By David W. Freeman, Associated Press, September 6, 2011
Is mental illness more common in Europe than in other parts of the world? Reliable statistics aren't readily available, but mental health experts expressed surprise over new research showing that 38 percent of the European population, or 165 million people, have a mental or neurological disorder.
White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan says al-Qaida is on a “on a steady slide” after the death of al-Qaida’s latest second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, in Pakistan.
Brennan told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it’s a “huge blow” in the first official White House comment since Rahman’s reported killing by CIA drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal areas last week.....
....Friday's car bombing killed 23 people and wounded more than 80. Boko Haram, which aims to impose a strict version of Islamic law in Nigeria, claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a brief telephone interview arranged by an intermediary, Boko Haram spokesman Abul Qaqa said a 27-year-old Nigerian named Mohammed Abul Barra drove the explosives-packed Honda Accord into the U.N. building.
Guardian denies allegation in WikiLeaks statement that journalist disclosed passwords to archive
A security breach has led to the Wikileaks archive of 251,000 secret US diplomatic cables being made available online, without redaction to protect sources....
Selected cables have been published without sensitive information that could lead to the identification of informants or other at-risk individuals....
Turkish warplanes bombed suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq's rugged mountains for a second consecutive night Thursday after an ambush on a southeastern Turkey highway killed eight soldiers and a government-employed guard, the semi-official Anatolian News Agency reported.
In the second operation, F-16s took off Thursday night from Diyarbakir and bombed targets in northern Iraq, returning three hours later, the agency said, citing ministry sources.
By Matt Bradley, Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2011
CAIRO—The Egyptian military intervened Wednesday afternoon to quell the biggest riots since the country's former president fell in February, as new uprisings stymie the country's newly reformed civilian police force and threaten to delay the country's transition to democratic rule.
As many as 5,000 protesters, many of them family members of those killed in Egypt's February uprising, overwhelmed the country's riot police Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning....
By Joshua E. Keating, Foreignpolicy.com, June 10, 2011
....The law is vague. The long-standing reluctance of militaries to engage in the targeted killing of heads of state is based more on custom than codified regulation. (It's not really in the interest of presidents and prime ministers for that sort of thing to become common practice.)
The closest thing in international law to a ban on assassination is the 1907 Hague Convention on the laws of war....
The blurring of CIA and military By David Ignatius, Washington Post, June 1, 2011 One consequence of the early “war on terror” years was that the lines between CIA and military activities got blurred. ...The Obama administration is finishing an effort to redraw those lines more carefully....
By Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, June 11/12, 2011
NAIROBI, Kenya — Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Al Qaeda’s leader in East Africa and the mastermind of the American Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, was killed in a late-night shootout at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, Somali and American officials said Saturday.....
By Steve Schaefer, Exile on Wall Street blog @ forbes.com, June 10, 2011
The Federal Reserve is seeking comment on a plan to stress test many U.S. banks on an annual basis, according to a press release from the central bank Friday. Aside from assessing how companies are managing risk, the plan would also Wall Street check with regulators before returning capital to shareholders.
By Nathan Olivarez-Giles, Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2011
Spanish police on Friday reportedly arrested three alleged members of the hacker and activist group Anonymous on suspicion of taking part in online attacks against Sony's PlayStation network, as well as banks, businesses and government websites.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries has failed to reach a consensus over production levels, after Saudi Arabia pushed for an increase in supply at a meeting in Vienna, the Austrian capital.
Saudi Arabian oil officials, backed by Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), pressed other nations at the meeting on Wednesday for an increase of up to 1.5m barrels a day and to cut prices down to $80 per barrel, in an attempt to calm market nerves.
