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  • Chile's quake many times more powerful than Haiti's

    "This was a big one. A really big one,'' said Dr. Tim Dixon, geophysics professor at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Miami, speaking of the magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck near Chile Saturday morning. How thunderous is 8.8 quake on the Richter scale? The energy released is between 500 and 900 times that of the magnitude.. More

  • UN Report: 346 Afghan children killed in 2009, mostly by NATO

    Largest portion of killings came in air strikes. When the record 2009 civilian death toll began to emerge, NATO was quick to brag that they had actually killed fewer civilians than the Taliban. This appears to be the case still, though UN reports suggested the difference wasn’t nearly as dramatic as NATO initially claimed. There is one thing.. More

  • As Afghan civilian deaths rise, NATO says, 'Sorry.'

    In the Afghanistan war, NATO forces chief Gen. Stanley McChrystal publicly apologized Tuesday for 27 Afghan civilian deaths in a US airstrike. The coalition has begun saying 'sorry' more quickly to civilian deaths, as part of a new hearts and minds strategy. In a video distributed Tuesday in Dari and Pashto, the main languages spoken in Afghanistan,.. More

  • Marjah civilians run out of food

    With a month of advance notice of the massive NATO invasion, Marjah’s civilian population had ample opportunity to slip away. But while a few thousand families managed to get out of the agricultural region, most stayed, apparently reassured by NATO’s urging to “stay put” through the offensive. But those who didn’t flee.. More

  • The Mossad's secret wars

    For more than half a century, the Mossad has been blamed for numerous killings around the world, and is often at the centre of conspiracy theories, including those surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the 1998 Lockerbie bombing and the 911 attacks in the US. While some of its actions have been celebrated within Israel, the organization.. More

  • US Rocket System back in use days after killing 12 civilians

    The details of the Sunday rocket attack on a house full of women and children in Marjah remain shrouded in mystery, but one thing is certain: the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HiMARS), barred from use by NATO after the killings amid reports of failures, has been returned to duty. When the US initially reported the killings of the 12 civilians.. More

  • 'With friends like these...'

    Allegations that the Israeli secret service, Mossad, was behind the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai are gaining strength. The accusation originated with Hamas after the 49-year-old was found dead in a hotel in Dubai last month. Israel, unsurprisingly, has neither confirmed nor denied that Mossad operatives carried out the killing... More

  • Israeli companies violate West Bank construction freeze

    Israeli building companies are trying to circumvent a construction freeze in West Bank settlements, sometimes by laying the foundations to new apartments after dark or during the weekend, an Israeli human rights organization said Monday. Peace Now, which monitors settlement growth, said that violations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 10-month.. More

  • US-led invasion ‘bogged down’ in Marjah

    US forces continue to press forward in the Marjah region of Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, but are said to be struggling mightily with home-made bombs and sniper fire, and were able to advance only 500 yards yesterday. Despite the pretense that the battle is going “according to plans,” the promises of a quick victory with overwhelming.. More

  • Israel is accused of waging covert war across the Middle

    Israel is waging a covert assassination campaign across the Middle East. They are also suspected of recent killings in Dubai, Damascus and Beirut. While Israel’s Mossad spy agency has been suspected of staging assassinations across the world since the 1970s, it does not officially acknowledge or admit its activities. The current spate of killings.. More

  • Obama, the War President

    US President Barack Obama does have a foreign policy. It's called war. The President has not defined any real difference between his hawkish approach to international issues and that of his predecessor, former US President George W. Bush. Where's the change we can believe in? Bush left a legacy of two wars, neither of which was ever explained or.. More

  • 'A prescription for civil war'

    Abu Abdullah has never been charged with a crime, but he has been arrested by Palestinian security forces so many times in the past two years that he has lost count. He has been arrested at work, in the market, on the street, and, more than once, during violent raids by masked men who burst into his home and seized him in front of his family. Deep.. More

  • The Iraqi oil conundrum

    How the mighty have fallen. Just a few years ago, an overconfident Bush administration expected to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, pacify the country, install a compliant client government, privatize the economy, and establish Iraq as the political and military headquarters for a dominating U.S. presence in the Middle East. These successes were,.. More

  • Protecting Haiti's children from 'cowboy adoptions'

    The failed attempt by the New Life Children's Refuge to take 33 Haitian children into the Dominican Republic has shed light on the activities of groups that disregard the rules of international 'adoption'. Even before the earthquake, Haiti was known as a nation of orphans. Now there are countless more. In the past few weeks, child welfare organizations.. More

  • Proxy detention 'collusion' exposed

    Governments around the world, including those of Arab and European states, have colluded in the secret detention of 'terrorism suspects', UN investigators have reported. An extensive report, released on Wednesday, paints a disturbing picture of a systematic secret detention program involving many countries. Officials found that secret detention "may.. More

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