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Damascus suffers drinking water outage, authority accuses rebels of contaminating water sources - ->
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1025684.shtml
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The drinking water has been out of the capital Damascus for three days, as the authorities accuse the rebels of contaminating the water sources feeding the capital.
The Damascus City Water Supply Authority said in a statement that "terrorist attacks have targeted all water sources feeding Damascus and its surrounding."
It added that the local administration in Damascus is using the reserve water supplies to secure part of the needs of the capital's over five million inhabitants.
It noted that the water supply conditions will get better in the next few days.
Meanwhile, pro-government al-Watan newspaper said the rebels in the Wadi Barada and Ain al-Figeh areas in northwestern Damascus had contaminated the drinking water with diesel.
In return, the authority was keen to deliver the water from the reserve wells.
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Mass graves found in eastern Aleppo, Russia claims - ->
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 96066.html
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What the Assassination of the Russian Ambassador May Be Telling Us about Erdoğan’s Turkey - ->
http://www.fpri.org/article/2016/12/ass ... ns-turkey/
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A more straightforward and plausible explanation may not be difficult to find. Radical Sunni currents are neither new nor unusual in Turkey. They have been part of Turkey’s political underground from the founding of the republic in 1923. Although the Turkish Republic has a long history of suppressing religious movements that challenge the state, it has an almost as venerable tradition of coopting and using fringe or radical illegal elements that can assist the state.
The pattern of state actors recruiting religiously motivated radicals arguably extends back to the pre-republican, late Ottoman period when an embattled Ottoman empire, outgunned and outweighed by the Great Powers, sought to boost its geopolitical heft by mobilizing networks that linked Muslims outside the empire with those inside. These networks ranged from public and non-violent charitable ones and religious brotherhoods to clandestine paramilitary groups.
During the Cold War, the Turkish Republic made use of Islamist and ultra-nationalist radicals to counter Communist and Leftist influence and to combat Kurdish separatism. There was nothing especially unusual about Turkey’s use of these underground groups. States battling severe challenges from non-state actors routinely recruit illegal and extralegal elements such as gangsters and political radicals as allies. By granting illegal but cooperative actors reprieve from prosecution in exchange for performing the “dirty tasks” that the law formally forbids, states acquire proxies that can be effective at rooting out underground threats. Because such arrangements belie the state’s claim to uphold the law and monopolize the legitimate means of violence, however, they cannot be openly acknowledged. And a dangerous tradeoff comes with the blurring of the lines of legality and loyalty. Employees of the state sometimes can begin to identify with and serve the causes of the subterranean organizations they are dealing with.
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After Aleppo, now for a Syria-wide ceasefire, says Putin - ->
http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle- ... says-putin
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MOSCOW // The recapture of Aleppo by Syrian regime forces is an important step towards stabilising the war-torn country, Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
"The liberation of Aleppo from radical elements is a very important part of the normalisation in Syria, and I hope, for the region overall," Mr Putin said in a meeting with defence minister Sergei Shoigu.
"Everything needs to be done for fighting to stop on all Syrian territory," Mr Putin said. "In any case, we will strive toward this."
Mr Putin said that Russia wanted ceasefire talks to take place in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, as the location had already been approved by Syrian president Bashar Al Assad and the leaders of the other power brokers in the Syrian conflict – Iran and Turkey.
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US imposes sanctions against Syrian Central Bank chief, cabinet members - ->
http://en.apa.az/azerbaijan-politics/do ... mbers.html
Putin, Erdogan discuss Syria over phone - ->
http://www.china.org.cn/world/2016-12/2 ... 983851.htm
Turkey calls for air support in battle for Islamic State-held al Bab - ->
http://news.sky.com/story/turkey-calls- ... b-10707814
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Turkey has called on the US-led coalition against Islamic State to provide air support to troops battling rebels in the key town al Bab.
The Russian air force carried out airstrikes on Sunday and Turkey said 226 militants had been "neutralised" in its latest operation but troops had been unable to take complete control of the Syrian town.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said: "The international coalition must carry out its duties regarding aerial support to the battle we are fighting in al Bab.
"Not giving the necessary support is unacceptable."
Rebels supported by Turkish troops have laid siege to the town for weeks in the "Euphrates Shield" operation launched by Turkey nearly four months ago to sweep the Sunni hardliners and Kurdish fighters from its Syrian border.
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Israeli judicial officials are reportedly mulling over launching a criminal investigation into a corruption case involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to Israeli media, police received new documents as part of a secret inquiry into Netanyahu’s affairs which persuaded them to demand a full criminal probe. A spokesman for Netanyahu has rejected as nonsensical the allegations which include bribe-taking and aggravated fraud by the premier. Authorities opened the investigation nine months ago. A separate probe is underway in Israel into accusation that Netanyahu’s wife misused state funds.
Benjamin Netanyahu faces 'criminal investigation' over fraud and bribery claims - ->
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 97016.html
Israel's Netanyahu 'snubs Theresa May' over UK's role in UN settlements vote - ->
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 96451.html
Israel Threatens to Give Trump ‘Iron-Clad’ Proof Obama Was Behind UN Vote - ->
http://news.antiwar.com/2016/12/26/isra ... d-un-vote/
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Spokesmen for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claim to have come upon “iron-clad information” from several sources which pins last week’s UN Security Council vote, which condemned Israeli expansion of settlements in the occupied territories, on a scheme by the Obama Administration.
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Rebuffing Israel, U.S. Allows Censure Over Settlements - ->
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world ... .html?_r=1
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Applause broke out in the 15-member Security Council’s chambers after the vote on the measure, which passed 14 to 0, with the United States ambassador, Samantha Power, raising her hand as the lone abstention. Israel’s ambassador, Danny Danon, denounced the measure, and castigated the council members who had approved it.
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Statistics: Posted by BoyRacer — Wed Dec 28, 2016 12:24 am