World

French parliament to vote on Palestinian state

French lawmakers will vote on November 28 on a proposal by the Socialist Party urging the government to recognise Palestine as a state, a parliamentary source said Wednesday. The non-binding but highly symbolic vote would follow a similar vote in the British parliament and after Sweden announced it formally recognised the state of Palestine. A draft of the proposal states that the lower house National Assembly “invites the French government to use the recognition of the state of Palestine as an instrument to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict”.

Palestinian leader accuses Israel of conducting a religious war

The Palestinian president on Tuesday accused Israel of provoking a “religious war” as new violence between the sides broke out in the West Bank, leaving a Palestinian man dead, amid mounting concerns that the long-running conflict is entering a new and dangerous phase. Mahmoud Abbas blamed the latest tensions on a series of visits by Jewish worshippers to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site. The visits to the contested site have helped fan strife in a region already on edge following last summer’s bloody war in the Gaza Strip and the earlier failure of U.

Russia’s bombers to conduct regular patrols in the Gulf of Mexico

Russia’s long-range bombers will conduct regular patrol missions from the Arctic Ocean to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, the military said Wednesday, a show of muscle reflecting tensions with the West over Ukraine. A statement from Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu came as NATO’s chief commander accused Moscow of sending new troops and tanks into Ukraine — a claim quickly rejected by Russia. Shoigu said the tensions with the West over Ukraine would require Russia to also beef up its forces in the Crimea, the Black Sea Peninsula that Russia annexed in March.

Is The UN Using Vaccines To Secretly Sterilize Women All Over The Globe?

In some areas of the world, purposely cutting off someone’s family line is considered to be one of the most wicked things that you can possibly do. But that appears to be precisely what the United Nations is doing. Two UN organizations, the WHO and UNICEF, have just been caught red-handed administering “tetanus vaccines” laced with sterilizing agents to girls and women in Kenya.

Iran leader’s call to ‘annihilate’ Israel sparks fury as nuclear deadline looms

A new document by Iran’s supreme leader calling for the elimination of Israel shows that world powers must not rush into a deal on the country’s nuclear program despite an upcoming deadline, Israel’s Prime Minister said Monday. “There is no moderation in Iran. It is unrepentant, unreformed, it calls for Israel’s eradication, it promotes international terrorism,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Russia To Declare U.S. A ‘Threat’ And ‘Adversary’ In New Military Doctrine

For those that have been watching the growing tensions between the Russia, Europe and the US, this latest salvo is disturbing to say the least. As reported by FT.com, a new Russian military doctrine is to be released next month, which will openly designate the United States as a “threat” and/or adversary, which is guaranteed to escalate the growing distrust which many see as a return to the “cold war” era.

Russell Moore, Rick Warren to Join Pope Francis With Muslims, Buddhists for Interfaith Conference

Russell Moore, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Saddleback megachurch leader Rick Warren will team up with Roman Catholic Pontiff Francis later this month for an interfaith Vatican conference on marriage and family. “Complementarity of Man and Woman,” will be held Nov. 17-19 at the Vatican, and is expected to feature more than 30 speakers from over 20 countries.

80 percent of Catalans say ‘Yes’ to independence in symbolic ‘referendum’

An overwhelming majority of Catalans have said “yes” to independence and secession from the central Spanish government in Madrid in a highly-anticipated but symbolic referendum poll on Sunday. Some 80.72 percent voted to form a state independent of Spain, Joana Ortega, vice president Catalonia said shortly after midnight, with over two million Catalans reportedly turning out for the unofficial referendum.

‘A mass sterilization exercise’: Kenyan doctors find anti-fertility agent in UN tetanus vaccine

Kenya’s Catholic bishops are charging two United Nations organizations with sterilizing millions of girls and women under cover of an anti-tetanus inoculation program sponsored by the Kenyan government. According to a statement released Tuesday by the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, the organization has found an antigen that causes miscarriages in a vaccine being administered to 2.3 million girls and women by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

UN Declares Arms Trade Treaty to Go Into Effect Dec. 24

On its official website, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (yes, that’s really a thing and yes, it is housed right here in the United States) announced that the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) “will enter into force on 24 December 2014.” Merry Christmas! It is ironical that on the day before the world’s 2.

Ukraine accuses Russia of sending in tanks, escalating crisis

Ukraine’s military accused Russia on Friday of sending a column of 32 tanks and truckloads of troops into the country’s east to support pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces. Thursday’s cross-border incursion, if confirmed, is a significant escalation of a conflict that has killed more than 4,000 people since the separatists rose up in mid-April and would call into question Russia’s commitment to a two-month-old ceasefire deal. The truce has looked particularly fragile this week, with each side accusing the other of violations after separatist elections last Sunday condemned as illegitimate by the West.

Pope Francis Wants To Know What Rick Warren, Russell Moore, And Other Christian Leaders Think About Marriage

Even Southern Baptists know not to turn down an invitation from the Pope. Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church, and Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, will meet Pope Francis and offer an “evangelical Protestant” perspective as part of a Vatican colloquium on marriage and family held this November 17-19. “I am willing to go anywhere, when asked, to bear witness to what we as evangelical Protestants believe about marriage and the gospel, especially in times in which marriage is culturally imperiled,” wrore Moore on why he’s going to the Vatican despite his disagreements with the Pope.

Russia Test Fires Intercontinental Missile From Submerged Nuclear Submarine

A Russian Northern Fleet nuclear submarine on Wednesday fired a test intercontinental missile from the Barents Sea to the country’s far eastern Kura Range on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. “Within the frameworks of testing the reliability of marine strategic nuclear forces, the Tula [nuclear submarine] launched a Sineva intercontinental ballistic missile from the Barents Sea to the Kura Range [in Kamchatka],” the statement says. The RSM-54 intercontinental ballistic missile Sineva (NATO code name SS-N-23 Skiff) is part of the D-9RM launch system.

Europe has 421 million fewer birds than it did 30 years ago

Europe has an estimated 421 million fewer birds than three decades ago, and current treatment of the environment is unsustainable for many common species, a study released on Monday said. The population crash is related to modern farming methods and the loss and damage of habitats, according to the study published in science journal Ecology Letters. “This is a warning from birds throughout Europe.

Temple Mount crisis fuels unrest in volatile Jerusalem

Swirling winds and heavy downpours probably did more than the massive Israeli police presence to dampen Palestinian protests in Jerusalem over the weekend. Dire predictions that a third intifada was about to erupt after the brief closure of the Temple Mount — known to Arabs as the Noble Sanctuary — came to nothing. But the weather could not sweep away the toxic atmosphere in the city.

Russia Conducts Full ‘Nuclear Triad Drill’, Launches Topol-M ICBM

While east Ukraine, aka the Donetsk Republic, was voting over the weekend in what the west pre-emptively classified as another sham vote as its outcome would merely push east Ukraine even closer to the Kremlin, Russia was busy conducting its most comprehensive Nuclear preparedness drill in recent history, one involving the entire “nuclear triad” consisting of strategic bombers; submarines and an the ICBM shown below on Saturday morning. As reported earlier by the Barents Observer, the silo-based Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk Oblast. A few minutes later, the dummy nuclear warhead hits its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s far eastern corner, the Ministry of Defense reports.

‘Status quo not viable option’ in Jerusalem, UN political chief tells Security Council

Ongoing tensions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank cannot be separated from the larger reality that remains unresolved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today. Briefing the Security Council on the situation in Jerusalem, Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, acknowledged that recent heightened tensions over unilateral actions, provocations and access restrictions at holy sites in Jerusalem are contributing to a volatile situation, and stressed that further delay in negotiations and the pursuit of peace would only serve to deepen divisions and further exacerbate the conflict. “The status quo is not a viable option,” Mr.

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