Hundreds of Afghans staged a protest on Saturday to denounce a wave of suicide bomb attacks, with many of the protesters blaming Pakistan for the violence. "We condemn these suicide attacks," protesters shouted outside the provincial governor's offices in the city of Ghazni. There have been 13 suicide blasts since November, the worst last Monday when 23 people were killed in the town of Spin Boldak, on the border with Pakistan. The government blames foreign al Qaeda and Taliban supporters for the violence. "The UN should stop Pakistan from interfering in Afghanistan," Qari Baba, a former governor of Ghazni province, told the crowd.
Meanwhile, the governor of Afghanistan's troubled southern province of Kandahar once again accused Pakistan on Saturday of involvement in the Spin Boldak explosion, claiming âterrorists are being trained in the neighbouring country'.
Kandahar governor told a Pakistani private TV on phone from Kandahar that the enemies of Afghanistan's sovereignty, territorial integrity and stability were freely roaming around in Pakistan. "In the Frontier and Balochistan provinces, Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants have been allowed to take up residence. They are being trained at terrorist camps in these provinces with a view to disturbing peace in Afghanistan," he alleged. The governor reiterated the suicide attackers, who killed dozens of people in Kandahar, were Pakistani citizens. Condolences for the bombers were offered in Pakistan, asserted the governor, who hastened to point to his desire for good neighbourly relations with Pakistan. He argued Kabul had exercised a lot of patience and restraint so far just because of its yearning for warm ties with Islamabad. "We have conveyed our concerns to Pakistan formally and through diplomatic channels," he maintained.
Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed rejected allegations by Kandahar governor that Pakistan had hands in a recent bomb blast in the Afghan border town of Spinboldak. "Pakistan never backed the militant outfits," Rashid said when his attention was drawn towards allegations by Asadullah Khalid.
Rashid added Pakistan desirous of peace in Afghanistan, saying Pakistan has stationed 70,000 troops along the common border to curb the movement of militants. "We are obliged to answer only those queries or allegations the government of Afghanistan formally addresses to Pakistan. But no such accusations have reached us from Afghanistan - formally or through diplomatic channels," Rashid continued.
And of course, I had to read the Peshawar Defender-Scimitar to find this news; the MSM is busy wringing its hands over a possible conservative win in Canada...
Sudanese authorities have detained around 50 delegates from local and international human rights groups as they met on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Khartoum. Rights activists, being detained in a building where the meeting was being held, said Sunday's crackdown called into question Sudan's right to host the AU summit. Osman Hummaida, from the Sudanese Organisation Against Torture (SOAT), said: "Towards the end of the meeting a group of security men came and demanded to see the agenda, the list of participants and our recommendations.
"Everyone is being detained and we have been asked not to talk on the phone. We have not been told why we are being held," he said. The meeting was to discuss closer co-operation with the AU on human rights issues. Representatives of Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International and the International Bar Association were among those being held, Hummaida said. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, a Sudanese human rights activist who has previously been arrested by the government, said: "They are harassing people and trying to get all the laptops from them. They cannot be hosting a summit while they have this kind of conflict and they cannot be the chairperson of the African Union."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Algeria intends to reveal details of a security and judicial agreement with Britain concerning the deportation of Algerian fundamentalists which the British Government considers a danger to British security. Algerian Justice Minister Tayeb Belaiz told correspondents in parliament the day before yesterday that the "results we have reached during the preparation of the agreement are very, very conclusive." Faced by the correspondents' insistence to give them more details of the agreement over which there was much talk during the past eight months, the minister said only: "We are about to undertake a considerable action and you will see the purport of this action soon. It is a matter of time." The minister did not identify the British side that the Algerians negotiated with to reach an agreement that would allow the Algerian Government to receive persons residing in Britain who were given jail sentences by the Algerian judiciary on charges of terrorism or are wanted for questioning in terror-related cases.
Judicial sources told "Asharq al-Awsat" that the British "laid down very strict conditions in return for agreeing in principle to deport any person wanted by Algeria. The most important is a pledge not to torture, execute, or even humiliate him." The same sources pointed out that the British security delegation that came to Algiers last September for the purpose of discussing the arrangements for the agreement "asserted to us that the authorities were facing great difficulties in persuading the judiciary to extradite any person to another country, especially if that person holds British citizenship. British courts demand strict and substantive guarantees that prove irrevocably that the concerned person poses a danger to internal security before agreeing to his deportation."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Fire up the blow torch...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
01/23/2006 3:50 Comments ||
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The Kuwaiti cabinet has asked for a special parliamentary session on Tuesday to debate the removal of the new ailing emir from power, a Kuwaiti deputy says.
"Nurse! He's doing it again!"
The formal request deepens a dispute within the ruling family over whether Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, who took over on January 15 after the death of the emir, his cousin Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah. However critics argue that Sheikh Saad al-Sabah, 76, is too ill to be in charge of the emirate and corrspondents say a rift is widening within the powerful ruling family.
"More taste!"
"Less filling!"
Sheikh Saad has made it clear [he] wants the role, although in recent years he has played little part in public life. He appeared briefly at the late emir's funeral, in a wheel chair, without speaking.
Rumor has it he can't, at least not speak and make sense at the same time...
The cabinet and many ruling family members support the prime minister and de facto ruler, Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah. While also 76, he is in good health and has overseen the everyday running of the emirate as prime minister for some years. The al-Sabah family has ruled the tiny oil-rich emirate for decades and has never undergone a political crisis of this magnitude.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/23/2006 07:50 ||
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I don't remember hereditary monarchies having this public a debate over leadership... it it the gentle persuasion of Dubya and the call for democracy working its charm?
Saudi religious figure, Dr Aaeed Al-Qarni announced Friday his return to preaching and the withdrawal of his decision to end his religious preaching and writing. Al-Qarni told Asharq Al-Awsat that his return comes after the call of Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz, governor of Riyadh, who had urged the cleric to resume his religious role. He said that the prince, who met Al-Qarni recently upon his return from the Haj pilgrimage, had addressed the religious figure as "son of the state."
Al-Qarni praised the rulers of Saudi Arabia, mostly Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz for "his interest in my affairs and his care since the publishing of my first poem. I asked the Prince to give me a month to consider my situation and I have now decided to return to my role in the religious field." He continued to say that he would recite a poem on Saturday, at the King Khaled Mosque in Umm Al-Hammam in Riyadh. The poem would carry a message for the Saudi leadership, scholars, media, extremists, women, dialogue, youth, fathers, those who denounce others as infidels and those who criticize the invariable principles. With reference to reports of alleged attempts to keep the media spotlight focused upon him, Al-Qarni said, "I do not need fame or for people to know me to put myself in this kind of situation."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The best way to screw the Saudis is to wean yourself off Saudi Black Skag (oil).
Your car does not have to run solely on petrol any more. You can get a modified engine to run on 85% ethanol and only 15% petrol. that's a lot less dollars for those who are trying to kill us.
And diesel engines can run straight on ethanol, no modifying required.
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Bio-ethanol has been available in the US since the late '90s as a fuel additive commonly sold as 'E10', a blend of 90% petrol and 10% ethanol. While some vehicles have been modified to accept blends of E85, bio-ethanol remains overwhelmingly a fuel additive, rather than a replacement.
Although biodiesel is commonly blended with regular diesel, diesel engines can also run using only biodiesel, or B100, without any vehicle modifications. In fact, when Rudolf Diesel's first engine came to life in 1893, it was fuelled entirely by peanut oil.
So biodiesel can replace petrofuel at no additional cost to immediately achieve improved environmental performance.
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From Transport Industry Net news (registration required)
#6
it does not take two tonnes of oil for every tonne of methanol you produce, if that were true it would be too expensive to produce it in the first place and these companies wouldn't be in business.
And I don't know WHY you'd want to bring nuke power up, unless you think you can fit a mini nuke reactor to your car. Most power plants burn coal, not oil and therefore do not purchase it from the Saudis who are trying to kill us.
Forget him, imagine the power available from the alcohol-soaked fat of Ted Kennedy!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/23/2006 11:06 Comments ||
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This link sheds a little light on the ethanol EROEI issue:
Those who extol ethanol fail to look at the energy costs of production, what certain energy analysts call the EROEI (Energy Return on Energy Invested).
Simply put, it takes more energy to produce ethanol than is produced by the combustion of ethanol. According to Cornell professor David Pimentel, an acre of corn ultimately yields 328 gallons of ethanol. This quantity of corn requires 1,000 gallons of fossil fuels to plant, grow and harvest, and costs $347 per acre. This means the corn feedstock costs $1.05 per gallon of ethanol before it is even converted into ethanol. Additional energy costs accrue in distilling the ethanol. Adding it all up, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make 1 gallon of ethanol, with an energy value of only 77,000 BTUs. This results in an EROEI of roughly 59 percent. That is a 41 percent loss of energy, according the UniSci science daily news website.
The reason companies can make money on ethanol production despite the negative EROEI is that it is heavily subsidized by the government.
#10
This quantity of corn requires 1,000 gallons of fossil fuels to plant, grow and harvest,
That's a flat lie, I've had gardens before, and for 10 acres I used less than 50 gallons of gasoline per year total
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/23/2006 12:26 Comments ||
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#11
Gardens and "induatrial-size" fields are two very different things. Gardening is more labor-intensive and uses less mecahnization/energy/fertilizers. But gardening doesn't scale. Oh, and you don't transport the products of your garden thousands of miles away, who is quite costly in energy.
#12
The 1000 gallons is way out of line. A 1995 ethanol study had 13.5 gallons of liquid fuels and twice that amount of natural gas (fertilizer synthesis) per acre of corn. Google for details. In the meantime, farm yields go up, driving down ethanol prices. But it's not only fuel inputs, but labor and capital equipment that must be factored in.
Posted by: ed ||
01/23/2006 17:38 Comments ||
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Bet Ed is right, but the US is not well placed for efficient ethanol production.... um.... Cuba?
#14
All said so far completely ignores that the "Mash" remaining is a highly nutritious cattle feed, (They love it) and is sold for more than the initial corn costs.
Plus the inclusion of "Costs" not directly related to farming (Transport both ways) leads me to believe that the article is worthless, it's heavily slanted to make alcohol look as bad as possible.
Example if I include the "Costs" of all the copper wires, all the towers, maintenance and all the generators I could make the same argument that it costs $10,000 per lightbulb purchased for 2 bucks at the store. (God, how do they stay in business with a loss like that?)
First he shocked TV viewers and his colleagues by pretending to be a cat and lapping milk from Rula Lenska's hand. Now George Galloway is set to attract further derision after performing a dance routine on Celebrity Big Brother - in a tight-fitting, red leotard.
The Respect MP, already under fire for taking part in the show instead of representing his constituents, ad-libbed a dance routine for his latest stunt.
His dance partner was, of course, Pete Burns. The transvestite lead singer of 1980s band Dead or Alive wore a blue leotard, even though he insisted he would not run from a burning house in it. The pair were amusingly instructed to express 'the emotions of bewilderment when a small puppy won't come to you' through the medium of robotic dance. This was part of a task set for housemates to illustrate emotions through dance. Nice head shot at link. Full photo at Drudge
For some reason, the words "head shot" and "George Galloway" bring a smile to my face. Guess that's cuz I'm an evil American.
#4
I think the bigger item of this story is that Rula Lenska is in the news again. Hell, that woman is synonymous with correct television color for me. I didn't know who the hell she was but I knew that if I didn't see the colors she was calling out, I had to run out buy me a new RCA.
Abu Hamza al-Masri, an Egyptian-born Muslim cleric facing terrorism and race-hate charges, said on Friday that British security services sought to enlist his support in monitoring Islamic militants and averting terror attacks several years before his arrest in 2004.
Masri, who is 47 and a British citizen by marriage, is facing 15 counts, including incitement of racial hatred, soliciting other people to murder Jews and other non-Muslims and being in possession of material that could help a potential terrorist. He has denied all the charges.
On the second day of his defense testimony, Masri, who is also wanted in the US, was asked about a 10-volume work, the Encyclopedia of Afghani Jihad, that was removed from his home by the police. The encyclopedia was said to have suggested potential terrorist targets, including skyscrapers, Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower.
"The first time I was aware of it was in this court," he said, suggesting that the only people who were likely to have read it were the police officers who took it from his home.
Masri also spoke of meetings with officers from Britain's internal security services who told him they were asking Islamic clerics to "control hotheaded people and make sure everything is under control and there is no risk to anyone," according to excerpts from his testimony published by the Press Association news agency.
At another point, Masri said he asked officers from the security services in 1997, "My sermon, is it a problem?"
He quoted one unidentified officer as replying: "You have freedom of speech. You don't have anything to worry as long as we don't see blood on the streets."
But by 2000, he said, security services officers told him: "`We think you are walking on a tightrope.' They said there were some things that they don't like."
His defense lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, asked him for his views on suicide bombing.
"The term is being used and abused to scare people," Masri said.
"Bombing is a tactic of war if it is used for a good reason. If it is the only means to stop the enemies of Islam and you do not have any other means of resisting -- no women, no children, no harmless people are targeted -- then it is a tool of war, a tactic of war," he said.
"If it is targeting people or places where it is forbidden to target them, then it is immoral," he said.
"It is not a strategy, it is not an aim, it is a tool of war if there are no other means," he said.
Masri also denied that he had sought to persuade his listeners at sermons and speeches to hate Jews in Britain.
#1
"The first time I was aware of it was in this court," he said, suggesting that the only people who were likely to have read it were the police officers who took it from his home.
Of course he can't didn't read it. He just jerks off to the pictures. Kinda like Playboy.
Gas supplies from Russia to Armenia and Georgia have been halted by two explosions on a pipeline that Georgia blames on Russian sabotage. At a time when freezing winter temperatures are gripping all three countries, the explosions occurred on the main branch and a reserve branch of the Mozdok-Tbilisi pipeline close to the border with Georgia in the early hours of Sunday morning. According to a spokesman for Russia's deputy prosecutor, general investigators at the site in the Russian province of North Ossetia, are treating the incident as sabotage, but not terrorism.
Sergei Prokopov, the spokesman, said: "An expert group is working at the site. According to preliminary information they have already found the remains of improvised explosive devices. If this explanation is confirmed then we are talking about sabotage." Other officials said it could take up to four days to repair the damage due to the difficult mountain conditions. Mikhail Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, accused Russia of being behind the blasts, which Georgia said could leave households without gas as soon as Sunday evening.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Police in Japan have raided vehicles firm Yamaha in an inquiry into possible illegal helicopter exports to China. Twenty offices and homes were targeted as part of a probe into whether the company exported pilot-less helicopters with possible military applications. Yamaha acknowledges selling nine of the aircraft to China, but says they could only be used for agricultural purposes.
Yamaha's shares tumbled on the news, losing more than 8% and helping to push Tokyo's main Nikkei 225 index lower.
China's increased economic and military might, coupled with its growing influence in Asia, have amplified tensions with Japan. The Ministry of Trade and Industry says Yamaha should have sought official permission before exporting the helicopter to China, which Japan views as a possible military threat. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said that the worry for the government was that the unmanned helicopters "could be diverted to weapons of mass destruction".
Yamaha expressed surprise over the investigation and denied any wrongdoing. The company says it first sold the helicopters to China five years ago and insists they were basic models that could have no military application. More than 200 investigators turned up at Yamaha's headquarters on Monday morning to take away documents and computer data that might point to any breaches of the law.
The helicopter at the centre of the storm is the R-MAX, which can be flown safely by a relatively untrained operator on the ground using a laptop computer. Around 1,600 of the helicopters are currently in use in Japan, primarily by farmers for crop-spraying. However, Yamaha promotes the R-MAX for its other potential uses as well, including surveillance - and that is what appears to have got the company into trouble, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Tokyo.
The problems facing Yamaha are the latest to hit Japanese industry. Last week, shares slumped after internet company Livedoor was accused of misleading investors. Livedoor has denied the charges, but that did little to appease investors and on Wednesday of last week, the Tokyo Stock Exchange had to close 20 minutes early for the first time in its history because of surging trading volumes.
Nothin' but love for the Soddies, everywhere they go...
BEIJING â Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah arrived here yesterday morning to a warm welcome by high-ranking Chinese officials. The Chinese said they were honored by the royal visit, the first by a Saudi king to Beijing since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1990. The two leaders are also expected to discuss major regional and international issues, including Iraq, Iran and Palestine in addition to the global fight against terrorism. King Abdullah earlier met with members of the Saudi civil society delegation currently visiting China and praised their efforts in strengthening relations between the two countries. He urged the delegation to continue its endeavors to educate the Chinese people on various aspects of Saudi life and culture.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said bilateral trade rose by 39 percent to $14 billion between January and November 2005. He said China had imported 20.1 million tons of oil from Saudi Arabia during that period. Beijing imports about 450,000 barrels of Saudi oil daily which is about 14 percent of its total oil requirements.
Saudi Arabia has already offered investment projects worth $624 billion to foreign investors in the vital sectors of petrochemicals, gas, electric power generation, telecommunications, desalination and railways. It has also softened regulations in an attempt to attract foreign investment. Chinese firms won bids for construction contracts valued at several billion dollars in the Kingdom last year. The contracts were for projects including cement production, telecommunications, infrastructure and others. Saudi Aramco joined ExxonMobil and Chinaâs top refiner, Sinopec, in signing a $3.5 billion deal to expand a refinery in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian. The Saudi firm is also in talks with Sinopec about investing in a plant in the northern city of Qingdao, the semi-official China News Service said. The agency quoted unidentified industry officials as saying China wanted to increase Saudi crude oil imports under fixed-term deals to limit the impact of price volatility.
Saudi ambassador to China, Saleh Al-Hujeilan, underlined the importance of the royal visit, adding that it would become a significant milestone in developing friendly relations between the two countries. As two important nations, China and Saudi Arabia will open new areas of cooperation and continue to strengthen exchanges in diplomacy, economy and trade, the ambassador said. âCloser contacts and cooperation between the two countries will surely exert a great influence on the Americans international society,â he added.
#3
Wouldn't it be a shame if he caught the dreaded "bird flu" and died in China? Wow, would that ever cause the Chinese a bit of lost face. Not to mention infuriating a half-billion muzzies. Of course, it'll never happen. . .
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/23/2006 19:03 Comments ||
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Migrants who want to come to the Netherlands will from March be obliged to take an inburgering (acclimatization) test in the country they are applying from.
A majority of the Tweede Kamer supported the plan of immigration minister Rita Verdonk when it was presented on Thursday, provided that candidates are not punished for any teething troubles with its implementation.
By setting out clear guidelines for would be migrants (joining families or coming for marriage, for instance), it is hoped the compulsory test will force migrants to be better prepared for life in Dutch society before they arrive.
Candidates must take the exam â in Dutch - at an embassy or consulate. It will test their knowledge of the language and culture and be taken over the phone, verbally, using a PC with speech recognition software.
There have been some doubts expressed as to the quality and reliability of the new technology (the âphonepass systemâ), but on advice from the government research institute TNO, Verdonk believes the trial can go ahead.
To prevent unmerited failure, the results of the first 500 candidates will be carefully checked by four examiners. Candidates experiencing technical trouble can re-do the test for free, and an independent commission will follow the whole process and examine the results.
#2
The doors are going shut all over Europe; we shall not see them open again in our lifetime.
Posted by: Edward Gray ||
01/23/2006 19:31 Comments ||
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#3
Candidates must take the exam â in Dutch - at an embassy or consulate. It will test their knowledge of the language and culture and be taken over the phone, verbally, using a PC with speech recognition software.
I'm confused: do the candidates have to physically go to a Dutch consulate/embassy, or can they just call it in? How wil the computer know that the person talking to it is the same person who subsequently moves into that lovely flat overlooking the Princegracht in Amsterdam?
Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk favours the introduction of a code of conduct for the public to emphasise Dutch identity, including speaking Dutch in the street, non-discrimination and equality between men and women.
Verdonk outlined her ideas to a congress of JOVD, the youth wing of the Liberal Party (VVD) on Saturday. The leadership of the JOVD said afterwards the organisation absolutely rejected the idea.
The VVD minister has been inspired by the unveiling late last week of the Rotterdam Code, a charter for daily conduct consisting of seven points for residents of the port city.
The Rotterdam Code states Dutch should be spoken on the street and in the home as much as possible.
The charter is the response of Leefbaar Rotterdam (LR) party to a series of 'Islam debates' held in the city last year. The LR, the dominant member on the coalition ruling Rotterdam, felt suggestions drawn up by others were not far-reaching enough.
Minister Verdonk said on Saturday a similar code for integration and citizenship should be introduced nationwide. She plans to sit down with experts to see "what's important, what the Dutch identity is".
Allochtonen (the Dutch definition of residents of a non-Dutch background) are often not clear on what is expected of them when they settle in the Netherlands, Verdonk said. They should also be more pro-active and complain if faced with discrimination.
A Berlin school has banned its students from speaking languages other than German while on school grounds.
"The language of our school is German, the official language of the Federal Republic of Germany," reads the 'house rules' of the Herbert-Hoover Realschule, which every pupil is required to sign.
The rules go on to say that, "Every pupil is obliged to only communicate in this language [German] within the jurisdiction of the house rules." The rules' jurisdiction is defined as including not only the school itself and its grounds, but also school excursions.
Green politician Ãzcan Mutlu has protested to the school committee of Berlin's House of Representatives, calling the rule anti-constitutional and discriminatory.
"This kind of ban is okay in lessons," he told the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel. "But everything else is going too far."
Education senator Klaus Böger is defending the rule in the school committee. According to his speaker Jens Stiller, parents were supporting the rule. Some parents brought their children to school precisely because they hoped they would then learn better German, Stiller told the Tagesspiegel.
According to Mutlu, about 90 percent of the children at the school were of non-German origin. The school is located in Berlin's impoverished Wedding district which is home to many immigrant families.
In a wide-ranging defense of the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance program, the government's No. 2 intelligence official said Monday that the spy agency's operations are not a drift net over U.S. communities. Gen. Michael Hayden, the former NSA director, described the 4-year-old program as narrowly targeted, using the same tools and techniques employed to decide whether to drop a 500-pound bomb on a terrorist target.
Hayden now holds the second-ranking job in the Office of the National Intelligence Director, John Negroponte. "Had this program been in effect prior to 9/11, it is my professional judgment that we would have detected some of the al-Qaida operatives in the United States," Hayden said in an appearance at the National Press Club.
Hayden's comments came as the Bush administration kicked off three days of public events aimed at defending the highly classified surveillance program. First disclosed last month, the program approved by President Bush allowed the NSA to eavesdrop, without warrants, on communications of individuals within the continental United States, whose calls and e-mails were believed to have involved al-Qaida.
Senator Hillary Clinton yesterday accused President George W. Bush of mishandling the threat from Iran while she's been accepting money from supporters of the renegade Iranian regime.
That's our girl
Wealthy businessmen Hassan Nemazee and Faraj Aalaei who are associated with the American Iranian Council, a pro-regime, anti-sanctions group, are vocal Clinton supporters and contributors. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Namazee has contributed $4,000 to Clinton's reelection while Aalaei contributed $1,000. Insight Magazine, published by the Washington Times, describes their lobby this way: "the American-Iranian Council [AIC], a pro-regime lobbying group [are] trying to get Congress and the Bush administration to lift the trade embargo on Iran."
According to reports in Hillary Clinton's home state, she's also raising money from Gati Kashani, another figure linked with the Iranian Mullahs and who also supports the regime. On its website, the Iranian American Political Action Committee (PAC) noted, "On Friday, June 3rd [2005], Iranian-American friends of the Hillary Clinton Senate re-election campaign hosted a fundraising event in honor of Senator Clinton. The event took place at the home of Gita and Behzad Kashani in Los Altos Hills, California." The PAC favors relaxing or eliminating Visa rule for Iranians coming to the United States and believes that Clinton would be helpful in achieving their goals. The Federal Bureau of Investigation opposes such liberalization of the visa process for the terrorist state.
But in full pander mode, the Iranian PAC reported that Clinton attacked United States Visa policy. "Senator Clinton went on to address the audience on topics specifically relevant to the Iranian-American community. She discussed immigration and acknowledged the difficulties Iranian nationals have in obtaining visas to visit family members residing in America. She stated, 'Our visa policy is not only unfair but it's not good for America.'"
During her speech yesterday Senator Clinton attacked the Bush Administration, charging that the US government has wasted precious time in dealing with the looming Iranian nuclear threat. "I believe that we lost critical time in dealing with Iran because the White House chose to downplay the threats and to outsource the negotiations," Clinton said during a speech at Princeton University, referring to American willingness to allow European powers to handle talks with Teheran. "We cannot and should not -- must not -- permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons," Clinton added. "In order to prevent that from occurring, we must have more support vigorously and publicly expressed by China and Russia, and we must move as quickly as feasible for sanctions in the United Nations." This is the exact opposite of what she's said regarding the run up to the Iraq war. Democrat Party bigwigs accused Bush then of not working with our allies -- France, Germany, Russia -- and not allowing the United Nations more time to deal with the Saddam Hussein regime.
Yes, we remember, and have copies of those remarks on our hard drives.
According to critics, Senator Clinton's modus operandi is to tell audiences what she believes they wish to hear. Tell Americans to get tough on Iran so as to present herself as tough on national security, then tell Iranians she wants to help them. At least she did use the "plantation" word which I believe was calculated to bring about controversy as was her latest diatribes against Bush. The release of the Barrett Report brings up questions of her and her husband's own -- excuse the phrase -- culture of corruption.
She's done this before when she criticized the Bush Administration's lack of resolve to stop rampant illegal immigration and to increase border security. However, when a bill went to the senate that would increase funding for border patrol agents and additional detention facilities, she and the senior Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, voted no. Then when speaking before a Latino group in California, Hillary told the audience that she would work to get them healthcare and education assistance.
John Spencer, the former Yonkers Mayor and Vietnam combat veteran who will challenge Senator Clinton in November, made the following statement, "Senator Clinton voted against the very munitions necessary to avoid a nuclear confrontation with Iran while at the same time accepting money from supporters of the Iranian Mullahs. Senator Clinton lacks the credibility to keep New York safe and she should return this tainted money."
Posted by: Steve ||
01/23/2006 09:14 ||
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Moonbat columnist Molly Ivins already sez she won't vote for Mrs. Bill Clinton (heh) because she isn't 'honest' enough about the WoT.
Congressional Democrats have spent the past couple of years accusing Pentagon aides of concocting misleading intelligence in the run-up to the war against Iraq.
Now one of those Pentagon aides wants to become a congressional Democrat.
Following the September 11 attacks, Christopher Carney, along with his friend and fellow Navy reservist, David Wurmser, scoured intelligence reporting on the links between state sponsors of terror and Al Qaeda for a small office in the Pentagon known as the Counterterrorism Evaluation Group. Now Mr. Carney is running for Congress as a Democrat in Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district, which is in the Keystone State's northeast corner.
In an election year that promises to feature a lively debate between the parties on national security and the Iraq war, Mr. Carney's candidacy stands out. He stands by his intelligence work before the war, though he won't go into detail because much of it is still classified.
"Based on the intelligence I saw, there was definitely a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda," Mr. Carney said in an interview. He said he was "surprised by the surprise" this conclusion prompted. "I mean, Saddam had links to almost every terrorist group in the Middle East. Why would people think he wouldn't have one with Al Qaeda?" he said.
If elected, he could tell that to the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean or Senator Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts, who rarely let a week pass without blistering the Bush administration for leading America to war under false pretenses. Mr. Carney, currently a political science professor at Penn State University, said that if he wins his seat he hopes to "persuade my colleagues."
"They are speaking from a position of imperfect knowledge," he said. "My opinions are backed up by the intelligence."
Mr. Carney describes himself as something his party has not seen in a long time: a Scoop Jackson Democrat, in the tradition of the late Washington State senator, Henry "Scoop" Jackson, who opposed Richard Nixon on detente with the Soviet Union and was the author of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, making favorable trade status for the Soviet Union contingent on Moscow's loosening its restrictions on emigration. "I definitely consider myself of the same ilk as Scoop Jackson," Mr. Carney said. " I am strong on defense."
Jackson's office in the 1970s was a home for many who became officials in the Reagan and Bush administrations, including Elliott Abrams, Richard Perle, James Roche, and Douglas Feith. Mr. Perle, who was Mr. Jackson's national security adviser, said he would support Mr. Carney's candidacy. "I think he is a very smart, capable guy," he said. "It is a good thing that people are willing to take a shot at this who have not been politicians all their lives. I hope he makes it. It's a long shot, but Chris is not the sort of person who tries once."
Mr. Perle said he does not see Mr. Carney's candidacy in the congressional race as a sign that the Democratic Party will become more hawkish. "I am afraid the Jackson wing of the party is all but obliterated. You see that now in the response of the Democrats on almost everything the president is saying." Mr. Perle added, "It's not as if there are several people like Chris emerging this year. There was no real Democratic interest in the seat. The party has not made an investment in the seat. If Chris started to catch on, it would be interesting to see if the party would support him."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/23/2006 03:26 ||
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#1
Now this is very interesting. A Scoop Jackson Democrat? If he wins by a significant margin, that will encourage others of similar mind to take back their party. How proud I would be if Rantburg's own liberalhawk were to run -- he would bring a strain of historical knowledge and intellectual rigour such as hasn't been seen in his party for the better part of a generation!
#4
The only problem I have with guys like LH and Carney winning is that by increasing the percentage of Reps that are Democrats, they increase the power of the socialists and partisans like Kennedy and Pelosi and even Dean.
Maybe they should be true independents and align with whichever party is right on the particular issue.
#5
I can't imagine our liberalhawk ever voting straight party line without having put plenty of thought into it. I may not always agree with him (I do not like Hillary Clinton, f'r instance), but his opinions are always reasoned.
Marines pride themselves on being able to lead Marines, no matter who it is - at any time another Marine can step up and take over without lacking in performance.
That theory was put to the test when Lance Cpl. Victor Perez checked in to his new duty station as a 3rd Recruit Training Battalion administrative clerk in April 2005.
read the rest at the link. This young Marine is pretty impressive, but so is the unit cooperation described there. Semper Fi!
#4
Sea---remember the rest:
"Is the unit that lost its drill seargent to an accident?"
"That's the fact, Jack!"
LMAO!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/23/2006 22:23 Comments ||
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This really isn't that big a deal. I filled a Major's slot for 11 months in Germany as an E-5, and a Captain's position for over a year as an E-6. I know at least 30 other NCOs that have filled officer positions, including one E-7 that filled a full colonel's position for eight months during a deployment. The colonel was hospitalized with medical problems, and it was almost a year before he was medically retired and replaced. It's not easy, and it's not fun, but it's also not impossible.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/23/2006 22:26 Comments ||
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Lawmakers who have been briefed by U.S. intelligence officials warned yesterday that the threats against America made by Osama bin Laden in his latest audiotape should be taken very seriously and might be the precursor to a new attack by his al Qaeda network inside the United States.
"When Osama bin Laden says he's going to attack the United States, and he's focused on attacking us in the homeland, we should take him very, very seriously," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra, Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in an appearance on ABC's "This Week."
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican, said he knew of "no specific threat that is tied to" bin Laden at the moment, but he added that he thought the message was "important."
"If you take that line that he said, 'We are preparing every minute and every minute, and when we're ready, we're going to attack you in your homeland,' I think we have to take that very seriously," Mr. Roberts told CBS' "Face the Nation."
In the tape, portions of which were broadcast Thursday, bin Laden said that the reason there had been no attack in the United States since September 11, 2001, was "not because of [trouble] getting through your security."
"Operations are being prepared, and you will see them when they are ready, God willing," bin Laden said in the message, which the CIA confirmed was authentic and recorded since November.
Mr. Hoekstra said the message fit into a pattern.
"During the 1990s, [bin Laden] made these same kinds of threats, and he actually attacked the United States, and we ignored it and we paid the price on September 11. We need to make sure that we don't make that same mistake again," he said.
Some analysts said the release of the tape might portend an imminent attack, but others were skeptical.
"Warning your enemy before you attack him is very much a tradition in Islam," former CIA bin Laden unit chief Michael Scheuer told Fox News last week.
Counterterrorism consultant Ben Venzke said on his Web site, intelcenter.com, that the tape "is part of a warning cycle for Americans and is closely matching the pattern seen in the run-up to the July 2005 London bombings."
But author Peter Bergen, who has recently published a biography of the al Qaeda leader, said it was impossible to try to divine the timing or pattern of forthcoming attacks from the messages.
"Before September 11, bin Laden issued relatively few statements, and it is true that they often presaged attacks," he said. "But since then, the number [of statements] has increased dramatically.
"There have been 19 tapes of bin Laden alone," since the September 11 attacks, Mr. Bergen said, as well as 16 other messages from bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahri. "That's one every six weeks, almost. There haven't been that many attacks."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/23/2006 03:30 ||
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The port project at Gwadar in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province appears to be in trouble. Baloch insurgents battling Islamabad are opposed to the project and have been attacking people working on it. Besides, some differences appear to have cropped up between the Pakistan government and the project's main funder - China - over financial aspects of the project.
Gwadar is on Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast, just 72 kilometers from Iran. It is near the mouth of the Persian Gulf and is 400km from the Strait of Hormuz. The Pakistani government identified
Gwadar as a port site way back in the 1960s, but it was only in 2001-02 that concrete steps on the proposal were taken.
It was the arrival of US troops in Afghanistan - literally at China's doorstep - in the autumn of 2001 that spurred Beijing into action. China agreed to participate in funding, construction and development of a deepsea port and naval base in Gwadar and in March 2002 Chinese premier Wu Bangguo laid the foundation for the port. Its engineers are engaged in the port's design and construction.
China insists its interest in Gwadar is purely commercial. No doubt it is hoping that the port will transform the economy of its landlocked Xinjiang province.
However, Gwadar port has a far-larger significance in China's scheme of things. It is said to be the western-most pearl in China's "string of pearls" strategy (this is a strategy that envisages building strategic relations with several countries along sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea to protect China's energy interests and other security objectives), the other "pearls" being naval facilities in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and the South China Sea.
China's interest in the Gwadar project stems from the port's proximity to the Strait of Hormuz. A base at Gwadar enables China to secure the flow of its oil - 60% of its energy supplies come from the Middle East - through the strait. More important, Gwadar is said to be a "listening post" for the Chinese, one that will enable Beijing to monitor movement of US and Indian ships in the region.
Pakistan is eyeing huge economic and strategic gains, with Gwadar poised to become a key shipping hub at the mouth of a strategic waterway. A port at Gwadar provides Pakistan with strategic depth vis-a-vis India. Gwadar is 725km to the west of Karachi port, making it that much less vulnerable than Karachi to an Indian naval blockade.
Not surprisingly, the construction of Gwadar port and Sino-Pakistan cooperation in the project are causing concern for India, the United States and Iran. The Chinese presence in the Arabian Sea heightens India's feeling of encirclement by China. Iran fears that the development of Gwadar port will undermine the value of its own ports as outlets to Central Asia's exports.
As for the US, it has been uncomfortable with Chinese presence at the mouth of a key waterway. And now in the run-up to a possible war with Iran, Washington appears to be eyeing Gwadar's naval facilities all the more. It appears that the US is pressuring Pakistan to reduce Chinese involvement in the project and to involve Washington instead.
The New Delhi-based online Public Affairs Magazine has reported that the US "could be [pressuring] Pakistan to outprice the Chinese from Gwadar to take over the entire facility". Citing diplomats, the report said: "Pakistan has now raised the cost of Chinese participation to US$3 billion in addition to the $1.5 billion yearly payment, which China has refused, saying it is steep, and in breach of the terms of the contract. China has said that it had already agreed to offset construction costs by giving Pakistan four frigates, but Pakistan is unmoved, and offered to return all the Chinese investment, if they would have it that way."
Dismissing such reports as "wishful thinking on the part of India", a Pakistani government official told Asia Times Online that the Gwadar project was "very much on track" and that "Sino-Pakistan cooperation in the venture remains strong".
But even if the reported differences between China and Pakistan in the Gwadar project were indeed "wishful thinking on the part of India", the project is under fire from Baloch insurgents.
Balochis are not opposed to the Gwadar port project or other megaprojects per se. What they are opposed to is the way these projects have been conceived and implemented. They resent the fact Balochis have been excluded from the benefits of these projects and that "outsiders" have grown rich by exploiting Baloch resources. Balochistan's Sui gas reserves, for instance, meet 38% of Pakistan's energy needs, but only 6% of Balochistan's 6 million people have access to it, and the royalties Balochistan receives for its gas are very low, especially when compared with what other provinces receive.
Likewise, the Gwadar project does not seem to be transforming Baloch lives for the better. Baloch nationalists see Gwadar as "a non-Baloch project", one that has been conceived and implemented without provincial approval or participation, in which "outsiders" have gained the most. They point out that land in Gwadar is being sold at throwaway prices to non-Baloch civil-military elites.
There is concern, too, that the Gwadar project would leave Balochis a minority in their homeland. As the Baloch leader, the Khan of Kalat, pointed out in an interview to the Pakistani daily Dawn, the entire project would need at least a million people, and with Gwadar being a town of 60,000, people from "Karachi, mostly Urdu-speaking", would be brought in.
Not surprisingly, then, the Gwadar project has been repeatedly targeted by Baloch insurgent groups such as the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the Baloch Liberation Front and the Baloch People's Liberation Army. Insurgents have struck repeatedly with bombs and rocket attacks. In 2004 for instance, Gwadar airport was the target of rocket attacks.
Several of the insurgent attacks in Gwadar have targeted Chinese working on this project. About 500 Chinese engineers are employed in Gwadar. On May 3, 2004, three Chinese engineers were killed and nine others injured in a bomb blast by the BLA. On May 14 last year, four bombs went off in Gwadar. Then in October, several Chinese engineers had a narrow escape when the vehicle in which they were traveling missed a landmine. The following month, insurgents launched a rocket attack on a Chinese construction company in the Tallar area of Gwadar district. The Chinese engineers and other staff escaped unhurt but several vehicles were damaged.
In total, according to official data, there were 187 bomb blasts, 275 rocket attacks, eight attacks on gas pipelines, 36 attacks on electricity-transmission lines and 19 explosions on railway lines in 2005. At least 182 civilians and 26 security force personnel died in the province during 2005.
An interesting aspect about Baloch nationalist insurgents, who are by and large secular, and the religious militants is that while both view China as an enemy, their opposition to Chinese involvement in the Gwadar project differs. Tarique Niazi, a specialist on resource-based conflict, said: "Baloch nationalists, for instance, are opposed to the Chinese government for advancing its strategic goals at the expense of their freedom and autonomy. But several religiously inspired groups are opposed to the Chinese government for its putative persecution of the Uighur Muslim minority in the autonomous region of Xinjiang."
The kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in October 2004 by members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is said to have been a response to Pakistan's killing of ETIM chief Hasan Mahsum, to whom it had provided shelter in South Waziristan, on Beijing's request.
While India, Iran and the US might be wary of the Sino-Pakistan cooperation in Gwadar, internal opposition to the bonding seems far greater, as indicated by the ferocity and frequency of attacks on the Gwadar project and Chinese employees there.
With the Baloch insurgency growing in intensity and the Pakistani government's military approach to the problem only fueling Baloch resentment and the insurgency further, it does seem that even if the Gwadar port project is, as officials claim, "on track", it will be near impossible to realize its full potential.
Notes
[1] In Bangladesh, China is building a container port facility at Chittagong and is "seeking much more extensive naval and commercial access", according to reports.
In Myanmar, China is building naval bases and has electronic intelligence-gathering facilities on islands in the Bay of Bengal and near the Strait of Malacca.
In Cambodia, China signed a military agreement in November 2003 to provide training and equipment.
In Thailand, Chinese navy ships took part in a joint search-and-rescue exercise with the Thai navy in the Gulf of Thailand December 13, 2005. The drill, the first between the two navies, was launched after a Chinese navy ships formation concluded a four-day visit.
KATMANDU - Nepal’s monarchist government lifted house arrest imposed on three top dissidents to deter weekend anti-government rallies. Troops guarding the homes of former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, president of the Nepali Congress party, Khadga Prasad Oli of the Communist Party of Nepal and Narayan Man Bijuchche of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party ended their weekend lockdown aimed at thwarting demonstrations against King Gyanendra’s nearly yearlong absolute rule. “The policemen left this evening and now I think I am free to move out,” Oli said by telephone.
The three opposition leaders were among five put under house arrest on Friday when the government imposed a curfew and took other steps to block rallies in Katmandu.
A planned mass rally on Friday never came off, but police arrested hundreds of activists who rallied in the streets on Saturday. About 50 people were injured in clashes between demonstrators and police.
Close aides of Koirala and Bijuchche also confirmed their release Sunday. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears that they would be targeted for arrest. Two of Oli’s party colleagues, Madhav Nepal and Bharat Mohan Adhikari, remained under house arrest.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/23/2006 00:12 ||
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Not that they had to clear up which side they're on...
Top opposition leaders will visit Bajaur Agency tomorrow (Monday) to express solidarity with the hard boyz residents of Damadola village. The village was the site of US air strike which targeted Al Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri, but killed 18 civilians instead. MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, General Secretary Maulana Fazlur Rehman, ARD Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, PML-N central Chaudhry Nisar and Tehrik-e-Insaaf President Imran Khan are scheduled to visit the area, a JI tribal leader said.
However, the political administration of Bajaur Agency said that it would stop the planned visit. “We will move against the opposition leaders’ visit according to (federal) government directives,” said a senior administration official in Khar, the Bajaur Agency regional headquarters. Last week, the administration turned away Awami National Party provincial leader Bashir Bilour when he tried to visit Damadola. Addressing a joint press conference on Saturday, opposition leaders said that they had united against “the American bombing of civilians”. They expressed indignation over the government’s attitude, saying it has “failed to protect the life, property and sanctity” of the citizens by “allowing the US to violate Pakistan’s sovereignty with impunity”.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2006 00:00 ||
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time for a reenactment bombing?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/23/2006 22:38 Comments ||
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The Global Islamic Media Front, an al-Qaeda mouthpiece, issued a 28:30 minute video today, January 22, 2006, titled: âJihad Academy,â depicting an amalgamation of clips of attacks executed by Iraqi insurgency groups including al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Mujahideen Army, and the Islamic Army in Iraq. The film, âdirectedâ by Mousslim Mouwaheed, carried an attached message indicating that the events portrayed in âJihad Academyâ are to show a âsingle day for those whom struggle in Allah's cause,â as attacks are shown in the dawn hours through the dark of night. Amongst these attacks are sniper operations, including those from the Islamic Army in Iraqâs âJuba â compilation, detonations of improvised explosive devices (IEDâs) on a variety of targets, rocket and mortar fire, and readings of martyrâs wills.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/23/2006 03:40 ||
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GAZA CITY - Campaigners working on behalf of women are looking to Wednesday’s Palestinian election with trepidation, fearing that if elected, Hamas will enforce Islamist values.
The five-year-old Palestinian uprising has caused countless deprivations and clocked the rising power of Hamas, whose armed opposition was considered instrumental in Israel’s withdrawal of all troops and settlers from Gaza last year. Its charity network has supported victims of violence, supplying money and opportunities to some of the Palestinian territories’ most impoverished residents.
Blatent Latent in its mission was a heady brand of Islamist fundamentalism piped out from Hamas mosques which has more recently found a new outlet in the radical group’s decision to join the political mainstream and run for the legislature.
So it shouldn't exactly be a surprise that they'll treat the women like cattle.
With polls putting Hamas neck-and-neck with the moderate ruling Fatah party, many women fear the Islamist movement could be in a position to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, marginalise their rights and make the headscarf compulsory. “To be frank, we are really worried about the future we will have after 25 January,” says Naila Ayesh, director of the foreign-funded Women’s Affairs Center that promotes women’s rights and electoral participation.
She was jailed twice by the Israelis, once as a student activist when she suffered a miscarriage in prison, and secondly for campaigning on behalf of Palestinians deported from Gaza during the first intifada. She refuses to wear the headscarf. People have thrown stones at her when taking her child to nursery. Today, Ayesh fears that the advantages Palestinian women have over some of their sisters in the Arab world are under threat.
Not that this would cause you to make peace or anything.
“Socially and politically we’ll have problems. Hamas will ask for Islamic, Sharia law to be the main issue and of course this is not what we want.”
Even if Fatah remains in power, this mother-of-two worries the party may give ground to Hamas on issues such as family law, by facilitating polygamy, and discriminating against women in divorce cases and custody rights.
Which is, after all, what Saint Pancake was fighting for, right?
Elsewhere in Gaza City, 35-year-old hairdresser Hossam Abu Mohammed fears his livelihood and thriving ladies’ salon could be at stake if Hamas performs well in Wednesday’s election. “Maybe they won’t allow males to work for ladies. We don’t know. Maybe they will close us down. Then what’ll I do? This is my work for 15 years,” he says, dressed in tight denim, a scarf flung louchely round his neck.
I think Mo' is a little light in his loafers, which means he's going to have other problems with Hamas ...
“Already we’re dying. There are no coffee shops. There’s no normal life. We can’t go to parties, we can’t go out to drink, there is no social life. There’s no McDonalds,” he says, jabbing the air with his cigarette for emphasis.
Maybe you could move to Detroit. Your cousin has a gas station there, you could set up a beauty salon next door. Ah, Detroit ...
He has four children and supports his parents on the proceeds of what he and his five to six employees make with haircuts, pedicures, manicures, tattoos, waxing and hair extensions. Pictures of sultry beauties with luscious locks and a flash of cleavage expose the gulf between him and Hamas.
“Religion should be a personal choice and not something imposed on people,” says Miriam Daqqa, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine which, like Hamas, is fielding its first parliamentary candidates. “We expect to have problems with Hamas if it gets a good position and certainly if it tries to pass laws that can affect the status of women,” she says. “But we will work to strengthen democracy and equality.”
I think Miriam's on the list to be stoned.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/23/2006 00:20 ||
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I sure hope they don't expect to get any help from Western women's groups. That would mean they would have to say there is something wrong with what passes for culture in Palestine, and that's not very "inclusive" of "multiculturalism", is it?
Ah, but we don't see Hamas saying anything about Hamas recognizing Israel as anything but a bloodstain-to-be on the Gaza beachline, do we?
And we certainly don't hear them saying it in Arabic ...
Egypt thinks the Palestinian group Hamas recognises the existence of Israel and will go along with negotiations with the Jewish state, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in an interview published on Saturday. Aboul Gheit, whose government has had close contacts with Hamas and other Palestinian militants over the past year, also said that joining the political process would lead to fundamental changes in the thinking of Hamas.
Hamas, which advocates replacing Israel with an Islamic state throughout historical Palestine, is taking part in Palestinian parliamentary elections for the first time on Jan 25. It poses a strong challenge to the ruling Fatah movement.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Egypt thinks the Palestinian group Hamas recognises the existence of Israel and..
Nobody cares what Egypt thinks. Hamas has to handle matters on its own.
January 23, 2006: The U.S. M-60 machine-gun was developed in the 1950s, for use by infantry and vehicle crews. It fired the full size 7.62mm round, and was long criticized for its week ammo feeding system, and poor mechanical design that led to ârunawayâ firing, or broken firing pins (or other components.) Changing an overheated barrel was clumsy and, well, the M-60 was not missed when it was replaced by the Belgian M-240 in the late 1990s. But now the M-60 manufacturer has come back with a new model that fixes all the old problems, and adds some startling new capabilities. The M-60E4 Barrel is good for 15,000 rounds (about 50 percent more than usual for such a weapon), and in an demonstration, 850 rounds (105 seconds worth) were fired in a single burst, without the barrel overheating. That was really outstanding. Moreover, the M-60E4 weighs only 22 pounds, making it easier to haul around, and fire from the hip. The manufacturer also sells conversion kits that will turn older model M60s (over 100,00 of them out there) into E4s. This is where the company expects to clean up, although many newly manufactured M-60E4s are being sold as well. In fact, the manufacturer has put a hold on any new orders until this Summer, in order to catch up with orders it already has.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/23/2006 09:12 ||
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They tried copying it during the war but the contractor didn't cut the parts right resulting in failed testing and a cancelled contract. With all the Brownings out there and in production the need to switch to an entire new system was not thought pressing. In the post war reexamination, the contractor problem was identified and the Americanized design adopted.
Posted by: ed ||
01/23/2006 11:03 Comments ||
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#5
I've never encountered any serious probs wid the M60 as described here. Remember that US Army or USDOD weapons of the period were designed and intended primarily to fight the WARSAW PACT- Soviet tank and motorized infantry armies in Europe. Considering the America-devastating ambitions or premises in Chicom defense white paper of Febr 2005, may I suggest the USDOD bring back Man-/JEEP = HUMMER-portable battlefield tac nukes - DETERRENCE AT ANY LEVEL, OR AGS ANYONE, IS STILL DETERRENCE.
January 23, 2006: Over the past few years, products began to appear, that were capable of detecting divers approaching ships or waterside facilities. Now there are underwater weapons that can disable the swimmers.
One of the more recent of the detection systems is the Cerberus360 swimmer detection system. This is a (large) refrigerator size device that is lowered to the ocean floor in the middle of the area you want to guard. Cerberus360 uses sonar to detect anything, large enough to be a threat, up to 800 meters out. Actually, during tests, it was able to detect an approaching underwater scuba swimmer at 900 meters. Cerberus360 works well in shallow water, and can be tweaked by the operator, once emplaced, to be even more accurate.
Al Qaeda groups are know to have bought scuba gear and trained for attacks like this, but none have been attempted yet. But last year, Raytheon Corporation got a patent for a sonar type device that can disable divers as well. The Raytheon "swimmer denial" uses sound waves that are tuned to cause severe gastric distress in humans. Makes you heave into your scuba mask. This makes further underwater operations difficult, if not impossible. However, Raytheon has not announced any timetable for the delivery of these systems. There may not be a large enough market to justify it. For all the talk about scuba equipped terrorists, there have been very few cases of this sort of thing actually happening. Most have been off Israel, where the Israelis have been able to deal with the problem without using an acoustic swimmer denial system.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/23/2006 08:40 ||
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The Raytheon "swimmer denial" uses sound waves that are tuned to cause severe gastric distress in humans.
Hmmm, would the color of the noise depend on which end of the gastric system it distresses? We've already got the "brown noise" via South Park - although my wife thinks a low altitude supersonic B-1 pass would be a better candidate for a brown noise.
#5
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but the scuba masks we use only cover forehead to below the nose, not the mouth itself. I've seen full-face masks, but only on television, worn by the fearless something-or-other to explain what he and the camera man are looking at. With the kind of mask I use, throwing up is annoying, and attracts the wrong kind of fishy attention, but wouldn't fill the mask with ickyness.
#6
Not the mask gets filled, but the regulator. Then you rip it out of your mouth. Then you rolf. Then you inhale. I wouldn't want to try to rolf underwater or clean the regulator out afterward and get it back into my mouth without inhaling..
Sen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday that the U.S. is prepared to deal with the Iranian nuclear crisis militarily - even if the war in Iraq continues to require a substantial American troop commitment. "We have the most powerful military in the history of the world," Lieberman told CBS's Face the Nation. "We are capable, if necessary, of continuing to pursue our aims militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere and, if necessary, conduct a military attack on Iran."
Is he submitting his resignation from the Democrat Party? The seething after this interview will be legendary...
Lieberman said the he hoped an attack on Iran, if it should come, would be carried out "with the assistance of our coalition allies in Europe." But he noted that any assault on Iranian nuclear facilities "would be primarily an air attack. It's not going to involve massive use of ground forces." Asked about reports that the U.S. would let Israel take the lead in any attack against Iran, the Connecticut Democrat told CBS:
"The United States is a strong enough country that we never want to be in a position to have to essentially contract out protection of our national security, vis-a-vis Iran, to another country like Israel." He noted also the Israelis "don't have the same aircraft capacity that we do, capable of doing it." Lieberman said that while the military option remains a last resort for the U.S., "I want the people who lead Iran to understand that it is on the table. We deem their pursuit of nuclear weapons to be dead serious."
#1
An air attack that leaves the current regime in power could be counterproductive. I just don't see it because there would be a rally round the flag effect -- remember, even Democrats once supported the war on terror. This bluster is worse than saying nothing.
No, it is evidence that Lieberman is the only donk capable of being President. The practicality of any specific operation is not the point. He is showing that the MMs cannot assume there will be automatic objections to military action from the entire minority party. He is giving Bush the firmest ground he can to negotiate from.
He is proving he's got the balls to stand up to the wackos in his party and suffer the consequences. I suspect he is seeking to generate an outbreak of seething so that the donks can debate the issue and his side prevail. Almost looks presidential.
#3
Perhaps he's burnishing his resume (and aligning his rhetoric) for an eventual SecDef position in W's administration?
Posted by: Tibor ||
01/23/2006 18:44 Comments ||
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where's tough-talk no-walk Hildabeast? Bitching and ankle-biting from the sidelines, but she'll NEVER support anything W does, even if she proposed it first. Joe L is the next Donk off the plantation and along with Zell, could give a helluva speech at the next convention. Any non- Jooooo Donks have the balls to stand up and be counted? Bayh? Warner? Kerry (er....his standing in whatever religion du jour makes him a cypher) ? Gore? Nope. Joe L's Joooo ties will be used to diminish his guts in standing up, and he'll be accused of doing Israel's work, as if that makes doing right, wrong
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/23/2006 19:16 Comments ||
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#5
No, it is evidence that Lieberman is the only donk capable of being President.
Capable, yes, but his Jewish background is probably a no-no to a fair amount of people. A shame, but that's just how things still are, unfortunately.
#10
The USA and USDOD must be prepared to mil deal wid IRAN, NORTH KOREA, andor NORTH KOREA-TAIWAN contingencies at once. In any case, the PACRIM must have priority because Amer's major allies in Asia are very close to the threat area in question, as is ALaska. while NATO-Europe is futher away from Iran proper, within the context of MLRF, MLC, and MilLog.
#11
WHen it comes to the 2008 and POTUS elex, as an alleged "Fascist" Dubya is a Hated Hitlerist; when it comes to dev SOCIALIST Global Empire at little to no cost to Leftism-Socialism, "Fascist" GOP-Conservatives are mere DE-REGULATED/LIMITED COMMUNISTS. Amer Hiroshima(s) will kill several bird wid one stone - PC wipe out Dubya & Admin + GOP and anti-Clinton Congress, "justify" Dem criticisms of Dubya and GOP policies, and espec "justify" ANTI-US ANTI-SOVEREIGNTY, OWG, and SOCIALIST DOMESTIC REGULATION IN SUPP OF SAME. ULTIMATELY, THE RADICAL LEFT THAT NOW CONTROLS THE DEMS WANTS A LEGALLY RECOGNIZED NATIONAL SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST PARTY AND AMERICAN GOVT, ONE-PARTY NPE, AND A SUBORNED INTERNAT = GLOBAL SOVIET-STYLE SOVIETIZED SOCIALIST STATE REPUBLIC OF AMERIKA. The Commies win because O'REILLY's alleged future America-ruling "International Coalition of Nations/States", as a matter of geopol pragmatism/realism, must contain those large States capable of individually/separately challenging andor containing American power and ambition, and by extens Western power and ambition, espec vv military-nuke capabilities ala "ROUGH PARITY". ONCE AMERICA FALLS, SO GOES THE WEST, NATO, AND WESTERN DEMOCRATIC-CAPITALISM AND LIBERTARIANISM - OOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPSSSSSSSS, Britney did it again.
#12
Well, Joe, the #11 comment was premigrane, but your #10 comment had a good point: if the US does something to Iran, others like the Norks and Chicoms may try some mischief at the same time. It is worth pondering while plans are made.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/23/2006 22:47 Comments ||
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#13
Even Eisenhower was 1/2 English background.
I am pretty sure his mistress when he was Supreme Allied Commander was 100% English lass....
Posted by: John L ||
01/23/2006 23:04 Comments ||
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President Ahmadinejad said Friday Palestine is the center of the final stages of the battle between Islam and arrogance, saying the Palestinian pogrom Intifada is progressing. The plots hatched by enemies against Palestine should not be overlooked even for a moment, Ahmadinejad noted in a meeting with leaders of the Palestinian resistance movements in Damascus, Syria.
Ahmadinejad arrived in Damascus on Thursday upon the official invitation of his Syrian counterpart -- soon to be former President Bashar al-Assad.
He spoke of the importance of the Palestinian cause and stressed the cause will not come be materialized if occupiers continue to occupy even a tiny part of dry land anywhere Palestine's territories. He stressed that unity, coordination and sympathy among terrorist resistance groups for the Palestinian cause is the only guarantee for Palestine's liberation.
The Islamic Republic of Iran supports the Palestinian cause of statehood and liberation of Islamic territories like Spain and Hungary from occupiers, he added. Elsewhere, he noted that one of the reasons westerners were lined up against Iran's undeniable right to gain peaceful nuclear weapons technology was because of Iran's uncompromising support for Palestine.
The visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Syria is considered another gesture of political support to Damascus and the Islamic Jihad resistance, said Hamas political leader Khaled Mishaal. The Hamas official extended his thanks to the Iranian president for his firm stance on the Palestinian issue, saying the terrorist resistance group, Hamas, considers terrorismresistance the only way to drive out the joooos resolve the Palestinians' rights and success of their avowed goals.
Unfortunately, the Pat Robertson solution won't really help. You'd have to kill the whole ruling oligarchy.
#1
tonight on tele, I saw the last bit of a US documentary/news report on the Palestinian elections from inside the Palestinian territories (don't know what it was called, switched on toolate, sorry).
In it the reporter is taken by a Palestinian Politics lecturer from Al Azhar uni in the Palestinian territories, to view the Gaza region the Israelis handed over to the Paleos.
The camera panned around the rubble and destruction.
With a completely straight face this Paleo turned to the US journo and said: "see what they've done? The Israelis destroyed everything".
I was gobsmacked.
There is TV footage and it is a matter of public record that the Israelis simply packed their stuff and left.
When the Palestinians moved in they looted every thing they could then destroyed the houses of their hated 'occupiers' even though the land was never theirs, Israel won it from Egypt in the 6 day war.
Worse: the US journo did not question simply acted like it was a great shame those terrible Israelis destroyed all their own houses like a scorched earth policy even though it wasn't even true!!
#2
Anon1, it was just another day at the office for the mythmakers--the media has worked hand-in-globe to *invent* the entire "crisis" that is the Paleo situation.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/23/2006 21:47 Comments ||
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#4
He's right about that "Palestine" is where the Terror Jihad methodology was developed and shown to be a winning approach: US won't cut PA ties if Hamas in cabinet
Beirut, 23 Jan. (AKI) - The son of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, arrives in Washington Monday for a five day visit to the United Sates which will include a meeting with President Geroge W. Bush. Saad ad-Din Hariri leads the anti-Syrian coalition that won Lebanon's June 2005 elections, the first to be held without a Syrian military presence in the country in almost 30 years. Accoriding to officials of Hariri's political movement "The Future" the purpose of the visit is to win US support for the creation of an international tribunal to try those accused of murdering his father in a 14 February 2005 bombing in Beirut.
A UN probe has implicated top Lebanese and Syrian security officials in the attack which killed 22 people.
Hariri is also scheduled to visit the UN headquarters in New York where he is expected to endorse a US-French proposal for a declaration urging the application of UN Security Council 1559 which calls for the disarming of all militias in Lebanon. The Lebanese politician will also meet World Bank president James Wolfensohn as well as US business leaders to try and secure economic aid and investments for the Lebanese economy. Hariri will be accompanied during the trip by the deputy speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Farid Makari.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/23/2006 07:45 ||
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One of the issues that we're going to face here is that most Iranians like the idea of being respected globally and being a major or at least regional power, even if they aren't enamoured with the government taking them in that direction. The problem that they need to recognize is that the application of power depends greatly on whoever is wielding it and the mullahs have more than proven that they are not to be trusted.
Wearing a stocking cap and an air of indignation, Mohammad Ahmadi pointed to the wall in front of him. It bore a splendid frieze dating from early in the millennia-long span of Iran's existence -- as a nation, an empire or simply a group of people who speak the same language.
"These are Armenians," Ahmadi said of three figures carved in vivid profile, one leading a horse. "They were bringing gifts to the king of Iran 2,500 years ago. And now they have a nuclear power plant.
"Do you want to see the Indians?" he said, indicating a lower column. "They didn't have shoes. Now they have nine nuclear plants.
"I am not a political person. I only finished high school, and I do not have much knowledge. But if I think like this, imagine how the others think."
If any doubt remains that Iranians support their government in its quest to harness the atom, the answer comes quickly and emphatically in Persepolis, the magnificent ruins that symbolize the ancient pride and fading glory bound up with the nuclear issue here.
Ordinary Iranians overwhelmingly favor their country's nuclear ambitions, interviews and surveys show. The support runs deep in the population of 68 million, cutting across differences of education, age and, most significantly, attitudes toward the fundamentalist government that the Bush administration says is intent on using an energy program as a cover for developing atomic weapons.
"Look at all this civilization!" said Mehrdad Khanban, 23, the sweep of his arm taking in the towering pillars and regal staircases of the stone city founded by Darius the Great in about 518 B.C. in the southern corner of Iran first known as Persia. "What has George Bush got? And he's telling Iranians what to do?"
Interviews with Iranians touring the ruins on a holiday weekend here suggest the breadth of the challenge facing Western powers determined to freeze Iran's recently reactivated nuclear program. The Tehran government this month ended a two-year moratorium on nuclear research by removing seals placed on uranium enrichment equipment by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. watchdog on nuclear power. In the diplomatic flurry that followed, European and U.S. officials began maneuvering toward referring Tehran to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
The threat has had no visible effect here.
"We will cope," Khanban said with a shrug. A soccer coach from the city of Karaj, near Tehran, he said he was no fan of Iran's ruling clerics or its hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose fiery rhetoric against Israel has alarmed many outside the country. But Khanban separated Iran's government from its aspiration to produce nuclear power -- bad news for Western diplomats who hope to cleave Iran's government from its people on the nuclear issue, perhaps through so-called smart sanctions such as restrictions on official travel abroad.
"There are so many people who don't like our government, who do not like it at all," Khanban said. "But they do not want this country to be ruled by foreigners. Like Iraq, for example."
"Everyone is united on this," said Rahimeh Goodarzi, 52, clutching her enveloping black chador to her chin at an exhibit of artifacts. "We love our country."
Many Iranians also emphasized that their enthusiasm was for nuclear power, not weapons.
"We really want it. Every country should have it. But I don't think it should be used for military purposes," said Parisa, 28, who was visiting from nearby Shiraz. Enjoying the sun on a stone slab, she declined to provide her surname after criticizing the government. "Everybody I know says they want it, but they want it for peaceful purposes."
Iran's copious oil and gas reserves will eventually run out, Parisa said, and in any case petroleum has brought little good to the people. "It's black magic," she said. Per capita statistics show ordinary Iranians are less well off than they were 30 years ago, and many see investment in technology, including nuclear research, as a revival of development that had slowed in Iran in recent decades.
"If you look at this place, you realize that 2,500 years ago Iranians were very advanced, more than other people," said Abolghasem Fotoohi, 32, an engineer from the eastern city of Mashhad. "Any Iranian would like his country to improve, and then we would not need other countries. We could stand by ourselves."
Arta Menhadji, who studied metallurgy but works as a soccer coach, found an example in the museum tucked in the center of the ruins, guarded by huge sculptures of a beast with the body of a bull, the wings of a bird and the head of a bearded man. One exhibit showed a bowl used for melting metal in ancient times.
"At the moment, we haven't got much to talk about in metallurgy, especially compared to America. A nuclear industry would involve some things related to that," he said.
"Yes, it's obvious," Khanban said. "I mean, look at this place. At the time it was built, there was no America. See where we were then and where we are now. And see where they were then and where they are now."
Inside the museum, Aboozar Ghalenoi, 24, pointed out a framed declaration. Translated from cuneiform, it was attributed to Xerxes, the son of Darius who ushered Persepolis to a glory that survived only until the city was sacked by Alexander the Great in 330 B.C.
"I am not hot-tempered," the text declared. "What things develop my anger, I hold firmly under control by my thinking power. I am firmly ruling over my impulses."
"Did you read that and know that Iranians are not after nuclear weapons?" Ghalenoi asked. "All the great people of Iran have always spoken about peace. We need nuclear power for electricity and for medical uses.
"But countries like Israel, that's not what they want," he went on. "They want to use it against people. Unfortunately, the Americans support them."
The shift from civilian to military came easily, at least in conversation.
"You see, Israel has got so many of them," said Mohsen Seddighi, carrying his daughter on his shoulders. "And even Jacques Chirac is saying: If any country attacks us, we're going to use it. So why shouldn't we have it?"
At the company he works for, a domestic airline, "99 percent, even 100 percent of people are together on this," Seddighi said. "For civilian use."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/23/2006 03:36 ||
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#1
The WaPo can't be believed about much. Are there any of you in the 'Burg who follow Iranian blogs? If so, are they showing any signs of awareness that serious people in the West are talking about turning their country into a radioactive glass parking lot rather than let the mad mullahs get their hands on nuclear weapons? I can't help but think that if the average Iranian knew just how dangerous the situation is for them personally due to the irresponsible and vicious threats made by their government, they would be tearing the mullahs to bloody bits with their bare hands.
Posted by: mac ||
01/23/2006 6:28 Comments ||
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#2
No one is really rejecting the idea of nuclear power generation for Iran. It's the setting up of a system where fisile materials can be diverted and missused that are being objected to.
""Look at all this civilization!" said Mehrdad Khanban, 23, the sweep of his arm taking in the towering pillars and regal staircases of the stone city founded by Darius the Great in about 518 B.C. in the southern corner of Iran first known as Persia. "What has George Bush got? And he's telling Iranians what to do?"
These buggers are trapped in dreams of ancient glory. They don't get anywhere cause they're constantly walking backwards. Maybe someone should remind them of what happend when the Mongols arrived.
Swiss banking giant UBS AG stops doing business with Iran . A similar policy implemented against Syria
January 22, 2006, 2:50 PM (GMT+02:00)
UBS AG spokesman Serge Steiner announced Sunday, Jan. 22, that all existing business with customers in Iran will be cancelled, except for Iranians in exile.
DEBKAfileâs financial sources reveal that, under the threat of sanctions over Iranâs nuclear program, the ayatollahs and corporate heads as well as the government have begun transferring vast private fortunes out of secret accounts in Europe.
The money is being spread out among dozens of banks around the world, including the oil emirates, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia.
DEBKAfile has learned that Iranâs spiritual ruler Ayatollah Ali Khameini has transferred his personal fortune of $1.2 bn from the Swiss UBS AG to banks in Singapore and Malaysia. Former president Hashemi Rafsanjani has ordered the removal of two large sums in Canadian dollars â 856 m and 1,425 bn â from Canadian banks to establishments in Beirut, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Our financial experts estimate that in the last ten days, some $7.5bn dollars have been drained from private Iranian accounts in Germany, Switzerland, France, Britain and Italy and concealed in Southeast Asian banks. That is in addition to the estimated $23bn in governing holdings that Iran has taken out of European banks and deposited in the Bahamas, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Dubai and Singapore.
Rumors began circulating at the end of last week that the two European banking giants, LNB in Italy and UBS AG, were about to freeze Iranian assets. DEBKAfileâs financial experts calculate the holdings in the two banks as totaling $17bn of oil revenues. The Swiss bank appears to have acted on a tip from Washington and pre-empted Tehranâs massive withdrawals which would created havoc on the world currency markets. The UBS AG took advantage of the bank being closed on a Sunday for this maneuver.
#1
Last week Iran announced it had moved its cash out of Europe. Note that UBS is ceasing to do business with Iran only after Iran ceased to do business with it.
The leader of Lebanon's Shia group Hezbollah has warned that no one should conspire with the United States against his organisation.
"Nope. Don't even think of it..."
Shaikh Hasan Nasrallah's comments on Sunday came amid tension between his group and anti-Syrian politicians, some of whom are calling for disarming Hezbollah. "Whoever dreams about getting rid of Hizb Allah in any position is mistaken," Nasr Allah said in a speech at a graduation ceremony for 1300 Hizb Allah members and supporters.
Sounds like they've got to be careful starting their cars...
Nasr Allah criticised US ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman and Assistant US Secretary of State David Welch, who have been accused by Hizb Allah of interfering in Lebanese affairs. Welch told Lebanon's LBC Television on Thursday that Hizb Allah should not be in the government and that the United States does not consider it a militia but a terrorist organisation. "Whoever wants to work to get rid of Hizb Allah will repent it and will be mistaken," Nasr Allah said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2006 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Hundreds of Afghans staged a protest on Saturday to denounce a wave of suicide bomb attacks, with many of the protesters blaming Pakistan for the violence. "We condemn these suicide attacks," protesters shouted outside the provincial governor's offices in the city of Ghazni. There have been 13 suicide blasts since November, the worst last Monday when 23 people were killed in the town of Spin Boldak, on the border with Pakistan. The government blames foreign al Qaeda and Taliban supporters for the violence. "The UN should stop Pakistan from interfering in Afghanistan," Qari Baba, a former governor of Ghazni province, told the crowd.
Sudanese authorities have detained around 50 delegates from local and international human rights groups as they met on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Khartoum. Rights activists, being detained in a building where the meeting was being held, said Sunday's crackdown called into question Sudan's right to host the AU summit. Osman Hummaida, from the Sudanese Organisation Against Torture (SOAT), said: "Towards the end of the meeting a group of security men came and demanded to see the agenda, the list of participants and our recommendations.
Algeria intends to reveal details of a security and judicial agreement with Britain concerning the deportation of Algerian fundamentalists which the British Government considers a danger to British security. Algerian Justice Minister Tayeb Belaiz told correspondents in parliament the day before yesterday that the "results we have reached during the preparation of the agreement are very, very conclusive." Faced by the correspondents' insistence to give them more details of the agreement over which there was much talk during the past eight months, the minister said only: "We are about to undertake a considerable action and you will see the purport of this action soon. It is a matter of time." The minister did not identify the British side that the Algerians negotiated with to reach an agreement that would allow the Algerian Government to receive persons residing in Britain who were given jail sentences by the Algerian judiciary on charges of terrorism or are wanted for questioning in terror-related cases. 
The Kuwaiti cabinet has asked for a special parliamentary session on Tuesday to debate the removal of the new ailing emir from power, a Kuwaiti deputy says.
Saudi religious figure, Dr 
Gas supplies from Russia to Armenia and Georgia have been halted by two explosions on a pipeline that Georgia blames on Russian sabotage. At a time when freezing winter temperatures are gripping all three countries, the explosions occurred on the main branch and a reserve branch of the Mozdok-Tbilisi pipeline close to the border with Georgia in the early hours of Sunday morning. According to a spokesman for Russia's deputy prosecutor, general investigators at the site in the Russian province of North Ossetia, are treating the incident as sabotage, but not terrorism. 
KATMANDU - Nepal’s monarchist government lifted house arrest imposed on three top dissidents to deter weekend anti-government rallies. Troops guarding the homes of former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, president of the Nepali Congress party, Khadga Prasad Oli of the Communist Party of Nepal and Narayan Man Bijuchche of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party ended their weekend lockdown aimed at thwarting demonstrations against King Gyanendra’s nearly yearlong absolute rule. “The policemen left this evening and now I think I am free to move out,” Oli said by telephone.
GAZA CITY - Campaigners working on behalf of women are looking to Wednesday’s Palestinian election with trepidation, fearing that if elected, Hamas will enforce Islamist values.
President Ahmadinejad said Friday Palestine is the center of the final stages of the battle between Islam and arrogance, saying the Palestinian 
The leader of Lebanon's Shia group Hezbollah has warned that no one should conspire with the United States against his organisation.
