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Kosovo on Saturday repatriated 110 of its citizens from Syria, mostly mothers with their children having followed their partners who went to join jihadist groups in the war-torn country. The group also included four men suspected of having fought for the Islamic State group, who were charged upon arrival in Pristina with participating in a foreign conflict, chief prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi told reporters. Kosovo, whose population of 1.8 million is 90 percent Muslim, is one of the European countries with the proportionally biggest number of jihadi fighters in Iraq and Syria.

POSTED APRIL 20, 2019 1:15 PM

David and Louise Turpin, who pleaded guilty in February to torture and false imprisonment, are eligible for parole after 25 years.

POSTED APRIL 19, 2019 6:36 PM

The zoo keeper was alert and awake when she was rushed to a hospital, where she was listed in stable condition, city of Topeka spokeswoman Molly Hadfield said by phone. The victim, the primary tiger keeper at the Topeka Zoo and Conservation Center, was in the predator's outdoor habitat when she was attacked, zoo director Brendan Wiley said at a news conference. Somehow, the 7-year-old male tiger named Sanjiv entered the habitat, which is never supposed to happen when a person is present, Wiley said.

POSTED APRIL 20, 2019 3:26 PM

After being accused of endangering one of the city’s US representatives, the president visited Minneapolis. Activists were there to meet himProtesters support Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar, outside an event attended by Donald Trump this week. Photograph: Kerem Yucel/AFP/Getty ImagesAs she stood in a crowd of protesters, helping hold a long “Stand with Ilhan” sign outside the trucking company in Burnsville where Donald Trump was about to speak, Habon Abdulle could not help but be swept up in the contradictory emotions of the moment.As a hijab-wearing Muslim woman who speaks with a slight Somali accent, and as executive director of Women Organizing Women (Wow) Network, a not-for-profit group dedicated to training and supporting East African immigrants who run for office, Abdulle had more than a passing familiarity with the some of the views reflected in signs and chants among a crowd of Trump supporters lined up across the street.There was the idea that Muslims were as a whole responsible for 9/11, and that the congresswoman Ilhan Omar and her supporters were affiliated with terrorist groups. There was another oldie-but-goodie: that the city of Minneapolis, like many urban centers dealing with an affordable housing shortage driven by an influx of new residents, is filled with crime-ridden “no go” zones governed by sharia law, where police supposedly fear to tread.> We thought we passed the collective blaming, the ‘punish the whole for the actions of a few'> > Habon AbdulleAbdulle was still a little surprised to see such arguments expressed so brazenly, out in the open, just as she had been a few days earlier when Trump retweeted a video meant to show Omar did not respect the tragedy of 9/11.“There are conversations in my community,” Abdulle told the Guardian. “We thought we passed the collective blaming, the ‘punish the whole for the actions of a few’. Those were things that we experienced right after the 9/11 attack. And many of us actually thought we were done with that. But lately, it actually feels that it’s back. It’s really weird, like: what’s going on?”> On the pro-Ilhan side of the protests, two Muslim women, @nausheena and Asma Mohammed of @RISEsisterhood led many of the chants. > > Here, @HabonDaud explains why she thought it was important that Muslim women stand in the front. pic.twitter.com/83keO83kFU> > — Jared Goyette (@JaredGoyette) April 20, 2019She also saw reasons for optimism. A young Muslim woman walked in front of the pro-Omar group, wearing a black hijab and a keffiyeh scarf, holding a bullhorn and leading a chant. Abdulle watched as the crowd responded, many white and older Minnesotans included. That, she thought, was something she could work with.“If we don’t stand up for ourselves,” she asked, “who will? We have to stand up for ourselves and they felt someone who looks like them was attacked. And we were all of us out there saying, ‘No.’ We are not going to accept. We have rights. It isn’t fair that someone always has to other us. So, we went there because that was the right place to be that day.”In the same moment, from the other side of the street, a tall man with a gray scraggly beard could be overheard cracking a joke.“Hey, is that Omar? They all look the same to me.”He might have been on to something, but not in the way he intended. The young Muslim women in the crowd did see themselves in Omar. That was why they were out in force.> I came here to support my sister Ilhan. She’s been under attack and she’s been facing death threats> > Ama Mohammed“I came here to support my sister Ilhan,” the keffiyeh-wearing woman, Asma Mohammed, 26, told the Guardian. “She’s been under attack and she’s been facing death threats consistently, but even more so after Trump tweeted things about her that make her seem like she was sympathizing with terrorists.”Mohammed said Omar was more than just a political figure: “She is my sister, as Minnesotans; she is my sister as another woman of faith; as another woman who wears a hijab and faces that kind of hate on the daily.”Such a mix of outrage, disappointment and incredulousness, along with a growing sense of empowerment, was common among activists the Guardian spoke to in Minneapolis in the week after Trump’s tweet.Omar’s office was quieter than usual, declining media requests and not issuing statements, leaving Trump to deal with the fallout from the Mueller report without his favorite new foil to spar with.But if there is one thing Trump has been consistent about in his political career, it has been the targeting of migrants and Muslims in moves meant to appeal to his base. Many observers believe he will redouble such efforts as 2020 draws near.> She’s anti-American. She’s anti-Jews …Everyone knew the Muslims took down those buildings in New York> > Melody BlackOmar and Trump have become intrinsically linked, and not just on Trump’s terms. Omar was elected to the House of Representatives in November as part of an anti-Trump blue wave that included Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Before that, she made national news when she became the first Somali American in statewide office, on the night Trump was elected president. Her victory party at a Marriott in downtown Minneapolis was a rollercoaster, tears and dancing underscored by a sense of girding for a fight.“It’s going to be very tough,” Omar said then. “We have to figure out how to organize the community to prepare for what’s to come. We have to amplify our voices of love against the rhetoric of hate.”That fight has now come, though in a more direct way than many supporters thought possible. As Trump uses Omar to galvanize his base, he will inevitably rally hers. Last Monday’s rival protests outside Trump’s Tax Day event signalled such battles to come.> In this clip, @nausheena and Asma Mohammed of @RISEsisterhood explain why they came to the standwithilhan protest in Burnsville on Monday. pic.twitter.com/XQFVu8sxkz> > — Jared Goyette (@JaredGoyette) April 20, 2019“Omar really needs to go,” said Melody Black, a Trump supporter from Red Wing, Minnesota, as a man behind her held a “Making America Great Again” sign.“She’s anti-American. She’s anti-Jews. She’s anti-Minnesotan. And everyone knew that the Muslims took down those buildings in New York. All of us watched it. And now they’re saying that we’re racist because we say it. But it’s the truth.“Omar came from Somalia and her father taught her exactly how to do what she’s doing – including getting into government. They’re trying to take over our government, the Muslims are.”Trump supporters hoist a flag and give the thumbs-up. Photograph: Kerem Yucel/AFP/Getty ImagesOmar has indeed inspired other Muslim women to enter politics.“Many women within the Somali community who never thought to run for office changed their mind,” Abdulle said. The Minnesota state house now has its second female Somali American legislator, Hodan Hassan.Across the street from Black, Nausheena Hussain, a 42-year-old in a dark purple headscarf who directs a female-led Muslim not-for-profit organization, took her turn leading a round of chants. She said Trump’s attacks on Omar had encouraged others.“What I’m hearing, specially my community, is that she cannot be alone,” Hussain said. “They are asking everybody to run for office that has those same progressive values, so she is not bearing the brunt of the responsibility by herself.“And so I feel like 2020, you are going to see more people of color running for office, more Muslims or Muslim women, because not only do we not want her to be the only one there, but we have seen that she’s able to fight and still get things done. More people need to back her up and to be part of that.”Abdulle welcomed such words.“That’s how we are going to end the polarization,” she said. “That’s how we’re going to end the hatred. That’s how we’re going to end the narrative that we are not American.“I’m going to repeat the whole day long: we are American.”

POSTED APRIL 21, 2019 1:00 AM

Addressing hundreds of people gathered at Saturday's service in a park next to the school, Dawn Anna, mother of slain student Lauren Townsend, spoke on behalf of all the families of the victims about their sense of loss. Patrick Ireland, whose fall out of a school library window into the arms of firefighters, which became one of the iconic images of the massacre, spoke of his long physical and emotional recovery. "You're a victim only if you allow yourself to become one," Ireland said.

POSTED APRIL 21, 2019 2:11 AM

Israeli forces destroyed two apartments in the occupied West Bank on Friday that housed the family of a Palestinian accused of killing an Israeli woman in February, the army said.

POSTED APRIL 19, 2019 1:54 PM

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these is legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked these out. Here are the real facts:

POSTED APRIL 19, 2019 4:11 PM

The mom of two announced that she adopted a second baby girl by calling in to the "Today" show earlier this month and surprising everyone.

POSTED APRIL 19, 2019 10:21 AM

The ultimate Glock? The Army may have chosen Sig Sauer’s P320 for its Modular Handgun System program over Glock’s offerings, but that doesn’t mean you have to: Glock plans on releasing a civilian variant of its 9mm Glock 19 pistol to civilian buyers this month, the company announced today.(This article by Jared Keller originally appeared at Task & Purpose. Follow Task & Purpose on Twitter. This article first appeared in 2018.)Glock’s commercial pistol, dubbed the 19X, is the company’s first stab at a crossover model, combining the Glock 17 frame with a Glock 19 barrel. With a “marksman barrel” and ambidextrous slide-stop levers, the pistol is designed to be as versatile as it is powerful, “almost like a [1911] Commander-style situation where you’ve got the shorter barrel with the full-sized grip frame,” as national sales manager Bob Radecki told Army Times on Jan. 2.The new 9mm Glock 19X from Glock

POSTED APRIL 20, 2019 4:00 AM

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday called for progress on a stalled buffer zone deal around jihadist-dominated Idlib region ahead of fresh talks aimed at ending his country's eight-year war. Assad met envoy Alexander Lavrentiev from key ally Russia in Damascus to discuss the negotiations due April 25-26 in Kazakhstan. Iran and Russia are the major supporters of the Syrian regime, and along with rebel backer Turkey have sponsored repeated rounds of talks in the Central Asian nation.

POSTED APRIL 19, 2019 6:31 PM