Iraq

Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Residents of a town north of Baghdad found 12 corpses with execution-style bullet wounds on Monday following fighting between rival Sunni insurgents that could eventually unravel a coalition which has seized much of northern and western Iraq.

Cuba spy Base

Cuba

Moscow (AFP) - Russia has provisionally agreed to reopen a major Cold War listening post on Cuba that was used to spy on the United States, a Russian daily reported Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin visited the island last week.

Kommersant reported that Russia and Cuba had agreed "in principle" to reopen the Lourdes base, mothballed since 2001, citing several sources within Russian authorities. "The agreements were finalised while President Vladimir Putin visited Havana last Friday," the respected daily wrote.

Russia had closed the Lourdes spy base south of Havana on Putin's orders to save money and due to a rapprochement with the United States after the September 11 attacks.

But Moscow has since shown a new interest in Latin America and its Cold War ally Cuba and relations with the West have deteriorated amid the Ukraine crisis.

The base was set up in 1964 after the Cuban missile crisis to spy on the United States. Just 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the US coast, it was the Soviet Union's largest covert military outpost abroad with up to 3,000 staff.

A secret Russian listening station conducts it's activities October 18, 2001 in Lourdes some 18 mile …

It was used to listen in to radio signals including those from submarines and ships and satellite communications.
"All I can say is -- finally!" one Russian source told Kommersant of the reported reopening.
The defence ministry and military high command declined to comment on the report to Kommersant.
Ahead of Putin's visit to Cuba last week as part of a Latin American tour, Russia agreed to write off 90 percent of Cuba's debt dating back to the Soviet era, totalling around $32 billion.
Russia paid Cuba rent of $200 million per year to use the base in the last few years it was open.
A former head of Russia's foreign intelligence service, Vyacheslav Trubnikov, told the newspaper the base would strengthen Russia's international position.
"Lourdes gave the Soviet Union eyes in the whole of the western hemisphere," he said. "For Russia, which is fighting for its lawful rights and place in the international community, it would be no less valuable than for the USSR."

Afghanistan

Afghanistan

A suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near a busy market and a mosque in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 89 people in the deadliest insurgent attack on civilians since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. (July 16)

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He would rant on and on about the will. How the will was the key to the soul. Mr. Duabbe said that the will was what made the spirit world manifest in the natural world. He said that everything already existed in the spirit realm and all one had to do was believe and act as if it already exist in this world and it would be so. Rocky was very otherworldly; he was always talking about the spirit world. For such a barbaric heathen, he definitely has this pseudo sense of religiosity about him. He clearly sent out this mixture of religious and psychotic energy field like that one pope. Remember that one pope that looked like the devil in his eyes? Yeah, Rocky could get that look in his eyes also. He could also put on the charm and seem so sweet and innocent when he wanted to. It was like flipping a switch. One minute he is sweet and innocent and the next he is a wolf biting at your neck. He would detail how he used certain procedures and implements with the utmost calm and seriousnesslike a doctor describing an operation.

It is hilarious that David Foster Wallace referred to Sarah Palin as "the Shrub."