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A bomb in a mosque killed a provincial governor Tuesday in the highest profile assassination in recent months, part of an intensified campaign to intimidate Afghanistan’s administration as it prepares for elections and the withdrawal of foreign troops after 12 years of war. The bomb killed Gov. Arsallah Jamal of eastern Logar province as he delivered a speech at the main mosque in the provincial capital of Puli Alam to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. The attack also wounded 15 people, five of them critically, said his spokesman, Din Mohammad Darwesh.

JERUSALEM, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Turkey deliberately blew the cover of an Israeli spy ring working inside Iran in early 2012 and dealt a significant blow to Israeli intelligence gathering, according to a report in the Washington Post on Thursday. There was no immediate comment from Israel or Turkey, but Israeli ministers have accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of adopting an anti-Israeli stance in recent years to bolster his country's standing in the Muslim world. Once-strong relations between Turkey and Israel hit the rocks in 2010 after Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists who were seeking to break...

Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu Observes IDF Exercise On Golan HeightsBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel --- October 16, 2013 ... Part of the following was communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser to the Israel News Agency. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu observed an Armored Corps brigade-level exercise on the Golan Heights. He was briefed by IDF Deputy Chief-of-Staff Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot and GOC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan and said at the start of the military exercise: "I came this evening to observe one of the many exercises that the Israel Defense Forces holds in order to maintain...

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst called for President Barack Obama’s impeachment during a Tarrant County Tea Party candidate forum, The Texas Observer reported first. Dewhurst’s spokesman confirmed to the Texas Tribune that the lieutenant governor said Congress should impeached the president for taking his role too far on issues like immigration and Obamacare, as well as mistakes following the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. “He feels very strongly about the tragedy in Benghazi and has said that Congress should consider impeaching the President over the tragedy,” the spokesman told the Tribune. “David Dewhurst also believes that...

In a revealing move, the Obama Administration has announced its intention to try captured al-Qaeda jihad terrorist Abu Anas al-Libi in federal court in New York City. Al-Libi, who was involved in the jihad bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, has been held for the last week and a half on a ship in the Mediterranean, but now he is on his way to the U.S., where his trial is certain to be an international media circus – and yet another exhibition of Obama’s thoroughgoing denial of the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat. Senator...

As more key powers are transferred to Brussels, it poses an existential question for central governments. … “In my opinion, national central governments will become less important and will lose more power. They will become more and more impotent,” says Franz Schausberger, founder of the Austria-based Institute of the Regions of Europe.To compensate, he notes, “regions have to become stronger, so that the citizens can strengthen their identity and participate in regional and local democracy.” …

The French National Assembly’s finance committee has green-lighted an amendment to the country’s draft 2014 budget law, significantly increasing the amount of aid funds that can be generated from the upcoming financial transactions tax (FTT), EurActiv.fr reports. An unexpected proposal for taxing financial transactions—amendment 23—was adopted on Tuesday (15 October) by the French Parliament’s finance committee during its examination of the country’s draft budget law for next year. … But the proposal is viewed less positively by the French Finance Ministry, which wants to protect the interests of French banks. Financial market operators, such as NYSE Euronext and Paris Europlace,...

The air we breathe is laced with cancer-causing substances and should now be classified as carcinogenic to humans, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) cancer agency said on Thursday. Air pollution, mostly caused by transport, power generation, industrial or agricultural emissions and residential heating and cooking, is already known to raise risks for a wide range of illnesses including respiratory and heart diseases. IARC's director, Christopher Wild, said the agency's decision to classify outdoor air pollution as carcinogenic to humans was an important step towards alerting governments to its dangers and potential costs.

AS NSW burns into the night, with new fires starting even at 8pm, firefighters are bracing for another dangerous day tomorrow. As seven fires have taken hold and burning out of control, dubbed "the worst in a decade or more" by RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, he has tonight warned containment will only come when conditions start to ease - but there is not a wet day in sight.

Philippine quake: All is now OK on the island of Cebu. The power just came back on. It was shake, rattle, and roll for about 30 seconds, as my porter, delivering beer, and I made a dash for the door. Fallen book case was only damage. Thanks to FReepers who mailed their concerns.

NATO member states’ defense officials are strongly opposed Turkey’s deal with a Chinese firm to co-produce its first long-range anti-missile system. They desribe the Chinese system’s incorporation into NATO as a ‘virus’ while Turkish officials asserted the system would be NATO-operable Defense officials from NATO member states have described any potential Turkish effort to integrate China-made long-range air and anti-missile defense system into NATO’s overall air defense architecture as a “virus” within the allied system and a “possibly most futile effort.” “NATO’s own command and control system that ‘mashes’ input from allied networks is far more important than a Chinese...

U.S. Army in the Market for ‘Light’ Tanks Army paratroopers gave up their tanks in 1997. Now they want them back. “The infantry needs more protection and more firepower,” says Col. Ed House, Army Training and Doctrine Command manager for the infantry brigade combat team. Even in these times of deep budget cuts and a projected steep decline in purchases of military hardware, senior Army officials believe that a light tank is a high priority that should be funded. In a future war, they contend, Army airborne forces would parachute into a warzone equipped with only light weapons and might...

Pentagon officials have said it ad nauseam: More competition in the defense industry is needed to spur innovation and stem rising weapon costs. In a weapons market that will become increasingly cutthroat as budgets decline, such statements are not being taken lightly by companies that are eager to challenge incumbent contractors. “We are big fans of competition,” says Doug Denneny, vice president of MBDA Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Europe’s largest missile manufacturer. MBDA has manufacturing plants in France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany. The U.S. subsidiary, based in Arlington, Va., opened a research and manufacturing facility in Westlake...

Moscow (CNN) -- Edward Snowden's father expressed satisfaction Wednesday with the way his son, the former National Security Agency contractor, has been treated since being granted asylum in August. Lon Snowden spoke to reporters at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport as he prepared to return to the United States after a six-day visit, his first reunion with his son since April. "I felt that this is the best place for him, this is the place where he doesn't have to worry about people rushing across the border to render him," Lon Snowden said. "It's not going to happen here." It may...

MOSCOW, October 16 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s state arms export monopoly has signed a $1 billion deal package with Angola to deliver military equipment, build an ammunition plant and provide maintenance services, Vedomosti business daily reported Wednesday. Rosoboronexport will supply 18 Su-30K fighter jets to the southern African nation, the daily said, citing sources at the arms exports company and the Russian military. The Su-30K fighters in question are a batch of aircraft that were initially supplied to India in the late 1990s, prior to Delhi receiving the more advanced multirole Su-30MKI variant. They were returned to Russia in 2007,...

SAINT-NAZAIRE (France), October 15 (RIA Novosti) – A French shipyard floated out Tuesday the first of two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships being built for the Russian Navy. The ship, named Vladivostok, being built at the DCNS shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, is expected to start sea trials in March next year. “The ship will be handed over unarmed, but equipped with French-made landing equipment,” DCNS program manager Yves Destefanis said at the launch ceremony. It will be fitted with Russian-made weapons systems later, he added. The vessel will receive its additional Russian systems at the Severnaya Verf shipyard in St. Petersburg, and...

(Reuters) - Brazil is pushing ahead with a planned $1 billion purchase of anti-aircraft missile batteries from Russia in a deal that will cement a strategic defence partnership between the two BRICS nations, the Brazilian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday. Brazilian officials said they expect to sign a contract by the middle of 2014 for short- to medium-range surface-to-air Pantsir S1 missile batteries and Igla-S shoulder-held missiles. In December, Brazil bought 12 Mi-35 attack helicopters - a type dubbed the 'flying tank' - in its first purchase from Russia of military hardware. The rising Latin American power has traditionally obtained...

Palestinians Injured While Torturing Cattle At least 125 Palestinians in Gaza were wounded while torturing and slaughtering cattle in the streets as part of the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha, Palestinian media reported. Gaza has five official slaughterhouses, but wait times were hours long, so a great many Gazans decided to do their own public butchering for the holiday, which is typically accompanied by much feasting. But, as videos and pictures posted to the Internet revealed, many of the Palestinians did not contend themselves to simply slaughtering the animals, but first engaged in what can only be described as...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet Pope Francis and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Italy next week. Netanyahu will meet Francis in the Vatican Wednesday, ahead of the pontiff’s expected visit to Israel next year. In Rome, the prime minister will meet with Kerry to discuss the current nuclear negotiations between six world powers on Iran, and the peace process with the Palestinians, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. The first round of renewed nuclear negotiations between the so-called P5+1 powers and the Islamic Republic concluded Wednesday with cautious optimism from both sides....

France will boost its military presence in the Central African Republic by the end of the year to stop the country from spiralling out of control, the French foreign minister has said. "President Hollande we want your help!" read one banner as locals in Bangui, the capital, welcomed Laurent Fabius at the weekend. The country has been in turmoil since mostly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President François Bozizé in the predominantly Christian country in March. It now teeters on the brink of increased sectarian violence, malnutrition and a collapse of state rule. ... France has long been seen by many...

UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is calling for a surge of thousands of African troops in Somalia to stem the threat of terrorism posed by Islamist insurgents and ensure the survival of a U.N.-backed government, whose success Washington believes is crucial to defeating extremist groups in the region, according to a previously undisclosed appeal. In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, Ban urged member nations to provide the African Union Mission in Somalia with financial and military support, including attack helicopters and advanced logistical and intelligence equipment. He warned that there was an urgent need to...

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, has called on House GOP leadership to be open and honest about their intentions with any forthcoming immigration bills before they come to the floor. DeSantis said House GOP leadership should promise that there will be no conference committee with the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, and that there should be no attempt to try to fix the Senate’s bill. “We should not go to a conference on the Gang of Eight bill for two reasons,” DeSantis said in a phone interview with Breitbart News. “One, I don’t...

A senior Dutch diplomat was attacked by unknown assailants in Moscow late Tuesday night, Russian news agencies have reported, a week after President Vladimir Putin demanded an apology for a Russian diplomat's alleged beating in the Netherlands. Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans confirmed on his Facebook page that the attack on Onno Elderenbosch, deputy head of the Netherlands mission in Russia, did take place and summoned the Russian ambassador for an explanation on Wednesday, according to Dutch media. Russia was quick to express its regrets on Wednesday. The country’s investigative committee said Wednesday in a statement that it was investigating...

The standard critique of President Obama’s foreign policy is now generally well-known—mercurial, paradoxical, and passive. “Leading from behind” seems at odds with the traditional American commitment to ensure—preferably with allies or, if need be, alone—the continuance of the postwar global system of sovereign borders, free trade, safe commerce, and open communications. Many of Obama’s recent foreign policy initiatives have resulted in a diminished United States and they have found little success. The reset with Russia earned us a strange sort of contempt from Vladimir Putin. Moscow almost gratuitously thwarts the U.S., gloating that we offer loud self-righteous sermons to others...

The 1973 October War was the Arab-Israeli war Israel almost lost. Historians generally attribute Israel's costly victory to two Israeli lapses, a successful enemy deception operation and a very astute Egyptian war plan. The lapses and enemy deception scheme still shape Israeli security policy, especially toward Iran and its nuclear weapons program. Israel's first lapse occurred when its intelligence services failed to detect the size and scale of enemy military preparations. Spies noticed more tanks on Syria's side of the Golan Heights and increased activity on Egypt's side of the Suez Canal. However, they failed to discern the Syrian and...

President Barack Obama plans to host Iraq’s prime minister at the White House on Nov. 1. …

Muslims don’t like vaccines. It’s safe to mock a Jenny McCarthy over vaccines, but no one mentions the vehement opposition of Islamists to vaccinations. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have issued fatwas against vaccines and murdered workers. Nigeria and Pakistan have also been scenes of violent Muslim opposition to vaccination. Muslims aren’t even 1 percent of the population of Scotland. But they’ve been doing their Talibanest best there, with the aid and support of the so-called Scottish National Party that often seems more like the Pakistani Immigrants Party and now Scotland’s largest vaccination program has been shut down because of them.

The Israeli air force has updated the status of an ongoing modernisation programme for its fleet of Boeing F-15I "Raam" strike aircraft. "This is the first major upgrade of this excellent aircraft and it will enable it to fly for many more years," says Col Shimon Tsentsiper, commander of the service's depot 22. Intended to help retain the two-seat F-15I's status as the air force's primary long-strike platform in a variety of operational scenarios, the upgrade introduces a "great number" of new avionic systems, most of which were developed in Israel by drawing on the service's operational experience. The F-15I...

Love Wins in Wake of Zamboanga War Aftermath By Lucille Talusan CBN News Asia Correspondent Friday, October 11, 2013 After three weeks of fighting between Philippine troops and Muslim rebels, the fighting in the southern city of Zamboanga is over. And throngs are Muslims are looking to Christians for help. Now, leaders face the difficult tasks of rebuilding their community and helping traumatized residents move forward. Surprisingly, it's area churches that are reaching out to the mostly Muslim victims. Zamboanga resident, Cristina, is still shaken. She recounted how God miraculously saved her from being taken hostage at the height of...

Fatalities Spike in Philippines Earthquake CBNNews.com Wednesday, October 16, 2013 The death toll from the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit the Philippines is up to 144. So far, only three people have been pulled alive from the rubble and officials say another 291 people are injured. The central island of Bohol was hit the hardest, with historic churches dating from the Spanish colonial period suffering major damage. Many roads and bridges were also badly damaged, making rescue operations difficult. CBN Disaster Relief is preparing to travel to the region to provide relief for the victims.

Deadly Typhoon Wreaks Havoc in Japan CBNNews.com Wednesday, October 16, 2013 In Japan, at least 17 people are dead and 50 more are missing in the aftermath of a powerful typhoon. Packing winds of more than 110 miles per hour, Typhoon Wipha caused deadly mudslides that destroyed dozens of homes on the Japanese island of Izu Oshima, south of Tokyo. The storm paralyzed Tokyo's public transportation. Flights were also cancelled, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. "People on this island are somewhat used to heavy rainstorms, but this typhoon was beyond our imagination," Yutaka Sagara, a 59-year-old sushi chef on the...

CAIRO (Reuters) - A U.S. decision to curtail military and economic aid to Egypt to promote democracy may ultimately backfire, pushing Cairo to seek assistance elsewhere and giving Washington less leverage to stabilize a country in the heart of the Middle East. Washington faces a dilemma in dealing with its major regional ally: Egypt controls the Suez Canal and has a peace treaty with neighboring Israel but its army overthrew the first freely elected president, Islamist Mohamed Mursi, in July. The United States said on Wednesday it would withhold deliveries of tanks, fighter aircraft, helicopters and missiles to Cairo as...

U.S. Army Ranger Cpl. Josh Hargis was lying on a hospital bed in Afghanistan, hooked up to a breathing tube with his right hand heavily bandaged when he was awarded a Purple Heart for his valor in the battlefield. None of that, however, stopped Hargis, 24, from following military protocol and lifting his bandaged hand to salute the Ranger Regimental Commander who pinned the Purple Heart to his red, white and blue blanket. "Grown men began to weep and we were speechless at a gesture that speak[s] volumes about Josh's courage and character," one of the officers present in the...

Until the regime changes, says former US president, ‘I won’t believe they have peaceful intentions’ WASHINGTON — Former US president George W. Bush told a Jewish gathering that he did not trust the Iranian regime to change its intentions toward Israel. “I will not believe in Iran’s peaceful intentions until they can irrevocably prove that it’s true,” Bush told the 1,200 guests at the gala of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, according to several people in attendance. “The United States’ foreign policy must be clear eyed and understand that until the form of government changes in...

Moscow's migrant workers have seen this story before and they believe they have reason to be afraid. When an unidentified man -- believed to be from the Caucasus -- stabbed and killed a young ethnic Russian on October 10, triggering the capital's worst ethnic riots in three years, police made hundreds of arrests. By late on October 13, they had wrested the southern district of Biryulyovo from Russian nationalists, who had overturned cars, smashed windows and stormed a vegetable warehouse looking for migrants. But by October 14, nearly all the rioters had been released from custody. And now, the authorities...

In Yom Kippur War anniversary speech, prime minister suggests that inaction on Iran is costlier than international opprobrium Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a thinly veiled defense of a possible Israeli preemptive strike on Iran during a Knesset commemoration Tuesday of the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. In a speech to MKs about the war, in which Israel was surprised by a coordinated Arab invasion on the northern and southern fronts, Netanyahu explained that IDF soldiers who fought in the bitter battles of that war “saved us from paying the price of complacency.” “In the end we won...

There has been a just degree of criticism directed towards the Guardian over the results of their readers’ poll on the Nobel Peace Prize in which 76% of respondents chose Hassan Rouhani from a list (compiled by their journalists) which included the brave Pakistani girl – shot by the Taliban for advocating on behalf of girls’ education – named Malala Yousafzai. (see charts at website) Rouhani was nominated by Saeed Kamali-Dehghan, who has served as one of the paper’s chief promoters of the lie that the new Iranian president is a “moderate” despite Rouhani’s involvement in terror attacks abroad and...

The Ministry of Defense's weapons development administration (Mafat) is targeting a global market worth $2 billion annually. The Ministry of Defense's Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure (Mafat) has set the next challenge for Israel's defense industry: do for unmanned submarines what it did for unmanned aerial warfare. If the defense industry moves quickly and purposefully in identifying this emerging market, and offers a well-functioning unmanned submarine, it could be riding the right wave in a decade from now: Mafat aeronautics division director Dr. Yuval Cohen estimates that the market will be worth $2 billion a year...

US defence firms eye $10.8bn UAE, Saudi sales Defence firms in the US are looking to sell military hardware worth $10.8bn to the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The Defence Security Cooperation Agency said it has notified Congress of the possible foreign military sales to the Gulf countries, with Boeing and Raytheon named as suppliers. The proposal includes the first US sales to Middle East allies of new Raytheon and Boeing weapons that can be launched at a distance from Saudi F-15 and UAE F-16 fighters. The Boeing Expanded-Response Standoff Land Attack Missile and Raytheon Joint Standoff Weapon give those nations...

Military authorities here worry about intelligence reports that North Korea is developing a new ground-to-ship ballistic missile with a range of 300 km which would be impossible to intercept with current weapons. "The North is developing a new ground-to-ship ballistic missile with a range of 200-300 km, an improved version of the KN-02 ground-to-ground ballistic missile," whose range is 140 km, a military source said Friday. "We're trying to verify the report." The North already has surface-to-ship cruise missiles like the KN-01 with a range of 160 km and the Silkworm missile with a range of 100 km. But ballistic...

SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean Navy has made a request to build three more Aegis destroyers to bolster defense against its Asian neighbors and North Korea amid increasing military tension due to territorial disputes, a military source said Wednesday. South Korea currently operates three 7,600-ton Aegis warships, but the Navy has sought to increase its fleet to cope with rising regional tension in light of Pyongyang's third nuclear test conducted earlier this year and ongoing territorial disputes between China and Japan. "The Navy made a request for three additional Aegis ships to the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

Tbilisi (AFP) - French authorities have detained a former Georgian defence minister wanted in his homeland on corruption charges, a police source said Tuesday. Davit Kezerashvili, a close ally of outgoing president Mikheil Saakashvili, was detained Monday at the Nice airport just before 1:00pm (1100 GMT), as he was trying to board a flight to Tirana, the capital of Albania, the police source said. "He was stopped by border police during an identity check. The police realised that he was the target of an international arrest warrant," the source said. Kezerashvili will now face an extradition hearing to determine whether...

video 1:16:09 Interesting debate in which the conservatives are now trying to convince UKIP and Nigel Farage to take a dive in the next election while dangling the carrot of alliance later on. Nigel will have none of it. Great response from him. Tea Party is in a similar (yet not as strong) position as UKIP. We should study what is happening with UKIP very closely.

Iranian leaders are doing everything they can to display their country’s Jewish population as satisfied, even if they have to resort to fakery to do so, according to Iranian Affairs expert Menashe Amir. Amir, who was born and raised in Tehran and now lives in Israel, explained that Iran’s leaders believe that showing Jewish support will help their image. … Iranian Jews suffer from discrimination as do all religious minorities in Shiite Muslim states like Iran, he said. The problems they face include, in some cases, a lack of access to medicine, he said. …

Abdellah Taia, the only openly homosexual Moroccan writer, was in Venice to present his debut film, “Salvation Army”, adapted from his autobiographical novel about growing up gay in Morocco. FRANCE 24 sat down with Taia for an interview. By Jon FROSCH (text) In an edition of the Venice Film Festival notable for the prevalence of works grappling with global and societal woes (unemployment, terrorism, pollution, war), perhaps no film has blended the personal and the political as strikingly as Abdellah Taia’s “L’Armée du salut” (“Salvation Army”). A promising directorial debut presented in the independent “Critics’ Week” category on Wednesday, the...

Women's rights have advanced across the world, and legislation is catching up with the times. In most modern countries, gender equality has been codified into the system. But not everywhere. Unfortunately, some retrograde legislation against women persists — and some laws are just downright incomprehensible. 1) Driving in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia's long-standing driving ban hit headlines recently, after conservative Saudi cleric Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan announced that driving "harms women's ovaries" on a popular news site. "If a woman drives a car, not out of pure necessity, that could have negative physiological impacts as functional and physiological medical studies show...

"The big Kerry arm." That's how some of his Senate staff used to describe John Kerry's approach to negotiation. It's reminiscent of what Lyndon Baines Johnson used to do to his Senate colleagues: a little light physical pressure to drive home a point. You can bet that at some point over the weekend the six-foot-four Kerry, who landed in Kabul on an unannounced visit Friday, applied that big arm to the shoulders of the diminutive Hamid Karzai, the often combative and erratic president of Afghanistan, whom Kerry knows well and with whom no one else in the U.S. government seems...

Estimating casualties of war is a difficult science. Exact counts are nearly impossible to achieve, especially in areas where violent conflict continues long after the last of foreign troops have withdrawn. Determining a death toll for Iraqi civilians during the eight-year U.S.-led occupation has proven especially challenging. Multiple attempts by different organizations have covered only a few years of the war, and the resulting tallies range from as low as just over 100,000 to as high as 600,000. The latest estimates, detailed in a study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine, come from an investigation into the total number...

GDANSK, October 15, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Sunday, thousands of Poles joyfully marched for life and family with multi-colored banners and flags through the streets of the city where the Solidarity movement was founded. This was the fourth March for Life and Family to take place in Poland. Each year it is co-organized by Human Life International - Poland. The march began at the symbolic monument to the Shipyard Workers victims of communism, which displays three crosses with crucified anchors. Some of the marchers carried long strips of cloth on which was inscribed the full text of the Vatican document,...

Huge numbers of goats, cows and even camels will be slaughtered in Pakistani on Wednesday homes to mark the Islamic holy day of Eid al-Adha. The sacrificial offering of around 6m animals will allow families to fulfil a religious duty, guarantee some much appreciated meat handouts to the poor and provide nearly half of the annual requirement of the country's leather industry. It will also generate an extraordinary cash windfall for some of Pakistan's most dangerous militant groups. Thinly disguised front organisations have been gearing up to compete against each other and legitimate charities to collect as many animal skins...