March 23rd, 2012 by Oman Views

Russian Anti-Terror Troops Arrive in Syria

A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was “a bomb” certain to have serious repercussions.

Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad’s strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government’s violent crackdown on the country’s uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council’s attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war.

Now the Russian Black Sea fleet’s Iman tanker has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-terror squad from the Russian Marines aboard according to the Interfax news agency. The Assad government has insisted it is fighting a terrorist insurgency.

The Iman replaced another Russian ship “which had been sent to Syria for demonstrating (sic) the Russian presence in the turbulent region and possible evaluation of Russian citizens,” the Black Sea Fleet told Interfax.

RIA Novosti, a news outlet with strong ties to the Kremlin, trumpeted the news in a banner headline that appeared only on its Arabic language website. The Russian embassy to the US and to the UN had no comment, saying they have “no particular information on” the arrival of a Russian anti-terrorism squad to Syria.

Moscow has long enjoyed a cozy relationship with the Assad regime, to which it sells billions of dollars of weapons. In return Russia has maintained a Navy base at Tartus, which gives it access to the Mediterranean.

Click here to continue

By KIRIT RADIA and RYM MOMTAZ | ABC News

Let Your LOVE Shines, Give Her A Diamond

Click to the pioneering personals site that revolutionized online dating

sultanate oman

March 23rd, 2012 by Oman Views

Sexy photo in hacked Assad emails causes comment

LONDON (Reuters) – A provocative photograph of a near-naked young woman appears among e-mails apparently sent to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and hacked by opposition activists who shared them with Western media.

On Saturday, London’s Daily Telegraph published an edited version of the photograph, which has been seen by Reuters among the original e-mails. It speculated on the state of his 11-year marriage to British-born Asma al-Assad, who has stood by her husband during a year of protests that come close to civil war.

The cache of some 3,000 e-mails dated for about nine months until early February has not been repudiated by the Assads or the small circle of aides and contacts who sent them since details were first published by Britain’s Guardian on Thursday.

There is no way to be certain, however, that all the content is genuine, nor to be sure that Assad’s enemies, at home and abroad, are not seeking to use material to their advantage.

E-mails seen by Reuters indicate a generally affectionate and light-hearted tone between Syria’s first couple and among the mostly English-speaking advisers sending messages to these private e-mail accounts. Some comments sent by female aides to the president gush with admiration: “miss uuu” writes one.

“So cute,” says another young woman when sending the 46-year-old Assad a photograph showing him in his younger days.

Click here to continue

By Alastair Macdonald | Reuters

Let Your LOVE Shines, Give Her A Diamond

Click to the pioneering personals site that revolutionized online dating

sultanate oman

March 22nd, 2012 by Oman Views

Heavy fighting in Syrian capital: residents

AMMAN (Reuters) – A heavy firefight broke out on Monday between Free Syrian Army rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in a main district of the Syrian capital Damascus that is home to several security installations, witnesses said.

They said the sound of heavy machinegun fire and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) echoed through the heavily guarded al-Mezze district. There was no immediate word on casualties but residents said by telephone the fighting was intense.

“There is fighting near Hamada supermarket and the sound of explosions there and elsewhere in the neighborhood. Security police have blocked several side streets and the street lighting has been cut off,” a housewife who lives in the area said.

The fighting in the capital came after a car bomb ripped through a residential area of Syria’s second city Aleppo on Sunday, and as activists reported heavy clashes across the country between state forces and rebels fighting to overthrow Assad.

As hundreds gathered on Sunday in Damascus to mourn victims of car bombings the previous day, activists said security forces beat and arrested people at a march of more than 200 when protesters began shouting “the people want to topple the regime”.

Among those arrested and beaten was Mohammed Sayyed Rassas, a leader of the National Coordinating Body for Democratic Change (NCB), an opposition group which had visited China and Russia in attempts to promote dialogue between Assad and the opposition.

Most opposition groups have rejected the NCB over its insistence on non-violence and its stance against foreign intervention.

Click here to continue

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis | Reuters

Let Your LOVE Shines, Give Her A Diamond

Click to the pioneering personals site that revolutionized online dating

sultanate oman