Nachdem das Datum festgesetzt und die Hotels gebucht sind, wird Genf II mit oder ohne SNC stattfinden, aber es zeichnet sich bereits ab, dass ein Haufen von Ländern des Westens eine Delegation der Assad-Regierung unter Druck setzen werden, ohne wirkliche Chance, dass ein ernsthaftes Ergebnis erreicht werden kann.

Congress members introduced a bill today to “fast-track” trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through Congress. If passed, lawmakers would only have a small window of time to conduct hearings over binding trade provisions and give an up-or-down vote on ratification without any ability to amend the terms before they bind the U.S. government. This legal arrangement is at odds with the spirit of the Constitution, which gives Congress authority over U.S. trade policy. Fast-track authority (also known as Trade Promotion Authority or TPA) means that Congress hands that power over to the White House and the U.S. Trade Representative. Stopping fast-track is one crucial step towards blocking secretive and undemocratic agreements like TPP and the EU-US trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

Almost as badly as Israel needs peace (if this is even possible), it needs tasks and missions, which it can do alone and which can provide an abundance of achievements.

Ambassador Caspar Veldkamp was summoned “for clarification” over the decision, the foreign ministry said.

Dutch pension fund asset manager PGGM has stopped investing in five Israeli banks because they are financing Jewish settlements and have branches in the West Bank, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Haaretz says PGGM is withdrawing on the basis of United Nations resolutions which have defined the settlements as illegal.

„The damage is enormous,“ said David Elhayani, head of the Jordan Valley Regional Council, which represents about 7,000 settlers. „In effect, today, we are almost not selling to the (Western) European market anymore.

(07.01.) DNI Clapper welcomed Review Group members Geoffrey Stone, Cass Sunstein and Peter Swire and thanked all the members for their service. The meeting allowed senior IC officials to hear directly from the Review Group about the goals and objectives of the report’s recommendations and to ask questions about the groups findings.

The government‘s requests for reauthorization are typically classified. But in a release, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said it was declassifying its latest petition to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in light of the public‘s interest in the metadata program.

„Now we are taking the solutions … home, all of us. Hopefully tomorrow we can either confirm or not, but hopefully confirm,“ he said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will both attend the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos this month, the organizers told Reuters on Friday.

• Deputy director: bulk data collection is an ‚insurance policy‘
• President Obama set to announce future scope of operations

To all loyal revolutionary men and women of Egypt…

In the life of nations, there come decisive days, and in the paths of revolutions major milestones. So, move ahead boldly with your Revolution, on this crucial moment of your non-violent struggle against the junta, committed to peaceful protest and defiance with selfless devotion and creative ingenuity, for the sake of the homeland and in revenge for the martyrs, in another revolutionary escalation week, under the title „Fail False Vote“, to boycott the sham referendum on the junta‘s illegitimate constitution.

The Brotherhood says Sisi‘s overthrow of Mursi constituted a coup which undermined democratic gains made since a 2011 popular uprising toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

With one month to go until the Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee launched a new version of the official site www.sochi2014.com. This version is highly interactive, offering easy access to information about the athletes participating in the Games, sport disciplines, competition schedule and the city of Sochi.

„Der König der Niederlande, der zugleich Ehrenmitglied des Internationalen Olympischen Komitees (IOC) ist, wird in Sotschi von seiner Gattin Maxima begleitet“, zitierte die Nachrichtenagentur AFP am Freitag aus einer Erklärung Ruttes.

Foreign minister Frans Timmermans has welcomed the progress made by the joint mission of the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), based in The Hague, in removing chemical weapons from Syria.

The Dutch diplomat Sigrid Kaag, who heads this difficult and dangerous operation, has informed the UN Security Council in New York of the results achieved so far and the steps still to be taken.

„In every aspect, it seems the world is losing its patience for us,“ Finance Minister Yair Lapid told Ynet on Friday, following reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued tenders for 1,400 new settlement homes.

PM issues bids for 1,400 homes in territories, area beyond Green Line in Jerusalem. Finance minister calls it ‚bad idea‘ for peace talks, says party will make sure plans don‘t materialize

In another event, before dawn, three men from the Samaria region and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank were arrested in the religious Kibbutz Tirat Tzvi.

The three are suspected of trying to conspire against a Civil Administration representative who lives on the kibbutz, in an attempt to damage his car.

In British Telegraph interview, FM Avigdor Lieberman says current peace deal with Wadi Ara land swap is best future for Israel, says Arabs are unable to decide whether they‘re Israeli or Palestinian

Four men who were part of a group that wrote mobile history tell for the first time how strong protection against eavesdropping of cell phones was weakened.

Es gibt aber auch noch andere Quellen für die Erkenntnis, dass die in den siebziger Jahren von der US-Regierung angezettelten Crypto Wars entgegen anderslautender Berichte nie beendet wurden.
Im Gegenteil, sie betreffen alle Bereiche: Mobilfunk, Internet, Apps, Hardware – alles, was verschlüsselt werden kann, versuchen Geheimdienste zu kompromittieren.

„Der ursprünglich für den 13./14. Januar geplante Moskau-Besuch der Oppositionellen wird abgesagt“, teilte Dschamus der Nachrichtenagentur RIA Novosti am Freitag telefonisch mit. „Am 12. Januar werden wir – Al-Dscharba und ich – uns in der französischen Hauptstadt zu einem Treffen der ‚Freunde Syriens‘ aufhalten. Wir sind in Zeitnot. Deshalb ist die Moskau-Reise im Moment kaum denkbar. Daher ersuchten wir Lawrow um ein Treffen in Paris, wo seine Verhandlungen mit US-Außenminister John Kerry geplant sind“, sagte Dschamus.

Zu dem Treffen, das mit Unterstützung des spanischen Außenministeriums abgehalten wird, versammelten sich rund 150 Vertreter der syrischen Opposition, um nach politischen Lösungen im Syrien-Konflikt zu suchen, meldet die Agentur EFE.

Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Fayssal Mikdad, discussed with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) delegation headed by, Palestinian Minister of Labor, Dr. Abdul-Salam al-Majdalani, the difficult situation of the Palestinians inside the camps in Syria due to the crimes of the armed terrorist groups.

Mikdad reviewed the procedures made by the government to provide the needs of the Palestinians inside the camps in Syria.

Scores of young men and women staged a sit-in on Thursday in front of the United Nations headquarters in Damascus in denunciation of the takfiri terrorists’ crimes in the residential worker city of Adra in Damascus Countryside.

The participants held “the oil sheikhdoms, Turkey and other terrorism-supporting countries” accountable for the massacres which the terrorist groups perpetrated against the civilians in Adra, a city home to housing compounds for private and state workers.