Citing war crimes committed against civilians by both sides in last month’s war in the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International urged in a report today that the international community impose an arms embargo on both the Israeli government and the Hamas government, as well as other militant factions that took part in the war. The report [...]
The Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has once again declared a unilateral ceasefire in the Bajaur Agency, with deputy chief Maulvi Faqir Mohammad saying it was “in the interest of Pakistan and our region.” The TTP declared a unilateral ceasefire on August 24, and the Pakistani government declared their own a week later. In spite of [...]
Sufi Muhammad, the influential cleric that is the head of the Tehreek-e Nafaz-e Shariat-e Mohammadi (TNSM) as well as a major force behind the Swat Valley truce, held a press conference today to outline a 10-point plan to ensure that the peace holds. Muhammad made several demands of both the Pakistani government as well as [...]
The question of whether or not to enter a center-right coalition government with the Likud Party remains a controversial one in the Kadima Party, and while party leader Tzipi Livni continues to publicly rule it out, Netanyahu isn’t giving up. Today, the would-be prime minister met with Finance Minister Roni Bar-On, one of Kadima’s top [...]
Even as he seems to have consolidated his support on the Israeli right, Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-standing ambition to form a grand coalition including “all of the Zionist parties” seems to be very close to dead in the water. Ehud Barak’s Labor Party today ruled out joining a Netanyahu-led government, with Barak instead saying it is [...]
US military officials confirmed today that more than 70 military advisers have been secretly working with Pakistan’s military as part of a “secret task force” training the Pakistani army and paramilitaries, as well as providing them with intelligence. The program appears to have been running concurrently with a previously announced training program, which involved only [...]
Military spokesman Major General David Perkins told reporters today that there was “no doubt” that the US would have all troops out of Iraq’s cities by June, as required by the Status of Forces Agreement signed last year. The announcement came as something of a surprise considering top military commander in Iraq General Ray Odierno [...]
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu seems like he’s got a good chance of forming a right-wing government at some point in the next month and a half, but he hasn’t given up on his pre-election goal of a unity government. Talks today with the Kadima party didn’t end with anything close to a deal, but more [...]
Despite the attention being paid to claims that Iran has enough uranium to hypothetically build a nuclear weapon, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that Iran is “not there yet” as far as the capability of making weapons is concerned. Iran has enriched 1,010 kilograms of uranium hexaflouride to the low levels needed for [...]
Much hay was made late last week over the allegation that the Iranian government had underreported the amount of urnaium it had enriched through November. The White House accused Iran of reneging on its international obligations, and called the nation an “urgent problem that has to be addressed.” Not so, says the International Atomic Enegy [...]
