‘Missile defence killer’: Russia finalises testing on prototype ICBM

Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces have reported a successful launch of a next-generation ICBM that can supposedly pierce any anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system. The test came after the US announced it would resume its ABM programme in Europe.

The test missile launched from a mobile pad at 9:45pm (17:45 GMT) on Thursday, the Defense Ministry said Friday. The test was carried out in the Astrakhan region, deep inside Russian territory, and the prototype’s payload successfully hit the Balkhash range in Kazakhstan.

“The test launch was a success as the [simulated] warhead hit a designated target within the set time frame,” the Russian Defence Ministry statement said. “This test launch was intended to confirm technical characteristics of the missile, as well as to check the safety of the launch procedures and equipment.”

The launch was the third successful test of the prototype ICBM. The development of a new solid-fuel ICBM was officially announced in 2012, and is set to gradually replace the existing Topol-M and later the recently developed Yars missile complex. Strategic Missile Forces expect to finalize testing by the end of 2013 and put the new missile into production in 2014.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin welcomed the test, calling the new ICBM a “missile defence killer... Neither current nor future American missile defense systems will be able to prevent that missile from hitting a target dead on.”

Russia maintains at least 58 silo-based Soviet-made P36M ('SS-18 Satan' NATO classification) ballistic missiles, believed to be the most powerful in the world with up to 10 megaton-class warheads. The Strategic Missile Forces have 160 mobile Topol-M ('SS-25 Sickle') missile systems, 50 silo-based and 18 road-mobile Topol-M ('SS-27 Sickle B') systems, and 18 RS-24 Yars systems.

In recent years, two missile divisions were re-armed with the newest Topol-M and Yars systems, and more will follow in 2013. The Defense Ministry is also preparing to introduce the latest automated battle management system (ASBU), enabling rapid retargeting of ICBMs.

Russia sped up development of new intercontinental ballistic missile systems after the US announced plans to continue deploying its missile defence system in Eastern Europe, near Russian borders.

The issue of the US missile shield in Europe has become a major stumbling block in Russia-US relations. Moscow has demanded legal guarantees from Washington that missile defence systems deployed in Europe would not target Russia's strategic nuclear deterrence capabilities. But Washington refused, citing a need to protect Europe from ‘rogue states' like Iran and North Korea.

In mid-March of 2013, Washington attempted to engage Moscow in new talks about further nuclear arms reduction, after presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev agreed to reduce their nuclear stocks with the New START arms reduction treaty. The US said it would no longer deploy SM-3 IIB ballistic missile interceptors in Poland until 2022.

Nevertheless, Moscow still demands legally binding guarantees from Washington that the system's intentions are peaceful.

On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with the Polish Foreign Minister, and committed to deploy missile defences in Poland by 2018 as planned. “We are on track to deploy a missile defence site in Poland by 2018 as part of NATO’s modernized approach to our security,” Kerry said.

Russia under Vladimir Putin is not likely to take any US missile defence shield deployment lightly. Putin  maintains Russia's stand as a real 'checker' to US activities.

The Syrian debacle perfectly illustrates Putin's stand viz a viz the US and NATO; he maintains that Libya will never repeat itself just as when he took over from Boris Yeltsin who was pro-US in a way and changed the course of Russia's foreign policy, becoming a facsimile of Soviet days.

Obama chief of staff, Senators Feinstein and McCain travel to Guantanamo Bay prison

President Obama fervently promised in his 2008 campaign speeches that he will see to the end of Guantanamo Bay. After spending his first term in office, many were disappointed in his inability to close the notorious Gitmo Bay. Despite frustration from congress just like in his healthcare deal, Obama pushes on and now seems more determined to bring down Guantanamo Bay.

President Obama‘s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, along with Senators Feinstein and McCain traveled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on Friday to review the current situation and discuss steps towards closing the detention facility. Both McCain and Feinstein have supported the closing of the prison at Guantanamo, though the House of Representatives voted on tuesday in support of keeping the detention centre open.

The trip comes several weeks after the president reaffirmed a 2008 campaign promise to shut down the facility. On Friday, it was revealed that the prison’s medical team is presently force-feeding 41 of the facility’s 166 prisoners, with a total of 104 detainees now participating in the ongoing hunger strike. “We intend to work, with a plan by Congress and the Administration together, to take the steps necessary to make that [closing] happen,” said the trio via statement following their tour.

Anonymous, Syrian Electronic Army hack Turkish govt networks, leak emails including PM's

AFP Photo: Thomas Samson

Turkish government networks were hacked on Wednesday, compromising the private information of staffers in PM Tayyip Erdogan's office, a source in PM's office confirmed to Reuters. The attack was in support of the ongoing anti-government protests.

Staff email accounts were reportedly accessed after a phishing attack, and those affected were cut off from the network, a source said.

Anonymous hacked the Prime Minister’s official website (basbakanlik.gov.tr) and gained access to staff email addresses, passwords and phone numbers, the group said in a press release.

The group also stressed it will not share most of the hacked data because it “respects people's privacy” and “does not believe in the full use of power against the weak.”

At the same time, the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) hacked the website of the Turkish Ministry of Interior (http://icisleri.gov.tr) and released more than 60 email addresses and passwords.

The SEA declared it also hacked other government websites, including dosya.icisleri.gov.tr.

On Sunday the hacktivist group Anonymous has taken down the Turkish President’s website, along with that of the country’s ruling party, as operation #OpTurkey kicked off in support of the anti-government protests.

As of 22:40 GMT, the website of President Abdullah Gul has been offline, together with the website of the country’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the websites for the Istanbul Directorate of Security and the Istanbul Governor’s Office.

The hacktivists earlier targeted municipal governments in Mersin and Izmir.

The operation was kicked off in response to the police crackdown of protests which have taken the country by storm. The Gebze Institute of Technology has also come under digital fire.

US and China to join forces on cyber-security

The first stage of US-China talks on hot-button issues in bilateral relations have ended, and no landmark decisions were announced. After over two hours of talks, US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping said the two nations agreed to closer cooperation on issues of cyber-security, and to improve military ties. 

Ahead of the talks, Washington repeatedly blamed Beijing for hacking attacks against US intelligence and industries.

Beijing has consistently denied it is waging cyber wars on Washington. Recently, Washington accused China of hacking into its systems and stealing vital military documents; charges Beijing immediately denied. 

Beijing stated that Washington was limiting the capacity and capability of Chinese to develop their own military industrial complex. It went further to say that Washington was insulting the intelligence of Chinese, that China does not need to spy on Washington for its military power.

EU allocates €400M in further aid to Syria

After suspending the arms embargo placed on Syria due to the tireless efforts of Britain through its foreign secretary, William Hague in order to pressure Assad to 'negotiate seriously', the EU is now sending additional finance to Syria and its neighbours.

The EU will send €400 million ($523 million) in additional aid to Syria and its neighbours, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Thursday. The non-humanitarian aid comprises budgetary support for states neighboring Syria, which have struggled to cope with a huge influx of refugees, Reuters said.

The EU is already the biggest humanitarian donor in the Syrian crisis, committing more than €840 million to alleviate what Barroso called “the most dramatic humanitarian situation in the last decade.” He said unrestricted and unconditional humanitarian access is needed in Syria, as well as an inclusive transitional government.

The EU has so far restrained itself from interfering in the Syrian crisis, preferring rather to lend its voice on the need to avoid escalation that would lead to catastrophe.

Confirmed: NSA collection of millions of phone records 'renewal of ongoing practice'

The chairwoman of the US Senate Intelligence committee has said that the state has been collecting the telephone records of millions of US Verizon customers since 2006, and the order is a three-month renewal of a continuing practice.

The collection of records was “on an ongoing daily basis,” beginning on April 25, 2013 and ending July 19, 2013, Dianne Feinstein, a Democratic Senator from California confirmed to reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday. However, the practice may have been ongoing for seven years prior to its exposure.

"As far as I know, this is the exact three-month renewal of what has been the case for the past seven years. This renewal is carried out by the [foreign intelligence surveillance] court under the business records section of the Patriot Act. Therefore, it is lawful. It has been briefed to Congress," she told reporters.

One anonymous expert contacted by the Washington Post in the wake of the scandal reiterated that the order appeared to be a routine renewal of a strikingly similar order issued by the same court in 2006, and renewed every three months since.

The top secret order required Verizon, one of the largest telecom agencies in the US, to provide both the FBI and the NSA information on all telephone calls made through its systems, both domestically and to foreign countries. A copy was obtained by the Guardian and published on Wednesday.

According to a copy of the order, Verizon is required to disclose the numbers of both parties during a call, as well as location, call duration, and other unique data on an "ongoing, daily basis.” Meaning that, regardless of whether an individual is suspected of or linked to any crime, the data of all Verizon customers is currently being delivered in bulk to the intelligence agency.

Verizon did not confirm the existence of the top secret order. In a memo sent to employees on Thursday, they stated that they were forbidden "from revealing the order's existence."

The court order expressively forbade Verizon from disclosing the existence of any US government request for the company’s customer records, according to the original Guardian exclusive.

As to the authority claimed by the government via this order, that is specifically cited to fall under the “business records” provision of the PATRIOT Act of 2001, which was granted a four-year extension by President Obama in May of 2011.

It remains unclear as to whether the order, which spans a three-month period, represents a single instance, or is indicative of recurring cases of Verizon and other telephone providers being ordered to disclose all their clients' call records.

The practice may also be more widespread among communications data companies than initially believed: CNBC contacted Sprint, a global provider of internet and communications services. The company told CNBC on Thursday that it had no comment on whether it may have received a similar FISA court order.

“If they have them for telecom companies, they probably have similar orders for internet companies,” Alex Abdo, an attorney with the ACLU's national security project told NBC’s Rachel Maddow.

'America is our worst enemy': Pakistani victim of US Drone strikes speaks out

Drone strikes in Pakistan have killed 1,000 civilians, activists say, while the US maintains they only target terrorists. Victims of drone warfare and their families live in constant fear of another strike, and say they are “angry and want revenge.”

A review of classified US intelligence records has revealed that the CIA could not confirm the identity of about one-quarter of those killed by drone strikes in Pakistan during a period spanning 2010 and 2011. In a review of 14 months of classified records, 26 out of 114 attacks designate fatalities as “other militants,” and in four other attacks those killed are described as “foreign fighters.”

The CIA is reluctant to reveal information on its drone programme, Chris Woods of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism told RT.

“With so many civilians reported killed, and yet the CIA reporting that it’s killed no more than 50 or 60 civilians, I think there is need for an open, not only an open inquiry, but also for the CIA to share the information it has on who it believes it’s killed in places like Pakistan. President Obama’s speech the other week did seem to promise more openness but unfortunately we’re not seeing signs of that just yet,” Woods said.

In his post-election address to parliament, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for an end to US drone attacks in the country’s northern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

"This daily routine of drone attacks, this chapter shall now be closed," Sharif said to enthusiastic applause. "We do respect others' sovereignty. It is mandatory on others that they respect our sovereignty."

“Most of the strikes in Pakistan these days are really not related to Al-Qaeda or those terrorist activities but really to the war across the border in Afghanistan. The drone war has changed quite significantly over the ten years or so it’s been running. We see the US talking about using drones in Syria for example; we have had calls from Iraq and Rwanda recently for the US to use drones there. So there’s a concern among some that the US wants now to use these drones as an easy plank in their view of foreign policy,” Woods explained.

Residents of Pakistan say they are living “in constant fear of another strike.” Amin Ullah was on his way to work at a mine near his village when a drone struck the area. He lost his leg in the attack, and three other miners were killed. "The Americans should be able to tell an ordinary person from a Taliban leader. They should know who they're killing. What did we do to deserve this?" Ullah told RT.

“We are simple villagers who are stuck in a war that we didn’t ask for. It’s a hopeless feeling. Death is above our heads all the time,” he added.

Another victim of the drone attack, Nek Bahadar, lost part of his hearing and nearly his foot: “The drone’s shockwave was so intense that it threw us outside far from the place where we were sleeping. After several minutes there was another strike and it killed many more people.”

“Of course this has made me hate the Americans. We are angry and want revenge. They’ve destroyed our lives. My parents, my wife my children – we all see America our worst enemy now,” Bahadar said.

Pakistani human rights lawyer Shahzad Mirza Akbar has sued both the US and Pakistan on behalf of civilian victims in Waziristan, a mountainous region in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.

“I simply call it a concentration camp, that you've built a wall of military and militants, and behind this wall you are keeping more than 800,000 people who are not allowed to come out and no one from the rest of the country is allowed to go in. And that is kind of laboratory that US is using to use test its drone program,” Akbar told RT’s Lucy Kafanov.

Evidence of drone strikes is difficult to gather; fragments of the attacks were collected by a local journalist Noor Behram, who spent years documenting the civilian toll of drones, especially on children.

“Whenever my 3-year-old daughter hears the plane she runs inside and won’t sleep that night. The children here have been traumatized by the drones. The sound of a door banging shut is enough to terrify them,” Behram said.

There are fears that the US campaign to eliminate terrorists could end up creating more. “By carrying out drone strikes, killing innocent people who are not part of the conflict, you are just widening the conflict. You are giving the reason to people who were not part of the conflict here to become part of the conflict,” Akbar explained.
 
Breakthrough advances in unmanned aircraft technology have also sparked concerns at the UN. The UN’s rapporteur for extrajudicial killings, Christof Heyns, is calling for a worldwide ban on "killer robots" that could attack targets autonomously, without a human having to pull the trigger.

According to the report, the US, Japan, South Korea and Israel have developed various types of fully- or semi-autonomous weapons.

“It’s important to say there’s no particular day we’ll be able to say, now we have fully autonomous robots. But there are already very high levels of autonomy available, and full autonomy may be available within a few years. It’s important to emphasize the distinction between drones and lethal autonomous robots (LARs). With drones you have a human in the loop with somebody sitting behind the computer and taking the decision to pull the trigger. With robots there’s no human being in the loop, it’s a computer that takes a decision,” Heyns explained.

Courtesy: Russia Today

Mastermind of foiled Moscow bombing who 'fought in Afghanistan' arrested in Russia

Russia’s FSB secret service has captured the suspected mastermind behind a foiled terror attack in Moscow. His group, which fought in Afghanistan against the ISAF forces, was uncovered and neutralized last month by police.

A man identified as Yulay Davletbayev headed the terror cell, which was plotting an attack in Moscow. Two of his accomplices were killed in a May 20 police operation, while a third was captured alive. The items seized by law enforcers at the time included half-completed suicide vests, detonators and metal shrapnel.

The FSB captured Davletbayev, who is in his early 40s, in a suburb of Moscow after weeks of searching, the committee said. “This job took considerable effort and cooperation from troops, national bodies and local authorities. Several regions of the Russian Federation conducted search and screening operations. This allowed identifying the location where the criminal was hiding.”

All of the militants were Russian citizens, Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee said Thursday. The group trained in combat and demolition along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, a region controlled by the Taliban.

They are also known to have fought against the US-led ISAF coalition deployed in Afghanistan, the committee reported.

The cell was sent to Moscow by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party, a terrorist organization that seeks to establish an Islamic state inside the Chinese border.

The group’s goal was to organize a series of attack in the Russian capital during Victory Day celebrations on May 9. Davletbayev got a job as taxi driver to familiarize himself with the city and pick high-value targets for future attacks, the committee said.

“While navigating around the city in his taxi, he was selecting places most vulnerable for a terrorist attack, which would suffer most damage and cause greatest loss of life,” the committee said.

They failed to meet their timetable, and were ultimately exposed by the Russian security services. The arrest of the cell’s leader came after the arrested member, Robert Amerkhanov, decided to cooperate with investigators.

The group is suspected of committing several crimes in Russia’s southern regions before 2010, when they moved to Afghanistan.

The FSB also has information on Davletbayev’s links to another militant leader, who was responsible for bombing a natural gas pipeline and at least two attacks on Russian police officers; the leader was killed in 2010 by anti-terrorism forces.

The Russian capital has seen a number of deadly terror attacks in recent years. The most recent was in January 2011, when a suicide bomber set off an explosive device in the arrival zone of Domodedovo Airport, killing 36 people and injuring 180 others. In March 2010, bombings in the Moscow Metro killed 41 people and injured around 100.

Courtesy: Russia Today

Classified documents reveal CIA drone strikes often killed unknown people

A review of classified US intelligence records has revealed that the CIA could not confirm the identity of about a quarter of the people killed by drone strikes in Pakistan during a period spanning from 2010 to 2011.

According to a purportedly exclusive report by NBC News that mirrors findings of an April analysis by McClatchy, between September 3, 2010 and October 30, 2011 the agency’s drone programme over Pakistan routinely designated those killed as “other militants,” a label used when the CIA could not determine affiliation, if any.

The review by NBC News paints both a confusing and troubling picture of the CIA’s reported drone strike success, which three former Obama administration officials feared could have missed or simply ignored mistakes.

Of the 14 months worth of classified documents reviewed, 26 out of 114 attacks designate fatalities as “other militants,” while in four other attacks those killed are only described as “foreign fighters.”

Even more irregular are the cases when entry records conflict on the number of those killed, with one such example indicating a drone attack had killed seven to 10 combatants, and another estimating 20 to 22 fatalities.

By comparison, McClatchy’s April review of drone strikes revealed that at least 265 of up to 482 people that the CIA killed during a 12-month period ending in September 2011 were not senior al-Qaeda leaders, but were instead “assessed” as Afghan, Pakistani and “unknown extremists.” Corroborating media accounts show that US drones killed only six top al-Qaeda leaders during the same period.

One key term in analyzing drone strike records are what are known as “signature” strikes, when drones kill suspects based on behaviour patterns but without positive identification, versus “personality” strike, which is when drone targets are known terrorist affiliates whose identities are verified.

According to an anonymous senior intelligence official who spoke to NBC, at the peak of drone operations in Pakistan in 2009 and 2010 as many as half of all kills were classified as “signature” strikes.

One former senior intelligence official said that at the height of the drone programme in Pakistan in 2009 and 2010, as many as half of the strikes were classified as signature strikes.

Retired Admiral Dennis Blair, the former Director of National Intelligence from 2009 to 2010, addressed NBC’s report with the claim that the precision of drone strikes was superior to those of traditional battlefield weapons.

“In Afghanistan and Iraq and places where you have troops in combat ... you know better with drones who you’re killing than you do when you’re calling in artillery fire from a spotter [or] calling in an airplane strike,” he said.

“This is no different from decisions that are made on the battlefield all the time by soldiers and Marines who are being shot at, not knowing who fired the shot, having to make judgements on shooting back or not. This is the nature of warfare,” added Blair.

As to just how analysts arrive at determining unverified, “signature” drone targets, that system relies on data which draws connections between the unidentified individuals and known militants. That might entail monitoring everything from the frequency that a suspect visits a particular location, meets certain individuals, or makes phone calls and sends emails.  

During a key speech defending his administration’s use of targeted drone killings in May, President Obama defended the CIA’s drone programme as a “legal,” “lethal” and “effective” counterterrorism tool, while at the same time acknowledging some civilian casualties.

A report entitled “Living Under Drones,” jointly released by Stanford University and New York University in 2012, is far less muted on civilian casualties, and argues that the civilian death toll in drone strikes over Pakistan is far higher than is reported.

In the classified reports reviewed by NBC News, for example, of the 600 some killed only one is listed as a civilian, a statistic which Micah Zenko, a drone expert at the Council on Foreign Relations described as “incredible.”

The Stanford-NYU report, for its part, bases its conclusions on 130 interviews, as well as a review of media reports, though the methodology employed can itself be a subject of debate.

Separately, an Associated Press investigation in 2012 reported that out of 10 drone strikes over a period of 18 months, Pakistani villagers claimed that only 70 per cent of those killed by US strikes were militants, with the rest either civilians or tribal police.

The new Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif has called for an end to drone strikes in Pakistan.

Courtesy: Russian Times

New Cold-War?: FBI, Microsoft team up against global cyber-crime ring

Cyber espionage and cyber-attacks are the new form of waging sophisticated wars; hacking and stealing vital official secrets and documents and using it against targets in countries.

Kaspersky Lab recently uncovered a cyber espionage ring linked to China. The United States has been doing all within it capabilities to stem the tide with the latest being the partnership of Microsoft and FBI on cyber-crime.

Microsoft Corp. and the FBI, in cooperation with officials from more than 80 countries, have launched a major operation against one of the world's most powerful cyber-crime rings, believed to have stolen more than $500 million from bank accounts over the past 18 months.

Microsoft said its Digital Crimes Unit on Wednesday successfully took down about 1,000 of an estimated 1,400 infected computer networks known as Citadel Botnets, which infected as many as 5 million PCs around the world and, according to Microsoft, were being used to steal from dozens of financial institutions.

The FBI told Reuters it is working closely with Europol and other overseas authorities in an effort to capture the unknown criminals. The FBI has obtained search warrants as part of what it called a "fairly advanced" criminal investigation.

London mosque burns down, arson feared over discovery of EDL ‘stamp’

A two-story Islamic centre (Al-Rahma Islamic Centre) burned down overnight in north London in an incident being treated as possible arson. Rescuers found ‘EDL’ scrawled on the building’s remains, fueling fears of a racially motivated revenge for the bloody Woolwich execution.

The fire broke out at around 3:15am local time at a mosque in Muswell Hill, north London, an area which also contains the Al-Rahma Islamic Centre and the Bravanese Centre. All had existed undisturbed for at least 20 years.

“The place has been absolutely destroyed. The community is shocked and very distressed because they have been here in peace for the past 20 years,” Mohamed Ali of Somali charity BritSom told local newspaper the Evening Standard. He said that he was certain the event was linked to the Woolwich attack.

Some 35 firefighters in six different fire engines were called out to battle the blaze, with locals also reporting the presence of helicopters. Police and fire officials said that it took around an hour and a half to bring the blaze under control.


“There were several fire engines and I think even a helicopter. It was terrible. This will really shake the community up,” one witness identified as ‘Nurein’ told the Evening Standard.

A statement released by the local metropolitan police commander said “We are at the very early stages of investigating what happened in the matter,” and reiterated the importance of the Bravanese Centre in the local Somali community.

No injuries were reported as a result of the blaze, although one woman suffered from shock.

Anti-Islamic hatred has spiked in London since the brutal killing and beheading of Lee Rigby, 25, by two men who said the murder was motivated by the UK’s involvement in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

The UK saw Islamophobic sentiment intensify in the wake of the killing, with the English Defense League (EDL) arranging thousand-strong marches and religious campaign group Faith Matters reporting an explosion in calls related to incidents of anti-Islamic violence.

Two men have already been arrested for firebombing a mosque in an Islamic district of the northeastern seaport of Grimsby on May 27, fueling fears that a divide between Muslims and non-Muslims in the UK’s cities is deepening.

Courtesy: Russian Times

Another Hezbollah-linked arms and ammunition found in Nigeria

Security operatives in Kano have discovered another Hezbollah-linked cache of arms and ammunition in the same location as they were unearthed last week.

Military spokesman Captain Ikedichi Iweha said the new cache involves a bunker beneath the master bedroom.  Three Lebanese nationals have been arrested.

The new discovery was made yesterday at the 3 Gaya Road, Bompai address where, last week, a large quantity of arms and ammunition was found in a warehouse, and four foreigners were arrested.

“After painstaking search of the whole premises, the search team uncovered an underground bunker in the master bed room where a large quantity of assorted weapons of different types and caliber and ammunition which were properly wrapped was recovered.

Report has it that the owner of the warehouse, a Lebanese national is under interrogation over the discovery.  The property was later found out to belong to one Abdul Hassan Taher Fadlalla, a Lebanese national, but that he is currently out of the country.

“On further search of the property, a cooler was recovered buried under the wardrobe which had in it, 80 indicators, 5 PPK pistols, 334 rds of 7.62mm special, 9 magazines, 4 pistol silencers, 18 36 hand grenades caps, 4 explosive fuses and 2 explosive devices.”

He recalled that on 28 May 2013, a combined team of the DSS and 3 Brigade Nigerian Army conducted a thorough search of a house at No 3 Gaya Road off Bompai Road Kano after a tip-off by the Israelis as revealed by the Israeli ambassador to Nigeria.

Lebanese consul denied a Lebanese owned the building housing the previously discovered weapons. He claimed it belonged to a Sierra Leonean.

Newly elected Pakistani PM, Sharif demands end to US drone strikes

Nawaz Sharif after his swearing in faced the most contentious issue in Pakistan, noticeable in its political campaigns and other facets of its society; activities of US drones on its soil. The US drones have allegedly killed more innocent civilians than militants. Upon the return of Pervez Musharraf to Pakistan, he was booed and looked askance at because he instituted and signed the drone menace.

Pakistan’s parliament elected Nawaz Sharif as prime minister Wednesday. He received 244 votes in the 342-seat parliament, returning him to the Prime Minister’s office for an unprecedented third term. In his first address since taking office, Sharif called on the US to end its campaign of drone attacks in the country’s tribal northwest.

“We respect the sovereignty of others and they should also respect our sovereignty and independence. This campaign should come to an end,” AFP quoted him as saying. Sharif, who was deposed in a military coup in 1999, won the May 11 elections as part of his Pakistan Muslim League-N party.

Yemen launches army operation against Al-Qaeda in East

Recently, United States drone attacks killed top al Qaeda chiefs in Yemen as well as in Pakistan. Days after, al Qaeda appointed other commanders to prove the war must go on.

This definitely was a perfect signal for both the United States and Yemen cum Pakistan that it is battle galore. Yemen understood the message, hence, it is launching an assault.

Yemeni troops backed by tanks and helicopters assaulted an Eastern city on Wednesday to drive out Al-Qaeda-linked militants. Clashes involving dozens of soldiers began early in the morning.

Three soldiers and several militants were killed in fighting at Ghail Bawazeer, north of the Hadramout provincial capital of al-Mukalla, Reuters said. Islamist militants in Hadramout have distributed leaflets in Ghail Bawazeer, the province’s fourth-largest city, saying they planned to establish an Islamist emirate there.

Obama to appoint Susan Rice as top Security Adviser

United States ambassador to the United Nations who was once tipped to be the Secretary of State but lost out to John Kerry based on the Benghazi attack and her presumed 'incoherent' role, Susan Rice to be appointed to a new position by President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama reportedly plans to appoint Susan Rice as his national security adviser, replacing Tom Donilon, who is resigning. Obama plans to make the appointment later on Wednesday, Reuters said.

The White House confirmed a New York Times report on the major change to the foreign policy team. The president will also nominate Samantha Power, a former White House aide and Harvard professor, to replace Rice as US ambassador to the UN, a White House official said.

China discovered to be involved in a string of Cyber Espionage Activities -Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab has discovered a years-long cyber-espionage operation that victimized hundreds of high-profile targets in 40 countries. The malware, known as NetTraveler, was used for covert computer surveillance and appears to have originated in China.

The Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Lab best known for exposing Flame and Stuxnet - sophisticated spywares launched by the US government - has uncovered a global cyber-espionage network targeting the world's diplomatic, government and military agencies.

In a report published on June 4 the malware that especially targeted Asian countries was identified as an “advanced persistent threat” similar to the Red October unveiled in January.

“Based on the collected intelligence, we estimate the [controlling] group side to about 50 individuals, most of which speak Chinese natively and have working knowledge of the English language,” the report said.

However, nowhere in the Kaspersky report is the Chinese government accused of any wrongdoing and only speculation links China to the infection software.

According to the report, NetTraveler was designed to "steal sensitive data as well as log keystrokes, and retrieve file system listings and various Office or PDF documents.”

The amount of stolen data discovered on the malware’s command-and-control servers exceeded 22 gigabytes, with that being a small fraction of the total data stolen since the rest of it was previously downloaded by the attackers and deleted from the servers.


The countries most frequently targeted by NetTraveler – Russia, India, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan – all border China. The first evidence of NetTraveler appeared in 2004, but the report said the most attacks came between 2010 and 2013.

Diplomats were targeted most often, followed by government workers, and high-level private officials then international military contractors. Tibetan/Uyghur activists and oil industry companies also ranked among the favourite targets.

The hackers did not use any advanced vulnerabilities and relied on phishing attacks, which often distribute infected links via email or social media.

“NetTraveler victims get infected through spear-phishing attacks using Office documents which exploit two publicly known vulnerabilities,” the report states with analysts surprised that such unsophisticated attacks can still be successful with high profile targets. “Although these vulnerabilities have been patched by Microsoft, they remain effective and are among the most exploited in targeted attacks.”

The researchers discovered that at least six NetTraveler targets – a Russian military contractor, a government organization in Tajikistan, and embassies in Belgium, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Belarus – were previously hacked by the Red October campaign that was likely launched from Eastern Europe. Kurt Baumgartner, a senior security researcher for the Americas on the Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky, told DarkReading.com the attempts from separate phishing schemes indicates those locations are highly valued.

“Threat actors infiltrate victims simultaneously and may or may not be concerned about victim overlap,” he said. “Most likely, with these two groups in particular, the operators have a specific set of tasks at the victim organizations. If they happen to see another piece of malware on the target network, and it doesn’t interrupt their operation, they just go back to completing their assignments.”

Courtesy: Russian Times

Syrian Government announced it has taken over Qusayr; rebels confirmed withdrawal

For weeks, the battle for who controls the strategic town of Qusayr ranges on. Hezbollah was pounding the rebels from the Lebanese side while government forces with superior firepower were attacking from within Syria.

Syrian rebels said they withdrew from the Syrian town of Qusayr near the Lebanese border overnight Wednesday after an onslaught by the Syrian army and Hezbollah fighters.

“In face of this huge arsenal and lack supplies and the blatant intervention of Hezbollah… tens of fighters stayed behind and ensured the withdrawal of their comrades along with the civilians,” a statement sent to Reuters said.


The Syrian government later announced it has captured the key border town of Qusayr after battling for weeks to control the region on state TV. Qusayr is located near the Lebanese border, about 18 miles (29km) southwest of Homs.

It is seen as a key city for both sides, as it links the Syrian capital of Damascus with government strongholds on the Mediterranean coast and is a passageway for rebel supplies and fighters from Lebanon. The Syrian conflict has continued for more than two years, with the UN estimating that over 80,000 have died from the violence so far.

'Your leaders will not be able to protect you': al Qaeda Chief warns Americans

Despite the recent drones attacks which have seen the death of powerful al Qaeda chiefs in Pakistan and Yemen, the group continues to prove it will fight till last and will never relent.

Al-Qaeda’s commander in the Arabian Peninsula has stated that Americans will not be safe unless their leaders respect the security of other countries and do not attack or oppress them, reports AP. In a message posted on a militant website,Qassim al-Rimi also urged Americans to “leave us with our religion, land and nations and mind your own internal affairs.”

The militant chief noted that the recent Boston Marathon bombings and ricin-tainted letters revealed that the US security is no longer under control. Rimi noted that making bombs such as the ones used in Boston in April is within “everyone's reach,” cited Alarabiya.net. “Every day you will be hit by the unexpected and your leaders will not be able to defend you,” he said.

More than 1,700 people detained in Turkey over Protest

Turkish police have fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse a massive demonstration against the demolition of a park in central Istanbul. The rally grew into a wider anti-government protest and is spreading across the country. Prime Minister Erdogan seems to be acting the Mubarak he once  cricitised in Egypt.

More than 1,700 people have been detained since a harsh police crackdown against activists staging a sit-in protest at Gezi Park near Taksim Square spiraled out of control on Friday. Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said "a large majority of the detainees were released after being questioned and identified," the state-run Anatolia news agency cites him as saying.Officials claimed that 53 civilians and 26 police officers had been hurt in the clashes, though Amnesty International alleges that hundreds have been wounded and two have been killed.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that a mosque, and not a shopping mall will be built in the Artillery Barracks project intended to replace Taksim Gezi Park, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reports.  Erdogan added that he did not need permission from the political opposition or a “few marauders” for such projects, as the authority had already been granted by the people who voted his ruling Justice and Development Party into power.

Police have fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse around 1,000 protesters who were attempting to march to the Prime Minister’s office in the Turkish capital of Ankara, AFP reports.

Putin Back Again: Russia counters United States Credit Ratings

The Kremlin has alleged that the US credit ratings is not completely fair. With that, Russia has begun to publish its own sovereign debt ratings in a move that is widely seen as a challenge to the grade given by US rating agencies.

Russia using its domestic Expert RA issued its first sovereign debt ratings this week, with Russia getting an A- grade – higher than its current BBB rating assigned by US majors Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.

"It's already abundantly clear that the work of all three American agencies is directed toward inflating the US rating and lowering ratings for emerging economies," President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser Sergei Glazyev, said at the presentation of the rating, Bloomberg reported.

 He pointed out that Russia should stop relying on the ratings issued by the three US agencies, since domestic analysts are no worse than foreign ones.

"Expert RA has analyzed the main problems of  ratings, based on the example of the latest two economic crises, and offered an approach minimizing the effects of those problems on the grades," the rating agency said on its website.

The key difference in approach is giving separate assessments to a country's government as a borrower and its credit climate – the overall credit risk level, the agency said.

Expert RA assigned the United States an AA+ grade, below its top AAA and Aaa grades by Fitch Ratings and Moody's, respectively. America saw its triple-A rating by Standard & Poor's cut a notch to AA+ in 2011. Austria and Canada earned the same assessment.

The highest AAA grade was assigned by Expert RA to Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Coup Attempt Foiled in Benin Republic

While Africa waits for the election in Mali to have a logical and positively conclusive end, some blindfolded soldiers in Benin Republic, a stable West African state were planning a shocker.

A coup attempt to oust the President and install a military regime in the African nation was foiled according to authorities on Sunday.

Colonel Pamphile Zomahoun and businessman, Johannes Dagnon, have been arrested for a conspiracy "to block the head of state from returning to Cotonou after his trip and to institute a military regime," state prosecutor Justin Gbenameto Yayi told the press.

The investigation is continuing into the alleged coup. If successful, the coup would have cast a deep dark shadow on democracy and governance in West Africa as the region still battles Mali which became what it is today as a result of a coup also. It could also reverberate in Kenya too.

Search for an Alternative to Fossil Fuel: The Rising Power of Solar Energy

Royal Dutch Company prognosticates that world demand for oil will reach its peak between 2035-2040, after which solar power or gas will take the lead according to a study.

After research into global energy prospects, Shell came up with two possible scenarios called ‘Mountains’ and ‘Oceans’.

The first one predicts slow international economic development and the markets largely controlled governments that will stimulate nuclear energy exploitation.

It also suggests that ecology-friendly natural gas will become the backbone of the world’s energy system substituting coal as the main fuel in electricity generation. In this case, there will be some changes in transportation, with trucks and cars largely powered by electricity and hydrogen, and CO2 emissions will be reduced.

‘Oceans', which is the second forecast considers a more dynamic and ‘fluid’ global economy where reforms trigger a productivity growth and whose development will be determined largely by market forces and civil society, with a smaller role of government.

This scenario focuses on solar power that can become the dominant energy source outsmarting the traditionally known ones in 2060s-2070s as high energy prices unlock more expensive resources and technologies based on the in-depth analysis .

Nuclear energy development will be restrained by the popular concern while coal will continue to be widely used in electricity generation, Shell experts predict.

The demand for oil has been declining every month and at the end of the year will have decreased by 2.08% which is 18.56 million barrels per day according to global oil report.

China Wants More in Space Market; Moving Towards Hegemony

China is really keen to boost its share of the global commercial space-launching business, with the target of owning 15 percent of the market by 2020.

Deputy head of China's Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology Liang Xiaohong told Xinhua News Agency that to achieve this goal, the country plans to build strategic alliances with major launch service providers and satellite manufacturers, and to develop its own technology.

China currently owns only 3 percent of the market but it hopes to become a major player in space in the near future. According to Liang, China's first solid-fuel rocket will be ready to make its first flight by 2016.

Chinese rockets' venture has been overshadowed by the achievements of rival Japanese and Indian aerospace industries, as well as private aerospace enterprises from Europe and the US in cost-efficiency advantage, Liang explained.

Russia continues to maintain the world champion in the space launch market, according to Russian federal space agency Roscosmos. Company head Vladimir Popovkin said that Russia conducted 24 space launches in 2012, sending 33 vehicles into space, accounting for 38 percent of all launches worldwide.

China has several types of 'Long March' rockets for use in commercial launches, all of which now mainly burn liquid fuel that must be pumped in just prior to launch, according to AP.

"The development of the Long March 11 will greatly improve China's capabilities to rapidly enter space and meet the emergency launching demand in case of disasters and emergencies," Xinhua quoted Liang as saying.

Earlier this week, China's space programme unveiled plans to send three astronauts to its orbiting space station this summer as part of preparations to establish an even larger permanent presence above Earth.

The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft, which will carry one female astronaut, will spend two weeks aboard the Tiangong 1 space station, during which time a team of astronauts will conduct a variety of experiments. This will be China's second manned docking of two spacecraft in orbit.

The station will be replaced around 2020 with a permanent one weighing about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA's Skylab of the 1970s, and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station, according to AP.

Advancing Cancer Research Through Smartphone Game

Scientists from a British Cancer charity are teaming up with technology giants Amazon, Facebook and Google to design and develop a mobile game aimed at speeding the search for new cancer drugs.

The project, led by the charity Cancer Research UK will design applications that anyone with a smart phone and five minutes to spare will be able to investigate vital scientific data at the same time as playing a mobile game.

A preceding phase is for 40 computer programmers, gamers, graphic designers and other specialists to take part in a weekend "GameJam" to turn the charity's raw genetic data into a game format for future so-called "citizen scientists".

"We're making great progress in understanding the genetic reasons cancer develops. But the clues to why some drugs will work and some won't are held in data which need to be analysed by the human eye - and this could take years," said Carlos Caldas at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Institute while speaking to Aljazeera.

"By harnessing the collective power of citizen scientists we'll accelerate the discovery of new ways to diagnose and treat cancer much more precisely."

Cancer already kills more than 7.5 million people a year and the number of people with the disease worldwide is expected to surge by more than 75 percent by 2030, according to the World Health Organisation's cancer agency IARC.

The objectives of the CRUK's scientists are to identify the genetic faults that drive cancer to try to find new ways of diagnosing and treating patients in a more targeted way based on their genetic profile and that of their tumours.

US has deployed Intelligence Machinery to Support Nigeria; 'Drone Diplomacy' Coming --Gen Carter Ham

Gradually, the drones are coming to Africa with Niger as the first point of contact. Britain tested her Apache helicopters in Libya and America wants to start testing new versions of the drones in Africa now. The admission of Gen Carter Ham, a man who had once noted the ruthless acts of US army in Africa  shows the drones are coming big time.

It is noteworthy that commander of the United States Africa Command US AFRICOM, Gen. Carter Ham, confirmed that the US has deployed its intelligence machinery to support Nigeria in fighting the threat posed by Boko Haram.

Ham, who spoke in an interview session with a Nigerian media delegation in Stuttgart recently, said the support followed a request from the Nigerian authorities. The AFRICOM commander, who assumed the post in 2011, however, declined to give the details of the partnership with the Nigerian military against the terrorist group.

Gen. Carter Ham was at the Nigerian Defence College (NDC) where he expressed concern over the increasing connectivity and collaboration between the network of Al Qaeda affiliates and adherents in Africa, including the Boko Haram sect.

Gen Ham reiterated: 'Our core concern in the big picture is that if the US "drone diplomacy" must enter Nigerian sovereign territory, it must be a clearly defined collaborative arrangement, not a mish-mash of hazy cooperation without specific rules of engagement. Our weight and clout on the continent must be properly reflected in this matter. Our foreign policy priorities and internal security imperatives must take centre stage.'

Nigerian leaders will be gullible enough to allow rhetoric becloud their sense of reasoning. Drones have done more harms and damages to Pakistan, killing innocent youths and children yet Niger accepted them and they are now with us in West Africa, close to Nigeria while Nigeria will soon domicile them in her territory too.

The prediction of a possible break-up of Nigeria in 2015 predicted by the US as far back as 2005 is what all these point to beginning from the so-called SSS report on Iran. This is just a way to infuriate the people of the North and the reactions will heat and boil up the already fragile disunited and disjointed unity.

Iran and Syria blast the United States for Declaring Support for Syrian Rebels

 The Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, left, and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi, in Tehran. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

Iran and Syria are blasted the United States for providing funds, food and medical supplies to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Secretary of State John Kerry had announced in the week that, for the first time, the United States would provide non-lethal aid directly to anti-Assad forces. The linkage between non-lethal aid and sophisticated weapons transfer in such scenario is very thin, hence the condemnation by Iran and Syria.

At a joint press conference in Tehran, the Syrian and Iranian foreign ministers called the policy a "double-standard."

"If you really feel sorry about the ongoing situation in Syria you should force the opposition to sit at the [negotiating] table with the Syrian government and put an end to bloodshed," said the Iranian official, Ali Akbar Salehi. "Why do you encourage the opposition to continue these acts of violence?"

"I do not understand how the United States can give support to groups that kill the Syrian people," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said. "This is nothing but a double-standard policy ... One who seeks a political solution does not punish the Syrian people."

The first US aid is designed to boost the rebels and pave the way for a peaceful political transition. It includes $60 million for opposition groups.

Bashar al Assad has been defiant since the uprising began and he is enjoying the support of Russia mostly and in a way China. Russia continues to call for diplomacy and negotiation to end the crisis. The war has also got to the Iraqi border in a province called Yaarabiya. The Syrian civil war has killed 70,000 since it began in 2011.

Rwanda: A Real Model for Africa

20 percent of Rwanda's population was killed in the 1994 genocide and two million of its people were displaced. The violent episode took a heavy toll on its economy and health service.

Close to two decades after Rwanda’s darkest hour, the country is being hailed as a model for recovery and reinvention and praised as a spectacular public health success story.

Danielle Beswick, a lecturer and specialist on Rwanda at the University of Birmingham speaking to Aljazeera stated: "Rwanda has been able to develop quite an innovative relationship with the donors. Rwanda as a government has quite  unique approach, a strongly nationally-owned approach to development which is a thing that we don't often see in Africa .... Donors don't just feel guilty and therefore they pour money into Rwanda. They also recognise that the Rwandan government has a strong vision for development."

United States health experts in a study say Rwanda has improved the quality of life in almost all walks of life. One year after the genocide life expectancy stood at 30 years; latest figures show it has now almost doubled to 59.

To fully get the Rwandan picture, a comparison would be necessary. Ethiopia has an average life expectancy of 54 and in the conflict-stricken Democratic Republic of Congo, it is 49.

In 1994, 78 percent of the population in Rwanda lived below the poverty line. By 2010 that figure had dropped to 45 percent, and in the five years up to 2010, one million Rwandans were lifted out of poverty. Rwanda is also winning the fight against infectious diseases.

Deaths from HIV, TB and malaria have each dropped by around 80 percent over the past 10 years. For tuberculosis, Rwanda has a rate of around 128 sufferers per 100,000 people. In Ethiopia it is close to 400 people, and in the DRC it is well over 500 for every 100,000 people.

Selam Hailemichael, Care International in Norway also speaking to Aljazeera stated: "The vision and the framework first needs to be in place for aid to make sense.... For the country to reach the level that it's at now, I would say what has contributed is the shared vision .... It's quite a mixed information that's coming out of Rwanda, that's a fact. But [what we are seeing] is a very inclusive development in Rwanda".

The African nation has emerged from a failed state, to break the cycle of poverty, despair and disease. Paul Kagame has also being described as the model for African leaders.

2100 Days in Office: Fashola Tasks Lagosians to use Water Transport

Governor Babatunde Fashola while speaking on his achievements so far for the 2100 days he has been in office enjoins all Lagosians to make use of the water transport system.

The governor speaking on a jetty in Agboju area of Festac, Mile2 in Lagos  stated that the State Government is poised to making transportation an ease for all Lagosians. He did not fail to mention the traffic laws as well as the motorbike restrictions.

He said injuries resulting from road accidents have reduced from over 500 in September 2012 to about a 100 in January 2013. The various deaths resulting from motorbike accidents reduced from above 10 in each month from September 2012 to zero in January 2013.

He said the Ado-badore water transport system will be completed by March and will be effective from then while that of Osbourne will be completed later. Eight jetties from the regime of Lateef Jakande are to be refurbished to efficient capacity.

He stated that the waterway is a viable alternative means of transportation as well as a strategic way of easing traffic congestion with standard safety guards and facilities.

The governor tasks all Lagosians to obey the traffic laws as they are for their benefits.

China still Trades the Tiger; Violates UN Agreement

China continues to allow the sale of captive-bred tiger skins and body parts despite signing up to a UN agreement which calls for such trade to be banned, a London-based environmental lobby group claimed on Tuesday. Full Report.

China is not the only country flouting such others but the country is at the heart of it. It even buys illegal ivory from West Africa mostly from the Congo.

Courtesy: @CareNews

Court Okays Eavesdropping on Americans: Amnesty International Loses

The United States Supreme Court will not let Americans challenge a provision in a foreign intelligence law that lets the federal government secretly eavesdrop on the intimate communications of millions of Americans.

The top justices in the US said the country’s highest court will not hear a case in which Amnesty International and a slew of co-plaintiffs have contested a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, or FISA, that lets the National Security Agency silently monitor emails and phone calls.

Under the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA), the NSA is allowed to conduct electronic surveillance on any US citizen as long as they are suspected of conversing with any person located outside of the United States.

Along with human rights workers and journalists, Amnesty International first challenged the FAA on the day it went into effect, arguing that the powers provided to the NSA under the FISA amendments likely puts the plaintiffs and perhaps millions of other Americans at risk of surveillance.

“Under the FAA, the government can target anyone — human rights researchers, academics, attorneys, political activists, journalists — simply because they are foreigners outside the United States, and in the course of its surveillance it can collect Americans’ communications with those individuals,” the American Civil Liberties Union wrote on behalf of the plaintiffs in a legal brief filed last year with the court.

“But instead of allowing the case to be heard on the merits, the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to review the case,” the ACLU’s Ateqah Khaki, wrote. “Our brief urges the Court to affirm the appeals court’s decision.”

On Tuesday, however, the Supreme Court dismissed the claims that the plaintiffs were being watched under the FAA.

Source: @Rt_com

United States Deploys Forces to Niger; Nigeria to host Drone Base

It is no longer a surprise that energy drove France to Mali because of Niger's Areva. Though France had an ulterior motive of her own to be in Mali, she however received massive accolades for the intervention. On getting to Mali, she deployed troops to Areva in Niger. Now, it is the US' turn.

The US military deployed about 100 troops in Niger to help coordinate intelligence sharing with the French, whose forces are currently fighting to seize Islamist-controlled territory in Mali, President Obama announced Friday.

The US forces are armed with “weapons for the purpose of providing their own force protection and security,” Obama said in a letter to Congress, adding that Niger officials consented to their deployment. The president said the troops will operate out of Niger to help gather intelligence information about the conflict in Mali, but did not elaborate on any specific plans that will be assigned to them.

The announcement comes just a few weeks after the Nigerian Defence Ministry revealed their approval to host an airbase for unarmed American spy drones, which could be used in Mali to monitor Islamists.

United States Radar to Visit Japan

North Korea has got the US, South Korea and Japan on their toes with the last rocket launch. This has made the US to concentrate more on the events going on around the region.

The US is planning to install an early-warning radar system at a coastal base near the Japanese city of Kyoto to bolster its defences against the North Korean missile threat, reports in the Japanese media claim.

It’ll be the second X-band radar system to be installed in Japan, with another one already operating in northern Aomori prefecture. The location was selected as military experts believe that a North Korean missile targeting Guam or Hawaii would most likely fly over western or central parts of Japan.

Iran's Economy is going through Difficult Times --Ahmadinejad

The series of sanctions imposed by Western nations is beginning to take a naked toll on the economy of Iran as admitted by the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Western nations remained skeptical that Tehran's nuclear programme is to make the Islamic Republic a nuclear power which represents a threat to Israel and the greater Middle East. Tehran denies this saying her programme is for peaceful purposes.

Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a rare acknowledgment, saying the country’s economy is going through harsh times. “This was a very difficult year for our economy,” he stressed.

The statement came during a live television interview, in which the head of the Islamic Republic outlined his government’s budget plan for the coming fiscal year. Ahmadinejad has blamed the US of using all its economic might to put unfair pressure on the Iran.

United States risks a Nuclear Holocaust if it Attacks Iran ---Castro

In a rare public appearance at the Cuban parliament, erstwhile Cuban president, Fidel Castro says the United States risks a nuclear holocaust if it dears attack Iran.

There have been numerous outbursts on possible Israeli or US attack on Iran in relation to Iran's nuclear programme which the West believes is to make Iran a nuclear power.

Tehran continues to deny the allegations saying its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes of energy and medical researches.

Castro while speaking to parliamentarians in an event that saw the re-election of his brother, Raul Castro took them aback in spirits to the famous Cuban Missile Crisis while emphasizing on his point.

The closest the world was to a nuclear disaster and holocaust was during Castro's regime when the Soviet Union transferred nuclear elements to Cuba deter the US from attacking Cuba or ousting Castro. US activities was rampant then to oust Castro as well as destabilize his regime after the Bay of Pigs event.

Breaking News: Balloon Explodes in Egypt killing Tourists

CAIRO (AFP) – A hot air balloon exploded and plunged to earth at Egypt’s ancient temple city of Luxor during a sunrise flight on Tuesday, killing up to 19 tourists, including Asians and Europeans, sources said.

The balloon carrying 21 people was flying at 300 metres (1,000 feet) when it caught fire, a security official said.

An employee at the company operating the balloon, Sky Cruise, said the pilot and one tourist survived by jumping out of the basket before it hit the ground. Both were taken to hospital.

There were contradictory reports over the death toll and the nationalities of those killed in the crash.

An Egyptian security official said 19 tourists had died including nine from Hong Kong, four from Japan, three Britons, two French tourists and one Hungarian.

The health ministry said 14 people had died, and four were missing. It said three people survived but were injured in the crash, including two Britons and one Egyptian.

The Britons were in “critical condition” including one undergoing surgery, state television reported, but security officials said all three Britons had died.

The British foreign office could not immediately confirm if any Britons had died. “We are aware of the reports. We are making inquiries,” a foreign office spokesman said.

In Luxor, security services cordoned off the scene of the crash in the dense sugar cane fields, as police and residents inspected the charred remains of the balloon. The Japanese embassy in Cairo said it was trying to confirm the reports that Japanese nationals died in the accident.

The French embassy was also trying to ascertain whether French nationals had died in the crash, amid conflicting reports.

In Hong Kong, the general manager of a tour operator said nine Hong Kong people were feared dead. “We believe that there is a high possibility that nine of our customers have died,” Raymond Ng of travel agency Kuoni which organised the Hong Kongers’ tour told a news conference.

The five women and four men were aged between 33 and 62, Ng said. Their relatives were to fly to Cairo later on Tuesday via Qatar, accompanied by three staff from Kuoni, he added.

The nine were from a group of 15 Hong Kongers who had left for Egypt on February 22. Ng said that according to local employees, the balloon caught fire about an hour after it had set off, plummeting to the ground two minutes later.

“This is terrible, just terrible,” the Sky Cruise employee told AFP by telephone, declining to give her name. “We don’t yet know what happened exactly or what went wrong,” she said.

The balloon had been floating over the west bank of Luxor, one of Egypt’s most renowned archaeological sites and home to the famous Valley of the Kings and the grand Temple of Hatshepsut.

In 2009, 13 foreign tourists were injured when their hot air balloon hit a phone mast and crashed at Luxor. Sources at the time said the balloon was overcrowded.

The crash comes amid widespread anger over safety standards in Egypt following several deadly transport and construction accidents.

Emergence of Tony Anenih as the BoT chairman of the PDP

Chief Tony Anenih was on Monday February 25th elected Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Board of Trustees after a meeting of the party at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The meeting was attended by President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo, Senate President David Mark, House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, PDP chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim.

The Chief had earlier held the position during the Obasanjo days as president of Nigeria. He was earlier in the year appointed the Chairman of Nigeria's Port Authority which sparked massive criticisms from Nigerians on the kind of future for the youths if such an old man could be appointed.

Anenih's appointed simply shows the cycle of corruption in Nigeria which rotates around government cronies and confederates.

Russia to Soft-pedal on Oil Exploration

Russia’s remote regions could become alive with access by foreign companies to explore oil in order to avoid the possible decline in oil, gas and mineral extraction.

They may be allowed to co-developing onshore deposits of federal importance, the Russian Natural Resources Minister Sergey Donskoy told a news-conference. He explained deposits in the Far East and Eastern Siberia will be first.

The initiative concerns all kinds of mineral resources except of those on the continental shelf, the Russian Deputy Minister of Natural Resources, Denis Khramov, told the Vedomosti daily.

In current Russian law, oil and gas deposits of national importance are those having 70mn tones of oil and 50bcm of gas. The list of those deposits was outlined in 2008. Ever since, only two Russian majors, Gazprom and Rosneft, have had access to sea deposits, while the right to develop fields were put up for auction with the limited list of bidders.

The access of foreign investors to such deposits was restricted four years ago; they have to get government approval to have more than 10% of the company developing deposits of federal importance.

The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources expects oil production in the country to considerably drop in the near future. In 2013 the decline is expected to reach 0.8% or 510 million tonnes. In order to change the trend and until the Arctic shelf can fill the gap, which is unlikely to happen until 2020, the ministry plans to propel onshore production.

It is hoped the initiative will have a major impact on ore extraction as well as oil and gas. Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East are under-explored even though they have great potentials. If the initiative is approved by the government and the president, it could stimulate companies to develop the  area.

This will mark a turning point in Russia's Oil Industry and in Vladimir Putin's external rapport. The KGB 'guy' has always been skeptical of foreign investments and actions in Russia. Russia could simply be taking a leaf from China.

Russia to become Developed in Seven Years

Russia has been projected to become a developed country with low inflation, a sizable middle class, and much slower economic growth rates in just seven years according to a research report from Bank of America's Merrill Lynch.

Ironically the research argues that the country’s problems, such as a declining population, will become the catalysts for these changes and will actually drive the country to improvement in internal consumption.

“By the year 2020, Russia will turn into a developed country thanks mainly to its demographic problems,” the research by Vladimir Osakovsky of Bank of America Merrill Lynch suggests.

The Russian Ministry of Economic Development also supported this concept, Finmarket.ru reports. Economists believe that scarce human resources will force employers to compete for qualified workers. Hence higher salaries will boost internal consumption.

Experts of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development however have disagreed with such a notion.

Nigeria achieves an Important Phase in her Economy --Peterside

Mr. Atedo Peterside said Nigeria’s economy has reached a threshold, a critical phase during which the country will accelerate the realisation of its vast economic potentials and deliver growth on a sustainable basis.

Speaking at the 2013 Standard Bank West Africa Investors’ Conference in Lagos last week , Peterside, who is the Chairman of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc and Chairman of the Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatisation, said Nigeria’s economic foundations and thrusts are getting stronger every day.

According to him, this is pivotal in helping investors to leverage the attractive investment opportunities that exist in the country and to derive optimal value from such investments. “We all know that a tipping point only becomes unmistakably clear after the fact when one has joined the ranks of those who are left to ponder how they could possibly have missed out,” Peterside stated.

Nigeria’s quest for economic growth and development attained important milestones in the last 12 months, with the power sector, capital market, ports, agriculture and foreign direct investments recording significant improvements.

He enjoined all Nigerians to contribute their quota to the development of the economy and the advancement of Nigeria.

Lagos State Government Violates Human Rights -- Amnesty International

The International Human Rights Watchdog, Amnesty International has accused the Lagos State Government of human rights violations in the government latest demolition process at Ijora Badiya in which hundreds of people have being evacuated and displaced.

The government in its bid to make the state a megacity has demolished numerous houses and structures around the area rendering hundreds of people homeless and without support or palliatives.

In a related development, the state government has also made its intention to eradicate slums in Lagos. This move is to render about 40,000 people homeless at the Ajegunle area of Lagos.

Some Lagosians reacting to the move say there are slums all over the world, hence while should the state government put more people on the suffering line by compounding their problems all in a bid to make the convenient for the rich.