IRAN LAWMAKERS APPROVE NUCLEAR DEAL
Iran’s parliament today approved the nuclear agreement reached in July with six world powers, clearing the way for its implementation, state news agency IRNA reports. The deal was passed with 161 votes for, 59 against and 13 abstentions. It authorizes lifting sanctions against Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program. But the Iranian parliament insisted that international inspectors would have only limited access to military sites.
SNAPSHOT
Photo: Halit Onur Sandal/NurPhoto/ZUMA
Hundreds of people gathered in Ankara yesterday for a funeral honoring victims of Saturday’s twin suicide bombings that killed 97 people in Turkey’s capital.
REPORT: RUSSIAN MISSILE DOWNED MH17
The missile that brought down the MH17 flight over Ukraine last year, killing all 298 passengers and crew who were flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was a Russian-made BUK, the Dutch Safety Board concluded in a final report presented today, Volkskrant reports. The report also says the missile was fired from a pro-Russian rebel-controlled area in eastern Ukraine. “It can be assumed that the rebels would not be able to operate such a device,” a source close to the investigation told the Dutch daily. “I suspect the involvement of former Russian military officials.” Meanwhile, the Russian arms manufacturer Almaz-Antey, which makes the BUK missiles, presented its own investigation on the matter today. According to The Guardian, its report said the missile that struck the plane was part of a stock dating from before 1999 and shot from an area under the Ukrainian army’s control.
10,683
With 1,245 dengue cases reported over just two days and the total number of affected people reaching 10,683 in Delhi, India, the outbreak this year is the worst in nearly two decades, the Hindustan Times reports.
THREE DEAD IN PALESTINIAN “DAY OF RAGE”
Palestinian men armed with knives and a gun killed at least three people and wounded several others in a string of attacks in Jerusalem and near Tel Aviv today during a “Day of Rage” declared by Palestinian groups, Reuters quoted police as saying.
SECRET LETTER QUESTIONS POPE
A letter delivered to Pope Francis, reportedly signed by 13 Roman Catholic cardinals, questions whether the pontiff has organized the ongoing Synod on the Family in such a way that ensures “predetermined results on important controversial issues,” Italian weekly magazine L’Espresso has reported. Read more from Le Blog.
MY GRAND-PÈRE’S WORLD
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U.S. AIRDROPS AMMO TO SYRIAN REBELS
U.S. cargo planes airdropped 50 tons of small arms ammunitions and other supplies Sunday to Syrian rebels fighting ISIS in northern Syria, ABC News reports. “This successful airdrop provided ammunition to Syrian Arab groups whose leaders were appropriately vetted by the United States and have been fighting” to remove ISIS, Pentagon spokesperson Col. Steve Warren said. The move is part of a shift by Washington to directly equip existing moderate rebel groups instead of training fighters. The Pentagon refused to say which groups received Sunday’s airdrop. Washington announced recently that it could fund and equip Arab commanders on the ground who cooperate with the YPG Kurdish militia.
- Meanwhile, Al-Hayat quotes YPG head Sipan Hamo as saying that a U.S.-backed attack to drive ISIS from its Syrian base of operations in Raqqa is expected within weeks.
- Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, the head of al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, has called on jihadists in the Caucasus to attack Russian civilians and soldiers in retaliation for Moscow’s airstrikes in Syria, the AFP reports.
- Two shells hit the Russian embassy in Damascus this morning during a pro-Russian demonstration that drew about 300 people, Le Monde reports. There were no casualties reported.
WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
While officials in the Argentine city of Bariloche insist it was never a “Nazi refuge,” a tidy little tourist business is growing around visits to local sites associated with Nazi war criminals like Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann, Claudio Andrade reports for Clarin. “Bariloche is first and foremost a mountain resort city. But thanks to the post-World War II migration of Nazis to the area, it also developed something of a sinister reputation as a refuge for European fascists,” Andrade writes. “Suspicions it had become their favored hideout were confirmed with the arrest in 1995 of another local resident, former SS captain Erich Priebke. Despite this dual identity, it took the tourism industry 40 years to think of cashing in the city’s unsavory past. As of last year, visitors can now take ‘Nazi tours,’ which consist of almost ‘secret’ itineraries with very discreet advertising. The tours, nevertheless, have raised interest among independent travel companies and educational institutions from the United States and elsewhere.”
Read the full article, Nazi Tourism And Argentina’s Troubled Past.
ON THIS DAY
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Happy birthday to English actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who turns 44 today. Find him and more in today’s 57-second shot of history.
NO MORE NUDE PHOTOS IN PLAYBOY
Though readers can still expect provocative poses, Playboy magazine will no longer publish nude photos of women. “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free,” Playboy executive Scott Flanders told The New York Times. “And so it’s just passé at this juncture.”
