israel & deadly viruses?

israel injects palestinian prisoners with dangerous viruses before releasing them, a report says.

READ FULL STORY HERE

meanwhile in syria

at least 138 killed today in syria, including 26 children and 17 women!

for god sake let us not forget about syria!

clashes in cairo

protesters clash near a bus belonging to muslim brotherhood supporters, it was reportedly set alight by anti-government protesters.

egyptian muslim brotherhood members throw stones towards members of the anti-muslim brotherhood (top) during clashes in central cairo.

april, 19 2013

developing: multiple casualties in texas fertilizer plant explosion

a massive explosion has rocked a fertilizer plant near waco, texas. hundreds of people were likely injured, state official says.

the explosion occurred around 7:50 p.m. local time in the town of west, north of waco. a fireball of nearly 100 feet high has been reported along with a massive power outage.

a spokesman for the texas department of public safety, D.L. wilson, told reuters the explosion had resulted in "probably hundreds of casualties," saying he did not know if any of those were fatalities.

an official number of fatalities has yet to be confirmed but 60 people have been admitted to hillcrest hospital in waco, just one of the multiple emergency facilities in the area.

the explosion destroyed a nearby nursing home, where it is thought that people may still be trapped inside.

roughly 150 survivors from the damaged nursing home had been evacuated and sent to a community center outside of town, while doctors and staff of the hillcrest hospital have been taking in the first wave of burn victims. fire units were draining water from community pools to douse the flames.

more than 1,000 people are said to be without electricity, according to local ABC news affiliate KXXV.

a large swath of west was "leveled" in the explosion, according to WFAA-TV dallas reporter jason whitely.

wests population was 2,674 at the 2010 census. the town is located 19.3 miles north of waco, texas and 70 miles south of the dallas/fort worth metropolitan area.

first responders requested a bomb squad to investigate a pervasive scent of flammable chemicals. multiple barns in the area are engulfed in flames.

nine emergency helicopters were reported to be en route to the local high school. emergency officials were also trying to evacuate a neighborhood near the site of the explosion. hospital officials told CNN they were anticipating as many as 100 victims.

police officers were seen transporting the injured in their squad cars.

april, 17th 2013

SOURCE

today in baghdad

a series of bomb blasts across iraq on monday 15th of april 2013 killed at least 42 people and wounded more than 257 others, police said.

also, bomb blasts in boston killed 2 people, injured 23.

blast in mogadishu

a somali girl and her brother run to safety near the scene of a blast in mogadishu. at least 16 people were killed as two car bombs exploded outside the law courts in somalias capital mogadishu and gunmen stormed the building on sunday, before a gunbattle erupted with security forces besieging the compound, witnesses said.

april, 14th 2013.

zaire

a mother, a rwandan refugee, keeps returning to the place where her sons body was placed to check to see if maybe he was still alive. the boy succumbed to cholera during an outbreak which killed an estimated 50'000 people.

about to lose my mind

the amount of hypocrisy in this world, its too much to handle.

"The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, asserted that the indefinite detention of the detainees “is in clear breach … of international law” and “severely undermines the United States’ stance” as “an upholder of human rights.” The majority of prisoners at Guantánamo are held in solitary confinement, and grotesque violence and degradation are reportedly common. Guards have beaten prisoners without provocation, cut them and urinated on them."

this week in war

a friday round-up of what happened and whats been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. its a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

syria denied access to a UN team seeking to investigate chemical weapons use.

a new human rights watch report details details “deliberate and indiscriminate air strikes on civilians” by the syrian government.

from PBS frontline: from PBS frontline: “syria behind the lines: the bombing of al-bara.”

the al-nusra front, a group fighting in syria, has formally pledged support to al-qaeda.

egyptian doctors were ordered to operate on protesters without anesthetic during protests against military rule according to an investigation commissioned by president morsi.

according to a UN panel, weapons in libya are spreading at ”an alarming rate.”

yemens president has ordered a military command shake-up.

saudi arabia is building a giant fence to seal off its border with yemen.

two people have died in detention in mali after being tortured

12 people (5 UN peacekeepers, 2 UN staffers, and 5 civilian contractors) were killed in an ambush on a convoy in south sudan.

obama approved military assistance to somalia.

an iraqi blogger, "riverbend" who documented daily life in iraq from 2003 to 2007 before going silent after leaving for syria, posted again with a look back on the ten years of the war.

a french photographer, pierre borghi, kidnapped four months ago in kabul, has been freed.

a suicide attack in southern afghanistan killed five, three soldiers and two civilians, one of whom was diplomat anne smedinghoff, the first US diplomat to die in afghanistan since the 1970s.

a special ops raid in southern afghanistan resulted in the death of khiraullah janan, a man with family ties to afghan president hamid karzai.

taliban peace envoys were sent to qatar for negotiations in 2010. they havent left (although they are having children).

an NPR interview afghan photojournalist farzana wahidy

a candidate for provincial election in sindh province, pakistan, was assassinated, the second such killing during the country’s election campaign.

tirah valley in pakistan has become a nexus of violence as the pakistani army fights tehreek-i-taliban and lashkar-e-taiba, causing an exodus.

drone strikes are not actually only being used to target senior terrorist leaders, but lesser suspected militants and other unidentified militants within certain areas.

anonymous hacked north korean social media and networking accounts.

japan set up interceptor missiles in tokyo as a reaction to tensions on the korean peninsula.

april 10th was the official fifteenth anniversary of the good friday agreement, which ended the troubles in northern ireland.

drones will accompany an 8000 strong police force in northern ireland to provide security for the upcoming G8 summit.

a new round of trials seventy years later may bring some former guards at auschwitz to justice.

a mysterious disappearance of the defenses legal documents has delayed pretrial hearings for the guantanamo war crimes trials.

wikileaks published 1.7 million US diplomatic and intelligence records from the 1970s.

a judge ruled at a pretrial hearing that bradley mannings prosecutors are required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that manning "had reason to believe" that the files he leaked could be harmful.

defense secretary hagel has asked congress to pass legislation that would remove the power of the convening authority to overturn court martial convictions for major crimes like sexual assault.

an interview at the nation with the makers of "the invisible war"

Photo: drapes and curtains are hung all over the city of aleppo to allow safe (or the closest approximation of safe) passage of residents across streets, a protection from snipers. conflict photographer franco pagetti took a series of photographs of these colorful protective drapes, which can be viewed at TIMEs lightbox blog.

death toll in syria reached 119 friday 4/12/2013

by the end of friday, the local committees documented 119 martyrs, including 6 women, 5 children and 10 martyrs under torture:

47 martyrs were reported in damascus and its suburbs 21 in aleppo

16 in homs

12 in daraa

9 in raqqa

9 in hama

5 in idlib

since march, 15 2011

this makes me feel so... sad, useless, empty.

my life is nothing...

this picture really breaks me

***HORRIFIC*** 10 MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN ARE LITERALLY SLAUGHTERED BY ASSAD’S FORCES

***WARNING: THIS IS AN EXTREMELY EXPLICIT VIDEO, PLEASE READ THE POST BEFORE YOU PUSH PLAY***

4 are children and 3 are women, every single one of them had their throats slit or were bludgeoned to death.

assads forces raided this village, entered their homes and simply slaughtered them. why? because thats what they do. thats what assad ordered them to do. to carry out massacres so horrible that the people of syria dare not rise up against him anymore.... yet, these massacres have the exact opposite effect, it only hardens the resolve of the survivors to topple this regime.

you wont hear about this on your local news nor see it on CNN. the world simply accepts that these little kids were butchered without as much as mentioning them. i urge you all to reflect on your own lives and give thanks for the many blessings we are fortunate to have, think about this (and possibly the video) next time you complain about your bad day at work... or how the barista FKD up your starbucks coffee.

april, 11 2013

syrian rebels

in aleppo, syria, a female rebel fighter monitored the movements of government forces.

april, 11 2013

innocence forever gone

theres no way an apology will ever bring back this kids childhood.

think for yourself

stop islamophopia

death toll in syria reached 120 tuesday (4/9/13)

including 8 women, 19 children, and 1 who was martyred under torture

35 in damascus/suburbs

30 in aleppo

24 in homs

12 in daraa

6 in idlib

4 in hama

2 in raqqa

1 in lattakia

may they all rest in peace.

the US soldier who fought for syria

federal prosecutors could seek the death penalty for a 30 year old american man who took up arms to fight against the army of syrian leader bashar al-assad.

at a court hearing in alexandria, Virginia on monday, prosecutors said eric harroun of arizona could be sentenced to death if convicted of using a weapon of mass destruction with deadly force. now the FBI will try to determine if harroun, a retired US army private first class, killed any soldiers in the line of battle.

READ MORE

hey, about syria...

with all the talk about north korea, here is a reminder of the situation in syria these days.

muslim fraternity confronting stereotypes

members of "alif laam meem" the founding chapter of the new alpha lambda mu fraternity, protest domestic violence at a rally in dallas. this muslim fraternity belong to the university of texas and they took to the streets to protest against domestic violence.

muslim america rocks! we just dont hear about it often.