Russian news agency RIA Novosti says Steven Seagal has performed at a concert in Crimea on a stage decorated with the flag of pro-Russian separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Seagal, who knows Russian President Putin, performed Saturday night in Sevastopol at a concert organized by a motorcycle gang of Russian nationalists known as the Night Wolves.
The news agency reported that Seagal was then handed a shirt with Putin's face on it, which he held aloft as he thanked the crowd.
"I'm Russian," Seagal told one man at the event, which was filmed by Russian media. Seagal said that his grandparents come from Russia.
Earlier this year, Seagal described Putin as "one of the great living world leaders."
Seagal also said he "would like to consider him as a brother," according to the Moscow Times.
#4
Not a communist, Putin doesn't pretend to do things for the world anymore. He's a straight out oligarch or fascist. It is about Russia first, slavs second.
An Azeri soldier was killed in clashes on the Armenian border, according to Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defense. In a statement issued on Sunday, the ministry said the soldier was killed in Azerbaijan's Tovuz district. Another soldier was injured in the country's Gadabay district. He is recovering in hospital.
Both casualties happened on Saturday night.
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia to talk instead of fight. Putin hosted a meeting between the heads of the two states this weekend.
Putin told Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's Serzh Sagrsyan, "The key thing is: There's no bigger tragedy than the loss of human lives. We need to act wisely and patiently and pay respect to one another to find the solution."
Sargsyan and Aliyev agreed a political solution was needed for the 23-year-old conflict. Sargsyan said, "Back then (in the 1990s) we came to a conclusion that this conflict has no military solution. If we keep on blaming each other, I don't think it will be resolved for a long time."
These good-faith comments were echoed by Aliyev, who said, "I hope that we will find a solution in line with... the principles of international law in the nearest future."
[Iran Press TV] Turkey's outgoing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they like that sort of thing in Turkey... has won the country's presidential election, unofficial results say.
According to the results, which are based on Turkish media count, the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) candidate won almost 52 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election.
"The people showed their will at the polls today," Erdogan said in a brief speech in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Sunday evening.
Erdogan's main rival Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu is said to have won nearly 39 percent of the vote.
Former head of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ihsanoglu, 71, was the joint candidate of the center-left Republican People's Party (CHP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
"I hope that the result is beneficial for democracy in Turkey," Ihsanoglu said in Istanbul. "I congratulate the prime minister and wish him success."
Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas has reportedly won the third place with slightly more than nine percent of the vote.
Official results of the election are not expected before Monday.
Erdogan, who has promised tens of thousands of voters backing him in the election a strong and new Turkey, is going to fly to the capital Ankara for a victory speech.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu who finished 2nd is a former academic who was SecGen of the Org of Islamic Cooperation for a decade ending earlier this year. He had never been elected to anything previously.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/11/2014 11:27 Comments ||
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[ARABNEWS] Turks voted Sunday in their first direct presidential election, a watershed event in the country's 91-year history that could cement Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet... 's position as Turkey's all-powerful leader.
Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, is the strong front-runner to replace incumbent Abdullah Gul for a five-year term.
Now in his third term as prime minister at the head of the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Erdogan has been a polarizing figure. He is fervently supported by many as a man of the people who has led Turkey through a period of economic prosperity. Yet critics view him as an increasingly autocratic leader bent on concentrating power and imposing his religious and conservative views on a country founded on strong secular traditions.
After a bitter and divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... pre-election campaign, Erdogan sounded more conciliatory in his final campaign speech Saturday, promising to "leave the old Turkey behind."
"This country of 77 million is our country, there is no discrimination," he said. "We own this country all together."
Some 53 million people are eligible to vote; an absolute majority is needed to win. Otherwise, the top two candidates go to a runoff on Aug. 24. Erdogan, whose party won local elections in March with about 43 percent of the vote, is widely expected to be elected, although it is unclear if he can avoid a runoff.
Party rules barred Erdogan from serving another term as prime minister. Turkish presidents used to be elected by parliament but Erdogan's government pushed through a constitutional amendment in 2007, changing the procedure to a popular vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] KARACHI: An anti-corruption court dismissed on Saturday the bail applications of two suspects in a graft case.
Assistant Sub-Inspector Mustafa Rajpar of the Taimuria cop shoppe and Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... technician Shakeel Masih were allegedly caught red-handed by an anti-corruption police team while receiving bribes for issuing a favourable medical report and registration of a counterfeit case.
The suspects had moved the applications through their counsel, and after hearing arguments from both sides the judge of the special the anti-corruption court, Karachi, Gulshan Ara Chandio, dismissed the applications.
Sub-Inspector Abdul Razzaq and medico-legal officer of the CHK Dr Zaryab were also nominated in the FIR and they are on interim pre-arrest bail.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2014 00:00 ||
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Unethical? Does this mean former military pilots should not be permitted to retire and fly commercial airplanes; or retired Chaplains cannot become small-town preachers? Hat tip to Keith and Dr. Jim Heath his able sidekick. I hope they give DARPA a run for their money.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
