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China, Russia concerned about TTP

China and Russia are both concerned by the US determination to strengthen its influence in the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian defense minister said Tuesday after talks with his Chinese counterpart.

Senior US officials earlier said the Asia-Pacific region will become the top priority of the country’s foreign policy.

“We have also expressed concern about the US attempts to strengthen its military and political influence in the Asia-Pacific region,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said after talks with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan.

According to Shoigu, Russia-China military relations will be further enhanced with a view to form a collective regional security system. The parties discussed the response to the common threats in the region and particularly agreed on common steps in countering international terrorism.

At the most recent summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Beijing US President Barack Obama promoted the idea of an ambitious 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP). Its terms have not been fully revealed, however it is believed intent is to curb the further economic expansion of China, as well as increase US influence in the region.

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin labeled the Trans-Pacific Partnership as another attempt by the US to build the architecture of regional economic cooperation that benefits the United States.

“We plan to hold another joint naval exercise next spring in the Mediterranean Sea. A joint exercise is also planned in the Pacific Ocean,” the Russian defense minister said following talks with Chang Wanquan.

“Our military cooperation has great potential and the Russian side is ready to develop it in a wide range of directions,” Shoigu added.

The Russian defense minister recalled that in May Russia and China successfully participated in joint Naval Interaction 2014 exercises, when a squadron of warships from Russia’s Pacific Fleet sailed into the East China Sea to perform various training and defense scenarios.

Russian and Chinese ground forces are taking part in annual military drills to prepare cooperative responses in case of destabilization in Central Asia.

Meanwhile the United States and the European Union are discussing more sanctions against Russia, a high-ranking US administration official said Tuesday.

“I would say that the question of the intensification of the sanctions is under discussion at this point,” the official said.

“When the president was In Australia over the weekend [at the G20 forum’s summit]…. He began a conversation about next steps to increase the pressure on Russia as well as next steps to provide additional financial support to Ukraine,” the US official added.

The discussion has been launched ahead of the US Vice President Joseph Biden’s visit to Ukraine on November 21.

BRICS to meet at G20

During his visit to Australia for the G20, Vladimir Putin is scheduled to hold a separate meeting with the leaders of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), as well as a number of working contacts with other counterparts, including French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Group of Twenty, or G20, is a leading international forum specializing in global economy and finances. It consists of the world’s largest advanced and emerging economies, which represent some two-thirds of the world’s population, 85% of global gross domestic product and more than 75% of global trade.

The G20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

Last year, Russia was the G20 chair. In early 2014, it delegated the chair’s powers to Australia.

Brisbane, situated on the eastern coast of Australia, is the capital of the state of Queensland. A city with a population of over 2 million people is the third populous city in Australia.

Putin will arrive in Brisbane from the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, where he held a meeting on shipbuilding the day before.

Prior to that, he visited Beijing, which hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Oil tankers head for China as drop sparks boom

Add oil shippers to the list of winners from this year’s collapse in crude.

The price plunge has spurred China, the world’s second-biggest importer after the U.S., to accelerate bookings of oil cargoes. It will also shave almost $20 billion a year in fuel costs across the maritime industry if prices that dropped 18 percent since last November hold around current levels, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

While the oil slide is hurting nations from Saudi Arabia to Iran that depend on energy for revenues, companies including airlines and cement makers are benefiting as their fuel costs decline. Ship owners serving the industry’s benchmark Middle East-to-Asia trade routes are reaping the best returns from charters in years as the slump drives down the industry’s single biggest expense.

The number of supertankers sailing toward China’s ports matched a record on Oct. 17 and is still close to that level now. The country added 35 million barrels to its inventories in the past three months as the nation fills its strategic petroleum reserves, OPEC said yesterday.

“The Chinese, among others, seem to be responding to the lower oil price with additional demand,” Paddy Rodgers, the chief executive officer of Euronav NV (EURN), an Antwerp-based owner whose fleet is part of the world’s largest pool of tankers, said by e-mail Nov. 10.

Oil companies booked ships to load 148 million tons of Persian Gulf crudes in the 12 weeks since Brent fell below $100 a barrel. The orders are up 5 percent from a year earlier, according to lists of charters compiled by Bloomberg.

The shipping industry consumes as much as 3.5 million barrels a day in fuel, according to Trafigura Beheer BV, an oil trader. Prices averaged about $73 a barrel on Nov. 11, about $15 a barrel less than a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The year-on-year slump amounts to annualized savings of $19 billion.

The price slump will curb investment in higher-cost production projects and drive a rebound in the second half of next year, Abdalla El-Badri, OPEC’s secretary-general, said in Vienna on Nov. 6.

Shipping isn’t the only industry benefiting from cheaper oil. American Airlines and United Airlines both said they beat quarterly estimates last month with a boost from higher fares and falling fuel costs. Bernd Scheifele, the chief executive officer of HeidelbergCement AG, the world’s third-biggest cement-maker, said on a Nov. 6 conference call that each $0.10 cut in the gasoline price represents $12 million in savings for the company.

At a time when China’s economy is growing at the slowest pace in decades, its oil imports are rallying. The world’s second biggest economy purchased 25.5 million metric tons a month in the January-to-September period, heading for a record year. Falling prices may add to those figures as winter approaches.

“The main traders, they are typically more active in the tanker market when prices have dropped,” said Moerkedal of RS Platou Markets. “When you look at chartering in the last couple of weeks China has definitely been one of the most active buyers of oil.”

Source: Bloomberg

White Widow reportedly killed in Ukraine

The ‘White Widow’, a British female terrorist suspect who allegedly fought alongside ISIS terrorists in Syria and was sought internationally has reportedly been shot dead in Ukraine. The news was reported by Russia’s Regnum news agency.

Samantha Lewthwaite, 30, was allegedly gunned down two weeks ago. However, no independent confirmation was available.

Lewthwaite recently fought alongside one of Kiev’s most infamous squads – the Aidar battalion, which was condemned by Amnesty International for its unmatched cruelty in eastern Ukraine.

It was said to be “involved in widespread abuses, including abductions, unlawful detention, ill-treatment, theft, extortion, and possible executions.”

She was reportedly a sniper for the group. Her killer was also a sniper – allegedly one who travelled from Russia to fight near Lugansk.

The White Widow was deemed one of Britain’s and the world’s most wanted terrorists.

She left the country in 2009 before links to atrocities in Africa began to pop up.

A photo of fake South African passport of Samantha Lewthwaite released by Kenyan police in December 2011.

Prior to that, she had been married first to the Jamaican-born British suicide bomber, Germaine Lindsay. Her second marriage was to a British-born Muslim extremist, who was reportedly killed in a shoot-out between two splinter groups within Al-Shabab.

She was also a mother of four.

In Africa she fought with the fearsome Al-Shabab terrorist group in Somalia, who were implicated in Kenya’s Westgate shopping mall massacre of September 2013. It turned out she was actually the mastermind behind the operation.

Witnesses reported a white female among the assailants. 67 people died at the as a result of her Westgate plan.

She used a fake passport to escape Kenya to her supposedly native South Africa. That was the last anyone has heard of her until now, when she was apparently spotted in Ukraine.

Russia, Iran ink deal for 8 nuclear power units

Russia is to build eight nuclear power units in Iran, as a new partnership agreement, guaranteed by the IAEA, was signed in Moscow on Tuesday.

The head of the Rosatom, Sergey Kirienko, and the chief of the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, signed a series of documents, promoting the links in the field of peaceful application of atomic energy between the countries, RIA Novosti reports.

According to the agreement, Russia is to construct eight units with pressurized water reactors “turn-key ready” in Iran. Four of them will be built at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, also completed by Russia a year ago.

Besides, nuclear fuel for the future reactors will be provided by Russia during the whole life cycle of the new reactors. Spent fuel will be returned for processing and storage.

“It is the turning point in the relations between our countries,” Salehi said. “These friendly actions, taken by Russia will be well-remembered.” He added that now Russia and Iran “have become even closer to each other.”

The partners didn’t touch upon the subject of possible shipment of enriched uranium to Iran.

“We didn’t discuss this question today,” Kirienko told journalists after the signing of the protocol.

Iran is currently facing a November 24 deadline to reach an agreement on its nuclear program, within the frame of year-long diplomatic talks. On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry tried to overcome the problems, and, according to the US State Department, the talks had proven “tough, direct and serious,” yet “there is still time” for progress, AFP reported.

Five nuclear scientists killed in attack

Five Syrian nuclear scientists have reportedly been killed by unknown assailants while riding a bus north of Damascus, near the research center where they worked, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports.

“Unidentified attackers murdered five nuclear energy engineers who worked in the scientific research center near the neighborhood of Barzeh, northern Damascus,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The news agency meanwhile reports that four of the atomic engineers were Syrian, while the other one was Iranian.

“Their bus was ambushed while they were on their way to the research centre. Their assailants shot them dead,” Rahman said.

This is not the first time that Syrian scientists have been targeted in deliberate assassinations.

Workers at the Scientific Research Center in Barzeh were targeted by a group of jihadists who shot an RPG at their commuter bus on July 31, 2013, killing 6 workers and injuring 19 others.

Another military research center was also hit by a deadly Israeli raid in May 2013.

According to Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, Syria is non-nuclear weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) since 1969.

Damascus is currently known to possess only one small operational research reactor, the Chinese built SRR-1, used for research of peaceful energy needs. The Atomic Energy Commission of Syria (AECS) directs Syria’s nuclear program, and the majority of Syria’s nuclear-related work takes place at the Der Al-Hadjar Nuclear Research Cente and the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) in Damascus.

ICC: Israel guilty of war crimes but will not be prosecuted

International Criminal Court (ICC) lawyers say Israel is guilty of war crimes for the raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza in 2010, but the court’s decision confirms that Israel has a ‘special status’ in regards to international law.

The raid killed nine Turkish activists. They have also decided that the case does not meet their criteria for prosecution, according to court papers seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

On May 31, 2010, the Israeli military forcefully boarded six civilian ships from the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” that were traveling from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid and construction materials to the besieged region. The army boarded the ships in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea.

The activists on board say they did not put up a fight, however the Israeli army insists that they were met with resistance – which led to several activists being killed, including eight Turkish nationals and an American of Turkish origin on the Mavi Marmara boat.

The ICC does not have jurisdiction over crimes committed in either Turkey, where most the boats were registered, or Israel, since neither are members of the ICC. However, the Mavi Marmara was registered to the Comoros Islands, which is a member, making the crimes on board eligible for ICC investigation.

“The information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes under the Court’s jurisdiction have been committed in the context of interception and takeover of the Mavi Marmara by IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers on 31 May 2010,” read the papers.

But the papers also added that prosecutors had decided the crimes “were not of sufficient gravity to fall under the court’s jurisdiction,” reported Reuters. Their evidence and criteria for making this decision however, remained vague.

“Not having collected evidence itself, the Office’s analysis in this report must therefore not be considered to be the result of an investigation,” the paper read.

However, according to the ICC website, considering individuals guilty of war crimes does make them eligible to be tried under the ICC.

“The mandate of the Court is to try individuals rather than States, and to hold such persons accountable for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, namely the crime of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression…”

The Indian Ocean State, another ICC member, referred the raid to court, which obligated the ICC to begin preliminary examinations into the matter, according to their mandate.

“The Prosecutor’s decision marks the first time a State referral by an ICC States Party has ever been rejected by … Prosecutor without even initiating an investigation,” said lawyers Rodney Dixon and Geoffrey Nice in a statement.

“It confirms the view expressed by politicians, civil society organizations, NGOs and commentators from many quarters that Israel has a ‘special status,'” they added.

The report comes the same day that Bulent Yildirim, president of the Turkish NGO Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) – one of the NGOs who organized the flotilla – praised the ICC, expecting that they would announce on Thursday that Israel is guilty of “war crimes.”

The ICC’s final decision is likely to anger other Turkish activists, but also Ankara who accused Israel of mass murder after the IDF attacked the flotilla.

Mandela ‘pimp’ perishes in plane crash

Detractors called him a Mandela pimp. International Prosperity Gospel preacher, Dr. Myles Munroe of Bahamas Faith Ministries International and his wife Mrs. Ruth Ann Munroe, died in a plane crash earlier today in the Bahamas.

Munroe attended the second inauguration of South African president Jacob Zuma.

Munroe was to speak on “Transforming Followers Into Leaders And Leaders Into Agents Of Change”.

Earlier Munroe had called upon African leaders to emulate former South African president Nelson Mandela.

“I believe that the future of the world is in the third world countries. The followers will become the leaders. The students will become the teachers. The despised will become the glorious,” Dr. Munroe said to applause in Uganda last year.

Munroe, like Mandela, was an Anglican darling and a vociferous critic of the Pope.

According to The Associated Press, the plane, a Lear LEA executive jet, reportedly clipped a crane at the Grand Bahama Ship Yard, exploding on impact and crashing into the ground near a junkyard area.

The Bahamas Ministry of Transport and Aviation reported that the Lear 36 executive jet departed the Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) in Nassau, Bahamas at 4:07PM for the Grand Bahama International Airport, a privately owned international airport in Freeport, Bahamas with nine people on board.

The plane crashed while making an approach for landing at Grand Bahama International Airport at 5.10pm, the Ministry of Transport and Aviation said. The crash killed all nine people on board the private jet. The identities of the other people on board have not yet been confirmed. The cause of the crash was not immediately determined, though there had been heavy rain across the region. A full investigation is expected to begin on Monday.

The crash occurred as people were gathering in Grand Bahama for Dr. Munroe’s 2014 Global Leadership Forum which starts tomorrow, November, 10. Former mayor of Atlanta and former U.S Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young scheduled to speak at the popular leadership forum, released the following statement through his foundation: “Ambassador Young expresses his deep sadness over the tragic death of his friends Dr. Myles and Mrs. Ruth Munroe. He offers condolences to the Munroe family and the families of the other souls who lost their lives as a result of this shocking plane crash.”

Africa’s richest woman and oil mogul, Mrs. Folorunso Alakija is also expected to speak at the leadership forum.

The Civil Aviation Department said it would launch a full-scale investigation of the crash at daylight on Monday.

Israel’s ex-generals urge peace deal with Palestinians

Over 100 former high-ranking Israeli army members, police officers and spy chiefs have called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue peace with the Palestinians, media reported Monday.

“We, the undersigned, reserve IDF (army) commanders and retired police officers, who have fought in Israel’s military campaigns, know first-hand of the heavy and painful price exacted by wars,” 105 signatories said in a joint letter addressed to Netanyahu.

Excerpts of the letter were published by Ynet news website.

It called on Netanyahu to embark on a “courageous initiative” and make peace with Palestine and other Arab states.

“We fought bravely for the country in the hope that our children would live here in peace, but we got a sharp reality check, and here we are again sending our children out onto the battlefield,” it said.

“This is not a question of left or right. What we have here is an alternative option for resolving the conflict that is not based solely on bilateral negotiations with the Palestinians, which have failed time and again.

“We expect a show of courageous initiative and leadership from you. Lead — and we will stand behind you,” said the letter.

The website said the letter was the brainchild of major general Amnon Reshef, a former armored corps commander.

Ynet said that Reshef was “sick and tired of a reality of rounds of fighting every few years instead of a genuine effort to adopt the Saudi initiative.”

It was referring to the Arab Peace Initiative drawn up in 2002 by oil kingpin Saudi Arabia, which called on Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, in exchange for a normalization of ties with Arab countries.

Former president Shimon Peres made a similar appeal last week, saying: “It’s a shame that the only peace initiative was an Arab initiative. Where is the Israeli peace initiative?”

US-brokered peace talks between Israel and Palestine have been frozen since April.

Source: AFP

Forbes: Putin the world’s most powerful man

No one would call Vladimir Putin weak. As the undisputed popular head of an energy-rich, nuclear-tipped state, he is certainly a powerful man.

For the second year running, Forbes has voted the Russian president as the world’s most powerful person, followed by U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Forbes’ annual ranking of the World’s 72 Most Powerful People (one for every 100 million people on the planet) is based on voting by a panel of FORBES editors, who consider financial resources, scope and use of power, and the number of people they impact.

Forbes insists that it is “an evaluation of hard power” and their list wields the kind of power that shapes and bends the world, and moves people, markets, armies and minds.

Russia’s president remarked recently on the futility of attempts to rewrite history and “recode society” during his meeting with historians and history teachers. The president visited the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia and its Civil War (1918-1922) rarities exhibition.

He reminded historians that history is a science and not merely a political tool.

Obama has had to face a humiliating week after Democrats lost control of the Senate and suffered big losses in the House and governors’ races across the US as a result of his unpopular policies.

Rather than accept the election results as a repudiation of his own administration, the president said voters were disenchanted with Washington as a whole, perhaps explaining the Russian leader’s worldwide popularity.

American soft power has been eroded by costly wars against former friendly allies.

Obama’s advisers acknowledged that Tuesday’s outcome was far worse than what they expected.

UN to investigate GCHQ, MI5 spying at climate talks

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has announced he will launch an inquiry into allegations that British secret service agents spied on foreign governments at two consecutive international climate summits in 2009 and 2010.

Speaking to Danish television, Ban Ki-moon said the allegations were a UN issue, because the climate summits are UN conferences.

“All diplomatic information is inviolable. If there has been any breach … they should be investigated. UN information should be protected in its entire confidentiality,” he said.

The presentation, disclosed by former NSA senior analyst and whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealed it became a “serious intelligence priority” for Britain’s clandestine intelligence services to spy on negotiations brokered an international UN summits from 2007.

The 23-page PowerPoint presentation was first published by Swedish site Dagbladet Information.

The file entitled, “Supporting HMG’s (Her Majesty’s Government) Climate Change Ambitions,” states a GCHQ secret service official frequented the high profile UN gatherings, also attended by an array of international leaders.

The document indicates the spy reported to Downing Street, the foreign secretary, diplomats, the Department for International Development (DfID), the business department, the Treasury and MI5.

According to the file, the GCHQ official was planted in the UK delegation because such a cover would facilitate direct access to other state’s delegates along with useful documentation they were in possession of.

The spy’s remit, as outlined in the document, was to discern states’ climate policy leanings, report on how far they were prepared to broker on issues, uncover if foreign delegates poised at the UN negotiation table were receiving orders from their respective governments, and relay this information back to British officials to bolster Britain’s leverage at the climate talks.

While the talks failed spectacularly in 2009, the UK secret service operation was reportedly a success. States were expected to wrap up years of tenuous negotiations with a landmark cross-border agreement to curb carbon emissions.

Such actions could amount to a violation of international law, because UN climate conferences are officially declared to be UN territory throughout the negotiations.

Snowden’s disclosure could cause embarrassment to current leftist Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who held the position of energy and climate change secretary in 2009. Miliband also led the British delegation at the UN Climate Summit in 2009.

Palestine to apply for full-fledged UN membership

Palestine plans to submit an application in 2015 to obtain a status of a full-fledged UN member and expects that by late November the UN Security Council will vote on the resolution on the time framework for ending the Israeli occupation, the Palestinian UN envoy said on Wednesday.

Palestine is not planning to wait until next year when one third of the UN Security Council will be renewed and Australia, Argentina, Luxemburg, South Korea and Rwanda will be replaced by Angola, Venezuela, Spain, Malaysia and New Zealand.

“We welcome the new members of the Council, but we have a new agenda for them which will be topical since January 1,” a diplomat said. “The first thing we are preparing is to submit our application to get a full-fledged membership [in the UN].”

Palestine got a status of a non-member observer state at the United Nations in late November 2012. It needs to receive a recommendation from the UN Security Council to get a full-fledged membership in the organization.

A total of 135 member states of the United Nations have recognized the State of Palestine by late October.

Palestine was officially recognized as a sovereign state by the Soviet Union in November 1988.

Putin’s soft power working smoothly

Russian “soft power” aimed at promoting the country’s image abroad is working and President Vladimir Putin is its key element, a report presented by the Center for Political Analysis at TASS on Friday says.

“Russian soft power is working smoothly. Russian President Vladimir Putin was and remains its main force. His personality, charisma, international authority, business and political qualities allow the country, which he represents, to successfully position itself in the consciousness of both ordinary people and also foreign elites,” the report reads.

The term “soft power” is a form of political power which is capable of achieving the needed results by attracting and arousing sympathy compared with “hard power” that implies coercion.

The authors of the Russian Soft Power report said in the 1990s Russia almost suspended its effort to improve the public opinion abroad. The importance of working with foreign mass media came to the forefront when Putin became the country’s leader in 2000.

When the political crisis hit the former Soviet country and Russia’s neighbor Ukraine earlier this year, Moscow already possessed “its own system of information influence,” the report says.

The report cites the results of various opinion polls conducted in the United States, Europe, China and other countries, which showed that Europeans and Americans opposed their countries’ interference in the Ukrainian conflict.

“Europeans and Americans believe that only Vladimir Putin can resolve it,” according to the report.

Among those sympathizing with Putin and Russia are the representatives of practically all the political forces — both right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties, radicals, “wise men,” street activists and politicians integrated into political system.

Israel shuts down Al-Asqa Mosque

‘The decision to close the site was very dangerous and irrational, it would lead to destabilization and a strengthening of tensions not only in Jerusalem, but in the entire region’

The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem has been closed to all worshipers for the first time since 1967. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called the closure a ‘declaration of war.’

Both Jewish and Muslim worshipers will be prohibited from visiting the site “until further notice,” Israel’s public security minister said. Following the announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “a significant hike” in the number of police forces patrolling Jerusalem, Naharnet daily reports.

Palestinian authorities quickly responded to the move, saying it was a “dangerous and blatant challenge” that would lead to more tension and instability in an already volatile situation.

“This dangerous Israeli escalation is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and on the Arab and Islamic nation,” Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina quoted him as saying.

“We hold the Israeli government responsible for this dangerous escalation in Jerusalem that has reached its peak through the closure of the Al-Aqsa mosque this morning,” he told AFP.

He added that the state of Palestinian would employ all legal means to “hold Israel accountable” and put an end to “these ongoing attacks.”

Omar Al-Kiswani, director of Al-Aqsa Mosque, told RT the decision to close the site was very dangerous and irrational, saying it would lead to destabilization and a strengthening of tensions not only in Jerusalem, but in the entire region. He said the situation in Jerusalem has been turbulent as a result of the closure.

Source:RT