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14 IMPORTANT LIFE TIPS

2016-04-29T07:31:00.000+01:00

1. Focus on the present.
Louise Smith said and I quote “you can’t reach for anything new if your hands are still full of yesterday’s junks. The only time you should think about the past is when you’re trying to learn from it so you don’t repeat a past mistake, stop thinking of what might have been and start thinking of what will be. Make judicious use of the present and don’t hold yourself back with the past. Every minute we waste on regrets, we give up sixty seconds of focusing on what we can really do now.

2. Stop taking life too seriously
Stop trying too hard, don’t be the one who laugh at nothing. Life can be stressful if you take things too seriously. Don’t live a strictly business life, mix it with pleasure, enjoy the ride and be grateful for being alive. If you take life too seriously you will never get out of it alive.

3. Think positive thoughts.
Are you going to grumble that roses have thorns or you are going to be grateful that thorns have roses? Positive thinking means expecting, talking, believing and visualizing what you want to achieve. It means seeing in your mind’s the thing you want, as an accomplished fact. Stephen Richards said “You are essentially who you create yourself to be and all that occurs in your life is the result of your own making”. Who do you want to be?

4. Smile more often.
Smile always, it makes you look beautiful, changes your attitude, raise your confidence and makes you more attractive. Smiling reduces stress and cuts your risk of stress-related diseases. It can lighten the mood of any situation you find yourself in and has the power to lift the mood of those who see your friendly expression.

5. Be honest all the time.
I don’t know about you, but I hate to have to remember what I said yesterday. Howard W. Hunter said “Each lie, each deception, each act of dishonesty combines to create a monster that can destroy your character and your life”. When you’re honest, people trust you the more and you build integrity with this.

6. Control your emotions.
Never allow your emotions to overcloud your thinking. The only one who can make you unhappy is you, you can choose to get affected by what others say or not. You can’t control other people, but you can control how you react to them.

7. Choose your friends wisely.
Show me your friends and I’d tell you who you are. Who do you want to be? Are the friends you keep helping you to achieve those dreams or do they hold you back? What kind of influence are they having on you? Good friends will tell you the truth even it hurts to hear it – especially if they think it will enhance your life. If he/she is not compassionate, honest, trustworthy and respectful then he/she is not a friend.

8. Help others.
Not for ourselves alone are we born, never underestimate the difference you can make in the lives of others. Step forward, reach out and help. No one has ever become poor by giving.When you help people, not only does the circle begin again, it also often comes full circle.

9. Learn to forgive.
When you hold a grudge, you become so wrapped up in the wrong that you can’t enjoy the present, you let others control you, your happiness and your freedom. Forgiveness let you focus on more important part of your life, leads to feeling of understanding empathy and compassion.Steve Maraboli said and I quote “the truth is unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize the situation is over, you cannot move forward”

10. Read books.
Knowledge is power. Everything you read fills your head with new information which might come in handy anytime. The benefits of reading is vast, from helping to improve and learn new vocabularies to enlightening us about people of other culture. Reading improves our focus and concentration, and also improves our memory.

11. Don’t burn bridges.
Every person you meet or engage with present an opportunity, so be polite and positive with each one of them. In business and in life you never know who is going to be meaningful to you in future, nothing is worth cutting someone off completely. Meet and treat people the way you wish to be treated, keep in touch with as many people as possible and treasure your relationships. The only thing you are going to get out of the “take the job and shove it up your ass” attitude when leaving a job you thought you are being unfairly treated is a sense of temporary superiority. Don’t try to get even, keep your head up high and shut your mouth. Leave with honor and dignity.

12. Relax!
We all have bunch of different things to manage, like study, work, and our personal lives. All these comes with pressure, one way to cool off is to relax. It helps us physically and mentally. There’s a strong connection between relaxation and both our physical and mental health. Relaxation has lots of benefits, helps clear your mind and come up with new ideas, keeps stress level in check, improved mood, and helps us to sleep better.

13. Learn to appreciate
Happiness includes appreciating not only what we have but also everything and everyone around us. Don’t appreciate people just because they did something for you, do it for the qualities they have; this way they know who they are is more important than what they do for you. It’s important for our long term happiness and well-being.As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them… Fitzgerald Kennedy

14. Love and respect others
Love makes the world go round. If you judge people, you have no time to love them. Pay close attention, respect people for who they are and not for what you want them to be.Don’t let qualities like gender, ethnicity, and nationality affect how you treat people, respect and love all equally. Loving people makes you a better person, it’s healthy and life-affirming to both the giver and recipient, and a sign of psychological and emotional well-being. Shakespeare said Love all trust a few, do wrong to none. Identify with all of humanity.

15 Monday Motivation quotes to inspire your day

2016-04-10T12:16:00.000+01:00

A blank page is no empty space. It is brimming with potential... It is a masterpiece in waiting -- yours.
A.A. Patawaran

The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures. They didn’t waste time waiting for inspiration.
Ernest Newman

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.
    Groucho Marx

The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position.
   Leo Buscaglia

It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself.
Harvey Fierstein

Today is a new day. Don't let your history interfere with your destiny! Let today be the day you stop being a victim of your circumstances and start taking actions towards the life you want. You have the power and the time to shape your life. Break free from the poisonous victim mentality and embrace the truth of your greatness. You were not meant for a mundane or mediocre life.
Steve Maraboli

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
Saint Francis of Assisi

You will never win if you never begin.
Helen Rowland

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one.
                                                                        Mark Twain

Life is not a dress rehearsal. Stop practicing what you are going to do and just go do it. In one bold stroke you can transform today.
Marilyn Grey

You don't need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today. Do it for twenty minutes and watch your heart start beating.
Barbara Sher

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
Thomas A. Edison

Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.
Sam Levenson

Don't worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try.
Jack Canfield

SCHOPENHAUER'S 38 WAYS TO WIN AN ARGUMENT

2016-04-10T11:20:00.000+01:00

1. Carry your opponent's proposition beyond its natural limits; exaggerate it. The more general your opponent's statement becomes, the more objections you can find against it. The more restricted and narrow his or her propositions remain, the easier they are to defend by him or her.

2. Use different meanings of your opponent's words to refute his or her argument.

3. Ignore your opponent's proposition, which was intended to refer to a particular thing. Rather, understand it in some quite different sense, and then refute it. Attack something different than that which was asserted.

4. Hide your conclusion from your opponent till the end. Mingle your premises here and there in your talk. Get your opponent to agree to them in no definite order. By this circuitous route you conceal your game until you have obtained all the admissions that are necessary to reach your goal.

5. Use your opponent's beliefs against him. If the opponent refuses to accept your premises, use his own premises to your advantage.

6. Another plan is to confuse the issue by changing your opponent's words or what he or she seeks to prove.

7. . State your proposition and show the truth of it by asking the opponent many questions. By asking many wide-reaching questions at once, you may hide what you want to get admitted. Then you quickly propound the argument resulting from the opponent's admissions.

8. Make your opponent angry. An angry person is less capable of using judgment or perceiving where his or her advantage lies.

9. Use your opponent's answers to your questions to reach different or even opposite conclusions.

10. If your opponent answers all your questions negatively and refuses to grant any points, ask him or her to concede the opposite of your premises. This may confuse the opponent as to which point you actually seek them to concede.

11. If the opponent grants you the truth of some of your premises, refrain from asking him or her to agree to your conclusion. Later, introduce your conclusion as a settled and admitted fact. Your opponent may come to believe that your conclusion was admitted.

12. If the argument turns upon general ideas with no particular names, you must use language or a metaphor that is favorable in your proposition.

13. To make your opponent accept a proposition, you must give him or her an opposite, counter-proposition as well. If the contrast is glaring, the opponent will accept your proposition to avoid being paradoxical.

14. Try to bluff your opponent. If he or she has answered several of your questions without the answers turning out in favor of your conclusion, advance your conclusion triumphantly, even if it does not follow. If your opponent is shy or stupid, and you yourself possess a great deal of impudence and a good voice, the trick may easily succeed.

15. If you wish to advance a proposition that is difficult to prove, put it aside for the moment. Instead, submit for your opponent's acceptance or rejection some true proposition, as though you wished to draw your proof from it. Should the opponent reject it because he or she suspects a trick, you can obtain your triumph by showing how absurd the opponent is to reject a true proposition. Should the opponent accept it, you now have reason on your own for the moment. You can either try to prove your original proposition or maintain that your original proposition is proved by what the opponent accepted. For this, an extreme degree of impudence is required.

16. When your opponent puts forth a proposition, find it inconsistent with his or her other statements, beliefs, actions, or lack of action.

17. If your opponent presses you with a counter proof, you will often be able to save yourself by advancing some subtle distinction. Try to find a second meaning or an ambiguous sense for your opponent's idea.

18. If your opponent has taken up a line of argument that will end in your defeat, you must not allow him or her to carry it to its conclusion. Interrupt the dispute, break it off altogether, or lead the opponent to a different subject.

19. Should your opponent expressly challenge you to produce any objection to some definite point in his or her argument, and you have nothing much to say, try to make the argument less specific.

20. If your opponent has admitted to all or most of your premises, do not ask him or her directly to accept your conclusion. Rather draw the conclusion yourself as if it too had been admitted.

21. When your opponent uses an argument that is superficial, refute it by setting forth its superficial character. But it is better to meet the opponent with a counter argument that is just as superficial, and so dispose of him or her. For it is with victory that you are concerned, and not with truth.

22. If your opponent asks you to admit something from which the point in dispute will immediately follow, you must refuse to do so, declaring that it begs the question.

23. Contradiction and contention irritate a person into exaggerating his or her statements. By contracting your opponent you may drive him or her into extending the statement beyond its natural limit. When you then contradict the exaggerated form of it, you look as though you had refuted the original statement your opponent tries to extend your own statement further than you intended, redefine your statement's limits.

24. This trick consists in stating a false syllogism. Your opponent makes a proposition and by false inference and distortion of his or her ideas you force from the proposition other propositions that are not intended and that appear absurd. It then appears the opponent's proposition gave rise to these inconsistencies, and so appears to be indirectly refuted.

25. If your opponent is making a generalization, find an instance to the contrary. Only one valid contradiction is needed to overthrow the opponent's proposition.

26. A brilliant move is to turn the tables and use your opponent's arguments against him or herself.

27. Should your opponent surprise you by becoming particularly angry at an argument, you must urge it with all the more zeal. Not only will this make the opponent angry, it may be presumed that you put your finger on the weak side of his or her case, and that the opponent is more open to attack on this point than you expected.

28. This trick is chiefly practicable in a dispute if there is an audience who is not an expert on the subject. You make an invalid objection to your opponent who seems to be defeated in the eyes of the audience. This strategy is particularly effective if your objection makes the opponent look ridiculous or if the audience laughs. If the opponent must make a long, complicated explanation to correct you, the audience will not be disposed to listen.

29. If you find that you are being beaten, you can create a diversion that is, you can suddenly begin to talk of something else, as though it had bearing on the matter in dispose. This may be done without presumption if the diversion has some general bearing on the matter.

30. Make an appeal to authority rather than reason. If your opponent respects an authority or an expert, quote that authority to further your case. If needed, quote what the authority said in some other sense or circumstance. Authorities that your opponent fails to understand are those which he or she generally admires the most. You may also, should it be necessary, not only twist your authorities, but actually falsify them, or quote something that you have invented entirely yourself.

31. If you know that you have no reply to an argument that your opponent advances, you may, by a fine stroke of irony, declare yourself to be an incompetent judge.

32. A quick way of getting rid of an opponent's assertion, or throwing suspicion on it, is by putting it into some odious category.

33. You admit your opponent's premises but deny the conclusion.

34. . When you state a question or an argument, and your opponent gives you no direct answer, or evades it with a counter question, or tries to change the subject, it is a sure sign you have touched a weak spot, sometimes without knowing it. You have as it were, reduced the opponent to silence. You must, therefore, urge the point all the more, and not let your opponent evade it, even when you do not know where the weakness that you have hit upon really lies.

35. This trick makes all unnecessary if it works. Instead of working on an opponent's intellect, work on his or her motive. If you succeed in making your opponent's opinion, should it prove true, seem distinctly to his or her own interest, the opponent will drop it like a hot potato.

36. You may also puzzle and bewilder your opponent by mere bombast. If the opponent is weak or does not wish to appear as if he or she has no idea what you are talking about, you can easily impose upon him or her some argument that sounds very deep or learned, or that sounds indisputable.

37. Should your opponent be in the right but, luckily for you, choose a faulty proof, you can easily refute it and then claim that you have refuted the whole position. This is the way which bad advocates lose a good case. If no accurate proof occurs to the opponent or the bystanders, you have won the day.

38. A last trick is to become personal, insulting and rude as soon as you perceive that your opponent has the upper hand. In becoming personal you leave the subject altogether, and turn your attack on the person by remarks of an offensive and spiteful character. This is a very popular trick, because everyone is able to carry it into effect.

OJ Simpson: Police say new evidence may be bogus

2016-03-05T07:27:00.001+01:00

Los Angeles police officials said on Friday they were conducting tests on a knife that was claimed to be found on a property owned by O.J. Simpson at the time he was accused and later acquitted of two murders 21 years ago.

LAPD spokesman Andrew Neiman said the knife was turned over in the past month by a retired police officer who said he obtained it from someone working on a construction site at the property.
Neiman said the knife would be tested for DNA evidence but added it was possible that "the whole story is bogus from the get-go." Neiman declined to name the retired police officer or to say why the knife had come to light only last month.

Simpson's ex-wife and Ronald Goldman were stabbed multiple times in the neck and head, but the murder weapon was never found at the time of the nine-month trial that ended in 1995 with Simpson's acquittal.

Simpson cannot be prosecuted again for the two killings because that would constitute double jeopardy.

Read the original article on Reuters

OJ Simpson supposed murder knife found

2016-03-05T07:19:00.000+01:00

OJ Simpson

New evidence, lost for nearly two decades, has resurfaced and may provide a connection between O.J. Simpson and the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Andrew Neiman confirmed in a press conference on Friday that the department is indeed investigating a knife, which was provided by a retired police officer.

Nieman said he can confirm that an unidentified male, who told the now-retired officer he was a construction worker, said he found the knife on O.J.'s former property in the late-'90s. At the time, the officer was off-duty and working security for a movie near Simpson's former property.

Nieman couldn't confirm the specific year nor the veracity of the alleged construction worker's statement, and he appealed to the public to report anything they may know of the man's identity to the LAPD.

He also wouldn't confirm that the knife was found on the Simpson property, as the alleged construction worker's statements still have to be vetted.

The knife is currently being investigated by the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division. It will soon be turned over to the labs to be "tested for all forensics, virology, DNA, and hair." Nieman declined to state how long it will take for the test, saying it will depend "on the type of testing and forensics used.

""It is my understanding that [the retired officer] believed the [Brown-Goldman murder] case was closed," Nieman added.

He did express surprise that the officer would hold on to potential evidence. "I would think that an LAPD officer would know that he should or shall submit something like that into the evidence," Nieman said. "I was quite shocked.

"He reiterated, "With all cases that remain open, unless there’s an actual arrest or conviction, the case remains open.

"As for whether charges will be filed against the officer who turned in the knife after holding on to it for close to two decades, the captain said, "We’ll certainly look into the potentiality of criminal charges.

" Since the officer is retired, Nieman ruled out administrative charges.In the case that the knife does prove a connection between O.J. Simpson and the double murder, Nieman said, "I’m not an attorney. Double jeopardy would be in place here. We could not charge Mr. Simpson with the homicides, because he’s already acquitted.

"TMZ first reported the new evidence on Friday morning. According to the site, the construction worker turned the weapon, a folding buck knife, over to a nearby off-duty LAPD officer, who was working as security for a movie shoot across the street.

But instead of turning the weapon into police investigators, the officer allegedly brought it home and kept it for years.

In January, the now-retired police officer reportedly told his friend, an officer in the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division, about the knife and his plans to frame it for his wall. He then allegedly asked if the RHD officer could get the departmental record number for the 1994 Nicole Brown Simpson/Ronald Goldman murder case, which he wanted to engrave into the frame.

TMZ's sources said the RHD officer was irate that his friend had kept the knife this long and informed his superiors, who commanded the retired officer to turn in the knife.

Another source with knowledge of the investigation told TMZ that police saw possible blood residue on the knife, though it's hard to discern due to rust and stains.O.J. was tried for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and found not guilty by a jury in 1995.

Since no one has been convicted to date, the case remains open. If the knife does connect O.J. to the murders, he can't be tried again due to double-jeopardy laws.

In a 1997 civil suit by the victims' families, O.J. was found liable for Nicole and Goldman's deaths in a $33.5 million judgment.

Currently, O.J. is serving prison time for armed robbery at a Las Vegas hotel.

Source: Business Insider

Donald Trump made a u-turn, promise to abide by law

2016-03-04T22:34:00.000+01:00

Donald Trump has reportedly reversed his position on ordering the military to use torture against America’s enemies and to target family members of suspected terrorists, policies he has advocated while on the campaign trail.

The switch, indicated in a statement to the Wall Street Journal on Friday in which Trump said he understood that the US “is bound by laws and treaties”, came two days after prominent Republican national security and military figures published an open letter on the subject.

The letter stated “we are united in our opposition to a Donald Trump presidency” and adding that the authors were “obligated to state our core objections clearly”.

Those core objections included the statement that “[Trump’s] embrace of the expansive use of torture is inexcusable”.

The open letter also pointed to the question of whether the military would or could follow potential extra-legal orders made by a hypothetical President Trump without going through the secret process they use now to deem such actions legal.

The question of whether or how the military could follow a Trump’s orders came up at the Republican debate in Detroit on Thursday night. Trump said he was a great leader and “frankly, when I say they’ll do as I tell them, they’ll do as I tell them.”

He also said: “They won’t refuse. They’re not going to refuse me. Believe me,” and: “I’m a leader. If I say do it, they’re going to do it, that’s what leadership is about.”

But on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had reversed that position. He would not order the military to do illegal things with the expectation that they would break the law to follow his orders, he said.

Trump told the paper he would “use every legal power that I have to stop these terrorist enemies”.

The statement continued: “I do, however, understand that the United States is bound by laws and treaties and I will not order our military or other officials to violate those laws and will seek their advice on such matters.

“I will not order a military officer to disobey the law. It is clear that as president I will be bound by laws just like all Americans and I will meet those responsibilities.”

Trump’s flip-flops were a major theme of Thursday’s debate and a major point of attack for his rivals. Fox News host Megyn Kelly even played three video clips showing Trump blatantly reversing himself on the war in Afghanistan, Syrian refugees and on George W Bush’s lying – or not – to get the US into the Iraq war.

Trump defended himself by saying that like all successful people he was “flexible”.

Source: Guardian

DEBUNKING FAYOSE CLAIM OF ISLAMIZATION

2016-03-04T07:20:00.000+01:00

Gov. Fayose and Pres. Buhari

The Nigerian economy depends on oil, oil prices bottomed out, the President visit Saudi Arabia who is one of the largest producer of oil to discuss how oil prices can be stabilized, five governors waited for the President arrival in Saudi Arabia, and then blammo, there comes the allegation of the President trying to Islamize the country. One of the greatest tragedy of this century and the last is the cheapening and commodification of common sense. Not everyone has it, heads of states included.

This isn’t the first time the allegation of Islamization has been trumpeted, we heard it before election. A means used to divide the country along religious lines, it didn’t work then. It won’t work now.

The Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose accused President Buhari of trying to Islamize the country on Saturday just like in 1984 when he (Buhari) was military head of state.

Those of us who weren’t around in 1984 have one of two choices; accept what Gov. Fayose said at face value or find out for ourselves just how true the claim is. History said Pres. Buhari had actually resisted joining the then Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) on the basis that Nigeria is a secular country. Perhaps he had envisaged the misconception that would come along. Surely, Gov. Fayose is a history revisionist.

Prof Tam David West revealed that 1984 was in fact the best time for Pres. Buhari to Islamize the country because there was no constitution to wrangle with, but he never did it. All he had to do was make a decree.

But what is it about OIC membership that makes people cringe? The organization aims are to preserve Islamic, social and economic values; promote solidarity among member states; increase cooperation in social, economic, cultural, scientific and political areas; uphold international peace and security; and advance education, particularly in the fields of science and technology.

Nigeria, through the regime of Ibrahim Babangida actually join the organization and to this day we are still a member, how come everyone hasn’t been forced to be a Muslim? Or isn’t that what Islamization is all about? Nigeria membership isn’t about religion but economics, reason why the former President, Goodluck Jonathan was there to seek for loans.

A bit of advice for Gov. Fayose: it is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open them and remove all doubt.

Al shabab Kills 17 In Twin Blasts In Somali Town

2016-02-29T07:17:00.001+01:00

Somalia's al-Shabab Islamist group bombed a busy junction and a nearby restaurant on Sunday in the town of Baidoa, killing at least 17 people, a police officer and the group said.

Al-Shabab often carries out such suicide attacks in the capital and elsewhere in its bid to topple Somalia's Western- backed government. The group wants to impose its strict version of Islamic rule in the Horn of Africa nation.

“The restaurant and the junction were very busy and the death toll may rise,” Police Major Bilow Nurr told Reuters from Baidoa, about 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu.

Police Colonel Abdi Osman said the death toll was 17, mostly civilians, with 25 others injured.

A police officer said a suicide car bomb blew up at the junction while a second blast — possibly a bomb that had been planted or a suicide bomber — struck the restaurant.

“We targeted government officials and forces,” al-Shabab's military operation spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters, adding there was a police station nearby.

Ismail Olad told Reuters the two locations were full of civilians and security forces. “I heard a huge crash at the busy junction and as I ran, I heard another blast at a restaurant ahead of me. The whole place was covered by smoke,” he said.

The blasts follows a car bomb attack in Mogadishu near a park and hotel on Friday that killed 14 people, police said. He said three militants from the al-Shabab group were also killed.

Virginia Police Officer Shot Dead During Her First Shift

2016-02-29T07:15:00.001+01:00

Officer Ashley Guindon was sworn in the previous day

A Virginia police officer was shot and killed by an Army staff sergeant assigned to the Pentagon on the first day of street duty.

Prince William County Police Officer Ashley Guindon died Saturday after she and two other officers were ambushed by a man with a rifle as they were responding to a domestic disturbance, authorities said. The 28-year-old cop had been sworn in the previous day and was working her first day on the street with her training officer, who was also wounded, police said.

The man suspected of shooting them is Ronald Hamilton, 32, an active duty Army staff sergeant assigned to the Joint Staff Support Center at the Pentagon, an Army spokeswoman told the Associated Press. He is being held without bond on murder and other charges and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, according to the AP.

Authorities say the suspect’s 29-year-old wife was found dead inside the home. “When they got to the door, the suspect started shooting,” Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert told the Washington Post.

Guindon had served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and was assigned to a unit involved with sending home the remains of fallen Marines, according to the Post.

Ohio Pastor Shot Dead During Sunday Church Services

2016-02-29T07:13:00.001+01:00

An Ohio pastor was shot and killed while delivering services from the pulpit of a Dayton church on Sunday.

Witnesses said the suspected gunman is the pastor’s brother, who has been taken into custody, according to the Associated Press. He was seated in the pew before he allegedly walked up to the pastor and opened fire as the choir was singing, the AP reports.

There were more than 20 people inside the St. Peter’s Missionary Baptist Church when the violence erupted about 12:30 p.m. and sent congregants running, according to WDTN. The news station identified the pastor as 70-year-old William Schooler.

Police later identified the brother as Daniel Gregory Schooler, 69, according to WHIO.

Chris Rock: Hollywood 'doesn’t hire black people'

2016-02-29T05:43:00.001+01:00

Oscars host Chris Rock says he used a photo opp with President Obama to remark to the commander in chief that Hollywood “doesn’t hire black people.”

The comedian didn’t shy away Sunday from the controversy surrounding the Academy Awards over the lack of black nominees in any of the top acting categories, quipping in his opening monologue that the 88th annual show is “otherwise known as the White People’s Choice Awards!”

“Is Hollywood racist?” Rock asked the black-tie clad audience.

“You got to go at that at the right way. Is it ‘burning cross’ racist? No. Is it ‘fetch me some lemonade’ racist? No. It’s a different type of racist,” Rock said.
The entertainer then recalled attending a fundraiser for Obama with “all of Hollywood” and roughly “four black people” — himself, record producer Quincy Jones, Def Jam Co-Founder Russell Simmons, and musician Questlove.

“So at some point you get to take a picture with the president,” Rock said.

“As they’re setting up the picture, you get like a little moment with the president. I’m like, ’Mr. President, you see all these writers, and producers and actors? They don’t hire black people. And they’re the nicest white people on Earth! They’re liberals. Cheese!’

“You’re damn right Hollywood is racist,” Rock concluded.

Obama weighed in on the lack of diversity at this year’s Oscars after the nominations were announced last month, saying, “I think that when everyone’s story is told then that makes for better art.”

The president said the Oscar debate “is really just an expression of this broader issue. Are we making sure that everybody is getting a fair shot?”

Ahead of the ceremony, Rev. Al Sharpton led several dozen demonstrators in a protest, with signs reading "Hollywood Must Do Better" and "Shame on You," according to the Hollywood Reporter.

"This will be the last night of an all-white Oscars," Sharpton said.

Man kills 14 members of his family, then commit suicide

2016-02-28T12:45:00.001+01:00

A man in India killed 14 members of his family, including seven children,with a butcher's knife before committing suicide near the city of Mumbai.

The massacre happened after family members gathered late on Saturday at one of their homes in Thane, about 32km from Mumbai, for a family function, police said.

"The attacker, Hasnin Anwar Warekar, hung himself after slitting the throats of all other family members, including his parents," police spokesman Gajanan Laxman Kabdule told the AFP news agency.

The sole survivor of the attack Warekar's sister - was taken to hospital when neighbours heard her screaming for help after midnight and alerted police.

"We still haven't been able to speak with the attacker's 21-year-old sister, the lone survivor of the attack, who is in deep trauma at a city hospital," Kabdule said.

Warekar, 35, attacked his family after apparently lacing their food with a sedative, according to local media reports.

But the Indian Express newspaper said the assailant stabbed his victims after they went to bed.

"Prima facie evidence suggests that the accused bolted all the doors of the house and murdered his family while they were asleep with a knife that we found near his body," Ashutosh Dumbre, joint commissioner of Thane police, was quoted as saying.

Source: AFP

Muslim-American men shot dead in Indiana

2016-02-28T07:36:00.000+01:00

Little media interest as police say religion was not the cause of "execution-style" killings of three young Indiana men.

Police in the US state of Indiana say they are yet to identify a motive for the "execution-style" murders of three young Muslim-American men last week, in a case that has barely caused a ripple in mainstream media in the United States

The three men - 23-year-old Mohamedtaha Omar, 20-year-old Adam Mekki and 17-year-old Muhannad Tairab - were found dead in a house in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on Wednesday, police told local media.

The men, who police said hailed from Africa's eastern Sahel region, had all been shot multiple times. Police said the murders were not believed to be gang-related.

The killings came in the same week that other mass shootings in the US gained widespread coverage, nationally and internationally.

Last Saturday night, a man identified as Jason Dalton drove around the Michigan city of Kalamazoo and randomly shot people, leaving at least six dead.

Then on Thursday, three people were killed and at least 14 others wounded by a gunman in a series of shootings in the state of Kansas.

After major online news site Vox published a piece on the Fort Wayne shootings on Saturday, many took to social media to question why there had not been more coverage.

Is no one going to talk about this??? #FortWayne https://t.co/BS6TgFiWmc
— Dina (@HaikalDina) February 27, 2016

I'm from Fort Wayne and I didn't even hear about this https://t.co/QirTzus1yj
— Laura Zweig (@ZwigZag) February 27, 2016

3 young muslims killed execution style in fort wayne, indiana...but no one's heard anything about that
— ㅤ ‏ (@mattehattan) February 27, 2016

Where is the coverage on the three young Muslims shot execution style in Fort Wayne, Indiana? Where!!???
— Myjaedah Speaks (@myjaedah) February 27, 2016

Nothing about this on the news: Victims found in Fort Wayne home killed ‘execution style’ https://t.co/ERjKln3IAU
— Aimal ⚯͛ (@aimalfarooq) February 27, 2016

Source: Aljazeera

US protesters stabbed in clash with KKK

2016-02-28T07:21:00.002+01:00

Several stabbed and 13 arrested after scuffles between white supremacists and anti-racism demonstrators in California.

White supremacists from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) group and anti-racism protesters have clashed in the US state of California during rival demonstrations, with several people stabbed and injured in scuffles.

All three stabbing victims, including one suffering critical injuries, were part of a group that faced off with the rallying KKK members on Saturday in the city of Anaheim, police said.

Brian Levin, a witness, told the AFP news agency that several KKK members also suffered injuries ranging from minor to significant.

Thirteen other members of both sides were arrested after the clashes.

"It appears six KKK people arrived and were immediately attacked by counter-protesters, which led to a counter-protester being stabbed," local police spokesman Sergeant Daron Wyatt said.

The initial clash spurred several separate fights, Wyatt added, noting that two KKK members were stomped on by the crowd.
Of those arrested, six were KKK members and seven were from the rival demonstration, Wyatt added.

Levin said that the the counter-protesters "smashed the side window of the Klan SUV and the front windshield ... At that point, the crowd got extremely violent".

The US has between 5,000 and 8,000 KKK members, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Although it has historically targeted black people, the KKK has also launched attacks against Jews, immigrants, gays and lesbians. Until recently, it attacked Catholics as well.

Source:AFP

ISIS stone two teenage girls to death for committing adultery

2016-02-26T15:37:00.001+01:00

Two teenage girls accused of committing adultery have been stoned to death by Islamic State (Isis) militants in Syria. Hasna, 17, and Madiha, 16, died following the assault in Deir ez-Zor city, eastern Syria.

The two men they were with identified by the Sharia Court as Abu Zubair al-Idlbi and Maher Hameed, escaped with 50 lashes in a public flogging.

The IS-led Sharia Court released a
statement claiming the girls were seized in a house "with two strangers" - an act strictly forbidden under Islamic State's twisted interpretation of Islam. "The victims were accused of committing adultery with two older men, identified by the Sharia Court as Abu Zubair al-Idlbi and Maher Hameed," the source reported.

Local media activist Ahmed Ramadan told ARA News: "The execution took place in the Hamidiya district of Deir ez-Zor on Tuesday afternoon, where hundreds of people gathered to witness the stoning of the two young girls. The decision of the Sharia Court raised the anger of Deir ez-Zor's residents, who considered it unfair to kill the two girls by stoning and merely flog the men and set them free."

stones are lined up in preparation for the execution

A fortnight ago, four women were raped by Isis (IS) fighters and then stoned to death for 'committing adultery'. The victims were arrested even though Isis militants are said to have caught them being abused during a raid in the city of Mosul. They were brought before a sharia court which ordered them to be publicly executed without giving any details about their alleged abusers.

Source: IB Times UK

Twitter mocks US military white paper that suggest wearing hijab is passive terrorism

2016-02-25T07:33:00.000+01:00

In a US military White Paper entitled "Countering Violent Extremism", wearing the hijab, the Muslim veil, is described as contributing to "passive terrorism" - a phenomenon which is said to occur when "moderate segments of the population decline to speak against or actively resist terrorism

Here's a stack of my IED devices. #PassiveTerrorism pic.twitter.com/ff4xF6qxC7

— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) February 23, 2016

#PassiveTerrorism is women in hijab distributing water to brothers and sisters in #Flint. pic.twitter.com/Z4jeHbKBZn
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) February 24, 2016

Apparently the contents of headscarf drawers everywhere are quietly fomenting rebellion #Passiveterrorism pic.twitter.com/aRS6aPnbGP
— Shelina Janmohamed (@loveinheadscarf) February 24, 2016

"Hijab/the headscarf, is contributing to #PassiveTerrorism" pic.twitter.com/LArxOyoqH0
— samayya (@SamayyaAfzal) February 24, 2016

Deciding which colour's the most 'dangerous' and alarming to wear tomorrow #PassiveTerrorism pic.twitter.com/xrz6z1zMrr
— Heena Khaled (@HeenaKhaled) February 24, 2016

Forgot my umbrella today so my scarf is covering my head. Sorry for the #passiveterrorism? pic.twitter.com/984dtDhyRf
— Elizabeth Dent (@LizyDent) February 23, 2016

In Istanbul on my honeymoon, just chilling and committing #passiveterrorism pic.twitter.com/BHwafqlsKc
— Margaret P. Houston (@HoustonMargaret) February 23, 2016

#PassiveTerrorism

The awkward moment when you realise it's not only Muslim women that wear head/chest coverings pic.twitter.com/T7ZYqLfODF
— Imo B (@Just1ce_4_All) February 23, 2016

I used to cover my head on Good Friday as a sign of mourning, unaware I was committing #passiveterrorism
— Margaret P. Houston (@HoustonMargaret) February 23, 2016

Are these Northwestern students getting the best education & giving back to their communities #passiveterrorism? pic.twitter.com/aCJwWLchGU
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) February 24, 2016

If the hijab is #passiveterrorism does Rome need to worry pic.twitter.com/8g9o4IEE9e
— Nazia Mirza (@naziasmirza) February 23, 2016

23 passenger aircraft crashes in Nepal

2016-02-24T15:04:00.001+01:00

A passenger airplane with close to two dozen people on board crashed in Nepal Wednesday, after disappearing from contact with air traffic control soon after takeoff.

The Twin Otter aircraft operated by Tara Air was carrying 23 people including two children, the Nepali Times newspaper reported.

Local police in the Myagdi district where the plane’s wreckage was found said there were no survivors, according to the Times.

One Chinese and one Kuwaiti national were reportedly among the passengers on the flight, which took off for the popular trekking town of Jomsom from the tourist hub of Pokhara — around 12o miles from the country’s capital Kathmandu — on Wednesday morning.

Aircraft accidents have adversely impacted Nepal’s tourism industry in the past, with the country particularly vulnerable at the moment as it recovers from a devastating earthquake last April that killed more than 8,000 people.

The last incident took place during rescue operations for the earthquake in May, when a U.S. helicopter crashed and killed 13 people, including six marines.

6-year-old boy accidentally shoot and kill father

2016-02-24T12:16:00.001+01:00

James Lonaker, 62 was accidentally killed by his 6-year-old boy in Hartsville, Indiana.

James who had been busy with his computer and had his back turned to the boy didn't notice the boy picking up the gun and didn't know when he pulled the trigger that sent bullet flying into his upper body. He died while being transported to the Indianapolis hospital.

The little boy told investigators that he didn't know the gun was loaded, he said he didn't mean to hurt his father.

Lonaker’s death is at least the 18th accidental shooting by an American child under age 10 this year, according to a Washington Post survey of news reports. Six of those incidents were fatal, and in every other one, the victim was also a child. In three cases, the person killed was the child who accidentally pulled the trigger.

Last year, at least 265 people were shot by kids under age 18, according to data compiled by the gun-control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.

Mistaken identity: Four year old sentenced to life in prison in Egypt

2016-02-24T11:45:00.001+01:00

Ahmed Mansour Qurani Ali is a goon.

In a series of riots in 2014, he killed four people, nearly killed eight more and vandalized government property. Those are the acts he was convicted of by an Egyptian military court last week, which sentenced him to life in prison.

But there's a problem: Ali is 4 years old. The Egyptian military now says his conviction and sentencing was a mistake, according to the BBC.

Ali was convicted of those terrible acts alongside 115 others in reference to riots carried out in 2014 by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. The child's lawyer told the BBC that Ali's addition to the list of suspects was the result of a mistake made when officials neglected to pass his birth certificate along to a judge.

That mistake was confirmed by an Army colonel in a Facebook post. The convictions, he said, were meant for someone who shares Ali's first three names: 16-year-old Ahmed Mansour Qurani Sharara.

Critics have accused Egypt of cracking down on dissent since the military overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. That crackdown has since extended to civil society groups, as The Washington Post's Erin Cunningham reported last May, and "artists, activists and intellectuals," Cunningham reported earlier this month.

Over the summer, Secretary of State John F. Kerry urged Egyptian authorities to better target their campaign against anti-government militants.

“It is important to distinguish between those who use violence to achieve their ends and others who seek peacefully to participate in a political dialogue, even if what they say may sometimes make people uncomfortable,” Kerry said at the time.

Edo PDP wants court to sack party leadership

2016-02-16T13:07:00.001+01:00

Just when you think the PDP has reached rock bottom, it turns out to be another layer of quicksand. The PDP, after coming out out as the loser in the last election has been embroiled in one turmoil or another at both state and federal level.

Some aggrieved member of the Edo state chapter of the PDP led by Mr Osula Ehi has dragged the state PDP leadership to court claiming they've overstayed their tenure .

The group alleged that the tenure of the state party leadership lead by Chief Dan Orbih had expired since September 24 2015, that their continued stay in office is illegal. They however prayed that the court restrain the PDP chairman and other officers across the 18 Local government from parading themselves as lawful occupants of the offices.

The suit was filed by Mathew Edaghese, counsel to the claimants alleging that the four years stipulated by the party's constitution had expired.

The group however call on the party National Working Committee to set up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the party until new officers are elected.

The justice hearing the case, Justice G.O. Imadegbelo, has adjourned the case till Feb 18 2016, and gave the defendants 7 days to to respond so the court can rule on the matter.

Taliban kill 11-year old war hero

2016-02-05T01:42:00.001+01:00

Wasil Ahmad, an 11-year-old Afghan boy who had been praised for his bravery in leading security forces in battle against the Taliban was killed by the militants this week, Afghan authorities said.

Despite his age and national and international laws prohibiting the use of children in warfare, Wasil had distinguished himself on the battlefield last year, Samad, the boy’s uncle, told CNN.

Wasil Ahmad had commanded a police unit for 43 days as it fought to repel a deadly 71-day Taliban siege last year, according to his uncle Mullah Samad, an Afghan Local Police commander in the Khas Uruzgan district of Uruzgan province.

Gunmen on motorbikes shot the boy in the head Monday at a market in Tarin Kowt, the provincial capital of Uruzgan province, said Dost Mohammad Nayab, spokesman for the province’s governor.

Wasil was taken to a local hospital, then transferred to a better-equipped hospital in Kandahar, where he died of his injuries, Nayab said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing on its website Monday.

Wasil had only recently returned to civilian life, enrolling in school in Tarin Kowt last year after surviving the brutal Taliban siege in Khas Uruzgan, Nayab said.

He said Wasil, who lost his father in fighting with the Taliban, had asked him more than a year ago how to use machine guns.
“I asked him why did he want to learn. He told me that he wanted to take revenge from those (who) had killed his father,” Samad said.

Baba Ijebu house demolished in Lagos State

2016-02-05T00:56:00.001+01:00

As part of the on-going exercise to curb the spate of building collapse, Lagos State Government, yesterday, demolished a four storey-building owned by the founder of the popular Premier Lotto, popularly known as “Baba Ijebu,” Sir Kensington Adebutu, in order to avert possible loss of lives and property in the area.

The building located at No 6, Campbell Street, Lagos Island was formerly used as party secretariat by the Action Congress, (now All progressives Congress) and law firms. But the building was vacated 10 years ago when the residents discovered crack wall on the building.

It was learned that Adebutu bought the building few years ago but was still deliberating with his staff on how to judiciously use the building.

Vanguard gathered that the building was sealed by the Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA, twice to allow the owner embark on Structural Stability Test, SST, before embarking on manual demolition exercise which commenced on October 16th, 2015 and December 22, 2015.

Mr. Sheye Olofin, Manager Omega Homes, the building adjacent to Adebutu’s building, lamented that they work with fear daily because “the slabs from the building often drop on one’s head. Infact, our cleaner was injured by one of the slab from the building.”

Narrating their ordeal since the building became defective, Olofin said, “When we noticed that parts of the building had started falling down, we called the owner of the building but nothing was done.

“It kept destroying our property often but that wasn’t our major concern. Our concern was the life that could be lost if it was allowed to collapse. And that was why we decided to write to the owner of the building.

“Few months after, he sent a team to investigate our claims last year. When they came, they discovered that the alarm raised was true. We had been complaining over the state of the building over four years to the owner. We are happy that the government has finally come to demolish it,” he added.

The LASBCA General Manager, Olusola Adeigbe said that the responsibility of the agency was to monitor building in the state and identify distressed building, saying “We demolish buildings that have over 90 percent of likelihood of collapsing.”

Adeigbe who was represented at the scene by Mr. Felix Olowojoba, Director of Enforcement, said, “When we detect building that are defective and could collapse any moment, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that such building does not cave in to avoid loss of life.

“Over the years, we have had the report of falling of its concrete. We recommended that the building should undergo SST to assist LASBCA to ascertain its structural integrity. The report that came out was not favorable. The report showed that the building is over burdened and distressed.

Syrian rebels getting their ass kicked

2016-02-04T16:43:00.001+01:00

Offensive by forces loyal to President Assad takes Shia towns after three-year siege as Geneva peace talks called off.

Syria's army and its allies have broken a three-year rebel siege of two Shia towns in northwest Syria, the government and rebel groups said, cutting off a main supply route to nearby Turkey.

The breakthrough comes after days of rapid military gains north of the major city of Aleppo, with Russian air strikes playing a key role in the advance.

The two towns of Nubul and Zahraa, with an estimated 60,000 population, are connected to the border by areas under the control of Kurdish militias that provided access.

The Levant Front rebel group said the siege was broken "after three days of legendary resistance by the revolutionaries facing the Russian military machine, and after more than 500 raids by Russian air planes", Reuters news agency reported
.

Syria's state news agency SANA reported on Thursday "mass celebrations in the streets of Nubul and Zahraa welcoming army troops and celebrating the breaking of the siege".

The Al-Manar television station of Lebanese militia Hezbollah broadcast what it said was exclusive footage of Syrian government and allied fighters entering the
towns. The channel showed crowds embracing soldiers and militiamen who fired into the air as they arrived.

The two towns had been besieged by rebels since 2012, and reaching them had long been a goal of the government, which has also sought to sever key rebel supply routes into Aleppo from Turkey.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Gaziantep, Turkey, said that in taking the towns, the government achieved in three days what it's been trying to do for three years.

"There is no doubt this is a decisive turning point because at the end of the day, Turkey is the lifeline for the opposition. What we understand from pro-government sources is that this is just the beginning - the aim is to reach the Turkish border."

Meanwhile, UN-mediated talks in Geneva to end the war in Syria were paused on Wednesday until February 25. US Secretary of State John Kerry blamed the Syrian government and its Russian allies for the stall in negotiations.

"The continued assault by Syrian regime forces - enabled by Russian air strikes - against opposition-held areas, as well as regime and allied militias' continued besiegement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, have clearly signalled the intention to seek a military solution rather than enable a political one," Kerry said in a statement.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said on Wednesday that the bombardment would continue. "Russian strikes will not cease until we really defeat terrorist organisations like Jabhat al-Nusra. And I don't see why these air strikes should be stopped," he said.

The conflict, that has lasted nearly five years, has resulted in more than 250,000 Syrians being killed. The civil war has also displaced millions more and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing as refugees to Europe.

Steven Heydemann, a professor of Middle East studies at Smith College in the US, told Al Jazeera that the country was now likely to see an upsurge in fighting after the military advancements by government forces.

"My sense is that what we have now created are incentives for the opposition and its regional backers to escalate their military activity in response to what they're confronting from the regime and that we're entering a period where we'll see a spiral upward in the level of violence," Heydemann said.

The Syrian government and its allies were also on the offensive against rebels south of Aleppo, Syria's commercial centre, and against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to the east of the city split between government and rebel control.

Alongside heavy Russian aerial support, the advances have been made possible by ground troops from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Iranian-backed militias that support President Bashar al-Assad's government.
The Russia air strikes that began in September tilted the war in Assad's favour.

Reports said pro-government militias from the besieged towns were able to link up with advancing Syrian army troops after the town of Maarsteh al-Khan fell.

Breaking the siege opens a direct route for the Syrian army to Kurdish-controlled Afrin and brings them closer to areas run by Turkish-backed rebels near the Turkish border.

Defence strategists said that the two heavily garrisoned towns could become a launching pad for the Syrian army and its allies for wider territorial gains in northern Aleppo province and to tighten the encirclement of the rebel-held
part of Aleppo city.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Abu Khedir parents: Jail sentences not enough

2016-02-04T16:36:00.001+01:00

Two Israelis convicted of abducting and burning Mohammed Abu Khdeir alive given life and 21 years, respectively.

The parents of a Palestinian teenager burned alive by Israelis in the lead-up to the 2014 war on Gaza have denounced an Israeli court for not giving two offenders life sentences.

The court on Thursday announced that one Israeli has beensentenced to life in prison, while another was given 21 years in prison for the abduction and subsequent murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir in East Jerusalem.

It is estimated that the pair will spend less than 20 years in prison, after parole and possible sentence reductions are taken into account.

Suha Abu Khdeir said the court should have given both lsraelis life sentences for their roles in the death of her son.

"They should get life sentences. Both of them. I don't agree with this decision. There is no democracy in Israel," she cried in the court room.

"They kidnapped and burned my son and they only get 21 years. I will not move from the court until there is justice. I will go to the international courts. I will not be quiet."

The two Israelis were minors when they committed the crime with the help of a third Israeli man.

Abu Khdeir was kidnapped in East Jerusalem and taken to a forest outside the city. He was tortured and burned alive.

The claim for the Israeli who was sentenced to 21 years is that he did not participate in the actual killing, after the abduction and torture took place.

A third Israeli man convicted of Abu Khdeir's killing, Yosef Haim Ben David, has yet to be sentenced, with the court yet to rule whether he is mentally competent.

Muhannad Jbara, the lawyer for the Abu Khdeir family, echoed the mother's promise to take the case to the international courts: "We asked for the most severe sentences, for life sentences. This is only the first battle to get justice. We will head to international courts as well."

Meanwhile, the father of the victim pointed to the discrepancies in how the Israeli government punishes whole Palestinian families for the crimes of lone suspects.

"I ask the courts to demolish their homes," he said. "We won't accept anything less than that. If you have democracy, then where is it? If there wasn't racism then we would get the same thing as an Arab would, to demolish their homes.

"My son hasn't died. He will stay with me always. They didn't give me justice: I, who lost my son and my whole life," Suha said in the court room.

Source: Al Jazeera

Senior Al-Qaeda leader killed by US drone

2016-02-04T16:29:00.001+01:00

Jalal Baleedi, a field commander in the country's south, was killed with his guards in Shabwa province.

One of al-Qaeda's senior commanders was killed by a US drone strike in southern Yemen, a military source told Al Jazeera.

Fighters belonging to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) were preparing to receive the body of Jalal Baleedi, also known as Hamza al-Marqashi, after he was killed overnight with two of his guards near the town of Azzan, the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday.

Reuters news agency also reported another US drone attack that killed six alleged al-Qaeda fighters in their car travelling in Yemen's southern Shabwa province.

Al-Qaeda fighters took over Azzan on Monday, and it has become the group's stronghold in Shabwa.

Originally from Yemen's mountainous Abyan province, Baleedi was identified in 2004 by the Yemen Times as being the field commander of AQAP in the southern governorates of Abyan, Shabwa, Lahj, Hadramout, and al- Beidha.

Recent reports suggested Baleedi pledged allegiance to and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group with several other AQAP fighters, becoming the leader of ISIL in Yemen.

However, the reports were not confirmed by ISIL nor by AQAP.

Source: Al Jazeera