Posted: 14 Sep 2012 09:18 PM PDT
By
NWSC Pakistan has systemically weakened Afghanistan by undermining the
sacred tribal structure of the Pashtuns, the country’s largest ethnic
group, by attempting to replace it with the extremist ideology and
practices of the Taliban – a process we refer to as “de-Pashtunization”.
The only way to stop this process is by changing the narrative [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 09:05 PM PDT
An
expert assessment of China’s nuclear weapons strategy highlights the
risk of escalation to nuclear war from a conflict beginning with
conventional weapons, due to the unusual structure of the nation’s
military. The new study, previously only available in Chinese, appears
in the latest edition of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
published by SAGE. [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 09:02 PM PDT
Microsoft
has announced plans to open a dedicated tablet gaming studio in London,
Digital Spy said citing MCV. The new studio will focus on developing
games for Windows 8 tablets and will be headed by former Rare production
director Lee Schuneman. Opening in November, the studio is currently
hiring staff, including a creative director, incubation [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 09:01 PM PDT
Several
dozen protesters briefly stormed the U.S. embassy compound in Tunisia’s
capital Friday, Sept 14, setting fire to cars and raising a flag with
the Muslim profession of faith written on it as part of violent
demonstrations in the region against an anti-Islam film, The Associated
Press reports. Outside the embassy, thousands of demonstrators gathered,
[...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 08:58 PM PDT
The
recent Democratic National Convention was a demonstration of marketing
at its worst, that is to say, at its greatest level of effectiveness. It
was also an awful celebration of white washed history, dubious
assertions and Orwellian levels of propaganda. The best example of
foolishness masquerading as substance was the overwrought reaction to
first lady [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 08:53 PM PDT
By
Rajeev Sharma Two new books have been published in the United States on
the killing of al Qaida founder chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on
May 2, 2011. The books’ launch coincided with the 9/11 anniversary and
have already ignited politics in the US as well as Pakistan. While one
book throws barbs [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 08:49 PM PDT
By
Zin Linn Dr. Sein Win, Prime Minister of ‘The National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma’ in exile, released a press statement
declaring dissolution of the NCGUB today. The NCGUB is a “parallel
government” formed in Manerplaw on 18 December 1990 by elected
representatives of various political parties, including the National
League for [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 08:46 PM PDT
China’s
banging of the nationalist drum over an islands row with Japan is a
prelude to a much bigger historical claim. By Philip Bowring China’s
outburst of nationalism over the group of Japanese-administered rocks
known as the Senkaku islands—or Diaoyu in Chinese—is not just another
worrisome indication of the frictions in East Asia which have [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 08:40 PM PDT
By
Peter Aung Burma’s ‘parallel government’ in exile, the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), announced its
dissolution today in an effort to support “national reconciliation”. The
NCGUB’s Foreign Minister and spokesperson Bo Hla Tint said the group’s
dissolution was intended to aid the country’s reform process, and that
the decision was [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 08:38 PM PDT
Yesterday
on The Beacon I noted that the Federal Reserve’s new “quantitative
easing” measure, QE3, is an example of crony capitalism: the use of
public policy to increase the profitability of specific firms and
industries. Today I want to compare QE3 with another example of crony
capitalism to reinforce the point. General Motors provides a [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 08:29 PM PDT
By
Boris Volkhonsky The recent tragic developments in the Middle East have
quite expectedly given a new impetus to the campaign of President
Barack Obama’s rival Mitt Romney. Romney himself and his advisers
launched an aggressive assault on Barack Obama’s “softness” claiming
that things like these would not happen if America had a Republican
president. [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 08:27 PM PDT
British
Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton have launched a legal action
against French gossip magazine Closer over its publication of topless
photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge, British media reported. The
magazine published Kate’s pictures taken when the couple had been on a
private holiday in southern France. A spokesman for the royal [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 08:25 PM PDT
Students
at two universities in the US have been allowed back on campus after
the premises were evacuated due to bomb threats. Officials at the
University of Texas at Austin say the man who targeted their school
claimed to be a member of al-Qaeda. The Director of Communications at
the University of Texas-Austin, Rhonda Weldon, [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 08:22 PM PDT
By
Dan Robinson President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton on Friday received the bodies of four Americans killed in the
attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya this past week. Tough
questions continue to be asked about security in Libya and U.S.
diplomatic facilities elsewhere as unrest linked to an anti-Islam [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 01:09 PM PDT
By
Jemal Oumar . The Dawa religious sect was set to meet in Bamako on
Friday (September 14th). Instead, members from across the region will
mourn the sixteen Dawa preachers slain last week in central Mali. “We
are going to dedicate this Friday to burying our brothers from Dawa, who
died alongside our Mauritanian Muslim [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 01:05 PM PDT
By
Sinisa Jakov Marusic Macedonian education minister, Pance Kralev, has
ordered four schools in a mainly Albanian part of the capital to remove
their new Albanian names on the grounds that they are illegal. The four
schools at the centre of the dispute lie in mainly Albanian areas of the
Macedonian capital but are currently [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 01:03 PM PDT
(RFE/RL)
— Foreign ministers from five of the European Union’s newest member
states have been tasked with monitoring preparations for Georgia’s
parliamentary elections on October 1. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry
said in a statement that Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov will join
fellow ministers from Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Romania
in traveling to Georgia [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 01:00 PM PDT
Pope
Benedict XVI says he is arriving in the Middle East with a message of
peace as he begins a 3-day Apostolic Visit to Lebanon. “Dear friends, I
have come to Lebanon as a pilgrim of peace, as a friend of God and as a
friend of men. Christ says, Salami o-tikum, ‘My peace I [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:58 PM PDT
“Today
in Beirut, in occasion of the Pope’s visit in Lebanon, the Bishops of
Aleppo will speak with their absence, testifying the tragedy that is
unfolding just a few kilometers away”, said to MISNA Monsignor Mario
Zenari, Apostolic nuncio in Syria, referring that not all Syrian Bishops
will be able to be present in Beirut, [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:56 PM PDT
Just
because someone has the ability to do something, does not mean he or
she should do it. We have two examples of such a situation before us at
the moment: President Barack Obama and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett.
Here in Pennsylvania, Terry Williams, a man who has been living on death
row for three [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:53 PM PDT
By
Dr. Kumar David The Rajapakse government called early elections to
three provincial councils (PC) as a tactical build up to early
parliamentary elections (possibly after another round of PC elections)
and early presidential elections. If president and parliament serve out
their full term, elections are not due till early-mid 2016. The alleged
reason for [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:50 PM PDT
Following
approval of a new IAEA resolution expressing “serious concern” about
Iran’s nuclear activities, agency chief Yukiya Amano called on the
Islamic Republic to make serious efforts to relieve international
concerns. On Thursday, the head of the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog
said in an interview that it wants Iran to engage with the International
Atomic [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:22 PM PDT
Nepal’s
largest selling daily – Kantipur, referring the Deputy Prime Minister
Narayan Kaji Shrestha in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-
Nepal (MoFN) , reported (September 13,2012) that the ministry will
demand clarification from U.S. embassy in Nepal on the alleged meeting
of American Assistant Secretary of State Robert O Blake with Tibetan
refugee [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:15 PM PDT
The
cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was released on bail yesterday on the Mumbai
high court’s orders after being held for four days on a sedition charge
prompted by his portrayal of the national flag in cartoons used in an
anti-corruption demonstration and online campaign. “We hail Trivedi’s
release but we call on Maharashtra state home minister [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:13 PM PDT
2008
QE1: It did not work to improve the economy, but Wall Street got
richer. 2009 QE1 Extension: The same results as QE1. 2010 QE2: Again
Wall Street got richer, but not Main Street or the Middle Class. 2011
“Operation Twist:” The only thing twisting was the Middle Class at the
end of Mr. Bernanke’s [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:10 PM PDT
In
what could prove a landmark ruling for oppressed Christians, the
European Court of Justice has ruled that people who are persecuted in
their native countries due to their religion have the right to apply for
asylum in Europe. Confirming the ruling of a German court, the European
Court of Justice – the highest court [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:08 PM PDT
n
the aftermath of the deadly attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi,
Libya, on Tuesday, the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies are
involved in beefing up diplomatic security and the investigation of the
murders and assaults on U.S. embassy staff, according to a Thursday
press conference. During the news briefing, Pentagon Press Secretary
[...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:05 PM PDT
Since
September 11, 2012, the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist strikes
by Al Qaeda in the US Homeland, there have been violent incidents
outside the US Embassies in Cairo and Sanaa in Yemen and outside the US
Consulate in Benghazi in Libya. The incidents were triggered off by
protests by some of the local [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:01 PM PDT
As
attacks on U.S. embassies around the region proliferate, President
Obama is under increasing domestic political pressure to make some kind
of demonstration of American strength. He’s in serious jeopardy of
following in the footsteps of Bill Clinton and authorizing a drone
strike that “brings justice” to the killers of Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Even if [...]
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Posted: 14 Sep 2012 11:42 AM PDT
Violent
events following the issue of a U.S. anti-Islam movie continued on
Friday across the Arab world. After the violence that caused the death
of four Americans in Libya , including the U.S. ambassador, today at
least three people killed in Sudan. Demonstrations took place across the
Arab world after Friday prayers. One protester died [...]
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