Trump says in a statement that the recapture of Raqqa by the Syrian Democratic Forces is "a critical breakthrough in our worldwide campaign to defeat ISIS."

He says it'll soon be time to transition to a new phase in which the U.S. will continue to support local security forces and "advance the conditions for a lasting peace."

Trump says the U.S. will back diplomatic negotiations that end the violence in Syria, allow refugees to return safely home and "yield a political transition that honors the will of the Syrian people."

There are no signs, however, that political transition will occur any time soon. 

Bartomeu had previously suggested the club could look to play elsewhere in the future.

But speaking at the club's AGM, he revealed his preferred option for the Catalan giants.

"You can be sure that this board will always act in the club's defence," said Bartomeu.

"We will never put the club nor its presence in any competition at risk.

"That's why, to all the members, I say that we want to continue playing in La Liga and, as of today, our participation is guaranteed.

"It's mutually beneficial for La Liga and Barcelona for that link to continue."

The club also announced a predicted revenue of €897m for the 2017-18 season.

Bartomeu also confirmed negotiations for a Nou Camp sponsor are progressing well.

"The renovation of Camp Nou is essential to achieve new income for the club," explained Bartomeu.

"In that regard, negotiations to find a company to sponsor the stadium are going well."

The England striker has revealed for the first time that he sees his long-term future with the north London club.

'One of our own' former Spurs trainee Kane , set to lead their attack against visitors Liverpool at Wembley on Sunday, said: “I’d love to be a one-club man.

“It depends on how the club goes forward and managers et cetera, but I’ve said I want to stay here, as we’re in a great place at the moment. The training centre is amazing, the new stadium is coming, the manager is fantastic and we’ve got a young team. So it’s great.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/tottenham-hero-harry-kane-confirms-11379868

Colombia was chosen as the eight best country to live abroad, according to a survey conducted by expat resource website InterNations.

InterNations reports surveying more than 12,500 expat members from 166 different nationalities to get their take on their adopted countries, who evaluated more than 40 individual aspects such as quality of life, ease of settling in, work, family life, personal finances and cost of living, among others.they now call home; the results could help you decide if you’re ready to turn your wanderlust into a long-term relocation.

Topping the list was Bahrain, jumping from 19th to first place this year, because of its exotic beauty and a wide mix of cultures, in addition to its great ease of settlement and high professional satisfaction: 25% of the respondents said that they began to feel at home practically immediately.

“Bahrainis are very friendly and welcoming,” said one Kyrgyz expat, “everyone speaks English.”

The country also scored highly in the Personal Finances Index, and 41% said they earn a lot more than they would back home.

US support for Colombia’s peace process will backfire unless counter-narcotics policies are implemented with much greater patience, according to a new report from a major Colombian think tank.

According to the Fundacion Ideas Para la Paz (FIP) from Bogota, the pressure to forcibly eradicating coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, could increase human rights violations by security forces.

The move comes a day after police in the area fired into the air and launched stun grenades against a humanitarian commission made up of human rights activists and local journalists as they attempted to reach the remote site of the killings.

President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday called the episode “regrettable” and promised a thorough investigation of both incidents, which have highlighted the continued threat of violence in the country even after a peace deal with Farc rebels.

The six farmers were killed on 5 October during a protest by growers of coca leaf, used in making cocaine, against forced eradication efforts. Security forces first blamed a dissident faction of the Farc for the deaths but local activists said the police had opened fire on the protesters. Preliminary forensic testing showed the six farmers were killed by high-velocity long-range bullets.

Although government officials have promise a full investigation, Naranjo did not rule out the possibility that the scene of the killings might have been tampered with. “It was unprotected for 12 hours,” he said. “We have to be realistic.”

Speaking to RCN Radio, Naranjo repeated the claim that the protesters had been ordered by the dissident FARC to confront security forces escorting a group of civilians carrying out coca eradication efforts. 

“You guys know what this represents?” Trump said after journalists gathered in the White House state dining room to photograph him and first lady Melania Trump with the uniformed military leaders and their spouses.

“Maybe it’s the calm before the storm,” he said.

 

What storm?

“You’ll find out,” Trump told questioning reporters.

Classical music played in the background and tables were set in the nearby Blue Room for a fancy meal.

The White House did not immediately reply to a request to clarify Trump’s remark.

Earlier in the evening, while seated with the top defense officials in the cabinet room, Trump talked about the threat from North Korea and preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

“In North Korea, our goal is denuclearization,” he said. “We cannot allow this dictatorship to threaten our nation or our allies with unimaginable loss of life. We will do what we must do to prevent that from happening. And it will be done, if necessary, believe me.”

During his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month, Trump said the United States would “totally destroy” North Korea if needed to defend itself or U.S. allies.

The president on Thursday also had tough words for Iran, saying the country had not lived up to the spirit of an agreement forged with world powers to curb its nuclear program.

A senior administration official said on Thursday

that Trump was expected to announce soon he would decertify the landmark agreement.

 

Trump has filled top posts within his administration with military generals, including his chief of staff, retired General John Kelly, and national security adviser, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster. McMaster, who normally dresses in civilian clothes at the White House, wore his uniform for the meeting.

Without being specific, Trump pressed the leaders to be faster at providing him with “military options” when needed.

“Moving forward, I also expect you to provide me with a broad range of military options, when needed, at a much faster pace. I know that government bureaucracy is slow, but I am depending on you to overcome the obstacles of bureaucracy,” he said during their cabinet room meeting.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-military/in-meeting-with-military-trump-talks-of-calm-before-the-storm-idUSKBN1CB03C

They arrive ill and exhausted, having walked for days through jungle, rice paddies and mountains, or having braved dangerous sea and river voyages in ramshackle boats. Some of them are newborn, others in their 80s. Not everyone survives the journey. All that do are desperate.

Since 25 August, nearly 450,000 refugees have crossed from Burma (also known as Myanmar) into neighbouring Bangladesh, after long-running tensions between Rohingya Muslims and the predominantly Buddhist Burmese population erupted into violence in the remote western state of Rakhine.

By the time you read this, that already staggering figure will have increased.

The United Nations, which has described the violence driving the Rohingya from a territory they have lived in for centuries as ‘a textbook example of ethnic cleansing’, estimates many thousands are still arriving each week.

At a glance | Myanmar’s Rohingya people

‘Every day that I was there,’ says American photographer Greg Constantine, who has recently returned from a fortnight in the region, ‘I would look across the border into northern Rakhine and see smoke pouring into the sky. [Burmese government leader] Aung San Suu Kyi claims the clearance operations have stopped, but they haven’t. Every one of those refugees tells  the same story: of mobs and the military torching their homes, killing, raping, terrorising. And the scale of it – I’ve been here more than a dozen times over the last decade, and every time I think, “It can’t get worse than this.” And it does.’

The three makeshift camps the refugees are headed for – Kutupalong, Nayapara and Balukhali – were established 25 years ago. Even before the most recent exodus they housed around 33,000 people, and many more Rohingya have settled in the wider area too. New arrivals sleep in the open until they can build shelters, which mostly consist of bamboo poles and tarpaulin.

‘It’s not even a specific place any more,’ explains Constantine. ‘You drive down the highway from Ukhiya to Teknaf, and it’s just mile upon mile upon mile of huts and people sitting on the side of the road.’

Violence towards the Rohingya isn’t new – it goes back to 1784, when the Burman king Bodawpaya conquered Rakhine and hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were forced to flee to Bengal – but the current crisis is rooted in a belief among many Burmese that the Rohingya, who returned to Rakhine in large numbers during the British occupation of Burma between 1824 and 1948, want to turn Rakhine into a Muslim state. 

Constantine, 47, who grew up in Indiana and taught himself photography in his 30s, first began documenting the Rohingya in 2006, as part of a series exploring the plight of the stateless. Nowhere People documents individuals and communities all over the world who have no official citizenship, no documentation and no rights.

Rohingya babies, for instance, are not given birth certificates. As adults, they can’t work or go to a doctor or obtain an education. They are regarded as illegal immigrants by the majority of Burma’s citizens and were excluded from the country’s most recent census (which did not allow people to register their identity as Rohingya).

‘The million-dollar question that everyone grapples with is why,’ says Constantine, who has been blacklisted by the Burmese government and banned from re-entering the country.

 

‘I’ve always believed that what is at the heart of it is a deep-rooted racism. Is there a solution? Not unless things change inside Myanmar, and not just at a political level. The international community can put all the pressure it wants on the government but change has to happen among the attitudes of the citizenry for things to even begin heading in the right direction.’

 

Until then, Constantine says, he will keep going back to the camps.

‘I realised, somewhere along the way over these last 10 years, that what I was doing had changed from reporting on specific events to creating a timeline of slow violence towards a community. I want to show that what is happening now is something that has a history behind it. That all of this should have been expected. That we knew.’ 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/photographs-tell-full-story-rohingya-055254768.html

Two of the main human rights violations during the conflict, the AUC and the FARC, have been demobilized since 15 years ago.

The common phrase on this subject is "It is very sad to see how people who are not Colombians have more knowledge of the Colombian reality than the people who live in this country."

After the peace agreement with the guerrillas, there have been more assassinations of leaders, according to reports, indigenous leaders have homicide targets followed by representatives of rural communities.

Electoral rivals and opposition senators Claudia López (Green Alliance) and Jorge Robledo (Polo Democrático) hinted that the high-ranking politician had bribed the Supreme Court to acquit him of the criminal charges.

Due to this increase the problems of public security in Colombia have grown despite the peace process. The FARC controlled much of the coca-rich regions until they disbanded and became a political party earlier this year.