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Church bombing foiled in north Iraq
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Terry Moore aka Marie Buckholder in "Come Back, Little Sheba" aka Jill Young in "Mighty Joe Young" aka Betty Anderson in "Peyton Place" (age 82)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/07/2011 1:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Once again....

Drapes.... why do they hate us?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/07/2011 1:35 Comments || Top||

#3  If only they were . . . sheerer.
Posted by: gorb || 01/07/2011 2:51 Comments || Top||

#4  notice anything wrong in this picture?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/07/2011 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  also ex Howard Hughes flame I believe
Posted by: Warthog || 01/07/2011 11:40 Comments || Top||

#6  @Frank: I believe the correct description is "WOTB*".

*Whale On The Beach
Posted by: Mike || 01/07/2011 13:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Frank, at first I thought it was Ted Kennedy but he's dead now, right?
Posted by: Steve White || 01/07/2011 13:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Worse yet - the whale is wearing a bra....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/07/2011 14:02 Comments || Top||

#9  OMG...you're right "it" is a she. Her only attractive force at this time seems to be gravitational...
Posted by: Warthog || 01/07/2011 14:07 Comments || Top||

#10  Oh, come on go to the third picture where Victoria has the sand only on her knees and let your imagination go.
Posted by: Beavis || 01/07/2011 15:37 Comments || Top||

#11  There's someone else in the picture?
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 01/07/2011 19:05 Comments || Top||

#12  Took me several minutes to see it too.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/07/2011 23:23 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Al-Shabab blocking Somali relief aid
[Iran Press TV] Somalia's government has accused al-Shabaab group of blocking humanitarian aid destined for people devastated by drought and famine in central regions.

Somali Assistant Minister of Interior Affairs and National Security, Ibrahim Ishaq Yarow, said on Thursday that his government is unable to deliver relief aid received from all over the world to thousands of people who are suffering from serious shortage of food and severe drought.

"We are unable to reach those affected by drought and famine in al-Shabaab-controlled areas," he said.

"Soon we will distribute the humanitarian aids we have received to people in areas controlled by the government," the hapless Somali government official added.

Meanwhile,
...back at the ranch...
top United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society envoy for Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, has urged restrictions on aid delivery to be lifted so that those in need of help can be assisted.

"We hope there will be a relaxation of this restriction to avert what is an impending crisis and a catastrophe of really serious proportions," the UN envoy said in Mogadishu on Wednesday.

The regions worst affected by the drought in central Somalia are those bordering northeastern Kenya and southeastern Ethiopia. The dry weather associated with insufficient precipitation have forced some families to migrate in search of food and grazing land for their cattle.

At least 5,000 families in 13 villages northeast and southeast of the regional capital of Galkayo, located 700km (435 miles) north of Mogadishu are in dire need of food.

The UN's food agency, the World Food Program, is appealing for donors to provide tons of food in order to halt a humanitarian tragedy and stop more people from leaving their homes in the hardest-hit areas.
"We need more ammo food for the widows and orphans!"
At feeding centers an unusually high number of people are now turning up for assistance. In some villages in central Somalia men have left their families behind and headed for the city seeking food.

An estimated two million Somalis need humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Morocco breaks up Al-Qaeda cell
[Arab News] Morocco said it had jugged a member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) among 26 others who planned to attack security services and rob banks using weapons they hid in an area of the disputed Western Sahara.

Quoting an Interior Ministry statement, the local media said Moroccan security forces recently broke up the 27-member cell and had discovered weapon caches in Amghala, an oasis located in the disputed Western Sahara.

"Moroccan security services have succeeded in dismantling a terrorist cell of 27 members, among whom is a member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb who was tasked by this organization to set up a rear base in Morocco where it would plan terrorist acts," it said.

The ministry did not say when or where they were jugged.

"Members of the cell, supervised by a Moroccan citizen who is in the Al-Qaeda camps in northern Mali, have been planning terrorist acts using boom belts and car booms that mainly target security services and to rob banks to fund their terrorist projects," it added.

The cell members also planned to send recruits "to AQIM camps in Algeria and Mali to undergo paramilitary training before returning to Morocco to execute their destructive plans using the weapons discovered near Amghala", it added.

Moroccan Interior Minister Taib Cherkaoui in remarks carried by the official MAP news agency said members of the cell also targeted foreign interests and had links with "extremist elements" based in Europe.

The seized weapons included 30 Kalashnikov assault rifles, two rocket-propelled grenades and ammunition, he said.

Violence linked to militancy is rare in Morocco, a staunch Western ally with a reputation for stability that has helped to entice millions of tourists to visit the country.

The last big attack was a series of suicide kabooms in the economic capital, Casablanca, in 2003 that killed 45 people. Since then security services say they have rounded up more than 60 radical cells.

AQIM joined Osama Bin Laden's terrorist network in 2006. It operates mainly in Algeria, where it wages frequent ambushes and bombings, but has crossed the porous desert borders of the region to spread violence in the rest of northwestern Africa.

Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger have opened a joint military headquarters in the region in an unusual, united effort to combat terrorism and trafficking across borders.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


French embassy attacker claims al Qaeda link, says Mali
[Pak Daily Times] BAMAKO: The man who attacked the French embassy here by setting alight a small gas cylinder claims he is a member of the al Qaeda terror network and a Tunisian citizen, police said Thursday.

Abdoulaye Sow, who runs the cop shoppe where the nabbed man was brought for questioning after Wednesday's attack, said the assailant did not have any identity documents with him and the claims could not be confirmed.

The assault on the French diplomatic compound in Mali's capital was unsophisticated. It was carried out by a single man who police say fired several gunshots and set a gas cylinder alight and threw it, wounding two people and causing only minor damage to one of the embassy's outer gates.

French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said she had no information on the motives of the attack but said one embassy official was lightly maimed. Police in Mali said two people were maimed in the attack.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb operates in the former French colony and has grabbed credit for the kidnapping last year of five French citizens and two others who worked at a French-owned uranium mine in neighbouring Niger. AQIM is believed to have taken the seven across the desert into neighbouring Mali.

AQIM grew out of an insurgency movement in Algeria that merged with al Qaeda in 2006. It has since spread through the Sahara and the arid Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
, and in recent years has increasingly been targeting French interests.

In 2009, a man wearing an boom belt tried to blow himself up in front of the French embassy in Nouakchott.

Late last year, La Belle France rejected a reported demand from al Qaeda to negotiate with Osama bin Laden over the fate of five kidnapped Frenchies seized in Niger. The five, as well as two people from Togo and Madagascar.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Bangladesh
Mufti Izhar remanded
[Bangla Daily Star] A Chittagong court yesterday placed Mufti Izharul Islam Chowdhury, president of an Islami Oikya Jote
... a political party in Bangladesh. In the 2001 elections the party won 2 out of 300 elected members in an alliance with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It has a focus on building an islamic state, and has used the madrassas to gain support...
(IOJ) faction, on a four-day remand in two cases filed for his alleged involvement with a banned cut-thoat outfit, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI).
Founded in 1984 by Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Aktar. The Bangla branch was established in 1992 with assistance from Osama bin Laden. Recruits come mostly from Deobandi madrassahs. HuJI and Fazlur Rehman Khalil are signators of bin Laden's declaration of war on the west.

Of the two cases filed with Raojan Police Station, one was filed under Anti-Terrorism Act while the other under Explosive Substance Act. The same court also granted a total of six-day remand against five HuJI activists in the same cases.

Senior Judicial Magistrate Keshab Roy Chowdhury passed the orders after investigation officer (IO) of the case filed under Anti-Terrorism Act, Sub Inspector of Raojan Police Station MA Latif submitted a petition with ten-day remand prayer.

The court sent Mufti on a remand for two days and three days for the five HuJI men.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Guatemala Gunfire Gazette
10 Die in Guatemala

A total of ten individuals were killed in drug and gang related violence in Guatemala including a newborn infant shot to death in Villa Nueva, Guatemala department.
For a map, click here
  • Two unidentified men were found dead in Guatemala department on kilometer 36 of the road to Santa Elena Barillas. One of the victims has a firearm on their person.

  • An elderly woman was found decapitated in Nueva Concepcion Tutuapa, San Marcos Wednesday. Maria Marcela Tomas Aguilar, 72, lived alone.

  • A taxi driver was shot to death and a female passenger was wounded in a shooting in Guatemala City Wednesday. Dead at the scene was Brian Omar Herrera Morales, 19, and wounded was Sandy Estefany Molina. The shooting took place near the intersection of 16 Calle and 2nd Avenida in Zona 1 of the city.

  • A unidentified pedestrian was shot in Guatemala City Wednesday. The victim was shot in Zone 7 on the Anillo Perifericon by two individuals aboard a sedan.

  • A man was shot to death in Santa Elean, Petan Thursday. Enfris Avelino Leiva Pesqueda, 43, and his wife, Aura Lopez Cordova, 23, were on a grocery shopping outing when a passenger on a motorcycle dismounted and shot Leiva Pesqueda at close range. His wife escaped the assault by ducking into a nearby residence. The shooter left 10 9mm spent shell casings at the scene.

  • A man in his 20s and a newborn infant were both shot to death and four others were wounded in Planes de Villa Nueva, Guatemala department Thursday. The attack took place when the family was driving aboard a pickup truck and were attacked near the intersection of 2nd Calle and 8th Avenida in Zone 5 in Villa Nueva. Erick Flores, 25, and an unidentified one month old baby died at the scene. Wounded in the assault were Carla Juarez, 22, Irsael Ortega, 58, Andres Rodas, 28, and Kinder Silvestre, 22, all of whom were transported to Roosevelt Hospital for medical treatment.

  • An unidentified man was shot to death in Guatemala City Thursday. The victim was driving his pickup truck near a nightclub on Zone 4 when he was shot.

  • An 8 year old girl was hit by stray gunfire Thursday in El Manantial, Palencia, Guatemala department. Anibal Danilo Rodriguez suffered a skull fracture from the hit and was transferred to a local hospital to receive medical attention.
Posted by: badanov || 01/07/2011 00:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Durango: 7 Dead Found in Hidden Grave
Google Translate For a map, click here
Seven dead were found in a mass grave near Lerdo, Durango, according to Mexican news reports.

The find was made by a laborer out walking at ejido Los Angeles in the Lerdo municipality Wednesday.

Four separate sites contained the bodies.

The remains are said to be at least a year old and most of the victims had been shot. The dead were said to have been found dressed in winter clothes.

Lerdo is part of the metropolitan area that includes Torreon, Coahuila and Gomez Palacio, Durango.
Posted by: badanov || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Commotion in Coahuila: 2 Die
Google Translate For a map. click here
Several shootings in Torreon, Coahuila have claimed two victims, according to Mexican press accounts.
  • Two Coahuila state police agents were fired on Tuesday night by unknown assailants. The agents were dispatched to Cerro de las Noas colony after police received reports of gunfire. Neither agent was hit by gunfire. Gunfire was also reported in Cinco de Mayo, Vencedora and Metalurgica colonies as well.

  • Two residents of nearby Gomez Palacio were wounded when they were fired on at a taco stand in Torreon Tuesday night. The shooting took place at the La Joya taco stand near the corner of Calle Salvador Creel and Calzada Los Nogales. Reports say the unidentified shooting took eight shots at the victims before fleeing the scene.

  • A teenager was shot and seriously wounded late Monday night in Torreon. Emmanuel Guillermo Cobian Reynoso, 16, was shot near the intersection of calles Durango and Escuadron 201 in the Victoria colony.

  • A welder in his 50s was shot to death in the commission of a carjacking Wednesday afternoon. Eloy Ruiz Soriano, 50, was shot by an armed suspect who demanded keys to the Ford Lobo pickup truck he was driving.

  • A man was shot to death outside his home in Torreon Wednesday. Carlos Gerardo Grijalva Viena, 36, was attacked at his residence on Francisco I. Madero in the Primero de Maya colony.
Posted by: badanov || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


More Mexican Mayhem
22 Die in Northern Mexico

A total of 22 individuals were murdered in northern Mexican drug and gang related violence that included a shooting at a restaurant in Juarez Wednesday night, according to Mexican press accounts.
For a map, click here
  • Two unidentified men were shot to death in Juarez Tuesday. The victims were repairing a Ford pickup truck near the intersection of calles Gilberto Cortez and Elisa Griensen in the Revolucion Mexicana colony when armed suspects drove by and shot them.

  • An unidentified woman was found shot to death inside an SUV in Juarez Wednesday night. The victim had been bound gagged and tortured before she was shot. She was found inside a Ford Explorer SUV near the corner of calles Presa Malpaso and Presa Amistad in the Independencia I colony.

  • Two unidentified individuals were found shot to death in Juarez in two separate crimes Thursday.
    • A man in his 20s was found shot to death near the junction of calles Sanchez and Ponce de Leon in the Barrio La Chaveña. The victim had been blindfolded and his hands and feet bound by duct tape before he was shot.

    • An unidentified man was found dead in a vacant lot on Libramiento Aeropuerto in the Las Palmas colony. The victim's body was too badly decomposed to determine how he died at the scene.

  • Armed suspects shot up a restaurant in Juarez Wednesday night. No one was reported hurt in the attack on La Cabaña restaurant near the intersection of Santiago Blancas and Dia del Maestro. The restaurant was closely immediately following the attack.

  • Two unidentified men were shot to death in Juarez Wednesday night. The victims were aboard a Ford Explorer near the intersection of calle Lirios and Arroyo de las Víboras when armed suspects aboard a Jeep Cherokee fired assault rifles at them.

  • Two unidentified individuals were found shot to death early Thursday morning in Juarez.
    • An unidentified man was found shot to death near the corner of calles Ramon Corona and Tlaxcala in the Cuauhtemoc colony.

    • A woman was raped and murdered in Juarez early Thursday morning. Police responding to the scene at the junction of calles Pacheco Parra and Toronja in the Solidaridad colony foound Karina Cortez Ochoa, 22, dead. A 19 months old female child was also at the residence alive. Ochoa's attacker was found later that night.

  • A woman and an unidentified man were shot to death in the village of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos in Juarez Thursday. Emma Luisa Avila Garcia, 45, and an unidentified man were shot by several armed suspects near the corner of calles Guadalupe Victoria and José Maria Morelos. Reports say the same suspects set four nearby residences afire on Avenida Juarez, destroying them.

  • An unidentified man was shot to death near Juarez Thursday. The victim was driving his family in his Dodge Neon when armed suspects fired on the vehicle near the intersection of carretera Juarez-Porvenir and Ramon Rayon killing the driver. The victim's wife and child were unharmed in the shooting.

  • An unidentified man was shot to death in Agua Prieta, Sonora Wednesday. The victim was found aboard his Ford Lobo pickup truck near the corner of Calle 18 Avenida 25 in the Nuevo Vallarta colony.

  • No one was reported hurt in an armed robbery of a gas firm in Nogales, Sonora Wednesday. Two men, their faces covered in red scarves got away with USD $750 and employee's personal belongings. The business was located on Avenida De los Maestros in the Las Praderas colony.

  • Two men were found dead in Tijuana, Baja California Wednesday. The victims were found in the trunk of a car near the General Hospital

  • An unidentified man was shot to death and his wife was wounded late Wednesday night near Tijuana, Baja California. The victims were attacked in their car near the corner of calle Acueducto and carretera Tijuana-Tecate in the Granjas Familiares colony. Reports say the victims knew their shooters.

  • One man was shot to death and two others were wounded in a shooting in Tijuana, Baja California. The shooting took place on bulevar Cucapah near a shopping center where armed suspects aboard a sedan shot the trio at close range.

  • An unidentified man was found dead inside his residence in Tijuana, Baja California. The victim had been tortured before he was strangled at his residence in the Santa Fe colony.

  • Three individuals were murdered in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Wednesday.
    • Two men aboard a luxury SUV were found executed in Santiago colony near a comunity called La Gitana. Witnesses say armed suspects aboard a Jeep Cherokee shot and killed Alejandro Guzman Garza, 35, and a second unidentified victim on kilometer 11 of San Mateo road.

    • An unidentified man was found dead in the parking lot of a professional building in Monterrey. The victim had been wrapped in a blanket near the intersection of avenidas Morones Prieto and Dinamarca in the Del Carmen colony.
From the Not-Exactly-Looking-For A Six-Pack-and-Cigarettes Department

An armed robbery was thwarted in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, when a scuffle broke out between the armed suspect and store employees, according to Mexican press accounts. The victim walked into the Venus sex shop on Avenida Madero in the Monterrey suburb of San Nicholas de la Garza Wednesday armed with a knife and demanded the store receipts. A fight broke out, and the victim was stabbed to death by one of the employees.
Posted by: badanov || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Passengers foil Turkey 'hijacking'
[Al Jazeera] A hijack attempt on a Turkish Airlines flight from Norway to Istanbul has been foiled by passengers.

Turkish media, citing security officials, said a Turkish passenger on board the Boeing 737-800 stormed the cockpit less than an hour before arrival in Turkey on Wednesday.

Officials said the man claimed to have a bomb and demanded the aircraft return to Oslo.

But passengers on the flight tackled the suspect and the plane landed safely at Istanbul's Ataturk airport at 1930GMT, media reports said.

"We were 50 minutes away from touchdown when I heard a lot of noise at the back of the plane," Salim Tahar, a passenger, told Norway's TV2 Nyhetskanalen.

"I turned round and there was a person who had his face covered, was wearing a cap
and had dark clothes.

"The man spoke Turkish and demanded the plane return to Oslo," Tahar said.

Police jugged the suspect immediately upon landing. No bomb was found.

Officials identified the man as 40-year-old Yasar Cuma, a Turkish national from a Kurdish village in the southeastern region of Anatolia.

After police interrogated Cuma they found he was suffering from psychological problems, the Anatolia news agency said.

The plane was carrying 60 passengers, including a child, and seven crew members.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Pakistan releases Qari Saifullah Akhtar
Posted by: Water Modem || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  An interesting comment after the article at the link:


In 2009, Jamaat-i-Islami had a meeting with China:

http://www.siawi.org/article638.html

Where they decided not to attack each other's interest. This means the Pakistani Jihadi dogs would not harm Chinese commercial interests in Afghanistan (or elsewhere) and will not help Uighur nationalists. In return China will block all efforts to castrate these Jihadis in the UN. Perhaps this is not widely known but China has vetoed EVERY resolution India has brought up in the UN against Pakistan based terrorists and their organizations!!! LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hafiz Saeed (Pakistani terrorist attack on Mumbai), Daood Ibrahim etc. China is the main financier of terror operations worldwide through their cash, diplomatic, missile, nuclear help to rougue countries such as Pakistan, Iran, N.Korea, Venezuela, Suda etc. That is why China is untouched by Islamic terror.

What the chinese don't realize is that this is a momentary truce selfishly arranged by the Jihadis to fight NATO and India NOW. Once these countries are 'finished off' (they wish!!), similar to the soviets, the very same Jihadis will next go behind China like mad dogs!
Posted by: Water Modem || 01/07/2011 13:00 Comments || Top||


ANP leader potted in Mardan
[Pak Daily Times] An Awami National Party (ANP) leader was killed in an ambush in Mardan on Thursday. According to police, unidentified motorcyclists sprayed the car of Mardan ANP Information Secretary Jehar Khan Hoti with bullets. He sustained wounds on his chest and head and pegged out on way to hospital. Soon after the incident, police cordoned off the area but the killers managed to escape. Police have collected important evidence from the scene of the crime and started the paperwork but haven't done much else. Meanwhile,
...back at the ranch...
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti condemned the killing of Jehar Hoti and termed his death an irreparable loss for the party.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Chaos at hearing of Taseer's murderer
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Chaos engulfed a court hearing for the alleged assassin of a liberal Pak politician today as Islamist protesters forced police to backtrack on plans to relocate the session.

The grinning policeman, who confessed to murdering Salman Taseer for his progressive views, has been hailed a hero by the powerful religious right, highlighting how deep the conservative grip on the nuclear-armed country.

Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri was showered with rose petals for a second day as he arrived at an anti-terror court in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, more than seven hours after media first gathered in anticipation of the event.

The judge had ordered Qadri to appear after he was charged over Tuesday's liquidation, and several hundred Islamist lawyers and madrassa students descended on the premises in a show of support for the 26-year-old.

As the crowd became increasingly vocal, Islamabad authorities told AFP that they wanted to relocate the hearing to the capital, where TV footage showed a makeshift court created at a heavily protected municipal building.

"The Islamabad administration has issued a notification to conduct a hearing in the Mumtaz Qadri case in Islamabad," administration official Amir Ahmad Ali told AFP, declining to announce when and where exactly Qadri would appear. An armoured car was then seen arriving, presumably with Qadri inside, but in Rawalpindi the crowd prevented the judge from leaving the premises.

"We requested the judge that legally he cannot go to Islamabad to hear the accused and he accepted our request," lawyer Malik Waheed Anjum told news hounds.

"The judge ordered Islamabad police to present the accused in his court in Rawalpindi," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Let's see: They have nuclear weapons (Iran is just hoping); they get billions of $$ from us each year; they allow entire regions of their country to be run and ruled by Islamic Extremists and terrorists.
How come they aren't enemy #1? Looks to be a lot more threatening to the region and us than anyone else.
Posted by: sam3rd || 01/07/2011 8:59 Comments || Top||


Taliban faction claims responsibility for killing Taseer
(PTI) A Pak Taliban faction linked to trainer of jacket wallahs Qari Hussain today grabbed credit for the liquidation of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, saying that the "man who killed him was from among us."

"We claim responsibility for the killing of Salmaan Taseer. The Punjab Governor was our target and we have planned this programme and the man who killed him was from among us," Shakirullah Shakir, a front man for the fidayeen group associated with Qari Hussain, told PTI on phone from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location.

The snuffies front man also held out threats that those who spoke against Islam would also be murdered.

Shakir claimed Taseer was killed for supporting Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, and for his remarks against the blasphemy law.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Six killed in Pakistan's restive northwest
(PTI) Three Islamic exemplar commanders were among six persons killed in festivities between a pro-government militia and Taliban fighters in the lawless Orakzai Agency
... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar...
in northwest Pakistain today, official sources said.

The festivities erupted in Saifaldar town in Orakzai Agency, which borders Afghanistan. Three snuffies were maimed in the fighting that continued till the evening, the sources said.

In a separate development, the bodies of Islamic exemplar commander Gul Shareef, his son and his nephew were found beside a road in Saifaldar.

It could not immediately be ascertained who had killed them.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Mumtaz Qadri sent on five-day remand
[Pak Daily Times] Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Malik Akram Awan on Thursday rejected a police plea for a 12-day physical remand of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer's killer Mumtaz Qadri and settled for only a five-day physical remand with the direction to have his medical checkup. Qadri's lawyer Abdul Waheed Anjum said since he had confessed to killing Taseer, there was no need for his physical remand. Police submitted that they have to find out his motive and accomplices. Earlier, the court allowed the lawyer to meet Qadri for 20 minutes. In the morning, a group of lawyers and seminary students surrounded the court building to 'welcome' Qadri. To avoid chaos, he was sent to a temporary court set up in Islamabad. But his supporters prevented the judge from leaving for Islamabad. His lawyer told news hounds that on his request the judge ordered Islamabad police to present the accused in his court in Rawalpindi.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
Mookie stampeded in Najaf
Anti-US Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has received an enthusiastic welcome in the Iraqi city of Najaf. Following chaotic scenes as he visited a shrine, Moqtada Sadr urged his supporters to show discipline.
Fine one to talk...
The radical cleric has returned to his stronghold in the city after three years in self-imposed exile in Iran. On Thursday he visited one of the holiest sites of Shia Islam, the shrine of the Imam Ali, where thousands of his supporters gathered, chanting loudly and causing a stampede as they jostled to see him.
"My life just won't be complete if I can't catch a glimpse of His Corpulenceness!"
"His return is a victory for just people. It's a great pleasure for us, especially because his movement is to participate in the government," one Sadr supporter told AFP news agency. "That means there that no security problems will happen - no battles or confrontation with the government, as happened before."
"He'll be pooping unicorn dust!"
"Er, lady, that job has been taken..."

Moqtada Sadr later issued a statement criticising his followers' behaviour, telling them: "I did not know you like that."
"But it was good for me too!"
"Your indiscipline while I was performing my religious rituals bothered me and hurt me. I beg you to be disciplined, and not to shout excessive slogans," he said. "The stampede hurt me, and hurt others, and this will tarnish the image of our movement in the eyes of others."
Nah Mookie, you're doing a hellavah job on that yourself, hellavah job...
Posted by: Steve White || 01/07/2011 11:10 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If only the headline was true, literally!
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 01/07/2011 12:04 Comments || Top||

#2  ...self-imposed exile in Iran.

I seem to recall he was one step ahead of an arrest warrant (or Warthog round) when he left. These shouldn't have expiration dates.
Posted by: PBMcL || 01/07/2011 12:07 Comments || Top||

#3  I notice he hasn't made any comments about how he has driven the US out of Iraq.
Posted by: gorb || 01/07/2011 13:09 Comments || Top||

#4  If we had the kind of black-ops like the media always claims we have this asshole would have been found in bed with a dead whore or live goat long ago.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/07/2011 13:20 Comments || Top||

#5  STAMPEDE!!

(rumble rumble rumble)
Posted by: mojo || 01/07/2011 14:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Never look a gift Mookie in the mouth. His breath will knock you dead.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/07/2011 15:02 Comments || Top||


Backers Flock to See Returned Iraqi Cleric
[Asharq al-Aswat] Hundreds of supporters
Hundreds? A pathetic turn-out for a man who once had a following numbering many thousands.
on Thursday thronged the home of radical Shiite holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr,
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010...
who has returned to Iraq after nearly four years in self-imposed exile in Iran.

The firebrand populist whose bully boyz battled American and Iraqi forces left Iraq in 2007 seen more as a powerful but unpredictable leader of a street-fighting organization but returned Wednesday as a legitimate political figure heading an organized movement that is a key partner in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's new government.

A swarm of al-Sadr's bodyguards -- dressed in black clothes and flak jackets and toting automatic rifles -- deployed around his house in the al-Hanana neighborhood in central Najaf where followers were waiting to meet him.

One of the youngest among those gathered outside al-Sadr's house was nine-year-old Mohammed Sadiq, who was accompanied by his uncle. "I'd like to kiss his hands and tell him: I miss you and don't leave us again," said Sadiq.

Supporters hung banners on nearby buildings, one of which read: "Yes, Yes to our leader. Here we are at your service our Master Moqtada." Another banner said: "We renew our allegiance to our leader Moqtada al-Sadr."

The holy man was believed to be meeting with Iraq's most revered Shiite figure, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on Thursday but the meeting could not be confirmed.

Al-Sadr has legions of followers
Only a few hundred of whom turned out to welcome him home. Fair weather friends, most of them.
among Iraq's downtrodden Shiite masses who see him as a champion of their rights against both the Sunnis who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein and other Shiite political parties such as al-Maliki's Dawa party, which represents more of the Shiite middle class.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  The same people that cut the scalps of their kids and have them bleed during the religious wing dings. Sorry to be so culturallllllly insennnnnnnnnnsitive.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/07/2011 11:20 Comments || Top||


Church bombing foiled in north Iraq
[Iran Press TV] Iraqi army and security forces have foiled an attempted bombing attack on a Christian church in the capital of the country's violent Nineveh province.

The Iraqi army's 2nd Division, in coordination with the national intelligence service, foiled on Thursday an attempt to bomb a church in central djinn-infested Mosul, Aswat al-Iraq news agency quoted a military source as saying.

The forces reportedly seized six improvised bombs (IEDs) and two boom belts prepared for detonation near the church.

The incident comes after a number of Christian houses were targeted with IEDs last week, in which one person was killed and nine more maimed.

The attacks were the most violent against Iraqi Christians since October 31, when an attack on the Sayidat al-Nejat Cathedral (Our Lady of Salvation Church) left 52 people dead and 60 others maimed.

Mounting violence against Christians in Iraq has forced them to leave their homes and head for the autonomous Kurdistan Region in the north or outside the country.

Mohammedan scholars and figures have repeatedly voiced concerns over terrorist attacks against followers of other religions in Iraq, Egypt and elsewhere.

They highlight Islam's clear opposition to any move displaying disregard for human lives, regardless of the religion of those who fall victim to the attacks.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq

#1  Good on the Iraqi Police for doing their job (and likely a brave person who tipped them to it).
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/07/2011 10:07 Comments || Top||

#2 
They highlight Islam's clear opposition to any move displaying disregard for human lives, regardless of the religion of those who fall victim to the attacks.


Nice words. Now, will you walk the walk?
Posted by: mom || 01/07/2011 10:20 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli warplanes attack Gaza again
[Iran Press TV] Israel warplanes have once again launched an Arclight airstrike on the Gazoo Strip, but there is no word yet on any possible casualties.

The Israeli military has not commented on the attack so far.

Israel has been repeatedly targeting the Gazoo Strip since its 22-day war on the enclave launched in late Dec. 2008, which killed over 1,400 Paleostinians and inflicted over $1.6 billion in damage.

Israeli warplanes frequently target tunnels connecting Gazoo to Egypt saying Paleostinian resistance fighters use the tunnels for storing and smuggling weapons.

But the Paleostinians dismiss the allegations, arguing they have resorted to the underground tunnels to bring basic needs to the impoverished Gazoon'>Gazook
s because the territory has been sealed by an Israeli blockade for over three years.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  which killed over 1,400 Paleostinians and inflicted over $1.6 billion in damage.

And stopped without finishing the job.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/07/2011 12:52 Comments || Top||

#2  IIRC TOPIX > EGYPT WARNS ISRAEL OVER GAZA ATTACKS.

versus

* WAFF [paraph = short title]> ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: TURKEY IS "IDENTICAL TO IRAN", at dawn of 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran = Fall of Shah. US Embassy Hostage-taking by Moud + Boyz.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/07/2011 22:25 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Trial begins of Indonesian accused in terror plot
[Arab News] An Indonesian thug has gone on trial on charges of planning attacks on the country's police headquarters and the Danish Embassy.

Prosecutors accused Heri Sigo Samboja, 28, of wanting to bomb the embassy because of anger over a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The defendant had been released from prison in October 2008 after serving time for other terror-related crimes and was re-jugged last June.

The prosecutor told the Jakarta District Court on Thursday that the defendant also planned to attack the National Police headquarters in Jakarta to seek Dire Revenge™ for the deaths of Islamic fighters.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah


Indonesia jails ex-policemen for selling arms
[Straits Times] AN INDONESIAN court on Thursday sentenced two former coppers to 10 years in jail each for selling firearms to a terror cell known as 'Al-Qaeda in Aceh' which plotted a series of attacks in Jakarta.

Tatang Mulyadi and Abdi Tunggal bin Adam, logistics officers who guarded a paramilitary police warehouse where weapons were stored, had sold firearms to alleged gun-hung tough guys through a middleman, the court heard.

Twenty-eight firearms, including four AK-47 assault rifles, were sold for 340 million rupiah (S$48,982), chief judge Tri Widodo told the East Jakarta district court.

'They removed weapons from the logistics warehouse illegally,' he said.

'As servants of the state, they should have provided protection to the country but instead they had tarnished the image of the police.' The defendants' jail terms were shorter than the 12 years sought by prosecutors as they had been cooperative in court.

The former coppers were among more than 100 people nabbed after the discovery of a bad boy training camp in Aceh province, Sumatra, in February.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Aceh


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Daily says U.S. Woman Held on Spying Charges
[Asharq al-Aswat] An Iranian newspaper reported on Thursday that an American woman had been jugged on suspicion of spying after entering the country illegally by land.

The report, which could not be immediately confirmed by officials, was published in a column in the state-owned daily Iran, which is not known for carrying accurate reports.

If verified, the arrest would further strain relations between Tehran and the West which are facing off over Iran's nuclear programme. Iran is already holding two U.S. citizens on spying charges.

The report said the woman had entered the country from Armenia and was nabbed by customs guards in the town of Nordouz in northwestern Iran. An espionage device was found in her teeth, it said.

The daily named the 55-year-old woman as Hall Talayan but did not say when she was nabbed.

Three American hikers, two men and a woman, were also jugged in July 2009 near the Iraqi border on suspicion of spying.

The woman, Sarah Shourd, was released on bail of $500,000 in September and returned to the United States. Her two companions remain in jail awaiting trial which was postponed in November due to Shourd's absence.
Posted by: Fred || 01/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  An espionage device was found in her teeth?

I'm having a hard time believing this one.
Posted by: gorb || 01/07/2011 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  More on this here. Looks like Iran is trying to seize more Americans before upcoming talks.
Posted by: gorb || 01/07/2011 1:58 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
50[untagged]
9Govt of Pakistan
4Govt of Iran
3al-Qaeda in North Africa
2TTP
1al-Qaeda
1al-Qaeda in Aceh
1Islamic State of Iraq
1Jemaah Islamiyah
1Pirates
1Taliban
1Hamas
1al-Shabaab
1Commies

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2011-01-07
  Church bombing foiled in north Iraq
Thu 2011-01-06
  Moqtada Sadr back in Iraq
Wed 2011-01-05
  Lahore, Islamabad on red alert after Taseer assassination
Tue 2011-01-04
  Punjab governor Salman Taseer assassinated in Islamabad
Mon 2011-01-03
  Osama's top aide Nasir al-Wahishi killed in drone strike
Sun 2011-01-02
  Clashes follow Egypt church bombing
Sat 2011-01-01
  Islamic New Years Greetings to Copts in Egypt, 21 dead
Fri 2010-12-31
  US missiles kill 8 in northwest Pakistan
Thu 2010-12-30
  Cartel threatens Guatemala with 'war'
Wed 2010-12-29
  Denmark Arrests 5 Suspected of Planning Terror Attack
Tue 2010-12-28
  15 More Drone-zapped in North Wazoo
Mon 2010-12-27
  Pakistan drone attack 'kills 18 militants'
Sun 2010-12-26
  Burqa-clad suicide bomber kills 42 in Bajaur Agency
Sat 2010-12-25
  Pakistan suicide bombing kills dozens at food aid center
Fri 2010-12-24
  Iraq arrests 93 al-Qaeda suspects


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