In the latest news from the Islamic State, three women were executed in the city of Mosul, in what used to be northern Iraq. Two of the victims were doctors who refused to treat wounded ISIS mujahideen.

In other news, top leaders of the Conservative Party in the UK warn that David Cameron may be asked to resign if Scotland votes for independence.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, Takuan Seiyo, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Praet Says Central Bank Can’t Solve Italy’s Economic Woes

ECB not unanimous on timing of latest stimulus measures

(ANSA) — Rome, September 5 — Monetary policy cannot solve all the economic problems facing Italy and other countries in Europe which are struggling with weak or no growth, an executive board member of the European Central Bank Peter Praet said Friday.

He spoke one day after ECB President Mario Draghi unveiled a new package of stimulus measures, including bank interest rate cuts and securities purchases, which are designed to encourage economic growth and avoid deflation in the eurozone.

During the Ambrosetti economic forum in Cernobbio, Praet said governments have the role of finding and reforming areas of a national economy that need updates.

Reforms should not be delayed, especially when signs of economic weakening become apparent, he warned. Thursday’s ECB reforms came after members of the central bank’s governing council were “unanimous in recognizing that the signals coming from the latest (economic) data were cause for concern,” said Praet.

“But then there are different degrees of concern and (views on)when to act,” with some advocating a longer waiting period before action, he added.

On Thursday, Draghi said that the actions he announced had been supported by a majority but not all members of his governing council.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Cuomo and Hochul Win New York Primary Gov.

Andrew M. Cuomo defeated a left-leaning primary challenger on Tuesday, fending off a surprisingly potent liberal revolt that had threatened to humiliate him.

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, now heads into the November election in strong position, facing a little-known conservative opponent in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one.

With 43 percent of precincts reporting on Tuesday night, Mr. Cuomo had 60.4 percent of the vote, compared with 35.5 percent for Zephyr Teachout, a law professor who ran a long-shot campaign that served as a megaphone for liberal complaints about the governor’s time in office.

Gang of Black Teens Beats White Memphis Grocery Store Employee Into Unconsciousness

Late on Saturday night, a mob of black teens swarmed a Kroger grocery store in Memphis, Tennessee and proceeded to beat two store employees and one customer to the ground.

Police reported they had received a September 6 surveillance video showing the swarm of black teens pushing, punching and kicking the young store employees at the entrance to the store…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Georgetown’s Esposito Joins Israel Boycott

Georgetown University Professor John Esposito is one of six Middle East Studies directors at American universities to embrace an academic boycott of Israel, according to a Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch report. The six directors signed a public letter vowing “not to collaborate on projects and events involving Israeli academic institutions,” a move that ArabianBusiness.com says could conflict with promises the directors made for federal funds.

As heads of U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Centers, Esposito and the other directors assured that they will “maintain linkages with overseas institutions of higher education and other organizations that may contribute to the teaching and research of the Center.”

But the move is quite consistent for Esposito, who, as the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has documented, has long supported the Muslim Brotherhood and its front groups in the United States. His Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University was staked with $20 million from Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal in 2005…

Three Injured, At Least One Arrest in Memphis Kroger Beating

An arrest has been made in a brutal mob beating in Memphis in which three people were attacked by a large group of teens on Sunday.

WHBQ-13 in Memphis is reporting that at least one juvenile has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault and aggravated riot in connection with the beating, of which part was caught on film by a woman with a cell phone camera…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



EU Fines Greece for Failing Waste Management

Athens has to shut down many illegal landfills still operating

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, SEPTEMBER 8 — European Court of Justice advocate general Juliane Kokott has called for the imposition of stiff fines to Greece after repeatedly failing to comply with European waste management regulations. In a recommendation made to the court last week — as GreekReporter website writes — Kokott said that Greece should pay a fixed fine of 22 million euros and 54,450 euros for every day that it fails to shut down the remaining 60-70 illegal landfills which continue to operate in the country. Greece is being hauled back to the European Court of Justice by the European Commission for failing to implement an earlier ruling on illegal landfills. According to the Commission, in 2005 the Court ruled that Greece was not taking sufficient measures to close down and rehabilitate the remaining illegal landfills that are still operating across the country. The Commission pointed out that according to the initial calendar, all illegal landfills should have been closed and rehabilitated by the end of 2008. A letter of formal notice under article 260 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union was sent in April 2009, reminding Greece of its obligations. The closure of illegal landfills is being delayed by the lack of alternative waste treatment facilities — a situation which the Commission said may become even worse since the Fyli landfill, which receives 90% Athens’ waste, is facing imminent saturation, and will have reached full capacity by the end of 2014.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Lombardy Governor Says Region Could Emulate Scots Referendum

Vote on special status ‘by next year,’ says Maroni

(ANSA) — Milan, September 8 — Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni said Monday he wants to organise a referendum for Lombardy’s autonomy, in the wake of the Scottish independence plebiscite.

“We should not be afraid,” of sovereignty, said Maroni.

A vote on special status could be arranged by next year, he said.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Mogherini Says International Appeal on Marines Ready

Minister says talks must continue with India on detainees

(ANSA) — Rome, September 9 — Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini said Tuesday that the Italian government’s international appeal on behalf of the two marines detained in India is “technically ready”, but at the same time Rome still has a “duty” to continue talks with New Delhi to find a political solution. The two paths “aren’t mutually exclusive,” she told a meeting of the foreign and defence committee of the Senate and Lower House.

Mogherini said that Italy is concerned about the living conditions of the two marines, Massimilian Latorre and Salvatore Girone, because of the stress they have been under.

They are accused of killing two India fishermen during an anti-piracy mission and have been held in India since 2012.

Rome has protested the many delays in the case, which has caused major diplomatic friction between the countries.

It successfully fought to ensure New Delhi took the death penalty off the table and dropped the application of a severe anti-terrorism, anti-piracy law, which it said would have equated Italy with a terrorist state.

Rome argues the case is not in India’s jurisdiction as the incident took place outside the country’s territorial waters. It also says the marines should be exempt from prosecution in India, because they are servicemen who were working on an anti-piracy mission, and allowed to return home.

On Monday, the Indian government said it would not oppose Latorre’s return to Italy for medical treatment after he suffered a stroke-like attack.

The Supreme Court in New Delhi delayed a decision on that request, asking the Indian government for an opinion before adjourning proceedings until Friday.

The request is for Latorre to return to Italy for three or four months.

Mogherini said she hoped the decision would made be quickly in Latorre’s favour.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Renzi Wins German Backing, Tortellini Pact Hits Papers

Schaeuble hails Renzi reforms as ‘absolutely correct approach’

(ANSA) — Berlin, September 8 — German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Monday that Italian Premier Matteo Renzi is on the right track with his far-reaching reform program. Renzi “is following an absolutely correct approach with regard to the deep structural reforms in his country,” Schaeuble told Yahoo in an interview, adding he hoped the Italian leader would succeed. Renzi has been pushing for sweeping reforms including changes to the Italian labour market, justice system, and tax regulations in an effort to make the economy more efficient and to create employment.

The cabinet last month approved sweeping measures to revamp Italy’s judicial, political and economic systems, including the government’s so-called Unblock Italy decree designed to cut red tape, promote investments and lift the Italian economy out of recession, its third in six years.

Renzi pledged 4.6 billion euros for five airport investments and 3.8 billion euros for projects “that are ready to be built”, and confirmed the government will continue to offer his trademark 80-euro monthly tax bonus for some 11 million low-income Italians “for the next few years”. The cabinet also approved spending of 10 billion euros over “the next 12 months” on public works in Italy’s impoverished south.

Schaeuble’s favorable assessment of Renzi stood in apparent contrast to his later remarks that State-run job creation programs in the eurozone are the wrong approach, and that the sustainable way forward is more efficient investment of private funds.

As well, Renzi and his French counterpart, Manuel Valls, were on the front pages of leading French papers after they entered into a so-called “tortellini pact” on Sunday. The Italian premier invited fellow leftist European leaders to the Democratic Party (PD) Festa dell’Unità (Unity Feast) in the northern Italian city of Bologna on Sunday, where he called on them to enter into a pact to promote a socialist agenda in Europe in front of a plate of tortellini.

Spanish Socialist party leader Pedro Sanchez, Party of European Socialists leader Achim Post and Dutch Labour Party MP Diederik Samson also participated in the tortellini pact, as Renzi dubbed it.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Saul Alinsky is Alive and Well and Working in Britain’s Thriving Fake Charities Sector

By James Delingpole

Conservative MP Brooks Newmark has got himself into trouble with the leftist political activists who dominate Britain’s charities sector by telling them to “stick to their knitting” and stay out of politics.

Problem is, in the case of many charities these days, political meddling is their knitting…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Scotland and De-Globalization

The prospect of Scottish independence is further evidence that the era of increasing globalization, with all its benefits to capital, is waning fast.

Support for independence, an issue to be put to a vote among Scots on Sept. 18, has surged in recent days, with those in favor registering their first opinion poll lead over the weekend.

Not only would an independent Scotland have to come up with some plan for a currency and monetary policy, an area in which it has several options, each carrying its own dangers, but it also would make more likely a British exit from the European Union.

This is far from the only recent example of a retreat from globalization, a word used to describe a process whereby the movement of capital and goods, if not people, becomes more free and trade tends to rise.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Scottish Independence: A Defining Moment for England, Too

by Vernon Bogdanor

If Scotland votes for independence, English nationalism could be unleashed — and politicians of all parties would pay the price

An opinion poll published on Sunday indicates that the Union between Scotland and England might come to an end on September 18. That would, of course, involve radical change for Scotland. But what would it mean for the rest of the United Kingdom?…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Spain in €1bn Riot Gear Shopping Spree

The Spanish government has purchased around €1bn worth of riot gear for police units as it braces itself for upcoming protests throughout autumn, reports the Guardian. Civil rights groups say the police use heavy-handed tactics against protestors. Spain has also imposed severe penalties of up to €600,000 for unauthorised protests.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: ‘We Don’t Accept You Didn’t Know’: Crime Chief Shaun Wright Faces MPs’ Fury

EMBATTLED South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Shaun Wright has insisted resigning would have been the “easy option” despite widespread calls for him to step down following the Rotherham child abuse scandal from the “entire political establishment”.

Mr Wright told MPs the problem of child sexual exploitation (CSE) was not flagged up to him as a significant issue during his period as the councillor with responsibility for children’s services in the town from 2005 to 2010…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: ‘Gang Trafficked 13-Year-Old Runaway Between Hotels and Flats in Bradford So They Could Take it in Turns to Abuse Her’

A gang of five men have gone on trial accused of trafficking a 13-year-old girl and taking it in turns to abuse her after she ran away from home.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was allegedly told she was a ‘nice, beautiful girl’ before being coerced into having sex with the men in hotel rooms and private flats in August last year.

A jury heard how Mohammed Shapal, 22, and Shakeal Rehman, 26, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, and Usman Ali, 21, Bekir Rasheed, 36, and Yaseen Amini, 36, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, arranged her travel before abusing her…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Beheading Suspect Refuses Video Appearance

By Rhiannon Mills, Sky News Correspondent

A man accused of beheading a grandmother with a machete has declined to appear via video link for his first crown court appearance.

Nicholas Salvadore is charged with the murder of 82-year-old Palmira Silva, who was found dead in her back garden in Edmonton, north London, last Thursday…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: David Cameron is in ‘Serious Trouble’ With His Party Over the Referendum, Warn Tory MPs

David Cameron may face a vote of no confidence after allowing the Scottish independence referendum to go ahead, senior Tory MPs have warned

David Cameron is “in a right hole” and in “serious trouble” with his party for risking the future of the Union by agreeing to a referendum on Scottish independence, senior Tory MPs are saying.

The news came as it emerged that some MPs are canvassing support for Mr Cameron within the party to see whether they would call for the Prime Minister’s resignation in the wake of a Yes vote in the Scottish referendum on September 18…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Man in Court Over Child Abduction in Rotherham

A man has appeared in court today charged with child abduction in Rotherham — following the disappearance of three girls from the town.

Vejuhadin Ghorbani, aged 37, from the Clifton area of Rotherham, was arrested on Sunday — shortly after the three girls returned home.

They were reported missing at 10.20pm on Saturday, leading to a massive police search for the trio.

Ghorbani has also been charged with causing or inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity.

He has been remanded in custody until September 23, when he will appear at Sheffield Crown Court…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Men Accused of Trafficking Teenage Girl in Bradford

A 13-YEAR-OLD girl who ran away from home was trafficked by a group of men in Bradford who had sex with her, a court heard.

The teenager left her Sheffield home in August last year and ended up in the city where she came under the influence of a group of adult men, jurors at Sheffield Crown Court were told.

The girl’s disappearance sparked a police appeal and she was discovered in Bradford more than a week after she went missing, prosecutor Tom Storey said.

Mr Storey told the trial of five men, which started today, that the girl was taken to a hotel in central Bradford where one of the defendants, Shakeal Rehman, 26, raped her…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Researcher Who Uncovered Rotherham Abuse ‘Feared for Life’ After Police Visit

Commons committee hears researcher’s office was broken into after contact with South Yorkshire police and files went missing

A Home Office researcher who uncovered the scale of child sex abuse in Rotherham more than 10 years ago was left in fear of her life after being visited by two South Yorkshire police officers, MPs have been told while taking evidence in private.

The Commons home affairs select committee, meeting in a secret session on Tuesday to protect the identity of the researcher, heard that an office break-in followed the contact from the South Yorkshire officers and her files went missing.

When the MPs put the allegation to the former South Yorkshire chief constable, Meredydd John Hughes, who was deputy head of the force at the time, he said he knew nothing of the Home Office research report and told the committee that he had had “no idea of the scale and scope” of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Wales: Cardiff Deputy Lord Mayor Slammed for Hamas ‘Toy Rockets’ Jibe

Israeli consul to Welsh capital says Labor councillor Ali Ahmed should be fired for ‘offensive’ comments at far-left rally.

Israel’s honorary consul to Wales, UK has called for the dismissal of the Deputy Lord Mayor of Cardiff, the country’s capital, after the latter dismissed Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians as “firing toy rockets” at an August rally.

Labor party councillor Ali Ahmed’s comments were made at a hard-left “No NATO” rally, as part of a larger, rambling speech in which he railed against Israel and western states — whom he blamed for “creating ISIS”.

“We all know what’s happening in Iraq. We all know what’s happening in Gaza, Palestine, Ukraine, Syria and Palestine. Who created all this? It’s us, America, Mr Cameron,” he said, addressing the British prime minister.

“When Israel decided what they wanted to do in Gaza, in Palestine — we didn’t want a war — the Palestinians defended against Israel with rockets. They’re toy rockets.”…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



‘Blood in the Desert’ Author Describes Menace to Maghreb

Nouakchott — Mohamed Baghdad is an Algerian academic, TV personality, and author of “Blood of the Desert” and “Al-Qaeda Wars in the Sahel”. He also participates in many international conferences on jihadi ideology.

As regional concerns mount over trans-border terrorism, Magharebia spoke with the acclaimed analyst to learn more about his prognosis for the Maghreb and Sahel.

Magharebia: Is this the most dangerous time in recent memory for the entire Sahel region?

Mohamed Baghdad: It is obvious that the Sahel region represents today the largest area in the world predisposed to wider terrorist activity…

The characteristics of the African Sahel make it a candidate for the foreground. This area extends from Somalia in the east, to Nigeria in the west…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Two Bombs in Cairo Metro Stations

Demonstration called by pro MB Dank movement expected today

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, SEPTEMBER 9 — Two bombs went off on Tuesday at two metro stations in Cairo without causing death or damage, security sources said. Demonstrations organized by the pro Muslim Brotherhood Dank group are expected today. Dank called on sympathizers to enact different forms of protest including sit-ins in metro stations.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Israel Naval Forces Arrest 4 Gaza Fishermen

GAZA, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — The Israeli naval forces arrested on Tuesday morning four Palestinian fishermen in northern sea of the Gaza Strip, a union official said.

Chairman of Gaza fishermen association Nizar Ayyash told Xinhua that Israeli naval gunboats surrounded the four fishermen’s fishing boat in the sea after opening intensive fire on the boat and arrested them…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Shabak Report: Terror Attacks in Jerusalem Jump Exponentially

Terror attacks in Jerusalem spiked dramatically over the past few months, an Israel Security Service report Monday said.

Terror attacks in Jerusalem have grown exponentially over the past few months, a Shabak (Israel Security Service) report Monday said. According to the statistics, three attempted terror attacks occurred in the city in March 2014 and in April, there were 7. In May and June, there were 22 attacks, while in July and August, the Shabak reported that there were 152 attacks and incidents of terrorism in the city…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



14 Million Refugees Make the Levant Unmanageable

by David P. Goldman

There are always lunatics lurking in the crevices of Muslim politics prepared to proclaim a new caliphate; there isn’t always a recruiting pool in the form of nearly 14 million displaced people (11 million Syrians, or half the country’s population, and 2.8 million Iraqis, or a tenth of the country’s population). When I wrote about the region’s refugee disaster at Tablet in July (“Between the Settlers and Unsettlers, the One State Solution is On Our Doorstep”) the going estimate was only 10 million. A new UN study, though, claims that half of Syrians are displaced. Many of them will have nothing to go back to. When people have nothing to lose, they fight to the death and inflict horrors on others.That is what civilizational decline looks like in real time. The roots of the crisis were visible four years ago before the so-called Arab Spring beguiled the foreign policy wonks. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrian farmers already were living in tent camps around Syrian cities before the Syrian civil war began in April 2011. Israeli analysts knew this. In March 2011 Paul Rivlin of Tel Aviv University released a study of the collapse of Syrian agriculture, widely cited in Arab media but unmentioned in the English language press (except my essay on the topic). Most of what passes for political science treats peoples and politicians as if they were so many pieces on a fixed game board. This time the game board is shrinking and the pieces are falling off.

The Arab states are failed states, except for the few with enough hydrocarbons to subsidize every facet of economic life. Egypt lives on a$15 billion annual subsidy from the Gulf states and, if that persists, will remain stable if not quite prosperous. Syria is a ruin, along with large parts of Iraq. The lives of tens of millions of people were fragile before the fighting broke out (30% of Syrians lived on less than $1.60 a day), and now they are utterly ruined. The hordes of combatants displace more people, and these join the hordes, in a snowball effect. That’s what drove the Thirty Years’ War of 1618-1648, and that’s what’s driving the war in the Levant.

When I wrote in 2011 that Islam was dying, this was precisely what I forecast.

— Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo [Return to headlines]



5 Killed in Suicide Attack at Army Checkpoint in Yemen

ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — A suicide bomber killed himself and four soldiers when he detonated a car bomb at a Yemeni army checkpoint in southeastern province of Hadramout on Tuesday, a provincial security official told Xinhua.

“Four soldiers from the special security forces died after a huge bombing carried out by suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber on a key military checkpoint in Qattan region of Hadramout province,” the provincial security source said on condition of anonymity…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Alfano Says 48 People From Italy Fighting in Syria

At least one Italian dead there, minister tells Lower House

(See related) (ANSA) — Rome, September 9 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Tuesday that at least 48 people are known to have left Italy and gone to fight in Syria. One young man from Genoa bearing an Italian passport was killed in Syria in June, Alfano told a meeting on security in the Lower House.

Italy must also strengthen its laws to deal with the threat of jihadists heading to theatres of war such as Syria, he added.

Earlier, he warned that the Islamic militant group ISIS has unprecedented resources to fund its terrorist activities.

His remarks came a day before United States President Barack Obama was to reveal a new American plan to build an international coalition against the terrorist group.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Iraq: Islamic State Executes Female Doctors and Politicians

The string of brutal executions continues, as IS in Iraq continues its killing rampage of all those who do not submit to it.

The brutal Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist organization has continued its bloody string of executions, this time finding fit to shoot two female doctors to death after they refused to treat members of the terror group.

According to reports six people, including three women, were executed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul by IS terrorists on Saturday publicly and without trial.

Witnesses told AFP that the terrorists broke into the homes of the two female doctors who refused to treat members of their group, as well as the home of a female candidate that ran unsuccessfully in parliamentary elections for the US-backed Iraqi government, shooting all three and taking their bodies with them…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Iraqi Shiite Fighters Behead ISIS Rivals

After liberation of Amerli

(ANSA) — Rome, September 9 — Iraqi Shiite fighters have published a video of them beheading ISIS rivals after the liberation of Amerli north of Baghdad.

The man in the video tells ISIS: “This message is for ISIS. We will chop off your heads. We will crush your skulls. This is operation revenge for the killing of the leader Walid of the Peace Brigade”.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Powerful Blast Kills 28 Rebel Leaders in Syria

DAMASCUS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — At least 28 Syrian rebel leaders of a same group were killed on Tuesday when a powerful blast targeted their gathering place in the northwestern province of Idlib, the oppositional Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The slain rebels were leaders of the Ahrar al-Sham militant group. A booby-trapped car ripped through their meeting place in the town of Ram Hamdan in the countryside of Idlib, the report said…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Predator Drones Being Flown Over ISIL’s Syrian ‘Capital’

Attempt to target al-Baghdadi, the jihadist group’s leader, comes as Iraq’s MPs back first government, appointments by new prime minister

US drones are being flown over Isil’s Syrian “capital” for the first time as part of a drive by America to target Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the jihadist group’s elusive leader.

Residents of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa have captured photo and video footage of remotely-piloted planes, which Western weapons experts have identified as American Predators, the same drones used in Pakistan and Yemen to attack suspected terrorists.

The US has not publicly stated that it is flying drones over Syria, and the sightings over Raqqa are the first indication that it is doing so…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Syria: British Female Jihadis Are Running Force That Punishes Women for ‘UN-Islamic’ Behaviour

London: British female jihadis are operating a religious police force that punishes women for ‘un-Islamic’ behaviour, it was claimed.

The al-Khanssaa brigade is a female-only militia set up by the Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria, with a key figure believed to be Aqsa Mahmood, 20, of Glasgow, who fled to the country last year…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Syria: Children Forced to Learn Beheading, Watch Executions as Part of ISIS Recruitment Strategy

MOSCOW, September 7 (RIA Novosti) — Children who join ISIS training camps — either under duress or willingly — are forced to learn to use weapons, such as knives and AK-47 rifles, and watch executions as Islamist fighters prepare them for deadly missions.

A 13-year-old, whose name was only given as Mohammed, from the Syrian city of Raqqa spent 30 days in one such camp. He wanted to join by his own free will, but his father wouldn’t let him fearing that his son would turn into a Jihadist…

Another shocking skill that children attending ISIS training camps had to acquire was beheading, ABC reports. Mohammed’s mother was terrified when she found a doll with blond hair and blue eye dressed in orange garment and a knife that ISIS supervisors gave her son. It was homework, he explained. All children were given dolls, which resemble people of Slavic or Scandinavian origin and hardly look like anyone born in the Middle East, and knives to behead them…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Syria: Self-Proclaimed Caliph Has Twisted View of Islam

The Rev Professor David Thomas, Honorary Canon Theologian of Derby Cathedral, compares the rise of Islamic State with the rise of the caliphs.

THE ultra-radical Islamist group Islamic State (ISIS as was — the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham [Syria]) has declared that the territory they hold is a caliphate.

In taking this step they have reverted to a model that has been the reality in parts of the Islamic world for most of its history. For nearly 1,400 years the caliph was head of the entire Islamic state. He often wielded unimaginable power, and always great influence…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



U.N. Security Council Plans to Suppress Foreign Extremist Fighters

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — The U.N. Security Council plans to demand countries “prevent and suppress” the recruitment and travel of foreign fighters to join extremist militant groups like Islamic State by ensuring it is considered a serious criminal offence under domestic laws.

The United States circulated a draft resolution late on Monday, obtained by Reuters, to the 15-member Security Council and hopes it can be unanimously adopted at a high-level meeting chaired by U.S. President Barack Obama on September 24…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



U.S. Iraq Air Raids Help Kurds and Shi’ites at Expense of Sunnis

(Reuters) — A small group of people pick through putrefying human remains laid out on plastic sheets by the side of a road in northern Iraq, searching for any trace of missing friends and relatives.

Some had brought spades to help dig up the mass grave near Suleiman Beg after the town was retaken from Sunni Islamic State militants who held the area until last week…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Yazidi Girl Tells of Horrific Ordeal as ISIL Sex Slave

A young woman from the Yazidi religious minority captured by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has described the horror of being kept as a sex slave by the extremist group.

The 17 year-old said she was one of a group of about 40 Yazidi women who were still being held captive and sexually abused on a daily basis by Isil fighters.

The woman said her captors had initially confiscated her mobile and those of all the other women, but had then “changed strategy”, returning the phones so that the women and girls could recount to the outside world the full horror of what was happening to them.

“To hurt us even more, they told us to describe in detail to our parents what they are doing. They laugh at us because they think they are invincible. They consider themselves are supermen. But they are people without a heart.

“Our torturers do not even spare the women who have small children with them. “Nor do they spare the girls — some of our group are not even 13 years old. Some of them will no longer say a word.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Yemen: ‘Four Dead’ as Police Fire on Houthi Protesters

Escalating tensions between Yemen’s government and the armed Shia Houthi movement are threatening to plunge one of the poorest countries in the Middle East into a wide-scale armed conflict.

On Tuesday, police shot at anti-government Shia protesters in the capital, Sanaa, killing at least four people, witnesses say…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Architectural Awe: Beneath the Margallas, A 19th Century Mosque Stands Out

ISLAMABAD: Driving on the bumpy road that leads to Sector D-12, a picturesque mosque figures prominently; its facade covered with beautiful ceramic-like tile work and surrounded by centuries-old lush green trees.

Located short of a police check post at the foothills of the Margallas, Masjid-e-Oulia was built in 1889 using limestone and imported tiles by Malik Fateh Baksh, the caretaker of Baba Khushi Muhammad’s shrine which is adjacent to the mosque and is over 125 years old.

Much younger than other culturally-rich cities, such Lahore and Peshawar, the capital has very few historic and well-preserved buildings…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Six Months After MH370 Crash, Search Continues at Painstaking Pace

MH370 was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members when it vanished without a trace over the Indian Ocean in March. Six months later, the search area has been narrowed, but investigators are still baffled.

Six months after Malayia Airlines flight 370 vanished without a trace en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the plane has yet to be found. The search for the wreckage of the plane is proceeding, albeit slowly, off the coast of western Australia, and experts say it could be over a year before the area where MH370 is believed to be located is searched completely.

MH370, carrying 239 people on board, vanished from radar traffic on March 8. The plane’s disappearance sparked a media frenzy, baffled investigators and generated a host of conspiracy theories.

But experts say the best theory on what befell MH370, is that the pilot or pilots purposely crashed the plane.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



China: Urumqi Offers Rewards to Terror Informants

URUMQI, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — Urumqi, capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has announced rewards for people who offer anti-terror tipoffs and fight terrorism.

People can report crimes including organizing, leading or participating in terrorist groups, orchestrating or carrying out terrorist activities, raising funds or purchasing items for that purpose, as well as transporting, hiding or aiding terrorists, etc.

The maximum reward is one million yuan (about 160,000 U.S. dollars), calculated on how much damage would have been caused and how important a role the person plays…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Deal Inked for Teaching of Arabic to Chinese Muslims

The Chinese Islamic Relations Council have signed an agreement with a Saudi company specialized in distance education for teaching Arabic to Chinese Muslims to help them understand and enhance their knowledge of Islamic civilization, it was revealed recently.

Dr. Ding Hui, chairman of the Board of Chinese Islamic Relations Council said it is a ground-breaking agreement made to promote and disseminate the culture of the learning of the Arabic language in China, a country with a population of about 1.4 billion people of whom 50 million are Muslims…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Vietnam Building Deterrent Against China in Disputed Seas With Submarines

(Reuters) — Vietnam will soon have a credible naval deterrent to China in the South China Sea in the form of Kilo-class submarines from Russia, which experts say could make Beijing think twice before pushing its much smaller neighbour around in disputed waters.

A master of guerrilla warfare, Vietnam has taken possession of two of the state-of-the-art submarines and will get a third in November under a $2.6 billion deal agreed with Moscow in 2009. A final three are scheduled to be delivered within two years…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Islamic State: Arrest Warrant Issued for Alleged Senior Australian Recruiter

Former Sydney bouncer Mohammad Ali Baryalei, who was born in Afghanistan, is accused of helping send scores of locals to Syria and Iraq

An arrest warrant has been issued for a former Sydney nightclub bouncer identified as the most senior Australian member of the Islamic State (Isis) terrorist group.

Mohammad Ali Baryalei, 33, who is also a part-time actor, has helped send scores of Australian fighters to the wars in Syria and Iraq, according to an ABC investigation.

Authorities say Baryalei, who was born in Afghanistan and is not currently in the country, has a trusted position in Isis operational command and has been involved in the recruitment of at least 30 Australians for the conflicts.

The Australian federal police (AFP) confirmed on Tuesday that a warrant had been issued and a spokesman said in a statement it was for “alleged terrorism-related activities”…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Boko Haram Takes Northeastern Nigerian Towns

The Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has seized several more towns along the country’s northeastern border with Cameroon.

In Adamawa state, witnesses say Boko Haram militants took over four towns including Michika, killing dozens of civilians and displacing many others.

In Borno state, suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked the small town of Bui on Sunday, injuring three soldiers and setting fire to a primary school…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Cameroon Closes Border Schools Over Boko Haram Threat

By Moki Edwin Kindzeka

Kolofata — The 2014-2015 academic year began in Cameroon with thousands of students and teachers deserting schools in towns along the border with Nigeria’s Borno state, which is home to the Boko Haram terrorist group.

With some schools either destroyed or occupied by the militants, Cameroon officials said they will relocate populations to more secure areas…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Ebola Spreads Exponentially in Liberia, Many More Cases Soon — Who

(Reuters) — Liberia, the country worst hit by West Africa’s Ebola epidemic, should see thousands of new cases in coming weeks as the virus spreads exponentially, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Calais Mayor ‘May Use British Fences to Block Port’

Natacha Bouchart, the mayor of Calais, pokes fun at a British offer to send the security fences used at last week’s Nato summit to the French port to help stop illegal immigrants trying to reach Britain

The mayor of Calais has threatened to use security fences, offered by Britain to help stop illegal immigrants, to block the port unless the UK government funds efforts to turn back the migrants.

Britain has offered to send 12 miles of fencing used to protect last week’s Nato summit in Newport, Wales, to Calais to help the French authorities prevent illegal immigrants from boarding ferries and lorries bound for England…

— Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Italian Coast Guard Vessel Saves 462 Migrants in 72 Hours

(AGI) Palermo, Sept 9 — The vessel Diciotti rescued a total of 462 people in three separate missions conducted over 72 hours in the Strait of Sicily, the Italian Coast Guard announced on Tuesday. Most of the migrants were Syrian, Palestinian, and Bengali, including 77 women, of whom seven were pregnant, 91 minors, and three disabled people.