KABUL (AFP) – The US strategy to defeat Al-Qaeda and the Taliban tripled American troops fighting in Afghanistan and doubled missile strikes in Pakistan, but hangs in the balance after a year of record violence. Since taking office, President Barack Obama has ordered more than 50,000 extra troops into battle to reverse Taliban momentum and build up Afghan government forces so that combat troops could start leaving in 2011. There are more than 140,000 US-led NATO troops on the ground — two-thirds of them American — and 2010 has proved to be the deadliest year on record with the deaths of at least 683 foreign soldiers. Eclipsing the toll of 521 soldiers last year, on average two NATO…
Continue reading …
Ali Akbar Siadat found guilty of links with Mossad for six years, passing info on Revolutionary Guard missiles. Second man also sentenced
Continue reading …
Diplomatic cable revealed by WikiLeaks show Dubai police asked US to check transactions made with three credit cards allegedly used by Mossad operatives who killed senior Hamas figure; information relayed to FBI
Continue reading …
President Woodrow Wilson is born; John C. Calhoun becomes the first vice president of the United States to resign; Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago” is published; Actor Denzel Washington and comic book creator Stan Lee are born. (Dec. 28)
Continue reading …
Article by WN.Com Correspondent Dallas Darling. “The rampaging GI’s were not interested solely in killing, although that seemed foremost in their minds. Just outside the village there was this big pile of bodies. This really tiny kid-he had only a shirt on, nothing else-he came over to this pile and held the hand of one of the dead. One of the GI’s behind me dropped into a kneeling position thirty meters from this kid and killed him with a single shot. A GI grabbed this girl and with the help of others started stripping her. A soldier said, ‘Let’s see what she’s made of. VC boom-boom.’ Another soldier was telling the thirteen-year-old girl that she was a whore for the Vietcong. ‘I’m horny,’…
Continue reading …BMW Connected app hits iOS App Store, ‘Apps’ function hitting vehicles next year
December 28, 2010 No Comment
Like son, like father? Evidently that’s exactly how things are playing out, with papa BMW following the footsteps of MINI in the run-up to 2011. Just days after the MINI Connected app found itself situated in the App Store, a BMW Connected app has done likewise. The software itself is free to download, but you’ll need a 6NR-equipped Bimmer to take advantage. From what we can gather, you’ll have to fork out €150 or so for the Apps option, but sadly, there are two costly prerequisites to that: a €3,800 navigation option and a €400 USB interface. In other words, we get the impression that existing BMW owners are out of luck. If you’ve got the magic concoction (available from March 2011), you’ll be able to access web radio stations, hear your Twitter and Facebook updates aloud and control your music via the iDrive setup. That is, until iOS 4.3 goes and breaks compatibility with everything, forever. Joy, joy. BMW Connected app hits iOS App Store, ‘Apps’ function hitting vehicles next year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
By Pat Bagley, Cagle Cartoons, Salt Lake Tribune Related Entries December 15, 2010 Labels Aren’t the Problem December 1, 2010 Steve Martin Too Artsy for This Venue
Continue reading …
The blizzard that left New York under a thick blanket of snow wasn’t all bad news. The storm brought dozens out to New York’s Central Park for a day of sledding and skiing. (Dec. 27)
Continue reading …AP’s New-Home Industry Meme (‘Worst in 47 Years’) Is Demonstrably False; It’s the Worst Since World War II
December 28, 2010 No CommentIn its reports about the U.S. homebuilding industry and new home sales, the Associated Press has gotten lazy and/or deliberately deceptive. In doing so, it is giving readers, listeners and viewers at its subscribing outlets a completely incorrect impression that the industry and market are getting off the mat after recently being in their worst shape, in their words, “in 47 years.” After identifying offending examples, I will demonstrate that industry activity and sales during 2010 have been almost undoubtedly at their lowest levels since World War II. The following items, all from Thursday, demonstrate AP's concerted attempt to limit the damage to “47 years” ago. read more
Continue reading …
enlarge Credit: Life Magazine Albert Camus in 1955 – A good year to be an Existentialist. Click here to view this media Since we’re sprinting to the final stretch of 2010, it’s time to start looking back at some notable years well before this one. Today it’s 1955 – fifty-five years ago and the world was entirely a different place. Knee-deep in the Cold War with hot spots in Asia creeping up all over. Parts of Europe still getting back on their feet. Africa slowly emerging from Colonialism and experiencing growing pains. The world in general still fearful of The Bomb and America in particular still politics as usual. Part of the Years Of Crisis series from CBS Radio which began in 1949, it was hosted by Edward R. Murrow with correspondents reporting in and giving their assessment of the world situation as it was, that year-end in 1955.
Continue reading …