Christmas Eve Danger: Troops Attacked as Tourists Flock to Bethlehem

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Four Palestinians were killed on Thursday, among them three who Israel said were carrying out attacks on soldiers in the West Bank, as tourists and Christian faithful were gathering in Bethlehem for Christmas celebrations.

Bethlehem has been a focal point for clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters during the three month-long wave of violence that has gripped the region. While the annual festivities in the city’s Manger Square were set to go on, other celebrations in the city were cancelled or toned down because of the violence.

“We’re in Bethlehem celebrating Christmas, celebrating the birthday of our lord Jesus Christ. This is the birthplace of the king of peace so what we want is peace,” said Rula Maayah, the Palestinian Tourism Minister.

Israeli authorities said that three Palestinians were killed after they carried out or attempted to carry out attacks against Israelis across the West Bank. A fourth Palestinian was killed in clashes with Israeli troops, according to a Palestinian hospital official.

In the first incident, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the attacker approached the entrance to an industrial zone in the Ariel settlement and stabbed two security guards, wounding them moderately, before they shot and killed him. Two other Palestinians were killed in two other incidents, including an attack by a motorist on Israeli troops, with one soldier lightly wounded. (Read more from “Christmas Eve Danger: Troops Attacked as Tourists Flock to Bethlehem” HERE)

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British, U.S. Embassies Warn of Threats Against Westerners in Beijing

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The British and the American embassies in China say they have received information of possible threats against Westerners visiting a popular shopping district in Beijing around Christmas.

Both embassies sent out warnings to their citizens and staff, urging extra vigilance if they are in the Sanlitun district.

The district is home to a popular open-plan mall that boasts high-end brands like Mango, Reiss, and Lacoste, and some of Beijing’s best Western dining.

In August, a woman was stabbed to death in broad daylight by a sword-wielding man there. The attacker also injured a French man. Beijing police said the man stabbed the two passerby “without cause or reason.” (Read more from “British, U.S. Embassies Warn of Threats Against Westerners in Beijing” HERE)

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Re-Print of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ Unleashes Row in Germany

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For the first time since Hitler’s death, Germany is publishing the Nazi leader’s political treatise “Mein Kampf”, unleashing a highly charged row over whether the text is an inflammatory racist diatribe or a useful educational tool.

The 70-year copyright on the text, written by Hitler between 1924-1926 and banned by the Allies at the end of World War Two, expires at the end of the year, opening the way for a critical edition with explanatory sections and some 3,500 annotations.

In January the 2,000 page, two-volume work will go on sale after about three years of labor by scholars at Munich’s Institute for Contemporary History.

Hitler wrote most of the first, highly autobiographical, volume while incarcerated in Landsberg prison after his failed Munich coup attempt in 1923. After his release, he wrote much of the second volume at his mountain retreat near Berchtesgaden.

In the book, a mix of personal experience and political ideology, he outlined his strategy. A bestseller after he became chancellor in 1933, it had by 1945 sold 12 million copies and been translated into 18 languages. (Read more from “Re-Print of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ Unleashes Row in Germany” HERE)

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Iranian Hackers Have Gained Access to ‘Mission Critical’ American Blueprints

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Security researcher Brian Wallace was on the trail of hackers who had snatched a California university’s housing files when he stumbled into a larger nightmare: Cyberattackers had opened a pathway into the networks running the United States power grid.

Digital clues pointed to Iranian hackers. And Wallace found that they had already taken passwords, as well as engineering drawings of dozens of power plants, at least one with the title “Mission Critical.” The drawings were so detailed that experts say skilled attackers could have used them, along with other tools and malicious code, to knock out electricity flowing to millions of homes.

Wallace was astonished. But this breach, The Associated Press has found, was not unique.

About a dozen times in the last decade, sophisticated foreign hackers have gained enough remote access to control the operations networks that keep the lights on, according to top experts who spoke only on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter.

The public almost never learns the details about these types of attacks – they’re rarer but also more intricate and potentially dangerous than data theft. Information about the government’s response to these hacks is often protected and sometimes classified; many are never even reported to the government. (Read more from “Iranian Hackers Have Gained Access to ‘Mission Critical’ American Blueprints” HERE)

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US Poised to Lift Sanctions on Iran Under Nuclear Deal

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The United States appears poised to lift at least some sanctions against Iran — possibly as early as January — as members of Congress urge a swift, robust US response to Tehran’s recent ballistic missile test.

Secretary of State John Kerry said in a letter Wednesday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Iran is fulfilling its obligations under the international agreement in what Kerry calls a “transparent” and “verifiable” way, and that “suspension of sanctions … is appropriate.”

The committee’s top Democrat, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, said at a hearing Thursday that it appears that sanctions relief could start as early as January, not in the spring as initially anticipated.

The deal involving the United States, Iran and five other world powers would curb Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for giving Iran access to billions in frozen assets and oil revenue.

Cardin said that throughout the congressional review of the deal, witnesses for the administration guessed that it would be spring until Iran could comply with the terms required for that relief to begin. (Read more from “US Poised to Lift Sanctions on Iran Under Nuclear Deal” HERE)

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Hamas Seeking to Orchestrate Suicide Bombings in Israel

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Hamas is attempting to launch major terror attacks against Israel, including suicide bombings, from the West Bank, a senior Palestinian Authority source told The Times of Israel.

Information gleaned from interrogations of Hamas operatives arrested recently by PA security services shows that the terror group’s leaders in Gaza and abroad have sent orders to local commanders to escalate their activities — from encouraging protests and stabbing attacks to more dramatic and deadly assaults on Israeli civilians, the source said.

Some two dozen Israelis and others have been killed in a wave of Palestinian stabbings, car-rammings and shootings since the start of October. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed, a majority of them attackers who died during their terrorist attacks.

Over 1,000 Israelis were killed in terror attacks, including dozens of suicide bomb attacks, during the Second Intifada, from 2000 until roughly 2004, many of them carried out by Hamas operatives.

The PA sources said Hamas’s new efforts to escalate the violence would further raise tensions, as Israel would be expected to counter the increased violence with further clampdowns on Palestinian areas in the West Bank, in turn leading to a weakening of the Palestinian Authority – a key interest of Hamas. (Read more from “Hamas Seeking to Orchestrate Suicide Bombings in Israel” HERE)

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Gruesome ISIS ‘Dungeons’ Where They Keep Their Sickest Secret Found in Desert

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By Conservative Tribune. Startling new video and pictures out of the Middle East show the dungeons in which Islamic State group members would keep women prisoners, some of whom were raped by the militants.

According to the U.K. Daily Mail, the dungeons in the deserts of northern Syria showed just how horrible life was for the young women — mostly members of the Yazidi ethnic group — after their capture by the Islamic State group barbarians.

The women — some just children — were kept underground in dark, cramped conditions 24 hours a day. (Read more from “Gruesome ISIS ‘Dungeons’ Where They Keep Their Sickest Secret Found in Desert” HERE)

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The Hell of Yazidi Women Kept in ISIS Dungeon Under the Desert

By Imogen Calderwood. Shocking photographs show the cramped, suffocating spaces where dozens of Yazidi women were trapped underground in an ISIS prison.

Manhole-like panels in the northern Syrian desert are the only obvious clue of the horrific prison where the persecuted women were made to lie in complete darkness for hours every day.

The women, from the much-persecuted Yazidi minority, were forced to live their entire lives under the sand; eating, drinking and sleeping in their tiny cells.

It is not yet known what happened to the terrified women, or where they might be now.

But in heart-breaking examples of the hope and despair the women must have felt, drawings on the walls document their daily lives under the sand. (Read more from “The Hell of Yazidi Women Kept in ISIS Dungeon Under the Desert” HERE)

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Putin Just Came out with a Huge Announcement About Donald Trump

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Vladimir Putin, as Western Journalism has reported, apparently has very little respect for President Obama, and doesn’t seem to consider his interests in Europe or the Middle East.

When Russian troops amassed along the Ukrainian border, Putin didn’t stop at the border in response to Obama’s advice to withdraw troops. In fact, Putin sent troops inside Ukraine and took control of Crimea.

Additionally, in Syria, just when President Obama was proclaiming that ISIS was contained and would be pursued inside Syria, Putin sent troops into Syria and reinforced the Asad regime, the very regime that Obama intended to overcome.

At every turn, Putin has met Obama with resistance and defiance. Sensing a potential win for Republicans in 2016, Putin has just revealed exactly how he feels about Donald Trump and it’s quite a contrast from his defiance of the current president.

According to The Hill, Putin spoke to reporters about Trump at a press conference in Moscow, “He’s a really brilliant and talented person, without any doubt. … It’s not our job to judge his qualities, that’s a job for American voters, but he’s the absolute leader in the presidential race.” (Read more from “Putin Just Came out with a Huge Announcement About Donald Trump” HERE)

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‘I Started the Arab Spring. Now Death Is Everywhere, and Extremism Blooming’

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It is hardly surprising that when Faida Hamdy wonders whether she is responsible for everything that happened after her moment of fame she is overwhelmed.

Mrs Hamdy was the council inspector who, five years ago today confiscated the vegetable stall of a street vendor in her dusty town in central Tunisia.

In despair, that young man set himself on fire in a protest outside the council offices. Within weeks, he was dead, dozens of young Arab men had copied him, riots had overthrown his president, and the Arab Spring was under way.

As the world marks the anniversary, Syria and Iraq are in flames, Libya has broken down, and the twin evils of militant terror and repression stalk the region . . .

Hers is a voice that has been rarely heard: the family of the young man, Mohammed Bouazizi, became unwilling celebrities in the weeks after his lingering death, but a nervous regime arrested Mrs Hamdy when the protests began. (Read more from “‘I Started the Arab Spring. Now Death Is Everywhere, and Extremism Blooming'” HERE)

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Neighborhood Finds Chilling Letter About Islam in Mailboxes, What the Notes Said Had Police Come Running

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Sweden welcomed Syrian Refugees with open arms. Sweden’s government and people rolled out the welcome mat for refugees by bringing in over 200,000 Syrians, many of whom settled in Stockholm. The humanitarian act of generosity and virtue has now been met with messages of hate and intolerance, and if true, those very refugees are threatening to kill Swedish citizens if they refuse to convert to Islam.

According to the Daily Mail, tensions started in October within the Swedish community who reported to authorities that they were being harassed and threatened with beheading if they didn’t convert to Islam. Walls of their businesses were subjected to threatening graffiti which read, “Convert or Die,” and, “The Caliphate is Here” . . .

Now, the most serious threat to public safety has emerged. Flyers with ISIS flags have been deposited into citizens’ mailboxes. The flyers read:

In the name of Allah, the merciful, full of grace. You who are not believers will be decapitated in three days in your own house. We will bomb your rotten corpses afterwards. You must choose between these three choices: 1. Convert to Islam. 2. Pay the jizya [religious tax] for protection. 3. Or else, you will be decapitated. The police will not prevent or save you from you being murdered. (Death comes to all of you).

Police and intelligence officials are taking the threat of forced conversion very seriously and are investigating the matter. The letters have been distributed into mailboxes across the entire country of Sweden, not just in Stockholm. (Read more from “Neighborhood Finds Chilling Letter About Islam in Mailboxes, What the Notes Said Had Police Come Running” HERE)

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