Puppet Masters
An explosion from a bomb-rigged car rocked Beirut's seafront Wednesday, killing an anti-Syrian lawmaker. Parliamentary Deputy Walid Eido, his son Khaled, and two bodyguards were killed, along with 6 others.
AFPTue, 12 Jun 2007 13:15 UTC
Kuwait, a staunch US ally, said on Monday it would not allow the United States to use its territory as a launch-pad for any attack on Iran over its nuclear programme.
"The United States did not ask (to use Kuwaiti military facilities for any attack) and even if it did, we will not allow anybody to use our territory," defence and interior minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah told reporters.
APTue, 12 Jun 2007 03:25 UTC
U.S. forces mistakenly killed seven Afghan police and wounded four in an apparent friendly fire incident early Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said.
Police manning a remote checkpoint in Nangarhar province said an American convoy backed by helicopters approached and opened fire despite their protests and calls for them to stop.
A Dutch smoking ban will come into force in July next year for all restaurants and cafes -- including coffee shops where cannabis is the top attraction, the government decided on Friday.
"Coffee shops will be treated in the same manner as other catering businesses. They will be smoke-free," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told NOS television.
AFPWed, 06 Jun 2007 08:17 UTC
The four suspects in an alleged terror plot to bomb a New York airport were set up in an elaborate plan by the US Republican party to retain hold of the White House, the daughter of an arrested suspect claimed on Tuesday.
Huda Ibrahiim, daughter of Amir Kareem Ibrahiim, one of four men accused of plotting acts of terrorism against the United States, said US justice officials had engaged in entrapment in breaking up the alleged plot.
If you pop a vitamin C tablet in your mouth, it's a good bet it came from China. Indeed, many of the world's vitamins are now made in China.
In less than a decade, China has captured 90 percent of the U.S. market for vitamin C, driving almost everyone else out of business.
Chinese pharmaceutical companies also have taken over much of the world market in the production of antibiotics, analgesics, enzymes and primary amino acids. According to an industry group, China makes 70 percent of the world's penicillin, 50 percent of its aspirin and 35 percent of its acetaminophen (often sold under the brand name Tylenol), as well as the bulk of vitamins A, B12, C and E.
Zainab Fattah and Matthew Brown
BloombergMon, 04 Jun 2007 12:45 UTC
Syria became the second Middle Eastern nation in two weeks to say it will dump its currency's peg to the dollar to curb rising import costs and inflation.
The country will link the Syrian pound to a broader range of currencies starting in the middle of July, central bank Governor Adib Mayaleh said.
''The decision is final,'' he said in a phone interview from Abu Dhabi. ''This will help stabilize the Syrian pound and bring down inflation.''
Israeli officials have been regularly strip-searching children for decades, some of them American citizens.
While organizations that focus on Israel-Palestine have long been aware that Israeli border officials regularly strip search men and women, If Americans Knew appears to be the first organization that has specifically investigated the policy of strip searching women. In the course of its investigation, If Americans Knew was astonished to learn that Israeli officials have also been strip searching young girls as young as seven and below.
Dan Parkinson
BBC NewsTue, 05 Jun 2007 12:11 UTC
It has been seen as a daring raid by crack Israeli troops to rescue dozens of their countrymen held at the mercy of hijackers.
But newly released documents contain a claim that the 1976 rescue of hostages, kidnapped on an Air France flight and held in Entebbe in Uganda, was not all it seemed.
Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and fellow neoconservative Frederick Kagan have consistently been wrong in their predictions about Iraq. Last year, Kristol claimed an escalation would "improve our chances of winning." Kagan proclaimed at the end of April, "We are turning a corner in Iraq." But May was the deadliest month this year for U.S. soldiers.
This week, Kristol and Kagan renewed their calls for a defense of the status quo in Iraq. Writing an op-ed in the
Weekly Standard, Kristol and Kagan call for unbridled support of the failing escalation:
Comment: For more on the Hariri killing and the Mossad involvement read the article by Joe Quinn Mossad Murders Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri