From PressTV
‘Israeli annexation bombshell imminent’
The Israeli regime will present a bill to the Knesset in the coming weeks, calling for the annexation of 60% of the occupied West Bank, the Maariv newspaper has revealed.
According to the paper, preliminary talks have been held to annex Area C of the West Bank where more than 350,000 illegal Israeli settlers are based.
The area is currently ruled by the military but an annexation would require Israeli law to be imposed and Palestinians living in the area to identify as Arab Israelis.
Many members of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet are fervently in favor of the annexation. Last week, minister of judiciary affairs Ayelet Shaked said she was working on a plan to apply Israeli law to Area C.
Naftali Bennett, the leader of the extreme right-wing Jewish Home Party, which is part of the ruling coalition, also said, “It is better for Israel to begin annexing Area C.”
The Israeli occupiers of the Palestinians lands deem the West Bank as “liberated land,” saying formal annexation is only a matter of time.
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From PressTV
Israel to build new illegal settlement in West Bank
The Israeli regime has announced plans to build a new illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank in defiance of international calls for halting the illegitimate practice.
Israel’s Ministry of Military Affairs said on Saturday that the settler units will be built near the unlawful settlement of Silo in the northern West Bank, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
Composed of 139 housing units, the new complex is intended for the 40 families now living in the settlement outpost of Amona, which is set to be evacuated by the end of the year.
Amona was built in 1997 on private Palestinian lands east of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
In 2006, Israel’s High Court ruled that the outpost was illegal, ordering its demolition.
After repeated delays to carry out the court’s eviction order, Tel Aviv announced that only some of the buildings would be destroyed.
In May 2014, an Israeli police investigation said that the entire outpost lay on private Palestinian lands.
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From Russia Today
North Korea to ‘normalize relations with hostile states,’ won’t launch nuke strike first – Kim
Published time: 7 May, 2016 22:55
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the ballistic rocket launch drill of the Strategic Force of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) © KCNA / Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has announced that Pyongyang will seek to normalize relations with states “hostile†towards it. Kim also claimed the North will adhere to the principles of nuclear non-proliferation and would never attack first.
While addressing the Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party (WPK), Kim stated that North Korea would not resort to the use of nuclear weapons unless the country’s sovereignty was challenged.
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From Ynet News
Venezuelan UN Ambassador equates Israeli actions to ‘final solution’
Following a presentation on law enforcement of Jewish radicals who attack West-Bank Palestinians at the UN, the Venezuelan ambassador accused Israel of carrying out ‘final solution’ for Palestinians
Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN Rafael Ramirez accused Israel of implementing a “final solution” against the Palestinians in the UN Security Council on Friday.
“Is Israel trying to impose a ‘final solution’ on the Palestinians in the West Bank?” Ramirez asked at the Security Council meeting. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon immediately condemned the statement, and Ramirez apologized to “the Jewish people, if they were offended by my statement.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
State Dept.: PA envoy likening Israeli soldiers to Nazis ‘deeply concerning’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Palestinian Authority U.N. envoy’s likening of Israeli soldiers confronting stone throwers to Nazis putting down the Warsaw uprising was “deeply concerning,†the State Department spokesman said.
Mark Toner responded Thursday to a JTA query about an April 27 news conference by Riyadh Mansour.
“Obviously we would condemn any anti-Semitic remarks very forcefully,†Toner said, noting that he had not yet examined Mansour’s comments and was basing his assessment on remarks read to him by a JTA reporter. “It’s deeply concerning.”
Mansour, who called the news conference to discuss U.N. actions on Israel and the Palestinians, attacked Israeli diplomats for their terming stone throwers “terrorists.â€
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From PressTV
Syrian army, allies set to liberate northern town of Khan Tuman
Syrian government forces, backed by advisors from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, are preparing to launch a large-scale operation and retake the strategic town of Khan Tuman in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo from foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants.
Syrian troopers together with military advisors from Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement as well as Iraq’s Mobilization Units have converged on the outskirts of the town, located southwest of the provincial capital city of Aleppo, and are gearing up for the liberation operation, Fars news agency reported.
Takfiri militants, led by fellow terrorists from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, took control of Khan Tuman on Friday, shortly before a 48-hour truce in Aleppo was due to expire.
Informed sources, requesting not to be named, told Qatar’s al-Jazeera satellite news network that groups involved in the attack included Ahrar al-Sham, Ajnad al-Sham, and other factions under the command of Jaish al-Fatah (The Army of Conquest).
The IRGC announced in a statement on Saturday that 13 of its military advisers had been killed and 21 others wounded in Syria in recent days.
The statement added that the IRGC members were all from Iran’s northern province of Mazandaran, noting that they were killed and injured in the town of Khan Tuman.
The town has changed hands between Syrian army soldiers, Daesh Takfiri terrorists and foreign-sponsored militants over the past few months. Syrian soldiers had wrested control over Khan Tuman in last December.
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From PressTV
Daesh militants besiege 2,000 refugee families in western Iraq
Members of the Takfiri Daesh militant group have reportedly laid siege to two villages in Iraq’s Anbar Province, which are home to two thousand families, as the extremists continue perpetrating crimes against humanity in the conflict-ridden country.
Local police chief Lieutenant Colonel Aref al-Janabi told Arabic-language al-Sumaria satellite television network that Daesh Takfiris have taken civilians, mostly, women, children and elderly, hostage in Albu Hawi and Hasi villages, which lie north of the city of Amiriyah, located about 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Fallujah, on Saturday.
He added that Daesh militants have also arrested dozens of young people from the two villages, and prevented the local residents from leaving the area.
Janabi further noted that Daesh terrorists are using scores of the civilians as human shields as tribal fighters together with security forces have launched an operation to retake the two besieged villages.
Elsewhere on the outskirts of the northern town of Hawijah, located about 282 kilometers (175 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, Daesh members abducted 18 civilians on charges of cooperation with government forces.
A local police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the militants took the people to an unknown location in Hawija, adding that the fate of the abductees remains unclear.
Furthermore, member of al-Baghdadi district council in Anbar Province, Abdul Jabbar al-Obeidi, said on Saturday that Daesh Takfiris have lobbed three mortar rounds at the area, situated about 180 kilometers (110 miles) northwest of Baghdad, on Saturday, with no casualties reported.
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From Russia Today
Rome building collapses amid explosion, at least 5 injured
Published time: 8 May, 2016 11:50
© Jollyroger / Wikipedia
At least five people have been injured after an explosion took place at a house on the outskirts of the Italian capital, Rome, on Sunday. There are fears that more people could be trapped in the rubble of the building, which has partially collapsed.
It is unknown what caused the explosion to take place at the three-story building, which is in the northeast of the city, though it is understood that a gas canister or a boiler could have been at fault.
A total of five people were injured and three of those had to be extracted from the rubble, according to the La Repubblica newspaper, while there are fears that more people could be trapped. Emergency crews are working at the scene to search through the rubble and treat the injured.
A 25-year-old woman has been taken to hospital after she received a serious head wound, while three men were taken to various hospitals with injuries.
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From Ynet News
London’s new Muslim mayor attends Holocaust memorial
Sadiq Khan appears at ceremony held inside a rugby stadium which brought together thousands from London’s Jewish community; during campaign his Conservative opponents portrayed him as an apologist for Islamic extremism.
London’s newly elected Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, attended an annual memorial to the millions of Jews slain in the Holocaust as his first official act in office on Sunday.
Khan made his appearance at the north London ceremony following a racially charged election campaign during which Conservative Party opponents sought to portray him as an apologist for Islamic extremism and to highlight cases of alleged anti-Semitism within the ranks of Khan’s Labour Party. The event inside a rugby stadium brought together thousands from London’s Jewish community, including more than 150 Holocaust survivors and a combined choir from five Jewish elementary schools.
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From Ynet News
Netanyahu criticizes IDF deputy chief of staff
During a cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister came out against Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, whose Holocaust Remembrance Day speech was highly criticized for comparing Israeli activities to ‘abhorrent processes that took place in Europe, and Germany in particular;’ several Likud ministers have also expressed anger over Golan’s comments.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on the offensive against IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, when opening the weekly cabinet meeting. Netanyahu focused his criticism on Golan’s controversial speech that linked Israeli activity to actions that took place during WWII.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Mexican lawmaker uses expletive to describe president of Jewish community
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Mexican congressman Jorge Romero was accused of using anti-Semitic language when referring to the head of the country’s Jewish umbrella organization and human rights activist Salomon Achar Achar.
Romero’s statement calling the Jewish Community Central Committee’s president “a f***ing Jew,” was recorded by Grupo Imagen Multimedia radio news service, The Excelsior newspaper reported late last week.
“Since 2003, our country has a law to prevent and extinguish discrimination, including anti-Semitism. It’s unacceptable that, in a pluralistic and democratic society, people keep on using depreciative expressions like the one congressman Romero did,” read a note from the Mexican Jewish Community Central Committee, distributed by the Israelite Tribune.
The aggression was witnessed during the confirmation of Achar’s name for the position of honorary adviser of the Human Rights Commission in Mexico’s Congress, whose session rules Romero’s political party PAN and other parties attempted to change at the last minute. The commission’s president, Jimeno Huanosta, confirmed the anti-Semitic words against Achar, according to the Excelsior.
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