Russian Spy Ship Docked in Havana; No Reason Given

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Photo Credit: ReutersA Russian warship was docked in Havana Wednesday, without explanation from Communist Cuba or its state media.

The Viktor Leonov CCB-175 boat, measuring 91.5 meters (300 feet) long and 14.5 meters wide, was docked at the port of Havana’s cruise ship area, near the Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

The Vishnya, or Meridian-class intelligence ship, which has a crew of around 200, went into service in the Black Sea in 1988 before it was transferred seven years later to the northern fleet, Russian media sources said.

Neither Cuban authorities nor state media have mentioned the ship’s visit, unlike on previous tours by Russian warships.

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German Cartoon of Facebook’s Zuckerberg Compared to Nazi Imagery

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Photo Credit: TwitterA caricature of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg published on Friday by a German newspaper was sharply criticized by Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) as reminiscent of Nazi imagery.

SWC Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper on Monday called the cartoon “an outrage” and said that the artist was guilty of anti-Semitism.

The cartoon, published by Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and entitled “Krake Facebook,” German for “Facebook Octopus,” shows Zuckerberg as a half-human sea giant grasping with tentacles at computers around him. Depicted with a hooked nose, the 29-year-old entrepreneur is shown smiling while his curly hair creeps out from under an oversized hat that has the Facebook logo on its brim.

One of the creature’s tentacles holds the logo of WhatsApp, the world’s largest mobile messaging service, recently acquired by Facebook.

Cooper told The Algemeiner, “The nefarious Jew/octopus was a caricature deployed by Nazis. That was used pretty much as a staple by the Nazis in terms of their hateful campaign against the Jews in the 1930s. [An] exaggerated Jewish nose removes any question if this was unconscious anti-Semitism.”

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Pew Survey: Palestinian Arabs Dislike America More Than Any Other Group

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Photo Credit: Screenshot / Pew Research CenterA new Pew Research Center survey showed that people living under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas dislike the U.S. more than any other group, with 76% of respondents, the most on the list, qualifying America as an “enemy.”

Alternatively, In Israel, 90% of respondents qualified the U.S. as a “partner,” putting the Jewish state at the top spot on the pro-America list. Just 1% of Israelis view the U.S. as an “enemy.”

Following the “Palestinian Territories” on the “enemy” list are Pakistan, Turkey, Lebanon and Venezuela; following Israel on the “partner” list are El Salvador, Senegal, the Philippines and Kenya.

Asked another way, if their view of the U.S. was “favorable” or “unfavorable,” the “Palestinian Territories” also scored highly with 79% of respondents being “unfavorable,” preceded by Jordan (85%) and Egypt (81%).

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Bravo-Foxtrot-Oscar: Taliban will resurge after US drawdown

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Photo Credit: allenbwestLast week, the Pentagon issued a report based on an independent study on the future of Afghanistan. As reported in the Washington Free Beacon, the Taliban will resurge in Afghanistan following the drawdown of U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan later this year.

That is what I call a Bravo-Foxtrot-Oscar (Blinding Flash of the Obvious).

The report says the Taliban are expected to regenerate their capabilities in sanctuaries in Pakistan as military pressure on them declines. Over the next three years, the Taliban will expand control and influence in areas left undefended by U.S. and allied troops. They also are expected to “encircle key cities and conduct high-profile attacks.

This is truly dire news for President Obama and his proposed “zero option” force posture for Afghanistan – how’s that working out for Iraq? It seems former SecDef Gates’ assessment of Obama is true: his heart is not in it.

No wonder Karzai is letting Taliban prisoners go free.

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Iraq Signs Deal to Buy Arms, Ammunition from Iran

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Photo Credit: APIran has signed a deal to sell Iraq arms and ammunition worth $195 million, according to documents seen by Reuters – a move that would break a U.N. embargo on weapons sales by Tehran.

The agreement was reached at the end of November, the documents showed, just weeks after Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki returned from lobbying the Obama administration in Washington for extra weapons to fight al Qaeda-linked militants.

Some in Washington are nervous about providing sensitive U.S. military equipment to a country they worry is becoming too close to Iran. Several Iraqi lawmakers said Maliki had made the deal because he was fed up with delays in U.S. arms deliveries.

A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister would not confirm or deny the sale, but said such a deal would be understandable given Iraq’s current security troubles.

“We are launching a war against terrorism and we want to win this war. Nothing prevents us from buying arms and ammunition from any party and it’s only ammunition helping us to fight terrorists,” said the spokesman, Ali Mussawi.

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Seven Egyptian Christians Found Killed ‘Execution-Style’ on Libyan Beach

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Photo Credit: AFP/Getty ImagesSeven Egyptian Christians were found shot dead on a beach in eastern Libya Monday, security officials and local residents told Reuters.

“They were killed by headshots in execution style,” a police officer said. “We don’t know who killed them.”

The Egyptians were living in Benghazi and, according to a local Egyptian worker who asked not to be identified, were kidnapped and dragged away from their homes Sunday night.

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Foreign Vote-Count Firm Partners with Big Government Contractor

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Photo Credit: WNDScytl, the Spanish-based electronic elections firm, has partnered with a leading online security and access provider to state and federal government clients.

The partnership could help safeguard the election programs of Scytl’s U.S. division.

In January 2012, Scytl acquired 100 percent of SOE Software, the leading software provider of election management solutions in the United States. The sale garnered national attention after it was spotlighted by the popular Drudge Report.

Reads an SOE press release: “SOE is now partnering with VASTEC, a leading accessibility access provider to state and federal government clients. VASTEC currently provides Section 508 compliance services at the highest government levels, including the Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Defense, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.”

“VASTEC offers accessibility services and remediation tailored to the client’s needs,” said Shelby Tudor, VASTEC’s program manager for accessibility services.

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Capture of Mexican Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Ignites Fight Over Trial Location

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Photo Credit: Fox News After narrow escapes from the military, law enforcement and rivals over 13 years on the run, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is back in Mexican custody. Now, what is likely to be a lengthy and complicated legal process to decide which country gets to try him first will begin.

In Mexico, Guzman is likely to face a host of charges related to his role as the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, the country’s most powerful drug organization and a key player in the yearslong violence that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 2006.

Grand juries in at least seven U.S. federal district courts have handed up indictments for Guzman on a variety of charges, ranging from smuggling cocaine and heroin into the United States to participating in an ongoing criminal enterprise involving murder and racketeering.

Mexico convicted the man whose nickname translates to “Shorty” on drug trafficking and murder charges in 1993. Guzman had served less than half of his 20-year prison sentence when he escaped from jail in 2001. The Mexican government is almost certain to levy a host of new charges related not only to his escape but also to his role in running the global drug-empire that the Sinaloa Cartel has become.

Calls for his extradition to the United States started just hours after word spread of his arrest Saturday morning at a condominium in Mazatlan, a beach resort town on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

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Ukraine Crisis: Opposition Asserts Authority in Kiev

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Photo Credit: Reuters MPs have replace the parliamentary speaker and attorney general, appointed a new pro-opposition interior minister and voted to free jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

Police appear to have abandoned their posts across the capital.

Protesters in Kiev have walked unchallenged into the president’s official and residential buildings.

President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders signed a peace deal on Friday after several days of violence in which dozens of people died in a police crackdown on months of protest.

But the deal failed to end the protests and huge crowds remain in Independence Square, the Maidan.

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Ukraine on Edge after Deadly Clashes Between Protesters, Security Forces (+video)

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Photo Credit: CNNProtests. Talks. Violence. Protests. Talks. Violence.

By early Friday morning, the lone positive point was that — for the time being — Ukraine’s cycle of political and physical infighting was not then at its bloodiest point, as it had hours earlier. Prodded by foreign diplomats, the key players were then talking about not just a bandage for the violence but also a more long-term political solution and maybe the beginnings of healing.

Yet the facts of the last three months and, particularly, the last week show that it’s way too early to celebrate or savor any peace. There have been two truces since Sunday. Each of them collapsed suddenly into carnage centered in Kiev’s Maidan, or Independence Square.

The latest bloodshed was also the worst since the unrest began.

CNN crews at the scene reported that as security forces were moving away from the area after the latest truce, a group of protesters pursued them throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.

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