Syria’s Assad says France is ‘proxy state’ for Qatar, Saudi Arabia

France has become a “proxy state” for Qatar and Saudi Arabia, according to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who accused Paris of taking “petrodollars” from the two states in return for supporting the Syrian opposition.

"France has become a proxy state implementing Qatari policies. This is also what we see happening now between France and Saudi Arabia," Assad said in an interview with AFP.

"How can petrodollars make Western officials, particularly in France, sell their principles and sell the principles of the French Revolution in return for a few billion dollars?"

France is a strong backer of the Syrian opposition, along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

France was also one of the first countries to recognise it and call for Assad to leave power.

Assad's government accuses the West and Gulf nations that back the rebels of exporting "terrorism" to Syria.

The Syrian leader, speaking to AFP on Sunday in Damascus, said French and EU policy in the Middle East had been led astray by the United States.

"Ever since 2001 and the terrorist attacks on New York, there has been no European policy-making to speak of," he said.

"In the West, there is only an American policy, which is implemented by some European countries."

He said France's policy meant there was little chance it stood to play a role in Syria in the near future.

"I don't think that France will play a role in the immediate future, unless it changes its policy completely and from its core and returns to the politically independent state it once was," he said.

  Turkish spy agency denies link to Paris Kurd murders

Turkey's intelligence service has rejected allegations contained in an online audio recording linking it with the murders of three Kurdish activists in Paris in 2013.

One year after the three female members of the separatist Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) were shot dead in central Paris, the new evidence appears to support claims that the assassinations were ordered by Turkish officials.

The audio recording, posted on YouTube on Sunday, January 12, featured an alleged conversation between chief murder suspect Ömer Güney and his purported handlers at the Turkish intelligence agency MIT.

Güney, 30, has been charged by French prosecutors with the murder of Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the PKK, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Söylemez at a Kurdish centre in the heart of the French capital on January 9, 2013.

The conversation is alleged to have taken place before the attack and revolves around potential targets among Kurdish militant leaders as well as tactics to be used by Güney.

“After hearing this recording, we can affirm with certainty that this is the voice of Ömer Güney,” the Federation of Kurdish Associations in France (FEYKA) said in a January 13 statement.

The PKK had previously identified Güney as Sakine Cansiz’s driver and assistant in Paris. French police arrested him shortly after her murder.

'Premeditated political murder'

FEYKA has drawn its own conclusions: “The crime was premeditated. The murderer did not act alone, and he had political intent,” the Kurdish organisation said in its statement.

Several Turkish media outlets picked up on the recording, prompting the Turkish intelligence service to deny any involvement.

“The reports are an operation aimed at tarnishing our organisation which has played an active role in the peace process” with Kurdish militants, Turkey’s spy agency said in a rare public statement released on Wednesday, January 15.

"An internal probe concerning the claims has been launched”, MIT added.

Earlier in the day, another report linking Turkish intelligence to the killings appeared in the Turkish press.

The opposition newspaper Sol published a document purporting to be a November 2012 mission order issued by MIT.

It identified Güney as an agent code named “Legionnaire” operating on behalf of the spy agency.

“We have given him instructions to be on his guard when communicating with us, to get the equipment required for the mission and to make the preparations related to the designated persons,” the document said, adding that 6,000 euros had been sent to agent "Legionnaire".

Pressure on Erdogan

If confirmed, MIT’s involvement in the killings would put considerable pressure on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a close friend of Hakan Fidan, the head of the intelligence service.

On Monday, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag publicly complained about a “smear campaign” designed to further damage the government at a time of political crisis.

In recent months, Erdogan's government has carried out a vast purge of the security services aimed at routing out the Gülen Brotherhood, a powerful Islamic organisation.

The Brotherhood is thought to have widely infiltrated the police and the judiciary, but to have so far failed to gain a foothold in Turkey's spy agency.

“The control of the intelligence service is at stake,” wrote Guillaume Perrier, Le Monde's Istanbul correspondent, in the French daily on January 16th.

According to the French reporter, Erdogan may not be the only one concerned by the latest allegations regarding the murder of the Kurdish activists.

The audio recording also points the finger at French security services by suggesting that the suspected killer may have murdered the activists while under heavy surveillance in Paris.

“French intelligence officers are following me every second,” the man presented as Ömer Güney told his alleged MIT handlers in the recording.

While the audio recording has gone largely unnoticed in France, it may yet sour the mood for French President François Hollande’s official visit to Turkey, scheduled for January 27 and 28.

Hollande visits partner Valérie Trierweiler in hospital

French President François Hollande has paid his first official visit to his partner Valerie Trierweiler since she was hospitalised in the wake of allegations he was having an affair, his office said Friday.

An official at the presidential palace said Friday that Hollande visited Trierweiler the previous evening. The 48-year-old journalist was admitted a week ago to an unspecified hospital for rest.

Hollande's office said she was in shock upon learning of the report in Closer magazine last week that the 59-year-old president has been having an affair with actress Julie Gayet, who is 41.

In Friday's edition, Closer alleged that the affair has been going on for two years. The presidential palace has declined to comment.

On Thursday, Gayet initiated a civil law suit for violation of privacy against Closer magazine over its report.

Gayet is seeking 50,000 euros in damages and 4,000 euros in legal costs from the magazine over last week's report, which she claims breached France's privacy legislation. If she wins, Closer will have to publish the legal verdict on its cover page.

The magazine based its report on unauthorised photos taken outside a Paris building where Gayet's friends own an apartment.

When pressed about his prior threat to take legal action against Closer at a Tuesday press conference, Hollande replied that he had decided not to sue the magazine for invading his privacy because as head of state he was immune from being sued himself and did not want to create a double standard. He never, however, denied the reported affair.

สวยสยอง

        ยิวเบอร์รี่ตั้งแต่ราก เปลือกต้น ใบ ดอก มีพิษร้ายแรง ยกเว้นเนื้อแดงสดรอบนอก เมล็ดหนึ่งเมล็ดก็สามารถทำให้หัวใจหยุดเต้นได้ นิยมใช้กันมากในหมู่นักฆ่าตัวตาย มีแต่นกเท่านั้นที่กินผลยิวเบอร์รี่ได้ เพราะระบบย่อยของนกไม่สามารถหย่อยเมล็ดที่เป็นพิษได้ 

             มะเขือการ์ตูน (Titty Fruit, Solanum mammosum, the Apple of Sodom, Thorny Popolo) ถิ่นกำเนิดอยู่ที่อเมริกาใต้ ผล ใบและต้นมีพิษสูง ทำให้เป็นอัมพาต อุณหภูมิของร่างกายต่ำลง และเข้าถึงอาการโคม่า ใช้ในการรักษาโรคอาเทอรลีท ฟุท (Athletes Foot)

         ต้นทะเลพิษ (Sea Poison Tree,  Barringtonia asiatica) ทุกส่วนของต้นทะเลพิษ ประกอบด้วยซาโปนิน (Saponin) ซึ่งเป็นสารพิษบางแห่งใช้เมล็ดและส่วนอื่นๆของต้นทุบละเอียดใช้เป็นยาเบื่อปลาในลำธาร มีดอกเป็นพู่สีชมพู มีกลิ่นหอมมาก ปลูกทั่วไปตามริมถนนในสิงคโปร์

            คาสเตอออย แพล้นท์ (Castor oil plant) นิยมปลูกเป็นไม้ประดับ ทุกส่วนของต้นคาสเตอ ออย แพล้นท์ เป็นพิษ โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งเมล็ดที่มีรูปร่างคล้ายถั่วพิษของคาสเตอ ออย แพล้นท์ ทำให้เกิดอาการดังต่อไปนี้ อาการคลื่นไส้อาเจียน ปวดท้อง ท้องเสีย ปวดหัว ตัวเย็น ง่วงนอน สับสน มีไข้ ลมหายใจขัด ลมชัก เป็นลมและถึงแก่ความตาย