Monday, November 24, 2014

DEADLINE DAY FOR IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Last-minute talks in Vienna hold little hope that Iran will reach an agreement with world powers today, the deadline, about the country’s nuclear program and the lifting of economic sanctions. U.S. officials admitted yesterday that negotiations might be extended for a second time, The New York Times reports. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said that all sides would make “one last push,” although he acknowledged that they were “still quite a long way apart, and there are some very tough and complex issues to deal with.” A source close to the negotiations told Reuters that they were expected to adjourn and resume in Oman next month.

SNAPSHOT
A capsule carrying three astronauts from Russia, the United States and Italy launched into space from Russia's manned space facility in Kazakhstan early this morning, docking less than six hours later with the International Space Station above the Pacific Ocean, near the coast of Ecuador.

ISIS ABDUCTING AND TRAINING CHILDREN
ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq are abducting children as young as nine and brainwashing them to turn them into fighters, the UN secretary-general's special representative for children and armed conflict told AP. Although the Free Syrian Army and the al-Nusra Front have also been reported to use children in the Syrian war, ISIS goes beyond anything seen before — and in a “systematic and organized way.”

The Guardian reports that U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria are bringing even moderate rebel fighters closer to ISIS, with some forging alliances or even defecting to the terrorist group.

A fierce battle in Iraq’s Anbar province, west of Baghdad, is unfolding as Iraqi military are resisting ISIS attempts to seize the province capital Ramadi. At least 37 people have died since the battle started Friday, according to CNN.

VERBATIM
"The state of Texas should not execute severely mentally ill people. It’s barbaric and unbecoming of a civilized society," the Dallas Morning News wrote in an editorial today as the Dec. 3 execution of Scott Panetti, a mentally ill man convicted in 1995 for murdering his in-laws, approaches.

BOMBER KILLS DOZENS IN AFGHANISTAN
At least 45 people were killed Sunday in Afghanistan during a suicide explosion at a volleyball match. It happened just after the country’s parliament approved deals allowing NATO and U.S. troops to remain in the country after the withdrawal of most foreign troops next month. It also emerged over the weekend that U.S. President Barack Obama has approved plans to extend the American mission in Afghanistan. Read more from The Washington Post.

$140 BILLION
Russia is suffering losses at a rate of about $40 billion per year because of Western sanctions and $90 billion to $100 billion from the drop in the oil prices, Reuters quoted Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov as saying today.

ISRAEL’S CONTROVERSIAL LEGISLATION
During what The Jerusalem Post describes as a “stormy cabinet meeting in which shouts were repeatedly heard from the room,” the Israeli cabinet approved a bill officially defining the country as the nation-state of Jewish people, emphasizing its Jewish character above its democratic nature, The New York Times reports. Rights group branded the bill, which requires the parliament’s approval, as racist, and there are fears that it might further inflame tensions with the Arab-Israeli minority. Observers believe it may also pose a risk to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, although government ministers against the bill did not commit to voting against it in the parliament on Wednesday.

MY GRAND-PÈRE'S WORLD