Holy Week was an
epic battle of the Pope and Putin fighting the CIA’s aggression in Ukraine and
Syria. In his Easter Sunday address the
Pope prayed for peace.
Pope Francis
Pope
Francis, in his Easter address before a huge crowd, on Sunday denounced the
"immense wastefulness" in the world while many go hungry and called
for an end to conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and Africa.
"We ask you, Lord Jesus, to put an end to
all war and every conflict, whether great or small, ancient or recent," he
said in his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message…
The
pope called on the international community to "boldly negotiate the peace
long awaited and long overdue" in Syria, where more than 150,000 people
have been killed in the civil war, a third of them civilians. Millions have
fled the country.
"We
pray in a particular way for Syria, that all those suffering the effects of the
conflict can receive needed humanitarian aid and that neither side will again
use deadly force, especially against the defenseless civil population," he
said.
Vladimir Putin
BEIRUT
— Syrian forces have overrun a strategic rebel stronghold close to the Lebanese
border, the military said Sunday, in the latest battlefield victory for the
government of President Bashar Assad.
The
official news service reported that Syrian troops were in "full
control" of Yabroud, a longtime rebel bastion and key logistics base for
opposition supplies and insurgents entering Syria from Lebanese territory.
Aiding
Syrian troops in the battle were militiamen from Hezbollah, the Lebanese group
that has dispatched units to fight alongside Assad's forces.
The
capture of Yabroud, coming as the Syrian war enters its fourth year, underscores how much
the conflict has turned in the government's favor.
CIA
Syria’sopposition fighters have been supplied with U.S.-made antitank missiles, the
first time a major American weapons system has appeared in rebel hands.
It
is unclear how the rebels obtained the wire-guided missiles, which are capable
of penetrating heavy armor and fortifications and are standard in the U.S.
military arsenal. The United States has sold them in the past to Turkey, among
other countries, and the Pentagon approved the sale of 15,000 of the weapons to
Saudi Arabia in December. Both countries aid Syrian opposition groups.
Their
appearance in Syria coincides with a U.S. commitment this year to escalate a
CIA-run program to supply and train vetted “moderate” rebel groups and to
improve coordination with other opposition backers.
Pope Francis
Francis
asked God to "enlighten and inspire the initiatives that promote peace in
Ukraine so that all those involved, with the support of the international
community, will make every effort to prevent violence and, in a spirit of unity
and dialogue, chart a path for the country's future."
Vladimir Putin
Accordingto this source, in September 2013, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski
invited 86 members of the Right Sector (Sector Pravy), allegedly in the context
of a university exchange program. In reality, the guests were not students, and
many were over 40. Contrary to their official schedule, they did not go to the
Warsaw University of Technology, but headed instead for the police training
center in Legionowo, an hour’s drive from the capital. There, they received
four weeks of intensive training in crowd management, person recognition,
combat tactics, command skills, behavior in crisis situations, protection
against gases used by police, erecting barricades, and especially shooting, including
the handling of sniper rifles.
Such
training took place in September 2013, while the Maidan Square protests were
allegedly triggered by a decree suspending preparations for the signing of the
Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement, which was issued by Prime
Minister Mykola Azarov on November 21, i.e. two months later.
The
Polish weekly refers to photographs attesting to the training, which show the
Ukrainians in Nazi uniforms alongside their Polish instructors in civilian
clothing.
CIA
WASHINGTON— The United States is considering deploying about 150 soldiers for military
exercises to begin in Poland and Estonia in the next few weeks, a Western
official said Saturday. The exercises would follow Russia’s buildup of forces
near its border with Ukraine and its annexation last month of Ukraine’s Crimean
Peninsula.
….
Ground exercises in Poland and Estonia would last about two weeks, but such
exercises would continue off and on over time, the official said, and other
locations in Eastern Europe would be considered. The official was not
authorized to discuss the plan by name because it has not been made final and
requested anonymity.
Pope Francis
He
prayed to God to "help us to overcome the scourge of hunger, aggravated by
conflicts and by the immense wastefulness for which we are often
responsible."
Vladimir Putin
Besieged
and terrified … and the food is about to run out for Damascus
refugees
The
desperate residents of a besieged district of Damascus are expected to run out
of food on Sunday, leaving 18,000 people facing starvation and leading relief
agencies to declare the crisis "unprecedented in living memory".
Food
packages have not been delivered to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp for 10
days, and Syrian authorities are not expected to allow food trucks in over the
Easter weekend. Residents have resorted to eating leaves and animal feed. Some
say they cannot get access even to scraps, as a desperate blockade by
government forces, in place for nearly 18 months, continues to cut off
supplies.
Syrian
officials have allowed only sporadic access to Yarmouk, to relief groups led by
the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), since the first pleas for help from
residents early last year.
"It
is unprecedented in living memory for a UNRWA-assisted population to be subject
to abject desperation in this way and the sheer humanitarian facts cry out for
a response," organisation spokesman Chris Gunness told the Observer.
"Without that, the humanity of all of us must be seriously questioned.
"It
is an affront to all of us that in a capital city of a member state, women are
dying in childbirth for lack of medical care, there are incidents of
malnutrition among infants and people are resorting to eating animal
feed."
CIA:
VETERANSTODAY: The West seems bound and determined
to destroy Syria, carve it up into various puppet cantons so the gas pipeline
from Qatar can be brought into Europe through Northern Syria. They also
want to get the Russians and Assad out of the way to exploit the offshore
Eastern Med oil and gas deposits and undermine Russia's European gas markets…
Yarmouk
Palestinian camp, Damascus. — This observer does not write these words
causally and he is no huge fan of most intellectually lazy quick spun internet
conspiracy theories, too many of which appear given to flights from reality
when facts get complicated and dispositive information is obscure.
However,
after months of studying the political, social, military, and economic
situation in Yarmouk camp, and based on some insightful meetings with former
camp residents and PLO stalwarts who have been active in the cause of Palestine
going back to the 1980’s or earlier, Yarmouk’s survival prospects appear
fatally bleak….
In
part, Yarmouk’s curse and current fate is due to its location. It is a
triangular slice pointing straight into central downtown Damascus, a strategic
last piece in the mosaic required to make a strong rebel advance on the
capital.
Pope Francis
The
77-year-old pope, wearing white vestments for the service, prayed for the
protection of those members of society who are particularly vulnerable to
exploitation, abuse and abandonment--women, children, the elderly and
immigrants.
Easter
is the most important day on the liturgical calendar because it commemorates
the day Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion, and
the Church sees it as a symbol of hope, peace and reconciliation among peoples
and nations.
Vladimir Putin
In
the city of Slovyansk, Ari reported on Morning Edition,
protesters say Ukrainian military personnel carriers approached Wednesday with
soldiers who were looking "bedraggled, tired and dirty." Protesters
say that after the soldiers were given food and water and had a "nice
conversation" with residents, Russian flags were raised on the vehicles
and they went "rolling off to Slovyansk."
CIA
"(Washington)
expresses its disgust with the decision of Ukrainian authorities to meet the
peaceful protest in Kiev's Maidan Square with riot police, bulldozers and
batons, rather than with respect for democratic rights and human dignity,"
he said.
"This
response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a democracy."
Later
Victoria Nuland, the US Assistant Secretary of State, handed sandwiches to both
protesters and riot police in Kiev's Independence Square, along with US
ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R Pyatt.
Pope Francis
He
also asked for an end to violence in Iraq, Venezuela, South Sudan and the
Central Africa Republic.
Francis
appealed for more medical attention for the victims of the deadly Ebola
epidemic in Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and care for those
suffering from many other diseases spread through neglect and dire poverty.
He
called for a "halt to the brutal terrorist attacks" in Nigeria, an
apparent reference to Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which
earlier this month abducted some 130 girls from a school in the north of the
country.
The
Easter Sunday services were the culmination of four hectic days of Holy Week
activities for the pontiff.
By Patricia Baeten
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