Catholic Monastery destroyed by ISIS; Planned Parenthood protests...more

Catholic monastery in Syria 'destroyed by Isil bulldozers'  Isil have been concentrating their forces on central Syria since taking the historic city of Palmyra in May. Since then, they have been able to establish an almost unbroken chain of control across central Syria from the Iraqi border in the east to the Lebanese border in the west, cutting the country in two.

The Assad regime still appears to have working control of the north-south highway through Homs province, as well as the major central Syrian cities, but otherwise is crumbling.

Isil took Al-Qaryatain and the monastery on August 5, kidnapping an estimated 230 people, including Christians. Some of the older captives have been released, but at least 100 people have been taken as hostages to the de facto Isil capital of Raqqa further to the north...

Thousands protest outside Planned Parenthood clinics around the country

Thousands of antiabortion activists descended upon Planned Parenthood clinics on Saturday to participate in a nationwide protest aimed at cutting off federal funding for the controversial health-care organization.

The demonstrations unfolded at about 320 clinics around the nation, according to organizers, with some gatherings drawing a few dozen protesters and others drawing hundreds and perhaps thousands more.

The protests kicked off at 9 a.m. Saturday and included speakers, prayer groups and chants, as well as signs distributed by organizers that said “Planned Parenthood sells baby parts.”...

Planned Parenthood Blasts Music That 'Sounds Like It Came From Hell' at Peaceful Protesters    ...While standing within the sound of priests and monks praying the rosary in calming rhythm, another sound came out of the abortion mill in front of us, this one hellish. Planned Parenthood piped discordant, eerie horror music out of speakers hidden somewhere on the building (leading me to surmise they had them installed when the place was built for just an occasion like this!).

This is their idea of a sick joke.

We know they are delivering live, whole babies (who are kicking!) and cutting their faces off to extract brains — and they know WE know it. So what do they do? They broadcast their depravity in surround sound. Horror-movie madness is what this is. When will thinking people stand up and see the horror show Planned Parenthood really is? They know they’re killing babies. You know they’re killing babies. The difference is they think it’s funny.

America, you need to get off your couches and stop this revolting corporation from profiting off the blood of our children right now. Get a grip and get in the fight...

Explosion reported at US military facility in Japan
An explosion has been reported at the U.S. military facility in Sagamihara, Japan, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports, citing the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation.

Sagamihara is a city in the Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa, which borders Tokyo.

"We're aware of the report, but we don't have confirmation that the explosion occurred on the base," said Pentagon spokesman U.S. Navy Commander Bill Urban, according to Reuters...

Inspector Gotcha: New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman has zealously used his office to pursue cases favored by left-wing activists.     After years of Wall Street–friendly Democrats and Republicans with crossover appeal, of Chuck Schumers and Michael Bloombergs and Hillary Clintons and George Patakis, New Yorkers were finally ready for a candidate from the authentic Left. The election victor, who’d worked closely with the Working Families Party and financed his run with nearly $1 million from unions, was a true movement progressive, at home in the sorts of gatherings where “Joe Hill” might be sung and people know who Emma Goldman was. Writing in—where else?—The Nation, the victor had earlier called for a resurgent Left to get beyond a mere “checklist” politics of demands and issues to a more “transformational” sort of politics, which, while promising to “make our lives better,” would also require that we “root out the assumptions about politics or economics or human nature that prevent us” from doing that. Of finding common ground and reaching across aisles, enough had been heard already: the real challenge was to “slow down the bone-crushing machinery of the contemporary conservative movement.”

These might sound like pages from the 2013 ascension of leftist New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. But, in fact, the script played out three years earlier, when New York’s progressives scored a breakthrough by electing as the state’s attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who had no prosecutorial experience but, as Ben Smith noted in a Politico profile the next year, had “spent his career building an ideological infrastructure for the left.” After edging out Nassau district attorney Kathleen Rice by 34 to 32 percent in a five-candidate primary, the Upper West Side state senator went on to win by 11 points in November against Republican candidate Dan Donovan. Last year, he won reelection against GOP challenger John Cahill, this time by a 13-point margin.

Hollande 'to give France's highest award to train heroes on Monday'  French President Francois Hollande will present three young Americans and a British man with the country's top Legion d'Honneur medal at a ceremony on Monday in recognition of their bravery after they overpowered a gunman on a packed Thalys train, an Elysee source said.

A French citizen who also tackled the suspected jihadist but who wishes to remain anonymous will receive the honour at a later date, as will a Franco-American passenger who was hit by a bullet and is recovering in hospital, the source told AFP...