WorthyNewsBot

(Worthy News) - US President Donald Trump described the conversation with the Kremlin chief as a "great call" and said the two leaders spoke "very strongly about bringing peace to Syria." During the call on Tuesday, the Russian president told Trump of "the main results" of his earlier meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Kremlin said. Putin had discussed the civil war with the Syrian leader in Sochi on Monday. Moscow also said that, while talking to Trump, Putin "stressed Russia's willingness to actively facilitate" a settlement in Syria. He also noted the "need to keep Syria's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity intact." [ Source: Deutche Welle (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - US special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is investigating senior White House adviser Jared Kushner over contacts with Israeli officials, according to a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday. Mueller, investigating Russian ties to the US President Donald Trump’s campaign, is looking at overtures Israeli figures made to Kushner and other senior Trump transition team staff surrounding a United Nations Security Council vote in December 2016 condemning West Bank settlements, the newspaper reported. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone about a ceasefire deal in the Syrian civil war and Iranian presence near Israel’s borders with the war-torn country, the Prime Minister’s Office said. The conversation was the latest in a series of high-level contacts between Israel and Russia, amid a dispute between the countries over allowing Iran and Shiite militias backed by Tehran to maintain a foothold near in Syria near the Israeli border. “The conversation lasted about half an hour and dealt with Syria, and Iran’s attempt to entrench itself in Syria,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “Netanyahu insisted on Israeli security and reiterated his opposition to Iran’s entrenchment in Syria.” [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - A second round of reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas, attended by representatives of other Palestinian Arab organizations, began in Cairo on Tuesday. The talks are based on the general understandings reached in October between the two organizations, in the wake of which Hamas dismantled the Gaza Executive Committee and allowed the Palestinian Authority (PA) government in Ramallah to receive authority over Gaza. The PA has since assumed control of Gaza’s border crossings but there are still disagreements, particularly over the fate of Hamas's armed wing. [ Source: Arutz Sheva (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The US Deputy Secretary of State has called on Sudan to “immediately suspend” its demolition of churches and to hold a roundtable discussion with Christian leaders to resolve disputes. John J. Sullivan, speaking at the Al-Neelain Mosque in Omdurman on Friday (17 November), said “the treatment of members of religious minorities is often the ultimate indicator of a government’s commitment” to religious freedom. He added that the US State Department’s recent International Religious Freedom report “noted instances of the arrest, detention, and intimidation of religious leaders, and the denial of permits for the construction of new churches; restrictions on non-Muslim religious groups from entering the country; and the censorship of religious material”. [ Source: World Watch Monitor (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - A church in Algeria’s north-western town of Aïn Turk (15km from Oran city) has been closed down by local authorities. The church, affiliated to the Protestant Church of Algeria (known as EPA, its French acronym), was sealed off by police on 9 November. Authorities in Oran claimed the church had been used to “illegally print Gospels and publications intended for evangelism”. The police notification also stated that the church didn’t have state approval. But the president of the EPA, Rev Mahmoud Haddad, denied any wrongdoing, saying the justifications for closing the church were “unfounded”. [ Source: World Watch Monitor (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Five Christians were killed and five others are missing after attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s Plateau and Benue states in the past two weeks. Two members of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) were killed on Sunday (Nov. 12) in Plateau state’s Wereng village, Riyom Local Government Area (LGA), as they were returning to their village at about 9:30 p.m., area resident Gyang Dahoro, a COCIN elder, told Morning Star News. Christopher Musa Chong, 28, and Bulus Dantoro, 35, were ambushed and shot death, and their corpses cut with machetes, according to Dahoro. [ Source: Morningstar News (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Stunning political developments in Saudi Arabia have some wondering if the strict Muslim-ruled Kingdom could become more tolerant of Christianity. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has said he intends to return Saudi Arabia to "moderate Islam" and open the country to all faiths. As part of his reform drive, dozens of officials – including 11 princes – have been arrested on corruption charges. The kingdom also says it has dismissed several thousand imams from mosques for spreading extremism. The percentage of Saudi Arabian citizens who are Christians today is officially zero, because conversion from Islam to Christianity has long been punishable by death. [ Source: CBN News (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Saad Hariri returned to Lebanon late Tuesday for the first time since he stunned his country by announcing from Saudi Arabia that he was quitting as prime minister more than two weeks ago. His resignation, made in an uncomfortable televised statement from Riyadh, set off an international political crisis involving Paris and Washington, who were left without one of their chief partners in a region swirling in conflict. Hariri left Saudi Arabia for Paris on Saturday by invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, before traveling on to Beirut by way of Egypt and Cyprus on Tuesday. [ Source: UK Telegraph (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The FBI has reason to believe U.S. Rep. Bob Brady unlawfully concealed a $90,000 payment made by his campaign to get an opponent to quit a 2012 primary race, according to court documents that confirm the Philadelphia Democrat is under investigation in a widening campaign finance probe. In unsealed court documents made public Monday, the FBI requested a search warrant and has obtained data from an email account belonging to Brady. The FBI agent who filed the warrant wrote that there is probable cause Brady violated contribution limits and produced false documents, and there is evidence that he and others knowingly circumvented campaign finance rules. Brady has not been charged with a crime. His attorney, James Eisenhower, said that the congressman already has given the emails to authorities and that Brady has done nothing wrong. View the full article

(Worthy News) - Newly filed court documents confirm that Fusion GPS, the company mostly responsible for the controversial “Trump dossier” on presidential candidate Donald Trump, made payments to three journalists between June 2016 until February 2017. The revelation could be a breakthrough for House Republicans, who are exploring whether Fusion GPS used the dossier, which was later criticized for having inaccurate information on Trump, to feed anti-Trump stories to the press during and after the presidential campaign. The three journalists who were paid by Fusion GPS are known to have reported on "Russia issues relevant to [the committee's] investigation," the House Intelligence Committee said in a court filing. But the recipients' names, the amounts, and purposes of those payments were either redacted from the documents that Fusion GPS filed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia or were not disclosed. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - A federal judge in Maryland issued a second order on Tuesday blocking President Trump from implementing his ban on transgender military service. The preliminary injunction was granted to a group of active-duty transgender troops who sued Trump and top military officials in August. For now, it bars the Pentagon and Coast Guard from implementing or enforcing Trump’s August guidance aimed at rolling back the Obama administration’s policy of allowing open service and medical care for transgender troops. “This preliminary injunction shall remain in effect until such time, if ever, that [it] is rescinded or modified by further order of this court,” District Court Judge Marvin Garbis wrote in the order. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Hundreds of victims of the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas filed five lawsuits on Monday in a California court against the operators of the hotel from which the gunman fired, the organizers of the country music festival he targeted and the killer’s estate. The largest of the lawsuits was filed on behalf of 450 people who were either injured in or witnessed the shooting, while the other four were brought by families of people who were killed or severely injured. All five cases were filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. [ Source: Reuters (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - More than six years after the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant, workers finally discovered the location of melted uranium fuel rods inside of one of the reactors. The rods melted during the 2011 disaster, making it near-impossible to determine where the liquefied material ended up. The melted uranium was found using a shoe-box sized robot known as “Little Sunfish.” The machine was sent inside the defunct plant armed with a video camera to send footage back to workers outside. Three days into its mission, the robot sent back video of a hole at the bottom of the Unit 3 reactor with the melted fuel beneath it, the New York Times reported. “Until now, we didn’t know exactly where the fuel was, or what it looked like,” Takahiro Kimoto, a general manager in the nuclear power division at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), told the New York Times. “Now that we have seen it, we can make plans to retrieve it.” [ Source: IBT (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - A mysterious radioactive cloud hovering above Europe came from Russian nuclear plant pollution, the nation admitted Monday, according to the South China Morning Post. Russia’s meteorological service confirmed there were “extremely high” concentrations of radioactive isotopes in the air in September. The cloud was first discovered over Italy in early October. Authorities said at the time it appeared the radioactivity originated somewhere in South Russia between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains, according to Jean-Christope Gariel of France’s Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute. “Probes of radioactive aerosols from monitoring stations Argayash and Novogorny were found to contain radioisotope Ru-106 [between Sept. 25 and Oct. 1],” Russia's Rosgidromet service said, according to the South China Morning Post. Authorities said the highest concentration was found in Argayash. Though the specific location of the pollution’s source was not given, Argayash lies near the Mayak nuclear facility. The Mayak plant has had a number of nuclear accidents in the past, including one in 1957 that was the second biggest nuclear disaster in history. A storage tank with highly radioactive liquid waste exploded at the time, releasing more than half the amount that was released during the Chernobyl disaster. [ Source: IBT (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The pro-ISIS Wafa’ Media Foundation is distributing a propaganda poster showing a beheaded Pope Francis poster just days after releasing a video showing a masked man driving towards Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Basilica. The gruesome image shows an Islamic State member leaning over the decapitated body of the Catholic Church leader in front of a destroyed cityscape and armed ISIS fighters. “I swear to avenge every single drop of blood that you spilled and every house that you have destroyed,” reads the photo caption. “I swear that you will taste the bitterness of the cups of death and make your feasts massacres. You will not even enjoy living in your homes, Allah Willing.” Last week, a dimly-lit image began circulating through pro-ISIS social media accounts of a masked man behind the wheel of a car approaching St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. The poster’s ominous caption read, “Christmas Blood. So wait…” [ Source: IBT (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah is preparing to pull its cadre of commanders and military advisers from Iraq, with the group’s leader saying Monday it had achieved its goal of defeating the Islamic State in the Middle East country. During a televised address from Beirut, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said its operations against ISIS in Iraq were coming quickly to an end, and the group needed to redeploy those commanders and advisers “in any other arena that needs them.” Hezbollah fighters in Iraq will remain in place, for the time being, until Baghdad gives the official word that their forces are no longer needed in the country, Mr. Nasrallah said. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - President Donald Trump announced Monday the U.S. is putting North Korea’s “murderous regime” on America’s terrorism blacklist, despite questions about Pyongyang’s support for international attacks beyond the assassination of its leader’s half brother in February. Trump said the designation as a state sponsor of terror was long overdue, and he promised a new wave of sanctions as part of a “maximum pressure campaign” over North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons that could soon pose a direct threat to the U.S. mainland. North Korea will join Iran, Sudan and Syria on the blacklist. The North had been designated for two decades until 2008 when it was removed in a bid to salvage international talks aimed at halting its nuclear efforts. The talks collapsed soon after and haven’t been revived since. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - States with lower taxes on businesses and personal income have higher economic growth, according to an economist at the American Legislative Exchange Council. Jonathan Williams, an economist at the council, spoke at an event on the Hill Monday and used two states, Kansas and North Carolina, to illustrate how raising and cutting taxes can affect the local state economy in either a positive or negative way. Williams explained that while many try to suggest Kansas's economic difficulty has been due to tax cuts they have implemented in the past, the data suggest otherwise. [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The Palestinian terror group Hamas rejected on Monday an Arab League resolution labeling Lebanon’s Hezbollah a terrorist organisation. In a statement, Hamas said it “rejects the description of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement as terrorist.” Rather, it added, Israel’s actions against Palestinians should be labelled “terrorism.” [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Saudi Arabia warned Sunday that it would not stand idly by in the face of Iranian “aggression,” as Bahrain said the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah was “in total control” of Lebanon. The foreign ministers of both Gulf states spoke at an extraordinary general meeting of the Arab League at its Cairo headquarters, called by Riyadh. The Arab League meeting comes as tensions soar between regional arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, including over League member Lebanon. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Janet Yellen on Monday submitted her resignation from the Federal Reserve board to US President Donald Trump, announcing that she will leave the board when her successor is sworn in as Fed chairman. In a letter to the president, Yellen said she would “do my utmost” to make sure that there is a smooth transition to Jerome Powell, who was tapped by Trump on November 2 to become the next Fed leader after the president decided not to offer Yellen a second term. Yellen’s decision gives Trump the chance to fill five positions on the Fed’s seven-member board, in addition to picking Powell to be the next Fed chairman, all in his first year in office. Board member Lael Brainard will be the only Fed board member not nominated by Trump, meaning his selections will have tremendous influence in setting the country’s future monetary policy. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - A team of scientists presented a research paper to the Geological Society of America, revealing some ground shaking information. The paper has warned that there could be a big increase in numbers of devastating earthquakes around the world next year caused by the slowing down of the Earth's rotation. The research was conducted and presented by Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado in Boulder and Rebecca Bendick of the University of Montana in Missoula at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. They found that variations in the speed of the Earth's rotation could set off intense seismic activity, particularly in the tropical-equatorial regions where the population density is very high. Any change is the Earth’s rotation speed is minuscule. It is affected by a factor of milliseconds and the changes in the length of day and night cannot be perceived, only calculated. But these small changes set off a seismic rumble that can release vast amounts of underground energy. [ Source: IBT Times (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The economic cost of the opioid crisis was $504 billion in 2015 — more than six times the most recently estimated cost of the epidemic, according to a new White House report. According to the Council of Economic Advisers report, more than 50,000 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2015, of which 63 percent reportedly involved opioids. Opioids are prescribed to reduce pain for people recovering from surgery or undergoing medical treatment, but also have a high potential for abuse. Users often move to other lethal, non-medicinal drugs such as heroin, which produces a similar effect but is much less expensive. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - An undersea earthquake of magnitude 7.0 struck in the South Pacific on Monday, sending small tsunami waves towards New Caledonia and Vanuatu. The quake, initially reported as magnitude 7.3, struck 51 miles east of the Loyalty Islands and was the second major tremor in the same area in less than 24 hours and the third in the past month. Monday's quake struck at 9.43 am local time (2243 Sunday GMT) at a shallow depth of six miles, east of the remote Loyalty Islands, the United States Geological Survey said. [ Source: UK Telegraph (Read More...) ] View the full article