Monday, July 5, 2010
What is going on?
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Pakistan Army Finds Taliban Tough to Root Out
The bullet through his neck from a Taliban militant had narrowly missed an artery, and after some minor surgery, the army medics declared the patient, Sepoy Aziz, out of danger.
In an offensive nearly two years old, the Pakistani Army has been fighting Taliban militants in the nation’s tribal areas and beyond, and like the United States across the border in Afghanistan, it is finding counterinsurgency warfare tougher, and more costly, than anticipated.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Obama Signs Into Law Tighter Sanctions on Iran
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Thursday signed into law new unilateral American sanctions on Iran that go beyond the penalties imposed by the United Nations last month as he tries to escalate the pressure on Tehran to halt its nuclear enrichment program.
The new law, passed by Congress on overwhelmingly bipartisan votes last week, tries to further restrict investment in Iran’s energy sector and cut off financing for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that oversees nuclear and missile programs. It also cracks down on federal contractors that do business with Iran.
“With these sanctions, along with others, we are striking at the heart of the Iranian government’s ability to fund and develop its nuclear program,” Mr. Obama said at a bill-signing ceremony in the East Room. “We’re showing the Iranian government that its actions have consequences. And if it persists, the pressure will continue to mount, and its isolation will continue to deepen.”
The new sanctions contribute to a strategy under which the United States, Australia, Canada and Europe take individual actions on top of the measures approved by the United Nations Security Council in June. With Russia and China holding veto power on the council, there were limits on how far the United Nations would go in penalizing Iran. But the subsequent unilateral actions are intended to increase the pain on the Tehran government.
KABUL, Afghanistan — A half-dozen suicide bombers stormed the compound of a American contractor working for the United States Agency for International Development in the northern city of Kunduz on Friday, killing at least four people before the militants were themselves killed during a six-hour-long firefight, according to Afghan officials. No Americans were said to have died, according to initial reports.