France 24 : Syrian rebels lose northeast Aleppo

Syrian rebels lose northeast Aleppo

http://f24.my/2frz8cV

Syrian rebels have lost all of the northern neighbourhoods of their stronghold in eastern Aleppo, a monitor said Monday, as the army pushed an offensive to retake the battered city.

The army captured the Sakhur, Haydariya and Sheikh Khodr neighbourhoods on Monday, while Kurdish forces took the Sheikh Fares district from rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Kurdish forces in Aleppo are not officially allied with the regime, but the opposition regards them as cooperating with the government in a bid to recapture the city.

“The rebels have lost control of all the neighbourhoods in the north of east Aleppo, and this is their worst defeat since they seized half the city in 2012,” said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Syrian state media reported the capture of Haydariya and Sakhur as it looped footage showing some of the thousands of civilians who have fled east Aleppo in recent days as loyalist troops have advanced.

The army renewed an operation to retake eastern Aleppo nearly two weeks ago, hoping to deal the opposition a potentially devastating blow.

Syria’s Al-Watan daily, which is close to the government, said the army was advancing quickly.

It said the next stage of the operation would be “to divide the remaining area into security districts that will be easily controlled and to capture them successively.”

The advance would then “push the gunmen to turn themselves (in)… or accept national reconciliation under the terms of the Syrian state.”

(AFP)

France 24 : ‘Millions voted illegally’ in US election, Trump claims

‘Millions voted illegally’ in US election, Trump claims

http://f24.my/2fq76hL

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that he won the popular vote in the Nov. 8 election “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”, though he provided no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

The allegation by Trump, who won the required votes in the Electoral College to secure the presidency, comes as Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote over Trump has surpassed 2.0 million votes and is expected to grow to more than 2.5 million as ballots in populous states such as California continue to be tallied.

Clinton’s legal team said on Saturday it had agreed to participate in a recount of Wisconsin votes after the state’s election board approved the effort requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, which Trump has called “ridiculous.”

“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” the Republican Trump tweeted as reporters waited for him to leave his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida to fly back to his residence in New York City.

The U.S. presidential race is decided by the Electoral College, based on a tally of wins from the state-by-state contests, rather than by the national vote.Trump has surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

The Electoral College results are expected to be finalized on Dec. 19. Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

“It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than in the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4 states instead of the 15 states that I visited,” Trump added in follow-up tweets.

Several hours later, Trump tweeted, again without citing evidence: “Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California – so why isn’t the media reporting on this? Serious bias – big problem!” Clinton won all three states.

A spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Criticizing recount effort

Before the election, Trump made unsubstantiated allegations that the results of the election might be “rigged” against him but several studies have found no evidence of widespread or significant voter fraud in the United States.

Since the vote, his message has alternated between appealing for unity and railing against his opponents and the media.

In a video message released ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, Trump said he hoped it would be a time for Americans “to begin to heal our divisions” following a “long and bruising political campaign.”

In a tweet on Saturday, Trump derided the fundraising effort by Stein to launch recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania as a “scam” that is “is now being joined by the badly defeated and demoralized Dems.”

Those states had voted Democratic in recent presidential elections but all voted narrowly in favor of the Republican Trump in this month’s election. The recounts are not expected to change the results of the election.

Stein, who won about 1.0 percent of the national vote, has said she wants a recount to guarantee the integrity of the U.S. voting system, a push that came after some computer scientists and election lawyers raised the possibility that hacks could have affected the results.

Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration has said there is no evidence of electoral tampering, but experts have said that the only way to verify the results are accurate is to conduct a recount.

(REUTERS)

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Part of the world? Let’s share the way!