Hard News
Sectarian shadow hangs over latest reported mass killing in Syria's civil war;
The bodies of the Syrian boys and young men in jeans and casual shirts were strewn along a blood-stained pavement, dying apparently where they fell. Weeping women moved among the dead, and one of them screamed, "Where are you, people of the village?"
Opposition says Syrian forces rounding up people in Tartus region:
Syrian opposition groups charged Friday that government forces were continuing to round up people in a village near Syria's Mediterranean coast where an alleged massacre left scores dead.
Video shows reality and horror of Syrian war: Gruesome video has been posted online (WARNING: graphic) purporting to show dead bodies in the coastal village of Baida.
The opposition claims regime forces and militia summarily executed dozens of people, including women and children. State media reported that government troops killed "numbers of terrorists".
Assad forces on the offensive from Damascus to Mediterranean:
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad retook a central district in the city of Homs on Thursday, driving a wedge between two isolated pockets of rebel resistance in Syria's third largest city, fighters and activists said.
Behind the Lines: Is Assad winning in Syria?:
Regime forces have clawed back areas of recent rebel advance. The government side, evidently under Iranian tutelage, has showed an impressive and unexpected ability to adapt itself to the changing demands of the war.
At least 18 killed, 36 wounded in attacks in Iraq:
A total of nine policemen were killed and six others wounded in clashes between armed men and police in Mosul, some 400 km northwest of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua.
Iraq signs $830 million deal for more F-16s:
The U.S.-trained air force is expected to start taking delivery of 18 F-16 Block 52 jets ordered under a $4.3 billion deal in December 2011 sometime this year and pilots are already being trained to fly the supersonic aircraft by the U.S. Air Force in Nevada.
Hamas rejects Arab League peace initiative:
"The so-called new Arab initiative is rejected by our people, by our nation and no one can accept it," Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas government in the coastal enclave, said. "The initiative contains numerous dangers to our people in the occupied land of 1967, 1948 and to our people in exile."
Fayyad Steps Down, Not Out:
"Our story is a story of failed leadership, from way early on," Fayyad tells me. "It is incredible that the fate of the Palestinian people has been in the hands of leaders so entirely casual, so guided by spur-of-the-moment decisions, without seriousness.
Palestine now recognised by greater power than US or Israel - Google:
Internet giant follows UN in recognising statehood, changing home page tagline from 'Palestinian territories' to 'Palestine'
U.S. beefs up super bomb to wipe out Iran nuke site:
The Pentagon has beefed up its biggest "bunker buster" bomb so it can destroy Iran's most heavily armed and protected nuclear site, U.S. officials said.
As US Drone Strikes Rise in Yemen, So Does Anger:
The cleric preached in his tiny Yemeni village about the evils of al-Qaida, warning residents to stay away from the group's fighters and their hard-line ideology. The talk worried residents, who feared it would bring retaliation from the militants, and even the cleric's father wanted him to stop. But in the end it wasn't al-Qaida that killed Sheik Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber.
Pakistan election candidate shot dead:
A candidate running for parliament in next week's historic Pakistani election was shot dead on Friday along with his three-year-old son after praying in a mosque in Karachi, police said.
Bhutto murder: Musharraf chief prosecutor shot dead in Islamabad:
Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali was investigating 2007 killing of former PM, a case in which Pervez Musharraf is under house arrest
Indian 'spy' Sarabjit Singh cremated:
Sarabjit Singh, the Indian convicted of spying in Pakistan and killed in a Pakistani jail, is cremated with full state honours amid mass outrage in India.
Prominent Afghan insurgent leader killed in firefight:
A statement said Jamal, also known as Mullah Zabiullah, was the second-highest ranking insurgent official in Burkah district of Afghanistan's northeastern Baglan province, and was killed with three followers in a firefight.
Anti-Militia Protest Attacked in Libya:"
Hundreds of Libyan pro-democracy advocates marched in Tripoli on Friday, denouncing militias' recent blockade of government buildings and coming under attack briefly by supporters of the armed groups, in the latest sign of the turmoil that threatens the country's first elected authorities.
Report: Yemeni al-Qaida members took part in Benghazi attack:
Yemeni members of an al-Qaida branch participated in the attack on a diplomatic mission in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed, a U.S. official said.
US upgrades bunker buster to thwart Israel strike in Iran:
U.S. officials told Israel that the United States has new weapons capable of destroying Iran's underground nuclear site in Fordow, an American daily reported.
New Israeli submarines can't be 'solely for defensive purposes':
The deployment of INS Rahav, allegedly capable of launching cruise missiles with nuclear warheads, to the Israeli navy has set off a number of worrying alarm bells, Jeremy Corbyn, the British MP and deputy head of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament tells RT.
Force feeding at Gitmo branded 'torture' by UN : Video report:
Force-feeding inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison is 'torture', and 'breaks international law.' That's how the United Nations labeled the treatment of detainees at the facility. As many as 23 prisoners are now being forced to eat through nasal tubes, as a mass hunger strike there nears the three-month mark.
Obama: Walk Your Talk on Guantánamo : Editorial:
The president must start living up to his rhetoric about closing the prison, the CCR warns, or "the men who are on hunger strike will die, and he will be ultimately responsible for their deaths."
Local elections 2013: Nigel Farage's Ukip surges to best ever showing, winning 150 seats:
Nigel Farage, the party's leader, was jubilant after it emerged that one in four voters supported Ukip in the elections in 35 councils in England and Wales.
Portugal aims to cut 30,000 civil service jobs:
Portugal is planning to cut 30,000 civil service jobs and to raise the retirement age by one year to 66 as it tries to meet the terms of a bailout.
Guatemala declares emergency in four towns to quell mining protests:
Guatemala declared an emergency in four southeastern towns on Thursday, suspending citizens' constitutional rights in an area where deadly protests over a proposed silver mine have erupted in recent weeks.
The Prophetsof Oak Ridge:
Last summer, in the dead of night, three peace activists penetrated the exterior of Y-12 in Tennessee, supposedly one of the most secure nuclear-weapons facilities in the United States. A drifter, an 82-year-old nun and a house painter. They face trial next week on charges that fall under the sabotage section of the U.S. criminal code.
NYPD Commissioner Calls for More Surveillance Cameras:
Kelly dismisses critics who argue that increased cameras threaten privacy rights, giving governments the ability to monitor people in public spaces. "The people who complain about it, I would say, are a relatively small number of folks, because the genie is out of the bottle," Kelly said.
Secret Spy Court Rejected Zero Requests in 2012:
An annual report to the United States Senate by the Justice Department shows the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court did not deny one single request made to the court by federal law enforcement. All applications to conduct electronic surveillance or "physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes" were granted.
Number of names on U.S. counter-terrorism database has jumped to 875,000:
The "Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment" is a master database which agencies use to build other catalogs of possible terrorists, like the "no-fly" list which prevents people who feature on it from boarding airplanes.
Humans Used for Radiation Experiments: A Shameful Chapter in US History: -
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the declassification of top-secret studies, the "Human Radiation Experiments," done over a period of 30 years, in which the US conducted radiation experiments on as many as 20,000 vulnerable US citizens.
Ron Paul & Jim Rogers: "There's More Chaos To Come":
What's happening right now is playing out in textbook fashion. More taxes, more debt, more printing, more confiscation, less freedom. I'm not talking about the end of the world here, I'm talking about difficult times ahead, and the things that go beyond economics. It's time to face facts and look at how society will change.
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"Let us be peace and joy"
Tom Feeley
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