The Case of the Missing Castro: It’s Officially Been One Year Since the Cuban Dictator has been Seen Publicly

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By Fox News Latino. Today marks 365 days since the former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, 88, was last seen in public — he was a gaunt presence who delicately shuffled his way through an art gallery in Havana.

His absence has been especially conspicuous because so far has he made no comment about the announcement that the U.S. will restore diplomatic relations after more than 50 years of hostility.

Little information about Castro is officially disclosed, including where he lives. But his silence has once again started rumors about his fragile health.

Late on Thursday, various media outlets reported that Castro had died and that Cuban officials were to hold a press conference on his death after a report was published by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera about Castro’s demise.

Cuban officials vehemently denied both Castro’s death and the press conference and the Italian newspaper eventually retracted its story, but not before social media sites like Twitter exploded with rumors of the elder Castro’s death. (Read more about the missing Castro HERE)

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One Castro is Dead. Long Live the Other One.

By David Francis. Around 6:00 this morning, amid a flurry of news on the search for the Parisian gunmen, a curious rumor started to circulate on social media: Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had died.

Initial reports appear to have come from the Diario Las Américas, an anti-Castro Cuban exile paper in Miami. Soon, German and British media picked up on the story. By 6:30 a.m., Twitter was filled rumors of the longtime Cuban leader’s demise.

This makes sense: News of Castro slipping into the great beyond is shovel-ready for Twitter. The 88-year-old Castro is known to be in poor health and is rarely seen in public, so his death wouldn’t be all that surprising. It also fits well into the current U.S.-Cuba thaw narrative. It would serve as a fitting end to the era of Cold War hostilities.

Perhaps most importantly, Castro’s passing would be sure to spark controversy. He remains a divisive figure for Cubans and Cuban exiles; his passing would ignite debate over whether he was Cuba’s savior or if he doomed the island nation to decades of poverty. What better place to hash this out than Twitter?

Unfortunately for the anti-Castro crowd, the rumor appears to be untrue. But it gained enough traction on social media that the Cuban government was forced to deny that it would hold a press conference to comment on reports. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Paris Suspect in Massacre May Have Been Trained by Guantanamo Prisoner Released by Obama Admin.

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Photo Credit: Fox News By Fox News. One of the two brothers suspected of gunning down 12 people in an attack on a Paris-based satirical magazine traveled to Yemen in 2011 and had direct contact with an Al Qaeda training camp, according to U.S. government sources.

Fox News is told the investigators have made it a priority to determine whether he had contact with Al Qaeda in Yemen’s leadership, including a bomb maker and a former Guantanamo Bay detainee.

Both Said Kouachi, 34, who is known to have gone to Yemen, and his brother, Cherif Kouachi, who served time in France on a terrorism conviction, were on a U.S. no-fly list, sources confirmed. The new information shows both suspects, who were still being hunted Thursday night, had ties to Al Qaeda affiliates, one in Yemen and the other in Iraq.

“AQAP (Al Qaeda’s Arabian Peninsula affiliate) has been the real force within Al Qaeda that’s always been focused on external operations against the West and the United States – the most committed to doing this,” Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox News. McCaul has been getting regular briefings about the Paris attack. (Read more about the suspect linked to Guantanamo prisoner released by the Obama Admin. HERE)

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French Police Swarming Paris Forest in Search for Islamic Suspects

By Fox News. French police are swarming a 51-square-mile dense forest in their hunt for the Islamist terrorist brothers suspected of carrying out Wednesday’s deadly shooting massacre at the Paris office of a satirical magazine.

Authorities say the two brothers, identified as Said and Cherif Kouachi, may be hiding out in the Forêt de Retz, a vast woodland described as “larger than Paris,” Sky News reported.

The pair robbed a gas station at gunpoint Thursday near the small town of Villers-Cotterêts, about 40 miles northeast of Paris, a day after they opened fire inside the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people and wounding 11 others, four seriously, police said. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Islamic Genocide: Boko Haram Slaughters 2000 in One Day

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Photo Credit: Breitbart
Islamist terror group Boko Haram reportedly burned down an entire Nigerian village on Wednesday, killing an estimated 2,000 people.

An official told the BBC that countless bodies lay motionless in the street. Senior Nigerian government official, Maina Maaji Lawan, said that the town Boko Haram had raided, one that had an estimated population of 10,000, now became “virtually non-existent.” “It has been burnt down,” he added.

Boko Haram killed an estimated 2,000 last year in its jihad to expand its self-declared Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, an area with a heavy Muslim population.

If reports are accurate, Boko Haram has just overtaken its 2014 death toll in one day.

The mass slaughter comes after Boko Haram overtook a government military base on Saturday. It is believed that the jihadists launched their attack on the village from the recently-overtaken base. The barracks previously hosted the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF), which hosts soldiers from the governments of Nigeria, Chad, and Niger. (Read more on the village Boko Haram slaughters HERE)

Read about Obama stating we must defend against Islamophobia HERE.

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Reality Check: Christian Persecution is Just Going to Get Worse

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While the year 2014 will go down in history for having the highest level of global persecution of Christians in the modern era, current conditions suggest the worst is yet to come.

Today, Open Doors released its annual World Watch List, which ranks the top 50 countries where it is most dangerous and difficult to be a Christian. This year, the threshold was higher for a country to make the list, indicating that worldwide levels of persecution have increased. Topping the 2015 list for the 13th consecutive year is North Korea. Africa saw the most rapid growth of persecution, while the Middle East saw targeted attacks, resulting in a mass exodus of Christians.

Approximately 100 million Christians are persecuted worldwide, making them one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world. Islamic extremism is the main source of persecution in 40 of the 50 countries on the 2015 World Watch List. While persecution can take many forms, Christians throughout the world risk imprisonment, torture, rape and even death as result of their faith.

“Even Christian-majority states are experiencing unprecedented levels of exclusion, discrimination and violence,” said David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA. “The 2015 World Watch List reveals that a staggering number of Christians are becoming victims of intolerance and violence because of their faith. They are being forced to be more secretive about their faith.” (Read more about the Christian persecution of 2014 HERE)

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France: Worst Terror Attack in Recent History (+video)

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By BBC.com. Gunmen have shot dead 12 people at the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an apparent militant Islamist attack.

Four of the magazine’s well-known cartoonists, including its editor, were among those killed, as well as two police officers.

A major police operation is under way to find three gunmen who fled by car.

President Francois Hollande said there was no doubt it had been a terrorist attack “of exceptional barbarity”. . .

Cartoon from Hebdo Satirical French Magazine

The masked attackers opened fire with assault rifles in the office and exchanged shots with police in the street outside before escaping by car. They later abandoned the car in Rue de Meaux, northern Paris, where they hijacked a second car. (Read more about “Worst Terror Attack” HERE)
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Vast Crowds Gather Across Europe to Protest French Massacre

By Stephanie Linning and Sian Boyle. As darkness fell across Europe, tens of thousands took to the streets to show their solidarity with those killed by gunmen at the offices of satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo.

The scenes were replicated across France, in London and around the world with crowds holding placards bearing the slogan #JeSuisCharlie, which means ‘I am Charlie’ in French. Others were seen carrying enlarged versions of the some of the newspaper’s anti-Islamist cartoons.

Meanwhile the website of French newspaper Le Monde last night showed an interactive map of vigils being held across the world in Dublin, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid, Rome, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, and as far afield as Tunis, Lima, Rio de Janeiro and Madagascar.

In London, hundreds of people filled Trafalgar Square at a silent vigil for those killed when masked gunmen stormed the newspaper’s headquarters. Many held pens, pencils and notebooks in the air to show their support for the journalists, cartoonists and police officers who lost their lives.

The gatherings were held as French President Francoise Hollande declared tomorrow a day of national mourning tomorrow in respect for the victims of this morning’s attack. (Read more from this story HERE)

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The Real Story on the Paris Massacre

By Steven Crowder. I’m sure that many of you have already read about this morning’s terrorist attack in Paris, killing twelve people. My thoughts and prayers are with the families and the people of France today.

It was carried out by Muslim terrorists against a satirical newspaper. That’s important to know. This wasn’t a senseless act of violence, but a pre-meditated one in the name of Allah. Yet again, this was an attack designed as a form of censorship through violence, carried out to scare all non-Muslims into silence.

No other religion does this.

It also disproves a common myth. As Americans, we’re often blamed for attacks on our own soil.

If American’s didn’t try to police the world, they wouldn’t hate us!

If we just tried to be more tolerant, Muslims wouldn’t have a reason to be mad at the U.S.!

Right. Well, what about France? The EU in general has been a beacon for multi-cultural tolerance across the globe. Sharia law has even slowly crept into many of their legal systems. I mean, how else can you slap your broad around? Granted, while France hasn’t exactly been as open-armed as England, they can hardly be seen as Team America: World Police. They’re certainly not the evil red, white and blue rednecks invading foreign countries, blowing up every brown person in sight. Because you know, that’s our thing.

Yet still, today in France, they die.

To humanity, there’s no possible justification for this. To Islamists, it already is.

The ideology of Islam is the enemy of humanity. Once you wade through the media circus today, that’s what it comes down to. France is not America. France is a tolerant, multicultural nation with an increasing demographic tilt toward Islam. Yet still, they are hated.

Evading the real issue at hand in the name of political correctness does a great disservice to not only those deceased, but to humanity.

Anytime we see a terrorist attack carried out in the name of Allah and we immediately ask their true motives… Muhammad did it first.

To read more, please visit Steven Crowder’s website HERE.

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Prince Andrew Plans no Legal Action Against Woman Who Claimed Sex Abuse

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By Laura Smith-Spark, Max Foster and Greg Botelho. Britain’s Prince Andrew does not have plans to take legal action against a woman who has named him in a sex abuse lawsuit in Florida, CNN learned Tuesday.

The allegation that he had sex with an underage girl, made in a federal court filing in Florida last week, has been firmly rejected by Buckingham Palace.

“It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation,” the palace said in a statement Monday. (Read more about Prince Andrew plans HERE)

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Father of Underage “Sex Slave” is Claiming She was Introduced to the Queen

By Zachary Davies Boren. The teenager at the center of a Royal sex abuse scandal was introduced to the Queen in London, her father has claimed.

Virginia Roberts, the alleged underage “sex slave” of Prince Andrew’s billionaire friend Jeffrey Epstein, was “so excited” to meet the Queen, her father told The Sun.

Sky Roberts, 58, said: “Virginia told me a few years back that she met Prince Andrew when she went to London.

“She also said while they were there she met the Queen.

“She had been flown to London by Jeffrey [Epstein]. He would fly her all over the world and she would give him massages on his private jet.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Mystery Surrounding the Remaining Political Prisoners in Cuba

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Photo Credit: Sharon MollerusAn air of secrecy surrounds the fate of 53 political prisoners whom Cuba agreed to free in its historic deal with the United States last month, as Washington and Havana’s refusal to publicly identify the dissidents is fueling suspicion over Cuba’s intentions.

Almost three weeks after the agreement, neither dissidents on the island nor leaders in the Cuban exile community know how many have been let out or whether any of the prisoners they are aware of are among those scheduled to be freed.

Both the White House and the State Department refuse to publicly name the prisoners included on a list U.S. negotiators provided their Cuban counterparts amid negotiations to normalize relations, although officials said a prisoner release was not a precondition for renewing diplomatic ties. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that not everyone on the list has been set free yet, but it was always understood that they would be released “in stages.”

“Well, we know who’s on there. And the Cuban government knows who’s on there,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, expressing doubts that the list would be made public.

The lack of transparency is contributing to a growing sense of concern that Havana will not follow through on its promises. Francisco Hernandez, president of the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation, cited the Cuban government’s track record of slipping in unwanted common criminals with legitimate political prisoners headed for refuge in other countries. (Read more about the political prisoners in Cuba HERE)

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UN Moving Forward With Anti-Gun Treaty

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photo credit: R0NgMoving crews have packed up desks, lamps, chairs, office supplies and other personal items of numerous Democrat Senate and House offices now vacated after November’s election. But in a suite of offices located directly across from the Senate Floor, there were relics from the list of bills that passed the U.S. House and sat without action inside Harry Reid’s office. Somewhere in that stack likely sits an anti-gun treaty signed by Secretary of State John Kerry.

To his credit, outgoing-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid likely knew the United Nation’s Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) would never meet the two-thirds majority requirement for ratification. But as of Christmas Eve, the treaty has gone into effect internationally.

The UN General Assembly first approved the ATT in April 2013 and Kerry signed it on Sept. 24, 2013, amid criticism from the Republican side of the upper chamber’s aisle.

No action has been taken to move the treaty to a vote for U.S. Senate ratification, but 61 nations have ratified the treaty and 69 additional nations have signed without ratification by their own governments. The ATT is legally binding only to the 61 nations whose governments have procedurally embraced the global legislation.

Likely, Reid avoided the self-inflicted damage to Democrats in an election cycle that would result with a recorded vote on a UN arms control effort. Then again, Democrats didn’t fair all that well as it was. (Read more about the anti-gun treaty HERE)

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Congress Poised to Expand Obama’s Authority to Fight ISIS

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Photo Credit: International Business Times By Sean Lengell. New Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said he expects Congress will “get the ball rolling” on legislation this month to give the White House expanded authority to conduct military operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants.

“It’s got to be sooner rather than later,” the Arizona Republican told reporters Tuesday.

In December, the then-Democratic controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved along partisan lines a measure to give President Obama more leeway in using the military to fight foreign terrorists. The bill, which barred the use of ground forces, died after it failed to receive a vote in the full Senate.

But with Republicans now controlling both houses of Congress, McCain said the matter is a vital national security priority. The measure will be primarily handled by the foreign relations committee with input from the armed services panel, he said.

McCain said he is “begging” the Obama administration to produce a draft of the bill, known as an Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or AUMF, but that the Senate is ready to act regardless. (Read more about the possible expansion to fight ISIS HERE)

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Chief Executioner for ISIS Found Beheaded

By Gianluca Mezzofiore. In a grotesque twist of the saying “live by the sword, die by the sword”, an Islamic State executioner in Syria who carried out beheadings for the jihadist group has been found with his head cut off.

The body of the Egyptian man, known to be the deputy emir of the feared al-Hesbah (or Hisbah) force in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, was recovered near a power plant in al-Mayadeen city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The corpse showed signs of torture and carried the message “This is evil, you Sheikh” written on it. The severed head also had a cigarette in its mouth. It is unclear who carried out the decapitation but the message was obvious. (Read more from this story HERE)

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“Unprecedented Levels”: New Record for Meth Seizures at Border in 2014

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Photo Credit: Utsandiego Methamphetamine seizures at U.S. ports of entry on the California-Mexico border reached unprecedented levels in fiscal 2014, as drug trafficking organizations strive to smuggle growing quantities of the low-cost Mexican-made product into the United States.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures show 14,732 pounds of meth seized by the San Diego field office during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, accounting for 63 percent of the synthetic drug seized at all land, air and sea ports of entry nationwide.

With the California border as their main smuggling route, “the Mexican cartels are flooding the U.S. marketplace with their cheap methamphetamine,” said Gary Hill, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s assistant special agent in charge in San Diego.

Undercover agents are purchasing meth in San Diego for $3,500 a pound, versus about $11,800 for a pound of cocaine, Hill said. “We have seen the trend of the price of meth decreasing tremendously since 2008.”

Methamphetamine, a highly addictive synthetic drug, once was primarily produced in the United States, and San Diego was infamous as its manufacturing capital. But with a U.S. law enforcement crackdown on the precursor chemicals used to make meth, the drug is now largely produced in Mexico. (Read more about the meth seizures at borders HERE)

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