UN Security Council meets over Syria in remote Swedish farmhouse

Yahoo – AFP, Camille BAS-WOHLERT, April 21, 2018

The UN security council is holding its informal meeting in Backakra in
Sweden (AFP Photo/Johan NILSSON)

Backåkra (Sweden) (AFP) - The UN Security Council met in a secluded farmhouse on the southern tip of Sweden on Saturday in a bid to overcome deep divisions over how to end the war in Syria.

In a first for the Security Council, which normally holds its annual brainstorming session in upstate New York, the 15 ambassadors and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres were this year invited to hold an informal meeting in Backakra by Sweden, a non-permanent member of the body.

The United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is expected on Sunday.

"We still face a very serious divide on that (Syria) matter," Guterres said as he arrived along with the ambassadors.

"We really need to find a way in relation to the violation of international law that the use of chemical weapons represents," he added.

The farmhouse is the summer residence of Dag Hammarskjold, the United Nations' second secretary-general who died in a plane crash in Africa in 1961.

Situated in the heart of a nature reserve, just a stone's throw from the Baltic Sea, the farmhouse consists of four buildings around a courtyard and has been completely renovated in recent years.

The southern wing serves as the summer residence for the Swedish Academy which awards the Nobel Literature Prize.

With both New York and Damascus thousands of kilometres away, the council is exploring "the means to strengthen and make more effective United Nations peacekeeping missions," the Swedish government said.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom welcomed the decision to hold the meeting in Sweden, "where there is a long tradition of peaceful conflict prevention and resolution".

But she warned against being too hopeful the Syrian issue would be resolved over the weekend.

"Hopefully there will be some new ideas on the table and I think it’ll be on those tracks: the humanitarian situation, the chemical weapons," she said.

But "not even the beautiful settings like these can solve all the problems", the minister added.

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (L) and Sweden's 

Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom are in Backakra (AFP Photo/Johan NILSSON)

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said on the Syria issue: "We're not having that much success, we're still deadlocked.

"Retreats like this are very important -- to get away from New York sometimes and discuss these things in a way that we can really try and find a solution."

British ambassador Karen Pierce said: "We are determined to try and find a workable solution, so we will keep doing that with our Russian colleagues."

While the war in Syria is not the only topic of the deliberations, it is high up on the agenda because it was an issue that divided council members deeply in recent months.

Skau said Backakra was a "fitting and inspiring venue" to reconnect with the power of diplomacy.

"It's a place to roll up our sleeves, take off our jackets and ties and come up with some real and meaningful ways forward," he said.

'No excessive hopes'

Air strikes by the US, UK and France on April 14 targeted three sites, which the countries argued were used by the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad for a chemical weapons programme.

Syria has been accused of using chemical weapons in an attack a week earlier in Douma, the last rebel stronghold near Damascus.

Assad and Russian allies have denied that Syria was responsible for the attack, which according to rescuers, left more than 40 people dead. But the Western powers insist that the Syrian regime had crossed a red line.

The air strikes, conducted without a Security Council resolution, have led to fierce tensions between Russia and the other permanent council members, the US, France, Britain and China.

Moscow has used its veto on the council 12 times since 2011.

A fact-finding mission from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to the Syrian town of Douma has finally arrived at the site of the alleged chemical attack, Russia's foreign ministry said.

Some non-permanent member countries of the council have been critical of the trip to Sweden.

With the conflicts the council has on its table, including the one in Syria, it is abnormal that the council would travel so far, said one ambassador, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"What will happen if something bad happens?" the ambassador asked.

Related Article:

Inside the mission to rid the world of chemical arms

Lafarge ex-CEO denies knowing of Syria payments until late

Yahoo - AFP, 16 December 2017

Former Lafarge CEO Bruno Lafont has been charged with "financing a
terrorist organisation and "endangering the lives of others"

A former CEO of French-Swiss cement maker LafargeHolcim said he was made aware of payments to the Islamic State group in August 2014, contradicting an account by another top executive, a source close to the case said Saturday.

Lafarge is accused of paying the terrorist group and other militants $12.9 million between 2011 and 2015 so that the company's factory in Jalabiya, northern Syria, could continue to operate despite the war.

According to a report commissioned by LafargeHolcim and seen by AFP, Lafarge's Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS) paid out some $5.6 million (4.7 million euros) between July 2012 and September 2014.

Of this, more than half a million dollars went to IS, according to an April report by US consultants Baker McKenzie.

Last week, Bruno Lafont -- chief executive from 2007 to 2015 when the company merged with the Swiss building supplies company Holcim, before serving as co-chairman of LafargeHolcim until April this year -- was charged with "financing a terrorist organisation and "endangering the lives of others".

The group's former Syria chief Christian Herrault and Eric Olsen, who took over from Lafont as CEO after the company merged with Switzerland's Holcim, were also charged with the same crimes.

Investigators contend that Lafont was aware of the millions of dollars being paid to various armed groups including IS.

The three men have been in detention since December 6.

According to the source, Lafont told judges in a hearing that Herrault announced "an agreement with Daesh (IS)" during a board meeting in August 2014.

"I did not comment at the time, except to say that the deal was not a good idea," Lafont said, adding that he then decided to close the plant.

It would eventually fall into the hands of the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi group a few weeks later, on September 19, 2014.

'Regularly informed'

Herrault acknowledged earlier this year that Lafarge was involved in a "racket", but that he kept Lafont "regularly informed", according to the commissioned report.

Herrault apparently told Lafont about what was going on in Syria beginning in summer 2012 and of the jihadist payments in September-October 2013.

Herrault told judges he paid IS "the sum of 5 million Syrian pounds ($20,000) monthly from November 2013," because "all the stakeholders have to make sure that this investment lasts and works".

"There are many things I did not know and that may have been hidden from me," Lafont told the judges.

The former CEO denied having wanted to stay in Syria at all costs only for a "commercial" reason, seeing as the group had spent $680 million on its Jalabiya factory a few years earlier.

"Obviously an asset of that amount is taken into account but it is not the only thing taken into account," Lafont said. "A cement factory is very difficult to dismantle (and) our custom is to not let people down".

Lafont told judges he realised in July 2013 that the situation in Syria had worsened and that the company needed an exit strategy.

"Mr. Lafont never expressed doubts or any intention of closing the factory to Mr. Herrault from that date and until August 2014," Herrault's lawyer Solange Doumic said.

Lafont's lawyer was unavailable for comment.

Lafarge hung on for another 14 months, after most French companies had left as IS made major territorial gains.

Three former officials at the Jalabiya factory were also charged in the case last week.

Macron, Putin hold 'frank' talks on Syria, Ukraine

Yahoo – AFP, Hervé ASQUIN, Clare BYRNE, May 29, 2017

French President French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with 

Russian President Vladimir Putin following their meeting at the Versailles 

Palace, near Paris. (AFP Photo/CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT)

Versailles (France) (AFP) - France's President Emmanuel Macron and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin attempted to improve their countries' strained ties on Monday during talks at Versailles palace described by Macron as "extremely frank".

Their first meeting since Macron took office provided another test of the Frenchman's diplomatic skills after his memorable vice-grip handshake last week with US President Donald Trump.

This time the handshake was warmer but the tone guarded after an hour of talks on the 300th anniversary of a visit to Versailles by tsar Peter the Great.

Putin admitted to some differences of opinion in the talks which covered issues including the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, but insisted that Franco-Russian ties withstood "all points of friction".

"We disagree on a number of things but at least we discussed them," Macron said.

"Our absolute priority is the fight against terrorism and the eradication of terrorist groups and Daesh in particular," he said, using an alternate name for the Islamic State group that has claimed several deadly attacks in France.

'Organs of propaganda'

The newly elected French leader said he wanted to work more closely with Russia to try resolve the six-year war in Syria, one of the sticking points in relations between the West and Moscow which backs the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

French President Emmanuel Macron has warned Moscow he will not make

 "a single concession" over Ukraine, with France and her G7 partners saying

 at last week's summit they are prepared to strengthen sanctions against 

Moscow (AFP Photo/GIOVANNI ISOLINO)

Calling for "a democratic transition that preserves the Syrian state", he warned that "failed states" in the Middle East emboldened terror groups and posed a threat to the West.

But in an apparent warning to Assad and Russia, he said the use of chemical weapons was a "red line" that would draw an "immediate response" from France.

The pair also discussed the Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its encroachment on neighbouring Ukraine as well as allegations of Russian meddling in France's presidential campaign.

The Russian strongman defended hosting Macron's far-right rival Marine Le Pen -- seen as the Kremlin's favourite -- for a visit during the race, saying he had no cause to deny her request for an audience.

He also shrugged off allegations that Russian hackers infiltrated Macron's campaign.

"Maybe they were Russian hackers, maybe they were not," he said.

A more candid Macron let fly when questioned about two pro-Kremlin media outlets that were barred from his campaign headquarters after being accused of a smear campaign.

Russia Today broadcaster and Sputnik agency are "organs of influence and untruthful propaganda, nothing more, nothing less", he declared.

Macron also took the bull by the horns on human rights, saying Putin had promised him "the whole truth" about an alleged crackdown on gay men in Russian-controlled Chechnya and warning he would be "vigilant" on the issue.

'No concessions'

France's youngest ever president made a successful debut on the world stage last week, holding his own against Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels and winning plaudits from his peers at a G7 summit in Italy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was quick to congratulate the new French 

leader Emmanuel Macron on his election victory, urging him to "overcome mutual 

distrust" and "join forces to ensure international stability and security". (AFP

 Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Ahead of Putin's visit, the 39-year-old centrist told a French weekly that he was not "bothered" by leaders who "think in terms of power dynamics".

He said he would make "not a single concession" to Russia on the three-year-old conflict in eastern Ukraine, with he and his G7 counterparts saying they were prepared to strengthen sanctions against Moscow.

Macron said he, Putin and the leaders of Germany and Ukraine would meet soon for talks, "which will allow us to make a complete evaluation of the situation".

Modernising tsar

Western powers charge Russia with failing to honour its commitments under the Minsk accords framework for ending the violence between government forces and Kremlin-backed rebels in Ukraine's east.

Putin said the sanctions imposed on Russia, which have seriously hurt trade with the EU, had "in no way" advanced the prospects of a lasting peace.

Directly after the French election he moved quickly to try reset relations with France, congratulating Macron and urging him to work to overcome their countries' "mutual distrust".

Monday's visit comes seven months after the Russian leader cancelled a trip to Paris amid a row over Syria with Macron's predecessor Francois Hollande, who had said Russia's bombing of Aleppo could amount to war crimes.

In Versailles, he and Macron inaugurated an exhibition marking the visit of Russia's modernising tsar Peter the Great to Versailles in 1717.

The fervently pro-Europe Macron said his invitation to Putin aimed to showcase "a Russia which is open to Europe".

Putin later visited a new Orthodox cathedral complex in central Paris.

EU launches debit cards for refugees in Turkey

Yahoo – AFP, September 26, 2016

European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos
 Stylianides (L) delivers a speech next to Turkey’s EU Minister Omer Celik (R)
during a joint press conference following their meeting on September 26, 2016
(AFP Photo/Adem Altan)

Ankara (AFP) - The European Union on Monday launched a scheme worth almost 350 million euros providing mainly Syrian refugees in Turkey with pre-paid debit cards, the biggest project yet under a landmark deal between the bloc and Ankara.

EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides, in Ankara for the start of the programme, said the debit cards will help give vulnerable refugees a "sense of normality" in their lives.

The refugees will be able to use the cards in shops or institutions to pay for food, education, housing and clothing or also to withdraw cash from ATMs.

Each card will be automatically topped up with 100 Turkish lira ($33.50) a month, giving people the chance to choose their own purchases.

Stylianides said the programme was an "unprecedented response" to an "unprecedented crisis".

"This (scheme) is, in our humanitarian field, a game-changer in the delivery of humanitarian aid. Refugees can choose what they spend money on."

Turkey is home to some three million refugees, most of them Syrian. The vast majority live in cities without direct support from non-governmental organisations and aid groups.

Supported with 348 million euros ($392 million) from Brussels and its member states, the scheme will be rolled out by Turkish Red Crescent and the UN World Food Programme supported by the Turkish authorities.

Applications will start in October for the scheme. Families who have children going to school will receive more cash. All refugees registered in Turkey, including Iraqis, are eligible to apply.

Stylianides suggested that the programme would also benefit Turks.

"The money will be spent in local shops, boosting local businesses and encouraging social cohesion between citizens and refugees."

The project is part of a six billion euro ($6.75 billion) deal struck in March between Brussels and Ankara to curb the migrant influx into Europe, which saw more than a million arrive in the EU last year.

There have been fears the deal could collapse with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan complaining that the promised money was not handed directly to Turkey.

In exchange for cutting the flow, Brussels also offered Turkey visa liberalisation for its citizens to visit EU countries in the Schengen area as well as accelerated membership talks.

But Ankara has threatened to withdraw from the agreement if Europe does not allow visa-free travel for Turks by next month, though the numbers coming to Europe have dropped significantly since March.

EU nations must not to refuse Muslim migrants: Merkel

Yahoo – AFP, August 28, 2016

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives her summer interview with journalists of
German public TV chain ARD on August 28, 2016 in Berlin (AFP Photo/Rainer Jensen)

Berlin (AFP) - The refusal of some EU countries to accept Muslim refugees is "unacceptable", Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday as Germany called for quotas to divide the influx throughout the bloc.

"That's not right at all that some countries say: 'generally speaking, we don't want to have Muslims in our countries'," Merkel told German public television channel ARD.

Backing the idea of a quota system for taking in migrants, the German leader stressed that "everyone must do their part," and that "a common solution must be found."

A common European migration policy is a highly controversial issue, which will be on the agenda of an EU summit next month, with eastern members the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia refusing to take in refugees under an EU-wide quota system championed by Berlin.

Slovak President Robert Fico has vowed he would "never bring even a single Muslim" into his country.

In 2015, Germany took in around a million asylum seekers, most from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, and this year it expects up to 300,000 more to arrive, the Federal Office for Migrants and Refugees (BAMF) said Sunday.

"We can ensure optimal services for up to 300,000. Should more people arrive, it would put us under pressure, then we would go into so-called crisis mode. But even then we would not have conditions like last year," BAMF chief Frank-Juergen Weise told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper

Merkel's decision last September to open the doors to asylum seekers was seen in many European nations, notably those in the east, as an invitation for further mass migration.

Some, like the Slovak leader, voiced fears of the emergence of a significant Muslim community in their countries.

On Tuesday, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said he does not want a "large Muslim community... given the problems we are seeing" and that each EU member should be able to choose how many migrants to accept.

German public sentiment is sharply divided when it comes to Merkel, who has not yet said whether she will stand for a fourth term in a general election expected in September or October next year.

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"Return of the Masters" - Apr 11-12, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Defiant Merkel defends refugee stance after attacks

Yahoo – AFP, Deborah Cole, July 28, 2016

Chancellor Angela Merkel and fellow German politicians have issued strongly
 worded statements against Erdogan's crackdown following the putsch (AFP
Photo/Tobias Schwarz)

Berlin (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday rebuffed calls to reverse her welcoming stance toward refugees after a series of brutal attacks in the country.

Merkel, who interrupted her summer holiday to face the media in Berlin, said the four assaults within a week were "shocking, oppressive and depressing" but not a sign that authorities had lost control.

The German leader said the assailants "wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need".

"We firmly reject this," she said at a wide-ranging news conference.

Merkel repeated her rallying cry from last year when she opened the borders to people fleeing war and persecution, many from Syria, which brought nearly 1.1 million migrants and refugees to Germany in 2015.

"I am still convinced today that 'we can do it' -- it is our historic duty and this is a historic challenge in times of globalisation," she said.

"We have already achieved very, very much in the last 11 months."

Merkel was speaking after a axe rampage, a shooting spree, a knife attack and a suicide bombing stunned Germany, leaving 13 people dead, including three assailants, and dozens wounded.

Three of the four attackers were asylum seekers, and two of the assaults were claimed by the Islamic State group.

Merkel said that she would not allow jihadists, following a series of deadly attacks in France, Belgium, Turkey and the US state of Florida, to keep her government from being guided by reason and compassion.

"Despite the great unease these events inspire, fear can't be the guide for political decisions," she said.

"It is my deep conviction that we cannot let our way of life be destroyed."

'Urgent action'

While the German political class has largely called for calm, opposition parties and rebels from Merkel's own conservative bloc have accused her of exposing the country to unacceptable risks without stricter controls on people let in.

Germany's spate of attacks (AFP Photo/Simon MALFATTO,

 Iris ROYER DE VERICOURT)

"Islamist terrorism has unfortunately arrived in Bavaria," the state's interior minister Joachim Herrmann told reporters Thursday, renewing calls by his Christian Social Union party for an upper limit on the number of new asylum seekers.

"We are awaiting urgent action from the federal government and Europe."

Merkel announced a string of new security measures including improving an "early-warning system" to detect radicalisation among refugees, training the military to respond to major attacks, boosting intelligence cooperation with allies and speeding up deportation of rejected asylum seekers.

The deadliest attack came last Friday when a German-Iranian teenager who was born and raised in Munich opened fire at a downtown shopping mall, killing nine people before turning the gun on himself.

He had been under psychiatric treatment and investigators say he was obsessed with mass shootings, including Norwegian rightwing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik's 2011 massacre.

They have ruled out an Islamist motive, saying the assailant had far-right "sympathies".

On July 18, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan or Pakistan slashed train passengers and a passer-by with an axe and a knife in Wuerzburg before being shot by police.

And on Sunday, a failed Syrian asylum seeker blew himself up outside a music festival in Ansbach, wounding 15 people at a nearby cafe after being turned away from the packed open-air venue. IS claimed both attacks.

Already steeped in grief and shock, Germans were further rattled by news that a Syrian refugee had killed a 45-year-old Polish woman with a large kebab knife at a snack bar in the southwestern city of Reutlingen Sunday in what authorities called a personal dispute.

Looming elections

The German attacks came with two state elections looming in September, in Berlin and in Merkel's fiefdom of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The rightwing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party hopes to make a particularly strong showing there with a campaign against "Islamisation", which would deal Merkel a stinging blow one year ahead of a general election.

Merkel's popularity had suffered earlier this year, following a rash of sexual assaults in the western city of Cologne on New Year's Eve blamed mainly on Arab and North African men.

But her poll ratings had recently recovered as the refugee influx has slowed dramatically due to the closure of the Balkan migrant route and an EU deal with Turkey to stem the flow.

Analysts are awaiting new data to see what impact the recent attacks have had on her support.

Pope Francis tells EU to tear down migrant walls

Yahoo – AFP, Angus MacKinnon, May 6, 2016

German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks with Pope Francis during a private
audience  at the Vatican on May 6, 2016 (AFP Photo/Alberto Pizzoli)

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis said Friday he dreamed of a Europe in which "being a migrant is not a crime", as he urged EU leaders to "tear down the walls" and build a fairer society.

Invoking the memory of the EU founding fathers' pursuit of integration in the aftermath of World War II, the pontiff said they inspired because they had "dared to change radically the models" that had led to war.

"Today more than ever, their vision inspires us to build bridges and tear down walls," he told a Vatican audience including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been at the centre of the EU's attempts to resolve its biggest refugee crisis since the war ended in 1945.

Pope Francis visits refugees living 

on the Greek island of Lesbos in April 

2016 (AFP Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

And in a rhetorical flourish with echoes of Martin Luther-King's legendary 'I have a dream' speech, the pope said he dreamed of a new European humanism that embraced the poor, the elderly, the young and the sick.

"I dream of a Europe where being a migrant is not a crime but a summons to greater commitment on behalf of the dignity of every human being," he said.

Francis's comments came in a speech as the 79-year-old pontiff was presented with the EU's Charlemagne Prize for his contribution to European unification.

Having unexpectedly decided to accept the award, Francis delivered a typically hard-hitting message to listeners that also included the heads of the EU's main institutions, the Council, the Commission, the Parliament and its central bank.

"What has happened to you, the Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, democracy and freedom?" he asked. "What has happened to you, Europe, the home of poets, philosophers, artists, musicians, and men and women of letters?"

Francis has made the cause of migrants trying to reach Europe one of the defining themes of his papacy.

He has regularly railed against the "indifference" of western societies to their plight and last month he made a high-profile visit to Lesbos, the Greek island on the frontline of the crisis, returning to the Vatican with three Syrian families seeking asylum from the civil war ravaging their homeland.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker speaks during a news 

conference following a ceremony at the Vatican, during which Pope Francis was

awarded 2016 Charlemagne Prize, in Rome, Italy, May 5, 2016. Reuters/Max Rossi

A memory transfusion needed

He has also attacked what he says is an arbitrary division being made between asylum seekers and so-called economic migrants -- a distinction at the heart of Merkel and other EU leaders' vision of how to resolve the crisis.

Borrowing a phrase from writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, the Argentinian pontiff said Friday that Europe needed a "memory transfusion" to free itself from the temptation of "quick and easy short-term political gains."

And after that reference to the migrant crisis, Francis went on to say Europe had to fundamentally change its economic model to give the continent's youth the security they needed to build a new world.

"If we want to rethink our society, we need to create dignified and well-paying jobs, especially for our young people," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for the 2016 Charlemagne Prize ceremony, 

during which Pope Francis will be awarded, at the Vatican May 6, 2016. REUTERS/

Stefano Rellandini 

"To do so requires coming up with new, more inclusive and equitable economic models, aimed not at serving the few, but at benefiting ordinary people and society as a whole.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Parliament President Martin Schulz explained the decision to give the award to such a regular and prominent critic of the EU in a column for France's Le Monde.

"Some will joke that the European Union must be in a bad way if it is in need of papal assistance," they wrote.

"We are convinced that Pope Francis deserves this prize, however, simply because he has sent Europe a message of hope.

"Perhaps we needed an Argentinian to turn his outsider's gaze on the innermost values which bind us Europeans together, to remind us of our strengths.

"After all, at times when the words 'Europe' and 'crisis' are often uttered in the same breath it is easy to forget what Europe has achieved and what it is capable of."

Pope Francis welcomes a group of Syrian refugees after landing at Ciampino airport

 in Rome following a visit at the Moria refugee camp on April 16, 2016 in the Greek

island of Lesbos (AFP Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

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"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… Human Nature is Changing

There's a new concept afoot, a change in Human nature. We've spoken about this before. How many of you studied European history? And in school, did your mind fill up with all of the dates you had to memorize? Who conquered whom and when? Over and over and over, every single country had their turn conquering another country. Borders moved constantly. As far back as you want to go, that's what Humans did. They separated, gathered, and conquered. But as little as 50 years ago, it all stopped.

We've said this before. Fifty years ago, a seed, an idea, was planted at the end of World War II. "Let's put these European countries together," they said. "Let's even drop the borders and eventually give them one currency." Do this and they'll never war again, they predicted, for countries with common economic sources don't go to war! And that's exactly what's happened. Did it work? It's fairly fresh, but their money is threatening to take over the strength of your money, did you notice? It's worth more than yours. They still struggle to make it work and balance it. But then again, you do the same in the United States, always fine tuning the unity.

South America is considering the same thing right now. The seeds are being planted in Brazil. Within a generation, they would love to see the borders dropped and one currency. Can they do it? Perhaps. Perhaps it will take longer. Why do it? Because they see the European Union with the strongest currency on Earth. We've said this before. Here is a prediction: Perhaps not in your time, but there'll come a day when there are only five currencies in the world, because continents will start understanding that unification creates peace and prosperity. Separation creates chaos. What a concept. …”

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."

Dutch councils get €500m extra to help settle refugees

DutchNews, April 29, 2016

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The government has set aside an extra €500m to help approved refugees integrate into the Netherlands. 

The money will go to local authorities to fund language lessons, run employment projects and to help schools, the cabinet has agreed. Most of the money – €353m – comes from the foreign ministry and aid budgets. ‘We have to learn from the past. 

We have a shared interest and that is that integration is successful,’ home affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher said.

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