Syria government's Aleppo assault stalls

The Syrian government's assault on Aleppo appeared to have stalled on Tuesday night as rebels claimed new victories against the increasingly demoralised troops of Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian rebels are seen along a street in the Salhin district of the northern city of Aleppo 

Rebels now believe they can capture the country's biggest city within days despite being outgunned. On Tuesday they stormed a number of bases including police stations in Aleppo suburbs, killing as many as 40 members of the security forces, following their capture of a key checkpoint on the road to the Syrian border the day before.

State media meanwhile said troops were still "pursuing terrorists" in the suburb of Salaheddin, which on Monday it claimed to control, as well a list of other districts.

Mohana Abu Bakri, commander of the rebel Abu Emara Battalion, told The Daily Telegraph the front line in Salaheddin remained where it had been the day before, despite heavy fighting. Other rebels reported bombing runs by both jets and helicopters.

"Thanks to the shelling there is hardly a street without holes in its houses or totally collapsed houses," he said.

The regime has been forced into using air power as tanks, even those not ambushed on their way in as increasing numbers have been, are proving an ineffective tool in the city's narrow streets.

Rebel units scattered for cover during an air attack on Miayasr in Aleppo's south, next to Salaheddin, following the predawn rebel capture of two police stations, a military court, an air force intelligence headquarters and a branch of the ruling Ba'ath party.
Louay Mokdar, an organiser for the Free Syrian Army in Turkey, claimed the dead from the police station attacks included a colonel, as well as intelligence officers and members of the "shabiha" militia. Dozens more were captured and taken to rebel prisons.
It is now 12 days since a sudden push swept the rebels into the metropolis of two million, with the government counter-attack coming four days ago.
The course of the battle so far has bolstered rebel confidence. The Syrian army has moved cautiously under the cover of artillery fire and air support.
But the rebels were increasingly bullish on Tuesday.
"We don't have goals for the coming months. We have goals for the coming days. Within days, God willing, Aleppo will be liberated," said Col Abdel-Jabber al-Oqaidi, head of the Joint Military Council in Aleppo, who defected from the Syrian army six months ago.
"We secure our areas and then move to other neighbourhoods, pushing towards the city centre.
"The regime's capabilities are also being weakened. They can shell us from afar with tanks and helicopters. But inside their morale is zero."
Four tank crews in Salaheddin surrendered as soon as opposition fighters appeared. Mr Abu Bakri said 16 defectors had crossed over to his side in Salaheddin yesterday and 30-40 more in a neighbouring district.
Taha Ahmed, a military vet who works on securing defections from an Army Ranger's base north of Aleppo said his task was becoming easier.
"The officers have been too scared to move but they are now talking with us," he said. "We have some infiltrators inside and we are gaining day by day defectors to join the Free Syria Army."
Abu Abdul Jabr, another rebel leader, said he believed the fight for Aleppo would be finished by the end of Ramadan, the holy fasting month, in mid-August.
"The government controls nothing any more, except through shelling and artillery," the bearded former interior decorator said in the front line town of Marea. "They can make a massacre but that is it.
"We have the resolution to fight. It means with us one month on the streets is equivalent to five years in military services. The troops don't have the strength to match us and are defecting whenever they can."
But the rebels do not have things all their own way. The regime still has troops in reserve, and is luring the opposition out.
Three rebel convoys were ambushed on Tuesday. In one case, a detachment of 20 men that went to relieve an outpost on the Nerha bridge on the edge of Salaheddin thought it had forged a deal for safe passage with a local family but found itself walking into a trap.
As rebel cars circled a roundabout, Shabiha gunmen opened fire. Grenades were thrown and security forces snipers targeted drivers. By the time the squad withdrew eight were dead.

Syrian opposition to form government in exile

Haytham al-Maleh, a Syrian opposition figure, claims he has been tasked with forming a government in exile based in Cairo.

Two Syrian rebel fighters load an anti-aircraft machinegun in the northern town of Atareb 

"I have been tasked with leading a transitional government," Mr Maleh said, adding that he will begin consultations "with the opposition inside and outside" the country.

Mr Maleh, a conservative Muslim, said he was named by a Syrian coalition of "independents with no political affiliation".

More than 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule began in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. There is no way to independently verify the figure, while the UN has stopped keeping count.

There have been repeated calls on Mr Assad to step down.

When that happens, "we don't want to find ourselves in a political or administrative vacuum," Maleh said.

"This phase calls for co-operation from all sides," he said.
Mr Maleh, 81, is a Syrian lawyer and human rights activist who has spent several years in prison in his homeland.
His announcement comes as humanitarian conditions grow worse in the besieged city of Aleppo with activists reporting dwindling stocks of food and cooking gas and intermittent electricity supplies.
Government helicopters pounded rebel neighbourhoods across Syria's largest city and main commercial hub. Activists said the random shelling has forced many civilians to flee to other neighbourhoods or even escape the city altogether. The U.N. said late Sunday that about 200,000 had fled the city of about 3 million.
"The humanitarian situation here is very bad," Mohammed Saeed, an activist living in the city, told The Associated Press by Skype. "There is not enough food and people are trying to leave. We really need support from the outside. There is random shelling against civilians," he added. "The city has pretty much run out of cooking gas, so people are cooking on open flames or with electricity, which cuts out a lot."
He said shells were falling on the southwestern neighbourhoods of Salaheddine and Seif al-Dawla, rebel strongholds since the rebel Free Syrian Army began its assault on Aleppo 11 days ago.
The United Nations has expressed concern over the use of heavy weapons, especially in Aleppo, while the Syria's neighbours in the Arab League have issued even stronger denunciations.

Colorado Batman suspect James Holmes charged with 24 counts of murder

James Holmes, the Batman cinema shooting suspect, has been charged with 24 counts of murder and 116 counts of attempted murder.

James Holmes appears in court at the Arapahoe County Justice Centre in Centennial, Colorado. Holmes, 24, is accused of shooting dead 12 people and wounding 58 others at a cinema in Aurora, as moviegoers packed the midnight screening of the latest Batman film, "The Dark Knight Rises".

Holmes will face 24 counts of first degree murder relating to the 12 people who died in the attack on July 20 during a screening of the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises.

Colorado has two separate definitions of first degree murder – the standard charge and a charge of “murder with extreme indifference” – and Holmes has been charged with both in relation to each victim.

He similarly faces 116 counts of attempted murder, two for each of the 58 people who were injured.

Holmes has also been charged with one count of possessing explosives, and one of use of a deadly weapon.

According to the first 12 murder charges Holmes acted “after deliberation and with intent to cause death”.

The second 12 murder charges said he had shown “extreme indifference to the value of human life generally”.
Holmes, 24, who was making his second appearance at the Arapahoe County courthouse in Colorado, did not enter pleas.
He spoke only one word, answering “Yes” in a quiet voice in response to a procedural question from Judge William Sylvester.
At his initial court hearing a week ago Holmes said nothing and appeared groggy. This time, he appeared slightly more lucid, according to court spectators.
Legal analysts expect the case to be dominated by arguments over Holmes’ sanity. He will next appear in court on August 9.
Victims’ relatives were among those in court to see Holmes charged.
Speaking before the hearing Shirley Wygal, whose 32-year-old Rebecca Wingo was among those killed, said: “I absolutely want to face the suspect in court. He looked my daughter in the eye and shot her and killed her.”

Pussy Riot punk band on trial in Russia

Three members of the radical Russian feminist group, Pussy Riot, who are facing seven years in jail over their “punk-prayer” in Moscow’s main cathedral, went on trial on Monday.

^{Members of punk-group Pussy Riot (from left) Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Aliokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich}

The prosecution of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alekhina is being seen as a weathervane for Russia’s future after the return of Vladimir Putin to the presidency in May.

Pussy Riot, whose members wear brightly coloured clothes and knitted balaclavas, caused a sensation in February when they burst into the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. A small group of women rushed up to the ambo, where they danced manically, punched the air and cried: “Mother of God, Blessed Virgin, drive out Putin!”

A video of the incident, in which women in headscarves can be seen trying to usher Pussy Riot out of the church, was posted online with a soundtrack of heavy guitars and extra shouted lyrics. It rapidly went viral and the three young women now on trial were arrested in March. They are accused of committed hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.

                                       

Security was tight outside Khamovnichesky Court where the trial began in the same courtroom where Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed billionaire and Putin critic, was prosecuted last year. Police cordoned off surrounding streets.
The three women were led to a steel and glass dock in handcuffs.
In a statement read to the court by one of their lawyers, the trio denied they had intended to offend believers, saying their “punk-prayer” had been a political protest over the Orthodox Church propping up Mr Putin’s “authoritarian” rule.
Patriarch Kirill openly supported Mr Putin’s return to the presidency.
Prosecutors have asked for the trial to be closed. The judge has yet to make a decision on that point.

Syrian Charge D'Affaires in London resigns

Khaled al-Ayoubi, the most senior Syrian diplomat serving in London has resigned, because he was "no longer willing to represent" Bashar al-Assad's regime

Bashar al-Assad, left, and Syrian rebels patrol the streets near Aleppo

Khaled al-Ayoubi’s resignation made him one of the most prominent Syrian diplomats to turn their back on the Syrian president during the 16-month rebellion that has claimed more than 15,000 lives. He has not yet defected - officially switched his allegiance to the Syrian opposition - although is understood to be considering his next move.

A statement from the Foreign Office said Mr Ayoubi had informed it of his decision on Monday morning.

It read: “Mr al-Ayoubi has told us that he is no longer willing to represent a regime that has committed such violent and oppressive acts against its own people, and is therefore unable to continue in his position.

“Mr al-Ayoubi was the most senior Syrian diplomat serving in London. His departure is another blow to the Assad regime. It illustrates the revulsion and despair the regime’s actions are provoking amongst Syrians from all walks of life, inside the country and abroad.

“We urge others around Bashar Al-Assad to follow Mr al-Ayoubi’s example; to disassociate themselves from the crimes being committed against the Syrian people and to support a peaceful and free future for Syria.”

He is understood to be in a safe location in Britain with his immediate family.
Mr al-Ayoubi was born in 1971 and joined the Syrian diplomatic service in 2001. His first posting was in Greece as consul from 2003 – 2008. He joined the London embassy as second secretary in February 2011, a month before the first protests against Mr Assad. It is presumed he served back in Damascus in the three years between the foreign postings.
His resignation followed a series of defections by senior Syrian officials in recent weeks, including diplomats in several countries, including the ambassador to Iraq, and top army officers.
Just five Syrians of junior rank now remain at the London embassy in Belgrave Square. Mr al-Ayoubi’s predecessor was expelled in May with two colleagues as part of a coordinated series of expulsions by Western nations in response to a massacre committed by Syrian forces in Houla.
Mr Assad’s regime withdrew Syria’s ambassador from London in March in retaliation for the decision by Britain, the United States and several European countries to recall their ambassadors or close their embassies in Damascus due to security concerns.
Britons in difficulty in Syria are recommended on the Foreign Office website to contact the Hungarian embassy.
Earlier on Monday it was reported that the deputy police chief in the western Syrian city of Latakia was among 12 officers who had fled across the border to Turkey.
France, which is taking over the United Nations Security Council's rotating presidency in August, will call an emergency ministerial meeting on Syria in a bid to end the diplomatic stalemate.
Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said: "We must try everything" even though Russia and China have blocked three resolutions on Syria.
"We cannot say that it is a domestic matter," he added, warning that the conflict could spread into neighbouring countries.
Mr Fabius also expressed fears of a massacre in Syria's most populous city Aleppo, where the government has launched a fierce offensive against rebels since Saturday.
"The Syrian people are being martyred and the executioner is called Bashar Al-Assad," he said.
Syrian troops continued their assault on Aleppo, with shells and machine guns.
The early morning bombardment was focused on the southwestern district of Salaheddin, a stronghold of the Free Syrian Army, made up of deserters and armed civilians, said the Syrian Revolution General Commission.
The army said later that it had overrun Salaheddin, although the rebels denied the claim.
The United Nations estimates that around 200,000 civilians have fled the fighting in Aleppo and that many more are trapped.
Head of UN humanitarian operations, Valerie Amos, requested that relief organisations be granted "secure access" to the northern city.

London 2012 diving: China takes gold, USA silver in 3-meter synchronized

London 2012 diving: Wu Minxia and He Zi won the first diving gold medal for China Sunday. Abby Johnston and Kelci Bryant of Team USA finished second.

• 

London 2012 diving: Gold medalists He Zi, left, and Wu Minxia, right, pose after the 3 Meter Synchronized diving at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, This is Wu's fifth Olympic medal.

Wu and her partner He Zi won the first diving gold medal of the London Olympics on Sunday, putting the country on a path toward a possible sweep of the eight medals.
They led throughout the five-dive round and totaled 346.20 points in the 3-meter synchronized event.
"It's kind of if they mess up, then you have an opportunity," American silver medalist Abby Johnston said. "Anything can happen in this sport, so you still have that possibility."
RECOMMENDED: Are you a true Olympic fan? Take the quiz
It was Wu's fifth Olympic medal, leaving her one away from tying countrywoman Guo Jingjing's record of six medals. Guo was China's superstar diver until her retirement 1 1/2 years ago.
Wu has three golds, one silver and one bronze. She could earn another in the individual springboard event, where she has medaled twice before and will compete against He.
"It feels normal," Wu said in Mandarin. "I really don't have that many emotions."
China won seven of eight golds as the host country four years ago in Beijing and swept the golds at last year's world championships in Shanghai.
"I am impressed by them," Johnston said. "I watch their video. That's one of my training methods, just watching them and how they do it."
Johnston and Kelci Bryant finished second with 321.90 points, ending the country's diving medal drought that extended to the 2000 Sydney Games. It was the first-ever Olympic synchro medal for the Americans.
"Our curse is out of the way," said Bryant, who finished fourth in springboard synchro with a different partner in Beijing.
"Abby and I just kicked it off with this event and I think the rest of the team is going to come through," she said. "After 2008, all of us were really close and we needed to fine-tune our training."
Laura Wilkinson's gold on 10-meter platform in Sydney, where she upset the Chinese despite a broken foot, was the last U.S. medal. The Americans were shut out for the first time ever four years later in Athens and again in Beijing.

Badly armed rebels face tanks as Syria's mother of all battles begins

Despatch: Syria's badly armed rebels face President Assad's tanks as the crucial battle for Aleppo begins

A fighter from the Syrian opposition takes aims in Aleppo 

The attack had been awaited with growing apprehension for days. But when the Syrian army units that had been massing outside Aleppo finally unleashed a full-scale assault on rebel-held quarters of the ancient city yesterday, it still came as a shock to fighters who had hoped to defend it.

From the moment the first calls to dawn prayer echoed among the bullet-scarred blocks of residential flats where rebels had been ensconced for a week, the sound of exploding shells - a feature of life since they first moved into the area - stepped up dramatically.

Regime troops that had been building up at army bases and mustering points started to push into the heart of the city.

The whizz of bullets could be heard along the rebel lines as Syrian army sniper units attempted to pick off key targets ahead of the armoured advance.

The pro-government daily newspaper Al-Watan called the impending confrontation "the mother of all battles" in a banner headline yesterday morning. As the tanks that had been transported north to Aleppo from Syria's government heartland began to move in on the Salahaddin district in the southwest of the city, spreading panic as casualties rose, it seemed that in this respect at least the regime's mouthpiece might be right.

Throughout the day yesterday many hundreds of ragtag fighters opposed to the continued rule of President Bashar al-Assad were desperately mounting a chaotic last ditch defence of territory they had previously captured on two sides of Aleppo.
The ill-equipped rebels climbed aboard pick-up trucks armed only with assault rifles as they set off to battle. Their firepower was pathetically low; one bearded fighter marched out rebel headquarters with his bullets stuffed into a clear plastic bag no bigger than someone might use for their sandwiches.
Another fighter showed off his Austrian-made Steyr rifle - superior to the Russian-made weapons most familiar in Syria – but then revealed that he had just two bullets left in its magazine.
Rebel headquarters at a school in the heart of the Shakour district emptied as gunmen rushing to the meet the enemy assault just over a mile away. The spirit for the coming battle was high. "All of us want to die if that is God's will. We want to fight for our freedom and are happy with our fate," said Nadim Sabah, who carried a shotgun with its stock cut short.
But soon the first rebel casualties returned: men who had been guarding a checkpoint on the road to the airport, which had been in rebel hands for the past eight days but was now being rolled up by government troops.
According to one of the flustered fighters who returned with their bodies, all of which had multiple bullet wounds, the men - who included a rebel sub-commander - had been shredded by intensive fire from three sides as a squad of Syrian soldiers moved in on them.
By midday residents of the Shakour neighbourhood were cowering from spreading clashes throughout what had previously been a safe haven. Rebels claimed to have destroyed at least eight tanks but dozens more massed outside the city had begun to rumble closer.
At one point a helicopter gunship swung above the Sheikh Nazar school and poured down heavy machine gun fire on a rebel pick-up truck, which just managed to manoeuvre to safety.
The helicopter faced a cacophony of small arms fire from the school playground but remained safely out of their range. "Wasted bullets," muttered one irritated onlooker as the gunship eventually moved away.
Despite their week in control of the parts of the city, it was clear that the rebels neither possessed the kind of arms they would need to repel the full-scale assault, nor had they developed many defensive strongholds that would give focus to an effort to stave off attack.
What is more, there seems little prospect of reinforcements arriving to relieve the rebels. Abu Tawf, one of the leading local commanders, admitted that the original Aleppo takeover had been something of an impromptu affair - planned without direction from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the loose umbrella command for anti-Assad military operations.
Battalion leaders from villages and towns had come together in a Brigade of Unity (Liwa al-Tawhid) to oversee and contribute to the assault, with little or no outside help.
"We made a meeting from all the groups in the countryside and Aleppo and we all decided that we could be more powerful together," the former government official said. "As the Liwa al-Tawhid we made this mission by ourselves. The leaders in Turkey don't plan what we do, we are working on our own missions."
There is talk of help from Islamic fighters said to have been mobilised from abroad, and one report yesterday claimed that several thousand battle-hardened veterans of the Libyan conflict had entered Syria led by a former anti-Gaddafi commander.
But any such influx from abroad could alienate the residents of a prosperous city, proud of its 5,000 year history. The ancient citadel is a World Heritage site, while the modern industries and opulent shopping plazas of its richer quarters had made it one of the most sophisticated urban centres in the modern Levant.
And not everyone here is certain they want the Assad regime overthrown. In a gloomy arcade where all the shops have been closed for a week, a quietly spoken man sidled up to express his rejection of the rebels.
He said he retained faith in Mr Assad, the dynastic leader who has presided over a conflict now estimated to have cost 20,000 lives. "Bashar is good," he said. "These people are bringing us into chaos.
"Aleppo is the economic capital of the country, it is the gateway to Turkey and international trade. Everything is being destroyed by their fighting."
The rebels were welcomed by the city's poorer and largely disenfranchised Sunni Muslims, but its the commercial heart seemed to remain with the government - perhaps aware that its privilege is more likely to be maintained if the Assads survive.
Mustafa Khalil al-Shab, a construction magnate, is one of the few wealthy residents to have backed the uprising in the city, and said he had given most of his fortune to get rid of the regime. A former president of the city's business council, he claimed the wealthy were finally turning against Mr Assad.
"The businessmen are tired of the regime and are quietly coming over to our side," he said. "There is a lot at stake for them but the balance is shifting. Over the last few months the regime has taken money from businessmen to give to the military. The militia is sent to burn the stores of those that do not pay."
Outside Aleppo to the north yesterday, the broad highways that lead towards Turkey remained open but only a slow trickle of residents seemed to be heading away. But to the west, there were reports of panic-stricken civilians crammed inside minivans and cars, the word "shelling" on everyone's lips.
Rumours were rife that the army was intent on encircling the "free" areas, cutting off avenues of future retreat. Left behind were families sheltering from the Syrian army in schools, while others stood on balconies watching the plumes of explosions rise from distant neighbourhoods.
Those who remained will be hoping that the maelstrom that began yesterday will pass quickly and that their homes will not be destroyed in the process
But the days of intense fighting that lie ahead that will determine whether the Assad regime can recover from the stiffest
challenge it has yet faced since the 16 month-long rebellion began.
There is every sign that the government intends to step up the fury of its attack; and regards the opprobrium heaped on it from abroad as a small price to pay for demonstrating that it is still far from finished.

Tanks begin regime assault on Aleppo as fears grow of imminent massacre

Tanks began an assault on suburbs of the Syrian city of Aleppo in the early hours of Saturday as helicopter gunships pounded rebel positions inside the city.

Rebels have vowed to fight to the death for the city, but they are massively outgunned and outnumbered by regime forces 

The attack appeared to be the beginning of a crucial battle for the city of 2.5 million people, the biggest in Syria and the commercial capital. Rebels have seized parts of Aleppo and President Bashar al-Assad must force them out or suffer a crushing blow to his prestige.

Rebels have vowed to fight to the death for the city, but they are massively outgunned and outnumbered by regime forces. Families have been fleeing in recent days afraid that the regime will use its massive firepower against residential areas, as it has in other Syrian cities, and unleash thugs who have massacred people in rebel-supporting areas.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, warned on Friday that there are growing fears that the Assad government was about to carry out "some truly appalling acts around and in the city of Aleppo".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group, reported helicopter attacks on the central Salaheddine district of Aleppo and violent clashes elsewhere in the city.

"Helicopters are participating in clashes at the entrance of Salaheddine district and bombarding it," the group said in an emailed statement. "There are also violent clashes at the entrances to Sakhour district."

Video footage provided by the Observatory showed smoke rising over apartment blocks in the city into a hazy sky on Saturday. The sound of sporadic gunfire could be clearly heard.
In the past week huge columns of Syrian army units have been moved into the north of the country, cutting off approaches to Aleppo and preparing for what looks like a massive assault.
Both sides are desperate to show that they momentum is with them. After the regime put down a major uprising in Damascus it must show that it is still capable of asserting its control, while the rebels believe that if they can hold Aleppo the rate of defections to their side will increase.
Syrian official media has been saying that rebels failed in Damascus and are now trying to turn Aleppo into a den of terrorism.
Activists said 160 people were killed on Friday across the country, many of them in and around Aleppo. The city is Syria's main commercial centre and had been quiet for much of the 16-month uprising against President Assad's rule.
Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, appeared with David Cameron at a press conference on Friday and warned of Turkish concern at the crisis just a few miles from his southern border. "There is a build-up in Aleppo, and the recent statements with respect to the use of weapons of mass destruction are actions that we cannot remain an observer or spectator to," he said.
Earlier, speaking to Turkish television, Mr Erdogan had cheered on the rebels. "In Aleppo itself the regime is preparing for an attack with its tanks and helicopters ... My hope is that they'll get the necessary answer from the real sons of Syria."
Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, also condemned the Syrian regime. "The kinds of weaponry that they're using against unarmed civilians I think demonstrates the depths of depravity to which Assad has sunk," he told reporters.

First lady praises Olympic athletes

First lady Michelle Obama praised U.S. Olympic athletes today, telling them they will inspire countless Americans over the next two weeks.Obama cited herself as an example, recalling how she and her family watched the Olympic Games together when she was younger.
"You never know who you're inspiring -- you just never know," Obama told the athletes after landing in London. "From a family like ours on the South Side of Chicago to young athletes who are going to pick up a soccer ball or start running after watching something that you all do."
Obama will lead the U.S. delegation to tonight's Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympics.
The first lady hosted a Let's Move! youth exercise event in London today.
At a breakfast today honoring the U.S. team, Obama said she has the same feelings of "pride, excitement and wonder" every time the Olympics rolls around.
"Being here is otherworldly for me," Obama said. "I am still so inspired by all of you. And I'm still in awe of everything you have achieved."

Should Holmes' lawyers represent or defend?

As the case against James Holmes, who police said shot and killed 12 people and wounded dozens more in a Colorado movie theater, advances toward trial, his two court-appointed attorneys face a tough question: Should they try to defend him or just represent him?

Two prominent Colorado attorneys —Tamara Brady and Daniel King— have been assigned to the Holmes case.

Their toughest job is figuring out whether Holmes is capable of assisting his defense team or whether he is nuts and should be sent to a state mental hospital.

If you wonder why a guy like Holmes is entitled to this kind of treatment, you need to be reminded of the Sixth Amendment to our Constitution, ratified in 1791. The Sixth Amendment established this right to defense for anyone accused of a crime: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." Additionally, the amendment says anyone charged shall have the "assistance of counsel for his defense."

Holmes, a former neuroscience student, allegedly planned the massacre for months, amassing ammunition and weapons and booby-trapping his apartment. But it's possible his mind resided in his own version of reality, some legal experts say.

Holmes' lawyers will try as hard as they can to keep the case from going to trial, pursuing instead a plea deal that would ensure he spends life in prison, says prominent Denver defense attorney Dan Recht.

Craig Silverman, former Denver County chief deputy district attorney, says, "If you don't pursue the death penalty in this case, you may as well throw away the statute."

Complicated case. You need to weigh all the facts carefully before you make your judgment.

Feedback: Other views on defense lawyers in massacre

"Holmes' lawyers have two choices: plead guilty to spare him the death penalty, or go to trial with a mental defense. But I predict the mental defense will fail."

—Marcia Clark, prosecutor, O.J. Simpson trial;

author of new novel Guilt by Degrees

"Many have said it's unfair to give the alleged gunman free, top-notch lawyers. But lawyers are guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, so even suspects like Holmes get the fairest trial possible."

Syrian army supply crisis has regime on brink of collapse, say defectors

General who swapped sides says regime can last 'two months at most' as troop morale sinks and petrol trucks are ambushed

A portrait of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, burning during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops near Aleppo.

Bashar al-Assad's military machine is on the brink of logistical meltdown and collapse, because it lacks petrol and food, and is having problems resupplying its soldiers, according to a Syrian general who has defected to the opposition.
Much has been made of the Syrian military's supposed superiority over the opposition, but General Mohammad Al-Zobi told the Guardian: "The benzine is nearly finished. They are running out of rockets. There is scarcely any bread or water for the soldiers."
Zobi defected two months ago alongside his air force colleague General Saed Shawamra. They slipped out from Tiftanaz airbase in the middle of the night. From the city of Idlib they crept across the border to Turkey. On Wednesday they crossed back into Syria, their mission now to finish off the revolution against Assad.
The men, from Dera'a province, are among around 100 senior military commanders who have joined Syria's rebels, appalled – they say – by Assad's brutal war against his own population. According to Zobi, the embattled Syrian regime can last "one or two months at most". "After that Assad will leave Syria. He'll go to Russia or maybe Iran," Zobi predicted, sitting in a village in rustic northern Syria, close to the Turkish border.
It is, of course, in the interests of the rebels to paint a picture of a crumbling regime on the brink of collapse, but it chimes with the view of General Robert Mood, the former head of the UN monitoring mission in Syria, who told Reuters on Friday: "In my opinion it is only a matter of time before a regime that is using such heavy military power and disproportional violence against the civilian population is going to fall.
"Every time there are 15 people killed in a village, 500 additional sympathisers are mobilised, roughly 100 of whom are fighters," Mood said.
But Mood suggested it may take more than a few months for Assad's regime to fall. "In the short term it may very well be possible for him to [hold on], because the military capabilities of the Syrian army are much, much stronger than those of the opposition," he said.
"The minute you see larger military formations leaving the ranks of the government to join the opposition, then that is when it starts accelerating … This could last for months or even years," he said.
Over the past few months the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has taken control of large swaths of the countryside, carving out a mini-empire in the north and east. The regime is largely confined to urban areas.
This new geographical reality has given opposition fighters the capacity to degrade the military's creaking supply chain. The FSA has ambushed army petrol tankers. And it has shot up trucks laden with provisions, according to Zobi. Earlier this week fighters also attacked an armoured column sent from Idlib to reinforce government positions inside Aleppo, the city partially seized by the rebels last Friday.
The rebel commander in charge of Idlib province, Mohammad Issa, said his fighters were camped outside regime-held Idlib but had decided not to enter the city. They were anxious to avoid the fate of Bab al-Hawr, the district of Homs pulverised by Assad's forces. "We are besieging the army. The army isn't besieging the FSA. We know all the movements of the regime army," Issa said confidently.
The two generals had been in charge of helicopters at the Tiftanaz base, outside Idlib. Because of rebel attacks on supply routes, the garrison was now forced to fly in food and ammunition by plane from Aleppo, they said. It was a similar picture in other army bases, increasingly vulnerable and cut off, Zobi suggested.
Assad's greatest advantage over his lightly armed opponents comes from the sky. Syria has 150 Soviet-built helicopters, including M8 and M17 troop transporters, capable of transporting 24 soldiers each. Russia had also delivered "five or six new helicopters" over the past month, the generals said.
But the president's most lethal weapon is his notorious M25 helicopter gunship. Syria has 22 of them, stationed in pairs at every airbase across the country, according to Zobi. They are remorseless killing machines able to fire 64 rockets on each mission and 2,000 machine gun rounds of varying calibres. They can stay in the air for four and a half hours.
"You can't shoot them down. It's impossible. They fly at an altitude of 4.5kms, above the range of a Kalashnikov," Zobi said. The gunships have a crew of four: two pilots, a gunner and an engineer.
The general added: "We defected after our superior gave us an unambiguous order to shoot everything on the ground."
"We didn't want to kill our own civilians," Shawamra explained.
The officers' unprecedented insider account appears to be corroborated by events inside Aleppo, where 34 people were killed on Thursday, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Residents reported seeing two M25s: one above Salheddin in the south of the city, the other hovering over Sakhour in the east. The gunships are likely to play a key role in an imminent government offensive to drive the rebels out.
The generals also painted a portrait of a demoralised Assad army. Some 30% of the president's soldiers had deserted, they said, almost all of them Sunni Muslims. Those who remained were Alawites – members of Assad's ruling sect – and members of other Shia groups, convinced that Syria was descending into a Rwandan-style sectarian war.
Spirits were low, Zobi added. "They [the soldiers] are nervous, tired and hungry. Most have been on their bases for three or four months," he said.
"They haven't seen their families. When they call their wives there is a spy listening on the line. Many soldiers are in military prisons.
"And anyone who deserts and who is caught is immediately shot."
Other defectors who had made their way to northern Syria confirmed the generals' bleak view, and said the rank and file in Assad's army wanted out. "The soldiers want to leave the army but they are very afraid. They want a no-fly zone to protect them. They are afraid they will themselves be shelled," Major Salem said. He declined to give his second name, and said his family was in a regime area.
Salem defected on 17 December 2011. He spent five months battling the FSA in Homs, including in the old city. "We had orders to shoot the hospital and kill civilians. Government forces shot everybody. No difference whether it was a child, woman, or old man," he said. "I left because I had to defend my people, my family."
Mortars, artillery, planes, and tanks had all been used to punish Homs, he said, one of the epicentres of Syria's 16-month rebellion. He also claimed that nerve gas had been used in the Al-Rastan district.
"I was still in the army at the time. It was dropped from a plane," he alleged.
"Not everybody likes the regime. But everybody fears the regime," Fares Kardash, 24, another defector, said.
Kardash recalled how he had worked as a driver for Assad's personal pilot, a high-ranking officer in air force intelligence based at Damascus international airport.
Kardash – a Sunni, who was imprisoned in 2010 – said that when the fighting started, Syria's top brass swapped their Mercedes staff cars for Toyota Prado 4x4s. He said he had glimpsed Syria's president on "14 or 15 occasions" getting into his Russian Yak jet at Damascus airport. "He is a donkey. He's killing his own people," Kardash said.
The jet was lavishly equipped with a kitchen, comfortable chairs, and presidential phone, he added. Assad also owned three French Dolphin 117 civilian helicopters, used to ferry him around.
The president's current whereabouts are unknown. He has not been seen since last week's devastating bomb attack in Damascus killed four members of his military-security command. Some observers believe that Assad is unlikely to flee the country, and will fight on until the end.
But General Shawamra demurred. He sketched out Assad's likely escape route: a plane to the impregnable Russian naval base in Tartus, Syria's port city on the Mediterranean, and from there to Moscow or somewhere else. "The Russians have so many guards. Nobody could shoot their way past them," he reasoned.
And then there is the economic aspect fuelling discontent and mutiny inside Syria's military structure. Shawamra said that after 25 arduous years as a career staff officer he had been earning a salary of 31,000 dinars a month when he ran away – a meagre £300. Kardash said he had been getting just £140 a month. "In half a month it's all gone," he joked.
And what of the supposed FSA attack on the national security headquarters in Damascus last week? The blast killed the president's brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, as well as his national security chief, Hisham Bakhtiar, who died of wounds several days later. Syrian state TV quickly released news of the explosion – an atypical move that has fuelled numerous conspiracy theories inside Syria, including that the officers were executed after a palace coup against Assad that went wrong.
General Zobi, however, said the FSA had indeed blown the commanders up. The plot loosely resembled the failed attempt by Von Stauffenberg to blow up Adolf Hitler, he suggested. "We used 15 kilos of TNT," he said. "It was smuggled inside in small amounts. Some of it was under the table and the rest was in a room next door."
And was there a suicide bomber? "No," the general said. "We detonated it remotely."

Facebook investors hope wild ride ends soon

Facebook shares were down 6.7 percent in active trading ahead of its results. 

Facebook shares were plunging as some investors waited for the social media giant’s first earnings report later on Thursday and others jumped into options trying to hedge their bets in anticipation that the stock would find its right price.

Facebook shares were down 6.7 percent in active trading ahead of its results. The surge in action is partially due to the grim outlook from game development company Zynga Inc whose games such as “FarmVille” and “CityVille” made up more than a tenth of Facebook’s revenue last year.

Zynga shares were getting hammered, losing 39 percent to $3.09 a share. The stock has now lost nearly 70 percent from its initial public offering price of $10 in December.

Meanwhile, options trading volume in Facebook jumped just hours before the company’s first quarterly performance report as a public-traded company.

Facebook was the fifth heaviest-traded stock on the Nasdaq with volume of 19.2 million shares, compared to a 10-day average of 15.8 million shares. The stock was off 4.3 percent at $28.06.

Implied volatility on Facebook options was at an all-time high as volume surged. About 65,000 calls and 68,000 puts traded in the morning, above an average daily volume of 127,000 contracts, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert.

“The market has never received any guidance from upper management of Facebook on issues that have been concerning to the market. No one has come out to calm the waters and today’s report will be doing just that,” said Brian Overby, senior options analyst at TradeKing.

More noteworthy was the heavy selling of out-of-the-money calls and out-of-the-money puts in Facebook - options contracts with strike prices that are significantly above (for a call option) or below (for a put option) the market price of the underlying asset.

These are basically contracts without any intrinsic value. Selling out-of-the-money options contacts is a strategy used to increase an investor’s return for stocks that are stalled, or expected to trade in a narrow range.

It suggests investors believe the first two rocky months of Facebook action, which saw the stock fall as far as $25.52 after debuting at $38 a share, will finally ease.

“Up until now, trades on Facebook have been all over the place, literally.

But today, we are seeing a lot of selling of the out-of-the money calls and out-of-the money puts,” Overby said, suggesting options investors are expecting Facebook to settle at a price range that is considered “right.”

Zynga, which disappointed the market with quarterly results that badly missed Wall Street targets and slashed its 2012 outlook, had the heaviest volume on the Nasdaq, with about 60 million trades, compared to 10-day average of 21 million.

Option volume was running 2.1 times the average daily turnover with 26,000 puts and 32,000 calls traded in the morning, according to Trade Alert.

In contrast, the Nasdaq index was up 1 percent.

Despite the steep decline in their share prices, Facebook and Zynga are both trading well above their market valuations, based on StarMine analysis.

Facebook is trading at around 70 times earnings, according to Thomson Reuters data. An analysis by Thomson Reuters StarMine puts the company’s intrinsic value at a modest $9.72 a share, or about one-third its current value, based on estimates of the company’s projected growth for the next decade.

Earlier in the week analysts, on average, were expecting revenue in the second quarter to grow 28 percent to $1.15 billion.

Francois Hollande tells ministers to have staycation

President Francois Hollande has urged his ministers to stay in France for their holidays to set an example to citizens feeling the economic pinch and unable to afford foreign breaks.

French President Francois Hollande 

Mr Hollande also reminded his cabinet it had signed a "morality code" to "refuse all luxury breaks offered by foreign governments' and told ministers to remain "reachable and available" at all times, particularly in view of the euro crisis.

Members of government should not accept any summer breaks at the expense of French or foreign taxpayers, he told them in a council of ministers meeting.

The President, who sold himself to France as Mr Normal and once declared "I don't like the rich", wants at all costs to avoid the type of controversies that plagued the cabinet of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.

The worst faux pas came from Michèle Alliot-Marie, Mr Sarkozy's foreign minister, who took a hospitality jet while on holiday in Tunisia when revolutionary unrest was already under way. The plane belonged to a Tunisian billionaire close to ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

François Fillon, Mr Sarkozy's prime minister then admitted to taking a holiday in Egypt with his family paid for by deposed President Hosni Mubarak's government.

Mr Sarkozy himself shocked the French by borrowing the private jet and yacht of billionaire friend and industrialist Vincent Bolloré days after his election, leaving an indelible "bling" stain on his presidency.
Unfazed, he and second wife Cecilia then flew to the US to holiday in a 22,000 (£17,000) a week luxury villa at Wolfeboro. He used Mr Bolloré's jet again to stay with wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy in Egypt, later taking lavish holidays in Jordan, Mexico and Brazil.
After losing his re-election bid in May, the Sarkozys stayed in a palatial apartment in Marrakesh belonging to King Mohammed before jetting off to Canada to take a break in the home of a wealthy media, insurance and investment tycoon.
Mr Hollande and girlfriend Valerie Trierweiler will, in contrast, be taking two small breaks totalling just four days at the 11th century presidential retreat of the Fort de Bregançon on the French Riviera. It may sound idyllic, but Charles de Gaulle was so unhappy after one "nightmarish" mosquito-plagued night there in an undersized bed in 1964 that he never set foot in the place again.
Heeding Mr Hollande's call, prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault will spend two weeks at his holiday home on the Ile de Rhuys in Brittany – the top summer destination for French ministers.

London Olympics 2012: Danny Boyle excited for the volunteers as the Opening Ceremony approaches

Danny Boyle has said that he is excited on behalf of the 10,000 volunteers who will bring his vision to life in the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

The Oscar-winning director will tonight lay his singular personal vision of Britain, titled The Isles of Wonder, before a global audience of several hundred million people as the London Games formally begin.

Seven years after the city was awarded the Olympics, London seems set fair for a largely dry, warm evening for the showpiece moment.

The heatwave of the week has given way to showers in the capital, but they are forecast to clear in time for the start of the ceremony at 9pm.

More than 10,000 volunteers, including a large number of NHS nurses, have given up their time to take part in the show, rehearsing in the dreadful conditions that have marred most of the summer, and Boyle said his thoughts were with them today.

“It has been a long road but we are almost there, and I am thinking about the volunteers.

"Directors really just sit at the back, but this is a live performance and they are the ones who have to go out there and do it.
"Any nervousness I feel is for them, and the excitement I feel I hope they share."
Boyle said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all involved.
“I’m looking forward to it, it will never come round again, so it’s very exciting.”
The final moments of the Opening Ceremony, including the lighting of the cauldron, remain secret, with bookmakers taking bets on the Queen, as well as Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Roger Bannister.
Boyle is determined that it should remain secret.
The ceremony is “heading for a sell-out” according to the London organising committee, with just 50 tickets left by lunchtime.
As Boyle made his final preparations the Olympic torch completed the penultimate leg of its journey from Olympia to Stratford by river, travelling from Hampton Court Palace to the Tower of London aboard the royal barge Gloriana.
With more than 130 world leaders gathering in London for the Opening Ceremony, prime minister David Cameron said it was an opportunity to show the world “the best of Britain”.
“It's very exciting ... I think it's a great opportunity to show the world the best of Britain, a country that's got an incredibly rich past but actually a very exciting and vibrant future,” he said.
“Somebody asked me yesterday what face of Britain I wanted to put forward, Blur or the beefeaters, and frankly it's both.
"We have got a great past, a very exciting future and this is a great moment for our country, so we must seize it.”

Pakistani Taliban threatens Burma

The Pakistan Taliban has warned Islamabad to cut ties with Burma or face attacks in support of persecuted Muslims in the south-east Asian country.

Activists of Muslim Youth Hyderabad burn an effigy of the President of Burma, Thein Sein, during a protest against Muslim killings in Burma.

In a statement released on Thursday, a spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), promised to take revenge for attacks on Burmese Muslims.

"We warn Pakistani government to halt all relations with Burmese government and close down their embassy in Islamabad otherwise we will not only attack the Burmese interests anywhere but will also attack the Pakistani fellows of Burma one by one," said Ehsanullah Ehsan.

"We appeal to media especially who call themselves representative of Muslims to broadcast the real situation in Burma and what's happening to Burmese Muslims."

Recent clashes in western Burma between Buddhist ethnic Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya have left dozens dead and tens of thousands homeless.

Decades of discrimination have left the Rohingya stateless, and they are viewed by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

Last week Amnesty International said there were "credible reports" of abuses – including rape, destruction of property and unlawful killings – by both Rakhine Buddhists and by Burmese government forces.
Thousands have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh as a result.
A Pakistan government spokesman expressed concern for Muslims in Burma.
"Pakistan hopes that government of Burma would take effective measures to overcome the deteriorating law and order situation," he said.
The TTP has close ties to al-Qaeda but few analysts believe it has the capacity to launch attacks beyond Pakistan.

Morocco activists outraged over Israeli dates imported for Ramadan

Several types of dates have recently invaded Moroccan local markets in packages that have the addresses and phone numbers of the factories that produced them in Israel.

A group of Moroccan activists voiced their objections over the way Israeli dates have invaded local markets and became part of Ramadan meals in what they termed as a call for normalization with the Jewish state.

Activists called upon vendors to boycott all Israeli products and expose those who export them and demanded that the Islamist government issues a law that criminalizes all actions that promote normalization.

Several types of dates have recently invaded Moroccan local markets in packages that have the addresses and phone numbers of the factories that produced them in Israel.

Human rights activist Khaled al-Soufiyani, coordinator of the National Action Group for Solidarity with Palestine and Iraq, complained of the insensitivity of allowing Israeli dates to be sold in Moroccan markets.

“Buying and consuming those dates are an insult to the feelings of Moroccans, most of whom reject normalization with Israel, and a support of Israeli occupation,” he said.

Soufiyani added that trading in Israeli dates and eating them in Ramadan also belittle the Palestinian struggle and make the blood they spill in vain.

Israeli dates, which reach Morocco via Europe, compete with dates imported from Tunisia, Algeria, the UAE, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Those dates are imported under the pretext that the current supply is not enough for local consumption especially with the high demand in the holy month of Ramadan.

Ahmed al-Raysouni, supervisor of the Islamic Jurisprudence Complex in Jeddah, has issued an earlier fatwa prohibiting dealing with dates imported from Israel.

“It is prohibited to sell, buy, import or export dates from Israel,” Raysouni said.

Mohamed Banjelon Andalusi, head of the Moroccan Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian Struggle, expressed his outrage at the spread of Israeli dates in Moroccan markets.

“In the past, Israeli dates used to enter Moroccan markets under fake names for camouflage, but now it is done in the most blatant manner,” he said.

For Andalusi, having the names of Israeli factories on date packages is indicative of increasing tendency for normalization with the Jewish state on the part of the Moroccan government.

Andalusi added that his association had sent earlier a letter to the government calling for the criminalization of all sorts of normalization including trade.

“We have not received a response and what is happening on the ground shows that our demands are being totally overlooked,” he said.

CIA ‘overlooked’ documents related to bin Laden movie

The CIA “inadvertently overlooked” documents related to an upcoming movie based on the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

The Central Intelligence Agency said it “inadvertently overlooked” documents related to an upcoming movie about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, now titled “Zero Dark Thirty,” CNN reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, the CIA had failed to hand over the documents, which were related to the agency’s assistance to filmmakers creating the movie, as part of a lawsuit filed against the CIA and the Department of Defense.

A court document revealed the oversight in the lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, “which is seeking information about how much the CIA and Pentagon disclosed about the raid by cooperating with filmmakers,” CNN reported.

“The CIA discovered a 4- to 5-inch stack of records,” the filing by the government’s attorney, Marcia Berman told CNN.

“From its initial review of the documents, the CIA has determined that the newly discovered documents are responsive to plaintiff’s request but contain some duplicates of produced records,” Berman added.

Judicial Watch said the documents, which consist of 30 files (primarily e-mails), were supposed to be handed over two months ago under a federal court order.

“The documents showed, for example, that a defense official offered the filmmakers access to a planner from SEAL Team 6, the super-secret Special Operations unit that successfully executed the high-stakes raid in Pakistan last year,” CNN reported, adding that it is not clear if any such access eventually took place.

U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said in August last year that the Defense Department is cooperating with filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal as they work on a motion picture about the raid that killed bin Laden.

The two, who collaborated on the Oscar-winning Iraq war movie “The Hurt Locker,” had reportedly been developing the bin Laden film even before the al-Qaeda leader was killed on May 2011 in a raid on a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

The CIA documents reportedly include a transcript from a meeting, on July 14 of last year, in which “Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers told Bigelow and Boal that the defense department would offer up a plum interview,” CNN reported.

“This new ‘discovery’ and resulting delay stinks to high heaven - maybe an independent criminal leak investigation can look into this issue, too,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told CNN.

The government has asked the court for an extension until August 24 to properly review the documents but Judicial Watch is objecting to the request.

“They are suggesting that many are duplicative, so even less reason,” not to turn them over sooner,” he said.

In August last year, the U.S. administration dismissed concerns that classified information has been divulged to assist moviemakers producing a film about the U.S. special forces raid that killed bin Laden.

Republican Peter King, Chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, had called for an investigation into contacts between the administration and the filmmakers. King questioned whether special operations methods had been compromised.

“The claims are ridiculous,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told a White House briefing in August 2011.

“We do not discuss classified information. And I would hope that as we face the continued threat from terrorism, the House Committee on Homeland Security would have more important topics to discuss than a movie,” Carney added.

According to a Reuters report also in August 2011, the film, focusing on one of President Barack Obama’s key successes in office, is due to be released in October 2012, less than a month before the election in which the Democrat is seeking a second term.

U.S.-Muslim group calls for boycott of dates grown on Israeli-occupied land

The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) started the campaign titled “This Ramadan Make a Date with Justice: Choose Occupation-Free Dates.”

Two days before the beginning of Ramadan, an American Muslim group based in the U.S. launched a nationwide campaign calling for the boycott of dates grown on Israeli-occupied land in the West Bank.

The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) started the campaign, titled “This Ramadan Make a Date with Justice: Choose Occupation-Free Dates,” as another step in the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that targets Israeli products on the international market. BDS began in 2005 as a form of non-violent protest to the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine.

“Unfortunately, many Muslims unknowingly use Israeli dates, most of which are grown in Israeli settlements built illegally on Palestinian land,” said Mr. Awad Hamdan, AMP National Programs director told Al Arabiya.

Awad said: “It’s about educating the American people; Muslim and non-Muslim community.”

The AMP aims to inform the public of the origins of products that support Israeli settlements, and timed its most recent campaign to coincide with a holiday in which dates get a lot of attention.

“We decided to launch the campaign during the month of Ramadan to gain speed very quickly and it has resulted to be successful. Dates are a product bought a lot from Muslim consumers during Ramadan because it’s typically eaten to break from their fast,” said Awad.

According to a recent report by the Israeli Haaretz daily, many date farms are also exploiting farmhands and using other questionable labor practices. The Israeli newspaper said it found that child workers were being forced to stay in date trees for up to nine hours in the sun, and that farm owners were discriminating against Palestinian workers by paying them less than their Israeli counterparts.

“People are always asking about how they can get involved, and there is a way for the average American who isn’t in politics or in the government to do something. It’s a simple step of a conscious decision out of the customer to stand for justice,” said Jamil Morrar, supporter of the boycott campaign and owner of a grocery store called Red Sea Food Market and Halal Meat in southern California.

Morrar said that his store has never sold Israeli products and it was only natural to join the boycott. “We do get occasional requests and questioned for certain products we don’t carry, but once we tell them why, customers are very understanding and appreciate it,” he told Al Arabiya.

Over 170 groups joined the BDS movement when it began in 2005, including many Jewish organizations like Jewish Voices for Peace.

“We support these kinds of actions. We believe that justice is important and feel that this is one perfect opportunity to stand with our Muslim brothers and sisters,” said Sydney Levy, a member and staff write for JVP.

“This movement will remind consumers day to day that they can have a choice to be accomplice with injustice or make a small step to detach themselves from injustice,” he said.

AMP wants consumers to stop buying dates from the company Hadiklaim, sold under brands like Jordan River, Jordan River Bio-Tops and King Solomon.

“Instead, people can support the American economy by purchasing dates produced in California and Arizona,” noted Awad.

Bo Xilai's wife Gu Kailai charged for murdering Briton Neil Heywood

Gu Kailai, the wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, has been charged with murdering British businessman Neil Heywood, according to state media.

The British businessman Neil Heywood and Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai

Mrs Gu and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly at Bo's home, were "recently" prosecuted by a Chinese court, Xinhua news agency said, without giving further details.

Xinhua said there was "irrefutable and substantial" evidence that the pair had poisoned Neil Heywood, a British businessman who had commercial dealings with Bo and his wife.

"Investigation results show that Bogu Kailai, one of the defendants, and her son surnamed Bo had conflicts with the British citizen Neil Heywood over economic interests," said Xinhua, using Gu's married name.

"Worrying about Neil Heywood's threat to her son's personal security, Bogu Kailai along with Zhang Xiaojun, the other defendant, poisoned Neil Heywood to death."

Little is known about the nature of Heywood's relationship with the couple's son Bo Guagua, although he is reported to have helped secure a place for him at Harrow, the exclusive school that Heywood himself attended.

The younger Bo recently graduated from Harvard.
Heywood's death in a Chinese hotel room last November was initially blamed on excessive alcohol consumption.
Gu and Zhang have been interrogated and will be tried at a court in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei "on a day to be decided", Xinhua said, adding that their families had been informed.
If convicted, Gu faces the death penalty, although this is often commuted in the case of high-profile defendants.
The scandal, which first came to light in February, has sent shockwaves through the highest echelons of power in China and led to Bo being sacked from his post as Communist Party leader of the megacity of Chongqing.
Analysts say it has exposed deep divisions within the Communist Party ahead of a crucial, once-in-a-decade leadership transition due to take place at a party congress this autumn.
Li Datong, a former editor at the state-run China Youth Daily who was removed for reporting on sensitive issues, said China's leaders would be keen to settle the case before then.
"The whole thing should be handled before the 18th Party Congress. Everything has to be resolved - Bo Xilai, Gu Kailai, everything," he said.
"They cannot leave this problem for the next leadership. It has to be handled now."
Li said the case had only come out into the open as it did because Wang Lijun, a senior official in Chongqing, had gone to a US consulate in southern China to express his suspicions about Bo and his family.
"No one would have known of this case without Wang Lijun. The people would not know, the party would not know. This is why it exploded," he said.
"This time (the Party) was unable to cover it up. It was too big for them to cover up."
Bo, the son of a revered Communist revolutionary, had earned a national profile with a draconian crackdown on criminal elements in Chongqing and a "red revival" campaign marked by the mass singing of old Maoist-era songs.
Many analysts saw the moves as a bid for entry to China's inner circle.
But the rapid unravelling of his fortunes has exposed a harsh factional reaction against the charismatic and ambitious leader, and the affair has been seen as a huge embarrassment for the party.
He is thought to be under house arrest and is being investigated for corruption. He has been stripped of his senior positions with the ruling Communist Party, although he remains a member.
Thursday's announcement came a little over a week after Patrick Devillers, a French architect said to have been close to Gu, travelled to China to assist in the official inquiry.
Devillers, 52, is understood to have been a business associate and friend of Bo and his wife, although his exact role is unclear.
He is believed to have first crossed paths with the couple in the 1990s, when Bo hired him to do some architectural work in the Chinese city of Dalian.
He was detained in Phnom Penh, where he had been living, on June 13 at Beijing's request and boarded a flight to China after he was released by Cambodian authorities.
Cambodian officials and the French foreign ministry have stressed it was Devillers' own choice to help Beijing with its investigation. China has so far made no comment.

London olympics 2012 organisers apologise for North Korea flag blunder

North Korean women's football team leave pitch in protest after their players appear on screens with South Korea's flag

The North Korean Olympic women's football team enter the stadium at Hampden Park, where the match was delayed after a flag mix-up.

London 2012 organisers have apologised and blamed human error for Wednesday's flag mix-up when South Korea's flag appeared alongside North Korea's women's football team on stadium screens as players warmed up before their opening match.
The team left the pitch in protest at the blunder and initially refused to play but the game with Colombia at Hampden Park, Glasgow, eventually kicked off more than an hour late after hurried corrections to the video rectified the spectacular mistake. On Thursday, North Korea's Olympic team accepted repeated apologies.
Paul Deighton, the chief executive of the London organising committee for the Olympics, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It was a mistake. It is as simple as that. We have apologised and taken steps to make sure that it cannot happen again. It was simple human error."
Kick-off was due at 7.45pm but the aggrieved North Koreans did not restart their warmup until just before 8.30pm, after the flag was replaced with the correct one on the scoreboards following extensive negotiations behind the scenes. The match eventually kicked off at 8.50pm.
The incident will cause huge discomfort to Games organisers. Not only have hundreds of thousands of tickets for the men's and women's football tournaments been unsold, but 2012 organisers had been particularly keen to avoid such sensitive protocol blunders when it came to anthems and flags at medal ceremonies.
After the game North Korea's coach, Ui Gun-sin, said that winning their match 2-0 did not compensate for the mix-up. Ui said: "The national flag difference is a big problem. Our team was not going to participate unless the problem was solved properly. Unfortunately it took some time later for the broadcast [on the big screen] to be done again properly and we made the decision to go on with the match."
Ui added: "We were angry because our players were shown as if they were from South Korea, which affects us very greatly. Our players cannot be shown with other flags, especially the South Korean one. If this matter had not been solved, continuing would have been a nonsense."
South Korea and North Korea, established as separate entities in 1948, have a tense relationship. Only two years ago, North Korean artillery killed four people, two from the military and two civilians, on Yeonpyeong Island in South Korea.
North Korea has a successful history of playing football on these shores. During the 1966 World Cup they achieved a famous upset, defeating Italy 1-0 at Middlesbrough's Ayresome Park, before eventually losing 5-3 to Portugal in the quarter-finals.
However, North Korea is familiar with Olympic controversies. The country boycotted the 1988 Games after being snubbed as co-hosts with Seoul, the capital city of their neighbours.
The Colombia coach, Ricardo Rozo, felt the incident had affected his players. "It affected us," he said, "because you have to stop and we didn't know what was happening for a while but it was just something strange, something particular to this situation with North Korea involved and it hasn't damaged our feeling of the competition or the hosts."

Barack Obama vows to pursue gun measures in wake of latest massacre

Speaking to a nation raw from its latest mass shooting, US President Barack Obama vowed on Wednesday to pursue "common-sense" measures to make sure mentally unbalanced people cannot get their hands on guns.

Barack Obama: “My administration will do everything that we can to support the people of Aurora in this extraordinarily difficult time.”  

Obama did not mention any specific law or measure but said he would work with both parties in Congress to try to achieve a "consensus around violence reduction" in the wake of last Friday's massacre at a cinema in Colorado.

"I, like most Americans, believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to bear arms," he told the National Urban League Convention in New Orleans, referring to part of the US Constitution.

"I think we recognise the traditions of gun ownership that passed on from generation to generation – that hunting and shooting are part of a cherished national heritage.

"But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals – that they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities," he said.

Calls for a re-examination of America's gun laws mounted in the aftermath of the tragedy in Aurora as it emerged that suspect James Holmes bought four weapons legally.

Over eight weeks, Holmes stocked up on the internet on 6,300 rounds of ammunition: 3,000 for his .233 semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, another 3,000 for his two Glock pistols, and 300 cartridges for his pump-action shotgun.
Holmes, a 24-year-old graduate student, also bought a special magazine for his AR-15 military-style assault rifle that enabled him to fire up to 50 to 60 rounds per minute.
Obama said he had already stepped up background checks on those who buy weapons in the wake of last year's shooting in Tucson, Arizona that left six people dead and Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords fighting for her life.
"But even though we have taken these actions, they're not enough. Other steps to reduce violence have been met with opposition in Congress. This has been true for some time, particularly when it touches on the issue of guns," he said.
"I believe the majority of gun owners would agree we should do everything possible to prevent criminals and fugitives from purchasing weapons. And we should check someone's criminal record before they can check out a gun seller.
"A mentally unbalanced individual should not be able to get his hands on a gun so easily. These steps shouldn't be controversial. They should be common-sense."
A group of Democratic lawmakers pushed to ban assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines Tuesday in the wake of the Colorado massacre, but congressional leaders are unwilling to touch the volatile issue.
Advocates of stricter gun control measures argue that America is more prone to mass shootings than other countries because the law in many states is too lenient.
They have been disappointed by Obama, but political pragmatists see that he could be committing electoral suicide if he took up such an explosive issue at the current time.
The gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association (NRA), is well-funded and a powerful player in Washington. It argues that crazy people do crazy things and says that clamping down on fundamental American liberties will achieve nothing.
Several key battlegrounds in November's elections – Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, for example – have gun-friendly populations that remain wedded to their right to bear arms.