Montenegro Opposition Calls Charges Of Plot To Kill Djukanovic 'Fabricated'

- Montenegro's pro-Russian opposition parties have rejected charges by the country's chief prosecutor that Russian nationalists organized an alleged October coup attempt aimed at assassinating pro-Western leader Milo Djukanovic over his efforts to join NATO.

"It is obvious that the special prosecutor has become a servant of the [ruling] Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS)," Milutin Dukanovic, leader of the opposition Democratic Front, told RFE/RL's Balkan Service on November 7.

He called the charges that two unidentified Russian citizens organized an allegedly foiled coup attempt on the eve of the country's parliamentary elections on October 16 "part of the contrived and fabricated...coup d'etat affair."

The Democratic Front is one of the leading pro-Russian opposition parties in Montenegro, all of whom have refused to participate in the parliament since the October 16 national election. The vote gave Djukanovic's ruling DPS a large majority but not enough seats to govern on its own.

The pro-Russian parties say the government's announcement of the arrests of 20 alleged coup plotters the night before the October 16 election unfairly influenced voter behavior by suggesting that opposition parties sought to overthrow the government.

Chief prosecutor Milivoje Katnic said on November 6 that the aim of the alleged coup was to assassinate the prime minister during the election to help an opposition party take over the state. He did not name the party in question.

He also said two unidentified nationalists from Russia were the organizers and sought a professional sharpshooter to carry out the assassination. He added that there was no evidence of Russian government involvement.

Moscow has said it had no official role in the alleged coup attempt. (FullText)

Russia Aims to Disrupt Other Western Elections, U.S. Officials Say

wsj.com:

WASHINGTON—A Russian-backed hacking effort that has rocked the presidential campaign may peak on Election Day, but is likely to continue next year and into 2018 as Moscow seeks to influence U.S. politics and key elections in Europe, Obama administration officials warn.

Russian meddling, in fact, may become more potent in Europe than in the U.S., White House officials and other experts say, because Moscow has long courted political figures there, and has forged ties with euroskeptic political parties strengthened by the recent influx of migrants and refugees.

Upcoming contests in Europe include Dutch elections in March, French presidential elections in April and May, and German elections in the fall. Moscow is hoping that gains by Kremlin-friendly parties like France’s National Front could help Russia break free of some of the diplomatic isolation and sanctions imposed on Moscow after its seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014, Kremlin watchers say.

“The German elections, the French elections and other elections in the coming year all have big geopolitical implications for Russia,” saidPasi Eronen, Russia project researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank.

Although large-scale interference from the Kremlin is relatively new to the U.S., Mr. Eronen said Russia has been active in Europe for the past two years with hacking and disinformation campaigns designed to weaken those the Kremlin considers to be political rivals.

Officials say that even if Russia fails to elect its own allies in European elections next year, the sustained meddling in the U.S. and Europe will serve a long-term Kremlin goal—namely, to put Russian President Vladimir Putin’s perceived foes in the West in disarray, making it easier for him to safely reseat himself as Russian president when his country holds elections in 2018.

U.S. and European observers have criticized previous elections under Mr. Putin as rigged and marred by obvious fraud—criticism that Mr. Putin has described as a veiled attempt to overthrow him.

Mr. Putin hopes to inoculate himself against such criticism by sowing so much chaos in U.S. and European elections before then that Western leaders will be too preoccupied with domestic problems to spend much effort criticizing the Russian poll, one senior White House official said.

Strong U.S. job growth, rising wages boost December rate hike prospects

Reuters:

 U.S. employers maintained a strong pace of hiring in October and boosted wages for workers, which could effectively seal the case for a December interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 161,000 jobs last month amid gains in construction, healthcare and professional and business services, the Labor Department said on Friday. The closely watched employment report was published four days before the Nov. 8 presidential election.

The solid labor market fundamentals were also underscored by revisions to August and September data, which showed 44,000 more jobs created than previously reported. Average hourly earnings rose 10 cents or 0.4 percent in October.

As a result, the year-on-year gain in wages last month rose to 2.8 percent, the largest in nearly 7-1/2 years.

"This was a very good report. With the hourly wage number beginning to accelerate, the Fed will have all the cover it needs to raise rates in December," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania.

The report came on the heels of data last week showing an acceleration in economic growth in the third quarter. Businesses have created 15.5 million jobs since 2010, with almost half of them high wage jobs. Even Americans holding low-income jobs are starting to experience wage gains.

Study Links Human Actions to Arctic Sea Ice Disappearance

POLAR BEARS!

voiceofamericanews:

 Ice has been disappearing in the Arctic Ocean since at least the 1960. Each year, more and more sea ice vanishes in the Arctic north, and one study says every one of us is personally responsible.

Each passenger taking a flight from New York to Europe, or driving 4,000 kilometers in a gasoline-powered car, emits enough greenhouse gas to melt three square meters of ice on the Arctic Ocean, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

The study calculates that for every metric ton of carbon dioxide put in the air, there are three square meters less of sea ice in the month of September when the Arctic region is least frozen. Using observations, statistics and 30 different computer models, the study’s authors show heat-trapping gases cause warming and the melting of sea ice in a way that can be translated into a simple mathematical formula.

There's "a very clear linear relationship'' between carbon dioxide emissions and sea ice retreat in September, especially at the southern boundary edges, said study lead author Dirk Notz, a climate scientist at Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Germany.

"It's very simple. Those emissions from our tailpipes and our coal-fired power plants are all going into the atmosphere,'' said study co-author Julienne Stroeve, a climate scientist at both the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, and University College, London. "It just increases the warming at the surface. So the ice is going to respond to that. The only way it can do that is to move further north.''

Stroeve and Notz calculated that the average American each year is responsible for carbon emissions that lead to melting around 50 square meters of September sea ice — about the size of small one-bedroom apartment in a U.S. city.

Many animal species in the Arctic heavily depend on sea ice, and it's likely they will struggle to survive with an ice-free Arctic during the summer, Notz said. For example, polar bears, who spend most of their lives on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean, could be at risk.

As for the future of Arctic sea ice, the study said the international target of 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, as spelled out in the Paris Agreement on climate change that goes into effect Friday, will not be sufficient to allow Arctic summer sea ice to survive. At current carbon emission levels, the ocean around the North Pole would likely be ice-free in Septembers in about 30 years.

North Dakota celebrates 127 years

BISMARCK, ND - Happy Birthday to North Dakota. On Wednesday, the state turned 127.

On Nov. 2, 1889, North Dakota was admitted to the Union when President Benjamin Harrison signed the Proclamation of Admission.

South Dakota was also admitted on that day. The process toward statehood began on Feb. 22, 1889, when President Grover Cleveland signed the Enabling Act.

On Oct. 1 of that year, North Dakota's voters approved the state's new constitution. North Dakota was the 39th state to join the Union.

False Flag?: 2 Iowa police officers killed; suspect in custody

(CNN) A suspect in Wednesday's (November 2) fatal shootings of two Iowa police officers in their squad vehicles has been taken into custody a county west of where the killings happened, police say.

Scott Michael Greene, 46, of Urbandale, was named a suspect in the deaths of a police officer in Urbandale and a police officer in adjacent Des Moines, both of whom were found shot and sitting in their vehicles near intersections 2 miles apart.

Police found Greene on foot late Wednesday morning in Dallas County, the county immediately west of the Des Moines area, said Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek. Police were taking him to Des Moines; further details about his detention weren't available.

Winning!: Bashar al-Assad, Unrepentant, States He Expects to Rule Syria Until 2021

- Despite “thousands of Syrians wiped out through the terrorists,” he stated, “no the first is speaking about war crimes” by his armed opponents.

The blasts that until lately echoed night and day in the mountaintop, shelling digital rebel-held suburbs, have subsided recently, and Mr. Assad, radiating confidence, was on the pursuit to persuade the Western public their governments had designed a mistake in backing his opponents.

Which was pretty good by itself, he stated, but Islamist ideologies according to “bad interpretation” had root prior to the war coupled with fueled it. He rejected analysts’ contentions that his government had faster the procedure because they build mosques and funneling jihadist fighters to Iraq throughout the U . s . States occupation.

He guaranteed his visitors, six American and British journalists and policy analysts, that the new trend of openness, transparency and dialogue was dawning in Syria, a note which was a part of a concerted public-relations push by his top advisors and officials. He spoke of the struggle over identity in the centre East, as well as the best of each and every Syrian to become a “full citizen, in each and every concept of this word.”

“Until this moment, we have a dialogue through different channels,” even going to the U.S States, Mr. Assad stated. “But that does not mean to stop our sovereignty and transfer Syria right into a puppet country.”

“Let’s guess that these allegations are correct which president has wiped out their own people and also the U.S. helps the Syrian people,” Mr. Assad stated. “After 5 years . 5, who supported me? How do i be considered a president and my people don’t support me?”

Actually, yesterday, the Un special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, adopted by Amnesty Worldwide along with other worldwide legal rights groups, condemned the digital rebel groups’ indiscriminate shelling of presidency-held parts of Aleppo, attacks which have wiped out lots of civilians in recent days. (Source)