Turkish security forces
have fired water cannon and tear gas at crowds which had gathered in
support of Syrian Kurdish refugees on the border.
Police said they wanted to stop Kurdish fighters entering
Syria, the Associated Press reported, while local TV said Kurds had been
trying to deliver aid. It comes after some 66,000 refugees poured into Turkey in 24 hours. Turkey opened its border on Friday to Syrians fleeing the town of Kobane in fear of an Islamic State attack. Reuters news agency said troops cleared about 2,000 people
from the border area south of the Turkish town of Suruc on Sunday
morning. Some of them threw stones at the security forces, though there
were no immediate reports of injuries, the agency said. Turkey has taken in more than 847,000 refugees since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began three years ago. The UN refugee agency UNHCR says it is boosting relief efforts as hundreds of thousands more could cross the border.
BEIRUT (AP) — Hundreds of Kurdish fighters raced from Turkey and Iraq
into neighboring Syria on Saturday to defend a Kurdish area under
attack by Islamic State militants. As the fighting raged, more than
60,000 mostly Kurdish refugees streamed across the dusty and barren
border into Turkey, some hobbling on crutches as others lugged bulging
sacks of belongings on their backs. The large-scale displacement
of so many and the movement of the Kurdish fighters into Syria reflected
the ferocity of the fighting in the northern Kobani area, which borders
Turkey. Militants of the extremist Islamic State group have been
barreling through the area for the past three days, prompting Kurdish
leaders to plead for international help. Civilians seeking safety
began massing on the Turkish border on Thursday. Turkey did not let them
in at first, saying it would provide them with aid on the Syrian side
of the border instead. By Friday, it had changed its mind and started to
let in several thousand.
Tens
of thousands of Kurdish refugees have fled to Syria-Turkey border
region of Kobani to escape onslaught of Islamist militants
Kurdish fighters from Turkey and Iraq are scrambling to help defend a vital Kurdish safe haven in northern Syria, where tens of thousands of Kurds have fled after an offensive by Islamic State (Isis) militants. The
border region of Kobani, home to half a million people, has held out
for months against an onslaught by Islamists seeking to consolidate
their hold over swaths of northern Syria. But in recent days, Isis
extremists have seized a series of settlements close to the town of
Kobani itself, sending as many as 100,000 mostly Kurdish refugees
streaming across the border into Turkey. "I don't think in the
last three and a half years we have seen 100,000 cross in two days," the
representative for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Turkey, Carol
Batchelor, told Reuters. "So this is a bit of a measure of how this
situation is unfolding, and the very deep fear people have about the
circumstances inside Syria and, for that matter, Iraq." A Kurdish commander on the ground said Isis had advanced to within 9 miles (15km) of Kobani. A
Kurdish politician from Turkey who visited Kobani on Saturday said
locals told him Isis fighters were beheading people as they went from
village to village. "Rather than a war this is a genocide
operation … They are going into the villages and cutting the heads of
one or two people and showing them to the villagers," Ibrahim Binici, a
deputy for Turkey's pro-Kurdish People's Democratic party (HDP), told
Reuters. "It is truly a shameful situation for humanity," he said,
calling for international intervention. Five of his fellow MPs planned a
hunger strike outside UN offices in Geneva to press for action, he
said. The Kurdistan Workers party (PKK), a rebel group that has
spent three decades fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, renewed a
call for the youth of Turkey's mostly Kurdish south-east to rise up and
rush to save Kobani.
ZAGREB, Croatia – The top U.S.
military officer says Arab countries need to take a more direct role in
the U.S. military mission in Iraq before it can be credible and
sustainable. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that President Barack Obama has
not yet signed off on a broad military campaign plan against the Islamic
State group, in part because of the lack of Arab participation so far.
Obama was briefed on the plan last week. Dempsey
said the plan calls for attacking the Islamic State fighters from
several directions at once. That is expected, over time, to help Iraqi
ground forces retake territory lost over the past year. Dempsey spoke to reporters traveling with him from Lithuania to Croatia.
A bomb explosion near the Egyptian foreign ministry in Cairo has killed at least two police officers, security officials say.
The blast occurred on a crowded street near the River Nile. Witnesses said smoke was seen rising from the area. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the explosion. Islamist militants have intensified attacks on the security
forces since the army ousted President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim
Brotherhood in 2013. Sunday's blast occurred in the Bulaq Abu-al-Ila district. The bomb is believed to have been planted below a tree. Initial reports said at least four people - two policemen and two civilians - were killed. Security officials later sealed off the area, looking for more bombs, Egypt's Mena news agency reports. The Islamist violence at first targeted mostly police and the
army in the Sinai peninsula, but has recently spread to other regions
including the capital. The militants say they are taking revenge for the hundreds of
Islamists killed and thousands detained in a crackdown on the
Brotherhood.
Afghanistan's election commission named Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai as the
winner of the country's presidential election Sunday, hours after
Ahmadzai signed a power sharing agreement with opponent Abdullah
Abdullah, who will fill the newly created position of government chief
executive. An Ahmadzai supporter -- Halim Fidai, a former governor -- said
Sunday that U.N. representative Jan Kubish told the commission not to
release detailed vote tallies.
The United Nations had been monitoring an audit and recount of the approximately eight million votes cast. The decision underscores the fear of potential violence despite
Sunday's deal. A senior U.S. official said the vote result is
transparent but may be released slowly over fears of violence. The
official insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to be
identified publicly. The power-sharing deal cleared the way for final approval of a
bilateral security agreement that would keep some U.S. troops in the
country beyond this year. Under the terms of the deal, former Finance Minister and World Bank
official Ahmadzai will replace Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan's president.
The agreement also creates the post of chief executive, which will be
held by Abdullah.
MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Sporadic artillery fire hit parts of eastern
Ukraine on Saturday, hours after negotiators agreed to create a buffer
zone between government troops and pro-Russian militants by halting
their advances, pulling back heavy weapons and withdrawing foreign
fighters. Despite positive developments coming out of talks in the
Belarusian capital of Minsk and a cease-fire that has been in place
since Sept. 5, the fighting between the two sides was still deadly. In
Donetsk, the largest rebel-held city, strong explosions could be heard
from a munitions factory that a local official said was hit by an
artillery shell. It was unclear which side fired it. Explosions were
heard in three areas of the city in the afternoon, the city council
said.
Plan that would disconnect enriching machines from feeds of uranium being discussed at talks between Iran and six major powers
With Iran refusing US demands that it gut its uranium enrichment
programme, the two sides are discussing a new proposal that would leave
much of Tehran’s enriching machines in place but disconnected from feeds
of uranium, diplomats told the Associated Press Saturday. The talks have been stalled for months over Iran’s opposition to
sharply reducing the size and output of centrifuges that can enrich
uranium to levels needed for reactor fuel or weapons-grade material used
in the core of nuclear warheads. Iran says its enrichment programme is
only for peaceful purposes, but Washington fears it could be used to
make a bomb. Time is running out before a 24 November deadline and both sides are eager to break the impasse. Ahead of the resumption of talks, on Friday, the New York Times
reported that Washington was considering putting a new plan on the table
that would focus on removing the piping connecting the centrifuges that
enrich uranium, instead of demanding that Iran cut the number of
centrifuge machines from 19,000 to no more than 1,500. Two diplomats told the AP Tehran was initially non-committal at a
bilateral meeting in August. But they say the proposal has now moved to
being discussed at the talks Tehran is holding with the US and five
other powers, and that the Islamic Republic is cautiously receptive. Both diplomats demanded anonymity because their information is confidential. While only a proposal, the plan would allow the Iranians to claim
that they did not compromise on vows that they would never emasculate
their enrichment capabilities, while keeping intact American demands
that the programme be downgraded to a point where it could not be
quickly turned to making bombs.
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's state
television is reporting that a Chinese destroyer has docked in a
southern Iranian port in the first such visit to the country by the
Chinese navy. Adm. Hossein Azad, naval base chief in
the southern port of Bandar Abbas, said the four-day visit saw the two
navies sharing expertise in the field of marine rescue.
The
Sunday report said the destroyer was accompanied by a logistics ship,
both of which were on their way to the Gulf of Aden as a part of an
international mission to combat piracy. In recent years Iran's navy has increased its bilateral relations with various countries. Earlier last year a Russian naval group docked in the same port on the way back from a Pacific Ocean mission.
Farmers dumped piles of vegetables around the town of Morlaix in
western France on Friday night before torching public buildings in a
dramatic act of frustration at falling revenues. Around 100 farmers hauled artichokes, potatoes and broccoli to Morlaix by tractor, unloaded them onto the streets and set them ablaze, Reuters reports. According to the BBC, demonstrators also dumped piles of manure in the streets of the Breton town. During the mayhem, angry farmers ransacked and set alight the local tax office and agricultural mutual insurance building, France 24 reported.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls accused the farmers of obstructing
firemen trying to put out the fires, and called for arsonists to be
prosecuted. The BBC said that French farmers have been hit by a
drop in vegetable prices, as well as by a Russian embargo on Western
produce due to the crisis in Ukraine. Farmers are also angry at France's
tax policies, the Atlantic Wire reported. Agricultural
workers had already started dumping their unsold produce in Morlaix's
streets in protests earlier this week, Reuters notes. "Farmers are
not madmen, they are company bosses who are not being listened to,"
Morlaix Mayor Agnès LeBrun said Saturday, according to The Wire. "It's
not that unusual, a lot of French people are in the same situation." -
The US Secret Service
says it has stepped up security at the White House and launched a
"comprehensive review" of procedures there after two attempted breaches
in 24 hours.
The more serious incident saw a man wielding a knife enter the building on Friday, prompting a partial evacuation. President Obama was not present at the time of the incident. The following day, another man drove up to a security gate. Both men have since been arrested. President Obama said he still had "full confidence" in the
Secret Service, which is tasked with protecting senior American
officials and visiting leaders. 'Not acceptable'The man involved in Friday's incident, Omar Gonzalez, was only
stopped after entering the North Portico doors, the Secret Service
said. Video footage showed the intruder running across a White
House lawn after scaling a fence. He was later found to be carrying a 9
cm (3.5 inch) folding knife.
WASHINGTON – President Obama on Friday
signed into law legislation authorizing the military to arm and train
moderate Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State militants in the Middle
East. Obama acted a day after a Senate vote capped congressional action on
the request, which passed by wide margins despite reservation about
whether his strategy will do enough to stop the surging terrorist group,
which has seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria. Congress will revisit
the issue after the midterm elections.
Thursday's bipartisan 78-22 tally Thursday blended support from
Obama's close Democratic allies and some of his fiercest GOP critics,
including top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. It put
leading contenders for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination on opposite
sides. Some of Obama's liberal allies defected. The legislation also provides funding for the government after the
end of the budget year on Sept. 30, eliminating any threat of a shutdown
in the run-up to November elections that will seat a new House and
decide control of the Senate. The House approved the bill on Wednesday.
Ezra Klein
is wondering why Joe Biden is trailing Hillary Clinton by 44 points in
early match-ups for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. It’s a
good question, especially since, as Ezra notes, Biden has been, by just
about any measure, a good vice president. He’s served his president
faithfully and been an effective cheerleader for party and
administration priorities.
Ezra’s suggestion is, notably, not
that Biden’s presidential campaign is a non-starter because he’s prone
to gaffes. Yes, he’s gaffe-prone, but so are a lot of politicians, as
is pretty much anyone who spends a lot of their day near microphones.
And yes, he may be something of a joke in many circles, but so is
basically every vice president. As Jonathan Bernstein
noted, the vice presidency is a very weird and largely undefined job.
The vice president is famous and recognizable but has no clear set of
responsibilities or tasks, other than occasionally casting tie-breaking
Senate votes and waiting for the best-protected person in the nation to
die. So some simplistic media shortcut eventually takes over. Quayle the
dolt, Gore the nerd, Cheney the warmonger, Biden the party animal, etc. As
Ezra rightly argues, the question isn’t whether Biden has flaws; the
question is why those flaws are a problem for Biden’s presidential
prospects. Ezra thinks the reason has something to do with demography:
“Biden is an old-school, white, male politician in a party that’s
increasingly young, multicultural, and female.” That’s not altogether wrong, but I think Ezra focuses too much on the candidate’s skills:
Police
say two women in West Jordan, aged 18 and 22, ‘violently attacked one
of the adult males’ in the house and are now in custody Two armed “polygamist women” dressed like “ninjas” were subdued by a
sword-wielding man during a home invasion, according to police in
suburban Utah. Police said the two women, aged 18 and 22, were attacking the home of
a witness and victim in a criminal child sex assault case against a man
the women called their “husband”. The women “violently attacked one of the adult males in the house who
came to see who was coming,” Ian Adams of the West Jordan police
department told the Guardian. “Another adult male joined the fray in defense of the first male
victim. He was armed with a sword, and using a sword … and with the
other male [was] able to subdue the two women until police arrived and
took them into custody.” The attack took place just before 4am on Friday. The child witness was home but was not involved in the incident, Adams said. The two women are in custody at Salt Lake County Jail. Neither their
names nor mugshots, nor the name of the “husband”, are being released,
because to do so could identify the child victim. Adams said: “They’re all related.” Another officer with West Jordan police said the sex assault complaint was against the victim’s uncle.
Two women clad in ninja costumes, armed with knives and stun guns,
forced their way through the door. The family believes they were there
to abduct a 15-year-old girl inside.
The US Treasury Secretary has urged eurozone countries to "boost demand" in order to reduce unemployment and avoid deflation.
Jack Lew was speaking at a meeting of the G20 group, which includes several of the world's largest economies. Earlier this month, the European Central Bank introduced new measures to stimulate the area's flagging economy. However it has stopped short of adopting the policies favoured by its US counterpart, the Federal Reserve. As well as launching an asset purchase programme, through
which it will buy debt products from banks, the ECB cut its benchmark
interest rate to 0.05%. The bank has been under pressure to kick-start the eurozone
economy, as manufacturing output has slowed and inflation has fallen to
just 0.3%. "Europe is going to need to solve its problems and resolve differences it has internally," Mr Lew told reporters at the meeting in Australia,
"but what's clear from the US experience is that the combination of
taking action to boost demand in the short run and make structural
changes for the long run is an important combination, and it shouldn't
become a choice between the two. "You really need to pursue both." Mr Lew also expressed concern about the political tensions
between European countries, and the effect this may have on pushing
through urgent policies. -
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THE VOCR Comments and opinions are always welcome.Email VOCR2012@Gmail.com with your input - Opinion - or news link - Intel We look forward to the Interaction.
Ezra’s suggestion is, notably, not
that Biden’s presidential campaign is a non-starter because he’s prone
to gaffes. Yes, he’s gaffe-prone, but so are a lot of politicians, as
is pretty much anyone who spends a lot of their day near microphones.
And yes, he may be something of a joke in many circles, but so is
basically every vice president. As Jonathan Bernstein
noted, the vice presidency is a very weird and largely undefined job.
The vice president is famous and recognizable but has no clear set of
responsibilities or tasks, other than occasionally casting tie-breaking
Senate votes and waiting for the best-protected person in the nation to
die. So some simplistic media shortcut eventually takes over. Quayle the
dolt, Gore the nerd, Cheney the warmonger, Biden the party animal, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment
THE VOCR
Comments and opinions are always welcome.Email VOCR2012@Gmail.com with your input - Opinion - or news link - Intel
We look forward to the Interaction.