Sunday, 18 March 2018

More than 50,000 flee twin offensives in Syria as crisis deepens

More than 50,000 flee twin offensives in Syria as crisis deepensMore than 50,000 people have fled twin offensives in Syria in recent days, as escalating violence is displacing large numbers of civilians across the country. Around 30,000 left the northern majority Kurdish city of Afrin as Turkish and allied forces stepped up a siege. In the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, some 20,000 have left rebel areas targeted by Syrian government forces. They continued streaming out in their thousands on Friday as the enclave was pummelled relentlessly. Aid agencies said they were expecting at least double that number to leave in the coming days and weeks. Pictures from the Kafr Baytna neighbourhood showed the still-smouldering bodies of civilians in the street after the area was hit by what residents said was napalm-like incendiary weapons dropped from a Russian jet. Some 46 people were killed in the attack. Moscow and Damascus accuse the rebels of forcing people to stay in harm's way to use them as human shields. The rebels deny this and say the aim of the government assault is to depopulate opposition areas as they have done in Aleppo and Homs. Further north in Syria, the Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) militia, defending Afrin, said it was battling the Turkish forces and their Syrian militia allies who tried to storm the town from the north. On Friday alone, Turkish artillery fire killed 18 civilians in the city centre, where remaining residents were stocking up on food in preparation for a fully fledged siege. Syrians from the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region, just outside Damascus, cross a regime-controlled corridor in Hamouria  Credit: AFP/Getty Speaking from a makeshift clinic in southern Afrin, Dan Smith, a British volunteer medic with the YPG, told the Telegraph he had seen many casualties in the last few days. “The situation just keeps getting worse, it’s a slaughter. They just bombed the civilian hospital,” Mr Smith, from London, said in a text message. “We’ve treated men, women and children, mostly with air strike and artillery injuries." Turkey's military dropped flyers in Arabic and Kurdish on the northern Syrian town of Afrin yesterday morning, asking residents to stay away from "terrorist positions" and urging YPG militiamen to surrender. Syrian civilians with their belongings as they flee from fighting between the Syrian government forces and rebels Credit: SANA The leaflets say Afrin civilians wanting to leave would be "under the guarantee" of the Turkish military. They urged Kurdish fighters to "trust the hand we extend to you," saying: "Come surrender! A calm and peaceful future awaits you in Afrin." The seven-year war has displaced more than half of Syria’s 21 million population - six million inside Syria and another six million are seeking refuge outside the country. The two offensives, one backed by Russia and the other led by Turkey, have shown how Syrian factions and their foreign allies are aggressively reshaping the map of control of the country as the UN looks on helplessly. Turkey began its operation, codenamed Olive Branch, in January with the aim of clearing the YPG, which it sees as terrorists, from the border. People take cover in a cellar in the village of Qastal Koshk, north of Afrin  Credit: AFP However, Turkish forces have continued deep into Afrin and threatened to continue on to Manbij, the next large town held by the Kurds. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, has previously claimed that Afrin was part of the Ottoman Empire and that the land should be returned to Arabs. The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Russia convened a meeting in the Kazakh capital Astana yesterday to discuss the situation in Syria. The three states last year agreed to contain the conflict on several fronts with "de-escalation zones", while simultaneously pursuing own military objectives in Syria.




The Latest: Police chief pledges respect for speech rights

The Latest: Police chief pledges respect for speech rightsSAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The Latest on Vice President Mike Pence's planned visit to Savannah for St. Patrick's Day (all times local):




Saturday, 17 March 2018

Raw video of aftermath of FIU bridge collapse

Raw video of aftermath of FIU bridge collapseMultiple deaths, injuries reported after pedestrian bridge collapse at Florida International University in Miami.




Read Andrew McCabe's Response To Being Fired Two Days Before His Retirement

Read Andrew McCabe's Response To Being Fired Two Days Before His RetirementAttorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Friday evening that he had fired




Theresa May promised to 'take every step' against Russian assassins — two years before latest attack

Theresa May promised to 'take every step' against Russian assassins — two years before latest attackThe widow of a former Russian intelligence officer who was poisoned to death at a London hotel in 2006 shared with Yahoo News a letter she received from May two years ago, after the British government concluded that Vladimir Putin was “probably” responsible for her husband’s murder.




Veteran Democratic Congresswoman Louise Slaughter dies

Veteran Democratic Congresswoman Louise Slaughter diesWASHINGTON (AP) — Veteran U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Kentucky blacksmith's daughter who went on to chair one of Congress' most important committees, died Friday at a Washington hospital where she was being treated after falling in her home, her top aide said. She was 88.




Tonnes of gold and silver bars fall from Russian plane 

Tonnes of gold and silver bars fall from Russian plane A Russian plane loaded with precious metals lost its glittering cargo on take-off Thursday, scattering the runway with gold and silver. The Antonov plane was taking off after refuelling in an airport at Yakutsk in Siberia when its cargo door flew open - dropping nearly 200 bars from the Kupol gold mine in the remote Chukotka region, investigators said. The cargo of bars of concentrated ore used to transport the precious metals weighed 9.3 tonnes. "As it gathered height, the cargo door became damaged due to the shifting of cargo" and "part of the cargo was scattered on the runway," Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement on Telegram. The plane was forced to land back at the airport, and police immediately sealed off the area to prevent locals from rushing to the scene of the rare windfall, Yakutmedia local news site reported. It posted a video of what looked like large white-ish bricks lying on the runway. Ok. Gold rain drops looked that way on Yakutsk Airport’s runway. Pretty heavy and sonorous... Video by transport police from Whatsapp. pic.twitter.com/YYiO1P6lh7— Bolot Bochkarev (@yakutia) March 15, 2018 "172 bars have been found weighing around 3.4 tonnes," the local interior ministry told TASS state news agency. "Only part of the gold fell out - altogether there were around nine tonnes in there." Kupol mine where the cargo came from is operated by Canada-based mining company Kinross Gold. Precious metal ingots on the runway of the airport of Yakutsk Credit: Transport Police/Twitter And apparently none of the valuable cargo is missing, A Russian spokesman for the company, Stanislav Borodyuk, told Interfax news agency that "all the cargo has been picked up, there are no losses." A hole was ripped in the side of the plane, allowing its precious cargo to escape Credit: Youtube  He said the bars were Dore, a semi-pure alloy of silver and gold. Investigators say the problem on take-off was likely due to the cargo not being properly stabilised.