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Afghan security forces have killed Abu Muhsin al-Masri, a senior al-Qaeda leader who was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Most Wanted Terrorists list, according to Afghanistan’s intelligence service. Al-Masri, an Egyptian national believed to be al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, was killed during a special operation in the central Ghazni province, Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) said in a tweet late on Saturday. Al-Masri, who also goes by the name Husam Abd-al-Ra’uf, has been charged in the United States with having provided material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organisation, and conspiracy to kill US nationals. The US issued...

More than six years after ISIS began its horrific public executions of American hostages, on Wednesday the U.S. government took one huge step toward justice for U.S. citizens. Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, two ISIS members and former UK citizens, appeared in federal court to face 8 felony counts related to the kidnapping and murder of Americans Jim Foley, Peter Kassig, Kayla Mueller, and Steven Sotloff. If convicted, the two men could face life sentences in prison. That they are facing justice should come as no surprise, but what is shocking is that it took nearly three years from...

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing on Saturday in the Afghan capital that killed at least 18 people and wounded dozens more, according to a report from Reuters.A suicide bomber detonated explosives after he was stopped by security guards while trying to enter the Kawsar-e Danish educational center in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in western Kabul, Al Jazeera reported.Eyewitnesses told Afghan news network TOLOnews that dozens of teenage students were in class when the attack happened; videos posted on social media showed many were injured. "All the students were full of energy, belonging to poor families but...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: ISIS was so successful in 2014 in part because President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan of Turkey is a vocal supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. Any distance ErdoÄŸan has placed between himself and ISIS is attributable to pressure from Russia, the US, and Europe, not to his rejection of the groupÂ’s Islamist ideology. In view of TurkeyÂ’s increasingly divisive and destabilizing influence in the Middle East, the regionÂ’s biggest concern for the West could be President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸanÂ’s burgeoning Islamist tendencies. In order to understand the Turkish role in the threat of ISIS, borne from the Muslim Brotherhood, it...

Dear Lord Jesus: You are all Truth, all Justice and all Love. As one of the names of the Holy Spirit is also "Revealer of Secrets" we believe You know all secret thoughts and hidden plans of all men. We beseech You to reveal all the lies, cunning, and deceit in this election season -- and we beseech You to reveal all the liars and deceivers involved in this election season... that the Truth would be absolutely plain for all to see... ... so that Americans can truly judge for themselves as they vote in this election. AMEN REFERENCE FOR...

Under new Covid restrictions passed into law last night in the Dail, a priest can now be fined, or imprisoned, or both, for saying Mass in public. The same applies to any minister of religion who holds a public act of worship. This is drastic, draconian and unacceptable and must raise questions about the Constitutionality of the measure, quite apart from its total disproportionality. Aside from Wales, the Republic of Ireland appears to be the only place in Europe where public worship has stopped, and in our case, now attracts penal sanctions. Prior to this pandemic, when did such a...

Denver Newsroom, Oct 23, 2020 / 04:37 pm MT (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Santa Fe is indefinitely suspending all public Masses after the weekend, citing rising COVID-19 cases in New Mexico and the approaching flu season. The archdiocese’s schools may remain open. In an Oct. 22 letter, Archbishop John Wester directed that all scheduled Masses be livestreamed or recorded starting Oct. 25. He said churches may remain open for private prayer, as long as people remain masked and socially distanced. Funerals should be “delayed if possible,” with funeral rites without a Mass having ten or fewer people present, and anointing...

...the attack ... roster of fighters involved a multinational group that included Afghans, Indians, Tajiks, and Pakistanis. ... Some of the group's dramatic attacks like the Easter 2019 Sri Lanka bombings, the attack on a Turkish nightclub on New Year's Eve 2017, or the 2017 truck attacks in New York City and Stockhol revealed jihadism's persistent appeal to a global audience. ... the Syria.. battlefield was one that drew in Muslims from almost 100 different countries and from every continent. This included Indians and Central Asians, ... Since the Islamic State's emergence, Central Asians have been involved in repeated attacks...

This a major win for places of worship, the First Amendment, and the people. This is a big blow to the discriminatory orders issued by Governor Jared Polis. The state of Colorado may not ignore or suspend the First Amendment.DENVER, CO – A federal district judge issued a 44-page decision granting an injunction in favor of two churches against Governor Jared Polis’ discriminatory COVID orders that place numerical restrictions on houses of worship and require masks. The order in Denver Bible Church v. Azar prevents the state of Colorado from enforcing the indoor occupancy limitations and the face-covering requirement on...

His Eminence Metropolitan Nektarios of Corfu of the Greek Orthodox Church was found not guilty today on one of the two counts brought against him. His trial opened on Monday, concerning supposed violations of pandemic restrictions in the spring. In his homily on the feast of the Annunciation, March 25, the Metropolitan called for the faithful to go to church and receive Holy Communion, thereby violating the ban on going out. He also came under fire when about 20 people attended and received Holy Communion at the Divine Liturgy for the feast of Palm Sunday, and processed with the relics...

Despite Pope Francis’ warnings, the leaders of the Church in Germany have refused to back down on their promotion of intercommunion or to change the course on their much-criticized ‘synodal path.’VATICAN CITY — As reports emerged recently of Pope Francis’ “dramatic concern” about the state of the Catholic Church in Germany and news that he received Germany’s apostolic nuncio for private talks on Monday, the country’s bishops pressed ahead on their goal of shared Communion with Protestants despite strong objections from the Vatican. The leaders of both churches said their intercommunion proposal “still needs to be clarified” even though the...

We now find ourselves in this doctrinal, moral, liturgical, and disciplinary cone of shadow.' But, we are not yet at the end stage of this disastrous development. 'It is not yet the total eclipse that we will see at the end of time, under the reign of the Antichrist,' the prelate adds.'But it is a partial eclipse, which lets us see the luminous crown of the sun encircling the black disk of the moon.' October 23, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – In a speech delivered today via video at the Catholic Identity Conference (CIC) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò analyzes...

Israeli warplanes struck suspected Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip before dawn on Friday following rocket fire from the blockaded Palestinian territory. Fighter jets and other aircraft struck a “weapons manufacturing site and underground infrastructures” operated by Islamist group Hamas, which has controlled the territory since 2007, the Israeli army said. Hamas reported no casualties from the Israeli strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp and the southern city of Khan Yunis. Two rockets had been launched at Israel late Thursday, without causing any casualties or damage. One was intercepted by Israeli air defences, while the other hit open ground,...

John Piper has issued a blistering condemnation of President Donald Trump, warning Christian voters that the president's “deadly behavior” will lead the U.S. to “destruction of more kinds than we can imagine.” On Thursday, the influential pastor and writer published what he referred to as a “long-overdue” blog post in which he pondered the implications of the 2020 election. Piper, who pastored Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis for almost 33 years, reminded Christians that "it is not a small thing to treat lightly a pattern of public behaviors that lead to death." He pointed out that all of these sins...

THOUSANDS of witches are plotting to cast a "binding spell" on Donald Trump on Halloween, so that he loses the US election. The mystic women believe that the two full moons this month have given them extra magical powers to kick Trump out of the White House. The witches are also celebrating the rare confluence of the two "powerful" moon events in October - in effort to get Joe Biden elected in November. According to social media, the mystic women are set to plot multiple "binding" events to attack the President on Halloween - in their biggest spiritual attack to...

Cardinal Pell himself has not publicly addressed the allegations, although the former head of his legal defense team in Australia, Robert Richter QC, has called for a public inquiry into the allegations.CNA Staff, Oct 20, 2020 / 09:46 am (CNA).- The Australian financial intelligence agency has handed information to federal police concerning allegations that international money transfers, amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros in Vatican funds, were sent to Australia during the trial of Cardinal George Pell. During a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, Nicole Rose, the chief executive of AUSTRAC, the Australian government’s financial intelligence service, was asked...

CNA Staff, Oct 19, 2020 / 09:00 am MT (CNA).- A federal court ruled against the Diocese of Brooklyn on Friday in its case against new coronavirus restrictions which impose local limits on Mass attendance. The diocese had sued the state of New York on Oct. 8 over new public health restrictions that limited the size of gatherings in certain “hot spots” around the state, or localities where the new coronavirus has been spreading. Certain churches in Brooklyn and Queens were effectively limited to holding 10 or 25 people for indoor Masses, under the new rules. On Friday, a federal...

The US Army said Thursday it carried out a drone strike against Al-Qaeda leaders in northwest Syria near the border, killing 14 jihadists, according to a war monitor. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said the victims included five foreigners and six commanders. "US Forces conducted a strike against a group of al-Qaeda in (AQ-S) senior leaders meeting near Idlib, Syria," said Major Beth Riordan, the spokeswoman for United States Central Command (CENTCOM). "The removal of these AQ-S leaders will disrupt the terrorist organization's ability to further plot and carry out global attacks threatening US citizens, our partners and...

A group of armed Jihadis are reported to have stormed a prison in Beni, Congo, and freed at least 900 prisoners during a "coordinated attack" in the early hours Suspected ISIS militants freed at least 900 prisoners from a jail in Congo during a overnight raid, according to reports. A “coordinated attack” was carried out by armed gunmen in the early hours of Tuesday, according to the local mayor. Modeste Bakwanamaha, Mayor of Beni, said: “Unfortunately, the attackers, who came in large numbers, managed to break the door with electrical equipment. We believe that it was the ADF who did...

At least two people were killed Tuesday, and three others were wounded, when a bomb blast targeted the nation’s immigration and naturalization chief in Mogadishu, according to officials. Police captain Abdifatah Hassan confirmed the deaths to Anadolu Agency. The attack occurred near the busy KM4 intersection in the capital. Government spokesman Ismail Mukhtar Oronjo told the Turkish news agency the attack targeted Mohamed Aden Kofi, head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. "A roadside bomb blast targeted the immigration chief. He survived the attack but three security guards were wounded,” he said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack...