From PressTV
Israeli digging causes collapse near Western Wall
Israeli excavations under the al-Aqsa Mosque have caused collapse just meters away from the Western Wall of East al-Quds (Jerusalem), Press TV reports.
The wall is located at the foot of the western side of Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, one of the most important religious sites in the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds (Jerusalem).
The collapse came about on Friday in an area in Silwan south of al-Aqsa where the tunnels dug by the Israelis start. Following the incident, the Israeli police sealed off the site and forbade anyone from approaching it.
The Palestinian archeological community has accused Tel Aviv of purposefully damaging Islam’s third-holiest mosque.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
30 senior Israeli officials detained in corruption sweep
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli police have detained 30 senior officials accused of corruption, including Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum.
The officials, who where detained Wednesday morning after a yearlong investigation, also include a former government minister and senior officials in government ministries, in addition to mayors, heads of NGOs, union chiefs and officers in government corporations. Documents and computers were also confiscated from the officials.
Kirshenbaum is a member of the right-wing Israel Beiteinu party, which dismissed the charges as a “witch hunt,” according to the Times of Israel.
The officials are accused of accepting bribes and illegally funneling funds to NGOs, according to reports. In exchange, the NGOs allegedly gave jobs to people close to the officials.
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Baghdadi, Netanyahu two sides of same coin: Erekat
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiatorA senior Palestinian official says the ISIL terrorist group’s leader, Ibrahim Samarrai, also as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are two sides of the same coin.
Just like al-Baghdadi who considers himself the leader of the “Islamic State,” Netanyahu heads the “Jewish State,” Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said during an interview with al-Arabiya news channel on Friday.
“There is no difference between the crime of laying an American or Western journalist on the ground and beheading him [as ISIL has done to several journalists and aid workers since September] and between a criminal who lays Muhammad Abu Khdeir on the ground and burns him alive,” he said.
He was referring to the murder of a Palestinian teenager from East Jerusalem al-Quds by Israeli settlers this summer.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Daily Forward
Jewish Activists Struggle for Right Tone on Racism After Murders of Police Officers
Rabbis Seek To Channel Outrage and Compassion
hannah rubinNo Silence: Jewish activists carried out nationwide protests against racism and police brutality on Hanukkah. After the murders of two police officers, they insist they will not stop speaking out.
By Sam Kestenbaum
Published December 26, 2014, issue of January 02, 2015.Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum was observing the Sabbath on December 20 when New York police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were shot and killed in their patrol car in Brooklyn by 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who then took his own life.After sundown, Kleinbaum, who leads New York’s Congregation Beit Simchat Torah and has been an active Jewish voice in the Black Lives Matter movement rolling across the country, posted on her Facebook page, “Praying for the families of the two policemen who were shot and killed tonight in a horrible act of murder.”
Kleinbaum, a vocal critic of police brutality over the past several months, urged congregants, “Let us all bring flowers with a note to our local precincts — now is the time to be expressing deep condolences and create the bridges to help heal our city.”
Click here for the full story
From The Independent
Rouble slips despite government pressure on exporters
TOM MENDELSOHN Author Biography , DARYA KORSUNSKAYA , VLADIMIR ABRAMOV Friday 26 December 2014
Russia looks set for a steep recession in 2015, its finance minister has admitted, as he stepped up the bailout of the first bank to teeter in the face of the collapsing rouble.
Western sanctions imposed during the Ukraine crisis has caused foreign investors to leave the country in droves, which, together with the current slump in oil prices, has caught the Russian economy in the jaws of a trap that’s pummelling the rouble and tanking the economy.
The Russian government is now desperately attempting to sure up its major banks and find a way out of its deepening currency crisis. One such gambit has been a sudden hike in the interest rate, but economists remain doubtful that it will help.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov predicted that the economy could shrink by as much as four per cent in 2015, which would be Russia’s first contraction since 2009, if oil prices maintained their current level of $60 a barrel.
Siluanov also said the country would run a budget deficit of over three per cent next year if the oil price did not rise.
“Next year we will, without doubt, have to bring the Reserve Fund into play,” he said, referring to one of Russia’s two rainy-day funds intended to support the economy at times of crisis.
Crude prices have almost halved from their June peak amid a global glut and a decision by producer group OPEC not to cut output. Saudi Arabia said on Friday it was prepared to withstand a prolonged period of low prices.
“We need to have our budget break even at $70 per barrel by 2017,” said Siluanov.
Russia’s government imposed informal capital controls this week, including orders to large oil and gas exporters Gazprom and Rosneft to sell some of their dollar revenues in a bid to shore up the rouble.
Russians have kept a wary eye on the exchange rate since the collapse of the Soviet Union, when hyper-inflation wiped out their savings over several years in the early 1990s.
The rouble’s will inevitably lead to higher inflation next year, which after years of stability threatens President Vladimir Putin’s reputation for ensuring Russia’s prosperity.
From PressTV
Israelis demolish Palestinian irrigation pools in WB
A Palestinian man reacts near Israeli soldiers as Israeli bulldozer demolishes a water well used for irrigation (file photo).Israeli regime forces have reportedly demolished several irrigation pools used by Palestinian farmers in northern parts of Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli bulldozers backed by military vehicles destroyed six irrigation pools used by local farmers on Thursday in the area of al-Jiftlik, Palestinian media outlets reported Saturday.
According to the report, the construction of the pools had been funded by grants from European donors. This is while local Palestinians state that the pretext for the demolition was an order by military authorities of the Tel Aviv regime.
The Jordan Valley makes up nearly 30 percent of the occupied West Bank while most parts of the region have been designated as Area C and are off-limits to Palestinian construction.
Click here for the full story
