Archive for month: September, 2014

“There stand so many commonalties among Shia and Sunni people,” said Head of the World Forum for Proximity of the Islamic Schools of Thought, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki stating that due to the huge standing similarities, the conflict and differences are not counted among Islamic denominations and sects.

Speaking among scholars who organized the advance education courses, the religious cleric underscored Muslims should make a move to stop extremist groups in forwarding their willful aims and objectives.

In the area of familiarizing Shia and Sunni people to their shared takes and principles, Ayatollah Araki pointed out, “other foundations including Jami’atul Mustafa University Islamic promotion office, and The Ahl al-Bayt World Assembly should cooperate with the World Forum for Proximity of the Islamic Schools of Thought.

“The Supreme Education Council of the World Forum should have exhaustive programs for informing people of the basics of Jurisprudence.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Head of the World Forum for Proximity of the Islamic Schools of Thought underlined Takfiri groups have been organized and supplied against global peace, urging religious clerics to take urgent steps against them.

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A new report from Mossad claims that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is targeting Pope Francis – a report that the Vatican says is simply not true.

According to Il Tempo, Israeli sources reportedly told the Italian newspaper that the pope is “in the crosshairs of ISIS.” The report stated that Francis is being targeted because he is “the greatest exponent of the Christian religions” and the “bearer of false truth.”

The Vatican, though, denounced the report.

“There is nothing serious to this,” Father Federico Lombardi S.J., a Vatican spokesman, told Catholic News Agency. “There is no particular concern in the Vatican. This news has no foundation.”

The Catholic News Agency reports that Italy has issued a nationwide terror alert, despite no imminent threats or specifics about a potential attack on the country.

On Friday, Britain raised the terror threat level from substantial to severe, meaning that a terrorist attack is considered highly likely.

Home Secretary Theresa Mays said the decision to raise the threat level was related to developments in Iraq and Syria, but that there was no information to suggest an attack was imminent. Some of the plots are likely to involve fighters who have traveled from Britain and Europe to take part in fighting in the Middle East.

“We face a real and serious threat in the UK from international terrorism,” she said. “I would urge the public to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious activity to the police.”

May says the decision by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center is made on the basis of intelligence and is independent of government. “Severe” is the second-highest of five levels.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria a “greater and deeper threat to security than we have seen before.”

“We cannot appease this ideology, we have to confront it at home and abroad,” Cameron said Friday.

British police have appealed to the public to help identify aspiring terrorists after the murder of an American journalist focused attention on extremism in the U.K.

The involvement of a person of British nationality in James Foley’s murder underscored the need to identify those who might travel abroad to fight or are at risk of being radicalized.

The warning comes as President Barack Obama said Thursday during a press conference that the administration has yet to develop a strategy to deal with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

“I don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We don’t have a strategy yet,” Obama stated.

White House officials told CBS News that Obama’s remark referred to a specific military strategy for dealing with ISIS.

“I just want to be clear about what our strategy is. The president’s clear in that this strategy is one that’s not going to solve this problem overnight. But he’s also clear about the fact that our strategy can’t only be the American military,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told CNN. “We have a comprehensive strategy for dealing with ISIL. One component of our broader strategy is the use of military force.”

The president is still determining whether or not to conduct airstrikes in Syria to target ISIS. The U.S. has been conducting airstrikes in Iraq against the terror group.

“We need to make sure that we’ve got clear plans so we’re developing them. At that point I will consult with Congress and make sure that their voices are heard,” Obama explained.

Just last week, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said that ISIS needs to be confronted in Syria.

“To your question, can they be defeated without addressing that part of their organization, which resides in Syria? The answer is no,” Dempsey said last week during a press briefing at the Pentagon. “That will have to be addressed on both sides of what is essentially at this point a nonexistent border.”

Secretary of State John Kerry will be traveling to the Mideast next week in an effort to coordinate a response against ISIS.

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British officials have admitted that nearly two million households are set to miss out on a government energy rebate and millions of more will see delays up to a year before being refunded.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said Sunday that supplier would start giving the rebate from mid-October, after government officials decided to refund consumers money paid to a Warm Home Discount Scheme.

According to the DECC, an estimated 678,000 British households would not be refunded as their accounts were considered “in transit,” meaning costumers who pay by direct debit and who are in the process of switching supplier or moving house.

Another estimated 1.2 million homes using prepayment meters would not be refunded as they would not be able to complete necessary steps to receive vouchers by mail.

The department said electricity suppliers had indicated that there would be “delivery barriers,” which would prevent all eligible customers to receive the rebate.

In addition, a further 15 million customers who pay by direct debit would only receive the refund once their supplier reviews their accounts, which could be conducted just once a year.

The move to refund came after the government decided to cover payments to the discount scheme through taxation. Earlier consumers paid an average of 12 pounds annually on their energy bills to the scheme. The discount program was launched in 2011.

This comes as British people are experiencing a large rise in energy prices in recent years. A report published in June revealed that the prices of domestic energy in the UK rose by 45 percent between 2008 and 2014.

Meanwhile, Britain’s biggest six power firms – Centrica, SSE, EDF Energy, Scottish Power, E.ON, RWE npower – had seen their profits rise from £233 million in 2009 to more than £1 billion by 2012, according to energy regulator Ofgem.

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Police officers here (Ferguson) began wearing body cameras on Saturday as marchers took to the streets in the most recent protest of a shooting three weeks earlier by a city officer that left an unarmed teenager dead.

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said his department was given about 50 body cameras by two companies, Safety Visions and Digital Ally, about a week ago. The companies donated the body cameras after the fatal shooting on Aug. 9 of Michael Brown Jr. by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson.

Company representatives were at the police department on Saturday training officers to use the devices, which attach to uniforms and record video and audio. Some members of the police department have been specially trained on the devices’ use.

“We are still playing with them,” Jackson said.

The cameras are being assigned to squads, and each officer will get one to use, he said.

Jackson said the officers had the devices on during the protest march on Saturday and were able to capture video images of crowd members taunting officers.

“The quality is good,” he said.

The batteries in the cameras that were used on Saturday were drained because of their constant use throughout the day. “Under normal use the battery would last a full shift,” Jackson said.

Officers are receptive to the cameras, the chief said. “They are really enjoying them,” he said. “They are trying to get used to using them.”

The police department bought three dash-mount cameras but lacks the money to install them, he said.

Video recordings are seen as a way to allow judges and juries to follow police-involved events as they unfold, helping to shed light through the often-conflicting or hazy recollections of witnesses.

In the wake of Brown’s shooting, other police departments in the St. Louis area are also moving toward the use of wearable cameras. Ellisville approved a $7,500 expenditure shortly after the shooting to buy cameras for its officers.

They are also catching on elsewhere. Last month, a New York City official championed a $5 million pilot program to outfit 15 percent of the city’s police officers with wearable cameras.

Meanwhile, 152,000 people have signed a petition to establish a national “Mike Brown Law” requiring all police to wear cameras. stltoday.com

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