Election Battles Turn Into Street Fights in Iran

Ahmadinejad accused of having used fraud to win elections on Friday...

Ahmadinejad: 'A New Era Has Begun.'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that "a new era has begun" in a televised victory speech Saturday. However, his rival says Friday's election results are fraudulent, and protesters clashed with police...

US rejects victory claim by Iran's Ahmadinejad

The U.S. on Saturday refused to accept hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim of a landslide re-election victory in Iran and said it was looking into allegations of election fraud.
Any hopes by the Obama administration of gaining a result similar to Lebanon's recent election, won by a Western-backed moderate coalition, appeared to be in jeopardy.

Israel's FM urges uncompromising action on Iran

"In light of Iran's ongoing nuclear policy, and the victory and continued rule of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the international community must act uncompromisingly to prevent the country's nuclearization and to stymie its efforts to aid terror organizations and undermine the stability of the Middle East," Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Saturday night following Ahmadinejad's sweeping victory in Friday elections in the country.

Riots in Tehran as Thug-In-Chief declares victory

The ongoing lack of American support for the forces opposing the mullahcracy in Iran is unconscionable. Instead of making nice with the regime, the President should be reaching out to these people. Instead of defending the right of Muslim women to wear the hijab in the United States, which no one is disputing, he should be defending the right of Muslim women not to wear the hijab in Iran. "Riots erupt in Tehran as Iranian President Ahmadinejad declares victory," by Borzou Daragahi in the Los Angeles Times, June 13...

Election Clashes Erupt in Iran

Iran declares win for Ahmadinejad...

Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tyres and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009.(AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A supporter of Iranian reformist presidential candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, holds a piece of stone and with his covered his face with green scarf symbolizing his party's color as the others burn a trash bin in Tehran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. Supporters of the main election challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clashed with police and set up barricades of burning tires Saturday as authorities claimed the hard-line president was re-elected in a landslide. The rival candidate said the vote was tainted by widespread fraud and his followers responded with the most serious unrest in the capital in a decade.(AP Photo)

Opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clashed with police in the heart of Iran's capital Saturday, pelting them with rocks and setting fires in the worst unrest in Tehran in a decade. They accused the hard-line president of using fraud to steal election victory from his reformist rival.The brazen and angry confrontations — including stunning scenes of masked rioters tangling with black-clad police — pushed the self-styled reformist movement closer to a possible moment of truth: Whether to continue defying Iran's powerful security forces or, as they often have before, retreat into quiet dismay and frustration over losing more ground to the Islamic establishment....

--LANDSLIDE: AHMADINEJAD...

--ISRAEL: VOTE SHOWS GROWING THREAT...

--OBAMA 'EXCITED' BY ROBUST DEBATE...

Somber Visitors Re-enter Museum

Doors open to visitors at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, after remaining shut for a day in mourning for a security guard authorities say was shot to death by an elderly white supremacist...

Glenn Beck’s Outrageous Lie: Racist Von Brunn is “Hero of 9/11 Truthers”

There should be absolutely no doubt Glenn Beck is a government disinfo operative tasked with taking down the 9/11 truth and patriot movements. In fact, Fox News — as a primary fount of Operation Mockingbird — is tasked with attacking not only the 9/11 truth movement but the pro-liberty and Constitution movements as well....

Holocaust Denier Charged in Museum Shooting

An 88-year-old white supremacist was charged with murder Thursday, a day after officials said he left a signed anti-Semitic screed in his car outside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Museum to Reopen After Tribute to Fallen Officer

For accused museum shooter,a downward spiral...

James von Brunn carried a lifetime of hatred and an aging rifle to the entrance of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, authorities say, and was met with a simple act of kindness: a security guard opening the door for him. Critically injured in a hospital bed Thursday, the 88-year-old white supremacist was charged with murdering Steven T. Johns, the black guard.According to interviews with family, friends and civil rights groups, von Brunn spent decades spewing hate toward Jews and blacks — a hatred that was nearing a crescendo in the weeks before the shooting...

Obama speech quoted jihad verse from Quran:Address to Muslims used Islamic text urging war against nonbelievers

In his major address to the Muslim world last week, President Obama quoted a verse from the Quran that is interpreted as urging Muslims to follow Muhammad in waging jihad against nonbelievers.
The context of the verse – first noticed by Robert Spencer of the Jihad Watch website – was confirmed by Quranic experts contacted by WND....

Obama May Allow Tortured Gitmo Detainees to Plead Guilty,Face Execution

The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.The provision could permit military prosecutors to avoid airing the details of brutal interrogation techniques. It could also allow the five detainees who have been charged with the Sept. 11 attacks to achieve their stated goal of pleading guilty to gain what they have called martyrdom.

Newsweek Editor Evan Thomas:Obama Is "Sort Of God"

Newsweek editor Evan Thomas said President Obama is "sort of God" in a way that's "standing above the country."... Transcript here

Merkel,Sarkozy Win EU Vote,Easing Stimulus Pressure

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy led pro-business parties in defeating socialists in European Parliament elections, lessening the pressure for more stimulus measures to fight the deepest recession since World War II.
Amid signs the economic slump is bottoming out, the continent’s top two leaders escaped the drubbing in European Union-wide elections that was handed to U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and socialists in smaller countries including Spain, Austria, Portugal, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovenia.

European Jewish Group alarmed by Far Right gains...

Jewish groups across Europe reacted to far-right gains in the European parliamentary elections by urging the EU on Tuesday to do more to tackle racism and intolerance.
The European Jewish Congress, which represents Jewish communities across Europe, said winning seats in the European Parliament based on "racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic platforms" pointed to an erosion of tolerance.

FBI Director Defends Use of Informants in Mosques

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Monday defended the agency's use of informants within U.S. mosques, despite complaints from Muslim organizations that worshippers and clerics are being targeted instead of possible terrorists.
Mueller's comments came just days after a Michigan Muslim organization asked the Justice Department to investigate complaints that the FBI is asking the faithful to spy on Islamic leaders and worshippers. Similar alarm followed the disclosure earlier this year that the FBI planted a spy in Southern California mosques.

CIA Director: Releasing Detainee Docs Would Damage National Security

CIA Director Leon Panetta told a federal judge Monday that releasing documents about the agency's terror interrogations would gravely damage national security.
Panetta sent a 24-page missive to New York federal judge Alvin Hellerstein, arguing that release of agency cables describing tough interrogation methods used on Al Qaeda suspects would tell the enemy far too much about U.S. counterterrorism work.

Guantanamo Detainee in U.S. Wants Military Lawyer,Attorney Says

A Pentagon-appointed attorney for a Guantanamo detainee moved to the U.S. for trial says his client wants to keep his military lawyers.
Marine Col. Jeffrey Colwell tells The Associated Press he is traveling from Washington to New York in hopes of staying on as Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani's defense counsel. Colwell says he has been meeting with the detainee since August and they have "a good working relationship."

U.S. Lawmaker Says Obama Administration Ordered FBI to Read Rights to Detainees

A senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee is accusing the Obama administration of quietly ordering the FBI to start reading Miranda rights to suspected terrorists at U.S. military detention facilities in Afghanistan.The move is reportedly creating chaos in the field among the CIA, FBI and military personnel, according to Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. The soldiers, especially, he says, are frustrated that giving high value detainees Miranda rights -- the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney -- is impeding their ability to pursue intelligence on the battlefield, according to a story first reported by the Weekly Standard.

U.S., Italian Authorities Thwart Alleged Hacking-Terror Effort

U.S. and Italian authorities said Friday they arrested a group of hackers and conspirators who allegedly stole from phone companies around the world. The illegal profits funded terrorist activities, Italian officials alleged.
A federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted three people Friday, including one man who has been linked to al Qaeda. The three suspects, who live in the Philippines, are accused of providing Pakistani nationals in Italy with access to stolen phone lines.

MISSION AFGHANISTAN:"Military works to halt civilian deaths..."

Iraq Sunni leader killed at mosque,fears of fallout

The head of Iraq's biggest Sunni Muslim parliament bloc was killed at a mosque on Friday, officials said, an assassination which could undermine efforts for sectarian reconciliation in Iraq.Recently picked as leader of the Accordance Front, Harith al-Ubaidi was seen as a moderate able to broker peace among the bloc's groups and also with Shi'ites, Kurds and others who have struggled for power since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Bermuda Reacts to Uighurs Arrival...

Iran presidential challenger's office attacked

A campaign organizer for the main election challenger to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says about a dozen of the president's supporters attacked one of the opponent's campaign offices in Tehran with tear gas...

Beating Video May Turn Tide Against Taliban

The footage was chilling, a woman crying out in pain, held face-down on the ground, as she was publicly flogged by a long-bearded man....It could be the video that changed Pakistan...

Anti-Taliban Cleric Killed

The body of moderate cleric Sarfraz Naeemi is escorted out of a Lahore hospital by his brother Tajwar Naeemi (R) and other family members June 12, 2009. Sarfraz Naeemi, a prominent anti-Taliban Pakistani Muslim cleric, was killed on Friday in a suicide bomb attack in the city of Lahore, police said. He was attacked at his office at his mosque complex after leading Friday prayers.(REUTERS/Stringer)

ISLAMIC CRAZE WATCH:Suicide bombers strike Pakistan mosque, seminary

Suicide bombers attacked a mosque and a religious school within minutes Friday in two Pakistani cities, leaving one of the country's most prominent anti-Taliban clerics dead in what authorities called a targeted killing.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for either blast, but relatives of Sarfraz Naeemi said he had received death threats recently after condemning suicide attacks as un-Islamic and the Taliban as murderers...

Pakistani General's Home Attacked Amid Offensive

Gunmen opened fire Friday at the home of the army commander heading the military offensive against Taliban militants in Pakistan's northwest, sparking a gunbattle just hours after a homcide attack at a police checkpoint, officials said.

Novartis says produces first batch of H1N1 vaccine

Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis AG said Friday it has successfully produced a first batch of swine flu vaccine weeks ahead of expectations.
The vaccine was made in cells, rather than grown in eggs as is usually the case with vaccines, the company said....

Russia to cut holdings of U.S. Treasuries

Russia on Wednesday pledged to cut the share of U.S. treasuries in its $400 billion reserves, driving the dollar lower on global markets, although it said the move would be gradual and only replace bonds as they expire.Central bank First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said it would buy bonds issued by the International Monetary Fund and also up the share of reserves held in foreign bank deposits, also reduced in the wake of the banking crisis last year...

Russia military says needs 1,500 warheads

Russia must keep at least 1,500 nuclear warheads after talks with the United States on a new arms treaty, Interfax news agency quoted the commander of Russia's Strategic Nuclear Forces as saying Wednesday.

Putin:"Russia might abandon nukes if others do"

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia is willing to abandon nuclear weapons, if the United States and all other countries that have them do the same.
"If those who made the atomic bomb and used it are ready to abandon it — like, I hope, other nuclear powers officially and unofficially owning them — of course we will welcome and facilitate this process in all ways," Putin said, according to state-owned RIA Novosti news agency.

Readying Americans for Dangerous,Mandatory Vaccinations

At least three US federal laws should concern all Americans and suggest what may be coming - mandatory vaccinations for hyped, non-existant threats, like H1N1 (Swine Flu). Vaccines and drugs like Tamiflu endanger human health but are hugely profitable to drug company manufacturers...

Flu closes schools in Asia

WHO declares flu pandemic

WHO declares first 21st century flu pandemic

The World Health Organization declared an influenza pandemic on Thursday and called on governments to prepare for a long-term battle against an unstoppable flu virus.
The United Nations agency raised its pandemic flu alert to phase 6 on a six-point scale, indicating the first influenza pandemic since 1968 is under way...

Dread Zeppelin:"The Army’s New Surveillance Blimp"

Since the airship glory days of the early part of the century, blimps have certainly lost some of their cachet, relegated to hovering over sporting events and not much else. However, the Army is about to test launch an unmanned hybrid airship to be used for surveillance missions in Afghanistan...

Campaign for investigation of torture expands:League of Women Voters seeking congressional intervention

A campaign seeking an international investigation into allegations that an American was jailed and tortured in Canada – at the same time his wife and young son disappeared – has expanded to the League of Women Voters of Virginia, where officials have written members of Congress asking for their help.
PICTURE LEFT:Eddy, the son of former New Jersey resident Scott Loper, pictured before Loper was jailed in Canada and Eddy disappeared...

"CARBON COPS":Australian Police to prosecute a new range of "Climate Offenses"...

FRONTLINE police will be forced to become "carbon cops" under the Government's blueprint to cut greenhouse emissions.
The Herald Sun can reveal Australian Federal Police agents will have to prosecute a new range of climate offences.
But they are yet to be offered extra resources, stretching the thin blue line to breaking point.
"The Government is effectively saying to us, 'Ignore other crime types'," Australian Federal Police Association chief Jim Torr said...

Iran's Facebook youth prods voters

Petraeus:"Afghan violence at peak level last week"

The violence that has surged for two years in Afghanistan reached a new high last week, and more difficulty lies ahead, the commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East said Thursday.
Gen. David Petraeus said the number of attacks in Afghanistan over the last week hit the highest level since the December 2001 fall of the Taliban.

Lebanese-Indian unrest in Sydney

Australian police physically separate young Indian and Lebanese men in suburban Sydney during third night of unrest.The crowds of mostly young men shouted and gestured to each other before police successfully contained the situation by separating the two different groups.
Attacks against Indian students in both Sydney and Melbourne have sparked diplomatic discomfort and fears of an international student exodus from Australia.Australia's international student sector is the country's third-largest export earner, behind oil and coal. Some 93,000 Indian students study in Australia....

CIA:"Bin Laden still believed to be in Pakistan"

CIA Director Leon Panetta says he believes Osama bin Laden is still in Pakistan. The spy agency hopes to close in on the al-Qaida leader as Pakistan's military cracks down on the tribal area where he is thought to be hiding...

Gadhafi attacks US in speech in Italy

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi urged the world Thursday to understand what motivates terrorists, and likened the 1986 U.S. strikes on Libya to Osama bin Laden's terror attacks.Gadhafi, who was long accused of sponsoring terrorism, struck a provocative tone as he addressed Italian lawmakers on the second day of a trip to Italy, Libya's former colonial ruler. He said there should be no interference from the West over the governments chosen by other countries....

Fighting intensifies in Pakistan's northwest

Pakistani troops and militants battled near the edge of the top Taliban commander's stronghold Thursday as violence in the country's volatile northwest spread and intensified, with multiple battles killing scores of insurgents.

Bermuda takes 4 Uighur detainees from Gitmo

Four Chinese Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay prison were freed Thursday and resettled in Bermuda, sparking complaints from China and Britain even as the Obama administration tried to iron out details for sending more detainees to the Pacific island of Palau....

Iran's raucous election campaign goes quiet

Iran's raucous election campaign fell silent a day before the vote as rallies were barred Thursday to give the public time to reflect on whether they want to keep hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power or replace him with a reformist more open to closer ties with the West.The campaign reached a crescendo in the past few days with dueling rallies by supporters of Ahmadinejad and his main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, that drew tens of thousands into the streets of Tehran. Fervent, youthful supporters of Mousavi accused the president of undermining Iran's international standing with his confrontational style and of devastating the economy.

Iran's Islamic guardians warn reformist wave

In the final hours of Iran's fierce election campaign, the top pro-reform challenger to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got a sharp warning Wednesday that authorities would crush any attempt at a popular "revolution" inspired by the huge rallies and street parties calling for more freedoms.The threat by an official of the powerful Revolutionary Guard reflected the increasingly tense atmosphere surrounding Friday's up-for-grabs election. It also marked a sharp escalation by the ruling clerics against the youth-driven campaign of Mir Hossein Mousavi and its hopes of an underdog victory.

Countdown to Iran Vote

Demonstrators Hit the Streets Ahead of Iranian Election

Tensions flared in Tehran Wednesday night as thousands of protesters marched to the state television center, enraged by the discovery that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was being given more airtime than his opponents.
The demonstration came as a leading conservative accused reformists of fomenting a "velvet revolution." Yadollah Javani, a leader of the hardline Revolutionary Guards, said that reformists were going to claim vote-rigging if their candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, loses in Friday's presidential elections. He vowed to crush any post-election violence...

Election Fever Rises in Iran

Ahmadinejad lashes out at rival before Iran vote

Iran's hard-line president took a final shot at his rivals Wednesday during his last public pre-election rally, accusing them of resorting to a smear campaign against him similar to the one used by Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is locked in a neck-and-neck race against reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi. Both have launched intense political attacks against each other and have turned the presidential election into a display of Iran's deep political divides.

Last Day to Campaign in Iran

Iranian cleric slams Ahmadinejad "fabrications"

One of Iran's most senior politicians accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday of lying in a televised presidential election debate and called on the country's supreme leader to intervene.
In an unprecedented public attack, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said tens of millions of Iranians had witnessed "mis-statements and fabrications" in the debate last week, when Ahmadinejad accused Rafsanjani of corruption....

Palau Agrees to Take Uighur Gitmo Detainees

The South Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to "temporarily resettle" the 17 Uighurs, or Chinese Muslims, currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, an official with the Palau government told FOX News.

Army repels Taliban in NW Pakistan after hotel blast

Pakistan began a new operation against Taliban fighters in the northwest on Wednesday as Washington's envoy praised what he saw as a new resolve from Islamabad in combating extremism.
The latest offensive came one day after an attack on a luxury hotel in Peshawar killed at least nine people, including two foreign U.N. workers.

Cameras record deadly Pakistan bomb

Bomb Blast in Pakistan

Aid workers among 9 dead in Pakistani hotel blast

Pakistani volunteers carry a dead body wrapped in a white sheet out of the debris of the Peshawar Pearl Continental hotel building that collapsed the day before by a suicide blast in Peshawar, Pakistan on Wednesday, June 10, 2009. Investigators searched the wrecked luxury hotel in northwestern Pakistan for evidence Wednesday after a bold suicide bombing killed people, including aid workers, in what the U.N. condemned as a 'heinous terrorist attack.' (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

Investigators searched a wrecked luxury hotel in northwestern Pakistan for evidence Wednesday after a deadly suicide bombing the U.N. condemned as a "heinous terrorist attack."At least nine people were killed in the blast, including two foreign aid workers. Two or three other bodies are believed to be those of the attackers and officials said higher tolls reported elsewhere were inaccurate.

Ten dead in Thai mosque attack

Gunmen kill 10 at mosque in southern Thailand

Gunmen opened fire on a mosque in southern Thailand during evening prayers Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding another 19 in the violence-plagued region, police said.
The attack was one of the most deadly single incidents since an Islamic separatist insurgency was launched in Thailand's three southernmost provinces in early 2004. More than 3,400 people have been killed in the violence, most victims of the insurgents.

Pakistani refugees are "major,major crisis": Holbrooke

US envoy Richard Holbrooke called Wednesday for refugees from the combat zone in western Pakistan to be allowed to return home as soon as possible in order to end a "major, major crisis."
Holbrooke, the envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, also said US diplomat William Burns handed the Indian government overnight Tuesday a letter from President Barack Obama as both countries consulted on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

U.S. envoy says Pakistan shows new vigor in fight

The U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan said on Wednesday he had noticed a dramatic change in Pakistan's attitude toward fighting Islamist extremists during his visit there last week.
Richard Holbrooke told reporters he believed Pakistan's leadership was strong enough to win the fight against the Taliban, a change in tone from earlier this year when the incoming Obama administration was skeptical about Islamabad's resolve.

"WE HAVE TO STRIKE BACK":Recruiting Center Shooting Suspect Says He Was "JUSTIFIED"...

ISLAMIC CRAZE WATCH:Funeral held for soldier killed in Arkansas attack

A soldier shot and killed at a military recruiting office in Arkansas last week was laid to rest Monday, though what his headstone will eventually read is still unknown.Pvt. William Andrew Long's family must still decide whether his tombstone lists him as the first soldier to die at the hands of a terrorist since Sept. 11, 2001.
Police say Long was shot and killed June 1 by Abdulhakim Muhammad, 23, a Muslim convert, at a recruiting center at a suburban Little Rock strip mall. Muhammad, who also allegedly injured another Army private, targeted soldiers "because of what they had done to Muslims in the past," authorities said.

PICTURE LEFT:Janet Long, mother of slain Army recruiter Pvt. William Long, center, carries a flag from graveside services for her son at Arkansas Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock, Ark., Monday, June 8, 2009. Pvt. Long was shot and killed June 1, outside the Army-Navy Career Center in Little Rock, Ark.(AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

Pakistanis attack Taliban over mosque bombing

In this June 7, 2009 photo, Qari Zainuddin, second from right, the leader of a Taliban faction, accompanied by his bodyguards, pauses outside his office after an interview with The Associated Press, in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. Zainuddin urged tribal leaders to resist Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and said his fighters, he claimed to have 3,000, would stay neutral if the army launches an operation in South Waziristan, Mehsud's stronghold. (AP Photo/Ishtiaq Mahsud)

Pakistani tribesmen seeking revenge for a deadly mosque bombing attacked militant strongholds for a third day Monday, while the country's Taliban leader faced rare denunciation from within insurgent ranks.
Capitalizing on the anti-Taliban sentiments, the military's top spokesman exhorted all Pakistanis to rise up against militants wherever they found them.

Pentagon admits "problems" with Afghan air strike

The Pentagon acknowledged on Monday that there were "problems" with the way U.S. forces conducted a bombing raid in Afghanistan that provoked outrage over civilian casualties.Defense Secretary Robert Gates was briefed on the investigation into the incident, which took place in early May in the western province of Farah, a Pentagon spokesman said....

Obama's Former Pastor Resurfaces:"Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me"...

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright says he does not feel any regrets over his severed relationship with President Barack Obama, a former member of the Chicago church in which Wright was the longtime pastor.Wright also said that he had not spoken to his former church member since Obama became president, implying that the White House won't allow Obama to talk to him. He did not indicate whether he had tried to reach Obama....

Actor Jon Voight Calls Obama "False Prophet"

Jon Voight is a silver-screen conservative who considers the final speech of George Washington bedside reading. He is much moved by American mettle, military veterans, historical moments, Old Glory and youthful spirit.
And he's fierce about the state of his country. Very fierce...

Some Israelis Insulted By Obama Picture;"Sole of shoe" talking on phone with Netanyahu...

Israeli TV newscasters Tuesday night interpreted a photo taken Monday in the Oval Office of President Obama talking on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an "insult" to Israel. They saw the incident as somewhat akin to an incident last year, when the Iraqi reporter threw a shoe at President Bush in Baghdad...