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13 Dec 2011 10:52

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World: Deadly Belgium mass-attack: Man opens fire, throws grenades

  • The man previously went to jail for firearm possession: In the Belgian city of Liege, at least four people have died and another 75 have been injured — including an 18-month-old boy — as the result of a domestic terror attack, in which a man on the roof of a building fired upon a crowd using an automatic weapon and threw a handful of grenades in the process. The man, Nordine Amrani, had previously gone to jail for firearm possession. After the attack, the gunman killed himself. “It was quite incredible,” said Greg Ienco, a journalist who witnessed the deadly attack. “We saw one man on the roof who tried to kill people. This man killed himself with a grenade.” Prosecutors say he didn’t have any ties to terrorist groups. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Dec 2011 10:33

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World: Uh, of course: Iran won’t give spy drone back to United States

  • problem Earlier this month, a secret radar-evading drone plane, owned by the U.S., went down over Iran, which claims they took it down using electronic warfare.
  • request After Iran got a hold of the plane (which, mind you, violated their airspace), they showed it off in footage, leading the U.S. to ask for their expensive toy back …
  • denial … however, Iran has no plans to do so, because they’re in the midst of studying it for intelligence reasons. Oh, well, the U.S. says it wasn’t expecting it back. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Dec 2011 21:41

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World: United Nations: Nine months in, Syria death toll reaches new peak

  • 5,000+ number of people the UN estimates have been killed in Syria since the current crisis started
  • 300 number of children that were among the dead, according to UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay source
  • » An accelerating rate: In the first five months of the conflict — between March and August — roughly 2,000 people died fighting the Assad regime. In the four months since, more than 3,000 more have died. Another 18 people died today, as a general strike continued in the country.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Dec 2011 14:15

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World: Notorious former leader Manuel Noriega returns to Panama

  • An unhappy homecoming: Former Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega, as we mentioned yesterday, has returned to his native country, this time as a prisoner. He is expected to stand trial over human rights violations and the murder of his political opponents during his six-year rule; due to Noriega’s advanced age (77), however, he would qualify for house arrest rather than a prison term. This only occurs if he accepts the verdict from a previous trial conducted in absentia, though, which would halt any effort by him to mount a further legal defense. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Dec 2011 09:45

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World: Billionaire rich guy plans to give Vladimir Putin a run for his money

Mikhail Prokhorov, a gold-mining magnate who owns the New Jersey Nets, is one of two men who just announced plans to run against Vladimir Putin in 2012. He’s been stewing since he got kicked out his party for fighting with the Kremlin. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Dec 2011 20:32

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World: Russia’s Medvedev promises investigation on Facebook, gets heckled

  • I do not agree with any slogans or statements made at the rallies. Nevertheless, instructions have been given by me to check all information from polling stations regarding compliance with the legislation on elections.
  • Russian President Dmitry Medvedev • Ordering an investigation into last week’s parliamentary elections in a Facebook post, one day after wide protests increased the pressure on the Russian government to do something about the issue at hand. Medvedev’s comments led to many negative and downright ugly responses on Facebook, many of them expressing disbelief at his words. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Dec 2011 12:17

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World: Scotland Yard: News of the World scandal much wider than thought

  • 803 victims in News of the World phone-hacking scandal? source
  • » That’s what Scotland Yard says: They’ve investigated over 2,000 cases at length, and think they’ve found hundreds of examples of the same hacking that befell the newspaper earlier this year. “Operation Weeting has been in contact with or been contacted by 2,037 people,” Scotland Yard says, “of which in the region of 803 are ‘victims’, whose names have appeared in the material.” More people are likely to get investigated, but as their personal information is limited, it’s believed they were less likely to be hacked by the newspaper.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

11 Dec 2011 10:10

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World: After 20 years, Manuel Noreiga heading back to Panama

The Panamanian dictator has spent decades in jail in the U.S. and France since a U.S.-led invasion in his country in 1989. He’s going home to serve more time in jail for murders allegedly committed during his rule. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Dec 2011 09:57

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World: Surprise: State-owned Russian TV covers protests straightforwardly

  • They showed me on Channel 1 and said I was an opposition leader, which is already a breakthrough. They’re already calling me from Washington and asking what’s going on.
  • Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boris Y. Nemtsov • Discussing how, in a fairly abrupt about-face on Saturday, Russian television started straightforwardly covering the protests against the recent Russian parliamentary elections — including showing Nemtsov (who has since become a major opposition figure and a noted critic of Vladimir Putin) in a relatively neutral light, something which hasn’t happened in roughly a decade. Here’s how one TV anchor, Rossia 1’s Andrei Medvedev, put the events: “Today’s protest was a lesson for everyone. It turns out that, to express your dissatisfaction with the authorities, it is possible to gather on a square after getting permission from those same authorities. And to keep order, all you really have to do is give a polite admonition.” Is it possible that the protests were hard for state-funded Russian television to avoid, since they were so heavily covered on the Internet? A fascinating twist. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Dec 2011 10:26

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World: Russian parliamentary election protests continue despite pressure

  • 15,000 protesters showed up in Moscow source
  • » Russian opposition protests come out in numbers: Roughly a week after the Russian elections proved to have questionable results, people are still showing their frustrations with Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party with protests. “People are just tired, they have already crossed all the boundaries,” noted one protester, Yana Larionova. “You see all these people who are well dressed and earn a good salary, going out onto the streets on Saturday and saying, ‘No more.’ That’s when you know you need a change.” Protesters came out in such strong numbers that authorities were worried that the footbridge under them would collapse. Meanwhile, the Russian government continues to discourage the protests — including painting the protesters as similar to those in Libya and blaming the United States for the protests.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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