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April 3rd, 2016 
Awake Goy Amnesty International says Turkey has forcibly expelled thousands of Syrian refugees back to their war-torn homeland in recent months.
Turkish authorities have, on a daily basis, forced around 100 Syrian men, women and children to return home since mid-January, the UK-based rights group said in a report based on testimonies.
John Dalhuisen, Amnesty’s director for Europe and Central Asia, also took a swipe at European leaders who have hardened their stances, shutting doors to those mostly fleeing conflict zones in recent months.
“In their desperation to seal their borders, EU leaders have willfully ignored the simplest of facts: Turkey is not a safe country for Syrian refugees and is getting less safe by the day,” he said.
The report also said such mass returns to Syria are “illegal” under Turkish, EU and international law.
“The large-scale returns of Syrian refugees we have documented highlight the fatal flaws in the EU-Turkey deal. It is a deal that can only be implemented with the hardest of hearts and a blithe disregard for international law,” Dalhuisen added.
On March 18, Ankara and the EU signed a deal aimed at curbing the huge influx of asylum seekers, mostly Syrians, to Europe.
Under the accord, a Syrian refugee will be settled in Europe legally in return for every refugee taken back by Turkey from Greece.
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Published time: 1 Apr, 2016 22:34
© Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters
French, German and British citizens constitute the majority of the European foreign fighters that joined the ranks of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria and Iraq, the latest study by an independent research center based in The Hague says. TrendsEU refugee & migrant influx, Islamic State
France is the primary country of origin for the people who left to fight for the Islamic State terrorist group in the Middle East, as more than 900 its citizens traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the extremists, a research conducted by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) and published on April 1 says.
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Published time: 1 Apr, 2016 10:57
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) shows the way to his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic during a meeting in Moscow, Russia, April 1, 2016. © Maxim Shemetov / Reuters
While Belgrade is interested in becoming part of the European Union, it would not do so if the cost would be hurting Serbia’s relations with Russia, Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said during a Moscow visit.
“We want to become part of the European Union since it would serve our interest. We are a country that geographically and politically is part of Europe. But it cannot be done at a cost of our good relations with the Russian Federation,” he said at a joint conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
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Four nonagenarians are being tried as accessories to murder in Auschwitz death camp; a state witness said, ‘I want them to tell the truth.”
BERLIN – A Holocaust survivor said on Tuesday that four suspects accused by German prosecutors of being accessory to murder at Auschwitz must have known of the mass killings taking place at the camp because of the “unbearable stench” of burning bodies.
Germany is holding what are likely to be its last trials linked to the Holocaust, in which more than six million people, mostly Jews, were killed by the Nazis.
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(JTA) — A Spanish judge recommended the prosecution for incitement to violence of a person who shared on Facebook an Israeli-made music video spoofing Palestinian propaganda.
The No. 1 Court of First Instance and Instruction of Tudela, a municipality located about 200 miles northeast of Madrid, recommended Tuesday the indictment of the unnamed resident, the Noticias de Navarra daily reported.
The reason cited was the resident’s sharing of a 2014 video titled “Kill All the Jews†by the “Gaza Girls†– a fictional Palestinian girl group invented and headed by Orit Arfa, an Israeli artist and right-wing settler activist.
Ofra’s Internet videos, many of which she stars in, include the controversial “Gaza Wrecking Ball” and “Jews Can’t Stop” — both interpretations of Miley Cyrus hits. She was among 9,000 Israelis who lived in Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip before their evacuation in 2005.
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April 1, 2016 7:03pm
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan clapping during the 2015 Turkish Academy of Sciences award ceremony at Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkey, Dec. 14, 2015. (Yasin Bulbul/Presidency/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Jewish leaders in Washington, reportedly to smooth ties as Turkey and Israel seek to reconcile.
Jewish groups in attendance included the Anti-Defamation League, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, B’nai B’rith International, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“Erdogan and the guests reiterated their willingness to strengthen cooperation and communication despite differences,†said a report in Wednesday’s Daily Sabah, citing “presidential sources.â€
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting soldiers of the Kfir battalion in the Etzion regional brigade for Purim, in the West Bank, March 24, 2016. (Amos Ben Gershom/Flash90)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly asked John Kerry to publicly state that Israel does not carry out extrajudicial killings, after a group of U.S. lawmakers asked the secretary of state to investigate such claims.
Meanwhile, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the lead lawmaker making the request, rebuked Netanyahu for his initial response to the revelation of the letter, saying the Israeli leader misunderstood the relevant law, which requires defunding military units underwritten by U.S. government funds should they be found in violation of U.S. human rights norms.
The Times of Israel reported that Netanyahu made the call to Kerry Friday.
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Israel soldier not to face murder charge for execution
An Israeli soldier who killed a Palestinian apparently already incapacitated in al-Khalil (Hebron) will be prosecuted for manslaughter and not murder.
The Israeli army said at a court hearing on Thursday that military prosecutors had reduced the anticipated murder charge to manslaughter. Under Israeli law, manslaughter signifies an intentional killing but one that was not premeditated.
The Israeli trooper shot at the head of Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, who was lying wounded by Israeli fire on the ground after an alleged stabbing attack in the West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) on March 24. Another Palestinian filmed the scene and released it through an Israeli human rights group.
Ilan Katz, the lawyer for the 19-year-old Israeli soldier, welcomed the prosecutors’ decision. “The significance from our point of view is that, first of all, the prosecution has climbed down.”
The soldier and his lawyers claimed at the court hearings that he was defending himself against the Palestinian, even as he could be seen in the video lying wounded and motionless on the ground.
The soldier said he thought the Palestinian was wearing an explosive belt. However, other soldiers who were present at the time of the deadly shooting told the court that the shooter had said before the incident that the Palestinian “was alive and deserved to die.”
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Source Article from http://davidduke.com/biden-pledges-ukraine-additional-335mn-military-assistance/
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