Hard News
Afghanistan: 5 Taliban killed, 3 coalition forces injured in Wardak:
Five
Taliban militants were killed and two coalition security forces were
injured following clashes in central Maidan Wardak province of
Afghanistan, local officials said.
Polish occupation force soldier killed by mine in Afghanistan:
Platoon
leader Jan Kiepura, a Polish soldier serving in Afghanistan, was
killed on Monday when a land mine exploded beneath the car he was in
while on patrol near Ghazni, the capital of Ghanzi province.
Pakistan artillery shelling kill Afghan border police in Kandahar:
Pakistan
fire missiles in AfghanistanAn Afghan border protection police officer
was killed following cross-border shelling by Pakistan in southern
Kandahar province of Afghanistan on Friday.
Syria: Assad troops launch heavy assault on Aleppo:
Syrian
troops triggered the heaviest fighting seen in months in Aleppo,
launching an assault with tanks and heavy artillery on a key eastern
district that has been in rebel hands for almost a year.
Syrian Army Advances in Aleppo, Controls Rusafa Neighborhood in Deir Ezzor:
Violent
clashes took place between the Syrian army and armed groups at the
entrances of al-Sakhoor neighborhood of Aleppo, amid progress by the
Syrian army in the area.
Syrian rebels pledge loyalty to al-Qaeda:
A
Syrian rebel group's April pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda's
replacement for Osama bin Laden suggests that the terrorist group's
influence is not waning and that it may take a greater role in the
Western-backed fight to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Syria: US chemical weapons charges 'full of lies':
"The United States is using cheap tactics to justify President Barack Obama's decision to arm the Syrian opposition," it said.
Russia says US claims of Syrian chemical arms use are 'unconvincing':
Mr
Ushakov said at a briefing before Mr Putin's trip to Northern Ireland
for a G8 summit. "But I will say frankly that what was presented to us
by the Americans does not look convincing." "It would be hard even to
call them facts," said Mr Ushakov
Data on chemical arms use by Syria's Assad fabricated: Russian MP:
"Information
about the use by Assad of chemical weapons has been fabricated in the
same place as the lies about (Saddam) Hussein's weapons of mass
destruction," Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign policy committee in
the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, said on Twitter. "Obama is
taking the same path as George Bush."
Lap dog obeys master:
Britain backs US chemical weapons claims in Syria:
British
Prime Minister David Cameron supported Whitehouse claims over the use
of chemical weapons by Syrian government and said the two countries'
spying agencies have been sharing information.
U.N. Chief Opposes U.S. Military Support For Syrian Rebels:
"The
United Nations, and in particular I, have been making it consistently
clear that providing arms to either side would not address this current
situation,". "There is no such military solution."
US plan to arm Syrian rebels receives cool reactions:
The
international reaction Friday ranged from flat-out disbelief of the
U.S. intelligence assessments to calls for negotiation before more
weapons pour into the vicious civil war.
Germany won't supply weapons to Syrian rebels:
Germany
said Friday it had noted "with respect" the United States' promise of
military aid to the Syrian opposition but restated it would not deliver
weapons to the conflict-ridden country itself.
Attempts to Arm Syria Rebels Prevent Conference - Russian FM:
"[The
Syrian opposition's] statement is that the conference is possible only
when the military balance on the ground is restored," Sergei Lavrov
told journalists. "But if this criterion is taken into account, we will
never convene that conference," he said.
War criminal: Blair:
Arguments on Syria intervention 'same as Iraq':
The Middle East envoy said he believes Britain should help the US to arm Syrian rebels.
How long will it take for arms to reach rebels in Syria?
The
US has already established lines of logistical support for the Supreme
Military Council, headed by General Idriss, and we must assume that
contingency plans for arming the rebels have been drawn up for many
months.
White House says Syria no-fly zone would be costly, difficult: Video report:
The
White House said on Friday that imposing a no-fly zone over Syria
would be dramatically more difficult and costly than it was in Libya,
stressing the United States does not have a national interest in
pursuing that option. Mana Rabiee reports.
Syria: how Jordan could play a pivotal role in toppling Bashar al-Assad:
Details
remain sketchy, but it is thought it would involve a limited no-fly
zone extending 25 miles into Syria, enforced by US aircraft flown from
Jordanian bases.
Assad: We are Preparing for Resistance in Golan:
Lebanese
officials visiting Syria told Lebanese paper Al Akhbar that Assad has a
long term plan in Golan similar to what the Islamic resistance in
Lebanon had achieved in the South. This would include, according to
Assad, a continued struggle against Israel.
Ban terms Israeli settlement illegal:
UN chief terms proposed building of 1,000 homes in two occupied West Bank settlements 'violation of international law'.
Another Iraq candidate killed before provincial polls:
An
Arab candidate in Iraqi provincial elections due next week has been
shot dead as he left Friday prayers in the main northern city of Mosul,
officials said. Muhanad Ghazi was gunned down as he walked home from
the mosque in east Mosul.
Moderate cleric Rohani leading in Iran elections - Interior Minister:
Iran's
presidential elections have yielded preliminary results, with moderate
cleric Hassan Rohani running ahead of Tehran's Mayor Mohammad Baqer
Qalibaf by nearly 300,000 votes, and nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili,
who is just behind Qalibaf.
Two killed in shooting at Sirte University in Libya:
At
least two people were killed and six injured in a shooting at the
University of Sirte, the hometown of Col. Gaddafi in northern Libya, a
university source reported.
Libyan army brigade says unit's colonel killed in ambush in south:
A
Libyan army colonel was killed in an ambush on his brigade in the
country's south on Friday, the unit's spokesman said, in the latest
incident of violence in the North African country.
UN peacekeeper killed in shelling of Sudan base: spokesman:
Shells
hit a United Nations base in Sudan's troubled South Kordofan state on
Friday, killing one peacekeeper and wounding two more, a UN spokesman
said.
UK: Increasing number of asylum detainees freed after near-fatal hunger strikes:
Four men released from Harmondsworth detention centre where up to 17 inmates were starving themselves last month.
Thomas Drake: Snowden saw what I saw: surveillance criminally subverting the constitution: Op-Ed:
So
we refused to be part of the NSA's dark blanket. That is why
whistleblowers pay the price for being the backstop of democracy
NEW TIME POLL: Support for the Leaker-and His Prosecution:
More
than half of Americans approve of a former intelligence contractor's
decision to leak classified details of sprawling government
surveillance programs, according to the results of a new TIME poll.
Britain tells airlines to keep Snowden off UK-bound flights:
The
British government has warned airlines around the world not to allow
Edward Snowden onto flights to Britain, marking the first official
measure to target him even though he has yet to be charged with any
crime and no warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Is Obama Starting A War With Syria Just To Distract Us From All The Scandals?:
At
the moment when the Obama administration is feeling more heat then
ever before, it starts another war. Suddenly everyone in the mainstream
media is talking all about Syria and not about the IRS scandal,
Benghazi, NSA snooping or any of the other political scandals that have
popped up in recent weeks.
From the archives: : NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls: 05/11/06 -
The
National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call
records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by
AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the
arrangement told USA TODAY.
Welcome to Utah, the NSA's desert home for eavesdropping on America:
The
$1.7bn facility, two years in the making, will soon host
supercomputers to store gargantuan quantities of data from emails,
phone calls, Google searches and other sources. It will employ around
200 technicians, span 1m sq ft and use 65 megawatts of power.
Rand Paul: Every cell phone likely tracked:
The
Kentucky Republican senator said Thursday afternoon that he suspects
the United States government is collecting data from every cell phone
in America.
Facebook releases government surveillance data:
Facebook
said that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 requests for user data
in the second half of 2012, covering 18,000 to 19,000 of its users'
accounts.
Americans' Confidence in Congress Falls to Lowest on Record:
Congress ranks last on list of 16 institutions; military earns top spot again
Miss me yet? Polls shows Americans like Bush again:
The
favorability rating of George W. Bush has skyrocketed, with 49 percent
of Americans expressing positive feelings toward the former US
president and only 46 percent expressing dislike.
Police Trained to Treat Keystone XL Protesters as 'Terrorists' (View TransCanada's PowerPoints):
These
slides revealed that TransCanada provided training to both federal and
local police forces on how to crack down on environmental activists,
even going so far as to train them to arrest the activists under
anti-terrorism statutes.
IMF criticises US spending cuts:
Fund warns country still faces downside risks to its recovery and urges Congress to severe 'sequester' budget cuts.
===
"Let us be peace and joy"
Tom Feeley
| 
