China port city Tianjin hit with blasts from warehouse district; at least 44 dead | Iraq food market struck by huge truck bomb; at least 62 dead in Baghdad
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TIANJIN, China (AP) — Huge explosions in a warehouse district sent up massive fireballs that turned the night sky into day, killing at least 44 people and injuring hundreds in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, officials and witnesses said Thursday.
Twelve of the dead were from among the more ...
BAGHDAD (AP) — A massive truck bomb ripped through a popular Baghdad food market in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood early Thursday morning, killing at least 62 people, police officials said.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blast, saying it targeted a gathering place of Shiites and vowed more ...
A government watchdog said Thursday that a $335 million power plant in Afghanistan funded by U.S. taxpayers is operating at less than 1 percent of capacity and is falling into disrepair from lack of use.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko said the Tarakhil Power Plant "continues to ...
Immigration to the U.S. has recovered from its recession-caused lull and is surging back, led in part by a major jump in migrants from neighboring Mexico, according to a report being released Thursday that suggests Latin Americans are once again coming and staying.
For several years, the flow had dropped, ...
BAGHDAD (AP) - Here is a look at the deadliest attacks in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. troops on Dec. 18, 2011:
- Dec. 22, 2011: Attackers hit markets, cafes and government buildings in mostly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing 69 people.
- Jan. 5, 2012: Coordinated bombings target ...
At least 44 dead, hundreds injured as huge warehouse blasts strike Chinese port of Tianjin
TIANJIN, China (AP) - Huge explosions in a warehouse district sent up massive fireballs that turned the night sky into day, killing at least 44 people and injuring hundreds in the Chinese port city of ...
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A pro-Islamic State hacking group sent a chilling warning to members of the U.S. military and government Wednesday, promising followers of the organization would retaliate "very soon" for overseas bombing targeting the militant group.
A representative for the Islamic State Hacking Division told The Blaze the group is ...
The federal government collected a record amount of taxes in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2015, exceeding $2.6 trillion in revenue, according to the latest monthly Treasury Department statement. Despite the record revenue, the federal government ran a deficit of $465 billion.
Treasury receipts include tax revenue from individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, social insurance and retirement taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, customs duties, and other miscellaneous items.
In the first 10 months of fiscal year 2015, the amount of taxes collected by the federal government outpaced the first 10 months of all previous fiscal years, even after adjusting for inflation. The 2015 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, 2014 and runs through Sept. 30, 2015.
The federal government collected $2.6 trillion from October through July in fiscal year 2015. Most of the money came from individual income taxes, which comprised nearly half of that total, totaling $1.27 trillion.
The Treasury Department has been tracking these data on its website since 1998. In that fiscal year, the federal government collected about $2 trillion in inflation-adjusted revenue in the first 10 months. This means that since 1998, tax revenues have increased about 30 percent.
Although the federal government brought in a record of approximately $2.6 trillion in revenue in the first ten months of fiscal 2015, according to the Treasury, it also spent approximately $3.1 trillion, leaving a deficit of approximately $465 billion.
The Obama administration has intervened in a landmark legal case brought by the American victims of Palestinian terrorists, urging the court to limit restitution for the victims out of fear that a sizable payout could collapse the Palestinian government, according to a copy of the court filing.
Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken argued in a filing to a New York City court that a hefty payout to the victims of Palestinian terror crimes could burden the Palestinian Authority (PA) and interfere in Obama administration efforts to foster peace in the region.
The victims are entitled to as much as $655 million from the PA following the conclusion of a decade-long lawsuit that exposed the Palestinian government’s role in supporting and paying for terror attacks in Israel.
The administration’s intervention in the case has drawn criticism from U.S. lawmakers and some of those affected by the decision.
While the administration supports the right of terror victims to sue in U.S. courts, it remains particularly concerned about the PA’s solvency.
“The United States respectfully urges the Court to carefully consider the impact of its decision on the continued viability of the PA in light of the evidence about its financial situation,” Blinken writes in his “statement of interest.” “An event that deprives the PA of a significant portion of its revenues would likely severely compromise the PA’s ability to operate as a governmental authority.”
Blinken goes on to warn that the case could impact U.S. security interests and its role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
“A PA insolvency and collapse would harm current and future U.S.-led efforts to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Blinken writes.
Representatives to the PA had been lobbying the Justice and State Departments to get involved in the case for some time. The PA maintains that it does not have enough funds to pay a bond requirement and has petitioned the judge in the case to drop it.
However, a lawyer representing the victims argues that if the Palestinian government can continue paying terrorists currently imprisoned in Israeli jails, it can pay the victims of these terror acts.
“We are gratified that the Department of Justice supports the rights of survivors of international terrorism to enforce their rights and collect the judgment, but disappointed that the State Department failed to take any stand against the PLO and PA’s policy of putting convicted terrorists on their payroll as soon as they are jailed,” lawyer Kent Yalowitz was quoted as saying in a statement. “If the PA has enough money to pay convicted terrorists, it has enough to pay the judgment in this case.”
Ron Gould, a plaintiff in the case, told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview that there was no reason for the Obama administration to intervene.
“There was really no reason for them to even get involved,” said Gould, whose daughter Shayna was shot in the chest and nearly killed by Palestinian terrorists. “For the Obama administration to stick their fingers where they don’t belong is unconscionable.”
The PA “still seems to have the money to pay the families of the terrorists on an ongoing basis,” Gould said. “They do have the money to pay the piper for losing the court case.”
Shayna Gould welcomed the administration’s filing in the case, saying it reaffirms the rights of terror victims to have a fair day in court.
However, she called the argument that the PA could be bankrupted as a result of the suit “ironic, considering they pay terrorists on a monthly basis.”
Shayna Gould said the PA had been hinting that the U.S. government would get involved for quite some time
“It was a fear. It was a huge fear,” she said, adding that the PA should be forced to finally pay up.
“They, with pride, give money and rank of the highest honor to terrorists and people who commit murder,” Gould said. “Does that sound like clipping coupons and saving pennies?”
“I have to deal with [the impact of their violence] in my life on a constant basis,” Gould added, explaining that she deals with physical pain on a daily basis since the attack. “There is no limit to our suffering.”
Jewish human rights group B’nai B’rith was also critical of the administration’s intervention.
“There needs to be a price paid for committing acts of terror and the means available to prosecute those responsible,” the group said in a release. “While the victims’ families cannot bring their loved ones back, they can go to the courts to achieve redress.”
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The U.S. State Department’s annual human rights dialogues with the Chinese government are not publicly promoted and are ineffective at improving conditions in the country, according to Chinese activists and rights lawyers who criticized the upcoming event.
This year’s dialogue will take place on Thursday and Friday in Washington, D.C., amid a widening crackdown by the Chinese Communist Party against dissidents.
Police have interrogated more than 300 activists and human rights lawyers in the last month. While most have been released, at least 23 individuals are still in criminal detention or are being held at unknown locations.
The human rights dialogue comes amid withering criticism of the State Department and Obama administration on other rights issues, including human trafficking. Senators have threatened tosubpoena all information about the agency’s trafficking report, which reportedly inflated the assessments of several strategically important countries that have also failed to crack down on forced labor and prostitution.
In an editorial published on Monday, the non-governmental organization (NGO) Rights Defense Network wrote that previous dialogues “have had virtually no impact on improving human rights conditions in mainland China.”
“This meeting, which should be inspiring huge hopes by people who long for progress on rights in China, is no longer drawing any attention,” the group wrote. “So we want to ask the question: What meaning do such ‘human rights dialogues’ have, if they have done nothing to improve the severe and harsh human rights conditions in China, and if they have become pure formality and an empty exchange of diplomatic rhetoric?”
The Rights Defense Network urged U.S. officials to raise individual cases of political prisoners with the Chinese government and press for “concrete and effective measures for improving human rights.”
Prominent dissidents such as Liu Xiaobo are still serving multi-year sentences on politically motivated charges, the group noted, and other detainees have been tortured or denied medical treatment.
Another group of 36 lawyers and activists issued a statement that was critical of the dialogue. While past events have “provided platforms for the two governments to exchange views and drew public attention through the media,” they “did not substantially help improve China’s human rights situation, which, on the contrary, has deteriorated in the past two years.”
The lawyers requested that Beijing release all political prisoners to demonstrate its commitment to the dialogue and ensure the safety of activists who have publicly commented about the event. They also called on U.S. officials to press their Chinese counterparts on new national security laws, which critics say are designed to curtail the rights of dissidents.
“Both sides should put forth concrete and verifiable plans to avoid continued persecution of lawyers and activists after the Dialogue,” they said.
The State Department said in a press release on Wednesday that the Chinese dialogue “reflects the importance of human rights in the bilateral relationship.”
“Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski and Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department of International Organizations and Conferences Director-General Li Junhua will lead their respective interagency delegations in the dialogue,” the release said. “During the dialogue, the two sides will discuss rule of law, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, Internet freedom, the rights of ethnic minorities, and other human rights issues.”
A department spokesperson confirmed that Secretary of State John Kerry will make remarks at the event that are closed to the press.
The “U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue” has tended to attract more attention than the human rights event. Secretary of State John Kerry attended several sessions at the economic dialogue in June and provided remarks.
However, Kerry might not be able to attend all of the human rights dialogue with China this week, as he is scheduled to appear at the reopening of the U.S. embassy in Cuba on Friday, following the normalization of ties between Havana and Washington.
Many in the U.S. human rights community are critical of the Obama administration’s approach to China. Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, wrote in Foreign Policy that U.S. officials failed to publicly name individuals who were abused by the Chinese government.
“Some senior U.S. officials shy away from causing embarrassment to senior Chinese officials, arguing that it is counterproductive,” she wrote. “It’s hard to know that definitively, especially when former political prisoners tell us and others that their treatment improved when their cases were publicly raised, suggesting that embarrassment does prompt a change in behavior.”
Yang Jiechi, Chinese state councilor, said at the economic dialogue that, “in advancing human rights, China’s achievements are there for all to see.”
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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration created a new $150,000 job in City Hall and handed it to the girlfriend of one of his top aides without advertising the position to the public, according to the New York Post.
Stephanie Yazgi was hired as the campaign director for the mayor’s office of immigrant affairs—a position that previously didn’t exist.
Yang lives with her partner, Emma Wolfe, who ran de Blasio’s campaign and was described by theNew York Times as the mayor’s “secret weapon.” As director of intergovernmental affairs, she is said to be one of the most trusted aides in City Hall.
City Hall says that it was hopeful that the high-dollar position granted to Yazgi, for which she may have been the only candidate to interview, would be paid for without using taxpayer money—but that fell through.
Yazgi will be responsible for “overseeing the mayor’s national organizing efforts on immigration, specifically the Cities for Action on Immigration coalition,” according to a job description provided by City Hall.The position was initially to be funded by a private grant but because of “delays,” taxpayers will be footing the bill instead.Immigration Commissioner Nisha Agarwal said she recruited Yazgi because she headed a list of “about 10 people who were my top job choices.”But City Hall officials refused to say if anyone else was actually interviewed.
The city’s Conflicts of Interest Board approved the hiring, stating that although Yazgi would occasionally work with Wolfe, she would not be reporting to her as a direct supervisor.
Spreadsheet lists names, email addresses, phone numbers and passwords of US military and government staff, but marines say information is out-of-date
A group calling itself the Islamic State hacking division has published the details of 1,400 mostly US military and government personnel, urging supporters to attack those listed.
The spreadsheet, published online on Wednesday, exposes names, email addresses, phone numbers and passwords. Those listed include members of the marine corps, Nasa, the state department, air force and FBI.
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