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Cardboard Box

French government orders clear labeling on goods from Israeli settlements


RT
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 19:20 UTC
Israel package warehouse
© Baz Ratner / ReutersA worker carries boxes containing wine bottles for export at Shiloh Wineries, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah November 8, 2015.
French vendors are now required to clearly mark all products from settlements in Israeli-occupied territories after Paris introduced import regulations in line with EU policy.

A year after the European Commission issued its guidelines on the indication of the origin of goods from territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, France went on to issue its own regulation. It was not immediately clear whether the notice published in the French Official Journal was mandatory or advisory.

The French guidelines state that in accordance with Commission rules adopted in November 2015, importers must mark the precise place from which the goods originate and not mark them as products of Israel.

Regulations apply to products that originate in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which are considered occupied territories under international law.
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Question

Republican or Democrat? What difference will it make for Palestine?


RT
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 19:28 UTC
trump and mosque
© ReutersUS President-elect Donald Trump (L) and Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City
Donald Trump promises to be Israel's "best friend" when he enters the White House next year, to the delight of Israel's far right. Eminent Middle East scholars, however, aren't convinced Hillary Clinton would have been any better for the Palestinian people.

Speaking to RT's Rob Edwards at the Palestine Book Awards pre-launch event in London last week, two prize-winning authors said the Trump presidency is unlikely to become the horror show many anticipate for Israel-Palestine.

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Dollar

Trudeau's cash-for-access is pay-to-play, Canadian style


BBC News
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 19:43 UTC
Justin Trudeau
© AFPPrime Minister Justin Trudeau is under fire for political fundraising
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under fire for attending an exclusive fundraiser with key Chinese-Canadian business leaders.

Political opponents say the "cash-for-access" event breaks the Liberal party's own ethics guidelines.

The Liberals say they are following federal political financing rules.

It is not the first time the Trudeau government has faced criticism for its fundraising practices.

Last May, Mr Trudeau was the guest star at a CAD$1,525 ($1130/£900) fundraiser at the private Toronto home of Benson Wong, the chair of the Chinese Business Chamber of Canada.

The exclusive event has Mr Trudeau's political opponents accusing him of breaking the "open and accountable" ethics rules the Liberal party brought in shortly after their election in 2015.

Opposition politicians repeatedly pressed the issues for a second day in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

"These fundraisers don't pass the smell tests. Will the prime minister do the right thing and stop these cash-for-access programs?" said interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose.

Comment: Looks are deceiving, Justin Trudeau is a member of the old-boys' club at heart

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Bad Guys

British govt in denial: Libya involvement 'helped save civilian lives, weaken militants'


RT
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 15:40 UTC
Libya
The British government has waved away criticism of its intervention in Libya in 2011, voiced in the report by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee in September. It argues the involvement helped save civilian lives and weaken extremist militant groups.

"UK military intervention in Libya was part of the Government's policy response to a revolution started by Libyans in February 2011 and the violent crackdown by the [Gaddafi] regime that followed. [...] Our objective remained clear at all times: to protect civilians and to promote stability in Libya," the government's response, published on the Parliament's website, stated.

The statement is in response to a lengthy report by the UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee dubbed 'Libya: Examination of intervention and collapse and the United Kingdom's future policy options'.

The report was a damning assessment of UK's actions in Libya in 2011 which supported the local uprising and brought about the ouster of longtime leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, with rival powers and militias fighting for control over the country ever since.

The document accused the UK government basing its strategy in Libya on "erroneous assumptions and an incomplete understanding of the evidence" and of turning the operation to protect civilians in the war-torn state into "regime change by military means."

The result of that strategy, according to the report, was "political and economic collapse, inter-militia and inter-tribal warfare, humanitarian and migrant crises, widespread human rights violations, the spread of Gaddafi regime weapons across the region and the growth of Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL] in North Africa."

Comment: See also: Butcher of Libya defeated: Libyan tribes happy Trump elected, attacks stopped immediately as jihadists mourned Hillary's loss

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Bomb

5th Special Forces Group member killed on road to Raqqa in Syria

Jack Murphy
SOFREP
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 19:28 UTC
US special operations forces in Syria
© DELIL SOULEIMAN / AFP
On Thanksgiving day, a EOD tech assigned to 5th Special Forces Group was killed in Ayn Issa, Syria. US CENTCOM (Central Command) announced yesterday that a US soldier was killed by an IED blast, but withheld further details. To understand why an American Special Forces advisor would be in Ayn Issa with the Kurdish YPG and affiliated Arab militias working under the banner of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), one need only look at a map. The road south from Ayn Issa leads straight into the ISIS capital of Raqqa.
raqqa
Further West, the Kurdish YPG crossed the Euphrates river with the help of US Special Operations personnel, and took Manbij several months ago, before pushing toward Al Bab, a strategic decision which would close the Jarabulus corridor that supplies ISIS with weapons and fighters from Turkey. Such a move would also link the Kurdish canton of Kobani with the isolated and besieged canton of Afrin. Ayn Issa is linked to a separate strategic objective, capturing Raqqa and finishing off ISIS once and for all.

5th Group has been working inside Syria since President Obama announced that he was sending SOF soldiers into the country to work with SDF. Initially, Delta Force was to be deployed to Syria working under the auspices of the CIA. Delta Force is designed for surgical strikes, not long duration counter-insurgency missions or unconventional warfare, so they requested help from Special Forces.

Comment: This was the first reported combat death suffered by the U.S. in Syria.

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Blackbox

Fog of war: Confused accounts on airstrike that killed Turkish troops

Bernard
Moon of Alabama
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 18:55 UTC
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey), Nov 24 2016 - Three Turkish soldiers killed in suspected Syrian government air strike

Al Masdar News (Syria), Nov 25 2016 - Syrian Air Force denies bombing Turkish Army in east Aleppo

Avid readers of news sites will ask which of those reports is correct. They may turn to the so-called (hint: it's not) "paper of record", the New York Times and find this Nov 24 report: Syrian Warplanes Kill Turkish Soldiers Fighting in Syria

While that NYT headline claims certainty the text does not. It obediently repeats the Turkish government claim but adds:
Syrian Arab rebel forces fighting with the Turks said they had not received official notification that the Syrian government had launched the strike. One fighter said he had heard that the strike was from the Syrian government but heard later that it had been from the Islamic State. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a network based in Britain that monitors news from Syria, also said that the strike had been by the Islamic State.
An updated version of that report adds:
Some on the ground raised questions about whether the strike was undertaken by Syrian government forces. A network of activists who monitor the skies over Syria said Thursday that its watchers had spotted a Syrian aircraft taking off after 2 a.m. and also a Russian aircraft about the same time as the strike on Turkish forces occurred. It is impossible to know where the planes that were sighted went; they could easily have had another destination, the network said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a network based in Britain that monitors news from Syria, said the strike was by the Islamic State. But the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is not known to have combat aircraft.
---

Comment: See also: Turkish-Syrian forces clash in Syria after alleged Syrian airstrike on Turkish troops near al-Bab

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Blackbox

Turkish-Syrian forces clash in Syria after alleged Syrian airstrike on Turkish troops near al-Bab

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 18:05 UTC
fsa syria
Turkish-backed FSA.
As President Erdogan doubles down on the war in Syria, Turkey's military engages in armed clashes with the Syrian military in Lattakia province and near the strategic town of Al-Bab.

As the Syrian military continues to advance deeper into eastern Aleppo, with the Iranian Fars News Agency (FNA) reporting - perhaps rather over-optimistically - that the Al-Qaeda led Jihadis in eastern Aleppo may soon be forced to surrender, the situation between Syria and Turkey is deteriorating rapidly, with reports of armed clashes on Syrian territory between their two militaries.

Firstly there are reliable reports, confirmed by FNA, that a Syrian army offensive against Al-Qaeda led Jihadis in Lattakia province was forced back by heavy artillery fire directed from across the border by the Turkish army.

Secondly, and far more seriously, there are now also reports - confirmed by the Turks but not so far by the Syrians - of a Syrian air force strike on Turkish military positions north of the ISIS controlled Syrian town of Al-Bab in Aleppo province.

According to these reports either 3 or 5 Turkish soldiers were killed, with a further 10 or 16 wounded (precise figures for casualties differ). Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim is already threatening retaliation.

Comment: They Syrians warned Turkey back in October against making any further advances in Aleppo. This came after a previous threat (on October 20) against any further Turkish airstrikes in the region, which proved effective.

Yesterday, Turkish PM told the TRT channel that the Turkish General Staff is investigating the alleged airstrike:
"It is essential to determine who is responsible for the airstrike and why it was carried out. The relevant sides have been warned that any repeat of such a move is unacceptable... The incident near the city al-Bab will not impact Turkey's determination to complete Operation Euphrates Shield."

Turkey respects Syria's territorial integrity, the prime minister added, stressing that Turkey's priorities are destroying the Islamic States (IS) jihadist group as well as preventing Syria's de facto autonomous Kurdish-dominated Rojava federation from joining its forces between Manbij and Afrin.

Yildirim promised that Turkish forces would not head to Aleppo.
So on the one hand, some Turks are saying Syria did it, but Yildirim then says it is essential to determine who exactly carried it out, suggesting the matter is not so certain. Turkey says it wants to prevent the Kurds in the east and west linking up. But recent Syrian Army advances have almost accomplished just that. And they are now less than 2 km from Al-Bab. Take a look at these recent maps (the first shows the Turks/FSA in the north, ISIS=black, Kurds=yellow, SAA=red; the second zooms in on recent SAA advances in the western region shown in the first map):
aleppo
aleppa bab
So the situation is not so black-and-white. All sides of the conflict want Al-Bab. The next week's events will be crucial for understanding what is going on. Will the Turks back off once either they or the Syrians take the city from ISIS? Will Syria escalate the tensions if Turkey continues to move on the city?

Coincidentally, yesterday when the alleged airstrike occurred, November 24, was the one-year anniversary of the downing of the Russian jet in northern Syria.

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Document

Busted! Politicians, police caught in huge Norwegian pedophile ring


Sputnik
Thu, 24 Nov 2016 18:25 UTC
abused children
© Flickr/Ren Rebadomia
Norwegian police have filed charges against 51 people suspected of various kinds of abuse of children including babies. Even the future abuse of yet unborn children was discussed in the country's largest ever pedophile ring.

A total of 150 terabytes of data, including photos, videos and chat transcripts was seized in an operation codenamed "Dark Room," which was the largest operation of its kind carried out in Norway. The seized data shows, among other things, toddlers being penetrated, children being tied up, children having sex with animals and children having sex with other children.
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Eye 1

House of Lords passes bill providing the most extreme spying powers in the developed world

Darius Shahtahmasebi
The Anti Media
Wed, 23 Nov 2016 18:30 UTC
UK seeing eye
The House of Lords, the upper house of the U.K.'s parliament, just passed the Investigatory Powers Bill, legislation that provides immense spying powers to the British government. The government's new surveillance privileges are virtually unrivaled across the globe.

The bill, which critics have deemed the "Snooper's Charter," will force internet companies to keep records on their users for up to a year. These records will be accessed by numerous government departments, and the law also allows the government to force companies to hack into products they have sold so consumers can be monitored. Under the newly passed legislation, the government can also ask these companies to make their devices less secure so communications can be intercepted. They can also mandate that companies encrypt their devices on demand.

As noted by the Independent:
In all, the new bill includes a range of changes to the law that will affect normal people, and gives Britain perhaps the most extreme spying powers in the developed world. (emphasis added)

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

Israeli Army transports several wounded jihadist rebels to a local hospital in the occupied Golan Heights


Al Masdar News
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 19:29 UTC
A wounded man
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) transported several wounded militants from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front) on Thursday to a local field hospital in the occupied Golan Heights, a military source informed Al-Masdar News this afternoon.

The jihadist rebels were attempting to forestall the Syrian Arab Army's (SAA) progress near the Hadar-Quneitra Road on Thursday before sustaining heavy casualties as a result of intense clashes.

Comment: See also: Wounded al-Nusra terrorists taken to Israeli hospitals following clashes and Israeli air strikes

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