Mid-Week Post

Your focal point of a long work-week ...



A suicide attack in Iran creates more friction between Iran and Saudi Arabia:

Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Iranian parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum in Tehran on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people in an unprecedented assault that Iran's Revolutionary Guards blamed on regional rival Saudi Arabia.

(Sidebar: the same Khomeini who took Americans hostage and forced women to cover their heads. That Khomeini.)

Islamic State claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks against Iran's majority Shi'ite population, seen by the hardline Sunni militants as heretics.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted: "Terror-sponsoring despots threaten to bring the fight to our homeland. Proxies attack what their masters despise most: the seat of democracy."

He did not explicitly blame any country but the tweet appeared to refer to comments made by Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, in May, saying that that Riyadh would bring "the battle" for regional influence to Iran.

Sunni Saudi Arabia denied any involvement in the Tehran attacks, but the assault further fuels tensions between Riyadh and Tehran as they vie for control of the Gulf and influence in the wider Islamic world. It comes days after Riyadh and other Sunni Muslim powers cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of backing Tehran and militant groups.

 
Let the gloves come off.


Also - the Ramadan attacks so far:

May 27 — Charchino, Afghanistan — Group fighting in favor of imposing Islamic law ambushes checkpoint, kills 11.
May 27 — Qadis, Afghanistan — Taliban kills 14, injures 17.
May 27 — Khost, Afghanistan — Taliban suicide bomber targets U.S-backed National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), which includes army and police units, killing 18, woundin six others, including children.
May 27 — Kacha Khuh, Pakistan — “Honor Killing” — Brother hacks 18-year-old sister with axe to death for denying to abide by pre-arrange marriage.
May 27 — Marawi, Philippines — Jihadists kill 19 including women and a child.
May 28 — Marawi, Philippines — Jihadists murder 8 for “having betrayed their faith.”
May 28 — Ramo Adey, Somalia — Jihadists bury man to his neck, stone to death for adultery
May 28 — Mosul, Iraq — ISIS sets hospital ablaze and kills a dozen young people inside.
May 28 — Mosul, Iraq — ISIS kills at least 40 women and children trying to flee besieged city.
May 28 — Shirqat, Iraq — ISIS rocket attack kills three children and their parents.
May 28 — Gumsri, Nigeria — Boko Haram kills at least seven villagers.
May 28 — Shakhil Abad, Afghanistan — Islamic extremists kill district governor and his son inside their home.
May 28 — Baqubah, Iraq — Suicide bomber kills 3, injures up to 16 others outside court.
May 29 — Nguro, Nigeria — Boko Haram beheads five people.
May 29 — Ghat, Libya, — Suspected Islamic terrorists kill 1, injure 4.
May 29 — Shirqat, Iraq — Islamic shrapnel dismembers a child, injures 7.
May 29 — Baghdad, Iraq — 17 killed, 32 wounded — ISIS launches suicide attack against ice cream parlor frequented by families who were breaking their Ramadan fast.
May 29 — Baghdad, Iraq — 14 killed, 37 injured. ISIS attacked Shiites.
May 30 — Mattani, Pakistan — Islamist gun down four peace committee members.
May 30 — Peshawar, Pakistan — Suspected jihadist shoots leader of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-i-Islami group while he was leaving a mosque.
May 30 — Shifa, Iraq — Mass grave found with 60 ISIS torture victims, including women, elderly.
May 30 — al-Joura, Syria — ISIS mortar kills 14, including children.
May 30 — Bay Hassan, Iraq — ISIS kills 3 Iraqi guards, wounds six others.
May 30 — Baghdad, Iraq — Jihadists kill 7, injure 19 in a blast.
May 30 — Baqubah, Iraq — A bomb explosion at mosque kills 7, wounds 6.
May 30 — Hit, Iraq — Fedayeen suicide bomber kills 8, injures 10.
May 31 — Kaya, Nigeria —Boko Haram kills 14.
May 31 — Fafi, Kenya — Suspected al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab burns down school, kills one teacher.
May 31 — Bab el-Beid, Iraq — Suicide bombers kill 3 civilians, including a child.
May 31 — Hit, Iraq — Shahid suicide bomber kills 3, injures 7.
May 31 — Mosul, Iraq — ISIS kills 34 for trying to leave the city.
May 31 — Mangai, Kenya — al-Qaeda-linked bombers kill 8.
May 31 — Kabul, Afghanistan — Suspected Haqqani Network kills at least 150, Wounds more than 460, including 11 Americans.
May 31 — Sinjar, Iraq — ISIS kills 2, injures 2.
June 01 — Abala, Niger — Jihadists kill 6 guards.
June 01 — Al-Hazm, Yemen — Terrorists kill 6, wound 15.
June 01 — Behsud, Afghanistan — Suicide bomber kills 1, wounds 4.
June 01 — Oldenburg, Germany — Muslim kills one for smoking during Ramadan and refusing to fast.
June 01 — Zanjili, Iraq — ISIS kills 7 for trying to flee caliphate.
June 02 — Kolofota, Cameroon — Islamist use two girls as suicide bombers killing 9 and wounding 30.
June 02 — Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia — Jihadist beheads one man.
June 03 — Marawi, Philippines — Islamic sniper kills 70-year-old man.
June 03 — Halabsah, Iraq — Four suicide bombers kill 1, injure 3
June 03 — London, England — Three Jihadists plow into pedestrians, then stab people, killing 7, injuring 48.
June 03 — Zanjili, Iraq — ISIS kills 43 for trying to flee caliphate.
June 03 — Lower Munda, India — Hizb-ul-Mujahideen kill 2 security troops, injure 4
June 03 — Nawabshah, Pakistan — Alleged victim’s brother-in-law kills two people for alleged adultery.
June 03 — Kabul, Afghanistan — Suicide bombers kill 20, injure 87
June 04 — Kandahar, Afghanistan — Afghan police insider attack leaves six dead, one injured
June 04 — Spini, Pakistan — Two Shiites from Hazara minority group killed.
June 04 — Talibul, Moula, Pakistan — “Honor Killing” — Father kills 18-year-old daughter for allegedly “having an affair.”
June 04 — Zanjili, Iraq — Wave of suicide bombers kills 32, injures 24.
June 04 — Quaidabad, Pakistan — Jihadis kill 1 barber.
June 05 — Melbourne, Australia — ISIS-linked migrant from Somalia kills man, takes prostitute hostage, an injures 4.
June 05 — Baghdad, Iraq — Terrorist mortar fired into family home dismembers 10-year-old boy, injures 4.
June 06 — Lower Munda, India — Hizb-ul-Mujahideen kill 2 security troops, injure 4
June 06 — Paris, France — Jihadist wounds cop with a hammer outside Notre Dame cathedral.
June 06 — Herat, Afghanistan — Terrorist kill 7, injure another 16 near the northern gate of the Great Mosque of Herat.
June 06 — Garissa, Kenya — Suspected al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab jihadists kill 4 aid workers with land mine.
June 07 — Mosul, Iraq — Islamic State massacres 160 civilians trying to flee city, according to United Nations.
June 07 — Tehran, Iran — Sunni ISIS gunmen, suicide bombers attack Shiite country’s parliament and shrine to its revolutionary leader, kills 12, wounding up to 42.

Oh, dear:

Parts of a Burmese military plane have been found in the sea after it disappeared with more than 100 people on board.

A spokesperson for the chief of the country’s army said the aircraft went missing during a domestic flight on Wednesday.

“Communication was lost suddenly at about 1.35pm (8.05 BST) when it reached about 20 miles west of Dawei town,” read a statement posted on Facebook.

Search and rescue operations involving ships and aircraft were ongoing in the Andaman Sea.

Officials said pieces of the aircraft, which was carrying more than a dozen children, had been found in the sea.

Japanese tourists found murdered:

Two Japanese tourists taking a boat ride around islands in southwestern Philippines were allegedly shot dead, and their bodies cut into pieces and thrown into the sea, local officials said.

The tourists were reported missing since 30 May and authorities initially suspected the role of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are known for abducting foreign tourists.

However, the Philippines coast guard said on Sunday (4 June) that three men, including the boat owner, have admitted to killing the Japanese tourists in Palawan province. The suspects were identified as Aladin Mohameran, Reynante Labampa and boat owner Michael "Don-don" Suangco, Lonie Zamora, a spokesperson for Palawan coast guard, said. The motive for the ghastly crime is not known.

Yoshihiro Arai, 24, and Masaru Itani, 59, had reportedly rented Suangco's boat to take a tour of the surrounding islands in Palawan on the day of their disappearance. A missing report was filed on 31 May by the staff of GMG Hotel, where the victims had checked in a day before.

The coast guard spokesman said the suspects reported the location of the crime to the police and admitted that they first shot the two men dead and later chopped their bodies and threw the pieces into the sea. They also admitted to sinking the boat before leaving for Coron town, Palawan, on 30 May, ABS-CBN News wrote.

Horrified that the US will no longer foot any military bill and that even Canadian voters wince at cowardice, the Trudeau government congratulates itself on looking like it has a solution:

Canada on Wednesday unveiled plans for one of the biggest hikes in military spending in its recent history, acting less than two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump demanded that NATO members ramp up defense expenditures.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, unveiling a 20-year policy review that had been in the works for months, said the armed forces budget would jump by 73 percent to C$32.7 billion ($24.2 billion) in 2026/27 from C$18.9 billion in 2016/17, with the biggest increases coming in later years.

The Liberal government made the announcement a day after Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada would have to play a larger global role as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump retreated from multilateralism.

Sajjan told reporters the policy would result in "a Canada that is strong at home, secure in North America and engaged in the world."

 That is $1.4 billion CDN yearly as compared to $600 billion USD (not factoring in inflation, of course).
  
Canada's previous military budget had earmarked $1.3 billion for NATO. 

I'm sure the Liberals took their shoes and socks off to count up that. 




I honestly don't why people are so concerned about opioid deaths if they are going to allow these:

Beginning Thursday, a supervised injection site called SafePoint will be up and running 16 hours a day.

It will be operated by the Lookout Emergency Aid society and staffed by four people at all times, including a registered nurse.

Injection only, for now.

Despite what the administration at Evergreen State College may think, it could disarm or expel this motley crew of maladjusted vigilantes if it wanted to:

Evergreen State College erupted in protest two weeks ago when a biology professor Bret Weinstein spoke out against a social justice event that coerced white students and faculty to leave campus.

Since then, the Olympia, Washington, campus has devolved into chaos, while the school administration cowers and capitulates to student mob rule.

Things are getting so bad that the school is having issues with a group of bat-wielding vigilantes seeking to “community police” the campus. The school was shut down Monday because of acts of vandalism and window smashing the previous night. ...

One of the demands made by protesters is to abolish the campus police and replace it with student-led community policing. 

How could that go wrong?




Oh, please:

Porter Airlines has joined a string of Canadian companies pulling advertisements from The Rebel, a conservative media website that has carried articles opposing immigration and questioning climate change science.

In a tweet Tuesday, the Toronto-based airline confirmed that The Rebel has been “blacklisted” after it was notified that its ads were appearing on the site, run by media personality Ezra Levant.

Some Twitter users supported the move, while others said they intend to boycott the airline over the decision.

An EMP could destroy every circuit in a region:

...  North Korea could make an EMP attack against the United States by launching a short-range missile off a freighter or submarine or by lofting a warhead to 30 kilometers burst height by balloon. While such lower-altitude EMP attacks would not cover the whole US mainland, as would an attack at higher-altitude (300 kilometers), even a balloon-lofted warhead detonated at 30 kilometers altitude could blackout the Eastern Grid that supports most of the population and generates 75 percent of US electricity.

Also:

North Korea fired what appeared to be multiple land-to-ship missiles off its east coast on Thursday, South Korea's military said.

South Korea's Office of Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the projectiles were launched Thursday morning from the North Korean coastal city of Wonsan. 

And now, the City of the Dead:

The village of Dargavs, or the City of the Dead, has an ancient cemetery where people that lived in the valley buried their loved ones along with their clothes and belongings. The valley stretches for 17 kilometers, and the cemetery contains almost 100 ancient stone crypts. 

Ossetians say that the cemetery helps them understand how people lived 400 years ago. Archeologists, also, are very interested in exploring the site more completely, as there have been interesting items found that have attracted some scientific attention. 

It is a very mysterious place with a lot of myths and legends. It was once believed that if anyone tried to get to the city they would never emerge alive.