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Poland has demanded that US troops be based on Polish soil in the wake of Russian war games which simulated a nuclear attack and invasion. Radek Sikorski, Poland's foreign minister, said he was alarmed by recent military exercises conducted by the Russian army in Belarus, a country that borders Poland, and wanted the US military as a counterweight. "We would like to see US troops stationed in Poland to serve as a shield against Russian aggression," he said. "If you can still afford it, we need some strategic reassurance." Despite assurances given by US Vice President Joe Biden last month...

Maj Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at a Texas military base, had become increasingly devoted to Islam following the death of his parents but was no terrorist, his cousins in the West Bank said on Friday. Speaking from their home in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Hasan's relatives painted a picture of a man cornered into an act of "lunacy" by the repeated discrimination of his peers and an attempt by the army to force him to serve in Afghanistan. "They discriminated against him because he was a Muslim," Mohammed Mohammed, one of Hasan's cousins, told the...

About three hours ago, the AP finally joined the Washington Post and some other national news organizations in reporting the “troubling portrait” of Nidal Malik Hasan, the man believed responsible for 13 deaths and dozens of wounded at the world’s largest army base.  In hearing these details, many people wonder why the Army had ordered Hasan into a war zone — and perhaps why Hasan remained in the military at all: For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, Texas, in July, the 39-year-old Army major worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pursuing his career in...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2009 – Afghan and international forces detained a group of suspected insurgents, including a Taliban leader, in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province yesterday, military officials reported. The Taliban leader is believed to be responsible for financing suicide bombings and planting roadside bombs in the area. He also is linked to Taliban leadership outside of Afghanistan, officials said. The combined force targeted a compound near the village of Spin Kalacheh, southwest of Kandahar City, after intelligence indicated militant activity there. The force searched the compound without incident and detained the five suspects, including the wanted man who identified himself as...

PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Nov. 6, 2009 – Civil affairs members of the provincial reconstruction team hosted an Afghan-led agricultural training event in the Bermel district here. Afghan farmers gather around a garden while working a practical exercise during an agricultural training class in Bermel, Afghanistan, Nov. 1, 2009. Civil affairs members of the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan’s Paktika province hosted efforts in an Afghan-led agricultural training event. U.S. Army photo by Cpl. David Ferris  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The training offered instruction and discussion on agricultural topics for seven Bermel area farmers. “Most of the people in...

MELBOURNE'S firefighters should be paid extra for turning up to work sober, according to a log of claims by their union. The Victorian branch of the United Firefighters Union is also calling for a "global warming allowance" for the city's 1600 firefighters, "in recognition of the increased work and risk to firefighters as a result of global warming".. It is also demanding extra pay for firefighters if they have to work when a pandemic is declared. The controversial claims have stunned the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board (MFB), which says they are unprecedented. "I am not aware of any...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 6, 2009 – Iraqi security forces arrested five suspected terrorists today in two security operations. In northeastern Baghdad, the Iraqi soldiers, with U.S. advisors, searched two buildings looking for a Promise Day Brigade terrorist group leader who allegedly coordinates attacks against security forces in Iraq. The Iraqi soldiers questioned and then arrested three people suspected of being Promise Day Brigade associates without incident. Near Sharqat, about 50 miles northwest of Kirkuk, Iraqi police and U.S. advisors searched two buildings for a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member who has ties to senior leaders of the terrorist group. Based on...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE GARRYOWEN, Iraq, Nov. 6, 2009 – Iraqi army engineers put their training to good use Oct. 18 on a reconnaissance mission to evaluate a local bridge. Army Sgt. Ryan Loseby, an Iraqi soldier and their interpreter review measurements as Army Pfc. Garrett Childress, far left, looks on during a reconnaissance mission to evaluate a bridge near Contingency Operating Base Garryowen, Iraq, Oct. 18, 2009. U.S. Army photo by 2nd Lt. Benjamin Hann  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Engineers from the 10th Iraqi Army Field Engineer Regiment Detachment joined their trainers from Company E, 4th Battalion, 6th...

Reporting from Nogales, Ariz.-- Alan Bersin is back at the border and on the move. On the third day of a sprint through Texas and Arizona, a law enforcement convoy zooms into Nogales. Riding in a sport utility vehicle, Bersin scans a dusty landscape that he knows well: this desert town of 20,000 with its fast-food joints and discount shops facing the pastel facades and helter-skelter skyline of Nogales, Mexico, a city of 300,000 just south of the fence. Bersin, a compact 63-year-old with the stride of a former star football player at Harvard, arrives at the Nogales station, the...

RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 6, 2009 – When he joined the Navy 15 years ago, Cmdr. Trent Kalp probably expected to serve six-month deployments to the middle of the ocean during his career. But at the time, it might have come as a surprise to learn he also would one day be packing his bags at his home in Midlothian, Va., for six months in Afghanistan. Navy Cmdr. Trent Kalp served six months as commander of Defense Logistics Agency’s support team in Afghanistan. His team worked to develop an aviation hub to provide food for U.S. forces in Regional Command South....

Britain should give up its place on the International Monetary Fund to make way for a single European Union seat on the fund’s board, a leading economist has said. Simon Johnson, a former IMF chief economist, said that the passing of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, should accelerate moves towards a common European position in international economic institutions. The Lisbon Treaty will take force next month, taking the EU another step closer towards acting as a single entity in international affairs. The treaty creates a European president and a new European “foreign minister”, who will be able to speak for all...

SILVER SPRING, Maryland (AFP) – Islam is "not responsible" for the bloodbath at an army base in Texas where Muslim-American army Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly gunned down 13 people, the prayer leader at the mosque where the officer regularly worshipped said Friday. "We offer our condolences and prayers to the families that have a person who died," said Imam Mohammed Abdullahi over loud-speakers that carried the weekly Muslim prayer to several hundred worshippers gathered at the mosque. "Islam is not responsible," he stressed. Many of the worshippers who had come to the mosque in this suburb of Washington knew...

The Obama adminstration must react responsibly to China’s declaration that military operations in space are inevitable, a top China expert says. “How will the US react to Chinese diplomatic efforts in light of the PLA’s blunt statements on space warfare? This is something the Obama administration has to take into account,” said Dean Cheng, China specialist at Washington’s Heritage Foundation. “Are we going to see outrage, any meaningful reactions to the Chinese statements or again that it was someone speaking out of school and we just aren’t sure.” Cheng was referring to what appears to mark a major shift...

Toronto has won a bid to host the 2015 Pan AM Games. Just before 5 p.m. the Pan American Sport Organization in Guadalajara, Mexico, announced that Hogtown had earned the rights to host the games and the Parapan American Games. "We are thrilled,” stated Toronto 2015 Bid Chair, the Hon. David Peterson in a quick press release from Mexico. “We will work hard to stage the best Pan and Parapan Am Games ever.” The Pan Am Games are among the premium amateur athletic competitions in the world and is expected to bring 10,000 participants and 250,000 visitors from the 42...

And then I'd like to read a statement on Honduras. Last week, Honduran negotiators came to an accord that spells out a step-by-step process for Honduras to reestablish democratic and constitutional order and move toward national elections with the support of the international community. In the wake of the Verification Commission visit November 3 and 4, the two sides made significant progress toward the formation of a unity government. For that reason, we were particularly disappointed by the unilateral statements made last night, which do not serve the spirit of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord. We urge both sides to act...

Communism is alive and well. ....Far from being dead and buried, communism remains a potent force - one that is still a threat to Western nations that value freedom and capitalism. This is because the ideological roots of communism have not been defeated. Rather than being polar opposites, fascism and Marxism are evil twins. They are both socialist ideologies that espouse one-party rule, economic collectivism and social regimentation. They are implacably opposed to capitalism, the sovereignty of the family and Judeo-Christian civilization. They are aggressively imperialist, seeking world domination. The major difference between them is that while Marxism champions the...

Ibrahim Hooper knows the drill. When news first broke Thursday that a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, killed and injured U.S. soldiers, the national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote a statement of condemnation. He only sent it out later, when reports emerged that the alleged shooter's name was Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. "As soon as we saw what appeared to be a Muslim name, we issued our statement," Hooper said. "Until that time, we were praying that no Muslim would be involved." That's the reality of crisis management for the Muslim-American community, said Hooper, who handles...

In the war-ravaged Russian republic of Chechnya, the local government is pouring money into the construction of mosques and other Islamic institutions. Despite Russian law that declares a separation of church and state, Chechen schools must now promote Islam. There are 15 million to 20 million Muslims in Russia, and their share of the overall population of 140 million is growing. As many seek to return to their roots, the government has supported the construction of mosques and Islamic schools as long as they do not challenge the state. But in Chechnya, the Moscow-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov has gone even...

SOUTHEAST Queenslanders should be on the lookout for large black funnel-web spiders as big as an adult hand. As the hot, humid weather arrives, the potentially deadly spiders are on the move, with the first reports of the season this week. Queensland Museum senior curator Robert Raven said yesterday sightings of male funnel-webs had been confirmed at Mt Tamborine in the Gold Coast hinterland and Mt Glorious, west of Brisbane. With summer temperatures and rain, male funnel-webs would be active until at least March or April. Males often wandered at night searching for females, especially during rain. They are black,...

Fort Victims Had Different Reasons For Enlisting AP – Jose Rodriguez holds a photo of his granddaughter Francheska Velez in Chicago, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009. … CARYN ROUSSEAU and ROBERT IMRIE The 13 people killed when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, included a pregnant woman who was preparing to return home, a man who quit a furniture company job to join the military about a year ago, a newlywed who had served in Iraq and a woman who had vowed to take on Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks....

Islamic jihadists routinely characterize anti-terror efforts as part of a "war on Islam." But of course, there is no war on terror, and there is no war on Islam. There is just the Islamic jihad against the U.S. and the West. "Hasan Called War on Terror 'War Against Islam,' Classmate Says," by Justin Blum for Bloomberg, November 6: Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people and wounding 30 others at the Fort Hood Army Base in Texas, regularly described the war on terror as "a war against Islam," according to a...

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Thursday, Nov. 5, A substantial Saudi armored infantry force and tank column crossed the border into Yemen to do battle with Iran-backed Houthi rebels the day after they killed a Saudi border guard. Saudi air force F-15 and Tornado jets have been bombing Yemeni rebel positions near the border with the southern Saudi Jizan province since Wednesday. The Yemeni Houthi rebels are the second Iranian ally to be attacked after Israel's Cast Lead operation against the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza earlier this year, DEBKAfile's military sources report. "This is not a hit-and-run, this is a sustained action" to clean out...

He gave a Grand Rounds presentation. . . You take turns giving a lecture on, you know, the correct treatment of schizophrenia, the right drugs to prescribe for personality disorder, you know, that sort of thing. But instead of giving an academic paper, he gave a lecture on the Koran, and they said it didn’t seem to be just an informational lecture, but it seemed to be his own beliefs. That’s what a lot of people thought. He talked about how if you’re a nonbeliever the Koran says you should have your head cut off, you should have oil poured...

Mexico beats China in American assembly for export factories American businesses are setting up shop in Mexico instead of China. China, which was the number one location for manufacture of goods bound for the U.S., has fallen into third place. Mexico is now number one, followed by India. Several factors have converged to make Mexico an attractive place for manufacture. Daniel Silva of the Mission Economic Development Authority said: "Compared to China, Mexico offers better access to North American markets with a shorter, faster and cheaper transportation route to move products and supplies by truck, rather than over thousands of...

BEIRUT — Anne Frank's diary has been censored out of a school textbook in Lebanon following a campaign by the militant group Hezbollah claiming the classic work promotes Zionism. The row erupted after Hezbollah learned excerpts of "The Diary of Anne Frank" were included in the textbook used by a private English-language school in western Beirut. Frank wrote the diary while her family hid from Nazi police and sympathizers in an Amsterdam attic from 1942 to 1944. She later died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15, and the diary was published posthumously.

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The police officer who ended the Fort Hood massacre by shooting the suspect was known as the enforcer on her street, a "tough woman" who patrolled her neighborhood and once stopped burglars at her house. "If you come in, I'm going to shoot," Kimberly Munley told the would-be intruders last year. It was Munley who arrived quickly Thursday at the scene of the worst massacre at an Army base in U.S. history, where 13 people were killed. She confronted the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and shot him four times. Munley was wounded in...

Green groups and activists for the developing world on Thursday accused rich nations of tiptoeing away from vows to seal a binding, far-reaching UN treaty on climate change in Copenhagen next month. Their bitter response came after European Union (EU) negotiators in Barcelona spelt out the likelihood that the much-trumpeted pact would be concluded in 2010, not at the December 7-18 meeting as planned. The talks, launched under a two-year "road map" in Bali, call for a global accord to curb emissions of heat-trapping carbon gases beyond 2012 and channel funds to poor countries most threatened by drought, floods, storms...

BARCELONA - The United States is likely to bear the brunt of the blame among recession-hit developed nations for a six- to 12-month delay to a new global climate deal hoped for December in Copenhagen. U.S. failure to match expectations with a carbon target by the December deadline may dent confidence in its power to ever be able to deliver, despite President Obama's strong commitment to fight climate change. Governments were meant to agree a global deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the first period of which runs out in 2012, at the December 7-18 meeting in Copenhagen. But many...

Health experts say they are hardly astonished that the suspect in the worst mass murder ever at a U.S. military base is an Army psychiatrist — the very person who is supposed to be helping soldiers deal with the traumatic stress of war. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, suspected of gunning down 13 and wounding 30 at the Fort Hood Army Post in Texas, treated soldiers at the Darnall Army Medical Center there after being transferred in July from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he had worked for six years. Dr. Robin Kerner, an attending psychologist who specializes in...

Europe Cracks Down on Home School Parents MUNICH, Germany - Increasing custody cases in Europe are proof that officials there have declared war against home schooling and parental rights, according to some residents.In Sweden, police burst onto a plane and took 7-year-old Dominic Johansson from his parents as they were about to leave the country.Months earlier, they told school officials they were going to home school Dominic, prompting officials to open an investigation. In a similar case in Germany, the government abducted 7-year-old Dan Schulz while the family was sleeping. He can be heard on tape screaming that he...

Some troubling news has come out from the British Guardian. According to sources in the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iranian scientists have been working on a nuclear warhead design which makes it easier to miniaturize the bomb. This allows the warhead to be placed on a missile for deployment. Western weapons experts say there are no such civilian applications, but the use of co-ordinated detonations in nuclear warheads is well known. They compress the fissile core, or pit, of the warhead until it reaches critical mass.

The illegal immigration issue is emerging as the biggest threat to passing healthcare reform in the House. Congressional Hispanics have threatened to vote against the bill because of a last-minute threat from within the Democratic Caucus to bolster the House bill’s immigration restrictions to match those included in the Senate Finance bill. And they’re also fighting President Barack Obama, the original sponsor of the language prohibiting illegal immigrants from accessing the public health insurance exchange. On Thursday afternoon, four leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) traveled to the White House to meet with Obama on behalf of the entire...

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a military-backed coup four months ago, said today that a U.S.-brokered deal to end his nation's political crisis has collapsed. Zelaya pronounced the week-old agreement a "dead letter" after de facto rulers formed a new "reconciliation government" without Zelaya's participation, as the deal had required. "The accord is a dead letter," Zelaya said on a Honduran radio station... Under the accord, Zelaya and the man who replaced him, Roberto Micheletti, agreed to let the Honduran Congress vote on whether to reinstate Zelaya to office, as the international community has been demanding. But congressional leaders,...

AN official Taliban publication warns Australia that it will have to assimilate into a dominant Asia or face the prospect of being overpowered and forced to take population overspill from Asia. The choice is spelled out in the latest issue of the online Taliban monthly magazine, Al Sumud (Steadfastness), whose lead article offers a sweeping view of a post-war order in which a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan becomes a moral pivot for a pan-Asian renaissance that will coincide with the decline of Western power. "The end of European leadership in the world will place the white settler diaspora in Australia before two...

Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth. Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka. An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby. Islamist groups run much of southern Somalia, while the UN-backed government only control parts of the capital. This is the third time Islamists have stoned a person to death for adultery in the past year. Al-Shabab official Sheikh Suldan Aala...

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, murdered twelve people and wounded twenty-one inside Fort Hood in Texas yesterday, while, according to eyewitnesses, “shouting something in Arabic while he was shooting.” Investigators are scratching their heads and expressing puzzlement about why he did it. According to NPR, “the motive behind the shootings was not immediately clear, officials said.” The Washington Post agreed: “The motive remains unclear, although some sources reported the suspect is opposed to U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq and upset about an imminent deployment.” The Huffington Post spun faster, asserting that “there is no concrete...

STOCKTON - The suspicions of deputies delivering a court order in east Stockton on Wednesday afternoon led them to a haul of Border Patrol uniforms, a missing Sheriff's Office badge and a 36-year-old man with an outstanding warrant for forgery. According to the Sheriff's Office, deputies were serving a protective order at a residence at East Cherokee and North Wilcox roads when they spotted a vehicle nearby with expired registration tags. It appeared unoccupied, but the front driver's side window was down. When deputies approached, they saw a man in the driver's seat, which had been fully reclined. He appeared...

Amid Rising Violence, Mexicans Fight Back Government Efforts to Control Drug Turf Wars Aren't Enough, Some Say; Mayor Promises to 'Clean Up' Organized Crime By DAVID LUHNOW and JOSÉ DE CÓRDOBA MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's war on drugs took a grim twist this week, as a prominent mayor said he had created an undercover group of operatives to "clean up" criminal elements -- even if it had to act outside the law. Underscoring why the mayor may have felt compelled to take such steps, the new police chief in a neighboring town, a retired brigadier general, was shot and killed...

Home prices are on the rise across Asia Fears about the battered real estate market give way to bubble concerns By Kevin Brown Friday, November 6, 2009 SINGAPORE -- Residential property prices are rising across much of Asia, prompting fears of a real estate bubble. Apartments are selling for staggering prices, and central banks and finance ministries have begun to rein in property-related stimulus measures. It seems like only yesterday that prices were falling. Now fears are rising once again that property investors could be in for a hard landing, destroying personal wealth and delaying the economic recovery. In Hong...

You are encouraged to leave non-PC comments on YouTube. SKEWERING "IMAGINE" ON YOUTUBE

Poland votes against Israel war crimes investigationNov. 6, 2009 Poland has joined the United States in voting against a UN resolution to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza StripThe allegations were levied against Israel in the so-called Goldstone Report on the Gaza conflict earlier this year.Last month, Poland also voted against the Goldstone Report at the UN Human Rights Council. The report, released in September 2009, is a UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, led by Richard Goldstone of South Africa. The report, condemned by Israel for bias, accused both Palestinian militants and Israeli Defense Forces...

In a stunning example of history repeating itself, an invasion of Chinese illegal immigrants is underway in the American Southwest and the authorities are doing everything they can to stop it. In the Nogales Sector of Arizona, 78 Chinese nationals were apprehended while trying to enter the US illegally through Mexico in October of this year alone. Between October 2008 and the end of August 2009, the Tucson Sector arrested 261 Chinese nationals according to Patrol Agent Colleen Agle. In the previous year only 30 had been captured. That is an 1100% increase in one year for Arizona. Texas has...

ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani army entered the last of three militant strongholds targeted by a major offensive in the northwest on Friday, as gunmen wounded a senior army officer and a soldier in the capital. The operation in South Waziristan, the main Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuary in Pakistan, has sparked a wave of retaliatory attacks that have killed about 300 civilians and security forces in the past month. The shooting in Islamabad was the third such attack in about two weeks. The militants hope the attacks will weaken the army's resolve as it pushes deeper into the isolated, mountainous region...

Reconstruction of Ryongchon In 2004 much of the town of Ryongchon was tragically destroyed in a large explosion. Here is the Wikipedia page on the disaster if you would like a quick reference. I compiled a couple of images to construct this “before” picture of Ryongchon: Notice that the center of town is composed largely of traditional houses. Here is the first “after” image (which is the default image on Google Earth): As you can see a large number of traditional houses were destroyed as well as a school. Below I have compiled more recent images to show how the...

The U.N. nuclear watchdog has asked Tehran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced secret nuclear warhead design, according to a report published Friday. Citing what it calls "previously unpublished documentation" from an International Atomic Energy Agency compiled report, Britain's The Guardian newspaper said Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of a "two-point implosion" device. The report said that even the existence of two-point implosion nuclear warhead technology is officially secret in both the U.S. and Britain. The technology allows for the production of smaller and simpler warheads, making it easier to put a...

While our forces give blood to defend a wretchedly corrupt government in Afghanistan that's losing a civil war, Mexico's postmodern drug armies kill American citizens and residents in our streets every single day -- through their wares or direct violence. We have been invaded. Our response? Promise the outgunned Mexican government a few helicopters (eventually), neglect our borders, permit "sanctuary cities" to protect narco-terrorists who've killed more Americans than al Qaeda has, prepare to reward drug-cartel invaders with US citizenship -- and declare this massive invasion a "law-enforcement issue." Our government is failing, willfully, at its primary responsibility: to protect...

egarding Hamas, Yadlin said the Gaza-based terror group now has a rocket with a 60-kilometer range that can reach Tel Aviv, and has already successfully test-fired it into the Mediterranean Sea. He said Hamas had also smuggled in Iranian-produced Fajr-style rockets, and overall has a better rocket capability than before the Gaza War last winter.

On October 24, the Francophone European Association for Baha’i Studies convened its annual conference in Luxembourg. Normally, the minutes of the meetings of such a niche organization would not be newsworthy. This year, however, the group’s agenda was dominated by discussions of the anxiously awaited future of a new world order and a one-world government. The keynote presentation was delivered by Andreas Bummel, the Chairman of the Committee for a Democratic United Nations, a Berlin-based NGO that, according to its website, seeks "to facilitate a cosmopolitan orientation of society, an improvement of international relations and the establishment of global democracy...

Cardinal: Pumpkins, Not Crucifixes? Responds to European Court Decision on Schools VATICAN CITY, NOV. 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- In European schools, crucifixes are prohibited but Halloween pumpkins are promoted, observed Benedict XVI's Secretary of State. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone stated this in response to the Tuesday decision of the European Court of Human Rights, which called for the removal of Christian symbols from public school classrooms. "This Europe of the third millennium only leaves us the pumpkins of the feasts repeatedly celebrated and takes away from us our most cherished symbols," said the cardinal in an article published in L'Osservatore Romano. He...