This Day in History
1630 - Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables
1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs into law a bill legalizing the sale of beer and wine.
1978 - Karl Wallenda of the The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1993 - The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path
#5
Yep Walt. A portrait camera dismounted and with the lens bellows retracted? Altho the viewfinder and the hand-straps kinda make it look like some weird Hybrid Speed Graphic.
#7
Ah, William Shatner, what a fall, from Starship commander to Lawyer shill.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/22/2009 11:37 Comments ||
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#8
It's been a strange damn ride.
"Tales of Uncle Mike began as the editorial for the March, 1977 issue. If you didnt see that, youre shit out of luck, and have to send us $1.50 to get one. Or send us a picture of your wife or girl friend in flagrante delicto with a pony. That wont get you a March 77 National Lampoon, but it will make your life more interesting later on when youre rich and respectable and you remember that we have the photograph in our possession. Anyway, these particular Tales of Uncle Mike arent about Uncle Mike at all. But its the same_____, Ohio, where I went to college a dozen years ago or so, and where Uncle Mike was a math instructor, and where we both had more fun than were likely to have again soon, says the doctor.
How Uncle Mike Met His First Wife
Tammy Omertti, Uncle Mikes first wife, was a tough lady. She always carried a .38 in her pursesomething Im sure Uncle Mike didnt know the night he met her. She was pretty, too, and built USDA Prime.
Uncle Mike used to drink in a place called Mac and Flos, down an alley off ______s main street. In fact, it was there that I met him myself. He was out on the bars little porch, banging his head against a cinder block wall. When somebody introduced us, Mike stopped for two seconds and said, Hi. How are you? civil as you please, and went right back to banging his head. He says he doesnt remember why.
One night, Tammy and a girl friend wandered into Macs while Mike was on a toot, and when Uncle Mike got a look at Tammy, he almost fell down dead. She was a dream come true, he says, an Italianwhich Mike isvision of paradise. Or would have been if shed had a plate of spaghetti carbonara with her. (Thats Uncle Mikes comment, not mine.) Anyway, he was in love, so he walked over to her table and said, I got fifteen dollars. Wanna fuck?
She threw a bottle at him, and he went running away, laughing and howling and tipping over chairs. But he wasnt so happy when he got back to the other end of the bar, and for the next half hour he stood there, looking sheepish and getting drunker until, at last, he bought two quarts of beer and took them over and gave them to Tammy and her friend. Im sorry. I dont know what came over me, he said, Im really sorry. I want to apologize. I really do. Im sorry that I said that about the fifteen dollars. I only got ten!!!
There was such a commotion that Vinny, who owned the place, had to come out from behind the bar with his ball bat, and Uncle Mike and Tammy were married two months later.
"Tales of Uncle Mike began as the editorial for the March, 1977 issue. If you didnt see that, youre shit out of luck, and have to send us $1.50 to get one. Or send us a picture of your wife or girl friend in flagrante delicto with a pony. That wont get you a March 77 National Lampoon, but it will make your life more interesting later on when youre rich and respectable and you remember that we have the photograph in our possession. Anyway, these particular Tales of Uncle Mike arent about Uncle Mike at all. But its the same_____, Ohio, where I went to college a dozen years ago or so, and where Uncle Mike was a math instructor, and where we both had more fun than were likely to have again soon, says the doctor.
How Uncle Mike Met His First Wife
Tammy Omertti, Uncle Mikes first wife, was a tough lady. She always carried a .38 in her pursesomething Im sure Uncle Mike didnt know the night he met her. She was pretty, too, and built USDA Prime.
Uncle Mike used to drink in a place called Mac and Flos, down an alley off ______s main street. In fact, it was there that I met him myself. He was out on the bars little porch, banging his head against a cinder block wall. When somebody introduced us, Mike stopped for two seconds and said, Hi. How are you? civil as you please, and went right back to banging his head. He says he doesnt remember why.
One night, Tammy and a girl friend wandered into Macs while Mike was on a toot, and when Uncle Mike got a look at Tammy, he almost fell down dead. She was a dream come true, he says, an Italianwhich Mike isvision of paradise. Or would have been if shed had a plate of spaghetti carbonara with her. (Thats Uncle Mikes comment, not mine.) Anyway, he was in love, so he walked over to her table and said, I got fifteen dollars. Wanna fuck?
She threw a bottle at him, and he went running away, laughing and howling and tipping over chairs. But he wasnt so happy when he got back to the other end of the bar, and for the next half hour he stood there, looking sheepish and getting drunker until, at last, he bought two quarts of beer and took them over and gave them to Tammy and her friend. Im sorry. I dont know what came over me, he said, Im really sorry. I want to apologize. I really do. Im sorry that I said that about the fifteen dollars. I only got ten!!!
There was such a commotion that Vinny, who owned the place, had to come out from behind the bar with his ball bat, and Uncle Mike and Tammy were married two months later.
Holler if you got the tale of Uncle Mike and the dynamite.
Afghanistan (Reuters) -- Afghanistan said on Sunday it was deeply concerned about a U.S. military operation which killed five Afghans that police officials said were civilians, but U.S. forces insisted were militants.
The U.S. military said it killed five militants and detained four others, with the help of Afghan troops, in the northern province of Kunduz, which borders Tajikistan. "One militant was killed and one surrendered and was detained ... Forces returned fire and cleared the buildings on the compounds, resulting in four militants killed and three suspected militants detained," U.S. forces said in a statement.
The Interior Ministry described the dead as "our citizens" and said in a statement it would send a high profile delegation to Kunduz to investigate the raid. "Five of our citizens were killed ... they were killed in the house of the district mayor," the ministry said, adding that it "expressed its deep concern regarding the incident." The obvious question is "What were Tali/AQ gunmen doing in the house of the mayor?"
U.S. forces also said the operation was "in coordination with local Afghan police" but a senior police official in Emamsaheb district, where the operation took place, told Reuters they were not involved, nor aware of the operation. My bet: we were coordinated with Afghan police, but not the district police, because they were part of the problem we were attacking.
Colonel Abdulrahman Aqtash, head of security operations for Kunduz province, also said the dead were civilians working for the district mayor; two were his guards and three were his servants.
Julian said the individuals were given the chance by U.S. troops to exit their compound peacefully, but "they came out fighting and they died fighting ... It's very difficult to classify them as civilians under those conditions." They were not in uniform, so they were civilians! Pay no attention to the AK-47 bullets they are shooting at you.
Colonel Julian said U.S. forces were in touch with the Interior Ministry and the Afghan chief of police and an investigation into the operation would take place.
On Thursday a raid against al Qaeda bomb-makers, in which foreign and Afghan troops killed two militants in east Afghanistan, led to angry protests by Afghans who said civilians had been killed in the operation. These dead 'civilians' - terrible.
Separately, a roadside bomb attack hit a passing van, killing one passenger and wounding 11 others, just outside Khost city, close to the border with Pakistan, Daad Mohammad, an intelligence officer said. These dead civilians - no big deal.
#6
Glenmore - kudos - headline and annotations of the day!
CrazyFool & DarthVader - excellent comments
Richard o' Oregon - excellent question. Used to ask this one m'self back in Eye-raq when I had the chance to talk with folks who did real work (i.e. provide free hot lead injections to needy locals). Don't recall that we did much documentation. Bizarre, when you consider the lengths the AQ and affiliated nitwits go to in order to film their glorious operations.
#9
This is "warlord" country, where we have rarely conducted ops. You will recall that the "warlords" got the juicy positions in the NATO created govt and have mostly held on to them. The militias were supposed to have been dissolved but the non-Pashtuns have kept some party supplies for themselves in case of necessity.
Bangladesh says it will disband the country's border force and raise a new paramilitary unit to replace it. Good idea. My original suggestion: Disband the unit, burn the colors, decimate the troops. Still hoping for three out of three.
The announcement on Saturday came nearly a month after troops of the Bangladesh Rifles(BDR) staged a bloody mutiny in the capital, Dhaka. "A new border force will be raised soon with disciplined and competent troops, including those not involved in the BDR mutiny," Brigadier-General Moinul Islam, the new BDR chief, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as telling border security officials at Mymensingh, 150km north of Dhaka. "The BDR, which has been maligned by last month's mutiny, will stand disbanded," he said. And its colors burnt?
More than 70 people, mainly Bangladeshi army officers, were killed in the mutiny at the Dhaka headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles. The incident, which began on February 25, ended after 33 hours when the rebels laid down their arms. Some did. Others beat it with or without their arms.
The mutinous border guards ambushed their superiors, shooting and burying dozens of them in shallow graves. The ambush was apparently sparked by grievances of poor pay and work conditions. Yasss. I can remember my days in the military, how we used to pot our officers if we ran short or the work conditions got poor. Once, when I was a PFC, I brought down a full-grown bull colonel at 600 yards.
'Outside help'
Sheikh Hasina, the Bangladeshi prime minister, has said that the mutiny was part of a conspiracy against her two-month old government. She has said that the border guards may have had outside help. She, however, did not say who she suspects of being linked to the planning of the mutiny. The Bangladeshi government has called for help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in probing leads into the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Once, when I was a PFC, I brought down a full-grown bull colonel at 600 yards.
#7
The full Grouch joke. I went to Darkest Africa where I once shot an elephant in my pajams. How he got in my pajamas I'll never kmow. I tried to take his tusks out but they were too tight so I went to Alabama where the Tuscaloosa.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/22/2009 13:11 Comments ||
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#8
yes, yes, I know ....
I was making additional small joke. Apparently, it was a VERY small additional joke ...
#10
The Indian govt will be happy if this happens. Their troops have been exchanging regular shots with the Bangla border guards. The Banglas have been very "lax" about letting terrs and illegal immigrants crose into India and this annoys the Indians no end.
(RIA Novosti) - Nine militants were killed by Russian law enforcement officers in a special operation in the North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, a high-ranking law enforcement source said Saturday. "Officers of the special purpose center of Russia's Federal Security Service in interaction with Interior Ministry troops special forces discovered the bodies of nine militants and the base of a large gang group 3 km from the Kakashur village," the source said.
The two-day special operation in Kakashur started after a clash on Wednesday between law enforcement officers and militants. Police then encircled a group of 10 to 15 armed fighters. Five servicemen were killed and three law enforcement officers wounded. The source also said that some militants could have been killed by missile and bomb strikes.
The militants are thought to be members of a group aligned to Magomedali Vagabov, who is on a federal and international wanted list for attacks on police officers and terrorist-related crimes.
Sporadic terrorist attacks and militant clashes are common in Daghestan, and in neighboring Chechnya, although the Kremlin has officially ended its military campaign to fight separatists and terrorists there.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2009 00:00 ||
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A 24-year-old Chicago man was charged Friday with threatening to set off explosives near Jewish schools in the metropolitan area if Israel didn't halt military actions in Gaza. Mohammed T. Alkaramla, a native of Jordan, was ordered held without bond after his arrest, according to the FBI.
Alkaramla is charged with a felony count of sending an interstate threatening communication and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago. It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney.
Authorities allege he sent a letter to the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago on Dec. 30 claiming that explosives would be set off around the school unless the violence in Gaza stopped by Jan. 15. "It [sic] very important to make quick action before we make our decisions to set bombs," the letter reads.
The letter was addressed to rabbis and leaders in the Jewish community and said 22 Jewish educational centers in the Chicago area would also be targeted, according to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Timothy Lauster. No explosive devices were planted, and no injuries were reported, the FBI said.
Alkaramla was identified as a suspect after fingerprints found on the letter matched prints taken during a 2003 arrest for possession of marijuana in Chicago, the FBI said. In a Feb. 12 search of Alkaramla's home, agents found a laptop containing most of the threatening letter, Lauster said. The day the letter was sent, the laptop had also been used to run Google searches for terms including "Bomb attack + Israel + letters" and "Jewish elementary schools in Chicago."
Alkaramla has denied writing the letter and told authorities he's too busy with work, school and family commitments to send threatening letters to anyone, Lauster said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"message was prolly sent by a MS security patch auto-update, Muldoon, let 'em go"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/22/2009 9:17 Comments ||
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#2
Humm..... Frank, is that like the Elephant in the Pajamas thing?
#3
One of the first rules of a professional saboteur is to NEVER, NEVER give your target even the hint of an idea they're under the scope. This jerk is nothing more than what he appears to be - a 24-YO adolescent who thinks that indiscriminate violence actually accomplishes something. Just ship him back to Jordan, either whole or in pieces. The determination of the Judge is final.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/22/2009 15:12 Comments ||
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#4
nope, Ship.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/22/2009 15:18 Comments ||
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#5
You mean they are sending me coded messages every 5th day at 3:47 a.m.?
A senior Pakistani government official urged the United States on Friday not to extend missile strikes into southwestern Baluchistan province in its pursuit of Taliban leader Mullah Muhammed Omar because he is not there.
"Nope, we asked around, nobody's seen him, so take your missiles and go home."
"A person who is making war against the NATO forces, he must be present in Afghanistan, in [the Afghan province of] Kandahar or somewhere," said Mohammad Aslam Raisani, head of the Baluchistan provincial government.
"There is no justification for drone attacks in Quetta or other parts of Baluchistan," he said.
Taliban students studying peacefully in religious schools in Pakistan are not the same as Taliban militants fighting in Afghanistan, he added.
The students have yet to finish their indoctrination ...
This comes after security forces launched a hunt Friday for suspected Taliban insurgents who fired rockets toward a base late Thursday near the Khyber Pass in northwest Pakistan, killing 10 people. The rockets missed the base in Landi Kotal but hit the town's commercial area, where it also injured 38, started a fire in a timber yard and destroyed nearby shops.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/22/2009 11:48 ||
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#1
Since 1980 Quetta has been the obverse, actually the hidden side, of the Peshawar coin. It is loaded with crazies and should have been a target of opportunity many many years ago.
#2
Taliban students studying peacefully in religious schools in Pakistan are not the same as Taliban militants fighting in Afghanistan, he added.
Yeah, the Saudis have spent a lot on "educating" them, so give them a chance to see some return on their "investment" otherwise they might stop funding the madrassas and then what would they do with all that excess of cannon fodder?
#3
US: We are gonna shoot some people in Balichistan.
PK: NO! Don't! He isn't there!
US: Where is he, then?
PK: We have no idea but we know he is absolutely positively NOT anywhere in Baluchistan.
US: So you don't know where he is but you know with absolute certainty where he is NOT?
PK: Yeah, that's the ticket!
(APP): Indian troops resorted to unprovoked firing on the Line of Control in Pando sector near Chakoti, Muzaffarabad lastnight, said an ISPR press release issued here saturday. A strong protest has been lodged with Indian authorities for ceasefire violation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Unprovoked? I strongly doubt it. But then, Pakistan has this odd relationship with reality.
KALAYA: Militants publicly executed an alleged murderer in the Upper Orakzai Agency on Friday. Sources said Khaista Khan of the Alikhel tribe was accused of killing his sister. The Taliban tried the accused in their court. The Qazi found him guilty and ordered his public execution. He was shot dead by the Taliban in the presence of a large number of people after the Friday prayers. Even though I agree he should be dead, assuming he actually killed his sister, which is entirely likely, he was murdered, not executed. That's a wrong following a wrong, for those who aren't paying attention.
The difference between Islam and virtually all other religions is that it puts the power of life and death into the hands of the Faithful. The state can do it, too, but the state's an arm of the religion, as are all of its practitioners. As I've commented here before, my tongue only slightly tucked in my cheek, any idiot can issue a fatwa and many idiots do. Once you've got a fatwa, you're justified in all sorts of mayhem, even if you've got competing fatwas. It's the essence of Islamism.
In civilized societies, violence is the province of the state. Get into a fist fight and you can go to the slammer. Kill somebody, even by accident, and the state's all over you. But in Islamic societies that's not the case. Blasphemy's punishable by death. Adultery's punishable by death. Murder's repaid by murder. Violence against one's betters -- and there are many -- is repaid by murder.
Here in the U.S.A. rights have accrued to the individual. In Europe and in the Far East rights have for the most part accrued to the state, but in recent years the state's gotten pretty indulgent. In secular dicatorships, for instance among the commies and Nazis and Baathists things haven't been that indulgent.
But in the Islamic world rights accrue to God, and His will is interpreted by holy men. Holy men are annointed by other holy men, not by anyone else. And everyone else's opinion doesn't count. It's a system that's been evolving since Gilgamesh was a young fellow.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Well said, Fred.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
03/22/2009 11:05 Comments ||
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#2
well, we can be pretty sure it wasn't an "honor" killing that the Taliban did him in for.
#4
Hammurabi part of that evolution? Wouldn't Mo be a better starting point?
A lot of what Mo did was to enshrine local Arab prejudices into his "holey book", along with whatever he could steal from others. That included the Jews, the Christians, athiests, Diests, Zoroastrianism, and idol worshipers from a dozen other places. Most of the kinds of behavior that Mo endorsed was going on around him at the time, but frowned upon by various parts of local culture. Mo codified it into a religion, so he could do what he wanted to do anyway, and get away with it.
There is a direct connect between Judiasm and Christianity, and the God of one can easily be seen to be the God of the other. There is no such connection between the God Jhwh and Islam's Allah. One is a righteous, just God, the other is something else.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/22/2009 15:21 Comments ||
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SWAT: The government has released three more Taliban in Swat. Those released included Noorul Hadi, Mian Syed and Rasheed. Taliban had provided a list to the government containing 210 names for their release out of which 31 persons have so far been freed. Government had arrested these Taliban by launching a crackdown against them.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It would be nice to think that they were released for target practice for the drones.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
03/22/2009 11:03 Comments ||
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Another small battle that went little noticed.
Ed Malone remembers they had gone out for a "knock and greet" patrol that day in June. About half the platoon went, to meet up with Iraqi security forces advised by an Army National Guard team. They were going to patrol the Sarai District in the city of Tal Afar, Iraq.
June 25, 2005 was just another day for the 3rd ACR. They were taking over responsibility for the region from a departing Army unit and they had already learned that patrolling Tal Afar mean a fight every time. Malone was the first sergeant of Grim Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. This was his second tour in Iraq.
The troops were on foot patrol. Two Bradley Fighting Vehicles accompanied them but were providing security at nearby intersections. Malone had a sniper set up the the highest building in the area to provide over watch, the "Ottoman castle".
Almost 90 percent of the tens of thousands of U.S.-backed fighters who helped purge much of Iraq of al Qaeda have been transferred to Iraqi control, the U.S. commander in charge of their programme said on Saturday.
Major General Mike Ferriter told journalists around 84,000 members of predominantly Sunni Arab "Awakening Councils"--neighbourhood guard units that were paid by the U.S. military to fight militants--were handed to Iraqi government authority and thousands of those had since left the programme for other work.
Only about 10,000, all in the northern province of Salahuddin, remained to be handed over in the coming months.
Putting the guards, many of whom were once insurgents who switched sides, on the payroll of a government they once fought is seen as a major test of reconciliation as the United States prepares to pull its combat troops out of Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010.
"The eyes of the world are on you, Iraq, and it's the opportunity to prove that you're going to pull it together...in spite of the many, many doubts," Ferriter said.
Called Awakening Councils or "Sahwa" in Arabic, the units led mostly by Sunni Arab tribal sheikhs began turning against al Qaeda militants two years ago in western Iraq's Anbar province, providing a model that was rolled out nationwide.
The guards had been receiving roughly $300 a month from the U.S. military, paid through local tribal sheikhs. In October, the Iraqi government started paying roughly 50,000 in Baghdad.
Since then, the northern provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk and Nineveh, the southern Shi'ite provinces of Wasit, Babil and Qadasiya, and in the west, Anbar, have been ceded to the Iraqi government, which will start paying salaries in these provinces at different times between now and May, Ferriter said.
Many former insurgents in the programme have feared arrest. Others feared being abandoned by the government, which has promised jobs in its security forces for a fifth of Sahwa members but says it will find civilian work or training for the rest.
Ferriter said the programme had defied gloomy predictions and Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had kept his word not to detain ex-insurgents or pursue vendettas against them.
"A lot of concerns that we've heard...have not come to fruition," he said. "The concern that...they'd be disbanded or wouldn't get paid or be arrested...haven't occurred."
Questions remain over their long term future. Iraq is committed to finding jobs for the four fifths who do not get into the security forces, but so far only the Education and Health ministries have vacancies, for 10,000 and 3,000, respectively.
The police have taken in 5,000 so far and the army, 500.
But Ferriter was upbeat. "It'll take 6 to 7 months to complete the job transition and I predict success," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The transfers are going ahead with the "hope" that the Iraqi govt will stand by its promises to provide employment or continue pmts until employment has been found. The ministries still suffer from bureaucratic infighting, poor training, corruption and a learned unwillingness to make decisions. That said, they are far better than they were a year ago.
The other side is that, until now, Iraq has been a top-down govt. Everything comes from Baghdad. The provincial govts had little revenue and little power. With the recent elections, the provinces are gaining power, and the Sons and Daughters of Iraq are seen as part of that issue by Baghdad.
JERUSALEM Israeli forces arrested 20 Hamas operatives in the West Bank early Thursday, including at least seven politicians and parliamentarians affiliated with the Islamist group, in what some observers say is an Israeli crackdown aimed at putting more pressure on the Hamas leadership in Gaza to reach a prisoner-exchange deal.
Earlier in the week, talks between Israel and Hamas taking placing through Egyptian mediators in Cairo came to a halt after Israel said that Hamas was asking for too much in return for its one captive soldier. Israeli officials said this included Hamas demands to release Palestinian prisoners who were directly involved in planning suicide bombings during the intifada a request that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said went beyond Israels red lines.
Since then, Israeli politicians have floated several options for trying to raise Hamass incentive to reach a deal. These have included making tighter restrictions on what goes into Gaza allowing strictly humanitarian aid but no commercial merchandise and taking away visitation rights of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, to make a point that Israeli army Sgt. Gilad Shalit, held captivity by Hamas since June 2006, has not seen or spoken to his family since.
Hamas says that the wave of arrests is an attempt to force their hand, and would ultimately fail.
Israels arrests of Hamas leaders and lawmakers in the West Bank is an attempt to blackmail the resistance and achieve gains in the prisoner case, Hamas said in a statement. It shows the bankruptcy of the enemy. We call on the resistance factions to stick to their conditions in any prisoner exchange that will be discussed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It seems to me that the best way to lure Hamas to negotiate in good faith is to end the Israeli hudna, which was put in place so negotiations could go on in good faith. When positive reinforcement doesn't work, there's only negative reinforcement left.
#3
Israel is just sweetening the pot, TW. With each Hamass they capture, they have one more negotiating chip. What would REALLY get their knickers in a twist would be for Netanyahu to go on television and radio, declare that Hamass is an enemy of the State of Israel, and that anyone belonging to, aiding, or supporting Hamass is also an enemy. Tell the people of Gaza and the West Bank that they have 30 days to turn over all Hamasses, or Israel will commence to abolish both Hamass and the territory that hides and enables them. Hamass isn't going to "negotiate in good faith" until they're being handed theirs in a small brown paper bag. Until Israel makes it intolerable to be or support Hamass, it'll continue to exist, and continue to try to administer the "death of a thousand cuts" to Israel.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/22/2009 15:29 Comments ||
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Israeli police have prevented Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem from holding events to mark the city's designation as "capital of Arab culture" for 2009.
About 20 Palestinians were detained in and around East Jerusalem on Saturday, but there were no reports of violence, Shmulik Ben-Ruby, a police spokesman, said.
Police reinforcements were deployed around the city and barricades were set up on routes to the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site.
Witnesses said that flags and banners associated with the event were confiscated.
At one school, police and soldiers burst balloons in the colours of the Palestinian flag that the children were trying to release to mark the event.
Hatem Abdel Qader, who handles Jerusalem affairs for the Palestinian Authority, was reportedly among those arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
At one school, police and soldiers burst balloons in the colours of the Palestinian flag that the children were trying to release to mark the event.
A major terrorist car bombing was averted at a Haifa mall on Saturday night when one of several explosive devices hidden in a parked vehicle malfunctioned.
...After being alerted by an employee of the Lev Hamifratz shopping center, who reported hearing an explosion at about 8:30 p.m., police sappers were dispatched to scan the area.
The sappers found a partially exploded bomb in the trunk of a white Subaru car which was parked outside the shopping center.
A further search of the vehicle uncovered several more unexploded bombs, which were neutralized by the sappers. No one was injured.
A bomb exploded on an overpass near a public market in the southern Philippines on Sunday, wounding seven people hours after another blast damaged two buses in a nearby city, officials said.
The market bombing damaged a concrete overpass and rained metal shrapnel and debris that wounded seven vendors and commuters on the road below in Kidapawan City in North Cotabato province, Vice Gov. Emmanuel Pinol said. The blast shattered windows in nearby stores. Soldiers and police cordoned off the area and intensified patrols, police said.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack and it was too early to tell if Muslim guerrillas, who have been blamed for past bombings in the predominantly Roman Catholic city, were involved, Kidapawan police Chief Chino Mamburam said.
In the earlier attack, a homemade bomb was hurled by two men on a motorcycle into the compound of a bus company in nearby Cotabato City before dawn Sunday, damaging two buses but causing no injuries, regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce said.
Ponce said the attackers were most likely members of the rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front who wanted to extort money from the bus company.
#1
CHINESE MIL FORUM [paraph]> POSTER OP-ED: SHOULD CHINA SUPPORT/REINFORCE THE PHILIPPINES NEW PEOPLES ARMY [NPA] IFF THE PHILIPPINES CONTINUES TO CHALLENGE CHINA'S SOVEREIGNTY OVER DISPUTED ISLANDS?
(Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's troops have gained from Tamil Tigers a further 1.5 kms on the A35 highway in the north, military officials said Saturday.
Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman, said the troops are consolidating in the Mullaithivu district's Iranapalai area which is regarded as the Tamil Tigers' intelligence operations headquarters.
Meanwhile, Minister of Media Laxman Yapa Abeywardena told reporters here Saturday that the military believes that the final stage of the battle would happen during the next 2 weeks.
"We warn the public to be on alert for desperate action by the LTTE. They could resort to destructive action. There could be acts of terror in the south of the country", Abeywardene said.
The military also said that at least 20 Tiger rebels have been killed in sniper attacks by the military on Friday.
Most killings by military snipers against the rebels on a single day came at Puthukudyiruppu west and Iranapalai area, officials added.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels are currently limited to 25 sq kms in Puthkudyiruppu, the last LTTE presence in the north after government troops scored a series of win over the rebels since mid 2006.
Troops now say they are on the verge of completely crushing the LTTE's over three-decade old campaign to carve out a separate homeland for the minority Tamil community.
The military is currently on the look out for the entire senior leadership of the LTTE having deployed a tight sea cordon to prevent them from fleeing.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2009 00:00 ||
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Last report I saw, the Tigers had 50 sq km of territory. Now, it's 25. Endangered species? Their habitat is decreasing at an alarming rate.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
03/22/2009 11:10 Comments ||
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meh
okay Ima do it.
So Laxman Yapa what kinda territory wuz it?
It's vital territory.
First signs of differences among pro-LTTE outfits over the ongoing war surfaced in Sri Lankan Parliament on Friday. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Vinodharadhalingam surprised everyone with his comments in support of the government efforts towards welfare of the displaced in the areas that had come under military control in recent weeks.
The MP told Parliament he had personally visited the Kadiragamapuram welfare camp and had witnessed the manner in which the government was taking care of the displaced persons. He maintained that the people in the welfare camp were living free from fear and that they were provided with all necessary amenities under the present conditions. He told the House that vocational training programmes for the youth in the camps "gives them hope of a better future."
In another report, the Defence Ministry said LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran, along with his son Charles Anthony Seelan, was sighted several times in the Puthukudiyiruppu area's "No Fire Zone". It said both had, from time to time, come out from the bunkers and explained to non-cadre the importance of rising up against the government forces. "Prabakaran and Charles Anthony Seelan come out of the bunker in non-military attire to mix up easily with the civilians. But they had said they are always surrounded by heavily armed special bodyguards," the Ministry said.
Meanwhile, Pro-LTTE TamilNet alleged that shelling by Sri Lanka Army had killed 102 civilians inside the "safety zone" in the last three days. "SLA artillery shelling killed 46 civilians Friday inside the safety zone in the besieged pocket in Mullathivu. On Thursday, 39 civilians including 11 children were killed and at least 17 civilians were reported killed inside the safety zone on Wednesday," it said.
Meanwhile, an announcement by the government said police were to conduct a special two-day census on Saturday and Sunday to register the people who had come to the Western Province (in and around Colombo) from the North, East and central provinces during the last five years.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2009 00:00 ||
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It has now been demonstrated that there are two potentially silo-based missile facilities within Iran. This is indicative of a continued desire by the Iranian military to enhance the survivability of its missile force, and decrease the warning that an adversary would have that missiles are being readied to fire. As the Iranian missile force continues to modernize and expand, the trend of silo basing will likely continue, resulting in a missile force that is far more dangerous than previously believed.
In response, we've got Obama channeling Barney the Dinosaur in his address to Iran.
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.
Afghanistan (Reuters) -- Afghanistan said on Sunday it was deeply concerned about a U.S. military operation which killed five Afghans that police officials said were civilians, but U.S. forces insisted were militants.
(RIA Novosti) - Nine militants were killed by Russian law enforcement officers in a special operation in the North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, a high-ranking law enforcement source said Saturday. "Officers of the special purpose center of Russia's Federal Security Service in interaction with Interior Ministry troops special forces discovered the bodies of nine militants and the base of a large gang group 3 km from the Kakashur village," the source said. 
A 24-year-old Chicago man was charged Friday with threatening to set off explosives near Jewish schools in the metropolitan area if Israel didn't halt military actions in Gaza. Mohammed T. Alkaramla, a native of Jordan, was ordered held without bond after his arrest, according to the FBI. 
(APP): Indian troops resorted to unprovoked firing on the Line of Control in Pando sector near Chakoti, Muzaffarabad lastnight, said an ISPR press release issued here saturday. A strong protest has been lodged with Indian authorities for ceasefire violation.
JERUSALEM Israeli forces arrested 20 Hamas operatives in the West Bank early Thursday, including at least seven politicians and parliamentarians affiliated with the Islamist group, in what some observers say is an Israeli crackdown aimed at putting more pressure on the Hamas leadership in Gaza to reach a prisoner-exchange deal.
Israeli police have prevented Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem from holding events to mark the city's designation as "capital of Arab culture" for 2009.
A major terrorist car bombing was averted at a Haifa mall on Saturday night when one of several explosive devices hidden in a parked vehicle malfunctioned.
In another report, the Defence Ministry said LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran, along with his son Charles Anthony Seelan, was sighted several times in the Puthukudiyiruppu area's "No Fire Zone". It said both had, from time to time, come out from the bunkers and explained to non-cadre the importance of rising up against the government forces. "Prabakaran and Charles Anthony Seelan come out of the bunker in non-military attire to mix up easily with the civilians. But they had said they are always surrounded by heavily armed special bodyguards," the Ministry said.
