Lebanon launched a manhunt on Tuesday for an Islamist detainee being held on terror charges who escaped from the country's largest prison in a pre-dawn jail break. "Taha Ahmad Haji Sleiman, who has dual Syrian and Palestinian nationality, escaped this morning from Rumieh prison," an army spokesman said.
Troops backed by helicopters are searching for the fugitive, who is charged with belonging to a "terrorist network," the al-Qaeda inspired Fatah al-Islam militia which fought deadly battles with the Lebanese army in 2007. Seven other inmates also belonging to Fatah al-Islam attempted to break out with him but were recaptured, the army spokesman said.
Hajj Suleiman was being held on terrorism charges, including bombings. Prison security officers arrested the seven inmates who helped him flee.
Fatah al-Islam fought the Lebanese army in a 15-week battle at a Palestinian refugee camp in 2007. More than 440 people, including 170 soldiers, were killed before the armed group was routed at Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon. Some of its members were blamed for later bombings and attacks on army targets.
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[Iran Press TV Latest] After court confessions in post-vote Iran stirred up controversy, a senior official with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says those urging the release of protesters seek to conceal the truth behind the recent turmoil.
"Where's that Reset button!"
Brigadier General Yadollah Javani, head of the IRGC's political bureau, said the authorities should make every effort to resolve the recent ambiguities in the country.
Amid the turmoil following the controversial June 12 presidential election, Iranian authorities escalated their confrontation with the country's opposition.
Nearly 200 political activists and protestors were put on trial on charges of conspiring with foreign powers to stage a "velvet coup d'etat" using terrorism, subversion and a mass campaign to undermine the disputed vote.
The opposition and their supporters have condemned the trials as a "sham", arguing that the detainees' confessions lack credibility as they may have been forced.
Many insiders have criticized the government for its handling of the controversy over the election, saying the release of post-vote detainees is the way forward to settling the ongoing dispute.
Among them is influential cleric Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who in a Friday prayer sermon said, "It is not necessary that in this situation people be jailed. Let them join their families."
The IRGC official on Monday questioned the motive behind making such comments by a Friday prayer leader.
"The question is if they had been released how Mr. [Mohammad-Ali] Abatahi would have confessed that the term 'fraud' was the code word for rioting ... and [how] Atrianfar [would have] said that 'we sought to change the system'," Brig. Gen. Javani said.
The fourth hearing of the post-vote trials is scheduled for August 25.
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[Bangla Daily Star] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election plunged the nation into its worst crisis since the Islamic revolution, unveils his cabinet today facing a dogged opposition and challenges from within his own hardline support base.
Ahmadinejad already announced six names on Sunday and said he planned to have at least three women ministers in his 21-member government, which would be a first in the 30-year existence of the Islamic republic.
But some of his proposed appointments have already run into objections from MPs, who have complained that Ahmadinejad needs to consult them more and ensure his ministers have the right experience and credentials.
"From the six people named, we can assume the cabinet will not have the calibre required for an efficient government and this is not a good sign," influential conservative MP Ahmad Tavakoli was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
"In this list there are people who have never recorded a day of executive work," he charged.
Ahmadinejad's position has already been shaken by the massive opposition protests over his June re-election and a dispute with some hardliners over his political choices which has exposed rifts among the ruling elite.
During his first tenure, he also came under fire for frequently reshuffling the cabinet, sacking 10 ministers and two central bank chiefs and retaining inexperienced ministers.
His new four-year term is also expected to see Iran remain on a collision course with the West, particularly over its nuclear drive and its crackdown against the opposition in the post-election tumult.
Among the top jobs, Ahmadinejad said he will name Heydar Moslehi, a former representative of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the volunteer Basij militia, as intelligence minister.
Manouchehr Mottaki is expected to stay at the foreign ministry, the Mehr news agency reported, quoting "unnamed informed sources."
Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, a former Revolutionary Guard commander, will move to the defence minister in a swap with Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, it said.
Ahmadinejad on Sunday said the main criteria for his new team were "morality and commitment, efficiency as well as convergence and spirit of cooperation."
He has pledged that his new government will work to improve the economy, promote social justice and crack down on corruption.
His line-up will be put to a confidence vote before the 290-member parliament on August 30, but it may not be smooth sailing.
Among the women, his choice of Fatemeh Ajorlou for welfare and social security is likely to stir controversy because of her alleged support for Abbas Palizdar, who was jailed for accusing several senior clerics, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and their children of corruption.
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A top Iranian nuclear official has denied saying that Tehran was ready to hold talks with the West on its atomic drive "without preconditions," state television reported on Tuesday.
"No comments or interview with TV networks have been made on nuclear talks or conditions," the television quoted Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as saying.
The television had earlier quoted Soltanieh as saying: "Negotiations without preconditions is Iran's main stance on the nuclear issue."
Instead, Soltanieh said he had referred to a letter he sent to the IAEA calling for the U.N. nuclear watchdog's September meeting to approve an initiative to prohibit armed attacks against nuclear facilities around the world.
"The only issue that was raised was to ban threats and attacks on the world's nuclear installations, because it is an international issue," he said, the television reported.
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami and opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi will join the leadership of a new party to be formed by Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
Last week, defeated presidential candidate Mousavi announced that he was working on forging a new party -- named the Green Path of Hope Association -- to pursue his political goals.
Alireza Beheshti, a senior aide to Mousavi, said on Tuesday that Khatami and Karroubi would be members of the party's central council, ILNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
"The central council of the Green Path of Hope will be a small group of five to six, including Mr. Khatami and Mr. Karroubi," Beheshti said.
He added that the party would also include a 'counseling board consisting of 30 to 40 members' who are to be chosen over time; as well as 'monitoring committees'.
After the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 vote, both Mousavi and Karroubi rejected the results as 'fraudulent'. Their allegations of vote-rigging, however, were dismissed by Iran's electoral watchdog, the Guardian Council.
Mousavi has vowed his new party will continue to 'defend the rights and votes of citizens that were crushed in the election'.
Most of the Principlist figures have demanded that Mousavi and other senior opposition figures be barred from the political arena, while others have reacted to Mousavi's plans with more caution.
Iran' Vice Parliament Speaker, Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, said on Tuesday that Mousavi's new party would be welcome if it is formed 'within the framework of the law', ILNA reported.
"The legal aspects of the movement [the Green Path of Hope Association] should be clearer," the senior Principlist figure added.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Lebanon launched a manhunt on Tuesday for an Islamist detainee being held on terror charges who escaped from the country's largest prison in a pre-dawn jail break. "Taha Ahmad Haji Sleiman, who has dual Syrian and Palestinian nationality, escaped this morning from Rumieh prison," an army spokesman said. 
