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SYRIA’S PRESIDENT BASHAR al-Assad poured cold water on an internationally backed plan for a ceasefire to begin later this week, saying it would be “difficult” to implement.
His comments were the first from the embattled leader on the plan put forward by world leaders in Munich last Friday for a so-called “cessation of hostilities” to begin within a week.
“They are saying they want a ceasefire in a week. Who is capable of gathering all the conditions and requirements in a week? No one,” Assad said in televised remarks in Damascus.
“Who will talk to the terrorists? If a terrorist group refuses the ceasefire, who will hold them to account? Practically, talking (about a ceasefire) is difficult,” he said, according to a transcript of his comments published by state news agency SANA.
World powers last week put called for immediate humanitarian access throughout Syria and a ceasefire to begin within a week, which would not include Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front or the Islamic State (IS) group.
But the details of just how the plan would be implemented remain to be worked out, with a UN panel co-chaired by the US and Russia tasked with the job.
Assad said a ceasefire could not mean “that everyone stops using their weapons.”
“This is the narrow sense,” he said.
“A ceasefire must mean stopping terrorists from strengthening their positions. Moving weapons, equipment, terrorists or strengthening positions must all be forbidden,” he added.
MSF
Meanwhile, the United Nations said nearly 50 civilians, including children, died in bombings of at least five medical facilities and two schools in northern Syria’s Aleppo and Idlib provinces.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the raids violated international law and “cast a shadow” over efforts to end Syria’s five-year civil war, while France said the attacks “constitute war crimes”.
Medicins Sans Frontieres confirmed a hospital supported by the charity was hit in Idlib, northwest Syria, and said seven people were killed and at least eight were missing, presumed dead.
But Syria’s ambassador to Moscow, Riad Haddad, said the hospital had been targeted by a US raid.
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Best thing I ever did was get a spotify account
I haven’t pirated a single song since I got spotify, it’s great.
….of course, I never pirated anything before that….not one thing….
Hope you don’t have a wife and she reads that!
Or partner
Good save Brian
Streaming with lower profit margins is the future for the music industry. People won’t pay for something they can easily download illegally.
The best €10 spent every month. Their customer service is also excellent.
Listening to Apples Tim Cook launching their service yesterday, he makes it sound like it an whole new innovative service they have come up up with. Phrases like”this will change the way you listen to music forever”. It’s like they are 4 years behind everyone else but they don’t realise it.
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Posted from my iPhone
Tweety Mc Tweeter,
Are you trying to be ironic (posting from your iPhone lol)
Anyway Cook needs to sell his product and make it sound appealing. So as far is it goes with comparing to how iTunes users used to listen to music; it will change how they listen to music forever
I hope Spotify will react and price match Apples family account.
Spotify have already said they will meet apple on price plans :-)
While I like spotify for what it can provide the app is actually pretty poorly designed and still a bit buggy.
The addition of Siri to use with Apple service may be enough for me to switch.
The music tagging in spotify is also pretty bad if Apple do it better that would effect my decision too.
Couldn’t disagree more. Think it’s a fantastic app which I never have trouble with. Plus it works with my Sonos system which Apple’s app won’t.
At least I know why somebody is red thumbing.
The app crashes regularly on my phone, tablet, laptop and PC. Randomly can’t connect too.
Try to look up some artists and it fails to show the album but all the tracks are listed on a playlist instead.
If you stick with popular acts you might not notice how badly labelled the music is.
Apple music will work with the sonos. The sonos website has already been updated to show this and it’s also mentioned on apples site.
Sonos support says otherwise:
https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/so-any-discussions-with-apple-about-apple-music
That’s a good point; you cannot use spotify with voice control powered by Siri. You can ask Siri to launch the spotify app but that’s it
I can’t understand why anyone use’s these service. Any song you want is on youtube for nothing
What are you talking about? YouTube has no nothing to do with streaming music, or paid music.
Well You tube actually have their own paid streaming service now so that is not really true.
Nick mc,
If you are talking about the MusicTube app; it’s online only and it does not have every song you want. There is a lot of indie artists not available there and YouTube
It’s good for sampling new music but is not that reliable as it can be buffering for ages
Mickmac..u can’t play songs on youtube offline dats y hi
I think Apple are going to destroy Spotify. You can’t run an entertainment empire from Sweden
Try Qobuz through a DAC for the best quality music ever. Apple or Spotify will never match Qobuz. Apple will just imprision its users even more into their Eco-OS- system.
I miss being able to buy physical singles as a big music buyer and hope this will not spell the end for buying music altogether
Being able to stream artists like The Beatles and (ahem) Taylor Swift will surely convince many to move from Spotify to Apple Music
have your say