The Gaza Strip is one of the most delicate and tense areas in the entire world. The people who die in the Gaza Strip because of the conflicts emerging between Israel, a country who has recently lost a considerable percentage of its credibility and Hamas, which is still considered as a terrorist group by the Western civilization, and also suspected to be responsible for war crimes, according to investigations run by Amnesty International, are mostly civilians, children, and generally speaking people who are not directly involved in the fighting and in the disputes. So the global powers of the world have to deal in a very cautious way with the Gaza Strip conflict, and it is for sure a tough duty to meet even if you have only two parties to moderate. But if you add a third party functioning as a hidden agent of chaos to the matter, then you get a seriously problematic situation. Recently, voices have claimed that ISIL might be behind tensions in the Gaza Strip area.

A senior official talking on behalf of Hamas has sent a message to Jerusalem through Egypt, claiming that a group of rebels who are known as having connections to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is behind a series of events which aim at provoking a tense relation between the two sites involved officially in the Gaza Strip conflict.

The Hamas official has claimed that the group of rebels was the behind the recent attacks on Israel in order to fuel the conflict in the area.

And the statement of the Hamas official seems plausible at some point, especially if you were to take into consideration the fact that not much longer after the Hamas declaration, an Islamist group which has a reputation of being friendly to the Islamic State has claimed responsibility over the attacks.

The Defense Minister of Israel, Moshe Ya’alon has commented on the matter. He said that it does not matter much or it does not change much the fact that some jihadi organizations claim the attacks on Israel. Israel still sees Hamas as the public enemy no. 1, regarding them as the first to be responsible for the situation in Gaza.

“Overnight, the IDF retaliated to the attacks with airstrikes. And if it is necessary, we will strike with even greater force. Last summer was proof of that.”

the Defense Minister of Israel has added.

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With the recent removal of Cuba from the United States Terror List, a list which includes countries that are suspected to be aiding terrorist movements or foreign insurgencies in countries where social and political tension levels are very high, Havana hopes that a new perspective for national affairs has been opened. Since the American citizens have now an easier way to visit Cuba, for the communist island is no longer featured on the US Terror List, Cubans are already thinking of new ways to better the tourism and raise the income from the United States tourists in the months to come. So take a look at how Cubans plan to attract more visitors from the most influential country in the area, so you might get a glimpse on what the next most popular holiday destination might be for the citizens of the United States.

And it is not only that the people inhabiting the communist island are day dreaming. Statistics show that the amount of the United States citizens visiting Cuba has already risen. For instance, the numbers grew with a 36 per cent rate between the first and fifth month of the current year, compared to the period between January and May 2014.

In addition to that, international visits have raised in general. The arrivals of the foreigners are now up by 14 per cent, in the same period of comparison.

And the analysts connected to the problems of tourism have reckoned that the ascending path of the Cuban tourism is likely to continue in the period to come as well. There has been a lot of talk regarding a restart of the diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington, DC, and, according to the experts, such facts seldom go along with a growth in tourism between the countries.

It is an important factor that most of the people involved in tourism in Cuba have degrees to confirm their expertise and academic preparation.

Also, most of them speak English and are open to discover more English words which are not really common through the foreigners and which represent components to the American civilization, like `hipster` or `millennial`.

Moreover, a key point in their plan to raise the American oriented tourism is represented by their restaurants. In relation to that, Cubans say that Americans are the no. 1 tippers of all the tourists.

And, since Americans also like to party, Cubans are ready to invest in improving the nightlife in the most important cities of the country.

Image Source: Travel Guides

Even if the most recent events in connection to the matter of the United States` fight against terrorism would not probably lead to a reconsideration and diminishing of the potential sponsors of the jihadi organizations, a short while ago the United States have removed a country which has been thought of supporting Islamic extremist groups. This is good news for the citizens of Cuba but also for the citizens of the United States, at least the ones who credit the authorities with their trust, since the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave might have officially lost a potential threat against their noble ideal, of offering liberty and happiness to a democratic world. And in addition to that, the political analysts have another case to investigate, probably leading to countless debates, as they by now know a Cuba pleased with its recent removal for the Terror List of the United States.

The inhabitants of the communist island Cuba are more than happy with the recent official announcement by representatives of the United States. Since the Cold War emerged, the diplomatic relations between Washington, DC and Havana have been considerably damaged. The recent removal of Cuba from the list of potential sponsors to the terrorist organizations might represent a fresh start for a beneficial relation between the two countries.

The statement assuring Cuba`s removal from the US Terror List has been released on Friday. And while the American senior officials have said that the change has an immediate effect, the citizens of Cuba feel relieved, considering that a long time unjust situation  has been redressed.

“We have always fought for peace, for solidarity.  It was an injustice to put us on this list.”

a Cuban citizen has told the press.

Her message has been partaken of by her fellow countrymen. The Cubans feel like the United States have finally opened their eyes regarding this matter and have done the right thing in connection to Cuba`s image in relation to the terrorist threat.

Cuba has been part of the US Terror List for over 30 years. In 1982, the country was introduced on the list after Havana supported rebel movements in Latin America and also in Africa. However, Cuba has said numerous times after 1982 that they have stopped aiding such insurgencies in foreign countries.

And when it comes to rebuilding the diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba, there are different opinions. While president Raul Castro sees this moment as a fresh restart, some American lawmakers are still suspicious with the communist country.

Image Source: independent.md

Yesterday, the officials talking on behalf of the globally respected and prestigious Oxford University have been more than happy to make a historic announcement. Although it took 800 years for Oxford University to appoint a female to the position of Vice Chancellor, the event has finally happened. It is a victory for the evolution of the modern day morals and, to be more specific, an evolution in the way women are regarded in our present day society.

If you were to wind back the clock a hundred years ago, you could not imagine that a woman would gain access to such a highly important position within a university. Actually, it would have been hard to image a woman getting into a university at all, since education was not a right properly guaranteed by the societies of the past. This has led to a fantastic fight that women have fought on the field of critical thinking and philosophy but not only, since such ways are not as efficient as they would be needed to to be in the short term.

Now come back to the current year. It is 2015 and a woman functions as Vice Chancellor of the Oxford University for the first time in the history.

Her name is Professor Louise Richardson and she is currently in the position of head of the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland. Professor Louise Richardson is well known for the strategy that she has implemented over the recent years, which implies getting more disadvantaged students into higher education institutions.

Professor Richardson was raised in an Irish village near the seashore. She was one of the first members of her family that went to university.

After she has been informed of her recent appointment as VC at the Oxford University, Professor Louise Richardson has said that she feels very fortunate and privileged to have been selected for such a position. She will start her new work at the beginning of the following year. By being appointed as VC at the Oxford University, Professor Louise Richardson is not only the first female to ever be in such a position. Also, she will become one of the few members of the academic communities that have not studied or worked at the Oxford or Cambridge universities.

“We have to work hard to raise the attainment and ambition of students in deprived areas.“

professor Richardson has said in a statement, reiterating the main principle of her academic activity.

Image Source: The Australian

More than 40,000 people from Syria and Eritrea are looking for asylum, so the European Commission has required more EU member states to participate and take some of the asylum seekers who arrive in Greece and Italy during the next two years.

According to the latest update of the Commission’s plans, most migrants would be received and processed by Spain, Germany and France. Some of the EU states strongly disagreed with the idea of establishing fair quotas in order to find a home for the migrants arriving in Europe, causing controversy.

For objective reasons, the UK government announced it will not participate in the controversial quota system, explaining that the perilous sea-sailing would put in danger the migrants trying to find asylum in UK.

After MEPs will take a vote, the EU governments are scheduled to make a final decision, with Hungary, France, Spain a few more countries also voicing their concerns against the plan.

So far, migrants from Syria and Eritrea arriving in Italy or Greece after 15 April 2015 are already covered by the Commission’s plan; Malta could also be included in the deal, should they face a major influx of migrants.

Earlier in May, the EU board has announced some initial moves in which members of the EU would voluntarily take in around 20,000 refugees that come from conflict zones outside the EU.

According to home affairs commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, he does not necessarily support fixed quotas in the problem of migration, but that each state member should agree on how many migrants they will offer refugee status to.

And the Commission has also decided on offering financial incentives for the countries deciding to relocate migrants on their territory – €6,000 will be offered, according to the latest proposal.

In 2015 the Mediterranean area became the grave land for more than 1,800 migrants, a number which increased 20 times since 2014. At the same time, the UN made an educated guess saying that, only in 2015, there are more than 60,000 migrants who have already attempted some dangerous crossing.

A great deal of the migrants seeking asylum are fleeing from conflict zones or from countries such as Nigeria and Somalia where poverty is at an all-time high. The Commission’s plan is to relieve some of the burden that Italy and Greece are facing by the exceptional level of migration that increases with each year.

Besides agreeing to bear a hand to the migration issue, UN leader Ban Ki-moon has also urged European leaders to come together and find a way to address the “roots” of the problem directly in the countries of origin.
Image Source: Global Migrations

The feminist movement and the philosophical literature that supported it have for certain reached an important amount of their target. If you look a hundred years back into the history, women did not even have the right to vote. If you were to look even further back, like, for example, in the times of the Ancient Greek society, women were not even considered to be humans in the way the men were considered to be. And, unfortunately, if you were to take into account the reality of our days in areas like the Middle East, the women are still considered to be half as important as a man, receiving rights only by half in comparison to the males. However, in the Western civilization, things have changed for the better. Society has evolved morally form this point of view, granting the same rights to women as the ones offered to men. Even if there still are some accusations of misogyny pointed toward the Occident, some of them are legitimate, but at the same time, there are some extreme feminist movements which just can not find their foundations based upon logic and critical thinking. Still, at the moment, Forbes is more than happy to invite you to meet the 100 most powerful women on Earth, as they have recently released their top on this matter.

And, if you were to take into consideration the fact that the women who made the list that Forbes releases on an annual basis control 1 trillion dollars in annual revenues, you would get a picture of how powerful these women really are. There are 24 chief executive officers of highly relevant companies on the list. Furthermore, the list features 8 state leaders and 15 billionaires.

But there is a fact that would probably not surprise you at all. The German chancellor Angela Merkel tops the ranking for the fifth time in a row.

“She oversees the fourth largest economy in the world, but also the largest economy in Europe. The fate of the eurozone rests on her shoulder.”

said Moira Forbes, who is in the position of executive vice president at Forbes Media, commenting on the matter, adding that the actions of the German chancellor have an impact on all the European Union.

Hillary Clinton, who has recently officially announced her entrance in the presidential race of 2016 is on the second position in the ranking by Forbes. Clinton has jumped on the second place from the 6th position of the last year.

Image Source: zeit.de

Hillary Clinton has now become one of the busiest women on Earth. Last month, she has officially announced her participation in the presidential elections of the next year and even before that she has worked in order to start a successful campaign. With her recently joining LinkedIn with an article on how small business could be encouraged by the government of the United States and her plans to function as a small biz president, Hillary Clinton has taken important steps against her rivals in the presidential race. Her staff has fully understood that the means of communicating through the social media are extremely viable for the reality of our current days and since then Clinton has appeared in numerous occasions on social media platforms like the giants Facebook, Twitter and the career oriented platform LinkedIn. However, with the Clinton e-mails on Libya and Benghazi attacks released by the State Department, things are getting interesting, raising the curiosity of both political analysts and American voters.

On Friday, the State Dept. has released an approximate number of 900 pages, containing the e-mails that Hillary Clinton has sent and received by the time she was in the position of secretary of state. The information contained by the released e-mails was in connection the the attacks in Libya and Benghazi and it was taken from the private account Hillary Rodham Clinton, which the presidential candidate used by the time she functioned as secretary of state.

The 900 pages of e-mails containing have been turned over to a committee of the House of Representatives, whose current activity is to investigate the attacks which occurred on Sept. 11 2012, in Benghazi, during which the US Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens and other three citizens of the United States have been killed.

The e-mails which have been recently turned over to the House committee contain info on the events prior to the attack and also in connection to the situation when the attack occurred and after it was finished. There are some details concerning the administration of the heated situation and some speech drafts. The e-mails were sent between Hillary Clinton, secretary of state by that time and her most important aides.

“The emails we release today do not change the essential facts or our understanding of the events before, during, or after the attacks, which have been known since the independent Accountability Review Board report on the Benghazi attacks was released almost two and a half years ago.”

Marie Harf of the State Dept. has commented on the matter.

Image Source: Huff Post

The President of the United States has recently joined one of the world`s most popular social platform, Twitter. The announcement has surprised a lot of the people in connection to the means of social media and this is a normal fact, if you take into consideration that President Barack Obama was already tweeting from an official account. Even if most of that account`s tweet were not generated by President Obama himself, there were some which were written by him in person. Those were signed `-ba` and they were getting a lot of attention. This time, President Obama joins Twitter via @POTUS, an account which is designed to be used the Barack Obama personally.

The news created a lot of fuss ll around the world wide web and people seemed very anxious to hear what Barack Obama has to say on Twitter. That is how the @POTUS account gained over 200,000 followers in less than an hour.

Barack Obama promised that the tweets released by the @POTUS account will be written by him personally. POTUS is an acronym which stands for `President of the United States`. The account is joined, like all the Twitter accounts, by a description. Obama wrote about himself: “Dad, husband, and 44^th President of the United States.”.

President Obama has said that the new Twitter account is a means of communicating with the American people directly, without all the restrictions and regulations which someone has to follow in order to speak to the President.

The first tweet that was released by the President of the United States has greeted the people on Twitter. Obama has assured them that it was really him who was tweeting from the @POTUS account, adding that it took them 6 years to give a Twitter account to him, in the end.

There was already a @BarackObama account featured on Twitter. The truth is that it was rarely used by the President himslef. Even if the account has gained nearly 60 million followers since 2007, when it was firstly introduced on Twitter, the followers were very rarely hearing from the President. The @BarackObama account is being operated by the people who led the campaign of Obama.

@WhiteHouse is another Twitter account that could be misidentified as an account used by Barack Obama. That account is only active to release official information to the followers, which are in number of 6.1 million.

Image Source: The Telegraph

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has recently obtained a very important victory in Iraq, taking control over the city of Ramadi after the entire security fled form the way of the jihadi fighters. This event caught the attention of the entire world and in concordance with that the popularity of the Islamic State is growing day by day. However, do not be tempted by the success of the Islamic State. Do not let your already troubled minds to be confused by such thoughts. You have more important things to think about, like the commercials on TV and the presidential race of 2016. And, besides that, thinking about joining ISIL might get you killed, according to a recent statement by the South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

In the recent period of time, the South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has come up from time to time and has made some statements and affirmations, possibly building the background for the most important announcement that he said he is going to make on June 1.

However, on Senator Graham has managed to offer a less satisfactory statement recently. What he possibly intended as a joke turned out to be not very intelligent and by no means diplomatic. While speaking in front of a group of republicans in the state of Iowa, Senator Lindsey Graham did not omit to inform them that nobody should even think of joining terrorist organizations like al Qaeda and the Islamic State. And if they were to irresponsibly do so, they would end up dead. Moreover, killed by a drone sent by Lindsey Graham himself.

The statement by the South Carolina Senator started some laughs within the group of republicans who attended the speech delivered by Graham. Most of the political analysts reckon that the uninspired joke by Lindsey Graham was more that just political foolishness. The audience can get a joke, even one like that, but there may be more to Graham (or his speech writers) than meets the eye.

“If I’m President of the United States and you’re thinking about joining Al Qaeda or ISIL—anybody thinking about that?—I’m not going to call a judge, I’m going to call a drone, and we will kill you.“

said Senator Lindsey Graham during his speech in Iowa.

The political analysts in connection to this matter have suggested that this is an attempt to emphasize the difference between Graham`s approach to the war on terrorism and and the antiterro policies brought forth by Rand Paul, who declared that fighting terrorism is a priority, but so is respecting the Constitution, likely referring to the PATRIOT Act.

Image Source: gawker.com

A 16 year old girl has been gored by a bison in the Yellowstone National Park on Friday. The teen girl was on a student exchange and she was visiting Yellowstone, yet unfortunately the trip to the world famous park did not turned out as it was planned. A Yellowstone Bison gores a teenager who was posing in order to take a photo and even if the girl was harmed severely, the wounds do not threaten her life, but this situation could evolve into a scandal that could attend to damage the image of the fantastic national park.

According to a report by NBC Montana, the young girl turned her back on the Yellowstone bison, in order to take a photo. Simultaneously, the creature rushed into the 16 year old and gored her. The officials talking on behalf of the Yellowstone National Park have released a statement in which they have affirmed that the wounds of the teen girl caused by the bison can not lead to the death of the teenager.

The eyewitnesses have said that the teen girl, who is a Taiwan native was on a trip to the Yellowstone National Park with her host family. They have added that all of them were located between three and six feet away from the animal when the creature attacked.

The Taiwanese young girl and her host family were hiking near the well known geyser called Old Faithful. However, they stopped near a group of persons who were watching a bison. Undoubtedly, it seemed like a great, exciting occasion for a photograph. The young girl turned her back on the bison to take a picture and that is when, according to the Yellowstone park service, the animal lifted its head from the ground and gored the teenager.

Amy Bartlett, who is in the position of spokesperson and talking on behalf of the Yellowstone National Park has said in a statement that the visitors were located less than 10 feet away from the bison at the time when the rangers got to the scene.

According to Amy Bartlett, the rangers and some of the bystanders have moved the girl away from a bison to a safe distance from the animal.

“The girl was transported to the Old Faithful Clinic, treated and then taken by helicopter ambulance for further medical treatment.”

Amy Bartlett has added.

The rules at Yellowstone say that visitors need to keep a distance of 300 feet from wolves and bears and at least 75 feet from the large animals.

Image Source: gawker