EU Calls for Help from Muslim Countries Against Terrorism

 

European Union Flag

This is good but whilst they are at it, they should also look at the idea of "freedom of expression" again and define it differently from freedom to be abusive...

EU calls for Muslim world’s help against militant threat

EU foreign ministers called on Monday for an alliance with Muslim countries to fight the growing Islamist militant threat as anger over the Charlie Hebdo cartoons fed fresh protests and violence.
Foreign policy head Federica Mogherini met Arab League chief Nabil al Arabi to urge better cooperation in the wake of last week’s deadly Paris attacks and anti-terrorism raids in Belgium.

On the other side of a widening divide, hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Russia’s Chechnya while dozens of churches were torched in Niger during protests over the publication of the blasphemous caricatures.

In Brussels, where Belgian troops guarded the EU headquarters and other sensitive buildings, ministers were discussing how to prevent battle-hardened jihadis returning home from Syria and Iraq.
“Terrorism and terrorist attacks are targeting most of all Muslims in the world so we need an alliance,” Ms Mogherini told reporters.

“We need to strengthen our way of cooperating together, first of all with Arab countries but also internally. The threat is not only the one we faced in Paris but also spreading in many other parts of the world.”

Mr Arabi, the Arab League’s secretary general, said that “every country in the world is suffering from terrorism”. “It is not just a military or security issue, it covers the intellectual, cultural, media and religious spheres and that is what we are trying to get,” he said.

Europe is on high alert after three French gunmen killed 17 people at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris earlier this month, claiming they were acting on behalf of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Two suspected militants were also killed in a police raid in Belgium on Thursday.

Many of the ministers will meet again on Thursday in London when US Secretary of State John Kerry co-hosts talks with some 20 countries, including Arab states.

The EU meeting on Monday was to prepare for a special European summit on Feb 12 dedicated to fighting terrorism.

Source: The Dawn

Syria has received first shipment of S-300 missiles according to Lebanese media

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This piece of information could be pivotal if confirmed...

Assad says Syria received Russian missile shipment - Lebanese media

Syria has received the first shipment of a sophisticated air defence system from Russia, President Bashar al-Assad was quoted as saying, sending a signal of military strength days before an EU arms embargo on the country lapses.

Russia had promised delivery of the S-300 missile system to the Syrian government despite Western objections, saying the move would help stabilise the regional balance at a time of insurgency in Syria waged by Western-backed rebels.

Moscow is a staunch ally of Assad and it has appeared to grow more defiant since the European Union let its arms embargo on Syria expire as of June 1, opening up the possibility of the West arming the Syrian rebels.


"Syria has received the first shipment of Russian anti-aircraft S-300 rockets," Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar newspaper quoted Assad as saying in an interview due to be broadcast later on Thursday.
More of the missiles would arrive soon, he was quoted as saying.

A source close to Russia's Defence Ministry said there had been a "bank transfer" in connection with the S-300 transaction but that Russian banks were becoming increasingly nervous about dealing with Assad.

"There were some problems with payments because big Russian banks were scared of dealing with Assad, but there was a bank transfer," the source said. "There are also not big banks and banks that are not based in Moscow. Beyond the down payment there was almost certainly a second payment, maybe a third."

Last year, a source close to Russia's weapons export monopoly Rosoboronexport said Syria had paid 20 percent of the contract price, but that the S-300 deal was frozen because of the country's civil war.

The United States, France and Israel have all called on Russia to stop the missile delivery.

More than 80,000 people have been killed in Syria since peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule morphed into a civil war, pitting the president's forces and his ally, Hezbollah, against Syrian rebels and a flow of Sunni Islamist militants who have come to help them from abroad.

Moscow says the expiry of the EU embargo complicates U.S. and Russian-led efforts to set up a peace conference between the Syrian government and its opponents, who demand an immediate end to Assad family rule.

Read more from Reuters here.

Iran Sends Monkey to Space

Map flag of Iran, SVG version of Image:Iran tricolour.png (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why send a monkey and not any other animal?

Iran said on Monday it had launched a live monkey into space, seeking to show off missile systems that have alarmed the West because the technology could potentially be used to deliver a nuclear warhead.

The Defense Ministry announced the launch as world powers sought to agree a date and venue with Iran for resuming talks to resolve a standoff with the West over Tehran's contested nuclear program before it degenerates into a new Middle East war.

Efforts to nail down a new meeting have failed repeatedly and the powers fear Iran is exploiting the diplomatic vacuum to hone the means to produce nuclear weapons.

The Islamic Republic denies seeking weapons capability and says it seeks only electricity from its uranium enrichment so it can export more of its considerable oil wealth.

The powers have proposed new talks in February, a spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Monday, hours after Russia urged all concerned to "stop behaving like children" and commit to a meeting.

Iran earlier in the day denied media reports of a major explosion at one of its most sensitive, underground enrichment plants, describing them as Western propaganda designed to influence the nuclear talks.

The Defense Ministry said the space launch of the monkey coincided "with the days of" the Prophet Mohammad's birthday, which was last week, but gave no date, according to a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA.

The launch was "another giant step" in space technology and biological research "which is the monopoly of a few countries", the statement said.

The small grey monkey was pictured strapped into a padded seat and being loaded into the Kavoshgar rocket dubbed "Pishgam" (Pioneer) which state media said reached a height of more than 120 km (75 miles).

"This shipment returned safely to Earth with the anticipated speed along with the live organism," Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi told the semi-official Fars news agency. "The launch of Kavoshgar and its retrieval is the first step towards sending humans into space in the next phase."

There was no independent confirmation of the launch.

Source: Reuters