Over 1,000 inmates, incl Al-Qaeda suspects, escape Yemeni prison

Reuters / Khaled Abdullah

Around 1,200 prisoners, including some Al-Qaeda suspects, managed to stage one of the biggest jailbreaks in years in Yemen’s south-eastern town of Taiz, after violence broke out and guards abandoned their posts, according to officials.

“Groups of Al-Qaeda supporters ... today attacked the central prison in the city of Taiz and more than 1,200 of the dangerous prisoners escaped,” the Saba state news agency quoted a security official as saying.

This marked one of the biggest prison escapes in the country in the last few years, signaling a lack of security, as various forces fight to gain control of the country.

READ MORE: Bad-tempered Yemen peace talks descend into fistfight (PHOTOS)

Another official confirmed to Reuters that some of those who escaped were “suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda,” adding that they were able to make their getaway as militias clashed in the city.

“Heavy fighting took place near the central prison and the popular committees approached and seized control of the area, but Saleh’s forces opened the prison doors,” the official said.

Tensions in Yemen resurfaced when Shia President Saleh was deposed in 2012. His Shia Houthi supporters, reportedly aided by Iran, seized the capital city of Saana in September of last year, sending the current Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile.

READ MORE: ‘Profoundly distressing’: UNESCO condemns Saudi-led bombing of historic Yemen capital

Houthi forces advanced to Taiz in March, as part of a southward push.

A Saudi Arabian-led coalition responded with airstrikes, but has not been able to make any significant progress, as Yemen’s army units, which are loyal to the country’s ex-president and Houthi ally Ali Abdullah Saleh, are putting up a stiff fight.

Officials accused Saleh’s army forces of allowing the prisoners to escape while militiamen advanced.

Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda-linked Sunni groups are fighting against Houthi forces in various parts of Yemen, labelling them apostates worthy of death.

This has been the third serious jailbreak since the Saudi-led air campaign began on 26 March. One of the most recent occurred in April, when prisoners broke out of a prison in the eastern city of Mukalla after army forces had left the city.

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Kremlin Critic Khodorkovsky Named as Murder Suspect in Russia

Russia wants to question former oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky as a suspect in a murder case that has been reopened because of new evidence, federal investigators said Tuesday.

Khodorkovsky, the former owner of the now-defunct Yukos oil company, spent a decade in jail after falling out with Vladimir Putin. Now living in Switzerland, he remains one of the president's most vocal critics.

He has denied involvement in the 1998 murder of Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of a Siberian town where Yukos had its biggest oil production unit. He has suggested on Twitter that the new investigation was politically motivated.

Announcing on its website that the case had been reopened, the federal Investigative Committee, which answers directly to Putin, said it wanted to question Khodorkovsky.

"According to information obtained by the Investigative Committee, Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky could have ordered this murder and a number of other serious crimes," the committee's spokesman, Vladimir Markin, said.

"I don't think his absence from Russia will be an insurmountable obstacle to carrying out all the necessary investigative actions."

Petukhov, who was shot dead, had been leading a public campaign against Yukos over alleged tax arrears. A Yukos security chief was later convicted of his murder.

Vadim Klyuvgant, a lawyer for Khodorkovsky, told the RIA Novosti news agency Markin's remarks were "fantasy."

Khodorkovsky suggested they were a response to articles he has written criticizing Putin or to a court settlement in The Hague compensating Yukos shareholders who lost out when Russia seized the company, broke it up and nationalized it.

"I ask Markin to explain whether this is a reaction to implementation [of the case in] The Hague or a reaction to the series of articles on the future of Russia after Putin?" he wrote on Twitter.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, was arrested in 2003 and convicted of theft and tax evasion in 2005. Critics saw this as punishment for opposing Putin, which the Kremlin denies. He was pardoned and released from prison in 2013.

An international arbitration court ruled last July that Russia must pay $50 billion for expropriating Yukos' assets. It has not complied and a group of former shareholders has started legal proceedings to have the order enforced.

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Putin Allies Feature in Probe Into Russian Mafia in Spain – Report

Some of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies — including a deputy prime minister, the head of the Investigative Committee, two former ministers and the chairman of Gazprom — are mentioned in a prosecutors' report as part of an investigation into Russian mafia activities in Spain, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

The news agency cited a copy of a 488-page petition sent to court by prosecutors as saying that current Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak and the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, were "directly related" to Gennady Petrov, leader of St. Petersburg's infamous Tambov crime gang.

Petrov's network in Moscow also included Viktor Zubkov, chairman of Russia's gas behemoth Gazprom, former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and former Communications Minister Leonid Reiman, according to the prosecutors' report seen by Bloomberg.

Putin's spokesman described the prosecutors' allegations as "total nonsense" to Bloomberg, saying they were "beyond the realm of reason."

Putin has repeatedly been accused of involvement in criminal activity when he occupied top posts in the St. Petersburg administration in 1991-96. The Kremlin has persistently denied the accusations.

In a diplomatic cable from the U.S. Embassy in Madrid that was leaked by WikiLeaks in 2010, Spanish prosecutor Jose Grinda — one of the authors of the petition submitted to Madrid's Central Court on May 29 — described Russia as a "virtual mafia state."

The petition represents a formal request to charge 27 people with crimes including money laundering and fraud, Bloomberg said. One of those people is Vladislav Reznik, a deputy in the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, whom Spanish prosecutors suspect of collaborating with Petrov.

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Perversion in America: Gay Pride

By Xavier Lerma

Two years ago I wrote, "Americans are turning gay and Russian men are looking more like the Klitschko brothers. The US is the modern day Sodom and Gomorrah while Christianity triumphs in Russia." The US Supreme Court last week ruled against logic allowing same sex couples to legally marry. The attack upon Christianity in America becomes worse as the legalization of homosexual marriage becomes law. 

The people from ancient Sodom and Gomorrah would be shocked at America's new culture. It is a freak show in an upside down America. Good is bad. Men become women, women become men. Families are being destroyed as the devil rocks their cradle. The sane are considered insane. The foolish praised as philosophers. Judges are deranged and release from prison murderers, rapists and child molesters. Back into the public they go to kill, rape and sexually assault children.

Christianity is under attack in America as it was in Russia in the early 20^th century. Only they use the law to promote their agenda. Over 2000 years ago at Christ's crucifixion there were few of the faithful. Many lost faith in him. Those who despised him had him crucified under the law. So, it is today. Few stand by Christ, and those in power in the west use the law to make sure Christ stays dead and forgotten.

The last priest of St Basil's Cathedral was Fr Ioann Vostorgov. Before he was murdered by the Communists he wrote, "there is not and cannot be complete and absolute freedom for man, that it is limited and must be directed by the Law of God". The free thinkers of his time did not like what he said so they shot him in 1918. How tolerant they were. All liberals are this way. They talk about the best for mankind and give speeches on tolerance, equality and justice for all. If you disagree with them they ignore you or shout at you and prefer you dead.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn once said about America in 1978, "Destructive and irresponsible freedom has been granted boundless space. Society appears to have little defense against the abyss of human decadence, such as, for example, misuse of liberty for moral violence against young people, motion pictures full of pornography, crime and horror. It is considered to be part of freedom and theoretically counter-balanced by the young people's right not to look or not to accept. Life organized legalistically has thus shown its inability to defend itself against the corrosion of evil."

In Moscow recently, Aleksey Lisovenko promised to ban the rainbow flag which is the symbol of the LGBT community. He said, "the United States must have gone completely mad and now its gay delirium is threatening the entire civilized world. Billions of US dollars would be pumped into gay propaganda all over the world, preparing the grounds for rainbow revolutions".

Russian Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said, "You might not be told that they want to force you to adopt such a godless and sinful thing as same-sex marriages. Remember: in reality they want to take your right to live according to the faith, take your soul, take your opportunity to build the life of your society and your state according to the eternal and invariable God-given moral laws. (US is trying) to impose its anti-natural and post-human view on marriage on other countries."

In America, Orthodox priest, Fr. John Whiteford's brilliant  article "Gay Marriage Decision: How do we Respond?" says, "Anyone above the age of 30 has to be amazed at the rapidity with which the gay agenda has been advanced, and with the speed that transgender activism has become the new cause of the left. The Left's goal is the destruction of conservative Christianity, in any form. If you don't believe it, you need to read the recent article on the Huffington Post: "Does Legal Gay Marriage Doom Evangelical Christianity?" by Clay Farris Naff, which states towards the end:

"More than two-thirds of young Americans already accept gay marriage. As it proliferates, more will. To come out as anti-gay is already seriously not cool. Increasingly, in high schools and colleges, to be anti-gay will be like coming out as a Klansman."

No, they will never stop hating Christ and his followers. They will also continue to try to blind the world from the miracle in Russia. They own the western media and they have some control of the internet. Who is "they" you ask?  Those who are financially wealthy and despise Christ. Those who have the power to remove him under the law. You know a tree by its fruit don't you? Then you can know a person by their actions. Call them Communists, Marxists or liberals. No names are necessary. They failed in Russia but are sadly winning in the West.

They demonize President Vladimir Putin, whose approval rating is at 89 percent. Putin is just a practical man defending Russia. He understands what works and what does not. He is economically conservative and sees moral conservatism is best for human nature. Sodomy does not make a family. The traditional family is the foundation of society and must be protected. "One gender marriages will not give you offspring."He has placed laws into effect which the west would call censorship or racism. Putin shut the sodomites up and protects the children and the Christian Church.

Holy Mother Russia they sought to destroy has been resurrected by Christ with a new and stronger faith. They destroyed Christ the Savior Cathedral but it was rebuilt by Christians in Russia. Thousands of churches and monasteries that have been destroyed have been repaired or are being repaired. "The world should see Orthodox Russia's great feat of rebuilding all that was destroyed", Patriarch Kirill said in 2010. 

America, on the other hand, is spiritually sick. The physical world is a shadow of the spiritual world.  As Catholic exorcist Fr. Malachi Martin, the author of "Hostage to the Devil" wrote, "A bird flies not because it has wings, but because it is a bird".  A Man acts like a man because he is a man. When an evil spirit is allowed to take over, the man can become anything, even a woman. He wrote about Richard/Rita who was a possessed transsexual. "He had voluntarily become possessed by an evil spirit which responded to the name of 'Girl- Fixe'r.

The case of Richard/ Rita was important beyond many another, exactly because it centered on our ability to identify love, and on the dire risk of confusing that love with what we can only see as its physical or even chemical components. Richard/Rita had carried the confusion to ghastly extremes."

The demons said during the exorcism, "the same old trap. The same old trap we've taken many in - we still catch them in. That they f--k as necessarily as birds sing, as water flows, as the fire burns. Merely to show how independent they are. How superior they are. That if they don't breathe for f-k-ng, live for f-k-ng, sing in f-k-ng, they can't breathe, cry, sing, love, or do anything. Be liberated. That's what they begin to say. Man, woman, or goat, little boy, or if it comes to that, little girl."

How should good Americans respond? Penance, prayer and fasting-Matthew 17:21. Also, Fr. John Whiteford suggests, "1) Educate yourself on the issue and be prepared to speak up on it: ...you need to get over the fear of what unbelievers think, and stand for Christ, regardless of the consequences. 2) Understand the times we are living in: ...The Left's goal is the destruction of conservative Christianity. 3) You need to seriously consider your options: ...start thinking about home schooling or private Christian schools ...let your elected representatives know that they need to deal with this issue, and this needs to be more than a one time phone call or e-mail."

Fr. Whiteford's wisdom is that, "We also need to be welcoming to those who struggle with homosexuality, but who wish to repent. Homosexuality is not an unpardonable sin. Our issue is with those who say homosexual sex is not sinful, not with homosexuals who recognize that this is sinful, and are seeking the grace and forgiveness of Christ."

Xavier Lerma

Contact Xavier Lerma at xlermanov@swissmail.org

See also his Russian Faith website in English.

Hyperlink to Pravda.Ru is mandatory if you republish this article

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Canadian sanctions against Russia ineffective

New Canadian sanctions against Russia are unlikely to be effective. On June 29, Ottawa expanded the sanctions list against Russia. Canadian sanctions were imposed on the Eurasian Youth Union and several members of this organization. The list continues with several Russian companies, such as  Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Surgutneftegaz and Transneft. However, Sberbank analyst Valery Nesterov said that Russia did not have large assets in Canada. The sanctions will affect Gazprom's securities, though. Yet, Europe and the United States are not going to give up the benefits that they receive from the Russian company.

The sanctions will not affect the activities of Russian defense companies either, such "Tula Arms Factory" and "United Aircraft Corporation". Chief editor of "National Defense" magazine Igor Korotchenko said that the actions of the monarchy came as a "political action" that had little to do with practical activities of the companies.

Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister said in a statement that the sanctions against Russia were related to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

Pravda.Ru

Also read:

Canada's Ukrainian borsch has bitter anti-Russian taste

Canada's unsustainable slaughter of polar bears

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State will continue financing sport for the next five-six years — Russian sports minister

MOSCOW, June 30 /TASS/. The state will continue financing sport for the next five or six years, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Tuesday in a comment on media reports that professional sport clubs would have limited right to spend the money received from the state and state-owned companies to their own discretion.

"We should be guided by a document, which has been considered by the presidential council for sport. Our task is to discuss how the state should continue financing sport — from the budget, via state monopolies or by state-owned companies. We should outline the criteria for spending these funds. The state is not planning to withdraw from big sport in the next five or six years. We do not have a fully market economy in this country so far, and investments in sport will not pay back in full measure. State monopolies and state-owned companies will continue supporting professional clubs because it’s a kind of criterion," Mutko said.

At the time, the minister said that professional sport clubs funded by state-owned companies should act in the interests of national teams, develop youth and children’s sport and train a sport reserve. "The clubs should act within the framework of a government policy under which we should shift the focus to our national teams. We already have problems in many playing sports. The state allows spending the money but it should also write the rules of spending," Mutko emphasized.

The presidential council for development of physical culture and sport will hold a regular meeting in November 2015. They will discuss the development of football in Russia and the provision of sport infrastructure with a view of preparations for the 2018 World Cup," the Russian sport minister stressed.

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Protesters in central Yerevan argue with police ignoring request to disperse

YEREVAN, June 30 /TASS/. Armenian protesters who refused to accept the authorities’ concession to temporarily suspend the electricity tariff hike remained on the Marshal Bagramyan avenue in central Yerevan on Tuesday. They are attempting to provoke law enforcers who are trying to persuade them to disperse peacefully and remove street barricades which have been blocking traffic for the past eight days.

The protesters surrounded Yerevan’s deputy police Chief Valery Osipyan who arrived at the scene earlier on Tuesday. They interrupted him as he spoke and called out various slogans. The crowd on the Marshal Bagramyan avenue has become more disorganized and less controllable since protest coordinators announced a decision to end the street protest and left the scene earlier in the day. Constructive proposals and clearly formulated demands to the authorities that were previously made by activist Vaginak Shushanyan, an organizer of the "No to Robbery" movement, have been replaced by calls, coming from occasional protesters, to hold on to the last.

"Police are not taking any actions and are waiting for the demonstrators to disperse on their own so that the traffic and public order could be restored. As you see, our efforts have been in vain so far," Osipyan told TASS by telephone earlier on Tuesday adding the police were trying to explain to the demonstrators that their actions were illegal.

Protests in Armenia

The riots erupted after the State Regulatory Commission had agreed to raise public electricity tariffs by 16% at a meeting on June 17 to meet the request received from CJSC "Electric Networks of Armenia" distribution company, a subsidiary of RAO UES INTERNATIONAL. The measure which is to take effect on August 1 caused a wave of indignation among ordinary Armenians who assumed that the electricity price hike would automatically increase prices for essentials and many services. Armenia’s opposition forces used that public discontent to stage mass protests in central Yerevan.

The first protest rally against the planned rise in electricity tariffs took place in Yerevan on June 17. Similar protests were held in other major cities in Armenia on June 19. Eighteen people, including 11 policemen, were hurt in the rallies. Police detained 237 protesters who were released soon but failed to break up the protest. The demonstrators returned to the Marshal Bagramyan prospect almost immediately after their release to join a peaceful rally that has been on for seven days.

On June 27, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said that the government was ready to suspend the hike temporarily and cover the price rise out of state funds rather than increase customers’ bill until experts did not complete the audit of the Electric Networks of Armenia distribution company. That split the protesters’ camp in two: those who accepted the government’s proposal moved to the Freedom Square outside the Yerevan Opera Theatre; the other half of more radically minded protesters who rejected the government concession continued to stay on the Marshal Bagramyan avenue.

On June 30, Armenian Prime Minister Ovik Abramyan said the Armenian government would cover the electricity price rise from off-budget sources until an independent audit of the Electric Networks of Armenia distribution company was completed.

"Electricity tariff hikes will not be a burden on the state budget. They will be compensated from off-budget sources," Abramyan said after the "Economic Agenda-2015" news conference on Tuesday. He added that the concrete sources of off-budget funding would be announced later.

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Ukraine’s Federation of Employers calls on Poroshenko to send government to resignation

KIEV, June 30. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Federation of Employers has called on President Petro Poroshenko and leaders of the parliamentary faction to send the country’s current government to resignation, the Federation’s press service said on Tuesday.

"The anti-national, anti-Ukrainian policy of the current government has led to an undeclared default. As a result of the government’s unprofessionalism, the country’s aggregate foreign debt for the first time in history has exceeded its GDP and reached 110.5%," the Federation said in an appeal.

The employers demand a "moratorium on privatization be imposed in condition of default." "Most of the 300 debtor enterprises subject to privatization will be sold at a price that is lower than their real cost," the appeal said.

The Federation also noted that the problem of repaying debts to businesses amounting to 100 billion hryvnias ($4.5 billion) had not been settled either.

Set up in 2002, Ukraine’s Federation of Employers now unites more than 8,500 enterprises, which account for 70% of the country’s GDP and employ more than five million people. The Federation is led by tycoon Dmytro Firtash, whose companies the Ukrainian authorities are seeking to nationalize.

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World’s 1st 3D printed office building to glam up Dubai

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​Rosatom says it offers reliable nuclear supplies to Europe

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Too damn high: New York City to freeze rent on 1-year leases

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Russia Only Has Itself to Blame for Lost Influence in Post-Soviet Sphere

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Holidaymakers staying away from Sousse resort after Tunisia beach attack

TUNIS, June 30. /TASS/. The number of holidaymakers in the Tunisian popular resort town of Sousse has decreased two-fold following last Friday's attack in which at least 38 people, most of them tourists, were killed by a gunman on a nearby beach, regional tourism officials said on Tuesday.

"The number of people staying at hotels in Sousse has fallen from 12,000 to 6,000 after the terrorist attack last Friday," Saloua Kadri, Sousse tourism commissioner, said at a meeting of the Tunisian association of tour operators.

While discussing the current situation, representatives of travel agencies noted that the number of cancellations could reach 30-40%.

Tunisia’s authorities are taking emergency measures to save the tourist season. The Tourism Ministry announced on Tuesday that the government had decided to cancel the 30-dinar exit tax for tourists, though the change can only come into effect after a parliamentary vote.

The North African country that relies heavily on tourism expects to lose at least $515 million this year, or about a quarter of its estimated annual tourism earnings, after the deadly attack forced thousands of tourists to flee the country.

"We can count, at least, with regards to the impact on Gross Domestic Product [GDP], on a loss of earnings of a billion dinars [$515 million, €460 million]," Tourism Minister Salma Loumi told reporters, giving a preliminary estimate from the Sousse attack.

On Friday afternoon in Tunisia’s Sousse, an armed terrorist opened gunfire at a beach adjoined by the 5-star Imperial Marhaba hotel, which is popular with West-European tourists killing 39 and wounding 26 more.

A Russian woman is listed among the wounded in the attack, while another Russian national is considered missing.

Russian diplomats who visited local hospitals in search for the wounded Russian female tourist said there were nationals of Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, and Ukraine among the hospitalized following the attack.

The notorious terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack in Tunisia, hit by the second terrorist attack in three months. In mid-March, a group of armed attackers, clad in military uniforms, stormed the Bardo museum, located near the parliament in the country’s capital of Tunis, killing over 20 people, including 17 tourists, wounding dozens and taking several foreigners hostage.

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NATO’s turn against Russia plotted long before Ukraine events — diplomat

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. NATO’s return to the Cold War era security perception was planned long before the Ukrainian crisis, Russia’s envoy to the alliance, Alexander Grushko, said on Tuesday.

"Today, the whole NATO machine is in fact turning to the East, in other words is going back to the sources. This is an extremely dangerous tendency as it envisages long-term trends," he told a video link-up between Moscow and Brussels.

"NATO links the need for such a turn to Russia’s alleged aggressive actions in Ukraine," the diplomat said. "But NATO cannot but see what efforts are made by Russia to ensure the full implementation of the Minsk agreements."

"However, those decisions that are taken are no way linked to the Ukrainian crisis, what is becoming another evidence that the military and political turn of NATO was devised long before the Ukrainian events," he said.

This turn comes first of all as the "epoch of major operations is over, showing NATO’s failure to adopt to new security conditions." In order to prove that this tool is still in demand, "the alliance has found nothing better than to return to the security perception of the Cold War time."

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Lavrov, Kerry discuss INF Treaty problems

VIENNA, June 30. /TASS/. Problems of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) were discussed at talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists Tuesday.

"We also spoke of certain issues relating to the problem of strategic stability, the situation in the sphere of international treaties, including the Treaty [Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics] on the Elimination of [Their] Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, including interaction in general between our militaries, including regarding existing treaties, between national nuclear risk reduction centers," Lavrov said.

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Gaza: The hijacking of The Marianne by "The Pirates of the Mediterranean"

Piracy:" The practice of attacking and robbing ships at sea." (Oxford English Dictionary.)

The "international community" is, it would seem, remarkably selective over piracy.

Concern over Somali pirates was such that foreign Navy's were sent to protect shipping in international waters. In one incident three alleged pirates were killed and a Somali teenager spirited away to the US to be tried, whilst eleven others were sent for trial in Kenya.

Felicity Arbuthnot

However, in the early hours of the morning (local time) of 29^th June, three Israeli Navy ships intercepted and hijacked a Swedish flagged ship, the Marianne av Göteborg on route to Gaza in the State of Palestine (recognized as a State by the United Nations on 30^th November 2012 by an overwhelming vote of 138-9, elevating Palestine to Non-Member Observer State a status bestowed on just one other entity, The Vatican.)

International waters

The ship was in international waters (approximately one hundred nautical miles off shore) but was boarded, towed by Israeli Navy vessels to Israel's port of Ashdod. Cameras, computers, mobile 'phones and belongings have been allegedly stolen by those who boarded. It is hoped they will be returned, but the track record is not good judging by the lack of return of personal - or any items, including aid cargo purchased by public donations destined for the people of Gaza - from the numerous previously pirated vessels. The Marianne was carrying a consignment of solar panels for a people whom, for most, a constant electricity supply has become a distant memory.

Israel's territorial waters (in to which the Marianne had no intention of heading) presumably should extend just twelve nautical miles from shore as laid down in the 1984 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea which directs that:

"Every State has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, measured from baselines determined in accordance with this Convention." They do not extend one hundred nautical miles.

Israel has stated the Marianne was requested to change course a number of times. Israel has no legal right to demand anything of a vessel in international waters.

In a mind numbingly schizophrenic communication to the Marianne the Israeli government wrote:

No blockade? Then why send food via Israel?

"There is no blockade on the Gaza Strip, and you are invited to transfer humanitarian supplies through Israel." If there is "no blockade", it has to be asked, why should humanitarian supplies be sent to Israel and why indulge in multiple war ship piracy, towing the ship to a foreign country to which it had never intended to travel?

The communiqué ended in regret that the Marianne's passengers had not chosen to visit Israel where they would have been "impressed" by the democracy upheld by the Jewish state that affords equality and religious freedoms for all its citizens. So they were forcibly taken there to experience the "freedoms" from the inside of Givon prison, where all but two are currently being held. It is surely a truly mad world in "the only democracy in the Middle East."

Perhaps the government scribe was unaware of the latest of innumerable acts far from resembling democracy or equality, targeting, as ever, children:

"While budget allocations for private Christian schools have steadily shrunk, the private yeshivas serving Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish population have received increased allotments, to the point that the state now covers 100 percent of their budgets. The yeshivas do not teach the Ministry of Education's core curriculum, and their matriculation rate hovers at a dismal 10 percent."

Further:

"State schools that serve Palestinian citizens of Israel are notoriously underfunded, with a recent report finding that the state allots $1,100 per year per Jewish student versus $192 per Arab student in the state system. No surprise, then, that average matriculation rates at state-run Arab high schools are about 27 percent, compared with 95 percent for the leading Christian schools. What's more, teachers at state schools in the Arab sector must be vetted by Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service. And the schools' state-mandated curriculum places draconian limitations on teaching Palestinian history and literature."

However, regarding the Christian schools:

"Last summer, the situation became critical after the ministry set a cap so low on the amount the schools may raise through tuition that they could no longer make up the shortfall caused by the shrinking state budget allocation.

Father Fahim Abdelmasih, the head of the Christian Schools' Office in Israel, said that six months of negotiating with the Ministry of Education yielded no solution, calling the tuition caps a 'death sentence' for Christian schools in Israel."

So much for "equality and religious freedom for all its citizens" - and then there's that wall, the segregation roads, the segregation buses, the checkpoints, the travel bans, bombed home repair bans, home demolitions, olive grove arsons, flower, fruit, vegetable export bans - an embargo on all normality.

The passengers of the Marianne currently being "impressed" by Israeli democracy from the inside of Givon Prison are:

Dror Feiler (Sweden) Musician and Composer

Ana Miranda (Spain) Member of the European Parliament

Nadya Kervorkova (Russia) Journalist

Kajsa Ekis Ekman (Sweden) Journalist, Author

Robert Lovelace (Canada) University Professor and retired Algonquin Chief

Joel Opperdoes (Sweden) Crew

Gustave Bergstrom (Sweden)

Herman Reksten (Norway)

Kevin Neish (Canada)

Jonas Karlin (Sweden)

Charlie Andreasson (Sweden)

Ammar Al-Hamdan (Norway) Aljajeera Arabic

Mohammed El Bakkali (Morocco) Aljazeera Arabic

Ohad Hemo (Israel) Channel 2 Israeli TV

Ruwani Perera (New Zealand) MaoriTV

Jacob Bryant (New Zealand) MaoriTV

Alarmingly, the whereabouts of passengers Dr. Moncef Marzouki, former President of Tunisia (2011-2014) and Palestinian politician Bassel Ghattas a Member of the Israeli Knesset are unknown at the time of writing.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, binding for one hundred and fifty four nations and the European Union (not yet ratified by the United States) makes "piracy a universal crime and subjects pirates to arrest and prosecution by any nation." However, for all the quoting of its fine words here, surprise, Israel has not signed this important, detailed Convention as it has ignored or violated innumerable UN Resolutions, starting from the country's infancy with Resolution 57 of 18^th September 1948, which expressed: "deep shock at the assassination of the U.N. Mediator in Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, by Zionist terrorists."

No doubt some of the reasons for disregarding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea can be found in Part 7:

Article 89:

No State may validly purport to subject any part of the high seas to its sovereignty.

Article 90:

Every State, whether coastal or land-locked, has the right to sail ships flying its flag on the high seas.

Article 100:

All States shall cooperate to the fullest possible extent in the repression of piracy on the high seas or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State.

Ironically Somalia was an early signatory to the Convention, signing in 1982, thus can be held accountable. Will accountability ever apply to "the only democracy ..." Will the UN, the "international community" ever demand it?

"The "Pirates of the Mediterranean", tweeted someone this morning.

What a tragedy that a people who have historically suffered so grievously are being tarred by the actions of a relative few and of the government of Israel, a haven defined by Lord Balfour (2^nd November 1917) as: " the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people ... it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine ..."

The "existing non-Jewish community" are either exiled, bombed, restricted, or in an open prison. Those who raise money, risk much and sail in solidarity risk their lives, are hijacked, put in a closed prison or, as in the case of the Mavi Marmara, murdered.

When will impunity end?

 

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Australian politicians slam TPP for ‘excessive secrecy’

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Crowdsourcing campaign to bailout Greece launched by British shoe shop employee

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​‘Stop profiting from war,’ Christian protesters tell Church of England

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Perfect World Announces New Milestone Reached by the Zhi-Xing China Program

BEIJING, June 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ - Perfect World Co., Ltd. ("Perfect World" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the latest developments in the Zhi-Xing China-Perfect World US-China Young Leaders Fellowship Program ("Zhi-Xing China Program"). This program aims to bring together young members of US and Chinese societies and was successfully launched at the end of December 2014. On the evening of June 22, local time, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong met with the first American representatives of the program for the first time, setting a new milestone.

Photo - http://ift.tt/1U48zWE

The Zhi-Xing China program was launched by the China Education Association for International Exchange in partnership with the Eisenhower Foundation. The program is a pioneer initiative, embodying the co-operative spirit of the 5^th US-China High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange (CPE). It aims to build a platform for research and exchange between China and the United States, and targets US-China bilateral relations and broaden channels for further cultural exchanges. Perfect World is honored to support and fund the Zhi-Xing China Program.

Ruby Wang, Vice-President of and official spokesman for Perfect World and General Manager of Perfect World Education Investment Co., Ltd., said, "We are very excited and honored to be part of the Zhi-Xing China Program. We share the same vision of pushing for the steady, long-term development of people-to-people exchanges, and we are proud to dedicate our efforts to this program, which is expected to continue for at least 10 years to deliver true and lasting influence. As an internet enterprise with an international presence, we are fully in support of increased collaboration and partnership between peoples of different nations, and we hope the Zhi-Xing China Program will continue to spearhead the continued exchange between younger generations in the U.S. and China."

CONTACT:

Shuo Huang, +86-10-57801723, huangshuo106651@pwrd.com

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Russian president approves ratification of alliance treaty with South Ossetia

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on ratification of a treaty formalizing alliance and integration with South Ossetia. The document was published on the official web portal for legal information on Tuesday.

The accord, signed in Moscow by the leaders of Russia and South Ossetia on March 18, was ratified by Russia’s State Duma lower house of parliament on June 19 and by the Federation Council upper house on June 24. South Ossetia’s parliament ratified the document on April 3.

The treaty envisages establishment of a common defence and security space, free border crossing, integration of customs agencies, police cooperation, simplified procedures for obtaining the Russian citizenship and a social component, in particular, pension increases.

A senior Russian foreign ministry official said the document "is a follow-up to the vast contractual legal framework of relations between Russia and friendly South Ossetia".

"This framework is made up of 83 bilateral documents and relies on the so-called big Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance of September 17, 2008," said Mikhail Shurgalin, deputy director of the Foreign Ministry’s 4th CIS Department.

He added that the new treaty was a framework agreement and would serve in the future as the basis for bilateral agreements "in social, economic and humanitarian spheres, as well in defence and security".

The treaty will help "establish South Ossetia as a modern democratic state, strengthen its international profile and ensure reliable security and the republic’s social and economic formation," Shurgalin said.

The document has a lifetime of 25 years and can be extended by 10 years.

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Russia to take every measure to neutralize NATO’s threats near its borders

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. Russia will make a proportionate response to any threat that may emerge near its borders, Russia’s permanent envoy to NATO, Alexander Grushko, said in a Moscow-Brussels teleconference.

"In terms of defence, not only political considerations are taken into account, but also potentials that might be deployed along our border," he said. "We have been able to see that NATO is making a U-turn and trying to ensure its security by projecting force to Russia."

"In our military planning, we will bear in mind the emergence of new potentials along our borders and take measures to ward off any threat stemming from the deployment of these potentials," he said.

"The principle difference of the situation is that until today security of Central and Eastern European countries has been ensured not by means of deploying forces, foreign contingents there, not by means of deploying [elements] of the missile defence system that directly undermine strategic stability," Grushko said.

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Hercules C-130 crashes in Indonesia

Military transport aircraft Hercules C-130 crashed on a hotel and nearby houses in the Indonesian city of Medan.

According to preliminary data, more than 50 people were killed, and the death toll is expected to rise.  

Representatives of the Indonesian Air Force said that it could be a problem with the engine that caused the crash. Prior to the crash, the pilot contacted a flight control officer, reported the problems and was going to return to the base. However, "the plane crashed as it was turning back to the airfield.

Pravda.Ru

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How the Pentagon and American bases pollute and control humanity

We Americans are champions to produce and sell shit.

Richard Brooks

By Nicolas Bonnal

Vladimir Putin has reminded us how our planet is covered with American bases. We are told that Russia is a great peril in Europe, yet this peril depends on the American bases and matrix which nourish the imaginative risk of the Russian bear. Poland and Baltic countries, other places in Europe are now fanaticized against Russia because our information, our culture, our military are controlled by maddened American imperialism. We perfectly know thank to Mr Ulfkotte that the American CIA controls the great media in Europe and bribes the most famous journalists. The elite in France or elsewhere have sold their soul (if they had one!) to American corporations, and this cause explains scandalous and secret TTIP.

American bases sprawling around the world like cancer

But I want to remind the importance of American bases that have sprawled like cancer, virus or insects all around the world. Before the last war, there were 14 American military settlements the world. After the war, they were 30 000. Now there are around 200 bases around the world, involving more than 100 000 soldiers. One may think that it is not so important. But the impact of these bases is enormous on our life and behaviour. These bases are the experiment laboratories of our 'hallucinated' (Kunstler) way of life.

Let us read courageous authoress Catherine Lutz in her co-authored book on American bases:

"While the bases are literally barracks and weapons depots and staging areas for war-making and ship repair facilities and golf courses and basketball courts, they are also political claims, spoils of war, arms sales showrooms, toxic industrial sites, laboratories for cultural miscommunication, and collections of customers for local bars, shops, and prostitution."

Also read: Russia to revive army bases in three oceans

One spoke of 50 000 prostitutes in South Korea in the fifties. This unlucky country will never be reunified thanks to American interventionism and pestilential presence. This is the problem indeed: charging a poor country or a vassal one (like Germany or Japan definitively vanquished and occupied since 1945) with a fiscal, moral and physical plague.
Add Mrs Lutz:

 "Some communities pay the highest price: their farm land taken for bases, their children neurologically damaged by military jet fuel in their water supplies, their neighbours imprisoned, tortured, and disappeared by the autocratic regimes that survive on U.S. military and political support given as a form of tacit rent for the bases."

The bases never reinforced security around the world. It is the contrary that occurs, like in a good old mafia movie (the myth of the protector...):

"The environmental, political, and economic impact of these bases is enormous and, despite Pentagon claims that the bases simply provide security to the regions they are in, most of the world's people feel anything but reassured by this global reach."

American cigarettes and chewing gum colonize the world

The bases reinforced many dictators around the world, like Suharto in Indonesia, Franco in Spain or Marcos in Filipinos (a country whose resistance was exterminated at the end of the nineteenth century). So the democratic pretext quoted by Merkel to justify Western aggression against Russia is just a bark or a joke:

"Less well known is that these training programs strengthen the power of military forces in relation to other sectors within those countries, sometimes with fragile democracies, and they may include explicit training in assassination and torture techniques. Fully 38 percent of those countries with U.S. basing were cited in 2002 for their poor human rights record."

Many nations, poor or impoverished by the western wars, were thus easily colonized by American cigarettes, dollars, donuts, chewing gum. Where I live in Spain, people remember lost nuclear devices left by American troops (during the Cold War) or a gruesome gastronomic colonization, especially during the shooting of legendary Lawrence of Arabia. Troops or crew throwing candies to children discovered then the best way to possess a country. Kids get obesity and caries, the fascist or post-fascist elite get the dollars.

Another American writer, Joseph Gerson, remarks in this book the sinister dietetic mutation in Okinawa. This legendary base, which produces an incalculable number of nuisances, was also referenced by world-famous scholar Chalmers Johnson.

And this is what happens when you are an occupied country:

"Today in Naha, Okinawa's capital, people spend 46 percent more on hamburgers than people do in other Japanese prefectural capitals. They spend 60 percent more on bacon, and 300 percent more on processed meats, while spending 49 percent less on salad and 71 percent less on sushi."

Thanks to the American bases and pentagonal frozen madness, the Okinawans today threaten China. So they can be exterminated thanks to these American bases. But don't worry about the fate of these unlucky people: even in peace time their health is threatened by the American Way of Death: Okinawan men's longevity has fallen to 26th among Japan's 47 prefectures.

Mr Gerson recalls the origins of American independence, based on the refusal of British troops and expensive bases. Sardonically he adds then:

"Today the "abuses and usurpations" are far more intrusive and destructive than those that fuelled the U.S. war of independence. They include more than rape, murder, sexual harassment, robberies, seizure of people's lands, destruction of property, and the cultural imperialism that have accompanied foreign armies since time immemorial."

These American authors remember the famous rape of a teenager girl in the nineties in Okinawa or the infamous killing of twenty Italian skiers at the same period.  In his book Blowback, Mr Johnson speaks of thousands of crimes committed in Okinawa alone.

And the nuisance of the American bases is of course linked to the military, not only the cultural:

"They now include terrorizing jet blasts of frequent low altitude and night-landing exercises, helicopters and warplanes crashing into homes and schools, and the poisoning of environments and communities with military toxics; and they transform "host" and communities into targets for nuclear as well as for "conventional" attacks."

It is the Pentagon, not America, that controls humanity

Another important American author is Nick Turse. Nick Turse explores how the industrial complex of the United States military has pervaded the everyday lives of Americans. Turse investigates the relationship between the Pentagon and the Hollywood entertainment industry, military actions in the civilian sphere, and joint projects between the U.S. military and companies including NASCAR and Marvel Comics. Turse describes how military tacticians and flyers were outfitted with Apple PowerBooks. He illustrates how the military has attempted innovative methods to reach out to and recruit contemporary youth, including making "friends" on MySpace. Mr Turse speaks too of a military doughnuts complex and of the repugnant role of Starbucks' cafés; and of course of the military-cinematographic complex of Hollywood and its renowned school of 'transformers'...

It is not America which controls humanity and perverts her. It is directly the Pentagon, whose giant targets are now Russia and China.

I let conclude Gore Vidal, who explained in his book on perpetual war:

"We complain of terrorism, yet our empire is now the greatest terrorist of all. We bomb, invade, subvert other states. Although We the People of the United States are the sole source of legitimate authority in this land, we are no longer represented in Congress Assembled. Our Congress has been hijacked by corporate America and its enforcer, the imperial military machine."

Nicolas Bonnal

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Norwegian kids allowed to become transgender in 7 years

The Norwegian government introduced legislation, enabling children to change their sex in the age of 7. Thus, the country will have one of the lowest age, allowing to change sex.

The vast majority of the European countries let citizens to change sex only since the age of 18.

The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services claimed that in a case a kid wants to change sex being from 7 to 16 years old, he should advise the parents first. After the permission, the surgery can be conducted without any psychological or medical study.

Some years ago, the Head of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a declaration to stop violence and discrimination regarding nonconventional sexual orientation representatives.

Also read: 620,000 Californians require referendum to ban transgender toilets

Pravda.Ru

Read article in Russian on the Russian version of Pravda.Ru

 

 

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Three-quarters of Russians oppose hijab in schools, poll shows

RIA Novosti / Maksim Bogodvid

An overwhelming majority of Russian citizens have spoken against the wearing of traditional Muslim headgear by schoolchildren and students and a large part of these people said they preferred hijab not to be used at all.

According to a poll conducted by the independent research center Levada in mid-June this year, 74 percent of Russians oppose the use of hijab in schools, while 18 percent answered that they saw nothing wrong with this and 9 percent said found it difficult to give a simple answer.

At the same time, 38 percent of those who opposed hijab in schools said they were categorically against this type of religious headgear in general.

The Muslim population of the Russian Federation amounts to about 10 percent and the traditions of this religion have already reached Federal level.

In February this year the Supreme Court supported the ban of Muslim headgear in schools introduced last fall by authorities in the Russian Republic of Mordovia. The judge turned down the complaint of local Muslim community saying that the ban on wearing headscarves in schools did not prevent Muslims from believing in God and did not infringe anyone’s constitutional rights.

READ MORE: ‘No threat to society’ – top Russian mufti appeals to Putin in defense of hijab

It should be noted that the regional order that caused the lawsuit banned not only hijabs, but also any clear demonstration of any attributes of any religion. In addition, the regional government banned schoolchildren from wearing blue jeans, mini-skirts, low-cut tops, bright makeup or hair dye.

In July 2014, the Supreme Court also upheld a ban on hijabs and other Muslim headwear in schools by the administration in Russia’s southern Stavropol region.

These court battles have drawn a lot of public attention to the issue and also caused the followers of Islam to seek interference of top state officials. Russia’s Grand Mufti Ravil Gainutdin has addressed President Vladimir Putin with a request to defend the right of Muslim girls to wear the hijab in schools and universities.

Putin expressed his position on the issue of hijabs in 2012, when he opposed them being worn in schools, saying that, although people’s religious feelings must be respected, Russia is a secular state.

“We should see how our neighbors, European states deal with [wearing hijabs]. And everything will become clear,” Putin said.

However, the president stressed that decisions on the matter can only be made after a discussion with clerics and in a way that would not hurt anyone’s feelings.

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Russophrenia - an illness in need of a cure

Russophrenia - a condition where the sufferer believes Russia is both about to collapse, and take over the world. Since 2013, instances of this ailment have reached epidemic-like proportions in certain parts of Washington, London and Brussels.

It’s been a grim summer in Ireland so far. The warm sunshine of the previous couple of years is absent, replaced by sticky, humid mist which lends itself to a melancholic air. Hence, thoughts have turned to Russia and memories of balmy June evenings there.

However, when I was actually living in Russia, I got so caught up in the place that I completely forgot how little fellow Westerners know of the country. It frustrated me when I returned to Europe, giddy with enthusiasm for my temporary home, to meet attitudes to Russia that haven’t changed much since the Cold War and the days of "reds in the bed."

The reason for this is rather simple. Due to the vast distances involved, Russia is an expensive and time consuming holiday option. From Western Europe, a quick flight down to a Spanish resort is a hell of a lot easier than an, often logistically difficult, trek to Russia. Hence, the mass media are the gatekeepers of sentiment and this is a privilege they've vigorously abused.

This partly explains why the Russian government was so keen to secure the right to host the 2018 World Cup. FIFA’s flagship event dominates the global news cycle for a full month. What better advertisement for the revitalized nation than a successful tournament?

Berlin's soccer success

The 2006 renewal, which I attended despite Ireland’s disheartening failure to qualify, is frequently cited as having transformed extraneous perceptions of Germany. The hostile stereotype of self-absorbed, arrogant Krauts was exchanged for one of a cool, laid-back bunch of ‘funsters’. However, far more importantly, it seemed to profoundly alter German self-awareness. In a few short weeks, I witnessed a 60-year-old cloud lift from the country.

Many anti-Russia activists are well aware of the fairy dust sprinkled on Germany in 2006. That explains why they are so determined to see Russia stripped of the 2018 installment. These diatribes from The Daily Telegraph’s Rupert Myers and The Interpreter’s Paul Goble are instructive in this regard.

The idea of hundreds of thousands of middle-class soccer fans (predominantly from Europe) mingling with Russians and sojourning in their cities scares anti-Russia activists senseless. For too long they’ve been the sentinels of coverage in the Western media, collectively blocking writers and broadcasters who stray from the consensus. Currently, practically all corporate and state media in Europe and North America is closed to anyone remotely sympathetic to Russia’s position.

Furthermore, most Western correspondents in Moscow are hapless amateurs, selected because they are cheap hires and media outlets just don’t have the resources these days to properly staff foreign bureau. Thoughts of real journalists descending on Russia en masse are enough to keep these greenhorns awake at night. Maintaining the lazy narrative the Moscow hack-pack favors won’t be so easy when capable professionals form their own opinion of the country.

The harbingers of a false doom

Which brings me to this strange condition I call Russophenia. During the years I lived full-time in Russia, from 2010-2013, something frequently confused me. When reading English-language news about the country, there were an inordinate amount of op-eds and news pieces predicting its imminent collapse. As my time of residence coincided with the most financially prosperous years in the nation’s history, this always seemed bizarre.

Here are a few prominent examples from over the years. Anders Aslund, who is still taken seriously as a Russia-analyst by some, predicted the nation would combust back in 1999. Two years later, The Atlantic was drinking the same kool-aid. Julia Ioffe came on board last year with a doom-laden, lengthy tirade. In 2008, this piece by the Guardian’s Luke Harding had Russia “close to economic collapse.” Harding also claimed (in 2007) that Vladimir Putin was the richest man in Europe.

A year after Harding alleged that Russia’s economy was about to croak it, he warned that the Kremlin was launching a “new arms race.”

Russia's ruble as rubble. http://pic.twitter.com/CORowBYu1p

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) December 15, 2014

This is classic Russophrenia, believing that Russia is about to threaten the world while on fiscal life-support. Then there’s our old friend Ben Judah, who wrote a whole book predicting the demise of Putin’s Russia, terming it a "fragile empire." However, last year Judah used the pages of the New York Times to warn that the Kremlin was trying to take over Russia's western borderlands. Later, he misrepresented former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in a now-infamous Politico interview, suggesting that Putin had offered a Hitler-Stalin style division of Ukraine to Poland. As it happens, Politico has never corrected that erroneous story.

Harding might be an experienced and dexterous operator, but amateur hacks get in on the act too. Here’s Mashable’s Christopher Miller celebrating the ‘downfall’ of the ruble and Russia’s wider economy last December with a, frankly disgraceful, set of tweets.

Nevertheless, a few months later Miller was stricken with Russophrenia as he warned of Russia’s military dominance in Eastern Europe and the vast sums the Kremlin was allegedly spending in Ukraine.

This wintry day just got a bit warmer, watching ruble fall against backdrop of crackling fire. http://t.co/cKmcvZ9EZw http://pic.twitter.com/rxutxxCDTC

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) December 11, 2014

However, the most famous victim of Russophenia is America’s raving mad failed Presidential candidate John McCain. When he’s not busy posing with IS fighters, the Arizona senator has a sideline in Russia bashing. Last year, McCain described Russia as a “gas station masquerading as a country." Remarkably, only a few days after his outburst, McCain had compared Putin to Hitler. McCain now occasionally pops up to warn of impending Russian invasions of neighboring lands.

Whenever I mention Russia to an average Dubliner, the usual response is either that Russia is economically devastated or sometimes I get a summary of Kremlin plans to take over Europe. Russophrenia sufferers might have problems with reality, but thanks to a heavily-biased Western media, their influence is both potent and troubling.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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Track fire closes Eurostar tunnel at Calais

Reuters / Christian Hartmann

Eurostar services have been suspended after striking workers in Calais allegedly started a fire on the tracks. It is not clear when they will re-open.

The train provider initially announced services were delayed due to the presence of protesters on the tracks, but later confirmed that a fire had been started.

Eurostar tweeted the news, saying access to the tunnel was “currently suspended due to fire on the tracks in Calais caused by demonstrators.”

Channel tunnel access is currently suspended due to fire on the tracks in Calais caused by demonstrators. Further updates to follow shortly.

— Eurostar (@Eurostar) June 30, 2015

Industrial action by an estimated 400 workers is expected to keep the port closed until Thursday, Kent police confirmed. A spokesperson for the service added they were “currently aware” of disruption in the Channel Tunnel in both directions.

“It is anticipated that due to industrial action in France the Port in Calais will remain closed until Thursday,” they said.

The strikes have caused disturbances in the migrant camp at the town, which has swelled dramatically in previous months and is now home to over 3,000 people, with individuals attempting to board trucks stranded at the port.

READ MORE: Calais migrant crisis: UK to beef up border security with 9ft high, 2.5 mile fence

Britain announced on Monday it would install 2.5 mile (4km) of high-security fencing along the UK border in France in a bid to prevent illegal migrants from entering the Channel Tunnel.

Construction of the 9ft (2.74 meter) high fence, known as the National Barrier Asset, which was used during last year’s NATO Summit and the London Olympics, will begin immediately at the truck terminal in Coquelles near Calais and should be completed by late July.

Minister of State for Immigration James Brokenshire said the government is concerned about the number of migrants attempting to cross the border illegally in recent weeks.

Home Secretary Theresa May said government officials would meet with transport firms to discuss the new arrangements.

“We need to send a very clear message that people will not be able to get through,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

“James Brokenshire will be meeting with hauliers [transportation workers] again this week to talk further about steps that can be taken to enhance security, to ensure that people aren’t able to get into the lorries [trucks] in the first place.”

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Russian tycoon invites Putin to attend world fencing championship in July

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov has invited President Vladimir Putin to attend the World Fencing Championship that is due to take place in Moscow on July 13-20.

"I have pleasure to invite you to attend it. I inform you that the president of the International Olympic Committee [Thomas Bach] also plans to visit our world championship," Usmanov said.

Usmanov, who is the head of the International Fencing Federation, said that Bach is also a member of the Federation and a German fencer and formerly an Olympic champion.

He expressed hope that the Russian athletes will again become winners. "You know better than me, that it is difficult to secure victory twice, and it will be very hard for the third time, but the guys tell me that they can do this," Usmanov said.

Putin said: "Let’s wish success to our athletes at the upcoming world championship."

Usmanov also told the president about the plans for the coverage of fencing on television. "We have big contracts with Euronews and Eurosport and now even with CNN, they will come to the world championship: we have invited them and they have agreed," he said.

"That’s why I hope that I represent Russia in the Olympic movement not in vain. I am proud that I’m the first Russian who has become the president of the international federation in an Olympic sport. I hope to justify the confidence of the motherland," Usmanov said.

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BRICS disrupted US plans to block Russia — experts

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. Russia’s cooperation with the BRICS members is developing at an enormous pace, particularly in the areas affected by anti-Russian sanctions, experts at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS) said on Tuesday. They were speaking at a news conference titled "BRICS — the basis for a multi-polar world."

According to head of the department of International Economic Organizations at the RISS Center for Economic Studies Vyacheslav Kholodkov, the signing of the agreement on setting up two financial institutions (the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement — TASS) in Fortaleza last July attests to the stimulation of the integration process at the moment when the first anti-Russian restrictions were imposed by the West.

"These institutions will help Russia to avoid isolation, give us a source of external financing, which we will certainly use," Kholodkov said. "The BRICS member-countries thus prevented Russia’s international isolation."

For her part, senior researcher at the RISS Center for Economic Studies Yekaterina Sharova drew attention to the fact that the BRICS member-countries had repeatedly spoken out in favor of reducing the dependence of the global financial system on the US dollar and increasing the use of national currencies. "Russia and China have made especially good progress in this respect," she said. "The two countries signed an agreement on settling bilateral trade in ruble and yuan as of 2011, which introduces the possibility of payments in the national currencies under the contracts worth up to one billion yuan." The expert noted that Brazil and South Africa had similar agreements with China.

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Protests against electricity price hike in Yerevan not subsiding

YEREVAN, June 30. /TASS/. Demonstrators protesting against an increase in electricity tariffs in Armenia’s capital Yerevan have refused to unblock the central Marshal Baghramyan Avenue, insisting that their actions are not a violation of the law.

Yerevan police deputy chief, Valery Osipyan, is again in talks with the protesters in an attempt to convince them to disperse or move to the Freedom Square in front of the opera theatre.

The group of around 20 or 30 people at the scene have rejected the police proposal, citing the provisions of the republic’s constitution on the freedom of gathering and meetings.

The Marshal Baghramyan Avenue has been blocked for more than a week, and this creates serious traffic jams in other streets of the Armenian capital. Some demonstrators, who moved to the Freedom Square on Sunday, have announced that they were ending their protest.

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Coastal UK residents at ‘high risk’ of deadly asteroid tsunami, scientists warn

Sorry, readability was unable to parse this page for content.

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Top MPs urge counter-sanctions against ‘most anti-Russian country’ Canada

Alexei Pushkov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs (RIA Novosti / Vladimir Fedorenko)

The head of the State Duma’s Foreign Relations Committee has proposed reciprocating Canada’s latest anti-Russian move by introducing sanctions similar to embargo of agricultural products from EU introduced about a year ago.

“We should not pretend that nothing is happening and we should develop a complex of reciprocal measures aimed at Canada,” MP Aleksey Pushkov (United Russia) stated at Tuesday’s parliamentary session. He added that today Canada was “the most anti-Russian state in the Western alliance as a whole and definitely also in the G7 group of nations."

“We must undertake reciprocal measures and the embargo on agricultural products from EU countries is completely justified,” Pushkov said.

He went on to blast Canadian government and Prime Minister Stephen Harper for deliberately aggravating the relations with Russia in order to artificially boost its image on the international arena.

“The government of this country attempts to attach some importance to the very tiny role in the international politics. They compensate the obvious lack of weight and authority with increased activity in the sphere of sanction policies,” Pushkov said. He reminded that previously Harper had ruled out the possibility of Russia’s membership in G7 and by this promoted the thesis that the confrontation between Russia and the West was necessary.

“In my view, we must respond to this,” Pushkov told fellow lawmakers.

The comments came soon after Ottawa announced that it was introducing additional sanctions against Russian companies, persons and groups that include the Eurasian Youth Union and its leaders, the pro-Putin motorcycle club Night Wolves, the energy giant Gazprom, the defense corporation Rostec and others.

Russian Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the country’s weapons and space industries, also blasted Canada’s move via Twitter. “Harper was yearning for Ukrainian-Canadian votes so much he sacrificed the future of their own aircraft industry that had dreamt of a deal with Russia,” Rogozin stated.

Харпер в погоне за голосами укроканадцев угробил перспективы собственного авиапрома, мечтавшего о сделке с Россией http://t.co/vnWKd3pWmn

— Dmitry Rogozin (@Rogozin) June 30, 2015

Earlier, the deputy head of the State Duma Economic Policy Committee, MP Mikhail Yemelyanov (Fair Russia), said that Russia must exit all joint project with the Canadian corporation Bombardier. In an interview with RIA Novosti, he said that these joint projects had always been controversial and looked more like tax evasion schemes that feasible production. He added that as Russia makes its own medium-range passenger aircraft it would not lose anything from abandoning this cooperation.

READ MORE: Medvedev signs food embargo extension until August 2016

Last Thursday Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree extending the current Russian embargo on food imports from Western nations that use sanctions against Russia until August 5, 2016. The list remained almost the same as the original with minor changes on certain positions. It includes meat of cattle, pigs, edible offal, fish and shellfish, milk and dairy products, vegetables, sausages and so on.

Commenting on the decree, Medvedev said that the countermeasures to Western sanctions were dictated not by political, but economic motives.

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SAS-style police counter-terror unit unveiled in wake of Tunisia attack

Reuters / Peter Nicholls

Scotland Yard has revealed the creation of a new unit of armed police officers who will be used to tackle the threat of a gun attack in Britain.

The SAS-style counter-terror unit will comprise of 130 specialist firearms officers (CTSFOs) and will be equipped with new weapons.

They will also receive training in other counter-terror tactics such as storming buildings to rescue hostages and fast-roping from helicopters.

Their formation comes as police and other emergency services carry out a full-scale counter terror exercise in central London on Tuesday morning, following the Tunisian massacre which took the lives of a suspected 30 holidaying Brits.

The new armed unit has trained alongside the army and will be deployed in response to shootings, like the Tunisian attack, and potential sieges which could develop from an assault.

READ MORE: Tunisia massacre: May condemns ‘despicable act of cruelty,’ pledges to defeat extremism

There has been some debate as to who should be the immediate responders to an attack, with police bosses insisting their officers should be first on the scene of a terrorist attack rather than the armed forces.

They concede, however, that the army may be involved depending on the scenario.

In the case of a gun attack, armed officers would be called to the scene and arrive in under 15 minutes. The new counter-terror unit would also be scrambled.

The aim of the unit would be to “neutralize” any attackers, one police source told the Guardian.

“We’re police officers, not soldiers. We’re not at war. Our job is to arrest people,” they said, adding that officers would be instructed to use minimum force and would be subject to the legal repercussions of their actions.

Counter-terror measures in the UK have been ramped up in recent months with officers making nearly one terrorism-related arrest each day.

READ MORE: Cameron vows ‘full spectrum’ British response to ISIS Tunisia shooting

The two-day training exercise in London this week is designed to test how all the emergency services respond to a terror attack.

As well as security forces and medical services, the government’s COBRA committee will also be involved.

The exercise was devised in January. Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said it was in response to the increasing threat of terrorism.

“Over the last year the rate of arrests has increased. We are arresting about one person a day for terrorist offences. It is clear during that time that we’ve disrupted some very serious plots and some of those cases are going to the courts,” he said.

“The reason we have exercises like today is because, obviously, we are concerned there are people planning terrorist events. We intend first of all to stop them from getting to attack. But should we not stop the terrorists in their planning, it’s essential we disrupt them in any of the attacks that may take place.

“With events like today we are committing around 1,000 people to exercise our plans and make sure that should the worst happen we are ready. And we will be.”

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IATA: Russian passport is one of strongest in the world

Russian passport is placed 35^th among 199 possible in the rating of passports, which enable their holders to visit other countries with no visa.

The Russian passport enables its holder to visit 98 countries without a visa.

The Canadian experts made up a rating of passports of the world, comprising the data of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The analysis has been made for 199 countries: 193 UN members and six territories (like Makau or Kosovo).

The US and UK passports rank the first ones. Citizens of these states can visit 147 countries of the world without a visa.

The passport, holder of which can visit the biggest quantity of countries without getting any documents to enter them, is acknowledged as the strong one.

Though, Pravda.Ru has already reported that Russians started less frequently going abroad, but rather have their holidays in Russia.

Also read: Russian tourists refuse from trips to USA and UK

Pravda.Ru

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Record drop at European stock markets after Greek crisis

The most serious drop since 2011 has been shown at the European stock markets after escalation of the Greek crisis.

Stock market indices of all the developed countries displayed strongly marked negative dynamics yesterday, June, 29.

Measures on the capital flow restriction in Greece, a referendum on rejection of austerity policies, as well as absence of any progress during negotiations with the EU creditors have lead to the impressive loss of interest in the risky game.

Thus, the German DAX index crashed 3.5 %, and the French CAC 40 loss 3.7 %. the fall of Italian FTSE MIB and Spanish IBEX 35 made up 5.1 % and 4.5 % respectively.

The fall generated €40 bln drop in the capitalization of the European banking sector.

The US stock market also showed negative reaction to the developing crisis. The Dow Jones index lost more than 200 points intraday. S&P 500 and NASDAQ decline showed over 1 %.

Also read: Seven-year cycle predicts 2015 collapse

Pravda.Ru

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IS beheads women for the first time

The IS keep up performing their atrocities in Syria.

As penetrating Deir al-Zor province, to the north-east of the country, the fighters managed to murder some local residents, including women.

It was the first time the IS has decapitated female civilians, according to Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Two women were publicly beheaded, as being accused of sorcery. The victims have been killed in the cities of al-Mayadeen and Deir al-Zor.

Recently the IS has crucified teens for eating in daylight during Ramadan.

Pravda.Ru

Read article in Russian on the Russian version of Pravda.Ru

Read more on the subject here

 

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Concerned Russia Monitors EU Situation as Greek Debt Crisis Reaches Critical Point

Russia is concerned that the Greek debt crisis could have harmful consequences for the whole of the European Union, the Kremlin said on Monday.

"Moscow is watching developments in the European Union very closely in the context of the financial crisis in Greece," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call.

Greece closed its banks on Monday after the breakdown of bailout talks with its foreign creditors. A government official said Athens would not pay a 1.6 billion euro loan installment due to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday.

"We are concerned about the possible negative consequences for the whole of the EU," Peskov said.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has sought closer ties with Russia since taking office earlier this year, but the Kremlin said financial aid to Athens was not discussed when he visited St. Petersburg 10 days ago for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

Russia has deep financial problems of its own, as its economy reels from the double blow of low world oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Greek counterpart during a phone call later on Monday that Russia understood the actions of Tsipras' government.

Lavrov also expressed hope that Brussels would not implement "negative scenarios" and that Greece would overcome its current problems, Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Greece will hold a referendum on Sunday asking citizens to decide whether to accept the austerity demands of its international lenders in return for more cash.

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Foreign Ministry Says Russian Woman Killed in Tunisia Terror Attack

A Russian woman was among 39 tourists killed in a terrorist attack that saw a gunman open fire on beachgoers in the Tunisian resort of Sousse, the Foreign Ministry has said.

DNA tests helped to identify one of the victims of last week's attack as a Russian citizen, who had been staying at the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba, the ministry said Monday in an online statement.

The woman — who was born in 1961, according to the statement — had been listed as missing since the attack, Ekho Moskvy radio reported. Her daughter suffered injuries to her leg and shoulder, and underwent surgery at a Tunisian hospital, the Foreign Ministry added.

Many of the victims in the Friday attack were British, and Prime Minister David Cameron has said Britain will hold a minute's silence at midday on Tuesday as a mark of respect for those killed.

The gunman, identified as 23-year-old student Seifeddine Rezgui, was killed at the scene, though media reports have suggested that more than one person may have been involved in the shootings. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

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Lavrov to meet top diplomats of Germany, Iran in Vienna — source

MOSCOW, June 30. / TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due to meet in Vienna on Tuesday with his German and Iranian counterparts Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Mohammad Javad Zarif, a source in the Russian delegation told TASS.

"Sergey Lavrov is due to hold a number of bilateral meetings, including with his German and Iranian counterparts," the source said.

Also on Tuesday, Lavrov will hold talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

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Counter-terrorist operation regime declared in Nalchik, in North Caucasus

NALCHIK, June 30. /TASS/. Security forces have launched a counter-terrorism operation in Nalchik, the capital of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.

"A decision was taken to conduct a counter-terrorism operation and to impose the legal regime of an anti-terrorist operation as of 03:00 Moscow Time in the part of the city of Nalchik," a source in Kabardino-Balkaria’s operational headquarters told TASS.

A series of special measures and temporary restrictions will be in effect during the anti-terrorist operation until special directives. The counter-terror regime involves strengthening the enforcement of public order, control over telephone, radio and on-line conversations, temporary resettlement of the local population.

The anti-terror regime was imposed in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria 12 times in 2014. A total of 21 gunmen were killed, including members of the international terrorist group Imarat Kavkaz (the Caucasus Emirate), six more militants were arrested. The counter-terrorism operation claimed the lives of 3 law enforces, six others were wounded.

According to the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, 243 gunmen were neutralized in Russia last year, including 38 chieftains, 644 militants and their henchmen were detained. Security forces conducted 74 counter-terrorism operations in the North Caucasus , seizing 272 home-made explosives and a significant number of firearms, with 219 criminals becoming subject to criminal penalties.

The Republic Kabardino-Balkaria is part of the North Caucasus Federal District. It also comprises Dagestan, Ingushetia, the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Chechnya, North Ossetia and the Stavropol Territory.

Attacks on security officials and civilians occur from time to time in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.

The most large-scale activities came in 1999, when gunmen of warlords Shamil Basayev and Khattab attacked a settlement in Dagestan's Botlikh region in August, killing 73 people and wounding 259. A month later some 2,000 Shamil Basayev's gunmen crossed the administrative border between Chechnya and Dagestan, occupying several settlements in the Novolaksky district. All terrorists were killed, but federal losses amounted to 243 people.

At the same time, amnesties are actively applied in Russia, as there have been 15 of them since 1994. Five of them (in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003) concerned the participants in the armed conflicts in the North Caucasus. About 117,000 people were pardoned and set free.

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