WITH global conflict looming, one photo reveals just how far relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated.
GETTY
In the picture, US president Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart share what may be their last handshake.
Yet their hands are scarcely touching, there is no eye contact and the body language is visibly frosty.
The photo showed the two leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Peru.
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A White House official said the two men spoke for about four minutes about the crises in Ukraine and Syria.
Russia has sparked international outrage by bombing civilian areas in Syria in support of dictator Bashar al-Assad.
In shocking footage yesterday, rescue workers tried to save children from the rubble of another Russian bombing in Aleppo.
Moscow also continues to occupy Crimea, officially part of Ukraine, in a move that sparked international sanctions.
Today Obama urged Putin to honour the Minsk agreements, which target Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine.
"The president urged President Putin to uphold Russia's commitments under the Minsk agreements," an aide said.
The US leader also urged that they "continue pursuing initiatives to diminish the violence and alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people."
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Obama and Putin handshake reveals decline of US-Russia relations
Daily Star Today Obama urged Putin to honour the Minsk agreements, which target Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine. "The president urged President Putin to uphold Russia's commitments under the Minsk agreements," an aide said. The US leader also urged that ... and more » |
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Noor Zahi Salman - Google NewsIndependent Online |
Orlando shooter's wife could face charges | IOL
Independent Online Wife of Orlando nightclub gunman could face criminal charges as early as Wednesday. and more » |
A San Antonio police officer was shot and killed on Sunday while sitting in a squad car during a routine traffic stop outside the Texas city’s police headquarters, authorities said.
The shooting unfolded when a second vehicle pulled up behind the patrol car, its driver exited and fired two shots at the officer, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said.
The suspect sped away from the scene in a black car, driving through the parking lot that serves the San Antonio Public Safety Headquarters on the west edge of downtown.
“A person pulled up behind the patrol car in a black vehicle, got out, walked up to the passenger window, fired one round, shooting the officer in the head,” McManus told reporters near the scene of the shooting. “He then reached in and fired a second round, shooting him a second time.”
McManus said he did not know if the motorist who was pulled over for the traffic violation was connected in any way with the man who shot the officer.
The chief said police were looking for an African-American male wearing a hoodie and black pants, whose image was captured by security cameras.
McManus, who did not identify the slain officer, said officials were “searching for a motive.”
“This type of crime cannot and will not be tolerated,” Mayor Ivy Taylor said. “I ask for the community’s thoughtfulness and patience as the investigation continues and SAPD searches for the suspect.”
President-elect Donald Trump, when asked about the events in San Antonio, said: “Terrible.”
Much of the west end of downtown San Antonio was sealed off to traffic as police investigated the shooting.
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Obama and E.U. Leaders Agree to Keep Sanctions on Russiaby By MELISSA EDDY and GARDINER HARRIS
The leaders said that sanctions should stay until Moscow upheld its pledge for a cease-fire and to withdraw of heavy weapons from eastern Ukraine.
Philippine president says he would happily join a ‘new order’ in the world under Russia and China if they created one
The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, lashed out at western “bullying” and “hypocrisy” during his first meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and said that when it came to alliances the United States could not be trusted.
The unlikely love-in between the president-elect and a former KGB agent who built a career on hating America has spooked many US allies. And it raises serious questions – from the fate of Edward Snowden to whether GCHQ’s secrets are safe
It was, remarkably, their first phone call. Last week, on Monday, Donald Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin. According to the Kremlin, the conversation was warm. Putin congratulated the US president-elect on his sweeping victory. We don’t exactly know how they addressed each other, but you imagine it might have been “Vladimir” and “Donald”.
Both leaders agreed that US-Russian relations were “absolutely unsatisfactory”, as Moscow put it. Their two countries would now begin a new dialogue based on “equality, mutual respect and non-interference in the other’s internal affairs”. They would stay in touch and meet soon, the Kremlin said. Hours later, Russian jets resumed their pounding of Syria.
Ideally, Putin would like a new version of the 1945 Yalta treaty
Lurid theories have circulated about what compromising information Russia’s spy agencies may have on Trump
Continue reading...
Early signs of what the Trump administration may look like: A man associated with white supremacy and misogyny will be White House chief strategist; a man rejected for a judgeship because of alleged racism will be attorney general; and an Islamophobe who has taken money from Moscow will be national security adviser.
No, this is not satire.
I’ve repeatedly noted that my side lost this election, that elections have consequences, and that President-Elect Donald Trump should be given a chance. He seems intent on blowing that chance.
The announcement that Trump has recruited Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser is particularly alarming. Flynn is smart and knows the world very well, but he was fired from his last government job for incompetence. Worse, he today is regarded by many Republican and Democratic foreign policy specialists as a kook.
It’s all complicated. Flynn had a brilliant military career and did an outstanding job in Iraq and Afghanistan. Five years ago, he was widely admired as the best intelligence officer of his generation.
Then President Obama nominated Flynn to become director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and he began to unravel. He turned out to be a catastrophic manager. Colin Powell, former secretary of state, explained in hacked emails why Flynn was fired: “abusive with staff, didn’t listen, worked against policy, bad management.” Powell added that ever since, Flynn has been “right-wing nutty.”
Flynn was proved right on one important point: His argument that the Obama administration was too passive about Islamic militants after the killing of Osama bin Laden. But Flynn’s former fans have been bewildered at his raging denunciation of Islam, including calling it a “cancer.” In February, Flynn also tweeted and asked others to forward a viciously bigoted video that argued that there could be no such thing as Islamophobia.
“Fearing Islam, which wants 80 percent of humanity enslaved or exterminated, is totally rational and hence cannot possibly be called a phobia,” the video declares.
Indeed, for an intelligence officer, Flynn seems to have trouble distinguishing truth from falsehood. Earlier this month, he tweeted an obviously fake story claiming that the police had found emails linking Hillary Clinton to sex crimes with children. When he was in government, subordinates had a special name for his delusions: “Flynn facts.”
Another problem is Flynn’s ties to foreign governments. He took money from Russia to attend an event in Moscow, sitting near President Vladimir Putin. He also appears to have taken money from Turkish interests and, without publicly disclosing the money, wrote an op-ed shilling for Turkey.
For his chief of staff, Flynn chose his son, who is a looney on social media, calling President Obama a communist and fascist, tweeting racially insensitive comments and sharing absurd conspiracy theories.
The national security adviser not only guides the president on foreign policy but also coordinates across all the agencies. That requires a good listener with diplomatic and management skills — and Flynn is missing that gene.
The pick of Flynn comes on top of other problematic appointments. Trump offered the job of attorney general to Senator Jeff Sessions, who was rejected for a federal judgeship in 1986 by a Republican-dominated Senate because of a history of racially charged statements. For example, he had said that he had thought members of the Ku Klux Klan “were O.K. until I found out they smoked pot” (he explained that he had been joking). His nomination was only the second in 48 years to be rejected for a judgeship by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
As attorney general, Sessions will be in charge of enforcing civil rights laws.
Then there’s Steve Bannon, the designated White House chief strategist, who at Breitbart was at the center of white supremacist, Islamophobic misogyny. One Breitbart headline: “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.”
In fairness, Trump has also appointed normal conservatives: Reince Priebus as chief of staff and Mike Pompeo to lead the C.I.A. I don’t agree much with either, but both are intelligent and qualified.
Other signals are also troubling, such as a Trump surrogate speaking of instituting a registry of Muslims — and citing the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II as a precedent. Really?
George Takei, the actor whose family was interned, wrote eloquently in The Washington Post about the risks “when, in an atmosphere of fear or mistrust, one group is singled out and vilified, as Japanese Americans were during World War II and as Muslim Americans are today. How terrible it is to contemplate, once again, that the government itself might once more be the very instrument of terror and division. That cannot happen again.”
Plenty of smart, experienced Republicans are available for Trump administration slots. But so far, too many are being stiffed.
Eliot Cohen is a thoughtful, experienced conservative who worked in the Bush administration and, despite his own distaste for Trump, had urged others to work for him. But after his interactions with a Trump transition team that he described as arrogant, he tweeted, “changed my recommendation: stay away.”
Look, Trump has been elected, he will be our president and he has the right to choose conservatives. But instead of turning to the many principled Republicans available, he seems drawn to hotheads and bigots, embarrassing himself and our nation.
Continue reading the main story
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A San Antonio cop has died after a gunman shot him in the head while making a traffic stop outside police headquarters Sunday, authorities said.
"It's everyone's worst nightmare. You never want to see anything like this happen," San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said at a press conference.
The shooting happened at 11:45 a.m. near police headquarters on S. Santa Rosa Avenue and W. Nueva Street, police said.
The officer, identified as Detective Benjamin Marconi, 50, pulled over a vehicle near the Southside of the police headquarters building in his marked vehicle, the chief said.
He died at the San Antonio Military Medical Center shortly after the shooting, according to police.
As Marconi, a 20-year veteran of the force, wrote a ticket from inside his car, a black vehicle pulled up behind him, the chief said.
The driver then got out and walked up to the Marconi's opened car window, blasting one gunshot to his head and following another, which also struck him in the head, according to McManus.
After the suspect shot Marconi, he walked back to his car and drove into the south parking lot of police headquarters where he fled the scene from the west side of the building, he said.
McManus reassured that the photo of a black Sedan with chrome rims, which was shared by the police department on social media, is the suspected vehicle in the investigation.
The suspect, who was last seen wearing a gray shirt and black pants and was clean shaven, may have been driving the identified car during the shooting, police said.
Officers are "putting the pieces together in this capital murder case," to find a motive for the killing, he said.
Police consider the suspect, whose name has not been released, "extremely dangerous," and "a clear threat to law enforcement and the public," the chief said.
"It's always difficult, especially in this day and age where police are being targeted on the streets," McManus said, adding that cops are searching tirelessly for the "dangerous" individual before he attacks more officers.
San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor called it a "somber day" and said she was "floored" when McManus sent her an urgent message about Marconi's death as she was exiting Sunday church services.
"This type of senseless violence is unacceptable," the mayor said.
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump took the time from meeting with his cabinet candidates to address the San Antonio shooting as "terrible."
The officer's death comes after an armed ex-con, Manuel Rosales, 35, killed NYPD Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo, 41, by fatally blasting him in the head and chest during a shootout in the Bronx on Nov. 5.
After he shot Tuozzolo, police fired back at Rosales where he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Five months prior, a gunman killed five Dallas officers “ambush style” who were working a protest in response to the shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
In what appears to be Marconi's Twitter account, he showed solidarity for the five slain Dallas officers by posting a photo of a "Pray for Dallas" shirt under a headline that read "San Antonio stands with Dallas."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued condolences to the officer's family and declared that attacks against law enforcement should be looked at as hate crimes.
"We ask that all Texans join us in praying for the officer's loved ones as they deal with the aftermath of this unimaginable tragedy," Abbott said in a statement. "Attacks against law enforcement officers will not be tolerated in Texas and must be met with swift justice...making targeted attacks against law enforcement a hate crime."
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, who was former mayor of San Antonio, also expressed his condolences via Twitter.
"My deepest condolences and prayers for the loved ones of the SAPD officer who was senselessly shot and killed today while serving our city," Castro wrote.
"Most families will be celebrating the holidays," McManus said, "SAPD will be burying one of its own because of an ultimate act of cowardice."
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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Detective Benjamin Marconi, a 20-year veteran of the department, was shot in his patrol car outside police headquarters, Chief William McManus said Sunday in a news conference. Marconi was 50 years old.
"[When] Most families will be celebrating the holidays SAPD will be burying one of its own because of an ultimate act of cowardice by a suspect who will be caught and brought to justice," McManus said.
Police are looking for the vehicle the suspect is believed to have fled in, a black sedan with chrome rims and dark covered windows. McManus described the suspect as a slim black man in his 20s or 30s in a gray shirt and gray pants.
"We consider the suspect to be extremely dangerous and a clear threat to law enforcement officers and the public," he said.
San Antonio police are looking for the person who drove the car away from a police shooting.
The shooting occurred in front of police headquarters before noon, McManus said. Marconi had just pulled over a driver on the south side of the building and returned to his patrol car to write a ticket when the suspect pulled up behind him.
The suspect walked up to the patrol car driver window and shot the officer in the head, McManus said. The suspect then reached through the open window and shot him a second time, McManus said.
After the shooting the suspect returned to his vehicle and drove away.
Both of those incidents followed police-involved shootings of civilians that triggered protests nationwide. Police are investigating motive in this case, including a possible connection to a Sunday morning officer-involved shooting in Dallas, McManus said.
"Unfortunately, like Dallas like Baton Rouge, it's happened here," he said.
"It's always difficult especially in this day and age where police are being targeted across the county," he added. "Hopefully we'll solve this one real quick, and if this individual is a danger to more police or anyone else we will try to get him off the street as soon as we can."
San Antonio Mayor Ivy R. Taylor condemned the shooting and called for patience while the investigation continues.
"I want to extend my deepest condolences to the family of the officer killed outside police headquarters today as well as to our entire police force. This type of crime cannot and will not be tolerated. I ask for the community's thoughtfulness and patience as the investigation continues and SAPD searches for the suspect," Taylor said.
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"This is everyone's worst nightmare," McManus said. "You never want to see anything like this happen. Unfortunately, like Dallas, like Baton Rouge, it's happened here now."
McManus said officers in San Antonio have been targeted in the past, but this is the first instance in many years. He said police are targeted everywhere on a regular basis.
"It's always difficult, especially in this day and age where police are being targeted across the country," McManus said. "Hopefully we'll solve this one real quick."
SAN ANTONIO –- An officer was shot outside the San Antonio Police headquarters building in downtown San Antonio late Sunday morning.
Authorities responded to the scene at 11:40 a.m. on West Nueva Street and Santa Rosa Street, SAPD Chief William McManus said.
McManus said the officer had pulled over a vehicle outside of the Public Safety Headquarters. While the officer was inside his vehicle writing a ticket, a black vehicle pulled up behind him.
The driver of that vehicle got out, walked up to the officer’s driver-side window and shot the officer in the head, McManus said.
Then the suspect reached into the window and shot the officer a second time, he said.
The suspect then got back in his car and pulled away. Police believe the suspect’s vehicle was a black Toyota or Nissan sedan.
Suspect's car in the officer-involved shooting (Photo: SAPD)
Police said the officer was pronounced dead at San Antonio Military Medical Center around 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
He was a 20-year veteran of the force. His name has not yet been released.
McManus said the suspect is a black male around five-foot-seven to six feet in height, wearing a gray sweatshirt and black baggy pants. The suspect also has a beard.
Police said they do not know what the motive for the shooting was.
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McManus said this will be a capital murder case.
Mayor Ivy Taylor released a statement regarding the officer killed on duty:
"I want to extend my deepest condolences to the family of the officer killed outside police headquarters today as well as to our entire police force. This type of crime cannot and will not be tolerated. I ask for the community's thoughtfulness and patience as the investigation continues and SAPD searches for the suspect."
If you have any information on the suspect, you are asked to call Crime Stoppers at 224-STOP.
(© 2016 KENS)
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San Antonio officer shot to death during traffic stop
CNN-33 minutes ago
... SEAL killed in Iraq identified. (CNN) A San Antonio police officer was fatally shot Sunday, Chief William McManus said in a news conference.
SAPD officer shot, killed near police headquarters
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SAPD officer shot, killed near police HQ downtown
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The Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization was a 1937 secret trial of the high ... MarshalMikhail Tukhachevsky and the senior military officers Iona Yakir, Ieronim Uborevich, Robert Eideman, August Kork, Vitovt Putna, Boris Feldman and Vitaly Primakov (as well as Yakov Gamarnik, who committed suicide ...Who Is Yossi Cohen, Mossad's New Spymaster?
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The Directorate General for Inter-Services Intelligence (Urdu: بین الخدماتی مخابرات) or Inter-Services Intelligence (abbreviated ISI, Urdu: آئی ایس آئی) is the premier intelligence service of Pakistan, operationally responsible for providing critical national security and intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan. The ISI is the largest of the five intelligence services of Pakistan
Lieutenant-General Rizwan Akhtar in (Urdu: رضوان اختر) is the three-star rank army general and a spymaster who is a current Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). He was appointed for the position on 22 September 2014.[2] He took office on 8 November 2014.[1]
Delving Into the Inner Workings of the ISI
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... to DG ISI Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar. A file photo of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif talking to Director General ISI Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar.
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As the outcome of the US presidential election was confirmed, Moscow’s lower house of parliament cheered. The parliamentary nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky was pictured drinking champagne with colleagues. Alexander Dugin, a far-right ideologue, said Russia could now drop its anti-Americanism.
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Donald Trump’s victory has prompted near-jubilation in Russia. Even before the president-elect spoke to Vladimir Putin last week and pledged to rebuild ties, the Kremlin spokesman suggested the two men’s foreign policy views were “phenomenally close”. Ordinary Russians, who spent much of last month being warned by state media that Washington was about to trigger a third world war over Syria, have welcomed the result too.
Many senior Russians view the Republican president-elect as a businessman more interested in dealmaking than values, with whom it might be able to reach the kind of bargain it has long craved: to carve out a Russian “sphere of influence” in Europe and curb Nato expansion.
Yet while there are strong indications Mr Trump will seek a deal with his Russian counterpart, there is no guarantee it will succeed. Indeed, the incoming US president might prove trickier for Moscow to handle than it expects.
While Russia intervened at an unprecedented degree in the US election through hacks and leaks, it is wrong to suggest Mr Trump is a “Russian project”.
Moscow’s main aims seem to have been to hinder the presidential chances of Hillary Clinton, whom it fears and dislikes, and ensure her expected victory was as narrow and rancorous as possible. It also wanted to tarnish and discredit US democracy; a task in which the Republican candidate’s eccentricities and often extreme statements initially came as a boon to Russian television and newspapers.
State media only began backing Mr Trump more overtly when it appeared he actually had a chance of winning. The president-elect’s volatility and capriciousness will have been noted in Moscow. Mr Putin has made springing surprises part of his own political modus operandi. But he prefers his friends and enemies alike to be consistent, known quantities — everything Mr Trump is not.
“The new American president-elect’s unpredictable personality could make for a stormy relationship,” said Alexander Baunov of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Some of Mr Trump’s campaign comments hinting he could recognise Russia’s claim to Crimea, pledging to end liberal interventionism, and backing Russia’s approach to the war in Syria are welcome to Moscow. Others portend potential frictions.
Mr Trump has threatened to scrap last year’s nuclear deal with Iran — an agreement Russia helped negotiate, with a country it views as an ally. The president-elect has also taken a combative stance towards China, with which Russia has worked hard to build ties in recent years. Moscow recently restarted advanced arms technology sales to Beijing after a decade-long informal ban.
A further complicating factor is the possibility that Congress, and Mr Trump’s cabinet, could play a restraining role. Both Houses are now packed with “traditional” Republicans who take a hawkish line towards Russia and are unlikely to welcome any deal that smacks of caving in to the Kremlin’s demands.
The names the president-elect is considering for top security jobs also make smooth relations with Russia far from a certainty. They run the gamut from General Michael Flynn, a Russia dove whom Mr Trump has chosen as his national security adviser, to figures such as Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani who are much more hawkish.
A final issue is personality. Both men revel in their image as macho leaders. But political strongmen do not necessarily get on well with each other. History has plenty of examples of those who have fallen out — with dangerous consequences for the world.
