Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Sara Maldonado aka Paulina Cervantes-Bravo in "Mundo de fieras (World of beasts)(TV Series 20062007)" aka Verónica Cortez 'Guadalupe Romero' in "La reina del sur (The Queen of the South)(TV Series 2011)" aka Lorena 'Lore' Álvarez in "El juego de la vida (The game of life)(TV Series 20012002)" aka Diana Antillón De La Reguera in "Corazones al límite (Hearts to the limit)(TV Series 2004)" aka Grandes Ojos Marrones (age 32)
Four civilians were reported killed and one more injured by a NATO air strike in the northeastern Kapisa province overnight, according to local officials. A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was looking into reports civilians had been killed, adding that their initial findings show the strike killed two terrorists insurgents and injured three.
Meanwhile, Afghan and foreign troops killed two terrorists insurgents and detained 27 more during joint operations in several parts of the country, according to the Ministry of Interior.
[An Nahar] Around 100 protesters calling for an end to military rule in Egypt clashed with soldiers near the U.S. embassy in Cairo, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent reported.
Shouting "Down with military power!" the protesters lobbed stones at the soldiers, who responded by throwing them back and trying to disperse the crowd.
The soldiers then returned to their position, where they were joined by a group of civilians, who also threw stones at the protesters.
Earlier, two civilian groups, one of them demanding the expulsion of the U.S. ambassador, had clashed in front of the embassy, hurling stones at each other.
After months of pressure from Washington, 13 foreign defendants accused of receiving illicit foreign funds to operate unlicensed NGOs, including six Americans, were allowed to leave the country after posting bail last week, sparking outrage in Egypt.
A travel ban was lifted after the trial judges recused themselves in the face of what they said was intervention by the authorities.
During the day, around 200 people marched in nearby Tahrir Square, the epicenter of last year's uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... and saw the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces take power.
The protesters there marked the day, one year ago, when the army dispersed a crowd in Tahrir Square by force and set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock a group of women protesters.
After being beaten, the jugged activists were forced to undergo "virginity tests," a practice classified as torture and sexual violence by Egyptian and international rights groups, including Amnesia Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... Amnesty said the verdict, due on Sunday, in the trial of a military doctor accused of carrying out the tests, "will show if Egypt's military courts are prepared to offer any redress for female victims of violence by the army."
Egypt's judiciary last year ordered the army to halt the practice.
The London-based rights group also called on Friday for "thorough, impartial and independent investigations" to be carried out into all complaints by women who were subjected to violence by Egypt's army and security forces over the past year.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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Overnight air strikes that residents said were carried out by US warplanes killed 23 suspected Al-Qaeda militants in mountains south of the Yemeni capital, security sources said on Saturday.
"Twenty-three Al-Qaeda fighters were killed in air raids launched late on Friday against their positions," one security source told AFP.
A police source gave the same death toll from the air strikes in a mountainous area of Al-Bayda province.
The sources said the raids hit three villages west of the provincial capital, also called Al-Bayda -- Al-Makhnaq, Al-Dooqi and Al-Mamdud.
Residents said the raids were carried out by US aircraft, but those accounts could not be immediately verified.
Yemen is the ancestral homeland of slain Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the jihadist network took advantage of a protracted anti-government uprising last year to seize large swathes of the south and east.
Washington has long made the country a major focus of its "war on terror".
Two of the raids, launched from around 9:00 pm (1800 GMT) and lasting around three hours in total, struck the homes of Ahmed and Ali al-Humaiqani, two residents of Wadi al-Makhnaq, witnesses said.
"An Al-Qaeda training camp can be found in Wadi al-Makhnaq," one local resident told AFP.
"Several armed men arrived in multiple vehicles, along with two trucks loaded with weapons and ammunition boxes, and attended Friday prayers in Wadi al-Makhnaq," said the resident, who declined to be identified.
[An Nahar] Tens of thousands of Bahrainis flooded the streets of the capital Manama on Friday demanding political reforms, a year after authorities crushed an uprising, an activist said.
Policemen fired tear gas at a group of protesters but the rallies were largely peaceful and no one was tossed in the clink, said Nabil Rajab, an activist who heads the Bahraini Center for Human Rights.
"It is one of the largest protests in recent years," Rajab told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Rajab said demonstrators erupted into the streets in response to calls by several groups, including Bahrain's powerful Al-Wefaq main Shiite opposition formation, as well as Shiite holy mans.
"A small group of protesters tried to converge on the former Pearl Square but they were dispersed by coppers who fired tear gas canisters," said Rajab in reference to the rallying point of last year's protests.
Protesters called for political reforms in Bahrain, which is ruled by the minority Sunni al-Khalifa family, and for an elected government, Rajab said.
The Shiite-led opposition demands constitutional changes that would reduce the power of the dynasty.
Tensions have remained high in Bahrain since a deadly crackdown last year after a month of Manama street protests.
According to an independent probe 35 people were killed in last year's unrest, including five security personnel and five detainees tortured to death while in jug.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
More Iranian agitators to stir up the local Shiites.
#2
Are these like the OWS protestors over here? Every report I see about this Bahrainey baloney I can't find the list of reform demands that they want. Do they want to be more like Iran? More like Saudi Arabia? What? Most likely they're just bored Arabs looking for a little rock-slinging fun and they're already chased all the Jews out so now there left with only locals to harrass.
#3
SenatorMark4, Bahrain is ruled by a small Sunni elite, while the citizenry are mostly Shiites. Like Saudi Arabia, the Sunni rulers oppress theIr Shiites in order to discourage rebellious thoughts and acts. Unlike SA, the Bahraini rulers are carpetbaggers, having invaded in 1783.
Naturally, the Arab Spring idea would drive the local oppressed citizens to demand equal rights and some inclusion in the political life of their country. Equally naturally, the current Al Khalifa scion on the throne could not possibly allow any such thing -- the example of King Louis XVI of France every before his eyes. ;-). Wikipedia has useful articles on the subject, or a quick google search will provide helpful links.
[Yemen Post] A high-ranking military commander was killed on Thursday evening along with six of his bodyguards by Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates.... gunnies in the northern Yemeni province of Amran, Rooters reported.
Houthis mainly control the far northern province of Saddah but recently they have expanded their grip over some parts of Hajjah, Al-Jawf, and Amran provinces.
Some of the Shiite gunnies have opened fire on the officer's car when they refused to stop at a checkpoint set up by the rebels in Haraf Suffian area of Amran, killing him along with six of his bodyguards.
Some of the officer's bodyguards have fired back, leaving three Houthis killed, said Rooters.
Abdu Malak al-Houthi, the bully boy group leader, has confirmed that two of his men had been killed and the third is still missing.
"This brutal, unjustified aggression reveals the barbarity of this officer and those who stand behind him and their disregard for the blood of the people and their hatred for the sons of the northern provinces," Rooters has quoted him as saying.
Saddah, a province neglected by the government in terms of public projects , services and infrastructure, has witnessed six war within the the span of 6 years between Houthi gunnies and army troops, leaving thousands killed and others injured, and triggering a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the area as more than 200000 people were forced to flee their homes due to the armed conflict.
The Houthis, who are accused of being an agent of Tehran, expanded their territory towards neighboring Hajjah, where they alledgedly aiming to take control of Midi port. The port, according to the rustics, would make it easy for Iran to smuggle more weapons for them.
Sectarian festivities break out every now and then between Shiite Houthis and Sunni local rustics n the northern province of Hajjah.
Soddy Arabia, the regional power that has the most sway in Yemen, has voiced its concerns over Houthi's control of Saddah, a city nearby its southern borders, calling on the interim government to reestablish central government rule over the province.
The top oil exporter, which many allege that it has the last say in any internal matter in Yemen, was involved in the war against Houthis alongside the government forces, using it's advanced jet fighters. However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the Houthi gunnies managed to infiltrate the borders, killing some borders guards, and capturing some others.
Newly-elected President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi confirmed on Monday that he had received letters from Houthi leaders, indicating that they would take part in the upcoming national dialogue.
Shiite insurgency in the north, Southern Movement- calling for the separation of the south -and Al-Qaeda increasingly dangerous threat in the south, and revolutionary youth across the country who refuse to remove their camping sit-ins even after former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... was being eased out of power in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
These challenges and many others underscore the enormity of challenges facing Hadi and the Interim government.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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U.S. drones raided several hideouts of the Yemen-based al-Qaida wing in the southeast restive province of al-Bayda on Friday night, killing at least 20 al-Qaida militants, a local security official told Xinhua.
"Two U.S. drones fired several missiles on a number of al-Qaida hideouts in Jabra area of al-Zahir district in al-Bayda province, killing at least 20 al-Qaida members," the official told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity. "The casualties among the militants were based on an initial security report from the targeted area right now," he added without elaborating further details. A spokesman of al-Qaida group told Xinhua that "more than two U. S. drones are still striking several posts of al-Qaida in three villages outside al-Bayda's central city, and we do not have yet confirmed information on casualties."
He said that they will release initial information in a statement late on Friday night.
Al-Bayda province, some 170 km southeast of the capital Sanaa, has witnessed in the past two months a remarkable progress by the Yemeni government against Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of the Islamic Law), a local arm of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula ( AQAP).
Earlier this week, AQAP militants launched a string of suicide attacks against the government troops in the southern province of Abyan, killing at least 200 soldiers and capturing 73 others.
The Yemeni newly-elected President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi announced on Monday that his government is determined to confront terrorism with full force, saying "whatever it will take, we will continue to hunt terrorists down to their final hideout."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
I was just looking at Abyan, and, particularly Zinjibar on Google Earth, and it is extremely close to Aden. I hope the international shipping security firms are aware of how close they are to hardcare crazies. Zinjibar is right up the street.
Harking to tactics of their Los Zetas rivals, armed suspects with the Jalisco Nuevo Generacion drug cartel spent several hours Friday afternoon blocking roads and setting vehicles alight in Jalisco state as two of their top leaders were arrested, according to Mexican news accounts.
Erick Valencia Salazar, AKA El 85, was detained along with another top leader of the Jalisco Nuevo Generacion drug cartel, Nemesio Oseguera, AKA El Mencho, in an operation involving Mexican Army troops and about 1,700 state as well as local police agents Friday.
Soldiers also seized about 30 rifles and undisclosed quantities of munitions following the arrests.
According to news reports 25 vehicles and several roadblocks were reported in and around Guadalajara following the arrest of Valencia Salazar. Most of the blocks involved vehicles which were hijacked and torched to block the roads. Some reports say as many as 13 roadblocks were put up in Guadalajara.
Locations that were blocked included calles Miguel Blanco and Rayon in Zona Centro and Calle Enrique Díaz de León and Avenida. Maestro.
Los Zetas operatives in Monterrey in early 2010 used blocked roads whenever they had a sharp reverse, such a a capture of a top operative, to prevent security forces from intervening in gunfights, or to prevent security forces from intervening in other drug gang operations. In confrontations with Gulf cartel operatives, Los Zetas also made use of roadblocks later that summer in Reynosa and Matamoros in Tamaulipas state.
La Familia operatives blocked roads in a similar fashion in early 2011, when several of their top leaders were captured or killed in Michoacan state by Policia Federal agents.
According to press accounts, Partido Accion Nacional governor of Jalisco, Emilio Gonzalez Marquez, said that as of 1800 hrs most of the blocks had been cleared. Local media, however said that ten roads were still blocked. A local TV news station said that one unidentified truck driver had been killed in a hijacking to make a roadblock.
Army troops and cartel shooters exchanged gunfire at about 1400 hrs in a remote area of Zapopan municipality in Lomas Altas near the intersection of calles Leo and Cancer, but no reports have emerged concerning the outcome of that firefight. It is presumed that that gunfight ended with the capture of the two Jalisco Nuevo Generacion leaders. Reports say gunfire was heard for two or three minutes.
Roads were also blocked in neighboring Michoacan state, in San Jose de Gracia, where three vehicles were set afire to block a road. No injuries were reported in the Michoacan state roadblock.
News reports say Valencia Salazar was responsible for the formation of the Matazetas group, which at first tried to pass itself off to the Mexican press as a vigilante group. It was later learned the Matazetas were in fact a criminal group. Valencia Salazar allegedly masterminded the murder of 35 Los Zetas operatives in Veracruz state last fall. To read the Rantburg report on the murder of 35 Los Zetas operatives and subsequent hits, click here and here
For a map, click here For a map of Tamaulipas, click here. To see the original Rantburg report on the Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas firefight, click here
By Chris Covert
A total of 15 dead were found in three incidents in Tamaulipas state since last Thursday, according to Mexican news accounts.
Friday morning a Mexican Army unit found seven unidentified individuals in Valle Hermoso municipality in northern Tamaulipas. Five victims had been beheaded.
The find was made on a road leading to the village of Las Yescas. A message was also left with the bodies, but its contents were not disclosed.
In San Fernando municipality two more unidentified individuals were found beheaded Friday.
Last Thursday six unidentified victims were found in Ciudad Victoria, the state capital of Tamaulipas. The find was made just a few kilometers from the Ciudad Victoria to San Luis Potosi highway.
As with the find in Valle Hermoso, all six had been beheaded and a message was left at the scene but its content was not disclosed.
With the two finds Thursday and Friday, and the gunfight in Miguel Aleman last Wednesday, the death toll from drug and gang related activity rises to 27.
For a map, click here For a map of Tamaulipas, click here. To see the original Rantburg report on the Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas firefight, click here
By Chris Covert
A total of eight armed suspects were killed by Mexican Army riflemen in a pursuit and firefight in Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas Wednesday, while another four armed suspects were killed in a town near Matamoros, according to news posted at the website of the Mexican Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), the controlling agency for the Mexican Army.
Earlier Twitter accounts Wednesday put the death toll in the Miguel Aleman pursuit and gunfight at between 10 and 12 armed suspects, if SEDENA is reporting about the same firefight.
Two unidentified armed suspects were also detained following the gunfight.
Earlier reports also said the exchange of gunfire took place at a residence in Gomez colony, but SEDENA reports the firefight took place in San Pedro colony. Twitter reports say the gunfire and pursuit began at about 1400 from an attempted traffic stop near the intersection of calles Insurgentes and 10th, while SEDENA reports nothing about a pursuit.
Following the gunfight, soldiers seized 13 rifles, one handgun, 16 grenades, 36 weapons magazines, 7,692 rounds of ammunition, USD $6,240 (MP $78,989.04) and MP $163,200.00 (USD $12892.52) in cash, and three vehicles.
Meanwhile, at the rural village of Sabinito near Matamoros, a Mexican Army patrol came under small arms fire by an unknown number of armed suspects. Army return fire killed four.
Apparently the armed group had been holding five unidentified hostages, who were released following the gunfight.
In the aftermath, soldiers seized four rifles, one hand grenade, 61 weapons magazines, 1,335 rounds of ammunition, containers with armor plating, weapons accessories and three vehicles.
A female jacket wallah who was the widow of a slain Islamist krazed killer has killed five coppers when she blew herself up at a checkpoint in Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Dagestan, officials said on Wednesday.
The attack on Tuesday night was the most deadly incident in a upsurge of violence in mainly Mohammedan Dagestan since Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. 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... was elected president, highlighting the problems he faces containing gunnies in Russia's south.
"A woman set off a bomb with 2kg of TNT on her body at the checkpoint in Karabudakhent village," said a statement on the Dagestani police website.
The suicide bomber's severed head was found tens of metres from the blast on Tuesday night, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
Investigators said relatives had identified her as the widow of a Dagestan rebel leader who was killed in a police operation against cut-throats last month.
"She was Aminat Ibrahimova, the widow of a leader of a bandit group from [the town of] Kaspiysk, the former interior ministry official Zaur Zagirov" an unnamed police source told ITAR-TASS.
Islamic krazed killer plague
The five victims were low-ranking coppers aged 22 to 34, the ministry said. Two more officers were hospitalised.
The regional interior ministry blamed the recent violence on what it described as an Islamic krazed killer "plague".
"Using Islam as a cover, they are doing evil on the territory of Dagestan," the ministry said on its website.
Russian officials have long been concerned by the activities of the widows of slain rebels and several attacks in Moscow in the last decade have been blamed on so called "Black Widows" who came to the capital.
A police officer and a local resident were also rubbed out by unidentified gunnies in a raid on Tuesday evening on a cop shoppe in Kaspiysk on Dagestan's Caspian Sea coast.
Frequent shootings
The violence came after Putin triumphed in the Russian presidential polls, scoring especially highly in the Caucasus region where official results indicated that he polled over 90%.
Election day in Dagestan however was also marred by an attack on a polling station that killed three coppers.
A mostly Mohammedan region known for its ancient culture and tapestry of ethnic groups, Dagestan is fighting an insurgency by cut-throats seeking to establish an Islamic state across the Russian Caucasus.
The region experiences frequent shootings and bombings that officials blame on small-time Mister Bigs and Islamists with links to neighbouring Chechnya.
"A radical Islamic underground is operating in Dagestan, which for a long time has used suicide bombers to carry out terror attacks. In the Moscow metro [attack in 2010], suicide bombers from Dagestan also blew themselves up," Alexander Cherkasov of the Russian rights group Memorial said.
Analysts suggested that the authorities had been able to calm the situation in Chechnya somewhat in recent years by giving local strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov free reign to rule with an iron fist, but had been unable to do the same in Dagestan.
"That's why a significant part of the terrorist underground has appeared in Dagestan," independent analyst Alexander Golts said. He added that "deep-seated corruption, unemployment and feelings of despair among young people" were helping to fuel militancy.
[Dawn] Five deaths in three hours raised the toll to eight on Friday in the renewed incidents of violence in the city, DawnNews reported.
A man was bumped off in Mujahidabad, Orangi Town followed by the assassination of a former member of a banned outfit in Meraj Nabi Colony, a nearby locality.
Worker of a political party was murdered in New Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... area and a civilian was killed near Pakistain Chowk locality.
A police official succumbed to his wounds after being injured during a clash with the outlaws.
A police informer and a common man got injured after being attacked near Sohrab Goth. Both shuffled off the mortal coil before reaching the hospital.
Another worker of a political party died in a hospital after being shot on Thursday in Surjani Town area.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. has ordered the IG Sindh Police for an inquiry into the incidents on priority basis.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Talibs armed with guns and rockets ambushed a Pak military convoy Friday, killing seven soldiers in the bully boy stronghold of North Wazoo, officials said.
The attack took place at Khar Qamar, 30 kilometres west of Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , the main town in the district.
The Pak security officials said nine Islamic fascistiwere also killed in the attack, but there was no independent confirmation of the toll.
"At least seven soldiers were martyred when Islamic fascistifired machine guns and rockets on a military convoy," a security bigshot told AFP.
Other security officials in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, the biggest city in northwest Pakistain, confirmed the attack and that the toll had risen from four to seven.
"After the ambush, Pak military helicopters and troops retaliated and there were reports of deaths of nine bully boys," an intelligence official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A turbanrubbed out the head of a local pro-government militia in the Kalaya area of the northwestern Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... , near the Afghanistan border, security officials said.
Officials added that the attacker was killed in a firefight after being surrounded by Pak forces patrolling the area.
The Pakistain military is conducting operations against turban groups in Orakzai, and dozens have been killed in fierce fighting in recent weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Unidentified gunnies kidnapped three Fata Sustainable Plains Development Programme officials and a Levies soldier in the frontier tribal region of Lakki on Wednesday night.
Sources said Jehanzeb, Awal Khan and Kachkol Khan guarded by Naseer Khan of Levies were in Ghundi Hasankhel area to inspect work on SPDP projects.
They said after the incident, the political administration began an operation in the area for safe recovery of captives and arrest of their kidnappers.
Also in the day, Lakki Marwat district police officer Gulzar Ali Khan directed local SDPOs and SHOs to speed up action against gamblers and narcos.
During a meeting at his office, he said police were responsible for cracking down on criminals without discrimination and therefore, such actions should be initiated without delay.
The DPO said complaint boxes had been placed outside the district and sub-divisional police offices for early resolution of people's problems.
He urged police to keep a close liaison with elders and residents of their respective areas and said it would help restore public confidence in the force. It, he said, will also improve law and order situation in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[The Hindu] Ending weeks of speculation, the government on Friday announced the appointment of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Corps Commander Zaheer-ul Islam as the ISI Director-General. He will replace Ahmad Shuja Pasha who is due to retire on March 18 after a three-and-a-half-year stint at what is regarded as one of the most powerful offices in the country, second only to that of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS).
The announcement was made in the evening with a brief statement from the Prime Minister's Secretariat. There was no word on Lieutenant-General Pasha's future assignment though there has been speculation of the outgoing DG -- who is on extension -- being made head of the Strategic Plans Division, which is in charge of the management and administration of the country's nuclear weapons stockpile.
Lieutenant-General Islam is also an infantry man like COAS Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... and Lieutenant-General Pasha. He has served in the ISI in the past as a two-star general in the post of Deputy Director General and had then apparently dealt with domestic and counter-intelligence issues.
The change of guard takes place at a time when the role of the ISI in Pakistain's domestic politics is under the scanner with the Supreme Court hearing a 1996-vintage petition. In the petition, a former Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistain Air Force, Asghar Khan, accused the ISI of financing several politicians -- including former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... -- during the 1990 elections to form the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad and prevent the Pakistain People's Party from winning the polls.
The ongoing hearings have disclosed that Rs.340 million was distributed to various politicians and journalists by then ISI DG Asad Durrani on the instructions of the then President and COAS, Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Mirza Aslam Baig respectively.
Since the U.S. raid to take out al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who has made the transition back to dust... on May 2, 2012, the ISI -- primarily a much feared organization that is referred to in hush-hush terms -- has been openly questioned for successive intelligence failures and attempts to manipulate Pakistain's politics besides the growing number of disappearances of people from Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... and Sindh.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
There doesn't seem to much info available about this guy. As noted, his previous ISI stint was on the domestic side of the house. President Zardari seems to trust him and he is no stranger to the US military. I would say that Lt Gen Zaheer-ul Islam has a historic opportunity to improve relations with the US. Let's see what he does with it.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
03/10/2012 18:23 Comments ||
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[Dawn] The Pakistain Taliban will attack government, police and military officials if three of the late al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden's ... who is currently taking a long nap in the dirt... urm... water... widows are not released from Pak custody, a front man for the thug group said on Friday.
Pakistain's government has charged bin Laden's three widows with illegally entering and staying in the country, Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. said on Thursday.
"If the family of Osama bin Laden is not released as soon as possible, we will attack the judges, the lawyers and the security officials involved in their trial," Ehsanullah Ehsan of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) told Rooters.
"We will carry out suicide kabooms against security forces and the government across the country."
Malik did not specify which court was dealing with the case.
The three women will have to stand trial, but it was not clear what punishment they face if convicted.
Bin Laden was killed in a secret US raid in the northern Pak garrison town of Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... in May last year.
The al Qaeda leader's body was flown out by American special forces, but his three wives and an undisclosed number of children were among the 16 people jugged by Pak authorities after the raid.
Two of the wives are Saudi nationals, and one is from Yemen, according to the Pak foreign ministry.
Pakistain had previously said that it would repatriate the women after a government commission probing the bin Laden raid had completed its questioning.
The commission has interviewed the family members for clues about how the al-Qaeda chief managed to stay in the country undetected.
The TTP vowed Dire Revenge™ after bin Laden's death last year, and carried out high-profile attacks across Pakistain. It bombed an American consulate convoy, laid siege to a naval base and killed paramilitary cadets.
Formed in 2007, the TTP is an umbrella group of various Pak thug factions operating in Pakistain's unruly northwestern tribal areas along the mostly non-existent border with Afghanistan.
TTP's front man also threatened attacks against Shad Begum, a women's rights activist based in the northwestern city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar.
The US State Department honoured Begum with the 2012 International Women of Courage award at a ceremony in Washington on Thursday.
"She works for a secular and infidel system in Pakistain," Ehsan said. "That is why America has given her this prize."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Threatening to attack isn't very threatening when they are already attacking in every way they can.
[An Nahar] Thousands of Iraqis erupted into the streets of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... and cities in the Shiite-majority south of the country on Friday to condemn Bahrain for crushing an uprising a year ago.
A bit late to be effective, not that the rulers of Bahrain care what a mob of Iraqi peasants -- or even Iraqi bon pensants -- might say or do.
The protests, organized by Shiite holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... , took place in a half-dozen cities in south Iraq with attendance ranging from dozens to several thousand, Agence La Belle France Presse news hounds said.
"Pay attention to meeeeeeee!" cries Little Tater, recently promoted to something or other terribly impressive by the mullahs of Qom. One hopes they also arranged for the repair of his teeth -- so hard to be taken seriously as an intellectual when one's teeth are visibly rotting in one's head. Such things denote a certain lack of gravitas in a way that, say, uncombed hair does not.
"The Bahraini king is a king only to himself, not for the oppressed people of Bahrain," Sadrist official Ibrahim al-Jabari said in a speech to thousands of demonstrators in the movement's Sadr City bastion in north Storied Baghdad.
Jabari also criticized the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... for barring Syria from attending an upcoming summit in Storied Baghdad, but allowing Bahrain to join.
Protesters shouted, "Bahrain! Free, Free Bahrain!" and held banners condemning Soddy Arabia's "interference" in the Gulf monarchy.
Rallies were also held in Sadr's headquarters town of Najaf, the southern port city of Basra, and the towns of Nasiriyah, Hilla, Amara and Diwaniyah.
AFP journalists said thousands of demonstrators attended the Najaf and Amara protests, while hundreds took part in the Basra, Nasiriyah and Hilla rallies. Diwaniyah, however, only say a few dozen protesters.
"All of these protesters have come to say to the Bahraini leaders, 'Stop what you are doing to the people of Bahrain'," said Mohaned al-Gharawi, a Sadrist official taking part in the Najaf demonstration.
Bahrain has complained to Iraq previously of Sadr's "irresponsible statements" about the uprising, summoning Storied Baghdad's envoy to Manama in January.
The Shiite-led opposition in Bahrain demands constitutional changes that would reduce the power of the ruling Sunni dynasty. Tensions have remained high in Bahrain since a deadly crackdown last year after a month of street protests in the capital Manama.
Tensions between Iraq and the six Gulf Arab states have risen sharply since Bahrain secured military support from fellow Gulf Cooperation Council members to smash the month of pro-democracy protests.
In the aftermath of the crackdown, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party.... warned that the military intervention risked stoking sectarian conflict across the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
So Iran, using Tater as proxy, are protesting in Baghdad about the crackdown in Bahrain of Iranian backed agitators seeking to overthrow the government.
#2
I beleive I would worry about my own problems for the near future. Like say a car blowing up while demonstrating.
Posted by: Jack Barnsmell7643 ||
03/10/2012 9:47 Comments ||
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#3
No protests against Iran's handling of the protests a couple of years ago. Oh that's right, I guess there weren't more than a few disgruntled folks according to Iranian spokesmen.
A violent flare-up that began when Israel killed a leading militant commander in the Gaza Strip has so far killed 12 militants, said a Palestinian health spokesman Saturday.
The killing also unleashed a barrage of rockets by furious Palestinian militants from the coastal territory toward Israel's southern border communities. One of those rockets seriously wounded an Israeli civilian and sent families scattering into bomb shelters.
The Palestinian militants were killed in seven airstrikes overnight and on Saturday morning, said Gaza health spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya. He said some 20 more civilians were wounded by flying shrapnel from the exploding missiles, some of which targeted militants deep in civilian areas of the crowded territory.
The flare-up began midmorning Friday, when an Israeli airstrike targeted the commander of one of the militant groups behind the abduction of an Israeli soldier five years ago.
Zuhair Al-Qaissi's killing prompted Palestinian militants in Gaza to fire over 50 rockets at Israel so far, according to a count by Israel's military.
As militants sought to fire rockets, they were targeted by Israeli airstrikes. One militant was killed on Gaza City's main upscale boulevard. Another was hit while driving a car in the central Gaza City town of Deir al-Balah.
The Israeli military said it initially targeted al-Qaissi, the commander of the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committee, a militant group closely aligned with Gaza's Hamas rulers.
Members of several other Palestinian groups joined the fray. The majority of those killed overnight belonged to the Islamic Jihad, a militant group that has sought to build up its arsenal over the past few months.
The Friday strike was the highest profile killing Israel has undertaken against militants in the coastal strip in several months.
The military said al-Qaissi was plotting an infiltration attack into Israel similar to the raid from Egypt's Sinai peninsula that they claim he orchestrated in August, which killed eight Israelis and injured 40 more.
The militant group has never taken responsibility for the attack.
The explosion tore apart al-Qaissi's blue sedan and killed his son-in-law, Mahmoud Hanini himself a top PRC field commander. Another low ranking Gaza militant also died.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli drones were seen hovering above just moments before al-Qaissi's vehicle burst into flames. They said the blast was so fierce that al-Qaissi's head was torn off.
[Ynet News] Eight people were maimed Friday, one of them seriously, following heavy rocket fire at southern Israel by Gazoo terrorists.
Over 40 rockets and mortar shells were launched at Israel throughout the day.
According to Magen David Adom emergency services, three people sustained rocket moderate shrapnel wounds, three others were lightly hurt while running for cover, and two others were involved in a car accident as result of the panic.
Earlier, the Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted at least three Grad rockets ...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km.... fired at the southern communities of Ashdod and Gan Yavne, as Gazooforces of Evil continued to pound Israel's south throughout Friday night.
The Color Red alert sounded in the Ashdod region immediately after the long-range rockets were fired, prompting residents to rush into bomb shelters and secured rooms. At least one rocket landed in an open area in the city's vicinity.
Late Friday, the Color Red alert sounded in Beersheba, southern Israel's largest city. The Iron Dome system engaged and several kabooms were reported in the area. Officials later said several rockets went kaboom! near the city.
The Air Force targeted several rocket cells in Gazoo during the evening, killing at least three Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Mohammedan Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... terrorists.
Update from the Jerusalem Post: A total of ten terrorists were killed by IDF air strikes in Gaza on Friday.
An IDF security assessment prompted the Home Front Command to bar mass gatherings within a 40km radius of the Gazoo border, as well as order more public bomb sheltered opened.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
More from JPost:The barrage of rockets followed an IAF air strike that killed the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees, Zuhair Qaisi.
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) swiftly called for retaliation following the first IAF strike that killed Qaisi, as well as senior PRC member Ahmad Hanini. A third man was also injured in the attack. The IAF struck a vehicle in a move to thwart a large-scale terror attack that was in its last stages of preparation, according to the IDF spokesperson.
#3
I thought that Israelis were better at math. Don't they realize that it's the fifth or sixth digit that is significant in counting terrorist bodies?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2012 10:40 Comments ||
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#5
Targeting a Hamas weapons factory, as seen in YouTube here. And it's up to around 100 rockets, missiles and things. It seems the Gazans are blowing off steam, while Israel is clearing the decks for action elsewhere.
I dunno, Frank. Are you sure it's not that Allen wanted the IAF missiles to strike their target because he's pissed at the Hezzies, et al., who keep misinterpreting what he really wants?
After all, Islam is the religion of peace, right?
Right?
What's that noise? Sounds like some crickets got into the house....
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/10/2012 15:24 Comments ||
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Shootings linked to the long-running jihad sectarian tensions in southern Thailand claimed two more lives on Saturday.
In Pattani province, a member of the Plonghoi Tambon Administration Organisation was gunned down in Kapaw district. Witnesses said that Doloh Dengla, 50, was siting and talking with his wife and relatives on chairs in front of his house when two gunmen emerged from a car and approached him. They fired at Doloh with a 9 mm handgun and an M16 assault rifle, then fled in the waiting car. The victim was hit several times and died at the scene.
In Narathiwat province, a former assistant village leader was killed in a shooting at a roadside pavilion in Yingor district on Saturday morning. Asha Tayeh, 29, was sitting with his two friends at the pavilion on a local road when a gunman in a pickup truck fired at him twice with a shotgun. The attackers then fled. Asha was hit twice and taken to hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
[An Nahar] Syrian authorities demanded Leb officially on Friday to hand over the armed Syrian nationals that sought refuge in the eastern Bekaa area over the weekend, As Safir newspaper reported.
The Syrian Justice Ministry sent an official request to the Lebanese authorities demanding them to "hand over the gangs that were jugged in Leb," informed sources told the daily.
They noted that the memorandum was sent to General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza, who in turn sent a copy to Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi.
On Sunday, media reports said the Lebanese army jugged 35 armed Syrians, who allegedly belong to the Free Syrian Army, and had crossed to the Bekaa region with refugees escaping the crackdown of the Assad regime on protestors.
According to the bilateral judicial agreement signed between the two countries in 1951, which was amended in 1991, and in addition to the defense agreement inked in 1991, the Lebanese authorities are obliged to hand over to Syria the detainees.
"The gunnies, according to the Syrian authorities, are outlaws," sources noted.
Media reports said on Tuesday that the army released 28 out of the 35 armed Syrians, after investigations revealed that they haven't used their arms in Lebanese territories or Syria, while the other 7 were referred to the competent judiciary for using their weapons inside Leb and allegedly injuring a Lebanese soldier.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Thursday that the army released the 7 gunnies, who were classified among the refugees entering into Leb from Syria's Homs province.
"The gunnies who were jugged by the army were referred to the competent judiciary in order to take the necessary measures against them," a member who participated in Thursday's Higher Defense Council meeting told As Safir.
President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... headed an "extraordinary" meeting for the HDC at the Baabda Palace amid warnings by U.S. Ambassador to Leb Maura Connelly against handing over to Syrian authorities the refugees or dissidents, including members of the FSA, who crossed into Leb fleeing the turmoil in their country.
"A number of the refugees returned to their country," a source told the daily.
The source noted that the measures along the Lebanese-Syrian border were boosted as the security forces are tightening their grip according to the requirements.
An Nahar reported that the decisions taken by the council remained confidential although the daily said that the gatherers stressed the importance of controlling the arms smuggling along the border.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told al-Joumhouria newspaper that security is under control along the Lebanese-Syrian border to halt the infiltration of gunnies and smugglers in the two directions.
The Higher Defense Council expressed in a statement "relief" over the security situation in the country.
According to An Nahar, the Lebanese and Syrian army boosted their measures along the border amid conflicting reports on the developments.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Fatah al-Islam A Syrian-incubated al-Qaeda work-alike that they think can be turned off if no longer needed to keep the Leb pot stirred. inmates in Roumieh prison have gone on a hunger strike on Thursday to protest an assault against a fellow prisoner, reported the National News Agency on Friday.
It explained that the prisoner was assaulted when he was standing trial at the Military Tribunal.
No further details were given on the incident.
The Fatah al-Islam inmates demanded that the prison administration hold the assailants accountable for their actions in order for them to end their strike.
The prison administration has since tightened security in the bloc B of the jail, where the Fatah al-Islam prisoners are jugged, as a precaution should the strike turn into a riot.
Roumieh inmates frequently stage hunger strikes in protest against the conditions in the jail.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
a suggestion? Cut off food to ALL inmates while these drama queens do their hunger strike. Collective punishment. Perhaps their fellow (involuntary) hunger strikers might have a word with them?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2012 10:45 Comments ||
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#2
So let 'em starve.
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/10/2012 13:29 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Nine people have been charged with smuggling arms to Syria, announced the National News Agency on Friday.
State commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr also charged them for the possession of arms and smuggling and trafficking weapons to Syria.
Two of the suspects are in police custody, while the rest remain on the lam.
Saqr also charged six individuals for forming an gang aimed at carrying out terrorist acts.
They have been found guilty of conducting trainings aimed at attacking military institutions, added NNA.
None of the nationalities of the accused have been disclosed.
In February, Lebanese authorities jugged two Lebanese nationals on charges of smuggling weapons into Syria through the eastern border town of Arsal.
The examining magistrate issued arrest warrants against them on charges of smuggling weapons to Syria.
Earlier that month, the army had searched northern villages bordering Syria following information it received about the presence of gangs that allegedly belong to the Free Syrian Army.
According to media reports, the army had jugged a number of suspects and is conducting investigations with them.
The poorly-demarcated Syrian-Lebanese border has witnessed a number of violations since the revolt against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... began in mid-March.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The leader of Syria's main opposition group rejected calls Friday by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan for dialogue with Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's The Scourge of Hama... government, saying they were pointless and unrealistic as the regime massacres its own people.
As the prospects for diplomacy faltered, Turkey's state-run television TRT said two Syrian generals and a colonel defected to Turkey on Thursday.
If confirmed, the military defections would be significant as most army defectors so far have been low-level conscripts. On Thursday, Syria's deputy oil minister announced his defection, making him the highest-ranking civilian official to join the opposition.
In a telephone interview from Gay Paree, Burhan Ghalioun, who heads the opposition Syrian National Council, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that Annan already has disappointed the Syrian people.
Annan, who has been appointed joint U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy to Syria, has said his mission was to start a "political process" to resolve the conflict in the country. He is due this weekend in Syria where he will meet with Assad.
In comments made in Cairo on Thursday after talks with Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, Annan warned against further militarization of the Syrian conflict and urged the opposition to come together with the government to find a political solution.
"I hope that no one is thinking very seriously of using force in this situation," Annan said. "I believe any further militarization would make the situation worse."
Annan also said he would be making "realistic" proposals to resolve the conflict. He did not elaborate.
But Ghalioun blasted such statements as unrealistic.
"These kind of comments are disappointing and do not give a lot of hope for people in Syria being massacred every day," Ghalioun said. "It feels like we are watching the same movie being repeated over and over again."
"My fear is that, like other international envoys before him, the aim is to waste a month or two of pointless mediation efforts," he added.
Syrian activists also rejected Annan's call for dialogue.
"It seems he lives on Mars," said Mohammad Saeed, an activist in the Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... suburb of Douma.
"Between us and Bashir al-Assad are the bodies of 5,000 deaders. We can't hear each other even if we wanted to," he said. "What dialogue are they talking?"
Syria's opposition is fragmented and suffers from infighting, but most factions reject talks with the government while the military crackdown continues.
The U.N. says more than 7,500 people have been killed in the past year since the revolt against Assad erupted in the country's south and engulfed the country. Activists put the corpse count at more than 8,000.
The uprising began with largely peaceful protests, but faced with a vicious regime crackdown, it has become increasingly militarized.
The SNC is openly calling for outside military intervention, but the subject is controversial and divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... "Any political solution will not succeed if it is not accompanied by military pressure on the regime," Ghalioun said.
Ghalioun faulted Annan for "avoiding" any references to the essence of the problem, which is the regime's use of extreme military force to crush the protests.
"As an international envoy, we hope he will have a mechanism for ending the violence," Ghalioun said.
Ghalioun also welcomed the defection by deputy oil minister Abdo Husameddine and called on other high-ranking government employees "and all those with a conscience" to do the same.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Tens of thousands demonstrated across Syria on Friday after the main weekly Mohammedan prayers, notably in northern Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , with security forces opening fire on protesters in various regions, killing at least 82 people, activists said.
"There are 15 demonstrations taking place in the city of Aleppo and about 40 across the province," local activist Mohammed Halabi told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone.
"Security forces have shot up most of the demonstrations to disperse the crowds," he added. "In Aleppo city, there is a heavy security presence and arrests taking place."
He said the protests in Aleppo marked the largest turnout since the revolt against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Supressor of the Damascenes... regime broke out one year ago.
Demonstrators called for Assad to be executed and for the rebel Free Syrian Army to be given weapons, he said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said up to 15,000 people demonstrated in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the uprising.
Demonstrations were also taking place in the coastal city of Latakia, in central Homs and Hama, as well as Deir al-Zour in the east.
Abdel Rahman said one demonstrator was killed and five maimed in Jarablos, in Aleppo province, when troops opened fire on protesters.
Fifteen other non-combatants were killed in violence across the country, the Observatory said.
But the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, reported a much higher corpse count.
Twenty-six people were killed in the central province of Homs, 33 in the northern province of Idlib, five in the southern province of Daraa, four in the central province of Hama, nine in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... province, six in the southern province of Daraa, two in the coastal province of Latakia, one in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour and one in Aleppo province, the LCC said.
And the Observatory said at least 11 people were killed in the central province of Homs, including eight in shelling and gunfire in various neighborhoods of the city itself.
Two were killed elsewhere in the province when security forces met the demonstrators with hot lead and one woman was killed by sniper fire, it said.
In the capital Damascus, one man was killed in shooting overnight, according to the Observatory.
Opposition activists called for Friday's protests, which have become a weekly event since the uprising began, to be held in solidarity with the country's Kurdish minority, as they prepare to celebrate their New Year festival Nowruz.
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03/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Four generals who had defected from the Syrian army arrived in Turkey Friday, Anatolia news agency reported, citing local Turkish sources.
No doubt they're not anything as good as the Turkish officers sitting in Turkish jails on Erdogan's trumped up charges, but they'll do as substitutes in a pinch.
The four were among some 10 high-ranking army officers stationed in cities including Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... , Homs and Latakia, who crossed the border into Turkey's southern province of Hatay to join the Syrian rebels, the state-run Turkish agency said.
The number of Syrians crossing into Turkey in one single day reached 234, it added, citing Yusuf Guler, the district governor of Hatay's Reyhanli village.
The arriving refugees are being placed in tent camps in Hatay, where members of the rebel Free Syrian Army, made up of deserters from the Syrian security forces, are also based.
Recent weeks have seen an influx in the numbers of civilians fleeing the country as Bashir al-Assad's regime intensified its crackdown on opposition neighborhoods.
Around 800 Syrians crossed into Turkey over the last week, upping the figure for the past month to 2,500, officials told Agence La Belle France Presse on Thursday.
The total number since the unrest began a year ago stands at almost 12,000, but these are only the Syrians who have been registered by the authorities as they entered Turkey.
Turkish authorities are readying for a scenario involving the mass arrival of refugees and establishing a container city in Kilis, some 150 kilometers from the Hatay camps.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2012 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.
U.S. drones raided several hideouts of the Yemen-based al-Qaida wing in the southeast restive province of al-Bayda on Friday night, killing at least 20 al-Qaida militants, a local security official told Xinhua. 
A female 
Five deaths in three hours raised the toll to eight on Friday in the renewed incidents of violence in the city, DawnNews reported.
Wazoo
Orakzai Agency
[The Hindu] Ending weeks of speculation, the government on Friday announced the appointment of 
Nawaz Sharif
Moqtada 
Nouri al-Maliki
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
