Islamic State insurgents threatened on Tuesday to turn the Gaza Strip into another of their Middle East fiefdoms, accusing Hamas, the organisation that rules the Palestinian territory, of being insufficiently stringent about religious enforcement.

The video statement, issued from an Islamic State stronghold in Syria, was a rare public challenge to Hamas, which has been cracking down on jihadis in Gaza who oppose its truces with Israel and reconciliation with the US-backed rival Palestinian faction Fatah.
"We will uproot the state of the Jews (Israel) and you and Fatah, and all of the secularists are nothing and you will be over-run by our creeping multitudes," said a masked Islamic State member in the message addressed to the "tyrants of Hamas".
"The rule of sharia (Islamic law) will be implemented in Gaza, in spite of you. We swear that what is happening in the Levant today, and in particular the Yarmouk camp, will happen in Gaza," he said, referring to Islamic State advances in Syria, including in a Damascus district founded by Palestinian refugees.
Islamic State has also taken over swathes of Iraq and has claimed attacks in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen.
Hamas is an Islamist movement that shares the jihadis' hostility to Israel but not their quest for a global religious war, defining itself more within the framework of Palestinian nationalism.
Deemed a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union, and viewed by neighbouring Arab power Egypt as a regional security threat, Hamas's struggle against Islamic State-linked jihadis has not won sympathy abroad.
Israel's intelligence minister, Israel Katz, accused Hamas on Tuesday of partnering with Islamic State affiliates in the Egyptian Sinai - a charge long denied by the Palestinian group.
"There is cooperation between them in the realm of weapons smuggling and terrorist attacks. The Egyptians know this, and the Saudis," Katz told a Tel Aviv conference organised by the Israel Defense journal. "At the same time, within Gaza, ISIS (Islamic State) has been flouting Hamas. But they have common cause against the Jews, in Israel or abroad."

London: High alert was sounded across England and security tightened up after ten Hindus were seen doing Yoga which has got everything to do with Hinduism.

Intelligence photo of Hindus performing Yoga in London park today (Proof: Hand pose and Saffron mats)

Describing the alert, British Police Chief, Robert, said, “United Kingdom had been subjected to violence, attacks and hate speeches in the past. But, none of them were related to any religion. But, for the first time in the European soil, we could see a religious activity being done in the middle of the city, in day light, in a park where people of multiple faiths go for walk. According to reports, people were shocked to see around ten men, obviously Right-wing Hindus, doing Yoga around 8 AM in the park today morning. As soon as we got the reports, we immediately cordoned the place and sounded high alert across Europe.”
“We advise people to take care of their offensive levels and not get offended by seeing such religious activities being forced to our retinas by communal Hindus in a secular Europe. Such visual terrorism is the trademark of saffron terrorism, funded by Hindu Nationalist government and carried to our multicultural land by communal Hindus. Last week, there were training taking place in hidden areas of England. But today, they have tried to disturb our peace by showing such religious acts in open spaces. We will never tolerate such acts. We have remanded the people who had disturbed mental peace of people practicing other religions,” added Robert.
Following the alert, UK PM David Cameron immediately spoke to media. When viewers, bored of his usual non-tirade of ‘nothing to do with religion’, were about to turn off their TV or mobile live feed of his interview, he let off the biggest shock of his political career.
Cameron said, “People doing religious activity in the heart of England strikes fear into our hearts. But, we will not be scared of such attacks on our values. Yoga has got everything to do with religion and hence, I condemn this activity.” Britishers were shell shocked and choked by this sudden change of Cameron’s usual words post such alerts.
Meanwhile, in another news, five bombs which has got nothing to do with religion, ripped across different parts of Europe killing few infidels, following which the alert level was reduced and people were assured that normalcy has returned back to Al England.

On Friday morning, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was a protection granted by the Constitution, legalizing same-sex marriage across the country.

Many will see this as a victory for freedom and democracy, while others will see it as an over reach of the Federal government and a loss of states' rights. Either way you feel, its a historic decision on a hot-button topic that's been debated for years now.

How do you feel about this landmark decision? Do you see it as a win for freedom and marriage equality or a loss for states' sovereignty and what some opponents call "family values"?

Alexis Tsipras, the leftist Greek prime minister, made a surprise appearance at the forum’s main event, emerging from the audience in the packed convention center to deliver a speech immediately after Putin.

ST PETERSBURG: The leaders of Russia and Greece produced a grand pageant of solidarity, friendship and supposed economic cooperation at Russia's annual gathering for global business executives Friday, but the embrace seemed mostly about thumbing their noses at Europe.

READ ALSO: Greece says European Central Bank won't let its banks collapse

For President Vladimir V Putin, giving the Greek prime minister a high-profile international platform served to eclipse the issue of the war in eastern Ukraine, which was all anybody could talk about at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum last year.

 

"There was an obsession about Ukraine, headlines all the time — Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine," said Charles Robertson, managing director and global chief economist at Renaissance Capital.

"Now, how many people died in the Donetsk region yesterday? How much shelling was there? Does anyone know?" he asked. "Greece has become the European story, rather than Ukraine and Russia."

READ ALSO: Greek banks bleed, 1bn withdrawn in a day

Alexis Tsipras, the leftist Greek prime minister, made a surprise appearance at the forum's main event, emerging from the audience in the packed convention center to deliver a speech immediately after Putin.

It was a chance for him to bathe in warm applause while he denounced the European Union, to show that he had friends and to try to pressure Brussels to give a little ground in crucial debt talks next week. Yet he received no Russian money and limited investment pledges.

The result was perhaps best summed up by statements from the Kremlin and Tsipras after bilateral talks. They agreed to produce a joint memo about future plans for cooperation — by November. There was no discussion of financial aid, Russia said.

Tsipras recognized the incongruity of appearing in St. Petersburg while the economic fate of his country is uncertain. "Many are asking themselves the question, why am I here?" he said, acknowledging the urgent debt talks in Europe. "Why am I not in Brussels?"

For too long, he said, Europe has thought of itself as the fulcrum of the global economic order, while real weight is shifting to Asia, Russia and elsewhere.

About the closest thing to an actual deal was a memorandum of understanding signed by Greece and Gazprom, the Russian state energy giant, on the construction of a gas pipeline, an extension of one that will carry Russian gas to Europe through Turkey. Russia committed to pay for the pipeline and hundreds of millions of dollars in transit fees.

There are myriad bonds uniting the two leaders and their countries. Greece and Russia share the Orthodox Christian faith. Tsipras was a staunch Communist in his youth and has long been critical of the United States. He has opposed the west's economic sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

For months, there has been the tantalizing possibility of a grand bargain that would be a stick in the west's eye: that Greece would provide the one vote needed to block European sanctions in exchange for a financial crutch from the Kremlin.

But the hard reality voiced by leading economic figures in Russia was that it was not about to lend Greece money; that it was not even going to buy Greek bonds; that its businessmen were as reluctant as the rest of the world to get involved in such an economic morass; and that the main question was whether the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, would decide in the crisis talks next week to extend the European Union's lifeline.

At a post-speech session on Greek-Russian economic cooperation, political and business leaders continued to mouth odes to partnership, even noting that the countries shared a love of poetry.

But the numbers present a different story. Because of the western sanctions and Russia's blockade of many food imports from Europe, trade between Greece and Russia dropped 40 percent in 2014 and another 40 percent this year, officials said. Twenty percent fewer Russian tourists flew to Greece because of the collapse of the ruble against the euro.

Dmitry Razorenov, who presented himself as an enthusiastic Russian investor in Dodoni, a major Greek producer of feta and yogurt, provided a reality check. Outside investors are dismayed by the lack of predictability and transparency in the Greek economy, he warned, and are alarmed by the amount of debt companies there carry.

Putin echoed that sentiment. After arguing that Russia's economic problems were receding, he shifted the focus, drawing laughter and applause by noting that the solution to the Greek conundrum lay elsewhere.

The Greek problem, he said, "is not just a problem for Greece, but for all of Europe."