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Harrison Koehli
Sott.net 2015-11-27 18:06:00
France and Russia have agreed to cooperate in the fight against the Daeshbags. The news comes after Hollande and Putin met in Moscow yesterday, where they agreed to share intelligence, intensify and coordinate airstrikes together, and jointly make sure their airstrikes concentrate on "terrorist" groups, including Daesh. Putin clarified: It looks like France really is allying with Russia, to the extent it is able -- something the U.S. has refused to do. Putin said he and Hollande "are looking at this kind of cooperation as concrete and practical input towards forming a broad anti-terrorist coalition, a broad anti-terrorist front under the auspices of the United Nations. I will note that the number of nations sharing this initiative is growing." He also said that both parties "agreed to continue working together very actively within the framework of the International Syria Support Group and promote the fulfilment of all agreements reached within this group, first and foremost with regard to the deadlines and parameters for holding intra-Syrian talks."
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Juliana Barembuem
Sott.net 2015-11-22 19:27:00
Since the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13th, we have seen France declare a state of emergency, allowing the government to control its population more tightly, to order raids on any "suspicious" home (the security forces no longer requiring warrants for arrests and raids when investigating an "imminent threat") and to curtail freedom in the home of alleged "Liberté". While the official story leaves much to be desired, has more holes than the walls of the raided apartment in St-Denis, and doesn't prove conclusively that the attackers where only "islamic" terrorists, one thing you don't hear much about in the media is how this has been affecting the Muslim population in France and other countries. There are 5 million Muslims in France, about eight percent of the total population and they are suffering the consequences of attacks perpetrated by a handful of psychos, with no regard for the decades that they have been living peacefully in France like any ordinary "white" citizen. | |
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Josh Cohen
Reuters 2015-11-24 14:37:00
When Russia began its military campaign in Syria, the Obama administration and its allies quickly claimed it was a disaster in the making. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called Russian President Vladimir Putin "impulsive" and said he was "winging it" in Syria with no long-term strategy. Former United States Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul ridiculed Putin's "supposed strategic genius," arguing the Russian leader "cannot restore Assad's authority over the whole country." Even President Barack Obama joined the chorus, publicly warning Putin that he risked an Afghanistan-style Russian "quagmire" in Syria. It turns out, though, that the joke's on Washington: Thanks to shrewd tactics plus tailwinds from the Paris attacks, Syria is turning into a major strategic victory for Putin. Here's what he's accomplished and how he did it. For starters, as Putin explained in both 2013 and during his recent United Nations speech, what he fears most is power vacuums filled by extremists. As Putin stated early in Russia's bombing campaign, Russia did not plan major ground operations, since its goal was simply "to stabilize the legitimate government" to prevent its immediate overthrow. For this reason, as director of the Carnegie Moscow Center Dimitri Trenin argues, Putin never meant to help Bashar al-Assad achieve complete military victory, but rather to stave off Syria's collapse. Putin has already met this first objective. The Assad regime is no longer in imminent danger, and with Russian air support it has actually re-taken key areas in central Syria and Aleppo. As a result, the regime's key territory in its Alawite heartland no longer faces the risk of being overrun. | |
Comment: Even the MSM can't deny that Putin has been a skilled player on the geopolitical chessboard. All the West's attacks on him and Russia tend to backfire. For example: The Struggle for Hearts and Minds: Putin Continues to Call NATO's Bluff
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David L. Phillips
Huffington Post 2015-11-09 00:00:00
Introduction Is Turkey collaborating with the Islamic State (ISIS)? Allegations range from military cooperation and weapons transfers to logistical support, financial assistance, and the provision of medical services. It is also alleged that Turkey turned a blind eye to ISIS attacks against Kobani. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu strongly deny complicity with ISIS. Erdogan visited the Council on Foreign Relations on September 22, 2014. He criticized "smear campaigns [and] attempts to distort perception about us." Erdogan decried, "A systematic attack on Turkey's international reputation, "complaining that "Turkey has been subject to very unjust and ill-intentioned news items from media organizations." Erdogan posited: "My request from our friends in the United States is to make your assessment about Turkey by basing your information on objective sources." Columbia University's Program on Peace-building and Rights assigned a team of researchers in the United States, Europe, and Turkey to examine Turkish and international media, assessing the credibility of allegations. This report draws on a variety of international sources -- The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, BBC, Sky News, as well as Turkish sources, CNN Turk, Hurriyet Daily News,Taraf, Cumhuriyet, and Radikal among others. | |
Comment: The recent shoot-down of a Russian Su-24 jet in Syria and subsequent events have exposed Turkey's role in supporting ISIS to the world community. There's no longer any excuse for ignoring it.
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| Puppet Masters |
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Sputnik
2015-11-28 21:37:00
Turkey fired a number of mortar bombs toward Syrian army positions, the Syrian army spokesman said Saturday. "Last night, there was intense mortar fire on Syrian government forces' positions from the Mount Jebel Aqra area, which is on the Turkish side," Brigadier General Ali Mayhoub said during a press briefing. "Commander-in-chief of the Syrian Arab Army [President Bashar Assad] warns of the dangers of such behavior," the spokesman added. Damascus urges the international community to force Turkey to stop supporting terrorists, directly and indirectly, as well as to stop buying illegal oil from them, he said. "Taking advantage of the fact the border [between Syria and Turkey] is de-facto controlled by terrorists Ankara without obstruction supplies them with weapons and other resources for their criminal activity," the spokesperson told journalists. | |
Comment: Is Turkey really continually trying to provoke a reaction from Syria and Russia?
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RT
2015-11-28 19:18:00
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree imposing a package of economic sanctions against Turkey following its downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber in Syria. The measures include banning several Turkish organizations and the import of certain goods. A decree on "measures providing the national security of the Russian Federation and the protection of its citizens against criminal and other unlawful acts, and on imposing special economic measures in relation to Turkish Republic" was signed on Saturday, the Kremlin press service said. Under the decree, the import of certain products originating from Turkey will be temporarily banned or restricted. A number of Turkish organizations operating in Russia will also be restricted. | |
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Israel Shamir
The Unz Review 2015-11-27 17:40:00
Three important events influenced the course of the Syrian war in the course of last month: the Metrojet flight 9268 crash in Sinai October 31, the Paris attacks on Friday November 13 and the downing of a Sukhoi 24 on November 24, 2015. The Metrojet The Metrojet crash was not deemed an act of terror to start with. First accounts concentrated on the poor state of the charter plane, on the lack of proper maintenance, on its previously troubled record (a tail strike it had suffered some years earlier), on a possible engine failure. The reports were confusingly contradictory. The pilots had asked permission for emergency landing, - no, they hadn't. The airliner violently steered off the course, rapidly changed its altitude a few times, - no, it did not. There were no traces of explosives - there were traces of explosives all over place. In a course of a few days, the whole body of conspiracy and anti-conspiracy versions grew around the crash, both in Russia and elsewhere, for instance an explosion of hydrogen-filled diving cylinder of a sort regularly used by Sharm el Sheikh divers. I noticed an interesting coincidence: there was the Blue Flag air exercise of Israeli and American air forces in the vicinity of the crash area. The crash occurred within 30 miles of the Israeli border, and Israel happens to use its drones to kill its enemies in Sinai. The exercise included "firing simulated weapons against fictional enemy missile launchers, convoys and aircraft", according to the official report. What if some of these weapons weren't "simulated"? I would not suggest intentional destruction of a civilian Russian liner, but friendly fire is not unheard of. A missile could go astray. The Blue Flag was supposed to last until November, 3. However, after the Metrojet crash, it was claimed that the exercise was over October, 29. An Israeli news site asked the Army spokesman when the exercise was finished, and received the answer: November, 3. The site asked again, while referring to the Russian liner crash. This time, the answer was: October, 29. This discrepancy is not a proof of anything; and anyway, this version gained little currency. However, it was expanded by an American site and later by a hard-core radical Russian site (they accused me of "cover-up" for balking at considering Israeli ill intent). I do not think this is the true explanation; just another version in absence of the truth established. For a long while the Russians denied the crash was caused by enemy action and looked for a technical failure, though the UK and the US suggested a terror attack. Daesh (ISIS) claimed they downed the airliner by a missile and they published a video of this alleged feat. This claim was met with scorn, as MANPAD missiles can't reach the airliner altitude. It was said that soon Daesh will claim the Sinking of the Titanic. The Russians mourned their dead, and their campaign in Syria continued with some successes on the ground, while the West continued to condemn it for going against 'moderate opposition' and paying lip service to the war on Daesh. The Russians insisted they were fighting Daesh "or other similar groups". | |
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Reuters
2015-11-27 08:54:00
Russia said on Friday that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had requested a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Paris on Nov. 30. "A proposal from the Turkish side about a meeting at the level of heads of state has been delivered to the president," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on a conference call on Friday. "That's all I can say." Putin and Erdogan will attend the global climate summit that begins in Paris on Nov. 30. Peskov also said that Erdogan had telephoned Putin seven or eight hours after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on Tuesday. Erdogan told the France 24 television channel on Thursday that he had called Putin after the jet downed but that the Russian leader had not yet called him back. "This request was also delivered to the president," Peskov said.
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Comment: Erdogan is on an accusatorial rant which will go a long way in persuading Putin. With the West/NATO threatening excommunication for Turkey, it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall if this meeting ever occurs. The next move (or non-move) is Putin's.
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Alexander Mercouris
Russia Insider 2015-11-28 16:10:00
Though there has been no breakthrough Russia is making progress towards achieving its objectives both on the military and the diplomatic fronts. Ever since the Russians intervened militarily in Syria there has been a constant drumbeat of criticism. Much of this takes the form of an argument of "equivalence" - saying that what Russia is doing is the same or no better than what the US has been doing in the Middle East and will end as badly. Russia Insider has published a classic example of criticism by our contributor Jacob Dreizin. Before discussing Jacob's argument in detail, there are some points about Russian Turkish relations I want to make. Jacob expresses concern that in the event of a major escalation of tensions with Turkey, Russia's economy will suffer as well as Turkey's, and that Turkey may close the Dardanelles, thereby cutting off the supply routes to its force in Syria. None of the scenarios of Russian retaliation Jacob rightly worries about are in fact going to happen. The Russians are not going to impose an economic blockade on Turkey or cut off gas supplies to Turkey. Nor are they going to arm the Kurds. Nor are the Turks going to take retaliatory measures that are contrary to their own interests. There will be a temporary cooling of relations but that is all. The Russians are every bit as alive to the dangers of taking the sort of extreme steps that Jacob worries about as is Jacob himself. Besides engaging in economic warfare and fomenting subversion in another country is not the Russian way. The Russian response to the shoot-down of the SU24 has in fact been carefully calibrated. The Russians have cancelled the visa agreement with Turkey - which will hit the Turkish tourist industry - and are reviewing some joint projects with Turkey. They may use their food standards agency to block certain Turkish food imports. It will not go beyond that. | |
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Press TV
2015-11-26 07:21:00
Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane over Syria has proven that the country is a liability to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and must be "ousted" from the Western military alliance, says a retired US Army General. The shooting down of a Russian aircraft near the Syrian border was in line with Ankara's struggle to establish itself as a "dominant" power, retired US Army Major General Paul Vallely said Thursday. Vallely said Turkey must be removed from NATO because it poses a "big and important issue" in many ways for other members. Comment: General Vallely founded "Stand Up America," a multi-media org spouting and glorifying the Exceptional American Experiment, beacon of hope...yada yada yada. "I think NATO, if they have any resolve, they would oust Turkey out of NATO becausethey are not cooperating against ISIL, they are not cooperating at all with some of the forces inside of Syria, and they want to see [Syrian President Bashar] Assad removed or replaced by another government," the retired General told Russia's RT. Comment: So how is this different from the US's and NATO's objectives? It is all about saving illusion and a dupe is required. If Turkey's bad-boy issues were crucial (negatively) to the Western plan of action, NATO would have addressed and rectified it many months/years ago. Therefore it has/had purpose. | |
Comment: Perhaps NATO needed a patsy or desired to shed Turkey as a rogue country and has found a convenient means. Did Turkey actually do the deed completely on their own or were they hoodwinked into the hot seat by NATOian subversive tactics, as in "kill two birds with one stone." Given all that, everyone has an opinion and there seems to be no restraint on expression, except on the part of Russia. Losing Turkey from the Puppet Masters might be dicey for the West, as all bets would be off as to controlling its vassal. It would then be a pariah, since Russia wouldn't want it either. That makes it a loose cannon with new and useful plusses and minuses. Caution: Masterful manipulation ahead.
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South Front
2015-11-28 13:23:00
Crisis News (Nov. 28)
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Comment: See also: The Struggle for Hearts and Minds: Putin Continues to Call NATO's Bluff
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Peter Lvov
New Eastern Outlook 2015-11-28 13:30:00
There's little doubt now in NATO circles and among the leading countries of the alliance - the US, Britain, France, Germany that the downing of Russia's bomber Su-24 was indeed an act of aggression. In fact, the Turkish Air Force has been trying to ambush Russian bombers in border areas for days. Everything was planned, including the presence of professional cameramen from a Turkish channel. Once Washington acknowledged that the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian bomber over Syria, Ankara has been desperately trying to push the blame on Obama in order to hide behind Washington's back. On November 26 a number of Turkish TV-stations presented reports that the downing was allegedly approved by Barack Obama at the G-20 summit in Antalya. But it's way too late, Erdogan is caught at a murder scene with blood on his hands. His political career is almost finished - the murderers of Russian pilots have no place in politics. There's a already a contender for his post - Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who considerably strengthened his positions in the recent elections. Experts from around the the world have been guessing what Russia's response will be, for now one can already name a number of steps that Moscow has made: | |
Comment: It looks like Erdogan has served his purpose and is about to be 'expired'. In the meantime he'll be scapegoated for what Washington has been complicit in all along:
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RT
2015-11-28 13:25:00
Washington is urging Ankara to seal off a 100-kilometer stretch of borderline with Syria currently used by Islamic State for transportation of fighters and supplies into the Syrian war zone. The Turkish Army would need an estimated 30,000 personnel to do this. The Obama administration is urging Turkey to ensure Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria receives no supplies through the Turkish border, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources in Washington. The request involves sealing off part of the frontier between the western Turkish town of Kilis and Jarabulus in eastern Syrian. "The game has changed. Enough is enough! The border needs to be sealed," the WSJcited a senior Obama administration official as saying in a message from the US government to Turkey. "This is an international threat, and it's all coming out of Syria and it's coming through Turkish territory." | |
Comment: There seems to be some frustration between Turkey and the US.
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RT
2015-11-28 13:14:00
Both the American and Turkish air forces halted their strikes on Syrian territory around the time Russia deployed S-400 air defense complexes at the Khmeimim airbase, from which it stages its own incursions against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). A spokesperson of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) told Sputnik on Friday that the absence of anti-IS coalition airstrikes "has nothing to do with the S400 deployment" in Syria. Comment: Of course the US doesn't want to admit the S-400 system is a deterrent. "The fluctuation or absence of strikes in Syria reflects the ebb and flow of battle," the spokesperson said, adding that CJTF-OIR deliver airstrikes when and where it needs to, dedicating a lot of time to researching targets to ensure maximum effect and minimizing civilian casualties. | |
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Sputnik
2015-11-28 00:56:00
Turkey pursues its own interests in the Syrian conflict and it is not cooperating with NATO or other forces in the region, a retired US Army Major General Paul Vallely said in an interview with RT. The downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber by the Turkish air force will hardly be the last act of provocation by Ankara, so NATO should kick Turkey out of the alliance, Vallely said. He believes that the attack on the Russian aircraft had nothing to do with protecting national borders. It was aimed at demonstrating to Russia that Turkey is the dominant power in the region and that it's not going to give ground. The president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been involved in the conflict in the area for quite some time, and this incident isn't the first of its kind: a few years ago Turkey shot down a Syrian jet. | |
Comment: Rather than ask the most important question of 'who benefits' from the downing of the Russian Su-24, Western officials and media seem very eager to scapegoat Turkey. 'They're arming ISIS' - 'they need to be kicked out of NATO' - 'Erdogan's a dictator' - etc. How easily they forget that their countries are responsible for the Syrian conflict which Russia is trying to clean up, and that Putin has revealed that Russia knows40 different countries that have been financing ISIS. That means that there are 39 more corrupt, head-chopper-funding networks to deal with. And that includes the one that benefits most from the death of a Russian pilot, the destabilization of Turkey and the region, and who knew the Russian pilot's flight plan - the U.S.
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Blogmire.com
Here's and interesting game you can play using nothing but Google. Go to the world's biggest search engine and type in "Kuweires". You'll notice that it comes up with a number of different websites all speaking about a stunning victory achieved by the Syrian Arab Army, supported by Russian air cover, in which the strategic military airbase that had been under siege from ISIS for two-and-a-half years was recaptured and hundreds of ISIS terrorists killed in the process. You'll also notice that with the exception of RT, none of the websites are what you would call well-known. Is it possible that the mainstream organisations just haven't heard about it yet?2015-11-17 14:02:00 |
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Sputnik
2015-11-26 16:36:00
The United States continues to supply terrorists in Syria with weapons, making them a grave threat to global security as well as deepening the conflict in the country, the Virginia State Senator said. The United States and its allies can promptly end the conflict in Syria if they decide to stop providing assistance to terrorist groups in the country, Virginia State Senator Richard Black told Sputnik. "People need to understand that if the United States, France and Britain stopped supporting terrorists, the war would end," Black said on Wednesday. "We caused the war, and we can end it whenever we wish." | |
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YouTube
2015-11-26 23:31:00
Turkey's attack on the Russian bomber is the first such incident between a NATO country and Moscow in half a century. Across the media, there are concerns that relations between the Alliance and Russia could worsen and see a return to Cold War times.
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Sputnik
Russia's bonds retuned over 26% per dollar invested in 2015, with the overall financial situation improving after the late 2014 shocks.2015-11-27 22:45:00
Russia has recovered some of its investment appeal as returns per dollar invested have turned out to be among the world's best this outgoing year, despite the still-intact international sanctions, low oil prices, and structural economic inefficiency. While all these issues are expected to persist well into the next year, investment capital is attracted to Russia by a gradual loosening of the central bank's monetary policy. Moreover, next year's scheduled payments on external debt are light in volume, and base effect is improving expansion prospects, even though recession still lingers. Subsequently, Russia might be heading for a massive expansion in the financial sector under otherwise equal conditions. | |
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| Society's Child |
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RT
2015-11-28 17:26:00
Mass protests have taken place in London and many other cities across the country urging the government not to conduct airstrikes in Syria. 'Don't Bomb Syria' signs were plentiful, as thousands of protesters took to the streets of the British capital to make their voices heard, in a rally organized by the Stop the War coalition. The demonstration in London started outside Prime Minister David Cameron's residence at 10 Downing Street. The rally was against a planned vote in Parliament about whether to support a motion for the UK to starting bombing Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants in Syria. "We are very much opposed to David Cameron's plans to have a vote in Parliament to bomb Syria. The bombing has already been going on for more than a year by other forces. ISIS is as strong as it was before the bombing started and also we have the record of 14 years of bombing, and every single country we have bombed, the wars are still going on there," said Lindsey German, of Stop the War, during the demonstration. | |
Comment: It appears those protesting have serious doubts that the proposed airstrikes will actually target ISIS, suspecting that this military intervention may be used as a pretext to assist the US in its war against Bashar al-Assad.
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RT
2015-11-28 13:20:00
At least 21 people were killed in a Boko Haram suicide bomb attack on a Shia Muslim procession in the northern Nigerian state of Kano. The incident occurred in the village of Dakasoye, some 20 kilometers south of the state capital city of Kano. "Our procession came under a suicide attack," Muhammad Turi, who was leading thousands of Islamic Movement of Nigeria followers, told AFP. Turi said that the deadly attack came as no surprise for the Shia marchers as "this is the situation all over the country." Despite the bombing, the procession, which was on its way from Kano to Zaria, located in a neighboring state, continued to match. "This will not deter us from our religious observance. Even if all of us were bombed the last person will carry on with this duty," Turi stressed. | |
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RT
2015-11-28 13:07:00
Since the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January, nearly 60 people suspected of radicalism have reportedly lost their authorization to work at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport. At least five people have been fired following the deadly mid-November attacks. "Since the beginning of the year, there are 57 people who lost their authorization because of radicalization. There have been five since the attacks [November 13],"the prefect of Charles de Gaulle (Roissy) and Le Bourget airports, Philippe Riffaut, told a press conference. | |
Comment: Moving forward to more totalitarianism.
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Carolanne Wright
Wake Up World 2015-11-26 17:42:00
"Agrochemical giant Monsanto knowingly contaminated Oakland's storm water and the San Francisco Bay with a highly toxic chemical for decades, a new lawsuit filed by the California city claims. Oakland wants the company to pay for the environmental cleanup." Municipalities in the U.S. are fed-up with Monsanto's corrupt tactics — and they're hitting the corporation where it hurts: their pocketbook. Oakland California, the latest city to sue the biotech colossus, has filed a lawsuit seeking retribution for damages caused by harmful polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination. | |
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| Secret History |
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Rany Mostafa
The Cairo Post 2015-11-27 23:50:00
The sarcophagus of Ankh-f-n-khonsu, a high priest of ancient Egyptian god Amun Ra, has been unearthed in the west bank of Luxor, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al Damaty announced Thursday. The sarcophagus, which dates back to the 22nd Dynasty (943B.C-716B.C.,) was found in the tomb of Amenhotep-Huy, who served as Egypt's viceroy and vizier during the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1391 B.C. - 1353 B.C.) "The sarcophagus is made of wood and covered with a layer of plaster. It represents the deceased wearing a wig and crown with flowers and colorful ribbons along with ceremonial beard and a necklace adorning his chest," Sultan Eid, Director of Upper Egypt Antiquities Department said in a statement Thursday. The sarcophagus also contains a number of hieroglyphic inscriptions with scenes of the deceased making offerings to several ancient Egyptian deities, he added. | |
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Nevine El-Aref
AhramOnline 2015-11-24 17:19:00
Before being published in a scientific journal in December, British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, from Arizona University, sent Al-Ahram Weekly an advance copy of his article on the original name inscribed on Tutankhamun's mask. Entitled "The Gold Mask of Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten" Reeves relates that an essay was behind his first doubts about King Tutankhamun's possession of his iconic gold mask, now under restoration at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. In the paper Reeves wrote several years ago, in an essay which is yet to appear, he sought to demonstrate that the famous gold mask from King Tutankhamun's tomb (KV 62) had been created not for the boy king but for the use of a female predecessor named Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten (Queen Nefertiti) who was King Akhenaten's co-regent. "The evidence in favour of this conclusion was, and still is compelling," Reeves said, adding that he was able to muster for it no inscriptional support. Detailed scrutiny, both of the mask itself and of photographs, furnished not the slightest hint that the multi-columned hieroglyphic inscription with cartouche might pre-date Tutankhamun's reign. "Happily, this reluctant presumption of the mask's textual integrity may now be abandoned," Reeves pointed out in the paper, asserting that "a fresh examination of the re-positioned and newly re-lit mask in Cairo at the end of September 2015 yielded for the first time, beneath the hieroglyphs of Tutankhamun's prenomen, lightly chased traces of an earlier, erased royal name." | |
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XinHua Net
2015-11-27 12:52:00
Historians scouring the ruins of a Tibetan monastery have found 30 ancient manuscripts, including one detailing a kind of musical score never seen before. The manuscripts, dating from the 13th to 18th century and found in Maizhokunggar County, mostly refer to noted Buddhist sutra "Perfection of Wisdom," said Palbar Tsering, director of the regional ancient books protection center, on Thursday. The scores, consisting of groups of curves and syllabic symbols, have been identified as the music for chams, religious dances usually staged during important festivals to greet gods and dispel demons. Experts will try to decipher them so the music can be played to the public, raising awareness of old Buddhist customs, Palbar Tsering said. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Avaneesh Pandey
International Business Times 2015-11-27 23:12:00
Black holes are known for their voracious appetites. These bodies -- formed when a massive star collapses upon itself -- have occasionally been described as the "vacuum cleaners" of the universe and are notorious for their tendency to wreak havoc on the usual laws of physics that govern the rest of the cosmos. Now, for the first time ever, scientists have witnessed a black hole swallowing a star and ejecting a flare of matter moving at nearly the speed of light -- a rare event that occurs when a star stumbles across a black hole's gravitational well. "It's the first time we see everything from the stellar destruction followed by the launch of a conical outflow, also called a jet, and we watched it unfold over several months," Sjoert van Velzen, a Hubble fellow at Johns Hopkins University, said, in a statement released Thursday. "Previous efforts to find evidence for these jets, including my own, were late to the game."
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James Walker
Digital Journal 2015-11-26 23:12:00
Developments in wireless networking over the past few years have seen Wi-Fi become faster and more reliable than ever. It's still far from perfect though, and now new tech known as 'Li-Fi' threatens to supersede it, boasting 100 times greater performance. Li-Fi replaces the radio waves of Wi-Fi with light signals. Wi-Fi typically uses the 2.4GHz or 5GHz radio bands, both of which have a tendency to slow down as more devices are added. Li-Fi solves this problem by boasting 100 times greater performance than the typical Wi-Fi connection today. Pocket-Lint reports lab tests have pushed peak transfer rates to an astounding 224 gigabits per second. In a real-world experiment conducted this week, researchers saw 1GB per second being pushed through the network. Li-Fi is based around a protocol known as Visible Light Communication (VLC). It essentially involves toggling a light switch thousands of times every second to create a stream of "on" and "off" pulses that can be interpreted as binary bits. It works in a similar fashion to Morse code and currently uses the 400 and 800 THz (terahertz) bands. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Elle Griffiths
Daily Mirror, UK 2015-11-28 20:29:00
You'd be forgiven for thinking these images have come straight from a Sci-Fi film. But these are pictures of a real giant squid, caught by fisherman off the coast of Spain. The beast measured 33 foot and weighed in at a staggering 330lbs. Believed to be a female, the squid was caught in the nets the fishermen were trawling at a depth of almost 500m. Speaking of their surprising monster catch, one of the fishing boat crew said: "To see a specimen of this size can intimidate anybody, even those who fish every day and have spent a lifetime at sea." | |
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thelocal.se
2015-11-23 19:59:00
A Swedish man has described his luck after his picture of a peculiar natural phenomenon in an icy river in the far north of the country hit the headlines in Sweden on Monday. Torgny Johansson spoke to The Local a day after he snapped the picture of the enormous ice circle floating in the Kalix River at Forsbyn, 75 kilometres north of Luleå, using his drone. "I have seen one maybe two or three times before near the same place as this one. But nothing as large as this," he said. Ice circles are formed in slow-moving areas of rivers where a part of the current moves in the opposite direction to the main stream, a so-called 'backstream'. When the water freezes the circling currents form an ice disc. | |
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Inver Clyde Now
2015-11-28 18:56:00
Emergency services called to a report of a capsized dinghy in the Clyde at Inverkip found a dead whale. Largs lifeboat and Greenock's Coastguard rescue team were dispatched to the scene around 12.20pm on Friday. The lifeboat crew reported on their Facebook page that they started a search and soon discovered something near the shore at the old power station adding: "Sadly this object turned out to be a deceased whale." A spokesman for Belfast Coastguard said it appeared that the member of the public who contacted them had mistaken the whale's white belly for an upturned hull. He said that experts from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue Team had been called out and they confirmed that it was a minke whale, around five metres (16 feet) long. Inverclyde Council have been contacted to dispose of the carcass although it was still on the beach this morning (Saturday). The Coastguard team posted photos of the dead whale near the beach at Inverkip on theirFacebook page. A dead whale was washed ashore at Wemyss Bay in July 2012. | |
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Andrew Backhouse
The Chronicle 2015-11-28 13:02:00
Hailstones the size of tennis balls have turned the streets of Oakey white. A freak hailstorm showered parts of the Darling Downs with hail between 3.50pm and 4.20pm this afternoon. Hail has also been reported in Highfields and Pittsworth. Houses and cars in Oakey have sustained damage from the hail.
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Al Jazeera
2015-11-26 10:53:00
Residents of northern Japan were surprised by an early blast of winter this week as sub-zero temperatures and heavy snow combined to cover much of Hokkaido with a white winter duvet. One resident of the prefecture capital, Sapporo, said: "It's a lot, a lot! Last year it snowed around November 8 but it was nothing like this". In this northern prefecture of Hokkaido, the lavender fields of Furano saw temperatures on Wednesday night drop to minus 21 degrees Celsius. On the same night in Sapporo, the temperature fell to minus 7C. Sapporo first dropped below freezing on Monday night, with snow started falling in the early hours of Tuesday.
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Comment: See also: Russia's port city of Vladivostok hit by icy tempest
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