Nigeria Army Claims to Know Whereabouts of Abducted Girls

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Photo Credit: ReutersNigeria’s military knows where the more than 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram are but has ruled out using force to rescue them, the state news agency quoted Chief of Defence Staff Air Marshal Alex Badeh as saying on Monday.

Seven weeks since Boko Haram militants abducted more than 200 girls taking exams at secondary school in the remote northeastern village of Chibok, little is known of their whereabouts or what the military is doing to get them out.

“The good news for the parents of the girls is that we know where they are, but we cannot tell you,” Badeh was quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) as saying.

“But where they are held, can we go there with force? We can’t kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back.”

Most officials think any raid to rescue them would be fraught with danger and probably not worth the risk that the girls would be killed by their captors – an Islamist group that has shown a high degree of ruthlessness in killing civilians.

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Swiss Group to Allow Assisted Dying for Elderly Who Are Not Terminally Ill

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Photo Credit: Christian Hartmann / ReutersA Swiss organisation that helps people take their own lives has voted to extend its services to elderly people who are not terminally ill.

Exit added “suicide due to old age” to their statutes at an annual general meeting held over the weekend, allowing people suffering from psychological or physical problems associated with old age the choice to end their life.

Assisted dying is legal in Switzerland and technically even a healthy young person could use such services. However, organisations involved in this work set their own internal requirements, which differ from group to group.

The move has been criticised by the Swiss Medical Association amid fears it will encourage suicide among the elderly. “We do not support the change of statutes by Exit. It gives us cause for concern because it cannot be ruled out that elderly healthy people could come under pressure of taking their own life,” said the association’s president, Dr Jürg Schlup.

But Exit said that most people who would choose this option were already members of the organisation and had been looking into assisted dying for years.

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Following Pope Visit to Security Fence, Netanyahu Highlights Pre-Wall Terror Deaths (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube ScreenshotA day after Pope Francis was pictured praying at Israel’s security barrier on Sunday beneath a slogan that compared Palestinians with Jews under the Nazis, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu explained to him in no uncertain terms why the wall was erected in the first place.

At a Jerusalem memorial for terror victims, Netanyahu told the pope, “When my son was ten years old, his best friend was a girl, a beautiful Ethiopian girl, who sat next to him in class. One day she didn’t come. She was blown up in a bus not far from here because there was no fence, no wall.”

After the pope responded with prayers for peace and a harsh condemnation of terrorism, Netanyahu elaborated further.

“I’m grateful for your words today. Israel wants peace. Here we have a hospital, Hadassah Hospital. Palestinians come to this hospital. With the wall, they come. We cannot go to their hospitals, they come to our hospitals,” he said. “We don’t teach our children to plant bombs. We teach them peace. But we have to build a wall against those who teach the other side. But it cannot prevent the incitement to hate and terror and the destruction of Israel that permeates so much of the society on the other side of the fence. If that changes, then the walls could come down and we will have peace.”

The pope’s unscheduled visit to the security barrier on Sunday drew harsh criticism, especially as a result of the imagery that emerged from the trip showing the pope in the same frame as graffiti that read, “Bethlehem look like Warsaw Ghetto.”

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22 Congressmen Urge Kerry to Tell Sudan: Free Meriam Ibrahim and Her Son Now

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Photo Credit: Gabriel Wani / FacebookTwenty-two House lawmakers led by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) have sent a letter on Thursday to Secretary of State John Kerry, asking him to confront the Sudanese government about Meriam Ibrahim, a jailed pregnant Christian woman facing execution for apostasy.

“We urge the State Department to condemn the ruling handed down by Sudan’s court and call upon the Sudanese government to respect human rights and free Mariam Yahya Ibrahim [sic] and her young son immediately,” stated the letter, signed by 21 Republicans and one Democrat.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, who is eight months pregnant with her second child and imprisoned with her under two-year-old son, Martin Wani, was convicted of apostasy and adultery on May 11 and sentenced to death and 100 lashes, respectively, according to the Sudan Tribune.

Ibrahim was born to an Ethiopian Orthodox mother and a Sudanese Muslim father.

She married her husband, Daniel Wani, a South Sudanese-born U.S. citizen, in 2012.

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Afghan President Turns Down Invitation To Meet With Obama

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Photo Credit: Richard Pohle – Pool / GettyAfghan President Hamid Karzai turned down an invitation to meet with President Barack Obama Sunday. A White House official issued a statement to the press pool attributing Karzai’s decision to the “short notice” of the request and the fact Obama’s surprise visit to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan was dedicated to meeting with U.S. troops ahead of the Memorial Day holiday.

“As we said, we weren’t planning for a bilateral meeting with President Karzai or a trip to the palace, as this trip is focused on thanking our troops,” the official said. “We did offer him the opportunity to come to Bagram, but we’re not surprised that it didn’t work on short notice.”

Karzai, who became president in late 2001 after U.S. troops helped topple the Taliban regime, has had a difficult relationship with America. In an interview with the Washington Post in March, he said the relationship between America and Afghanistan “has been at a low point for a long time.”

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Israel’s Lost Tribe of Manasseh Returns from . . . India

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A group of 40 Bnei Menashe made Aliyah today from India, the first batch out of a total of 250 immigrants from the Lost Tribe that are slated to arrive over the coming month.

The immigrants, who hail from the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, were brought to Israel by Shavei Israel, which received permission from the Israeli government last October to bring 900 Bnei Menashe to the Jewish state by 2015.

Earlier this year, Shavei Israel brought 160 Bnei Menashe on Aliyah from the Indian state of Mizoram.

The Bnei Menashe are descendants of the tribe of Menashe (or Manasseh), one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel which were exiled by the Assyrian empire after the death of King Solomon more than 2,700 years ago.

The immigrants were greeted this morning at Ben-Gurion Airport by Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund, who led them in the recitation of the traditional Shehecheyanu blessing that is recited to give thanks to G-d on special occasions.

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Russia May Build Eight Nuclear Reactors for Iran

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Photo Credit: Adam JonesRussia plans to sign a contract with Iran this year to build two more nuclear reactors at its Bushehr power plant as part of a broader deal for up to eight reactors in the Islamic state, a source close to the negotiations told Reuters on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear how this might affect six global powers’ talks with Iran addressing disputed aspects of its nuclear program. Iran has resisted demands for cuts in its uranium enrichment capacity, pointing to plans for a future network of nuclear power stations.

Western powers want any lasting agreement with Iran to put to rest suspicions that it could develop nuclear weapons-making ability through enrichment. Iran denies any such intent.

The talks ended last week with little progress; they are to resume in Vienna in June.

Russia, one of the six powers, built Iran’s only operating nuclear power reactor, at Bushehr.

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DOJ Brings First-Ever Cyber-Espionage Case Against Chinese Officials

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Photo Credit: APAttorney General Eric Holder on Monday announced a first-of-its-kind criminal cyber-espionage case against Chinese military officials the Justice Department charges hacked into major U.S. companies to steal trade secrets — though Holder could not say whether the five defendants stand a chance of ever seeing the inside of a U.S. courtroom.

Holder, in announcing the indictment against five Shanghai-based officials, acknowledged that the defendants have never set foot in the United States.

Pressed on whether there’s any hope the Chinese government would hand over the officials, Holder said only the “intention” is for the defendants to face the charges in a U.S. court, and he hopes to have Chinese government cooperation.

But the Chinese government immediately signaled it would not cooperate, claiming the accusations were made up and warning the case would damage U.S.-China relations.

According to Reuters, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang urged “immediate rectification.”

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Thailand’s Army Declares Martial Law

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Photo Credit: AP / Sakchai LalitThailand’s army declared martial law before dawn Tuesday in a surprise announcement it said was aimed at keeping the country stable after six months of sometimes violent political unrest. The military, however, denied a coup d’etat was underway.

The move effectively places the army in charge of public security nationwide. It comes one day after the Southeast Asian country’s caretaker prime minister refused to step down and follows six months of anti-government demonstrations that have failed to oust the government.

Armed troops entered multiple private television stations in Bangkok to broadcast their message and surrounded the national police headquarters in the city center. Army jeeps mounted with a machine-guns diverted traffic on a major road in front of Central World, one of the country’s most luxurious shopping malls. But the vast metropolis of 10 million people appeared calm, and commuters could be seen driving and walking to work as usual.

An army official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, told The Associated Press “this is definitely not a coup. This is only to provide safety to the people and the people can still carry on their lives as normal.”

A ticker on Chanel 5, an army station, also denied the military was taking over and asked the public not to panic.

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Facebook Posts Show Iranian Women Tossing Hijabs, Praising Freedom

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Photo Credit: Fox News Thousands of Iranian women are protesting their nation’s oppressive culture by tossing aside their hijabs and taking selfies that are turning up in a growing Facebook gallery.

The page, titled “Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian Women,” has garnered nearly 180,000 likes in just two weeks. The women pictured on it are seen joyfully shedding the Muslim garb in various locations around the Islamic republic. The page was created by London-based Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad, who came up with the idea after hearing from women in her homeland who told her how lucky she is to have Facebook photos with her hair blowing in the wind.

“I guess, the idea of “Stealthy Freedoms” is a bit like the English phrase “secret pleasures,” or “guilty pleasures,” which is doing something pleasurable –like having a craving for chocolate – but one that we don’t feel comfortable in doing in public,” Alinejad told FoxNews.com.

The page is intended for women to post freedom-inspiring photos of themselves in varying degrees of defiance, from some only showing the backs of their heads to others standing in front of government offices.

Alinejad left Iran in 2009, the same year Iranians flooded the streets of Iran protesting the corruption of their government in the aftermath of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s contested re-election. The revolution failed, but an international audience got a brief glimpse into Iran’s secular and social media conscious community.

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