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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Al-Qaeda Warns US About New, “Undetectable” Weapon They’ve Created

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Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is warning Americans that they’ve been working long and hard on a new tool to attack the U.S.

In the latest issue of the terror group’s Inspire electronic magazine, an individual called the AQ Chef was quoted as saying they developed a bomb in 2009, but “the brothers in the external operation committee did not give us the green light until recently.”

Hinting at al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s dedication to building undetectable bombs, he said in the winter 2014 edition of Inspire, released in late December, “they have developed other bombs that are more effective.”

AQ Chef indicates that lessons learned from failures in past assassination attempts and plots to attack U.S. airplanes and buildings have fed the development of a new generation of what it calls “undetectable” bombs.

In “The Hidden Bomb,” a 20-page section of the magazine, the writer goes into painstaking detail about how to build and test such a bomb: “For several months, we conducted a number of experiments. As a result we came up with these simple materials that are readily available around the globe, even inside America. We spared no effort in simplifying the idea in such we made it ‘another meal prepared in the kitchen’ so that every determined Muslim can prepare.” (Read how Al-Qaeda warns US HERE)

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China has Stepped In as World’s New Bank

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Photo Credit: Bloomberg View Thanks to China, Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund, Jim Yong Kim of the World Bank and Takehiko Nakao of the Asian Development Bank may no longer have much meaningful work to do.

Beijing’s move to bail out Russia, on top of its recent aid for Venezuela and Argentina, signals the death of the post-war Bretton Woods world. It’s also marks the beginning of the end for America’s linchpin role in the global economy and Japan’s influence in Asia.

What is China’s new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank if not an ADB killer? If Japan, ADB’s main benefactor, won’t share the presidency with Asian peers, Beijing will just use its deep pockets to overpower it. Lagarde’s and Kim’s shops also are looking at a future in which crisis-wracked governments call Beijing before Washington.

China stepping up its role as lender of last resort upends an economic development game that’s been decades in the making. The IMF, World Bank and ADB are bloated, change-adverse institutions. When Ukraine received a $17 billion IMF-led bailout this year it was about shoring up a geopolitically important economy, not geopolitical blackmail.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government doesn’t care about upgrading economies, the health of tax regimes or central bank reserves. It cares about loyalty. The quid pro quo: For our generous assistance we expect your full support on everything from Taiwan to territorial disputes to deadening the West’s pesky focus on human rights. (Read more about the world’s new bank HERE)

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Inept ISIS Attacking US Troops “Almost Daily”

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Photo Credit: CNS News By NBC News. Senior defense officials confirmed Monday that the al-Assad airbase in Iraq, where U.S. military are training Iraqi security forces, has been pounded almost daily by mortar attacks from ISIS militants, but claimed the attacks have been “completely ineffective.”

Col. Steve Warren described the routine barrage of mortars aimed at al-Assad as “nuisance attacks.” He said “no U.S. personnel or U.S. equipment” have come under direct fire at the base.

There are currently 320 Marines located at al-Assad airbase north of Baghdad to train, advise and assist Iraqi security forces. The Marines are also training some 200 Sunni tribesman who have joined the fight against ISIS. The total number of American military on the ground is expected to reach 3,000, as authorized by President Obama, by early spring. (Read more about the attacks from ISIS HERE)

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ISIS Mounts ‘Regular’ Attacks Against Anbar Airbase Where US Troops are Based

By Patrick Goodenough. American troops training Iraqi recruits at a key airbase in Anbar province face “regular” but “completely ineffective” gunfire from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters, according to the Pentagon.

They don’t shoot back, spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said Monday.

Since last month some 320 U.S. troops have been training and advising Iraqi soldiers at the Ein al-Asad airbase about 100 miles north-west of Baghdad. Mostly U.S. Marines, they include advisors, support personnel and a security contingent. (Read more from this story HERE)

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