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Al-Qaeda linked militants beat a hasty retreat in south Yemen after the Yemeni army started an offensive against them. This involved war planes attcking them from the sky and ground troops attacked militant held towns.
The operation has been successful with six militant fighters being killed, this therefore prompted the militants to withdraw. They had taken control of the land by exploiting the political instability in the region.
The USA is reportedly backing the operation, this is in addition to what it started after being frustrated at the lack of action from Yemen.
Yemeni residents dislike the US drone attacks since they have often killed civilians, but have they finally come to the realisation that something needed to be done urgently, and yes some civilians may become casualties just like in any war?

 
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Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb commander is on trial at a UN Tribunal at The Hague. He is being charged with genocide. This comprises of: Crimes against humanity, War crimes and 11 counts of Genocide.If convicted he could face life imprisonment for the crimes he has perpetrated in the 1992-1995 war in which 100,000 were left dead. Mladic, gave his supporters a thumbs up gesture and clapped his hands as he entered the courtroom. later, he gestured to a Muslim women, running a hand across his throat.
This case has stirred up emotions in the Blakans, and the trial was shown live on TV stations.
Some victims fear that Mladic will die before the courts decide on his sentence as he suffered a possible stroke.
Justice should prevail and war criminals should know that they will always be hunted down. they are not safe, even if they have a double identity. I believe that even if he dies in the middle of the trial, the fact that he has always had to check his back is enough of a punishment, although of course a proper sentence is always better.
What do you think? 

 
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A senior Israeli military official of the Northern Command has told AFP that Hezbollah would be ordered to attack Israel in the event that they strike Iran. 
This comes after Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah said that their missiles could strike anywhere in Israel.However security sources believe that Hezbollah doesn't want a confrontation with Israel at the moment, however they would be forced to attack if Iran,their main benefactor ordered them to.
Israel fears that due to the unrest in Syria, Damascus's chemical weapons stockpile could fall into the hands of Hezbollah, much like what happened after the fall of Gaddafi's regime.
this is one of the many leaks regarding a possible strike on Iran.
Israeli's suspect that the Obama administration has leaked confidential details of a possible strike to the media in order to put pressure on Israel not to attack. Is it just a coincidence that Obama doesn't want to attack Iran just before the elections?

 
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Many of the high earners from across the channel have been contemplating making a permanent departure from France.This comes after the socialist leader Francois Hollande was elected as president in the recent elections. He plans to stop the previous President's Nicholas Sarkozy's policy of austerity and instead focus on higher taxes. he is loking to inplement a record 75 percent tax rate on those earning more than 1 million euros, which is on top of his proposed 45 percent tax rate on those earning 150 thousand euro's or more.#
I believe that this is the wrong approach to take, in a unfavourable economic climate, the governments policy should be aimed at rewarding entrepreneurship and helping small businesses, as well as becoming more efficient and cutting the deficit. Does he really think that the French economy will be able to grow when success is looked down on and taxed? Does he think he can borrow his way out of the crisis?      

 
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Two men wearing Afghan Police uniforms have turned their guns on coalition troops in the southern Helmand province, leaving two dead.
The shooting on Saturday brings the number of NATO servicemen killed by Afghan forces to 16, this year alone.US officials say that many of the shootings are caused by personal disputes. this has raised major concerns with military planners whether the plans to transfer full responsibility to the Afghan forces in 2014 will succeed, or whether the country will return back to the lawless state it was in.
Although the UN spokesman Jan Kubis said that civilian casualties had been reduced by 20% in the first four months of this year, compared to the same period in 2011.
If all doesn't go to planned,the enormous amount of resources will have been wasted (see here for the most up to date costs of war to the USA alone:  http://costofwar.com/en/) , along with thousands of lives of NATO forces.If Afghanistan returns into its previous lawless state in the hands of the Taliban it will represent a blow to the West's, especially Britain and the USA's ideology of intervening wherever possible to "spread Democracy". I think that it is time for Britain to realise that it is no longer a world superpower and it doesn't have the resources any more to splash out on expensive useless wars. 

 
New information is emerging regarding the saudi agents that were sent into yemen in order to stop a terrorism plot by al-Qaeda to blow up an American Airliner.
The agent had been living in the UK for the long time and had managed to become friendly with Jihadist sympathisers, a source said. for this reason he was recruited by the Saudi counter-terrorism agencies.
According to the source he was sent into Yemen acting as a potential suicide bomber.The AQAP fell for it and recruited him to join the group. He subsequently handed in the underwear bomb to counter terrorism officers who are now investigating it.
As well as this he was also involved in the assassination of a top al Qaeda operative at the weekend. this is politically awkward for MI6 and the MI5 since they are not allowed to carry out missions that could lead to assassinations.The British intelligence agencies are so sensitive about this that they reportedly asked president Obama to stop the word getting out.
But do they really think they can fool us for so long? Do they really think we will never find out what will happen?
 
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Police have found the decapitated and dismembered bodies of 18 people near Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara, on Wednesday,. This  appears to be the latest atrocity by the country's most brutal drug cartel, the Zetas gang.The bodies and heads were found in two vehicles on the side of a highway near the town of Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos. Guadalajara, once known for being a high tech city, has become the base for the Zetas gang since the 1980's.A violent turf war has flared up between the gang and its rivals, and it is highly probable that this was the cause for the beheadings.
It has come to a point , that no matter what military or police operation is implemented, the drug cartels will not fall. the corruption is so deep rooted in politics and the military that an overhaul of the whole political system, the police and military is required to happen before anything can change, and all the killings will stop. Why don't the Mexican
 people protest and demand a more transparent government? 

 
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Six Syrian soldiers were killed when a blast went off just one hundred metres behind the convoy of the head of the U.N mission in Syria, the blast occurred in the city of Deraa where the Syrian uprising started.
A Syrian soldier speaking only by the name Yahya said " we were driving behind the U.N convoy as protection when a roadside bomb exploded" is this a sign that the Syrian peace initiative which was implemented by Kofi Ann-an will be a fail?? and will the U.N stand up to Syria's continuous human rights abuses all this has to be seen.
In addition I believe that the U.N has to stand up and be open and transparent in the issue that i believe that it is losing credibility as a result of its repeated anti -Israel stance and the fact that it is not standing up to a regime who are systematically killing thousands of its citizens without facing any reprisals at all let alone a U.N statement condemning Syria.
The UN human rights council is a farce and is a waste of time, it is a place where the majority of the Muslim countries vote to condemn Israel and the west.We should make it a more transparent institution where the council are not scared to saying anything against Syria  because of fear of backlash from Muslim countries.