LOLITA C. BALDOR (AP) – Associated Press WASHINGTON The Air Force on Friday detailed plans to cut the service by nearly 10,000 active, National Guard and Reserve airmen next year, as part of a broad move to downsize and shift
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Sudan’s military bombed a Bible school built by a U.S. Christian aid group, prompting students and teachers at the school to run for their lives in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state. The U.S. ambassador
(AFP) Children as young as 13 are a particular target in the “rampant” use of torture by Syrian government forces battling opposition protests, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Friday. The United Nations says hundreds of children have
From Reuters: The Italian government will pass labor market reforms even if trade unions do not give their consent to the measures, Labour Minister Elsa Fornero told union leaders on Thursday, according to an official close to the discussions. Fornero
From Turkish Weekly: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted yesterday that Iran’s economy would grow eight percent over the next 12 months despite severe Western sanctions, as he presented his government’s annual budget to parliament. Iran’s defense spending would more than double
From Reuters: Seventy-four people were killed and at least 1,000 injured on Wednesday when Egyptian soccer fans staged a pitch invasion in the city of Port Said, in what a deputy minister called the biggest disaster in the nation’s soccer
From The Star: Gulf Arab countries, led by Qatar’s Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, have stepped up their criticism of the Syrian regime and recalled their observers from the Arab League mission to Syria. It is expected that they would
For context, the privately funded and managed Empire State Building was built in one year. The Associated Press reports: NEW YORK — The agency building the new World Trade Center says a design flaw could add millions of dollars to
The Obama administration appeared Wednesday to acknowledge discussions about transferring some Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay as part of U.S. efforts to jumpstart peace talks with the Taliban after 10 years of inconclusive fighting. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
From the Telegraph: Four al-Qaeda inspired terrorists have pleaded guilty to plotting a Christmas bomb attack on the London Stock Exchange, the American embassy and the home of London Mayor Boris Johnson. Two of the men conducted a surveillance trip
From BBC News: Yemen’s information minister has escaped an assassination attempt in the capital, Sanaa, witnesses say. Ali al-Amrani’s car was hit by bullets as he left a cabinet meeting, but he was unhurt in the attack, an aide said.
TOKYO (AP) – Japan’s Cabinet approved bills Tuesday aimed at bolstering nuclear safety regulations following last year’s Fukushima disaster, including one that would put a 40-year cap on the operational life of nuclear reactors. The approval came as a team
MUMBAI, India (AP) – India has joined China in saying it will not cut back on oil imports from Iran, despite stiff new U.S. and European sanctions designed to pressure Tehran over its nuclear program. “It is not possible for
From CBS News: We were surprised to hear how far he thinks Iran has come. Panetta: The consensus is that, if they decided to do it, it would probably take them about a year to be able to produce a
In Kingston, Ontario, a judge has found an Afghan family guilty of drowning the father’s three teenage daughters and one of his wives for behavior that defied his strict rules — not for crime, not for drugs, not for violence
The University of Pennsylvania is the home of the 2012 “National Conference of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement” (BDS), whose origins lie in the actions of nations and groups including Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah. The three-day event will take
Trouble looms for the U.S., European, and global economies, once thought to be making a slow but steady recovery. Though fourth quarter GDP figures released today showed U.S. GDP growth of 2.8%, the overall rate of growth was 1.7% for
From ABC News: That buzz you hear above your head is the sound of the Pentagon cutting its budget. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta detailed today how the Obama administration plans to achieve $487 billion in cuts over the next decade,
And what a salute (via MEMRI): [youtube 7YGR2RYNIW8] And Fatah is considered the “moderate” Palestinian party.
From the Jerusalem Post: In the wake of Gov. Rick Perry’s withdrawal from the Republican presidential race, pundits will argue over the reasons for his rise and fall. But one thing is for certain: Perry was the only candidate who
BAGHDAD (AP) – The U.S. pulled its troops out of Iraq because its economy is collapsing and it needed to save money, an al-Qaida front group said in a message posted on its website Wednesday, its first online comment since
Prediction: the mainstream media will not encourage these protesters with the label “Asian Spring” anytime soon. From Reuters: Reuters Photo Two Tibetans in China’s southwestern Sichuan province were killed when security forces fired on demonstrators, a Tibetan advocacy group said,
From Reuters: Poland fears planned defense cuts by the United States may stall the development of an anti-missile system on Polish soil and leave it more vulnerable to Russia, a senior government source said. U.S. President Barack Obama’s drive to
ZURICH (AP) – The war of words between Europe and private investors heated up Tuesday as talks to reduce Greece’s massive debt burden hit an impasse. While the finance ministers of the countries that use the euro as their currency
SANAA, Yemen (AP) – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh left his battered nation Sunday on his way to the U.S. for medical treatment after passing power to his deputy and asking for forgiveness for any “shortcomings” during his 33-year rein.
From the Jerusalem Post: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Sunday called on Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein to open an investigation into Jerusalem Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein for incitement after he was recorded quoting a passage by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the
From the New York Times: CAIRO — Egyptian authorities confirmed Saturday that a political coalition dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, the 84-year-old group that virtually invented political Islam, had won about 47 percent of the seats in the first Parliament
From the Washington Post: The Obama administration is preparing to close the U.S. embassy in Damascus and evacuate all American personnel by the end of this month amid rapid deterioration of the security situation in Syria, senior administration officials said.
The Taliban, which the Obama Administration is currently courting, claims responsibility for the attack. From the Washington Post: President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that France was suspending training operations in Afghanistan after four French soldiers were killed and more than
From Reuters: Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar Pakistan’s ties with the United States remain on hold following a NATO cross-border air attack, its foreign minister said on Thursday, and Washington should not push Islamabad to go after militant groups
BRUSSELS (AP) – The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that it’s aiming to increase its financial firepower by around $500 billion so it can issue new loans to help ease a worsening financial crisis. Responding to speculation surrounding its funding
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – An Iranian lawmaker claimed Wednesday that President Obamacalled for direct talks with Iran in a secret letter to the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader that also warned Tehran against closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Image credit:
During the Bush Administration, the left loved to claim that the United States was not respected around the world because of its “cowboy diplomacy.” If only we stopped our warmongering, if only we spoke with our enemies to resolve conflicts,
BRUSSELS (AP) – Rating agency Standard & Poor’s said Monday it has downgraded the creditworthiness of the eurozone’s rescue fund by one notch to AA+, putting the fund’s ability to raise cheap bailout money at risk. Nicolas Sarkozy with Spanish
From the Associated Press: JERUSALEM — The Israeli and U.S. militaries have postponed large-scale war games, in part to avoid aggravating mounting tensions between the international community and Iran over its disputed nuclear program, Israeli defense officials said Monday. The
A lot of the oil that is supposed to be coming from Canada’s oilsands is ending up under the control of China. The Sino strategy has been to do it slowly, under the radar. But it’s become such a huge
First, from the Army Times: The Marine Corps’ top general has condemned a web video appearing to show Marines in Afghanistan urinating on dead Taliban fighters, and called for criminal and internal probes into what has quickly mushroomed into an
Remember all the news coverage given to the hysterics carried out by North Koreans after the death of Kim Jong Il? A new report shows that those mourners may have had motivation for their outbursts other than genuine regard for
From the Associated Press: Marching into power? WASHINGTON — Amid near-open conflict between Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership, the Pentagon has neither sought nor received assurances that the Pakistani army won’t stage a coup, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday. “This
From the Army Times: The Marine Corps is promising to investigate a disturbing video that appears to show Marines in Afghanistan urinating on the bloody corpses of alleged Taliban fighters, officials at the Pentagon said Wednesday. The video is widely