Russian intelligence has spotted up to 12,000 tankers and trucks on the Turkish-Iraqi border, the General Staff of Russia's armed forces has reported.
"The [aerial] imagery was made in the vicinity of Zakho (a city in Iraqi Kurdistan), there were 11,775 tankers and trucks on both sides of the Turkish-Iraqi border," Lieutenant-General Sergey Rudskoy told journalists on Friday.
"It must be noted that oil from both Iraq and Syria come through this [Zakho] checkpoint," General Rudskoy said.
Puppet Masters
Zahran Alloush was killed in aerial raid that targeted his group's HQ, according to the sources in Northern Ghouta.
© Unknown
The defiant stance came after Yemen's warring parties on Sunday concluded UN-sponsored peace talks in Switzerland with no major breakthrough, but agreed to meet again on January 14.
At least 35 rebels were killed as pro-government forces pressed their offensive in Nihm, 40 kilometres (25 miles) outside rebel-held Sanaa, loyalist sources said.
© AP/Lefteris Pitarkis
Turkey must withdraw immediately all its troops from Iraq without any preconditions, a statement unanimously adopted by members of the Arab League said Thursday.
"The Arab League condemns Turkey for its military incursion into the Iraqi territory and demands that the Turkish government withdraw its troops immediately and without any preconditions," the statement said.
On December 4, Turkey deployed about 150 troops and 25 tanks to the Bashiqa camp in the northern Iraqi province, without Baghdad's approval, allegedly as part of an international mission to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight Daesh, also known as ISIL/The Islamic State.
Comment: On December 14th Parliamentary sources said Turkey is withdrawing troops from Northern Iraq. The U.S. requested a few days later that Turkey remove their troops: What the heck? U.S. calls on Turkey to remove troops from Iraq, Kerry says Assad doesn't have to go. Now, the 22-state Arab League is demanding the troops leave immediately. Are they or aren't they leaving and when?
© Andrew Kravchenko/Pool/Reuters
Gallup reports, "fewer Ukrainians now say their leadership is taking them in the right direction than before the revolution," but that statement calling this coup a 'revolution' embodies the propaganda-lie of one of Gallup's main clients, the U.S. government itself, which calls the U.S. coup in Ukraine in February 2014 a "revolution," when every honest and knowledgeable person now knows that this U.S. government claim — that it had helped install democracy instead of having ended it in Ukraine on 20 February 2014 — to have been a lie. Even the founder of the "private CIA" firm Stratfor has called the overthrow of Yanukovych "the most blatant coup in history." It had been that because it was the first coup to be videoed by numerous people from many different angles with their cellphones and by TV cameras, uploaded to the Web by even anti-Yanukovych countries such as the UK's BBC; and those videos, the best compilation of which is here, make clear that this was, indeed, a coup d'etat, no authentic revolution at all, such as the U.S. government claims.
© report.az
A bill on severing ties with the U.S. in a number of spheres has been submitted to the Azerbaijani parliament. It proposes, among other things, to suspend participation in the operations in Afghanistan in the format of ISAF contingents and to ban the transits of U.S. defence cargoes via Azerbaijani territory.
The text of the draft law 'On the Situation with Human Rights in the U.S.' was published by Azerbaijani media on Wednesday.
The initiator of the legislative motion, the deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee for legislative policies and state construction, Rowsan Rzaev, said the document is a self-styled response to the so-called Azerbaijan Democracy Act submitted to the U.S. Congress on December 16 by the Chair of the Helsinki Commission, Chris Smith.
The wiretapping reportedly took place last year as part of an investigation into six missing Turkish citizens, the Cumhuriyet reported. The relatives of those missing believed they might have joined the ranks of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants.
An investigation was launched into as many as 27 suspects, some of them in Syria, the report revealed.
The Chief Prosecutor's office reportedly received permission to wiretap the phones of 19 people who were thought to have put the six missing persons in touch with Islamic State. The investigation reportedly revealed that those who wanted to join IS ranks received some form of "ideological training."
Comment: The evidence that Turkey, and by extension NATO and the US, is supporting ISIS is so strong that the denials by the Turkish government are laughable:
- German broadcaster: ISIS supply lines originate in NATO's Turkey
- Iraqi MP says ISIS-smuggled oil is 'Oxygen for jihadists'- Turkey facilitates flow to intl markets
- Columbia U. Research Paper: Is Turkey collaborating with the Islamic State (ISIS)?
- How about that resignation, Erdogan? Turkey is buying oil from ISIS
- Lavrov slams Turkey for effectively allying with ISIS & playing major role in their illegal oil trade
- Turkish MP faces treason charges after revealing Turkey's funnelling of chemical weapons to ISIS
- Istanbul residents: 'Everyone knows what's going on' with Turkey-ISIS oil trade
- EU politicians rip Turkey's links to ISIS, label Erdogan dangerous
© ZedBeatssOfficial/You Tube
Clifford Dimba
Clifford Dimba
Dimba, 30, known as General Kanene, was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment, but was pardoned by President Lungu in July after spending a year behind bars. After his release, Dimba was involved in two further incidents of violence against women, but according to local media was released on bail.
On top of the reduced sentence, Dimba was appointed the "ambassador in the fight against gender violence," much to the dismay of the United Nations Council of Human Rights (UNCHR), which issued a statement on Tuesday.
"Such an outrageous release and appointment as an ambassador for the fight against gender-based violence not only traumatizes the victim all over again but discourages other victims from reporting similar offences," said Dubravka Šimonović, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences.
She added that the decision of the Zambian president undermined the strong message against sexual violence against women sent by the initial sentence for Dimba."Rather, Clifford Dimba has been placed in a prominent position and even portrayed as a role model to fight violence against women,"Šimonović said.
The pardon for Dimba means "impunity for an abhorrent crime" and his appointment is "more than cynical and adds insult to injury for the victim," said another UN human rights expert, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. "Furthermore it constitutes an utter disrespect for women and girls in Zambia who might rightly feel that their government is not protecting them,"she said.
Comment: In other words, "Thou shalt not question my pardoning a rapist and appointing him to a position that is supposed to fight gender violence. " What a scumbag.
Rape in South Africa: Still All Too Common
© Sergey Karpukhin / Reuters
Russian S-400 Triumph medium-range and long-range surface-to-air missile systems during the Victory Day parade at Red Square in Moscow, May 9, 2015
Russian S-400 Triumph medium-range and long-range surface-to-air missile systems during the Victory Day parade at Red Square in Moscow, May 9, 2015
India's Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) last week agreed the purchase of five S-400 air defense systems from Russia.
The S-400 systems are among the 'crown jewels' of Russia's defense capability, Jon Grevatt Asia-Pacific defense industry analyst for IHS Jane's, told Bloomberg.
"Russia and India have a very strong partnership that the US can only aspire to," said Grevatt. "Sales from America may ebb and flow, but the sales from Russia will remain strong because there are so many ongoing programs between the two countries."
The cost of the deal was not disclosed but according to estimates the air defense systems could cost India $4.5-$6 billion. It will become the biggest defense deal between the two countries since 2001 when India agreed to buy 140 Sukhoi Su-30MK fighter jets.
In an age when diplomats regularly correspond with each other behind the cold cover of firewalls and Twitter accounts, Moscow's method of informing its US partners that it would start bombing operations in Syria was reminiscent of a gesture from a more chivalrous era. Washington said it first learned of Moscow's plans in Syria when it received a personal visit from a Russian general who appeared at the US Embassy in Baghdad.
Just hours later, the Russian military - with the full support of Damascus - stunned the world by opening a powerful aerial assault against Islamic State forces in Syria where they were stubbornly entrenched not only as a viable fighting force, but as the owners and operators of a profitable oil-producing enterprise, no less. This Russian demonstration of shock-and-awe provided an exclamation point to comments delivered by President Vladimir Putin, who just one day earlier had berated Western powers in the UN General Assembly for the massive mess they had created in the region.
"I'm urged to ask those who created this situation: do you at least realize now what you've done? But I'm afraid that this question will remain unanswered, because they have never abandoned their policy, which is based on arrogance, exceptionalism and impunity," Putin told the audience.
Comment: This is what the West has to offer a nation seeking independence. With America's blessing, Saudi Arabia is turning Yemen into a snake-pit, while spreading terror, disease, and starvation.