(JTA) — A member of Russia’s Human Rights Council slammed a news website that said that nearly a quarter of Russia’s top billionaires are Jews.

Nikolai Svanidze of the council, a Kremlin-affiliated body with no executive powers, made the condemnation last week against Lenta.ru, which analyzed according to faith and ethnicity the Forbes list for 2014 of people the magazine identified as Russia’s wealthiest.

The Lenta.ru study claimed that 48 of the 200 richest Russians were Jews who own a total capital of $122.3 billion. Ukrainians also owned an outsized share of Russia’s private capital, the publication claimed.
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From the Independent

Auf wiedersehen, Britain: ‘Merkel ready to cast UK adrift’ over quotas on migrant workers

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has warned David Cameron she would be prepared to see Britain leave the EU rather than give in to his demands for new quotas on migrant workers coming to the UK.

Ms Merkel is understood to have told the Prime Minister he is approaching a “point of no return” where his demands for changes in Britain’s relationship with the EU are not acceptable to Germany.

Her comments come ahead of a key speech, currently being worked on in Downing Street, in which Mr Cameron will spell out his plans for EU Labour market reform as part of his proposed renegotiation of Britain’s membership.

Last month Downing Street sources suggested that the Prime Minister was looking at a system to control EU migration by capping the national insurance numbers issued to foreign workers.

But the out-going President of the European Commission suggested that such a proposal would be incompatible with the principle of freedom of movement which was an “essential” part of the union. This is a sentiment shared by Ms Merkel.

Der Spiegel cited sources in Berlin saying that if Mr Cameron insisted on limiting the number of immigrants from other EU states, “there will be no going back”. It quoted the sources as saying: “Should Cameron persist [in this plan], Chancellor Angela Merkel would abandon her efforts to keep Britain in the EU. With that a point of no return would be reached. That would be it then.”

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From the Independent

How did Islamists receive American weapons? See the evidence from guided missile that exploded near Syrian front line

Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk is a multiple award-winning journalist on the Middle East, based in Beirut.

Sunday 02 November 2014

Syria’s special forces troops are strung out across a pinnacle of hills here just north east of Lattakia on one of the country’s most dangerous front lines, under daily missile attack from reinforced rebel forces now supported by Isis.

The officers, all of whom are paratroopers, speak of new tactics and upgraded weapons used against them since Isis seized the Iraqi city of Mosul – and some of the radio traffic they listen to from their enemy is in the Chechen or Georgian languages.

Intelligence reports speak of a unification of various rebel factions calling themselves the “Legion of the Coast”, a clear sign that the Isis-inspired rebels – including Isis supporters themselves – intend to strike westwards towards the Mediterranean, scarcely eight miles away.

It’s fair bet that a big battle is shaping up in these pine-covered mountains.

The soldiers themselves talk of the thermal heat-seeking missiles fired at them with detailed knowledge, and agree that the mixture of Islamist groups above and to the east of them are carrying out daily probing attacks to test their defences.

Intriguingly, their surveillance patrols are returning at dawn to report the sound of unidentified night-time aircraft flying into Syrian airspace from Turkey and then east, deep into Syria.

This began around 20 days ago. They do not know if the machines – drones or aircraft – are American and they have heard no airstrikes day or night. But their officers talk of the new TOW anti-armour weapons that have appeared in rebel hands.

One officer showed me an Islamist website videotape of rebels firing a heat-seeking rocket at his own encampment just to the north of here at Qastel Ma’af. The missile can be seen exploding but in fact disintegrated against concrete revetments around a tank.

But when a corporal dragged a sack load of missile parts into a room in this Syrian hill-top fortress, it contained some fascinating evidence of the rebel armoury. Most missiles fragment into thousands of pieces on detonation but just over a month ago – on 26 September – a guided missile exploded deep beneath sand and earth and the fragments clearly show the name of its American arms manufacturer, circuit boards and the coding of the weapon.

Part of the missile identifies the “Eagle-Piche IND (Indiana) INC.” company as the manufacturer and says, in English, that it is “helium charged”, adding – rather ironically as it turns out — the words: “CAUTION — CONTAINS 6400 PSIG He (high explosive), FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS TRANSPORATION IF REFILLED — PENALTY UP TO $25,000 AND FIVE YEARS IMPRISONMENT (49 USC 1809). The Syrians do not know how this weapon – which appears to have been manufactured as long ago as 1989 – made its way from the US to the hands of their country’s Islamist rebels – but it would not be difficult for the Americans to find out. Its full computer coding reads: DOT-E7694 NRC6400/11109/M1033 79294 ASSY 39317 MFR 54080.

A battery tube from another missile fired on the fourth of last month carries an inscription indented in the metal: “132964 Battery thermal MFG DATE 12/90 LOT No (indecipherable numeral then 912 S/N 005959.”

These codes should make it easy for the Americans to identify the purchaser – or receiver – of the weapon, if they choose to do so.

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From PressTV

Israel approves construction of 500 new settler units