Qaeda-Aligned Militants Threaten Key Iraqi Cities
By YASIR GHAZI and TIM ARANGOBAGHDAD — Radical Sunni militants aligned with Al Qaeda threatened Thursday to seize control of Falluja and Ramadi, two of the most important cities in Iraq, setting fire to police stations, freeing prisoners from jail and occupying mosques, as the government rushed troop reinforcements to the areas.
Dressed in black and waving the flag of Al Qaeda, the militants commandeered mosque loudspeakers to call for supporters to join their struggle in both cities in the western province of Anbar, which have increasingly become centers of Sunni extremism sinceAmerican forces withdrew from the country at the end of 2011.
For the United States, which asserted at the time that Iraq was on track to become a stable democracy, Anbar holds grave historical significance — as a place for America’s greatest losses, and perhaps its most significant success, of the eight-year war.
Bulgarian and Romanian immigration hysteria 'fanned by far-right'
Former Bulgarian foreign minister says talk of surge of eastern Europeans into UK is politically motivated and highly unlikely
Bulgaria's former foreign affairs minister has criticised the "mass hysteria" surrounding the immigration debate driven by the "far-right".
Nikolay Mladenov, who was Bulgaria's foreign affairs minister until last spring, said claims of a sudden influx of Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants to Britain in 2014 were "politically motivated".
Mladenov, who is now the UN Special Representative for Iraq, told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme that the media had done well to try to set right such suggestions, which "show that this whole mass hysteria, which has been fanned out by some media outlets in the UK, has been purely politically motivated and that there is no reason to believe that the UK will be swarmed by waves of immigrants from Bulgaria".
Vodafone Egypt questioned over alleged puppet 'coded bomb plot' in advert
Youth activist Ahmed Spider accused the advert of containing secret codes for possible bomb attacks by the Muslim Brotherhood
Iran wants a seat at Syrian peace talks
After months of uncertainty, there finally is a date for the Syria peace conference, but the guest list remains unclear. Despite its role in the Syrian civil war, the US does not want Iran to attend peace negotiations.
For months, Russia and the United States have been the driving force behind preparing the Syria peace conference. Time and again, the actual date has been postponed with either the government in Damascus or the opposition threatening not to take part.
The first meeting is to take place on January 22 in Montreux, Switzerland. The goal is to put an end to the civil war and the bloodshed that so far as cost the lives of more than 120,000 people. The list of attendees though does not include a delegation from Iran as a number of the other participants didn't want Tehran to be part of the talks.
Arms and training from Iran
Yet Iran is a central player in the war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the rebels. Günter Meyer, head of the Centre for Research on the Arab World at Mainz University told DW that Tehran had a key role in the war in Syria. "Without the support from Iran, Assad would have had no chance to stay that long in power."
Cambodian police shoot dead garment workers
January 3, 2014 - 6:05PMLindsay Murdoch
Cambodian military police have shot dead at least three protesting garment workers in the capital Phnom Penh. Witnesses said workers demanding a rise in the minimum wage had hurled rocks, bottles and petrol bombs before police opened fire with assault rifles and pistols.
More than 350,000 workers have been on strike demanding the garment sector’s monthly minimum wage increase from US$80 to US$95 next April, the first step in a five-year plan to raise the wage to US$160.
Military spokesman Kheng Tito said the police were “just following our duty, role and tasks….now we are securing the situation.”
S Sudan: Fighting persists despite ceasefire talks
As peace talks are set to take place, South Sudan's army says its troops are moving again on the town of Bor in a bid to wrest it back from rebels.
South Sudan's warring parties gathered in Ethiopia on Thursday for talks aimed at ending nearly three weeks of conflict, even as the army said its troops were trying to retake a key rebel-held town.
But as government and rebel negotiating teams gathered at a luxury hotel in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, the army said its troops were moving again on the town of Bor, in a bid to wrest it back from rebels a second time.
"We are ready for talks ... but we will not meet with the government's delegation today," said rebel delegate Yohanis Musa Pouk, amid confusion as to exactly when meetings would start and in what format.
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