Happy New Year!Todays News!AT&T ends partnership with Tiger Woods!!

AT&T ends partnership with Tiger Woods

Telecom giant AT&T Inc. announced Thursday that it has ended its business relationship with Tiger Woods."We are ending our sponsorship agreement with Tiger Woods and wish him well in the future, " said Fletcher Cook, AT&T spokesman, in an e-mailed statement.Woods had signed a multi-year sponsorship agreement with AT&T (T, Fortune 500) in February, but terms of the deal weren't disclosed. AT&T replaced Buick as the corporate logo on Woods' golf bag when General Motors ended its partnership with Woods earlier this year. AT&T becomes the second of the golfer's major sponsors to terminate its business relationship with Woods since his Nov. 27 car crash brought to light Tiger's marital infidelity that took the nation by storm. Consultancy Accenture (ACN) also ended its sponsorship of Woods earlier this month.Procter & Gamble's (PG, Fortune 500) Gillette said it would stop airing commercials that feature Woods for awhile, but it will keep Tiger as a sponsor. Other major sponsors, like Nike (NKE, Fortune 500) and Pepsi's (PEP, Fortune 500) Gatorade have stood by Woods.

Source: CNN

CIA chief confirms seven officers killed by Afghan bomb

Seven CIA agents were killed in a bomb attack in Afghanistan, the US agency's director, Leon Panetta, has confirmed.A bomber wearing an explosive vest entered Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost Province, near Pakistan.A Taliban spokesman said a member of the group working for the Afghan army had carried out the attack.Earlier reports said eight CIA agents had been killed in the attack - the worst against US intelligence officials since 1983.The attack has raised questions about the coalition's ability to protect itself against infiltrators, analysts say.

'Close to the enemy'

Paying tribute to the fallen, Mr Panetta said six other agents were injured in Wednesday's attack at the Forward Operating Base in Khost Province.

The Chapman airfield is reportedly used for launching drone planes

"Those who fell yesterday were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism," he said.

"We owe them our deepest gratitude, and we pledge to them and their families that we will never cease fighting for the cause to which they dedicated their lives - a safer America."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told the BBC the Khost bomber was wearing an army uniform when he managed to breach security at the base, detonating his explosives belt in the gym.

'Real danger'

Neither the names of the CIA officials killed nor the details of their work were released due to the sensitivity of their work, the agency said in a statement.

"Yesterday's tragedy reminds us that the men and women of the CIA put their lives at risk every day to protect this nation," said Mr Panetta.

"Throughout our history, the reality is that those who make a real difference often face real danger."

The flags at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, were to be flown at half-mast in honour of the dead, he added.

Reports say the Chapman base is used by provincial reconstruction teams - which include soldiers and civilians - and is protected by some 200 Afghan soldiers.

The base has been described as "not regular" - a phrase that implies it was a centre of CIA operations in Khost province, the BBC's Peter Greste in Kabul says.Khost province - which is one of the Taliban's strongholds - has been targeted by militants in the past year.The number of foreign civilians deployed in Afghanistan has been rising as international efforts there focus increasingly on development and aid.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan:

• Taliban militants beheaded six men they suspected of being spies for the government in the southern province of Uruzgan, police said
• Four Canadian soldiers and a journalist died in a roadside bomb attack in Kandahar, in the most deadly attack on Canadians in the country for more than two years
• Two French journalists were kidnapped in Kapisa province, north-east of Kabul, along with their Afghan driver and interpreter, reports say

Source: BBC

Todays News!Suicide bomber strikes in Pakistan!Deaths in Yemen raid on al-Qaeda !

Suicide bomber strikes in Pakistan

A suicide bombing killed at least four people and injured 14 others Thursday in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, an official said. The blast occurred at a checkpoint on Mall Road, a major thoroughfare in a commercial area, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for Northwest Frontier Province. The checkpoint is next to a building that houses airline and insurance company offices. The attacker detonated his explosives after he was stopped and searched, Hussein said. Police cordoned off the area while ambulances shuttled casualties to a nearby hospital. Peshawar, the provincial capital, is situated on the road into Afghanistan and is considered by many to be at the core of Pakistan's war on terror. Since October, the city has been the target of a series of attacks launched by militants in retaliation for a major Army offensive to root out the Taliban.

Source:CNN

Dozens killed in Yemen air strike on al-Qaeda suspects

At least 30 suspected al-Qaeda militants have been killed by an air strike in a remote mountainous area of Yemen, security officials say.An unnamed official told reporters the strike took place as dozens of militants gathered in Shabwa province, east of the capital, Sanaa. Two senior al-Qaeda commanders in the Arabian peninsula could be among the dead, he said. Al-Qaeda has carried out frequent attacks in Yemen in recent months. The Saudi government has recently expressed its concern about the resurgence of the movement in the region. 'Planning attacks'AFP news agency quoted the security official as saying Saudis and Iranians had been at the meeting. "We are still unsure if two of the top leaders have been killed or not," Reuters news agency quoted him as saying. Yemeni forces have intensified their campaign against militants "One of them is the Saudi al-Qaeda member Nasser al-Weheshi." Another official told AFP that the suspected militants had been meeting to plan terror attacks in Yemen, in retaliation for Yemeni military air strikes carried out last week. Reuters news agency cited a security official saying that a radical Muslim preacher linked to the US army psychiatrist charged over the fatal shooting of 13 people at a US army base was suspected to be among those killed. Yemen-based al-Qaeda sympathiser Anwar al-Awlaki, who was released from a Yemeni prison last year, and Maj Nidal Hasan had exchanged e-mails before the shooting at Fort Hood last month, US officials say. Last week, Yemeni officials said they had killed 34 suspected al-Qaeda militants and arrested 17 in operations in Abyan province in the south and in Arhab, north of Sanaa. Officials said the militants had allegedly been planning multiple suicide attacks, with eight of them preparing explosive vests at the time of the raids. Analysts say Yemen, the ancestral home of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, has long been an ideal base for jihadists. With its rugged mountains and traditionally weak central authority, it is terrain well suited to militant groups looking for hiding places and training camps.

Source: BBC

Deaths in Yemen raid on al-Qaeda

Footage of one al-Qaeda commander at a public rally in Yemen was obtained by Al Jazeera At least 30 suspected al-Qaeda fighters have been killed in a dawn air raid by Yemeni forces in the eastern Yemeni province of Shabwa. Among those thought to have been killed in the raid early on Thursday was Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim preacher linked by US intelligence to a gunman who killed 13 people at a US army base in Texas. "Anwar al-Awlaki is suspected to be dead [in the air raid]," an unnamed Yemeni official was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying. Al-Awlaki has been linked to Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a US soldier who shot dead 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in the US state of Texas. Casualties disputed Thursday's raid supposedly struck at a meeting of al-Qaeda operatives in Wadi Rafadh, a remote mountainous region lies about 650km east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa. Alongside al-Awlaki, several senior members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula - a group formed of al-Qaeda fighters in Yemen and Saudi Arabia - were also thought to have been killed in the raid. But there was confusion over the number of casualties. "Local sources have said that the casualties from this strike was seven people only," Mohammed al-Qadhi, a correspondent in Yemen for Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper, told Al Jazeera. "All of those are from al-Qaeda, according to local sources, but the government reports say there are more than 30 [dead]." Al Arabiya television said there had been four air raids. Unconfirmed deaths Nasser al-Whaychi, the head of al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula, was thought to have been present at the meeting at the time of the attack but it is not known if he was killed in the raid. Initial reports also said that two other al-Qaeda commanders, identified by security sources as Saad al-Fathani and Mohammad Ahmed Saleh al-Oumir, were among those killed. But there was no official confirmation that any of the men had been killed. Al-Oumir is thought to have been the man who spoke at a rally in Abyane, a rare public appearance by an al-Qaeda leader, footage of which was obtained by Al Jazeera. Thursday's attack comes a week after the raid on Abyane, which prompted the rally at which al-Oumir appeared and which allegedly killed dozens of civilians as well as al-Qaeda fighters. Yemen's government has been battling al-Qaeda in the country at the same time as dealing with a Shia uprising in the north and rising secessionist sentiment in the south.

Source: Al-Jazeera

Fresh strikes target Al Qaida top leaders, kill 30

An official statement said the latest raid targeted a meeting chaired by Nasser Al Wahayshi and Saeed Al Shihri, the top leaders of the Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The regrouping of Al Qaida in Yemen comes after it had been targeted in Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Iraq.Image Credit: AP Sana’a: More than 30 Al Qaida operatives were killed when warplanes bombed a hideout for Al Qaida in the Shabwah province, an official statement said Thursday. A radical Muslim preacher, linked by US intelligence to a gunman who killed 13 people at a US Army base, is believed to have died in a Yemen air strike on Al Qaida militants, a security official said on Thursday. "Anwar al Awlaki is suspected to be dead (in the air raid)," said the Yemeni official, who asked not to be identified. The gunman in the Nov. 5 shooting at the Fort Hood, Texas army base, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, had contacts with Awlaki late last year, US authorities believe.

The statement said the raid targeted a meeting chaired by Nasser Al Wahayshi and Saeed Al Shihri, the top leaders of the Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The official said initial reports that two top al Qaeda members in the Arabian peninsula had been killed could not be verified. "We are still unsure if two of the top leaders have been killed or not. One of them is the Saudi al Qaeda member Nasser al Weheshi," he added, declining to say whether more strikes would take place on Thursday. The meeting was held to make plans for a retaliatory action after last Thursday’s operation in Al Majalah, which killed dozens of people.

Source: GulfNews

Tobays News!Fighters 'sent to Afghan Taliban' !!!

Fighters 'sent to Afghan Taliban'

The Taliban's move come as the US orders more troops to Afghanistan [GALLO/GETTY] A senior Pakistani Taliban commander has said he has sent thousands of fighters into neighbouring Afghanistan to counter the rising level of US troops. Waliur Rehman's comments, made to the Associated Press, came in a report released on Wednesday. "Since [Barack] Obama [the US president] is also sending additional forces to Afghanistan, we sent thousands of our men there to fight Nato and American forces," Rehman said. Rehman is a deputy to Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and the man in charge of the group's operations in South Waziristan. The Afghan Taliban told Al Jazeera said they had no need for the help of Pakistani fighters and do not recognise their leadership.The Pakistani army has been conducting a campaign against the Taliban in that region for several months and the offensive is believed to have pushed many of Taliban fighters in the area to flee.There are thought to be as many as 10,000 fighters in South Waziristan, including hundreds of Uzbek fighters. 'Confident performance' The Pakistani military estimates it has killed about 600 Taliban fighters, but in his interview Rehman claimed to have lost fewer than 20 men. "We have not noticed any significant movement of insurgents in the border area" Colonel Wayne Shanks, "They're saying here that the Taliban is putting a spin on it - it's a confident performance, but they've been forced into Afghanistan by the offensive [in South Waziristan]," he said. US military spokesman in Afghanistan Imran Khan, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, said Rehman's interview was likely an attempt to play down the effects of the military's offensive in South Waziristan. "This is the Taliban saying we've not been forced by the Pakistani army, we're going across voluntarily."The Associated Press interview with Rehman was conducted at a mud-brick compound in the Shaktoi area of South Waziristan on Monday.The news agency also quoted Colonel Wayne Shanks, a US military spokesman in Afghanistan, as dismissing Rehman's comments as simply "rhetoric"."We have not noticed any significant movement of insurgents in the border area," he said. Army targeted Imtiaz Gul, an expert on the Pakistani Taliban, said that Rehman's comment's needed to be taken "with a pinch of salt"."If we look at the track record of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan [the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP], they have been exclusively concentrating on targeting Pakistani army, Pakistani people and government installations," he told Al Jazeera."If Walid Rehman Mehsud has made this claim, this indicates perhaps a change in tactic or an attempt to divert attention from the TTP. "Especially after the sweeping operation the army has conducted, they probably want to send a reassuring signal to their supporters that they are very much alive and kicking."In his interview Rehman also said his group would stop attacking Pakistani forces if Pakistan would sever its ties to the US."We would again become Pakistan's brother if Pakistan ends its support for America," he was quoted as saying.He urged the US president to focus on concerns at home, saying: "He should know that Americans don't want war ... He should use this money for the welfare of his own people." Source:Al-Jazeera

Todays News!!'Iranian cyber army' hacks Twitter !

'Iranian cyber army' hacks Twitter

The popular microblogging site Twitter was briefly shut down after a group apparently calling themselves the Iranian Cyber Army launched attack on the site. Visitors to the site found that Twitter's homepage had been replaced by a page showing a green flag under red text reading "This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army." The website's official blog acknowledged the disruption on Friday, but gave no details as to how the site had been been hacked and who had carried out the attack. Biz Stone, the site’s co-founder, wrote on the blog: "As we tweeted a bit ago, Twitter's DNS [Domain Name Service] records were temporarily compromised tonight but have now been fixed." "We will update with more information and details once we've investigated more fully," he said. Technology blogs including TechCrunch said Twitter went down around 06:00 GMT for about an hour.

Internet control Screengrabs posted on the Flickr photosharing site showed text on the Iranian Cyber Army's replacement page which seemed to criticise reported efforts by the US state department to influence Twitter to postpone maintenance work during recent protests against the Tehran government. "USA think they controlling and managing internet by their access [sic], but they don't, we control and manage internet by our power," the text said. "Now which country in embargo list? Iran? USA? We push them in embargo list. Take care," it read.

Iranian demonstrators protesting against the results of June presidential elections used Twitter extensively, both to organise marches and to release information about their movement. Their use of the microblogging site led some to dub the action against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the re-elected Iranian president, a "Twitter revolution" and made the Iranian election one of the top "trends" on the site this year. Twitter 'interference' TechCrunch reported that the disruption also affected Google searches for Twitter. It posted a screengrab showing that searches for a time returned a result reading "This website has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army," it said. TechCrunch translated the text as saying that it was a reaction to Twitter's interference in the internal affairs of "my country", which it said the US authorities had ordered.

The Iranian authorities repeatedly criticised the US and its allies for "interfering" in the country's internal affairs as the mass protests took place following the disputed election.

Source: Al-Jazeera

Todays News!Iran 'test-fires upgraded missile'!!Al Qaeda in Iraq 'shifting its tactics'!!!

Iran 'test-fires upgraded missile'

Iran has successfully test-fired its longest-range missile, according to reports on the country's state television.
Al Alam, Iran's Arabic-language satellite television channel, reported the missile launch on Wednesday, saying it had a longer range than previous missiles. Iran has said in the past that its Shahab missiles can reach targets 2,000km away, but if the Sejil-2 missile can reach further it would put Israel and US bases in the Gulf within reach. The missile test comes amid increased tensions with the West over Iran's nuclear programme. The announcement comes hours after the US approved legislation to impose sanctions on foreign companies that help supply fuel to Iran. Neither Israel nor the United States have ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row. Tehran says its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes and has vowed to
retaliate for any attack.

Sanctions

Iran has repeatedly disregarded the impact of such punitive measures, which include three rounds of limited UN sanctions since 2006. In September, Iran test-fired missiles which a commander said could reach any regional target. The White House called them "provocative", and reiterated demands that Iran come clean on its nuclear programme. In October, negotiators offered a deal under which Iran would send most of its low-enriched uranium abroad by the end of the year for further enrichment. However, Tehran refused to comply with the deal, saying it would prefer to purchase the required fuel from other countries and keep its low-enriched uranium.

Source: Al-Jazzera

Al Qaeda in Iraq 'shifting its tactics'

(CNN) -- The former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, blames al Qaeda for Tuesday's coordinated bomb attacks in Iraq, saying al Qaeda is now targeting the Iraqi government. The bombings -- the latest in a series of attacks in Iraq -- killed eight people. Calling al Qaeda in Iraq a "very deadly adversary," Crocker said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour that al Qaeda was working "to shake popular confidence in the (Iraqi) government, particularly as we move toward elections." In Tuesday's attacks, insurgents exploded three car bombs close to heavily guarded sites in the Baghdad city center near the fortified "Green Zone" that houses Iraqi government buildings and the U.S. embassy. Four people were killed and 14 others were injured. In the volatile northern city of Mosul, four people were killed in three bombings.

It's pretty clear to me that the architect is al Qaeda in Iraq," Crocker told Amanpour. The bombings in Baghdad came a week after a string of attacks that killed nearly 130 people in the Iraqi capital and wounded 400 others. They were the worst in the city since October when car bombs killed and wounded hundreds. Overall though, the number of Iraqi civilians killed in the war has fallen to the lowest levels since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Crocker -- who is now dean of the George Bush School of Government at Texas A&M University -- said al Qaeda in Iraq is shifting its tactics. He said al Qaeda previously launched bombings targeting the civilian population in an effort to restart sectarian violence, but it didn't work. "Iraqis simply refused to be provoked into that kind of widespread carnage that we saw in '06 and '07," he said. "So al Qaeda shifted to take on the (Iraqi) state, and I don't think that's going to work either." Crocker said the upcoming Iraqi elections, scheduled for early March, are going to be very important for the country's development. But he warned there will be new security challenges, echoing concerns expressed by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno. The United States has stopped patrolling Iraqi urban areas, under an agreement with the Baghdad government that was implemented in June. The U.S. will withdraw all its combat troops from Iraq by the end of August next year, leaving a residual force of up to 50,000 troops. There are about 115,000 American forces in Iraq now, while Iraq has nearly 700,000 troops and police in its security forces. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, said the United States has spent a huge sum of money on building up Iraq's army and police.

"Eighteen billion dollars in the Iraq security forces fund and another $7 billion in other resources into the Iraqi army and police have built a pretty credible force that should be able to keep the peace across the country, notwithstanding these notable attacks," Bowen told Amanpour. Bowen also highlighted what he described as the enormous economic success that Iraq realized over the weekend, when it awarded seven new contracts to develop its oil fields. Those oil fields have the potential to double Iraq's oil production to 5 million barrels a day within a few years. "There is an economic engine waiting to be unleashed. It's in the ground in Iraq. That oil has to be gotten out and exported," Bowen said. "If the Iraqis can do that while fighting corruption and keeping this insurgency down, then prosperity lies ahead." But a leading Iraqi advocate for women and children's rights, Basma Al-Khateeb, had a less rosy outlook for Iraq. She said security in Iraq remained "quite fragile." Asked whether she is worried about the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, she said, "The occupation and the American forces' role is not really one of the issues that are making trouble here. We have more complex and complicated issues that we need to solve." Al-Khateeb said the chaos in Iraq has made many Iraqis lose faith in democracy. But she added that Iraqis themselves will eventually solve their problems, even if the elections do not lead to any change, pointing to the possibility of a new era in politics in the future. "We want elections to pass through, but also we expect more political powers and movements to rise from the new generation in Iraq," she said.

Source: CNN

Tobays News!Taliban 'targeting' Pakistan spies!!

Taliban 'targeting' Pakistan spies

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, has said that extremist groups involved in attacks on US and Nato forces in Afghanistan "have been taking refuge across the border in Pakistan".To fight that, Washington has been cultivating a relationship with the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's spy agency.

But as Imran Khan reports, the ISI are now facing their own struggle, as the Taliban turn on them.

Watch Video  

Source: Al-Jazzera

Israel angry over UK Livni warrant

Israel has reacted angrily to an arrest warrant issued, and later withdrawn, by a British court against Tzipi Livni, Israel's former foreign minister, over her role during Israel's war on Gaza. Speaking on Israeli army radio on Tuesday, Israel's ambassador to the UK urged Britain to change the law, which has allowed groups to pursue charges against non-citizens for alleged crimes committed outside the UK. "The current situation has become intolerable, it is time that it change," Ron Prosor said. "I am convinced that the British government will understand that it is time to react and not content itself with declarations." Livni, who heads the opposition Kadima party, had been expected to travel to London but cancelled the visit due to what her office said was a scheduling conflict. But a statement from the Israeli foreign ministry later indicated that a British court had issued a warrant for her arrest. The UK's Guardian newspaper also said that it had established a warrant had been issued by Westminster magistrates' court.

Strategic partners

Britain's foreign office has yet to provide any details of the warrant but has said it is looking into the incident. "The UK is determined to do all it can to promote peace in the Middle East and to be a strategic partner of Israel," it said in a statement. "To do this, Israel's leaders need to be able to come to the UK for talks with the British government. We are looking urgently at the implications of this case." Bill Bowring, a professor of law at the University of London, said the threat of prosecution is making international travel increasingly difficult for Israeli officials. "This has happened before. It's under quite old legislation, under the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949," he told Al Jazeera. "Basically what it says is that if a person anywhere in the world commits grave breaches against civilians then that person should be arrested and prosecuted wherever they turn up in the world." Pro-Palestinian activists have several times petitioned British courts to issue warrants against Israeli officials. In September, activists tried to have Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, arrested over his role in the Gaza war. A court denied the request on the grounds of diplomatic immunity.

Gaza bombardment

Israeli land, air and naval forces began bombarding the Gaza Strip last December, saying that it wanted to stop rocket attacks by Palestinian fighters. A UN-sponsored report, known as the Goldstone report, has called on both Israel and the Palestinians to investigate accusations of human-rights violations committed during the conflict. Most of the criticism in the Goldstone report was directed towards Israel. It concluded that Israel had used disproportionate force and had deliberately targeted Gaza civilians, using them as human shields, while destroying civilian infrastructure. More 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the offensive, according to estimates by human rights groups. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, died over the same time period, Israel said.

 Source: Al-Jazzera

Exiled Hamas leader visits Iran!!Berlusconi has fractured nose, broken teeth!!Today's News!!

Exiled Hamas leader visits Iran

(CNN) -- Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, according to Iran's semi-official Fars news agency. During the meeting, Ahmadinejad told Mashaal that "Iran will always stand by the oppressed people of Palestine," Fars reported.
The Iranian leader declared that "enemies are experiencing successive failures," Fars said. He cited "the failed assault over Gaza Strip and Lebanon, lack of success in reforming the U.S. image" after President Obama took office and a lack of success in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These are "among failures of world arrogance and particularly the U.S. and Zionist regime [Israel] over recent years," Ahmadinejad said, according to Fars. Mashaal said Hamas and the Palestinian resistance will continue fighting until their goals become reality, Fars reported. Palestinians are determined to return to their homeland, he said.

Berlusconi has fractured nose, broken teeth

Watch Video 

 

 

Source: CNN

New Cases Test Optimism on Extremism by U.S. Muslims!!Today's News!!

 

New Cases Test Optimism on Extremism by U.S. Muslims

WASHINGTON — As the years passed after Sept. 11, 2001, without another major attack on American soil and with no sign of hidden terrorist cells, many counter-terrorism specialists reached a comforting conclusion: Muslims in the United States were not very vulnerable to radicalization. American Muslims, the reasoning went, were well assimilated in diverse communities with room for advancement. They showed little of the alienation often on display among their European counterparts, let alone attraction to extremist violence.

But with a rash of recent cases in which Americans have been accused of being drawn into terrorist scheming, the rampage at Fort Hood, Tex., last month and now the alarming account of five young Virginia men who went to Pakistan and are suspected of seeking jihad, the notion that the United States has some immunity against homegrown terrorists is coming under new scrutiny. It is a concern that President Obama noted in passing in his address on the decision to send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan, and one that has grown as the Afghan war and the hunt for Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan intensifies. “These events certainly call the consensus into question,” said Robert S. Leiken, who studies terrorism at the Nixon Center, a Washington policy institute, and wrote the forthcoming book “Europe’s Angry Muslims.”

“The notion of a difference between Europe and United States remains relevant,” Mr. Leiken said. But the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the American operations like drone strikes in Pakistan, are fueling radicalization at home, he said. “Just the length of U.S. involvement in these countries is provoking more Muslim Americans to react,” Mr. Leiken said. Concern over the recent cases has profoundly affected Muslim organizations in the United States, which have renewed pledges to campaign against extremist thinking.

“Among leaders, there’s a recognition that there’s a challenge within our community that needs to be addressed,” said Alejandro J. Beutel, government liaison at the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Washington, and main author of a report by the council on radicalization and how to combat it. Mr. Beutel, a Muslim convert from New Jersey, said the council started a grass-roots counter-radicalization effort in 2005, but acknowledged that “for a while it was on the back burner.” He said, “Now we’re going to revive it.”

F.B.I. investigators were in Pakistan on Friday questioning the five Virginia men. But it remained unclear whether the men would be deported to the United States, and whether they had broken any laws in either Pakistan or the United States. At a news conference Friday at the small Virginia mosque where the men had been youth group regulars, mosque officials expressed bewilderment at claims that the men wanted to join the jihad against American troops in Afghanistan. “I never observed any extreme behavior from them,” said Mustafa Maryam, who runs the youth group and said he had known the young men since 2006. “They were fun-loving, career-focused children. They had a bright future before them.” Also at the press briefing, asked about reports that the five men had contacted a Pakistani militant via the Web, Mahdi Bray, the head of the Freedom Foundation of the Muslim American Society, told reporters that YouTube and social networking sites had become a dangerous recruiting tool for militants.

“We are determined not to let religious extremists exploit the vulnerability of our children through this slick, seductive propaganda on the Internet,” said Mr. Bray, who is organizing a youth meeting later this month in Chicago to address the issue. “Silence in cyberspace is not an option for us,” he said. The detention of the Virginia men — ranging in age from late teens to mid-20s — would have prompted soul-searching no matter when it occurred. But it comes after a series of disturbing cases that already had terror experts speculating about a trend. There were the November shootings that took 13 lives at Fort Hood, with murder charges pending against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an American-born Muslim and an Army psychiatrist. There was the arrest of Najibullah Zazi, born in Afghanistan but the seeming model of the striving immigrant as a popular coffee vendor in Manhattan, accused of going to Pakistan for explosives training with the intention of attacking in the United States.

There was David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American living in Chicago, accused of helping plan the killings in Mumbai, India, last year and of plotting attacks in Denmark. There was Bryant Neal Vinas, a Muslim convert from Long Island who participated in a rocket attack on American troops in Afghanistan and used his knowledge of commuter trains in New York to advise Al Qaeda about potential targets. There were the Somali-Americans from Minnesota who had traveled to Somalia to join a violent Islamist movement.

And there were cases of would-be terrorists who plotted attacks in Texas, Illinois and North Carolina with conspirators who turned out to be F.B.I. informants. Bruce Hoffman, who studies terrorism at Georgetown University, said the recent cases only confirmed that it was “myopic” to believe “we could insulate ourselves from the currents affecting young Muslims everywhere else.” Like many other specialists, Mr. Hoffman pointed to the United States’ combat in Muslim lands as the only obvious spur to many of the recent cases, especially those with a Pakistani connection.

“The longer we’ve been in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said, “the more some susceptible young men are coming to believe that it’s their duty to take up arms to defend their fellow Muslims.” A few analysts, in fact, argue that Mr. Obama’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan — intended to prevent a terrorist haven there — could backfire. Robert A. Pape, a University of Chicago political scientist, contends that suicide attacks are almost always prompted by resentment of foreign troops, and that escalation in Afghanistan will fuel more plots.

“This new deployment increases the risk of the next 9/11,” he said. “It will not make this country safer.”

Yet amid the concern about the five Virginia men and the impact of the wars on Muslim opinion, Audrey Kurth Cronin of the National War College in Washington said she found something to take comfort in.

“To me, the most interesting thing about the five guys is that it was their parents that went immediately to the F.B.I.,” she said. “It was members of the American Muslim community that put a stop to whatever those men may have been planning.”

Source: NewYork Times

Iraq oil development rights contracts awarded !!!Todays News!!!

Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves

 

 

 

 

 

Iraq oil development rights contracts awarded

A joint venture between the UK's Shell and Malaysia's Petronas oil companies has won the right to develop Iraq's giant Majnoon oil field.A total of 44 companies took part in a bid for 10 fields in the second such auction since the invasion in 2003.Shell and Petronas beat a rival bid from France's Total and China's CNPC.Although Majnoon is a huge oil field, with reserves of 13 billion barrels of oil, it currently  produces just 46,000 barrels per day.Shell and Petronas have pledged to increase that output to 1.8 million barrels per day.Their venture, which includes a 20-year service contract, will receive a fee of $1.39 a barrel. In June this year, a winning bid to develop an Iraq oil field received $2 a barrel. Also on Friday, a consortium led by China's CNPC was awarded the contract for Iraq's Halfaya oil field. The consortium also includes Malaysia's Petronas and France's Total.It requested fees of $1.40 a barrel of oil extracted from the field, and projected output would reach 535,000 barrels per day. Halfaya, in southern Iraq near the border with Iran, is a much smaller field with reserves of 4.1 billion barrels of oil.Two of the fields on offer at the auction, East Baghdad and the Eastern Fields, failed to attract any bids.

Potential profits
Iraq's known reserves of conventional oil rank behind only Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Its daily output is relatively small - about 2.4 million barrels - but it aims to triple that over the next few years.

It needs the expertise of foreign companies to reach that goal of reviving its oil industry, which has been battered by years of war and sanctions.As much of its oil is relatively cheap to extract, analysts suggest the potential profits for foreign companies could be huge."This is an opportunity without precedent anywhere else in the world. The scale of reserves available for development and exploitation is without equal," Peter Kemp from Energy Intelligence told BBC News."That is something that no oil company... can ignore."But as BBC World Service's economics correspondent Andrew Walker points out, there are serious drawbacks for foreign contractors, most obviously the issue of security. "Iraqi politics and an uncertain legal environment are also complications, creating doubts about the soundness of some oil contracts," he says.

Quoted From: BBC World News

Watch LIVE Streaming: Afghanistan strategy hearing!!!Todays News

Zelaya's Honduras exit 'aborted'

Plans for ousted president to leave have been put on hold, de facto government says..............................

Source:Al-Jazzera

Obama defends 'just war' at Nobel award

US President Barack Obama defends the waging of "morally justified" war as he collects the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.....................................

 Source: BBC

  

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Afghanistan strategy hearing 

Source: CNN

Today's Breaking News!!US 'must step up' Bin Laden hunt!!& More!!

US 'must step up' Bin Laden hunt

The top US commander in Afghanistan says al-Qaeda cannot be defeated until Osama Bin Laden is killed or captured.....................

Source:BBC

China attacks rich states at summit

World's biggest greenhouse gas emitter criticises US, EU and Japan on climate targets.................

 

Source:Al-Jazzera

Unpleasant weather to continue in UAE

Sandstorm sweeps across the UAE as experts forecast rain and thunderstorms............

Source: Gulf-News

 

Scores dead in Iraq bomb blasts!!! And More Breaking News!!

Scores dead in Iraq bomb blasts

More than 120 people killed in car bomb blasts at five different locations in Baghdad. 

 

 

Deadly blast rocks Pakistani city  

At least 12 people have been killed after fighters launched a gun, rocket and suicide attack on the intelligence office in the central Pakistani city of Multan, police sources have said.Agha Yusuf, a senior police officer, said on Tuesday that security force members were among the 12 dead and that at least three fighters in a car carried out the attack.One of them first fired a rocket and an automatic weapon at a police checkpoint.

Source: Al-Jazeera

Afghanistan 'unable to pay for troops for 15 years'

Mr Karzai was optimistic Afghan troops would assume control in five yearsAfghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has warned that it will take 15 years before the country is able to pay for the cost of its own security forces.

Source:BBC

Hopes rise for climate deal!! Exclusive Karzai Interview on Afghan War!!

Hopes rise for climate deal

UN says Copenhagen summit a "turning point" in battle against global warming. 

 

 Source: Al-Jazeera

Karzai: U.S. must have patience if Afghanistan not ready

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday the United States and its allies must have patience if his country is not ready to assume control of its own security by July 2011, when U.S. troops would begin leaving under President Obama's plan.

 Source: CNN

 

Morales claims Bolivia poll win

 

President Evo Morales has claimed victory in Bolivia's presidential election and appears set to serve a second five-year term.

 

 Source: BBC

  

Bin Laden 'still spends time in Afghanistan'

Jones, a retired general, said the best estimate is that Bin Laden "is somewhere in North Waziristan, sometimes on the Pakistani side of the border, sometimes on the Afghan side of the border." 

Source: Gulf News

Afghan rape victim lives in fear!!World Today!!Latest News!!

Afghan rape victim lives in fear 

 

Two-years after she was attacked, 14 year-old Samiya has yet to see justice done.

Violence erupts during Athens march

 

Protesters commemorating teenager's killing last year clash with Greek police. 

 

 

Iraq MPs miss poll law deadline 

 

Unresolved differences over new rules cast doubt on elections scheduled for January. 

 

Source: Al-Jazzera

 

 

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Russia nightclub fire claims lives

At least 109 people killed after fireworks spark blaze, officials say. 

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Source:Al-Jazzera

Indian airforce's dazzling helicopter display

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Source:BBC

Iran says it needs 20 uranium enrichment sites 

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently said Iran was considering whether to scale back cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency after it approved a resolution censuring Iran over its nuclear program.   

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Source: Gulf-News

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Todays Latest Hotest Breaking News Telecast!!!

Taliban detainee 'met Bin Laden this year' 

A Taliban detainee in Pakistan claims to have information about Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts in January or February of this year.His claims cannot be verified but a leading American expert says his account should be investigated.The detainee claims to have met Osama Bin Laden numerous times before 9/11.

Source:BBC

Putin on retiring: 'Don't count on that'

Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sent a strong signal Thursday that he has full hands-on control of his country.As part of his annual town hall forum, Putin spoke for four hours and fielded 80 questions out of 2 million-plus submitted on a live call-in program, "Conversation With Vladimir Putin -- Continued." 

Source: CNN

Ahmadinejad threatens to withdraw subsidy plan 

 Source:Gulf News

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Ministers killed in Somalia attack 

At least 19 people have been killed including three government ministers after an explosion ripped through the Shamo Hotel in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, during a graduation ceremony.

 

Source:Al-Jazzera