Saudi executions: Iran's leader vows 'divine vengeance' over cleric's killing
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei renews attack on Saudi Arabia over killing of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, warning the ‘political error’ won’t go unpunished
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has renewed his attack on Saudi Arabia over its execution of a leading Shia cleric, saying that politicians in the Sunni kingdom would face divine retribution for his death.
“The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians,” state TV reported Khamenei as saying on Sunday. It said he described the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr as a “political error”.
“God will not forgive... it will haunt the politicians of this regime,” he said.
Saudi Arabia executed Nimr and three other Shia alongside dozens of alleged al-Qaida members on Saturday, signalling it would not tolerate attacks by either Sunni jihadists or members of the Shia minority seeking equality.
El Niño: How the phenomenon has brought floods and fear back to Africa
For Kenyans, Nasa's warning that the current El Niño could be as bad as that of 1998 brings back painful memories
On the steep slopes of Kenya’s Kerio valley, El Niño is still discussed with reverence and fear. When it hit in 1998, days of rain sent the land sliding, carrying homes, crops, livestock and people with it. People groped through the darkness to flat ground, as trees cracked and fell. “It sounded like a bomb,” recalled John Kangogo, a local farmer.
When the sun came up, their lives were half-way down the valley. “That night was terrible,” said Richard Biwott, who was then the assistant district chief. “People were screaming, running in the dark, not knowing where it was safe.
“That morning, when I stood outside and looked at what used to be my homestead, I was very shocked … My plot of land had literally slid off.”
Ten images that marked 2015
Journalists aren’t always in the right place at the right time. But there’s usually a good chance that a citizen journalist will be there, ready to photograph newsworthy events that regular media outlets would have missed. The Observers team has picked the 10 amateur images that we believe made the biggest impact in 2015. Be aware: you may find some of these images disturbing.
France: The ‘Charlie Hebdo’ attacks
On the morning of January 7, armed men burst into the Paris offices of one of France’s best-known satirical magazines, ‘Charlie Hebdo’. They left behind a bloody massacre. 12 people were killed, including the publication’s editorial staff and two policemen, and a further 11 were injured. The attack sent shockwaves across France. The assault, and the subsequent police chase, were followed by both media outlets and amateurs. It was the perfect opportunity for conspiracy theorists to distort photos, in an attempt to back up claims which were nothing more than wild imaginings.
Read the article here.
Read the article here.
Tracking the footprints: All roads lead to South Punjab
NASIR JAMAL
THE year witnessed a significant de-escalation in terrorist and sectarian attacks in south Punjab as militant violence mostly shifted elsewhere, mainly to the northern cities, in the province.
Apart from a deadly attack on a gathering at the election office of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) legislator Amjad Farooq Khosa in Taunsa near DG Khan in mid-October and a suicide raid in Multan, no other significant incident of violence took place in the southern Punjab that made headlines a year earlier as the hub of nationwide militant activity, especially in Urban Pakistan.
Having said that, the ‘footprints’ the militants left behind elsewhere in the province have more often than not led the investigators back to the southern districts to hunt for suspects and their abettors. “Even of the two California shooting suspects, Tafsheen Malik had links with south Punjab,” a former Punjab counter-terrorism official sighed.
Double standards cited amid armed protest in Oregon
As armed men occupy a federal building in the US, social media mocks the style of coverage compared to other events.
Some reports said at least 150 people attended
- The decision to again imprison the Hammonds has generated controversy in a rural part of the state. It's also playing into a long-simmering conflict between ranchers and the US government over the use of federal land.
Gary Powers: The U2 spy pilot the US did not love
- 3 January 2016
- Magazine
Steven Spielberg's most recent movie, Bridge of Spies, tells the story of a Cold War prisoner exchange between the Soviet Union and the US. The deal allowed US spy plane pilot Gary Powers to return home - but once there he faced a chorus of criticism.
Gary Powers had been in flight for four hours when his troubles began. His spy mission from an American airbase in Pakistan took him over central Russia, where, at more than 70,000 feet above the ground, he believed he was beyond the range of either fighter planes or missiles.
The 30-year-old CIA pilot, a veteran of the Korean war, expected to make his way, without incident, all the way across the Soviet Union to another base in Norway.
But when he was over the Russian city of Sverdlovsk, the unimaginable happened. His U2 spy plane was hit by a Soviet missile barrage.
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