ISIS post a photo of a beheaded female Kurdish soldier in Kobane. (graphic)

This woman was a soldier and mother ( beheaded by ISIS ) .

47 US Senators may have undermined Iran nuclear talks, says Kerry (video)

Pope Francis Announces a Jubilee Year Dedicated to Mercy

VATICAN CITY – While celebrating his second anniversary in the papacy this Friday, Pope Francis announced a Jubilee Year focused on one the concepts he most often preaches: mercy.

The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio made the revelation during his sermon at a Lenten penitential service, where the unexpected announcement won the applause of those attending the ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica.

Francis will dedicate the Jubilee to the virtue of mercy, to which he has referred on multiple occasions and which is the basis of the Episcopal motto that he chose when he became a bishop: “Miserando atque eligendo” (He looked at him with mercy and He chose him).

During his sermon he said that “no one can be excluded from the mercy of God.”

The Argentine pontiff acknowledged that “I have thought about how the Church can make clear its mission of being a witness of mercy,” and concluded that “it’s a journey that starts with a spiritual conversion. For this reason I have decided to declare an Extraordinary Jubilee that has the mercy of God at its center. It will be a Holy Year of Mercy.”

It will begin on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and will come to an end on Nov. 20, 2016, the date when the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, is celebrated.

The tradition of Jubilee, or Holy Year, goes back to the year 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII decreed that it must be celebrated every century.

However, since the year 1475 it has been called every 25 years to allow each generation to experience at least one ordinary Jubilee, while the extraordinary ones are announced based on some important occurrence.

In the extraordinary Jubilee he has called, Francis will honor the 50th anniversary of the closure of the 1962-1965 Vatican II council and will encourage the church to continue on the path of that turning point in church doctrine and liturgy.

The pope’s announcement came as he celebrated the two years since that rainy afternoon when a cardinal “from the end of the world” appeared on the balcony of the central loggia of the basilica to greet the world as Francis.

Precisely this Friday, in an interview on Mexico’s Televisa television, the first Latin American pope made a surprising statement in acknowledging that “I have a feeling my pontificate will be brief. Four or five years, I don’t know.”

He also said he didn’t like to travel very much and sometimes longs for home and anonymity.

What he’d really like to do someday, he said, would be to walk out of the Vatican without being noticed and “go and eat a pizza.”

Pope to Visit Argentina in 2016

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis I announced his plans to visit Argentina in 2016 in an interview with an Argentine parish publication, reported by Italian media on Tuesday.

“Early 2016, but still nothing is certain so far because we must arrange a space for the visit in the schedule,” he said in response to a question about the time of the trip.

The weekly La Carcova News published the response to the question from Jose Maria di Paola, known as “Father Pepe,” the pastor of the San Juan Bosco Parish, in the suburbs of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires.

The interview was reported to have taken place during Father Pepe’s visit to the Vatican in February, according to the published transcript in the Italian Catholic publication, Avvenire.

In the interview, the Pope asked Argentine politicians, with October’s presidential elections in mind, to “present a clear electoral platform” in order to allow the people make informed decisions.

He also called for integrity in elections and free campaigns that are not funded by outside parties in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

When asked if he fears for his life, being that there may be people who want to kill him, the Pope said that his “life is in God’s hands.”

The Pope is set to visit several countries in 2015, including a trip to Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay in July, a later a trip to the United States in September, and many countries in Africa by the end of the year.

Netanyahu behind in final polling day before election

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Final opinion polls published Friday put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party four seats behind its center-left rivals, days before the general election.

The top-selling Yediot Aharonot showed Likud's main challenger, the Zionist Union coalition, winning 26 of the 120 seats in parliament against 22 for Netanyahu's party.

Its survey of 1,032 respondents by pollster Mina Tzemach put The Joint List, a newly formed alliance of Israel's main Arab parties, in third, with 13 seats.

The poll had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points, the paper said.

A Panels Research poll published jointly by The Jerusalem Post and Maariv dailies showed the same four-seat gap between parties, with the Zionist Union winning 25 against 21 for Likud.

The survey of 1,300 people also saw The Joint List winning 13 places. It had a margin of error of 3.0 percent.

Friday is the final day that opinion polls may legally be published before the vote.

The Zionist Union fuses the Labor party of Isaac Hertzog with the centrist HaTnuah led by Tzipi Livni, formerly Israel's chief peace negotiator with the Palestinians.

Recent polls had put it two to three places ahead of Likud. A Thursday survey by the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper gave the Zionist Union 24 seats to Likud's 21.
The Joint List was third with 13 seats.
Israel's electoral system means that the government is not formed by the largest party, but by whichever party leader can build a coalition commanding a parliamentary majority.

Greatest danger facing Iraq is Iran not ISIS, David Petraeus warns

In an interview with French daily Le Figaro, the former head of NATO and the multinational forces in Afghanistan and CIA director, US General David Howell Petraeus warned against the threat by the Iranian regime in Iraq.

General Petraeus described the activities of Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Iranian regime’s Quds Force in Iraq, as ‘disturbing.’

Excerpts of the interview with General David Petraeus:

LE FIGARO: Do you think the frustration of Sunnis against al-Qaida, decisive in 2007 to turn the tide in their favor, could happen again vis-à-vis the Islamic State?

General David PETRAEUS: Islamic State (IS) is not the greatest danger facing Iraq. It will be defeated sooner or later, and Iraq will preserve its territorial integrity. If the Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Parliament manage to reassure Sunnis, give them reasons to support the new Iraq, then these will help them get rid of IS.

LE FIGARO: What real danger do Shiite militias that often fight on the front line against the IS represent?

General David PETRAEUS:The fear is that these militias do not just clean the conquered areas, but they also deport Sunnis and seek to alter the demographic balance in some places, such as Diyala province, north of Baghdad and some mixed neighborhoods of the capital.

LE FIGARO: One of your most bitter enemies, responsible for the deaths of many American soldiers during the "Surge" reappeared in bright light. Does the growing influence of Iran in the field seem worrying to you?

General David PETRAEUS: Yes, Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Quds Force, works surprisingly openly, which is amazing for someone like him more used to operating in the shadows. This is ... disturbing.

German bank to pay $1.45bn for violating Iran sanctions

Germany's second-biggest bank has agreed to pay $1.45bn (£980m) to US authorities after it violated American sanctions against doing business in Iran and Sudan.

US regulators said Commerzbank bank had "turned a blind eye" to illegal practices.

Assistant US attorney general Leslie Caldwell said the bank "concealed hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions prohibited by US sanctions laws on behalf of Iranian and Sudanese businesses".

She said Commerzbank did so "even though managers inside the bank raised red flags about its sanctions-violating practices".

Commerzbank chief executive Martin Blessing said we would make "changes to our systems, training and personnel to address the deficiencies identified by US and New York authorities", Blessing said.

Commerzbank is just one of a number of big banks that have been charged for violating US sanctions, including BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, HSBC and Credit Suisse.