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Bomb

Blast at Syrian university causes unknown number of casualities


news.com.au
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:29 UTC
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© Picture: Edlib News Network, ENN Source: AP
A Syrian rebel inspects the rubble of damaged buildings due to government airstikes, in Bensh, Idlib Province. In a separate incident, a large explosion struck the main university in Aleppo yesterday causing an unknown number of casualties.
A LARGE explosion has struck the main university in the northern city of Aleppo, causing an unknown number of casualties, activists and Syrian state TV said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blast at Aleppo University, which was in session yesterday. There were also conflicting reports about which part of the campus was hit.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists around the country, said 15 people were killed and "tens" wounded in two explosions near the university's dorms, but said it was not clear whether the blasts were the result of shells or bombs.

State TV didn't offer any details about the explosion or specify the number of victims. However, a Syrian government official in Damascus said two rockets hit the university's Information Technology Academy. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the two rockets were fired from a rebel-held area in Aleppo.
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Pistol

New York seals 1st state gun laws since Newtown massacre

Michael Gormley
seattlepi.com
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:24 UTC
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© Photo: Mike Groll
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, speaks during a news conference announcing an agreement with legislative leaders on New York's Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act in the Red Room at the Capitol on Monday, Jan. 14, 2013, in Albany, N.Y. Also pictured are Secretary to the Governor Larry Schwartz, left, and Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy.
New York lawmakers agreed to pass the toughest gun control law in the nation and the first since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, calling for a stricter assault weapons ban and provisions to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill who make threats.

"This is a scourge on society," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday night, six days after making gun control a centerpiece of his agenda in his State of the State address. The bipartisan effort was fueled by the Newtown tragedy that took the lives of 20 first graders and six educators. "At what point do you say, 'No more innocent loss of life'?"

The measure also calls for restrictions on ammunition and the sale of guns. It is expected to pass Tuesday.

"This is not about taking anyone's rights away," said Sen. Jeffrey Klein, a Bronx Democrat. "It's about a safe society ... today we are setting the mark for the rest of the county to do what's right."
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Star of David

Israel recruits 'army of bloggers' to combat anti-Zionist Web sites

Cnaan Liphshiz
Haaretz
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:44 UTC
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Israelis who speak a second language to represent Israel on 'problematic' Websites in new Absorption Ministry program.

The Immigrant Absorption Ministry announced on Sunday it was setting up an "army of bloggers," to be made up of Israelis who speak a second language, to represent Israel in "anti-Zionist blogs" in English, French, Spanish and German.

The program's first volunteer was Sandrine Pitousi, 31, from Kfar Maimon, situated five kilometers from Gaza. "I heard about the project over the radio and decided to join because I'm living in the middle of the conflict," she said.

Before hanging up the phone prematurely following a Color Red rocket alert, Pitousi, who immigrated to Israel from France in 1993, said she had some experience with public relations from managing a production company.
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Handcuffs

Pakistan Supreme Court orders arrest of PM Raja Pervez Ashraf


BBC
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:30 UTC
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The BBC's Orla Guerin in Islamabad says there were euphoric scenes when people learned of the court ruling, with men "crying and kissing the ground"
Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of PM Raja Pervez Ashraf and 15 others over corruption allegations, raising fears of a political crisis just months ahead of an election.

Mr Ashraf denies accepting bribes when approving power generation projects as minister for water and power in 2010.

Analysts say that the move is unlikely to lead to his immediate removal.

It comes as a populist cleric led thousands of protesters in Islamabad, demanding the government resign.

Television images showed demonstrators, led by Tahirul Qadri, celebrating and triumphantly applauding as news broke of the court's order.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says it may just be a coincidence - but to many observers the timing of the move bolsters allegations that the cleric is backed by elements of the judiciary and military.
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Bomb

French lead all-night bombing campaign in Diabaly


Associated Press
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:27 UTC
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© AP Photo/Michel Euler
A French airman, center, talks to British military personnel prior to the take off a British C17 transport plane enroute to Mali at the French army base in Evreux, 90 kms(56 mls)north of Paris, Monday, Jan. 14, 2013.
French forces led an all-night aerial bombing campaign Tuesday to wrest control of a small Malian town from armed Islamist extremists, as more French troops arrived in preparation for a possible land assault.

A convoy of 40 to 50 trucks carrying French troops crossed into Mali from Ivory Coast. Several thousand soldiers from the nations neighboring Mali are also expected to begin arriving soon, and Nigeria said nearly 200 would be coming in the next 24 hours.

French President Francois Hollande launched an attack on Mali's rebels, who are linked to al-Qaida, last week after the insurgents began advancing south. France's action preempted a United Nations-approved plan for a military operation in Mali, which was expected to start about nine months from now. Hollande decided a military response could not wait that long in its former colony.

French officials have acknowledged that the rebels are better armed and prepared than they expected. Despite France's five-day-old aerial assault, the Islamist fighters have succeeded in gaining ground, most notably taking Diabaly on Monday, putting them roughly 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Mali's capital, Bamako. When the air raids began last week, the closest known point they occupied was 680 kilometers (420 miles) from the capital.
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War Whore

Warmongers: France to triple invasion force in Mali


BBC
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:23 UTC
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President Francois Hollande: "We carried out more successful strikes and achieved our objectives"
President Francois Hollande says more French troops are to be deployed in Mali to support the 750 in the country countering an Islamist insurgency.

Mr Hollande said new air strikes overnight had "achieved their goal". One target was the town of Diabaly, which rebels entered on Monday.

West African military chiefs are meeting in Mali to discuss how an alliance with the French will work.

France began its intervention on Friday to halt the Islamists' advance south.

Late on Monday, the UN Security Council unanimously backed the intervention.
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V

Anger, soul searching follow death of Internet activist Aaron Swartz

Brandon Griggs
CNN
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:15 UTC
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To the people of the Internet who knew his work, he was an "enormous intellect," a "brilliant and determined spirit" and a "hero of the open net."

To federal prosecutors, he was a criminal.

The suicide of Internet activist Aaron Swartz continued to send shock waves Monday through the hacker community, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the larger online world.

Swartz, a digital prodigy who helped develop social-news site Reddit and RSS, the technology that allows websites to send updates to subscribers, was found hanged Friday in his Brooklyn, New York, apartment. His death has inspired a flurry of online tributes and mobilized Anonymous, the loosely defined collective of so-called "hacktivists" who oppose attempts to limit Internet freedoms.
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TV

CBS quashes CNET award for Dish's ad-skipping DVR


Associated Press
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:08 UTC
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© Getty Images
Controversy erupted over honoring a DVR that angers broadcasters. Above, Dish CEO Joe Clayton and the Hopper mascot at CES last week.
Technology reviews by website CNET have long been respected for their thoroughness and integrity, but that reputation has come under scrutiny after a top reporter quit over what he says is editorial interference by its parent company, CBS Corp.

The dispute centers on CNET's choice of best gadgets from last week's International CES show in Las Vegas.

CNET voted Dish Network Corp.'s "Hopper with Sling" the best home theater and audio product. Because CBS is in a legal fight with Dish over the Hopper's ad-skipping capabilities, CBS vetoed the selection, saying the product couldn't be considered "Best of CES." Instead, CNET's official selection was a sound bar from TV maker Vizio.

Reporter Greg Sandoval tweeted on Monday morning that he was resigning, saying he had lost confidence that CBS is committed to editorial independence.
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Ambulance

Israeli troops kill Palestinian near Gaza border, medical officials say


Haaretz
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:49 UTC
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© Photo by AP
IDF tank keeping position near a security fence on the Gaza border with Israel, as Palestinians approach the fence east of Khan Younis, Friday, Nov. 23, 2012.
Israel had no immediate comment on the shooting of the man, who the Hamas-run Health Ministry said was a farmer, in the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip on Monday, medical officials said.

Israel had no immediate comment on the reported shooting of the man, who the Islamist Hamas-run Health Ministry said was a farmer, in the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya on the frontier with Israel.

Palestinian officials said a gunshot to the head had critically wounded 21-year-old Mustafa Abu Jarad. Doctors in the hospital at Shifa where he was treated said he had died of his injuries.
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Sherlock

Who killed Aaron Swartz?

Moti Nissani
Veterans Today
Sun, 13 Jan 2013 03:02 UTC

"How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?" - Bob Marley
"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation . . . shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863
Aaron Swartz
On January 11, 2013, according to indoctrination organs of the criminal Syndicate calling itself the US government (a Syndicate comprised, for the most part, of big bankers, generals, spooks and, below them, their puppets in the White House and gubernatorial mansions, Congress and state legislatures, and almost the entire judiciary), Aaron Swartz, aged 26, killed himself.

Many on the internet have already traced Aaron's tragic and untimely death directly to the Syndicate. I wish to add my voice to this growing chorus, placing this recent event in a somewhat larger context of historical scholarship.

In relating this story, the Syndicate's propaganda organs conveniently forgot four crucial points:
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