Gunmen storm luxury hotel in Mali in hostage standoff

NAIROBI, Kenya — Gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital on Friday with 170 guests and staff, killing at least three people and taking hostages in a city that serves as a logistics hub for French and American forces helping fight Islamist insurgents.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and the identities or affiliation of the assailants were not clear. But Mali has faced repeated attacks from militants linked to al-Qaeda and other factions.

Security forces conducted room-by-room searches amid sporadic gunfire. U.S. military units and French commandos were dispatched to the scene.

At least 80 captives managed to escape or were released by the attackers hours after the standoff begun, state TV reported in Mali. Some were reportedly freed after being able to recite the Muslim profession of faith.

But the hotel operators said more than 135 people — including 125 guests — were believed held. The reason for the discrepancy in the counts was not immediately clear. Among those who reached safety were five members of a six-member Turkish Airlines crew, the company said. Air France also said its 12-member crew at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako was safe. Authorities drew no direct links to last week’s attacks in Paris. But Mali — home to the famous ancient city of Timbuktu — has been at the center of a French-backed effort to drive back Islamist rebels that once had control over large portions of the vast nation, which stretches from tropical West Africa to desert regions bordering Algeria.

Malian army commander Modibo Nama Traore said gunmen stormed the hotel shouting “Allahu Akbar” — “God is great” in Arabic — and then fired on the guards and began taking hostages, the Associated Press reported.

At least three people were killed, the Malian military said.

Radical Islamists with ties to al-Qaeda have been active in Mali for years, occupying the northern part of the country for much of 2012. Even after they were forced out by a French-led military operation, militants have waged occasional attacks, including earlier this year on a hotel in central Mali and a military base in the south.

The Islamic State, meanwhile, has sought to expands it presence across North Africa and beyond though alliances with militant factions. But the Islamic State does not have significant footholds in West Africa.

U.S. forces joined anti-insurgent operations in Mali several years ago. About 25 U.S. military personnel were in Bamako when the hotel was attacked, and fewer than a half-dozen were helping escort guests who had left the hotel, according to two U.S. military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Foreigners are often targeted in Mali. Yet militants had never before seized a target as prominent as the Radisson Blu, where foreign businessmen and diplomats are known to stay and dine.

Earlier this month — before the string of attacks in Paris — the leader of Ansar Dine, one of Mali’s main Islamist groups, released a statement encouraging attacks that would “push away the aggression of the French Crusader assailant” in the former French colony.

A contingent of French troops is stationed in Mali, and President François Hollande on Thursday praised the campaign against the Islamists insurgents.

"France is leading this war with its armed forced, its soldiers, its courage. It must carry out this war with its allies, its partners giving us all the means available, as we did in Mali, as we are going to continue in Iraq, as we will continue in Syria," he said.

The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, which runs the 190-room hotel, said there was 30 staff and 140 guests at the time of the attack, including U.N. envoys involved in Mali peace efforts.

The U.N. mission in Mali said it was “currently supporting Malian authorities and providing a security reinforcement while also deploying medical facilities in the area.” Over the past three years, the U.N. mission in Mali has been the deadliest in the world, with at least 53 members killed.

The Reuters news agency reported that the gunmen had freed some hostages, including those able to recite verses from the Koran, citing a security source.

One of the rescued hostages, popular Guinean singer Sékouba “Bambino” Diabate, told reporters that he hid under his bed and heard two assailants speaking in English as they searched an adjacent room.

“I stayed still, hidden under the bed, not making a noise,” he said. “I heard them say in English, ‘Did you load it? Let’s go.’”

Extremist violence has hit Mali repeatedly.

In March, attackers reportedly shouting “Allahu Akbar” fired on a popular bar in Bamako, according to the BBC. Three Malian civilians were killed, along with a Belgian security officer working for the European Union and a French national.

Two months ago, more than a dozen people — including five U.N. contractors — were killed in a 24-hour hostage siege at a hotel in Sevare in central Mali. Responsibility for that attack was claimed by Algerian jihadi leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar. The infamous one-eyed militant had also orchestrated the bloody seizure of an Algerian gas facility in 2013, where at least 100 workers were held hostage and dozens were killed.

Murphy and Kaplan reported from Washington. Craig Whitlock in Washington and Liu Liu in Beijing contributed to this report.

Three attacks deepen fears of Islamic State’s reach

Could Islamic State be fraying from within?

Kevin Sieff has been The Post’s bureau chief in Nairobi since 2014. He served previously as the bureau chief in Kabul and had covered the U.S. -Mexico border.

Brian Murphy joined the Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has written three books.

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American killed in Paris terror attacks

An American college student studying in Paris was one of the victims killed in the terror attacks that struck the French capital, the college announced.

Paris remains on lockdown after terror attacks

California State University Long Beach identified the American as one of its students, Nohemi Gonzalez, 23.

The school said in a statement that Gonzalez, of El Monte, California, was a senior studying design.

Gonzalez was attending a semester abroad program at Strate College of Design. She would have been returning home next month.

School officials said Saturday Gonzalez was in a restaurant with another Cal State Long Beach student when she was fatally shot. The friend reported that Gonzalez was carried out of the restaurant on a stretcher.

College President Jane Close Conoley said she was "deeply saddened" by the news.

"Our university stands with our nearly 80 foreign exchange students from France as they struggle with this tragedy," she said. 16 other Cal State Long Beach students studying in Paris have all been accounted for.

Nohemi Gonzalez is seen in a photo posted to Facebook by France's Strate College of Design. REUTERS/CHRISTIAN HARTMANN

Gonzalez was described by faculty on Saturday as "buoyant, "joyous" and "energetic."

The university will hold a vigil at 4 p.m. Sunday to mourn Gonzalez's passing and other victims of the attacks.

Earlier, a State Department spokesman confirmed that Americans were among the injured in the attacks.

The department's deputy spokesman, Mark Toner, said Saturday that "the U.S. Embassy in Paris is working around the clock to assist American citizens affected by this tragedy."

A U.S. source said two Americans are known to have been injured in the attacks, CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports.

A male American suffered a leg injury that wasn't believed to be life-threatening, the source said. He was receiving medical care and has been in touch with his family in the U.S.

An American woman, Helen Jane Wilson, was undergoing surgery late Saturday after being shot in the leg.

Wilson told The Associated Press she was at the Bataclan concert hall to hear the Eagles of Death Metal band perform Friday night when gunmen burst into the venue, killing 89 people.

Wilson said she lived in New Orleans before moving to Paris, where she runs Rock enBol, a catering company. According to her Facebook page, Wilson is originally from Los Angeles.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has claimed responsibility for the attacks, considered the deadliest on France since World War II. At least 129 people died Friday night in shootings at cafes, suicide bombings near France's stadium and a massacre inside a concert hall.

French President Francois Holland has declared three days of mourning and raised the nation's security to the highest level.

Source:cbsnews.com

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Veterans Day 2015: 11 November

                                              

Veterans Day is a public holiday that is dedicated to honoring anyone who has served in the United States military. The holiday began as a day to remember the end of World War I and was declared a holiday by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Originally known as Armistice Day, the holiday became Veterans Day in 1954.Most federal workers are given the day off and there is no mail service in the United States on this day. Federal workers who are required to work during the holiday are often given additional compensation as a benefit. When Woodrow Wilson declared 11 November a holiday, the primary intention was to have a day to reflect on the sacrifices of those who had served in the military during World War I. Observation of the holiday through parades and meetings was envisioned.

Today, many Americans observe the day by attending ceremonies and parades that are dedicated to honoring the troops for their service. These often allow veterans to speak about their time in the service and give Americans the opportunity to personally thank veterans for their sacrifice.

Some retail establishments and restaurant chains offer free or discounted meals for people who can prove their veteran status.

Veterans Day always falls on 11 November, but it may be observed on a different day due to the fact that it is a federal holiday. Federal employees and schoolchildren typically have the day off work and school, so the holiday is observed on the Monday following the actual date of the holiday if it happens to fall on a weekend.

November 11 was chosen as the official date for Veterans Day in reference to the ending of World War I. Germany signed an armistice with the Allies that signaled the end of the war on at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918.

Source: publicholiday.us

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Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson & Girlfriend Expecting First Child Together.

It’s true! Dwayne Johnson and the gorgeous girlfriend of nine years, Lauren Hashian, are indeed expecting their first child together. He took to social media to share the happy news, including the baby’s gender. Find out all the exciting details here!

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his longtime girlfriend, Lauren Hashian, are expecting their first baby together. It looks like the Hollywood sweetheart with be back on diaper duty again. How exciting!

The Rock confirmed the baby rumors on Instagram with the cutest photo of Lauren’s bump and a long passage. The post stated, “I was raised by and live with amazing and strong women, so the universe felt we needed one more… IT’S A BABY GIRL!! THANK YOU guys so much for the awesome support and love you’ve sent @laurenhashianofficial and myself from around the world. We’re so grateful for this blessing and thrilled to share the news with y’all.” Then he added a bunch of adorable hashtags: “#BringOnMoreEstrogenInOurHome #MeAndPuppyHobbsAreTheOnlyDudes #Proud2xPapaBear #JustOverHereMakingBabiesAndStuff.” How amazing!!!

 

Click here to find out all the details you need to  know about Dwayne’s amazing girlfriend.

This won’t be Dwayne’s first rodeo. The Hollywood hunk is already dad to 14-year-old daughter, Simone, with ex-wife Dany Garcia. He previously gushed about his two leading in an interview with Esquire. “We do these stories and we talk so much about the business end, the success end, but then Lauren isn’t mentioned and my daughter [Simone] isn’t mentioned. I always like making sure we find the balance and my home life is in there and Lauren Hashian is in there and my daughter is in there. You gotta get the better half in there.” He went on to add, “With all the cool s–t and success that I’ve been lucky enough to get? That doesn’t happen unless the home life is solid.” He is literally the sweetest!

Congrats you two!

Source: hollywoodlife.com

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Fallout 4 review: War never changes, and that's just fine

There’s nothing quite like listening to “Crazy He Calls Me” as the sun rises over an abandoned highway. A radioactive scorpion could attack at any moment, sure, but when Billie Holiday is in your ears, the end of the world doesn’t seem so bad.

The Fallout games are collision points of two disparate forces. On one hand, you have a role-playing game set during a horrific future in which nuclear war has decimated the population, forcing humans to become scavengers, fighting to survive alongside mutants and monsters. On the other hand, there’s hope. Hope comes from trying to not just live in this awful place, but thrive. Hope resides in Fallout’s 1950’s retro-futurism, an alternate timeline where humankind was on the precipice of a technological revolution that would improve life across the planet — only to be squashed by warheads. War never changes, and hope never really disappears.

 

Fallout 4, the latest game in the series and the first since New Vegas in 2010, shows off this duality more than any predecessor. Fundamentally, it’s not that different from Fallout 3, the game that transformed the series from an isometric RPG to a first-person shooter / role-playing hybrid. Fallout 4 still takes place in a huge open world, provides you with an incredible amount of freedom with which to customize your character, and throws you into dangerous scenarios cast with immoral baddies. The game also features the series’ infamous technical problems, with frustrating glitches and bugs that often pull you out of the experience at best, and at worst, lose hard-won progress.

But all of that — the world, the characters, even the bugs — are table setting at this point. What Fallout 4 adds to the series is heart. For the first time I really cared about what happened in the story, and found myself struggling with its moral dilemmas. I still spent dozens of hours tweaking my guns and killing feral ghouls, but this time, it felt like I was doing it for a reason.

Fallout 4 actually starts before the war. You play as a civilian turned vault dweller, literally frozen in time via cryogenic stasis, only to awaken hundreds of years later in this terrible future. At the outset, you have only one goal: find your kidnapped son. This directive pulls you across the entirety of post-war Boston, an area known as The Commonwealth, and, in typical Fallout fashion, into a story that expands to encompass more than just your personal struggle. You’ll deal with familiar groups, including the technology-obsessed Brotherhood of Steel, as well as new entities, like the mysterious and feared Institute. You’ll engage in massive, multi-faction battles and travel to a literal radioactive sea. In most games, this kind of epic quest is an assumed part of the genre, even if it’s not exactly believable or motivated. But in Fallout 4 it makes total sense: who wouldn’t travel to the end of the world to save their child?

Initially Boston doesn’t feel all that distinct from previous locations, like Fallout 3’s Washington, DC. It’s styled in brown and grey, sewn with burned out cars across crumbling highways. If you venture into an abandoned shop, you can bet it’s filled with zombie-like ghouls and lots of useless clutter. The city’s currency is, as always, discarded Nuka-Cola bottle caps. But Boston is also a great place for Fallout to revel in its own particular brand of Americana. It may be a few centuries (and nuclear bombs) later, but the passion for baseball hasn’t died, and the region’s biggest settlement can be found in the remnants of Fenway Park. Security guards are dressed up like umpires crossed with Mad Max, and the Green Monster helps save lives. Mercifully, serious Boston accents are few and far between.

Like the repurposed ballpark, Fallout 4 builds upon the familiar to create something new and strange. Chief among these new elements is the hardboiled detective vibe: one early line of quests has you partnering with a stereotypical gumshoe named Nick Valentine in the search for your son. These were some of my favorite parts of the game. Most Fallout quests are primarily about going somewhere and killing a bunch of people (or monsters), but the detective element is a welcome change to the familiar format. Similarly, Fallout 4’s narrative has a strong emphasis on synths, human-like androids that were only briefly touched on in past games. Their inclusion raises some expected but still fascinating questions about what constitutes life and sentience, things that will feel familiar to Blade Runner fans.

Neither of these additions are especially original on their own, but feel fresh within Fallout. They also help contribute to arguably the best story in the series to date. One moment you’re decorating a small home in the corner of the suburbs, the next you’re making decisions that will impact what remains of the world. The Fallout games always give you the option to align with particular interests, whether it’s a technologically advanced squad like the Brotherhood or the mysterious Railroad, but it feels more pronounced and important here. I spent most of Fallout 4 trying to play it safe, working with all sides, but as the climax approached I was forced to pick a side, and I genuinely struggled with my choice. This is Fallout, so it’s never really clear who is good and who is bad, and no matter what you’re forced to betray someone.

Of course the main story of a Fallout game is just the beginning of its adventure. Players will spend dozens if not hundreds of hours discovering what else the wasteland has to offer. Fallout 4 plays a lot like its predecessors, blending elements of FPS and RPGs into something that’s not quite either. You explore the world from a first-person perspective (you can switch to third person, but I wouldn’t recommend it) and attack as you would in any other shooter. But the returning VATS system also affords the option to play Fallout 4 like a pseudo turn-based game. VATS slows time, so that you can zoom in on enemies and determine the best shot to take. Your ability to do this is limited, and recharges over time, but it’s really the best way to play since Fallout isn’t the most capable shooter, with its frustrating aiming. The poor feel of shooting is most obvious when facing a swell of enemies without enough VATS points to guide your shots.

The companions, more than any other feature, suffered from these technical problems. During one early sequence, I had to follow a dog who was tracking someone’s scent, and he continually got stuck on trees and rocks, and at one point wouldn’t progress because he was distracted by a flying mutant bug that was too high for him to attack. I managed get him back on the trail after I spotted the tiny bug high up in the air, and shot it out of the sky. Other times, companions refused to follow me into battle, yet mysteriously showed up minutes later when I took an elevator to a different section of the level.

But it’s still very much Fallout — a game that doesn’t really need to change all that much to trigger that familiar mix of dread and joy. A new location and a much better story were enough to pull me into this world, and 60 hours later I’m not done with it. There are settlements I still want to finish building, and crimes I still need to get to the bottom of. At some point I plan to ignore everything altogether, and just wander into the wilderness to see what I can find. Even if I’m alone, at least I’ll have Billie Holiday’s voice to keep me company.

Source: theverge.com

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Call of duty: Black Ops 3 Review

If the Call of Duty franchise is a well-oiled machine, Black Ops III is the replacement part that keeps the wheels moving into yet another year. It introduces minor changes to an established formula, and in some aspects, this is developer Treyarch near its peak. But in other areas, Call of Duty: Black Ops III lacks inspiration.

Treyarch has set a high bar with its contributions to the Call of Duty series. The first Black Ops introduced a twisting, engaging campaign with vivid characters and historical conspiracies. Black Ops II revamped multiplayer customization, lending deeper player choice to a fine-tuned competitive experience. And now there's Call of Duty: Black Ops III, a shooter reaching in several different directions with vastly different results.

The newest iteration of multiplayer begins on promising note as Black Ops III's specialists cover the screen. These are the soldiers of humanity's future, clad in titanium alloy armor, brandishing multi-million dollar weapons. They're also Black Ops III's new layer of customization. You still have the traditional loadout system with 10 slots to spend on weapons, items, and equipment--but specialists add a little more nuance.

Each character carries a power weapon or special ability that charge several times over the course of a match. You're forced to choose between the two, though, as only one can be equipped at a time. The Outrider, for instance, can enter fights with the Sparrow compound bow, launching exploding arrows into the enemy team's ranks. On the other hand, she can equip the Vision Pulse ability. As a more cautious player, I preferred this option. It reveals enemy silhouettes through the walls, giving me and my team the drop on nearby attackers and a better sense of the overall situation. This is even more crucial in hardcore matches when motion sensors are absent.

The Outrider is a microcosm of how the specialist system excels. That dichotomy between power weapons and abilities--and the possibilities they reveal--leads to dynamic scenarios from one match to the next. Certain powers work better in specific game types, and shift momentum when used well. And for the first several hours in Black Ops III's multiplayer, I explored as many possibilities as I could.

But that sense of discovery fades with time. Black Ops III grants you access to four specialists out of the gate, and subsequent options unlock at a trickle. By the time I earned Seraph and her one-shot Annihilator handgun at level 22, her two abilities didn't offer enough variety to keep me excited for the next unlock. And when I'm not learning the intricacies of a new character, Black Ops III defaults to a more generic Call of Duty experience.

The undead horde has also wandered its way into another game mode. It's called Nightmares, and it unlocks once you've beaten the campaign. In essence, Treyarch has recycled Black Ops III campaign missions--level design, objectives, character animations, and all--but now with zombies, and a grim voiceover from an unnamed character. Believe it or not, this works. There's a slower pace to the missions here. Treyarch takes its time to let things develop. And in reimagining the story to center around a zombie infection, Treyarch has created something magnitudes better than its vanilla campaign.

The traditional campaign mode, however, is a chore. It's a boring crawl through routine shooter fare. After an early torture scene--which has become something of a staple in the Black Ops universe--you're soon mowing through waves of enemies as you're funneled through linear pathways on the way to your next objective. There are some deviations from this pattern: on-rail aerial dogfights, extensive turret sequences, and underwater escapes, to name a few. But I was on auto-pilot by the fifth mission, settled into a continual routine of "aim, shoot, reload, repeat."

 

There are fleeting moments when Black Ops III's cybernetic modifications change the way you play. These abilities let you control enemy drones, stun human opponents, or set fire to robots' internal systems. The powers would be more impactful, though, if there wasn't such a lack of enemy variety. Aside from flying drones and the occasional mech mini-boss, enemy variants just require differing numbers of bullets to take down. And when you're using them on such a repetitive group of targets, who react the same way every time, the abilities lose their novelty.

Although Black Ops III offers the option to play the campaign cooperatively, its problems only multiply as a result. Instead of creating deeper scenarios involving teamwork and communication between up to four players, Black Ops III decides to just throw more hardened enemies at you. One Warlord--an enemy that requires several magazines to bring down--is bothersome enough. Four of them together is downright frustrating. They feel more like brick walls than sentient soldiers.

Black Ops III's narrative doesn't support the campaign in any meaningful way, either. It tells an incomprehensible story about AI ascendancy and the moral grays of a hyper-connected future, raising intriguing questions but never bothering to answer them. At the end of it all, after hours of soulless shooting and unremarkable storytelling, Black Ops III delivered its nebulous twist, and I didn't dwell on it.

In its undead modes, and the first 10 hours of multiplayer, it excels. But in its campaign, it merely crawls forward. Black Ops III doesn't offer anything remarkable to the series, but does just enough to maintain the Call of Duty status quo. The franchise, however slowly, continues its inexorable march.

Source:gamespot.com

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The HIstory of HALLOWEEN

Halloween is the season for little ghosts and goblins to take to the streets, asking for candy and scaring one another silly. Spooky stories are told around fires, scary movies appear in theaters and pumpkins are expertly (and not-so-expertly) carved into jack-o'-lanterns.

Amid all the commercialism, haunted houses and bogus warnings about razors in apples, the origins of Halloween are often overlooked. Yet Halloween is much more than just costumes and candy; in fact, the holiday has a rich and interesting history.

Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced “sah-win”).
The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops.

The festival would frequently involve bonfires. It is believed that the fires attracted insects to the area which attracted bats to the area. These are additional attributes of the history of Halloween.
Masks and costumes were worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease them.

These days, the "trick" part of the phrase "trick or treat" is mostly an empty threat, but pranks have long been a part of the holiday.
By the late 1800s, the tradition of playing tricks on Halloween was well established. In the United States and Canada, the pranks included tipping over outhouses, opening farmers' gates and egging houses. But by the 1920s and '30s, the celebrations more closely resembled an unruly block party, and the acts of vandalism got more serious.

Some people believe that because pranking was starting to get dangerous and out of hand, parents and town leaders began to encourage dressing up and trick-or-treating as a safe alternative to doing pranks.

Some evangelical Christians have expressed concern that Halloween is somehow satanic because of its roots in pagan ritual. However, ancient Celts did not worship anything resembling the Christian devil and had no concept of it. In fact, the Samhain festival had long since vanished by the time the Catholic Church began persecuting witches in its search for satanic cabals. And, of course, black cats do not need to have any association with witchcraft to be considered evil — simply crossing their path is considered bad luck any time of year.

Through the ages, various supernatural entities — including fairies and witches — came to be associated with Halloween, and more than a century ago in Ireland, the event was said to be a time when spirits of the dead could return to their old haunting grounds. Dressing up as ghosts or witches became fashionable, though as the holiday became more widespread and more commercialized (and with the arrival of mass-manufactured costumes), the selection of disguises for kids and adults greatly expanded beyond monsters to include everything from superheroes to princesses to politicians. 

 Source:www.livescience.com

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