UN: War crimes a daily reality in Syria

Full Article Al Jazeera

04 Jun 2013
The Syrian regime and rebel fighters are committing war crimes as the conflict reaches “new levels of brutality”, a report of the United Nations says. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said on Tuesday that military and government leaders must be held accountable for implementing a “concerted policy” of human rights violations. The UN human…
File - In this Thursday, June 28, 2012 photo, embers of the Free Syrian Army are seen in a neighborhood of Damascus, Syria. Much of the violence that has gripped Syria has been sanctioned by the government to crush dissent.

 

 

 

India City to Ban Lingerie Mannequins to Stop Rape

All India MSS  Women Supporters burn the Sushil Kumar Shinde Poster to Protest against recent rape case in Delhi at Kolkata on Saturday 20 April 2013

 

MUMBAI, India — Mannequins displaying lingerie and other skimpy clothing may soon be banned in India’s cosmopolitan city of Mumbai as an anti-rape measure. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines….

 

photo: WN / Bhaskar Mallick

 

 

Plainclothes police officers hold umbrellas while monitoring visitors as authorities tighten security in Tiananmen Square on the 24th anniversary of the deadly 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in Beijing Tuesday, June 4, 2013.

China is marking the 24th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, amid tight security in Beijing and stifling censorship on the web. Authorities every year work hard to prevent memorials and ban public discussion of the brutal military…
photo: AP / Andy Wong

 

Protesters march silently from a Hong Kong park to government headquarters on Sunday June 1, 2008 to mark the 19th anniversary of China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters centered at Beijing 's Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

It has been 24 years since the Chinese government sent in the army to end a pro-democracy demonstration in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square Ever since, the government has worked to erase the events of that day from the national consciousness….
photo: AP / Vincent Yu

 

FILE - This Tuesday, May 21, 2013 file citizen journalism image provided by Qusair Lens, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian citizens inspecting the rubble of damaged buildings that were damaged from a Syrian forces air strike in the town of Qusair, near the Lebanon border, Homs province, Syria.

A MISSILE strike near Syria‘s biggest city Aleppo killed 26 people and government warplanes pounded Qusayr, a watchdog said yesterday, as a regime offensive to retake the town entered its third week. Regime opponents also suffered a blow when one of…
photo: AP / Qusair Lens

 

File - In this photo released by U.S. researchers who visited North Korea, a researcher videotapes stored equipment removed from the reprocessing plant at the Yongbyon Nuclear Center in North Korea Thursday Feb. 14, 2008.

North Korea is making “important” progress on reactivating facilities at its moth-balled Yongbyon nuclear reactor, a US think-tank says. Start-up could be one to two months away, it said, but there was uncertainty over the availability of…
photo: AP / S. S. Hecker

This photo taken Feb. 27, 2013 shows Secretary of State John Kerry arriving at the Foreign Ministry in Paris. The U.S. is moving closer to direct involvement in Syria’s civil war with the delivery of non-lethal assistance directly to the rebels fighting President Bashar Assad’s regime. Officials say the decision to offer ready-made meals and medical supplies to the rebels may be a step toward eventual U.S. military aid, which the administration has so far resisted.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel and the Palestinians on Monday to revive stalled peace talks, warning that the alternative was a “negative spiral of responses.” “We’re running out of time. If we do not succeed now,…
photo: AP / Jacquelyn Martin, Pool

 

Afghans look at a destroyed vehicle after it was hit by a road side bomb in the Alingar district of Laghman province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, June 3, 2013.

 

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber targeting U.S. troops outside an Afghan government office killed nine children walking home from school and two of the Americans on Monday, the latest sign that this year’s fighting season could be one of the…

 

photo: AP / Rahmat Gul

 

 

 

Hypocrisy at the heart of Bradley Manning trial

Full Article The Hindu

03 Jun 2013
In 2009 the American ambassador to Tunisia spent the evening at the home of Mohamed Sakher el-Materi, the President’s son-in-law. By any standards the dinner was lavish — yogurt and ice cream were flown in from St. Tropez — and the home was opulent. In a cable, made public by WikiLeaks, the diplomat wrote, “The house was…
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, center, is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Tuesday, May 21, 2013, before a pretrial military hearing.

 

 

 

Turkey’s PM Recep Erdogan dismisses protesters as just ‘a few looters’ as thousands return to …

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seen during a funeral ceremony for Serafettin Elci, a prominent Turkish Kurdish politician and a former minister, at the parliament in Ankara

 

Turkey’s Prime Minister has rejected claims from protesters, who have taken to the streets across the country over the past two days, that he is an authoritarian leader, as thousands of people marched and reoccupied the centre of Istanbul. Protesters…

 

photo: AP / Burhan Ozbilici

 

 

A red cross worker pulls a boat through the flooded centre of Passau, southern Germany, Monday, June 3, 2013.

Officials across central Europe issued disaster warnings and scrambled to reinforce flood defences as rivers swelled by days of heavy rain threatened to burst their banks. Several people have died or are missing in the floods in Germany, the Czech
photo: AP / Matthias Schrader

Smoke rises from the remains of a destroyed home in Lake Hughes, Calif., on Sunday, June 2, 2013.

REED SAXON Associated Press= LOS ANGELES (AP) — A wildfire that destroyed at least six homes, damaged 15 others and threatened hundreds more grew quickly Sunday as it triggered evacuations for nearly 3,000 people and burned dangerously close to…
photo: AP / Reed Saxon

 

Free Syrian Army fighter carry the body of their comrade away from the front line during clashes against Syrian Army in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012.

VOA News Syrian rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad appear to have fought a rare battle inside Lebanon, exchanging fire with members of pro-Assad Lebanese group Hezbollah. Lebanese security sources said the fighting happened early Sunday near…
photo: AP / Manu Brabo

 

Sanmin Rd. Sec. 3,Taichung City,Taiwan

A strong earthquake jolted Taiwan on Sunday, killing one person and injuring at least 18 others and causing panicked shoppers to rush out of a shaking multi-storey department store, officials said. Another earthquake jolted the southern Philippines
photo: Creative Commons / Howard61313 at zh.wikipedia

 

In this Friday, Sept. 7, 2012 photo made available on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012, Britain's Prince Harry examines the cockpit of an Apache attack helicopter with an unidentified member of his squadron, at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, where he starts his tour of duty as a co-pilot gunner.

LONDONBritish police say a homeless man has pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Prince Harry. The Metropolitan Police said Sunday that 30-year-old Ashraf Islam, of no fixed address, was charged May 25 with threatening kill the prince “contrary…
photo: AP / John Stillwell

 

FILE - In this Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012 file photo, riot police form a cordon as several thousand supporters of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi surround the Supreme Constitutional Court to prevent the judges from entering and ruling on the legitimacy of the nation's Islamist-dominated constituent assembly. Egypt's highest court ruled on Sunday, June 2, 2013

 

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court has ruled that the nation’s Islamist-dominated legislature and constitutional panel were illegally elected. Sunday’s ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court also said that the legislature must be dissolved when…

 

photo: AP / Ahmad Hammad

 

No-Fly Zones and Slippery Slopes

02 Jun 2013
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling Americans should be forewarned that an item on President Barack Obama‘s wish list is another slippery slope. This time he wants the Pentagon to draw up a no-fly zone plan over Syria and its volatile, ongoing civil war.(1) In political terms, a slippery slope is a metaphor for accepting laws and…
This citizen journalism image provided by Qusair Lens, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian man checking his destroyed house that was damaged by a Syrian forces air strike in the town of Qusair, near the Lebanon border, Homs province, Syria, Tuesday, May 21, 2013.

 

 

Egypt: Court rules legislature illegally elected

FILE - In this Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012 file photo, riot police form a cordon as several thousand supporters of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi surround the Supreme Constitutional Court to prevent the judges from entering and ruling on the legitimacy of the nation's Islamist-dominated constituent assembly. Egypt's highest court ruled on Sunday, June 2, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court has ruled that the nation’s Islamist-dominated legislature and constitutional panel were illegally elected. Sunday’s ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court also said that the legislature must be dissolved when…
photo: AP / Ahmad Hammad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaks during an annual rally commemorating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, which toppled the late pro-U.S. Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. In his statements to the rally, Ahmadinejad said he is ready to have direct talks with United States if the West stops pressuring his country.

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a group of government officials has been forced to make an emergency landing in a mountainous region in northern Iran. No-one was…
photo: AP / Vahid Salemi

Protesters look a destroyed car during a rally at the Taskim square in Istanbul early Sunday, June 2, 2013.

Turkish police have arrested more than 900 people during two days of protests, the most sustained anti-government outburst for years. Interior Minister Muammer Guler said some of those arrested had since been released, others would be put on trial….
photo: AP / Thanassis Stavrakis

 

 

Hagel Warns China on Cyberattacks

01 Jun 2013
SINGAPORE — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered a two-pronged message to Beijing — holding out hope for a slowly improving military relationship with the Asian giant while issuing a stern warning on cyberattacks coming from that country. But he was met with immediate skepticism from the Chinese delegation in the audience, who questioned…
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Friday, March 15, 2013, to announce that the Obama administration will add 14 interceptors to a West Coast-based U.S.-based missile defense system reflecting concern about North Korea's focus on developing nuclear weapons and its advances in long-range missile technology.

 

 

Correction: Japan-Sex Slaves story

Japan apologized again on Monday for the suffering of women who served as sex slaves for the Japanese military during World War II, a day after comments by a cabinet minister drew an angry reaction in South Korea. Education Minister Nariaki Nakayama was

TOKYO — In a story May 8 about the use of sex slaves during World War II, The Associated Press reported erroneously that then-Prime Minister Yohei Kono issued a 1993 statement expressing remorse for suffering caused to sexual slaves of Japanese

 

 

Civilians gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in east Baghdad's neighborhood of Kamaliya, Iraq, Monday, April 15, 2013.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – More than 1,000 people were killed in attacks in Iraq during May in the worst spike in violence since the country’s sectarian civil war five…
photo: AP / Khalid Mohammed

 

In this photo released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, on Friday, May 31, 2013, presidential candidates from left, Saeed Jalili, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Ali Akbar Velayati, Mohammad Gharazi, Mohammad Reza Aref, Hasan Rowhani, Mohsen Rezaei, pose for a group picture, after their TV debate in a state-run TV studio, in Tehran, Iran. A hard-liner calls for "reconciliation with the world" as Iran's ailing economy takes center stage at the first presidential debate by eight candidates to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

BRIAN MURPHY Associated Press= TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranians have seen it before: A youngish presidential candidate firing up crowds with fist-waving rants against the West, then displaying his Islamist bona fides with courtesy calls to hard-line…
photo: AP / Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Mehdi Dehghan

 

Riot police clash with demonstrators after they used tear gas and pressurized water in a dawn raid on Friday to rout a peaceful demonstration by hundreds of people staging a sit-in to prevent the uprooting of trees at an Istanbul park, Turkey, Friday, May 31, 2013.

Turkey is braced for a second day of protests after clashes between police and demonstrators left dozens of people injured in Istanbul on Friday. Police have been drafted in from other provinces, parts of Istanbul are cordoned off and traffic is…
photo: AP

 

A police officer examines the surroundings after a powerful explosion suspected to have been caused by a faulty appliance ripped through a residential building in an upscale district of the Philippine capital on Friday night May 31, 2013 at suburban Taguig city east of Manila

MANILA, Philippines : The death toll from a powerful explosion that ripped through an upscale apartment complex in the Philippine capital has risen to six, including the crew of a passing delivery van that was hit by debris, authorities said…
photo: AP / Bullit Marquez

Asteroid (285263) 1998 QE2

An asteroid wider than nine ocean liners sailed safely past Earth today (May 31), making its closest flyby of our planet for at least the next 200 years. Asteroid 1998 QE2, which is about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) wide, cruised within 3.6 million…
photo: NASA / NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

Protesters demonstrate against the country's near 25 percent unemployment rate and stinging austerity measures introduced by the government, in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, July 21, 2012.

 

By ILONA BILLINGTON And BRIAN BLACKTONE Enlarge Image Close The euro-zone economy showed further signs of deterioration as unemployment hit a fresh record and retail spending fell in the bloc’s largest economies, offering little hope the region’s…

 

photo: AP / Andres Kudacki

 

 

Nigeria arrests trio over ‘Hezbollah cell’

31 May 2013
Nigerian authorities have have arrested three Lebanese men in northern Nigeria on suspicion of being members of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah. Soldiers uncovered a hidden arms cache that authorities believe belonged to members of the Shia political party and armed group, the military and secret police said on Thursday….
This photo released by the Nigerian Army claims to show soldiers and civilians inspecting a displayed arms cache recovered from a house in Kano, Nigeria, Thursday, May 30, 2013.

 

 Hagel to broach topic of cyberthreats with Chinese

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (not pictured), brief the press at the Pentagon, April 10, 2013.

 

LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press= ABOARD A U.S. AIRCRAFT (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will meet with members of a Chinese delegation this weekend and likely talk about ongoing cyberthreats amid new reports that China used computer-based…

 

photo: US DoD / Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

 

A Muslim family arrive at a Buddhist temple following sectarian violence in Lashio, northern Shan State, Myanmar, Thursday, May 30, 2013.

TODD PITMAN Associated Press= LASHIO, Myanmar (AP) — More than 1,000 Muslims who fled Myanmar’s latest bout of sectarian violence huddled in a Buddhist monastery guarded by army soldiers as calm returned to this northeastern city, though burnt out…
photo: AP / Gemunu Amarasinghe

 

French President Francois Hollande, right, reacts with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during at their press conference after a meeting at the Elysee Palace, Paris, Thursday May 30, 2013.

BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhuanet) — French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have met in Paris in a bid to set aside differences and find common ground on Europe’s struggling economy. The two leaders have…
photo: AP / Jacques Brinon

 

In this photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot's No. 2 and the group's chief ideologist, attends a hearing of the former Khmer Rouge top leaders, at U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011.

Former Cambodian head of state Khieu Samphan apologises directly to individuals who lost relatives in 1975-79 genocide Khieu Samphan at the genocide tribunal in 2011. Photograph: AP Former leaders of Cambodia‘s Khmer Rouge being tried by a UN-backed…
photo: AP / Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

 

Civilians inspect the site of a parked car bomb attack near a popular restaurant in the Ur neighborhood in northern Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 30, 2013.

 

May 30: A series of bombs battered Shi’ite and Sunni Muslim neighborhoods across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 25 people in the worst wave of sectarian violence since civil war five years ago. The bloodletting reflects increasing conflict…

 

photo: AP / Khalid Mohammed

 

Bhutan readies for first stage of key elections

Full Article BBC News

31 May 2013
Voters in Bhutan are taking part in elections on Friday to determine which two out of four parties will go on to participate in the second and decisive stage of the vote on 13 July. The winner of the July vote will form the government and the runner-up will become the opposition. The election is the second to be held in Bhutan since the country…
File - A Royal Bhutan Army soldier stands vigil as Bhutanese in traditional costume stand in queues to cast their votes for the nation's second parliamentary election outside a polling station at Rikhey, Bhutan, Tuesday, April 23, 2013.

 

Ricin letters sent to NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg linked to gun control campaign

Michael Bloomberg

 

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and a lobbyist working on his gun control campaign received threatening letters that tested positive for the deadly poison ricin. Police said Wednesday that one of the letters was received on Friday and was…

 

photo: Creative Commons / David Shankbone

 

 

FBI special agent Weysan Dun announces in Omaha, Neb., Friday, Oct. 1, 2010, the arrest of more than 30 people in New York, London and the Ukraine who are thought to belong to a cyber theft ring that netted at least $70 million. Special Agent Dun said that arrests this week were the results of an investigation that begin in May 2009.

 

The man fatally shot by an FBI agent during questioning about his ties to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was unarmed, according to reports. Ibragim Todashev, a 27-year-old Chechen immigrant, had been questioned for hours on May 22 in…

 

photo: AP / Nati Harnik

 

 

 

UN mulls ethics of ‘killer robots’

Full Article BBC News

30 May 2013
So-called killer robots are due to be discussed at the UN Human Rights Council, meeting in Geneva. A report presented to the meeting will call for a moratorium on their use while the ethical questions they raise are debated….
File - Foster-Miller TALON SWORDS units equipped with various weaponry. SWORDS or the Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System, is a weaponized version being developed by Foster-Miller for the US Army.

 

Russian S300 anti-aircraft missiles ‘delivered to Syria’

Inflatalbe S-300PMU2 SAM of Russia.

 

Syria has already received the first shipment of an advanced Russian air defence system, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is reported to have said in a Lebanese TV interview. Russia vowed to go ahead with sending the weapons soon after an EU…

 

photo: Creative Commons / Xabier Eskisabel

 

 

A woman adjusts her hair as she walks by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012.

By DANIEL INMAN And WEI-ZHE TAN Tokyo stocks suffered another brutal loss Thursday as investor skepticism mounted about the power of this year’s rally. Weighed by a sharply lower dollar, the Nikkei Stock Average dropped 5.2% to end at 13,589.03, its…
photo: AP / Koji Sasahara

 

File - Nigeria troops man a checkpoint in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Wednesday, Sept, 28. 2011. Security forces have arrested a commander of a radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram, who allegedly ordered various sectarian killings in the northeastern city.

The Boko Haram armed group has claimed that a military offensive launched against it by the Nigerian military is failing. “My fellow brethren from all over the world I assure you that we are strong, hale and hearty since they launched this assault on…
photo: AP / Sunday Alamba

 

Buddhists armed with sticks walk in the streets of in Lashio, northern Shan State, Myanmar, Wednesday, May 29, 2013.

TODD PITMAN Associated Press= LASHIO, Myanmar (AP) — It was a terrifying sight: hundreds of angry, armed men on motorcycles advancing up a dusty street with no one to stop them. Shouting at the top of their lungs, clutching machetes and iron pipes…
photo: AP / Gemunu Amarasinghe

 

Alphorn Festival in Grindelwald area. Grindelwald has a population (as of 31 December 2011) of 3,796.[1] As of 2007, 15.8% of the population was made up of foreign nationals.

GRINDELWALD, SwitzerlandMarco Bomio recalls that bright Sunday morning in June 2006 as if it were yesterday. Mr. Bomio, 59, the principal of a local middle school and an avid mountain guide, attended a religious service on a high mountain meadow…
photo: Creative Commons / Cristo Vlahos

 

In this Sunday, March 11, 2012 photo, Free Syrian Army fighters discuss military strategies during a day of heavy fighting with Syrian Army forces in Idlib, north Syria.

Shells fire from Syria regularly strike the Lebanese northeastern town of Hermel, a predominantly Shiite town. Photo: AP Tripoli, Lebanon: As the United Nations human rights body voted to condemn Syria’s use of foreign fighters in its deadly attacks…
photo: AP / Rodrigo Abd

 

Top Pakistani Taliban commader Waliur Rehman, center, seen from rear, talks to reporters in Makeen situated in the Pakistani Tribal region along Afghanistans border on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009.

 

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A U.S. drone strike killed the No. 2 of the Pakistani Taliban in the North Waziristan region on Wednesday, three security officials said, in what would be a major blow to the militancy. The drone strike killed seven…

 

 

The Iraq War is Not Over for the Iraqi People

29 May 2013
In 1946, the at Nuremberg stated the following, in language that was introduced by Judge Robert Jackson, the lead American prosecutor of Axis war criminals: To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the…
U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Landers, center, security force team member for Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Farah, maintains security at the conclusion of a key leader engagement in Farah City, May 22, 2013.

 

 

 

UK admits extended detention of Afghans at Camp Bastion

File - A British army helicopter flies into Forward Operating Base Sangin, Afghanistan, to unload supplies for the Royal Irish Rangers Sept. 24, 2008.

 

British forces are detaining 80 to 90 Afghan nationals in a holding…

 

photo: USMC / Lance Cpl. Gene Allen Ainsworth III

 

 

In this photo released by Daily Eleven Media, people gather around a burning mosque in Lashio, northern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, May 28, 2013.

Sectarian violence has spread to a new region of Myanmar, with a rampaging mob torching a mosque and a Muslim orphanage in a northeastern town after rumors spread that a Muslim man had set fire to a Buddhist woman, authorities said Wednesday. There…
photo: AP / Daily Eleven Media

 

In this photo provided by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on his Twitter site, McCain visits troops at a Patriot missile site in southern Turkey, Monday, May 27, 2013.

SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaders of Syria‘s opposition forces got a chance to make their case for increased U.S. support directly with Sen. John McCain when he slipped into that country for a surprise visit. McCain, R-Ariz.,…
photo: AP / John McCain via Twitter

 

Royal Caribbean cruise cancelled in Bahamas after fire

A fire has broken out aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, forcing more than 2,200 passengers to end their trip early. The Grandeur of the Seas had left Baltimore on Friday and was en route to CocoCay in the Bahamas when fire broke out in the…
photo: Creative Commons / Leonard.inc

 

Austrainian Foreign Minister Bob Carr speaks to the media during the Security Council Meets on the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security S/2013/133)

Foreign Minister Bob Carr says a report alleging Chinese hackers stole plans for Australia‘s new intelligence hub will not hit ties with Beijing. On Monday the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported blueprints setting out the…
photo: UN / UN

 

President Barack Obama speaks at the at the Urban and Metropolitan Policy Roundtable at the Eisenhower Old Executive Office Building in Washington, Monday, July 13, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama will soon accelerate his efforts to put a lasting imprint on the country’s judiciary by simultaneously nominating three judges to an important federal court, a move that is certain to unleash fierce Republican opposition…
photo: AP / Alex Brandon

 

William Hague

 

Posted: May 27, 2013 The European Union lifted the arms embargo on Syrian rebels after they were unable to gain agreement on what to do. The EU decision means that member states will be able to send weapons to the outgunned rebels beginning a few…

 

photo: Creative Commons / Chatham House

 

 

Britain: EU Ends Arms Embargo On Syrian Rebels

28 May 2013
BRUSSELS — The European Union said its member states within days will be able to send weapons to help Syria‘s outgunned rebels, seeking to pressure President Bashar Assad‘s regime ahead of planned peace talks mediated by the United States and Russia. Though no EU country has any such plans now to send arms, British Foreign Secretary William Hague
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, left, talks with Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, center, and Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger, during the EU foreign ministers meeting

 

 

McCain makes surprise trip to visit Syrian rebels

In this photo provided by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on his Twitter site, McCain visits troops at a Patriot missile site in southern Turkey, Monday, May 27, 2013.

 

SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaders of Syria‘s opposition forces got a chance to make their case for increased U.S. support directly with Sen. John McCain when he slipped into that country for a surprise visit. McCain, R-Ariz.,…

 

photo: AP / John McCain via Twitter

 

 

Royal Caribbean cruise cancelled in Bahamas after fire

A fire has broken out aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, forcing more than 2,200 passengers to end their trip early. The Grandeur of the Seas had left Baltimore on Friday and was en route to CocoCay in the Bahamas when fire broke out in the…
photo: Creative Commons / Leonard.inc

 

Austrainian Foreign Minister Bob Carr speaks to the media during the Security Council Meets on the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security S/2013/133)

Foreign Minister Bob Carr says a report alleging Chinese hackers stole plans for Australia‘s new intelligence hub will not hit ties with Beijing. On Monday the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported blueprints setting out the…
photo: UN / UN

 

President Barack Obama speaks at the at the Urban and Metropolitan Policy Roundtable at the Eisenhower Old Executive Office Building in Washington, Monday, July 13, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama will soon accelerate his efforts to put a lasting imprint on the country’s judiciary by simultaneously nominating three judges to an important federal court, a move that is certain to unleash fierce Republican opposition…
photo: AP / Alex Brandon

 

William Hague

Posted: May 27, 2013 The European Union lifted the arms embargo on Syrian rebels after they were unable to gain agreement on what to do. The EU decision means that member states will be able to send weapons to the outgunned rebels beginning a few…
photo: Creative Commons / Chatham House

 

Myanmar Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi, center, talks to journalists as she attends Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting of her National League for Democracy party at a restaurant in Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, May 27, 2013.

AYE AYE WIN Associated Press= YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Islamic leaders expressed dismay over decisions by authorities in western Myanmar to restore a two-child limit on Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does…
photo: AP / Khin Maung Win

 

In this May 28, 2010 photo is seen the Camilo Cienfuegos oil refinery in Cienfuegos, Cuba. Cuba plans to build three additional loading docks and a terminal large enough to accommodate modern supertankers by 2014 at its port in Cienfuegos, part of the Cuban government's effort with Venezuela to rehabilitate and modernize the area's oil refinery.

 

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Chevron Corp. has agreed to lend $2 billion to a joint venture with Venezuela’s state oil company in an effort to boost production in an oil field in western Zulia state. Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez signed the…

 

photo: AP / Ismael Francisco, Prensa Latina

 

 

Li, Merkel vow to settle trade dispute

27 May 2013
China and Germany have voiced opposition to trade protectionism, promising to settle the disputes on solar power and mobile telecommunication equipment through dialogue. In a joint statement issued on Sunday during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang‘s visit to Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Li called for all parties to strictly abide by the rules…
German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks with the media as she arrives for a meeting of the European People's Party on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 24, 2011. European leaders hope to approve what they see as a comprehensive solution to the instability of the euro. But new uncertainly loomed as the Portuguese government is forced from power by opposition parties who think the proposed austerity package there went too far.

 

Sri Lanka investigating monk’s self-immolation

Sri Lankan hospital workers carry a Buddhist monk, identified as Bowatte Indrarathane, on a stretcher for treatment in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, May 24, 2013.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s government is investigating media who covered the death of a Buddhist monk who set himself on fire to protest the slaughter of cattle. The Media Ministry website says the monk could have been saved had media…
photo: AP / Eranga Jayawardena

President Barack Obama speaks in front of Plaza Towers Elementary in Moore, Okla., on Sunday, May 26, 2013.

MOORE, OKLAHOMA: President Barack Obama visited tornado-devastated Moore, Oklahoma, consoling people staggered by the loss of life and property and promising that the government will be behind them “every step of the way.” The extraordinarily…
photo: AP / The Oklahoman, Bryan Terry, Pool

President Barack Obama talks to residents and views damage from the tornado that devastated Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 29, 2011.

Washington, May 26: US President Barack Obama Sunday called on Americans to help rebuild the tornado-ravaged Oklahoma City area during a visit to places hit by a deadly twister last week. The president caught a glimpse of the damage from the air…
photo: AP / J. Scott Applewhite

This Tuesday, May 21, 2013 citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian rebel firing locally made shells made from gas cylinders against the Syrian forces, in Idlib province, northern Syria. Syria's main opposition group is urging rebels to come from around the country to reinforce Qusair, a western town under attack by Syrian troops and members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group.

In a conflict which worsens by the week, this is a week when critical decisions on the next steps in Syria must be made. On Monday, meetings of foreign ministers in Brussels and Paris could pave the way for more weapons to be supplied to the…
photo: AP / Edlib News Network ENN

Internal nuclear components of the American B61 nuclear bomb

The United States has about 180 B61 gravity nuclear bombs based in Europe. They are the detritus of the cold war, tactical weapons deployed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey to protect NATO allies from the once-feared Soviet
photo: Creative Commons / Georgewilliamherbert

Secretary General of the League of Arab States Nabil Elaraby speaks during a Security Council meeting about Syria at United Nations headquarters Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012. Syrian troops crushed pockets of rebel soldiers Tuesday on the outskirts of Damascus, fueling some of the bloodiest fighting of the 10-month-old uprising, as Western diplomats tried to overcome Russia's rejection of a draft U.N. resolution demanding President Bashar Assad halt the violence and yield power. The U.N. Security Council was meeting Tuesday to discuss the draft, backed by Western and Arab diplomats. But Russia, one of Assad's strongest backers, has signaled it would veto action against Damascus.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby on Sunday urged Lebanon‘s Shi’ite militant Hezbollah to stop fighting alongside government forces in Syria‘s civil war, after two rockets hit a Shi’ite Muslim district of Beirut. Sunday’s rocket…
photo: AP / Seth Weni

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos delivers a speech during a televised address to the nation at the presidential palace in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Aug. 27, 2012.

The government of Colombia and the country’s largest rebel group, FARC, have agreed on land reform, after more than six months of…
photo: AP / Fernando Vergara

 

 

African Union celebrates 50th anniversary

Full Article South China Morning Post

26 May 2013
China was thanked yesterday for its massive wave of investment across Africa as the continent’s leaders opened extravagant celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the African Union. Africa’s leaders were gathering in the AU’s modern, Chinese-built headquarters in the Ethiopian capital to mark the founding of an organisation that helped liberate…
African heads of state pose for an official photograph at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Saturday, May 25, 2013.

 

 

14 killed in new anti-terror Philippine offensive

Soldiers load the bodies of Philippine Marines into a military truck after being recovered from the site following a clash with Abu Sayyaf militants on Jolo island in southern Philippines Saturday May 25, 2013.

 

JIM GOMEZ Associated Press= MANILA, Philippines (AP) — At least 14 Philippine marines and Abu Sayyaf militants were killed in a clash in a new U.S.-backed offensive aimed at rescuing six foreign and Filipino hostages and stopping the al-Qaida-linked…

 

photo: AP / Nickee Butlangan

 

 

Police officers stand near the cordoned off spot where a French soldier was stabbed in the throat in the busy commercial district of La Defense, outside Paris, Saturday May 25, 2013

French police are hunting a man who attacked a soldier on patrol with two colleagues in the La Defense business district of Paris on Saturday evening. Private First Class Cedric Cordier was approached from behind and stabbed in the neck with a…
photo: AP / Remy de la Mauviniere

 

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., talks on a phone in Statuary Hall on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 in Washington.

> • John Kerry is urging Abbas to resume direct peace talks with Israel, a Palestinian source said. • The source added that Kerry and Abbas will meet again in Jordan on Sunday to get Israel’s response. • The U.S. has also appointed two aides to Kerry…
photo: AP / Alex Brandon

 

William F. Browder, Chief Executive Officer Hermitage Capital Management, asks questions during the session 'Russia's Next Steps to Modernization' at the Annual Meeting 2011 of the World Economic Forum in Davos

MOSCOW — Interpol has rejected a Russian request for a worldwide police hunt for William F. Browder, a British investment banker and a Kremlin nemesis who has made no secret of his whereabouts or of his battle against the government of President
photo: Creative Commons / World Economic Forum

 

In this Thursday, May 23, 2013 photo, Nigerien soldiers walk near debris after suicide bombers blew themselves up inside a military barracks, in Agadez, northern Niger.

NIAMEY, Mali (AP) — Niger‘s president says suicide bombers who carried out simultaneous attacks on a military installation and a French-run uranium mine came from southern Libya. President Mahamadou Issoufou told reporters Saturday the death toll now…
photo: AP

Police officers search for clues at Mohamed Merah's apartment building in Toulouse, France, Friday March 23, 2012.

PARIS: A French soldier patrolling a business neighbourhood west of Paris was stabbed in the neck on Saturday by a man who quickly fled the scene and is being sought by police, President
photo: AP / Remy de la Mauviniere

 

Guinean soldiers assisting police patrol the mostly Peul suburb of Bambeto in Conakry, Guinea, Tuesday Nov. 16, 2010, as groups of UFDG youth set up barricades. A de-facto curfew is in efffect in the area, residents staying inside, one day after it was announced that RPG candidate Alpha Conde had won Guinea's tense presidential election. Conde received 53.5 per cent of the 2.89 million ballots cast. His opponent, Cellou Dalein Diallo, got 47.5 per cent of the votes. A total of 4.2 million citizens had registered to vote.

 

CONAKRY (Reuters) – At least five people were killed on Saturday when security forces in Guinea opened fire on protesters in opposition strongholds in the capital, medical sources and witnesses said. The violence brings to 11 the number of people…

 

photo: AP / Jerome Delay

 

 

Stockholm in relative calm after five nights of rioting

25 May 2013
LONDONThe streets of Stockholm were quieter late Friday after five consecutive nights of rioting that rocked the Swedish capital and shook the Scandinavian country’s self-image as a tolerant, liberal place. Since Sunday, sections of northwest and south Stockholm have been lighted up with the glow of fires started by rock-throwing rioters,…
The picture depicts the burning Husby Gård, set aflame during the riots.

 

Guatemala’s ex-president extradited to US

Former Guatemala's President Alfonso Portillo Cabrera speaks during a press conference at the Palace of Justice in Guatemala City, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008. Portillo was extradited from Mexico to face corruption charges and the ex-leader said he was confident he would receive a fair trial in his homeland.

Guatemala has extradited ex-president Alfonso Portillo to the United States to face charges of laundering $70m. Portillo was put on a plane on Friday under the escort of US agents. “Hasta luego (see you later), people of Guatemala,” Portillo,…
photo: AP / Moises Castillo

French special forces drive through Gao, Northern Mali, Wednesday Jan. 30, 2013. Islamist extremists fled the city Saturday after French, Chadian and Nigerien troops arrived, ending 10 month of radical Islamic control over the city.

France is set to begin the first major stage of its military withdrawal from Mali, four months after sending troops to push Islamist rebels out the north. A convoy of 80 lorries will leave a French base outside the capital, Bamako, and drive south to…
photo: AP / Jerome Delay

Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang reacts at the end of a press conference after the signing ceremony of several agreements between Switzerland and China, in Kehrsatz near Bern, Switzerland, Friday, May 24, 2013.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Li Keqiang criticized the European Union over its plans to investigate alleged anti-competitive behavior by Chinese mobile telecom equipment makers and to impose punitive import duties on solar panels from China,…
photo: AP / Keystone, Peter Klaunzer

Second day of the Stockholm Husby riots

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A nearly week-long spate of rioting spread outside Stockholm on Friday but authorities said police reinforcements sent to the Swedish capital had reduced the violence there, even though dozens of youths set cars and a recycling…
photo: Creative Commons / Telefonkiosk

A collapsed portion of the Interstate 5 bridge lies at the Skagit River Friday, May 24, 2013, in Mount Vernon, Wash.

A four-lane highway bridge in Washington state has collapsed after being struck by a lorry, six years after 13 people were killed when another bridge fell. So how safe are bridges in the US? Repairs to the collapsed Skagit River bridge will cost an…
photo: AP / Elaine Thompson

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addresses party workers in Lahore, Pakistan on Monday, May 20, 2013.

Nawaz Sharif knows better than anyone how powerful Pakistan‘s military are. He was toppled by them in 1999. So who is really going to be running the country now that he will be prime minister? In Pakistan’s politically savvy drawing-rooms…
photo: AP / K.M. Chaudary

A woman walks past police officers standing guard outside the house which was searched by British police in Luton, England, Monday, Dec. 13, 2010.

LONDON — A government minister said Friday that the police and the security services would face inquiries into their previous handling of two men accused of hacking a British soldier to death on a busy London street two days ago. British security…
photo: AP / Akira Suemori

 

 

President Barack Obama defends drone strikes – but moves to rein them in

24 May 2013
President Barack Obama combined a vigorous defence of his controversial use of drones with a no less impassioned demand for the closure of the notorious prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which he called “a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the rule of law.” In a sweeping public reassessment of the evolving threat facing the US, Mr…
File - Airmen of the 432d Air Expeditionary Wing surpassed the 600,000 flight hour mark in the MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft system Sept. 4, 2009, at Creech Air Force Base, Nev.

 

 

BOJ Kuroda Vows to Calm JGBs, Guide Recovery

In this March 4, 2012 file photo, Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda, who was recently nominated by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to head the country's central bank,

 

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Friday expressed confidence the central bank can stem bond market volatility with flexible market operations and engineer a steady recovery in the world’s third-largest economy. Kuroda said the central bank’s…

 

photo: AP / Shizuo Kambayashi

 

 

In this photo released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and distributed by the Korea News Service (KNS) in Tokyo, North Korean envoy Choe Ryong Hae, center right, tours the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA), an industrial park in the southern part of Beijing, Thursday, May 23, 2013.

BEIJING (AP) — A North Korean envoy, on the second day of his fence-mending visit to ally China, heeded Beijing‘s wishes by offering to renew nuclear disarmament talks, Chinese state media said. The accounts depicted Thursday’s meeting between North
photo: AP

 

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaking to the media outside 10 Downing Street in London, Thursday, May 23, 2013.

LONDONPrime Minister vowed Thursday that his nation would not succumb to fear and promised a vigorous investigation into the brutal slaying of a British soldier by alleged Islamic extremists on a London street. The killing appeared to be the…
photo: AP / Alastair Grant

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem Thursday, May 23, 2013.

United States secretary of state John Kerry is pushing ahead with efforts to resume Middle East peace talks despite no signs of a diplomatic breakthrough. Yesterday he met Israeli and Palestinian leaders separately. It is his fourth trip to the…
photo: AP / Jim Young

 

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, speaks about the health care reform bill, Tuesday, March 23, 2010, at the Interior Department in Washington

President Barack Obama defended the United States‘ use of drone attacks as an important part of the U.S. counterterrorism policy on Thursday but signed new presidential policy guidelines to spell out for Congress and the public the standards that the…
photo: AP / Gerald Herbert

 

A supporter of President Barack Obama uses a digital camera to snap a picture during a fundraiser at Southern Maine Community College, Friday, March, 30, 2012 in Portland, Maine.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is lifting his self-imposed ban on transferring Guantanamo Bay detainees to Yemen, where a leadership upheaval has improved the country’s security but not eliminated the terrorist organization trying to recruit…
photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

 

Roy Antoine, 64, of Brooklyn, holds a sign in a support of Trayvon Martin before a candlelight vigil in Union Square to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of the Florida teenager by neighborhood watch member George Zimmerman in Florida, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, in New York.

 

ORLANDO, Fla.George Zimmerman’s defense attorneys on Thursday released photos and text messages from 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s cellphone ahead of a hearing that will determine whether they can be used at Zimmerman’s murder trial. Zimmerman is…

 

photo: AP / John Minchillo

 

 

IMF chief Lagarde faces inquiry over tycoon payout

Full Article France24

23 May 2013
Prosecutors will question IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Thursday to determine whether she should face charges regarding a €400 million payout to disgraced businessman Bernard Tapie when she was France‘s finance minister in 2007. By News Wires (text) Prosecutors will grill IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Thursday as they investigate…
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde poses before giving a television interview, Tuesday June 28, 2011 in Paris, after she has been chosen to lead the International Monetary Fund. She will become the first female managing director of the global lending organization.(AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

 

Egypt leader claims victory in captives’ release

A bus carrying Palestinian passengers arrive from the Egyptian side as Egyptian soldiers guard at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on May 22, 2013. Egypt re-opened the border crossing on Wednesday five days after they sealed it of the abduction of seven security personnel. Photo by Ahmed Deeb / WN

SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press= CAIRO (AP) — The safe release Wednesday of seven conscripts kidnapped by suspected militants in Sinai brought a victory for Egypt‘s Islamist president after months of criticism that his government is mismanaging the…
photo: WN / Ahmed Deeb

This citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian man carrying a child's body in the aftermath of a strike by Syrian government, in the neighborhood of Jabal Bedro, in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday Feb. 19, 2013. The Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Aleppo Media Center reported several dead in the attack late Monday night, saying the strike appeared to be from a ground-to-ground missile.

Amnesty International has accused governments of using state sovereignty as an “excuse” for failing to intervene in emergencies such as in Syria. In its annual report, the human rights group also blames world leaders for prioritising…
photo: AP / Aleppo Media Center AMC

In this photo taken on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, Francesco Schettino the captain of the luxury cruiser Costa Concordia, which ran aground off Italy's Tuscan coast, enters a Carabinieri car in Porto Santo Stefano, Italy.

ROME — An Italian judge on Wednesday ordered the captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia to stand trial on manslaughter and other charges related to the deadly capsizing of the vessel off the coast of Tuscany in January 2012. The judge set a July…
photo: AP / Enzo Russo

Soldiers stand guard by communications towers in Corinto in southern Colombia, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009

BOGOTA, Colombia — At least 10 Colombian soldiers were killed and six wounded Wednesday in a pre-dawn attack on an army patrol with homemade explosives by the country’s second-largest leftist rebel band, the military said. The 2 a.m. attack by…
photo: AP / Christian Escobar Mora

Fereidoun Abbasi Davani, Iran's Vice President and Head of Atomic Energy Organization delivers a speech at the general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, at the International Center, in Vienna, Austria, Monday, Sept. 17, 2012.

VIENNA — The U.N. atomic agency on Wednesday detailed rapid Iranian progress in two programs that the West fears are geared toward making nuclear weapons, saying Tehran has upgraded its uranium enrichment facilities and advanced in building a…
photo: AP / Ronald Zak

A tent is erected near the scene of an attack in Woolwich southeast London Wednesday, May, 22, 2013.

A man reported to be a serving soldier has been murdered near a military training barracks in southeast London, in what police say may be a politically motivated attack. British Prime Minister David Cameron has called a meeting of his…
photo: AP / Alastair Grant

Report: Palestinian organizations use U.S. funding to demonize Israel

On Tuesday, a report presented to Congress by Jerusalem-based watchdog NGO Monitor showed that several NGOs (“non-government organizations”) in the region that receive U.S. tax dollars are hostile toward Israel and the peace process. Gerald M….
photo: UN / Evan Schneider

 

 

 

North Korea sends military leader as ‘special envoy’ to China

Full Article The Times of India

22 May 2013
SEOUL: North Korea on Wednesday sent a top military official to China as a personal envoy of leader Kim Jong-Un, at a time of strained relations with Beijing and ahead of a key China-US summit. Choe Ryong-Hae, the director of the Korean People’s Army politburo, flew to Beijing with a handful of senior military and ruling party officials, the Korean
A Chinese paramilitary policeman stands guard outside the North Korean embassy in Beijing, China, Wednesday, May 22, 2013.

 

 

Israeli soldiers work on top of a tank in a position in the Israeli controlled Golan Heights, on the border with Syria, Tuesday, May 21, 2013.

May 21: The head of Israel‘s armed forces warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday of “consequences” if fire continues from Syrian territory against Israeli troops in the occupied Golan Heights. “If he disturbs the Golan Heights, he will…
photo: AP / Ariel Schalit

 

The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) is a medium-sized species of bear largely adapted for arboreal life. It is distributed through much of southern Asia, northeastern China, far eastern Russia and Japan.

CHENGDU, China — It was, at first glance, a rather modest initial public offering by a small Chinese company seeking to expand production of the key ingredient used in traditional remedies said to shrink gallstones, reduce fevers and sooth the…
photo: Creative Commons / Abu0804

 

Specialist Glenn Carell studies his screens as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, July 8, 2010

NEW YORK, May 21 (Xinhua) — U.S. stocks went up Tuesday after Monday’s slip, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock Index closing at record highs, boosted by dovish remarks by top U.S. Federal Reserve
photo: AP / Richard Drew

 

Oklahoma National Guard Soldiers and Airmen respond to a devastating tornado that ripped through Moore

Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives. Scientists concluded the…
photo: Creative Commons / Flickr / Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kendall James

 

Suspected members of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram, are detained by the military, in Bukavu Barracks in Kano state, Nigeria, Wednesday, March 21, 2012.

ENUGU, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s military said Tuesday that the West African nation would release some of the prisoners it has taken in the country’s fight against Islamic extremists — including all the women now held in custody. The surprise…
photo: AP / Salisu Rabiu

 

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter looks on as Iraqi Defense Minister Sadun Farhan al-Dulaymi addresses the media after a counterpart visit in Baghdad, Oct. 18, 2012.

Iraq‘s Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered a shakeup of senior government security officers, as a weeks-long wave of violence grips the country and fears of all-out sectarian war spread. The shakeup was confirmed on the…
photo: US DoD / U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley

 

President Barack Obama meets with Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in the Oval Office, Aug. 4, 2010.

 

Facebook Follow @washtimes Do you believe Jay Carney‘s assertion that aides insulated President Obama from the IRS scandal? Login to Vote View results Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday urged Congress not to extend import…

 

 

 

 

Justice in the Age of Drone Terror

21 May 2013
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling “If the mainspring of popular government in peacetime is virtue, in revolution it is both virtue and terror: virtue without terror is fatal; terror without virtue is powerless.”-Maximilien Robespierre speaking to France‘s National Convention, 1794 If the French Revolution gave the world a new and…
An X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator conducts a touch and go landing on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), marking the first time any unmanned aircraft has completed a touch and go landing at sea, 17 May, 2013.

 

 

Physician dismisses force-feeding concerns

File - Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Miguel Mejiacontrera takes a blood pressure reading from a detainee at the Camp 6 Medical Center.

A military physician who oversees a team of nurses force-feeding hunger-striking prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has dismissed ethical concerns raised by human rights groups and medical organisations about the procedure, saying the…
photo: US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Elisha Dawkins

In this Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012 file photo, army trucks carry Egyptian tanks in a military convoy in El Arish, Egypt's northern Sinai Peninsula. On Monday, May 20, 2013

CAIRO – The Egyptian army sent more troops to Sinai Peninsula on Monday, getting ready for a possible military operation to release the seven kidnapped soldiers, a military source told Xinhua. On Thursday, a group of militants abducted seven military…
photo: AP

Palestinian supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP) wave the group's red flag, the Syrian flag, and the Palestinian flag as they holds poster of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, during a rally on May 7,2013. Against Israeli attack on Syria in Khan Yunis town in the southern Gaza Strip. Israel is not getting involved in Syria's civil war, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said just days after two Israeli air strikes near Damascus sent regional tensions soaring. Photo by Ahmed Deeb / WN

ZEINA KARAM Associated Press= BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah was pulled more deeply into Syria‘s civil war as 28 guerrillas from the Lebanese Shiite militant group were killed and dozens more wounded while fighting rebels, Syria activists said Monday. The…
photo: WN / Ahmed Deeb

Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses students of MGIMO (Moscow State University for Foreign Relations) in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, March 23, 2013.

The US and Chinese presidents will hold their first summit in California in June, both sides have announced. Barack Obama and Xi Jinping will meet from 7-8 June at an estate in Rancho Mirage, a US statement said. Topics on the agenda are likely to…
photo: AP / Misha Japaridze

Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius , in court Friday Feb. 22, 2013 in Pretoria, South Africa, for his bail hearing charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Peet van Zyl told Press Association Sport the 26-year-old was not mentally ready to return to the track. The six-time Paralympic gold medallist was charged with the premeditated murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in…
photo: AP

Real Madrid's coach Jose Mourinho from Portugal reacts before a Champions League Group D soccer match against Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, in Madrid, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012.

MADRID — Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho will leave at the end of the season after three years at the Spanish club, paving the way for an expected return to Chelsea. The 50-year-old Portuguese coach has two remaining matches of a season that will end…
photo: AP / Daniel Ochoa De Olza

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, left, shakes hands with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on his arrival at the Indian Presidential Palace for his ceremonial reception in New Delhi, India, Monday, May 20, 2013.

China‘s Premier Li Keqiang is due to hold talks with Indian leaders in an attempt to rebuild trust after a recent flare-up in border tensions. Mr Li is also expected to discuss trade ties and other bilateral issues at meetings with his Indian…
photo: AP / Saurabh Das

 

 

End the ‘forever’ war

20 May 2013
There’s no point in engaging in a perpetual global war on terror From both the left and the right, three common misper-ceptions have emerged about US foreign policy: First, that the Global War on Terror has become a perpetual state of affairs; sec-ond, that no strategy is available to end this conflict in the near future; and third, that “the…
U.S. Army Spc. Joseph Gonzalez, security force team member for Provincial Reconstruction Team Farah, maintains security during a meeting with the Farah provincial chief justice in Farah City, May 4, 2013.

 

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, left, shakes hands with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on his arrival at the Indian Presidential Palace for his ceremonial reception in New Delhi, India, Monday, May 20, 2013.

China‘s Premier Li Keqiang is due to hold talks with Indian leaders in an attempt to rebuild trust after a recent flare-up in border tensions. Mr Li is also expected to discuss trade ties and other bilateral issues at meetings with his Indian…
photo: AP / Saurabh Das

People run away from tear gas during a demonstration against the deployment of 11,000 police and soldiers in the city of Kairouan, to prevent the ultraconservative Muslim group Ansar al-Shariah from holding its annual conference, Sunday May 19, 2013.

Security forces and hardline Islamists fought street battles in Tunis on Sunday, with one protester killed and 15 policemen wounded, after the authorities banned the Salafists from staging their annual congress. A Tunisian protester jumps amid smoke…
photo: AP / Amine Landoulsi

 

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, center, attends the opening session of the Arab League summit in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, March 26, 2013.

The Egyptian president has ruled out negotiating with the abductors of seven members of the security forces seized last week in the Sinai peninsula. In a statement, Mohammed Morsi said there was “no room for dialogue with the criminals”. He…
photo: AP / Ghiath Mohamad

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai addresses a press conference in Harare, Monday, Feb, 18, 2013. Tsvangirai called on Zimbabweans to prepare for a referendum on a new constitution set to be held on the March 16. Tsvangirai also announced that funds for the holding of the referendum would be mobilized locally as opposed to seeking assistance from outside the country.

GILLIAN GOTORA Associated Press= HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Sunday his party will end years of bias and abuse by the police, military and intelligence services and will make sure the services uphold the…
photo: AP / Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi

 

In this photo taken Sunday, April 15, 2012, what appears to be a new missile is carried during a mass military parade at the Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the country's founding father Kim Il Sung.

(Bloomberg) North Korea fired three short-range missiles yesterday as it showcased its military ambitions in defiance of international sanctions and diplomatic efforts to convince the totalitarian state to return to…
photo: AP / Ng Han Guan

 

This Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 file photo shows Syrian President Bashar Assad, seen, during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, unseen, at the presidency in Tehran, Iran

BEIRUTSyrian President Bashar Assad said in a newspaper interview Saturday he won’t step down before elections and that the United States has no right to interfere in his country’s politics, raising new doubts about a U.S.-Russian…
photo: AP / Vahid Salemi

 

Winner of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest Emmelie de Forest of Denmark who sang Only Teardrops, celebrates with the trophy after the final at the Malmo Arena in Malmo, Sweden, Saturday, May 18, 2013.

 

Denmark‘s Emmelie de Forest has won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune Only Teardrops, despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine. Juries and…

 

photo: AP / Alastair Grant

 

Saudi vies to avoid Afghan-style blowback from Syria

19 May 2013
May 19: Chastened by the experience of Afghanistan, where hundreds of Saudis fought before returning to sow terror at home, the kingdom is battling to avoid similar blowback from the conflict in Syria, analysts say. In recent months, Saudi officials have issued increasingly stern warnings against volunteers from the conservative Sunni Muslim
In this Sunday, May 5, 2013 image taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, men stand near a wrecked helicopter, left, in Deir el-Zour, Syria.

 

 

North Korea test-fires 3short-range missiles

In this photo taken Sunday, April 15, 2012, what appears to be a new missile is carried during a mass military parade at the Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the country's founding father Kim Il Sung.

(Bloomberg) North Korea fired three short-range missiles yesterday as it showcased its military ambitions in defiance of international sanctions and diplomatic efforts to convince the totalitarian state to return to…
photo: AP / Ng Han Guan

This Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 file photo shows Syrian President Bashar Assad, seen, during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, unseen, at the presidency in Tehran, Iran

BEIRUTSyrian President Bashar Assad said in a newspaper interview Saturday he won’t step down before elections and that the United States has no right to interfere in his country’s politics, raising new doubts about a U.S.-Russian…
photo: AP / Vahid Salemi

Winner of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest Emmelie de Forest of Denmark who sang Only Teardrops, celebrates with the trophy after the final at the Malmo Arena in Malmo, Sweden, Saturday, May 18, 2013.

Denmark‘s Emmelie de Forest has won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune Only Teardrops, despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine. Juries and…
photo: AP / Alastair Grant

Pakistani volunteers carry the lifeless body of Zohra Shahid, a senior member of former Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party in Sindh, to a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday, May 19, 2013.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Gunmen killed a senior female politician from a reformist party in Pakistan on Saturday night, the latest violent incident in a bloody election campaign and one that set off a war of words between two major opposition parties….
photo: AP / Fareed Khan

Rebel soldiers loyal to Ivory Coast opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, the widely recognized winner of an election that millions once hoped would reunite the West African nation, advance towards the Government army in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Thursday Dec. 16, 2010. Gunfire and explosions shook Ivory Coast's main city Thursday as supporters and security forces loyal to the two men claiming to be president clashed in the streets, killing at least 15 people and bolstering fears the world's top cocoa producer is teetering on the edge of another civil war.

Soldiers in Ivory Coast have arrested a militia leader who was allegedly involved in a 2011 massacre of…
photo: AP / Sunday Alamba

Syrian citizens pass by a poster of Syrian President Bashar Assad, in the southern city of Daraa, Syria, on Monday March 21, 2011.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says in a newspaper interview that he will not step down before next year&aposs elections. Mr. Assad&aposs…
photo: AP / Hussein Malla

Afghan women voters line up to cast their ballots at a polling station in Kabul Thursday Aug. 20, 2009.

Conservative religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked a law that aims to protect women’s freedoms, with some arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles or encourage women to have sex outside of marriage. The failure highlights how tenuous…
photo: AP / Rafiq Maqbool

 

 

 

France gay marriage: Hollande set to sign bill

Full Article BBC News

18 May 2013
France‘s president is to sign into law a controversial bill that will make the country the eighth in Europe, and 14th globally, to legalise gay marriage. On Friday, the Constitutional Council rejected a challenge by the right-wing opposition, clearing the way for Francois Hollande to sign the bill. He said: “I have taken [the decision];…
French President Francois Hollande speaks at Independence Place in central Bamako, Mali Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013. The French president was greeted by thousands of cheering supporters as he visited the embattled city of Timbuktu earlier Saturday, making a triumphant stop six days after French forces parachuted in to liberate the fabled city from the radical Islamists occupying it.

 

Obama seeks to cut Afghan war spending by 10 percent

U.S. Marines with the 215th Corps Engineer Advisor Team, alongside engineers assigned to 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 7, supervise their Afghan National Army engineer counterparts during a clearing operation near Camp Shorabak, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, March 16, 2013.  The operation was designed to eliminate possible enemy firing positions in preparation for the upcoming fighting season. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Ezekiel R. Kitandwe/Released)

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday trimmed his funding request for the war in Afghanistan and other overseas operations by 10 percent, reflecting his plans to wind down the U.S. presence in that country….

 

photo: U.S. Marine Corps / Public Domain

 

Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey take questions from the press in the Pentagon Briefing Room August 14, 2012.

The US has chided Russia for what it calls an “unfortunate decision” to send missiles to the Syrian government. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Martin Dempsey said the shipment “will embolden the regime and prolong the…
photo: US DoD / Glenn Fawcett

People evacuate dead and wounded victims from the scene of a bomb attack in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, May 17, 2013.

Bombs ripped through Sunni areas in Baghdad and surrounding areas Friday, killing at least 76 people in the deadliest day in Iraq in more than eight months. The major spike in sectarian bloodshed heightened fears the country could again be veering…
photo: AP / Adem Hadei

 

A Pakistani man who was injured in a suicide bombing is rushed by volunteers to a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 1, 2013.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — In what officials called the first major terrorist attack since last week’s general elections, at least 13 people were killed and 30 injured when two bombs ripped through two separate mosques on Friday in a remote mountainous…
photo: AP / Mohammad Sajjad

 

In this Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012 photo, newly-arrived Syrian refugee families rest after crossing the border from Tal Shehab city in Syria, through the Al Yarmouk River valley to arrive near Ramtha, Jordan.

The UN‘s refugee agency has said that more than 1.5m people have fled the conflict in Syria. Most have fled to Jordan and Lebanon, but not have all been registered yet, meaning the true total is likely to be far higher, according to the UNHCR….
photo: AP / Raad Adayleh

 

Nicholas Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

TORONTO – (AP) — A 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of rattled buildings Friday in Ontario and and was felt across upstate from to the border. ‘s government agency that monitors…
photo: Creative Commons / Nicolas Marchildon

 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meets with Mr. Albert Gerard Koenders, incoming Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Côte d’Ivoire

 

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday appointed former Dutch development minister Albert Gerard Koenders as U.N. special envoy for Mali and head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the West African country. Ban said…

 

photo: UN / Rick Bajornas

 

Syrian regime’s position strengthens as world pushes for diplomatic solution

17 May 2013
If there’s one thing you can say about Bashar al-Assad, it’s that he has staying power. For more than two years, the Syrian president has defied predictions that his downfall is imminent. His regime has certainly suffered many setbacks during the brutal civil war that shows no signs of ending, but it’s clear right now that Assad and his followers…
This Tuesday, May 14, 2013 citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows the mother of a Syrian rebel cleaning a rifle, in Aleppo, Syria.

 

Iraq’s sectarian violence on the rise as 50 die over two days

People gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in the Sadr City neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 16, 2013.

Attacks across Iraq have killed 50 people in the last two days as growing friction between Sunni and Shia leads to more sectarian violence. Sunni anger has been increasing since Iraqi army soldiers broke up a peaceful sit- in in a square in the town…
photo: AP / Karim Kadim

In this photo provided by the Alaskan Volcano Observatory, the Pavlof volcano erupts Thursday, May 16, 2013, as seen from the air from the southwest in Cold Bay, Alaska.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A remote Alaska volcano continues to erupt, spewing lava and ash clouds. The Alaska Volcano Observatory said Thursday a continuous cloud of ash, steam and gas from Pavlof Volcano has been seen 20,000 feet above…
photo: AP / Alaskan Volcano Observatory, Theo Chesley

President Barack Obama and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrive for their joint news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 16, 2013.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted Thursday that Bashar al-Assad must still quit power despite moves to organize peace talks in Syria‘s bloody civil war. The leaders met in Washington amid a…
photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

A man enters one of the tunnels dug with shovels in the Shinkolobwe Cobalt mine on Saturday, the mine is situated, 35km from the town of Likasi, in South Eastern, Democratic Republic of Congo, April 10, 2004. Amid world terror fears and concerns about unregulated nuclear materials, Congo's president issued a strict decree: The mining zone that provided uranium for the atomic bombs America unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki must close immediately.

KINSHASA, CongoThe government of Congo says more than 20 people have died in a collapse at a bush mine in the region of Masisi in North Kivu province. That’s in the far eastern part of the country. The statement sent to reporters late…
photo: AP / Schalk van Zuydam

Kobe Bryan, left, and David Beckham are seen on the set of Time Warner Cable SportsNet at the Time Warner Cable Sports launch event on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012, in Los Angeles.

By MATTHEW FUTTERMAN and JOSHUA ROBINSON David Beckham, the soccer star and one of the most famous athletes in the world, announced his retirement from the sport Thursday. “I think I’m ready,” said the 38-year-old Beckham, arguably the world’s most…
photo: AP / Jordan Strauss

The flag of Croatia and the European flag, on the building of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European integration, in Zagreb

Germany‘s lower house of parliament approved Croatia‘s entry to the European Union on Thursday, clearing the last formal hurdle for the former Yugoslav republic to enter the bloc. Croatia is…
photo: Creative Commons / Bogdan Giu?c?

Sreesanth, 2 others held over spot-fixing charges

The special cell of Delhi police on early Thursday morning (2.30 AM) arrested three players of Rajasthan Royals, a cricket team participating in Indian Premiere League (IPL), over the allegations of spot fixing in the IPL matches. S. Sreesanth, Ankit…
photo: AP / Rick Rycroft

 

 

 

 

Taliban suicide bomber strikes Nato convoy in Afghanistan

Full Article The Guardian

16 May 2013
At least six Afghans killed, including three children, in rush hour attack that may also have killed a number of Nato personnel A US soldier inspects the scene of a suicide car bomb attack targeting a convoy of Nato forces in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photograph: S. SABAWOON/EPA A suicide bomber drove his explosives-packed Toyota Corolla into a Nato…
Afghan and U.S. soldiers arrive to the scene where a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, May 16, 2013.

 

n this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian citizens carry a dead body, at the scene where two mortar rounds exploded near an orphanage, at al-Boukhtyar area, in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday March 13, 2013. The state-run SANA news agency said two mortar rounds exploded near an orphanage in al-Boukhtyar area, killing and wounding an unknown number of people. Syrian government troops fought fierce battles with rebels on Wednesday for control of key neighborhoods in the north of Damascus, residents and activists said.

The US and Russia announced plans for a conference on Syria last week. The world can be forgiven for wondering: what use is that? Indeed, what use has any outside activity been on Syria? Two years ago, in the border town of Deraa, a flame of…
photo: AP / SANA

 

Civilians inspect the aftermath of a car bomb attack while Baghdad municipality workers clean up in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 16, 2013.

Comment () Tweet By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Officials say a car bomb explosion in a sprawling Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad has killed at least five civilians. Two police officers say the explosives-laden vehicle…
photo: AP / Khalid Mohammed

 

Cambodian rescuers work at the site of a factory collapse in Kai Ruong village, south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, May 16, 2013.

A ceiling collapse at a Cambodian shoe factory has killed at least six workers, police said, with regional industrial safety in the spotlight after last month’s disaster in Bangladesh. A Cambodian rescue team look for workers after a factory…
photo: AP / Heng Sinith

 

An Afghan fireman stands next to the debris of a car at the scene where a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, May 16, 2013.

A suicide bomber has attacked a convoy of foreign military vehicles in the Afghan capital Kabul, police have said. “A [Toyota] Corolla suicide car detonated near two foreign military vehicles,” Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told the AFP
photo: AP / Anja Niedringhaus

 

In this Sept. 14, 2012 file photo, Libyan military guards check one of the burnt out buildings at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, during a visit by Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif to express sympathy for the death of American ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and his colleagues in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the consulate.

Washington, May 16: The US has released emails exchanged between the various wings of the Obama administration about Benghazi terrorist attack last September that left three American nationals, including its ambassador to Libya, dead. The release of…
photo: AP / Mohammad Hannon

 

In this undated photo released by the Korean Central News Agency and distributed in Tokyo by the Korea News Service Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from left, and his wife Ri Sol Ju clap hands as they watch a performance of the Moranbong Band to celebrate the 59th anniversary of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, in an undisclosed location of North Korea.

Kim Jong-un reportedly fathered a baby girl in 2010 with an unknown woman, more than two years before his wife gave birth to the couple’s first child, it has emerged. Kim Jong-un during an inspection of the second battalion under Korth Korean army…
photo: AP / Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service

 

Cyclone signal 7 Kuakata Sea Beach Patuakhali Bangladesh (2) Kuakata is a famous tourist destination for people from both home and abroad. The significantly exclusive feature of the beach is that due to its "Cross Bow" like shape one can see both sunrise and sunset from some of its locations.

 

16 May 2013, 4:08 Bangladesh: One Million Flee Cyclone Mahasen Tweet Bangladesh is evacuating one million people as Cyclone Mahasen approaches, bring with it gale-force winds and heavy rain. The country has raised its storm warning to seven, on a…

 

 

Nigeria: State of Emergency Declared

15 May 2013
Admitting that Islamist extremists now control some of his nation’s villages and towns, President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Tuesday across Nigeria’s troubled northeast, promising to send more troops to fight what he said is now an open rebellion. Mr. Jonathan warned that any building suspected of housing Islamist extremists…
Soldiers looks at bodies of suspected Islamic extremist killed

 

 

Cyclone Threat To Bangladesh And Burma

A Bangladeshi fisherman uses an anchored ropes of his boat to come on the banks of the river Kornofuli, in Chittagong, Bangladesh, Wednesday, May 15, 2013.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh and Burma have been ordered to move to safety to avoid a cyclone travelling towards low-lying coastal areas. The UN is warning that more than eight million people may be at risk from Cyclone Mahasen,…
photo: AP / A.M.Ahad

South Sudan Could be Africa Powerhouse: ex-IMF head

Dominique Strauss-Khan (left), Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), flanked by Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairman of the Commission of the African Union, addresses Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Africa Steering Group press conference.

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN — South Sudan has the potential to become an economic powerhouse in Africa if the government pursues the right policies, former International Monetary Fund chief, Dominique Straus Kahn, said Tuesday during a visit to the world’s…
photo: UN / Mark Garten

Brazil clears way for same-sex marriage

Anti-discrimination protest, during the conference. The Federal government of Brazil of the country released in Brasília, in 2009, the National Plan of Promotion of the Citizenship and Human Rights of LGBT ("Plano Nacional de Promoção da Cidadania e Direitos Humanos de LGBT"), a groundbreaking national plan to promote rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals.

A top judicial panel in Brazil has cleared the way for same-sex marriage in the country, ruling that gay couples could not be denied marriage licenses. The National Council of Justice, which oversees the Brazilian judicial system and is headed by the…
photo: Creative Commons / Luiz

Boat capsizes off Myanmar; dozens feared dead

An internally displaced Rohingya boy wraps himself with a sarong as he walks in rain at a makeshift camp for Rohingya people in Sittwe, northwestern Rakhine State, Myanmar, ahead of the arrival of Cyclone Mahasen, Tuesday, May 14, 2013.

NEW DELHI — At least 58 people were missing and feared dead Tuesday after a boat capsized off Myanmar while residents tried to flee an approaching cyclone, United Nations officials said. The boat was carrying about 100 Rohingya Muslims, many of…
photo: AP / Gemunu Amarasing

Cyclone Kills 7 in Sri Lanka, Thousands Displaced

People of Coast Vedda descent taking a pilgrimage on foot (Pada Yatra) from the town of Muttur in the east of Sri Lanka to the temple

A cyclone caused by a tropical depression in the Bay of Bengal killed at least seven people in Sri Lanka, government officials said on Tuesday. Cyclone Mahasen, which brought heavy rains and…
photo: Public Domain / Taprobanus

Cyclone Mahasen to hit NE in 72 hrs

Cyclone Mahasen

GUWAHATI/KOHIMA: Tropical cyclone Mahasen is expected to hit northeast India in the next 72 hours with heavy rains and thunderstorms expected in the region. On May 16, the cyclone is expected to cross the Bangladesh coast between Khepupara and…
photo: Creative Commons / Keith Edkins

Holder says he played no role in AP phone subpoena

Attorney General Eric Holder, second from left, speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder today defended the Justice Department‘s secret examination of Associated Press phone records though he declared he had played no role in it, saying it was justified as part of an investigation into a…

 

 

 

 

Gitmo prisoner: Obama has ‘abandoned’ detainees

Full Article San Francisco Chronicle

14 May 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Guantanamo Bay detainee says he feels abandoned by President Barack Obama and the world after more than 10 years at the U.S. prison. “I believe that President Obama must be unaware of the unbelievably inhumane conditions at the Guantanamo Bay prison, for otherwise he would surely do something to stop this torture,” Yemeni…
File - A detainee looks through a stack of magazines at Joint Task Force (JTF) Guantanamo.

Human Rights Watch outraged by video showing Syrian rebel commander cutting out government soldier’s heart …

a snapshot from the YouTube for a Terrorist eats the heart of a dead Syrian Solder - Syria

 

A graphic video has emerged of a Syrian rebel commander cutting out the heart of a government soldier’s chest and biting into it. Described by Human Rights Watch as “emblematic” of a civil war that has rapidly descended into sectarian hatred and…

 

photo: WN / tamer

 

Former prime minister and leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N party, Nawaz Sharif, gestures while speaking to members of the media at his residence in Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, May 13, 2013.

RAIWIND, PakistanPakistan’s presumptive prime minister said Monday that he wants good relations with the United States but criticized American drone strikes on militants as a violation of the country’s sovereignty – perhaps hinting the…
photo: AP / K.M. Chaudary)

 

Actress Angelina Jolie on the Salt panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con in San Diego, California.

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has undergone a double mastectomy to reduce her chances of getting breast cancer. The 37-year-old mother of six has explained her…
photo: Creative Commons / Gage Skidmore

A Greek state school teacher dressed in army fatigues to mock a civil mobilization order shouts slogans as he stands next to a banner comparing government policies to those of the Greece's 1967-74 military dictatorship, during a peaceful protest in central Athens on Monday, May 13, 2013.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek state workers walked off the job on Tuesday to protest a government decision to ban a strike by high-school teachers, shutting down schools and reducing staff at hospitals to a minimum. Invoking emergency powers under Greek
photo: AP / Kostas Tsironis

British Prime Minister David Cameron, right, is greeted by Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick, left, as he walks up the steps to the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston, Monday, May 13, 2013.

Boston: British Prime Minister David Cameron met with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to offer his condolences and discuss lessons that can be learned from the deadly Boston Marathon bombing. The meeting followed a White House visit in which…
photo: AP / Elise Amendola

Egyptian riot police walk past a military tank guarding the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012.

Shaimaa Khalil visits a police academy on the outskirts of Cairo, where new recruits get lessons in combat training and human rights. Continue reading the main story Egypt changing Egypt’s challenge: The economy Sexual harassment debate…
photo: AP / Hassan Ammar

 

Butterfly - Butterflies - Insects - Science

 

A new study by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says insects could be used in the fight against hunger and to increase food security. A report released Monday says that forest insects form part…

 

photo: WN / Janice Sabnal

 

 

19 wounded at New Orleans parade shooting

13 May 2013
NEW ORLEANS — Gunmen opened fire on people marching in a neighborhood Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding at least 19. Order Reprints Doug Parker New Orleans Police investigate shooting at the intersection Frenchman Street at N. Villere on Mother’s Day in New Orleans, Sunday May 12, 2013. Gunmen opened fire on dozens of…
New Orleans Police investigate shooting at the intersection Frenchman Street at N. Villere on Mother's Day in New Orleans, Sunday May 12, 2013.

 

‘Carlos the Jackal’ appeals life sentence in Paris court

File - Venezuelan Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as Carlos the Jackal, left, sits in a Paris courtroom in this Nov. 28 2000 photo, with his French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, right.

 

Venezuelan-born terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, best known as “Carlos the Jackal,” appeared in a Paris court on Monday to appeal his 2011 conviction for a string of deadly bombings in France during the 1980s. By FRANCE 24 (text) …

 

photo: AP / Michel Lipchitz

 

 

Bangladeshi rescuers use heavy machinery to clear rubble of a garment factory building that collapsed on April 24 as they continue searching for bodies in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, May 12, 2013.

FARID HOSSAIN Associated Press= DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s government plans to raise the minimum wage for garment workers after the deaths of more than 1,100 people in the collapse of a factory building focused attention on the textile…
photo: AP / A.M. Ahad

 

New Orleans Police investigate shooting at the intersection Frenchman Street at N. Villere on Mother's Day in New Orleans, Sunday May 12, 2013.

CHEVEL JOHNSON Associated Press= NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Gunmen opened fire on dozens of people marching in a neighborhood Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding at least 19 people, police said. The FBI said that the shooting appeared to…
photo: AP / Doug Parker

 

File - Niger Families Face Drought and Rising Food Prices: Young girls eat a midday meal at the World Food Programme (WFP) school feeding centre in Guidam Makadam, Niger.

NIAMEY, NIGER — Some 800,000 people will require food aid in Niger in the coming months despite a good harvest last year due to problems supplying cereals to markets, which have pushed up prices, and an influx of Malian refugees, the United Nations
photo: UN / WFP/Phil Behan

 

Supporters of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif celebrate the victory of their leader in Islamabad, Pakistan on Sunday, May 12, 2013.

Nawaz Sharif has established himself as the most successful politician in Pakistan‘s history. It’s not just that he has won an unprecedented third term as prime minister. He has also survived sustained corruption allegations, periods of…
photo: AP / B.K. Bangash

 

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) steams through the Straits of Hormuz.

North Korea has criticised the arrival of the US aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the South for a joint drill as an “extremely reckless” provocation and a rehearsal for war against the communist state. A US naval strike group led by the nuclear-powered…
photo: Public Domain / Official Navy Page

 

Police and Fire vehicles in Los Angeles

 

Share 0 The 12-year-old brother of 8-year-old Leila Fowler, who said his sister was stabbed to death in their home by an intruder last month, has been arrested. The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office in Northern California announced the arrest…

 

photo: Creative Commons / Mifter

 

 

 

Pakistan election: Nawaz Sharif ‘set for victory’

12 May 2013
Former Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif is celebrating with his supporters, amid early signs that his party will be the largest after parliamentary elections. Media projections based on partial results suggest a big lead for Mr Sharif‘s Muslim League, and he has already claimed victory. The election should lead to the country’s first transition…
Former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party Nawaz Sharif waves to his supporters at a party office in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, May 11, 2013.

 

 

 

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator joins presidential race

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili delivers a speech in front of the former US Embassy, during an annual state-backed rally, on Friday, Nov. 4, 2011, marking the anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy by militant students on Nov. 4, 1979, when militant Iranian students who believed the embassy was a center of plots against the Persian country held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The US severed diplomatic ties in response, and the two countries have not had formal relations since. Iran's top nuclear negotiator says Iran plans to complain to the United Nations about U.S. "terror" operations, including killing its nuclear scientists. He said Iran's U.N. ambassador will present "documents of U.S. terror plots against Iran" to the U.N. on Friday. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

 

TEHRAN, May 11 (Xinhua) — To many’s surprise, Iran‘s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili made an announcement on Saturday about his decision to run for the country’s upcoming presidential contest. Earlier in the day, he appeared in Iran’s Interior…

 

photo: AP / Vahid Salemi

 

 

Military ambush: Soldiers should not victimize their fellow troops

 

The biggest threat these days to unit cohesion in the U.S. military is the tolerance for sexual assaults in the ranks. A Pentagon report released Tuesday underscored the seriousness of the problem. Last year, the Defense Department recorded 3,374…

 

photo: USMC / Aaron Hostutler

 

 

Carbon dioxide level passes feared milestone

11 May 2013
The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported Friday, reaching a concentration not seen on the Earth for millions of years. Scientific monitors reported that the gas had reached an average daily level that surpassed 400 parts per million — a sobering…
File -  A chemical factory in Medico City polluting the air, 1972. Pollution of the environment has become so widespread that all forms of life are threatened.

 

 

 

Rock Hill Guard unit finishes in Afghanistan, readies for return

Rock Hill Guard unit finishes in Afghanistan, readies for return

The 161 soldiers of Rock Hill’s Army National Guard 178th Combat Engineers who have spent the past nine months in Afghanistan have finished their mission and are soon heading home, Army officials confirmed. The unit has the dangerous job of…
photo: US Navy / Josh Ives

US seeks permanent occupation of Afghanistan: Taliban

May 10: The Taliban militant group has said that the United States seeks permanent occupation of Afghanistan following its announcement to keep nine military bases in the war-torn country. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed said in an e-mailed…
photo: US Army / Aaron Hostutler

 

 

 

Bangladesh garment factory collapse death toll hits 1,021

10 May 2013
DHAKA: The death toll from a garment factory building that collapsed more than two weeks ago outside the Bangladeshi capital soared past 1,000 on Friday, while the list of the dead from a fresh fire at a sweater manufacturer showed the entanglement of the industry and top Bangladeshi officials. Officials said 1,021 bodies have been recovered from…
Rescuers carry a body retrieved from the rubble of the eight-story Rana Plaza building that collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Thursday, May 9, 2013

 

 

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah speaks via video during a conference, held in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday May, 9, 2013.

Syria will supply “game-changing” weapons to Hezbollah, the chief of the Lebanese militant group, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Thursday. He made the comments less than a week after Israeli airstrikes on Damascus targeted alleged shipments of advanced…
photo: AP / Hussein Malla

 

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Ryan Schulte, left, security force platoon leader for Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Farah, and U.S. Navy Lt. j.g. Matthew Stroup, right, public affairs officer for the PRT, arrive at the Directorate of Women's Affairs building in Farah City to provide photojournalism training, Feb. 10.  This is the second of two photojournalism training sessions that the PRT is teaching as a part of a broader, 15-day media training course in Farah City for both male and female journalists.  This the first ever media training of its kind in Farah, and it is being funded by the Farah provincial governor's office via the performance-based governance fund (PBGF).  PRT Farah's mission is to train, advise and assist Afghan government leaders at the municipal, district and provincial levels in Farah province, Afghanistan.  Their civil military team is comprised of members of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of State and the Agency for International Development (USAID).  (U.S. Navy photo by HMC Josh Ives/released)

May 09: The United States does not seek a permanent military base in Afghanistan, the White House has said, strongly refuting the claims made in this regard by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. “The United States does not seek permanent military bases…
photo: US Navy / Josh Ives

 

In this still image from Senate TV, retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Ct., speaks on the floor of the U.S. Senate at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. Lieberman used his final Senate floor speech to urge Congress to put partisan rancor aside to break Washington's gridlock.

STEPHEN BRAUN Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman says failures by national security agencies tainted investigations into the Boston bombing plotters — and says the scheme could have been discovered beforehand….
photo: AP / Senate TV

 

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Defense Phillip Hammond breifed the press at the Pentagon May 2, 2013. DoD photo by Sgt. Aaron Hostutler, U.S. Marine Corps.(Released)

WASHINGTON: The problems that plague the Middle East, including Iran‘s nuclear ambitions and Syria‘s civil war, require “political, not military” solutions, US defense secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday. Saying the “old order” was vanishing in the…
photo: USMC / Aaron Hostutler

 

School childrens perform cultural programme  during a water rafting tournament in Sonamarg, 89 km east of Srinagar, 05 August, 2009.Twelvel  teams, including teams from the Czech Republic, Canada, New zeland, slovakia,are participating in international  a Rafting Championship 2nd kashmir cup day long water rafting tournament.that was inagurated by jammu and kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on wenesday 05 August 2009.

SARISSKE MICHALANY, Slovakia — Gazing out his window during morning recess on his first day at work, the principal of an elementary school here, Jaroslav Valastiak, was caught up short: all the children playing in the asphalt-covered yard were…
photo: WN / Imran Nissar

 

Court officers stand outside New York Supreme Court in New York on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011 after it was evacuated following an earthquake.

Cleveland kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro appeared in court briefly on Thursday and was arraigned on kidnapping and rape charges. Prosecutors said they may charge Castro…
photo: AP / Mary Altaffer

 

A view of the Jewish Ulpana enclave in the West Bank settlement of Beit El near Ramallah, is seen Wednesday, June 13, 2012.

 

Palestinians have accused Israel of jeopardising attempts to restart peace talks after Israel announced plans to build almost 300 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, near the Palestinian city of Ramallah. The decision by Israel’s civil…

 

photo: AP / Sebastian Scheiner

 

 

 

Ariel Castro charged with kidnapping, rape of three Cleveland women

09 May 2013
Gina DeJesus gives a thumbs-up to well-wishers as she arrives Wednesday at her family home in Cleveland after a decade in captivity with two other women. The man suspected of being her captor has been charged with kidnapping and rape. (Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images) CLEVELAND — Cleveland law enforcement authorities Wednesday charged the…
Members of the FBI evidence response team carries out a bag after searching a house near the home where three women were held Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Cleveland.

 

U.S. Sen. John Kerry acknowledges applause while addressing constituents at Faneuil Hall in Boston Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013.

US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted Syrian President Bashar Al Assad will have to step down as part of any political solution in Syria, as he held a third day of talks on the bloody conflict. Speaking as he met Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser
photo: AP / Winslow Townson

Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay is carried on a stretcher to be shifted to another city for treatment, in Jammu, India, Friday, May 3, 20130.

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – A convicted Pakistani militant jailed in India died on Thursday after being beaten by another inmate in an apparent revenge attack for the death of an Indian spy prisoner, threatening already fraught relations between the…
photo: AP / Channi Anand

Free Syrian Army fighters ride a motorbike to approach Syrian Army tanks in Idlib, north Syria, Sunday, March 11, 2012.

The government has set out the case for lifting or amending the EU arms embargo against the main Syrian opposition group, the National Coalition. The UK said such a move would strengthen moderate forces in the opposition. It would put also pressure…
photo: AP / Rodrigo Abd

President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands as they participate in a joint news conference, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have spoken by phone about regional security issues and Middle East peace. The White House says the two leaders agreed to continue their…
photo: AP / Carolyn Kaster

Brussels Airport Runway

Unlike the brilliant thieves in “Ocean’s Eleven,” it appears that those behind the clockwork-precision, $50 million diamond heist at Brussels Airport may not get a Hollywood ending. After three months of virtual silence on the matter, authorities…
photo: Creative Commons / Lucash

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide seen during a press conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Jan. 15, 2010.

Haiti’s reclusive former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, made a rare public appearance Wednesday, showing up at about 8:15 a.m. at the main Port-au-Prince courthouse to answer an investigative judge’s summons. With hundreds of…
photo: AP

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson reacts after beating Bursaspor in their Champions League group C soccer match at Old Trafford, Manchester, England, Wednesday Oct. 20, 2010.

While Sir Alex Ferguson‘s 26-year reign was by the pitch, retirement tributes have come from across the world of sport, politics and showbusiness. Little did US-based TV presenter Piers Morgan know, when he tweeted last night, “Please God, on…
photo: AP / Jon Super

 

 

 

Syria cut off from global Internet

08 May 2013
Internet connections between Syria and the outside world have been cut off, according to data from Google Inc and other global Internet companies. Tuesday’s shutdown effectively “disconnects Syria from Internet communication with the rest of the world,” according to companies that monitor online traffic around the world. Google‘s Transparency
Under a portrait of late Syrian President Hafez Assad, Syrians check the internet

 

Dilma Rousseff with Brazil's Roberto Azevedo ex-ambassador newly named World Trade Organization ( WTO ) director arrives in Malabo ( Guinea Equatorial )

The World Trade Organization has settled on Roberto Azevedo of Brazil, a well-known diplomat and consummate insider in Geneva circles, to serve as its director-general for the next four years, officials said on Tuesday. He is poised to become the…
photo: Flickr / PR / Roberto Stuckert Filho

Fussball, Uefa Europameisterschaft 2012 Polen/Ukraine, Finale, Spanien - Italien, Sonntag (01.07.12), Olympiastadion, Kiew (Kiev), Ukraine: Der ukrainische Praesident Wiktor Janukowitsch (vorne 2.v.l.) steht neben dem Praesidenten des Weltfussballverbandes FIFA, Joseph Blatter (l.), dem Praesidenten des europaeischen Fussballverbandes UEFA, Michel Platini (2.v.r.), dem italienischen Ministerpraesidenten Mario Monti (vorne 3.v.r.) und dem spanischen Kronprinzen Felipe (r.) auf der Tribuene.

BERLIN – France‘s finance minister, Pierre Moscovici, warned on Tuesday against caricatures and misunderstandings over Germany‘s handling of the euro crisis, but quickly qualified his conciliatory statement about the European
photo: AP / Oliver Lang

A Sailor catches his breath after participating in the Sexual Assault Awareness Run on a base in the Middle East. More than 150 military personnel participated, including members of the Australian Defense Force.

With guys like alleged groper Jeffrey Krusinski running sexual assault prevention in the Air Force, it will surprise few that sexual assaults are on the rise in the military, and still dangerously underreported. According to a new Pentagon report,…
photo: US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jorge Saucedo

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov walk and talk

7 May 2013, 22:08 Russia And US Agree International Syria Talks Tweet Russia and the US will hold a new international conference later this month in an attempt to push the Assad regime and Syrian opposition into talks on a political transition. The…
photo: Public Domain / State Department

President Zuma Welcomes Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe. (AFP) Our Coverage More Coverage Nigeria‘s President Jonathan urged co-operation between his country and South Africa on Tuesday to further peace and prosperity in…
photo: Flickr / The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa

Firefighters work as a house burns after a gas tanker truck exploded on the highway in front of the house in the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec, early Tuesday, May 7, 2013.

ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and JOSE OSORIO , The Associated Press Posted: Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 1:30 PM MEXICO CITY – A natural gas tanker truck lost control and exploded on a highway lined by homes in the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec early Tuesday,…
photo: AP / Gabriela Sanchez

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, speaks during a press conference held for the National People's Congress at the media center in Beijing, China, Wednesday, March 13, 2013. Zhou, who on Tuesday was named one of the vice chairmen of China's advisory body the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said that the central bank will maintain its current monetary policies for the world's second largest economy.

HONG KONG — The state-controlled Bank of China said on Tuesday that it had halted all dealings with a key North Korean bank in what appeared to be the strongest public Chinese response yet to North Korea’s willingness to brush aside…
photo: AP / Ng Han Guan

 

 

Hell in a Very Large Place

Full Article WorldNews.com

07 May 2013
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling When it was announced that the Taliban in Afghanistan had again launched another spring offensive against U.S. forces, the twelfth one since 2001, it was reminiscent of Bernard Fall, a prominent war correspondent and expert on Indochina. He referred to the desperate and horrific battle of Dien Bien Phu
File - U. S. Marine Corps First Lt. Lee Tyler Robertson, officer in charge, Embedded Training Team 2, Border Advisory Team 2, stands watch outside an Afghan compound while Afghan Border Police search the compound and detain two men suspected of being members of the Taliban during operation Eagle Hunt, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Dec. 19, 2011.


Malaysia opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of the People's Alliance coalition speaks during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday, May 7, 2013.

SEAN YOONG Associated Press= KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim pledged Tuesday to mount a “fierce movement” to challenge what he called fraudulent election results that kept the country’s long-ruling coalition in…
photo: AP / Vincent Thian

Chinese youths use computers at an Internet cafe in Beijing in this June 18, 2005 file photo. China's population of Internet users, already the world's second-biggest after the U.S., has jumped by nearly 20 percent over the past year to 123 million, with broadband access soaring, the government said Wednesday July 19, 20

BEIJING – (AP) — China’s military is denying renewed U.S. accusations of carrying out cyber-attacks and says the sides should…
photo: AP / Greg Baker, File

Bangladeshi firefighters, background try to douse the fire on a vehicle set ablaze by activists of the country's largest Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami during clashes with police in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, Sunday, March 3, 2013.

Two days of rioting in Bangladesh by conservative Islamists demanding an antiblasphemy law have left at least 19 people dead, more than 100 wounded and dozens of shops and vehicles destroyed, the official news agency BSS reported on Monday. The…
photo: AP / Photo

A young man holding a Russian flag hands out free national flags to motorists in downtown Moscow, to celebrate FIFA's selection of Russia as host to the 2018 World Cup, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010.

MoscowRussian protesters unfurled a huge banner demanding the release of “political prisoners” on Monday, at the start of a day of protest against President Vladimir Putin intended to revive their flagging opposition movement. The…
photo: AP / Pavel Golovkin

Alexey Navalny

MOSCOW, May 6 (RIA Novosti) – A party linked to opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny is unlikely to be able to participate in this year’s regional elections after the Justice Ministry halted its…
photo: Creative Commons / Alexey Yushenkov / ??????? ???????

Jimmy Carter with Giulio Andreotti

By ALESSANDRA GALLONI ROMEGiulio Andreotti, a seven-time prime minister who over six decades in politics helped guide Italy out of the wreckage of World War II and into a period of economic…
photo: Creative Commons / White House

UN officers, one using binoculars, look towards Syria as they stand along the border between Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, and Syria, as security is tightened ahead of Land Day,Friday, March 30, 2012.

There are “strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof,” pointing to the opposition. — The evidence comes from interviews of “victims, doctors” and others at field hospitals in countries…

 

 

Libya: Security versus democracy

Full Article Al Jazeera

06 May 2013
Whenever a bomb explodes in Libya, so do the arguments amongst those who profess to be the guardians of democracy despite their differing discourses on what constitutes security. It then becomes a chicken-egg dialogue: what should come first, security or democracy? Or are they, as many argue, the two sides of the same coin? I am biased….
File - Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy wounding two French guards and causing extensive material damage in Tripoli, Libya, Tuesday, April 23, 2013.

 

Pakistani Women mourn next to the body of a child, who killed in the Saturday's bombing, during a funeral in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday, May 5, 2013.

Islamabad, May 06: This election is turning out to be one of the bloodiest in Pakistan’s history, said a daily, warning that the “prospects for the situation on May 11 are grim and frightening”. The caretaker government needs a reality check,…
photo: AP / Fareed Khan

 

Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil talks during a press conference in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Kandil says his country will resume talks in January with the International Monetary Fund over a $4.8 billion loan, after they were suspended during this month's political turmoil over the now-adopted constitution.

CAIRO, May 6 (Xinhua) — Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Qandil survived an attack on his motorcade by a group of armed men late Sunday evening, an interior ministry statement said. “A vehicle intervened in the prime minister’s motorcade and when the…
photo: AP / Amr Nabil

 

Somali security force members carry away a wounded civilian following a suicide car bomb blast in the capital Mogadishu, Somalia Sunday, May 5, 2013.

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Seven people were killed on Sunday when a suicide bomber attempted to ram a car laden with explosives into a military convoy escorting a four-member Qatari delegation. Gen. Garad Nor Abdulle, a senior police official, said the…
photo: AP / Farah Abdi Warsameh

 

Members of the Rafallah Sahati Islamic Militia Brigades, stand on alert in front their base in Benghazi, Libya, Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012.

ESAM MOHAMED Associated Press= TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Under pressure from armed militias, Libya’s parliament passed a sweeping law Sunday that bans anyone who served as a senior official under Moammar Gadhafi during his 42 year-long rule from working…
photo: AP / Mohammad Hannon

 

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a Israeli airstrikes hit Damascus, Syria, early Sunday, May 5, 2013.

Israel is in an offensive mood. Its jets once again flew over Syrian airspace and bombed suburbs in Damascus. The Jamraya facility, which houses a research centre, seems to have been targetted and destroyed. The magnitude of the…
photo: AP / Ugarit News via AP video

 

In this image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke and fire fill the skyline over Damascus, Syria, early Sunday, May 5, 2013 after an Israeli airstrike.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Israel carried out its second air strikes in days on Syria early on Sunday, a Western intelligence source said, in an attack that shook Damascus with a series of powerful blasts and drove columns of fire into the night sky. A cloud…
photo: AP / Shaam News Network via AP video

 

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim votes with his wife Wan Azizah at a polling station at Penanti in Penang state in northern Malaysia, Sunday, May 5, 2013.

 

Millions of Malaysians have begun voting in tight national elections that could see the long-ruling coalition ousted after nearly 56 years in power. Incumbent prime minister Najib Razak has voiced confidence that the National Front coalition will…

 

photo: AP / Mark Baker

 

Syria: Israeli rockets pummel Damascus area

05 May 2013
May 5, 2013 — Updated 0726 GMT (1526 HKT) An image taken from a YouTube video purportedly shows an explosion on a mountain filmed from a Damascus suburb Saturday. Damascus, Syria (CNN) — A series of massive explosions illuminated the predawn sky in Damascus, prompting more claims that Israel has launched attacks into the war-torn country. Syria
In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke and fire fill the the skyline over Damascus, Syria, early Sunday, May 5, 2013 after an Israeli airstrike.

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke and fire fill the the skyline over Damascus, Syria, early Sunday, May 5, 2013 after an Israeli airstrike.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Israel carried out its second air strikes in days on Syria early on Sunday, a Western intelligence source said, in an attack that shook Damascus with a series of powerful blasts and drove columns of fire into the night sky. A cloud…
photo: AP / Ugarit News via AP video

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrives for a press conference in Prague, Czech Republic

The Shia-led coalition led by Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has come first in seven of 12 provinces, including Baghdad, in elections held last month. Its main rival, the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya bloc, suffered poor results. Observers say the results give an…
photo: AP / Petr David Josek

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, waves to Egyptians worshippers in front of the shrine of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Islam's Prophet Mohammad, in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013.

TEHRAN, Iran — For eight years, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has played the role of global provocateur-in-chief: questioning the Holocaust, saying Israel should be erased from the map and painting U.N resolutions as worthless. His…
photo: AP / Amr Nabil

 

 

 

California wildfire nearly triples in size

04 May 2013
Firefighters have deployed ground crews to battle a raging southern California wildfire that has nearly tripled in size as it threatens 4,000 homes. The Springs Fire, near Malibu 60km west of Los Angeles, grew to 11,330 hectares from 4,040 hectares on Friday morning. The Ventura County Fire Department (VCFD) said that the blaze was just…
Wildfires burn close in to homes in Point Mugu, Calif., Friday, May 3, 2013.

 

 

Iraqis chant anti-government slogans as others wave representations of older national flags at an anti-government rally in Fallujah, Iraq, Friday, May 3, 2013.

ADAM SCHRECK Associated Press= BAGHDAD (AP) — Human Rights Watch on Saturday urged Iraqi authorities to give a government committee charged with probing a deadly raid by security forces on a protest camp last week greater financial and political…
photo: AP

File - Leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage gestures while speaking during a session at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011.

Senior Conservative MPs are urging the prime minister to consider a more radical response to the party’s losses in council elections in England. The UK Independence Party made gains as the Tories lost control of 10 councils. Former leadership…
photo: AP / Virginia Mayo

A firefighter keeps watch as the wildfire burns along a hillside in Point Mugu , Calif. Friday, May 3, 2013.

It seemed that each time wind-driven embers sparked new blazes or a wall of fire leaped a Southern California hillside and came charging toward hundreds of homes, an army of firefighters was right there to either douse or direct the flames away from…
photo: AP / Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Veterans from Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, listen to President Obama

JIM KUHNHENN Associated Press= SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — President Barack Obama said Friday he doesn’t foresee any circumstance requiring the U.S. to send ground troops into Syria, even as Washington pursues more evidence about the regime’s…
photo: Public Domain / United States Army

President Barack Obama gestures as he answers a question during a news conference with Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla at the National Center for Art and Culture in San Jose, Costa Rica, Friday, May 3, 2013.

President Barack Obama has said the war on drugs will not be effectively won unless the economies of Latin American countries are strengthened. Mr Obama was speaking in Costa Rica, where he is due to attend a summit of Central American leaders. They…
photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

President Barack Obama and President Pena Nieto of Mexico share a toast prior to a working dinner at Los Pinos

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (R) and U.S. President Barack Obama shake hands at the National Palace, in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, on May 2, 2013. Obama visits Mexico to meet with Pena Nieto and analyze matters concerning education,…

 

 

 

US considering arms for Syria rebels

03 May 2013
The United States said on Thursday it was taking a fresh look at whether to arm Syria’s rebels as the Damascus regime pressed an assault on opposition forces in the embattled city of Homs. After having rejected the idea previously, President Barack Obama’s deputies were weighing the option of providing weapons to Syria’s outgunned…
US considering arms for Syria rebels

 

Indian activists burn an effigy of Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari to protest against the killing of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Kolkata on May 2, 2013.

LAHORE/NEW DELHI/AMRITSAR: Sarabjit Singh‘s death sparked a countrywide fury against Pakistan on Thursday, dealing a heavy blow to the prospects of normalization of ties with the estranged neighbour in the near run, while exposing the government to a…
photo: WN / Bhaskar Mallick

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Mexico's President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto prior to their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012.

US President Barack Obama has vowed to help Mexico in the fight against drugs and end the violence that has claimed thousands of lives. Obama vowed to put trade at the center of the two countries’ relations. Obama on Thursday said there was an…
photo: AP / Jacquelyn Martin

900 held in China for meat-related crimes

Tweet Beijing, May 3 (IANS) A total of 904 people have been arrested in China during a three-month campaign for crimes such as producing fake beef and mutton made from rat and fox, the ministry of public security said. Since Jan 25,…
photo: Creative Commons / Magnus Manske

This image made from video distributed by the Zintan Media Center shows Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, center, inside a defendant's cage in a courtroom in Zintan, Libya, Thursday, May 2, 2013.

General Gaddafi‘s son and likely successor until the family was toppled from power during Libya‘s Arab Spring, appeared in court accused of harming state security and trying to escape custody. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi gave a thumbs up sign to reporters…
photo: AP / Zintan Media Center

Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, briefs the press, in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 10, 2013. Hagel is traveling to Afghanistan on his first trip as the 24th Secretary of Defense to visit U.S. Troops, NATO leaders, and Afghan counterparts. (DoD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo)

The Obama administration is rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels who have been locked in a civil war with the Syrian regime for more than two years, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday, becoming the first top U.S. official to…
photo: US DoD / Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

Building collapse in Dhaka

The system that enables powerful politicians and their business cronies to act as if they are above the law in Bangladesh has been horribly exposed by the rising death toll at the Rana Plaza building, which collapsed last Wednesday. The death toll…
photo: Creative Commons / Sharat Chowdhury

Pope Benedict XVI leaves at the end of his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday Feb. 13, 2013.

VATICAN CITYPope Emeritus Benedict XVI returned to the Vatican on Thursday (May 2), where he will live a few hundred meters from his successor, Pope Francis, in an arrangement that has no precedent in the history of the Catholic Church….
photo: AP / Alessandra Tarantino

 

 

 

North Korea sentences American to 15 years’ labor

Full Article Herald Tribune

02 May 2013
SEOUL, South Korea – An American detained for nearly six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of labor for crimes against the state, the North‘s state media said Thursday, a development that further complicates already strained ties between Pyongyang and Washington. The sentencing of Kenneth Bae, described by friends as a devout…
File - In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang’s Supreme Court. Detained American Kenneth Bae has been condemned to 15 years of hard labour for 'hostile acts' against the state.

 

Indians shout slogans and burn an effigy representing Pakistan after Sarabjit Singh, a convicted Indian spy who was on Pakistan's death row, died from a head injury after two inmates attacked him with a brick in a Lahore jail, in Jammu, India, Thursday, May 2, 2013. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government would arrange to bring Singh's remains home and for his last rites to be conducted in consultation with his family. He was arrested in 1990 after bombings in Lahore and Faisalabad that killed 14 people and was convicted of spying and carrying out the bomb blasts, and the death sentence he received has been upheld in Pakistani superior courts. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indians expressed outrage at the Pakistan government Thursday over the death of a convicted Indian spy who had been attacked with a brick by two fellow inmates in a Pakistan prison, a development New Delhi said has damaged relations…
photo: AP / Channi Anand

 

Bolivia's President Evo Morales, center, waves after a meeting during the 5th Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Sunday, April 19, 2009.

Bolivian President Evo Morales says he is expelling the U.S. Agency for International Development, accusing it of interfering in his country’s internal affairs. Morales said Wednesday…
photo: AP / Brennan Linsley

 

FC Bayern Munich's players react at the end of their group F Champions League soccer match at the Grand Stade Lille Metropole, in Villeneuve d'Ascq, northern France, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012.

By Iain Rogers BARCELONA (Reuters) – Bayern Munich cruised into a first all-German Champions League final when they routed Barcelona 3-0 at the Nou Camp on Wednesday to secure a crushing 7-0 aggregate success. The newly-crowned Bundesliga champions,…
photo: AP / Michel Spingler

 

A bombing victim, Bashar Muhsin, 28, is taken for burial in Najaf, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, April. 29, 2013.

Violence in Iraq rose sharply in April, with 460 people killed according to figures, raising fears of a return to the all-out sectarian conflict that plagued the country in past years. The majority of the deaths came during a wave of unrest that…
photo: AP / Alaa al-Marjani

Protestors shout slogans and carry posters calling for better working conditions for garment workers during a May Day rally on Wednesday, May 1, 2013, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Thousands take part in May Day march in Dhaka demanding better safety at work and death penalty for Rana Plaza owner Bangledeshis hold pictures of relatives and loved ones still missing after the Rana Plaza building collapsed a week ago. Photograph:…
photo: AP / Ismail Ferdous

 

Secretary of State John Kerry pauses during his joint news conference with Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, at the State Department in Washington.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday the Arab League’s acknowledgment that Israelis and Palestinians may have to swap land in any peace deal was ‘a very big step forward.’ Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan on Monday…
photo: AP / Cliff Owen

 

Libyan rebels who are part of the forces against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi ride on an armed truck near Ras Lanuf, eastern Libya, Monday, March 7, 2011.

 

Libya‘s disgruntled militiamen are flexing their muscles in the capital, Tripoli. Both the foreign and justice ministry buildings in the city remain surrounded by a mix of young and older men in pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns….

 

photo: AP / Kevin Frayer

 

 

 

 

Netherlands celebrates King Willem-Alexander

Full Article Detroit news

01 May 2013
By Mike Corderand Toby Sterling Associated Press Comments King Willem-Alexander, 46, arrives with his wife, Queen Maxima, for his inauguration in Amsterdam. He is the youngest monarch in Europe. (Frank Van Beek / Getty Images) Amsterdam — Millions of Dutch people dressed in orange flocked to celebrations around the Netherlands Tuesday in…
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima leave Nieuwe Kerk or New Church in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, after the inauguration Tuesday April 30, 2013.

 

 

 

 

Kerry calls new Arab League peace stance ‘big step forward’

Secretary of State John Kerry pauses during his joint news conference with Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, at the State Department in Washington.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday the Arab League’s acknowledgment that Israelis and Palestinians may have to swap land in any peace deal was ‘a very big step forward.’ Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan on Monday…
photo: AP / Cliff Owen

Libyan rebels who are part of the forces against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi ride on an armed truck near Ras Lanuf, eastern Libya, Monday, March 7, 2011.

Libya‘s disgruntled militiamen are flexing their muscles in the capital, Tripoli. Both the foreign and justice ministry buildings in the city remain surrounded by a mix of young and older men in pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns….
photo: AP / Kevin Frayer

Ireland may spend any spare budget cash rather than ease austerity

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland may spend any spare cash from future budgets rather than ease austerity measures, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Tuesday, after it left its plans to cut spending by 5.1 billion euro ($6.7 billion) for the next two…
photo: European Community / EC

ANSF troop totals shrinking, still short by 20,000

Afghan National Security Forces have shrunk by 4,000 troops and policemen from last year and are still 20,000 people short of the numbers they expect to have in place by the end of next year, according to the government watchdog overseeing…
photo: USMC / Pete Thibodeau

Dutch King Willem-Alexander is given three cheers by guests and his wife Queen Maxima inside the Nieuwe Kerk or New Church in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, during his inauguration Tuesday April 30, 2013.

Willem-Alexander became the first king of the Netherlands since 1890 today, ascending a throne largely stripped of political power but still invested with enormous symbolic significance for the Dutch people. At his investiture in Amsterdam‘s…
photo: AP / Robin Utrecht, Pool

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are drifting mostly higher on Wall Street, but poor results from Pfizer are holding down the Dow Jones industrial average. The Dow was down three points to 14,814 at midday Tuesday, a decline of 0.02 percent. Pfizer fell…
photo: AP / Richard Drew

UN chief condemns latest attack on Somali legal system

Print 30 April 2013 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the killing of Somalia’s Deputy State Attorney, Ahmed Malim Sheikh Nur, expressing deep concern that the recent attacks in Mogadishu seem to be targeting the…
photo: UN / Rick Bajornas

 

 

 

 

Kercher murder case: Amanda Knox proclaims innocence

Full Article BBC News

30 Apr 2013
Amanda Knoxwho is facing a retrial over the killing of Briton Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2007 – has gone on US television to protest her innocence. In an ABC News interview to be aired later on Tuesday, Miss Knox says claims that she is a “she-devil” and “heartless manipulator” are all wrong. “I’d like to be
This April 9, 2013 photo released by ABC shows Amanda Knox, left, speaking during an interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer in New York.


Italian Premier Enrico Letta delivers his speech ahead of a second confidence vote to confirm the government, in the Italian Senate in Rome, Tuesday, April 30, 2013.

Italy‘s new Prime Minister Enrico Letta has won his first vote of confidence. He had earlier pledged to reverse an austerity policy he said was killing Italy and focus on jobs and growth. Italy’s lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies
photo: AP / Alessandra Tarantino

FILE - In a re-crop of this Monday Oct. 30, 2006 file photo, Dutch Queen Beatrix is seen during a state banquet in at Royal Palace Noordeinde in The Hague, Netherlands. The Dutch Queen announced her abdication in a prerecorded speech in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday Jan. 28, 2013. Beatrix, who turns 75 on Thursday, has ruled the nation of 16 million for more than 32 years and would be succeeded by her eldest son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander.

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is to abdicate in favour of her son Prince Willem-Alexander – an event which is being celebrated across the nation. Queen Beatrix, 75, will sign the instrument of abdication in Amsterdam after 33 years on the throne….
photo: AP / Peter Dejong

Building collapse in Dhaka

BANGLADESH, my country, is again in tears. Last week in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka, the capital, a poorly constructed building that housed garment factories and other businesses collapsed. More than 300 have been confirmed dead, and the final death…
photo: Creative Commons / Sharat Chowdhury

A young evacuee is screened at a shelter for leaked radiation from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, Thursday, March 24, 2011 in Fukushima, Fukushima prefecture, Japan.

TOKYO — Two years after a triple meltdown that grew into the world’s second worst nuclear disaster, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is faced with a new crisis: a flood of highly radioactive wastewater that workers are struggling…
photo: AP / Wally Santana

 U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Ricky Bryant is last in line to board a C-130H2 Hercules aircraft at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, for a flight to Forward Operations Base Salearno, Afghanistan, on March 8, 2006. The aircraft and crew are assigned to the 185th A

Seven people were killed on Monday when a civilian cargo plane crashed shortly after taking off from Bagram Air Base, northeast of Kabul, according to an international military spokesman. The police chief of the surrounding area, Ezmarai Nasiri, said…
photo: Lance Cheung, U.S. Air Force

Michael Jackson responds to questioning Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2002, in Santa Maria Superior Court in Santa Maria, Calif., during a $21 million breach-of-contract case. Promoter Marcel Avram is suing Jackson for backing out of performances in Sydney, Australia, and Honolulu on Dec. 31, 1999. The singer maintains that it was Avram who canceled over concerns the shows would not be profitable.

Think there are no more revelations to be had about the life and death of Michael Jackson? Opening statements began today in the $1.5 billion wrongful-death case brought by Katherine Jackson, on behalf of her son’s estate, against concert promoter…
photo: AP / Ed Souza

Women watch a right wing demonstration of the NPD that demands no mosques for Germany in Duisburg, western Germany, Sunday March 28, 2010.

A major study of attitudes towards religion says Germans approve of openness towards other religions. But many are still suspicious of Islam. Former German President Christian Wulff earned much praise but also much criticism when said in a speech…

 

 

 

CIA Bribes Karzai: Millions In ‘Ghost Money’ Paid To Afghanistan President’s Office, New York Times Reports

Reuters  |  Posted: 04/29/2013

Cia Bribes Karzai

 

 

 

 

A South Korea Army officer stands guard at the Inter-Korean Transit Office in Paju near North Korea's border city of Kaesong, South Korea, Sunday, March 15, 2009.

PAJU, South Korea: South Korea was due Monday to pull out its last workers from a joint factory zone in North Korea — a rare symbol of cross-border cooperation now crippled by a tense military stand-off. The move raises the prospect of the permanent…
photo: AP / Ahn Young-joon

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in his Jerusalem office, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012.

Jerusalem, April 29: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country would not allow the intermittent firing of rockets into its territory and warned the continued attacks would be dealt aggressively. “I want to make clear…
photo: AP / Sebastian Scheiner, Pool

 

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe poses for photographers at the start of a press conference at the party headquarters in Tokyo Monday, Dec. 17, 2012, a day after the party's landslide victory over the ruling Democratic Party of Japan led by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in parliamentary elections. Abe stressed Monday that the road ahead will not be easy as he tries to revive Japan's sputtering economy and bolster its national security amid deteriorating relations with China.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in Russia for the two nations’ first top-level talks in a decade. Discussions are set to focus on energy deals and a territorial row unresolved since the end of World War II. Ahead of the visit, Mr Abe said…
photo: AP / Koji Sasahara

 

Al Jazeera English studio control room in London. With Al Jazeera's coverage of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, the channel drew acclaim and received renewed attention.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi authorities suspended the operating licenses of pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera and nine Iraqi TV channels on Sunday after accusing them of escalating sectarian tension. The move signaled the Shiite-led government’s mounting…
photo: Creative Commons / Kimse

 

Libyan gunmen from the forces against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi fire in the air during a mass funeral for rebel gunmen killed in fighting Wednesday, in Ajdabiya, eastern Libya, Thursday, March 3, 2011.

Gunmen surrounded Libya’s foreign ministry and attempted to storm the interior ministry on Sunday to demand that all officials who worked under former leader Muammar Gaddafi be prohibited from senior positions within the new administration. By News
photo: AP / Kevin Frayer

 

Gene clues point to Cambodia for resistant malaria

An international consortium of researchers unravelled the genetic code of 825 samples of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite from Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Thailand, Vietnam and from northeastern and western Cambodia. The 166 samples from…
photo: UN / UN

 

U.S. President Barack Obama is seen during the G8 Summit, in L'Aquila, Italy, Thursday, July 9, 2009

 

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama joked Saturday that the years are catching up to him and he’s not “the strapping young Muslim socialist” he used to be. Obama poked fun at himself as well as some of his political adversaries during the…

 

photo: AP / Haraz N. Ghanbari

 

Two police officers shot as Italian government sworn in

28 Apr 2013
ROME (Reuters) – Two Italian police officers were shot and wounded on Sunday outside the prime minister’s office in Rome at the same as Prime Minister Enrico Letta‘s new government was being sworn in just a kilometer (mile) away. It was not immediately clear whether the attack was linked to the launch of the new government, but the episode came at…
A wounded Carabinieri paramilitary police officer is assisted after being shot at outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013.

 


Chairman of the Independence Party Bjarni Benediktsson casts his ballot Saturday April 27, 2013, as Icelanders vote in a General Election.

Reykjavik: Iceland‘s centre-right opposition scored a clear victory in the island’s parliamentary poll, allowing the two parties to kick off negotiations for a coalition government, a final count Sunday showed. The right-wing Independence Party was…
photo: AP / Brynjar Gauti

Germany ready to contribute troops to UN mission in Mali

ACCRA, GhanaGermany is ready to commit troops to a United Nations mission to Mali, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Saturday during a…
photo: UN / UN

Roadside bomb kills 3 policemen in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan—A remote-controlled roadside bomb killed three police officers in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, an attack the Taliban claimed as the opening round of their spring offensive. The bomb exploded in Ghazni province beneath a…
photo: US Navy / Josh Ives

File - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika leaves a voting booth before voting in the Parliamentary elections in Algiers, Thursday, May, 10, 2012.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been flown to hospital in Paris after suffering a mini-stroke, the state news agency said. Mr Bouteflika had a “transient ischemia” – a temporary blockage of a blood vessel often called a…
photo: AP / Sidali Djarboub

Anxious British parents queue for vaccines as measles rages

SWANSEA (Britain): Fears about the purported side effects once sent British parents running from vaccinations against measles. But now an outbreak of the potentially deadly disease in one city has brought them back in droves. As others went about…
photo: EC / European Commission

UN Security Council Extends Arms Embargo on Cote D'Ivoire

Sunday, 28 April 2013, 2:27 pm Press Release: United Nations UN Security Council Extends Arms Embargo on Cote D’Ivoire New York, Apr 25 2013 5:00PM Maintaining that Cote d’Ivoire was still vulnerable to instability fuelled by available weapons, the…
photo: UN / Eskinder Debebe

Syria's escalating refugee crisis means that Jordan is crying out for help

Jordan is desperate. In January, $1.5bn was pledged to provide aid for Syrian refugees at the UN summit in Kuwait. Three months later, only a fraction has been delivered and there is no definite plan in place for funding from the end of June. As the…

 

Bangladesh Factory Owners Arrested After Building Collapse

27 Apr 2013
After an eight-story building collapsed in Bangladesh Wednesday, killing at least 300 workers, police have arrested the owners of two factories that operated within the building. “We’ve arrested Bazlus Samad, the chairman of New Wave Buttons and New Wave Style factories, and Mahmudur Rahaman Tapash, a managing director of one of these plants, after…
Bangladeshi rescue workers search for victims Friday, April 26, 2013 amid the rubble of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 

A U.S. Marine provides security during an anti-narcotics operation in Marjah, Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban have announced the start of their spring offensive, signaling plans for an uptick in violence as the weather warms across Afghanistan, making both travel and…
photo: Public Domain / Lance Cpl. David A. Perez, U.S. Marine Corps

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the feminist punk band, Pussy Riot, listens from behind bars at a district court in Zubova Polyana 440 km Southeast of Moscow in Russia's province of Mordovia, Friday, April 26, 2013.

Zubova Polyana (Russia): A Russian court on Saturday rejected a plea for early release from prison by a member of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, whose provocative songs and prosecution have made them a symbol of the country’s opposition movement….
photo: AP / Mikhail Metzel

 

The new Navy assault ship USS New York, built with World Trade Center steel, passes Statue of Liberty as it arrives Monday, Nov. 2, 2009 in New York

New York police said on Friday that they have found a fragment of one of two airplanes that slammed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The huge chunk of aircraft was found wedged between two office buildings in lower Manhattan. The…
photo: AP / Mark Lennihan

 

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally for New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, N.J., Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009.

27 April 2013, 2:27 Obama: Syrian WMD Would Be A ‘Game ChangerTweet US President Barack Obama has warned the Syrian government that using chemical weapons would be a “game changer” as he faces rising pressure to intervene in the civil war. His…
photo: AP / Susan Walsh

Pakistani para-military troops cordon off the site of an explosion in Karachi, Pakistan Friday, April 26, 2013.

People examine the blast site in southern Pakistani port city of Karachi on April 26, 2013. At least 11 people including a child were killed and 40 others injured on Friday night in a bomb blast that targeted a political meeting in Pakistan’s
photo: AP / Fareed Khan

Opposition leader Alassane Ouattara addresses the press at a news conference at Golf Hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010.

Rebels in Ivory Coast who helped bring President Alassane Ouattara to power are not only commanding the nation’s armed forces but are raking in millions of dollars from illegal smuggling and a parallel taxation system, U.N. experts said in a report…
photo: AP / Rebecca Blackwell

 

A demonstrator attends a rally showing support for the Russian punk group Pussy Riot whose members face prison for a stunt against President Vladimir Putin, in St.Petersburg, Russia, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012.

 

Judge says Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has ‘not always followed the rules of behaviour’ Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova attends court in Zubova Polyana, where she was denied early release from prison. Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA A Russian

 

 

 

White House says Syria uses chemical weapons

26 Apr 2013
WASHINGTON – The Syrian government has used chemical weapons in its conflict with the opposition forces, the White House said on Thursday. In a letter sent to some members of the Congress, the White House said that “The US intelligence community assesses with some degree of varying…
White House says Syria uses chemical weapons


Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, briefs the press en route on a 5 day trip to the Middle East, March 7, 2013. Hagel is traveling to Afghanistan on his first trip as the 24th Secretary of Defense to visit U.S. Troops, NATO leaders, and Afghan counterparts.

Washington, April 25: US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has said that America has determined that chemical weapons have been used in the civil war in Syria. Speaking in Abu Dhabi during his first trip as defense secretary to the Middle East, Hagel
photo: US DoD / Erin A. Kirk Cuomo

TIME SQUARE, NEW YORK CITY..

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The two men suspected of carrying out last week’s deadly Boston Marathon bombing decided after authorities identified them to drive to New York and set off additional explosives in Times Square, New York City officials…
photo: WN / Periasamy

President George W. Bush meets with former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and President-elect Barack Obama Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009 in the Oval Office of the White House.

President Barack Obama has praised George W Bush at the dedication of the former president’s library for showing strength and resolve in the days after the September 11 attacks and said if Congress passes immigration reform “it will be in large part…
photo: AP / Eric Draper

In this photo taken on a government-organized tour for the media, Syrian government army soldiers patrol a street, in one of several suburbs of Damascus that saw heavy fighting between troops and defectors before Assad's forces retook the areas in late January, in Harasta suburb, Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday Feb. 15, 2012.

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence has concluded “with some degree of varying confidence” that the Syrian government has twice used chemical weapons in its fierce civil war, the White House and other top administration officials said Thursday….
photo: AP / Muzaffar Salman

Outgoing U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel talks to supporters Thursday Dec 18, 2008 during a farewell news conference in Omaha, Neb.

As delivered by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Thursday, April 25, 2013. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @NYTNational for breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors This morning, the…
photo: AP / Dave Weaver

Protesters hold placards as they stage a rally outside the city hall in Yangon, Myanmar, against a copper mining project in central Myanmar Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. The protest was held against the seizure of land for the project jointly owned by the military and China's Wan Bao Mining. Emboldened by Myanmar's changing political climate, farmers, villagers, factory workers and others are now staging demonstrations in various parts of the country over issues ranging from land confiscation to electricity cuts.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Activists in Myanmar say police have injured seven people and arrested three others in a new crackdown on residents opposed to a controversial Chinese-backed copper mine project. The violence occurred Thursday near…
photo: AP / Khin Maung Win

An Israeli soldier guards the road leading towards a Patriot missile defense battery positioned on the Carmel Mt., not picctured, in northern Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012.

Israel says it has shot down an unmanned drone from Lebanon off its northern coast. Military officials said the plane was intercepted in Israeli airspace near the city of Haifa. Deputy defence minister Danny Danon confirmed the incident to Israeli…
photo: AP / Ariel Schalit

 

Unemployment misery deepens in Spain and Greece

By Charles Riley @CNNMoney April 25, 2013: 5:55 AM ET HONG KONG (CNNMoney) The eurozone debt crisis extracted a heavy price in Spain and Greece to start the year as labor markets in both countries continued to shed jobs. The number of unemployed in Spain broke the 6 million barrier during the first quarter, a new record. The unemployment rate rose…
Unemployment misery deepens in Spain and Greece

Bangladeshis walk past bodies of victims to identify relatives who died in a building collapse in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013.

The death toll from a building collapse in Bangladesh yesterday has risen to 160 and could climb higher, police said this morning. People remain trapped under the rubble of a complex that had housed garment factories supplying retailers in Europe and…
photo: AP / A.M.Ahad

Venezuela's opposition leader Henrique Capriles speaks at a news conference at his office in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, April 24, 2013.

Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles has threatened to take action over disputed votes he claims were “stolen” by Nicolas Maduro‘s government. Mr Capriles demanded details of an audit of the vote the electoral council says…
photo: AP / Fernando Llano

South Korean computer hackers compete during an information security olympiad at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, July 10, 2009

China leads the world in computer espionage, according to an annual report that monitors the state of global cyber threats. Ninety-six percent of cyber espionage cases targeting intellectual property and business trade secrets were attributed to…
photo: AP / Lee Jin-man

Umayyad Mosque.

24 April 2013, 20:26 Syria: Minaret Of Famous Mosque Destroyed Tweet The minaret of a landmark 12th-Century mosque has collapsed in the clashes between Syrian rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al Assad. The minaret was in the heart of…
photo: Creative Commons / Bgag

Syrian soldiers at a Syrian army post as seen from the Lebanese border village of al-Qasr, Lebanon, Friday, April 12, 2013.

Fierce gunbattles have remained unrelenting across Syria, as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad seized a strategic town east of Damascus, while the minaret of Aleppo‘s ancient Umayyad mosque was destroyed, Syrian state media and a…
photo: AP / Bilal Hussein

Enrico Letta

Tasked by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano with forming a government, Enrico Letta is a centrist thought to have as good a chance as anyone of winning the support for a broad-based coalition. A Europhile on the moderate side of the centre-left…
photo: Creative Commons

Bangladeshi soldiers use an earthmover for rescue operations after an eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013.

JULHAS ALAM Associated Press= SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s health minister says 70 people have been confirmed dead in the collapse…
photo: AP / A.M. Ahad

 

 

 

Canada train plot suspects reject charges

Toronto: Two foreign nationals arrested on suspicion of what police say was an Al-Qaeda-backed plot to derail a Canadian passenger train rejected the charges as they made their first court appearances Tuesday. Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, were arrested on Monday for allegedly planning to carry out an attack on a Via Rail train in the…
Amtrak #64 / Via Rail #97 Maple Leaf departing Toronto Union Station.

In his first press briefing as Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel  talks about the the onset of the sequester and the grave impact it will have on national security and the readiness of the military at the Pentagon, Feb. 28, 2013. After taking initial questions from the press, Hagel introduced Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter who provided reporters with more details about the impending steep cuts.

ROBERT BURNS AP National Security Writer= JERUSALEM (AP) — On Chuck Hagel‘s inaugural visit to Israel as U.S. defense secretary, Syria surpassed Iran as the security threat of greatest urgency to the U.S.’ closest Mideast ally. That quite…
photo: US DoD / Glenn Fawcett

File - An A-10 Thunderbolt II, like this one, performs sorties daily providing top cover for ground forces in Southwest Asia. A-10s provide close-air support and employ a wide variety of conventional munitions, including general purpose bombs, cluster bombs units and laser guided bombs.

About UsMission Statement & Contact UC-IMC Highlights 10 Years of Success UC-IMC Structure Global IndyMedia Important Docs EventsUC-IMC Calendar Host Your Event Get InvolvedVolunteer Internships Membership Our ProjectsGeneral Membership Artists…
photo: USAF / Master Sgt. Robert Wieland

A Free Syrian Army fighter, Abu al-Yaman, left, a commander of Knights of the North brigade, cheers as he leaves with other rebels one of their caves to reconnaissance a Syrian army forces base of al-Karmid, at Jabal al-Zaweya, in Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013.

The EU’s anti-terror chief has told the BBC that hundreds of Europeans are now fighting with rebel forces in Syria against Bashar al-Assad‘s regime. Gilles de…
photo: AP / Hussein Malla

TSA Administrator John Pistole and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano meet with President Obama in the Oval Office; October 2010.

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Senate committee Tuesday that a bipartisan immigration bill would better secure U.S. borders and enhance national security. Napolitano said the bill would fund continued deployment of…
photo: Creative Commons / Chaser

USPS-E85 fuel-St Paul-20070127

April 23: A letter that was intercepted and sent to a screening facility at an airbase in the United States contained the deadly poison ricin according to preliminary tests. The letter was discovered at Bolling Air Force Base outside Washington on…
photo: Creative Commons / SusanLesch

Huriah Mashhoor. Minister of Human Rights of Yemen addresses High-Level Segment of the 19th session of the Human Rights Council. 27 February 2012. Photo by Jean-Marc Ferré

WASHINGTON — A Yemeni man who studied at an American high school told Congress on Tuesday that a drone strike on his village in Yemen last week terrified his neighbors, turning them against the United States in a way that terrorist propaganda…
photo: UN / Jean-Marc Ferré

Nicolas Maduro raises his fist after he was sworn in as Venezuela's acting president by the President of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, right, at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, March 8, 2013.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro named a new acting head of its U.S. diplomatic mission in Washington on Tuesday and sent an offer of dialogue after attacking the United States for “interference” in a row over his election….

 

 

Canada Foils Alleged al-Qaida-Backed Terror Plot

23 Apr 2013
WASHINGTON, April 22 (RIA Novosti) – Canadian security officials on Monday arrested two men who were suspected of planning a terror attack to derail a passenger train, allegedly with backing from “al-Qaida elements in Iran,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Toronto

 

North Korea demands recognition as nuclear arms state

South Korean Army soldiers participate in an annual military exercise in Paju near the border with North Korea, South Korea, Monday, April 22, 2013.

 

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea demanded on Tuesday that it be recognized as a nuclear weapons state, rejecting a U.S. condition that it agree to give up its nuclear arms program before talks can begin. After weeks of tension on the Korean peninsula,…

 

CORRECTS DAY Paraguay's Colorado Party's Presidential candidate Horacio Cartes gives a press conference in Paraguay, Monday, April 22, 2013.

Paraguay‘s President-elect Horacio Cartes, a wealthy businessman, has said he would “never put personal interests before the country’s”. Mr Cartes, one of Paraguay’s richest men, told reporters there wouldn’t be conflict…
photo: AP / Jorge Saenz

 

Palestinian protesters shout slogans during a demonstration in Gaza City in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on February 24, 2013. Some 3,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails were staging a one-day hunger strike in protest at the death of an inmate, an official said, as security forces clashed with demonstrators in the West Bank.Photo by Ahmed Deeb / WN

A Palestinian prisoner held by Israel has agreed to end an on-off hunger strike that lasted for more than eight months in exchange for an early release, Palestinian officials say. The fast by Samer al-Issawi, from a suburb of Jerusalem, had…
photo: WN / Ahmed Deeb

 

Manchester United players

LONDON Manchester United became English champions for the 20th time Monday when a Robin van Persie hat-trick led them to a 3-0 victory over Aston Villa to…
photo: AP / Jon Super

 

Climate Warnings

A comprehensive new analysis of temperature changes over the continents through 2,000 years has found that a long slide in temperatures in most regions preceded the unusual global warming of recent decades, but with a lot of regional variability and…

Earth Day celebrated around the globe

Earth at Night  This new global view of Earth's city lights is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. The data was acquired over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012. It took 312 orbits to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth's land surface and islands. This new data was then mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet.  The image was made possible by the satellite's
Today, April 22nd, marks the 43rd anniversary of the start of a global environmental movement. How are others across the world celebrating? More than 192 countries are celebrating the 43rd Anniversary of Earth Week. This week…
photo: NASA / NASA’s Earth Observatory/NOAA/DOD

 

Lufthansa fleet in preparation for the big flight. (Boeing 737-300 Köthen/Anhalt, D-ABES)

 

PARIS — A widespread strike all but grounded the German flag carrier Lufthansa on Monday, affecting around 150,000 passengers around the world amid a battle over wages as the airline pushes ahead with a $2 billion restructuring program. The…

 

photo: Creative Commons / T.Voekler

 

 

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect, Reportedly Awake And Responding To Questions In Writing

Updated: 04/22/2013 7:31 am EDT

 

 

China rushes relief after Sichuan quake kills 180

22 Apr 2013
YA’AN: Rescuers and relief teams struggled to rush supplies into the rural hills of China’s Sichuan province Sunday after an earthquake left at least 180 people dead and more than 11,000 injured and prompted frightened survivors to spend a night in cars, tents and makeshift shelters. The earthquake Saturday morning triggered landslides that cut off…
Residents rest near tents set up for evacuees of Saturday's earthquake near Shangli town in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013.


Ethnic Rakhine people take refugee at a relief camp, in Mrauk U, in Rakhine state, western Myanmar, Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012.

BANGKOK (AP) — A leading international rights group is accusing authorities in Myanmar, including senior Buddhist monks, of organizing a “campaign of ethnic cleansing” against the country’s Rohingya Muslim…
photo: AP / Khin Maung Win

Colorado Party's presidential candidate Horacio Cartes, waves to supporters after presidential election results were made official in Asuncion, Paraguay, Sunday, April 21, 2013.

Businessman Horacio Cartes has been elected president in Paraguay. The result of Sunday’s poll restores the Colorado Party to power after its defeat by the left-wing candidate Fernando Lugo in 2008. Mr Cartes faces the challenge of fighting high…
photo: AP / Jorge Saenz

 

A Bahraini anti-government protester throws a stone toward riot police, unseen, as others run during clashes in Jidhafs, Bahrain, on Saturday, April 20, 2013.

Dubai. Bahraini police clashed on Sunday with Shiite demonstrators, only hours ahead of the Gulf state’s Formula One Grand Prix race, which the authorities insisted would go ahead without disruption. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes will start on pole after…
photo: AP / Hasan Jamali

 

Election officials begin counting the results after the polls closed at the country's provincial elections in Basra, Iraq, Saturday, April 20, 2013.

Baghdad: Iraqi election officials were to begin counting votes on Sunday from the country’s first elections since US troops departed, which served as a key test of its stability amid a spike in violence. Attacks killed three people on election day, a…
photo: AP / Nabil Al-Jurani

 

Toyama Bay from a beach in Toyama Bay (???, Toyama-wan?) is a bay located on the northern shores of Honshu, Japan. The bay borders Toyama and Ishikawa prefectures

TOKYO : A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the south coast of Japan’s main Honshu
photo: Creative Commons / ??????

 

Paraguay's former President Fernando Lugo addresses the nation after the Senate voted to remove him from office in an impeachment trial at the presidential palace in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, June 22, 2012.

Voters in Paraguay go to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election seen as key to restoring the country’s democratic credentials. Horacio Cartes, of the conservative Colorado Party, and the centre-right Liberal Party‘s Efrain Alegre
photo: AP / Jorge Saenz

 

Relatives of one of more then 1,000 students killed by the May 12 earthquake at Beichuan Middle School grieve at the badly stricken town of Qushan in Beichuan County of Sichuan province Thursday June 5, 2008.

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) — More than 1.5 million people in southwest China’s Sichuan Province have been affected by Saturday’s strong earthquake, said the Ministry of Civil Affairs here Sunday. The quake has affected 69 counties in the province,…
photo: AP / Eugene Hoshiko

 

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, center, shares a word with Lower Chamber President Fausto Bertinotti, right, as Senate President Franco Marini pulls on his jacket, during a joint parliamentary session in the Lower Chamber of Deputies at a ceremony for the sixtieth anniversary of the country's constitution, in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008. Italian Premier Romano Prodi was fighting an uphill battle for his government's survival Wednesday, facing the first of two confidence votes that will determine if his center-left coalition can endure despite the loss of a crucial ally in Parliament.

ROME : Italy’s lawmakers re-elected 87-year-old President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday in a bid to break the country’s political gridlock, as protestors outside parliament jeered the result. The ex-communist Napolitano won with a sweeping majority…
photo: AP Photo / Plinio Lepri

 

In this photo provided by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian security agents carry a body following a huge explosion that shook central Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013.

 

Seven million Syrians now need humanitarian assistance, according to an estimate from the United Nations. The Assad regime is being blamed by the UN for hindering the distribution of aid. In the capital, Damascus, people struggle to get on with their…

 

photo: AP / SANA

 

 

President Barack Obama meets with members of his national security team to discuss developments in the Boston bombings investigation, in the Situation Room of the White House, April 19, 2013.

April 20, 2013 — Updated 1008 GMT (1808 HKT) (CNN) — The hunt for the men is over. The hunt for the motive is just beginning. As 19-year-old Dzhokar Tsarnaev remained in serious condition in a heavily guarded Boston-area hospital room early…
photo: White House / Pete Souza

Nurses help an injured man at a temporary treatment station following an earthquake in Lushan county in Ya'an in southwest China's Sichuan province Saturday, April 20, 2013

Gallery: Strong quake jolts China’s Sichuan, killing 113 DIDI TANG , The Associated Press Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2013, 5:08 AM BEIJING – A powerful earthquake struck the steep hills of China’s southwestern Sichuan province on Saturday, leaving…
photo: AP

Police officers guard the entrance to Franklin street where there is an active crime scene search for the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, Friday, April 19, 2013, in Watertown, Mass

BOSTON — Police in Boston apprehended one of the men suspected of having planted the bombs that exploded earlier this week at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring 170. The arrest followed a massive manhunt in which nearly a million…
photo: AP / Matt Rourke

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, workers tear down the partly damaged houses in quake-devastated Qingchuan of southwest China's Sichuan Province Wednesday, May 21, 2008. Workers started to dismantle the first batch of 64 houses that are seriously damaged in the earthquake in Qingchuan on Wednesd

A strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake has hit southwestern China’s Sichuan province, killing at least 56 people and injuring about 600 close to where a big quake killed almost 70,000 people in 2008. The earthquake occurred at 8.02am in Lushan county near…
photo: AP / Xinhua, Ding Haita

Lawmakers wait for the results of the fourth round of voting to elect the nation's new president, in Rome's Lower Chamber, Friday, April 19, 2013.

FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press= ROME (AP) — Italy‘s polarized Parliament failed in a second day of balloting Friday to elect a president, as the high-profile candidacy of ex-Premier Romano Prodi fell far short of the votes needed. The rebuff…
photo: AP / Gregorio Borgia

Egyptian protesters clash near a bus belonging to Muslim Brotherhood supporters burns after it was reportedly set alight by anti- government protesters in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, April 19, 2013.

SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press= CAIRO (AP) — Clashes erupted Friday between several hundred opponents and supporters of Egypt‘s Islamist president during a rally by his allies calling on him to “cleanse the judiciary” of alleged supporters of the old…
photo: AP / Mostafa Elshemy

Sichuan Giant Panda sanctuaries. Covering a total of 9,245 km2 over 12 distinct counties and 4 cities, Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, lie on the transitional alp-canyon belt between the Sichuan Basin and the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

BEIJING (AP) — A 6.9-magnitude earthquake has hit China’s Sichuan province, the site of a massive earthquake in 2008. There was no immediate word on any casualties in the quake that happened at 8:02 a.m. (0002 GMT) Saturday. The official Xinhua

 

 

BOSTON SUSPECT CAUGHT

 

Dzhokar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, is in custody, police say, after a manhunt that left one suspect and one police officer dead

 

 

Manhunt in Progress for Boston Bomber

HELL NIGHT: EXPLOSIONS… GUNFIRE…

 

 

Supporters of Pakistan's former President and military ruler Pervez Musharraf chant slogans against the court decision outside Musharraf's house in Islamabad, Pakistan on Thursday, April 18, 2013.

Pakistani police have arrested former President Pervez Musharraf and presented him in court, reports say. TV images showed General Musharraf flanked by uniformed police officers at an Islamabad court….
photo: AP / B.K. Bangash

 

Protesters chants slogans and wave Argentine flags after crossing the perimeter outside Congress as they demonstrate against the government of President Cristina Fernandez in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 18, 2013.

Tens of thousands of people in Argentina are taking part in protests against the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Huge crowds marched through the capital Buenos Aires chanting slogans, banging pots and pans and waving banners….
photo: AP / Victor R. Caivano

 

Guatemala's former dictator General Efrain Rios Montt sits in the courtroom as the judge orders the suspension of the trail against him and fellow General Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez, on charges of genocide in Guatemala City, Thursday, April 18, 2013.

A judge in Guatemala has suspended the trial of former military ruler Efrain Rios Montt. He was being tried for a counter-insurgency plan that killed more than 1,700 members of the Ixil indigenous group in 1982. Judge Carol Patricia Flores said she…
photo: AP / Luis Soto

 

In this Nov. 17, 2007, file photo, the Indian Navy's warship Rajput fires rockets during a special drill in the Bay of Bengal near Paradeep, India. On Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008, forces based on an Indian warship patrolling some 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) from their home port rescued an Indian ship and a Saudi Arabian chemical tanker, foiling hijack attempts by different band of pirates in the volatile Mideast wat

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has already made “tremendous progress” in expanding weapons sales to India since 2008, and U.S. companies could see “billions of dollars” in additional sales in coming years, a senior U.S. State Department
photo: AP / Biswaranjan Rout

 

A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 (background) lands while Southwest Airline's Lone Star One, a Boeing 737-300, taxis to the gate Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010, at the Tampa International Airport in Tampa, Fla. Flying against the headwinds of a recession and volatile fuel prices, Southwest Airlines Co. made money in the fourth quarter and extended its string of annual profits to 37 years.

(Reuters) – U.S. regulators are close to approving a key document that could start the process of returning Boeing Co’s grounded 787 Dreamliner to service within weeks, according to several people familiar with the matter. Approval of the document,…
photo: AP / Chris O’Meara

 

Indian Policemen  disperse Public health engineering employees (PHE)  in Srinagar, India, on Wednesday 10, April 2013. The employees were demanding regularization of their services in the department as they have been working on daily wages for over several years.

 

Islamabad: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said it is Kashmir that holds the key to peace and prosperity in South Asia, and no durable resolution of this issue…

 

photo: WN / Imran Nissar

 

 

Boston bombing: Investigators focus on the who and why for the attack

17 Apr 2013
Two people leave flowers on the doorstep of 8-year-old Martin Richard‘s home in the Dorchester neighborhood in Boston. News reports say that Martin was one of the victims of two explosions which hit the Boston Marathon. (Brian Snyder, Reuters) Related Articles Apr 17:Boston tries to go on after attackBoston victims were a grad student, restaurant...
A man walks a dog as officials suit up in tactical gear at Boston Common, Tuesday, April 16, 2013, one day after bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

 

 

Obama calls gun control measure defeat shameful

President Barack Obama gestures next to Vice President Joe Biden, as he speaks during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, on Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Tweet Washington, April 18 (IANS) After a stinging defeat in the US Senate, President Barack Obama lashed out at those who voted against several gun control measures backed by him in the wake of Newtown massacre of the innocents last December. A…
photo: AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta

South Korean Army's K-9 self-propelled guns fire live rounds during the largest joint air and ground military exercises on the Seungjin Fire Training Field in mountainous Pocheon, 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the Koreas' heavily fortified border, South Korea Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010.

North Korea has said it was ready to talk if UN sanctions against it were withdrawn and if the US and South Korea put an end to joint military drills. The conditions for dialogue were outlined in a statement from the North‘s National Defence
photo: AP / Park Ji-ho, Yonhap

 

Boston Marathon bombings: Breaking the pattern

Investigators in haz-mat suits examine the scene of the second bombing on Boylston Street in Boston Tuesday, April 16, 2013 near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, a day after two blasts killed three and injured over 170 people.

No matter who is eventually found and brought to justice for the odious attack in Boston, the rush to blame “the Muslims” fits a longstanding and disturbing pattern after attacks like this one. Although there have been very few terrorist attacks in…
photo: AP / Elise Amendola

Venezuela's interim President Nicolas Maduro sits as he waits for the official ceremony at the Electoral Council to certify his victory on Sunday's presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, April 15, 2013.

VIVIAN SEQUERA Associated Press= CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President-elect Nicolas Maduro and his opposition rival traded accusations Tuesday over blame for post-election violence that the government said had caused seven deaths and 61 injuries…
photo: AP / Ariana Cubillos

India-EU FTA talks gain momentum

While seeking a good package for the IT industry, including allowing flexible movement of IT professionals, India has made it clear to the European Union (EU) that it cannot go beyond the parameters of the TRIPS (Trade-Related Intellectual Property


General: No rush to set post-2014 US force size

WASHINGTON – The commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan is telling Congress that he would like to assess the combat performance of the Afghan army this summer before deciding how many foreign troops to keep there after 2014. Marine Gen.
photo: USMC / Gabriela Garcia

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures to his supporters during a rally organized by Hezbollah in the southern border town of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon, on Thursday Oct. 14, 2010.

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) ? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the uranium-rich West African nation of Niger on Tuesday, although officials discounted that the mineral was the reason for his visit. Niger’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mohamed Bazoum
photo: AP / Hussein Malla

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, March 31, 2010.

The S&P 500 was rising 0.8% to 1,565.06 after upbeat corporate earnings announcements this morning and inflation data indicated that the Federal Reserve still has room to maintain its stimulus program. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was advancing…
photo: AP / Craig Ruttle

South Korean soldiers watch a news reporting about the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on a TV screen at the Seoul train station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 19, 2011.

PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea lashed out anew Tuesday at South Korea over a small public protest in Seoul in which demonstrators burned effigies of the North‘s leaders, saying it would not hold talks with its southern neighbor unless it…
photo: AP / Lee Jin-man

Togolese Student killed

Lome – A 12-year-old boy in Togo was killed on Monday by police who fired in warning to disperse a protest demanding the country’s schools re-open as demonstrations over the closures spread across the country, a statement said. The west African

 

 

 

Bahraini anti-government protesters block a road with burning debris to slow approaching riot police in Sanabis, Bahrain, Monday, April 15, 2013.

REEM KHALIFA Associated Press= MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Police in Bahrain’s capital have raided a boys’ high school and fired tear gas in clashes with students angry over a fellow student’s arrest the day…
photo: AP / Hasan Jamali

 

A South Korean man watches a TV news showing a file footage of North Korea's nuclear test at the Seoul train station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013.

April 16, 2013 — Updated 0828 GMT (1628 HKT) Are you from South or North Korea? Send us your views. (CNN) — North Korea is raising the temperature on its neighbors, saying in its latest threat that it would not give any advance warning before any…
photo: AP / Lee Jin-man

 

A Syrian man walks by a house destroyed in a Syrian government bombing last week that killed more than 40 people, in Azaz, on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Aug. 24, 2012.

The heads of five major UN agencies have issued a rare joint appeal to the international community to do much more to end “cruelty and carnage” in Syria. In a statement, the chiefs of the WHO, Unicef, Ocha, WFP and UNHCR urged political…
photo: AP / Muhammed Muheisen

 

President Barack Obama holds Chaplain (Captain) Emil Kapaun's Easter stole in the Oval Office during a greet with Kapaun's family in the Oval Office, April 11, 2013. The President and First Lady Michelle Obama met with members of Chaplain Kapaun's family before awarding him the Medal of Honor  posthumously during a ceremony in the East Room.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A stony-faced President Barack Obama declared that those responsible for the explosions at the Boston Marathon “will feel the full weight of justice,” but he urged a nervous nation not to jump to conclusions. Top lawmakers declared…
photo: White House / Pete Souza

 

In this photo taken Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010 and made available Monday, Nov. 8, 2010, joint Sudanese-Chadian border patrol forces in trucks are seen from the air with local residents on horseback near Seleah in West Darfur, Sudan. The Liberals and Reform Movement, which has about 600 militiamen and wields influence in the Seleah area of Darfur along the Chadian border, has pledged to help Sudan's government tackle weapons smuggling across the troubled border with Chad, according to a local official.

Chad’s president says his country’s troops are pulling out of Mali three months after the French-led mission to oust militants linked to Al Qaeda began, raising questions about how feasible the planned French pullout will be if France
photo: AP / Abd Raouf

 

Karim Wade

Police in Senegal have arrested the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade on suspicion of corruption. Karim Wade is suspected of illegally amassing about $1.4bn (£900m) during his father’s rule, his lawyers said. Karim was a senior minister…
photo: flickr

 

Barack Obama speaks in Cairo, Egypt 06-04-09.jpg President Barack Obama speaks at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, 4 June 2009(2009-06-04). In his speech, President Obama called for a 'new beginning between the United States and Muslims', decla

 

Share 0 President Obama vowed justice today for the bombing that killed at least two people at the Boston Marathon. “We still do not know who did this or why, and people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts, but make no…

 

photo: Public Domain / Gage

 

 

Chavismo outlives Chavez in Venezuela

15 Apr 2013
Nicolas Maduro has cemented his position as Venezuela‘s president, winning a razor-thin mandate on Sunday, but the former bus driver seems unwilling to step out from the shadow of his larger-than-life predecessor to govern a country wracked by problems and possibilities. Describing himself as a “son” of former president Hugo Chavez who died…
Venezuela's newly elected President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Attorney General Cilia Flores celebrate after the official results of the presidential elections were announced, at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, April 14, 2013.

 

 

 


German bakery blast: Pune court to give verdict today

Tweet Pune, Apr 15 (ANI): A court in Pune will give its verdict today on a man who allegedly plotted the bomb blast at the city’s German Bakery in February 2010, in which 17 people were killed and 64 others were…
photo: Creative Commons / KevinScott.Org

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is greeted by Chinese President Xi Jinping upon entering the Fujian Room at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on April 13, 2013.

Secretary of State John Kerry has said the US is open to “credible and authentic negotiations” with North Korea over its nuclear policy. Kerry is in Japan on the final day of a four-day tour of the region. Kerry said Monday in Tokyo that the US will…
photo: US DoS

Somali soldiers carry a wounded civilian from the entrance of Mogadishu’s court complex after being injured during a siege by militants, in Mogadishu, Somalia, Sunday, April 14, 2013.

At least 16 people were killed as two car bombs exploded outside the law courts in Somalia‘s capital Mogadishu and gunmen stormed the building , before a gunbattle erupted with security forces besieging the compound, witnesses said. A large blast hit…
photo: AP / Farah Abdi Warsameh
Tweet Kabul, April 14 (IANS) Ten Taliban militants have been killed in military operations across Afghanistan Since Saturday, the interior ministry…
photo: US Navy / Josh Ives

Fort Drum, former Griffiss Air Force Base eyed as possible home for missile defense site

WashingtonCentral or Northern New York could become the site of a sprawling, $3.6 billion development that would bring the region hundreds of new jobs for well-paid engineers and technicians. But there’s one big catch: The community would have to…
photo: US DoD / Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaks during an annual rally commemorating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, which toppled the late pro-U.S. Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. In his statements to the rally, Ahmadinejad said he is ready to have direct talks with United States if the West stops pressuring his country.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, is beginning a visit to West Africa that will take him to Benin, Ghana and Niger, the world’s fourth-largest uranium producer, Iranian media have reported. The Fars news agency said Ahmadinejad‘s trip would…
photo: AP / Vahid Salemi

China: Reports of bird flu in humans reach 51

April 14, 2013 — Updated 0512 GMT (1312 HKT) Officials in Hong Kong test poultry at the border with mainland China on April 11 as authorities step up measures against the spread of the deadly H7N9 bird flu. Empty cages are seen at a closed bird…

 

 

 

10 militants killed in Afghan raids

Tweet Kabul, April 14 (IANS) Ten Taliban militants have been killed in military operations across Afghanistan Since Saturday, the interior ministry…
photo: US Navy / Josh Ives

 

Fort Drum, former Griffiss Air Force Base eyed as possible home for missile defense site

WashingtonCentral or Northern New York could become the site of a sprawling, $3.6 billion development that would bring the region hundreds of new jobs for well-paid engineers and technicians. But there’s one big catch: The community would have to…
photo: US DoD / Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaks during an annual rally commemorating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, which toppled the late pro-U.S. Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. In his statements to the rally, Ahmadinejad said he is ready to have direct talks with United States if the West stops pressuring his country.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, is beginning a visit to West Africa that will take him to Benin, Ghana and Niger, the world’s fourth-largest uranium producer, Iranian media have reported. The Fars news agency said Ahmadinejad‘s trip would…
photo: AP / Vahid Salemi

 

China: Reports of bird flu in humans reach 51

April 14, 2013 — Updated 0512 GMT (1312 HKT) Officials in Hong Kong test poultry at the border with mainland China on April 11 as authorities step up measures against the spread of the deadly H7N9 bird flu. Empty cages are seen at a closed bird…
photo: UN / UN

 

Peruvian policemen stand around the body of a victim of a bus that crashed in Arequipa, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009. According to police, 26 people died and nearly 100 are injured because of two crashes in southern Peru, one involving two buses smashing into a truck. Two Spaniards and one Italian are among those reported injured.

At least 34 people were killed and many others wounded after a bus plunged 200 metres down a ravine in northern Peru, police have said. The bus veered off a mountain road near the town of Otuzco almost 570km north of the capital of Lima,…
photo: AP

 

The Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) will operate in Papua New Guinea to perform humanitarian civic assistance missions as part of Pacific Partnership 2008.

A 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck 74 kilometers west of Bougainville island in Papua New Guinea on Sunday but there were no immediate reports of…
photo: US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Joshua Valcarcel (

 

Ciudad del Vatican - El Cardenal Giuseppe Bertello, presidente de la Gobernación del Estado Vaticano, durante la Quinta Congregación General de Cardenales en el Aula Pablo VI. (Foto: Gustavo Kralj/Gaudium Press)

 

VATICAN CITYPope Francis named eight cardinals from around the globe Saturday to advise him on running the Catholic Church and reforming the Vatican bureaucracy, marking his first month as pope with a major initiative to reflect the universal…

 

 

 

 The Challenge to CHAVEZ MACHINE

 

 

 

 

 

Lion Air

FIRDIA LISNAWATI= BALI, Indonesia (AP) — A Lion Air plane carrying more than 100 passengers and crew overshot a runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday and crashed into the sea, injuring nearly two dozen people, officials said. I…
photo: Public Domain / Lionlmi

 

File - In this Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, file photo, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is wheeled into court in Cairo, Egypt.

Cairo: The retrial of Egypt‘s former president Hosni Mubarak was set to begin on Saturday in Cairo, after an appeal against the life sentence handed down against him last June was accepted. Television footage showed Mubarak, dressed in white and…
photo: AP / Mohammed al-Law

 

The Bund, built in the 1860s - 1930s. Hy?go Port was opened to foreign trade by the government of the Bakufu at the same time as Osaka on 1 January 1868, just before the advent of the Boshin war and the Meiji restoration.

TOKYO: A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit western Japan early Saturday but there was no risk of a tsunami, the country’s meteorological agency reported. The quake struck at 5:33 am (2033 GMT on Friday) near Awaji island in the Seto Inland Sea
photo: Creative Commons / 663highland

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds documents after signing a Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation in Antarctica with his U.S. counterpart Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Vladivostok, Russia

Russia would eventually support an international war crimes tribunal for Syria, Russia’s foreign minister has said. Russia has been one of the Syria’s closest allies since the conflict began more than two years ago. “At this stage, I think the…
photo: AP / Jim Watson, Pool

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at a news conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, not pictured, at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London on Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, during Kerry’s first official trip overseas as secretary.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is due in China, where he is expected to urge Beijing to use its influence over North Korea to rein in its belligerence. Ahead of the visit, Mr Kerry said that a policy of denuclearisation shared by the US and China…
photo: AP / Jacquelyn Martin, Pool

 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., talks about Libya and the importance of U.S. foreign policy in the Mideast, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared before the panel, Wednesday, March 2, 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned North Korea that it would be a “huge mistake” to test launch a medium-range missile and said the United States would never accept the reclusive country as a nuclear power. Addressing reporters after talks…
photo: AP / J. Scott Applewhite

 

Egyptian Minister of Defense, Lt. Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, left, meets with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi at the presidential headquarters in Cairo

 

CAIRO — With the Islamist president by his side, Egypt‘s army chief warned against slandering the military, denying in remarks broadcast Friday that the military committed any abuses against protesters during the turbulent transition of the past two…

 

 

 

Afghanistan’s fractured future

12 Apr 2013
By Shahab Jafry Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. if you are interested in contributing. Despite the longevity of America‘s Afghan campaign, including the spillover into Pakistan’s tribal area, few in the international press really understand the true nature of the Taliban threat,…
An Afghan Local Police officer fires a machine gun during live-fire training conducted by Afghan National Police officers in Helmand province, Afghanistan, March 26, 2013.

 

A woman holds a candle along with a poster of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez at a candlelight vigil to pray for his health as he remains in a hospital undergoing cancer treatment, in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013.

 

The late Hugo Chavez’s self-declared socialist revolution will be put to the test at a presidential election on Sunday that pits his chosen successor against a younger rival promising change in the nation he polarised. Most opinion polls give his…

 

photo: AP / Ariana Cubillos

 

Students demonstrate during a protest in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011.

Chilean students are staging nationwide demonstrations demanding free education. Riot police are patrolling the streets of…
photo: AP / Luis Hidalgo

 

Orthodox Jewish   women praying in the Western Wall tunnels. This is a spot in the tunnel where Jewish women can be physically the closest to the holy of holies, so they face it in that direction and pray at the wall.

Israeli police detained five women activists on Thursday at the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s most sacred sites, for wearing prayer shawls, which Orthodox tradition sees as solely for men, a spokesman said. The incident occurred during a monthly…
photo: Creative Commons / David Shankbone

 

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, left, and Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, right, arrive for a joint press conference as part of a meeting at the Foreign Office in Berlin, Germany

Ramallah: Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad has prepared a letter of resignation which he will submit to president Mahmud Abbas today, a senior Palestinian official said. Abbas and Fayyad are known to have been at loggerheads over a raft of…
photo: AP / Michael Sohn

 

 Supporters of Venezuela´s President Hugo Chavez attend a rally in Caracas, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007, as

Caracas – The late Hugo Chavez‘s self-declared socialist revolution will be put to the test at a presidential election on Sunday that pits his chosen successor against a younger rival promising change in the nation he polarised. Most opinion polls…
photo: AP Photo

 

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez stands in of front of a Falklands Islands' map at Government Palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday Feb. 7, 2012.

 

The guest list for Baroness Thatcher‘s funeral is expected to be released later, and it has already emerged Argentina‘s president is not invited. Cristina Kirchner, who has repeatedly called for the Falkland Islands to be handed to Argentina, will…

 

photo: AP / Eduardo Di Baia

 

 

In this June 28, 2011 file photo, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Palestinian officials said Thursday, April 11, 2013

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian officials say Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has offered his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas as part of an increasingly bitter conflict over authority. The officials say Abbas has not responded to…
photo: AP / Majdi Mohammed

 

NATO to expand counter-drugs training project

Tweet Brussels, April 11 (IANS/RIA Novosti) As part of a NATO-Russia project in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, counter-narcotics personnel training will be expanded within the next few years,…
photo: US Army / Shane Hamann

 

Syrians check the damage of a destroyed school after it was hit by an air strike killing six Syrians in town of Tal Rifat on the outskirts of Aleppo city, Syria, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012.

The Syrian Air Force is carrying out both deliberate air strikes against civilians and indiscriminate attacks, a leading rights group has warned. Human Rights Watch says it visited 52 sites in north-western Syria, documenting 59 such unlawful…
photo: AP / Khalil Hamra

 

US State Department budget to spend more on East Asia, Pacific programs

THE US State Department has proposed a $47.8 billion budget with increases for East Asia and Pacific programs, while cutting budgets for Iraq and Afghanistan. The budget, which is six per cent less than in 2012, also includes more funds for embassy…
photo: US DoD / Bobby J. Yarbrough

 

Pentagon confirms Carson deployment plans

The Pentagon confirmed its plan on Wednesday to send the headquarters of Fort Carson‘s 4th Infantry Division to Afghanistan. About 450 soldiers with…
photo: USMC / Pete Thibodeau

 

Indian Railway - Train - Rail - Tuticorin Railway Station - India - Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI, Tamil Nadu — One person was killed and at least 27 people were injured early Wednesday morning after the derailment of nearly half of the coaches of a 24-car train traveling from the eastern state of Bihar to the southern state of…
photo: WN / Raj Kumar Senapati

 

President Barack Obama, foreground, and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney participate in the second presidential debate at Hofstra University, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012, in Hempstead, N.Y.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) President Barack Obama is sending Congress a $3.8 trillion spending blueprint that strives to achieve a “grand bargain” to tame runaway deficits. It would raise taxes on the wealthy and trim popular benefit programs including as…

 

photo: AP / Mary Altaffer

 

 

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi swears in newly-appointed vice president, a former senior judge, Mahmoud Mekki, in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012.

The leader of Egypt‘s Coptic Christians has accused the country’s president of “negligence” following deadly clashes outside the main cathedral in Cairo. Pope Tawadros II said Mohammed Morsi had failed to protect the building, where two people died…
photo: AP / Egyptian Presidency

 

Public execution of a woman

The use of the death penalty is broadly diminishing around the world although a handful of countries that had not used capital punishment for several years resumed executions in 2012, according to Amnesty International. Methods of executions in 2012…
photo: Creative Commons

 

Russian Orthodox Church interim leader Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad addresses the Russian Orthodox Church National Council in Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedra in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009.A group of 711 of the church's faithful convened Tuesday for the start of the first election of a patriarch since the fall of the officially atheist Soviet U

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, said Tuesday that feminism was a “very dangerous” phenomenon offering an illusion of freedom to women who should focus on their families and children. About three-quarters of…
photo: AP / Alexander Zemlianichenko

 

Libyan volunteers clean their weapons on the outskirts of the eastern town of Brega, Libya, Monday, March 7, 2011. Libyan warplanes launched multiple air strikes Monday on opposition fighters regrouping at an oil port on the Mediterranean coast, the second day of a harsh government counteroffensive to thwart a rebel advance toward Moammar Gadhafi's stronghold in the capital Tripoli.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.N. panel says Libyan weapons are spreading at “an alarming rate” to new territories in west Africa and the eastern Mediterranean including Syria and the Gaza Strip where they…
photo: AP / Tara Todras-Whitehill

 

Vice President Joe Biden gestures as he speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013

NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden says he refuses to believe a small group of senators will block a vote on gun legislation. The vice president says…
photo: AP / Charles Dharapak

 

Victims of an earthquake sit over the bodies of their loved ones who were killed in the city of Varzaqan in northwestern Iran, on Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012.

A powerful Iran earthquake killed at least 32 people and injured nearly 1,000 on Tuesday. CNN shared the details on April 9 of the quake that hit in southern Iran with a magnitude of 6.3. The Iran earthquake left the Bushehr nuclear plant undamaged,…
photo: AP / Hamed Nazari

 

In this photo taken, Nov. 2, 2010, a veteran member of the Taliban smokes a cigarette as he speaks to The Associated Press in Afghanistan, Nov 2, 2010. The longtime member said scribbled notes from Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar have surfaced in mosques all over Afghanistan's ethnic Pashtun heartland, threatening death to anyone who takes up a government offer to negotiate for peace. Trying to quash rumors of a break in their ranks, the Taliban have also vehemently denied reports _ including one by The Associated Press _ that representatives of the militant group were involved in negotiations with the Afghan government. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

DOHA, Qatar — When a handful of Taliban emissaries flew into Qatar on an American plane in 2010, the Obama administration hoped they would help negotiate a peace deal that could stabilize Afghanistan and allow the United States a graceful exit…

 

Leading democracy advocate Mohammed ElBaradei speaks to a handful of journalists including the Associated Press saying dialogue with Egypt's Islamist president is not possible until he rescinds his decrees giving himself near absolute powers, at his home on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012.

After Egypt’s worst sectarian violence in months left seven dead the past two days, Egypt’s leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei on Monday called on the Islamist president to make serious concessions to bring the opposition into…
photo: AP / Thomas Hartwell

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hold a news conference after their talks at the Chancellery in Berlin on Friday, Jan.16, 2009.

Hanover, April 08: Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for calm on the Korean peninsula, saying the escalation of tension in the region could lead to a nuclear disaster far worse than the Chernobyl incident. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster,…
photo: AP / Herbert Knosowski

 

Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand, second right, remonstrates with Manchester City's Gareth Barry, center, during their English Premier League soccer match at Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester, England, Monday, April 8, 2013.

The substitute Sergio Agüero slalomed through the defense to score the go-ahead goal in the 78th minute, giving Manchester City a 2-1 win at rival Manchester United on Monday night that cut their Premier League deficit to 12 points with seven…
photo: AP / Jon Super

 

 Filip Vujanovic, President of the Republic of Montenegro, addressing the General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York. The Republic of Montenegro was admitted as the 192nd member of the United Nations, by a General Assembly resolution adopted by accla

Incumbent Filip Vujanovic has won the presidential election in the tiny Balkan nation of Montenegro. The president of the election commission, Ivan
photo: UN /Paulo Filgueiras

 

International donors pledge billions for recovery of Darfur

8 April 2013The International Donor Conference for Reconstruction and Development in Darfur wrapped up today with calls from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the Government of Sudan to demonstrate its commitment to the region and to…
photo: martine perret / UNMISS

 

Diplomat killed in Afghanistan 'was the rock of our team'

Risks come with serving as a U.S. diplomat in the Middle East, but Anne Smedinghoff hardly dwelled on them and took all the precautions while in the field, her colleagues said Monday. “I think for Anne, (the risks are) what she saw as part of the…
photo: US Army / Ryan Hallgarth

 

Margaret Thatcher opening the University of Warwick Science Park in 1984.

 

By CASSELL BRYAN-LOW LONDONGlobal and political leaders across the world remembered former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who died on Monday, as a leader who altered the U.K.‘s political and economic landscape and shaped global relations,…

 

 

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks speaks to the media and members of the public from a balcony at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Assange who faces extradition to Sweden over sexual assault, claims which he denies, took refuge in the embassy in June.

Julian Assange says 1973-76 reports, including many by Henry Kissinger, show vast range and scope of US activity Julian Assange said WikiLeaks had been working for a year to analyse US national archives data. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters…
photo: AP / Kirsty Wigglesworth)

 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon .

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged North Korea not to carry out a new nuclear test, saying it would be a “provocative” act amid…
photo: UN / Eskinder Debebe

 

South Koreans watch a television broadcasting undated image a North Korea launch missile at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 26, 2009.

North Korea may be preparing for a fourth nuclear test, South Korean officials say. South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae told lawmakers there are “signs” of increased…
photo: AP / Ahn Young-joon

 

Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel empfängt Wladimir Putin, Ministerpräsident Russland, mit militärischen Ehren im Bundeskanzleramt.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for Russia to give a chance to non-governmental organisations (NGOs). She spoke during a visit to Germany by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has backed a series of investigations into foreign-funded…
photo: REGIERUNGonline / Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung

 

Afghanistan: NATO Air Strike Kills 10 Children

KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO airstrike killed 11 Afghan civilians, including 10 children, during a fierce weekend gunbattle with Taliban militants that also left one U.S. civilian adviser dead in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said Sunday. The…
photo: US Army / Kelvin Lovelist

 

China wades into Korean peninsula tensions

China has added its voice to the growing tensions in the Korean peninsula, saying no country should cause global chaos after the US postponed a missile test to ease war fears. Xi Jinping, the president of China, North Korea‘s financial and…
photo: UN / Rick Bajornas

 

Korea tensions delay US missile test, cancel commander trip

 

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — Heightened tensions with North Korea have led the United States to postpone congressional testimony by the top U.S. military commander in South Korea and delay an intercontinental ballistic missile test from a West Coast base….

 

Indian policemen taking out the wrapped body of a woman tourist from a boat in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir, 06 April 2013. A British woman holidaying on a houseboat on Dal Lake in Srinagar was found dead earlier in the day, allegedly stabbed to death by a Dutch tourist, news reports said. The suspect was arrested by police.

Dutch national arrested on suspicion of murder of Sarah Groves, 24, who was found dead on a houseboat on Saturday Sarah Groves, from Guernsey, was found with multiple stab wounds all over her body. Photograph: Handout/EPA Police in India are…
photo: WN / Imran Nissar

 

Venezuela's interim President Nicolas Maduro clenches his fist to greet supporters from the top of a vehicle as he campaigns in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, April 5, 2013.

The acting president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has put a curse on citizens who do not vote for him in next week’s election. He likened his main rival candidate, Henrique Capriles, to Spanish conquerors fighting indigenous people in the 16th
photo: AP / Ariana Cubillos

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry board a second plane after their original aircraft had mechanical problems on April 6, 2013, at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Turkey, where he will hold talks expected to address relations with Israel and the conflict in Syria. After helping broker a reconciliation between Turkey and Israel, Mr Kerry will urge them to…
photo: AP / Paul J. Richards

 

Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, speaks to the press, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, March 9, 2013. Hagel is traveling to Afghanistan on his first trip as the 24th Secretary of Defense to visit U.S. Troops, NATO leaders, and Afghan counterparts.

Chuck Hagel reportedly decides to delay Minuteman 3 test because of concerns the launch could be misinterpreted The tail of an unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile launched from Vandenberg air base in California in 2005. Photograph:…
photo: US DoD / Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

 

A U.S. soldier reacts after a suicide car bomb explosion which occurred near the main gate of NATO's headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday Aug. 15, 2009.

Militants killed six Americans and an Afghan doctor in a pair of attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday, the deadliest day for the United States in the war in eight months. The violence — hours after the U.S. military‘s top officer arrived for…
photo: AP / Saurabh Das

 

Former South African President Nelson Mandela, reacts as he leaves the launch of a Walter and Albertina Sisulu exhibition, called, 'Parenting a Nation', at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, March 12, 2008.

0 From the Associated Press AP April 6, 2013, 9:36 a.m. Former President Nelson Mandela was discharged from a hospital on Saturday following treatment for pneumonia, the presidency said in news that cheered South Africans who had waited tensely for…
photo: AP / Themba Hadebe

 

WFP and Yemen sign food aid agreement, but funding remains low (Photos)

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced today it had signed two agreements with Yemen‘s government on feeding five million people in the impoverished country. Implementation of the agreement will depend on funding received from the international..

 

 

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris responds to questions on the ongoing investigation of evidence tampering in the city's crime lab in San Francisco, Friday, April 23, 2010.

President Obama apologized Friday to California Attorney General Kamala Harris for comments he made about her physical beauty at a Bay Area fundraiser the day before. At the gathering Thursday in Atherton, Obama introduced Harris, saying, “You have…
photo: AP / Marcio Jose Sanchez

Indonesian scientists look at a computer screen showing the spikes on the seismograph caused by early Sunday's earthquake near the town of Manokwari, Papua province, at a meteorological office in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009.

Jayapura: A major 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the eastern Indonesian province of Papua on Saturday, the US Geological Survey said, sending panicked crowds running into the streets. There were no immediate reports…
photo: AP / Dita Alangkara

Activists of Hifazat-e Islam shout slogans during a rally in support of the Long March, a march from Chittagong to Dhaka, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, April 5, 2013.

Islamist groups in Bangladesh are to hold a rally in the capital, Dhaka, calling for tough curbs on bloggers who insult Islam. Thousands of activists have staged a “long march” from around the country to take part in the rally. A…
photo: AP / A.M. Ahad

A radiation detection device sits as new evacuees arrive for screening at an evacuee center for leaked radiation from the damaged Fukushima nuclear facilities, Monday, March 21, 2011, in Fukushima, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Despite living in such proximity to the Fukushima nuclear facility, evacuees at the shelter had never had an emergency drill to prepare them for a nuclear disaster.

TOKYO, April 6 (Reuters) – As much as 120 tons of radioactive water may have leaked from a storage tank at Japan‘s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, contaminating the surrounding ground, Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Saturday. The power company has…
photo: AP / Wally Santana

A U.S. Navy ship's serviceman, a Joint Detention Group barber attached to the Navy Expeditionary Guard Battalion, prepares to trim a detainee's beard at Camp VI, Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Feb. 10, 2011.

Posted: April 5, 2013 Guantanamo Bay prison camp should close, according to the UN rights chief on Friday. Navi Pillay stated that the hunger strike being stagey by some inmates that the naval base in southeastern Cuba was “scarcely…
photo: US Navy / MCS1 David P. Coleman

In this photo taken Tuesday, April 2, 2013 Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an interview with the German ARD television in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia. Putin has dismissed Western criticism of his government's raids of non-government organizations, saying they must account for their foreign funds.

Tweet Moscow, April 6 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russia is not looking to oust Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and wants the conflicting parties to negotiate and stop the “massacre”, putting an end to the “catastrophe” in Syria, Russian President Vladimir
photo: AP / RIA-Novosti

In this image from video, a victim is treated in hospital after being electrocuted Saturday Feb. 13, 2010, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, when an electrical cable fell onto a passenger bus, electrocuting those inside the bus, and other people nearby, killing at least 20 people, police said. The overhead cable fell onto the bus during heavy rains that have pummeled southern Nigeria. The death toll is likely to increase according to those at the hospital. ** TV OUT **

BENIN, Nigeria, April 5 (Xinhua) — At least 60 people lost their lives on Friday in a road accident which occurred on Benin- Ore road located in southern Nigeria,…

A vender waits for the customers at a poultry market in Shanghai, China on Friday, April 5, 2013.

China has begun a mass slaughter of poultry at a market in Shanghai, after a new bird flu virus was detected there. The H7N9 virus, a form of avian flu not before seen in humans, was discovered in pigeons…
photo: AP / Eugene Hoshiko

Syrian army defectors secure a street near an anti-Syrian regime protest in the Deir Baghlaba area of Homs province, central Syria, on Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad barraged residential buildings with mortars and machine-gun fire, killing at least 30 people, including a family of women and children during a day of sectarian killings and kidnappings in the besieged Syrian city of Homs, activists said Friday. (AP Photo)

Moscow: Syria is turning into a “centre of gravity” for international terrorists as the ongoing civil war between rebels and government forces continues, a top Russian
photo: AP

U.S. Marines with 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment patrol the streets of Marjah in Helmand province, Afghanistan, on Dec. 17, 2010.

There is exactly one year to go before Afghans are asked to go to the polls to elect a new president, and just months later Nato combat troops will finish their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Last weekend, Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Qatar to…
photo: Public Domain / Petty Officer 2nd Class Kevin S. O’Brien, U.S. Navy

Soldiers from South Africa forming part of the military personnel of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) attend a funeral service .

Isotope seized in Georgia too small for dirty bomb 8 minutes ago Iran, 6 powers meet Thursday for nuclear talks 8 minutes ago South African military to withdraw troops in CAR 13 minutes ago Iran, 6 powers meet Thursday…
photo: UN / Stuart Price

In this April 5, 2009 image released by Korean Central News Agency on April 9, 2009, via Korea News Service in Tokyo, a missile from Musudan-ri, North Korea is seen before its launch.

SEOUL, South KoreaNorth Korea has moved a missile with “considerable range” to its east coast, South Korea’s defense minister said Thursday, but he added that there are no signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a full-scale conflict. The report…
photo: AP / Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service

A security guard wearing a protective mask as a precaution against swine flu, stands guard behind a security cordon at the the entrance of a the Home Inn Hotel, where China's second confirmed Swine Flu patient is believed to have been lodged in Beijing , China, Wednesday, May 13, 2009.

A fourth person has died of human H7N9 avian flu infection in China and another person is in hospital after contracting the virus, Chinese health officials announced on Thursday. These infections bring the death toll to four and the total number of…
photo: AP / Elizabeth Dalziel

UN: Northern Mali remains volatile

New YorkThe United Nations on Wednesday expressed concern over reprisal attacks against ethnic Tuaregs and Arabs in Mali, where a French-led intervention recently routed Islamist rebels. The United States, meanwhile, called for a rapid transition…