ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Tehran, Iran - A 6.1 magnitude earthquake killed 32 and injured hundreds more in a sparsely populated area in southern Iran on Tuesday, Iranian officials said. Authorities said it did not damage a nuclear plant in the region. The report said the earthquake struck the town of Kaki some 96 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Bushehr, a town on the Persian Gulf that is home of Iran's first nuclear power plant, built with Russian help. “No damage was done to Bushehr power plant,” Bushehr provincial governor Fereidoun Hasanvand told state TV. He said 32 people died and 850 were injured, including 100 who were hospitalized. Water and electricity were cut to many residents, said Ebrahim Darvishi, governor of the worst-hit district Shonbeh. Shahpour Rostami, the deputy governor of Bushehr province, told state TV that rescue teams have been deployed to Shonbeh. Three helicopters were sent to survey the damaged area before sunset, said Mohammad Mozaffar, the head of Iran's Red Crescent re

Seoul - South Korea raised its military watch alert to “vital threat” on Wednesday before an expected North Korean missile launch, as United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon warned the Korean peninsula may be slipping out of control. The North last week, told foreign diplomats in Pyongyang they had until April 10 to consider evacuation, fuelling speculation a launch was planned between Wednesday and the April 15 birthday celebrations for late founder Kim Il-Sung. South Korean intelligence says the North has prepared two mid-range missiles for imminent launch from its east coast, despite warnings from ally China to avoid provocative moves at a time of soaring military tensions. South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se told Parliament the launch could take place “anytime from now on” and warned Pyongyang it could trigger a fresh round of UN sanctions. On Tuesday, the North reiterated a warning that the peninsula was headed for “thermo-nuclear” war and advised foreigners to consider leaving So

According to local authorities in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan, at least 10 people were killed or injured following a roadside improvised explosive device blast in this province. The officials further added, the incident took place on Tuesday in Marjah district, killing at least five people and injuring five others. No group has so far claimed responsibility behind the incident. Local authorities blame Taliban group for the incident as the Taliban fighters frequently use improvised explosive device to target Afghan and coalition security forces which normally leads to civilian casualties. This comes as at least 9 civilians were killed and over 20 others were injured following a roadside bomb blast in Wardak province on Monday. The United Nations office in Afghanistan also expressed concerns regarding civilians deaths in Afghanistan which shows an increase of during the first three months of 2013 as compared to the similar period last year.

By Stephen Lendman April 09, 2013 " - It shouldn't surprise. It's already policy. Market analyst Graham Summers explained . Depositor theft is coming. Europe is banker occupied territory. So is America. Finance is a new form of warfare. It's more powerful than standing armies. Banking giants run things. Money power has final say. Economies are strip-mined for profit. Communities are laid waste. Ordinary people are impoverished. Even their bank accounts aren't safe. Cypriot officials agreed to tax them. Canada, New Zealand, and Euroland member states plan doing the same thing. So does America. Officially they're called "bail-ins." It's code language for grand theft. Instead of breaking up, nationalizing, or closing down failed banks, depositor funds will keep them operating. Money printing madness can't go on forever. Regulators, like FDIC, haven't enough money to insure depositors. It's simple mathematical logic. Ordinary people and ri

By Stansfield Smith April 09, 2013  - I recently returned from a late March trip to North Korea [Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, DPRK], along with 45 others, through Koryo Tours. On that tour I had the opportunity to discuss with the Korean tour guides their views on the current situation. I only recall the DPRK view mentioned here once in the corporate media, when Dennis Rodman returned with a message from new President Kim Jong. The message was “I don’t want war, call me.” Nobel Peace Prize winning President Obama refused to accept it, evidently preferring an escalating threat of a regional nuclear war to talking. I asked my Korean tours guides to be interviewed so I could present their views to US people. Has the DPRK made proposals for peaceful national reunification? Yes, now we have options: the historic option of a federal republic, and the recent option. In our history we proposed three principles for reunification: that the North and South unite the country independentl

One person was killed and more than 80 wounded in clashes at the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in central Cairo on Sunday after a funeral service for four Egyptian Christians killed in sectarian violence with Muslims, state media said. Christian-Muslim confrontations have increased in Muslim-majority Egypt since the overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 gave freer rein to hard line Islamists repressed under his autocratic rule. The state news agency MENA said 84 people had been injured in several hours of fighting after a ceremony at the cathedral, headquarters of the Coptic church, which was showered with stones, petrol bombs and bird-shot. The man killed on Sunday was identified by MENA as 30-year-old Mahrous Hana Tadros, a Christian name. Police fired tear gas to try to disperse the crowds but clashes continued late into the evening. MENA said 11 policemen were among the wounded. Violence also broke out near a Coptic church in El Khusus north of Cairo, where four Christians and o

The Kaesong Industrial Complex, about six miles inside North Korean territory, is the last major symbol of cooperation between Seoul and Pyongyang, and a key source of foreign currency for the latter. North Korea took the unprecedented step of closing the Kaesong joint industrial complex on Monday as the crisis on the peninsula escalated further amid claims that a fourth nuclear test was imminent. Kim Yang Gon, a senior North Korean official, blamed "military warmongers" for the decision to "temporarily suspend the operations in the zone and examine the issue of whether [to] allow its existence or close it". North Korea's enemies had transformed the complex into a "hotbed of confrontation", claimed Mr Kim, who is the secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. "How the situation will develop in the days ahead will entirely depend on the attitude of the South Korean authorities." Pyongyang's unprecedent

By Alex Lantier April 08, 2013  Over the weekend, US officials continued to threaten North Korea with war, demanding that China cut off its support to the regime in Pyongyang. This comes after weeks of US threats aimed at Pyongyang’s nuclear program, during which Washington flew nuclear-capable bombers to Korea to demonstrate its capacity to wage nuclear war against the North. Last week, US officials revealed that these moves were part of a laid-out “playbook” of US escalations—aimed to terrorize North Korea’s government and population. General Walter Sharp, the former US military commander in South Korea, told America’s National Public Radio (NPR): “there’s been a lot of effort over the past two and a half years now to build this counter-provocation plan. Because that’s a hard balance of a strong response: don’t escalate, but be prepared to go to war.” Sharp said that US and South Korean forces would rapidly respond to any firing along the border by the North Korean and prepare for an