White House denies indefinite detention order
June 26, 2009
AFP
The White House dismissed reports Friday that it has drafted an executive order allowing indefinite detention in the United States of some of the top terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
An administration official told AFP that no such draft order existed, though internal deliberations were taking place on how to deal with those inmates who could not be released or tried in civilian courts.
The source said that a task force established by the president was not due to present its recommendations until July, and that the administratio...
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Call to execute 'rioters' in Iran
June 26, 2009
Al Jazeera
A leading Iranian religious leader has called for the execution of "rioters" who have led a series of anti-government protests following the country's disputed June 12 presidential election.
Ahmad Khatami, a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, told worshippers during a sermon at Friday prayers that Iran's judiciary should charge such rioters as "mohareb", or one who wages war against God.
"Anybody who fights against the Islamic system or the leader of Islamic society, fight him until complete destruction," Khatami said in the nationa...
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Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-26/call-to-execute-rioters-in-iran/
Pakistani violence spreads to Kashmir
June 26, 2009
Reuters
Two soldiers were killed on Friday in the first suicide bombing in Pakistani Kashmir, while three people were killed and seven wounded in two bomb blasts in a militant-infested areas near the Afghan border.
Islamist militants have carried out a series of bomb attacks across Pakistan in recent weeks in retaliation for a military offensive in the northwest, but there have been none in Pakistan's part of the disputed Kashmir region.
The army launched its offensive after Taliban gains raised fears for U.S. ally Pakistan's future and worry...
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Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-26/pakistani-violence-spreads-to-kashmir/
Israeli army amasses troops along Lebanese border
June 26, 2009
The Daily Star
BEIRUT - The Israeli Army stepped up its presence along the border with Lebanon deploying armored tanks and setting up fortifications as it intensified airspace violations in the area, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported Thursday.
In "unusual military activity," the Israeli Army deployed Merkava tanks and soldier carriers, among other armored vehicles, along the barb-wired fence separating Shebaa Farms from liberated Lebanese territories, the NNA said.
Israeli tanks were also amassing along a 5-kilomet...
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Turkey's army chief denounces talk of 'coup plot'
June 26, 2009
AFP
Turkey's army chief Ilker Basbug on Friday called for an end to speculation about an alleged plot to bring down the government, denouncing what he called a smear campaign against the military.
"At a time when there are important things taking place in the world, notably in Iran... Turkey has used a lot of energy pointlessly over a piece of paper," he told reporters angrily.
The document he mentioned, purportedly from a colonel in the general staff, was recently published in the liberal newspaper Taraf and supposedly dealt with...
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Iran 'butcher' to interrogate opposition leaders
June 25, 2009
Raw Story
Saaed Mortazavi, an Iranian prosecutor who was responsible for ordering over 100 newspapers closed and dozens of bloggers and journalists arrested, tortured and in some cases, killed, has been empowered to interrogate Iran’s opposition leaders, according to published reports.
Mortazavi’s frightful history has earned him two distinct nicknames: “Butcher of the press” and “torturer of Tehran.”
“The leading role of Saeed Mortazavi in the crackdown in Tehran should set off alarm bells for anyone familiar with hi...
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Bernanke denies Fed threatened BofA over Merrill deal
June 25, 2009
Fox News
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday he didn't pressure Bank of America into acquiring Merrill Lynch in a deal that ultimately cost taxpayers $20 billion.
Bernanke, in prepared testimony to a House committee investigating the matter, said he did not threaten action against Bank of America's CEO Kenneth Lewis or the bank's board members if they decided to abandon the takeover.
"I did not tell Bank of America's management that the Federal Reserve would take action against the board or management"...
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Al-Qaeda planning cyber war against Britain
June 25, 2009
Telegraph.co.uk
Al-Qaeda is intent on using the internet to launch a cyber-warfare campaign against Britain, Lord West, the Security Minister, has warned.
Lord West issued the warning as he published the Government's new Cyber Security Strategy aimed at heading off online threats.
As well as potential cyber-attacks from terrorists, Britain faces a real and growing threat from foreign governments such as China and Russia, and from organised criminal gangs, he said.
Targets include key businesses, the national power grid, f...
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U.S. sends weapons to Somalia
June 25, 2009
Al Jazeera
The US has sent weapons to the Somali government, which is battling opposition fighters in clashes that have left hundreds dead.
The US state department said on Thursday it was "concerned" about whether the government of Sharif Sheikh Ahmed could be overwhelmed by fighters from the al Shabaab group.
Washington was hoping to help "repel the onslaught of extremist forces which are intent on ... spoiling efforts to bring peace and stability to Somalia", Ian Kelly, a state department spokesman, said.
Fighters cut the hands and f...
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Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-25/us-sends-weapons-to-somalia/
Nigerian rebels say major Shell pipeline blown up
June 25, 2009
AFP
Nigerian rebels said they carried out a pre-dawn attack against Royal Dutch Shell facilities in a warning to Russia not to invest in the country's oil and gas industry.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said the attack was to coincide with a visit to Nigeria by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during which major energy investment deals were struck.
The attack on Bille-Krakama pipeline, which feeds the key Bonny export terminal in southern Rivers State, was carried out shortly after midnight Thursday....
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NKorea, Iran joined on missile work: U.S. general
June 12, 2009
Reuters
WASHINGTON - Iran and North Korea are working together to develop ballistic missiles and have made significant progress, the head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency has said.
"It really is an international effort going on out there to develop ballistic missile capability between these countries," Army Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly told a forum on Capitol Hill.
Iran and North Korea each is at odds with much of the international community over their nuclear programs, and North Korea has tested an atomic bomb. Eac...
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Ethiopian troops cross deeper into Somalia: residents
June 12, 2009
Reuters
MOGADISHU - Heavily-armed Ethiopian soldiers crossed into central Somalia on Friday and entered a town controlled by a pro-government militia nearly 30 kms (19 miles) from the border, residents said.
"They came with battle wagons and trucks all full of soldiers and guns," said Hassan Abdi, a resident in the town of Balanbale in Galgadud region. "Everybody is very worried."
Residents said the Ethiopian troops were setting up positions in the center of the town. Central Somalia has been the scene of heavy fighting betwee...
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Iraq Sunni leader killed at mosque, fears of fallout
June 12, 2009
Reuters
BAGHDAD - The head of Iraq's biggest Sunni Muslim parliament bloc was killed at a mosque on Friday, officials said, an assassination which could undermine efforts for sectarian reconciliation in Iraq.
Recently picked as leader of the Accordance Front, Harith al-Ubaidi was seen as a moderate able to broker peace among the bloc's groups and also with Shi'ites, Kurds and others who have struggled for power since the 2003 U.S. invasion.
An independent lawmaker and member of parliament's human rights committee, Ubaidi was al...
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Militants claim Nigerian troops kill 7 civilians
June 12, 2009
AFP
Nigeria's most prominent armed group claimed Friday that government troops had killed seven civilians in the restive Niger Delta region, a key oil-producing area, but the military denied the incident.
"The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) can confirm that seven more civilians were killed in cold blood on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 by the soldiers of the military Joint Task Force," the group said in a statement.
It claimed the seven included four children, one woman, an elderly man, and a driver of a boat they ...
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Billions in U.S. bonds seized in smuggling op
June 12, 2009
Bloomberg
Japan is investigating reports two of its citizens were detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland.
“Italian authorities are in the midst of the investigation, and haven’t yet confirmed the details, including whether they are Japanese citizens or not,” Takeshi Akamatsu, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said by telephone today in Tokyo. “Our consulate in Milan is continuing efforts to confirm the reports.”
An official at the ...
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U.S. 'kept Guantanamo deal from UK'
June 11, 2009
BBC
A senior US official has told the BBC Washington decided not to tell London ahead of time about a deal to resettle four Guantanamo detainees in Bermuda.
A diplomatic row blew up over Bermuda's decision to accept the four Chinese Muslim Uighurs on a US request.
Bermuda is a British overseas territory but the US official said Washington had acted secretly to ensure success.
Meanwhile the US said on Friday three Saudis at Guantanamo Bay had been transferred back to Saudi Arabia.
The transfers are part of US Presid...
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Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-11/us-kept-guantanamo-deal-from-uk/
Nigerian rebels attack Chevron pumping station
June 11, 2009
China Post
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the main rebel group in southern Nigeria, said Wednesday it had set a pumping station of US oil giant Chevron on fire.
Chevron's Otunana station in Niger Delta "is currently engulfed in fire after being overwhelmed by our fighters," MEND said in a statement.
A spokesman for Chevron, Scott Walker, could not immediately confirm the claim but said the report was being investigated.
The group had warned of new attacks last weekend.
MEND has sta...
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Suu Kyi says junta's charges are political: lawyer
June 11, 2009
Reuters
YANGON - Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi believes her trial is an attempt by the country's ruling generals to prevent her from running in multi-party elections next year, her lawyer said.
Suu Kyi, who faces up to five years prison if found guilty of violating her house arrest, was allowed on Thursday to appeal a ban on two defense witnesses after urging her lawyers to "explore all legal avenues" to win the case.
Nyan Win, one of her lawyers, said the Supreme Court accepted their challenge of the ban ...
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Six arrested in plot to attack G8
June 11, 2009
AFP
Six people have been arrested on suspicion of planning an attack on the Group of Eight summit next month in Italy, police said Thursday.
The six were arrested Wednesday and Thursday, one month ahead of the July 8-10 summit of leading industrialis nations, anti-terrorist police chief Lamberto Giannini told a news conference.
The probe began two years ago when the summit was set to be held at the Sardinian island of La Maddalena, he said.
Citing wiretaps, Giannini said the gang did not "strictly speaking" have an attack plan but ...
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Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-11/six-arrested-in-plot-to-attack-g8/
UK officer probed after striking woman twice at G20
June 11, 2009
Raw Story
A London police officer is under investigation following multiple complaints that he attacked protesters during the G20 financial summit earlier this year.
In a video captured by protester Tristan Woodwards and published by The Guardian in April, a police sergeant slaps a woman on the face with the back of his hand and then raps her on the legs with his baton. While no physical provocation is readily apparent in the footage, the woman did approach the officer in an aggressive manner. She was allegedly struck a third time, but the blo...
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NKorea: U.S. may provoke nuclear war in Peninsula
June 10, 2009
Press TV
North Korean media hints that a U.S. pledge to extend its nuclear umbrella to Japan and South Korea would be considered as 'declaration of a nuclear war' in the troubled peninsula.
The commentary, which first appeared in the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea on Wednesday, strongly condemned the expansion of the nuclear umbrella in Southeast Asia.
Senior officials in Washington have said that the US will do what it deems necessary for the security of its allies in the troubled region.
...
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Mousavi camp waging velvet revolution: Iran Guards
June 10, 2009
Reuters
TEHRAN - A senior Revolutionary Guard accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's pro-reform opponents on Wednesday of waging a "velvet revolution" in Iran, at the climax of a bitter presidential election campaign.
The comments were a further escalation in a war of words after Ahmadinejad, facing a strong challenge from former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi, accused his rivals of using Hitler-style smear tactics and said they could face jail.
The campaign has shown up divisions among leading figures in the Islamic Republic...
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Terror names linked to doomed flight AF 447
June 10, 2009
Sky News
Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on board the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged.
French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31st.
Flight AF447 crashed in mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm.
While it is certain that there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out.
Soon after news of th...
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Car bomb kills dozens in Shiite area in Iraq
June 10, 2009
AP
BAGHDAD — A car bomb blew up Wednesday in a packed outdoor food market in one of the most peaceful areas of Iraq's Shiite south, killing about 30 people and wounding dozens more. The blast raised fears that militants may be planning more strikes in remote, poorly secured areas, seeking to stretch Iraq's security services as they take on a bigger role in Baghdad and other flashpoint cities.
Angry townspeople swarmed around police in the wake of the attack, cursing and blaming them for failing to prevent the bombing.
No group claime...
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Senior judge killed in Ingushetia Click Here to Discuss this Article Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-10/senior-judge-killed-in-ingushetia/ Militants attack Pakistani hotel Click Here to Discuss this Article Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-09/militants-attack-pakistani-hotel/ Nigeria victims hail $15.5 mln Shell payout Click Here to Discuss this Article Thai army chief denies troops behind mosque attack Click Here to Discuss this Article House committee subpoenas Federal Reserve Click Here to Discuss this Article UK cop claims pot suspects waterboarded Click Here to Discuss this Article NKorea sentences U.S. journalists Click Here to Discuss this Article Ex-Gitmo prisoner details torture Click Here to Discuss this Article We failed to follow bombing rules: Pentagon Click Here to Discuss this Article Chinese gov't moves to censor computers Click Here to Discuss this Article Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-08/chinese-govt-moves-to-censor-computes/ Pakistan diverted terror aid to fight India Click Here to Discuss this Article Ex-State Dep't official charged as Cuban spy Click Here to Discuss this Article IAEA finds undeclared uranium at second Syria site Click Here to Discuss this Article Several dead in Peru land clashes Click Here to Discuss this Article Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-05/several-dead-in-peru-land-clashes/ Guinea-Bissau gov't says coup attempt foiled Click Here to Discuss this Article Russian NATO envoy: Georgia continues militarization Click Here to Discuss this Article NKorean patrol boat intrudes disputed sea border Click Here to Discuss this Article Obama admits U.S. role in 1953 Iran coup Click Here to Discuss this Article Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-04/obama-admits-us-role-in-1953-iran-coup/ NKorea puts two U.S. journalists on trial Click Here to Discuss this Article Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-04/nkorea-puts-two-us-journalists-on-trial/ Sri Lanka seizes Tamil supply ship Click Here to Discuss this Article Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-04/sri-lanka-seizes-tamil-supply-ship/ Taliban release all kidnapped staff, students Click Here to Discuss this Article Cheney controlled input during CIA torture briefings Click Here to Discuss this Article Former MI6 chief warns against surveillance society Click Here to Discuss this Article Israelis say Bush admin agreed to settlement housing Click Here to Discuss this Article Blackwater denies destroying evidence Click Here to Discuss this Article Source: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/content/news/2009-06-03/blackwater-denies-destroying-evidence/ Canadian mint cannot account for missing gold Click Here to Discuss this Article
June 10, 2009
Al Jazeera
Unidentified assailants have shot and killed a senior judge in Russia's volatile southern republic of Ingushetia, the latest in a series of attacks in the predominately Muslim region.
Aza Gazgireyeva, the deputy head of Ingushetia's supreme court, died of bullet wounds shortly after her car came under fire in the town of Nazran early on Wednesday, Russia's state-run Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The attackers also injured several bystanders before escaping in two cars, Itar-Tass quoted a local interior ministry official as saying.
June 9, 2009
AP
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Suicide attackers shot their way past guards and set off a massive blast outside a luxury hotel where foreigners and well-to-do Pakistanis mixed, killing at least 11Pearl Continental people and wounding 70, officials said.
The bombers struck the Pearl Continental Hotel late Tuesday at about 10 p.m., when nightlife was still in swing. The attack reduced a section of the hotel to concrete rubble and twisted steel and left a huge crater in a parking lot.
The blast came a week after Taliban leaders warned they would carry out ma...
June 9, 2009
AFP
Victims of murder, torture and other abuses by Nigeria's former military government on Tuesday hailed a landmark out-of-court settlement with Royal Dutch Shell over its alleged complicity in the crimes.
Shell agreed on Monday in New York to pay out 15.5 million dollars (10.7 million euros) to relatives of Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and others executed in 1995 in what plaintiffs said was a campaign of repression backed by the oil giant.
The settlement brings to an end a long battle by the Nigerian victims and means tha...
June 9, 2009
AFP
Thailand's army chief on Tuesday accused separatist militants of killing 11 people at a mosque in the country's south, denying claims that security forces were behind the attack.
The government ordered General Anupong Paojinda to fly to the volatile region a day after masked gunmen stormed the mosque in Narathiwat province and sprayed worshippers with bullets during evening prayers.
Villagers blamed Thai forces for the attack, one of the worst in a five-year insurgency that has left 3,700 people dead, but Anupongsaid rebels we...
June 9, 2009
Raw Story
The congressional panel investigating what happened to all that bank bailout money has issued a subpoena to the Federal Reserve, asking them to hand over all documents relating to the takeover of Merrill Lynch by the Bank of America.
On January 1, BofA finalized its purchase of Merrill Lynch for just over $29.1 billion. That made the bank eligible for an additional $20 billion in federal rescue money, bringing BofA's total to some $45 billion. Now, Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Edolphus Towns (D-NY) want to know exactly what the banks and th...
June 9, 2009
Raw Story
Six members of London’s metropolitan police force are the focus of a criminal investigation after a corruption probe revealed allegations by a serving officer that detectives waterboarded suspects allegedly caught with a “large amount” of marijuana.
“The officers under investigation were among 10 based in Enfield, north London, who were suspended in February in one of the worst allegations of corruption to hit the Metropolitan police in recent years,” reported The Telegraph.
“The part of the inquiry focusing on alleged ...
June 8, 2009
AP
North Korea convicted two American journalists and sentenced them Monday to 12 years of hard labor for crossing into its territory, intensifying the reclusive nation's confrontation with the United States.
The Obama administration said it would pursue "all possible channels" to win the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV media venture.
There are fears Pyongyang is using the women as bargaining chips as the U.N. debates a new resolution to punish the country for its def...
June 8, 2009
Raw Story
A former prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay says he was never interrogated about the reason the US said they’d arrested him for — even after seven years in captivity.
He also provided a graphic account of new elements of what may be considered “ad-lib” torture — guards inappropriately using hypodermic needles and IV tubes intended for forced feeding during hunger strikes.
He further said he was kept awake for 16 days straight — which was often done by splashing detainees eyes with cold water when they nodded off in their cell u...
June 8, 2009
AFP
U.S. forces failed to follow procedures in carrying out deadly air strikes last month in western Afghanistan that killed dozens of civilians, the Pentagon said.
A military investigation by a senior officer outside Afghanistan found "problems" with US bombing raids in a May 4 battle but it was unclear if the mistakes caused civilian deaths, Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.
"There were some problems with tactics, techniques and procedures, the way in which close air support was supposed to have been exec...
June 8, 2009
London Telegraph
The Chinese government wants all computers sold in China after July to come with software that automatically censors the internet.
The move will give the government unprecedented control over what can and cannot be seen on the internet. In recent weeks, China blocked access to a host of websites, including Hotmail and Twitter, and expressed worries that the internet was becoming a tool of protest.
An issue of the state-controlled magazine, Outlook Weekly, strongly criticised local officials for not paying more attention to t...
June 6, 2009
Press TV
The Pentagon confirms one of South Asia's worst kept secrets - Pakistan diverted billions of dollars of US aid to boost offensive capabilities against India.
After the 9/11 incident, the Bush administration poured billions of dollars into Islamabad's coffers to fight the war on terror specifically to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban. But Islamabad redirected a substantial amount to buy a mind-boggling array of conventional American weaponry to use against India, the Pentagon report revealed.
India has repeatedly pointed out that m...
June 5, 2009
Huffington Post
A former State Department official and his wife have been arrested on charges of serving as illegal agents of the Cuban government for nearly 30 years and conspiring to provide classified U.S. information to the Cuban government.
The Myers, both residents of Washington, D.C., were arrested Thursday afternoon by FBI agents. They made their initial appearances Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while serving as an illegal agent of a foreign government c...
June 5, 2009
Reuters
VIENNA - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had found traces of processed uranium at a second spot in Syria and was checking for a link to particles retrieved from the site of Washington says was a covert atomic reactor.
The development, coupled with new information about Syrian procurement of large amounts of graphite and a compound used as a radiation shield, could heighten concern about possible undeclared nuclear activity in Syria assisted by North Korea.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been examini...
June 5, 2009
Al Jazeera
Up to 20 people are thought to have died in the Peruvian Amazon during clashes between police and indigenous Indians protesting against oil and gas exploration on ancestral lands.
Indigenous leaders told AP news agency that 15 protesters had been killed in the unrest, while officials told local radio that five police officers died.
The confrontation apparently began before dawn on Friday in Bagua in the rainforest where companies want to develop oil and natural gas projects, media reports said.
Jose Sanchez Farfan, Peru's...
June 5, 2009
AFP
BISSAU — Guinea-Bissau soldiers killed Friday a presidential candidate and a former minister accused of plotting a coup, just three months after the troubled African nation's president was assassinated.
Territorial administration minister Baciro Dabo, a candidate in the June 28 election, and former defence minister Helder Proenca were considered close to the president Joao Bernardo Vieira, who was killed by the army in March.
The interior ministry said Dabo and Proenca were killed when security forces tried to arrest them over cha...
June 5, 2009
RIA Novosti
MOSCOW - Georgia is continuing to militarize even though it clearly has not ruled out using force in regard to its former republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russia's NATO envoy said on Friday.
"We have all the necessary information, including classified, about those who continue to deliver weapons to Georgia and at what volumes," Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio station. "This information is dispiriting."
Although he did not identify the countries involved he said that Russia is making...
June 4, 2009
AFP
A North Korean navy patrol boat Thursday crossed into South Korean waters and stayed almost one hour before retreating, further fuelling military tensions after Pyongyang's nuclear test last week.
A Seoul minister said Pyongyang's recent aggressive moves are probably motivated by leader Kim Jong-Il's desire to bolster his authority before handing over power to one of his sons.
Since the May 25 atomic test the North has launched six short-range missiles, renounced the truce which ended the 1950-1953 Korean War and threatened atta...
June 4, 2009
Press TV
U.S. President Barack Obama has admitted US involvement in the 1953 coup in Iran which overthrew the democratically elected government of premier Mohammad Mossadegh.
"In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government," Obama said during his keynote speech to the Muslim world from Cairo University in the Egyptian capital.
It is the first time a sitting US president has publicly admitted American involvement in the coup.
The CIA, with British ...
June 4, 2009
Reuters
SEOUL - North Korea put two U.S. journalists on trial on Thursday on charges of illegally entering the state with "hostile intent," in a case that could worsen tension with Washington after Pyongyang's nuclear test last week.
The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of the U.S. media outlet Current TV, were arrested in March near the border between China and North Korea while working on a story. The TV network was co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
North Korea's KCNA news agency said in a one-sentence dispatch that t...
June 4, 2009
AFP
Sri Lanka's navy Thursday seized a foreign-owned ship loaded with medical, food and other supplies for war-hit civilians, saying the vessel had entered its territorial waters illegally.
The supplies, arranged by supporters of the Tamil rebel cause, were loaded onto a ship in the English port of Ipswich in April -- just weeks before the government declared victory in the ethnic conflict, a navy spokesman said.
"We have seized the vessel and we are bringing it ashore now," Captain D.K. Dassanayake said, adding the crew offered no resistance whe...
June 4, 2009
AFP
Taliban militants on Thursday freed all remaining Pakistani staff and students from an army-run boarding school who were snatched three days ago, drawing a line under the brazen mass abduction.
At least 42 students and two staff from a college in the tribal area of North Waziristan, where Washington says Al-Qaeda are plotting attacks on the West, were released to tribal elders, officials and the Taliban said.
Masked gunmen had ambushed a convoy of about 30 vehicles carrying staff and students from Razmak in North Waziristan home at...
June 3, 2009
Raw Story
Former Vice President Dick Cheney “personally” oversaw at least four briefings with members of Congress about the Bush administration’s interrogation program in an effort to maintain support for the torture of detainees in U.S. custody.
The briefings, part of a “secret” defense of the program Cheney began in 2005, were held as congressional oversight committees were threatening to investigate, or end the use of the interrogation methods, lawmakers and officials told The Washington Post.
Cheney’s advocacy of...
June 3, 2009
Mail Online
The former head of MI6 has hit out at 'striking and disturbing' invasions of privacy by the Big Brother state.
Sir Richard Dearlove, who led the Secret Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2004, claimed some were an 'abuse' of the law.
He attacked the 'loss of liberties' caused by expanding surveillance powers and described some police operations as 'mind-boggling.'
The former spy chief joins a growing number of high-profile critics warning that individual freedom and privacy are being seriously eroded by ...
June 3, 2009
NY Times
JERUSALEM - Senior Israeli officials expressed irritation on Wednesday that President Obama had declined to acknowledge what they called clear understandings with the Bush administration that allowed Israel to build West Bank settlement housing within certain guidelines while still publicly claiming to honor a settlement “freeze.”
The complaint was the latest in a growing rift between the Obama administration and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to move forward to achieve Middle East peace. Mr. Obama wa...
June 3, 2009
The Huffington Post
The families of three men killed in Iraq sued Blackwater yesterday, alleging that company employees wrongfully killed the men and then destroyed documents to hide the evidence. The private military company, now known as Xe, faces civil action in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District in Virginia. The case was originally filed in a California federal court in April.
The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges that on Feb. 7, 2007, heavily armed Xe-Blackwater employees shot the three men, who worked as security guards for the I...
June 3, 2009
Ottawa Citizen
A significant quantity of gold, silver and other precious metals is unaccounted for at the Royal Canadian Mint.
External auditors are investigating a discrepancy between the mint's 2008 financial accounting of its precious metals holdings and the physical stockpile at the plant on Sussex Drive in Ottawa.
The mystery raises possibilities from sloppy bookkeeping to a gold heist.
Officials with the commercial Crown corporation are saying little and refuse to confirm the amount and value of the unaccounted for...