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The surviving pilot of a Russian jet downed by Turkey has said there were no warnings before they were struck out of the sky, it's reported. Captain Konstantin Murakhtin told a Russian TV station that his plane was flying over Syrian territory and did not violate Turkish airspace. Speaking for the first time since the incident yesterday, the pilot said he knew the region like the back of his hand and "couldn't possibly have flown into Turkish airspace".

On Tuesday evening, we took a close look at the circumstances surrounding Turkey's decision to shoot down a Russian Su-24 near the Syrian border. The incident was the most meaningful escalation in the conflict to date and marks the first time a Russian or Soviet plane has been downed by NATO since 1953. The pilots ejected, one of whom was shot in his parachute by FSA-affiliated Alwiya al-Ashar militiamen who subsequently celebrated over the body. About an hour later, the FSA's 1st Coastal Brigade used a US-made TOW to destroy a Russian search and rescue helicopter, killing one Russian marine....

When Caley Godino pressed the button to Tweet out a message about low voter turnout in the Revere City Election and how it relates to people who are not here legally, she had no idea it would lead to threats of physical harm, cyber-bullying and, allegedly, getting kicked off the cheerleading team during her senior year. But that’s exactly what happened, said Godino and her family, including her mother Lauren Kelly, and they said they are trying to sort out why it is that Godino was punished for her comment, and others were not punished for the threats. “They just...

Armradio - Armenian delegates have raised the issue of violation of the Armenian air space by Turkish helicopters on the sidelines of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly's annual session held in Norway October 9-12. Member of the Armenian delegation Tevan Poghosyan has informed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg about the incident and addressed a letter to James Appathurai, the Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia and hopes to receive a response early in November. ... If NATO really values the inviolability of borders of its member states, it would be reasonable for the Alliance to serve an...

CHANDLER - A pastor was hoping to start a community conversation on racial equality when he and his predominantly white congregation installed a sign supporting the Black Lives Matter movement outside their Chandler church. Among the first people they heard from were vandals, who altered and then stole the sign. "(Congregation members) were sad, but not resigned," said the Rev. Andy Burnette of the Valley Unitarian Universalists. "To see that it's still controversial to say black lives matter saddened some of those folks." A "Black Lives Matter" banner was hung in early November with more than 100 signatures from members...

Obama always claims he found out about scandals from the "news". He only ramps up the fight against ISIS, when the media's reporting makes it obvious that the group is still a problem. So he has an obvious solution. If the media would just stop covering ISIS, it wouldn't be a problem. “The media needs to help in this,” he said, admitting that it has been a “difficult week,” with the threat posed by ISIS becoming a primary focus in the media. “One of the things that has to happen is how we report on this has to maintain perspective,...

I posted a bit earlier on the panic the GOP Establishment finds itself in over the rise of Donald Trump and his apparent immunity from traditional laws of political behavior and consequences. They are becoming just as panicked about Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100%. Now a Super Pac run by a major Rubio supporter is attacking Ted Cruz for his vote to rein in the data collection efforts by the NSA. Some conservatives have wondered whether Ted Cruz’s support for the USA Freedom Act, which curtailed the National Security Agency’s ability to collect metadata from phone records in bulk, would...

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If you've seen news reports about suspicious state contracts or chemical waste pits or officials' text messages in the Waco biker shootout, you may notice a recurring theme: government records obtained through the Texas Public Information Act. Fortunately, our state’s public information law, created in the early 1970s, presumes government records are open unless a specific exemption in the law keeps the documents off-limits. The public has a right to know. That means all citizens - not only journalists - can access government records. "It's very easy," said award-winning reporter Melissa Correa of KRGV-TV in Weslaco, recently explaining her use...

Putin: Downing Of Jet A 'Stab In The Back' International powers call for calm as the Russian leader warns Turkey downing one of its jets will have "serious consequences". The shooting down of a Russian jet by Turkey is a "stab in the back" committed by "accomplices of terrorists", Vladimir Putin has said. The Sukhoi Su-24 was warned 10 times before being downed near the Syrian border by two Turkish F16 jets for violating the country's airspace, according to the Turkish military. A Turkish official said two Russian planes approached the Turkish border and were warned before one of them...

Turkey should be kicked out of NATO for downing the Russian jet near the Syrian border Tuesday because the country "is trying to establish their own Ottoman Empire again," retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely told Newsmax TV. "They're moving very much to the Islamic State — and they've been no help in supporting the opposition forces against Assad," Vallely said, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on "The Steve Malzberg Show" in an interview. "They've been hitting a lot of the Kurds, as you know, up north in Syria and the northern part of Iraq." Despite the downing of...

Governor-elect John Bel Edwards told Republican House leaders Tuesday afternoon that he backed New Orleans Rep. Walt Leger III, a fellow Democrat as Speaker of the House, Majority Leader Lance Harris said. The Republican majority in the Louisiana House would prefer one its members in the top leadership role and passed a resolution to that effect during a meeting in the State Capitol. The 61 GOP representatives in the 105-member Louisiana House met for several hours behind closed doors to discuss how to handle the incoming administration of a Democratic Party governor. Traditionally, Louisiana governors choose the leaders of each...

Cyprus deports six Frenchmen detained at airport on suspicion of extremist links amid fears they were heading for Syria Cyprus today deported six French citizens who had been detained at the island's main airport on suspicion of extremist links - but were later said not to be a danger. But police in France said all six were known to the authorities there and that three of them were subject to an 'S File', meaning they were suspected of links to a terrorist group. The six - five men of Turkish descent and one of Algerian origin - were detained on...

Monday, November 23, 2015 Everything's Fine Until the Bombs Go Off Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog Last month, French President Francois Hollande ridiculed the idea that the massive numbers of Muslim migrants entering his country were any kind of threat. “Those who argue that we are being invaded are manipulators and falsifiers, who do this only for political reasons, to scare,” the left-wing politician huffed. And then the pudgy little Socialist had to be rapidly evacuated from France’s national soccer stadium after one of those refugees blew himself up trying to reach Monsieur le Président, and...

Canada remains committed to taking in 25,000 Syrian refugees but will only welcome 10,000 of them by year's end, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government said Tuesday, according to AFP. The Liberal government, which had pledged to take in the full number of refugees this year, said another 15,000 would now arrive in 2016, by the end of February. The delay follows criticisms that Ottawa was moving too fast amid security concerns in the aftermath of deadly attacks in Paris. "Canadians have said do this right and if it takes a little longer to do it, then take the time," Immigration...

A New Hampshire agency has rejected efforts to keep four presidential candidates off the ballot. The New Hampshire Ballot Commission upheld New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner's decision to allow Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on the Democratic primary ballot and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), as well as real estate mogul Donald Trump on the GOP primary ballot. Commission Chairman Bradford Cook said all decisions were unanimous. The decision on Sanders came in response to a complaint that argued was he was ineligible to run as a Democrat because he was elected and currently serves as...

The answer is less than 24 hours after he was elected. John Bel Edwards tried to run an issue free campaign for governor. Instead, he made the election about David Vitter’s character. While he was busy destroying a good man, Edwards didn’t really go into his vision for Louisiana. Despite his best efforts though, he made some promises to the state. One of them was to hold two special sessions this coming year to deal with structural budget crisis the state is in. Here’s John Bel Edwards making the case via some questions posed on social media. Plans or priorities...

Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, senator, and first lady who is now running for president stepped in it with a Sunday tweet on the subject of rape. She tweeted, "Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported." It was a case of Hillary believing that accusations of rape and sexual assault were distractions before she believed that they were serious. Of course, as many people who responded to her tweet pointed out, those accusations involved her husband, former President Bill Clinton. The names of the women whom Bill Clinton is said to have assaulted...

Network TV representatives decided Monday not to fight restrictions imposed by Donald Trump's campaign on reporters covering the Republican presidential front-runner. In a conference call, the political-news chiefs of the five leading news networks conferred about the issue but came to no agreement about what to do, several people familiar with the discussion said. The call among news managers from ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News came after two run-ins between network journalists and Trump officials last week. ... In interviews, officials from two networks described the conflicts between Lewandowski and reporters last week as an...

BOSTON -- Massachusetts voters are feeling positive about Gov. Charlie Baker and more of the state's independents plan to vote in the Republican presidential primary than the Democratic Party contest, according to a Suffolk University poll for the Boston Globe published Tuesday. Baker received a roughly 70/15 favorable/unfavorable rating, besting U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (54/34), Boston Mayor Marty Walsh (54/15), Attorney General Maura Healey (43/14) and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (47/28). About 47 percent of those surveyed Thursday-Sunday agreed with a stance attributed to Baker and 25 governors that "do not want to accept Syrian refugees in their states," while...