As Arab League monitors prepared a report on Syria's compliance with its agreement to halt violence against protesters, a senior general reportedly said on live TV he was defecting from the regime's army with up to 50 of his soldiers.
Colonel Afeef Mahmoud Suleiman made the announcement live on Al-Jazeera's Arabic News channel on Saturday, the news organization reported.
Flanked by a group of his soldiers, Suleimen said he wanted to keep protesters safe. Al-Jazeera English translated his remarks from Arabic.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Report: Top Syrian general defects with 50 troops
Japan plans to scrap nuclear plants after 40 years
I got a better idea. How about scraping all nuclear plants:
Japan says it will soon require atomic reactors to be shut down after 40 years of use to improve safety following the nuclear crisis set off by last year's tsunami.Full article
Concern about aging reactors has been growing because the three units at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in northeastern Japan that went into meltdown following the tsunami in March were built starting in 1967. Among other reactors at least 40 years old are those at the Tsuruga and Mihama plants in central Japan, which were built starting in 1970.
'Persistent killings': Christians flee deadly attacks in Nigeria
Hundreds of Christians have begun fleeing northern Nigeria after dozens were killed in a series of attacks by Islamist militants who issued an ultimatum to Christians to leave the mainly Muslim region or be killed, witnesses said on Saturday.
A Nigerian newspaper on Tuesday published a warning from Boko Haram, a movement styled on the Taliban, that Christians had three days to get out of northern Nigeria.
Since the expiry of that ultimatum, attacks in towns in four states in northeastern Nigeria have left at least 37 people dead and hundreds of Christians are fleeing to the south, according to residents and a Red Cross official.
Gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs have targeted church congregations and a group of mourners in a church hall.
All but Conceding NH, Romney's Rivals Look to SC
This primary demonstrates how the media drives elections. There is still an universal attempt by most of the mainstream press to try and have you believe that Rick Santorum is a serious candidate. All the polls show Romney winning easily. He might not lose any State in the primaries. He's ahead or close to Gingrich, who is fading fast. It's all about profits for the media. And they won't cash in if Romney goes unchallenged in the primaries. Of course, it also shows how most of that same press is pro-Obama:
Mitt Romney's rivals are all but conceding defeat in next Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, looking past a weekend debate doubleheader in the Granite State and focusing on South Carolina as their best chance to slow his march to the Republican presidential nomination.Full article
Romney campaigned in both states on Friday, prominent party leaders by his side, President Barack Obama on his mind.
Giving no ground when the government reported the creation of 200,000 new jobs in December, Romney said America deserves better than the economic results Obama has delivered. "Thirty-five consecutive months of unemployment above 8 percent is no cause for celebration," he said in a written statement.
Republican rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich were no more inclined to applaud Obama for the drop in unemployment to its lowest level in nearly three years. But they had other worries, including a new survey that suggested Romney's narrow victory this week in Iowa's caucuses has sent his support soaring in South Carolina.
They want a fight? We need to give the Republicans in that State one:
Full article
The finish line may be in sight for an end to the House Democratic walkout and the passage of the "right to work" bill that prompted it.
A Senate committee voted 6-4 Friday to advance the legislation that would prevent companies and labor unions from negotiating contracts that require nonmembers to pay fees.
The approval came after a marathon hearing where supporters called the measure a job-boosting tool and opponents labeled it a union-busting, wage-lowering ploy. The vote clears the way for certain passage by the Senate in the coming days.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Yahoo CEO scores $26 million pay package
He hasn't even done anything for the company yet and stands to get a vast amount. And if he fails to turnaround Yahoo he still gets millions:
Yahoo's new CEO is poised to score a rich payday for taking on the troubled company. He's eligible for up to $26 million this year in salary, stock and bonuses.Full article
Scott Thompson, formerly the president of PayPal, was appointed Yahoo CEO on Wednesday and will officially take the helm on January 9. He will try to pull off the kind of turnaround promised by the last Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) CEO, Carol Bartz, who was fired by phone in September.
Thompson will receive a base salary of $1 million for 2012. He's guaranteed a bonus of at least $1 million, and it could be as much as $2 million if he hits various performance goals.
The contract, which doesn't lock Thompson into the role for any set number of years, also awards him lucrative stock grants. Thompson will get a grant this year valued at $11 million, plus an additional $5 million grant as a one-time hiring perk.
New virus raids your bank account - but you won't notice
The best way to protect yourself from an online financial scam is to diligently check your bank accounts. At least, until now.
Israeli-based Security firm Trusteer has found an elaborate new computer virus that not only helps fraudsters steal money from bank accounts -- it also covers its tracks.
Think of a crime plot involving a spy who plans to break into a high-security building and begins by swapping out security camera video so guards don't notice anything is amiss. Known as a surveillance camera hack, the technique has been used in dozens of movies.
A new version of the widely prevalent SpyEye Trojan horse works much the same way, only it swaps out banking Web pages rather than video, preventing account holders from noticing that their money is gone. [...]
US: Muslim Brotherhood says it won't break treaty
That might not appease the neocons:
The Muslim Brotherhood assured the United States that it will not break the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty despite public statements to the contrary, a State Department spokesperson said Thursday.Full article
"We have had other assurances from the party with regard to their commitment not only to universal human rights, but to the international obligations that the Government of Egypt has undertaken," State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a briefing.
The Muslim Brotherhood party’s deputy leader Dr. Rashad Bayoumi said the group will not recognize Israel “under any circumstance,” in an interview published in the Arabic daily al-Hayat on Sunday. “The Brotherhood respects international conventions, but we will take legal action against the peace treaty with the Zionist entity,” he told the paper.
Nuland said that the Muslim Brotherhood was not a monolithic organization, and that the State Department would continue to seek private reassurances on Egypt's international obligations. "I would say that it is one member of the MB," Nuland said of Bayoumi's comments. "We will judge these parties by what they do."
Boy, 15, murdered for being a 'witch'
Monstrous:
A TEENAGE boy was tortured and drowned because a relative thought he was a WITCH, a court heard yesterday.Full article
Kristy Bamu, 15, died after days of being abused with sticks, a metal bar, hammer and chisel, a jury was told.
He sustained 101 injuries including missing teeth, bruises and deep cuts. Kristy was found drowned after allegedly being hosed down in the bath by his attacker.
The young lad was on a Christmas visit to his sister Magalie in London when she and her partner Eric Bikubi, both 28, allegedly set upon him and his siblings.
The Old Bailey heard how their ordeal began when Bikubi accused Kristy, his sister Kelly, 20, and an 11-year-old sister of doing witchcraft and "adversely influencing his three-year-old son".
Brian Altman, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey: "Despite her own siblings' denials that they were sorcerers, Magalie Bamu joined her boyfriend in repeating these fantastic claims and participating in the assaults.
"They beat the three of them, refusing to let them eat, drink or sleep for days while the punishments being meted out became increasingly violent, with them using many implements found in the flat as weapons of torture.
Ron Paul hammers Gingrich in South Carolina mailer
Getting really nasty:
Ron Paul’s campaign is flooding South Carolina mailboxes with a letter calling Newt Gingrich a “counterfeit conservative.”Full article
The five-page mailing, given to CNN by a Republican who received it this week, also attacks Rick Perry’s immigration record and dings Mitt Romney’s “flip-flops on abortion” and his support for “state-run health care” in Massachusetts.
But Gingrich, a former House Speaker vying with Paul for conservative votes, is the main target.
Reprising attacks that have surfaced in other Paul mailings and web videos, the Texas congressman paints Gingrich as a closet liberal.
“Newt Gingrich has a long record of liberal appeasement, flip-flopping on key issues, and lobbying for insider millions,” the letter reads. “I have rarely seen a candidate who represents so much of what is wrong with Washington and what is wrong with our political system."
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