ISIS-Putin-Snowden Form Terror Threesome to Target America - Breitbart News | Russian Military Intelligence Coordinating Syrian-Iranian Attacks on Rebels, Spying on Israel by James Miller
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 Breitbart News |
ISIS-Putin-Snowden Form Terror Threesome to Target America
Breitbart News “It is reasonable to assume that Vladimir Putin is giving information obtained via Snowden to ISIS or al Qaeda so they can damage U.S. infrastructure as his proxy,” former NSA executive Charlie Speight explained to us. “Without getting his hands dirty ... |
An Enticing Next Target For Putin
Wall Street Journal Russian President Vladimir Putin may yet decide to impose the cease fire by rolling in Russian peacekeeping troops, which would mean Russia recapturing another slice of the old Soviet empire to go along with Crimea, and Abkhazia and South Ossetia in ... and more » |
 RT |
Putin as Hercules, a 100k human flag and other unusual things for the ...
RT Russia President Vladimir Putin is celebrating his 62nd birthday in Siberia, taking Tuesday off work – his first day off for a birthday in 15 years. “The head of state has flown to the Siberian taiga where he will rest,” presidential spokesman Dmitry ... |
 Kyiv Post |
Russia's currency is collapsing—and Putin won't do anything to stop it
Quartz The ruble's inexorable decline has made it “one of the world's top basket-case currencies,” alongside the Ukrainian hryvnia and Argentine peso, according to analysts at Daiwa. The combination of Western sanctions, stagflation, and falling oil prices is ... Putin, Burkhalter call for in-depth investigation into Malaysian plane crashKyiv Post Russia Spends Up to $1.75 Billion in Two Days to Buoy RubleBloomberg all 107 news articles » |
 НТВ.ru |
Мэрия Донецка: трое мирных граждан погибли в ходе ночного обстрела
НТВ.ru Три мирных жителя погибли, еще четверо получили ранения от осколков снарядов в Донецке в ходе боевых действий. 1236. Поделиться ссылкой на выделенное. Twitter; Facebook; Вконтакте; Google+. Прямая ссылка: Нажмите правой клавишей мыши и выберите «Копировать ссылку». «Восток»: Солдаты ВСУ продолжают удерживать подземные коммуникации аэропорта ДонецкаИА REGNUM МВД ДНР: в результате артобстрелов Донецка пострадали восемь человекИТАР-ТАСС Сегодня утром погибли три жителя Донецка, еще 4 - раненыУНИАН Версии.сом -Новости Украины | Новостное агентство ХАРЬКОВ -ФОКУС Все похожие статьи: 126 » |
 Российская Газета |
ДНР: Заявления Киева о "режиме тишины" не имеют отношения к реальности
Российская Газета В Донецке за сутки погибли восемь мирных жителей. Об этом сообщает РИА Новости со ссылкой на первого вице-премьера Донецкой народной республики Андрея Пургина. При этом отмечается, что Совет нацбезопасности и обороны Украины объявил с 18.00 (19.00 мск) 7 октября ... Пургин: режим прекращения огня на востоке Украины в целом соблюдаетсяРИА Новости Власти ДНР примут участие в переговорах в Минске, если будет инициатива от России или ОБСЕКоммерсантъ Власти ДНР готовы к новым переговорам, если будет инициатива от России и ОБСЕБалтИнфо.ru Накануне.RU -Говорит Москва -Федеральное агентство новостей No.1 Все похожие статьи: 68 » |
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Page 9
 Зеркало недели |
Киев выделит на проект "Стена" еще 6 млн евро
Интерфакс Москва. 8 октября. INTERFAX.RU - Кабинет министров Украины намерен на заседании в среду принять решение о выделении дополнительных 6 млн евро на реализацию проекта по обустройству объекта "Стена" на границе с Украиной. "Я просил бы сегодня принять еще одно важное ... "Стена" на границе с РФ обойдется Киеву в 66 млн евроМосковский комсомолец Киев выделил на оборудование границы с Россией дополнительные 6 млн евроВзгляд Проект "Стена" за две недели подорожал на 6 миллионов евроКомсомольская Правда в Украине ИТАР-ТАСС -Корреспондент.net -Интерфакс - Украина Все похожие статьи: 29 » |
Azerbaijan is irate over a French mayor's visit to the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Police in Moscow have detained Pavel Shekhtman, a Russian civil rights activist and Kremlin critic.
ISIS Shoots Down an Iraqi Military Helicopter, Killing 2by By KIRK SEMPLE and OMAR AL-JAWOSHY
The attack was the second time in less than a week that militants of the extremist group the Islamic State have shot down an Iraqi military helicopter.
At least 12 people were killed in clashes as demonstrators expressed anger over Ankara’s refusal to help stop Islamic State from overrunning a mainly Kurdish city in neighboring Syria.
MURSITPINAR Turkey (Reuters) - U.S.-led air strikes on Wednesday pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, which they had appeared set to seize after a three-week assault, Kurdish officials in the town said.
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As the evangelical Reform group pulls out of talks after it was accused of homophobia, reconciliation seems far away
Hopes that the Church of England might be able to discuss its deep differences over gay people looked sillier yesterday after the conservative evangelical group Reform pulled out of conversations. It was upset over the failure to admonish a prominent liberal, while gay protestors led by Peter Tatchell heckled the archbishop of York over his backing for sanctions against a gay priest who has married his partner.
Reforms press release dropped in first. The group is upset by three things. The headline is that it wants the bishop of Buckingham, Alan Wilson, to stop calling conservative evangelicals (that would be Reform) homophobic, and to renounce his public support for gay marriage. Then it wants a crackdown on those priests who have married their partners. This is extremely difficult legally, as Wilson points out in public and the house of bishops has been told in private.
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Unnamed US official says there is growing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre in Kobani
The Obama administration is becoming increasingly frustrated over Turkeys inaction against Islamic State (Isis), in particular its failure to intervene to prevent the jihadis overrunning the Syrian border town of Kobani.
The US president is scheduled to hold a meeting on Wednesday of the national security council along with the secretary of state, John Kerry, to discuss Turkeys reluctance so far to help in the battle against Isis.
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Newspaper lines up with counter-extremism Inspire's campaign
The Sun has made a bold intervention today with an eye-catching agenda-setting front-page image accompanying a call for "Britons of all faiths to united to defeat IS fanatics."
"We are urging communities across the country to make a stand to prevent barbaric Islamic State extremists radicalising British youths," it says.
"British Muslims are coming together to say that the so-called Islamic state has nothing to do with our faith. It's a twisted version of Islam that we condemn utterly. We won't tolerate Great Britain being poisoned by extremist propaganda.
Inspire launched Making A Stand because British Muslim women are incredibly angry and frustrated about their faith being hijacked and want to make a stand against terrorism.
"We must help snuff out the warped ideology of IS and stem the flow of Britons to its ranks...
First, we must not give way to Islamophobia. The military success of IS vastly exaggerates its support. It represents a tiny minority.
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Ray Cole, 69, has tearful reunion with family after arriving back in UK nearly three weeks after his arrest in Marrakech
A British holidaymaker jailed in Morocco for homosexual acts had a tearful reunion with his family as he returned to the UK following his release from prison.
Ray Cole, 69, who came out as gay a few years ago, was arrested on 18 September at a bus stop in Marrakech with Jamal Jam Wald Nass, a local man in his 20s with whom Cole had struck up a relationship online several months previously.
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 Haaretz |
Middle East Updates / Islamic State downs another Iraqi helicopter
Haaretz 14 dead as Kurds protest in Turkey, Iran says nuclear talks set for next week in Vienna; Iraq humanitarian crisis may turn deadly in winter, UN official warns. By Haaretz | Oct. 8, 2014 | 1:20 PM | 1 ... ISIS militants down Iraqi chopper killing two pilotsCTV News ISIS shoot down Iraqi military helicopter as UN calls for military escalation in ...Daily Mail Officials: Islamic State group downs Iraqi military helicopter near refinery, killing ...Washington Post all 176 news articles » |
UN Says At Least 3660 Killed In Ukraine Violence Since April
Huffington Post A pro-Russian rebel walks past a burning private house after shelling in the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) | AP. Share · Tweet. Email. Comment. Share on Google+ · tumblr · stumble · reddit. GENEVA, Oct 8 ... and more » |
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Pro-ISIS Muslim Terrorists with machetes, knives attack Kurds in Germany by The European Union Times
Peaceful protests against IS in Syria and Iraq organized by Kurdish nationals in several German cities ended with serious clashes with pro-jihadist Muslims in Hamburg and Celle. Police had to request reinforcements to restore order.
Police in Hamburg, a port city of 1.8 million people, used water cannons, batons and pepper spray late Tuesday to disperse crowds of warring Kurds and pro-jihadist Muslims, armed with knives and brass-knuckles, following a protest against Islamic State militants who are attacking the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria near the Turkish border.
At first, on Tuesday afternoon about 80 Kurdish protesters occupied Hamburg’s central train station for an hour, NDR.de reported. The Kurdish protesters left the railways voluntarily after 6pm, a police spokesman said.
A bigger group of about 500 Kurdish demonstrators marched through downtown Hamburg. On their way, they damaged several cars and Turkish snack bars, breaking panes of glass and throwing around plastic chairs. Police detained 14 rioters.
Later, several hundred Kurdish protesters gathered near the Al Nour Mosque on Steindamm Street near the city’s train station. At about 11:30pm local time (21:30 GMT), the Kurds were attacked by a group of approximately 40 armed supporters of the Islamic State (IS), RT’s Ruptly video news agency reported.
The violent clashes that followed the attack resulted in four people being hospitalized with stab wounds.
Anti-IS demonstrations of Kurds in northern Germany began Monday and were supported by hundreds of protesters in the cities of Bremen, Celle, Göttingen, Hannover, Kiel and Oldenburg.
In most of the cities, protests went off peacefully and were virtually trouble-free, but in Celle police failed to prevent clashes.
The first brawl between about 100 Kurds and Muslims on each side took place Monday, but police in Celle, a town of 71,000, with the help of colleagues from Hannover, Oldenburg and Wolfsburg, prevented serious clashes between the two groups.
On Tuesday, however, the two sides, armed with stones and bottles, attempted to break through police lines to attack each other.
Police in full anti-riot gear used pepper spray and batons to repel the attackers and prevent violence. Though the situation calmed down and no officers were injured, a large police force remains in the city to prevent a possible escalation.
Some of the Muslims taking part in the clashes in Celle were “Chechen nationals” who came there from all over Germany, Cellesche Zeitung reported.
A wave of anti-IS protests organized by Kurdish activists has rocked many European capitals, including London, Brussels, The Hague and in Sweden’s Gothenburg.
The Kurdish diaspora in Europe is protesting that the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria are attacking Kurdish communities with impunity, without meeting any serious opposition on the ground apart from Kurdish peshmerga militias. The assault of jihadists on the Kurdish settlement of Kabani in Syria, near the Turkish border has already claimed over 400 lives, while airstrikes by the US and its allies against IS fighters in Syria are not focused on protecting Kobani.
Kristofer Lundberg, an activist with the Socialist Justice Party in Sweden’s Gothenburg who organized and spoke at a 1,000-strong rally in support of Kurdish people in Kobani on Tuesday, told RT: “We demand that Turkey open its border and let the refugees there flee ISIS terror, and also to let the fighters who are waiting at the border go to Kobani to defend the city. Thousands of Kurds are ready to defend Kobani.”
Meanwhile, there have also been protests in London against the UK launching airstrikes on the Islamic State’s positions in Iraq.
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MURSITPINAR Turkey/ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S.-led air strikes on Wednesday pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, which they had appeared set to seize after a three-week assault, local officials said.
The huge mammals play with dolphins and come within inches of boats in a rare sighting close to shore.
 Wall Street Journal |
UN Report Says Ukraine Death Toll Still Rising Despite Cease-Fire
Wall Street Journal The U.N. said that although there have been no large-scale offensives since the cease-fire was agreed between Ukraine and Russian separatists in early September, weapons fire is exchanged almost daily. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images. UN says 3660 killed in Ukraine violence since AprilReuters Civil Conflict in Ukraine Leaves 3660 Dead, Over 8600 Injured: UNRIA Novosti Hundreds dead in Ukraine ceasefireBelfast Telegraph Livemint - Business & Finance News India all 9 news articles » |
3 win Nobel for giving microscope sharper visionby By KARL RITTER and MALIN RISING
STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Americans Eric Betzig and William Moerner and German scientist Stefan Hell won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for developing new methods that let microscopes see finer details than they could before....
Why Are So Many Deadly Diseases Breaking Out All Over The Globe Right Now? by The European Union Times
Ebola, Marburg, Enterovirus and Chikungunya these diseases were not even on the radar of most people coming into 2014, but now each one of them is making headline news. So why is this happening? Why are so many deadly diseases breaking out all over the world right now? Is there some kind of a connection, or is the fact that so many horrible diseases are arising all at once just a giant coincidence? And this could be just the beginning. For example, there are now more than a million cases of Chikungunya in Central and South America, and authorities are projecting that there will be millions more in 2015. The number of Ebola cases continues to grow at an exponential rate, and now an even deadlier virus (Marburg) has broken out in Uganda. We have gone decades without experiencing a major worldwide pandemic, and many people believed that it could never happen in our day and time. But now we could potentially see several absolutely devastating diseases all racing across the planet at the same time.
On Monday, we got news that the first confirmed case of Ebola transmission in Europe has happened. A nurse in Spain that had treated a couple of returning Ebola patients has contracted the disease herself…
A nurse’s assistant in Spain is the first person known to have contracted Ebola outside of Africa in the current outbreak.
Spanish Health Minister Ana Mato announced Monday that a test confirmed the assistant has the virus.
The woman helped treat a Spanish missionary and a Spanish priest, both of whom had contracted Ebola in West Africa. Both died after returning to Spain.
Health officials said she developed symptoms on September 30. She was not hospitalized until this week. Her only symptom was a fever.
How many people did she spread the virus to before it was correctly diagnosed?
Meanwhile, Ebola continues to rage out of control in West Africa. It is being reported that Sierra Leone just added 121 new Ebola deaths to the overall death toll in a single day. If Ebola continues to spread at an exponential rate, it is inevitable that more people will leave West Africa with the virus and take it to other parts of the globe.
In fact, it was being reported on Monday that researchers have concluded that there is “a 50 percent chance” that Ebola could reach the UK by October 24th…
Experts have analysed the pattern of the spread of the disease, along with airline traffic data, to make the startling prediction Ebola could reach Britain by October 24.
They claim there is a 50 percent chance the virus could hit Britain by that date and a 75 percent chance the it could be imported to France, as the deadliest outbreak in history spreads across the world.
Currently, there is no cure for the disease, which has claimed more than 3,400 lives since March and has a 90 percent fatality rate.
I have written extensively about Ebola, but it is certainly not the only virus making headlines right now.
Down in Uganda, a man has just died from a confirmed case of the Marburg Virus…
A man has died in Uganda’s capital after an outbreak of Marburg, a highly infectious haemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola, authorities said on Sunday, adding that a total of 80 people who came into contact with him had been put under quarantine.
Marburg starts with a severe headache followed by haemorrhaging and leads to death in 80% or more of cases in about nine days. It is from the same family of viruses as Ebola, which has killed thousands in West Africa in recent months.
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the Marburg virus, which is transmitted through bodily fluids such as saliva and blood or by handling infected wild animals such as monkeys.
The Marburg Virus is an absolutely horrible disease, and many consider it to be even more deadly than Ebola. But the fact that it kills victims so quickly may keep it from spreading as widely as Ebola.
We shall see.
Meanwhile, a disease that sounds very similar to Ebola and Marburg has popped up in Venezuela and doctors down there do not know what it is…
“We do not know what it is,” admitted Duglas León Natera, president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation.
In its initial stages, the disease presents symptoms of fever and spots on the skin, and then produces large blisters and internal and external bleeding, according to data provided week stop by the College of Physicians of the state of Aragua, where the first cases were reported.
Then, very quickly, patients suffer from respiratory failure, liver failure and kidney failure. Venezuelan doctors have not been able to determine what the disease is, much less how to fight it.
Why aren’t we hearing more about this in the mainstream news?
Here in the United States, enterovirus D-68 has sickened hundreds of children all over the country. So far cases have been confirmed in 43 different states, several children have been paralyzed by it, and one New Jersey boy has died…
Parents in New Jersey are concerned after a state medical examiner determined a virus causing severe respiratory illness across the country is responsible for the death of a 4-year-old boy.
Hamilton Township health officer Jeff Plunkett said the Mercer County medical examiner’s office found the death of Eli Waller was the result of enterovirus D-68. Waller, the youngest of a set of triplets, died in his sleep at home on Sept. 25.
The virus has sickened more than 500 people in 43 states and Washington, D.C.— almost all of them children. Waller is the first death in New Jersey directly linked to the virus.
The CDC seems to have no idea how to contain the spread of enterovirus D-68.
So why should we be confident that they will be able to contain the spread of Ebola?
Last but not least, the Chikungunya virus is at pandemic levels all over Central and South America.
We aren’t hearing that much about this disease in the U.S., but at this point more than a million peoplehave already been infected…
An excruciating mosquito-borne illness that arrived less than a year ago in the Americas is raging across the region, leaping from the Caribbean to the Central and South American mainland, and infecting more than 1 million people. Some cases already have emerged in the United States.
The good news is that very few people actually die from this disease.
The bad news is that almost everyone that gets it feels like they are dying.
In a previous article, I wrote about the intense suffering that victims go through. According to Slate, the name of this virus originally “comes from a Makonde word meaning ‘that which bends up,’ referring to the contortions sufferers put themselves through due to intense joint pain.”
Right now, the number of cases of Chikungunya is absolutely exploding. Just check out the following excerpt from a recent Fox News report…
In El Salvador, health officials report nearly 30,000 suspected cases, up from 2,300 at the beginning of August, and hospitals are filled with people with the telltale signs of the illness, including joint pain so severe it can be hard to walk.
“The pain is unbelievable,” said Catalino Castillo, a 39-year-old seeking treatment at a San Salvador hospital. “It’s been 10 days and it won’t let up.”
Venezuelan officials reported at least 1,700 cases as of Friday, and the number is expected to rise. Neighboring Colombia has around 4,800 cases but the health ministry projects there will be nearly 700,000 by early 2015.
So why is this happening?
Why are so many absolutely horrible diseases emerging all at once?
Read the whole story
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Kings Place, which previously won best of the best in 2009, given prize for continuing to live up to its original intentions
The British Council for Offices (BCO) has named what it believes are the best and most innovative offices in the UK. The Guardians UK headquarters are among them winning the test of time award for the offices at Kings Place, London. However, the overall winner was
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Federica Mogherini, the EU’s incoming Foreign Policy Chief, said yesterday during her hearing in the European Parliament that the “political conditions are not right” for building the South Stream gas pipeline, even if it complied with EU law on breaking up energy monopolies.
Here is reported on the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine and its effects on Germany’s energy supply. The German government has assured that gas reserves will last during the winter, but the article says that one third of the stored gas is still in the possession of Gazprom. In serious circumstances, the gas supply to Europe will only be secured for three months. One energy expert guarantees that Gazprom would not, for any reason, hold back gas. Other experts deem it unlikely that Russia would even turn off the gas, since western Europe is an essential trading partner. However, the German government is trying to decrease its energy dependence on Russia, for example with gas from Azerbaijan.
Former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has relaunched his Open Russia Internet project with the aim of influencing his homeland "through political means." He discussed his vision with Voice of America (VOA) correspondent Aleksandr Panov.
 The National Interest Online |
Poland warns Russia it could face tougher EU sanctions over Ukraine
Yahoo News WARSAW (Reuters) - The European Union will impose tougher sanctions onRussia unless Moscow's policy in Ukraine changes, Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna said on Tuesday. Since a ceasefire was agreed between pro-Moscow separatists ... The West vs. Russia: The Unintended Consequences of Targeted SanctionsThe National Interest Online EU's Incoming Foreign-Policy Chief Questions Impact of Russia SanctionsWall Street Journal EU cowers to American power as relations with Russia tumbleRT (blog) Washington Free Beacon -Pravda all 76 news articles » |
Experts Worry Ebola Panic May Overshadow Other Health Threats by webdesk@voanews.com (Anita Powell)
The Ebola virus has grabbed global attention - and sparked panic - having killed more than 3,500 people in just several months in West Africa. But medical experts say that while Ebola needs all the attention it can get, the world also cannot lose sight of other health issues -- such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, which kill far more people each day. Ebola has ravaged the nations of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, infecting thousands of people and killing more than half of those who are known to have contracted the virus. The scale has prompted the United Nations to declare an unprecedented health mission to combat the disease and the United States to commit thousands of troops to West Africa to assist in the effort. Despite all that attention, Ebola is nowhere close to being the biggest killer on the planet, or even in Africa. Every day, the juggernauts of infectious diseases -- AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria -- kill nearly 10,000 people, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. But WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic says this latest Ebola explosion is still truly terrifying - because of the disease’s violent nature and its devastating impact on communities. “The way people suffer, it’s something terrifying. The symptoms start with a fever, but then there is a lot of diarrhea, bleeding, vomiting -- it’s a very stressful situation for family members and also for health workers," said Jasarevic. "People who have not been in a treatment center may be dying outside, people know they should not be touching something, there may be cases where bodies are being left out. "So all of that makes people very afraid of this disease and basically also the point that you should not be touching other people. There is all this fear and anxiety, it really can mark the society, it really can have a psychological impact on the community,” he said. Fear over HIV, TB funding Dr. Tom Ellman of medical aid group Doctors Without Borders agrees that an aggressive response to Ebola is needed. The group, which goes by its French acronym, MSF, has been a fixture on Ebola’s front lines. “The focus on Ebola is needed at the moment. What we must ensure is that the world is able to increase its focus on other areas, like HIV and TB as well,” says he. But Ellman, who directs the aid agency’s Southern Africa Medical Unit, says the longer Ebola persists -- and the WHO predicts this epidemic could last several years - the more he worries about the longer-standing threats. “The big worry that we have at the moment in general is, firstly, looking at Ebola, how long it took for the world to wake up and recognize that there was a global responsibility to support the response. "But also, how we’re seeing now a fallback in funding around HIV and TB, and are very, very concerned that over the next few years we are going to see a return to business as usual on response to infectious diseases and insufficient funding to maintain what we’ve achieved so far, which in HIV and TB over the last 10 years has been an incredible response in improving access to diagnosis, treatment and prevention,” said Ellman. Both organizations think that more, not less, needs to be done to fight Ebola. WHO spokesman Jasarevic said they are concerned about the effect the disease is having on overall health systems in the three affected countries. “There is less health personnel in existing facilities and many of them have to deal with Ebola, and when there are Ebola patients at one of our Ebola facilities, other people who have other medical conditions may not wish to come, for fear of not getting Ebola,” said Jasarevic. Ebola continues to kill, with the virus recently making landfall in the United States and Spain. But medical experts in Africa want policy makers to remember that for every life Ebola takes, HIV, TB and malaria take thousands more.
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US: Syrian Government Forces Will Not Be Part of Islamic State Fight by webdesk@voanews.com (Scott Stearns)
Syria and Russia say the international coalition against the Islamic State would be more effective if it included Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But, the Obama administration is determined to keep its fight against Damascus separate from the battle against the Islamic State. In airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria, U.S. officials say they are giving Damascus no advance notice of timing or targets while continuing to warn Syrian forces not to engage coalition aircraft. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem says it would be easier to stop the Islamic State -- which is also known as ISIS or ISIL -- if Syria itself were invited to join the coalition. "Is it not due time, ladies and gentlemen, for all of us to stand as one in the face of this serious menace of terrorist ideology worldwide? Has not the moment of truth arrived for us all to admit that ISIS, al-Nusrah Front and the rest of al-Qaeda affiliations will not be limited within the borders of Syria and Iraq but will spread to every spot it can reach, starting with Europe and America,” he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says keeping Syria out of the coalition is both illegal and counterproductive. “Excluding Syrian authorities from the effort that has taken place on their territory not only goes against international law but undermines the efficiency of the effort,” he said. So why not include Bashar al-Assad in the fight against the Islamic State? Because the Syrian president himself is part of the problem, says State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. “The Assad regime continues to indiscriminately use barrel bombs and bombard their own people," she said. "There are reports of women and children waiting in line for bread and they’re striking areas where they are standing around. So this is -- there’s a distinct difference between our approach to taking on ISIL and their military efforts.” There are also coalition allies such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia who are determined to bring down the government in Damascus and worry that action against the Islamic State takes some pressure off Assad forces. But the longer airstrikes continue, the greater the likelihood of some on-the-ground coordination with Syria’s government, says American University professor Akbar Ahmed. "The ball, then, rests with President [Barack] Obama. He's got to make the decision. Is he prepared to talk to Assad or have some dealings with Assad in order to have a joint front against the Islamic State? Again, the question is to weigh the two evils and decide on one," he said. A decision that Ahmed believes ultimately favors Assad. "I think it will be a travesty. But in the world of realpolitik, in the world of this murky fog that the Middle East is now enveloped in, I think this may be something that we will be seeing," he said. For now, coalition partners say they need not coordinate with Syrian government forces because the territory they are attacking, including areas along the Turkish border, are not controlled by Damascus.
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 Вести.Ru |
В Канаде товарный состав с токсичными веществами сошел с рельсов и загорелся
BFM.Ru Товарный состав компании Canadien National, перевозивший токсичные вещества, сошел с рельсов в центре провинции Саскачеван и загорелся, сообщает канадская La Presse. Местные власти уточнили, что авария имела место неподалеку от небольшого городка Клэр, жители ... В Канаде сошел с рельсов и загорелся поезд с токсичными веществамиLenta.ru Жителей канадского города эвакуируют из-за крушения поездаВести.Ru В Канаде сошел с рельсов поезд, перевозивший токсичные веществаАргументы и факты НТВ.ru -Московский комсомолец -РИА VladTime.ru Все похожие статьи: 35 » |
 NewsEra.ru - ЭРА Новостей |
ЕС готов сотрудничать с Арменией и после ее вступления в ЕАЭС Экономика
NewsEra.ru - ЭРА Новостей ЕРЕВАН, 7 окт — РИА Новости, Гамлет Матевосян. Евросоюз готов сотрудничать с Арменией в тех сферах, которые не будут возражать членству Армении в Евразийском экономическом союзе (ЕАЭС), заявил во вторник советник делегации ЕС в Армении, руководитель отдела прессы, ... Армения и Евразийский союз: конец интриги?Россия в глобальной политике ЕС готов сотрудничать с Арменией и после ее вступления в ЕАЭСРИА Новости Казахи не пускают армян в Евразийский союз, потому что Азербайджан попросилRT на русском Еркрамас -Panorama.am Все похожие статьи: 28 » |
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Игорь Иванов: диалог – это проявление мудрости, а не слабости Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/ivanov-on-russia-...
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US Police Increase Use of Body Cameras for Officersby webdesk@voanews.com (Chris Simkins)
Some police officers in Washington, DC, and New York City have started wearing body cameras as part of a test program intended to reduce use of force by officers and complaints from citizens. But they're not the first to do so. As VOA's Chris Simkins reports, police in many smaller communities are already recording daily interactions with the public.
Gay Russian Student 'Afraid To Go Home': U.S. Lawyerby noreply@rferl.org (Carl Schreck)
The lawyer for a Russian teenager who remained in the United States after completing a U.S.-Russian exchange program says her client is seeking political asylum due to fears of persecution in Russia because he is gay.
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There were street protests across Turkey as Kurds demanded that the government open a corridor to the besieged Syrian town of Kobani.
Russia’s decision to cancel a longstanding high school exchange program with the United States has opened more slots for students from Ukraine.
 RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty |
Ukrainian Students to Take Russians' Places in US Exchange Program
New York Times WASHINGTON — Russia's decision to cancel a longstanding high school exchange program with the United States has had one result that the Kremlin may not have anticipated: more slots open for students from Ukraine. The exchange program, which was ... Gay Russian Student 'Afraid To Go Home'RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Russia Cancels Popular FLEX Exchange Program After Gay Student Reportedly...Huffington Post Russia Ends Exchange ProgramThe St. Petersburg Times all 5 news articles » |
Turkish Inaction on ISIS Advance Dismays the U.S.by By MARK LANDLER, ANNE BARNARD and ERIC SCHMITT
As fighters with ISIS bore down Tuesday on the Turkish border, President Obama’s plan to fight the militant group without being drawn deeper into the Syrian civil war was coming under acute strain.
The new UN envoy to Syria has called for an urgent international response to the assault by Islamic State militants on a strategic Kurdish Syrian town on the Turkish border.
The European Union will impose tougher sanctions on Russia unless Moscow's policy in Ukraine changes, Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna has said.
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 РИА Новости |
Баффет уверен в победе Клинтон на выборах президента США в 2016 году
РБК Уоррен Баффет настолько уверен, что Хиллари Клинтон победит на президентских выборах в США в 2016 году, что готов держать пари, передает CNN. «Хиллари победит, да», – заявил Баффет, который является открытым сторонником Клинтон. «Я буду держать пари, ставить деньги ... Баффет уверен в победе Хиллари Клинтон на выборах президента в 2016 гРИА Новости Баффет: Президентом США станет Хиллари КлинтонПравда.Ру Баффет: Хиллари Клинтон станет следующим президентом СШАMIGnews.com.ua Armenia Today -СОЧИ-24 - Ежедневная интернет-газета Все похожие статьи: 24 » |
 СЕГОДНЯ |
Польша: Западное оружие не поможет Украине, военное превосходство России слишком большое
ИА REGNUM Президент Польши Бронислав Коморовский считает, что поставки оружия Украине западными партнерами Киеву не помогут. Об этом он сообщил 7 октября в эфире телеканала TVN24, это заявление широко цитируют украинские СМИ. «Предоставление оружия не поможет Украине… Поставки тяжелого вооружения Украине ничего не решат в Донбассе – КоморовскийСЕГОДНЯ Коморовский: Украине поможет новое правительство, а не заграничные танки и пушкиАргументы.ру Коморовский: "Наше оружие Украине в борьбе с РФ не поможет"Novostimira.com Украинское национальное информагентство -Биржевой лидер -Полит.ру Все похожие статьи: 21 » |
Bombing in eastern Ukraine seems to have become a way of life judging by the reaction of one fighter, who stands by unfazed during heavy shelling by the Ukrainian army
Paul Goble
Staunton, October 8 – The skinhead phenomenon in Russia had been in decline in recent years because of the actions of law enforcement agencies, but now, in large part thanks to the return of many young Russian nationalists from fighting in the Donbas, a resurgence of skinhead activity in Russia is “inevitable,” according to a SOVA expert.
Natalya Yudina, an expert at that center which tracks extremist groups, says that up to a few years ago, such extremist groups were active in many Russian cities and felt themselves “secure,” but that had begun to change as law enforcement agencies arrested some of the more prominent leaders (fapnews.ru/35914-ekspert-rost-aktivnosti-skinhedov-neizbezhen/).
But now these groups are re-emerging, in part because no one in the schools or elsewhere is paying attention to questions of promoting tolerance and because so many young Russian radicals have gone to fight in Ukraine on the side of the pro-Moscow forces in the Donbas and are now returning home.
That makes “the future growth in the activity of Russian skinheads inevitable,” she says, and may mean that they will be both more widespread and more violent than they were in the past given their numbers and their experiences with the use of military equipment in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Yudina’s comments came in response to the opening of a trial in Yekaterinburg of members of the Volksturm group, a collection of twelve young people who have terrorized the non-Slavic population of the Sverdlovsk Oblast for the last eight years.
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The Voices Of Free Russia Will Be Heardby noreply@rferl.org (Yulia Berezovskaya)
In Russia we have paid dearly, very dearly, for words:
 Forbes |
The Trick To Succeeding In Russia
Forbes Believe it or not, 713 foreign owned companies set up shop in Russia in July. But that's second only to the 719 foreign owned businesses that registered in the country in April, according to the Federal State Statistics Service. Despite being known as ... and more » |
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 The Guardian |
Russia celebrates Vladimir Putin's 62nd birthday
The Guardian The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is celebrating his 62nd birthday in the wilderness of Siberia as supporters from across Russia create tributes in his honour. Putin marked his birthday on Tuesday in the Siberian forest some “300-400km (185-250 ... Russia through the nuclear looking glassgulfnews.com Finance Minister Says Russia's Grand Rearmament Plans are UnaffordableThe Moscow Times Finance minister warns Russia can't afford military spending plan Yahoo South Africa all 186 news articles » |
The Syrian rebels, in what appears to be a joint operation between several Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigades, have captured an important Syrian Army installation overlooking to town of Al Harra (or Tal Harra), in Daraa province (map). The capture of the base would be significant news in and of itself. The base towers above Al Harra, a town situated between Daraa — an area where moderate rebels have been more prominent than in northern Syria— and Damascus, the embattled capital where the Assad regime has been on the advance. The base is also very close to the Golan Heights, the nearby border of which is marked by the red box in the map below.
This area is a key focus in the battle for control of southwestern Syria. In the last month the regime has made significant advances just north of here, outside of Damascus, but has lost more control in Daraa province. Between the end of September and the start of October, the Assad regime’s attempts to recapture Deir al-Adas, less than 10 miles to the northeast of Al Harra, were rebuffed by rebels. During the incident, the regime reportedly used chlorine gas to weaken the rebels, but ultimately even those efforts were unsuccessful and the Syrian Army pulled its forces further north. Assad’s typical targets for this level of aggression, the use of chemical weapons, are massively strategic areas around Damascus and Aleppo, so the fact that chlorine was reportedly used as part of the assault on Deir al-Adas demonstrates the importance of this region. The road between Daraa and Damascus is one of the only roads that connects the capital to the south. If the regime loses control of this towns along the road they will lose control of southern Syria. But even more worrying for the regime, that will create a direct route between Jordan, where the U.S. has been arming and training moderate rebels off and on for years, and Damascus.
#Syria #Daraa Walk in captured army base on Tel Harra https://t.co/IUtMBVFrQ1 — Mark (@markito0171) October 6, 2014
The Assad regime is losing ground in this territory. In this map below, Al Harra is approximately in the center:
(Before/After) Map, shows the Rebellion advances in this area in the last 5 months, from May to October. #Syria pic.twitter.com/Y9zbGGdgkB — archicivilians (@archicivilians)October 6, 2014
But the fall of this base is making headlines for a different reason. Syrian rebels who overran the base have found evidence that the Syrian Army was not alone on the top of the hill. The rebels say that their evidence proves that Russian military intelligence officers were also operating on the base, and appear to have left some of the equipment — and pictures — behind. A video tour of the facility, posted on Youtube (below, though here’s a copy) shows that inside the base there is evidence of the presence of Russian “Spetsnaz,” special forces units who were members of the radio electronic intelligence agency of Russia’s GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate, the Russian military’s chief foreign intelligence unit).
The video shows a wall adorned with pictures, many of them labeled in both Russian and Arabic, which appear to show a Russian GRU SIGNIT (Signals Intelligence) unit operating on the base. The Oryx Blog has posted and analyzed a dozen screenshots from the video, and besides some minor translation mistakes (which we’ll point out below) the post explains the significance of the pictures.
On the 5th of October 2014, the Free Syrian Army captured the Центр С or المركز س ‘Center C or Center S’ SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) facility (logo on top) jointly operated by the Russian Osnaz GRU radio electronic intelligence agency (logo on the right) and one of the Syrian Intelligence Agencies (logo on the left). Situated near Al Hara, the facility was of vital importance for the Assad regime as it was responsible for recording and decrypting radio communications from every rebel group operating inside Syria, making it likely the Russian-gathered information at this facility was at least partially responsible for the series of killings of rebel leaders by airstrikes.Translation from [the three minute and 8 second mark of the video - The Interpreter]; ”A directive issued by the surveillance office on May 31 to eavesdrop and record all radio communications of the terrorist groups, directive signed by brigadier-general Nazir Fuddah, commander of the first center.”
The base appears to have been called “Center S,” not “Center C,” where the “S” could possibly stand for “Syria.” “Osnaz ” is a common and outdated term for “Spetsnaz,” Russian military special forces. The logos in question are in this screenshot below:
According to one of the pictures on the wall, the base may have been visited by a very-high ranking member of the Russian military:
Various photos on the wall inside the captured facility once again emphasise the Russian involvement in the Middle East, showing even a map of Israeli Armed Forces bases and units. Other photos detail Russian personnel working at and running the center, as well as highlight a visit by Kudelina L.K., Counselor to the Minister of Defence of Russian Federation.
Lyubov Kudelina, Deputy Minister of Defence for Financial-Economic Work, is a female, which matches the screenshot from the video below.
Obviously, the screen-capture from the video is not high quality so no definitive identification can be made, but the woman in blue does strongly resemble official picturesof Lyubov Kondratyevna Kudelina:
According to Oryx, the man speaking in the video says another picture is labeled “‘Рабочий визит начальника ГУ МВС ВС РФ” – Visit by the chief of the Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation of the Armed Forces of Russian Federation.” While the name of this person is never mentioned in the caption of the picture on the wall, Sergey Koshelev is the chief of the Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation. Koshelev appears to be a grey-headed older man, and the man in the photoappears to have black hair, but since the picture is low quality and doesn’t show the Russian official from the front, it’s hard to analyze.
The other pictures appear to show Russian soldiers working at the base with Syrian intelligence officers. There are several references to the collection of radio intelligence, and videos of the exterior of the base show large antennas and electronic receivers which could be used to monitor communications:
Russian Coordination with IRGC and Assad
If Russian intelligence operatives are running operations anywhere on Syria’s front lines, the area between Daraa and Damascus might be exactly where we would expect to find them, since this is an area where Assad’s allies have helped him defend in the past.
By the end of 2012 large parts of the Syrian Army had defected to the rebels who had established strongholds across northern Syria and had taken control of large parts of Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo. The regime had gone many months without even a hint of a victory on the battlefield. It became clear to many that there were very few things keeping the Assad regime afloat: air power supplied and maintained by Russia, tanks supplied by Russia, high ground defended by military bases and Russian-made artillery, and oil and money supplied by Moscow and Tehran.
To counter this, (as Michael Weiss, The Interpreter’s editor-in-chief, and I worked together to uncover), in the last few months of 2012 the United States began an effort to train and arm moderate Syrian rebels in Daraa province. Within months those insurgents, armed with Croatian anti-tank weapons, were winning battlesand capturing large amounts of territory between the Jordanian border and the Syria’s capital city. The Obama administration had two modest objectives. First, force Assad to the negotiating table by weakening his firepower and technological advantages — and drain support from his key allies Russia and Iran. Second, because U.S. ally Jordan was absorbing an unsustainable amount of Syrian refugees, while also fending off attempts by radical Islamists in the Hashemite kingdom to migrate into Syria to join the rebellion, allowing the moderate rebels breathing space in Daraa would create a de facto buffer zone between Syria and Jordan.
However, as the rebels began to make significant gains around Damascus they began to complain about a lack of arms and ammunition. Clearly Washington, afraid that the rebels might actually sack Damascus or become too powerful to want to negotiate, cut the supply of weapons. What followed was months of stalemate around the capital.
The strategy did result, however, in changing Assad’s “calculus,” but not in the way the Obama administration had intended. By early 2013, with the regime losing ground, Iran significantly increased its military intervention in Syria, and the focus was the area around Damascus. In his highly regarded profile of IRGC-Quds Force Commander Qassem Suleimani, who had taken personal control of Assad’s anti-insurgency operations, the New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins noted:
Late last year [2012], Western officials began to notice a sharp increase in Iranian supply flights into the Damascus airport. Instead of a handful a week, planes were coming every day, carrying weapons and ammunition—“tons of it,” the Middle Eastern security official told me—along with officers from the Quds Force. According to American officials, the officers coördinated attacks, trained militias, and set up an elaborate system to monitor rebel communications. They also forced the various branches of Assad’s security services—designed to spy on one another—to work together. The Middle Eastern security official said that the number of Quds Force operatives, along with the Iraqi Shiite militiamen they brought with them, reached into the thousands. “They’re spread out across the entire country,” he told me.A turning point came in April, after rebels captured the Syrian town of Qusayr, near the Lebanese border. To retake the town, Suleimani called on Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, to send in more than two thousand fighters. It wasn’t a difficult sell. Qusayr sits at the entrance to the Bekaa Valley, the main conduit for missiles and other matériel to Hezbollah; if it was closed, Hezbollah would find it difficult to survive. Suleimani and Nasrallah are old friends, having coöperated for years in Lebanon and in the many places around the world where Hezbollah operatives have performed terrorist missions at the Iranians’ behest. According to Will Fulton, an Iran expert at the American Enterprise Institute, Hezbollah fighters encircled Qusayr, cutting off the roads, then moved in. Dozens of them were killed, as were at least eight Iranian officers. On June 5th, the town fell. “The whole operation was orchestrated by Suleimani,” [John Maguire, a former C.I.A. officer], who is still active in the region, said. “It was a great victory for him.”
The next towns to fall to the joint Hezbollah-Assad fighters were key suburbs of Damascus, freeing up Assad’s soldiers to take their fight further south, reversing many of the gains and sapping the momentum of the FSA coalition in Daraa. Once Damascus and Daraa were more secure, Hezbollah and Assad began to focus on Homs, to the north of the capital. The once ineffective Syrian Army, which had been on its back foot, had regained the upper hand thanks to command and control from Iran and foreign fighters from Lebanon.
Rebels Slated To Fight ISIS Attacked By Assad Near Russian SIGNIT Base
A key part of the Obama administration’s new strategy to combat the terrorist group ISIS is to train and supply moderate Syrian rebels who are willing to fight Islamic radicals like the Islamic State. But this wave of training is just the largest in a series of similar efforts, particularly noteworthy being the efforts in late 2012 and 2013 mentioned above. While there is debate about where these rebels will be trained — Saudi Arabia is a probably destination— the CIA already has a well-known training camp north of Amman, Jordan, and extensive contacts among FSA fighters in the south. While efforts to arm and train rebels may utilize similar connections in Turkey, it stands to reason that U.S. support for the southern rebels will also increase. As such, the base at Al Harra may have been on the front lines of Assad’s efforts to monitor and combat these U.S.-backed rebel groups.
Russian Spetsnaz and Mercenaries Are Already in Syria
It should not be a surprise that Russian troops are operating in Syria. As early as March 2012 sources in the United Nations Security Council were reporting that Russian “anti-terror” squads were arriving in the country, entering via the Russian military base in Tartus on the northwestern shore. At the time Russia denied the report, but Russia’s Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov did admit that his country had “military and technical advisors” in Syria. By May of 2013 there were whispers of a secret unit, Zaslon (or “Screen”), launching an operation in Syria. As Mark Galeotti, a specialist at New York University on Russia’s security services, observed in May 2013:
“Zaslon is perhaps the most secret of Russia’s many spetsgruppy or special forces detachments. It is part of the SVR, the Foreign Intelligence Service — specifically its Directorate S, responsible for undercover operations. Formed in 1998, Zaslon is tasked with covert missions abroad ranging from protecting officials in dangerous environments to conducting assassinations. It numbers some 280 operators, who are trained and equipped to the highest standards.“Unlike most Russian special forces, Zaslon does not publicize its activities or even its existence. They have sometimes supplemented embassy security details in especially dangerous conditions; indeed, they provided security for former SVR director Mikhail Fradkov when he visited Damascus last year. They are typically used for more direct operations, though. Zaslon was rumored to be part of the operation to assassinate insurgents who kidnapped and killed four Russian diplomats in Iraq in 2006, for example, and they may be ready to free captured Russian military advisers.However, according to one Russian report, two Zaslon elements were also deployed to Baghdad in the dying days of the Hussein regime. Their mission was to seize or destroy documents which Moscow would have found embarrassing had they ended up in U.S. hands. Given the scale and depth of Russian support for Assad, it could similarly be that they are also in Syria to cover Moscow’s tracks or else ensure that sensitive military technology — including new surface-to-air systems — does not end up in foreign hands.”
In January, 2013, a Russian judge, Sergey Aleksandrovich Berezhnoy, was shot in the face by Syrian rebels while purportedly “on vacation” in Syria, albeit a working vacation since he was escorting a team from the pro-Assad Abkhazian Network News Agency (ANNA) as it reported on regime-on-rebel fighting near Damascus. A manager for ANNA described Berehnoy as having “fought for five years as an intelligence officer in Abkhazia and in other hot spots of our vast Motherland,” a claim later taken up by Russian state television and then denied by Berezhov himself.
Then there is the ‘Slavonic Corps,’ a group of Russian mercenaries, recruited in St. Petersburg, who werehired to defend Assad’s oil resources east of Homs. Those men, most of whom were former Russian special forces soldiers, were almost surely fighting in Syria with the full knowledge and consent of the Kremlin.
The key difference, however, is that while the Slavonic Corps was fighting in a limited capacity to secure oil fields, and while Zaslon was allegedly hunting rebel leaders, the GRU units in Al Harra appear to have been working with the Assad regime to intercept communications and better execute Assad’s counterinsurgency strategy.
Spying on Israel
According to the Oryx Blog, which cites Debka File, a website connected to Israeli military intelligence, Center S was recently upgraded in “reaction to Iranian concern of the facility being too much focused on the Syrian Civil War, neglecting espionage on Israel.” No doubt the IRGC wanted ears closer to Jerusalem to warn of any impending aerial assault on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, but there is likely another impetus behind spying on the Jewish state.
In recent months, the Israel Defense Forces, fearful of how the ensuing Syria crisis unleash jihadists into the occupied Golan Heights, have also increased contacts with Syrian rebels in the southern regions of Quneitra and Daraa, while waging sporadic war against the regime. On September 23, the day U.S. and coalition warplanes began bombing the Islamic State in Syria, Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had accidentally slipped into Israeli airspace while trying to interdict rebel advances to the Syrian-Golan border. As Ehud Yaari of the Washington Institute for Near East Peace writes, the rebels now control:
“…most of the territory adjacent to the 1974 Israeli-Syrian Truce Line, including the narrow demilitarized “Area of Separation” overseen for the past forty years by the UN Disengagement Observer Force. UNDOF was originally established by the Security Council to supervise Israel and Syria’s adherence to agreed limitations on their border deployments, but as a result of rebel advances it has now practically ceased to function except in a small remote sector on the slopes of Mt. Hermon. Its forces have abandoned bases and a string of other positions in Syria and discontinued inspections there. Meanwhile, UNDOF’s fundamental purpose on that side of the border — monitoring the Syrian army’s order of battle — has become largely moot because the Assad regime’s frontline 61st and 90th Brigades have completely collapsed.”
Previously, Syrian Army positions have been destroyed with Israeli Tammuk missiles in retaliation for shelling into the Golan, as IDF video footage has demonstrated. The map on the captured Spetsnaz SIGNINT facility, which is less than 7 miles from the Golan, shows “Israeli Armed Forces bases and units,” no doubt because Russian intelligence is trying to minimize the regime’s risk in losing more personnel and materiel to errant provocations, to which the Israelis unfailingly respond. Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s official affiliate in Syria, has been more circumspect in its dealings with its neighbor: thus far, no terrorist attacks have been waged by the group in the Golan or against Israeli forces.
But is there another reason for this SIGNINT facility’s base in the south?
As Yaari notes, Israel has treated around 1,400 wounded Syrians in Israeli hospitals for months and has dispatched humanitarian aid to villagers. But the IDF has also been coordinating with rebel groups, and though this relationship has yet to qualify as client-proxy in orientation, it remains that case that “a modest amount of weapons have been provided to [the rebels by the Israelis], mainly rocket-propelled grenade launchers.”
Should southern Syria proliferate with Islamic State militants, and should the undeclared “truce” between the IDF and Jabhat al-Nusra evaporate, then Israel may be inclined to invest more heavily in the moderate rebels, a policy which would affect the Assad regime as much as it would the radicals. And while it’s true that Moscow and Jerusalem have never been closer diplomatically, the Kremlin cannot afford to allow Israel to contribute to the further weakening of its most valued ally in the Middle East. Moscow Center knows and respects Israeli military and intelligence capability. It has everything to fear from Israeli intervention in Syria.
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 Wall Street Journal |
Ukraine Calls for Hundreds More Monitors on Border With Russia
Wall Street Journal KIEV, Ukraine—Warning of growing threats to a fragile cease-fire with pro-Russia rebels, President Petro Poroshenko called on Tuesday for deploying hundreds more international monitors in the east of the country. Following a phone conversation with ... Europe's Nightmare Could Still Come True: A NATO-Russia War over UkraineThe National Interest Online Floods of Ukrainian refugees seek new life in RussiaReuters Russia's 'deescalation' in Ukraine doesn't warrant the lifting of sanctionsWashington Post ITAR-TASS -Los Angeles Times all 658 news articles » |
A Glimpse Into Russia's Star-Studded State Dumaby By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
The constellations of famous faces dotting the State Duma light up the otherwise murky backdrop of Russian politics, giving the drab legislative body a similar appeal to that of a concert hall, a hockey rink or a movie set.
Ex-Pentagon Chief Criticizes Obama's Mideast Military Policiesby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
A former U.S. intelligence and defense chief says President Barack Obama "lost his way" in setting the country's military policies in the Middle East in the past few years. In a new book published Tuesday, Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace, Leon Panetta faults the president as too often relying "on the logic of a law professor rather than the passion of a leader." Panetta led the Central Intelligence Agency and then the Defense Department between 2009 and 2013. Panetta praised Obama for authorizing the raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. But Panetta said the U.S. president made several mistakes in setting policy in Iraq and Syria, which he says contributed to the Islamic State takeover of vast swaths of land in both countries in recent months. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday that Obama is continuing to assert his leadership in the Middle East with the U.S.-led airstrikes against Islamic State militants. Panetta's memoir has drawn the ire of the White House, with Vice President Joe Biden saying it is "inappropriate" for former officials to write books about their accounts of Washington policy disputes so soon after leaving their jobs and while presidents whom they served are still in office. In the book, Panetta faulted Obama for not pushing former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to allow the United States to keep a residual force in the country when the U.S. withdrew its combat troops in 2011 after a nearly nine-year war. The former official also criticized Obama for rejecting his advice and that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to train and arm Syrian rebels in 2012 in their fight to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a tactic that Obama only recently adopted. In addition, Panetta said Obama should have attacked Syria when it crossed his self-described "red line" and used chemical weapons against opposition forces, rather than seeking congressional approval, which never materialized. In interviews about the book, Panetta said the U.S. leader now has made "the right decisions" on U.S. strategy in the Middle East. But he says the policies should have been carried out two years ago, and that Obama should not have ruled out the use of U.S. ground troops in fighting Islamic State militants.
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Here is reported on Shell ending its cooperation with Gazprom to develop oil deposits in Western Siberia. In addition, Total and Lukoil ended their cooperation regarding the same oil deposits in September, but will now continue with the project. The article mentions that it is difficult to evaluate the strengthened sanctions because of different consequences for US and EU companies. However, it is easier to evaluate the case of Exxon Mobil, which ended cooperation with Rosneft in 9 out of their 10 projects. Only one project, which is not affected by the sanctions due to the reserves being more easily extracted, will be continued.
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Syria and Russia say the international coalition against the Islamic State would be more effective if it included Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But as VOA State Department Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, the Obama administration is determined to keep its fight against Damascus separate from the battle against the Islamic State.
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