A bomb kaboom in the heart of Damascus
...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
further underscored the sense of urgency building around the international gathering, which is being convened by U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...in an effort to salvage the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
' faltering diplomacy in Syria.
The dispatch of Turkish reinforcements came five days after Syria's attack on a Turkish air force F-4 jet sent tensions soaring between the estranged neighbors, whose once close friendship had already been ruptured by differences over a 15- month-old uprising against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
Turkey's National Security Council -- made up of the president, top ministers and military generals -- stepped up the pressure on Syria with a sternly worded warning that Turkey does not intend to let the downing of the jet pass without response.
"Turkey will act with determination to use all its rights within the international law against this hostile act," said the statement, issued after a five-hour meeting.