[Dawn] A diplomat and Taliban official say the Afghan Taliban are closing their Qatar office at least temporarily to protest demands they remove a sign that identified the movement as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
The office was opened less than a month ago to facilitate peace talks, and has also come under pressure for using the same white flag flown during the Taliban's five-year rule of Afghanistan that ended with the US-led invasion in 2001.
Both officials, familiar with the peace talks in the Gulf State of Qatar, said Tuesday the office has been temporarily abandoned. They requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#2
Taliban: "As a precondition to the negotiations, we want pre-9/11/2001 status and power. From there you can give us more. And foreign aid. Infidels!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2013 15:09 Comments ||
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[REUTERS] The United States is considering pulling out all its troops from Afghanistan next year but is far from making a decision, White House and Pentagon officials said on Tuesday, but Afghan officials expressed skepticism that President Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... would back a complete withdrawal.
Amid tensions between Obama and Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... on the path forward, White House front man Jay Carney told news hounds that a "zero option" of leaving no U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014 is among the policy possibilities under consideration.
"This is not a decision that is imminent," Carney said.
Obama is committed to winding down U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The United States has been talking with officials in Afghanistan about keeping a small residual force there of perhaps 8,000 troops after 2014.
At the Pentagon, front man George Little played down friction with Karzai and expressed confidence that there was still "plenty of time and space" to negotiate a bilateral security pact allowing for U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan.
Karzai suspended talks on that pact in June, accusing Washington of mixed messages regarding peace talks with the Taliban. It was among the latest signs of deep tensions between U.S. officials and the Afghan leader. A June 27 video conference between Obama and Karzai aimed at lowering tensions was confrontational, officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I am not a dictator!...
Damn close, and you think you are.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/10/2013 0:22 Comments ||
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#2
Kabul is very likely dead on, as per ...
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US HAS NO PLANS TO REDUCE TIES WID PAKISTAN.
versus
* SAME > FORMER ISI CHIEF: HIDING OSAMA A "VICTORY", for Pakistan + Islam.
Wehell, thats one way to N-O-T inspire the US Congress to send $$$ + aid to Pakland during + after 2014.
versus
* TOPIX > [NewsKerala] EXPERTS SAY "IN SHAMBLES PAKISTAN CLOSE TO BEING A "FAILED STATE" FOLLOWING DAMNING OSAMA OP REPORT.
The US priority remains keeping Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, etc. NucTechs out of the hands of Regional, Global Jihad-happy Hard Boyz + aligned.
[Shabelle] -The president of Khatumo state of Somalia has opposed the current meeting held in Istanbul between the federal republic of Somalia and the Somaliland administration.
Mohamed Yusuf Jama who is the president of Khatumo state has termed the talks as illegal and and added that the talks holds no values to Somalis in general.
The president has called on the federal government to terminate the talks and urged the government to continue representing the Somali public in the whole of Somalia.
Mr. Jama said that it was unfortunate of a recognized government to hold talks to a single state and sidelining other states in the country.
Khatumo community hails from the regions between Somaliland and Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... of Somalia and is seeking recognition from the federal republic of Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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[Shabelle] Three Somalis were convicted on Monday of piracy, kidnapping and murder in the 2011 shooting deaths of four Americans sailing in the Indian Ocean off of Oman and could face the death penalty, according to court documents.
The three men -- and eleven others who previously pleaded guilty -- boarded the Americans' yacht armed with assault rifles and planned to sail it to Somalia and hold the Americans for ransom. Instead, the hostages were killed by the pirates as they were being trailed by U.S. military forces.
A federal jury, which has been hearing the case since early June in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, found Ahmed Muse Salad, Abukar Osman Beyle and Shani Nurani Shiekh Abrar guilty on all 26 counts against them, according to court records.
The jury will be hearing more evidence during the sentencing phase of the trial later this month.
Scott and Jean Adam, retirees from Marina del Rey, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, and their friends Phyllis Macay and Robert Riggle, both of Seattle, were killed aboard the Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, couple's 58-foot sloop, Quest.
Prosecutors have said all four passengers were asleep when the boat was boarded on Feb. 18, 2011, by the armed assailants.
Negotiations at sea by U.S. Navy officials to free the Americans failed after four days, according to the indictment. Navy SEALs subsequently raided the yacht, killing two of the hostage-takers and capturing the rest.
Some of the most emotional testimony during the trial came from Elizabeth Sem, daughter of yacht owner Scott Adam.
She was quoted in press accounts as saying her father, who had worked on the production crew of movies and TV shows including "The Dukes of Hazzard," and "The Love Boat," had attended a theological institute after he retired.
His sea voyages were part of his ministry, she said, adding that he handed out Bibles to people he met along the way
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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Egypt's general prosecutor has ordered the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohamed Badie and nine other members for allegedly inciting violence outside the Republican Guard headquarter where 55 people were killed.
Arrest warrants were issued for Badie's deputy, Mahmoud Ezzat, and party leaders Essam el-Erian and Mohamed el-Beltagi, , according to state news agency Mena.
Thousands of Brotherhood followers have been holding a vigil near a mosque in northeast Cairo demanding the reinstatement of Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted as president by the army.
It was still unclear who provoked the violence outside the Republican Guard HQ, where Morsi was believed to be held in custody. The Brotherhood said its members were staging a peaceful sit-in when they were fired on by police and troops.
A secret document that appears to show six-figure payments from Qatar to top Muslim Brotherhood officials is fueling charges of corruption and hypocrisy at ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist cronies.
The document, allegedly recovered in the ransacking of Muslim Brotherhood offices in Cairo after the Egyptian military removed Morsi from office, lists payments ranging from $250,000 to $850,000 to top Morsi associates from the former Prime Minister of Qatar. The payments, which some observers believe may be linked to funding Qatar provided the Morsi government on steep and unpopular terms, undermine the religious regime's moral authority, say experts. The document, written in both English and Arabic, was brought to light by independent Egyptian journalist Abdallah Hamouda in a recent appearance on the BBC. Hamouda said he "challenged the people whose names were listed to defend themselves, but no one rang [back]."
The document, dated March 28, 2013, details the transfer of sums from "HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabber Al Thani (May God Protect Him), Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs" of Qatar, to a long list of significant Muslim Brotherhood members. Sheikh Hamad stepped down from his position late last month along with the Emir of Qatar who -- in a move that shocked the whole region -- suddenly abdicated in favor of his 33-year-old son, Sheikh Tamim.
The secret payments flowing in from Qatar as Egypt's economy crumbled may be related to huge loans the country made to Egypt that were criticized by economists as not being in Egypt's best interests. Instead of using the funds to restructure debt, the Morsi government simply added to Egypt's debt burden at interest rates that benefited Qatar, critics said at the time. But if secret payments helped smooth the way for the massive loans from Qatar, it may have backfired.
#1
Interesting, espec given Ahmadinejad's threat that Iran will destroy Qatar, + the latter's need to control that side of the Arabian Peninsula [Persian Gulf] as defense agz any US or US-led invasion fleet.
Syrians travelling to Egypt are now required to apply for a visa, after the authorities in Cairo issued a new rule amid soaring unrest in Egypt, consulate staff in Beirut told AFP on Tuesday.
There is a decision from Cairo that any Syrian travelling to Egypt must apply for a visa at the Egyptian embassy, a staff member at the Egyptian consulate in Beirut said. A decision will be made some 10 to 15 days after the traveller has made his visa application."
That's going to put a crimp in refugee travel plans...
I dont know whether this change is temporary or permanent. All I know is that it applies as of Monday, he added.
The UN says nearly 90,000 Syrians have registered with the High Commissioner for Refugees in Egypt. But the actual number of Syrians who have sought refuge in Egypt is believed to be much higher, in part because the country did not require Syrians to have visas until this week.
Staff at Lebanons Middle East Airlines confirmed the change.
Syrians now need a visa to go to Cairo. I have no information on the reasons behind the change, said a telephone operator.
MEA flights from Beirut to Cairo are frequently packed with passengers who have fled Syria by road into Lebanon, and then continue on by air to Egypt.
The confirmation of the new policy comes a day after several reports emerged of Syrians who were turned back on arrival in Cairo.
Egypts state newspaper Al-Ahram reported Monday that passengers on a flight from the coastal Syrian city of Latakia were refused entry. Egyptian media also reported Syrian passengers flying in on a Middle East Airlines flight were denied entry into Cairo.
Though he was eventually allowed into Cairo, prominent Syrian dissident Haytham al-Maleh waited for permission from the Egyptian authorities at the airport for two hours, he told AFP.
I have connections, and I was able to secure permission to enter Cairo after two hours waiting in the airport, Maleh said. But I saw some 25 Syrian families being made to wait before deportation."
We are surprised by the decision, especially because it comes from Egypt, which is a sister nation to Syria, said Maleh, who is a member of the main Syrian opposition National Coalition and who is based in Cairo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
That's going to put a crimp in refugee travel plans...
I think that's the idea.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/10/2013 6:20 Comments ||
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Egypts Nour Party, the countrys second-biggest movement after the Muslim Brotherhood, said on Tuesday it would accept the choice of former finance minister Samir Radwan as interim prime minister.
Nour Party spokesman Nader Bakkar told Reuters the party would accept Radwan because he met the partys criteria for an interim prime minister. Political sources said on Monday that Radwan had emerged as the favourite for the post.
The military-backed transitional administration is keen to win Nours support for a new government to show it is acceptable after the army toppled the Brotherhoods Mohamed Mursi last week.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Egypt's interim president Adly Mansour has assigned prominent liberal economist Hazem El-Beblawi to top the administration that will be in charge of Egypt's upcoming transitional period.
El-Beblawi, a former finance minister, was not the first choice of the parties involved in the political process sponsored by the Egyptian Armed Forces following the ouster last week of former president Mohamed Morsi.
Most of the parties involved in the talks had preferred Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and sometime Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. After the fall of Mubarak he ran for president. He lost. for the premiership, who would have been appointed PM last Saturday were it not for the objections of the Salafist Nour Party.
Elbaradei had been backed by the anti-Morsi Rebel campaign and other "revolutionary" youth groups and parties.
Ziad Bahaa El-Din, liberal lawyer and co-founder of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, was also floated for the position, but the ultra-conservative Nour Party also rejected his candidacy.
Soon afterward, economist Samir Radwan, a former finance minister, was announced as a potential prime minister.
It was El-Beblawi, however, who was soon after formally declared premier.
The appointment came soon after interim president Mansour issued a new constitutional declaration granting him legislative authority.
The constitutional declaration lays out the political roadmap that both Mansour and El-Beblawi will be expected to follow in the upcoming period.
El-Beblawi, also a co-founder of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, served as undersecretary-general at the UN between 1995 and 2000. He was minister of finance in Essam Sharaf's cabinet from July to October 2011 during Egypt's post-revolution army-administered transitional phase.
He resigned in October 2011 to object to festivities in Cairo's Maspero district between military police and Coptic protesters in which 28 of the latter were killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Is that American "liberal" or European "liberal"? The fact that he's a co-founder of a social democratic party suggests the former, but I'm having difficulty reconciling that usage with the context. Although after the fall of Gamal Mubarak in 2011, I would have thought that any surviving European-style liberals would have lit out for the territories with whatever resources they could expatriate.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/10/2013 10:22 Comments ||
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[Al Ahram] The Egyptian armed forces released a statement on Tuesday hailing the new roadmap and the constitutional declaration issued by interim president Adly Mansour.
The military is able to fulfill their responsibilities and is aware of the dangers of the coming period, read the statement, and is sure that all forces want the country to get through this "difficult transition period."
The statement warned against obstructing the path set forward by the new roadmap using non-peaceful methods.
The president, it said, has announced a constitutional declaration that puts forward steps towards a new constitution "clarifying the path which gives everyone enough reason to feel secure."
"No party after that should trespass against the nation's will or try and go against it, no matter what the excuse is," the statement said adding, that the people will not accept such actions.
Egypt's interim president Adly Mansour issued on Sunday a constitutional declaration that will remain effective until the end of the ongoing transitional period, expected to last at least six months.
The declaration sets a roadmap for constitutional amendments, followed by parliamentary then presidential elections.
The declaration, which came into effect late Monday, consists of 33 articles. It will be automatically canceled when an amended version of the suspended constitution is approved in a referendum.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Roadmap?
To where, pray tell.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/10/2013 14:23 Comments ||
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[Al Ahram] Egypt's new Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi will offer cabinet posts to the Muslim Brotherhood movement of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, the official news agency quoted a presidential spokesman as saying on Tuesday.
"Some cabinet posts will be offered to the Freedom and Justice Party," Ahmed al-Muslimani was quoted as saying by the official MENA news agency. The party is the Brotherhood's political arm.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Must be a compromise venture, given the prior ...
* MIDDLE EAST ONLINE > MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD REJECTS EGYPT'S NEW CHARTER + OPTS FOR ESCALATION.
* SAME > EGYPT SALAFISTS DELAY, BLOCK, REJECT, + THEN PULLOUT OF GOVT TALKS.
* FOX NEWS + CNN > TOP EGYPT CLERIC WARNS COUNTRY ON VERGE OF CIVIL WAR, after Morsi ouster + outbreak of violence.
[BBC.CO.UK] Egypt's defence minister has warned against any attempt to disrupt the country's "difficult" transition.
His statement comes almost a week after the army deposed Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and appointed top judge Adly Mansour as interim leader.
Mr Mansour has named former the finance minister, Hazem el-Beblawi, as his prime minister.
In turn, Mr el-Beblawi has said he will offer some cabinet posts to members of Mr Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund movement.
Mr el-Beblawi's appointment was announced early on Tuesday, along with that of Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and sometime Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. After the fall of Mubarak he ran for president. He lost. , who was named deputy president with responsibility for foreign affairs.
Mr el-Beblawi served as finance minister during the period of military rule in the aftermath of Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... 's overthrow. Mr ElBaradei is a liberal politician who was once the head of the UN nuclear agency.
The ultra-conservative Nour party said it was still studying the nomination of Mr ElBaradei. His candidacy as prime minister foundered earlier in the week when Nour objected.
The party withdrew from talks to form a new government, but reports on Tuesday suggested it was back on board.
A presidential statement suggested the military-backed interim government was reaching out to both the Nour party and the Moslem Brüderbund.
"There is no objection at all to including members of those two parties in the government," a presidential front man told the state news agency.
Mr el-Beblawi told BBC Arabic that he would be choosing his ministers based on experience and efficiency, but said it was "difficult for me to specify when" he would finish forming the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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[ALLAFRICA] President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... yesterday described the killings of over 40 students and a teacher of Government Secondary School in Yobe State by suspected Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... members as wicked, horrific and barbaric, saying any person who targets innocent children as a result of emotional dysfunction will certainly burn in hell.
The gunnies suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect attacked the Government Secondary School, Mamudo, along Damaturu-Potiskum highway while the students were asleep and started shooting sporadically.
Sympathising with the affected families of victims of the gruesome killings in Mamudo village, five kilometers from Potiskum town, Yobe State, about 3am on Saturday, in the school's boarding house with most of the victims roasted alive while asleep, Jonathan declared that the war on terror was still very much on and his government would not be undermined by any group or persons.
The president, who spoke through his special adviser on media and publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, insisted that his administration was determined to end the menace of terror in the country, describing bully boyz as cowards.
Abati said, "The killing is barbaric, completely wicked. Anybody who will target innocent children for any kind of grief or emotional dyfunction will certainly go to hell. Mr President wants to assure Nigerians that these kind of desperate Nigerians will be flushed out of the system.
"Mr President is committed to the issue of the protection of lives and properties of all Nigerians and he wants to assure that the war against bully boyz has been launched and will continue and the Nigerian government is determined to put an end to this menace.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The wife and children of Islamist holy man Abu Qatada, who faces trial on terror charges in Jordan following his deportation from Britannia, are planning to move to Amman from London, a family friend said on Tuesday.
"Abu Qatada's wife and five children want to leave Britannia and come to Jordan. They are currently preparing for that," the family friend told Agence La Belle France Presse, asking not to be named.
Military prosecutors on Sunday charged Abu Qatada, 53, with "conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts," just hours after his deportation from Britannia. He pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to the charges.
His lawyer Taysir Diab told AFP the military state security court would on Wednesday make its decision on a bail application.
"He is in good condition and is receiving good treatment. His mother and other members of his family here are visiting him in prison," Diab said.
Abu Qatada has been remanded for 15 days in the Muwaqqar prison, a maximum security facility built in 2007 that houses 1,100 inmates, most of them Islamists convicted of terrorism offences.
He was condemned to death in absentia in 1999 for conspiracy to carry out terror attacks, including on the American school in Amman, but the sentence was immediately commuted to life imprisonment with hard labor.
In 2000, he was sentenced in his absence to 15 years for plotting to carry out terror attacks on tourists in Jordan during millennium celebrations.
Jordanian law gives him the right to a retrial with him present in the dock.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I hope we dont still have to pay for these parasites once in Jordan
Posted by: Paul D ||
07/10/2013 5:20 Comments ||
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Some 100,000 North Korean college students have been press-ganged into construction work. "The regime is trying to finish redevelopment of the Mansudae District in Pyongyang by April next year," a source familiar with North Korean internal affairs said on Monday. "Because it couldn't finish construction before the deadline, the regime ordered colleges in Pyongyang and other major cities last month to close for 10 months and drafted students to construction sites."
The regime twice before changed the academic calendar for a "200-day struggle" in 1988 and an "Arirang" mass calisthenics performance in 2008. But mobilizing so many students for construction work is unprecedented.
The North has been carrying out a campaign since 2009 to build 100,000 new homes in Pyongyang ahead of regime founder Kim Il-sung's birthday on April 15 next year, the target year to become a "powerful and prosperous nation." But only nine apartment buildings with 500 units had been built as of late last year due to a shortage of money and building materials.
When it became clear that the goal was unreachable, the regime recently drew up a new plan to redevelop at least the Mansudae District. It wants to spruce up the district, home to a 23 m Kim Il-sung statue, with 77-story apartment buildings with 3,000 units and recreational facilities including theaters and parks.
But the mobilization of the students is unlikely to make much difference. "The problem is not manpower shortage but lack of money and materials," the source said. "Building sites are overflowing with laborers, but most of them are doing nothing because building materials don't arrive in time."
The regime is not even giving the students a proper meal, the source added. Instead, it is reportedly forcing them to donate materials, such as sand, cement and gasoline, in exchange for a promise of membership in the Workers Party or a youth honor award when construction is complete.
"Cement soup again!"
There are rumors that the real reason the students are being forced to work on building sites is to avoid an uprising emulating the Jasmine Revolutions in the Middle East, since students are among the most likely to have heard about the uprisings.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
"Building sites are overflowing with laborers, but most of them are doing nothing because building materials don't arrive in time."
Sounds normal. (for a dictatorship)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/10/2013 6:28 Comments ||
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I'm sure there are some unemployed East German economists who will be happy to help. Dollars or Euros, please.
North Korea is preparing to open up its economy with help from German experts, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported Saturday. The daily said Pyongyang is secretly seeking advice from German economists and lawyers to come up with new economic policies and attract foreign investment.
According to the advisors from leading German universities, North Korea is currently devising investment laws and already has finalized a master plan with the goal of opening up by the end of 2013.
One unnamed economist on the team told the paper that North Korea does not want to follow the Chinese-style model, which draws foreign investors to special economic zones. "Rather, they are interested in the Vietnamese model, in which specific companies were chosen as recipients of investments," the source said.
Specific companies with specific advisors who all need to wet their beaks. In America we call it the 'Chicago-style model'...
But he warned the issue is far from concluded. "The military in North Korea will not want to give up power," he said, adding that resistance from the powerful army will be difficult to overcome.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Cause they have NO idea how to do it.
And the Kim's don't either. (Or simply don't)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/10/2013 6:18 Comments ||
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#2
If they want to use the Vietnamese model, why aren't they hiring Vietnamese consultants, instead of going to the Germans? I would think that the Germans would tend to push them towards a German economic solution - IE, "you lose, the South wins, you try to get a couple pennies on the dollar for your rubble and ruins, and go to work for those who can keep you from starving. Hey, maybe one of your politicians might become prime minister in ten-twenty years, look at Angela".
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/10/2013 10:06 Comments ||
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#3
North Korea is preparing to open up its economy with help from German experts,
Germany, of all places, they don't read much History, do they.
"Opening" Germany was a nightmare. (WW2)
You want that?
Didn't think so.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/10/2013 14:35 Comments ||
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#4
James, the Germans have been running an outstanding economy since at least the Great Elector. They started with naught, ended with naught and started again. A strong German economy is nothing new.
What is there to 'rebuild' in the People's Paradise?
North Korea has decided to redeploy 300,000 soldiers to help kickstart its moribund economy, apparently confident that its nuclear weapons will serve as a sufficient deterrent, Japan's TV Asahi reported Tuesday.
Quoting a North Korean military officer, TV Asahi said the North's top military command issued an order on June 10 to reduce the number of troops by 300,000 or a quarter of the country's 1.19 million-strong military. Some 50,000 officers and 250,000 soldiers will be transferred to tasks aimed at rebuilding the economy by the end of next month, it said.
They're not 'reducing' the number of military personnel, they're just re-deploying them...
The broadcaster speculated that the troop downsizing suggests the North has completed development and deployment of nuclear weapons.
But South Korean intelligence officials were unconvinced. "North Korea has already deployed a lot of troops to economic projects and we have seen indications of more soldiers being sent to construction sites," said one intelligence official here. "But this does not signify troop downsizing."
Officials at the defense and unification ministries here said they have no information that the North Korean leader issued such orders.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Uh oh, bad sign sending the army into the fields. Sign of bad worser times ahead.
#2
Between this and the other stories today, sounds like they've been bullied by their Chinese patrons into at least pretending to play nice and grow their economy instead of conquering food donations by making faces across the border. *This* is what you get when militarist goons marinating in sixty years of High Stalinism try to play nice.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/10/2013 10:15 Comments ||
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#3
They're not 'reducing' the number of military personnel, they're just re-deploying them...
Seems like a "food for work" program to me.
And I thought they already tried this in 2011 or so.
The NOKORS still keep Russia on the side to offset agz overlord China, wid post-Cold War, 9-11 Russia being synonymous wid GERMANY as both are BFFS = strategic partners to the other.
On June 26, the Paris Court of Appeals found me guilty of defamation against television station France 2 and broadcaster Charles Enderlin.
After waiting one long week following the verdict, I was finally able to get the written arguments of the judges. The arguments state that -- despite the hoax eventually becoming obvious to all who looked at the case -- I was found guilty for having said that the al-Dura news report was a hoax...
It's been called the mother of all fauxtography, the biggest media hoax of our times, the most damaging image ever attached to Israel, an icon of hatred, blood libel on an international scale: the shooting of Mohamed al Dura, a 12 year-old Palestinian boy allegedly gunned down by murderous Israeli soldiers on September 30, 2000 at Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip..
#3
I have a little theory. Sine De Gaulle's return in 1058 France has been West's protector of the Arab cause and specially of the Palestinians. But peace in Near East means the Arabs no longer need France and its influence in Near East goes to the toilet.
So Al Dura's death was very convenient for France. Now, at that time power in Frace was shared between Socialist Prime minister and Jacques Chirac. Jospin was a rigidly honest Calvinist whose car was pelleted with stone when he visited Paleoistan because of what he had said about Israel's right to live. But President was Tacques Chirac ie the man who had tried to provide nukes to Sadam Hussein and was from the same party than De Gaulle ie the man who spent WWII asking himself how to stick it to the Allies intead of to the Germans (in his 800 pages book about his action in WWII there are about 5 pages on actions contributing to Germany's defeat) and whose foreign policy was France being woorld's power brokere and selling its body to the best offerer. Chirac shared that vision. So yes, I fo believe the Al-Dura affir was not an initiative of a cemebrity hunhry state owned broadcaster. I think some from far above gave orders to Enderlin.
In a decision that is getting little play in the media, lawmakers moved last month to block President Obama from arming Syrian rebels in what is turning out to be little more than a sectarian civil war.
House and Senate Intelligence panel members have voted to prevent the arming of the rebels by placing severe restrictions on available funding, committee insiders told The Hill.
The concern of many on Capitol Hill is that the administration plan would let weapons fall into the hands of terrorist groups, such as the many linked to al Qaeda, The Hill noted. The article further reports:
The exact nature of the restrictions is unknown because the committees voted privately on the basis of classified information. What is known is that the restrictions are sufficient to prevent the administration from delivering arms as planned, according to a source familiar with the actions.
The committee voted to allow them to make some movement on this, but its restricted, said one Senate panel insider, who declined to elaborate on the total aid or the restrictions added by the Intelligence panels, which both met again on Tuesday. It was a very restrictive amount.
Reuters reported Monday that none of the military aid that the United States announced weeks ago has arrived in Syria, according to an official from an Arab country and Syrian opposition sources.
James Comey, the man nominated by President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... to be the next FBI director, said on Tuesday that he believed the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique was torture and illegal. Comey, the former deputy attorney general from 2003-2005, told senators at a confirmation hearing that he had made his views known when he was serving in the George W. Bush administration but lost battles to stop the CIA from using so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding and sleep deprivation on enemy combatants. Comey became known for refusing to certify the legal aspects of National Security Agency domestic surveillance during a 2004 stint as acting attorney general while then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was seriously ill in the hospital.
Though many of the questions posed to Comey were in relation to his views on interrogation techniques, some senators asked about surveillance programs like those recently disclosed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Comey, who has been out of government for eight years, said he could not comment on the specifics of the programs. But he said the collection and analysis of metadata like telephone and email logs are valuable tools in counter-terrorism work. The candidate was also questioned about the use of drones, which Mueller said last month have been used on U.S. soil for some limited law enforcement activities.
Comey is expected to be approved by the Judiciary Committee easily, and the full Senate is expected to follow suit before Mueller's term expires in September.
The Navy says it has landed an unmanned jet on the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush today, marking the first time a drone has made an arrested landing on a carrier -- generally thought to be the toughest flying job in naval aviation.
The Northrop Grumman X-47B demonstration vehicle landed on the Bush off the coast of Virginia today, following by nearly two months the first successful catapult launch from the same carrier. while the Chinese try to learn how to have a human launch...
The "tailless" aircraft still used a "tailhook" to stop its motion once it touched down on the flight deck.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus praised this milestone in the growth of unmanned military aviation.
"By evolving and integrating new technology like the X-47B and the unmanned aircraft to follow, carriers will remain relevant throughout their 50-year lifespan," Mabus said in a released statement Wednesday.
The Navy announced the successful landing at 10:45 a.m. Pacific time
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2013 15:00 ||
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#6
Those were strong young men in a towel wrapped locker room shower scene. They weren't gray. Well, Tom Skerrit was a little gray. Actually his moustache was really gray. The other guy was just balding, he wasn't gray.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/10/2013 22:09 Comments ||
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#9
FYI WAFF > VIDEO: MODEL OF FUTURE RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT CARRIER WID PAK-FA.
Russan Navy's version = copycat? of the UK's CVF = QUEEN LIZ [-ski] CLASS??
* SAME > F-35: BORN IN THE USSR?
Also, as per FREEREPUBLIC, the USN intends to name the next CVN21 [FORD-class CVN/CVNF] the new "USS ENTERPRISE".
Correct me iff I'm wrong, but I recall an Artic in the MSM-Net last week it costs the USN too much to demobilize or scrap the CVN-65, as per the on-going sequester - I STILL SAY GIVE CVN-65 TO THE BRITS FOR TRAINING + USE UNTIL THEIR CVF COMES IS COMMISSIONED.
#10
Call Sign 'Salty Dog 502' That is the Strike Aircraft Test directorate @ PAX ( I was the Grumman-side Maint. Chief 91-94) and the 500 series have been traditionally reserved for the Attack community. I expect they will soon be hanging some ordnance on them for evaluations. Can the obligatory Buddy Store be far behind? Lawn darts need love too, ya'know.
Posted by: Ho Chi Dingle6729 ||
07/10/2013 23:02 Comments ||
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The House Homeland Security Committees hearing Wednesday on the Boston Marathon bombing will be conspicuously missing a witness from the agency at the center of the investigationthe Federal Bureau of Investigationand the debate could grow heated over that fact.
The FBIs absence is striking. Its role in handling warnings from Russian officials about the deceased terrorist suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaevwho was investigated and later fell off the radarhas been called into question.
Whether federal law enforcement officials failed to connect the dots that could have prevented the tragedy remains under investigation by the House Homeland Security Committee, and the FBIs role is an important part of that examination.
Under the leadership of Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the committee is investigating the Boston terrorist attack, with a deep examination into the integrated law enforcement and intelligence communication network that sprang up in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, under the Department of Homeland Security, to prevent continued stove-piping of information.
The committee is comparing the Boston bombing with other terrorist efforts since 9/11 and is keen to answer whether any communication or security breakdowns that occurred in the lead-up to the Boston attack are endemic of systemic problems in need of reform.
The FBI has conducted closed-door briefings for all members of Congress and special ones for Intelligence Committee members, but none specifically related to the Homeland Security Committee investigation. It is refusing to testify publicly on the attack, citing its ongoing investigation and pending prosecution of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
As long as the case is open, I dont see how we can participate in public hearings, said Paul Bresson, a spokesman for the FBI. Weve been providing briefings to Congress on this investigation.
[An Nahar] The WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website said Tuesday that runaway U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden had not yet formally accepted asylum in Venezuela as was claimed by a top Russian politician in a Twitter posting that later deleted.
Pro-Kremlin politician Alexei Pushkov sparked confusion when he tweeted Tuesday that Snowden had agreed to an offer from Caracas. He deleted the posting after about 30 minutes.
"Edward Snowden has not yet formally accepted asylum in Venezuela. The Russian politician concerned has deleted the tweet," WikiLeaks said on its Twitter account.
Pushkov does not officially speak for the Russian government but has close Kremlin connections and is believed to relay views similar to those of President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
BRAZIL has repor now entered the fray as per offering Snowden formal asylum.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/10/2013 14:43 Comments ||
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#2
7.Abbottabad is home to soldiers and terrorists. Yes, the garrison town is home not just to many soldiers but also terrorists. One resident told the commission that the town was free of terrorist attacks precisely because so many militant families lived there, the Guardian reported
What did Bush say about countries harbouring terrorist?
Posted by: Paul D ||
07/10/2013 16:05 Comments ||
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#3
Osama also complained of feeling pain in his kidneys + heart, but yet never visited a doctor.
WHITNEY = MADONNA = TEXAS-SIZED ASTEROIDS = WE FEEL THE PAIN.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, has recused himself from the bench hearing an appeal against post-arrest bail granted to General (retd) Pervez Musharraf by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in a case relating to detention of judges after the proclamation of emergency on November 3, 2007.
I shall not hear the plea for cancelling the bail granted by the high court, the chief justice said and directed the Supreme Courts office to send the case filed by advocate Aslam Ghumman to another bench. The court office had placed the appeal before a bench headed by the chief justice who had also remained in detention until his reinstatement in March 2009.
On June 11, the IHC had granted bail to the former president on a surety bond of Rs500,000. A division bench of the high court held there was no record to determine Musharrafs role in placing over 60 judges in detention.
Ghumman filed the petition, challenging the IHCs order of granting bail to Musharraf after removing terrorism from the charge-sheet and requesting the apex court to set aside the decision and order his arrest.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif Tuesday said that the dream of economic progress could not be realised without maintaining peace in the society. That leaves them poop out of luck, doesn't it?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Pakistain reached an understanding with the United States on drone strikes targeting Islamist Death Eaters and the attacks can be useful, according to leaked remarks from a former intelligence chief.
Pakistain publicly condemns US missile attacks on Taliban and al Qaeda operatives as a violation of its illusory sovereignty, but the new revelations are the latest sign of double-dealing in private.
They come in findings of a Pak investigation into how al Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who used to be alive but now he's not... evaded detection for nearly a decade, which were published by the Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... news network Monday.
Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who headed Pakistain's premier Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency at the time of bin Laden's killing in 2011, told Sherlocks that drone strikes had their uses.
"The DG (director general) said there were no written agreements. There was a political understanding," the report said.
The Americans had been asked to stop drone strikes because they caused civilian casualties, but "it was easier to say no to them in the beginning, but 'now it was more difficult' to do so," it quoted the former spymaster as saying.
"Admittedly the drone attacks had their utility, but they represented a breach of national illusory sovereignty. They were legal according to American law but illegal according to international law," the report quoted the ISI chief as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Interesting logo, I don't think they considered the logo as a "Burning" of Islam. (Up in smoke)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/10/2013 14:53 Comments ||
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Legislation meant to severely limit funding of left-wing organizations is back on the Knessets agenda, with Bayit Yehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked and Yisrael Beytenu faction chairman Robert Ilatov submitting a new version of the controversial bill Tuesday.
According to the bill, NGOs may not receive contributions of over NIS 20,000 from a foreign political entity if the organization, its members, a member of its management or one of its employees calls for IDF soldiers to be brought to international courts, calls for boycotts, divestment or sanctions (BDS) of Israel or its citizens, denies Israels right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, incites to racism or support armed combat by an enemy state or terrorist organization against Israel. Treason shouldn't prosper.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] Israeli media doesn't have a favorable impression of U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... and his push toward peace in the Middle East, opening one opinion page posting with this title: "Clueless U.S. mediator."
Ynet News' Hagai Segal's angle: Why is Mr. Kerry trying to hard to facilitate a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Paleostinian Liberation Organization Chairman the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... , when Egypt and Syria are in utter chaos?
Even The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... wonders this question, Ynet said. And his work to bring about this deal is only "placing American foreign policy in a ridiculous light," the Israeli paper opined.
"The U.S. cannot make peace between Arabs and other Arabs, yet it believes it can make peace between Israel and the Paleostinians. ... Is it possible that John Kerry is more talented than all the American mediators who came before him? Not at all."
The paper goes on: "Kerry's mediation skills are limited to pressuring Israel to make dangerous concessions for the sake of negotiations that will lead nowhere. He lacks the intellectual and diplomatic ability to devise a permanent agreement that will satisfy both sides. He is a blind proponent of an impossible vision and is his own candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
FYI the PA has just concluded an agreement wid Hashemite Jordan whereupon the latter will be responsible for Jerusalem's Islamic holy places -ISN'T THAT THE SAUDIS' RESPONSIBILITY, FOLLOWED NEXT BY THE PA WIDIN ITS SCOPE AS A "SOVEREIGN GOVT-STATE"???
Or is the PA indirectly admitting they are NOT sovereign, either by rejection or unenforceability of the "Two-State solution + Jordan's historical territorial claims to the West Bank???
#2
Israeli media doesnt have a favorable impression of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his push toward peace in the Middle East, opening one opinion page posting with this title: Clueless U.S. mediator.
Neither do we, the wrong showoff for the job.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/10/2013 6:24 Comments ||
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#3
Not certain if it's the man they despise or the agency he represents. A justifiable response in either case I suppose.
#4
The funny thing is, with Syria and Egypt in utter chaos, the Israelis probably have more leverage with the Paleos than in a generation. Their cross-border financial and diplomatic sponsors are distracted to hell and gone with other higher priorities, and all the can't-wait-to-get-to-paradise crazies are heading to Syria to fight Alawi and Shia instead of Jews. Likewise, Hamas just got fed a rasher of twice-digested shit, so the PLO is stronger within the Paleo political environment, right? When both parties have resources they didn't have before, and the external pressure has been let up, the chances of a win-win result of negotiations are relatively high.
Not that John Fucking Kerry is the man to make that happen, him bigfooting around can only queer the pitch.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/10/2013 10:30 Comments ||
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#5
"Mediator" appears to be code for "Douchebag"...
An influential Islamist cleric turned rebel commander urged Syrian insurgents on Wednesday to focus their war on President Bashar Assad's Alawite heartland to create a "balance of terror" and help turn the tide of the conflict.
After seizing large tracts of Syria's north and east and parts of the center, the rebels - short of heavy weaponry - have struggled to weaken Assad's grip over most major cities and his western Alawite communal stronghold along the Mediterranean coast that so far has been largely unscathed by the civil war.
"One has to concentrate on their strongholds and on their dwellings and their infrastructure. If (Alawites) continue living as they're doing in peace and safety while wedded to the regime they will not be affected. They will not think of abandoning Assad," said Islamist Sheikh Anas Ayrout.
[An Nahar] A siege imposed by rebel forces on regime-controlled areas of Syria's second city Aleppo has created food shortages ahead of the Mohammedan holy fasting month of Ramadan, a watchdog said on Tuesday.
"A large number of food products are no longer available, and others have become increasingly difficult to find, driving up prices," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The group said rebel forces have surrounded certain neighborhoods and the regime has been unable to deliver food, because a highway into the northern city from the south has been blocked and the airport closed.
Rebels moved into Aleppo exactly a year ago, and have since seized large swathes of both the city and the surrounding province.
But after months of fighting, a relative stalemate has set in, with the army unable to recapture much territory and rebels unable to take the city as a whole.
For now, the army is focusing its efforts in the central city of Homs, where it is trying to retake several rebel-held districts.
The fighting has created enormous destruction, and the Observatory said troops had brought in bulldozers on Tuesday to remove rubble as they advance.
The Observatory warned that civilians in the city were dying for want of medical equipment.
"The army's continuous bombardment over the past 11 days has made the critical humanitarian situation in rebel areas of Homs even worse," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"An unknown number of rebels and civilians maimed in recent days are dying from their injuries, because there is no medical equipment to treat them," he added.
The Khaldiyeh and Old City neighborhoods of Homs have been under army siege for more than a year and since late June have come under steady shell and rocket fire as well as air strikes in a withering offensive by the regime.
"The little medical equipment the rebels could get into these areas was coming through underground tunnels. Now, these have been bombed too," Abdel Rahman said.
Activists on the ground confirmed the shortage of medical care.
"The medical community in the besieged areas of Homs is suffering from shortages," said Homs-based activist Yazan.
Large quantities of medical supplies had been used up due to the increased number of injuries caused by the shelling, Yazan told AFP via the Internet.
"This campaign on Homs has been the fiercest" since the start of the siege on rebel areas more than a year ago, he added.
Witnesses and activists have said Syria's forces have been joined in the assault by fighters from Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.
At the start of the revolt against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... in March 2011, Homs was dubbed "the capital of the revolution" when it was shaken by widespread protests against his rule.
Now, the rebels are caught in a small segment of the city, covering barely two square kilometers (less than a square mile) in the center.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A Military Examining Magistrate demanded on Tuesday the death penalty for 37 suspects, including the municipal chief of the northeastern town of Arsal, over the killing of two soldiers in February.
The request was made in the indictment issued by Judge Fadi Sawan.
The judge also issued search and investigation warrants against 16 unidentified suspects involved in the murder of Captain Pierre Bashaalani and Sergeant Ibrahim Zahraman.
Bashaalani and Zahraman were killed and several soldiers injured when Arsal gunmen ambushed their patrol on Feb. 1.
Sawan also issued arrest warrants against 53 people accused of murder, attempted-murder, use of violence against the army, and the theft of weapons and ammunition.
The charges include the possession of arms and explosives.
Last month, State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged three people for killing soldiers at a checkpoint in the area of Wadi Hmeid in the outskirts of Arsal on May 28.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... on Tuesday blamed the Dahieh bombing on "those who endorse the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... ideology" and "those who make fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... speeches."
"The bombing incident must not only be a subject for condemnation. Everyone who endorses an explosive rhetoric must be condemned and the person who detonates a bomb in residential neighborhoods is a major criminal," Aoun said after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc in Rabiyeh.
"Those who endorse the Takfiri ideology, those who make fiery speeches, those who incite sectarianism and those who instigate against all the members of a certain sect are the biggest criminals, whether they are MPs, ministers or clergymen," Aoun added.
"We thank God that no one was killed ... but more vigilance must be exercised and those who are inciting must shut up. From now on, I will attack the criminals," he went on to say.
Earlier on Tuesday, a booby-trapped car went kaboom! at a parking lot in the Beirut southern suburb of Bir al-Abed, wounding 53 people and causing extensive material damage.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Iran has strongly condemned the bombing that targeted the Beirut southern suburb of Bir al-Abed on Tuesday.
Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Araqchi said the move was an "ominous conspiracy" plotted by "the Israeli regime and its allies in the region," in remarks carried by the website of Iran's English-language Press TV.
He expressed hope that the Lebanese authorities would "identify the perpetrators of the terrorist act to prevent those who seek to provoke insecurity and instability and cause sectarian strife in the country from achieving their goals."
"Such terrorist measures will fail to deter the resistance movement and Lebanese people from ... fighting against the occupying regime (of Israel)," the Iranian spokesperson pointed out.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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[USATODAY] Russia's U.N. ambassador said Tuesday that Russian experts determined that Syrian rebels made sarin nerve gas and used it in a deadly attack outside Aleppo in March. International analysts say a chemical weapon attack occurred March 19 in the government-controlled Aleppo suburb of Khan al-Assal. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin blamed opposition fighters for the attack, which he said killed 26 people, including 16 military personnel, and injured 86 others. The rebels have blamed the government for the attack.
Churkin told news hounds after delivering an 80-page report to Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon that the Assad regime asked Russia, its closest ally, to investigate the attack after a U.N. team of chemical weapons experts was unable to enter the country in a dispute over the probe's scope.
The samples taken from the impact site of the gas-laden projectile were analyzed at a Russian laboratory certified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Churkin said.
The ambassador said the results of the analysis indicate the Bashar 3 rocket "was not industrially manufactured and was filled with sarin." He said the samples indicated the sarin and the projectile were produced in "cottage industry" conditions.
The absence of chemical stabilizers, which are needed for long-term storage and later use, indicated its "possibly recent production," Churkin said.
"Therefore, there is every reason to believe that it was the armed opposition fighters who used the chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal," Churkin said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2013 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Shabelle] Three Somalis were convicted on Monday of piracy, kidnapping and murder in the 2011 shooting deaths of four Americans sailing in the Indian Ocean off of Oman and could face the death penalty, according to court documents.
Egypt's general prosecutor has ordered the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohamed Badie and nine other members for allegedly inciting violence outside the Republican Guard headquarter where 55 people were killed.
A secret document that appears to show six-figure payments from Qatar to top Muslim Brotherhood officials is fueling charges of corruption and hypocrisy at ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist cronies.
Syrians travelling to Egypt are now required to apply for a visa, after the authorities in Cairo issued a new rule amid soaring unrest in Egypt, consulate staff in Beirut told AFP on Tuesday.
[ALLAFRICA] President 
The Navy says it has landed an unmanned jet on the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush today, marking the first time a drone has made an arrested landing on a carrier -- generally thought to be the toughest flying job in naval aviation. 
[An Nahar] The WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website said Tuesday that 
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means 
[WASHINGTONTIMES] Israeli media doesn't have a favorable impression of U.S. Secretary of State 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Michel Aoun
