The Chinese authorities begin confiscating passports from people in the western region of Xinjiang.
China confiscates passports of Xinjiang people – BBC News
hmmm
Category: International Affairs,
Mosul: Key bridges hit, civilians trapped
The International Organization for Migration expressed concern that civilians may be trapped inside the Iraqi city of Mosul as a fourth key bridge was put out of use in a US strike.
Mosul: Key bridges hit, civilians feared trapped – CNN.com
Sigh…
Iraqi troops finds civilians left hungry by ISIS in Mosul
Soldiers turning their own rations over to civilians as they clear ISIS from neighborhoods in fierce battle
Iraqi troops finds civilians left hungry by ISIS in Mosul – CBS News
Hmmmm
After Mosul, Iraq’s Kurds Face Internal Crisis
The legislature of the self-ruled region of Kurdistan in Iraq hasn’t met in more than a year amid a political stalemate that has been overshadowed by the effort to combat Islamic State in nearby Mosul.
After Mosul, Iraq’s Kurds Face Internal Crisis – WSJ
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Arab-Kurd tensions simmer in shadow of Mosul campaign
Tensions between KRG and Baghdad could fuel a proxy war between regional powers, analysts warn.
…The Kurdistan Regional Government has changed course, declaring its commitment to Baghdad to retreat from territory that Kurdish forces have taken from ISIL.
On November 16, Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, said in a press conference that his soldiers would not retreat from the land “liberated with their blood” from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant group, also known as ISIL or ISIS.
“There will be no negotiations about the territories liberated by Peshmerga before the Mosul offensive,” Barzani declared. “This is a new chapter. ISIS is on the path to defeat. Peshmerga shed their blood to free Kurdistan’s land and end the suffering of our people.”
But the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, later retracted Barazani remarks, saying that his comments, originally made in Kurdish, were taken out of context and “mistranslated”.
Nevertheless, Barzani’s comments revived long-standing fears among many Iraqis that the country’s Kurds are using the Mosul battle to seize land to incorporate into a future independent state.
Arab-Kurd tensions simmer in shadow of Mosul campaign – News from Al Jazeera
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In Mosul campaign, reported civilian deaths in U.S. strikes climb
Watchdog group says at least 84 civilians may have died in U.S. and allied air and artillery attacks.
In Mosul campaign, reported civilian deaths in U.S. strikes climb – The Washington Post
Sigh….
Shiite and Kurdish forces to coordinate west of Mosul, reports
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Shiite and Kurdish forces have reportedly reached an agreement on mutual movements in future operations against ISIS in the Tal Afar and Shingal area though Sunni civilians fear sectarian violence from the Hashd al-Shaabi.
The move comes as Hadi Amiri, leader of the paramilitary, declared the Mosul-Tal Afar road cut as his forces took control of a portion of the route on Wednesday and linked up with Kurdish Peshmerga forces based in the Yezidi town of Shingal.
Amiri came to Shingal “in order to coordinate with us,” Reuters quoted Mahma Xelil, the mayor of Shingal, as saying.
Thousands of civilians, mostly Sunnis, have fled the ISIS-held Sunni Turkmen town of Tal Afar west of Mosul as Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary forces continue to close in on the town .
Civilians are fleeing Tal Afar in large numbers as they “fear Hashd al-Shaabi will take revenge on them” for alleged links to ISIS, a former Iraqi MP, Nabil Harbo, told Rudaw.
Shiite and Kurdish forces to coordinate west of Mosul, reports
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Hurricane Otto Death Toll Rises to Double Digits
Hurricane Otto has killed several people and forced thousands to flee. Here’s the latest.
The death toll from Hurricane Otto has risen to 12 after Costa Rican authorities announced nine deaths after the storm cut through Central America.
Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis told the Associated Press that nine people were killed in the town of Guayabo de Bagaces, a town south of the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border.
Earlier in the week, civil defense officials in Panama announced that two people died in landslides and a child was killed when a tree collapsed on top of a car outside a school in Panama City days ago, before Otto strengthened to a hurricane. Panama’s civil defense director Jose Donderis said the landslide occurred just west of Panama City and trapped nine people. Seven people were rescued.
Hurricane Otto Death Toll Rises to Double Digits | The Weather Channel
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Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘planning invasion of Baltic states to challenge Donald Trump’
A retired four-star US general has raised fears Russia is planning to occupy Baltic countries in a move similar to its annexation of Crimea in Ukraine
Oy!
Russia’s border doesn’t end anywhere, Vladimir Putin says
President Putin says Russia’s border “doesn’t end anywhere”, to applause at a televised ceremony.
Russia’s border doesn’t end anywhere, Vladimir Putin says – BBC News
Mother of Gawd……..
Pakistan Names New Military Leader
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan on Saturday chose Lt. Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, a military commander with a solid soldierly reputation and a firm belief in civilian supremacy, to lead the country’s powerful army.
General Bajwa replaces Gen. Raheel Sharif, an immensely popular commander in Pakistan for his successes against Taliban militants.
Pakistan Names New Military Leader – The New York Times
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Starvation threat numbers soar in South Sudan
Up to one million people to join almost five million already facing starvation as civil war spreads to rural areas.
…The aid group CARE told Al Jazeera that if the armed conflict continues, as many as one million civilians could go hungry in the region of Equatoria, adding 20 percent more people to the almost five million already facing starvation.
Starvation threat numbers soar in South Sudan – News from Al Jazeera
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Somali Forces Arrest Suspect in Deadly Market Attack
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud says an arrest has been made in the car bombing that killed at least 20 people in a crowded market in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, on Saturday.
Somali Forces Arrest Suspect in Deadly Market Attack
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Fidel Castro: iconic revolutionary and longtime American nemesis – CSMonitor.com
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro died Friday.
…He was a revolutionary and a liberator: delivering his island nation from the colonial powers and mafia dons that ruled over it from the 16th century halfway into the 20th, and inspiring other independence movements in Latin America and Africa.
He was a dictator and a despot: delivering basic needs but denying basic rights, ultimately turning his nation of 10 million people into what some considered a collective gulag where the individual with a differing political vision was shown the door – to prison or to exile, or even to the firing squad.
Fidel Castro: iconic revolutionary and longtime American nemesis – CSMonitor.com
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Israel fires: Dozen suspects arrested on suspicion of arson
Police in Israel arrest 12 people suspected of arson over a series of wildfires around the country.
Israel fires: Dozen suspects arrested on suspicion of arson – BBC News
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Rare 3,800-year-old figurine unearthed in Israel
The “thinker” figure capping an 18-cm jug was found in a Middle Bronze Age grave alongside other funerary offerings.
Rare 3,800-year-old figurine unearthed in Israel – News from Al Jazeera
Wild!
Israel slams France for implementing settlement labeling regiment – Arab-Israeli Conflict – Jerusalem Post
“The Government of Israel condemns the french government decision to implement European Commission directives regarding Israel products originating beyond the Green Line.”
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Bulldozers to raze Palestinian village in Israel
Tens of thousands of Bedouin Palestinians live in “unrecognised” villages across Israel’s Negev region.
Bulldozers to raze Palestinian village in Israel – News from Al Jazeera
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Israel’s ‘imminent’ village demolition leaves 700 Bedouin residents in limbo
The planned demolition comes following a 13-year legal battle in which the Israeli Supreme Court authorized the razing of the village to build the Jewish town of “Hiran” in its place in 2015.
Despite acknowledging the villagers are not there illegally, as claimed by Israeli authorities, but had been moved to Umm al-Hiran by the state itself, the Supreme Court ruled that because the village is on state land, the state can do with it what it likes.
Hmmmm
How tens of thousands of Syrians have ‘disappeared’
Report reveals massive scale of systematic state campaign to eliminate dissent through enforced disappearances.
How tens of thousands of Syrians have ‘disappeared’ – Al Jazeera English
Sigh…
Turkey strikes ISIL targets near Syria’s Al-Bab
Military says one soldier and five FSA fighters killed in northern Syria as part of two-pronged cross-border operation.
Turkey strikes ISIL targets near Syria’s Al-Bab – News from Al Jazeera
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France: World should stop turning a blind eye to Syria
France has accused Syria and its allies of using political uncertainty in the United States to launch “total war” against opposition-held areas in the country and called for new sanctions on Bashar al-Assad’s government for the use of chemical weapons.
France: World should stop turning a blind eye to Syria – News from Al Jazeera
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How Russia’s military campaign in Syria is helping Moscow market its weapons
Major international networks have played the videos — along with the images of visually stunning, albeit militarily insignificant, launches of cruise missiles from Russian warships and submarines in the Caspian and Mediterranean seas.
…The videos have served as effective promotional tools for Russian aircraft; air defense missile systems and missiles; “smart” bombs guided by lasers or satellites; diesel submarines; jamming communication systems; tanks; sniper rifles and modified AK-47s, analysts and other observers say.
How Russia’s military campaign in Syria is helping Moscow market its weapons – LA Times
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Arabic signs face removal threat in Istanbul’s Little Syria
Last week, Aksaray businesses and residents received a notice ordering them to declutter building facades and overhaul their signage. The order represents the latest salvo in an eight-year effort to standardize storefronts and require all signs to be in the Turkish language, which uses the Latin alphabet. It also seeks the removal of signs in Cyrillic lettering and all signs with neon and LED lights.
Some Syrian residents are vowing to ignore the order, seeing it as an assault on their culture. Turkey today is home to 3 million refugees, mostly Syrian.
…“This is not a project that we planned today,” Fatih spokeswoman Nurcan Albayrak said in an email to The Associated Press. She said Fatih was part of a historic peninsula that required “aesthetic consistency” and described the spread of ornately lit and non-Turkish signs as part of a wider problem of “visual pollution.”
Arabic signs face removal threat in Istanbul’s Little Syria – The Washington Post
“Visual Pollution.”
Oy…..
UNHCR – Burning trash to keep warm in Syria town cut off by war
UNHCR delivers winter clothing to residents of Qudsaya as part of a drive to provide life-saving aid to 4.6 million Syrians and Iraqis displaced across the region.
….In coming weeks, UNHCR aims to reach 3.2 million Syrians and 1.4 million Iraqis, who have been uprooted within their countries’ borders or have sought refuge in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. The aid includes a mixture of cash payments, clothing, blankets, heating fuel and other basics.
In recent weeks, UNHCR delivered plastic sheets, thermal blankets and winter clothes to the besieged city of East Harasta in the eastern Ghouta district of rural Damascus. The delivery was part of a UN convoy which carried food and medicine for the 11,000 people trapped in the city.
Then in recent days, the UNHCR aid drive reached Qudsaya and the nearby village of Al-Hama, where staff delivered enough winter clothing kits for 30,000 residents, as part of an inter-agency convoy that also delivered badly-needed food and medicines. Aid, the first to reach Qudsaya as winter draws in, was welcomed by residents.
UNHCR – Burning trash to keep warm in Syria town cut off by war
Sigh…
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