Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From Russia Today
Biden pledges Ukraine additional $335mn in military assistance
Published time: 1 Apr, 2016 04:42
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (L) shakes hands with Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko before their bilateral meeting at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington March 31, 2016. © Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
The US has promised Kiev an additional $335 million in security aid to help Ukraine boost its military strength. Washington also made it clear to the Ukrainian president that to unlock the next tranche of IMF money, Kiev should push ahead with political reforms.
US Vice President Joe Biden held a luncheon with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is currently visiting Washington as part of a nuclear summit comprising more than 50 world leaders. Poroshenko seized the rare opportunity to touch base with Obama administration officials.
According to an official statement on Poroshenko’s website, Biden has indicated Washington’s readiness to provide Kiev with additional $335 million in security assistance, which would be used to reform Ukraine’s Armed Forces, National Guard and border control.
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From Ynet News
ISIS threat growing as Turkey focuses on Kurds
Turkey is facing a latente insurgency by the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in its south east regions. However, this may be coming at the expense of its fight against ISIS. ISTANBUL – As Turkey pushes on with its campaign against Kurdish militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), another deadly foe is gaining momentum – ISIS.
The jihadist network is considered responsible by Ankara for four out of six suicide attacks in the country since last summer, the most recent March 12 in Istanbul, where a suicide bombing killed four tourists on Istikal Street. It was the second time tourists were targeted in the city, coming just months after a January 12 attack that killed a dozen German tourists in one of Istanbul’s most historic areas. Turkish authorities have blamed the group for two other attacks that killed a total of 136 people. The acceleration of suicide bombings in Turkey comes after the country increased its involvement in the US led campaign against ISIS in Syria and amid renewed conflict between Turkish security forces and militants linked to the PKK, which Ankara and its allies label as a terrorist organization. Analysts question whether Turkey has concentrated its counterterrorism efforts too narrowly on the Kurdish threat.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Hamas says it holds two Israeli captives, remains of two others
Cadets in Hamas’ military wing marching in the town square of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, June 15, 2015. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Hamas said for the first time that it is holding two Israeli men and the remains of two Israeli soldiers.
The Islamist group’s military wing released a televised statement Friday through official Hamas media, The Jerusalem Post reported.
The statement said the group is demanding Israeli concessions in exchange for information about the condition of the “four prisoners of war.”
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From PressTV
Syria forces discover mass grave in Palmyra
Syrian forces have uncovered a mass grave of people killed by the Daesh Takfiri terrorists in the recently-liberated city of Palmyra in Homs Province.
Syria’s official news agency SANA quoted a field source as saying on Friday that 25 corpses, including five women and three children, have been recovered from the mass grave so far.
The source said the grave was discovered as the engineering units and Syrian popular forces were conducting operations to defuse the explosive devices and mines that had been planted by the Daesh terrorists in northeastern Palmyra.
The source further said that the recovery of the dead bodies is still ongoing.
The report said Daesh committed a massacre in Palmyra on May 24, 2015, leaving at least 400 people dead, most of them women, children and elderly people.
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From PressTV
Israel, Egypt ministers meet for first time in years
Israel’s energy minister has met with the Egyptian foreign minister in Washington, in a rare meeting between the two sides to discuss energy cooperation.
Israel’s Energy and Infrastructure Minister Yuval Steinitz met with Egypt’s Sameh Shoukry on Thursday on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit held at the White House, several Israeli newspapers reported.
The two ministers reportedly discussed different regional issues such as the possibility of Israel supplying Egypt with natural gas.
Relations between Egypt and the Israeli regime have been growing since Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took power in the Arab country in 2014.
Egypt sent an ambassador to Tel Aviv in January. Hazem Khairat was the first residing Egyptian ambassador in Tel Aviv since Morsi recalled Cairo’s last ambassador in November 2012.
The Israeli regime also opened its embassy in Cairo in September 2015 after a four-year closure due to security concerns.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, arrives for a working dinner at the White House in Washington, March 31, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
Turkey-Israel ties
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From PressTV
Turkey forcibly sending Syrians back to war zone: Amnesty
Amnesty International says Turkey has forcibly expelled thousands of Syrian refugees back to their war-torn homeland in recent months.
Turkish authorities have, on a daily basis, forced around 100 Syrian men, women and children to return home since mid-January, the UK-based rights group said in a report based on testimonies.
John Dalhuisen, Amnesty’s director for Europe and Central Asia, also took a swipe at European leaders who have hardened their stances, shutting doors to those mostly fleeing conflict zones in recent months.
“In their desperation to seal their borders, EU leaders have willfully ignored the simplest of facts: Turkey is not a safe country for Syrian refugees and is getting less safe by the day,” he said.
The report also said such mass returns to Syria are “illegal” under Turkish, EU and international law.
“The large-scale returns of Syrian refugees we have documented highlight the fatal flaws in the EU-Turkey deal. It is a deal that can only be implemented with the hardest of hearts and a blithe disregard for international law,” Dalhuisen added.
On March 18, Ankara and the EU signed a deal aimed at curbing the huge influx of asylum seekers, mostly Syrians, to Europe.
Under the accord, a Syrian refugee will be settled in Europe legally in return for every refugee taken back by Turkey from Greece.
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From Russia Today
Most European ISIS fighters come from France, Germany, UK – study
Published time: 1 Apr, 2016 22:34
© Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters
French, German and British citizens constitute the majority of the European foreign fighters that joined the ranks of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria and Iraq, the latest study by an independent research center based in The Hague says. TrendsEU refugee & migrant influx, Islamic State
France is the primary country of origin for the people who left to fight for the Islamic State terrorist group in the Middle East, as more than 900 its citizens traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the extremists, a research conducted by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) and published on April 1 says.
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From Russia Today
Serbia won’t ascend to EU at cost of alienating Russia, or join NATO – FM
Published time: 1 Apr, 2016 10:57
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) shows the way to his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, April 1, 2016. © Maxim Shemetov / Reuters
While Belgrade is interested in becoming part of the European Union, it would not do so if the cost would be hurting Serbia’s relations with Russia, Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said during a Moscow visit.
“We want to become part of the European Union since it would serve our interest. We are a country that geographically and politically is part of Europe. But it cannot be done at a cost of our good relations with the Russian Federation,” he said at a joint conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
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From Ynet News
Germany holding final Holocaust trials
Four nonagenarians are being tried as accessories to murder in Auschwitz death camp; a state witness said, ‘I want them to tell the truth.”
BERLIN – A Holocaust survivor said on Tuesday that four suspects accused by German prosecutors of being accessory to murder at Auschwitz must have known of the mass killings taking place at the camp because of the “unbearable stench” of burning bodies.
Germany is holding what are likely to be its last trials linked to the Holocaust, in which more than six million people, mostly Jews, were killed by the Nazis.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
‘Gaza Girls’ spoof of Palestinian propaganda flagged as incitement in Spain
(JTA) — A Spanish judge recommended the prosecution for incitement to violence of a person who shared on Facebook an Israeli-made music video spoofing Palestinian propaganda.
The No. 1 Court of First Instance and Instruction of Tudela, a municipality located about 200 miles northeast of Madrid, recommended Tuesday the indictment of the unnamed resident, the Noticias de Navarra daily reported.
The reason cited was the resident’s sharing of a 2014 video titled “Kill All the Jews†by the “Gaza Girls†– a fictional Palestinian girl group invented and headed by Orit Arfa, an Israeli artist and right-wing settler activist.
Ofra’s Internet videos, many of which she stars in, include the controversial “Gaza Wrecking Ball” and “Jews Can’t Stop” — both interpretations of Miley Cyrus hits. She was among 9,000 Israelis who lived in Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip before their evacuation in 2005.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Erdogan meets with Jewish leaders, seeks avenues to cooperation
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan clapping during the 2015 Turkish Academy of Sciences award ceremony at Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkey, Dec. 14, 2015. (Yasin Bulbul/Presidency/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Jewish leaders in Washington, reportedly to smooth ties as Turkey and Israel seek to reconcile.
Jewish groups in attendance included the Anti-Defamation League, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, B’nai B’rith International, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“Erdogan and the guests reiterated their willingness to strengthen cooperation and communication despite differences,†said a report in Wednesday’s Daily Sabah, citing “presidential sources.â€
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Netanyahu to Kerry: Declare Israel doesn’t commit extrajudicial killings
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting soldiers of the Kfir battalion in the Etzion regional brigade for Purim, in the West Bank, March 24, 2016. (Amos Ben Gershom/Flash90)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly asked John Kerry to publicly state that Israel does not carry out extrajudicial killings, after a group of U.S. lawmakers asked the secretary of state to investigate such claims.
Meanwhile, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the lead lawmaker making the request, rebuked Netanyahu for his initial response to the revelation of the letter, saying the Israeli leader misunderstood the relevant law, which requires defunding military units underwritten by U.S. government funds should they be found in violation of U.S. human rights norms.
The Times of Israel reported that Netanyahu made the call to Kerry Friday.
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From PressTV
Israel soldier not to face murder charge for execution
An Israeli soldier who killed a Palestinian apparently already incapacitated in al-Khalil (Hebron) will be prosecuted for manslaughter and not murder.
The Israeli army said at a court hearing on Thursday that military prosecutors had reduced the anticipated murder charge to manslaughter. Under Israeli law, manslaughter signifies an intentional killing but one that was not premeditated.
The Israeli trooper shot at the head of Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, who was lying wounded by Israeli fire on the ground after an alleged stabbing attack in the West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) on March 24. Another Palestinian filmed the scene and released it through an Israeli human rights group.
Ilan Katz, the lawyer for the 19-year-old Israeli soldier, welcomed the prosecutors’ decision. “The significance from our point of view is that, first of all, the prosecution has climbed down.”
The soldier and his lawyers claimed at the court hearings that he was defending himself against the Palestinian, even as he could be seen in the video lying wounded and motionless on the ground.
The soldier said he thought the Palestinian was wearing an explosive belt. However, other soldiers who were present at the time of the deadly shooting told the court that the shooter had said before the incident that the Palestinian “was alive and deserved to die.”
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