PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2014
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International
Israel early election date set as Knesset votes on dissolution
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sraeli political parties have agreed to hold a general election on 17 March, two years ahead of schedule. The move was announced a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked two senior coalition partners in his cabinet, centrist leaders Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni. Mr Netanyahu accused the ministers of plotting against him. On Wednesday, members of the national parliament, the Knesset, voted 84-0 in a preliminary reading to dissolve it. The right-of-centre coalition, which was formed after the last general election in January 2013, is made up of Mr Netanyahu’s Likud and four other parties. ‘Waste of money’ Mr Lapid was serving as finance minister and is leader of the Yesh Atid party. Ms Livni was minister of justice and is leader of Hatnuah. In a televised address on Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu said it was “impossible” for him to lead the current coalition, describing Ms Livni and Mr Lapid’s activities as a “putsch”. “I will not tolerate an opposition
Yair Lapid (left) and Benjamin Netanyahu (right) have publically disagreed on a number of policies within the government any more,” he said. The coalition has been fraught with tension in recent months, with both ministers publically criticising Mr Netanyahu on a number of issues, notably on Iran, the Palestinians, and most recently
a bill designed to strengthen the Jewish nature of the Israeli state. Both ministers criticised Mr Netanyahu’s decision to dismiss them and call for early elections. Mr Lapid said the move would “waste billions”. Israeli
media report that the poll is expected to cost some 2bn shekels (£322m; $505m). Ms Livni warned that without the centrist parties the government would consist of “extremist” parties that she said would destroy the country, Haaretz reported.
for Iran,” the official said. The Al Jazeera footage of the alleged F-4 fighter was filmed on November 24 as the jet struck ISIL targets in the province of Diyala, prompting media reports that Iran was involved in the US-led coalition against ISIL. The Pentagon on Tuesday said it had no reason to doubt reports that Iranian fighter jets had bombed ISIL targets in Diyala. “I have seen those reports. We have no indication that the reports are not true that Iranian aircraft have conducted air strikes, in the last several days, against ISIL targets in eastern Iraq,” John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said.
“Again, you should consult the Iranian government to speak to the activities of their government.” Israeli media suggested it was highly unlikely that Iranian fighter jets would be operating in the same area as the international coalition without significant coordination. However, the deputy chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces has dismissed those reports as “totally untrue”. “The Islamic Republic of Iran blames the United States as the root cause of unrest and problems as well as the terrorist actions of ISIL in Iraq,” Iran’s state news agency FARS quoted General Massoud Jazayeri, as saying.
On his part, Kirby also said that “nothing has changed about [US] policy of not coordinating military activity with the Iranians”. ‘Iranian F-4 Phantom’ Jane’s Defence Weekly identified the aircraft shown in the Al Jazeera footage as an “Iranian McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II jet”. “Iran and Turkey are the only regional operators of the F-4, and the location of the incident not far from the Iranian border, and Turkey’s unwillingness to get involved in the conflict militarily, indicate this to be an Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force [IRIAF] aircraft,” Jane’s Defence Weekly wrote.
Iran denies bombing ISIL targets in Iraq
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ran has denied it conducted air strikes against ISIL targets in eastern Iraq, after Al Jazeera ran footage of what appeared to be an F-4 fighter jet, similar to those used by the Iranian air force. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Iranian official told Reuters news agency on Wednesday that “Iran has never been involved in any air strikes against the Daesh targets in Iraq.” The official was using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the armed group which controls large expanses in Iraq and Syria. “Any cooperation in such strikes with America is also out of question
Iraq denies woman detained in Lebanon is IS leader’s wife
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raq says a woman detained in Lebanon is not the wife of the Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Lebanese officials said on
Tuesday that the army had picked up a woman named Saja al-Dulaimi after she tried to enter from Syria with forged papers.
IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is believed to have two wives, neither of whom are called ‘Saja’
But the Iraqi interior ministry said on Wednesday that while Ms Dulaimi was from a family of known militants, she was not married to Baghdadi. Unofficially, the Lebanese army says it still thinks it is holding his wife. A source told the BBC it believed the woman was a current or former spouse of the IS leader. The Iraqi interior ministry said Baghdadi’s wives were believed to be named Asma Fawzi Mohammed al-Dulaimi and Isra Mahal al-Qaisi. A woman called Saja alDulaimi was detained by the Syrian authorities before being freed in March as part of a
prisoner exchange with al-Qaeda’s local affiliate, the al-Nusra Front. The exchange saw al-Nusra hand over a group of abducted Greek Orthodox nuns in return for the release of 150 women held by Syria. Saja al-Dulaimi’s father is an active member of al-Nusra, according to the Iraqi interior ministry. Its statement said her sister was Duaa Abdul Hamid alDulaimi, who was being detained for “attempting to blow herself up” in Irbil. Her brother, Omar Abdul Hamid al-Dulaimi, had been sentenced to death for his part in bombings in Basra and alBathaa, it added.
Asia & Middle East
Japan launches asteroid-hunting spacecraft
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apan’s space agency has launched an ambitious space mission which aims to mine an asteroid and hunt for clues about the birth of the solar system. About the size of a fridge, and fitted with an explosive bullet, Japan’s asteroid-hunting spacecraft embarked on a six-year space mission on Wednesday. Building on a previous mission, which managed to bring rock fragments from another asteroid back to Earth in 2010, this time Hayabusa2 aims to do more. The $260m spacecraft uses ion engines - a system which uses electricity to accelerate gas particles. “That makes a jet that goes extremely fast about 30-40km/ s,” said Dr Francisco Diego, from University College London. “Although the mass of this gas is very very low, it produces a little bit of a push in a very efficient way and that’s enough to steer the spacecraft along the orbit.” Hayabusa2 has a long way to go: more than 5 billion kilometres. Tiny robots For the next two and a half years it will play catch-up with asteroid 1999 JU3. The asteroid is one of many that orbit the Sun, mainly between Earth and Mars. Once Hayabusa2 arrives, it will spend 18 months studying the asteroid. Experiments include dropping tiny rover robots onto the surface to make scientific tests of the structure and chemical make-up of the asteroid. The most ambitious part of the mission involves firing a high-speed explosive bullet into the asteroid’s crust. “It’s going to produce a crater,” said Diego. “It’s going to produce a puff of material, ejecting material out into space, which is going to be collected by this instrument, and part of that cloud is going to be brought back.” When that process is completed, Hayabusa2 will begin a year-long journey back to Earth, where it is hoped to arrive in 2020. Scientists say the rock from inside the asteroid will be less weathered by the space environment and by heat. They hope these rocks will answer some fundamental questions about the early stages of the formation of the solar system, how Earth evolved, and where the Earth’s oceans may have formed.
The $260m spacecraft will travel more than 5 billion kilometres