Trump Claims He Won Popular Vote, If “Illegal” Votes for Clinton Are Deducted

WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump claimed Sunday that he not only won the electoral vote but the popular vote as well, if the “millions” of “illegal” votes cast for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in the Nov. 8 election are deducted from the tally.

“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” wrote Trump on Twitter, referring to the vote recount effort in three states being headed by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.

In the Nov. 8 election, Trump apparently garnered at least 270 electoral votes, which technically is all that is required to win the presidency regardless of whether or not a candidate wins the popular vote.

Trump won 290 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton’s 232, with the votes from Michigan still untallied, although Clinton beat the New York mogul by at least two million votes in the popular vote.

In his tweet, one of several that Trump has fired off in the wake of the Clinton campaign’s stating it will “participate” in the recount effort, the magnate offered no proof of the alleged irregularities he claims took place in the voting, although he said that it would have been much easier for him to win the popular vote if he had limited his campaign to three or four states.

“It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4 -- states instead of the 15 states that I visited. I would have won even more easily and convincingly (but smaller states are forgotten)!” said Trump in two separate tweets.

Trump said earlier Sunday on Twitter that “nothing will change” as a result of the recount campaign, adding that Clinton “conceded the election when she called me just prior to (my) victory speech and after the results were in.”

In addition, the next day, Clinton telephoned Trump to say that “we have to accept the results and look to the future,” he said, paraphrasing what she had said in one of the presidential debates.

“So much time and money will be spent – same result! Sad,” the president-elect went on to say, via Twitter.

This is the first time that Trump has claimed that illegal votes were cast for Clinton, while all during the campaign he had stated that the election was going to be “rigged” against him and threatened that he might not acknowledge the results if he lost.

According to the latest vote tally, Clinton obtained 64.22 million votes to Trump’s 62.21 million.

Stein’s campaign last Wednesday launched a fundraising effort to finance vote recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, all of which Trump apparently won by narrow margins.

Wisconsin announced on Friday that it will conduct a vote recount in response to the formal request presented by Stein and another independent presidential candidate Rocky De La Fuente.

According to the Green candidate’s campaign, there is “compelling evidence of anomalies” in voting in the three states in question and, therefore, it is necessary to verify the results in those states’ counties that depend on electronic voting machines to tally the ballots.

Clinton’s campaign, meanwhile, is backing the decision by Wisconsin authorities to conduct the recount despite saying that no irregularities have been detected in the election, and it said that it will also support recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan if the Green Party, as expected, formally requests them.

On Saturday, Trump issued a statement in which he called the Green Party’s effort a “scam.”

Israel Bombs South Syria after IS-Linked Militant Attack

JERUSALEM - The Israeli army bombed a building in Syria used to launch an Islamic State-linked attack against a military patrol, said an army statement on Monday.

An Israeli military source told EFE that the Air Force on Sunday hit an abandoned United Nations building which had been used as an operational center by Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, a local organization that swore allegiance to the IS.

Early Sunday morning, the IS opened machine gun and mortar fire against a Golani Brigade patrol on duty in the Golan heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

The Israeli army responded by bombing the vehicle the militants were driving.

The military spokesperson could not confirm the exact number of casualties during the operation.

The Golan Heights have been a hotspot of violence since the Syrian conflict began five years ago, with stray artillery shells often landing on the Israeli occupied zone.

Israel responds by returning fire against the attackers or by shelling Syrian army positions.

The last incident took place on Nov. 9, when Israeli aircraft bombed a series of Syrian positions in response to a shell that hit Israeli occupied territory.

32 Bodies, 9 Heads Found in Clandestine Graves in Southern Mexico

CHILPANCINGO, Mexico – The prosecutor’s office of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero said on Thursday they have recovered 32 bodies and nine severed heads from 20 clandestine graves in Cerro Tenanchitla in Zitlala municipality.

Roberto Alvarez Heredia, spokesperson of the Guerrero Coordination Group, made up of federal and state forces, said experts from the prosecutor’s office and the forensic medical service recovered the human remains, which were taken to the state’s capital, Chilpancingo, to start the process of identifying them.

He added although the excavations of the graves were complete, personnel from the Secretariat of National Defense will continue scanning the area for more clandestine graves.

The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that human remains were found in only 17 of the 20 clandestine graves and that none of the bodies have been identified so far nor any arrests made.

An anonymous tip-off led the police to the graves in Zitlala, where they also rescued alive a kidnap victim and recovered several abandoned vehicles

Spanish shelter head on trial for 'killing' over 2,000 animals

Wolf kills beloved pet dog at farmhouse door in Galicia

Published: 22 Nov 2016 15:19 GMT+01:00

A family in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia were left distraught after a wolf came to their door and slaughtered their pet Pomeranian.

Tatiana Díaz Fernández said she was standing in the door of her rural home in Mintiráns, near Muxía, when a wolf appeared from the darkness and snatched up her tiny pet.

The four-year-old dog weighed just 4 kg and was likely killed instantly in the jaws of the wolf before the wild animal bounded off into the night.

The tiny dog was a Pomeranian weighing just 4kg. Archive photo:Greg Treharne / Flickr

"I just opened the door to let the dog out so it could do its business and then, barely 30cm from my feet it was snatched by a wolf," the distressed owner told La Voz de Galicia.

It is just the latest in a spate of attacks by wolves on dogs in the area, reported the newspaper. In late October two farm dogs that lived outside in nearby A Frouxeira were found dead, having been ripped apart by wolves.

Residents in the region say they are now scared to leave their dogs outside or even let their children play in the garden.

"We know that the wolf is a very protected animal, but how can we dare live like this?" said Díaz.

"People are scared to let their dogs go out and we are afraid for the children," she said.

The episodes highlight the fragile coexistence between farming communities and Spain’s indigenous wolf population.

Spain’s population of Canis lupus signatus, was hunted to the point of near extinction by the middle of last century but thanks to conservation efforts has made a comeback over recent decades.

There are now estimated to be more than 2,000 individual wolves from at least 250 distinct packs roaming Spain, from the mountains of the northern Spain to just 80km of Madrid in the Sierra Norte.

But farmers are not always happy about the conservation efforts complaining that the wolf attacks aredepleting their livestock. Regional governments spend tens of thousands of euros each year compensating their losses.

Iraqi government left thousands of Iraqi Sunnis civilians displaced from #Mosul,

#MosulAid
Iraqi government left thousands of Iraqi Sunnis civilians displaced from #Mosul, with no food, no water, no tents
shame on you pic.twitter.com/t3KEwKWiFu

— #IRAQ شمرية العراق (@moonnor27) November 23, 2016

Kosovo Police Arrest 19 Suspected IS Militants, Foil Terror Plans

BELGRADE – Kosovo police in the past 10 days have arrested 19 suspected Islamic State militants suspected of preparing an attack during a soccer match in neighboring Albania, police said on Thursday.

The group was planning terror attacks in Kosovo and against the national Israeli soccer team and fans, police said, as cited by Kosovo news site “Zeri.info.”

The terror plans, allegedly led by a man identified as L.M., included an attack during the World Cup 2018 qualifying round between Albania and Israel played on Nov. 12.

Albanian authorities moved the match from the city of Shkodër, northwestern Albania, to the central city of Elbasan over fears of a possible attack.

Israel won the match 3-0, amid heightened security involving over 2,000 police officers.

Of the 19 detainees, 18 were held in preventative detention.

All of the arrested were Kosovars, with the exception of a Macedonian national.

Kosovo police reportedly found 2.5 kilograms of explosives, among other weapons such as assault rifles, shotguns, pistols and munitions, as well as extremist literature.

In 2015, Kosovo – a former part of Serbia that was granted independence in 2008 – approved 15-year prison sentences for Kosovars caught fighting in a foreign conflicts.