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)

Suicide Bomber Attack Near Funeral, ISIS Believed to be Involved

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

By Associated Press. BAGHDAD – A government official says the death toll in a suicide bombing at a funeral north of Baghdad is now 15.

An Interior Ministry spokesman says the bomber blew himself up inside a funeral tent in a farming area outside the mainly Sunni town of Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad. He said another 26 mourners were wounded in the attack. (Read more about the suicide bomber attack HERE)

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Nearly 200 Fighters Executed by ISIS For Trying to Return Home

By Ben Tufft. Isis has executed at least 120 of its own militants in the past three months, the majority of whom were foreign fighters trying to return home, according to a Syrian monitoring group.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the brutal militant group killed the jihadists – most of whom were foreign fighters – for trying to flee the territory adding that the true number could be even higher.

Rami Abdurrahman, the director of the group, told The Independent: “We can confirm that 120 fighters have been killed by Isis, but from our sources on the ground we believe that over 200 have actually been killed.”

Of the 120 militants confirmed executed for “exceeding the limits in religion”, 116 are believed to be foreign fighters who wanted to return home. (Read more from this story HERE)
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Taliban Claims America ‘Defeated’ in Afghanistan

By Geoffrey Norman. Reuters is reporting that:

Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan on Monday declared the “defeat” of the U.S. and its allies in the 13-year-old war, a day after the coalition officially marked the end of its combat mission.

Meanwhile, as the AP reports:

Thousands of Afghans are pouring into makeshift camps in the capital where they face a harsh winter as the Taliban return to areas once cleared by foreign forces, who this week are marking the end of their combat mission. (Read more from this story HERE)

Another Mystery Airline Disappearance; Search Continues for Missing Airbus A320 Carrying 162

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Asia MournersBy Bart Jansen and John Bacon. Southeast Asia was mourning its third airline catastrophe of the year Sunday after an AirAsia jet with 162 people aboard vanished in violent weather and was believed to be at the bottom of an Indonesian sea.

The fate of Flight 8501 remained a mystery almost a full day after it vanished. . .

The Airbus A320 was bound for Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, when it lost contact with air-traffic control Sunday at about 7:24a.m. Singapore time, the airline said.

“We have no idea at the moment what went wrong,” said Tony Fernandes, CEO of the regional, low-cost carrier. “Let’s not speculate at the moment”. . .

The tragedy marks the third commercial air disaster involving airlines in the region this year. Mystery still shrouds Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared without a trace en route to Beijing on March 8 with 239 people aboard. On July 17, another Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down over rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine while on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people on board. (Read more about this mystery airline disappearance HERE)
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Anek Ferry BurningHundreds of passengers endure freezing 24 hours on burning ferry in Adriatic

By Barbie Nadeau. Hundreds of desperate passengers are enduring freezing conditions on a stricken ferry that has been burning in the Adriatic Sea for 24 hours.

Helicopters with night vision equipment have been working through the night to pull them off, one by one.

On Monday morning, the Italian Navy announced that 265 people had beenAnek Ferry Rescue rescued from the Norman Atlantic, which was traveling between the Greek port of Igoumenitsa and the Italian port of Ancona when fire broke out deep in the parking bay.

Authorities said 213 remained on board, including the captain, who was helping to coordinate the rescues.

After waiting hours in rough conditions, one Greek man told Italian state broadcaster RAI TV that passengers were “dying of cold and suffocating from the smoke,” and that their feet were “burning” from the heat of the flames. (Read more from this story HERE)

In US-Cuba Prisoner Swap, Mystery Surrounds the Unnamed 53

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prisonerCuba’s most prominent dissidents say they have been kept in the dark by U.S. officials over a list of 53 political prisoners who will be released from jail as part of a deal to end decades of hostility between the United States and Cuba.

For years, dissident leaders have told the United States which opponents of Cuba’s communist government were being jailed or harassed, but they say they were not consulted when the list of prisoners to be freed was drawn up or even told who is on it.

The lack of information has stoked concern and frustration among the dissidents, who worry that the secret list is flawed and that genuine political prisoners who should be on it will be left to languish.

“We’re concerned because we don’t agree with the silence, because we have a right to know who they are. Who are they?” said Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White dissident group, which marches in Havana on Sundays to demand the release of prisoners.

“There are not just 53 political prisoners, there are more, and we are concerned that the U.S. list might have common criminals on it,” she told Reuters in Havana. (Read more on the US-Cuba prisoner swap HERE)

New Islamic Terrorist Tactic: Little Girl Suicide Bombers

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Photo Credit: The Guardian

Photo Credit: The Guardian

By Nicholas Kurch. The Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram has ramped up attacks and is now using female children to carry out their mission to create an Islamic state in the region. One 13-year-old girl says she was given to Boko Haram by her father and was told, along with two other girls, to attack a textile factory in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city.

“When I was told I would have to die to enter paradise, that I would have to explode a bomb and die, I said I cannot do it,” the 13-year-old girl said.

Two of the girls detonated their suicide-vests, killing 4 and injuring the girl. When it was the girl’s turn, she could not go through with the attack and turned herself in to police.

“I said no. I said I would not detonate,” the girl said.

The young girl said her father, who at the time of this writing is still at large, joined Boko Haram and gave her daughter to the organization to be used as the leaders saw fit. (Read more about Islam’s girl suicide bombers HERE)

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Al-Qaida Calls For ‘Lone Wolf’ Attacks On Airliners

By Katie Frates. The article says the purpose of the attacks is to “crush the enemy’s economy,” and describes a lone wolf as “hard to uncover, because none knows him but Allah. He has no relationship with any group or any individuals.”

The terrorist organization identified American Airlines, United, Delta, British Airways, easyJet and Air France as the airlines to attack, Daily Mail reports. It also targeted Bill Gates and former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, although it describes Bernanke as the current chairman, even though he stepped down in February.

The magazine, published by Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, urges readers to take inspiration from Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “underpants bomber” who attempted in 2009 to blow up a plane on Christmas. The attack failed when the bomb did not fully detonate, and he is now serving a life sentence in the U.S. It also praises Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013 that killed three and injured over 200. (Read more from this story HERE)

Young Boy Escapes ISIS by Becoming a Suicide Bomber

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ISIS BeheadingBy Nicholas Kurch. Fourteen-year-old Usaid Barho of Syria was just like any other kid: He loved playing sports, listening to music and wanted to one day become a doctor.

Then he was thrust into the world of ISIS, who pressured him to become a member by using his Islamic faith. When he realized that ISIS was not for him, he escaped the terror group the only way he knew how.

He volunteered himself to become a suicide bomber.

Rather than killing himself and many others at a mosque in Baghdad, Barho immediately surrendered himself to authorities. The bomb-vest was disarmed and the boy was taken into custody:

“’If I were a fighter and tried to surrender to security forces they might kill me, with my gun in my hand,’ he said explaining how he used the opportunity as a suicide bomber to escape ISIS.” (Read more about how the young boy escapes ISIS HERE)

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Nearly 2,000 Executed by ISIS Since June

By Newsmax. Islamic State group jihadists have murdered nearly 2,000 people in Syria — half of them from an important Sunni tribe — since announcing their “caliphate” in June, a monitoring group said Sunday.

“The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the execution by the Islamic State of 1,878 people in Syria between June 28 when it announced its ‘caliphate’ and December 27,” the group said in a statement. . .

It said the victims were shot dead, beheaded or stoned to death in the provinces of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Hama, Homs, Hasakeh and Raqa.

Of those killed, 1,175 were civilians who included four children and eight women.

The dead included 930 members of the Shaitat tribe which rose up against IS in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor in the summer. (Read more from this story HERE)

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ISIS Goes to Twitter to Ask how Fighter Pilot Should be Killed

By Justen Charters. Following the capture of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasba by ISIS terrorists, the Islamic State and its followers have taken to Twitter to show the world that depravity is just a game to them.

While ISIS is infamous for beheading its captives, some of their suggestions on what to do with al-Kasaba are even more barbaric than beheading. According to Voactiv:

ISIS supporters are having the morbid debate predominantly on Twitter, using the hashtag “Suggest a Way to Kill the Jordanian Pilot Pig”. With over a thousand retweets, the hashtag is gaining popularity.

One terrorist recommends to use a bulldozer to run over al-Kasaba. (Read more from this story HERE)

Obama Admin. Spends Christmas Helping Islamists Get Off Terror List

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Muslim BillboardsBy Patrick Howley. The Obama administration spent Christmas week trying to get two Islamist organizations off a foreign country’s terror list.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim American Society are both listed as Islamist organizations by the Islamist Money In Politics database, which tracks copious political spending by figures linked to the groups. The Muslim American Society was founded as an American-based Muslim Brotherhood front group.

CAIR and MAS representatives met with “senior U.S. government officials” just days before Christmas to discuss the groups’ inclusion on the United Arab Emirates’ official list of terrorist organizations.

Read more about how the Obama Administration was helping Islamists with their terror problems HERE.
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Bachmann: Obama Has Embraced “Islamic Jihad” at Every Turn

By David McCabe. Outgoing Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) says President Obama has embraced the “agenda of Islamic jihad” at every turn.

“I have been very surprised, to answer your question, to see the president of the United States, at every turn, cut the legs off of our ally Israel, and in fact embrace and lift up the agenda of Islamic jihad,” she said in an interview released Wednesday with “Washington Watch,” a radio show produced by the socially conservative Family Research Council.

Bachmann criticized the president for writing to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to encourage a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.

“This really is a spiritual battle that we’re dealing with,” she added. “And while the president continues to say that this is not about the religion of Islam, I beg to differ.” Read more from this story HERE.

North Korean Internet "Erased From the Global Map"; US Attack Suspected

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Photo credit: kalleboo

Photo credit: kalleboo

By Dana Ford. North Korea’s Internet was back up Tuesday after a more than nine-hour outage, according to Dyn Research, a company that monitors Internet performance.

The disruption came amid an escalating war of words between the United States and North Korea over a massive cyberattack on Sony Pictures.

“Usually there are isolated blips, not continuous connectivity problems. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are absorbing some sort of attack presently,” Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at Dyn Research, said when the Internet was down.

Matthew Prince, president of CloudFlare, a performance and security company, described the disruption as if “all the routes to get to North Korea just disappeared.

“It’s as if North Korea got erased from the global map of the Internet,” he said.

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Canadians Fight Back Against North Korea, Plan ‘The Interview’ Showings

By Natalie Johnson. Sony Pictures’ controversial cancellation of a new movie, “The Interview,” following North Korean terrorist threats has inspired planned independent screenings in Toronto and Montreal.

Taylor Scollon’s Toronto Facebook event “The Interview Screening/Suck It, Kim Jong Un/Liberty in North Korea Fundraiser” launched Dec. 19 and has already garnered 4,400 “attending” responses.

“The North Korean regime maintains power through fear, and I think it’s troubling that they are (successfully at this point) using fear to suppress criticism and satire, even outside their borders,” Scollon told Mashable.

He added that the movie’s cancellation is a “good opportunity to raise awareness about the ongoing plight of the North Korean people.” Read more from this story HERE.

Watch a Green Comet Streak Across the Sky for Christmas

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green cometDiscovered only this past August, comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) is now quickly brightening to naked-eye visibility as it moves from the deep southern sky into prime viewing location for observers throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The comet is already putting on a Christmas show, glowing green thanks to molecules that glow when hit by the sun’s solar wind.

This icy visitor to the inner solar system was first spotted by its namesake, Terry Lovejoy, an Australian astronomer using a common backyard telescope with only an eight-inch mirror. He spotted the comet while it was still a very faint 15th magnitude.

The comet wasn’t predicted to become visible with the unaided eye until late January or February 2015. But comets can be unpredictable, with chaotic surface activity as they heat up and melt while nearing the sun during orbit. Since summer, the comet’s brightness has shot up by hundreds of times.

In fact, some observers in the Southern Hemisphere are reporting that it has brightened to magnitude 6, meaning that it has technically reached naked-eye levels already. It’s now an easy target to find with binoculars, showing up as a distinct hazy ball.

Read more from this story HERE.