From PressTV
Syrian fighter jets pound Daesh oil tankers in Dayr al-Zawr
The Syrian Air Force has targeted a convoy of 20 tankers smuggling oil from territories held by Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the Arab country’s east.
Syrian warplanes bombarded the tankers on the al-Mayadin Highway near the eastern city of Dayr al-Zawr on Sunday.
In another development, a top commander of al-Qaeda-linked Ahrar al-Sham terrorist group, called Abu Talib, was killed in a booby trap explosion in Syria’s northwestern Idlib Province.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website reported that a number of civilians sustained injuries after terrorist groups launched mortar attacks on the northern part of the Syrian province of Hama.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. More than 260,000 have reportedly lost their lives and millions displaced as a result of the violence.
Syrian forces have been battling militants, particularly Daesh terrorists, on different fronts throughout the country. They have recently been making rapid advances against terrorists in operations backed by the Russian air cover, which began on September 30 last year at the request of the Damascus government.
On Sunday, some 30 militants belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front were killed by Russian airstrikes in the southern part of Idlib.
From PressTV
Saudi Arabia’s high risk gamble
The smokescreen created by Saudi rulers over Iran’s criticism of prominent cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr’s execution has concealed the kingdom’s economic troubles.
The fallout from Saudi severing of diplomatic ties with Iran has raised fears of an escalation in a region already riven by the world’s worst conflicts in recent years but less noticeable is the crisis which Riyadh is facing with its balance sheets.
The steep slide in oil prices, a mess of the kingdom’s own making, has blown away big chunks of foreign reserves and liquidated public finances in a country where 90% of the economy suckles on the big oil money.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Saudi Arabia to run a budget deficit of 19.4% in 2016 and run out of financial assets within the coming five years.
Several key factors are currently shaping the kingdom’s outlook, most important of which are deepening regional conflicts and slumping oil prices.
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From PressTV
Army-PKK clashes leave 162 civilians dead in Turkey: Rights group
As many as 162 civilians have lost their lives over the past few months in Turkey’s southeastern areas that are the scene of fighting between the army and members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a rights group says.
The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey said late Saturday that 32 children, 29 women and 24 elderly people were among those killed in the restive regions placed under a government-imposed curfew since August 2015.
The figures were released by the Ankara-headquartered organization at a time that the Turkish army continues unabated with its campaign against the PKK militants.
In December last year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed concern about the rising civilian death toll in Turkey’s clashes, urging the Ankara government to scale back its operations and conduct an investigation into the killings.
Citing local rights groups, the New York-based rights organization also warned that the number of casualties is likely to increase “steeply” in the coming days.
People in the Kurdish-majority towns and cities in Turkey’s southeast have held a series of protests to voice their outrage at the imposition of curfews there as the security forces fight Kurdish militants.
Turkey’s southeast has witnessed confrontation between Turkish forces and the PKK militants since a shaky ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK that had stood since 2013 collapsed following the Turkish military operation against the militant group.
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From Russia Today
US flies B-52 over Korean peninsula in demonstration of ‘strength & capabilities’
Published time: 10 Jan, 2016 03:22
A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber from the United States Air Force (USAF) © Tim Chong / Reuters
The United States has deployed a strategic B-52 bomber for a low altitude demonstrative flight over South Korea to demonstrate the alliance’s might and determination following North Korea’s latest provocative underground nuclear test.
“The flight today demonstrates the strength and capabilities of the alliance,” said the head of US military deployment in in South Korea, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, reported Reuters.
The US has demonstrated its “ironclad commitment” to regional allies such as South Korea and Japan, and its readiness to defend “the American homeland,”Admiral Harry Harris of the US Pacific Command wrote on Twitter.
“North Korea’s nuclear test is a blatant violation of its international obligations. US joint military forces in the Indo-Asia-Pacific will continue to work with all of our regional allies and partners to maintain stability and security,” Harris added in a statement.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
French PM joins Jewish community in remembering Hyper Cacher victims
(JTA) — The prime minister of France, speaking at a ceremony to remember four Jewish victims of terror at a kosher supermarket in Paris, said he regrets that large numbers of his country’s Jews have left for Israel.
“France would not be France” without its Jews, Manuel Valls said Saturday evening at the commemoration held outside the Hyper Cacher on the first anniversary of a hostage siege there by an Islamist who was killed that day in a police raid.
Families of the victims and survivors, along with French Jewish leaders, were on hand for the ceremony arranged by the French Jewish umbrella group CRIF.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
40 ex-Brazilian diplomats speak against appointed Israeli ambassador
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — A group of 40 retired Brazilian diplomats signed a statement against Israel’s controversial appointment of a former settler leader as ambassador in Brasilia.
The former diplomats said Israel bypassed protocol with its appointment of Dani Dayan because there was no prior communication with the Brazilian Foreign Ministry or any presentation of his credentials for an agreement.
“We consider it unacceptable. The rupture of the diplomatic practice seems to have been on purpose,” the diplomats wrote in the statement from Friday. “We support the Brazilian Government’s position on this issue and wish that the current episode is quickly overcome, so we can, together, strengthen the bonds between the two countries.”
The diplomats opposed remarks by Sen. Marcelo Crivella, who said last week that rejecting Dayan would convey a pro-boycott message and “the fact that he defends settlements in the West Bank is a weak motive for such discourtesy and so much political inability.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Aryeh Deri returning as Israel’s interior chief 2 decades after resignation
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri was approved to serve as Israel’s interior minister more than two decades after resigning from the same position over corruption charges.
On Sunday, the Cabinet unanimously backed Deri’s appointment to succeed Silvan Shalom, who resigned from the post and the Knesset last month in the wake of sexual misconduct accusations. Deri stepped down several months ago as economy minister.
He quit the interior post in 1993 after being indicted and was sentenced in 2000 to three years in prison; Deri spent nearly two years in jail. Under his conviction for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, Deri was barred from public service in the political arena for seven years. He was reinstated as Shas party chairman in 2013.
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ruled last week that there was no legal reason barring Deri from taking the position.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Chelsea Clinton, Ivanka Trump declare election 2016 truce
(JTA) — Chelsea Clinton and Ivanka Trump reportedly have decided not to let the 2016 presidential election ruin their friendship.
However, they have agreed not to see each other until after the November vote, the New York Daily News’ Confidenti@l column reported Saturday.
Confidenti@l had reported Jan. 1 that the relationship between the two high-profile women, who exchanged baby gifts and had a frequent text messaging relationship, was strained over the attacks by their parents – Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the Democratic and Republican front-runners, respectively – on each other as the campaign heats up.
Both women are married to Jewish men and are expecting babies this year. Trump has converted to Judaism.
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From Russia Today
Pope Francis compares church to ‘field hospital,’ talks prison & homosexuals in newest book
Published time: 10 Jan, 2016 15:10
In his first book as Pope, Francis has described the Church as a “field hospital” offering people “first aid.” The pontiff also spoke of his “special relations” with people in prison and the need for the Church to show compassion to homosexuals.
“I like to use the image of a field hospital to describe this ‘Church that goes forth’, it exists where there is combat, it is not a solid structure with all the equipment where people go to receive treatment for both small and large infirmities.“
“It is a mobile structure that offers first aid and immediate care, so that its soldiers do not die,” he says in exclusive extracts, published in the Sunday Telegraph.
“The Name of God is Mercy” is a long conversation with veteran Italian Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli, due to be published on Tuesday.
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From Russia Today
US releases video it says shows Iranian rockets fired near American aircraft carrier
Published time: 10 Jan, 2016 08:51
FILE PHOTO: An Iranian warship and speed boats take part in a naval war game in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, southern Iran April 22, 2010 © Fars News / Reuters
The US Navy has released footage purportedly showing the Iranian Navy firing unguided rockets in the strategic Strait of Hormuz near the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and other Western warships and commercial vessels.
The 45-second black and white video shot from a Seahawk helicopter reportedly shows “fast inshore attack craft” of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard firing rockets close to the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, the USS Bulkeley destroyer, the FS Provence French naval frigate and some commercial ships on December 26. The video was declassified in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Washington first reported the incident in late December, saying that prior to live-fire exercise Iran gave a 23-minute warning over maritime radio. The US has slammed the unguided rocket drill as “unsafe.”
The rockets “passing coalition ships and commercial traffic within an internationally recognized maritime traffic lane is unsafe, unprofessional and inconsistent with international maritime law,” Commander Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, said at the time. The US Central Command called Iran’s actions “highly provocative.”
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