Going to run it back up for you:
"$2 trillion growth goal called feasible; Infrastructure is key to golbal GDP gain, G-20 says" Associated Press September 22, 2014
SYDNEY — Finance chiefs from the 20 largest economies on Sunday said that they are close to reaching their goal of boosting world GDP by more than $2 trillion over the next five years and will focus on infrastructure investment to help reach the target.
Australia’s treasurer, Joe Hockey, who hosted the Group of 20 meeting in the northern Australian city of Cairns, said the G-20 finance ministers and central bankers had agreed to more than 900 policy initiatives to meet the goal they set in February during a gathering in Sydney.
The G-20, which represents about 85 percent of the global economy, said an analysis of those initiatives shows they should boost the combined gross domestic product of member countries by 1.8 percent above levels expected for the next five years, just short of the group’s target of 2 percent.
In July, the International Monetary Fund downgraded its economic forecast, estimating the world economy would expand 3.4 percent this year, rather than the 3.7 percent it had previously predicted — due to weaker growth in the United States, Russia, and other developing economies.
Last week, the lending organization amped up pressure on the G-20 to take action on its global growth commitment, calling for decisive structural reforms. On Sunday, the IMF’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, said the G-20 would need to concentrate on labor market measures and infrastructure in order to reach its 2 percent growth goal by 2018.
‘‘They are almost done, but need to do a bit more,’’ Lagarde told reporters after the meeting.
Related: $exi$t EU and IMF
Hockey said the group had agreed to shift its focus from government-led growth to private sector-led growth, particular from additional investment in infrastructure.
In a communique issued after the meeting, the G-20 outlined a Global Infrastructure Initiative, which would include the development of a database to help match potential investors with projects.
The group also warned that while economic conditions had improved in some key economies, global growth remained uneven and below the pace necessary to generate critically needed jobs.
Thanks to their policies.
Hockey said the group would deliver ‘‘concrete outcomes’’ by the time the main G-20 summit is held in November in Brisbane.
‘‘We will now redouble efforts and hold each other to account on meeting this target as we go forward,’’ he said.
The G-20 represents the world’s major industrialized and developing countries. Its members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.
--more--"
No worries about terrorists, huh?
"2 al-Shabab suspects arrested in Frankfurt" Associated Press September 22, 2014
BERLIN — German authorities arrested two suspected members of the Somali-based extremist group al-Shabab after they landed at Frankfurt airport Saturday.
The federal prosecutors’ office said in a statement Sunday the men were detained in Kenya last month and deported to Germany. Both are alleged to have gone to Somalia in 2012 and taken part in al-Shabab operations.
The men were identified as 30-year-old German-Tunisian dual citizen Mounir T. and 22-year-old German citizen Abdiwahid W. Their full surnames were not released, in keeping with German privacy laws.
Earlier this month, authorities arrested three other Germans suspected of being al-Shabab members.
Last week, federal prosecutors charged a man and two women with supporting the Islamic State group in Syria.
Prosecutors said the main suspect, 25-year-old Karolina R., a German and Polish citizen, is married to an Islamic State member. Using a middleman, she is accused of providing the group with $1,400 worth of cameras and accessories to produce propaganda videos in October.
--more--"
"Kenya marks year since Westgate mall attack" Associated Press September 22, 2014
All crap.
NAIROBI — Relatives of the dead, survivors, and shop owners converged outside Nairobi’s Westgate Mall on Sunday, lighting candles and laying flowers in memory of those killed a year ago when gunmen stormed the upscale mall.
The attack killed 67 people and left Kenya’s capital unsettled for days as militants battled with security forces and people trapped inside tried to flee the fighting.
A memorial plaque with the names of the victims was unveiled in a separate ceremony at the Amani Garden memorial site in the Karura Forest on the edge of the city. Families laid flowers for their lost loved ones, sharing memories and tears.
More Hollywood.
*************
Police doubled patrols in Nairobi, chief David Kimaiyo said Saturday. They increased their presence in public places such as churches, supermarkets, and malls after he warned residents to be ‘‘extra vigilant’’ in the coming weeks in anticipation of more attacks.
Al-Shabab militants claimed responsibility for the mall attack, saying it was retribution for Kenya’s troop presence in Somalia, the group’s home base.
Although some held memorial ceremonies to commemorate the Westgate attacks, others tried to forget.
Muimi Kiteme, 26, watched a soccer game Sunday in hopes it could help erase the memories of Sept. 21, 2013....
--more--"
Don't loose your head over this propaganda SITEing:
"Wife of UK hostage issues plea to militants" Associated Press September 22, 2014
LONDON — The wife of a British aid worker held hostage by the Islamic State group has issued a statement pleading for the militants to release him and respond to her messages ‘‘before it is too late.’’
The Islamic State group, which has released online videos showing the beheading of two American journalists and another British aid worker, has threatened to kill former taxi driver Alan Henning next.
Henning, 47, was kidnapped in December in Syria, shortly after crossing into the country from Turkey in an aid convoy.
His wife, Barbara, implored the militants to ‘‘see it in their hearts’’ to release him. Her statement was released by Britain’s Foreign Office late Saturday.
‘‘Alan is a peaceful, selfless man who left his family and his job as a taxi driver in the UK to drive in a convoy all the way to Syria with his Muslim colleagues and friends to help those most in need,’’ she wrote.
‘‘His purpose for being there was no more and no less. This was an act of sheer compassion,’’ she said.
The aid worker was driving an ambulance loaded with food and water at the time of the kidnapping, Barbara Henning said. She added that the militants have not responded to her repeated attempts to make contact.
Her appeal came after dozens of Muslim leaders in Britain urged the Islamic State group to release Henning.
More than 100 imams and Muslim organizations signed a statement expressing their ‘‘horror and revulsion’’ at the slaying of three other hostages, including Briton David Haines.
They said the extremists were ‘‘not acting as Muslims’’ but as ‘‘monsters.’’
On Saturday, a prominent jihadist, Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi, urged the Islamic State group to release Henning, saying that under Islamic law, non-Muslims who protect needy Muslims should be protected.
Maqdisi was released by Jordan in June after serving a five-year sentence on terror charges. Known as Essam al-Barqawi, he was a mentor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, who was killed in a US airstrike in 2006.
Yeah, whatever.
--more--"
"Yemen’s prime minister resigns amid chaos" by Shuaib Almosawa | New York Times September 22, 2014
SANA, Yemen — An assault on Yemen’s capital rocked the transitional government Sunday as fighters from a Shi’ite rebel group seized official buildings. The military showed signs of splitting apart and the prime minister abruptly resigned.
The rebels, known as the Hawthis and armed with automatic rifles and artillery mounted on trucks, battled security forces in the streets, with shells exploding around contested military facilities in the center of Sana, the capital.
News reports said at least 140 had died in the past four days of fighting.
Late Sunday evening, the office of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi issued a statement signed by Hawthi representatives and others saying that the two sides had agreed to a cease-fire under the mediation of a UN special representative, Jamal Benomar.
The statement said the agreement “calls for the formation of a technocratic national government” and pledged to address “many aspects of the current crisis.”
But a similarly vague peace agreement announced by Benomar on Saturday night did not last until dawn.
The Hawthis’ swift advance through the capital is certain to exacerbate sectarian and political tensions in the region: Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni Muslim-led Persian Gulf states say they believe that the Shi’ite rebels in Yemen are backed by Iran, a Shi’ite state.
Saudi Arabia previously sent troops to Bahrain to tamp down an uprising by its Shi’ite majority, and the Sunni gulf states are waging a fierce proxy fight against Iran through the conflict in Syria.
An admission that they are behind ISIS.
--more--"
No mention of the Khorasan?
"Hopes dim for return of Philippine troops to Golan" Associated Press September 22, 2014
MANILA — President Benigno Aquino III of the Philippines said he has been told that security threats on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights are not expected to ease soon.
His comments dimmed hopes that UN peacekeepers can soon be deployed back to the region.
A group of 244 Philippine peacekeepers flew back to Manila on Friday after being recalled, while 84 more were due home Sunday, ending a five-year presence in the increasingly volatile Golan.
There have been no signs suggesting the Philippines will resume its mission in the Golan. Philippine forces continue to help a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
They the ones that brought the cholera?
Aquino said his government was informed in a letter from the UN assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations, Edmond Mulet, that ‘‘there is no expectation’’ peacekeepers could be deployed back to the Syrian side of the Golan ‘‘in the short or midterm.’’
Aquino’s comments, made Friday during a just-concluded trip to Germany, were released to the media on Sunday.
--more--"
So when does Israel invade Syria?
"Flood of Syrian refugees to Turkey hits 100,000" by Desmond Butler | Associated Press September 22, 2014
KUCUK KENDIRCILER, Turkey — A 19-year-old Kurdish militant, who has been fighting the Islamic State group in Syria, brought his family across the border into Turkey to safety Sunday. But in the tranquility of a Turkish tea garden just miles from the frontier, Dalil Boras vowed to head back to continue the fight.
Pulling a wad of Syrian bills from his pocket, the young fighter — who has already lost a 17-year-old brother to the Islamic militants’ brutal advance — said that if the Turkish border guards tried to stop him, the money would persuade them.
Boras and his relatives are among some 100,000 Syrians, mostly Kurds, who have flooded into Turkey since Thursday, escaping an Islamic State offensive that has pushed the conflict nearly within eyeshot of the Turkish border.
On Sunday, heavy clashes broke out between the Islamic State militants and Kurdish fighters near the Syrian border town of Kobani, where members of the Al Qaeda breakaway group were bombarding villagers with tanks, artillery, and multiple-rocket launchers, said Nasser Haj Mansour, a defense official in Syria’s Kurdish region.
‘‘They are even targeting civilians who are fleeing,’’ Haj Mansour said.
At a border crossing where Turkish authorities were processing the refugees, Osman Abbas said he and 20 relatives had been fleeing a village near Kobani when Islamic State fighters shot one of his sons. The 35-year-old had tried to return to their home to recover valuables.
‘‘They took our village, they took our house, they killed my son,’’ Abbas said. ‘‘I saw it with my own eyes.’’
Why is ISIS acting like Israel?
As refugees flooded in, Turkey closed the border crossing at Kucuk Kendirciler to Turkish Kurds in a move aimed at preventing them from joining the fight in Syria.
Why stop them from fighting ISIS? WTF?
What do you mean "covert CIA/FSA training facilities that have ties to ISIS [are] in both Jordan and Turkey?"
A day earlier, hundreds of Kurdish fighters had poured into Syria through the small Turkish village, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Clashes broke out as Kurds trying to approach the crossing from inside Turkey scuffled with security forces, who responded with tear gas, paint pellets, and water cannons. The state-run Anadolu Agency said the Kurdish protesters had hurled stones at the security forces.
Two people were seriously injured in the clashes, including one Kurdish legislator who was hospitalized, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions’ Party said, adding that the Kurds were protesting the Islamic State group’s attacks as well as the border closure.
The sound of gunfire could be heard from the Syrian side of the frontier, where refugees were amassing after authorities shut the crossing.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether they were unable to cross or waiting to see what would happen.
Despite the huge number of new refugees, Turkish authorities said they were ready to deal with the influx. The conflict has pushed more than a million Syrians over the border in the past 3½ years.
‘‘We have been prepared for this,’’ said Dogan Eskinat, a spokesman for Turkey’s disaster management agency. ‘‘We are also prepared for worse.’’
Boras, the young Kurdish fighter, said the lines between Kurdish and Islamic State fighters had held stable near Kobani for months, until the Islamic State group broke through in recent days, armed with more powerful weapons, including tanks. He said he did not know where the heavier weaponry came from.
I do.
Two days earlier, his 17-year-old brother was killed in fighting, he said, and another 16-year-old brother, whom he had brought to Turkey with his family, slipped back over the border Sunday. The three brothers were fighting with the YPK military wing of Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party.
--more--"
Where does ISIS go next, Egypt?
