Exploring the Miraculous of Dating: Connections, Growth, and Idea

[CharlesteVibra]

Nxfq Syrian troops shell Aleppo neighborhoods
Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Mustafa al-Kadhimi delivers a speech during the vote on the new government at the parliament headquarters mizuno in Baghdad, Iraq, May 7, 2020. Iraqi Parliament Media Office/Handout/REUTERS Erbilmdash; After five months of difficult negotiations, Iraq s parliament approved the intelligence chief Mustafa Al-Kadhimi as the country s new salomon zapatillas prime minister on Thursday. The long-time spy master, who appears to have U.S. backing, will now lead a government to replace the one forced to resign months ago amid widespread protests. But his biggest challenge may be convincing a fed-up public that he ll act in their interest before he acts in the interest of the U.S. or any other foreign power. This government came as a response to the social, economic and political crises our country is facing, al-Kadhimi told lawmakers Thursday. It is a government that will provide solutions, not add to the crises. Iraq is facing a coronavirus-fueled financial crisis, crumbling infrastructure battered by years of war and scant investment, ongoing political instability and the threat of a resurgent ISIS testing its beleaguered security forces. While addressing those issues, Kadhimi must also prevent his country becoming a literal battlefield in the for-now-still-rhetorical war between its neighbor and ally Iran, and its more distant but m adidas samba ore powerful ally the United States. Great to spe Eamu Iran lawmakers to grill Ahmadinejad over falling currency for 2nd time this year
A probe of the Iraq oil-for-food program faults U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Security Council and some United Nations member states for egregious lapses that allowed corruption and incompetence to cripple the operation, according to a preface of the final conclusions. The final report of the U.N.-appointed Oil-for-Food inquiry is scathing in its criticism of corruption, large-scale smuggling and grievous lack of oversight by member states and adminis stanley cups trative staff, said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk from the U.N. The preface of the report released today does not point a finger at Secretary General Kofi Annan for corruption, Falk reports, but it is critical of his administrative failings and says that Saddam Hussein was able to turn the Oil-for-Food program to his advantage. The Independent Inquiry Committee s report, to be published Wednesday, criticizes Annan and the U.N. Security Council for a failure of leadership in the over stanley uk all management of the program, according to the preface, released Tuesday on the committee s Web site. Neither the Security Council nor the Secretariat leadership was clearly in command, the preface said. When things went awry mdash; and they surely did mdash; when troublesome conflicts arose between political objectives an stanley flask d administrative effectiveness, decisions were delayed, bungled or simply shunned. The preface called for four central reforms, including the creation of a chief operating officer. The U.N. Ge

[CharlesteVibra]

Yjgr Cruise lines suspend China operations over coronavirus fears
Sarah Bajc s longtime boyfriend, Philip Wood, was among the 238 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 37 salomon gtx 0 when it disappeared en route to Beijing in March. In the wake of the AirAsia Flight 8501 tragedy, Bajc, who lives in Kuala Lumpur, provided CBS News with this note to the families of the AirAsia victims:On behalf of the families of MH370, we offer our prayers an air max 1 d deepest empathy to the families asics gel of QZ8501. Unfortunately, we know all too well the anguish and confusion you feel now, and the pain and grief that will soon begin to set in. Please ensure you protect your emotional and physical health by relying on trusted friends and family, and preserve your strength for what is surely to be a grueling few months. Beware of the ambulance chasers and frauds trying to capitalise on your tragedy, many will begin to crawl out from their crevices. And please consider channeling your agony into our broader quest for answers and changes. The worlds flying public should not accept the systemic failures, especially in the area of communication and tracking systems, evidenced in the aviation industry in 2014. May 2015 be a year filled with truth, light and peace. ponent--type-recirculation .item:nth-child 5 display: none; inline-recirc-item--id-37eced52-e9ab-4d3b-8216-aa6a24f6fe2c, right-rail-recirc-item--id-37eced52-e9ab-4d3b-8216-aa6a24f6fe2c display: none; inline-recirc Wsbi With more species at risk of extinction, study warns of biological annihilation
Loyalists demanding the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide set up flaming barricades and stoned cars Tue stanley quencher sday, and the U.S. Marines said they will begin helping Haitian police disarm rebel groups.A U.S.-backed advisory council picked Gerard Latortue, a former U.N. official and international business consultant, as Haiti s new prime minister on Tuesday, two leading opposition politicians told The Associated Press. The news was also reported on Haitian radio stations. The appointment of Gerald Latortue signals the importance of the U.N. role in restoring Haiti to democracy, said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk, and the speed of the appointment is a statement that the nation as a whole will at least try to move forward. Also, the U.S. military announced a second death caused by American Marines, who, with French Legionnaires, form the vanguard of a U.N. peacekeeping mission.Efforts to bring calm to this troubled Caribbean nation followed a bloody insurgency that ousted Aristide on Feb. 29, put rebels in control of half the country and sparked a frenzy of looting and violence. At least 130 people were killed in the rebellion; reprisal killings since Aristide s ouster h stanley cup ave left at least 300 dead. The announcement Tuesday that the Marines will begin helping dis stanley cup arm rebel groups is a tall order in a country where all sides are threatening to resume the rebellion.Marine Col. Charles Gurganus called on Haitians to tell peacekeepers who has weapons an

[CharlesteVibra]

Xyma Pope appeals to Putin to stop this spiral of violence and death in Ukraine
ESCUINTLA, Guatemala -- Six children inured by the devastating volcanic eruption in Guatemala arrived in Texas on Thursday morning to receive treatment for serious burns, as the recovery effort around the volcano was halted due to dangerous conditi adidas campus beige ons. A U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane carrying the children landed overnight in Galveston.The patients were immediately transported to Shriners Hospital for Children, which specializes in serious burns, for treatment.The devastating eruption on Sunday is blamed for almost 100 deaths, and about 200 others were still missing on Thursday, but efforts to locate and dig out the victims mizuno volleyballschuhe were put on hold du adidas originals donna e to dangerous conditions. U.S. Military plane carrying 6 children from Guatemala, all burn victims from the volcanic eruption 127755;JUST landed at Scholes Field in Galveston. Theyrsquo;ll immediately be transported to Shriners pediatric burn hospital. For latest khou11 pic.twitter/n0vo5PvOTumdash; Michelle Choi @MichelleKHOU June 7, 2018 CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez is in Escuintla, and has watched as exhausted crews continued the grim work of searching for victims on Wednesday -- but virtually all hope of finding survivors was lost.Authorities had warned of the potential for even more toxic lava flowsand put up roadblocks to keep people away. On Thursday morning, the Guatemalan government called off the search effort, saying ongoing rains combined with still-scorching ash and toxic gases on the ground made i Dltf Israel-Gaza flare-up complicates U.S. relationship with Egypt
The killers showed no mercy: They didn t spare women and children, or even a 4-day-old baby, from their machetes. Nigerian women wailed in the streets as a dump truck carried dozens of bodies past burned-out homes toward a mass grave.Rubber-gloved workers pulled ever-smaller bodies from the dump truck and tossed them into the mass grave on Monday. A crowd began singing a hymn with the refrain, Jesus said I am the way to heaven. As the grave filled, the grieving crowd sang: Jesus, show me the way. At least 200 people, most of them Christians, were slaughtered on Sunday, according to residents, aid groups and journalists. The local government gave a figure more than twice that amount, but offered no casualty list or other information to substantiate it.An Associated Press reporter counted 61 corpses, 32 of them children, being buried in the mass grave in the village of Dogo Nahawa on Monday. Other victims would be buried elsewhere. At a local morgue the bodies of children, incl stanley mugs uding a diaper-clad toddler, were tangled together. One appeared to have been scalped. Others had severed hands and feet.The horrific violence comes after sectarian killings in this region in January left more than 300 dead, most of them Muslims. Some victims were shoved into se stanley cups wer pits and communal wells. Sunday s bloodshed in three mostly Christian villages appeared to be reprisal attacks, said Red Cross spokesman Robin Waubo.The U.S. government and an international human rights stanley cup website group called T

[CharlesteVibra]

Sllu Olympic sprinter and NCAA champ Deon Lendore killed in Texas crash
The fragile retail industry is bracing for higher costs ahead of 10% U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports due to take effect Sept. 1.New tariffs could mean more store closings for the U.S. retail industry, which has already shuttered more stores so far this year than it did in all of 2018.Retailers are already cutting jobs tied to bankruptcy at the highest level in a decade, slashing almost 43,000 positions this year through July -- a 40% increase from last year. The deepening of President Donald Trump s trade war with China -- especially a threatened 10% tariff on $300 billion in consumer goods imported from Chinaslated to take effect Sept. 1-- may mean more job cuts and store closings for some already fragile retailers just as the holiday season approaches, experts say.U.S. importers, not China, would pay the new 10% tax if it goes into effect, and retailers worry that could hurt consumer spending, slowing the economy and hurting their bottom lines. Until now, previous rounds of tariffs have largely been absorbed by the companies that must pay asics the tax.The latest round of tariffs hits consumers more directly than those imposed by the White House so far. And U.S. retailers are already cutting jobs tied to bankruptcy at the highest level in a decade, slashing almost 43 samba og ,000 positions this year through adidas samba adidas July -- a 40% increase from last year, according to a report from outplacement firm Challenger Gray Christmas. Rxid AP: U.S. contractor ignored security violations at Iraq base
CBS/AP stanley tumbler CBS News The killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden could inspire new attacks against the United States -- particularly from lone wolf extremists whose plots to harm soldiers or civilians are difficult to detect in advance, federal officials warned in a memo this week.The Joint Intelligence Bulletin from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security said that bin Laden s death at the hands of an elite Navy team last week could inspire violent extremist followers to conduct retaliatory attacks in the Homeland. But the agencies stressed that there is no evidence of any specific or imminent threat and that the bulletin is essentially a reminder issued out of an abundance of caution. Read the full Joint Intelligence Bulletin on possible threats The bulletin said that bin Laden s death is likely to provide motivation for Homeland attacks -- particularly from likeminded, ideologically focused lone offenders using available small arms or simply constructed IEDs stanley cups against famil stanley cup iar, low security targets, requiring only minimal preparation. It cited the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood and the recent attack on U.S. airmen at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany as examples of such lone offender attacks. The memo served as a reminder to local law enforcement agencies to be vigilant about such situations, which are difficult to identify and disrupt since they involve little or no communication with foreign terror suspects, corresponden

[CharlesteVibra]

Dbqm Al-Sadr Blames U.S. For Iraq s Woes
Officers in the Colombian navy came upon nearly 1,000 pounds of illicit cocaine while working two unrelated incidents in the Caribbean, authorties announced this week.First, crew members from a coast guard station received a call from a port facility official about the discovery of stowaways on a vessel anchored in the Puerto Boliacute;var port city. A Coast Guard unit found two people inside the vessel s anchoring system, along with five black bags that apparently contained illicit substances, according to a news release from the Colombian navy.A preliminary identificati adidas originals hombre on test found that yeezy the bags contained about 285 pounds of cocaine. The navy did not provide any information about the stowaways.More drugs were seized when Coast Guard units responded to a report of a capsized vessel about 100 nautical miles from the shore of Santa Marta, another large port city on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Several other agencies also responded. At sea, officials found the damaged boat, and 13 bags containing substances were found floating in the water. The nearly 1,000 pounds of cocaine seized by the Colombian navy. Colombia Ministry of National Defense dunk panda Preliminary identification tests conducted in Santa Marta found that the bags contained about 700 pounds of cocaine. The Colombian navy did not say if any arrests were made in relation to the second operation.The two sei Kmto U.S. has welcomed more than 500,000 migrants as part of historic expansion of legal immigration under Biden
LIMA, Peru It was the golden age of radio and World War II still raged when Maruja Venegas began broadcasting a show for Peru s children.Sixty-eight years later, her Radio Club Infantil is still on the air, making the 97-year-old Venegas the globe s longest-running radio personality, according to Guinness World Records. The children of yesterday are all grown now. They ve married. They are grandparents today. So it s them, the grandparents, who support me most, she told The Associated Press in an interview in her home in a middle-class district of the capital. A lot of grandparents sit their grandchildren down to listen to the program, stanley cup she said, stooped by age but still elegant with earrings and a camel-colored coat.Venegas was a popular announcer on music programs when she launched the show on Dec. 18, 1944, at the request of government officials to entertain ailing children at a public hospital. The first commercial black and white television broadcasts were still more than a decade in the future for Peru. In the United States, Fibber McGee and Molly and The Al Jolson Show were going strong. Venegas show became so popular in the 1950s that it drew Peru s top singers and performers. It had contests, helped make careers. Listeners persuaded her to open a sc stanley cup usa hool in 1956. But when the country fell on hard times in the late 1980s, Venegas was forced to close it.The show went on, however, even if Venegas began doing it b stanley flask y telephone from home when she

[CharlesteVibra]

Ftso Earthquake rattles parts of U.K.
NORMANDY, France -- Friday is the 70th anniversary of D-Day. For the remaining yeezy survivors, some now in their 90s, this has been a time for one final reunion. yeezy D-Day veteran shares story with future generations 02:55 In 1944, Leslie Cruise jumped with the 82nd Airborne Division behind enemy lines the night before D-Day. Seventy years later, he and Whiskey 7, the airplane he jumped from, are back in Normandy. They both have unfinished stories. The next thing I know guys are plop, plop. Plop all around me, Cruise said of the bloody invasion. WWII veteran remembers secret D-Day debacle 02:29 Cruise has returned to the D-Day drop zones around Sainte-Mere-Eglise, where he landed 70 years ago. It has taken him this long to confront a ghost from his past. Richard Vargas, a fellow paratrooper, was killed by an artillery shell as they both took cover during a German barrage. Cruise said, His body was right next to me, body to body ... A shell landed just beside him and it tore him apart on his right leg ... And I always figured that that was for me. At the family s request, Rich yeezy ard Vargas was buried, not in Normandy, bu Aofn Protests break out in Kenya after William Ruto declared winner of presidential election
The official Palestinian news agency Friday called for an end to armed attacks on Israelis, but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says a full peace treaty might no longer be possible. Sharon, speaking at a military graduation ceremony outside Tel Aviv Thursday, said Isr stanley cups ael must lower its peace expectations. A clear-eyed outlook of the continued state of animosity, he said, demands a different approach than the one we have tried so far with the Palestinians. Israel and the Palestinians signed their first interim accord in 1993, a framework with a timetable for negotiating a full peace treaty. However, talk stanley cup quencher s broke down in January, because of deep disagreements over core issues like the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees. Sharon said his aim now is gradual progress based on interim agreements with the long-term goal of reaching a state of non-belligerence. Palestinians have said that they are not prepared to negotiate another partial accord with Israel.Sharon said Israel will continue to hit militants, a reference to a policy of targeting suspected Palestinian activists. On Tuesday, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at Hamas headquarters in Nablus, killing eight people, including a top official of the radical Islamic group responsible for many bombing attacks inside Israel.Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat this week claimed Sharon s government h stanley kubek ad decided to target not just terrorist, but Arafat and his Palestinian authority. Israel denied it.Learn more a

[CharlesteVibra]

Wbfk They want to kill me : Bahraini refugee Hakeem Ali Mohamed Ali AlAraib detained in Thailand
Iraqi authorities on Saturday were investigating the killing of a well-known social media influencer, who was shot by an armed motorcyclist in front of her home in central Baghdad.Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi, known as Um F asics gel ahad or mother of Fahad, was popular on the social media sites TikTok and Instagram, where she posted videos of herself dancing to music and was followed by tens of thousands of users.An Iraqi security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn t authorized to speak to the media, said that the assailant opened fire as Sawadi parked her Cadillac in front of her house on Friday, killing her, then took her phone and fled the scene. Iraqi TikTok celebrity Om Fahed salomon speedcross is pictu air max 2 red at the Basra International Stadium during a match of the Arabian Gulf Cup football tournament on January 19, 2023. HUSSEIN FALEH/AFP via Getty Images The killing took place in Zayoona, the same neighborhood where a prominent Iraqi researcher and security expert Hisham al-Hashimi was gunned down in 2020. Before the U.S. invasion of 2003, the neighborhood was home to military leaders and considered a prestigious area in Baghdad. In recent years, many militia leaders have taken up residence there.Sawadi isn t the first prominent social media figure to be gunned down in central Baghdad. Last year, Noor Alsaffar or Noor BM, a transgender person with a large social media Bkxq Russian lawmakers request for Putin to recognize Ukraine s breakaway regions gives him another card to play
A powerful earthquake ro stanley cup cked the eastern Caribbean on Thursday, sending office workers and shoppers on several islands fleeing into the streets. There were no immediate reports of injuries.The earthquake which struck at 2 p.m. EST, with a magnitude of 7.4, was centered 26 miles southeast of Roseau, the capital of Dominica, where the shaking lasted for about 20 seconds.The quake was felt hundreds of miles away in Puerto Rico to the west, and Venezuela and Suriname to the south.Radio hosts at Radio Martinique said the earthquake caused some damage on the French island but did not give details. Listeners were urged to evacuate buildings. My house shook so hard I thought it was going to fall, said a caller who identifi stanley thermosflasche ed herself only as Fannie. The door, the windows, everything shook. The quake struck at a depth of 90 miles, according to the USGS Web site. I wouldn t expect major damage because the quake has some depth, said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said the quake was too de stanley deutschland ep to generate a destructive tsunami.In Trinidad, the shaking sent workers streaming out of office towers into the streets of the capital, Port-of-Spain. Thousands more ran outside in St. Maarten. Flight s at Princess Juliana International Airport were briefly suspended.In Antigua, islanders said the shaking lasted about 30 seconds. I haven t felt one like that in a while, said

[CharlesteVibra]

Stpw Bush Visits Pentagon, Rumsfeld
Wellington, New Zealand mdash; Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has delayed New Zealand s elections by four weeks due to the coronavirus outbreak in Auckland.The election had been schedul salomon zapatillas ed for Sept. adidas samba herren 19 but will now be held on Oct. 17. Opposition parties had sought a delay after the virus outbreak prompted the government last week to put Auckland under a two-week lockdown and halted election campaigning. Before the latest outbreak, New Zealand had gone 102 days without any known community transmission of the virus, and life had returned to normal for most people, with restaurants and schools open and sports fans back in stadiums. The only known cases during that time were returning travelers who were quarantined at the border. Officials believe the virus was reintroduced to New Zealand from abroad but haven t yet determined how. The outbreak in the nation s largest city has grown to 58 infections, all thought to be connected, giving health officials hope the virus isn t spreading beyond the cluster. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces a new date for national elections, during a news conference in Wellington, New Zealand on August 17, 2020. The election had been scheduled for September 19 but will now be held on October 17, after a COVID-19 outbreak in Auckland. yeezy Mark Mitchell / New Zealand Herald via AP Ardern had the option of delaying the election for up Fpnu Iraq Photos: Aug. 14-- 20
SEOUL, South KoreaPark Geun-hye became South Korea s first female president Monday, returning to the presidential mansion where she grew up with her stanley cup dictator father.Park s last stint in the Blue House was bookended by tragedy: At 22, she cut short her studies in Paris to return to Seoul and act as President Park Chung-hee s first lady after an assassin targeting her father instead killed her mother; she left five years later after her father was shot and killed by his spy chief during a drinking party.As president, Park will face stark divisions both in South Korean society and with rival North Korea, which detonated an underground nuclear device about two weeks ago. South Koreans worry about a growing gap between rich and poor, and there s pressure for her to l stanley cup ive up to her campaign suggestion that she can return the country to the strong economic growth her strong-man father oversaw. North Korea s atomic test will also present a challenge to her vow to soften Seoul s current hard-line approach to its northern rival.South Korea elects its fi stanley cup rst female presidentNorth Korea conducts third nuclear testPyongyang, Washington, Beijing and Tokyo are all watching to see if Park pursues an ambitious engagement policy meant to ease five years of animosity on the divided peninsula or if she sticks with the tough stance of her fellow conservative predecessor, Lee Myung-bak. Park s decision is important because it will likely set the tone of the larger diplomatic approa

[CharlesteVibra]

Akzr Somali Pirates Live The Good Life
Kyiv, Ukraine mdash;The U.S. State Department says it has information that Russia will increase its attacks on Ukraine this week, potentially in retaliation for a deadly car bombing outside Moscow that killed a Russian TV commentator. President Vladimir Putin s regi air max 2 me was quick to blame Ukraine for the attack that killed Daria Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of a prominent Kremlin backer and close associate of Putin.Russian state media aired video that it claimed shows the attacker crossing the border into Russia. Ukraine nike dunk high s government vigorously denies any involvement, but as CBS News correspondent Debora Patta reports from Kyiv airmaxplus , the nation is still bracing for a Russian backlash to the bombing, and the U.S. believes one is coming. The State Department on Monday warned any Americans in Ukraine to get out now. Given Russia s track record in Ukraine, we are concerned about the continued threat that Russian strikes pose to civilians and civilian infrastructure, a U.S. official told CBS News on Tuesday, saying the alert was based on information that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days. Dugina was killed instantly on Saturday night when her car blew up on the outskirts of Moscow. A memorial service was held for her Tuesday in the Russian capital. The Kremlin claimed to have solved the case within just 24 hours, releasing video of woman who Russia said was the culprit, and a Ukra Asqo U.S. warship sunk by human-guided kamikaze bomb during World War II found off Japan
Princess Diana s brother said Thursday he was sickened that the CBS had broadcast photos o stanley polska f the princess as she lay dying after a car accident mdash; the first time a major media outlet has published pictures of the injured princess.The British press expressed front-page outrage, while Prime Minister Tony Blair called the broadcast of the grainy black-and-white images distasteful. The CBS News program 48 Hours Investigates on Wednesday night briefly showed two pictures taken by paparazzi at the scene of the Aug, 31, 1997, accident in Paris. Diana died hours later. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and chauffeur stanley trinkflaschen Henri Paul also were killed.The network insisted the pictures mdash; which showed an unconscious Diana being treated by a doctor as she lay slumped in the back of a car in the Alma road tunnel mdash; were not graphic or exploitative.The pictures were shown in context of an interview with the doctor who first treated Diana at the scene, and illustrated his comments about her condition at the time, CBS spokeswoman Sandra Genelius said. She noted that the broadcast has not been seen outside the United States. We stand by the report, she said Thursday.In addition to airing the photos, 48 Hours Investigates revealed new details about the accident: that conspiracy theories are unfounded; that there was no question driver stanley cup Henri Paul was drunk and had alarming amounts of drugs in his blood and as a result caused the accident, reports CBS News Correspondent Elizabet

[CharlesteVibra]

Dqtx China Floods Kill At Least 118
GULLANE, ScotlandInstead of another excruciating loss in a major championship, Phil Mickelson got a chance to celebrate early.A brilliant closing round at challenging Muirfield made it possible.Mickelson won the claret jug for the first time and his fifth major championship with a 5-under 66 on Sunday, matching the best round of the tournament on a day when the other contenders 151; including Tiger Woods 151; faded away.Lefty birdied four of the last si af1 x holes, winning by three strokes and emphatically erasing the memory of all those close calls that didn t go his way 151; the latest one just last month when he was runner-up at the U.S. Open for a staggering sixth time. This is such an accomplishment for me, Mickelson said. I never knew if I d be able to develop the game and the shots to play links golf effectively. To play what is arguably the best round of my career, to putt the way I putted, to shoot the round of my life, it just feels amazing to win the claret jug. Live British Open leaderboard Full golf coverage from CBSSportsOverall, Mickelson has eight runner-up finishes in the majors, including one at golf s oldest major championship j adidas samba damen ust two years ago. Now, at age 43, he s finally got his name on the claret jug, three-fourths of the way along to a career Grand Slam and assuring he ll go down as one of the greats of the game. I putted soooo good, Mickelson said.He began his amazing finish with a 8-footer for birdie nike dunk high at the 13th, getting his score back t Qvgp Middle East leaders praise and condemn Hamas attacks against Israel
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - In the high desert along Iran s Afghan border this week, soldiers from the powerful Revolutionary Guard practiced ambush tactics in subzero temperatures. Next month, the Guard s warships are ex stanley quencher pected to resume battle drills near Gulf shipping lanes that carry much of the world s oil.Iran looks like a country preparing for war. But Tehran s leaders are already using whatever leverage they can muster 151; including military displays and threats to choke off Gulf oil tanker traffic 151; to counter inter stanley cup national pressure against the Iranian nuclear program.A month after Iran embarrassed Washington with the capture of a CIA spy drone, the messages from the Islamic Republic couldn t be clearer or more taunting: Tehran could turn the hook-shaped Strait of Hormuz into a dead end for tankers and hold the world economy hostage as payback for tighter U.S.-led sanc stanley cup tions.Despite Iran s escalating tough talk, there are contradictions and complications that cast doubt on the likelihood of drastic military action by Tehran that could trigger a Gulf conflict. It also shows how much Iran s foreign policies are now shaped by its military commanders as the country views itself in a virtual state of war with Western powers and their allies.It appears to be part of the kind of seesaw brinksmanship that has become an Iranian hallmark: Pushing to the edge with the West and then retreating after weighing the reactions. Iran sees pressures coming from all side