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Resources updated Friday, July 14, 2017

July 14, 2017

The scene of a previous terror attack in Jerusalem (File photo)

An infant girl was among three people injured in a firebomb attack in Jerusalem on Friday, hours after two Israeli police officers were killed in an attack by three Israeli-Arab assailants on the Temple Mount.

The Molotov cocktail was thrown at a family traveling in a community security vehicle in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, right near the Mount of Olives.

Paramedics who rushed to the scene treated the baby and the two adults for smoke inhalation. The child was then transported to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Police launched a search for the perpetrator or perpetrators.

Earlier Friday, three Arab Israeli terrorists opened fire on a group of police officers standing just outside the Temple Mount compound near the Old City's Lions Gate. Two cops were killed in the attack, and a third suffered light injuries.

The victims were identified as Haiel Sitawe, 30, and Kamil Shnaan, 22, both from Druze villages in northern Israel.

They were due to be buried Friday afternoon.

Infant among 3 injured in firebomb attack in Jerusalem Document

A fishing village in Bakassi, Cameroon (File photo)

Nigeria's parliament is investigating reports that 97 fishermen have been killed in the Bakassi peninsula, which the country ceded to Cameroon.

Reports say that the killings happened last week when a Cameroonian paramilitary unit was enforcing a $300 (£230) fishing levy.

Nigerian Interior Minister Abdulrahman Dambazau accused Cameroon of breaching an agreement to protect its citizens.

The Cameroonian government is yet to comment.

Cameroon took control of oil-rich Bakassi in 2008 after an International Court of Justice ruling, ending years of border skirmishes.

Survivors of the attack have been arriving back in Nigeria with injuries, reports the BBC's Naziru Mikailu in the capital, Abuja.

Nigeria's lower house of parliament resolved that it will investigate the reports in view of the 2005 Green Tea agreement between the two countries, to protect the citizens of the ceded areas from harm.

A five-year UN-backed transition period was put in place exempting the area's residents, many of them Nigerian fishermen, from paying tax.

Nigeria earlier this week summoned the Cameroonian ambassador to lodge a formal protest note.

Cameroon forces 'kill 97 Nigerian fishermen' in Bakassi Document

The scene of a previous attack by Boko Haram in Nigeria

Two suicide bombers killed at least 12 people and wounded over 40 others in a small town in northern Cameroon near the Nigerian border late on Wednesday, a senior army source and a local official told Reuters.

"There were 14 deaths, including the two suicide bombers, and 42 wounded," said an army colonel responsible for evacuating the wounded who asked to remain anonymous. "The attack was perpetrated by one suicide bomber, and the other was shot dead."

The attack was carried out by two women who walked into a busy area in the center of Waza, five miles (8 km) from the Nigerian border, said Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor for the Far North region where the attack took place. He said that 13 had been killed and 43 wounded. A baby was among the dead, he said.

Many were seriously wounded and were flown to nearby hospitals, he said.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the region has been a frequent target of Boko Haram militants in their eight-year bid to carve out an Islamic caliphate beyond Nigeria.

Last month, nine were killed in the town of Kolofata when two children carrying explosives blew themselves up near a camp housing people displaced by Boko Haram violence.

In eight years, Boko Haram attacks have killed more than 20,000 people in the Lake Chad region, including Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger and, according to the latest U.N. refugee agency figures, displaced 2.7 million.

A dozen killed, over 40 wounded in Cameroon suicide bomb attack Document

North Korean men waiting to board ship.

Brutal North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is shipping tens of thousands of impoverished citizens to Russia for the hard currency his cash-strapped regime desperately needs, Fox News has found.

Alarmed human rights groups say the North Korea workers in Russia are little more than slaves, subjected to everything from cruel and violent acts to ruthless exploitation at the hands of corrupt officials, while being forced to turn over large chunks of their pay to the North Korean government.

A report issued earlier this year by the Seoul-based Data Base Center for North Korean Human Rights estimates that about 50,000 North Korean laborers are working low-paying jobs in Russia. They send at least $120 million every year to the regime in Pyongyang.

"The North Korean government maintains strict controls over their workers' profits, in some cases probably taking 90 percent of their wages," Scott Synder, director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy at the Council of Foreign Relations, told Fox News. "This is an issue that has been going on under the radar for a long time."

International sanctions have crippled North Korea's economy. The country produces few goods suitable for export. Kim needs money any way he can get it.

North Koreans helped construct a new soccer stadium in St. Petersburg. They also helped build a luxury apartment complex in Moscow. 

The North Korean workers toil under terribly harsh conditions. A North Korean working on the soccer project was killed. Two North Korean laborers were found dead in June at a decrepit hostel near the Moscow apartment building site.

For years North Korean laborers have worked at remote Russian logging camps, which has brought to mind the brutal Soviet-era Gulag system.



Even so many North Korean laborers are willing to pay bribes to be sent to Russia given the dire economic and political situation at home.

The U.S. State Department issued a report on human trafficking last month that concluded that North Korean workers in Russia had been subjected to "exploitative labor conditions characteristic of trafficking cases such as withholding of identity documents, non-payment for services rendered, physical abuse, lack of safety measures, or extremely poor living conditions."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has proposed new sanctions to deal with the problem.

"Secretary Tillerson has called on all countries to fully implement all U.N. Security Council resolutions, sever or downgrade diplomatic relations, and isolate [North Korea] financially, including through new sanctions, severing trade relationships, expelling guest workers, and banning imports from North Korean," a State Department official told Fox News.

One reason for making such resolutions international is because North Korean laborers work in other countries besides Russia. China uses large numbers of them, and Qatar has North Korean laborers helping build its World Cup stadium.

Among the exploited North Korean workers are painters sent to the Pacific Ocean port of Vladivostok. Still, they have it little better than the North Koreans working in the Russian logging camps.

The boss of a decorating company in Vladivostok told the New York Times recently that minders from the Workers' Party of Korea, the ruling party in Pyongyang, will confiscate half or more of a laborer's monthly salary. He said a construction crew boss will take another 20 percent.

The corruption has apparently only increased in the last 10 years as the monthly pay rate for the laborers has increased from about 17,000 rubles, around $283, to 50,000 rubles, or about $841, according to the report.

"They don't take holidays. They eat, work and sleep and nothing else. And they don't sleep much," the Russian boss said. "They are basically in the situation of slaves."

He was reluctant to give the Times his name for fear the laborers would be punished by Workers' Party officials.

Experts question why the human trafficking of North Koreans to Russia hasn't drawn as much attention on the international stage as sex trafficking and other forms of human trafficking.

"It's very much analogous to any other type of trafficking situation across the world," Snyder said. "Sex trafficking is done by shadowy, illegal organizations, but here we're talking about state entities carrying out the trafficking. This really speaks to the nature of these regimes."

Kim Jong Un sends North Korean slaves to Russia to earn cash for regime Document

Kamil Shnaan, left, and Haiel Sitawe, right, the police officers killed in the terror attack next to the Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem on July 14, 2017

Israeli police released further details regarding the officers who were involved in stopping the terror attack on Friday at Temple Mount and confirmed that two had been killed and two wounded.

The slain officers are Hail Stawi, 30, from Maghar and Kamil Shanan, 22, from Hurfeish, both in northern Israel. Officer Shanan leaves behind a three-week old child, and was the son of former Israeli Druse Knesset member Shakib Shanan. He was recruited into the Israel Police's Temple Mount unit in 2012.

Shanan joined the police as part of his national service and signed on as a career officer seven months ago. Funerals will be held in the officers' hometowns on Friday.

The wounded officers are Nziya Kablan from Beit Jann and Nasser Hiab from Zarzir.

The officers were shot at by terrorists who used Carlo (home-made) rifles. Israeli media reported that one of the terrorists, who was considered to be already neutralized, was able to get to his feet and attempted to assault the officers and was then shot and killed.

The attackers were later identified by the Shin Bet as 29-year-old Muhammad Ahmad Mahmoud Jabarin, Muhammad Ahmed Fadel Jabarin 19, and Muhammad Hamed 'Abd al-Latif Jabarin, 19, from Umm el-Fahm in northern Israel.

The attack, which took place shorty after 7:00 a.m., is the second attack at Jerusalem's Old City within the past month and resulted in the closure of the Temple Mount to Muslim worshipers on Friday.

Israeli officials from across the political spectrum came together on social media to mourn the losses of the policemen. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent his condolences to the families in the name of all Israelis on his accounts.

Zionist Union lawmakers pointed out that Shanan was the son of former Labor MK Shakib Shanan. "One of the policemen that was murdered in the horrible terrorist attack was the son of a friend," MK Merav Michaeli (Zionist Union) tweeted.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett said: "The Jewish people are connected in a covenant of life with our Druse brothers." He changed his avatar on twitter to a photo of the Israeli and Druse flags.

The police said in a statement that Thursday's attack was an "exceptional and extreme" incident. "Shooting at the Temple Mount is serious and sensitive event, which is significant on the political and international level and will be dealt with accordingly," police said.

Police said the Temple Mount will remain closed for an undisclosed amount of time until the conclusion of an investigation into the incident and after searches of the area.

Israel Police Confirms Two Officers Killed in Friday Temple Mount Terror Attack Document