Security for Pope Francis almost doubles ahead of Africa trip

The security team for Pope Francis nearly doubled in size last week, just before his visit to Africa, which begins Wednesday.

The extra security was already evident Sunday at the Vatican. The ramped up security was in place long before the faithful even began to arrive. Armed police from Italy's' numerous forces were on every corner. 

Everyone who arrived for the pope's weekly "angelus" was checked, bags opened, and there were random pat-downs. And that was just to get into the street in front of St Peter's Basilica.

The lines stretched for several blocks for those wanting to enter the square itself. That involved another layer of security, including metal detectors. The security wasn't just a reaction to the Paris attacks.

Some months ago the cover of the ISIS online magazine had a doctored photo showing their flag flying from the obelisk in the center of the main Vatican square.

The implied threat didn't worry Ernest and Joanne Morelli from St Petersburg Florida, however.

"We feel as if the Carabinieri are doing a pretty good job, they're all over the place. I mean we don't feel as if anything could happen at this point," the Morellis said. "I mean obviously it always could, but we feel fairly safe."

Pope Francis is known to be indifferent to his own security, but aides say he is deeply concerned for those who flock to see him.

The only way to absolutely ensure security in a place like this is to stop the terrorists well before they reach their target. But as both sides know only too well, the police have to get it right every time, while the terrorists only have to get lucky once.

Belgians Help Terror Police With Cat Tweets

Belgian prosecutors were concerned that some social media users would update their followers about sensitive operations - disclosing information which could be useful for suspects still evading capture.

Hours after the police's appeal, the #BrusselsLockdown hashtag had been flooded with cat pictures, some accompanied with defiant captions to warn suspects they would not win.

Others were more humorous, and showed felines getting involved in the investigation "to catch the bad guys".

One user posted a picture of a cat masquerading as a dog, accompanied by the caption: "You can't keep hiding."

The Twitter trend was a light-hearted moment for Belgians, who still face on going anti-terror operations following the Paris attacks. 

Schools and the Metro transport network in Brussels will remain closed on Monday over fears of a similar incident.

The country's reaction to the "radio silence" appeal has inspired cat owners around the world to upload photographs of their animals in solidarity with the people of Brussels.

And at a news conference, federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt thanked the public for complying with their request for discretion.

The five ways U.S. politics changed after Paris

During a more carefree era — last Friday afternoon — the click-me clip sitting atop CNN.com featured Donald Trump doing his routine about Ben Carson’s knife-and-belt story. The big moment was Trump stepping away from the lectern to exhibit his buckle, and with it an expanse of Italian dress shirt approximately the size of a casino-roof chopper pad. 

Then, in a flash, the frivolity vanished — displaced by real reality TV, the ghastly news from Paris that at least 129 innocents had been murdered in the heart of the city by teams of terrorists.

Elections aren’t just about policy, candidates or the national mood — they are about events, by their nature unanticipated, that shift the paradigm of a race. The massacre in Paris, which portends a widening threat here and an expanding conflict in Syria and Iraq, has sobered up the campaign in a hurry (though not entirely) with hard-to-predict implications.

Hare are five ways the attacks changed the 2016 political landscape:

1. Even Bernie Sanders wants to “destroy” ISIL. One of the most significant domestic political developments of the past seven days was among the least noticed: The most liberal candidate in the 2016 race, a Vermont Socialist who railed against the Iraq War from the jump, instantly accepted the new reality that the group known as ISIL or ISIS needed to be wiped out after the attacks during the Saturday night Democratic debate. Then, on Friday, he reiterated his call “to destroy the brutal and barbaric ISIS regime” with the caveat that military action should be “the last resort, not the first resort.” This he would accomplish in conjunction with a large international coalition that would include a new never-gonna-happen NATO-type organization that includes Russia, site of his first honeymoon.

truth, Sanders is not the unequivocal dove most people assume him to be: One of his House staffers resigned in 1999 when he backed Bill Clinton’s action in Kosovo, and he consistently backed war funding bills for Afghanistan and Iraq. But it’s telling. The guy occupying the furthest-left flank of the 2016 field has not categorically ruled out using ground forces if, and only if, the threat to the homeland is high enough. Democratic voters, who are overwhelmingly opposed to any boots-on-the-ground deployments, may not be as open to deeper entanglements, but the anti-war party’s leadership increasingly is.

2. The GOP finds a wedge issue: You don’t have to live with a refugee. The velocity of the American political synapse is a wonder to behold. Within hours of the attacks, the discussion in the GOP (and the right-most quarters of the Democratic party) quickly flipped from a muddy, depressing and terrifying discussion of military decisions to be made to the vastly more comfortable debate over what to do about the Syrian refugees Obama promises to resettle in the heartland. 

Sure, bottom-dwellers in the polls like Lindsey Graham and Jeb Bush were carping on and on about the new reality, and the need to confront ISIL immediately on the ground.

(“This is the war of our time,” Bush told “Morning Joe” early in the week. “We cannot do this by leading from behind, this requires American leadership, it doesn’t require us to be the world’s police, but it does require us to lead.”)

But the smarter play — and one that dovetails with the party base position in immigration in general — was to assail the (very real) threat of terrorists infiltrating the U.S. Chris Christie, who couldn’t buy a headline for weeks, out-trumped Trump — declaring that he wouldn’t even allow a “5-year-old orphan” into Jersey; not to be outdone, Trump suggested a national registry tracking all Muslims and tweeted: “Refugees from Syria are now pouring into our great country. Who knows who they are — some could be ISIS. Is our president insane?” Then Ben Carson compared some of the refugees to a “rabid dog.”

The difference this time, however, is that a lot of Democrats are on board with the GOP no-refugees policy, if not the rhetoric. And the issue of the Syrian refugees is becoming that rarest of 2016 rarities: A genuine wedge issue Republicans can use against Democrats. Forty-seven Democrats voted Thursday for a bill (sure to be vetoed by Obama) that suspends the program allowing Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the country pending security upgrades.

3. Trump is in no man’s land. Nobody body-surfs a headline better than Donald Trump — and his tough talk in the wake of the attacks seems to have delivered yet another spike in popularity, especially at the expense of a less than sure-footed Carson. But Trump’s less gung-ho than he projects. Foreign policy has proved to be an area where he has exhibited a kind of bombast-cloaked nuance: He was a proud Iraq War skeptic and was one of the few Republicans to publicly welcome Russia’s intervention in the Syrian theater — the better to keep U.S. from putting its troops in harm’s way. 

But his big plan for ISIL-killing — a limited use of ground troops coupled with bombing oil fields owned by the Islamic State — is more a placeholder than a bold, comprehensive policy — and it’s been dismissed by many military analysts. Moreover, it falls far short of the more decisive — if not necessarily popular — calls for ground-troop intervention by Bush and Lindsey Graham, two opponents he’s dismissed as wimpy. 

This will likely be the issue voters use to decide whether he’s a serious candidate —— so he better get serious, and fast.

4. Clinton is in no woman’s land. In theory, the Paris attacks ratify Clinton’s hawkish, calibrated, moderately interventionist world view — and mark her (in the eyes of supporters) as the most battle-ready candidate in the field. It’s an issue that should ultimately play to her advantage (Clinton and Trump score the highest marks on the issue, according to a poll earlier this week) but it’s also complicated. 

Clinton’s 2003 support of the Iraq invasion cost was, arguably, the most important — and damaging —— moment of her legislative career. It cost her dearly in 2008 — she was forced to hold hands with then-opponent Barack Obama in a bid to limit funding for the war when things went south, and she reluctantly apologized for the original war vote after the campaign. But as secretary of state, Clinton was among those pressing Obama to adopt a more forceful approach in Libya and still views herself as the person you want on the Washington end of that 3 a.m. phone call.

Her speech to the Council of Foreign Relations on Thursday illustrated her command of the issues, but it also was an exercise in Trump-style fence-straddling. “It’s time to begin a new phase to intensify and broaden our efforts, to smash the would-be caliphate and deny ISIS control of territory in Iraq and Syria,” she said.

Brussels: Shots Fired On Vehicle As 16 Arrested

1/14

1. 
2. 
   Gallery: Soldiers Patrol Streets Of Brussels As Metro Closes
3. 
4. 
5. 
15. 
16. 
    Gallery: Soldiers Patrol Streets Of Brussels As Metro Closes

At a news conference, officials said a total of 19 houses were searched in the city - and during the operations, police fired two shots at a vehicle in Molenbeek.

One of those arrested was injured when his car tried to ram into police during an attempted getaway.

Eric Van der Sypt, a Belgian federal prosecutor, said no firearms or explosives were discovered - and added that although the police raids have ended, their investigation is ongoing.

According to Sky's Enda Brady, who is in Brussels, there are some unsubstantiated reports in Belgian media that Abdeslam is in a BMW heading towards the German border.

With an alleged terrorist still at large, schools, universities and the Metro transport system in Brussels will remain closed on Monday - as the Belgian Prime Minister expressed fears that individuals could "launch several attacks at the same time in multiple locations".

Brussels remains on the highest terror threat level, which indicates that an attack is "imminent" - while the rest of the country is on the second-highest level, to reflect an incident is "probable".

The army and police presence has been boosted in the capital to protect targets such as shops and public transport.

Belgium has been at the centre of investigations into the Paris attacks after it emerged that two of the suicide bombers lived in the poor district of Molenbeek.

French police have issued a photograph of the third man involved in the suicide blasts at the Stade de France - with officials admitting they do not know who he is.

A police source fears that Abdeslam, who is said to have travelled from Paris to Belgium shortly after the French massacre of 130 people, could be "trapped and desperate" in Brussels.

The city is on edge, with a number of bomb scares, including the closure of a railway station and the evacuation of TV station VTM, causing disruption.

Football matches and many large events were postponed over the weekend.

Eurostar is allowing anyone booked to travel to Brussels on Monday to postpone their trip.

Meanwhile, Great Britain's Davis Cup team, including Andy Murray, has delayed travelling to Belgium amid continuing security fears.

Mass raids after Paris attacks spark civil rights fears

A surge in arrests, house arrests and raids on homes and private property in the wake of the Paris attacks - including at mosques and Muslim-owned businesses - has raised alarm among rights organisations that France's extended state of emergency could curb civil liberties. 

Under emergency powers enacted following the wave of attacks in the French capital on November 13, which killed 130 people and injured hundreds more, security forces are no longer required to attain judicial approval for arrests and raids when investigating an "imminent threat".

Large public gatherings, including protests, are also banned under the emergency powers. 

During the first three days after emergency law was put into effect, 414 homes were searched, 29 people were arrested and 118 were placed under house arrest, according to a Ministry of Interior press release published on Wednesday.

The three-month long emergency powers, extended from the usual 12 days after a vote of approval by the Senate, are supposed to expire when exceptional circumstances no longer apply.

"Emergency powers are only supposed to be used in relation to an imminent threat," John Dalhuisen, director of Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia programme, told Al Jazeera.

France's state of emergency will last for at least three months after an extension suggested by the president and prime minister [Christian Hartman/Reuters]

He explained that "anyone who [security forces or intelligence services] had a file on was re-detained, re-questioned and re-interviewed" following the Paris attacks. 

"It's hard to judge the imminence of a threat from the outside … But it doesn't take a mathematical genius to figure out that much more of this was preventative and speculative rather than linked to intelligence on [the attacks]," he said.

Amnesty International and other rights groups are concerned that certain measures "will be codified into repressive laws that violate human rights," Dalhuisen said.

According to Dalhuisen, many arrests since the Paris attacks were carried out for "justifying terrorism", under a law that could be interpreted loosely and implemented broadly in order to arrest people with controversial opinions. 

"After and since the Charlie Hebdo attacks, there were a range of arrests and some prosecutions under a law against apologising for terrorism," he said. 

Among the arrests, an 18-year-old man will face court on December 10 for justifying terrorism on Twitter, according to L'Express.

According to another article, by the French commerical radio station RTL, a 32-year-old man was sentenced to one year in prison this week for justifying terrorism, a charge he denies.

As the arrests and raids increased over the past 10 days, Yasser Louati, spokesman for the Collective Against Islamaphobia (CCIF) in France, said the number of attacks on Muslims also rose sharply.

He said that between November 14 and 19, there were at least 26 violent incidents towards Muslims across the country and that he has been "inundated" with calls about "retaliatory" attacks each day.

There are around five million Muslims among France's population of 60 million.

Louati said there has been at least 793 police raids since November 13 and that many people have been injured.

"The most shocking thing was that several mosques were raided at night and thrashed by police.

"We are questioning the efficiency of the attacks - is such brutality necessary for one arrest?"

In Nice, the fragment of a police bullet struck a six-year-old girl in the neck and ear, the Nice Matin local newspaper reported as it posted a video of the aftermath. 

In Aubervilliers, a mosque was raided at night and police pulled out the ceilings, broke the doors and threw books - including the Quran - on the floor, Louati said.

Meanwhile, with many demanding that Muslims apologise for the deadly attacks on November 13, he said "we didn't even have the right to feel sad about them - I'm heartbroken for the victims and their families. They were of all different backgrounds: Christians, Muslims, Jews, black and white."

"France has declared a war on terrorism, but they chose the wrong enemy. Muslims are the first victims of terrorism throughout the world," he said.

Along with the emergency provisions in place for three months, President Francois Hollande last week called for additional "constitutional amendments", saying France is in "a state of siege".

Among those amendments are measures which include revoking the citizenship of convicted "terrorists" who carry dual nationalities and expelling foreigners deemed a "threat" by intelligence services.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch, speaking on the broader impact of government surveillance - a measure Hollande said would increase following the events of November 13 - urged caution about preventing the availability of strong encryption services. 

"We look to our leaders not for fear-mongering but for cool-headed assessments of what measures are necessary and proportionate for protection," said HRW's General Counsel Dinah PoKempner.

"In the coming weeks, [we] expect many proposals worldwide to curtail rights and expand surveillance in the name of counterterrorism," she said.

Syrian journalist killed while covering army operations against Islamic State

DAMASCUS, Syria – A Syrian journalist was killed Saturday while covering the army’s operations against Islamic State militants in the country’s central region, Syria’s official news agency said, the latest of dozens of journalists killed while covering the brutal conflict.

Wasim al-Nuqari, a 38-year-old war reporter, was killed in the eastern countryside of Homs province, SANA said. Al-Nuqari worked at Syrian TV for many years and had recently been working as a war reporter for the armed forces.

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said in a statement Saturday that al-Nuqari’s death is another “medal” of honour for the Syrian media, “which is a real partner of the army in facing the terrorist war against the country.”

The army has been battling IS militants near the villages of Mahin and Hawarin villages in southeast Homs.

More than 250,000 people have been killed in the nearly five-year-old conflict, including dozens of local and foreign journalists.

On Saturday, Doctors Without Borders said a hospital near Damascus supported by the international medical charity was struck by missiles this week.

The hospital in the rebel-held town of Arbeen east of the Syrian capital was hit Thursday, approximately 30 minutes after the town came under aerial attack. Two missiles struck the entrance of the makeshift hospital, just as seven wounded people arrived for urgent treatment.

Two people were killed and six, including two medics, were wounded in the strike. The statement did not say who was responsible for the missile attack.

“MSF is appalled that a health structure and medical staff providing life-saving treatment to wounded victims of an indiscriminate bombing campaign are once again targeted,” Brice de le Vingne, Doctors Without Borders’ director of operations, said in a statement.

Deadly suicide bombings target Cameroon's Far North

© Reinnier Kaze, AFP | A picture taken on February 17, 2015 shows a Cameroonian soldier walking in the Cameroonian town of Fotokol, on the border with Nigeria.

A female suicide bomber killed five civilians, including the head of the small village of Leymarie near Fotokol, the governor of the Far North region, Midjiyawa Bakari, told AFP. Three other female attackers blew themselves up without causing any casualties.

Boko Haram has mounted numerous attacks in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria this year and is turning the border region near Lake Chad into a war zone, the United Nations refugee agency said last month.

Boko Haram has waged a six-year campaign for an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria. Neighbouring countries joined an offensive against the group this year and the conflict spilled across their borders, displacing tens of thousands of people.

Boko Haram used Cameroon’s impoverished Far North to stockpile supplies and recruits until the government cracked down last year.

Cameroon is also in an 8,700-strong regional force led by Nigeria against the militants, expected to be operational by the end of the year. The United States is sending military supplies and troops to the central African country to aid the fight.