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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/1/2014 10:52:59 AM

Germany to send anti-tank weapons, rifles to Iraqi Kurds

AFP

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen gives a press statement on August 31, 2014 in Berlin (AFP Photo/Tobias Schwarz )


Berlin (AFP) - Germany will send anti-tank rocket launchers, rifles and hand grenades to support Iraqi Kurds battling jihadist militants fighting for the Islamic State, the defence ministry announced Sunday.

The move followed a meeting of ministers led by Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin to discuss what Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen described as an "extremely critical" situation in Iraq.

Islamic State (IS) militants are acting with "merciless brutality", she told a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, adding the international community had to support the persecuted.

The equipment, which will be delivered in three stages, will include 30 anti-tank missiles, 16,000 assault rifles, 8,000 pistols as well as portable anti-tank rocket launchers, the defence ministry said.

As well as weapons, Germany plans to send other items such as tents, helmets and radio equipment, according to a list from the defence ministry.

The first deliveries of German weapons will be able to equip about 4,000 soldiers by the end of September, von der Leyen said.

The equipment, which has been taken out of German army reserves, is valued at 70 million euros ($92 million), the defence ministry said on its website.

"The terror group, Islamic State, is a deadly threat for hundreds of thousands," Steinmeier told reporters.

Germany said on August 20 that it was ready to send weapons to support the Iraqi Kurds.

The Sunni IS and its allies control swathes of both northern and western Iraq and neighbouring northeastern Syria, where they have committed a spate of atrocities that have shocked the world.

Sending military hardware is unusual for Germany which, burdened by its past aggression in two world wars, often shies away from foreign military engagements and as a rule does not export weapons into live conflict zones.

Critics oppose the idea of sending weapons to a warzone where fighters and arms can quickly change sides.

Germany's decision follows similar moves by several other countries, including the US, Italy, France and Britain.

Chancellor Merkel will address a special session of the Bundestag lower house of parliament on the issue Monday, after which lawmakers will hold a non-binding vote.

The government shift has been politically difficult in Germany, where recent opinion polls have shown broad opposition to arms shipments to Iraq.

A total of 60 percent of respondents were against the idea, and only 34 percent in favour, in an Infratest dimap poll for ARD public television taken on August 26 and 27, and published Friday.

Related Video


Germany to help arm Kurds in Iraq


Iraqi Kurds face an "extremely critical" situation in their battle against Islamic State militants, a German official says.
Merciless brutality


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/1/2014 11:03:31 AM
Thank you
Please visit the website www.goldenduas.com towards public safety and peace in the world
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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/1/2014 11:09:49 AM

Judge temporarily blocks law that could close all Louisiana abortion clinics

Reuters


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By Jonathan Kaminsky

NEW ORLEANS La. (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge on Sunday temporarily blocked enforcement of a Louisiana law that advocates say would likely have closed all five abortion clinics in the state.

The measure, signed into law by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal in June and due to take effect Sept. 1, would require doctors who perform abortions to have patient admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their practice.

However, the judge's ruling means that for the time being doctors can continue to perform legal abortions while seeking such privileges.

"Plaintiffs will be allowed to operate lawfully while continuing their efforts to obtain privileges," Federal Judge John deGravelles wrote in the decision.

A hearing will be scheduled within a month for the judge to make a more permanent ruling on the law.

Abortion rights activists applauded the decision, the latest in a string of rulings against similar measures, saying it would give doctors more time to seek hospital privileges.

"Today’s ruling ensures Louisiana women are safe from an underhanded law that seeks to strip them of their health and rights," said Nancy Northup, president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which sued to block the law on behalf of three of the state's five clinics.

It was not immediately clear whether the ruling applied to doctors from the two clinics who were not plaintiffs in the suit and have also applied for admitting privileges.

Louisiana is among 11 states that have passed similar laws, with courts recently ruling unconstitutional such measures in Alabama and Mississippi. Key parts of a Texas law that would have shuttered most remaining clinics in that state were blocked by a federal judge on Friday.

Abortion rights campaigners, along with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association, say admitting privileges laws impose medically unnecessary requirements on doctors.

Anti-abortion advocates have countered that the measures aim to protect women's health, though some have also lauded their effect of shuttering clinics.

Only one doctor who performs abortions in Louisiana has hospital admitting privileges, the Center for Reproductive Rights said.

If all other doctors in the state are forced to stop performing abortions, that doctor, fearful for his safety, would stop carrying out the procedure, the group said.


In arguing against the ruling, Louisiana officials said they would not punish doctors performing abortions while their applications for admitting privileges were pending.

(Reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans and Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler and Clarence Fernandez)



Judge temporarily blocks Louisiana abortion law



The measure, set to take effect Sept. 1, would likely have closed all five abortion clinics in the state.
Implications for doctors



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/1/2014 11:24:34 AM
Quote:
Thank you

You are welcome, dear Ibrahim. When you see Israel's behavior and attitude and the brutality from both sides, both Zechahriah and the Holy Quran verses make sense.


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
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61587
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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/1/2014 4:19:06 PM

Ukraine troops abandon airport 'in face of Russian assault'

AFP

Smoke rises from explosions on the outskirts of Lugansk, eastern Ukraine during shelling on August 26, 2014. (AFP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)


Kiev (AFP) - Ukrainian forces were forced to retreat from Lugansk airport in the face of a Russian troop attack as Moscow soldiers moved into key eastern cities Monday, Kiev said, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin evoked "statehood" discussions for the conflict-torn east.

Putin accused Europe of ignoring the Ukrainian military's "direct targeting" of civilians in the conflict and said the offensive pushed by insurgents there were simply an attempt to expel Kiev's forces from residential areas.

He also urged the EU to show "common sense" after its threat to impose more sanctions on Moscow over the months-long crisis that has sank East-West relations to their lowest level since the Cold War.

The latest accusations of Russian troops partaking in the fighting that has pitted pro-Moscow rebels against Kiev's troops came as a "contact group" of Russian, Ukrainian and OSCE representatives was due to discuss the conflict during a meeting in Minsk.

Ukraine's defence minister said that Russian troops were moving in the main cities of Lugansk and Donetsk.

"The information that Russian troops are there has been confirmed," Valeriy Geletey told Ukraine's Inter channel late Sunday.

"We are fighting Russia and it is Russia which is deciding what will happen in the Donbass," he said referring to the informal name for Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

President Petro Poroshenko meanwhile told military cadets in Kiev on Monday that "the situation has aggravated in recent days - there is direct, overt aggression against Ukraine from the neighbouring state."

Kiev military spokesmen said that after an hours-long battle against a "reinforced tank battalion of the Russian armed forces," Ukrainian troops retreated from their positions south of rebel bastion Lugansk.

"Ukrainian soldiers received an order and made an organised retreat from the Lugansk airport and Georgiyivka village," security spokesman Andriy Lysenko said. "Judging by the precision of the strikes, professional artillery men of the Russian armed forces are the ones firing."

The retreat marked the latest setback for Ukrainian troops, which had been closing in on rebels in Donetsk and Lugansk until about a week ago, when the insurgents opened a new front in the south, with, according to Kiev and NATO, the help of regular Russian troops.

Since then, the rebels' lightning offensive has forced Ukrainian army units to abandon numerous positions in the south and east and geared up to defend the strategic port of Mariupol, which had been peaceful for months after government troops routed the rebels in May.

AFP correspondents said the presence of Ukrainian army in the region has visibly decreased in recent days, with another checkpoint in the western outskirts of the rebel hub Donetsk disappearing Monday.

- 'Immediate ceasefire' -

Kiev and the West have repeatedly accused Russia of direct involving in the pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine, with NATO saying last week that Russia had more than 1,000 of its troops deployed in Ukraine and 20,000 massed on the border.

Russia has repeatedly denied the charges, with Sergei Lavrov saying on Monday in the latest rebuttal: "There will be no military intervention (in Ukraine), we are for an exclusively peaceful resolution of that most serious crisis, that tragedy."

Lavrov also called for an "immediate ceasefire" to be discussed by Russian, Ukrainian and OSCE representatives meeting in Minsk later on Monday.

"I am very much counting upon the negotiations set for today, to above all focus on agreeing an immediate and unconditional ceasefire," Lavrov said.

A day after the EU warned Moscow that it would slap it with fresh sanctions unless it reversed course in the crisis within a week, Putin said: "I hope that common sense will prevail" and urged the bloc to "work together normally" with Moscow.

The Russian ruble slid to a record low of 37.39 to the US dollar on the latest developments, though the Russian stock markets were broadly stable after opening Monday.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed over 2,600 people since mid-April, and shelling continued Monday in Lugansk region, residents said.

"The town is being erased off the face of the earth," said Yelena Proidak, the resident of Petrovske, a town between Donetsk and Lugansk.

"Several five-story buildings were destroyed over the weekend," she told AFP by phone. "There is no normal life here."






Big changes are in store for Ukraine's army, which has been fleeing rebel forces, President Poroshenko says.
Putin calls for talks



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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