Latin America has most unequal land distribution, Colombia fares worst: charity

Land distribution in Latin America is the most unequal in the world where only one percent of the farms and estates control more than half of the region's productive land, aid group Oxfam said on Wednesday.
Colombia, where two thirds of agricultural land is concentrated in just 0.4 percent of farmland holdings, fares the worst, Oxfam said in a report analyzing land censuses and policy in 15 countries over the last 50 years.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-latam-landrights-idUSKBN13P2NX

Iran: More than 1,000 soldiers die in Syria since 2011

The death toll was a major increase from one reported just four months ago when Iran announced 400 of its soldiers had died on Syria's battlefields.
Iran has been sending fighters to Syria since the early stages of the more than five-year-old war to support its ally, President Bashar al-Assad, against armed groups trying to topple him.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/11/iran-1000-soldiers-die-syria-2011-161122132955852.html

Aleppo convoy 'war crime' could go to Security Council: deputy U.N. chief

If investigators identify who was to blame for the deadly Sept. 19 attack on a U.N. aid convoy in Syria, the "war crime" could be brought to the Security Council, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said on Friday.
The United States has said it believes two Russian aircraft carried out the strike near Aleppo, which killed 20 people, destroyed a warehouse and 18 trucks, and shattered a one-week truce. Russia has denied involvement.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midast-crisis-syria-aleppo-un-idUSKBN13D14I

No compromise in sight, EU ministers at odds over immigration

European Union interior ministers were at odds on Friday over how to handle immigration, with heated discussions between states who want more burden sharing and those who oppose any kind of obligatory relocation.
"We are looking for compromises but at the moment they are not there," said Thomas De Maiziere of Germany, which last year took in about 900,000 migrants and refugees.
The ministers disagreed over a proposal by the EU's current chair Slovakia on reforming the bloc's asylum system, which collapsed last year as 1.3 million refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa reached Europe and member states quarreled over how to handle the influx.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-un-idUSKBN13D1MD

U.N. council extends inquiry into Syria toxic gas attacks

The U.N. Security Council approved on Thursday a one-year extension of an international inquiry to determine blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria, paving the way for a showdown over how to punish those responsible.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-chemicalweapons-idUSKBN13C230 

Demolitions leave 30,000 homeless in Nigeria's megacity: rights group

Some 30,000 residents of the Nigerian megacity Lagos have become homeless because of state-ordered demolitions and fighting between rival communities, residents and a rights group said on Thursday.
The violence highlights the challenges of a rapidly rising population unable to provide enough jobs and housing for its 180 million people. Many end up trying to migrate to Europe by boat from lawless Libya.
www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-violence-idUSKBN13525M

Islamic State executes scores, stockpiles chemicals in Mosul: U.N.

Islamic State fighters have executed scores more people around the northern Iraqi city of Mosul this week and are reported to be stockpiling dangerous chemicals in civilian areas, the U.N. human rights office said on Friday.
A mass grave with over 100 bodies found in the town of Hammam al-Alil was one of several Islamic State killing grounds, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said. She cited testimony gleaned from sources including a man who had survived an execution of some 50 former Iraqi soldiers by playing dead.
"Clearly there are many other killing fields. We also have reports of other mass graves which we haven’t yet been able to verify,” Shamdasani told reporters, mentioning sites at Mosul airport and the village of Tal al-Thahab.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-mosul-un-idUSKBN1360XN

Watchdog condemns Syrian government, IS use of banned chemical weapons

The executive body of the global chemical weapons watchdog voted on Friday to condemn the use of banned toxic agents by the Syrian government and by the militant group Islamic State, a source who took part in the closed session said.
Roughly two-thirds of the 41 members on the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), endorsed a text compiled by Spain, sources told Reuters.
An initial U.S. draft was replaced with a compromise text drafted by Spain, which dropped a reference to sanctions against those responsible for violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention, sources added.
The OPCW's Executive Council, which meets behind closed doors, seldom votes on such matters, generally operating through consensus. But this text was supported by 28 members, including Germany, France, the United States and Britain.
It was opposed by Russia, China, Sudan and Iran. There were nine abstentions. Russia and Iran are Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main allies against rebels seeking to overthrow him. Western and Gulf Arab states back the rebels.
"There is a clear determination across the international community to hold those who have used these heinous weapons to account," said British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson in a statement responding to the vote.
But a U.S.-Russian split over Syria highlighted continuing divisions. It was these two countries that in 2013 took the lead in getting the Damascus government to join the OPCW and avert threatened U.S.-led military intervention in Syria's civil war.
A 13-month international inquiry by the OPCW and United Nations concluded in a series of reports that Syrian government forces, including helicopter squadrons, were responsible for the use of chlorine barrel bombs against civilians.
The OPCW-U.N. mission found that the Syrian government carried out three toxic attacks in March and April of last year, while Islamic State militants had used sulphur mustard gas.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-crisis-chemicals-idUSKBN1361BE

Trump ignorant of Europe, poses risk to relations: EU's Juncker

"The election of Trump poses the risk of upsetting intercontinental relations in their foundation and in their structure," said Juncker, who as head of the EU's executive is one of Europe's most powerful political figures.
His blunt remarks reflected widespread shock and concern among Europeans at the election of Trump, who among other statements has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and questioned the principle of collective defense in NATO.
His comments contrasted with the more diplomatic reactions of European leaders who have said they look forward to working with the next Republican president.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-eu-juncker-idUSKBN136250

Islamic State brutality comes to light after military advance

Islamic State had used the town's agricultural college as "a killing field" for hundreds of people in the days before the Iraqi government advance, Ahmed said.
"They would torture them inside and then take them out of the neighborhood and either shoot them or slit their throats."

The military says its forces at the complex have discovered the decapitated corpses of at least 100 civilians.
HIDING
The jail opposite Ahmed's house was once the home of an army officer who fled Islamic State's blitz across a third of Iraq's territory in 2014. Its walls are covered in soot from a fire apparently set by fleeing fighters, but metal cages only slightly larger than an adult male are still intact.
Ahmed, who learned English when U.S. forces occupied Iraq for nine years after toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003, was delighted to speak to a foreign reporter after two years during which he feared he would be killed for using English.
"We have been living in hell, like zombies," he said.


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-mosul-executions-idUSKBN1322CH

France reproduces Geneva Peace Proposals to end the Syria conflict to Israel-Palestine conflict

France has repeatedly tried to breathe new life into the peace process this year, holding a preliminary conference in June where the United Nations, European Union, United States and major Arab countries gathered to discuss proposals without the Israelis or Palestinians present.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-france-idUSKBN1321NL 

British newspapers react to judges' Brexit ruling: 'Enemies of the people'

On Thursday morning, the high court ruled that parliament – and not the prime minister by use of prerogative powers – would need to trigger Article 50 to start the UK’s exit from the European Union.
On Thursday evening, a portion of the British media exercised its own prerogative: to attack the judges behind the ruling.https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/04/enemies-of-the-people-british-newspapers-react-judges-brexit-ruling

Suicide bombers in ambulances kill 21 people in Iraq: officials

Suicide bombers driving ambulances packed with explosives detonated their vehicles at a checkpoint and a car park for Shi'ite pilgrims in two Iraqi cities on Sunday, killing at least 21 people and wounding dozens, officials said.
The twin attacks took place in Tikrit and Samarra, as Iraqi troops and security forces battled to retake the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants who have controlled it for more than two years.
They appeared to be part of a series of diversionary attacks by the ultra-hardline Sunni Islamists, who have struck the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk, the capital Baghdad and a western desert town during the three-week Mosul campaign.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-blasts-idUSKBN13107V

German ministry wants migrants returned to Africa: report

The German Interior Ministry wants to stop migrants ever reaching Europe's Mediterranean coast by picking them up at sea and returning them to Africa, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday.
In what would be a huge shift for a country with one of the most generous asylum policies, the ministry says the European Union should adopt an Australian-style system under which migrants intercepted at sea are sent for processing at camps in third countries.
"The elimination of the prospect of reaching the European coast could convince migrants to avoid embarking on the life-threatening and costly journey in the first place," the paper quoted a ministry spokeswoman as saying.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-germany-idUSKBN131042

UK Supreme Court asked to rule on abortion funding for Northern Ireland residents

Women's rights groups are to ask the British Supreme Court on Wednesday to compel the government to fund abortions for Northern Ireland residents traveling to England to avoid some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe.
While the National Health Service routinely provides free abortions to women in most of the United Kingdom, abortion is only permitted in the British province of Northern Ireland when a woman’s life is at risk or if there is a risk of permanent and serious damage to her mental or physical health.
Last year just 16 abortions were carried out in Northern Ireland but women's rights groups estimate that around 1,000 women travel to Britain each year for terminations, which they must finance themselves along with travel and other costs.
The Republic of Ireland has similarly restrictive laws, although the government there has said it will consider changes in the next two years.
In 2014, the High Court in London ruled that the British Health Secretary had a duty in relation to the physical and mental health of the people of England, but not those ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-nireland-abortion-idUSKBN12X007

Belgian minister says prefers to pay fine than grant visas to Syrian family

Belgium's immigration minister has said he is ready to sell off his office furniture to pay daily fines rather than honor a court order to issue tourist visas to a Syrian family from war-battered Aleppo.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-belgium-idUSKBN12Y2DU 

Ghost soldiers: the Russians secretly dying for the Kremlin in Syria

Officially, Russia is participating only in an air war over Syria with a small number of special forces on the ground. Moscow denies that its troops are involved in regular ground combat operations.
However, in interviews with more than a dozen people with direct knowledge of these deployments, Reuters has established that Russian fighters are playing a more substantial role in ground combat than that the role the Kremlin says is being played by the regular Russian military.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-insight-idUSKBN12Y0M6

Egypt Central Bank devalues currency by 48 percent

Devaluation of pound meets IMF demand in exchange for $13bn loan over three years to overhaul country's ailing economy.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/11/egypt-central-bank-devalues-currency-48-percent-161103084641123.html 

Armed and Emboldened, U.S. Militias Gear Up for Civil Unrest After Election read more: http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.750516

With Trump's candidacy spurring extremists to speak more openly about challenging the rule of law, paramilitary groups say they won't leave their guns home if Hillary Clinton is elected.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.750516