Today's World News covering, Africa, Europe, Middle East

A passenger on board the hijacked EgyptAir flight has described the unique reactions he witnessed among his fellow travellers when they believed they could be killed during the ordeal.

 

As the plane was forced to divert from Cairo at the behest of hijacker Seif Eldin Mustafa, 58, many began calling loved ones for what they thought were their final goodbyes.

One rang his wife to reveal the existence of a secret bank account, while another woke up as the diverted jet approached Cyprus, asking: 'Why Cyprus? I'll miss my connection.'

Another man's wife, apparently unconcerned about the fact her husband was a bomb hostage, forced him to repeat the details of his bank account several times.

The stories were retold by AbdAllah El Ashmawy, an orthopedic surgeon from Egypt who is based in Plymouth.

In a post on his Facebook page, he thanked all those who called and messaged him concerned about his safety.

Admitting it was a day he would 'never forget', he said it was a 'very painful experience to be on a hijacked plane in the middle of the sea with a guy... who claims he has explosives'.

However, he also revealed that the reactions of his fellow passengers helped lighten the tense mood on board the plane.

He wrote: 'Most of the people managed to stay calm, but as usual passengers on board made my day.

'A lovely Egyptian chap decided to call all his family and friends one by one in the middle of the hijacked plane when we were about to land to Cyprus.

'Another funny husband calling [sic] his wife to tell her about some money he was hiding in a bank and the funniest part is his wife forgetting about the hijack thing and asking him to repeat the bank name.

'Another lovely guy was sleeping and woke up to be informed we are landing in Cyprus and his funny response was 'why Cyprus??!..I will miss my connection.'

dailymail.co.uk

A Native American man has refused to sell his tiny wooden Miami house to developers for $1.8million because he believes it is on sacred ground.

 

Ishmael Bermudez, 65, also known as Golden Eagle, has been excavating the backyard of his home for almost 50 years and claims it is a mystical place sacred to the Tequesta tribe.

He says he will not sell his home unless the garden, where he discovered a natural spring, is protected.

The small house, which is decorated with colorful paintings, sits incongruously in the heart of Miami's bustling city center, surrounded by high rise buildings, heavy traffic and ongoing construction projects.

Developers have driven up the value of his property to at least $1.8 million, but Mr Bermudez says he has no intention to sell unless his backyard can be protected.

Mr Bermudez claims he has found evidence of the earliest native inhabitants of the area in his garden, which sits just two blocks from busy Brickell Avenue and is surrounded by skyscrapers, bars and restaurants.

dailymail.co.uk

An unarmed young father of two was shot five times by a police officer in Mesa, Arizona, after begging “Please don’t shoot me.” Now his widow is fighting the system to try to keep her husband’s murderer from walking free.

 

Police invaded Daniel Shaver’s hotel room after receiving a phone call that somebody was pointing a rifle out the window, according to local affiliate KTAR. The rifle wound up being two pellet rifles, which the police “later determined were related to his pest control job.”

Police forced Shaver and his acquaintance to “crawl” out from the room. Shaver reached towards his waistline, “possibly to pull up his shorts,” when Officer Philip Brailsford gunned him down with his own personal AR-15 assault rifle, which was inscribed with the phrase “You’re f***ed,” according to Tucson News.

Shaver was only 26 years old, and leaves behind two daughters.

Brailsford has been fired and is pleading not guilty to second degree murder. However, county attorney Bill Montgomery has said that they are considering a plea deal. At most, he would likely serve three years and nine months with a possibility for probation.

usuncut.com

A former president of a Pennsylvania county bar association has been convicted of using forged documents to pose as an estate lawyer for a decade even though she didn't have a law license.

 

Kimberly Kitchen was convicted on Thursday on charges of forgery, unauthorized practice of law and felony records tampering in Huntingdon County.

Kitchen, 45, fooled BMZ Law, a Huntingdon firm, by forging a law license, bar exam results, an email showing she attended Duquesne University law school and a check for a state attorney registration fee, prosecutors said.

The married James Creek resident handled estate planning for more than 30 clients despite never attending law school, and she even served as president of the Huntingdon County Bar Association for a time.

She made partner at BMZ, where she specialized in estate planning, before the fraud was discovered.

The judge on the case was brought in from another county, and the state attorney general, not county prosecutors, handled the case because Kitchen had been a fixture in the county courthouse for years.

BMZ officials testified at her two-day trial but haven't commented publicly since issuing a statement in December 2014, when the Huntingdon Daily News first reported that Kitchen was being investigated.

The firm's voicemail said its offices were closed for Good Friday.

'Sadly, it would appear that our firm was the last, in a long line of professionals, to have been deceived by Ms Kitchen into believing she was licensed to practice law,' the firm said previously. 'We are undertaking a thorough review of each and every file she may have handled.'

Kitchen had worked in fundraising at Juniata College before she started telling people she was an attorney, state prosecutors said.

The charges she was convicted of carry a maximum sentence of three-and-a-half to seven years behind bars.

Defense attorney Caroline Roberto said Friday that she is reviewing whether to appeal.

The judge didn't immediately schedule sentencing, giving caseworkers 90 days to file a presentence report first.

'We think that she had no intent to defraud,' Roberto said.

Last year Roberto called Kitchen an 'incredibly competent person'.

'She worked very diligently and was devoted to the people she served in the community,' Roberto added.

She said there was no evidence Kitchen's work was bad. 'She provided a good service,' she said.

Kitchen hasn't practiced law since the firm asked her to stop in December 2014.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane's office said it is happy with the conviction of Kitchen.

'The Attorney General's Office is certainly pleased to prove this case but more importantly to take an impersonator office the streets,' spokesman Chuck Ardo told WJAC.

Ardo added that Kitchen's lies were bound to catch up with her because 'they almost always get caught'.

A date for Kitchen's sentencing has yet to be scheduled.

dailymail.co.uk

Just within days of the twin terrorist attack on Brussels, a suicide bomber has killed at least 38 people, mostly women and children, outside a public park in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Sunday, according to rescue officials and police.

Appearing on the The View Thursday morning was none other than former Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson. He, of course, spoke of his time running for office and even joked that his first choice for president went out the window the day he dropped out.

 

Carson was then asked by the women of the show about his endorsement of Donald Trump. Which, in all honesty, doesn’t make any sense, and it was discovered last week that Trump may have illegally offered him an advisory role in exchange for an endorsement.

Whoopi Goldberg didn’t hold back at all and laid it all out on the table for Carson:

“This guy…he’s a racist and he’s not good for the country… You’re Ben Carson! You’re so much better than this.”

Carson then explained that because he “is better than this” he’s capable of looking past the racism to the broader picture. Which is the biggest load of BS I’ve ever heard.

All in all, the ladies of The View, in particular, Whoopi Goldberg, tore Trump a new one, and laid into Carson for backing him.

And as per usual, Trump proves that he cannot handle criticism, especially if it comes from women. He quickly took to his Twitter account while the show was still airing to show everyone, once again, that he has the maturity level of a seven-year-old.

. @TheView T.V. show, which is failing so badly that it will soon be taken off thr air, is constantly asking me to go on. I TELL THEM "NO"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016

Explain how the women on The View, which is a total disaster since the great Barbara Walters left, ever got their jobs. @abc is wasting time

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016

Well, the women of The View , while still on air, called him out on these tweets, and told him that they’d love to have him on, but he’s terrified they’ll be mean to him and ask him tough questions. You see, Trump only wants to be part of interviews where he can control the conversation and be adored by the media. Being surrounded by strong, successful women interrogating him is pretty much his worst nightmare.

Oh, and The View has been on for 20 years now and is doing just fine with or without Trump as a guest. He’s the last person to talk about a failing television show.

Good on Whoopi for calling both Carson and Trump out. Carson on his hypocrisy and aversion to reality, and Trump on his utter horseshit. Well done.

addictinginfo.org

An Israeli soldier has been caught on video shooting a wounded Palestinian in the head in the West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) after he was injured over an alleged stabbing attack.

 

On Thursday, the human rights group, B'tselem, released the graphic footage taken by one of its members after two Palestinian youths were shot over allegedly stabbing an Israeli soldier earlier in the day.

In the video, the wounded Palestinian can be seen lying on the ground after being initially shot by Israeli forces.

After about a minute, one of the Israeli troops raises his gun and shoots the man in the head, causing a surge of blood from the wound, which then stains the surrounding pavement.

“I heard gunshots, went outside my house to check what it was, and saw several Israeli soldiers yelling and two youths on the ground. A soldier approached one of the youths that was moving while yelling and opened fire at him from zero range,” a local witness was quoted by the Ma’an news agency as saying.

The second Palestinian succumbed to his wounds after being denied medical aid by the Israeli soldiers. The wounded Israeli was transferred to a hospital in al-Quds (Jerusalem) with minor stab wounds in the shoulder and hand.

Israel claims to have detained the soldier and launched an investigation into the incident.

In response to the Tel Aviv regime's latest atrocity, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director, Philip Luther, said the shooting could easily be deemed as a war crime.

"The shooting of a wounded and incapacitated person, even if they have been involved in an attack, has absolutely no justification and must be prosecuted as a potential war crime," he said, adding, "Israeli forces have a long history of carrying out unlawful killings – including extrajudicial executions – in the occupied Palestinian Territories with impunity.”

Palestinian Health Minister Jawad Awwad also referred to the incident as a "war crime," noting that even before to the shooting, medics were not treating the gravely injured man.

Al-Khalil , the largest West Bank city, has witnessed escalated tensions between some 200,000 Palestinians and several hundred Israelis living in illegal settlements under heavy military guard.

Tensions have heightened in the occupied territories since August 2015, when Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina.

At least 208 Palestinians, including children and women, have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of last October.

presstv.com

After questioning Al Sharpton‘s legacy as a black leader along with his non-profit Civil Rights organization the “National Action Network,” (founded by Sharpton in 1991), Byron Allen included Sharpton’s name in a lawsuit as well as the NAACP and other “black” organizations for allegedly signing “sham” diversity agreements then taking donations from major corporations like Comcast knowing the corporations were using these black “leaders” and organizations to keep quiet and to allegedly help them cover discriminatory practices.

 

CEO Byron Allen is proving to be quite a nightmare to the major corporations who allegedly could not buy all black folks off to keep quiet. Allen also included in his suit last year Time Warner, Comcast and AT&T. (AT&T has since settled with Allen).

The recent Oscar awards’ lack of inclusion for African Americans is and has always been just the tip of the iceberg and while other black celebrities are complaining and still begging for inclusion, CEO Byron Allen is actually stepping up to the plate and doing something about it.

The media mogul has just filed a suit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Charter Communications for racial discrimination against African American Media. Allen who has often been a silent yet respected brilliant businessman over the last few decades, has always gone against the grain of traditional media corporations upon realizing he was not going to be afforded the same opportunities.

“Everyone talks about diversity, but diversity in Hollywood and the media starts with ownership,” Allen states. He goes on to say that: “President Obama and the Democratic Party have completely excluded the African-American community when it comes to economic inclusion,” Allen said in a statement to TheWrap Wednesday. The $10 billion lawsuit was filed at the Central District Court of California yesterday (Wednesday), citing Charter Communications is in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. section 1981. The corporation, according to Allen spent 4 Billion annually without a single dollar going towards black owned media companies. The court documents filed by Allen also state that Charter Communications President and CEO Tom Rutledge is a “blatant racist.”

The suit has pristine timing before the FCC gives final approval for the acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks making Charter Communications even more dominant in the industry. Allen states that the FCC should never consider Charter Communications’ acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks because of their alleged discriminatory history. We’ll keep you posted on this story.

urbanintellectuals.com

Full Question

What is the Catholic Church’s official position on Freemasonry? Are Catholics free to become Freemasons?

 

Answer

Freemasonry is incompatible with the Catholic faith. Freemasonry teaches a naturalistic religion that espouses indifferentism, the position that a person can be equally pleasing to God while remaining in any religion.

Masonry is a parallel religion to Christianity. The New Catholic Encyclopedia states, “Freemasonry displays all the elements of religion, and as such it becomes a rival to the religion of the Gospel. It includes temples and altars, prayers, a moral code, worship, vestments, feast days, the promise of reward or punishment in the afterlife, a hierarchy, and initiation and burial rites.”

Masonry is also a secret society. Its initiates subscribe to secret blood oaths that are contrary to Christian morals. The prospective Mason swears that if he ever reveals the secrets of Masonry – secrets which are trivial and already well-known – he wills to be subject to self-mutilation or to gruesome execution. (Most Masons, admittedly, never would dream of carrying out these punishments on themselves or on an errant member).

Historically, one of Masonry’s primary objectives has been the destruction of the Catholic Church; this is especially true of Freemasonry as it has existed in certain European countries. In the United States, Freemasonry is often little more than a social club, but it still espouses a naturalistic religion that contradicts orthodox Christianity. (Those interested in joining a men’s club should consider the Knights of Columbus instead.)

The New America Foundation (NAF), a think tank funded by prominent universities and foundations, has been keeping track of all terrorist attacks on American soil since 9/11, and found that not only have white terrorists killed more Americans than jihadists, but attacks by white terrorists are also twice as frequent, with 18 homegrown terror attacks between 2004 and 2015, and just 9 terror attacks rooted in Islamic extremist ideology.

 

To define what constitutes a terrorist, NAF has very specific criteria:

The purpose of this database is to provide as much information as possible about American citizens and permanent residents engaged in violent extremist activity as well as individuals, regardless of their citizenship status, living within the United States who have engaged in violent extremist activity. We examine both those individuals motivated by Jihadist ideology, understood as those who worked with or were inspired by al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups, as well as those motivated by other ideologies that are non-Jihadist in character, for example right wing, left wing, or idiosyncratic beliefs.

NAF’s list of terrorist attacks since September 11, 2001 includes 9 attacks led by jihadists, which have killed 45 people — the most recent attack being the San Bernardino shooting in December that killed 14 and wounded 21 — and 18 attacks by American right-wing extremists that killed 48 people.

Most notably, while there were zero terror attacks on U.S. soil by Islamic extremists between June 2, 2009 and April 14, 2013, there were eight attacks by right-wing extremists in that time frame. The most deadly of those attacks was the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin in 2012, which left six dead and four wounded.

But despite the frequency and brutality of white terror attacks, there are far more Muslim terrorists prosecuted and/or killed for their crimes in 11 of the 15 years studied. As the chart below shows, the only years between 2001 and 2015 where non-jihadist terrorists were indicted or killed for their crimes more than their jihadist counterparts were 2001, 2004, 2008, and 2012:

Additional data shows that while jihadists were diverse in ethnicity, an overwhelming majority of American terrorists were white. Out of 182 total non-jihadist perpetrators of terror attacks in the US between 2001 and 2015, 165 were white. And while Trump is proposing an outright ban on Muslims entering the US as a way to combat terrorism, he ignores the fact that a vast majority of terrorists, both right-wing and Islamic, are American-born citizens:

What these numbers show is that there is no catch-all solution to stop extremist terrorism. But it’s evident that simply profiling Muslims and treating all new immigrants as potential jihadists is both discriminatory and counterproductive.

Tom Cahill is a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news. You can contact Tom via email at tom.v.cahill@gmail.com.

usuncut.com

A Korean woman threw cash worth 22 million won ($19,030) on the street in downtown Seoul on Monday, but caused no major disruption as passersby did not rush to pick them up, police said Tuesday.

 

The 56-year-old threw hundreds of 1,000-won, 5,000-won and 10,000 won-banknotes in the Seoul Square at around 5 p.m.

But there was no single citizen who picked up the bills, with many of passersby glancing at the grass covered by banknotes and taking photos of the scene, police said.

Police said that picking up unattended money can be punished by law on charges of theft. But in this case, the women had intended to give up her rights to the money, so there was no legal basis to punish those who gathered the bills.

During the questioning at a nearby police box, she allegedly said that she was afraid of her ex-husband and son trying to take her money and would rather donate the money to anyone on the street.

The police probe found that she had withdrawn 42 million won in cash from a local bank in Seoul a few days earlier. She arrived in the Seoul Square by taxi and hired a private guard to escort her with a paper bag full of the banknotes.

She was neither under threat from her family nor in need of police protection, according to police.

koreaherald.com