Politics

By Trevor GrundyReligion News ServiceMore...
By Trevor GrundyReligion News ServiceMore...
about 1 hour ago
By Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - New U.S. guidelines for conducting armed drone operations overseas set a higher bar for attacking non-Americans and could reduce controversial "signa...
By Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - New U.S. guidelines for conducting armed drone operations overseas set a higher bar for attacking non-Americans and could reduce controversial "signature strikes" targeted at suspicious groups rather than individuals. But the drone guidelines announced by President Barack Obama on Thursday still include vague language and loopholes that officials could use to conduct more expansive operations. The new rules, part of Obama's attempts to pull back from what he called "perpetual war-footing" against terrorism, came in a "Presidential Policy Guidance" he signed this week. Obama "has clearly raised the bar significantly for the use of drone strikes with the very specific and restrictive criteria," said John Bellinger, former State Department legal adviser in President George W. Bush's administration. "The standard for targeting is now the same for Americans and non-Americans - it must be a continuing and imminent threat of violence to Americans. And there must be a near certainty that no non-combatants will be killed," he said. "Signature" drone strikes, in which the United States targets suspicious-looking groups of people without knowing their specific identities were first authorized by Bush in 2008, causing a sharp jump in the number of drone attacks. During his first term in office, Obama stepped up the practice. People not confirmed as terrorist targets of the United States are attacked because they bear the "signature" of militant activity. Such strikes have provoked anti-American unrest in countries like Pakistan because of civilian deaths. Under Obama's new guidelines, signature attacks are expected to decline, especially after U.S. forces withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014, when the need for drone strikes to protect U.S. ground forces will be gone. The reason for signature strikes is often to help a country like Yemen fight well-organized groups of militants, and targets are frequently brought to the attention of the United States by the Yemeni government, said Kenneth Anderson, a law professor at American University. "That's the biggest thing that it appears that they have given up, that we won't be striking on behalf of allies fighting their own wars," he said. The New America Foundation think tank, which collects data on drone strikes, said 355 drone attacks in Pakistan had killed between 2,010 and 3,336 people, among whom 258 to 307 were civilians. In Yemen, 69 drone strikes have killed between 586 and 819 people, of whom 548 to 748 were militants. VAGUE WORDING Faced with criticism about civilian casualties, Obama said the United States would only use those drone strikes when a threat was "continuing and imminent," a nuanced change from the previous policy of launching strikes against a significant threat. Paul Pillar, a former CIA analyst, said that was too vague. "It still leaves questions and doubts. One piece of phraseology that should raise questions is the somewhat oxymoronic 'continuing, imminent threat.' If a threat is continuing, how can it be imminent, except maybe at one particular time before it is finally executed? " he said. The new Obama drone policy also states a preference for having future strikes conducted by the military. Until now, the CIA had been the main agency conducting drone strikes outside war zones in places like Pakistan. The administration made public few details about how the shift in control of drone operations would be carried out. But government sources told Reuters earlier this week that shifting operations to the Pentagon would be done in stages and that the CIA would keep conducting strikes in Pakistan for t
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CANNES 2013 - XVIe siècle, le royaume de France est secoué par le désir de vendetta d'un marchand de chevaux floué par ses suzerains. Michael Kohlhaas est le film en costumes du Festival emmené par Mads Mikkelsen - lauréat du dernier pri...
CANNES 2013 - XVIe siècle, le royaume de France est secoué par le désir de vendetta d'un marchand de chevaux floué par ses suzerains. Michael Kohlhaas est le film en costumes du Festival emmené par Mads Mikkelsen - lauréat du dernier prix d'interprétation masculine - à découvrir vendredi 24 mai.Qui: Arnaud Des Pallières adapte une nouvelle de l'auteur allemand Heinrich von Kleist pour son premier film en compétition à Cannes. Après des débuts de comédien au théâtre, le cinéaste français a décide de faire la Femis et de passer derrière la caméra. En 1997, il signe Drancy Avenir, réflexion sur la déportation. Il livre ensuite Adieu, l'histoire d'une famille réunie pour l'enterrement d'un de ses jeunes membres. Puis Parc (2009), adaptation d'un roman de John Cheever, portrait froid du monde contemporain.More...
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CANNES 2013 - Vendredi 24 mai, Marion Cotillard débarque sur la Croisette avec son premier grand rôle américain dans The Immigrant de James Gray. Après son apparition remarquée dans le dernier volet de The Dark Knight, la compagne de Gui...
CANNES 2013 - Vendredi 24 mai, Marion Cotillard débarque sur la Croisette avec son premier grand rôle américain dans The Immigrant de James Gray. Après son apparition remarquée dans le dernier volet de The Dark Knight, la compagne de Guillaume Canet interprète une immigrée polonaise obligée de se prostituer.Qui: James Gray n’en est pas à son coup d’essai à Cannes. Trois fois sélectionné mais jamais primé, le cinéaste américain présentait The Yards en 2000. Accueilli avec des sifflets, le film avait même provoqué la colère de Claude Chabrol. De retour avec La Nuit nous appartient (2007) puis Two Lovers (2008), membre du jury en 2009, Gray entend cette année poser sa patte sur la compétition. Pour ce faire, il a confié la lumière - ocre - à Darius Khondji, chef opérateur d'Amour dont les ancêtres sont arrivés aux États-Unis par Ellis Island.More...
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The jurors in the Jodi Arias trial have had a rough day, to say the least. After 13 hours of deliberations, they were unable to reach a consensus on the convicted killer's punishment for the murder of Travis Alexander.Some jurors were in...
The jurors in the Jodi Arias trial have had a rough day, to say the least. After 13 hours of deliberations, they were unable to reach a consensus on the convicted killer's punishment for the murder of Travis Alexander.Some jurors were in tears after the hung jury was announced, and one seemed to mouth "I'm sorry" to the parents of Arias' victim, the Associated Press reported.More...
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When I was but a youngster, folks were concerned about “messin’ ’round” with nature.  If there was a possibility that threatening weather was approaching, the children as well as the adults were required to wash t...
When I was but a youngster, folks were concerned about “messin’ ’round” with nature.  If there was a possibility that threatening weather was approaching, the children as well as the adults were required to wash their feet and lie down on the bed until the storm passed. I’m not sure why lying in bed would help. If the storm was severe enough to wreak havoc, I personally don’t believe that a bed offered significant protection but as with all children of my time, I obeyed.  I cannot remember being frightened during a thunderstorm but I still wonder if washing my feet was the answer to survival. Children as well as many adults conserved shoe leather by going barefoot during the warm summer months.  Perhaps the cleansing of the feet was more to prevent ‘messin’ up’ the bed than having anything to do with protection from the elements.  In this day, washing the bed linens required more effort than to merely toss them into a machine. If, by chance the storm was looming while work in the fields was being performed, careful scrutiny of the direction from where the clouds were approaching and the remarks were made that, “Keep on working.  It’ll blow over.”  Or, “Let’s get to the house.  That’s the direction all our rain comes from.” If the season had been dry and the crops had not yet matured, the rain was welcomed; but if rainstorms prevented the gathering of the harvest the results were sometimes critical. Drought during the growing months and storms during the harvest time could possibly mean the difference between feast and famine.  If the crops failed, there was a strong possibility that the family would be required to suppress their pride and rely on government dispensed “Commodities” for their subsistence. There were, however, never-ending chores, which could be completed on rainy days that were neglected during the frenzied periods of raising and gathering the substance of life for the average family living on a small farm. Examples are;  Mending harnesses, repairing or sharpening implements, shucking and shelling corn, carrying corn to “The Mill,” (in a wagon; if an automobile was not available), and other farm duties that could be performed without exposure to the inclement weather. It was seldom that children were asked to perform these maintenance chores due to lack of knowledge in the area of ‘making do,’ with whatever supplies were obtainable, therefore, children welcomed rainy days simply because they were then left to their own designs for entertainment. If television, computers, video games, cellular telephones and the like had even been available for purchase during this period, they would have been acclaimed as; “Throwing away good money on something that’ll never work.” One favorite pastime for children during this era was building roads in the soft sand under the open, elevated floor of the house (underpinning a house was considered a waste of materials; this was something only ‘Town Folks’ did.) Empty cans were converted to automobiles that traversed the hundreds of miles of these roads.  These were activities that could be perused if the weather was not too severe. At times, the gentler sex would accompany the boys in this amusement by using stones and sticks to outline their ‘playhouses’ alongside the sandy roads. Loud shouts could be heard over the sounds of rain pounding on the tin roof if an occasional can rolled into the living room or kitchen, of these make-believe homes.  This was sure to bring about admonishment from the parents in the form of; “Y’all hush that hullaballu. Ya’hear?” Although the children were indulging in their homemade entertainment and were not underfoot, only so much of the shrieks were tolerated by the parents before the cry would be raised, “You youngun’s wash your feet and lay down on the
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photo courtesy of cohnwolfeMore...
photo courtesy of cohnwolfeMore...
about 1 hour ago
Mark Towhey, the Chief of Staff for Toronto Mayor Rob Ford who was abruptly fired earlier on Thursday, was fired for telling the mayor to "get help," a number of media outlets are reporting.Ford is in the midst of a scandal involving an ...
Mark Towhey, the Chief of Staff for Toronto Mayor Rob Ford who was abruptly fired earlier on Thursday, was fired for telling the mayor to "get help," a number of media outlets are reporting.Ford is in the midst of a scandal involving an alleged video that shows the mayor smoking crack.More...
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INTERNATIONAL - Deux attentats-suicides contre l'armée nigérienne et le groupe nucléaire français Areva, revendiqués par les islamistes du Mujao et "supervisés" par le jihadiste algérien Mokhtar Belmokhtar, ont fait jeudi 23 mai une ving...
INTERNATIONAL - Deux attentats-suicides contre l'armée nigérienne et le groupe nucléaire français Areva, revendiqués par les islamistes du Mujao et "supervisés" par le jihadiste algérien Mokhtar Belmokhtar, ont fait jeudi 23 mai une vingtaine de morts, essentiellement des militaires, dans le nord du Niger.Il s'agit des premiers attentats-suicides dans l'histoire de ce pays sahélien très pauvre engagé depuis début 2013 au Mali voisin, aux côtés de troupes françaises et africaines, contre des mouvements jihadistes. Le Mouvement pour l'unicité et le jihad en Afrique de l'Ouest (Mujao), l'un des groupes armés qui occupaient le nord du Mali depuis 2012 avant d'en être chassés depuis janvier, a revendiqué ces attaques.More...
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CORPS HUMAIN - C'est une partie du corps de la femme incroyablement compliquée et pleine de surprises. Découvrez-en quelques aspects inattendus ci-dessous :1. En pleine excitation, les parties intimes masculines et féminines se comporten...
CORPS HUMAIN - C'est une partie du corps de la femme incroyablement compliquée et pleine de surprises. Découvrez-en quelques aspects inattendus ci-dessous :1. En pleine excitation, les parties intimes masculines et féminines se comportent de la même façonMore...
about 2 hours ago