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Factbox: Iraq's Kurds to vote in historic referendum on independenceERBIL/LONDON, Iraq (Reuters) - About five million people in Kurdish-held areas of northern Iraq will be summoned to take part in a non-binding referendum on independence from Iraq on Monday. They will be asked to tick a yes/no box next to this question: Do you want the Kurdistan region and the Kurdish areas outside the region s administration to become an independent state? The Kurds are the largest ethnic group left stateless when Britain and France, the colonial powers which won World War One, carved up the Ottoman empire. The region s roughly 30 million ethnic Kurds were left scattered, mainly over four countries: Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. All of them suffered persecution and were often denied the right to speak their language. Those in Iraq were uprooted under Saddam Hussein s regime and suffered an attack using chemical weapons. The autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq says the Shi ite ruled central government in Baghdad has failed to respect autonomy established after the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein in a U.S.-led invasion. The KRG says the vote acknowledges the Kurds crucial contribution confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq. WHAT S THE LIKELY OUTCOME AND WHAT S THE NEXT MOVE: The outcome is likely to be a comfortable yes . The KRG, led by Massoud Barzani, plans to use the vote as a legitimate mandate to press for negotiations with Baghdad and neighboring countries to achieve independence. Baghdad thinks the vote could lead to a messy breakup of Iraq at a time when it is struggling with reconstruction and the return of refugees. It offers talks to resolve disputes over land, energy and power sharing, including the status of the multi-ethnic oil region of Kirkuk. Iraq s powerful neighbors fear separatist contagion for their own Kurdish populations. Turkey is home to the largest Kurdish minority. It has been fighting Kurdish insurrection in its south-east since 1984. Iran s Kurds are close culturally to Iraq s Kurds and they speak the same Kurdish language. Tehran is also close to the Shi ite political parties who have been ruling Iraq or holding key security or government positions since 2003. Syria is embroiled in a civil war in which its own Kurds are pressing for self-administration. About everyone, including the United States and United Nations who fear a destabilization of Iraq while the war with Islamic State is not yet over. WHY OIL-RICH KIRKUK IS EMERGING AS A FLASHPOINT: Kirkuk is a multi-ethnic city. It lies outside the recognized Kurdish region and is home to Kurds, Turkmen, Arabs and Assyrian Christians. It sits on susbtantial oil reserves and its crude is exported through a pipeline to the Mediterranean that crosses KRG territory and Turkey. If Turkey decides to close the pipeline, it would deprive the KRG government in Erbil of most its hard currency income. Iraqi Kurdistan produces around 650,000 bpd of crude from its fields, including around 150,000 bpd from the disputed areas of Kirkuk. The region s production volumes represent 15 percent of total Iraqi output and around 0.7 percent of global oil production. The KRG aspires to raise production to over 1 million bpd by the end of this decade. Kurdish oil production has been dominated by mid-sized oil firms such as Genel, DNO, Gulf Keystone and Dana Gas. Major oil firms such as Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Rosneft also have projects in Kurdistan but they are mostly at an exploration stage. Russia s state oil major Rosneft, however, has lent over $1 billion to the KRG guaranteed by oil sales and committed a total of $4 billion to various projects in Kurdistan. Trading houses Vitol, Glencore, Trafigura and Petraco have lent a total of $2 billion to Kurdistan guaranteed by oil sales while Turkey has also provided a total of $1.5 billion to support Erbil in the past two years. All registered residents of the Kurdish-held region in northern Iraq, Kurds and non-Kurds, are eligible to vote. The Kurdish-held regions include those inside the official boundaries of the KRG and surrounding areas that Peshmerga fighters seized in the course of the war on Islamic State. Kirkuk lies outside the KRG and is also claimed by Baghdad. Internally displaced people from the disputed territories will be allowed to vote. Iraq s Kurdish diaspora will also be allowed to submit electronic ballots on Sept. 23 and 24. The United Nations opposes the referendum and says it will not participate in the process. | 1 |
Putin says Poland should "grow up" and stop blaming Moscow for air crashMOSCOW/WARSAW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was tired of hearing allegations from Warsaw that a 2010 plane crash that killed then Polish President Lech Kaczynski was the result of a Russian conspiracy, drawing a sharp rebuke from Warsaw. Responding to a question from a Polish reporter at an annual news conference, Putin said it was time for Poland to move beyond the plane crash, turn a new page, and grow up . A Polish Air Force Tu-154 plane crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk on April 10, 2010, killing all 96 people on board, including President Kaczynski, whose twin brother Jaroslaw is now the leader of Poland s ruling Law and Justice Party, in power since 2015. A previous Polish government concluded that pilot error was to blame for the crash, but Law and Justice ordered a new investigation which concluded this year that the plane was brought down by explosions on board. The crash remains deeply divisive in Poland, where many politicians emerged from an anti-Communist tradition that long saw Moscow as an enemy. Poland s defense minister denounced Putin s comments. In the mouth of the leader of a country that is responsible for the Katyn genocide, as well as for the Smolensk tragedy, such words are really shocking, Antoni Macierewicz told public radio PR 24, referring to a Soviet massacre of thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals during World War Two, as well as the Smolensk crash. President Putin should finally face the truth: two explosions which eventually destroyed the Tu-154 were incontestably identified by official expertise, Macierewicz said. The new investigatory commission created by Macierewicz said in April this year that blasts most likely tore the plane into pieces killing all 96 people seconds before it hit the ground. It repeated allegations that Russian air traffic controllers had deliberately set the plane on the wrong descent path. Polish prosecutors said then they would press charges against two controllers. Moscow rejected the allegations. | 1 |
Obama administration arms sales offers to Saudi top $115 billion: reportWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has offered Saudi Arabia more than $115 billion in weapons, other military equipment and training, the most of any U.S. administration in the 71-year U.S.-Saudi alliance, a report seen by Reuters has found. The report, authored by William Hartung of the U.S.-based Center for International Policy, said the offers were made in 42 separate deals, and the majority of the equipment has yet to be delivered. Hartung told Reuters the report would be made available publicly on Sept. 8. The report said U.S. arms offers to Saudi Arabia since Obama took office in January 2009 have included everything from small arms and ammunition to tanks, attack helicopters, air-to-ground missiles, missile defense ships, and warships. Washington also provides maintenance and training to Saudi security forces. The Center’s report is based on data from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, a Department of Defense body that provides figures on arms sales offers and Foreign Military Sales agreements. Most of the offers, which are reported to Congress, become formal agreements though some are abandoned or amended. The report did not disclose how many of the offers to Saudi Arabia were agreed. Washington’s arms sales to Riyadh recently have come under fire from rights groups and some members of Congress are disturbed by the rising number of civilian casualties in the war in Yemen, where a coalition led by Saudi Arabia is fighting Iran-allied Houthi rebels. The conflict has killed at least 10,000 people. Last month the United Nations human rights office said that 3,799 civilians have died in the conflict, with coalition air strikes responsible for an estimated 60 percent of the deaths. The coalition says it does not target civilians and accuses the Houthis of placing military targets in civilian areas. The coalition has created a body to investigate civilian casualties. The outcry over those casualties has led some members of Congress to push for restrictions on arms transfers, and amid the growing outcry, the Pentagon cautioned that its support for Saudi Arabia in its Yemen campaign was not “a blank check”. The Control Arms coalition, a group that campaigns for stricter arms sales controls, said last month that Britain, France and the United States were flouting the 2014 Arms Trade treaty, which bans exports of conventional weapons that fuel human rights violations or war crimes. Nevertheless, the Obama administration last month approved a potential $1.15 billion arms package for Saudi Arabia. Hartung said the level of U.S. arms sales to Riyadh should give it leverage to pressure Saudi Arabia. “It’s time for the Obama administration to use the best leverage it has - Saudi Arabia’s dependence on U.S. weapons and support - to wage the war in Yemen in the first place,” Hartung told Reuters. “Pulling back the current offer of battle tanks or freezing some of the tens of billions in weapons and services in the pipeline would send a strong signal to the Saudi leadership that they need stop their indiscriminate bombing campaign and take real steps to prevent civilian casualties.” Washington has been at pains to prove to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies that it remains committed to their defense against Iran in the wake of a multinational deal last year to restrict the Iranian nuclear program. Sunni Muslim Gulf states accuse Shi’ite Iran of fomenting instability in the region, which the Islamic Republic denies. “The more recent deals that have involved resupplying Saudi Arabia with ammunition, bombs, and tanks to replace weaponry used up or damaged in the war in Yemen are no doubt driven in part by the effort to ‘reassure’ the Saudis that the U.S. will not tilt towards Iran in the wake of the nuclear deal,” Hartung said. | 1 |
WOMAN WORKING OUT WITH HUSBAND Told To Stop Wearing Tank Top To Gym…Reason Why Is OUTRAGEOUS!It s perfectly appropriate for a male rapist to make his way into a public girl s bathroom but a woman working out with her husband in a gym is not allowed to wear a TANK TOP because the size of her breasts might offend someone? Saying she felt degraded, an Ottawa woman is pursuing a possible human rights complaint against a local health club that asked her not to wear a tank top allegedly because of the size of her breasts.But the club, Movati Athletic, was fighting back against Jenna Vecchio Friday, saying that while it did not intend to embarrass her, it was she and her husband who chose to make the dispute public.Vecchio said she has contacted a human rights lawyer and is considering her options after she was told by a female staff member at Movati that her black, form-fitting tank top was making other gym members uncomfortable.The incident, which took place last Saturday while Vecchio and her husband were working out, left the woman shaken. It was humiliating because there were other members around (who) stopped doing what they were doing to listen in on the conversation, Vecchio told The Canadian Press. I felt singled out, degraded, she added. My chest became the focus of conversation and that s not something a woman likes to discuss openly with people. Vecchio shared her story on Facebook. It currently has over 5,200 shares.Here is Vecchio s post to Facebook:Vecchio returned to the gym two days later, where she cancelled her membership after speaking with the club manager, who promised to look into the matter and get back to her.But Vecchio didn t get a response and said she only heard through the media that Movati is standing by the decision.In a statement, the company said it launched an investigation after it saw Vecchio s Facebook post, and that it is upholding the decision to enforce its dress code. Following Ms. Vecchio s own social media postings on this matter, we conducted a thorough investigation which included first-hand accounts from members and other staff, and a followup meeting with Jenna herself, said the statement. Upon conclusion of our interviews, we stand by the original decision that confirms that Ms. Vecchio was dressed inconsistently with our code of conduct. Via: National Post | 0 |
ANGRY BLACK MILWAUKEE RESIDENTS Set City On Fire After Armed Black Man Is Killed By Police: “The black people of Milwaukee are tired…They’re tired of living under this oppression” [VIDEO]This is Obama s America This will be his legacy. He was elected by over 90% of the Black community. He promised them jobs. Instead, he opened our borders and gave their jobs to illegal aliens who will gladly do the jobs for less money.During Obama s tenure, the percentage of black Americans struggling below the poverty line has advanced, according to the most recent Census Bureau data, from 25.8 in 2009 to 26.2 in 2014 up 1.6 percent. Real median income among black households during those years, according to the Census Bureau, sank from $35,954 to $35,398 down 1.5 percent.The number of black food-stamp participants exploded across that time frame from 7,393,000 to 11,699,000, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports up 58.2 percent. Also, from Obama s oath of office through the fourth quarter of 2015, the percentage of black Americans who own homes foundered from 46.1 percent to 41.9 percent, according to the Census down 9.1 percent. -National ReviewMilwaukee:A standoff between police and an angry crowd turned violent Saturday night in the hours after a Milwaukee police officer shot and killed an armed suspect during a foot chase on the city s north side.After an hours-long confrontation with officers, police reported at 10:15 p.m. that a gas station at N. Sherman Blvd. and W. Burleigh St. was set on fire. Police said firefighters could not for a time get close to the blaze because of gunshots.Later, fires were started at businesses including a BMO Harris Bank branch, a beauty supply company and O Reilly Auto Parts stores near N. 35th and W. Burleigh streets, a grim and emphatic Mayor Tom Barrett said. He spoke at a midnight news conference at the District 3 police station at N. 49th St. and W. Lisbon Ave.The mayor said some involved in the disturbances took to social media early in the evening to encourage others to come out and participate in trouble-making. He said many of them were young people, and he urged parents to keep tight reins on their children to avoid a repeat of Saturday night. Our police officers are doing everything they can to restore order, he said. But he said everyone needed to help restore calm. If you love your son, if you love your daughter, text them, call them, pull them by their ears, get them home. The mayor said police had shown an amazing amount of restraint Saturday evening.Hamilton said, Our city is in turmoil tonight. He promised a full and open investigation into the the police-involved shooting.Assistant Police Chief James Harpole said at least 200 people had gathered at the disturbances earlier. He said there were multiple gunshots over the course of the evening.When the gas station was set ablaze, there were three people in the building and all got out safely, he said.The news conference ended with Aldermen Russell W. Stamper II and Khalif Rainey delivering strongly worded statements about the disturbance springing from the frustrations of black Milwaukeeans and the problems they face.Rainey, who represents the area where the man was shot by the officer and the disturbance occurred, was particularly pointed. He said Sherman Park had become a powder keg this summer, and ended his remarks by implying that downtown could be the site of disturbances if the issues facing African-Americans here not addressed. This entire community has sat back and witnessed how Milwaukee, Wis., has become the worst place to live for African-Americans in the entire country, Rainey said. Now this is a warning cry. Where do we go from here? Where do we go as a community from here? Do we continue continue with the inequities, the injustice, the unemployment, the under-education, that creates these byproducts that we see this evening? The black people of Milwaukee are tired. They re tired of living under this oppression. This is their existence. This is their life. This is the life of their children. Now what has happened tonight may have not been right; I m not justifying that. But no one can deny the fact that there s problems, racial problems, here in Milwaukee, Wis., that have to be closely, not examined, but rectified. Rectify this immediately. Because if you don t, this vision of downtown, all of that, you re one day away. You re one day away. Earlier in the evening, more than 100 people gathered near the scene of the shooting at N. 44th St. and W. Auer Ave. and at times pushed against a line of 20 to 30 officers, some of whom were in riot gear.At one point, the officers got in their cars to leave and some in the crowd started smashing the windows and side of a squad car. Another vehicle was set on fire. As officers returned to the scene, this time with more in riot gear, as many as seven shots could be heard about 8:45 to 9 p.m.Soon thereafter, the crowd turned on and chased reporters and a photographer from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. One reporter was shoved to the ground and punched.Police later tweeted that an officer was hit in the head with a brick that was thrown through a squad window. Police said the officer was being treated at a hospital.At nearly 11 p.m., police tweeted that gunshots again were fired near N. 44th St. and W. Auer Ave.City officials said three people had been arrested during the initial disturbance. Another disturbance developed at N. 35th and W. Burleigh streets.Crowd breaks widows of unoccupied squad near Sherman and Auer. Other squad set afire and broken windows on another. pic.twitter.com/Jux2mJZYyQ Milwaukee Police (@MilwaukeePolice) August 14, 2016City police officials said two officers stopped two suspects in a car about 3:30 p.m. The suspects then took off on foot. During the pursuit, a six-year veteran of the department shot and killed a 23-year-old Milwaukee resident, who was carrying a semiautomatic handgun, police said.The officer was not hurt.During his midnight news conference, Barrett said the officer pursuing the 23-year-old man ordered him to drop his gun. The man didn t and the officer fired several times, the mayor said.The man was hit twice, once in the chest and once in the arm. He said police determined there were 23 rounds in the man s gun.Barrett said the officer was wearing a body camera and his understanding was that the camera was operational during the incident. Via: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | 0 |
South Korea fears further missile advances by North this year in threat to U.S.SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea may conduct additional missile tests this year to polish up its long-range missile technology and ramp up the threat against the United States, South Korea s spy agency said on Monday, adding that it was monitoring developments closely. North Korea is pursuing nuclear weapons and missile programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions and has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. It has fired two missiles over Japan. The reclusive state appears to have carried out a recent missile engine test while brisk movements of vehicles were spotted near known missile facilities, Yi Wan-young, a member of South Korea s parliamentary intelligence committee which was briefed by Seoul s National Intelligence Service, said. No sign of an imminent nuclear test had been detected, Yi noted. The third tunnel at the Punggye-ri complex remained ready for another detonation at any time , while construction had recently resumed at a fourth tunnel, making it out of use for the time being. The agency is closely following the developments because there is a possibility that North Korea could fire an array of ballistic missiles this year under the name of a satellite launch and peaceful development of space, but in fact to ratchet up its threats against the United States, the lawmakers told reporters after a closed-door briefing by the spy agency. North Korea defends its weapons programs as a necessary defense against U.S. plans to invade. The United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war, denies any such intention. Pyongyang is also carrying out a sweeping ideological scrutiny of the political unit of the military for the first time in 20 years, according to Kim Byung-kee, another lawmaker in the committee. The probe was led by the ruling Workers Party s Organisation and Guidance Department and orchestrated by Choe Ryong Hae, who once headed the General Political Bureau of the Korean People s Army himself until he was replaced by Hwang Pyong So in May 2014. As a result, Hwang and Kim Won Hong, who Seoul s unification ministry said was removed from office in mid-January as minister of the Stasi-like secret police called bowibu , had been punished, the lawmaker said. He did not elaborate. Choe, who was subjected to political reeducation himself in the past, appears to be gaining more influence since he was promoted in October to the party s powerful Central Military Commission. The National Intelligence Service indicated that Choe now heads the Organisation and Guidance Department, a secretive body that oversees appointments within North Korea s leadership. Under Choe s command, the Organisation and Guidance Department is undertaking an inspection of the military politburo for the first time in 20 years, taking issue with their impure attitude toward the party leadership, the lawmaker, Kim, said. Separately on Monday, South Korea approved a request by a South Korean to attend an event in the North marking the anniversary of the death of his mother who formerly led the Chondoist Chongu Party, a minor North Korean political party. The son, identified only by his surname Choi, will be the first South Korean to visit the North since liberal President Moon Jae-in took office in May. He is scheduled to arrive in Pyongyang via China on Wednesday and return on Saturday, according to Seoul s unification ministry. A senior Chinese official wrapped up a four-day visit to North Korea on Monday, apparently without meeting the country s leader, Kim Jong Un. Song Tao, head of the international department of the Chinese Communist Party, met senior officials from the Workers Party of Korea and exchanged views on the Korean peninsula issue , China s official Xinhua news agency said. The ruling parties of China and the Democratic People s Republic of Korea on Monday pledged to strengthen inter-party exchanges and coordination, and push forward relations, it added, using North Korea s official name. Song had been in Pyongyang to discuss the outcome of the recently concluded Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing. | 1 |
Ron Paul Blames Obama For A Stock Market Crash That Hasn’t Happened YetRon Paul, who s a retired doctor, not an economist, has a prediction that in the very near future, the stock market will lose half its value. Guess who would be to blame? Why it s the black guy, of course. A 50 percent pullback is conceivable, Paul said on Futures Now recently. I don t believe it s ten years off. I don t even believe it s a year off. According to his calculations, it would cut the S&P 500 Index in half, to 1212, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average would collapse to 10,837.Paul noted that there s a lot of chaos in Washington right now, with an unpredictable president and those who are inclined to tear him apart but if the market takes that big of a tumble, he doesn t see it as Trump s fault. It s all man-made. It s not the fault of Donald Trump in the last week. If the market crashes tomorrow and we have a great depression, he didn t do it in six months. It took more like six or ten years to cause all these problems that we re facing, he said.Source: CNBCSix to 10 years ago, hmmm, who was in office for the vast majority of that time?Paul has spent much of his career as an economic doomsdayer, and sometimes it sounds like he s right, just because, well, broken clocks and all Two years ago, he predicted nearly the same collapse, but he had a solution, which could be anyone s for just $49.50 for sale on his website, of course.As part of an infomercial for Stansberry & Associates Investment Research, Ron Paul warned that a currency crisis of epic proportions would arrive soon and prophesied that life in America was guaranteed to end in disaster as a total breakdown of the stock market would lead to civil unrest and authoritarian clampdowns. Paul said people could avoid and even benefit from the collapse by purchasing Stansberry s Survival Blueprint for weathering the coming catastrophe for $49.50.Source: CNNThe only thing Ron Paul hates more than regulations and the Federal Reserve, is a more diverse society. He s a long-avowed racist who was never a fan of President Obama. In March, Paul s institute ran a blog post that accused Obama of sabotaging Trump.He s also a big believer in the Deep State, which is a shadow government that really runs the United States. According to another blog post, Obama is still part of that deep state.A 50 percent drop in the stock market would be disastrous for our economy, but as I mentioned, Paul is not an economist. He arguably predicted the real estate crash, but so did a lot of economists. Paul, like his buddy Alex Jones, is full of doomsday predictions and he has books to sell. If such a drop happens, you might be able to point fingers at some Obama policies, but it s Trump who s scaring the hell out of everyone, including investors. If we crash, Trump is driving the bus and he will get the blame at least from most people.Featured image via Pete Marovich/Getty Images | 0 |
Aitzaz Hasan: Tributes to Pakistan teenager killed when he stopped a bomber | 0 |
Trump without the hair? EU's migration policy gets roughBRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe’s emerging migration policy is looking increasingly like Donald Trump without the hair. Except that, unlike the Republican presidential frontrunner, who wants to make Mexico pay for a wall to keep migrants out of the United States, the Europeans are willing to pay their neighbor Turkey to do the job for them. Seven months and a million migrants after Chancellor Angela Merkel declared a “welcome culture” for Syrian refugees in Germany, the European Union is rushing to erect “No vacancy” signs along its internal and external borders. Under fierce political pressure in her own conservative camp and from an insurgent right-wing populist party, the Alliance for Germany (AfD), Merkel’s mantra of “We can do this” is morphing into “The Turks can do this for us”. In a surprise overnight deal she negotiated with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu last week, Ankara offered to take back all migrants, including Syrian refugees, who cross from its shores into Europe from now on or are intercepted off its coast. Having thus sealed its most porous border to irregular migrants, the EU would admit a limited number of carefully vetted Syrian refugees directly from Turkey - one for each Syrian asylum seeker Ankara took back from Greek Aegean islands. The lucky few would be chosen with the help of the U.N. refugee agency from among those who had waited patiently in camps in Syria’s neighbors, not those who had paid smugglers thousands of euros for a risky sea crossing. They would be sent to those EU countries that agreed last year to take in a quota, although some states are resisting that. Stifling doubts about the legality of such a blanket return policy, discomfort at outsourcing it to a partner many of them see as worryingly authoritarian, and irritation at the price Turkey is demanding, stunned EU leaders gave their provisional assent. European public opinion is so petrified by images of tens of thousands of bedraggled migrants trekking across muddy fields and highways towards western and northern Europe - and populists have made such capital out of those fears - that governments are desperate to halt the flow. Another summit in Brussels this week is due to conclude the Faustian bargain, granting Turkey 6 billion euros ($6.7 billion)in aid to keep refugees on its soil, an accelerated path to visa-free travel for Turks and faster EU membership talks in return for its agreement to act as Europe’s gatekeeper. European Council President Donald Tusk says regaining control of Europe’s external borders is a condition for gaining public acceptance to take in refugees. In practice, it looks more like a way of keeping them out, if it can be implemented. Human rights groups and volunteers who work with refugees are outraged to see Europe slamming shut its open door for victims of war and persecution. EU lawyers are working overtime to try to make it legal. The Geneva Convention on refugees requires signatories to examine individually each claim for protection submitted by an asylum seeker on their soil. The German-Turkish deal would get around that provision by declaring Turkey a “safe” third country to which irregular migrants could be returned under a bilateral Greek-Turkish readmission agreement. The United Nations’ top human rights official has said that could entail illegal “collective and arbitrary expulsions”. Apart from the moral issues raised by this dodge, there are several legal problems. Turkey restricts its application of the Geneva Convention to refugees from Europe. People fleeing war or persecution in the Middle East and Asia will not be covered unless Ankara amends its laws. Turkish officials say they will ensure Turkey complies with international law to fulfill its part of the potential EU deal. Even so, lawyers say asylum seekers who reach Greece have a right to appeal against being sent back to Turkey if they fear for their personal safety there. A Greek court would have to hear each appeal before a person could be removed. There is no appropriate court on the Greek islands, and Greek justice is notoriously slow. At the same time, the rush to declare Turkey “safe” could hardly have come at a more embarrassing time for the EU. President Tayyip Erdogan has stepped up a military crackdown on Kurdish militants, the government has seized Turkey’s best-selling newspaper, critical journalists face prosecution and jail, and businessmen and public officials close to a dissident Muslim cleric have been purged. Unlike Trump, most EU leaders do not declare they want to prevent more Muslims settling in their country, with the exception of Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, who have stressed preserving their countries’ Christian identity. However, anti-immigration campaigners like Marine Le Pen in France and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands openly cite Islam as a reason for rejecting refugees, and they are increasingly setting the agenda for mainstream politicians. They oppose visa-free travel for Turks in Europe for the same reason. France, which has a tradition of political asylum and took in tens of thousands of Vietnamese “boat people” in the 1970s, is limiting its intake of Syrian refugees now, citing security concerns following last year’s Islamist attacks in Paris. Like other west European countries, France has struggled to integrate second and third generation young people of Muslim or north African origin. The place of Islam in public life is fiercely contested in these secular societies, and resentments from Algeria’s war of independence still simmer. European politicians may be aghast at the rhetoric of Trump, who has said he wants a database to register and track Muslims in the United States and would bar any Muslim entering the country until Congress could act. But if the pact with Turkey goes through as conceived, the EU will be retreating into a “fortress Europe” policy for fear of its own Trumps. ($1 = 0.8968 euros) (Writing by Paul Taylor) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 1 |
Future Shock? Welcome to the New Middle Ages | 1 |
Putin, in decree, says Russia's armed forces are 1.9 million-strongMOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday which said Russia s armed forces numbered just over 1.9 million people, including over 1 million military servicemen. The TASS news agency said the new decree replaced an older one from 2016 which had put the total number of personnel in the armed forces at around 1.8 million. | 1 |
Driven by fear, Rohingyas keep fleeing Myanmar: Red Cross officialSITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - The thousands of Rohingya Muslims thronging the desolate beach had no food or water, except what the Red Cross gives them, and there was no shelter from the tropical sun and rain, yet fear of tomorrow has persuaded them to abandon their homes. Fabrizio Carboni, the top International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) official in Myanmar, described the plight of some 5,OOO people who had made their way to the mouth of the Naf river that divides Buddhist Myanmar from Muslim Bangladesh. He said some had been there as long as a month, unable to afford to pay fishermen to take them to Bangladesh, where most of their fellow Rohingyas have fled to escape the ethnic violence that erupted in Myanmar s Rakhine state two months ago. What I can just tell them is a beach is not a place where you live, Carboni told Reuters on Thursday, a day after visiting this stretch on the frontline of an unfolding humanitarian crisis. Myanmar has blocked humanitarian agencies apart from Red Cross organisations from accessing the northern part of Rakhine state, where the conflict worsened after Rohingya militants attacked 30 security posts on Aug. 25. Many of the 600,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar say they were driven out by a brutal military counteroffensive. The United Nations has called it a campaign of ethnic cleansing , and Myanmar soldiers have been accused of rape, killings and arson. Myanmar s de facto leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has said the refugees can return, but thousands have continued to arrive in Bangladesh. When you decide to leave everything and go it s because, rightly or not, you believe that tomorrow will be worse than today where you are staying, Carboni told Reuters in Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar s Rakhine state. The stranded people weighed up their access to basic services, intercommunal relations and security before deciding to flee, he said. Probably it s a lack of trust for the future where they are. I don t think we are in a moment now where there s a specific event triggering movement. We are in another phase, he added. The Red Cross, which has about 200 personnel working in northern Rakhine, provided plastic sheets, food and water to the people on the beach. Prior to the attacks on security posts in August, several groups had hundreds of staff and volunteers working in the area, but the government has restricted the movement of aid workers after accusing some groups of aiding Rohingya militants. Ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, who accuse aid groups of favoring Muslims, on Wednesday blocked Relief International staff from visiting a camp for Muslims displaced in earlier violence. Protesters threw petrol bombs to try to block a Red Cross aid shipment in an incident on Sept. 20. Carboni said the Red Cross organisations could not be the only ones working in northern Rakhine for the long run , but said their ability to reach people was ramping up. Food had reached 40,000 people by Monday, and at least 5,000 households would get food in the next week, he said. In our dialogue with the government, we were always very clear, saying we will do our best and more to reach as many people as possible, said Carboni. Now there is a need for the government to re-engage with the rest of the humanitarian community, and find an acceptable way for the people to receive the assistance they need. | 1 |
China says supports Palestinians' U.N. aspirations | 1 |
Mexico's growing obesity problem. | 0 |
Violent demonstrations injure dozens of police in Northern Ireland | 0 |
Tokyo Electric Power Co. has warned its stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant could be hit by tsunami as high as 26.3 meters and cause 100 trillion becquerels of cesium to escape | 0 |
Ron Paul: Syria Has Been in Chaos Ever Since Obama said ‘Assad Must Go’21st Century Wire says Ron Paul told RT that the US shouldn t engage in death struggle over who controls Aleppo.It s worth noting here that Ron Paul was correct back in Aug. 2013, when the US and Britain were insisting the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its own people in the Damascus suburb of East Ghouta. At the time Paul called it a False Flag designed to suck US into arming Jihadist rebels in Syria. Where Washington was demanding military strikes against Syria, cooler and more intelligence heads determined that the event was in fact staged, most likely by western and Gulf-backed rebels. Regarding the collapse of the ceasefire around Aleppo, the former US Congressman and Presidential candidate said that Washington should not be there [Syria] at all, despite this being an unpopular opinion in political circles, because the intervention contributes to jihadists expanding even further. So, I think we are doing the wrong thing, Paul told RT. I don t think it s good for our national defense. I think it makes us more vulnerable, because it does create more enemies. It s unpopular to suggest that maybe our presence over there contributes significantly to those who become radical jihadists and would like to do us harm. Watch Paul s interview here: It s not a proper function we don t have the moral authority. We haven t followed our own laws that said that we should not be involved in war and [the] overthrow of governments without a declaration of war, he said.Source: RT NewsREAD MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE and its work by Subscribing and becoming a Member @ 21WIRE.TV | 0 |
Iran claims to have S-300 surface-to-air missiles
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DESPERATE DEMS? RUSSIAN BANK Reports Computer Hacks Designed To Make It Appear Trump Had Secret Relationship With ThemA Russian bank has reported to U.S. authorities that mysterious communications resumed recently between one of its computers and an email server tied to President Trump s business empire, and it has developed evidence the new activity may be the work of a hacker trying to create a political hoax, Circa has learned.Alfa Bank is asking the U.S. Justice Department for help solving the mystery and pledged its full cooperation.Alfa wants U.S. authorities to help unmask a computer inside the United States that it believes has been used to launch cyberattacks spoofing the appearance of a backdoor communication channel between Moscow and America s 45th president, according to a source directly familiar with the bank s request.The bank believes these malicious attacks are designed to create the false impression that Alfa Bank has a secretive relationship with the Trump Organization, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Alfa Bank has insisted since media stories began appearing last fall about the computer communications known as Domain Name Server lookups that it has never had a relationship to Trump or any of his companies and that any computer connections between the two parties computers were innocuous. The resumption of the computer pings started last month, and Alfa s cybersecurity experts traced evidence that the activity was actually being spoofed or hacked through a third party from a masked computer address inside the United States, the source said. For entire story: Circa NewsIn November of 2016, The Intercept published a piece refuting a Slate article that attempted to convince readers there was a connection between Trump and the Alfa Bank servers: Slate s Franklin Foer published a story that s been circulating through the dark web and various newsrooms since summertime, an enormous, eyebrow-raising claim that Donald Trump uses a secret server to communicate with Russia. That claim resulted in an explosive night of Twitter confusion and misinformation.The gist of the Slate article is dramatic incredible, even: Cybersecurity researchers found that the Trump Organization used a secret box configured to communicate exclusively with Alfa Bank, Russia s largest privately-held commercial bank. This is a story that any reporter in our election cycle would drool over, and drool Foer did:The researchers quickly dismissed their initial fear that the logs represented a malware attack. The communication wasn t the work of bots. The irregular pattern of server look-ups actually resembled the pattern of human conversation conversations that began during office hours in New York and continued during office hours in Moscow. It dawned on the researchers that this wasn t an attack, but a sustained relationship between a server registered to the Trump Organization and two servers registered to an entity called Alfa Bank.These claims are based entirely on DNS logs, digital records of when one server looks up how to contact another across the internet. The logs, first gathered by an anonymous researcher going by the moniker Tea Leaves (an irony that should be lost on no one) and shared with a small group of academics, were provided to The Intercept and a handful of other news organizations. The New York Times, the Washington Post, Reuters, the Daily Beast, and Vice all examined these materials to at least some extent and did not publish the claims.You can think of DNS like a phone book that maps people s names to their phone numbers. For example, every time Alice wants to call Bob, she first looks up Bob s phone number in the phone book, and then she dials the number into her phone. However, it s possible that Alice might look up Bob s phone number and not call him on the phone. It s even possible that she might look up Bob s phone number over and over on a regular basis, over the course of months, without actually calling him. The DNS look-ups that The Intercept and others (including Slate) reviewed are similar to records of Alice looking up Bob s phone number in the phone book, but to call that evidence of sinister collusion between the two is, politely, a stretch. These DNS records alone simply cannot prove that any specific messages were sent at those times. In fact, they can t really prove anything at all, and certainly not communication between Trump and Alfa. This cannot be overstated: No one, not Tea Leaves, not his academic peers, and not Franklin Foer, can show that a single message was exchanged between Trump and Alfa.For entire story go to: The Intercept | 0 |
UK supermarket giant Tesco to give all its leftover food to charity by 2017 | 1 |
REMAKING CHRISTIAN NATIONS WITH “REFUGEES”: “It’s Unbearable!” [VIDEO]An anonymous post translated into English has touched a nerve in Germany. A 50-year old woman describes her life with the flood of refugees and how she cannot trust her government anymore. Note the many similarities with America under Obama. (R sum of a German woman)I am almost 50 years old, I have a University degree, and was out of love for nature always a trusted voter for the Green Party. I never felt much interest for politics. In Germany everything seemed to always go its natural regular course. I had trusted our parliamentary democracy, I thought our administration would hardly make mistakes, because it is controlled by the opposition. Never, absolutely never did I think that I would lose all my trust in the State. It s unbearable that I am afraid of the future. Preferably I d just like to leave. But I feel to old to leave Europe.What country would even take me anymore? I am not a shameless African that just seats himself in a refugee boat. I would properly apply to the respective immigration authority. But my chances are close to zero. I am like most Europeans damned to impotence as I see this invasion happen.When, about ten years ago, a friend of mine emigrated to Australia, I felt sorry for her. How could one leave our beautiful Europe? A continent with such wonderful nature and culture. I would ve never even thought of this. Today I know: She did the right thing.I am becoming depressed in Europe. Our defenselessness shocks me. The failure to act by our politicians drowns my mind in a fog of powerlessness. I have not read any of Sarrazin s books, so as not to upset myself even more. Everything I read, in just our daily newspapers, is enough for me already.The Euro is a complete nightmare. The illegal immigration is a complete nightmare. But the single largest outrage is the political correctness which disables us from criticizing these immense breaches of law.We, that is us adult and mature citizens, who are in this way disenfranchised. When I went to school, I was taught critical thinking. What good is that to me now?Meanwhile I hate the Green party. They are asinine and dopey, and they are shameless. Just like the SPD and the CDU. They expect that we get up at 6 AM in the morning and encourage our children to succeed, just so that they will wear themselves out like us in order to be able to keep on financing this daily madness. And soon until we re 73 years old. [Translator: Germany plans to raise retirement age to 73]. But a State that provides no more stability, can no more expect of its citizens to function at full capacity. With each pot hole I drive through, with each African that I see loitering around, my motivation tanks more.What does our Politics even still have to offer to us? Legalization of hemp probably so that we can withstand daily life in this insane country! Other than that there is nothing innovative on the program. I have looked at it all. Because I am looking for a new party that I can vote for.I want the Deutsche Mark back and that the outer borders of the EU are being protected. I don t want more than that. Is that too much to ask for?Also, a video below shows a trend of Germans moving to Hungary to escape the refugees. Note how the people who ve moved are made out to be the ones in the wrong for being fearful. The leftist media does the same thing in America. This despicable leftist media hit piece still shows, despite itself, how bad it is in Germany if nice, hard working Germans are ready to leave everything familiar and move to Hungary.This is an important news piece for a couple of reasons.The obvious is that large numbers of established Germans are moving from the comfort of their own culture, friends and family to Hungary, which says a lot about the pressure they feel at home.The second is the German media s attempt to make them appear not as they are, victims of Merkel s insane policies, but as somehow villains for making those policies look bad by leaving. | 0 |
India Government's chief spokesman accuses Supreme Court of dragging the country back to the 19th century by reinstating gay sex ban, calls for swift reversal of the ruling. | 0 |
Killing of Mexican prosecutor of crimes against women sparks outcryMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The European Union on Thursday condemned the killing of a female Mexican prosecutor who specialized in violence against women, as the country grapples with its worst murder rate in two decades, including a spate of attacks on rights workers and reporters. Yendi Guadalupe Torres Castellanos, a prosecutor in the state of Veracruz whose remit included violence against women as well as sexual and family-related crimes, was killed Monday in her car in the city of Panuco, according to the state government. This murder demonstrates once more the troubling level of violence that devastates Mexico, including violence against human rights defenders, the EU s Mexican delegation said in a joint statement with Swiss and Norwegian ambassadors. Earlier this month, unknown gunmen shot dead Silvestre de la Toba, the head of the Baja California Sur state human rights commission. And, after a spate of killings of reporters, a United Nations team of experts on freedom of expression is currently visiting Mexico to assess the safety of journalists. Torres death was also denounced by the Veracruz government, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the U.S. ambassador to Mexico. October was the most violent since the Mexican government began tracking such crimes two decades ago. The 2,735 homicides of women last year was the second-highest figure of any year since 1990, and more than double the number recorded a decade ago, according to data published by Mexico s national statistics agency. | 1 |
Iraqi forces reach road between Iraqi-Syrian towns: Hezbollah-affiliated TV channelBEIRUT (Reuters) - Iraqi forces have reached the main road between Albu-Kamal in Syria and al-Qaim in Iraq, the Lebanese TV news channel al-Manar, which is affiliated to the Syrian government s ally Hezbollah, reported on Friday. The two towns are very close to each other on opposite sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border in the last important territorial stronghold of Islamic State. | 1 |
Tunisia ministers quit ruling party, political prisoners freed | 0 |
WATCH: Jorge Ramos Makes Sean Hannity Look Like A Complete A**holeUnivision anchor Jorge Ramos made Fox host Sean Hannity look like the angry Trump puppet that we all know him to be.Over a ten minute span, Hannity lost his temper with Ramos time and time again as he repeatedly tried to convince Ramos that Republican front-runner Donald Trump is not a racist and that he has confronted Trump about his hateful and bigoted rhetoric.Ramos relentlessly slammed Hannity for coddling Trump just as as he blasted Bill O Reilly for doing the same during an interview last week.Ramo pointed out that Trump is unfairly labeling all undocumented immigrants as horrible criminals who rape and murder. Hannity defended Trump by claiming that Trump only said some are rapists and murderers.However, Hannity is wrong as usual.When Trump delivered his announcement that he was running for president in last June, he characterized most Mexicans as rapists and criminals. Only some, he assumed, were good people. In other words, he did not say only some commit crimes. He said only some were good people and he only assumed that. When Mexico sends its people, they re not sending the best. They re sending people that have lots of problems and they re bringing those problems. They re bringing drugs, they re bringing crime. They re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they re telling us what we re getting. He later doubled down on the racist remark. The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States, Trump said in a statement. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc. Armed with truth on his side, Ramos refused to back down and continued criticizing Hannity until the Fox News blowhard shouted, I don t need any lectures from you, Jorge Ramos! Hannity accused Ramos of not reporting truthfully and just like when he took down O Reilly, Ramos smacked Hannity around with facts until he was forced to end the interview as Ramos got in the last word.Here s part one and two of the interview via Fox.Jorge Ramos once again bested a Fox News host in their own house and proved once again who the real journalist in the room is. Now if only Trump would agree to sit down for an interview with Ramos. We would really see fireworks then. Featured Image: Screenshot | 0 |
WATCH: One Of Trump’s Biggest Supporters Is Outed As A Complete Fraud On The AirThe right-wing pastor who posted a cartoon of Hillary Clinton in black-face just got his a** handed to him by CNN.Pastor Mark Burns has been one of Donald Trump s biggest cheerleaders. On his church website, he bragged about his military experience in the Army and claimed that he graduated from North Greenville University with a Bachelor of Science.The only problem is that neither of those claims are even remotely true, which means Burns has been lying to his congregation and the American people.During an interview with CNN host Victor Blackwell, Burns was taken by surprise when called out for posting false information about himself.When asked if he attended the university, Burns said that he had, but then Blackwell confronted Burns about the claim on his website that he actually graduated. As it turns out, Burns only attended for one semester.Burns whined and claimed that the interview was supposed to be off the record, but Blackwell made it clear that he didn t agree to that. Burns continuing complaining and accused Blackwell of character assassination. This is not fair at all, Burns whined. I thought we were doing a profile and all of a sudden you re here to try to destroy my character. I m not here to destroy your character, Blackwell said before getting back to the results of CNN s investigation.Blackwell proceeded to grill Burns and revealed that not only did Burns not graduate from North Greenville University, he didn t serve six years in the Army either. He only briefly served in the National Guard.Here s the video via YouTube.Burns later released a statement claiming that he only lied in his biography because he wanted to be taken seriously as a pastor. As a young man starting my church in Greenville, South Carolina, I overstated several details of my biography because I was worried I wouldn t be taken seriously as a new pastor. This was wrong. I wasn t truthful then and I have to take full responsibility for my actions. Burns, who has raked in the money as a televangelist, has built his empire on a foundation of lies that automatically disqualifies him from serving as a so-called man of God. This man lied to become a pastor and he has been lying to his congregation ever since.But Burns could not even take full responsibility for his sins as he blamed the media and claimed that he is only being outed because he is a black man who supports Donald Trump. I do also want to set the record straight about why this attack is happening because I am a black man supporting Donald Trump for president. For too long, African-American votes have been taken for granted by Democratic politicians, and enough is enough. So Burns literally played the race card, which something conservatives hypocritically often claim that liberals do.So not only is Burns a liar, he s a hypocrite and one has to wonder what else he is hiding.Featured Image: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images | 0 |
Kim Jong-un Appears With Disney Characters on North Korean TV - NYTimes.com | 0 |
The agreement on the transfer of Iran's enriched uranium, achieved via Turkish-Brazilian mediation, is an important victory for Iranian diplomacy and a debacle for Israeli policy | 0 |
Facebook, Google, Twitter asked to testify on Russian meddlingWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Executives from Facebook, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Twitter have been asked to testify to the U.S. Congress in coming weeks as lawmakers probe Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election, committee sources said on Wednesday. A Senate aide said executives from the three firms had been asked by the Senate Intelligence Committee to appear at a public hearing on Nov. 1. The leaders of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said the panel would hold an open hearing next month with representatives from unnamed technology companies in an effort to “better understand how Russia used online tools and platforms to sow discord in and influence our election.” Representatives for Facebook and Google confirmed they had received invitations from the Senate committee but did not say whether the companies would attend. Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The House panel did not immediately identify any companies, but a committee source said lawmakers expected to hear from the same three firms the Senate had asked to testify. The requests are the latest move by congressional investigators to gain information from internet companies as they probe the extent of Moscow’s alleged efforts to disrupt last year’s U.S. election. Lawmakers in both parties have grown increasingly concerned that social networks may have played a key role in Russia’s influence operation. Facebook revealed this month that suspected Russian trolls purchased more than $100,000 worth of divisive ads on its platform during the 2016 election cycle, a revelation that has prompted calls from some Democrats for new disclosure rules for online political ads. On Wednesday, Trump attacked Facebook in a tweet and suggested the world’s largest social network had colluded with other media outlets that opposed him. The president has been skeptical of the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election and has denied his campaign colluded with Moscow. The salvo prompted a lengthy rebuke from Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, who said both Trump and liberals were upset about ideas and content on Facebook during the campaign. “That’s what running a platform for all ideas looks like,” Zuckerberg wrote on his personal Facebook page. Other internet firms besides Facebook are also facing rising scrutiny over how Russia may have leveraged their platforms. Twitter is expected to privately brief the Senate panel on Thursday. Republican Senator James Lankford, who has received classified information about Russia’s interference as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Wednesday that the country’s attempts to sow discord in U.S. domestic affairs had not abated. Russian internet trolls over the weekend fueled the debate ignited by Trump over whether NFL players should have the right to kneel during the national anthem, Lankford said. Also on Wednesday, the Daily Beast, citing unnamed sources, reported that a Facebook group named “United Muslims of America” was a fake account linked to the Russian government and that it was used to push false claims about U.S. politicians, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The group bought Facebook ads to reach targeted audiences, promoting political rallies aimed at Muslims, the website reported. The Senate and House intelligence committees are two of the main congressional panels probing allegations that Russia sought to interfere in the U.S. election to boost Trump’s chances at winning the White House, and possible collusion between Trump associates and Russia. | 1 |
Amnesty report on Qatar exposes 'grim' abuse of migrant workers | 1 |
Turkish tanks drill on Iraqi border week before Kurdish voteANKARA/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Turkish tanks carried out drills at the Iraqi border on Monday, the army said, a week before a referendum across that frontier on Kurdish independence that Ankara has called a threat to its national security. The exercises came as Turkey, the central government in Baghdad and their shared neighbor Iran all stepped up protests and warnings about the looming plebiscite in semi-autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq. Iran, which like Turkey fears fuelling separatism in its own Kurdish population, warned of unspecified consequences if the vote went ahead. Turkey s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said any threats from inside or outside its territory would face immediate retaliation. The military command released pictures of the tanks speeding along roads and kicking up dust during exercises. Iraq s Supreme Federal Court ordered Kurdistan region to suspend the vote, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi s office said. Baghdad, its neighbors and Western powers fear the referendum could distract attention from the fight against Islamic State militants across the region. But the Kurdish leadership showed no sign of bowing to pressure to call off the vote, including from the United Nations - which urged Erbil to resolve disputes with Baghdad over land and power sharing through dialogue. In Turkey, around 100 military vehicles, mostly tanks, took part in the drill near the Habur border gate, a crossing point into Iraq, the private news agency Dogan said. Vehicles carrying missiles and howitzers also participated. Turkish military sources said the drill was due to run until Sept. 26, a day after the planned Kurdish referendum. Turkey has not spelt out what response it might take if the referendum goes ahead. It has brought forward meetings of the cabinet and its national security council to Friday, three days ahead of the vote, to look again at the situation. Separately, Turkey s military said it carried out an air strike in northern Iraq on Monday and that four terrorists were neutralized . Turkish forces often launch cross-border attacks they say target members of the outlawed Kurdish PKK group, which has waged an insurgency in southern Turkey for three decades. Those who are chasing dreams in Syria and Iraq should know very well that any attempt that threatens our national security, from inside or outside our borders, will be immediately retaliated in kind, Prime Minister Yildirim said in a speech in the southern Turkish town of Sanliurfa. Kurdish forces have, with U.S. backing, been in the forefront of the battle against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The Kurdish involvement in Syria strains relations between Washington and Ankara. The Iraqi Supreme Federal Court approved Prime Minister Abadi s demand to consider the breakaway of any region or province from Iraq as unconstitutional , his office said in a statement. The court is responsible for settling disputes between Iraq s central government and regions including Kurdistan, but has no means to implement its rulings in the Kurdish region which has its own police and government, led by Massoud Barzani. Iran issued a veiled warning to the Kurds that their security could be affected if Iraq s unity was threatened. Any damage to this strategic principle would lead to the revision of and serious alteration in the existing cooperation between Iran and Iraq s Kurdistan region, said Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran s Supreme National Security Council, according to state-run Press TV. Turkey s protests in the build-up to the vote had been relatively muted. It has built good relations with Barzani s semi-autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, founded on strong economic links as well as Ankara and Erbil s shared suspicions of other Kurdish groups. The Kurdish Regional Government, led by Barzani s KDP party,exports hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day to worldmarkets via Turkey and said on Monday that Russian oil major Rosneft (ROSN.MM) would invest in pipelines in the Kurdish region to export gas to Turkey and Europe. | 1 |
Rhino poaching kingpin arrested in South Africa | 0 |
4 Tibetans burn themselves as Chinese leaders' meet | 0 |
PROTESTERS CAN’T STOP A HUMBLE TRUMP: Delivers A Powerful Message To Detroit [Video]Donald Trump just delivered a humble and heartfelt speech in Detroit.https://youtu.be/BecyLcXD2LgHe s been bashed on social media all day for his visit. Hillary s thugs were out in force because they re shaking in their boots that Trump might win. The people deserve better and hopefully they ll wake up and break free of doing the same thing they ve done for decades. Detroit needs someone like Trump!DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY:I m protesting #TrumpInDetroit pic.twitter.com/UucWlm4aK8 madamecain (@madamecain) September 3, 2016Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump praised the black church Saturday at the Greater Faith Ministries International church as he made his first direct outreach to African-American voters.TRUMP IN DETROIT: I will always defend your church so important and defend your right to worship, said Trump, who was introduced by Bishop Wayne T. Jackson to polite applause.The New York businessman emphasized issues such as fighting for good-paying jobs, expanded school choice and a civil rights agenda in his first campaign appearance before a predominantly African-American audience. He acknowledged the discrimination African-Americans still face in the country and pledged to work to heal it. We re all brothers and sisters, he said in measured tones from notes during almost 10 minutes of remarks. We must love each other and support each other and we are all in this together. The nation is too divided and talk past each other, Trump said. I m here today to learn about how to move beyond racial and economic divides. I am here to listen to you, he said.The real estate developer noted that he had seen people sitting on the street and inactivity and a lack of jobs in the surrounding neighborhood when he came to the church. We re going to turn it around. We re going to turn it around, pastor, Trump said to Bishop Jackson after noting that he had seen people sitting on the street and the lack of activity and jobs in the surrounding neighborhood.Before the service, he shook hands with the audience and showed off a baby to the congregation. Trump sat in service with Omarosa, the villain from his The Apprentice reality television series and his director of African-American outreach.He also introduced and hugged Dr. Ben Carson, the native Detroiter who ran against him in the Republican presidential primaries and now is an adviser. It was uncertain whether Carson would take Trump on a tour of a Detroit neighborhood after the service. VIA: DETROIT NEWS | 0 |
Tillerson set to meet Trudeau for North Korea crisis talks: sourceOTTAWA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to meet Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau next week for talks on how to address the crisis over North Korea s nuclear weapons program, an Ottawa source said on Monday. Canada and the United States are due to co-host a meeting of foreign ministers in Vancouver in January to discuss North Korea. North Korea has fired missiles over Japan as it pursues nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in defiance of U.N. sanctions. Last week it said U.S. and South Korean military drills meant the outbreak of war was an established fact . During a day trip to Ottawa on Dec. 19 Tillerson will also meet Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, said the source, who requested anonymity because the meetings have not yet been formally announced. A Canadian government source confirmed that Tillerson and Trudeau plan to meet but declined to give a precise date, saying scheduling issues still had to be worked out. The U.S. embassy in Ottawa declined to comment. Freeland said last month that the Vancouver talks would show the unity of the international community in applying pressure on Pyongyang. | 1 |
A court in Mauritania has sentenced a man to death for apostasy for criticizing the Muslim Prophet Muhammed | 1 |
Documents Reveal Canadas Secret Hacking Tactics | 0 |
Taiwan tells U.S. it does not want to cause trouble in Taiwan StraitTAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan has assured the United States it has no intention of causing trouble in the Taiwan Strait, the self-ruled island s envoy to a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders said on Monday. The comments by James Soong came after he told reporters in the Vietnamese city of Danang at the weekend that he had good exchanges with both U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during informal moments between summit events. We don t want to create trouble in the Taiwan Strait, and lead the U.S., China and Japan, and all observers, to think we are a troublemaker. The whole world doesn t hope for Taiwan to be a troublemaker, Soong said in response to a question on his interactions with Trump and Tillerson. We hope to use peaceful means to solve relevant problems. Soong also said he had a natural interaction with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have nosedived since President Tsai Ing-wen was elected last year. China believes she wants formal independence for Taiwan, a red line for Beijing. For her part, Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan s democracy and security. China has suspended a regular dialogue mechanism with Taiwan since Tsai came to power and stepped up military exercises around the island. It has also increased diplomatic pressure by winning over another two of the island s dwindling number of diplomatic allies. Soong, who is chairman of the China-friendly People First Party, emphasized at the summit that Tsai had repeatedly talked about seeking peaceful relations and stability with China. This month, Xi told Trump in Beijing that Taiwan was the most important and sensitive issue in Sino-U.S. ties. | 1 |
Pakistan to name school, stadium after teenager who died stopping suicide bomber | 1 |
TAKE A LOOK INSIDE THE NEW “PUTIN CAFE” Featuring Obama Toilet Paper In RestroomsThe majority of Americans would likely find the choice of Obama toilet paper to be humorous. The American flag floor mats however (see image below), are far from funny Vladimir Putin fans now have the perfect place to toast to the Russian leader thanks to a newly opened cafe dedicated solely to the action man president.Welcome to the incredibly patriotic President Cafe in eastern Siberia, located around 4,000 km (2,500 miles) from Moscow, where Putin s face covers the walls and Barack Obama s smiling face is on the toilet paper.Graffiti-daubed pictures of Obama, as well as David Cameron and his German counterpart Angela Merkel, also greet visitors to the toilet with floor mats featuring US flag adding to the anti-Western vibe.Visitors can also pose for photos with a life-size picture of the Russian leader at the bar which opened last month in the working-class city of Krasnoyarsk, Reuters reports.So what inspired him to open the Putin cafe? When we got together with partners to open a new cafe, we thought of a concept that would attract customers and guarantee its success, he said. And it then dawned on us: Russia still had no cafe or restaurant fully dedicated to Putin, Russia s most popular politician! This is how our concept appeared. Then we worked on the design. He added: People react the way they consider appropriate, and we give them this opportunity But, in general, we see this as entertainment. Via: Telegraph | 0 |
BBCNews: US military says its troops have exchanged gunfire with Pakistani forces across the border with Afghanistan. | 1 |
Charlie Hebdo Writer Holds Up Muhammed Cover on Sky News; Network Cuts Away and Apologizes | 0 |
NYC Mayor Reveals How He’ll DESTROY Trump’s Dangerous IdeaDonald Trump s plan to create a national registry of Muslims residing in the United States alarms people of good faith and decent character from coast to coast. But indications are that the Republican majority in Congress, afraid of his rabid right-wing base, could implement this dangerous idea.Despite major losses at the governor and state legislature level, there are still strong, progressive Democrats out there in America. Few have the sort of major platform available to them that the mayor of New York City does, and Bill de Blasio has just announced his plans if Trump choses to go forward with his Muslim registry scheme.New York City would sue to stop the federal government if the Trump administration went forward with a plan to require all Muslims to register in a database, Mayor de Blasio said Monday.De Blasio, in a speech before hundreds of supporters on Monday denouncing many of Trump s policies, said, We will sue to block it. We will use all the tools at our disposal to stand up for our people, he said.De Blasio already angered Republicans with his decision to curtail the discriminatory stop and frisk policy utilized by police, and they also freaked out when he pointed out the dangers young black men like his son face from too many police officers.The promise from de Blasio on the Muslim registry echoes public statements from other officials in diverse cities since Trump s victory. Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago has said that the city will remain a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants, as have officials in Washington, D.C. and in Los Angeles, where the police department said public safety was their goal not immigration purges.Trump s surprise election shocked America, especially on the left, but it may also have renewed a sense of resiliency and unity in the face of blatant bigotry.Featured image via Flickr | 0 |
HYSTERICAL: Trump Warns “Sleepy Eyes” Chuck Todd To Stop With The Fake News: “A total scam!”Trump compared the ongoing narrative to the same predictions during the election that turned out to be false. It is the same Fake News Media that said there is no path to victory for Trump that is now pushing the phony Russia story, he wrote. A total scam! The ongoing story was fueled by Trump former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn after reports that he would be willing to testify in the congressional investigation of the campaign if granted immunity. Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt, Trump said on Twitter this week.On Friday, Chuck Todd criticized Trump for fueling the Russia story on Twitter. Obviously, the Russia cloud darkens all of the time, and all of these problems right now that they re dealing with front and center are self-inflicted by one person, the President of the United States, who could not help himself with a tweet on this wiretapping nonsense, Todd said during an interview with his colleague Andrea Mitchell.Read more: Breitbart News | 0 |
Net neutrality repeal gives Democrats fresh way to reach millennialsWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission vote on Thursday to roll back net neutrality rules could galvanize young voters, a move Democrats hope will send millennials to the polls in greater numbers and bolster their chances in next year’s elections. Democrats are hoping to paint the repeal of the rules by the FCC, which is now chaired by President Donald Trump appointee Ajit Pai, as evidence Republicans are uninterested in young people and consumer concerns at large. “The American public is angry,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat. She added that the actions of the Republican majority have “awoken a sleeping giant.” Attitudes toward “net neutrality,” or rules that prevent internet providers from limiting customers’ access to certain websites or slowing download speeds for specific content, are largely split along party lines in Congress. The heated debate has turned into the kind of election issue that Democrats think will help them. Studies show young people disproportionately use the internet compared with older Americans and polls have shown they feel passionately about fair and open internet access. Democrats believe the issue may resonate with younger voters who may not be politically active on other issues like taxes or foreign policy. U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, said on Twitter “young people need to take the lead on net neutrality. It’s possible for Millennial political leadership to make a real difference here.” The scrapping of the Obama administration’s rules is likely to set up a court battle and could redraw the digital landscape, with internet service providers possibly revising how Americans view online content. The providers could use new authority to limit or slow some websites or offer “fast lanes” for certain content. Republicans on the FCC have sought to reassure young people that their ability to access the internet will not change after the rules take effect. People who favor the move argue that after users realize that little or nothing has changed in their internet access, it will not resonate as a political issue. Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist, said polls have found young people are favoring Democrats in the most recent elections and that the net neutrality issue could be used to gather support in the 2018 midterm congressional elections. He said while older voters tend to care about Medicare, polls are finding that younger voters are motivated by net neutrality. “Net neutrality is the latest data point for voters that the administration is more interested in doing what big companies want them to do, than what people think is in their interest,” Ferguson said. “That’s a narrative that is politically toxic for Republicans.” In November 2018, all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives will be up for grabs, as will 34 seats in the Senate. Democrats hope to gain control of one or both chambers by capitalizing on the unpopularity of Trump. Republicans currently control both chambers as well as the White House. To regain power, Democrats will need a strong showing of support among young voters, who traditionally have not shown up in large numbers for elections held in years when there is no presidential contest. Liberal groups are using net neutrality as an issue to criticize Republican incumbents. Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state, echoed that sentiment, telling Reuters on Thursday that net neutrality will have “huge political legs ... This is something that everyone across the country understands - the importance of the internet.” The group End Citizens United announced last week a $35 million advertising campaign targeting 20 Republican House members for their stances on issues that relate to business, including net neutrality. Democrats facing difficult election battles next year are already weighing in strongly in favor of net neutrality rules. Senator Bill Nelson likely will face a difficult battle in Florida and sent a letter earlier in the week opposing the change in net neutrality rules. Several Democratic candidates are sending campaign fundraising appeals citing net neutrality. The changes could also become issues in a number of House races across the country, where Democrats will need to win more than 25 seats to control the chamber. Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also publicly opposed the rule changes, a sign that she wanted to be sure to stake a Democratic position on the issue. | 1 |
Trump Brags About Gas Prices And Gets HUMILIATED With FactsGas prices are expected to rise sharply this year, but Donald Trump thinks a ten-year low for a single day is something he should get credit for.On July 4th, gas prices dropped to an average $2.23 a gallon. It s the lowest it has been on Independence Day in ten years.So, of course, Trump bragged about it.Gas prices are the lowest in the U.S. in over ten years! I would like to see them go even lower. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2017Keep in mind, we are only halfway through 2017, and one day does not equal one year.Also, presidents do NOT control gas prices, something conservatives are always hypocritically pointing out when gas prices come down during a Democratic presidency or when gas prices are high during a Republican presidency. But when gas prices are low during a Republican presidency, conservatives throw that knowledge out the window and claim that the president did it.Such is the case now.But Trump had nothing to do with current gas prices. You see, the market has been flooded with oversupply from OPEC, which has driven the price of gasoline down over the last couple years.In 2015, the national average price of gas dropped from $3.37 in 2014 to $2.35.And last year s Independence Day saw a gas price of $2.26 per gallon. That s a mere three cent difference from the low that Trump bragged about yesterday.You didn t hear conservatives giving President Obama credit for that. Nor did they give Obama credit for the even lower national average of $2.20 per gallon in November 2016.But, again, oversupply is the reason why we have cheaper gas right now. Once that supply is burned off, the price of gas will go back up and there s nothing Trump can do about it. One thing he will do, however, is blame anyone and anything else for the rise. He certainly won t be taking credit or bragging.Featured image via Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images | 0 |
Hillary Responds To Trump On Twitter And HILARIOUSLY Fact Checks Him (TWEET)To say Hillary Clinton wiped the floor with Donald Trump during her foreign policy speech is being far too polite. She demolished him. She hit him, and hit him repeatedly hard. Going after him in regards to everything he s said over the past year and how utterly dangerous and reprehensible he would be as Commander-in-Chief.She hit him so hard, in fact, that Trump got very, very flustered. He responded in a speech clearly sweating and angrily shaking the podium. I mean, after all, how dare a woman call him out so astutely and with such bravado.Trump also took to Twitter the next day still not over it, and still not knowing how to spell teleprompter. Trump tweeted out: In Crooked Hillary s telepromter speech yesterday, she made up things that I said or believe but have no basis in fact. Not honest! In Crooked Hillary's telepromter speech yesterday, she made up things that I said or believe but have no basis in fact. Not honest! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2016Noticing the tweet was the Hillary campaign, who quickly tweeted out not only that everything she said was true, but fact checked him line by line. It was pure poetry, saying: You literally said all those things. Then posted a link to everything that was said.You literally said all those things. https://t.co/6VX5AfR7gL https://t.co/U8LfWdPU7x Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 3, 2016For example, Hillary said during her speech: He says he doesn t have to listen to our generals or ambassadors, because he has quote a very good brain. She then lists exactly what Trump said:TRUMP: I m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I ve said a lot of things my primary consultant is myself And there are far too many to list here, so go check out every line by line fact check HERE.Something tells me as the election heats up, and if Hillary is the Democratic nominee, we re going to be seeing a lot more of this, and it s going to be f*cking awesome.Featured Photo by Spencer Platt Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images | 0 |
Berlusconi: "I am the best prime minister ever ... I am absolutely the politician most persecuted by prosecutors in the entire history of the world throughout the ages." | 1 |
Germany’s Angela Merkel Makes Incredibly Naive Announcement: EVERY MIGRANT MUST LEAVE…After THIS One Condition Is Met…Perhaps Merkel should have considered the serious consequences of Germany s compassionate open border policy that allowed over 1 million (mostly) Muslim males to infiltrate their country. German officials essentially granted them permission to rape and sexually assault their women and children while they looked the other way. But that s not all Germany is giving them free food, housing, education and spending money to boot. Does Angela Merkel really believe that when she tells these freeloading Muslim males that it s time to go back home, that they re going to pack up their bags and leave? As Germany s open-door refugee policy comes increasingly under fire, the Chancellor has tried to silence her critics.Despite mounting pressure to cap the number of refugees in the wake of the Cologne sex attacks which saw 130 women sexually assaulted by men, believed to be migrants, Mrs Merkel has stood her ground.Some 1.1million migrants entered Germany last year, many fleeing conflicts in Syria and Iraq.Mrs Merkel said: We need to say to people that this is a temporary residential status and we expect that, once there is peace in Syria again, once ISIS has been defeated in Iraq, that you go back to your home country with the knowledge that you have gained. Mrs Merkel said 70 per cent of the refugees who fled to Germany from former Yugoslavia in the 1990s had returned.She urged other European countries to offer more help because the numbers need to be reduced even further and must not start to rise again, especially in spring .Speaking to a regional meeting of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Mrs Merkel said said all EU states should have an interest in protecting the bloc s external borders, and all would suffer if the internal passport-free Schengen zone collapsed and national borders were closed.Peter Altmaier, who Mrs Merkel has tasked with overseeing the government s handling of the refugee crisis, said the government was negotiating with some countries including Turkey about taking back criminal refugees who arrived via non-EU countries.Yeah because what nation in their right mind wouldn t gladly accept criminal refugees into their country? Gee, we sure hope Merkel isn t foolish enough to believe there aren t any members of ISIS living comfortably in refugee housing or camps inside their open-borders.Via: Express UK | 0 |
TRUMP SPOKESPERSON Delivers A Knockout Punch To Arrogant CNN Host [Video]Trump Spokesperson Katrina Pierson: When was the last time you fact checked Barack Obama? I love her!!! | 0 |
Women who stole husbands sperm and got pregnant with use of IVF forced to pay compensation | 1 |
Tsunami alert after Samoa quake | 0 |
Anti-Government Protests Sweep Brazil | 1 |
Man bursts into flames after being shot by police with a taser | 1 |
Three mid-level managers arrested in connection to the Bangladesh factory blaze which killed over 100 workers. "Survivors told us that they did not allow the workers to escape the fire, saying that it was a routine fire drill. There are also allegations that they even padlocked doors." | 1 |
Britain denies any advance warning of plan to murder Hamas leader | 1 |
OOPS! Media Forgot Ted Kennedy Asked Russia To Intervene In Election, Help Defeat Ronald ReaganIn 1991 a reporter for the London Times found a very interesting memorandum composed in 1983 by Victor Chebrikov, the top man in the KGB. The memo was addressed to Yuri Andropov, the top man in the USSR. The subject: Sen. Edward KennedyThe memorandum reads in part: On 9-10 May of this year, Sen. Edward Kennedy s close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney was in Moscow. The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov. The message included an offer to visit Moscow The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA. Kennedy was offering to help Soviet Russia deal with President Reagan, by telling them how to paint their propaganda picture.Via Forbes: The document, Kengor continues, has stood the test of time. I scrutinized it more carefully than anything I ve ever dealt with as a scholar. I showed the document to numerous authorities who deal with Soviet archival material. No one has debunked the memorandum or shown it to be a forgery. Kennedy s office did not deny it. As part of the deal, Kennedy promised to make sure that certain American news networks gave Andropov air time and would go soft on him while still making it look like true journalism.Why would Kennedy do this, you might ask? Tunney remarked that the senator wants to run for president in 1988, the memorandum continued. Kennedy does not discount that during the 1984 campaign, the Democratic Party may officially turn to him to lead the fight against the Republicans and elect their candidate president. So apparently, if a democratic senator actually seeks out help from Soviet Russia to beat his opponent, that s ok, but if a Republican cabinet member so much as has contacts in Russia, the gloves come off.(Source: Forbes) | 0 |
Watch Kellyanne Conway Accuse Democrats Of ‘Interfering With Our Democracy’ By Opposing Trump (VIDEO)At this point, it s hard to tell what the Trump administration will say next to attempt to deflect from anything at all involving The Donald and Russia.On Friday, White House spokesmoron Kellyanne Conway showed up on CNN to say that Democrats are just as bad as Trump s Russian allies who hacked and interfered with our election because they had the audacity to speak out against him. The president has said previously that he would be concerned about anybody interfering with our democracy, she said. We saw a lot of people interfering with our democracy by saying he couldn t win here at home. Trump may be concerned with that form of interference because fascists are typically concerned with criticism, but he has shown absolutely zero problems with Vladimir Putin s propaganda and hacking efforts meant to install Trump in the Oval Office.Allisyn Camerota asked Conway what Trump plans to do to stop Russia from further interfering in our election, but she well, she had nothing. Alisyn, I realize we just like to say the word Russia, Russia to mislead the voters, Conway said. And I know that CNN is aiding and abetting this nonsense as well, but you ve asked me this question three times now And you re not answering it, Kellyanne! Camerota said.The reason Conway refuses to answer is that Trump and his minions are totally OK with that kind of interference. But criticism from an opposing political party? They just can t handle it.Watch it below:Featured image via screengrab | 0 |
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Trump’s Divisive And Negative Inaugural Address Was Full Of Lies And Most Americans TRASHED ItDonald Trump delivered his inaugural address on Friday, and it was predictably divisive and negative.Trump portrayed America as a weak, crime-ridden wasteland where everyone lives in poverty. Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.An education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.And the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. He also attacked President Obama by proclaiming that January 20th, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again, called our military depleted, and railed against America s crumbling infrastructure.Of course, Trump left out the fact that Republicans blocked infrastructure spending for eight years. He also failed to point out that Republicans have been attacking education for years.Also, our military is the most funded military in the world, so claiming that it is depleted is a lie and an insult to our troops.It should be pointed out that Trump contributed to the shuttering of factories in this country by buying raw materials, like metals, from China to build his hotels with instead of buying it from American companies.Crime is also down, and millions of Americans were lifted from poverty over the last eight years because of programs like the Affordable Care Act and minimum wage hikes, both of which Trump opposes. We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow. Trump failed to mention that he wants to cut NASA s budget too, supports the anti-vaccination movement, intends to double down on coal and oil to the detriment of clean energy, and is eliminating a government agency dedicated to researching and developing new technologies to reduce carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.Seriously, Trump s speech was totally contradictory to what his administration actually plans to do.The inaugural address was a shit show and Americans confirmed it on Twitter.That was like a bad liberal parody of a Republican president s inaugural address. Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) January 20, 2017Interesting that @realDonaldTrump is making what sounds like a campaign speech rather than an Inaugural Address Gavin Esler (@gavinesler) January 20, 2017this is the most xenophobic inaugural address in US history Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) January 20, 2017Trump must have mixed up his speech texts. He s giving a bitter, negative campaign stump speech, not a uniting, soaring inaugural address. Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) January 20, 2017Our live analysis of Donald Trump s inaugural address https://t.co/pQC5zJLbHh pic.twitter.com/ZunVJle9tB The New York Times (@nytimes) January 20, 2017Don t know what I expected, but that may be the least presidential inaugural address on record. #Inauguration Misty Murphy (@mothernerd) January 20, 2017.@chucktodd: It was surprisingly divisive for an inaugural address That wasn t the kind of address intended to bring us all together Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) January 20, 2017I have read every Inaugural Address. That was the worst. Philip Collins (@PCollinsTimes) January 20, 2017Very little grace, very protectionist in every sense, very ominous in short, very Trumpian. God help us all https://t.co/LzuRm9ghle DemfromTX (@DemfromTX) January 20, 2017#inauguraladdress: forgettable, in every way, except for the pit in the stomach. Daryl Sneath (@D_Sneath) January 20, 2017President Trump makes his intentions very clear with his Inaugural address. It s simply screw you, rest of the world! #TrumpInauguration Bhargob Kakoty (@Bhargob) January 20, 2017Probably the shittest inaugural address in a long time Mitchell McCombe (@mitchellmc97) January 20, 2017Trump s Inaugural Address: A Disgraceful Deception https://t.co/r1sMeqjWjo Kip Spelling (@kip_spelling) January 20, 2017Yes, during the inaugural address it started to rain bc like the majority of us God is also crying Zoe (@notlowzo) January 20, 2017Donald Trump s speech was full of lies and promises that he won t keep. He is already attacking education by putting a person who wants to destroy it in charge of the Education Department, and he is slashing the Transportation Department s budget. Trump is also poised to strip healthcare from millions of Americans, which will make them poorer and more vulnerable. Furthermore, Trump is cutting funds from the Justice Department s Civil Rights division, which will hurt people of color across the country.Donald Trump doesn t care about America. He only cares about himself and what his gullible supporters think of him.Featured image by Win McNamee via Getty Images | 0 |
North Korea's wounded defector 'nice guy,' likes CSI: surgeonSEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea s latest defector, a young soldier known only by his family name Oh, is a quiet, pleasant man who has nightmares about being returned to the North, his surgeon said on Thursday. He s a pretty nice guy, said lead surgeon John Cook-Jong Lee, who has been operating and caring for the 24-year-old. Oh has become a focus of worldwide attention after he was badly wounded by fellow North Korean soldiers as he scrambled across the border in the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South on Nov. 13. Video of Oh s escape released on Wednesday showed him stumbling over the border and being dragged unconscious through the undergrowth by South Korean troops. Surgeon Lee has been almost the only person to speak with Oh since he arrived at the hospital, he told Reuters in an interview at his office at Ajou University Hospital, just a few floors away from where the defector lies guarded by South Korean special forces and intelligence officers. The surgeon, who has hung a South Korean flag in the soldier s room, said he is avoiding subjects that may disturb his patient. Oh is eating his first clear liquid food such as broths, and can smile, talk, and use his hands, Lee said. But when his patient woke on Sunday he cried out in pain, and Lee said he is still anxious about the South Korean guards. Lee said Oh told him that he had joined the North Korean army when he was 17, right after secondary school graduation. The soldier s hair is styled like a jarhead, like a U.S. Marine, so I actually joked why don t you join the South Korean Marines? He smiled and said that he would never ever go back to the military system again. Medical teams have worked for days to remove the shards of at least four bullets from Oh s body, stitch up his shredded organs, and treat pre-existing conditions including tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and a case of massive intestinal worms, Lee said. He s a quite strong man, said Lee. Since Oh s defection, North Korea appeared to have replaced all its security guards on the border, an intelligence source in the South told Yonhap news agency on Thursday. Lee said that when the defector arrived in an American military helicopter at the hospital which is equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment and is used to treat VIP visitors such as visiting U.S. presidents - he came with zero personal information. On the flight in, American army flight medics had fought to keep Oh alive, jabbing a large needle into his chest to treat a collapsed lung. Oh was immediately wheeled into a diagnostic room where doctors confirmed he was suffering from massive internal bleeding. We knew then that we didn t have time to hesitate, Lee said, standing in that room Thursday night. Two major surgeries were required to remove the bullets and patch Oh back together, and the medical team pumped as much as 12 liters of new blood into his body. The normal body has less than half as much blood. He told me that he is so thankful for South Koreans for saving his life and giving him that much blood, Lee said. Lee has been playing South Korean pop music and American films and TV shows for his patient, but has not exposed him to any news coverage. Among the shows, Oh showed a liking for the French-American thriller Transporter 3, comedy Bruce Almighty starring Jim Carrey and Morgan Freeman; and the crime-solving TV series CSI, Lee said. Most North Korean defectors undergo security questioning by South Korea s intelligence agency once they arrive in the South before being sent to a resettlement center for a three-month education on life in the South. After they are released, central and local governments provide 7 million won ($6,450) in cash over a year, as well as support in housing, education and job training. Police officers are assigned to each of the defectors to ensure their security and safety. Even if Oh fully recovers, some scars will stay for the rest of his life, the surgeon said. Among the longest lasting wounds will be the damage to his colon, which was shredded by a bullet and had to be stitched back together in seven places. It s a lifelong complication for the patient, so he s better to be very cautious in his diet, said the surgeon. Besides the potential for further medical complications, Lee says he is most worried about making sure Oh recovers psychologically. The soldier has already told him he had a nightmare about being returned to the North. The surgeon said he has asked senior South Korean military officials who are eager to question the soldier to hold off while he recovers. This North Korean guy is not going anywhere, Lee said. He is staying in South Korea. So we don t need to be hasty. | 1 |
FEDERALLY FUNDED RIOT: BALTIMORE MAYOR WANTS FEDS TO PAY $20 MILLION FOR REPAIR OF CITYAfter giving ROOM TO DESTROY , Baltimore s mayor now says she s confident she can get Uncle Sam to pay for the damage. What is this, the new age of federally financed riots? One month after the race riots that trashed Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said that the city would apply for a $20 million Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant to replenish the rainy day fund being used to pay for cleanup and police overtime costs in the wake of the mayhem that she herself is on record as encouraging. In order to replenish this fund, we ve already worked with the state to apply for a federal FEMA reimbursement, and we are confident that we will receive a significant reimbursement from the federal government, CBS Baltimore affiliate WJZ reported her as saying Wednesday. This smells pretty funny, given that FEMA funds are meant mostly for natural disasters, not riot damage. But more to the point, it s effectively an escape from fiscal accountability and political responsibility, given Rawlings-Blake s role in fueling the riots. Rawlings-Blake, remember, is the one who lit the fuse by saying, We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that a clear incitement to riot, even as she unconvincingly denied meaning any such thing while Baltimore burned. Instead of resigning, or being asked to, Rawlings-Blake is now more confident than ever that cash is on its way, according to press reports. This may very well be true, given all the evidence of political dealmaking with the Obama White House and Eric Holder s Justice Department. As the riots raged, Rawlings-Blake was in telephone contact with White House advisor Valerie Jarrett. Then she initiated a quickie-justice prosecution of six Baltimore cops, as well as a broader federal investigation of the city s police force that the White House wanted. Last week, she joined one group of Maryland officials and another of big-city mayors to seek federal dollars, using the riots as reason. No cash has been explicitly promised at this point, but in the world of one hand washes the other, it s pretty obvious that deals are being cut.Read more: IBD | 0 |
NEW NORMAL? MASSIVE MUSIC FESTIVAL In Angela Merkel’s Islamic Migrant Nation Of Germany EVACUATED After “Concrete Terror Threat” [VIDEO]In 2016, 2.14 million people moved to Germany in 2015 a 46 per cent increase from 2014.It should come as no surprise that less than one month after the horrific terror attack at the Ariana Grande concert in the UK, that one of the biggest music festivals in Germany has been shut down after a concrete terror threat.Rock am Ring was cancelled on its opening night and thousands of festival-goers were told to leave the site in N rburg in a calm and controlled manner .Some 92,500 three-day tickets were sold for the festival, which was due to run from Friday until Sunday.The dpa news agency reported that the festival was cleared out on its opening night after Koblenz police said they had received information of a concrete threat .The cancellation was announced on the Rock am Ring Facebook page.A spokesman said: Due to a terrorist threat the police have advised us to interrupt the festival. We ask all festival visitors to leave the festival site in a calm and controlled manner towards the exits and camping grounds. We have to support the police investigations. Via: Daily Mail | 0 |
Leaked Footage Exposes Astonishing And Criminal Antics Of Catholic Priest In His Own Church (VIDEO)A Catholic priest has been caught on camera snorting cocaine on church grounds, in a room covered in Nazi memorabilia.As the BBC reports:Fr Stephen Crossan is reported to have snorted coke through a 10 note during a night of drinking in July 2015 in Banbridge, County Down.He was in a room containing Nazi memorabilia, and seemed to say I shouldn t as he snorted, the Sun on Sunday reported.He has taken leave from the priesthood.A spokesperson for the PSNI said: Police are aware of the article in a Sunday newspaper and are making inquiries. The Church has confirmed that the footage took place in the Priest s parochial house, on the grounds of St Patrick s Church, Banbridge, in July of last year.This Priest forms part of the same Catholic Church which in Northern Ireland and the U.S., attempts to exert a moral authority over men, women and children. The same church which is fighting to prevent the equal marriage rights of same-sex couples. The same church which is fighting the reproductive rights of women and men, through opposition to abortion and contraception. The same church which is trapping people in loveless or violent marriages, by fighting the right of (predominantly) women to divorce. The same church which covered up rampant sexual abuse of children by their priests, rather than expose themselves to public accountability.However, this same cocktail of toxic beliefs has infected the Republican Party of the United States through the Christian Conservative movement. Despite the clear and incontrovertible evidence that religiosity is not the same as morality, this party and it s Quiverfull followers still attempt to assert a moral authority of secular liberals.Unfortunately for the Father Crossan, the Duggars and other Christian Conservative leaders your moral hypocrisy has a way of making itself known to the world.Featured Image via Screengrab | 0 |
New Activist-Recommended Prime Minister Appointed Today in Egypt! ""First we ousted Mubarak. Second, we got rid of Shafiq. We have become again the owners of this country," said Bassem Kamel, a member of the Youth Coalition, an umbrella group of activists who launched the protests Jan. 25. | 1 |
Maddow: graphic warning, Gitmo Guard, I feel Ashamed of What I Did | 0 |
After an election that left no party with a clear majority, the final decision over who becomes Britain's next prime minister could lie in the hands of one woman who never votes: The queen. | 1 |
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Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been caught on microphone describing a voter he had just spoken to in Rochdale as a "bigoted woman". | 1 |
Italian prosecutors suspect Vatican bank is laundering Sicilian mafia $$$ | 1 |
House Democrat calls GOP Clinton probe scheme to 'distract' from Russia inquiryWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Democrat on a House of Representatives committee accused its Republican leaders of launching a spurious investigation of Hillary Clinton to divert attention from inquiries on alleged links between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia. Representative Elijah Cummings, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Tuesday wrote to the panel’s chairman, Trey Gowdy, complaining that Republicans had “rushed to launch” an investigation of a purported scandal involving Clinton and Robert Mueller, the special counsel who is investigating allegations about Trump campaign contacts with Russia. “With no consultation with Democrats, you and other Republicans rushed to launch your latest investigation of Secretary Clinton and Mr. Mueller directly after President Trump initiated his own Twitter campaign just days earlier to distract from the ongoing Russia investigations,” Cummings wrote. “This investigation is not - nor will it ever be - about one individual,” Gowdy said in response to a query. “It is about whether or not all pertinent information was known and shared with CFIUS at the time they made their decision and whether the actions of Russia in 2015 and 2016 should cause the U.S. to re-evaluate Russia’s motives in 2010,” he added, referring to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Cummings said Ron DeSantis, the Republican who chairs the oversight committee’s National Security Subcommittee, claimed he interviewed a confidential informant who had helped the FBI uncover a “scheme” to “bribe” then-Secretary of State Clinton to get the interagency committee to approve the sale of a Canadian uranium company to Russia. However, Clinton did not represent the State Department on the foreign investment committee, which approved the sale. Moreover, the major donor to her husband’s Clinton Foundation had sold his stake in Uranium One more than a year before Clinton became secretary of state and three years before Russia’s Rosatom bought the Canadian firm. Cummings said five congressional committees, including the House oversight committee, have investigated the deal and have “identified no evidence to substantiate allegations that Secretary Clinton orchestrated, manipulated, or otherwise coerced” the interagency committee to approve the deal. Several Republican members of Congress and some pro-Trump media organizations have demanded that Mueller resign, apparently because he was FBI director when the sale of the uranium company was approved. | 1 |
Trump’s Labor Pick Belonged To Group That FORCES Workers To Listen To Right-Wing Lies At WorkAndrew Puzder, Trump s nominee for Secretary of Labor, hasn t had his confirmation hearing yet, but he ll probably end up getting confirmed despite opposition from pro-worker Democrats and labor groups. That s unfortunate, because he was once a part of a group with a ridiculous name: The Job Creators Network. This group is anything but pro-job creation, as they push all sorts of right-wing, anti-worker propaganda that s been shown to harm the economy and jobs.According to a report in The Nation, JCN pushes employers to pepper their employees with anti-government, pro-big business ideology, and while they don t specifically have their employers hold guns to their workers heads to force them to pay attention to this stuff, they encourage employers to send out government policy emails, stuff paycheck envelopes with flyers, run their videos during team-building meetings and other company exercises, and post notices and infographics around the workplace, where they can easily see it and read it.In other words, this group that Puzder belonged to until just recently works to ensure employees don t have much of a choice but to pay attention to at least some of their stuff.And their stuff is insidious. For instance, their website, informationstation.org, has a film that ominously depicts cartoon workers disappearing into thin air and getting replaced with robots. It talks about how minimum wage hikes in California and New York could kill 700,000 jobs and 500,000 jobs, respectively. It also says that 16.8 million jobs could disappear if we raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.What it doesn t say is that the 16.8 million number is the uppermost number in a range derived by the right-wing American Action Forum, and that the low end is 3.3 million.It certainly doesn t mention anything whatsoever about higher minimum wages having a positive effect on jobs, like what the CEO of Wetzel s Pretzels noticed in California after their minimum wage went up.Watch the spin below:JCN also paints minimum wage earners as less-than deserving of a living wage. An infographic neatly informs workers that over half of minimum wage earners are ages 16-24, that 64 percent of them are part-time workers, that 65.2 percent have never been married, and 27.9 percent have not graduated high school. These statistics are true, but they re using them in very deceptive ways to push an anti-minimum wage message.And that message is quite clear: Minimum wage earners don t deserve a living wage, and since all raising it will do is destroy your job, you should vote for people who don t want to raise the minimum wage.They paint the new overtime rule as a job killer, too. And on and on it goes all of this is stuff that employees at many companies are forced to watch or read. According to The Nation s report, this propaganda effort has actually effected dramatic changes in the way workers see these issues, which, in turn, affects how they vote.This bullshit is why we have such terrible income inequality. JCN is selling the very myths that have created such a problem with income inequality and stagnant wages, and harms the workers they claim they want to protect. If any of this was going to actually work, it would have worked by now. It s had over 30 years to work.And Puzder belonged to this group until at least December, although JCN claims he never belonged. We re about to have a Secretary of Labor who isn t just in favor of these policies, but appears to have supported forcing workers to view propaganda, and outright lies, for the purpose of brainwashing them so the so-called job creators can continue to fatten their wallets, and for the purpose of getting them to vote Republican.Featured image by Jason Kempin via Getty Images for Dream Foundation | 0 |
Brother of Marseille attacker arrested in Italy: policeROME (Reuters) - (This October 8 story has been refiled to correct names of Marseille attacker and his brother, which had been switched in previous story.) Italian police said on Sunday they had arrested the brother of Ahmed Hannachi, the Tunisian man who killed two young women with a knife outside the Marseille train station a week ago in a suspected terrorist act. An Italian anti-terrorism squad arrested 25-year-old Anis Hannachi in Ferrara, Italy, on Saturday evening on an international warrant issued by France, a police statement said. On Oct. 1, Ahmed Hannachi shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) as he killed the women, French police sources said. Ahmed Hannachi was shot dead by a French soldier. The militant Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, but did not name the assailant. After what Italian police described as a very complex investigation, Anis Hannachi was tracked down in Italy, the statement said, and is being held on suspicion of complicity in his brother s attack and membership in a terrorist group. No other information was provided about the operation, which was coordinated with French judicial and anti-terrorism authorities, the statement said. | 1 |
Moscow under redevelopment - shame about the architectural heritage | 1 |
Woman who falsely cried rape jailed for 1 year | 1 |
BBC News: Labour MPs pass Corbyn no-confidence motion | 1 |
Campaign to put ecocide on a par with genocide in attempt to curb environmental destruction - Although it was one of the five core crimes covered by the Rome Statute that set up the ICC, ecocide mysteriously vanished from negotiations at the United Nations. | 0 |
Scotland Yard is investigating three 'possible murders' linked to a Westminster paedophile ring that was allegedly operating in the 1970s and 1980s | 1 |
With One Simple Chart, The Wall Street Journal Just WRECKED Trumpcare (IMAGE)Republicans seem to be steadfast in their quest to destroy the Affordable Care Act despite all the facts showing that doing so will be devastating not only to the millions of Americans who rely on the law to have access to affordable coverage but also to the economy.The Congressional Budget Office has just come out and said that not only would 14 million lose coverage by next year under Trumpcare, but by 2021, 21 million will lose insurance, and then by 2026, 24 million.And yet, there are still Republicans and those who support them who insist on repealing Obamacare and replacing it with the subpar version known as Trumpcare. So, for the visual learners out there who can t quite seem to grasp how horrific this all is, the Wall Street Journal made a graph to show how drastic this loss of coverage will be.Here s the image:The projected percentage of uninsured Americans under the House GOP plan vs. Obamacare: https://t.co/zOSvG99BmU pic.twitter.com/cbv37xVQs4 Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 13, 2017While the new bill would seemingly reduce the deficit over time, it leaves behind tens of millions of Americans who will no longer have access to care. And when people can t afford care, they go to the emergency room, and when they can t pay their bills, taxpayers end up picking up the tab. The spending will always be there. It s just whether or not you want to spend money for people to stay healthy or wait until they are in such dire straits that they need emergency care and are willing to go bankrupt because of it.All in all it s heartless. We need Medicare for all now!Featured Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images | 0 |
China has appealed for calm on the Korean peninsula, hours after North Korea said it had scrapped all peace pacts with the South and threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes. | 1 |
Venezuela's representative storm out of meeting as Opec refuses to cut oil production. Prices slump to five-year low | 1 |
India releases details of nine dead Mumbai gunmen | 1 |
Report accuses Tennessee lawmaker of inappropriate sexual conduct(Reuters) - A Tennessee state lawmaker was accused of inappropriate sexual conduct with 22 women over a four-year period in a state attorney general’s report released on Wednesday. Republican Representative Jeremy Durham repeatedly made unwelcomed advances toward female legislative staff, interns and lobbyists since being elected in 2012, according to a report issued to a legislative committee investigating his conduct. Durham declined to be interviewed by investigators, the report said, and he was not immediately available for comment. “The investigation has been a politically motivated, unfair and unconstitutional process,” said Durham’s attorney Bill Harbison in a statement to the Nashville CBS affiliate News Channel 5. The report details interviews with 22 unnamed women who described numerous occasions when the married legislator flirted and made suggestive sexual comments or physical advances toward them. In one case, Durham had sex with an 20-year-old campaign worker in his legislative office and again in his home. On several occasions, he sent text messages or used social media to make “inappropriate” comments to several women. One of the women described the messages as “terribly inappropriate” while another said his behavior “creeped her out.” A lobbyist told investigators that Durham suggested he would vote for a bill she was promoting if she entertained his advances. “I’m for your bill but I’m going to expect something in return,” he told her according to the report. In a memo attached to the report, the committee said it will leave Durham’s fate to the voters as he is up for re-election in November. | 1 |
Exclusive: Displaced Rohingya in camps face aid crisis after Myanmar violenceSITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - Around 120,000 displaced people - mostly Rohingya Muslims - in camps in Myanmar s Rakhine state are not receiving food supplies or healthcare after the U.N. and aid groups suspended operations following government accusations of supporting insurgents. Nearly 400 people have died in fighting in the far north of the state after Rohingya militants attacked police posts and an army base a week ago, provoking a major army counteroffensive. The impact from the conflict has now spread, including to the state capital Sittwe further south, where some 90,000 Rohingya have lived in camps since an outbreak of communal violence rocked the city in 2012, killing nearly 200 people. A further 30,000 Rohingya are housed in camps elsewhere in the state, while a small number of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists displaced in the 2012 violence also live in separate camps. As a result of the disruption of activities in central Rakhine state, many people are currently not receiving their normal food assistance and primary healthcare services have been severely disrupted, said Pierre Peron, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The U.N. and international aid groups had already evacuated all non-critical staff from the north of the state amid intensifying fighting and after the office of national leader Aung San Suu Kyi repeatedly published pictures of World Food Programme (WFP) energy biscuits allegedly found at an insurgent camp. Suu Kyi s office also said it was investigating aid groups support for the insurgents in one incident. Now contractors working for the WFP, a U.N. agency, have refused to carry food to the camps in Sittwe and elsewhere. Staff with international aid groups who run clinics inside the large, densely populated camps have also been afraid to show up for work, leading to the closure of facilities, U.N. sources and aid workers told Reuters. Local staff were afraid of being intimidated by Rakhine Buddhist hardliners, and some worried about being attacked by Muslims, the sources said. Sanitation is also a major problem - contractors cleaning latrines in the camps have also refused to work and the latrines are overflowing in the monsoon rains, increasing the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases, they said. The treatment of Myanmar s roughly 1.1 million Rohingya, who have long complained of persecution in Buddhist majority Myanmar, is the biggest challenge facing Suu Kyi. The top U.N. human rights official, Zeid Ra ad al-Hussein, has criticized Suu Kyi s office for irresponsible suggestions that aid agencies may have assisted Rohingya militants calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). #WFP Aid & #ARSA terrorists : #Myanmar Govt asking #WFP, Aid for civilian or terrorists? #Rakhine #Myanmar, said Suu Kyi s spokesman, Zaw Htay, in a tweet on Thursday. Tin Maung Swe, secretary of the Rakhine state government, confirmed that workers have refused to work for the WFP. Laborers who carry the WFP food bags don t want to contract with them any more. People who have made contract with WFP refused to work for them, he said. He added that residents were disgusted with the organization following the government s accusations. Tin Maung Swe also said that the government was trying to find a different way to support the organization . Rakhine Buddhist leaders have long bemoaned the presence of international agencies, who they accuse of favoring the Rohingya. Aid offices in Sittwe were sacked during 2014 riots. The discovery at a suspected militant camp on July 30 of WFP-branded biscuits intended for malnourished children had further stoked tensions even before last week s attacks. Accusations against the U.N. have been spread on social media by nationalist hardliners, stoking fears of another outbreak of communal violence in a state that has long been divided along religious and ethnic lines. International aid agencies operating in Myanmar issued a statement on Thursday condemning the insurgent attacks and subsequent violence, and urging all stakeholders to cease the spread of misinformation . The OCHA s Peron said the disruption was already being felt. Humanitarian aid normally goes to these vulnerable people for a very good reason, because they depend on it, he said. In addition to the closure of camp clinics, Rohingya who have been referred to the main hospital in Sittwe for more serious complaints were finding it hard to travel there, said the hospital s chief doctor Kyaw Naing Win. There have been some constraints for them to come to the hospital because of the tighter security control after recent clashes, he said, but added the hospital did not discriminate against them. Kyaw Naing Win said he arranged for the state government to provide security for 17 Muslim patients who were discharged from the hospital on Thursday. Even before the recent violence Rohingya camp residents faced severe restrictions on their movements around Sittwe. Talks between government and relief agencies are scheduled for next week, aid group sources told Reuters. Possible solutions might include the government providing security escorts for food convoys, they added. (This story has been refiled to remove extraneous words in paragraph 6) | 1 |
Obama, Australia's Turnbull pledge more cooperation on counterterrorismWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull pledged on Tuesday to increase cooperation on counterterrorism and the fight against Islamic State. Obama praised Australia for its support in Afghanistan and thanked the prime minister for his country’s troops’ sacrifices around the world. “We’re going to talk about how we can strengthen our cooperation both in Syria and Iraq, the state of affairs in Afghanistan, but also countering violent extremism globally,” Obama told reporters in the Oval Office at the start of the meeting. “Australia will be a very important partner in that process,” he said. Turnbull said it was critical to improve efforts to fight Islamic State. “We have to constantly lift our game in the way we engage with and tackle these extremists, particularly ISIL - but there are many others - as they operate in the cyber sphere,” he said, referring to Islamic State with an acronym. “Archaic and barbaric though they may be, their use regrettably of the Internet is very sophisticated. And so I’m pleased that we’re going to be working on even closer collaboration there.” The two leaders also discussed their backing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. “It is going to be good for our economy. It is going to be good for our workers and our businesses, and it reaffirms that in order for us to thrive in the 21st century ... it’s important for us to be making the rules in this region, and that’s exactly what TPP does,” Obama said. Turnbull congratulated Obama on the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. | 1 |
Chinese activist asks Internet users: What does your river look like? | 0 |
House panel sets Puerto Rico recovery hearing for Oct. 24WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives panel said on Tuesday that it has scheduled an Oct. 24 hearing to examine Puerto Rico’s hurricane recovery efforts and the role of a financial oversight board in those efforts. The House Committee on Natural Resources, which last year worked on legislation creating the board to help Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, manage its $72 billion debt load, will hold the hearing. Since Hurricane Maria pounded Puerto Rico in September causing widespread destruction, there have been calls for possibly revising some of the financial board’s work related to the island’s debt. Committee officials were not immediately available to comment on who might testify at the hearing. | 1 |
Says the unemployment rate for college graduates is 4.4 percent and over 10 percent for noncollege-educated. | 1 |
South African Supreme Court upholds reinstating 783 corruption charges against ZumaBLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa s Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday upheld a High Court ruling to reinstate nearly 800 corruption charges filed against Jacob Zuma before he became president. Zuma, who has faced and denied numerous other corruption allegations since taking office, said he was disappointed by the court s decision and asked the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to consider representations before deciding whether to proceed against him. It was unclear when the NPA would make a decision on the charges, which relate to a 30 billion rand ($2 billion) government arms deal arranged in the late 1990s. The ruling is likely to amplify calls for Zuma, 75, to step down before his term as president ends in 2019 and diminish his influence over who succeeds him when the ruling African National Congress (ANC) chooses a new leader in December. It is going to make it a lot more difficult for his camp to get their presidential candidate elected, said Gary van Staden, political analyst with NKC African Economics. Friday s unanimous Supreme Court ruling upheld a High Court decision in April 2016 that the charges against Zuma should be reinstated. They had been set aside in April 2009 by the then-head of the prosecuting authority, paving the way for Zuma to run for president later that year. Rejecting an appeal brought by Zuma and the NPA, Judge Lorimer Leach said it was irrational for the NPA to have set the charges aside the same word used by the High Court. It is difficult to understand why the present regime at the NPA considered that the decision to terminate the prosecution could be defended, the Supreme Court s Leach said. NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said prosecutors would need to consider the judgment but would at all times do the right thing within the confines of the rule of law and in the interest of proper administration of justice . In a separate statement, the NPA said Zuma s lawyers had asked the state prosecutor not to serve an indictment on his client nor to re-enrol the matter prior to the representations having been considered . The prospect that Zuma s removal may be inching closer lifted the rand against the dollar. Zuma is unpopular with many investors after sacking respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan in March, a move that hit South African financial assets and helped tip the country s credit ratings into junk territory. Zuma has faced persistent corruption allegations, most recently over leaked emails that suggest his friends the Gupta family may have used their influence to secure lucrative state contracts for their companies. Reuters has not independently verified the emails, and Zuma and the Guptas have consistently denied any wrongdoing. Mmusi Maimane, leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance, said he would write to the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Shaun Abrahams, to demand he indict Zuma. The charges have been formulated and the evidence is ready. We now await a trial date, Maimane told reporters. Asked by reporters whether Zuma should resign, the African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said the party would allow that process to take its course. The first thing is whether the NPA will decide to charge the president, he said. You re putting the cart before the horse. National prosecutor Mokotedi Mpshe s decision in 2009 to drop the 783 charges against Zuma in what has become known as the Spy Tapes case was based on phone intercepts presented by Zuma s legal team. They suggested the timing of the charges in late 2007 may have been part of a political plot to stop Zuma, then deputy president, running for the top job. Zuma was linked to the 1990s arms deal through his former financial adviser, who was jailed for corruption. Analysts said the credibility of Zuma and the NPA were in question after the ruling. One lawyer, Ulrich Roux, who speaks to media as a legal analyst, said a private prosecution could be instituted if charges are not brought. | 1 |
WOOHOO! VETS GET RIGHTS BACK: Obama’s Overboard Gun Regulations for Vets Rolled Back I strongly believe we must do everything in our power to protect the rights guaranteed to all Americans, especially the men and women who have served, by the Constitution, said Rep. Phil Roe (R., Tenn.)The House of Representatives just passed a bill to amend the process used to determine whether a veteran receiving benefits from the Veterans Administration should be denied their gun rights.The Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act would change the process the VA uses to determine which of its beneficiaries are mentally incompetent in a way that disqualifies them from owning firearms. The bill would require a finding by a judge or other judicial authority that the veteran is a danger to himself or others before stripping his gun rights.The bill would roll back a regulation implemented by the VA under former President Barack Obama that required the agency to report individuals who use a representative payee to handle their financial affairs to the FBI s background check system and ban them from purchasing firearms.The rule resulted in hundreds of thousands of veterans being prohibited from owning firearms. Ninety-nine percent of the names in the FBI s database of mentally defective individuals were veterans reported by the VA as a result of the rule.Read more: WFB | 0 |
Anonymous vows justice for Rehtaeh Parsons, 15 year old rape victim who committed suicide. Canadian Police do nothing. | 1 |
Federal Court Strikes Down Racist Texas Voter ID LawJust in time for the election! The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit based in New Orleans found what Democrats have known for months: Texas voter ID law, the strictest in the country, violates the Voting Rights Act because it places an undue burden on minority voters in the state more specifically black and Hispanic voters.When the law was passed in 2011, over 600,000 Texas lacked the identification necessary to vote. As the Court correctly pointed out, the overwhelming majority of these voters were non-white.According to the New York Times:It was the fourth time in nearly four years that a federal court found that the Texas law discriminated against or disproportionately affected black and Hispanic voters.The ruling did not strike down the law in its entirety, leaving in place the heart of the law but requiring the state to accommodate those who will have a harder time obtaining the identification necessary.The Fifth Circuit also sent back to the lower courts a reconsideration as to whether or not the Texas legislature acted with intentional discrimination. Should it be discovered that it did, judicial oversight would be required if Texas sought to change their voting laws.It should also be noted that the Fifth Circuit is considered one of the most conservative Appeals courts in the country, with 12 out of 17 seats being occupied by Republican appointees, and four out of seven senior judges being Republican appointees.Of the 15 judges, senior and active, who heard the case, nine (including 5 Republican appointees) voted in favor of the people, not the racist government of Texas. When the majority of the majority opinion are Republican and tell you your state is racist, you might want to take a step back.The state of Texas has not confirmed if it will be appealing to the Supreme Court, which in April decided to leave the law intact but revert back to the lower courts, the Fifth Circuit. The Supreme Court did, however, issue a warning: should the law be muddied by the lower courts (yet again), the Supreme Court would not come to its aid.The Fifth Circuit s decision may be the final nail in the coffin to a shameful, racist, hateful law that had one purpose: purge as many blacks and Hispanics off the voter rolls as possible.Once again, voting rights have been protected. Will Republicans learn from it? Not at all. But are Republicans now weakened heading into the general election? Absolutely.Over 600,000 people were given back their rights, now they need to exercise them in November.Featured image via Stephanie Keith/Getty Images | 0 |
Today, Saudi women defy driving ban and take the driver's seat en masse! | 1 |
Solving War Crimes With Wristbands: The Arrogance of 'Kony 2012' | 1 |
NFK: Crane in Reactor #3 collapsed onto fuel rods (1:40) | 1 |
Syrian government envoy: U.S. and Turkish troops should leave SyriaASTANA (Reuters) - Syria s U.N. ambassador, Bashar al-Jaafari, said on Friday that U.S. and Turkish troops should leave Syria immediately. He made the demand during Syrian peace talks in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. | 1 |
Hard-Line Israeli Foreign Minister Is Stepping Down: Avigdor Lieberman resigned on Friday after being charged with fraud and breach of trust, in a move that could have repercussions on next months election | 0 |
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