Islamists Rally For Egypt’s Mursi In Cairo

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Thousands of Islamists rallied in Cairo on Friday in support of Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood president who has been the target of protester rage in weeks of violent demonstrations.

Repeating the pattern of recent weeks, Mursi’s opponents rallied again on Friday, this time gathering outside El-Quba, one of the presidential palaces in the northern suburbs of Cairo. The activists dubbed it “Checkmate Friday”.

The protest, which drew several hundred people by afternoon descended into violence as night fell. State media reported that “troublemakers” had thrown rocks and petrol bombs. Security forces unleashed tear gas and water cannon, it said.

The pro-Mursi rally was called by a hardline Salafi Islamist group, Al-Gama’a al-Islamiya, in what it described as a protest under the banner “Together Against Violence”.

The group waged an armed insurrection against the state in the 1990s but its leadership renounced violence more than a decade ago. It has entered mainstream politics since autocratic president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011.

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How the U.S. Aids Hamas Through the Palestinian Authority

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On February 5, 2013, the reconstituted US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Middle East and North Africa held a subcommittee hearing on the subject of “Fatah-Hamas Reconciliation: Threatening Peace Prospects.”

Two senior expert witnesses from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy testified and expressed optimism that US trained Palestinian Security Forces, affiliated with the Fatah, will combat the Hamas terror group which competes for power in the nascent Palestinian Arab entity.

Yet the Fatah policy and attitude towards Hamas can be summarized in an exchange that I had with Fatah founder Yasser Arafat at a press conference in Oslo, on December 10, 1994, the night before Arafat became one of the recipeints of the Nobel Peace Prize.

My question/statement: “Mr. Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, and Israeli Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs Peres said a few hours ago in answer to my question, that you deserve the peace prize because you have committed yourself to crushing the Hamas terror organization.”

Arafat response: “I do not understand the question. Hamas are my brothers.”

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Encroachment: Russian Nuclear Bombers Circle Guam

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photo credit: Andrey BelenkoTwo Russian nuclear-armed bombers circled the western Pacific island of Guam this week in the latest sign of Moscow’s growing strategic assertiveness toward the United States.

The Russian Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bombers were equipped with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and were followed by U.S. jets as they circumnavigated Guam on Feb. 12 local time—hours before President Barack Obama’s state of the union address.

Air Force Capt. Kim Bender, a spokeswoman for the Pacific Air Force in Hawaii, confirmed the incident to the Washington Free Beacon and said Air Force F-15 jets based on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, “scrambled and responded to the aircraft.”

“The Tu-95s were intercepted and left the area in a northbound direction. No further actions occurred,” she said. Bender said no other details would be released “for operational security reasons.”

The bomber incident was considered highly unusual. Russian strategic bombers are not known to have conducted such operations in the past into the south Pacific from bomber bases in the Russian Far East, which is thousands of miles away and over water.

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G20 Summit To Focus On ‘Currency War’ Threat To Economy

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Photo Credit: naitokzJapan’s aggressive attempts to spur on its struggling economy were set to escape censure from the G20 nations today as bickering in Moscow kept alive fears of a “currency war”.

Finance ministers at the G20 gathering are understood to have pulled back from explicit criticism of Japan, whose prime minister Shinzo Abe has embarked on a huge programme of monetary and fiscal stimulus to jump start the world’s third largest economy out of its third recession in five years.

The currency market was thrown into turmoil this week after the G7 – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Italy – issued a joint statement warning against using domestic policy to target currencies.

But the show of unity was immediately shattered by off-the-record briefings against Japan, which needs a weaker yen to help fuel its export-driven economy.

European Central Bank president Mario Draghi yesterday labelled the behind-the-scenes briefing as “inappropriate, fruitless and self-defeating”.IMF chief Christine Lagarde and Russia’s deputy finance minister Sergei Storchak also denied the ex- istence of currency wars, labelling recent swings in the yen as “market reaction to exclusively internal decision making”.

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Lawmakers Urge Kerry To Push Iran For Jailed Pastor’s Freedom

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsMore than 80 lawmakers have signed a letter urging Secretary of State John Kerry to step up efforts to free American citizen and Christian Pastor Saeed Abedini from an Iranian prison.

Abedini, who was sentenced to seven years in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison last month, has been unable to see his wife or two children, who are at the family home near Boise, Idaho. While Kerry has already called for his release, the senators and members of Congress called on him to “use every diplomatic avenue” to free Abedini.

“While there are countless important issues that come before you, few are more sacred than defending the most fundamental human rights,” states the letter, signed by dozens of members of both parties. It is even more incumbent upon us to stand against persecution when it is levied against our own citizens.

“As an American citizen, Mr. Abedini deserves nothing less than the exercising of every diplomatic tool of the U.S. government to defend his basic human rights.”

Saeed, 32, traveled to his native land last summer to help build a secular orphanage. Once there, supporters say he was arrested on charges that stem from decade-old efforts to establish a home-based Christian ministry in the Islamic republic.

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Ambassador: US Wants More Canadian ‘Progress’ On Climate

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Photo Credit: alexindigoThe U.S. ambassador to Canada said more progress by the Canadian government on climate change will help shape Americans’ views of its northern neighbor’s massive oil sands resources, according to a published report.

David Jacobson’s remarks to The Globe and Mail come amid a closely watched U.S. review of the proposed Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, although the paper reports that Jacobson emphasized he wasn’t linking his comments to the Keystone decision.

The ambassador on Wednesday “said that when Canadians can show progress on climate change, it has an impact on Americans’ judgment of whether the energy-security benefits of oil-sands imports outweigh the environmental impact,” The Globe and Mail reports.

“It does,” Jacobson said, according to the paper. “I think that there are an awful lot of folks who are trying to make up their minds, and trying to draw the right balance between these two things, who I think will be moved by progress.

“There has been progress. As I’ve said many times before, there needs to be more progress,” he said.
Jacobson “took pains” to note that he was not drawing a direct link to Keystone or suggesting stronger Canadian action on climate change will ensure U.S. approval of the project.

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Iceland Considers Pornography Ban

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Photo Credit: AlamyThe government is considering introducing internet filters, such as those used to block China off form the worldwide web, in order to stop Icelanders downloading or viewing pornography on the internet.

The unprecedented censorship is justified by fears about damaging effects of the internet on children and women.

Ogmundur Jonasson, Iceland’s interior minister, is drafting legislation to stop the access of online pornographic images and videos by young people through computers, games consoles and smartphones.

“We have to be able to discuss a ban on violent pornography, which we all agree has a very harmful effects on young people and can have a clear link to incidences of violent crime,” he said.

Methods under consideration include blocking access to pornographic website addresses and making it illegal to use Icelandic credit cards to access pay-per-view pornography. A law forbidding the printing and distribution of pornography is already in force in Iceland but it has yet to be updated to cover the internet.

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Gen. Allen ‘Pushed Out’ For Top NATO Post By White House, Source Says

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Photo Credit: APArmy Gen. John Allen is planning to retire rather than be re-nominated for the powerful post of NATO supreme allied commander-Europe, after White House officials forced him to step aside, a source familiar with the discussions told Fox News on Wednesday.

The source told Fox that Allen was leery of getting into a confirmation battle that would dig into the embarrassing issue of his emails with Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, but the real reason was the White House power play.

“He’s out,” the source said. “I know he is retiring. He was pushed out of the door.” The official Pentagon announcement is expected soon.

The source also said White House officials are optimistic that after a contentious battle, former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel will be confirmed shortly as defense secretary, and he can help pick a new person for the post.

Previously, the White House was thought to be keeping the nomination open while Allen mulled whether to seek the post.
Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said earlier in the day that he told Allen on Tuesday that Allen needs to take time to decide what is best for him and his family.

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John Kerry Commanding Respect – Russian Foreign Minister Won’t Return His Call

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Photo Credit: Foreign PolicySecretary of State John Kerry called all the foreign ministers of countries that deal with North Korea following Monday’s nuclear test and all but one of them picked up the phone — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Kerry made his first remarks about the new nuclear test, which the North Koreans warned the State Department about in advance.

“With respect to the DPRK, President Obama made it crystal clear last night and previously in all comments, as have other countries, that North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program are a threat now to the United States of America, because of what they are pursuing specifically, as well as to global security and peace,” Kerry said.

“Following their latest provocation, which we have termed and believe is reckless and provocative, needlessly, I called Foreign Minister Kim of South Korea, I talked to Foreign Minister Kishida of Japan, I talked to Foreign Minister Yang of China, and we have placed a phone call to Foreign Minister Lavrov, and consulted with all of them with respect to the steps that we need to take,” Kerry went on. “The international community now needs to come together with a swift and clear, strong, credible response, as pledged in the U.N. Security Council Resolution 2087.”

The now-defunct six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program included the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, and Russia. But Russia’s leaders are the only members of that group with whom Kerry hasn’t spoken this week.

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Are China And Japan Moving Closer To War? Japan Proposes Military Hotline With China (+video)

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Photo Credit: extinctionprotocal.comTanks, one by one, moving along a main road in China’s coastal Fujian province. Driving up speculations that the Chinese military may be warming up for war. Local residents took these pictures between February 3 to February 6. At times, the line of tanks and artillery blocked traffic for several miles. And it wasn’t just in Fujian province.

These military vehicles were spotted further up the coast, in neighboring Zhejiang province. According to dissident website, molihua.org, these tanks in Hubei province are being transported from a military base to the coast. The troop movements come after months of escalating tensions between China and Japan over the disputed territory of the Diaoyun, or Senkaku islands and they’re known in Japan. It’s caused international worries that the two countries may be on the cusp of war.

Both sides have scrambled jets and warships in the region. In January, during naval exercise near the disputed waters, Chinese warships reportedly directed their targeting radar at a Japanese vessel. On February 7, State-run Global Times published this article saying there is a “serious possibility” a military conflict may flare up between China and Japan. It continues to say that fewer and fewer people are hopeful for a peaceful resolution to the Diaoyu Island crisis. Are we in a countdown to war between China and Japan? NTD will continue to keep you posted as the situation develops.

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