In no particular order:
The U.S. has lost track of some of Syria’s chemical weapons, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday, and does not know if any potentially lethal chemicals have fallen into the hands of Syrian rebels or Iranian forces inside the country.
“There has been intelligence that there have been some moves that have taken place. Where exactly that’s taken place, we don’t know.” Panetta said, in a Pentagon press briefing.
Panetta said that the “main sites” in Syria storing chemical weapons with which the Pentagon is most concerned remain secured by the Syrian military. But there is “some intelligence” that “limited” movements of weapons from other sites have occurred, he said, “for the Syrians to better secure what they – the chemicals.”
Panetta's statement follows reporting that Syrian rebels claim to have taken control of a military base that contains chemical weapons.
Syria’s chemical weapons are top concern for the U.S. and for regional allies worried that they could let be stolen by rebels or terrorists organizations, or given to Iran for safekeeping. Another fear is that President Bashar al-Assad also could use them against neighboring countries, including Israel, to defense against potential outside military intervention by NATO, the U.S., or other powers. Panetta's comments come as rebels say they've begun a major battle for Aleppo "on all fronts."
Hundreds of shops were burning in the ancient covered market of the Old City of Aleppo on Saturday as fighting between rebels and state forces in Syria's largest city threatened to destroy a UNESCO world heritage site. By noon on Saturday, 40 people had been killed in fighting across Syria, according to the Observatory for Human Rights.
Activists said the fire might have been started by heavy shelling and gunfire on Friday and estimated that 700 to 1,000 shops had been destroyed so far. The accounts are difficult to verify because the government restricts access to foreign media.
Aleppo's Old City is one of several locations in Syria declared world heritage sites by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, that are now at risk from the fighting.
The US Embassy in Cairo issued a terrorist threat warning on Friday for American citizens living in Egypt.
The diplomatic mission stated on its website that it has “credible information suggesting terrorist interest in targeting US female missionaries in Egypt.”
The embassy urged US citizens to “exercise vigilance, taking necessary precautions to maintain their personal security.” Americans in Egypt were also advised to maintain valid travel documents and to regularly monitor the US Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs website, which lists updated travel warnings and alerts.
The Obama administration notified Congress on Friday that it planned to transfer $450 million to Egypt to help the country's new government, but the move was quickly blocked by a skeptical lawmaker who said she saw no immediate need for the cash infusion.
Representative Kay Granger, the Texas Republican who chairs the House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee for foreign operations, said the administration's $450 million bailout proposal for Egypt was premature.
"This proposal comes to Congress at a point when the US - Egypt relationship has never been under more scrutiny, and rightly so," Granger said.
"I am not convinced of the urgent need for this assistance, and I cannot support it at this time," she said, adding that she had put a hold on the funds.Granger's action reflects unease among some US lawmakers over the new Islamist government that has taken the reins in Egypt after a pro-democracy uprising overthrew longtime US ally Hosni Mubarak last year.
The Palestinian Authority will submit a resolution seeking enhanced UN observer status for ‘Palestine’ later this year after the U.S. presidential election, a Palestine Liberation Organization official said on Friday.
"We have begun consultations on the format of the text that will be presented to the General Assembly to upgrade the Palestinian status to an observer state status," Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO's executive committee, was quoted by AFP as having told reporters.
"Most people are looking at the completion of consultations before the end of the year. There are others who have suggested that we target the 29th of November because it's the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People."
"The president said openly that he is not going to present it before the American elections," on November 6, she added.
A “serious diplomatic incident” took place in Russia on Friday when Russian officials strip-searched Israeli security personnel accompanying an Israeli minister on an official visit, the Foreign Ministry stated Friday.
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov was asked to represent the Israeli government at an economic conference in Nizhny Novgorod, about 420 kilometers east of Moscow. When he arrived on Friday at the hotel where the event was held, officials of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) approached the security guards accompanying Misezhnikov and asked to check them to ascertain they were unarmed, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said in a statement.
“Despite the minister’s explanations that this was a ministerial delegation, and that the guards are unarmed, the Russians forced the Israeli security guards to accompany them to a side room, where they forced them to undress for inspection,” Palmor stated.
The Israeli Embassy in Moscow immediately turned to the Russian Foreign Ministry in “vehement protest” and the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem filed a “vigorous protest” with Russia’s ambassador in Israel, Palmor added.
In meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told his international counterparts that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was the biggest obstacle to a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.
Speaking with the foreign ministers of Russia, France and Spain, among others, Liberman focused his criticism on Abbas’s 30-minute UN speech on Thursday, which accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and planning a new “nakba,” or catastrophe, for the Palestinians.
According to a statement issued by Liberman’s office, the foreign minister told diplomats, “As long as Abbas continues to hold office, there is no chance that Israelis and Palestinians will come to an agreement.” He added that “Abbas is the main and biggest obstacle currently facing the peace process.”
Liberman noted the Israeli government had recently transferred funds to the PA, effectively saving it from financial collapse.
“But that didn’t prevent Abbas from delivering a speech full of slander and incitement against Israel, a speech that we would have expected to hear from the leaders of Iran or Hamas,” Liberman reportedly told counterparts.
Israel issued a complaint to Russia on Friday after bodyguards for Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov were forced to strip as part of a weapons search during an official visit by the minister to the city of Nizhni Novgorod on Friday.
Miseznikov arrived at a hotel in the city to attend an economic conference, when members of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) asked the bodyguards to enter a room and disrobe in order to prove that they were not armed.
The Russian officials insisted on the search despite Miseznikov's explanations that they were part of an official ministerial delegation that was invited to the conference and they were unarmed.
Like the Big Marxist Lie, the die has already been cast. Everything that had to be said has already been said and has been recycled by a fraudulent mainstream media.
Don’t allow the news of the day depress you. It is part of the plan to demoralize you. Don’t get waylaid along the way by those hanging on to their free telephone like it is a lifeline. Don’t look behind you; don’t look away, don’t lose your focus. Keep a mental picture of your children and grandchildren in mind between now and whenever you get to exercise your vote.
On the way to the voting booth, you’ve being pummeled with faux poll results. The truth about the polls—they’re skewed—is the same truth about the presidential election. It’s not just another election, it is in fact the end of the line if the activist president who wants to fundamentally transform America gets four more years to continue his evil and deliberate mission.
Like the propaganda dished out daily by the mainstream media, the skewed polls serve only Obama and Obama election team strategy.
They create the perception that only Obama is in the presidential race; that only Obama can win.
Skewed polls aim to demoralize Americans seeking deliverance from Obama’s Marxist misery.
That’s because the poll that matters most is the one they count up when polls close on Election Night.
To get there from here, discount all the white noise created by the talking heads. They know no more than you do. They just have the byline, the mic and the television camera.
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