Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Sarasota, Fla., on Saturday.
what do you think about Donald Trump Speech saying he isn’t sure Islam is an inherently peaceful religion or an inherently violent one..... Comment below...
Putin snubs Erdogan in Paris as pilot's body returned to Russia
Putin snubs Erdogan in Paris as pilot's body returned to Russia
By Max Delany22 hours ago
Moscow (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin snubbed a meeting with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in France on Monday as the body of a pilot killed when Ankara downed one of Moscow's warplanes returned home.
Turkish authorities meanwhile again pledged not to apologise over last Tuesday's downing of the Russian jet on the Syrian border as Moscow rolled out its sanctions aimed at exacting economic revenge on Ankara.
Putin and Erdogan have been locked in a furious war of words since the incident and the Kremlin strongman rejected the Turkish leader's offer of face-to-face talks on the sidelines of a climate summit outside the French capital.
"No meeting with Erdogan is planned. There is no discussion of such a meeting," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
The downing of the Russian jet on the Turkey-Syria border -- the first time a NATO member has shot down a Russian plane since 1952 -- has seen ties shattered between the two rival players in the Syria conflict.
Putin did meet with US President Barack Obama, who "expressed his regret" over the loss of life in the plane downing and called for a "de-escalation between Russia and Turkey", a White House official said.
Russia on Monday laid out more details of retaliatory economic sanctions aimed at denting Turkey's key tourism and agricultural sectors.
Moscow announced it will halt fruit and vegetable imports from Turkey after Putin signed a decree over the weekend banning charter flights and the sale of package holidays, and scrapping Russia's visa-free regime with the country.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called the moves a "first step" as Moscow also said it would limit Turkish transport firms and tighten controls on construction contracts.
The authorities however stopped short of targeting Russia's major joint energy projects with Turkey.
- Pilot's body returned -
The announcement on the economic reprisals came as the body of pilot Oleg Peshkov, who was killed when the plane was shot down, arrived back in Russia from Ankara.
A plane carrying the corpse of Peshkov -- who was posthumously awarded Russia's highest award -- was met by Russia's defence minister outside Moscow after the body was bought from Syria to Turkey and handed over to Russian diplomats.
Both pilots aboard the Su-24 warplane ejected and parachuted to the ground on the Syrian side of the border after being shot down by Turkish F-16s in the November 24 incident.
Moscow's defence ministry said Peshkov was shot dead from the ground while his comrade Konstantin Murakhtin was rescued by Russian and Syrian special forces. One Russian serviceman was also killed trying to rescue the pilot.
Local reports said Peshkov will be buried Wednesday after his body arrives in his hometown Lipetsk, an industrial city in central Russia.
After the downing of its jet Moscow has bolstered its firepower in Syria -- where it is flying a bombing campaign at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- and on Monday said its planes were now equipped with air-to-air missiles.
Russian media has portrayed the handover of the remains as a goodwill gesture on the part of Ankara after several days of heated rhetoric over the downing.
But as the pilot's body was flown back, the diplomatic tit-for-tat rumbled on with neither side looking set to back down.
- No apology -
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu insisted once again that Ankara would not apologise over the downing of the plane.
"Protection of our airspace, our border is not only a right but a duty for my government and no Turkish premier or president ... will apologise (for) doing our duty," he told a joint press conference with NATO head Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels.
Davutoglu decried Russia's sanctions against Turkey and called on Moscow to "reconsider these measures in both our interests", while reiterating once again Ankara's willingness to talk.
"If the Russian side wants to talk, we are ready; if they want more information, we are ready; if they want to normalise relations, we are ready to talk," he said.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Obama Speaks
- what do you guys think of Obama backing Netanyahu in the latest crisis facing Israel, speaking out against recent attacks by Palestinians on Israeli civilians
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Russian soldiers geolocated by photos in multiple Syria locations, bloggers say
Russian soldiers geolocated by photos in multiple Syria locations, bloggers say
By Maria Tsvetkova13 hours ago
Russian ground staff members load a Sukhoi Su-34 fighter jet with weapons at the Hmeymim air base near …
By Maria Tsvetkova
Russia first launched air strikes to support President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's four-year civil war on Sept. 30 but has repeatedly said it has no intention of mounting a ground operation.MOSCOW (Reuters) - Three serving or former Russian soldiers have been geolocated by photographs in Syria, including locations near Hama, Aleppo and Homs, Russian bloggers said on Sunday, suggesting the Kremlin's operation stretches well beyond its air campaign.
It has instead said it will limit its help to military trainers, advisers and deliveries of military equipment.
U.S. security officials and independent experts told Reuters last week that Moscow had increased its forces in Syria to 4,000 personnel from an estimated 2,000. A U.S. defense official said multiple rocket-launcher crews and long-range artillery batteries were deployed outside four bases the Russians were using.
Sunday's report by Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), a group of Russian investigative bloggers, said that photos on social media had been used to geolocate three Russian serving or former soldiers in Syria.
"Although we still don't have indisputable evidence of Russian servicemen taking a direct part in the fighting on the ground in Syria, we believe the situation observed contradicts the claims of Russian officials that Russian troops are not taking part and are not planning to take part in ground operations,” CIT said.
Russia's military jets are based in Latakia in western Syria, far from where the three men were geolocated.
SOCIAL MEDIA SCREENSHOTS
The Russian defense ministry did not respond to a written request for comment on Sunday to respond to CIT's findings and to clarify the nature of its ground operations.
CIT published screenshots from a social media account belonging to Ayas Saryg-Ool, a soldier it said served in Russia’s 74th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, and from an account belonging to Vladimir Boldyrev, who it suggested was a Russian marine from the 810th Separate Marine Brigade.
It showed both of them had recently posted pictures with geolocation tags in Hama Province. Saryg-Ool’s page, which had previously shown him posing with a heavy machine gun and in the cab of what CIT said was an artillery tow truck, was not available on Sunday.
When contacted by Reuters on Sunday, Boldyrev denied in a message he was an acting serviceman sent to Syria, saying the picture of him and other soldiers had been taken when he was a conscript. He did not explain why one of his own pictures was geotagged Hama, Syria.
CIT also published screenshots from the Instagram page of Ilya Gorelykh, who it said had served in Russia's GRU special forces in the past.
In late October it showed he had uploaded pictures from Aleppo, one of which showed him holding an assault rifle while wearing civilian clothes. Another image of him posing in camouflage with three other armed men was apparently taken in Homs.
The pictures were not available on his account on Sunday.
CIT, led by Ruslan Leviev, has previously worked to uncover information about Russian military deaths in Ukraine. In late October it was first to report the first confirmed death of a Russian soldier in Syria.
(Additional reporting by Polina Devitt; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by David Goodman and Hugh Lawson)
Carson: Questions on background aren't 'real' scandals
Carson: Questions on background aren't 'real' scandals
By LAURIE KELLMAN4 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Sunday that he's facing an unprecedented level of scrutiny about the veracity of his life story and questioned whether the issues dogging him over his autobiography are important to the nation's search for the next president.
"Every single day, every other day or every week, you know, they're going to come out with, 'Well, you said this when you were 13,'" the retired neurosurgeon said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"The whole point is to distract the populace, to distract me," Carson added. "If you've got a real scandal, if you've got something that's really important, let's talk about that."
Moving on, at least in the short term, is unlikely. The accuracy of Carson's autobiography has dominated his campaign in the past few days, and there are likely to be more questions asked on Tuesday during the next GOP presidential debate. The scrutiny reflects Carson's transformation from political outsider to the top of the polls in the unsettled nomination fight, second only to billionaire developer Donald Trump. And in early voting Iowa, some polls show Carson's leading.
Trump on Sunday tried to keep the allegations alive.
On several news shows, he mentioned examples from Carson's autobiography, "Gifted Hands," about Carson's bad temper when he was young. Carson claimed that he tried to hit his mother with a hammer and unsuccessfully tried to stab someone. Several times, Trump quoted Carson as describing his younger self as having a "pathological" temper — and then demurred on his own opinion of Carson's character and veracity.
"I just don't know. I mean, I'm not involved. I don't really know," Trump said on CNN's "State of the Union."
Carson insists no other candidate has received the level of scrutiny that he has. Asked on NBC whether he is getting more than President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, Carson replied: "Not like this. Not even close."
Scrutiny of his past is par for any major candidate for president, not only Carson. Obama's citizenship was questioned and he later released a birth certificate showing that he was born in Hawaii. Clinton's marital dalliances were probed during his 1992 campaign. The Miami Herald staked out then-Sen. Gary Hart's townhouse in 1987 and caught him in an extramarital affair. Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, last month testified about the private email server she kept at her house and used for government business while she was secretary of state.
Carson is a newcomer to presidential politics, so much about his life, career and published works are being raked over for the first time, and his longtime status as an American success story examined. Carson strongly disputed that there was any dishonesty intended.
Gone Sunday was the anger he showed during a press conference on Friday, when the usually even-tempered Carson demanded that reporters explain why, in his opinion, Obama had not been subjected to the same scrutiny. "My job is to call you out when you're unfair, and I'm going to continue to do that," he said.
"Gifted Hands" is central to much of the scrutiny. It tells the story of Carson's rise from a childhood in inner city Detroit to the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
In it, he tells of trying to stab a close friend when he was a teenager. CNN reported it could not find friends or confidants to corroborate that story.
Politico published a piece examining Carson's claim of receiving a scholarship offer to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The Wall Street Journal said it could not confirm Carson anecdotes from his high school and college years. The academy does not offer scholarships, instead extending all expenses paid to students it admits. Carson never applied for admission.
Last month, police in Baltimore said they didn't have enough information to verify Carson's account of being held at gunpoint more than 30 years ago at a fast-food restaurant in the city.
In the third GOP debate, Carson said it was "absolutely absurd" to say he had a formal relationship with the company Mannatech. He is featured in the company's videos, including one from last year in which he credits the firm's supplements with helping people restore a healthy diet.
Carson and his campaign forcefully reject any suggestion he has been less than completely truthful.
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Follow Laurie Kellman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman
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