[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is likely to face a second round runoff against one of his opponents in April elections, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said on Thursday.
The presidential poll is to be held on April 11 in conjunction with parliamentary and regional elections as part of Sudan's first multi-party ballot since 1986.
Carter, who founded the Carter Center which is monitoring the elections, said he believed there was a "high likelihood" the presidential contest would need a second round.
"We don't know yet whether President Bashir can get a majority at the beginning round," Carter told reporters in the southern capital. "If not, which I think is likely, then there will be a runoff between him and the second person who got the most votes." Clairvoyant Jimmuah strikes again ...
In the election, the south's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) is challenging its former civil war enemies, Bashir's northern ruling National Congress Party (NCP).
Tensions are rising ahead of the ballot, with concerns the contest could boost violence in regions already struggling because of bloody inter-ethnic clashes that killed 2,500 people in south Sudan in 2009.
However, Carter said he expected there would be even more violence, and voiced hope it could be kept at a local level. Tell him to stay there...keep an eye on things.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
Islamic terrorism comes in many different forms. Christian Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia are complaining that their employers are threatening to fire them if they do not convert to Islam. It's against the law for a Moslem in Saudi Arabia to convert to another religion. The punishment is death, and anyone attempting to convert Moslems is subject to the death penalty. This sort of double standard, and use of coercion, is a big deal in the Philippines, although the government there, and in Saudi Arabia, try to play down this particular problem. There are about 200,000 Filipinos working in Saudi Arabia, and 600,000 throughout the Persian Gulf. The forced conversions are not widespread, yet. But several hundred are believed to have occurred, and the idea is catching on with employers who are conservative Moslems.
Posted by: ed ||
02/12/2010 10:40 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Saudi is the brains/funding behind most Sunni terrorism so I cant wait for the West to be self sufficient re energy so this Country collapses back to its primative 7th Century aspirations!
#2
The Filipinos run that country, they are the workforce and backbone of soddi. They joke that they could stage a coup and just stop working and the country will fall.
Filipinos converting to Islam will take it back to the PI with them that already has problem enough with the muzzie population.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/12/2010 11:42 Comments ||
Top||
BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's top nuclear negotiator is expected to visit the United States next month on a trip that could signal the resumption of stalled six-way talks on the communist state's denuclearization, a diplomatic source here said Friday. Kim Kye-gwan, also North Korea's vice foreign minister, has been in Beijing since Tuesday for discussions on ways to resume the nuclear talks with China's former vice foreign minister Wu Dawei, who was named this week as the special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs.
"I believe the dates for Kim's trip to the United States have already been set," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The six-way talks involve both South and North Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia. They were last held in December 2008.
North Korea said late last year that it may return to the nuclear negotiations following bilateral talks with the United States, which were held in Pyongyang in December. Pyongyang is now demanding the removal of U.N. sanctions imposed shortly after its missile tests and second nuclear detonation test last year.
Once again, the old 'you give us something, we give you nothing' negotiating ploy ...
Kim's trip to the U.S., if made, would mark the second bilateral dialogue between the two since U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth's trip to Pyongyang last year.
Observers, however, believe the trip could prove fruitless if the North continues to stick to its demands, which also include the start of discussions to replace the 1953 armistice with a peace treaty to officially end the Korean War, which Pyongyang claims is the main source of what it calls U.S. hostilities toward it. Both South Korea and the U.S. have dismissed the North's demands, saying such issues can be discussed only after the North returns to the six-party nuclear talks and makes significant progress toward denuclearization.
The North Korean diplomat on Thursday said he and Wu had important talks on issues related to signing a peace treaty on the Korean Peninsula and the resumption of the nuclear negotiations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea proposed to North Korea on Friday that working-level military officials meet later this month to discuss restrictions hindering transportation and communications in and out of a joint factory park in the North, defense officials said.
The proposal for a new round of inter-Korean talks comes as Pyongyang is showing a renewed willingness to rejoin suspended multinational denuclearization talks, with its top officials meeting with a United Nations envoy in Pyongyang and its top nuclear negotiator in Beijing.
"We have proposed to the North to hold the talks on Feb. 23 at the House of Peace near Panmunjeom," said Won Tae-jae, spokesman for Seoul's defense ministry.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
North Korean and Chinese border guards play a vital part in the trafficking of North Korean women to China, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Thursday. In a feature report, the Japanese daily quoted a Chinese border guard as testifying he caught a few female North Korean defectors in their teens and 20s crossing the Duman (or Tumen) River and handed them over to a Korean-Chinese human trafficker.
The Chinese border guard said he gets requests from a trafficker in China and informs his North Korean counterparts, who then ask a trafficker in the North to find suitable women. The North Korean guards then let the women pass in the area on the Chinese guard's watch. This particular Chinese border guard alone had sold some 40 to 50 women per year this way.
Traffickers reportedly pay about 6,000 to 7,000 yuan (approximately W1.02 million to W1.19 million) a head. Of the money, 4,000 yuan go to the Chinese border guard, who hands 1,000 yuan over to a North Korean guard.
The Chinese guard added, "If they are told they can eat to their hearts' content [in China], many North Korean women are happy to be on their way." An estimated 150 human traffickers work in the border area.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Compare wid NEWS KERALA > seems ALGIERS has just busted a WOMEN-, BABY-TRAFICKING RING where infants could be sold for up to EU$300.00.
ARTIC > Not too clear but IIUC some women were forced to get preggers in order to eventually sell their post-birth babies???
Lynn Pascoe, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, on Thursday met North Korea's no. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam in Pyongyang, the official [North] Korean Central News Agency reported.
Pascoe delivered a pizza message and a bottle of cognac gift from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, KCNA added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
South Koreans are largely indifferent to human rights abuses in the North such as labor camps, the military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported Tuesday.
In an article titled, "Facing Apathy and Gulags: Ex-North Korean Inmates Struggle to Raise Concern in South," the U.S. daily cites a former prisoner and erstwhile soldier, Jung Kyoung-il, who said he was stunned by questions from a group of young South Korean soldiers when he spoke to them about the North Korean gulag.
One soldier asked, "How many days of leave are North Korean soldiers given?" Another asked, "Are North Korean soldiers allowed to visit their girlfriends?" But none seemed interested in the brutal reality of the camps.
The daily pointed out that Seoul in a rare report recently acknowledged that hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are languishing in the camps but has made no public effort to pressure the Kim Jong-il regime. It said many South Koreans hold "deeply conflicted" feelings toward the North and are uncomfortable admitting that the camps exist.
Jung said many students sleep through his lectures, an indifference that still shocks him five years after he defected following three years in the notorious Yoduk camp, where he was subjected to back-breaking labor, a sparse diet and long nights of forced study of nation founder Kim Il-sung's philosophies, the paper said.
About 200,000 North Koreans are presumed to be languishing in six concentration camps, and of 18,000 defectors in the South, 32 are former inmates, according to the article, often for trivial offenses.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
back-breaking labor, a sparse diet and long nights of forced study of nation founder Kim Il-sung's philosophies How is life different from NKors not in the gulag?
#2
I think in time we will find little difference between North and South Korean philosophies. It is just a matter of political geography at the moment. The cores are the same. When re-united, however that may come about, I think we will find the "new" Korea repugnant.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/12/2010 12:11 Comments ||
Top||
Attorney General Eric Holder is leaving open the possibility of trying professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed before a military commission instead of the civilian trial originally planned for New York City. Another Great Achievement for the Obama admin!
/Biden
Posted by: ed ||
02/12/2010 11:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It took Nobama most of a year to figure out that he needed a surge in Afghanistan.
This time it only took him a few months to figure out that maybe trying terrorists in civilain courts with all the protections given to hard-working, dedicated citizens was retarded maybe not such a good idea after all.
So he does seem to be learning. Slowly, but at least he does learn.'
Maybe he should read RB to figure out what to do in a more timely manner, seeing as we seem to be a day or few ahead of the usual news cycle.
Islamic scholars have forbidden Muslim travellers from passing through full body scans at airports because they violate religious rules on nudity. All us infidels are panting to see images of nude Muslims...
The Fiqh Council of North America issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, yesterday warning Muslims not to go through the scanners. 'It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,' read the order. I support the Figh Council's fatwa 100%! Just say NO to scanners, airports, air travel, trains, buses, cabs, and hoof it from now on. More at the link. Obviously we should make an exception for Muslims. Just wave them through the airport security gates...
Posted by: Besoeker ||
02/12/2010 19:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Don't wanna walk through the scanner? Sounds suspicious to me.
We'll do strip searches instead.
#2
Members of a private security firm in Baghdad. It is alleged that Blackwater hired strippers under "cleaning services"
The controversial American security firm Blackwater is facing new allegations of gross misconduct after two former employees said the firm repeatedly defrauded the US Government, including billing it for the use of a Filipina prostitute in Afghanistan.
Where do I put this expense, boss?
Which expense?
It says here "Cleaned her pipes".
In a federal lawsuit Melan Davis, one of the former employees, accused the security firm of employing the prostitute in Kabul, and billing the Government for her aircraft tickets and monthly salary under the morale welfare recreation expenses category.
Snicker. Sounds about right.
Note to Melan: Living a little close to the edge, aren't you? Next time why don't you jump in front of a moving bus or stick your tongue out at Mike Tyson.
#3
tsk, tsk. You're suppose to put them on the payroll as campaign assistants. That way the MSM will never cover it. Toe taping in the airport however....
#5
Blackwater 'defrauded US by billing for prostitute in Kabul'
Let me get this straight. The media still refers to a known terrorist as the alleged Ft. Hood shooter. But disgruntled ex employees make public allegations prior to a lawsuit and they get a declarative headline like this? The convenient use of quotation marks might give them legal cover but without source association this is ethically bankrupt. I know journalistic integrity seems to be an oxymoron these days but Cmon man.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/12/2010 11:36 Comments ||
Top||
#2
He really doesn't understand how to be a leader, does he? He thinks "leading" means making all the decisions.
Hey, Bambi, a leader leads; a real leader sets policy and delegates day-to-day decisions. And accepts responsibility if one of the delegees screws up.
But hey, you screwed this whole thing up from the get-go, so you can own it. Make the decision yourself; if someone else makes it, you'll just blame him/her for the inevitable mess. Which you'll probably do anyway.
By the way, I blame Bush just like you do, but for a different reason. I blame him for not following the Geneva Conventions and shooting these non-uniformed combatants.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/12/2010 11:45 Comments ||
Top||
#7
On State Street, that great street, I just want to say
They do things that they never do on Broadway -- say
They have the time, the time of their life
I saw a man and he danced with his wife
In Chicago, Chicago, Chicago -- that's my home town
#8
ADKRONOS [12/2009 = 02/2010] > PAKISTAN: AL QAEDA CLAIMS BHUTTO DEATH.
* NEWS KERALA > OSAMA SUCCESSOR WILL BE MUCH, MUCH WORSE, SAY SON OMAR BIN LADEN.
Iff the US-World thought WHITNEY-HUSTON FAN, Big Daddy Osama was DA' BAD, OMAR SAYS THEY'RE WRONG, AS WRONG AS BEING WRONG COULD WRONGFULLY WORSEFULLY BE - THEY WERE WRONG BEFORE THEY WERE WRONG.
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > HOW THE TALIBAN PRESSED OSAMA!? TALIBAN BIG BOSS MULLAH OMAR would not allow Osama to stay in Afghanistan widout Taliban consent, + only as long as Osama didn't plan any new attacks the USA.
THE battle over President Obama's top counter terrorism aide has escalated.
Senator John McCain blasted John Brennan for accusing Republicans of aiding al-Qaeda by being critical of his response to the failed Christmas Day airline attack.
The White House came to the defence of Brennan in the face of new criticism over a recent editorial in which he accused Republicans of aiding Al Qaeda with their criticism of the interrogation of failed Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Brennan has 25 years experience in counter terrorism and does not wear his politics on his sleeves.
"John is there each and every day working in his office to try to do everything he can to keep the American people safe," Gibbs said, adding that the administration has asked him to stay on.
Republicans have assailed Brennan and the Obama administration for its handling of Abdulmutallab, who was read his Miranda rights, outlining legal privileges including the use of an attorney, after 50 minutes of questioning.
Critics say Abdulmutallab should have been treated as an enemy combatant and subjected to a military tribunal instead of a civilian trial.
Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for Brennan to resign after a hearing in Congress last week in which Brennan said he was tired of criticism from armchair quarterbacks.
Bond's counterpart in the House, Republican Pete Hoesktra (R-MI), urged the administration to fire him.
On Tuesday, Brennan accused Republicans critical of his response to the failed Christmas Day airline attack of aiding al-Qaeda.
Brennan made his accusation in an opinion article published in the USA Today.
"Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of Al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill," he wrote.
#3
On 9/11/2001 a large number of people (including myself) concluded that people like Mr. Brennan were part of the problem.
He was. Credentials do not = competence. Career CIA officer, CIA station chief ME Middle East(1996 - 1999), deputy to CIA director, Political Officer U.S. Embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Department of State, Deputy Director, Office of Near Eastern and South Asian Analysis, CIA....he apparently didn't connect the dots with not just AQ, but with Iraq, AQ Khan, and a whole lot of other really bad guys that got us to where we are today.
#4
Free Radical,
My understanding is he was instructed to say these things. It would not surprise me if the comments were penned by one of the WH speachwriters.
Win/win for Obama. If it works, credentialed "expert" endorses Obama policies. If it doesn't, another peon gets thrown under the bus.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/12/2010 11:41 Comments ||
Top||
#5
That bus has to have an industrial-strength suspension, Al.
Amazing number of people have been thrown under it already.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/12/2010 11:47 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Frozen Al,
That is what I suspected without evidence. Do share links to stories on this if you have them. His statements seemed discordant, disconnected...
I agree with LE in principle; it is still unsettling that someone with that amount of experience missed the forest so widely.
WASHINGTON -- About 10,000 airport security workers will get access to secret intelligence that could help stop terrorist attacks on planes. The Transportation Security Administration plan aims to help its officers spot terrorists by giving them more detailed information about tactics and threats, TSA officials and security experts said. The agency, viewed by some as throngs of workers pawing through luggage at checkpoints, hopes to empower its higher-level workers as part of an effort to professionalize airport security.
The 10,000 people in line to get classified information are managers, supervisors and "behavior detection officers" who roam airports looking for suspicious people. They represent about 20% of the TSA's airport workforce and exclude screeners who scan passengers and bags.
The information will give workers details about terrorist "tactics, planning, operations and threats," TSA spokeswoman Sterling Payne said. Those details "give context to things they see every day which may otherwise not appear unusual" and let workers "exercise discretion" in dealing with travelers, Payne added. She would not elaborate on specific intelligence the workers will get. All TSA airport workers now get daily intelligence briefings that include less sensitive information.
So far, 750 people have been cleared to get classified information, Payne said, adding that it will take two more years to get all 10,000 workers cleared.
The information could include copies of terrorist training videos or tips vaguely describing a terrorism suspect, experts said. "Some classified information seems innocuous but is classified because it was derived from an intercepted phone conversation," said Steven Aftergood, an intelligence-policy specialist for the Federation of American Scientists.
"This could enable broader sharing of some kinds of sensitive information," Aftergood said.
TSA workers are getting "Secret" clearance -- which ranks above Confidential but below Top Secret.
About 2.5 million Americans have security clearances, many of them in the military or working for defense contractors, and some working for the Homeland Security Department, Aftergood said.
A "limited number" of Border Patrol agents can receive classified information, said T.J. Bonner, head of a Border Patrol labor union.
Since the 9/11 attacks prompted criticism about a lack of information sharing, the federal government has increasingly given classified details to state and local authorities, Aftergood said.
"This is a brilliant idea," said Randall Larsen, director of the Institute for Homeland Security and a former National War College professor. "It shows the TSA is focusing more on where it should be focused -- on the people getting on airplanes."
Others fear a greater risk that intelligence will be leaked. "When you open security secrets to that large a group, it could lead to somebody who's dangerous finding out information that enables a terrorist attack itself," said Michael Greenberger, head of the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security.
The TSA, created in 2002, has recently pushed to improve its operations and image. It has given screeners badges and sophisticated X-ray machines, created specialized jobs for people to analyze suspected bombs and suspicious passengers, and taken over the duty of checking boarding passes.
#4
Might have a bit of a time getting NAC Secret clearances for these... hmm hmm highly professional TSA folks in Atlanta. I suppose of course we standards could be modified a bit to exclude prior convictions, drug use, etc.
Sorry, boys. You're a little late...
[Dawn] The government assured the National Assembly on Thursday it would put up a "good defence" for Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui even at the next stage of her trial by a US court where a jury last week found her guilty of attempting to murder American soldiers in Afghanistan.
"Justice is not being done (to her)," Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Ahmed Khan said at the end of a one-sided debate in apparently Islamabad's strongest comment to date in what he called "a common cause" against the Feb 3 conviction in New York.
He complained of that a Pakistani woman had been "maltreated" and said: "We all agree that somehow she should be brought back (to Pakistan)." She will be. Eventually. Probably in a box...
But despite the near unanimity of stance in the house, neither the opposition nor the treasury benches moved any resolution on the issue although PPP chief whip and Labour and Manpower Minister Khurshid Ahmed Shah had said on Wednesday, in response to a demand from opposition leader Nisar Ali Khan, that the government would be prepared to pass a joint resolution. Harrrumph...harrrumph...harrrumph!
Malik Amad referred to the next and final court session in May for sentencing, before an appeal can be made to a higher court, and said: "We will put up a strong defence. We will go all the way." Helpful hint? Over here, don't threaten to burn the appellate judge alive. They don't like that.
The minister of state rejected opposition charges that the government had not done enough to secure Dr Aafia's return to Pakistan and said President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and he himself had been raising the matter with US authorities while the government also allocated $2 million for her legal defence.
Such interactions, he said, also won her concessions such as meetings with a Senate delegation and family members, return of her 12-year-old son and improvement in prison conditions.
All of more than 10 members from both the opposition and the ruling coalition, who spoke on the second day of the debate condemned Dr Aafia's conviction, though some called for a serious approach rather than rhetoric to fight her case even outside the court like pleading with the US Congress and administration.
ADMONITIONS: The day was also marked by repeated admonitions by Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi of members he blamed for disturbing the house either by crowding the desk of the prime minister or a minister apparently to get their papers signed or chatting between themselves disregarding the house proceedings.
"Members are requested that this is not the prime minister's chambers," the chair remarked when several members stood beside Gilani's desk with papers they wanted him to sign, and asked them to keep discipline when an important bill was being moved.
Kundi once asked Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to "close your office because it disturbs me" as some members were seeking signatures of the minister seated on a front treasury bench, with a warning: "Otherwise I will take action."
Later, the deputy speaker objected to some ministers chatting while standing in a corner of the house and asked them to "go the (members') lobby if they have to hold a meeting".
GESTURE TO PML-N: In a gesture to the opposition PML-N, the prime minister asked Minister of State for Law and Justice Mehrin Anwar Raja to defer a bill before the house seeking to endorse a Musharraf-era ordinance on the National Commission for Human Development created in 2002 in order to accommodate amendments moved by some PML-N members.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
"Justice is not being done (to her),"
True, she's still alive.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/12/2010 13:40 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Look, guys - the TRIAL is where you put on "a good defense", the "penalty phase" is usually where smart lawyers start whining and pleading for mercy a lot.
[Dawn] Inspector General Police Balochistan Syed Javed Ali Shah Bukhari on Thursday said that the police had no capacity to guard every Nato tanker passing through the province.
In an exclusive interview with DawnNews, the Balochistan Police Chief stated that in most cases criminals with the support of companies set ablaze Nato tankers and containers.
When asked about the presence of the Afghan Taliban's shura in Quetta, Javed Bukhari said such reports were baseless and far from reality.
Responding to a question about Jundullah, he said some Jundullah fighters were arrested and handed over to Iran by the government. He however said that the police was in close contact with Iranian officials in order to strictly guard the border.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Because they are now safely in Karachi under ISI control!
12 February 2010 BAGHDAD An official says an Iraqi appeals panel has issued a final ruling barring two prominent Sunni politicians from running in the March elections. Ali al-Lami, director of a Shiite-led panel that has blacklisted hundreds of candidates, says he was informed by the court of its decision against Sunni lawmakers Salah al-Mutlaq and Dhafir al-Ani.
Al-Lami says both were disqualified because of overwhelming' ties to Saddam Hussein's former Baathist regime. Seems like a good reason ...
He says the ruling was issued Thursday by the seven-judge committee reviewing evidence against 177 candidates who had challenged the blacklist by al-Lami's panel.
Some Sunnis have threatened to boycott the March 7 vote if the blacklisted candidates are not allowed to run.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq is trying to recover a 651 million euro ($895 million) payment to France for a consignment of Mirage F1 fighter planes that were never delivered, the cabinet has said. That's why they're called "Mirages", mon-sewer..
"(A ministerial) committee was recently formed to negotiate with the relevant French parties the recovery of 651 million euros paid in advance under the contract to buy Mirage F1 aircraft that the manufacturers never delivered," the cabinet said in a statement after meeting on Tuesday evening.
Iraq used to own 90 Mirage F1s, and signed a contract with France in September 1985 to buy 24 more of the combat aircraft. But they were not delivered before the UN Security Council imposed sweeping sanctions on Iraq over its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
A diplomat at the French embassy told AFP that he was looking into the matter, without elaborating.
In December, France cancelled 80 percent of the debt it was owed by Iraq, which amounted to around 4.8 billion euros ($6.6 billion).
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Maybe they should return the illegally bought 747 and the numerous F-14 parts, just to, you know show some good faith. after all, because of these d!ckheads, we had to cut up all the perfectly good Tomcats.
YCMTUIYT
JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinian protesters have added a colorful twist to demonstrations against Israel's separation barrier, painting themselves blue and posing as characters from the hit film "Avatar."
The demonstrators also donned long hair and loincloths Friday for the weekly protest against the barrier near the village of Bilin. Ok - so how can you tell the difference?
They equated their struggle to the intergalactic one portrayed in the film.
Israel says the barrier is needed for its security. Palestinians consider it a land grab.
The protests have become a symbol of opposition. They often end in clashes with Israeli security forces involving stones and tear gas. Meaning that the 'peace-loving -just like the Navi- Protesters often turn violent and start throwing rocks at security.
The "Avatar" protest comes a day after the Israeli government began rerouting the enclosure to eat up less of the Palestinian village.
The Israeli military has begun rerouting a disputed section of its West Bank security barrier, marking a victory for Palestinians who fought for years to win back access to their land, officials said Thursday.
The move comes two years after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the fence improperly cut through the Palestinian village of Bilin in order to enlarge a nearby Israeli settlement. Under the new route, about 170 acres of agricultural land will be accessible again to Palestinian owners. Bilin has long been a focal point of Palestinian opposition to Israel's planned 800-kilometre barrier.
#1
I applaud this. Mostly I applaud the Palestinians involved who used the legal process rather than the gun. And the Israeli courts deserve recognition for doing justice in this case for those involved.
I hope this gives incentive for others with a grievance to use the existing system before resorting to violence.
[Al Arabiya Latest] For your next getaway, you might consider this: four nights and five days in sunny "Palestine: land of miracles." Yeah, I might. For, like,...maybe eight fuckin seconds.
It's a tough sell for a place that has become synonymous with Middle East violence, for a country not yet a country which does not even control all of its territory, let alone its major tourist attractions. Yeah, tough sell. Maybe they could have Woody Allen come over and do some commercials for them or...sumthin.
And yet the figures are up for the third year running. Palestinian tourism ministry records show that some 2.6 million tourists visited the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 2009.
Of those, more than 1.7 million were foreigners, just 1.2 percent fewer than in 2008 a veritable miracle in itself at a time when the global economic slump has sent tourism plunging 10 percent across the rest of the region.
The fact that the Palestinian territories are part of the Holy Land accounts for a large part of the success.
Bethlehem, home to the Church of the Nativity built on what tradition holds to be the birthplace of Jesus, is the prime attraction. More than 80 percent of all tourists who come to the Palestinian territories visit Bethlehem.
"We do not have a sea or sport centers, we don't have oil or fashion or nightclubs. Visitors must come as pilgrims," said Bethlehem mayor Victor Batarseh.
Being a one-attraction destination has its drawbacks, however, and those who come do not spend either much time or money.
"Every day they come and visit our city, but just for 20 minutes," said Adnan Subah, who sells olive wood carvings and pottery to tourists. "They go from the bus into the church and then back on the bus," he said, gesturing forlornly at his empty shop despite its prime location near the church on Manger Square. Lousy bastids...
More than just holy sites
Still, despite its "Palestine: land of miracles" slogan, the Palestinian tourism ministry says it has more to offer than just holy sites. "Palestine: Come for the miracles, Stay for the gunfights"
Brochures tout the wonders of the Turkish baths of Nablus, the cosmopolitan coffee-shops of Ramallah and the archaeological attractions of ancient Jericho.
But the glossy pamphlets often also gloss over the complex reality of a highly volatile region. Some call it dangerous. We call it "complex"...
The ministry's efforts are largely devoted to the myriad attractions of Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of their future state.
But all of Jerusalem is controlled by Israel, which captured the eastern part of the Holy City in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.
The Palestinian ministry leaflets also make no mention of Israeli army roadblocks or the West Bank separation barrier that includes an eight-meter- (26-foot-) high concrete wall that cuts off Bethlehem from Jerusalem.
Brochures even advise travelers to take in the sites of the Gaza Strip, renowned for its "relaxed seaside atmosphere." Hey, Mahmoud, how old are these glossy phamphlets?
Oooooh, very old...
Today, tourists are not even allowed in to the isolated, war-ravaged enclave ruled by the Islamist movement Hamas, which in 2007 violently ousted secular forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Since then, Israel and Egypt have imposed a strict blockade, allowing only basic humanitarian goods into the coastal territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
Four nights and five days in sunny "Palestine: land of miracles."
Well, at least its sunny. I for one have had enough of their miracles!
But just to be safe , I googled http://www.palguide.com/ . Have a look, I particularly liked the 'Crash Arabic Course' (top right of page) , and the myriad of grammatical errors handily highlighted in red
Oooh Im sold ..
Posted by: Oscar ||
02/12/2010 5:11 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Al Arabiya Latest] For your next getaway, you might consider this: four nights and five days in sunny "Palestine: land of miracles."
Yeah, I might. For, like,...maybe eight fuckin seconds.
Why so long?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/12/2010 13:47 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Must be one of those Thrill vacations....
"Have an Adventure - Be a human shield or a Hostage!"
[Dawn] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had produced its first consignment of 20 per cent enriched uranium two days after the Islamic state announced it had started making higher-grade atomic fuel.
He also said in a televised speech that Iran would in the near future treble output of the fuel, adding it was able to refine the material further at its Natanz plant. "Right now at Natanz we have the capability to enrich uranium to much higher levels," the president told a huge crowd of flag-waving people in Tehran's Azadi Square, comments likely to add to Western concern about the Islamic state's nuclear ambitions.
"By God's grace ... it was reported that the first consignment of 20 percent enriched uranium was produced and was put at the disposal of the scientists," he told the crowd marking the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution. "In the near future we will treble its production," Ahmadinejad added.
A level of 80% enriched uranium is required to make a nuclear weapon.
The bold announcement comes only days after the US and Israel called for tough, new sanctions against Iran which they believe is producing a nuclear weapons program. However former US officials and independent nuclear experts have claimed that Iran is experiencing surprising setbacks in its efforts to enrich uranium, and assessments suggest equipment failures and other difficulties could undermine its effort to ramp up its nuclear program, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. Iran insists it is using nuclear technology for peaceful energy production.
The Post said UN reports over the last year have shown a drop in production at Iran's main uranium enrichment plant, near the city of Natanz. A new assessment, based on three years of internal data from UN nuclear inspections, suggests that Iran's mechanical woes are deeper than previously known, it said. Through the end of 2009, the Natanz plant appeared to have performed so poorly that sabotage could not be ruled out as an explanation.
The newspaper said a separate, forthcoming analysis by the Federation of American Scientists also discussed Iran's flagging performance and suggested the failures could increase Iran's appetite for a deal with the West. Ivan Oelrich, vice president of the federation's Strategic Security Program, told the Post, Iranian leaders appeared to have raced into large-scale uranium production for political reasons. "They are really struggling to reproduce what is literally half-century-old European technology and doing a really bad job of it," Oelrich said.
The findings are in line with assessments by numerous former US and European officials and weapons analysts who say that Iran's centrifuges appear to be breaking down at a faster rate than expected, the Post said. But analysts also
warned that Iran remains capable of making enough enriched uranium for a small arsenal of nuclear weapons, if it decides to do so.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > IRAN THREATENS TO INCREASE ENRICHMENT UNLESS US THREATS STOP.
It's from Sueddeutsche Zeitung, citing a "new IAEA summary." The article is in German. Here's a translation:
"Iran has developed a nuclear warhead, according to an article in the German newspaper "Sueddeutsche Zeitung". A foreigner alleged to have helped Iran towards developing nuclear weapons is from the former Soviet Union...The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has already mentioned the employment of a foreigner in the nuclear programme.
Quoting a new IAEA summary, the Suddeutsche said the scientist had previously worked in a Soviet nuclear weapons laboratory on advanced warheads. It said both western intelligence services and diplomats had confirmed the connection.
The newspaper added that Iran was trying to make a nuclear weapon small enough to fit into one of its Shahab 3 medium-range missiles and was designing a so-called two-point implosion system, which requires only two simultaneously exploding detonators to trigger a nuclear blast.
The former Soviet scientist was an expert on the high-speed cameras needed to test if both detonations were symmetrical, and had worked for Iran from the mid-1990s till 2000.
Somebody better tell Director of National Intelligence Blair, who testified this week that the Iranian regime had not yet decided to produce nuclear weapons.
#4
CNN "THE SITUATION ROOM" this AM > GUEST PERT model indics that a ANY WAR AGZ IRAN [US, Israel-only, joint US-Israel] WILL HAVE DISASTROUS COMPLICATIONS FOR THE USA + WILL ESSENS BE A "NO-WIN" SCENARIO(S) FOR THE US REGARDLESS OF THE MERITS.
IRAN > likely to RETALIATE [read, WON'T ATTACK FIRST] BY STRIKING AT ISRAEL + SAUDI, IRAQ? OIL FIELDS.
USA > risks not only RETALIATORY IRAN/IRAN-ALIGNED-Ordered TERROR ATTACKS AGZ CONUS TARGETS, but also:
* UN, INTERNATIONAL CRITICISM for waging war agz Iran, regardless iff ISRAEL attacks Iran unilater widout US approval, +
* ANTI-US "GREAT POWER" MIL INTERVENTION [read. RUSSIA, CHINA, etc] to prevent SOLE US CONTROL of Iran + espec Iran's Oil resources.
* LOSS OF ANY MUSLIM-SPECIFIC, HARD-WON POPULAR SUPPORT IN AFPAK, ETC REGIONS FOR US-NATO/ALLIED VENTURES AGZ THE MILTERRS.
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.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is likely to face a second round runoff against one of his opponents in April elections, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said on Thursday.
North Korean and Chinese border guards play a vital part in the trafficking of North Korean women to China, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Thursday. In a feature report, the Japanese daily quoted a Chinese border guard as testifying he caught a few female North Korean defectors in their teens and 20s crossing the Duman (or Tumen) River and handed them over to a Korean-Chinese human trafficker.
South Koreans are largely indifferent to human rights abuses in the North such as labor camps, the military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported Tuesday. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq is trying to recover a 651 million euro ($895 million) payment to France for a consignment of Mirage F1 fighter planes that were never delivered, the cabinet has said.
[Al Arabiya Latest] For your next getaway, you might consider this: four nights and five days in sunny "Palestine: land of miracles."
