Hamas Stopped Palestinian Children from Going to Israel for Postwar Peace Trip

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Photo Credit: NY Daily News

Photo Credit: NY Daily News

By Fares Akram. Gaza’s Hamas rulers prevented a group of children from entering Israel on Sunday for a postwar conciliatory trip meant to foster peace, Hamas and organizers said.

The 37 children, most of whom have lost a parent in fighting between Hamas and Israel, were to enter Israel on Sunday and spend a week visiting Jewish and Arab communities and a zoo. They were also going to travel to the West Bank for a meeting with the Palestinian president.

But a bus carrying the children and their adult chaperones was turned back when it reached the main crossing between Gaza and Israel. Hamas spokesman Eyad Bozum said the decision was made “to protect the culture of our children and our people” from normalizing relations with Israel. He said Hamas would make sure such a trip “will never happen again”. . .

Yoel Marshak, an Israeli organizer, said the visit was meant to a show a positive side of Israel and promote peace. (Read more on why Hamas stopped Palestinian children from their Israel peace trip HERE)

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UAW Teachers Branch Joins Israel Boycott

By Sean Higgins. A local branch of the United Auto Workers has become the first U.S. labor organization to join the international movement to boycott Israel, according to liberal groups.

UAW Local 2865, which represents teaching assistants at the University of California, voted to join it on Dec. 4, saying that Israel was engaging in “ongoing human rights violations” against the Palestinians.

A total of 66 percent of the members backed joining the movement, which supporters call “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.” Only 2,168 members participated in the Dec. 4 vote, a small fraction of Local 2865’s reported 13,000 members.

The ballot language asked members to support the boycott and to call on both the university and the UAW to join in by “divest[ing] their investments, including pension funds, from Israeli state institutions and international companies complicit in severe and ongoing human rights violations as part of the Israeli oppression of Palestinian people.” It also called on UAW and the university not to do business with any such companies and for the federal government to end economic aid to the country. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Despite “Unprecedented Surge,” 52,701 Fewer Illegal Aliens Deported in U.S in 2014

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Photo Credit: CNS News

Photo Credit: CNS News

By Barbara Hollingsworth. Despite “an unprecedented surge of illegal border crossings in the Rio Grande Valley,” 52,701 fewer illegal aliens were deported during Fiscal Year 2014 than during the previous year, according to a report by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

There were 315,943 removals during FY 2014, down from 368,644 in FY 2013, according to the report, which was released by the agency on Dec. 19th.

The FY 2014 removal figure includes 91,037 criminals and 137,983 non-criminals apprehended “while attempting to unlawfully enter the United States.”

However, Houston’s KPRC-TV reported that only a small percentage of families and unaccompanied children who streamed across the border this summer were sent back to their home countries. (Read about the fewer illegal aliens deported HERE)

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24 States Continue Their Battle Against Obama’s Immigration Executive Actions

By Hans von Spakovsky. U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen of the Southern District of Texas has scheduled a hearing for Jan. 9 on the request for an injunction filed by 24 states against President Obama’s immigration amnesty plan.

In a nationally televised speech on Nov. 20, Obama announced (and began implementing) the executive actions. The original lawsuit was filed on Dec. 3, and the states requested an injunction hearing by Dec. 31 “or as soon as practicable thereafter.”

The lawsuit claims that Obama has “unilaterally suspend[ed] the immigration laws as applied to 4 million of the 11 million” illegal aliens in the United States.

The states are requesting that Hanen find that the Department of Homeland Security directives implementing Obama’s plan violate the “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” clause of the Constitution, as well as various provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act because they are arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and were issued without regulatory authority or the required notice and opportunity for public comment. . .

Here are the 24 states involved in the lawsuit:

1.Alabama
2.Arizona
3.Arkansas
4.Florida
5.Georgia
6.Idaho
7.Indiana
8.Kansas
9.Louisiana
10.Maine
11.Michigan
12.Mississippi
13.Montana
14.Nebraska
15.North Carolina
16.South Carolina
17.North Dakota
18.Ohio
19.Oklahoma
20.South Dakota
21.Texas
22.Utah
23.West Virginia
24.Wisconsin
(Read more from this story HERE)

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North Korea: Attack on Obama Wasn’t Racist Because not all Monkeys are Black

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Photo Credit: Getty

Photo Credit: Getty

By Frances Martel. “Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest,” a state article written for the Korean Central News Agency– the government’s main propaganda outfit, remarked. In the same article, it described the United States’ efforts to distribute internet access as “without shame” and compared them to “children playing tag.”

Speaking to Argentine radio station Rock&Pop, Kim Jong Un’s man in Latin America clarified that calling America’s first black president a “monkey” is not racist.

“It is absolutely not a racist comment,” noted Alejandro Cao de Benós. “Not every monkey is black.”

He added wishes that Sony “lose much money” on The Interview and attempted to draw a parallel to American government, claiming that anyone making a similar film about President Obama would be arrested:

Independent of its comedic character, what you cannot do is simulate the assassination of a president. This is a question of respect towards a leader elected by his population. I invite you to make a movie attempting to assassinate President Obama. You would be arrested surely… you would be condemned and sent to Guantánamo.

(Read more about the attack on Obama HERE)

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Activist Will Launch ‘The Interview’ Into North Korea via Balloon Drop

By Kate Scanlon. An activist has decided to bring “The Interview” to the people of North Korea.

Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector and an activist against its regime, will launch into North Korea balloons carrying DVDs and USBs containing the controversial film, according to the Associated Press.

“The Interview” depicts the death of the country’s dictator, Kim Jong Un.

“North Korea’s absolute leadership will crumble if the idolization of leader Kim breaks down,” Park told the AP.

Park said he plans to send 100,000 DVDs and USBs with the movie into North Korea next month. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Publisher HarperCollins Apologizes for Middle East Atlas that Wiped Israel off the Map

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Photo Credit: Algemeiner

Photo Credit: Algemeiner

HarperCollins, one of the world’s leading publishing companies, has apologized for removing Israel from its Middle East Atlas, which is sold to English-speaking schools in the Arab Gulf, after receiving angry criticism from Jewish and Christian leaders.

“Shame on HarperCollins,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, told The Algemeiner, prior to the release of a statement from the publisher which announced that the atlas “has now been removed from sale in all territories and all remaining stock will be pulped. HarperCollins sincerely apologises for this omission and for any offence caused.”

As the British Christian newspaper The Tablet reported on Wednesday, the atlases “depict Jordan and Syria extending all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.” A spokesman for Collins Bartholomew, the subsidiary of HarperCollins that specializes in maps, told the paper that including Israel would have been “unacceptable” to their customers in the Gulf and the amendment incorporated “local preferences.” The Tablet also reported that a customs officer in one Gulf nation would only permit the atlases to reach their intended recipient “only once Israel had been struck out by hand.”

Bishop Declan Lang, the chairman of the Department of International Affairs Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, told The Tablet that the deliberate omitting of Israel from the map would harm peace efforts on the Middle East. (Read more about publisher HarperCollins apologizes for map taking Israel off HERE)

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36 Killed, 45 Injured in Shanghai Stampede

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Thirty-five people died in a stampede during New Year’s celebrations in Shanghai’s historic waterfront area, city officials said Thursday — the worst disaster to hit one of China’s showcase cities in recent years.

A Shanghai government statement said another 46 people were receiving hospital treatment, including 14 who were seriously injured, following the chaos about a half-hour before midnight.

The microblog of the People’s Daily, which is run by the ruling Communist Party, said that 25 women and 10 men had died, aged between 36 and 16. The injured included 3 Taiwanese and one Malaysian, it said.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted an unnamed witness as saying people had scrambled for coupons that looked like dollar bills that were being thrown out of a third-floor window. It said the cause of the stampede was still under investigation.

At one of the hospitals where the injured were being treated, police brought photos out of dead victims who they had not been able to identify, causing dozens of waiting relatives to crowd around the table. Not everyone could see, and young women who looked at photographs someone had taken on a cellphone broke into tears. (Read more about the Shanghai stampede HERE)

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Illegal Aliens Increasingly Hostile, Aggressive Toward US Border Patrol

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Photo Credit: Fox News Latino

Photo Credit: Fox News Latino

By Fox News Latino. Undocumented migrants arrested in the Arizona desert increasingly mount resistance and behave more aggressively during detentions, Border Patrol agents working in the state said.

“In recent years, undocumented immigrants’ aggressiveness has increased and that is something we face when we patrol the desert,” Art Del Cueto, president of the union representing Border Patrol agents in Arizona, told Efe.

Del Cueto recalled that when he began his career as a Border Patrol agent 12 years ago, during his first arrest of illegal immigrants he alone stopped 80 people and all of them followed his instructions without objection.

“Now, when we stop two or three people, often we find that, at least, one of them is aggressive,” he said.

On Dec. 7, the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector reported that one of its officers had been assaulted by a Mexican migrant near the town of Gu Vo. (Read more from the story Illegal Aliens Increasingly Hostile HERE)

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GOP Leadership may be Developing Plan to Solidify Obama’s Executive Amnesty

By Matthew Boyle. Leaders of the GOP-led Congress that will be sworn in next month are facing a large question: whether or not to defund President Obama’s unilateral executive amnesty. But as 2015 dawns, it isn’t clear whether they’ll be willing to take up the fight.

During December’s lame duck session, Republicans surrendered by passing a 1,774-page, $1.1 trillion so-called “cromnibus” spending bill. That measure funds most of the federal government through September, and the Department of Homeland Security for the next two months. Conservatives wanted Republicans to attempt to roll back Obama’s amnesty by defunding DHS this month.

But the incoming, bicameral congressional GOP leadership team may be working out a plan to fund President Obama’s executive amnesty in totality through 2015 and even beyond, therefore enabling its implementation once and for all. While GOP leaders and their aides haven’t said on the record that they’re going to fund Obama’s amnesty, recent reporting indicates that’s a very real possibility despite a resounding midterm election where voters sent more Republicans to Washington, in large part, to push back against Obama’s power grabs.

“He’s consulting with his members and the Speaker on how best to proceed,” Don Stewart, a spokesman for incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, told Breitbart News of his boss’s role in these matters—while explicitly not answering whether funding for executive amnesty would be blocked or not. (Read more from this story HERE)

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AirAsia Plane Crash Update: At Least 40 bodies Found

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Photo Credit: WSJ

Photo Credit: WSJ

By Fox News. At least 40 bodies have been found in the area where AirAsia Flight 8501 last made contact with air traffic controllers, along with debris from the plane.

The bodies were found in the Java Sea about six miles from the plane’s last known point of contact. The plane disappeared Sunday with 162 people on board traveling from Surbaya, Indonesia to Singapore.

The bodies were were not wearing life jackets, according to Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Director, SB Supriyadi.

Rescue workers were shown on local TV being lowered on ropes from a hovering helicopter to retrieve bodies. Efforts were hindered by 6-foot waves and strong winds, Supriyadi said, adding that several bodies were later picked up by a navy ship.

“The warship Bung Tomo has retrieved 40 bodies and the number is growing. They are very busy now,” a navy spokesman added. (Read more about the AirAsia plane crash HERE)

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AirAsia Plane Overshoots Philippine Airway

By AP. An AirAsia Zest plane carrying 159 people overshot the runway and got stuck in a muddy field Tuesday at an international airport in the central Philippines after landing from Manila in windy weather, officials said. There were no reports of injuries.

Crew members launched emergency slides to help passengers disembark from the Airbus A320-200 after it skidded off the runway in the resort town of Kalibo in Aklan province before nightfall, Giovanni Hontomin, who is in charge of AirAsia Zest’s operations, said by phone.

Initial reports indicated that three of the plane’s tires got stuck in the mud, said Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokesman Eric Apolonio. He said the busy airport would be closed to air traffic until the stalled aircraft, which likely sustained some damage, is towed away from near the runway’s end. (Read more from this story HERE)

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How Can We Lose a Plane? Disbelief as Second Plane Vanishes (+video)

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You don’t have to be an expert to ask yourself the question — how in the world, with today’s technology, can a commercial airplane go missing?

. . .Those who get lost driving can use GPS. If you lose your iPhone, there’s an app to track it down. Scientists successfully plotted the course for a spacecraft that landed on a speeding comet.

But something goes wrong aboard a 123-foot, 67-ton passenger jet and rescuers must resort to scouring the ocean?

. . .There are dozens of similar questions on social media. They hint at the same sentiment: in a world where people’s locations are tracked for everything from map apps to what ads appear on a web browser, why does Big Brother’s gaze avoid the skies? (Read more on how you lose a plane HERE)

Confirmed Case of Ebola in Scotland; CDC Now Offers Free Burials

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

By Reuters. The Scottish government said a confirmed case of Ebola was diagnosed in Glasgow.

The patient was a health care worker was helping combat the disease in west Africa, the government said.

The patient has been isolated and is receiving treatment in the specialist Brownlee Unit for Infectious Diseases on the Gartnavel Hospital campus. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Deaths from Ebola Hit 7,708, CDC Comic Book Has Started to Offer Free Burials

By Paul Bedard. The death toll from the Ebola outbreak has hit 7,708, and the total number of cases charted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has nearly reached 20,000, the federal agency said on Monday

The latest count comes as the CDC continues to warn family and friends of those killed by Ebola in West Africa to stay away from the bodies and call authorities for a free burial.

The warning is in an easy-to-understand comic book titled “Ebola Must Go: Bury All Dead Bodies Safely.” The 10-page book tells family and friends to stay three feet away from the body and let aid workers clean up.

At actual burial, five family members will be allowed to participate. “Five members of the family will be able to attend the burial. They will not travel with the burial team. The family can stand 15 feet away. A religious leader can come. The family can chose a gravestone for the family member,” according to the comic book. (Read more from this story HERE)

Six Hackers Identified in Sony Hack, One a Former Employee

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hackersNorse, the cybersecurity firm that first identified a potential insider in the massive November hack of Sony Pictures, believes it’s uncovered evidence on six individuals primarily involved in the attack, including one former Sony employee with ”extensive knowledge of the company’s network and operations.”

Senior vice president at Norse Kurt Stammberger told the Security Ledger late Sunday the company has identified six people “with direct involvement in the hack,” two of whom are based in the U.S. along with one in Canada, Singapore and Thailand.

The list also includes a former decade-long Sony veteran who “worked in a technical role” and was laid off in May. Norse previously identified the ex-employee as “Lena,” and said she claimed to have connection to the “Guardians of Peace” hacker group that took credit for the attack against Sony, which has so far resulted in leaked employee information, executives’ emails, unreleased films and the limiting of “The Interview” theatrical release in response to a terrorist threat.

The FBI has attributed all of the above to North Korea due to the film’s plot, which centers around an attempt to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. (Read more about the hackers identified HERE)