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Syrian army expels ISIL from Aleppo Province after Maskana freed


FARS News Agency
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 14:46 UTC
Syrian army captured the strategic town of Maskana
The Syrian army captured the strategic town of Maskana as the last ISIL stronghold in Aleppo province.

Following clashes with ISIL terrorists in Eastern Aleppo, the Syrian army captured tens of villages and towns in areas surrounding the key Maskana town and eventually forced a large number of terrorists in Maskana to retreat towards Raqqa.

Meantime, the engineering units of the Syrian army also cleared these regions of hundreds of mines, bombs and IEDs left behind by the terrorists.

The army troops also managed to seize control over the water pumping stations and electricity generators of the region and also regained control over the mountains along the Maskana-Raqqa road.
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Handcuffs

Scotland Yard: Police arrest 12 people in London anti-terrorism raids, deploy armed street patrols


RT
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 14:21 UTC
london police
© Hannah McKay / ReutersOfficers and vehicles stand outside a block of flats that was raided by police in Barking, east London, Britain, June 4, 2017.
Some 12 people have been arrested at multiple addresses in Barking, east London Sunday morning following armed raids by British counter terrorism police. Searches at the locations are ongoing.

The investigation into Saturday's terrorist attack at London Bridge and Borough Market is "progressing rapidly" according to a statement from Scotland Yard.

British Prime Minister Theresa May called an emergency meeting of top security officials Sunday morning and has been briefed about the ongoing investigation.

Comment: More on the London attack: London attacks: Stabbing reports at multiple locations after van rams into people on London Bridge, May calls it a possible terrorist act

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Radar

White House ramping up infrastructure effort in coming days

Melanie Zanona
The Hill
Sat, 03 Jun 2017 14:06 UTC
US highway
© Getty
The White House will kick its major infrastructure initiative into high gear next week with a string of high-profile events aimed at ramping up support for one of President Trump's chief campaign promises.

The administration had been under increasing pressure to show progress on the $1 trillion rebuilding package, which Trump broadly outlined in his budget proposal last week.

While work on the infrastructure proposal has been underway for months, next week will mark the administration's most public effort yet to sell stakeholders, lawmakers and the public on Trump's plan.
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Info

Ukraine-Gazprom gas standoff 'reaches a new level' as Kiev seizes 40% stake in Gaztranzit


Sputnik
Sat, 03 Jun 2017 13:55 UTC
Gazprom building
© Sputnik/ Maksim Blinov
Kiev notified Gazprom of the seizure of a 40 percent stake in its Ukrainian subsidiary Gaztranzit. According to analyst Roman Tkachuk, the Russian company should turn to the European Commission over the dispute.

In 2015, Gazprom was fined $3.2 billion by Ukraine's Anti-Monopoly Committee for the alleged abuse of its monopoly position in the gas market in 2009-2015. The Russian company protested the decision, since it does not run its business in Ukraine and gas supplies are operated by Ukraine's Naftogaz.

However, the ruling was not overturned and last year the anti-monopoly committee filed a lawsuit to the Kiev economic court pertaining to the enforced recovery of the fine plus $3.2 billion in fines for delay in payment. As a result, a fine totaling nearly $6.4 billion was ruled by the court last December. Gazprom challenged the decision but its appeal was dismissed.
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Info

Damascus welcomes India's participation in post-war reconstruction of Syria


Sputnik
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 13:50 UTC
Bashar Assad
© AP Photo/ SANA
Syrian authorities will welcome India's participation in the post-war reconstruction of the country, Syrian President Bashar Assad told India's WION television broadcaster in an interview published on Saturday, adding that New Delhi could also play a role in the settlement of the Syrian conflict.
"If you want to talk about the reconstruction, as you know when you have war in any country that destroys much of the infrastructure, the most profitable sector would be the rebuilding, and India is welcome to play an economic role in the reconstruction of Syria, something that we already started," Assad said.
The Syrian leader stressed that the reconstruction project had already been launched in Damascus and was being expanded to other cities after their liberation from the Islamic State (Daesh) and al-Nusra Front terrorist groups.
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Attention

London terror attacks: Why we need to talk about Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism

John Wight
Sputnik
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 13:39 UTC
London terror attack
© AP Photo/ Yui Mok/PA
It is time for an honest conversation about Wahhabism, specifically the part this Saudi-sponsored ideology plays in radicalizing young Muslims both across the Arab and Muslim world and in the West, where in the UK people have just woken up to another terrorist attack in which innocent civilians were butchered and injured, this time in London.

The US, British and French governments can no longer credibly claim to be serious about fighting terrorism or religious extremism while cozying up to what is a medieval kleptocracy in Riyadh.

Just days prior to this terrorist attack in London it was reported that a UK government inquiry into the role of Saudi money in funding terrorism is likely to be shelved, due to the sensitive nature of its findings. The report was originally commissioned at the behest of the Liberal Democrats, while in coalition government with the Tories back in 2015. It was sanctioned by then Prime Minister David Cameron in return for Lib Dem parliamentary support for British airstrikes in Syria. Given that the British government just signed £3.5 billion (US$4.51 billion) worth of arms export licenses to Saudi Arabia, the suppression of the report's findings is nothing short of a scandal.
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Arrow Up

Assad: Military situation in Syria 'dramatically' improving as terrorists retreat


Sputnik
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 12:23 UTC
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad
© qudspressSyrian President Bashar Al-Assad
Syrian President Bashar Assad said that the situation in Syria has improved dramatically from the military point of view as the terrorist groups are retreating but the spread of their ideology remains one of the key challenges facing the country and the Middle East region in general.

The situation in Syria has improved dramatically from the military point of view as the terrorist groups are retreating but the spread of their ideology remains one of the key challenges facing the country and the Middle East region in general, Syrian President Bashar Assad told India's WION television broadcaster in an interview published on Saturday.
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Cow

Nikki Haley: Trump 'believes' in climate change, will take care of it on US' terms


RT
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 12:23 UTC
nikki haley
© REUTERS/ Joshua Roberts
President Trump is aware of climate change, but will "take care" of it on America's own terms, US Envoy to the UN Nikki Haley told CNN. In response to Trump's pullout from the Paris climate accord, the EU is considering economic measures.

The US president Donald Trump "knows that [the climate] is changing and that the US has to be responsible for it," Haley told CNN host Jake Tapper, commenting on Trump's recent decision to withdraw the US from the Paris agreement on climate change.

Calling the current UN treaty - negotiated in 2015 under the Obama administration and signed by almost 200 nations - impossible to adhere to, Haley criticized the former president for signing the US on to the accord.

Comment: Further reading: One graph proves why the 'Paris Agreement' is useless

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Bad Guys

Analyzing the CIA's 'cloddish' ISIS attack on Duterte & the Philippines

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 12:23 UTC
cia / isis
© Saul Loeb / AFP
The only word I find for it is cloddish. I refer to the latest CIA-instigated attempt to initiate regime change against outspoken Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. The so-called ISIS terror attack in the minerals-rich southern Philippines island of Mindanao, a predominately Muslim part of the mostly Christian nation of 100 million people, took place literally in the midst of President Duterte's talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Duterte Putin talks in turn followed Duterte's attendance in Beijing on May 15 for the first New Silk Road or Belt Road Forum. America's colonial asset since 1898 was clearly walking away from the Washington "reservation."

The terrorist siege in Marawi City is blatantly a desperate Washington try to topple the very popular (80% popularity in polls) Duterte, who successfully won the Presidency last June over a US-backed Mar Roxas, a US-educated former Wall Street banker. Since taking office Duterte has made bold and quite courageous steps to steer the former US Colony towards a Eurasian alliance with China and Russia as his major supporters. In Beijing in October last year, Duterte met China's Xi Jinping and signed numerous trade deals with China. Critically, taking an opposite policy to his pro-US predecessor Benigno Aquino III, Duterte agreed to resolve the South China Sea dispute between Philippines and China through peaceful diplomatic talks, and to as he put it, "seek a separation from the United States."
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Gear

Here's why the terror attacks on London will not affect the outcome of the British election

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 10:15 UTC
London
London
Previous experience of terrorist attacks during elections confirms that unless politicians make serious mistakes their effect on election outcomes is minimal.

There is little doubt that the two terrorist incidents in London tonight are the work of Jihadi terrorists acting on behalf of ISIS and that their intention is to intrude in their usual murderous way into the British general election.

This begs the question of whether ISIS will succeed in this objective. The short answer, which can be given with confidence in the light of previous experience, is that if 'intruding into the British general election' equates to changing its outcome, then ISIS will fail.

Al-Qaeda and ISIS have carried out several terrorist attacks whilst elections in Europe are underway. Most recently on 20th April 2017 a Jihadi terrorist acting on behalf of ISIS killed one police officer and wounded two others and a tourist on the Champs-Élysées in Paris three days before voting in the first round of the French Presidential election was due to take place.


Comment: UPDATES: Police officer killed, another injured in Champs-Elysees shooting in Paris


Comment: See also: London attacks: Stabbing reports at multiple locations after van rams into people on London Bridge, May calls it a possible terrorist act

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