Sunday 28 December 2014

ISIL 'killed foreign fighters in its ranks'

Syrian monitoring organisation says group killed 1,175 civilians and 116 foreign fighters who wished to return home.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has killed 120 of its own members, most of them foreign fighters trying to return home, during the past six months, a Syrian monitoring group has said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that the group also killed 1,175 civilians, including eight women and four children, in the same period.

Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian monitoring group, told Reuters news agency that 930 of the civilians were members of the Sheitaat, a Sunni Muslim tribe from eastern Syria that fought Islamic State for control of two oilfields in August.

He said that 116 foreign fighters, who had joined Islamic State but later wanted to return home, were executed in the Syrian provinces of Deir Al-Zor, Raqqa and Hassakeh since November. Four other Islamic State fighters were killed on other charges, Abdulrahman said.

Abdulrahman, who gathers information from all sides of the Syrian conflict, said that the group had also executed 502 soldiers fighting for President Bashar al-Assad and 81 anti-Assad fighters.

The figures cannot independently be verified.

ISIL, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, has released videos of executions of captured enemy fighters, activists and journalists.

It beheaded two US journalists, and one American and two British aid workers this year in attempts to put pressure on a US-led international coalition, which has been bombing its fighters in Syria since September.

The armed group has taken vast parts of Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate in territory under its control in June.

Since then it has fought the Syrian and Iraqi governments, other armed groups and Kurdish forces.
Source:Aljazeera

After Capturing Its First Fighter Pilot, ISIS Comes Up with Unusual Way of Asking How He Should Die (Pictures)

Passengers Plead To Be Saved From Burning Ferry

Passengers trapped on a ferry which is on fire during bad weather in the Adriatic Sea have been using mobile phones to plead for help.

Several called Greek TV stations in desperation as they huddled on the top decks of the Norman Atlantic while the ship was battered by gales.

More than 400 passengers were on board the ship when it caught fire just after 6am local time about 40 miles north of Corfu, close to the Albanian city of Vlora, while travelling from Patras, Greece, to Ancona in Italy.

About 150 passengers have been able to get off, but about 120 of those are thought to still be stranded at sea in life boats

Italian, Greek and Albanian authorities are taking part in the operation to rescue the passengers, which is being conducted in difficult conditions with strong winds.

Several planes and helicopters are being used to aid with the operation.

Families of the Crew and Passengers of the Missing Air Asia Getting Emotional

http://video.dailymail.co.uk/video/1418450360/2014/12/1418450360_3963060929001_passengers.mp4

Maku dumps PDP, picks Nasarawa APGA gov ticket

December 28, 2014

With the deadline for the submission of the list of governorship candidates of political parties ending on December 26, the immediate past Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, has emerged the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the February 2015 governorship election in Nasarawa State.

According to authoritative sources at the APGA headquarters in Abuja, Maku’s name was submitted before the December 26 deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to contest the governorship position on the APGA platform.

Thursday 11 December 2014

SECTIONALISM: The Bane of the Nigerian Project

GETTING IT RIGHT THIS TIME
Nigerians have adamantly refused to take their future in their own hands by choosing a leader who stands tall among this Lilliput (in ideas and thoughts) of a leader. Four years are too much to be wasted on an individual whose only claim to leadership is his so called minority origins and not competence that ordinarily should be the yardstick in assessing our leaders. I don't know what informs your decision to support a party and leaders that have consistently failed you since 1999 but I could swear you are on the path of mischief. Countries that are keen about development are less concern about what their leaders worship. Recently I heard the renowned poorest president in the world Mr. Mujica of Uruguay is actually an atheist presiding over the affairs of a predominantly catholic citizens. Nigeria can also do same. Even those who vehemently oppose the leadership of Buhari know within their hearts how incorruptible this man has been. Need I say more that corruption is arguably our biggest challenge as a nation? I bet all Nigerians, every other piece(underdevelopment) would fall in place when we arrest this trend. For now, our surest bet to getting this out is GMB. God Bless Nigeria.