Pages

▼

Links and Pages

▼

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Three women pass Marine ‘grunt’ test, but Corps holds off on letting them in infantry - 11/20/2013 | 'Drone Strike' In Pakistan Kill Militants



'Drone Strike' In Pakistan Kill Militants

The strike, the first in Pakistan since a Taliban chief was killed this month, will likely stoke tensions between the two nations.

Drone strike
The site after the strike on an Islamic seminary in Hangu district
A suspected US drone strike on an Islamic seminary in northwestern Pakistan has reportedly killed six people, including two Afghan militants.
Three rockets were fired on the Hangu district from an unmanned aircraft, according to local security officials.
The two militants killed in the attack were believed to be from the Haqqani group, an ally of the Taliban and one of the most feared militant networks battling US troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.
There was no information on the other victims.
The attack could increase tension between Islamabad and Washington over the controversial drone strikes.
Pakistan publicly opposes US drone strikes, saying they kill too many civilians and violate its sovereignty. However, the government is known to have privately supported at least some of the attacks in the past.
"Now no place is safe. The drones are now firing missiles outside the tribal areas," said Shaukat Yousufzai, health minister for the local government of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
"It is Hangu today. Tomorrow it can be Karachi, Lahore or any other place."
Drone strike
A protest against US drone strikes earlier this month
But the US  has shown no sign that it intends to stop using what it considers a vital tool to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Washington has long called on Islamabad to crack down on the Haqqani group, which it says has frequently launched attacks on foreign troops from mountainous hideouts in Pakistan's lawless North Waziristan region.
Islamabad has refused, saying its troops are already too stretched battling domestic militants.
It is the first drone strike in the nation since Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed on November 1.
Pakistani officials were outraged at that attack because they said it came a day before they planned to invite the leader to hold peace talks.
Earlier this week, Pakistan's foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz was quoted as saying that the US had promised not to conduct drone strikes while the government tries to engage the Taliban in peace talks.




at No comments:

21/11/13 09:48 from CNN.com - World The death of MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams -- whose naked body was found inside an externally locked bag in his bathtub in 2006 -- was a "perfect crime," a confined spaces expert says

» MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams' death 'perfect crime,' expert says
21/11/13 09:48 from CNN.com - World
The death of MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams -- whose naked body was found inside an externally locked bag in his bathtub in 2006 -- was a "perfect crime," a confined spaces expert says.

 Among the theories aired by UK media were that Williams might have died at the hands of foreign intelligence agents or as a result of a kinky sexual encounter gone wrong.

 -

Spy In Bag: MI6 Man Probably Locked Himself In

Police believe spy-in-the-bag Gareth Williams probably died accidentally and no-one else was involved in his bizarre death.



Video: Naked Spy 'Locked Himself In Bag'
Enlarge

By Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent
GCHQ codebreaker Gareth Williams probably died after locking himself inside his own holdall, a fresh police review of the case has found.
The naked body of the 31-year-old was discovered in the bag in his central London flat in August 2010 triggering speculation that he had been targeted by foreign agents because of his work.
However, the latest investigation by the Metropolitan Police has found that Mr Williams, who had a keen interest in escapology, probably died alone in an accident.
Detectives believe the codebreaker, who was on secondment to MI6, locked himself into a sports bag in his bath and managed to padlock it from the outside without leaving any DNA traces.

A Yoga Expert Tries A Reconstruction
A yoga expert attempts a reconstruction

The conclusion of a 16-month Scotland Yard review reverses the view of its own original investigators who found it was "highly likely" there was third-party involvement.
And it effectively overturns the finding of a coroner who said last year that Mr Williams was probably killed unlawfully.
The inquest had heard that two experts had tried 400 times to lock themselves in a similar bag but had failed.
However, days after the inquest had finished, an Army Sergeant showed how it was possible to climb into the North Face holdall and do up the zip before padlocking it shut.
Mr Williams' family issued a statement responding to the outcome of the police investigation saying that they still felt the coroner's verdict best represented the circumstances of Mr Williams' death.

gareth williams flat bag lock mi6 death spy
The lock on Mr Williams' bag

They also slammed MI6 or failing to raise concerns after Mr Williams went missing, therefore jeopardising the chances of getting information that might have helped to find the cause of his death.
The statement said: "This lack of concern for Gareth's well-being remains an over-riding feature of our thoughts following the death of a dear son and brother.
Announcing the findings on Wednesday, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said the investigation had included that "on balance, it is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present when Gareth died".
He said that suggestions police had been duped by the intelligence service because the investigation contradicted the coroner's findings were "beyond credibility" and said he had not had the "wool pulled over my eyes".

gareth williams flat bathroom mi6 death spy
The bath at Mr Williams' Pimlico flat

He admitted that initially restricted access to MI6, using a team of counter-terrorism police to act as a go-between for the murder squad and the security services, was "cumbersome" and meant they couldn't do the investigation as they wished.
However, he said, that had changed and officers had been given full access to details of Mr Williams' work.
He said: "Three years of extensive investigative activity have developed a very clear profile of Gareth. He was, without doubt, a private person who was very close to his family and had few other close friends. That said, the universal view of colleagues was of a conscientious and decent man with a few well-known hobbies such as his cycling and climbing.
"There is no evidence of any animosity towards Gareth, and it has not been possible to identify anyone with a motive for causing him harm."
Mr Williams was found inside the bag in the bath at his Pimlico flat on August 23, 2010.
Pathologists said he would have suffocated within three minutes of being locked inside the bag. They said that none of his DNA had been found on the lock on the bag and his palm prints were not found on the rim of the bath.
At his inquest in April last year, the coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox warned that it was unlikely the mystery of Mr Williams' death would ever be satisfactorily explained.
She said: "The cause of his death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated.
"I am therefore satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully."
The Metropolitan Police review into the case was launched after the inquest.


at No comments: