Gunman kills Israeli soldier as diplomats seek calm - Channel News Asia
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 Channel News Asia |
Gunman kills Israeli soldier as diplomats seek calm
Channel News Asia An Israeli soldier was killed on Sunday in a shooting at a bus station in Beersheba, further stoking fears of a full-blown Palestinian uprising as diplomats scramble to quell tensions. POSTED: 19 Oct 2015 01:30; UPDATED: 19 Oct 2015 03:39. PHOTOS. and more » |
 Washington Post |
The Latest: More than 5000 migrants in Croatia refugee camp
Washington Post OPATOVAC, Croatia — The latest news as migrants fleeing war or seeking a better life make their way across Europe by the tens of thousands. All times local. 10:15 p.m.. More than 5,000 migrants are stuck in a refugee camp in Croatia waiting to move on ... and more » |
A British woman, understood to be the acting Iraq director for the Institute of War and Peace reporting, dies in Istanbul, Turkey.
Sanafi al-Nasr, a Saudi national and trusted Al-Qaeda militant, was killed in an air attack in the northwest of the country last week
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Sightings and complaints about rats soar as New York authorities struggle to keep rodent population under control
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At least 40 militants with the so-called Islamic State have been killed in air strikes in Syria, a monitoring group says.
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Israeli police officers stood near the shrouded body of a Palestinian assailant in Beersheba on Sunday. The police said the assailant was shot after he killed an Israeli soldier and wounding several other people.
Damian Grammaticas reports from the Serbian-Croatian border where hundreds of migrants have been stranded.
The attack was one of the most serious incidents amid near-daily bouts of violence in recent weeks.
Syrian pro-regime forces backed by Russian airstrikes have expanded their ground offensive to the strategic city of Aleppo.
JERUSALEM (AP) - The top U.S. military officer pledged further military cooperation with Israel Sunday in meetings with the country's leaders, amid increasing worries about Iranian involvement in the Syria conflict.
Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ...
Bloomberg |
China's Selling Tons of U.S. Debt. Americans Couldn't Care Less.
Bloomberg For all the dire warnings over China's retreat from U.S. government debt, there is one simple fact that is being overlooked: American demand is as robust as ever. Not only are domestic mutual funds buying record amounts of Treasuries at auctions this ... and more » |
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Wall Street Journal |
UK's Courtship of China Draws Criticism
Wall Street Journal China sees President Xi's visit as a chance to build on his efforts during a U.S. trip last month to showcase the commercial opportunities presented by China's rise, while playing down concerns over its military power, human-rights record and economic ... U.K., China Poised for Deal on World's Costliest Nuclear PlantBloomberg Diplomats accuse Britain of 'kowtowing' to secure Hinkley backingFinancial Times EDF hopes for UK nuclear deal with China in coming daysReuters UK The Sunday Times all 58 news articles » |
Iran has long been sending troops and material to help Syrian autocrat Bashar Assad wage war against his own people. But now Tehran is busy establishing a state within a state -- which is why Assad now wants help from Russia.
Information obtained by SPIEGEL suggests the German bidding committee created a slush fund in its effort to land the rights to host the 2006 World Cup. Senior officials, including football hero Franz Beckenbauer, are believed to have known about fund.
Are sanctions saving Russia?
Jordan Times The economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the West in March 2014 have undoubtedly been painful. But they have so far failed to achieve the goal of weakening Russian President Vladimir Putin's position. In fact, they may have the opposite effect ... |
 Российская Газета |
Премьер-министр Черногории покинул страну после протестов оппозиции
Российская Газета В Черногории продолжаются массовые акции протеста в крупнейших городах страны. Тысячи людей сегодня вновь вышли на улицы с требованием отставки действующего кабинета министров во главе с Мило Джукановичем и скорейшего формирования здесь переходного ... Полиция использовала слезоточивый газ на акции оппозиции в ПодгорицеРИА Новости В Черногории оппозиция требует отставки правительстваКомсомольская правда Черногорская оппозиция утверждает, что Джуканович покинул странуИА REGNUM РБК Украина Все похожие статьи: 108 » |
Anger as 26-year-old is named head of customs in the crime-ridden port
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Fifty Years After Zhivago, Spain Hopes Movies Will Work Magic on the Economy by webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Half a century ago, Hollywood came to Spain, turning Madrid into revolutionary Russia and the arid south into the Wild West. Now the government is trying to lure the movie industry back with a fistful of dollars. Tinseltown and television never gave up on Spain; its dry climate, rugged landscape and historical architecture have attracted HBO's hit medieval fantasy "Game of Thrones" for a second year in a row. In one Danish series, southern Spain doubled as Afghanistan, complete with Taliban fighters. But the heyday of the mid 1960s, when British director David Lean filmed "Doctor Zhivago" in the capital and Italian Sergio Leone shot a series of spaghetti Westerns including "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" around the country, are long gone. Now Spain is trying to catch up with locations such as the United States and Canada. Since earlier this year, the government has offered tax breaks for cinema and animation producers, hoping this will play a modest role in stimulating an economy that is recovering from crisis but still relies excessively on tourism for jobs. Rosa Jaen remembers the winter of 1965 when, nearly 50 years after the Russian revolution, hundreds of Bolshevik protesters spilled onto the streets of Canillas, a Madrid suburb. Prevented by Cold War politics from filming in Moscow, Lean had brought "Doctor Zhivago" to her doorstep. As a teenager, Jaen came to gawp at the shoot and its replica Kremlin. At a time when Spain was still poor, some of her neighbors earned enough as extras to head for one of the resorts then springing up on the Mediterranean coast. "Many families here couldn't afford even the smallest luxuries," said Jaen, 65. "Thanks to Moscow, many were able to go to the beach in Benidorm, or buy a fridge." By 2007, tourism and construction contributed more than 30 percent of Spanish gross domestic product. A property crash then wiped out many construction jobs and tourism is not enough to complete the recovery from a double-dip recession. The incentives to create jobs in film production are only a small push after a wave of spending cuts by the centre-right government, which despite being credited with important economic reforms has done little to foster new industries desperately needed to bring down unemployment from over 22 percent. With a general election due on Dec. 20, Spain is offering a 15 percent tax rebate on foreign filmmakers' production costs, though that is less generous than many schemes elsewhere. The ceiling of 2.5 million euros ($2.8 million) per film is also a stringent limit for blockbuster budgets in the tens of millions. "For a studio working on a large scale production, it does not allow you to really benefit," said Ignacio Perez Dolset, founder of Ilion Animation Studios, whose 350 employees are working on a secret project commissioned by Paramount. Unstoppable opportunity According to the Spain Film Commission, the country was by last year losing out on about 80 percent of possible movies to other locations. It believes the tide is turning, but says the government needs to raise the rebate to support the industry. Many point to the Canary Islands. The autonomous Spanish region brought in its own film breaks several years ago, immediately attracting several U.S. productions. It followed this up by increasing the tax rebate to 35 percent of costs, up to a 4.5-million-euro limit. "It's an unstoppable opportunity for jobs and business," said Jose Manuel Bermudez, mayor of Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife, best known for its white- and black-sand beaches. The city recently masqueraded as Athens for the latest Jason Bourne spy thriller; Bermudez expects the five-week shoot to bring about 14 million euros to the island, thanks partly to spending on hotels and restaurants. About 350 people were hired as crew and 600 others as extras. Peter Welter, whose Malaga-based Fresco Film company is working on season six of "Game of Thrones", said the new national incentives had been important to the decision to shoot in Spain again. Locations include arid Almeria in the south - home to many of the spaghetti Westerns - and hundreds of people will chip in as extras over the eight-week shoot. Transferring skills Some say Spain needs to develop its own expert workforce linked to the cinema world, instead of relying on odd-jobbers such as extras. Four years ago, Perez Dolset launched U-tad, a university in Madrid specializing in engineering, animation and design next to his studio. Many students there want an introduction to the world of animation, but their skills are transferable outside the movie business, Perez Dolset said, giving Spain another reason to nurture the sector. "New employment is going to come from the digital world," he said. "Animation is going to be applied in the medical world, in simulations for doctors, in making machinery, in all kinds of industries." Back in Canillas, only the over 60s really recall the circus surrounding Doctor Zhivago, which starred Omar Sharif in the title role and Julie Christie as the lovelorn heroine Lara. But the movie did leave its mark in one way, residents say -an unusually high proportion of local ladies go by the name of Lara.
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 The Globe and Mail |
The lessons of Flight MH17, for both Ukraine and Russia
The Globe and Mail The finding by the Dutch Safety Board last week that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Russian-made missile doesn't come as a surprise – there was little doubt as to what caused a Boeing 777 carrying 298 souls to fall out of the sky in ... Poroshenko: Russia Should Be Held Responsible for MH17Voice of America Ukraine's Uneasy Blockade of Russian-Occupied CrimeaNewsweek Row between Oxford University and Ukrainian Embassy as books say Crimea ...Daily Mail Metro all 20 news articles » |
Multinationals paint bleak picture of a deteriorating economy, advisory group warns
Dunford meets with Israeli leaders, pledges cooperationby Lolita C. Baldor | AP
The top U.S. military officer is pledging further military cooperation with Israel in meetings with the country’s leaders, amid increasing worries about Iranian involvement in the Syria conflict.
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Violence in Jerusalem is rooted in rage at leaders who offer only impasse.
After several scandals involving Mexican security forces, $5 million in U.S. aid is being diverted to Peru.
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Donald Trump talks taxes, trade and 9/11 by FoxNewsChannel
Part 1 of Chris Wallace's exclusive interview with the Republican presidential candidate on 'Fox News Sunday'
Watch Chris Wallace talk about Apple News, Elections, Presidential Primaries, and Republicans on Fox News Sunday.
Watch Chris Wallace talk about Apple News, Elections, Presidential Primaries, and Republicans on Fox News Sunday.
Part 2 of Chris Wallace's exclusive interview with the Republican presidential candidate on 'Fox News Sunday'
Watch Chris Wallace talk about Elections, Presidential Primaries, and Republicans on Fox News Sunday.
Watch Chris Wallace talk about Elections, Presidential Primaries, and Republicans on Fox News Sunday.
Voting in a long-awaited election for a new parliament opened Sunday in half of Egypt's provinces as the government works to complete a roadmap to democracy implemented following the ouster of the country's first freely elected civilian President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Originally published at - http://www.voanews.com/media/video/egyptians-vote-in-long-delayed-parliamentary-elections/3012734.html
Originally published at - http://www.voanews.com/media/video/egyptians-vote-in-long-delayed-parliamentary-elections/3012734.html
Yemenis in Marib, which produces more than 70 percent of Yemen's oil and gas, remain on edge two weeks after pro-government forces ousted Houthi rebels from the city. Nathan Frandino reports.
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As tensions continue to rise in the Middle East, Israeli police set up a concrete barrier between a Jewish and Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, a bus station attack in southern Israel killed an Israeli soldier and wounded others. (Oct. 18)
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ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Here we go again.
Israel, America's truest ally in the Middle East, is under terrorist assault, and the Obama administration is once again turning its back on the Jewish state.
With America failing to throw full support behind Israel in its time of need, the question is why the ...
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MSNBC has admitted that highly controversial graphics aired on the network that depicted Israel as stealing land from the Palestinians were “factually wrong” and that the broadcast would be corrected on Monday, according to a network spokesperson.
The cable news network has been fighting off criticism after it aired the graphics and analysis, including a map linked to conspiracy groups branded as anti-Semitic, that portrayed Israel as existing on territory expropriated from Palestine.
The graphics garnered criticism from pro-Israel advocates and has now prompted the network to acknowledge that the graphics were highly misleading.
“In an attempt to shed light on the geographic context of the Israeli-Palestinian issue, we aired a map that was factually wrong,” the spokesperson said on Sunday.
Two MSNBC broadcasters, Kate Snow and Martin Fletcher, “will address the map in a segmentMonday about agendas and disinformation on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the spokesperson said.
Fletcher, a Middle East analyst, said on Sunday that the map and analyses were “dead wrong.”
MSNBC broadcast images suggesting that Israel has stolen most of its land from the Palestinians since the Jewish state’s creation in 1948. The images promoted by the network have long been criticized by scholars and anti-Semitism watchdog groups as anti-Israel propaganda.
The maps closely resemble propaganda disseminated by anti-Israel organizations that support boycotts of the Jewish state and aim to portray it as stealing land once belonging to Palestine, a state that has never formally existed.
Fletcher condemned the map when reached by the Washington Free Beacon, saying that he regrets not pointing out the error at the time.
“The first map was dead wrong and should not have been included,” Fletcher said. “ I wish I had pointed that out when I saw it.”
The cable network’s broadcast came amid mounting criticism of Obama administration officials for accusing Israelis of “terrorism” and blaming the rise in violence on so-called “settlement” growth, or the construction of Jewish homes in Jewish neighborhoods.
The administration’s comments have led to calls from Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), among others, demanding that Secretary of State John Kerry resign over the Israeli criticism. Rep. Martha McSally (R., Ariz.) has submitted a resolution to cut off U.S. aid to the Palestinians as a result of the terror spree.
Kate Snow, an MSNBC anchor, claimed in the controversial broadcast that “we have a map that show historically the areas that used to be Palestine in 1946 and then the [United Nations] plan there and then how it shrunk down to basically Gaza and the West Bank, right, and then present.”
“So what does that show you, Martin, that the area where Palestinians are living, has it grown significantly smaller?” Snow asked Fletcher during the broadcast.
“Well, absolutely, of course, this is what it’s all about,” Fletcher responded. “I must say it’s pretty shocking when you present it this way.
However, the maps are factually inaccurate and highly misleading, according to experts and reports.
The graphic received widespread attention after it was posted to Twitter and criticized by Omri Ceren, managing director at the Israel Project, an organization that works with journalists on Middle East issues.
“It’s unfortunate that that this kind of misinformation found its way from the fringe into the mainstream, but no doubt the professionals at MSNBC are now asking themselves who exactly tried to commandeer their station into a propaganda outlet, and in the service of what kind of agenda,” Ceren said.
One exposé published by the Economist in 2010 described a similar graphic as “clearly designed for propaganda purposes” and noted that it distorts facts in a way that “tendentiously maximises the impression that Jews have seized Palestinian-owned land.”
The left-leaning Anti Defamation League has criticized billboards showing similar maps as “intentionally designed to mislead the public.”
The MSNBC broadcast was celebrated by activists and journalists unsympathetic to Israel. Dena Takruri, a host and producer at Al Jazeera, hailed the network for “showing how much Palestinian land has been lost to Israel from 1946 to present” and as “[i]mportant context.”
The incident has added to already-widespread accusations of systemic anti-Israel bias from MNSBC-employed reporters and analysts.
Earlier in the week, Ayman Mohyeldin, an NBC News foreign correspondent, triggered widespread criticism when he described a terrorist who had been shot dead while rushing at Israeli troops with a knife in his hand as empty-handed.
Mohyeldin, who is a former Al Jazeera reporter, told viewers that “both of [the terrorist’s] hands were open and both of his hands did not have a knife.” Videotape taken of the incident by an NBC crew was playing on screen at the time and showed that the suspect had a knife in his hand. José Diaz-Balart, an NBC anchor, interrupted Mohyeldin to correct him.
Mohyeldin also failed to note that the terrorist was wearing a soldier-like camouflage uniform, which could be clearly seen on the video.
NBC News has struggled for years to deal with controversy over Mohyeldin’s reporting on Israel.
During the summer 2014 war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Mohyeldin posted a series of incendiary tweets attacking Israel and the U.S. State Department after four Palestinian children were accidentally killed in an Israeli strike on nearby Hamas infrastructure.
NBC News briefly pulled him from Gaza before sending him back a few days later in response to criticism from pro-Palestinian advocates.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to meet this week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss growing violence in Israel. Kerry also will meet with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, who has come under fire in recent weeks for attempting to incite violence against Jewish people.
The post MSNBC Admits Anti-Israel Graphics Were ‘Wrong’ appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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Unless Moscow Acts, Threats to Transdniestria Will Become Threats to Russia Itself, Analyst Saysby paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, October 18 – Moscow has largely forgotten about Transdniestria recently, a Russian analyst says, a reflection of Russia’s problems elsewhere. But the geopolitical role of that breakaway republic and its significance for Russian civilization are so large that continuing neglect could have “catastrophic” consequences for Russia as a whole “already next year.”
In emotional language, Aleksandr Sergey of the Caucasus Geopolitical Club, a group which appears to have close ties to the Kremlin, argues that Moscow must act and act quickly in order to prevent a collapse in the breakaway Moldovan republic, an indication some in Moscow are in fact focusing on Transdniestria (.kavkazgeoclub.ru/content/rossiya-spasi-pridnestrove).
Because that could have enormous security implications not only for Moldova but also Ukraine, Sergeyev’s argument about the nature of problems there, the ways they could affect Russia are especially noteworthy, and what steps Moscow should take are particularly noteworthy.
The economic situation in Transdniestria, Sergeyev says, is “balanced over a deep abyss.” As of the start of 2016, the breakaway republic will lose the chance to export to EU countries; and given that nearly “100 percent blockade” on the Ukrainian border, that will lead to “an economic catastrophe with all ensuing social consequences.”
Transdniestria’s military-political situation, between two hostile states, is “not better,” he continues. As a result, the population of the breakaway republic is “ever more strongly subjected to fear which is gradually being transformed into widespread social frustration.” That too has political consequences.
In addition, the Ukrainian Maidan and the economic crisis in Russia have led to a sharp decline in the standard of living of people in Transdniestria. Wages and pensions have been but by 30 percent, and many people are angry. Indeed, he continues, such “unpopular measures” have lowered the status of the government.
Next year, there are elections for both the parliament and the president, and those could become the occasions for destabilization in Transdniestria., especially if there are new threats from Moldova or Ukraine. A combination of these could become “explosive” and create a situation that could easily “get out of control.”
Sergeyev says that the current government in Transdniestria has made a number of serious mistakes. Its propaganda work has been especially weak. As a result, it often loses at home to propaganda efforts from abroad and even against those at home who might otherwise be inclined to work with it.
To cope with this situation, the Russian analyst says that Moscow elites and civil society leaders need to pursue the following goals:
· First, they must pursue “the gradual legal recognition of the Transdniestria Moldovan republic and the creation of the necessary conditions for this,” including the establishment of an air corridor with the Eurasian Union.
· Second, they must allow Transdniestria businesses to work in the Russian economic space on an equal basis with Russian ones.
· Third, Moscow must communicate to Russian elites that Transdniestria is “vitally important” for them and that they cannot afford to lose it.
· Fourth, Moscow must give Russian passports to “100 percent” of Trandniestria residents.
· Fifth, Moscow must ensure that Transdniestria has “genuine military security” by “significantly increasing” the size of the Russian troop presence.
· Sixth, Russia must supply sufficient funds to cover Transdniestria’s state budget deficit.
· Seventh, Moscow must give Transdniestria residents access to Russian scientific, cultural and educational institutions on an equal basis with Russians.
· Eighth, Moscow must prepare the necessary legal arguments for Transdniestria’s acquisition of international legal status by arguing for the continuing legitimacy of the Molotov-Ribbentrop secret protocols, thus undermining Moldova’s claims and by raising issues of the “acts of genocide” against the Transdniestria population in 1992 in international forums.
Even if all these things are done, Sergeyev says, there will still be problems, but they will be sufficient to ward of the catastrophe that appears likely to emerge early next year.
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Warships and aircraft from the U.S., India and Japan practiced hunting enemy submarines in the Bay of Bengal, signaling the three nations’ deepening ties as they contend with a more assertive China.
Six people rushed to hospital after two suspected Palestinian gunmen open fire on people at the main bus station in the southern city of Beersheba
Angela Merkel has met with her Turkish counterparts to try and stem the flows of migrants arriving in western Europe
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The Obama administration Sunday began implementing its landmark nuclear agreement with Iran with an eye toward lifting the expansive sanctions imposed on Tehran over the past decade. But concerns over the terms of the deal continued to grow.
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(JERUSALEM) — Palestinians in Jerusalem, more than a third of the city’s population, have awoken to a new reality: Israeli troops are encircling Arab neighborhoods, blocking roads with concrete cubes the size of washing machines and ordering some of those leaving on foot to lift their shirts to show they are not carrying knives.
The unprecedented clampdown is meant to halt a rash of stabbings of Israelis. Many of the attacks were carried out by residents of east Jerusalem, the sector captured and annexed by Israel in 1967 and claimed by Palestinians as a future capital.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has portrayed the measures as temporary, in line with what his advisers say any police department in the U.S. or Europe would do quell urban unrest. But some allege he is dividing Jerusalem, something Netanyahu has said he would never do.
Arab residents, who have long complained of discriminatory Israeli policies, say the latest closures are driving them to a boiling point and will trigger more violence.
“They want to humiliate us,” said Taher Obeid, a 26-year-old janitor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He spoke over the din of car horns, as drivers stuck at one of the new checkpoints vented their anger.
Domestic critics say Netanyahu — long opposed to any negotiated partition of Jerusalem into two capitals — is effectively dividing the city along ethnic lines with his security measures.
“The great patriots … who don’t go to bed at night before praying for a unified, undivided, greater Jerusalem, are now proposing to dissect it, divide it and return it back 48 years in time,” commentator Nehemiah Strassler wrote in the Israeli daily Haaretz.
Some warn that recent events — a rise in “lone wolf” attacks by Palestinians and Israeli crackdowns — offer a taste of the constant hate-filled skirmishes that would likely prevail for years if there’s no deal on setting up Palestine next to Israel.
They say that due to the growth of Israeli settlements, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River has effectively become a binational entity, with Israel ruling over several million Palestinians.
“This is what the future looks like,” said Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann. “It’s the one-state reality.”
While Netanyahu has said he supports the establishment of a Palestinian state, there has been no progress in peace efforts during his six years in office, and expectations of a negotiated agreement have faded.
Israel continues to expand Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, chipping away at territory sought for a future Palestine. Netanyahu says he wants to negotiate with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but under tougher Israeli ground rules, with east Jerusalem off the table. Abbas refuses to engage under such conditions.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with both leaders separately in coming days to lower the temperature, but there is no sign the Obama administration will try another mediation mission after Kerry’s failed attempt last year.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, rejects the notion that Palestinian attackers, including those in Jerusalem, are driven by anger over decades of Israeli rule.
He blames what he calls incitement to violence against Israel by Abbas and Palestinian Muslim leaders, including claims that Israel plans to erode Muslim-only prayer rights at a major Jerusalem shrine revered by Muslims and Jews. Netanyahu denies he intends to change the status quo, though senior coalition members have been pushing for Jewish prayer rights at the site.
“With respect to the Palestinian population (in Jerusalem), Israel has a lot of work to do, as it does with the social needs of its Jewish population,” senior Netanyahu adviser Dore Gold told The Associated Press. “But the primary problem here are the deliberate lies being spread” about the shrine, he said. The site is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, or home of their biblical Temples, and to Muslims as the Haram as-Sharif, marking the spot where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
“Israel has no interest in creating divisions in Jerusalem,” Gold said of the dozens of road barriers that went up late last week. Israel “has a right to use the same security measures which every other city facing urban rioting has used,” he added, suggesting the measures could be rolled back.
The eastern part of the city, annexed by Israel after the 1967 war, has become a jumble of Arab and Jewish areas, a result of Israeli settlement policies over the years. This included building sprawling Jewish neighborhoods on annexed lands and permitting militant settlers to move into heavily guarded enclaves in Arab neighborhoods, such as the Muslim Quarter of the walled Old City. Palestinians make up 37 percent, or 316,000, of Jerusalem’s total population of 850,000.
Palestinians say they have suffered years of official discrimination, such as severe restrictions on building rights and the threat of residency rights being revoked if they move to the West Bank because the housing shortage in Arab areas.
Meanwhile, Israel’s West Bank separation barrier slices through Arab neighborhoods, leaving one-third of Jerusalem’s Arab residents on the “West Bank side” and making it harder for them to reach jobs, schools and hospitals.
In the past month, nine Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks and 41 Palestinians have been shot and killed by Israelis, including 20 labeled as attackers.
That has led to Israeli troops setting up even more dividers. They have blocked roads to and from Arab neighborhoods with concrete cubes, forcing cars to squeeze through a few crossing points. There, soldiers stop each vehicle, ask for IDs and demand that some drivers and passengers lift their shirts and roll up pants legs to show they are not armed.
Around midday Saturday, several dozen cars were held up at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the Issawiyeh neighborhood. The atmosphere was tense, with drivers honking and some saying they’d been stuck in line for more than two hours. Police were on edge, traded curses with the crowd; at one point, they threw a stun grenade into the line.
On Sunday, troops set up six concrete slabs, each about 5 meters (16 feet) tall, between the Jewish neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv and the adjacent Arab area of Jabal Mukaber, home to some recent attackers. Police said the barrier is meant as a shield against stones and firebombs.
In the past, similar obstacles billed as temporary have become permanent.
The Qalandiya checkpoint between the West Bank and east Jerusalem, one of the main crossings through the separation barrier and a frequent bottleneck, started out 15 years ago as a roadside concrete cube manned by a few soldiers. Today, it is a terminal with five lanes for pedestrians, fortified by barbed wire and watch towers.
Gold, the Netanyahu adviser, played down the extent of Palestinian frustration in the city, saying it is possible to create “patterns of co-existence and dialogue” once violence has subsided.
Seidemann said Jerusalem is a binational city that has remained divided, even after 1967, and that Israel’s latest security measures have simply given a physical expression to those rifts.
Israel’s hard-line leaders “can’t possibly look this in the eye because they are committed ideologically to a mythical, united Jerusalem that does not exist in nature,” he said.
___
Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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· · · · ·
Biden's labor divide, Obama's 2016 dilemma, a higher profile for Candy Carson and Warren's next move were part of the 'Inside Politics' forecast this week.
Refugees turn away from border-sealed Hungary and head to neighboring Slovenia, and the U.N. refugee agency warns of rising numbers of migrants getting stuck in transit in the Balkans as winter approaches. Pavithra George reports.
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Reuters tells the world's stories like no one else. As the largest international multimedia news provider, Reuters provides coverage around the globe and across topics including business, financial, national, and international news. For over 160 years, Reuters has maintained its reputation for speed, accuracy, and impact while providing exclusives, incisive commentary and forward-looking analysis.
Iran's agreement to roll back its nuclear weapons program officially took effect Sunday, but country officials said it would begin dismantling uranium-enrichment centrifuges only when the U.S. confirmed the lifting of economic sanctions. David Albright, President of the Institute for Science and International Security, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss.
CNNi talks to filmmaker/photographer Thomas Nybo about his UNICEF assignment capturing the journey of migrants across Europe.
The history of Obama’s most important foreign-policy victory is still being written.
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October 18, 2015, 11:09 PM (IDT)
The head of Iran’s nuclear agency said Sunday that his country will apparently start dismantling part of its nuclear infrastructure this week under the agreement signed with Western powers. Ali Akbar Salehi said the removal of thousands of uranium-enriching centrifuges from the nuclear facilities in Natanz and Fordo would begin as soon as President Hassan Rouhani gives the order to do so. Iran is also supposed to take steps to ensure that its reactor in Arak and other facilities cannot be used for military purposes. Selahi estimated that the “huge task” would take his country about two months.
The United States says an air strike in Syria by the U.S.-led coalition has killed a top Al-Qaeda commander.
 RT |
Russia and Europe to launch joint mission to dark side of Moon, then build ...
RT Announced by Russia's space agency Roscosmos last November, Luna 27 is a robotic lander that will land in the South Pole–Aitken basin, a giant crater on the dark side of the Moon, and prospect it for resources that could be utilized by future moon ... Europe, Russia Mission To Assess Mankind's Permanent Settlement On The MooniSchoolGuide Europe and Russia mission to assess Moon settlementBBC News European and Russians to team up to COLONIZE the MoonExpress.co.uk Telegraph.co.uk -Irish Times all 51 news articles » |
New Delhi Protesters Want Action After Child Rapesby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Protesters filled the streets in New Delhi Sunday, as citizens called on the government to take action after three young girls were raped in the past week. Two teens were arrested late Saturday after allegedly raping a 2-year-old girl in a New Delhi park Friday evening. The tot went missing during a brief power outage and her family found her three hours later bleeding and unconscious in the park. Police Deputy Commissioner Pushpendra Kumar said the two suspects admitted their guilt during interrogation. Numerous rape cases The case was the latest in recent attacks that have renewed public anger over India's inability to halt chronic violence against women and girls. Also Saturday, police arrested three men for allegedly raping a 5-year-old girl in an east Delhi suburb. In a separate incident last week, a 4-year-old girl was found abandoned near a railway track after being raped and slashed with a blade in the capital. She is in intensive care after the attack. The Indian government toughened laws regarding rape crimes after a 23-year-old medical student died after being gang raped on a bus in 2012. The maximum prison term doubled to 20 years for rape crimes and new courts were established to process rape cases more efficiently. India's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reported in India's capital alone, about 2,000 women and girls were rape victims in 2014, and the cases over the last week have put officials in the spotlight. Protesters were trying to reach Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as police set up barricades to control the crowds. Prime minister criticized Kejriwal responded to the assaults by calling out Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the police who report to him for doing too little to protect women and girls. “There is no police rule only jungle rule in Delhi ever since the formation of Narendra Modi's government. You (Modi) have no time. You should give up your stubbornness and hand over Delhi police for a year to us,” he told reporters. One protester said government members are focusing on politics over the issue that is unfolding. “What we see is that two minors have been raped and the Delhi police, Delhi government and lieutenant general are only blaming each other and not taking required action," the protester said. The NCRB reported 36,700 rape cases in India in 2014, although some experts say that number is underreported. Some material for this report came from Reuters and AP.
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Will Putin’s Optimization Effort Allow for Creation of Super Nationalities Ministry? by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, October 18 – Igor Barinov, the head of the Federal Agency for Nationality Affairs, has proposed uniting all institutions responsible for ethnic relations into a single institution at the regional level and placing it under the vice governors there, an exploitation of Putin’s “optimization” effort that could lead to a single nationalities ministry in Moscow.
In comments to “Vedomisti,” Barinov argued that he believes such an approach would be more effective, especially since his agency has found that “in the regions there is no single approach to the selection of those officials responsible for inter-ethnic relations” (vedomosti.ru/politics/articles/2015/10/14/612734-upravlenie-otnosheniyami-unifitsiruyut).
The official noted that “often” the leaders of religious confessions and ethnic groups “do not know whom to turn to for the resolution of their problems.” If they could be confident that the number two official in the regions was, they would have more confidence that their problems would be examined and solved.
Unifying all the functions dealing with nationalities and religions under a single official in each region, of course, would save money as well. But it would likely also set the stage for demands that Moscow create a single ministry responsible for all these issues as well, something that Putin has resisted since disbanding the nationalities ministry in his first term.
The reason for that is simple: if some an agency is given enough power to be effective, it will be a threat to others; but if it isn’t, it will by default be ineffective. Barinov is now obviously caught in that trap, and he is using Putin’s plans to “optimize” the number of bureaucracies to push for unity in his area of responsibility as well.
As the Baltic states fret about perceived threats from neighboring Russia, Estonia's foreign minister is better placed than most to understand and address the issue: She is half Russian and half Latvian.
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Amid mounting criticism of her stance on migration at home, Merkel offers to speed up Turkey’s application for EU membership in return for stopping the flow of refugees across its borders. tony paterson reports from
Democrats Bring Gun Debate to 2016 Presidential Campaignby webdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press)
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