Egyptian Mosque Turned Into House Of Torture For Christians After Muslim Brotherhood Protest

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Photo Credit: MidEast Christian News

Islamic hard-liners stormed a mosque in suburban Cairo, turning it into torture chamber for Christians who had been demonstrating against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood in the latest case of violent persecution that experts fear will only get worse.

Such stories have become increasingly common as tensions between Egypt’s Muslims and Copts mount, but in the latest case, mosque officials corroborated much of the account and even filed a police report. Demonstrators, some of whom were Muslim, say they were taken from the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in suburban Cairo to a nearby mosque on Friday and tortured for hours by hard-line militia members.

“They accompanied me to one of the mosques in the area and I discovered the mosque was being used to imprison demonstrators and torture them,” Amir Ayad, a Coptic who has been a vocal protester against the regime, told MidEast Christian News from a hospital bed.

Ayad said he was beaten for hours with sticks before being left for dead on a roadside. Amir’s brother, Ezzat Ayad, said he received an anonymous phone call at 3 a.m. Saturday, with the caller saying his brother had been found near death and had been taken to the ambulance.

“He underwent radiation treatment that proved that he suffered a fracture in the bottom of his skull, a fracture in his left arm, a bleeding in the right eye, and birdshot injuries,” Ezzat Ayad said.

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After A Decade Long Wait, China And Russia Ink ‘Super Jet’ Military Deal (+video)

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Photo Credit: Forbes

A recent official visit to Moscow brought back some new souvenirs for the Chinese military. How about a reported 24 Sukhoi SU-35 fighter jets, and four submarines from Russia.

China‘s new president Xi Jinping was in Russia this week to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Both sides agreed to two arms-sale contracts in which China will buy Russian Sukhoi made fighter jets, Xinhua and Agence France Press reported on Monday.

China has been itching to buy the planes since the 1990s and has been in hot pursuit since last March.

Russia’s Interfax confirmed the existence and date of that agreement back in February, but didn’t speculate on sales numbers. This month, official talks trimmed the order down to 24 planes from an initial discussion of 48 Sukhoi Super Flankers. The Russians are said to have more confidence that China can’t copy their engines, and are also said to need the SU-35 orders because Russia’s Defense Department is ordering follow-on buys of new upgraded Sukhoi SU-35s instead.

The deals raised concern among some regional defense players — namely India. China Central Television reported on Sunday that the purchase deals were signed before President Xi Jinping’s ever stepped foot into Russia. The military deal marks the first time in a decade that China had bought large military technological equipment from Russia, according to official television.

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Chinese Citizen Given 5 Years for Stealing, Taking to China Hundreds of Millions of Dollars of US High-Tech Military Data

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Photo Credit: mjtmail (tiggy)

Measured in millimeters, the tiny device was designed to allow drones, missiles and rockets to hit targets without satellite guidance. An advanced version was being developed secretly for the U.S. military by a small company and L-3 Communications, a major defense contractor.

On Monday, Sixing Liu, a Chinese citizen who worked at L-3’s space and navigation division, was sentenced in federal court here to five years and 10 months for taking thousands of files about the device, called a disk resonator gyroscope, and other defense systems to China in violation of a U.S. arms embargo.

The case illustrates what the FBI calls a growing “insider threat” that hasn’t drawn as much attention as Chinese cyber operations. But U.S. authorities warned that this type of espionage can be just as damaging to national security and American business.

“The reason this technology is on the State Department munitions list, and controlled . . . is it can navigate, control and position missiles, aircraft, drones, bombs, lasers and targets very accurately,” said David Smukowski, president of Sensors in Motion, the small company in Bellvue, Wash., developing the technology with L-3. “While it saves lives, it can also be very strategic. It is rocket science.”

Smukowski estimated that the loss of this tiny piece of technology alone could ultimately cost the U.S. military hundreds of millions of dollars.

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U.S. Border Patrol Uniforms Manufactured In Mexico

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Photo Credit: Gerald L. Nino

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has granted uniform contracts to VF Imagewear, Inc., an apparel company that relies on manufacturing sites in Mexico for a “significant percentage” of its occupational garments.

The latest contract with the company was awarded on Dec. 20, 2012, to make “uniform and insignia items” for the CBP at an estimated cost of $6,157,997.57, and a ceiling of $8 million.

The CBP, which is responsible for protecting America’s borders, told CNSNews.com that items from VF Imagewear, a subsidiary of VF Corporation, are manufactured in a number of locations, “including Mexico.”

“There are no domestic preference regulations or statutes applicable to DHS/CBP that would prohibit the manufacture of uniform items in Mexico,” the CBP said. “In fact, United States obligations under International Agreements require that the Agency accept items manufactured in Mexico.”

“Consistent with the foregoing, VF is permitted to provide items manufactured in Mexico under the current contract,” the agency said. According to the company’s 2012 annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), “VF operates manufacturing facilities in Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East.”

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Mother Victimized By China’s One-Child Policy Commits Suicide

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Photo Credit: LifeNews

In another tragic case, a 42-year-old mother took her life last week inside a local Family Planning Office after two botched forced sterilizations.

Yang Yuzhi, the mother of four, was forced to undergo sterilization surgery in 1995. However, the operation failed, and she was forced again in 2006 to undergo a second sterilization surgery. The surgery failed and led to infections in her intestines, leading to chronic pain and requiring regular doses of medication. Due to the financial burdens, Ms. Yang frequently petitioned the Family Planning Commission (FPC), but to no avail.

At around noon on March 13, 2013, Ms. Yang left home in a normal mental state and went to the local FPC office. Her son, Zhang Zhaofa, later recounted to the media: “The Family Planning Officials told us that while they were discussing Ms. Yang’s case with the village mayor, some workers found her already dead, having hanged herself at the top of the stairs. They secretly called the ambulance to move her body to the hospital, but didn’t inform the family in a timely manner.”

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North Korea Orders Troops Combat Ready to Target US Bases

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North Korea said Tuesday its strategic rocket and long-range artillery units have been ordered to be combat ready, targeting U.S. military bases on Guam, Hawaii, and mainland America after U.S. bombers flew sorties threatening the North.

The order, issued in a statement from the North’s military “supreme command,” marks the latest fiery rhetoric from Pyongyang since the start of joint military drills by U.S. and South Korean forces early this month.

South Korea’s defense ministry said it saw no sign of imminent military action by North Korea. “From this moment, the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army will be putting into combat duty posture No. 1 all field artillery units, including long-range artillery units and strategic rocket units, that will target all enemy objects in U.S. invasionary bases on its mainland, Hawaii and Guam,” the North’s KCNA news agency said.

The North previously threatened nuclear attack on the United States and South Korea, although it is not believed to have the capability to hit the continental United States with an atomic weapon.

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Confirmed: Bank Deposits To Be Seized In Cyprus, Many Cypriots Have No Cash (+video)

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Cyprus has agreed to shrink its bloated financial industry and tap big depositors at its two leading banks for billions of euros, clearing the way for a €10 billion European Union bailout the island nation needs to avoid collapse.

The deal with the EU was struck early Monday after days of frantic negotiations that followed the rejection by Cypriot lawmakers of Plan A. That proposal, unveiled little over a week ago, would have imposed a tax on all account holders to raise funds to recapitalize the failing banks.

Now the new bailout plan will protect all deposits of less than €100,000 euros but is likely to mean much bigger losses for account holders with more than €100,000 at the two biggest banks — the Bank of Cyprus and Popular Bank of Cyprus.

Popular Bank will be broken up immediately. Its viable assets will be integrated into the Bank of Cyprus, and its non-performing loans will be moved into a “bad bank” to be wound down.

The “haircut” for Popular Bank depositors will raise about €4.2 billion, while shareholders and bondholders are likely to be wiped out. The scale of depositors’ contribution to the restructuring of Bank of Cyprus has yet to be fixed.

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Kerry Warns Iraq on Iranian Flights to Syria

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Photo Credit: Talk Radio News Service

Just days after the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confronted Baghdad for continuing to grant Iran access to its airspace and said Iraq’s behavior was raising questions about its reliability as a partner.

Speaking to reporters during a previously unannounced trip to Baghdad, Kerry said that he and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had engaged in “a very spirited discussion” on the Iranian flights, which U.S. officials believe are ferrying weapons and fighters intended for the embattled Syrian government.

Kerry said the plane shipments – along with material being trucked across Iraqi territory from Iran to Syria – were helping President Bashar Assad’s regime cling to power by increasing their ability to strike at Syrian rebels and opposition figures demanding Assad’s ouster.

“I made it very clear that for those of us who are engaged in an effort to see President Assad step down and to see a democratic process take hold … anything that supports President Assad is problematic,” Kerry said at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after meeting separately with Maliki at his office. “And I made it very clear to the Prime Minister that the overflights from Iran are, in fact, helping to sustain President Assad and his regime.”

The overflights in Iraq have long been a source of contention between the U.S. and Iraq. Iraq and Iran claim the flights are carrying humanitarian goods, but American officials say they are confident that the planes are being used to arm the support the Assad regime. The administration is warning Iraq that unless action is taken, Iraq will be excluded from the international discussion about Syria’s political future.

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So Much For Sequester: Obama Quietly Releases $500 Million to Palestinians (+video)

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Photo Credit: AFP

The United States has quietly unblocked almost $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority which had been frozen by Congress for months, a top US official said Friday.

The news that the funds had finally been freed up came after US President Barack Obama met top Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a landmark visit to Israel and the West Bank earlier this week.

“To date, we have moved $295.7 million in fiscal year 2012 money… and $200 million in fiscal year 2013 assistance,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

The Obama administration also notified Congress in late February that it was seeking a further $200 million to fund US Agency for International Development (USAID) programs for the Palestinians, she said.

The first sum comprises some $195.7 million, allocated under the 2012 fiscal year budget for USAID economic, development and humanitarian assistance, as well as a further $100 million earmarked specifically for narcotics control

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Justifying Another War: Head of Intel Committee Says Syrian “Red Line” Crossed (+video)

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Photo Credit: FreedomHouse

There’s mounting evidence that over the last two years the Assad regime has used “at least a small quantity” of chemical weapons against rebel forces in Syria’s raging civil war, House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said today on “Face the Nation,” adding that the time is now for U.S. intervention.

Amid debate over an alleged chemical weapons attack out of Syria last week, President Obama during a visit to Israel doubled down on his claim that such an attack would be considered a “game changer” for his administration, but qualified that it’s important to find out “precisely whether or not this red line was crossed” before making a decision that could lead to an act of war.

“I think that it is abundantly clear that that red line has been crossed,” Rogers said. “There is mounting evidence that it is probable that the Assad regime has used at least a small quantity of chemical weapons during the course of this conflict.”

Though a senior administration official has said intelligence this week suggests weaponized chemicals were not used in the recent strike, Rogers said the fact that President Bashar al-Assad has ordered scud missile attacks on civilians “in and of itself should prompt action.” The “wholesale slaughter” of Syrian rebels and civilians, he said, “is now spilling up to the doorstep of Israel.”

“This is a growing, destabilizing event in the Middle East,” Rogers continued. “Our Arab League allies talk to us frequently, and they are as frustrated as I have seen them because of the lack of U.S. leadership at the time table.” Senior Arab diplomats this morning announced the Arab League has decided to transfer Syria’s seat away from Assad and to opposition forces.

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