Two
Senate Democrats have sponsored a bill demanding the White House
reveal the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to the public
at least two months before Congress could give President Obama
fast-track authority.
Joe
Manchin of West Virginia joined Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in
proposing the two-page Trade Transparency Act, reports The Hill. If
adopted, the bill would require the White House release the “scrubbed
bracketed text of any trade
Scientists
in New Zealand are too scared to mention this, funding is hard enough
to get without sticking your head up would be career suicide
A
recently retired Fisheries and Oceans Canada biologist says the
muzzling of federal government scientists is worse than anyone can
imagine.
Steve
Campana, known for his expertise on everything from great white
sharks to porbeagles and Arctic trout, says the atmosphere working
for the federal government is toxic.
The Middle East
Russia and East-West conflict
The Middle East
Over
the weekend, a major shift in the balance of power in Iraq took place
when Islamic State forces seized the key Iraqi state of Ramadi after
militants detonated a series of car bomb blasts, which forced Iraqi
security forces and tribal fighters to retreat to the city's east,
they said. The location of Ramadi is shown in the below ISW map.
As
humanitarian aid ship Iran Shahed approaches the Saudi naval blockade
around Yemen, journalist and peace activist Caleb Maupin spoke to
Radio Sputnik, emphasizing that any attack on the Iranian aid ship
could provoke war.
"They’re
killing innocent people," Maupin said of the Saudi bombing
campaign in Yemen, referencing the alleged use of chemical weapons
and the targeting of hospitals. "Of the four thousand people, at
least, who have already died, very few of them are armed combatants
of any type."
Saudi-led air raids hit the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, overnight, Reuters reported. Forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the east and south of the city were targeted, according to residents. The strikes were the first to hit Sanaa after a five-day ceasefire ended late on Sunday. Military operations resumed earlier on Monday in northern Saada province and in the southern city of Aden. Houthi sources said they had fired mortar rounds at several areas in Saudi Arabia’s southern Najran province late on Monday. They also cited clashes with Saudi forces near the border area.
Saudi Arabia, which executes more criminals than any nation except China and Iran, wants to hire eight new executioners. A surge in executions has been witnessed under new King Salman’s rule.
The job description published online on Monday says no special training is required from applicants. The executioners would be required to behead condemned criminals in public as well as carry out amputations on those convicted of lesser offenses, Reuters reported.
The executioners would be considered as ‘religious functionaries’, since they would be serving religious courts and be on the lower end of the civil service pay scale, the ad said.
The recruitment drive comes a day after Saudi Arabia executed the 85th person this year. The number reached in less than five months is compared to an estimated 90 executions over the whole 2014, according to Amnesty International.
The Saudi-led coalition will continue airstrikes against Houthi rebels until their capitulation, TASS reported, citing coalition spokesman Brig-Gen Ahmed al-Asiri. The strikes resumed because of rebels’ violation of truce, he was quoted by Sky News Arabia as saying. They had also plundered all humanitarian cargoes delivered to Yemen during a recent period of ceasefire, according to the spokesman.
Countering
the threat of Russia’s intercontinental ballistic missiles is too
hard and too costly for the United States, Vice Chairman of the US
Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral James Winnefeld stated on Tuesday.
“We
have stated that missile defense against these high end threats is
too hard, and too expensive, and too strategically destabilizing to
even try,” Winnefeld said of the threat of a Russian or Chinese
nuclear attack in a speech at the Center for Strategic International
Studies.
Mortar
attack on Russian embassy in Damascus an ‘act of terror’ –
Moscow
The
Russian embassy in the Syrian capital of Damascus was shelled on
Tuesday, with Moscow stating that it considers the attack on its
diplomatic mission an act of terror.
Two
mortar rounds landed on the premises of the Russian Embassy in the
afternoon, “one of them fell near the main entrance, the other hit
an administrative building," Asiya Turuchiyeva embassy's
spokeswoman, told RIA Novosti.
There
were no fatalities or injuries as a result of the mortar attack as it
happened during the lunch break, the spokeswoman added.
According
to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the shells were fired from the Jobar
district of Damascus, which is controlled by “illegal armed
groups.”
“We
can only make our economy more successful and dynamic by selling the
assets to, preferably Western investors, who will make them more
dynamic and transparent”
Militia
say Ukraine’s Grad, Uragan rockets targeted at Kiev-controlled
Volnovakha
Australian
Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Tuesday ruled out an amnesty for
Australian citizens seeking to quit foreign militant groups and
return home, Reuters reported. “If you go abroad to break
Australian law, if you go abroad to kill innocent people in the name
of misguided fundamentalism and extremism… we are hardly going to
welcome you back into this country,” Abbott said. The statement
came in the wake of reports that his government was negotiating with
potential defectors.
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