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Nigeria's secret service said on Tuesday it had intercepted 13 containers of weapons from Iran in what Israeli defense sources believe may be part of a new smuggling route from Iran to Hamas in Gaza. Rocket launchers, grenades and other explosives camouflaged as building material were seized in the Nigerian port of Lagos after being unloaded from an Iranian ship. Nigerian media reports said the ship, which came from Iran, docked in Lagos port for a few hours only, unloaded 13 containers and sailed on.

OIL prices edged back toward record highs yesterday as the threat of war on Iran and the disruption of supplies from Nigeria kept international traders nervous. Nerves were frayed further when US energy giant ExxonMobil announced it had pulled out non-essential staff from the Nigeria's largest oil export terminal amid growing fears dissidents were liable to attack the site. Meanwhile, Iran has refused to rule out the use of oil as a weapon in the worsening stand-off over the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear quest. In New York yesterday the new main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, rose...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil climbed further on Tuesday as a militant threat to Nigerian oil exports and Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear ambitions kept the market worried about supply disruptions. London Brent crude for March was up 27 cents to $63.45 a barrel by 0329 GMT, after rising 58 cents on Monday. U.S. light crude for February jumped 86 cents to $64.78 in catch-up gains after being closed for a national holiday on Monday. U.S. crude earlier touched $64.95 a barrel, its highest since October 4. Crude flows from Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest oil exporter, are being...

Crude futures rose Monday after another attack on an oil platform in Nigeria and Iran warned that any sanctions imposed over the country's nuclear program could send oil prices even higher. Brent crude for February delivery gained 77 cents to $63.03 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange, ahead of the contract's expiration Monday. Trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange was closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday. Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it had evacuated over 300 staffers and contractors from facilities in the Niger Delta. Heavily armed attackers damaged the Benisede oil platform in the Niger...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Iranian diplomat is in Nigerian police custody on suspicion of spying on the Israeli embassy and other sensitive compounds in the capital Abuja, Israeli security sources said Monday. They said the Iranian was arrested on Jan. 23 when staff reported him "staking out" the embassy. Although he carried no credentials, police discovered he was a diplomat, they said. "A digital camera was found in his possession, with surveillance pictures of the embassy and several other international and local official buildings in the capital," a senior Israeli security source said. A Nigerian police spokesman said last Thursday...

... A month ago, the Iranian parliament voted in favour of a draft bill, entitled "Islamic Penal Code", which would codify the death penalty for any male Iranian who leaves his Islamic faith. Women would get life imprisonment. The majority in favour of the new law was overwhelming: 196 votes for, with just seven against. ...The new law is not yet in force in Iran: it requires another vote in parliament, and then the signature of the Ayatollah. But that could happen within a matter of weeks. "Or," says Papadouris, "it could conceivably be allowed to drop, were there a...

A militant group has however since February 2016 been making headlines through their capacity to destroy oil infrastructure. Their attacks have driven Nigeria’s oil output to near a 22-year low. Contrary to popular opinion, the group, Niger Delta Avengers, NDA for short, according to them is not just made up of Niger Deltans but has support from other parts of Nigeria, namely Northern, Western and Eastern part of the Country with the sole purpose of crippling the Nigerian Economy until their demands are met. According to reports, Diplomats and security experts say the group has shown a level of sophistication...

It seems to be a regular feature of the U.S presidential election cycle: Candidates from both parties solemnly pledge to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, only to sidestep the issue upon taking office. Shouldn't the selection of a capital city rest solely with the people of the country who reside there? Donald Trump believes it should. As president, he would recognize the right of the Israeli people to choose their capital city (a choice, incidentally, that has remained unchanged throughout 3,500 years of uninterrupted Jewish presence in Israel). That choice is Jerusalem. Ever since King David established Jerusalem as the...

Istanbul governor: 28 killed and 60 wounded We have just received an update on the casualties from the attack from Istanbul's governor. At least 28 people have died, with approximately 60 more wounded.

Ayatollah Khamenei reported Dead

Using funding from Western taxpayers, and Americans in particular, United Nations schools are teaching Arab children to glorify terrorism and wage constant war against their Jewish neighbors, according to a new film. In the explosive documentary released late last month by a pro-Israel watchdog group, schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) are even exposed offering military-style training to young children. That training, combined with a curriculum that teaches fervent hatred of Jews, is a recipe for disaster, the producer said, citing the recent wave of attacks. But now, U.S. lawmakers are speaking out, with media reports...

The Israeli military has demolished the home of the Palestinian terrorist who fatally stabbed American tourist and former U.S. Army officer Taylor Force in a terror attack back in March. Ten others were also wounded in the attack. The troops entered the West Bank village of Hajjah early on Tuesday to knock down the residence of Bashar Masalha. […] Force was a Vanderbilt University graduate student visiting Israel during a school trip. He previously graduated from West Point and served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Masalha was killed by police after the attack. The assault was part of...

Following the Orlando terror attack, Professor Ahmad Nofal of the University of Jordan said in his weekly program that gunman Omar Mateen was a "sick personality" with "perverse tendencies" and that "[homosexuality] is controlled and imposed upon the world by global Zionism, Allah's number one enemy on Earth." Professor Nofal added that Mateen "evoked the Western model of heroism," represented in the massacre of Native Americans. His address aired on the Jordanian Yarmouk TV channel on June 17. Ahmad Nofal: "(Omar Mateen) is a dramatic character that requires a film - a Hitchcock-style horror movie, like 'Psycho' from over 50...

A team of Italian researchers have possibly uncovered the oldest ever fossilized footprint left behind by modern man's ancestor, Homo Erectus. The prints are thought to date back some 800,000 years and were unearthed in the desert of south eastern Eritrea... Alfredo Coppa... from Rome's Sapienza university... and his Italian colleagues were working with researchers from Eritrea's National Museum when they unearthed the 26 m2 slab of stone containing the footprints. Today, the area lies in the middle of an arid desert, but 800,000 years ago the environment was very different. The fossilized footprints, which are almost indistinguishable to those...

An Egyptian court has sentenced former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to life in prison in an espionage trial in which six of his co-defendants were handed death penalties. The court acquitted Morsi of charges of having supplied Qatar with classified documents but sentenced him to life for leading an unlawful organization, his lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud said. The ousted president was also convicted of having “stolen secret documents concerning state security” and handed another 15-year jail term, the lawyer added. …

A Preoccupied Western Media Fails to Appreciate the Historic Revival of Ties Between Russia and Israel Putin Netanyahu.JPG The recent meeting in Moscow between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin marks a milestone in the continuing rapproachment between Israel and Russia. The growing engagement between these former bitter adversaries has attracted limited attention in the Western media, obsessed as it is with Israeli-Palestinian issues. In its prior embodiment as the Soviet Union, the Russian government armed and abetted Israel's enemies and had a central role in the worldwide campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state. Ironically, while...

Russia is not ruling out using its veto power at the United Nations Security Council to thwart anti-Israel resolutions, an unnamed Israeli diplomatic official involved in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Moscow last week told the Israeli news site nrg. However, the official did qualify his statement, saying that the chances of Russia wielding its veto power in such a manner were very low. The official noted that the high level of respect Russian President Vladmir Putin demonstrated toward Netanyahu and his traveling entourage last week was unprecedented and indicated Russia’s deep desire to bolster its relationship with Israel....

Tens of thousands of Russian dual nationals are being effectively stripped of their Russian citizenship via a quiet policy of Russian consulates worldwide refusing to renew their passports. Under new regulations the consulates are enforcing, anyone seeking to renew a passport who was not registered as living in Russia on February 6, 1992, will be rejected, even if his or her passport had been renewed on previous occasions. It is unclear just how many people this new policy will affect. But it will certainly apply to thousands of Jews who emigrated from Russia after July 1, 1991 — the date...

In his weekly lesson, which is broadcast on the Jordanian Yarmouk TV channel, Professor Ahmad Nofal of the University of Jordan said that the Holocaust happened because of the "treachery" of the Jews and that "most of Hitler's ministers who perpetrated the Holocaust were Jews." Citing Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, he said that the number of Jews killed had been 600,000, and not six million. "They added a zero," he said. Nofal further claimed: "We, the Palestinian people, are the victims of your Nazism... Your Holocaust lasted six months, but ours has been going on for 68 years."

The Israeli Left has a serious flag problem. Well, a problem with the Israeli flag to be precise. The one with the six-pointed blue star. Not the ISIS flag. The Left intensely dislikes people who wave Israeli flags, although I think it would be okay with those radical anti-Trump protesters waving Mexican and Iranian flags. At the Israeli Left's own rallies, like one widely reported recently, one sees oodles of Stalinist red flags, lots of PLO flags, and sometimes one may see Hamas flags, but no Israeli flags. In a few famous cases, the Left's contempt for the flag goes...