October 11, 2015

Quaid taken into custody in Vermont trying to cross border

American actor Randy Quaid was taken into custody Friday night while trying to cross into the United States from Canada, Vermont State Police said.

The "Independence Day" actor was detained by troopers at the Highgate Springs port of entry days after Canadian officials said he would be deported. Quaid is wanted in Santa Barbara, California, to face felony vandalism charges filed in 2010 after he and his wife, Evi, were found squatting in a guesthouse of a home they previously owned.

The pair skipped several court appearances and went to Canada, where Evi Quaid was granted citizenship. Randy Quaid's bid to gain permanent residency was denied.

The 65-year-old actor said in interview with The Associated Press from a detention center in Laval, Quebec, on Wednesday that he would like to resolve his legal issues in California and "move on with my life."

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Quaid-taken-into-custody-in-Vermont-trying-to-6562983.php

October 11, 2015

Was Mecca Hajj Stampede Caused By Prince Salman Entourage?

October 9, 2015

EU must improve Russia ties, says Commission chief Juncker

Source: BBC

The EU must restore a "practical relationship" with Russia and not let the US "dictate" that policy, the European Commission chief has said.

Jean-Claude Juncker criticised US President Barack Obama's description of Russia as merely "a regional power".

EU-US sanctions were imposed on Russia because of its intervention in Ukraine. Mr Obama had a frosty meeting recently with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Russia must be treated decently," Mr Juncker said in Germany.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34486157

October 8, 2015

US Officials Ask How ISIS Got So Many Toyota Trucks

counter-terror officials have asked Toyota, the world’s second largest auto maker, to help them determine how ISIS has managed to acquire the large number of Toyota pick-up trucks and SUVs seen prominently in the terror group’s propaganda videos in Iraq, Syria and Libya, ABC News has learned.

Toyota says it does not know how ISIS obtained the vehicles and is “supporting” the inquiry led by the Terror Financing unit of the Treasury Department -- part of a broad U.S. effort to prevent Western-made goods from ending up in the hands of the terror group.

“We briefed Treasury on Toyota’s supply chains in the Middle East and the procedures that Toyota has in place to protect supply chain integrity,” said Ed Lewis, Toyota’s Washington-based director of public policy and communications.

Toyota has a “strict policy to not sell vehicles to potential purchasers who may use or modify them for paramilitary or terrorist activities,” Lewis said. He said it is impossible for the company to track vehicles that have been stolen, or have been bought and re-sold by middlemen.

Toyota Hilux pickups, an overseas model similar to the Toyota Tacoma, and Toyota Land Cruisers have become fixtures in videos of the ISIS campaign in Iraq, Syria and Libya, with their truck beds loaded with heavy weapons and cabs jammed with terrorists. The Iraqi Ambassador to the United States, Lukman Faily, told ABC News that in addition to re-purposing older trucks, his government believes ISIS has acquired “hundreds” of “brand new” Toyotas in recent years.

“This is a question we’ve been asking our neighbors,” Faily said. “How could these brand new trucks... these four wheel drives, hundreds of them -- where are they coming from?”

ISIS propaganda videos show gunmen patrolling Syrian streets in what appear to be older and newer model white Hilux pick-ups bearing the black caliphate seal and crossing Libya in long caravans of gleaming tan Toyota Land Cruisers. When ISIS soldiers paraded through the center of Raqqa, more than two-thirds of the vehicles were the familiar white Toyotas with the black emblems. There were small numbers of other brands including Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Isuzu.

“Regrettably, the Toyota Land Cruiser and Hilux have effectively become almost part of the ISIS brand,” said Mark Wallace, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, who is CEO of the Counter Extremism Project, a non-profit working to expose the financial support networks of terror groups.

https://news.yahoo.com/us-officials-ask-isis-got-many-toyota-trucks-175832211--abc-news-topstories.html'

They will be unlikely to be parading around like this now that the bombs are raining down on them. Convoys like this are easily spotted and easily destroyed.

October 8, 2015

American Airlines pilot dies mid-flight

An American Airlines pilot got sick during a flight from Phoenix to Boston and later died in the cockpit, and the co-pilot ended up landing the plane safely in Syracuse, N.Y.

CBS affiliate KUTV reports that the pilot has identified as Michael Johnston of West Jordan, Utah. His wife says she's been told that her husband likely died of a heart attack.

The cause of the pilot's death and his name have not been released by officials.

KUTV reports that Johnston, 57, lives in West Jordan, Utah, and has been flying for well over 25 years, according to his family.

BJ Johnston tells KUTV she's been told that her husband likely died of a heart attack. Johnston says her husband had a double bypass surgery in 2006. Since that time he has been required to get a physical every 6 months to make sure he was healthy enough to fly.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-airlines-pilot-dies-mid-flight-co-pilot-lands-safely/

October 8, 2015

Joe Biden: If I Don't Move I Will Be Demoted To Secretary Of State

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October 7, 2015

Gunfire after police seal Saudi Shiite town: resident

Source: AFP

Gunfire erupted in a Shiite town in Saudi Arabia Wednesday after police sealed it off with armoured vehicles, a resident said.

Awamiya, near Dammam on the Gulf coast, has been the scene of repeated incidents since protests by the minority Shiite community began in 2011.

The resident said he saw black smoke rising over farms in the community of about 30,000 people when police moved in mid-afternoon.

"It was seen in all Awamiya," he said after black armoured vehicles sealed off the area.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/gunfire-police-seal-saudi-shiite-town-resident-202107622.html

October 7, 2015

Battling IS, Iraqi Kurdish fighters exposed to mustard gas

Source: AP

Several Iraqi Kurdish troops tested positive for mustard gas after battles this summer with the Islamic State group in northern Iraq, a spokesman for the paramilitary group said Wednesday.

Blood samples from the Kurdish peshmerga fighters sent to a Baghdad lab revealed traces of the toxic gas, the spokesman, Jabar Yawar told The Associated Press. The exposure took place during the battles along the front lines near the northern Iraqi towns of Makhmour and Gwer, he said.

The blood tests raise the specter that IS used mustard gas in fighting the peshmerga forces. If confirmed, it would be the latest chemical agent apparently procured and used by the extremist Islamic State in the war.

In March, Kurdish authorities in Iraq said they had evidence that the militant IS group used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against its fighters. The allegation by the Kurdistan Region Security Council, stemming from a Jan. 23 suicide truck bomb attack in northern Iraq, followed similar allegations about the militants using the low-grade chemical weapons against Iraqi security forces as well as on Kurdish fighters in Syria.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/official-iraqi-kurdish-fighters-exposed-mustard-gas-170303774.html

October 7, 2015

Increasingly, U.S. IT workers are alleging discrimination

Some U.S. IT workers who have been replaced with H-1B contractors are alleging discrimination and are going to court. They are doing so in increasing numbers.

There are at least seven IT workers at Disney who are pursuing, or plan to pursue, federal and state discrimination administrative complaints over their layoffs. Another Disney worker, still employed by the firm, has filed a state administrative discrimination complaint in California. These complaints are a first step to litigation.

Separately, there are ongoing court cases alleging discrimination against two of the largest India-based IT services firms, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services. The federal judges in each of cases have given a green light for the plaintiffs to proceed after rejecting dismissal efforts.

There may be federal interest in examining this issue. The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices was asked by 10 U.S. senators in April to examine the IT layoffs at Southern California Edison (SCE) and to determine whether SCE or its contractors were "engaged in prohibited citizenship status discrimination."

What's being challenged, in sum, is the job replacement system created by the H-1B program. U.S. IT workers, as a condition for their severance, are being made to train H-1B visa-holding contractor replacements to take over their jobs.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2988621/it-careers/increasingly-u-s-it-workers-are-alleging-discrimination.html

October 6, 2015

'Don't make it worse for yourselves': Helicopters drop leaflets on ISIS and rebel fighters warning t

Source: Daily Mail UK

army helicopters have dropped tens of thousands of leaflets on ISIS and rebel fighters, warning them to get out now and 'don't make it even worse for yourselves'.

The flyers were let go over the embattled cities of Rastan and Talbiseh, which have been pounded by Moscow's warplanes this week and where Russia claims 5,000 ISIS and al-Nusra Front terrorists are stationed.

It came as Russian media said there would soon be a large ground operation in the area driven by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops - with Russia's military backing from the air and possibly on the ground, involving Spetsnatz special forces.

Iranian troops are said to have crossed the border from Iraq last week to help prop up Assad's ailing regime.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3261603/Don-t-make-worse-Helicopters-drop-leaflets-ISIS-rebel-fighters-warning-ahead-huge-Russian-backed-ground-offensive.html

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