Paul E Ester
Paul E Ester's JournalTaliban raids Afghan city, killing dozens
Source: Washington Post
At least 48 people, many of them civilians, were killed Wednesday in western Afghanistan when heavily armed Taliban insurgents, including suicide bombers, stormed government buildings and fought a seven-hour gun battle with security forces, police said.
More than 90 people were reported wounded in the assault on the city of Farah, capital of Farah province. Police said all nine of the attackers died in the fighting, either in exchanges of fire with security forces or by detonating suicide vests they were wearing.
The death toll was the heaviest in many months in Afghanistan, where the radical Islamist Taliban movement is fighting to drive out foreign troops and topple the government of President Hamid Karzai.
Several government buildings, including the provincial courthouse, were badly damaged in the clashes, officials said, adding that the Taliban fighters used explosives, assault rifles, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/taliban-raids-afghan-provincial-capital/2013/04/03/ff0233f8-9c47-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html
Israel Starts Tamar Gas Production
The gas was expected to reach Israel’s port city of Ashdod by afternoon today, the Energy and Water Ministry said.
The field in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, estimated to hold 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, is being developed by a group that includes Noble Energy Inc. (NBL), Delek Drilling-LP, Avner Oil Exploration LLP (AVNRL) and Isramco Negev 2 LP. (ISRAL) Along with Noble, Israeli energy exploration companies have discovered enough gas under the Mediterranean over the past three years to supply the country for 150 years.
“We are talking about billions of dollars coming to the state from tax revenues from Tamar gas over a 20-year period,” Gilad Alper, a senior analyst at Excellence Nessuah Brokerage Ltd. in Tel Aviv, said in a phone interview. “It will also reduce energy costs as we will replace expensive imports with a cheap domestic supply of natural gas. The start of the flow is a big positive for the economy.”
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-03-30/israel-begins-gas-production-at-tamar-field-in-boost-to-economy
Kuwaiti opposition tweeter jailed for emir insult
Source: France 24
Kuwait's lower court on Sunday sentenced opposition tweeter Hamed al-Khaledi to two years in jail on charges of insulting the Gulf state's ruler, a rights activist said.
"Khaledi has been sentenced to two years in jail with immediate effect," the director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Mohammad al-Humaidi, said on his Twitter account.
Khaledi was charged with writing remarks on his Twitter account deemed offensive to Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah. The verdict is not final, but his jailing was immediate pending the appeals process.
His lawyer Jasser al-Jadaei said he will file an appeal later on Sunday against the verdict and seek an early hearing.
Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20130331-kuwaiti-opposition-tweeter-jailed-emir-insult
Criticising the emir is illegal in Kuwait and is considered to be an offence against state security.
Profile Information
Member since: Tue Jan 13, 2009, 01:46 PMNumber of posts: 952
