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United Nations (United States) (AFP) - A UN study of new sources of financing for its multi-billion-dollar aid operations is recommending a voluntary tax on football matches or concerts as one option to raise funds. The report released Sunday in Dubai also recommended tapping into Islamic social finance and mandatory alms-giving (zakat) as well as improving the transparency of relief operations to cut costs. More wars and natural disasters over the past decade have sent the price tag for global UN aid efforts skyrocketing, from $2 billion in 2000 to $ 24.5 billion in 2015, according to the nine experts...

Earlier today, my colleague Leon Wolf, commented on the authoritarian tendencies of the most devoted Trump supporters. Now we have evidence of the megalomania that feeds the authoritarian response. Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump on Saturday said his rhetoric condemning the Iranian regime played an integral part in securing the release of four U.S. prisoners. “So I’ve been hitting them hard, and I think I might have had something to do with it,” Trump said at the South Carolina Tea Party Convention in Myrtle Beach, S.C. “You want to know the truth, who’s using it? It’s a part of my...

With just two weeks until voting begins in the 2016 primaries and polls showing him closing in on Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is feeling confident. "I think we have a good chance to win both those states," he said of Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states to hold nominating contests. "I think we have a good chance to win this election." If he does win, Sanders predicted his campaign would come to be known as "one of the great political upsets in modern history." [Snip] Sanders said he is more electable because he appeals to...

Poll questions For Freepers: Who would America (not Freepers) rather have a beer with? Trump or Cruz? Who do you trust more on Immigration? Who do you trust more on Fair Trade? Who would you rather have running your private business Trump or Cruz? Who do you trust more on NOT being politically correct?

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Democratic White House hopeful Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he is “very healthy” and will soon release his medical records, responding to a report that a prominent Hillary Clinton ally was preparing to press the 74-year-old senator to prove he's fit to be president. “Of course we’re going to release our medical records,” Sanders said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Thank God, I am very healthy. We will get medical records out the same way that Secretary Clinton has gotten her records out. It is not a problem.” The issue came to the...

Does Bill Clinton have Parkinson’s disease? While campaigning in Iowa Saturday to rescue Hillary’s floundering presidential campaign, the former president’s hand could be seen trembling while he was making a point. As he was explaining his wife’s rationale for invoking 9/11 to defend her ties to Wall Street, Clinton said, “She was making the point that the people devastated on 9/11 were people to her, not categories.”

Tokyo Gas Co said on Friday it expects to book 10.6 billion yen ($90 million) in impairment losses on its Texas shale gas development project in the October-December quarter, reflecting the recent steep declines in oil and gas prices.

By Wallace Bruschweiler and William Palumbo Since Tuesday's capture of U.S. Navy sailors by the Iranians, many questions have emerged that call into question the official story of events. Knowing the history of the Obama administration, including the Arab Spring and the infamous attack and cover-up Benghazi "incident," is it fair to assume that the White House is again deceiving the American public? In light of yet another disgraceful situation that humiliated our country and military, below are some vital and important questions to ponder (forget political correctness!): *Was this event coordinated to coincide with Obama's final State of the...

Things just keep getting better and better in Germany as they deal with a flood of “refugees” of various stripes. Following the massive sexual assaults in Cologne over the holidays, it seems that increasing numbers of Germans are coming to grips with the changes reshaping their nation as the flood of new arrivals settles in. One town in particular has reacted to the criminal behavior of the immigrants by taking the controversial step of banning male asylum seekers from the public swimming pool. (Yahoo News) A town in Germany has banned male asylum seekers from public swimming pools after complaints...

After the fall of Col. Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, Libyan tensions fired up, and embassies were abandoned. Then, on Sept. 11, 2012, heavily armed Islamist militants launched an organized attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Four Americans were killed: U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty and State Department computer expert Sean Smith. Six CIA contractors defied orders to defend the compound. Thirteen hours later, only four of them were still alive, but they had saved more than two dozen fellow Americans. When the heroes returned home, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President...

After months of protests and no-confidence votes by students and faculty this fall, Ithaca College’s president announced Thursday that he would step down in July 2017. Student protesters, angered by what they felt was an insufficient response to racist incidents on campus, have been calling for Tom Rochon’s resignation with “die-ins” and other events, --SNIP-- An incident in October involved an alumni panel in which one participant, a young black woman, said she had a “savage hunger” for success. Two other panelists, older white men, then referred to her as “the savage.” “I love what the savage here said,” one...

UNITED NATIONS DECLARES THE HOLY SEE LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE AND ACCOUNTABLE TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES FOR EFFECTS AND LEGACY OF RACIST COLONIAL BULLS AND DOCTRINES 14 January 2016 As the result of a comprehensive shadow report and presentations by members of the Apache-Nde-Nnee Working Group submitted to the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) for the Committee's review of the Holy See, the UN CERD Committee has recognized that the Doctrine of Discovery, the Holy See's Inter Caetera and related Papal Bulls are within the legal scope of racial discrimination under...

Washington (AFP) - The United States is to repay Iran a $400 million debt and $1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday. The repayment, which settles a suit brought under an international legal tribunal, is separate from the tens of billions of dollars in frozen foreign accounts that Iran can now access after the end of nuclear sanctions. But the timing of the announcement, one day after the implementation of the Iran nuclear accord, will be seen as pointing to a broader clearing of the decks between the old foes. US...

The Most American Thing Click here for plain-text version.by

A new poll shows that four GOP presidential candidates are in a statistical tie in Utah — which has Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans working on a backdoor way to nominate the man he says local voters really want: Mitt Romney. On the Democratic side of the race, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are in a surprisingly close race among Utahns — with Clinton leading Sanders by a 50-40 margin. That's according to a statewide poll by The Salt Lake Tribune and Hinckley Institute of Politics, conducted by SurveyUSA, that interviewed 989 registered voters between Jan. 6-13.

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SIERRA VISTA — What the United States is facing when it comes to ISIL is not a state but rather “a proto-state actor,” Fort Huachuca’s senior commander said recently. The continuing turmoil caused by ISIL “will bubble up around the world,” Maj.Gen. Scott Berrier told those attending a monthly meeting of the Greater Sierra Vista Area Veterans Council on Jan. 2. “While the future is unknown,” as to how long it will take to end the threat of ISIL and other groups, Berrier said America’s military forces and other national intelligence organizations and allies will succeed in defeating the current...

Socialist candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination Sen. Bernie Sanders refused to answer any questions about how his Administration will pay for the plethora of taxpayer-subsidized loot he is promising to voters, saying that "it would spoil the surprise." "Does anyone demand that Santa Claus lay out a budget for all the gifts he gives?" Sanders wanted to know. "On one level, it would be rude to look a gift horse in the mouth. From a more practical standpoint, if I tip my hand ahead of time the people I'm going to ask to bear the expense may try to...

Stock markets across the Middle East saw more than £27bn wiped off their value as the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran threatened to unleash a fresh wave of oil onto global markets that are already drowning in excess supply.

SNIP Results of a new poll of likely S.C. Republican presidential primary voters conducted after the debate on Thursday for Morris News Service and InsiderAdvantage, a Georgia political site. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.7 percent: Trump: 32% Cruz: 18% Bush: 13% Rubio: 11% Carson: 9% Christie: 4% Fiorina: 3% Huckabee: 2% Kasich: 2% Paul: 2% Santorum: 1% Undecided: 3%