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10.26.12   Afghan mosque suicide bombing kills 41
KABUL,October26 -
A suicide bomber killed at least 41 people and wounded 34 when he struck inside a mosque in Maymana city in northern Afghanistan during Eid al-Azha prayers on Friday, officials said. The attacker was wearing a police uniform when he blew himself up in the crowded Eid Gah mosque in the provincial capital of Faryab province, deputy provincial governor Abdul Satar Barez told AFP. "As a result of the explosion, 41 people are dead including 17 civilians and 15 police and intelligence agents. The provincial police chief, Abdul Khaliq Aqsai is among the wounded," he said. Most provincial government officials were also at the mosque, which was crowded on the first day of the four-day holiday for the Muslim festival of Eid. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suicide bombings are a favorite weapon of Taliban trying to topple the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. Northern Afghanistan is relatively peaceful, with the Taliban, who were ousted from power in a US-led invasion in 2001, concentrating their operations in the south and east of the country. But they have recently stepped up their activities in the north, despite the presence of more than 100,000 NATO troops in the country.  [>thenews.com.pk]

10.26.12   Fukushima nuclear plant 'is still leaking'
October 26 -
High radiation levels found in fish caught off Japan's east coast could mean the Fukushima nuclear plant is still leaking, according to research. Marine chemist Ken Buesseler reviewed official data on atomic caesium levels in fish, shellfish and seaweed collected near the crippled plant. He concluded lingering contamination may be due to low-level leaks from the facility or contaminated sediment on the ocean floor. The research was published on Thursday in the American journal Science. Mr. Buesseler found, while the vast majority of the catch off Japan's northeast coast is well within safety limits, some fish caught near Fukushima are considered unfit for consumption under Japanese regulations.  [More>>news.sky.com]

10.26.12   Myanmar says ethnic strife killed 67
(AFP) October 26 -
At least 112 people have been killed and thousands of homes torched in Buddhist-Muslim violence in western Myanmar, casting a shadow over the reformist government’s attempts to remake the country’s international image. People have fled their homes in droves following the latest clashes in Rakhine state, which was rocked by communal violence in June that split communities and left tens of thousands of mainly Muslim Rohingya living in camps. "Up until this morning, 51 men and 61 women have died," a spokesman for Rakhine state Win Myaing said, doubling an earlier toll. The dead were from both sides, he added, while scores more were wounded as violence engulfed four townships. More than 200 people have now been killed in the state since June, according to the authorities, who have imposed emergency rule in the face of continued explosive tension in the region.  [More>>alarabiya.net]

10.07.12   Terror alert for Americans in Pakistan
October 7 -
The US embassy in Islamabad warns Americans to avoid key city center buildings amid heightened tensions over drone protests.  Americans living or working in the Pakistan capital have been warned to stay away from government buildings and major hotels because of a terror threat. The US embassy in Islamabad flagged up a general threat from the country’s interior ministry that warned of terrorist attacks aimed at certain city center visitors. Among the potential targets are hotels popular with US visitors, including the Marriott, Holiday Inn, Best Western, and the Margalla Motel. It came as thousands of Pakistanis, joined by US anti-war activists, headed towards Pakistan’s volatile tribal region to protest American drone strikes for a second day.

The rally was led by cricket star turned politician Imran Khan and his political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Factions of the Taliban had threatened to attack protesters, with one calling Khan a "slave of the West". The embassy warning did not specify whether the threats were related to the drone protests. Khan has harshly criticized the Pakistani government's cooperation with Washington in the fight against Islamist militants. He has been especially outspoken against US drone strikes targeting militants and has argued that the country's alliance with Washington is the main reason Pakistan is facing a homegrown Taliban insurgency. Pakistan's tribal regions, such as North and South Waziristan, border Afghanistan and serve as bases for militant groups such as the Taliban to stage raids across the border into Afghanistan. The protest convoy of about 150 cars set out on Saturday from the capital Islamabad, traveled 250 miles and then stopped overnight in the city of Dera Ismail Khan.

The plan for the second and final day was to travel another 70 miles to reach Kotkai in South Waziristan by early afternoon and stage a rally there. But authorities blocked their path with shipping containers on the highway. The group was turned back just miles from the border of South Waziristan. After an hour of fruitless negotiations, Mr. Khan announced that the caravan would backtrack to the city of Tank, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) away. The US says its drone strikes are necessary to battle militants that Pakistan has been unable or unwilling to control.  [>news.sky.com; See also aljazeera.com, October 7,  "Pakistani authorities halt anti-drone protest."


10.07.12   Home-grown terror suspects spark French alert
October 7 - The shooting of suspected terrorist Jérémie Louis-Sidney Saturday has raised alarm in France, not only because of terrorism fears, but also because he was a home-grown militant. Sidney was shot during a raid in a large scale police operation. For Jérémie Louis-Sidney, France’s latest home-grown terror suspect, the end came swiftly and violently. On Saturday morning, the 33-year-old Frenchman was sitting on a couch in a Strasbourg apartment when special anti-terror police officers stormed into the premises, according to police sources. Sidney immediately fired at them with a .357 Magnum, emptying his Smith & Wesson pistol barrel before he was shot dead by police. Three police officers were injured
including one who was shot in the chest and another in the head. They were both protected by their helmets and body armor.

Sidney, a recent convert to Islam, was in the home of "one of his two religious wives"
a 22-year-old woman and her six-year-old daughter and a one-month-old infant, according to Paris prosecutor Francois Molins. But not much is known about the man at the heart of Saturday’s nationwide anti-terror raids that resulted in Sidney’s death and the arrests of 11 other terror suspects. French police say Sidney was a suspect in the September 19 bombing of a kosher grocery store in the gritty northern Parisian suburb of Sarcelles. Saturday’s crackdown was directed at a suspected Salafist network believed to be behind the kosher grocery bombing, which was conducted by "a low-grade explosive device". One person was lightly injured in the attack, which caused considerable alarm among France’s Jewish community.

According to police sources, DNA identified on the grenade was traced to Sidney, who had been under surveillance since last spring. The kosher grocery bombing and the subsequent anti-terror raids come at a time of heightened security across France following the publication of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed in a French satirical weekly. The publication came days after violent demonstrations against an anti-Islam film produced in the US broke out across the Muslim world.  [More>>france24.com]

10.07.12   28 militants killed in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan, October 7 -  The Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs on Sunday said that the police forces, backed by the army and the NATO-led coalition forces, have eliminated 28 Taliban militants in different provinces within the past 24 hours. "Afghan National Police (ANP) in collaboration with the army and coalition forces launched 17 cleanup operations in Kabul, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kapisa, Kunduz, Faryab, Wardak, Ghazni and Paktika provinces, killing 28 armed Taliban militants over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement. The ANP also detained 13 suspected militants besides seizing weapons and ammunition in the above raids, the statement added, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces. The Taliban insurgents, who have been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, have yet to confirm the death of their men. The security forces have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants throughout the country recently but the insurgents in retaliation responded by carrying out bombings and laying out ambushes against them. On Saturday, two US soldiers with the coalition were killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan, the coalition confirmed in a statement.  [>thenews.com.pk]

10.05.12   UN council condemns Aleppo attacks as rebels down helicopter gunship
October 5 - The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously condemned what it described as "terrorist attacks" in the Syrian city of Aleppo earlier this week, a series of coordinated suicide bombings which killed 48 people in the northern metropolis.  "The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks in Aleppo, Syria on 3 October, causing dozens of deaths and over one hundred civilians injured, responsibility for which was claimed by the Jebhat al-Nusra group affiliated with al-Qaeda," the 15-nation council said in a non-binding statement, according to Reuters. Car bombs exploded on Wednesday near a military officer’s club and outside a gate to Aleppo’s Old City, killing dozens of people and wounding more than 100 in Syria’s second largest city. The city has been a focal point of bitter fighting between Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebels trying to oust his regime.


Meanwhile, Syrian rebels downed a helicopter gunship on Friday in eastern Damascus province, home to some of the rebel Free Syrian Army’s fiercest and best organized battalions, a monitoring group said. "It emerged that the rebels downed a helicopter gunship over the town of Saqba in the Eastern Ghuta area," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Initially, the Observatory had reported that the aircraft was a fighter jet. As many as 55 people have been killed by the fire of Syrian forces across the country on Friday, the Observatory said. Thousands of people demonstrated across Syria on Friday despite ongoing violence, calling for the arming of the rebel Free Syrian Army and condemning the international community’s inaction, monitors reported.   [More>>alarabiya.net]

10.05.12  Turkey warns 'not far' from war after Syrian attack
ISTANBUL/BEIRUT(Reuters) October 5 - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday his country was "not far" from war with Syria following cross-border attacks this week 
—  words which highlighted the danger that the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Asaad will drag in its neighbors.  In a belligerent speech to a crowd in Istanbul, Erdogan warned the Assad government it would be making a fatal mistake if it picked a fight with Turkey. The speech followed a Syrian mortar barrage on a town in southeast Turkey that killed five people on Tuesday. Turkish artillery bombarded Syrian military targets on Wednesday and Thursday in response, killing several Syrian soldiers, and the Turkish parliament has authorized cross-border military action in the event of further aggression. "We are not interested in war, but we're not far from it either," Erdogan said in his speech. "Those who attempt to test Turkey's deterrence, its decisiveness, its capacity, I say here they are making a fatal mistake." At the United Nations, the Security Council condemned the original Syrian attack and demanded that such violations of international law stop immediately.  [More>>thestar.com.my]

09.26.12   Syrian rebels bomb army command in Damascus
BEIRUT, Lebanon (Reuters) September 26 - A Syrian rebel bomb attack reduced the army headquarters in Damascus to a smoldering wreck on Wednesday as world leaders, unable to break the diplomatic deadlock in the conflict, met at the United Nations.  The rebels said the assault on President Bashar al-Assad's power base in the center of the capital killed dozens of people. The army said four guards were killed and 14 wounded in what it said were suicide attacks. No senior officers were hurt in the blasts, which shook the whole city just before the start of the working day, it said. It was the biggest attack in Damascus since July 18 when a bombing killed several senior security officials, including Assad's brother-in-law, the defense minister and a general.

Since then Assad's forces have pushed back rebels to the outskirts of the capital but have lost control of several border crossings, struggled to win back the northern city of Aleppo and mounted air strikes to crush opposition in rebel territory. State television showed CCTV footage of a white minibus pulling up by the side of the road and exploding in a ball of flames. It showed another blast 10 minutes later, apparently inside the complex. The explosions struck as world leaders met at the United Nations, where deadlock over Syria has blocked a united global response to a conflict which activists say has killed 30,000 people, forced a quarter of a million refugees to flee the country and left 2.5 million people in need of help.  [More>>thestar.com.my]

09.26.12   Muslim leaders call for clamp down on 'Islamophobia' at UN
September 26 -
Muslim leaders demanded international action to stop religious insults in a challenge to US President Barack Obama's defense of freedom of expression at the UN General Assembly. 
Obama made a strong condemnation of "violence and intolerance" in his speech at the UN headquarters on Tuesday. He said world leaders had a duty to speak out against the deadly attacks on Americans in the past two weeks caused by an anti-Islam film made in the United States. But Muslim kings and presidents and other heads of state said Western nations must clamp down on “Islamophobia” following the storm over the film which mocks the Prophet Mohammed, AFP reported. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, said the film was another "ugly face" of religious defamation. 

Yudhoyono quoted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as saying that "everyone must observe morality and public order" and commented: "Freedom of expression is therefore not absolute."
He called for "an international instrument to effectively prevent incitement to hostility or violence based on religions or beliefs."
King Abdullah II of Jordan, a close US ally, spoke out against the film and the violence it sparked. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari condemned what he called the "incitement of hate" against Muslims and demanded United Nations action.  "Although we can never condone violence, the international community must not become silent observers and should criminalize such acts that destroy the peace of the world and endanger world security by misusing freedom of expression," he told the assembly.  Afghan President Hamid Karzai took aim both at the anti-Islam video and publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad
the latter occurring most recently in France. Karzai called the insults to the faith of 1.5 billion Muslims, the “depravity of fanatics,” and added: “Such acts can never be justified as freedom of speech or expression,” according to Reuters. "The menace of Islamophobia is a worrying phenomenon that threatens peace and co-existence," he added in his address to the General Assembly.

Obama said he could not ban the video, reportedly made by Egyptian Copts, because of the US Constitution which protects the right to free speech.
"As president of our country, and commander-in-chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so," Obama told leaders at the UN summit....Earlier on Tuesday in Geneva, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation -- the world’s largest Islamic body, representing 56 countries
called for expressions of "Islamophobia" to be curbed by law in the same way as some countries restrict anti-Semitic speech or Holocaust denial.  [Full story>>alarabiya.net]
____________________

Editorial Note
: While a law against  "Islamaphobia" towards the Muslim world would prohibit insults and persecution of the Islamic religion, it seems a contradiction for international law to prohibit anti-Islam speech when Christians, Sikhs,
Bahá'í (banned in Yemen, Iran and Indonesia), Shia Islam (banned in Malaysia,, persecuted in Pakistan), Assyrian Church (persecuted in Iraq), Ahmadiyah (persecuted in Indonesia)  Hindus, Buddhists and other faiths are banned and persecuted in Islamic nations. Faiths like to promote their exclusive path to God, some, as in Iran, to the extreme, where the Supreme Leader Khamenei carries absolute power and the ability to proclaim on behalf of Allah anyone in contempt of God, with the proviso that  being in contempt of God carries the death penalty. The power and abuse by Khamennei can be compared to that of the Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada  in Spain from 1420-1498. He was one of the chief supporters of the Alhambra Decree, which expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492. About 2,000 people were burned at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition between 1480 and 1530.

Priests and priest-kings have defended their livelihood/faith many thousands of years
persecuting nonbelievers ultimately to promote the subjugation of others. 2,500 years ago and earlier Assyrian kings expanded their empire using the gods Assur and Ishtar who they believed led them and their armies to loot, destroy and desecrate the cities of eastern Anatolia and the Levant. They often skinned alive conquered leaders, nailing their skins on the walls of their cities and in Nineveh and carried off conquered gods, possessions and captives to Assyria. There is a correlation between the Assyrian captivity of the Israelites and the modern-day persecution of the Jews under the Nazis.  "Tiglath-Pileser III (Pul) and Shalmaneser V. The later Assyrian rulers Sargon II and his son and successor,  Sennacherib,  were responsible for finishing the twenty year demise of Israel's northern ten tribe kingdom. Sennacherib also invaded some parts of the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  He records forty-six fortified towns captured from Judah, and presumably carried away into Assyria. Jerusalem was besieged, but not taken. The tribes exiled by Assyria later became known as the Ten Lost Tribes." [wikipedia.org]

To appreciate the extent to which the ancient world was plundered by the Assyrian kings see our work, "Assyrian catalog of Anatolian lands and leaders."


Mel Copeland


09.26.12   Ahmadinejad hails imminent arrival of 'Ultimate Savior, Jesus Christ'
September 26 - 
Loathed in the West and weakened at home, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrapped up his annual address to the UN General Assembly on a theological note Wednesday, hailing the imminent arrival of an "Ultimate Savior." "God Almighty has promised us a man of kindness," the Iranian leader told world leaders and senior officials gathered in New York, at what was expected to be his last speech to the assembly as president of Iran. Ahmadinejad said the savior is "a man who loves people and loves absolute justice, a man who is a perfect human being and is named Imam al-Mahdi, a man who will come in the company of Jesus Christ and the righteous." As a Shiite Muslim, Ahmadinejad reveres Islam’s twelfth imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who disappeared from the earth in the 10th century and is said to be due to return, accompanied by Jesus, to save mankind.

The date of his return is not known, but Ahmadinejad indicated that he felt the arrival would come quickly, telling delegates: "Now we can sense the sweet scent and the soulful breeze of the spring, a spring that has just begun."
  Some critics of Iran’s Islamic regime have expressed concern that messianic Shiite beliefs might drive leaders like Ahmadinejad to seek an apocalyptic confrontation with those he sees as foes of God’s will on Earth. But at the United Nations he insisted the Mahdi’s return would bless all, not just "a specific race, ethnicity, nation or a region, a spring that will soon reach all the territories in Asia, Europe, Africa and the US."  [More>>alarabiya.net; See also

foxnews.com, September 26, "Ahmadinejad goes out with whimper, not bang"
: 
NEW YORK - 
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's final address to the United Nations General Assembly featured the same ramblings about Zionism and imperialists that have prompted diplomats to walk out in the past, but this time, the US, Israel and other western delegations didn't even bother attending. The long-winded firebrand, whose second and final term ends next summer, began by praising his own country’s "morality" and "compassion," and then launched into a 20-minute diatribe in which he blasted Israel for warning Iran to stop developing nuclear weapons. "The continued threat by the uncivilized Zionists to resort to military action against our great nation is a clear example of this bitter reality," said Ahmadinejad, who in the past has ridiculed the Holocaust and just days earlier called for the "elimination" of Israel.
..

09.22.12   Afghanistan bans Pakistani newspapers
KABUL, (AP) September 22 -
Afghanistan banned all Pakistani newspapers from entering the country on Friday in an attempt to block the Taliban from influencing public opinion via the press.  The order, issued by the ministry of interior, adds to the mounting tension between the neighboring countries.  It focuses specifically on blocking entry of the papers at Torkham, a busy border crossing, and directed border police to gather up Pakistani newspapers in the three eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan.  "The news is not based in reality and it is creating concerns for our countrymen in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan," the ministry said in a statement. "Also, the newspapers are a propaganda resource of the Taliban spokesmen."

The tensions between the two countries were highlighted Thursday at a UN Security Council meeting, when Afghan foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul called on Pakistan to stop shelling in the border province of Kunar, which he said has killed dozens of civilians. He said the attacks were jeopardizing bilateral relations "with potential negative consequences for necessary bilateral cooperation for peace, security and economic development in our two countries and the wider region." 
Many Pakistani Taliban fighters have fled to Kunar and surrounding areas after Pakistan's army pushed them out of its tribal region, taking advantage of the US military's withdrawal of most of its forces from these Afghan border provinces in recent years. 
In a statement, the ministry said the newspapers were a conduit for Taliban propaganda.  [More>>timesofindia.indiatimes.com]


09.22.12   "US policies source of global terror'
BUTTKHELA, Pakistan, September 22 -  Chairman Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman Saturday dubbed the US policies as a main source of terrorism across the world. "The West has launched an assault on Muslims' faith," the JUI-F Chief maintained while addressing a public meeting in Buttkhela area in Malakand Agency. He regretted that on one hand dogs are let loose to attack prisoners in Iraq while on the other sacrilegious film and cartoons are released to play with the sentiments of the Muslims. "I congratulate the whole nation on exhibiting solidarity over the issue of blasphemous film," he said. He said those resorting to riots are not part of our protest because 'they don't a clue about the sanctity and message of Islam'. Criticizing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman said the former was trying to deceive the youth in the name of change.  [>thenews.com.pk]

09.22.12   New film protests in Pakistan as death toll rises to 21
(AFP) September 22 - Thousands of activists in Pakistan staged new demonstrations on Saturday against a US-made anti-Islam film, as the death toll from the previous day’s violent protests rose to 21. More than 5,000 protesters marched towards the parliament in Islamabad, including hundreds of women, chanting "We love our Holy Prophet" and "Punishment for those who humiliated our Prophet." Some 500 people from the group Jamaat-ud-Dawa staged a protest in front of the US consulate in the eastern city of Lahore. The protests were peaceful, in contrast to the previous day’s demonstrations. Religious groups said they were also planning demonstrations in Karachi, the scene of the worst violence on Friday, after the funerals of some of those killed during the protests. Protests against the film  have erupted across the Muslim world and tens of thousands took to the streets across Asia and the Middle East on Friday as Western missions closed amid fears of violence. Anger has also been stoked by the publication in a French magazine of cartoons of Prophet Muhammad...  [More>>khaleejtimes.com]


09.22.12   Turkey deploys artillery near Syria border post
(AFP) September 22 -  The Turkish army has deployed artillery and anti-aircraft missiles near a Syria border post being disputed between Damascus regime forces and rebels in fierce clashes, media reported Saturday. A score of howitzer batteries and missiles were moved to the area as a precautionary measure amid continued fighting on Syrian soil for the control of the Tall al-Abyad border post, NTV news channel said. The deployment comes after shelling by Syrian government forces wounded two Turkish citizens on Thursday in the southeastern border city of Sanliurfa, as they tried to win back the post from the rebels. The two were injured by four fragments of a shell that exploded just on the Syrian side of the border. Another unexploded shell was found and the area sealed off while it was detonated. The rebels seized control of the post, which lies on the main highway between Sanliurfa and the city of Raqa in northeastern Syria, on Wednesday from troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.  [More>>khaleejtimes.com]


09.22.12   Rebel group 'moves command center to Syria'
September 22 -  FSA commander says shift from Turkish territory in preparation for offensive as clashes are reported near Jordan borderSyria's main rebel group says it is moving its command center from the Turkish border into Syria itself in preparation of an offensive against President Bashar al-Assad's troops in Damascus. Riyad al-Asaad, commander of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), announced the move on Saturday in a video message from Syria, the first since the group founded its command center in Turkey at the beginning of the 19-month conflict. "To the Syrian people, its freedom fighters and all the armed factions, we are glad to let you know that the leadership of the FSA has moved into Syria following arrangements made with other brigades that included securing liberated areas with the hope of launching the offensive on Damascus," Asaad said. He said the FSA has felt pressure by the international community to take a leading role in post-war Syria. Asaad said the FSA rejected those offers, reiterating that the people of Syria should decide the future of the country.  [More>>aljazeera.com]

09.22.12   Man arrested in France for calling for head of Mohammed cartoon editor
PARIS (AFP) September 22 - French police on Saturday arrested a man for apparently calling on a jihadi website for the decapitation of the editor of a magazine that published cartoons mocking Mohammed, a judicial source said.  The man was detained in the western city of La Rochelle for calling on the radical website for the head of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which on Wednesday published cartoons of a naked Prophet.  "The essential thing is not to let him live in peace," the man allegedly wrote.  Police have opened a preliminary probe on charges of incitement to commit murder, the source said. France’s Muslim leaders on Friday urged militants not to defy a ban on protests over the cartoons, as a security alert closed the country's embassies across the Islamic world. Interior Minister Manuel Valls has made it clear he will not sanction any demonstrations this weekend on the grounds they will inevitably represent a threat to public order. The cartoons were published as often violent
and sometimes deadly protests continued across the world against an anti-Islam film made in the US that enraged many Muslims. A rowdy protest at the film close to the US embassy in Paris last weekend led to 150 arrests and there have been calls on social networks for another demonstration in central Paris on Saturday.  [>alarabiya.net]

09.22.12   Protesters oust Islamist militia from Benghazi
September 22 -
Libyan government forces took control of the headquarters of Ansar al-Sharia in central Benghazi on Saturday after hundreds of angry demonstrators took to the streets on Friday to protest against the power of the militia. Libyan protesters ousted a jihadist militia from its headquarters and seized a raft of other paramilitary bases in second city Benghazi early Saturday in heavy clashes that left 11 people dead.  The seizure of the headquarters of Ansar al-Sharia
which has been accused of, but denied, involvement in the murder of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans last week came after tens of thousands took to the streets on Friday to protest against the power of the militias. The group's members took flight as hundreds of protesters stormed and then torched its compound, and also evicted it from the city's Al-Jalaa hospital, where they were replaced by military police, an AFP correspondent reported. But to the alarm of senior officials, the demonstrators also stormed a raft of other paramilitary bases in the city controlled by former rebel units that had declared their loyalty to the central government. It was at one such base the headquarters of the Raf Allah al-Sahati Brigade, an Islamist unit under the authority of the defense ministry that the four people were killed in clashes between its fighters and hundreds of protesters, some of them armed. Around 70 people were wounded during the overnight violence, medics at Benghazi's three main hospitals said. Worried Libyan authorities called on the demonstrators to distinguish between "illegitimate" brigades and those who are under state control, warning that the neutralization of loyal units risked "chaos."  [More>>france24.com]

09.17.12   Suicide car bomb kills 7 near Baghdad
(Reuters) September 17 - A suicide car bomber killed seven Iraqis and wounded 11 others, including a member of parliament, close to an entrance to Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone on Monday, where several Western embassies are located, police sources said. The attack was close to the July 14th suspension bridge which leads into the central area, known officially as the International Zone, which houses diplomatic missions including the US embassy. "I was on my way to enter the Green Zone when the blast happened. I was wounded in my shoulder and I’m in hospital now," Habib Al Turfi, a Shia  member of parliament, told Reuters by telephone. Two of the seven killed were soldiers, the sources said. "Cars were lining up waiting to be searched at the checkpoint that leads to the Green Zone and suddenly a speeding car exploded nearby," said one police source whose patrol was stationed near the scene of the attack. "Some people died inside cars and I saw two soldiers lying on the ground. We immediately closed the area," said the source, who declined to be named. The last major attacks in the capital occurred on Sept. 9, when a series of bombs in mainly Shia  Baghdad districts ended one of the bloodiest days of the year with more than 100 killed across the country.  [More>>khaleejtimes.com]


09.17.12   Death toll mounts across Syria as children go back to school under shelling
September 17 - Syrian forces killed as many as 143 people on Sunday across the country, activists at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.  The Free Syrian Army, meanwhile, was able to control an artillery battalion in al-Zahraa region in Aleppo overnight, following intensive clashes with government troops, according to the Syrian Media Center. A helicopter strike on Sunday on the town of Kafr Aweid in the northwest Syrian province of Idlib killed at least five children and one woman, said the Observatory. Amateur video posted on YouTube by activists showed horrific images of the children’s corpses and of a man holding the inanimate body of a little girl in a light blue dress who had been decapitated by the force of the strike. “Allahu akbar! (God is greatest)” mourners were heard to cry in the footage. "These are the reforms of (President) Bashar al-Assad!" "Only God can help us! The whole of humanity has failed us! Nobody has helped us!" cried another, according to AFP. According to Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman, the attack came a day after five other children were killed in Saraqeb, also in Idlib province. "This is the gift of the regime to the children of Syria on their first day back at school," he told AFP by telephone.
"The shelling of Kafr Aweid, like all the regime’s massacres, is taking place while the whole world just watches."  [More>>alarabiya.net]

09.17.12   17 mutilated bodies found in Central Mexico
JALISCO, Mexico (AP) September 16 - The dismembered bodies of 17 men were found Sunday on a farm in a part of central Mexico disputed by violent drug cartels, officials said. The bodies were dumped near a highway in the town of Tizapan el Alto by the border between Jalisco and Michoacan, said Jalisco state prosecutor Tomas Coronado Olmos. The bodies were discovered as Mexicans celebrated their independence. Coronado Olmos didn't reveal the identities of the slain men but said the bodies were naked, mutilated and stacked with chains around their necks. They had been killed elsewhere and dumped on the property. "Our border regions with other states are vulnerable to this kind of action and the dumping of bodies," the prosecutor said. Authorities haven't said who they think is behind the killings but the area is a cartel battleground and Mexico's crime groups regularly leave behind such grisly remains as they battle for control of trafficking routes and markets.  [More>>abcnews.go.com]


09.13.12   Mexico 'Gulf cartel boss' Jorge Eduardo Costilla caught
September 13 -
Mexican officials say marines have captured a man believed to be one of the country's most wanted drug lords, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez.
Mr. Costilla, a suspected Gulf cartel leader, was detained in the northern state of Tamaulipas, they said. His capture follows the arrest last week of the suspected head of a rival Gulf faction, Mario Cardenas Guillen. The Gulf cartel has been engaged in a bloody battle with the Zetas drug gang for trafficking routes into the US. A Mexican Navy statement said a man identifying himself as Jorge Costilla Sanchez was arrested on Wednesday in Tampico in Tamaulipas. The Navy said more details would be issued early on Thursday. Mr. Costilla, known as El Coss, is wanted by both the Mexican and US authorities. He is on the Mexican government's list of the 37 most wanted drug lords, with a reward of more than $2m (£1.2m) offered for information leading to his capture.  [More>>bbc.co.uk]

09.13.12   Protester shot dead as mob storms US embassy in Yemen
SANAA, Yemen, September 13 - 
Yemeni police on Thursday shot dead a protester and wounded five others when they opened fire on a crowd attempting to storm the US embassy in Sanaa to protest a film mocking Islam, a security official said. The shooting came as protesters, chanting "O, messenger of Allah ... O, Muhammad," launched a second charge on the complex which they had stormed earlier but were ejected by the security forces. President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi apologized to his US counterpart Barack Obama and the American people for the acts of a "mob" and ordered a probe. "Those who are behind (the attack) are a mob that are not aware of the far-reaching plots of Zionist forces, especially those who made a film insulting the prophet," said Hadi.

Some protesters said they saw three vehicles being torched by some of the demonstrators after they gained access to the compound through an unguarded security gate.
After being evicted from the complex on their first assault, protesters retreated about 100 meters from the gate, gathering near a checkpoint where they chanted anti-Jewish slogans. They then launched a second bid to access the compound, prompting police to fire on the crowd, witnesses said.
The violent protests in Sanaa come two days after four Americans, including the ambassador, were killed when a Libyan mob attacked the US consulate in Benghazi, and protesters in Cairo tore down the Stars and Stripes and replaced it with a black Islamic flag.  [>timesofindia.indiatimes.com]

09.13.12   Angry protests spread over anti-Islam film
September 13 - Demonstrations over US-made film said to insult Islam are spreading across Middle East and North Africa. Protesters angered by an anti-Islam film have stormed the US embassy compound in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, as similar demonstrations have spread to several countries across the Middle East and North Africa. The protesters on Thursday removed the embassy's sign on the outer wall and brought down the US flag and burned it, according to witnesses. A number of diplomatic vehicles were torched as security forces used water cannons and warning shots in a bid to drive them out. In the Iranian capital, Tehran, up to 500 people protested over the issue chanting "Death to America!" and death to the movie's director, an AFP photographer at the scene said. The rally, near the Swiss embassy that handles US interests in the absence of US-Iran diplomatic ties, ended peacefully two hours later.

Meanwhile, Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi has condemned the film that has sparked an outcry in his country. "We Egyptians reject any kind of assault or insult against our prophet. I condemn and oppose all who... insult our prophet," Morsi, on an official visit to Brussels, said in remarks broadcast by Egyptian state television. "[But] it is our duty to protect our guests and visitors from abroad... I call on everyone to take that into consideration, to not violate Egyptian law... to not assault embassies," he added. Egyptians have clashed with police outside US embassy in the capital, Cairo, for the third day. About 30 people have been injured, including more than 10 riot police in the overnight clashes, as the fallout from a film ridiculing Islam's prophet continued to rage on Thursday. Police have used tear gas to disperse the crowd, as interior ministry said at least 12 people have been arrested. American flags were also burned in Tunisia, outside the US embassy in the capital, Tunis.   [More>>aljazeera.com]

09.13.12   United States sends warships to Libya in aftermath of Benghazi attack
September 13 -  American warships steamed towards Libya in the aftermath of the attack in Benghazi that killed the US ambassador and three others, US officials said late Wednesday. US President Barack Obama vowed to "bring to justice" the Islamist gunmen responsible and the US military moved two navy destroyers towards the Libyan coast, in what a US official said was a move to give the administration flexibility for any future action against Libyan targets. The military also dispatched a Marine Corps anti-terrorist security team to boost security in Libya, whose leader Muammar Qaddafi was ousted in a US-backed uprising last year. The attack, which US officials said may have been planned in advance, came on the 11th anniversary of al-Qaeda's attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

One destroyer, the USS Laboon, moved to a position off the coast Wednesday, and the USS McFaul is en route and should be stationed off the coast within days. The officials said the ships, which carry Tomahawk cruise missiles, do not have a specific mission. But they give commanders flexibility to respond to any mission ordered by the president. Pentagon spokesman George Little said: "Without commenting on specific ship movements, the United States military regularly takes precautionary steps when potential contingencies might arise in a given situation. That's not only logical in certain circumstances, it's the prudent thing to do." There have been four destroyers in the Mediterranean for some time. These moves will increase that to five. The officials spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss troop movements.

Libya makes 'arrests'

Libya said it has made several arrests over the killing of the ambassador and three other US nationals, the deputy interior minister told AFP news agency on Thursday. "The interior and justice ministries have begun their investigations and evidence gathering and some people have been arrested," Wanis al-Sharif said. He declined to give any details of the number of people in custody or their backgrounds "so as not to hamper the smooth running of the investigation." The finger of blame initially fell on hardline Sunni Islamists of the Salafi group Katibat Ansar al-Sharia (Brigade of the Supporters of Sharia). But in a statement Thursday, the group condemned "the accusations without any verification or investigation" which had emerged against it in the Libyan media.  [>alarabiya.net]


09.13.12   Rebel advance in Aleppo as 11 more dead
BEIRUT, Lebanon, September 13 -
Syrian rebels advanced into the contested central Midan district of the country's commercial capital Aleppo, witnesses and military sources said, as combat rocked several city neighborhoods on Thursday. "They were at Bustan al-Basha (district) and had already advanced up to Suleyman al-Halabi Street. Now they have entered a street in Midan." one resident said. Aleppo has been the scene for nearly two months of fierce clashes between regime forces and rebels of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), and Midan is strategic, as it opens the way to the main square. Elsewhere, several rebel-held districts of the northern city were bombarded, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. At least 11 people died when a helicopter gunship targeted a crossroads in Tariq al-Bab, the Britain-based Observatory said. It did not say whether the victims were rebels or civilians, but distributed video footage showing several bodies, some bloodied and others badly burned, in pick-up trucks and on pavements. In the south of the city, Bustan al-Qasr was bombarded and fighting was reported at Kalasseh, residents said.   [More>>thenews.com.pk]


09.13.12   Deaf gerbils hear again with human stem cells
September 13 - Scientists have restored hearing to deaf gerbils using human embryonic stem cells in an advance that could eventually help people with an intractable form of deafness caused by nerve damage. The procedure needs further animal research to assess safety and long-term effectiveness but researchers said on Wednesday the experiment was an important proof of concept, marking a further advance in the growing field of regenerative medicine. Marcelo Rivolta from Britain's University of Sheffield, who led the research, said the first patients could receive cell therapy for hearing loss in clinical trials in "a few years."  After treating 18 gerbils with complete deafness in one ear, his team reported in the journal Nature that stem cells produced an average 46 percent recovery in hearing function, as measured by electrical signals in the animals' brains. "If this was a human patient, it would mean going from being so deaf as to be unable to hear a lorry or truck on the street to being able to maintain a conversation," Rivolta told reporters. "What we have shown here is functional recovery using human stem cells, which is unique." Gerbils were selected for the test because their hearing range is similar to that of humans, while mice the usual choice for laboratory tests hear at higher frequencies.  [More>>foxnews.com]

09.10.12   'Key al-Qaeda leader killed' in Yemen
September
10 -
Defense ministry says forces have killed Said al-Shehri, second-in-command of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Yemeni armed forces have killed Said al-Shehri, described as the second-in-command of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), government officials saidYemen's army website said on Monday that Shehri, a Saudi national, was killed, along with six other fighters, in a military operation in the remote Hadramawt province in eastern Yemen. "The Saudi terrorist Said al-Shehri, the second man in al-Qaeda, was killed in a quality operation by the armed forces in Hadramawt," the 26sep.net news website reported.

"Six other terrorist elements accompanying him were also killed," the army site added quoting what it said was a "high-ranking source," without mentioning when the operation took place. AQAP is described by Washington as the most dangerous and deadliest wing of al-Qaeda. The US has used unmanned drones to target the group, which has planned attacks on international targets including airliners.  A Yemeni security source told the Reuters news agency that Shehri was killed in an operation last Wednesday which was thought to have been carried out by a US drone, rather than the Yemeni military. The source said another Saudi and an Iraqi national were among the others killed. Shehri is a former inmate of the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay who was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and put through a Saudi rehabilitation program for fighters.  [More>>aljazeera.com]


09.10.12   Car bomb kills 12 in northwest  Pakistan
(AP) September 10 -
A car bomb ripped through a crowded market in a Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Monday, killing 12 Shia Muslims in the latest instance of sectarian violence to rock this country. Pakistan is dominated by Sunni Muslims, but is also home to a sizable minority of Shias. While most Shias and Sunnis coexist peacefully, Sunni extremists have often targeted Shias. One government official, Sahibzada Anis, said the afternoon explosion in the town of Parachinar in the Kurram region also wounded 45. Another government official, Naseer Khan, said all of the dead were Shia Muslims. Kurram is the only region along the Afghan border that has a majority of Shias, and has seen bloody outbreaks of sectarian violence in recent years. The emergence of groups such as al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taleban in the country over the last 10 years has added to the frequency and viciousness of attacks against Shias. In February a suicide attacker on a motorcycle blew himself up in Parachinar, killing 23 Shia Muslims and wounding 50 people. Meanwhile, a radical prayer leader in Islamabad and 19 others have been acquitted in the 2007 killing of a security officer, the cleric’s lawyer said.  [More>>khaleejtimes.com]


09.10.12   Suicide bomber kills 16 in north Afghanistan
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) September 10 -
A man wearing an explosive vest blew himself up in a crowded intersection in northern Afghanistan on Monday, killing 10 policemen and six civilians, local officials said.  The policemen were targeted in the urban capital of Kunduz province, police chief Sameullah Qatra said, referring to the most volatile zone of the relatively peaceful north. 
"He killed ten policemen and six civilians," Qatra said, adding that 30 more people, including those belonging to the security forces, were also wounded. No one immediately took responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of Taliban insurgents.  Monday's suicide bombing came two days after a young teenager detonated explosives near the heavily barricaded NATO headquarters in Kabul, killing six civilians, including children.  [More>>timesofindia.indiatimes.com]

09.09.12   Wave of attacks in cities across Iraq kills dozens
(AFP) September 9 -
More than 20 attacks in cities across Iraq killed at least 56 people on Sunday, including one that left 11 soldiers dead at an army base north of Baghdad and a double car bombing that killed 14 at a market near the Imam Ali al-Sharqi shrine.  A series of more than 20 attacks across Iraq killed 56 people and wounded over 250 others on Saturday and Sunday, security and medical officials said, with targets including security forces and markets. The latest violence brings the number of people killed in attacks so far this month to 86, according to an AFP tally based on security and medical sources. In the deadliest attack on Sunday, two car bombs exploded in a market near the shrine of Imam Ali al-Sharqi in southern Iraq, a security official said. Dr. Ali al-Alaa, a Maysan province health department official, said the blasts killed 14 people and wounded 60.  Before midnight on Saturday, gunmen opened fire on an army checkpoint near Balad north of Baghdad and a roadside bomb exploded when additional soldiers arrived at the scene. Eleven soldiers, including two officers, were killed and eight others wounded, an army colonel and a medical source at Balad hospital said. A police captain was also shot dead on Saturday night in the town of Garma, security and medical officials said.

Early Sunday morning, a car bomb exploded in a car park at the rear gate of state-owned North Oil Company, 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the northern city of Kirkuk, killing seven people and wounding 17 others, police and Dr. Othman Abdul Rahman said. The victims were seeking to join a force that guards oil facilities, a police officer said.  In Kirkuk itself, two bombings killed three people and wounded 70 others, police and Dr. Mohammed Abdullah said. The blasts left body parts strewn in the streets, destroyed cars, and damaged government buildings, an AFP correspondent said. The streets were deserted after the attacks. A car bomb seriously wounded six soldiers west of Kirkuk, according to army Captain Taha Khalaf, while another in Hawija, also west of the city, wounded two people, security and medical sources said. Volatile, oil-rich Kirkuk province is part of a swathe of disputed territory in northern Iraq that the autonomous Kurdistan region wants to incorporate over opposition from Baghdad.

Three soldiers were killed in clashes with insurgents in Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad, an interior ministry official and a medical source from Abu Ghraib hospital said. Three car bombs exploded in Taji, north of the capital, killing one person and wounding at least seven others, an interior ministry official said and a medical source said.  And five roadside bombs exploded in and around Baquba, killing a soldier and wounding 17 others, a police colonel and a doctor said. In the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, a sniper shot dead a soldier, army Captain Saadun al-Mohammedi and Dr. Hamed Iyad from Fallujah hospital said. In Nasiriyah, 305 kilometers (190 miles) south of Baghdad, a bomb exploded at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) Sunday near a French honorary consulate, causing material damage and wounding an unspecified number of people, a French diplomat said.  [More>>france24.com]


09.09.12   Syrian warplanes bombard residential parts of Aleppo, many casualties
September  9 - Syrian warplanes bombed residential districts of Aleppo on Sunday, killing and wounding dozens of people, opposition activists in Syria's largest city said. They said the air raid destroyed a residential building in the Hananu neighborhood, one of several in eastern Aleppo under insurgent control. The death toll was not immediately clear but bodies and wounded people were being dug out from the rubble. Video footage from the area, taken by activists in the almost 18-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, showed scores of people searching and digging in the rubble of a flattened building.
Several houses were destroyed in the shelling of the northern city’s Midan district, which is under regime control, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Fierce battles broke out on the edge of Midan on Saturday, after rebels tried to take over the district from their stronghold in Bustan al-Basha.   A main water pipe in Bustan al-Basha was destroyed, either by air strikes or the fighting, and water shortages were reported by residents in Aleppo.

In the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, the army shelled the neighborhood of Jubaila, while two people were killed at a checkpoint in Hamdaniyeh district and a third was shot dead by a sniper in Jura.
Shelling attacks were also reported in the northwestern province of Idlib and in the southern province of Daraa, but there were no reports of casualties thus far, the Observatory said. The violence followed a bloody day in which as many as 172 people have been killed by the fire of Syrian forces across the country on Saturday, including 89 in Aleppo, Al Arabiya reported citing activists at the Local Coordination Committees. As many as 17 dead bodies of executed Syrians were found in Aleppo, activists at the General revolution Commission said.

As many as 38 people were killed by shelling attacks on the districts of Shaar, Halwani and Sid al-Luz on Saturday, the Observatory said. The names of 17 have been documented thus far.
Assad’s forces have preferred to use air power and artillery to hit areas where rebels are positioned and infantry raids normally occur only once many have fled. Activists said they feared for civilian inhabitants in the latest offensive.
Assad’s use of military force to quell an uprising that began almost 18 months ago as a peaceful pro-democracy movement has cost him many allies in the Arab and Muslim world and caused a trickle of defections from Syrian government and army ranks.  [>alarabiya.net]

09.09.12   'Teenage' suicide bomber hits Afghan capital
September 9 -
Taliban claims responsibility for attack that killed six people near ISAF headquarters but deny that bomber was a child. A suicide bomber has struck outside ISAF headquarters in Kabul, killing at least six people, NATO and local officials said. The attack on Saturday, which officials say was carried out by a teenager, also wounded at least five others on a national public holiday to mourn the death anniversary of an iconic anti-Taliban leader. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, saying they had dispatched a bomber to target the Kabul offices of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). "One of our Mujahideen targeted an important intelligence office used for recruiting Americans and Afghans for spying," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. The bomber blew himself up near the entrance of Camp Eggers, a NATO spokeswoman said, referring to a sprawling base that is home to 2,500 coalition trainers. Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith, reporting from Kabul, said that police reports blame a lone suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest. The teenager approached his target on a bicycle, police said.  [More>>aljazeera.com]


09.04.12   Iran's navy aims to sail off US shores soon
September 4
-
The head of Iran's navy says the country aims to put its warships in international waters off the US coast "in the next few years." The comments Tuesday from Admiral Habibollah Sayyari on state TV are part of Iran's response to Washington's beefed up naval presence in the Persian Gulf. The US Navy's 5th fleet is based in Bahrain
across the gulf from Iran and the US plans maritime war games later this month. Iran has made similar claims in the past that its ships could soon sail into international waters off the US coast. Tehran and Washington have been at odds over Tehran's nuclear ambitions...Iran denies the charge.  [>foxnews.com]

09.04.12   Iran building missile system more advanced than S-300
TEHRAN, September 4 -The commander of the Khatam-ol-Anbiya Air Defense Base has announced that Iran is building a missile system which is more advanced than the Russian S-300 missile system. The missile system, named the Bavar 373 (Belief 373), will be a replacement for the S-300 missile system, Brigadier General Farzad Esmaeili said during a press conference on Monday. Russia signed a deal to deliver five batteries of S-300PMU-1 air defense systems to Iran in 2007 but canceled the sale in September 2010, claiming the systems, along with a number of other weapons, were covered by the fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program. The S-300 system, which can track targets and fire at aircraft 120 kilometers (75 miles) away, features high jamming immunity and is able to simultaneously engage up to 100 targets. Esmaeili also said that the project to build the Bavar 373 missile system is approximately 30 percent complete.   [More>>tehrantimes.com]


09.04.12   Iran could strike US bases if Israel attacks: Hezbollah
BEIRUT, Lebanon (Reuters) September 4 - 
Iran could hit US bases in the Middle East in response to any Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities even if American forces played no role in the attack, the leader of Lebanon's Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said on Monday. "A decision has been taken to respond and the response will be very great," Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen television. "The response will not be just inside the Israeli entity American bases in the whole region could be Iranian targets," he said, citing information he said was from Iranian officials. "If Israel targets Iran, America bears responsibility."  Heightened Israeli rhetoric about Tehran's nuclear facilities, which the West says could be part of a weapons program, has stoked speculation that it may attack Iran before US elections in November. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged world powers on Sunday to set a "clear red line" to convince Iran they would prevent it from obtaining nuclear arms.  [More>>iranfocus.com]

09.04.12   Elephants dying in epic frenzy as Ivory fuels wars and profits
GARAMBA NATIONAL PARK, Democratic Republic of Congo, September 4 - In 30 years of fighting poachers, Paul Onyango had never seen anything like this. Twenty-two dead elephants, including several very young ones, clumped together on the open savanna, many killed by a single bullet to the top of the head. There were no tracks leading away, no sign that the poachers had stalked their prey from the ground. The tusks had been hacked away, but none of the meat
and subsistence poachers almost always carve themselves a little meat for the long walk home. Several days later, in early April, the Garamba National Park guards spotted a Ugandan military helicopter flying very low over the park, on an unauthorized flight, but they said it abruptly turned around after being detected.

Park officials, scientists and the Congolese authorities now believe that the Ugandan military
one of the Pentagon’s closest partners in Africa killed the 22 elephants from a helicopter and spirited away more than a million dollars’ worth of ivory. "They were good shots, very good shots," said Mr. Onyango, Garamba's chief ranger. “They even shot the babies. Why? It was like they came here to destroy everything.” Africa is in the midst of an epic elephant slaughter. Conservation groups say poachers are wiping out tens of thousands of elephants a year, more than at any time in the previous two decades, with the underground ivory trade becoming increasingly militarized.  [More>>nytimes.com]

09.04.12   Kenya's navy shells Kismayo in Somalia
September 4 - The Kenyan navy has shelled Kismayo, the main Somali city controlled by militant Islamist group al-Shabab, a military spokesman has told the BBC. Colonel Cyrus Oguna said the attack was part of a push by an African Union (AU) force to capture the city. Residents told the BBC that al-Shabab was reinforcing its positions in the city and people had started to flee. AU forces have vowed to capture Kismayo
a port city that is key to financing and arming the al-Qaeda affiliate. The move on Kismayo comes as Somali MPs prepare to choose a new president under a UN-brokered peace plan. The election is due on 10 September... Last month, al-Shabab lost control of Merca, the third biggest port city after Mogadishu and Kismayo, to AU and pro-Somali government forces. In June, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga appealed to the US and EU to give financial aid for a "final onslaught" on Kismayo. Kenya sent troops to Somalia last year, saying that it wanted al-Shabab defeated because the militants threatened its security.  [Full story>>bbc.co.uk]

09.04.12   Afghan suicide bomber kills 25, injures 30
September 4 - A suicide bomber has killed at least 25 civilians and wounded another 30 at a funeral for a village elder in a remote part of eastern Afghanistan, Afghan officials say. Ahmad Zia Abdul Zai, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the attack took place on Tuesday in the village of Shagai in the Durbaba district of eastern Nangarhar province. He and other officials said at least 25 people were killed. Initial reports had at least 10 civilians killed. Zai and police later said more than a dozen people died of their injuries. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but there has been fighting against Taliban and other insurgents in the mountainous region located just across the border from some of Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. 

Latifullah, the police chief's secretary who goes by one name, said the target was apparently Durbaba district chief Hamisha Gul, who was attending the funeral for the village chief and ranking elder. Gul survived the attack, said deputy police chief for Nangarhar province, Jamil Shamal, but his son was killed when he tried to stop the bomber by grabbing him. The Taliban often target government officials at public functions, including funerals and weddings. Civilians are often the victims of suicide attacks. On August 14, dozens of people were killed in suicide attacks in northern and southern Afghanistan. A recent UN report said 1145 civilians were killed and 1954 others injured during the first half of the year, 80 per cent of them by militants.
  [>news.com.au]

09.02.12   Restoration of the Bush Brand: The Bushies are back, and playing for Romney
August 31 - (By David J. Rothkopf)
Condoleezza Rice has had quite a summer. First, she delivered such a powerful address to a campaign retreat for Mitt Romney that she stirred up veepstakes buzz. Next, she became one of the first two women admitted to the Augusta National Golf Club. And this past week, she delivered a show-stopping speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, outshining the other speakers, triggering standing ovations, and leaving journalists and commentators on the left and right tripping over themselves to praise her dignity and thoughtfulness. Not bad for one of the marquee names of an administration that left office with a deeply damaged reputation, particularly on foreign policy. The rehabilitation of Rice is just part of a broader restoration of the Bush brand and of those who worked with our 43rd president. Fewer than four years after George W. Bush left office, his team members are back in high places, their reputation is being reconsidered, and the Bush name is regaining its old luster and then some.   [More>>washingtonpost.com]

09.02.12   Tutu urges trial for Blair and Bush over  Iraq
September 2 - Nobel Peace Laureate says former leaders of UK and US left world more destabilized as result of their roles in 2003 war.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for British ex-prime minister Tony Blair and former US president George W Bush to face trial in The Hague for their role in the Iraq war. The South African peace icon, writing in Sunday's Observer  newspaper, accused the pair of lying about weapons of mass destruction and said the invasion left the world more destabilized and divided "than any other conflict in history." Tutu argued that different standards appeared to apply for prosecuting African leaders than western counterparts, and added that the death toll during and after the Iraq conflict was sufficient for Blair and Bush to face trial. Tutu, a long-standing vocal critic of the Iraq war, also defended his decision to not attend a South African conference on leadership last week because Blair was attending.

"I did not deem it appropriate to have this discussion... As the date drew nearer, I felt an increasingly profound sense of discomfort about attending a summit on 'leadership' with Mr. Blair," he added. The Nobel Peace Prize winner also argued that the US-led 2003 Iraq war to topple Saddam Hussein had created the backdrop for civil war in Syria, and a potential wider Middle East crisis involving Iran. "The then-leaders of the United States [Bush] and Great Britain [Blair] fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart," he wrote. "They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand
with the specter of Syria and Iran before us."

'Playground bullies'

"On these grounds alone, in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in The Hague," Tutu wrote in the weekly UK newspaper. "But even greater costs have been exacted beyond the killing fields, in the hardened hearts and minds of members of the human family across the world."

Blair responds

Blair strongly supported Bush as he launched a "war on terror," sending British troops to Afghanistan in 2001 and, more controversially, Iraq in 2003. Blair issued a stern defense on Sunday in response to the article. "To repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence is completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown," he said. "And to say that the fact that Saddam massacred hundreds of thousands of his citizens is irrelevant to the morality of removing him is bizarre. We have just had the memorials both of the Halabja massacre where thousands of people were murdered in one day by Saddam's use of chemical weapons; and that of the Iran-Iraq war where casualties numbered up to a million including many killed by chemical weapons. In addition his slaughter of his political opponents, the treatment of the Marsh Arabs and the systematic torture of his people make the case for removing him morally strong. But the basis of action was as stated at the time."  [>aljazeera.com]


09.02.12   Bain Capital and other firms subpoenaed in New York tax probe
September 2 - In the midst of a heated election, Mitt Romney's former company is among a dozen firms facing scrutiny over tax practices. At least a dozen US private equity firms
including Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's former company have been subpoenaed by the New York state attorney general as part of a probe into whether a tax strategy they employed is proper, a source familiar with the situation confirmed. Among the firms being targeted are Bain Capital, KKR & Co LP, TPG Capital LP, Apollo Global Management LLC and Silver Lake Partners LP, the source said. Bain was once headed by Romney, who hopes to unseat President Barack Obama in the upcoming US elections. The subpoenas, which were sent out in July, seek documents related to the conversion of fees these private equity firms charge for managing investors' assets into fund investments, the source said. This means the investigation predates the release last month of confidential Bain fund documents by Gawker that revealed such a practice. The practice is known as a "management fee waiver." As fund investments, the income would be taxed as capital gains, which attract rates around 15%. Without the conversion, the fees would be ordinary income, taxed at rates around 35%. Other firms that received subpoenas include Sun Capital Partners; Clayton, Dubilier & Rice; Crestview Partners; H.I.G. Capital; Vestar Capital Partners; and Providence Equity Partners. Jennifer Givner, a spokeswoman for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office, declined to comment. The firms were not immediately available for comment.   [More>>guardian.co.uk]


09.02.12   US halts training of some Afghan forces
KABUL, Afghanistan (CBS/AP) September 2 -  The US military has suspended training of some Afghan forces while the Americans review the process of vetting new recruits following a spike in deadly attacks on international troops last month, officials said Sunday. There have been 34 attacks by Afghan police or soldiers on their international allies so far this year
at least 12 in August alone. The members of the Afghan security forces have killed 45 international troops, putting intense strain on the relationship. The attacks have complicated a key pillar in the plan for the US-led coalition to withdraw by the end of 2014 training Afghan forces to take the lead in securing their own country.

Lt. Col. Todd Harrell, a spokesman for US special operations forces in Afghanistan, said the Americans have halted training for at least a month of about 1,000 trainees of the Afghan Local Police (ALP), a government-backed militia that is under the authority of the national police but operates independently. He said the Americans are redoing background checks on the Afghans. "The training of the ALP recruits has been paused while we go through this re-vetting process to take a look at this process to see if there's anything that we can improve," Harrell said. "It may take a month. It may take two months. We don't know."

The United States and its allies have been training the Afghan army and police so that they can gradually take over security for the country by the end 2014. They hope to have about 350,000 Afghans trained and ready by the end of the year, and gradually have been putting them in the lead for security in parts of Afghanistan since last year. Coalition authorities have said about 25 percent of this year's insider attacks had confirmed or suspected links to the Taliban. The militants have sometimes infiltrated the ranks of the Afghan army and police and in other cases are believed to have coerced or otherwise persuaded legitimate members to turn on their coalition partners.   [More>>cbsnews.com]


09.02.12   7 militants killed in South Waziristan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, September 2 - At least seven militants were killed while 13 were injured during a security forces operation in South Waziristan. Meanwhile in the Miranshah area of North Waziristan, four remote controlled roadside bombs were defused. In Kurrum Agency, militants kidnapped five people belonging to tribes in the area. Two people were severely injured when a roadside bomb exploded in Khyber Agency. Four shops were damaged in Mardan due to bomb explosion. According to the bomb disposal squad, two kilograms of explosives were used.   [>thenews.com.pk]


09.02.12   Muslim cleric arrested for framing Christian girl in Pakistan blasphemy case
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan September 2 -
Pakistani authorities have arrested a Muslim cleric on suspicion of framing a Christian girl who was arrested under the country's controversial anti-blasphemy law, a police official said on Sunday. Religious and secular groups worldwide have protested over the detention in August of Rimsha Masih, accused by Muslim neighbors of burning Islamic religious texts. Police official Munir Hussain Jafri said a cleric was arrested after witnesses from Masih's village on the edge of the capital Islamabad complained about his alleged actions. "Witnesses complained that he had torn pages from a Quran and placed them in her bag which had burned papers," Jafri told Reuters. The cleric, Khalid Jadoon, appeared briefly in court on Sunday before he was sent to jail for a 14-day judicial remand.   [More>>timesofindia.indiatimes.com]


09.02.12   Mali Islamist group 'kills Algerian diplomat'
September 2 -
Separatists takes strategic town of Douentza in northern Mali, and say they have executed Algerian diplomatA armed religious movement that has taken control of large swathes of Mali has reportedly claimed to have executed an Algerian diplomat who was kidnapped during their takeover of northern Mali, according to a statement published by a Mauritanian news agency. Taher Touati, the Algerian vice-consul "was executed this morning [Sunday] at dawn" read the statement from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa [MUJAO] published by online news agency ANI, known for carrying reliable information on extremist groups in the region. The Algerian government must take complete responsibility for the consequences of its stubbornness and the misguided and irresponsible decisions of its president and its generals," read the statement. 

Al Jazeera has been unable to independently authenticate the origin of the statement. The Algerian foreign ministry was investigating the opposition fighters' claim. As of Sunday afternoon, Touati's family told the Algerian daily newspaper El Watan that they did not yet have any confirmation. MUJAO had on August 24 given an ultimatum to Algeria, threatening to kill the hostage after Algiers said that they rejected its demands for the release of prisoners affiliated with the movement in a hostage swap. MUJAO has claimed the April 5 kidnapping of seven Algerian diplomats from a consulate in the town of Gao. A video MUJAO released on August 26 showed one of the four remaining hostages pleading with the government to save his life.

The wife of one hostage called on MUJAO to free them in a statement published by the Algerian press on Sunday, saying they were only "innocent civil servants," and urged President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to work for their release. Three of the hostages were freed in July. Alessandra Giuffrida, an anthropologist at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London who specializes in the Tuareg of northern Mali, said that MUJAO "possibly" had links to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and had no links with the Tuareg movement. "One has to be quite careful about identifying these groups using ethnic labels, particularly as we know that the majority of the Islamists who are fighting in northern Mali are not Malians," she told Al Jazeera.   [More>>aljazeera.com]


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