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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
2014 Year in Review: The Events That Shaped a Turbulent Year
From the Rise of Islamic State to Republicans’ Sweep of the Midterms, the Past Year Brought a Number of Game-Changing Developments
Smoke rises near the Syrian city of Kobani after a U.S. airstrike against Islamic State forces in October. The threat posed by the radical group prompted the third U.S. military intervention in Iraq in as many decades. Reuters
Dec. 30, 2014 5:12 p.m. ET
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Islamic State Sends Shock Waves Across Middle East
The militant group Islamic State rose to infamy in 2014 as the world’s most dangerous terrorist group. Its devastating blitz through eastern Syria and northern Iraq that began midyear reshaped the political landscape across the Middle East and remade alliances, turning the focus away from the Arab Spring and its aftermath.
The radical group’s conquests threatened entire minority communities, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and prompted the third U.S. military intervention in Iraq in as many decades.
READ MORE: http://www.wsj.com/articles/year-in-review-top-news-stories-of-2014-1419977543
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Yahoo!7
UK 'considered chemical weapons'
Gregory Katz
December 31, 2014, 6:15 am
Official papers show that Margaret Thatcher considered rebuilding Britain's chemical weapons.
Newly released official papers show that former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government considered rebuilding Britain's chemical weapons arsenal in the face of a Soviet threat in the early 1980s.
The formerly secret documents show that Thatcher's defence chiefs were worried that Britain had no response to a possible Soviet chemical attack except to retaliate with nuclear weapons.
At the time, the Ministry of Defence believed the Soviet Union had more than 300,000 tonnes of nerve agents along with other chemical weapons.
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Britain by then had voluntarily given up its chemical weapons supplies, and the United States - a fellow NATO member and close ally - had aging supplies that amounted to only one-tenth of the Soviet arsenal.
In the papers, Thatcher states that it might be considered "negligent" of the government not to develop a credible response to a Soviet chemical attack short of using nuclear weaponry. She also suggests urging the Americans to modernise their chemical arsenal.
The lack of a chemical capacity was called a "major gap" in NATO's military capacity by Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine in a secret 1984 document. He said the threat of a nuclear response lacked credibility.
Other documents indicate the British studied building "chemical shelters" in homes to protect civilians from Soviet attack but could not come up with a workable design.
Chemical weapons were legal at the time. Britain has since joined the Chemical Weapons Convention barring them. It went into force in 1997, and Britain has worked to persuade other countries to renounce chemical stockpiles.
The secret cabinet files have been made public by the National Archives under a 30-year rule regulating the release of government documents.
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Yahoo!7
Fireworks launch from River Torrens footbridge in Adelaide for New Year's Eve celebrations
ABC
December 31, 2014, 11:20 pm
More than 30,000 people are expected to watch the fireworks in Elder Park.
Fireworks from the new River Torrens footbridge were the highlight of New Year's Eve celebrations in Adelaide.
Clear skies, light winds and mild temperatures made the night perfect for revellers.
More than 30,000 people packed Elder Park, with fireworks launching from pontoons on the water and from Pinky Flat on the riverbank.
The recently refurbished rotunda was centre stage, with musical acts entertaining the crowd.
The number of revellers was expected to swell even further after the Big Bash League game at adjacent Adelaide Oval.
A sell-out crowd of more than 40,000 saw the Strikers take on the Hobart Hurricanes, with Adelaide United also contesting the Wellington Phoenix at Hindmarsh Stadium.
Acting Premier John Rau earlier said he "expected people in Sydney won't bother watching the Sydney Harbour Bridge".
"They'll be watching this bridge because it will be much more interesting," he said.
Thousands were also expected to watch fireworks and count in 2015 at the Glenelg and Brighton jetties on Adelaide's metropolitan coast.
Extra police and 50 extra paramedics were rostered on to ensure events remained family-friendly.
"We don't want any violence down here and we don't normally get it," City of Holdfast Bay Mayor Bob Patton said.
Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Dickson said drink drivers would be targetted and a large range of police resources would be out and about.
"Dogs, horses, bike patrols, traffic patrols, transit teams, uniformed officers and other specialist members out and about to keep the community safe," he said.
"I urge everyone to take care of their friends, especially if they've been drinking, as this care can be the difference between having a good night and having a terrible night."
Judith Barker from the SA Ambulance Service said pool parties remained a potential danger.
"We want to make sure that people are safe around water which means don't leave children unsupervised around pools and rivers," she said.
ABC
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Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là ĐỒNG LÕA với TỘI ÁC
Bloomberg News
U.K. Terrorism Arrests Jump 40% Amid Militants’ Trips to Syria
By Jeremy Hodges Dec 31, 2014 6:44 PM ET
1 Comment
The number of arrests in U.K. terrorism probes soared by 40 percent this year as police grappled with growing numbers of British citizens traveling to war-torn Syria to work on behalf of Islamic militants.
Police throughout the U.K. arrested 312 people for a range of terrorist-related offenses as of Dec. 16, compared with 222 in 2013, according to data provided by the Metropolitan Police and the U.K. Home Office. In London, police said they detained about 35 percent more people than three years ago amid investigations of British citizens returning from Syria or Iraq.
Islamic State militants have murdered U.S. and U.K. hostages, while videos released online appear to show men with British accents among the fighters. The U.K. terror alert was raised to “severe,” the second-highest level, in August as countries around the world expressed concerns that militants may return to their home countries with plans to attack targets.
“The authorities are coming under pressure,” Raffaello Pantucci, Director of International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, said in an interview earlier this month. “More people from Syria and Iraq are coming back so you are dealing with a bigger community of people who can be arrested.”
U.K. prosecutors secured their first Syria-related extremist convictions this year with jail terms for those returning from the country ranging between two and 18 years. More than 60 were arrested in London on Syria-related charges alone this year, the MPS said. More than 500 people have traveled to Syria from the U.K. since the country’s civil war began in March 2011.
Increased Threat
“The authorities have a very difficult job to do,” Sajjan Gohel, director of the Asia-Pacific Foundation and a lecturer at the London School of Economics, said in a phone interview. “They will not arrest someone unless they feel there is a reason. Yes the numbers have increased, but so has the threat.”
Still, human rights groups have criticized police, saying that high-profile investigations have led to few serious prosecutions. Two Syria-related convictions included a woman trying to send money to her jihadist husband and two men who went to the country with a copy of “Koran for Dummies.”
“Britain’s wide, sweeping terror laws are sucking in all and sundry, yet most are being quietly released without charge or never prosecuted,” Amandla Thomas-Johnson of the human rights group CAGE, said in a statement. “Such an emphasis on returning fighters is therefore not based on empirical evidence and can only be seen as a pretext for the state to grab yet more power and violate fundamental British values.”
39 Families
London police have said they have been contacted by 39 families concerned that a family member may be planning to travel to fight in Syria in 2014. Law enforcement officials called on religious leaders, members of the public and family to help identify home-grown terrorists to prevent the U.K. from becoming an export hub for jihadist violence earlier this year.
“Public safety is our number one priority and we will always focus our disruption activity against those posing the greatest and most imminent threat, Mark Rowley, London police’s assistant commissioner for specialist operations, said in a statement. ‘‘Sometimes this means intervening very early -- essential to prevent attacks, but presenting enormous challenges in securing sufficient evidence to charge.’’
The focus on Syria comes as resources are also being put into tracking the possibility of so-called lone-wolf attacks. Terrorist incidents around the globe in recent years have been carried out by one person, or a small group, that have few ties to jihadist networks.
Soldier Murder
In London last year, two men were convicted of killing a soldier in an attack gripped a nation as televised images of the bloodshed were transmitted around the world. In Sydney’s central business district earlier this month, a self-proclaimed Islamic cleric from Iran held 17 people hostage in a cafe before a shootout with police resulted in the death of the cleric and two of the hostages.
Additional incidents in France, New York and Canada have galvanized global law enforcement agencies’ determination to counter the domestic threat.
There has been a significant increase in lone-wolf attacks since 2008, according to a study by the Terrorism Research Initiative, a group of academics.
Single-actor crimes constituted 12 percent of terrorist plots in Europe from 2001 through 2007. The proportion increased to 38 percent from 2008 through 2013, according to the report called ‘‘The Modus Operandi of Jihadi Terrorists in Europe,” which examined 122 terrorist plots on the continent between 1994 and 2013.
Diverse Methods
“Jihadi terrorism in Europe is becoming more discriminate in its targeting while attack methods are becoming more diverse,” Petter Nesser and Anne Stenersen, of the University of Oslo, said in the report.
The unpredictably of the lone attacker terrifying citizens poses serious problems for security agencies.
“Plots are of varied sophistication, from individuals planning to carry out spontaneous yet deadly attacks to more complex conspiracies, almost all seemingly are either directed by or inspired by terrorism overseas,” Rowley said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy Hodges in London at jhodges17@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net Eddie Buckle
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Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là ĐỒNG LÕA với TỘI ÁC
