urkish troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships have pursued Kurdish rebels into Iraq.

It follows overnight attacks on military installations in Hakkari province, near the Iraqi border, which killed at least 24 Turkish soldiers.

The attacks are thought to have inflicted the biggest loss on Turkish forces since 1993 and President Abdullah Gul has vowed to avenge them.

In recent months, violence between the army and Kurdish rebels has mounted.

The attacks come a day after a blast in the south-east Bitlis province killed five police officers and three others.

Dozens of members of the country’s security forces, and at least 17 civilians, have been killed since mid-July.

Read more http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15369352

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Turkish troops are pursuing Kurdish rebels into northern Iraq after overnight rebel attacks in which at least 24 Turkish soldiers died.

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Fierce clashes erupted in Cairo Sunday night between Christians protesting over a recent attack on a church and the military, leaving at least 12 people dead, security and hospital officials said.

They said the dead included several protesters and at least two soldiers, and 40 people were injured in the riots outside the state television building along the Nile. Witnesses said some of the protesters may have snatched weapons from the soldiers and turned them on the military. The protesters also pelted the soldiers with rocks and bottles.

Read More  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4133185,00.html

4 October 2011,

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Watch this Video

Click http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14771897

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Kurdish Exile Association (KEA) and GAYLAN DOCROOM are
organising a seminar for Mr. Bechtyar Ali, the Kurdish novelist and writer,
titled “Innovation and the media: a glance at the modern media and
the relationship with the matter of truth and freedom”. The meeting is

being held on Sunday 4th September 2011, at 3:00pm – 7:00pm. All are
welcome.

Date: Sunday 4th September 2011
Time: 3am – 7pm

Venue:
Kensington Town Hall
The Council Chamber
Hornton Street,
London W8 7NX

Nearest Underground: High Street Kensington

For more information please contact:
Kea1996@yahoo.co.uk
0044 7956 492252
0044 7752 748210

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Image via Wikipedia

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will give an interview to Syrian television today to address recent events in the nation and the government’s reforms, the state-run news agency reported as Assad’s security forces continued a violent crackdown on protesters.

Faced with the most serious threat to his family’s 40-year rule, Assad has deployed tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and helicopters to crush the uprising that began in mid-March after revolts ousted the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and sparked a conflict in Libya.

Security forces fired on protesters yesterday in the Homs governorate and Daraa, Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said in a phone interview from Damascus, the capital. At least six people died in clashes in Homs, Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said yesterday by phone.

U.S. President Barack Obama, in a coordinated move with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, issued a statement on Aug. 18 saying Assad should step down and allow Syrians to chart their own political future.

The European Union reached an agreement to broaden sanctions against the regime, including preparing for an embargo on the import of Syrian crude oil into the bloc, according to an e-mailed statement on Aug. 19.

At least 40 people were killed on Aug. 19 in Damascus, Homs and Daraa, the area where the revolt against Syria’s president began, according to the website of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria.

Obama’s declaration was his first explicit call for Assad to give up power since the uprising started. He also signed an executive order freezing any Syrian government assets in the U.S. and banning import to the U.S. of petroleum products of Syrian origin. The order prohibits people in the U.S. from doing business with Syria.

To contact the reporter on this story: Glen Carey in Riyadh at gcarey8@bloomberg.net.

Source http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-20/assad-plans-to-appear-on-syrian-television-as-violent-crackdown-escalates.html

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Image by Getty Images via @daylife

U.S. stocks tumbled, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its biggest four-week loss since March 2009, as concern the global economy is stalling overshadowed the cheapest valuations in 2 1/2 years.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) plunged 27 percent this week, the most since the October 1987 market crash, after a strategy shift undermined confidence in its managers. Technology, industrial and raw-material companies in the S&P 500 dropped at least 6.9 percent, the most among 10 groups. Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and Alcoa Inc. (AA) retreated more than 8.4 percent after some of the world’s biggest banks — Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. — slashed economic growth forecasts.

The S&P 500 lost 4.7 percent to 1,123.53. It has sunk 16 percent since July 22 as about $3 trillion was erased from the value of U.S. equities, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 451.37 points, or 4 percent, to 10,817.65 this week, extending its four-week decline to 1,863.51 points.

“We’re in a little bit of a tug of war,” David Joy, the Boston-based chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial Inc., said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees $693 billion. “On the one hand, there’s the real concern about what’s going on in Europe, about the pressure on the banking system and weakness in the global economy. On the other, an opposing force seems to be an interest in buying at attractive equity valuations.”

Cheapest Since 2009

The S&P 500 has fallen 18 percent from an almost three-year high on April 29 amid concern about Europe’s government debt crisis and a global economic slowdown. The decline through Aug. 8 drove the index to a valuation of 12.2 times reported earnings, the lowest level since March 2009. Its price-earnings ratio is now 12.3, compared with the average of 16.4 since 1954, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

This week’s loss included the S&P 500’s 4.5 percent retreat on Aug. 18 amid speculation that European banks lack sufficient capital. Lars Frisell, the chief economist at Sweden’s financial regulator, said it won’t take much for interbank lending to freeze. The market also declined after U.S. jobless claims rose, Philadelphia-area manufacturing shrank by the most since 2009 and hopes for more stimulus from the Federal Reserve receded.

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to economic growth plunged 10 percent this week, extending its loss since July 22 to 26 percent and falling to the lowest level since Aug. 26, 2010. Morgan Stanley economists cut forecasts for global growth this year and said the U.S. and Europe are “dangerously close to recession.”

JPMorgan, Citigroup

JPMorgan said the U.S. may expand less than previously projected in the next two quarters as consumer sentiment drops and the housing market fails to gain momentum. Citigroup also cut estimates for the U.S.

“We separate the economic picture from the investment picture,” Eric Teal, chief investment officer at First Citizens Bancshares Inc., which manages $4 billion in Raleigh, North Carolina, said in a phone interview. “If the economy is lackluster and stagnant, that does not imply that the stock market has to continue to decline. With valuations where they are, we find the market to be attractive. Companies are generally in good shape, and earnings growth can continue to be quite strong.”

Profit at S&P 500 companies is forecast to rise 17 percent to $99.05 a share in 2011 and 14 percent to $112.81 in 2012, according to average analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Moving Together

Stocks in the S&P 500 are moving in lockstep with each other by the most since at least 1990, a sign that the market’s biggest retreat in three years may not be over, according to MF Global Holdings Ltd. The average correlation coefficient between the 500 companies and the index was 0.8268 on Aug. 18, using 60 days of data, according to MF Global.

High correlation “is usually the case in a bear market, when investors are liquidating equities as an asset class,” Craig Peskin, co-head of technical analysis at the New York- based firm, wrote in an e-mail on Aug. 18. “In a bull market, when investors are differentiating, we see low or falling correlation.”

Correlation among S&P 500 stocks exceeded 0.78 twice previously, according to MF Global. After the first time, on Dec. 1, 2008, the S&P 500 declined 17 percent to a 12-year low on March 9, 2009. Correlation peaked again on July 26, 2010, when the benchmark slipped 6.1 percent over the next month, data compiled by MF Global and Bloomberg show.

Read More  http://bloom.bg/nWT6WG

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Since recent developments have rocked the region, leaders are realizing that popular support is now necessary to remain in power. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is among those who seem to be aware of this change as he consolidates his rule over Iraq.

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Egyptian army deploys thousands of troops in the Sinai peninsula as part of a major operation against Al-Qaeda militant   Read More..http://bit.ly/omZ6SS

Aftermath of terrorist attack in Sinai

Israel news photo: Flash 90

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In the recent discovery cough medicine can be brought in use as a “probe” to detect the women who are suffering from breast cancer.

The drug can help detect altered metabolism with the presence of drug tamoxifen, as recommended by an abstract which comes with the 22nd EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.

With the advent of this discovery investigators, can now personalize the testing.

Tamoxifen – is mainly used in cure and prevention of breast cancer- is metabolised by CYP2D6 and CYP3A into endoxifen, the active metabolite which helps its anticancer activity. Widespread changes in toxication levels and worth of tamoxifen results in causing variations and aids in developing more amount of concentrated endoxifen amidst patients which are very much characterized by genetic profiles, co-medications and life style factors.

In the current study, Anne-Joy de Grann and colleagues from Erasmus Medical Centre findings showed a connection with the clearance of dextromethorphan and endoxifen (r=-0.72, p=0.0001).

De Grann said, “Tamoxifen is prescribed to women for as much as five years in the adjuvant setting, so it is highly important to know beforehand if the therapy is going to be effective. When it is known that a woman metabolises tamoxifen poorly, a switch in drugs or an increase in dose can be considered.”

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Source:http://www.topnews.in/

Hollywood superstar Michael Douglas has been diagnosed with throat cancer but said that he is optimistic about a full recovery. The 65-year-old actor, who is the son of Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas, is set to begin chemotherapy after doctors discovered a tumour in his throat during a routine medical check-up, reported People magazine online.

The Oscar winner’s doctors expect him to make a full recovery as soon as he completes eight weeks of treatment, which will include a combination of radiation and chemotherapy.

“I am very optimistic,” Douglas said in a statement to the magazine.

No word yet on how the treatment will affect his work schedule, as Douglas has a lot on his plate, including promotion for his return to the character Gordon Gekko in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps which opens in September.

The actor is enjoying a high in a career spanning four decades and cult films like Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct and Traffic.

Douglas has been married since 2000 to the Mask of Zorro actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and they have two young children together.

The actor also has a son Cameron, from his earlier marriage to Diandra Douglas.

Source:   http://www.cinecurry.com/

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Reading David Grossman’s To The End Of The Land J Street is lambasted for accepting support from George Soros while the “pro-Israel” lobby is never called upon to account for supporting policies that have produced so much grief and mourning in Israel.

I won’t reveal the plot. It’s fiction but, as is well-known, Grossman’s 20 year-old son, Uri, was killed during the 2006 war in Lebanon. I am not giving anything away when I say that this would not be the same book if Uri had come home from that war.

The book is heartbreaking for so many reasons. Any book on the mortality of children is going to be. But this one is also heartbreaking because it is suffused with hopelessness. Israel is depicted as a place living with an intolerable situation — war, followed by more war — that will never end.

This was not true about Israeli novels written in earlier times. Israeli literature, art and music once pointed to the time, not far in the future, when there would be no more wars. (One Israeli song, popular after the Yom Kippur War, told of a promise a soldier makes to his daughter: “I swear this is the last war.”)

That sentiment is no longer a major theme in Israeli art. On the contrary, war and violence is a given. The soldier who leaves a son behind (only boys have combat roles in Israel) is leaving behind a future soldier.

But the book is not only about war. It is about the choking reality of a day-to-day situation in which Israelis and Palestinians are suffocated by occupation.

So why doesn’t Israel just end the occupation for its own sake? Why not accept the Arab League (formerly Saudi) Initiative and achieve peace with all its neighbors out of self-interest? It won’t be easy, but the wars and the occupation are harder.

Why not just choose the risks of peace over the far greater risks of war so that kids like Uri Grossman don’t have to die?

We all know the answer. Politics.

As in the United States, the right and the left played “Capture the Flag” and the right won. The safe position is to be a hawk, no matter how many die as a result of right-wing policies.

Read More http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

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A combination of undated video stills shows Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Reuters

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2017444,00.html#ixzz11MWvSPfm

Nine years after the 9/11 attacks, al-Qaeda’s shadow still looms large in America’s national conversation. President Barack Obama on Thursday warned that a grotesque Koran-burning prank planned by the pastor of a tiny Florida church would be a “recruitment bonanza for al-Qaeda.” The putative threat of Osama bin Laden’s little band of terrorists, believed to number no more than a couple of hundred, is also the prime reason offered in Washington for keeping close to 100,000 troops in Afghanistan at a huge cost in blood and treasure. “No challenge is more essential to our security than our fight against al-Qaeda,” Obama said last week. “And because of our drawdown in Iraq, we are now able to apply the resources necessary to go on offense.”

GOP heavyweight Newt Gingrich disagrees, warning that the Administration lacks a “serious strategy in fighting terrorism” and is blind to its danger — echoing Senator John McCain’s effort, in the final weeks of his doomed 2008 presidential campaign, to rally support by asking whether Barack Obama “is a man who has what it takes to protect America from Osama bin Laden.” (See a bin Laden family photo album.)

In U.S. politics, you downplay the “al-Qaeda threat” at your peril, as Senator John Kerry discovered in 2004, when he suggested during his ill-fated presidential campaign that terrorism could not be eliminated, but could be reduced to a “nuisance” level where it wasn’t dominating Americans’ lives. Al-Qaeda, he said, was essentially a diabolical criminal enterprise that should not be given the status of a geopolitical challenger on the order of Hitler or Stalin.

Kerry’s view did not convince voters, but it may well have been vindicated by events. Systematic police work and intelligence-driven military strikes have reduced the operational core of bin Laden’s movement to a handful of desperate men hiding from U.S. drones in the wilds of Pashtunistan. They’ve failed to launch another attack on the U.S. mainland, and even the handful of devastating strikes in far off places — Bali, Madrid, London, Istanbul — that followed 9/11 have given way to the occasional, amateurish attempt by one or two people recruited via the Internet. More important, al-Qaeda’s attacks failed miserably to achieve their main objective: to inspire a global bin Laden-led rebellion against U.S.-aligned regimes throughout the Muslim world. (See a special report on the accued 9/11 plotters.)

Bin Laden’s problem from the very beginning was that while (polls show) a majority of Muslims around the world might have agreed with his charge of U.S. malfeasance in its dealings in the Middle East, only a tiny minority identified with terrorism as a response. Despite the virulently anti-American attitudes revealed in opinion surveys in parts of the Muslim world after 9/11, very few people were prepared to condone attacks on innocent civilians. That’s why so many people in Egypt and Pakistan bought into conspiracy theories about the CIA or Israel’s Mossad being behind the attacks.

The ubiquity of bin Laden’s image in the wake of the attacks suggested that he might become a kind of jihadist Che Guevara, destined to live on long after his death on an endless stream of T-shirts and tchotchkes. (Of course, he’d first have to be killed to test that theory.) But there’s another connection: Like the Saudi jihadist, the Argentinian revolutionary had mistakenly assumed that simply demonstrating through violence that a hated enemy was not invulnerable would automatically rouse the masses to rebellion.

While the 9/11 attacks made bin Laden the focus of American fear and rage, his “global jihad” failed to either eclipse or enlist its more localized Islamist rivals. Hamas confined itself to striking Israeli targets, and to competing with Fatah for local political power at the ballot box and on the streets; Hizballah continued to lock horns with Israel on its northern border and to engage in the complexities of Lebanese politics; Iran actually helped the initial U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, although it soon resumed its struggle with Washington and its allies for influence throughout the Middle East. Al-Qaeda may still figure in U.S. debate, but it no longer garners any attention in the Arab political conversation — prompting it to issue increasingly hysterical denunciations of Hamas, Hizballah and Iran. (See pictures of the battle against the Taliban.)

The only al-Qaeda “chapter” to gain any traction was the one that came into existence in Iraq in response to the U.S. invasion, and thrived while its presence was tolerated as a force multiplier by mainstream Sunni insurgents. But the group’s ideology and propensity for vicious sectarian murder of Shi’ites turned the insurgents against them, and eventually the bulk of the insurgency turned on al-Qaeda, with many Sunni insurgents going onto the U.S. payroll under the rubric of the “Awakening” movement. (The uptick of al-Qaeda attacks in Iraq in recent months has coincided with the growing alienation of Sunnis, particularly in the “Awakening” movement, from the Shi’ite-led government. And a political solution to Iraq’s political conflict will no doubt once again shut it out.)

A similar fate almost certainly awaits the movement in Afghanistan, where its erstwhile Taliban ally is fighting a nationalist campaign against foreign armies, which will inevitably end in a power-sharing political settlement. And even Taliban leaders have indicated they won’t allow their territory to be used as a base to export terrorism.

If anything, hostility towards the U.S. in the Muslim world has actually escalated over the past nine years, because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Israel’s conflicts with its neighbors. But al-Qaeda, ironically, remains on the margins. It’s not inconceivable that bin Laden’s men will get lucky again at some point in the future, but not even another major terror strike would change the basic calculus of al-Qaeda’s demise.See pictures of President Bush in the Middle East.

See TIME’s Pictures of the Week

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2017444,00.html#ixzz11MSQE7eGRelated articles by Zemanta

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September 6th, 2010

Via: AP:

Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq’s ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad on Sunday. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.

It was the first exchange of fire involving U.S. troops in Baghdad since the Aug. 31 deadline for formally ending the combat mission, and it showed that American troops remaining in the country are still being drawn into the fighting.

The attack also made plain the kind of lapses in security that have left Iraqis wary of the U.S. drawdown and distrustful of the ability of Iraqi forces now taking up ultimate responsibility for protecting the country.

Sunday’s hour-long assault was the second in as many weeks on the facility, the headquarters for the Iraqi Army’s 11th Division, pointing to the failure of Iraqi forces to plug even the most obvious holes in their security.

Two of the four attackers even managed to fight their way inside the compound and were only killed after running out of ammunition and detonating explosives belts they were wearing.

The American troops who joined the fight and provided cover fire for Iraqi soldiers pursuing the attackers were based at the compound to train Iraqi forces, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom. Iraqi forces also requested help from U.S. helicopters, drones and explosives experts, he said. No American troops were hurt, Bloom said.

Source  http://cryptogon.com/?p=17472

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