Germany Bans Exports Of Arms To Turkey After Syria Offensive

Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Saturday October 12, announced a ban on arms export to Turkey over its targeted attack on the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia — a force that has played a key role against the Islamic State group in Syria.

According to Heiko Maas, the German government had implemented a very restrictive route for arms exports to Ankara since 2016, especially after the Turkish military offensive against the northern Syrian region of Afrin.

“In the context of the Turkish military offensive in northeastern Syria, the government will not issue any new permits for any military equipment that could be used in Syria by Turkey,” Maas told Bild. 

However commenting on the ban, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said it will only make Turkey stronger. 

"Let me put it this way: This is a vital question for us and a question of national security, a question of survival," Cavusoglu said. "No matter what anyone does, no matter whether it is an arms embargo or anything else, it only strengthens us." 

"Fifteen years ago we produced only 20% of the goods we needed, now we produce over 70% — all this only strengthens us," he told DW.

Recall Turkey launched a military operation in Syria on Wednesday October 9, after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew some U.S. troops who have been protecting Kurdish forces in the fight against the Islamic State.

Germany exported arms worth 243 million euros ($268 million) to Turkey in 2018, accounting for almost one third of its weapons exports, according to Bild Am Sonntag. In the first four months of 2019, Turkey received weapons from Germany worth 184 million euros, making it the biggest recipient country. 

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Students Of Ekpoma Beat A Policeman Who Jumped Over Fense to Enter Their Hostel (Video)

Policeman on illegal duty receives thorough beating for scaling the fence of a students’ hostel, in Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, Edo State.


Watch video below; 

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U.S. Deployed More Forces To Saudi Arabia To Counter Iran Threat

The United States announced the deployment of additional American military forces to Saudi Arabia on Friday to bolster the kingdom’s defenses after the Sept. 14 attack on its oil facilities, which Washington and Riyadh have blamed on Iran.

The large deployment, which was first reported by Reuters, includes fighter squadrons, an air expeditionary wing and air defense personnel, the Pentagon said. Together with the 200 forces to Saudi Arabia announced last month, the deployment totaled about 3,000 troops, it said.

U.S.-Iran tensions have risen to new highs since May 2018, when the Trump administration withdrew from a 2015 international nuclear accord with Tehran that put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the easing of sanctions.

As Trump reinstated U.S. sanctions, increasing pressure on the Iranian economy, there have been a series of attacks that Washington and close allies have blamed on Iran, including the attack on the world’s biggest crude oil-processing facility. Iran denies responsibility.

In a bid to better shield Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said it was sending two additional Patriot batteries and one Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD).

“We thought it was important to continue to deploy forces to deter and defend and to send the message to the Iranians: Do not strike another sovereign state, do not threaten American interests, American forces, or we will respond,” Esper told reporters during a press briefing.

Trump said the United States would not bear the expense of the deployment. “Saudi Arabia, at my request, has agreed to pay us for everything we’re doing,” he told reporters.

Some of Trump’s Republican allies have called for retaliatory strikes, which the president has so far declined to carry out.

It was unclear whether some of the newly announced troops might replace other American forces expected to depart the region in the coming weeks or months.

The Pentagon has yet to announce, for example, whether it will replace the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group when it eventually wraps up its deployment to the Middle East.

Esper declined to say whether the carrier, which itself includes thousands of troops and massive firepower, would be replaced.

The deployment is part of a series of what the United States has described as defensive moves following the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities last month, which rattled global energy markets and exposed major gaps in Saudi Arabia’s air defenses.

Iran has responded to previous U.S. troop deployments this year with apprehension. It denies responsibility for the attack on Saudi Arabia as well as attacks on oil tankers earlier this year.

The additional deployment comes as many members of Congress have questioned the longstanding U.S.-Saudi security alliance and backed several efforts - which have failed so far - to stop Trump from selling arms to the kingdom without congressional approval or providing support to the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen.

Criticism of close U.S.-Saudi ties under Trump increased last year after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Eleven Saudi officials are on trial in Riyadh for the murder, which took place inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Source: Reuters 

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Teenager Remanded In Custody After Raping Neighbour’s 50-year-old mother

A teenager identified as Babangida Inusa, who allegedly raped his neighbour’s 50-year-old mother,  has been ordered by a Chief Magistrates' Court sitting in Kano State on Friday to be remanded in a correctional centre, pending legal advice.  

The police charged teenager , who resides at Falgore Village, Kabo Local Government Area of Kano, with rape.

Chief Magistrate, Muhammad Idris, who did not take the plea of Inusa, ordered the police to return the case file to the Kano State Directorate of Public Prosecution for legal advice. Idris adjourned the case until December 12 for further mention.

Earlier, the prosecution counsel, ASP Badamasi Gawuna, told the court that the complainant, Rabiu Hussain, reported the case at the Garo Police Division Kano.

Gawuna alleged that Inusa attacked and raped the complainant’s 50-year-old mother on her farmland in Kabo Local Government Area of Kano. He said that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 283 of the Penal Code.

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The Moment Kim Kardashian's Children Were Immersed In Water During Their Baptism (Photos)

US reality star, Kim Kardashian West and her three youngest kids, Saint West,  Psalm West and Chicago West got baptised during their recent trip to Armenia and she has shared photos of the moment her children were immersed in water.

The kids all baptised at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin,  Armenia's main cathedral, which is also referred to as the Vatican of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

North West was the only one who wasn't baptised because she did hers years ago. However, she was present to witness the ceremony.

Kourtney Kardashian was also present with her kids to have them baptised.

More photos below;

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The First Human To Walk In Space 54 Years Ago, Dies At 85

Alexei Leonov, the first human to walk in space 54 years ago, has died in Moscow at the age of 85.

According to Roscosmos in a statement on its website says Leonov died on Friday, October 11th. Leonov performed his spacewalk on March 18, 1965, when he exited his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether.

On his second trip to space ten years later, Leonov commanded the Soviet half of the Apollo-Soyuz 19 mission. It was the first joint space mission between the Soviet Union and the United States, carried out at the height of the Cold War.  

The cosmonaut turned 85 in May. Several days before that, two Russian crewmembers on the International Space Station ventured into open space on a planned spacewalk with stickers attached on their spacesuits paying tribute to him, and congratulated him from space.  

Roscosmos said Leonov would be buried Tuesday at a military memorial cemetery outside Moscow.

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