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Syrian Activists Claim 100 Deaths in One Day
Sky News
Syrian activists say 100 people have been killed by government troops in a single day, as the Red Cross calls for ceasefires. Women and children were among those killed, according to monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Local Coordination Committees said 100 had died in Homs and in raids on towns and villages in the province of Idlib. Washington, which is preparing for a "Friends of Syria" meeting of Western and Arab states opposing Bashar al Assad, declined to rule out eventually providing arms to rebels seeking to overthrow him. Activists said the regime appeared to be sending infantry reinforcements including tanks to Homs, with the aim of storming rebel-held neighborhoods. A local activist said residents were preparing for the expected assault and planned to fight "until the last person."
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Iran Denies UN Inspectors Access
to Key Nuclear Military Site
France24.com
A visit to Iran by UN inspectors probing Iran's suspected nuclear weapons activities failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Tehran denying access to a key military site, the IAEA said Wednesday. "Intensive efforts were made to reach agreement on a document facilitating the clarification of unresolved issues in connection with Iran’s nuclear programme," the IAEA said in a statement. "Unfortunately, agreement was not reached on this document." The team requested access both during this visit and during a first trip in late January to the Parchin military site, near Tehran, where it believes explosives testing was carried out, but Iran "did not grant permission," it said. Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said the talks had been intensive and "will continue in the future."
Greeks Greet Bailout Deal With Mixed Reception
AP/Yahoo! Finance
Greeks woke up Tuesday to the news that their country will likely avoid defaulting on its debt mountain next month and that the euro should remain their currency, at least for the time being. However, any relief that may have been engendered by the early morning decision by the 17-nation eurozone to back a $170 billion rescue, was offset by the grim reality that Greece faces many more years of sacrifice after a grueling 24 months of austerity measures that have contributed to record high unemployment and at least four years of recession. The agreement in Brussels gives Greece its second financial lifeline in less than two years and the hope is that the deal will give the country the breathing space to enact widespread reforms and set it back on a path to growth.
Iran: UN Nuke Inspectors Will Not Visit Sites
Associated Press
A UN team visiting Iran has no plans to inspect the country's nuclear facilities and will only hold talks with officials in Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday. The remarks by Ramin Mehmanparast cast doubt on how much the UN inspectors would be able to gauge whether Iran is moving ahead with its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. The two-day visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency team, which started Monday, is the second in less than a month amid growing concerns over alleged Iranian weapons experiments. Mehmanparast said the visiting IAEA team was made up of experts, not inspectors. He told reporters that the IAEA team was holding discussions Tuesday in Tehran to prepare the ground for future cooperation between Iran and the UN watchdog.
Iran Poised to Greatly Expand
Uranium Enrichment Production
AP/FOX News
Iran is poised to greatly expand uranium enrichment at a fortified underground bunker to a point that would boost how quickly it could make nuclear warheads, diplomats said. They said Tehran has put finishing touches for the installation of thousands of new-generation centrifuges at the cavernous facility, machines that can produce enriched uranium much more quickly and efficiently than its present machines. While saying that the electrical circuitry, piping and supporting equipment for the new centrifuges was now in place, the diplomats emphasized that Tehran had not started installing the new machines at its Fordo facility and could not say whether it was planning to. Still, the senior diplomats suggested that Tehran would have little reason to prepare the ground for the better centrifuges unless it planned to operate them.
Cameron Eyes Privatizing UK's Healthcare;
Obama, Progressives, Media Ignore Move
The Daily Caller
Filmmaker Michael Moore glorified the United Kingdom’s National Health Service in his 2007 documentary ”Sicko,” making a cult film argument that socialized medicine works. But Prime Minister David Cameron, the Tory MP who heads a coalition government in England, is apparently not a Moore fan: He is working to partially privatize the NHS, beginning a massive outsourcing of medical services to private healthcare providers throughout the UK. Britain’s media, in particular the Washington Post–Huffington Post hybrid The Guardian, is publishing near-panic-attacks alerts daily about the conservative plan, which comes as the British government scales back on entitlement spending, hoping to avoid a Greek-style financial meltdown. But in the United States, left-wing enthusiasts of socialized medicine don’t seem bothered at the loss of a role model.
Egyptian Trial on US Democracy
Activists Set for February 26
An Egyptian court will start the trial on February 26 of activists from mostly American civil society groups accused of working illegally in Egypt, in a case which has strained US-Egyptian ties. A judicial source told Reuters that the 43 accused, including around 20 Americans, would go on trial next Sunday, charged with working in the country without proper legal registration. The state new agency MENA said the hearing would take place at North Cairo Criminal Court. Investigators swooped down on the offices of civil society groups on December 29, confiscating computers and other equipment and seizing cash and documents. The American defendants have been banned from leaving Egypt and some have taken refuge in the US embassy. Among those accused is Sam LaHood, the son of the US transportation secretary.
Iran Warships ‘Enter the Mediterranean’
AFP/Yahoo! News
Iranian warships entered the Mediterranean after crossing the Suez Canal on Saturday to show Tehran's "might" to regional states, the navy commander said, at a time of simmering tensions with Israel. In Jerusalem, the foreign ministry said Israel will be watching the ship's movements closely to ensure they do not approach its coast. "The strategic navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has passed through the Suez Canal for the second time since the (1979) Islamic Revolution," Admiral Habibollah Sayari said. He did not say how many vessels had crossed the canal, or what missions they were planning to carry out in the Mediterranean, but said the flotilla had previously docked in the Saudi port city of Jeddah. Two Iranian ships, the destroyer Shahid Qandi and supply vessel Kharg, had docked in the Red Sea port on February 4.
Italian Authorities Seize Trillions in Fake US Bonds
News.com.au
Italian anti-mafia prosecutors have ordered the seizure in Switzerland of fake US Treasury bonds with a face value of $6 trillion, or over a third of US national debt. The bonds were found hidden in false compartments in three safety deposit boxes transferred in 2007 from Hong Kong to Zurich and eight arrests have also been made in Italy as part of the investigation. Investigators said members of a criminal network had tried to use the bonds in emerging markets or give them to banks in exchange for money. The operation was "the biggest for this type of investigation", Giovanni Colangelo, the head of the prosecutor's office in the city of Potenza in southern Italy which is leading the investigation, said. The investigation has allowed detectives to uncover "an international network with people implicated in numerous countries."
US: Iran Prepares Suicide Bomb Boats in Gulf
Reuters/Emirates247.com
Iran has built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the US Navy can prevent it from blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the commander of US naval forces in the region said on Sunday. Iran has made a series of threats in recent weeks to disrupt shipping in the Gulf or strike US forces in retaliation if its oil trade is shut down by sanctions, or if its disputed nuclear programme comes under attack. "They have increased the number of submarines...they increased the number of fast attack craft," Vice Admiral Mark Fox told reporters. "Some of the small boats have been outfitted with a large warhead that could be used as a suicide explosive device." Fox, who heads the US Fifth Fleet, said Iran now has 10 small submarines.
State Dept.: Russia, Iran Still Arming Syria’s Assad
ForeignPolicy.com
Russia and Iran are continuing to send arms to the Syrian regime that can be used against protesters, a top State Department official said today. "Iran is resupplying Syria and through Syria has supplied weapons to Hezbollah," said Tom Countryman, the assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation. Countryman's bureau plays a major role in monitoring international compliance with nonproliferation and arms control rules. He declined to go into specifics on what arms Iran and Russia are giving the regime of Bashar al-Assad, but he confirmed that both countries are still supplying arms that can be used to attack civilians and opposition groups inside Syria, who are engaged in an increasingly bloody struggle with the government.
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