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lenaurick

First women elected to office in Saudi Arabia - CNN.com - 0 views

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saudi arabia politics culture women

shared by lenaurick on 14 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • At least 17 women have been elected to public office in Saudi Arabia
  • he first time women in the country were allowed to vote and to run for office.
  • Despite the new rights extended to women, critics have said restrictions made it hard on women who wanted to run for office and vote.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Female candidates also were barred from speaking to male voters and required to segregate campaign offices, the organization said.
  • n the end, 979 women candidates and 130,637 women voters registered to participate in the election, according to Saudi election officials. A total of 5,938 men ran for the local offices
  • The move to allow women to vote has been described as a step forward for equality in the male-dominated kingdom.
  • informal system of male guardianship over women that requires women be accompanied by a male guardian to travel or go to school.
  • Two years later, he ordered that at least 20% of seats in the Consultative Council be set aside for women.
  • The number of women in the Saudi workforce also has been increasing, from 23,000 in 2004 to more than 400,000 in 2015, according to the government.
Megan Flanagan

Kandahar attack: More than 30 killed at airport - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by Megan Flanagan on 10 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • Fifty people have died in an attack at a market bazaar and a school near Kandahar airport that began late Tuesday
  • 38 civilians, 10 Afghan National Army soldiers and two policemen
  • Nine terrorists were also killed
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The Taliban took responsibility for the attack.
  • assault occurred hours after a "Message to Obama" was posted to a video site, purportedly of Taliban suicide attackers warning that U.S. troops would not be safe in Afghanistan
  • claimed 11 attackers were killed and that the airport property was never penetrated.
Megan Flanagan

War on ISIS: Why Arab states aren't doing more - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by Megan Flanagan on 10 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • sending Special Forces. British jets have joined French warplanes over the skies of Syria. Even Germany, whose post-World War II constitution puts restrictions on fighting battles on foreign soil, is becoming increasingly involved.
  • Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are down to about one mission against ISIS targets each month, a U.S. official told CNN on Monday. Bahrain stopped in the autumn, the official says, and Jordan stopped in August.
  • Yemen -- not ISIS -- is the priority for most Arab countries
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • Yemen is at the center of a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the region's biggest powers.
  • Iran is majority Shia Muslim and non-Arab. Most of the other countries in the region -- including, and led by, Saudi Arabia -- are majority Sunni Arab, and are suspicious of Iran's motives.
  • ou're talking about a major 24/7 war. The Saudis and the Emiratis -- the two countries with the most capacity in terms of air power -- are flying fighter jets over the skies of Yemen,
  • "The Arab states, including Jordan -- after the incident with the pilot [burned to death by ISIS when his plane crashed in Syria] -- are laying low,"
  • "ISIS doesn't just exist in Syria and Iraq -- it has major constituency supporters in almost all Arab countries, including Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon and Jordan.
  • They're not just fighters, they play leadership roles -- and ISIS has carried out major attacks in Saudi, both against Shiite mosques and against (other) Saudi targets.
  • They say Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are also less inclined to carry out strikes against ISIS targets if doing so helps Iran's allies in Damascus and Baghdad.
  • "It is important for any intervening army to have the backing of the central government, or at least the army in the country," Sary says, "(including) the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who everyone will see as impossible to work with."
  • Even Germany, whose post-World War II constitution puts restrictions on fighting battles on foreign soil, is becoming increasingly involved.
  • appears that the involvement of the U.S.-led coalition's Arab members -- all of them much closer geographically to the terror group than their Western partners -- is drawing down.
  • Analysts say Yemen is at the center of a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the region's biggest powers.
  • Religion and ethnicity are at the heart of the longstanding hostility
  • The critical shift was the coalition in Yemen,
  • ISIS doesn't just exist in Syria and Iraq -- it has major constituency supporters in almost all Arab countries, including Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon and Jordan
  • Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are also less inclined to carry out strikes against ISIS targets if doing so helps Iran's allies in Damascus and Baghda
  • There's been the idea that ISIS is a bigger challenge for Iran and its allies than it is for the Arab states, even though this feeling is changing now."
  • no individual country is likely to risk it, and no nation has a mandate to act on behalf of everyone else.
  • the over-involvement by the army in the internal affairs of the state has become acceptable, but when it comes to foreign intervention, it becomes problematic
rachelramirez

Under the cover of fog, the Kurds battle ISIS - CNN.com - 0 views

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Kurds ISIS politics

shared by rachelramirez on 10 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • Under the cover of fog, the Kurds battle ISIS
  • Part of the United States-led coalition, the Kurds have fought ISIS on the ground for months
  • They stretched the enemy's corpses' on the ground and, carefully, removed their shirts to make sure none were wearing suicide belts. Then they quickly buried them.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Rubar told CNN that his soldiers don't have adequate supplies and weapons.
Megan Flanagan

U.S.-led coalition says it killed ISIS finance minister - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by Megan Flanagan on 11 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • killing its finance minister
  • Abu Saleh was killed in late November in a strike in Iraq
  • one of the most senior and experienced members of ISIL's financial network,
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • And he was a legacy al Qaeda member."
  • announcement came on the same day that the U.S. Treasury Department detailed its efforts with other countries to stop the flow of money to ISIS
  • "Killing him and his predecessors exhausts the knowledge and talent needed to coordinate funding within the organization,
  • Abu Maryam, described as an "enforcer and senior leader of their extortion network;"
  • announced the recent killings of two other prominent ISIS figures
  • Abu Rahman al-Tunisi, who was believed to be responsible for coordinating the movement of information, people and weapons.
lenaurick

ISIS: What does it really want? - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

politics crisis policy culture isis

shared by lenaurick on 12 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • The group's rise in Iraq -- and its capture of thousands of square miles of land -
  • "We have not defeated the idea," he is reported to have said. "We do not even understand the idea."
  • A global caliphate secured through a global war. To that end it speaks of "remaining and expanding" its existing hold over much of Iraq and Syria. It aims to replace existing, man-made borders, to overcome what it sees as the Shiite "crescent" that has emerged across the Middle East, to take its war -- Islam's war -- to Europe and America, and ultimately to lead Muslims toward an apocalyptic battle against the "disbelievers."
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • Dabiq is a town in northern Syria currently held by ISIS where, according to Islamic prophecy, the armies of Rome will mass to meet the armies of Islam.
  • And according to those prophecies, the Islamic armies will ultimately conquer Jerusalem and Rome.
  • No matter that the majority of Muslims -- even many jihadists - see ISIS' interpretations of the Quran and the hadith as manipulations or distortions.
  • The revival of the caliphate is the launching pad for a global battlefield. No caliph can govern without pursuing offensive jihad, and that jihad will continue, as Dabiq put it, until "the shade of the blessed flag will expand until it covers all eastern and western extents of the Earth."
  • "There will come a time when three armies of Islam shall simultaneously rise, one in the Levant, one in Yemen and one in Iraq."
  • It is powerful motivation to ISIS supporters, and it's also a message to Muslims: The end of times is at hand, and if you want to be a true Muslim, on the right side of history, you had better join us.
  • Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said it was an obligation to establish the caliphate and therefore to recognize him as caliph.
  • A caliphate can only exist if it holds territory: ISIS' raison d'etre is to sustain and expand
  • ISIS followers -- and Dabiq -- are fond of quoting the words of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- the "spiritual" father of the movement and leader of al Qaeda in Iraq until he was killed in 2006.
  • Libya is the only other country where ISIS holds territory -- the coastal town of Sirte and other patches along the Mediterranean
  • Libyan territory can also be (and has been) the platform for launching terror attacks in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia.
  • But ISIS' ambitions run much further -- it has established a presence in Yemen, Afghanistan and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.
  • ISIS does not recognize the borders of nation states that make up the modern world nor the idea of a democratic state or citizenship.
  • "The Islamic State does not recognize synthetic borders, nor any citizenship besides Islam," he declared in 2012.
  • "We won't enjoy life until we liberate the Muslims everywhere, and until we retrieve Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and regain Al-Andalus (Andalucia in Spain), and conquer Rome," Adnani said in 2013.
  • ISIS wants to stir religious hatred in Europe and the United States -- so that Muslims no longer feel they belong in the West, and either carry out attacks in their homelands or leave to join the caliphate.
  • It has already shown extreme cruelty toward Shiites -- most notably slaughtering more than 1,500 Iraqi air force cadets in Tikrit in June 2014.
  • And it sees the United States as complicit in supporting a Shia government in Iraq.
  • Embroiling the U.S. and the West in a land war -- ISIS reasons -- would give Muslims no choice but to come to the defense of the caliphate, setting up a global confrontation.
  • "Now that it has taken Dabiq, the Islamic State awaits the arrival of an enemy army there, whose defeat will initiate the countdown to the apocalypse,"
  • "We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women. If we do not reach that time, then our children and grandchildren will reach it."
lenaurick

Saudi Arabia elections: 900 women run for office - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

saudi arabia elections policy women

shared by lenaurick on 07 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • More than 900 women are campaigning for public office in Saudi Arabia
  • More than 900 women are campaigning for public office in Saudi Arabia -- a first in the kingdom's history.
  • Women will only participate in elections at the municipal level.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Just three months ago, Saudi women were allowed to register to vote for the first time.
  • the country remains an absolute monarchy ruled by the Saud family, which governs according to a strict Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam.
  • Saudi women are forbidden to drive, and are not allowed to travel or go to school without a male guardian.
  • According to the U.S. State Department, municipal elections in Saudi Arabia fill half the seats in municipal councils, with the king selecting the other half.
  • The late King Abdullah also issued a royal decree in 2013 mandating the Consultative Council, a royally appointed body that advises the King, be at least 20% women,
jongardner04

Report: Russian bombs in Syria may have killed 59 civilians - CNN.com - 0 views

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russia syria conflict

shared by jongardner04 on 25 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Airstrikes believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes in western Syria are reported to have killed dozens of civilians, Human Rights Watch says, suggesting that the bombings appear to be war crimes
  • "the strikes were by Russian forces because the sound of the planes was different from the sound made by Syrian air force planes, and the Russians fly much higher."
  • The U.S. military vowed to investigate the report. U.S. Central Command said at the time that coalition forces had carried out airstrikes in the area. But it said it had no indication that any civilians were killed in those strikes.
drewmangan1

Kerry, Meeting With Netanyahu, Sounds a Cautious Note of Optimism - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...rael-palestinian-violence.html

shared by drewmangan1 on 22 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Before sitting down with Mr. Kerry on Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu returned to a familiar theme in blaming Palestinians for the violence. He called on other countries to pressure Mr. Abbas to stop telling “lies” about Israel’s management of the holy site, and he said that the Palestinian leader’s statements were responsible for the violence.
drewmangan1

U.S. Soldier Is Killed in Raid to Free Prisoners of ISIS in Iraq - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...us-commandos-iraq-isis.html

shared by drewmangan1 on 22 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • The raid, near the town of Hawija, freed 70 prisoners, including Kurds and more than 20 Iraqi security forces, the Pentagon said in a statement.
drewmangan1

Syrian President Assad visits Putin in Moscow for talks - CNN.com - 0 views

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shared by drewmangan1 on 22 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Embattled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has flown to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is now his chief sponsor.
  • But Ru
  • On September 30, the Russian Air Force began pounding Assad's opponents with airstrikes
kirkpatrickry

Arab Proposal to U.N. Over Western Wall Stirs New Concern - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...rn-wall-stirs-new-concern.html

politics crisis

shared by kirkpatrickry on 21 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • The Western Wall, as part of the Old City of Jerusalem, is a Unesco World Heritage site adjacent to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, and its protection is central to the Unesco mandate. “The protection of cultural heritage should not be taken hostage
  • A United Nations diplomat said the draft, which is being discussed by Unesco’s executive board, made up of envoys from 58 countries, had been proposed by six of the agency’s Arab members: Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.
  • Attempts to bring the measure up for a vote as early as Tuesday appeared to have been delayed. Broader diplomatic efforts designed to cool tempers in the region have so far delivered little
redavistinnell

Israel: 4 charged over 'lynching' of Eritrean migrant - CNN.com - 0 views

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israel charged cnn

shared by redavistinnell on 13 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Israel: 4 charged in 'lynching' of Eritrean migrant mistaken for terrorist
  • Haftom Zarhum, a 29-year-old Eritrean who worked at the Beersheva central bus station, was shot by a security guard, then set upon by an angry mob who wrongly believed he had just shot a soldier at the scene.
  • The district attorney's office said in a statement that four people had been charged with causing grave bodily harm for their roles in last year's assault, which it described as a "lynching."Read MoreOne of the men charged was a prison guard.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • While Zarhum was bleeding and clearly "helpless" on the ground, one of the charged men, David Moyal, slammed him forcefully with a nearby bench, "with the intention of causing him harm, disability or maiming him," the indictment said.
  • A bystander moved the bench away, but Cohen and Shamba put it back, before Shamba pushed away an onlooker who asked him to stop and kicked Zarhum again, the indictment states.
  • In the wake of Zarhum's death, which caused shock and triggered soul-searching in Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on citizens not to take justice into their own hands.
  • "No one will take the law into his own hands. That's the first rule," he said.
alexdeltufo

Syrians weep as first aid in months reaches Madaya - CNN.com - 1 views

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shared by alexdeltufo on 13 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • The first shipment of foreign aid since October reached the besieged Syrian city of Madaya on Monday,
  • The first shipment of foreign aid since October reached the besieged Syrian city of Madaya on Monday
  • It was set to deliver enough aid to sustain 40,000 people for a month, WFP spokeswoman Abeer Etefa said.
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • The situation has been so dire that a doctor told CNN that he has nothing to give his patients except sugar or salt water.
  • But the United Nations said last week that it had received credible reports of people dying of starvation and that the Syrian government had agreed to allow aid convoys into Madaya, Foua and Kefraya.
  • On Monday, activists said that 15 people -- including at least 12 children -- had been killed in an aerial bombardment on a school in the town of Enjarah on the western outskirts of Aleppo, the largest Syrian city, which is in the north of the country.
  • He denied the Syrian government is using starvation as a tool of war, which is generally considered a war crime.
  • For example, in Damascus, flour costs 79 cents a kilogram. But in Madaya, a kilo of flour costs $120, and a kilo of rice costs $150.
  • In the capital, milk costs $1.06 a liter. But in Madaya, the price soars to $300 a liter.
  • "The problem is the terrorists are stealing the humanitarian assistance from the Syrian Red Crescent as well as from the United Nations," al-Ja'afari said.
  • The first shipment of foreign aid since October reached the besieged Syrian city of Madaya on Monday
  • Syria's state news agency, 65 trucks loaded with aid supplies entered Madaya and two other besieged towns, Foua and Kefraya.
  • It's heartbreaking to see so many hungry people," said Sajjad Malik, the UNHCR representative in Syria. "
  • "Syrians are suffering and dying across the country because starvation is being used as a weapon of war by both the Syrian government and armed groups."
  • An activist described scenes of chaos at the school as he arrived after the strike, about 8 a.m. local time Monday.
  • "Everyone was trying to find his children."
  • Um Sultan said she hears every day of someone too sick to leave the bed.
  • "My husband is now one of them,
  • "Grass for the old man," she replies.
  • alexdeltufo on 14 Jan 16
     
    Nick Paton Walsh - CNN
zachcutler

Jakarta: Deadly attack in Indonesian capital; ISIS blamed - CNN.com - 0 views

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jakarta attack history US indonesian capital

shared by zachcutler on 14 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Attackers struck in the middle of the day Thursday
  • two, wounding 19 and raising alarms about te
  • hub -- killing at least
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • this time in the world's most populous Muslim country.
  • ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in an official statement posted online by the terror organization, which was translated by the monitoring group Flashpoint and verified by CNN
  • The Jakarta carnage, in an area frequented by foreigners, came 6,000 miles from and two days after ISIS boasted about a suicide bombing in the heart of Istanbul
  • CNN security analyst Bob Baer likened the Jakarta attack to the November 13 Paris massacre in which terrorists linked to ISIS struck several locations at the same time. Yet the number of dead was nowhere near the toll of 130 in France, with Clarke Jones,
  • "It's concerning (to have) yet one more day and another attack in another part of the world," Gohel told CNN
  • That set in motion two militants outside the coffee shop who seized two foreigners,
  • Heavily armed police soon swarmed the scene, firing on the militants and looking for other attackers
  • Dutch national among 19 wounded
  • king for those who helped them in plotting, financing and getting weaponry, according to Charliyan, the police spokesman.By then, police had already counted five assailants dead at th
  • though they are loo
Megan Flanagan

Istanbul: Explosion by ISIS bomber kills at least 10 - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

attack bombing istanbul

shared by Megan Flanagan on 15 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • The suicide bomber who killed at least 10 foreigners Tuesday in a popular central Istanbul tourist area belonged to ISIS
  • pinned blame on the group that calls itself the Islamic State, which has entrenched itself in neighboring Syria and Iraq while proving willing time and again to lash out elsewhere.
  • at least nine Germans were killed.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • They have targeted the whole of Turkey and the whole world."
  • Syria has been embroiled in a civil war for nearly five years -- a conflict that, according to the United Nations, has cost more than 250,000 lives, spurred more than half the country's 17 million residents to flee and caused humanitarian crises for those left behind, as illustrated by the hundreds starving in the siege of Madaya.
  • ISIS has been behind many of the worst atrocities there
  • including allowing the United States to launch strikes from Incirlik Air Base
  • ISIS has responded by singling out Turkey as a primary target
  • ISIS, which has enemies everywhere and has proven willing to strike those who don't subscribe to its twisted, hard-line version of Sharia law.
  • It's seen as a place where you have a mesh of different entities. It's a real melting pot."
  • Its military cooperation with the United States and other NATO nations in particular has angered ISIS
  • Tuesday's blast -- if it's confirmed to be the terror group's work -- ups the ante for Ankara, forcing it to step up its anti-ISIS fight even more
  • An attack like this is designed to create economic, political and social consequences,
Megan Flanagan

Ex-Marine Held by Iran Received Care, Family Says - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...received-care-family-says.html

iran US

shared by Megan Flanagan on 15 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • who is the longest-held American prisoner in Iran was allowed to receive medical treatment in a hospital outside his prison in recent weeks
  • Iranian judicial authorities had allowed Mr. Hekmati to leave the prison, albeit temporarily, for the first time since he was incarcerated more than four years ago
  • considering a conditional release of Mr. Hekmati for good conduct
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • onvicted of espionage and sentenced to death
  • served with the Marines in Iraq, was seized while visiting relatives in Tehran in August 2011
  • lient was eligible for probation under Iranian law, which permits releases for certain inmates who have served at least a third of their sentences
  • onvicted of aiding a hostile country — meaning the United States
  • repeatedly demanded that Iran release them, an issue that has festered despite diplomatic advances made in other areas, most notably the multinational agreement on the Iranian nuclear program that could take effect this month.
  • imprisoned in July 2014 and convicted in October on charges that included spying
  • harges that included subverting national security
  • permitted an extended year-end visit with him in prison and more time for phone conversations
  • innocent of any wrongdoing, have described his prosecution and imprisonment as a Kafkaesque farce
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