National Security | News-Opinion
TOP NEWS: Nat’l Security / Foreign Affairs: May 29, 2012
- Western Nations, Protesting Killings, Expel Syrian Envoys
- Official results: Egyptians face stark choice in election
- Secret ‘Kill List’ Tests Obama’s Principles and Will
- Rajoy Backtracks on Bankia Bailout Plan
- Senior Qaeda leader killed in Afghanistan: NATO
Excerpts below
Western Nations, Protesting Killings, Expel Syrian Envoys - Neil MacFarquhar, NY Times
Several Western nations hardened their protest against Syria on Tuesday, expelling senior diplomats over the massacre of more than 100 people there, many of them children, last weekend. Their coordinated action came as the United Nations special envoy, Kofi Annan, was meeting with President Bashar al-Assad in the capital, Damascus, to shore up an apparently failing cease-fire.
Official results confirm Egyptians face a stark choice in presidential election - Leila Fadel and Ingy Hassieb, The Washington Post
New signs of instability emerged in Egypt on Monday, just hours after the country’s election commission rejected fraud complaints and confirmed that a conservative Islamist from the Muslim Brotherhood will face off against a secular former military officer in next month’s presidential runoff.
Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will - Jo Becker and Scott Shane, NY Times
Mr. Obama is the liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war and torture, and then insisted on approving every new name on an expanding “kill list,” poring over terrorist suspects’ biographies on what one official calls the macabre “baseball cards” of an unconventional war.
Rajoy Backtracks on Bankia Bailout Plan - Charles Penty and Emma Ross, Bloomberg Businessweek
Spain backtracked on a plan to use government debt instead of cash to bail out Bankia, as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy struggles to shore up the nation’s lenders without overburdening public finances.
Senior Qaeda leader killed in Afghanistan: NATO - Reuters via Yahoo News
The second highest al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan was killed in a weekend airstrike in the country’s volatile east near the border with Pakistan, NATO-led forces said on Tuesday.
===More News===
Corruption turns Russians radical – Ivan Sekretarev, Associated Press via The Washington Post
The deeply corrupt system and Putin’s tight controls on it have alienated large swaths of the middle class.
Second big quake hits northern Italy, 15 dead – Stephen Jewkes, Reuters via Yahoo News
An earthquake killed at least 15 people in northern Italy on Tuesday, damaging buildings and spreading panic among thousands of residents still living in tents after a tremor in the same region destroyed their homes just over a week ago.
Officials Say Kenya Blast Tied to Terror – Solomon Moore, Wall Street Journal
A large explosion in the capital’s business district Monday injured at least 33 people in what officials described as a terror attack.
Suu Kyi, in Myanmar since 1988, starts world tour – Jocelyn Gecker, Associated Press via Google News
For 24 years, Aung San Suu Kyi was either under house arrest or too fearful that if she left Myanmar, the government would never let her return. Now, in a sign of how much life there has changed, she’s back to being a world traveler [...]
Japan’s Former Leader Condemns Nuclear Power – Martin Fackler, NY Times
In an unusually stark warning, Japan’s prime minister during last year’s nuclear crisis told a parliamentary inquiry on Monday that the country should discard nuclear power as too dangerous [...]
In Pakistan, a legal system under scrutiny – Michele Langevine Leiby, The Washington Post
The tribal area of Pakistan, often described as a lawless badland, is now garnering international attention for a different reason: its unique legal system.
The Germans’ New Plan For Greeks and The Euro – Give It A Shot! – Haydn Shaughnessy, Forbes
Europeans are stumbling towards the precipice, hoping nothing else unravels in the Euro economy before the Greeks return to the polls on June 17th. Guess what? Spain is unraveling fast. Yet a week ago the Germans proposed a way out…
Flame virus ‘has infected 189 systems in Iran’ – Damien McElroy, The Telegraph
The most sophisticated computer virus the world has ever seen has infected 189 systems in Iran as part of its intelligence gathering functions, experts said. The origin of the Stuxnet worm has never been made clear but suspicion has fallen on the United States and Israel which both accuse Iran of seeking to build an atomic weapon.
US denies reports it parachuted soldiers into North Korea – Julian Ryall, The Telegraph
The United States military has denied reports attributed to the head of its special forces in South Korea that his men have been parachuted into North Korea to gather intelligence on the regime’s network of underground military facilities.
