Israeli-Palestinian conflict shifts ominously toward religious war
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Officials say al-Shabaab militants from Somalia hijacked bus in north of country and killed 28 non-Muslims on board
Nick Miller
A newly assertive Russia is talking tough and sending its fleet, army and air force outside its borders, but the Cold War is over and unlikely to come back.
Satellite images show China is building an island on a reef in the disputed Spratly Islands large enough to accommodate what could be its first offshore airstrip in the South China Sea, a leading defense publication said on Friday.
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G uarded by a phalanx of riot police, the knot of young Jewish men, long sidelocks blowing in the breeze, strode across the paved esplanade of Jerusalem's most sensitive religious site. A group of veiled and black-robed Muslim women leaped up to confront them, rhythmically chanting: "Allahu akbar!" — "God is great!"
Scenes like this one, playing out recently on a windy hilltop in Jerusalem's walled Old City, illustrate the antagonism that has long colored the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now, though, the overtly religious elements of what had long been primarily a national and territorial struggle appear to be coming to the fore.
Dozens killed in Kenya bus attack, say police
Officials say al-Shabaab militants from Somalia hijacked bus in north of country and killed 28 non-Muslims on board
Al-Shabaab militants from Somalia hijacked a bus in Kenya’s north and killed 28 non-Muslims on board after they had been separated out from the rest of the passengers, police officials said Saturday.
Two police officers said that the bus travelling to the capital Nairobi with 60 passengers was hijacked 31 miles from the town Mandera near Kenya’s border with Somalia. The officers insisted on anonymity out of fear of reprisals because of an order from Kenya’s police chief that officers should not speak to the media.
Some of the dead were public servants who were heading to the capital Nairobi for the Christmas holidays, the officers said.
Voters head to the polls in Bahrain elections
Bahrainis are voting in their country's first parliamentary elections since the Arab Spring uprising in 2011. Shiite opposition groups plan to stage a boycott, and have dismissed the poll as a "farce."
Polls opened in Bahrain at 8 a.m. local time (0500 UTC) on Saturday, despite a push by the Shiite opposition for the vote to be boycotted.
The Shiites, who make up a majority in the Gulf nation, led a failed month-long uprising against the Sunni monarchy in 2011, calling for greater democratization and civil rights.
In the leadup to Saturday's vote, the main al-Wefaq opposition group labeled the electoral process a "farce" and urged party supporters to stay away from polling stations.
Russia shows a cold shoulder
November 22, 2014 - 12:15 AMNick Miller
Europe Correspondent
A newly assertive Russia is talking tough and sending its fleet, army and air force outside its borders, but the Cold War is over and unlikely to come back.
Russian bombers make provocative feints in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and even as far as Portugal and Canada – and NATO jets scramble to intercept them.
Russia's tanks roll through the fields of eastern Ukraine and its soldiers reportedly return in body bags, its support for the Donbas insurgency barely disguised by increasingly implausible deniability.
In September Russian agents snatched at gunpoint an Estonian spy at a border post, took him to Moscow and paraded him on TV.'Ready to die': Father and sons leave Germany to fight ISIS
Qassim Shesho stands on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, overlooking a vast mountain range that rises from the desert. The calm is deceptive.
He worries about the village behind him. Sheref ad-Din holds one of the holiest shrines for the Yazidis. ISIS militants are only two miles away.
"ISIS wants to exterminate us and they want to establish an Islamic caliphate, but Islam is not like what they are doing to us," Shesho says. He says he commands about 2,000 Yazidi fighters.
Just months ago, he lived a peaceful life in Germany.
China building South China Sea island big enough for airstrip: report
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Satellite images show China is building an island on a reef in the disputed Spratly Islands large enough to accommodate what could be its first offshore airstrip in the South China Sea, a leading defense publication said on Friday.
The construction has stoked concern that China may be converting disputed territory in the mineral-rich archipelago into military installations, adding to tensions waters also claimed by Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei.
IHS Jane's said images it had obtained showed the Chinese-built island on the Fiery Cross Reef to be at least 3,000 meters (1.9 miles) long and 200-300 meters (660-980 ft) wide, which it noted is "large enough to construct a runway and apron."
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