International

Venezuela’s Maduro names controversial vice president — and potential successor

BOGOTA, Colombia — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday appointed Tareck El Aissami, the controversial former minister of interior and the governor of Aragua state, as his new vice president. The announcement is significant: If Maduro is ousted in a recall that many are demanding, El Aissami, 43, will finish Maduro’s term through 2019. In

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International

Second round of Netanyahu questioning ends

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu”s second questioning by investigators from the National Fraud Investigations Unit ended on Thursday evening, shortly after 11:00 p.m. The latest round of questioning, which took place at the Prime Minister”s Residence, lasted for five hours. Police said in a statement on Thursday evening that Netanyahu was questioned about a second case

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Middle East

Huckabee: two-state solution a ‘stupid diplomatic fantasy’

Former Arkansas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee met with a delegation of rabbis from the Rabbinical Congress for Peace movement. The rabbis wished to present to him the Torah’s view regarding the holy land and the prohibition against relinquishing land to foreigners. The Rabbinical Congress for Peace was founded in 1993 in order

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Middle East, USA

J Street ad thanks Obama and Kerry for speech blasting Israel

J Street, the pro-two state solution American organization, took out a full page ad in the New York Times Wednesday thanking outgoing President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry for their support for the two state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and for speaking ‘hard truths’ to Israel. The ad calls Obama and

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Middle East, USA

Relocating US embassy to Jerusalem a red line — Jordan

By JT – Jan 05,2017 – Last updated at Jan 05,2017 AMMAN — Jordan has warned of “catastrophic” repercussions if President-elect Donald Trump makes good on a campaign promise to move the US embassy in Israel to occupied Jerusalem. Minister of State for Media Affairs and Government Spokesperson Mohammad Momani told The Associated Press on

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Middle East, USA

Trump to pick former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats to lead intelligence agencies, transition official says

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump plans to pick former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats to head the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, overseeing 17 intelligence agencies, according to a transition official. If he is confirmed by the Senate, Coats would face a daunting task as the bridge between Trump and the intelligence community. Trump

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International, USA

“Unacceptable and unjustifiable” – outrage at the arrest of Ramush Haradinaj

“Unacceptable and unjustifiable” The president of Kosovo says the detention of one of the country’s former prime ministers on suspicion of war crimes is “unacceptable and unjustifiable”. “The Kosovo Liberation Army waged a war for the freedom and independence of Kosovo,” Hashim Thaci said. Ramush Haradinaj, who is also a former guerilla fighter, was detained

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International

Hate crime, kidnapping charges filed in attack streamed on Facebook Live

CHICAGO — Hate crime charges have filed against four people shown in a Facebook video attacking a mentally disabled man in Chicago, cutting his scalp with a knife and punching him while yelling obscenities about Donald Trump and “white people.” Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville, Ill.; and Tesfaye Cooper, 18, Brittany Covington, 18, and Tanishia

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USA

What’s Next For Hillary Clinton?

Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, but she beat him in their shared-hometown of New York rather handedly, where the former Democratic candidate received over 1.7 million more votes than the president-elect. Now, as Clinton has quietly been licking her wounds in upstate Chappaqua while her former opponent prepares to

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USA

Charlie Hebdo editor continues to fear for paper two years after massacre

Days ahead of the two-year anniversary of the attack on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, its new chief editor warned Wednesday that intolerance in France is on the rise. Millions of people in France brandished the phrase “Je suis Charlie” in the wake of the gruesome January 7, 2015 attack at the paper’s Paris headquarters

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International

Why Obama Won’t Pardon Snowden

On September 14, 2016, days before the premiere of Oliver Stone’s hagiographic movie Snowden, Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International launched a well-funded campaign, with full-page ads in The New York Times, imploring President Barack Obama to pardon Edward Snowden, a former contract worker at the National Security Agency, for

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, USA