#2
Here is a bit of a biography of Mai Britt. I remember reading about her in Sammy Davis' autobiography as a kid:
Blonde, blue-eyed actress May Britt was the daughter of a Swedish postal inspector. She was brought to films as a protege of Italian producer Carlo Ponti, who cast the 19-year-old May in Le Infideli (Affairs of a Model) 1952. In 1956, she appeared in her first English-language film, War and Peace (1956); this led to a brief leading-lady tenure at 20th Century-Fox in such films as The Young Lions (1957) and The Hunters (1958). May was bombarded with adverse criticism for having the "audacity" to step into the Marlene Dietrich role in the 1959 remake of The Blue Angel, though in fact May was a far more experienced actress at this stage of her career than Dietrich had been back in 1929. She was subject to even crueler attacks when she retired from the screen to marry black entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. in 1960; as one of the first interracial couples in Hollywood, Sammy and May were the target of nasty jokes, vicious slurs and death threats, but both survived the ordeal thanks to the strong and protective support of industry friends. Unfortunately, the marriage broke up in 1968, at which point May all but disappeared from public view. May Britt made a long overdue comeback to the screen in 1977's Haunts (aka The Veil).
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/09/2009 14:49 Comments ||
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Gun battles between clan militiamen killed at least 17 people and wounded 30 on Saturday at a pirate stronghold on the coast of Somalia, witnesses said.
Local man Farah Aden told Reuters by satellite telephone that the fighting began overnight and became heavier in the morning, forcing most residents to flee Haradheere. "The two clans are fighting over land and a girl who was raped in the forest. Unfortunately, the battles spread into town ... Fighting is going on fiercely," he said.
" The two clans are fighting over land and a girl who was raped in the forest. Unfortunately, the battles spread into town ... Fighting is going on fiercely "
Somali pirates who attack vessels using the strategic shipping lanes linking Europe to Asia through the Gulf of Aden operate from several bases in the area, including Haradheere.
One pirate in the lawless central Somali port said he was worried the bloodshed would hurt the sea gangs' profits. "We are afraid our business will stop if the clashes continue," the pirate, who gave his name as Mohammed, told Reuters by satellite phone from Haradheere. "We are all members of these two clans, and we are worried that this fight might end up being taken out onto the ocean."
That could certainly prove amusing for the world's navy ships currently patrolling the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Good work CIA, and they didn't even suspect.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/09/2009 14:02 Comments ||
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#2
Shhhh!
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/09/2009 14:23 Comments ||
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[Jerusalem Post Front Page] Egyptian security forces have uncovered a plot to murder Israeli Ambassador Shalom Cohen, the Cairo daily Almasry Alyoum reported on Saturday.
The would-be assassins, members of the Zeitun terrorist cell, had plotted since 2007 to shoot the ambassador and blow up both his home and the well-defended Israeli Embassy.
The newspaper report, which was based on accounts from Egyptian security officials, added that the state prosecution suspects the cell of intending to target Egyptian government institutions, including police and government offices.
The news comes after more than a year of investigative work by Egyptian security forces following the arrest of three members of the cell for a jewelry store robbery in Cairo in May 2008. The robbery was apparently meant to help pay for the operation.
The suspects told interrogators they were unable to get close enough to Cohen or the Israeli institutions to carry out their plans because of heavy Israeli security.
They also said they had contacted al-Qaida operatives, including a man named Abu Hamdan al-Libi, and planned to join the al-Qaida network in Iraq after killing Cohen. They said they had trained in Gaza for the attacks, and had planned to blow up many Christian and Muslim religious sites in Egypt, together with the Israeli-Egyptian natural gas pipeline.
Egyptian officials expressed doubts over the claims of the suspects, saying that they did not appear to be capable of carrying out all the operations they claimed to be planning.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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A suicide bomber blows himself up Late on Saturday in front of the French embassy in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott wounding two French citizens, Al Arabiya TV reported.
The bomber, who died in the explosion, had a belt laden with explosives, police said, adding that he staged the explosion a little before 7:00 pm near the wall of the French embassy complex. The French embassy said the two guards were hospitalized after the attack but were only being treated for shock and had not suffered any injuries. "The Westerners are in hospital but their lives are not in danger," a police official said.
It was not immediately known who was behind the attack, which took place outside the embassy walls, an embassy source said.
The attack came three days after Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who toppled Mauritania's first democratically elected leader in a military coup last year, was sworn in as president of the Saharan country after winning an election last month. Defeated opponents have denounced the poll as a fraud, but France said it was ready to re-engage with the Islamic state, which has pledged to make the fight against al-Qaeda a policy priority.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] As Iran resumes mass trials of opposition activists and protesters, a detainee pleads guilty to spying for the United Arab Emirates and conducting intelligence work for the US.
Reza Rafiyi-Forooshani, who was arrested over the course of Iran's post-vote unrest, was put to trial in Iran's Revolutionary Court on Saturday.
In a report published by Fars News Agency, Rafiyi-Forooshani admitted to having conducted espionage activities for the Intelligence Ministry of the neighboring UAE, located across the Persian Gulf from Iran.
He also confessed to passing information to an Iran policy planner at the US State Department through a monitoring post, reportedly set up in Dubai in 2006.
Rafiyi-Forooshani named Jillian Burns, the first director of the Dubai office, as his handler for the US State Department.
"I worked for two years for the UAE's intelligence service and received an amount of 5,000 Dirhams (UAD) per month," the defendant said. "I sent the requested information through mobile calls; of course most of the data were my personal views and not specific information."
He has also reportedly provided information on the effects of sanctions on Iran and the country's election-related issues for Nazi Beglari, a journalist working to US-funded VOA news channel.
Iranian authorities had previously blamed foreign agents for fueling the violence which came after the June 12 presidential polls in the country.
Fars News Agency quoted Rafiyi-Forooshani as saying that a representative for the CIA had contacted him through email. He, however, said he did not agree to making any contact.
He also admitted to setting up a pro-opposition Facebook page where he uploaded videos from the post-vote violence in Iran.
Rafiyi-Forooshani made his confessions in the second hearing that followed a mass trial that started last week.
Saturday's session saw new faces, including several prominent Reformist figures as well as a 23-year old French academic arrested in July on charges of espionage.
Leading opposition figure Mir-Hossein Mousavi and former President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami have denounced the trial as a "sham."
Influential cleric and former President Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who chairs two powerful bodies in the country -- one that oversees the office of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and one that mediates disputes between government branches -- has also questioned the reliability of confessions made in the recent trials.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Dave UK ||
08/09/2009 7:44 Comments ||
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#3
The Beslan massacre had the side-effect of making so-called Chechen freedom-fighters absolutely untouchable, as far as sympathy from the West was concerned. I am sure there were lots of people like me, who felt some kind of vague sympathy for and concern about how the Chechens were being treated by the Russians, in what amounted to a civil war. After Beslan, though - I definitely ceased to care. If the Chechens had any sort of righteous cause going, Beslan sank it beyond any retrieval.
#4
Also one of the reasons that while Putin & Co. would love sticking it to us, they let the material transit to Afghanistan knowing we're killing some left overs there that they don't have to deal with.
#6
I read Robert Young Pelton's account of his travels to Chechnya and the war there. You have no-holds-barred Chechan jihadis taking out Russian draftees by the dozens, followed by WW2 style Russian artillery barrages into Grozny. I did not find anything on his site on Chechnya, but I found a neat description of Pakistan for your Sunday reading pleasure:
Pakistan: Dodge City with Skiing
The Scoop
Pakistan is still the classic adventurerÂ’s paradise, a wild mountainous region (to the north) and an arid wasteland (to the south), inhabited by fierce warring tribes and squabbling minorities. The isolation and poverty are positively biblical in the smaller towns. The big cities make Blade Runner look like a Caribbean resort. Sensory-numbing amounts of noise, dirt, poverty, temperature extremes, crime and general mayhem send most travelers fleeing to New York seeking peace and quiet. But as many Pakistanis point out, donÂ’t forget India is worse. Pakistan offers natural, archaeological and historical sites, as well as a wealth of interesting backwaters. Amazingly, amongst this Third World developmental disaster, the Pakistani people are some of the most handsome, generous and engaging to be met on this planet, despite their constant warfare and banditry.
Pakistan has been pushed closer to the edge by the massive influx of weapons and refugees caused by wars in Afghanistan and conflict with India. There are a lot of guns in Pakistan with a lot of people who use them on a regular basis. Tourists are kidnapped for ransom but have not been harmed or executed (though a Swede was killed in 1991 in a messy government rescue attempt). Your health is definitely at risk; everything from cobras to dengue-carrying mosquitoes can end it all rather suddenly. Mountainous highways and insane drivers make PakistanÂ’s roads a killing ground. Much of the country is not under the control of the government but ruled by tribes. Professional bandits prey on poor and rich alike. What better place for a stroll through the countryside?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/09/2009 15:00 Comments ||
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#7
During the immediate aftermath, one of the fleeing terrorists was caught by vigilantes and skinned alive right in front of media cameras (though they cut away when the director realized what was happening). I remember just shrugging this off, wondering at the level of barbarity it took to make me so callous.
[Kyodo: Korea] Indian authorities have detained a suspicious North Korean cargo ship that entered the country"s territorial waters illegally, the Press Trust of India reported Saturday. The report quoted Indian Coast Guard sources as saying the captain of the sugar-laden ship, which had attempted to flee Indian Coast Guard and naval ships, claimed during interrogation that the ship had anchored in Indian waters due to mechanical problems.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Sugar? Kimmie reselling food aid? Wouldn't be a surprise. Of course we all wonder what the real cargo is, and its destination...
#2
Once again India has the balls to do the right thing, not that it takes much to do anything about that pipsqueak country. But it does seem to take more than what Washington has been able to muster starting with the first Bush administration.
[Iran Press TV Latest] An attack by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) insurgents on a military unit in southern Turkey has left a Turkish soldier and a militant dead. The incident which was PKK's first armed attack since Ankara said it planned to pass pro-Kurdish reforms, also left a soldier wounded in the southern province of Hatay, state news agency Anatolian said on Saturday. The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and head of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party Ahmet Turk met last week to discuss measures aimed at reducing years of conflict between the Turkish state and its Kurdish population.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak)] Three more militants surrendered to security forces here while police arrested a member of the peace committee, Fazlullah, Advocate, for unknown reasons, on Friday.
According to official sources, the three militants who fought on Taliban's side in Swat surrendered unconditionally to security forces. They were Ihsanullah, Hayatur Rehman and Sohail Noor.
The police arrested Fazlullah, an active member of the Swat Amn Committee, who led several peace rallies in Mingora during the recent past when the Taliban were in ascendance and there was trouble everywhere. The reasons for his arrest could not immediately be known. He was shifted to an undisclosed location.
The situation in Mingora remained generally normal on Friday and a rush of shoppers was witnessed in the city.
The ISPR said that security forces had apprehended two militants from Malakand's Nokhara and Kalakot villages.
Security forces also defused an improvised explosive device at Sanela near Aloch in Shangla.
In Maloch, two soldiers were martyred during an exchange of fire with militants.
Our correspondent adds from Bisham: Security forces arrested a commander of the militants Muhammad Sardar alias Qasim while several others surrendered during a search operation in different areas in Shangla district on Friday, official sources said.
Meanwhile, several militants were reported to have surrendered to the security forces in Makhozai and Chagharzai areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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An anti-terrorism court judge sent 61 accused of the Gojra incident on judicial remand and granted 14 days physical remand of six others here on Friday.
The Gojra Sadar police produced 48 accused in the court and sought physical remand of six for 20 days for seizure of weapons and looted belongings of Christians.
However, the court granted 14 days remand and sent 42 accused on judicial remand.
The police are investigating the incident of Korian village in which scores of houses were set on fire by a mob on July 30 when they were informed that a few Christians had desecrated the Holy Quran. Gojra police produced 19 accused nominated in the supplementary statement.
The police are still clueless about the accused named in the FIR who torched Christian's homes in Gojra city on Saturday. Resultantly, seven people were burnt alive.
'Peacemakers' implicated
Meanwhile, some PML-N leaders of Gojra have condemned the arrests saying that those who have been implicated in the case (including politicians) are actually 'peacemakers' who tried to convince the Muslims to avoid the attack on Christians.
At a press conference in Toba Tek Singh on Friday, they said that who instigated the people against Christians were enjoying immunity.
The nominated accused in the FIR include politicians Malik Qadeer Awan, a PML-N city president and Jamaat-i-Islami (Gojra) leader Rehmatullah Arshad, who remained busy in making announcements in mosques to urge the citizens not to let loose their ire against Christians. They alleged that Awan had been made an accused in the FIR on the pressure of a former MNA of Gojra.
They said when the desecration of the Holy Quran took place at Chak 95-JB, the police arrested chief suspect Talib Masih but he was later released on the pressure of the MNA. The public got provoked on seeing Talib roaming around in the village and torched more than 100 houses, they said.
Another reason that fanned the flame of Gojra violence was the shortage of policemen due to which Christians shot at and injured 13 Muslims (who are still under treatment), provoking the majority to retaliate. They demanded immediate withdrawal of a case against Qadeer Awan.
Meanwhile, religious scholars hit out at the Gojra police for arresting hundreds of Muslims on the charges of involvement in Gojra violence. They took Friday sermons as an opportunity to vent their feelings, accusing the police of abusing power and trampling the sanctity of households during raids.
They said the police had taken possession of hundreds of mobile phone sets and licenced arms during raids and detained scores of people at unknown places, inflicting physical and mental scars on them. They demanded immediate arrest of those who desecrated the Quran.
The civil society in Gojra and Toba Tek Singh tehsils has planned to organise a solidarity conference to promote peace and harmony on Saturday (today) at Gojra bar room.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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Fifteen militants were arrested from different areas of Swat, three of whom have surrendered before the security forces, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
According to the ISPR, three militants voluntarily surrendered before the forces along with their weapons at Arambagh, DawnNews reported.
Nine of these militants were arrested from the Sambat and Bodigram areas, near Matta Tehsil. Some stolen jewellery was also recovered from the house of a militant commander near Charbagh.
Meanwhile, in Dir, security forces apprehended Dr Mohammad Rasul Khan, a government employee at Batkhela Hospital. Khan was allegedly facilitating and harbouring militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] At least 37 people were killed and more than 276 others wounded in Iraq on Friday in a series of bomb attacks aimed at Shiite pilgrims marking a key religious ceremony, Iraqi police said.
A powerful car bomb killed at least 37 Shiite Muslims in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul on Friday, the local provincial governor said. A further 276 people were wounded in the Mosul suicide bombing, Nineveh province Governor Athel al-Nijafi said, in the latest in a spate of deadly attacks against Shiites which have stoked fears of a return to the sectarian conflict which swept the country in 2006 and 2007.
Meanwhile, two roadside bombs struck two minibuses in separate incidents in the poor Baghdad Shiite district of Sadr City. Three people were killed and eight wounded in one blast, and one person was killed and another five wounded in the other. Another roadside bomb struck a minibus in eastern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding six others, a hospital source said.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims poured into Iraq's holy city of Kerbala on Thursday to mark the birth of Imam Mohammed al-Mehdi, a figure Shiites believe vanished centuries ago and will return to bring peace on earth. The event was the second major religious gathering in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from urban centers on June 30, which thrust Iraqi security forces into the leading role.
Thursday's pilgrimage and the previous event passed largely peacefully, but insurgent attacks are still common, raising doubts about the Iraqi security forces' ability to stand alone. A series of bomb blasts near five Shiite mosques killed 31 people a week ago.
Shiite religious gatherings are frequent target of Sunni Islamist militants such as al Qaeda, who consider Shiites heretics.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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Shortly after 8:30 Friday evening gunshots were heard at the central bus station in Bethlehem, 200 meters from the Terra Sancta School where the sixth Fatah conference is being held.
Heard throughout Bethlehem, residents' concerns ran the gamut from assassination attempts to an internal coup, but the shots were later said to have been the result of a parking dispute between security men from the Presidential Guard and Palestinian General Intelligence.
One security officer was injured in the foot by shrapnel from the gunfire, which was reportedly not aimed at anyone in particular. No arrests were made and the incident came to a diplomatic conclusion shortly thereafter.
President Mahmoud Abbas later laughed off the incident during remarks to congregants at Saturday's events, joking that he was sure the convention had come to to an end when he got word of the shooting.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
wrong text, Fred. Link says: Shortly after 8:30 Friday evening gunshots were heard at the central bus station in Bethlehem, 200 meters from the Terra Sancta School where the sixth Fatah conference is being held
Heard throughout Bethlehem, residents' concerns ran the gamut from assassination attempts to an internal coup, but the shots were later said to have been the result of a parking dispute between security men from the Presidential Guard and Palestinian General Intelligence.
One security officer was injured in the foot by shrapnel from the gunfire, which was reportedly not aimed at anyone in particular. No arrests were made and the incident came to a diplomatic conclusion shortly thereafter.
President Mahmoud Abbas later laughed off the incident during remarks to congregants at Saturday's events, joking that he was sure the convention had come to to an end when he got word of the shooting..
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2009 9:01 Comments ||
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#2
Sorry. I fixed it.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 21:32 Comments ||
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#3
no prob - you do so much. I appreciate it. thx
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/09/2009 21:38 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Hamas on Friday briefly arrested a number of senior Fatah members in the Gaza Strip a day before the rival secular movement is planning to hold a key leadership vote, Fatah said.
Hamas security services arrested and took for questioning several local Fatah leaders, including Ibrahim Abu al-Naja, Zakaria al-Agha and Abdallah Abu Samhadana, Fatah officials said.
They were released several hours later, the same official said, requesting not to be named.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June 2007 by ousting Fatah forces loyal to president Mahmud Abbas following a week of deadly clashes.
The arrests came the evening before Fatah members were scheduled to hold the embattled movement's first internal elections in two decades.
Although Hamas had denied Fatah members permission to leave in order to attend the congress in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Fatah said on Friday that members in Gaza will be allowed to vote by proxy.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The Jerusalem Post reported yesterday the red line is the Palestinian claim on all of Jerusalem, not just the Old City. This is a deliberate insult -- thank you, Barack Obama.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received firm endorsement from his Fatah party on Saturday to remain its leader in an impromptu vote as the secular Palestinian party's first congress in 20 years entered its fifth day amid disputes on how to revive its authority. Voting was initially scheduled for Friday but was postponed by a day because of the large number of party members registering as candidates.
Abbas received the approval in a show of hands from the vast majority of Fatah's 2,300 delegates participating in the movement's first congress for 20 years and the first on Palestinian soil. Abbas succeeded the late Fatah founding father Yasser Arafat who led the movement for 40 years until his death in 2004.
Fatah is seeking to throw off a reputation for corruption and cronyism that led in 2006 to an election loss to Islamist rival Hamas which opposes peace talks with Israel.
The conference, which started on Tuesday and had been due to last three days, was extended after bitter arguments between the old guard and young delegates seeking a stronger role and broad reform.
"The consensus candidate"
" At the end of the congress, Fatah will have new leadership where the young generation will play a key role "
Nabil Shaath, Fatah
Abbas, who took over as party chief after the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat, was certain to retain his position, with Fatah officials describing him ahead of the vote as "the consensus candidate." But there was no such certainty for the other veteran party leaders. "A strong wind of change is blowing over the congress. In my view, at least half the current members of the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council will be replaced," a delegate said, asking not to be named.
Among those seen as leading candidates are Marwan Barghuthi, the party's West Bank secretary-general who is held in an Israeli prison, former preventive security chief Jibril Rajub and Mohammed Dahlan, once Fatah's strongman in the Gaza Strip. Marwan's in jug, Jibril's most notable accomplishment was having Yasser pull a gun on him, and Hamas uses Dahlan to keep their kiddies in line, the boogeyman being un-Islamic.
There are strong hopes among the 2,000 delegates that some of the old guard often accused of corruption will make way for younger members of the party founded by iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the late 1950s. "At the end of the congress, Fatah will have new leadership where the young generation will play a key role," prominent Fatah member Nabil Shaath wrote in the congress's Website. "This will reinvigorate the movement and strengthen its legitimacy."
This article starring:
Jibril Rajub
Fatah
Marwan Barghuthi
Fatah
Mohammed Dahlan
Fatah
Nabil Shaath
Fatah
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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Two Muslim village leaders were killed in drive-by shootings in Thailand's restive southernmost provinces, police said on Sunday. The attacks took place at the weekend in Yala and Pattani, two of the three mainly Muslim provinces in predominantly Buddhist Thailand, which have been plagued by five years of separatist violence.
Gunmen on a motorcycle killed an assistant village chief in the Muang district of Yala early Sunday, police said. Late on Saturday, a village headman was shot dead in front of his home in Yaring, Pattani by unknown assailants riding in a pickup truck armed with M-16 assault rifles.
The attacks came during a two-day visit to the region by Bangkok-based diplomats from member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Muslim body, which has criticised Thai security forces for their handling of the conflict. The OIC demanded an end to attacks on Muslims after 11 were shot dead while praying in a mosque in southern Thailand in June.
After weeks of investigation, police revealed on Saturday the identity of the suicide bombers of two hotels in South Jakarta.
National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said the suicide bomber of JW Marriott Hotel was identified as Dani Dwi Permana, a 18-year-old senior high school graduate of a private senior high school in Bogor, West Java.
Bambang said the police confirmed the suicide comber's identity on Aug. 3 after DNA tests on his family.
"The perpetrator was recruited in Bogor," Bambang said.
The suicide bomber of Ritz-Carlton Hotel was identified as Nana Ikhwan Maulana, a youth from Pandeglang in Banten. Bambang did not unveil Nana's age.
Bambang said the two suicide bombers were recruited by a man identified only as SJ alias AT, who is still at large.
The bomb attacks on the two hotels on July 17 killed nine people, including six foreigners.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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Strained relations between Britain and Iran have been aggravated by the inclusion of an embassy worker at a mass trial in Tehran.
The Foreign Office said it was "outraged" that the British embassy's chief political analyst was on trial. It said his appearance contradicted assurances given by senior Iranian officials and was "completely unacceptable".
Hossein Rassam, an Iranian national, has been accused of spying and inciting unrest after the disputed presidential elections.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was deeply concerned at the "unjustified charges" laid against Mr Rassam. "Hossein is a member of our embassy staff going about his legitimate duties," he said. "Iranian action against him, and [others]... only brings further discredit on the Iranian regime."
Mr Rassam was one of nine embassy staff arrested in the wake of protests against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 00:00 ||
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An Iranian court on Saturday charged a French woman, two Iranians working for the British and French embassies in Tehran and dozens of others with spying and aiding a Western plot to overthrow the system of clerical rule.
The European Union, France and Britain all condemned the trial. The Swedish EU presidency said in a statement "action against one EU country, citizen or embassy staff, is considered an action against all of the EU."
"This is obviously a show trial directed against the EU," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told Reuters.
It was the second mass trial in a week aimed at uprooting the moderate opposition and putting an end to protests that erupted after the disputed June 12 presidential election.
At least 26 protesters have been killed and scores arrested in post-election violence. Moderates say the poll was rigged for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to win, but officials say it was the "healthiest" vote since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The protests have exposed deep rifts within the clerical establishment in Iran, the world's fifth biggest oil producer.
French citizen Clotilde Reiss was charged with "acting against national security by taking part in unrest ... collecting news and information and sending pictures of the unrest abroad," state news agency IRNA said.
Espionage and acting against national security are punishable by death under Iran's Islamic law.
Reiss, a teaching assistant, confessed her "mistakes" and asked for clemency, IRNA said. Nazak Afshar, an Iranian working for the French embassy, was also charged with "providing information over the vote unrest to foreigners."
"We were not authorized by the embassy to go to rallies but we were told to shelter protesters if necessary," Afshar said.
The British embassy employee, Hossein Rassam, was charged with espionage and confessed to handing information about the unrest to Washington, IRNA said.
"The local staff were asked by their superiors at the British embassy to attend the riots," IRNA quoted Rassam as telling the court. Rassam was freed on $100,000 bail on July 19.
"Several British diplomats attended rallies ... The British ambassador and the charge d'affaires also went to a rally."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2009 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.
Gun battles between clan militiamen killed at least 17 people and wounded 30 on Saturday at a pirate stronghold on the coast of Somalia, witnesses said.
A suicide bomber blows himself up Late on Saturday in front of the French embassy in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott wounding two French citizens, Al Arabiya TV reported.
[Kyodo: Korea] Indian authorities have detained a suspicious North Korean cargo ship that entered the country"s territorial waters illegally, the Press Trust of India reported Saturday. The report quoted Indian Coast Guard sources as saying the captain of the sugar-laden ship, which had attempted to flee Indian Coast Guard and naval ships, claimed during interrogation that the ship had anchored in Indian waters due to mechanical problems.
[Iran Press TV Latest] An attack by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) insurgents on a military unit in southern Turkey has left a Turkish soldier and a militant dead. The incident which was PKK's first armed attack since Ankara said it planned to pass pro-Kurdish reforms, also left a soldier wounded in the southern province of Hatay, state news agency Anatolian said on Saturday. The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and head of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party Ahmet Turk met last week to discuss measures aimed at reducing years of conflict between the Turkish state and its Kurdish population.
[The News (Pak)] Three more militants surrendered to security forces here while police arrested a member of the peace committee, Fazlullah, Advocate, for unknown reasons, on Friday.
[Al Arabiya Latest] At least 37 people were killed and more than 276 others wounded in Iraq on Friday in a series of bomb attacks aimed at Shiite pilgrims marking a key religious ceremony, Iraqi police said.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received firm endorsement from his Fatah party on Saturday to remain its leader in an impromptu vote as the secular Palestinian party's first congress in 20 years entered its fifth day amid disputes on how to revive its authority. Voting was initially scheduled for Friday but was postponed by a day because of the large number of party members registering as candidates.
Two Muslim village leaders were killed in drive-by shootings in Thailand's restive southernmost provinces, police said on Sunday. The attacks took place at the weekend in Yala and Pattani, two of the three mainly Muslim provinces in predominantly Buddhist Thailand, which have been plagued by five years of separatist violence.
An Iranian court on Saturday charged a French woman, two Iranians working for the British and French embassies in Tehran and dozens of others with spying and aiding a Western plot to overthrow the system of clerical rule.
