Posts

Showing posts from September 29, 2013

FARC, Colombian Gov''t Talk on Political Participation

Havana, Oct 5 (Prensa Latina) The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -People''s Army (FARC -EP) and the executive of that nation continue talks here today, focused on the item of political participation and its guarantees. The guerrillas made some statements yesterday rejecting the "threats" by the Senate's President Juan Fernando Cristo, to the politicians who decide to participate in the peace talks. Rebel delegation member Ricardo Tellez cited the case of former Colombia minister Alvaro Leyva, subjected to persecution after deciding to join to the talks and for his stance in favor of a National Constituent Assembly. Tellez criticized at the Conference Center in Havana, permanent venue of the talks since November, the intransigence against other defenders of the peace process in that country, as in case of former Senator Piedad Cordoba. Tellez said he appreciated the statements made by Colombian attorney general Eduardo Montealegre, who sees no crime in trav

NATO Kills Five Civilians in Afghanistan

Kabul, Oct 5 (Prensa Latina) In an unusual public denunciation, Afghan authorities blamed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of the death of five civilians during an air raid in the eastern province of Nangahar. The local press even made public two more versions of the event, one of the occupying coalition, which denied the attack, and one of the rebels, which noted the death toll reached six. Reports underline that the deceased aged from 12 to 20 years and were hunting in a region of the province. NATO spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Will Griffin pointed that, however, it was a precision attack and investigations are already underway. The civil death toll in the Afghan conflict in 2013 reaches from 1,000 to 2,000, according to official and rebel forces. Source  http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1926281&Itemid=1

Foreign military strike reported in southern Somali town

MOGADISHU, Somalia: A government official, a militant fighter and a town resident say a foreign military power has carried out a strike in southern Somalia. The resident of Barawe town said by telephone that heavy gunfire woke up residents before dawn prayers. The resident, who insisted on anonymity out of fear for his life, had no other details. The al-Shabab fighter, who gave his name as Abu Mohamed, said "foreign" soldiers attacked a house in Barawe. Mohamed said militants rushed to the scene to capture a foreign soldier but were not successful. A similar account was given by a government official in Mogadishu who insisted on anonymity. Foreign militaries - often the US but not always - have carried out several strikes inside Somalia in recent years against al-Shabab or al-Qaida leaders. Source  http://timesofindia.com/world/rest-of-world/Foreign-military-strike-reported-in-southern-Somali-town/articleshow/23569381.cms

Gunmen kill 15 Libyan soldiers

TRIPOLI: Gunmen attacked a Libyan military post southeast of the capital Tripoli early on Saturday, killing 15 soldiers, an official and Libya's state news agency said. The attackers rode vehicles topped with machineguns, the military official said. The highway between the towns of Tarhuna and Bani Walid, on which the post was located, was closed immediately after the attack in an attempt to track down the attackers.  The official said the attack took place at Wishtata area, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the entrance to Bani Walid. The town was one of the last strongholds for supporters of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in the country's 2011 civil war, and was besieged again by pro-government militias last year.  More recently, Libya has been hit by a months-long wave of attacks targeting military officers, activists, judges and security agents. Much of the violence is blamed on armed groups with their origins in the anti-Gaddafi rebel movement.  The official spoke on condition

TN, AP police teams nab two terrorists in joint operation in Andhra, 1 cop killed

CHITTOOR: Two suspected terrorists were taken into custody while two others escaped and a police inspector succumbed to stab wounds during a 12-hour joint operation by police teams from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the sleepy town of Puttur in Chittoor district on Saturday. The police teams were assisted in Operation Puttur by the elite Octopus forces. Tamil Nadu and AP police teams launched a search operation in Puttur in the early hours of Friday following inputs from a terror suspect arrested earlier that a group of terrorists was holed up in a building and planning to attack the Tirumala temple with bombs. During the searches the police found a pistol and two bombs, but the team was reportedly overpowered by the terror suspects and police inspector Lakshman received knife injuries. Lakshman died while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Chennai on Saturday morning. The joint operation, which sent shockwaves in Chittoor district, ended at around 2.00 pm. The police arrested te

Pakistan stepping up terror export: Military brass

NEW DELHI: India's top military leadership on Friday bluntly accused Pakistan of drastically stepping-up ceasefire violations in a bid to push in as many militants as possible into J&K before winter sets in, but dismissed suggestions that a Kargil-like situation had developed in the Keran sector along the line of control (LoC).   IAF chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, who is also chairman of the chiefs of staff committee, said Pakistan was making "frenetic attempts" to ensure the maximum number of terrorists infiltrate across the LoC before the mountain passes get snowed under.  "There is increased intensity in the border violations this year, which is there for the whole world to see ... There have been far more violations this year compared to the last two-three years," he said, adding Pakistan must "maintain the sanctity" of the decade-old ceasefire agreement.  Army chief General Bikram Singh, speaking separately, also stressed the infiltration

Who bombed Pakistan's Christians?

Image
Enlarge Pakistani Christians burn an effigy of the Taliban during a protest in Karachi on Sept. 23, 2013, in reaction to bomb attacks at a church in Peshawar. (Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images) BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — A Christian church, a crowded market, a bus full of government employees — these are some of the latest targets in Pakistan ’s increasingly violent domestic war, which pits diverse militant groups against a government that seems powerless to rein them in. On Thursday, militants attacked a rival group in northwest Pakistan, killing more than a dozen people . Most of the assaults are attributed to “the Taliban,” although that term covers a multitude of sins in the Afghan-Pakistan corridor. A militant group calling itself Jundullah, meaning Soldiers of God, claimed responsibility for the  attack on the Christian church  in Peshawar on Sept. 22, which killed at least 85. Jundullah says the bombing was payback for Muslims killed in the US drone war — a continuing source of anger in

Making Unreported World : Afghanistan’s hunted women

Image
My little girl is eight years old and has me wrapped around her little finger. Like most parents around the world I try as hard as I can to make her life as good as it can be and in truth she is very cosseted.  The mere thought of her scraping her knee or facing playground unkindness makes me wince. So listening to a young woman in Kabul describe how her father stabbed her 16 times, slashed her throat and left her for dead because she refused to marry the man he’d chosen is an unsettling experience. I was in Afghanistan for  Unreported World   making a film about how some fathers and husbands treat their daughters and wives. There is all sorts of cultural history and religious pressure to explain how women have been deprived basic rights in Afghanistan. But this kind of violence? I can’t pretend to understand how anyone can do it, but the voices of the survivors are compelling. Asking victims of violence and abuse to recount what happened to them is a grim and conflicted thing to do. A

Taliban plotted to capture Prince Harry in Afghanistan: report

London:  Prince Harry was the prime target of the Taliban during his stint with British troops in Afghanistan and there were many plans to capture him but his "good luck" saved him, a top militant commander has claimed. The rebels were determined to capture Britain's fourth-in-line to the throne during his tour of duty in Afghanistan, commander Qari Nasrullah said in an interview with the Daily Mirror at a heavily guarded compound near Peshawar in northwest Pakistan. Nasrullah, a Taliban commander from the Afghan province of Kunnar, revealed how Prince Harry was the No 1 target during his stint in the war-torn country as a British Army officer. "When your Prince came here and flew his Apache helicopter and bombarded the mujahideen it meant that our fighters did not exactly have a soft spot for him," he was quoted as saying by the daily. "As far as the mujahideen were concerned, he was just an ordinary soldier who was fighting for America. This is how we vie

Another coalition death in Afghanistan

06/10/2013 A gunman, possibly a private security guard, shot dead a member of the US-led international coalition in southern Afghanistan before himself being killed, NATO said. A coalition statement blamed the shooting on an "alleged contracted security guard." It did not say if he was an Afghan or foreign national and provided no other details. It also did not provide the service member's nationality. "The scene of the incident is secure and the suspected gunman has been killed," the statement said. It added that coalition and "Afghan officials are assessing the incident and more information will be released as appropriate." The perimeters of many coalition facilities, embassies and international organizations are guarded by Afghan guards contracted from a government agency that provides such services. Internal security at many facilities is provided by foreign guards contracted from multi-national security corporations. Last year also saw a spike in

Anonymous busted: 13 hacktivists indicted over Operation Payback

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment against 13 alleged members of the hacktivist movement Anonymous and has charged them with participating in an anti-copyright campaign that targeted government and corporation websites in 2010 and 2011. The 28-page indictment, unsealed on Thursday, accuses the defendants of engaging in Operation Payback, an Anonymous-led initiative that went after the US Copyright Office, major credit card companies and international law firms and trade groups starting in late 2010. The movement was in response to attempts from those entities to keep otherwise protected materials from being freely circulated on the Internet. According to the indictment, Operation Payback targeted victims which Anonymous claimed “ opposed its stated philosophy of making all information free for all, including information protected by copyright laws or national security considerations .” Indictment, courtesy of Gregg Housh The wave of attacks - an orchestrated effort to temp

Internet freedom on decline worldwide as governments tighten grip - report

Image
Improved surveillance, takedown of opposition websites for “illegal content” and paid pro-government commentators are among the increasingly sophisticated tools used by authorities to restrict internet freedom, a new report claims. The 2013  Freedom on the Net report , compiled by non-profit Freedom House, says that 34 out of the 60 countries it surveyed suffered a falloff in internet freedom over the past year. Iran, Cuba, China and Syria were ranked as countries with the greatest restrictions. China, which blocks millions of websites and employs thousands-strong armies of censors, “led the way in expanding an elaborate technological apparatus for system internet censorship, while further increasing offline coercion and arrests to deter freedom of expression online.”  Iceland, Estonia and Germany took the podium places in the ranking, followed by the United States.  Nonetheless, the US was castigated for a “troubling decline” in internet freedom, largely as a result of wide-ranging su

Egypt clashes: Four killed at pro-Morsi demonstrations

Image
4 October 2013   "We can smell the tear gas": The BBC's Quentin Sommerville reports from a balcony in central Cairo Four people have been killed in Egypt as supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi clashed with opponents and security forces. Medical officials said at least 40 others were hurt as gunfire and explosions rocked the centre of Cairo. Troops used tear gas and live rounds to halt crowds heading to Tahrir Square. The square has since been sealed off to prevent pro-Morsi supporters occupying the symbolic heart of the 2011 uprising which ousted Hosni Mubarak. Reports said the four fatalities were all Brotherhood supporters who died amid fighting in two Cairo neighbourhoods. As clashes broke out in the capital, state TV reported further violence in the northern Sharqiya district and to the east in Giza, as well as in the northern port city of Alexandria. There were also reports of skirmishes between pro-Morsi demonstrators and civilian supporters of the militar

Sisters of woman killed in DC chase question police actions, say she ‘seemed OK’

The Washington Post NEW YORK — A sister of the woman shot to death by police in Washington after trying to ram her car through a White House barrier says there were no indications her sister was unstable. Amy Carey-Jones said Friday that Miriam Carey “seemed OK” when they spoke more than a week ago. Another sister said police should not have used deadly force. That sister, Valarie Carey, is a former New York City police officer. Attempts to reach police in Washington for comment early Saturday were unsuccessful. Officials previously said circumstances leading to the shooting remain under investigation. The sisters spoke late Friday outside Valarie Carey’s Brooklyn home. They say Miriam Carey had been suffering from postpartum depression since the birth of her 1-year-old daughter. Police say Miriam Carey’s actions Thursday weren’t an accident. Source  http://washingtonpost.com/national/sisters-of-woman-killed-in-dc-chase-question-police-actions-say-there-must-be-another-way/2013/10/04/e

Syria chemical attack reopens old wounds among Kurds

* Damascus chemical attack awakens old fears in Halabja * Lingering health problems 25 years on * Kurds fear chemical weapons deal lets Assad off hook By Isabel Coles HALABJA, Iraq, Oct 4 (Reuters) - A sweet smell, like that of apples, wafted through the air. In a field, a cow's eyes began to stream. A bird fell from the sky, its feathers singed, and people's mouths began to fill with ulcers. At least 5,000 people were gassed to death that spring day in 1988 when the Iraqi air force dropped chemical bombs on the town of Halabja in the country's Kurdish north - a defining moment in a long history of oppression. Survivors of that raid are reliving the horror following a sarin gas attack in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus in August that has also alarmed fellow Kurds in Syria. International experts arrived in Damascus this week to begin the process of destroying President Bashar al-Assad's chemical arsenal, a problematic task in the middle of a war. Kurds in both Syria and

Turkey will pay for harboring ‘terrorists’ – Assad

Syrian President Bashar Assad said that Turkey will pay a “heavy price” for harboring and backing “terrorists” in order to oust him, warning that soon enough the terrorists will turn on Turkey. Assad referred to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as  "bigoted" and accused Turkey of aiding terrorists by allowing them to cross into Syria, Reuters reported, citing an interview with Turkey’s Halk TV. "It is not possible to put terrorism in your pocket and use it as a card because it is like a scorpion which won't hesitate to sting you at the first opportunity,"  Assad said.  "In the near future, these terrorists will have an impact on Turkey and Turkey will pay a heavy price for it." Turkey is home to about two million refugees who have fled Syria since the country’s unrest began in March 2011. Turkey is also one of the biggest supporters of Syrian opposition forces. The country plays a key geopolitical role in the conflict, as it shares a 900-kilometer