“There have been no Turkish airspace violations by the aircraft of the Russian airborne tactical formation [acting] in the Syrian Arab Republic. The statements from the Turkish side concerning the alleged air incursion by a Russian Su-34 are proof-less propaganda,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Iror Konashenkov said in a statement on Saturday.

He stressed that the airspace controlling radar stations that Turkey has can only determine the altitude, flight line, and speed of an aerial vehicle, but not its type or state affiliation. To determine which country owns the jet requires visual contact from another aircraft, Konashenkov emphasized, adding that no visual contact had been reported.

Follow RT ✔@RT_com VIDEO: #Syria jets provide cover for Russian bombers in first joint anti-#ISIS raid http://on.rt.com/71ui 6:39 PM - 14 Jan 2016 8383 Retweets 6969 likes

He denounced the claim that Russian pilots had been warned “in English and Russian” via radar as a story made up by“ignorant propagandists who watched too many Hollywood action movies.”

Konashenkov also stressed that neither Russia’s air defense systems in Syria, nor Syria’s airspace controlling radar stations, had recorded any violations of the air border between Syria and Turkey.

Turkey summons Russian envoy

Earlier on Saturday, Turkey summoned Russia’s ambassador, claiming a Russian fighter jet had violated its airspace. According to Ankara, the incident involved a Russian Su-34 and took place on Friday. Several warnings in Russian and in English were allegedly sent to the jet.

“We are making a clear call to the Russian Federation not to violate Turkish airspace, which is also NATO airspace,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday.

“We are emphasizing once again that the unwanted consequences of such irresponsible behavior will belong fully to the Russian Federation,” it added.

Follow GazeteUzay @gazeteuzay #SonDakika I Türk Dışişleri: 29 Ocak'ta Rusya'ya ait bir SU-34 uçağı Türk hava sahasını ihlâl etti. 10:55 AM - 30 Jan 2016 77 Retweets 11 like

The ministry also said it views the alleged violation as a clear sign that Russia is seeking to escalate already existing tensions.

At the same time, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced readiness to meet with Vladimir Putin in the wake of “the incident,” Reuters reports.

Russia’s envoy has already met with the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the Russian embassy in Ankara confirmed. No details on the meeting were provided.

Read more

‘I did not shoot down that plane’: Turkish PM says order to attack Russian Su-24 wasn’t his

NATO also reacted to the reports, with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calling “for calm and de-escalation”.

Stoltenberg urged Russia “to act responsibly and to fully respect NATO airspace,” as well as to “ensure that such violations do not happen again.”

In November, Turkey downed a Russian a Su-24 bomber, also claiming that it had violated the country’s airspace, albeit for 17 seconds. The plane went down in Syria. Moscow has denied that any breach occurred and has accused the Turkish government of supporting terrorist forces in Syria.

The incident provoked a deep political crisis between Ankara and Moscow. President Erdogan has so far refused to apologize for the incident and blamed the downing on the Russian pilots, one of which was killed in the incident.

As a result, Moscow imposed multiple sanctions on Ankara, banning agricultural trade with Turkey, reintroducing a visa regime, and suspending most bilateral economic projects, including the Turkish Stream gas pipeline construction project.

Moscow has been carrying out an anti-terrorist operation in neighboring Syria since September 2015 at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russia’s Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets, Su-34 and Su-24 tactical bombers, and Su-25 attack aircrafts have been carrying out airstrikes on Islamic State (IS, former ISIS, ISIL) and other Syrian terrorist groups.


(RT)

Bill Gates visiting a health centre in Awutu Senya, Ghana Getty Images

They are among the richest people on earth, have won plaudits for their fight to eradicate some of the world’s deadliest and prolific killers, and donated billions to better educate and feed the poorest on the planet.

Despite this, Bill and Melinda Gates are facing calls for their philanthropic Foundation, through which they have donated billions worldwide, to be subject to an international investigation, according to a controversial new report.

Far from a “neutral charitable strategy”, the Gates Foundation is about benefiting big business, especially in agriculture and health, through its “ideological commitment to promote neoliberal economic policies and corporate globalisation,” according to the report published by the campaign group Global Justice. Its influence is “dangerously skewing” aid priorities, the group says.

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“The world is being sold a myth that private philanthropy holds many of the solutions to the world’s problems, when in fact it is pushing the world in many wrong directions,” the report claims. The Gates Foundation is “being allowed to speak too loudly, and too many actors in international development are falling into line with the foundation’s misguided priorities.”

The group accuse the Gates Foundation of using its massive financial clout to silence international development experts and groups which would criticise its practices.

Bill Gates, the report claims, “who has regular access to world leaders and is in effect personally bankrolling hundreds of universities, international organisations, NGOs and media outlets, has become the single most influential voice in international development.”

Bill and Melinda Gates' foundation is accused of promoting private healthcare concerns (Getty)

At worst, the report’s authors claims, the Gates Foundation “often appears to be a massive, vertically integrated multinational corporation, controlling every step in a supply chain that reaches from its Seattle-based boardroom … to millions of end-users in the villages of African and south Asia.”

Lauded for their work in eradicating polio and malaria, amongst other diseases, the report accuses the Gates Foundation of funding privatised health and promoting an increased role for private education providers. The danger, the report says, is that it “turns basic needs into commodities controlled by the market”; such services are likely to be accessed mainly by the rich. It is critical of emphasis on single diseases and points out that this is being done at the neglect of basic health care systems. It also points out that during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, basic healthcare collapsed completely in parts of the region.

The report is critical of the close working relations between the Foundation and major international pharmaceutical corporations and points out many of the same firms have been criticised for their over-pricing of life-saving vaccines. It warns that philanthropic influence is skewing health priorities “towards the interests of wealthy donors (vaccines) rather than resilient health systems”.

Video: Bill Gates' goal to eradicate polio

It accuses the Gates Foundation of promoting specific priorities through agriculture grants, some of which undermine the interests of small farmers. These include promoting industrial agriculture, use of chemical fertilisers and expensive, patented seeds, and a focus on genetically modified seeds. “Much of the Foundation’s work appears to bypass local knowledge,” the report claims.

The criticism echoes the accusations made by the Indian scientist Vandana Shiva who called the Gates Foundation the “greatest threat to farmers in the developing world.”

READ MORE

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The Foundation’s emphasis on “technological solutions” often ignores real solutions involving social and economic justice, it argues. “This cannot be given by donors in the form of a climate-resilient crop or cheaper smartphone, but must be about systemic social, economic and political change – issues not represented in the foundation’s funding priorities.”

It calls for the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development to carry out an inquiry into the foundation’s work on top of a British Parliamentary inquiry.

The Gates Foundation said the report “misrepresented” its work. “Our mission is to improve quality of life for the world’s poorest people. This is a complex challenge, and solving it will require a range of approaches as well as the collaboration of governments, NGOs, academic institutions, for-profit companies and philanthropic organisations. Governments are uniquely positioned to provide the leadership and resources necessary to address structural inequalities and ensure that the right solutions reach those most in need. The private sector has access to innovations – for example, in science, medicine and technology – that can save lives. And we believe that the role of philanthropy is to take risks where others can’t or won’t.”

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Bill Gates briefly overtaken by Amancio Ortega as world’s richest man

All its work was guided by its partners, it insisted. It refuted claims that it was unaccountable, stating that it was one of the first to join the International Aid Transparency Initiative as well as reporting to the OECD.

Gabriella Stern, spokeswoman for the foundation, said: “For us, results are measured in lives saved and so we will continue to work with governments, non-profits, businesses, and other philanthropists to tackle the complex issues surrounding extreme poverty.

“The Gates Foundation has spent around $34.5bn since its inception, driven by its mission to help people around the world lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. This report rehashes a series of unfounded claims that have been made by others and found wanting.

“Much remains to be done but we are confident that the world is making progress. Working together over the last 15 years, the world has cut extreme poverty, child mortality and malaria deaths by half, reduced maternal mortality by nearly 50 percent, and driven new HIV infections down by 40 per cent.”

(independent.co.uk)

Khan Yunis (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Azza al-Najjar struggles in vain to keep her two-year-old warm by wrapping him in blankets in her prefabricated metal home as a winter storm lashes the Gaza Strip.

"The cold increases the suffering of people here," the 24-year-old mother says.

"My son has breathing problems and with the weather his condition has worsened."

The family have been staying in the temporary home in the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza since theirs was destroyed in the 2014 war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the enclave.

But recent rains battering the besieged Strip have seen schools and roads closed, while families like Najjar's have watched water and mud seep through the doorway into their homes.

She, her husband and two children -- the youngest of whom is just six months old -- live in a metal box just five metres (16 feet) by three metres.

It includes just one bedroom, a small corner for cooking and a bathroom.

"There is no electricity, water, food or gas," she says. "We don't even have firewood."

View gallery

"We live -- but that's only because we're not dead," says Samir al-Najjar, who bec …

Israel has for nearly a decade imposed a blockade on around 1.8 million people living in Gaza.

"Our life here is poverty, worries, blockade and homelessness."

- 'Cold like a morgue' -

Her husband Samir, bundled up under blankets, watches helplessly as water gushes past their home.

"We live -- but that's only because we're not dead," says the 30-year-old, who became wheelchair-bound after being shot by Israeli forces in 2008.

The family survives on donations from charities that "are not enough", he adds.

Their home is one of around 100 that an NGO from the United Arab Emirates built as a temporary measure after the war, but that are woefully inadequate for the winter rains.

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A Palestinian woman prepares food with her husband at their damaged house during a winter storm in B …

Some families have stretched plastic sheeting over their roofs in a bid to prevent leaks.

With UN schools closed by the weather, older kids play idly in the rain. Three huddle around a small fire in a desperate bid to warm frozen bones.

Life in a mobile home is "cold like a morgue in winter and like a furnace in summer," said Abdullah al-Najjar, 48, who also lives with six family members in one of the temporary shelters.

- Aid delayed -

Azza al-Najjar stresses that speeding up the reconstruction of Gaza is the "most important thing" for her family.

The United Nations has completely rebuilt just one of the 20,000 homes rendered totally uninhabitable in the July-August 2014 war.

Over 120,000 more homes were at least partly damaged, according to the United Nations.

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The United Nations has completely rebuilt just one of the 20,000 homes rendered totally uninhabitabl …

Tens of thousands of them have undergone repairs with its assistance, the UN says, but many families are still waiting for funds.

The 50-day conflict -- which included an extensive Israeli bombing campaign -- killed 2,200 Palestinians and 73 people on the Israeli side, and left much of Gaza in ruins.

An agreement between the Palestinian government, Israel and the United Nations allows in a small amount of building materials for reconstruction, but Israel's blockade persists and the Egyptian border has remained largely closed.

Billions pledged by donors have been slow to arrive.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has reached 45 percent, according to the World Bank.

And with the bad weather, many have seen what little they have washed away.

Colonel Abdul Aziz Attar, a civil defence official, says crews aided 200 families in the southern Gaza Strip and rescued dozens from homes in Rafah, which has been partially flooded.

"We had to evacuate citizens in fishing boats," he says.

The United Nations has provided plastic sheets and other aid to around 500 of the worst-hit families. It has also deployed emergency teams in various parts of the Gaza Strip to mitigate the flooding.

But Gaza's housing minister Mufid al-Hasayneh told AFP it would take more than 130,000 apartments to house all those whose homes were destroyed in three Israeli offensives against the enclave since 2008.

This month Qatar provided more than 1,000 apartments to Gaza residents.

Still, it is not enough.

Azza al-Najjar says she and her neighbours have "heard a lot of promises, from the UN and others."

"But we still don't know when our houses will be rebuilt."