Janice Tibbetts Canwest Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:22 EST
A lesbian soldier, who says she deserted the U.S. military because she was constantly harassed and threatened with death, won a reprieve from deportation Friday in a Federal Court ruling that ordered the Immigration and Refugee Board to reconsider her failed asylum claim.
Pte. Bethany Smith, who adopted the name Skyler James upon fleeing to Canada two years ago, contends she was denied a discharge from the army because her superiors wanted to send her to Afghanistan.
She took her case to Federal Court after being rejected as a refugee by the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Daniel Tencer Raw Story Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:03 EST
The Pakistani arm of the Taliban has denied responsibility for a recent series of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, instead pointing the finger at Xe Services, the security contractor formerly known as Blackwater, as well as the country's own security services.
"The Tehreek-e-Taliban are not responsible for the bombings, but Blackwater and Pakistan's spy agency are behind them," said Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq, according to a translation from Al-Jazeera English.
''The dirty Pakistani intelligence agencies, for the sake of creating mistrust and hatred among people against the Taliban, are carrying out blasts at places like the Islamic university, Islamabad, and the Khyber bazaar, Peshawar,'' the Associated Press quoted Tariq as saying.
At least four people were shot dead and six South Korean visitors wounded when a gunman fired into a crowd of tourists on the resort island of Saipan, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
The gunman appeared to have taken his own life after the shooting spree, a ministry official said, adding that there were no further details immediately available.
A US unmanned drone aircraft has fired several missiles into a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, killing at least ten people and injuring several others.
The strike took place in the restive North Waziristan tribal district on Friday.
The death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured were said to be in critical condition. The attack took place in an area where people do not have access to urgent medical assistance.
The US alleges the air strikes, which are common in Pakistan, target pro-Taliban militants in the tribal belt.
The European Commission has signed a $1bn (£602m) development pact with Nigeria, aimed at tackling corruption and promoting peace.
A substantial amount of the funding will be spent on resolving conflict in the oil-rich and crime-plagued Niger Delta, the EU's development chief said.
The money will also target electoral reform and improving human rights.
But correspondents say many Nigerians will doubt the money will get to its intended targets.
Thirteen killed and 30 wounded including children after suicide bomber detonated explosives in crowded square in city of Farah
A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle killed 13 people, including a police officer, and wounded 30 others today in a busy city square in western Afghanistan.
Several children were among those wounded in the morning explosion, said a doctor at the hospital in the city of Farah, Shir Agh Asas.
Afghan police shouted "Stop! Stop!" at the motorcyclist before he detonated the explosives, provincial police chief General Mohammad Faqir Askar said.
The provincial governor, Rohul Amin, said the deadly blast occurred about 50 metres from his compound in a crowded square in Farah.
"These days Taliban are causing high casualties because the foreign forces and Afghan forces have been conducting operations against the insurgency in the region," Askar said.
Peruvian police arrest suspects who allegedly drained their victims and sold liquid as an anti-wrinkle treatment
Peruvian police have arrested a gang which allegedly killed scores of peasants, drained their bodies of fat and sold the liquid abroad as an anti-wrinkle cosmetic.
Three suspects have confessed to killing five people for their fat, said Colonel Jorge Mejia, chief of Peru's anti-kidnapping police, but the number of victims was believed to be much higher and to date back decades.
Two of the suspects were arrested at a bus station in the capital, Lima, carrying bottles of liquid fat which they claimed were worth up to £36,000 a gallon.
At a news conference police displayed two bottles of fat, which laboratory tests confirmed were human. "The fat was extracted from the thorax and thighs," said Eusebio Felix Murga, chief of police of Dirincri district. Police also showed a photo of the rotting head of a 27-year-old male victim discovered last month in a coca-growing valley.
Tensions raised between two countries as troops dynamite rural walkways Venezuela claims are used by smugglers and militia
Venezuela has blown up two pedestrian bridges on its border with Colombia in the latest sign of deteriorating relations between the Andean neighbours.
Soldiers destroyed the walkways because they were being used by illegal militia and drug traffickers, said Eusebio Aguero, an army general based in the border state of Táchira.
"They are two foot bridges that paramilitary fighters used, where gasoline and drug precursors were smuggled, subversive groups entered. They are not considered in any international treaty."
However Colombia denounced the action as a violation of international law that would worsen the diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
Twelve people were killed and a government minister wounded in clashes in south Sudan, which is preparing for a referendum on whether to split off as an independent state.
A surge of ethnic violence has killed more than 2,000 people this year, the United Nations estimates, raising fears for the stability of the oil-producing territory which secured the referendum and a semi-autonomous government in a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war with the north.
The conflict, which also set southern tribe against southern tribe, left lingering resentments in a region already riven by traditional disputes over territory and cattle.
A leading researcher, writer, and psychotherapist in Pathological Love Relationships is investigating the effects of psychopathy and narcissism on children. If you are the parent/guardian of a child who has had exposure to these conditions in adults, please contact us to take our research survey. In 2009 we will be writing about pathological parenting and its long term effects on children. SafeRelationships.com
"The free press is the mother of all our liberties and of our progress under liberty" Adlai E. Stevenson
"There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle." Bill Moyers
"This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go undebated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths." Simon Heffer in The Daily Mail, 7 June 2000
"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure." Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823
"A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press, must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the right of the people to know.": Murray I. Gurfein
One of the shrewdest ways for human predators to conquer their stronger victims is to steadily convince them with propaganda that they're still free. N.A. Scott
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](/images/valid-atom.png?1222505720 "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
![[Valid RSS 2.0]](/images/valid-rss.png?1222505756 "Validate my RSS 2.0 feed")
