Headlines:

• US Navy stops anti-Muslim training targets after protests
• Syria crisis: Western meddling is Russia's main fear
• United Arab Emirates seeks to recruit 3000 Colombian soldiers
• US concerned by rise in Afghan insider attacks
• NATO supply trucks from Pakistan resume trek to Afghanistan

Details:

US Navy stops anti-Muslim training targets after protests:

Facing Muslim criticism, America's Navy has announced it will stop using cardboard targets depicting Muslim women wearing hijab and verses from Qur'an at a new training range for SEALs in Virginia Beach. "We have removed this particular target and Arabic writing in question from the range in the near term, and will explore other options for future training," Lt. David Lloyd, a spokesman for Naval Special Warfare Group 2, told the Virginian Pilot. The target in question is a picture of the cardboard target, which shows a woman in a headscarf holding a pistol. Published in The Virginian-Pilot on Tuesday, the image shows verses of the Qur'an hanging on the wall behind the woman, which also generated criticism from the group. The Navy announcement came hours after the Council on American-Islamic Relations asked the Pentagon to remove the target, referred to as a "kill house." Capt. Tim Szymanski, the commodore of Naval Special Warfare Group 2, agreed, saying SEALs must differentiate in a split second between civilian bystanders and potential enemies. He also noted other cardboard cut-outs on the range would show people holding animals, not weapons.

Syria crisis: Western meddling is Russia's main fear

Russia's opposition to regime change under western pressure lies at heart of impasse over Syria.For 16 months Russia has blocked UN action on Syria, upheld arms sales with the regime, and lashed out at any suggestion that a solution to end the bloodshed might include the departure of Bashar al-Assad. The initial line was that Russia was acting on national interest, holding on to its last big ally in the Middle East, a significant weapons client and host to its only naval base outside the former Soviet Union. More than one year and an estimated 15,000 deaths later Russia's true calculations are starting to emerge. While the Kremlin remains largely silent about its intentions, closely connected analysts have begun to speak out. Their conclusions - that Russia objects to a western-led world order and refuses to endorse a solution that would further the international community's case for removing unpopular dictators - has overturned conventional thinking on Russia's approach. Ruslan Aliyev, a Middle east expert at the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said: "We tried to analyse: does Russia really support Syria because it needs the base at Tartus and because it's a valued arms customer? We came to the conclusion that no, that is not what's driving foreign policy." The consultancy found that about 5% of Russia's arms deliveries, which stood at £8.4bn last year, head for Syria. The base at Tartus, revealed in recent photographs and video published in the Russian media, is little more than a small, rusted, port mainly used for doing repairs. "In Russia, the elite relates very negatively to any attempt at western meddling," Aliyev said. "There's a fear that if there's a new approach to the international system, where the west and UN can change the government of whatever countries they wish the whole world will turn to chaos. Dmitry Trenin, an analyst, recently wrote in an essay for the Carnegie centre, whose Moscow office he heads, that barring a huge shift in the conflict's internal dynamics, Russia was unlikely to change its position. He said: "To Moscow, Syria is not primarily about Middle Eastern geopolitics, cold war-era alliances, arms sales - or even special interests - Syria, much like Libya, Iraq or Yugoslavia previously, is primarily about the world order. It's about who decides. "Not only do the Russians reject outside military intervention without a security council mandate; they reject the concept of regime change under foreign pressure. "This support for non-intervention is unsurprising given that all regimes, excepting established democracies, could be theoretically considered as lacking legitimacy."

United Arab Emirates seeks to recruit 3000 Colombian soldiers:

The United Arab Emirates is seeking to enlist 3,000 Colombian soldiers in the oil-rich Arab country's armed forces, weekly Semana reported Sunday. According to the weekly, 842 Colombian soldiers and retired soldiers have already joined the UAE army which is paying salaries up to ten times what the Colombian state pays the members of its armed forces. The transfer of soldiers to the foreign army is causing unease among Colombia's military commanders because the military fears the higher salaries abroad are draining the army of its best men and women. "They have recruited soldiers with a lot of combat experience, valuable men with years of service in which the Army invested a lot in terms of training," an anonymous general told Semana. "Without a doubt, this is a loss for the army, but there isn't much we can do because it is by no means illegal," the military official added. According to the weekly, the Colombians are making in between $2,800 and $18,000 in the UAE depending on the rank. In Colombia, a soldier earns $530 a month on average. The New York Times reported in May 2011 that the UAE hired Colombian soldiers as mercenaries through a company led by Erik Prince, the founder of controversial private security company Blackwater. According to a Colombian former colonel -- now in charge of recruiting compatriots for the UAE Army -- the 800 Colombians currently active in the Arab peninsula are not part of a mercenary army, but hired directly by the armed forces. "What is happening now is different than before. We are no mercenaries. The contract of the people who travel is directly with the government of the [United] Arab Emirates," the anonymous colonel said. The Colombian ex-official said the UAE are investing in their military defense because the government "noticed that several threats have made them vulnerable." According to the former colonel, the Colombians' responsibilities "range from urban defense against terrorist attacks to the control of civil uprisings and even be prepared for a possible border conflict with Iran." The United Arab Emirates is one of the few countries in the Middle East that has not been affected by the "Arab spring," a wave of revolutionary social unrest that forced four rulers in the region from power.

US concerned by rise in Afghan insider attacks:

The Pentagon says an attack in eastern Afghanistan that wounded several American soldiers appears to have been perpetrated by an Afghan soldier. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. John Kirby, said Thursday that the attacker fled the scene and is still at large. Kirby said the wounded are in stable condition at a medical facility. He didn't disclose their numbers or nationality, but other officials said the five shot were all Americans. The attack Tuesday was the 19th so far this year in which an Afghan soldier or policeman has turned his weapon on members of the international military coalition. Kirby said a total of 26 coalition members have been killed in those attacks, including 13 Americans. Kirby said U.S. officials are deeply concerned by this year's increase in insider attacks.

NATO supply trucks from Pakistan resume trek to Afghanistan:

After a hiatus of seven months, the first trucks carrying supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan crossed the southwestern border post at Chaman on Thursday, local officials said. Pakistan agreed to reopen NATO supply routes on Tuesday after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a telephone call to Pakistan's foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, and said she was sorry for the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers who were killed in an American airstrike along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in November. By noon on Thursday, border officials had allowed three trucks to cross into Afghanistan, according to news reports that quoted Pakistani customs officials. Thousands of containers have piled up at the southern port city of Karachi since NATO supply routes through Pakistan were shut down in the aftermath of the airstrike. The closing became a major sore point between Pakistan and United States, which have a history of mutual mistrust and acrimony despite being partners for more than a decade in the effort to curb terrorism and militancy. Pakistanis have been particularly incensed since a shooting in Lahore in January 2011 that involved a C.I.A. employee. Additionally, the American operation that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011 was taken as an affront to Pakistan's sovereignty.

Having lost a seven-month long public opinion war against Pakistan's armed forces to re-open the NATO supply line, which was closed after America slaughtered 24 Muslim soldiers in Salala military check post, America was forced to intervene to save the face of its agents.

Muslims are the target in the so called war on terror because they possess a real ideological solution capable of liberating humanity in the whole world. Hizb-ut Tahrir / East Africa held a demonstration in Mombasa old town outside Taqwa mosque on 290612 after jum'ah prayers to protest the passage of terrorism prevention bill in Kenya..

Headlines:

• Collapse of Euro a very likely scenario
• Turkey sends anti-aircraft guns to Syria border
• Egypt to get Coptic Christian, female Vice President
• Our intention is to invest and endure in Afghanistan: India
• Pakistani public opinion ever more critical of US and India

Details:

Collapse of Euro a very likely scenario:

According to Speigel investment experts at Deutsche Bank now feel that a collapse of the common currency is "a very likely scenario." German companies are preparing themselves for the possibility that their business contacts in Madrid and Barcelona could soon be paying with pesetas again. And in Italy, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is thinking of running a new election campaign, possibly this year, on a return-to-the-lira platform. Nothing seems impossible anymore, not even a scenario in which all members of the currency zone dust off their old coins and bills -- bidding farewell to the euro, and instead welcoming back the guilder, deutsche mark and drachma. It would be a dream for nationalist politicians, and a nightmare for the economy. Everything that has grown together in two decades of euro history would have to be painstakingly torn apart. Millions of contracts, business relationships and partnerships would have to be reassessed, while thousands of companies would need protection from bankruptcy. All of Europe would plunge into a deep recession. Governments, which would be forced to borrow additional billions to meet their needs, would face the choice between two unattractive options: either to drastically increase taxes or to impose significant financial burdens on their citizens in the form of higher inflation. Indeed, the European leaders seeking to save the euro are in a race against the clock. The question is whether the economy in Southern Europe will recover before the euro rescuers' tools are exhausted, or whether it will be too late by the time the recovery arrives. It's a question of growth and the economy, but also of character. How willing are the Spaniards and Italians to accept reforms and hardship, and how willing, on the other hand, are the donor countries of the north to provide assistance and make sacrifices?

Turkey sends anti-aircraft guns to Syria border:

Turkey has begun deploying rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns along its border with Syria after last week's shooting down of a Turkish plane. Columns of military vehicles have been seen moving from military bases to the border, close to where the jet crashed. The F-4 Phantom jet went down in the sea after straying into Syrian airspace. The pilots are still missing. Turkey's decision to reinforce its border with Syria comes two days after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a change in terms of its military engagement. He told parliament that Syria was a "clear and present threat" and any "military element" that approached the Turkish border from Syria would be treated as a threat and a military target. Extra troops have been sent to the area and Turkish TV has shown pictures of a small convoy of lorries carrying anti-aircraft guns into a military base near the border town of Yayladagi. Other military vehicles have travelled to the border town of Reyhanli in Hatay province, reports say. More than 33,000 refugees have fled Syria and have crossed the border into the province.

Egypt to get Coptic Christian, female Vice President:

Mohammed Morsi's first appointments as president-elect of Egypt will be a woman and a Coptic Christian, his spokesman has said, allaying fears about the Muslim Brotherhood. Sameh el-Essawy said that although the names of the two choices had not been finalised, they would be Morsi's two vice-presidents. When the appointments go through, they will constitute the first time in Egypt's history that either a woman or a Copt has occupied such an elevated position. The Muslim Brotherhood is at pains to calm fears of what an Islamist president might mean for Egypt and the region at large. Appointing a woman and a Copt is an attempt at a show of unity, and a rule by consensus.

Our intention is to invest and endure in Afghanistan: India

India has every intention of expanding its economic presence in Afghanistan as a NATO deadline to withdraw all its combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 draws near, indicated Nirupama Rao, India's ambassador to Washington. "Our intention is to invest and endure, and that's the approach we are taking. We already have committed about $2 billion of investment in Afghanistan and we are prepared to do more," Ambassador Nirupama Rao said at a Bloomberg Government breakfast in Washington. India is hosting the Delhi Investment Summit on Afghanistan today which will draw over 65 foreign companies from around the world, including 12 companies from the US and a handful of companies from even China and Pakistan. At a meeting last week between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, the two countries agreed to hold three-way talks with Afghanistan. At the cost of making Pakistan hyperventilate the US has become very vocal in its appreciation of Indian efforts in Afghanistan. It now wants India to fill up the post-US vacuum in Afghanistan and play a bigger role in training Afghan security forces.

Pakistani public opinion ever more critical of US and India:

Following a year of tensions between their country and the United States, Pakistanis continue to hold highly unfavorable views of the U.S. and offer bleak assessments of the relationship between the two nations. Roughly three-in-four Pakistanis (74%) consider the U.S. an enemy, up from 69% last year and 64% three years ago. And President Obama is held in exceedingly low regard. Indeed, among the 15 nations surveyed in both 2008 and 2012 by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, Pakistan is the only country where ratings for Obama are no better than the ratings President George W. Bush received during his final year in office (for more, see "Global Opinion of Obama Slips, International Policies Faulted," released June 13, 2012). Moreover, roughly four-in-ten believe that American economic and military aid is actually having a negative impact on their country, while only about one-in-ten think the impact is positive. Since 2009, the Pakistani public has also become less willing to use its own military to combat extremist groups. Three years ago, 53% favored using the army to fight extremists in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but today just 32% hold this view. Only 22% of Pakistanis have a favorable view of traditional rival India, although this is actually a slight improvement from 14% last year. Moreover, when asked which is the biggest threat to their country, India, the Taliban, or al Qaeda, 59% name India. Pakistanis have consistently identified India as the top threat since the question was first asked in 2009. The percentage fearing India has increased by 11 points since then, while the percentage naming the Taliban has decreased by nine points.