‪#‎German‬ parliament approves military action in ‪#‎Syria‬ against ‪#‎ISIS‬

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, casts her vote whether Germany will join the international alliance in their fight against the Islamic State group (ISIS) militants in Syria at the German Federal Parliament in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Dec.4, 2015

Lawmakers approved Friday plans for Germany to take on a direct role in the battle against the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Syria, answering France's appeal for help after the deadly Paris attacks.

Parliament agreed to the mandate for the deployment of Tornado reconnaissance jets, a frigate and up to 1,200 troops by an overwhelming majority of 445 votes in favor and 146 against.

The green light for the mission that could become Germany's biggest deployment abroad comes three weeks after militants killed 130 people in a series of attacks in Paris.

The atrocities prompted France to invoke a clause requiring EU states to provide military assistance to wipe out the IS group in Iraq and Syria.

Britain joined the US-led bombing campaign over Syria on Thursday, striking an ISIS-held oil field as the momentum to take action against the militant group increases.

After repeatedly ruling out the use of "boots on the ground", US President Barack Obama also agreed to send as many as 100 Special Forces to Iraq, with a mandate to carry out raids inside Syria.

A broad coalition of 60 countries has been battling IS since August 2014, although involvement in Syria has been more limited with some Western nations wary of how military action could actually end up serving President Bashar al-Assad's regime, which they view as no longer legitimate.

But reticence seemed to have melted away following the Paris attacks, and in the Netherlands, which has been bombarding the IS in Iraq, the government too is coming under pressure to widen the aerial campaign to Syria.

Even in Germany, where there has traditionally been reluctance to engage in military missions abroad, the government's decision to take direct action in Syria has been largely met with support.

An opinion poll in Die Welt newspaper Friday showed broad public backing of 58 percent of people surveyed in favor of the military deployment while 37 percent were against.

The support came despite a large majority of 63 percent believing that the risk of a terror attack on German soil will rise as a result of Bundeswehr involvement in Syria.

Meanwhile, France's President Francois Hollande will on Friday visit the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the eastern Mediterranean off Syria where it is being used to conduct air strikes on Islamic State targets.

"He will meet military personnel taking part in operations to intensify the fight against Daesh in Syria and Iraq," a statement from the presidency said, using another name for the militant group that has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.

Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maas said the case for deployment was watertight legally.

"The Germans can be certain that the deployment to Syria neither violates international law nor the constitution," he told on Friday.

"We must stop this terrorist gang of murderers. That will not be achieved with military action alone, but neither would it be achieved without," he said.

The package approved by parliament includes six Tornado aircraft which have no offensive fighter capability and are specialized in air-to-ground reconnaissance.

A German frigate will be deployed to protect the Charles de Gaulle, from which French fighter jets are carrying out bombing runs, and the tanker aircraft could refuel them mid-air to extend their range.

Separately, Germany has also pledged to send 650 soldiers to Mali to provide some relief to French forces battling militants in the West African nation.

But the opposition warned that Germany is being forced to make a weighty decision too hastily.

"We are being made to decide in three days if Germany would once again be dragged into a war. We do not want to be dragged into a war at the speed of a Tornado," the Left party's Petra Sitte told parliament.

But Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen defended the swift action, saying it sends a "signal that we are resolved to fight ISIS".

‪#‎Merkel‬ says military efforts needed in ‪#‎Syria‬ but they won't end war

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a German radio station that military efforts were necessary in Syria even though they would not put an end to the war there.

"Regarding Syria, I said for the first time: We will need military efforts, but military efforts will not bring the solution; we need a political process but that has not really got going very well yet," she told Deutschlandfunk, according to the text of an interview due to be broadcast later on Sunday.

She also said it would be necessary to involve the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in talks.

"To get to a political solution, I need both the representatives of the Syrian opposition and those who are currently ruling in Damascus and others as well to get real successes and then above all the allies of the respective groups."

She said Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Iran could play an important role as well as Germany, France and Britain.

#German pilots' doctors urge more tests in light of crash

German aviation industry doctors said Tuesday that pilots should undergo more extensive medical checks in the wake of the Germanwings crash in the French Alps that killed 150 people.

In response to prosecutors' allegations that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the Duesseldorf-bound Germanwings plane on March 24 on a day that he was supposed to be off sick, the head of the German Pilots' Doctors Association urged more thorough examinations.

"We are calling for more frequent and comprehensive laboratory tests for pilots," the association's chief Hans-Werner Teichmueller told Welt newspaper.

"We need to see results that can also show traces of psychotropic drugs and narcotics."

The annual physical required of pilots only includes a test of urine, hemoglobin levels and in some cases blood sugar.

If a standard blood test is ordered, only indirect evidence of excessive alcohol consumption can be identified and no evidence of drug use, according to Welt.

Teichmueller said that key data on the liver, kidneys and cholesterol levels were also absent from a typical medical file kept on pilots.

In the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe, the association's vice president, Uwe Beiderwellen, had said that he opposed routine psychological tests for pilots.

Germanwings parent company Lufthansa acknowledged last week that Lubitz had informed its flight school in mid-2009, when resuming training after a lengthy medical absence, that he had suffered from a "previous episode of severe depression".

He later received the medical certificate confirming he was fit to fly.

German prosecutors said that Lubitz was diagnosed as suicidal "several years ago", before he became a pilot, but doctors had recently found no sign he intended to hurt himself or others.

However Lubitz was receiving treatment from neurologists and psychiatrists who had signed him off sick from work a number of times, including the day of the crash.

Ripped up sick notes were found in a flat used by Lubitz, which authorities believe indicates that the 27-year-old was trying to hide his illness from his employer.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Office (LBA), which issues pilots' licences, told on Sunday that Lufthansa had given it "no information about the medical background" of Lubitz.

Citing medical files obtained by investigators, Bild daily reported last week that Lubitz told his doctors he was on anti-depressants and Lorazepam, a mild tranquiliser used to treat anxiety.

#Egypt #President Abdel-Fattah El #Sisi to meet with #German parliamentary leader Monday

The German Parliamentarian Volker Kauder had previously lauded the election of El-Sisi as Egypt president

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is scheduled to meet on Monday with German Parliamentarian Volker Kauder, as Egypt and Germany take steps to strengthen their ties.

The Egyptian president will hold talks with the leader of the parliamentary block of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), at the Ittihadiya presidential palace, a presidency statement read.

Last year, Kauder hailed the election of El-Sisi on his own personal website, describing it as a “chance for greater stability and better future.”

The German politician also said Egypt needs social reconciliation, job creation and coexistence between Egypt’s Muslim majority and Christian minority.

Egypt and Germany appear to take steps to strengthen their relationship as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is also the CDU leader, has invited El-Sisi in mid-March to visit Germany following the completion of Egypt's delayed parliamentary elections.

Merekel’s invitation came after Egypt announced a $10.5 billion deal with German industrial giant Siemens to build power plants that will boost the country's electricity generation capacity by up to a third. The deal was announced in mid-March in Egypt’s Economic Development Summit.

In the aftermath of the ousting of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Germany has expressed concerns regarding some of Egypt’s domestic policies.

In April 2014, Germany summoned Egyptian ambassador to protest against the mass death sentences handed to members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

"The hundreds of death sentences make a mockery of what we understand to be democratic principles," Foreign Minster Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement at the time.

EU to host Iran nuclear talks in Brussels on Monday

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif (C) gesture as they arrive to resume nuclear negotiations in Montreux, in this March 2, 2015

The European Union will host talks in Brussels Monday with the British, French, German and Iranian foreign ministers on Tehran's contested nuclear programme as a deadline at the end of March nears.

EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini will lead the talks, a statement said, one day after US Secretary of State John Kerry meets his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Switzerland as part of continued Western efforts to ensure Tehran does not acquire a nuclear weapon.

"It is the first time talks at this level are being held in Brussels," a Commission spokeswoman said.

"They are part of the effort (with) the deadline approaching; we are doing everything we can," the spokeswoman said.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and his French and German counterparts Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier are also due to attend an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels Monday.

The EU has helped mediate talks between the five UN permanent Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany and Iran.

They began in late 2013 after Iran agreed to initial limits on its nuclear programme in return for an easing of some of the damaging economic sanctions imposed by the West.

The negotiations have been extended twice but all sides say this will be the last round, having set a March 31 deadline for a political deal.

A final accord has to follow by the end of June.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian use only.

The man behind Germany's anti-Islam street protests

Lutz Bachmann, co-leader of anti-immigration group PEGIDA, a German abbreviation for "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West", gestures during a Reuters interview in Dresden January 12, 2015

Unknown just three months ago, Lutz Bachmann is a cook by training with a criminal record who has managed to mobilise thousands of Germans out onto the streets against Islam.

He was born in the former communist east German city of Dresden where the contested group he heads, the so-called "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident" (PEGIDA), has gained a foothold.

Around 500 people took part in the first of what have become weekly marches in the city since October but their numbers have gradually risen to reach 18,000 at last Monday's demonstration.

The sudden emergence of the anti-immigrant group has sparked similar spin-off protests elsewhere but has also galvanised counterdemonstrations that in some cities have far outnumbered PEGIDA's supporters.

The movement began after violent clashes between Kurds and radical Muslims in the northern city of Hamburg in early October that raised fears of a proxy Syria conflict playing out on German soil.

Bachmann, 41, initiated a group on the social networking site Facebook, quickly calling a first gathering in Dresden, the capital of a state that borders Poland and the Czech Republic and whose foreigner population is barely 2.5 percent.

He refuses to speak to the media, branded the "lying press" by PEGIDA demonstrators at marches, and he only communicates via his Facebook page which also includes wedding and holiday photos.

On it, he says he has several Muslim friends and acknowledges a criminal record that had been widely reported in the press.

He was sentenced in 1998 to three and a half years in prison on charges including burglary and theft, fled to South Africa but was deported back to Germany and later convicted of drugs offences.

Bachmann, with his imposing square-shouldered frame often dressed in a parka jacket and sporting a greying beard, kicks off his weekly rallying cry to the PEGIDA crowds with a polite "Good evening Dresden".

He trained as a cook but has owned a small advertising agency since 1992.

Several known neo-Nazis have been spotted in the PEGIDA crowds -- although they are dominated by disenchanted citizens with a string of grievances -- but Bachmann refuses the idea of any teaming-up with the far-right.

PEGIDA has however held exploratory tentative talks with Germany's anti-euro AfD party.

The group says it has no ambitions to become a political party but has published a 19-point manifesto which calls for "zero tolerance towards criminal immigrants and asylum seekers" and says it aims to protect "Judeo-Christian" values.

It also urges tolerance for integrated Muslims but opposes "economic refugees" coming to Germany and what it terms "misogynist, violent" ideology.

#Russia to build two more #nuclear reactors for #Iran

Russian-built Bushehr plant

Russia signed Tuesday a contract to build two nuclear reactors in Iran and announced plans for a total of nine, less than two weeks before a deadline on for deal on the country's disputed atomic programme.

A series of agreements signed during a visit to Moscow by Iran's nuclear programme chief Ali Akbar Salehi includes a contract for two new reactors at the existing Russian-built Bushehr plant.




The agreements foresee increasing the total number of Russian-built reactors in the country to nine as well as possibly transferring some sensitive technology relating to the production of fuel rod components.

The announcement comes amid last-minute diplomacy before a November 24 deadline to find a solution to ease Western suspicions over Tehran's nuclear intentions as well as damaging sanctions on the Iranian economy.


 
The contract is for the construction of two reactors at the same Gulf coast site as the existing 1,000 megawatt reactor at Bushehr that Russia launched last year.

Construction of the two reactors will be bankrolled by Iran, said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's state nuclear company Rosatom.

No value for the contract was disclosed.

Another agreement foresees eventually expanding the number of Russian-built reactors to nine.


 
In addition to the contract for the two reactors at Bushehr under the so-called Phase II of the project, another two could be built at the site, taking the total there to five.

Rosatom said another four similar units could be built at a site that Tehran has yet to decide upon.

Iran plans to build 20 more nuclear plants in the future, including four in Bushehr, to decrease its dependence on oil and gas.


 
Salehi praised the agreement as a "turning point" for Russia-Iran relations.

"These acts of friendship by Russia will remain in our memory," he said at the signing ceremony, according to Russian news agency RIA-Novosti.

The nuclear project "will be under the IAEA safeguards and fully meet the nuclear nonproliferation regime," Rosatom said.

Nuclear fuel will be produced in Russia through the entire life cycle of the eight plants and spent fuel returned to Russia.

However Rosatom also announced plans to look into ways of producing fuel rod components for the project in Iran.

The countries "plan to go into the issue of economic expediency and feasibility of fabricating fuel rod components in Iran, which will be used at these power units," it said.


 
Fuel rods used at Bushehr contain Russian low-enriched uranium. It was not clear whether Russia is considering switching to uranium enriched in Iran.

At the heart of the thorny nuclear talks between Tehran and six world powers, including the United States and Russia, is Iran's capability to enrich uranium.


 
Tehran argues it is needed to be able to reliably power Bushehr and other eventual reactors, but Israel and Western powers fear Iran will use the technology to enrich uranium to the much higher levels used to make an atomic bomb.

The 5+1 group, which also includes China, Britain, France and Germany, want Iran to reduce the scope of its enrichment capability in exchange for easing biting economic sanctions imposed since 2012.



Tehran agreed under an interim deal reached last year to halt enrichment in exchange for unblocking frozen oil revenues.

Iran and world powers met in Muscat Tuesday amid growing signs that a long-bargained deal on Tehran's nuclear drive will not be struck by the November 24 deadline.




The meetings followed a meeting Monday between Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry in an effort to narrow their differences but which ended with no signs of progress as both delegations indicated that big obstacles still remain.

Hackers claim breach On Fingerprint scanner Codes for the New iPhone's-قراصنة يزعمون اختراق شفرة ماسح البصمة لآي فون الجديد

قالت مجموعة من مخترقي أنظمة الكمبيوتر إنها نجحت في فك الحماية لماسح البصمة بهاتف آي فون الجديد وهو ما سيسبب إحراجا لأبل التي راهنت على هذه التقنية لتمييز هاتفها الذكي عن الطرز الجديد لسامسونج.

زعمت مجموعة من مخترقي أنظمة الكمبيوتر الألمان أنها نجحت في فك الحماية لماسح البصمة بهاتف آي.فون الجديد وذلك بعد يومين من إطلاق أبل التكنولوجيا التي تعد بحماية أفضل للأجهزة من المجرمين والمتلصصين. وإذا صدقت مزاعم المجموعة التي أعلنتها أمس الأحد فإنها ستسبب إحراجا لأبل التي راهنت على ماسح البصمة لتمييز هاتفها الذكي عن الطرز الجديدة لسامسونج الكترونكس وأجهزة أخرى تعتمد على نظام أندرويد الخاص بشركة غوغل.

وصرح خبيران كبيران في أمن أجهزة آي.فون أنهما يعتقدان أن المجموعة الألمانية التي تحمل اسم كايوس كومبيوتنج كلوب (نادي حوسبة الفوضى) قد نجحت في التغلب على نظام الحماية لماسح البصمة لكنهما لم يجربا الطريقة بنفسيهما، في حين لم يرد ممثلو أبل على استفسارات حول هذه المزاعيم.

وبثت المجموعة الألمانية تسجيلا مصورا على موقعها يظهر شخصا يستخدم الهاتف الجديد 5اس ببصمة مزيفة على ما يبدو. وقالت إنها اخترقت الماسح بتصوير بصمة مستخدم آي.فون ثم طباعتها على ورقة شفافة استخدمت في عمل قالب للبصمة المزيفة. وأضافت المجموعة أن نفس الأسلوب مستخدم في اختراق أغلبية أجهزة مسح البصمات في السوق.

فوز ميركل برئاسة الاتحاد الديمقراطي بـ 42% من الأصوات - Merkel's victory with Democratic Union 42% of the vote

فازت المستشارة أنجيلا ميركل برئاسة الاتحاد النسائي الديمقراطي بألمانيا في الانتخابات البرلمانية التي شهدتها ألمانيا اليوم بـ 42 % من إجمالي عدد الأصوات على منافسيها. 

كان قد بدأ الناخبون في ألمانيا، صباح اليوم الأحد، التوافد على مراكز الاقتراع للإدلاء بأصواتهم في الانتخابات البرلمانية التي تشهدها البلاد، والتي تسعى المستشارة أنجيلا ميركل للفوز بها والبقاء لولاية ثالثة.

وذكرت هيئة الإذاعة البريطانية "بي بي سي" أن "نحو 62 مليون ألماني يحق لهم التصويت في هذه الانتخابات"، والتي من المرجح أن تفوز بها ميركل، حيث أظهرت أحدث استطلاعات الرأي حصول حزبها الديمقراطي المسيحي على أكبر عدد من المقاعد في البرلمان.