#Moscow ISIL (ISIS)

[mworldnews]

The terrorist organization responsible for the attack on Moscow's Crocus City Hall was ISIL (ISIS)

Gunmen in combat fatigues opened fire and detonated explosives at Moscow  Crocus City Hall killing at least 60 people and injuring 145 in a brazen attack claimed by the ISIL (ISIS) group. At least five camouflage-clad gunmen with automatic weapons burst into the packed concert hall in the Russian capital’s western suburbs on Friday night as the audience was gathering to watch the veteran rock…

[anarchistettin]

At least 60 people have been killed and 145 injured in a brazen attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on Friday night. Here’s what we know so far: • At least five camouflage-clad gunmen with automatic weapons burst into the packed concert hall, where the veteran rock band Picnic was going to perform, shooting into the crowd and setting off explosives. • A fire quickly spread through the concert hall, with smoke filling the building and screaming visitors rushing to emergency exits. As people ran towards emergency exits, “there was a terrible crush” with concertgoers climbing on one another’s heads to get out, one witness told AFP news agency. • ISIL (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram channel, saying its gunmen attacked “a large gathering” on Moscow’s outskirts and escaped safely. • Ukraine’s presidency said Kyiv had “nothing to do” with the attack. The Freedom of Russia Legion, a pro-Ukrainian militia responsible for attacks on Russia’s border regions, also denied any role. • Russian authorities said a “terrorist” investigation had been started and President Vladimir Putin was receiving “constant” updates.

[veale2006-blog]

The terrorist attack in Moscow was a MI6/CIA/US State Department OP.

Because, ISIS “claimed responsibility”

WHO REALLY CREATED ISIS (ISIL)???

RENEGADE OBAMA.

[eaglevisionlive]

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 817

Fighting

Russia claimed to have taken full control of the settlement of Bilohorivka in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region. Ukraine’s General Staff said fighting was continuing in the area and it was “holding back the onslaught of the enemy”.

Roman Semenukha, the deputy governor of the northeastern Kharkiv region, told national television that Ukrainian troops remained in control of about 60 percent of Vovchansk and were fighting house-to-house to defend the border town from Russian attacks. Also speaking on national television, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said the Vovcha river, which cuts through the town, marked the front line.

Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down all 29 Russian drones that targeted various parts of the country on Monday. Two people in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhia regions were killed, while 16 of the drones were shot down over the southern region of Mykolaiv where the debris damaged a private home and caused a fire.

Politics and diplomacy

A court in the Russian city of Novosibirsk has jailed 24-year-old Ilya Baburin for 25 years after finding him guilty of plotting an arson attack on a military recruitment office in Siberia in 2022. Prosecutors claimed he was working on instructions from Kyiv and accused him of treason.

Russian playwright Svetlana Petriychuk and theatre director Yevgeniya Berkovich went on trial in Moscow accused of “justifying terrorism” in an award-winning play about Russian women lured to marry ISIL (ISIS) fighters in Syria and jailed on their return. The two were arrested in May last year. Berkovich has also written poems criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Stanislav Netesov, a 25-year-old Russian man who dyed his hair blue, green and yellow was fined 50,000 roubles ($553) by a court for “discrediting” the Russian army. In court, Netesov denied his hair colour was meant as a statement of protest, saying that he does not support either Ukraine, whose flag is blue and yellow, or the Russian army.

Karolina Lindholm Billing, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR)’s representative in Geneva, told the AFP news agency that humanitarian aid to Ukraine was falling back even as the country’s needs were rising. The UN’s 2024 humanitarian plan for Ukraine amounts to $3.1bn this year, including $599m for the UNHCR. Lindholm Billing said the appeals were only about 15 percent funded in the first quarter of the year.

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the US was continuing to provide evidence to the International Criminal Court about war crimes committed in Ukraine.

Weapons

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Reuters news agency in an interview that Western allies were taking too long to make key decisions on military support for Ukraine, and that he was pushing partners to get more directly involved in the war by helping to intercept Russian missiles over Ukraine and allowing Kyiv to use Western weapons against enemy military equipment amassing near the border.

General Charles Q Brown, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the country’s top general, said the US had no plans to send military trainers into Ukraine.

[the-peoples-correspondent]

[03/24/24] 12:01 am est

update: russian authorities have detained 11 suspects in connection with the moscow concert hall attack. the verified death toll is now 133, according to al jazeera

although the islamic state (isis/isil), has claimed responsibility for the attack, president putin has claimed that the attackers attempted to abscond to ukraine, according to the associated press

-stay safe out there

[princeaj2001-blog]

Biography:

Rodrigo Duterte, also called Digong, (born March 28, 1945, Maasin, Philippines), Filipino politician who was elected president of the Philippines in 2016. Duterte’s father served as governor of the province of Davao, and his mother was a community activist who had a prominent role in the “people power” movement that deposed the authoritarian president Ferdinand Marcos and restored democratic rule to the Philippines. Duterte earned a political science degree (1968) from Lyceum of the Philippines University in Manila and a law degree (1972) from San Beda College. In 1977 he joined the Davao City prosecutor’s office, where he remained until he was appointed (1986) vice mayor of that city. Duterte was elected mayor in 1988, and he was reelected to that post twice over the subsequent decade. Because of term-limit restrictions, he was barred from seeking reelection in 1998, but he successfully ran for a seat representing Davao in the Philippines House of Representatives. Upon the completion of that term in 2001, he returned to Davao City and was once more elected mayor. Because the term-limit restriction again came into force in 2010, he was elected vice mayor, and his daughter Sara served as mayor. In 2013 Duterte returned to the mayor’s office, this time with his son Paolo (“Pulong”) serving as vice mayor. During his more than two decades as mayor of Davao City, the controversial politician transformed the city from a haven of lawlessness into one of the safest areas in Southeast Asia. Duterte’s harsh crime-fighting tactics earned him the nicknames “the Punisher” and “Duterte Harry” (in reference to the film character Dirty Harry, the ruthlessly effective police inspector portrayed by actor Clint Eastwood), but critics such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch claimed that Duterte was responsible for more than 1,000 extrajudicial killings. Rather than denying such allegations, he embraced them. The death squads that had carried out the killings operated with an impunity that implied official sanction, and Duterte openly praised both their methods and their apparent results. In that way he cultivated the image of a coarse pistol-toting vigilante in the months leading up to the presidential election. His antiestablishment message took hold among a Filipino public weary of official corruption, and his brash over-the-top rhetoric led to comparisons with U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Duterte’s position on the contested Spratly Islands—arguably the Philippines’ most-pressing foreign policy issue—caused consternation among the country’s allies. He wavered unpredictably between a negotiated settlement with China and a claim that he would ride a jet ski to one of the disputed islands and plant a Filipino flag on it. On May 9 nearly 80 percent of eligible voters turned out for the election, and Duterte captured nearly as many votes as his two closest competitors combined. Within days of his landslide victory, Duterte vowed to reintroduce the death penalty—abolished in the Philippines in 2006—in concert with his promise to “fatten all the fish” in Manila Bay with the bodies of criminals. In a televised address in June, he endorsed vigilantism by members of the public, stating that he would personally reward anyone who shot and killed a drug dealer. On June 30, 2016, Duterte was inaugurated as president of the Philippines. In his first six months in office, more than 6,000 people were killed in Duterte’s “war on drugs.” A fraction of those deaths occurred during police operations. The overwhelming majority were extrajudicial killings by death squads. Metro Manila’s funeral parlours were strained beyond capacity, and hundreds of unidentified or unclaimed bodies were interred in mass burials. Human rights organizations and Roman Catholic officials spoke out against the bloodshed, but Duterte responded by accusing the church of corruption and the sexual abuse of children. When Western governments expressed concern over the rampant vigilantism, Duterte said that the West could offer the Philippines only “double talk,” and he sought to strengthen ties with Russia and China. The United States had suspended the sale of 26,000 assault rifles to the Philippines as a result of the human rights abuses, and in May 2017 Duterte met with Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin to discuss the prospect of an arms deal. While Duterte was in Moscow, a series of deadly clashes erupted in Marawi between Filipino troops and Islamist fighters linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; also called ISIS). Duterte cut short his trip and declared a state of martial law covering the entire island of Mindanao.

Duterte’s war on drugs is one of his most important works that he undertook as the Mayor of Davao City. Although many accuse him of human rights violation and extra judicial killings he was able to eradicate the menace and make the city free from drugs Using city funds, he also had a drug rehabilitation and treatment center built at the cost of ₱12-million. It provides 24-hour services. In 2003, he floated a plan that provided a monthly allowance of ₱2,000 to drug addicts who personally approached him and promised to give up the habit. As a Mayor, he also started a war on crime. During his tenure the crime rate went down drastically. While in 1985, the rate was triple digit figure per 1000 people, from 1999 to 2005, it became 8.0 cases 1000. Because of his ruthless eradication of criminals he has been dubbed as ‘The Punisher’ by Times Magazine.

  Duterte was once a heavy smoker, but later gave it up due to health reason. But because of it, he now suffers from Thromboangiitis obliterans, a disease involving recurring progressive inflammation and thrombosis of blood vessels in the hands and feet. 

[omniatlas]

NEW MAP: Northern Eurasia 2016: Russian Electoral Interventions (09 Nov 2016) https://buff.ly/2MY4PGH Facing conflict with the West over Ukraine and Syria, from 2015 Russia began covertly interfering in the Western democracies on a large scale for the first time since the Cold War. The attacks—which made extensive use of social media—were most notable in the Brexit referendum in the UK and the election of Donald Trump in the US. What actual impact the offensives had is still uncertain. #northerneurasia #history #welovemaps #map #2010s #2016 #europeanunion #daesh #iraq #isis #isil #islamicstate #november #november9 #russia #russianhistory #syria #syriancivilwar #unitedkingdom #unitedstates #maps #trumpelection #vladimirputin #brexit #russianinvestigation #fahrenheit119 #uselection2016 (at Moscow, Russia) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoGM-ogA63L/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1gv8qcxubkrdi

[devnagriai]

Do You Think Transliteration API Save Your Money And Time Hassle?

Transliteration is translating a dialect from one written form to the next. Though it may seem equivalent to translating, the two procedures are fundamentally distinct and serve very different purposes.

What exactly is transliteration?

Transliteration is used whenever a particular phrase needs to be expressed in a dialect with a distinct writing scheme. Consider writing phrases from Russian or even Japanese (which are using Cyrillic and Kanji, correspondingly) with Latin letters.

Remember that transliteration api only creates a new framework for the text, not a new dialect. (That is, transliteration doesn't really convert a Russian word into an English one; rather, it substitutes Latin characters for Cyrillic characters.)

For instance, when you're at a Chinese eatery, the menu may contain Chinese symbols that you do not even understand. When such characters are translated literally, they use Latin letters to match the sound of the Chinese phrase. You will not comprehend the transliterated phrase if you cannot read or talk Chinese. You won't be likely to understand that the Chinese phrase on the menu is translated. Would you be capable of understanding it if it is translated into English?

One thing to keep in mind about transliteration api: formal nouns are frequently spelled differently, whereas many terms have standardized spelling once transliterated. For example, the name Muhammad may be spelled in various ways, including Mahomet, Mohammed, and Mohammad, among a few examples.

Also Read: What Are The Reasons Behind The High Demand For Transcription Services?

When should transliteration be used?

Transliteration is much more common than you would think. You ought to be grateful for transliteration anytime you hear about worldwide news! We think that most individuals would be perplexed if news items were filled with allusions to京, الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام, or Mосвa rather than their Spanish alternatives: Beijing, ISIS or ISIL, and Moscow.

Cafe menus, as previously indicated, are another popular site where transliteration is employed. Other venues where transliteration is used include:

-  Libraries, wherein transliteration enables individuals to seek information in multiple writing schemes. -  The academic community, particularly in research articles. -  The daily language.

Terms such as karate (Japanese) and pajamas (Urdu) got acquired into the English dialect and transcribed further into Latin script from their native texts.

Also Read: How Machine Translation Is Changing the Indian Content Market?

What was the best approach to present your items in the dialect of your choice?

The merchandise title is transliterated into the appropriate language. To show your item on the top side of your page, you should transliterate the item name into the required dialect.

There are many Transliteration APIS that you can utilize to obtain particular portions of the item, such as the name, to be transliterated instantly according to the customer locale, according to the technology you employ to construct the website to show your product. Using a few options, you may select the language and the headline to be transliterated, and the modifications will be visible immediately.

Also Read: Website Localization – A Closer Look On How It Works

Product Catalog Page Transliteration

Clients frequently read other useful information to learn about your products on the commodity listing page. Because this knowledge is useful, it must also be conveyed mostly in the Indian dialect. As a result, be sure to transliterate the additional information, such as the category, summary, review, and so on.

Finally, it is essential to remember that the most commonly utilized dialects are the local languages. Advertising your items on your website in their dialect is some of the most effective ways to reach out to a wide range of target people. With transliteration API, you will likewise be enabled to provide superior service to customers in India since everything would be translated literally to meet the desire in a specific script.

[expatimes]

Analysis: Syria’s peace process and the Russian and US roles

Analysis: Syria’s peace process and the Russian and US roles

The failure of the last round of United Nations-led talks between the Syrian regime and the opposition in Geneva last month has left diplomats and analysts pondering how to redirect diplomatic efforts in the face of Damascus’s staunch refusal to engage in any negotiated process.

The inability of the two sides to achieve any meaningful developments in the fifth meeting of the constitutional talks pushed the UN special envoy Geir Pedersen to suspend the negotiations indefinitely.

The Norwegian diplomat implicitly put the blame on representatives of the Syrian government for rejecting any proposal put before them.

After 15 months and five meetings since its inception, the committee has not yet agreed on basic procedural matters and does not have a plan forward. The discussion of substantial constitutional points and the beginning of a drafting process thus cannot commence.

The impasse has prompted the opposition represented by the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) to declare the constitutional committee is past rescuing.

“We cannot tolerate any further waste of time,” its president, Nasr al-Hariri, told journalists recently, speaking from Azaz in northern Syria.

Al-Hariri said the government’s refusal to engage is leaving the international community with no other option but to circumvent Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and impose “the transitional process called for by relevant UN resolutions, without giving Damascus any further opportunity to be disruptive”.

The collapse of the Geneva process did not come as a surprise, but rather as a fresh realisation that neither the Syrians nor the helpless UN envoy can achieve any progress without a clear commitment in support of a political settlement by the international community.

But are foreign players with a stake in Syria interested in achieving a settlement?

The UN alone cannot mastermind a political process that would take into account the aspirations of the Syrian people, the survival instinct of the Syrian government, the ambitions of a fragmented political opposition, and the conflicting agendas of at least seven regional and international powers, let alone the militia groups on their payroll.

Astana limited scope

The Astana process launched in 2017 by Russia, Turkey and Iran has proved a useful mechanism to de-escalate the conflict militarily, but has not turned into an alternative forum for a political settlement, despite fears it would have eventually disrupted and replaced the UN efforts.

“Astana has a limited scope and we should not have too high expectations about what it can achieve,” said Andrey Kortunov, director of the Russian International Affairs Council.

Through Astana, Russia has further divided a fragmented Syrian opposition by bringing in new figures who did not ask for al-Assad’s removal.

It has lured Turkey into a bilateral relationship with Moscow away from its NATO allies and has succeeded in excluding the already reluctant American administrations of former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump from playing a decisive role in drawing the future outcome of the conflict.

Russia has used the Astana process to set short term and limited military objectives that mainly suited Moscow’s tactical goals and, in so doing, it assisted the regime in chipping away territory from the opposition and armed groups.

But apart from formal declarations of support for the UN process, Moscow and Ankara have stood clear from delving further into divisive political issues, such as the removal of al-Assad or the drafting of a new constitution.

“There is a misreading of Astana . It is a channel for dialogue between three countries with very different agendas,” said Murat Aslan, a security researcher at SETA, a policy think-tank close to the Turkish presidency.

“They meet while they check and balance the other actors.”

If Astana is not the venue for a political agreement despite bringing together the three main sponsors of the conflict, questions arise over Russia’s inability or unwillingness to exert any political concessions from al-Assad’s government.

Analysts agree the Kremlin would like to see a unified and more stable Syria and are growing impatient with its president.

But in the eyes of Moscow, the factions within the opposition are hostage of their foreign sponsors and do not represent a credible alternative.

The main bloc, the SNC is divided, Kurdish interests are underrepresented or absent, and the influence of Salafism on parts of the Syrian opposition and leniency towards armed groups is worrying Syrian secularists.

In the absence of an alternative, the Kremlin will continue to maintain the status quo as the most economical and the least disruptive of all solutions, analysts say.

Moscow is not yet ready to tip the scale of a fragile balance of power between its strategic interests and those of its regional competitors – Iran, Turkey, Israel and, to some extent, the United States.

“I don’t see a clear exit strategy for Russia right now,” said Kortunov. “After five years the Syrian operation has been routinised and the current situation is something Moscow can live with, both financially and militarily. It is not perfect, but it is affordable.”

Russia’s expenditure in Syria amounts to between $1bn to $2bn a year, according to government figures, a modest amount if compared to  US expenditures in Iraq.

The country has lost some 200 men in five years of war, and while every life matters, said Kortunov, figures are far from the 15,000 losses of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Syrians are turning with hope to the Biden administration for a more active policy than that of its predecessors.

Opposition leader al-Hariri told Al Jazeera he was hopeful to pay a visit to Washington in March to discuss a way out of the deadlock.

“The time is ripe for a US re-engagement to balance out the Russian and Iranian agendas in Syria,” said Aslan. He said the US should talk to Turkey and Moscow to find a compromise on the minimum acceptable terms.

“A format similar to Astana would be desirable without Iran, because it is ultimately Russia who has the upper hand in Syria,” said the Turkish analyst.

One sticking point will be Washington’s posture towards the Kurds. Biden was critical of the US withdrawal from northeastern Syria that opened the door to the Turkish military operation against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a close ally of the US in the fight against the armed group ISIL (ISIS).

The SDF is controlled by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the main Kurdish armed group in Syria that has links to the PKK, which Turkey and the US consider a “terrorist” organisation.

“The support of the YPG is a red line for Turkey,” said Aslan. “Ankara does not have any problems with the Kurds but will not accept any territorialisation of the YPG and other Kurdish groups.”

Biden’s appointment of Brett McGurk as National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East does not prelude an easy relationship with Turkey.

McGurk, a staunch critic of Turkey, played a central role in strengthening the US alliance with the Kurdish forces against ISIL during the Obama presidency.

In 2018 he quit his position over Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from northern Syria.

In 2019, McGurk suggested in the absence of a US military presence, the Kurds should seek a compromise with the al-Assad regime and Russia in exchange for some form of political autonomy.

However, McGurk’s recommendation the US intervention in Syria should be limited to protecting Israel from Iranian attacks and keeping at bay a possible ISIL revival may indicate a desire not to meddle further into Syrian affairs.

The US has lost considerable leverage in Syria over the past few years and some diplomats argue rather than trying to catch up with its regional competitors, Washington should accept playing a marginal role or none at all.

An opinion piece by former US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford triggered debate for his proposal that the US accepts “it has lost in Syria”.

A way out of the deadlock

It is not clear yet which strategy President Biden will adopt and probably a better indication will emerge upon the appointment of the US envoy to Syria, a position still vacant.

However, Syria is not considered a priority in Washington as the administration grapples with other emergencies starting with the COVID-19 pandemic.

China and the Iranian nuclear deal are more pressing issues than Syria, analysts say.

But one approach under consideration is that of the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which suggests the engagement of the Syrian government on a limited set of meaningful reforms in return for a package of incentives, such as targeted reconstruction assistance and sanctions relief.

Hrair Balian, director of the conflict resolution programme at the Carter Center, suggests the US and its European allies abandon maximalist requests, such as regime change in Syria, one of the items of UN resolution 2254.

“We should be realistic and acknowledge that the hardline approach of the past 10 years has not worked,” said Balian. “Sanctions haven’t changed the regime behaviour. Isolation and punishment rarely achieve the wanted results … It is time to try another way.”

In June 2020 the US imposed the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, a broad range of sanctions that have blocked foreign investments in Syria, without affecting the regime’s attitude. Reconstruction plans have been put on hold, depriving Syrians of any possibility of rebuilding the country’s infrastructure.

Balian said the US could count on Russia’s wish to improve Syria’s financial and economic conditions, a position confirmed by Russian analysts close to the presidency who say Moscow fears inheriting a failed state.

There is a risk that Damascus may not comply, said Balian, but sanctions would be swiftly reimposed in such a case.

The approach that Balian suggests has been endorsed by Jeffrey Feltman, a respected American diplomat, who has been cited as a possible candidate for the position of US negotiator for Syria.

UN officials have also called for a lifting of US sanctions, with their legitimacy under international law in question. They say the Caesar Act is depriving Syrians of the essential means for reconstruction and deepening the humanitarian crisis.

Countering this approach are analysts such as Carmit Valensi and Itamar Rabinovich, co-authors of the book Syrian Requiem. They argue the US should not waver and sanctions remain the only suitable alternative to military intervention.

“The US should bring the regime to its knees and refuse any funding for reconstruction as long as there is no reform or resettlement of refugees,” said Rabinovich, a Distinguished Brookings Fellow and former Israeli diplomat. “It’s a long-term strategy but it will eventually work”.

Rabinovich and Valensi say the US should keep a presence in defence of Israel’s borders to deter Iran from creating a land bridge from Iran to Syria via Iraq.

Tehran would like to replicate the Lebanon scenario by establishing a permanent military presence in Syria through its proxies.

Since Damascus will not be able or willing to push back the Iranians, Israel and the US will have to work with Moscow and contain Iranian expansionism.

Deepening humanitarian crisis

Meanwhile, the population is bearing the brunt of a US policy that besides sanctions, offers no prospect for a political settlement.

Despite a period of relative calm if compared with previous years, violence and clashes continue in the area of Idlib, in the northeast and along the southern border with Iraq.

Some 13.4 million people are estimated to require humanitarian assistance this year, up from 11 million last year.

Two million Syrians live in extreme poverty, according to UN figures. Bread and fuel are scarce in a country that used to export wheat to neighbours and now cannot feed its own population.

The collapse of the Lebanese banking sector has added to the crisis. Billions of Syrian dollars are frozen in Lebanese banks and sanctions further aggravate the conditions of the Syrian middle class, which has been decimated by the war.

Government corruption and mismanagement are rampant and are widely blamed for the crisis.

Ten years into the war – with an estimated 600,000 deaths and 11 million displaced – Syria has no viable peace process in place and the country’s prospects for a resolution of the conflict have never been gloomier.

Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=18639&feed_id=35790

[demnoklannik-blog]

Comparison

Who Would Gain If A Battle Broke Out?

Without a doubt the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) - four of the world's largest emerging economies, possess substantial financial and purchase potential, specifically within the technology market. India also has some modern land gear, and is usually currently investing billions of its new money into thousands of pieces of new artillery. This will include a fleet of Arjun MK-II third-generation fight tanks. Brazil provides contemporary weapons, very much of which was bought from the USA, the world's biggest arms exporter. It's most extolled land weapon is usually its almost 400-strong fleet of German-made Leopard 1 tanks that it acquired in comparison.

Like Russia, the U.Beds. Section of Business also splits the U.Beds. into nine under the radar locations for bureaucratic reasons. What stands out in the map over is normally that while the U.Beds. certainly provides locations that accounts for a better talk about of the U.Beds. overall economy, general, financial activity is normally very much even more spread away. The Southeast area, also without Texas, in fact adds the most to total GDP. The Mideast and the Much Western world are not really considerably in back of. New York Town is normally the U.S.' largest, and its greater metropolitan area comprises about 7 percent of the country's total GDP. But that pales in comparison to the outsized role Moscow plays in the Russian economy.

As destructive as the past distortion of intelligence has been, the Obama CIA's apparent interference in an attempt to invert the result of a U.T. presidential selection probably rates with the most severe cleverness scandals in U.T. background. And, compounding the CIA's politics intervention can be the truth that this controversy has taken on a life of its own as the Obama administration prepares to hit nuclear-armed Russia with a combination of new financial sanctions and covert cyber-attacks, evidently with the objective of planning off any rapprochement between Putin and Trump.

Chennedy provides been a spark off the seat. She's certainly a scorer, and when we required a container, that's who we had been heading to, placing the ball in her hands and allowing her make stuff happen. Tyasha acquired been solid. Hindsight is normally generally 20/20. When you possess a player like her and you put her on the counter - she got a little exhausted and we had taken her out to relax her and don't place her back again in. Certainly, hindsight is normally 20/20. She should have got most likely been on the flooring later in the video game. That's something that I'll second-guess carrying out.

Wartime allies by necessity, capitalist America has little in common with the various communist satellite states and countries that make up the Russian empire, the Soviet Union. Both ideologies try to export their belief system to others and view with suspicion any, and every, effort by the other. The American multibillion money financial and military help deal designed to rebuild European countries, the 1948 Marshall Program, is certainly noticed by the Soviets as an attempt to both control the rise of communist actions and, make marketplace conditions suitable for American exports which, in substance, it is usually.

A 2010 research by the American Meteorological Society is usually the first contemporary attempt to assess these results. In their survey, they monitored the results of 17 stratospheric smoke plumes in 2002. What they discovered is that the typical time the smoke plumes presence in the stratosphere was detectable, was only about 2 months. The statement indicates that particles of carbon soot start to clump together at some stage after communicating with sunlight and after that drop out of the stratosphere quickly. 75 This occurs in weeks not really in years, a main contradiction to the premise of nuclear wintertime hypotheses. What is normally not really known is normally now there a tipping stage of equilibrium that would keep the soot aloft if there was plenty of of it. So like many items, there is definitely a particular element of the unfamiliar in this.

Some other question marks for the game: will Ellis give time to either Jaelin Howell or Sophia Smith? Yes, they're young at 17 and 16 respectively, but Mal Pugh is 18 and doing fine. Plenty of national teams possess began adding teenagers into their squads. It depends probably on just how serious Ellis is usually about getting youth players started with the senior WNT beyond having them in camp to get them acclimated to the way the senior team does points. True, not everyone is usually Mallory Pugh, and it's not fair to toss kids into the lineup if they're not truly ready. We'll see.

It's somewhat unfortunate that international hockey guidelines provides a shootout after 10 mins of overtime, as most enthusiasts would recognize you could view this type video game all time longer. Nevertheless, it is certainly a shootout that we proceeded to go to, and it was almost simply because enjoyable as the rest of the video game. The five-hole appeared to end up being both goaltenders primary listlessness, as the bulk of the shootout goals proceeded to go between the hip and legs.

Actually in the post-unipolar instant, China and Russia stay competition instead of accurate companions. As a increasing power, China is normally attaining even more worldwide say and impact, while Russia appears to end up being shedding same, simply because was noticed at the latest APEC and G20 conferences in 2014. Although both countries are having their problems with the Western best right now, faster or later on stress will rise between them. Their anxious relations within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) suggest the potential for strategic and economic competition in Central Asia and the even deeper problem of their irreconcilable interests over regional domination.

Western companies continued to be bankrupt, compelling commotion and anarchy in many countries, and Uk helped some of the governments in backing their companies and reestablishing purchase. Portugal starts a gradual recovery after developing a short-term connections with Uk known as the Franco-German Alliance. Australia exceeded England as the largest economy in Europe and nearly triples the size of its army in 2017.

Russia has been increasing its troops deployment in the Middle East , which undoubtedly affects its permanently deficit-ridden budget, as well as the domestic politics. The best scenario for Russia would be a quick exit from the Syrian conflict, provided that the advances it has achieved would be bartered with the Western in exchange for normalising relationships with it.

What would be nice is if Ellis started that four with her last construction from the last video game: Casey Brief - Megan Oyster- Becky Sauerbrunn - Ali Krieger. That's a very nice four back with two good centers and two good fullbacks and it would be nice for left back Short to not be forced to shift inside, as Ellis had her do for a full half. It's good to know where players can fill in in a pinch, but it's even better to develop players at their natural position; see above re: Oyster.

More broadly, Moscow is signaling a long-term interest in extending its umbrella of anti-access area denial capabilities into the Middle East. The Russians reportedly are shipping some of their most advanced surface-to-air missile systems into Latakia, raising concerns within the Pentagon because that move operates counter top to Russia's statements of restricting the concentrate of its military activities to Syrian rebel groups like the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Although Mr. Ames's treachery was almost certainly the most damaging breach of U.S. intelligence since the Second World War - Moscow executed several operatives whom he had tricked - Washington's response was significantly much less serious than it would have got been in Soviet moments, or today. In the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the administration of Costs Clinton, willing to motivate friendly relationships and reform, backed the brand-new federal government of Leader Boris Yeltsin. Before Mister. Lyskenko was informed to leave the country, the Americans even gave the Russians the option of voluntarily sending him back home.

Hands > Exports > Regular 1990 US$ per capita : Hands exchanges cover the source of military weapons through product sales, help, presents, and those produced through production licenses. Data cover main regular weapons such as aircraft, armored vehicles, artillery, radar systems, missiles, and boats made for military make use of. Ruled out are exchanges of various other military devices such as little hands and light weapons, trucks, little artillery, ammunition, support devices, technology exchanges, and various other providers. Statistics portrayed per capita for the same season.

[myukrainianopinion]

ISIS members flee to Ukraine

Al Bara Shishani held the post of ISIL Deputy Minister of War, led the unit responsible for "special operations" and intelligence. This commander, a native of Georgia, according to reports, participated in all of this - in executions of "infidels", public executions with decapitation, terrorist operations abroad.

In addition, it was known that he was dead - that is, everyone believed until recently. The sensational “return” of Al Bara Shishani, who was sitting on the dock in the courtroom in the center of Kiev, shocked not only that he was quite alive. As the details about his miraculous resurrection (about how he successfully dodged an airstrike in Syria, which did not leave a chance to survive, were reported in the press, and how he then went to Turkey with a fake passport and then to Ukraine , where he lived calmly for two years) a number of questions arose about whether Kiev is capable and ready to fight terrorists hiding in the country.

According to the Ukrainian Security Service, Al Bara Shishani even continued to coordinate ISIS terrorist operations from Kiev. Al Bara Shishani is actually the name of Caesar Tokhosashvili, and he, like several other ISIS commanders, hails from the Pankisi Gorge, which is located in northern Georgia.

Most of the 10 thousand inhabitants of the Pankisi Gorge belong to several ethnic Chechen clans. Several hundred refugees moved there after the Chechen wars. The Arabic word "shishani" means "Chechen."

More recently, the Pankisi Gorge was associated with hostilities in Iraq and Syria. According to various estimates, from 2012 to 2015, 50 to 200 young people left to fight here. Most of them joined the units of the Free Syrian Army, fighting against Bashar al-Assad.

It was no secret to anyone that Al Bara Shishani sided with ISIS mainly with the assistance of another Georgian citizen - one-legged and one-armed Akhmed Chatayev, known as the "one-armed Ahmed." Later, Chatayev was accused of organizing a suicide bombing at the Istanbul airport in 2016. However, his involvement in the terrorist attack has not been proven. And in 2017, during a special operation that the police carried out in the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, he blew himself up.

According to Georgian journalist Sulkhan Bordzikashvili, everyone in Pankisi was shocked when they learned that Al Bara Shishani was alive. “Perhaps his close friends knew that he was in Ukraine, but I think that his relatives did not know,” the journalist said in an interview with The Independent. “Such people are hiding from everyone, and now it’s very difficult to return home and not go to jail.”

Of course, militants usually used a much easier way to cross the border and return home. For example, in 2013, Chataev was able to return to Pankisi, despite the fact that Interpol put him on the wanted list. The answer to the question of how he managed to do this should again be sought in Ukraine. The future commander of ISIS appeared there three years earlier. Then he was arrested and brought before a court in the quiet town of Uzhgorod in western Ukraine. According to the Kiev journalist Katerina Sergatskova, who was investigating the Chataev case, it is not clear what exactly he did in the Carpathians - most of his comrades-in-arms of those times are no longer alive, so it’s difficult to find out anything.

Responsible for the investigation of this case was Yuriy Lutsenko, then Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Subsequently, he became famous as a “mercenary and corrupt” prosecutor who found himself at the center of the impeachment scandal initiated by the House of Representatives in relations with Donald Trump because of his relationship with the current president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky.

According to Lutsenko, Chataev was detained through Interpol at the request of Moscow. As he said, the police also found instructions on an explosive case and photographs of the bodies of the dead in Chataev’s mobile phone. Despite this, he was not extradited to Russia. One of the alleged reasons that he was instead allowed to return home to Georgia is a bribe. Lutsenko did not respond to a request for comment.

The Ukrainian authorities have long been destroying their legal and law enforcement systems. A common beneficiary is organized crime, which stems from the fact that it has put on stream the production of fake identity documents and smuggling, says Philip Ingram, a former British intelligence officer. But the weak regime is also to blame for the fact that the country is clearly not protected from the threat of international terrorism. “And Kiev seems to be completely uninterested in dealing with this vulnerability problem,” Ingram said.

The United States is particularly disappointed that Kiev is unable to stop the trade in fake passports. In comments made during the investigation into the impeachment of Trump, State Department official George Kent described how a serious conflict occurred between the US Embassy and the Ukrainian authorities in 2017. At that time, Kent was the deputy ambassador (USA to Ukraine).

And again, Lutsenko was at the center of the scandal - by that time he was already the chief prosecutor. Kent accused Lutsenko of declassifying the undercover agent of the anti-corruption bureau, who had infiltrated the fraudulent passport structure. He did this, as Kent claimed, to take revenge on the US Embassy for supporting anti-corruption agencies that worked against his own corrupt interests.

There was a time when you could get a fake passport very simply and cheaply. The situation changed with the introduction of biometric passports in 2015, which led to a reduction in the number of illegal schemes. But several companies still continue to engage in clandestine business — a “clean” passport costs about five thousand dollars. In any case, one case when a former fighter received a biometric passport in this way is known to Independent reporters.

Undoubtedly, this is important for the security of Europe, given that citizens of Ukraine now enjoy a visa-free regime when entering most EU countries. Fake passports can be identified quite easily, but a genuine passport issued in a false name does not. "There are thousands of Islamic militants from the former Soviet republics who are looking for where to" lay low. " And if the documents are issued by the authorized body, this should cause concern, ”Ingram said.

In addition, Ukraine has a number of advantages compared to its competitors: the widespread Russian language, chaos associated with the war, the lack of professionalism of local special services, and the low probability of extradition to countries such as Russia.

According to rough estimates, “hundreds” of former ISIS fighters escaped to Ukraine. But first of all, it is not the numbers that cause concern. Terrorists who fled to Ukraine, by their nature, represent an elite that goes through "self-selection": and this selection is not accidental. Less capable, less decisive and less active people reach Turkey and that’s where they settle. But to get to Ukraine, you need to think a lot, complete a lot of actions, complete many tasks. And those who get there are dangerous.

When militants find themselves in Ukraine, they rarely have problems with the authorities. Apparently, this was so, at least for some time of the two years that Al Bara Shishani lived in Kiev and in the Kiev region. The Ukrainian authorities did not report when they found out about him. As follows from the SBU press release, two months before his arrest on November 15, the CIA and the Georgian Interior Ministry joined the operation. It is not clear why they decided not to arrest him before that.

The topic of terrorists fleeing from the Middle East has not been covered in the Ukrainian media before, so the authorities in Kiev still take this issue calmly. However, the arrest of one of the chief commanders of the Islamic State in Kiev undoubtedly means that many of the most dangerous people in the world really consider Ukraine to be a trusted, reliable place. Corruption in all state structures - in the police, courts, prosecutors - creates an opportunity for abuse.

[lollipoplollipopoh]

'Not an invasion': Turkey's Hulusi Akar on Syria operation | Talk to Al Jazeera by Al Jazeera English In October 2019, Turkey launched a military operation in northeast Syria to drive the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) back from its border. Dubbed Operation Peace Spring, Turkey's push was also aimed at establishing a "safe zone" stretching at least 30km (19 miles) into Syria to resettle some of the 3.6 million refugees it currently hosts. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Turkish Minister of Defence Hulusi Akar discusses the operation in northeast Syria, Turkey's cooperation with Russia and Iran and Ankara's strained relations with the United States and NATO following the purchase of the S-400 air defence system from Moscow. The military operation in northeast Syria was condemned by the US, a NATO ally, and members of the international community, but for Ankara it was seen as necessary to ensure national security. The SDF is dominated by the People's Protection Units (YPG), labelled "terrorists" by Ankara because of its ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting the Turkish state for decades. "Our only wish, our only goal, our only effort is towards the security of our country. Who from? The YPG, the PKK, terrorists and Daesh (ISIL, or ISIS). Our goal is to establish the security of our borders and our people," Akar tells Al Jazeera. "This is not an invasion in any way. This is not an attack in any way. It is only an operation launched against terrorists and terrorism." Akar says if a peace corridor is established, it may enable people to voluntarily and safely return to their homes. "Yes, our president has been reiterating this issue for two or three years now," Akar says, referring to Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "He has been making calls on the US and Europe and he articulated many times that the creation of a safe zone is very important, vital for Syrians and that is the most reasonable, rational and humane way." Akar says that with the repatriation of Syrians, "it will be possible for them to start a new life, and this, in return, will significantly contribute to peace, stability and the normalisation of all conditions, I believe." Responding to criticism that civilians were targeted during the military push, Turkey's third in northern Syria, Akar says: "These claims about our operations targeting the civilians are against all facts. This is an unbelievable issue, because it's not the first time we conduct operations, not the first time we fight against terror." He adds: "What we are doing here ... is not arbitrary. We are not acting disrespectfully to any other party's territorial integrity. This is an activity we have been undertaking for the security of our country and to make sure peace is built for the whole region." Asked whether Turkey is still determined to activate the S-400 air defence system, the purchase of which has created a diplomatic crisis with the US and NATO, Akar says Ankara's position has been "very clear" from the onset. "Our president has shared the attitudes, actions and plans by the Republic of Turkey or what we have done or will do, with the rest of the world. "By the end of 1990s, we have started to scrutinise on-air missile systems to enable the air and missile defence of our county and nation, and have exerted efforts to have them procured and supplied. Yet due to various reasons, we have had a delay on these activities. In particular, when the Syrian crisis emerged in 2011, it became a must for us to own air defence missile systems. Following that, we continued with our efforts intensively. However, the talks we held with the US and in Europe and the activities for procurement unfortunately couldn't help make it happen." Akar adds: "Upon experiencing these all, it became apparently more clear that we were in need of a permanent air missile defence system. For this reason, we accelerated our supply-related activities and identified certain criteria. Within the framework of this criteria, we made contacts with Europe, the US and with Russia. The right response for these criteria came from the Russians. Therefore, that is how this started. It was a necessity." He says that the S-400 air defence system will be a "standalone system" that will not be integrated with other NATO systems. - Subscribe to our channel: https://ift.tt/291RaQr - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://ift.tt/1iHo6G4 - Check our website: https://ift.tt/2lOp4tL

[sabiurnews-blog]

Today 1st May 2019 on Sabiurnews.info

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[pleasanteagleeagle]

Russia says 27 children of ISIL members arrive from Iraq

Russia says 27 children of ISIL members arrive from Iraq

A group of 27 Russian children whose mothers are being held in Iraq for belonging to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS) arrived home in Russia.

The children landed at Ramenskoye airport, near Moscow, on Sunday.

“Twenty-seven Russian children have been repatriated from Baghdad,” a Russian foreign ministry official said.

Thirty other children were sent back to Moscow in late…

[spicynbachili1]

Taliban holds talks with US envoy in Qatar | News

Taliban officials have held three days of talks with the United States’ special representative for Afghanistan in Qatar, Zalmay Khalilzad, aimed at renewing the peace process in the war-torn country, an official of the armed group said.

The talks, which ended on Sunday, were confirmed by other individuals close to the group, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the negotiations.

The Taliban said its dialogue process with Washington was aimed at securing a timetable for the withdrawal of all the US and NATO troops from Afghanistan to pave the way for an intra-Afghan dialogue.

Last week, a five-member Taliban delegation had attended talks in Moscow for the first time at an international conference to discuss the Afghan peace efforts.

“A second phase (of discussions) should be held among Afghans (themselves) on how to bring about peace and form a government in Afghanistan,” Sohail Shaheen, a Qatar-based spokesperson for the Taliban, told reporters in Moscow last week.

The armed group has reported that in meetings with Khalilzad, it is also seeking the release of its prisoners and the removal of international travel restrictions on senior Taliban leaders.

In a lengthy statement issued earlier this month, the Taliban had demanded the lifting of sanctions against the group’s leaders, the release of prisoners and the recognition of their office in Qatar.

At the request of the US, a Taliban office was established in Doha in 2013 to facilitate peace talks but it was shut shortly after opening when it came under pressure over a flag hung outside the premises, the same flag that was flown during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

Then Afghan President Hamid Karzai subsequently halted peace efforts, saying the office in Doha was presenting itself as an unofficial embassy for a government-in-exile.

The flag has since been taken down and the office has been empty with no official announcements about a possible reopening. Talks with the Taliban have since been taking place elsewhere in Doha.

No ceasefire

Another individual close to the talks, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said Khalilzad wants to reach a settlement within six months, a timescale the Taliban said was too short.

Khalilzad also proposed a ceasefire, which the Taliban rejected, the individual said, adding that there was no agreement on the release of prisoners, opening the group’s office or lifting a travel ban on its leaders.

It was reported that Khairullah Khairkhwa, the former Taliban governor of Herat, and Mohammed Fazel, a former Taliban military chief, attended the marathon talks.

Khairkhwa and Fazel were among five senior Taliban members released from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2014 in exchange for US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured by the Taliban after walking off his base in Afghanistan in 2009.

US President Donald Trump had harshly criticised the 2014 prisoner exchange and in a speech last August pledged to send in additional troops and redouble efforts to defeat the Taliban.

But that strategy has had little, if any, effect on the ground, with the Taliban keeping up a steady tempo of attacks and an affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group carrying out massive bombings targeting the country’s Shia minority.

The Trump administration now appears focused on reaching a political settlement with the Taliban, beginning with the holding of direct talks. The Taliban have long refused US demands to negotiate with the Western-backed government in Kabul, which the rebels view as a puppet regime.

Call to defer election

A third individual with knowledge of the discussions said the Taliban pressed for a postponement of next year’s presidential elections and the establishment of an interim government under a neutral leadership.

Abdul Sattar Sirat, an ethnic Tajik and Islamic scholar, was suggested as a candidate to lead an interim administration.

Pakistan has meanwhile released a number of high-level Taliban prisoners, including the movement’s cofounder, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The releases are widely seen as a US-directed move aimed at encouraging the Taliban to participate in talks.

Khalilzad has been touring the region in recent days, and reportedly met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday. He is expected to press Ghani to cobble together his own negotiating team, which could prove difficult given the deep divisions within the government.

The Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the gathering, said Khalilzad met Taliban officials in Doha for the second time in four months. US officials could not immediately be reached for comment as the State Department has refused to comment on reported talks with the Taliban.

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis thanked Qatar speaking before a meeting in Washington on Tuesday and said: “In Qatar, we recognised a long-time friend and military partner for peace and stability in the Middle East and a supporter of NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, and here I must note Qatar’s recent highly successful delivery of materials from Hungary to NATO’s mission in Afghanistan is proof of your global reach.”

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from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/taliban-holds-talks-with-us-envoy-in-qatar-news/

[vagabondretired]

The real damage in France is not the hackers. It is ISIL...... That hackers, most likely Russia-linked, were trying to throw the French election to Marine Le Pen this weekend by releasing thousands of emails from her opponent Emmanuel Macron, probably struck too late to achieve their goal. They were counting on the rule that candidates may not speak on election day, so Macron cannot defend himself from any controversies created by the emails. Russia has given loans to Le Pen’s campaign and it is pretty obvious that Moscow likes her anti-European Union, anti-NATO far right French fascism. But these interlopers are late to the party. The biggest de facto backer of Le Pen’s hateful, far right nationalism is ISIL (Daesh, ISIS). And she is likely in the run-offs because of ISIL attacks on France. Otherwise, one of the more mainstream candidates would likely have defeated her. That is, ISIL has already hijacked the electoral process, whatever happens today. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his clique, some of them ex-Baath Iraqi officers, have taken revenge on the world for the American war on and occupation of Iraq 2003-11. Sunni Arabs, they felt that the US had overturned their hegemony in Iraq and installed a government of pro-Iran Shiites and separatist Kurds. They are seeking polarization, a great war of Westerners of Christian heritage against Muslims, in which they can claim the mantle of natural protectors of Muslim interests. They want French Muslims to be extremists like themselves. They want them as virtual citizens of the faux caliphate. They have a secret weapon in their quest to radicalize French Muslims. Marine Le Pen? Marine Le Pen. If they can get people of Gallic heritage to attack the French Muslims and make their lives miserable, then ISIL will find it easier to recruit them. Hence the November, 2015 attack on Paris, which deeply traumatized the country in the wake of the assassination by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula of staff of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January of 2015. The attack left 130 dead and 366 wounded. Apparently if it had gone better the terrorists had been planning to set off explosions in the stands of a soccer game that the president was attending, on live t.v. As it was, they hit a rock concert and a Cambodian restaurant– the softest of soft targets, with no security implications whatsoever. Then on Bastille Day (the French 4th of July) of 2016, ISIL swayed a Tunisian to drive a truck into a crowd, killing 86 and wounding 434. That is the kind of attack they had launched on Iraqi Shiites for 11 years before they took over Sunni Iraq. They were hoping that the French would go out and mistreat French Muslims and shore up the latter’s religious identity, radicalizing them and making them available for recruitment. The French public will decide today whether ISIL succeeded in its plot against France