Titles:

•  Gold Close to Breaking Record as Eurozone Debt Crisis Grows
• Libya accuses NATO of war crimes 
• Egypt hit by new wave of protests as military postpones election
• The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia
• Pakistan threatens to pull out troops from Afghan border if US cuts military aid

  News Details:

  Gold Close to Breaking Record as Eurozone Debt Crisis Grows
  The spot price of gold reached within a few dollars of its all-time record today as the eurozone sovereign debt crisis intensified. Gold is widely considered a hedge against financial and economic risk. The precious metal is up $6.50. It traded at $1,573.80 a troy ounce. On May 2, it reached the record price of $1,576.52 an ounce. "Essentially the same conditions that have boosted gold prices all this month continue to drive bullion higher: [euro-zone] sovereign debt concerns, difficult U.S. debt ceiling negotiations, and economic uncertainty," HSBC analyst James Steel told The Wall Street Journal. On Tuesday, global stocks fell as borrowing costs for Spain and Italy increased. The beleaguered euro fell against the dollar. By Tuesday afternoon, the euro was down 0.9 percent on the day to $1.3905 on word of a credit downgrade for Ireland, Bloomberg reported. The dollar index was also down. The euro recovered on Wednesday as the dollar fell. The European fiat currency changed hands at $1.4074, rising from $1.3975 in North American trade late Tuesday. Ireland now joins the ranks of Greece and Portugal in the "junk" rating category from Moody's. "Yesterday's decision by Moody's to downgrade Ireland's credit rating is incomprehensible," said Jose Manuel Barroso, head of the European Commission. Moody predicts Ireland will soon need another bailout as the eurozone debt crisis worsens. In addition to the eurozone debt crisis, the price of gold was driven higher on word that the Federal Reserve will foist another round of fiat money printing on the economy. According to minutes released on Monday of the late June meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, Fed officials have voiced support for QE3, colloquially referred to as monetary easing. Silver also rallied on word the Fed plans another round of fiat money printing. On Tuesday, the metal ended $36.24 in after hours trading and inched closer to the $50 an ounce barrier. Some analysts predict silver will reach $100 an ounce and may even challenge gold. The current annual global production of silver is estimated at 700 million ounces, but demand is far outpacing limited supplies. 

   

  Libya accuses NATO of war crimes
  An armed Libyan rebel sits next to a sign that reads in Arabic "Attention, sniper danger" .Libya has accused NATO of killing more than 1,100 civilians in its air strikes in support of rebel forces since the end of March. Libyan prosecutor general Mohamed Zekri Mahjubi told foreign journalists in Tripoli he was seeking to prosecute NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Libyan courts for "war crimes"."As NATO secretary general, Rasmussen is responsible for the actions of this organisation which has attacked an unarmed people, killing 1,108 civilians and wounding 4,537 others in bombardment of Tripoli and other cities and villages." Apart from war crimes, Mahjubi accused Rasmussen of trying to kill Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, "deliberate aggression against innocent civilians" and of "the murder of children." Also, the NATO chief stood accused of "trying to overthrow the Libyan regime" and replace it with a rebel movement under its control to "take over the wealth" of oil-rich Libya.

   

  Egypt hit by new wave of protests as military postpones election
  Egypt's first democratic parliamentary elections look set to be postponed until November, amid a growing standoff between the ruling military council and protesters who believe their revolution is being betrayed.The vote was initially scheduled to take place in September, causing concern among many nascent political parties who claim they have not had enough time to prepare since the fall of the former president Hosni Mubarak in February, which ended more than half a century of one-party rule.Many activists argue that an early poll would only benefit those forces which already boast a strong organisational capacity - namely the Muslim Brotherhood and local remnants of Mubarak's NDP party - and some have called for a new constitution to be written before any parliamentary ballot takes place. This week, against a backdrop of nationwide protests against its handling of the post-Mubarak transition period, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) acknowledged for the first time that a delay in elections might be necessary. "Procedures for a parliamentary election will begin in September, possibly the middle of the month. That will involve registration of candidates," an army source told Reuters. "Then there will be a campaigning period ... This could take the voting till after September, possibly November." The military's policy shift on the issue of election scheduling came as a public occupation of Cairo's Tahrir Square entered its sixth day and other protests continued to erupt across the country. On Wednesday, the Mogamma building, Egypt's administrative nerve centre, finally reopened after having been shut for days due to the ongoing sit-in. However roads around Tahrir are still closed off and under the control of protesters, while security forces remain nowhere to be seen.

   

  The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia
  The CIA is conducting extra-judicial interrogations at secret prisons in Somalia, an investigation by The Nation magazine reports. Suspected Islamic militants are seized from parts of east Africa and taken to underground cells in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, where they are held without charge and interrogated by the CIA and Somali agents who are in their pay, the US weekly reports. The article says: "Former prisoners described the cells as windowless and the air thick, moist and disgusting. Prisoners, they said, are not allowed outside. "Some have been detained for a year or more. According to one former prisoner, inmates who had been there for long periods would pace around constantly, while others leaned against walls rocking." The Nation reports that the prisons are part of an "expanding counterterrorism programme in Somalia" which includes a training intended to develop an indigenous force to combat Islamic militants in the region. The article comes just weeks after the Bureau reported that seven people were killed in the first confirmed hostile US drone attack in Somalia. A follow-up story by CNN featured an unnamed CIA official who said detainees were held by Somali forces and the CIA only supported interrogations in recent months. "He described the number of times the CIA was present as ‘very small,' adding that he would only say it was ‘one or two times'," CNN reports.

   

  Pakistan threatens to pull out troops from Afghan border if US cuts military aid
  Pakistan has threatened to pull back its troops from the tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan as a reaction to the suspension of nearly $800 million of military aid by the US. Defence minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar said during a television interview, that the government would pull back troops from the nearly 1,100 check posts, deployed to check illegal cross-border movement along the Pak-Afghan border, Xinhua reports. The United States has announced that it was withholding $800 million of cash and equipment aid to Pakistan's military, till it complied with key US demands, including the issuance of visas to its personnel and step up its efforts in the war on terror. Mukhtar said that $300 million of this aid specifically goes to troops serving in this troubled region. "This money (US military aid) is not for fighting the war, but is money that we have spent already," he said, adding that Pakistan could not afford to keep its military out in the mountains or in the border areas for a long period of time. "The next step would be that the government or the armed forces will pull back the forces from the border areas," Mukhtar added.