Photos: Car bombing at Baghdad market kills 50 people including women and children...ISIS claims responsibility

A car bomb in a Shia district of Baghdad, Iraq has killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 60 others this morning according to reports by The Associated Press.

The SUV packed with explosives exploded near a beauty salon in a bustling busy market at rush hour in the Sadr City district. Most of the victims were women and many of the wounded are in critical condition, according to reports released by Iraqi forces to the Associated Press.


ISIS, which considers Shias as apostates (non-believers), have claimed responsibility for the attack claiming they targeted Shia members.

The fight against ISIS has worsened a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq, mostly between the Shia majority and Sunni minority.

'The car bomb was a pickup truck loaded with fruit and vegetables.' Eye- witness Karim Salih, 45, told the Associated Press.

'Its driver parked the vehicle and quickly disappeared among the crowd....It was such a thunderous explosion that jolted the ground,The force of the explosion threw me for meters and I lost conscious for a few minutes," he added.

More photos

Credit : Guardian UK

Muslim student called ISIS in Los Angeles High School yearbook

A Muslim student of Los Osos High School, Los Angeles was called "ISIS" in her yearbook. Bayan Zehlif's photo was printed with the label "Isis Phillips" in what the principal called an "error" Zehlif posted the photo on Facebook on May 6, writing:

"I am extremely saddened, disgusted, hurt and embarrassed that the Los Osos High School yearbook was able to get away with this. Apparently I am "Isis" in the yearbook. The school reached out to me and had the audacity to say that this was a typo. I beg to differ, let's be real."

Ryan Giggs laughs and jokes with women at his restaurant amid marriage problems (photos)

 

Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs was pictured sharing jokes with three women at his George's restaurant in Manchester as pictures surfaced of his wife, Stacey, crying outside a night club in Manchester amid divorce and marriage problems as a result of Giggs' infidelity.

The photos according to Sunday Mirror, taken at the Manchester United legend’s eatery, should prove things are over for long-suffering wife Stacey after she ended their marriage and will possibly take 50% of his £40million fortune.
Read the report by Sunday Mirror after the cut + more photos

Giggs, 42, was holding court with two blondes and a brunette.Yesterday one friend close to Stacey, 37, said:

“If there was any doubt that things were over between Ryan and Stacey this picture proves it. It’s the final kick in the teeth for her.”

Stacey and Giggs held crisis talks last week to try to save their marriage.

The footballer has vowed to stay at the ­marital home for as long as he can for the sake of the couple’s two children. And Giggs, United’s ­assistant manager who watched his club beat Norwich 1-0 yesterday, has confided in pals he may look to leave the Premier League club before the new season to make a fresh start.

Our exclusive ­pictures of Giggs were taken five days after he and Stacey had a heart-to-heart over whether there was any chance they could heal their shattered relationship.

They left George’s together on Sunday night and returned to their nearby ­£4million mansion in Worsley, Manchester.

The pair spoke late into the night trying to find a way to patch things up. But on Thursday Giggs was back at George’s for a spring party where he soon caught the attention of a group of ladies at the bar.

There is no suggestion he is ­involved with any of them. But an onlooker said:

“He seemed to be in good spirits. He was laughing and joking with everyone. There were a lot of his friends there and he was having a good time.

“He was having a joke with a table full of girls. You wouldn’t think he’d been all over the papers because his marriage is on the rocks. He was having a good time.”

More photos...

Source: Sunday Mirror

Three Spanish journalists kidnapped in Syria return home

According to a statement released by the Spanish government, the three Spanish journalists, Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre who were kidnapped last July in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo have returned home to Spain. Acting Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria welcomed the journalists when they landed at the Torrejon de Ardoz airbase in Madrid, where they had arrived on a flight from Turkey.

Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tweeted "Welcome!" in Spanish, accompanied by a photograph of the three men arriving.

Aleppo is held variously by extremist groups like the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, and other anti-government militia, including ISIS.

The three men seemed to have entered Syria from southern Turkey last July 10 and had not been heard from since July 13. A local fixer who was reportedly working with the men also went missing.

Spanish daily El Pais reported at the time that government sources refused to assume that the reporters had been kidnapped but admitted that there were indications that they had been abducted.

The three men who were members of the group, Reporters Without Borders, are freelance journalists and experienced war reporters, and have covered conflicts from the field before.

Now all three are safely back home.


Source: CNN

Indiana installs 'baby boxes' for unwanted newborn babies (photos)

The state of Indiana has created an avenue where mothers who don't want their children can safely place them with the government rather than abandon them or try to dispose of them in some horrible way or the other. The state installed two "baby boxes" where mothers can anonymously drop off unwanted newborn babies as an extension of the state's safe haven law.
Two Safe Haven Baby Boxes were opened to the public recently at Indiana fire stations as part of an initiative to give mothers in crisis a secure place to surrender their babies, said Monica Kelsey, a volunteer firefighter and founder of the nonprofit that created the boxes.

When a person opens the baby box, a call is immediately placed to 911, and fire and medical personnel are dispatched to the scene. The box is padded and climate controlled to keep the baby warm while still allowing air circulation, Kelsey said, and automatically locks once a person leaves the child and shuts the door.

The box is also equipped with motion sensors that trigger a second 911 call after detecting movement inside. Fire and medical officials would then look the baby over and transport him or her to a local hospital for evaluation. The child is then placed in the custody of the Indiana's Child Protective Services, Kelsey said.

Source: NBC News

Italy's highest court rules that stealing small amounts of food out of desperation is not a crime

Italy's Supreme Court of Cessation, the highest court in the land has ruled that theft of small amounts of food out of hunger is not a crime. The landmark ruling was given in the case of a homeless man named Roman Ostriakov, who in 2011 was caught stealing a sausage and some cheese from a Genoa supermarket.

Ostriakov had hidden the goods, worth about $4.50, under his jacket as he paid for breadsticks. He was arrested after a customer informed the store’s security of the theft; and in 2013, he was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail.

The highest court in the land has however overturned his conviction on the grounds that stealing small amounts of food to stave off hunger is not a crime.

The court said: “The condition of the defendant, and the circumstances in which the seizure of merchandise took place, prove that he took possession of that small amount of food in the face of an immediate and essential need for nourishment, acting therefore in a state of necessity,”

Carlo Rienzi, president of a Consumer rights group praised the court's ruling, he said: “In recent years the economic crisis has increased dramatically the number of citizens, especially the elderly, forced to steal in supermarkets to be able to make ends meet.

“The supreme court has established a sacrosanct principle: a small theft because of hunger is in no way comparable to an act of delinquency, because the need to feed justifies the fact."

What marriage crisis? Monica & Shannon Brown shut down rumours

Last month R&B singer Monica's husband Shannon Brown was accused of cheating on her and a few days later, Monica stepped out without her ring leading to speculations the two were separating but last night Monica and Shannon shut down the rumors at the Beyoncé concert in Atlanta....

10 terrorists mistakenly kill themselves while building bombs in Mosque

A group of ten terrorists in Afghanistan have died while building a bomb in a mosque.

According to the police in Ghazni, the unidentified terrorists were making their own IEDs inside a mosque when one of them exploded prematurely. As a result, all ten of them died instantly.

The mosque was seriously damaged by the explosion.

The police have said the incident isn't new as in April, the ISIS chief of Pakistan, blew himself up while planting a bomb on a busy road.

Janet Jackson & husband reportedly planning first baby via surrogate or adoption

Janet Jackson, 49, revealed a few weeks ago that she was postponing her tour to plan a family with her husband, and many wondered if she was pregnant. A family source has revealed that Janet won't actually be carrying the child.
 According to RadarOnline...

A source close to the Jackson family told RadarOnline.com exclusively that fans have nothing to fear. In fact, they have something to celebrate! According to a source, Jackson, 49, is getting ready to become a mom. “Janet has put her fans first her whole life. They are her world and, of course, she is devastated that she had to postpone the tour for another year,” the insider said. “But Janet’s health crisis this year really made her much more aware of her age,” the source told Radar. “She is approaching 50 and at this stage of her life all that she wants is to become a mother.”

According to the Jackson family insider, “Janet postponed her tour because she is going to be adopting a child or using a surrogate to have a baby in the next couple of months,” with billionaire husband Wissam Al Mana. “She is devoted to her husband and has decided to put his needs before her own needs right now,” the source added. “He really wants to start a family with her.”

Brazilian lawmakers vote to impeach President Dilma Rousseff

Brazil's lower house of Congress voted late Sunday to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, with at least 342 of 513 deputies voting in favor, to move her impeachment for fiscal irresponsibility forward. That threshold was passed shortly after 11 p.m. Brasília time Sunday, delivering a major blow to a long-embattled leader who repeatedly said there was a coup to remove her as president.
Rousseff is accused of mismanaging the federal budget to maintain spending and shore up support. She has said previous presidents used similar maneuvers and stressed that she has not been charged with any crimes or implicated in any corruption scandals.

The measure now goes to the Senate. If by a simple majority the Senate votes to take it up and put the president on trial, Rousseff will be temporarily suspended.

By default, if impeached, her vice-president, Michel Temer, would become president. He abandoned her side weeks ago. Third in line is Eduardo Cunha, president of the lower house who administered the vote today but both men work under a cloud of corruption accusations. So until then Rousseff remains in power until the impeachment proceeding is complete, which could take weeks. If she is impeached, the Senate would have 180 days to conduct a trial against Rousseff.

About 60 percent of the 594 members of Congress are facing corruption and other charges.

In the streets of São Paulo, massive balloons floated above the thousands of Brazilians gathered in what looked by all appearances to be a celebration for the impeachment process. In Rio de Janeiro, pro-government protesters filled the beachside road in Copacabana, while those against the government gathered in front of massive TV screens propped up on the beach to watch the voting. In Brasília, despite oppressive heat, Brazilians gathered in front of the Congressional building. A wall was constructed to separate the two sides.

Rousseff has hinted that she would appeal to the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil's highest court, on the grounds that the accusations are false.

They argued the only way  is to remove Rousseff, the country's first female president, whose popularity ratings have dropped below 10 percent in recent months.

The deepening crisis comes as Brazil grapples with problems on multiple fronts. The economy is contracting, inflation is around 10 percent and an outbreak of the Zika virus, which can cause devastating birth defects, has ravaged parts of northeastern states. Rio de Janeiro is gearing up to host the Olympics in August, but sharp budget cuts have fueled worries about whether the country will be ready.
There is a "Car Wash" investigation into a kickback scheme in the Chamber of Deputies that has seen dozens of top politicians and businessmen in jail already.
.

While Rousseff herself has not been implicated, the kickbacks at state oil company Petrobras allegedly happened on her watch and that of former President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva. While many lawmakers and regular citizens blame her for letting the graft happen, many sitting lawmakers are accused in the scandal.

Critics said she comes off as stand-offish and arrogant, and her unwillingness to engage in back-slapping and wooing of opposition leaders cost her as the economy started to decline and she was unable to gather support for reforms.
"Impeachment is the way that the political system found to get rid of an incompetent leader," said Luciano Dias, a political consultant based in Brasilia.



Source: AP

Photos: ISIS militant takes souvenir photos with crucified corpses in Syria

Islamic State militants executed a number of people in Syria's northeastern province of Raqqa recently. The men were shot and their bodies crucified on electricity poles. A militant is seen here taking pictures with some of the crucified corpses.

Photo credit: Terror Monitor

ISIS kills 15 of its members for 'spying' following assassination of senior ISIS chief

ISIS has killed 15 of its members for spying on them, in what is the largest execution carried out by the terrorist organisation on it self. This comes following the assassination of senior Islamic State terrorist boss, Abu Hija al-Tunisi, who was killed on Wednesday in an air strike. Some senior ISIS figures feel some of it's members snitched on the terrorist organisation.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the 15 military commanders were killed in a countryside near Raqqa for 'espionage and corruption on Earth' and 'impersonating al-Hisba (ISIS religious police) members'.

It comes as another monitoring group today said a leader of an al-Qaeda faction in Syria has also been killed in a U.S. air strike in Idlib.

According to the SITE Intelligence Group, Abu Firas al-Souri, a spokesman for the Nusra Front, was killed along with his son and several other people.

ISIS has suffered major defeats in Syria over the past months amid intense airstrikes by Russian warplanes.

The Syrian army command said in a statement that troops have 'restored security and stability to Qaryatain and farms surrounding it'.

Source: UK Mirror

London is next! Over 50% ISIS supporters vote Britain as next Terrorist target

ISIS supporters have chosen London as their next attack target in a new sickening web poll conducted by the terrorist group, where over 50% of it's supporters jubilantly chose Great Britain as the next place to cause mayhem following the recent attack in Belgium airport and metro.

On a forum page, one user set up the question poll:

'What will be the color of the Eiffel Tower in the next attacks?'

The question came after the Eiffel Tower was lit up in the colours of the Belgian flag, in solidarity to the victims of the Brussels attacks.

America and Russia were also selected as prime targets for a terror attack, according to jihadi supporters online.

'The Islamic State will attack London, Washington, Rome and all the infidels' capitals,' tweeted one ISIS supporter.

'The Crusaders are blundered and confused. Yesterday Paris, today Brussels, and they don't know where will be the next attack,' commented another social media user.

Source : DailyMail

Piers Morgan, joins team Team Trump in lengthy write up

How many more?

That’s all I could think this morning as news broke of yet another ISIS terror attack, this time in Brussels.

How many more innocent men, women and children are going to be blown to pieces by these murderous bastards?How many more airports, train stations, sports stadiums, restaurants or concert halls will be obliterated in a hail of suicide bombs and bullets?How many more world leaders will wring their hands on national television afterwards and spout pointless platitudes about the ‘poor brave victims’ and ‘heroic emergency services’?

How many taunting, gleeful claims of responsibility will the despicable perpetrators of these evil crimes be able to issue?

I’m sick of this, aren’t you?

Sick of feeling sick about such endless, senseless barbarism.

And the worst thing about it is that I see no end.

The inherent problem which causes it, chaotic war-torn instability in the Middle East, is getting worse, not better; just as the financial and military resource of the enemy is growing greater, not reducing.

Yet just as the world is crying out for strong decisive leadership, there is none.

America has a demob happy President Obama eeking out his last few months in office. A man whose infamous ‘leading from behind’ philosophy to foreign policy has been partly responsible for the war in Syria raging uncontrollably for five years – allowing fundamentalism to ferment.

Obama has zero interest in doing anything tangible to really deal with ISIS. This is now parked in the tray marked ‘next president’s problem.’

Europe, meanwhile, is splintering at the seams, ravaged by an unprecedented migration crisis that nobody seems to have a clue how to handle.

German chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let a million migrants into its country is already seen to be an utter disaster.


France, reeling from two horrendous attacks in Paris, is understandably highly fearful of yet more terror coming its way.

Belgium officials effectively conceded today that they have no real way to protect themselves against the ISIS threat. A fact surely born out by the fact that today’s onslaught in Brussels happened right when the city most expected it, following the capture of Paris attacks suspect Saleh Abdeslam three days ago.

Britain, surely a target anytime soon, is on red alert but its warring politicians are too distracted by the upcoming EU referendum in June to pay anything more than lame lip service to terrorism.So nobody seems to be doing anything concrete to stop ISIS, or even suggesting a new way to do so given the spectacular lack of success to date.

Well almost nobody.

By coincidence, I had an interview scheduled today with the world’s most controversial man, Donald Trump, for my UK show, Good Morning Britain.

It was set up a couple of weeks ago, but the timing was eerily prescient.

Here is one man who definitely has a plan to deal with ISIS terrorism. Several plans in fact.

The problem is that people don’t like them. Well, a lot of people don’t anyway.

Trump, current front-runner for the Republican nomination, wants to hit ISIS ‘so hard they never recover’.

(As he told me: ‘You've got to take them out and you've got to take them out harshly and you've got to take them out fast.’)

He also wants a short-term ban on Muslims entering the U.S. until, as he puts it, ‘we figure out what the hell is going on?’

And he wants to torture suspects like Abdeslam with techniques like water-boarding to try and extract information about future attacks.

Oh, and he wants to build a giant wall to stop illegal immigrants pouring over the Mexican border into America.


George Clooney hit out at Trump yesterday, as he endorsed Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton for the presidency, saying: ‘If you listen to the loudest voices out there today, you'd think we're a country that hates Mexicans, hates Muslims, and thinks that committing war crimes is the best way to make America great again.’

I spoke to Trump for 40 minutes. He was, as you’d expect, bombastic, defiant and self-congratulatory. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s ripped up every political rulebook to take this presidential race by storm, a scenario that is hardly going to deflate the ego of New York’s most cock-sure billionaire tycoon.

But he also spoke in more detail about his plans to combat ISIS and I found myself nodding more than I expected.

Trump told me countries must tighten their borders in light of these terror attacks, especially to anyone related to an ISIS fighter in Syria.

Is he so wrong?

He told me he wants law-abiding Muslims to root out the extremists in their midst, expressing his bafflement and anger that someone like Abdeslam was able to hide for so long in the very part of Brussels he had previously lived.

Is he so wrong?

He told me America must make it far harder for illegal immigrants to enter the U.S. and thinks European countries should follow suit.

Is he so wrong?

He told me he believes there are now areas of many major European cities which have become poisonous breeding grounds for radicalized Islamic terror.

Is he so wrong?

I didn’t feel I was talking to a lunatic, as many seem to view Trump.

I saw a guy, a non-politician unfettered by PC language restraints, who is genuinely furious at the devastation which ISIS is wreaking, and seriously concerned for the security of his fellow Americans and indeed, the citizens of Europe.



(Remember, Trump’s from New York and felt the horror of 9/11 very personally and very deeply like all New Yorkers.)

His plans for tackling this extraordinarily dangerous threat to the world have been widely condemned as ‘bigoted’ and ‘racist’.

But although I publicly criticised him for the Muslim short-term ban suggestion, I’ve known Trump for ten years and I don’t believe he’s a racist.

I think he’s someone who has spent his life responding to metaphorical punches on his nose by punching even harder back.

And right now, he firmly believes that ISIS will murder countless more Americans and Europeans if somebody somewhere doesn’t stand up and punch them hard in the face.

Someone prepared to stop spewing politically-correct niceties after these attacks, hoping nobody gets offended, and actually DO something.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, right now ISIS is winning this war and will continuing committing utter carnage on our streets on an ever graver and more barbaric scale until they are stopped.

I don’t have the answers to how to do that.

But I don’t hear any good ideas coming from any world leaders at the moment either, and it’s their highly paid jobs to work it out.

Instead, I see a global paralysis driven by fear, confusion and woeful lack of leadership.

And it will only get worse.

Hate Donald Trump all you like, but at least he seems to recognise the magnitude of the threat and at least he has firm proposals for how to try to defeat it.

They may not win him the Politically Correct Pontificator of the Year award. But how many more scenes like this morning’s appalling images from Brussels are we going to tolerate before we try a non-PC option to beat these disgusting excuses for human beings?

At the end of our interview, I asked Donald Trump to send a message to the large majority of non-violent, decent Muslims who are as disgusted by these attacks as the rest of us.

‘I have great respect for Muslims,’ he said, ‘I have many friends that are Muslims. I'm just saying that there is something with a radicalized portion that is very, very bad and very dangerous. I would say this, to the Muslims, when they see trouble, they have to report it, they're not reporting it, they're absolutely not reporting it and that's a big problem.’

Is he so wrong?

Brussels attack: Third man in surveilance photo sought by Belgian police

In grainy images from surveillance footage, a man wearing light-colored clothes and a hat pushing a baggage cart through the airport was seen with the other two suicide bombers and is now being sought by the Belgian police. All three men were shown walking side by side.
Two of the men, wearing black in surveillance images, are believed to be the suicide bombers who died in the two explosions at the Brussels airport and another at a busy metro station in the Belgian capital Tuesday that killed at least 30 people and wounded 230 others.

They are so to have each had a 'dead man switch' inside their black gloves. With the switch, even if they had been discovered and gotten shot, the bomb would have still gone off.

 

According to reports, the man in the light coloured clothes was supposed to make sure the other two carried out their evil deed.

Investigators believe the one in the light-colored clothing planted a bomb at the airport, then left but the bomb didn't go off. Authorities called him a wanted man and asked for the public's help tracking him down.

A break in the investigation may have come from a taxi driver who said he took the suspects to the airport.

The driver contacted authorities after seeing surveillance video of the three men and gave them the address where he picked the men up, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the investigation.

That information prompted authorities to raid a residence after the attacks, the officials said.

Investigators found a nail bomb, chemical products and an ISIS flag during a house search in the northeast Brussels neighborhood of Schaerbeek., Belgium's federal prosecutor said in a statement. 

Source: Fox News/CNN

Photo: Ghanaian graduate ISIS recruit reportedly killed in Homs, Syria

The Ghanaian graduate from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) who joined ISIS terror group has been reportedly killed.

Sources close to the family of Mohammed Nazir Nortei Alema told the Finder newspaper that the final funeral rites, Adua in Islam were held on Sunday, March 21.

 

Nazir who joined the terror group in August 2015 was reportedly killed in the Syrian city of Homs. Sheik Abdul Rahman, the former Chief Imam of London who named Nazir at birth , led the Adua prayers held in Osu, where the family of the deceased lives.

The family got the news of his demise through another Ghanaian ISIS recruit identified as Mr Yusif, a graduate of the University of Mines in Prestea.

The news of Nazir joining ISIS caused an uproar on the campus. Students were shocked because his demeanour never showed him as someone with the slightest inclination to violence.

Shortly after he left, Nazir reportedly sent a message to his family informing them about his decision to join ISIS after completing a one-year National Service with the Ghana Statistical Service.

Source: Joy News, Ghana

"You are from Africa? Wow! How do you live with giraffes and lions" - American man asks Zimbabwean woman

Yeah, you eadd right! Yesterday, March 15, a Zimbabwean human rights lawyer & General Secretary, World YWCA, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda was at a hotel reception in the U.S when a man asked her the ignorant questions. For over twenty years, Mrs Gumbonzvanda (pictured with Hollywood actress, Ashley Judd) has been working on issues of women and children's human rights with a special focus on crisis countries. After the cut is what she shared on her Facebook page...

"Okay, I was taken aback and am kind of angry and sad at ignorance, but more so at the perception of Africa. I was collecting my keys at the hotel reception and this guys said, aaah, you are from Africa, from Zimbabwe right? I said yes. He was holding my passport. Then he went on to say with true conviction "wow, how do you live with giraffes and the lions? Are you not afraid to just kind of wake up and see a lion staring at you?" I looked at him, and said no am not afraid. we are all part of nature. I am still nursing some sad feeling about how many people in this United States of America do not really know about Africa and have warped ideas. Or its maybe only this single guy. Ummm"

US extends sanctions against Zimbabwe

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has extended for another year, sanctions the United States imposed against Zimbabwe, saying the regime in Harare continues to represent “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United State”.

Washington imposed the sanctions in 2003, reacting to allegations of gross human rights abuses and electoral fraud levelled against President Robert Mugabe’s administration.
“These actions and policies had contributed to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Zimbabwe, to politically motivated violence and intimidation in that country, and to political and economic instability in the southern African region,” read then President George W Bush’s Executive Order of March 6, 2003, which effected the sanctions and has been renewed every year since.

Equally punitive action was also taken by countries such as Australia, Canada and the European Union (EU) with Mugabe hitting back by saying the West was punishing him for taking land from a handful of white farmers and giving it to hundreds of thousands of black Zimbabweans.

The EU has since lifted most of its sanctions and also resumed financial support for struggling Harare government.

But Obama said Wednesday that Mugabe had not changed his ways since 2003 and so US sanctions would be extended for another year.

“I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency originally declared in Executive Order 13288 of March 6, 2003, and renewed every year since then, is to continue in effect beyond March 6, 2016,” said the US president in a statement.

“The threat constituted by the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes or institutions, contributing to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law, to politically motivated violence and intimidation, and to political and economic instability in the southern African region, has not been resolved.


“These actions and policies continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States. For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary to continue this national emergency and to maintain in force the sanctions to respond to this threat.

“Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency originally declared in Executive Order 13288.”

The sanctions target Mugabe and leading members of his retinue, along with several government and quasi-State institutions.

Global financial institution, Barclays bank, recently revealed that it was fined about $2.5 million for contravening the US sanctions against Zimbabwe.

The US treasury department said Barclays processed 159 transactions worth $3.4 million from July 2008 to September 2013 to or through financial institutions in the U.S for corporate customers of Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe that were majority-owned by people on Washington’s sanctions lists.

“This enforcement action highlights the importance for institutions with operations in countries with a significant presence of persons (individuals and entities) on the [sanctions lists] to take appropriate measures to ensure compliance with U.S. economic sanctions laws when processing transactions on behalf of their customers to, through, or within the U.S.,” said the treasury department.

President Robert Mugabe blames the sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic crisis which has lasted more than a decade despite the now 92-year-old leader pivoting East and actively seeking financial lifelines from liberation war allies China and Russia.

Source-Newzimbabwe

Cynthia Morgan puts down an open letter to P-Square

Dance Hall artist Cynthia Morgan who is signed to Jude Okoye's record label, Northside Music, this morning shared an open letter she wrote to Paul and Peter Okoye of PSquare over their recent family crisis. Read the letter after the cut..

ISIS threatens to kill Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey

ISIS' hacking division has released a video challenging the founders of Facebook and Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey for closing down accounts linked with the terrorist organisation, and promising to kill them if they continue.

The Sons Caliphate Army, ISIS' hacking division titled the video released on Tuesday “Flames of the Supporters”, and in the video both C.E.O's face were riddled with bullets.

Earlier this month, Twitter revealed that it had shut down 125,000 accounts while in the last six months Facebook has shut down over 10,000 accounts linked to the terrorist organisation, in their efforts to curb terrorism and spread of information from ISIS terrorists.

At the end of the video, the video text says, "To Mark and Jack, founders of Twitter and Facebook, and to their Crusader government. "You announce daily that you suspended many of our accounts "And to you we say: Is that all you can do?" ''you are not in our league'' “If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete you [sic] sites, Allah willing, and will know that we say is true”.