Secret NATO Taliban report revives Pakistan fears
The Taliban in Afghanistan depend on Pakistan for support, even though they do not necessarily welcome it, a secret NATO report says, according to a journalist who has read it. “It is a marriage of convenience,” Times of London reporter Jerome Starkey said Wednesday, citing the report. The Taliban see…
U.N. Security Council at standstill on Syria, reports of deaths rise
At least 48 people were killed across Syria Wednesday, opposition activists said, as diplomats at the United Nations prepare to debate once again how to respond to the mounting crisis in the country. The number killed in Wadi Barada, in the Damascus suburbs, rose to 21 according to the Local…
Taliban suicide attack kills 80 in Pakistan
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Friday for suicide attacks on a military training facility in the nation’s northwest, saying they were carried out in retaliation for the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. The twin suicide bombings killed at least 80 people, nearly all of them military recruits who…
Bin Laden death photos to be shown to some members of Congress
Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, as well as those in the equivalent House committees, will be allowed to view the photographs taken of Osama bin Laden after he was killed, a U.S. official told CNN Tuesday. The viewings will take place at CIA…
Microsoft to buy Skype for $8.5 billion
Microsoft has agreed to buy Internet phone service provider Skype for $8.5 billion in cash, the companies announced Tuesday. Skype — currently owned by a group led by private equity firm Silver Lake — will become a new business unit within Microsoft, which will be run by Tony Bates, the…
Egyptian Copts, reeling from violence, want protection
Muslim-Christian sectarian violence intensified in Egypt this weekend, spurring an emergency meeting of the Cabinet and public exhortations from Coptic Christians for international protection. At least 12 people were killed and 232 others were wounded in sectarian clashes outside a Cairo church, according to state TV. Officials said violence began…
