ISIS Says Countdown For Japan’s Hostages has Begun

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NY Post By Mari Yamaguchi and Elaine Kurtenbach. Japan promised Saturday not to give up “until the very end” on efforts to rescue two Japanese hostages threatened with beheading by Islamic militants demanding a $200 million ransom, after a deadline passed with no word from the captors.

Militants affiliated with the Islamic State group posted an online warning Friday afternoon that the “countdown has begun” for the extremists to kill 47-year-old Kenji Goto and 42-year-old Haruna Yukawa. The extremists gave Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 72 hours to pay the ransom, and the deadline expired Friday.

The posting, which appeared on a forum popular among Islamic State militants and sympathizers, did not show any images of the hostages, who are believed to be held somewhere in Syria. (Read more on how ISIS says countdown for Japan’s hostages has begun HERE)

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Was the New ISIS Hostage Video Filmed Indoors?

By Associated Press. The video of two Japanese hostages being held by the Islamic State group seems, like past IS videos, made in an arid, desert setting. But suspicions are emerging that the message was not prepared outdoors at all.

An expert in these videos said it was more likely completed in an indoor studio with a false backdrop made to appear that it was outdoors.

Kenji Goto, a journalist, and Haruna Yukawa, who runs a security company, are seen kneeling in orange jumpsuits with a masked man holding a knife between them. The hostage-holders are threatening to kill the men if the Japanese government does not pay a $200 million ransom.

The video, posted on militant websites Tuesday and identified as being made by the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan media arm, appears to have been filmed in the same location as those showing American hostages James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig and British captives David Haines and Alan Henning. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Obama Admin. Bribed Iran to Stay in Nuke Talks With $11.9 Billion in Payments

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By Adam Kredo. The Obama administration on Wednesday paid $490 million in cash assets to Iran and will have released a total of $11.9 billion to the Islamic Republic by the time nuclear talks are scheduled to end in June, according to figures provided by the State Department.

Today’s $490 million release, the third such payment of this amount since Dec. 10, was agreed to by the Obama administration under the parameters of another extension in negotiations over Tehran’s contested nuclear program that was inked in November.

Iran will receive a total of $4.9 billion in unfrozen cash assets via 10 separate payments by the United States through June 22, when talks with Iran are scheduled to end with a final agreement aimed at curbing the country’s nuclear work, according to a State Department official.

Iran received $4.2 billion in similar payments under the 2013 interim agreement with the United States and was then given another $2.8 billion by the Obama administration last year in a bid to keep Iran committed to the talks through November, when negotiators parted ways without reaching an agreement.

Iran will have received a total of $11.9 billion in cash assets by the end of June if current releases continue on pace as scheduled. (Read more about from “Obama Admin. Bribed Iran” HERE)

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Saudi Arabia’s King Dies

By BBC. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz was the fifth of his brothers to take the throne and became king in 2005, reports Caroline Hawley

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has died, royal officials have announced, weeks after he was admitted to hospital.

King Abdullah, who was said to be aged about 90, had been suffering from a lung infection.

A statement early on Friday said his 79-year-old half brother, Salman, had become king.

Abdullah came to the throne in 2005 but had suffered frequent bouts of ill health in recent years. (Read more about Saudi Arabia’s king dying HERE)

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Airstrikes Have Killed Over 6,000 ISIS Soldiers

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By Kelly Cohen. More than 6,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed, a top U.S. official said Thursday.

Though the Pentagon has been reticent to discuss exact numbers, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones told Al Arabiya News Channel Thursday that U.S.-led airstrikes have “taken more than half “ of ISIS’ leadership.

Jones also described the airstrikes as having a “devastating” effect on ISIS.

“We estimate that the airstrikes have now killed more than 6,000 ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq,” Jones said, adding that the airstrikes have “destroyed more than a thousand of ISIS vehicles inside Iraq.”

Jones reiterated that the statistics were “not so important in themselves,” but that they “do show the degradation of ISIS.” (Read more about the airstrikes killing ISIS soldiers HERE)

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Volunteers Secretly Battle ISIS

By Alexander Smith. A network of anti-ISIS “commando cells” has carried out hundreds of guerrilla attacks in a city seized by the Islamist militants, Iraq’s vice president told NBC News.

Dubbed the “Mosul Liberation Battalions,” the little-known resistance movement has killed “a large number” of extremists through operations including sniper attacks, blasts using homemade bombs and raids on weapons-storage sites, according to Osama al-Nujaifi.

Battalion members include former military officers and tribesmen as well as students and local businessmen. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Woman Dies After Farewell to Favorite Horse

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Photo Credit: BBCA cancer patient has died after a final farewell to her favourite horse outside the hospital where she was treated.

Staff at Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan granted Sheila Marsh’s last wish, by arranging a visit from two of her horses on Monday afternoon.

The hospital said the 77-year-old, unable to speak properly due to illness, “gently called” her favourite horse, who then nuzzled her cheek.

Mrs Marsh, who used to work at Haydock Park Racecourse, died early on Tuesday.

The grandmother from Wigan had six horses, three dogs, three cats and other animals. (Read more about the woman’s farewell to favorite horse HERE)

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Christian School Shut Down for “Bigoted” Views on Muslims; Outspoken Vanderbilt Professor Targeted by Muslims

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By Eleanor Harding and Mario Ledwith. Pupils at a Christian school have been branded bigots after a young boy gave the wrong answer when asked what a Muslim was.

Durham Free has been told to close after inspectors branded it an educational failure and said some children displayed ‘discriminatory views’ toward people of other faiths. The boy’s answer to the Muslim question apparently included a reference to terrorism.

But teachers said the verdict was grossly unfair and based on a throwaway and ignorant comment made by a single pupil. They said the school’s Christian ethos made it an easy target for officials who wanted to show they were promoting the Government’s diversity agenda.

A second Christian school in the area has been put into special measures. Inspectors also concluded its children were intolerant after allegedly asking ten-year-old pupils what lesbians ‘did’.

Teachers at Grindon Hall Christian School in Sunderland said the critical Ofsted report came as a shock because it was performing well. (Read more about the Christian school shut down HERE)

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Muslims Target Black Vanderbilt Professor

By Eric Owens. A black Vanderbilt University professor’s op-ed critical of Islamic terrorism has touched off a wave of protest by Muslim students and other critics.

The op-ed author is Carol Swain, a longtime professor of law and political science at Vanderbilt and a self-proclaimed political conservative. Her op-ed, entitled “Charlie Hebdo attacks prove critics were right about Islam,” appeared in The Tennessean (Nashville’s main newspaper) on Jan. 15.

Swain, who opposes burqas and advocates stronger efforts at assimilation for American Muslims, argued that radical Islam “poses an absolute danger to us and our children unless it is monitored better than it has been under the Obama administration.”

In response, Muslim students, led by Vanderbilt undergraduate Farishtay Yamin, took great offense.

Yamin told The Vanderbilt Hustler, the campus newspaper, that she “could not believe her eyes” when she read Swain’s column. The student also quickly labeled Swain’s opinion as “hate speech.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Alleged Epstein Sex Slave: I Did Not Have Sex with Bill Clinton

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Photo Credit: APShe did not have sexual relations with that man, President Clinton — but billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged “sex slave” is now swearing under oath and in excruciating detail about underaged sexual trysts with Prince Andrew and others.

In papers filed Wednesday in Florida federal court, “Jane Doe No. 3,” Virginia Roberts, detailed an 11-person orgy in 2001 with the British prince, who’s been dubbed “Randy Andy” . . .

Roberts, now 31, also doubled down on her claims that she had sex with renowned lawyer Alan Dershowitz, swearing in court papers that she had sex with him six times – and that he once stood casually chatting with Epstein as she was performing oral sex on the freaky financier.

Meanwhile, Epstein’s girlfriend, socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, had “forceful” sex with underaged girls — including Roberts — almost daily, the explosive filing says.

One person Roberts said she didn’t have sex with while working for Epstein between 1999 and 2002 was his then-pal, Bill Clinton. (Read more about Virginia Roberts saying she didn’t have sex with Bill Clinton HERE)

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$200M Ransom Shows ISIS Financial Desperation

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Photo Credit: Interdependent By Cristina Corbin. The Islamic State’s staggering $200 million demand for two Japanese hostages may reveal the terrorist group’s desperation to maintain control of its sprawling caliphate, especially amid falling black market oil revenues from seized wells and pipelines, terrorism experts said.

An online video purportedly released by the group’s al-Furqan media arm and posted Tuesday on militant websites associated with the terror network presents a pricey ultimatum: Japan must pay $200 million within 72 hours or two Japanese hostages — a 42-year-old private military company operator and a 47-year-old freelance journalist — will be executed.

The hostages, identified as Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto Jogo, appear in the video in orange jumpsuits like other hostages previously killed by Islamic State, which controls a third of Iraq and Syria. The militant who threatens them speaks in a British accent and may be the same jihadist who appeared in videos with western journalists who were beheaded.

While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to save the men — saying, “Their lives are the top priority” — the Japanese government declined to say whether it would pay the ransom. (Read more about ISIS financial desperation HERE)

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ISIS Gaining Ground in Yemen

By Brian Todd. The Syria-based terror group ISIS is active and recruiting inside the Middle Eastern state of Yemen, already a hotbed of terrorist activity, CNN has learned.

The disturbing information comes from a Yemeni official, who told CNN on Wednesday that ISIS has a presence in at least three provinces in southern and central Yemen, and there is now a “real competition” between ISIS and the Yemen-based terror group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

That competition manifested itself in a gun-battle between the two groups in Yemen’s eastern provinces last month, the same official said, though he did not have specifics on the casualties that resulted from that incident.

CNN cannot independently confirm the claims. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Paris Officials Threaten Lawsuit Against Fox News Over Muslim No-Go Zones

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By T. Becket Adams. Paris officials are reportedly planning to sue Fox News for airing now-retracted reports on supposed “no-go” Muslim zones in France, the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, announced Tuesday.

“When we’re insulted, and when we’ve had an image, then I think we’ll have to sue, I think we’ll have to go to court, in order to have these words removed,” Hidalgo said in an interview with CNN.

“The image of Paris has been prejudiced, and the honor of Paris has been prejudiced. And I think in the great discussion of truth, everyone is to play its role. And we’re going to have to be realistic and put things as they are,” she said.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour pressed Hidalgo to name one such news group that would be included in the lawsuit, prompting the Paris mayor to answer: “Fox News, that’s the name.” (Read more about the threatened lawsuit against Fox News over the alleged Muslim no-go zones HERE)

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Bobby Jindal under Fire for Highlighting Europe’s Muslim No-Go Zones

By Jordan Schachtel. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has come under fire from the left for doubling down on his assertion that France has “no-go zones” in which non-Muslims are forbidden from entering.

Jindal said at London’s Henry Jackson Society that Muslim immigrants are attempting to “colonize Western countries, because setting up your own enclave and demanding recognition of a no-go zone are exactly that.”

Some public figures argue that the “no-go zones” are areas susceptible to a sudden flare-up, depending upon the current political environment. Since 2006, Harvard Professor Daniel Pipes has kept a continually updated blog on France’s “no-go zones.” Pipes explains that while well-maintained, the areas remain “potentially dangerous” in times of heightened political turmoil. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Japan Prime Minister Vows to Save Hostages Captured by ISIS

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By Fox News. Japan’s Prime Minister vowed Tuesday to save the lives of two Japanese hostages, one a freelance journalist and the other a soldier for hire, threatened with beheading in an online video purportedly released by the Islamic State terror group.

In the video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan media arm and posted on militant websites associated with the extremist group, a militant threatened to kill the men unless a $200 million ransom was paid within 72 hours. If confirmed to be from Islamic State, better known as ISIS, the video would mark the first public demand for ransom from the group in exchange for the release of captives.

Speaking in Jerusalem, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on ISIS to immediately release the hostages, saying that “their lives are the top priority.” Abe is in the midst of a six-day visit to the Middle East, accompanied by more than 100 government officials and presidents of Japanese companies.

“It is unforgivable,” he said. “Extremism and Islam are completely different things.”

Abe said he would send Yasuhide Nakayama, a deputy foreign minister, to Jordan to seek the country’s support and to resolve the hostage crisis. The premier also said the Israeli government, which Japan promised Sunday to cooperate with on counterterrorism, are sharing information to aid in the hostage crisis. The Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment. (Read more about the Japanese Prime Minister vowing to save hostages captured by ISIS HERE)

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ISIS Executing ‘Educated Women’ in New Wave of Horror

By AFP. The UN on Tuesday decried numerous executions of civilians in Iraq by the Islamic State group, warning that educated women appeared to be especially at risk.

The jihadist group is showing a “monstrous disregard for human life” in the areas it controls in Iraq, the UN human rights office said.

The group, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and in neighbouring war-ravaged Syria, last week published pictures of the “crucifixions” of two men accused of being bandits, and of a woman being stoned to death, allegedly for adultery.

Numerous other women have also reportedly been executed recently in ISIS-controlled areas, including Mosul, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters.

She said “educated, professional women, particularly women who have run as candidates in elections for public office, seem to be particularly at risk.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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ISIS Plans on Killing Hundreds of Millions in ‘Religious Cleansing’

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Photo Credit: The Blaze By Jordan Schachtel. Todenhofer lived side by side with the jihadist fighters for ten days in the Islamic State-stronghold city of Mosul, Iraq. He was accompanied only by his son, who served as his cameraman.

“I always asked them about the value of mercy in Islam,” but “I didn’t see any mercy in their behavior,” explained Todenhofer. He added, “Something that I don’t understand at all is the enthusiasm in their plan of religious cleansing, planning to kill the non-believers… They also will kill Muslim democrats because they believe that non-ISIL-Muslims put the laws of human beings above the commandments of God.”

The German reporter then elaborated on how shocked he was about how “willing to kill” the ISIS fighters are. He said that they were ready to commit genocide. “They were talking about [killing] hundreds of millions. They were enthusiastic about it, and I just cannot understand that,” said Todenhofer. (Read more about the plans of ‘religious cleansing’ HERE)

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ISIS Kills 13 Teenage Boys for Watching Soccer Game

By Jason Howerton. For 13 teenage boys in the Iraqi city of Mosul, watching the Asian Cup soccer match between Iraq and Jordan would reportedly cost them their lives.

Under the Islamic State’s barbaric ideology, the act of watching the game on television was an offense punishable by death. The young boys were grabbed by terrorists and then publicly executed by a firing squad, according to the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.

Before being shot to death by machine guns, the terrorists reportedly announced the boys’ “crime” of breaking religious laws by watching sports over a loud speaker. (Read more from this story HERE)

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