| Lawn chair balloonist says flying days are done Posted: 09 Jul 2013 04:18 PM PDT  GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man who made headlines with his numerous flights in a lawn chair suspended from party balloons said Tuesday that between the high price of helium and a fine from the Federal Aviation Administration, his flying days might be done — at least in the U.S.
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| Car bomb rocks Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon Posted: 09 Jul 2013 04:14 PM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — A powerful car bomb exploded in a Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday, wounding at least 53 people in the most troubling sign yet that Syria's civil war is beginning to consume its smaller neighbor.
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| Pentagon's paymasters hound a master sergeant Posted: 09 Jul 2013 02:53 PM PDT By Kelly Carr and Scot J. Paltrow (Reuters) - Four months after 25-year Air Force veteran George Koffler retired, the Defense Department demanded that he give back $4,034.67 in pay it said he hadn't deserved. In the more than two years since, the former master sergeant has vainly sought an answer to a simple question: Why? Even as Koffler repeatedly asked the Defense Finance and Accounting Services, or DFAS, for an explanation, the Pentagon's payroll agency arranged to garnish his pay from his new civilian job and report the alleged debt to credit agencies. ... |
| Special Report: How the Pentagon's payroll quagmire traps America's soldiers Posted: 09 Jul 2013 02:50 PM PDT  By Scot J. Paltrow and Kelly Carr EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) - As Christmas 2011 approached, U.S. Army medic Shawn Aiken was once again locked in desperate battle with a formidable foe. Not insurgents in Iraq, or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan - enemies he had already encountered with distinguished bravery. This time, he was up against the U.S. Defense Department. Aiken, then 30 years old, was in his second month of physical and psychological reconstruction at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, after two tours of combat duty had left him shattered. ...
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| Leaked Gitmo 'baseball cards' had little value: WikiLeaks trial witness Posted: 09 Jul 2013 02:43 PM PDT  By Ian Simpson FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - Secret files on Guantanamo Bay detainees dubbed "baseball cards" that a soldier leaked to WikiLeaks had little value for U.S. enemies since it was available publicly, the prison's former top prosecutor testified at a court-martial on Tuesday. Testimony about the files came as the defense for Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, sought to show that much of the information Manning is charged with leaking was publicly available. The leaked files include assessment briefs for more than 700 inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. ...
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| Gov't asks court to reinstate Marine's conviction Posted: 09 Jul 2013 02:34 PM PDT SAN DIEGO (AP) — The government is asking the military's highest court to reconsider its ruling last month that overturned a murder conviction of a Marine who has served more than half of his 11-year sentence for one of the biggest war crime cases to emerge from the Iraq war. |
| Witness: No harm to US from leaked Gitmo files Posted: 09 Jul 2013 02:17 PM PDT  FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Secret threat assessments of Guantanamo Bay detainees that Pfc. Bradley Manning gave to WikiLeaks did not harm national security, a former chief prosecutor at the U.S. detention facility in Cuba testified Tuesday.
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| Afghan officials skeptical as U.S. mulls complete withdrawal Posted: 09 Jul 2013 01:45 PM PDT  By Steve Holland and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is considering pulling out all its troops from Afghanistan next year but is far from making a decision, White House and Pentagon officials said on Tuesday, but Afghan officials expressed skepticism that President Barack Obama would back a complete withdrawal. Amid tensions between Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the path forward, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that a "zero option" of leaving no U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014 is among the policy possibilities under consideration. ...
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| Egypt crisis stirs wide debate on democracy's hold Posted: 09 Jul 2013 11:58 AM PDT  DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As Egypt's political crisis tumbled toward its first night of major bloodshed last week, the country's army chief was pulled away for a phone call. It was one he couldn't easily ignore.
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| Muslim women of today – not just the past – must be respected in Egypt, Syria Posted: 09 Jul 2013 09:31 AM PDT This week in Egypt and Syria, two prominent Muslim women have been at the center of the action – but no one has really bothered to mention them. Maybe that's because they died several centuries ago. |
| Syrians say they have given up on U.S. weapons promises Posted: 09 Jul 2013 08:14 AM PDT  By Oliver Holmes BEIRUT (Reuters) - Members of the Syrian opposition said on Tuesday that they had given up hope that the United States would deliver promised military aid to rebels as war planes and artillery smashed the central city of Homs. U.S. congressional committees are holding up the plan to send weapons because of fears that such deliveries will not be decisive and that arms might end up in the hands of Islamist militants, U.S. national security sources said. ...
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| Analysis: Confident Assad sees Syria tide turning Posted: 09 Jul 2013 07:02 AM PDT  By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - The road to Bashar al-Assad's palace on the edge of Damascus has four checkpoints manned by Republican Guards and plain-clothed police which guests must pass before they reach the main gate. Inside the People's Palace, in the hills overlooking the Syrian capital, visitors who have seen the Syrian president in the last month say security is surprisingly light for a man who has lost control of half his country to a rebel uprising. ...
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| Iraqis mourn Shiite fighter killed in Syria Posted: 09 Jul 2013 05:52 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds in Baghdad mourned on Tuesday a Shiite fighter killed in Syria, one of an unknown number of Iraqis who went to fight in the neighboring country for what they consider a religious duty to protect Shiite shrines.
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| US slowly steps up diplomacy in Somalia Posted: 09 Jul 2013 04:12 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Twenty years after the U.S. military's "Black Hawk Down" disaster, the Obama administration is slowly stepping up relations with Somalia even though security requires American officials to be sheltered behind blast walls and unable to see nearly any of the chaotic country.
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| U.S. considers pulling all troops from Afghanistan: officials Posted: 09 Jul 2013 01:47 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is considering pulling out all its troops from Afghanistan next year, U.S. officials said, amid tension between the President Barack Obama's administration and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government. Obama is committed to wrapping up U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but the United States has been talking with officials in Afghanistan about keeping a small residual force there of perhaps 8,000 troops. U.S. officials did not deny a report that Obama has become increasingly frustrated by his dealings with Karzai. ...
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| Vital Interests vs. Democratic Ideals Posted: 09 Jul 2013 12:00 AM PDT Understandably, the Muslim Brotherhood is enraged. |
| Corruption worsened in Arab countries since uprisings: poll Posted: 08 Jul 2013 11:18 PM PDT  By Andrew Torchia DUBAI (Reuters) - Corruption has worsened in most Arab countries since their 2011 revolutions, even though anger with corrupt officials was a major reason for the uprisings, according to a public opinion poll released on Tuesday. The survey by Transparency International, a global non-governmental body which studies bribery around the world, appears to dash hopes that the Arab Spring would produce cleaner government and business in the region. ...
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| Today in History Posted: 08 Jul 2013 09:01 PM PDT Today is Tuesday, July 9, the 190th day of 2013. There are 175 days left in the year. |
| U.S. mulls speeding up troop withdrawal from Afghanistan: report Posted: 08 Jul 2013 06:28 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is considering speeding up its planned withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, including a possible "zero option" that would result in no U.S. forces in that country after 2014, the New York Times reported on Monday. Citing U.S. and European officials, the Times reported that President Barack Obama has become increasingly frustrated by his dealings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, with their fraying relationship falling to new depths after last month's U.S. move to open peace talks with the Taliban. ...
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| U.S. soldier in WikiLeaks case had free access to secret files Posted: 08 Jul 2013 06:21 PM PDT  By Ian Simpson FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - The soldier accused of the largest release of classified material in U.S. history had wide-open access to secret files that could easily be downloaded, witnesses told a court-martial on Monday at the start of defense testimony. Private First Class Bradley Manning, accused of releasing more than 700,000 classified files to WikiLeaks, had nothing to stop him from installing software for the high-speed download of secret State Department cables, the witnesses said. ...
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