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Militants 'pollute Damascus water with diesel'

Terrorists contaminate Damascus water with diesel: Authorities

Militants ‘pollute Damascus water with diesel’

Authorities in the Syrian capital Damascus say they have been forced to cut water supplies to the city for a couple of days after terrorists contaminated the drinking water with diesel.  

The Damascus City Water Supply and Sewerage Authority made the announcement in a brief statement posted on its official website on Friday, adding that the water cut would include both the capital and its suburbs.

The statement further said that the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Local Administration had ordered authorities in the provinces of Rif Dimashq and Damascus to start using water reserves until the problem was resolved “in the next few days.”

The al-Fija spring, which supplies the capital with water, is located in the militant-held Souq Wadi Barada village, northwest of Damascus, in a mountainous terrain near the Lebanese border. Much of the surrounding areas are controlled by Syrian government troops.

The terrorists’ desperate attack on water resources came a few days after Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, was fully liberated from the grips of Takfiri terrorist groups. The city was the last major urban area controlled by terrorists.

The latest gain puts Damascus back in control of Syria’s five main cities: Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Damascus and Latakia.

Aleppo’s liberation is seen as a crushing blow to the militants and their foreign supporters, who have been actively working to topple the Damascus government since March 2011.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed since the onset of the militancy. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

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Berlin police investigating 'probable terrorist attack'

Berlin police investigating ‘probable terrorist attack’

Berlin police investigating ‘probable terrorist attack’

It was a deliberate act. Hours after a truck ploughed into a crowd at a Christmas market in Berlin, police are saying the driver did so intentionally in a suspected terrorist attack.

What we know

12 dead, 48 injured

driver arrested, nationality not confirmed

truck ‘intentionally’ steered into crowd in suspected terror attack, police

body found in passenger seat identified as Polish national, not the driver

Bavarian politician and ally to Angela Merkel, Horst Seehofer says Germany must change immigration and security policy after Monday’s attack in Berlin.

It is another blow for Merkel, who is already fighting off threats from the far-right AFD, and has stood by her liberal immigration policy since the European migrant and refugee crisis began.

German broadacaster NTV says the suspect, named in German media as Naved B, has denined involvement in the attack.

He was arrested 2km from the Breitscheidplatz, after a witness apparently followed him and called the police.

Chancellor Merkel says it would be “hard to bear” if the person responsible for the attack was a refugee or that “someone who sought protection and asylum”.

Merkel has been a staunch supporter of Germany’s policy of housing refugees and migrants who have come to Europe. However she is under pressure from the right-wing, anti-immigration AFD party. In response, Merkel recently advocated for a ban on all full-face coverings, such as the Burqa, a form of Islamic female clothing.

Angela Merkel, speaking to the media in Berlin, announces that the German security council will meet in 30 minutes to discuss what they know, and will continue to meet when needed.

Merkel will then visit the Breitscheidplatz later this afternoon, along with Interior minister Thomas de Maizière.

Merkel said “We do not want to live in fear. Even if it’s difficult right now, we will find the strength to live our lives the way we want to in Germany- Open and free”.

The European Commission will hold a moment of silence for the 12 victims of Monday’s attack, at midday in Brussels.

Christmas markets in Berlin will remain closed on Tuesday as a mark of respect to the victims of Monday’s attack.

The Interior ministry says other markets and Christmas celebrations will continue across Germany, though increased security measures will be put in place.

Police in London and around the UK are reviewing security plans for the Christmas and New Year’s period following this attack in Berlin, and the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey in Ankara.

The Metropolitan Police in London describe the threat level as “severe”, meaning an attempted attack is “highly likely”.

Interior minister of the state of Brandenburg (where Berlin is located) has told German magazine Focus Online that one victim, though to be the Polish man found inside the lorry, was shot dead.

Karl Heinz Schroeter was quoted as saying the Polish driver was a victim, not a perpetrator.

At least 12 people were killed and 48 injured when the lorry crashed into people gathered around wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages on Monday evening.

Previously Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere said there were indications that the incident was an attack.

Investigation

Police arrested a suspect, which German news agency reports as an Afghan or Pakistani asylum seeker, though there is no official confirmation of his identity.

“All police measures related to the suspected terrorist attack at Breitscheidplatz are progressing at full steam and with the necessary diligence,“ police said.

Authorities identified a body found in the driver’s cab as a Polish citizen.

Police are investigating leads that the truck was stolen from a construction site. The owner of the truck confirmed the driver had been unreachable since Monday afternoon. The owner, Ariel Zuwaski told AFP newsagency, ‘He is my cousin, I’ve known him since I was child.” According to the company, the vehicle was loaded with 25 tonnes of metallurgical products from Italy.

Security

The UK Foreign office issued the following advice to British travellers:

“There is a high threat from terrorism. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in public places visited by foreigners. The German government has announced that increased security has been put in place as a precaution at public buildings, major events, transport hubs and large public gatherings.

There is considered to be a heightened threat of terrorist attack globally against UK interests and British nationals, from groups or individuals motivated by the conflict in Iraq and Syria. You should be vigilant at this time.”

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Obama made US 'a lot weaker': Farage

Nigel Farage says Obama made US ‘a lot weaker’

Obama made US ‘a lot weaker

British politician Nigel Farage says the US became “a lot” weaker under the leadership of President Barack Obama.

Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), took aim at the outgoing American president’s legacy in an interview with Fox News on Monday, saying Obama had weakened the United States’ global standing in an unprecedented manner.

“I think America these days, I’m sorry to say, looks a lot weaker than it has done for a very long time,” said Farage, who is a close friend of President-elect Donald Trump.

“Barack Obama is popular with all the countries that he’s been weak and that he’s appeased,” he said, citing Cuba as an example. “Around the rest of the world, America’s standing is poor.”

“Let me tell you that not only is Obama’s reputation here lower than I can think of than any American president for some time, but actually America’s reputation is lower.”

The member of the European Parliament, who led a successful campaign to take Britain out of the European Union (EU), made the remarks days after Obama defended his eight years in the White House.

“Almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected that they did eight years ago,” Obama said. “It’s a situation I’m proud to leave my successor.”

This is while Trump has also criticized Obama’s domestic and foreign policies, going as far as branding the  administration as “stupid.”

Calling Obama “the most ignorant president,” Trump told NBC in July that Obama “didn’t know anything” upon taking office in 2008 and “today, he knows less.”

US President Barack Obama holds a year-end press conference in the White House in Washington, DC, December 16, 2016.

Trump and Farage developed a friendship in the build-up to the November 8 election.

The Brexit leader even traveled to America in August and hit the campaign trail with Trump, encouraging voters to ignore all the negativity surrounding the Manhattan billionaire and side with him against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Back then, Farage likened a possible Trump win to the surprise outcome of the June referendum in the UK, where about 52 percent of Brits voted in favor of Brexit, beating all odds.

After his victory, Trump said Farage would be a “great” British ambassador to the US, a notion that was rejected by the UK government.

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US military ends operation in Libya's Sirte

US Africa command ends operation in Daesh bastion in Libya

US military ends operation in Libya’s Sirte

The US military has formally announced the end of operations in the Libyan city of Sirte following the recent capturing of the coastal city from the clutches of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group (ISIL).

Washington began its military campaign in Libya – known as Operation Odyssey Lightning – on August 1, under the pretext of helping the Libyan unity government in a fight against the Takfiri group, which rose to power in the oil-rich country in 2011.

“The United States Africa Command concluded Operation Odyssey Lightning December 19, following an announcement from the Libyan government of the end of offensive military operations in Sirte,” the Pentagon said in a statement on Tuesday.

“In partnership with the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), the operation succeeded in its core objective of enabling GNA-aligned forces to drive Daesh (ISIL) out of Sirte,” it added.

Africa Command claimed that the US had conducted a total of 495 airstrikes against Daesh positions in Libya since August 1.

Libya’s unity government has repeatedly denounced the presence of foreign troops as “violation” of the country’s sovereignty.

The head of Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), Faez al-Sarraj (C), arrives for the eighth ministerial meeting of Libya’s neighboring countries, in Tunis, March 22, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

The Pentagon made the announcement three days after Fayez al-Sarraj, the GNA’s leader, said in a televised speech that the city had been under full control of forces loyal to the internationally-recognized government.

“The battle for Sirte is over but the war against terrorism in Libya is not finished,” Sarraj said on Saturday.

He also called on all factions and military forces to unite under “one single army,” inviting different political parties in the North African country to work together to resolve the issues facing Libya.

Sirte, located 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of  the capital Tripoli, is the hometown of former slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi and the main bastion of the terrorist group outside Iraq and Syria.

Daesh, which captured Sirte more than a year ago, had taken advantage of a chaos gripping Libya since 2011.

Forces loyal to the GNA launched the final offensive to retake Sirte from Daesh terrorists on December 5. Located on the Mediterranean coast, the city was the main urban center that Daesh managed to seize outside Iraq and Syria.

The GNA, endorsed by the United Nations and several Western governments, has yet to fully establish its authority across Libya.

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'Assassination aimed at disrupting Turkey-Russia

Assassination of Moscow’s envoy aimed at ruining Turkey-Russia ties: Erdogan, Putin

‘Assassination aimed at disrupting Turkey-Russia

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says both he and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agree that the assassination of Moscow’s envoy to Ankara was an act of provocation by those seeking to ruin relations between both countries.

“We know that this is a provocation aimed at destroying the process of normalization in relations between Turkey and Russia,” said Erdogan during a televised broadcast after a phone conversation with Putin.

Andrey Karlov was shot dead while delivering a speech on the opening of a photo exhibition dubbed “Russia in the eyes of Turks” on Monday.

The assassin has been identified as 22-year-old Mevlut Mert Altintas, who had served with the Turkish anti-riot police for around three years. Altintas was “neutralized” by Turkish police after killing the envoy.

Erdogan added that relations between Turkey and Russia were very important for the region and that those who aimed to harm these ties would never succeed.

Earlier this summer, Ankara and Moscow agreed on normalizing their relations after they soured following the last year shooting down of a Russian jet by Turkey over Syria.

‘Attack aimed at sabotaging ties, Syria peace efforts’

Putin also said that the assassination was a “provocation” aimed at sabotaging warming ties between Russia and Turkey and measures being taken to solve the crisis in Syria.

“The crime that was committed is without doubt a provocation aimed at disrupting the normalization of Russian-Turkish relations and disrupting the peace process in Syria that is being actively advanced by Russia, Turkey and Iran,” said Putin during a televised speech.

“There can be only one answer to this — stepping up the fight against terrorism, and the bandits will feel this,” he added.

Putin added that Moscow was sending investigators to Ankara to investigate the incident, adding, “We have to know who directed the hand of the killer.”

Reactions to Russian envoy’s assassination  

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council has condemned the incident as a “terrorist attack.” “The members of the Security Council reiterated the need to bring the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of terrorist attacks to justice,” the 15-member council said in a statement.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault also condemned the “despicable” killing of the Russian envoy.

“We are engaged in a terrible cycle that must lead us, wherever we can, to fight terrorism in all its forms but also to work through negotiation to create the conditions for a lasting peace,” he said. “In the name of France, I must condemn with the greatest possible force this despicable act. I express my solidarity with Russia, but also Turkey, which is itself a victim of terrorism.”

The photo shows the shooter of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey standing over him after gunning down the envoy during the opening of an art exhibition in Ankara, Turkey, December 19, 2016.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also strongly condemned the assassination of the Russian ambassador as “barbarous.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also said he was “appalled by this senseless act of terror.” “The secretary-general is following the unfolding situation closely and wishes the other people who were reportedly injured in the attack a speedy and full recovery,” said a statement read by Ban’s spokesman.

Mevlut Mert Altintas can be seen after he was killed by Turkish police after assassinating Russia’s Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov on December 19, 2016. 

Gulen’s movement denies involvement

Following allegations made by an unnamed senior Turkish security official that “very strong signs” show that US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen’s movement was behind the attack, the cleric’s spokesman told reporters that such “laughable” claims are only intended to cover up for Turkey’s lax security.

“Gulen categorically condemns this heinous act,” said Alp Aslandogan.

“Turkish and international experts repeatedly have pointed out the deterioration of security and counter-terrorism efforts due to the Turkish government’s assigning hundreds of counter-terrorism police officers to unrelated posts, as well as the firing and imprisoning of many others since 2014,” he added.

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Military plane crash-lands in Russia

Military plane crash-lands in Russia

Military plane crash-lands in Russia

The plane, an Ilyushin IL-18, was carrying 32 officers and seven crew members when it crash-landed under yet-unknown circumstances some 27 kilometers from the settlement of Tiksi on Monday.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced in a statement later that everyone on board the plane had survived the incident.

“As a result of the incident, all passengers and crew members are alive. Sixteen people were severely wounded. They have been evacuated to the hospitals in Tiksi by search and rescue helicopters,” the ministry statement read.

Media had already reported that the plane was wrecked into pieces but did not explode.

“According to the report from the scene, the plane crash-landed today at 4:45 [local time] 30 kilometers from Tiksi Airport. The aircraft was carrying out a scheduled flight from Kansk Airfield,” the ministry statement further read.

The Russian Defense Ministry has dispatched a team to Yakutia to gather further details about the incident, according to the statement.

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The Forgotten, Endless War in Yemen

Unlike the war in Syria, the war in Yemen is not a focus of international attention. While hundreds of thousands of children are in distress, the UN remains silent, mainly for fear of a Saudi economic boycott. When was the last time you saw any videos or television reports from the war in Yemen? Who’s fighting whom there? Who is trying to resolve the crisis that had been simmering for decades and erupted into all-out war about two years ago? The civil war in Yemen gets just the most cursory, obligatory coverage and barely engages the world’s decision-makers.

Compared to the war in Syria, it is also less dramatic. About 6,500 people have been killed in the war, about half of them civilians – a figure dwarfed by the more than quarter-million people who have been killed in Syria. Yemen, one of the world’s poorest countries, even in normal times – if any such times existed during the past decade – has never interested the world very much, aside from the United States, which operated freely within Yemeni territory when bombarding Al-Qaida targets in return for cash compensation to the Yemeni government. The Mandeb Strait, where the city of Aden is located, does hold the world’s interest, especially the Arab countries close to the eastern arm of the Red Sea such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel. The strait is ranked as the world’s fourth most important passage for the oil trade.

But Yemen itself is a very small-scale oil producer. Before the war, it produced less than a half-million barrels a day, and now its output is just 130,000 barrels per day at best. Yes, and it is also the producer of the world’s most expensive honey. The honey produced from plum trees that grow in several Yemeni regions can sell for as much as $450 a kilo. But no one goes to war over honey.

Between Sana’a and Damascus

As in most wars, a struggle for power and control is the main reason behind the war in Yemen. As in Syria, the war in Yemen was not planned, and as in Syria, the war in Yemen grew from a local, tribal clash into a focus of international interest not because of the country’s strategic value but because it became a battlefield for two rival powers – Iran and Saudi Arabia. Up until March 2015, the war in Yemen could still be described as an internal clash between the Houthis and the regime, between the oppressed and downtrodden versus the wealthy, powerful class, between tribes with political power and the Zaidi sect, to which the Houthis belong, which had been pushed into a corner – but once Saudi Arabia began carrying out strikes in Yemen, the story changed completely. It developed into a clash between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and that makes things a lot more complicated.

But unlike Syria, it hasn’t yet dragged in powers like the United States, Russia or European countries. And there are some other differences as well. At least the Syrian refugees have somewhere to escape to. They have found refuge in Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, and later on in many European countries. The millions of uprooted Yemenis – the UN’s refugee relief agency puts at 2.8 million the number of Yemeni refugees, asylum seekers and people at high risk, including more than half a million children in danger of starvation, since 2015. And these people truly have nowhere to go. Some have fled to Djibouti and Somaliland, a small number have found refuge in Oman, where they live in tent encampments, and a few thousand managed to flee to Saudi Arabia. These are not welcoming countries that can aid refugees or sustain them for an indefinite transition period. And the vast majority who have been unable to flee Yemen find themselves in a country without a functioning water system, and often without any sources of water at all. Clinics and hospitals in the big cities are coping with a dire shortage of medicines, an irregular electricity supply and intermittent air strikes by the Saudi air force or coalition forces.

The Saudi outcry

A few weeks ago, Saudi Arabia raised a great outcry that reverberated throughout the UN headquarters, in the wake of a UN report published in May that ascribed responsibility to the coalition forces, and primarily the Saudi air force, for 60 percent of the child casualties of the war in Yemen. Such a report, which annually assesses the number of child casualties in conflict areas, was the basis for including the Arab coalition on the blacklist of countries responsible for killing children. Saudi Arabia demanded that the report be suspended and the facts “re-examined.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had no choice. He admitted that he was essentially blackmailed “by several countries” (which he did not name) into removing the Arab coalition from the blacklist, lest they freeze their payments to the UN. The secretary general explained that he had to give in for the sake of the hundreds of thousands of children who depend upon UN assistance and who would have suffered if the funding from those countries was halted. Now the UN is threatening anew to include the Arab coalition in the blacklist, following a strike on a school and a hospital in northern Yemen and the killing of at least 10 Yemeni children.

The “sensitivity” that Saudi Arabia has shown towards the report is not only due to fears of tarnishing the kingdom’s good name. There are rising voices in the U.S. Congress against the arms deals that the administration is making with Saudi Arabia in light of its indiscriminate killing of civilians. In Britain, which has purchased 2.8 billion British pounds’ worth of Saudi arms and military equipment since March 2015 when the Saudi military campaign in Yemen began, opposition to such deals has been growing for the same reason. The governments of Britain and America, which recently closed an arms deal with the Saudis worth more than $1.1 billion, also need to be able to assuage UN criticism of Saudi Arabia.

A recent New York Times editorial warned, “Given the civilian casualties, further American support for this war is indefensible. … There’s an American imprint on every civilian life lost in Yemen.” This is a hard statement for the American administration and Congress to rebut, particularly when it’s unclear just what the American interest is in this war, aside from the need to stand by Saudi Arabia at all costs in the campaign it is waging in Yemen against what it terms the sphere of Iranian influence, and perhaps to compensate Saudi Arabia for signing the nuclear accord with Iran. The problem is that even U.S. intelligence believes that Iran’s involvement in Yemen is limited and that the Saudi fears are overblown. But when America needs Saudi support in other parts of the Middle East, intelligence assessments have to take a back seat to political considerations.

Diplomatic stagnation

With struggles for prestige and influence dictating moves in the Yemen war, it’s no wonder that diplomatic efforts to broker a solution have hit a dead end. The Houthis continue to run the government apparatuses, while their rival, the “legal government,” as defined by Saudi Arabia and its allies, continues to declare victories in the field. Since April, the parties have been negotiating in Kuwait, with the sessions coming to an abrupt and angry halt every few weeks. Ultimately, no agreement was reached and the talks were completely disbanded on August 6. There are several proposals on the table, including an Omani proposal as well as American, Russian, Iranian and UN proposals. Each includes the demand that the Houthis withdraw from the capital Sana’a, which they seized control of in September 2015, and that they return the weapons that were plundered from the Yemeni army. The Houthis haven’t the slightest intention of complying with this demand, not without firm guarantees of obtaining the political and economic power they’ve been seeking for over a decade, and without an end to Saudi airstrikes. Saudi Arabia is also incurring losses in this war, and criticism within the kingdom has been growing over the war’s high cost. But for now Saudi Arabia is not about to hold its fire. In the absence of international pressure, and with the world’s television cameras skipping over this battlefield, the bloody war in Yemen looks to go on indefinitely.

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Anti-Trump protests ahead of electors' convention

Anti-Trump protests erupt in US ahead of electors’ convention

Anti-Trump protests ahead of electors’ convention

On Sunday, a large number of protesters in Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles and Denver denounced the Republican president-elect’s campaign rhetoric toward immigrants and minority groups.

The rallies were held on the occasion of International Migrants Day. Trump has pledged to deport millions of undocumented immigrants after taking office in January 2017.

Opponents of Trump, including documentary filmmaker and activist Michael Moore, have called to hold demonstrations against the president-elect.

On Saturday, Moore asked Americans to get out and stop Trump from being inaugurated as the US president, before it is too late.

He urged people to manifest their anger into action with protests and civil disobedience.

He told MSNBC the new strategy to stop Trump must be one of “protesting, obstructing, disrupting.”

“Listen, we’re hours away now from the Electoral College coming together on Monday. This needs protest, this needs people’s voices,” argued Moore, who had predicted Trump’s victory back in July.

All 538 Electoral College electors will convene at governors’ offices and state capitols across the US on Monday to officially elect Trump as the 45th president of the United States.

A protester holds a sign during a demonstration against US President-elect Donald Trump on the eve of the Electoral College vote, in Denver, Colorado on December 18, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Under the US Constitution, the president is not elected through popular vote. Instead, Americans vote for members of the Electoral College who elect the president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December following the presidential election. A majority of 270 electoral votes are required to elect the president.

Though he lost the popular vote to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes in the Nov. 8 election, Trump won enough states to claim 306 electoral votes to emerge as the victor.

This year’s Electoral College vote will come amidst what officials describe as a serious challenge to the legitimacy of the election process, including evidence of foreign intervention and influence.

After weeks of internal bickering, the consensus view within the US intelligence community now is that Russia interfered in the election through cyber attacks not just to destabilize the electoral system but to help get Trump elected.

Trump’s campaign had been hit with many controversies since its inception in the early 2015. But he still managed to stun the world by defeating the heavily-favored Democratic candidate.

In the days after he was declared the winner, thousands of people held rallies in cities across the US to protest against Trump’s victory, condemning his controversial campaign rhetoric against Muslims, immigrants, women and other groups.

The real estate mogul’s controversial comments include a call to ban all Muslims from coming to America as well as stopping Mexican migrants by building a long wall along the US-Mexico border.

He has also sought a database to track Muslims across the United States and said that the US would have “absolutely no choice” but to close down mosques.

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‘200 Indonesians arrested’ ahead of protest

‘200 Indonesians arrested’ ahead of pro-independence protest

‘200 Indonesians arrested’ ahead of protest

A lawyer for Papuan independence activist Filep Karma said the people had been arrested over the past week after they applied to take part in the demonstration organized for Monday.

The protest is scheduled to mark the 55th anniversary of the official declaration of an Indonesian military campaign to take control of Papua from the Netherlands.

Karma said police also vandalized the headquarters of the pro-independence National Committee for West Papua in Jayapura, the capital of Papua Province, on Monday.

The resource-rich mountainous region has been the scene of tensions between Indonesian police and the indigenous Melanesians since being incorporated into Indonesia after a UN-backed referendum in 1969.

Despite being rich in natural resource, West Papua is one of the least-developed provinces in the country. The territory was a colony of the Netherlands from 1800 to 1949.

Papua and West Papua are home to more than 250 Melanesian ethnic groups, who have been struggling for independence.

Human rights groups accuse Indonesian police of committing abuse against the local Melanesian.

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Russia, France formulate ‘good’ Aleppo proposal

Russia, France compose ‘good’ proposal over Aleppo evacuation

Russia, France formulate ‘good’ Aleppo proposal

Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin announced the development on Monday, saying the text will be put to vote at the UN Security Council (UNSC) later in the day.

The UNSC was about to vote on a French-drafted proposal on Sunday. Russia had, however, taken exception to the draft, saying the monitors were far from prepared to take on the mission.

The Russian mission had, accordingly, threatened to veto the resolution, which it condemned as nothing but “a disaster” and said it would put forward its own proposal. France’s UN envoy Francois Delattre had, however, ruled out the possibility of any compromise on the contents on the draft with the Russian mission.

Commenting on the likely composition of the agreed text, a source from one of the delegations at the UNSC told journalists that the Council had been discussing the possibility of merging the Russian and French texts, Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported.

The amended draft resolution would prevent “mass atrocities” in the areas, which were still besieged by militants in Aleppo, Delattre said.

Takfiri militants had seized Aleppo back in 2012. The city was recently restored to government control on the back of a month-long military operation. The country is now in control of all of Syrian major cities.

The victory has not sat easily with the devoted opponents of the Syrian government, who have been open-handedly supporting militants with financial and political support over the past five years to secure the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. The militants have been receiving patronage from the United States, Turkey, and some Persian Gulf states.

Recently, Russia and Turkey reached a deal enabling the evacuation of civilians and militants from Aleppo. The agreement ushered in thousands of evacuations.

The process was, however, halted after militants violated the ceasefire deal and blocked the transfer of civilians from the villages of al-Fou’aand Kafarya in neighboring Idlib Province.

On Saturday, it was reported that the government and militants were working on a new deal to resume the evacuations from the villages as well as two towns near the Lebanese border.

The United Nations said on Sunday that the evacuation had resumed. The process were first set to resume earlier in the day, but was postponed after the militants attacked and burned around 20 of the buses that had arrived to transport people out of the city.

Buses drive through the crossing of Ramoussa, on the southern outskirts of the northwestern Syria city of Aleppo, on December 18, 2016, during an evacuation operation.

Syria rages at infanticide

Also on Sunday, the Syrian government sent separate messages to the UNSC and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, condemning the terrorists’ using of children for terror operations.

The inhumane actions, Damascus said, indicated that the countries supporting the militants, whom they call “moderates,” have no concern about the life of the young ones.

Countries like the US, France, the UK, and their allies should immediately stop the support, it added.

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Hundreds died in India police custody: HRW

HRW reports hundreds of deaths in India police custody

Hundreds died in India police custody HRW

In a report released on Sunday, Human Right Watch said that police in India not only regularly bypassed arrest regulations but also often used deadly torture techniques on those in custody — sometimes to lethal effect.

The 114-page report, titled “‘Bound by Brotherhood’: India’s Failure to End Killings in Police Custody,” cited official data showing that at least 591 people had died while in police custody between 2010 and 2015.

The report included in-depth investigations of deaths of prisoners and more than 70 interviews with victims’ family members, witnesses, justice experts, and police officials.

HRW investigations showed that Indian police mistreated suspects in police stations to obtain information or confessions.

Forms of torture routinely used against suspects included severe beatings with boots and belts, and sometimes suspending suspects from their wrists, according to the HRW.

Autopsy reports of victims examined by HRW experts showed injuries and hematomas consistent with blunt force trauma.

Meenakshi Ganguly, the HRW’s South Asia director, said on the right group’s website that Indian police regularly beat suspects to obtain confessions, and if the suspects die under those circumstances, authorities cover up the incident by citing suicide or illnesses as the cause of the deaths.

Human Rights Watch’s South Asia director, Meenakshi Ganguly

“Our research shows that too often, the police officers investigating deaths in custody are more concerned about shielding their colleagues than bringing those responsible to justice,” she said.

The rights group urged Indian authorities to hold to account those police officers responsible for the death of the suspects and make necessary reforms in the law enforcement agency to build a more rights-respecting force.

“Police in India will learn that beating suspects to confess is unacceptable only after officers are prosecuted for torture,” said Ganguly.

Regulations currently require suspects to be medically examined after arrest, with the doctor listing any illness or pre-arrest injuries. If a suspect sustains new injuries during detention, it will point to police abuse and the mistreatment of the prisoner.

Every suspect taken into police custody must appear before a court judge within 24 hours of custody, according to Indian law.

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‘Resistance defeated US, allies in Aleppo’

Syrians’ resistance defeated US, allies in Aleppo: Iran MP

‘Resistance defeated US, allies in Aleppo’

“The defiance and perseverance of the Syrian people, the resistance forces and the army in the city of Aleppo finally led to the defeat of Takfiri terrorists, the US and its regional allies,” the chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said in a meeting with Syrian lawmaker, Zhirayr Reisyan, in Tehran on Sunday.

He expressed congratulations over the liberation of Aleppo from the grips of foreign-backed terrorists and hailed the resistance of the Syrian people in the face of the enemies’ threats and acts of aggression.

The Iranian legislator reaffirmed the Islamic Republic’s policy on supporting Syria in its fight against terrorism while focusing on political approaches.

“The nation and government of the Islamic Republic of Iran have stood by the Syrian people and government and will always support the brave Syrian people,” Boroujerdi said.

The Syrian government managed to liberate Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, after weeks of advances and blistering attacks against foreign-backed militants, who had been holding the eastern part of the city since 2012.

Meanwhile, a new deal has been reached between the Syrian government and the militants in Aleppo to resume the evacuation of civilians and the remaining armed groups from the east of the city, after the original pact came to a halt.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Boroujerdi stressed the importance of constant and regular political and parliamentary consultations between the Iranian and Syrian officials in the current regional circumstances.

Iran flag-bearer of fight against terrorism

Reisyan, for his part, said Iran, as an ally of Syria, plays a pivotal role in the fight against terrorism and Takfiri currents.

He added that Iran has always supported the Syrian government and nation in the battle against terrorism.

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Over 100k Iraqis displaced since Oct. 17: IOM

Over 100k Iraqis displaced since Mosul operation began: IOM

Over 100k Iraqis displaced since Oct. 17 IOM

The IOM said on its displacement tracking webpage on Sunday that since October 17, 103,872 people had been displaced, mainly from Nineveh province, whose capital is Mosul.

Jassem Mohammed al-Jaff, the Iraqi minister for displacement and migration, earlier said 118,000 people had been displaced since the operation started in mid-October.

Aid organizations had already warned that one million or more people could be displaced by the operation to retake Mosul.

On October 17, Iraqi army soldiers, supported by fighters from Hashd al-Sha’abi or the Popular Mobilization Units, and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, launched a joint operation to retake Mosul from Daesh.

The photo taken on December 16, 2016, shows displaced Iraqis from the city of Mosul buying and selling items at a camp for internally displaced persons near the village of Nahia.

Forces from Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service have advanced deep into eastern Mosul over the past few weeks.

The advance of Iraqi forces has, however, been slowed down due to the presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of whom are prevented from leaving Mosul by Daesh.

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‘9/11 was Zionist plot to spread Islamophobia’

9/11 attacks paved way for rise of Islamophobia: Analyst

‘9/11 was Zionist plot to spread Islamophobia’

Shabbir Rahmatullah Hassanally made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Sunday, while discussing a horrific hate crime against a British Muslim woman that took place earlier this week.

The 27-year-old woman was grabbed from behind and knocked down by two white males in a busy high street on Wednesday, police said on Friday.

The woman had just finished a driving lesson in Old Church Road in Chingford and was on her way to a hair salon when the two men attacked her.

The Muslim woman was dragged along the pavement by her hijab for several meters by the attackers, witnesses said.

The woman was treated by paramedics at the restaurant and was later taken to hospital for back injuries.

“The issue of Islamophobia in England and the Europe—and the West as a whole—is something which is a manufactured phenomenon,” said Hassanally. “It is designed to keep the people in Europe and the West preoccupied with a perceived enemy, i.e. the Muslims.”

He noted that the anti-Islamic trend saw a sharp spike after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.

“Ultimately what this is, is for creating a bipolar environment in the Western world where anyone who questions the official narratives of 9/11 or other atrocities committed by the neocons and the Zionists is immediately branded who is supporting the terrorists,” Hassanally added.

According to the analyst, terms like Shariah and caliphate were the “buzzwords” that PR companies behind this Islamophobia campaign are using to promote their agenda and foment hatred against Muslims.

Hate crime rates in the UK– England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — have surged by 500 percent following the June vote by 52 percent of Britons to leave the European Union (EU), data by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) shows.

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'Israel might be implicated in killing Tunisian'

‘Israel might be implicated in killing Tunisian’

‘Israel might be implicated in killing Tunisian’

Ronin Brigman, a prominent intelligence affairs commentator, quoted Israeli sources as saying that accusations by Tunisian authorities that Mossad has been responsible for the attack make sense, the media reported.

Speaking in a program on Israel’s Channel 10 on Friday, Brigman said Israel often reacts to any accusation against its spy agency Mossad by saying, no comment. However, he said, “what happened today is a little different.” Brigman said the attackers had left Tunisia.

In the same program, Oran Helar, a military commentator, said the aviation engineer, Mohammed Zawahri, had strong ties to Hamas and was a member of Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, which is the military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement.

Helar said the engineer had helped Hamas use drones for the first time in the 2014 Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip. He also quoted security sources as saying that the slain engineer was considered a threat to Israel.

On December 15, reports said an unknown assailant had fired six shots at Zawahri, three to his head, while he was driving in the city of Sfax.

Moncef Marzouki, the former president of Tunisia, condemned the assassination and said it was a “political crime” after it was revealed that Zawahri had ties to Hamas.

He told Quds Press that the fact that the engineer was killed on the Tunisian territory was a matter of concern.

Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades said Zawahri was killed by Mossad, adding that he was one of the leaders who supervised Ababil drones, which had an important role in countering the Israeli aggression against Gaza. Qassam said the Tunisian engineer had joined Hamas 10 years ago.

The Palestinian Information Center says various political organizations and civil society groups have called for protests against the killing of Zawahri.

The aviation engineer, 49, was a former Tunisian pilot. He was not living in Tunisia at the time, and was only in town from Lebanon for a visit to his family.

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Militant evacuations from east Aleppo resume

Militant evacuations from east Aleppo resume

Militant evacuations from east Aleppo resume

“Evacuations are on. Buses and ambulances are leaving east Aleppo now,” the UN official said in an email message to Reuters, noting that the first people left Aleppo at around 2100 GMT.

According to medical officials, around 350 people were able to leave the remaining militant-held areas in eastern Aleppo.

“Five buses carrying the evacuees arrived from besieged parts of east Aleppo,” said Ahmad al-Dbis, who heads a team of doctors and volunteers coordinating evacuations to militant-held Khan al-Assal.

The evacuation was first set to resume earlier in the day, but was postponed after militants attacked and burned around 20 of the buses that had arrived to transport them out of the city.

According to the so-called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights a bus driver was killed in the incident which halted the evacuations postponement in the “absence of security guarantees for the evacuees.”

The initial evacuation deal between the government and militants fell through on Frida after the militants fired on corridors set up to let out the civilians and militants in eastern Aleppo and prevented residents from leaving the two militant-besieged villages of Fua’a and Kefraya in Idlib province despite an agreement reached the day before.

UNSC Aleppo vote postponed

The US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said that the council will vote on Monday over a new draft resolution aimed at sending observers to Aleppo.

“We expect to vote unanimously for this text tomorrow at 1400 GMT,” she noted.

Earlier, Russia had warned that it will block the France proposed resolution and would submit its own proposal for the monitoring process.

“We cannot support it, we cannot allow it to pass because this is a disaster,” said the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin.

On December 16, Russia announced that the Syrian military was in full control of the militant-held eastern Aleppo.

Since March 2011, Syria has been hit by militancy it blames on some Western states and their regional allies. The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the UN have put the death toll from the Syria conflict at more than 300,000 and 400,000, respectively. This is while the UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

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Trump donated to Israeli settlement in 2003

Trump’s ‘little secret’ revealed by ex-Israeli lawmaker

Trump donated to Israeli settlement in 2003

The New York billionaire donated $10,000 to the illegal Beit El settlement in the occupied West Bank, various sources reported on Sunday.

The money was transferred by the Donald J. Trump Foundation through an American NGO raising funds for the settlement, considered illegal by most of the international community.

The real estate mogul and reality TV star’s donations were not limited to American Friends of Beit El as he also paid the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Historical Society.

One of the founders of Beit El (pictured above), Ya’acov “Ketzale” Katz, initially broke out the news to an Israeli radio.

The family of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has also paid money to the settlement.

Trump has been trying to involve Kushner and his daughter, Ivanka, in his administration, set to enter the White House on January 20th, 2017, amid concerns that the move could serve as blow to the situation in Palestine, given Kushner’s close ties with the ruling Likud party in the hands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a recent interview with Fox News, the future US president said he had to see “how the laws read,” when asked if the two would be moving to Washington, DC.

Jason Greenblatt, the chief legal officer and executive vice president at the Trump Organization, recently said that Trump does not think the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories should be condemned because they do not pose “an obstacle to peace.”

Over half a million Israelis live in more than 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. Tel Aviv has defied international calls to stop the settlements expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Trump administration is expected to be profoundly negative for Palestinian aspirations while buoying Israel’s confidence.

His pick for the ambassador to Israel has also caused concern among experts as they say the nominee is likely to provoke more conflicts in the Middle East.

In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, the mogul-turned-politician even vowed to take the US embassy to East Jerusalem al-Quds, adding that “a Trump administration would finally accept the long-standing Congressional mandate to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the state of Israel.”