| Judge won't dismiss Ventura 'American Sniper' suit Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:56 PM PDT ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A judge is allowing former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's defamation lawsuit against the widow of slain "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle to go to trial. |
| U.S. Army seeks to dismiss general who admitted affair Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:32 PM PDT  By Kelly Twedell FORT BRAGG, North Carolina (Reuters) - A U.S. Army general who pleaded guilty to mistreating a junior female officer during one of several inappropriate relationships should be dismissed from the service for the harm caused by his criminal acts, military lawyers argued on Wednesday. Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair used the power of his rank to exploit women for personal gratification, breaking the trust given to him as a top officer, said Major Rebecca DiMuro, a special victims prosecutor. "This is not honorable service," DiMuro said during the government's closing argument at Sinclair's court-martial in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. "When given the ultimate trust, he abused it." Sinclair's defense lawyers argued the 27-year Army veteran who served five combat tours should be allowed to retire at a reduced rank rather than lose out on his military pension and benefits if dismissed.
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| Iraq violence kills 37 nationwide Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:07 PM PDT  Violence across Iraq, including shelling and clashes in a militant-held city on Baghdad's doorstep, killed 37 people on Wednesday amid a protracted surge in bloodletting with polls looming next month. The violence, in which more than 2,000 people have died already this year, has been primarily driven by discontent in the minority Sunni Arab community, that alleges mistreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government and security forces, and by the civil war raging in neighbouring Syria. In Wednesday's deadliest incidents, shelling by government forces in Fallujah and clashes in and around the city killed 15 people and wounded 40, according to Ahmed Shami, the chief medic at the city's main hospital.
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| Army general sex case sentencing nears conclusion Posted: 19 Mar 2014 12:46 PM PDT  FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — An Army general who carried on a three-year extramarital affair with a subordinate should be thrown out of the military, prosecutors argued Wednesday, advocating for a decision that would likely wipe out his benefits.
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| Lifelong Pensions for Vets Could Be Whacked Under Pentagon Proposal Posted: 19 Mar 2014 12:32 PM PDT  The Defense Department is looking at ways to overhaul its retirement program, which costs taxpayers more than $50 billion a year and only applies to the 17 percent of service members who eventually qualify for the benefit. Currently, personnel who serve 20 years receive monthly retirement checks equal to about half of their highest pay rate while serving.
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| New age of discord as Putin rips up post-Soviet order Posted: 19 Mar 2014 12:03 PM PDT  Russia is heading to a new era of confrontation with the West as President Vladimir Putin reasserts Kremlin power by tearing up the post-Soviet order that prevailed for over two decades, analysts say. On December 8, 1991 then Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus met at a remote dacha to sign the document that effectively dismembered the USSR into independent states. But by snatching Crimea from Ukraine, Putin has shown a readiness to redraw Russia's current frontiers and shatter the order that dates from the so-called Belovezhskaya Accords.
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| Saudi jails 13 for 'terror' offences Posted: 19 Mar 2014 11:31 AM PDT  A Saudi court Wednesday sentenced 13 people to up to 14 years in prison for backing "terrorist organisations", training with Al-Qaeda and luring young people to fight abroad, media reported. The ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom recently toughened measures against Islamist groups, listing Al-Qaeda-linked organisations fighting in Syria among terrorist movements.
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| Syrian planes pound Damascus suburb, breaking truce Posted: 19 Mar 2014 09:36 AM PDT  Syria's air force bombarded a suburb northwest of Damascus on Wednesday, killing seven people and violating a truce that had been in place since October, a monitoring group said. "Seven men have been killed in air strikes targeting the edges of Qudsaya, and an eighth man was shot dead by an army sniper," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Mohammad Ali, an activist in Qudsaya, told AFP via Skype: "We don't know what's going to happen next. He also expressed concern over any further escalation as the truce has allowed thousands of families fleeing other areas of strife-torn Syria to take refuge there.
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| Tensions rise in Lebanon as Syria extends control over border Posted: 19 Mar 2014 09:06 AM PDT  The Lebanese army reopened a road between two towns near the Syrian frontier on Wednesday to try to calm sectarian rivalry that has been aggravated by a Syrian government campaign to tighten its grip on the border region. Shi'ite Muslims from the Lebanese Bekaa Valley town of al-Labwa had erected sandbag barriers at the weekend to cut off the road to Arsal, a Sunni town about 5 km (3 miles) east where they believed hundreds of Syrian rebels had taken refuge. Tensions have been especially high in and around Arsal after Syrian forces and the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah recaptured the Syrian border town of Yabroud from rebels on Sunday, sending a stream of refugees and fighters across the border. Lebanon's border area has been steadily sucked into Syria's three-year-old conflict as President Bashar al-Assad's forces attack nearby rebel bases and suspected Syrian rebels fire rockets at Shi'ite towns to punish Hezbollah for sending fighters to support Assad.
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| Iran says ready to pardon hundreds of exiled dissidents Posted: 19 Mar 2014 08:57 AM PDT  Iran is ready to pardon hundreds of members of an exiled Iranian opposition group based at a former military camp near Baghdad, Iran's ambassador to Iraq told the Mehr news agency on Wednesday. "After conducting investigations, 423 members (of the People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran - PMOI) who do not have any legal problems can return to Iran," Hassan Danaeifar was quoted as saying. The number represents about 14 percent of the estimated 3,000 members of the PMOI who are living in exile at Camp Liberty, near Baghdad airport.
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| Witnesses laud Army general as sex case winds down Posted: 19 Mar 2014 08:44 AM PDT FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — An Army general who admitted to inappropriate relationships with three subordinates was described as a selfless leader by fellow officers on Wednesday during testimony that the defense hopes will lead to a lenient sentence. |
| Bentley to build all of Volkswagen's W12 engines in Britain Posted: 19 Mar 2014 08:15 AM PDT  By Costas Pitas LONDON (Reuters) - Britain-based luxury carmaker Bentley Motors will make all of parent Volkswagen's powerful W12 engines from the end of this year, creating about 100 jobs for its central England factory and ending production of the engines in Germany. The announcement came on Wednesday after Bentley posted a record 2013 profit, driven by demand from the Americas, and as British Chancellor George Osborne trumpeted the country's economic recovery in his annual budget. Bentley, which was bought by Volkswagen (VW) in 1998 and is known for its sleek models with a racing pedigree, said it expected to be producing 9,000 W12 engines by 2017/18. The move will lead to Bentley exporting engines to cars made outside of Britain for the first time, with some to be used in as-yet unspecified models for VW and its high-end Audi brand.
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| No Good Pundit Will Let the Complexity of Russian Foreign Policy Interrupt His Punditry Posted: 19 Mar 2014 06:51 AM PDT  The increased tensions with Russia, including heightened rhetoric from the vice president on Wednesday, is objectively bad and undeniably complex. Unless you spent years of your professional life being paid to rail against the Soviet threat, in which case conflict with Russia is just like slipping on an old shoe.
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| AP wins Shadid Award for story on American in Iran Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:13 AM PDT A team from The Associated Press has won the 2014 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics for a story that revealed the CIA ties of an American who vanished in Iran. Reporters Adam Goldman and Matt ... |
| Today in History Posted: 18 Mar 2014 09:01 PM PDT Today is Wednesday, March 19, the 78th day of 2014. There are 287 days left in the year. |
| Australian killed in Syria was former soldier Posted: 18 Mar 2014 07:27 PM PDT  Reports said that Caner Temel, 22, was killed on the frontline in January after travelling to Syria to fight in the civil war, joining up with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) radical jihadist group. "From his name and from the photograph that the media showed, that matched the name and a photograph we had of a young soldier who served three years ago," Assistant Defence Minister Stuart Robert told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He went absent without leave in September 2010. He said Temel's reasons for leaving the Australian military were unclear, nor was it known when he went to Syria or whether he was a dual passport holder.
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