UPDATE – Nov, 23rd 2:25 PM EST – Brussels will remain on the highest alert level and maintain security measures that have severely disrupted normal life in the city until at least Monday as it faces an “imminent” threat of attack, Belgium’s prime minister said Monday.
Police said an explosive belt had been found in the southern Paris suburb of Montrouge. The explosive belt was found without a detonator by a street cleaner.
Police have taken the explosive device to its lab for an extensive investigation.
UPDATE – NOV, 22nd 6:45 PM EST – Police say 16 people arrested in 19 police operations around Belgium; Paris fugitive still at large.
WATCH LIVE – 6:40 PM EST: Press conference on Belgium anti-terror raids.
Brussels has been placed on the highest level of alert by Belgium officials due to fear of an “serious and imminent” terrorist attack there.
The metro in Brussels has also been closed due to security fears and people are being told to stay away from large public gatherings.
“The advice for the population is to avoid places where a lot of people come together like shopping centres, concerts, events or public transport stations wherever possible,” a spokesman for the government’s crisis centre said according to the Guardian.
Brussels among many other distinctions also houses the European Union.
We will update this story. Stay with Rise News.
#BREAKING Brussels metro closed due to terror alert: official
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 21, 2015
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Up A Notch: In War Against ISIS, American Troops Will Begin Direct “Action On The Ground”
In a surprising statement, American Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that the United States would begin more “direct action on the ground” against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
“We won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL, or conducting such missions directly whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground,” Carter said during a hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services committee.
The announcement came a few days after an American soldier- Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler was killed during a mission to liberate a ISIS prison camp in Iraq.
From NBC News:
“Carter and Pentagon officials initially refused to characterize the rescue operation as U.S. boots on the ground. However, Carter said last week that the military expects “more raids of this kind” and that the rescue mission “represents a continuation of our advise and assist mission.”
This may mean some American soldiers “will be in harm’s way, no question about it,” Carter said last week.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made it clear that he was not a believer in the strategy Carter presented during the hearing.
“This is a half-assed strategy at best,” Graham, a Republican presidential candidate said.
WATCH: Video of American liberation of ISIS prison camp from Global Leaks News (Obtained by NBC News)
Cover Photo Credit: 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Ole Miss Students Want To Take Down Racist Mississippi State Flag, Will Rally Friday
Student groups at the University of Mississippi in Oxford will rally Friday afternoon in order to bring attention to a cause they believe is worthy of national attention the removal of the state flag from the campus.
Mississippi is the only state in the Union that still has the Confederate battle flag as part of the official state flag. Georgia was the second to last state to rid its state flag of Confederate iconography and did so in 2003.
At 12:30 CST on Friday, numerous progressive student groups and those associate with minority including the campus chapter of the NAACP will be rallying in front of a well-known Confederate Statue in the Circle, a historical central location on campus.
The organizations, which include the Black Student Union, UM Pride Network, College Democrats and others want the Associated Student Body, the student government of Ole Miss to pass a resolution that would call for the removal of the state flag from campus.
Allen Coon is a student senator and also the president of the campus College Democrats chapter. He authored the resolution and has helped organize the event.
As a native Mississippian, the fight is a personal one for Coon.
“I love my state and I care about it deeply. But every-time, I see that flag it reminds me that we are promoting a perspective that led to a war of injustice and pain,” Coon said in a phone interview with Rise News. “And that’s not representative of my Mississippi and that’s why it has to change.”
According to the Daily Mississippian, there are 49 student senators in the Associated Student Body. That would mean that at least 25 of them would have to vote in favor of taking down the flag in order for the resolution to pass. Coon told Rise News that it would be a difficult fight to win the vote in the student senate.
“If this resolution fails, then it will bring a lot more scrutiny on the campus from a national perspective,” Coon said. “The very test of a symbol is that it should be divisive. On that basis alone, it is grounds enough to take down the flag.”
“When people think of Ole Miss I don’t want them to think, ‘oh that’s a racist school,’” Buka Okoye, the president of the Ole Miss NAACP said in an interview with Daily Mississippian reporter Dawn Boddie. “Therefore, what are we doing to rid ourselves of that image?”
According to the Mississippi Business Journal, five other public universities in the state do not currently fly the official state flag: Delta State University, Mississippi State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi Valley State University and Alcorn State University.
Even if student government passes the resolution, it will be up to campus administrators to make the final decision.
Rise News is looking for a few Ole Miss students to report for us during the rally on Friday afternoon. If you are interested then please email [email protected] with a phone number and we will get back to very quickly.
Read: Proposed Ole Miss student government resolution to take down state flag on campus
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Cover Photo Credit : /\ \/\/ /\/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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FDA allows gay and bisexual men to donate blood, but only under certain conditions
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has officially ended its policy that blocked gay and bisexual men from donating blood. The new policy, announced Monday, allows these men to donate blood on the condition that they are HIV-free and have not had sex with another man for at least one year. The one-year deferral treats men… Read More
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