[ToloNews] The Sada-e-Banwan radio station in the northern province of Badakhshan resumed broadcasting after a weeklong suspension.
Sada-e- Banwan, the women-dedicated radio station, was closed by the Islamic Emirate over a week ago due to the broadcast of music.
"We referred to the office of the information and culture department and we made a commitment that we will attempt to prevent such violations, which are considered one of the media violations, so such violations will not happen," said Najia Sorosh, head of the Sada-e-Banwan radio station.
"The women have more listeners than the men. The women's media organizations are essential so the people of Badakhshan have broadcasts and effective programs," said Mohibullah Sayedi, head of the Badakhshan journalists protection committee.
The head of the provincial department of information and culture, Moazuddin Ahmadi, said that the radio was closed because it broadcast music and had male employees.
"They have committed to observing two issues. So we came here today and reopened their stations and, inshallah, they will have effective broadcasting and many women will be employed here," he said.
Employees of the Sada-e-Banwan radio station said they are happy to return to work.
"We call on the media-supporting organizations to help us now," said Najla Shirzad, an employee of the radio.
"It was very difficult for us over the last week because we were at home and there was no special program," said Sweeta, an employee of the radio.
There are two TV channels and 10 radio stations active in Badakhshan province. Two of these media organizations are run by women.
[Garowe] Cuba is keen to have two doctors kidnapped by al-Shabaab ...... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... released from their captors, over three years later, even with reports that the medics are in "good condition" and are helping the group to treat people and offer medical care in an undisclosed location.
According to Prensa Latina, President, Miguel Diaz-Canel informed the country that deliberate efforts have been undertaken to rescue the doctors who were kidnapped by the bandidosgunnies from Mandera County in northeastern Kenya where they were stationed at the time of the incident.
In Kenya, the driver of the vehicle has been sentenced for being an "accomplice" in an attack where a police officer attached to the medics was killed. Miguel said Havana is keen to have the doctors released by the al-Shabaab, a group that has been causing havoc in the federal republic of Somalia.
"We persevere in our battle for the safe return to Cuba of Doctors Assel Herrera Correa and Landy Rodriguez Hernandez. Four years after their kidnapping, we continue our tireless efforts to have them among us, together with their families and their people," the president wrote on his Twitter account.
Mandera County just like neighbors Wajir and Garissa are near Somalia and is prone to frequent al-Shabaab attacks. The group often managed to cross over the border to carry out sophisticated attacks, with Kenya, which is one of the AU forces Troops Contributing Countries, being the major target.
After the abduction, both Cuba and Kenya have taken steps to negotiate for release, with elders in Gedo being the stepping stone for their release. With al-Shabaab calling for "ridiculous" ransom, Kenya objected to the proposed amount even though sources from Foreign Affairs Ministry hinted that negotiations were still on.
The Caribbean communist nation started a medical program in which seems thousands of doctors go to foreign countries for work. Despite the incident, Kenya still has hundreds of medics from Cuba who are stationed in different parts of the country due to the cordial relationship between Nairobi and Havana.
Al-Shabaab bandidosgunnies are currently on receiving end following the decision by the government of Somalia to activate operations against them. The just-ended phase left over 3,500 al-Shabaab bandidosgunnies dead and over 4000 injured according to reports by the government of Somalia.
#1
It’s gotta suck to sit through years of boring party meetings, make stupid posters, get through med school, only to have the party ship you out to Kenya.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/15/2023 9:16 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Flights to carry detainees between Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... over three days, as international efforts seek to end long-running conflict between Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s and Riyadh-backed government
An exchange of more than 800 prisoners linked to Yemen’s long-running war began Friday, the International Committee for the Red Thingy said. The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... -brokered deal, in the works for months, comes amid concerted diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict.
It is the most significant prisoner exchange in Yemen since both sides freed more than 1,000 detainees in October 2020. Thousands of people are believed to be held as prisoners of war by all sides since the war erupted.
In the three-day exchange, flights will transport prisoners between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, long held by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, said Majed Fadail, a deputy minister for human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. for Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
Other flights will bring prisoners between Sanaa and other Yemeni cities controlled by the internationally recognized government, he said. The Red Thingy said that on Friday, there would be two rounds of simultaneous flights between Aden and Sanaa to transfer prisoners.
Yemen’s conflict began in 2014 when the Houthis seized Sanaa and much of the country’s north. Yemen’s internationally recognized government fled to the south and then into exile in Saudi Arabia.
The Houthi takeover prompted a Saudi-led coalition to intervene months later. The conflict has in recent years turned into a regional proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with the United States long involved on the periphery, providing intelligence assistance to the kingdom. However, a woman is only as old as she admits... international criticism over Saudi Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s killing civilians saw the US pull back its support.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
The prisoner exchange had been scheduled to start earlier in the week but was delayed due to apparent logistical reasons.
"With this act of goodwill, hundreds of families torn apart by conflict are being reunited during the holy month of Ramadan, a glimmer of hope amidst great suffering," Fabrizio Carboni, the Red Thingy’ regional director for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement. "Our deep desire is that these releases provide momentum for a broader political solution, leading to even more detainees returning to their loved ones."
The deal tentatively calls for the Houthis to release more than 180 prisoners, including Saudi and Sudanese troops fighting with the Saudi-led coalition, and four Yemeni journalists. The journalists were detained in recent years and sentenced to death by a Houthi-controlled court in a trial described by Amnesia Amnesty International as "grossly unfair."
The deal also will see the release of top military officials held by the Houthis since the start of the war. Those include Maj. Gen. Mahmoud al-Subaihi, who was the defense minister when the war erupted; Nasser Mansour Hadi, the brother of former Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi; and relatives of late strongman President former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... In return, the Saudi-led coalition and Yemeni government are scheduled to release more than 700 Houthi prisoners, the rebels said.
Saudi Arabia has already freed 13 Houthi detainees who returned to Sanaa on April 9 ahead of a trip by the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed bin Saeed al-Jaber, to the Yemeni capital. Including those detainees, the deal will see a total of 869 prisoners released, the Red Thingy says.
Al-Jaber visit to Sanaa was part of Oman-brokered talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, aiming to revive a nationwide cease-fire that expired in October and relaunch inter-Yemeni peace talks to end the conflict.
A deal last month between Saudi Arabia and Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... to restore ties has boosted negotiations between the kingdom and the Houthis and invigorated hopes of a negotiated settlement to the Yemeni conflict.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... some analysts fear that Saudi Arabia’s withdrawal could see a new version of the conflict erupt between Yemen’s rival governments. Then there are also secessionists who want to restore a separate country of South Yemen, which existed from 1967 to 1990.
"I see prospects for temporary peace between the Saudis and the Houthis but an escalation of violence within Yemen," said Nadwa Dawsari, a nonresident scholar with the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think-tank.
She said that the Houthis have not shown themselves to be willing to compromise to reach peace with other Yemeni groups.
"That is their ideology, they feel they are entitled to rule," she said.
Yemen also remains home to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... , viewed by Washington as a dangerous offshoot of the Islamic bad boy group.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The case of three residents of Dagestan, accused of involvement in the "Islamic State" and incitement to terrorism, has been submitted to the court.
According to investigators, in 2018-2021, the suspects participated in the activities of the Islamic State and created a terrorist community using their pages on the social network and messenger. They posted videos containing public calls for terrorist activities and justifying terrorism, the investigative department of the Investigative Committee for Dagestan reported.
Residents of the republic are accused of participating in the activities of a terrorist organization, creating a terrorist community and publicly calling for terrorist activities (part 2 of article 205.5, part 1 of article 205.4, part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of Russia). The criminal case has been sent to court, according to a message published today on the ministry's telegram channel.
The "Caucasian Knot" has previously written about other cases of prosecution under terrorist articles in Dagestan and other regions of the North Caucasus Federal District. In March, a native of the Nogai district of Dagestan, Adilkhan Amambaev, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for inciting an acquaintance to join the international terrorist organization ISIS*, appealed the verdict at the cassation, alleging torture by the security forces and falsification of the materials of the criminal case.
Also in March, the Court of Appeal returned the case of Daud Mamilov, a native of Ingushetia, found guilty of involvement in the activities of the Islamic State * and sentenced to eight years, to eliminate violations to the court of first instance, since the defendants were not familiarized with the protocol of the court session.
In December 2022, the court sentenced Bulat Gamzatov, a native of Makhachkala, to 15.5 years in prison, recognizing him as the organizer of a cell of a terrorist organization whose members planned attacks on security forces in Stavropol.
Posted by: badanov ||
04/15/2023 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] Five Austrian ex-officials went on trial in Vienna on Friday, risking up to five years in prison for allegedly granting asylum to a Syrian former general suspected of crimes against humanity.
It is the latest case linked to the prosecution of Syrian officials in Europe, where Syrian refugees have drawn on the principle of universal jurisdiction to ensure suspected war criminals are held accountable.
In 2016, an international non-profit organization tipped off Austrian authorities about war crimes allegations against Khaled al-Halabi, who served as head of state security in the northwest city of Raqqa from 2009-2013, after locating him in Vienna.
The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) accuses the branch under Halabi's command of committing "egregious crimes against humanity, including murder and torture, along with sexual offences... with his knowledge".
The defendants - four ex-bigwigs in Austria's domestic BVT intelligence agency and a former asylum agency official - are accused of abusing their office to procure asylum for Halabi under an alleged deal with Mossad, Israel's secret service.
Prosecutors say they helped Halabi transfer from La Belle France to Austria and obtain asylum in 2015 "under false pretences" under a "cooperation agreement" between a "foreign partner service" and the BVT.
Austrian media have identified the "foreign partner service" as Mossad.
Halabi left Syria in 2013 and arrived in La Belle France in 2014, but was reportedly denied asylum due to concerns that he might have been involved in war crimes.
The defendants deny any wrongdoing, but if convicted could face up to five years in prison on charges of abuse of office.
The trial is expected to last five days.
According to prosecutors, the investigation into Halabi is still ongoing.
Courts in Austria, Germany and Sweden have convicted former Syrian officials in connection with the country's devastating civil war.
La Belle France's top court is due to rule on three members of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... 's regime for collusion in crimes against humanity in May.
A string of embarrassing scandals has tarnished the reputation of Austria's spy agency. In 2021, a new body, the DSN, replaced the BVT agency as part of far-reaching intelligence reforms.
[Dawn] A 74-year-old man who was extradited from Pakistain appeared in court in London on Thursday, charged with murdering a UK police officer nearly 18 years ago.
Piran Ditta Khan is accused of killing Sharon Beshenivsky, who was shot as she tried to foil a robbery at a travel agency in November 2005.
Beshenivsky’s female colleague was also injured in the incident in Bradford, northern England. Neither officer was armed.
The rare fatal shooting of a police officer on duty in Britannia triggered widespread shock and revived calls for police to routinely carry guns.
Beshenivsky, 38, had three children and two stepchildren. She had been an officer with West Yorkshire Police for only nine months before her death.
Khan, who was arrested in Pakistain in January 2020, was extradited to the UK on Tuesday, the Crown Prosecution Service said late on Wednesday.
As well as murder, he is also facing a single charge of robbery, two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon.
Charges against him were authorised in 2006, the CPS, which is responsible for prosecutions in England and Wales, said.
Khan appeared before a magistrate in central London and was remanded in jug until a further hearing on Monday. No pleas were entered.
Six men have previously been nabbed Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in connection with the shooting, including a Somali national who was sentenced to a minimum of 35 years in jail.
[Shafaq News] On Friday, the Iraqis celebrated International al-Quds Day, organized by the Popular Mobilization Forces under the slogan "The Resistance® is the only way to liberate Paleostine."
Hundreds of Iraqis flocked to the streets in solidarity with Paleostinians holding banners rejecting the Israeli normalization with "Israel."
Jerusalem Day, also known as al-Quds Day, is an annual event on the last Friday of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan. It is an event to show solidarity with the Paleostinian people and to protest Israel's occupation of Jerusalem.
The day was initiated by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran, in 1979. Since then, it has been marked by rallies, marches, and speeches in countries worldwide, particularly in Moslem-majority countries.
During Jerusalem Day, participants often carry banners and chant slogans to support the Paleostinian cause and call for an end to Israel's occupation of Jerusalem and the establishment of a Paleostinian state.
Demonstrators usually chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America," slogans that have become a tradition in these mass rallies, and set fire to American and Israeli flags.
Iraq and Israel have traditionally been considered enemies due to Iraq's alignment with other Arab states and the wider Moslem world in their opposition to Israel, which they view as an occupying force in Paleostine and a threat to regional stability.
In 2022, Iraq's parliament passed a law that makes it a crime to normalize ties with Israel, and law violations can be punishable with a death sentence ...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead... or life imprisonment.
The law, titled "Criminalising Normalisation and Establishment of Relations with the Zionist Entity," was approved with 275 politicians voting in favor of it in Iraq's 329-seat assembly.
The law was proposed by influential Shia holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival al-Khoei assassinated shortly after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry... whose party, which opposes close ties with the United States and Israel, won more seats in the Iraqi parliament in the last elections before he withdrew from the political arena.
[Shafaq News] On Friday, Ziyad al-Nakhala, Secretary-General of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... Movement, delivered a speech in Baghdad during the International al-Quds Day celebration organized by the Popular Mobilization Forces.
He called on Iraqis to continue confronting the "Zionist project" and to support Paleostine's cause against Israel.
Al-Nakhala emphasized the unity of Paleostinian opinion regarding the significance of Jerusalem and al-Aqsa mosque.
He also pledged Paleostinians' commitment to their historical responsibility in fighting until the liberation of Paleostine.
Al-Nakhala called Iraq the "nation's heart," urging Iraqis to support the "cause of justice and freedom" of Paleostine.
Every year, on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, rallies marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, are held in Moslem and Arab cities across the Middle East, with people taking to the streets to show their support for the Paleostinians.
Demonstrators usually chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America," slogans that have become a tradition in these mass rallies, and set fire to American and Israeli flags.
[IsraelTimes] Waqf reports 250,000 worshipers at site for prayers, which take place largely without incident following unrealized fears of riots; 8 arrested for incitement
Hundreds of thousands of Moslems participated in prayers at the Temple Mount compound on the last Friday of Ramadan, with fears of large-scale festivities between police and worshipers on the site and snowballed tensions largely fading from view.
Some 130,000 worshipers were on hand for noon prayers, according to Israeli authorities, while the Islamic Waqf which administers the site estimated a crowd of 250,000 over the entire day.
The Friday prayers took place largely without incident, though police said they detained eight Paleostinians for chants inciting violence and waving flags belonging to terror groups.
A large banner of the Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, terror group was seen unfurled by young men at the compound during the service, though police decided not to enter the compound in order to confiscate it.
Ten Paleostinians were maimed due to the crowded conditions on the Temple Mount, according to the Red Islamic Thingy emergency service, which said two of them required hospitalization.
More than 2,000 Israel Police officers and Border Police were deployed in Jerusalem to help secure the city for the Friday prayers.
Over one million Moslems visited the Temple Mount — known to them as the Noble Sanctuary — throughout the entire holy month of Ramadan.
Roughly 100,000 of the worshipers crossed into Israel from the West Bank on Friday, enduring long lines and crowded conditions at IDF-run checkpoints to do so. Israel traditionally allows a large number of mainly female and elderly Paleostinians along with children to enter during Ramadan in order to attend prayers at the Temple Mount’s al-Aqsa Mosque or visit family in Israel.
But the number of Paleostinians allowed in has often been contingent on the security situation, which has been fraught in recent weeks. Several terror attacks have taken place in the West Bank, including one in which an Israeli mother and her two daughters were killed while driving in the Jordan Valley.
The Foreign Ministry published several tweets highlighting the large number of Moslems who were able to pray at the Temple Mount, stressing that Israel is committed to "freedom of worship" for all faiths in Jerusalem.
In the past, the US has quietly urged Israel not to use the phrase, since it is seen as a nod to allowing Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount, Biden administration officials have told The Times of Israel. Under a tacit status quo agreement that governs the site, only Moslems may worship in the compound, while non-Moslems can visit but not pray.
Recent years have seen a massive uptick in Jewish visitors to the site along with a quiet, but well-document shift in police poliyc to allow hushed Jewish prayer.
The developments have intensified long-held claims by Paleostinians and Arab countries that Israel is violating the Temple Mount status quo — an accusation Israel vehemently denies.
[An Nahar] Hezbollah chief Sayyed His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... on Friday pledged to respond against any Israeli attack in Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... following last week's major cross-border escalation.
Describing the flare-up as "an important and major event," Nasrallah said that Hezbollah’s "policy of silence is the best choice in managing the battle with the enemy."
"There is no need to delve into details or answer questions that the enemy is still confused about," Nasrallah added.
"The Israelis themselves acknowledge that the balance of deterrence is what made their response to what happened in the South limited and silly," Hezbollah’s leader went on to say.
He added: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Netanyahu is threatening the resistance and threatening me personally, and we as a resistance in Lebanon also tell him, ’We will see.’ Days are between us and his calculations and interpretation might be wrong."
Nasrallah accordingly vowed that Hezbollah "will respond in the appropriate manner against any attack or security act in Lebanon."
Nasrallah also said that Israel did not hit Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, or Hezbollah targets in last week's strikes on southern Lebanon.
The strikes last Friday in south Lebanon came a day after Death Eaters fired nearly three dozen rockets from there at Israel, wounding two people and causing some property damage. The Israeli military said it had targeted installations of Hamas, the Paleostinian bad boy group, in southern Lebanon.
Speaking at an a ceremony in Beirut's southern suburbs marking "Quds Day," or Jerusalem Day — an annual show of support for the Paleostinians held on the last Friday of every Islamic holy month of Ramadan — Nasrallah called the Israeli statements "a barefaced lie" and that "no Hezbollah or Hamas infrastructure was struck."
Rather, he said, the Israelis hit "banana groves" and a water irrigation channel. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
While Israeli military officials have not said they hit any Hezbollah targets, Netanyahu in a speech Monday said Israel had targeted both Hamas and Hezbollah infrastructure. Nasrallah called this "the biggest lie."
According to News Agency that Dare Not be Namednews hounds on the ground, several missiles fired by Israeli warplanes struck an open field in the town of Qlayleh, near the Paleostinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh, close to the coastal southern city of Tyre.
Others struck a bridge and power transformer in the nearby town of Maaliya and a farm on the outskirts of Rashidiyeh, killing a harem several sheep. No human deaths were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2023 01:53 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[Shafaq News] Iran’s government has added yet another weapon to its arsenal of oppression.
On Saturday, authorities announced they were installing cameras in public places that can identify and punish women who do not wear a headscarf, as mandated by Iranian law.
Those detected not covering their hair will receive a "warning text message", as reports suggest Iranian officials effectively want to replace the unpopular morality police that enforces the rules with surveillance.
Continued on Page 49
#1
"Just because the Iran government says they are using this type of technology, I wouldn't rely on it one way or another," she said. "It could just be rhetoric."
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.
...... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival al-Khoei assassinated shortly after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry...
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
