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Feds seek suspects, motive in Boston bombings
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
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1 09:42 Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division [9] 
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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11 20:35 European Conservative [10]
5 21:37 Barbara [4]
8 23:01 USN,Ret. [7]
5 18:38 Shipman [1]
1 22:11 JosephMendiola [6]
1 17:20 Bill Clinton [11]
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Ricin overview
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/16/2013 19:17 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Changed risin to riCin
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/16/2013 21:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Ohhhhhhh Castor Bean seeds....
Posted by: Frank G || 04/16/2013 21:36 Comments || Top||


SECDEF Chuck Hagel zapps drone medal
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/16/2013 05:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I personally think that Drone operators need more recognition, it's an AWFULLY difficult job.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/16/2013 6:35 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/16/2013 8:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Attachment for the basic air medal shaped like R2-D2?
Posted by: USN,ret || 04/16/2013 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  I have no issue with Dronezap Excellence© recognition. It was the stature of the award above others (Purple Heart?) that was wrong
Posted by: Frank G || 04/16/2013 9:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Dronezap Excellence recognition:

Here's a three day pass and a pat on the back. Be back to work at Nellis, March, Edwards, or Davis-Monathan NLT 0900 on next Tuesday. Oh by the way, next Friday is a training holiday and the following Monday is the golf tourney at the Club.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/16/2013 9:32 Comments || Top||

#6  I think that the sheer proliferation of medals is an issue here as well. As I understand it, the Air Force was the driver behind the Dronezap Medal - this from a service that already has so many medals and ribbons that a supply sergeant in Class A's looks like he swiped Marshal Zhukov's ribbon rack.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 04/16/2013 9:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Regardless of your opinion of Chuck Hagel, you have to snicker a bit when you think that a former US Army enlisted man and VN Veteran calls bullshi* on a USAF medal. :-)
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/16/2013 9:38 Comments || Top||

#8  Surprise meter jumped to 4/5.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 04/16/2013 14:01 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Quake Kills At Least 46 Along Iran-Pakistan Border
[HOSTED.AP.ORG] A major earthquake described as the strongest to hit Iran in more than half a century flattened homes and offices Tuesday on both sides of the Iran-Pakistain border, killing at least 46 people in the sparsely populated region and swaying skyscrapers and buildings as far away as New Delhi.

Iran's Red Islamic Thingy said it was facing a "complicated emergency situation" in the area with villages scattered over desolate hills and valleys.

Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency and others described the quake, measured at least magnitude 7.7, as the strongest quake in more than 50 years. State-run Press TV called it a "massive quake."

It also was the second deadly quake to hit Iran in less than a week after a magnitude 6.1 temblor struck near Bushehr, on Iran's Persian Gulf coast, killing at least 37 people and raising calls for greater international safety inspectors at Iran's lone nuclear reactor nearby.
Posted by: Fred || 04/16/2013 10:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Huge 7.8-mag earthquake rocks Iran, Gulf and India

A major earthquake struck Iran near the border with Pakistan on Tuesday and an Iranian official said hundreds of people were feared to have been killed.
7.8 is a doozy
Tremors from the 7.8 magnitude quake were also felt in India and Gulf states.

"It was the biggest earthquake in Iran in 40 years and we are expecting hundreds of dead," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"Hello? Halliburton Seismic Destruction Division? A little to the left. Thankyewverymuch"
Posted by: Frank G || 04/16/2013 08:10 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Insha'Allah!
Posted by: Clem Flaiper4058 || 04/16/2013 9:09 Comments || Top||

#2  "And can I get a hot-tub?"
Posted by: AlanC || 04/16/2013 9:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Now that's an earthquake.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 04/16/2013 11:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Tunneling and blowing up stuff in fault zones is not intelligent behavior.
Posted by: Water Modem || 04/16/2013 17:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Any chance Iran's nuke facility was damaged? (fingers crossed)

Hey, Iran: ALLEN DOESN'T LIKE YOU. When ya' gonna get the message?
Posted by: Barbara || 04/16/2013 18:32 Comments || Top||

#6  WORLD NEWS > IRAN TO ENRICH URANIUM TO 50% IFF NECESSARY [for Civie NucEnergy]: NUCLEAR CHIEF.

COINCIDENCE - I think N-O-T!

lol.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/16/2013 22:53 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Mubarak Release Ordered over Killings, Held on Other Charges
[An Nahar] An Egyptian court on Monday ordered the release of former president Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
over the deaths of protesters but he will remain in jug pending investigation into fraud charges, state media reported.

The Cairo Court of Appeal ordered Mubarak's release after the expiry of the maximum temporary detention of two years, the reports said. He had been granted a retrial in the murder case, appealing against a life sentence.

Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades, was ousted in a popular uprising in 2011.

He has been under arrest since April 2011 charged with complicity in the murder and attempted murder of hundreds of peaceful protesters on January 25-31, 2011. He is also facing several charges of corruption.

Defence lawyer Farid al-Dib made the case for his release on the grounds that Mubarak has spent two years in jug.
Posted by: Fred || 04/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Bangladesh
JCD-Shibir men kill BCL worker
[Bangla Daily Star] A local Chhatra League
... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ...
leader was killed allegedly by Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal
...student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)...
and Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
men in Rajshahi city's Meherchandi area on Sunday night over a previous enmity between them.

The victim was Robiul Islam, 19.

Shafiqul Islam, Robiul's elder brother, said Robiul had a conflict with local JCD and Jubo Dal activists over a trifling matter.

He alleged that the same attackers swooped on their house on March 31 over the issue. Robiul then filed a case against some JCD activists with Boalia Police Station in this connection.

"The attack on Robiul was in retaliation for filing of the case," Shafiqul added.

Asaduzzaman, joint secretary of Rajshahi district Awami League, said some 30 JCD and Shibir men, led by JCD activist Sayeed, attacked Robiul when he was celebrating a Pahela Baishakh programme in his locality.

The attackers stabbed him and hit him on the head with bricks, leaving him critically injured, said Ziaur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Boalia Police Station.

Robiul was declared dead after he was rushed to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, he added.

In protest at the killing, activists of BCL and AL torched a BNP office in the city.

Police have incarcerated
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
28 JCD and Shibir men suspecting their involvement in the killing.
Posted by: Fred || 04/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


EXTORTION, ATTACK ON NEWSMEN: BCL expels 11
[Bangla Daily Star] Bangladesh Chhatra League
... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ...
yesterday expelled 11 activists of its Dhaka University Salimullah Mohammedan Hall unit for assaulting five journalists and indulging in extortion in the wee hours of Pahela Baishakh on campus.

The activists include second-year students Shamim Ahmed of English department, Oitijhya of history, Asif Uddin Ahmed of journalism, Tanvir Ahmed of finance, Shahin Mia of economics and Shadat of law, and Taposh.

Third-year student Pikul and forth-year students Nahid, Hasan and masters' student Obaydur were also among the expelled.

However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
the university authorities have identified 21 Chhatra League activists involved in the assault and handed six of them over to Shahbagh police.

According to witnesses, a group of 10 to 12 pro-Awami League student body Chhatra League activists were extorting from cars, rickshaws, auto-rickshaws and other vehicles on the campus' Fuller Road since midnight Saturday on the occasion of Pahela Baishakh.

When university correspondents of media houses approached them to know as to what they were doing and their identity, they claimed that they were activists of Chhatra League's Salimullah Mohammedan Hall unit.

When the journalists were asking Asif Uddin Ahmed why he was extorting people, his cohorts brought sticks from the dormitory along with 15 more men and began beating up the journalists.

They assaulted daily Prothom Alo correspondent Ahmed Zayeef, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha correspondent Maloy Kumar Dutta, bdnews 24.com correspondent Sujon Mondol, The Daily Star correspondent Protik Chakrabarty and third year journalism student Dulal Samaddar.

They also attacked Prothom Alo senior correspondent Shariful Hasan when he tried to save the journalists.

About an hour later, University Proctor Amzad Ali, Chhatra League university unit President Mehedi Hasan and General Secretary Omar Sharif went to the spot and identified the six second-year students of the dormitory responsible for extortion.

All of them admitted to extortion and mentioned the names of about 15 others who had attacked the journalists.

DU Proctor Amzad said the university would form a probe body to look into the incident.

Central Chhatra League said it has formed a five-member probe body to investigate the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 04/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
55% Say Their Taxes are Fair - 50% Pay No Income Tax - Doh!
This Tax Day, 55% of Americans regard the income taxes they have to pay as fair, the lowest percentage Gallup has measured since 2001.

The poll also finds half of Americans saying their income taxes are "too high," with most of the rest (45%) saying they are about right. Two percent believe their taxes are "too low."

Although a majority of Americans still believe the income taxes they pay are fair, the 55% who say so is the lowest Gallup has measured since 2001, before the first of two rounds of federal income tax cuts went into effect. Since the second round of tax cuts in 2003, income taxes have held at about the same level, though Congress and the president did agree to raise income taxes on the wealthiest Americans as part of the agreement to avoid the "fiscal cliff" tax increases that were scheduled to go into effect this year.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 04/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Margin of error 50%.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/16/2013 5:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Why would they ask those who pay nothing? Makes it a pointless exercise, if you ask me.

But they didn't.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/16/2013 6:27 Comments || Top||

#3  100% of people should pay no income tax. The state does not own you, you are not a slave of the state, commerce does not exist for the benefit of the government.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/16/2013 6:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Everything exists for the benefit of the government, BP. Off to the re-education camp with you!
Posted by: Spot || 04/16/2013 7:49 Comments || Top||

#5  At this point, BP is right. 40% of the US federal budget is financed with borrowed or printed money. Soon that figure may be 50%, or 60%. So why not just end the pain now, and borrow or print 100%?
Posted by: RandomJD || 04/16/2013 7:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Give every man woman and child in this country 2 million dollars. That is 320 trillion dollars. Tax them at 50%. Everyone is a millionaire. The government has money. Problem solved.
(/freshman logic)
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/16/2013 12:23 Comments || Top||

#7  AP, that may be freshman logic, unfortunately it is also Politician's economics.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/16/2013 15:13 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Polio drive to begin today
[Dawn] More than 7.6 million children in Sindh will be targeted by over 21,000 polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccination teams across the province as part of a nationwide three-day immunisation campaign starting on Monday, officials said.

As many as 33.5 million children under the age of five years across the country will be immunised in the campaign.

Officials said all sorts of arrangements had been made to make the three-day anti-polio campaign a success.

"We have taken all arrangements to ensure that the anti-polio drive, which will continue till April 17, will remain peaceful," Dr Mazhar Khamisani, director of the expanded programme on immunisation, Sindh, told Dawn on Sunday.

He said precautionary safety measures had been planned to peacefully complete the drive in some troubled localities of Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
. Those localities included Baldia and Gadap.

A three-day campaign for Gadap was already conducted during April 11-13 for its 218,000 children, but teams will again go in these localities to ensure that no child was missed out.

The campaign, particularly in UC-4, had been abruptly ended twice after attacks on a WHO doctor and several polio vaccinators last year.
Posted by: Fred || 04/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  abruptly ended twice after attacks on a WHO doctor and several polio vaccinators last year.

I'm gonna go with 2 dead, 5 injured for this round.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/16/2013 8:38 Comments || Top||

#2  You really have to give the immunisors a lot of credit for courage in this matter - getting shot or blown up is a wierd risk to face when your business is infectious disease.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/16/2013 8:56 Comments || Top||

#3  So true, Glenmore. I find it strange that some faction in that stew of competing interests we call Pakistain does not get behind this and provide security.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/16/2013 10:30 Comments || Top||


Ashraf thrown out of election race
[Dawn] An election tribunal has rejected the appeal of former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, barring him from contesting in the general elections, DawnNews reported.

In a big blow to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the tribunal enforced the rejection of Ashraf's nomination papers by Returning Officer (RO) Khalid Arshad. The former prime minister was to run for National Assembly seat from NA-51 in Gujar Khan, from where he had won in previous two elections.

A relative of Raja Jawaid Ikhlas, the opponent in the former PM's constituency, had complained that Pervez Ashraf had been misusing his discretionary funds in his constituency which amounted to pre-poll rigging and showed his partisan approach and corrupt practices.
Posted by: Fred || 04/16/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Home Front: Culture Wars
Michigan: Controversy over induction into journalism hall of fame
The Anti-Defamation League is asking Michigan State University officials to reconsider inducting the longtime editor of what is considered the nation's largest Arab American community newspaper into their Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame, claiming the publication has been a "forum of hate."

"The fact that Osama Siblani consistently allows his publication to be a forum for hate should call into question his fitness for the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame," Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the organization, said in a statement Monday.

"The Arab American News has repeatedly published anti-Semitic diatribes and rhetoric and Mr. Siblani has publicly stated support and sympathy for terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah."

Siblani, publisher and editor of the Dearborn-based weekly launched in 1984, is among five inductees set to be honored Sunday in East Lansing.

ADL officials last week sent a letter to the director of MSU's School of Journalism, seeking a review of Siblani's nomination.

Citing research the group gathered over the years, ADL said the Arab American News' English language section "frequently provides a forum for known anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers and anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theorists such as Jeff Gates, an anti-Semitic author who propagates theories of Jewish control over the U.S., and Paul Craig Roberts, a syndicated columnist and Holocaust denier."

Heidi Budaj, Michigan regional director of ADL, said researchers also noted instances of what they perceived as biased or one-sided reporting.

Reached Monday, Siblani rejected the league's claims, saying he is not anti-Semitic and his newspaper does not promote hatred in its coverage.
"How can I be an antisemite when Arabs are semites?" he added, disingenuously.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/16/2013 04:21 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So how do you get in this hall of fame? Is it how many lies you can tell? How many acts of treason you can get away with?


Jounalist: Liar, traitor and subhuman until proven otherwise.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 04/16/2013 9:42 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
40[untagged]
6Govt of Pakistan
5Commies
3Arab Spring
3Jamaat-e-Islami
3Govt of Syria
2Boko Haram
2al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Taliban
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Shabaab
1al-Nusra
1Hezbollah
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Salafists

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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2013-04-16
  Feds seek suspects, motive in Boston bombings
Mon 2013-04-15
  Pair of Explosions Hit Boston Marathon
Sun 2013-04-14
  16 killed in attack on Somali Supreme Court
Sat 2013-04-13
  Bomb Near Iraq Mosque Kills Seven
Fri 2013-04-12
  Saleh’s son removed from military posts
Thu 2013-04-11
  Germany: 4 charged in assassination plot
Wed 2013-04-10
  Al-Nusra Syria Rebels pledge allegiance to leader of al-Qaeda
Tue 2013-04-09
  N.Korea Pulls Workers Out of Kaesong Complex
Mon 2013-04-08
  Nigeria's MEND Says It Killed 15 Security Personnel in Fight
Sun 2013-04-07
  Bangla: AL man beaten and hacked to death at madrasa
Sat 2013-04-06
  Egypt's Azhar, Mursi supporters clash near Muslim Brotherhood HQ
Fri 2013-04-05
  Syrian regime troops appeal for immediate aid in Al-Raqqa
Thu 2013-04-04
  Syrian jets 'attack' Lebanese town
Wed 2013-04-03
  N. Korea approves nuclear strike on US
Tue 2013-04-02
  Dutch Hold 4, Search for Alleged Sarin Nerve Agent


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