The Taliban announced the start of their spring offensive

The Taliban announced on Saturday, April 30, the beginning of their spring offensive on May 1. They promised in a statement to attack both the foreign contingents, the Afghan security forces and representatives of power in the country. They also invite civilians to avoid public gatherings, military bases and convoys, as well as administrative centers.

The Taliban also announced an operation called "Badar" [the name of one of the great victories of the Prophet Muhammad] against foreign forces, members of the executive and legislative leaders and foreign companies and cooperating with Afghan forces of NATO. The insurgents also announce "considered part of the ranks of the enemy" members of the High Council for Peace, a structure set up by the Afghan government to try to convince the insurgents to sit at the negotiating table.

The death of a son of Qaddafi unleashed reprisals rge

Virtually unknown to the Libyans and away from political intrigue, death at 29 years of the Arab Saif Gaddafi, son of the dictator, and three grandchildren, announced early Tuesday by the regime after a NATO bombing has triggered a cascade of events, although abundant in Benghazi Saif who suspect that the Arab is not dead and that all this is a ploy of the tyrant who has run the country for 41 years as a private.

Claude Gueant, "there is no evidence" that France was covered in Marrakech

The Interior Minister, Claude Gueant, said in the Journal du Dimanche that "there is no evidence" that France was under attack by the Marrakesh Thursday, which killed 16 people including seven French. "Morocco has been the scene of significant attacks: 45 dead, including 12 suicide bombers in Casablanca in 2003, and others in 2007," he noted.

"However, it is true that this cafe [where the attack took place] is a tourist mecca and, given the popularity of the French in Marrakech, there was a strong likelihood that the French are affected," adds there. Claude Gueant also believes that "it was not until the claim" to know if Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has organized the attack, he said, he "reminded" of 1995 in Paris.

Saleh's rebuff raises fears of a blood bath in Yemen

The citizens of Yemen on Sunday were still trying to save the plan Ali Abdullah Saleh to leave power. The snub of the president by refusing to sign the day before there were concerns about sparking a new bloodbath. The streets of Sana'a woke taken by the security forces, especially in the vicinity of the presidential palace.

The young drivers of the rudeness lived revolt as a victory of Saleh and planned to intensify their protests. "The Council expresses its hope of eliminating the obstacles that still block the final agreement, and its secretary general will return to Sana'a for that purpose," said a statement from the foreign ministers of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) after talks in Riyadh .

Talleyrand, Berlusconi and Libya

The left is stupid. Too stupid. So stupid that Berlusconi will be held as long as I (and cynical and paranoid Campania dramatically). Summary. Just a phone call from Obama because Berlusconi, one of his usual antics, radically changed your mind about our commitment to Libya, from "do not ever bomb" to go to Tornado authorization to hurl missiles towards targeted.

" The League does not fit. As an important minister Roberto Calderoli said: "I will not vote ever in Parliament for authorization to bomb Libya." Position reiterated by the Commander in Chief. It is a glaring gap in the majority that, given the importance of this issue can lead to immediate collapse of the government of Silvio Berlusconi, an official statement, has already committed to obey the diktat of Obama.

Renewed fighting between Thailand and Cambodia

Further clashes took place Saturday between Thai and Cambodian soldiers at the disputed border between the two countries for the ninth consecutive day. The fighting erupted just hours after announcing a second cease-fire in Phnom Penh, denied by Bangkok Agreement. Friday, Bangkok indicated that discussions had taken place at the military officials on the ground, but without reaching a result.

Barroso considered feasible to restore the EU's internal borders

The European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, considered feasible restoration of the internal borders of the EU, clearly defined and limited conditions, as a means to strengthen the functioning of the Treaty of Scgen. Barroso's opinion responds to the claim presented to him by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in light of the arrival of more than 20,000 Tunisians in Italy.

William, Kate and Charles: the war with blows of gossip

Once, to determine the superiority of a people or a country on the other, without bothering to become a bloody and ruinous war, was the method-Orazi Curiazi, or the use of the duel, or, in more modern count of medals won at the Olympics or Nobel prizes lined up. Britain and France, which since the time of Napoleon did not make war anymore - Wellington and Nelson, Trafalgar and Waterloo, two to zero for Her Majesty -, vent, today, their perennial rivalry between European powers a little 'foggy, but always with the right of veto in the UN Security Council, in a battle raging as bloodless, with gossip about their premières dames (though the British, who are snobbish of the monarchy, fielding a junior, because Queen, God save it, is out of competition and the reserve Camilla and media impractical).

Gaddafi reiterated he will not leave Libya

Eighty minutes. C'estle time it took to Muammar Gaddafi to repeat the night of Friday to Saturday, he would not give up power and to call France and the United States to negotiate with it a crisis. Unlike the very violent speech of 22 February in which he described the rebels as "rats" and promised to clean Libya "house by house," Gadhafi was content to urge the rebels to disarm, arguing that the Libyans do should not fight against each other.

Embassies in Libya are attacked by vandals

Vandals attacked on Sunday the embassies of Italy and Britain in the Libyan capital, hours after Moammar Gadhafi came out unscathed from a missile attack on NATO, a spokesman for the government killed one of the sons of the president and three of his grandchildren. Before the violence, United Nations withdrew its international personnel in Tripoli.

Britain responded to the attack on its embassy in Tripoli that left the building severely damaged by fire in the expulsion of the Libyan ambassador in London. The NATO attack against a family resort in a residential area Gadhafi in Tripoli on Saturday night marked the escalation of pressure on the Libyan leader has tried to crush an armed rebellion since it began in mid-February.

Moroccan trade unions claims second the policies of the young

Moroccan trade unions have supported today, with some nuances, the demands of young people who ask for two months on the streets a change of political system. "The working class is part of the Movement February 20th," read a large banner association in the demonstration on 1 May in Rabat. "For the dissolution of parliament and government," demanded another banner brandished by the procession of the Moroccan Union of Workers, one of the two main.

Human rights violated by the royal wedding

We all watched (almost all, I do not) to marriage in that year in London, the capital of "human rights". They say it was very romantic. And even a little 'kitsch. I have received from Annie Machon, a former British intelligence agent, an activist for the truth about September 11th, the news that British police have arrested the night before and that same day, a young man named Charlie Welch, then called " known anarchist, environmentalists and a group of squatters who wanted to do some 'urban theater to laugh romantic event.

After tornadoes, cities that resemble "war zones"

"Pinch me so I wake up. All this can not be real." As hundreds of people in the city of Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the southern United States, Brenda has lost everything. The tornado killed 36 people in this town of 90,000 inhabitants - visited by Barack Obama. "The dead and injured are not concentrated in a specific location.

They are scattered along the path of 4 miles wide [6.4 km] of the tornado, south-west to north-east of the city" , reported the local newspaper, the Tuscaloosa News. "We thought it was just thunder, but it got worse ... I realized that this was not the thunder after fifteen seconds. [...] I pulled a mattress over our heads.

Opposition to nuclear power plant in India increases

As far as regards Vaghdhare Taramati is not possible to accept compensation to give rise to increased nuclear power plant in the world. "If they want the land, let us stand on it-dispárennos-and then stay tuned it," said the determined 53 year old woman, wearing a blue and gold sari and gesturing with a spatula.

Located in the courtyard outside his home, a young man selected for the coveted green mangoes from the garden variety Alfonso family. "Our land is our mother. We can not sell it and receive compensation," said Vaghdhare, who was among the villagers detained during recent protests against the plant.

The targets are military, NATO justified

The Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) denied attacking family members of Moammar Gadhafi, after a Libyan government spokesman said the leader had survived an air raid on Tripoli in the organization that killed his younger son and three grandchildren. The NATO commander for operations in Libya, Lt. Gen.

Charles Bouchard, confirmed that one of his targets included a command center in a neighborhood of Tripoli on Saturday night, in which a Libyan spokesman said Gadhafi and his family were targeted. "All NATO targets are military in nature (...) We do not attack individuals. I am aware of unconfirmed media reports about some family members have been killed Gadhafi.

Brazil is a bubble?

This is the second topic that dominates talks in Brazil. The first and more popular, is holding its enormous success: the millions of poor people who have ceased to be the impressive strength of their enterprises, the massive opportunities and greater prosperity. While the problems are still large (poverty, crime, corruption, inequality), so too is optimism.

The Brazilians, always cheerful, are now happier than ever. And with good reason. Things are going very well. And that leads to the second conversation required: how long will the party? How-who-we can derail this train swiftly toward prosperity, they ask. Paradoxically, the reasons for success are also the source of anxieties.

Here and nowhere else to be found the revolt

On 26 March, the central London has been invaded by 500 thousand people took to the streets calling on the unions. There have been incredibly effective and coordinated attacks to symbols of big corporations, in stores such as Topshop, Boots, Vodafone. The Ritz was occupied by crowds of protesters, the city finance and shopping has become, suddenly, a land of toys.

And then the indiscriminate arrests, protests of 'indignant' charges on horseback, the real concern for the wedding at the door. All great events for a city too often anesthetized. But this is just the smokescreen raised by mainstream media. The real and urgent consideration to do about these events is this: who are the guys who are found to be five months, compare, imagine another way to take to the streets that is not just walking around with beer and sandwiches from point A to point B arm with the Guardian and applaud the youngster Ed Miliband on the prairies of Hyde Park? These guys come together for months without those mental superstructure that characterize us Italians.

In Syria, "the risk of civil war is real"

For the first time since the start of the protest movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, opposition organization banned in Syria, officially called the Syrians to show Friday, the day of great prayer. For the journalist Richard Labévière, author of When Syria awake ... (Perrin, 2011), published in January, the risk of civil war is real between Sunnis and Shiites.

But the second level is the role played by the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist groups. Deraa, the epicenter of the dispute is only a few kilometers from the Jordanian border. There has always been there for border tribes who opposed the Baathist regime central. Since the beginning, the Muslim Brotherhood are the levers in this movement.

UN suspends aid plan in Syria due to violence

.- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced on Saturday a five-year suspension of aid to Syria, where Bashar al-Asad regime has violently suppressed opposition movement launched on 15 March. "Given the facts" in Syria, the agency decided to suspend its aid plan 2012-2017, UNDP reported in a statement.

The decision aims to "ensure that the new program responds" to "the needs of the Syrian people." A new five-year assistance plan for the period 2012-2017, will be presented in June to the 36-member board of the UNDP. UNDP currently spends less than one million dollars a year in Syria. The statement said that so far the agency had worked with the Assad government to sustain economic growth, improve the judicial and administrative system, manage the environment, disaster prevention and fight against AIDS.

Afghan army and NATO bombed western Afghanistan

Afghan army forces and NATO forces killed 17 Taliban in a joint venture that developed over four days in western Afghanistan, an official source. According to Jabbar Khan, deputy police chief in the western province of Badghis, two Taliban were wounded and five were arrested in the operation, which was played the districts of Bala Murghab and Punjab.

The announcement of the result of the joint military operation in the West coincided with the deaths of four Afghan civilians, including a woman and a local district chief in a suicide attack by a twelve year old in southeastern Afghanistan reported authorities in a statement. The press release states that the attack took place in the market Ashkin, in Paktika province, and identifies the local district chief Sher Nawaz Khan The injured were admitted to a nearby hospital, add in the text.

Russia calls for cessation of excessive force by NATO in Libya

Russia called for the immediate cessation of hostilities in Libya and to start negotiations without preconditions, after denouncing the "excessive use of force" by the coalition, which, in its view, falls outside the mandate of the Security Council UN. In a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, called for "strict implementation of decisions adopted by the international community regarding the conflict Libyan immediate ceasefire" and the beginning of negotiations "without preconditions." As we noted, the excessive use of force, especially since it goes beyond the mandate of resolution 1973 Security Council UN does not provide any measure the change in the direction of the Libyan Jamahiriya, leads to dire consequences and death of innocent people, "he says.

Gadhafi's son dies in bombing in Libya

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi survived an air strike on Tripoli on the night of Saturday, but his son Saif al-Arab and three of his grandchildren died, said a government spokesman. "What we have now is the law of the jungle," said Ibrahim Mussa told reporters. "We believe it is now clear to everyone that what is happening in Libya has nothing to do with the protection of civilians," he added.

Killed the son of Gaddafi in Benghazi Day

Gaddafi Saif al-Arab, the youngest of the Libyan leader, was killed in a NATO raid tonight, as announced by a spokesman of the government of Tripoli. Were killed in the attack also three grandchildren of Colonel. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the building was hit by a NATO raid, but was unhurt. The rebels have welcomed the news of Benghazi last dell'ucisione Gaddafi's son, with shouts of jubilation and continuous volleys of machine gun fire into the air.

Sound Portfolio - Yemen, the farewell to arms

In a country of 50 million firearms, is the peaceful path chosen by the Yemenis to demand a regime change. Since late January, there are thousands to show up every day of the Change in Sana'a, the capital.

• Adieu, April {photo} (30/04/2011)
• 'Bama Finally Bids Jim Crow Adieu (30/04/2011)
• Band Sound & Sonority with Mr. Malcolm (11/04/2011)
• A Sweet 'Adieu' for Vodafone (04/04/2011)
• Artful Adieu (28/04/2011)

The Pentagon says coalition progress in Afghanistan

The tone is far more optimistic than in the past. In an interim report made public Friday, April 29, the Pentagon says U.S. forces and NATO have made "tangible progress" in Afghanistan under the Taliban and put a "unprecedented pressure". The previous state of affairs last fall reported earnings "modest" and "uneven" in the country, and then contrasted with the confidence expressed publicly by American officials.

Tunisian consequences analyzed three months after the fall of Ben Ali

.- Only three months have passed since the revolution began, but the Tunisians and are divided by their consequences: for some it has only encouraged the lawlessness and insecurity, while for others it is a success, which will go through a difficult period of up four years. "We can not leave quietly at night with all these robberies, frankly I can not leave home after 20H00." Manifest every day, critique everyone, sell anything on the sidewalks, park in any way means that we under democracy? It is really sad what happens in Tunisia, "exclaims Souha, a bank employee.

Libya announces the death of Gaddafi's youngest son and three grandchildren in the bombing

A NATO bombing has claimed the life of the sixth son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al Arab Qaddafi, and three of his grandchildren, as reported by a spokesman of the Government of Libya. According to these same sources, Gaddafi father was in the building that was bombed at the time of the attack, but has not been hurt.

Mussa Ibrahim Said Saif el-Arab was 29 and studied in Germany. Was the youngest son of the dictator and probably the most controversial and prone to scandals, but it is also the one with the lowest public profile. Libyan troops have led to international journalists to the house, hit at least three missiles.

Portfolio - Afghanistan: porpoises in the valley

Alexandre Kauffmann, a journalist and novelist, has shared the daily for a month of French troops in Kapisa, one of the provinces in the grip of the Taliban insurgency.

• Afghanistan to play series against Pakistan A (30/04/2011)
• Sino-Pak relations: Scholars advise cooperation in rebuilding Afghanistan (30/04/2011)
• Brothers Crist Risk All in Afghanistan In Family Tradition (30/04/2011)
• Taliban announce spring offensive in Afghanistan (30/04/2011)
• NATO: 3 coalition troops killed in Afghanistan (29/04/2011)

Afghanistan (lonelyplanet)  Afghanistan (geolocation)  Afghanistan (homepage)  Afghanistan (wikipedia)  Massoud's Last Stand - Afghanistan (youtube)  Starving to Death - Afghanistan (youtube)  01.06 Shah Massoud in European Parliament 05 March 2001 (youtube)  Inside the Taliban 06 - N.G. (youtube)  BRIGADE 055 (youtube)  

Yemen's president refuses to cede power

The president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, refused yesterday at the last moment to sign the agreement to deliver the power that had sponsored the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), United States and the EU. Saleh surprised the GCC Secretary General, Al Zayani, with the news. Intense diplomatic efforts failed to persuade him to change his mind.

Sanaa Al Zayani left in the air leaving the immediate future of Yemen. Saleh, who only accepted the initiative of the Gulf to pressure the U.S. and the EU, has not stopped looking for excuses to blurt the plan finalized last week. According to the draft, the Yemeni president agreed to resign within a month in exchange for immunity for himself and his family, and two months after elections were held.

A ferry capsized on the Nile, many victims

The ferry was carrying a bus with 32 passengers who were on their way to visit a cemetery. The bus fell into the Nile. The official news agency MENA, initially, indicated that 43 people had died in the accident, which occurred in the province of Bani-Suweif, before announcing that the record was 22 deaths.

Police officials have them, said 17 people had been killed, and 5 were missing. State television said that rescuers were searching for other victims, while the survivors were transferred to hospital.

• Egypt Bus Slides Off Ferry Into Nile; 17 Dead (29/04/2011)
• Bainbridge ferry getting facelift; other routes to downsize (29/04/2011)
• A Poem- FERRIS WHEEL (29/04/2011)
• Hole punched in Marine Atlantic ferry (28/04/2011)
• Pour Un Quebec Lucide (29/04/2011)

The King of Sweden, "retired people"

Stockholm Correspondence - The marriage of William and Kate does not overshadow another royal event that the press service of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not failed to point to correspondents stationed in Stockholm: Saturday, April 30, King Carl XVI Gustaf, the heir of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of Napoleon, is celebrating its 65 years and became folkpensionär.

Literal translation: retired people. Deuce. It did not take more than speculation to flourish. The time it would come as the king abdicates in favor of his eldest daughter, Victoria, 33, and take a well deserved retirement? Direction, the Swedish pension. Retired people? "It's an old concept that is no longer valid, says Mattias Bengtsson Byström, communications manager of the Agency.