Armed Militia Occupies Government Building at Oregon Wildlife Preserve

Armed protesters occupied a building at a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon Saturday after a protest against the federal prosecution of two local ranchers for arson.

After a peaceful march in support of two local ranchers, an armed militia occupied the headquarters of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, according to a statement from Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward. Ward called the occupiers “outside militants” and urged locals to stay away from the Refuge as law enforcement work to diffuse the situation. The protesters remained in the building on Sunday morning

The militia claimed they had up to 100 supporters with them and is partly led by Ammon Bundy and two of his brothers. Bundy is the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who made headlines in 2014 for refusing the pay the federal government to graze his herd on public land and then gained notoriety again after making racist comments that caused many of his supporters to distance themselves from his cause.

“We’re out here because the people have been abused long enough,”Ammon Bundy said in a video posted to Facebook. “Their land and their resources have been taken from them to the point where it’s putting them literally in poverty. And this facility here has been a tool in doing that. It is a people’s facility, owned by the people.”

He said the occupation was a “hard stand against this overreach,” and said the occupiers were prepared to stay in the building until citizens of Harney county “could use these lands as free men.” He cited the EPA as an example of a federal agency that patrols land and resources and drives Americans into poverty. The Malheur Wildlife Refuge is run by the National Fish & Wildlife Service.

In an earlier video posted to Facebook on Thursday, Ammon Bundy issued a call to action “to the individual, to the patriot,” urging them to “come to Harney county” on Jan 2. “This is not a time to stand down, this is a time to stand up,” he said.

The occupation sprung from a march in support of two ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven Hammond, who are due to report to prison on Monday after a federal judge ruled the sentences they had served for a 2001 arson were not long enough. The father-son duo were convicted three years ago of arson after prosecutors said they intentionally burned 130 acres of land, and their conviction falls under an expansive anti-terrorism law, the Oregonianreports, which means they have to go back to serve more time. Roughly 300 supporters marched through Burns to support the duo.

“We are not terrorists,” Ammon Bundy told CNN, claiming that the occupation is intended to restore “constitutional rights.”

Iran In 'Divine Vengeance' Warning To Saudi

Nimr al Nimr was put to death in Saudi Arabia along with 46 other prisoners on Saturday.

The issue has threatened to further damage relations between the Sunni-ruled kingdom and its enemy Iran, which is a predominantly Shia nation.

Nimr al Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric, was among those executed in prisons

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: "The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians."

US officials have urged the Saudi government and other Middle Eastern leaders to "redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating tensions".

Protesters in Iran's capital, Tehran, attacked the Saudi embassy with petrol bombs in the wake of the executions.

Sectarian anger was also enflamed in eastern parts of Saudi, with hundreds of Shia Muslims marching through the streets.

Al Nimr, 56, was a driving force behind anti-government protests in Saudi during the Arab Spring of 2011 and Riyadh has insisted that the death penalties were part of a justified war on terrorism.

There have also been outbreaks of unrest in Bahrain, where demonstrators took to the streets, and in the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad, where the Saudi consulate was the scene of protests.

Also, the leader of Lebanese Shia militant group Hizbollah strongly condemned Saudi Arabia.

Hassan Nasrallah called Al Nimr a brave martyr and holy warrior, who did not carry weapons or espouse armed conflict and was killed only for his criticism of the Al Saud ruling family.

Iran is ruled by a majority Shia-led government and some of its politicians have warned that Saudi's monarchy will pay a high price for the killing of Al Nimr.

Meanwhile, former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al Maliki said the execution "will topple the Saudi regime".

The comments of high-profile Iranians prompted Saudi's Foreign Ministry to summon Iran's envoy to the kingdom, amid claims the criticism represented a "blatant interference" in its internal affairs.

A Saudi government spokesman later said: "The Iranian regime is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism, considering that (Iran) is a state that sponsors terror, and is condemned by the United Nations and many countries."

The violent protests came despite an appeal by Al Nimr's brother for a "peaceful" response to the execution, who said his family did not want to see further bloodshed.

Most of those executed were detained after a series of attacks by al Qaeda between 2003 and 2006 in which hundreds of people were killed. Four, including Al Nimr, were Shias accused of shooting police.

All but two - an Egyptian and a Chadian - were Saudi nationals. The executions took place in 12 cities across Saudi, with four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has called on David Cameron to speak out against the executions.

Treasury minister David Gauke said the executions were "wrong", but he defended the UK's close relationship with the Saudi regime.

He told Sky News' Murnaghan programme: "When it comes to protecting British people, the Prime Minister has made it clear that intelligence from Saudi Arabia has helped save lives and protect people in the UK ...

"We have a relationship with Saudi Arabia where we are able to speak candidly to them, where these issues are raised on a regular basis by the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister and our representatives in Riyadh."

Last year, 157 people were put to death in Saudi Arabia, compared to 90 in 2014.

Iran Warns of ‘Divine Revenge’ After Saudis Execute Shiite Cleric

(TEHRAN, Iran) — Iran’s top leader on Sunday warned Saudi Arabia of “divine revenge” over the execution of an opposition Shiite cleric while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism, escalating a war of words hours after protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran.

Saudi Arabia announced the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaida militants. It was largest mass execution carried out by the kingdom in three and a half decades.

Al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012, and his execution drew condemnation from Shiites across the region.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the execution Sunday in a statement on his website, saying al-Nimr “neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism.” Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia’s “medieval act of savagery” in executing the cleric would lead to the “downfall” of the country’s monarchy.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had “revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism.”

The statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, accused Tehran of “blind sectarianism” and said that “by its defense of terrorist acts” Iran is a “partner in their crimes in the entire region.”

Al-Nimr was convicted of terrorism charges but denied ever advocating violence.

Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are locked in a bitter rivalry, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting “terrorism” in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups, while Riyadh points to Iran’s support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Iran’s envoy to the kingdom to protest Iran’s criticism of the execution, saying it represented “blatant interference” in its internal affairs.

In Tehran, the crowd gathered outside the Saudi Embassy early Sunday and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, said the country’s top police official, Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency. He later said police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them, adding that the situation had been “defused.”

Hours later, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said 40 people had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the embassy attack and investigators were pursuing other suspects, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, while condemning Saudi Arabia’s execution of al-Nimr, also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as “extremists.”

“It is unjustifiable,” he said in a statement.

By 4 p.m., some 400 protesters had gathered in front of the embassy despite a call by the government for them to protest at a square in central Tehran. A sign for the street had been changed to “Sheikh Nimr St.” Tehran authorities could not be immediately reached to discuss the new name.

Protests also took place in Beirut, while those in eastern Saudi Arabia prepared for three days of mourning at a mosque in al-Awamiya. However, the sheikh’s brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, told The Associated Press that Saudi officials told his family that the cleric was already buried in an undisclosed cemetery.

The cleric’s execution could also complicate Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq. The Saudi Embassy in Baghdad is preparing to formally reopen for the first time in nearly 25 years. Already on Saturday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again.

Al-Abadi tweeted Saturday night that he was “shocked and saddened” by al-Nimr’s execution, adding that “peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last.”

On Sunday, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called al-Nimr a martyr and said his blood and that of other Shiite protesters “was unjustly and aggressively shed.”

Hundreds of al-Nimr’s supporters also protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India.

The last time Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution on this scale was in 1980, when the kingdom executed 63 people convicted over the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. Extremists held the mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba toward which Muslims around the world pray, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne.

Also Sunday, the BBC reported that one of the 47 executed in Saudi Arabia, Adel al-Dhubaiti, was convicted over a 2004 attack on its journalists in Riyadh. That attack by a gang outside of the home of a suspected al-Qaida militant killed 36-year-old Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers. British reporter Frank Gardner, now the BBC’s security correspondent, was seriously wounded in the attack and paralyzed, but survived.

Israel Indicts Jewish Extremists in Deadly Arson Attack

(JERUSALEM) — Israel on Sunday indicted two Jewish extremists suspected in a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents — a case that has been unsolved for months and helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The long-awaited indictment follows months of investigations into a web of Jewish extremists operating in the West Bank. The indictment named Amiram Ben-Uliel, a 21-year-old West Bank settler, as the main suspect in the attack. A minor was charged as an accessory.

Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were charged for other violence against Palestinians. All four were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization.

The arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, while his mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali’s 4-year-old brother Ahmad survived.

The firebombing, carried out at night while the family slept, sparked soul-searching among Israelis.

It was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged “zero tolerance” in the fight to bring the assailants to justice. Israel has authorized a series of steps, including holding several suspects without charge — a tactic typically used against Palestinian militants — to crack the case.

But critics have said that similar, albeit not deadly, attacks have festered for years with little action by the government. And for months, Palestinians watched angrily as the case remained unsolved, intensifying a feeling of skewed justice in the occupied territory, where suspected Palestinian militants are prosecuted under a separate system of military law that gives them few rights. The arson also touched on Palestinian fears of extremist Jewish settlers, who have attacked Palestinian property with impunity.

Palestinians cite the Duma incident as a factor in a three-month wave of attacks and clashes roiling the region, saying they are frustrated by years of unchecked settler violence.

Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers over the past three and a half months have killed 21 Israelis, mostly in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. That figure does not include the two Israelis killed Friday by an Arab man in a shooting attack on a Tel Aviv restaurant, as the motive for the attack hasn’t officially been determined yet.

During that time, at least 131 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, 90 of them identified by Israel as assailants. The rest died in clashes with security forces.

Israel says the violence is being fanned by a Palestinian campaign of incitement. The Palestinians say it is rooted in frustrations stemming from nearly five decades of Israeli occupation.

The violence continued Sunday as a female Israeli soldier was shot in the West Bank city of Hebron, the military said. She was moderately wounded and troops were searching for the shooter.

Israel’s Shin Bet security service said Sunday that the suspects admitted to carrying out the Duma attack, saying it was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli settler by Palestinians a month earlier. It said all the suspects were part of a group of extremists that had carried out a series of attacks over the years in a religiously inspired campaign to undermine the government and sow fear among non-Jews.

The indictment said Ben-Uliel admitted to spraying graffiti on the Dawabsheh family home and then tossing a firebomb through a bedroom window before fleeing the scene. Ben-Uliel’s parents said they believe in his innocence and that he was tortured during interrogation.

Nasser Dawabsheh, Saad’s brother, said the indictments were not enough.

“It’s clear the Israeli institutions are not serious,” he said. “It’s clear there was an organization behind this crime, even the media knows that. And the government was not serious in preventing it and is not serious in pursuing the killers.”

Jewish extremists have for years vandalized or set fire to Palestinian property, as well as mosques, churches, the offices of dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases. The so-called “price tag” attacks seek to exact a cost for Israeli steps seen as favoring the Palestinians.

The extremists are part of a movement known as the “hilltop youth,” a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops — land the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. A lawyer for one of the suspects says his client gave a forced confession after interrogators deprived him of sleep and tied him upside down by his feet.

The Yesha council, an umbrella group of West Bank settlements, commended the indictment and said the suspects do not represent it.

“It is now clear that these acts were perpetrated by a fringe group of anarchists bent on destroying the State of Israel and the freedom and justice that it represents,” it said in a statement.

How I made the Manchester New Year's Eve photo go viral

If you have not yet seen the image in question, it shows drunken revellers on a Manchester street and was taken by photographer Joel Goodman on New Year's Eve.

And it's my fault he received all the world's attention on Friday. Sorry, Joel.

Mainstream UK websites chose to lead with the image. Le Monde ran a piece on it. Other websites in France, as well in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere, discussed it. 

My original post has been retweeted more than 23,000 times.

So what happens when you unexpectedly go viral? So far, I've identified five key stages.

Naivety

The photo was initially buried deep in a gallery posted by the Manchester Evening News.

It immediately jumped out - it had so much drama in one place I couldn't stop staring at it. So I posted it, crediting the newspaper (more on that later).

My starting position whenever I post anything is to assume not many people will read it.

But I underestimated a few things - it was New Year's Day, so people are at home not doing much. There are a lot of art lovers out there. And people really, really like to laugh at other people.

Shock

Within minutes the tweet had gained some momentum - in the Netherlands of all places, thanks to a Dutch follower. At some point, the interest moved over the Channel.

Soon afterwards, one follower pointed out the photo's real aesthetic value - the fact that it complied with the so-called golden ratio rule. 

A meme was born.

At that point, it all became a bit overwhelming - comedians reposted the image, major news networks paid attention to it, people spent their time making detailed artistic recreations. 

Out of everything happening across the world on Friday, Twitter decided it was the most important "moment".

Was there nothing else going on in the world?

Acceptance

As soon as the disbelief wore off, abnormal became the new normal. 

I started getting bombarded by Twitter users pointing out similarities with the paintings of Hogarth, Caravaggio, Gericault and Lowry, as well as the tapestries of Grayson Perry (I now know more about art than I did in school).

Some more creative types went as far as adapting the image in the style of Van Gogh, Georges Seurat and Michelangelo - often adding the reclining man with the beer from the original photo.

But more interesting was seeing just how proud Mancunians were to see their hometown depicted in this way.

It's fair to say that the scene is one many people in Manchester have seen before, judging by the amount of times people posted it saying, "I love my town".

Guilt

My immediate pang of guilt came from the fact I hadn't credited Joel on the initial tweet, something I tried to quickly rectify. 

But it made little difference - my initial tweet didn't say who took it, so he didn't get all the credit he deserved. 

From now on, I'll be crediting the photographer wherever I can.

Joel and I have since been in touch - he is thrilled with the attention and it's been good business for him. 

But a campaign started to get one of the most prominent retweeters - sci-fi author William Gibson - to acknowledge who took the photo. 

And people power worked. 

But my guilt also came from knowing that these were people who, although out celebrating New Year, were not in any position to consent to a photo being taken - and they would certainly not have expected to see themselves become a meme.

A small minority of commentators attacked the image and the debauchery it portrays. 

Some thought it was invasive. One man said the initial photo gallery was "irresponsible and voyeuristic" and I would be upset if anyone in the image has taken offence.

It certainly raises issues about how much duty of care you have in posting something - whether it goes viral or not. It's not a question I'm capable of answering here, but it has made me rethink the nature of what is put out there.

On the other hand, I would just love to know who the guy lying on the ground is. Anyone?

Fatigue

I am close to the point of fatigue now. 

My family were probably at that point at 16:00 GMT on Friday when I was pointing out in which country I was trending at that time.

And yet the tweets continue. 

And the requests to buy Joel's prints continue - the latest from Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.

While Joel and I might be still shocked at the response, we are also very lucky - that the photo trended for a positive reason. 

People, for the most part, liked it. I would hate to think what happens to those who find themselves on the end of Twitter hype for all the wrong reasons.

Prince William says fatherhood made him 'more emotional'

World events, and "the idea of not being around to see your children grow up", affected him much more since the births of Prince George and Princess Charlotte, the 33-year-old prince said.

"The smallest things" now made him well up, he said in an ITV documentary about his father's Prince's Trust charity.

Prince Charles said he hoped his sons would take over the trust one day.

Speaking to presenters Ant and Dec - Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly - alongside his brother Prince Harry, the Duke of Cambridge said: "I'm a lot more emotional than I used to be, weirdly. 

"I never used to get too wound up or worried about things. But now the smallest little things, you well up a little more, you get affected by the sort of things that happen around the world or whatever a lot more, I think, as a father.

"Just because you realise how precious life is and it puts it all in perspective. The idea of not being around to see your children grow up and stuff like that."

'Story of my life'

In the 90-minute programme When Ant and Dec Met The Prince: 40 Years of the Prince's Trust, which will be aired on Monday evening, the Prince of Wales said people initially "didn't see the point" of his charity.

The trust's early history had been the "same story of my life", Prince Charles added - of having to "overcome" people who did not believe in it.

He recalled setting up the charity in 1976, using the £7,400 he received in severance pay when he left the Royal Navy to fund a number of community schemes.

Since then, the Prince's Trust has grown to become one of Britain's leading youth charities and has reached more than 825,000 young people.

However, the prince said getting the trust off the ground had been "quite difficult", adding: "It is a bit of the same story of my life really, you had to overcome all these people who didn't see the point."

Asked about the possible involvement of his sons in the charity, he said: "I hope one of them might take an interest in it because I am probably getting past my sell-by date now."

Laughing prince

In the documentary, Princes William and Harry also paid tribute to their father's charity work, saying he had an "insurmountable amount of duty in him".

"He is incredibly driven to do his duty and that from a very young age has been instilled in him," Prince William said, adding: "It is where a lot of his passion and his drive comes from."

Prince Harry said the advice he has given his two sons throughout their lives had been "incredible" - although the brothers joked that he had at times made them cringe.

Prince William said on one occasion his father had convulsed with giggles when a pyrotechnic explosion went off at the wrong moment as he was playing the role of narrator in a Christmas play.

"He couldn't stop laughing the whole way through the production," he said.

"Several times I'd stop... I'd cast an eye across, like you know, a big death stare, and then I'd try and get back to my lines, it was terrible."

Speaking in the same documentary, the Duchess of Cornwall said she was "really proud" to be married to somebody who "had the vision" to launch the Prince's Trust when aged 27.

"I mean it was an incredible idea then," Camilla said.

Asked how Prince Charles maintains his enthusiasm for the charity, she replied: "I don't know, he just has that energy.

"You know if you're passionate about something you can do it, he cares so much about these young people."

Former City Trader To Rejoin Fight Against IS

Macer Gifford, 28, said he had joined the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) with whom he served before.

He realised he would be putting his life at risk once again but said he believed it was worth it.

Mr Gifford during his previous stint with YPG

"As a civilian, as a human being, we are fighting against a vicious ideology killing thousands of people.

"The people of Syria I stand totally behind and I want to see safe and secure.

"I will do anything I can in my power to support them."

Mr Gifford was speaking after it emerged Britain has carried out just four air strikes in Syria since MPs voted to extend military action to the country.

According to the Ministry of Defence, there have been three manned attacks, all on the Omar oilfield on Syria's eastern border with Iraq.

They were undertaken on 2, 4 and 6 December, just days after the Commons vote.

The most recent attack was an unmanned drone strike on a checkpoint south of Raqqa on Christmas Day.

Asked about the vote, Mr Gifford (his nom de guerre, not his real name) commented: "It all turned out to be a bit of a damp squib.

"At the end of the day air strikes only go so far, they can only slice away at the problem.

"If we seriously want to defeat IS and build a future for Syria we can all believe in, then we need to be supporting people on the ground."