Tunisian Prime Minister Resigns

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali has announced his resignation according to AFP reports.

It comes after Jebali's plan to form a cabinet of technocrats failed. Opposition to the proposed government came from the leader of Jebali’s own Ennahda party, Rached Ghanouchi.

The country has been in political crisis since the killing of opposition politician Chokri Belaid, which triggered mass protests earlier this month and led to resignations from the country’s coalition government.

Seven French nationals kidnapped in Cameroon; taken to Nigeria

Armed gunmen have again seized seven French citizens in the north of Cameroon on Tuesday and were heading to Nigeria, media reports say.

A spokeswoman at the French embassy in Cameroon confirmed there had been a kidnapping, Reuters reported.

The tourists were kidnapped in the morning in a small village about 10km from the Nigerian border. The kidnappings come amid a French-led intervention in Mali to oust Islamist rebels. Eight French citizens are being held in the Sahel region by Islamist groups.

This is coming after a new militant group, Ansaru, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of seven foreigners in Northern Nigeria.  The incessant kinapping cases are not unconnected with the promise of the al Qaeda-linked rebels in Mali to give France and Western nations a 'long war'.

Will Iran Ease Up?

Tehran is prepared to ease Western concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for pledges about the country's ability to enrich uranium, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

Ramin Mehmanparast said that an important "opportunity" awaits next week's talks in Kazakhstan between Iran and six world powers, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany.

“We will offer ways for removing possible concerns and ambiguities to show our goodwill, if Western countries, especially the US, fully recognise the nuclear rights of countries, which shows their goodwill,” Mehmanparast said. Same-level mutual actions can be followed by Iran to reach an "understanding point," he added.

This declaration is likely not to yield any meaningful result because one of the cogent conditions to make Washington listen is for Iran to allow full access of the UN Nuclear Watchdog, IAEA into its facilities, a move Iran resents.

Iran continues to reiterate that her Nuclear Programme is completely for peaceful means; medical research for isotopes while the West with the interest of Israel at heart believes she wants to produce nuclear weapons.

Brussels Airport Theft: Robbers seize diamonds worth 350mn Euro

Eight armed robbers disguised as police officers and brandishing machine guns have disappeared into thin air with diamonds worth 350 million euro ($467 million) while the gems were being loaded onto a plane at Brussels Airport on Monday evening, media reports say.


Two vehicles carrying four armed men drove up to a security van near the Swiss passenger plane, Reuters said, citing officials. The men were masked.

No shots were fired and nobody was injured. Both vehicles sped off and robbers got onto the tarmac after breaking through the fence that surrounds the airport.

The robbery was carried out with carefully orchestrated plans and a high degree of expertise. The robbers must have been familiar with the terrain well and would have perfected different strategies of escape in case complications arose.

Fire guts Airport's Fuel Dump

The fuel dump operated by the Federal Airport Authority of (FAAN), Tuesday, was gutted by fire around 10:40 am at the Domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Lagos. No lives were lost in the inferno.

Investigations reveal that the fire broke out while work was in progress at the site of the incident and lasted for about ten minutes before it was put off by FAAN firemen.

One of the workers said that the dump stored diesel but stressed that he did not know what happened adding that all they saw was fire. The fire was put off in time to avert heavy damages.

Beyond the Invasion: Western Designs for Mali

The United States is likely to eventually resume direct support for Mali's military, but only after full restoration of democracy through elections, the head of a visiting US Congress delegation said.

Senator Christopher Coons, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Africa, led the first American congressional visit to the West African nation since France sent a military force there last month to halt the advance of al Qaeda-allied islamists.

The United States and United Kingdom have been providing airlift and refueling support for the French-led operation involving hundreds of French and African troops that has driven the Islamist rebels from a string of northern Malian towns in the last five weeks.

Washington has also been sharing intelligence to back the operation, but ruled out sending its own ground troops mainly because of Afghanistan and Iraq's experiences as well as its battered image in the Islamic world.

Coons, heading a four-member delegation from the US Senate and House of Representatives, said both French and African military commanders were happy with the support that Washington was providing, but he indicated they might welcome more.

Asked if increased US support for the military intervention could materialize, Coons said US law prohibited direct assistance to Mali's armed forces because of the military coup there last year that toppled the elected government.

"After there is a full restoration of democracy, I would think it is likely that we will renew our direct support for the Malian military," Coon said.

French and African forces are hunting the Islamist insurgents who have retreated to Mali's remote Northeast, and Malian interim President Dioncounda Traore has said presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in July.

Coons said al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM and its allies in Mali and elsewhere posed a "very real threat" to Africa, the United States and the wider world and he said the United States wanted to be part of the response to this security challenge.

Before last year's coup in Mali - led by a US-trained Malian army captain - the American military had been providing combat training to several Malian army battalions.

But this was quickly suspended after the coup, which plunged Mali into chaos and led to the occupation of its Saharan north by jihadists who hijacked a rebellion by Tuareg separatists.

Although the French-led offensive has driven the bulk of the Islamist forces northwards back up to the Algerian border, there are fears their fighters and sympathizers could strike back with reprisal attacks in Africa and elsewhere.

The election in Mali will be largely determined by Western whims and caprices. France, UK and America's energy interest will determine who wins or not and this will likely contribute to more insurgencies which has always characterised Western interference in nations. This could ruin France's international accolade though they do not care  for as long as the uranium keeps coming.

Will the United States attack China?

'On the outskirts of Shanghai, in a run-down neighborhood dominated by a 12-story white office tower, sits a People’s Liberation Army base for China’s growing corps of cyberwarriors,' according to the New York Times.

'The building off Datong Road, surrounded by restaurants, massage parlours and a wine importer, is the headquarters of P.L.A. Unit 61398. A growing body of digital forensic evidence — confirmed by American intelligence officials who say they have tapped into the activity of the army unit for years — leaves little doubt that an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around the white tower.'

“Either they are coming from inside Unit 61398,” said Kevin Mandia, the founder and chief executive of Mandiant, in an interview last week, “or the people who run the most-controlled, most-monitored Internet networks in the world are clueless about thousands of people generating attacks from this one neighborhood,” according to the New York Times.

The real issue to the attack is the US' Rules of Engagement in Cyberwarfare. In the days of David Patraeus, Pentagon and Washington drafted counter-responses to cyberattacks and foremost among the responses is a high chance and possibility of military strikes.

The Rules of Engagement as propounded by Pentagon targeted Iran majorly. Washington as at then believed the series of cyberattacks on the US was coming from Iran till experts proved the fictitious fact wrong.

Washington and Pentagon in the formulation of the Rules of Engagement were so abrasive. It was at the time when Israel was making heinous and calculative moves to launch an attack on Iran and bring Washington in.

Now that China is 'behind' the attacks though the allegation has been denied by the Chinese embassy in Washington, will the United States in the long run go ahead and fulfil the mission of her Rules of Engagement by attacking China?

Nato Airstrikes Ban in Afghanistan

                                              Afghan President; Hamid Karzai

Afghan president Hamid Karzai signed a decree prohibiting members of the Afghan security forces from requesting NATO airstrikes during operations in residential areas.

Karzai promised to issue the ban two days ago, and signed it on Monday, amidst anger over a NATO airstrike requested by the national intelligence service that local officials said killed at least 10 civilians and four fighters in northeastern Kunar province.

"No Afghan security forces, under any circumstances, any circumstances, can ask for the foreigners' planes for carrying out operations on our homes and villages", Karzai said at a Sunday press conference.

The presidential order is directed at the defence and interior ministries, and the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan spy agency.

It states: "During your operations, do not call for air support from international forces during operations on residential areas." The coalition, however, can still carry out airstrikes on its own accord.

General Joseph Dunford, the US commander in Afghanistan, said he believes the American-led NATO coalition can operate effectively under the terms of the ban.

General John Allen, the erstwhile US-led NATO commander had earlier passed a similar rule aimed at mitigating civilian casualties. Dunford reiterated that NATO will continue to assist the Afghan government in more ways than airstrikes.

The US-led military coalition said last June that it would use airstrikes only in self-defence, as a weapon of last resort, and would avoid hitting structures that could house civilians.

That followed a bombardment that killed 18 civilians celebrating a wedding in Eastern Logar province, which drew an apology from the US commander.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said that 83 civilians were killed and 46 wounded in aerial attacks by international military forces in the first half of 2012.

Karzai's decree came after a NATO statement that an Afghan soldier who killed his US counterpart, in a so-called "insider attack" in Eastern Afghanistan last year, was killed in last week's Kunar province airstrike. He was identified as Mahmood.

Mahmood is thought was responsible for the May 11 killing of US army lieutenant Alejo Thompson, who died during an insider attack on a base in the Northeastern province. The attack also wounded two US soldiers. The Taliban said he joined the armed opposition group.

US is due to withdraw all her troops from Afghanistan by 2014 after the initial withdrawal of 34,000 soldiers.

Cuba and the United States: Who is tired of Who?

                               

                                 Cuban President: Raul Castro

A seven-member delegation of US lawmakers arrived in Cuba in an effort to improve political relations that have been frozen since US government contractor Alan Gross was imprisoned there in 2009.

Democratic senator Patrick Leahy, who saw Gross and met with Cuban president Raul Castro and other high-ranking officials a year ago, led the group of five senators and two members of the House of Representatives on a three-day visit to communist Cuba.

"There are obvious problems between our two countries, but we are not here to negotiate. We are here to listen and then go home and talk about what we see," according to Patrick Leahy.

"We all want to see relations improve and both sides take steps in that direction," US Senator Patrick Leahy said.

The lawmakers, all Democrats except for Arizona senator Jeff Flake, include congressmen Chris Van Hollen, who represents Gross's district in Maryland, and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts; and senators Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

Members of the group said they planned to meet with Gross, parliament president Ricardo Alarcon, foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez and perhaps Raul Castro.

Leahy said the delegation would like to take Gross with them when it leaves for Haiti on Wednesday, an occurrence that might not see the light of day.

"There are obvious problems between our two countries, but we are not here to negotiate. We are here to listen and then go back home and talk about what we see," he said.

Despite the tension between the US and Cuba, more people travelled between the two countries in 2012, cash remittances sent to the island also increased, as did food-for-cash sales under a 2000 amendment to US trade embargo.

President Castro has lifted most travel restrictions and freed Cubans to buy and sell homes and cars over the past year, even as he accelerates efforts to reform the Soviety-style economy in a more market-friendly direction. The Obama administration has said relations will not improve while Gross remains in custody.

In addition, under the 1996 'Helms-Burton' law, sanctions cannot be lifted until Cuba's one-party communist political system is changed, a demand rejected by the Cuban government. Gross, 63, was arrested in Havana in December 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for installing Internet networks under a secretive US program the Cuban government considers subversive.

The case put the brakes on a brief warming in long-hostile US-Cuba relations during the first 11 months of Obama's first term in office. Raul Castro's mild reforms have helped in reducing tensions between Havana and Washington.

Cuba has linked Gross' fate to that of five agents imprisoned in the late 1990s for infiltrating Miami exile organisations and US military bases. The agents, known as the Cuban Five, were sentenced to long terms ranging from 15 years to life and are considered heroes in Cub.

When Fidel castro became ill, Obama extended an 'olive branch' to Cuba and Raul Castro to help bring about democratic change, a move many Cubans rejected. Now, it seems Cuba struck the US where it matters.