Obama on Why the U.S. Won’t ‘Destroy North Korea’

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hqdefaultPresident Obama is back at the White House after a week in the Middle East and Europe. During his trip, “CBS This Morning” co-host Charlie Rose spoke with the president in Germany for a wide-ranging interview. Mr. Obama had just announced 250 additional American troops will go to Syria to help in the fight against ISIS . . .

In regards to North Korea, Mr. Obama described the regime as “a massive challenge.”

“Our first priority is to protect the American people and our allies, the Republic of Korea, Japan, that are vulnerable to the provocative actions that North Korea is engaging in,” Mr. Obama said.

He said North Korea is “erratic enough” and the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, is “irresponsible enough that we don’t want them getting close.”

“But it’s not something that lends itself to an easy solution,” Mr. Obama said. “We could, obviously, destroy North Korea with our arsenals. But aside from the humanitarian costs of that, they are right next door to our vital ally, Republic of Korea.” (Read more from “Obama on Why the U.S. Won’t ‘Destroy North Korea'” HERE)

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Dog Dies From Exhaustion After Rescuing Seven People From Earthquake

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Photo Credit: Facebook

Photo Credit: Facebook

A four-year-old white Labrador called Dayko has been hailed as a hero after rescuing seven people from the aftermath of the Ecuador earthquake – before dying from exhaustion.

Dayko, a rescue dog for the Ibara fire service, died last Friday, having spent the previous days searching for survivors in the rubble left by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake which hit Ecuador last week.

According to a post on Ibara fire service’s Facebook page the cause of death was “massive coronary myocardial infarction and acute respiratory failure.” He had been working as a rescue dog for three and a half years.

“We regret to inform you that today the [fire service] is in mourning because [we] just lost Dayko who participated in the work of searching in Pedernales,” said the fire service.

“This four legged friend gave his life in the line of duty. Thank you Dayko for your heroic efforts in Pedernales and in various emergencies where you were present. (Read more from “Dog Dies From Exhaustion After Rescuing Seven People From Earthquake” HERE)

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Report: U.N. Pressing for ‘Alternative’ Ways to Admit More Syrian Refugees to U.S.

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21238173466_b97a203635_bUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is considering “alternative” ways to admit more Syrian refugees to the United States, beyond the current refugee resettlement program, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

“The legitimacy and transparency of these new ‘alternative pathways,’ aimed at admitting increasing numbers of Syrian refugees into the United States without calling them ‘refugees,’ remain to be seen,” CIS senior researcher Nayla Rush wrote in a report Monday. “They might even amount to convenient admissions detours at a time when the U.S. refugee resettlement program is under tight scrutiny.”

According to Rush, facing a target to resettle 480,000 Syrian refugees over the next three years, U.N. representatives have already been laying the rhetorical groundwork for pursuing such alternatives to resettlement. During a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution in February, Rush detailed, Beth Harris, Research Professor at Georgetown University and adviser to the United Nations Secretary General on humanitarian refugee policy noted the possibility of alternative paths.

Refugees and government officials are expecting this crisis to last 10 or 15 years. It’s time that we no longer work as business as usual … UNHCR next month [March 2016] is convening a meeting to look at what are being called “alternative safe pathways” for Syrian refugees. Maybe it’s hard for the U.S. to go from 2,000 to 200,000 refugees resettled in a year, but maybe there are ways we can ask our universities to offer scholarships to Syrian students. Maybe we can tweak some of our immigration policies to enable Syrian-Americans who have lived here to bring not only their kids and spouses but their uncles and their grandmothers. There may be ways that we could encourage Syrians to come to the U.S. without going through this laborious, time-consuming process of refugee resettlement.” (Emphasis Rush’s).

At the UNHCR March “high level” meeting in Geneva, Rush detailed, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called for “alternative avenues” for countries to admit more Syrian refugees. (Read more from “Report: U.N. Pressing for ‘Alternative’ Ways to Admit More Syrian Refugees to U.S.” HERE)

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European Ministers Lay out Explicit Plan to Create United States of Europe

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pAAUsLlkMzcGe9MPu7eqJdWhmB71ky6eEuropean ministers have explicitly laid out their intentions to create a federal Unites States of Europe, directly contradicting the British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s claims that Britain will not be sucked into a European superstate should the people of Britain vote to remain within the European Union (EU).

Presenting his renegotiated deal on EU membership in February, Mr Cameron insisted: “Britain will be permanently out of ever closer union, never part of a European super-state.”

But the emergence of a declaration signed in Rome by European ministers five months previously to Mr Cameron’s announcement reveals that the intention on the continent is to press ahead with the creation of a federal Europe.

Not content with merely monetary union and free movement, the declaration, signed by the speakers of the national parliaments in Germany, France, Italy and Luxembourg states that they want to integrate a broad spectrum of policies. “It should include all matters pertaining to the European ideal — social and cultural affairs as well as foreign, security and defence policy,” the declaration states.

It adds: “We are convinced that new impetus must be given to European integration. We believe that more, not less, Europe is needed to respond to the challenges we face. (Read more from “European Ministers Lay out Explicit Plan to Create United States of Europe” HERE)

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Obama Plans 250 More U.S. Troops for Syria, Boosting Force to 300

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President Barack Obama will announce on Monday he plans to send as many as 250 additional U.S. troops to Syria, a sharp increase in the American presence working with local Syrian forces fighting Islamic State militants, U.S. officials said.

The deployment, which will increase U.S. forces in Syria to about 300, aims to accelerate recent gains against Islamic State and appears to reflect growing confidence in the ability of U.S.-backed forces inside Syria and Iraq to claw back territory from the hardline Sunni Islamist group.

Obama will explain his decision in a speech at 11:25 a.m. (0925 GMT) in Hanover, where he discussed the Syria crisis with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday. They will meet with other major European leaders after his remarks.

Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, controls the cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria and is proving a potent threat abroad, claiming credit for major attacks in Paris in November and Brussels in March.

While Obama has resisted putting U.S. troops into Syria, where a five-year civil war has killed at least 250,000 people, he sent 50 U.S. special operations forces to Syria last year in what U.S. officials described as a “counterterrorism” mission rather than an effort to tip the scales in the war. (Read more from “Obama Plans 250 More U.S. Troops for Syria, Boosting Force to 300” HERE)

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London Mayor Describes Obama as ‘Part-Kenyan’

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obama-356133_960_720London Mayor Boris Johnson offered a cold welcome to President Obama on Friday as the president opened his visit to the city with a call for the United Kingdom to stay in the European Union.

Johnson, a member of the Conservative Party and an advocate for Britain’s exit from the EU, published an article noting Obama’s “part-Kenyan” roots while highlighting the often repeated claim of the Obama administration returning a bust of Winston Churchill to the British embassy in D.C.

“Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire — of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender,” Johnson wrote in an op-ed published in The Sun, referencing Obama’s father, who was born in Kenya.

“For the United States to tell us in the UK that we must surrender control of so much of our democracy — it is a breathtaking example of the principle of do-as-I-say-but-not-as-I-do,” Johnson wrote . . .

The Guardian reports that Johnson has come under fire for the comment on Kenya, with Labour Party politician Yvette Cooper saying, “As ever, it’s more bad judgment from Boris Johnson. Is this really how a man who wants to be prime minister should be talking about the president of the United States?” (Read more from “London Mayor Describes Obama as ‘Part-Kenyan'” HERE)

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Islamist Turkey Seizes ALL Christian Churches in City

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cross-66700_960_720 (1)President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken control of six churches in the war-torn southeastern city of Diyarbakir in his latest move to squash freedom of speech and religious movement.

The state-sanctioned seizure is just the latest in a number of worrying developments to come out of increasingly hardline Turkey, which is in advanced talks with the EU over visa-free travel for its 80 million citizens.

Included in the seizures are Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches, one of which is over 1,700 years old.

They have now effectively become state property – meaning they are run by the government – in a country with a dire human rights record where about 98 percent of the population is Muslim.

The order to seize the churches was made on March 25 by Erdogan’s council of ministers, according to the website World Watch Monitor. (Read more from “Islamist Turkey Seizes ALL Christian Churches in City” HERE)

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European Nations Join Transgender Jihad Against North Carolina, Mississippi Stand for Traditional Values

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Respect_and_Equality_for_All_Trans_People_(4764133272)_(2)The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for the United States, warning gay and transgender travellers to be careful in the US due to legislation in North Carolina and Mississippi.

Newly-passed laws in both states allow businesses to refuse service to LGBT people, and the so-called “bathroom law” – a ruling that transgender people must use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender on their birth certificate – has sparked waves of protest and business boycotts.

“The US is an extremely diverse society and attitudes toward LGBT people differ hugely across the country,” the update states. “LGBT travellers may be affected by legislation passed recently in the states of North Carolina and Mississippi. Before travelling please read our general travel advice for the LGBT community. You can find more detail on LGBT issues in the US on the website of the Human Rights Campaign.”

Ty Cobb of the Human Rights Campaign described it as “both frightening and embarrassing that one of our nation’s staunchest allies has warned its citizens of the risks” of travelling to the US.

He added: “It is now more clear than ever that these terrible measures are not only harming individuals and taking an economic toll on the states, but are also causing serious damage to our nation’s reputation, and the perceived safety of LGBT people who travel here.” (Read more from “European Nations Join Transgender Jihad Against North Carolina, Mississippi Stand for Traditional Values” HERE)

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New Powerful Earthquake Strikes Ecuador

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1024px-Chuetsu_earthquake-earthquake_liquefaction1A powerful earthquake measuring 6.0 magnitude struck off Ecuador’s disaster-stricken coast on Thursday, as survivors of an earlier deadly quake that killed 587 people clamored for food, water and medicine in parts of the disaster zone.

The latest quake’s epicentre was 100km (62 miles) north-northwest of Portoviejo and at a depth of 10km (six miles), said the US Geological Survey (USGS).

President Rafael Correa said on Twitter that three aftershocks were registered on Thursday night, adding “have strength!”

Meanwhile Cesar Navas, the security minister, reassured his compatriots that so far there is no threat of tsunami. There are no reports of damage so far.

On Saturday the Andean nation was struck by a 7.8-magnitude quake, the worst to hit the South American country in decades, causing hundreds of buildings to collapse and damaging roads and other key infrastructure in tourist areas. (Read more from “New Powerful Earthquake Strikes Ecuador” HERE)

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Obama Admin. Fails to Designate Pakistan as Hostile to Religious Freedom Despite Recent Massacres of Christians

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maxresdefault (97)The United States Department of State has released its official blacklist of countries guilty of egregious violations of religious freedom, and for the 14th consecutive year has left Pakistan off the roster.

Secretary of State John Kerry has re-designated Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs, under the International Religious Freedom Act, and has added the ex-Soviet republic of Tajikistan for the first time.

State Department spokesperson John Kirby announced this year’s list of countries of particular concern at a press briefing last week, underscoring that these designations “help us shine a spotlight on countries and conditions that require the international community’s attention.”

Nonetheless, despite persistent urging from the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the list omits mention of Pakistan, despite recent incidents that have drawn world attention to the country.

The Easter-Day massacre targeting Christians in Lahore saw the death of 72 victims, mostly women and children, along with at least 320 injured. (Read more from “Obama Admin. Fails to Designate Pakistan as Hostile to Religious Freedom Despite Recent Massacres of Christians” HERE)

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