The White House has delayed imposing new financial sanctions on Iran over its ballistic-missile program, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The shift in thinking appears to come after the Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, ordered his defense minister to accelerate the country’s ballistic missile program and threatened to intensify its missile capacity as a reprisal to the impending sanctions.
Just hours after Bavarian authorities closed the Hauptbahnhof and Pasing stations in Munich after Germany received a tip from French and American intelligence sources that a terrorist attack was planned for New Year’s Eve, two “incidents” have occurred in Kabul and Tel Aviv.
Authorities in Paris cancelled New Year’s Eve celebrations on Thursday night amid fears of further terror attacks, copying Brussels example after they also cancelled NYE festivities. Traditional fireworks displays normally seen in the French capital were scrapped in favour of a five-minute video performance of the Arc de Triomphe in the countdown to midnight, playing on screens along the Champs Elysees, surrounded by heightened security.
Munich police have evacuated two train stations in the Germany city of Munich and issued a statement warning citizens of an imminent terrorist attack.
Aktuelle Hinweise, dass in #München ein Terroranschlag geplant ist. Bitte meidet Menschenansammlungen und die Bahnhöfe Hauptbahnhof + Pasing
— Polizei München (@PolizeiMuenchen) December 31, 2015
As BNO News reports,
“When Justice and Development won by a landslide — a result that Mr. Erdogan interpreted as the public’s demand for stability — many had hoped it would lead to the revival of peace talks.”
That’s from The New York Times, who is out on Thursday with a look at Turkey’s escalating civil war.