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Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
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US President Barack Obama speaks at a ceremony to commemorate Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia on November 11, 2016. (AFP file photo)
US President Barack Obama says his successor, billionaire Donald Trump, is committed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and that is a message the commander-in-chief will have for Washington’s allies.
Obama made the remarks in the first press conference after his party’s nominee, Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 race for the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday.
His comments ran counter to Trump’s stance on NATO while campaigning in the run-up to the November 8 election.
Trump has said that as president he would “certainly look at” pulling the US out of the international security alliance, because it is “obsolete” and “is costing us a fortune.”
The reality TV star's view of the world's most durable alliance has caused panic among some NATO members in the face of what the West considers as the “Russian aggression.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed that “Our Armed Forces are not threatening anybody.”
Putin questioned claims that Russia might attack other countries, especially its neighbors in the Baltics, asking during a Saturday speech in the city of Yaroslavl, “Why would we do this?”
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and US President-elect Donald Trump
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump have discussed battling terrorism and developing ties during their first phone conversation, says the Kremlin.
According to a statement released by the Kremlin on Monday, Trump and Putin agreed on “uniting efforts in the fight with the common enemy number one – international terrorism and extremism.”
It added that ways to end the conflict in Syria were also discussed and that both leaders stressed upon the importance of creating a stable basis for bilateral relations via the development of trade and economic ties between the two countries.
Michael Vance (Photo by US police) Police in the US state of Oklahoma have launched a manhunt for a gunman who managed to run away after killing two people and injuring three others, including two police officers.
The assailant, identified by police as Michael Vance, opened fire at the officers who were responding to a reported shooting near Wellston, Lincoln County on Sunday night, Lincoln County Sheriff Charlie Dougherty said.
The officers, who both were shot in the leg, fired back at Vance and hit him in the torso at least twice, Dougherty added.
Vance, however, managed to flee the scene in a patrol pickup and drove to a mobile home park nearby, where he carjacked a woman and injured her by firing his AK-47.
Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office later on confirmed that Vance had killed two of his family members, whose bodies were found in a home near the Redbud Energy Facility in Luther.
Up until the early hours of Monday, police had no idea of Vance’s whereabouts and could not confirm if he was still armed with his lethal weapon, which can fire bullets that pierce police body armor.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation were assisting state officials with the search and the ongoing investigation.
Local residents were advised to practice extra vigilance as Vance was armed and extremely dangerous.
Lithuanian Peasant and Green’s Union party Chairman Ramunas Karbauskis speaks to the media in Vilnius, October 23, 2016. (Photo by AP)
The Lithuanian political party representing farmers and environmentalists has claimed victory in runoff parliamentary elections, which saw voters reject the ruling Social Democrats.
The Peasants and Green Union is expected to win over one-third, or precisely 54 seats, in the 141-member house of parliament after the second round of voting, according to preliminary results provided by the Central Electoral Committee on Sunday.
Electoral experts say this is the biggest victory by a single Lithuanian party in 20 years.
The second-place went to Homeland Union-Christian Democrats with 30 seats, while the incumbent ruling party, the Social Democrats, would take 18 seats. The rest went to several smaller parties.
The new coming party, headed by millionaire farmer Ramunas Karbauskis, said it would start negotiations with the center-right Homeland Union and center-left Social Democrats over forming a coalition government on Monday.
Our major challenge is “to stop citizens fleeing Lithuania,” Karbauskis, the party’s chairman, told reporters.
In the weeks leading up to the election, the agrarian bloc’s leaders had vowed to stop the flow of emigrants to richer parts of the European Union by reviving the country’s economy.
“Our government will be transparent, responsible, professional and resolute,” announced Saulius Skvernelis, who led the party’s election campaign and is expected to serve as prime minister in the next government.
Saulius Skvernelis, Peasant and Green's Union party leader (Photo by AFP)
“I think people got fed up” with the incumbent government, Skvernelis said.
Meanwhile, observers say it is difficult to predict whether the new government, which is expected to take over in December, will lean towards the right or left.
“It’s hard to predict what path the new government will take because the Peasants and Greens' manifesto is full of contradictions,” said Ramunas Vilpisauskas, head of the Vilnius Institute of International Relations and Political Science.
Since Lithuania joined the EU in 2004, an estimated 370,000 people have left the country to work elsewhere across the bloc.
Lithuania was hit hard by the global economic recession in 2009-2010. Like its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, the country regained independence after splitting from the Soviet Union in 1990.
At the beginning of last year, it adopted the EU’s common currency, euro, which has sharply increased prices while wages and pensions remain among the lowest in the bloc.
The EU is passing through a critical period due to the current refugee crisis, international terror threats, struggling economies and a division among its members.
White House
spokesman Josh Earnest speaks at the daily briefing at the White House
in Washington, DC, on July 11, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
The White House has censured
the US Congress for having “buyer’s remorse” over overriding President
Barack Obama’s veto of legislation allowing relatives of the victims of
the September 11, 2001, attacks to sue Saudi Arabia.
White
House spokesman Josh Earnest made the remarks on Thursday during a
press conference after two high-ranking Republican lawmakers suggested
the bill needed changes.
On Wednesday, Senators voted 97-1 in
favor of the “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA),” which
was vetoed by Obama last week. Only Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid,
Democrat of Nevada, voted to sustain the president’s veto.
Hours
later, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted against the
presidential decree, 348 to 77. Only 18 Republicans and 59 Democrats
voted not to override the veto.
“Well, it’s hard to know where to
start,” Earnest said. “I think what we’ve seen in the United States
Congress is a case of rapid-onset buyer's remorse.”
On Thursday,
less than 24 hours after Congress voted to override President Obama's
veto, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan both
said JASTA could have dire consequences for American service members and
diplomats abroad. They said it could put them at risk of legal action. US
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R) laughs as Senator Chuck Schumer (C)
and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell drive nails into a piece of
lumber at a c ceremony on September 21, 2016 outside the US Capitol in
Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)Earnest said
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker and others
claimed some lawmakers did not know what was in the legislation before
they approved it.
“What’s true in elementary school is true in the United States Congress: Ignorance is not an excuse,” Earnest said.
He
went on to call it “an abject embarrassment” that lawmakers are now
considering possible changes to the measure shortly after its passage.
Earnest said Obama’s term would end in three months and it’s “awfully late for changes.”
On
Wednesday, Obama said the measure sets a "dangerous precedent" in
international law that could have repercussions for the United States.
"If
we eliminate this notion of sovereign immunity, then our men and women
in uniform around the world could potentially start seeing ourselves
subject to reciprocal loss," he said.
Saudi Arabia has strongly opposed the bill, threatening to sell off $750 billion in American assets if it becomes law.
Of
the 19 hijackers that allegedly carried out the attacks, 15 had Saudi
Arabian nationality and available evidence suggests that some of them
were linked to high-ranking Saudi officials.
Russian Sukhoi Su-24 fighter jets (File photo by Sputnik News)
Two top US officials say Russians bear responsibility for an airstrike that destroyed a UN humanitarian aid convoy near Syria’s Aleppo province on Monday.
US Air Force Colonel J.T. Thomas, spokesman for the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, ranking member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Tuesday that two Russian Sukhoi Su-24 fighter jets were in the skies at the precise time that the convoy came under attack.
The officials added that this led American intelligence to conclude that Russia was behind the attack, in which some 20 civilians were killed and 18 trucks from a 31-vehicle convoy were destroyed.
Aid is seen strewn across the floor in the town of Urm al-Kubra on the western outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, September 20, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
An unnamed US military official told Washington-based The Hillnewspaper on Tuesday night that all of “the information we have is consistent with this being a Russian airstrike."
Moscow has denied that Russian or Syrian planes were involved in the incident. Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry released drone footage showing that militants were using the UN aid convoy as cover.
Referring to the monitoring drone footage, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov noted that a militant pickup truck with a large caliber mortar can be clearly seen in the footage.
However, US officials still insist the attack looks like the result of an airstrike rather than an an attack from anti-government militants as the Russians have suggested.
"It does look like an airstrike. The only entities that fly in Syria right now are Russia and Syria. So this is, has been in the past, a strategic area for the Russians. They can speak for themselves on this, and we are interested to follow this just as you are," Colonel Thomas said at a news briefing.
"Whether this was the Russians or the regime, the Russians bear responsibility here. They are in Syria, they are backing the Assad regime, they are participating in his military campaign," the official added.
Meanwhile, Senator Cardin said if it was found out that the strike was carried out deliberately, "it would amount to a war crime."
"I call on the Russian Federation to fulfill the commitments it made in Geneva to ensure immediate, unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid to the Syrian people," he said in a statement.
"Additionally, all parties to the conflict must adhere to international humanitarian law, which includes the protection of aid workers," he added.
The Monday attack comes two days after US-led airstrikes killed at least 62 Syrian soldiers in the Syrian city of Dayr al-Zawr, while surrounded by Takfiri militants in an airport.
According to De Mistura, more than 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Syria, since it broke out in March 2011.
This May 3, 2015 photo shows an Indian laborer working in Qatar, sitting in his tiny over-crowded room at a private camp housing foreign workers in Doha. (Photo by AFP)
Qatar has once again faced criticism over the way it deals with refugee workers, with reports saying a significant number of laborers, mostly from India, have gone unpaid for months.
Sources from the Indian community living in Qatar said Tuesday that a staff of about 400 working for an electrical company in the country had not received wages for the past several months.
“Around 300 to 400 people have not been paid,” said Arvin Patil of the Indian Community Benevolent Forum, adding that workers from other refugee groups also remained unpaid by the firm, which is based in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.
Patil said workers were planning to meet the Indian ambassador to Doha to discuss the issue, although he said the Indian government had no resources to compensate the workers.
“We could give money if there were one or two people, but 300 minimum is very, very difficult. We are interested in helping these people,” he said.
Thousands of refugees working in the stadiums that Qatar plans to build for World Cup 2022 are harshly treated and many of them remain unpaid months after being recruited.
Doha introduced the Wage Protection System (WPS) last November to ensure that wages were paid electronically. Under the new system, employers that do not comply with the law face fines or imprisonment.
The Arab country is home to the largest single group of Indian expatriates as some 545,000 Indians, most of them workers, live in the country of 2.5 million people.
India had previously hailed Qatar’s disciplined system of pay to expatriates, with a senior Indian embassy staffer saying in July that the mission faced almost no call for helping stranded laborers after losing their jobs. He said such a problem, which happened elsewhere in the region, did not exist in Qatar.
However, a sharp fall in the price of oil and gas has forced the Qatari government to tighten its belts as it faces an estimated budget deficit of more than 12 billion in 2016, its first in 15 years. Doha says more deficit would come in 2017 and 2018.
Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a voter registration event at Johnson C. Smith University on September 8, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (AFP photo)
US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has warned that the Israeli regime cannot trust her Republican rival Donald Trump, who has “no reason to his comments about Israel.”
"He has said that we should be neutral on Israel on Monday. Then on Tuesday he has said that, oh he’s really supportive of Israel. Wednesday he might say Israel should pay back the defense aid it’s received over the years," Clinton said in an interview with the Israeli Channel 2 aired on Thursday.
The former first lady said that Trump has floated the idea of using nuclear weapons against the Daesh terrorist group in Syria, right next to Israel.
“Using nukes against ISIS, not knowing the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas. How does that in any way help Israel,” she asked.
The former secretary of state contended that there is a “compelling case” that Daesh is “rooting for Donald Trump’s victory.”
“His understanding of the broader dangers in the region should alarm any Israeli no matter where that person is on the political spectrum,” Clinton said.
“The best I can tell, his only experience is marching in the Fifth Avenue Israel Day parade,” she quipped.
Donald Trump addresses the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2016 Policy Conference at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC, March 21, 2016. (AFP photo)
The Democratic candidate said that if elected president she would work closely with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to safeguard Israel’s strategic military edge.
“Shortly after being inaugurated I would invite the prime minister to Washington for meetings, I would send my joint chiefs and intelligence experts to Israel to meet with their counterparts,” she stated.
Washington and Tel Aviv have been negotiating the terms of a new 10-year military aid deal to replace the current one, which expires in 2018 and costs American taxpayers some $3.1 billion a year.
Netanyahu demands the US increase the annual aid to Israel.
Union members and social activists demonstrate in support of Brazil’s impeached president Dilma Rousseff and against President Michel Temer in Sao Paulo, Brazil, September 8, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
Thousands of Brazilian demonstrators have held a massive rally to protest against the newly-installed President Michel Temer.
The supporters of former president Dilma Rousseff — who was ousted in an impeachment supported by Temer, once her ally — and others opposing the new government took to the streets in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo on Thursday to voice their anger.
The protesters, including union members and social activists, chanted anti-Temer slogans and held placards that read “Temer out.”
The protesters also denounced the removal of Rousseff from office.
Temer was booed at an Independence Day ceremony on Wednesday in the capital, Brasilia, in his first public appearance since taking office last week. Temer had arrived at the heavily-policed ceremony in a closed presidential vehicle instead of the traditional open top Rolls Royce normally used in such ceremonies.
In recent days, the supporters of Rousseff have staged several protest rallies urging the new president to step down. Protests against the new president had been held in Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Sao Paulo and other Brazilian cities.
Union members and social activists demonstrate in support of Brazil’s impeached president Dilma Rousseff and against President Michel Temer in Sao Paulo, Brazil, September 8, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
Temer took office last week after former President Dilma Rousseff was stripped of presidency following a Senate impeachment vote.
He is scheduled to complete Rousseff’s presidential term until the next scheduled election in late 2018.
Rousseff has appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the decision on her ouster.
She was accused of breaking fiscal rules in her management of the 2014 federal budget, allegations that she strongly rejected. She consistently called the impeachment a coup d’état and denounced Temer as a “usurper.”
Temer himself faces allegations of campaign finance violations.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has given reasons for retracting its earlier stance to proceed with the Edo State governorship election initially scheduled for Saturday.
Hours after the commission said it would go ahead with the election despite the contrary advice of the Police and the State Security Service, SSS, it retracted saying it had postponed the election by two weeks.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, the Police and the SSS called on INEC to postpone the election and allow them address threats emanating from insurgents bent on attacking electorates and disrupting the election.
The electoral body initially refused to be “teleguided”. It said suspending the polls would be costly after reaching at least 97 per cent readiness level.
After a series of consultations, the Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC finally gave in to the demands of security agencies. It postponed the election to September 28.
In a telephone conversation with PREMIUM TIMES Thursday night, the spokesperson of INEC, Nick Dazang, said the latest decision was based on a better appraisal of the situation by INEC, following explanations from the security agencies.
“It was only as at this evening that we were officially communicated and they explained to us the challenges they had that would affect their capacity to secure the election,” he said.
“Before then, we were hearing just like any other person from the media that they were advising us to postpone. And as a responsible organisation, we did not think there was any way we could proceed on that basis.”
The spokesperson added that the commission’s previous decision to go ahead because it had earlier received reports from the same security operatives during a stake holders forum that there would be sufficient protection of lives and properties during the election.
“Don’t forget that the story started trending that we were advised to postpone the election as we were conducting the stake holders forum in Benin.
“The Police and the SSS were represented there, at the highest level. The DIG operations represented the IG and he was telling the stake holders, at the full glare of reporters, that they would secure the environment for the election.
“That was the reason for the initial stand. Those that gave the assurance were far higher than those who issued the statement. So if the IG is saying one thing and a much lower person is saying another, who should we follow?” he queried.
Mr. Dazang then provided more details of the security agencies claims.
“They explained that going ahead with the election would over stretch them and that giving the situation, it was crucial for them to ensure the protection of voters, as well as our staff.
“You know we are not in a position to secure our staff. And we do not want to put them in harm’s way,” he added.
While the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its officials condemned the postponement, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, did not.
Godwin Obaseki, the APC candidate, is slugging it out with Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the PDP in the race to replace incumbent Adams Oshiomhole whose two-term tenure expires this November.
