En Iraq explota otra guerra, esta vez entre sunnitas y chiitas, mientras los kurdos, como siempre quedan en el medio. Y para condimento, los chiitas iraquíes tendrían el apoyo táctico del gobierno iraní.
Let the fight

El ministro iraní de Inteligencia, Heydar Moslehí (...) argumenta que su país posee "información fidedigna" de que "murió hace tiempo de una enfermedad".
La Vanguardia (España)

Iran Tests Iraqi Resolve at the Border
ALI RASH, Iraq — This remote village high in the rugged mountains along the border with Iran has been deserted, its people having fled Iranian air and artillery bombardments with everything they could carry and whatever livestock that could be coaxed down the steep mountain trails.
Now the hundreds of Kurds who left Ali Rash and other mountain villages are living in sweltering refugee camp tents. They are at the center of questions about whether Iraq is willing or able to defend its borders with Iran — which has repeatedly breached the frontier in recent months.
The attacks on Ali Rash and at least a dozen other Kurdish villages have continued for more than a month and have included a foray by Iranian tanks one mile into Iraqi territory. But they have elicited only a tepid protest from Iraq’s government, including the release of a statement pleading with neighboring countries to honor its borders.
The New York Times



Irán frente a la condena de la ONU: "Vamos a resistir"
El presidente Ahmadineyad afirmó que el endurecimiento de las potencias "no vale un céntimo"; Lula criticó el uso de la fuerza y la falta de diálogo dentro del Consejo de Seguridad
La Nación



Unas 30 mujeres, todas ellas madres o familiares de personas muertas durante la cruenta represión de las protestas postelectorales, han sido detenidas en plena concentración silenciosa contra el presidente Ahmadineyad, informó la página web "Jaras".
Libertad Digital (España)
A small number of Iranian troops entered Iraq, where they took control of an oil well and raised the Iranian flag Dec. 18. The Iranian-Iraqi border in this region is poorly defined and is contested, with the Iranians claiming this well is in Iranian territory not returned after the Iran-Iraq War. Such incidents have occurred in the past. Given that there were no casualties this time, it therefore would be easy to dismiss this incident, even though at about the same time an Iranian official claimed that Iraq owes Iran about $1 trillion in reparations for starting the Iran-Iraq War.
But what would be fairly trivial at another time and place is not trivial now.
STRATFOR
En lo que podría terminar siendo una de las mayores incautaciones antiterroristas en la historia de Estados Unidos, los fiscales presentaron una demanda civil en una corte federal en busca de la incautación de más de 500 millones de dólares en activos de la Fundación Alavi, sin fines de lucro, y una presunta compañía fachada.
Los activos incluyen cuentas bancarias; centros islámicos en la ciudad de Nueva York, Maryland, California y Houston; más de 40 hectáreas (100 acres) en Virginia; y una torre de oficinas de 36 pisos en Nueva York.
El incautar las propiedades sería un fuerte golpe contra Irán, al que el gobierno estadounidense ha acusado de financiar el terrorismo y de buscar el desarrollo de una bomba atómica.
Una llamada telefónica y un correo electrónico a la misión iraní en las Naciones Unidas para solicitar comentarios al respecto no fueron respondidos de inmediato. Tampoco fue respondida una llamada realizada a la Fundación Alavi.
Es extremadamente infrecuente que las autoridades de seguridad estadounidenses incauten un templo de oración, una medida que podría ser cuestionada por el derecho a la religión consagrado en la Primera Enmienda de la Constitución de Estados Unidos.
La medida contra las mezquitas musulmanes chiíes seguramente tensará las relaciones entre el gobierno de Estados Unidos y la comunidad musulmana estadounidense, cuyos integrantes temen represalias luego que ocurriera un tiroteo en Fort Hood la semana pasada, que fue achacado a un mayor musulmán estadounidense.
Las mezquitas y el rascacielos permanecerán abiertos mientras el caso de incautación avanza en las cortes en lo que podría ser un proceso largo.
...
La Yihad en Eurabia

A British nuclear expert who fell from the 17th floor of a United Nations building did not commit suicide and may have been hurled to his death, says a doctor who carried out a second post-mortem examination.
Timothy Hampton, 47, a scientist involved in monitoring nuclear activity, was found dead last week at the bottom of a stairwell in Vienna.
An initial autopsy concluded that there were “no suspicious circumstances”. But it is understood that Mr Hampton’s widow Olena Gryshcuk and her family were deeply unhappy with that verdict.
Now a doctor who undertook a second post-mortem examination on behalf of the family believes she has found evidence that Mr Hampton did not die by his own hands.
Professor Kathrin Yen, of the Ludwig Institute in Graz, Austria, which specialises in traumatology research, told the Mail on Sunday she had more tests to complete on Mr Hampton, who had a three-year-old son with Ms Gryshcuk.
But she said one possible theory was that Mr Hampton was carried to the 17th floor from his workplace on the sixth floor and thrown to his death.
(...)
He had been working for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) at the UN building and the Austrian Times has been told that Mr Hampton may have been involved in talks discussing nuclear testing in Iran. The UN has strongly denied the claims, although Mr Hampton’s title – processing engineer – meant he was “part of the team maintaining and operating the International Data Centre Division application software to generate and distribute data products and services to CTBTOs 182 Member States”.
This meant he was responsible for monitoring a vast array of technical data from hundreds of monitoring stations around the world in the hope of discovering any illegal nuclear activity – including Iran. In fact although CTBTO officials were reluctant to admit it, of the 300 plus monitoring stations set up globally there are at least two in the geographical area of Iran sending data back to Vienna.
Vlad Tepes


Their gesture attracted worldwide comment and drew the attention of football fans to Iran's political turmoil. Now the country's authorities have taken revenge by imposing life bans on players who sported green wristbands in a recent World Cup match in protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.(The Guardian)
According to the pro-government newspaper Iran, four players – Ali Karimi, 31, Mehdi Mahdavikia, 32, Hosein Ka'abi, 24 and Vahid Hashemian, 32 – have been "retired" from the sport after their gesture in last Wednesday's match against South Korea in Seoul.