Washington has refused to receive a Russian military delegation, headed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, to discuss coordinated action on the fight against terrorism in Syria, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.“We have proposed to Americans what President Vladimir Putin informed the public about yesterday, namely, to send a delegation of military experts to Moscow to agree on a whole number of joint steps, afterwards we would be ready to send a high delegation led by Prime Minister Medvedev to Washington,” Lavrov told the Russian Parliament on Thursday.
“Today we were told that they will not be able to send a delegation to Moscow. At the same time, they are unable to receive our delegation in Washington,” he added.
The top Russian diplomat also said that when Moscow invited partners to join Baghdad-based anti-terrorism center it got unconstructive response.
“We invited our other partners to take part in activities of the information center so that everyone could see the full picture, so that everyone is on the same page to avoid any misunderstanding. The response was unconstructive. They said why in Iraq? It is not safe there. We explained that according to our estimates, this center can operate in quite favorable conditions. But if there is a wish to coordinate actions in some other place, we are ready for this,” Lavrov said.
“The agreement on the military-technical measures to prevent incidents in the air, which has been practically achieved, will start working from day to day, I hope. Today the finishing touches will be given to coordinate all of its points,” Lavrov told the State Duma.
“And then we are ready to sit down and discuss things, with all the cards in our hands: where THEY think terrorists are, where WE think they could be… I’m sure that if we work honestly, those evaluations will coincide.”
“We should all start with showing our cards, both in direct and indirect sense,” the minister stressed. Then our actions would speak louder than words, calling on the fight against terrorism. I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t sit down and discuss [these] things.
“Perhaps, the West thinks that Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS] and Assad should just deplete each other,” he said. But I wouldn’t like to think that our Western colleagues are being guided by such ‘simplified’ logic.”
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“We have very few specifics which could explain what the US is exactly doing in Syria and why the results of so many combat sorties are so insignificant,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian channel NTV. “With, as far as I know, 25,000 sorties they [US-led air campaign] could have smashed the entire [country of] Syria into smithereens,” the minister noted.
Lavrov questioned the Western coalition’s objectives in their air campaign, stressing that Washington must decide whether its aim is to eliminate the jihadists or to use extremist forces to pursue its own political agenda.
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Billionaire Jewish megadonor speaks regularly with the Republican senator about his campaign — and Israel
By Times of Israel staff October 14, 2015, 9:15 am
The billionaire American Jewish casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is said to be leaning toward supporting Senator Marco Rubio as the Republican nominee for president.
The two met last week at Adelson’s Venetian Las Vegas casino, where Adelson, “seated at the head of his conference table, heaped praise on Rubio’s performance while he discussed the dynamics of the 2016 race,” the Washington political magazine Politico reported.
Rubio’s campaign manager Terry Sullivan and two top advisers to Adelson, Rob Goldstein and Patrick Dumont, were said to have been present at the meeting.
“Those briefed on the meeting described it as short but said it had an air of importance,” the magazine related.
Adelson famously spent some $100 million on the 2012 Republican primary and presidential campaigns, under US campaign finance rules that allow unlimited funding of groups that endorse candidates but do not coordinate with their campaigns.
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(JTA) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry linked the recent surge in Palestinian violence on Israelis to the “increase in settlements.”
Speaking Tuesday night at Harvard University, Kerry said he will visit the Middle East soon to move Palestinians and Israelis from violence to peace.
“I will go there soon, at some point appropriately, and try to work to reengage and see if we can’t move that away from this precipice,” Kerry said at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. “We’re working on trying to calm things down.”
Seven Israelis have been killed and many more injured in attacks throughout Israel and the West Bank since Oct. 1, when a young Israeli couple was killed in front of their four children. At least 27 Palestinians, including nine alleged assailants, have been killed.
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The Jewish senator from Vermont gained 35,163 new Twitter followers Tuesday night, while the other four Democratic candidates — Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee — picked up just 23,219 new followers combined. (Clinton gained 13,252 herself.)
Sanders’ campaign Twitter account also boasted the most retweeted line of the night on social media. His dismissal of the Clinton email scandal was retweeted over 12,000 times and made headlines.
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Combat report: Russian jets make 41 sorties against ISIS in Syria, cut off its arms supplies (VIDEO)
Russian warplanes attacked dozens of Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL) strongholds in Aleppo, Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Deir ez-Zor provinces.
“Sukhoi Su-24M bombers delivered pinpoint strikes against terrorist targets near the city of Aleppo. They took out workshops used by the militant terrorist group to arm vehicles with explosives, which are used in suicide bomb attacks,” Defense Ministry spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov stated.
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Dutch investigators have published a much-awaited final report into the causes of the MH17 plane crash in eastern Ukraine, while Russian BUK producer Almaz-Antey has revealed the results of its experiments. Here are eight crucial points from both reports.The Dutch Safety Board (DSB) has been leading
the investigation into the causes of the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17. The crash killed nearly 300 passengers and crew members on July 17, 2014 in eastern Ukraine. The DBS investigation is aimed at providing technical details about the crash, while another probe carried out by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) is expected to determine who was responsible for the incident by the end of this year.
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Army units to bolster security amid wave of terror attacks; police begin setting up checkpoints in city’s eastern neighborhoods
By Judah Ari Gross and Raoul Wootliff October 14, 2015, 10:18 am
Six companies of Israeli soldiers were mobilized in Jerusalem Wednesday, as the IDF joined efforts to secure the city following an escalation in the violence there. The move is part of a slew of measures passed by the security cabinet overnight Tuesday aiming to prevent further terror attacks after the deadliest day so far in the current wave of unrest.
Tuesday saw four terror attacks, two of which, in Jerusalem, left three Israelis dead. All told, over 30 were injured.
“In accordance with the cabinet’s decision last night, as of this morning 300 IDF soldiers have already begun spreading out to provide additional security under police command,” an Israel Police spokesman said in a statement Wednesday morning.
Police also began setting up checkpoints at “the exits of Palestinian villages and neighborhoods in east Jerusalem,” where most of the recent attackers have come from, a police spokeswoman said. Those police actions are intended to return security and order to all the country’s residents, the police said.
The security cabinet also voted to ramp up security arrangements on Jerusalem’s public transport, where the IDF will bolster security until the Transportation Ministry enlists additional guards. Soldiers will be stationed at bus and light rail stops, as well as on buses and trains across the city.
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Israel Space Agency seeks key role in future Mars missions; deal inked at International Astronautical Congress, held for first time in Jerusalem
By AFP and Raoul Wootliff October 14, 2015, 8:59 am
NASA and the Israel Space Agency signed an agreement Tuesday to expand cooperation in civil space activities, the Israeli government said.
The deal was signed by NASA administrator Charles Bolden and ISA director Menachem Kidron on the sidelines of the International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem.
Bolden said the agreement would enable the US space agency to tap Israeli innovation and technology in cooperation
“Our two countries have had a long history of cooperation in space exploration, scientific discovery and research, and we look forward to the opportunities this new agreement provides us to build upon this partnership,” he said in a statement.
The Israel Space Agency expressed hope that the Jewish state’s technology would play a key role in future missions to Mars.
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(JTA) — Officials in Lisbon approved the naturalization of a Panamanian national who applied for a Portuguese passport under recent legislation benefiting the descendants of Sephardic Jews.
Alfonso Paredes was the first applicant to obtain Portuguese nationality since new regulations for the naturalization of Sephardic Jews went into effect in March, according to the Jewish Community of Porto, which vetted Paredes’ application. Paredes became a Portuguese national on Oct. 2, a Porto community representative told JTA on Monday.
The regulations are based on legislation passed in 2013 in the Portuguese Parliament entitling the descendants of Sephardim to the Portuguese nationality deprived of them due to religious persecution during the 15th and 16th centuries, during the Inquisition.
Spain, which followed Portugal’s lead and passed similar legislation and regulations on the naturalization of Sephardic Jews, earlier this month began approving more than 4,300 applications for naturalization.
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A school in Lübeck, Germany, included “practical work experience” at a local asylum center into a week activities. The plan angered parents opposed the idea of their children changing linen on refugees’ beds, helping to cook food and sorting clothes.An extract from a letter was posted in Facebook by a mother who obtained it from a friend whose son received it at school. Initially, the text sparked a mixture of bewilderment and disbelief in social media, but after a local newspaper got in touch with Schleswig-Holstein authorities, they confirmed the document was real.
“I am definitely not a hater, I am super tolerant, but this is taking the matter a bit too far. Is there a new discipline at school which is called servitude?” the angry post reads.
The post got over 2,000 shares and more than 600 comments most of them asking why the refugees can’t take care of them themselves.
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The pace of wealth growth in the middle classes has slowed down, unlike the growth of the richest people, said the Global Wealth Report issued by the Zurich-based Credit Suisse bank.
“This has reversed the pre-crisis trend which saw the share of middle-class wealth remaining fairly stable over time,” Tidjane Thiam, the chief executive of Credit Suisse wrote in the report.
“These results reinforce our findings from last year’s edition of this report, which argued that wealth inequality had widened in most countries in the years after 2008,” he added.
Recent survey shows inequality in the US is at its new peak. The richest 1 percent of the population received almost a…
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