Posted: 17 Jul 2013 03:05 PM PDT The Chong Chon Gang docks at the Manzanillo International Container Terminal in Colon City, Panama, on Tuesday.
N. KOREA DEMANDS RELEASE OF SEIZED SHIP -- VOICE OF AMERICA
North Korea is demanding that Panama release a Pyongyang-flagged ship seized in Panamanian waters, saying the commandeered Cuban arms shipment on board was part of a legitimate deal.
In a statement late Wednesday, Pyongyang's foreign ministry described the cargo as "aging" Cuban weapons that North Korea agreed under contract to overhaul. The statement also called for the immediate release of the ship, the Chong Chon Gang, and its crew.
Hours earlier, Panama called on the United Nations to investigate the seizure, as allegations swirled that the North Korean ship was smuggling arms in breach of U.N. sanctions.MIDDLE EAST
UN: Some 5,000 Syrians being.
Syria crisis worst since Rwanda,
Ruins in a center
Gunmen kill pro-Assad figure in Lebanon .
UN Envoy: Iraq and Syrian conflicts
Iraqi Kurdistan struggles to cope .
Arab League backs . Kerry to meet Arab League officials
Bomb attack kills seven in northern Iraq tea house:
World powers hope to resume
Iran's Rouhani .
Erdogan is making sure the Turkish military doesn't.
Egyptian army camp attacked .
ASIA
US military deaths in Afghanistan
Bhutan set for change in power .
Korean talks on reopening joint complex
Death penalty for .
Special Report: Smugglers and security forces prey .
Manila says UN tribunal meets .
Contaminated school meal . Violent protests in India .
Philippines 'studying options' .
China smartphone owners swell number.
AFRICA
Guinea deploys troops as 54 are killed .
ECOWAS promises.
Nelson Mandela's health .
EU calls for release
U.S. suggests Egyptian military
Exclusive: Eritrea pays warlord to.
EU continues Somalia counterpiracy operation,
Armed protesters storm .
Sudan's indicted President Bashir
Ethiopia's special police seek to build trust .
Mali's main parties say will
EUROPE
Protests mount ahead of .
U.S. vague on whether Obama will .
US ties outweigh .
US sends extradition requests .
The EU's grandstanding over Prism will. Italian PM warns of 'huge risk'.
Spain says it arrests British fugitive, .
Nagorno-Karabakh president seeks to negotiate .
Trial of captain resumes after.
AMERICAS
US lawmakers grill Obama officials
Brazil's Rousseff rules out 'fiscal populism'.
Panama calls in U.N. to . North Korea cargo ship search
Colombia President Santos .
Obama says capture of cartel boss shows .
Zetas leader captured .
Cuba claims ownership of missile parts found .
Venezuelan President Maduro
TERRORISM/THE LONG WAR
Syria's Nusra Front tries to show it's
Senior Pakistani Taliban leader .
Al Qaeda branch says .
Judge turns down bid to .
Al Qaeda shura council member appears .
ECONOMY/FINANCE/BUSINESS
Google competition plan .
Formula 1 boss Ecclestone .
Barclays, traders fined .
Facing lawmakers, Bernanke to walk .
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 02:40 PM PDT IMAGE: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of Rolling Stone. Illustration by Sean McCabe
FIVE REVELATIONS FROM ROLLING STONE'S BOSTON BOMBER COVER STORY -- ROLLING STONE
Janet Reitman delivers a riveting account of how Jahar Tsarnaev became a monster
In the new issue of Rolling Stone, contributing editor Janet Reitman delivers a deeply reported account of the life and times of Boston bomber Jahar Tsarnaev. Reitman spent the last two months interviewing dozens of sources - childhood and high school friends, teachers, neighbors and law enforcement agents, many of whom spoke for the first time about the case - to deliver a riveting and heartbreaking account of how a charming kid with a bright future became a monster. Here are five revelations about Tsarnaev from our latest cover story, "Jahar's World":
* As Jahar lay in the boat, surrounded by SWAT teams and police, FBI negotiators mentioned a public plea for his surrender from his former wrestling coach. An agent on the scene later told the coach that it could have been this name from the past - and the memory of that past - both of which were invoked during the standoff, that convinced Jahar to ultimately give up.MORE NEWS ON ROLLING STONE AND IT'S COVERAGE OF BOSTON MARATHON SUSPECT JAHAR TSARNAEV
UPDATE: The Russian edition of Rolling Stoneon the Russian magazine cover. Being someone whose nationality is Russian this is not a surprise .... to do so would have resulted in the magazine being ripped off stands, the Russian Rolling Stone reporters and editors probably threatened with jail time for giving comfort and support to terrorists, and a possible lost in their license to distribute their product in Russia.
UPDATE #2: Rolling Stone is trying to .
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 01:00 PM PDT
GRAHAM: US SHOULD CONSIDER OLYMPIC BOYCOTT OVER POSSIBLE SNOWDEN ASYLUM -- NBC
A key U.S. senator has told NBC News that the United States should consider boycotting the upcoming Winter Games if Russian President Vladimir Putin grants leaker Edward Snowden asylum -- even suggesting that Putin's actions should raise the specter of the pre-World War II Berlin games hosted by Adolf Hitler's regime.
"I love the Olympics, but I hate what the Russian government is doing throughout the world," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told NBC News on Tuesday. "If they give asylum to a person who I believe has committed treason against the United States, that's taking it to a new level."MORE NEWS ON U.S. SENATOR GRAHAM SUGGESTING THAT THE U.S. SHOULD BOYCOTT THE UPCOMING OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES IF RUSSIA GRANTS ASYLUM TO NSA LEAKER EDWARD SNOWDEN
MY COMMENT: Senator Graham's suggestion of an Olympic boycott is a stupid idea .... which will probably disappear in the next day or two. But what will probably happen is a.... if Snowden is still in Russia President Obama may not show up and/or decline an invitation to see Russian President Putin in Moscow.
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 12:00 PM PDT
RUSSIA'S PUTIN PUTS US TIES ABOVE SNOWDEN -- VOICE OF AMERICA
MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday gave his clearest signal yet that he will not let a dispute over the fate of former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden derail Russia's relations with the United States.
But a lawyer assisting Snowden, who is stuck in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and wanted by Washington for leaking details of U.S. intelligence programs, said he expected Russia to grant him temporary asylum within a week.
The Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, also said Snowden had no plans to leave soon for any of the three Latin American countries that are offering him refuge because of U.S. pressure on its allies to bar his way.MORE NEWS ON RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN COMMENTS ON NSA LEAKER SNOWDEN AND HIS IMPACT ON U.S. - RUSSIAN RELATIONS
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 11:00 AM PDT A screenshot from the Far Out mapping software. Researchers from Microsoft and Google can predict where a person will be years from now using this system. The program tracks a person using GPS and learns their routine. It then uses this information to accurately plot their future locations
NEW TRACKING SOFTWARE KNOWS EXACTLY WHERE YOU'LL BE ON A PRECISE TIME AND DATE YEARS INTO THE FUTURE (EVEN IF YOU DON'T) -- DAILY MAIL
* Program called Far Out tracks people using GPS to learn their routine
* It then makes predictions about where that person will be in future years
* Far Out can react to changes in jobs, relationships and moving house
* The results are 'highly accurate' and can plot locations to the date
Where do you see yourself in five years time? It's a common interview question designed to learn about a person's ambitions, and thanks to new technology you could soon be able to give a precise answer to this question.
Researchers from Microsoft and Google can predict where a person will be years from now using a new computer software called Far Out.The programme tracks a person using a GPS device and learns their routine.
It then uses this information to accurately guess their future locations and will adapts its predictions even if someone changes their job, relationship or moves house.MY COMMENT: I suspect that many refinements will still be needed on the software .... but if "ironed out" the implications for business, conflicts and war zones, politics .... it would be staggering.
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 10:30 AM PDT
GOV'T BUREAU 'CREATING A GOOGLE EARTH ON EVERY FINANCIAL TRANSACTION,' SENATOR WARNS -- CNS
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is looking to create a "Google Earth" of every financial transaction of every American, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) warned today in a Senate speech opposing confirmation of Richard Cordray as CFPB director.
"This bill (creating the CFPB) was supposed to be about regulating Wall Street. Instead, it's creating a Google Earth on every financial transaction. That's right: the government will be able to see every detail of your finances. Your permission - not needed," Sen. Enzi said.MY COMMENT: The technology and software already exists .... my prediction is that such a program will be approved and implemented in a very short period of time all on the grounds of 'national security'.
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 10:00 AM PDT The system could record up to 10,000 license plates during a typical patrol shift.
MILLIONS OF US LICENSE PLATES TRACKED AND STORED, NEW ACLU REPORT FINDS -- THE GUARDIAN
Alarming number of databases across US are storing details of Americans' locations - not just government agencies
Millions of Americans are having their movements tracked through automated scanning of their car license plates, with the records held often indefinitely in vast government and private databases.
A new report from the American Civil Liberties Union has found an alarming proliferation of databases across the US storing details of Americans' locations. The technology is not confined to government agencies - private companies are also getting in on the act, with one firm National Vehicle Location Service holding more than 800m records of scanned license plates.MORE NEWS ON MILLIONS OF US LICENSE PLATES BEING TRACKED AND STORED
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 09:30 AM PDT
KILL THE GAG ORDER ON NSA'S SPYING, MICROSOFT ASKS ATTORNEY GENERAL -- FOX NEWS
Microsoft sent a letter to attorney general Eric Holder on Tuesday asking him to personally lift at least part of the gag order preventing the company from talking discussing many aspects of the government's secret spy programs.
Called Prism and revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden last month, the government's mammoth spy program collects data from telephone calls, emails, video conferencing and more from a number of top Internet companies, also including Google, Yahoo, Facebook and others.
In the letter, Microsoft's top lawyer says the incredible secrecy prevents the company from telling the truth about the program -- to the detriment of America itself.MORE NEWS ON MICROSOFT WANTING PARTS OF IT'S GAG ORDER ON NSA SURVEILLANCE PROGRAMS LIFTED
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 09:00 AM PDT In Aleppo, Syria, a rebel builds Molotov-cocktail-like incendiary bombs in an abandoned school.
MAKERS OF WAR -- MATTHIEU AIKINS, THREAT LEVEL
The arms manufacturers of Aleppo used to be ordinary men--network administrators, housepainters, professors. Then came the bloody Syrian crisis. Now they must use all their desperate creativity to supply their fellow rebels with the machinery of death.
Abu Yassin pulls open the heavy iron gate of the school and steps back. "Peace be upon you," he says in Arabic, grinning and extending a hand, his arm stained to the elbow with aluminum powder. "Welcome, welcome." He turns and waves for me to follow. We walk along a short pathway toward the front door, past an assortment of ordnance laid out on the concrete, bombs that fell from the sky but failed to explode: an ovoid 88-millimeter mortar shell, a big 500-pounder with twisted tail fins, a neat row of pale-gray Russian cluster bomblets, their nose fuses removed. "Later! I will open them later!" he says, eyebrows waggling with anticipation.
The four-story school is shaped like a C around a set of basketball courts, paved with stone tiles and pocked at the far end with small dark craters. A set of white plastic lawn chairs and a table have been arranged in the central courtyard near the door leading into the school. A young boy walks over in silence. "Let's see, coffee or tea?" Yassin says, distracted, contemplating the plastic furniture. Another assistant, an older man in a filthy smock, comes out and stands beside us holding a silver cylinder the size of a soda bottle. It's wrapped in clear plastic tape and sprouts a red fuse, which the man proceeds to light. The fuse sputters as he steps forward and pitches the cylinder underhand across the courtyard, where it bounces and rolls to a halt some 30 yards away.
"Explosion!" he yells as Yassin looks on.MY COMMENT: A fascinating read. This set-up is probably duplicated throughout the world and provides a good explanation/education on how Iraq's insurgents, the Taliban, and every other guerrilla/rebel movement around the world keeps their 'soldiers' armed.
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 08:30 AM PDT Special Representative for Iraq Martin Kobler briefs the Security Council.
EXITING UN ENVOY SAYS IRAQ, SYRIAN CONFLICTS MERGING -- RADIO FREE EUROPE
The outgoing UN envoy to Iraq says Iraq's rising violence is linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria as the "battlefields are merging."
Martin Kobler told the UN Security Council on July 16 that Iraqi armed groups are increasingly active in Syria.
Kobler also said the last four months have been among the bloodiest in Iraq in the last five years, with nearly 3,000 people killed.UPDATE #1: -- Washington Post/AP
UPDATE #2: -- UN News Centre
MY COMMENT: Sadly .... I am also seeing the same trend. These conflicts are slowly adopting a "sectarian bent", and I do not see any strategy from anyone being implemented to stop it.
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 08:06 AM PDT
SYRIA CRISIS WORST SINCE RWANDA, UN SAYS -- AL JAZEERA
At least 6,000 people flee every day, 5,000 die a month and conflict is merging with violence in Iraq, officials warn.
Six thousand people are fleeing Syria every day as the conflict intensifies and merges with violence in neighbouring Iraq, United Nations officials have said.
The warnings were given on Tuesday at a rare public briefing of the UN's Security Council in New York
The High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, told the meeting that the organisation had "not seen a refugee outflow escalate at such a frightening rate since the Rwandan genocide almost 20 years ago".
Ivan Simonovic, the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, told the meeting that at least 92,901 people were killed in Syria - among them more than 6,500 children - between March 2011 and the end of April 2013.MORE NEWS ON THE BLOODSHED IN SYRIA
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:08 AM PDT
NORTH KOREAN SHIP YIELDS WORRISOME CARGO -- WALL STREET JOURNAL
Panama Finds What U.S. Suspects Are Missile-System Components Originating in Cuba; Havana Calls the Gear 'Obsolete'
Panamanian authorities detained a North Korean-flagged ship and its crew as they headed for North Korea from Cuba carrying what U.S. officials suspect are components of a surface-to-air missile system.
U.S. officials said the intercepted cargo is of potential worry if it indicates a growing bilateral arms trade between North Korea and Cuba.
Analysts said Cuba's role in the arms shipment could derail efforts to improve relations with the U.S.
Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli on Monday night said intelligence information had indicated the North Korean-flagged Chong Chon Gang might be carrying drugs, but that "containers with sophisticated missiles" were found under containers of sugar.
U.S. officials later said that according to preliminary information, there were no missiles aboard the ship.MORE NEWS ON PANAMA SEIZING A NORTH KOREAN SHIP FILLED WITH WEAPONS FROM CUBA
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 06:32 AM PDT U.S. Marines arrive on a training lot to conduct mission rehearsals on Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan's Helmand province, July 10, 2013. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Alejandro Pena
FORGET THE TROOPS, CAN THE AFGHAN GOVERNMENT LEAD? -- STEPHANIE GASKELL, DEFENSE ONE
Shona ba shona, which means "shoulder-to-shoulder" in Dari, has been the catch phrase of coalition troops training alongside Afghan security forces for years. Now that Afghan troops and police are technically in the lead of their own security, a new phrase has emerged: integal, meaning "transition."
It's semantics, for sure, much like the Obama administration's assertion that the Afghan National Security Forces are in charge of all security operations, or how much of the war's success rides on how well the army and police can perform by the end of 2014, the deadline for most coalition troops to exit.MORE NEWS ON AFGHANISTAN
-- Mick Krever and Juliet Fuisz, CNN
-- Sam Roggeveen, The Interpreter
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 12:51 PM PDT Edward Snowden at the Moscow airport July 12, 2013, with Sarah Harrison of Wikileaks on the left side of the photo.
US TIES OUTWEIGH INTELLIGENCE 'SQUABBLES' - PUTIN -- BBC
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said bilateral relations with the US are more important than "squabbles between special services".
In his latest comments on fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, Mr Putin said he had been warned against any "activity that harms Russian-American relations".
On Tuesday Mr Snowden applied for temporary asylum in Russia.
He is wanted by the US for leaking details of surveillance programmes.
Mr Snowden has been in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport for the past three weeks.
He has no travel documents, so has been unable to take up asylum offers from a number of Latin American states.MIDDLE EAST
UN: Some 5,000 Syrians being.
Syria crisis worst since Rwanda,
Gunmen kill pro-Assad figure in Lebanon .
UN Envoy: Iraq and Syrian conflicts
Iraqi Kurdistan struggles to cope .
World powers hope to resume
Iran's Rouhani .
Kerry to meet Arab League officials
Erdogan is making sure the Turkish military doesn't.
Egyptian army camp attacked .
ASIA
Korean talks on reopening joint complex
Death penalty for .
Special Report: Smugglers and security forces prey .
Manila says UN tribunal meets .
Violent protests in India .
Philippines 'studying options' .
China smartphone owners swell number.
AFRICA
Exclusive: Eritrea pays warlord to.
EU continues Somalia counterpiracy operation,
Armed protesters storm .
Guinea's Conde appeals for calm after .
Sudan's indicted President Bashir
Ethiopia's special police seek to build trust .
Mali's main parties say will
EUROPE
US ties outweigh .
US sends extradition requests .
The EU's grandstanding over Prism will. Italian PM warns of 'huge risk'.
Spain says it arrests British fugitive, .
Nagorno-Karabakh president seeks to negotiate .
Trial of captain resumes after.
AMERICAS
Colombia President Santos .
Obama says capture of cartel boss shows .
Zetas leader captured .
North Korea cargo ship search
Cuba claims ownership of missile parts found .
Venezuelan President Maduro
TERRORISM/THE LONG WAR
Al Qaeda branch says .
Judge turns down bid to .
Al Qaeda shura council member appears .
ECONOMY/FINANCE/BUSINESS
Formula 1 boss Ecclestone .
Barclays, traders fined .
Facing lawmakers, Bernanke to walk .
Posted: 17 Jul 2013 04:00 AM PDT
VLADIMIR PUTIN OVERSEES LARGEST DISPLAY OF RUSSIA'S MILITARY MIGHT SINCE COLD WAR, USING 160,000 TROOPS, 5,000 TANKS, AND DOZENS OF SHIPS TO SEND MESSAGE OF STRENGTH TO THE WORLD -- DAILY MAIL
Russia's macho President Vladimir Putin today watched as the country put on a spectacular show of military might, the biggest since the days of the old Soviet regime, involving 160,000 troops and 5,000 tanks across Siberia and the far eastern region.
The exercise, which began last Friday, continues throughout the week with Putin watching on the Sakhalin Island in the Pacific, as 130 combat aircraft and dozens of Russia's Pacific Fleet ships take part. The troops had been ferried and airlifted to the island from the mainland.
It is part of regular combat training and not directed against any particular nation, said the country's Deputy Defence MInister Anatoly Antonov in an attempt to assure foreign military attaches. But, according to CNSNews, analysts believe the show of strength was aimed at China and Japan.MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE NEWS BRIEFS
Putin Oversees Massive Far East Military Drills
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