Several hundred Marines have deployed into Syria with artillery guns, as part of the ongoing preparation for the fight to push ISIL out of its self-declared headquarters of Raqqa, a Pentagon spokesman has confirmed. In addition, the US is preparing to send up to 1,000 troops to Kuwait. Source: Al-Jazeera
A Frenchman who had been on France’s terror watchlist after showing signs of having been radicalized to extremist Islam has been accepted into France’s police force. The man was placed on the terror watch list in 2012 as a known radical Islamist and France’s intelligence service DGSI kept him under surveillance for a number of years after being alerted to his behaviour. Source The Local
China is planning to bring back gold standards for international payment after several decades. Being the world’s largest importer of yellow metal, China is now preparing to launch an oil futures contract denominated in yuan and redeemable in gold. While the yuan is not yet a global trade settlement currency, China will make the plan possible by backing the yuan with gold for settling crude oil imports. China is also the largest importer of crude oil. Source Business Standard
Violent crime in America rose in 2016 for the second straight year, driven by a spike in killings in some major cities, but remained near historically low levels, according to FBI data released Monday. Source Bloomberg
