The anonymous open letter was published on a news website earlier this month, then quickly taken down again. Florence looi now. Reporter a chinese dissident living in the United States says his parents and younger brother were taken by police on tuesday and havent been heard from since. He says police have been harassing his family members for more than a week after he was accused of helping to circulate a letter published online urging the chinese president to resign. He denies any involvement in this. Several employees of the website have also been detained. This is also being reported by a news agency who say that at least four employees of that website, including the ceo and managing editor have been missing and out of contact for a week. These developments come about ten days after a prominent journalist disappeared just as he was about to board a plane to leave beijing. It is widely thought his disappearance has to do with the letter as well. The letter was published on a news we
Isil. It just looted its historical sites. So all of that under consideration, of course our priority, and i said this yesterday, is defeating and destroying daesh. That remains our priority. And yet we also recognize that replacing one or replacing their by their barbaric role with assads journey is not tyranny is not a great trade off of a great solution. The Syrian People should not have to decide between isil and assad, and thats again what i was trying to convey yesterday which speaks to the fact that thats why we need to advance of the u. S. Led negotiation. We need to establish a ceasefire. We need to end of the civil war, get a Transitional Government into place, and then we can talk about cooperation against daesh. It just seems a little strange because two of the things weve heard over the last many months was, one, that assad wasnt fighting daesh proper and that he was mainly fighting the modern Syrian Opposition and thats true. And that carried over to what the russians wer
Meantime, in france, authorities there say they thwarted a terror plot near paris overnight and arrested a French National who is suspected of planning a quote unquote advance stage attack. French police also recovered a kalashnikov rifle and more than 4 pounds of tatp. That is that same explosive, the nickname is mother of satan, because its so vulnerable when its placed near heat. That was used in tuesdays bombings. And in the sophisticated coordinated attacks november 13th paris last year. The manhunt still under way for the suspects connected to brussels. A u. S. Officials tells cnn the u. S. Believes it knows the identity of this man. The revelation coming as brussels concedes it needs help from the u. S. Yet belgium not revealing that i. D. Then there is just the staggering human toll. The department of state now confirms that two americans were killed in tuesdays bombings. Out of respect of course to the families, their names have not yet been released. But u. S. Secretary of st
In iraq. Why is the pentagon and Senior Military Leadership reluctant to say its more than 3800 . Were not reluctant. What we track is the number in our force management level. Thats 3800. This is nothing thats inconsistent with whats been going on the last 15 years. People that are in direct support of the embassy, those have knot nnot been counted. Its a consistent way of counting thats been going on for 15 years. At any given time we have 3800 directly in support of the mission. When units rotate, we dont double count them. If theres a unit of 200 replaced by a unit of 200, and theyre being replaced at the same time, we dont count it as 400. The accounting of our people has been consistent. Were not denying that theres more people than 3800. You get the numbers from us. But in terms of what we count in the mission in thats in accordance with the direction, the 3800 is in the mission. I didnt say 5,000 was accurate. I said 3800. And theres some number above that as a result of people
New raids taking place as we speak in schaerbeek. This is the same area where the brussels attackers lived before carrying out tuesdays deadly bombings. Also new this morning, nbc news confirming a u. S. Based brother and sister were among those killed in the attacks. They have been identified as sasha and alexander pinczowski. A short time ago, john kerry met with belgiums Prime Minister in brussels paying his respect to the victims. On behalf of president obama and all of the american people, i offer our deepest condolences to the people of belgium and all of the families, all those individuals who have suffered an inconceivable loss in the last few days. Were also learning about a fifth suspect in the bombings from belgian media. Those reports Say Police Sources describe this fifth suspect as armed and dangerous. Belgian media also quoting police who say they detained seven people after raids throughout brussels, but the prosecut Prosecutors Office has not given details on who was d