Clinton: Palestinian leaders must stop inciting violence

Assad decries ‘harmful, illegal’ airstrikes

Britain’s bombing campaign against Islamic State extremists in Syria is “illegal” and will only cause “terrorism” to spread, President Bashar Assad says in an interview published Sunday.

“It will be harmful and illegal and it will support terrorism as happened after the coalition started its operation a year or so (ago),” he tells The Sunday Times after British MPs voted on December 2 to join the US-led bombing campaign over Syria.

Terror, he says, is like a cancer which needed to be tackled with a “comprehensive” strategy which would involve working with troops on the ground.

“You cannot cut out part of the cancer. You have to extract it. This kind of operation is like cutting out part of the cancer. That will make it spread in the body faster.

“You cannot defeat (IS) through airstrikes alone. You cannot defeat them without cooperation with forces on the ground. You cannot defeat them if you do not have buy-in from the general public and the government,” he says.

“They are going to fail again.”

— AFP

IDF comes under fire near Gaza; no injuries

IDF soldiers come under fire near the border of the Gaza Strip. There are no injuries.

The army is looking into the incident.

Turkey ‘astonished’ by Iranian charges of IS support

Turkey on Sunday says it is “astonished” by Iranian accusations that Ankara is supporting Islamic State and involved in oil dealing with the jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic says in a statement there was nothing in Tehran’s accusations to take “seriously.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday he had warned his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani over some Iranian media reports that he and his family were involved in oil trade with IS jihadists.

Erdogan said that he spoke with Rouhani on the phone and told him: “You will pay a high price if it continues like that.” He added that the Iranians later removed the news from their website.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Bilgic confirms the telephone conversation between the two presidents and said any attempts to distort its content were “not only immoral but also equal to hiding the truth from neighboring Iranian people.”

— AFP

Over 4,600 migrants rescued off Libyan coast in 3 days

More than 4,600 people have been plucked to safety from unseaworthy boats off the Libyan coast, the Italian coastguard says Sunday, as migrants take advantage of calmer waters to attempt the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.

On Saturday alone, the coastguard operations center in Rome coordinates nine rescues, pulling 1,123 people to safety from two boats and seven inflatable dinghies.

According to the United Nations, the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe fell by more than a third last month, due to bad weather and a Turkish crackdown on traffickers in the Aegean on the route to Greece.

The 4,600-plus migrants who attempted the crossing between Thursday and Saturday were encouraged by the calmer waters to set off for the nearest Italian coast.

— AFP

Germany says West needs Saudi Arabia as partner

Germany’s vice chancellor says the West needs Saudi Arabia as a partner in solving conflicts in Syria and elsewhere, but criticizes Saudi financing of ultraconservative mosques abroad.

Germany’s intelligence agency last week published a report suggesting that Saudi Arabia’s ambitious defense minister could endanger the kingdom’s ties with regional allies, an assessment the government distanced itself from.

Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel is quoted Sunday as telling the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that “it doesn’t help to pillory the country every day, because that won’t exactly increase its readiness for serious negotiations in Syria.”

However, Gabriel adds “we must also make clear to the Saudis that the time for looking away is over.” He cites Saudi financing worldwide for mosques embracing the country’s strict Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam.

— AP

Would-be Palestinian stabber indicted

An 18-year-old Palestinian from the Old City of Jerusalem is indicted for attempted murder and for carrying a knife.

According to the indictment, Yousef Rajabi arrived at the Central Bus Station on November 24 with the intention of stabbing IDF soldiers. He was disarmed by a security guard before he could attack.

NYC mayor urges Syrian Jews to empathize with migrants

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio urged Syrian Jews in Brooklyn to empathize with refugees fleeing war-torn Syria en masse, telling congregants at Congregation Shaare Zion on Saturday that the current situation resembles that of the Jews during World War II.

“I know this community understands deeply the pain of any family that must leave a homeland they love because they were forced away by violence and discrimination,” says de Blasio, according to the New York Post.

“When it comes to saving children and families from one of the greatest crises of our times, I remind people to look at history,” he adds.

Some congregants are skeptical about the comparison.

“The difference between me coming here in 1991 with my family is that we were kicked out for being Jewish,” one says, according to the Post.

Funeral begins for longtime lawmaker Sarid

The funeral for longtime lawmaker and former education and environmental minister Yossi Sarid begins in Givat Hashlosha.

Sarid died on Saturday of a heart attack.

Author Amos Oz is expected to deliver a eulogy at the funeral.

Police treating London stabbings as terror attack

A man is being held in custody Sunday after three people were stabbed at a London Underground train station in an attack police were treating as a “terrorist incident.”

One witness shouted “You’re no Muslim” at the suspect as he was pinned down by officers at a suburban police station, amateur video footage showed, while a pool of blood was seen in the ticket hall.

Sky News reports that witnesses had said the lone suspect spoke of Syria and had “apparently shouted ‘this is for Syria,'” although it did not quote anyone.

Police could not confirm the report when contacted by AFP and it is not evident from video footage circulating online.

Police say one man sustained serious knife injuries in the east London attack, but they were not thought to be life-threatening, while two others sustained minor injuries.

Britain’s Counter-Terrorism Command is investigating.

“We are treating this as a terrorist incident,” CTC leader Richard Walton says in a statement.

— AFP

US-led strikes kill at least 32 IS fighters

At least 32 Islamic State group fighters are killed on Sunday in apparent US-led coalition airstrikes on the group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa province, a monitor says.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the series of strikes to the north, east and southeast of Raqqa city hit IS bases and also injures more than 40 members of the group.

— AFP

Iran says it has ‘duty’ to lower Russia-Turkey tension

Iran says on Sunday it is its “duty” to mediate between Russia and Turkey as they trade accusations of buying oil from the Islamic State group.

“Iran has a duty to reduce tensions between Russia and Turkey and it’s not good to have another tension added to the existing ones in the region,” Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is quoted as saying by the official Irna news agency.

Russia and Iran are major backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

— AFP

Hundreds at funeral of Yossi Sarid

Hundreds of people are attending the funeral of former minister and Meretz party leader Yossi Sarid.

“For years, we had his sharp, shrewd voice accompany us and remind us all that there is no contradiction between justice and diplomatic know-how — the opposite,” author Amos Oz says in his eulogy, according to the Walla news website. “He reminded us that there is no contradiction between the love of Israel and pursuing justice.”

Yishai Sarid, the son of the lawmaker, said that after his father died on Saturday “his face was peaceful and free of worries,” Ynet reports.

“Abba [father] was always worried and had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Now he is really at peace.”

לא נותר שריד; מר״צ והשמאל חוזרים לארון pic.twitter.com/iYcOTts2tA

— שלהבת חסדיאל (@SHALHEVETHASDIE) December 6, 2015

Turkey blasts fresh Russian ‘provocation’ with warship

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Sunday blasts as “provocation” images of a Russian serviceman armed with a rocket launcher as his warship passed through Turkish waters.

“Russian war vessels showing weapons is a provocation,” Cavusoglu says in a speech broadcast on the private NTV television.

NTV reports that the “Caesar Kunikov” belonging to the Russian navy’s Black Sea fleet passes through the Bosphorus on Sunday morning, however other media say the incident occurred on Friday.

NTV broadcasts pictures of a Russian serviceman aboard the vessel with a type of rocket or missile launcher on his shoulder in the firing position.

Russia and Turkey have been plunged into their worst crisis since the Cold War over Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet on its border with Syria on November 24 — sparking fury and economic sanctions from the Kremlin.

— AFP

Elton John to headline ‘Life Festival’ in Auschwitz

Elton John will headline the next Life Festival Oswiecim.

He will perform in the city of former Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, at the festival in June, the festival announces on Thursday.

“Like everyone, I am shocked by the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and elsewhere. In June, in Oswiecim, we’ll be celebrating life, peace and music,” says John in a statement published on the festival’s website.

In May, John reportedly will perform in Tel Aviv. It will be his fourth visit to Israel.

— JTA

Egypt to pay Israel $1.76b for halt to gas supply

Israel’s state-owned electric utility says Egyptian natural gas companies will pay it compensation of $1.76 billion for halting gas supplies.

Egypt stopped selling natural gas to Israel in 2012 after months of attacks on a pipeline by militants in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The Israeli electric company sued the Egyptian providers EGPC and EGAS for $4 billion in damages. The company said it suffered heavy damages after gas supplies were halted and that it was forced to buy more expensive fuel to generate electricity, raising its costs

The company said Sunday that an international arbitrator awarded it $1.76 billion plus interest. The company said it will act in coordination with the Egyptian companies to implement the arbitrator’s ruling.

— AP

US-Polish foundation donates mezuzahs to army bases

A US-Polish foundation will provide mezuzahs for Israeli army bases throughout the country.

The 500 mezuzahs designed by Helena Czernek and Aleksander Prugar from the Polish Judaica “Mi Polin” Studio will be distributed during Hanukkah through the cooperation of Taube Philanthropies, the Friends of the IDF and Mi Polin Studio this week.

“When we learned through Friends of the IDF that many soldiers lacked mezuzahs at their bases, we were inspired to help fill the need by sharing modern Polish Judaica with them,” Tad Taube, chairman of Taube Philanthropies, says in a statement released on Friday. “We hope these will be a bright symbol to IDF soldiers that Jews elsewhere are thinking about them and are grateful for their service, and serve as a reminder of today’s vibrant Jewish culture in Poland, an Israeli ally.”

— JTA

Bono writes Paris attacks song ahead of France gigs

U2 frontman Bono has written a song about the Paris attacks ahead of a defiant return to the French capital on Sunday that may also feature the Eagles of Death Metal whose show was targeted by the jihadists.

The Irish rock band canceled their shows in Paris earlier this month in the wake of the attacks on November 13 that left 130 dead.

But they quickly rescheduled them and are due to appear at the 16,000-capacity AccorHotels Arena on Sunday and Monday.

“We think of music as the sound of freedom,” says guitarist The Edge, in an interview with CNN.

“We think rock and roll has a part to play, so going back to Paris to us is not just symbolic. I think we’re actually starting the process of resistance, of defiance against this movement,” he says, referring to the Islamic State group that carried out the attacks.

— AFP

Egypt said to suspend gas import talks with Israel

Egypt is suspending all negotiations with Israel on gas imports from the Jewish state’s offshore reserves after Cairo is ordered to pay Jerusalem nearly $2 billion earlier on Sunday, Bloomberg reports.

Egypt plans to appeal Sunday’s decision — forcing it to compensate Israel with $1.76 billion for halting gas supplies in 2012 — and is seeking to hold off on any agreements with Israeli gas companies until the results of the appeal are in, the report says.

In address, Obama to urge US not to ‘give in to fear’

US President Barack Obama will use his Sunday night address on terrorism to urge the American people not to “give in to fear” after the California shootings, and may ask Congress to take action to further safeguard national security, Attorney General Loretta Lynch says.

Lynch also says that “dealing with guns is one way to handle the violence crime issues that we have in this country.”

The White House said Obama would provide an update on Wednesday’s shootings in San Bernardino that killed 14 and wounded 21, and discuss the broader threat of terrorism, including how it has evolved and how he plans to defeat it.

The FBI is investigating the massacre as a terrorist attack that, if proved, would be the deadliest by Islamic extremists on American soil since September 11, 2001.

“I think what you’re going to hear from him is a discussion about what government is doing to ensure all of our highest priority — the protection of the American people,” Lynch says in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

— AP

5 Syrians with fake passports arrested in Argentina

Five Syrians with falsified Greek passports have been arrested in Buenos Aires, a police source says on Sunday.

The source says the arrests occurred at at a downtown hotel, but did not provide information about the date that the suspects were detained.

The official says the Syrians were to appear in court in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.

— AFP

Netanyahu says US-Israel alliance ‘strong’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says terrorism — whether in Israel or California — “is attacking the very values we hold dear,” and all the “things that define the value of life.”

In a televised message to the Saban forum, he says that terrorists believe that the West is weak because of the values we hold, while they in fact make the people of Israel and the US “so strong.”

“Nobody should underestimate the resilience” of our societies, he says.

“Nobody should underestimate our alliance — it’s strong, and it will be stronger in the years to come,” he says. Netanyahu thanks Obama for security support. “I think that everyone in Israel appreciates that, beginning with me.”

Netanyahu says “it was never true” that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fuels Middle East instability, but it is now “demonstrably false.”

“It is a battle of militant Islam against other Muslims, and everyone else,” he says.

The same is true for IS, which doesn’t “mince its words,” and is true of Iran, he says.

‘Settlements’ not the core of the conflict — PM

The prime minister says that IS and the Assad regime are both “bad” and therefore Israel has chosen not to intervene in the civil war.

Netanyahu says that Israel has not intervened in Syria, with two exceptions: humanitarian aid, and to thwart Hezbollah weapon transfers.

“Israeli policy will continue along the lines of what I just outlined,” he stresses.

“The civilized countries have to make common cause to contain, and ultimately defeat, militant Islam,” he says. Netanyahu says that just as Nazism was defeated, so too radical Islam will be destroyed.

He says that with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there is a “misunderstanding” about it. He says settlements are “not the core of the conflict.” In Gaza, “nothing changed” when we “took out all the settlements.” In Gaza, “we got the worse terror possible,” rather than peace.

“In order for us to ensure that this doesn’t happen again, we have to address the root” of the conflict, he says, adding that “the Palestinians have not yet been willing to cross that emotional bridge of… not a state next to Israel, but a state instead of Israel.”

Both Hamas and the PA refuse to see that in a final peace agreement they must recognize the Jewish state, and “they persistently refuse to do so,” and “in any boundary.”

“That was and remains the core the conflict.”

He quotes Abbas condemning the occupation of Palestinian lands for 67 years — from 1948 — as proof the Palestinians have not given up the dream of obtaining Israeli territory pre-1967.

He says it’s “childish, and irrelevant” to say settlements are core of the conflict. The settlement issue must be resolved, but it’s not the main issue, he says.

Netanyahu says he hasn’t given up hope for peace.

PM stresses ‘deepest partnership’ with US

Netanyahu says it’s “heartening” to see changing views of Israel among Arab countries.

But “I still know that we have no better friend than the United States,” he says.

“It’s the deepest partnership there is,” Netanyahu adds, adding that it is bipartisan.

Trump urges probe into terrorists’ families

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says he’d be open to racial profiling and investigating the families of people who carry out extremist attacks.

He tells CBS that he’d be “very tough on families” of attackers, adding he’d “go after the wives” of attackers.

He also says people near the attackers sometimes know there’s something wrong but refuse to report them for fear of “racial profiling.” Trump says he thinks that’s “pretty bad,” and that people have died as a result.

Trump says he’s not playing on people’s fears, “I’m playing on common sense.”

He tells CBS that he has Muslim friends who “are great people” and are concerned about extremism, too.

— AP

Bush says carpet bombing IS ‘not a strategy’

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is panning GOP rival Ted Cruz’s plan to carpet bomb Islamic militants “into oblivion.” And he says leading Democrats are reflexively calling for gun control rather than ramping up the response to attacks in the US.

The former Florida governor tells ABC’s This Week: “Carpet bombing is not a strategy.” He’s calling for gaining the support of Sunni tribal leaders, arming the Kurds and establishing a no-fly zone in Syria, a plan that is similar to Clinton’s.

But he disagrees with her assertion that people on a no-fly list should be barred from getting guns.

Bush says the list isn’t accurate enough to use for restricting gun rights for law-abiding citizens. But he adds that if the FBI is tracking someone who is suspected of terrorism, that person should not be able to buy guns, “for sure.”

—AP

Clinton urges ‘intensification’ of IS fight

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton says she expects President Barack Obama to announce “an intensification” of the US strategy against Islamic State militants following last week’s attack in California.

Clinton tells ABC’s This Week: ”We have to have a much more robust air campaign against ISIS targets, against oil infrastructure, against leadership. And I think that’s what you’ll hear from the president.”

The former secretary of state says she also would require the online community to keep militants from communicating on social network sites. She says sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube “cannot permit the recruitment and the actual direction of attacks or the celebration of violence” by Islamic militants.

Authorities say a married couple was responsible for the attack in California, and the woman had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group on Facebook as they went on their rampage.

The White House says Obama will provide an update on Wednesday’s shootings in San Bernardino and will discuss the broader threat of terrorism, including how it has evolved and how he plans to defeat it.

— AP

Man overpowered on Lufthansa flight after interfering with door

Lufthansa crew and passengers Sunday overpowered and restrained a man who had interfered with the controls of a cabin door on a Frankfurt-Belgrade flight, the German carrier says.

“A passenger got up and tried to do something at the door, but was stopped by crew members and other passengers,” says airline spokesman Andreas Bartels, stressing that it was not the cockpit door.

“The passenger was then restrained for the remainder of the flight in his seat and handed over to the authorities in Belgrade.”

— AFP

Man hurt by gunfire in northern Israel

Police say a man has been hurt by gunfire near a post office in Tirat Carmel.

The background of the incident is unclear.

Police are investigating.

Tirat Carmel shooting criminal-related, police say

Police rule out terror in the shooting in Tirat Carmel, saying it is criminal-related.

The victim is a 57-year-old local resident.

The identity of the suspected gunman is “known, and searches are being carried out to locate him,” police say.

Israel lights up as Hanukkah kicks off

Israel begins its Hanukkah celebrations, as the eight-day holiday kicks off at sundown.

Images of menorahs are projected onto the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City and Tel Aviv’s Azrieli center.

At the Western Wall, Netanyahu lights candles with Border Police.

חנוכה שמח גם במדינת תל אביב. מגדלי עזריאלי מוארים לכבוד חג האורים. pic.twitter.com/DzuDEP5lWc

— ישראל כהן (@Israelcohen911) December 6, 2015

חנוכה שמח! חומות העיר העתיקה עכשיו. pic.twitter.com/3tL9NhxVWa

— מיכאל שמש (@shemeshmicha) December 6, 2015

US president Barack Obama wishes Jews around the world a happy Hanukkah.

“At its heart, Hanukkah is about the struggle for justice in the face of overwhelming obstacles. It’s a chance to reflect on the triumph of liberty over tyranny, the rejection of persecution, and on the miracles that can happen even in our darkest hours. It renews our commitment as Americans — as people who live by faith and conscience — to lead the way and act as unyielding advocates for the fundamental dignity of every human being,” he says in a statement.

“During these eight days, let us be inspired by the light that can overcome darkness. As we recall the Maccabees’ struggle to free a people from oppression, let us rededicate ourselves to being the engine of the miracles we seek. May the lights of the menorah brighten your home and warm your heart, and from my family to yours, Chag Sameach.”

Clinton says jihadists must be tackled online

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton addresses the Saban Forum.

She speaks about the California terror attack, and says “the threat is real, the need for action is urgent.”

She says jihadism is “fueled by the Internet” and Americans have to move from “fear to resolve,” and will.

The US must combat the jihadists on social media, she adds.

“It’s time for an urgent dialogue between the government” — and not just the US government — and the “hi-tech community, to confront this problem together.”

Congress must act so that no one “who is a suspected terrorist can buy guns anywhere in America,” she says to applause.

Clinton adds that “Islam, itself, is not our adversary,” and that “it is not a clash of civilizations. The vast majority of Muslims are our on side, unless we drive them away.”

Declaring war on Islam “plays right into the hands of terrorists,” she says.

Need to take US-Israel relationship ‘to next level’ — Clinton

She adds that enemies “do use Islam” as justification for slaughtering innocent people.

“We will always defend our friends and allies,” she says, including “ally and true friend Israel, now and forever.

“Israel is no stranger to terrorism,” Clinton adds.

The presidential hopeful says she visited Israeli terror victims in hospitals.

She also notes the IS-affiliate in Sinai, and its reported ties to Gaza.

Clinton condemns the “brutal” stabbings, car-rammings and shootings in Israel.

“Israeli children have been killed, as have Palestinian children,” she says, noting the killing of US citizen Ezra Schwartz by name.

“Palestinian leaders should condemn” violence and incitement, she says.

It is also in the US interest to have a strong Israel, Clinton adds. “Israel is strong enough to deter its enemies and strong enough” to take steps toward peace, she continues. “We need a light unto the nations, and darkness threatens.”

Clinton says we must take “an already strong relationship [between Israel and US] to the next level,” and keep it “always above partisan politics.”

Clinton says IS must be defeated, not contained

Clinton says the goal must be to defeat the Islamic State, not merely to contain it.

“There is no alternative to American leadership,” Clinton says, but the whole world must be involved in the fight against the Islamic State.

She urges getting more Arab and Kurdish fighters on the ground involved in the combat.

“We will do our part, but it’s their fight too, and they need to act like it is.”

Clinton also calls for a diplomatic solution in Syria. She says the US must do more to help Lebanon and Jordan in dealing with the refugee influx.

Stabbing reported in Jerusalem

A stabbing attack is reported on Yirmiyahu Street in Jerusalem, according to initial reports.

The terrorist has been disarmed.

Jerusalem stabbing victim lightly injured

One person is lightly injured in the stabbing attack in Jerusalem, according to Channel 2 TV.

The terrorist is in serious condition.

Both are being treated at the scene.

Clinton condemns boycott efforts against Israel

Clinton also addresses “Iran’s increasingly aggressive” regional expansionism.

“We all agree that Iran can never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon,” she says.

Is the deal “perfect? no,” she says of the accord, but adds that she believes it will help prevent Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon.

“How we handle enforcement in these early months will set the tone for years to come,” she says, so it must be “vigorous.”

“Our approach must be, distrust and verify.”

She says the US should hold Iran responsible for its human rights violations, cyber-crime and support of terror.

Clinton says there is the challenge of preventing a global anti-Israel bias. “We need to repudiate efforts to malign” Israel, she goes on.

Clinton states that BDS is “demonizing Israeli scientists and intellectuals, even young students. No nation is above criticism. But this is wrong, and it should stop immediately.

“No outside force is going to resolve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians,” she says, “only the two-state solution will do that.”

She says she is “convinced peace is possible,” and Israelis and Palestinians shouldn’t give up on it either.

“A one-state solution is no solution,” she says.

3 said injured in combined stabbing-vehicular attack

Three Israelis are lightly injured in the Jerusalem attack, which appears to have been a combined stabbing and vehicular terror attack, according to Channel 2.

Stabbing victim a 65-year-old man

The Magen David Adom ambulance services says a 65-year-old Israeli man was lightly injured in the stabbing, and was fully conscious when the paramedics arrived.

Another man in his 20s is hit by a car at the scene and lightly injured.

Terrorist said shot dead at scene

The Jerusalem stabber has died of his wounds, according to Hebrew reports.

Out of focus video from the scene of the attack in Jerusalem. Credit: MDA pic.twitter.com/0t8VFziGB7

— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) December 6, 2015

Attack takes place near Central Bus Station

The terror attack takes place in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Romema, not far from the Central Bus Station.

Despite the proximity to the entrance to Jerusalem, the surrounding streets are all open to traffic.

The victims have been evacuated to the hospital for medical treatment.

Israeli woman treated for shock

A third person, an Israeli woman, is treated for shock after the Jerusalem attack.

Stabbing victim a volunteer policeman

Police say the Jerusalem attack was likely a combined stabbing and car-ramming attack.

The stabber hit an Israeli with his vehicle, then “got out of his car with a knife, saw a police van, stabbed a volunteer in his hand and lightly injured him,” according to the police.

The policemen then opened fire and killed the attacker.

Attacker identified as East Jerusalem resident, 21

The attacker is a 21-year-old Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, police say.

Police confirm he was shot dead at the scene.

Jimmy Carter says he’s free of cancer

Former US president Jimmy Carter tells church parishioners in his native Plains, Georgia, on Sunday that he is free of cancer, US media reported.

The 91-year-old Nobel peace laureate and global humanitarian recently had a tumor from his liver removed, only to find four melanoma spots on his brain.

“Went for an MRI this past week and they (doctors) didn’t find any cancer at all in the brain,” Carter says, according to NBC News.

A friend and parishioner of Carter’s tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he made the announcement towards the beginning of the Sunday school class he leads at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains.

“He said he got a scan this week and the cancer was gone,” church congregant Jill Stuckey tells the paper by phone, adding that “the church, everybody here, just erupted in applause.”

— AFP

Ammunition, IS propaganda found after France mosque closure

Kalashnikov ammunition and Islamic State propaganda videos were seized in raids following the closure of a mosque in the Paris suburbs, French authorities say.

The prayer hall in Lagny-sur-Marne, around 30 kilometers (18 miles) east of the capital, was shut down last Wednesday following a large-scale police operation.

Associated with the traditionalist Salafist branch of Islam, it is the third mosque in France to be closed after the coordinated jihadist attacks on Paris on November 13.

The prefect — the highest representative of the state — in the Seine-and-Marne department says Sunday “7.62mm ammunition for a Kalashnikov rifle and propaganda videos” for the Islamic State group are found in raids linked to the closure of the prayer hall.

The locations of the raids are not given.

A revolver and jihadist documents were also found during searches at the homes of the mosque leaders, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said previously.

A total of 22 travel bans and nine house arrests for “radicalized individuals” have been issued as a result of the operation.

Police also found recordings of religious chants “glorifying the martyrs of jihad linked to the terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra,” the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, the prefecture adds.

— AFP

Polls put France’s National Front in regional elections lead

Polling agency projections suggest the far-right National Front took the lead in the first round of France’s regional elections.

The agencies Ifop, OpinionWay and Ipsos base their projections on actual vote count in select constituencies. They project that the National Front won between 27 and 30 percent support in Sunday’s voting, followed by former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Republicans party and President Francois Hollande’s governing Socialists.

The elections Sunday took place in an unusually tense security climate, expected to favor conservative and far right candidates and strike a new blow against the Socialists.

While the National Front had significant support Sunday, the party may not be able to translate that into victory in the second-round voting December 13 for leadership of France’s 13 newly drawn regions.

— AP