"No power can stop Iran if it wants Nuclear Weapons' -Ayatollah Khamenei

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said his country was not seeking nuclear weapons but added that if Iran ever decided to build them, no “world power” could alter the trend.

The supreme leader whose 2005 edict banning nuclear weapons is regarded as binding in Iran, told a group of visitors to his home in Tehran, the capital, that Iran is in favour of the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.

“We believe that nuclear weapons must be eliminated,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “We don’t want to build atomic weapons. But if we didn’t believe so and intended to possess nuclear weapons, no power could stop us.” His comments were posted on his Web site, Khamenei.ir.

American officials say they believe that Ayatollah Khamenei exercises full control over Iran’s nuclear programme. He had earlier rejected direct talks with the United States when he said Washington was “pointing a gun at Iran”.

He called on the United States to show “logic” while talking to Iran. He and other Iranian leaders have often emphasized that before any talks can take place, Western sanctions must be lifted and the West must respect what they say is Iran’s right to a nuclear programme monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“This is the only way to interact with the Islamic republic of Iran, and in that case the US administration would receive a proper response” from Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said.

He pointed to American-devised sanctions, to which a new set of measures was added this month, as the prime example of why negotiations between Iran and the United States would fail.

“They seek the surrender of the Iranian nation,” Ayatollah Khamenei said of the United States. If negotiations are a sign of good will, he asked how talks could occur in the face of the current sanctions. He said the sanctions do not show goodwill, hence, Iran will not bow.

“They naïvely think that the nation has been exhausted by the sanctions and will therefore yearn for negotiations with the US,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

In a separate part of his speech, he sharply criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Ali Larijani, who recently traded accusations during a public session of Parliament. Mr. Ahmadinejad caused an uproar by releasing a video of what he said were secret business dealings involving Mr. Larijani’s brother Fazel. During the same session, Mr. Larijani led the parliamentary effort to impeach one of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s ministers.

“People want psychological and moral peace, and I explicitly say that the event was not fitting to Islamic republic’s code of conduct,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, condemning both the release of the video and the impeachment effort.

“This event made me feel sad,” said the ayatollah. He has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989 with much power and influence.

Soursop Fruit Kills Cancer 100 Fold better Than Chemotherapy.

                              

Raymond Kirlew, Yvonne Kirlew of Discovery Bay, St Ann, and Florida radio host Dr Dennis Grant, hold leaves and a soursop from the soursop tree behind them.

ON THE verge of death Yvonne Kirlew was, nearly a decade ago. The chemotherapy to destroy her lymphatic cancer was apparently killing her too. But her husband, Raymond, was determined that she wasn't going to leave him. He nursed her through a dreadful time of pain and near-death moments, and the cancer went into remission.

But, alas, it came back. And Raymond's war on the cancer started all over again, and this time around he went to nature for help. He acted upon the information that the leaves, stem and bark of the soursop tree, found all over Jamaica, were more powerful and less debilitating than chemotherapy. Daily, he has been feeding Yvonne the drink extracted from the leaves and the bark of the soursop tree, and Yvonne has been cancer-free since January 2010.

WELL documented

Yvonne and Raymond Kirlew's story is well documented. The reaction to the articles was overwhelming. Readers from all over the world called or e-mailed seeking further information and to get in touch with the Kirlews. The last article was published in The Gleaner on Saturday, August 20, last year, but the fascination with their story cannot seem to die.

But the information on the healing properties of the soursop tree has long been in the public domain. It was sent to south Florida radio host, the Reverend Dr Dennis G. Grant, about five years ago, and he posted it on his home office wall. Dr Grant is the host of a very popular two-hour Saturday show called 'The Love Hour' on WAVS 1170.

In April, the native of St Mary, Jamaica, who has about 35 fruit trees in his yard in Florida, also began to boil the leaves from his own tree. "I started to take it (the drink) myself, figured it was working. My high blood pressure, my cholesterol are now normal without medication," he told The Gleaner.

Then someone sent him the August 20 article. "And when I looked at the article I saw your name - and that's when I picked up the phone and called you," he told this writer, whom he had met earlier this year at an event called 'Kingston Pon Di River', "and I started to do my own research, my own investigation, and I told my radio listeners about it."

TOTALLY Healed

Subsequently, Dr Grant began bottling the drink extracted from his own leaves. "On a Saturday, after my radio programme or during my radio programme, we don't have hands to get rid of it," he said, "and now we are getting testimonies: My insurance agent, diagnosed with gall bladder problems and prostate cancer, he's now totally, totally healed by drinking the soursop. So it has been working miracles. We have numerous, numerous testimonies."

Yet, there are skeptics. "A lot of people have read your article. I have emailed it to thousands of people. A lot of them don't believe that this is really factual. As a radio host, I wanted to come and meet the Kirlews myself," Dr Grant said. So, to remove some of the doubts, Dr Grant flew in from Florida last weekend to visit the Kirlews at their home at Dairy, Discovery Bay, St Ann.

But unbeknown to Dr Grant, the big soursop tree that seems to be sustaining Yvonne and keeping the Kirlews happy was blown over by Hurricane Sandy. Some of the roots are still firmly embedded in the ground, and the leaves are still fresh and green. It will be propped up soon by Raymond. Just as it was with Yvonne, death is not an option.

After a warm reception by the Kirlews, they gave Dr Grant a synopsis of their story, and some of the soursop portion from the fridge, which they drank on the spot. Then, it was time for Raymond, always the enthusiastic storyteller, to give anecdotes of people whose cancer was cured by the soursop tree, and those who chose chemotherapy over the soursop, and had since made the transition.

At 10 o' clock, via telephone, Raymond and Yvonne were interviewed live on Dr Grant's radio show. With the fallen soursop tree as the backdrop, Yvonne, Raymond and Dr Grant spoke for about 10 minutes. At one stage, a smiling Yvonne Kirlew exclaimed, "I feel great!" to which Dr Grant replied, "And you're looking wonderful! If they could just see how wonderful and healthy you look."

After the live interview, Dr Grant told The Gleaner, "I can go back and now say, I have met them, I have seen them. They have told me how it's done, what it has done. They have the medical records right there in the home. I am a believer.

I now believe even more that this soursop cured Mrs Kirlew, and it is a miracle drug. If my visit saved one life - this visit from Florida to Discovery Bay, Jamaica - just one life, it would have been worth it." Soot.Net.

Eko Photo Open Exhibition Rounds Off

                                  

VENTURES AFRICA – Eko Photo Club of Lagos (EPC) rounds off the maiden-annual-crossover international exhibition titled Eko Photo Open Exhibition (EPOE) 2012-2013. The official closing ceremony for EPOE 2012-2013 was held at the tranquil venue of the exhibition, Ember Creek, Victoria Island, on the 20th of January 2013.

It was graced with the presence of notable photographers such as Yetunde Babaeko,  Seun Akinsanmi, Body Lawson  and a host of others. Four certificates of recognition were awarded by the club to Yetunde Babaeko, Seun Akisanmi, Olawale Ajao, and Orelaja Akeem for their contributions to modern photography.

The exhibition opened on the 16th of December 2012 with 22 photographers displaying about 100 works called photo-arts. We call them photo-arts for they are photographs that can be used as art decorations for homes, offices, restaurants, hotels, etc.

Such a peculiar photography exhibition has never been recorded in Nigeria  before now, and all artworks have been up for sale by the photographers.

Although the official closing ceremony of the exhibition was the 20th of January 2013, due to demand, the photo-art exhibition continues till the end of February; works gradually leave the venue from this week. Those who still want a quick look, admiration, or purchase of the works can visit Eko Photo Club’s Facebook page.

The second edition for EPOE starts in December 2013 and as is characteristic of itself, spill into 2014. Call for entries will commence on September 2013.

Prevent Social Disorder Through Money-Making: The Economist

ALBERT HIRSCHMAN knew what he was talking about when he called one of his books “Essays in Trespassing”. He was an extraordinarily peripatetic practitioner of the dismal science. Born in Berlin in 1915, he fled the Nazis in 1933, studied in Paris, London and Trieste, joined the anti-Mussolini resistance, fought on the Republican side in the Spanish civil war, served in the French army until France’s collapse in 1940, helped to organise an “underground railway” for refugees, emigrated to America, joined the army and was a translator at Nuremberg. He applied the cosmopolitan spirit that he had acquired in these years to everything he wrote.

He made his reputation as a development economist, focusing on Latin America, but he soon found himself trespassing obsessively—not only into other sub-disciplines such as the theory of the firm but also into other disciplines entirely such as political science and the history of thought. Mr Hirschman was never awarded the Nobel prize in economics he so richly deserved, perhaps because his writing was hard to classify. However, as if by way of recompense, Princeton University Press is about to publish a 768-page biography by Jeremy Adelman.

Mr Hirschman’s most famous book, “Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organisations and States”, remains as suggestive today as it was when it first appeared in 1970, for managers and policymakers as well as intellectuals. Mr Hirschman argued that people have two different ways of responding to disappointment. They can vote with their feet (exit) or stay put and complain (voice). Exit has always been the default position in the United States: Americans are known as being quick to up sticks and move. It is also the default position in the economics profession. Indeed, when his book appeared, Milton Friedman and his colleagues in the Chicago School were busy extending the empire of exit to new areas. If public schools or public housing were rotten, they argued, people should be encouraged to escape them.

Mr Hirschman raised some problems with the cult of exit. Sometimes, it entrenches the status quo. Dictators may rule longer if their bravest critics flee abroad (indeed, Cuba uses emigration as a safety valve). Monopolies may have an easier life if their stroppiest customers find an alternative. Mr Hirschman got the idea for his book during a ghastly train journey in Nigeria: he concluded that the country’s railways were getting worse because the most vocal customers were shifting to the roads.

Exit may also reinforce the cycle of decline. State schools may get worse if the pushiest parents take their custom elsewhere. Mr Hirschman worried that a moderate amount of exit might produce the worst of all worlds: “an oppression of the weak by the incompetent and an exploitation of the poor by the lazy which is the more durable and stifling as it is both unambitious and escapable.” (Mr Hirschman wrote better in his third language than most economists do in their first.) Exit may also entail costs. If you have invested heavily in a company that starts performing badly, then you may be better off agitating for a change in management rather than selling your shares at a loss.

Mr Hirschman overstated his case. Plenty of evidence suggests that choice can act as an energiser, not a soporific. The most comprehensive study of school choice, in Sweden in 1988-2009, by Anders Bohlmark and Mikael Lindahl, found that “free schools” (private schools that are paid for by the state) were not only good for their own pupils but also forced ordinary state schools to shape up. But Mr Hirschman’s overall point was not that exit is bad but that exit and “voice” work best together. Reformers are more likely to be able to fix an organisation if there is a danger that their clients will leave. The problem with Friedman et al was that they focused only on exit and not on how exit and voice could be used to reinforce each other.

Modern technology is adding to the power of both exit and voice. Consumers can abandon expensive middlemen for electronic commerce. They can also organise online armies to protest against poor service. But companies are also fighting back—making exit more difficult by persuading people to sign long-term contracts (particularly with teaser rates) and encouraging loyalty by offering rewards such as air miles. They are also adding their own voices to the hubbub via social media.

Squawk or go

Mr Hirschman wrote so much about so many different subjects that it is easy to see why his biography stretches to 768 pages. He challenged the conventional wisdom among his fellow development economists that poor countries need “balanced growth”; he argued instead that the “disequilibria” generated by unbalanced growth might do a better job of mobilising resources. He also challenged the conventional wisdom among sociologists and historians that the Protestant ethic prepared the way for capitalism. He suggested, rather, that the starring role should be given to a group of thinkers, such as Montesquieu, who argued that the best way to prevent social disorder was to channel people’s passions into moneymaking.

The Economist claims to engage in a “severe contest” with “an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress”. Mr Hirschman was an eloquent ally. In “The Rhetoric of Reaction” he wrote that purveyors of “timid ignorance” rely on three types of argument: jeopardy (reforms will cost a lot and endanger previous gains); perversity (reforms will harm the people they are intended to help); and futility (problems are so huge that nothing can be done about them). That certainly describes the current debates about global warming, illegal drugs and countless other topics. With luck, Mr Hirschman’s exit will not silence his voice.

Russia's Diplomacy: Vladimir Putin's Message on the Day of the Diplomatic Worker

The message says: "Russian diplomacy has a rich and glorious history and the centuries-long traditions of the diplomatic service are caringly preserved and creatively developed by the personnel of Foreign Ministry, embassies and other foreign missions, and representative offices in the regions of Russia."

"The efforts of diplomacy, our active cooperation with other countries are aimed primarily at creating favourable conditions for the consistent internal development of Russia, guaranteeing further social and economic growth and raising the standard of living of Russian citizens."

Putin expressed confidence that the authority and influence of Russia in world affairs will be growing and Russian diplomacy will continue serving the nation loyally and selflessly.

Nuclear talks between Russia and the United States

                              

                              
The United States is to send a top arms-control official to Moscow to convince the Russians to continue to decommission deployed nuclear weapons by saying it would save the two countries $8 billion a year, Kommersant reported citing an undisclosed source.

The initiative will target weapon categories not covered by the Russian-US agreement, which is called New START. The treaty pretends that strategic bombers can carry only a single warhead instead of up to 20 and does not consider weapons held in storage and smaller-scale tactical weapons.

A more drastic reduction would bring down the number of warhead by another third to some 1,000 to 1,100, according to the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit journalistic organization. The number would be sufficient to maintain US’ deterrence capability and would not require structural changes to nuclear forces, the consensus in Washington says.

White House officials reportedly believe that the approaching limit of 1,550 strategic deployed nuclear weapons, agreed upon in the 2010 New START agreement, could be brought down to 1,000 without compromising nuclear deterrence between the two powers.

Pyotr Topychkanov, a nonproliferation programme coordinator at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that "in terms of its defence strategy, the US is shifting its focus toward conventional [non-nuclear] weapons, while Russia remains more nuclear-dependent. Therefore, it is easier for the US to talk about further nuclear arms reductions."

"Russia cannot keep up with the pace of these [conventional-weapon] developments and thus still heavily relies on its nuclear might," he added. "In contrast with the US, Russia also finds itself in a close vicinity of many other nuclear-weapon states, such as India, Pakistan and North Korea."

Israel Condemns Diplomacy with Iran

                

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu heads the weekly cabinet meeting in his office in Jerusalem.

A powerful partner of Israel's prime minister says sanctions and negotiations will not stop Iran from pursuing its disputed nuclear programme.

Former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says North Korea's nuclear test was an "obvious example" of diplomacy failing to curb a nuclear programme.

Lieberman told Army Radio on Wednesday that "anyone who thinks sanctions or negotiations will stop Iran is wrong."

Iran, like North Korea, is under stiff sanctions and negotiations with the West over its nuclear program have stalled.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu often hints about a possible strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Lieberman stepped down from his post two months ago after he was indicted for breach of trust in a fraud and money-laundering case. But he remains a powerful lawmaker and Netanyahu's top political ally.

Lieberman has also reiterated that there can never be any peace accord with Palestinians since the last one signed in 1993. Lieberman is a complete hardliner.

President Obama is set to visit Israel. His visit will surely focus on Iran, peace with Palestine and the Syrian crisis.

Nigeria Must GO: Ghana sends Nigerians Packing

Ghanaian authorities renewed the siege against foreign traders, as the Ministry of Trade and Industry clamped down over 40 shops belonging to Nigerians. The shops located at Akanshie, about 200 meters away from the Mokola International Market were occupied by Nigerians, who traded in bicycle spare parts and other accessories.

According to one of the affected traders, Mr. Damien Uduba, their shops were stormed by some officials of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, who compelled them to pack their goods and thereafter had the shops under lock and key. The officials were reported to have secured the shops with their own padlocks, thereby making them inaccessible to the owners.

Business in the usually busy area has almost grinded to a halt, as only a few shops said to be owned by Ghanaians are open.

"Official of the Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Ghana came yesterday and asked us to close and pack our things. And afterwards, they locked up all the shops and asked us to go out of their markets. In fact we are all troubled, we started packing our things inside the shops, and they locked everything inside and took the keys away," Uduba revealed.

A written notice pasted on the doors of the sealed shops titled "Notice to Non-Ghanaians engaging in retail business," instructed them to regularize their businesses before they would be allowed to continue doing business.

A ruffled Uduba insisted that he had done all that was required by the Ghanaian law to do business in the country, "If you see in my hands, I have all the documents, we are obliged to obtain. This is the document from the Ghanaian government authorizing me to commence business in the country.

"You can see another document. This is my Resident Permit, allowing me to reside in the country. In fact I have all the documents. I pay VAT, IRS and other taxes. I pay everything and yet they closed my shop. They said I should move out of the market. I should pack all my things and go back to Nigeria," he said.

Another affected trader, Mr. Prince Uzokwu, who also recounted his ordeal at the ministry, said he was told that he would only be allowed into his shop to pack his goods out of the place. He was not allowed to continue trading in the area.

Uzokwu recollected that the area was transformed into a beehive of commerce by the Nigerian traders stating, "When we came to this place it was virtually empty, but you know Nigerians. I came and I brought somebody and that person brought another and within a period of time, the place blossomed into a market.

"So if I go to the bush or a village to establish again, maybe tomorrow, the place will also turn into a market and they will come and expel us again. So we don't know what to do about it. We are losing business and we have families to fend for," he blustered.

Uduba added that the conciliatory moves by ECOWAS Parliament that brought them some respite may have been disregarded by the Ghanaian authorities.

Mr. Joseph Obeng, the National Organizer of Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) insisted that there was nothing like concession. The laws of the country must be implemented to the letter. In so far as their law had reserved retail business for Ghanaians alone it must be respected.

Oteng also reasoned that Ghana cannot forgo her laws when her nationals in other ECOWAS countries were subject to domicile laws.

The President of the Nigerian Union of Traders Association in Ghana (NUTAG), Deacon John Igwe Ukala, who expressed surprise at the latest intimidation of Nigerian traders, explained that he was unaware of any default on the part of their members that could have prompted the action taken by the Ghanaian authorities.

"I always tell our members to be law abiding and do as the law of Ghana says. Don't misbehave here, pay your tax, pay your VAT, and get your Resident Permit. To my greatest surprise, when I heard this news yesterday we were really shocked. I cannot understand the cause of this, because I know our members have complied with their laws," he posited.

Ukala said the closure was targeted at Nigerians, because other foreign nationals, especially the Lebanese were selling in the markets without molestation, stressing, "As I am talking to you now, when we go back to the other side of Akanshie, you will see some whites, especially Lebanese trading."

Ukala, who claimed that the traders felt abandoned, because they were regularly intimidated by the Ghanaian authorities decried the in- action of Nigerian government. He also asked that ECOWAS should come to their rescue once again.

A source close to the Ghanaian Trade Ministry, who preferred anonymity, explained that the country had adopted the posture in order to compel the Nigerian government to act on certain bureaucratic bottlenecks that were militating against their trade relations with Nigeria.

For instance, he cited the fact that some made in Ghana goods were prohibited by the Nigerian government, an action that was frustrating their bid to engage in more robust business with Nigeria. He also made mention of the fact that their traders were intimidated, harassed and extorted at the Nigerian border, which has limited Ghanaian penetration into the Nigerian market.

President John Mahama, when he was vice president regularly derided Nigeria, because of the bloated number of security checks at the border, insisting that inter-regional trade would not strive under such circumstances.

For those, who flagrantly disobey the Ghanaian laws, he had no words of reprieve for them, as he insisted that the government of Nigeria will not countenance lawlessness.

ICPC boss: Nigeria lacks the will to fight Corruption

The ICPC boss says that while Nigeria has laws to fight corruption, the will for execution of such laws is lacking.

The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Ekpo Nta, has said that Nigeria is not short of relevant laws to combat corruption. Mr. Nta said the major challenge is the will to execute the laws.

The ICPC chairman said this while delivering a lecture at the flag-off ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, identified the scourge as the fastest growing evil in the country.

"There had been corrupt practices decree, War Against Indiscipline, MAMSA, NOA, Foreign Exchange Decree, Money Laundry Decree, EFCC and ICPC Acts, Fiscal responsibility 2010, etc. We have more than enough laws that will stamp corruption out of our system but the problem is implementation. Implementing our laws is the problem," he said.

The ICPC boss defined corruption as abuse of trust and political power for private gains, insisting that except all Nigerians join hands together in the fight against corruption; it will continue to thrive in the country.

Delivering the lecture, entitled "Combating corruption in Nigeria: Prospect, Challenges and Strategies", he decried the art of plagiarism among lecturers, as well as falsification of records, sexual harassment, cultism, extortion, and false representation during accreditation in Nigerian universities.

Mr. Nta also disclosed that the commission depends majorly on information from petitions forwarded to it by members of the public for prosecution of suspects, adding that they have engaged in massive enlightenment campaign to sensitize the public on the evil of corruption to the society.

Head of Department of Political Science, Osisioma Nwolise, declared that corruption is wasting Nigeria's resources and sentencing a large number of the citizenry to the harsh side of life. He said corruption has reached the level that requires surgical operation. "It has adopted a dimension at which it should be declared as crime against humanity and treated as such," he relayed

"Some loot our money and still spit on our faces and attend ceremonies in pride and pomposity. People who should bury their faces in shame talk so loudly and with so much impunity that they deafen the ears of our collective conscience", Mr. Nwolise said.

Uganda to launch her first Space Observer

Uganda will soon launch the first space observer called Cadimella, Capt. Chris Nsamba, the chief executive officer and founder of the African Space Research Programme (ASRP), has revealed.

Nsamba was briefing the Vice-President, Edward Ssekandi, who inspected the launch pad of the space observer at Kimaka Airfield in Jinja said "This has demonstrated that Ugandans can also participate in sophisticated programmes. This is impressive and the Government will support the association. I am going to brief the President about this," Ssekandi said.

Nsamba and his eight-man team demonstrated to Ssekandi how the space probe works while in transit in the orbit. The team also hid the space probe and demonstrated to the Vice-President how it can be tracked using satellite in case it lands in another country.

Nsamba revealed that the space probe has self-defence, anti-time missile features, which protect it from being hit by missiles destined to destroy it in case it passes in the space of another country. After its launch, they will put a mouse in it and will have it lifted to the stratosphere by a helium balloon.

The space probe is fitted with cameras with a wide angle fish-eye lens to be used in taking pictures of Uganda from space and other features on the planet. The others are a thermometer and Global Positioning System trackers.

"We shall send a mouse to space. If it comes back alive, it will mean that Uganda is able to send human beings into space and we shall embark on constructing a new space observer that a person can use," Nsamba said.

"As the space probe orbits the planet, it will pick dust molecules for our laboratory research," he noted. His team had already launched a prototype test and was able to take some pictures while in space. Cadimella will orbit the space twice and come back with samples. In case it lands on water, they can command back to the surface.

ASRP has a core representation in Dallas, US which handles all international matters outside Africa.
The space probe will be used to scan meteoroids and asteroids closest to earth's orbit.

However, this like any other project, Uganda's space ambition will come with some challenges. Nsamba said they faced some challenges like building the motherboard and problems with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which had prevented them from flying it due to space laws.

Pope Benedict XVI's Resignation and African Leaders

Pope Benedict XVI became the first Pope in 600 years to willingly resign from office. The Papal Nuncio has no rival forcing him to quit. There is neither a protest or a mass uprising in the Catholic fold demanding the great hero of Christiandom steps down. Upon the realisation that his health can no longer serve as the foundation of his ordained mission, the Pope, to the amazement and shock of the world announced he will exit the prestigious seat in the Vatican by February 28, 2013.

The Pope is within the age bracket of Robert Mugabe (80) yet Mugabe still seek rounds of years in Zimbabwe. Lacking in ideas and foresight, Mugabe has led flowering and blossoming Zimbabwe into the abyss. So many African leaders exist today who continue to rule and hold on to power despite failing health and lack of sagacity. Paul Biya of Cameroon has no date of exit. Yahya Jammeh has turned Gambia into a personal property.

Eyadema Jnr in Togo does not look as if he is ready at all to consider death not to talk of leaving the Presidential Palace. Idris Deby rules on in Chad despite the growing opposition to his rule. How about Yoweri Museveni of Uganda? He went as far as telling BBC that he is too experienced to leave and exit office. If he will not leave by himself, death will. 

Many African leaders die in office due to stupidity. Umar Bongo of Gabon spent 47 years in office before death bade him farewell. Nigeria's erstwhile President's case is the most pathetic. Despite having good intentions and leading truly with a patriotic mind, Umar Musa Yar'Adua died in office due to pressure within his party or better still pressure from the national 'godfather' Olusegun Obasanjo not to leave the stage so that he can achieve his nefarious whims and caprices.

He was sick like the Pope but never considered resignation as an option. Maummar Gaddafi despite being a leader with good track records in the betterment of the lives of Libyans and advancement of his country was killed due to the sit-tight syndrome of African leaders. They are many. Just too many. Is it Hosni Mubarak of Egypt or Ben-Ali of Tunisia? Too numerous.

One singular error people especially foreigners and their apologists in Africa make is to say the sit-tight syndrome is Africa's culture. During the era of the monarchs in traditional African societies, sick men never ruled. When a leader was sick, he must step down. If a society with a calamitous economy like that of Zimbabwe existed in traditional African societies, the people would have risen against such a leader and in Yorubaland, he would be made to open the 'calabash' as a sign of rejection.

African leaders are nothing but bunch of destroyers. They believe resignation is an act of cowardice. Though I do not subscribe to this because I know resignation is never in their minds not to talk of it as an act of cowardice. All they harbour in their corrupt souls is GREED. The irony is that they have successfully built a team of successors among the youths who cannot wait to continue the plundering. The have trained successors. The Pope's announcement that he will never influence the choice of his successor is not an act African leaders can buy or subscribe to.

The real Leader: A cue from Keshi

The beginning of African Cup of Nations, (AFCON 2013) never gave the Super Eagles of Nigeria any green light to win the trophy. From the outset, Cote D'Ivoire was the favourite. Everyone believed the elephants will defeat any nation including Nigeria.

The first two matches saw Nigeria drawing with Burkina Faso and Zambia. Keshi was lambasted. He was heavily criticised. News started coming from different quarters that he would be replaced after AFCON. In all these, Keshi never shifted blame on anyone not even on his players.

All his words were words of encouragement and wisdom. He kept on charging his boys. He accepted all failures as his. This humility and silence  would have triggered the players. It is a psychological warfare. We must not let down the boss. All the insults must be praises for him a posteriori.

This is a formidable feat. The hopelessness of a team was repackaged to hope with the dexterity of a coach. He did not say he is the most criticised coach in the history of Nigeria or the most insulted in the history of the world. He held on and became a hero.

Nigerian leaders should now learn humility and RESPONSIBILITY. The Nigeria is entrusted in their care, hence all that go wrong must be accounted for by them. No blame-shifting. Criticism and abuse must occur. So it is world-over. Keshi has taught them, let them learn.

Glory of Nigeria

                         

This is the glory of Nigeria. A prelude to something great. The unity has been restored. Now, we all must move the nation forward. This is not just a celebration of victory on the pitch, it is a call that there is hope in our hopelessness.

Cyber Rules on the Rise in Europe and the US

Cyber warfare, crime and security is assuming a muscular dimension in the world. Different rules flow from the United States down to Europe. The war seems to have been taken to the media and financial institutions fully.

 

New York Times, Bloomberg News and Associated Press have all complained of cyber attacks especially from China. The US rules of engagement on cyberattack tilts towards military response.

 

On the part of the EU, over 40,000 firms, including energy providers, banks and hospitals could be required to report cyber-break-ins under new rules proposed by the EU.

It is part of a move to intensify global efforts to fight cybercrime.

Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said that Europe needed to improve how it dealt with cybersecurity.

But firms are concerned that reporting online attacks and security breaches might damage their reputations.

The EU is keen that member states share information about attacks and shore up their cyber-defences.

Under the proposals, each country would have to appoint a Computer Emergency Response Team and create an authority to whom companies would report breaches.

These new bodies would decide whether to make the breaches public and whether to fine companies.

Announcing the changes, Ms Kroes said: "Europe needs resilient networks and systems and failing to act would would impose significant costs on consumers, businesses and society."

According to the EU, only one in four European companies has a regularly-reviewed, formal ICT security policy. Even among ICT companies, the figure is only one in two, it said.

A recent study by accountants PwC suggested that three quarters of UK small businesses, and 93% of large ones, had recently suffered a cybersecurity breach.

French Gift to Mali Islamists

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The revelation by the former US ambassador shows that most of the wars fought by Western Nations are wars they covertly or overtly financed. The heavy weapons used by Islamists in Mali came from NATO's supply against Gaddafi.

The ambassador reveals:

In recent years France and other European countries have channeled millions of dollars in ransom payments to Al Qaeda-linked militants, according to a former US ambassador to Mali. The militants are thought to be from the same groups now fighting French troops in the troubled North African state.

In an interview aired on a French channel on Friday, Vicki Huddleston, who served as ambassador from 2002-2005, said that France had paid $17 million to free French hostages seized from a uranium mine in its former colony Niger in 2010.

She added that at least $89 million could have been paid out through intermediaries by European countries between 2004 -2011. North Africa's AQIM military organization has been active in northern Mali since 2003. The militants have kidnapped dozens of hostages for ransom over the last 10 years.

The incoming invasion of Africa is really on course.

No Peace Accord for Israel and Palestine -Lieberman

Israel has no chance of signing a permanent peace accord with the Palestinians and should instead seek a long-term interim deal, the most powerful political partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

Avigdor Lieberman, an ultranationalist whose joint party list with Netanyahu narrowly won a January 22 election while centrist challengers made surprise gains, seemed designed to dampen expectations at home and abroad of fresh peacemaking with the remarks.

In a television interview, ex-foreign minister Lieberman linked the more than two-year-old impasse to pan-Arab political upheaval that has boosted Islamists hostile to the Jewish state.

These include Hamas, rivals of U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who control the Gaza Strip and spurn coexistence with Israel though they have mooted extended truces.

"Anyone who thinks that in the center of this socio-diplomatic ocean, this tsunami which is jarring the Arab world, it is possible to arrive at the magic solution of a comprehensive peace with the Palestinians does not understand," Lieberman told Israel's Channel Two.

"This is impossible. It is not possible to solve the conflict here. The conflict can be managed and it is important to manage the conflict ... to negotiate on a long-term interim agreement."

Abbas broke off talks in late 2010 in protest at Israel's settlement of the occupied West Bank. He angered Israel and the United States in November by securing a UN status upgrade that implicitly recognized Palestinian independence in all the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

Israel insists it will keep East Jerusalem and swathes of West Bank settlements under any eventual peace deal. Most world powers consider the settlements illegal because they take up land seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

Lieberman, himself a West Bank settler, said the ball was "in Abu Mazen's (Abbas') court" to revive diplomacy.

Abbas has demanded Israel first freeze all settlement constructions. With two decades gone since Palestinians signed their first interim deal with Israel, he has ruled out any new negotiations that do not solemnize Palestinian statehood.

Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev noted that Lieberman, in the Channel Two interview, had said he was expressing his own opinion.

Asked how Netanyahu saw peace prospects for an accord with the Palestinians, Regev referred to a speech on Tuesday in which the conservative prime minister said that Israel, while addressing threats by its enemies, "must also pursue secure, stable and realistic peace with our neighbors".

Netanyahu has previously spoken in favour of a Palestinian state, though he has been cagey on its borders and whether he would be prepared to dismantle Israeli settlements.

Lieberman's role in the next coalition government is unclear as he faces trial for corruption. If convicted, he could be barred from the cabinet. Lieberman denies wrongdoing and has said he would like to regain the foreign portfolio, which he surrendered after his indictment was announced last year.

The Coming Invasion of Africa

The Real Invasion of Africa Is Not News, and a License To Lie Is Hollywood’s Gift

by John Pilger, February 01, 2013

A full-scale invasion of Africa is under way. The United States is deploying troops in 35 African countries, beginning with Libya, Sudan, Algeria and Niger. Reported by Associated Press on Christmas Day, this was missing from most Anglo-American media.

The invasion has almost nothing to do with "Islamism", and almost everything to do with the acquisition of resources, notably minerals, and an accelerating rivalry with China. Unlike China, the

US and its allies are prepared to use a degree of violence demonstrated in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Palestine. As in the cold war, a division of labour requires that western journalism and popular culture provide the cover of a holy war against a "menacing arc" of Islamic extremism, no different from the bogus "red menace" of a worldwide communist conspiracy.

Reminiscent of the Scramble for Africa in the late 19^th century, the US African Command (Africom) has built a network of supplicants among collaborative African regimes eager for American bribes and armaments. Last year, Africom staged Operation African Endeavor, with the armed forces of 34
African nations taking part, commanded by the US military.

Africom’s "soldier to soldier" doctrine embeds US officers at every level of command from general to warrant officer. Only pith helmets are missing.

It is as if Africa’s proud history of liberation, from Patrice Lumumba to Nelson Mandela, is consigned to oblivion by a new master’s black colonial elite whose "historic mission", warned Frantz Fanon half a century ago, is the promotion of "a capitalism rampant though camouflaged".

A striking example is the eastern Congo, a treasure trove of strategic minerals, controlled by an atrocious rebel group known as the M23 , which in turn is run by Uganda and Rwanda, the proxies of Washington.

Long planned as a "mission" for NATO, not to mention the ever-zealous French, whose colonial lost causes remain on permanent standby, the war on Africa became urgent in 2011 when the Arab world appeared to be liberating itself from the Mubaraks and other clients of Washington and Europe. The hysteria this caused in imperial capitals cannot be exaggerated.

NATO bombers were dispatched not to Tunis or Cairo but Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi ruled over Africa’s largest oil reserves. With the Libyan city of Sirte reduced to rubble, the British SAS directed the "rebel" militias in what has since been exposed as a racist bloodbath.

The indigenous people of the Sahara, the Tuareg, whose Berber fighters Gaddafi had protected, fled home across Algeria to Mali, where the Tuareg have been claiming a separate state since the 1960s.

As the ever watchful Patrick Cockburn points out, it is this local dispute, not al-Qaida, that the West fears most in northwest Africa …."poor though the Tuareg may be, they are often living on top of great reserves of oil, gas, uranium and other valuable minerals".

Almost certainly the consequence of a French/US attack on Mali on 13 January, a siege at a gas complex in Algeria ended bloodily, inspiring a 9/11 moment in David Cameron. The former Carlton TV PR man raged about a "global threat" requiring "decades" of western violence. He meant implantation of the west’s business plan for Africa, together with the rape of multi-ethnic Syria and the conquest of independent Iran.

Cameron has now ordered British troops to Mali, and sent an RAF drone, while his verbose military chief, General Sir David Richards, has addressed "a very clear message to jihadists worldwide: don’t dangle and tangle with us. We will deal with it robustly" – exactly what jihadists want to hear. The trail of blood of British army terror victims, all Muslims, their "systemic" torture cases currently heading to court, add necessary irony to the general’s words.

 I once experienced Sir David’s "robust" ways when I asked him if he had read the courageous Afghan feminist Malalai Joya’s description of the barbaric behaviour of westerners and their clients in her country. "You are an apologist for the Taliban" was his reply. (He later apologised).

These bleak comedians are straight out of Evelyn Waugh and allow us to feel the bracing breeze of history and hypocrisy. The "Islamic terrorism" that is their excuse for the enduring theft of Africa’s riches was all but invented by them.

There is no longer any excuse to swallow the BBC/CNN line and not know the truth. Read Mark Curtis’s Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam (Serpent’s Tail) or John Cooley’s Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism (Pluto Press) or The Grand Chessboard by Zbigniew Brzezinski (HarperCollins) who was midwife to the birth of modern fundamentalist terror.

 In effect, the mujahedin of al-Qaida and the Taliban were created by the CIA, its Pakistani equivalent, the Inter-Services Intelligence, and Britain’s MI6.

Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser, describes a secret presidential directive in 1979 that began what became the current "war on terror". For 17 years, the US deliberately cultivated, bank-rolled, armed and brainwashed jihadi extremists that "steeped a generation in violence". Code-named Operation Cyclone, this was the "great game" to bring down the Soviet Union but brought down the Twin Towers.

Since then, the news that intelligent, educated people both dispense and ingest has become a kind of Disney journalism, fortified, as ever, by Hollywood’s licence to lie, and lie.

There is the coming Dreamworks movie on WikiLeaks, a fabrication inspired by a book of perfidious title-tattle by two enriched Guardian journalists; and there is Zero Dark Thirty, which promotes torture and murder, directed by the Oscar-winning Kathryn Bigelow, the Leni Riefenstahl of our time, promoting her master’s voice as did the Fuhrer’s pet film-maker. Such is the one-way mirror through which we barely glimpse what power does in our name.

APC of Nigeria: Theory of the Armoured Personnel Carrier

The battle began, for the survival of a nation at war with itself. Cloudburst sounds all over the sky. Citizens wail. At the battlefield, victory is being announced. A party in the war wins. Yes! Victory. Years gone, the war never ends, the opposing sides are fragmented. With maximum chutzpah, the victorious says it will stay on for 50 years. 50 what?! The citizens cry. Agonies and pains. All expect transformation, though not miraculous but in deed and in truth they wait to see. Disappointment speaks. The homeland of tears.

The divided oppositions try yearly to offset the balance and strength of the massive firepower employed by the victor. Though seemingly poorly trained in the art of statecraft, soldiers in the victorious wing understands the esoteric undertone of stirring the water to catch fishes. Divide and Rule; victory is assured. It sets up different tiny and minute groups within the opposition, funds them and deploy them as a veritable too of distraction.

The only alternative is the voice. The united voice of the oppositions. Though all animals are equal in crime and the anomalies combating the homeland but some are more reasonable than others. Soldiers trapped in the trench call out loud. They clamour for change over the loss on the battlefield. They echo the cries of the homeland. They are all culpable though for the destruction but some soldiers are better of. They have their Armoured Personnel Carrier packed in the thick jungle of war but cannot get there because they lack the voice.

Selfish and vainglorious interests impede change and charge. The only way to counter the trenches and 'formidable' fortress of the winning and victorious side is the deployment of the APC and its monumental missiles. The missiles of the people. The undaunting voice. The commanders of the different units have never agreed on any single line of action but the APC smiles from afar in wait of usage. Covered with dust, it seems the last option otherwise the entire homeland will blow up beyond repair. Critics and foreign rapists already pray for that.

Here comes the armoured personnel carrier, a dancing golden weapon of war. The stealth of fear and perplexity for the victorious party. A drone with a political mission. The soldiers are the same but the mission is of the people only if the people will look at the years of pains and inhumanity. They have to rise. The APC must shield all from the bullets of the ruling party. It must break the trenches of warfare already planned. All must be able to queue at its back for utmost protection. All the landmines of poverty must be uprooted.

The nation the APC is about to lead to battle is the trigger of Africa. Africa waits for Nigeria. If Nigeria divides, Africa falls. Neo-colonialism will assume an unprecedented dimension. The launchpad of the APC should not be personality attacks. The warheads should not be abuse and senseless unethical views. Arguments are for advancements. Arguments must occur but it must be for developments not who gets what, when and how. Arguments must be about Nigeria not Hausa, Igbo, Niger Delta or Yoruba.

The APC must be a guardian angel. Internal Democracy must be the prism through which all arguments and discussions shall be viewed. The people not only cry of the battle but also because their homeland lacks any concrete ideology. Programmes and course of actions must be explicit in the new theatre of political war. Being tired of the ruling and winning party is not the main headache, the main morass is being led without focus. The people are led blindly. We have indigenous acts before Europe, the dynamism of the APC on the battlefield will be the marriage of history and modernism.

The principle of soldiers in an APC is always 'All for One, One for All.' Soldiers in an APC fight together as one for surviaval and victory. None looks for personal glory. If one falls, others weep. Need and aspirations must be based on societal demands not personal aggrandizement. Soldiers in the APC must learn to SACRIFICE for the people not SACRIFICE the people like the Boko Haram and various unknown gunmen as well as militant events. The people must SPEAK through the APC.

Women in Paris can now Wear Trousers

The 214-year-old law, which formally prohibited women from wearing trousers in Paris, has been revoked. The archaic ban, though not executed, has been a pain for French women's rights activists.

"This ordinance is incompatible with the principles of equality between women and men, which are listed in the Constitution, and in France's European commitments. From that incompatibility follows the implicit abrogation of the ordinance," French Minister for Women’s Rights Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said in a statement quoted by the Huffington Post.

The archaic law, which dates back to November 1799, demanded women ask police for special permission to “dress as men” in Paris. The other option was to risk being arrested.

The restriction focused on Paris because French Revolutionary rebels in the capital said they wore trousers, as opposed to the knee-breeches, or the "culottes" of the bourgeoisie, in what was coined the "sans-culottes" movement. Women rebels in the movement demanded the right to wear trousers as well, but were forbidden to do so,  Le Parisien daily explained.

The law picked up an amendment back in 1892 and 1909, which allowed women to wear trousers "if the woman is holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse."

There have been previous talks to repeal the law over the years, even if it was not enforced. The most recent attempt was in July 2012, when a public request was directed to minister for women’s rights and a member of the conservative UMP party Alain Houpert, which said the "symbolic importance" of the law "could injure our modern sensibilities."

Russia and the United States: No Common Ground

                                                    'The fear of Putin.......'

It seems that US-Russian relations are in a state of pure noises and mere words full of repetitions and sounds and the only option left for the leaders of both countries is to behave like provincial actors repeating a meaningless jumble of words.

The security conference in Munich over the weekend provided a convincing demonstration of this. Both US Vice President Joseph Biden and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tried to put a positive face on things by emphasizing the New START, cooperation on Afghanistan and Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization, but their words left no doubt that the two countries are at loggerheads and that attempts to break the impasse will be the main focus of US-Russian relations for a long time to come.

No matter how many vague and evasive statements officials might make, it is obvious that US-Russian relations have hit what is probably their lowest point in the past 20 years. Congress passed the Magnitsky Act, which the Kremlin considers an infringement on Russian sovereignty. For its part, in the span of just a few months Moscow evicted USAID, announced its withdrawal from the Nunn-Lugar program, prohibited individuals with US citizenship from holding leadership positions in Russian nongovernmental organizations and banned US citizens from adopting Russian orphans.

On the surface, it would seem that Washington is so frightened by the erratic behavior of President Vladimir Putin that it is ready to accept the rules of his new game and play the whipping boy, thereby lending credence to Putin's claim that he is a tough guy who has forced the US to put up with his abuse. After all, Washington is willing to maintain the appearance of decent relations with Moscow because it desperately needs a northern transit route out of Afghanistan.

Many believe that the Obama administration will end up making concessions to Moscow in the next four years. After all, newly appointed Secretary of State John Kerry and likely new Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel have consistently opposed the very type of global interventionism that infuriates the Kremlin. In this situation, it would be logical to assume that Kerry, Hagel and National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon will push Obama to "appease" the Kremlin.

Concessions could take the form of an agreement not to deploy ships equipped with missile-defense interceptors in the Baltic and North seas, thereby relinquishing even the theoretical US ability to intercept Russian nuclear missiles. What's more, the U.S. could announce that it will postpone for an indefinite period the implementation of the fourth stage of deployment of its missile defense system, a stage that will give the US the ability to destroy long-range strategic nuclear missiles.

But even these bold efforts would be in vain because in reality, US missile defense deployments in Europe are just a pretext. The real reason for Putin's discontent with Washington is based in his sincere belief that the Moscow protests against his regime were US-­sponsored. He is convinced that the US State Department is out to stage a color revolution in Russia and deprive him of power.

This creates an obvious impasse. Washington cannot give the one guarantee that is most important for the Kremlin — that there will not be any more mass protests — for the simple reason that the State Department and CIA have no control over Russia's street demonstrations.

The Obama administration has recognized the futility of trying to appease Putin. For example, the US announced that it was withdrawing from the Civil Society Working Group of the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission. Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Melia did not mince words, saying the US was withdrawing because "recent steps taken by the Russian government to impose restrictions on civil society … called into serious question whether maintaining that mechanism was either useful or appropriate." In the end, Washington refused to take part in what had become a hypocritical farce.

If the decision to walk away from the civil society working group was linked to the new team in the State Department, then it is a clear sign of a major change in Washington's policy toward Russia. Biden's comments in Munich seem to confirm this. Yes, Russia remains a key player in solving global security issues that are important for Obama, but Biden made it clear that the US has no intention of pretending for the Kremlin's sake that Russia is a democracy. "It's no secret that we have serious differences on issues like Syria, missile defense, NATO enlargement, democracy, human rights. These differences are real," Biden said in Munich.

Washington does not want to pursue its old policy of engagement, which was based on the assumption that by working with Moscow on issues important to both sides, the US would gradually instill democratic values in Russia. This approach has never worked with the Putin regime. In Obama's second term, it seems that the US will treat Russia as it does any other authoritarian government and will express its disapproval when the regime violates the rights of its citizens.

If the first result of that new approach is the withdrawal from the Civil Society Working Group, then eventually the question of Russia's membership in the Group of Eight will be called into question. Last year, Putin ignored the G8 summit in the US, and the day may not be far off when the presidents of the seven leading democratic countries decide they have nothing to discuss with their Russian counterpart.

Ahmadinejad to be the first Iranian Astronaut

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said he is ready to take the risk of becoming the first human being sent into space by Iran, national media reports.

"I'm ready to be the first Iranian to sacrifice myself for our country's scientists," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying on the sidelines of an exhibition of space achievements in Tehran on Monday.

Iran said it sent a monkey into space, describing the launch as a successful step towards Tehran's plan to send an astronaut into space within the next five to six years. The monkey named "Pishgam", which means pioneer in Farsi, reportedly travelled 120km and safely returned to Earth.

The launch added to Western concerns about Iran's space programme because the same rocket technology could potentially be used to deliver a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile.

In 2010, Iran said it launched an Explorer rocket into space carrying a mouse, a turtle and worms.

Iran's space officials say Iran will launch a bigger rocket carrying a larger animal to obtain greater safety assurances before sending a man into space.

Space tourist Anousheh Ansari was the first Iranian to make a journey into space aboard a Soyuz TMA-9 capsule from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, in 2006. The 40-year-old telecommunications entrepreneur paid a reported $20m for a space station visit.

Russia to host the most Expensive Olympics

The Sochi Winter Olympics will cost Russia over $50 billion, five times more than original estimates, according to an Olympics preparation commission. By 2013, Russia completed 70 percent of the needed facilitates, spending $36.7 billion in total.

The 2014 Sochi Winter Games are turning out to be the most expensive Olympics ever. The Sochi Games are estimated to cost even more than the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, which cost $40 billion, believed to be the most expensive in history.

That total was more than double the cost of the London 2012 Games, which were estimated at $19 billion.
Some explain the expensive price tag over the fact that the city of Sochi did not have most of the needed infrastructure. Jean-Claude Killy, chair of the International Olympic Committee's coordination commission for the Sochi Games, said that 85 percent of the infrastructure had to be built from scratch.

Igor Nikolaev, director of the Strategic Analysis Department at FBK, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the lack of infrastructure was one of the reasons for the huge expense: "There was really a lot that needed to be built in order to prepare for the Olympics, including infrastructure.” He added that the huge estimates cannot be taken literally, since they were artificially inflated by the Olympics' private sponsors.

So far, sponsors have spent $24.6 billion, and costs are expected to increase to $33 billion. Many of Russia’s largest companies are Olympic sponsors, and are seeking to have as much of their expenses as possible qualify as Olympic expenditures. However, not all of their work will qualify as such, Nikolaev explained.

"For example, a company building or renovating its corporate hotel, tries to qualify the expenditure as part of the Olympics’ cost. That helps them to strengthen their bargaining position. You can be sure that then they will ask something in return [such as preferential tariffs, tax breaks, etc.],” Nikolai said.

The $50 billion sum is not a final estimate, and total costs could approach $66.7 billion, he said. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, the head of the Olympic preparatory commission, has proposed that Krasnodar region Governor Aleksandr Tkachev offers tax breaks for companies involved in Olympic construction.

The Olympics preparatory commission, established in mid-January by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is tasked with supervising all work on the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

United States can Kill US citizens with al-Qaeda Link

The legal basis for using drone strikes to kill US citizens has been disclosed in a leaked Justice Department memo.

US officials can authorise the killing of Americans abroad if they are leaders of al-Qaeda or its allies, according to the document obtained by NBC News.

Lethal force is lawful if they are judged to pose an "imminent threat" and their capture is not feasible, it adds.

US drone strikes against militant suspects in countries such as Yemen and Pakistan are deeply controversial.

Under President Barack Obama the US has expanded its use of drones to kill hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects, arguing that it is acting in self-defence in accordance with international law.

Critics argue the drone strikes amount to execution without trial and cause many civilian casualties.

Legal framework
The undated 16-page Department of Justice white paper published by NBC gives more details of the justification for the use of drones outside recognised war zones.

A US study last year suggested Pakistani civilians were being "terrorised" 24 hours a day by drones
It says sovereignty is not deemed to have been violated if the host nation gives its consent, or is unwilling or unable to suppress the threat posed by the individual targeted.

It also sets out a "legal framework" for the use of lethal force against US citizens in foreign countries.

It concludes that such killings do not violate the US Constitution as long as:

An informed, high-level official of the US government has determined that the targeted individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the US

Capture is infeasible and the US continues to monitor whether capture becomes feasible. The operation would be conducted in a manner consistent with applicable law of war principles.

The paper adopts a broad definition of "imminent threat", saying it is not necessary to produce evidence that a specific attack is being planned if the target is generally engaged in plotting against the US.

'Remarkable document'
It also asserts that courts should not play a role in reviewing or controlling such decisions. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the white paper was a "pretty remarkable document".

Anwar al-Awlaki was among three Americans killed in drone strikes in Yemen in 2011. Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the ACLU, said in a blog post the paper revealed "both the recklessness of the government's central claim and the deficiencies in the government's defense" of its drone strike policy.

"This sweeping authority is said to exist even if the threat presented isn't imminent in any ordinary sense of that word, even if the target has never been charged with a crime or informed of the allegations against him, and even if the target is not located anywhere near an actual battlefield," Mr Jaffer added.

The ACLU has helped the relatives of three Americans who died in drone strikes sue the Pentagon and CIA. Their lawsuit claims the deaths were unconstitutional.

Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaeda suspect born in the US state of New Mexico, was killed by an unmanned plane in September 2011.

Samir Khan, a naturalised US citizen who produced an online magazine promoting al-Qaeda's ideology, died in the same missile strike.

Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, who was born in Colorado, was killed a month later.

The Obama administration has been under growing pressure from politicians in Congress to share more details of its drone strike programme, including secret legal documents.

Last month the UN launched an inquiry into the impact of drone strikes on civilians.

Islamists Threaten to Attack Germany

A German Islamist threatened in an internet video to attack Berlin this summer and kill Chancellor Angela Merkel, Die Welt newspaper reported.

The video threat is being evaluated by the country’s security services, an intelligence spokesman said.

The Islamist Abu Azzam, believed to be a radical Salafist who moved to Egypt last year, added that Germany's Reichstag parliament building would be subject to attacks like those on New York's World Trade Center in 2001.

This event could not be unconnected from the activities of France in Mali and the worldwide support she receives especially from Europe. The Islamists in Mali have threatened to give France a long war through their axis in Europe and elsewhere.

United States to Ease Sanctions on Sudan

The top US diplomat in Sudan revealed today that Washington will soon change sanctions regulations that will allow educational institutional in both countries to deal directly with one another.

Washington imposed economic and trade sanctions on Sudan in 1997 because of the civil wars in the country, accusing it of supporting terrorism. In 2007, it strengthened the embargo citing abuses in Darfur which it labeled as genocide.

In 2010 the US announced it was easing sanctions on agriculture equipment and services which allowed half a dozen companies to get export licenses.

Khartoum has lobbied Washington intensively to lift sanctions but little progress has been made on this front.

In an interview with the independent al-Sahafa newspaper the American charge d'affaires Joseph D. Stafford said that the Obama administration is prepared to hold a comprehensive, frank and transparent dialogue with Khartoum on all issues that prevent normalization of bilateral ties.

Stafford noted that security cooperation between the two sides which strengthened more than a decade ago is continuing describing it as "good".

He denied that the US is biased in favour of any party in Sudan and strongly dismissed accusations by officials in Khartoum that Washington is behind the "New Dawn" charter signed by opposition and rebel groups in Kampala last month.

Stafford said that Washington informed Sudanese rebels that they oppose any attempt to overthrow the regime by force and urged them to seek dialogue with Khartoum.

"We are only biased towards peace in Sudan," the US official said.

He said that his country stopped granting visas to Sudanese and reduced its staff since last September following demonstrations that broke out in Khartoum at the US embassy against a film that insulted the Prophet Mohammad.

Stafford called this a temporary measure that he hopes will soon be reversed.

Nigeria: A Nation of Survival. Defeat of Cote D'Ivoire

                        

Nigeria has always pride itself as nation that dances on the cliff without falling. Over the years, the numerous morass and increase in militant and terrorists activities seem to have overidden this bias.

The defeat of Ivory Coast today shows the country is still on track as master of miracles of the cliff. The Super Eagles before the match has been written off and all pundits favoured Ivory Coast. Nigeria is to meet Mali in the Semi Finals.

In the end, someone will have to tell Emmanuel Eboue that the Claws of the Eagles are devastatingly sharp. They pierce into the eyes of the elephants.

Google and France reach Agreement over News-Linking

Internet giant Google has agreed to set up a fund worth up to 60-million euros to facilitate adjustment to digital technology by the old media.

After two months of mediation with French news sites, the agreement signed with François Hollande will help French media develop online projects.

Previously, Paris threatened to introduce legislation if Google did not reach a settlement after France announced plans to charge Google for linking to French news content.

The Changing Arab World: Ahmadinejad to visit Egypt

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is set to visit Cairo, making him the first Iranian president to visit Egypt since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Ahmadinejad will head Iran's delegation to a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Cairo, Reuters reports.

Tehran broke off relations with Cairo in 1980 following Egypt's peace agreement with Israel during the time of Anwar Saddat. Ahmadinejad hopes the two states can reestablish full diplomatic ties. Last year the two countries mutually agreed to reopen official embassies following a visit to Iran by Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The Arab Spring has rekindled a kind of Arab solidarity long lost after the demise of Gamel Abdel Nasser of Egypt. Arab nations including Turkey are finding a common ground among each other to counter Israel's strength. Israel with the assistance of the US is wielding the divide-and-rule baton well.

Clashes in Senegal: 3 Senagalese and a French Die

­
As France battles Islamists in Mali, another flashpoint seems to rear its ugly head in Senegal. The long-standing but internationally silent religious face-off in Senegal led to the death of four.

Four people, one French and three Senegalese nationals, were killed in Senegal's Southern Casamance region in clashes between suspected separatist rebels and government soldiers late Friday, a military source said.

He added that the death of the French citizen may not be related to the long-running war for independence in the mostly Christian Southern region of Senegal, which is predominantly Muslim.

West Africa is gradually turning into a complete haven of and for militants and islamic fundamentalists. This trend could consume the sub-region if not quickly checked and curbed.

Retirement Calls for US Secret Service Chief

­The Director of the US Secret Service will retire this month, according to a spokesperson for the agency which provides personal protection for the President and VIP officials.

 Mark Sullivan has been with the agency for 30 years and in charge since 2006. Last year the image of the Secret Service was severely tarnished when the President’s protection detail became embroiled in a scandal involving prostitutes in Colombia.

The scandal shook the agency to its base. It left a strong impact on its years of seeming and perceived ''infallibility' in security details and personal defence of the Washington top names.

Becoming Wholly Self-Reliant?: Iran to Launch Three Space Satellites

Iran will launch three satellites to mark the country’s National Space Technology Day, Iranian Space Agency President Hamil Fazeli has announced. Fazeli explained that “due to inherent problems using international satellites,” Iran plans to put more of its own satellites into orbit over the next five years.

The Islamic Republic has also built her own National Internet Service to fully complement the restrictions on the usage of Twitter, Facebook and other Western-backed international social media. The country is advancing speedily steadily in technology and science especially military technology.

Are Sanctions Crippling Iran or Making Iran

Iran has presented its first domestically designed defence fighter-bomber jet with limited stealth capabilities. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed that the plane was designed for defense purposes, and will not be used for aggression.

Code-named Qaher-313 ('Conqueror'), the jet is an advanced single-seat single-engine military plane. It is reportedly capable of engaging targets on the ground, as well as achieving air superiority in dogfights.

According to photos published by Fars news agency, the jet boasts impressive technical specifications, with a ‘stealth’ design similar to that of the US F-22 and Russian T-50.

The large wingspan and inclined outward tail fins resembles the F-35, as well as the unusual-looking wings and modern seamless canopy. The jet may have been constructed using composite materials.

Before now, Iran has made numerous giant strides in domestic computer and internet application advancement, agricultural development and complex military capabilities since sanctions were slammed on the country by the US and EU.

 

"Now the speed of Iran's development in science and technology does not depend on circumstances, it depends on our will," Ahmadinejad said on Saturday in remarks carried on state television. "We should set higher targets. We see that it is possible, we have the capabilities."

"This project carries the message of brotherhood, peace, and security and it doesn't pose any threat to anyone. There is no intention to interfere in any other country's affairs," he said.

Iran is commemorating the 34th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah in 10 days of events that began on Thursday.

Growing Arab Unity against Israel: Iran and Turkey on Syria

A senior Iranian security official pledged full support of Tehran for its close ally, the Syrian regime in Damascus on Saturday.

 “We will give all our support so that Syria remains firm and able to face all the arrogant (Western power) conspiracies,” said the head of the Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, in the wake of Israeli airstrike on Syria.

Iran has been supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime since the Syrian crisis began nearly two years ago, which has so far claimed more than 60,000 lives.

The Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu on his part says Assad has a pact with Israel that is why the Syrian military which has been killing its own people cannot respond to Israeli airstrikes.

Turkey says it will not sit back and watch Israel attack any Muslim nation. The airstrikes could in the long run bring Iran and Turkey together. Both countries have been on opposite sides since Assad employed heavy firepower on his own people.

Piracy in Africa: The End of a New Beginning

Maritime insecurity in Africa, particularly in connection with acts of piracy, has constituted an important field of study for security researchers in recent years.

It has also frequently made local and global media headlines. Despite this trend, the focus in recent reports is starting to shift away from alarm towards detailing the diminishing threat of piracy around Somalia. Large-scale pirate activities there appear to be on the wane, but in what ways can we reasonably expect 2013 to be different from the past, in East Africa and elsewhere?

So far in 2013 the most notable event has been the increase in piracy incidents off the West African coast, particularly in the Gulf of Guinea. This continues the trend in 2012 noted by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) where, despite a sizeable drop in the number of attacks in East Africa from 237 in 2011 to 75 in 2012, a total of 58 incidents were recorded in attacks off the West African coast in 2012, compared to 49 in 2011.

Increased naval patrols and capacity and the adoption of lessons and practices suitable to passage through these sea lanes and areas can account for the drop in attacks and might prompt hopes that piracy will eventually pose an insignificant security threat.

However, the attacks off West Africa differ from East African incidents mainly due to one factor - violent criminal acts are now connected with the movement of oil. The most recent attack took place off Côte d'Ivoire on 21 January 2013 when a large oil tanker named ITRI was hijacked, also demonstrating that the problem is not geographically limited to the Gulf of Guinea.

Crews in such cases are often assaulted while illegal oil bunkering occurs - a practice whereby the ship is drained of oil, which is subsequently spirited back to shore and either sold or refined.

This could result in oil spills, particularly around the already ravaged Niger delta. Offshore oil platforms, often seen as a means of avoiding land-based political instability, are now potential targets and frequently beyond immediate aid. Terrorist attacks on vulnerable installations could also occur, further prompting increases in the number of operations in partnership with the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM).

Many of these acts will be reported as being criminal rather than piratical, as they do not all occur in international waters but rather within the sovereign borders of states, which are set at 12 nautical miles offshore, and are thus subject to countries' own laws and legal systems, rather than being subject to international law as is commonly the case off Somalia.

Meanwhile, that of Nigeria is gradually gathering international attention though it is still largely localised. If the menace is not check appropriately, West Africa might degenerate into another Somalia just as the Islamists are allowed fertile grounds.

Israeli Airstrike aims at Weakening Syria's Military Research: A call for Hezbollah

Though Israel has not yet claimed responsibility for an airstrike targeting a military site near Damascus, experts believe that Tel Aviv aimed to further destabilize Syria and undermine its military capabilities.

Initial reports suggested that Israel conducted an airstrike on a convoy carrying sophisticated weapons that was preparing to cross the Syria-Lebanon border. Israeli officials said the vehicles may have contained chemical weapons and Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles intended for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“This episode boils down to a warning by Israel to Syria and Hezbollah not to engage in the transfer of sensitive weapons,” a regional security source told Reuters.

But the latest reports from Syria suggest that the airstrike hit the Jamraya research center in the suburbs of Damascus, far from the Lebanese border. An anonymous diplomatic source told Reuters that chemical weapons may be stored at the center, and that the vehicles in Hezbollah convoy were unlikely to be carrying such arms.

Israeli officials have not commented on the airstrike, but the assault may have revealed Tel Aviv’s plans, experts believe. After months of sustained rebel assaults on Syrian air defense systems and bases, the Israeli airstrike follows a pattern of other recent attempts to undermine Syria’s military capabilities.

Israeli officials have frequently expressed fears that Syrian President Bashar Assad will lose control of the country’s chemical weapons stockpiles. But Dr. Ali Mohamad, editor-in-chief of the Syria Tribune news website, believes the fears of chemical weapons was a pretext to destroy Syria's military research centers and ensure that Damascus is unable to produce arms for its military or regional allies.

Syrians know that “this is not at all about chemical weapons,” Dr. Mohamad told RT. “It’s about stopping the Syrian scientists’ military research projects.”

“It finally makes sense because the rebels or as they like to call themselves the revolutionaries, they have been attacking air defense bases near Damascus for the past seven months,” Dr. Mohamad said. “They’ve managed to attack the S-200 base and over four other surface-to-air missile bases.

Now this followed by an airstrike from Israel. So it all adds up, it makes sense. It only shows that Israel has a great interest in the instability in Syria and that it is being helped by groups of armed rebels in Syria.”

“Military research centers are responsible for developing weapons, in particular land-to-land long range missiles,” and Israel wants to stop this research process, Dr. Mohamed explained. “Of course Israel will claim that this is connected to a chemical weapons arsenal, but this is of course not true because nobody stores chemical weapons in a research center.”

“Let’s remember that the Syrian official who was responsible for all military research projects has been assassinated in Damascus by the rebels,” he said. “Let’s also remember that the person who orchestrated the Syrian long-range missile project colonel Dawoud Rajiha was also assassinated in Damascus.

This is about stopping the Syrian scientific military research projects and is about breaking the link that will help [Israel] overcome the Lebanese resistance and the Palestinian resistance.”

Syria will likely retaliate, but not in the form of a direct attack on Israel. Instead, Damascus will seek to arm Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance, Dr. Mohamed said.

Hezbollah also stated that the attack targeted a Syrian research center and was an attempt to cripple Syrian military capabilities. It declared its full solidarity for Syria’s “leadership, army and people” in a statement.

Russia condemns Israel's attack on Syria

The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement expressing deep concern over Israel’s airstrike on Syria saying that it violates the UN Charter.

The Ministry website says; if this information is confirmed that would mean that we have to deal with unprovoked attacks on the territory of a sovereign state which is inadmissible, whatever objectives are declared as a justification.

Russia has again called upon the international community to stop the violence in Syria, prevent foreign intervention in the conflict, and assist the start of a nationwide dialogue based on the Geneva agreements.

Syrian military command had reported that Israeli aircraft bombed a research facility near the country’s capital Damascus on Wednesday killing two people and wounding five. The statement called the attack a “blatant act of aggression” and blasted Israel for supporting Syrian terrorists.

So far, the Israel has refused to comment, but unnamed sources in the US have told news agencies that the Israeli Air Force did strike a truck convoy on the Syria-Lebanon border that supposedly carried anti-aircraft weapons. Lebanese media has reported a number of air raids conducted by Israel war planes over its territory but said nothing about any strikes.

If confirmed, the air strike will be Israel’s first attack on a Syrian target since 2007 when the Israeli Air Force destroyed what they thought to be an almost complete nuclear reactor in the East of the country, near the border with Iraq. Syria denied the site was a nuclear facility.

Wednesday’s alleged attack would also be Israel’s first direct intervention into the almost-two-year Syrian crisis caused by the standoff between President Bashar Assad and an armed opposition supported by radical Islamists.

Russia has repeatedly called upon the international community to help stop the violence by forcing the opposing sides to negotiation table. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says it was the opposition that rejected talks in Syria adding that the crisis would end when the opposition abandons its obsession with ousting Assad, and if this does not happen the fighting will continue and more people will die.

At the same time, Lavrov pointed out that the Russian point of view was that preserving or deposing President Assad’s regime was not a priority. What really mattered, he said, is an immediate stop to the bloodshed and the stabilization of the situation in Syria.

Syria seems to be the last bastion of the Cold War struggle in terms of open support by Russia both in the media and at the UN and fragrant opposition by the US and other Western powers. The second unresolved Cold War dilemma is the Koreas.