Obama Sees Potential ‘Breakthrough’ in Russia’s Syria Proposal

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syria_alqaedaRussia and Syria embraced Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s suggestion Monday that the Syrian government could avert a U.S. attack by placing its chemical weapons under international control, upending the Obama administration’s efforts to sharpen its case for military action.

U.S. officials said Kerry’s comment, made in response to a question at a news conference in London, was not intended to be a diplomatic opening. But Kerry’s Russian and Syrian counterparts quickly followed up, and the idea drew immediate interest internationally and from top Democrats in Washington.

By the end of the day, President Obama conceded that the idea of monitoring and ultimately destroying Syria’s arsenal “could potentially be a significant breakthrough.” The Senate postponed a vote scheduled for Wednesday on whether to back a proposed punitive strike.

“I think you have to take it with a grain of salt, initially,” Obama said in an interview with NBC that was among several he gave Monday in pursuit of public backing for a military strike in response to an alleged Aug. 21 gas attack on Syrian civilians.

“We are going to run this to ground,” Obama said. “We’re going to make sure that we see how serious these proposals are.”

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Afghan Interpreter who Saved US Soldier Gets Long-Awaited Visa

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Photo Credit: MATT ZELLER

Photo Credit: MATT ZELLER

The Afghan interpreter credited with saving an Army intelligence officer only to become a target of the Taliban, has been granted a visa and could come to the United States as soon as next month.

Janis Shinwari, whose cause was embraced by Medal of Honor winner and U.S. Marine Dakota Meyer, along with more than 100,000 people who signed a petition at Change.org, saved Army Officer Matt Zeller in a 2008 firefight with insurgents, according to Zeller. The grateful Zeller has been aggressively lobbying for a visa for Shinwari for nearly two years, since Shinwari, 35, began getting death threats. On Monday, the pair spoke by phone after learning the State Department had finally processed the paperwork.

“Janis gave me the news a short while ago via Facebook chat — and then I called him,” Zeller told FoxNews.com. “It was very emotional. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him that happy. He started telling me about how excited he is and that he expects to have flights and housing arranged by IOM (the organization that handles that aspect of it) within 30-40 days.

“We started talking about how our kids (I have a daughter about the same age as his youngest) will grow up together and be friends,” Zeller added. “I still can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that in a few weeks I’ll be able to talk to him in person.

Shinwari applied to move to the U.S. in 2011 under a special immigration program begun in 2009 for people who helped U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. The program, designated to help interpreters and other allies from the Iraq war, expires at the end of this month absent an extension. The Afghan version would go away in September 2014 without a new law.

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Obama Offers Assad Secret Deal

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

On the eve of a critical Capitol Hill discussion on Syria and two days before his address to the nation, President Obama offered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a way out of any U.S. bombing campaign.

Informed Middle Eastern intelligence officials tell WND the U.S. passed a message to Assad through Russia offering a deal that would ensure against U.S. military action if the Syrian leader agrees to the following terms:

Serious political reforms that will result in free and fair presidential elections.

Assad will not be allowed to run in future presidential elections and agrees to step down from power.

An international committee will supervise control of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.

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Village ‘Liberated’ by Rebels… Who then Forced Christians to Convert to Islam

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Terrified Christians claim Syrian rebels ordered them to convert to Islam on pain of death when they ‘liberated’ their ancient village.

Opposition forces, including fighters linked to Al Qaeda, gained temporary control of the Christian village of Maaloula after fighting with regime forces.

The reports have reignited fears about western support for the rebel groups, which are increasingly being infiltrated by Islamic extremists.

One Maaloula resident said the rebels, many of whom had beards and shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great), attacked Christian homes and churches shortly after moving into the village.

‘They shot and killed people. I heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in the old quarters of the village. Where is President Obama to see what has befallen us?’

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Thousands Show for German anti-NSA Protest

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German_protestThousands took to the streets in Berlin Saturday in protests against Internet surveillance activities by the US National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies, and the German government’s perceived lax reaction to them.

Organisers, among them the opposition Greens, The Left and Pirates parties, said 20,000 people turned out. Police would not confirm the figure, saying only their “tally differs from that of the organisers”.

The protest was organised under the slogan “Freedom Rather Than Fear” and demonstrators carried banners saying: “Stop spying on us” and, more sarcastically: “Thanks to PRISM (the US government’s vast data collection programs) the government finally knows what the people want.”

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Truth Leaking Out? Nerve Gas Points to Rebels

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

Former U.S. intelligence analysts claim current intelligence analysts have told them Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not responsible for the Aug. 21 poison gas attack on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, which killed 1,429 people, of whom more than 400 where children.

They claim the “growing body of evidence” reveals the incident was a pre-planned provocation by the Syrian opposition and its Saudi and Turkish supporters.

“The aim is reported to have been to create the kind of incident that would bring the United States into the war,” one former U.S. intelligence analysts said.

The analysts referred to a meeting a week before the Aug. 21 incident in which opposition military commanders ordered preparations for an “imminent escalation” due to a “war-changing development” that would be followed by the “U.S.-led bombing of Syria.”

In addition, the former U.S. analysts said that Israel welcomed limited U.S. military action but not so much that it would strengthen rebel groups, which are “increasingly dominated by Sunni jihadis.”

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Syria Crisis: Kerry Says West Must Not Be ‘Silent Spectators to the Slaughter’

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

Barack Obama is keeping his options open and is yet to decide whether the US will delay possible military action against the Syrian government until after a United Nations report on the Assad regime’s alleged chemical weapons attack, John Kerry said on Saturday.

The US secretary of state travelled to Europe on Friday for a three-day visit, aiming to boost international backing for a possible strike in retaliation for the suspected use of chemical weapons in Damascus on 21 August.

Kerry addressed reporters in Paris alongside Laurent Fabius, France’s foreign minister. France has emerged as the US’s key ally as it attempts to persuade the international community to support action against Syria.

While European Union foreign ministers issued a strongly-worded statement on Saturday, condemning the attack and suggesting there is “strong evidence that the Syrian regime is responsible”, the EU said that military retaliation should not occur until the UN inspectors have delivered their report.

Kerry compared Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, to Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler, repeating his contentious claim, made earlier in the week, that the trio are the only leaders to have used chemical weapons since the Geneva Protocol against such methods was signed in 1925.

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Palestinian Authority Takes $148M from US, Doles Out ‘Grants’ to Convicted Terrorists

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The Palestinian Authority is doling out millions of dollars in cash grants to convicted terrorists recently released from Israeli prisons in a program announced the same day as the P.A. accepted $148 million in the latest round of U.S. aid.

The authority announced Aug. 18 it would disburse $15 million in so-called “Dignified Life Grants” to more than 5,000 prisoners who had served more than five years in Israeli lockups, but had been recently released as a show of good faith by the Jewish state to bolster the Middle East peace process, according to Palestinian Media Watch.

The announcement came on the same day the State Department’s Michael Ratney, consulate general of the U.S. in Jerusalem, signed off on $148 million in aid to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, currently in the throes of a budget crisis.

Although the U.S. funnels about $400 million per year in aid to the authority, none of the money, by law, is supposed to go to terrorists or former terrorists. Critics say there is no way to separate money from U.S. taxpayers and the funds which go to the former prisoners.

“We have a lot of funding that goes to the PA that is fungible and co-mingled and there is a lot of concern the money is going to radical causes and extremist issues,” Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the bipartisan think tank, Foundation for Defense of Democracy, told FoxNews.com.

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Syria: Pope Warns Barack Obama that Military Strike Would be ‘futile’

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Photo Credit: ALESSANDRO DI

Photo Credit: ALESSANDRO DI

In a sharply-worded intervention in the debate on the Syrian conflict, Pope Francis also accused world leaders of having stood by and allowed a “senseless massacre” to unfold in the country.

The Pope wrote in a letter, delivered to Vladimir Putin but addressed to all the G20 leaders meeting: “To the leaders present, to each and every one, I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution.”

He added: “Rather, let there be a renewed commitment to seek, with courage and determination, a peaceful solution through dialogue and negotiation of the parties, unanimously supported by the international community.

“Moreover, all governments have the moral duty to do everything possible to ensure humanitarian assistance to those suffering because of the conflict, both within and beyond the country’s borders.”

The widespread killings in Syria had spiralled due to a lack of interest from the world, he said. “It is regrettable that, from the very beginning of the conflict in Syria, one-sided interests have prevailed and in fact hindered the search for a solution that would have avoided the senseless massacre now unfolding.”

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Workers’ Rights ‘Flouted’ at Apple iPhone Factory in China

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The new cheaper iPhone that Apple will unveil to a global audience on Tuesday is being produced under illegal and abusive conditions in Chinese factories owned by one of America’s largest manufacturing businesses, investigators have claimed.

Workers are asked to stand for 12-hour shifts with just two 30-minute breaks, six days a week, the non-profit organisation China Labor Watch has claimed. Staff are allegedly working without adequate protective equipment, at risk from chemicals, noise and lasers, for an average of 69 hours a week. Apple has a self-imposed limit of 60 working hours a week.

The problems were uncovered at a plant in Wuxi, near Shanghai, where Apple’s first low-cost handset, dubbed the iPhone 5C, is being produced. The plant is owned by Florida-based Jabil Circuit, a US company with 60 plants in 33 countries including Scotland, and a turnover of $17bn (£11bn) a year. Jabil said it had uncovered problems last month and was taking immediate steps to investigate the allegations. Apple said its experts were “already on site” to look into the claims.

“It is the duty of national governments to regulate the conduct of their companies abroad,” China Labor Watch argued. “The US government also shares in the responsibility for labour abuses committed by US companies manufacturing in China.”

Jabil has 30,000 employees at Wuxi, where cases for the colourful iPhone 5C are being . The majority are hired indirectly through employment agencies, the investigators claim. Local laws set a limit of 30% agency workers in any company’s workforce to prevent the exploitation of staff.

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