| Syria most dangerous country for journalists Posted: 16 Apr 2014 03:21 PM PDT  Syria is the world's most dangerous country for journalists a US-based watchdog said Wednesday as it published its annual impunity index tracking unsolved killings of reporters. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reported a "rising number of targeted killings" of reporters in Syria as a recent threat to journalists operating in the war-torn country. "With unprecedented numbers of abductions and high rates of fatalities in combat and crossfire, Syria was already the world's most dangerous country for journalists," CPJ said.
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| NYPD Spying on Muslims to Continue Posted: 16 Apr 2014 02:35 PM PDT  Undercover officers and informants will continue to provide intelligence on members of the Islamic community, police officials say.
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| Iraq: Abu Ghraib prison closure not permanent Posted: 16 Apr 2014 12:34 PM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi Justice Ministry official said Wednesday that this week's closure of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad is temporary and that it will be reopened once the security situation in the surrounding area is stable.
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| Bombers hit Iraq provincial compound as attacks kill 19 Posted: 16 Apr 2014 12:07 PM PDT  Ramadi (Iraq) (AFP) - Attacks including suicide bombings outside a provincial government compound killed 19 people in Iraq Wednesday, just weeks before a general election that will be a key test for security forces.
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| Government says Iraqi murder allegations against its troops a conspiracy Posted: 16 Apr 2014 11:35 AM PDT  Allegations British troops unlawfully killed up to 20 Iraqi men at an army camp in 2004 were part of a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, the British government told a public inquiry into the deaths on Wednesday. "The untruthful allegations cannot be attributed to honest mistakes or misunderstandings," lawyers for Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a closing submission to the inquiry, which has cost at least 27 million pounds. "They are the product of a conspiracy between a number of the Iraqi core participants to pervert the course of justice." Almost three years after the final British troops left Iraq in 2011, costly inquiries about the war have helped keep alive a public debate about why Britain got involved in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and how the war was conducted. Despite their allegations, lawyers for relatives of the dead Iraqis said last month there was insufficient evidence to back their clients' main claim of unlawful killing, which relates to events during and after a battle in southern Iraq on May 14, 2004.
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| UK says Iraqi murder allegations against its troops a conspiracy Posted: 16 Apr 2014 11:16 AM PDT  Allegations British troops unlawfully killed up to 20 Iraqi men at an army camp in 2004 were part of a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, the British government told a public inquiry into the deaths on Wednesday. "The untruthful allegations cannot be attributed to honest mistakes or misunderstandings," lawyers for Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a closing submission to the inquiry, which has cost at least 27 million pounds ($45 million). "They are the product of a conspiracy between a number of the Iraqi core participants to pervert the course of justice." Almost three years after the final British troops left Iraq in 2011, costly inquiries about the war have helped keep alive a public debate about why Britain got involved in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and how the war was conducted. Despite their allegations, lawyers for relatives of the dead Iraqis said last month there was insufficient evidence to back their clients' main claim of unlawful killing, which relates to events during and after a battle in southern Iraq on May 14, 2004.
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| Al-Nusra chief killed by rivals in Syria Posted: 16 Apr 2014 11:14 AM PDT  Beirut (AFP) - Jihadist militants of the Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant have killed the head of the Al-Nusra Front and his family in northern Syria, a monitoring group said Wednesday.
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| Medal of Honor for 'uncommon valor' high in the Hindu Kush Posted: 16 Apr 2014 11:09 AM PDT In the hours before a vicious ambush in which Sgt. Kyle White's heroic actions would earn him the Medal of Honor, a platoon of US soldiers from Chosen Company, 173rd Airborne, were on their way to a meeting with the elders of a small village in a violent border region of far eastern Afghanistan. Sergeant White's platoon was traveling under cover of darkness, accompanied by a squad of Afghan soldiers, from its own COP to the village. It would be shortly afterward that the US soldiers would be deceived by the villagers, prompting the battle that cost the lives of six Americans and three Afghan soldiers and for which White is being recognized for his "uncommon valor and perseverance" that November day in 2007. |
| Obama looks to salvage Asia 'pivot' as allies fret about China Posted: 16 Apr 2014 10:51 AM PDT  By Matt Spetalnick and Manuel Mogato WASHINGTON/MANILA (Reuters) - When a Philippine government ship evaded a Chinese blockade in disputed waters of the South China Sea last month, a U.S. Navy plane swooped in to witness the dramatic encounter. The flyover was a vivid illustration of the expanding significance of one of Asia's most strategic regions and underscored a message that senior U.S. officials say President Barack Obama will make in Asia next week: The "pivot" of U.S. military and diplomatic assets toward the Asia-Pacific region is real. Washington's Asian allies, however, appear unconvinced. During Obama's four-nation tour of Asia that begins on April 23, his toughest challenge will be to reassure skeptical leaders that the United States intends to be more than just a casual observer and instead is genuinely committed to countering an increasingly assertive China in the region.
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| Watchdog: Rise in targeted media killings in Syria Posted: 16 Apr 2014 10:31 AM PDT  A spike in targeted murders of journalists in Syria landed the war-shattered country for the first time on the Committee to Protect Journalists' annual Impunity Index, joining a list of countries where ...
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| Rand Paul Will Not Be Tricked Into Telling Voters How He Would Deal With Iran Posted: 16 Apr 2014 09:43 AM PDT  Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wrote a column for The Washington Post on Wednesday in which he clarified a position that has come under fire: He opposes allowing Iran to get nuclear weapons and he opposes statements meant to demonstrate to America's opposition to its getting nuclear weapons. His 2010 Senate campaign drew some attention to his foreign policy positions, in large part as he tried to differentiate his views from his father's. On the 2008 campaign trail, then-Rep. Ron Paul became popular with younger voters by advocating a staunchly isolationist worldview, opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and pretty much everywhere else. In an interview on ABC that aired Sunday, Paul stepped outside of the mainstream entirely, indicating to Jonathan Karl that a policy of containment on Iran — accepting the country's nuclear weapons without resorting to military conflict — could work. "We woke up one day and Pakistan had nuclear weapons.
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| GlaxoSmithKline discloses new bribery inquiries Posted: 16 Apr 2014 09:30 AM PDT NEW YORK (AP) — British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline is looking into allegations of bribery within its operations in Jordan and Lebanon. |
| UN deploys Ugandan guard unit in Somali capital Posted: 16 Apr 2014 08:51 AM PDT KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — About 400 Ugandan troops will be deployed to Somalia under a new United Nations guard unit charged with protecting U.N. staff and installations in the violence-prone Somali capital, Ugandan military officials said. |
| Behind Assad's victory boasts, a recalibration of success in Syria Posted: 16 Apr 2014 07:19 AM PDT A slew of battlefield successes by the Syrian Army and its allies has prompted upbeat assessments from President Bashar al-Assad that his forces are headed for victory in the war against his rebel opponents. Mr. Assad predicted on Monday that the major battles could be over by the end of the year, while his ally, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, claimed that the Syrian leader no longer faced the risk of being overthrown. "This is a turning point in the crisis, both militarily in terms of the Army's achievements in the war against terror, and socially in terms of national reconciliation processes and growing awareness of the truth behind the [attacks] targeting our country," Assad said. But a regime victory is unlikely to look anything like pre-war Syria. With vast tracts of northern and eastern Syria remaining in the hands of rebel groups, "winning" could simply mean retaking and holding parts of western Syria that are vital to the regime's survival. |
| Officials say attacks kill 8 in western Iraq Posted: 16 Apr 2014 04:08 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Officials in Iraq say suicide attacks against security forces in a restive western city have killed at least eight security personnel.
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| Obama’s Tax Rate Hypocrisy Posted: 16 Apr 2014 02:45 AM PDT  He says it's 'not right' for multimillionaires to pay less in taxes than their secretaries, but he's done just that for years. It's just another way Obama has lost his moral authority.
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