Obama hails Pope Francis's message of 'love and hope' by AFP
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President Obama welcomes Pope Francis at the White House, hails his message of 'love and hope'.
The pontiff appears to be addressing the child abuse scandal.
Russia to exhume remains of last czar by Associated Press
Russia’s Investigative Committee says the remains of Czar Nicholas II and his wife are to be exhumed to determine whether body parts unearthed eight years ago are those of two of their children.
New satellite images released Tuesday reveal what appears to be new construction at two Syrian military facilities near the Mediterranean coast, the latest indicator that Russia may soon deploy its own military forces into the country's civil war.
The images, provided by IHS Jane's, a defense-intelligence provider, show ...
More than 5 million Americans' fingerprint files were stolen from the federal government, the chief human resources agency said Wednesday, acknowledging the massive data breach was five times larger than they'd previously admitted.
The fingerprint data was stolen in the massive breach that saw the government lose the most sensitive ...
Airstrikes have eliminated a senior figure within the Islamic State group and an explosives expert with links to al Qaeda, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday.
Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters that airstrikes launched earlier this summer have killed Abu Bakr al Turkmani, an influential member of the Islamic State, ...
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Joe Biden has a quarter of support among likely Democratic primary voters despite not having officially entered the race for president in 2016.
According to a recent Bloomberg Politics poll, 25 percent of Democrats nationally name the vice president as their first choice for the party’s nomination, indicating that Biden is within 8 percentage points of Hillary Clinton, who holds 33 percent of the vote.
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders follows close behind with 24 percent of support among Democrats and Democratic-leaners. Eight percent of Democrats–a share equal to the gap between Biden and Clinton–define themselves as “uncommitted” to any single candidate at the moment.
While Biden has been reportedly mulling a presidential bid for weeks as Clinton’s support among Democrats has waned amid her personal email scandal, the vice president has yet to officially announce his candidacy. That hasn’t stopped major Hollywood fundraisers and lawmakers from expressing their enthusiasm for a Biden bid for the White House.
The poll, conducted between Sept. 18 and 21, indicates that nearly half of voters nationwide want Biden to run for president in 2016, while only 37 percent say he should not.
Biden’s favorable rating has also ticked up in recent months. Currently, a plurality of 49 percent view the vice president favorably.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has seen her favorable score decline by more than a quarter since April. Thirty-eight percent of voters nationally view the former secretary of state in positive light, while a majority of 54 percent express unfavorable opinions of Clinton. What’s more, a plurality–36 percent–view her “very” unfavorably.
Biden’s favorable score among Democrats is also significantly higher than that of Clinton. A quarter of Democrats and Democratic leaners now view Clinton unfavorably.
The post Joe Biden Within 8 Percentage Points of Hillary Clinton Among Democrats appeared first onWashington Free Beacon.
By Anton Zverev
BOGUCHAR, Russia (Reuters) – Russia is planning a second major military base near the border with Ukraine, where NATO accuses Russian troops of helping pro-Moscow separatists fight Kiev’s forces.
The new base will house 5,000 soldiers and heavy weaponry, according to public documents and people working at the site.
It is further east than one under construction in Belgorod region reported by Reuters earlier this month but still close to the border with separatist-held parts of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, where there has been heavy fighting.
The bases are part of a Russian military buildup along a new line of confrontation with the West, running from the Black Sea in the south to the Baltic in the north, which carries echoes of the Cold War-era “Iron Curtain”.
Russia has also increased its military presence in Syria.
NATO and the pro-Western government in Ukraine say Moscow uses bases on the border with the former Soviet republic as staging posts to send troops across into areas where almost 8,000 people have been killed since April last year.
Moscow had annexed Ukraine’s southern Crimea peninsula a month earlier but denies having any troops in eastern Ukraine.
The documents show the Russian defense ministry intends to turn an old military depot in the town of Boguchar, in Voronezh region, into a major base with dozens of buildings and special facilities for more than 1,300 armored vehicles and ammunition.
The new base, with a dozen barracks with space for 5,210 troops, warehouses for rockets, an infirmary, swimming pool and large training complex, will be 45 km (28 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
According to tender documents published on the Russian
government website zakupki.gov.ru, the ministry plans to transfer a motorized rifle brigade from Nizhny Novgorod, in north-west Russia, to Boguchar along with troops trained in how to respond to nuclear, biological and chemical attacks.
“ALREADY HERE”
At the Boguchar depot, a soldier said some had already arrived. “The guys from Nizhny Novgorod are already here,” he said, declining to give his name.
Guards would not allow the reporter to enter the depot, and the officer in charge there refused to speak to Reuters.
From the barbed wire fence that marked the perimeter, no fresh signs of construction could be seen, only a half-built building on which work appeared to have been abandoned some time ago, and a ramshackle barracks.
Dozens of vehicles with servicemen, including military trucks, were driving on the road leading to the depot. The road surface had marks left by tank tracks.
The site was home to a tank division until 2009 when the division was dismantled, and the base was subsequently used to store military equipment, according to Russian media reports.
The Russian defense ministry did not reply to written questions from Reuters about the purpose of the new base it plans to build at Boguchar and whether there was any connection to the Ukraine conflict.
The war in Ukraine has dragged relations between Russia and the West to their lowest level since the Cold War.
Besides the plans for the two new bases in southern Russia, the Kremlin has moved military hardware to its Baltic enclave Kaliningrad, approved a military air base in Belarus last week, and it is beefing up its military presence in Crimea.
Russia has pulled out of the treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, a post-Cold War pact that limits the deployment of troops in Europe, so it is free to move extra troops and hardware to its western border.
According to the procurement documents, the defense ministry plans to complete initial construction and installation works at the Boguchar base by April 29, 2016.
The ministry intends to use the base to train soldiers on artillery and man-portable air defense system.
On top of that, the base will include a headquarters with a
communications node, a huge dining room, a sports complex with tennis and badminton courts, and kennels with room for 30 dogs, the documents showed.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions has subsided since Sept. 1, when the Ukrainian parliament backed giving more autonomy to rebel-held areas in line with a peace deal.
But disagreements over local elections envisaged by the deal have renewed tension.
(Editing by Christian Lowe and Philippa Fletcher)
The post Russia Plans Second Big Military Base Near Ukrainian Border appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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Obama: ‘Here In The United States, We Cherish Religious Liberty’ by Washington Free Beacon Staff
In his speech welcoming Pope Francis to the U.S. on Wednesday morning, President Barack Obama said that the U.S. “cherishes” and “must defend” religious liberty, despite accusations that his signature health care legislation, the Affordable Care Act, imposed mandates that would violate the religious convictions of Catholics.
“You remind us people are only truly free when they can practice their faith freely. Here in the United States, we cherish religious liberty,” Obama said.
In two highly publicized cases, the Supreme Court ruled against the Obama Administration to issue stays for organizations that opposed requirements to provide contraception for their employees.
“So we stand with you in defense of religious freedom and interfaith dialogue, knowing that people everywhere must be able to live out their faith free from fear and free from intimidation, Obama said.”
A group of nuns called Little Sisters of the Poor first fought the White House on the mandate in December 2013 when liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor obliged by giving religiously affiliated organizations an exemption so they did not have to act against their faith due to Obama’s law.
“With the stroke of their own pen, applicants can secure for themselves the relief they seek from this Court–an exemption from the requirements of the contraceptive-coverage provision,” the U.S. Solicitor General said protesting the decision to give the Catholic organization the freedom to operate according to their faith.
Similarly, in June 2014 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby against Obama. The Court found that a family owned company should not be forced to operate against their faith by being forced to offer contraception to their employees.
The White House strongly pushed back against the Court’s ruling, calling it an attack on women’s rights.
“Today’s decision jeopardizes the health of women who are employed by these companies,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
The case drove a wedge between religious groups and the Obama administration.
“Today’s decision is a victory for religious freedom and another defeat for an administration that has repeatedly crossed constitutional lines in pursuit of big government,” Speaker John Boehner said in response to the Court’s Hobby Lobby decision.
The post Obama: ‘Here In The United States, We Cherish Religious Liberty’ appeared first onWashington Free Beacon.
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The Obama administration says the fingerprints of 5.6 million people who applied for or received a federal security clearance were stolen - not 1.1 million as first believed.
During his presidency, Ronald Reagan was attacked from the left as a dangerous Cold Warrior whose belligerence and likely senility would kill us all in a fiery hail of atoms.
Today, in light of Reagan’s enduring popularity, liberals have taken a different approach, using the deceased Republican’s famous optimism to attack living Republicans.
This line of attack is based on a two-dimensional understanding of Reagan, a Free Beacon SuperCut shows.
While Reagan was optimistic that the U.S. was built on a stronger foundation than its enemies, he saw nothing inevitable about U.S. victory in the Cold War.
From the mid-1960s through the fall of the Soviet Union, Reagan darkly cautioned against government-induced malaise at home and communism abroad.
Reagan’s assessment of the threats facing the U.S. set him apart from the coalition of liberals invoking his memory today for political gain.
Transcript below:AL-JAZEERA ANCHOR: Is there a Republican candidate that Ronald Reagan would say was the Republican candidate?BILL SCHNEIDER: Ronald Reagan was an optimist. He was cheerful. He believed it was morning in America.PERRY BACON, JR.: They were not sunny. This was definitely, like, not Morning in America.JOSH EARNEST: What we didn’t see was a lot of the sunny optimism that was typical of the president whose library they stood in.RONALD REAGAN: The emergency is upon us.Disasters are overtaking our nation without any real response from Washington.Grave threats to our very existence, any one of which could destroy us.We see totalitarian forces in the world who seek subversion and conflict around the globe to further their barbarous assault on the human spirit.Freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars.A Soviet combat brigade trains in Cuba just 90 miles from our shores. A Soviet army of invasion occupies Afghanistan. America’s defense strength is at its lowest ebb in a generation.The Soviets have built up a massive arsenal of new strategic weapons—weapons that can strike directly at the United States.Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because the enemies of democracy have refined their instruments of repression.(Joking) I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.
The post Note to Liberals: Ronald Reagan Wasn’t All Sunshine and Rainbows appeared first onWashington Free Beacon.
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· · ·
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said Wednesday that approximately 5.6 million Americans had their fingerprint data stolen in a cyber attack on government computer systems.
The number, first reported by CNBC, represents a more than 400 percent increase over the original estimate of 1.1 million. OPM said in a statement that the evaluation of previously unanalyzed archived records led to the fivefold increase in the estimate of compromised fingerprint data.
OPM said in a statement Wednesday that “federal experts believe that, as of now, the ability to misuse fingerprint data is limited.” However, the government agency admitted that the likelihood that the data will be misused could “change over time as technology evolves,” according to The Hill.
An agency spokesman said, “If, in the future, new means are developed to misuse the fingerprint data, the government will provide additional information to individuals whose fingerprints may have been stolen in this breach.”
The cyber attack, which is believed to have been carried out by Chinese sources, compromised the data of more than 20 million people, most of whom are federal works. The information stolen includes Social Security numbers, passwords, and other sensitive data. OPM insisted Wednesday that the total number of individuals affected has not grown higher because of the updated estimate.
An interagency working group comprised of individuals from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Defense will review the implications of the compromised fingerprint information, OPM said.
The agency is currently working with the Defense Department to “begin” notifying individuals impacted in the hack well over two months after OPM acknowledged the breach. Earlier this month, the agency awarded a $133 million contract to Identity Theft Guard Solutions to provide identity theft protection services to individuals affected.
Victims of the hack could wait up to four months to be notified of their stolen data.
The post OPM Admits 5.6 Million Had Fingerprint Data Stolen appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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September 23, 2015, 7:22 PM (IDT)
Retired US Marine Gen. John Allen, who was selected by President Obama to lead his country’s military efforts against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, announced on Tuesday that he will leave his post in the coming weeks. Sources close to the ex-general said the main reason behind his step was frustration with the White House’s handling of the war and the lack of resources needed for the campaign. He had asked for deployment of US special forces in Syria and Iraq to help identify targets for air strikes, but the Obama administration turned down his request. The White House said Allen stepped down in order to deal with health matters within his family. Allen’s chief of staff, Karin von Hipple, is also leaving.
September 23, 2015, 7:24 PM (IDT)
The Qatari emir, who owns Al Jazeera television, has decided to cut an estimated 800-1,000 jobs – almost one quarter of the station’s total workforce - directly after the Eid festival at the end of the week. The cutbacks are explained by falling oil and gas prices and the investment of more than $600m on launching Al-Jazeera in America two years ago.
According to DEBKAfile;s sources, the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is in fact motivated by a wish to lower the network’s religious-political profile which has put a strain on Qatar’s relations in Riyadh and Cairo.
According to DEBKAfile;s sources, the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is in fact motivated by a wish to lower the network’s religious-political profile which has put a strain on Qatar’s relations in Riyadh and Cairo.
For China the right to control content for its citizens is a key concern but for the US, it is the struggle to maintain the system of intellectual property rights and technological supremacy
In the last year, the Obama administration and the US national security community have been ever more vocal in their anger at what they regard as state-sponsored cyber-attacks emanating from China on government institutions and private corporations.
Officially, China denies the accusations. Yet the evidence from cybersecurity companies, western governments, independent research institutes and even strategy documents published by the People’s Liberation Army, of Chinese complicity in attacks on economic targets is overwhelming. The number of significant breaches continues to proliferate with ever-more damaging consequences for those targeted. It has only been in advance of Xi’s current trip to the US that analysts have registered a marked downturn in the number of attacks.
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Donald Trump thought he would be dead by 40, thinks he got the better of Cher during a Twitter fight and blocked the writer’s access after he heard he had spoken to someone he did not like.
AP Exclusive: Leading China rights lawyer speaks, says he was tortured again during detention
US stocks waver in early trading; energy sector follows price of crude oil higher
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A look at the trial of 3 Al-Jazeera English journalists imprisoned in Egypt for over a year
Russia to exhume last czar to determine if remains are those of his children
Russia is reportedly planning a second major military base near the Ukrainian border.
Pope Francis was welcomed to the White House, where he praised President Obama’s efforts to combat climate change and pledged American Catholics are committed to building a tolerant society.
China’s President Xi Jinping pledged Tuesday to push ahead with economic reforms, without resorting to competitive currency devaluation, and to work with the U.S. on cybersecurity threats.
Leading China lawyer speaks out, says he was tortured againby Isolda Morillo and Didi Tang | AP
In his first interview in five years, leading Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng said he was tortured with an electric baton to his face and spent three years in solitary confinement during his latest period of detention since 2010.
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Pope Francis begins his first full day in Washington DC by greeting a large crowd of fans and well-wishers who had gathered outside the Apostolic Nunciature to see him. The pope was then taken to the White House where, after a welcoming ceremony, he and Barack Obama were set to hold private talks
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Barack Obama welcomes Pope Francis to the White House on Wednesday morning, as the pontiff begins a three-city tour of the United States. The two men are set to hold private talks before Francis parades through the streets of Washington on the first full day of his first visit to the US
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Australia's new prime minister admits "concerns" but insists nation's tough approach is succeeding in preventing arrival of boat people
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As marijuana dollars flow to Rand Paul, some advocates are also hopeful about Hillary Clinton's softening drug stance
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ABC News
Declaring that "peace is near," Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced a surprise trip Wednesday to Cuba for a key meeting with government negotiators and the rebels' top military commander as he seeks to wrap up talks to end the country's ...
Colombia's Santos to visit peace talks, may sign justice accordReuters
Santos Says Colombian Peace Near as Impasse Broken in TalksBloomberg
Colombia-Venezuela meeting leaves humanitarian crisis unaddressed: OppositionColombia Reports
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