Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/23/2013 6:10 Comments ||
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#2
This is not an amusing story, Jim.
Posing with one's shirt off may seem rather stoopid, particularly to us jaded westerners who see political protests in which men wear enormous vagina outfits so as to gain attention (and don't).
But in a Muslim country, posing shirtless and with a message that attacks the core beliefs of the majority is an outrage that apparently won't be tolerated.
I'm concerned that the young woman's life is forfeit. That's not right, not right at all. It is not a joke.
In a better world that woman could have stripped butt-nekkid and the only response would have been to toss her a robe.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2013 10:15 Comments ||
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#3
Hear, hear Dr. White.
I'm a big fan of beautiful boobs but in this case it is a fearsome risk by a brave woman.
I went through the bra-burning '60s and that was stupid street theatre by a bunch of narcissistic dweebs. They were no braver than those who protest Christianity.
Protesting Islam IN the heart of Mussiholia is a whole nother matter. Good luck & God bless.
[An Nahar] One of the main armed Islamist groups in northern Mali grabbed credit Friday for a suicide kaboom and armed assault on Timbuktu which left one soldier and 12 hard boyz dead.
The al-Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) said Thursday's attacks on the desert city it had controlled for seven months before being ousted had "opened a new front" in the conflict with Malian troops.
"On behalf of all the mujahedeen, the MUJAO claims the bombing and the attack of Timbuktu... We have opened a new front in Timbuktu, and we will continue," MUJAO front man Adnan Abu Al Walid Sahraoui told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He said hard boyz were back in Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu, the capitals of the three regions of northern Mali, "and they will continue fighting, thanks to Allah". I had cockroaches invade an apartment I had once. I had the place bug bombed. The little bastards still kept sneaking back in.
"The French are our enemies but those who work with them are also our enemies," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2013 00:00 ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] Scores of Libyans gathered in Tripoli's Martyrs' Square on Tuesday (March 19th) to voice anger over Ali Zidan's government.
The protestors from the High Council of Revolutionaries then proceeded to the cabinet headquarters, where some wrote slogans on its walls demanding the ouster of the prime minister.
In a statement issued Wednesday night, they called for withdrawing confidence from the interim government and accused it of threatening to use foreign forces to restore order, failing to provide tangible solutions for the problems facing the country, and of enabling civilian and military symbols of the former regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2013 00:00 ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] An Islamist activist on Thursday (March 21st) hacked the Facebook page of feminist group Femen's Tunisian branch and posted religious messages after images of two members of the group posing topless were published on the internet, AFP reported.
"Thanks to God we have hacked this immoral page and the best is yet to come," read one message signed by "Al-Angour".
"The page has been hacked and God willing, this debauchery will disappear from Tunisia," read another.
Almost two weeks ago, a girl named Amina posted nude photos of herself online with the caption, "I own my body. It is not the source of anyone's honour," written on her bare chest.
The 19-year-old girl described her move as an act of protest to mark International Women's Day.
On Wednesday, a picture of a second topless Tunisian girl was circulated on the internet to protest the status of women in Tunisia. The page of Femen Tunisia with more than 6,800 likes defended the right of every girl to go naked.
Staging topless protests is a tradition of the Ukrainian feminist group, which confirmed its intention to open a branch in Tunisia, a request rejected by the Tunisian women's affairs minister.
Siham Badi promised to "work to confront it and legally ban it because it is incompatible with the Islamic religion and Tunisian traditions".
Amina's act of defiance stirred extreme reactions from Tunisia's radicals, including death threats.
Adel Alami, who heads the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice supposedly affiliated with the salafist movement, called for stoning the girl.
"It would have been better before letting her appear on TV to have her tested medically and determine whether she was consuming drugs or not. She must be presented to a psychiatrist who specialises in mental illnesses to ensure her mental capacities," the radical imam told Ettounsiya TV.
For his part, jihadist leader Mohamed Anis Chaieb, who recently declared allegiance to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), told Assabah that the nude photo posting is an illustration that secularists seek to eliminate the Islamic identity of the country.
While many Tunisians reacted negatively to the posting, they equally condemned salafist threats of violence.
Maysem Abidi argued that freedom is a form of "intellectual transcendence rather than physical nakedness". Young salafist Jamel Omrani described Amina's act as "a shame on a Moslems country" and said that the girl "does not represent Moslems Tunisian women".
For his part, media engineer Mohamed Ammar told Magharebia that the salafist response was typical.
"They do not frankly accept any opinion contrary to their beliefs," the 32-year-old said. "We all reacted negatively to the posting of the pictures of the two girls, but we discussed this with them using arguments and reason, not by cursing or stoning them. We didn't hack their personal pages either."
"Whatever reason they use for piracy or silencing the other, it is unacceptable," said Thouraya Bin Mubarak, a 28 year old employee. "The door of dialogue between all sides and all parties must be opened regardless of their ideological orientation."
Instead of hacking pages and issuing death threats, she argued, Islamists should have created their own page "devoted to the Islamic ethics of Moslem women who aspire to liberty, like all other women in the world".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2013 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] The head of the SSC in Misrata, Juma Belhaj, has announced that the identities of those involved in a number of killings that shocked the city and the attack on its Coptic church were now known.
Speaking at a presser this afternoon, Thursday, he said that Sherlocks had managed to find out the identities of those who in late January had assassinated Misrata Local Council member Sheikh Mohamed Ben Othman. They had also discovered who had been involved in the the liquidation of Sheikh Fakhri Husein Jahani earlier the same month and of two security officers, Walid Shahoot and Wahib Kareem, a few days before that. They also claimed to know who was involved in the bombing of the Coptic church in Misrata in December.
According to Belhaj, the investigations into the case of Ben Othman's liquidation had enabled Sherlocks to discover the identities of the perpetrators of all these crimes. Six people in total were involved, he said. Three had been involved in the liquidation of Ben Othman.
He did not disclose any identities.
"I can say no more!"
The motive for the bombing of the church in Misrata was purely financial with no other motives, Belhaj claimed. He did not explain the reasoning for the allegation.
"My lips are sealed!"
He claimed there was also as a direct link between those involved in the church bombing and the killing of the two security guards and the liquidation of Sheikh Jahan. Again, he did not explain.
"You'll have to wait for the movie to come out."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2013 00:00 ||
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Some 1,500 Christians trapped in Sudan are on their way to neighboring South Sudan, as part of a massive rescue operation dubbed 'Exodus', an aid group told BosNewsLife Thursday, March 21.
The Christians bring the total of rescued believers under the program to roughly 3,800 almost double the number originally planned, explained Barnabas Fund.
"It has been a great privilege for us to be able to help suffering Christians...begin a new life in a place where they can be free to practice their faith in peace and have opportunities to improve their circumstances," said Patrick Sookhdeo, the Fund's international director.
A convoy of buses and lorries carrying the Christians and their belongings set off Tuesday, March 19, taking them to a new life in South Sudan, aid workers said.
"They join 2,300 of their compatriots whom we, working with our partners on the ground, Africa Inland Church Sudan (AIC S), have either flown or bussed to safety," Barnabas Fund added in a statement.
SUWON, South Korea, March 18 -- A North Korean woman has been arrested in Seoul after posing as a defector and engaging in espionage activities under threat from Pyongyang's spy agency, according to prosecutors here Monday.
The 43-year-old woman, whose identity is withheld, entered South Korea in August of last year by disguising herself as a North Korean defector. But she was unable to engage in any actual spying because she was arrested during a routine investigation of newly-arrived defectors.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2013 00:00 ||
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China suspended shipments of crude oil to North Korea in February, Reuters reported on Thursday quoting Chinese customs data.
China, North Korea's sole real ally, normally supplies 30,000-50,000 tons of crude oil a month to the North. Its crude oil shipments to North Korea totaled 523,041 tons in 2012.
Some believe the suspension of shipments is further evidence that Beijing is losing patience with Pyongyang's brinkmanship tactics. They suspect it was triggered by the Norths refusal to listen to Beijing and cancel its nuclear test on Feb. 12.
But a South Korean government official dismissed the speculation, saying it is quite usual for China not to ship crude oil to the North in February due to seasonal factors.
According to the Korea International Trade Association in Seoul, China several times shipped no crude oil to the North in February between 2000 and 2012. There were only February shipments in four years -- 2001, 2004, 2009, and 2010 -- over the past 13 years, and their volume was well below average.
The problem is that the Chinese government's official data do not reflect the whole picture. "China's free aid shipments of crude oil to the North aren't reflected in customs data," a Unification Ministry official here said. "So if no shipments are shown, it doesn't necessarily mean that there were none."
"It's possible that China actually sent crude oil shipments to the North in the form of unofficial aid," he added.
A diplomatic source in Beijing said, "There's no report yet that China has cut off crude oil shipments to the North. I don't think there's an urgent reason for China to take such an extreme measure."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
"Theres no report yet that China cut off crude oil shipments to the North" > AAAWWWWW, I wanted to say it.
Posted by: chris ||
03/23/2013 1:51 Comments ||
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#3
Pudgy better listen to that little voice, or he'l get no Oil.
And damn near nothing else. (Course hey NEED nothing else, Channeling the Nork Line here.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/23/2013 6:05 Comments ||
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#4
More to the point, has China stopped North Korean transshipments of artificial $100 bills, real white juche (whichever drugs that happens to be this week), and nuclear and other weapons supplies? Venezuela may not be as interested as heretofore, but the queue is nonetheless getting longer.
According to a story in the prominent South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, North Korea ordered its diplomats in a number of foreign embassies, including at least one in Eastern Europe, to sell illegal drugs on the streets. A defector who spoke to South Korean intelligence said the diplomats were each sent abroad with 20 kilograms of drugs and were told to raise $300,000 from the sales.
The diplomats were also told that they were being asked to forgo their ambassadorial responsibilities in favor of pushing drugs in order to prove their loyalty and mark the birthday of nation founder Kim Il Sung on April 15.
The story estimates that a single embassy might enlist 10 of its diplomats to be drug dealers, an earning potential of $3 million per foreign mission.
If true, this would be an extension of North Koreas practice of selling state-manufactured drugs, typically high-quality meth, in China.
Products from the state-run meth labs, though, are starting to trickle out into North Korean society. A report in 2011 said that many North Koreans, because they lack access to basic medicines and health care but have relatively easy access to the drug they call ice, have started using meth as a sort of cure-all. A NGO worker with experience in the country said, People with chronic disease take it until theyre addicted. They take it for things like cancer. This drug is their sole form of medication.
A decision to return two Italian marines accused of murdering fishermen to stand trial in India stirred anger in Italy on Friday and calls for Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi to resign.
Mario Monti's caretaker government on Thursday reversed a March 11 decision not to send the marines back from a home visit after Rome secured a promise from New Delhi that the two would not face the death penalty if convicted, officials said.
The marines, part of a military security team protecting a tanker from piracy, are accused of shooting two fishermen off the coast of Kerala in February 2012.
They say they fired warning shots at a fishing boat believing it to be a pirate vessel.
Just how close were the warning shots to the fishing boat?
The sailors, Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre, arrived back in India on Friday, accompanied by Italian deputy Foreign Minister Staffan de Mistura.
India and Italy have been embroiled in an escalating row over the marines, who had been allowed home for Christmas, and then again to vote in the Italian elections in February on condition they returned to India by Friday.
"The good news is that the potential diplomatic crisis has been avoided," De Mistura told a news conference in New Delhi.
But back in Italy the decision provoked an anguished response. Michele Emiliano, the mayor of Girone's hometown of Bari, said he had been comforting the marine's "despairing" family.
"A hypocritical government is trying to end its embarrassment by sending the sailors back to India after exhibiting them as 'free' during the election campaign," Emiliano wrote on Twitter.
Foreign Minister Terzi defended the move in an interview with La Repubblica daily on Friday, rejecting calls from centre-right politicians for him to quit.
"I don't see a reason to" resign, he said, adding that the temporary stand-off with India had helped Italy ensure the marines would be treated well.
The Supreme Court ruled in January that India had jurisdiction to try the marines. But Italy had challenged that decision, arguing that the shooting took place in international waters and that the two should face any trial at home.
"We maintain our position on the marines and feel they should face trial in Italy," De Mistura said. "We now want the matter to be handled fairly and urgently."
Posted by: john frum ||
03/23/2013 18:03 ||
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#1
Bored Marines shooting at driftwood floating by, I can believe that. 'Bad War' movies and YouTube are full of similar events.
An escalating international bruhaha over the loss of two simple fishermen, in international waters, that came (within lethal range) too close to a tanker carrying a piracy prevention force near the Indian coastline? And errant warning shots?
Sounds like a fishing boat or smugglers adrift in a shipping lane. Or a deal gone bad when offloading contraband.
[Dawn] Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to five years jail by the Supreme Court on Thursday for possession of illegal weapons in a long-running case linked to the 1993 Mumbai bombings, according to a report in TOI:
Dutt said on Thursday he is 'shattered' by the Supreme Court verdict sentencing him to five years in prison in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. He said he will complete all his pending films, and that he ought to be strong in these trying times for his family and children.
"I know in my heart that I have always been a good human being, respected the system and always been loyal to my country."
That country being Pakistan instead of India, it would appear... or perhaps the Ummah, which in that part of the world amounts to the same thing.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
The evidence includes Sanjay on tape talking to Mumbai underworld figures about the "muslim blood running in my veins". I suppose that explains the 25 hand grenades and the 2 AK-47s the Indian Police caught him with.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/23/2013 16:03 Comments ||
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#2
those are religious items, John. It's a cultural thing
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/23/2013 16:18 Comments ||
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[Dawn] The Punjab government was dissolved on Wednesday, but the Sharif family continues to enjoy security provided by the province's Elite Police, an institution meant to counter terrorism.
But it's not just the Sharifs -- members of the Punjab Elite Police Force are also working as security guards for politicians of both Pakistain Mohammedan League-Quaid (PML-Q) and Pakistain Peoples party (PPP).
Official data available to Dawn.com claims that out of the 963 elite police commandoes in Lahore, around 70 per cent have been deployed with VIPs to provide them security cover.
Of the remaining 333 elite commandoes who are not assigned to protect VIPs, most are on permanent leave or enrolled in training courses. This leaves a grand total of around 100 to protect the citizens of Lahore from terrorism.
On top of the force's priority list is Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... , chief of Pakistain Mohammedan League-Nawaz (PML-N). The party head has around 100 commandoes and five special security vehicles at his disposal, around the clock.
According to a high-ranking police official, Nawaz is not entitled to this much security after the dissolution of the Punjab government. Technically, he should only have access to two security vehicles and a maximum of 12 police security personnel in the name of security.
Shahbaz, meanwhile, has 95 elite police commandoes and a number of elite police vehicles at his disposal, even after the completion of his provincial government's five year tenure. The Punjab chief minister's first wife, Nusrat Shahbaz, has 11 elite security personnel assigned to her along with one car for their transportation. His second wife, Tehmina Durrani, has access to 18 elite cops along with a vehicle -- and another 18 cops for her house situated in Gulberg.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2013 00:00 ||
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Hamas on Friday complained to Cairo following Israels limitation of Palestinian access to fishing waters off the Gaza coast in response to a rocket barrage that hit southern Israel on Thursday.
An Egyptian official confirmed that the Islamist groups complaint was received by Cairo, and said that Jerusalem lodged a similar complaint with Egypt over the rocket attack, Reuters reported. Thursdays cross-border fire was the second incident since a ceasefire took effect between Israel and Hamas in late November after Israels eight-day offensive against Palestinian terrorist groups.
Cairo was reportedly in communication with Hamas and Israel in an attempt to restore their commitment to the truce.
Hamas also reportedly arrested two members of the al-Qaeda-linked Salafist group responsible for firing the rockets at Israel. The Mujahideen Shura Council claimed the Islamist group ruling the Gaza Strip arrested two of its members after the group claimed responsibility for Thursday attacks.
The Salafist group said it fired the four rockets in reaction to the visit of the dog Obama, according to a statement the group released Thursday.
Israel closed the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Gaza Strip, partially closed the Erez crossing and restricted Gaza fishing from six miles to three miles on Thursday in response to the rocket fire from Gaza.
With songs such as Send Me a Cruise (Missile) and Make Jihad with Me, Alabama-born Omar Hammami's notoriety has led to the US state department putting a $5 million bounty on his head. Not that Hammami -- also known as al-Amriki, or "the American" -- is letting bother him.
On Thursday he joked on Twitter, "As I'm a bit low on cash, how much is my left leg going for? I figure Shamil Basayev [leader of the Chechen rebel movement] did the one-leg jihad thing."
Hammami, 28, went to Somalia to join al-Shabaab in 2006 and the State Department said he began recruiting for the jihadi cause through his English-language rap songs and videos. His voice has been described as "a deep Barry White growl".
But it is not just his music that has upset US authorities. Hammami is believed to have fought for al-Shabaab in Somalia against the government. He was added to the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists in November last year.
In 2007, he was charged in Alabama with providing material support to terrorists. Two years later new charges were filed against him for leaving the US to join al-Shabaab, listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the state department in 2008.
Earlier this year Hammami released his autobiography, The Story of an American Jihadi, which, like his music, received poor reviews. The Christian Science Monitor described it as a "strange mixture of childish humour (he writes "ha ha" a lot to indicate something he found funny) and deadly serious description of his life with al-Shabaab".
Hammami spilt with al-Shabaab last year, and they denounced his statements and actions as motivated by the "narcissistic pursuit of fame and ... far removed from the reality on the ground".
Al-Shabaab now wants to kill him, but Hammami seems calm about the prospect of having groups on both sides of the war on terror after him. On Friday he joked on Twitter, "If being wanted dead by both US and Shabaab has something to do [with] my patchy beard, fake beards are something negotiable."
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.
[An Nahar] One of the main armed Islamist groups in northern Mali 
[MAGHAREBIA] Scores of Libyans gathered in Tripoli's Martyrs' Square on Tuesday (March 19th) to voice anger over Ali Zidan's government.
[Libya Herald] The head of the SSC in Misrata, Juma Belhaj, has announced that the identities of those involved in a number of killings that shocked the city and the attack on its Coptic church were now known.
[Dawn] The Punjab government was dissolved on Wednesday, but the Sharif family continues to enjoy security provided by the province's Elite Police, an institution meant to counter terrorism.
Nawaz Sharif
