Month: January 2020

Tehran (AFP) – The aerospace commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Saturday accepted full responsibility for the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger jet. In remarks aired on state television, Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said the missile operator who fired on the plane did so independently because of communications “jamming”. It came as Iran acknowledged…

À l’occasion de la sortie de La Fille Inconnue des frères Dardenne, Adèle Haenel se confie à la presse sur la complexité de son personnage. Elle incarne une femme médecin généraliste obstinée à retrouver une disparue, dans un rôle qu’elle considère féministe. Adèle Haenel n’est est pas à son premier rôle au cinéma mais son…

Britain’s ambassador to Tehran has been summoned to explain his “illegal and inappropriate presence” at an anti-government protest, the Iranian foreign ministry has said. Rob Macaire has been called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following his arrest on Saturday during anti-government protests over the downing of a Ukrainian airliner by Iranian forces. The ambassador…

President Trump took to Twitter late Saturday to offer a message of solidarity with Iranian anti-government protesters—and he did it in Farsi. Usually known for his erratic capitalization and spelling mistakes on Twitter, the president made waves with the tweet, which was addressed to the “long-suffering people of Iran” and came after protests erupted in…

On Thursday, Alaska State Troopers rescued 30-year-old Tyson Steele in remote Alaska. He had survived below-freezing winter conditions for 23 days after his cabin burned down in Mid-December. A Facebook post of the video of the rescue said the troopers responded to a request for a “welfare check” on Steele after he had not been…

Pompeo disputes Iraqi prime minister, says US won’t negotiate troop withdrawal originally appeared on abcnews.go.com The U.S. will not negotiate a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq even after the country’s parliament voted to expel foreign forces, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday, even challenging an Iraqi readout of his call with the prime…

Reuters/Mohammed Al-Ramahi The United States government is flexing its muscles to Iraq over the country’s threats to oust some 5,300 US troops from the country.  The US State Department warned that if its troops are expelled, the US could cut off access to a key Iraqi bank account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of…

While a good chunk of Iraq’s parliament wants American troops to begin a safe withdrawal from the country in the wake of heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran, Washington is in turn threatening to block Baghdad’s access to its central bank account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in an effort…

Key point: There are two ways we could measure overall air defense missile lethality: by number of aircraft actually shot down, and by estimated effectiveness. The use of ground-based missiles to engage planes and defend air space is a relatively recent phenomenon. First explored by Germany in World War II, all the major powers quickly raced…

(Bloomberg) — President Vladimir Putin denied sending mercenaries to Libya, suggesting that any Russians involved in fighting to unseat the country’s UN-recognized government are there on their own. “Even if there are any Russian citizens there, they don’t represent the interests of the Russian government,” Putin told reporters in Moscow on Saturday in his first…