[*=left]Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Killing French Police Captain - Alissa J. Rubin
A French police captain was fatally stabbed and his companion was also killed at their home in a small town northwest of Paris on Monday. Within hours the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the murders, issuing a statement that said: "Islamic State fighter kills deputy chief of the police station in the city of Les Mureaux and his wife with blade weapons." (New York Times)
Police and judicial sources said that the attacker, Larossi Abballa, 25, had been monitored by security and anti-terrorist services after he received a three-year prison sentence in 2013 for helping Islamist militants go to Pakistan. (Reuters)
Multi-Million Pound Foreign Aid Grant Spent on Encouraging Terrorism - Camilla Turner
A multi-million pound foreign aid project aimed at promoting Palestinian state-building and peace has instead encouraged terrorism and led to an increase in violence. The Department for International Development (DFID)'s £156.4 million grant providing financial aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) led to civil servants being "more likely" to commit acts of terrorism, an independent evaluation suggested.
The five-year project encouraged public sector employees to engage in "active conflict" since their salaries were paid to their families even if they were convicted and imprisoned for criminal acts, including terrorism. On completing jail sentences, civil servants were able to return to their jobs which had been "kept open when they return from detention," and continue to draw a salary funded by the UK taxpayer. (Telegraph-UK)
A multi-million pound foreign aid project aimed at promoting Palestinian state-building and peace has instead encouraged terrorism and led to an increase in violence. The Department for International Development (DFID)'s £156.4 million grant providing financial aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) led to civil servants being "more likely" to commit acts of terrorism, an independent evaluation suggested.
The five-year project encouraged public sector employees to engage in "active conflict" since their salaries were paid to their families even if they were convicted and imprisoned for criminal acts, including terrorism. On completing jail sentences, civil servants were able to return to their jobs which had been "kept open when they return from detention," and continue to draw a salary funded by the UK taxpayer. (Telegraph-UK)
Hope for the Arab World? - Robert Fulford
The Arab Spring began as a time of revolutionary hopes, but ended in a nightmare of chaos and violence. It overturned Egyptian and Libyan governments but the new rulers were no better than the old. In Syria it ignited a long civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands. Why did it fail so calamitously?
Elie Mikhael Nasrallah, a Lebanon-born Christian Arab who lives in Canada, provides the answer in a remarkable book, Hostage to History: The Cultural Collapse of the 21st Century Arab World. He argues that Arab culture has developed in a way that makes a viable modern society impossible. The state demands obedience and silence, which creates a sheep-like populace. (National Post-Canada)
The Arab Spring began as a time of revolutionary hopes, but ended in a nightmare of chaos and violence. It overturned Egyptian and Libyan governments but the new rulers were no better than the old. In Syria it ignited a long civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands. Why did it fail so calamitously?
Elie Mikhael Nasrallah, a Lebanon-born Christian Arab who lives in Canada, provides the answer in a remarkable book, Hostage to History: The Cultural Collapse of the 21st Century Arab World. He argues that Arab culture has developed in a way that makes a viable modern society impossible. The state demands obedience and silence, which creates a sheep-like populace. (National Post-Canada)
