racist thug smashes a plank of wood into Spanish tourist's face after hearing him.

U.S. Soldier Killed in Blast in Northern Iraq

WASHINGTON – An American soldier died Thursday in a bomb blast in northern Iraq, officials at the headquarters of the U.S. military operation against Islamic State.

“Today, a U.S. service member died fr/ wounds sustained in an improvised explosive device blast in northern Iraq. Further info when available,” Col. John L. Dorrian said on Twitter.

Dorrian, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, did not say whether the dead service member was part of the U.S. contingent supporting the Iraqi-Kurdish offensive to expel IS from the northern city of Mosul.

The U.S. military has assigned between 100 and 200 personnel to back the push to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second city, which fell to IS in June 2014.

Though the Pentagon says that U.S. service members are not taking part in combat, they remain exposed to danger amid the chaos of battle and the lack of a well-defined front line in the conflict with Islamic State.

Iraqi and Kurdish units started their advance toward Mosul on Monday and have gained ground more quickly than planners expected.

But the resistance is likely to intensify as the Iraqis and Kurds get closer to the city, where IS fighters are preparing for urban warfare.

Norwegian ISIS fighter 'murdered two-year-old stepson'

A Norwegian Islamist fighting in Syria murdered the two-year-old son of a rival, after marrying the man's ex-wife, journalist Åsne Seierstad has claimed in her new book, Two Sisters.

According to Seierstad, Bastian Vasquez killed the son of Arfan Bhatti, a leading figure in the Norwegian Islamist group Profetens Ummah, after the boy came to Syria with his mother to engage in Jihad.  Vasquez was then executed by ISIS for the crime. 

 

The sensational new claim about the Chilean-Norwegian Islamist, who before his death last year was believed to be one of the most senior European figures in the Islamic State hierarchy, is a side-story to Seierstad’s investigation into the two teenage sisters who went from Norway to Syria in 2013. 

 

According to the book, the boy’s mother Aisha Shezadi, was first married to Bhatti, but then went voluntarily to Syria where she she became Vasquez’s second wife. 

 

Before his death, Vasquez presented some of ISIS’s most disturbing propaganda videos. In one, he first shows a group of captives imprisoned in a building, and then shows the building being blown up as he laughs and praises Allah. After the videos were published, Vasquez was charged under Norway's anti-terror laws. 

 

Bhatti as a teenager was a member of Oslo's Young Guns gang, and in 2006 was charged for firing shots at the Oslo Synagogue and the Israeli and US embassies. He resurfaced as an Islamist in 2012. 

Sharia law - Face slap !

Female TV reporter in Karachi slapped by a law enforcement official outside a national identity card issuing officepic.twitter.com/SDqQeFZTRg

— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) October 20, 2016

Oliver, 8, jumps from balcony to escape scary clown

Published: 19 Oct 2016 09:48 GMT+02:00

A terrified eight-year-old boy in western Sweden leapt from a balcony to get away from a man dressed as a clown.

Eight-year-old Oliver was briefly left alone when his mother and sister went out to buy groceries in Skara early on Saturday evening, local radio station.

When he heard someone banging on the front door of the family apartment the boy went out to greet his mother but instead came face to face with what appeared to be a tall, fully grown man in a clown suit. 

Oliver turned on his heels and fled to the balcony. Neighbours then looked on in horror as the boy jumped three metres into the courtyard to get away from the intruder.

When Oliver’s mother returned home she was met by her son and a group of agitated parents, who had seen the clown in the family's living room window. She searched every inch of the apartment and called the police but the imposter had managed to get away undetected. 

Oliver’s feet were sore from the jump but he was otherwise physically unharmed. The incident has however left its mark. 

“He looks all around him to make sure there’s nobody behind him, it was very trying,” his mother told P4 Skaraborg. 

Oliver told the station he was most scared in the evenings “because that’s when the clowns come”. 

Vegan wins battle to be accepted by Swiss army

Published: 19 Oct 2016 11:31 GMT+02:00

A Swiss man who was told he would not be accepted for military service because of his strict veganism has finally succeeded in making the army change its mind.

Antoni Da Campo, a strict vegan and member of Swiss animal rights organization PEA, was keen to undertake his obligatory military service and last December passed all the medical and physical tests required by the army.

But he was declared “unfit” for service because the army felt it could not accommodate his vegan diet or his refusal to wear leather boots – despite the fact he had offered to pay for synthetic boots.

Speaking to The Local earlier this year, Da Campo said: "They declared me doubly unacceptable, meaning that I can't do civil service either. It's for that reason that I find their decision discriminatory and arbitrary”.

As a result, he would have to pay a tax on his income until the age of 30 instead of serving.

Unwilling to accept the army’s stance, Da Campo took his case to a Lausanne appeal court in March – and lost.

He then appealed a second time to the Federal Administrative Court, arguing that the army’s decision went against his human right to maintain his personal convictions.

In a statement sent to The Local on Wednesday, Da Campo said he argued there was no legal basis for declaring a person unfit for military service simply because of his veganism.

Demanding he pay a tax because of his philosophical beliefs constituted a discrimination and violated the principle of proportionality, he said.

The court ordered the two parties to discuss the matter further between themselves, and as a result, the army decided to change its mind and has now declared Da Campo “fit” for service,  he said.

"There are more and more vegans in our society and I am happy to see that the army, like all public institutions, chooses to adapt itself to this reality” said Da Campo.

“Vegans should enjoy the same rights and duties as other citizens and not be forced to pay a tax just because they refuse to put [on] boots that involved the killing of animals."

Judge Gunned Down in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Federal judge Vicente Antonio Bermudez Zacharias has been assassinated outside of his home in Metepec town in the central State of Mexico, and the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) has assumed the investigation into the murder.

Bermudez, 37, was the fifth district judge of Amparo and presided over federal civil trials based in Toluca since December 2013. He was attacked on Monday morning and died from single gunshot wound, official sources told EFE.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has condemned the murder while leading the annual meeting of the International Association of Judges and ordered the PGR to take charge of the investigation and find the perpetrators.

The PGR announced that based on the rules of competency established by the National Code of Criminal Procedures, the office will take on the investigation into the homicide of federal judge Antonio Vicente Bermudez Zacharias.

“From this moment, the delegation of the PGR in the State of Mexico will continue with all the investigations,” the PGR said in a statement.

The Supreme Court of Justice also condemned the crime, demanding that authorities investigate and resolve the case, as well as ensure “conditions of security and tranquility” so that judges can continue to carry out their work independently.

Meanwhile, State of Mexico Governor Eruviel Avila revealed the existence of a video showing the attack on Judge Bermudez, while giving the federal government full support to investigate the crime and find those responsible.

The video was later broadcast by local media, with footage showing the judge jogging on the street on Monday when a person suddenly appears behind him and shoots him in the head.

Bermudez presided over controversial cases including that of indigenous environmental activist Ildefonso Zamora, who endured 9 months in jail for his alleged involvement in a robbery but was released by Bermudez last June amid insufficient evidence.