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France confirms troop presence in Libya after 3 soldiers killed in helicopter shoot down


RT
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 12:12 UTC
Freench troops in Libya
© Omar Sobhani / Reuters
Authorities have confirmed that French troops are fighting Islamist militia alongside government forces in Libya. The announcement comes after three French soldiers were killed during an intelligence-gathering mission in the North African country.

"At this moment we are carrying out dangerous intelligence operations [in Libya]. Three of our soldiers, who were involved in these operations, have been killed in a helicopter accident," French President Francois Hollande said in a speech, as reported by Reuters.

France had previously acknowledged its warplanes were executing reconnaissance flights over Libya, but never admitted to deploying Special Forces personnel.

Comment: For more on the continuing battles in Libya:

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Eye 1

High profile Ukrainian journalist Pavel Sheremet dies in car explosion

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 11:51 UTC
Journalist Pavel Sheremet Ukraine
Prominent journalist Pavel Sheremet murdered in Kiev car bombing.
Journalist Pavel Sheremet has died in Kiev when the car he was driving blew up minutes after it started.

Dead bodies of journalists and politicians continue to pile up in Ukraine. US and EU governments remain completely silent, afraid that such attacks on the press may destroy the false narrative built around Ukraine that they have so carefully constructed.

Nevertheless, the suspicious killings of prominent opposition supporters and journalists continues to grow.

Today news came in through the wires that well-known Russian journalist Pavel Sheremet died in Kiev when the car he was driving blew up minutes after it started.

The vehicle belonged to his employer, the head of Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper.

Comment: RFE/RL has some more details:
At the scene, kiosk operator Lyubov Pereyenko said she had just opened her shop when a deafening blast shook the ground. "The explosion was so powerful that it sent parts [of the car] flying into my kiosk," she told RFE/RL.

A barista at a mobile coffee truck said the blast thrust him backward and nearly knocked him to the ground and that it appeared Sheremet was alive when onlookers pulled his mangled body from the scorched vehicle. "He took a breath. Maybe just one," said the barista, who did not want to give his name. Sheremet's body was smoking, he added, so bystanders poured water over his body.
...
"Shocked by the murder of Pavel Sheremet," Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said on Twitter. He called Sheremet "one of the best" journalists and said: "Pavel was such a decent man. So sad."
...
Sevhil Musayeva-Borovyk, the chief editor at Ukrayinska Pravda, told RFE/RL that she believes Sheremet's killing was related to his work. Other colleagues at the website told RFE/RL that he recently had complained that he was being followed.
...
A crusader for human rights, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, Sheremet was arrested while shooting a report about smuggling across the Belarus-Lithuanian border in 1997 and sentenced to two years in prison -- a move widely viewed as politically motivated.


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Star of David

Israeli parliament passes controversial impeachment law despite criticism it targets Arab MPs


RT
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 12:03 UTC
Israeli parliament
© Heidi Levine / Reuters
Israel's parliament has passed legislation allowing for the suspension of members accused of incitement to violence, racism, or support for armed struggle against the state. Critics say the law is mostly aimed at Arab legislators.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed the new law, saying it ends the "absurd situation" whereby someone who "supports terror against the state of Israel and its citizens" can serve as a member of parliament, Reuters reported.

But not everyone agrees that the legislation is a positive move for the country.

Opposition members had initially submitted hundreds of objections to the bill, but withdrew them when it appeared that the majority coalition may not have enough lawmakers present to pass the vote on Tuesday night. They then demanded the vote take place immediately, the Times of Israel reported.
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Rocket

Pyongyang: Successful simulation of preemptive nuke strikes on US targets in South Korea


RT
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 00:58 UTC
NK rocket
© KCNA/Reuters
North Korea has boasted about the successful completion of its latest ballistic missile test which demonstrated Pyongyang's capability to launch a pre-emptive strike on South Korea's ports and airfields hosting the "US imperialists' nuclear war hardware."

Pyongyang launched three projectiles in the eastward direction between 5:45am and 6:40am Tuesday, from an area near the North Korean city of Hwangju. The missiles, two Scuds, and one Rodong, flew some 500 to 600 kilometers before crashing into the East Sea, South Korea's joint chiefs of staff announced. The distance is more than that required to hit any part of South Korea.

On Wednesday, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), revealed that the test had been carried out by Hwasong artillery units of the KPA Strategic Force, under the watchful eye of the country's leader Kim Jong Un and General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force.

The drill "demonstrated the combat capability of the Hwasong artillery units," under simulated conditions of "making preemptive strikes" at ports and airfields in South Korea where the "US imperialists' nuclear war hardware is to be hurled," the statement said. The test also helped examine the "operational features of the detonating devices of nuclear warheads" mounted on the ballistic rockets at the"designated altitude over the target area."

Tuesday launch was Pyongyang's latest show of force after the US and South Korea agreed to place Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile interceptor system in Seongju, some 200 miles southeast of Seoul. On July 9, North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) also against the decision to by the US to station its missile defense system at its borders.

Comment: See also:

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Info

PM May relinquishes Britain's 6-month 2017 EU presidency ahead of Merkel meeting


RT
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 11:55 UTC
Britain's Prime Minister, Theresa May
© Peter Nicholls / Reuters
Britain will give up its scheduled six-month European Council presidency following last month's referendum vote for Brexit, Downing Street has said.

Prime Minister Theresa May told council president Donald Tusk of the decision on Tuesday.

"The prime minister suggested that the UK should relinquish the rotating Presidency of the Council, currently scheduled for the second half of 2017, noting that we would be prioritizing the negotiations to leave the European Union," a spokesperson for the prime minister said, according to Reuters.

"The prime minister explained that we will need to carefully prepare for the negotiations to leave the EU before triggering Article 50. Donald Tusk reassured the prime minister that he will help to make this process happen as smoothly as possible."
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Bad Guys

US mulls 'pause' in support of Syrian rebels following gruesome beheading of Palestinian boy


RT
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 11:50 UTC
Syrian moderate rebels
© Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP
The US says it may reconsider its affiliation and support for the Syrian opposition if reports of anti-Assad rebels beheading a Palestinian boy are confirmed. The State Department has vowed "consequences" if the gruesome videos of the death are true.

"If we [the United States] can prove indeed what happened and this group [al-Zenki] was involved in it... it would give us pause about any assistance or frankly any further involvement," Deputy Spokesperson for the State Department, Mark Toner, told reporters at a daily briefing Tuesday.

Toner refused to elaborate on what consequences the Syrian opposition would face if it turns out that they had been behind the "appalling" beheading of the Palestinian boy.

"I can't take what these consequences would be, but this would give certainly a pause and we'll look at any affiliation or cooperation with this group," he reiterated when asked for details.
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Question

Russian ban at Rio Games: Integrity of the McLaren report compromised?


Yahoo! News
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 10:41 UTC
Olympic ban on Russia
© AFP Photo/Damien MeyerRussian track and field athletes have been banned from international competition by athletics world governing body the IAAF after an earlier inquiry said there was "state-sponsored" doping
Russian track and field athletes have been banned from international competition by athletics world governing body the IAAF after an earlier inquiry said there was "state-sponsored" doping
World sport leaders were on edge Sunday awaiting a report on allegations of widespread state-sponsored doping in Russia that US and Canadian anti-doping officials say could warrant a full ban of Russia from the Rio Olympics.

Although Russia is already banned from international athletics because of a doping storm, European Olympic Committees (EOC) president Pat Hickey said he was "shocked" by a call for a blanket ban of Russia before the findings of Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren's investigation are made public on Monday.

"My concern is that there seems to have been an attempt to agree an outcome before any evidence has been presented," Hickey said on Saturday.

"Such interference and calls ahead of the McLaren Report publication are totally against internationally recognised fair legal process and may have completely undermined the integrity and therefore the credibility of this important report."
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Newspaper

Five minutes of common sense: Post-coup Turkey will compromise with Russia

Ruslan Ostashko (translated by J. Arnoldski)
Fort Russ / PolitRussia
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 10:16 UTC
Putin - Erdogan
© unknown
I've long since noticed that our people have developed an interesting way of understanding the most complex, confusing, and obfuscated situations. This method is very simple and effective. Here is its essence: if you don't know whom to support, look who the pro-Western liberals and the journalists from "Echo" and "Rain" are supporting, and support the opposite.

This method works flawlessly, as we've seen with the example of the Turkish putsch. Once the first reports of the coup in Turkey began to appear, our liberal crowd rushed in hordes to support the coup. In fact, it is quite funny that our Westernizers rejoiced over Erdogan's overthrow together with the pseudo-patriots whose personal hatred for Erdogan is completely disconnected from any kind of logic.

I know that the theory that there wasn't actually a coup, but that it was all a hoax by Erdogan, is now making its rounds through social networks. But I don't believe in this version. It is difficult to imagine staging such a large-scale coup, moreover with the participation of 200 corpses as props, downed helicopters, and the storming of the presidential hotel and the shelling of government buildings with tanks. This was a real coup, albeit one simply made in an extreme hurry.

Comment: See also:

Erdogan benefits from Turkish coup attempt because it failed, not because he engineered it

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Bad Guys

Seeding chaos: US wages hybrid war in Armenia


Katehon
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 10:01 UTC
Armenia protest
© NetwarsThe US wages hybrid war in Armenia
The militants who seized the police station in Yerevan are demanded concessions from the authorities. 5 hostages are still in the hands of the bandits. The deputy head of the Armenian police, Major-General Vardan Yeghiazaryan and Deputy Chief of Yerevan Police, Colonel Valery Osipyan, are among the hostages. A group of radicals unsuccessfully tried to join militants at Monday.

Comment: See also:
Next theaters of chaos: Terrorist groups moving operations to Central Asia

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Jet5

US air strike in Syria kills up to 85 civilians 'mistaken for Isil fighters'

Josie Ensor
Telegragh
Tue, 19 Jul 2016 16:32 UTC
Syrian families, who fled the assault
© AFPSyrian families, who fled the assault launched by Arab and Kurdish forces against Islamic State (IS) group fighters in the town of Manbij, arrive at an encampment on the outskirts of the town
A US air strike killed more than 85 civilians, including children, in Syria on Tuesday after the coalition mistook them for Islamic State fighters.

Some eight families were hit as they tried to flee fighting in their area, in one of the single deadliest strikes on civilians by the alliance since the start of its operations in the war-torn country.

Pictures of the aftermath of the dawn strikes on the Isil-controlled village of Tokhar near Manbij in northern Syria showed the bodies of children as young as three under piles of rubble.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes appeared to have been carried out in error, with the civilians mistaken for Islamist militants.


Comment: SOHR is one guy in the UK. When he's not fabricating or being a stenographer for al-Nusra, blaming Assad and Putin for deliberately targeting civilians, he is sometimes forced to report a U.S. airstrike. Of course, when his UK/U.S. heroes actually kill civilians, it's 'in error'.


It is thought Tuesday's bombing was among the first by jets taking off from Incirlik air base in Turkey since it reopened after the failed coup.

The area has seen intense fighting between extremists and members of the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) that have been advancing towards the Isil stronghold of Manbij under the cover of intense airstrikes by the US-led coalition.

The coalition has carried out more than 450 air strikes around the city since the operation to take the town began in May.

The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, is trying to seize the last territory held by Islamic State on the frontier with Turkey.

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