Headlines for a day

There are a lot of interesting stories in the news today; I'll try to keep it brief:

IAF strikes Gaza following rocket fire at western Negev

An Israel Air Force helicopter gunship attacked a smuggling tunnel in the central Gaza Strip overnight Tuesday.

The strike was in response to earlier rocket and mortar fire at the Eshkol regional council, the IDF added.
The tunnel was used by terrorists to enter Israeli territory and carry out terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, according to the IDF Spokesman.

IAF Strikes Gaza Tunnel After Mortar And Qassam Land In Israel

The Israel Defense Forces said that the tunnel was being used by terror groups in the Strip to infiltrate Israel and to carry out terror attacks against soldiers and Israeli citizens. The IDF reiterated that they hold Hamas responsible for keeping the quiet in Gaza.

The next series of articles comes under the category of "What the heck?"

French, Russian, UK sailors in Norfolk for training

Ships from Russia, France and the United Kingdom arrived Monday to participate in a two-week exercise with the U.S. Navy off the coast of Virginia.

FRUKUS 2011 – named for the participating countries – is an exercise to improve maritime security through open dialogue and increased training between the participating navies, a news release from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman said.

Marines Conduct 5-State Air, Land Exercise

North Carolina's 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing is taking part in a major exercise over a five-state area that will result in increased air and ground activity over the coming week.

Marine Corps spokesman Staff Sgt. Roman Yurek says residents near military sites in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Florida may notice increased landings and takeoffs amid other activity.
Yurek says more than 40 aircraft from seven military squadrons will take part, assisted by thousands of Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force men and women.

Warnings grow over the future of food prices

For the vast majority of the world’s population eating is not a problem. But for some, around 15 percent, it is a daily struggle. And it gets worse during periods of high food prices. Commodities, staple food, have been soaring in value for months; the UN Food Price Index is at an all-time high. Experts are sounding the alarm.

It is a difficult situation that affects everyone from America to Asia, through Europe and Africa but, almost inevitably, those worst affected are the poorest. In affluent countries where people spend just a small percentage of their income on food, the price rises have not gone unnoticed but are not a cause for panic. However the world’s poorer populations, which can spend more than half their household income on putting food on the table, are feeling the pinch much more acutely.

Major Earthquake Hits Northern Chile

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit northern Chile Monday, shaking a sparsely populated region without inflicting casualties or damage to infrastructure.

Earthquakes Hit India, Chile, Vanuatu and Myanmar

North Dakota's fourth largest city faces flood evacuations

Officials ordered the evacuation of more than a quarter of the residents of North Dakota's fourth largest city of Minot, where massive flooding is expected to overwhelm barriers, authorities said on Tuesday.

About 12,000 residents were ordered to be out of Minot's flood threatened areas by 10 p.m. local time on Wednesday, the second evacuation for those neighborhoods this year, said Cecily Fong, the North Dakota Emergency Services department spokeswoman

Minot residents evacuate as historic rise on Souris River approaches

Flood risk prompts evacuations

Greek Streets 'Explosive' as PM Faces Confidence Vote

The new Greek government faces a vote of confidence on Tuesday night, with the outcome critical to the survival of the government, and to the disbursal of loans from the 'Troika' of the European Union (EU), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB).

Persistent protests in Athens' Syntagma Square show that the Greek people feel increasingly disenfranchised with their political system and analysts told CNBC that the growing separation between the government and the population over austerity could prove 'explosive'.

Second night of sectarian violence in Belfast

Sectarian clashes took place for a second night in Northern Ireland’s capital, with police estimating as many as 700 people being involved. In an area of east Belfast, where loyalist Protestants and Catholics are separated by ‘peace walls’, petrol bombs, missiles and fireworks were thrown at authorities.

The violence comes at the start of Northern Ireland’s marching season, a time of annual parades by Protestants, which has triggered violent protests by Catholics in the past. Despite the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which was meant to signal an end to the hostilities, tension has continued in east Belfast

Police are blaming this fighting on the Ulster Volunteer Force – one of the deadliest pro-British paramilitary groups, who claim to have decommisioned their weapons two years ago.

Libya: Italy calls for immediate halt to hostilities

Italy has called for an immediate halt to hostilities in Libya to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, in what is the first sign of a fracture in the Nato coalition.

Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, warned on Tuesday that Nato's credibility was "at risk" following the civilian casualties, and urged it to ensure it was not providing ammunition to Gaddafi's propaganda war.

"We cannot run the risk of killing civilians. This is not good at all," Frattini said at a meeting of European foreign ministers.

Senior Israeli source: Iran actively helping Syria squash demonstrations

Not only is Iran supplying equipment to the Syrian army, the source says, Iran's Revolutionary Guard also organized demonstrations against Israel on Nakba and Naksa Day.

A senior Israeli source says Iran is involved in the suppressing of the anti-regime demonstrations in Syria. Iran's Revolutionary Guard and the Al-Quds force, commanded by Gen. Qassem Suleimani, are operating throughout the country, the source says.

The source told Haaretz there is clear information on Iran's involvement in the crushing of the protests, as well as the participation of Hezbollah. Their role is not limited to shootings; Iran has also supplied equipment to the Syrian army, including sniper rifles and communications systems for disrupting the Internet in the country, the source said.

Sirens go off around Israel as security drill goes national

Sirens went off on Wednesday throughout the country, at 11 a.m. as part of a national emergency drill that began Sunday and is to last through Thursday.

The exercise, which has been dubbed Turning Point 5, involves the Home Front Command, the National Emergency Authority, national and local government and emergency services.

One drill, to test readiness for a chemical warhead attack on Rishon Letzion, will involve Assaf Harofeh Hospital, which will practice taking in hundreds of casualties. Other chemical weapons response drills will be held in Upper Nazareth, the Haifa port, Haifa, and the Ramat Hovav industrial zone in the Negev.

And below are two very interesting commentaries on topics of great interest these days:

The Muslim Brotherhood

This article presents a comprehensive review of the Muslim Brotherhood and their ultimate goals - a very good read.

The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic mass movement whose worldview is based on the belief that “Islam is the solution” and on the stated aim of establishing a world order based on Islamic religious law (a caliphate) on the ruins of Western liberalism. With extensive support networks in Arab countries and, to a lesser extent, in the West, the movement views the recent events in Egypt as a historic opportunity.

Basic Freedoms: A Relic of the Past

The following text is adapted from remarks delivered by the author in Montreal on June 20 at a pro-free-speech event organized by the group ACT Now for Canada.

For far too long, many of us in the West have taken our basic freedoms for granted. These rights include freedom of individual conscience, the right to assemble peaceably, and the right to practice our religion freely, or to have no religion at all. Perhaps most importantly of all, they include the right to voice our opinions freely and to publish them without hindrance.

Nowhere is this attack on free speech more evident than in Europe...