American forces have carried out a military operation in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, leaving at least 10 Afghan civilians dead, Press TV reports. - The overnight attack took place in a district in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan on Wednesday. Witnesses said US troops also arrested a number of Afghans during the attack. Local officials confirmed the attack and claimed that those killed were anti-government elements. However, the US Military has yet to confirm the assault. US warplanes also targeted a residential area in Ab Band district of the Ghazni province on Tuesday, leaving 35 people dead. The US military claimed it had targeted Taliban militants but villagers said civilians were also among the dead. Hundreds of civilians have lost their lives in US-led airstrikes and ground operations in various parts of Afghanistan over the past few months, with Afghans becoming more and more outraged over the seemingly endless number of deadly assaults.

A Syrian nuclear engineer was assassinated in a hail of bullets in central Syria Wednesday, the latest casualty in a string of murders this week of academics and scientists, Syria's state-run news agency and activists said. SANA said engineer and university professor Aws Khalil was shot in the head by an "armed terrorist group" operating in Homs, but activists accused the regime of going after academics in an attempt to terrorize the city's rebellious population. His killing came as fighting raged in the nearby town of Rastan for the second day between troops trying to enter the town and army deserters who have switched sides and joined the mass revolt against President Bashar Assad that began in mid-March.

Water is essential to life but in such places as India, Pakistan, China, and Thailand deluges have once again caused misery. Typhoon Nesat hit the Philippines earlier this week on its way to south China. In Pakistan, more than 5 million people have been affected by recent flooding, according to the aid agency Oxfam. Pakistan is still struggling to recover from the devastating monsoon rains in 2010. -- Lloyd Young (36 photos total)

Shaima Jastaina sentenced to 10 lashes after being found guilty of driving without permission. - The driver, Shaima Jastaina, who is in her 30s, was found guilty of driving without permission, activist Samar Badawi said. The punishment is usually carried out within a month. It was not possible to reach Jastaina, but Badawi, in touch with Jastaina's family, said she had appealed against the verdict. There are no written laws that restrict women from driving. Rather, the ban is rooted in conservative traditions and religious views that hold giving freedom of movement to women would make them vulnerable to "sins".

Libya's new rulers said on Wednesday they believed fugitive ex-leader Muammar Gaddafi was being shielded by nomadic tribesmen in the desert near the Algerian border, while his followers fend off assaults on his hometown. - Intense sniper and artillery fire from pro-Gaddafi fighters has so far prevented National Transitional Council (NTC) forces from taking Sirte despite more than two weeks of fighting and two full-on assaults. One of the last two bastions of support for the ousted strongman, it has withstood a siege by NTC fighters hitting it with tank and rocket fire as well as NATO airstrikes.

Mathaba: Muammar Gaddafi: Libya will never belong to traitors, Libya will be a hell for them

CIVILIANS pouring out of the besieged city of Sirte accused NATO of committing genocide yesterday as revolutionary forces reinforced their numbers and prepared for a new attack on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's home town. - Long lines of civilian vehicles were seen leaving after a night punctuated by NATO air attacks. Forces fighting for the National Transitional Council (NTC) added their own artillery and mortar rounds at regular intervals. Civilians, many looking scared or sullen, said that conditions inside Sirte were "disastrous". They made claims which, if verified, offer a conundrum for Nato, which operates with a UN mandate on the need to protect civilian life. "It has been worse than awful," said Riab Safran, 28, as his car was searched by revolutionary fighters. His family had been sleeping on the beach, he said. "They have hit all kinds of buildings: schools, hospitals," he said, referring to NATO airstrikes.

A majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the nation’s independent central bank, saying the U.S. Federal Reserve should either be brought under tighter political control or abolished outright, a poll shows. - Americans across the political spectrum say the Fed shouldn’t retain its current structure of independence. Asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely, 39 percent said it should be held more accountable and 16 percent that it should be abolished. Only 37 percent favor the status quo.

A new study by Consumer Reports has documented a dramatic increase in the number of Americans forgoing needed medications and health care for financial reasons. - The Consumer Reports National Research Center found that over the last year nearly half of all Americans (49 percent) who were prescribed medication and other health procedures reported holding back for financial reasons, up from 39 percent a year earlier. Coming on the heels of census data showing a sharp increase in the ranks of the uninsured to 49.9 million, the Consumer Reports survey is yet another exposure of the right-wing character of the Obama administration’s health care “reform,” which will do nothing to rein in health care costs. More than one-and-one-half years after its passage, access to health care has become more financially onerous.

An unmanned U.S. spy drone has crashed in Somalia's southern port city of Kismayu, a bastion of the al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab Islamist group, a rebel official and residents said.

The incident over the weekend came as residents cited an increase in the frequency of drones flying over Kismayu in the past few weeks. The U.S. embassy in Nairobi declined to comment immediately. "This plane was a spy for the American government and by the will of Allah, it crashed near the airport," al Shabaab official Sheikh Ibrahim Guled told Reuters on Monday. Last week The Washington Post reported the United States was building a ring of secret drone bases in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula as part of an aggressive campaign against al Qaeda affiliates in the anarchic Somali state and crisis-hit Yemen.

The article said Washington had flown drones over Somalia and Yemen from bases in the African nation of Djibouti. Classified U.S. diplomatic cables show that unmanned aircraft have also conducted missions over Somalia from the Seychelles.

Al Shabaab launched an insurgency against Somalia's Western-backed government four years ago, in the latest cycle of violence to grip the country since the 1991 toppling of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Fighting has killed more than 21,000 people since al Shabaab launched its insurgency in 2007.

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The Prime Minister of democratically elected government, Ismail Haniya, has termed Mahmoud Abbas’ coming bid for a Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders “a compromise over historical Palestine”. He said Hamas will not back a UN membership bid, and warned that no Palestinian leader had a mandate to sacrifice fundamental Palestinian rights.

“There is no mandate for any Palestinian leadership to infringe on Palestinian national rights, nor is there a mandate for any Palestinian actor to make historic concessions on Palestinian land or the right of the Palestinians, foremost among them the right of return,” he warned.

Anyone who has studied the history of Palestinians’ struggle to recover their ancestral land stolen by foreign Jews from objective source – will know that both Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad don’t represent Palestinians but Israel-US interests in the region. Both lack legitimacy. Israel rigged Abbas’ January 2005 presidential victory. Moreover, his term expired in January 2009. Nonetheless, he’s still in office because Israel and Washington want him there.

Israel has approved the construction of 1,100 homes in the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the outskirts of Jerusalem. - The move comes days after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called for full UN membership for a Palestinian state. There has been widespread condemnation of the move by Palestinian and Western powers, including the EU and US. Almost 500,000 Jews live in settlements on occupied territory. The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are deadlocked over the issue of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Also on Tuesday, three UN special rapporteurs called for an immediate end to the demolition of Palestinian-owned homes and other structures in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Post: US ambassador to Israel supports continued Jewish settlements on West Bank
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