miércoles, 31 de octubre de 2012

Who Was Target Of Beirut Bombing

At least eight people have reportedly been killed and 80 wounded by a car bomb in Lebanese capital Beirut. The rising death toll - following the city's first such attack since 2008 - was reported by Lebanon's state-run National News Agency. Citing civil defence figures, the agency said the blast in the mainly Christian east Beirut was only 200 yards from the headquarters of the Christian party, the Phalange. The party is hostile to the regime of President Bashar al Assad in neighbouring Syria, which has been plunged into a civil war that has heightened tensions and divisions in Syria. But a statement issued by Syria condemned the attack, labelling it "cowardly". AFP news agency reported that two apartment buildings had been devastated by the bombing in a narrow street off Sassine Square in Ashrafieh. One building was still on fire as Red Cross workers evacuated bloodied casualties. Balconies were torn off by the force of the blast, windows shattered and cars crushed by falling masonry. Roland, 19, who was among a large crowd of army, rescue workers and onlookers, said: "We heard a powerful explosion. The earth shook under our feet." Relatives of employees at BEMO bank, whose windows were broken, dashed to the area to look for their children. "Where is Pierre?" one man cried, as a young woman searched for her mother in the rubble. Interior Minister Marwan Sharbel was also at the scene of the bombing. The previous such attack in Beirut, in January 2008, killed Lebanon's top <b>...</b>
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Leonard Greenstone dies at 88; businessman created training programs for ... - Los Angeles Times

Leonard Greenstone, a Los Angeles businessman and developer who helped create innovative training and rehabilitation programs for California prison inmates during 50 years of volunteer service to the prison system, has died. He was 88.

Greenstone, whose efforts included a highly-regarded commercial diving and welding program for inmates at the California Institution for Men in Chino, died Friday at his home in Sherman Oaks. The cause was complications from cancer, his daughter Carol Greenstone said.

Officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation this week described Leonard Greenstone as the department's longest-serving and most dedicated volunteer, saying he had frequently provided his own equipment, expertise and funding to help create training programs for inmates.

"He had a passion for rehabilitation," said Charles L. Pattillo, general manager of the California Prison Industry Authority, a state agency that runs job training and associated business enterprises inside the lockups. "Lenny really believed that everyone needed a second chance."

Greenstone, a Navy salvage diver during World War II, also helped establish the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's underwater search-and-rescue team while serving for nearly 20 years with the sheriff's reserves.

"He brought our expertise to a much higher level through his dedication and hard work with the dive program," Mike Leum, the department's reserve chief of search and rescue, said Tuesday.

Greenstone's interest in creating job training for prison inmates grew out of a 1960 visit he made to San Quentin to see a relative who was working as a deputy warden, Pattillo said. While Greenstone was visiting the facility, an inmate captured a guard and held him hostage, but the man was eventually freed by other prisoners.

Impressed by the rescuers' actions, Greenstone, whose background was in plumbing, began thinking about ways to rehabilitate inmates with practical skills that could help them find jobs once released, prison officials said. He soon donated tools and equipment for a fledgling program to teach plumbing and other trades to San Quentin inmates.

Those early efforts would eventually grow into the Prison Industry Authority, officials said. Greenstone was appointed by successive governors to serve on the board of the agency, as well as its precursors.

In 1970, he worked with staff at the California Institution for Men in Chino to start the vocational diving program, which trains inmates for jobs in underwater construction, dam repair and offshore oil drilling. Despite a recidivism rate of less than 7%, the program was closed in 2003 because of state budget cuts. It was relaunched in 2006 and named after Greenstone.

Leonard Greenstone was born in Boyle Heights on Nov. 13, 1923, the son of Morton and Fanny Greenstone. He dropped out of high school to join the Navy during World War II, at first working as a cook, then as a salvage diver.

After the war, he started a plumbing company, eventually expanding into air conditioning and development interests. He also owned businesses related to his diving passion.

Greenstone's first wife, Marilyn, to whom he was married for 60 years, died in 2004. He remarried this year.

In addition to his wife, Arlene Bruckner Greenstone, and his daughter, Carol, of Chatsworth, Greenstone's survivors include his son, Lee, of Shady Cove, Ore., as well as two granddaughters and a great-grandson.

rebecca.trounson@latimes.com

In Stockton 8 people were killed within 51 hours

Stockton sets new homicide record with string of slayings. Eight people were killed within 51 hours in Stockton this week, pushing the city's annual homicide total past the all-time record. The most recent slayings were an apparent murder-suicide that left three people dead. The deaths raised the number of homicides in the Northern California city this year to 59, up from 58 in 2011, the Record reported. The recent series of killings began when a 38-year-old man was shot and killed outside a McDonald's restaurant Saturday afternoon, the newspaper reported. That night, a man and woman were shot in a parked car — the 27-year-old woman died the next day. Just after midnight Sunday, a 23-year-old man was shot outside a bar, the newspaper said. He was placed on life support and died Monday, the same day two men were fatally shot at a south Stockton apartment. The apparent murder-suicide also occurred Monday. Police found the body of a 64-year-old woman who had been shot and killed inside her home, the Record said. Witnesses spotted a silver minivan driving away, and officers found the vehicle minutes later at an upscale retirement home just six miles away. Inside a room at the facility, police found the bodies of an 88-year-old woman and 45-year-old man, the newspaper said. Both had been fatally shot; authorities suspect the man was the gunman. "I've never seen this many homicides in such a short time span," Officer Joe Silva, a Stockton police spokesman, told the Record. "Our <b>...</b>
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actress Sylvia Kristel, during the Cannes Film Festival

Watch Video at doorstepnews.com Obituaries Video Sylvia Kristel Sylvia Kristel Dead Sylvia Kristel Death Sylvia Kristel Dies Sylvia Kristel Emanuelle Sylvia Kristel Erotic Movies SSylvia Kristel was worried about starring in the 1974 erotic movie "Emmanuelle," but consoled herself with the thought that few people would see her sexually charged performance. That turned out to be wrong. "I thought, `oh my goodness, this is not easy stuff,'" the Dutch actress once said in an interview. "I was nervous but then my boyfriend said, `Who's going to watch this film? It will never pass censorship.'" It did pass the censors and went on to become a classic of the sexually liberated 1970s, propelling Kristel to international stardom. Kristel died of cancer in her sleep Wednesday at age 60, her management company announced Thursday. She had been fighting cancer for several years. Kristel told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant in 2005 that her former partner, Belgian author Hugo Claus, had persuaded her to star in "Emmanuelle." The erotic tale directed by Frenchman Just Jaeckin examined the sexual adventures of a man and his beautiful young wife in Thailand. "He said, `Thailand, that's nice, we've never been there and anyway the film will never come out in the Netherlands so you won't put your mother to shame,'" Kristel said. "In the end, 350 million people saw it worldwide." Kristel was born into a family that ran a hotel in the central Dutch city of Utrecht and had a religious <b>...</b>
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Netanyahu: A War on Iran Would Be Good for Arabs - Antiwar.com

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday tried to convince Arab states that an Israeli military strike on Iran would benefit their interests and that "a feeling of relief would spread across the region" immediately following an attack.

After failing to pressure the Obama administration to back a preventive Israeli strike on Iran before the US presidential elections, Netanyahu has continued to make veiled threats of war catered for different audiences.

In an interview with a French magazine, Netanyahu pushed back against the claim that an Israeli strike on Iran would destabilize the region and worsen tensions.

"Five minutes after, contrary to what the skeptics say, I think a feeling of relief would spread across the region," he said.

"Iran is not popular in the Arab world, far from it, and some governments in the region, as well as their citizens, have understood that a nuclear armed Iran would be dangerous for them, not just for Israel," he said.

But experts generally agree that such an attack would spark a regional war, embolden Iran, and in fact motivate Tehran to build a nuclear weapon, a decision they have not yet made and one that Netanyahu is right to say Arab governments don't want.

As a recent report by former government officials, national security experts and retired military officers concluded last month, the Iranian nuclear program is too redundant for a surgical strike – probably all Israel is capable of – to delay the program for any considerable length of time.

The report also concluded that an attack would prompt a large-scale Iranian retaliation that would spark an uncontrollable regional war, and this would be severely destabilizing for Arab governments, contrary to Netanyahu's pandering.

Importantly, the report also warned the attack would increase Iran's motivation to build a bomb, in order to deter further military action and that "achieving more than a temporary setback in Iran's nuclear program would require a military operation – including a land occupation – more taxing than the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined."

Netanyahu's claim that a war on Iran would be good for Arabs is based on the tensions the Arab dictatorships in the Middle East have with the government of Iran. Those tensions come from incompatible competing national interests, and do not reflect how the actual Arab population feels about an Israeli strike. That is something Netanyahu ignores completely.

Last 5 posts by John Glaser

Libya Attack On US: Last Presidential Debate Barack Obama and Mitt Romney Election 2012

Libya Last Presidential Debate Barack Obama and Mitt Romney Election 2012 President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney have begun their third and final debate Monday night, discussing foreign policy at a moment when Romney has almost erased the president's long-standing advantage on the subject. The 90-minute debate began at 9 pm at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. Going in, the two candidates seemed likely to renew their arguments over Obama's handling of Iran, China, the civil war in Syria, and the attack in Libya that killed four Americans last month. For both, this could be their last best chance to break a close race open. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll, out Monday, showed that Obama and Romney are effectively tied, with Obama leading by just one percentage point among likely voters, 49 percent to 48 percent. The poll shows that Romney has gained significantly on the subjects of international affairs generally, and handling terrorism specifically. At the end of September, Obama held an 11 -point lead over Romney as the candidate voters trusted on terrorism. But now, 47 percent side with Obama on the issue, 46 percent with Romney. The president's debate sparring partner, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), offered a preview of President Obama's likely line of attack during a brief talk with reporters in the spin room at Lynn University, saying "tonight's the night of reckoning" for Romney's shifting positions on US foreign policy. "You can't just come in here tonight <b>...</b>
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SUPERSTORM SANDY; 50 DEAD, MANY INJURED

48 dead, millions without power in Sandy's aftermath The misery of superstorm Sandy's devastation grew Tuesday as millions along the US East Coast faced life without power or mass transit for days, and huge swaths of New York City remained eerily quiet. The US death toll climbed to at least 48, many of the victims killed by falling trees, and rescue work continued. The storm that made landfall in New Jersey on Monday evening with hurricane force cut power to more than 8.2 million across the East and put the presidential campaign on hold just one week before Election Day. New York was among the hardest hit, with its financial heart closed for a second day. The storm caused the worst damage in the 108-year history of the city's subway system, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it could be four or five days before the biggest US transit system was running again. "This was a devastating storm, maybe the worst that we have ever experienced," Bloomberg said. But the full extent of the damage in New Jersey was being revealed as morning arrived. Emergency crews fanned out to rescue hundreds. A hoarse-voiced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gave bleak news at a morning news conference: Seaside rail lines washed away. No safe place on the state's barrier islands for him to land. Parts of the coast still under water. The death toll from Sandy in the US included several killed by falling trees. Sandy killed 18 people in New York City. It also killed 69 people in the <b>...</b>
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Vian woman dies at sea during storm - Tulsa World

SALLISAW - A Vian woman who was killed at sea during superstorm Sandy will be remembered as caring and selfless, a family friend said.

Claudene Christian, 42, was a crew member on the HMS Bounty, a replica 18th Century ship that sank early Monday off the coast of North Carolina. She was found unresponsive later that day and was pronounced dead at a hospital, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Sequoyah County Sheriff Ron Lockhart, who said he knew Christian and her family because she often volunteered with the Sheriff's Office, described her Tuesday as someone whose greatest desire was to help others.

He said friends will remember her as "just a standout person" and said members of his agency will miss her.

"She just had a huge, caring heart," he said.

Christian and the Bounty's captain, Robin Walbridge, 63, were not with the other 14 crew members who were rescued from life boats about 6:30 a.m. Monday.

Christian reportedly was found drifting in the ocean with a lifejacket that evening and did not respond to CPR. She was taken to a North Carolina hospital.

Her aunt, Patricia Saulsberry, told Fort Smith, Ark., television station KFSM that she might have been in the water for as long as 10 hours.

Walbridge was still missing Tuesday.

He reportedly had taken the ship out to sea to avoid storm damage in port. A post on the ship's Facebook page said it was a "calculated decision" because "a ship is safer at sea than in port!"

Lockhart said he had known Christian and her parents since they moved to Vian from California about 2 1/2 years ago.

Christian grew up in Alaska and participated in academic and beauty contests throughout high school, once winning the title of Miss Alaska Teenager, according to an online biography.

She was a cheerleader for the University of Southern California, where she graduated in 1992 and as a freshman had founded a company that makes dolls of college cheerleaders, the biography says.

Lockhart said she was still involved in Cheerleader Doll Co. after moving to Oklahoma and enjoyed giving dolls to Sheriff's Office employees.

"She made sure that all the sheriff's staff had a collegiate doll," he said. "She just wanted to share what she had for everybody there."

Saulsberry told KFSM that Christian became interested in tall sailing ships when replicas of the Nina and Pinta sailed into Muskogee last year. That led her to the job on the Bounty, she said.

Christian wrote on her Facebook page that she was a descendant of Fletcher Christian, who led a mutiny aboard the original Bounty in 1789.

That ship's replica was built for a 1962 movie depicting that incident and was later used in other movies and as a traveling museum.

"As a descendent of Fletcher Christian, played in four movies by Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando & Mel Gibson, I'm sure my ancestor would be proud," she wrote on her Facebook page.

Christian told The Chronicle Herald of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in August that she was Fletcher Christian's great-great-great-great-great granddaughter.

Neither Saulsberry nor Christian's parents could be reached Tuesday.

Lockhart said Christian's parents went to the East Coast after hearing the news, so he established a memorial fund in their absence.

Donations for funeral costs can be made in Christian's name at Armstrong Bank in Vian, Gore, Sallisaw, Muldrow and Muskogee, he said.

"They didn't have anyone else around here - family - to do anything like that," the sheriff said.


Original Print Headline: Vian woman killed in storm


Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com

Randolph couple killed in Hurricane Sandy remembered as 'wonderful people' - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com

RANDOLPH — A Randolph couple killed when a tree fell on their car in Mendham Township during Hurricane Sandy were "wonderful people" who "gave a lot of their time to activities and other people," according to a close family friend.

Richard Everett, 54, known to his friends as "Rich," was a senior vice president at Opthotech, a biotechnology research company in Princeton seeking ways to prevent visual loss by people over 50.

Everett was a "very accomplished guy'' who was also a talented carpenter and a volunteer in Morris County 4-H, said John Bond of Mendham Township, a fellow congregant at Hope Church in Randolph. Everett taught a woodworking class for 4-H.

Elizabeth Everett, 46, known as "Beth," was an active volunteer with Morris Habitat for Humanity who served on Hope Church's "benevolence team," helping make decisions on how to spend money to help the poor in Morris County, Bond said.

Both were killed when a 100-foot-tall, 3-foot-wide tree fell on their car as they drove through Mendham Township at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, according to the Morris County Prosecutor's Office.

The couple was returning to Randolph from their farm in Long Valley, where they may have been "battening the hatches" in preparation for the storm, Bond said.

Their sons, Theodore, or "Theo," 14, and Pierce, 11, were sitting in the back seat and survived.

Two older daughters, Zoe and Talia, were not in the car, Bond said.

Arrangements are being made with relatives who will be caring for the children, said Mendham Township Police Chief Steve Crawford.

The accident was personal in more ways than one for Bond, an electrical engineer and a volunteer firefighter with Mendham Township's Ralston Engine Co.

Bond didn't know who the victims were when he was dispatched to the accident scene during the hurricane.

Bond was with a firefighting group that had been responding to another emergency in a different part of the township and said "we got trapped" by fallen trees en route to the accident.

The group cut through three trees, but when it got to a fourth tree, it was tangled in a high-voltage line and the firefighters were unable to proceed, Bond said. Another group wound up going to the accident, where both husband and wife were pronounced dead at the scene.

"It was a horrific thing," Bond said.

In happier times, Bond said, he and his wife, Amy, who also have four children, often went to the Everetts' house for "small group study" in which church members discuss a particular topic or a subject in the Bible and "apply it to your daily life," Bond said. "You pray together and you eat together," he said.

Other times, Pierce and Theo would come to the Bond house to play, Bond said.

Bond also recalled Richard Everett's great carpentry job when he "completely redid" the kitchen in his house, including the floors and the cabinetry.

"I'm sure my wife would enjoy it if I did that to our house," Bond said.

Complete Hurricane Sandy coverage


Kishan S Rana: The 1962 war - Where did India go wrong? - Business Standard

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Most Indians are convinced that the 1962 attack on our Himalayan frontier by China was an act of betrayal. Recent documents – as they have emerged – confirm the calculated nature of that attack and the months of planning that went into it. The intent of "teaching India a lesson" underlay Chinese actions; the conjunction of international events, including the Sino-Soviet split, played a role. Did our own actions, inadvertently, also contribute to that outcome? Should we take them into account? This concluding part of three articles looks at the diplomatic exchanges, which was not covered in the first two pieces*.

First, the full story of Premier Zhou's April 1960 talks in Delhi has not yet emerged. In Negotiating for India (2006), Jagat S Mehta (JSM) lifted the curtain a little. Zhou arrived on April 17 and was expected to stay for two days; in the event he stayed for seven one-to-one exchanges with Nehru, with only interpreters present (Paranjpe and Chieh). JSM writes: In contrast to Zhou, "an ace diplomat, in total command of details… (Nehru) did not have the matching capacity for marshaling facts".

Senior ministers (Morarji Desai, G B Pant, Krishna Menon "with or without the prime minister's approval") had separate meetings with Zhou and Chen Yi. After each meeting, Nehru summarised the discussion to Foreign Secretary S Dutt, in JSM's presence; Paranjpe prepared the minutes. None has been published.

At the penultimate meeting, Zhou put forward "the Six Points which he hoped would be endorsed by both the Prime Ministers. At the meeting, Nehru raised no objection as they seemed innocuous and unobjectionable". JSM felt "alarmed" on reading these. The first principle read: "There exists a dispute with regard to the boundary between the two sides." He rushed to the foreign secretary's residence, but the latter "did not wholly share my alarm", but told him to go to the prime minister. Nehru dismissed the idea and asserted that there is obviously a dispute, and then showed his "visage of anger". The Cabinet foreign affairs committee met at the home of G B Pant, where Nehru summarised his discussions. As Nehru was to depart for the seventh and final meeting with Zhou, JSM "made bold to mention to the PM that consistent with past pronouncements, we cannot subscribe to the idea of a dispute mentioned in the Six Points. If we accept them then we cannot charge them with violation of our frontier. The PM heard me and said nothing and got into his car." (p. 81-2) JSM adds: The foreign secretary "roundly admonished" him for daring to advise the prime minister, and that too in the presence of his Cabinet colleagues. At that final meeting, Nehru told Zhou that he could not subscribe to the Six Points; just prior to his departure, Zhou announced these as a Chinese proposal. JSM has justified his action in terms of "an obligation to volunteer advice and dissent even if not asked".

If one side is convinced that its case is 100 per cent solid, and it can sustain that position against the other party on a bilateral issue, the above is perfectly logical. In negotiation theory, this is called "positional bargaining". It works only if the other side capitulates, or if one can impose one's standpoint in some other manner. Of course, one may start a negotiation with a 100 per cent demand, but if one cannot offer territorial or some other concession that gives some satisfaction to the other side, the process can only result in failure, unless the other side gives in completely. Is there example of any country winning a negotiation in this fashion? If India could not do that, the border issue became a Greek tragedy, with a preordained outcome.

Second, when did we come to believe that we had a 100 per cent case on the border? We started with a flexible standpoint, especially in respect the Western sector (i.e. in Aksai Chin and its neighbourhood). Our maps of the early 1950s were imprecise; Nehru's early statements about Aksai Chin, that "not a blade of grass grows there", pointed to this. In the East, the McMahon line was always our bottom line. We came to our "positional bargaining" stance in the late 1950s, but the facts are hidden in our closed archives. How did this happen?

At the 1960 talks, JSM, who led the Indian team writes: "…the Indian side was hemmed in by imposed political constraints", leading to the publication of two parallel reports, in one document. They furnished evidence "on which each side relied in support of its stand". The Indian side "were advocates in defence of a specified delineation already established and communicated in the PM's letters. The latter left not an iota of discretion for give or take".

Third, in July 1961, R K Nehru (RKN), secretary general in the ministry of external affairs, visited Beijing on the way back from Mongolia; our attempt at a dialogue resulted in acrimony. Indian records remain hidden, but the Woodrow Wilson Center's Cold War Project carries a long, incomplete note (provided by Beijing) covering a discussion on July 17, 1961, immediately following the Zhou-RKN meeting, when Ambassador G Parthasarathi met Asia Director Zhang of the Chinese foreign ministry. That rare, fascinating verbatim account shows the differing negotiation styles of the two sides.

Fourth, at the 1970 May Day parade, Chairman Mao shook hands with Indian chargé d'affaires Brajesh C Mishra (BCM) on the Tienanmen rostrum, saying: "My greetings to President Giri and to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Shall we keep on quarrelling like this?" For China that represented a serious initiative to resume dialogue, but before BCM could reach Delhi to report on this and offer his recommendations, Mao's words were leaked in the Indian media, and the gesture was trivialised as a "Mao smile".

BCM noted in his oral history account published by the Indian Foreign Affairs Journal that the leak came from the pro-Soviet lobby in the Indian hierarchy. (It is striking that in 1962-63, P K Banerjee, author of My Peking Memoirs of The Chinese Invasion of India, had a like view of such a lobby.) The net result was that an opening was missed; the Bangladesh crisis in the months that followed meant that it was only after 1972 that real India-China dialogue could be resumed.

In sum, we need to review our past diplomatic approaches, in cool and dispassionate fashion. New information that has emerged from diverse sources needs examination. Some primary material is in the Cold War Archives. Read, for instance, the long, hard-hitting Soviet record of Khrushchev's October 3, 1959 meeting with Mao where India figures prominently (digital collection: "Cold War in Asia"). John W Garver's long essay "China's Decision for War with India in 1962" (also on the net) is rich in citations from diverse Chinese sources, including material citing Politburo discussions.

No doubt equally relevant material is to be found in the archives of other foreign ministries that have been opened up. Above all, our own archives can answer many of the mysteries of the lead up to, and the aftermath of 1962.

Is it not high time that we rethink our total clampdown on India's China records? Why should the bulk of official papers of the Nehru and Indira Gandhi era be treated as private documents? When regimes in Beijing and Moscow open their historical records, must democratic India fear its own past?


The first article "Battle lines of the 1962 war" appeared on September 17, and the second "A message for Mr Nehru's ears only" on October 20
The writer is a former ambassador, author, teacher and honorary fellow at Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi
kishanrana@gmail.com  

Naperville Children Killed: Police Question Babysitter In Stabbing Death Of 2 ... - Huffington Post

Updated story

Two young children have been found stabbed to death inside a Naperville home and police have taken their babysitter into custody for questioning Wednesday morning.

The children, ages 5 and 7 or 8, were discovered late Tuesday night by Naperville police during a well-being check, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Both children were pronounced dead at the scene.

The babysitter's child is among the victims, while the other belonged to a mother who had left for work and put her child in the sitter's care. According to WGN reports, the babysitter stabbed her own child and a child she was watching.

The Sun-Times reports two dogs were also found killed inside the home.

Naperville police do not think there are other suspects are at large, writes the Associated Press.

According to Patch, the younger child was a kindergartener at Brookdale Elementary School. The older child attended a school in Naperville District 203.

Naperville Police Sgt. Louis Cammiso told the Chicago Tribune that community members have no reason to fear for their safety and that the tragedy is "isolated and contained."

This is a developing story.

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    Baumgardner is accused of injecting her daughter with heroin roughly 200 times when the girl was 14-years-old.

  • Thar Kyi

    Thar Kyi, 42 of upstate New York, accidentally hit his 8-year-old son in the head with <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/thar-kyi-utica-man-injured-son-samurai-sword-fight-new-york_n_1542462.html?1337875280" target="_hplink">a samurai sword</a> while fighting another man. Kyi attacked the boy's mother's boyfriend while his three children were getting ready for school in the morning. The boy was treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

  • 'Tanorexic' Mom Charged With Burning Daughter

    In May 2012, New Jersey mom Patricia Krentcil was arrested after taking her 5-year-old daughter to a tanning parlor. The daughter reportedly received severe burns from exposure to harmful ultraviolet radiation. In the aftermath of the arrest, Krentcil was banned from several local tanning salons. Krentcil's habit has also received wide criticism in mass media, including a spoof by Kristen Wiig on "Saturday Night Live." <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/patricia-krentcil-arrested-daughter-tanning-booth_n_1469392.html" target="_hplink">Read more.</a>

  • News Informed Parents That Daughter Was Missing

    Employees at a Maryland Chuck E. Cheese were worried when they found a 3-year-old named Harmony apparently alone in the establishment at around 8 p.m one night in March 2012. They took the girl to a police station and shared a photo of her with local TV stations in hopes of tracking down a parent or guardian. It wasn't until Harmony's photo aired on the 11 p.m news that her parents even realized she was missing. The two had split custody of Harmony, and each had assumed that she was with other family members. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/daughter-left-in-chuck-e-cheese-maryland_n_1324197.html" target="_hplink">Read more.</a>

  • Woman Allegedly Sexted, Had Sex With Son

    Mistie Atkinson, 32, allegedly performed oral sex on her 16-year-old son and had sexual intercourse with him in a hotel room in Northern California. The two reconnected on Facebook after the boy's father had assumed primary custody when the child was 2. Atkinson, whom the boy's father claims had a "boyfriend-girlfriend relationship" with her son, also reportedly sent the child nude photos of herself. She pleaded no contest in a Napa County Superior Court on May 21 to charges of incest, oral copulation with a minor, contact with a minor for sexual offense, and sending harmful material to a teen. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/22/shana-bishop-dancing-while-son-slept-naked-in-trash_n_1536076.html" target="_hplink">Read more.</a>

  • Man Allegedly Left Toddler Home With Cereal, Went To Office

    Floridian Elton Jerome Davis Jr. allegedly left his 18-month-old toddler at home with a bowl of Cheerios while he went to work. An unidentified witness found the child playing with a dog on a public road. Davis was charged with child neglect on May 21 in Okaloosa County. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/22/elton-davis-abandons-child-cheerios-florida_n_1535696.html?ref=crime" target="_hplink">Read more.</a>

  • Mother Charged With Neglect For Dancing In Driveway While Son Slept Naked In Trash

    On May 17, police found Shana Bishop's 2-year-old son naked in a pile of trash on the floor of her car in South Carolina. The child was found when an unidentified resident called the police, alleging that Bishop was dancing naked in her driveway. Bishop was arrested in Spartanburg and charged with child neglect. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/22/shana-bishop-dancing-while-son-slept-naked-in-trash_n_1536076.html" target="_hplink">Read more.</a>

  • Marsia Emanuel

    Marsia Emanuel allegedly flagged a school bus in Winter Haven, Fla., boarded and beat the bus driver in front of her daughter, a student riding it already. Cops found Emanuel later at home where she dropped her underpants in front of them, they said. It's unclear what was her motive. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/11/marsia-emanuel-allegedly-_n_1088096.html" target="_hplink">Read more.</a>

  • Misty Lawson

    Misty Lawson, 30, a self-described "professional baby maker" on her Facebook page, allegedly punched her son in the face and body several times during an in-home, state-mandated anger management course. Read more <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/punch-during-anger-management-misty-lawson_n_1272915.html" target="_hplink">here.</a>

  • Christina Lopez

    Salem police say surveillance video shows Christina Lopez watched her 17-year-old daughter dance at Presley's Playhouse Cabaret, a strip club in Oregon. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/18/christina-lopez-watched-daughter-strip_n_1356975.html" target="_hplink">Read more. </a>

  • Barry O'Connell

    Barry O'Connell, a Spokane, Wash., police officer, was suspended for three weeks after his daughter used his service weapon to accidentally shoot herself in the leg.

  • Elizabeth Escalona

    This undated handout photo from the Dallas County Sheriff's Department shows Elizabeth Escalona. The mother was facing child abuse charges, Friday, Sept. 9, 2011, after police said she glued her toddler daughter's hands to a wall, kicked her in the stomach and beat her over a potty training issue.

  • Rebecca Rachelle Hill

    Hill was accused in October 2012 of<a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/175270081.html?refer=y" target="_hplink"> using heroin with her 12-year-old daughter</a> over the course of several weeks. She also allegedly told police that she often took her daughter along on shoplifting trips that financed their heroin addictions.

48 dead, many injured, millions without power in Sandy's aftermath

48 dead, millions without power in Sandy's aftermath The misery of superstorm Sandy's devastation grew Tuesday as millions along the US East Coast faced life without power or mass transit for days, and huge swaths of New York City remained eerily quiet. The US death toll climbed to at least 48, many of the victims killed by falling trees, and rescue work continued. The storm that made landfall in New Jersey on Monday evening with hurricane force cut power to more than 8.2 million across the East and put the presidential campaign on hold just one week before Election Day. New York was among the hardest hit, with its financial heart closed for a second day. The storm caused the worst damage in the 108-year history of the city's subway system, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it could be four or five days before the biggest US transit system was running again. "This was a devastating storm, maybe the worst that we have ever experienced," Bloomberg said. But the full extent of the damage in New Jersey was being revealed as morning arrived. Emergency crews fanned out to rescue hundreds. A hoarse-voiced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gave bleak news at a morning news conference: Seaside rail lines washed away. No safe place on the state's barrier islands for him to land. Parts of the coast still under water. The death toll from Sandy in the US included several killed by falling trees. Sandy killed 18 people in New York City. It also killed 69 people in the <b>...</b>
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Hurricane Sandy kills 33, Black day for America as frankenstorm rolls in

One of the biggest storms to hit the US, Sandy brought strong winds and heavy rains and left at least 10 people dead in New York itself. The trail of destruction left by the monster storm prompted President Barack Obama to declare it a "major disaster" in New York and New Jersey. According to Fox news, at least 33 people had died of consequences from the storm. During an emergency meeting, Obama told his team that their top priority is to make sure all available resources are being provided to state and local responders as quickly as possible. He also expressed sorrow over the deaths. "During the briefing, the president expressed his concern for those impacted by the storm, as well as the heroic first responders who are selflessly putting themselves in harm's way to protect members of their communities," the White House said in a statement. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said at least 10 people were killed as the city stood paralysed by the monster storm. He said this the storm may be the "worst" the New York city has ever experienced. "The impacts will be felt for some time," he said. New York and New Jersey combined together has one of the largest concentrations of Indian-Americans in the US. Quite a number of Indian-Americans, particularly in New Jersey, had to leave their homes and had to be evacuated after their houses were flooded. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie it was a devastating sight. "It is beyond anything I thought I'd ever see," he told a news <b>...</b>
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Syrian Air Force Commander Is Reported Killed - New York Times

The developments were reported a day after the expiration of a four-day truce for the Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha that had been widely and persistently violated. Each side accused the other of subverting the cease-fire, which was negotiated by the special Syria peace envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League, Lakhdar Brahimi. Mr. Brahimi had said he hoped it would form the basis for the beginning of dialogue between President Bashar al-Assad's loyalists and his armed opponents.

An announcement carried on state television said the air force commander, Gen. Abdullah Mahmud al-Khalidi, was killed in the Damascus district of Rukn al-Din on Monday by armed terrorist groups, the government's categorical term for its adversaries.

The announcement did not specify how the commander had been killed, but it described him as one of the country's top aviation experts. Agence France-Presse, in a report from Damascus, quoted an unidentified security source as saying the commander had been shot to death while leaving a friend's home.

The news agency also said that the Free Syrian Army, the main group of armed insurgents in Syria, had claimed responsibility for the assassination. But other unconfirmed reports from Syria raised the possibility the general had been killed by government agents to prevent him from defecting. Al Jazeera quoted unidentified activists as saying "the regime got rid of him before he does that."

Syrian insurgents have made no secret of their intent to kill Mr. Assad's top aides. In July, insurgent bombers killed the defense minister, deputy defense minister and assistant vice president as they met in a Damascus safe house, the biggest single blow to Mr. Assad's inner circle since the uprising against him began in March 2011.

Reports from opposition activists, including the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group based in Britain with a network of contacts in Syria, said the official end of the cease-fire on Monday brought a large expansion of aerial bombardments on Tuesday, including a sortie by a fighter jet that dropped four bombs on the Damascus neighborhood of Jobar. The observatory said it was the first reported instance of a fighter jet attack in Damascus airspace, where the military had previously used helicopter gunships.

The Syrian Observatory said at least 23 people were killed Tuesday, most of them in Syrian government airstrikes in the contested town of Douma, near Damascus. There was no way to corroborate those casualty figures.

There were also unconfirmed reports of clashes between rebels and pro-government Palestinian fighters near the large Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Damascus area. The camp is the largest community of Palestinian refugees in Syria, and the loyalty of its residents is politically important to Mr. Assad, who considers himself a critical ally of militant Palestinians and has often characterized the uprising against him as part of an Israeli plot.

Mr. Brahimi, an Algerian statesman who replaced Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, as the special Syria envoy nearly two months ago, has expressed regret that his cease-fire plan failed. But he has said he intends to present a broader plan to the United Nations Security Council in November.

He has spent the past few days in visits to Russia and China, the two permanent members of the Security Council that have blocked efforts by the other members to approve any resolution that would threaten Mr. Assad with punitive consequences.

texas Texas minister killed in bizarre attack Pastor chased, then beaten with ... - Washington Times

FOREST HILL, Texas — The Rev. Danny Kirk Sr. greeted everyone walking into his Texas church on Sundays with a big hug and an "I love you." His weekdays were spent visiting folks in the hospital or mowing lawns and doing household repairs for members in need.

Parishioners, who described Mr. Kirk as a dedicated minister with a bubbly personality and a knack for remembering the names of his church's 800 members, are now looking for answers following his violent death.

Police in the Fort Worth suburb of Forest Hill said Mr. Kirk was killed Monday by a man who rammed a car into a wall at his Greater Sweethome Missionary Baptist Church, then chased Mr. Kirk and fatally beat him with an electric guitar.

Investigators said they don't know the motive or whether Mr. Kirk knew his attacker, whom police subdued by using a Taser but who died after being taken into custody. His name hasn't been released.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the church, where crime-scene tape was wrapped around a small statue of Jesus near the wrecked car. Some hugged one another and cried, while others shared memories of Mr. Kirk.

"He really was concerned about our souls," Montoya McNeil, a church member for eight years, said as she wiped away tears. "You looked forward to being here. I'm not asking God why, because I know where [Mr. Kirk] is, but we won't get those big bear hugs and those great sermons anymore."

Claudie Loftin, an associate minister, called Mr. Kirk a hands-on pastor who "didn't run around wearing a suit.

"He would wear jeans or a sweatsuit because he said he never knew how he would be needed to help, and that's what a pastor does. He was a man of integrity."

Forest Hill Police Chief Dan Dennis said a man drove his car into a church wall before noon Monday, apparently on purpose. The man got out of the car and began to attack the pastor in the parking lot before chasing him into the church, while the secretary hid and called 911, Chief Dennis said.

Police arrived to find the man assaulting Mr. Kirk with an electric guitar from inside the church, Chief Dennis said. An officer used a Taser on the suspect, handcuffed him and put him in the back of a patrol car.

By then, Mr. Kirk had died, Chief Dennis said. A maintenance worker who tried to help Mr. Kirk was injured and taken to a hospital. His condition was unknown.

Chief Dennis said the suspect was found unresponsive shortly after being detained and was pronounced dead at a hospital. Mr. Kirk fought back during the attack, Chief Dennis said, but it's unclear whether that played any role in the suspect's death. An autopsy was being performed on the suspect to determine the cause of death.

Chief Dennis said he didn't know whether the man knew Mr. Kirk, attended the church or why he might have attacked the pastor.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Terry Callier, Singer and Songwriter, Dies at 67 - New York Times

The cause was cancer, his family said.

Mr. Callier's return in the 1990s was one of the great recalled-to-life stories in modern pop. At his peak, in songs from the '70s like "Dancing Girl" and "Occasional Rain," Mr. Callier sang spiritual rhapsodies that began with gentle guitar and built to orchestrated, uplifting climaxes. But commercial success eluded him, and by the time British fans began to seek him out, he had retired from music and was working as a computer programmer.

Before long, though, he was being invited to perform in London, and on his vacation time he flew there to play for clubs full of reverent fans. Beginning with "TimePeace" (Verve) in 1998, he released a stream of new albums — he finally left the day job in 1999 — and collaborated with Paul Weller, Beth Orton, the group Massive Attack and other artists.

"It was like a dream," Mr. Callier said of his comeback performances in an interview with The New York Times in 1998. "A couple of times I had to stop the show because it was just too over the top emotionally for me to continue. People knew all the words to my songs."

Terrence Orlando Callier (pronounced CAL-yur) was born in Chicago on May 24, 1945. Among his friends when he was growing up were Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler of the Impressions. While still in high school he recorded for Chess Records, the Chicago blues and R&B label, but his mother persuaded him to stay in school before starting a music career.

He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and became influenced by both the folk movement and John Coltrane. His debut album, "The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier," recorded in 1964 by the folklorist Samuel Charters, established that Mr. Callier was difficult to categorize. He sang traditional songs like "Cotton Eyed Joe" and "900 Miles" with a calm, low voice that evoked Josh White and Fred Neil, but the album's instrumentation — acoustic guitar and two basses, played sparingly — gave the recordings an atmosphere that was both intimate and otherworldly.

In 1970 he joined Mr. Butler's Chicago Songwriters Workshop, where he worked with Charles Stepney, a producer and arranger who also worked with Earth, Wind and Fire. Mr. Callier was a co-writer of the Dells' 1971 hit "The Love We Had (Stays on My Mind)" and in 1972 released his own album, "Occasional Rain," on the Cadet label, a Chess imprint. He released four more albums through 1978 on Cadet and Elektra, but by the end of the decade his career had slowed down.

Soon after recording a single, "I Don't Want to See Myself (Without You)," which he paid for himself, in 1982, he quit music and went to work as a programmer at the National Opinion Resource Center, an affiliate of the University of Chicago. Meanwhile his music was attracting a cult following among British soul-music collectors and D.J.'s, and around 1990 he got a call from Eddie Piller of the Acid Jazz label, who wanted to reissue "I Don't Want to See Myself."

Mr. Callier is survived by his daughter, Sundiata Callier-Dullum; his son, Dhoruba Somlyo; his companion, Shirley Austin; his brother, Michael Callier; and a grandson.

In 1998, Mr. Callier said he had no ill feelings about the course of his career.

"I feel very blessed for my success," he said. "Everything happens in its own time, and it happened when I could handle it. I didn't have to bend myself out of shape to make a living, I got a position in computer programming, and I put my daughter through college. It couldn't have been any better."

Trial opens for California boy who killed neo-Nazi father - Reuters

RIVERSIDE, California | Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:43pm EDT

RIVERSIDE, California (Reuters) - A boy accused of murdering his neo-Nazi father when he was 10 years old went on trial in California on Tuesday, with prosecutors portraying the child as violent and troubled and a defense lawyer saying he acted to protect his family.

Both sides agree that Joseph Hall, now 12, shot his father, Jeffrey Hall, at near point-blank range on May 1, 2011. He is being tried in juvenile court and could be sent to a juvenile facility until age 23.

The case in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, has drawn attention for Jeffrey Hall's neo-Nazi associations and for the rare circumstance of such a young child accused of murdering a parent.

Kathleen Heide, a criminology professor who has studied crimes by children, said that of 8,000 murders of parents by offspring over the last 32 years, only 16 were carried out by defendants age 10 or younger.

"It's very rare," said Heide of the University of South Florida. "If you talk about kids killing in general it's still very rare. What makes this even more unusual is that it's a 10-year-old first of all, then (it) becomes even more remote when the 10-year-old allegedly killed his father."

Because Joseph Hall is a juvenile, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jean Leonard, who is conducting the two-week trial, will not decide guilt or innocence, but make a finding of whether the allegations are true - a decision that hinges on the boy's understanding of right and wrong at the time.

"Joseph has had trouble all of his life. He's attacked teachers, tried to stab them and strangle them with cords. Every institution expelled him," Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Michael Soccio told the court in opening remarks.

"Jeffrey Hall was given full custody of Joseph and his sister. He tried to help him. His son had these issues long before he was a Nazi and (was) just a plumber," Soccio said, citing the boy's attention deficit disorder and impulsivity, and noting he had "a violent streak."

'CONDITIONED' TO RACISM AND VIOLENCE

The prosecutor, who displayed grisly photographs of the slain man showing a bullet wound above his left ear, said Joseph Hall knew that the gun was dangerous and had planned the crime, telling his sister about his intentions the day before.

"He understood that if he shot someone in the head, they'd be gone," Soccio said. "He knew what he did was wrong. He knew full well what that meant."

Riverside police officer Michael Foster, who was first on the scene that day, testified that Joseph Hall confessed to shooting his father and said he felt bad about it, worrying out loud that his sisters would be angry with him.

The boy, dressed in a purple knit shirt and wearing glasses, showed little reaction in court to the proceedings or the photographs of his dead father.

Riverside County Deputy Public Defender Matt Hardy, in his opening statement, focused on the boy's upbringing by a father with ties to the National Socialist Movement that had "conditioned him with racism and violence."

The defense attorney said Jeffrey Hall, 32, took his son to neo-Nazi rallies, and that child protective services had been called to the home 20 times.

"Joseph, for his own reasons, decided to kill his father, to protect himself and his family, to stop the violence and be a hero," he said.

Hardy said that on the night before the shooting, Jeffrey Hall had gone to a National Socialist Movement party and left the gathering with a woman, returning home at 3:30 a.m.

On the night before the killing, Hardy said, Jeffrey Hall sent a text message to his wife, Joseph Hall's stepmother, reading: "Bitch, get out of the house, I'm divorcing you."

The stepmother, 27-year-old Krista McCary, later testified that the boy was a difficult child who had issues in school, was sometimes violent and was known to lie a lot.

McCary said that when she visited Joseph in a juvenile detention facility following his arrest, he told her he had a "hate list" of people he wanted to kill when he was released.

(Writing and additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Stacey Joyce)

Police: Children killed were 3 years old - San Francisco Chronicle

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A school bus crash that killed two 3-year-olds heading home from their Head Start preschool class in northern Kentucky remained under investigation Tuesday, state police said.

The crash Monday afternoon in Carrollton killed schoolmates Ryder Deitz and Caroline Tuttle, both of Carrollton, said Trooper Bradley Arterburn.

The youngsters were among nine preschoolers on the Carroll County school bus that was traveling a narrow country road when it overturned and smashed into a tree, crushing its roof.

"Words cannot describe the grief that our families and staff are experiencing," Superintendent Lisa James said in a statement on the district's website.

A bus driver and an aide were also on the bus. Arterburn said the driver escaped unharmed but the aide was hospitalized with unknown injuries.

Officials said five children remained hospitalized Tuesday.

Four were at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, said Chief Nursing Officer Cis Gruebbel. Three — two 3-year-old boys and a 4-year-old girl — were in stable condition in intensive care with skull fractures and the fourth, a 3-year-old boy, was expected to be discharged Tuesday, she said.

The children "all have family with them," Gruebbel said.

A child flown to the University of Kentucky Medical Center was listed in critical condition, hospital spokeswoman Julie Phillips said.

Arterburn said the bus was traveling along a narrow country lane in Carrollton about 4:30 p.m. EDT when it flipped on its side and hit the tree. He said investigators were examining the bus for mechanical issues that could have contributed to the crash.

The children were all wearing seatbelts, Arterburn said in a news release.

The students were enrolled in the Carroll County Child Development Center, which operates Head Start and early Head Start programs for children ages 3 and 4. The two programs were not in session Tuesday, according to the district website.

Counselors were to be available at all district schools Tuesday.

Carrollton was also the site of a school bus crash in 1988 that killed 24 children and three adults. That bus was being used for a church activity and was returning after a day at an amusement park when it was hit head-on by a drunken driver. It remains the nation's deadliest drunken-driving collision.

North Korea War Alert Update - Town Hall

North Korea: Update and comment. Over the weekend NightWatch checked North Korean diplomatic activity to determine the extent of the semi-state of war alert. Three foreign delegations arrived in Pyongyang on 26 October and were greeted by high level North Korean officials.

The alert began in the early morning of the 26th. The delegations arrived during the day. That information directly indicates that the alert is partial, not in support of national war preparations, and indirectly indicates that international flight activity at Sunan international airport is normal.

Those inferences signify that the alert is at least a precaution against a surprise attack during the Allied exercise. It still also might be related to leadership stability issues. It does not suggest a provocation against South Korea is in the works.

In addition to the above, Kim Jong-un attended three public events at Kim Il-sung Military University. First reported was the unveiling of statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Chong-il at the university, where "Marshal" Kim took a military parade and salute by the students. Next was a soccer match between the army team, April 25 (April 25 is the KPA anniversary date), and the Sonbong sports club. In the evening Kim attended a band concert in honor of Kim Il-sung Military University's 60th anniversary on the 29th. His wife accompanied him to the soccer match and the concert.

Interestingly, Kim's father never permitted the North Korean media to date reports of his public appearances, apparently as a security precaution. Kim Jong-un's appearances usually are dated. The young Kim appears to be trying to ease some of the austerity of the regime's practices, but with only limited success.

Generally, leadership activities look normal in the North.

South Korea-North Korea: Some 40 members of a South Korean civic group launched tens of thousands of leaflets denouncing the North Korean regime across the border between the two countries on 29 October, causing brief scuffles between group members and residents in the border town of Paju.

Comment: The North's alert posture appears more aimed at the Allied exercise in progress than at the leaflet launches. Nevertheless, the South Korean activists are almost daring the North to act on its threat to retaliate against their launch sites with artillery fire.

South Korean authorities almost certainly know about the leaflet launches but have only stopped one. North Korean authorities with some justification will assume the South is at least in complicity with the launches, which appear to be using the Allied exercise as a window of opportunity for sending the anti-Kim regime leaflets across the Demilitarized Zone.

Iran-Sudan: According to the Iranian news service, which quoted the navy public relations office, a small navy task group composed of the support ship Khark and the corvette Shahid Naqdi docked at Port Sudan. The press statements indicated the ships were sent with the aim of carrying the message of peace and friendship for the neighboring countries and ensuring security for transportation and shipping against the "horrifying phenomenon of sea terrorism" [piracy], and it has docked in Port Sudan.

While in Port Sudan, the commanders and officials of the fleet are to hold meetings with Sudanese navy commanders.

Comment: Port Sudan also is the port that Iran uses to provide weapons to Hamas in Gaza via Egypt.

Sudan-Israel-Iran: The Sunday Times of London carried a reasonably detailed account of the Israeli attack on the arms factory at Yarmouk, Sudan on 24 October. According to this account, the attack served multiple purposes, one of which was to show Iran a fraction of Israel's reach. Several Brilliant Readers confirmed that the distance to Yarmouk matched the distance to Tehran, depending on the flight path and that this was a rehearsal for an attack against Iran.

According to The Times, Israel attacked Yarmouk because Iranian technicians were building there Shahab intermediate range ballistic missiles (aka the Iranian variant of the North Korean NoDong), which are capable of reaching Israel from Sudan. That threat presumably has been reduced, if not eliminated.

The Times is the only source of the details of the attack and its motives. The irreducible elements of this attack are the reach of the Israeli air force; the fact of an attack on Yarmouk and the message this action sends in the region. The downside of the report is that in publicizing it as a rehearsal, as opposed to leaving its ultimate purposes ambiguous, Israel ends up producing a publicity stunt, relative to Iran.

On balance,it looks as if the Israelis want Iranian leaders to think of this as a rehearsal, as a propaganda ploy. Israeli leaders tend not to brag about rehearsals so as not to tip off the target.

Syria: Update. On 29 October whatever remained of the ceasefire evaporated in increased and inconclusive fighting by both side.

Comment: No cessation of attacks by either side occurred on any day of the so-called ceasefire. Some accounts claim fighting was reduced on Friday.

End of NightWatch for 29 October.

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