JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
HERES TWO FOR THE END OF THE WORLD CROWD TO SET A DATE FOR OVER THIS WEEKEND HOLIDAY SEASON.
Rosetta, Philae to reunite on comet for Sept 30 mission end-[AFP]-Mariëtte Le Roux-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
Paris (AFP) - After nearly two years apart, Europe's Rosetta spacecraft will join stranded robot probe Philae on September 30 on the icy surface of a comet hurtling through space, their eternal resting place, mission control said Thursday.In orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is speeding further and further away from the Sun and its battery-charging rays, the trailblazing space laboratory is starting to run low on energy."Rosetta is reaching the end of its natural life," said the European Space Agency (ESA), announcing the swansong on a captivating 12-year quest."The time has come for the orbiter to join its companion Philae on Churyumov-Gerasimenko," added France's CNES space agency.After its crashlanding, communications with Rosetta will be severed once and for all, closing the historic mission to unravel the secrets of comets -- believed to be time capsules from the birth of the Solar System."This announcement may at first sight appear a little sad, given how people all over the world identified with this remarkable mission," said CNES president Jean-Yves Le Gall."But for Rosetta and Philae it will be a fitting end and the chance to obtain new measurements and close-up pictures of the comet that will yield new data for the world's scientific community."The data obtained from Rosetta and Philae will continue to be analysed for months and years to come, with many more discoveries thought possible.The 1.3-billion-euro ($1.4-billion) mission, approved in 1993, saw Rosetta launched into space in March 2004, with a comet lander dubbed Philae riding piggyback.- Space age triumph -The pair travelled some 6.5 billion kilometres (four billion miles) -- aided by gravity boosts from Earth and Mars -- before entering the comet's orbit in August 2014.Three months later, Rosetta sent the 100-kilogramme (220-pound) Philae probe down to the comet surface, starting a deep-space saga closely watched around the world via cartoon recreations of the pioneering pair.Philae's nail-biting exploits earned it a loyal Twitter following.The washing machine-sized robot, with 10 instruments for sniffing and prodding, bounced several times after its harpoons failed to fire into the comet surface.It ended up in a ditch shadowed from the Sun's battery-replenishing rays, but still managed to run about 60 hours of experiments and send home reams of valuable data before entering standby mode.As 67P neared the Sun on its elongated orbit, Philae emerged from hibernation in June 2015 and sent a two-minute message via Rosetta, eliciting great excitement on Earth.But after eight intermittent communications, the lander went permanently silent on July 2015.Rosetta has continued to probe the comet from a distance, without catching sight of its long-lost charge.But now, as 67P heads towards the orbit of Jupiter in the outer reaches of our Solar System, the craft has "significantly reduced" solar power for operating its instruments, and reduced bandwidth for sending science data back to Earth.Ground controllers will start changing Rosetta's orbit in August, bringing it progressively nearer the surface."The last six weeks will be particularly challenging as we fly eccentric orbits around the comet -- in many ways this will be even riskier than the final descent itself," said ESA spacecraft operations manager Sylvain Lodiot.Rosetta had been in hibernation for 31 months of its decade-long journey towards 67P.But this time, the craft will reach a point so far from the Sun at 850 million km that it would likely not survive another 6.5-year comet orbit for a battery recharge later.It was thus decided to land the craft, allowing closer-than-ever science observations on its final approach."And what better way for Rosetta to bow out than with a final, parting kiss!" said Le Gall.Rosetta had taken unprecedented images of the comet surface, analysed gases coming off its surface and scanned its insides.From the mission we have learnt that comets contain organic molecules, the building blocks of life.
Hubble captures aurora bigger than Earth swirling at Jupiter's north pole-Michael Franco June 30, 2016-GIZMAG
Last year might have belonged to Pluto, but by all accounts this is going to be the year of Jupiter. That's because the Juno spacecraft is completing its nearly five-year journey to reach the giant planet on July 4, where it will enter orbit to study the Jovian atmosphere. In preparation, astronomers have been training their telescopes on Jupiter to assist Juno in its mission – and the Hubble just caught a beautiful light show at the planet's north pole.Using the Hubble Space Telescope's ultraviolet sensing equipment, researchers were able to capture a Jovian aurora bigger than the size of the Earth. The image, seen here, was released by the European Space Agency (ESA) today and is actually a composite of two shots. The first is an optical shot taken by Hubble in spring 2014 and the second comes from its ultraviolet sensors and was taken this year."These auroras are very dramatic and among the most active I have ever seen", says Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester. "It almost seems as if Jupiter is throwing a firework party for the imminent arrival of Juno." Nichols is the principal investigator on a study to use Hubble to map Jupiter in advance of Juno's arrival.The timing of the aurora observations is perfectly synced with Juno's position at the moment. The spacecraft is currently flying through and observing the solar wind that helps create the dramatic light show, just as it does here on Earth. The solar wind consists of a stream of charged particles flowing from the sun throughout the solar system. When those particles interact with a planet's atmosphere and magnetic field, a shifting glow — the aurora — is created as gas molecules release photons of light."While Hubble is observing and measuring the auroras on Jupiter, Juno is measuring the properties of the solar wind itself; a perfect collaboration between a telescope and a space probe," says the ESA.In addition to the influence of the solar wind, Jupiter's aurorae are also aided by particles shed by neighboring moon Io. This makes the aurorae not only bigger than those on Earth, but also "hundreds of times more energetic," according to the ESA.This isn't the first time Hubble has turned its attention to Jupiter's aurorae while space probes approached the planet. It worked in conjunction with the Cassini spacecraft in 2000 to do the same and with New Horizon's flyby in 2007. Still, if you're a space fan, getting to gaze upon these spectacular light shows never gets old -- as you can do now, thanks to this NASA video.
OZONE DEPLETION JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH DUE TO SIN
ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold,(7X OR 7-DEGREES HOTTER) as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people,(ISRAEL) and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened,(DAY LIGHT HOURS SHORTENED) there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake (ISRAELS SAKE) those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)(THE ASTEROID HITS EARTH HERE)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Bright spot: Antarctica's ozone hole is starting to heal-[The Canadian Press]-Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press-JUNE 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON - Antarctica's ozone hole finally is starting to heal, a new study finds.In a triumph of international co-operation over a man-made environmental problem, research from the United States and the United Kingdom shows that the September-October ozone hole is getting smaller and forming later in the year. And the study in Thursday's journal Science also shows other indications that the ozone layer is improving after it was being eaten away by chemicals in aerosols and refrigerants. Ozone is a combination of three oxygen atoms; high in the atmosphere, it shields Earth from ultraviolet rays.The hole has shrunk by about 1.7 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometres) in the key month of September since the year 2000 — a decline of about one-fifth, the study found. That difference is more than six times larger than the state of Texas. It also is taking about 10 days longer to reach its largest size, according to the study.The hole won't be completely closed until mid-century, but the healing is appearing earlier than scientists expected, said study lead author Susan Solomon of MIT."It isn't just that the patient is in remission," Solomon said. "He's actually starting to get better. The patient got very sick in the '80s when we were pumping all that chlorine" into the atmosphere."I think it's a tremendous cause for hope" for fixing other environment problems, such as man-made climate change, said Solomon, who led two U.S. Antarctic expeditions to measure the ozone layer in the 1980s and has also been a leader in studying global warming.In the 1970s, scientists suggested that Earth's ozone layer — about 6 to 30 miles high (10 to 50 kilometres) in the stratosphere — was thinning because of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons from aerosols and refrigerants.Those chemicals would break down into chlorine that attacked ozone, which at that level protects people from ultraviolet rays linked to skin cancer. Then in early 1980s, a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica started appearing in October — and then, September and October — making the problem more urgent. Ozone thinned elsewhere on Earth and already has begun healing in the middle section of the planet, but the Antarctic ozone hole was the gaping wound that grabbed the world's attention.The Montreal Protocol , a 1987 global treaty to phase out many of the ozone-depleting chemicals, led companies to develop new products that didn't eat away at the ozone layer. Still, scientists said it would take time before the problem would heal. Now it is actually getting better, not just stabilizing, based on new observations using different methods to measure the ozone layer, Solomon said."There is a sense of 'mission accomplished,'" emailed University of California San Diego's Mario Molina, who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for chemistry for his characterization of the ozone problem. He praised the study, in which he played no part.Last October threw a big scare into scientists who had been tracking the Antarctic. After years of slow decline, the ozone hole blew up to its biggest size ever."It was 'Oh my God, how could there be this record large ozone hole'?' Solomon said. "It was a huge setback."But the increase was sudden, which told Solomon something else was happening. She determined that small particles in the air from the Calbuco volcano eruption were mostly at fault."The paper is quite convincing. To me at least it resolves the mystery of the 2015 Antarctic ozone hole," University of Maryland atmospheric scientist Ross Salawitch, who wasn't part of the research, wrote in an email. "So, 28 years after the Montreal Protocol was agreed upon, we have strong evidence that the ozone hole is getting smaller. I'd say this is a remarkable achievement, particularly in the instant gratification world in which we live."___Follow Seth Borenstein at http://twitter.com/borenbears and his work can be found at http://ift.tt/1G9Tslp
SitRep: Istanbul Attackers Named as Russian, Uzbek; U.S. Navy Releases Iran Report-[Foreign Policy Magazine]-Paul McLeary and Adam Rawnsley-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
Attackers named. Turkish authorities announced Thursday they had arrested 22 people in connection with the bloody attack on the Istanbul airport earlier this week. A government official told CNN that “the attackers who carried out Tuesday’s shootings and suicide bombings were from Russia, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.”Guesswork. The Islamic State has previously jumped in to claim responsibility for slaughters like the killing of 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, so why has the group stayed silent on the murder of 41 people in Istanbul? By avoiding any claim of responsibility, FP’s Elias Groll and Dan De Luce write in a smart new piece, ISIS forces Ankara to consider the possibility that its longtime Kurdish adversaries are responsible.“That could lead to Turkey’s ramping up its military campaign against the Kurds who are fighting — and making gains against — the Islamic State in northern Syria. The Islamic State seeks to exploit this fissure between Kurds and Turks to advance its agenda, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.”Not guessing. CIA Director John Brennan says the attack in Istanbul “certainly bears the hallmarks of ISIL’s depravity,” however, and he would “be surprised if Daesh is not trying to carry out that kind of attack in the United States,” using an alternate name for the Islamic State.Punishment due. Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations will take the podium at the Pentagon Thursday at 9:45 a.m. to announce the findings of an investigation into how two U.S. Navy riverine craft drifted into Iranian territorial waters, only to have their crews detained by Iranian forces. A redacted version of the investigation will also be released Thursday morning, and its findings confirm many details reported by FP’s Dan De Luce last month, according to U.S. officials. A Navy official confirms to De Luce that nine personnel will be disciplined for the screw-up, which includes the three boat crew members FP reported previously.A win for ISIS. The Islamic State just got its hands on more U.S. weapons. On Tuesday, fighters from the U.S.-backed New Syrian Army launched an assault on the Syrian town of al-Bukamal, near a critical border crossing with Iraq. By Wednesday, the U.S. allies had been beaten back, FP’s Henry Johnson and Paul McLeary report, and left behind some gear, including crates of American ammunition, M-16s, U.S. mortars, a Toyota Hilux pickup adapted to carry a heavy machine gun, and piles of new body armor.ISIS losing ground elsewhere. Spokesman for the U.S.-led anti-ISIS campaign, Col. Chris Garver, told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday that Syrian Arab fighters are establishing “footholds” around the northern Syrian city of Manbij, and have “seized more than 10,000 documents,” along with “cellphones, laptops, maps and digital storage devices.”He also said that at least 1,000 ISIS fighters had been killed in fighting with Iraqi government forces in Fallujah in recent weeks, and 1,000 others captured. Numbers are difficult to confirm, as some Shiite militias fighting alongside Iraqi government forces have been rounding up any military-age Sunni males they find fleeing the city, leading to claims of torture and murder. Other U.S. military officials are estimating that as many as 250 ISIS fighters were killed in American airstrikes near Fallujah on Wednesday. Those numbers, if true, would represent a huge blow for the terrorist group, since the U.S. intel community estimates the number of ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria to be between 19,000 and 25,000.Policy hold. The Pentagon was all set to unveil a new policy to allow transgender individuals to serve openly in the U.S. military, but concerns aired to Defense Secretary Ash Carter by senior military leaders may push the announcement back a bit. The military brass is concerned that the Pentagon is moving too fast to implement the huge changes to personnel policy, and have asked for more time to work through the issues.Good morning again from the Sitrep crew, thanks for clicking on through for the summer 2016 edition of SitRep. As always, if you have any thoughts, announcements, tips, or national security-related events to share, please pass them along to SitRep HQ. Best way is to send them to: paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley-South China Sea-China isn’t waiting for a decision from the Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration on Beijing’s maritime territorial claims to talk trash about the international tribunal. The New York Times reports that Chinese officials are already rejecting the body’s authority to rule on a Philippine government claim that China’s assertions of ownership over the Scarborough Shoal are illegal under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. The arbitration court says it will hand down a ruling on July 12, but China’s Foreign Ministry says it won’t listen, writing in a statement that it “does not accept any means of third-party dispute settlement or any solution imposed on China.” As usual, FP’s Dan De Luce and Keith Johnson laid it all out for you earlier this month.-North Korea-You can stop calling North Korea dynastic dictator “Kim Jong Un” because it’s now Dear Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army to you, buddy. North Korea’s legislature offered Kim the new title this week when it named him chief of the State Affairs Commission after its predecessor, the National Defence Commission, was scrapped. Kim’s father, Kim Jong In, was known as the Dear Leader and grandpa Kim Il Sung had the title of “the Great Leader.”-NATO-NATO and Russia will hold formal talks for the second time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, Reuters reports. The talks will take place after the Atlantic alliance concludes its upcoming summit in Warsaw. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he wanted to wait until the summit had ended before meeting with NATO officials “to be able to examine the decisions that are taken there.” France has been pushing for a softer line towards Moscow and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said, “we don’t want the Warsaw summit to be a confrontational summit.”-Iran-Iran’s new top military officer is signaling that there won’t be any change of policy under his tenure. The Long War Journal reports that newly-crowned chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri pledged direct Iranian military intervention if “Baghdad, the sacred shrines, and the burial places of the pure Imams in Iraq” are threatened. He also reiterated that Iran intends to continue supporting its allies and taking on ethnic separatists at home. Bagheri took over the chief of staff position from recently-removed Major General Hassan Firouzabadi who had held the job since 1989.-ali-Mali, already the world’s most dangerous country for United Nations peacekeepers, is getting hit more frequently by al Qaeda-linked terrorist bombings, and the Security Council is responding by sending 2,500 more troops to the country. The move will bring the total number of U.N. troops to a little over 13,000. Islamist militants took over large parts of the country in 2013 but were pushed back by a French military intervention, which has since transitioned into a U.N. peacekeeping mission. Sporadic violence has continued, though, with attacks by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb as recently as May.-Bangladesh-Both al Qaeda and the Islamic State have claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Bangladesh that have killed over 30 people over the past year, but local officials aren’t convinced. They say say two local militant groups — Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen — are behind the killings. Between the two, Ansar, which pledges allegiance to al Qaeda, has proven to be the most organized and dangerous, they say, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, which claims allegiance to ISIS, is more loosely constructed.-Technology-Remotely-piloted locusts with hacked brains may be the future of bomb detection, PopSci reports. A research project at Washington University in St. Louis funded by the Office of Naval Research is looking at using the bugs’ keen sense of smell to sniff out dangerous explosives. The program would use electrodes in the locusts’ brains to radio back to a command center that they smell something. Pilots would be able to steer the insects via sensors tattooed on their wings that convert a laser beam’s light into heat signals to tell the bugs whether to bank left or right.-Marine Corps-Fifteen Marine drill instructors at Parris Island are facing an investigation into whether they hazed and assaulted recruits, the Wall Street Journal reports. The investigation began following the death of Muslim recruit Raheel Siddiqui, which found that a drill instructor was “improperly placed in charge of recruits while he was subject to an ongoing investigation.” One of Siddiqui’s instructors had used racist language towards another Muslim recruit and placed the Marine in a dryer.
Obama administration calls on private sector to assist refugees-[Reuters]-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Thursday called on U.S. companies to assist refugees caught in a global refugee crisis in which 65 million people have been displaced, many of them by violent conflicts.The administration is seeking help from the private sector with education, employment and the enablement of refugees to be independent, the White House said in a statement.Fifteen founding companies have been recognised by the administration for taking on significant commitments to help refugees.They include Accenture, Airbnb, Chobani, Coursera, Goldman Sachs, Google, HP, IBM, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and LinkedIn.The others are Microsoft, MasterCard, UPS, TripAdvisor, and Western Union.The United Nations Refugee Agency said that of the total number of displaced persons, 21 million have crossed international borders and have registered as refugees. The United States government plans to accept 85,000 this year, according to a White House fact sheet.Some prominent Republicans, including presidential candidate Donald Trump have criticized President Barack Obama's steps to bring refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan into the United States, citing security concerns.On Sept. 20, Obama is scheduled to host the Leader's Summit on Refugees at the UN for countries committed to making significant commitments to the UN's calls for humanitarian assistance.Examples of U.S. companies helping refugees include Airbnb partnering with aid organizations to provide their workers with travel credits to book accommodation as they respond to humanitarian crises.Social networking service LinkedIn launched an initiative in Sweden to help match employers with refugees seeking work in the country.And yogurt maker Chobani has been working with refugee centers in New York state to hire local refugees. Nearly 30 percent of the company's manufacturing workforce consists of resettled refugees, according to the firm.(Reporting by Kouichi Shirayanagi; Editing by Andrew Hay)
Iraq airstrikes kill scores of IS fighters fleeing Fallujah-[The Canadian Press]-Sinan Salaheddin, The Associated Press-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
BAGHDAD - Iraq's Defence Ministry has released footage showing airstrikes on dozens of vehicles described as a convoy of Islamic State fighters fleeing the western city of Fallujah following its recapture by the Iraqi military.Scores of militants are thought to have been killed in the airstrikes, which authorities lauded as an operation carried out exclusively by the Iraqi military."More than 20 helicopters took part in the mission and were able to destroy more than 138 vehicles," Iraqi army commander Lt. Gen. Hamid al-Maliki said.Al-Maliki, who is speaking in the footage released by the Defence Ministry late Wednesday night, said Iraqi helicopters carried out all of the strikes. "No other force took part in the operation," he said.The U.S.-led coalition said Thursday that they also conducted airstrikes on "two large concentrations of Daesh vehicles and fighters," according to spokesman Col. Christopher Garver. Daesh is an Arabic name for the Islamic State group.The strikes came in waves.Iraqi air force and coalition planes began attacking one convoy late Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning and a second group of IS vehicles on Wednesday. Over the course of the two days, the coalition strikes were estimated to have destroyed 175 suspected IS vehicles, according to a statement from Garver. He said "we know the Iraqi security forces destroyed more" vehicles.Iraqi forces declared the city of Fallujah fully liberated on Sunday, after government troops pushed the remaining IS fighters out of the city's north and west under close cover of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.Hundreds of IS fighters were suspected to have escaped the city during the month-long operation, according to Iraqi commanders on the ground.IS has suffered a string of military defeats in Iraq over the past year. At the height of the group's power, in 2014, IS controlled nearly a third of Iraq, having blitzed across large swaths of the country's north and west and captured Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul. Now the group is estimated to control 14 per cent of Iraqi territory, according to the office of Iraq's prime minister.Following territorial losses, the Islamic State group often turns to increased militant attacks in and around Baghdad.On Thursday, police said separate attacks targeting commercial areas in the Iraqi capital killed at least 12 civilians. The deadliest was in the southwestern neighbourhood of Shurta al-Rabia where a suicide bomber blew himself up in an outdoor market, killing seven people and wounding at least 15.In Baghdad's western Ghazaliya neighbourhood, an explosion killed three civilians and wounded 11 in a commercial area. In a bombing in a commercial area in southeastern district of Zafaraniya, two civilians were killed and eight were wounded, police added.Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of the IS group.Also Thursday the U.N. children's fund warned that the IS surge in Iraq and the military operation to route the extremist group from captured territory have had a "catastrophic impact," with some 4.7 million Iraqi children in need of humanitarian assistance.UNICEF warned that 3.6 million Iraqi children are at "serious risk" of death, injury, sexual violence, abduction and recruitment into armed groups, and called on warring parties in Iraq to protect their rights. It said that the number of children in Iraq at serious risk of death or wartime exploitation had increased by 1.3 million in the past 18 months."Children in Iraq are in the firing line and are being repeatedly and relentlessly targeted," said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF's Iraq representative. "We appeal to all parties for restraint and to respect and protect children. We must help give children the support they need to recover from the horrors of war and contribute to a more peaceful and prosperous Iraq."___Associated Press writers Murtada Faraj and Ahmed Sami contributed to this report.
Canada Day traditions a mystery for some Syrian refugees-[The Canadian Press]-Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
TORONTO - Since arriving in Canada seven months ago, Abeer Al Hajj has learned a lot about her new country and how it differs from her native Syria.Abeer, who turned nine last week, came to Toronto with her parents and two brothers in November as privately sponsored refugees and was almost immediately enrolled in school as well as language classes to bolster her fledgling English.In many ways, the transition has been seamless — she has friends, throws herself into her school work and speaks English easily and enthusiastically.But some aspects of Canadian culture remain puzzling, the girl said on a recent afternoon."Here in Canada, they say too much 'thank you' — 'thank you' and 'welcome' and 'sorry' and 'excuse me,'" she said."My teacher, she gave me book to read, I gave it back and she said thank you," something that would never have happened in Syria, where teachers have a more authoritarian approach, she said.With Canada Day fast approaching, another mystery has emerged for Abeer and her family: how does their new home celebrate its national holiday? All the girl knows, she said, is that "there's no school."Celebrating their adoptive country is both a major milestone and a source of uncertainty for many Syrian newcomers, said Safwan Choudhry, spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at, an organization that has helped several families settle in."I can tell a lot of them are anxious, they want to see what do Canadians do," he said."And I understand where they're coming from because typically, every country celebrates their national day very differently," in many cases with a strong emphasis on military glory, he said."So the majority are just curious to see what's going to happen...and I got the sense that a lot of them just want to stand back and watch and soak in how we celebrate Canada Day."Many Syrian families in the Toronto area are expected to attend the annual Canada Day celebration hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at, a massive event that typically draws thousands and is set to take place outside a mosque in Vaughan after afternoon prayers.Choudhry said the Friday sermon will centre on Canada Day and loyalty to one's country.The festivities will see a group of children sing the national anthem, Abeer among them. The girl said she has been practising on top of the daily singalong at school.But a key part of the celebration — the barbecue — will be off-limits for Muslims fasting for Ramadan. The month-long ritual precludes participants from eating or drinking between sunrise and sunset and its timing is set by the lunar calendar.The last Friday of Ramadan is particularly significant and turnout is expected to be even higher than usual since most people will have the day off because of the statutory holiday, Choudhry said.Next year, Canada Day will not fall during Ramadan, he said."The timing of it and the way that it's falling together, I think there is some significance, but I think particularly for Syrian refugees, I get the sense every time I talk to them, it's very emotional for them," he said.The knowledge that they can pay tribute to their new country while also maintaining their religious practices comes as great comfort to Abeer's family, her father Muhammad Al Hajj Abdullah, 40, said.Living in Canada has also offered Abdullah, who is in a wheelchair, another type of freedom, he said.After an explosion in the Syrian town of Aleppo left him paralyzed from the waist down, the father of three found himself unable to get around easily despite having a manual wheelchair, he said."In Syria and Turkey, it's so so hard, you can't ride the bus, you can't ride the subway," he said.On his arrival here, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at gave him an electric wheelchair which, along with accessible transit, have allowed him to regain his independence, he said.On a recent weekday evening, he played ping-pong with his youngest son, five-year-old Bashir, on a coffee table in the family's living room in north Toronto, while Abeer did her homework and the oldest child, Abdul Karim, bounced a soccer ball."New community, new society, new language, new weather," Abdullah said with a laugh. "Everything has changed."
Legalize brothels, stop punishing sex workers who solicit: UK parliamentary watchdog-[Reuters]-By Umberto Bacchi-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Sex workers in England and Wales should not face criminal charges for soliciting and brothels should be legalized, a British parliamentary group said on Friday, calling for local prostitution laws to be overhauled.Countries have been divided over the best way to deal with prostitution with some including Canada, Sweden and Norway introducing laws to punish the client without criminalizing those who have been driven into prostitution.Others like the Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand have legalized or decriminalized prostitution."Treating soliciting as a criminal offense is having an adverse effect, and it is wrong that sex workers, who are predominantly women, should be penalized and stigmatized in this way," said the Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz.There are an estimated 72,800 sex workers in Britain, of which more than 40 percent operate in London, and up to 2.3 million clients, equal to 11 percent of British men aged between 16 and 74, the parliamentary committee said.It is legal to buy and sell sex in England and Wales, but related activities such as soliciting and kerb crawling whereby drivers cruise the streets for prostitutes, are illegal.Northern Ireland, which has the right to legislate separately on the matter, criminalized the purchase of sex last year in a move advocacy groups said would help stamp out sex trafficking.The Home Affairs Select Committee said it was not convinced by the effectiveness of the so-called "sex buyer law" in reducing demand and tackle crimes and exploitation associated with the sex industry - but would investigate the matter further.The committee also urged the government to legalize brothels saying sex workers would be better protected as a result of working together rather than alone.Vaz said the authorities should maintain a "zero tolerance" approach against forced prostitution and legal changes should not lessen their ability to prosecute criminal gangs involved in sexual exploitation.The report also called for previous convictions to be erased from sex workers' criminal records to improve their chances of leaving prostitution without the stigma attached to it.Pro-legalization campaigners welcomed the findings but urged further action."There should be an immediate moratorium on arrests, raids and prosecutions," said Laura Watson, a spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes.(Reporting by Umberto Bacchi @UmbertoBacchi, Editing by Katie Nguyen.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Rosetta, Philae to reunite on comet for Sept 30 mission end-[AFP]-Mariëtte Le Roux-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
Paris (AFP) - After nearly two years apart, Europe's Rosetta spacecraft will join stranded robot probe Philae on September 30 on the icy surface of a comet hurtling through space, their eternal resting place, mission control said Thursday.In orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is speeding further and further away from the Sun and its battery-charging rays, the trailblazing space laboratory is starting to run low on energy."Rosetta is reaching the end of its natural life," said the European Space Agency (ESA), announcing the swansong on a captivating 12-year quest."The time has come for the orbiter to join its companion Philae on Churyumov-Gerasimenko," added France's CNES space agency.After its crashlanding, communications with Rosetta will be severed once and for all, closing the historic mission to unravel the secrets of comets -- believed to be time capsules from the birth of the Solar System."This announcement may at first sight appear a little sad, given how people all over the world identified with this remarkable mission," said CNES president Jean-Yves Le Gall."But for Rosetta and Philae it will be a fitting end and the chance to obtain new measurements and close-up pictures of the comet that will yield new data for the world's scientific community."The data obtained from Rosetta and Philae will continue to be analysed for months and years to come, with many more discoveries thought possible.The 1.3-billion-euro ($1.4-billion) mission, approved in 1993, saw Rosetta launched into space in March 2004, with a comet lander dubbed Philae riding piggyback.- Space age triumph -The pair travelled some 6.5 billion kilometres (four billion miles) -- aided by gravity boosts from Earth and Mars -- before entering the comet's orbit in August 2014.Three months later, Rosetta sent the 100-kilogramme (220-pound) Philae probe down to the comet surface, starting a deep-space saga closely watched around the world via cartoon recreations of the pioneering pair.Philae's nail-biting exploits earned it a loyal Twitter following.The washing machine-sized robot, with 10 instruments for sniffing and prodding, bounced several times after its harpoons failed to fire into the comet surface.It ended up in a ditch shadowed from the Sun's battery-replenishing rays, but still managed to run about 60 hours of experiments and send home reams of valuable data before entering standby mode.As 67P neared the Sun on its elongated orbit, Philae emerged from hibernation in June 2015 and sent a two-minute message via Rosetta, eliciting great excitement on Earth.But after eight intermittent communications, the lander went permanently silent on July 2015.Rosetta has continued to probe the comet from a distance, without catching sight of its long-lost charge.But now, as 67P heads towards the orbit of Jupiter in the outer reaches of our Solar System, the craft has "significantly reduced" solar power for operating its instruments, and reduced bandwidth for sending science data back to Earth.Ground controllers will start changing Rosetta's orbit in August, bringing it progressively nearer the surface."The last six weeks will be particularly challenging as we fly eccentric orbits around the comet -- in many ways this will be even riskier than the final descent itself," said ESA spacecraft operations manager Sylvain Lodiot.Rosetta had been in hibernation for 31 months of its decade-long journey towards 67P.But this time, the craft will reach a point so far from the Sun at 850 million km that it would likely not survive another 6.5-year comet orbit for a battery recharge later.It was thus decided to land the craft, allowing closer-than-ever science observations on its final approach."And what better way for Rosetta to bow out than with a final, parting kiss!" said Le Gall.Rosetta had taken unprecedented images of the comet surface, analysed gases coming off its surface and scanned its insides.From the mission we have learnt that comets contain organic molecules, the building blocks of life.
Hubble captures aurora bigger than Earth swirling at Jupiter's north pole-Michael Franco June 30, 2016-GIZMAG
Last year might have belonged to Pluto, but by all accounts this is going to be the year of Jupiter. That's because the Juno spacecraft is completing its nearly five-year journey to reach the giant planet on July 4, where it will enter orbit to study the Jovian atmosphere. In preparation, astronomers have been training their telescopes on Jupiter to assist Juno in its mission – and the Hubble just caught a beautiful light show at the planet's north pole.Using the Hubble Space Telescope's ultraviolet sensing equipment, researchers were able to capture a Jovian aurora bigger than the size of the Earth. The image, seen here, was released by the European Space Agency (ESA) today and is actually a composite of two shots. The first is an optical shot taken by Hubble in spring 2014 and the second comes from its ultraviolet sensors and was taken this year."These auroras are very dramatic and among the most active I have ever seen", says Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester. "It almost seems as if Jupiter is throwing a firework party for the imminent arrival of Juno." Nichols is the principal investigator on a study to use Hubble to map Jupiter in advance of Juno's arrival.The timing of the aurora observations is perfectly synced with Juno's position at the moment. The spacecraft is currently flying through and observing the solar wind that helps create the dramatic light show, just as it does here on Earth. The solar wind consists of a stream of charged particles flowing from the sun throughout the solar system. When those particles interact with a planet's atmosphere and magnetic field, a shifting glow — the aurora — is created as gas molecules release photons of light."While Hubble is observing and measuring the auroras on Jupiter, Juno is measuring the properties of the solar wind itself; a perfect collaboration between a telescope and a space probe," says the ESA.In addition to the influence of the solar wind, Jupiter's aurorae are also aided by particles shed by neighboring moon Io. This makes the aurorae not only bigger than those on Earth, but also "hundreds of times more energetic," according to the ESA.This isn't the first time Hubble has turned its attention to Jupiter's aurorae while space probes approached the planet. It worked in conjunction with the Cassini spacecraft in 2000 to do the same and with New Horizon's flyby in 2007. Still, if you're a space fan, getting to gaze upon these spectacular light shows never gets old -- as you can do now, thanks to this NASA video.
OZONE DEPLETION JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH DUE TO SIN
ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold,(7X OR 7-DEGREES HOTTER) as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people,(ISRAEL) and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened,(DAY LIGHT HOURS SHORTENED) there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake (ISRAELS SAKE) those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)(THE ASTEROID HITS EARTH HERE)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Bright spot: Antarctica's ozone hole is starting to heal-[The Canadian Press]-Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press-JUNE 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON - Antarctica's ozone hole finally is starting to heal, a new study finds.In a triumph of international co-operation over a man-made environmental problem, research from the United States and the United Kingdom shows that the September-October ozone hole is getting smaller and forming later in the year. And the study in Thursday's journal Science also shows other indications that the ozone layer is improving after it was being eaten away by chemicals in aerosols and refrigerants. Ozone is a combination of three oxygen atoms; high in the atmosphere, it shields Earth from ultraviolet rays.The hole has shrunk by about 1.7 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometres) in the key month of September since the year 2000 — a decline of about one-fifth, the study found. That difference is more than six times larger than the state of Texas. It also is taking about 10 days longer to reach its largest size, according to the study.The hole won't be completely closed until mid-century, but the healing is appearing earlier than scientists expected, said study lead author Susan Solomon of MIT."It isn't just that the patient is in remission," Solomon said. "He's actually starting to get better. The patient got very sick in the '80s when we were pumping all that chlorine" into the atmosphere."I think it's a tremendous cause for hope" for fixing other environment problems, such as man-made climate change, said Solomon, who led two U.S. Antarctic expeditions to measure the ozone layer in the 1980s and has also been a leader in studying global warming.In the 1970s, scientists suggested that Earth's ozone layer — about 6 to 30 miles high (10 to 50 kilometres) in the stratosphere — was thinning because of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons from aerosols and refrigerants.Those chemicals would break down into chlorine that attacked ozone, which at that level protects people from ultraviolet rays linked to skin cancer. Then in early 1980s, a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica started appearing in October — and then, September and October — making the problem more urgent. Ozone thinned elsewhere on Earth and already has begun healing in the middle section of the planet, but the Antarctic ozone hole was the gaping wound that grabbed the world's attention.The Montreal Protocol , a 1987 global treaty to phase out many of the ozone-depleting chemicals, led companies to develop new products that didn't eat away at the ozone layer. Still, scientists said it would take time before the problem would heal. Now it is actually getting better, not just stabilizing, based on new observations using different methods to measure the ozone layer, Solomon said."There is a sense of 'mission accomplished,'" emailed University of California San Diego's Mario Molina, who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for chemistry for his characterization of the ozone problem. He praised the study, in which he played no part.Last October threw a big scare into scientists who had been tracking the Antarctic. After years of slow decline, the ozone hole blew up to its biggest size ever."It was 'Oh my God, how could there be this record large ozone hole'?' Solomon said. "It was a huge setback."But the increase was sudden, which told Solomon something else was happening. She determined that small particles in the air from the Calbuco volcano eruption were mostly at fault."The paper is quite convincing. To me at least it resolves the mystery of the 2015 Antarctic ozone hole," University of Maryland atmospheric scientist Ross Salawitch, who wasn't part of the research, wrote in an email. "So, 28 years after the Montreal Protocol was agreed upon, we have strong evidence that the ozone hole is getting smaller. I'd say this is a remarkable achievement, particularly in the instant gratification world in which we live."___Follow Seth Borenstein at http://twitter.com/borenbears and his work can be found at http://ift.tt/1G9Tslp
SitRep: Istanbul Attackers Named as Russian, Uzbek; U.S. Navy Releases Iran Report-[Foreign Policy Magazine]-Paul McLeary and Adam Rawnsley-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
Attackers named. Turkish authorities announced Thursday they had arrested 22 people in connection with the bloody attack on the Istanbul airport earlier this week. A government official told CNN that “the attackers who carried out Tuesday’s shootings and suicide bombings were from Russia, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.”Guesswork. The Islamic State has previously jumped in to claim responsibility for slaughters like the killing of 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, so why has the group stayed silent on the murder of 41 people in Istanbul? By avoiding any claim of responsibility, FP’s Elias Groll and Dan De Luce write in a smart new piece, ISIS forces Ankara to consider the possibility that its longtime Kurdish adversaries are responsible.“That could lead to Turkey’s ramping up its military campaign against the Kurds who are fighting — and making gains against — the Islamic State in northern Syria. The Islamic State seeks to exploit this fissure between Kurds and Turks to advance its agenda, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.”Not guessing. CIA Director John Brennan says the attack in Istanbul “certainly bears the hallmarks of ISIL’s depravity,” however, and he would “be surprised if Daesh is not trying to carry out that kind of attack in the United States,” using an alternate name for the Islamic State.Punishment due. Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations will take the podium at the Pentagon Thursday at 9:45 a.m. to announce the findings of an investigation into how two U.S. Navy riverine craft drifted into Iranian territorial waters, only to have their crews detained by Iranian forces. A redacted version of the investigation will also be released Thursday morning, and its findings confirm many details reported by FP’s Dan De Luce last month, according to U.S. officials. A Navy official confirms to De Luce that nine personnel will be disciplined for the screw-up, which includes the three boat crew members FP reported previously.A win for ISIS. The Islamic State just got its hands on more U.S. weapons. On Tuesday, fighters from the U.S.-backed New Syrian Army launched an assault on the Syrian town of al-Bukamal, near a critical border crossing with Iraq. By Wednesday, the U.S. allies had been beaten back, FP’s Henry Johnson and Paul McLeary report, and left behind some gear, including crates of American ammunition, M-16s, U.S. mortars, a Toyota Hilux pickup adapted to carry a heavy machine gun, and piles of new body armor.ISIS losing ground elsewhere. Spokesman for the U.S.-led anti-ISIS campaign, Col. Chris Garver, told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday that Syrian Arab fighters are establishing “footholds” around the northern Syrian city of Manbij, and have “seized more than 10,000 documents,” along with “cellphones, laptops, maps and digital storage devices.”He also said that at least 1,000 ISIS fighters had been killed in fighting with Iraqi government forces in Fallujah in recent weeks, and 1,000 others captured. Numbers are difficult to confirm, as some Shiite militias fighting alongside Iraqi government forces have been rounding up any military-age Sunni males they find fleeing the city, leading to claims of torture and murder. Other U.S. military officials are estimating that as many as 250 ISIS fighters were killed in American airstrikes near Fallujah on Wednesday. Those numbers, if true, would represent a huge blow for the terrorist group, since the U.S. intel community estimates the number of ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria to be between 19,000 and 25,000.Policy hold. The Pentagon was all set to unveil a new policy to allow transgender individuals to serve openly in the U.S. military, but concerns aired to Defense Secretary Ash Carter by senior military leaders may push the announcement back a bit. The military brass is concerned that the Pentagon is moving too fast to implement the huge changes to personnel policy, and have asked for more time to work through the issues.Good morning again from the Sitrep crew, thanks for clicking on through for the summer 2016 edition of SitRep. As always, if you have any thoughts, announcements, tips, or national security-related events to share, please pass them along to SitRep HQ. Best way is to send them to: paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley-South China Sea-China isn’t waiting for a decision from the Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration on Beijing’s maritime territorial claims to talk trash about the international tribunal. The New York Times reports that Chinese officials are already rejecting the body’s authority to rule on a Philippine government claim that China’s assertions of ownership over the Scarborough Shoal are illegal under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. The arbitration court says it will hand down a ruling on July 12, but China’s Foreign Ministry says it won’t listen, writing in a statement that it “does not accept any means of third-party dispute settlement or any solution imposed on China.” As usual, FP’s Dan De Luce and Keith Johnson laid it all out for you earlier this month.-North Korea-You can stop calling North Korea dynastic dictator “Kim Jong Un” because it’s now Dear Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army to you, buddy. North Korea’s legislature offered Kim the new title this week when it named him chief of the State Affairs Commission after its predecessor, the National Defence Commission, was scrapped. Kim’s father, Kim Jong In, was known as the Dear Leader and grandpa Kim Il Sung had the title of “the Great Leader.”-NATO-NATO and Russia will hold formal talks for the second time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, Reuters reports. The talks will take place after the Atlantic alliance concludes its upcoming summit in Warsaw. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he wanted to wait until the summit had ended before meeting with NATO officials “to be able to examine the decisions that are taken there.” France has been pushing for a softer line towards Moscow and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said, “we don’t want the Warsaw summit to be a confrontational summit.”-Iran-Iran’s new top military officer is signaling that there won’t be any change of policy under his tenure. The Long War Journal reports that newly-crowned chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri pledged direct Iranian military intervention if “Baghdad, the sacred shrines, and the burial places of the pure Imams in Iraq” are threatened. He also reiterated that Iran intends to continue supporting its allies and taking on ethnic separatists at home. Bagheri took over the chief of staff position from recently-removed Major General Hassan Firouzabadi who had held the job since 1989.-ali-Mali, already the world’s most dangerous country for United Nations peacekeepers, is getting hit more frequently by al Qaeda-linked terrorist bombings, and the Security Council is responding by sending 2,500 more troops to the country. The move will bring the total number of U.N. troops to a little over 13,000. Islamist militants took over large parts of the country in 2013 but were pushed back by a French military intervention, which has since transitioned into a U.N. peacekeeping mission. Sporadic violence has continued, though, with attacks by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb as recently as May.-Bangladesh-Both al Qaeda and the Islamic State have claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Bangladesh that have killed over 30 people over the past year, but local officials aren’t convinced. They say say two local militant groups — Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen — are behind the killings. Between the two, Ansar, which pledges allegiance to al Qaeda, has proven to be the most organized and dangerous, they say, while Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, which claims allegiance to ISIS, is more loosely constructed.-Technology-Remotely-piloted locusts with hacked brains may be the future of bomb detection, PopSci reports. A research project at Washington University in St. Louis funded by the Office of Naval Research is looking at using the bugs’ keen sense of smell to sniff out dangerous explosives. The program would use electrodes in the locusts’ brains to radio back to a command center that they smell something. Pilots would be able to steer the insects via sensors tattooed on their wings that convert a laser beam’s light into heat signals to tell the bugs whether to bank left or right.-Marine Corps-Fifteen Marine drill instructors at Parris Island are facing an investigation into whether they hazed and assaulted recruits, the Wall Street Journal reports. The investigation began following the death of Muslim recruit Raheel Siddiqui, which found that a drill instructor was “improperly placed in charge of recruits while he was subject to an ongoing investigation.” One of Siddiqui’s instructors had used racist language towards another Muslim recruit and placed the Marine in a dryer.
Obama administration calls on private sector to assist refugees-[Reuters]-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Thursday called on U.S. companies to assist refugees caught in a global refugee crisis in which 65 million people have been displaced, many of them by violent conflicts.The administration is seeking help from the private sector with education, employment and the enablement of refugees to be independent, the White House said in a statement.Fifteen founding companies have been recognised by the administration for taking on significant commitments to help refugees.They include Accenture, Airbnb, Chobani, Coursera, Goldman Sachs, Google, HP, IBM, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and LinkedIn.The others are Microsoft, MasterCard, UPS, TripAdvisor, and Western Union.The United Nations Refugee Agency said that of the total number of displaced persons, 21 million have crossed international borders and have registered as refugees. The United States government plans to accept 85,000 this year, according to a White House fact sheet.Some prominent Republicans, including presidential candidate Donald Trump have criticized President Barack Obama's steps to bring refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan into the United States, citing security concerns.On Sept. 20, Obama is scheduled to host the Leader's Summit on Refugees at the UN for countries committed to making significant commitments to the UN's calls for humanitarian assistance.Examples of U.S. companies helping refugees include Airbnb partnering with aid organizations to provide their workers with travel credits to book accommodation as they respond to humanitarian crises.Social networking service LinkedIn launched an initiative in Sweden to help match employers with refugees seeking work in the country.And yogurt maker Chobani has been working with refugee centers in New York state to hire local refugees. Nearly 30 percent of the company's manufacturing workforce consists of resettled refugees, according to the firm.(Reporting by Kouichi Shirayanagi; Editing by Andrew Hay)
Iraq airstrikes kill scores of IS fighters fleeing Fallujah-[The Canadian Press]-Sinan Salaheddin, The Associated Press-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
BAGHDAD - Iraq's Defence Ministry has released footage showing airstrikes on dozens of vehicles described as a convoy of Islamic State fighters fleeing the western city of Fallujah following its recapture by the Iraqi military.Scores of militants are thought to have been killed in the airstrikes, which authorities lauded as an operation carried out exclusively by the Iraqi military."More than 20 helicopters took part in the mission and were able to destroy more than 138 vehicles," Iraqi army commander Lt. Gen. Hamid al-Maliki said.Al-Maliki, who is speaking in the footage released by the Defence Ministry late Wednesday night, said Iraqi helicopters carried out all of the strikes. "No other force took part in the operation," he said.The U.S.-led coalition said Thursday that they also conducted airstrikes on "two large concentrations of Daesh vehicles and fighters," according to spokesman Col. Christopher Garver. Daesh is an Arabic name for the Islamic State group.The strikes came in waves.Iraqi air force and coalition planes began attacking one convoy late Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning and a second group of IS vehicles on Wednesday. Over the course of the two days, the coalition strikes were estimated to have destroyed 175 suspected IS vehicles, according to a statement from Garver. He said "we know the Iraqi security forces destroyed more" vehicles.Iraqi forces declared the city of Fallujah fully liberated on Sunday, after government troops pushed the remaining IS fighters out of the city's north and west under close cover of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.Hundreds of IS fighters were suspected to have escaped the city during the month-long operation, according to Iraqi commanders on the ground.IS has suffered a string of military defeats in Iraq over the past year. At the height of the group's power, in 2014, IS controlled nearly a third of Iraq, having blitzed across large swaths of the country's north and west and captured Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul. Now the group is estimated to control 14 per cent of Iraqi territory, according to the office of Iraq's prime minister.Following territorial losses, the Islamic State group often turns to increased militant attacks in and around Baghdad.On Thursday, police said separate attacks targeting commercial areas in the Iraqi capital killed at least 12 civilians. The deadliest was in the southwestern neighbourhood of Shurta al-Rabia where a suicide bomber blew himself up in an outdoor market, killing seven people and wounding at least 15.In Baghdad's western Ghazaliya neighbourhood, an explosion killed three civilians and wounded 11 in a commercial area. In a bombing in a commercial area in southeastern district of Zafaraniya, two civilians were killed and eight were wounded, police added.Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of the IS group.Also Thursday the U.N. children's fund warned that the IS surge in Iraq and the military operation to route the extremist group from captured territory have had a "catastrophic impact," with some 4.7 million Iraqi children in need of humanitarian assistance.UNICEF warned that 3.6 million Iraqi children are at "serious risk" of death, injury, sexual violence, abduction and recruitment into armed groups, and called on warring parties in Iraq to protect their rights. It said that the number of children in Iraq at serious risk of death or wartime exploitation had increased by 1.3 million in the past 18 months."Children in Iraq are in the firing line and are being repeatedly and relentlessly targeted," said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF's Iraq representative. "We appeal to all parties for restraint and to respect and protect children. We must help give children the support they need to recover from the horrors of war and contribute to a more peaceful and prosperous Iraq."___Associated Press writers Murtada Faraj and Ahmed Sami contributed to this report.
Canada Day traditions a mystery for some Syrian refugees-[The Canadian Press]-Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
TORONTO - Since arriving in Canada seven months ago, Abeer Al Hajj has learned a lot about her new country and how it differs from her native Syria.Abeer, who turned nine last week, came to Toronto with her parents and two brothers in November as privately sponsored refugees and was almost immediately enrolled in school as well as language classes to bolster her fledgling English.In many ways, the transition has been seamless — she has friends, throws herself into her school work and speaks English easily and enthusiastically.But some aspects of Canadian culture remain puzzling, the girl said on a recent afternoon."Here in Canada, they say too much 'thank you' — 'thank you' and 'welcome' and 'sorry' and 'excuse me,'" she said."My teacher, she gave me book to read, I gave it back and she said thank you," something that would never have happened in Syria, where teachers have a more authoritarian approach, she said.With Canada Day fast approaching, another mystery has emerged for Abeer and her family: how does their new home celebrate its national holiday? All the girl knows, she said, is that "there's no school."Celebrating their adoptive country is both a major milestone and a source of uncertainty for many Syrian newcomers, said Safwan Choudhry, spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at, an organization that has helped several families settle in."I can tell a lot of them are anxious, they want to see what do Canadians do," he said."And I understand where they're coming from because typically, every country celebrates their national day very differently," in many cases with a strong emphasis on military glory, he said."So the majority are just curious to see what's going to happen...and I got the sense that a lot of them just want to stand back and watch and soak in how we celebrate Canada Day."Many Syrian families in the Toronto area are expected to attend the annual Canada Day celebration hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at, a massive event that typically draws thousands and is set to take place outside a mosque in Vaughan after afternoon prayers.Choudhry said the Friday sermon will centre on Canada Day and loyalty to one's country.The festivities will see a group of children sing the national anthem, Abeer among them. The girl said she has been practising on top of the daily singalong at school.But a key part of the celebration — the barbecue — will be off-limits for Muslims fasting for Ramadan. The month-long ritual precludes participants from eating or drinking between sunrise and sunset and its timing is set by the lunar calendar.The last Friday of Ramadan is particularly significant and turnout is expected to be even higher than usual since most people will have the day off because of the statutory holiday, Choudhry said.Next year, Canada Day will not fall during Ramadan, he said."The timing of it and the way that it's falling together, I think there is some significance, but I think particularly for Syrian refugees, I get the sense every time I talk to them, it's very emotional for them," he said.The knowledge that they can pay tribute to their new country while also maintaining their religious practices comes as great comfort to Abeer's family, her father Muhammad Al Hajj Abdullah, 40, said.Living in Canada has also offered Abdullah, who is in a wheelchair, another type of freedom, he said.After an explosion in the Syrian town of Aleppo left him paralyzed from the waist down, the father of three found himself unable to get around easily despite having a manual wheelchair, he said."In Syria and Turkey, it's so so hard, you can't ride the bus, you can't ride the subway," he said.On his arrival here, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at gave him an electric wheelchair which, along with accessible transit, have allowed him to regain his independence, he said.On a recent weekday evening, he played ping-pong with his youngest son, five-year-old Bashir, on a coffee table in the family's living room in north Toronto, while Abeer did her homework and the oldest child, Abdul Karim, bounced a soccer ball."New community, new society, new language, new weather," Abdullah said with a laugh. "Everything has changed."
Legalize brothels, stop punishing sex workers who solicit: UK parliamentary watchdog-[Reuters]-By Umberto Bacchi-June 30, 2016-YAHOONEWS
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Sex workers in England and Wales should not face criminal charges for soliciting and brothels should be legalized, a British parliamentary group said on Friday, calling for local prostitution laws to be overhauled.Countries have been divided over the best way to deal with prostitution with some including Canada, Sweden and Norway introducing laws to punish the client without criminalizing those who have been driven into prostitution.Others like the Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand have legalized or decriminalized prostitution."Treating soliciting as a criminal offense is having an adverse effect, and it is wrong that sex workers, who are predominantly women, should be penalized and stigmatized in this way," said the Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz.There are an estimated 72,800 sex workers in Britain, of which more than 40 percent operate in London, and up to 2.3 million clients, equal to 11 percent of British men aged between 16 and 74, the parliamentary committee said.It is legal to buy and sell sex in England and Wales, but related activities such as soliciting and kerb crawling whereby drivers cruise the streets for prostitutes, are illegal.Northern Ireland, which has the right to legislate separately on the matter, criminalized the purchase of sex last year in a move advocacy groups said would help stamp out sex trafficking.The Home Affairs Select Committee said it was not convinced by the effectiveness of the so-called "sex buyer law" in reducing demand and tackle crimes and exploitation associated with the sex industry - but would investigate the matter further.The committee also urged the government to legalize brothels saying sex workers would be better protected as a result of working together rather than alone.Vaz said the authorities should maintain a "zero tolerance" approach against forced prostitution and legal changes should not lessen their ability to prosecute criminal gangs involved in sexual exploitation.The report also called for previous convictions to be erased from sex workers' criminal records to improve their chances of leaving prostitution without the stigma attached to it.Pro-legalization campaigners welcomed the findings but urged further action."There should be an immediate moratorium on arrests, raids and prosecutions," said Laura Watson, a spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes.(Reporting by Umberto Bacchi @UmbertoBacchi, Editing by Katie Nguyen.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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