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Caesar

Zakharova: It's 'beyond common sense' that West won't condemn terrorism in Syria


Sputnik
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 14:58 UTC
Terror attacks Syria car crash bomb
© REUTERS/ Omar Sanadiki
The behavior of Moscow's Western partners regarding the situation in Syria raises eyebrows, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman.

Russia's Western partners in the UN Security Council are constantly evading condemning terrorist attacks in Syria, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

"Our Western partners in the UN Security Council, allegedly seeking to fight terrorism, as they regularly claim, act in a way that is beyond logic and common sense. They are evading, under various pretexts, condemning terrorist attacks in Syria," Zakharova said at a briefing.

She stressed that such behavior was reflecting the position of West toward Syria and its people.

Comment: Further reading: Syrian War in Perspective: The Rise of ISIS & America's 'Hellish Proxy War'

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Stock Up

China & Saudi Arabia sign deals potentially worth $65bn


RT
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 15:24 UTC
Xi Jinping and Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud
© Lintao Zhang / ReutersChina's President Xi Jinping (R) and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. Beijing, China March 16, 2017
Saudi Arabia's King Salman started a month-long Asian tour with a visit to Beijing, where the two countries signed a broad range of deals potentially worth $65 billion.

According to Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Ming, they agreed on memorandums of understanding, involving everything from energy to space.

"President Xi Jinping and King Salman are old friends," Zhang said as cited by Reuters. "Practical cooperation between China and Saudi Arabia has already made major achievements, and has huge potential."
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Bad Guys

Syrian War in Perspective: The Rise of ISIS & America's 'Hellish Proxy War'

Robert Bridge
RT
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 14:58 UTC
US Air Force fighter jet airplane
© USAF / Airman 1st Class Cory W. Bush / Reuters
The Syrian people, who have demonstrated remarkable courage and perseverance in the face of formidable challenges that would have crushed a lesser people, are forced to observe yet another bloodstained milestone they neither want nor deserve.

Six long years ago, Syria was caught up in the 'Arab Spring,' a Middle East maelstrom that tossed this diverse nation of 17 million people into the grip of a malevolent contagion that continues unabated today.

Originally thought to be a healthy, grassroots act of expression against the government of President Bashar Assad, the Syrian crisis has morphed into yet another Made in America regime-change operation, the likes of which have already decimated a number of hapless countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
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Eye 1

Poroshenko approves 1-year sanctions against 5 Russian state banks


Sputnik
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 14:58 UTC
Russian banks Kiev Ukraine radicals neo Nazi
© AP Photo/ Sergei Chuzavkov
Ukraine's president has endorsed sanctions against five subsidiaries of Russian state banks.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has approved the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine's proposal to impose one-year sanctions on five subsidiaries of Russian state banks on Thursday.

"Poroshenko put into effect the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine's March 15, 2017, decision 'On the application of personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions)' for a number of legal entities," a statement on the president's website reads.

Comment: Poroshenko has also legitimized the UkroNazi blockade of Donbass. As Sputnik reports:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko approved the decision of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council on the termination of cargo transportation with Donbass areas not controlled by Kiev, according to a decree published Thursday.

"Implement the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of March 15, 2017 'On urgent additional measures to counter hybrid threats to Ukraine's national security'," the document said.
As Alexander Mercouris of the Duran notes both these moves are counter-productive; closing and sanctioning banks for ideological reasons while the economy is suffering is ridiculous, and imposing a blockade on Donbass will only quicken their pivot towards Russia.

In the beginning of March a new ceasefire regime was announced in Eastern Ukraine. Deputy Defense Minister Eduard Basurin stated that it would only hold as long as Ukraine was able to control the radicals. These recent developments, coupled with oligarchs vying for power in Kiev, reveal a power vacuum that radicals can use to advance their, and their sponsors', psychotic agendas:
In that case then that would suggest that Poroshenko's authority as Ukraine's President is seeping away, and that he is no longer fully in control, just as the Russian military move on Pristina in June 1999 during the Kosovo conflict, made without any order from Boris Yeltsin, was a clear sign that his authority as Russia's President was seeping away.


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Info

China expands construction works in disputed South China Sea reefs - reports


RT
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 15:10 UTC
South China Sea construction
© Planet Labs / ReutersPart of the Paracel Islands group in the South China Sea, on February 15, 2017 (L) and on March 6, 2017
China has allegedly begun fresh construction work on one of the South China Sea islets, new satellite images show. According to an assessment of the imagery, China might be building a new large port on the disputed Paracel Islands.

The photos, taken on March 6 by the satellite imaging company Planet Labs, presumably show land clearing and the early stages of construction work for what might become a military harbor on North Island, according to Reuters. Building work on the new facility is believed to have been set back by a typhoon last year.

Comment:

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Chart Bar

Trump releases his first budget blueprint: Here are the winners and losers

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 15:00 UTC
Donald Trump
© epa
Update: echoing comments made by Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the top House Democrat said that the Trump budget proposal is "dead on arrival."

Today at 7am, Trump released his "skinny budget", his administration's first federal budget blueprint revealing the President's plan to dramatically reduce the size of the government. As previewed last night, the document calls for deep cuts at departments and agencies that would eliminate entire programs and slash the size of the federal workforce. It also proposes a $54 billion increase in defense spending, which the White House says will be offset by the other cuts.

"This is the 'America First' budget," said White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman who made a name for himself as a spending hawk before Trump plucked him for his Cabinet, adding that "if he said it in the campaign, it's in the budget."
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Snakes in Suits

Chilcot 2.0? Another Iraq War investingation could be launched if new facts emerge, say MPs


RT
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 14:46 UTC
Tony Blair
© SOLO / Global Look Press via ZUMA PressFormer British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
If new evidence comes to light on the legality of the 2003 war in Iraq it could be used to justify a further inquiry into the conflict, according to an influential parliamentary committee.

Members of the Public Administration Committee said on Wednesday that the 2016 Chilcot Inquiry had failed to "provide closure" on the war which had left an "indelible scar" on UK politics.

In a new assessment of the 2-million-word report by Sir John Chilcot and his panel, the committee made a number of recommendations.

These include looking at ways the six year investigation could have been sped up, how the "culture of challenge" in government could be improved and how the National Security Council (NSC) could be given more powers.

Comment:

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TV

Watching too much TV: Nikki Haley says 'never trust Russia'


RT
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 14:54 UTC
Nikki Haley
© Luiz Rampelotto / EuropaNewswire / Global Look Press
Nikki Haley, the new Washington envoy to the UN, has slammed Russia and spoken out in favor of President Trump's travel ban in her first interview in the new role.

"Take it seriously. We cannot trust Russia. We should never trust Russia," she told NBC News' Matt Lauer.

Haley also backed President Donald Trump's ban on issuing visas to travelers from six majority-Muslim countries, saying, "It's not a Muslim ban. I will never support a Muslim ban. I don't think we should ever ban anyone based on their religion. That is un-American. It is not good."
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Info

Putin: Russia-Turkey relations returning to 'mutually beneficial track'


Sputnik
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 14:48 UTC
Putin and Erdogan
© AP Photo/ Alexander Zemlianichenko
Russia's relations with Turkey are confidently returning to normal, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

"Relations with Turkey are confidently returning to a normal mutually beneficial track," Putin said at a ceremony receiving the credentials of 18 new ambassadors to Russia.

At the beginning of 2016, Russia imposed a number of restrictive measures, including a ban on food and flowers imports, on Turkey in response to the downing of a Russian military aircraft by a Turkish fighter jet in Syria on November 24, 2015.
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Star of David

Puppets for Israel: White House proposes $3.1billion to support Israel's security in 2018


Sputnik
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 14:37 UTC
Whitehouse
© AFP/Paul J. Richards
The White House is proposing to allocate $3.1 billion to Israel in 2018 to support the country's security and abilities to defend itself, budget's blueprint said Thursday.

"Provides $3.1 billion to meet the security assistance commitment to Israel, currently at an all-time high; ensuring that Israel has the ability to defend itself from threats and maintain its Qualitative Military Edge," the document said.

Comment: A good place for Trump to start cutting funds would be the apartheid State of Israel.

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