| 'Patriot' Guardian editor defends Snowden leaks Posted: 03 Dec 2013 02:27 PM PST  The editor of Britain's Guardian newspaper on Tuesday defended the publication of leaks by Edward Snowden, telling lawmakers under fierce questioning that the daily's staff were "patriots". Alan Rusbridger told a parliamentary committee that his newspaper had published just one percent of the files from former US National Security Agency contractor Snowden and the rest were secure. Britain's spy chiefs told parliament last month that the publication of the Snowden leaks by the Guardian and other papers including the New York Times had helped Britain's enemies. "We are not going to be put off by intimidation but nor are we going to behave recklessly," Rusbridger told the Home Affairs Select Committee, which summoned him as part of its counter-terrorism inquiry.
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| Hezbollah chief: Saudis behind embassy bombings Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:07 PM PST BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group has accused Saudi Arabia of being behind last month's two suicide bombings that targeted the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. |
| Afghan Quagmire Could Hold U.S. Troops Well Past 2014 Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:07 PM PST  The long-term security pact between Washington and Afghanistan is in danger of falling apart, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanding more concessions and seemingly determined to extend negotiations to April's Afghan presidential election. Now, experts are warning that the continued delay puts U.S. plans to withdraw the majority of its troops from the country within the coming year at risk. But this is a troubling assumption, according to Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute. "Even if the election is in April, that's the first round [in Afghanistan]," Rubin said.
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| NATO seeks clarity on troops in Afghanistan Posted: 03 Dec 2013 12:42 PM PST  BRUSSELS (AP) — World diplomats issued a stern warning Tuesday to Afghan leaders in a new effort to help secure the war-torn nation's future with thousands of foreign forces after 2014. But officials backed off earlier U.S. threats to withdraw all troops if Afghan President Hamid Karzai doesn't agree to the offer before the end of the year.
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| NATO presses Afghanistan, calls for dialogue in Ukraine Posted: 03 Dec 2013 12:41 PM PST  NATO foreign ministers pressed Afghanistan Tuesday to sign an accord on the alliance's new role in Afghanistan and called for dialogue in Ukraine after Kiev ditched an accord with the EU, sparking violent protests. NATO said recent developments in the former Soviet state had been discussed and a declaration agreed, even though Ukraine was not formally on the agenda. "We condemn the use of excessive force against peaceful demonstrators in Ukraine," the declaration said. Ukraine is a partner of NATO, the military alliance formed in the Cold War to counter the Soviet Union, but Moscow jealously guards its influence in former Soviet states and trumped an EU association pact last week with a mixture of threats and inducements.
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| Assault on office, other attacks kill 24 in Iraq Posted: 03 Dec 2013 09:30 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Insurgents assaulted a mayor's office in a Sunni town just north of Baghdad Tuesday, one of several attacks across Iraq that killed 24 people, officials said. |
| Iraq says 'optimistic' over Kurd oil deal Posted: 03 Dec 2013 08:47 AM PST  Iraq is optimistic about resolving a long-running dispute over plans by the country's autonomous Kurdish region to export oil to international markets through Turkey, its oil minister said on Tuesday. He said Iraq hoped to export 3.4 million barrels per day of crude oil next year, including 400,000 bpd from Iraqi Kurdistan, an area that remains relatively free of the upsurge in violence rocking other parts of the country. Turkey also voiced hope on Tuesday that an agreement would be hammered out to end the dispute, which centres on Baghdad's insistence that all energy sales should be via the central Iraqi government. "The ball is now in the court of northern Iraq and the central Iraqi government and I hope they reach agreement and give us good news," said Energy Minister Taner Yildiz whose government has offered to mediate in the dispute.
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| Iraq attacks kill 23 as year's toll tops 6,200 Posted: 03 Dec 2013 08:44 AM PST  Attacks mostly targeting Sunni Arab areas of Baghdad as well as northern and western Iraq killed at least 23 people on Tuesday, the latest in a months-long surge in bloodletting. Officials have blamed a resurgent Al-Qaeda emboldened by the civil war raging in neighbouring Syria, but the government has itself faced criticism for not doing enough to address the concerns of Iraq's disaffected Sunni Arab minority. Shootings and bombings on Tuesday hit west Baghdad, as well as the predominantly Sunni cities of Abu Ghraib, Fallujah, Baquba, Tikrit, Samarra, Mosul and Tarmiyah. In the deadliest attack, twin roadside bombs exploded near municipal offices in Tarmiyah, a town just north of Baghdad that has seen multiple deadly attacks in recent weeks.
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| Sharp rise in Europeans fighting in Syria Posted: 03 Dec 2013 08:29 AM PST  COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A new wave of Europeans is heading to Syria, their ranks soaring in the past six months as tales of easy living and glorious martyrdom draw them to the rebellion against Bashar Assad.
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| Iran aims to regain global role at OPEC meeting Posted: 03 Dec 2013 08:01 AM PST  VIENNA (AP) — Iran hopes to use a meeting of OPEC oil ministers on Wednesday as a launch pad for its return as a dominant force in global crude markets after months of sanctions. It faces resistance, however, from regional rival Saudi Arabia.
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| Oxfam launches '12 Days of Giving' for Syria refugees Posted: 03 Dec 2013 07:08 AM PST  International aid agency Oxfam on Tuesday launched a "12 Days of Giving" appeal to help destitute Syrian refugee families in Jordan and Lebanon survive the region's harsh winter months. The UN children's agency UNICEF meanwhile warned of the danger posed by another tough winter to millions of children affected by Syria's conflict, including some 1.2 million living as refugees in neighbouring countries. "Oxfam will be doing the best they can by delivering winter kits to help many of the poorest families," said British actress Michelle Dockery of "Downton Abbey" fame, who last month visited refugees in Jordan who have fled the conflict. Oxfam, which aims to raise one million pounds ($1.6 million) for its emergency response, said: "Many people are only wearing the thin summer clothes they fled from Syria in, and those living in tents are sleeping on just a bare mat or thin mattress on the cold winter ground."
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| US again driven to distraction by Karzai Posted: 03 Dec 2013 07:06 AM PST  What is the United States to do about Afghan President Hamid Karzai? Eye rolls are the usual response when Karzai's name comes up in official circles in Washington -- where the Afghan leader was once feted as a silk robed savior but is now mocked as an erratic Machiavel. In his latest mercurial move, Karzai is refusing to sign a painstakingly negotiated bilateral security agreement (BSA) with the United States, setting rules for American soldiers in a post-2014, post-combat force that would train Afghan troops and counter terrorism. Washington warns that unless Karzai relents before the end of the year, there will be no option but to plan a full US exit that would put Afghanistan at risk of a Taliban resurgence and choke off billions of dollars of military aid.
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| Attacks on Iraqi government complex, police kill 12 Posted: 03 Dec 2013 05:54 AM PST Twelve people were killed in two separate attacks targeting a government complex and a police building in Iraq on Tuesday, police and medics said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Sunni Muslim insurgents have regularly hit targets linked to the Shi'ite-led government and security services since the start of 2013, amid the country's worst spate of violence in five years. In the first assault, nine people were killed and 17 wounded in a suicide and mortar attack on a government compound in the northern Iraqi town of Tarmiya, around 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad. One attacker wearing an explosive belt blew himself up at the structure, which held the mayor's office, the town's police station and other government organizations, officials told Reuters. |
| No, al Qaeda is not more dangerous now than before 9/11 Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:52 AM PST  It's been more than 12 years since al Qaeda launched its devastating attack on the U.S., killing almost 3,000 people and changing the course of American history. And despite a host of ensuing counterterrorism efforts to debilitate al Qaeda, including the killing of Osama bin Laden, some are now claiming that the terrorist network is stronger than ever. On Nov. 15, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) — a champion of NSA surveillance — told CNN that al Qaeda "poses a bigger threat to attack inside the U.S. right now than it did before 9/11." That assertion came a day after National Journal reported that "the death of bin Laden...[has] set the stage for a rebirth of al Qaeda as a global threat." "Al Qaeda central no longer exists as an effective organization," says Fawaz Gerges, a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who has done extensive field research on al Qaeda.
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| Survey: Corruption grows in Mideast hot spots Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:37 AM PST  Corruption is bad and getting worse in three Middle Eastern countries that experienced Arab Spring uprisings launched in part to combat graft and other abuses, according to a survey released Tuesday by ...
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| Assault on office, other attacks kill 19 in Iraq Posted: 03 Dec 2013 03:54 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Insurgents assaulted a mayor's office in a Sunni town just north of Baghdad Tuesday, one of several attacks across Iraq that killed 19 people, said officials. |
| Insurgents attack mayor's office in Iraq Posted: 03 Dec 2013 02:44 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi authorities say insurgents have assaulted a mayor's office in a Sunni town just north of Baghdad, killing six. |
| Kurds, Baghdad could agree this month on energy deals: Turkey Posted: 03 Dec 2013 02:00 AM PST  Iraqi Kurdistan and the central government in Baghdad, at loggerheads over oil exports and revenue sharing, could come to an agreement this month over energy deals, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Tuesday. Yildiz travelled to Baghdad on Sunday and met Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister for energy Hussain al-Shahristani, part of efforts to appease the central government following a multi-billion dollar deal Turkey clinched last week with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
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| OPEC's own outages delay day of reckoning on new supply curbs Posted: 02 Dec 2013 10:36 PM PST By Alex Lawler and Georgina Prodhan VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC is perhaps fortunate that the misfortune of some of its own members will make a production policy meeting this week a straightforward affair. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries might have had to take action to prop up oil prices in the face of fast-rising supplies from the United States if several in the cartel weren't pumping well below par because of civil strife or sanctions. The losses have delayed OPEC's day of reckoning on having to reduce its 30 million bpd production target if it wants to keep oil prices above $100 a barrel. |
| Afghanistan, N.Korea, Somalia top world graft index Posted: 02 Dec 2013 10:08 PM PST  Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia are seen as the world's most corrupt countries while Denmark and New Zealand are nearly squeaky-clean, graft watchdog Transparency International said in a survey released on Tuesday. Worldwide, almost 70 percent of nations are thought to have a "serious problem" with public servants on the take, and none of the 177 countries surveyed this year got a perfect score, said the Berlin-based non-profit group. Transparency International's annual list is the most widely used indicator of sleaze in political parties, police, justice systems and civil services, a scourge which undermines development and the fight against poverty. Among countries that have slipped the most on the group's 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index are war-torn Syria as well as Libya and Mali, which have also faced major military conflict in recent years.
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| Factbox: Transparency International's global corruption index Posted: 02 Dec 2013 09:15 PM PST (Reuters) - In Transparency International's 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index, Denmark and New Zealand tied for first place out of 177 countries - meaning they were perceived to have the lowest levels of state sector graft. Finland and Sweden were joint third and Norway was ranked fifth. Germany came in 12th, one notch better than 2012, while Japan slipped one place to 18. The United States and China were unchanged from 2012 levels at 19th and 80th place respectively. The 2013 index ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. ... |
| In 2013, Obama finally finds Arab Spring stride Posted: 02 Dec 2013 07:33 PM PST  President Barack Obama in 2013 finally brought order out of the chaos of his initial response to the turmoil in the Middle East known as Arab Spring. Obama, elected on a promise to end two wars in the region, made a blunt declaration that promoting democracy worldwide is not a U.S. "core interest" and instead decreed that Washington must focus first and foremost on national security.
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| Hymans wins Grawemeyer world order prize Posted: 02 Dec 2013 07:00 PM PST LOUISVILLE, Ky., Dec. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A book explaining why nuclear weapons programs in many developing nations have been prone to inefficiency and failure has won the 2014 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Jacques Hymans, associate professor of international relations at the University of Southern California, earned the prize for his 2012 book "Achieving Nuclear Ambitions: Scientists, Politicians and Proliferation." At least half of the nuclear weapons projects launched in developing nations since 1970 have failed and even the successful ones have met with delays. Breaking tradition with conventional wisdom, he also argued that U.S. and international efforts to curb nuclear proliferation often overlook internal obstacles in the countries trying to develop weapons, a practice that can lead to counterproductive policies such as military solutions. |
| U.S. military court hears case on prostitution at Army base Posted: 02 Dec 2013 06:24 PM PST A U.S. military court began hearing arguments on Monday in the case of a soldier accused of being a part of a suspected prostitution ring at Fort Hood, one of the largest Army bases in the United States. The Fort Hood case was part of a spate of embarrassing sex-related incidents in the military earlier this year that prompted Congress to look at ways to make top brass more accountable for the conduct of soldiers. Master Sergeant Brad Grimes, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was charged earlier this year with conspiring to pay a female private for sex. His trial is expected to be one of several involving the suspected prostitution ring at the base in central Texas. |
| Companies, academics say budget cuts threaten U.S. competitiveness Posted: 02 Dec 2013 06:05 PM PST  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mandatory U.S. budget cuts known as sequestration are resulting in job losses across the country and threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in the global economy, industry executives and academics said on Monday, urging Congress to reverse the cuts. , one of the biggest U.S. weapons makers, said his company had already reduced its workforce by 19 percent in recent years, and more cuts were likely unless U.S. lawmakers ended the across-the-board cuts required under sequestration. Bush, who is also the chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association, said arms makers realized that the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan meant U.S. military spending would decline and that weapons needed to become more affordable. But he said the additional cuts now facing the Pentagon and other government agencies were reducing funding for critical research and development programs, which could hurt the U.S. economy and threaten national security in years to come.
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| The Unexpected Way Dogs Are Saving Cheetahs Posted: 02 Dec 2013 05:06 PM PST Nicola A. Rust and her coauthors looked at a guard dog program launched by the conservation group Cheetah Outreach in 2005 along South Africa's border with Zimbabwe and Botswana. When 20th-century farmers exterminated lions, leopards, and spotted hyenas, the lack of competition from larger cats benefited cheetahs and other smaller predators. Cheetah Outreach thought that guard dogs might work better than random predator killing to protect both the livestock and the predators. In addition to acquiring and training the puppies, Cheetah Outreach agreed to pay the cost of each dog's food, vaccines, neutering, microchipping, and other veterinary services for the first year. |
| Is Obama already a lame-duck president? Posted: 02 Dec 2013 04:59 PM PST  The "L word" – as in "lame," followed by "duck" – is already creeping into the conversation on President Obama's second-term woes. The disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov, followed by the flap over canceled policies and other effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), means Mr. Obama will spend the rest of his presidency trying to prove the law can or will work. That distracts from efforts toward new accomplishments, be it immigration reform or a long-term budget deal or climate change. And in perhaps the final sign that Obama may be sliding toward lame-duckery, political media have been obsessed by the 2016 presidential race almost since the moment Obama was reelected.
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| Iraq must make radical shift to combat unrest, say experts Posted: 02 Dec 2013 04:49 PM PST  Iraq must make radical changes in how it handles security and its Sunni minority to combat a surge in bloodletting but major steps are unlikely with elections looming, experts say. But, analysts say, those measures do not go far enough when confronted with bloodshed that has left more than 6,000 people dead already this year and has sparked fears Iraq is slipping back into all-out sectarian war. "Measures taken by the government so far have not matched the importance of the issues," said Issam al-Faili, a professor of political history at Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad. Diplomats, experts and human rights groups have argued for months that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite Arab, must reach out to the country's Sunni minority and start work to reform anti-terror laws and rules barring members of former dictator Saddam Hussein's party from participating in public life.
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