Terrorism Casts Shadow on Obama's Speech to Congress | Obama to Highlight Cybersecurity Proposals in State of the Union | FBI investigates shots fired near Joe Biden's Delaware home | Channel Tunnel closed again and 11 Eurostar trains cancelled
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President Barack Obama is preparing to deliver his annual State of the Union address at a time of heightened vigilance in Washington and beyond following terrorist attacks in France. VOA's...
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Charlie Hebdo editor Gerard Biard defended the satirical magazine’s decision to put a cartoon depiction of the Prophet Muhammad on its cover following this month’s brutal terrorist attacks, in an interview that aired Sunday.
“We do not attack religion, but we do when it gets involved in politics,” Biard, who was in London during the attack on Charlie Hebdo, said on NBC‘s Meet the Press.
Charlie Hebdo has had a history of controversy with its mocking of several religions, particularly Islam. The French weekly’s cover image following the attacks on its office defiantly portrays the Prophet Muhammad holding a sign reading, “Je Suis Charlie.” The issue both sold out and sparked worldwide opposition from some groups.
Here are three more clips from Biard’s interview.
Biard explains how Charlie Hebdo is coping with the aftermath of the attacks, which left 12 dead, including 10 staff members:
Biard argues why other media outlets should publish their cartoons, which several international media outlets opted against:
Biard urges people not to place thinkers and artists in the same category as murderers:
[NBC]
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Trains had resumed after a lorry fire closed the tunnel yesterday, but there was more misery for Eurostar passengers after the firm claimed a power outage forced the tunnel to shut for two hours.
Terrorism Casts Shadow on Obama's Speech to Congressby webdesk@voanews.com (Michael Bowman)
President Barack Obama is preparing to deliver his annual State of the Union address at a time of heightened vigilance in Washington and beyond following terrorist attacks in France. The ceremonial pageantry of Tuesday’s presidential speech before a joint session of Congress comes against a backdrop of ramped-up security on both sides of the Atlantic. In recent days, there have been a shoot-out in Belgium, police raids in Germany, arrests in Greece, and stepped-up security...
BEIRUT, Lebanon — An Israeli missile strike on the Golan Heights in Syria has killed the son of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah.
Jihad Mughniyah, who followed in his father’s footsteps to become a top-level Hezbollah operative, was killed along with four other fighters in the strike on Sunday in the Syrian town of Quneitra, close to the Israeli border, according to Lebanese security sources cited in local press.
 Jerusalem Post Israel News |
Israel and world Jewry – an unbreakable bond
Jerusalem Post Israel News But there's an explanation for the modern miracle of Israel: Israel has the added value of the Jewish people around the world, which provides our small state with ongoing support; resources; whole-hearted, unquestioning endorsement; full commitment and ... and more » |
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FBI investigates shots fired near Joe Biden's Delaware home
WDAM-TV (CNN) - The Secret Service and the FBI are investigating after shots were fired near Vice President Joe Biden's home in Delaware. It happened Saturday night just before 8:30 local time. A secret service spokesman says a vehicle sped past the home and fired ... and more » |
The Pope wore a yellow poncho over his robe as he celebrated the Mass, which was attended by 6 million people, according to the Philippine News Agency. "All of us are God's children, members of God's family," he said.
Donetsk shelled as Kiev ‘orders massive fire’ on East Ukraineby The European Union Times
Ukrainian troops have launched a massive assault on militia-held areas Sunday morning after an order from Kiev, a presidential aide said. The self-proclaimed Donetsk republic’s leader accused Kiev of trying to restart the war.
The order to launch the offensive was issued early approximately at 6:00 am, according to Yury Biryukov, an aide to President Petro Poroshenko.
“Today we will show HOW good we are at jabbing in the teeth,” he wrote on his Facebook page, a mode of conveying information favored by many Ukrainian officials.
In a later post he said: “They are now striking a dot. Uuu…” in a reference to Tochka-U (‘tochka’ means ‘dot’ in Russian), a tactical ballistic missile, one of the most powerful weapons Ukraine so far deployed against rebel forces.
“That wasn’t a dot but ellipsis. Strong booms,” he added.
Reports from the ground confirmed a sharp escalation of clashes across the front line, with particularly heavy artillery fire reported at Gorlovka.
“Locals in Donetsk said they haven’t heard such intensive shelling since summer,” Valentin Motuzenko, a military official in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, told Interfax news agency.
“The Ukrainian military are using all kinds of weapons, Grad multiple rocket launchers, mortars…” Motuzenko said.
A source at the site told RT that a group of OSCE monitors have demanded that the Ukrainian military stop the shelling. The source added that there is a danger that the group may itself come under artillery fire.
Aleksandr Zakharchenko, who was elected in November the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, has accused Kiev of using the ceasefire to regroup their troops and boost their armaments, and now of trying to restart the all-out war.
“It’s clear that Kiev is making an attempt to take revenge for the serious military defeat it took from the militia last year,” he added. “Kiev always ignored our numerous suggestions to pull back heavy weapons from the disengagement line.”
“At the moment, we are aware of five civilians killed,” the Donetsk administration said, adding that the shelling of the city by Ukrainian forces is still under way.
Several residential buildings, a shop and a bus station have been seriously damaged by artillery fire in the city, RIA Novosti reported.
The Putilovsky Bridge, which is located near the Donetsk airport, has also been destroyed in the shelling, RT’s Roman Kosarev reported from the scene.
There were also reports of attacks on the town of Makeevka and several nearby villages.
The militia added that at least one shell hit a residential area in central Donetsk rather than the outskirts of the city.
Two people have died and 16 other received injureies after a Ukrainian shell exploded at bus station in city of Gorlovka, the press service of the People’s Republic of Donetsk said.
Several buildings in the city also suffered direct hits during the bombardment, including four schools and a kindergarten, the press service added.
Witnesses said that Kiev used aviation in the assault, with Sukhoi Su-24 warplanes jets seen in the air above Gorlovka.
The ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of Donetsk (DPR) has called upon the international community to address the worsening of the situation in southeast Ukraine and “make every effort to stop unpunished mass murder in the heart of Europe.”
“The People’s Republic of Donetsk again suffered a treacherous and large-scale attack from Ukraine,” which is aimed at the destruction of the republic’s population and infrastructure, Aleksandr Kofman, DPR foreign minister, said in a statement.
The actions of the Kiev forces in Donetsk Region “bear all characteristics of serious war crimes,” Kofman said.
Moscow is seriously concerned by the by the renewal of shelling of residential areas of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk by Kiev forces, the Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said.
The actions of the Ukrainian military in no way promote the settlement of the conflict between Kiev and the eastern regions, he said.
“Of course, the stance of the Russian side will be expressed. Of course, it involves serious concerns over the resumption of full scale warfare in Donetsk, including shelling of populated residential areas. And, of course, such a state of affairs doesn’t promote the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements [from September 5] and the further search for a peaceful solution,” Peskov told Govorit Moskva radio station.
The escalation comes after several days of violent clashes at the ruins of the Donetsk International Airport, a scene of constant fighting over the months of shaky ceasefire between Kiev’s troops and local militia forces.
The militia, who have accused the Ukrainian military of launching constant attacks on Donetsk from their positions at the airport, reported taking over the location this week. Kiev denied this report.
The Ukrainian Security and Defense Council confirmed the resumption of hostilities and that Kiev’s objective was to recapture the airport.
Kiev launched it’s retaliation days after President Poroshenko ordered a new wave of mobilization into the country’s armed forces. The government plans to hold at least three conscription campaigns over 2015 to sustain its military operations in the east.
The escalation of violence comes after a controversial incident at Kiev’s checkpoint near the town of Volnovakha, where 12 passengers were killed on Tuesday. Kiev blamed the deaths on the militia, saying it was hit by a Grad rocket. The DNR forces denied the accusations and said the bus was targeted by the Ukrainian troops themselves – either in a tragic incident or as a staged provocation – and said the damage visible in the picture of the bus is consistent with a less powerful weapon, possibly a landmine.
An OSCE observer team studied blast craters near the checkpoint and confirmed the direction they came from. Russia’s permanent representative to the OSCE, Andrey Kelin, said the direction runs along the disengagement line separating militia- and Kiev-controlled areas, which makes it difficult to determine who fired the rockets.
The observers did not identify the type of rockets used.
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A U.S. Congressional delegation is in Cuba to discuss normalizing relations with the communist country. CNN's Karl Penhaul reports.
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American Sniper's Chris Kyle: His Dangerous Life and Mysterious Death
Taya Kyle reveals how American Sniper "brought her husband back to life" and why she ...
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Chris Kyle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Former SEAL Chris Kyle Allegedly Killed by Former Marine He
<a href="http://abcnews.go.com" rel="nofollow">abcnews.go.com</a> › US
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- Chris Kyle was the most successful sniper in American military history
- He claimed 255 lives during four tours of Iraq before retiring in 2009
- His life is the subject of a new film tipped for success at the Oscars
- In 2013 Kyle was shot and killed by a friend at a shooting range in Texas
Published: 19:33 EST, 18 January 2015 | Updated: 04:54 EST, 19 January 2015
The street in the village near Nasiriya in Iraq was almost deserted. Except for a woman and a child, the sniper could see no other signs of life through the scope of his rifle.
It was March 2003, and in a few minutes, a unit of Marines would be entering the village. It was the sniper’s job to protect them from ambush. The shooter, a member of the elite American Navy SEAL commando unit, continued to scan the scene from an old building at the edge of the village.
Next to him lay his platoon chief, studying the area through binoculars.
A squad of ten marines drove into view and left their vehicles. As they did so, the woman pulled something out from under her robes.
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In his sights: Bradley Cooper in his role as Chris Kyle in the hotly anticipated film American Sniper (above)
‘She’s got a grenade!’ said the chief.
The sniper paused. ‘Take a shot!’ the chief ordered.
The sniper paused again. He had never killed a woman.
‘Shoot!’ barked the chief.
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The sniper squeezed the trigger and the woman dropped to the ground. As he fired again, the grenade exploded, but did no harm.
‘It was my duty to shoot, and I don’t regret it,’ he said later. ‘My shots saved several Americans, whose lives were clearly worth more than that woman’s twisted soul.’
The sniper’s name was Chris Kyle, and the dead woman represented his first kill with a long-range rifle.
Little did Kyle know, but he would go on to become the most successful sniper in American military history, claiming 255 kills over six years, with 160 of them officially confirmed by the Pentagon.
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Chris Kyle was the most successful sniper in American military history after killing 255 over four tours of Iraq
The man with a red ‘crusader’s cross’ tattooed on his arm once said his only regret about his work was that he hadn’t killed more.
Kyle’s record is astonishing, so much so that his life is now the subject of a major new film.
Released in the UK on Friday, it is directed by no less a figure than Clint Eastwood, and stars the hunk-du-jour Bradley Cooper, who last week received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his role.
Called American Sniper, and based on Kyle’s autobiography of the same name, the film reveals not only how he became so successful, but also how the trauma of fighting in Iraq never left him, right until Kyle’s own tragically early — and as we shall see, deeply ironic — death at the age of 38 in February 2013.
Raised in rural Texas, Kyle had been a cowboy before he joined the SEALs. Initially, he was rejected because a rodeo accident had left him with metal pins in his arms.
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The film reveals not only how he became so successful but how the trauma of fighting in Iraq never left him (Bradley Cooper, above)
However, in the late Nineties, the unit relaxed its entrance policy, and Kyle was put through the fearsomely tough selection and training regime.
In 2003, he was deployed to Iraq, where he made his first long-distance kills — including that woman with the grenade — although he had not actually been trained as sniper.
With an obvious talent, he was sent to the SEAL sniper school, where he was taught the dark arts of warfare’s loneliest and most controversial job. Many of the classes were in the use of computers and how to make complex calculations about distance, wind speeds and so on.
As Kyle discovered, shooting is only a small part of the sniper’s role. He was taught not only how to observe, but how to stalk. His natural lack of patience made it hard, but he was determined to succeed.
Ironically enough, considering his future record, Kyle actually failed the markmanship test, which could have meant being kicked off the course.
His instructor was perplexed, until he realised Kyle was missing one vital piece of his equipment — chewing tobacco, which helped him relax and shoot more accurately.
‘It was the only thing I had done differently and it turned out to be key. I passed the exam with flying colours — and a wad of tobacco in my cheek.’
In 2004, Kyle was posted to Fallujah, west of Baghdad and a major battleground of Iraqi insurgency, and it was during the battle for that city where he made his mark.
Working from the tops of buildings, Kyle would scan a neighbourhood for insurgents. On one afternoon, he spotted a group half a mile away, on an embankment. ‘In their mind, they couldn’t be seen and were safe,’ he said. ‘They were badly mistaken.’
Working with a fellow sniper, Kyle shot three insurgents that afternoon. His partner got two.
Picking off their victims in cold blood, rather than the frenzy of a fire-fight, snipers are often regarded with distaste by other soldiers — and can expect instant death if caught by the enemy. But Kyle had no moral qualms. ‘After the first kill, the others come easy,’ he claimed bluntly.
Some of his kills in Fallujah were like something from the very darkest of black comedies.
One afternoon, he watched 16 heavily armed insurgents crossing a river using four beach balls as floats, with four men clinging onto each.
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Clint Eastwood (left) directed the film which has won Bradley Cooper (right) an Oscar nomination as Best Actor
Instead of shooting the men, Kyle shot the beach balls. After he had shot the first, the men tried to swim to the others. Kyle then shot a second ball, and soon eight men were flailing in the water.
‘Hell, it was a lot of fun,’ Kyle recalled with the grimmest humour.
After shooting the third ball, and with most of the men unable to grab the last one, the insurgents started to drown. Kyle watched the survivors fight each other for the final ball, before he shot it. The insurgents either drowned, or were finished off by some nearby Marines.
After Fallujah, Kyle’s next killing zone was in Baghdad. It was there that he saw a teenage boy being kidnapped by gunmen. Without hesitation, Kyle picked off the kidnappers in a blur of high-precision fire. The boy seized his chance and ran.
However, it was in 2006 in Ramadi, a city in central Iraq, that Kyle gained his nickname as ‘The Legend’ from his fellow SEALs.
One day, while positioned on a roof, Kyle watched a moped coming down a street. Riding it were two men, one of whom dropped a backpack into a pothole. Realising that it contained an improvised explosive, Kyle took a shot at the speeding moped from a range of 150 yards. The bullet hit one of the riders, passed through him, and hit the other.
‘Two guys with one shot,’ Kyle proudly said. ‘The taxpayer got good bang for his buck on that one.’ Kyle’s reputation spread far, and the insurgents labelled him the ‘Devil of Ramadi’ — and they even put up a ‘wanted’ poster.
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The film is based on Kyle's book of the same name (above)
Soon, however, it was time for the ‘devil’ to go to Sadr City, a no-go quarter of Baghdad, which Kyle found the most brutal of all.
By now, despite relishing the thrill of combat, the emotional strain of war was taking its toll. His relationship with his wife, Taya, worsened every time he was on leave, and he had lost close friends in the conflict. Furthermore, he had been shot twice, and only a ricochet off his helmet camera and the efficacy of his body armour had saved him.
However, it was near Sadr City where Kyle would make his most spectacular kill.
After taking over a house to use as a sniper point, Kyle started scanning a neighbouring village. Through the scope of his rifle, he spotted a figure on top of a house some 2,100 yards away — well over a mile. Kyle studied the figure, but he couldn’t establish whether the person was hostile to the Americans.
Shortly afterwards, Kyle watched a U.S. convoy approach the village, and when he looked at the figure, he saw it was raising a rocket launcher. With no way to warn the convoy, Kyle had to shoot, even though he knew there was almost no chance of making a hit.
He pulled the trigger. To his astonishment, the Iraqi fell to the ground. ‘The shot amazes me even now,’ wrote Kyle in his memoir. ‘It was my longest confirmed kill in Iraq.’
In 2009, after four tours of Iraq, Kyle retired. He had not only shot more of the enemy than any other American sniper, but had also gained himself a chestful of medals, including three Silver Stars for gallantry.
Yet for all his bravado, it is virtually impossible for any man to wreak so much death without paying a price psychologically. Even though he had left the SEALs, for years, Kyle found it hard to adjust to family life.
However, after publishing his book American Sniper in 2012 to much acclaim, and setting up a military training company, the future looked brighter, and Kyle even enjoyed a fair amount of celebrity.
But then something happened which shocked America — and which would be hard to believe in a movie if it were not entirely true.
On February 2, 2013, Kyle met his own death in the way he had killed so many others. That day, on a shooting range in Texas, former Marine Eddie Ray Routh, 25, shot and killed Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield. The motive remains unclear, but it is thought Routh was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In fact, Kyle and Littlefield had taken their troubled comrade to the shooting range as therapy, only for Routh to gun them down. Routh later told his sister he wanted Kyle’s Ford pick-up truck.
When Kyle’s funeral was held ten days later, thousands lined the route of the 200-mile funeral procession, which took his body from his home in Midlothian, Texas, to the State Cemetery in Austin.
A man who had lived by the bullet had died in the same way — one of the most high-profile victims of America’s War on Terror.
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Chris Kyle, a sniper in the elite American Navy SEAL commando unit, is the subject of a new major film starring Bradley Cooper (pictured in the role), who is tipped for an Oscar.
 NDTV |
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The Home Secretary said she never thought she would see the day when Jews were frightened to stay in the UK, speaking at an event to commemorate those who died in the Paris terror attacks.
Cubans Convicted in the U.S. Face New Fears of Deportationby By LIZETTE ALVAREZ and KRISTIN HUSSEY
A longstanding policy of permitting Cubans with criminal convictions to remain in the United States is suddenly on shakier ground.
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Obama to Highlight Cybersecurity Proposals in State of the Union by webdesk@voanews.com (Doug Bernard)
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German police have banned a rally by the anti-Islamic Pegida movement and other public gatherings planned for January 19 in the eastern city of Dresden, citing a terrorist threat.
The EU has no plans to review the bloc’s sanctions against Russia at a regular meeting of foreign ministers, according to oreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
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Putin Vows Swift Justice Over Slaughter Of Armenian Familyby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised a swift investigation and appropriate punishment for the massacre of six members of a single family near Russia's military base in Armenia.
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Russian Antifascists Commemorate Slain Lawyer And Journalist by noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL's Russian Service)
Antifascist activists are holding marches in Russian cities to honor human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, who were gunned down in Moscow six years ago.
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LONDON (Reuters) - A prominent British Muslim has accused the government of copying the language of the far right after ministers wrote to imams urging them to explain to fellow Muslims how Islam is compatible with being British.
Negotiations in Geneva over the weekend were “serious and useful” and the parties involved had decided to meet again in early February, a spokeswoman for the European Union said.
Just months before Ireland is due to hold a referendum on marriage equality, the country’s minister for health has come out during a radio interview. Leo Varadkar told RTÉ Radio 1, an Irish radio station, that he was gay and would be campaigning in support of same-sex marriage in the lead up to the referendum in May.
“It’s not a secret — but not something that everyone would necessarily know, but it isn’t something I’ve spoken publicly about before,” he said during the Jan. 18 interview. “I just kind of want to be honest with people. I don’t want anyone to think that I have a hidden agenda.”
He added: “I’d like the referendum to pass because I’d like to be an equal citizen in my own country, the country in which I happen to be a member of Government, and at the moment I’m not.”
Ireland decriminalized homosexuality 22 years ago and same-sex couples have been able to enter a civil partnership since 2011, but not marry.
[RTÉ]
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Mohammad al-Sabban says Riyadh has enough currency reserves to ride out long-term crisis and low prices may even benefit world’s biggest exporter
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Mohammad al-Sabban told the BBC that Saudi Arabia was concerned about the falling oil price but its cash reserves and planned budget cuts meant it could cope with a long period of depressed prices.
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Eurostar services have been cancelled due to fire after a weekend of disruption caused chaos for passengers, Sky sources say.
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Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor who accused Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of covering up an investigation into the bombing of a Jewish center, was found dead in his apartment bathroom, authorities said Monday.
Nisman had been investigating a 1994 car bomb attack at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and injured hundreds more. In 2006, Nisman and a fellow prosecutor accused Iran of orchestrating the attacks; Iran has consistently denied the charges.
According to the Argentine Security Ministry, Nisman was found dead on Sunday in his apartment in Buenos Aires, next to a handgun and bullet casing.
Nisman was due to take part in a closed-door parliamentary hearings on Monday to reveal the details of his allegations against President Fernandez.
The Clarin daily reported that just a few days earlier, he had told the newspaper, “I could end up dead because of this.”
Prosecutor Viviana Fein told reporters that the state will be determining the cause of death in the coming days.
[Reuters]
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