Russia and Iran Just Showed How ‘They Can Do Whatever They Like’ Right Now [+videos]

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missilesIran and a US-led group of countries consisting of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany (called the P5+1) still have a ways to go before they reach a final nuclear deal.

But one P5+1 member is already acting as if the nuclear issue has been settled.

On Monday, the Kremlin retracted its hold on the transfer of S-300 missiles to Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported. Iran and Russia had finalized a contract to deliver the weapons in 2007, but the deal was shelved under international pressure and the embargo on arms transfers to Iran that the UN Security Council passed in 2010.

Russia is now announcing its intention to send one of the world’s most advanced anti-aircraft systems to Iran, notwithstanding that embargo — and against mounting evidence that the nuclear issue is actually far from resolved.

The Pentagon has already slammed the move, while Israel is already framing it as an unsavory result of apparent diplomatic progress on the nuclear front. US Secretary of State John Kerry has also raised a complaint with Moscow. (Read more from “Russia and Iran Just Showed How ‘They Can Do Whatever They Like’ Right Now” HERE)

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Europe to Pull Trigger on Google Antitrust Charges

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Photo Credit: The Wall Street Journal

Photo Credit: The Wall Street Journal

Europe’s antitrust regulator plans to file formal charges against Google Inc. for violating antitrust laws, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday, stepping up a five-year investigation likely to become the biggest competition battle here since the European Union’s pursuit of Microsoft Corp. a decade ago.

EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager made the decision Tuesday in agreement with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, this person said. She is expected to inform her fellow EU commissioners at a meeting Wednesday, said three EU officials.

The European charges will focus on complaints that Google uses its dominant Internet search engine to favor its own services over those of rivals, people familiar with the situation said. Rivals say Google search results in areas like travel, shopping and maps increasingly favor Google’s own offerings, rather than links to similaronline services run by rivals.

Google told employees Tuesday it has a “very strong case” against the expected charges. In the past, Google has denied breaking antitrust laws and argues that providing more direct answers to online queries, including from its own services, benefits consumers.

The charges would be “very bad news” for Google, said Ioannis Lianos, a professor of global competition law at University College London. (Read more from “Europe to Pull Trigger on Google Antitrust Charges” HERE)

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Blackwater Guards for US Diplomats Sentenced to Life, 30 Years, Say “Our Government Betrayed Us”

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File photo of Blackwater Worldwide guards Liberty and Heard leaving federal courthouse after being arraigned on manslaughter charges in WashingtonA former Blackwater security guard was sentenced to life in prison and three others got 30-year terms on Monday in the massacre of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007, closing a case that had outraged Iraqis and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment around the world. . .

The four guards opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers on the Iraqis, including women and children, at Nisur Square. A heavily armed, four-truck Blackwater Worldwide convoy the men were in had been trying to clear a path for U.S. diplomats.

Nicholas Slatten, 31, of Tennessee was convicted in October of killing the driver of a car the defendants had argued at trial they believed contained a bomb. . .

In their statements, all four former guards maintained their innocence. [One guard told the court,] “I feel utterly betrayed by the same government I served honorably.” (Read more from “Blackwater Guards for US Diplomats Sentenced” HERE)

Castro Absolves Obama of Fault for U.S.’ ‘Imperialist Aggression’

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raul castro summit panamaBy Fox News Latino. Cuban President Raul Castro recounted the history of U.S. “imperialist aggression” in Latin America in an address here Saturday at the 7th Summit of the Americas, although he absolved U.S. head of state Barack Obama of responsibility for those past actions.

Castro, whose country was invited to the gathering for the first time this year, received an ovation when he began his speech by saying the “time had come for him to speak here” on Communist-ruled Cuba’s behalf.

He referred to the United States’ “wars, conquests and interventions” in the region, saying through an interpreter that the country has been a “hegemonic force that plundered territories throughout the Americas.”

Castro recalled that the U.S. Congress authorized military intervention in Cuba in the late 19th century and that led to the establishment of a military base in Guantanamo that still “occupies our territory.”

In the 20th century, the United States carried out a series of “interventions to overthrow democratic governments” in Latin America, where “dictators were installed in 20 countries, 12 of them simultaneously.” (Read more from “Castro Absolves Obama of Fault for U.S.’ ‘Imperialist Aggression'” HERE)

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Floridians Question Special Treatment Afforded Cuban Immigrants

By Sally Kestin, Megan O’Matz and John Maine. More Floridians than not support ending special immigration privileges for Cubans, though a considerable number are unsure of their position on the complex U.S. policy, according to a new Sun Sentinel poll.

Thirty-seven percent favor ending the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which gives Cubans preferential treatment over other immigrants, while 27 percent want to keep it. One-third were unsure.

The poll found even less support for the “wet foot/dry foot” policy granting entry to Cubans who make it to land while returning those intercepted at sea. Nearly 46 percent said that policy should end while 27 percent favor continuing it.

The Obama administration has said it has no plans to change Cuban immigration policy, but the poll results reflect public sentiment against it in the state with the largest Cuban population in the country.

“It seems like a strong vote of no confidence in the status quo,” said Marc R. Rosenblum, an immigration expert at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington think tank. “If this policy loses support in Florida, it’s hard to see where there’s going to be strong demand to maintain [it].” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Watch: New Islamic State Video Calls for Attacks on the American Homeland, Promises Another 9/11

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USBy Patrick Poole. The Islamic State has released a new 11-minute video called “We Will Burn America” that calls for supporters to attack the American homeland and promises another 9/11.

[Editor’s note: without explanation, the video posting site “SendVid” has taken the Islamic States’ video down, likely due to its gruesome content]

(Read more from “Watch: New Islamic State Video Calls for Attacks on the American Homeland, Promises Another 9/11” HERE)

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Islamic State Group Destroys Ancient Ruins of Nimrud

By Sinan Salaheddin. Islamic State militants hammered, bulldozed and ultimately blew up parts of the ancient Iraqi Assyrian city of Nimrud, destroying a site dating back to the 13th century B.C., an online militant video purportedly shows.

The destruction at Nimrud, located near the militant-held city of Mosul, came amid other attacks on antiquity carried out by the group now holding a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in its self-declared caliphate. The attacks have horrified archaeologists and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who last month called the destruction at Nimrud “a war crime.”

The seven-minute video, posted late Saturday, shows bearded militants using sledgehammers, jackhammers and saws to take down huge alabaster reliefs depicting Assyrian kings and deities. A bulldozer brings down walls, while militants fill barrels with explosives and later destroy three separate areas of the site in massive explosions.

“God has honored us in the Islamic State to remove all of these idols and statutes worshipped instead of Allah in the past days,” one militant says in the video. Another militant vows that “whenever we seize a piece of land, we will remove signs of idolatry and spread monotheism.”

The militants have been destroying ancient relics they say promote idolatry that violate their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law, including the ancient Iraqi city of Hatra, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Authorities also believe they’ve sold others on the black market to fund their atrocities. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Report: US Reporter Held in Iran Facing ‘Espionage’ Charges

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Photo Credit: Yahoo

Photo Credit: Yahoo

A Washington Post journalist detained in Iran for over eight months is accused of “espionage” and “acting against national security,” the semiofficial Fars news agency reported Sunday.

The report did not elaborate on the source of the information, but the agency is regarded as close to Iran’s hard-liners.

Iranian officials have previously said Jason Rezaian is facing “security” charges and that he will stand trial before the Revolutionary Court — which mainly hears sensitive cases involving national security.

Rezaian’s lawyer, Leila Ahsan, declined to comment on the specific charges against her client, but told The Associated Press she had finished studying the text of the indictment and would brief Rezaian’s family in the coming days. Ahsan added that she visited Rezaian in prison last month.

“He appeared to be in good health and spirits. I can see him anytime. Jason asked me to provide a strong defense. I’m in constant touch with his wife and family. I’ve requested that the court hold the trial as soon as possible,” she said. (Read more from “Report: US Reporter Held in Iran Facing ‘Espionage’ Charges” HERE)

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Competing with the NSA: China’s Powerful New Weapon to Censor Internet May Also Spy on Users

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10hack-web1-master675Late last month, China began flooding American websites with a barrage of Internet traffic in an apparent effort to take out services that allow China’s Internet users to view websites otherwise blocked in the country.

Initial security reports suggested that China had crippled the services by exploiting its own Internet filter — known as the Great Firewall — to redirect overwhelming amounts of traffic to its targets. Now, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Toronto say China did not use the Great Firewall after all, but rather a powerful new weapon that they are calling the Great Cannon.

The Great Cannon, the researchers said in a report published on Friday, allows China to intercept foreign web traffic as it flows to Chinese websites, inject malicious code and repurpose the traffic as Beijing sees fit.

The system was used, they said, to intercept web and advertising traffic intended for Baidu — China’s biggest search engine company — and fire it at GitHub, a popular site for programmers, and GreatFire.org, a nonprofit that runs mirror images of sites that are blocked inside China. The attacks against the services continued on Thursday, the researchers said, even though both sites appeared to be operating normally.

But the researchers suggested that the system could have more powerful capabilities. With a few tweaks, the Great Cannon could be used to spy on anyone who happens to fetch content hosted on a Chinese computer, even by visiting a non-Chinese website that contains Chinese advertising content. (Read more from “China Is Said to Use Powerful New Weapon to Censor Internet” HERE)

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Russian Fighter Jet Nearly Collides With U.S. Spy Jet Over Europe

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jetA Russia Su-27 jet fighter flew dangerously close and nearly collided with a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft this week in the latest aerial provocation by Moscow, defense officials revealed to the Washington Free Beacon.

The Su-27 conducted the close-in intercept of an RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, said officials. The incident prompted a diplomatic protest.

“On the morning of April 7th, a U.S. RC-135U flying a routine route in international airspace was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 Flanker in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen M. Lainez.

“The United States is raising this incident with Russia in the appropriate diplomatic and official channels,” she said in a statement.

A defense official said the Russian fighter jet flew within 20 feet of the unarmed reconnaissance jet in what the official called a “reckless” encounter that endangered the lives of the RC-135 crew. (Read more from “Russian Fighter Jet Nearly Collides With U.S. Spy Jet Over Europe” HERE)

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The Mufti of Saudi Arabia Passes a Fatwa That a Muslim Can Cannibalize and Eat His Wife

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cm-copyYou heard it correctly. A Fatwa is shared on several prominent news media in the Middle East attributed to the Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, which allows a man to cannibalize and eat his wife.

But “eating the wife” is only permitted under one circumstance, in case the husband is extremely hungry. Translating the piece it says:

“A fatwa attributed to the Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, which allows a man to eat his wife or parts of her body if the husband was afflicted with a severe hunger raised concern and debate over social media since yesterday evening. The Fatwa is interpreted as evidence of the sacrifice of women and obedience to her husband and her desire for the two to become one.”

[Here are some recent interviews with this article’s author]

(Read more from “The Mufti of Saudi Arabia Passes a Fatwa That a Muslim Can Cannibalize and Eat His Wife” HERE)

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Cuba Protests Make Waves at Panama Summit

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Photo Credit: USA Today

Photo Credit: USA Today

By Rick Jervis. Cuba’s first-ever inclusion into the Summit of the Americas was expected be to the headline-grabbing news at the two-day gathering here that starts Friday.

So far, it’s delivered.

There have been fisticuffs between rival Cuban protesters, an angered Cuban delegation over credentials and reports of the killer of Cuban icon Che Guevara mingling with opposition leaders outside the meetings.

And that’s all before President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro have even set foot in this tropical city.

In the most talked-about incident, a group of anti-Castro Cuban demonstrators on Wednesday planned to lay flowers at a bust of Cuban patriarch José Martí near the Cuban embassy here when they were confronted by a group of pro-Castro activists. (Read more from “Cuba Protests Make Waves at Panama Summit” HERE)

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Historic Encounter with Cuba’s Castro Awaits Obama in Panama

By Josh Lederman. Turning the page on a half-century of hostility, President Barack Obama signaled Thursday he will soon remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, boosting hopes for improved ties as he prepared for a historic encounter with Cuban President Raul Castro.

Hours before his arrival in Panama for a regional summit, Obama said the U.S. State Department had finished its review of Cuba’s presence on the list, a stain on the island nation’s pride and a major stumbling block for efforts to mend U.S.-Cuba ties. A top senator confirmed that the agency had recommended removing Cuba from the list, all but ensuring action by the president within days.

“We don’t want to be imprisoned by the past,” Obama said during a visit to Kingston, Jamaica. “When something doesn’t work for 50 years, you don’t just keep on doing it. You try something new.”

With his optimistic assessment, Obama sought to set the tone for the U.S. and Cuba to come closer to closing the book on more than a half-century of estrangement, when he and Castro come face to face at the Summit of the Americas. Obama arrived Thursday evening in Panama City.

The highly anticipated interaction with Castro will test the power of personal diplomacy as the two leaders attempt to move past the sticking points that have interfered with their attempt to relaunch diplomatic relations. (Read more from this story HERE)

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