planning and dealing wi

Hong Kong police move in to break up shopping mall protest clashes

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Baton-wielding Hong Kong police moved in to break up scuffles on Saturday between pro-China protesters and those denouncing perceived Chinese meddling at the start of rallies planned for across the city after months of often violent unrest. The pro-China demonstrators chanted "Support the police" and "China, add oil" at a shopping mall in the Kowloon Bay area, adapting a line used by anti-Hong Kong government protesters and loosely meaning: "China, keep your strength up". "Hong Kong is China," one woman shouted at passersby who shouted obscenities in return in an angry pushing and pulling standoff, marked more by the shouting than violence. The clashes spilled out on to the streets, with each confrontation captured by dozens of media and onlookers on their smart phones. Police detained several people. Protesters complaining about perceived Chinese interference in the former British colony came out in their hundreds

Two commanders allied to Libya's Haftar killed in strike near Tripoli

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Two commanders of the eastern Libyan forces trying to take the capital Tripoli from the internationally-recognised government were killed late on Friday in a drone strike, officials said. The strike is a blow to Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libya National Army (LNA), which in April launched a campaign to take Tripoli. So far that offensive has not breached the city's southern defences. The drone strike took place in the town of Tarhouna, southeast of Tripoli. The town has been the main base of the LNA since it lost Gharyan town south of Tripoli. The Tripoli government and LNA both confirmed that two Tarhouna-based commanders - Mohsen al-Kani, head of the Kaniyat armed group, and Abdelwahab al-Magri, head of the 9th brigade - died in the strike. A brother of Kani was also killed. Both armed groups had teamed up with the LNA whose forces control the east with the help of a parallel government and were key to the Tripoli campaign, analysts said. L

Extremists creep into Roblox, an online game popular with children

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SAN FRANCISCO — It’s become an almost inevitable problem on the internet: If you build it, they will troll. That is, if a company builds a successful gaming or social media platform, trolls, extremists and other users spouting noxious speech will find a way to those online locations. This week, a Twitter user by the name of @lululemew started to find neo-Nazi references on Roblox, a popular online game that has more than 100 million active users worldwide and is popular with children. While such disturbing user names, profiles and content in Roblox aren’t new, they got renewed attention from this woman’s tweets. “My kid plays Roblox,” she wrote in an attempt to alert the company. “Did you know you have members on your site promoting #WhitePowerExtremist #DomesticTerrorism groups?” Roblox, like Minecraft, allows users to create avatars and virtual worlds for those characters to roam around in. While most people use the game’s platform to create fun, innocuou

Are Child Raising Practices Related to Extremism?

Many of the child-raising practices brought to the USA with European settlers contrasted greatly with the nurturing practices common among native peoples, which largely matched up with our species’ evolved nest . The northern European practices were informed by strict versions of Christianity: They included isolation, sleeping alone, leaving babies to cry, little affectionate touch, corporal punishment . Some of these practices have been documented as damaging to young mammals like monkeys and rats (e.g., Harlow, 1958; Hofer, 1994). Such practices do not characterize humanity’s ancestral context, our small-band hunter-gatherers (Hewlett & Lamb, 2005). For human babies, who are like fetuses of other animals till 18 months of age, they are all harsh treatments. See here . What might harsh treatment in early life do to a person? Whiting and Child (1953) conducted a cross-sectional study of 75 cultures from around the world using data from ethnographers to examine

‘Two Sisters’ shows tragic impact of Islamic extremism

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The Chinese version of Two Sisters Photo: Chen Xi/GT A tall and fit figure in a black colored dress, the deep blue eyes peeking out from behind the war correspondent's blond hair seemed to have seen too much of war. Those eyes belonged to Åsne Seierstad, a Norwegian freelance journalist and writer, who had arrived in Beijing to attend the Chinese language launch of her book Two Sisters . A war correspondent since the 1990s, Seierstad is no stranger to the battlefield, especially when it comes to covering the war in Afghanistan and the Battle of Baghdad. Her in-depth coverage of people's suffering due to wars and terrorist attacks led to her being named one of the 100 most influential women in Europe. "As a journalist, I have a high curiosity to explore humanity. That's part of the reason that I wanted to write the story Two Sisters, and I wanted to come to China to see what my Chinese readers think about my work," Seierstad told the Global Time

Interview: Children Languishing in Nigeria’s Military Prison

Military Detention of Children for Suspected Boko Haram Involvement in Northeast Nigeria Tell me more about these children who were arrested. Since 2013, Nigerian authorities have detained at least 3,600 children, including 1,600 girls. I interviewed a 10-year-old boy who was detained when he was 5. Many of the girls and women who were detained had been forced to marry Boko Haram fighters and had children, so there were babies and toddlers in prison with their parents. And in the boys’ cell, having children of 7 or 8 years old was pretty common. We interviewed 32 children for this report. 15 had been detained for more than a year, some for more than 3 years. Why were they arrested? Many of these children said they were picked up by the military as they fled their villages after Boko Haram attacked or when they were seeking refuge in IDP [internally displaced persons] camps. Children told us they were picked up on the flimsiest of evidence. One boy I

Despair, Extremism Fester Among Islamic State Wives

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AL-HOL CAMP, SYRIA - Five years ago, Sara left her home in Iraq with her husband to join what was then, for many, a hopeful idea: a new country of the faithful, the Islamic State. “There was no question that I should join,” says Sara, after placing a black veil over her face. “I am Muslim.” In the years that followed, Sara enjoyed life under IS's rigid religious strictures, seemingly oblivious to the terror group's horrific actions elsewhere and comfortable among her like-minded neighbors in Iraq and later Syria. But when Syrian and coalition forces started closing in on the group, she and her two sons were forced to flee airstrikes over and over again, finally surrendering six months ago in Baghuz, IS’s last stronghold. Now she lives in a squalid camp in Syria, packed with women and children that some locals derisively call an “Islamic State camp.” Security officials warn that many of the women here were

US-Backed Syrian Forces Hand Over 3 Children of IS Fighters to Nigeria

 WASHINGTON - Three children born to Nigerian Islamic State (IS) fighters in Syria were handed over to the Nigerian government, Syrian Kurdish officials said Thursday. The orphaned children, aged 4, 6 and 8, were handed over to a Nigerian government representative in the city of Qamishli in northeast Syria. “We have been in talks with Nigerian officials about these cases,” said Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of foreign relations in the SDF-led administration in northeast Syria, who met with a Nigerian official on Thursday. “They finally decided to come here and take these parentless children,” he told VOA. This is the first time that an African country has taken back children of Africans who have traveled to Syria to join the terror group, the Kurdish official said. Omar declined to give information about the number of Nigerians held in northeast Syria, but there are many Nigerians in custody who joined the IS ter

India Highlights "Terror From Beyond Afghanistan's Border" At Top UN Meet

United Nations:  In a veiled reference to Pakistan, India has told the UN Security Council that the support and safe havens enjoyed by terror groups like the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed from "beyond Afghanistan's borders" must be addressed to fight the scourge of terrorism and ensure peace in Afghanistan. Peace and reconciliation cannot go forward in an atmosphere of terror, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said at the United Nations. "There is a surge of violence in Afghanistan in recent days, including threats to the election process itself. This has deepened apprehensions that acts of terror are being used to jockey for a place of advantage in the negotiating process," he said. Mr Akbaruddin, speaking at the UN Security Council quarterly debate on the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said the international community needs to continue its support by

How I stopped my teenager being recruited online

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A mother expressed her concern about extremist content poisoning the minds of boys as they use the internet, in a post that went viral. She thinks there are warning signs parents should heed. In an age where anyone can access just about anything on the internet, white boys in the US seem particularly at risk from dangerous radicalisation online. Many mass shooting suspects in the US have three things in common: They are young, white and male. The suspect behind the El Paso shooting that killed 22 people in Texas is believed to have posted a racist manifesto online. Police investigating a deadly attack in Dayton the following day said the gunman was influenced by a "violent ideology", although no motive has been disclosed. The dangers of the internet are not a novel talking point for parents and teachers, but these most recent tragedies have sparked renewed debate over what families can - and should - do when it comes to raising white boys in America. "