‘FAR-RIGHT TERROR ‘BIGGEST DANGER’ TO DEMOCRACY IN GERMANY’Far-right terrorism and extremism are the biggest danger facing democracy inGermany today, the domestic intelligence agency chief said on Thursday,after the country was hit by several extremist attacks in recent months.The most radical right-wingers number 32,000 in the country, said BfV chiefThomas Haldenwang, adding that 13,000 are considered potentially violent.“Right-wing extremism and right-wing terrorism are currently the biggestdanger for democracy in Germany,” he said at a press conference.His agency also placed under formal surveillance the far-right AfD party’smost radical faction Flüegel (The Wing), which now has about 7,000 members.Founded in 2013, the AfD has grown and shifted further right over the lastseven years. Railing against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in 2015 tokeep Germany’s borders open to refugees, the AfD has increased its supportbase. It is now the largest opposition group in the Bundestag, Germany’slower house of Parliament.The AfD’s most radical wing, the Flüegel, was founded by far-right firebrandBjoern Hoecke, who has sparked outrage with statements on Germany’s Nazipast.US RETALIATORY STRIKES UNDERWAY IN IRAQ: US OFFICIALSThe U.S. military launched air strikes against a pro-Iranian group in Iraqfollowing the deaths of two Americans and a Briton in a rocket attack, U.S.military officials told AFP on Thursday.“The operation is underway” and is targeting weapons facilities, oneofficial said on condition of anonymity, without specifying where thestrikes were taking place.“U.S. air strikes targeted Hashed al-Shaabi positions in multiple provincesacross Iraq, targeting logistics nodes and UAV (drone) storage units,” saida second official, adding that the Iran-backed armed faction KataebHezbollah was one of those targeted.Earlier Thursday U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned that “all optionsare on the table” to respond to the death of the three soldiers in a rocketattack on the Taji air base on Wednesday.Fourteen others were injured in the attack, including Americans, British,and Poles.The rocket attack sparked fears of a fresh escalation of tensions betweenthe United States and Iran.While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, whichsaw about 18 rockets land on the base, Washington has blamed Iran-backedfactions from the Hashed al-Shaabi military network for recent similarviolence.“The strikes began at 1:00 am local time and are using various kinds ofaircraft,” one of the sources said.“We have no immediate information on casualties,” the official added.“This is the response to the rocket attacks yesterday.... This is not acoalition operation. This a specifically U.S. operation.”TURKEY, RUSSIA AGREE ON IDLIB CEASEFIRE DEALTurkish and Russian officials have largely agreed details of a ceasefiredeal in Syria's Idlib region, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said onThursday, the third day of discussions between the two coutries.Last week Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria's war,agreed on the ceasefire to halt an escalation of violence in Idlib thatdisplaced nearly a million people and brought the two countries close todirect confrontation.Under the agreement, Turkish and Russian forces will carry out joint patrolsalong the M4 highway linking Syria's east and west, and establish a securitycorridor either side of it. A Russian delegation arrived in Ankara this weekto discuss the details of the agreement.Russia supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey backs rebelswho have fought him for nearly nine years. "We have largely reached anagreement. At the moment, the attacks have stopped, the ceasefire isholding," Akar was cited as saying by his office.ACTIVISTS FLAY UN SILENCE ON BALOCH GENOCIDECriticising the United Nations for its “apathy” towards Baloch people, humanrights activists have set up a pavilion right outside the UN office inGeneva, highlighting their genocide committed by the Islamic Republic ofPakistan. Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC) activists said they had set upa pavilion named ‘Save the Baloch’ outside the UN office adjacent to theiconic broken chair.“The UN has failed its own mandate to protect and fight for human rightsacross the globe. Silence from the UN on Baloch people is essentially anendorsement of their cultural extermination of genocidal proportions,”protesters outside the UN office said. BHRC protesters said, “It is a pushto garner greater international awareness for the near-extermination of thepeople of Balochistan.”Activists pointed out that death squads kidnap social and politicalactivists and human rights defenders, who are then murdered and thrown intomass graves. Several mass graves have been discovered across Balochistan,activists said, adding that military oppression is the key tactic Pakistanhas employed in order to sustain its unjust rule over the Baloch.CHELSEA MANNING CASE: JUDGE ORDERS RELEASE FROM PRISONA US judge has ordered the immediate release of former army intelligenceanalyst Chelsea Manning from prison.Manning had been remanded for refusing to testify in an inquiry intoWikileaks and had been in detention in Virginia since last May.She was scheduled to appear in court on Friday, but the judge ruled that itwas no longer necessary for her to testify.Manning was found guilty in 2013 of charges including espionage for leakingsecret military files to Wikileaks.She accrued more than $250,000 (£198,000) in fines for refusing toco-operate with the inquiry. Her legal team had asked for these to bevacated, but the judge said they must be paid in full.Her release order on Thursday came shortly after her legal team said she hadtried to take her own life and was recovering in hospital.139 NEW MINOR PLANETS FOUND AT EDGE OF SOLAR SYSTEMAstronomers have discovered 139 new trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) — minorplanets — located in the far reaches of the solar system. The study,published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, also describes anew approach for finding similar types of objects, and could aid futuresearches for the hypothetical Planet Nine and other undiscovered planets.