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Belgium has announced it has imposed controls on its border with France amid fears of an influx of migrants.

Up to 290 police officers would be deployed along the border, said Interior Minister Jan Jambon. The move comes as a French court deliberates over the legality of plans imminently to evict thousands of migrants from part of the « Jungle » camp in Calais. « They’re already on their way here, » Mr Jambon was quoted as saying.

He said the controls, which entail a suspension of the EU’s Schengen accord allowing passport-free travel, would last « as long as necessary ».

The controls did not mean the border would be closed, he said, but « targeted checks » would be carried out – and those caught immediately deported. « We are going to guard the border in strategic places, chosen and known by police as potential smuggling routes. » Borders have been tightened and fences erected across Europe, in response to the arrival of more than one million migrants and refugees arriving on Europe’s shores in the past year. The majority have fled conflict in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

No Tent Camps

French and British officials want to reduce the number of migrants in Calais and deter others from heading there in the hope of reaching the UK. Migrants gathered in the « Jungle » camp in Calais were told by authorities last week that they faced eviction from the southern portion of the camp. That has triggered fears in Belgium that the camp’s inhabitants will simply move on. « It’s our express intention to avoid tent camps like Calais in our country, » Mr Jambon said. He said 32 people had been arrested on Monday in Adinkerke, a Belgian village close to the French border.

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The Islamic State group (IS) is being mocked online after claims it faked footage of battles in its propaganda videos, and even used the soft drink Vimto as fake blood.

The claims were contained in a video featuring an alleged IS defector, and came from a rival jihadi group which is vying for influence in Yemen. The video begins with the defector describing how he was asked to attack mosques by IS commanders. But the section of the video that really captured the imagination of Twitter users outlines alleged IS trickery in filming fake battle scenes which the group falsely claimed as genuine military victories.

The defector describes how he was enlisted to fake fights and raids in front of the camera. In some scenes, he says, IS fighters pretended to be dead Houthi rebels and were daubed with fake blood in the form of the soft drink Vimto.

While it’s almost impossible to verify the defector’s claims, the video has prompted widespread jokes on Twitter by rival jihadists and other IS opponents, including the hashtag « Vimto Caliphate » in Arabic. One image being shared depicts IS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani as a Vimto delivery man: « Now I know why Vimto has disappared from shops in Yemen! » read another Tweet.
Vimto (for the uninitiated) is a spiced fruit-flavoured drink which originated in the north of England but is also hugely popular in the Middle East, where it’s often drunk during the holy month of Ramadan. Diluted versions of the drink have a purplish hue, but the concentrated cordial version that is commonly sold in the Arab world has a much darker red tone.

The video was released by Hidayah Media – a group associated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). AQAP and IS are just two of the rival factions fighting in Yemen’s brutal civil war. Since its launch in early January, Hidayah Media has been using its videos, which feature a series of IS defectors, to try to undermine the Yemeni branch of Islamic State.

A South African court has sentenced a Czech businessman to 35 years in jail for attempted murder and kidnapping.

The charges against Radovan Krejcir, seen as the kingpin of Johannesburg’s criminal underworld, date back to a drug deal in 2013. He was accused of ordering the kidnapping a man whose brother had disappeared with 25kg (55lbs) of crystal meth. The man testified that Krejcir poured boiling water over his head. Krejcir seems to be synonymous with drama, having tried to escape from custody a number of times.

Months prior his arrest in 2013, he made local and international headlines when he survived an attempt to kill him using guns hidden behind a car number plate operated by remote control. He was supposed to be sentenced on Monday, but the court had to be evacuated following a bomb threat.

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The US and Russia have announced that a planned cessation of hostilities in Syria will come into effect at midnight on 27 February.

Their statement said the truce did not include so-called Islamic State (IS) and the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

World powers agreed on 12 February that a truce would come into effect within a week, but that deadline passed and scepticism remains over the new plan. On Sunday 140 died in bombings in Homs and Damascus as the violence continued. More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed in the conflict which began in March 2011.

Some 11 million others have been forced from their homes, of whom four million have fled abroad – including growing numbers who are making the dangerous journey to Europe.

History Of The Conflict

Separately, Syria’s government has called a parliamentary election for 13 April. The last was in 2012 and they are held every four years. The White House said that President Barack Obama had phoned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at Mr Putin’s request to discuss the efforts to establish the cessation of hostilities. After their phone call, the joint Russian-US statement was released.
The truce applied to « those parties to the Syrian conflict that have indicated their commitment to and acceptance of its terms », the statement said.

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Many are the rumours surrounding the life of Mexico’s most infamous drug lord, Joaquin « El Chapo » Guzman.

Reportedly one of the richest men in the world, the 61-year-old Guzman has escaped from two maximum security jails.

The first time, he was on the run for 13 years. During this time, he married a young Mexican woman, Emma Coronel, on her 18th birthday. Guzman was recaptured in February 2014 while he was spending time with Ms Coronel at a Mexican beach resort.

In July 2015, he escaped again but this time only managed to stay free for six months before being recaptured. On Sunday, US Spanish-language TV channel Telemundo broadcast an interview with Ms Coronel in which she spoke about her life with Guzman. Here are five things we have learned from that interview.

1. El Chapo’s plan to have his life turned into a film is not new.
A day after Guzman was captured, an article by Sean Penn pappeared in Rolling Stone magazine recounting how the actor met the drug lord while the latter was in hiding.
The two were put in touch by Mexican actress Kate del Castillo.
Messages between the two published by the Mexican authorities reveal that Guzman wanted his life to be documented in a film.
But Ms Coronel said that idea was not prompted by the meeting with the actors, but rather went back years.
« Ever since I’ve known him, he’s been talking about this.
« More than anything he wants to tell his side of the story, how things really are and not how they have been portrayed. »

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