Hard News
Pakistan: 18 Killed In Clashes :
Officials said that the soldiers and insurgents were killed in the remote mountainous Tirah Valley in the Khyber tribal district on Afghanistan's border, where the Taliban have been battling a local pro-government militia since January.
US Kills 4 People In Pakistan: :
State-run Radio Pakistan reported four persons were killed in the attack by the CIA-operated spy plane in Dattakhel area of North Waziristan Agency.
New Zealand withdraws Afghan troops:
About 95 Afghan interpreters and their family members who worked with the Kiwis will this month move to New Zealand, where they have been granted residency.
How many occupation force troops will the US keep in Afghanistan after 2014?
"I'm not in any particular hurry" to come up with a number for what the U.S. military calls an "enduring presence" in Afghanistan, Gen. Martin Dempsey said in an interview.
2 attacks in Iraq kill 3 soldiers, 3 civilians:
In the first incident Friday, a police officer said attackers detonated a bomb as an army jeep was driving through the western Baghdad neighborhood of Abu Ghraib, killing three soldiers.
Jabhat al-Nusra imposing extremist views in Syria:
Residents of Aleppo and Deir Ezzor say the group is imposing its strict agenda under the cloak of providing aid to residents.
Syria lurches toward 'war of the rebels':
As Syria's civil war grinds on, major differences are emerging between Islamist and secular rebel forces.
Putin urges peace talks to end Syria `massacre':
President Vladimir Putin said the civil war in Syria has become "a massacre" that must be stopped through peace talks between the government and the opposition, and repeated Russia's firm rejection of calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad's ouster.
Jordanians and Turks Are Focus of Syria's Ire:
Syria lashed out at Turkey and Jordan on Thursday for what it called their duplicitous work in fomenting the Syrian rebellion, accusing the Turkish prime minister of chronic lies and telling the Jordanians they were "playing with fire" in letting insurgents arm and train on their soil - a possible hint of retaliation.
Former American Soldier Charged With Fighting For Al-Qaeda:
Eric Harroun, a 30-year-old army veteran from Phoenix, Arizona, is alleged to have joined a squad of guerrilla fighters from the Al-Nusra Front, training to use rocket-propelled grenades against Syrian government forces, the AFP news agency reported.
'We are broke,' U.N. says as Syria refugee funds dry up:
The United Nations gave its starkest warning yet on Friday that it would soon run out of cash to cope with the vast influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan and other neighboring countries.
UN cuts Gaza aid citing 'unsafe' conditions:
Food distribution and other operations suspended after Palestinians angered by cutbacks stormed UN aid agency office.
Hamas urges UN to resume Gaza food aid:
"This is an unjustified step from UNRWA," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. "There is a right of peaceful protest for Palestinian refugees," he said, adding: "We call on UNRWA to reevaluate its position and not to overreact to residents' protest."
Israel denies link with arms-laden ship seized by Egypt:
Israel's government on Friday strenuously denied it had any link to an arms-laden ship that Egypt said its navy seized as it sailed from the Israeli port of Eilat to Togo in West Africa.
Roger Waters' New York gig scrapped over Israel comments:
The news comes just weeks after Waters urged his fellow musicians to boycott Israel in protest of ongoing hostilities with Palestinians.
North Korea 'moves second missile to coast': -
North Korea has now moved two intermediate range missiles to its east coast and loaded them on mobile launchers, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said on Friday, citing a top government official.
Map: This is how far those North Korean missiles can actually reach:
North Korea has redeployed some of its missiles to the country's eastern coast, a provocation and implicit warning that it just might carry through on some of its recent threats.
Obama administration 'cut off all negotiations over North Korea':
The United States is interested in the collapse of the North, as the US "can establish their military bases right on the border with China, meaning an encirclement of that nation." He also added that America never "never tolerated a country that won't put its economy at the service of foreign corporations."
U.S. Should Ponder over Grave Situation: Spokesman:
South Korea and waters around it are turning into places for display of various types of nuclear strike means of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces and a dangerous hotbed of a nuclear war in the true sense of the word.
N.Korea 'can't protect foreign embassies after April 10':
North Korea asked foreign embassies to consider evacuation amid growing tension, warning it will be 'unable to guarantee' their safety after April 10.
Russian bomber conducts practice strikes on U.S. missile defenses in Asia:
A Russian bomber recently carried out simulated cruise missile attacks on U.S. missile defenses in Asia, raising new questions about Moscow's goal in future U.S.-Russian defense talks.
This Might Be the Next American to Be Killed by Drones:
Born to a Syrian Muslim father and a white Protestant mother near Mobile, Alabama, he came of age listening to music like Nirvana, watching movies like Fight Club, hanging out with his friends at Waffle House and going to school dances.
Deprived of justice, the Guantánamo detainees' last resort is to hunger strike:
Stuck in a Kafkaesque legal limbo created by 'war on terror' exceptions to rights, the prisoners have no redress but protest
Gitmo guards brutally clamp down on hunger strikers:
Andy Worthington - Video -
WikiLeaks activist in New York to protest US whistleblowers clampdown:
Iceland MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir arrives in US for first time since WikiLeaks 'Collateral Murder' controversy three years ago
Hillary Clinton's playboy fundraiser arrested over heroin and cocaine:
An Indian playboy and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton has been arrested in Florida after he tried to board a plane with heroin, cocaine and other drugs hidden in his bags and underpants.
Egypt Is Perched on the Precipice of Chaos:
Egypt's dilemma is this: it cannot politically afford to stop providing the costly subsidies to the poor that distort its economy. But unless it reduces these subsidies and adopts a pro-growth budget, Egypt cannot secure the $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan it needs to unlock
Egypt's Looming Famine and America's Grain Bounty:
Negotiations with the World Bank and the IMF are foundering given the tax increases and subsidy cuts demanded by these international institutions of an Egyptian government already struggling to quell the ever mounting violent protests by its political rivals.
Lights go out in Jordan as energy crisis bites:
Jordan is considering wider electricity rationing and is preparing a hike in electricity prices in June, a politically fraught move in a country which saw street protests last year over fuel subsidy cuts imposed as a condition for a $2 billion IMF loan.
Unable to pay rent, Italian couple commits suicide:
The bodies of Romeo Dionsi, 62, and Anna Sopranzi, 68, were discovered by their neighbours on Friday morning at their home in Civitanova, a small village in the central Marche region on the Adriatic Sea.
US sequester cuts treatment for thousands of cancer patients:
Cancer clinics across the US have begun to turn away thousands of Medicare patients as a result of the sequestration order signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 1. The action is mainly due to cuts to Medicare reimbursement for expensive chemotherapy drugs,
U.S. Job Growth Slows As Jobless Face Benefit Cuts:
The 11.7 million Americans searching for work got Friday morning when the Labor Department said employers created only 88,000 jobs in March. The weak job growth comes at the same time benefits for the long-term unemployed are shrinking.
NYC fast-food workers strike for better pay:
Hundreds of employees stop work at scores of restaurants, saying $7-$9 per hour is not enough to survive.
Millions still mired in poverty in US: Video report:
Despite signs of an economic recovery, many Americans still rely on the government to put food on their tables.
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"Let us be peace and joy"
Tom Feeley
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