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Special Forces Assassins Infiltrate Taliban Stronghold in Afghanistan
International
Monday, 08 February 2010 19:47
The UK Sunday Times reports US and British forces poised to assault the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, in Afghanistan, have begun targeting insurgent leaders for assassination. The paper says special forces have been infiltrating the town on "kinetic" missions, jargon for armed attacks. At U.S. Marine base Camp Leatherneck and the British Camp Bastion, troops have been airlifted in by night to avoid enemy rockets. In a break from traditional secrecy, US, British and Afghan commanders have publicized they plan to attack Marjah, the last town in Helmand under Taliban control. Top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal said Sunday the campaign’s success depended on how fast troops and civilian development workers could get public services up and running once the Taliban have been driven out. McChrystal said the element of surprise was not as important as letting Marjah's 80,000 residents know the Afghan government is about to replace Taliban overlords and drug traffickers.
Think-tanks take oil money to fund climate deniers. ExxonMobil supported campaign to undermine case for man-made warming
International
Monday, 08 February 2010 19:35
The UK Independent says an orchestrated campaign, funded by ExxonMobil, is being waged against climate change science to undermine public acceptance of man-made global warming. The paper says the campaign has stepped up since the leak of thousands of documents on the subject from the University of East Anglia on the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit. Anti-climate change think-tanks such as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the US and the International Policy Network in the UK have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the oil giant. Both groups have funded international seminars featuring climate change deniers. Many of these critics have broadcast material from the leaked UEA emails to undermine climate change predictions and highlight erroneous claims the Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. Professor Phil Jones, who has temporarily stood down as director of UEA's climactic research unit, said he had received two death threats in the past week.
30,000 people in Russia--90 percent of the country’s two million drug abusers—take drugs produced in Afghanistan. Viktor Ivanov, head of the Federal Drugs Control Service said: "The production of drugs in Afghanistan, .. is a global threat to peace and security," adding its menacing potential” should be "equated to terrorism.”
Italy Seizes Bank of America, Dexia Assets Amid Probe
Italy’s financial police have seized $102 million of assets from Bank of America and a unit of Dexia, an Italian bank, in a probe into derivatives fraud in the region of Apulia. Apulia joins more than 500 Italian municipalities that face $1 billion in derivatives losses. In Milan, prosecutors seized assets from four banks including JPMorgan Chase and UBS.
US Court Rules Pakistani Woman Guilty of Attempted Murder
A Pakistani female neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui has been convicted of trying to kill US soldiers and FBI agents while being detained at a police station in Afghanistan. Prosecutors accuse Siddiqui of firing at her interrogators but her lawyers say there was no forensic evidence that the shooting took place.
Iraq mortar attack kills 31 Shiite
In Iraq Friday 31 Shiite pilgrims were killed in a mortar bomb attack blamed on Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein loyalists. The bomb struck pilgrims who were leaving the holy city of Karbala, where more than a million devotees had gathered to mark the festival of Arbaeen.
32 militants killed in S Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, Afghan and NATO forces killed 32 Taliban fighters. Three Afghan soldiers were also killed and four others, including a NATO soldier were injured.
Sri Lanka holds 37 over 'plot to assassinate president'
In Sri Lanka, 37 people are being held in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Those being held include a brigadier, a colonel, army deserters and four civilians. The opposition denies there’s a plot and says the government has launched a witchhunt.
Romania is joining Obama's missile shield
Romania’s top defense body has approved a US proposal to base missile interceptors in Romania. President Traian Basescu said Romania, a former Warsaw Pact member and now part of NATO, would negotiate with the US to accept ground-based interceptors as part of an antiballistic missile defense system.
Soldiers, not Blackwater personnel, killed in Dir
Richard Holbrooke, US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan said the three Americans killed by a roadside bomb in Dir, Pakistan, were US military trainers and not mercenaries working for Xe Services, the firm formerly known as Blackwater.
Dubai Police Commissioner threatens to arrest Netanyahu over murder of Hamas official in Dubai.
Dubai’s Police Commissioner says an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be issued over the murder of a Hamas official in Dubai if Israel’s Mossad spy service is found to have been behind the assassination.
Israel stole 2 billion dollars from Palestinian workers: 40-year deception exposed
Israeli economists have revealed over the past four decades Israel has defrauded Palestinians working inside Israel out of more than $2 billion by deducting from their salaries contributions for welfare benefits to which they were never entitled.
Saudi jets pound Yemen, kill 14 civilians
At least fourteen civilians have been killed and dozens more have been injured as Saudi fighter jets pounded the alleged strongholds of Houthi fighters in northern Yemen despite a truce offer by the Shia fighters.
Obama Calls Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Legislation An ‘Odious’ Bill
Uganda’s parliament is currently considering an anti-homosexuality bill that would impose the death penalty or life imprisonment for some homosexual acts, require people to report every gay individual they know, and criminalize renting property to gay men and women. The measure has been widely condemned around the world.
National News:
Georgia Senate Passes Bill Opposing Involuntary Microchips
A bill that prohibits microchips from being involuntarily implanted in humans overwhelmingly passed the Georgia State Senate Friday.
Lobbying Imperils Overhaul of Student Loans
An “aggressive lobbying campaign by the nation’s biggest student lenders” threatens to derail legislation that would overhaul student loans by ending subsidies to private lenders. The nation’s largest student lender, Sallie Mae, spent $9 million lobbying in 2009 alone.
Dinosaur had flamboyant, multi-colored plumage
A study published in the journal Science of a 150 million year old dinosaur fossil has revealed it had multi-coloured feathers. Researchers compared the structures that determine color in living bird feathers with those in the fossil.
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