Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Who to blame? or who done it? Not me they say.....

Putin Demands UN Investigate Chemical Weapons Incident In Syria
Tue, 11th Apr 2017 16:43

MOSCOW (Alliance News) - Moscow will request the United Nations to conduct an investigation into last week's chemical weapons incident in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.

Putin described the incident as a rebel provocation and said Russia has intelligence that such acts have been planned in other parts of Syria, including the capital Damascus, according to comments carried by state media. Russia is the main military backer of Syria's ruling regime, a long-time ally.

US forces last week conducted a missile strike on a Syrian military base that Washington alleged was responsible for a recent chemical weapons attack in which dozens of civilians were killed. Putin said the US missile strike was reminiscent of the 2003 attack on Iraq, which led to the rise of the terrorist group Islamic State.

Turkey, a staunch supporter of the Syrian opposition, said the nerve gas sarin was used in Syria's Idlib province in the attack last week.

Tests of blood and urine samples of victims of the attack revealed traces of sopropyl methyl phosphonic acid, the metabolite of sarin, Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag said in comments carried by Turkish state media.

More than two dozen victims of the attack were brought to Turkey for treatment, and three died in a Turkish hospital. Ground samples were also brought across the border from Idlib for testing. Autopsy results were sent last week to The Hague for further testing by the United Nations.

Russia and Iran, another military backer of the Syrian government, on Monday jointly condemned the US strike and called for an objective investigation into the chemical weapons incident.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Moscow on Tuesday for a two-day visit to include talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Tillerson, at a G7 meeting in Italy earlier in the day, said Russia faced a choice between working with the international community or continuing to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Tillerson accused Moscow of failing on its responsibility to stop the use of chemical weapons by the Damascus regime.

Deeming it "unclear" whether Russia had been "incompetent" or complicit, the US chief diplomat, a former oil executive, said: "But this distinction doesn't much matter to the dead. We can't let this happen again."

The US has supported some rebel groups seeking to overthrow Syria's ruling regime, but has agreed with Russia on the need to eradicate terrorist groups, particularly Islamic State.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement ahead of Tillerson's visit that US-Russian relations are "experiencing their most complicated period since the end of the Cold War." The Foreign Ministry threatened retaliatory measures against the US if there is a lack of progress on resolving accumulated problems between the two great powers.

the trouble is that both sides of this very nasty equation are as bad as each other

of course in mid 19th century russia, britain and in those days france all got very "busy" in persia and that area for a number of reasons, but related to trade routes and similar of all sorts

at the very beginning of 20th century, oil was discovered in persia and then the fun began with france getting slightly sidelined, and russia making a nuisance of itself
in the mid 20's oil was discovered in iraq and about 10 years later in saudi

by this time, britain, france and usa had carved up the m/e between themselves, with promises made to the arabs and the shah of iran (no longer persia) ...... in due course, the powers in iran, iraq and saudi concluded they were being screwed and new deals were struck - with even more massive bribes attaching

It's all working out well for Ma Merkel..



http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21720578-rest-country-and-large-swathes-europe-will-face-similar-problems-future-east?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/

So much for these demographic experts eh!!..Why didn't they see a decline in
western countries indigenous populations a generation ago, and instead of
encouraging the nucleous western family of 1.5 children?.

Was all this, what we are now told is vital immigration from third world countries, planned all along?.

Its not to late to change tact and start encouraging the indigenous populations
to start having more then 1.5 children..

Wifey pointed out to me, that the Queen always wears gloves to shake peoples' hands but she doesn't wear gloves to feed bananas to an elephant.

Alonso to skip the Monaco Grand Prix so as to race in the Indianapolis 500.

Alonso said. “The Indy 500 is one of the most famous races on the global motorsport calendar, rivalled only by the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Monaco Grand Prix, and it’s of course a regret of mine that I won’t be able to race at Monaco this year.

But Monaco will be the only 2017 Grand Prix I’ll be missing, and I’ll be back in the cockpit of the McLaren-Honda for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in early June.”

The Indy 500 forms one third of motor racing’s so-called “Triple Crown”, along with the Monaco Grand Prix and the Le Mans 24 Hours race.

I guess we might see Jenson Button back in the car for the Monaco race?

Is he trying to get rid of the fighters?
and at the same time possible vengance to the disgruntled former Soviet Union rebels

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview released Wednesday that of about 20,000 foreign fighters in Islamic State, almost half of them are from the former Soviet Union.

Quite well could see. JB is a McClaren ambassador for the next two years so still in the fold.

Too little too late?

Sweden Moves To Tighten Terrorism Laws After Stockholm Truck Attack

STOCKHOLM (Alliance News) - The Swedish government on Wednesday commissioned a fast-track review of how counter-terrorism laws can be tightened, including a ban on membership in terrorist organizations.

Justice Minister Morgan Johansson said his country needed to "close the gaps" in existing terrorism legislation, with the move coming five days after a deadly truck attack in central Stockholm.

Banning membership in terrorist organizations is a controversial move in Sweden, where some experts argue it would violate the right to freedom of association, which is shielded by the constitution.

The government's "assessment is that we can adopt such legislation," Johansson told reporters on the sidelines of a party conference of the ruling Social Democrats in the western city of Gothenburg.

Sweden has already banned fighting and fundraising for groups labeleed as terrorist organizations.

Police said they planned to step up their presence in Stockholm and other cities during the Easter holiday.

A poll published by Swedish television SVT said seven of the eight parties in parliament in favour of criminalizing membership in a terrorist organization.

it's a sad sign of the times when sweden feels (rightly) that it's time to put up the shutters

it is not sad it is a way of the time, where the rogue take advantage of liberal laws.

The ideas of liberty and equality does not apply to them unless is for badness

The shutters has to be tighten more and more till the message reached to those who abuse them, not only there but on most of the European countries from now on.

i think i agree with what you say

it is sad nevertheless as sweden has long been the sanctuary of the persecuted, and for many decades this has worked well ...... clearly this is no longer the case

Happy days are here again.

.

..

as i've said b4, at least there's a good chance that the "grey suits" in dc will keep trump reasonably under control
i'm afraid that there are no controls at all over that total nutter in north korea - other than a bullet in the back of the head, though i fear that would precipitate an unimaginable bloodbath

DT and family seem to be mimicking the Mafia.

I cannot see there is much difference in killing a large number of Syrians with "gas" and killing "Afghanistanis" with high explosives. Especially when the latter is a show of strength of one madman to another.

Nicked from across the road :0)
One of my ex's - her written English isn't that great - sends me, with no encouragement on my part, quasi-political jokes. Some of them are surprisingly OK.

Nicola Sturgeon, Donald Trump, and Vladimir Putin all die and go to hell. While there they spy a red phone and ask what it's for. The Devil tells them it is for calling back to Earth.

Putin calls Russia and talks for 5 minutes. When he finishes the devil informs him that the cost is a million dollars, so Putin writes him a cheque.
Next Donald Trump calls the USA and talks for 30 minutes. When he's finished the devil tells him that the cost is 6 million dollars, and Trump writes him a cheque.

Finally Nicola Sturgeon gets her turn and calls Scotland for 4 hours. When she's finished, the devil informs her that there is no charge, and feel free to call Scotland anytime. Putin and Trump go ballistic and ask the devil why Nicola Sturgeon got to call Scotland free. The devil replies, "since she became First Minister of Scotland, the Country has gone to hell, so it's a local call."