Afghanistan’s delayed presidential election result will be announced on Monday, officials said, as the two candidates wrangle over alleged fraud in a political crisis that threatens the country’s first democratic transfer of power.
The five-day delay is to allow an audit of nearly 2,000 of the 23,000 polling stations nationwide in an anti-fraud audit designed to boost confidence in the vote-counting process.
But both Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah say they won on clean votes, and neither appears prepared to accept defeat — triggering the prospect of a power struggle as US-led troops withdraw after 13 years of fighting the Taliban.
“The preliminary result was supposed to be announced today, but because of the inspection of ballot boxes in 1,930 polling stations, it was delayed,” Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani, head of the Independent Election Commission, told reporters. “This is to guarantee transparency... we don’t give in to any pressure on us.”
The preliminary result will include all the votes cast in the June 14 run-off election.
Following a period for complaints to be heard, the final result is now expected on about July 24.
Abdullah, previously seen as the election front-runner, boycotted the vote count over alleged fraud, while Ghani said he backed the election commission and claimed victory by more than one million votes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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I've asked before, but just how bad does your homeland have to be when you start to consider Yemen as the promised land?
The Yemeni coast guard has seized a boat in the Gulf of Aden carrying 42 illegal migrants from Africa, the authorities said on Tuesday.
The coast guard intercepted the boat in Yemeni territorial waters, arresting three crew members and the owner of the vessel, which had come from the Horn of Africa. The migrants were to be handed over to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) “to be returned to the country from which they embarked,” the authorities said without specifying which country.
Would-be migrants from Africa, mainly Ethiopians and Somalis fleeing poverty or violence, frequently set sail for Yemen in the hope of reaching oil-rich Saudi Arabia. In the past five years, more than 500,000 people — mostly Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis — have reached Yemen via the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea following treacherous journeys on vessels that are often overloaded.
Yemen is home to up to two million migrants, mostly illegals who entered from other countries of the Arabian Peninsula, according to unofficial estimates commonly cited by experts and humanitarian organizations.
Are the Somali refugees in Sa'naa as well behaved as the ones in Minneapolis?
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Would love to hear what Sam Kinison would have to say about this.
[Libya Herald] The Foreign Ministry in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... is said to be in disarray after an gang took it over last Thursday, ordering staff to go home. The group left at the end of the day, but the ministry is still now "a mess", according to a senior ministry official. Top staff are staying away out of fear they will be attacked, he says.
It was initially reported that the gunnies were from the Libya Revolutionary Operations Room (LROR) and that their objective was to defend the Political Isolation Law. On Thursday, the nearby Supreme Court was due to deliver a decision on the constitutional validity of the law. In the event it decided to postpone its decision because of the threat from protestors outside the building.
A letter, ostensibly from the LROR, was published on social media claiming that they had taken over the ministry. The letter demanded that the minister, Mohammed Abdulaziz, be sacked and that the Isolation Law be fully implemented throughout the ministry.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... the LROR has since called the letter a fake and denied occupying the ministry.
"I don't know if these people belonged to the Revolutionary Operations Room or not, but when I came to work on Thursday morning I found armed people closing all the front doors of the building. I returned home, as did my colleagues," Foreign Ministry official Alaa Kawan told the Libya Herald.
It appears that there may have a power struggle within the ministry. "I was told these armed people are supporters of the assistant deputy of financial affairs at the ministry, Ahmeda Al-Majri, who had a problem with the minister which led the latter firing him," another official said.
There were already problems in the Foreign Ministry prior to Thursday's incident. Abdulaziz has been working out of Cairo for the past few weeks after threats to him and his family. Deputy ministers, too, have been noticeable by their absence.
Diplomats report not being able to contact officials, with phone calls unanswered or phones switched off or out of coverage. When they do get through, they say, officials respond that they do not know what is happening.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Benghazi Joint Security Room (BJSR) has called on mediators to negiotiate with Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... to get them to leave the city's Jalaa Hospital.
An Ansar group moved into the hospital and took over security ten days ago after BJSR forces pulled out. Three days ago, the BSJR ordered the total evacuation of the hospital, threatening to remove staff and patients by force if necessary. The hospital said that it was not possible. There have been reports, however, of staff and patients leaving, but these have been denied.
The Security Room yesterday asked Dr Awad Alqawiri, a member of both the new Benghazi Municipal Council and the city's hospitals and clinics association to help resolve with the matter.
"We were asked to meet and negotiate with the gunnies,"Alqawiri said.
This morning there was a meeting at the municipal offices involving the BSJR and the association as well as council officials and representatives from the Ministry of Health at which it was agreed to coopt Mabrouk Shnieb, who heads a local conflict resolution group, to talk to Ansar.
There will be another meeting tomorrow, Alqawiri said to assess the situation.
The BRJR has reportedly given the mediators three days to ensure Ansar quits the hospital.
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07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Mohammed Al-Harizi, the head of the Justice and Construction Party's Committees' Council, who was released last night, says his kidnappers threatened to execute him next Monday and that one of them burned him with a lit cigarette.
The onetime front man for the National Transitional Council was seized on Sunday night and released late yesterday.
Giving details of his two-day abduction at a presser this afternoon with his wife by his side, Harizi said that he genuinely expected to be killed, as threatened, on 7 July.
Continued on Page 49
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Egyptian police arrested four members of an militant group on Wednesday over bomb blasts near a presidential palace, although another group claimed it had planted the explosives.
Any reason will do...
Two bomb disposal experts, a police colonel and lieutenant colonel, were killed on Monday as they attempted to defuse bombs outside the Ittihadeya palace in eastern Cairo.
Security forces "arrested four suspected of being involved in the latest blasts that happened near the presidential palace," a security official said. They were "among the most dangerous terrorist elements of Ansar Beit Al Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem) and are being interrogated," the official added.
Three were arrested at dawn in the southern Cairo suburb of Helwan, while the fourth was detained in the capital's Nasr City district, he said.
Sinai-based Ansar Beit Al Maqdis has claimed some of the deadliest attacks in Egypt since the ouster of president Mohammed Mursi last July.
But the bombs that exploded on Monday were actually claimed by another group, Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt), which had warned on Friday that it had planted them. It said then that it had not set off the bombs to avoid civilian casualties, and warned passers-by to stay away from the palace.
The authorities claim that groups like Ansar Beit Al Maqdis are linked to Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, which was blacklisted as "terrorist organisation" in December after a deadly bombing north of Cairo. The Brotherhood denied that bombing as well as all other attacks, saying it is resorting to only "peaceful protests" in favour of Mursi.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a son of deposed president Mohammed Mursi and one of his friends to a year in prison each for possession and use of hashish.
Any reason will do...
Abdullah Mursi, 19, and his friend were arrested on March 1 after allegedly being found in possession of two hashish joints while they were in a car parked by the roadside in Qalyubia province, north of Cairo. The two were freed the next day pending investigation after agreeing to give urine samples, which the prosecution says tested positive.
A court in Banha, in Qalyubia province, on Wednesday handed down sentences of one year in jail and fines of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (around $1,400 or 1,025 euros) each. The defendants can appeal the verdict.
Defence lawyer Mohamed Abu Leila said the case "was fabricated".
"Lies! All lies!"
"Rulings nowadays don't deserve comment; the entire system is defective," Abu Leila said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
You don't roll a joint to smoke hash; charges are bullshit.
#4
You don't roll a joint to smoke hash; charges are bullshit.
The charges probably are bullshit, but a not-uncommon way to smoke hash is to chop it up and mix it with tobacco, either in a pipe or a cigarette. Or so I've heard.
[OMOJUWA] The minister of state for defence, Senator Musiliu Obaniko just minutes ago alerted Nigerians to the fact that APC chieftain and former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu is behind the Boko Haram menace in Nigeria. The minister made the comment via his Twitter page. Tweets by the minister himself are marked #MO, an indication that this is the position of the minister and pointedly could be assumed to be the position of the government he represents.
Nigerians will now expect that the Federal Government will go ahead to arrest Senator Bola Tinubu and the friends mentioned by the minister. At this point, it appears minister of state Obanikoro will be very useful to investigations around finding those behind Boko Haram. One can expect the government to make arrests soon, a failure to do so would indicate a continued state of cluelessness on the part of the authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[THEHIMALAYANTIMES] When Washington imposed sanctions in June 2012 on Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... leader Abubakar Shekau, he dismissed it as an empty gesture.
Two years later, Shekau's skepticism appears well founded: his Islamic myrmidon group is now the biggest security threat to Africa's top oil producer, is richer than ever, more violent and its abductions of women and kiddies continue with impunity.
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[ARABNEWS] Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has urged the international community to unify ranks and immediately change its policy on Syria, where the war continues to worsen unabated within its borders.
"The least the world can do is prevent the systematic genocide of innocent people and ensure international protection to them," said Prince Saud.
"The world must unify to prevent the delivery of weapons to the Syrian government," said the prince in the editorial he wrote for "The Diplomat," a bi-monthly official journal owned and distributed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Continued on Page 49
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Israeli politicians' calls for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state in Iraq's north are "harmful to Kurds' interests," head of a Kurdish research institute told the Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.
"We're saying what you told us to say. Please don't hit us with THAT!"
"For years we have been voicing that there are no established ties between Israel and the Kurdish administration; however, following Netanyahu's recent remarks, some countries have started to think that we are backed by Israel," Farid Asasard from Sulaymaniyah-based Kurdistan Center for Strategic Studies said.
On June 29, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq as part of an Israeli plan to form an alliance between Tel Aviv and moderate forces across the region.
"The Israeli discourse promoting an independent Kurdish state is bringing damage, not support, to the Kurdish issue," Asasard said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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Just be thankful you don't get American support, Farid.
[Washington Post] A suspected ringleader of the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans was ordered held without bond during a Wednesday hearing in D.C. federal court.
Ahmed Abu Khattala, who has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to a single conspiracy charge, was seized in a secret raid in Libya in June. He was held aboard a Navy warship before he was brought to the District to face trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael DiLorenzo said in court Wednesday that multiple witnesses know of Abu Khattala's involvement in the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. DiLorenzo said the defendant's statements corroborate that evidence.
The State Department in January designated Abu Khattala a terrorist, calling him a "big shot" of the Benghazi branch of the hard boy organization Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... , a group that arose after the 2011 fall of the Libyan regime of Muammar Qadaffy ...whose instability was an inspiration to dictators everywhere, but whose end couldn't possibly happen to them... .
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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The United States will increase security measures at overseas airports that have direct flights to the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday. The department did not specify which airports or what countries would be affected, nor did it say what triggered the enhanced measures.
I'm presuming that we're working in concert with the appropriate countries, though it's certainly possible that Champ is haring off after claiming authority to act unilaterally without anyone's consent...
"We are sharing recent and relevant information with our foreign allies and are consulting the aviation industry," DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement.
U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday the Obama administration was pushing for increased security precautions at European airports because of concerns that al Qaeda operatives in Syria and Yemen had teamed up to develop bombs that could be smuggled onto planes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
From today's Electronic Telegraph:
UK terror alert: body searches at British airports
Holidaymakers face invasive physical checks and lengthy delays at Britain's airports amid fears that jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria plan to target transatlantic flights with laptop explosives and 'body bombs'
Holidaymakers face invasive physical checks and lengthy delays at Britain's airports amid fears that jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria plan to target transatlantic flights with laptop explosives and 'body bombs'.
A tough new security regime was imposed on passengers after American intelligence suggested that al-Qaeda was plotting to use Western fanatics to bring down a US-bound plane.
Travellers at Heathrow were subjected to 'vigorous' body searches and clothing and shoes were swabbed for traces of explosive. Passengers were ordered to switch on laptops, mobile phones and other electronic devices, and bags were taking twice as long to pass through scanners, according to reports.
Passengers boarding American-bound planes were understood to have undergone a second round of checks before boarding their flights.
A memo sent to all airports by the Department of Transport urged staff to enhance checks, with laptops subject to particular scrutiny.
In Manchester, a passenger reported taking an hour to pass through security.
Airport security was stepped up across the UK, the US and other countries amid fears that al-Qaeda bomb experts have successfully designed an explosive that can bypass current checks. It is feared that Western jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq, including hundreds of Britons, have been recruited as would-be suicide bombers.
Intelligence suggests that al-Qaeda in Yemen, known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and specifically its master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, have linked up with the Jabhat al-Nusra jihadists in Syria and passed on bomb-making skills.
It was unclear whether the suspected new explosive could be deployed in an electronic item such as a laptop, soaked on clothing or surgically implanted in a bomber. All such techniques have been tried by Asiri in the past.
Beefed-up security at foreign airports with direct flights to the US was requested by Jeh Johnson, the American secretary of homeland security. The move underlined growing White House unease at the apparent failure of the UK and other European countries to stop young Muslims heading to Syria and Iraq to join Islamist groups.
#2
"The move underlined growing White House unease at the apparent failure of the UK and other European countries to stop young Muslims heading to Syria and Iraq to join Islamist groups."
I don't understand why them going to flypaper Syria, et al., is a problem. Let them go; just don't let any survivors return.
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/03/2014 19:23 Comments ||
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Great, and here I am going to Europe Sunday, returning Saturday; probably get patted down 2x, and my (work) computer confiscated....
#5
Thanks B, going to visit Airbus sites. no matter how many times I have been crawling around inside and under it, that A 380 is one big honking machine....
makes the 747 look like a Piper Cub.
[DAWN] Qatar Airlines will resume flight operations to and from Bacha Khan Airport in Peshawar from tomorrow (Thursday), a travel alert posted on its website said, whereas police claimed to have arrested a TTP commander involved in the attack on Peshawar airport.
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07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] In an apparent reaction to a former Army spokesperson's remarks, regarding Gen (retd) Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... 's reluctance in launching a military offensive in North Wazoo in 2010, Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle Fester Sharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture... on Wednesday reprimanded the retired officials to be careful in issuing statements, DawnNews reported.
In an interview to BBC Urdu on Monday, former DG Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen (retd) Athar Abbas had said that the military leadership of the country was in favour of launching the offensive in 2010, however, it could not due to the indecision of Gen Kayani.
In a statement issued here today, Chaudhry Nisar advised those who have been a part of important national decisions to be 'reticent.'
"Being tactful and strategic is better for the nation and the country," he added.
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07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The revelation of spying on a major political party of Pakistain is a grave, unwarranted and totally unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country and is condemned, said the Pakistain People's Party (PPP) front man Senator Farhatullah Babar in a statement issued on Wednesday.
The PPP expressed grave disappointment over the revelation that the United States' National Security Agency (NSA) had been spying on the party in 2010.
The PPP called upon the government to take up the issue at the diplomatic level and seek guarantees that such grave violations of international law will not take place in the future.
"Such insensitive operations and unacceptable interference in the affairs of a political party of a sovereign country will serve no purpose except to increase resentment and distrust," the PPP front man said.
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07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Spying on people in other countries is the NSA's job. In the midst of all the keyhole peeping they've been up to, I am personally reassured they had the time to do what they're actually supposed to do.
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07/03/2014 14:51 Comments ||
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[DAWN] A former front man for the Pakistain Army says that as army chief, retired General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... baulked at launching a military operation in North Wazoo in 2010 for fear of a backlash from the religious right.
[Iraq Sun] Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Wednesday offered amnesty to Sunni militants who fought against the government and took control of swathes of territories in the Sunni-dominated provinces even as he described the declaration of an Islamic state by the militants as a threat to the entire region.
"I announce an amnesty for all tribes and all people who have been involved in actions against the state, who now return to their senses. They are welcome. We will not exclude anyone except those involved in killings," Xinhua quoted Maliki as saying in his televised weekly speech.
Maliki's offer is seen as an attempt to reduce the number of Sunni fighters and to cut the support by the Sunni community to those who took up arms against the government.
Al-Maliki also warned that the latest declaration of Islamic state by Sunni extremists is a threat to the entire region.
"Daash (Arabic first letters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria or ISIS) has turned to be caliphate state and this is a message to the states in the region that you have become within the red circle.
Daash was speaking about a state in Iraq and Sham (Levant), now it is speaking about caliphate in the region," Maliki said in his speech.
Late in June, the ISIS, which seized large areas in Syria and in Iraq, formally declared the establishment of caliphate Islamic rule in both countries and demanded allegiance from all Muslims.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, was declared the caliph or religious ruler of the new caliphate, according to an online audio recording which was made on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The new caliphate is an attempt to revive the system of Islamic religious ruling which ended about 100 years ago with the fall of the Ottoman Empire during the World War I.
"The Islamic State decided to establish an Islamic caliphate and to designate a caliph for the state of the Muslims," Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, spokesman of the Islamic State, said in the recording.
Al-Adnani called on Muslims everywhere, not just those in areas under the group's control, to swear loyalty to al-Baghdadi and support him.
"Jihadi cleric al-Baghdadi is the caliph of Muslims everywhere," al-Adnani said, adding that "listen to your caliph and obey him".
"Support your state, which grows every day," he added In his speech Wednesday, al-Maliki also rejected claims by the semi-autonomous Kurdish region to control the disputed areas, which are now in the hands of the Kurdish security forces.
"No one has the right to exploit the events that occurred to impose a fait accompli, like what happened in some of the actions of the Kurdistan region. This is a rejected act," Maliki said.
Maliki's comments came as an answer to Kurdish regional leader Massud Barzani's comments that the Kurds did not need the Iraqi constitution to resolve the problem over disputed areas, as the Peshmerga (Kurdish security forces) have now controlled the disputed city of Kirkuk, the last part of the disputed areas described in the constitution.
"The Kurds have been waiting for 10 years for fulfillment of Article 140 but it was no use, now Article 140 is achieved and it is over, and we won't talk about it anymore," Barzani said.
The disputed areas are mainly ethnically mixed with the Kurds, Arabs and Turkmans and other minorities.
The Kurds demanded expansion of their autonomous region in northern Iraq to include the oil-rich province of Kirkuk and other areas in the Iraqi provinces of Nineveh, Salahudin and Diyala.
Maliki also rejected the latest press releases by Barzani about a referendum to establish a Kurdish state.
On June 23, Barzani told CNN in an interview that "the time is here for the Kurdistan people to determine their future and the decision of the people is what we are going to uphold".
Iraq has been witnessing its worst security conditions that began about three weeks ago when armed Sunni insurgents, spearheaded by the Al Qaeda splinter group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), launched a surprise offensive that led to the debacle of Iraqi security forces, and the fall of a large part of the country's northern and western territories.
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07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Some 60,000 Israelis have downloaded a free app designed to assist in the event of an abduction.
Using the free United Hatzalah SOS smartphone app, subscribers can inform the emergency organization that they need assistance and provide their exact location via GPS technology. The app, developed by the Israeli start-up NowForce, requires one swipe of the finger.
The system contacts any family or friends that are programmed into the system during registration.
The app responds to problems that arise from placing an emergency call to the police in the event of a kidnapping situation. Security forces have to undergo lengthy legal processes to obtain permission to track an individual's cell phone signal, prolonging emergency response times and the chance of rescue.
Police received a distress call from one of three kidnapped Israeli teenagers minutes after they were taken, but security forces were unable to ascertain their exact location. They then waited nearly seven hours before responding to the teens' call for help, believing it was a prank.
Israeli media have reported that the teens were shot by their abductors in panic after they realized a call had been placed to police. The app allows for a discrete method to call for help, its creators say.
#1
There's a pop up wall at the Y-12 facility, topped with spikes that can rip the undercarriage off an 18-wheeler going 50 mph. Needless to say, I'd think it'd do the same to normal car as well.
#4
A door for yourself to go through it;
A tunnel so he'll crash into it.
Some paint and a brush
From a tumbleweed bush
And a sound effects man oughtta do it.
[AnNahar] The headquarters of several security agencies and army checkpoints were the target of terrorist plots as the ongoing investigations revealed that the recently busted terrorist networks are linked.
Security sources told al-Akhbar newspaper published on Wednesday that investigations with terrorist networks revealed that the Interior Ministry headquarters along with the General Security directorate and the Internal Security Forces directorate buildings were the target of terrorist operations.
The sources also said that army checkpoints and al-Saha restaurant near the Great Prophet Mosque in Beirut's southern suburbs were on the list of targets.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... the newspaper said that Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq remains doubtful over such reports as more investigations should be carried out and further evidence collected.
According to As Safir newspaper, investigations showed that there are links between the recent security achievements.
The daily said that a French national originally from the Comoros islands in the Indian Ocean who had been tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! last month at the Napoleon Hotel in Beirut's Hamra area, Duroy Hotel jacket wallahs in Raouche area and the Fnaideq terrorist cell are linked.
The newspaper reported that the three networks form one terrorist cell.
The army announced on Saturday that Alaa Kanaan and Mahmoud Khaled, members of a terrorist network who were recently apprehended during raids in Fnaideq, confessed to the existence of a cave in the region where they used to prepare explosives.
Also Thursday, the army raided another residence in Fnaideq, seizing a large cache of arms and military equipment.
On Wednesday, a Saudi suicide-bomber went kaboom! at the Duroy Hotel when he detonated his explosives during a security raid. His accomplice, also a Saudi citizen, survived the blast and is being questioned.
The two suicide bombers allegedly wanted to target al-Saha Restaurant in Dahieh.
Security forces began recently enforcing strict measures and carrying out raids in several areas after obtaining information on a plot to target hospitals and high-ranking security officials.
Early Tuesday a suicide kaboom at the entrance of Beirut's southern suburbs, Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... 's main bastion, killed a security officer and maimed 20 others.
The bombing in Tayyouneh came three days after a suicide kaboom in eastern Leb that killed one person and maimed 30.
[Ynet] Iran pushed back Wednesday against US demands for concessions at nuclear talks, declaring it would never "kneel" over what curbs Tehran must accept to win an end to the sanctions choking its economy.
Both Iran and the six world powers it is negotiating with want an accord by July 20. But they parted last month without significant progress — and came to the table Wednesday with demands that the other side blink first. "We have never bowed down to imposition and we will not accept it in this round of talks either," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told news hounds in Vienna.
[ARABNEWS] Lebanese politicians failed to elect a president on Wednesday, for the eighth time, to succeed Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... whose term ended in May, prolonging a political vacuum as the country struggles with violence, economic decline and an influx of Syrian refugees.
The civil war in neighboring Syria has aggravated long-standing rivalries in Leb, where political power is divided among religious communities — the presidency goes to a Maronite Christian, the Parliament speaker is a Shiite and the prime minister a Sunni.
Parliament speaker Nabil Berri said he would postpone a vote for a new president until July 23 because not enough parliamentarians turned up to the assembly on Wednesday. Political groups have boycotted sessions in recent weeks and blamed each other for the deadlock.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] A young, red-bearded ethnic Chechen has rapidly become one of the most prominent commanders in the breakaway Al-Qaeda group that has overrun swaths of Iraq and Syria, illustrating the international nature of the movement.
Omar Al-Shishani, one of hundreds of Chechens who have been among the toughest jihadi fighters in Syria, has emerged as the face of the Islamic State (IS), appearing frequently in its online videos — in contrast to the group's Iraqi leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who remains deep in hiding and has hardly ever been photographed.
In a video released by the group over the weekend, Al-Shishani is shown standing next to the group's front man among a group of fighters as they declare the elimination of the border between Iraq and Syria. The video was released just hours before the myrmidon group announced the creation of a caliphate — or Islamic state — in the areas it controls.
"Our aim is clear and everyone knows why we are fighting. Our path is toward the caliphate," the 28-year-old Al-Shishani declares. "We will bring back the caliphate, and if God does not make it our fate to restore the caliphate, then we ask him to grant us martyrdom." The video is consistent with other News Agency that Dare Not be Named reporting on Al-Shishani.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
He was named Quds commander in 1998 and in May 2005 was described by Iran's ultimate authority, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, as "a living martyr".
Posted by: Uncle Phester ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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#2
From the "Target Non-Aquisition" files.
Once met a guy who did 'research' on intel in the middle east; dressed like slob, and drove an old taxi cab around. 'Cause who pays attention to a taxi driver...
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/03/2014 7:15 Comments ||
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The operation to transfer Syrian chemical weapons from a Danish freighter to a US military ship ahead of their destruction at sea kicked off on Wednesday, expected to last up to 20 hours.
With the vessels moored stern-to-stern within a wide safety zone set up around the port of Gioia Tauro in Italy, the first of 78 containers was taken off the Ark Futura by crane and manoeuvred onto the MV Cape Ray by a vast climbing platform. The first three containers to be transferred hold a total of 20 tonnes of mustard gas, while the remaining 75 contain among other things the raw materials for Sarin nerve gas, according to Italian media reports.
Once the chemical agents have been safely transferred, they will be destroyed in international waters in the final phase of a programme to rid Syria of its chemical arms stockpile.
“Proud of Italy’s contribution to international security, (and) a transparent operation which is environmentally safe,” Italy’s Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti said on Twitter as the transfer began.
The port has stepped up security for the transfer, sealing off access roads and barring entry to any non-authorised people, while a military helicopter flew overhead as the Cape Ray arrived before dawn. Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPAC) boarded the Ark Futura to check the cargo before the transfer began.
Once the Cape Ray moves back out into international waters, the process to destroy the agents and materials is expected to take between 45 and 90 days.
The US vessel has been equipped with two Field Deployable Hydrolysis Systems — portable treatment plants capable of “neutralising” the most dangerous Syrian chemical agents. The process should destroy more than 99 per cent of the chemicals, reducing the lethal agents into a sludge similar to low-level hazardous industrial waste, which will then be disposed of by private waste treatment facilities.
Syria shipped out its stockpile of chemical weapons under the terms of a UN-backed and US-Russia brokered agreement to head off Western air strikes against the regime last year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[ARABNEWS] A leading Jordanian jihadist ideologist on Wednesday denounced the declaration of a "caliphate" by Sunni militants in Iraq and Syria, warning against more bloodshed.
"Can every Muslim and weak person find refuge in this caliphate? Or would it be like a sharp sword against all opponents?" Issam Barqawi, known as Abu Mohammed Al-Maqdessi, wrote on Facebook and on jihadist websites.
On Sunday, militants previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), declared a "caliphate," an Islamic form of government last seen under the Ottoman Empire, straddling parts of Iraq and Syria.
The militants, who renamed themselves the Islamic State (IS), already control large swathes of territory in north and east Syria, and this month captured vast stretches of northern and western Iraq.
They ordered Muslims worldwide to pledge allegiance to their chief, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
Once mentor to Iraq's now slain Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, before the two fell out over ideological differences, Maqdessi warned against "Mohammedans who kill other Mohammedans".
Experts say the declaration of the caliphate is a direct challenge to Al-Qaeda and could spark a contest for the leadership of the global krazed killer group.
They said it was unlikely that major groups linked to Al-Qaeda would immediately declare their allegiance to IS.
Jordan's jihadist movement is generally dominated by anti-IS groups that support Al-Qaeda and its Syrian ally, Al-Nusra Front.
Jordan is already suffering from hosting more than 600,000 Syrian refugees, and has long faced the challenge of dealing with its own Islamist krazed killers, many of whom have joined jihadists or Al-Qaeda-linked groups in neighboring Iraq and Syria.
On Monday, King Abdullah II appealed for international support to help Jordan deal with regional turmoil after the caliphate was declared.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
[Washington Post] Endorsement of the NSA's Internet surveillance programs by a bipartisan privacy board deeply disappointed civil liberties activists Wednesday while providing a measure of vindication for beleaguered U.S. intelligence officials.
James Clapper, director of national intelligence, welcomed the conclusion by the independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board that the National Security Agency's Internet spying on foreign targets in the U.S. has been legal, effective and subject to rigorous oversight to protect the rights of Americans.
Activist groups panned the report as a dud.
It was a dizzying turnabout for a privacy board that in January drew criticism in the other direction for branding the NSA's collection of domestic calling records unconstitutional.
As they unanimously adopted their 190-page report on Wednesday, the five board members — all appointed by President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... —sought to explain their largely favorable conclusions about surveillance programs that have provoked worldwide outrage since former NSA systems administrator Edward Snowden revealed them last year.
At issue is a spying regime, first definitively disclosed in Snowden documents last year, under which the NSA is using court orders to obtain foreign customers' emails, chats, videos and texts from Google ...contributed $814,540 to the 2008 Obama campaign... , Facebook and other U.S. tech companies under a program known as PRISM. The documents also showed that the agency is intercepting foreign data as it transits fiber optic lines in the U.S.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Spying on other countries - even current allies - is NSA's JOB, dammit. Get used to it.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/03/2014 10:12 Comments ||
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#2
James Clapper, director of national intelligence, welcomed the conclusion...
James would no doubt "welcome" any conclusion, so long as it isn't his.
#3
Unfortunately, they consider 'foreigners' like the Muslims consider 'apostates', as in these days incorporating the Tea Party, real conservatives,...posters at the Rant. Hi, there NSA!
#4
I never worked for the NSA, although I know a few people who did. I think they've been abused about as much as the IRS has -- some of it willingly, some of it not.
The problem today is that our enemies hide among our friends as much as they live in their own nations. I don't know the NSA's collection strategy, but I doubt they worry much about Rantburg. I think the IRS spies on us more, and Obamacare gives them far more power -- and leeway -- to spy on us all. That's just one more reason to rescind the entire mess.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/03/2014 13:45 Comments ||
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#5
"Spying on other countries - even current allies - is NSA's JOB, dammit. Get used to it."
So you wouldn't have a problem with allies spying on US citizens, right??
#7
Spano, I didn't say that I would like it if our allies spied on us. However, I expect that they will try. I hope that the NSA and other agencies can prevent them being successful.
I assume that they are trying.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/03/2014 23:54 Comments ||
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[BREITBART] Busloads full of illegal aliens, many of them children, from overcrowded detention facilities in Texas were flown into San Diego Tuesday morning before being driven north to Murrieta for processing, but plans changed when over 100 protestors prevented the bus from entering the Murrieta Border Patrol facility.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Patrice Lynes, the organizer of the Murrieta protests, recounted the events that led to the buses turning back, and what demonstrators wanted to convey.
When Lynes heard of the transfers, she gathered a couple of friends and began staging demonstrations against the transfers, as well as in support of Border Patrol agents. On Sunday, June 28, the group that joined Lynes grew to a couple dozen. Lynes also gathered about 25 people--including moms, students, and former Border Patrol agents--to meet with staff in the office of U.S. Rep. Kevin Calvert (R-CA) to voice their concern over the lack of enforcement of current immigration laws.
After public outcry over the transfers, some plans to fly the detainees to Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, were canceled, but Tuesday's flights did take off, one of which headed for San Diego. After the plane landed, the 140 illegal aliens on board were escorted onto buses and driven up to the Murrieta Border Patrol station for processing.
However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... when the buses arrived, they found Lynes and fellow demonstrators waiting. After about 25 minutes, the buses backed down. It was later discovered that they were rerouted south to San Diego County's Chula Vista Border Patrol station--despite that station's inability to process the detainees.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2014 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.
[Libya Herald] Benghazi Joint Security Room (BJSR) has called on mediators to negiotiate with 
[Libya Herald] Mohammed Al-Harizi, the head of the Justice and Construction Party's Committees' Council, who was released last night, says his kidnappers threatened to execute him next Monday and that one of them burned him with a lit cigarette.
Egyptian police arrested four members of an militant group on Wednesday over bomb blasts near a presidential palace, although another group claimed it had planted the explosives.
An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a son of deposed president Mohammed Mursi and one of his friends to a year in prison each for possession and use of hashish.
[OMOJUWA] The minister of state for defence, Senator Musiliu Obaniko just minutes ago alerted Nigerians to the fact that APC chieftain and former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu is behind the Boko Haram menace in Nigeria. The minister made the comment via his Twitter page. Tweets by the minister himself are marked #MO, an indication that this is the position of the minister and pointedly could be assumed to be the position of the government he represents.
[ARABNEWS] Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has urged the international community to unify ranks and immediately change its policy on Syria, where the war continues to worsen unabated within its borders. 
[DAWN] Qatar Airlines will resume flight operations to and from Bacha Khan Airport in Peshawar from tomorrow (Thursday), a travel alert posted on its website said, whereas police claimed to have arrested a TTP commander involved in the attack on Peshawar airport.
Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz .png)
Wazoo
[IsraelTimes] Some 60,000 Israelis have downloaded a free app designed to assist in the event of an abduction.
[ARABNEWS] A young, red-bearded ethnic Chechen has rapidly become one of the most prominent commanders in the breakaway Al-Qaeda group that has overrun swaths of Iraq and Syria, illustrating the international nature of the movement.
[BREITBART] Busloads full of illegal aliens, many of them children, from overcrowded detention facilities in Texas were flown into San Diego Tuesday morning before being driven north to Murrieta for processing, but plans changed when over 100 protestors prevented the bus from entering the Murrieta Border Patrol facility.
