UN: Palestinian refugee camps in Syria now ‘theatres of war’

What else would you expect from the Palestinians?

17 June 2013 (UN) – Warning that the centrifugal force of the Syria crisis continues to imperil the region, a senior United Nations agency official today said that more than half of the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria have become “theatres of war,” where killings and kidnappings have become the norm.

According to the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Filippo Grandi, seven out of 12 of the agency’s camps are now virtually inaccessible.

“Killings, kidnappings, poverty, destruction and fear have become part of daily life,” he said at the bi-annual meeting of UNRWA’s Advisory Commission in Amman, Jordan.

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But let's be honest, that is not what's really important to the UN, they have a bigger fish to fry. From the same page:

7-Eleven raids target 14 stores harboring illegal immigrants from Pakistan and the Philippines, 40 more investigated

(AP) Nine owners and managers of 7-Eleven stores across Long Island and in Virginia were charged on Monday in a scheme to exploit immigrants from Pakistan and the Philippines, in part by paying them using the stolen Social Security numbers of a child and three dead people while stealing most of their wages.

Most of the defendants were arrested early Monday as federal authorities raided 14 franchise stores. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were executing search warrants at more than 40 other stores across the country suspected of similar infractions, authorities said at a news conference in Brooklyn.

Four defendants who hold both U.S. and Pakistani citizenship belong to a family that has participated in social events with Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, prosecutors said in court papers as they highlighted foreign ties while seeking to have the defendants held without bail until trial. Another defendant is a citizen of the Philippines. The government said the defendants pocketed tens of millions of dollars in the scheme, hiding some of the money.

Federal indictments naming eight men and one woman allege that since 2000 they employed more than 50 immigrants who didn't have permission to be in the U.S. They tried to conceal the immigrants' employment by stealing the identities of about two dozen people — including those of the child, the dead and a Coast Guard cadet — and submitting the information to the 7-Eleven payroll department.

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Scottish Police Worry Breakup of 2 Muslim Paedophile Rings Will “Increase Community Tensions”

Pedophile rings should cause community tensions.

(FPM) There’s so much tiptoeing around this story that you might get the impression that you’re at the Bolshoi Ballet instead of reading an article about the breakup of two major paedo rings.

Unfortunately for the police, the paedos in question appear to originate from a religion whose prophet had a thing for little girls. Naturally the Scottish Express can’t bring itself to say this, the prophet part or the Muslim part. The closest it can come to saying that is to mention that there is an ethnicity involved that “extremist” elements will capitalize on.

And it’s a safe bet that it’s not the Welsh we’re talking of here. (via Religion of Peace)

In another, utterly appalling example of child abuse, two 13-year-old Scots girls were groomed and raped by a network of “numerous” paedophiles across Britain.

This operation resulted in 37 arrests and the identification of 108 further potential victims and perpetrators. Again, all of those involved are still awaiting trial.

The details of the crackdown were revealed by Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham to a Holyrood inquiry into the scale of child abuse. Concern is growing that the problem has been grossly underestimated for years, with police and prosecutors failing to take victims seriously.

Senior officers also fear the involvement of ethnic minority offenders in child sexual exploitation (CSE) will lead to “significant community tension”.

Ah, the dreaded backlash. No sooner does the Religion of Peace do something horrible, than we must all brace for the backlash.

So who are the ethnic offenders? The Express’ paper lips are sealed, but there is one hint.

According to a police source, “There are groups of foreign nationals involved in this and maybe respect for women isn’t seen as being a high priority in their country of origin.”

It’s nice of the Scottish cops to be so understanding of the cultural differences involved.

Mr Graham said: “In two large scale CSE investigations in Scotland a significant proportion of the identified perpetrators were from ethnic minority communities. It is not possible to draw conclusions from this relatively small dataset and more accurate data and wider research is required.

Naturally. We mustn’t jump the gun. Perhaps Mr. Graham would care to expand his dataset by abandoning his daughter in the vicinity of some moderate mosques and seeing how that goes.

“It is acknowledged extremist groups have attempted to associate CSE with wider immigration issues and this has the potential for significant unrest.”

Right, yes. The extremists are the ones who think filling Scotland with people whose religion was founded by a child molester might be a bad idea. The moderates are the ones who want to expand the dataset.

Mr Graham, formerly the top murder detective in Edinburgh, said the force was determined to “tackle this emerging threat to Scotland”.

Just not by talking about it or being extremist about it.

(I did an article on the SNP’s flirtation with Islam a few years ago. These are the wages of it.)

As immigration rules funnel more Muslims to Scotland to replace the native population, the Scottish National Party is aligning itself with an Islamist agenda. Mosques are clashing with traditional pubs. Scottish medical workers have been barred from eating at their desks during Ramadan. The Burka is being promoted and Scottish Muslims have been planning to set up an Islamic state in some remote part of Scotland. But they might as well do it in Glasgow.

New Iran Prez: Our Economic Problems All Israel's Fault

That's the guy the Obama administration believes is a “moderate”.

(INN) Hassan Rohani, Iran's new President, is being termed a “moderate” in Western media, but it appears that his moderation stops when it comes to Israel. In his first speech as Iran's new leader, Rohani quickly launched into a diatribe against Israel, blaming the Jewish state for Iran's economic problems.

Those problems largely have their roots in the sanctions imposed by the West on Iran, the result of the previous government's refusal to allow international inspectors into some of its nuclear facilities, and its insistence at enriching uranium at a level that would allow Tehran to build nuclear weapons. Western countries several times tried to work out arrangements with Iran to allow the country to continue nuclear enrichment at a level that would be used for civilian nuclear development programs in exchange for the removal of sanctions – but Tehran refused. [...]

On Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned the world not to be deceived by the leader’s “moderate” credentials. “We are not deluding ourselves,” the prime minister said said. “We need to remember that the Iranian ruler at the outset disqualified candidates who were not in line with his extreme world view, and from among those whom he did allow, the one seen as least identified with the regime was elected. But we are still speaking about someone who calls Israel the 'great Zionist Satan.'”

Nigeria: Boko Haram attacks four churches, kills pastor, two others

"And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality."
~Barack Obama (Cairo, June 4, 2009)

(Daily Post) One month after the declaration of emergency rule to fight insurgency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, violence has erupted again, as gunmen suspected to be members of Islamist terrorist sect attacked four communities of Hwa’a, Kunde, Gathahure and Gjigga of Gwoza Hills settlements, torching four churches with Improvised Explosives Devices,IEDS, and petro-bombs Thursday afternoon.

According to Tada Garuta, a resident of Kunde, the gunmen climbed the hills on foot with explosives and petro-bombs, and chanted God is great, in Arabic, before setting four local churches ablaze. Thereafter, they ransacked and emptied their bans of grains along with some livestocks. Gathahure and Hwa’a communities were also affected.

The attacked communities are located in Gwoza council area of Borno state of Mandara Hills, and 151 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the state capital.

Two churches at Hrazah and Hembe,hilly communities were also torched by the gunmen in April this year with the killing of two residents.

Garuta also told newsmen in Maiduguri, Bama road Motor Park yesterday that after torching another church in Hwa’a community, the gunmen also killed Rev. Jacob Kwiza (rtd) of Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN), while picking mangoes at his father’s orchard on the hills settlement of Hwa’a.

He said: “as the gunmen threw some explosives at our church, they forced the retired Reverend to renounce Christianity and be converted to Islam, but Rev. Jacob defied the gunmen’s threats of being killed, as he insisted on being a Christian among his people on the hills of Hwa’a. They slit his throat with sharp objects; and we started to flee for safety, as we don’t know the next targets of these gunmen.”

He said because of fears and terrorizing around Hwa’a’s community, none of the residents came to pick the body of the slain Reverend for burial and prayers.

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Report: Nasrallah's Brother Killed in Syrian Battle

Good times!

(INN) A report on Channel Two Monday said that the brother of Hizbullah head Hassan Nasrallah was killed recently in a fierce battle in the Syrian city of Al-Qusayr. Khader Nasrallah was buried in the village of Kfar Kana in south Lebanon on Sunday, Channel Two said.

If true, it would make Nasrallah one of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Hizbullah terrorists killed in the city, which has been a bloody battleground between troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and rebel groups. Hizbullah, a direct agent of Iran, has been assisting Assad.

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Catholic Church beatifies Italian righteous gentile Odoardo Focherini

ROME (JPost) – Odoardo Focherini, whom Yad Vashem honored as a Righteous among the Nations in 1969, was beatified on Saturday by the Roman Catholic Church in Carpi, his hometown in the province of Modena in northern Italy.

Focherini is the first Righteous Gentile to be sent on the road to sainthood, the first Catholic to be named a blessed martyr for losing his life in order to save Jews during the Nazi era.

His beatification process began in 1996 when the Carpi Catholic Diocese presented an official document.

Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree attesting to Focherini’s martyrdom on May 10, 2012.

Strong positive reactions have begun pouring in from representatives of world Jewry.

Renzo Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, offered “homage with deference and deep feeling.”

“Odoardo Focherini was a person of the highest values and principles. An extraordinary commitment, paid at the price of his life... His courage, his ideals, his love for life will not be forgotten. His memory will continue to be a source of inspiration, also for future generations,” Gattegna said.

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Turkey: Unions call strike over Erdogan's crackdown

(BBC) Unions in Turkey have called a one-day nationwide strike to protest against the police crackdown on anti-government demonstrations.

The Confederation of Public Workers' Unions (KESK) and Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DISK) are demanding an end to "police violence".

The move comes after continued sporadic clashes between protesters and police in Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has angrily defended the crackdown.

Addressing tens of thousands of supporters in Istanbul on Sunday, Mr Erdogan said it had been his duty to order the eviction of the protesters in the city's Gezi Park the previous night.

The protests, he said, were "nothing more than the minority's attempt to dominate the majority", adding: "We could not have allowed this and we will not allow it."

He also denied behaving like a dictator, criticised foreign media, and vowed to "identify one by one those who have terrorised the streets".

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Once Erdogan has finished disemboweling Turkey, there is no way that he can put things back the way they were.

Putin: Do not arm Syrian rebels who 'eat human organs'

LONDON (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West against arming Syrian rebels on Sunday, saying the foes of President Bashar Assad ate human organs and should not be supported.

In his first public comments since a decision by President Barack Obama's administration to arm rebels trying to overthrow Assad, Putin said Russia wanted to create the conditions for settling the two-year conflict.

"I think you will not deny that one does not really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies, but open up their bodies, eat their intestines, in front of the public and cameras," Putin said at a joint news conference in London with Prime Minister David Cameron.

Thousands take to streets of Istanbul, defy Erdogan; Erdogan threatens with violence

(JPost) Thousands of people took to the streets of Istanbul overnight on Sunday, erecting barricades and starting bonfires, after riot police firing teargas and water cannon stormed a park at the center of two weeks of anti-government unrest.

Lines of police backed by armored vehicles sealed off Taksim Square in the center of the city as officers raided the adjoining Gezi Park late on Saturday, where protesters had been camped in a ramshackle settlement of tents.

"We have our Istanbul rally tomorrow. I say it clearly: Taksim Square must be evacuated, otherwise this country's security forces know how to evacuate it," he told tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters at a rally in Ankara.

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Syria accuses Egypt's Morsi of joining US, Israeli 'conspiracy' after Morsi severs ties with Assad's regime

(JPost) Syria on Sunday harshly criticized Cairo's decision to sever diplomatic relations with Damascus, accusing Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi of joining a US and Israel-led conspiracy against Syria.

Morsi said he had cut all diplomatic ties with Damascus on Saturday and called for a no-fly zone over Syria, pitching the most populous Arab state firmly against President Bashar Assad.

Syria's official SANA news agency quoted a government source as saying that Morsi was implementing the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood, who has called for jihad against the Syrian regime, and ignoring the aspirations of the Egyptian people.

The statement added that Morsi and the Egyptian clerics should direct their attention toward liberating "usurped Palestinian land, particularly Jerusalem," rather than issuing fatwas calling for more "Syrian bloodshed."

The Syrian official said that Morsi's calls for foreign intervention in Syria and the implementation of a no-fly zone in the country would only serve the interests of the US and Israel.

The source added that the continued presence of an Israeli embassy in Cairo and Egypt's adherence to the Camp David accords with Israel delegitimizes both Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

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Obama and Hezbollah welcome Iran's new president

Obama already convinced himself Rohani is a moderate, Hezbollah knows he is not.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US President Barack Obama's chief of staff said on Sunday the election of Iranian President Hassan Rohani was a "potentially hopeful sign," and that if he lived up to his obligation "to come clean on this illicit nuclear program, he will find a partner in us."

Speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation," Denis McDonough said: "If he (Rohani) is interested in, as he has said in his campaign, mending Iran's relations with the rest of the world, there is an opportunity to do that."

(JPost) Lebanese militant Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah on Sunday welcomed the election of new Iranian President Hassan Rohani, calling him a "beacon of hope."

"The Arab and Muslim people... who have always seen the Islamic republic as a supporter of the oppressed... and every fighter who resists for God, consider you today a beacon of hope," AFP quoted the militant group as saying.

In a message, Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah congratulated Rohani for winning the trust of the Iranian nation in a “political epic,” Iran's Press TV reported.

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Israel to field lightweight Spice 250 glide bombs

(Tel Aviv) The Israeli air force is equipping its fighter fleet with Rafael's new Spice 250 glide bomb, with the company having disclosed partial details of the system.

Unlike previous members of the company's Spice family of weapons, which added precision guidance kits to 2,000lb (900kg) and 1,000lb "dumb" bombs, this time Rafael is supplying a complete system, weighing 113kg.

Rafael says the Spice 250 can be loaded with 100 optional targets in a given area, with scene-matching algorithms. As with previous Spice products, the weapon navigates to a target area using INS/GPS guidance, before its electro-optical/imaging infrared sensor is engaged.

This combination enables a claimed circular error of probability accuracy of less than 10ft (3m), with positive target identification and no risk of GPS jamming, Rafael adds. The weapon also can provide a battle damage indication capability by transmitting an image of its target just before it is struck.

According to Rafael the Spice 250 can achieve an extended standoff range of up to 54nm (100km) using its deployable wings, which also allow for increased weapons load-out on combat aircraft.

Rafael also is supplying its smart quad rack to the air force, with each capable of carrying four Spice 250 bombs. The weapon will arm the Lockheed Martin F-16, while a Boeing F-15 will be capable of carrying a maximum of 28.

"This allows each aircraft to handle multiple targets," says Rafael, including engaging time-sensitive targets and moving ground and maritime threats.

The Spice 250 can also be armed with different types of explosives, in order to handle specific targets, says Yuval Miller, head of Rafael's air-to-ground directorate.

At least 39 dead after wave of coordinated car bombings in Iraq

"... we’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq... And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home."
~Barack Obama, December 14, 2011.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – A wave of car bombings rocked central and northern Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 39 people and extending the deadliest eruption of violence to hit the country in years.

Attackers initially targeted market-goers early in the morning, then turned their sights on police posts after sunset. Security forces scrambled to contain the violence, blocking a key road in central Iraq and imposing a curfew in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Mosul after the blasts went off.

Killing in Iraq has spiked to levels not seen since 2008. The surge in bloodshed, which follows months of protests by the country's Sunni Arab minority against the Shiite-led government, is raising fears that Iraq is heading for another bout of uncontrollable sectarian violence.

The upsurge comes as foreign fighters are increasingly pouring into neighboring Syria, where a grueling civil war has taken on sectarian overtones similar to those that pushed Iraq to the brink of its own civil war in 2006 and 2007.

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Iran to send 4,000 troops to aid President Assad forces in Syria

Meanwhile, Obama urges the UK and France to join in supplying arms to al Qaeda Syrian rebels as UK MPs fear that the country will be drawn into growing conflict.

(The Independent) Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East, entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew dictatorships across the region.

For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’ in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites. Breaking all President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East.

The Independent on Sunday has learned that a military decision has been taken in Iran – even before last week’s presidential election – to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against the largely Sunni rebellion that has cost almost 100,000 lives in just over two years. Iran is now fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, according to pro-Iranian sources which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security, even to the extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against Israel.

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Policeman stabbed inside British mosque

(Birmingham) Following on from my post yesterday where I revealed that the so called rise of Islamophobic attacks against Muslims in the UK is nothing more than a sham, I bring you the case of a mad man running amok inside a mosque in Birmingham, stabbing people for the sake of Allah.

Police were called and within 4 minutes they were there. There they found 3 people had been stabbed at evening prayers, and when they corned the knife-man in a side room, they found instead of a foaming at the mouth EDL white racist... a peace loving Somali Muslim who had no problem stabbing his fellow Muslims.

Of course, as he was a peace loving Muslim, the police only tazered him and then, when they went to arrest him where the arresting officer found to his horror that the Tazer had no effect on him and thus he became the fourth victim of Allah's little knife-man. (And there are people in the UK who feel that using Tazers is far too barbaric.) Thankfully, the knife wielding idiot was arrested and the policeman was taken to hospital (along with the other poor victims) for treatment.

Gee, for all the increased police presence around mosques in which to protect them from a non-Islamic backlash after the cold blooded murder of yet another non-Muslim on the streets of the UK by Muslims, it transpires that actually you have more to fear from the people inside the mosques than those outside them.

Convicted Moroccan thief sues Scotland Yard for discrimination for refusing her a job as a Police Officer

(London) In the UK, Moroccan Rachida Sobhi is suing Scotland Yard (yes, that Scotland Yard) for refusing to accept her application to become a police officer, because when they ran a background check on her, they found she has a conviction for theft when she worked at a department store during the 90s. When asked why she left out that salient bit of information, she replied that she had selective amnesia that caused her to forget her crime – but no other aspect of her life.

Her application was rightly rejected by the Police who demand that all new recruits are blemish free, but a year later, Ms Sobhi filed a claim in the London Central Employment Tribunal complaining of discrimination on the ground of her sex, her sexual orientation, her religion or beliefs, her age and her disability against the Met and several individuals. She claimed that the Met treated her 'less favourably' because of her condition and failed to take reasonable steps to accommodate her.

What is really disturbing is some low life lawyer is willing to take her case to the courts. You know what I say? Deport her back to her own country and let her become a policewoman there. Oh, hang on, Morocco is an Islamic country, they don't have equality for women there, do they?

New York-bound flight from Egypt diverted after threat, makes emergency landing in Glasgow

LONDON (AP) – A plane from Cairo bound for New York was diverted by fighter jets to an emergency landing in the U.K. after a passenger discovered a letter threatening the aircraft, officials said Saturday.

Police said late Saturday there had been no arrests, and that authorities are working to ascertain who wrote the note in a lavatory which forced Flight 985 -- carrying around 300 passengers en route to John F. Kennedy Airport -- to make an emergency landing at Glasgow's Prestwick Airport.

British Typoon fighter jets escorted the plane to Glasgow's Prestwick Airport, where the flight was met by a heavy police presence. It stayed there for several hours before passengers were able to disembark, at which point officers searched the plane.

The BBC said one of its producers, Nada Tawfik, had discovered the note, written in pencil on a napkin, with the words "I'll set this plane on fire" and what appeared to be a seat number written on it. She said that after discovering the note by the lavatory sink, she alerted cabin crew who then locked the toilet.

"It almost looked like a child's handwriting or someone who has very sloppy handwriting, but it was very alarming especially these days when everyone is so concerned about safety on flights" she told the BBC, saying she told the stewardesses she wasn't sure if the note was a prank or not. "Either someone has a very bad sense of humor or, you know, it's very scary."

Det. Superintendent Alan Crawford said there have been no arrests, and that police are working to determine where the note came from, who put it on the plane and under what circumstances.

"This note, whatever narrative it contained, we have to treat it seriously and maintain the safety of passengers and crew," Crawford said. "Whether it is a prank or not this will be investigated thoroughly to establish the circumstances. We could never write something off as a prank without investigating."

Arrangements for onward travel will be made once all passengers have been interviewed, police said.

Sarah Palin on Obama's Decision on Syria: ‘Let Allah Sort It Out’

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin criticized the Obama administration's decision to supply weapons to the rebels in the civil war in Syria today, arguing that the U.S. should "Let Allah sort it out" until there is a stronger leader in the White House.

"Militarily, where is our commander in chief? We're talking now more new interventions. I say until we know what we're doing, until we have a commander and chief who knows what he's doing, well, let these radical Islamic countries who aren't even respecting basic human rights, where both sides are slaughtering each other as they scream over an arbitrary red line, 'Allah Akbar,' I say until we have someone who knows what they're doing, I say let Allah sort it out," Palin said at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference.

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Condell: Singling out a billion Muslims

Kuwaiti Islamic Scholar: Wife Beating in Islam Treats Women Suffering from Masochism

Video report: More Muslims arrested for spreading jihadist materials and inciting jihad in Spain

IRS scandals threaten funding for Obamacare

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mounting scandals at the Internal Revenue Service are jeopardizing critical funding for the agency as it gears up to play a big role in President Barack Obama's health care law.

Obama sought a significant budget increase for the IRS for next year, when the agency will start doling out subsidies to help people buy health insurance on state-based exchanges. Congressional Republicans, however, see management problems at the IRS as an opportunity to limit the agency's funding just as it is trying to put in place the massive new law.

Republicans have been fighting the health care law ever since Democrats enacted it in 2010 without a single GOP vote. Unable to repeal the law, some Republicans hope to starve it by refusing to fund its implementation.

The IRS scandals are giving them a timely excuse.

"I think it's safe to say they're not going to get the kind of increase they're asking for," said Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that funds the IRS.

"The question is, based on their bad behavior, are they going to end up with less money?" Crenshaw said.

Last month, the IRS was rocked by revelations that agents had targeted tea party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when the groups applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections. A few weeks later, an inspector general's report said that the agency had spent lavishly on employee conferences during the same time period.

From 2010 through 2012, the IRS spent nearly $50 million on employee conferences. In 2010, the agency used money that had been budgeted to hire enforcement agents to instead help pay for one conference that cost $4.1 million, according to the watchdog's report.

Three congressional committees and the Justice Department are investigating the targeting of conservative groups, and much of the top leadership at the IRS has been replaced.

Obama appointed a new acting IRS commissioner, Danny Werfel, a former White House budget official. Werfel is conducting an internal review of the agency and is expected to issue recommendations for changes by the end of June.

All this is happening as the agency works to implement the health law that includes some of the most sweeping changes to the tax code in a generation.

"The IRS needs to repair the plane while it's in flight right now," said Paul Cherecwich, chairman of the IRS Oversight Board, an independent board within the agency. "Should the current budget environment continue, the IRS will have to continue to have to do more with less while rebuilding taxpayer trust. It has no choice, and it won't be easy."

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Sweden threatens cut aid to Palestinians unless peace talks resume

I wonder if Sweden will be accused of being Islamophobic or something.

(JTA) — Sweden will reduce its aid to the Palestinians by 28 percent unless progress is made in peace talks with Israel, a Swedish minister said.

In an interview Thursday with Sveriges Radio, Development Aid Minister Gunilla Carlsson said that unless talks on a two-state solution move forward, her country would slash 28 percent of its annual aid package of $107 million to the West Bank and Gaza.

“Is there any merit in pursuing the prerequisites for a two-state solution when Israel and the Palestinians themselves do not want to sit down at the negotiating table?” Carlsson asked during the interview.

The Palestinians have refused to engage in peace talks with Israel unless it halts construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. Israel has declined to meet any preconditions and has expressed its readiness to discuss the issue in the framework of talks.

“I don’t want to haggle using aid money, but I can only take the perspective of the Swedish taxpayers,” Carlsson said. “One wants results.”

Shock lingers after Nazi unit leader found in US

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The revelation that a former commander of a Nazi SS-led military unit has lived quietly in Minneapolis for the past six decades came as a shock to those who know 94-year-old Michael Karkoc. World War II survivors in both the U.S. and Europe harshly condemned the news and prosecutors in Poland have said they'll investigate.

An Associated Press investigation found that Karkoc served as a top commander in the Ukrainian Self-Defense Legion during World War II. The unit is accused of wartime atrocities, including the burning of villages filled with women and children.

"I know him personally. We talk, laugh. He takes care of his yard and walks with his wife," his next-door neighbor, Gordon Gnasdoskey, said Friday.

"For me, this is a shock. To come to this country and take advantage of its freedoms all of these years, it blows my mind," said Gnasdoskey, the grandson of a Ukrainian immigrant himself.

Karkoc told American authorities in 1949 that he had performed no military service during World War II, concealing his work as an officer and founding member of the legion and later as an officer in the SS Galician Division, according to records obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Though records do not show that Karkoc had a direct hand in war crimes, statements from men in his unit and other documentation confirm the Ukrainian company he commanded massacred civilians, and suggest that Karkoc was at the scene of these atrocities as the company leader. Nazi SS files say he and his unit were also involved in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in which the Nazis brutally suppressed a Polish rebellion against German occupation.

No one answered the door Friday morning at Karkoc's house on a residential street in northeast Minneapolis. Karkoc had earlier declined to comment on his wartime service when approached by the AP, and repeated efforts to arrange an interview through his son were unsuccessful.

Late Friday, Karkoc's son, Andriy Karkos, read a statement accusing AP of defaming his father. Karkoc became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1959.

"My father was never a Nazi," said Karkos, who uses a different spelling for his last name. He also said the family wouldn't comment further until it has obtained its own documents and reviewed witnesses and sources.

Family attorney Philip Villaume said Saturday that the family may comment further within a few days. "Their intention is to investigate the matter and research it, and then they'll make a further public statement," he said.

Polish prosecutors announced Friday they will investigate Karkoc and provide "every possible assistance" to the U.S. Department of Justice, which has used lies in immigration papers to deport dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals.

The AP evidence of Karkoc's wartime activities has also prompted German authorities to express interest in exploring whether there is enough to prosecute. In Germany, Nazis with "command responsibility" can be charged with war crimes even if their direct involvement in atrocities cannot be proven.

Efraim Zuroff, the lead Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, said that based on his decades of experience pursuing Nazi war criminals, he expects that the evidence of Karkoc's lies as well as the unit's role in atrocities is strong enough for deportation and war crimes prosecution in Germany or Poland.

Former German army officer Josef Scheungraber - a lieutenant like Karkoc - was convicted in Germany in 2009 on charges of murder based on circumstantial evidence that put him at the scene of a Nazi wartime massacre in Italy as the ranking officer.

Members of Karkoc's unit and other witnesses have told stories of brutal attacks on civilians.

One of Karkoc's men, Vasyl Malazhenski, told Soviet investigators that in 1944 the unit was directed to "liquidate all the residents" of the village of Chlaniow in a reprisal attack for the killing of a German SS officer, though he did not say who gave the order.

"It was all like a trance: setting the fires, the shooting, the destroying," Malazhenski recalled, according to the 1967 statement found by the AP in the archives of Warsaw's state-run Institute of National Remembrance, which investigates and prosecutes German and Soviet crimes on Poles during and after World War II.

In a background check by U.S. officials on April 14, 1949, Karkoc said he had never performed any military service, telling investigators that he "worked for father until 1944. Worked in labor camp from 1944 until 1945."

However, in a Ukrainian-language memoir published in 1995, Karkoc states that he helped found the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion in 1943 in collaboration with the Nazis' feared SS intelligence agency, the SD, to fight on the side of Germany - and served as a company commander in the unit, which received orders directly from the SS, through the end of the war.

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Egypt cuts ties with Syria amid mounting hard-line Sunni pressure

CAIRO (CBS) - Egypt's Islamist president announced Saturday that he was cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and closing Damascus' embassy in Cairo, decisions made amid growing calls from hard-line Sunni clerics in Egypt and elsewhere to launch a "holy war" against Syria's embattled regime.

Mohammed Morsi told thousands of supporters at a rally in Cairo that his government was also withdrawing the Egyptian charge d'affaires from Damascus. He called on Lebanon's Hezbollah to leave Syria, where the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group has been fighting alongside troops loyal to embattled President Bashar Assad against the mostly Sunni rebels.

"Hezbollah must leave Syria. This is serious talk: There is no business or place for Hezbollah in Syria," said Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president.

Morsi's address, particularly his call on Hezbollah to leave Syria, and the fiery rhetoric used by well-known Muslim clerics this weekend point to the increasing perception of the Syrian conflict as sectarian. At least 93,000 people have been killed since turmoil there began more than two years ago.

The rally that Morsi addressed on Saturday was called for by hardline Islamists loyal to the Egyptian president to show solidarity with the people of Syria. However, Morsi also used the occasion to warn his opponents at home against the use of violence in mass protests planned for June 30, the anniversary of his assumption to power.

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Islamic states reject UNHCR violence against women resolution as un-Islamic

GENEVA, June 14 (KUNA) -- Islamic member states of the United Nations Council for Human Rights (UNHCR) rejected on Friday paragraphs violating the Islamic law in the council's resolution on the elimination of all forms of violence against women, noting that the member states must make sure that their laws and national policies are consistent with the rejected demands.

The rejections include the paragraph, which gives women "the right to control matters concerning their sexual lives as well as their reproductive health without coercion, discrimination or violence." They also rejected the paragraph that allows performing judicial proceedings in cases of rape within marriage, the abolition of provisions that require the matching of certificates and allow the rapist to escape prosecution by marrying him to his victim as well as subduing victims of sexual violence to prosecution for moral crimes or slander.

The Islamic countries also frowned on the paragraph that urges abortion in the context of the provision of health care services to rape victims, rape avoidance and other forms of violence against women and girls.

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The truth about Islamophobia in the UK

(London) In the UK, there is something of a growth industry in the number of NGOs which can promote the view that actually within our borders the land is filled with white racist bigots. After each newsworthy incident involving followers of Islam (child grooming / terrorist activities / anti-Western protests/murders, etc.), the PC crowd fall over themselves in which to portray the followers of Islam as the victims.

After the London bombings in 2005, the then Government of the day commissioned a group of Muslims to look into why their followers would wish to murder 56 people in cold blood, and what did they come up with?

"Holocaust Day must be scrapped, because it is offensive to Muslims."

That pathetic statement saw the so called Muslim Council of Britain removed from its advisory position with the then Labour Government of the day. And so we move to today.

Tell Mama is a government funded NGO which reports on 'Islamophobic' incidents in the UK. After the cold blooded murder of a British soldier on the streets of London, the other week the media reported a rash of attacks on Muslims. The thing is, they received their statistics not from the Government, hospitals or even the police but rather from Tell Mama. News which the bBC was more than happy to report as ''Sense of endemic fear' in Muslim communities". The thing is, when somebody took the time to look at this substantial rise in hatred towards Muslims in the UK, they found that of the 212 “attacks and intimidation” against British Muslims after the murder of Soldier Lee Rigby that 57 per cent of the 212 reports referred to activity that took place only online, mainly offensive postings on Twitter and Facebook, or that a further 16 per cent of the 212 reports had not been verified. Not all the online abuse even originated in Britain.

Contrary to the group’s claim of a “cycle of violence” and a “sustained wave of attacks”, only 17 of the 212 incidents, 8 per cent, involved the physical targeting of people and there were no attacks on anyone serious enough to require medical treatment.

As usual, Muslims have been found to be telling porkies about how they can only be victims in which to excuse their murderous antisocial behaviour.

Well, the good news from all of this, is that Tell Mama has just seen its government funding removed. What is it with Muslims and their victimhood mentality?

Bombers target female students in Pakistan - kill 11, wound 20

(Quetta) It what has become a common occurrence in Islamic countries, religious bigots, feeling that they have been dishonoured by females attempting to gain an education, placed an explosive device inside a bus taking them from the women's university campus to the city centre, killing 11 and injuring 20 others. However, that wasn't the end of the story, as boy were these so called holy warriors pissed off at women gaining an education, they attacked the hospital where the injured had been taken to for treatment and killed a further 3 people. Currently reports state that 8 well armed gunmen are laying siege to the hospital.