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Sources said on Thursday that ISIL's foreign commanders... have been transferred to Mosul. ...ISIL is transferring its heavy weapons and equipment from Raqqa to Deir Ezzur, while preventing Raqqa residents from leaving the region. ..."ISIL has been transferring a large number of its forces and their heavy military equipment to the energy-rich regions in the Eastern Syria, mainly in Deir Ezzur and Eastern Homs, to save its revenues from smuggling of oil and gas," sources said,

Hundreds of South Koreans marched in one of Seoul's busiest leisure districts on Saturday to protest the stabbing death of a 23-year-old woman. Her death has struck a nerve in a country where, despite its reputation for being relatively safe, many women say they are increasingly afraid of threats, abuse and attacks by men. The protesters, many wearing white masks and vinyl coats, began their march at a gate of southern Seoul's Gangnam subway station, near where the victim was attacked by a male stranger early Tuesday in a building's bathroom.

The Obama administration is secretly preparing to transfer up to 24 prisoners out of the U.S. military detention center Guantánamo Bay in Cuba by the end of the summer, the Guardian and Fox News report, citing unnamed sources. As the first news outlet to shed light on the plans, The Guardian notes that the transfer to multiple countries is expected to occur by the end of July. Currently, there are 80 prisoners detained at the Guantánamo facility, down from the 242 when President Barack Obama took office.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis embraced the grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque at the Vatican on Monday in a historic encounter both sides hope will lead to greater understanding and dialogue between the two faiths. The first Vatican meeting between the leader of the world's Catholics and the highest authority in Sunni Islam marks the culmination of a significant improvement in relations between the two faiths since Francis took office in 2013. "Our meeting is the message," Francis said in a brief comment at the start of his meeting with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, shortly after he had hugged and...

Two F/A-18 fighters crashed Thursday off the coast of North Carolina, defense officials told Fox News. The Coast Guard said four people were recovered and have been rushed to a hospital,...

NOGALES, Ariz. – The security of the border between the United States and Mexico, or lack there of, has been a hot topic recently – especially among the Presidential candidates. But while they debate about what they are going to do, dozens of men and women across the country are taking action now and volunteering their time to patrol the U.S. border. These men and women take time off work and away from their families to spend days camping in miserable conditions. They say they do it because of a love for their country and a desire to protect it.

Absurdity compounds, as the White House and immigration bend over backwards to defend everything this country was never founded upon. What could be stranger than spending millions of taxpayer dollars to not only house illegal immigrants put through a long legal limbo process, but to build special facilities just for those who are both here illegally in migration and undergoing transition between genders? It just makes so much sense that money is forced away from hardworking families – or anyone really – to pay for such ridiculous tripe. Via Fox News: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning...

Task force to help fight Muslim stereotypes at VCU Published:Wednesday, May 25th 2016, 1:11 pm EDT Updated:Wednesday, May 25th 2016, 1:53 pm EDT By Allison Norlian RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - Multiple departments at VCU came together and created a “Muslim Advocacy Task Force,” in order to combat stereotypes against Muslims and hatred towards the Islamic culture. The school started the task force after increased hostility towards Muslim students on campus because of terrorist attacks like those in Paris, Belgium, and San Bernadino. Those attacks and other international terror threats instilled fear in many people across the United States - fear...

President Barack Obama admitted that world leaders were “surprised” and “rattled” by the political rise of Donald Trump. “I think it’s fair to say that they are surprised by the Republican nominee. They are not sure how seriously to take some of his pronouncements, but they’re rattled by him, and for good reason,” he said. “Because a lot of the proposals that he’s made display either ignorance of world affairs or a cavalier attitude or an interest in getting tweets and headlines instead of actually thinking through what it is that is required to keep America safe and secure and...

Obama: World leaders 'rattled' by Trump By Euan McKirdy, CNN Updated 10:21 AM ET, Thu May 26, 2016 (CNN)President Barack Obama touched on the rancorous U.S. presidential race at a press conference Thursday from the G-7 summit in Japan, saying that presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump's statements had his fellow world leaders concerned. "They're rattled by him and for good reason,"

Numerous classes of littoral warships entering service with and being built for the Russian Navy may cause the service logistic and combat stability problems in the future, a defense industry source told TASS on Tuesday. Russia' Second Project 11356 Frigate Admiral Essen. Picture: ruspodplav.livejournal.com "There have been much more classes of the small guided missile ship type than before. All of them carry different weapons control systems, which will entail problems if they have to operate a single force. This is a deadlock option, because the Navy should have same-class ships of every type - from the guided missile corvette...

SEOUL— General Electric Co. has clinched a deal to supply engines for South Korea’s next-generation fighter jets. The U.S. conglomerate beat Eurojet Turbo GmbH, a European engine maker, to provide the F414-GE-400 engines, South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration said Thursday. A final contract will be signed next month, it said. The agency didn’t disclose the deal value, but a person familiar with the matter estimated it at $3.5 billion. The deal is part of one of South Korea’s most ambitious weapons-development programs. The project, Korean Fighter Experimental, or KF-X, is part of Seoul’s plans to replace its decades-old fleet...

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The talks in Germany to flesh out December’s historic global climate deal are probably not at the top of Donald Trump’s agenda this week. But the diplomats from 196 nations huddled in Bonn are keenly aware of the fact that the “The Donald” is now within spitting distance of the White House — and it is making a lot of them nervous. It is not hard to see why. The last Republican standing in the U.S. presidential race has described climate change as a hoax perpetrated by China to gain competitive advantage in manufacturing over the US, an eccentric theory...

President Obama is racing against the clock to cement a massive Pacific Rim trade deal that all of his potential successors oppose, with his administration eyeing a looming fight on Capitol Hill while starting to implement as much of the complicated pact as it can.

Chinese officials plan to ask their American counterparts in annual talks next month about the chance of a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase in June, according to people familiar with the matter. The Chinese delegation will try to deduce whether a June or a July rate rise is more likely, as the nation’s policy makers prepare for the potential impact on financial markets and the yuan, the people said, asking not to be named as the discussions were private. In China’s view, if the Fed does lift borrowing costs, a July move would be preferable, the people said. A People’s Bank...

When German engineers from ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, who are building Israel’s next-generation Sa’ar-6 class missile corvette, showed Israel Navy engineers the first blueprints for the strategically vital vessel, the Israelis realized there was a problem. The plans outlined a ship based on Germany’s own sea platforms, and was similar in design. Yet Israel must deal with a far more challenging environment, in which Hezbollah is stockpiling radar-guided shore-to-sea missiles that can target the navy, offshore gas drilling rigs in the Mediterranean and strategically vital sites, such as civilian sea ports – just the type of threat the Sa’ar-6 will be...

Indonesia’s president has approved tough new punishments for child sex offenders, including a maximum penalty of death and chemical castration, after the brutal gang-rape and murder of a schoolgirl. Convicted paedophiles could also be forced to wear electronic monitoring devices following their release from jail under new rules introduced in an emergency decree...“Sexual crimes against children are extraordinary crimes, because they threaten the lives of children.” Widodo was spurred into action after the murder and gang-rape in April of a 14-year-old girl, who was set upon by a gang of drunken men and boys as she walked home from school...

What It Takes to Be President of the American Police State: Anti-Big Money, Anti-War, Pro-Constitution, Freedom-Loving Candidates Need Not Apply “The qualifications for president seem to be that one is willing to commit mass murder one minute and hand presidential medals of freedom to other war criminals in the next. One need only apply if one has very loose, flexible, or non-existent morality.”—Author and activist Cindy Sheehan Long gone are the days when the path to the White House was open to anyone who met the Constitution’s bare minimum requirements of being a natural born citizen, a resident of the...

A prominent Saudi cleric has declared photographs with cats, and other animals, unless completely necessary due to an upsurge in Saudis “who want to be like Westerners.” On a televised broadcast, Sheikh Saleh Bin Fawzan Al-Fazwan, a member of the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars, was told about “a new trend of taking pictures with cats has been spreading among people who want to be like Westerners.” He replied: “What?! What do you mean pictures with cats? Taking pictures is prohibited. The cats don’t matter here.” The sheikh continued: “Taking pictures is prohibited if not for a necessity. Not with...