A small aircraft conducting a surveillance mission over the Mediterranean for France’s Defense Ministry has crashed in Malta, killing all five people on board. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed that the twin-prop Fairchild Metroliner went down near the runway of the southern Mediterranean island nation’s main airport on Monday morning.

“A light reconnaissance aircraft … carrying out surveillance operations over the Mediterranean for the defense ministry crashed this morning at 0630 at Malta’s Luqa airport, during take-off,” the defense minister said.

The minister noted that three of the victims were ministry staff while the other two were contractors. The French daily Le Monde reported that the officials belonged to France’s intelligence services. Video footage showed flames and thick black smoke billowing from the site of the crash, next to the runway.

The Maltese government said in a statement that inquiries were under way to determine what had caused the crash. “Official information, footage and eyewitnesses … clearly indicate that there was no explosion prior to impact.” The officials have not yet ruled out sabotage as a possible cause of the crash.

Airport officials said the plane had been heading for the city of Misrata in Libya, where some countries have sent teams of Special Forces to support the new UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in its ongoing fight against the Takfiri Daesh militant group. Malta’s government said that the flight had been due to return to Malta within hours without landing in any other countries.

Presstv

US President Barack Obama has criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for his repeated claims that the presidential election on November 8 would be rigged, describing the claims as “dangerous.” Obama made the comments on Thursday at Miami Gardens, Florida, during a rally in support of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“That is dangerous because when you try to sow the seeds of doubt in people’s minds about the legitimacy of our elections, that undermines our democracy,” Obama said. “You’re doing the work of our adversaries for them because our democracy depends on people knowing that their vote matters. That those who occupy the seats of power were chosen by the people,” he added. With the presidential election less than three weeks away, Trump has intensified his criticism of the American electoral system.

On Thursday, the GOP nominee said he will have the right to challenge the outcome of election if he feels it’s questionable. Hours later, Trump added fuel to the fire by saying that he would totally accept the results of presidential poll if he won.

According to a new poll released on Monday, 41 percent of American voters are saying the 2016 election could be “stolen” from Trump due to widespread voter fraud. During his speech, Obama also condemned Republican lawmakers for taking too long to withdraw their support for Trump, doing so only after the release of the 2015 tape where Trump was caught making lewd comments about women.

“Apparently that was the deal breaker for them. Or at least, his poll numbers dropping after the tape came out was the deal breaker for him,” he said. “But here’s my question: Why would it take you this long to figure out that Donald Trump shouldn’t be president?” “You stand up and nominate and support a guy who says that he would silence reporters, jail his political opponent in the middle of a debate, deport whoever he wants,” he said.

Presstv

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has come under fire for the officer-involved death of a 66-year-old African American woman, who was suffering from schizophrenia. NYPD officers shot dead Deborah Danner in the bedroom of her Bronx apartment on Tuesday, after she reportedly confronted them with scissors and a baseball bat.

According to police, Sergeant Hugh Barry had convinced the elderly woman to drop the scissors. However, when she charged to hit the officer with the bat, Barry fired two shots at her chest. She was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The NYPD admitted the excessive use of force in a statement, saying that the incident would undergo a full investigation since the officer could have subdued Danner by simply using his Taser.

“The sergeant was armed with a Taser. It was not deployed, and the reason it was not deployed will be part of the investigation and review,” said NYPD Assistant Chief Larry Nikunen. The NYPD immediately put Barry on modified duty until the investigation was completed.

Danner’s shooting death was condemned by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. “This elderly woman was known to the police department, yet the officer involved in this shooting failed to use discretion to either talk her down from her episode or, barring that, to use his stun gun,” he said in a statement.

According to Danner’s Twitter account, she was a keen supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, which seeks justice for unarmed African Americans killed by white cops. “The wound, RACISM, continues to fester. PRAY for healing,” she wrote in one tweet.

“Point of the Conversation: How’d U like to move about w/a TARGET on you because of the color of your skin? BLACK LIVES MATTER!” she wrote in another. The shooting occurred at a time when anti-police sentiment is already high across the US due to a surge of unjustified killings of unarmed African Americans over the past few months.

On Monday, Terrence Cunningham, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), one of the largest police organizations in the US, issued a formal apology to minorities for the historical injustice and mistreatment by law enforcement agencies.

Presstv

The French, German and Russian leaders are set to meet in the German capital to discuss the Syrian crisis, as a brief truce has been introduced by Russia and Syria for the embattled city of Aleppo. French and Russian presidents Francois Hollande and Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet in Berlin on Wednesday, according to Hollande’s office.

An aide to Hollande said the meeting is aimed at “giving the message” to the Russian president that “a durable ceasefire” and humanitarian access is needed for Aleppo. Russia, which has been conducting an aerial military campaign against extremist militants in Syria, has repeatedly voiced its readiness for a ceasefire. Russia has been insisting, however, that any such lull in fighting should be accompanied with a meticulous separation of terrorists from other, less extremist militants fighting against the Syrian government.

Western countries, including the US, have been reluctant to do any such separation. Al-Nusra Front, which has recently renamed itself and claimed to have broken up with al-Qaeda, is one of the handful of terrorist groups that have mingled with almost all the other militant outfits fighting in Syria, including inside Aleppo.

The Syrian and Russian militaries have also set up humanitarian corridors around Aleppo to allow the safe exit of civilians trapped in the city ever since a major offensive began to retake it. Damascus and Moscow say, however, that the militants are preventing the civilians from leaving the city.

Presstv

A group of 70 Nobel Prize winners have thrown their support behind the US Democratic presidential nominee, endorsing Hillary Clinton for presidency in the run-up to the 2016 elections.

In an open letter on Tuesday, the world’s leading experts in science, medicine and economics “strongly and fully” backed the former secretary of state, arguing that her election is crucial for preserving freedom, safeguarding national security and protecting a constitutional government. “It is imperative that Hillary Clinton be elected as the next president of the United States,” they wrote.

“We need a president who will support and advance policies that will enable science and technology to flourish in our country and to provide the basis of important policy decisions,” the laureates added.

The letter made no mention of Clinton’s Republican rival, Donald Trump, but it suggested that policies that show a lack of appreciation for scientific knowledge could harm America’s national security.

The signatories of the letter, among whom were prominent names such as  chemist Peter Agre,  economist Robert J. Shiller and  physicist Robert Woodrow Wilson, also pointed to global issues, including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and climate change as problems that require innovation and investment.

Along with other GOPers, Trump believes that the climate change issue is just a “hoax.” According to The New York Times, “The fact that the Nobel laureates are backing Mrs. Clinton does not come as a big surprise, as academics overwhelmingly tend to lean Democratic.”

The race between Trump and Clinton represents a battle between two of the least liked major party candidates in US history. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released in August found Clinton and Trump were the most unpopular presidential candidates in decades.

Presstv

The widow of a Nigerian activist is planning to sue Royal Dutch Shell in the Dutch courts alleging the oil company was complicit in the execution of her husband by the Nigerian military in 1995, court documents filed in the United States last week show. Esther Kiobel has filed an application in New York to secure documents from Shell’s US lawyers, which she could use in the Dutch action.

The filings with the US District Court for the Southern District Court of New York said she planned to begin the action before the end of the year. “Ms. Kiobel will demonstrate that Shell encouraged, facilitated, and conspired with the Nigerian government to commit human rights violations against the Ogoni people,” a memorandum in the application filed last week said.

A Shell spokesman said: “Shell remains firmly committed to supporting fundamental human rights in line with the legitimate role of business. We have always denied, in the strongest possible terms, the allegations made by the plaintiffs in this tragic case.”

Kiobel previously took her lawsuit to the United States but the US Supreme Court ruled in 2013 the case could not be heard because the alleged activities took place outside the country. In 2009 prior to that ruling Shell had agreed in the United States to pay $15.5 million to settle lawsuits related to other activists executed at the same time as Barinem Kiobel, including author and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Kiobel’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

John Donovan, who runs the royaldutchshellplc.com protest website, and who has advised Kiobel on the case said: “She’s going after Shell in their home country, the Netherlands”. The Nigerian military cracked down heavily on local opposition to oil production by a Shell joint venture in the Niger Delta in the early 1990s. Kiobel alleges that Shell provided support to the military in its crackdown. A Dutch court ruled in December that Shell may be sued in the Netherlands for oil spills at its subsidiary in Nigeria, although it did not say Shell was responsible.

Culled from Defenseweb

The Austrian government says the house where Adolf Hitler was born is to be torn down to stop it from becoming a shrine for neo-Nazis. The mansion will be replaced with a new building that has no association with the Nazi dictator and used by either a charity or the local authorities, according to Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka.  The property has been empty since 2011 amid a government order for the compulsory purchase of the building in a town on the border with Germany, and a dispute with its owner.

The government this year launched formal legal procedures to dispossess the home’s owner after she had repeatedly refused to sell the building. Now a committee of experts including historians, officials and the head of Austria’s main Jewish organization has recommended that a “thorough architectural rearrangement” be carried out.

The plan still has to be formalized in legislation and voted on in parliament. Austria, which was annexed by Hitler’s Germany in 1938, has confronted its Nazi past far less directly than its larger neighbour. The controversial building draws Nazi sympathizers from around the world, visiting and posing in front of the house with the Hitler salute.

The street where the house is located also witnesses anti-fascist protests annually where demonstrators organize rallies outside the building. The news prompted some residents to call for a refugee centre to be built in place of the building amid an unprecedented influx of refugees fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East.

Presstv

The United States has been rigging elections for nearly 200 years in order to keep anti-establishment candidates away from the White House, says Stephen Lendman, an American writer, journalist and political commentator. According to a new poll released on Monday, 41 percent of American voters are now saying the 2016 presidential election could be “stolen” from Republican nominee Donald Trump due to widespread voter fraud.

And 73 percent of Republican voters think the election could be stolen from the billionaire businessman, while 17 percent of Democrats agree with the prospect of rigging. Over the last week, Trump has intensified his criticism of the American electoral system. He called the election process rigged, and said the media is colluding with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in order to beat him.

Lendman told Press TV on Monday that voter fraud in America is not a new phenomenon. “It’s a phenomenon that goes back to the early days of the Republic, and I have written a number of times in my articles.” “I remember an article where I cited elections going back to around 1820 in America – my God almost 200 years ago! – when an election was rigged to ensure that one candidate got into office as president, and the other candidate was defeated,” he added.

The analyst said elections at all levels are rigged in the United States. “In my own city of Chicago the election was rigged to install the current mayor, and then rigged again to see that he was re-elected. So it goes on all levels of government in America.”

“No other country I am aware of meddles in the internal affairs of America in its elections or anything else, and all the claims that America is making about Russia meddling in America’s elections and wanted to influence Trump win over Clinton, all that is a bunch of rubbish. There’s no evidence proving it,” the commentator said.

“Trump is right saying elections are rigged,” he emphasized. Lendman stated that if Clinton wins and Trump loses in November, elections are absolutely rigged “because he sounds like an anti-establishment candidate.” However, he said, “Nobody becomes a billionaire by being anti-establishment. He’s very much part of the establishment, but he’s a little independent-minded based on the things he talks about.”

The US media has launched an offensive against Trump in recent days, running reports of several women claiming the billionaire businessman has groped and forcibly kissed them. Trump has called the allegations “slander and libel” and part of a “concerted, coordinated and vicious attack” launched by Clinton and the news media to destroy his campaign.

Presstv

Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, has died at age of 88, casting uncertainty over the Southeast Asian state’s political future. “His Majesty has passed away at Siriraj Hospital peacefully,” the Royal Household Bureau said in a statement on Thursday, adding that he died at 15:52 local time.

The palace did not reveal the reason for the king’s death, but it had warned days ago that his health was “not stable.” Thailand’s parliament is to hold a special session at 21:00 local time to discuss the new development.

The monarch’s demise has plunged the political future of Thailand in doubt as his presumed successor, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, 63, lacks the widespread popularity his father enjoyed during his 77-year reign.

The transition of power following the king’s death could become an important juncture in a country ruled by a military junta and long divided by rival political parties.

The former general, Prayuth Chan-ocha, has been at the helm of the county since the last democratic government of Yingluck Shinawatra was toppled after years of political turmoil in a 2014 coup d’etat.

The king, who essentially had a symbolic role, had been in poor health for some time, and spent most of the past six years in Bangkok’s Siriraj hospital.

The king had been receiving treatment for a respiratory infection, a buildup of fluid surrounding the brain and a swollen lung in the past few months.

King Bhumibol was re-admitted in Siriraj hospital in May 2015 and was last seen in public in January, when he spent several hours visiting his Bangkok palace.

The majority of the country’s 68 million population viewed the monarch as a traditional pillar of Thailand’s unity as well as stability in rapidly-changing times.

King Bhumibol ascended to the throne on June 9, 1946, and his reign witnessed 10 military coups, the most recent in May 2014 led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was quick to offer condolences to Thailand on the king’s passing, expressing hope that the country would honor his legacy of commitment to universal values and respect for human rights.

Presstv