Russia sees possible ‘terror’ link in plane crash
AFP, Sharm Sheikh
Moscow acknowledged for the first time on Monday a terrorist attack could have caused the Oct 31 Russian plane crash in Egypt, as thousands more tourists were evacuated from the country.
“The possibility of an act of terror is of course there as the reason for what happened,” Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev admitted in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta state newspaper.
Britain and the United States, as well as international investigators, suspect a bomb exploded on board the Metrojet A-321 plane, but Egyptian officials insist there is no evidence yet of an attack on the aircraft which jihadists claim to have downed.
Saudi execution toll highest in two decades: AI
AFP, Dubai
Rights group Amnesty International sounded alarm bells Monday over a spike in executions in Saudi Arabia, where at least 151 people have been put to death this year.
The latest execution was on Monday of a Saudi convicted of killing a policeman trying to arrest him for smuggling drugs, the interior ministry said.
“So far in 2015, on average, one person has been executed every other day,” said Amnesty.
War on IS needs ‘boots on ground’: US
AFP, Dubai
The air campaign against the Islamic State group has made progress in degrading the terrorist organisation but will not be enough without local boots on the ground, the US air force secretary said today.
The comments from Deborah Lee James come just days after Pentagon chief Ashton Carter raised the possibility of deploying additional US special forces personnel to Syria if more partners can be found among local forces on the ground.
Erdogan calls for new
constitution
Reuters, Ankara
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday called for reforms and said a new constitution should be created during the next four years under the single-party government of the AK Party.
“The Nov.1 election ushered in four years of stability and confidence. Let’s make this period a time of reforms, prioritizing a new constitution,” Erdogan said at a commemoration ceremony for Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
US Republicans gear up for debate
AFP, Washington
A winnowed crop of eight candidates takes the stage Tuesday for the next Republican US presidential debate, with surging outsider Ben Carson’s tumultuous backstory under the microscope and Jeb Bush fighting for his political life.
The showdown in Milwaukee, Wisconsin comes two and a half months before the first state-wide votes in the primary process to determine which Republican and which Democrat will square off in the November 2016 election that determines who succeeds Barack Obama in the White House.
