Germany at war: Berlin on 'significant' alert

Police hunt armed ISIS gunman who killed 12 people in lorry massacre - after security services admit they got the WRONG man 

• Security sources have told one German newspaper the real killer could still be on loose with a gun 
• Senior police chief said: 'We have wrong man. Perpetrator is armed, at large and can cause further damage'
• Arrested Pakistani asylum seeker Naved B, 23, entered country under false name and has criminal record  
• Asylum seeker was living inside hangar for immigrants at a Berlin airport since raided by commandos at 4am  
• At least 48 injured and 12 dead after truck mowed down shoppers at 40mph in a busy Christmas market 
• Three of the dead have not yet been identified but six victims have been confirmed as German citizens 
• Driver steered at crowds - including children - along 80 metre stretch of pavement packed with stalls  
• Masked killer fled scene but was pursued by 'hero' witness who chased him on foot and led police to him 
• Polish-registered lorry understood 'stolen by hijacker', who may have murdered driver Lukasz Urban
• Angela Merkel says Germany is in 'mourning' - but terror attack could be hammer blow to 2017 election hopes

By Martin Robinson, Uk Chief Reporter and Julian Robinson and Anthony Joseph and Allan Hall In Berlin

The Berlin Christmas market killer may still be on the loose with a gun and ready to inflict 'further damage' 12 hours after an asylum seeker from Pakistan was chased down and arrested, a senior police chief said today.

Detectives interrogating suspect Naved B, 23, have said he has no blood on his clothes, no injuries and denies hijacking a 25-tonne lorry and using it to murder 12 people and injure 48 more last night.  

A security services source, a senior police officer, told die Welt newspaper: 'We have the wrong man. So we have a new situation. The true perpetrator is still armed, at large and can cause further damage.'

Germany’s top prosecutor Peter Frank also said that they cannot rule out that more than one person may be on the run, adding Naved B 'may not have been the perpetrator or belong to the group of perpetrators'. 

At 7pm last night a juggernaut laden with steel cargo turned off its lights and ripped through stalls and shoppers at 40mph on Breitscheidplatz Square, outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the German capital's main shopping area.

Witnesses said victims including children were sent flying like bowling pins and sucked under the wheels leaving 'rivers of blood' as the killer driver steered at them before jumping out of the cab and racing from the scene.  

Police said a 'hero' witness in the Christmas market gave chase on foot while giving officers second-by-second updates on his phone, but some sources say Naved B is the wrong man.

The lorry's original Polish driver, Lukasz Urban, a father of one, was transporting steel beams into Germany, but was found shot in the cab after the crash. The gun has not been found.

The terror attack could be a political disaster for Angela Merkel, who will seek a historic fourth term as German Chancellor next year. The German leader, who left white roses as the scene this afternoon, has staked much of her political capital in opening up Germany's doors to refugees and in doing so divided a reunited land. 

OPEC Threatened by Tiny Oklahoma Town With Soaring Supplies

by Javier Blas and Mark Shenk 
For OPEC, there are few enemies more fearsome than the tiny Oklahoma town of Cushing.

With oil inventories at Cushing creeping near an all-time high, U.S. benchmark futures prices are struggling to advance despite the promised production cuts agreed to by OPEC, Russia and other producers. And the storage tanks are likely to stay full as refiners park crude in Oklahoma to lower their tax bills.

Cushing, which prides itself as the “pipeline crossroads of the world,” is the delivery point for the West Texas Intermediate crude contract. With tanks that can hold 77 million barrels of crude, enough to supply France for two months, it’s the biggest storage hub in the U.S. The last high point there came in May. Now, after a brief hiatus, the tanks are filling up once again. For the OPEC-led efforts to boost prices, that’s a major problem.

“Part of what OPEC, and in particular the Saudis want to do, is drain the swamp,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund that focuses on energy. “To do that they will reduce deliveries to the U.S. That will eventually be felt at Cushing, but not in a long time.”
Stockpiles rose by 1.22 million barrels last week, following a 3.78 million jump the previous week that was the biggest since 2008. The inflows have pushed up stocks to 66.5 million barrels, within a whisker of the all-time record of 68.3 million set in May. With the promise of production cuts sending forward prices up, that’s encouraging traders and refiners to hold onto inventories, the last thing the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries wants to see.

"The near-term prognosis for Cushing balances is not particularly rosy," said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at consultants Energy Aspects Ltd.

Cushing is getting more oil partly because of seasonal factors. Every year, refiners in the U.S. Gulf Coast try to reduce inventories in December to lower their tax bills, traditionally parking excess crude in Oklahoma and elsewhere. Also, U.S. refineries typically process less crude at the beginning of the year, with January demand dropping by an average 899,000 barrels a day during the past five years.

Reductions in inventory by refineries in Texas and Louisiana “can contribute to outsized Cushing builds,” said Adam Longson, a commodities analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York.

With just 7,889 residents, Cushing sits about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City. Over the years, it’s developed into the key transfer point for oil flowing from West Texas and Canada to refineries in the U.S. Midwest and on the Gulf Coast. Since late October, Cushing inventories have increased by 8.1 million barrels, largely wiping out the 9.9 million drop from mid-May to mid-October.

The Cushing overhang is putting pressure on WTI prices, which have given up their gains after last weekend’s historic deal between OPEC and non-OPEC nations. WTI fell on Thursday below $51 a barrel, down from a peak of $54.51 earlier in the week. 

The glut is also pushing the market deeper into contango, where prompt supply is cheaper than future deliveries. The discount for WTI delivered in January widened Thursday to $1.09 a barrel below February at 12:25 p.m. London. In April, when stocks were at a similar level, the spread reached $1.55.

Pressure at Cushing

“We may continue to see pressure at Cushing, where stocks typically move higher seasonally into year-end and keep pressure on WTI prompt time spreads,” Morgan Stanley’s Longson said.

After the January contract expires, the growing glut may also weaken WTI during the so-called roll period, when traders can exchange physical crude for three days after the futures contract has expired. 

Last month, when the December contract expired, cash prices fell to $1.40 a barrel below futures, the widest spread since April.

“Once January expires you are going to see some desperate people,” said Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities USA Inc. in New York, in a telephone interview. “This bearish price structure isn’t going away.”

The impact of the Saudi production cuts will take time as Riyadh is reducing output from January onward, and Saudi crude takes about 45 days to arrive to the U.S. after sailing from the Middle East and around Africa.

“Week-over-week inventory builds at Cushing will be noise through year-end and offer an opportunity to exploit the short-term contango conditions,” said Chris Kettenmann, chief energy strategist at Macro Risk Advisors LLC in New York. “The clock starts Jan. 1 for OPEC/non-OPEC coordinated cuts.”

On 75th anniversary, U.S. veterans recall Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

By Dana Feldman and Hugh Gentry

LOS ANGELES/HONOLULU (Reuters) - It has been 75 years, but U.S. Navy veteran James Leavelle can still recall watching with horror as Japanese warplanes rained bombs down on his fellow sailors in the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War Two.

Bullets bounced off the steel deck of his own ship, the USS Whitney, anchored just outside Honolulu harbor, but a worse fate befell those aboard the USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS Utah and others that capsized in an attack that killed 2,400 people.

"The way the Japanese planes were coming in, when they dropped bombs, they'd drop them and then circle back," said Leavelle, a 21-year-old Navy Storekeeper Second Class at the time of the attack.

Leavelle, now 96, was among 30 Pearl Harbor survivors honored at a reception in Los Angeles before heading to Honolulu to mark Wednesday's 75th anniversary of the attack.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor took place at 7:55 a.m. Honolulu time on Dec. 7, 1941, famously dubbed "a date which will live in infamy" by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Fewer than 200 survivors of the attacks there and on other military bases in Hawaii are still alive.

Wednesday's commemoration at a pier overlooking the memorial to the sunken USS Arizona built in the harbor is set to begin with a moment of silence at precisely that time.

About 350 World War Two veterans and their families will be serenaded by the Navy's Pacific Fleet Band with a musical remembrance made bittersweet by the knowledge that every member of the USS Arizona band - one of the best in the Navy - died that day.

Attendees will watch a parade, and two families will participate in a private ceremony in which the ashes of crew members who survived the attack and later died, will be interred in a turret of the Arizona.

Across the United States on Wednesday, Americans will pause to remember those who died at Pearl Harbor, and the long and difficult war that followed.

WAR BEGINS

The shock of the Pearl Harbor attack is vividly illustrated in an exhibit at Massachusetts' Museum of World War II, which features relics including a West Point cadet's letter to his father - then-Brigadier General Dwight Eisenhower - on how to prepare himself for the coming war. [L1N1E01KC]

The United States declared war on Japan the next day. Three days after that, Germany's Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States.

Will Lehner, 95, was among those who had a chance to fight back in the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. The 2nd class naval fireman was working in the boiler room at the USS Ward, patrolling the entrance to the harbor when crew members spotted a Japanese submarine.

"That submarine was on the surface and our skipper didn't know if it was ours or not," Lehner, 20 at the time of the attacks, said at the Los Angeles event. "He said: 'Load your guns.'"

"The first shot went right over the top, the next shot right after it hit that submarine and punched a hole in it."

After the war, a historical discrepancy nagged at Lehner. The remains of the Japanese submarine had not been recovered, and many historians doubted that it existed. That changed in 2002, when the sub was found.

"For 62 years," Lehner said, "Nobody believed us."

For his part, Leavelle would be touched twice by the hand of history. After the war, he became a policeman in Texas. On Nov. 24, 1963, he was the Dallas officer handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy was shot to death by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

(Reporting by Dana Feldman in Los Angeles and Hugh Gentry in Honolulu; Writing and additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Japan PM Abe won't apologise at Pearl Harbor: government

More than 2,400 Americans were killed in the Japanese attack on Dec 7, 1941 (AFP Photo/)

Tokyo (AFP) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will honour war dead but won't apologise when he becomes the first Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor this month, a top government spokesman said on Tuesday.

The move follows Barack Obama's historic May trip to Hiroshima, the first by a sitting US president, where he spoke of victims' suffering but offered no apology for dropping the world's first nuclear bomb.

Abe will pay his respects to those who died in Japan's surprise 1941 attack at the US naval base in Hawaii, which triggered World War II in the Pacific, and highlight a decades-old security alliance between the former enemies.

"The purpose of this visit is to commemorate war dead, not to apologise," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular press briefing in Tokyo.

"The visit will serve as an opportunity to demonstrate to future generations our resolve not to repeat the horror and suffering of war as well as an opportunity to showcase the reconciliation between Japan and the United States," he added.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who is in Japan as part of his last Asian tour, echoed those sentiments Tuesday.

"The US-Japan alliance has never been stronger than it is today," Carter told reporters during a visit to a Japanese destroyer.

"It's a two-way stream, equal benefits for both countries. That's necessary because we face many common responsibilities and threats," he added, without elaborating.

Carter, who is meeting with Abe later in the day, welcomed the Japanese leader's visit to Hawaii.

"One thing I will be sure to say to (Abe on Tuesday) is how pleased President Obama is and we all are that he will be visiting President Obama in Hawaii in a few weeks' time," he said.

- Nationalist leader -

Abe -- a nationalist who has been criticised for playing down his country's wartime record -- will be in Hawaii on December 26 and 27 for talks with Obama, who will join him at Pearl Harbor.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the deadly December 7, 1941 assault on the US naval base that left about 2,400 Americans dead.

The war ended in August 1945 after the US dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan and, although the countries have forged strong ties in the seven decades since, how the war began and concluded has cast a long shadow.

In Hiroshima, Obama and Abe went to an atomic bomb memorial that honours some 140,000 people who died in the bombing or later from radiation exposure -- a visit that sparked speculation that Abe might go to Pearl Harbor in return.

The US leader lay a floral wreath and reiterated his call for the abolition of nuclear weapons but did not apologise for the attack and a subsequent bombing of Nagasaki that ended the war.

Abe's visit to Pearl Harbor also comes as Japan prepares to build a new relationship with Donald Trump, who will take over from Obama next month.

Trump sent shockwaves through Japan earlier this year when he appeared to call into question the two countries' security alliance, prompting Abe to become the first world leader to meet him after the election to confirm the relationship.

Trump Victory Threatens Alibaba’s American Dream

The Chinese e-commerce giant could be felled by Trump’s anti-China tough talk just as growth at home slows.

 

By William Pesek

 

Jack Ma - founder and executive chairman of Alibaba

Of all the things Jack Ma thought he’d confront in 2017, a Donald Trump presidency wasn’t among them.

Much has been made of risks emanating from Trump’s anti-China worldview. It’s a particular concern for investors in Alibaba (BABA), the e-commerce juggernaut aiming to generate 50% of its revenue outside China. While Trump’s shocking win is slamming technology shares from the U.S. to China, the colossus Ma created is uniquely in harm’s way. Its scale, level of mainland penetration and global ambitions put Alibaba on the frontline of Trump’s whims. That makes Alibaba a singularly telling indicator of both Chinese growth shifts and Beijing-Washington relations.

First, the GDP angle. Arguably no Chinese name has more intimately tapped - and tied its fortunes to - the mainland’s nascent middle class. Alibaba’s grasp of the demographic that most excites Apple, Volkswagen and Uniqlo is firm and growing. On Nov. 11, China’s annual “Singles Day,” Alibaba raked in an astounding $18 billion in a 24-hour period. Amazon, who? Alibaba’s one-stop shop for everything from retailing to finance to travel to auctioneering to payments arguably makes its quarterly reports more useful than Beijing’s official gross domestic product figures.

As of now, the signs are decent for Chinese GDP. Alibaba exceeded Wall Street expectations for top and bottom-line growth in the most recent quarter, with revenue jumping 55% to roughly $5 billion from a year earlier. Yet there are hints Alibaba isn’t as immune to China’s downshift as many believe. The average value of goods across its platforms, for example, is plateauing. And finding growth through new customers is proving harder as 2015’s 6.9% GDP pace slows toward 6.5% (if not much lower).

The real chill in the air, though, is emanating from Trump Tower in New York, where President-elect Trump is figuring out which campaign promises to carry out. His charge that China is “killing us” on trade, threats of 45% tariffs and desire to brand Beijing a currency manipulator could slam economic growth in the short run. Longer term, his “America first” platform could morph Ma’s American dream in a nightmare.

Trump’s victory three days before Ma’s Singles Day milestone raises myriad questions - and more than a few imponderables. While mainland web giants Tencent Holdings and Baidu face their own Trump traumas, both are domestically focused. Alibaba’s businesses are far more tied to the U.S. Analysts’ don’t-worry talking points - including how international sales are just 10% of revenues - gloss over how trade tensions would devastate Alibaba’s AliExpress site, where mainlanders sell to American households. The same goes for Tmall, where U.S. brands sell to Chinese ones.

“ Longer term, Trump’s isolationist doctrine could imperil Alibaba’s plans to be the bridge between overseas retailers and China. Beijing, it stands to reason, would retaliate with levies of its own. ”

And then there’s Alibaba’s variable-interest entity structure, a common one among U.S.-listed Chinese tech companies. Trump has talked about tax holidays aimed at getting executives to repatriate oversees cash. 

Questions abound about what that means for shareholder return policies.

All this explains Ma lieutenant Joseph Tsai’s pleas to the Trump White House. “The relationship between China and the U.S. will define our century,” says the Alibaba vice chairman. “If you don’t have Chinese consumers being engaged and buying American products, and Chinese investors can’t invest in the U.S. and create more American jobs, then you’d be in trouble.” And Tsai’s right; Trump’s tariffs, trade wars and bellicosity are as big a threat to America’s middle class as China’s.

Will cooler heads in Washington prevail? It’s anyone’s guess. For now, Ma’s team is focused on building share in faster-growing developing markets. Longer term, Trump’s isolationist doctrine could imperil Alibaba’s plans to be the bridge between overseas retailers and China. Beijing, it stands to reason, would retaliate with levies of its own.

Such uncertainty comes at a sensitive moment. Even before Trump, many investors were doubtful about Alibaba’s designs on serving 2 billion customers worldwide and helping to create 10 million new business and 100 million jobs. Ma also must navigate the mounting chaos in Beijing, where Xi Jinping’s government is scrambling to keep growth from cratering. Ma owns the South China Morning Post at a moment when Xi is clamping down on Hong Kong’s autonomy and democratic ambitions. It could make for an unexpected flashpoint between Ma and Beijing as Trump does his worst.

As outgoing President Barack Obama likes to say, Americans have much more to fear from a threatened and weakened China than a stable and successful power. Trump is about to test that thesis as he threatens to knock Beijing off balance. Sitting at the nexus of domestic demand and a coming U.S. assault on trade, Alibaba may just be the best microcosm of China we have in the Trump era.

 

 

Swedes turn against migrants amid violence

SWEDEN’S open-door policy has WRECKED Europe’s most liberal nation as the Swedes turn against migrants amid an unprecedented rise in violence and sex attacks.

By Rebecca Perring
For years Sweden has regarded itself as a “humanitarian superpower” - making its mark by offering refugee to those fleeing war and persecution.

But people’s patience with their visitors is wearing thin following a year of violence, sickening sex assaults and the death of social worker Alexandra Mezher, 22, who was knifed to death at an asylum centre for unaccompanied children at the hands of a Somalian migrant who claimed he was 15.

At the time, her grieving mother, an immigrant herself from the Middle East said: “Immigration has destroyed Sweden.”

Sweden, a country of 9.8million, took 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015.

The influx included 35,400 unaccompanied minors - nine times more than 2015.

But nothing could prepare Stockholm for the rise in crime and an abuse of the criminal system.

And so much so, a nation, which once prided itself on giving a warm welcome to outsiders, has reported a rise in arson attacks against migrant shelters, while support for the right-wing Swedish Democrats has surged.

In January, authorities were forced to admit there were at least 70 girls in migrant centres were asylum child brides, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Meanwhile, officials fear many migrant children are slipping through the net by lying about their age. Some 667 minors reportedly had their ages adjusted by officials in 2015.

In one horrific case, a Afghan called Ali Bahaman reportedly raped a 15-year-old girl at a children’s psychiatric clinic in Stockholm.

He claimed to be 15, but dental examinations showed he was actually around 19-years-old.

And with initial good intentions, now comes the heavy backlash as the famously liberal nation crumbles under the pressure of the influx of refugees who are believed to have double the chance of becoming employed than a native Swede.

The Swedish Migration Board now keeps the location of migrant centres confidential - a decision made after a note was posted on the door of a hotel housing migrants in north Sweden saying: “This is the last warning. Leave our town.”

While welfare and housing benefits to asylum seekers have been cut.

But not everyone is hostile - Lutheran Bishop Eva Brunne called on churches in Sweden to remove crosses so it didn’t offend Muslims, which was met with an almighty backlash.

Tim Stanley, writing for the Daily Telegraph added: “Liberals beware: evidence is mounting the open borders are unpopular and will not stay open for long.

“An act of generosity is likely to be followed by an act of intolerance - as Sweden’s asylum seekers
will tell you.”

Russia taunts US biggest military offensive since the Cold War

 HMS Richmond escorting the Russian Task Group  Credit: Dez Wade /Royal Navy

by Ben Farmer, Defence Correspondent Barney Henderson Roland Oliphan 

 Russia has begun its biggest surface deployment since the end of the Cold War as it aims to effectively end the war in Syria on the eve of the US election, Nato officials warned last night. 

The Kremlin is sending the full might of its Northern Fleet and part of the Baltic Fleet to reinforce a final assault on the city of Aleppo in a fortnight, according to Western intelligence. The final bombardment is designed to shore up the Assad regime by wiping out rebels – paving the way for a Russian exit from the civil war. 

The assault on the city will also serve to highlight US inaction in the run-up to election day and may aid Donald Trump.

Yesterday, ahead of this morning’s debate with Hillary Clinton, his presidential campaign released a letter from defence experts backing plans to increase the size of the US military.

Royal Navy warships are due to escort a group of eight Russian warships, including the country’s only aircraft carrier, as they sail past the UK on their way to the Mediterranean.

Senior Royal Navy officers expect the task force to sail past the UK as early as Thursday in a show of strength dismissed as “posturing” by defence sources.

But a senior Nato diplomat said the deployment from the Northern Fleet’s base near Murmansk would herald a renewed attack in Aleppo.

“They are deploying all of the Northern Fleet and much of the Baltic Fleet in the largest surface deployment since the end of the Cold War,” the diplomat said.

“This is not a friendly port call. In two weeks, we will see a crescendo of air attacks on Aleppo as part of Russia’s strategy to declare victory there.”

The additional military firepower is designed to drive out or destroy the 8,000 rebels in Aleppo, the only large city still in opposition hands, and to allow Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, to start a withdrawal.

An intensified air campaign in eastern Aleppo, where 275,000 people are trapped, would further worsen ties between Moscow and the West, which says the Kremlin may be responsible for war crimes.

Mr Trump has consistently praised Mr Putin as a strong leader and has promised a closer relationship with Russia if he wins the Nov 8 US election. He has suggested that, if elected, he would meet the Russian president before the inauguration in January.

Mr Putin has returned the compliment, calling the Republican nominee “outstanding and talented” – one of his closest political allies, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, urged Americans to vote for Mr Trump, calling him a “gift to humanity”.

Barack Obama said earlier this week that Mr Trump’s admiration of Mr Putin was “unprecedented in American politics”.

Mr Obama said: “Mr Trump’s continued flattery of Mr Putin and the degree to which he appears to model many of his policies and approaches to politics on Mr Putin ... is out of step with not just what Democrats think but out of step with what up until the last few months, almost every Republican thought.”

HMS Dragon (foreground) with the Russian aircraft carrier 'Admiral Kuznetsov' in 2014 Credit: EPA / MoD

The Royal Navy has deployed two warships to meet the Northern Fleet group, led by the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. The frigate HMS Richmond is already escorting the group off the coast of Norway, while the destroyer HMS Duncan was last night on its way.

HMS Dragon is due to sail to meet two Russian corvettes travelling towards the UK from the direction of Portugal. Photographs of the vessels, taken on Monday, were released by the Norwegian military.

A Norwegian newspaper quoted the head of the Norwegian military intelligence service saying the ships involved “will probably play a role in the deciding battle for Aleppo”.

Temple Mount: Jerusalem's most holy site has nothing to do with Judaism, Unesco rules

David Silverman/Getty Image

• by Samuel Osborne       
  The UN's cultural agency Unesco has adopted a motion which marginalises Jewish ties to several holy sites in Jerusalem.
  
  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the resolution, sponsored by several Arab countries, denies the Jewish connection to holy sites in Jerusalem and is a "theatre of the absurd".
  
  Mr Netanyahu asked on his Facebook page: "Is it any wonder the UN has become a moral farce when Unesco, the UN body tasked with preserving history, denies and distorts history?"
  
  The resolution downplays Jewish ties to the Western Wall and to the plaza that Jews revere as the Temple Mount and Muslims revere as the Noble Sanctuary.
  
  While affirming the importance of the Old City to all three monotheistic religions, Israeli politicians said the resolution denies the importance of the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary by referring to it and the al-Aqsa mosque only by their Muslim names.
  
  The resolution criticised Israel for policies it says restrict Muslim access to the holy sites.
  
  Mr Netanyahu added: "To say that Israel has no connection to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall is like saying that China has no connection to the Great Wall of China and that Egypt has no connection to the Pyramids."
  
  "With this absurd decision, Unesco lost the little legitimisation it had left. But I believe that the historical truth is stronger and the truth will win."
  
  The resolution was backed by 24 countries while six countries opposed it and 26 abstained. 
  
  The UK, US, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Estonia voted against the resolution.
  
  The Palestinian foreign ministry welcomed the resolution, which was adopted on Thursday in draft form.
  
  It is to reach Unesco's executive plenary next week. Unesco adopted a similar resolution in April.
  

Navy Launches Tomahawk Missiles At Rebel Sites In Yemen After Attacks On U.S. Ships

by Dan Lamothe, The Washington Post

This file photo shows guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze operating in the Mediterranean Sea. (AFP)

The U.S. Navy launched Tomahawk missiles early Thursday from the Red Sea at three coastal radar sites in Yemen, destroying targets associated with rebel missile attacks on U.S. ships this week.

The missiles were launched from the destroyer USS Nitze at about 4 a.m. at three locations north of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, said Pentagon Press Peter Cook. President Barack Obama authorized the strikes upon the recommendations of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships, and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway," Cook said. "The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb, and elsewhere around the world."

The strikes were announced late Wednesday in Washington. A defense official said the radar sites were in remote areas held by Houthi rebels where there was little risk of civilian casualties. The equipment was set up near Ras Isa, north of Mukha and near Khoka. All are on Yemen's western coastline.

The Tomahawk strikes followed cruise missiles attacks that were launched against Navy ships on Sunday night and Wednesday in Yemen. Another missile launched Oct. 1 caused near-catastrophic damage to the HSV-2 Swift, a catamaran-style high-speed vessel that was operated by the Emiratis and once was a part of the U.S. Navy. Video of the strike published online shows the ship engulfed in a fireball.

The Houthis, who use weapons smuggled from Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Swift, but denied launching missiles at the Navy on Sunday. But Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday that "the facts certainly point" to the Houthis being involved.

In the first attack launched at the U.S. Navy, two cruise missiles were launched Sunday at the USS Mason, a guided-missile destroyer, and the USS Ponce, an amphibious staging base. In that case, the first missile was launched while the ships were at least 12 miles away from Yemen's shore in international waters near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a waterway between Yemen and Djibouti that is heavily trafficked by oilers. The ships were even farther away when the second one was launched.

In the second attack Wednesday, at least one missile was fired from rebel-held territory at the Mason, Cook said. That missile was launched at about 6 p.m. from south of the coastal city Al Hudaydah. The Houthis pushed the central government out of power in the capital city of Sanaa in 2014, and has resisted U.S.-backed efforts by Saudi Arabia to restore President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power.

Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, said in a statement Wednesday that the Navy will remain on watch in the Red Sea. He credited the crew of the Mason for demonstrating "initiative and toughness" as they defended themselves from both attacks. 

Gorbachev warns of 'dangerous point' as US-Russia ties sour

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is warning the world has reached a "dangerous point" as tensions between Russia and the United States spike over the Syria conflict (AFP Photo/Joseph Eid)

Moscow (AFP) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned on Monday that the world has reached a "dangerous point" as tensions between Russia and the United States spike over the Syria conflict.

Relations between Moscow and Washington -- already at their lowest since the Cold War over the Ukraine conflict -- have soured further in recent days as the United States pulled the plug on Syria talks and accused Russia of hacking attacks.

The Kremlin has suspended a series of nuclear pacts, including a symbolic cooperation deal to cut stocks of weapons-grade plutonium.

"I think the world has reached a dangerous point," Gorbachev, 85, told state news agency RIA Novosti.

"I don't want to give any concrete prescriptions but I do want to say that this needs to stop. We need to renew dialogue. Stopping it was the biggest mistake."

As the last leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev oversaw an easing of decades of tensions with the West that helped to end the Cold War.

He signed several landmark nuclear disarmament deals with Washington aimed at defusing the standoff between the two superpowers.

"It is necessary to return to the main priorities. These are nuclear disarmament, the fight against terrorism, the prevention of an environmental disaster," he said.

"Compared to these challenges, all the rest slips into the background."

US test-dropped two dummy nukes in the Nevada desert earlier this month

 

Military & Intelligence

With the United States’ Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) arsenal aging, the US Air Force has pushed the Pentagon to fund nuclear modernization programs.

 

To that end, the Air Force conducted successful tests with two B61 nuclear bombs. Neither carried a live warhead.

"The primary objective of flight testing is to obtain reliability, accuracy, and performance data under operational representative conditions," reads a statement released by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

 

"Such testing is part of the qualification process of current altercations and life extension programs for weapon systems."

The 700-pound bombs were dropped by B-2 bombers over a test range in Nevada. "The B61 is a critical element of the US nuclear triad and the extended deterrent," said Brig. Gen. Michael Lutton of the NNSA, according to the statement.

 

"The recent surveillance flight tests demonstrate NNSA’s commitment to ensure all weapon systems are safe, secure, and effective."

In addition to building 400 new missiles to replace the aging Minuteman ICBMs, the Air Force is also in pursuit of a new nuclear cruise missile known as the Long Range Standoff (LRSO). The former program is estimated to cost roughly $85 billion. The LRSO development is expected to cost at least $20 billion. In addition to cost concerns, a number of Congressional lawmakers have fought to abandon the LRSO program on humanitarian grounds, arguing that a new nuclear weapon puts world peace at risk. "Nuclear war poses the gravest risk to American national security," ten Democratic Senators wrote in a letter. US officials seem unlikely to bow to these concerns, as this month’s tests demonstrate.

Russia deploys nuclear-capable missiles on NATO doorstep

Vilnius (AFP) - Russia is again deploying nuclear-capable Iskander missiles into its Kaliningrad outpost that borders two NATO members, Lithuania said Saturday, warning the move was aimed at pressuring the West into making concessions over Syria and Ukraine.

Poland also reacted angrily to Moscow's move while Lithuania added that it could breach a key nuclear weapons treaty.

"Russia is holding military exercises in Kaliningrad, and its scenario includes deployment of Iskander missile systems and the possibile use of them. We are aware of it," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told AFP.

He said modified Iskander missiles had a range of up to 700 kilometres (435 miles) which means they could reach the German capital Berlin from the Russian exclave, which is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.

Linkevicius said that this time he thought Moscow was using the move to "seek concessions from the West".

Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz on Saturday called Russia's activities "very alarming".

Lithuania meanwhile said the Iskander deployment could breach the international nuclear arms treaty.

"Such actions are possible violations of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russia's defence ministry on Saturday confirmed deployment of the Iskander hardware but dismissed Western concerns, saying that "contingents of missile troops have been moved many times and will continue to be moved to Kaliningrad region as part of a Russian armed forces training plan."

Kaliningrad is "not an exception" to drills conducted across the country, spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in an emailed statement.

Estonian media reported on Friday that Russia was shipping Iskanders on a civilian vessel in the Baltic sea.

Konashenkov said that one Iskander was placed in the open to "confirm the parameters of operation" of a US intelligence satellite he alleged was flying overhead.

Moscow sent Iskanders to Kaliningrad in 2015 as part of a series of mammoth military drills as tensions with the West reached their worst point since the Cold War, triggered by Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its military campaign in Syria a year later.

The United States on Friday called for Russia and Syria to be investigated for war crimes for the bombing of hospitals in Aleppo, and accused Moscow of trying to "interfere" with the American presidential election.

- 'Divide, intimidate' -

Judy Dempsey, a Senior Associate at Carnegie Europe, told AFP Saturday that Moscow's latest Iskander deployment to Kaliningrad is "a way to divide the West" just weeks before the US presidential election.

"These types of moves by Russia are making the Europeans and the US nervous. Putin is pressing all the buttons," Dempsey said.

"Tensions over Iskander have been going on for seven years. It's a very tried way to pressure the West.

"The latest events in Kaliningrad are a way to intimidate the Baltics and Poland," she added.

"They cause higher tension in the region, reduce trust, and have a negative impact on security in the region."

Michal Baranowski, Warsaw office director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said the Iskander deployment is "obviously an openly aggressive move, but it isn't something that would require an immediate response from NATO -- it fits the previous pattern."

"I would be much more worried if Moscow were to deploy greater conventional forces to Kaliningrad," he told AFP Saturday.

Vilnius University analyst Laurynas Jonavicius however warned the sabre-rattling by "revisionist Russia" raises the risk of incidents in the Baltic region which could spark a major crisis.

Meanwhile, Lithuanian intelligence warned earlier this year that Iskanders deployed in Kaliningrad "may be used for hindering the actions of NATO's allied forces in the region".

Since the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, Russia has flexed its muscles with a series of war games involving tens of thousands of troops in areas bordering NATO Baltic states.

NATO responded by agreeing to deploy four battalions in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as of next year to bolster its eastern flank.

Exclusive: Dozens of Afghan troops AWOL from military training in U.S.

 

By Idrees Ali | WASHINGTON

Forty-four Afghan troops visiting the United States for military training have gone missing in less than two years, presumably in an effort to live and work illegally in America, Pentagon officials said.
Although the number of disappearances is relatively small -- some 2,200 Afghan troops have received military training in the United States since 2007 -- the incidents raise questions about security and screening procedures for the programs.

They are also potentially embarrassing for U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, which has spent billions of dollars training Afghan troops as Washington seeks to extricate itself from the costly, 15-year-old war. The disclosure could fuel criticism by supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has accused the Obama administration of failing to properly vet immigrants from Muslim-majority countries and has pledged a much tougher stance if he wins.

While other foreign troops on U.S. military training visits have sometimes run away, a U.S. defense official said that the frequency of Afghan troops going missing was concerning and "out of the ordinary."

Since September alone, eight Afghan troops have left military bases without authorization, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump told Reuters. He said the total number of Afghan troops who have gone missing since January 2015 is 44, a number that has not previously been disclosed.

"The Defense Department is assessing ways to strengthen eligibility criteria for training in ways that will reduce the likelihood of an individual Afghan willingly absconding from training in the U.S. and going AWOL (absent without leave)," Stump said.

Afghans in the U.S. training program are vetted to ensure they have not participated in human rights abuses and are not affiliated with militant groups before being allowed into the United States, Stump said.

The defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added there was no evidence any of those who had absconded had carried out crimes or posed a threat to the United States.


The Afghan army has occasionally been infiltrated by Taliban militants who have carried out attacks on Afghan and U.S. troops, but such incidents have become less frequent due to tougher security measures.

Trump, whose other signature immigration plan is to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, has proposed a temporary ban on Muslims seeking to enter the country, and has said that law enforcement officers should engage in more racial profiling to curb the threat of attacks on American soil.

After Omar Mateen, whose father was born in Afghanistan, killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando in June, Trump said an immigration ban would last until "we are in a position to properly screen these people coming into our country."

BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TRAINING
Washington has allocated more than $60 billion since 2002 to train and equip Afghan troops, but security remains precarious and the Taliban are estimated to control more territory in Afghanistan than at any time since 2001 when the U.S. invaded.

Earlier this year Obama shelved plans to cut the U.S. force in Afghanistan nearly in half by year's end, opting instead to keep 8,400 troops there through the end of his presidency in January.

The military training program brings troops to the United States from around the world in order to build on military relations and improve capabilities for joint operations.

In some cases, officials said, the Afghan students who went missing were in the United States for elite Army Ranger School and intelligence-gathering training. The officials did not identify the missing troops or their rank.


Even though the troops were in the United States for military training, they were not necessarily always on a military base.

If students under the military program are absent from training for more than 24 hours, they are considered to be "absent without leave" (AWOL) and the Department of Homeland Security is notified.

In one case the Pentagon confirmed that an Afghan student had been detained by Canadian police while attempting to enter Canada from the United States.

It was unclear how many others have been located by U.S. authorities, and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Experts said low morale and insufficient training to fight the Taliban could explain the troops leaving, in addition to a dearth of economic opportunities in the impoverished country.

"They face a formidable enemy, with very limited resources and many Afghan troops aren't getting paid on time,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia specialist at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington think-tank.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Julia Harte and Alana Wise.; editing by Yara Bayoumy and Stuart Grudgings)

Russia tells citizens ‘nuclear war with the West could happen soon’

Photo by Lambert/Getty Images

Rob Waugh for Metro.co.uk


As tensions rise in the middle East, an official TV channels in Russia has issued a chilling warning that war with the West could be imminent.

Zvezda, a nationwide TV service run by the country’s Ministry of Defence, said last week, ‘Schizophrenics from America are sharpening nuclear weapons for Moscow.’

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday proposed a law suspending a Moscow-Washington agreement to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium.

Officials said on Friday that underground shelters had been built which could house 12 milion people – enough for the entire population of Moscow.

Russia has clashed with the Western powers over its policy in Syria – where it’s accused of bombing civilians – and the U.S suspended negotiations with the country yesterday.

Both Russia and NATO are still in the position to unleash global-scale nuclear attacks – and the weapons are armed and ready.

The Arms Control Association says, ‘United States and Russia still deploy more than 1,500 strategic warheads on several hundred bombers and missiles – far more than necessary to deter nuclear attack – and they are modernizing their nuclear delivery systems.

No state with a large nuclear arsenal – such as Russia or America – actively WANTS nuclear confrontation.

What observers fear is a military or political confrontation which builds up tensions around a nuclear missile attack – possibly leading one side to fire.

Hydrogen bombs would destroy most civilian buildings in a 10-mile radius (based on a 20-megaton weapon exploding 3.3 miles above the ground), according to calculations in Physics and Nuclear Arms Today.

The effects on people nearby would be even more frightening, with a blast killing thousands or millions instantly, followed by poisoning from radioactive fallout from the blast.

Witnesses of the Hiroshima attack said that people near the centre of the blast ‘vanished’.

William Burchett said, ‘Of thousands of others, nearer the centre of the explosion, there was no trace.

They vanished. The theory in Hiroshima is that the atomic heat was so great that they burned instantly to ashes – except that there were no ashes.’