Picture this: Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei joins Instagram

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, has now begun using the photo-sharing application Instagram.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, having already amassed nearly five thousand twitter followers, has now begun using the photo-sharing application Instagram, according to media reports.

The man who has been Iran’s spiritual guide since 1989 currently has 757 followers and has uploaded five images using a range of filters that are available on the app.

The images are mainly of the Ayatollah attending prayer services and meetings. In one photograph the supreme leader is seen in the foreground whilst behind him, dimmed by the Instagram filter, is Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seen in profile talking with Khamenei's security detail, Ahmad Vahid Dastjerdi, according to The Atlantic.

Iran was reported last year to be working on establishing an internal Iranian network, and said that it intended to sever the country from the World Wide Web. However in April, Iranian officials denied the report.

Three years ago, the country’s authorities interrupted internet connectivity after Iranians used social media to coordinate mass demonstrations and also to inform the world about the regime's crackdown on pro-reform protests after foreign media was expelled from the country.

Syrian U.N. envoy claims media ‘fabricated lies’ about him and his family

Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari , whose daughter served as an advisor to President Bashar al-Assad, has become the international face of the Syrian government as it faces mounting international condemnation over the country’s bloody conflict.

Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said Friday that he and his family had been the target of death threats and that he had alerted U.S. authorities.

Jaafari, whose daughter served as an advisor to President Bashar al-Assad, has become the international face of the Syrian government as it faces mounting international condemnation over the country’s bloody conflict.

According to AFP, the envoy told the U.N. General Assembly he was “proud to defend the interests of my nation against all conspiracies.”

But in countering a resolution condemning his government, Jaafari hit out at the death threats and at personal attacks he said had been made by the media in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

“There have been several threats of murder against me and various Syrian diplomats from sites that exist in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and the United States,” Jaafari was quoted by AFP as telling the 193-member assembly before the Saudi-sponsored resolution was passed.

“Saudi and Qatari media are no longer satisfied with targeting my country but have targeted me personally and members my family in an immoral way, an unethical way and a shameful way.”

He said entire television programs in the two countries devoted to him had “fabricated lies and false statements to distort the reputation of members of my family.”

Jaafari did not say which members of his family had been targeted but his 22-year-old daughter Sheherazad Jaafari (often referred to as Sherry) has been featured widely in Western and Arab media since the start of the conflict. She is due to start a course at Columbia University in New York next month.

“Diplomacy is one thing but having members of your family targeted for that is something else entirely, and I leave that to your conscience all of you,” Jaafari told U.N. ambassadors in the assembly.

Afterwards, the Syrian envoy told reporters that he had informed U.S. authorities of the threats against him, AFP reported.

Sheherazad was in early 2011 an intern at international public relations firm Brown Lloyd James (BLJ) in New York who had the Syrian government as a client, offering advice on strategy for handling and improving the public image of the regime as it escalated its violent crackdown on protesters. She then left BLJ to work at the Syrian presidential palace, where she handled Western media for Assad.

BLJ managed to feature the Syrian first lady in Vogue magazine in an article written by long-time contributor to the magazine Joan Juliet Buck.

Al Arabiya obtained an email by BLJ partner Mike Holtzman to Sheherazad (who was still working with BLJ and arranging for the Vogue story) on December 13, 2010 asking her to “remember that Joan has no impression at all of Syria.”

According to the leaked email, Holtzman goes on to instruct Sherry to “not mention anything controversial to her (Joan)”, this included “lists Syria maybe on, rumor, etc.”

After the leaked emails were published by Al Arabiya, Buck confirmed in an article in the Daily Beast that she met Holtzman and Sheherazad in Syria.

Furthermore, leaked emails revealed how Sheherazad almost single handedly arranged for well-known American journalist Barbara Waters secure an interview with Assad in December 2011.

An angry backlash in Damascus after the interview was aired did not prevent Sheherazad from staying in touch with Walters but she even asked her for endorsement to enroll at the prestigious graduate program at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

The Al Arabiya leaked emails also exposed that famed U.S. journalist Charlie Rose was asking Sheherazad for help in securing an interview with Assad simultaneously as she was asking him for help to find a job in the U.S.

“I love u and I would love to be ur assistant,” she wrote to Rose, whom she describes in another email as her "favorite Anchor!”, on Jan. 23, 2012. In his reply, Rose said he appreciates Sherry’s enthusiasm for him and his work, but he has doesn't have time to meet.

In the series of Sheherazad’s leaked emails published in July, Al Arabiya English refrained from publishing any emails or photos deemed personal.

Obama adviser and 'Nudge' author Cass Sunstein to leave White House

A senior adviser and close friend of Barack Obama is to resign from his post in the latest high profile departure from his team

Cass Sunstein 

Cass Sunstein will announce next Friday that he will be leaving his post as the White House 'Regulatory Czar' and will return to Harvard Law School.

For the last three-and-a-half years he has reviewed regulation for the President on everything from financial reform to healthy eating.

But he came under fire from Democrats and some liberal campaign groups who saw him as being too close to business to do his job properly.

The White House declined to comment on the reasons for Mr Sunstein's departure.

Until taking up his post he was best known for being a celebrity academic who co-wrote the book: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

The work influenced David Cameron to open his 'Nudge Unit' which he hoped would work out how to gently persuade people to make better choices.
In 2009 Mr Sunstein took up the obscure role of administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, having reportedly been offered his pick of any job by Mr Obama.
Mr Sunstein, 57, used the post to wield significant influence over a wide range of policy and put into place laws based on 'behavioural economics', which work out ways to incentivise individuals and companies to achieve the best goals for them.
The theory has been hailed as the cornerstone of Mr Obama's health care reform.
Among the other areas which Mr Sunstein reviewed were car fuel efficiency standards, tougher rules on prison rape, healthy eating guidelines and the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform law.
Among liberal campaigners, however, Mr Sunstein was too close to big business and some claimed vital reforms had been 'held hostage' by his office.
Rena Steinzor, a law professor at the University of Maryland and president of the left-leaning Centre for Progressive Reform, accused him of having a "very bad" track record.
She cited the fact that regulations on areas such as air quality were stalled under his watch and said that overall there was "small progress in comparison to the rules he killed".
Mr Sunstein first met the future President at the University of Chicago Law School where they were both teaching.
He subsequently taught at Harvard and will return there to take up the post of Felix Frankfurter professor of law.
His interim replacement will be Boris Bershteyn, the general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget.
Mr Suntein's departure is the latest in a string of key advisers who have left the White House during Mr Obama's first term.
His former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel left to pursue a successful bid to become Mayor of Chicago.
Economic advisers Austan Goolsbee and Larry Summers also left, as did Christina Romer who served on the Council of Economic Advisors.
Dennis Ross, Mr Obama's go-to-man on the Middle East has also departed even though he was the driving force behind US policy towards Iran.
Mr Sunstein's departure was first reported by US politics website Politico.
In a statement Mr Obama hailed Mr Sunstein's "historic accomplishments" and said that he "can't thank him enough for his friendship and for his years of exceptional service".

Taliban opens office in Iran

Iran has increased its support for the Taliban by allowing the militants to open an office in the country while considering the supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to Afghan and Western officials.

Intercepted communications showed members of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps discussing plans to send surface-to-air missiles to Afghanistan. 

By helping the Taliban, Iran aims to derail a decade-long "strategic partnership" signed between Afghanistan and America in April. Tehran would also have the option of stirring violence in Afghanistan in retaliation for any US strike on its nuclear facilities.

A member of the Taliban's "Shura", or ruling council, was allowed to set up an office in May in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan. Two months later, intercepted communications showed members of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps discussing plans to send surface-to-air missiles to Afghanistan, although there was no evidence of the weapons actually being dispatched.

If they were given to the Taliban, this would mark a significant escalation of Iranian support. Iran's Shia regime was an enemy of the Sunni Taliban when the latter ruled most of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. When Taliban forces captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998, they murdered nine Iranian diplomats.

However the US was now seen as "the bigger enemy" a Western official in Kabul told the Wall Street Journal. "Iran is willing to put aside ideology and put aside deeply held religious values for their ultimate goal: accelerating the departure of US forces from Afghanistan," he said.

Nato commanders say Iran has long provided small arms and training to the Taliban. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, last year complained to Tehran after British SAS soldiers seized a convoy carrying Iranian-manufactured 122mm rockets destined for the Taliban.

But the Taliban has received far greater quantities of aid and support from Pakistan.
Iran has also refrained from supplying more advanced weapons, notably the armour-piercing explosive charges that were widely used against American and British forces in Iraq.
Afghanistan's decision to defy Iran and sign a strategic pact with America, paving the way for some US troops to stay in the country beyond 2014, may have led Tehran to give more help to the insurgents.
Jamie Ingram, Middle East analyst at IHS Jane's, a defence consultancy, said he did not expect Iran to give the Taliban "game-changing" weapons like surface-to-air missiles because of the risk of confrontation with America. Accepting Iranian support could also damage the Taliban's standing, he added. "It is worth noting that reports of links to Iran could hurt the Taliban as a lot of their financing comes from people in the Gulf who don't like Iran or Shia Muslims," said Mr Ingram.
"The Pakistani military may not like the Iranians trying to get a toehold of influence in the Taliban either, although the extent to which they view the Iranians as a threat is questionable."
Iran tried its utmost to dissuade Afghanistan from signing the pact with America. Abu Fazel Zohrawand, the hawkish Iranian ambassador to Kabul, told members of Afghanistan's parliament that hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees would be expelled from his country if the agreement was ratified. But his threats backfired when they were reported in the local media: the deal was passed in defiance of perceived Iranian meddling. Tehran briefly recalled Mr Zohrawand from Kabul in protest.
An Afghan official said that some factions in Iran's regime wanted a less confrontational policy. "Tehran is divided on its policy about Afghanistan," he said. He added that diplomats in Kabul expected Mr Zohrawand to be replaced, perhaps by a more "seasoned and reasonable" diplomat like Gholamreza Ansari, a former Iranian ambassador to London.

Syria dispatch: battle for Aleppo hangs in the balance

The rattle of machineguns echoed incessantly as Syrian rebels, wearing combat vests stuffed with ammunition, attacked a football stadium held by President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Aleppo.

A rebel on patrol near Aleppo 

An explosion signalled the destruction of a tank, triggering jubilant cries of "Allahu Akhbar (God is Great)" from the insurgents.

But their celebration was shortlived: the soldiers launched a counter-attack, trying to break through rebel lines. The thin cluster of gunmen approaching the stadium, where perhaps 80 of the regime's tanks are deployed, had to fight hard to avoid being outflanked.

Mr Assad yesterday described the struggle for Aleppo as one that "will determine the destiny of our people and the nation's past, present and future".

In his first public words since July 18, when a bomb killed four key members of his security establishment in Damascus, Mr Assad praised the army as the "shield, wall and fortress of our nation".

But his annual address on Army Day came in the form of a written statement; unusually he did not deliver a speech or appear on television.

Just how high the stakes are in Aleppo was shown by the deployment of jet fighters to carry out air strikes for the first time. The United Nations confirmed that its observers had seen the Syrian air force in action in the city on Tuesday. The monitors also reported that rebels were using tanks and other heavy weapons in the battle for control of Syria's commercial capital, the home of 2.5 million people.
The outcome of this confrontation is hanging in the balance. Moving between rebel positions in a white van that had, in happier times, been a tourist bus, we encountered the destruction caused by a tank shell.
In the smoke and dust, people were trying to retrieve the contents of a devastated row of shops. At that moment, a second tank round slammed into a block of flats 50 yards away. The shock waves from the blast sucked air from our lungs as a cloud of black smoke enveloped the target.
Mr Assad's Russian-equipped army, using the tools developed for war on the plains of Europe, is focusing its attack on the Salahaddin area, a middle-class residential district next to the stadium. This was the third day of fighting in the street leading to what was once Aleppo's showcase football venue.
On the rebel side, the pace is frantic. One of their hardest tasks is to retrieve injured men who have crept forward for a better shot at government troops. "It's very difficult to get the injured – we have to go round the block and come from another way, where no one is in control," said Abdullah Yassin, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighter. One team left on a rescue mission, covered by a barrage of fire from a heavy machinegun. They returned later, but without their wounded comrades.
Close-quarter combat in these streets is a crucial test for the FSA. Although Salahaddin is friendly territory, the rebels have only a tenuous grip on other districts, such as Fardos and Marjeh, leading to the guerrilla supply lines in north-eastern Aleppo.
Getting to Salahaddin means driving down backstreets where the stench of uncollected rotting garbage fills the senses.
Much of central Aleppo is a no-man's land, with the outcome of the battle still unpredictable. Even in areas that the rebels claim to have conquered, pro-regime militias pose a pervasive threat.
At Marjah Medical Clinic, however, insurgent fighters were jubilant. Abu Hamid placed his foot on the head of a bust of Hafez al-Assad, the Syrian leader from 1970 until 2000, and founder of the ruling dynasty. Someone had written "I'm sorry I'm a donkey" in marker pen on the bust.
"I am happy to rest my feet on Hafez al-Assad's head," said Abu Hamid. "He has caused me much pain and I am happy to get something back."
Hundreds have been injured during the battle for Aleppo. The lightly wounded are treated in the city, the more seriously injured are smuggled out to Turkey. Munsel Yarud, 28, who had been drafted into the fight from his native city of Hama, which was also besieged after rising up against Mr Assad, said his stomach wound had not put him off the struggle. "It may be months until I recover, but I will go back and fight until we bring this dictator down," he said.

Parisians warned that naked sunbathers will be jailed

Parisians have been warned to keep their clothes on or face fines and even imprisonment as the city's residents began flocking to parks and the Seine to bask in the summer sun.

People enjoy the sun on Paris-Palges 

In a statement posted on its website, the Paris police prefecture outlined rules for sun bathing outdoors and at the popular Paris Plages annual event that has sandy beaches and deckchairs laid out on the river bank.

Police said it is not forbidden "when the thermometer rises a few degrees to put on your best bathing suit and find a little corner of grass or the welcoming banks of the Seine to put down your towel."

The guidelines specify that bathing suits should not be worn in official city parks and that dress should be "decent and in accordance with good morals and public order."

Those wearing inappropriate dress could be fined at least €38 (£30), with cash penalties of up to €3,750 (£2,950) and two years in jail if suspected of soliciting sex,.

But unlike many beaches in elsewhere in France, topless sunbathing or nudity is completely forbidden on the banks of the River Seine.

"Any outfit that allows for the genital area or breasts to be seen constitutes sexual exhibition and is punishable by a year in prison," police said.

Osama bin Laden's death put al-Qaeda in irreversible decline

The killing of Osama bin Laden has plunged al-Qaeda’s core leadership into a decline it will be hard to reverse, according to an American intelligence report

The report included statistics showing that the overall number of terrorist attacks worldwide fell to 10,283 last year from 11,641 in 2010 

In its annual Country Reports on Terrorism, the State Department described 2011 as a “landmark year”, with the deaths of Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, the group’s deputy leader and Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior figure of its affiliate in Yemen, among other high-profile casualties.

It warned however that affiliates in Yemen and West Africa pose a growing threat to the West.

“As al-Qaeda’s core has gotten weaker, we have seen the rise of affiliated groups around the world. Among these al-Qaeda affiliates, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) represents a particularly serious threat,” it said.

“At year’s end, AQAP had taken control of territory in southern Yemen and was exploiting unrest in that country to advance plots against regional and Western interests.”

Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, also said the Arab Spring had also undermined al-Qaeda’s ideology.

“We saw millions of citizens throughout the Middle East advance peaceful public demands for change without any reference to al Qaeda's incendiary world view,” he said.
The report included statistics showing that the overall number of terrorist attacks worldwide fell to 10,283 last year from 11,641 in 2010.
However, in Pakistan’s tribal regions, long a haven for al-Qaeda’s core, the report said the group had forged close alliances with the Pakistan Taliban and the Haqqani network.
“These alliances have at times provided the group with additional resources and capabilities,” it said.
Islamabad has been under intense American pressure to take action against the Haqqani network, which many in Washington believe is backed by elements of Pakistan’s security services.
The group has been responsible for some of the most spectacular attacks on international forces across the border in Afghanistan, including the September assault on the US embassy and Nato compound in Kabul.
The report was released on the same day as the diplomat nominated to be America’s next ambassador to Pakistan said that getting Islamabad to crack down on the Haqqani network would be his “most urgent” responsibility.
“This will be a primary focus of my activities and diplomatic engagement with Pakistanis, to encourage further measures against the Haqqani network, further squeezing of the Haqqani network,” said Richard Olson during his Senate confirmation hearing.