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Russian-Backed Separatist Commander Givi Tortures Ukrainian POWs 16:07 (GMT) An extremely graphic video was uploaded January 22 to YouTube showing Givi, commander of the Somalia Battalion of the Russian-backed separatist forces of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republics" (DNR). Givi, a commander who has been popularized in hundreds of Russian state TV broadcasts and "Novorossiya" YouTube channels, is shown beating, threatening and screaming at Ukrainian POWs evidently arrested after the fall of the Donetsk Airport to separatists on January 21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-gJ46pVLMo Open News Room's Donie O'Sullivan noted that bald man seen in the line-up of POWs and clearly at 4.12 in...

Greek radicals sought on Monday to redraw the political map of Europe, forming a coalition government of left and right, united only by their desire to defy the European financial establishment and shrug off the constraints of austerity. The coalition, led by 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras, was expected to dispatch its new finance minister to Brussels in the next few days to seek a fundamental renegotiation of Greece’s economic bailout package, vowing that “the end of humiliation has come”. Tsipras and his Syriza party have promised to replace the austerity programmes imposed by Greece’s international creditors with policies aimed at helping...

The far-left Syriza party, the winner of Greece's election, has formed an anti-austerity coalition with a right-wing party, the Greek Independents. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has taken the oath of office as the new prime minister. He has vowed to renegotiate Greece's bailout, worth 240 bn euros (179 bn pounds, $268 bn). European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker congratulated Mr. Tsipras while reminding him of the challenge of "ensuring fiscal responsibility.".......... With nearly all of the votes counted in Sunday's poll, Syriza looks set to have 149 seats, just two short of an absolute majority. The Greek Independents are projected to...

Voting in Sunday's much-watched Greek elections has ended, and exit polls suggest that the far-left Syriza party has captured nearly 40 percent of the vote. While this may not be enough to ensure a parliamentary majority in Greece's electoral system, it's now clear that Alexis Tsipras, a fiery 40-year-old once considered too radical for national politics, will lead the next Greek government. Tsipras has promised to end Greece's "austerity program," a series of spending cuts and tax hikes designed to reduce the country's enormous bailout debt, which equals 175 percent of its GDP. Freed from this burden, Tsipras argues, the...

Rivlin is in New York to address the official Holocaust commemorations of the United Nations. His schedule includes meetings with African-American leaders and others. According to unsourced Israeli media reports, the White House invited Rivlin to a summit meeting with Obama in Washington. Israeli media outlets, including Channel 10 and the Ynet news site, have suggested the White House invitation was meant to embarrass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was not invited to meet with Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry during his stay in Washington to address both houses of Congress in early March. Netanyahu was invited to...

With Republicans in Congress split over the best approach to Obama's executive amnesty - and with many establishment Republicans splitting form grassroots Republicans on the issue of illegal immigration more generally - it's clear that immigration will be a hot-button primary issue in 2016. ... So where do the potential candidates stand? Here's a rundown: ...

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - Members of the North Carolina Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America showed up at Harris Teeter on Providence Road in Charlotte on Saturday. They cut up their Harris Teeter loyalty cards and handed the destroyed cards to management.

Exit polls suggest a historic victory for the anti-austerity Syriza party in Greece's closely fought general election. One poll suggested Syriza took 35.5% of the votes, and the other suggested it took 39.5%, well ahead of ruling New Democracy party on 23%-27%. It is unclear whether Syriza has enough votes to govern the country alone. Syriza's Alexis Tsipras has pledged to renegotiate Greece's debt arrangement with international creditors....

On Saturday, the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses officially got underway with Congressman Steve King’s Iowa Freedom Summit.With a list of speakers as distinguished as you’ll see at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), most of the people who have spent at least five minutes thinking about being the 2016 Republican presidential nominee were there. With the exception of Jeb Bush (conservatives are not his crowd), Bobby Jindal (he was hosting a spiritual revival event in Louisiana), Marco Rubio (“Gang of 8� amnesty and Mr. King don’t necessarily mix), Rand Paul (he’s on a passive-aggressive kick at the moment), and Mitt...

DES MOINES, Iowa — In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News backstage at the Iowa Freedom Summit, potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) detailed the pathway to victory for Republicans in 2016—and he explained a new phrase he started using in his speech minutes earlier. Cruz introduced a new major theme, the “Miracle of America,” in his speech to the thousands of Iowans gathered at the event hosted by Citizens United and Rep. Steve King (R-IA).“What I want to talk to you about today is reigniting the Miracle of America,” Cruz said in his speech in the Hoyt...

Everyone involved seems to be trying to put the best face on it, but Barack Obama went so far as to suggest senior Democrats like Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who take a hard line on Iran, are doing so purely to appease their donors. Obama said that as a former senator himself, he understood how outside forces — like special interests and donors — can influence senators to act, one of the senators recounted.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is adding a veteran GOP strategist and Iowa expert to his political team as the Wisconsin Republican considers a possible 2016 presidential bid. The addition of David Polyansky gives Walker's team a big dose of Iowa experience. The strategist helped engineer former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's win in the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses and also served as deputy campaign manager for former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who won the 2011 Iowa straw poll.

At the moment, this is AP Breaking News.

On your list of worst nightmares, where does suddenly-plunging elevator rank?If not number one, at least in the top five, right?For Greta Van Susteren, that bad dream suddenly became reality as the car abruptly dropped four floors with no warning at all, then left her and several others trapped between levels with no way out. Lasting 10 frightening minutes, they were finally able to pry the doors open and crawl out.Incidentally, if a lift is headed uncontrollably to the bottom, the best possible way to survive is to lie flat on the floor.The incident happened in Hanoi as the Fox...

Washington - The United States and Iraq have started preparing for an offensive by summer to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul, which was taken by Islamic State (ISIS) militants last June, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Preparations include selecting and training military units for the planned assault and cutting supply lines to ISIS fighters, General Lloyd Austin, head of the US military's Central Command, told the Journal. Mosul is the largest city in a self-declared ISIS caliphate straddling the border between northern Iraq and eastern Syria. A senior Iraqi official told Reuters in November that Mosul was...

On a usually happy and even triumphant day, pro-life leaders found themselves angry at a vote in the U.S. House that never happened. Much of the talk today at the annual March for Life, that likely brought close to 500,000 mostly young people to Washington DC, was about how House leaders canned a bill that would have banned abortion after the 20th week of gestation, the point at which an unborn child is said to feel pain. Much of the anger was directed at Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, who, as reported by Breitbart News, organized a group...

This week marks the twenty-sixth anniversary of the “massacre of the Reaganites” by newly elected President George H.W. Bush that effectively ended the prospect of institutionalizing Reaganism as the governing principle of the Republican Party and America. We call it the “massacre of the Reaganites” because, in a well-thought-out and carefully crafted purge, on Inauguration Day 1989 practically every conservative who remained in government at the end of President Ronald Reagan’s second term, and certainly any conservative of any political consequence, was fired or forced to resign from their post in the federal government. Even those who had worked tirelessly...

Comments from world leaders in response to the death of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, who died early Friday in Riyadh.

John Bingham reported in the London Telegraph a week ago that the inspectors who visited Grindon Hall engaged in questionable behavior. “They are said to have pressed primary aged girls at Grindon Hall Christian School, in Sunderland, on whether they knew what lesbians ‘did’ and if any of their friends felt trapped in the ‘wrong body.’ They also allegedly questioned children as young as six about their knowledge of Hindu festivals and the Jewish Torah as part of a special inspection.” The new government rules had been prompted by the nation’s “Trojan Horse” scandal, in which hard-line Muslim groups infiltrated...

Mitt Romney: Climate Change Is Real, Human-Induced, And We Must Tackle It

LAS VEGAS — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin declined to speculate on a potential 2016 run Thursday at the 2015 SHOT Show in Las Vegas, but she did offer the GOP some free political advice. We caught up with Palin as she was promoting the second season of her show, “Amazing America,” which airs on the Sportsman Channel Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET. “I’m not going to talk politics except to say the GOP had better go on offense. Man, they are not going to win any game on defense,” she told TheBlaze. “Being in the majority there in D.C....

(CNN) —Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud has died, according to an announcement on Saudi state TV. He was 90. The next king will be Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, state television reported. The announcement of his death comes several weeks after the state-run Saudi Press Agency said Abdullah was suffering from pneumonia and had been admitted to the hospital....

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who bent state government to his will for more than 20 years as one of New York's most powerful and canny politicians, was arrested Thursday on charges of taking nearly $4 million in payoffs and kickbacks. The 70-year-old Democrat was taken into custody by the FBI on federal conspiracy and bribery charges that carry up to 100 years in prison and could cost him his political seat. He was released on $200,000 bail.

The House today approved legislation that will put in place a complete ban on taxpayer funding of abortions that ensures abortions are not directly funded in any federal governmental program or department. The legislation combines several policies that must be enacted every year in Congressional battles and puts them into law where they will not be in jeopardy of being overturned every time Congress changes hands from pro-life lawmakers to those who support abortions. The House voted 242-179 for the bill with 239 Republicans and three Democrats voting to ban taxpayer funding of abortions under HR7 while 178 Democrats and...

The FBI has completed its investigation into the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed, black 18-year-old, in Ferguson, Mo., a U.S. official said Wednesday. The Justice Department has not yet announced whether it will file a federal civil rights charge against former Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson. But officials and experts have said such a prosecution would be highly unlikely, in part because of the extraordinarily high legal standard federal prosecutors would need to meet. The New York Times and CNN, citing unnamed sources, reported Wednesday that Justice Department lawyers were preparing a memo recommending Wilson not be...

Massive IDF movement was report Thursday in Israel’s northern communities in wake of recent tensions in the area.

The United States Senate voted Wednesday to agree that climate change "is real and not a hoax." That was it, the full extent of the amendment to the Senate's slow-moving Keystone XL pipeline bill. Final tally: 98 to 1.This was one of two traps set up by Democrats to get their opponents on the record as disputing the authenticity of human-caused global warming, a phenomenon nearly universally accepted by the scientific community. But it didn't go as expected.Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) co-sponsored the amendment with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who introduced it. Inhofe can claim credit as a primary inspiration...

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has begun work on a legal memo recommending no civil rights charges against a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., who killed an unarmed black teenager in August, law enforcement officials said. That would close the politically charged case in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The investigation by the F.B.I., which is complete, found no evidence to support civil rights charges against the officer, Darren Wilson, the officials said. A broader civil rights investigation into allegations of discriminatory traffic stops and excessive force by the Ferguson Police Department remains open, however. That investigation...

President Obama is either the most cynical man in Washington today, or the blindest.That is the only conclusion one can reach after being subjected to his 2015 State of the Union Address."You know, just over a decade ago, I gave a speech in Boston where I said there wasn't a liberal America, or a conservative America," Obama recounted. "Over the past six years, the pundits have pointed out more than once that my presidency hasn't delivered on this vision," Obama continued. "How ironic, they say, that our politics seems more divided than ever." At this point, even a slightly more honest or self-aware politician...

With a roaring engine, 30-mm. cannon and nose painted like a toothsome, snarling beast, the A-10 Thunderbolt sends ISIS fighters scattering like cockroaches on the Iraqi desert plains, but the legendary fighter plane pilots call the "Warthog" may be fighting for its own life. The venerable plane, first built for destroying Soviet tanks, has been on the chopping block since the sequester of 2011 mandated steep cuts in the Pentagon budget. Although the planes haven't been built in more than 30 years, the Defense Department believes it can save maintenance costs by phasing them out. Air Force brass believes newer,...

The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for Libya on Tuesday, overriding the previous warning issued in July 2014. In July, the U.S. embassy suspended all operations in Libya and relocated staff due to “ongoing violence between Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the Embassy.” On Tuesday, the State Department said that “the security situation in Libya remains unpredictable and unstable.” Pointing to the inability of the Libyan government to “adequately build its military and police forces and improve security following the 2011 revolution,” the State Department said that crime levels remain high and various groups have called...

Israeli police say they have shot an attacker who stabbed at least nine people on a bus in central Tel Aviv. The stabbing incident occurred on the Maariv bridge, police said, adding that the stabbings took place both in and outside the bus. At least two of the victims were in a critical condition......

Such a deal. Among the highlights of President Obama’s State of the Union address plans to pull the American family out of economic plight is a $500 tax credit for two-earner families.Here’s how the White House presented it in a fact sheet: “Provide a new, simple tax credit to two-earner families. The president will propose a new $500 second earner credit to help cover the additional costs faced by families in which both spouses work — benefiting 24 million couples.”The provision is included in his effort “to help middle class families get ahead.” Like who? Administration officials said families earning...

Iran and Russia signed an agreement Tuesday to expand military ties in a visit to Tehran by the Russian defense minister. Sergei Shoigu, in remarks carried by Russian news agencies, said Moscow wants to develop a "long-term and multifaceted" military relationship with Iran. He said that the new agreement includes expanded counter-terrorism cooperation, exchanges of military personnel for training purposes and an understanding for each country's navy to more frequently use the other's ports. Iran's Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan urged greater cooperation as a means of opposing American ambitions in the region. Moscow and Tehran have staunchly supported Syrian President...

Hot Air readers won’t be surprised by the lack-of-dynamic dynamic from the first big names testing the GOP’s 2016 waters, of course, but supporters of Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush might be — if they can be found. According to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, approval ratings for both men dropped after making clear they plan to run for the party’s presidential nomination. And that retreat comes from within the big tent of the Republican Party: Just 27 percent of Americans now offer a positive rating for Romney, the Republican party’s nominee in 2012, compared to 40 percent who...

Team Ted Cruz is taking shape, and the Senate first-termer's presidential campaign could start before this spring. The Republican senator from Texas tentatively plans to fill senior campaign positions with the triumvirate he signed last summer to expand his political operation. At the top is Jeff Roe, whose organizational title is undefined but who would be the campaign’s chief strategic and logistics decision-maker. Jason Miller would shape and oversee campaign messaging; Lauren Lofstrom would direct fundraising. Cruz is in the process of “feeling out” additional campaign hires and prospective donors in preparation to join the field of 2016 candidates. If...

Protesters invoking Michael Brown and Ferguson burst into an auditorium at Harris-Stowe State University early Monday afternoon and briefly shut down a Martin Luther King Day celebration. The protesters and Harris-Stowe students later confronted one another outside the venue, as police converged on the area. Shortly before 1 p.m., as the King observance was in progress in the crowded auditorium, about two-dozen protesters came in waving an upside-down American flag and chanting "No Justice, No Peace." They took the stage, and as the crowd began filing out angrily, they used a microphone to accuse the university and the clergy who...

Alberto Nisman, who on Monday was due in parliament to present his case against president Cristina Kirchner, found dead days after warning "I could end up dead because of this" An Argentine prosecutor who accused President Cristina Kirchner of covering up Iran’s involvement in the country’s worst ever terrorist attack has been found dead, hours before he was due to present his evidence in parliament. Alberto Nisman, 51, had spent the past decade investigating the 1994 bombings of a Buenos Aires Jewish centre, which killed 85 people. Two years ago he began working on a 300-page dossier – due to...

In his State of The Union address this week, President Obama will propose congress lower taxes on the middle class and close loopholes that the rich often use. A press release from the White House says Obama has a strategy that will “simplify our complex tax code, make it fairer by eliminating some of the biggest loopholes, and use the savings to responsibly pay for the investments we need to help middle class families get ahead and grow the economy.�According to a release from the White House Press Secretary, the changes President Obama will propose include: Closing One of the...

USSS: a vehicle drove near VP Biden's DE home last night and someone in it fired multiple gun shots. Bidens weren't home.

Here are some photos from the ‘Stand with the Prophet’ Rally at Texas Public School Center Curtis Culwell Center. Did they think DFW is nothing but dem voting libs? The "standers" were overwhelmed... The speaker... The next speaker Random shots of the crowd. Random shots of the crowd. Random shots of the crowd. Random shots of the crowd. North side of the street. South side of the street and the crowd went on for a long way. On the west end of the parking lot the "standers" had about a hundred folks. The "standers" are on the left and the...

President Barack Obama has been making progress on his pledge to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, having transferred out more than 20 prisoners since last fall, leaving fewer than 60 the administration considers eligible for release if countries can be found to accept them. That would leave some 70 hard-core terrorists at the base. The president is reported to believe that Congress will then reject the high cost of keeping the facility open for these 70 prisoners, including the man who organized the aircraft attacks of 9/11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and agree to transfer them...

Republican lawmakers determined to counter President Barack Obama on immigration want to advance solutions of their own, starting with a border security bill and perhaps moving on to tackle other aspects of the broken system. It's a goal House Republicans have tried and failed to achieve for the past two years, even as the Senate passed a comprehensive, bipartisan bill that ultimately died because of inaction in the House. But as House and Senate Republicans met for a joint retreat in this capital of chocolate and sweets, lawmakers said that with the Senate now under GOP control, they have a...

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2017, some 2 million currently undocumented immigrants will be eligible for certain federal benefits under the Obama administration’s executive amnesty. In a report released Thursday, CBO considers how changes to immigration policy could affect the federal budget. Its estimates are based on President Obama’s expanded deferred action programs to provide legal status to undocumented immigrants. The office estimates that between 2 million and 2.5 million undocumented immigrants will “have received approval for deferred action” by 2017. The CBO’s estimate is less than the 5 million the Obama administration estimated its executive amnesty would...

The manager of the Paris kosher shop that was attacked now plans to move to Israel, his brother told a German newspaper. Patrice Oalid, 39, who was shot in the arm and is recovering in the hospital, told his older brother, Joel, that after just surviving the Jan. 9 attack, and seeing his customers and employees murdered, he cannot stay in Paris any longer, Joel Oalid told the Bild newspaper on Sunday in what the German daily said was an exclusive interview. He expects many more French Jews to follow suit, Joel Oalid said his brother told him. The gunman,...

ICC prosecutor opens a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed by Israel. Netanyahu: This decision is scandalous. The International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecutor on Friday opened a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians, including during last year's Gaza war, AFP reports. The prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said her office would conduct its "analysis in full independence and impartiality". Depending on her findings, Bensouda will decide at a later stage whether to launch or quash the investigation, based on the initial probe, the report added. Israel condemned the decision as "scandalous", as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu...

A hostage taking is under way in a post office in Colombes, a suburb of northwest Paris. According to police, an armed man is currently detaining three hostages, but they insisted there was no link to terrorism. The man is known by the authorities, and had contacted the police himself, they said. The area around the post office has been sealed.

I stand with the Santa Barbara News-Press. How about you? The newspaper is under fire for refusing to kowtow to left-wing word police and militant propagandists who demand unfettered illegal immigration. Last week, in the wake of angry protests against the publication, vandals threw paint bombs and spray-painted graffiti on its offices. So, what exactly is the News-Press' unforgivable crime? Calling illegal aliens "illegals" in a headline for a story about illegal aliens descending on California DMVs. A new law went into effect last Friday allowing illegal aliens to obtain driver's licenses without proof of lawful residence. The article featured...

As the United States Senate prepares to vote on a non-binding resolution on whether or not manmade global warming exists, Pope Francis weighed in on the issue with his most extensive and forceful comments on the subject to date. Let's just say that the pope is not aligned with many Senate Republicans, who doubt the reality and threat of manmade global warming, on this issue. Speaking to reporters aboard his plane while flying to Manila from Sri Lanka, Pope Francis said the "majority" of global warming is manmade, which is a view that is consistent with mainstream climate-science findings. “I...

CORONADO, Calif. (AP) — Republican presidential prospect Ben Carson on Thursday compared the Islamic State group to American patriots willing to die for freedom.In a speech to the Republican National Committee's winter meeting outside San Diego, the former neurosurgeon and conservative favorite praised American patriots for their willingness to give their lives for their beliefs. Then he mentioned the Islamic State group.