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Report says China offered widespread help on nukes
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd do her. ;)
Posted by: Mike N. || 08/30/2008 1:14 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm sure she'd be just thrilled, Idiot Mike.

But I suspect she'd have better taste - and much higher standards.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/30/2008 1:25 Comments || Top||

#3  That's a scary-looking hairball she found in the drain.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 08/30/2008 4:14 Comments || Top||

#4  To me anyway, today's and yesterday's picture fall into the category "Women and the Triffids that will kill and eat them eventually..."
Posted by: Adriane || 08/30/2008 5:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Mike's in trouble again.
Posted by: .5MT || 08/30/2008 7:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Mike dear, aren't you supposed to be practicing your very best manners to impress the real girl out in the analog world? I promise solemnly she would not be impressed by your willingness to drill anything claiming to be female.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/30/2008 7:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Looks to me like she's been to a wild party(1929) with Clara Bow and the gang.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 08/30/2008 8:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Adrienne works, but the linoleum upgrade has to go.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/30/2008 8:33 Comments || Top||

#9  I suspect he was jokingly referring to her last name....jeez. Lighten up, Francis
Posted by: Frank G || 08/30/2008 8:38 Comments || Top||

#10  Barbara and TW win the gold medal in the 400m Snark Relay.
Posted by: Mike || 08/30/2008 9:21 Comments || Top||

#11  Fred, got anything from the 'women who are governor of Alaska and have a good shot at being vice president' series? I like women with a little fire behind the eyes. If not, Annie Oakley will do.
Posted by: Scott R || 08/30/2008 9:58 Comments || Top||

#12  I'm with Scott R. on this one. I think a good picture of Sarah Palin would be an excellent cover for the Rantburg DS&TP. It would be preferable if you showed her in some decorous, classically modest dress so as to emphasize both the beauty and obvious intelligence her face so clearly displays.

(I threw that last line in there just for Barb, Sea, lotp and TW, since you know they think (correctly) all the usual suspects posting here are a bunch of skin-loving dogs more interested in the female form. I hope if any of them fainted, they landed someplace soft!)
Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 || 08/30/2008 11:25 Comments || Top||

#13  Is that thing she's holding a bath sponge, or a string of fireworks?

This is the first time I've ever seen someone take a bath wearing their stockings. Guess it makes sense - do two things at once.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 08/30/2008 11:37 Comments || Top||

#14  I'm with Scott R. on this one. I think a good picture of Sarah Palin would be an excellent cover for the Rantburg DS&TP.

Agreed, in about 35 years.
Posted by: .5MT || 08/30/2008 11:47 Comments || Top||

#15  I was 10 seconds away from from posting MILF(you know those crazy Philippine jihadist) and how she would rip them apart. But when I saw Mike being sin-binned, i thought I better not.
Posted by: tipper || 08/30/2008 11:55 Comments || Top||

#16  Of course y'all are a bunch of skin-loving dogs, Jolutch Mussolini7800 -- it's part of your charm. It's just that Mike N. was willing to do Governor Palin, too, yesterday. Given his chosen profession, I know he is capable of stating it more imaginatively. Admittedly, I completely missed the play on Miss Adrienne's name.

Whatever she's holding, it looks like she considers it unsavoury.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/30/2008 12:24 Comments || Top||

#17  Looks like either a string of fireworks or a drowned feather boa.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 12:41 Comments || Top||

#18  Alright, my fellow skin loving dogs, 3dc posted this pic yesterday which I assume is from when Mrs. Palin was a contestant in the Miss Wassila contest. Drool all you want but I think somebody said her husband was a Marine so I wouldn't mess. Anyway I like women who bathe. It's good to be clean. I'm just not to sure about whatever it is that Miss Dore is holding outside the tub.

Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/30/2008 12:45 Comments || Top||

#19  Trailing Wife and Barbara have reminded me I should be courteous and on my best behavior here. Oh, Oh, I'm hoping I haven't said something tacky in the past.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/30/2008 16:49 Comments || Top||

#20  Oh, Oh, I'm hoping I haven't said something tacky in the past

You probably have. They usually forgive, but they never, never, never forget.

Trust me on thisn
Posted by: .5MT || 08/30/2008 20:35 Comments || Top||

#21  ideal situation? Memory loss. Then, you don't know who they're railing against and you can join in on the condemnations. Good fun and confusion all around. I recommend it.

/what?
Posted by: Frank G || 08/30/2008 20:41 Comments || Top||

#22  Wut?
Posted by: .5MT || 08/30/2008 20:42 Comments || Top||

#23  ;-) you're on my list
Posted by: Frank G || 08/30/2008 20:43 Comments || Top||

#24  I'm a looking for a photo of her stalking through the grass hunting bear or moose!
I have one of her at the turret gun of a Alaska NG vehicle, BUT, she is wear cami and helmet and headset so it really could be anything..
A photo kind of like Elmer hunting wabbit would be good. Something that could have a caption like "shh.. I am hunting dems..."
Posted by: 3dc || 08/30/2008 21:15 Comments || Top||

#25  There's now a web site referring to Palin as a VPILF. Oh, G-d.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 08/30/2008 23:08 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Taliban ambushes threaten Nato's vital logistics route into Afghanistan
Taliban fighters are trying to strangle Nato's mission in Afghanistan by stepping up attacks on convoys in the Khyber Pass, the perilous mountain trail that carries most supplies into the country. Using age-old guerrilla tactics, they hijack or destroy the ponderous lorries creeping up the narrow road and sell the contents in local bazaars to finance new raids.

A prominent, independent tribesman from the Khyber region, who cannot be named for his own safety, told The Sunday Telegraph that the Pakistani army was close to losing control of the pass. "You see vehicles destroyed by rockets on the side of the road," he said. "The wreckage isn't there for long, the army soon removes it to make it look as if they are still in control of the road. But they are on the verge of losing it."

The number of attacks on supply convoys is a military secret, but the tribesman claimed they were occurring almost daily. Earlier this year 42 oil tankers were destroyed in one attack.

Drivers are paid high wages to risk their lives. One driver, Momin Khan Darwish, said: "If there is a more dangerous job in Pakistan, I would like to know what it is." Others describe finding threatening letters from the Taliban pinned to their lorries.

About 70 per cent of the fuel, clothes and food needed by Nato's mission is transported in civilian Pakistani trucks through the Khyber Pass, a vulnerable point in a long route to Kabul which begins in the Pakistani port of Karachi. The route is too risky to transport weapons and munitions, and most British supplies travel on the southern route from Quetta to Helmand.

There were hopes that Russia would ease Nato's difficulties by granting access through its territory later this year, but that is now in doubt after the war in Georgia.

"If Nato lost control of the pass, there is no doubt that other routes would be found," said Matthew Clements, the Eurasia analyst for Jane's Country Risk. "But they are more difficult and expensive. It would interfere with the smooth running of the operation."

Brigadier-General Richard Blanchett, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, acknowledged the raids, but denied they were affecting the mission. "There is certainly some enemy action on this supply route," he said. "But it has no impact on our mission in Afghanistan."

However, the tribesman said things were much worse now than in the past. "You used to see a lot of oil tankers that were damaged but the chassis and the engine were fine," he said. "Now it's different."

The lorries' cargoes are then sold in Peshawar's thieves' bazaars, where looted US Army and Marines Corps uniforms and equipment are openly displayed for sale.

Before being shooed away by an angry stallholder, The Sunday Telegraph saw a uniform with the surname "Franklin" emblazoned on the right breast and a book called "On Killing" with a photo of a soldier in Iraq on the cover. Maps, entrenching tools, US military rations packs and even US medals turn up in stalls set up in a labyrinthine warren where the road heads out of Peshawar city and into a tribal area. US Army helmets are popular with motorcyclists and cricketers.

Farzana Raja, a spokeswoman for Pakistan's interior ministry, insisted that security forces will hold the Khyber Pass. She said: "The government is aware of these attacks on convoys in the Khyber region and it is one of the reasons why we have had a major military operation there in the past few weeks."

The Taliban's tactics are similar to those used by Mujahideen guerrillas in the 1980s who crippled the Soviet Army by attacking supply convoys. The militants carrying out the attacks are a rag-tag bunch of heavily-armed warlords waiting outside Peshawar's city gates. Most have only recently begun calling themselves Taliban.

Pakistani journalists in Peshawar say the private armies are well-financed and armed, and will receive a fresh infusion of money next month when donations rise during Ramadan.

The Pakistan Army meanwhile is suffering from low morale and high desertion rates, especially because after years of being indoctrinated to fight Hindu Indian soldiers they are now being sent against fellow Muslims in a bloody war that looks unwinnable to many Pakistanis
Posted by: john frum || 08/30/2008 15:03 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Three civilians killed at checkpoint in Afghanistan
Three civilians have been killed in northern Afghanistan after police and German troops opened fire on two cars that failed to stop at a checkpoint, the German Defence Ministry said on Friday. "On Thursday night two civilian vehicles at a checkpoint manned by the police and by German ISAF forces ... failed to stop despite a signal to do so and continued on their way," Defence Ministry spokesman Thomas Raab said. The security forces opened fire ... Three people were killed, all civilians," he told a regular government news conference. "The incident is currently being investigated." On Wednesday an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded next to an eight-vehicle German convoy patrolling the outskirts of Kunduz, where the German military has its base, killing one German soldier and injuring three. Germany has some 3,500 troops stationed in northern Afghanistan as part of the NATO military alliance's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The US-led coalition in Afghanistan said on Friday that its troops had killed almost a dozen militants after coming under attack while operating near the border with Pakistan. Two people were detained during the operation in the eastern province of Paktika on Thursday, the coalition said in a statement. Troops were in Barmal, a district on the border, looking for militants involved in moving foreign fighters between the two countries when they were fired upon, they said. "Militants engaged coalition forces during their search of the compounds. The forces responded with small-arms fire, killing the militants," the coalition said. "Almost a dozen militants were killed and two were detained."
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  run a checkpoint and you're no longer a "civilian".

In this case, you're a "corpse"
Posted by: Frank G || 08/30/2008 8:39 Comments || Top||

#2  No sympathy from me. I wouldn't be at all surprised to read something like that happening in Kaiserslautern.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/30/2008 8:43 Comments || Top||

#3  I was in Wiesbaden, Germany, when the Paleos killed a dozen people from the Israeli Olympic team. There were heavily-armed German police EVERYWHERE. If one held out his hand for you to stop, you STOPPED. Otherwise, they'd empty those heavy machineguns they were all carry into your car. I'm not surprised at it happening in Afghanistan. Either these mooks were among the 10% that never gets the word, or they were arrogant and stupid. Being arrogant and stupid has always been a sure route to an early demise.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 08/30/2008 11:42 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan: Two dozen hard boyz killed in battles with NATO troops
(AKI) - More than 24 militants were killed in two separate battles with US-led coalition troops in Afghanistan, the coalition said on Friday.

Half the militants were killed after they attacked a coalition base in the Shaheed Hasas district of southern Uruzgan province on Thursday. Two Afghan guards died during the attack. In a separate attack, about a dozen militants died during a raid by coalition troops in eastern Paktika province on Thursday, the coalition said.

Foreign troops searched compounds in Paktika's Bermel district in a hunt for a militant wanted for the movement of foreign fighters from Pakistan into Afghanistan. Militants fired on them during the search and coalition forces returned gunfire, killing the militants.

The coalition said on Thursday it had killed more than 100 Taliban supporters in three days of clashes in the southern province of Helmand.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  24 more souls sacrificed to the demaon allan.
Posted by: anymouse || 08/30/2008 2:20 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
We shot down spy plane: Darfur rebels
Darfur rebels said they shot down an unmanned spy plane over the war-torn region on Thursday, accusing the Sudanese government of using it to track their positions.

A spokesman for the Sudanese army said an unmanned plane had made an emergency landing in the area. "It could have been shot down," he told Reuters.

The rebel Sudan Liberation Army's Unity faction said a patrol spotted a drone at about 5:40 p.m. (0240 GMT) in the central mountainous Jabel Marra area and shot it down with an anti-aircraft gun. "It is the first time we have seen this in Darfur," said Sherif Harir from the rebel Sudan Liberation Army's Unity faction (SLA-Unity). "Our men told us they had shot it down and were sitting on the wreckage."

Harir said the fighters saw Chinese writing on the body of the aircraft. "It is Chinese made. The government want to spy out our positions."

State media last year announced Sudan had developed unmanned surveillance planes, was producing missiles and was self sufficient in conventional weapons. At the time many analysts doubted the rare public announcement from the military, dismissing it as propaganda.

All "belligerent parties" in the five-year Darfur conflict, including Khartoum and rebel groups, are under a United Nations arms embargo. But rights groups have regularly accused China of arming Sudanese troops.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan

#1  Sudan has drones? Do they pilot them out of Beijing?
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 08/30/2008 10:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Likely the Chinese have facilities near Khartoum.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/30/2008 12:59 Comments || Top||

#3  The Gods Must be Crazy
Posted by: Mike N. || 08/30/2008 13:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Not crazy but several have a restraining order on dem.
Posted by: .5MT || 08/30/2008 20:38 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Morocco: Police 'dismantle terrorist network'
(AKI) - Police on Friday dismantled a "dangerous terrorist network" allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda and arrested 15 suspects who were planning attacks in the country, the Moroccan news agency MAP reported, quoting police sources.

The 15-member terrorist network called 'Fath Al Andalus' was in possession of chemicals and electronic equipment used to make explosives, police sources said, cited by MAP.

The alleged terrorist network was planning attacks in Morocco and had "established operational links with foreign extremists of the Al-Qaeda organisation," MAP quoted the sources as saying. The network was present in several Moroccan cities, MAP reported, citing police. The network is believed to have links with groups sending volunteers to Iraq and to training camps run by Al-Qaeda's branch in North Africa.

Three months ago, Moroccan security services broke up another 11-member terrorist network in the northern city of Fez and in Nador in the northeast.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad


China-Japan-Koreas
Report says China offered widespread help on nukes
China gave Pakistan the blueprint for an atomic bomb, testing the finished product in 1990, and unveiled a sophisticated nuclear weapons complex to visiting U.S. scientists in the last decade, report former weapons lab officials.

Former Air Force secretary Thomas Reed, a former weapons lab scientist, paints a portrait of China as a reckless distributor of nuclear weapons know-how in a report released Thursday in PhysicsToday magazine. He charges the Chinese with giving extensive weapons support to Pakistan in detail far beyond a 2001 Defense Department report that acknowledged such links.

"The Chinese nuclear weapons program is incredibly sophisticated," Reed says. "The scary part is how much Pakistan has learned from them." The Chinese and Pakistani embassies in Washington did not reply to requests for comment on the report.

Reed is the co-author with Danny Stillman, former Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory technical intelligence director, of a book coming out in January on the Chinese nuclear weapons program.

Stillman sued the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense after they classified 23 of the book's pages, preventing their publication. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan upheld the classification last year.

By interviewing Stillman on his 1990 trips to China and doing his own reporting, Reed says Physics Today avoided a similar classification review. Among his points:

China detonated a neutron bomb on December 19, 1984.

China gave Pakistan blueprints for a simple uranium atomic bomb in 1982 and later tested a Pakistani version of the weapon in China on May 26, 1990.

France conducted underground nuclear weapons experiments, though not full-scale explosions, with China at the Lop Nur testing ground. Stephane Charreau, a press officer at the French Embassy in Washington, called the suggestion "very strange," and denied it.

Some experts expressed similar skepticism. "I simply don't believe the French need the Chinese to do non-explosive testing. They have a very strong program and I can't see them exposing it to the prying eyes of the Chinese," says Peter Zimmerman, former chief scientist of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"I think it is extremely unlikely that China tested a Pakistani bomb," he added.

Harold Agnew, a former director of Los Alamos, confirmed that he and lab officials, including Stillman, had visited Chinese weapons facilities as early as 1981. "I believed they just wanted to show that they were competent. They were very open to me," he says in an e-mail.

A spokesman for Los Alamos, Kevin Roark, called Stillman's 28-year role at the lab "minor."

The report "is old news since it largely pertains to historical developments," says Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. "On the other hand, it has important implications for our current understanding of China's nuclear program."
Posted by: john frum || 08/30/2008 12:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The article in Physics Today

The Chinese nuclear tests, 1964–1996
Posted by: john frum || 08/30/2008 12:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Chinese strategy seems to be to encircle and chip away at India. Dunno why they think they need to be so hostile. Maybe they don't like the competition over Himalayan nations like Tibet, Nepal and Katmandu. Dunno which way the prevailing winds blow in that part of the world. But it seems there would be some risk of China getting some fallout if India and Pakistan ever had an exchange.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/30/2008 12:59 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm all about keeping a canyon between India and China. China is not, and will never be our friend (in my lifetime). China has only changed enough to suck in billions and billions of US dollars from the US consumer via Sam Walton's stores. They have in turned used a lot of those billions to buy US Treasury notes....which is a two-edged sword.

India on the other hand, is our friend and has a cultural tie thanks to the Brits colonialism. They want to be our good friends, but are wary because of our GWOT support Pakistan.
Posted by: anymouse || 08/30/2008 14:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Abu Uluque raises an interesting point.

Providing Pakistan with nukes and missiles was an extraordinarily hostile act against India. What drives such overtly malicious acts by China?
Posted by: john frum || 08/30/2008 14:14 Comments || Top||

#5  JF: What drives such overtly malicious acts by China?

These people are megalomaniac nutcases. They always talk a good game about thinking long term, but the actual reality is that they do incredibly stupid things that make sense to outsiders only if you realize that petulance and a relentless focus on the tactical is the only possible explanation for those deeds, rather than the usual Chinese mumbo-jumbo about strategic wisdom.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/30/2008 14:31 Comments || Top||

#6  But assuming this is tactical thinking (and not the oriental hundred year strategy we sometimes read about), what lies behind such hostility?

India is certainly no threat to China - either economically, conventional military or nuclear - so what prompts such an act of proliferation?
Posted by: john frum || 08/30/2008 14:48 Comments || Top||

#7  India's a threat to the Chinese leadership if she successfully builds a diverse democratic nation that has technology-based economic growth.
Posted by: lotp || 08/30/2008 14:50 Comments || Top||

#8  This proliferation took place in the 80s, when India didn't have computers, its economy was in the toilet (entire gold reserves shipped off to London), the memory of Indira Gandhi's emergency rule was fresh, it was racked by the insurgency in the Punjab and it didn't even have actual deliverable nuclear weapons.
Posted by: john frum || 08/30/2008 14:57 Comments || Top||

#9  What a silly article. This is how the Pakies got their nuclear weapons, from Europe.
Posted by: tipper || 08/30/2008 15:04 Comments || Top||

#10  Good point, John. I'm trying to remember if India was openly pro-Russia at that time. There was a period when Sino-Soviet relations were very tense ... could it have been at this time that China proliferated to Pakistan?
Posted by: lotp || 08/30/2008 15:11 Comments || Top||

#11  JF: But assuming this is tactical thinking (and not the oriental hundred year strategy we sometimes read about), what lies behind such hostility?

One reason might be a psychotic hatred of India for being the source of the opium that somehow uniquely weakened China even though opiates were legal and widely available in more potent forms (laudanum and cough syrup) worldwide, and weren't banned until the beginning of the 20th century. Another reason might be the presence of Indian units among the Western troops that chastised Imperial China for its occasional attacks on Western interests and massacres of Western nationals and Chinese Christians. A third one might be India's possession of what the Chinese considers Chinese territory, as well as Indian protection of the independent South Asian buffer states that China considers Chinese territory much like Tibet. Like I said, they're a bunch of psychotic megalomaniacs.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/30/2008 15:53 Comments || Top||

#12  Let's hope that whatever China gave away was of the usual quality of $hit that we get from China--faulty and doesn't work. The last donk in power sold us out to China.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/30/2008 17:03 Comments || Top||

#13  JohnQC,
I've sat on the banks of the Pearl River Delta and watched convoys of container ships passing by, heading to all parts of the world, The Americas, Europe, etc.
I've gone through hundreds of villages, towns, cities and saw massive manufacturing in action, with no compulsion, it was all done of their own volition. No slavery involved, no colonialism, just voluntary trade.They appreciated the chance to export, and as far as I can see most people in the West appreciate being able to purchase goods at reasonable prices. I bought a TV recently for 1/3 the price that I paid for a similar one 30 years ago (that one only lasted 12 months before it blew up)
The point I'm making is that whatever China is doing is positive. If we could get the lunatics in the 50 Muslim countries worldwide, to adopt a similar attitude, then we might probably have peace on Earth.
Posted by: tipper || 08/30/2008 18:42 Comments || Top||

#14  I have to ditto what Tipper said.

My new Chinese wife has opened my eyes about China.

Conservatives, a lot of them, get China wrong a lot. There is definately something positive stirring in China. It may not fit in the current 24 hours news cycle and may be as interesting as positive news from Iraq, but there is some good going on in China.
Posted by: badanov || 08/30/2008 19:40 Comments || Top||

#15  b: Conservatives, a lot of them, get China wrong a lot.

From what angle?
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/30/2008 20:31 Comments || Top||

#16  Conservatives, a lot of them, get China wrong a lot

It's a variation of the Standard Oil, Millions of customers and lamp oil.
With a Bible.
Posted by: .5MT || 08/30/2008 20:41 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
20 hurt as blast rocks JWP rally
A bomb exploded near a rally in Balochistan on Tuesday, injuring around 20 people, police said.

The bomb was planted on a motorbike and went off during a rally near the district office of the Jamhori Watan Party in Dera Allah Yar, they said.

"The blast triggered panic and initial reports said around 20 people were wounded," local police officer Nazir Ahmed Kurd told AFP. Crowds gathered outside the hospital, where at least three people were in serious condition, he added. The blast came as nationalist parties in the restive province called a strike on Tuesday over Bugti's killing. Meanwhile, the Nasirabad police recovered and defused a 20-kg explosive device planted near the district office of the JWP in Dera Murad Jamali. -- Agencies

Muhammad Ejaz Khan adds from Quetta: A wheel jam and shutter-down strike was observed on the eve of the second death anniversary of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan on Tuesday. Business activities remained at a standstill while traffic and public transport stayed off the road.

Business concerns and shops were closed at the Jinnah Road, Liaquat Bazar, Shahrah-e-Iqbal, Prince Road, Abdul Sattar Road, Kassi Road, Toghi Road, McCongy Road, Fatima Jinnah Road, Soraj Ganj Bazaar, Sirki Road, Jail Road, Alamo Chowk and other areas of the provincial capital.

Private banks and educational institutions also remained closed. In some schools, the administration declared an unofficial holiday in order to save their students and staff from any inconvenience due to the strike. An extremely thin attendance was observed in the public and private offices in the provincial metropolis.

In Hazar Ganji, activists of the Anjuman Ittehad Marri brawled with personnel of the law enforcement agencies. It was reported that at least five activists were injured. A group of some enraged persons ransacked two banks, besides setting ablaze a police vehicle and damaging two other vehicles. They also damaged properties of four other banks and a post office located in the Hazar Ganji area. Some activists of a nationalist party also forced the shopkeepers at the Meezan Chowk to close their shops but it was strongly resisted by the shopkeepers.

Reports reaching from Khuzdar, Turbat, Gwadar, Sibi, Noshki, Dalbandin, Kalat, Mastung, Jaffarabad, Naseerabad, Bolan, Hub, Lasbela, Kharan, Awaran and other Baloch areas suggested that a complete shutter down was also observed there.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Foster would be proud
Posted by: Frank G || 08/30/2008 8:47 Comments || Top||


Salarzai Lashkar kills militant in Bajaur to avenge elders killings
Fed up with the Taliban, being blamed for mass exodus from Bajaur Agency due to the military operation, the tribesmen of Salarzai tehsil in the agency Tuesday raised an anti-Taliban lashkar (armed force) that killed a militant.

The lashkar was raised after three notables including two tribal elders and a cleric belonging to Batmaley village of Salarzai Tehsil, were ambushed and killed by suspected Taliban fighters on Monday near Khar, the agency headquarters.

Reports suggested tribal elders Malik Bakhtawar Khan and Malik Shah Zarin and religious scholar Maulvi Sher Wali were ambushed on their way home after a meeting with government officials in Khar where they pledged to raise a lashkar and sought government assistance towards this end. The government officials and local tribesmen held the Taliban responsible for the killings.

Sources from Salarzai tehsil reported the lashkar, comprising 200-300 volunteers, announced to fight against militants soon after bodies of the three elders were brought to the village. They blamed local Taliban commander Maulvi Niamatullah for the killings and vowed revenge.

Later, the lashkar opened fire on a group of three militants travelling in a car near Batmaley and killed one of them. The other two militants, according to villagers, fled after being slightly injured. The name of the slain militant could not be ascertained but local villagers said he belonged to Mansehra.

The tribesmen's revolt against Taliban fighters is the first of its kind in Bajaur Agency. Salarzai residents may give the Taliban a tough time if the government extended them support. After the killing of a militant by the lashkar, sources said, the Taliban fighters started checking every vehicle at their roadside checkpoints in a bid to capture the residents of Batmaley village.

Meanwhile, the security forces continued firing mortar and artillery shells at suspected militant hideouts in Mamond and Salarzai subdivisions. However, there were no details about casualties suffered by the Taliban. Tuesday was a relatively calm day in Bajaur, as gunship helicopters or jetfighters did not pound Taliban positions.

On the other hand, several displaced families were seen returning to their homes in Bajaur from the relief camps outside agency. Reports of unilateral ceasefire by the militants and their secret talks with the government are a ray of hope for the displaced families.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


J&K hostage drama: Two terrorists still at large
Two days after the hostage crisis at Chinore in which six people and three terrorists were killed, the Army on Friday launched a massive search operation for two more terrorists who were seen hiding in a maize field near Ratnu Chak village in Jammu.

Reports reaching Jammu said Bimala Sharma, 50, a Ratnu Chak woman, who was going to Rajpura Kolhar village with some vegetables, was stopped by a suspicious looking person clad in khaki with long beard from behind the bushes asking for food.

The woman grew suspicious and ran back to Ratnu Chak village where she informed the villagers about the two "suspicious looking people". The villagers informed the army post, just 200 metres from their village. As panic gripped the area, the army launched a massive search operation for the two. The search was continuing until reports last came in.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Pakistan: Death toll rises from suicide bomb attack
(AKI) - Five people were killed and another 37 were injured on Friday in a suicide bomb attack in Pakistan's troubled North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan. The attack occurred at a checkpost in Darra Adam Khel between Peshawar and Kohat.

The Pakistani network, GeoTV, said suicide attackers arrived in three explosives-laden vehicles and attempted to target a security checkpost near the Kohat tunnel. The first vehicle entering the checkpost blew up as security forces fired on the attacker. The second vehicle exploded after hitting the boundary wall while the driver of the third escaped after leaving the vehicle outside the gate of the local checkpost.

Earlier in the day militants blew up two important bridges at the Indus Highway, stopping traffic from Karachi to Peshawar.

In January, the 1.8 km-long tunnel was at the centre of a military confrontation between the Pakistan Army and pro-Taliban militants. The militants had taken control of the tunnel after hijacking trucks carrying supplies and ammunition for security forces in the lawless South Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

On 27 January, the Pakistan Army claimed to have brought the tunnel back under control of the security forces, after "fierce fighting" involving artillery, helicopter gunships and heavy machine guns.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Pakistan: Two killed and 29 injured by blast in northwest
(AKI) - Two people were killed and 29 others injured in a suspected suicide attack near the Kohat Tunnel in volatile Northwest Frontier Province early on Friday, police said, cited by the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency.

A suspected suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car when it approached the Kohat Tunnel. Pakistan's Geo TV reported that the attackers had used three explosives-packed vehicles in the attack. Two people succumbed to their injuries from the blast while 29 others, most of them security personnel guarding the tunnel, were critically wounded, APP said.

Soon after the explosion, the management of the Kohat Tunnel closed it to traffic and tightened security.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Four killed in clash at Karachi U
A bloody clash on Tuesday between activists of the All-Pakistan Muttahida Students Organisation (APMSPO) and the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) claimed at least four lives and injured 14 at the University of Karachi (KU).

The IJT's current and former information secretaries, Osama Bin Adam and Abdul Jabbar Baloch, were among those who died. The death of two others was also claimed by APMSO activists but there was no confirmation.

Tension had prevailed since morning on the campus, but clashes began at about 11:00 am when rival groups got involved in a fist fight in the Arts Lobby. Some students informed The News that about 100 to 150 students belonging to APMSO entered the university through the Maskan gate at 06:30 pm and started indiscriminate firing at IJT activists.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Sri Lanka
Jets bomb Tiger rebel base, 34 killed in clashes
Sri Lankan air force jets bombed a Tamil Tiger rebel base in the embattled north Friday, and ground battles across the region killed 34 rebels and one government soldier, the military said.

The fighter jets pounded a training base for Sea Tigers, the naval wing of the separatist Tamil Tigers, deep in the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi, said air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara. He did not provide details of casualties and damages, but said the pilots had confirmed they had hit the target. Infantry clashes continued Thursday along the front lines separating government-controlled territory and the rebels' de facto state in the north, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

The worst fighting occurred in the Vavuniya district, where soldiers killed 14 rebels before capturing the rebel-held Palamoddai village, he said. Ten rebels and five soldiers were wounded. Scattered clashes in Kilinochchi killed 12 rebels and one soldier, while seven rebels died in Welioya and another was killed in Jaffna, he said.

The rebels Friday accused government forces of setting off a roadside bomb and killing two civilians inside guerrilla-held territory. A man and a child died when their motorcycle was caught up in the bomb attack at Nedunkerni in the vast Wanni region on Thursday evening, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said in a statement.

Also Friday, a grenade exploded inside a prison in the volatile east, injuring seven prisoners, police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara said. "There has been an explosion inside Batticaloa prison. Seven people have been injured and admitted to Batticaloa hospital," police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara said. "All of them are Tamils, and most of them are suspected of LTTE (rebel) activities." The elite Special Task Force police paramilitary unit found a second grenade, he said.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is Sri Lanka fixable?
Posted by: Penguin || 08/30/2008 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Sure, but it's going to be a long, grinding battle against the Tigers. The government is winning, finally. Amazingly, they seem to be actually spending the US aid for its intended purpose, instead of just stealing the money and sending its soldiers into battle with cardboard shoes, as most governments tend to do.
Posted by: gromky || 08/30/2008 4:37 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hezbollah hands over army helicopter shooter
Hezbollah handed over to the Lebanese authorities on Friday the gunman who shot at an army helicopter and killed its pilot, security sources said.

The incident occurred on Thursday over Iqlim al-Touffah region. The area is controlled by the powerful political and military group Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.

Lebanon's as-Safir newspaper reported that Hezbollah gunmen had targeted the aircraft because they thought it was Israeli. It said the helicopter had landed and taken off again in a training drill. Hezbollah gunmen in the area "thought that there was an Israeli landing attempt (under way) and opened fire in the direction of the helicopter, hitting it", it said.

Hezbollah said earlier in a statement that it would cooperate fully with an investigation into the matter. The group described what happened as a "very tragic and painful incident".

The army said on Thursday the helicopter had made a forced landing after it came under fire from "armed elements". It said the incident was under investigation.

Former prime minister Salim Hoss, who is considered close to the Hezbollah-led opposition, pointed the finger of blame at Hezbollah. "The area where this distressing incident took place is, as everybody knows, under the control of the Resistance (Hezbollah)," Hoss said. "Hezbollah must explain and not justify what happened, because the death of a brilliant officer cannot be justified whatever the circumstances of the incident," Hoss said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  We shall now dance the Mayonniase
Posted by: .5MT || 08/30/2008 7:37 Comments || Top||

#2  " Hoss, you and Little Joe string him up"
" OK Paw"
Posted by: Grunter || 08/30/2008 13:57 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2008-08-30
  Report says China offered widespread help on nukes
Fri 2008-08-29
  Hezbollah shoots at Lebanese Army helicopter, kills officer
Thu 2008-08-28
  Baitullah declared ''proclaimed offender''
Wed 2008-08-27
  Nearly 50 militants killed on Pak-Afghan border
Tue 2008-08-26
  Pakistain bans TTP
Mon 2008-08-25
  Afghan commanders sacked over deadly strike
Sun 2008-08-24
  Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq arrested
Sat 2008-08-23
  Bali bombers execution to be delayed
Fri 2008-08-22
  37 more killed in Kurram festivities
Thu 2008-08-21
  TTP suicide bombers hit Pak ordnance plant; dozens dead
Wed 2008-08-20
  MILF warns Manila against ''declaring war''
Tue 2008-08-19
  10 French soldiers die in Afghan battle
Mon 2008-08-18
  Pakistan's Musharraf steps down
Sun 2008-08-17
  Baitullah launches parallel justice system for Mehsuds
Sat 2008-08-16
  36 militants killed in Afghanistan

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