I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG: November 2014

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Imran Khan threatens to shut down Pakistan with protests

13 minutes ago

Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan addresses an anti-government rally in Islamabad on November 30, …

Pakistani cricketer-turned-opposition leader Imran Khan staged a major rally in Islamabad on Sunday, threatening to shut down the whole country with protests as he bids to topple the government.

Khan, who alleges massive rigging in the 2013 election that swept Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to power for the third time, has been holding demonstrations around the country since mid-August.

But his campaign has lost momentum after so far failing in its aims.

"We will close the whole of Pakistan on Dec 16," he told tens of thousands of supporters near parliament on Sunday evening, adding that his party workers would paralyse major cities starting with Lahore, Sharif's seat of power.

Khan also called for a speedy judicial probe into allegations of systemic ballot-stuffing in the 2013 poll, which saw Pakistan's first democratic handover of power and was rated by local and foreign observers as "credible".

"The ball is in your court, Nawaz Sharif -- do your talks, do your investigations and solve the issue," said the former cricket star.

Followers of Khan and firebrand cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri clashed with police in late August after they tried to storm the prime minister's residence, leaving three demonstrators dead and hundreds injured on both sides.

On September 1, the opposition groups briefly occupied the state broadcaster, raising fears the military could intervene to end the crisis as it has done in the past.

Analysts believe the protests were coordinated by the powerful army as a means of re-asserting its dominance over civilian authorities.

The protests destabilised Sharif's government and dented foreign investors' confidence, but have so far failed in their stated aim of bringing down his administration.

Qadri's followers abandoned their sit-in outside parliament last month, but the opposition movement remains a thorn in the government's side.

The administration has responded by briefly suspending pro-opposition TV channels and buying attack adverts against Khan.

Khamenei tells Iran armed forces to build up 'irrespective' of diplomacy

By Mehrdad Balali59 minutes ago

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement …

By Mehrdad Balali

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday the armed forces should increase their combat capability regardless of political considerations, in an apparent allusion to continuing nuclear talks with the West aimed at easing tension in the Middle East.

"Given our vast maritime borders and the enemy's huge investments in this area, our armed forces should continuously improve their (combat) readiness, irrespective of political calculations," Khamenei told a gathering of senior navy officials during a ceremony to mark the "Navy Week" in Iran.

Khamenei, who commands all branches of the armed forces in addition to other key centers of power in the Islamic republic, did not mention any countries by name but he normally uses "enemy" to refer mainly to the United States and Britain -- both of which have intervened in Iran over the past century.

"Peacetime offers great opportunities for our armed forces to ... build up on preemptive capacities," said Khamenei, with state television playing excerpts of his speech.

The United States and its key regional ally Israel have both hinted they might bomb Iran to prevent it developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies any such ambition and insists its atomic program is designed for civilian projects.

With Khamenei's blessing, Iran's moderate President Hassan Rouhani launched a diplomatic initiative to resolve a 12-year nuclear dispute, hoping to save his country from punishing global sanctions. Tehran and six world powers missed a self-imposed deadline on Nov. 24 for a deal, but gave themselves seven more months to overcome their many differences.

Despite his reserved support for the negotiations, Khamenei, perceived by many as a hardliner, remains distrustful of Western intentions in the region and insists that Iran's defense capability, including its controversial missile program, must not be part of any broad diplomatic deal.

In tandem with Rouhani's diplomatic overture, generals appointed by Khamenei are maintaining a relentless war rhetoric and unveil on an almost daily basis what they say are new innovations in weaponry.

"The range of (our) missiles covers all of Israel today," the chief of the Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said last week. "That means the fall of the Zionist regime, which will certainly come soon."

However, Admiral Ali Shamakhani, an ally of President Rouhani who serves as a top security official, sought to temper the bellicose language on Sunday.

"Our missile capability, like our nuclear, is inherently peaceful and geared for self defense," the official IRNA news agency quoted his as saying.

(Reporting by Mehrdad Balali; Editing by Crispian Balmer)

Coalition Airstrikes Pound ISIS Stronghold In Syria

Posted: 11/30/2014 8:37 am EST Updated: 1 hour ago

BEIRUT (AP) — U.S.-led coalition warplanes carried out as many as 30 airstrikes overnight against Islamic State militants in and around the group's de facto capital in northeastern Syria, activists said Sunday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes targeted IS positions in the city of Raqqa as well as the Division 17 air base, which the militants seized earlier this year from government forces.

The monitoring group, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, reported at least 30 coalition strikes in all. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist collective, also confirmed the airstrikes. Neither group had casualty figures.

There was no immediate confirmation from the U.S. military.

The American-led coalition began targeting Islamic State militants in Syria in September, expanding an aerial campaign already hitting the extremist group in Iraq.

US-led strikes hit Islamic State 'capital', says monitor

3 hours ago

Beirut (AFP) - A wave of US-led air strikes have struck at least 30 targets around the Syrian city of Raqa, the self-proclaimed capital of the Islamic State group, a monitor said Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes took place before midnight Saturday and hit 30 targets on the northern outskirts of Raqa.

They also hit Division 17, a Syrian army base the jihadist group captured earlier this year.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the strikes had caused casualties but there was no immediate toll.

"The strikes hit IS positions, and there are certainly casualties among their forces," he said.

The waves of hits was one of the larger actions carried out by the coalition, Abdel Rahman added.

"We can't say it's the largest set of raids they have carried out, but it's been a long time since we've seen this number of targets hit," he said.

The US-led coalition began carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State group on September 23.

The strikes have killed at least 963 people, including 838 IS jihadists and 72 members of Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

Another 52 civilians have also been killed, along with one Islamist rebel, according to the Observatory.

Syria's regime has also continued to hit IS in Raqa, though its raids have regularly killed large numbers of civilians.

The Observatory said regime planes carried out one strike in Raqa on Saturday that killed at least seven civilians.

And on Wednesday, regime raids on Raqa killed at least 95 people, over half of them civilians, the monitoring group said.

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