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POPSEritrea blasts US policy in horn of Africa To those who feel that no other countries should criticize the US-Just because Eritrea is not a strong powerful nation does not mean they have no right to express their opinion, nor does it make that opinion any less valid. An example would be Albania. Probably nowhere on earth is President Bush more beloved. While I don't agree with their opinion, the fact that they are a small less powerful nation does not invalidate it.
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POPSIt's a Pirate's World Aye, they be e'erywhar,and some people in the world you just don't screw with. Unfortunately you can't always tell who those people be until tis' too late. Aye, the Wall Street and corporate scandals that began with Enron may be astonishin' for the scope and audacity o' their criminality, but they be not by any means unprecedented. In fact, Wall Street has been dogged by spectacular acts o' financial banditry since its earliest days. Gar We would ne'er glamorize criminals. We don't want any o' our young t' grow up t' rob or steal, at least not from us. Gar, Where can I find a bottle o'rum?
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POPSGerman police remove two terror suspects from plane in Cologne According to the German police, the men were not planning to hijack the plane, reports the Telegraaf. It was still unclear at press time what form of attack the suspects were planning, but the paper said they were not believed to be a threat to the Netherlands. One possibility is that the two men were planning to fly on to Africa. ( comment from Dutchnews.nl)
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POPSSomali pirates face charges in France France has gone further than any other nation in taking on the pirates. In another case in April, helicopter-borne French troops swooped in on Somali pirates, capturing six of them, after the hijackers released dozens of hostages who had been held on a yacht.
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POPSMystery swirls around hijacked Iranian ship Within days, pirates who had boarded the ship developed strange health complications, skin burns and loss of hair. Independent sources tell The Long War Journal that a number of pirates have also died. In a strange twist, the Iranian press claims that the U.S. has offered to pay a $7 million bribe to the pirates to "receive entry permission and search the vessel." Officials in the Pentagon and the Department of State approached for this story refused to comment on the situation.
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POPSThousands flee fighting in Somalia David Shinn, a former US diplomat who teaches at the George Washington University, said fighters from the hardline al-Shabab militia were trying to assert their authority in order to force the Ethiopians out. They are trying "to show that they are in a position to perhaps even take control of Mogadishu if the Ethiopian forces were to leave", he told the BBC.
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POPSCorruption creating humanitarian disaster The Berlin-based watchdog estimated that unchecked levels of corruption would add $50 billion -- or nearly half of annual global aid outlays -- to the cost of achieving the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals on combating poverty.
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POPSThirty killed as Mogadishu is shelled
Islamic militants with ties to al-Qaida have been fighting the government and its Ethiopian allies for control since their combined forces pushed the Islamists from the capital in December 2006. Within weeks of being driven out, the Islamists launched an Iraq-style insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians to date. In recent weeks, the militants appear to be gaining strength and sidelining the fragile government. The group, known as the Council of Islamic Courts, has taken over the port town of Kismayo, Somalia's third-largest city, and dismantled pro-government roadblocks. They also effectively closed the Mogadishu airport by threatening to attack any plane using it. "We keep recruiting new fighters to prepare them for the holy war against Ethiopian troops in our country and their Somali stooges," said Sheik Muhumed, a commander with al-Shabab, the group's military wing. The United States considers al-Shabab a terrorist group, raising fears Somalia could become a have
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POPSSwedish prosecutor closes terror probe “There are lots of things that need to fall into place. I have to prove clear intent when it comes to collecting and sending the money, that it will be used for terror attacks. Then we need to follow the money all the way from Sweden to whoever may actually carry out a terrorist attack. There are challenges in both of these paths,” he said.
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POPSUnited Nations Reform: Fact or Fiction? The United Nations promised international cooperation on eliminating the major threats to peace and security and the most serious impediments to the protection of human rights and human dignity. Sixty years after the UN officially came into existence, 24 October 1945, the trail is one of broken promises. While important successes have marked some of its paths, the international machine has been hijacked and manipulated to subvert the very causes it was intended to promote. A number of factors have forced UN reform to move much higher up on the global agenda than ever before: the exposure of the billion-dollar UN-run Oil-for-food scam, peacekeeper-rapists, and paralysis in the face of genocide in Sudan.However, in an environment where there is little, if any, consensus on the most critical issues of our time, the real game is one of finger-pointing. Undoubtedly, the "blame America first" will continue. http://www.eyeontheun.org/un-reform.asp
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POPSU.S. Navy Faces an Old Foe - Pirates Armed attacks on cargo ships, oil tankers and cruise ships are estimated to cost more than $1 billion a year, said Peter Chalk, a senior security analyst at Rand Corp. Piracy in Nigeria is leading to a drop in oil shipments because shipping companies are reluctant to risk ships, cargos and crew, he said, adding, “That has implications for U.S. strategic energy supplies.”
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POPSMcCain gaffes pile up; critics pile on McCain's mistakes raise a serious, if uncomfortable question: Are the gaffes the result of his age? And what could that mean in the Oval Office? Voters, thinking about their own relatives, can be expected to scrutinize McCain’s debate performances for signs of slippage
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