South Korea says North Korea Fires 3 Short-Range Missiles

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Photo Credit: APNorth Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions.

The North fired two missiles Saturday morning and another in the afternoon, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said by phone. He said the North’s intent was unclear. His ministry said it is watching North Korea carefully in case it conducts a provocation against South Korea.

In March, North Korea launched what appeared to be two KN-02 missiles off its east coast. Experts believe the country is trying to improve the range and accuracy of its arsenal.

North Korea recently withdrew two mid-range “Musudan” missiles believed to be capable of reaching Guam after moving them to its east coast earlier this year, U.S. officials said. The North is banned from testing ballistic missiles under U.N. Security Council resolutions.

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9/11 Military Force Bill to Authorize Drone Strikes For Another 20 Years

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Photo Credit: APThe fight against al-Qaida could continue for another 20 years, a top Pentagon official told Congress Thursday as the administration warned against any changes to the 2001 law giving the president broad authority to use military force in the war on terror.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Assistant Defense Secretary Michael Sheehan said the Authorization for the Use of Military Force bill passed in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks still serves its purpose and will continue to be effective until al-Qaida is in “the ash heap of history.”

“In my judgment, this is going to go on for quite a while, yes, beyond the second term of the president . . . I think it’s at least 10 to 20 years, ” Sheehan told the panel.

Many lawmakers, however, have questioned whether the military force authorization bill should be rewritten, or perhaps even thrown out, given the increased use of drone strikes in places that some say are not true war zones. President Barack Obama has pledged to be more transparent about the drone program, which has included the use of nearly 400 CIA and military drone strikes, reports the Washington Post. But Sheehan told lawmakers that there are still no geographic boundaries on future drone use, noting that they would continue to take place anywhere that al-Qaida or other terrorist groups are considered a threat to U.S. national security interests.

Sen. John McCain called Sheehan’s testimony on drone policy and the use of force military force bill “disturbing.”

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Pakistani Doctor Who Helped Get Bin Laden Was Denied US Asylum By Obama Admin.

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe jailed doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden was convicted by a tribal court on bogus charges, according to a classified Pakistani government report.

Portions of the voluminous 357-page Abbottobad Commission Report, which has yet to be made public and were obtained exclusively by Fox News, acknowledge Dr. Shakil Afridi’s conviction last year by a government-sponsored Jirga has undermined Pakistan’s credibility. The report calls for Afridi to be given a new trial.

The report also claims Afridi joined the CIA search for Bin Laden five years ago, while he was staying in the U.S. with a cousin. According to the report, Afridi applied for asylum after a terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Islam, stepped up its operations in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt.

Afridi was reportedly kidnapped by the group in 2008 and released after his family paid a $10,000 ransom. After helping the CIA pinpoint the terror mastermind just prior to the 2011 raid in which Navy SEALs killed Bin laden, Afridi was arrested and convicted by the tribal court of colluding with Lashkar-e-Islam.

The State Department declined to comment on the report’s claims that Afridi had applied for asylum while staying in the U.S.

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France’s Hollande Seeks Formation of Single European Government

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Photo Credit: APFrench President Francois Hollande called on Thursday for an economic government in the eurozone that would have its own budget, the right to issue debt, a harmonized tax system, and a full-time president.

Speaking at a news conference marking his first year in office, a day after economic data showed France had slipped back into recession, the Socialist leader said he sought to create a full political European Union (EU) within two years.

His proposals seemed likely to encounter stiff resistance from Germany, Europe’s leading power, which opposes mutualizing debt among European states and is reluctant to give the eurozone its own secretariat or create new divisions in the EU, of which 10 countries are not in the 17-nation single currency.

It also comes as Britain’s government faces growing domestic pressure to hold a referendum on leaving the bloc.

“My initiative has four points that I am putting to our partners. The first is to create an economic government with the eurozone countries which would meet every month with a real president appointed for a long period and who would be devoted to this task,” Hollande said.

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Syrian Rebels Post Grisly Execution Video

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Photo Credit: YouTubeA gruesome video (warning: graphic content) posted Wednesday shows Syrian rebels in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor invoking sharia law as they sentence soldiers loyal to President Bashar Assad to death. The soldiers, kneeling and blindfolded, are then shot in the back of the head by a rebel whose face is hidden by a black balaclava.

The executioners claim to belong to the al-Nursa Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), a Syrian rebel cell associated with al-Qaeda, Reuters reported Thursday.

With the civil war in Syria between Assad’s forces and myriad insurgent groups entering its third year, and as both sides struggle for the upper hand in media coverage, increasingly unpalatable videos have been surfacing that expose the war at its most brutal.

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Pope Francis Urges Global Leaders to End ‘Tyranny’ of Money

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Photo Credit: Reuters He said free-market capitalism had created a “tyranny” and that human beings were being judged purely by their ability to consume goods.

Money should be made to “serve” people, not to “rule” them, he said, calling for a more ethical financial system and curbs on financial speculation.

Countries should impose more control over their economies and not allow “absolute autonomy”, in order to provide “for the common good”.

The gap between rich and poor was growing and the “joy of life” was diminishing in many developed countries, the Argentinian Pope said, two months after he was elected as the successor to Benedict XVI.

“While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling,” said Francis, who as archbishop of Buenos Aires visited slums, opted to live in a modest flat rather than an opulent Church residence and went to work by bus.

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Birmingham Schoolgirl “Murdered in Bid to Harvest Her Organs”

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Photo Credit: birmingham mailA Birmingham schoolgirl was murdered by health workers in India in a failed attempt to harvest her organs, her devastated parents have sensationally claimed.

Gurkiren Kaur Loyal’s family said she was being treated for a simple case of dehydration when staff at a clinic gave her a mystery injection which took her life.

But her relatives guarded the eight-year-old’s body so that her organs could not be taken in time to be used in transplant operations.

They claimed she was subjected to a “medieval” post-mortem examination during which all her major organs were removed in a bid to hide the truth of how she had been killed.

Gurkiren’s family said the Indian police and medical authorities made little attempt to investigate the death.

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Outrage at Syrian Rebel Shown ‘Eating Soldier’s Heart’

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe video, which cannot be independently authenticated, seems to show [Abu Sakkar] cutting out the heart.

“I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog,” the man says, referring to President Bashar al-Assad as he stands over the soldier’s corpse…

“The desecration and mutilation of a killed person is definitely a war crime,” Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, told the BBC. “This one particularly disturbing because of the sectarian nature of the language used by Abu Sakkar.”

HRW said those committing war crimes on either side had to know that there was no impunity and that they would be brought to account.

The human rights group said Abu Sakkar had been filmed before, firing rockets into Shia areas of Lebanon and posing with the bodies of guerrillas from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement killed fighting alongside Syrian government forces.

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Obama Admin. Wins Appeal to Force German Homeschooling Family to Return to Persecution

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Photo Credit: WNDAn appeal is planned for a family of homeschoolers the Obama administration wants to deport to their home country of Germany to face persecution from education officials there who seek fines and jail for such individuals.

The word comes today from officials with the Home School Legal Defense Association, who have been arguing on behalf of the Romeike family since they fled Germany in 2008 and were granted asylum in the U.S. in 2010 by Immigration Judge Lawrence O. Burman.

The Obama administration was unhappy with that decision and appealed, and the grant was rescinded by the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2012.

A panel from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently heard arguments on the dispute, and ruled today that the asylum request should be denied.

“We believe the Sixth Circuit is wrong, and we will appeal their decision,” said Michael Farris, HSLDA founder and chairman. “America has room for this family, and we will do everything we can to help them.”

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Japanese Mayor Draws IRE for Saying Wartime Sex Slaves ‘Necessary’

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Photo Credit: APAn outspoken nationalist mayor said the Japanese military’s forced prostitution of Asian women before and during World War II was necessary to “maintain discipline” in the ranks and provide rest for soldiers who risked their lives in battle.

The comments made Monday are already raising ire in neighboring countries that bore the brunt of Japan’s wartime aggression and that have long complained that Japan has failed to fully atone for wartime atrocities.

Toru Hashimoto, the young, brash mayor of Osaka who is also co-leader of an emerging conservative political party, also told reporters that there wasn’t clear evidence that the Japanese military coerced women to become what are euphemistically called “comfort women.”

“To maintain discipline in the military, it must have been necessary at that time,” said Hashimoto. “For soldiers who risked their lives in circumstances where bullets are flying around like rain and wind, if you want them to get some rest, a comfort women system was necessary. That’s clear to anyone.”

Historians say up to 200,000 women, mainly from the Korean Peninsula and China, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels.

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