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A gunman shot and wounded three people on a train travelling between Amsterdam and Paris before the assailant was overpowered by passengers, a spokesman for French state rail company SNCF said. The incident happened near Arras in northern France shortly after 4pm GMT

The United States said Thursday it was concerned by the number of illegal Palestinian residential structures Israel demolished this month in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. “We are also very troubled by the recent escalation of demolitions and evictions, which include the destruction of dozens of structures and the displacement of over 150 people in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this month alone,” US State Department Spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday. “Such demolitions and evictions are harmful and provocative and indicative of a damaging trend, particularly given settlement-related activity and continued construction in the West Bank and...

Moscow (AFP) - Russia's battered ruble fell Thursday on the back of weaker oil prices to more than 75 to the euro for the first time in over six months, deepening its recent decline. The ruble also tumbled against the dollar to near 67.44, its weakest against the greenback since February. Russia's currency has fallen more than 20 percent against the dollar in the past two months, sparking fears of more instability after a period of relative recovery. Russia's economy has slumped into recession amid lower oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

The presidential administration that vowed to be the most transparent since the baptism of Nkuwu Nzinga has once again demonstrated that such vows mean nothing to it. In addition to the secretive manner in which Secretary of State John Kerry conducted negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran over its nuclear program — in itself secretive — there was also the matter of secret “side deals” between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. And now, additional side deals, this time between President Barack Obama and the leaders of foreign governments, have also come to light. Republican Sens. Marco Rubio...

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is reportedly resigning, and Greece will hold snap elections on September 20. According to Reuters, which cites a Greek government official, Tsipras will hand in his resignation on Thursday. Reuters added that Greece was likely to hold snap elections on September 20, less than a year after Tsipras and Greece's left-wing Syriza party were voted into power in late January. Tsipras is set to make an address later on Thursday. The Greek newspaper Kathimerini had earlier reported that elections would most likely be announced on Thursday. This latest round of elections come as Syriza has...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Since his party's impressive election victory in May, Prime Minister David Cameron is moving quickly to fulfill his campaign promise to ensure welfare benefits are no longer a way of life for many of his fellow citizens. Instead of open-ended benefits for the unemployed, the government, beginning in April 2017, will require young people between 18 and 21 who don't have jobs, but are collecting welfare, to attend three-week "boot camps" to prepare them for work in a rapidly improving economy. If they refuse, they will be denied benefits if they are unemployed for six months....

I AM moving you into Michael's Domain , Your life will never be the same , For from Glory to Glory I will bring you to see, The Truth of My Majesty, So hold onto My virtue for here we go, Straight through Zion's gates and onto the show, Where truly myriads of Angels you shall see, And the fullness of My glory, For few are the eyes that look into, My glory that not even Moses then knew, But now even He you shall find there, Sitting beside Me in his chair, Yet I have reserved a place for...

Intelligence officials are comparing a newly discovered secret Islamic State document to Hitler's "Mein Kampf," as it blames Israel for the rise of the Islamic State and crowns U.S. President Barack Obama as the "Mule of the Jews." Found in Pakistan's remote tribal region by American Media Institute (AMI), the 32-page Urdu language document promotes an "end of the world" battle as a final solution. It argues that the Islamic leader should be recognized as the sole ruler of the world's 1 billion Muslims, under a religious empire called a "caliphate." ...Retired U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Director Gen. Michael Flynn...

Outside the island's main police station, about 50 migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran threw stones and exchanged blows as tempers boiled over in the intense mid-summer heat. Riot police stood by without intervening. The migrants have little chance of getting aboard the ship, the Eleftherios Venizelos, as priority is being given to Syrians, who are treated as refugees as they are fleeing their country's civil war and have greater rights under international law than economic migrants. All have crossed the narrow stretch of water from Turkey in small boats and dinghies as they try to find a better life...

Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has pledged to block any future attempts by the UN to hit Iran with fresh sanctions. "When Resolution 1929, the last series of sanctions resolutions, was adopted… we made it clear behind closed doors to our US and EU colleagues that Russia will not let another sanctions resolution against Iran be passed," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Friday. Resolution 1929 was approved by the Security Council in June 2010, banning the supply of conventional weapons to Iran. It resulted in the suspension of Russia’s contract...

The U.S. came within seconds of launching a nuclear strike on Russia ,unleashing WW3 during the coldest period of the Cold War, according to secret documents revealed by a historian. Washington and Russia came extremely close to a massive nuclear war because of a faulty 46-cent component that caused a computer glitch, according to the documents. The secret documents were revealed and detailed in a book by American author Eric Schlosser titled Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. The documents include over 1,000 accidents with nuclear weapons that occurred due to the negligence...

It does not bode well that an Obama administration that assures us that the nuclear deal with Iran will not be violated by the mullahs is clearly looking the other way as Iran’s ally Russia blatantly violates the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed with the former Soviet Union. The Obama White House is sitting on a Pentagon risk assessment report completed last month that states “that the breach involved a new missile that violates the limits set by the treaty. The treaty bans holding, producing, or flight-testing ground-launched ballistic or cruise missiles with ranges of between 310 miles...

President Obama’s July 31 phone call organized by the anti-Israel group J Street and other progressive Jewish groups could be summed up in one sentence: Please help because, those rich people are helping those warmongering Jews to fight this wonderful Iran deal because they don’t like me and they want war just like they did in Iraq. In the 20 minute call Obama said that opponents of the Iran deal come from the same “array of forces that got us into the Iraq war” and that a “bunch of billionaires who happily finance super PACs” are “putting the squeeze on...

Finance ministers from the euro zone were meeting in Brussels on Friday expecting to give their final blessing to lending Greece up to 85.5 billion euros after parliament in Athens agreed to stiff conditions overnight. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, long the most powerful skeptic on the merits of giving Greece a third bailout to keep it in the EU's common currency area, voiced optimism as the meeting began that it would end with an accord that will give Athens the funds needed to meet a loan repayment next week. However, some issues still need to be ironed out following...

Once thought dead and buried on the battlefields of Iraq, a muscular and militaristic "neoconservative" approach to US foreign policy is making a comeback. For most of the last decade, the "neocons" -- personified by former vice president Dick Cheney and ex-Pentagon boss Donald Rumsfeld -- have been out of office and out of fashion. But the 2016 presidential race has seen Republican candidates embrace ideas and advisors once ostracized for the catastrophes and hubris of George W. Bush's "preemptive war" in Iraq. During last week's Republican presidential debates, 17 candidates tripped over themselves to declare President Barack Obama weak...

A divided Hellenic parliament has approved a third bailout for the country in five years, amid protests in Athens. The tense vote has lead to divisions within the ruling Syriza party, with snap elections on the horizon. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was handed a pyrrhic victory early Friday after opposition legislators approved a 85-billion-euro ($94.8 billion) bailout to keep the country financially afloat. A clear majority of 222 MPs approved the 400-page text containing the bailout conditions - there were over 64 who voted against and 11 abstentions. However, only 118 of the 162 members of Tsipras' governing coalition...

On August 4, 2015, the French Navy (Marine Nationale) took over full responsibility and the effective command of ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) Le Triomphant (S616). This transfer of responsibility is an important milestone following the refit period started in May 2013 for maintenance, repairs, modernization and adaptation to the M51 new generation submarine launched ballistic missile (SLMB). Le Triomphant will now start some trials at sea before returning in the operational cycle. An NH90 NFH Caiman transfers personnel on board French Navy Le Triomphant class SSBN. Picture: V.Guyoton © Marine Nationale Le Triomphant, head of the class commissioned in 1997,...

Air France on Wednesday responded to popular backlash and put Israel back on its in-flight maps, after shocked passengers documented how the maps wiped Israel out even while listing “West Bank” and “Gaza Strip”—areas that don’t even have flight service. […] The issue was first publicized by the pro-Israel group Stand With Us, which two weeks ago published photos of the map with the text: “Apparently, Air France removed Israel/Tel Aviv from their flight tracker map, despite the fact Tel Aviv is one of their official destinations. Additionally, they now note ‘West Bank’ and ‘Gaza Strip’ despite the fact neither...

Germany is again agitating for other European countries to take what they believe to be their ‘fair’ share of refugees coming to the continent with a stark warning that failing to do so could see the collapse of the EU.Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel made the remarks on Monday, reiterating the frequently made claim that some nations take a heavier than necessary burden, and others have an unarguable responsibility to get involved. Conveniently ignoring the fact that right-wing nation Hungary takes the highest number of migrants per capita in Europe, Gabriel said: “Germany, Sweden, and Austria take on most of the...

The 13th June marks the anniversary of the day Wat Tyler led the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 into London. The English capital descended into chaos as the peasants burnt and looted the city, cementing the revolt as the most significant peasant uprising in the feudal period of English history. Originating in the South-East of England, it was when the revolt reached London that its significance became apparent. The peasants went on to capture the Tower of London, a feat which had never been done before. Two powerful figures, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the King’s Treasurer, were killed by the...