Explosive device thrown at officers after violence erupts in nationalist Short Strand area An explosive device was been thrown at a police vehicle in west Belfast, after violence flared elsewhere in the city on Monday night. Nobody was hurt in the incident in the early hours of Tuesday morning, near the Kennedy centre in Andersonstown. Police were responding to reports of a stolen vehicle when they came under attack. The area was closed off and bomb disposal experts went to the scene. Earlier, there were clashes in east Belfast, with petrol bombs thrown and homes damaged. Sinn Féin blamed scores of masked men, who a party representative said were wearing camouflage clothing and surgical gloves, for launching co-ordinated attacks on the nationalist Short Strand area. Ulster Unionist Michael Copeland said he believed the violence followed attacks on Protestant-owned homes. The Belfast mayor, Niall Ó Donnghaile, a councillor based in the Short Strand area, said a number of Catholic residents had been injured, including one man knocked unconscious when he was hit with a brick. Police were also attacked during the disturbances and advised motorists to avoid the area. Ó Donnghaile said: “There is no doubt that this was unprovoked and was a carefully orchestrated and planned attack on the area. Homes have been attacked with petrol bombs and paint bombs, bricks, golf balls. I saw what happened.” But Copeland said homes on the mainly Unionist Newtownards Road had been targeted. “I would say it was several hundred involved in very serious, almost hand-to-hand fighting,” he said. Northern Ireland Sinn Féin guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Explosive device thrown at officers after violence erupts in nationalist Short Strand area An explosive device was been thrown at a police vehicle in west Belfast, after violence flared elsewhere in the city on Monday night. Nobody was hurt in the incident in the early hours of Tuesday morning, near the Kennedy centre in Andersonstown. Police were responding to reports of a stolen vehicle when they came under attack. The area was closed off and bomb disposal experts went to the scene. Earlier, there were clashes in east Belfast, with petrol bombs thrown and homes damaged. Sinn Féin blamed scores of masked men, who a party representative said were wearing camouflage clothing and surgical gloves, for launching co-ordinated attacks on the nationalist Short Strand area. Ulster Unionist Michael Copeland said he believed the violence followed attacks on Protestant-owned homes. The Belfast mayor, Niall Ó Donnghaile, a councillor based in the Short Strand area, said a number of Catholic residents had been injured, including one man knocked unconscious when he was hit with a brick. Police were also attacked during the disturbances and advised motorists to avoid the area. Ó Donnghaile said: “There is no doubt that this was unprovoked and was a carefully orchestrated and planned attack on the area. Homes have been attacked with petrol bombs and paint bombs, bricks, golf balls. I saw what happened.” But Copeland said homes on the mainly Unionist Newtownards Road had been targeted. “I would say it was several hundred involved in very serious, almost hand-to-hand fighting,” he said. Northern Ireland Sinn Féin guardian.co.uk
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At least 22 people killed and more than 30 wounded in attack outside Diwaniya governor’s house At least 21 people were killed when bombs exploded at a checkpoint outside a provincial governor’s house in central Iraq, the latest attack targeting a government building, local authorities said. One suicide bomber blew himself up and at least one car bomb exploded on Tuesday outside the Diwaniya governor’s house, 95 miles (150km) south of Baghdad, as guards changed shifts at the checkpoint. Most of the victims were bodyguards, officials said. “The initial death toll is 21 killed at a guard’s checkpoint,” Fadhel Mawat, a spokesman for the provincial council, said. Kareem Isghair, the head of the security committee of Diwaniya provincial council, said explosions targeted security personal as they were checking in for morning duty. A source at a hospital in Diwaniya said at least 22 people had been killed and more than 30 wounded in the attack. Bombings and killings in Iraq have fallen sharply since the height of sectarian violence in 2006-2007, but a hardcore Sunni Islamist insurgency linked to al-Qaida and rival Shia militias still carry out daily attacks. Violence has increasingly targeted local security forces and provincial government officials as US troops prepare to withdraw from the country by a planned year-end deadline more than eight years after the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein. Diwaniya is a mainly Shia region and several of Iraq’s armed groups are active in the area. Gunmen and suicide bombers a week ago stormed a provincial council building in Baquba in central province of Diyala, killing at least eight people before Iraqi forces retook the building with the help of US troops. Iraq Middle East guardian.co.uk
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Air force’s head of combat operations warns of ‘huge’ demand on resources already feeling strain from swingeing cuts The RAF’s ability to respond to future emergencies will be under threat if the mission in Libya continues beyond the summer, the head of the air force’s combat operations has warned. In a briefing paper for politicians, Air Chief Marshal Sir Simon Bryant said operations in Afghanistan and Libya were together placing a “huge” demand on resources and left morale “fragile”, with many areas “running hot” as the coalition’s defence cuts appear to undermine the efforts of air crews. The paper, obtained by the Daily Telegraph , was given to MPs last month before the head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, questioned the sustainability of current operations. The first sea lord, who suggested the government would have to make “challenging decisions” on force levels if the Libya mission lasted more than six months, was subsequently given a dressing down by David Cameron . Bryant also raised concern about the length of the Libya operation, which has dragged on longer than many observers expected as Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has clung to power. “Two concurrent operations are placing a huge demand on equipment and personnel,” he said. “Should Operation Ellamy (Libya) endure past defence planning assumptions the future contingent capability is likely to be eroded.” He also warned that morale in the RAF was being hit by cuts, thousands of job losses and a pay freeze. “Morale remains fragile. Although fighting spirit remains positive, this assessment will be challenged by individual harmony targets as Operation Ellamy endures [after September],” he wrote. “There is decreasing satisfaction with the remunerative offer and allowances cut and the pay freeze continues to bite.” Referring to last year’s strategic defence and security review, he added: “The impact of SDSR continues to undermine the sense of being valued. There is concern over the perceived lack of strategic direction which is restricting confidence in the senior leadership.” Liberal Democrat armed forces minister Nick Harvey insisted the RAF had “the resources necessary to carry out operations. The prospect of redundancies would of course affect any organisation, but I continue to be impressed by the professionalism and commitment shown by our people and I know they will rise to any challenge,” he said. “Tough but necessary measures had to be taken in the SDSR in consultation with our military advisers, but as our efforts in Libya and Afghanistan are showing, we continue to have the resources necessary to carry out operations.” Military Libya Middle East Africa Defence policy guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Maybe we’ve all been drinking the Kool-Aid too much, so maybe it’s time to just deep fry it. That’s the latest culinary monstrosity to grace San Diego’s county fair, a longtime scene of gastric debauchery, writes Melissa Bell for the Washington Post. Seems “Chicken” Charlie Boghosian decided to mix cherry…
Continue reading …Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig gave Dodgers’ owner Frank McCourt a major league headache today after putting the kibosh on a proposed TV deal between the Dodgers and Fox—and simultaneously squashing McCourt’s divorce deal from Jamie McCourt. Selig said the deal was “structured to facilitate the further diversion…
Continue reading …Our days of Weiner-filled puns may be drawing to a close: Anthony Weiner has officially submitted his resignation to New York’s secretary of state, effective at midnight tomorrow. “It has been an honor to serve the people of Queens and Brooklyn,” he wrote in the brief missive, also addressed to…
Continue reading …The acting director of the ATF is likely to step down within a day or two, reports CNN, the potential casualty of a botched weapons program meant to halt the flow of firearms into Mexico. Kenneth Melson presided over the agency’s “Fast and Furious” program, which inadvertently let arms smugglers…
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Activists condemn remarks as ‘scapegoating’ as 10,000 people remain unable to return to homes due to persistent fires The former Republican presidential candidate John McCain has been accused of “scapegoating” Mexicans over comments he made linking major wildfires in his home state of Arizona to illegal immigration. The issue ignited over the weekend when the US senator said there was “substantial evidence that some of these fires have been caused by people who have crossed our border illegally. The answer to that part of the problem is to get a secure border”. Two other Arizona Republicans backed McCain, but immigration activists swiftly condemned his statement as typical of a “blame it on the Mexicans” mentality. Democratic politicians also waded in to rebuke McCain’s politicisation of the issue. “It’s his constant refrain for everything that ails mankind,” said Roberto Reveles, founder of Somos America, an Arizona-based immigrant rights group. “It just seems like we have an epidemic of ‘blame it all on the illegal aliens; blame it all on the Mexicans’. It’s amazing that the public doesn’t rebel against this type of scapegoating.” Republican senator Jon Kyl and house representative Paul Gosar defended McCain, claiming they had been told some fires in the southern part of the state are started by illegal immigrants. They did not specify to which fires they were referring, but framed the resulting debate as a distraction. “While Arizonans continue to face the enormous challenges related to these wildfires, it’s unfortunate that some are inserting their political agenda into this tragedy,” their statement said. This assertion raised the hackles of Arizona Democrat and house representative Raul Grijalva. “They served this, they pandered it,” he said. “And now [they] say that anybody who criticises that inappropriate, unsubstantiated claim somehow has a political agenda. This is a tragedy of huge proportions for Arizona. Those of us who criticise it are only reacting to what they started.” The debate raged as state authorities continued to assess the damage from a wildfire that burned in a heavily populated area near the Mexican border. About 10,000 people remain unable to return to their homes on the outskirts of Sierra Vista, about 15 miles (24km) north of the border, where on Sunday the so-called Monument fire swept off a mountain and destroyed 14 homes and four businesses. It has now destroyed 58 homes and burned through more than 40 sq miles (103 sq km) since it started a week ago. Along the border with New Mexico, the biggest blaze in Arizona has charred an area five times that size, but hasn’t done as much damage. Despite burning more than 800 sq miles since late May, the Wallow fire has destroyed just 32 homes and four rental cabins. A third major wildfire, the Horsehoe Two in the south-east of the state, is now 80% contained after charring more than 330 sq miles and destroying 23 structures. Officials say all three blazes are the result of human activity, but no no-one has yet been charged and no further details have been issued. US immigration Arizona United States Wildfires John McCain Mark Smith guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Old-time, backroom politics faced down hundreds of chanting protesters from each side of the highly charged gay marriage debate in New York today as the issue stalled again over whether religious groups could be protected from discrimination charges. After a three-hour conference behind closed doors, while groups from each side…
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