KABUL, Afghanistan — Twenty-two Afghan police officers were killed on Thursday when a convoy returning from a mission to free a slain tribal elder’s relatives who were kidnapped by the Taliban was ambushed, Afghan officials said Friday. The episode illustrates the power struggle between insurgents and the government as coalition troops prepare to leave Afghanistan. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors The clashes, which spread over two days, also claimed the lives of an estimated 70 Taliban fighters, Col. Mohamed Masoum Hashimi, the deputy police chief of Nangarhar Province, said Friday. The exact…
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WASHINGTON — The United States intercepted electronic communications this week among senior operatives of Al Qaeda, in which the terrorists discussed attacks against American interests in the Middle East and North Africa, American officials said Friday. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors The intercepts and a subsequent analysis of them by American intelligence agencies prompted the United States to issue an unusual global travel alert to American citizens on Friday, warning of the potential for terrorist attacks by operatives of Al Qaeda and their associates beginning Sunday through the end of…
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The political assassination of nationalist politician Mohamed Brahmi last week is a personal tragedy for his family, who witnessed his brutal murder, as well as a national tragedy for a nation at least temporarily derailed from a process that seemed poised to produce a relatively stable democratic transition, thereby avoiding the violence, polarisation and paralysis of other post-Arab uprising states. Just as after the murder earlier in the year of secular leftist politician, Chokri Belaid, many are again attempting to make sense of what such political assassinations mean for Tunisia. Belaid and Brahmi’s murder, together with the latest episode of violence in the Jabal Chaambi…
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The United States has extended the closure of 19 of its embassies and consulates in the Middle East and Africa through August 10, according to the State Department citing “an abundance of caution”. The list includes 15 that were closed on Sunday, as well as four additional posts. Certain other missions were to reopen on Monday, the State Department said. “This is not an indication of a new threat stream, merely an…
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Japan's nuclear watchdog has said the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is facing a new “emergency” caused by a build-up of radioactive groundwater. A barrier built to…
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Five Indian soldiers have been shot dead in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, the chief…
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Opening statements begin Tuesday in the trial of US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who confessed to killing 13 people and wounding 32 in a November 2009 shooting spree at the Fort Hood base in Texas. Hasan faces the death penalty if convicted. By News Wires (text) Nearly four years after opening fire on fellow soldiers in the deadliest such incident on a US military base, an army psychiatrist is set to confront his victims in court Tuesday. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who has previously admitted to killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the November 2009 massacre at Fort Hood in Texas, faces the death penalty if convicted. The attack jolted the US military and prompted calls for…
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By Syed Fazl-e-Haider KARACHI – The death toll from monsoon rains in Pakistan has risen to more than 80 in the last five days, as much of the country has been inundated, flooding many cities and towns from north to south. The National Disaster Management Authority warned on Monday that more rain than usual was expected this and next month. “At least 58 people have died, more than 30 others were injured and 66,000 were affected by rain and flooding in Pakistan since July 31,” AFP reported Brigadier Mirza Kamran Zia, operations chief of the NDMA as saying. Other reports put the figure at more than 80. Flooding has emerged as a new challenge for the new government led by Prime Minister Nawaz…
Continue reading …Troops killed six unarmed people in temple during Thai ‘Red Shirt’ protests, court rules
August 6, 2013 No Comment
A court in Thailand has ruled that six unarmed people who were killed inside a Buddhist temple were shot dead by troops using high-velocity rounds who had taken up positions on railway tracks overlooking the site. The Thai military has always denied its troops fired into the temple. In a ruling that could lead to the prosecution of the troops who took part in the operation, the Bangkok South Criminal Court said four men and one woman were killed by troops located on the elevated Skytrain, which passes nearby. Another man was shot by soldiers on the ground. The six people…
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Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling “Our national security can only be assured on a very broad and comprehensive front.” -Navy Secretary James Forrestal, 1945. Before elaborating on the connection between Edward Snowden and the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which destroyed well over 100,000 buildings and eventually killed almost 500,000(1), by themselves the extremely lethal bombs were pillars of the United States’ modern National/Foreign Security State. In truth, the two atomic bombs (code named Manhattan Project), which at its height employed 150,000 people and cost $24 billion in today’s currency, was the major foundation of America’s monolithic national…
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