Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA – A Saudi-led coalition battling Iran-backed rebels in Yemen announced the end Saturday, January 2, of a ceasefire that had been violated on a daily basis since it was declared last month.

The "coalition leadership announces the end of the truce in Yemen starting from 1400" (1100 GMT) on Saturday, the alliance said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The ceasefire announced on December 15 had been ended due to continuous rebel "attacks on the kingdom's territories by firing ballistic missiles towards Saudi cities, targeting Saudi border posts, and hampering aid operations," it said.

The rebels have also "continued to shell residents and kill and detain Yemeni civilians in cities under their control," said the coalition.

"All this shows how unserious the militias and their allies are and their disregard for the lives of civilians, and how they have clearly exploited this truce to make gains."

However, the coalition "was and is still eager on creating the suitable circumstances to find a peaceful solution in Yemen," it said.

Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition that has been battling Iran-backed rebels in neighboring Yemen since March.

Missile intercepted

The rebels intensified their rocket attacks across the Saudi border in recent days, prompting the coalition to threaten severe reprisals.

The statement comes after the coalition announced that Saudi air defence forces had intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen towards the kingdom's city of Abha late on Friday.

The "launcher was located and destroyed in Yemen," it said.

The Saudis have deployed Patriot missile batteries designed to counter attacks and have recently been intercepting missiles fired from Yemen on an almost-daily basis.

More than 80 people, most of them soldiers and border guards, have been killed in shelling and cross-border skirmishes in the kingdom's south since coalition operations began in Yemen.

On Thursday, 3 civilians including two children were killed in cross-border missile attacks from Yemen on a residential area in the southwestern Jazan region of Saudi Arabia.

Eleven others were wounded, among them 9 children, according to the Saudi civil defence.

Fighting has escalated in Yemen since the coalition entered the war to support President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's internationally-recognized government in March.

The UN Security Council last month urged Yemen's warring parties to respect the ceasefire and to resume their inconclusive peace talks.

The ceasefire was declared as talks between the government and rebel representatives opened in Switzerland, and it was later extended by a week.

But the fighting never stopped on ground and coalition air strikes had continued while the talks ended with no major breakthrough 6 days after they had started with both sides saying they would meet again in January.

In May, a 5-day pause in fighting proposed by Saudi Arabia allowed some aid into Yemen before the coalition resumed air strikes, blaming the rebels and their allies for violating the ceasefire.

The rebels seized Sanaa in September 2014 and then advanced south to second city Aden, forcing Hadi to flee last year to Saudi Arabia.

Following territorial gains by loyalists, Hadi returned to Aden in November after 6 months in exile.

Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since March, according to UN figures. – Abdul Hadi Habtor, AFP/Rappler.com

ANKARA, Turkey – An Ankara court on Saturday, January 2, remanded in custody pending trial two Turkish men suspected of belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) group and planning a double suicide bombing in the capital on New Year's Eve.

Musa Canoz, 28, and Adnan Yildirim, 40, who were detained in a raid on Wednesday, were placed under arrest on charges of "possessing explosive materials" and "membership of a terrorist organization," the Anatolia news agency reported.

They were sent to the Sincan prison in Ankara, it added. It was not clear when a trial may start.

Turkish officials said the pair were planning to strike an area in the center of the city that was expected to be packed with revellers on the night of December 31. In the end, the celebrations passed peacefully.

Turkey is on a high security alert after 103 people were killed on October 10 when two suicide bombers ripped through a crowd of peace activists in Ankara in the worst attack in modern Turkey's history.

The Hurriyet daily reported that the pair had left Ankara in 2013 to join up with ISIS forces in Syria, where they received bomb-making training.

They then crossed back into Turkey in September this year, renting an apartment in the Mamak district of Ankara where they were detained.

It said they had been given final instructions over the Internet by an ISIS handler, an Arab with the codename Ebu Enes, on the day they were detained.

A 3rd suspect, named as Z.A., has been detained on suspicion of providing logistical and transport support, it added.

The suspected bombers are believed by investigators to have been acting on the orders of ISIS headquarters in their self-declared capital in Raqa, Syria, rather than independently, it added.

Long criticized by its allies for taking too soft a line against jihadists, Turkey is taking firmer action against the ISIS group on the border with Syria after being shaken by attacks on its soil and the Paris assaults on November 13. – Rappler.com

CUERNAVACA, Mexico (UPDATED) – Several gunmen burst into the home of a newly elected Mexican mayor and shot her dead on Saturday, January 2, just hours into her tenure, police said.

Gisela Mota, 33, a left-of-center former member of Congress, was gunned down barely 24 hours after taking her oath of office in the city of Temixco, which is about 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the capital Mexico City. 

Temixco is plagued by organized crime and rampant drug trafficking – problems the slain mayor had vowed to help clean up.

The government of central Morelos state said that two of the suspected gunmen had been killed and one was in custody.

State Governor Graco Ramirez pledged there would be "no impunity."

Morelos has been one of the Mexican states most affected by drug violence plaguing the country, including kidnappings and murders. 

More than 100,000 people have been killed or gone missing in a nearly a decade of drug violence nationwide.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December 2012, has pledged to reduce the murders, kidnappings and extortion haunting Mexicans. – Rappler.com

TEHRAN, Iran – Angry crowds protesting at Saudi Arabia's execution of a top Shiite cleric set fire to the kingdom's embassy in Tehran Saturday, January 2, and stormed the building before being cleared out by police, ISNA news agency reported.

In Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city, demonstrators meanwhile set fire to the Saudi consulate, according to news sites, carrying pictures of the alleged assault.

The incidents came hours after the announcement of the death of 56-year-old cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a key figure in anti-government protests in the kingdom since 2011.

The execution prompted strong condemnation from Shiite-majority Iran and Iraq.

"There are flames inside the embassy... demonstrators were able to get inside but have since been cleared out," ISNA said.

"The fire has destroyed the interior of the embassy," an eyewitness told AFP. "The police are everywhere and have dispersed the demonstrators, some of whom have been arrested."

Protesters had been able to climb up onto the roof of the embassy before they were made to leave, ISNA added.

Websites carried pictures of demonstrators apparently clutching the Saudi flag, which had been pulled down.

Iranian media quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari as asking police to "protect Saudi Arabia's diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad... and prevent any demonstrations in front of these sites."

Nimr, who spent more than a decade studying theology in Iran, was among a group of 47 Shiites and Sunnis executed Saturday on charges of terrorism.

Predominantly-Shiite Iran, the Sunni kingdom's longtime rival, said in reaction to Nimr's execution that "the Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution."

It will "pay a high price for following these policies," Jaber Ansari had warned before the attacks took place.

In response, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said it had summoned Iran's envoy to protest at the "aggressive Iranian statements on the legal sentences carried out today".

The Saudi interior ministry said the men had been convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organizations" and implementing various "criminal plots".

An official list published included Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in 2003 and 2004. – Rappler.com

WASHINGTON DC, USA – The deadly assault on an Indian air base near the Pakistan border Saturday, January 2, was "a heinous" terrorist attack, the United States said, urging the two rivals to work together to hunt down those responsible.

Three security officers were killed in the attack by suspected Islamist militants on Pathankot base in northern Punjab state earlier Saturday. At least four attackers also died in shootouts with security forces.

The possible involvement of Pakistan-based militants threatens to derail talks between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since independence in 1947.

"The United States is committed to our strong partnership with the Indian government to combat terrorism," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement, condemning the assault.

"We urge all countries in the region to work together to disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks and to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous act." – Rappler.com

NEW YORK, United States – Bill Clinton will hit the campaign trail Monday, January 4, for his wife Hillary – his first appearance on the stump for the former first lady's 2016 White House bid.

The former president's visit to New Hampshire in support of his wife, who leads polls for the Democratic nomination, comes with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump sharpening his attacks on both Clintons.

Bill Clinton will hold a rally at a community college in the city of Nashua and another event later Monday in Exeter.

Trump, who leads the Republican field by a large margin in nationwide polls, has turned recently from verbally attacking his fellow Republican candidates to stepping up his criticism of the Clintons.

Last month, he blasted Bill Clinton's "terrible record" with women – an apparent allusion to rumored past marital infidelities, including while in the White House.

"If Hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women's card on me, she's wrong!" Trump recently tweeted.

Warming to the theme, Trump tweeted on Saturday: "I hope Bill Clinton starts talking about women's issues so that voters can see what a hypocrite he is and how Hillary abused those women!"

The billionaire businessman has called Bill Clinton's past reported affairs "fair game" in the 2016 campaign.

Accusations of sexual impropriety dating back to his time as governor of Arkansas have dogged Clinton for years.

Republicans in Congress tried but failed in 1998 to remove him from office for alleged perjury and obstruction during an investigation into an alleged White House affair.

New Hampshire is host to the nation's first presidential primary on February 9.

Voters in the heartland state of Iowa, using the caucus method, will register their presidential preference on February 1. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – The Land Transportation Office (LTO) will begin 2016 with a new head to lead the agency hounded by controversy over the past year.

Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) executive director Roberto Cabrera will take over the LTO following the resignation of Alfonso Tan Jr, transportation secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya confirmed.

"[He] voluntarily resigned in November, I think, because of family reasons," Abaya told Rappler in a text message.

Abaya said he had requested Tan to "hold on until a new appointment is made by the President."

He added that the appointment papers are expected to be received on Monday, January 4.

Tan has been head of the LTO since 2013, replacing the late Virgie Torres who retired from government service after figuring in a viral video showing her playing in a casino.

Cabrera, meanwhile, was a practicing lawyer before his appointment as LTFRB executive director last February 2013. 

With his new post, Cabrera faces the task of steering an agency hounded by criticism over undelivered license plates and the backlog in driver's licenses.

Last year, the LTO mandated the replacement of old vehicle license plates with new ones as part of its plate standardization program, which it said was an effort to curb plate switching and removal.

But the program came under fire after many vehicle owners complained of waiting months to get their new car plates. Some lawmakers also questioned the deal with the license plate suppliers Power Plates Development Concepts Incorporated and Dutch firm J. Knieriem BV-Goes (PPI-JKG).

In July last year, the Commission on Audit stopped additional disbursement for the program. 

The LTO is also facing problems with the delivery of driver's license cards, after a Manila court stopped the agency's license card deal with Allcard Plastics Philippines Inc. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will protest China's test flight on a newly completed airstrip in an artificial island in the South China Sea.

Philippine foreign affairs spokesperson Charles Jose told Rappler that Manila will contest Beijing's landing of a civilian plane on Fiery Cross Reef on Saturday, January 2.

Manila’s move follows a similar protest from Vietnam, which accused China of violating Hanoi’s sovereignty.

“We will also be lodging a protest in due course,” Jose said on Sunday, January 3.

Jose said the Philippines claims the Fiery Cross Reef (which it calls Kagitingan Reef) as part of the Spratly Islands (Kalayaan Island Group). (READ: PH protests China's reclamation activity on Kagitingan Reef)

Manila filed a historic arbitration case against China before a United Nations tribunal, questioning Beijing’s massive reclamation in the South China Sea, including on Fiery Cross Reef. The Philippines and its treaty ally the United States have urged China to stop island-building and construction activities in the disputed sea.

Yet China’s foreign ministry said Saturday that it finished building an airport in the reef. It said the flight was meant “to test whether or not the facilities on [the airport] meet the standards for civil aviation.”

Vietnam’s foreign ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said the airfield was “built illegally” in territory “part of Vietnam’s Spratlys.” Hanoi gave a protest note to the Chinese embassy.

The flight came after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Vietnam in November to improve ties between the two communist nations.

Binh said China’s latest move goes against “the common conception of the high-ranking leaders of the two countries, and against an agreement on basic principles for solving maritime issues between Vietnam and China.”

The United States also expressed concern that the test flight will aggravate tensions among claimant countries.

Pooja Jhunjhunwala, a spokesperson for the US State Department, said there was "a pressing need for claimants to publicly commit to a reciprocal halt to further land reclamation, construction of new facilities, and militarization of disputed features.”

"We encourage all claimants to actively reduce tensions from unilateral actions that undermine regional stability, and taking steps to create space for meaningful diplomatic solutions to emerge," she added.

Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which $5 trillion in annual trade passes.

One of the world’s busiest shipping routes, the sea is believed to hold vast deposits of oil and gas, and rich fishing grounds.

Militarized Spratlys?

China’s test flight set the maritime dispute off to a rocky start in 2016.

The move was seen as a sign of Beijing’s growing military capabilities. China repeatedly claims that its artificial islands are for civilian use but US officials said Beijing could eventually deploy radar and missile systems, and even establish an air defense identification zone.

The 3,000-meter airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef is large enough to accommodate most Chinese military planes, according to defense journal IHS Jane’s. It is the first airstrip China built in the Spratlys.

“While this was a civil test, this airport is clearly very militarily capable, and China could presumably start to use it in some capacity at any time,” Andrew Erickson, associate professor at the US Naval War College, told the Wall Street Journal.

In response to China’s increasing aggression, the Philippines resorted to arbitration. Among its claims is to have the tribunal declare that the Fiery Cross Reef is at most a reef entitled to a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea.

The Philippines also boosted its armed forces modernization program, and signed a security deal with the US to improve the capability of one of Asia’s weakest militaries.

Manila and other claimants also have airstrips on the Spratly Islands but the scale of China’s reclamation and construction activities far outpaces theirs. – Rappler.com

PATHANKOT, India – Four more Indian soldiers including a top officer have died of injuries after an attack by suspected Islamists on an air force base near the Pakistan border, taking the total death toll to 11, officials said Sunday. 

Seven soldiers in all including a champion shooter and four attackers were killed at the Pathankot base in the northern state of Punjab, after heavily armed gunmen suspected to be from the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed group infiltrated the key station early Saturday. 

The assault - a rare targeting of an Indian military installation outside disputed Kashmir - threatens to undermine improving relations with Pakistan. 

It came just a week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a surprise visit to Pakistan, the first by an Indian premier in 11 years.

The assault - a rare targeting of an Indian military installation outside disputed Kashmir - comes a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a surprise visit to Pakistan, the first by an Indian premier in 11 years.

The US State Department described the assault as "a heinous" terrorist attack and urged the two rivals to work together to hunt down those responsible.

An Indian army official, who declined to be named, told AFP one of the dead was a lieutenant-colonel in the elite commando unit National Security Guard.

The official said the officer and two other soldiers were injured Sunday when a bomb they were trying to defuse exploded during a search of the site.

Air force spokeswoman Rochelle D'Silva said three of 12 soldiers injured in the battle died in hospital on Sunday.

"Nine are being treated in hospital and are stable," she said.    

One of those killed, Subedar Fateh Singh, was a gold medallist at the 1995 Commonwealth Shooting Championships in New Delhi, she said.

Singh was killed at the start of the gunfight, which lasted nearly 14 hours.

The Pathankot air base houses dozens of jet fighters and is important for its strategic location about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Pakistan border.

In July three gunmen said to be Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militants killed seven people including four policemen in an attack in the Sikh-majority state of Punjab.

Authorities had put Punjab on high alert Friday after five gunmen in army fatigues hijacked a car driven by a senior police officer. It was later found abandoned on a highway connecting Pathankot to Kashmir.

It was unclear if there was a link to Saturday's attack. 

Pathankot police chief Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh official said the search would continue until they were satisfied the area was free of militants or munitions.

"We apprehend there might be more bombs at the site. It will take time to clear the area," Singh told AFP. "We are still on alert."–Rappler.com 

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader said Sunday that Saudi Arabia will face "divine revenge" for executing a top Shiite cleric whose death sparked protests in which the kingdom's embassy in Tehran was firebombed.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's remarks underlined the fury felt in Iran and other regional countries over the killing on Saturday of Nimr al-Nimr, who spent more than a decade studying theology in the Islamic republic.

Top officials in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria condemned the execution of Nimr, a force behind anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia in 2011 in the east of the country.

The 56-year-old cleric was put to death along with 46 Shiite activists and Sunnis who the Saudi interior ministry said had been involved in Al-Qaeda killings.

Some were beheaded, and others were shot by firing squad, said the ministry.

While Shiite leaders hit out at the executions the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain defended their Sunni ally, saying they were necessary to confront extremism.

Saudi Arabia in turn accused Iran of sponsoring terror and undermining regional stability.

Khamenei called the killing of Nimr "a political mistake by the Saudi government" which would "haunt its politicians". His comments came ahead of protests planned to start in Tehran at 3:00 pm. 

"The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences," Khamenei told clerics in the Iranian capital. "God will not forgive."

"This scholar neither encouraged people into armed action nor secretly conspired for plots but the only thing he did was utter public criticism rising from his religious zeal," he said of Nimr.

The executions prompted protests in at least one city in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, where Shiites complain of marginalization, as well as in Iraq and Bahrain.

In Tehran the Saudi embassy was ransacked after protesters threw petrol bombs and stormed the building. The kingdom's consulate in Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city, was also set on fire.

Saudi foreign ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki called Iran's reaction "irresponsible", and summoned Tehran's envoy in protest.

The embassy demonstrators were cleared out by police and 40 arrests have been made, Tehran's prosecutor told the ISNA news agency, adding that more detentions could follow.

"The fire has destroyed the interior of the embassy," an eyewitness told AFP. 

'Exacerbating sectarian tensions'

Websites had carried pictures of protesters clutching the Saudi flag, which had been pulled down and members of the crowd were able to climb onto the roof of the embassy before they were made to leave.

The incidents came after the United States and European Union expressed alarm over the executions, with Washington warning Riyadh "risked "exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced".

Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said the executed men were convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organizations" and implementing various "criminal plots".

An official published list included Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed dozens - Saudis and foreigners - in 2003 and 2004.

Among them was Fares al-Shuwail, described by Saudi media as Al-Qaeda's top religious leader in the kingdom.

Those executed were Saudis, except for an Egyptian and a Chadian.

Elsewhere in the region, other Shiite countries and groups also reacted angrily.

In Saudi ally Bahrain, police used tear gas to disperse dozens of youths from the majority Shiite population protesting against the executions.

In Iraq, hundreds demonstrated in the holy Shiite city of Karbala and prominent Shiite lawmaker Khalaf Abdelsamad urged the closure of Riyadh's newly-reopened embassy in Baghdad and the expulsion of its ambassador.

'Instigator of sedition' 

Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah, an ally of Tehran, said Saudi Arabia's rulers were "global criminals" and it denounced Nimr's execution as a "heinous crime".

In Yemen, where the kingdom is leading a coalition against Shiite rebels, the religious scholars' association controlled by them condemned the execution.

Nimr's brother, Mohammed, said he had hoped that "wisdom and a political solution" would prevail to spare the cleric's life.

Executions have soared in Saudi Arabia since King Salman ascended the throne a year ago - 153 people put to death in 2015, nearly twice as many as in 2014.

Rights watchdogs have repeatedly raised concern about the fairness of trials in the kingdom, where murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.

Nimr was arrested in 2012, three years after calling for Eastern Province's Shiite-populated Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates to be separated from Saudi Arabia and united with Bahrain.

The interior ministry had described him at the time of his arrest as an "instigator of sedition".

A video on YouTube in 2012 showed Nimr making a speech celebrating the death of then-interior minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz.–Arthur MacMillan, AFP/Rappler.com 

PATHANKOT, India – A fresh gunbattle erupted Sunday, January 3, at the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, where 11 people died in an attack by suspected Islamic militants, police said.

Officers said they believe up to two gunmen were hiding inside the air base in the northern state of Punjab near the border with Pakistan, which came under attack on Saturday.

"We suspect one or two terrorists are hiding inside. They are firing intermittently," Pathankot police chief Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh told AFP.

An AFP reporter near the site also confirmed gunfire from inside the base.

A police official, who requested not to be named, told AFP that soldiers came under fire as they were clearing explosives from the site.     

Loud explosions were also heard at the heavily guarded air base in the early hours of Sunday, but it was unclear if the blasts were controlled explosions or gunfire.

Gunmen, suspected to be from the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed Islamist group, launched a pre-dawn attack Saturday on the key base.

Seven soldiers, including an army lieutenant-colonel, and 4 attackers were killed in the ensuing gunbattle that lasted 14 hours. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Nearly 50 young Filipinos returned Sunday, January 3, from a remote Philippine-held island in the South China Sea where they had staged a week-long protest against Beijing's claims in the disputed waterway.

The group arrived at Pag-asa island on December 26 as part of an effort to stir up popular opposition to China's claim to most of the contested sea, including Pag-asa, also known as Thitu.

The 47 youths have now returned to Palawan island in the Philippines, Joy Ban-eg, a coordinator of the group, confirmed.

Pag-asa island is part of the Spratlys chain in the South China Sea. China claims most of the sea but the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Taiwan have conflicting claims. (READ: The residents of Pag-asa: Life on a disputed island)

The end of the trip by the 47 Filipino youths coincided with a fresh flare-up between China and claimant Vietnam over the contested sea, as Hanoi accused the Asian giant of landing a plane on a disputed reef.

Beijing insisted the operation took place within Chinese territory.

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs has said it will also file a protest over the incident.

The youth group, organized by a former navy officer, is called Kalayaan Atin Ito, which translates as "Kalayaan, This Is Ours."

"Kalayaan" is the name of a township established by the Philippines in the Spratlys to assert its territorial claim and is also the Filipino word for freedom.

The Philippine government had previously praised the group's "patriotism" but had urged them not to proceed with the trip, while the youth group had accused the Philippine government of not doing enough to stand up to China.

Photographs of the group, posted on their Facebook page, showed the youths camping on the island and posing with patriotic banners.

Reacting to the trip, the Chinese foreign ministry had previously said it was "strongly dissatisfied with the actions and words of the Philippine side." 

Despite having one of the weakest militaries in the region, the Philippines has been vocal in challenging China's claims to the South China Sea, a vital sealane and rich fishing ground which is also believed to hold vast mineral resources.

The Philippines has an international arbitration case now pending in the Hague where it is challenging China's territorial claims, though China has refused to recognize the proceedings.– Rappler.com

TIKRIT, Iraq – The Islamic State (ISIS) group killed at least 12 members of the Iraqi security forces Sunday, January 3, when several suicide attackers infiltrated a base near Tikrit, security officials said.

The target was a police force from Nineveh, the northern province of which Mosul is the capital, that was undergoing training at the Speicher military base.

"Under the cover of fog, they broke into Speicher," said Mahmud al-Sorchi, spokesman for the paramilitary force being set up to take back ISIS-held Nineveh.

"Nineveh police managed to kill 7 attackers but 3 were able to detonate their suicide vests," he said, adding that 3 officers were among the 12 policemen killed.

He also said 20 policemen were wounded in the attack, which took place in the middle of the night.

Several other security sources in the region confirmed the attack, which was claimed by ISIS.

The jihadist organization said 7 suicide attackers managed to enter the huge military base, which lies about 160 kilometers north of Baghdad.

In a statement posted online, ISIS said its commando reached a center where 1,200 cadets were being trained, sparking clashes that lasted 4 hours. – Rappler.com

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's president on Sunday, January 3, condemned the Saudi execution of a Shiite cleric but also denounced attacks on the Sunni kingdom's embassy and consulate as "totally unjustifiable" after protesters stormed the compounds.

"The actions last night by a group of radicals in Tehran and Mashhad leading to damage at the Saudi embassy and consulate are totally unjustifiable, as the buildings should be legally and religiously protected in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Hassan Rouhani said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency. 

At least 44 people were arrested late Saturday for storming the diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad after Saudi Arabia announced it had executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other men on "terrorism" charges.

In Tehran, protesters threw petrol bombs and stormed the embassy. The kingdom's consulate in Mashhad, Iran's second biggest city in the country's northeast, was also set on fire.

But Rouhani criticized Saudi Arabia for killing Nimr. (READ: Saudi Arabia to pay 'high price' for executing Shiite cleric – Iran)

"I have no doubt that the Saudi government has damaged its image, more than before, among the countries in the world – in particular [among] Islamic countries – by this un-Islamic act," he said in a statement.

Yet, the people of Iran "will not allow rogue elements" to use the incident and "carry out illegal actions that damage the dignity of the Islamic republic establishment," he added.

"I call on the interior minister to identify the perpetrators of this attack with firm determination and introduce them to the judiciary... so that there will be an end to such appalling actions once and for all."

Earlier on Sunday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Saudi politicians would face "divine revenge" for their actions. – Rappler.com

Bishkek, KYRGYZSTAN – A Briton working at a foreign-owned gold mine in  Kyrgyzstan has been detained and faces up to 5 years in jail for comparing a local delicacy to a horse penis, authorities said Sunday, January 3.

An interior ministry spokesman told Agence France-Presse that Michael Mcfeat, an employee of Toronto-based Centerra Gold, was detained by police after posting the comment on Facebook, which caused a temporary strike at the mine. 

Mcfeat wrote that his Kyrgyz colleagues were queueing for their "special delicacy, the horse's penis" during holiday celebrations, referring to a traditional horse sausage known as "chuchuk."

Mcfeat now faces racial hatred charges, which can entail between 3 to 5 years in prison under Kyrgyz law. 

A local trade union leader confirmed that work at the mine, which accounts for up to 10% of ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan's economic output, resumed on Sunday after a short strike.

Mcfeat later deleted the post and issued an apology on his Facebook page, saying he had not meant to offend anyone.

Horse meat including offal is a popular delicacy in both Kyrgyzstan and neighboring Kazakhstan where nomadic traditions have been revived since the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

The Kyrgyz government is currently in an ownership standoff with Centerra, which wholly owns the Kumtor Gold mine and operates it through a subsidiary.

Kyrgyzstan holds a 32.7% stake in Centerra, and until last month had been trying to swap that for a 50% stake in the Kumtor mine.

The government walked out of negotiations on December 22, promising to present a new proposal for restructuring the mine's ownership. – Rappler.com

BERLIN, Germany – Germany only has capacity for a maximum 200,000 asylum seekers a year, about a 5th of the number it received in 2015, Bavarian premier Horst Seehofer said Sunday, January 3.

"In Germany, the arrival of 100,000 to a maximum 200,000 asylum seekers and war refugees a year would pose no problem," Seehofer, who heads the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), told Bild newspaper.

The CSU, which has been up in arms over Merkel's welcoming refugee policy, is calling for Germany to cap the number of asylum seekers it takes in.

"Limiting the number of migrants must be the main objective in 2016," Seehofer said ahead of the CSU's annual conference this week in the Bavarian mountain resort of Wildbad Kreuth that Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron are scheduled to attend.

"This figure (of 200,000) is tolerable and, in that case, integration would also work properly. For me, anything above that is excessive," he added, warning of up to 1.5 million arrivals in 2016 unless measures to check the migrant tide were taken.

Merkel has so far categorically refused to set a limit. In her New Year's address she told Germans the influx was "an opportunity for tomorrow." (READ: Germans welcome migrants as EU struggles to make united stand)

Germany took in almost 1.1 million asylum seekers in 2015, 5 times the 2014 tally, local media reported this week, citing unpublished official figures.

Bavaria is the main crossing point into the country for migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Seehofer took the chancellor to task on her refugee policy at a CSU meeting in November, where the two shared a stage.

Stung by his criticism Merkel rebounded at a CDU gathering the following month, winning a standing ovation from party members with a speech defending Germany's "humanitarian responsibility" towards migrants while also calling for a "tangible" reduction in numbers. – Rappler.com

DALY CITY, USA – It should have been simple:  2016 would be the year San Mateo County Filipino Americans finally would have one of their own elected to the County Board of Supervisors.  The board governs almost 400,000 residents, nearly 10% of whom are Filipinos, according to the US Census. 

No Filipino has invested in a costly run for a seat on the 5-member post, which no American of Asian descent and only one known Latino has occupied in the past two decades. 

A recent political shift was going to be a game-changer for the underrepresented populations.  But history might have to wait, if division persists in Daly City, home of the highest concentration of Filipinos in the continental United States.

That would be a bummer for City Council member and 5-time Mayor of Daly City Mike Guingona, who broke this town’s bamboo ceiling in 1993, when he became the first Filipino American ever elected in Daly City.

Conventional wisdom follows that his record has primed the criminal defense lawyer to be the first Filipino American Supervisor in the county. 

“I will succeed Adrienne Tissier,” San Francisco-born Guingona trumpeted early 2015 when asked if he would seek the seat vacated by his former peer on the City Council of Daly City.

Many Filipino political players agreed.

Thanks to a group of business owners and politicos who in 2011 had challenged authorities and forced a shift in the election system in San Mateo County, voters there will now choose their supervisors by district.  Candidates no longer have to campaign all way down in Half Moon Bay on the county’s southern coast in District 3, if they were eyeing a seat in Daly City, the county’s northernmost town in District 5.

Instead of courting 352,698 registered voters, they would preen just for 57,964, per official county statistics.

Where a candidate once needed upward of $80,000 for their war chest, ambition would cost them half today.

Anyone aspiring to represent the residents of District 5, which also includes Brisbane, Colma, and parts of South San Francisco and San Bruno – can skip the old trek and confine their campaign within district borders, now that San Mateo County has joined all other counties electing their leaders by district.  With current District 5 Supervisor Tissier termed out of office in 2016, Daly City – where Tissier was a council member prior to her county post - is expected to deliver her successor.

That’s what Guingona and many others thought when he joined the collective celebration over the election system shift, viewed as a boost to the political “empowerment” of Filipinos and Latinos.  Those two are the most populous communities of color in the county.

Their numerical superiority has not resulted in an election of an Asian and more than one Latino to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, however.

Guingona, the seniormost elected official in the district, is not alone in seeking the opening seat. So is David Canepa, Guingona’s  colleague on the city council of Daly City.

Canepa jumped the gun on potential opponents when he announced early 2015 that he was opening an account to initiate fund raising for his campaign. By now he says he has collected over $100,000.

The move was not unexpected. Canepa may be junior to all but one of his co-council members, but the former aide to the Assembly member later state Senator Leland Yee has endeared himself to Filipinos with his personality and availability at their events.

He’s not Filipino but he has won over Raymond Buenaventura, current mayor of Daly City, and Buenaventura’s supporters.  While the latter failed in his quest to be the first Fil-Am judge on the Superior Court, he topped the November 2014 city council election in Daly City, raking in more votes than his predecessor Guingona.  Guingona placed second.

Guingona had nominated and appointed Buenaventura to the city council in 2011, when a vacancy emerged. Canepa cast the lone opposing vote.  Buenaventura was duly elected a couple of months later and was elevated by his council peers to Mayor the following year.  He appointed Canepa to be his Vice Mayor.

The other prominent Fil-Ams in District 5, Colma Mayor Joanne del Rosario and Vice Mayor Diana Colvin, are supporting the supervisorial hopes of Helen Fisicaro, their predecessor on the council. The lone female contestant has already notched the endorsement of the incumbent Tissier, the supervisor’s chief of staff Lorraine Simmons confirmed to Rappler. 

Guingona is the lone candidate of color in the race. Brisbane Mayor Pro Tem Clifford Lenz, mayor pro tem is the third male and fourth white candidate.

Tissier’s endorsement of Fisicaro does not intimidate Guy Guerrero, Guingona confidante and supporter, who notes that his bet has garnered 5 digit totals from the electorate through the years. In contrast, Fisicaro and Lentz have won with less than 1,000 votes, he pointed out.  

“The other candidates will take votes from one another,” Guerrero aired the same confidence he showed 5 years ago when he began advocating to shift the way the county elects its officials.

With primary elections 6 months away, Guerrero is hoping he can sway FilAms to toss old enmity and join him in making history together behind Guingona.  The same call to unity has been sounded by Ray Satorre, Bradley Roxas, and Mario Panoringan, plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit that changed the voting system in San Mateo County.– Rappler.com

Parts 1 of 3. To be continued

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Up to 100,000 people still living in camps 6 years after the end of Sri Lanka's brutal ethnic war will be given land to build homes within 6 months, President Maithripala Sirisena told Agence France-Presse Sunday, January 3.

"It is an ambitious target, but I will see that all the internally displaced people are given land to build homes," the president said in an interview. "I am setting up a mechanism to complete this process within 6 months."

Sirisena, elected last January, has won praise for starting to hand back land after the end of one of South Asia's longest and bloodiest ethnic wars, pitting the government against Tamil separatists.

But he is also under international pressure to do more to ensure reconciliation in the ethnically divided nation.

The president told Agence France-Presse he would give land to civilians displaced by war in the embattled northern and eastern provinces, and also the northwestern coastal region of Puttalam, by the middle of this year.

During a visit to Jaffna in the north last month, where much of the fighting took place, Sirisena said he visited a refugee camp which has been home to about 1,300 families for the past 25 years. 

"This is an unacceptable situation. I want to end this problem once and for all," he said. "For many people the main issue was lack of land and that is something we will resolve in the next 6 months."

As part of a parallel scheme, he was also planning to release additional private land occupied by the military, mainly in the former war zones in the northern and eastern provinces starting in the next two weeks. 

He said he would travel to Jaffna this month to formally hand over about 700 acres (283 hectares) of land as part of the plan and in line with an election promise he had made. 

Sirisena, 64, came to power with the backing of Sri Lanka's minority Tamils and Muslims in addition to the majority Sinhalese on the back of promises to ensure ethnic reconciliation and end the corruption and nepotism of his predecessor.

Soon after his election, Sirisena ordered security forces to return private land they occupied in the Jaffna peninsula, which had seen some of the bloodiest fighting during the war which claimed over 100,000 lives between 1972 and 2009. 

He said the government was also working on a mechanism to investigate allegations of war crimes in the final stages of the conflict.

The president said he would also call for proposals for a new constitution to ensure the country did not slip back into war.

"We can't rush the accountability process," Sirisena said. "Some people want it to be like instant noodles. We can't do that. We have to be responsible and respect rule of law." – Rappler.com

WASHINGTON, USA – After jihadists used his tough remarks about Muslims in a recruitment video, Donald Trump refused to back down, saying in remarks aired Sunday, January 3, "I have to say what I have to say."

The Republican presidential hopeful made the comments on CBS's "Face the Nation" after a US monitoring group said that his call for a ban on Muslims entering the US had been used in a video by Somalia's extremist Shebab group.  

Trump's call for a total, if temporary, ban had drawn criticism around the globe, including from Hillary Clinton, the frontrunning Democratic candidate, who said his remarks were used by radicals in recruitment videos – a suggestion Trump aides had sharply denied. 

In the new video, the Al Qaeda-affiliated Shebab uses an excerpt from Trump's December 7 speech – made after an attack by a radicalized couple in California killed 14 people – to encourage Western Muslims to wage jihad, the SITE Intelligence Group reported.

After describing Trump's call for a ban, the video goes on to say, "The West will eventually turn against its Muslim citizens."  

Asked about it on CBS, the Republican frontrunner seemed to shrug his shoulders.

"What am I going to do?" Trump asked. "I have to say what I have to say. And you know what I have to say?  There's a problem. We have to find out what is the problem. And we have to solve that problem."

He said his stance had drawn wide support, and he pointed to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and said, specifically citing the case of Brussels, that many nations were "shutting down cities that had never had a problem before."

"Maybe it's not politically correct," Trump said, but "there's a big problem out there."

Trump's inflammatory remarks last month sparked global outrage. 

During a Democratic debate last month, Clinton accused Trump of being "ISIS's best recruiter," referring to the self-described Islamic State (ISIS) group, and said radical jihadists were "showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists."

Trump accused her of lying, but Clinton's spokeswoman insisted that his remarks were "being used in social media by ISIS as propaganda."

US media outlets were unable to find any footage to back up Clinton's initial claim. 

The Shebab, who were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011, are fighting to overthrow Somalia's internationally backed government, which is protected by 22,000 African Union troops.– Rappler.com

WASHINGTON, USA – President Barack Obama will take part Thursday, January 7, in a town hall-style meeting to discuss new efforts to stem what he has called an epidemic of gun violence across America.

Obama, who recently singled out gun violence as one of the most urgent pieces of "unfinished business" facing him, will take questions from the audience during the event, to be aired on CNN at 8 p.m. (2300 GMT).

The program is to be held at George Mason University in Fairfax, in northern Virginia.

The president has frequently expressed frustration at Congress's failure to pass tougher gun-control measures, even after some of the worst mass shootings in the nation's history.

Beginning his final year in office, he is set to meet Monday with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss possible new actions he can take. 

According to CNN and The New York Times, Obama is expected to announce executive action to expand background checks on gun sales before his State of the Union address on January 12.

Guns claim more than 30,000 lives in America each year, over half of them suicides.– Rappler.com