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Syrian Rebels Say They Killed Hezbollah Deputy Chief
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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14:15 7 21:39 JosephMendiola [336099]
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13:12 7 19:52 Thing From Snowy Mountain [336094]
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Fake "hate crimes"
Police on Thursday said they are investigating the possibility that Palestinians may have vandalized six cars in the Kusra village so that they could falsely claim it was a price tag attack by Jewish extremists.
I deplore these American fashions
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/28/2013 15:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336103 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Geez, the paleos steal everything, don't they?

Can't even invent their own crimes to get people they don't like in trouble. >:(
Posted by: Barbara || 02/28/2013 19:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Vandalizing a car is a hate crime? Well -I dont like Fords. Hate Fiats.
Posted by: Northern Cousin || 02/28/2013 20:23 Comments || Top||

#3  hey now! F-150's? Drink up!
Posted by: Frank G || 02/28/2013 21:27 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Dennis Rodman: Kim Jong Un is a 'friend for life'
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 15:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336102 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You certainly deserve one another.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 16:16 Comments || Top||

#2  It occurs to me that the Hated Confederacy only had some 3 million or so slaves at the time of the Civil War, but the current population of North Korea is some 24,451,285.

Hrm.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/28/2013 16:50 Comments || Top||

#3  What's Rodman care if the world's got problems
What's Rodman care if the land's not free.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/28/2013 16:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Good. Go live with him then, you waste of skin.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/28/2013 17:50 Comments || Top||

#5  well Hey ... Pudgy finally got one signature in his autograph book that came from outside N. Korea.
Posted by: Raider || 02/28/2013 18:09 Comments || Top||

#6  In a Hennessy drinking contest Kim-Jong-il and Dennis Rodman would likely tie at 12 bottles each.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/28/2013 18:15 Comments || Top||

#7  He hit his new "friend" up for money yet?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/28/2013 21:18 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
House Bill Would Designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard As Terrorist Group
A bill introduced in the House of Representatives with bipartisan sponsorship Wednesday requires the secretary of state to determine whether Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) should be designated a "foreign terrorist organization" -- a move that has been opposed in the past by President Obama and key members of his administration.

President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, newly sworn-in Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice have all taken issue in the past with calls to designate the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).
Good. Make them take issue again. And let's see how Harry Reid and Chuckles Schumer feel about it...
Introduced by House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and ranking member Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act aims to tighten pressure on Tehran over its nuclear activities.

One of its major provisions requires the secretary of state to determine, within 30 days of enactment, whether the IRGC meets the legal criteria for FTO designation.
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 15:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good luck with that
Posted by: chris || 02/28/2013 22:06 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says Governor Rick Snyder will announce a state takeover on Friday
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says Michigan Governor Rick Snyder will announce a state takeover of the city of Detroit on Friday. Bing says the governor told him his decision during a phone conversation this morning. Bing was talking with reporters following a speech before the Detroit Regional Chamber at the MotorCity Casino.

The city will have 10 days to appeal the decision to the governor.

Governor Snyder said a week ago he would take a week or so to make his final decision on what he would do with the city of Detroit. At that time he said he would either appoint an emergency financial manager or enter into a new consent agreement with the city.

Those remarks came after a financial review team found that a financial emergency existed in the city of Detroit. The review team also recommended to Snyder that he appoint an emergency financial manager to run the city.

Detroit has been operating under a consent agreement with the state since last year. That consent agreement prevented the city from being taken over by an emergency manager, who would have been appointed under a state law that was in place at that time.

Voters overturned that law in November 2012 and the state reverted to an older law that allowed for the appointment of an emergency financial manager.
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 14:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336099 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says Governor Rick Snyder will announce a state the adults takeover on Friday.

FIFY
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/28/2013 15:25 Comments || Top||

#2  I think Bing has done about as well as it is possible to do as mayor of that lost cause called Detroit. The governor won't be able to do a whole lot better, though he does have a broader (though still weak) resource base to bring to bear.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/28/2013 16:00 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: junkiron || 02/28/2013 17:22 Comments || Top||

#4  You have a nice eye for the Iconic JI
Posted by: Shipman || 02/28/2013 17:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Detroit is just ahead of it's time. The first of many progressive failures to come.

After 50+ years of liberal destructive policies the people of Detroit will still elect in the next election the politicians with the plan to borrow and spend their way out to the hole.
Posted by: airandee || 02/28/2013 17:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Just don't blame 'progressives' cause goodbad old machine politics, patronage and cronyism had a great hand in it as well. The Progressives just added their own rancid spice to the whole insidious process made ever more destructive by their lust to expand corruptible government.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/28/2013 19:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Middle East Muslim Govts + China are interested in buying up the City, which IMO does NOT forbode well for US sovereignty espec as per OWG + NAU 2015, Trans-Atlantic Union, Trans-Pacific Union, Great Lakes FTZ-EEZ + NE US FTZ-EEZ, etc.

Again, SOCIALISM = NEW "SOVEREIGNTY" under OWG-NWO.

The Govtcritters know the US will be giving up sovereign Power-N-AUthority to the OWG + NAU 2015, ETC. BUT THEY DON'T KNOW OR AREN'T SURE YET JUST HOW MUCH - BUT-T-T, DESPITE SUCH THEY'RE STILL GOING TO FORMALLY COMMIT THE US + MAINSTREAM AMERICA TO IT ANYWAY, HENCE THEIR SEEMINGLY DEVIL-MAY-CARE, MANIC OR OBSESSED DRIVE TO FORCIBLY IMPOSE SOCIALISM-GOVTISM + GOVT-LED INTERVENTIONISM AMAP ON AS MANY ASPECTS O9F AMER LIFE AMAL ASAP ALAP.

And widout need of any National-State-Local vote on same.

THE WORSE OR DEEPER THE CHAOS OR ANARCHY(S), THE BETTER FOR US SUBORNMENT UNDER OWG + NAU 2015, ETC. WHERE THE US IS JUST ONE NATION OR WORLD POWER AMONG MANY, + WHERE THE US MAY NOT EVEN BE A GLOBAL OR "SOLE" SUPERPOWER ANYMORE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/28/2013 21:39 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US to Send Direct Aid to Syrian Rebels
For the first time, the United States will provide direct support to Syrian rebel fighters, Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Thursday.

"I am proud to announce that the United States of America will be providing an additional $60 million immediately in non-lethal assistance to support the coalition," Kerry, who was in Rome meeting with leaders of Syria’s opposition council, said.

The U.S. has already provided about $50 million of non-lethal assistance to Syria’s political opposition, including providing communications equipment like radios and computers to advocates and political opposition councils.

The new aid will consist of more non-lethal supplies, like food and medicine. It will be given to fighters who have been carefully vetted to have no ties to terrorist groups, such as al Qaeda.

"This funding will allow the opposition to reach out and help the local councils to be able to rebuild in their liberated areas of Syria," Kerry said.

Ahead of his announcement Thursday, Kerry acknowledged that the Syrian opposition needs more help.

Speaking in Paris on Wednesday, Kerry said the United States still believes that a political solution is the best way to end the bloodshed, but after two years of conflict it’s clear that the process needs to be sped up.
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 13:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It will be given to fighters who have been carefully vetted to have no ties to terrorist groups

That's a higher standard than the EBT-card program has.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/28/2013 15:41 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
How China is enslaving the world
Beijing's ruthless leaders subjugate armies of foreign workers with opium, plunder resources across the globe - and now they've got Britain in their sights

China's progress has entered its second phase - entry into Western markets
Ongoing financial crisis in the West has opened more doors to the East


Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 13:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336094 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Beijing's ruthless leaders subjugate armies of foreign workers with opium, plunder resources across the globe - and now they've got Britain in their sights

China, opium, Britain. A certain historical karma there.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/28/2013 13:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Trying to, repeat Trying.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 13:51 Comments || Top||

#3  China, opium, Britain. A certain historical karma there.

They also blame the United States. they believe there's plenty of bad karma to make all of us pay for.

And ignore and/or censor their role as pushers to non-Han populations (for example, Tibet, Yunnan, and Sichuan). They did it in the 19th century while they were simultaneously complaining about British predations.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/28/2013 14:06 Comments || Top||

#4  China, opium, Britain. A certain historical karma there.

That opium thing wasn't some kind of British original sin. Opium had been consumed in China since the Tang dynasty in the 9th century. The reason the Chinese government tried to ban imports was because it affected the Chinese trade balance negatively. Within a few decades of the Anglo-Chinese Wars, China was growing all of its own opium, using the improved breeds previously imported as end product from India. Opium wasn't even banned in the West until roughly the time of Prohibition, so it's not like Britain saw it as some kind of poison during the wars with China.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/28/2013 18:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Japan China as Number 1.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/28/2013 18:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Would rule by China really be worse than rule by Champ
Posted by: Titus Ulans4144 || 02/28/2013 19:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Check out what happened when their proxies took over Cambodia in the mid-70's.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/28/2013 19:52 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Bradley Manning pleads guilty to some Wikileaks charges
The US soldier accused of leaking large amounts of secret data to Wikileaks has pleaded guilty to a series of 10 lesser charges, US media report. But Pfc Bradley Manning, 25, may still be prosecuted for the most serious charge against him, aiding the enemy.

A military judge will now decide whether to accept the guilty plea, and will allow him to read a statement.

Pfc Manning last spoke in court in November about his treatment in Kuwait and in the US after his arrest. He described being locked up alone for 23 hours a day in a small cell for nearly nine months at a high-security jail in Quantico, Virginia.

If the judge, Col Denise Lind, accepts the pleas, Pfc Manning could face up to 20 years in prison.
That's 20 in American years, not European years...
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 12:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336100 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's 20 in American years, not European years...

That's still not long enough.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/28/2013 20:10 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Jamaat men torch Hindu temple, houses in Noakhali; 2 killed
[Bangla Daily Star] Hours after Jamaat top leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee was sentenced to death, Jamaat and Shibir activists set fire to a temple and houses of Hindu community at different parts of Noakhali on Thursday.

Two people were killed as the activists clashed with law enforcers at different points of the district town, reports our Noakhali correspondent.

Md Khokon, 17, a tempo helper, received a bullet wound in the clash around 3:45pm, locals said.

Doctors pronounced Khokon dead after he was rushed to Noakhali Medical College Hospital at 4:00pm, said medical sources.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 10:41 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336107 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


29 killed as Jamaat men run riot across country
[Bangla Daily Star] At least 29 people were killed as the activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir ran riot across the country centring Sayedee's verdict on Thursday.

The victims included cops, activists of Jamaat, Shibir, Juba League and common people.

Of the deceased, six people, including three cops, were killed in Gaibandha, four each in Thakurgaon, Satkhira, three in Rangpur, two each in Noakhali, Chittagong, Moulvibazar and Sirajganj while one each in Dinajpur, Natore, Cox's Bazar and Chapainawabganj.

Meanwhile, a van driver aged around 35 was killed as miscreants blasted bombs at Mirpur in the capital on Thursday evening.

Soon after a verdict awarding death sentence to Jamaat Nayeb-e-Ameer Delawar Hossain Sayedee was declared, several thousand supporters of the Islamic party attacked Bamondanga police outpost in Sundarganj upazila in the afternoon.

They beat three policemen to death and set fire to the outpost, reports our Gaibandha correspondent.

In response, police opened fire, leaving three people killed.

The policemen were named as constable Nadim, Bablu and Hazrat Ali.
Sure hope Sgt. Shafiq is okay.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 10:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336089 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Sayedee to be hanged
[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka tribunal on Thursday handed death penalty to top Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi
...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami...
for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.

The 73-year-old Jamaat nayeb-e-ameer was handed down the penalty for eight wartime criminal offences as his party enforced a shutdown threatening anarchy across the country.

The three-member tribunal said eight out of 20 charges pressed against Sayedee were proved beyond doubt. Sayedee received death penalties in two cases—filed for the killing of Ibrahim Kutti and Bisha Bali.

Sayedee defiant

Disagreeing with the judgement vehemently, the convict stood up on the dock and blamed the judges for “not giving the verdict from the core of their heart”.

The verdict came due to the excessive pressure from “some atheists of Shahbagh”, he reacted.
Referring to the ongoing protests against the Jamaat butchers in Shahbagh Square...
Many present in the courtroom yelled at Sayedee to keep his mouth shut, calling him “promanito razakar”, which means a proved collaborator.

At 2:23pm, the convict was taken out of the tribunal premises in a prison van and was taken to Dhaka Central Jail.
He'll appeal. If BNP isn't in power by then the appeal will be turned down. Then he'll ask for clemency. If BNP isn't in power by then it will be denied. Then they'll hang him. Whether BNP is in power or not he'll rot in hell.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 10:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336096 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami

#1  It's a start.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 14:33 Comments || Top||


Economy
U.S. economy grew 0.1% in fourth quarter
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/28/2013 09:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336094 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Woohoo!! We are growing now!!!
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/28/2013 9:48 Comments || Top||

#2  And that appears to be the annualized rate, so it's even more blah still.
Posted by: charger || 02/28/2013 11:27 Comments || Top||

#3  If that number is not corrected for inflation, then its actually a negative.

What do you expect? No one has any disposable income, the feds and the states are taking it all in one form or another...have you seen the price of milk since the PETA weinies got that stupid assed free range bill passed?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/28/2013 11:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Time for the Fed to take the punchbowl away before things get TOO overheated!!!
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/28/2013 12:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Gee, right up until November all the economic news was good...
Posted by: Iblis || 02/28/2013 13:39 Comments || Top||

#6 
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 02/28/2013 15:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Some things are destined designed to fail from their inception.

Posted by: junkiron || 02/28/2013 18:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Good lord, junkiron. That is distressingly creative.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/28/2013 21:21 Comments || Top||


Britain
20 terror suspects have British passports torn up in security crackdown to stop them returning
At least 20 terror suspects have had their British passports torn up on national security grounds to stop them entering the country, it emerged today.

In the last two years alone Home Secretary Theresa May has stripped British citizenship from 16 individuals considered to pose a threat to the UK. Rules in place for a decade allow ministers to act to revoke passports in a bid to target the so-called 'enemy within'.

The Home Office today defended the policy from claims it was equivalent to 'medieval exile', insisting the British citizenship was 'a privilege not a right'.

Officials said that from 2002 to September last year 20 citizens were stripped of their passports. A report by the Bureaux for Investigative Journalism, published in The Independent today, suggested the number is 21, of which only two have successfully appealed.

Two men involved - Bilal al-Berjawi, a British-Lebanese citizen, and British-born friend Mohamed Sakr, who also held Egyptian nationality -- travelled to Somalia in 2009. They are said to have become involved with Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, which has links to al-Qa'ida. Both rose to senior positions in the organisation.

They were stripped of their British nationalities by Mrs May in 2010 and were killed in separate US airstrikes.

Saghir Hussain, Sakr's former UK solicitor said: 'It appears that the process of deprivation of citizenship made it easier for the US to then designate Mr Sakr as an enemy combatant, to whom the UK owes no responsibility whatsoever.'
"Sir, we're running low on targets. We have any leads?"
"Wait one." [picks up other phone] "Nigel, Bob here. Got anyone you're about ready to strip of his citizenship?"
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 09:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336104 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I know "torn up" is figurative, but I have this amusing image in my mind of a husky Beefeater or retired SAS man actually tearing up passports...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/28/2013 10:07 Comments || Top||

#2  british born pakistanis and brit born somalians are the biggest threat to uk atm
Posted by: Snomomp Schwarzeneggar3438 || 02/28/2013 13:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Anybody tearing up FAKE passports?

(Don't say there are none)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 14:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Legally a passport is not OWNED by a person. Its the property of the government. Tearing it up doesnt "strip" ones nationality. Where you were born is where you were born. BUT it does make it a lot more inconvenient tomove around.
Posted by: Northern Cousin || 02/28/2013 20:17 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Indonesian mum kills son over penis size
An Indonesian woman has drowned her nine-year-old son in the bath, claiming she was worried that his "small penis" would affect his prospects for the future, police say.

The 38-year-old woman from Jakarta told police her son had had a small penis prior to being circumcised, but that it appeared to shrink further after the operation, police spokesman Rikwanto told AFP.

"She told police investigators that she killed him as he would have a bleak future with his small penis," Rikwanto said.

"She drowned her son in a bathtub filled with water. She then dressed him and laid him on a bed. After that, she went to a nearby police office to report her crime."

Rikwanto said the woman was fully conscious of what she had done, but police ordered a psychological test to assess her mental condition.

Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 05:55 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...then she should be taken in front of a firing squad and shot.
Posted by: Raj || 02/28/2013 7:34 Comments || Top||

#2  No problem with that Raj, but I'm betting the police psychologist finds issues...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/28/2013 7:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Boy howdy, am I glad she wasn't MY mom....
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 02/28/2013 8:15 Comments || Top||

#4  She should (At the least) Be "Fixed," and any other children Institutionalized.

It gets shorter and longer as needs be.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 9:07 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey!
I thought we all agreed size doesn't matter!!!!!
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/28/2013 9:12 Comments || Top||

#6  I came here to find out if she thought it was too long or too short. Who can tell with these people?

I'm reminded of the old joke with the punch line, "Aw, Maw, I only pulled out enough to win."
Posted by: KBK || 02/28/2013 9:23 Comments || Top||

#7  Meanwhile, Indonesian police officers were keeping their pants firmly zipped up :-)
Posted by: Raider || 02/28/2013 18:11 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Terrorist attacks foiled against U.S. Embassy, synagogues and churches in Istanbul
As a result of a special operation of the country's security forces, 11 members of the Al Qaeda terrorist organisation have been detained in Istanbul, Sabah newspaper said.

It was reported that the terrorists planned to launch terrorist attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Turkey, as well as in a number of synagogues and churches in the country.

Some 22 kilogrammes of explosives, five guns and five handguns were seized from the detained terrorists. An investigation was launched over the case.

Earlier this month an attack took place on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara. An explosion occurred at the embassy entrance on February 1. The explosion killed an embassy security guard and one visitor was injured. The explosion leader, a member of the Marxist terrorist group Turkish People's Liberation Party-Front, Ecevit Shanli was also killed.
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 05:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ynet adds:

The suspects were rounded up in simultaneous raids in Istanbul and the northeastern province of Tekirdag, the private Dogan news agency reported. It did not cite a source for the report. Interior Ministry officials and police in Istanbul and Tekirdag refused comment on the report which came on the eve of US Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/28/2013 18:55 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Sheikh grilled over 8 missing families
This Jamar Kiyemba?
Uganda: The Police at Katwe have discovered that a Sheikh they arrested over the disappearance of a man and his three children is also responsible for seven missing families.

Over the weekend, the Police arrested the Imaam of Zzana mosque, Jamar Kiyemba, in connection with the disappearance of Zaid Mutebi and his three children; Muhammad wamala 13, Shadia Babirye 12 and Muzaifah Mutebi 7.

This disturbing story came to light after Mutebi's wife, Aisha Nalwadda, reported the strange disappearance of her husband and children in January. The family left their home for Masaka to bury, but never made it there.

It was also discovered that Kiyemba is a former prisoner at the much dreaded Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States military known to house the most feared terror suspects the world over.

Kiyemba's detention there followed his arrest in Pakistan on 19/05/2002. Documents found in his house showed that in 1993 he was staying in the UK. When he was arrested in Pakistan he claimed he was a resident in the UK but immigration authorities denied his claims. He was then handed over to the US who locked him up in Guantanamo.

Other documents found at Kiyemba's home showed that during his incarceration at Guantanamo Bay, his colleagues solicited funds to help him and these were to be channeled through a bank in Uganda that cannot be named for legal implications.

A police officer who did not want to disclose his identity said Kiyemba had been handed over to JAT (Joint Anti Terrorism) unit to handle the matter.
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 05:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336075 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sheikh grilled? Does he have to be marinated overnight first?
Posted by: Raj || 02/28/2013 7:30 Comments || Top||

#2  If its Uganda, look in the Frigidaire.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 02/28/2013 7:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Its very stringy, but the trick to grilled sheikh is to remove the bullshit taste.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/28/2013 12:00 Comments || Top||

#4  ever try to clean a sheikh?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/28/2013 12:30 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Imagine Reading Rantburg on a Heads-Up Display on your Glasses
Brin sees Google glasses hitting market this year

AFP - Sergey Brin envisions Google's Internet glasses hitting the market this year with an eye toward freeing people from unsocial habits engendered by "emasculating" smartphones.
Because nothing liberates you faster from an emasculating smartphone than dork eyeglasses...
Brin spoke of inspiration behind Google Glass eyewear during a brief appearance Wednesday on stage at a TED Conference known for an inspiring mix of influential big thinkers and "ideas worth spreading.

He playfully demonstrated his point on stage by ignoring a theater audience to stare down at his smartphone, saying he was intent on a message from a Nigerian prince need of $10 million dollars.

"I like to pay attention because that is how we originally funded the company," the Google co-founder quipped about a well-known scam.

A video intended to capture what it feels like to use Glass was online at googlecom/glass/start/..


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/28/2013 02:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336097 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Glasses don't fix the problem he's pretending to fix.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/28/2013 8:17 Comments || Top||

#2  People will now be emasculated by dork eyeglasses. People now have their noses buried in their smartphones; soon their attention will be buried in there eyeglasses. Heads-up displays have have been around around a long time relative to new developments. This is just a different application of an old technology.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/28/2013 8:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Data (Of Star Trek) LIVES.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 9:01 Comments || Top||

#4  At least the monitor stops the spew when you hit a good one on the 'Burg. Not sure how that would work out with the Glass, it could be really embarrassing and possibly life threatening in some locations.
Posted by: KBK || 02/28/2013 9:28 Comments || Top||

#5  I wear a pair of prescription goggles when viewing the Burg. Not only do they keep spewed coffee out of my eyes, but more importantly, they keep me from poking my own eyes out when I read an article about Obama.
Posted by: junkiron || 02/28/2013 10:21 Comments || Top||

#6  DS & TP anytime, anywhere? Sounds good.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/28/2013 10:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Imagine Reading Rantburg on a Heads-Up Display on your Glasses

Probably not a good idea resulting in a lot of coffee being spewed across the cubical/lunch table at work.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/28/2013 11:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Does it come with an Opti-Grab?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/28/2013 11:24 Comments || Top||

#9  Oh sorry... I wasn't leering at you I was -er- reading GolfBravoUSMC's Good Morning comment!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/28/2013 13:00 Comments || Top||

#10  But but but.... Men Who Bathe love Google Glasses !

Posted by: junkiron || 02/28/2013 14:15 Comments || Top||

#11  LOL, your best and worst so far JI.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/28/2013 16:22 Comments || Top||

#12  This is going to be most excellent for them that want to google and drive........
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/28/2013 21:55 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Four men found guilty of sharia law whipping in Australia
Four Muslim men were today found guilty by an Australian court of whipping an electrician 40 times with a cable, which they said was a punishment under Islamic law for drinking alcohol and using drugs.

Zakaryah Raad, Tolga Cifci, Wassim Fayad, and Cengiz Coskun were convicted of several charges relating to whipping Cristian Martinez, a convert to Islam, in July 2011.

The case is believed to be the first in an Australian court relating to such punishment being meted out under the pretext of sharia, or Islamic law.

According to media reprot, Martinez, 32, was lashed out 40 times with a cable as a punishment under Islamic law for drinking alcohol and using drugs.

Magistrate Brian Maloney told Burwood Local Court that it was an extremely unusual case.

"Until now, assaults occasioned in the course of a religious practice involving the mortification of the flesh have not been before any court in any common law country," he said.

Maloney said that the prosecutors were clear that the case was not about sharia, or about the Islamic faith.

The court heard Martinez drank alcohol and took drugs on July 15 and 16, 2011, before he called Fayad, who had been his spiritual leader, and said he wanted help to get off drugs and make a fresh start.

Christian Martinez, 32, was whipped with an electric cord at his home in Silverwater in Sydney's west between July 16 and 17 in 2011.

Martinez had asked Fayed for help in getting off illicit drugs he was taking. Fayed had replied, "I'm going to tie you up, OK, and that's what you need, brother".

... contd.
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 02:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm surprised they were convicted. After all, it's their culture, dontcha know.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/28/2013 8:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Whipping?

Seems drug use is it's own punishment.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 14:14 Comments || Top||

#3  interestingly alcohol wasn't against sharia until about 1200 or so (in the time of Averoes, about 1150, drinking alcohol was OK if you didn't get drunk and go into the mosque that way); the ban against taking drugs is even today not contrary to some Sharia law systems
Posted by: lord garth || 02/28/2013 17:09 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Jihad Vs. Jihad: New Evidence Suggests Hezbollah Fighters Are in Syria Fighting for Assad
New evidence over the weekend emerged of the growing involvement of Hezbollah in the Syrian civil war. The Free Syrian Army (FSA), the main opposition group battling President Bashar Assad’s forces, claims some 1,000 Hezbollah fighters entered Syria over the weekend and engaged in bloody battles.

The FSA spokesman said, “It’s a coordinated ground invasion…Hezbollah has started a war against us.”

According to Lebanon’s Daily Star, three Hezbollah militants were killed in battles over the weekend, as were 12 rebel fighters. The paper is characterizing the fighting as “the worst near the border with Lebanon since the uprising erupted.” It warned Hezbollah’s increasing involvement in Syria could portend a spillover of the civil conflict into next-door Lebanon. It also provides further evidence of the sectarian divide of the combatants, the Shi’ite Hezbollah pitted against Sunni rebels, many of whom are themselves radical jihadis from neighboring countries.

The Syrian National Council (SNC) is accusing Hezbollah of “military intervention” and of employing “heavy weapons openly and under the auspices of the Syrian regime army.”

It called the development a “serious threat to Syrian-Lebanese relations and regional peace and security.”

Hezbollah is allied with President Assad who represents the minority Alawite sect of Shi’ite Islam. Both Hezbollah and Assad are supported by Iran.
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 01:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IIRC this is news from January.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/28/2013 21:24 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Vote on Brennan for CIA post put off
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has postponed a vote on the nomination of White House terrorism adviser John O. Brennan to be CIA director after seeing emails that showed his role in drafting controversial "talking points" about the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Libya last year.

Congressional officials told The Washington Times that committee Chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein had planned to hold a vote as soon as Thursday.

But the California Democrat said this week that there would be no vote on the nomination before March 7.

"The situation is fluid," said Mrs. Feinstein's spokesman, Brian Weiss, adding that no date had been set for a vote.

White House officials told The Times on Wednesday that the emails provided to committee members, which will be shared this week with members of the House intelligence committee, show that Mr. Brennan played a minor role in drafting the talking points and none at all in making the changes that have so infuriated Republicans.

Mr. Brennan "suggested two minor edits that were stylistic," White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said. "Neither edit made its way into the CIA's final product."
Because after all, who would listen to him?
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 01:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The situation is fluid," said Mrs. Feinstein's spokesman, Brian Weiss, adding that no date had been set for a vote.

TRANSLATION: More Brennan evil kak may come out that could embarrass us all.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 3:25 Comments || Top||

#2  ..so we'll drag it out long enough allowing all the opposition's energy to dissipate before getting around and approving the hack anyway (see - Hagel, Lew, etc).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/28/2013 7:55 Comments || Top||

#3  "The situation is fluid" Generally translates as "It's up the creek".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 8:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Brennan ? Benghazi e-mails ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 9:00 Comments || Top||


Europe
Two Arrested On Suspicion Of Aiding Toulouse Terrorist
[Times of Israel] French police tossed in the calaboose
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
two men on suspicion that they helped Mohammed Merah in two killing sprees in the Toulouse
...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France...
area last year, including at a Jewish school.

The two were arrested separately on Tuesday in Toulouse, according to Le Monde.

Merah, a 23-year-old radical Mohammedan, killed a rabbi and three children in an attack on the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school, now Ohr Hatorah, on March 19. The slayings came a few days after Merah bumped off three French soldiers in two drive-by shootings from a scooter near Toulouse. He was rubbed out on March 22 during a standoff with police.

French police have arrested and released several people and questioned dozens in connection with the shootings.

The only person in jug besides the two men who were arrested Tuesday is Merah's brother, Abdelkader, who has denied having anything to do with the shootings. Police believe he was with his brother when they stole a scooter that Mohammed Merah used to escape after the shootings.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/28/2013 01:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Boehner Restricts House Member Flights on Military Planes
House Speaker John Boehner plans to restrict lawmakers' use of military aircraft for official travel after federal spending cuts begin tomorrow, his spokesman said.

"The speaker believes this is the prudent and responsible course of action, and it goes above and beyond the spending cuts the House will be implementing" as the automatic cuts take effect, Boehner's spokesman, Kevin Smith, said in an e-mail.

Boehner made the announcement during a closed meeting of House Republicans yesterday, said a party leadership aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the session was private. The speaker, an Ohio Republican, told lawmakers their office budgets would be reduced and their use of military aircraft for official travel would be curtailed, the aide said.

Congressional delegations use military aircraft for trips to Afghanistan and Iraq or to conduct oversight in other parts of the world where the U.S. military is engaged. All overseas trips by congressional delegations on military aircraft require Boehner's approval.

Under the new policy, House members won't be able to fly directly from the U.S. to other countries on military aircraft, said an Armed Services Committee aide who spoke on condition of anonymity. Instead, they would fly on commercial airlines to an another country, such as Kuwait, to connect with a regularly scheduled military aircraft, the aide said.
Does it stop Nancy Pelosi from using the military Gulfstream to San Francisco?
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 01:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
For Third Time In 2 Years, 'Iran Fails To Launch Satellite'
[Times of Israel] For the third time in two years, Iran failed in an attempt to launch a satellite into space, western intelligence sources said Tuesday.

Iran was attempting to launch a home-produced satellite with photographic capabilities, but the rocket carrying it failed to perform as expected, and all contact with both the rocket and the satellite were lost after launch, according to the sources, quoted by Israel's Channel 2.

Iran attempted the launch in secret about 10 days ago, and has been trying to cover up the failure, but the launch was registered by the western intelligence agencies, the report said.

News of the failed launch came on the day that Iran and the so-called P5+1 powers resumed negotiations over Iran's controversial nuclear program, and the day after Israel successfully tested a new long-range missile interceptor in a joint drill with the US.

It also coincided with the first rocket fire into Israel from Gazoo in three months -- an upgraded Fajr-5 rocket which slammed into Ashkelon on Tuesday morning, causing no casualties. Some reports claimed Tuesday that Iranian experts are in Gazoo helping Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and other Islamist terror groups improve their rocket and missile technology for use against Israel.

Monday's trial of the Arrow 3 was described as a further improvement in Israel's capacity to fend off an Iranian threat.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the Israeli technical skill, and the partnership with the US, involved in the system, which he said enabled the Israeli government to better protect its citizens.

Uzi Rubin, who oversaw the development of the entire Arrow system, said the Arrow 3 represented "the most sophisticated system of its kind" in the world.

The primary advantage of the Arrow 3 over its predecessor, the Arrow 2, is its ability to intercept enemy missiles at higher altitudes and to target non-conventional weapons of mass destruction. This is seen as particularly relevant amid concerns over the progress of Iran's nuclear program.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the test was an "important milestone in Israel's multi-layered protection system."

The Defense Ministry said the Arrow 3 "flew an exo-atmospheric trajectory through space, in accordance with the test plan."

The rocket, still in early stages of development, was not given a target to intercept.

Arrow 3 joins Arrow 2, Iron Dome and Magic Wand (also known as David's Sling) in Israel's "umbrella" defense against rocket threats. The Arrow 3 is expected to be deployed in 2016.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/28/2013 01:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  OTOH, as per TOPIX + WORLD NEWS, NORTH KOREA SAYS IT NOW HAS LRBMS THAT CAN HIT THE CONTINENTAL USA.

So, as far as the DPRK is concerned, it is now both a NucWeapons + Ballistic Missle State = World Nuke Power after the end of its third underground nuke test.

Methinks its safe to say that IRAN's alleged Plutonium-based "Plan B" to dev a NucWeapon will also involve North Korea.

Ala so-called "FRANCHISING".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/28/2013 1:29 Comments || Top||

#2  As they say at the University, "You can put the student in Engineering, but you can't put Engineering in the student."
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/28/2013 5:43 Comments || Top||

#3  NORTH KOREA is launching for them, why would they do it?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 14:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Founded By Geniuses And Run By Idiots
Extract
If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives 20 F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If, in the largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not a 24-ounce soda because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If an 80-year-old woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a woman in a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
Posted by: tipper || 02/28/2013 00:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There must be some axiom that says as bureaucracies grow without restriction, idiocy also grows without restriction. Maybe bureaucracies follow the 2nd law of thermo; systems tend towards more and more chaos, disorder, and randomness. The 2nd law says the process is also reversible.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/28/2013 8:16 Comments || Top||

#2  And remember - our government is (so far) run by the people. So who are the idiots?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/28/2013 8:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Founded By Geniuses And Run By Idiots

... ohhh sorry. I thought you were talking about Yahoo News. My mistake.
Posted by: Raider || 02/28/2013 10:06 Comments || Top||

#4  There is a common belief that the US has had, in general, above average presidents. That's exactly wrong. Most of them were bad to awful (with a handful of extraordinary exceptions). What makes America great is not its presidents, it is our Constitution, our institutions and our people.
Posted by: Iblis || 02/28/2013 12:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Well said IBILS
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/28/2013 12:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Yes, in spite of our presidents.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/28/2013 12:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Our better presidents tend to be the ones who know their limitations - a most rare attribute among politicians.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/28/2013 13:02 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Expert: Stuxnet Part Of Long-Term Effort To Stop Iran Nukes
[Times of Israel] Stuxnet, the virus that attacked Iran's nuclear program and that may or may not have been developed by Israel and the US, was already doing its destructive work in 2007, two years earlier than previously thought.

And, said one expert on hacking in the Middle East, versions of Stuxnet, which are still plaguing Iran's nuclear program, have apparently been a factor in preventing the Islamic Theocratic Republic from achieving nuclear capability -- one reason why predictions that Iran would soon achieve nuclear capability have not yet panned out.

In fact, said Dr. Tal Pavel, an expert on Internet usage and hacking in the Middle East, it's safe to say that the Stuxnet attacks were planned out and executed as part of a deliberate policy to deny Iran nuclear weapons, as opposed to an idea that was executed in response to specific statements or actions by Tehran. "It's likely there are other cyber aspects of this policy that we have not yet heard about," Pavel said.

Researchers at antivirus company Symantec said they had gathered evidence that earlier versions of the code, which they called Stuxnet 0.5, was already seen "in the wild" as early as 2005, although it wasn't yet operational as a virus. Stuxnet, said Symantec Tuesday, was the first virus known to attack national infrastructure projects, and according to the company, the groups behind Stuxnet were already seeking to compromise Iran's nuclear program in 2007 -- the year Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, where much of the country's uranium enrichment is taking place, went online,

Stuxnet was designed specifically to attack the PLC (programmable logic control) automation system, manufactured by German conglomerate Siemens, that runs the centrifuges used to enrich uranium at the Natanz facility, according to Symantec experts who analyzed the effects of the virus by reverse-engineering samples found on servers in countries around the world. Variants of Stuxnet have affected the centrifuges in various ways, mostly by changing the activity of valves controlled by the PLC software that feed the uranium to centrifuges at a specific rate required for enrichment.

The earlier version of Stuxnet, according to the antivirus researchers, contained a suite of cyber-weapons to affect the centrifuges, although it was missing the full range of remote control capabilities that the later versions included. In addition, there was a change in later versions of Stuxnet's attack strategy, varying the speed instead of closing off feed valves to the centrifuges altogether.

Although Stuxnet 0.5 was less aggressive than the later versions, Symantec said, it appeared that the earlier virus was capable of doing as much damage to the nuclear enrichment systems. In 2009, Iran was forced to replace nearly 1,000 centrifuges after the later versions of Stuxnet were found to have compromised the Natanz plant. Symantec, quoting the Institute for Science and International Security, said there was evidence that earlier versions of Stuxnet had done significant damage to Iran's program as well.

Symantec said it was not clear why the authors of Stuxnet changed their tactics, although it was likely that the controllers of the virus wanted more flexibility in their attacks, the researchers said. "Later versions of Stuxnet were developed using a different development framework, became more aggressive, and employed a different attack strategy that changed the speeds of the centrifuges, suggesting Stuxnet 0.5 did not completely fulfill the attacker's goals," Symantec said. Stuxnet 0.5 was preprogrammed to stop working on a specific date in 2009, after which newer versions of the virus took over, the company said.

Symantec did not speculate on how the virus reached the Natanz facility at least twice, considering that Internet connectivity at the site is said to be minimal.

But if one of the goals of Stuxnet was to significantly delay Iran's nuclear development, the various generations of the virus have apparently been doing the job, said Pavel. "Iran itself has admitted on several occasions that viruses have slowed their nuclear progress, so we can certainly take them at their word on that," he said. "If the research by Symantec is correct and the earlier version of Stuxnet did slow the program, then this is evidence for a long-standing policy by the people behind Stuxnet to impede Iran. And it does appear that the tool they used to execute this policy -- Stuxnet -- has been effective."

With that, Pavel said, no one will ever know definitively who authored and distributed Stuxnet. "The nature of computer hacking is that it is anonymous, and even if you trace an attack to a server, you cannot know for sure that the owners of that server are behind the attack. In fact, it's almost a sure thing that their server was hijacked by the hackers carrying out the attack," since masking their internet address (IP spoofing) is a cardinal tenet of the hacker business. And while it makes sense that the Israel and/or the US would be seeking to prevent Iran from moving forward with its nuclear program, said Pavel, "we will probably never know definitively."
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/28/2013 00:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336075 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But-t-t, IRAN = N-O-T NORTH KOREA, now is it???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/28/2013 1:30 Comments || Top||

#2  From the Journal of the Blatantly Obvious
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/28/2013 11:20 Comments || Top||

#3  In its liquid state, water is wet.
Posted by: charger || 02/28/2013 11:25 Comments || Top||

#4  If Stuxnet 0.5 started in 2005, does this mean it's all Bush's fault?

Or did Senator "Present" cause this to happen, just like he made the sea levels stop rising?

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 02/28/2013 13:43 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Jamaat warms up with violence
[Bangla Daily Star] Failing to get the support of any party in or outside the BNP-led alliance for today's nationwide hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
, a desperate Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
resorted to violence yesterday to strike fear into the hearts of people in different parts of the country.

Jamaat announced the dawn-to-dusk hartal yesterday, minutes after the International Crimes Tribunal-1 announced around 12:30pm that it would deliver today the verdict of the war crimes case against Jamaat Nayeb-e-Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayeedi
...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami...

Jamaat-Shibir men torched and vandalised vehicles in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj last night, creating panic among people.

They even attacked a bus carrying the footballers of Muktijoddha Sangsad's under-16 team on Satmasjid road in the capital, leaving five players injured, said police.

Talking to The Daily Star, BNP Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed said his party was yet to decide whether it would back Jamaat's hartal.

BNP would not officially support Jamaat's shutdown like the previous ones this month, considering it could incur people's wrath for backing Jamaat's hartal, said sources in BNP.

At a presser in the morning, the leaders of Iman O Desh Rokkhar Andolon, an alliance of nine Islamist parties, said they would not back Jamaat if it calls hartal over war crimes related issues.

RAJSHAHI
At least five people, including two journalists and a policeman, were maimed as Jamaat-Shibir men clashed with police and locals at Sheroil Colony in Rajshahi yesterday.

The clash erupted at 5:30pm, when around a hundred Jamaat-Shibir activists brought out a procession with sticks and brickbats in support of the hartal and some locals tried to resist them, said Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Commissioner SM Moniruzzaman.

Among the locals were many Awami League activists, witnesses said.

The Jamaat-Shibir men and the locals chased each other and exchanged brick chips in great numbers, injuring Officer-in-Charge Alamgir Hossain of the Detective Branch of the RMP.

The hartal supporters threw brick chips at journalists, wounding Prothom Alo photojournalist Shahidul Islam and My TV cameraman Mohammad Mustahab and damaging their cameras.

The locals caught two Shibir members -- Tawkir, 20, and Liakat Ali, 20, -- and beat them up in droves. The two were admitted to Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital, said police and witnesses.

Jamaat-Shibir men blasted four cocktails during the clash.

Police intervened around 5:45pm and, firing six tear gas shells and 20 rubber bullets, dispersed the pro-hartal activists.

Three of the activists, including Tawkir and Liakat, have been tossed in the clink
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
, said the police.

CHAPAINAWABGANJ
Meanwhile,
...back at the comedy club, Boogie sadly admitted that he was a better peeping Tom than he was a comedian...
in Chapainawabganj, Jamaat and Shibir members yesterday attacked law enforcers, injuring 14 coppers, including Officer-in-Charge Zamir Uddin of Shibganj Police Station.

Sub-Inspector Nur-e-Alam of the cop shoppe said Jamaat-Shibir men brought out a procession in Shibganj Bazar area and suddenly attacked coppers with brick chips and sticks.

They damaged some vehicles and torched the local Awami League office around 5:15 pm, he added.

Police fired at least 50 rounds of bullet and 25 tear gas canisters to disperse them.

Pro-government men soon showed up and battled with Jamaat-Shibir men, vandalising an ATM booth of Islami Bank at Shibganj Bazar, said witnesses.

Around 5:00pm, Jamaat-Shibir activists marched in procession from Boro Indira intersection, said Golam Mortuza, officer-in-charge of Sadar Police Station.

Police intercepted them when the procession neared Shaheed Satu Hall, trying to approach the Gonojagoron Mancha.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Caribbean-Latin America
Hugo brain dead?
Original in Spanish. Computer translation followed by editing by me for clarity. All mistakes are mine.
Guillermo Cochez, Panamanian politician,
Formerly Panama's ambassador to the Organization of American States. He's been harshly critical of Hugo, and the government of Panama cashiered Cochez last month for the statements he made to the OAS about Chavez. More on Cochez at Foreign Policy if you can get past the paywall.
claims that the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez passed away four days after he was removed from an artificial respirator.
That's the claim; seems that Hugo wasn't doing so well before that.
In an interview hosted by CNN Chile, the former ambassador of Panama to the OAS affirmed that on December 30 Chavez was declared to be brain dead while in Cuba, after which he returned to Venezuela in that same state. Cochez claims that this is the reason that Chavez was not visited by different proxies, and he questioned the most recent photographs published of Chavez with his daughters.

The former diplomat claims that the information came from what are "internal sources of the Venezuelan government" and that the information circulated weeks ago. "[I] Challenge to the Venezuelan government to contradict me, and that show president Chavez and thus will be known what I say is true or lie" to clarify the situation to the people of Venezuela.

CNN Chile queried the Department of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela who replied that this version of events is not true and is contradicted by the medical information released at present about the President of Venezuela. They declined to discuss the matter further.
The article also said the Venezuelan government has asked Conchez to "clarify" his remarks, presumably in person.
Cóchez also stated that 4 days after Chavez's daughters asked to disconnect Chavez from the artificial respirator December 30th, Chavez passed away.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336099 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Brain Dead? How's that different than the last 5 years?
Posted by: Alanc || 02/28/2013 6:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Hugo Chavez passed away four days after he was removed from an artificial respirator.

Has he begun to stink yet? (More so than normal, that is) stuff Right Guard won't cover.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 9:22 Comments || Top||

#3  he's not dead, he's just resting....in a "Bolivarian State of Being"...kinda like Che
Posted by: Frank G || 02/28/2013 9:45 Comments || Top||

#4  a "Bolivarian State of Being"...

Doesn't that require being buried under an air force base tarmac?
Posted by: Pappy || 02/28/2013 10:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Given the record of the 20th Century, is any Marxist/Communist/Redistributionist not brain dead? /rhet question
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/28/2013 10:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Told ya. Ex-parrot.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/28/2013 11:17 Comments || Top||

#7  "He's shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the choir invisible."
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/28/2013 11:18 Comments || Top||

#8  He's "Pinin for the Fijords.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 14:33 Comments || Top||

#9  Skateboard Park ain't finished yet.
Summer's coming on and electricity is getting scare, But he's our boy and we'll keep his ass on ice.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/28/2013 16:12 Comments || Top||

#10  Kinda makes Yasser Arafat seem like a small timer as long as they've kept Hugo "alive"

Any chance they won't announce his death until he starts to change color and get kinda fuzzy looking from mold?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/28/2013 17:03 Comments || Top||

#11  Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
Posted by: Odysseus || 02/28/2013 23:07 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Brigadier Gen. Yehia Mohammed Saleh in hot water
[Yemen Post] Several local newspapers reported on Tuesday on a decision taken by one of Yemen specialized Penal Courts to issue a freeze order against Brig. Gen. Yehia Mohammed Saleh's assets in the country following his decisions not to appear before a judge in regards to an investigation carried out on the aftermath of May 2012 kaboom against the Central Security Forces.

On May 21st, 2012, a bomb destroyed a military parade at the heart of the capital, killing 86 soldiers and injuring 171 others. While the attack was soon after blamed on al-Qaeda, the victims' families demanded that an investigation be carried out in order to assess the events and look into ways in which such tragedy could be prevented in the future.

Al-Hadath online news site cited an official court injunction in which the judge informed the Ministry of Interior of its decision to freeze all bank assets until the next court hearing scheduled on March 5th, 2013.

The court also targeted Maj. Gen. Abdul-Malik al-Tayeb former Commander of the Central Security Forces, blocking all access to his accounts in Yemen.

The judge is said to have reacted negatively to Gen. Yehia Saleh and Gen. Al-Tayeb refusals to show up at several court hearings.

The court decision comes in direct contradiction to a immunity blanket which the Yemeni Parliament granted all former regime men upon deposed President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
's resignation -
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Hit them financially, again and again until they either get it or are broke.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 14:30 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Jail threat over Muslim burqa
[News24] Australian authorities on Friday said motorists who refused to take off face-covering veils such as the burqa when asked to do so by police could be sent to jail for up to a year.

Under the changes to laws in New South Wales state, police will be able to ask drivers to remove helmets, masks, the face-covering niqab veil and the all-body garment the burqa.

Refusal to do so would incur a fine of A$220 ($228), but in the most serious cases could result in up to a year in jail and a fine of A$5 500.

"People will only be required to remove a face covering for as long as it takes to identify them," New South Wales state Premier Barry O'Farrell said.

"Those who want to be identified privately for cultural and religious reasons can request to go to a cop shoppe."

Identity

The changes, to be introduced to parliament next week, will also give officials the power to request the removal of face coverings in courts while visitors to prison could also be asked to remove any coverings that obscure their identity. Those who refuse could be fined up to $550.

"I have every respect for different religions and beliefs but when it comes to enforcing the law, the police should be given adequate powers to make a clear identification," O'Farrell said in a statement.

The change follows the recent case of a Moslem woman being acquitted when a magistrate ruled she could not be positively identified because was wearing a burqa.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Finally, some sense.
Not much, but some.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 9:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Please explain why it is legal to drive at all, with one's field of vision so restricted?
Posted by: mom || 02/28/2013 16:16 Comments || Top||

#3  They oughta be hell on wheels in women's fencing.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/28/2013 16:21 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Maliki Warns of Civil Wars in Lebanon, Iraq if Syria Rebels Win
[An Nahar] Iraq's prime minister warned Wednesday that a victory for Syria's rebels will spark sectarian wars in Leb and Iraq and will create a new haven for al-Qaeda that would destabilize the region.

The comments by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
in an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named marked one of his strongest warnings yet about the turmoil that toppling Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
could create in the Middle East.

"If the world does not agree to support a peaceful solution through dialogue ... then I see no light at the end of the tunnel.

"Neither the opposition nor the regime can finish each other off," he said. "If the opposition is victorious, there will be a civil war in Leb, divisions in Jordan and a sectarian war in Iraq."

Maliki's warning comes as his government confronts growing tensions of its own between the Shiite majority and an increasingly restive Sunni minority nearly a decade after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Fighting in Syria has sharp sectarian overtones, with predominantly Sunni rebels battling a regime dominated by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Assad's regional allies are Shiite Iran and Hizbullah.

Al-Maliki too is a Shiite and his sect dominates Iraq's government.

His comments reflect growing fears by many Shiites in Iraq and elsewhere that Sunnis would come to dominate Syria should Assad be pushed from power.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Civil wars in Moslem countries? Does that mean the Moslems are all going to arm themselves and Kill EACH OTHER?

There is a God.

But the United States with Obama to lead them will soon be giving the rebels medical supplies and "humanitarian aid" ( I have always wondered what that actually meant).

Is there any money in it? Can we play one group off against another? Can we keep this thing going for as long as possible?
Can we get it to spread? If it has a turban on it and curly toes slippers can we poke it with a stick ?

If possible is there a way to keep the towelies bleeding themselves out ad infinitum? If they are awash in arms...how about their ammo supplies...can we get them awash with ammo too? Busy busy.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 02/28/2013 7:54 Comments || Top||

#2  MAYBE that's what the Massive Ammo purchases are for, Naah.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 9:12 Comments || Top||


Africa North
French in tough fight in northern Mali
[News24] La Belle France's defence minister said on Tuesday that French troops are involved in "very violent fighting" in the mountains of northern Mali and that it's too early to talk about a quick pullout from the West African country, despite the growing cost of the intervention.

The fighting against Islamic forces of Evil in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains has been going on for days. A clash in the area killed 23 soldiers from neighboring Chad on Friday, according to a letter from French President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it...
expressing condolences to his Chadian counterpart.

Soldiers from Chad and a few other African countries have joined the French-led operation to help Mali's weak military push back forces of Evil who had imposed harsh rule on northern Mali and started moving toward the capital last month.

On Tuesday, the B.O. regime imposed sanctions on an Islamic rebel leader whose turban group seized much of northern Mali last year and prompted the French military intervention. The US State Department designated Iyad Ag Ghali, head of the Islamic group Ansar Dine, a global terrorist. The action blocks any assets he holds in the US and prohibits Americans from doing business with him.

The UN also added Ag Ghali to its global sanctions list.

Ag Ghali's armed forces of Evil conquered much of northern Mali after a military coup in Mali's capital, aided by al-Qaeda's North Africa wing. In Timbuktu, he imposed strict Shariah law and forced thousands to flee; others were tortured and executed. But the French-led intervention in January has turned the tide, forcing back Ag Ghali's rebels to mountainous hideouts near the Algeria border.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on La Belle France's RTL radio Tuesday that the French intervention in Mali has cost more than $133m since it started on January 11.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336101 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1 
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 02/28/2013 7:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Hopefully Algeria has troops on its southern border; Niger would be the only other escape route.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/28/2013 10:19 Comments || Top||

#3  But I thought the French had shown us how it should be done and had the Mission Accomplished dance and withdrawn.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/28/2013 10:26 Comments || Top||

#4  "Zut alors!"
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/28/2013 11:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Je pense que the Legionne l'Etrange etait dans le merde. Sans les drommataires.
Posted by: Northern Cousin || 02/28/2013 20:27 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336114 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Min Hyo-rin [Korean][Filmography](age 27)



아름다운 엉덩이[Aleumdaun eongdeong-i]


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/28/2013 1:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Female KATUSA's in the combat arms? No problem.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 3:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Besoeker, URL points to free credit score site?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/28/2013 7:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes, she does have a beautiful ass-et - ¾Æ¸§´Ù¿î ¾ûµ¢ÀÌ[Aleumdaun myeongdong-i]

Àû´çÇÑ Å©±â ¾ûµ¢ÀÌ
Posted by: Claiper Grumble2940 || 02/28/2013 7:46 Comments || Top||

#5  boy talk about intelligent design.

What is it about a beautiful set of hips that drives men mad? Intelligent design or selective breeding?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 02/28/2013 11:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Very intelligent design. But needs a sandwich :).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/28/2013 13:03 Comments || Top||

#7  Female KATUSA's in the combat arms?

Be careful what you ask for, B.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/28/2013 16:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Hooah-raki :-)
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 16:43 Comments || Top||

#9  White Tiger, named in the White Horse style?
If so, they will be bad.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/28/2013 17:11 Comments || Top||

#10  I noticed they're all flat-chested, Hmmm?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 19:25 Comments || Top||

#11  Don't get away from your internet much, Jim?
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/28/2013 21:49 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Shell Hits Golan, Injured Syrians Leave Israeli Hospital
[An Nahar] A stray mortar shell landed Wednesday in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the army said, while also reporting that six maimed Syrians receiving treatment in Israel have been discharged from hospital.

"We found a shell in the central Golan Heights," a military front man said after troops saw smoke rising near an Israeli town in the central sector of the strategic plateau which borders war-torn Syria.

It was the first time in nearly three months that a shell had slammed into the Israeli side of the Golan, without causing injuries or damage.

Such incidents have been sporadic but have increased over the past six months as violence from the civil war in Syria spilled across the ceasefire line.

On February 16, seven Syrian nationals who were maimed in the fighting over the border were allowed to cross into Israel where they received treatment at Ziv hospital in the northern Galilee town of Safed.

Six of them were discharged from hospital on Wednesday and returned to Syria while the seventh stayed behind for further treatment, the military said.

"Following completion of their medical treatment, six of the seven injured Syrians that received medical aid in Israel have been released today," it said.

They were returned "at some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location for their own safety" while an additional Syrian "who is severely maimed, remains hospitalized for further treatment."

In recent months, there have been several instances of gunfire or mortar shells landing on the Israeli side of the plateau, prompting troops in November to respond with artillery in the first such instance of Israeli fire towards the Syrian military since the 1973 war.

Israel seized the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981, in a move never recognized by the international community.

It is currently upgrading its security fence along its armistice line with the work expected to be finished by the end of the year.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syrian Rebels Say They Killed Hezbollah Deputy Chief
[Jpost] Rebels claim Naim Qassem
... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies...
killed in bombing on Leb-Syria border; Hezbollah denies that he was injured.

Hezbollah's deputy chief Naim Qassem was killed Tuesday when Syrian rebels bombed a convoy consisting of high-ranking Syrian government officers near the Leb border, news portal Now Leb quoted the Free Syria Army as saying on Wednesday.

"It has been confirmed... that Hezbollah's number two man died after [receiving] a serious injury," the Free Syria Army posted on its Twitter account.

Lebanese newspaper al-Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
quoted the Syrian rebels as saying mines placed on the Beirut-Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
highway had detonated as the convoy returned from a high-level security meeting in Leb. The kaboom reportedly took place near the town of Jdeidet Yabous near the Leb-Syria border.

The al-Mustaqbal report made no mention of Qassem being killed in the attack, saying that he had merely been injured, which Hezbollah later denied.
"'e's pining for the fjiords..."
Nasarallah was scheduled to make a televised address on Wednesday evening after it had been reported Tuesday that he was ill and undergoing treatment in Iran.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336146 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  No, No He's not injured, course he's not moving, but any day now, he'll be up and walking about.

(Do they EVER stop lying?)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 14:38 Comments || Top||

#2  "Syrian Rebels Say They Killed Hezbollah Deputy Chief"

Promises, promises ....
Posted by: Barbara || 02/28/2013 19:49 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunisian extremists behind Belaid slaying, new premier says
[MAGHAREBIA] Tunisia enjugged
Please don't kill me!
four salafists in connection with the murder of opposition party leader Chokri Belaid, Prime Minister-designate Ali Larayedh said Tuesday (February 26th).

"One of them had confessed to accompanying the actual assassin to the vicinity of the building where they waited for the exit of Belaid, and then shot him," Larayedh said. "They both expeditiously departed at a goodly pace after killing him."

"The killer has been identified and is known to security units who are in the process of tracking him down," he added.

At a presser at the interior ministry headquarters, Larayedh said that the four suspects were all Tunisian, ranging from 26 to 34 years old.

"One of those arrested was formerly involved in a case for belonging to a gang which was preparing an assault on persons and properties. He was released after the revolution," he said.

He also stressed, "The issue is not over yet and the investigation is on-going by the anti-crime brigade and a judge."

Two suspects allegedly involved in the attack took part in a re-enactment of the killing outside Belaid's home on Tuesday under extraordinary security measures, including the closure of all roads leading to the scene of the crime.

Belaid's February 6th liquidation plunged Tunisia into political turmoil, ultimately leading Hamadi Jebali to resign as prime minister. Larayedh has been tasked with forming a new government.

Parliamentarian Monji Rahoui of Belaid's Unified National Democratic Party is ready to see the killers held accountable.

"The Unified National Democratic Party is seeking, in light of the data made available to it, to take the case to the court of international justice," the MP added.

But Mouldi Ali Moujahid, president of the salafist Assala party, said he did "not accept charges made against salafists accusing them of the liquidation of the dear departed Chokri Belaid without evidence".

"I am not aware of any salafist participating in the liquidation," he stressed. "We will wait until the end of the investigation and the disclosure of the names of the suspects to check whether they belonged to the salafist movement or not."
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Jihadi group calls for boycott of polls for violating Sharia
[Egypt Independent] The Jihadi Organization, a right-wing Salafi movement, said Wednesday that it is asking citizens to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections because the polls violate Sharia law. Furthermore, anyone who particpates in the elections are infidels.

The organization demanded President Mohamed Morsy form an authority of senior Islamic scholars to replace parliament and end the political deadlock that has stymied growth and prompted mass protests and civil disobedience in recent months.

"The authority would not legislate," said Morgan Salem, a leading figure in the organization. "It renders services to the masses and brings the president to account if he violates the Sharia."

Ahmed Ashoush, another member, said the organization has lost confidence in the nation's Islamic and secular political parties. "The former seeks control and the latter applies a foreign agenda," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under: Salafists

#1  If the Police violate Sharia, it MUST be aginst the laws.
(Or the assholes wouldn't complain)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 14:06 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Battles Rock Damascus Province
[An Nahar] Fierce battles pitting Syria's army against rebels rocked towns near Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
on Wednesday as the regime renewed its campaign to suppress the insurgency around the capital, a watchdog said.

Army tanks pounded the rebel-held town of Daraya southwest of Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while fresh festivities broke out in Irbin, northeast of the city.

State television reported meanwhile that "two mortar rounds fell near the Faculty of Literature in Damascus", without elaborating.

Pro-regime daily Al-Watan ran a headline that read: "New attempt (by turbans) to break security in the capital, hundreds of Islamic fascisti killed".

Using the regime's term to refer to turbans, the newspaper said the army was locked in a bid to keep encroaching rebels out of Damascus on Tuesday night.

"In the northeastern entrance into Damascus, on the edges of Qabun district, there was a new bid to stage an incursion into the capital... but the attempt resulted in the death of more than 100 attackers who committed a kind of collective suicide," said Al-Watan.

Elsewhere, six rebel fighters were killed in fighting near the police academy in Khan al-Assal, said the Britannia-based Observatory.

Clashes over the academy have raged for the past week, as beturbanned goons have been attempting to seize one of the last regime bastions in the northern province of Aleppo.

Wednesday's violence came a day after at least 134 people were killed in violence across Syria, among them 52 civilians, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground for its information.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Government
Pentagon's New Chief: U.S. 'Can't Dictate' to the World
[An Nahar] America cannot "dictate to the world" and must work with allies and build relationships with other nations, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said shortly after being sworn in Wednesday as the new Pentagon chief.

On his first day at the job, Hagel reinforced his reputation as a reluctant warrior as he told an auditorium of civilian officials and military officers that America was a powerful country but could not accomplish its goals without forging strong alliances.

"I've always believed that America's role in the world ... has been one that should engage the world. We can't dictate to the world. But we must engage in the world," Hagel said.

"No nation, as great as America is, can do this on their own. We need to continue to build on the strong relationships that we have built."

Defense secretaries often adopt a tough tone to signal resolve to America's adversaries, but Hagel's comments echoed President Barack Obama
Why can't I just eat my waffle?...
's emphasis on extricating the country from a decade of ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

U.S. troops have pulled out of Iraq in 2011 and roughly 66,000 American forces are due to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, a drawdown that Hagel will be charged with overseeing.

Hagel told the Pentagon audience that the United States was ultimately a force "for good" but had a duty to exercise its power with care.

"We make mistakes. We've made mistakes. We'll continue to make mistakes. But we are a force for good," he said.

Hagel, an outspoken opponent of the Iraq war during George W. Bush's presidency, added that "we have great power, and how we apply our power is particularly important.

"That engagement in the world should be done wisely."

Hagel, 66, took his oath of office at about 8:30 am (1330 GMT) at the Pentagon as his wife looked on, becoming the first combat veteran from the Vietnam conflict to take up the post.

In his remarks to Pentagon employees, Hagel spoke without notes and struck an upbeat tone despite a nasty debate in the Senate over his nomination that saw him struggle to win enough votes for confirmation.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The f*cker's an embarrassment already.
Posted by: badanov || 02/28/2013 0:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Barry, Kerry,Holder, this guy...no wonder everybody's buying guns.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/28/2013 0:41 Comments || Top||

#3  I wish to associate myself with the remarks of the gentleman in #1 - but with more spittle and an brain-numbing face palm. How many more days?
Posted by: SteveS || 02/28/2013 0:49 Comments || Top||

#4  "We make mistakes. We've made mistakes. We'll continue to make mistakes. But we are a force for good," he said.

He's certainly memorized the script. The apology tour is rolling once again.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 3:16 Comments || Top||

#5  ....Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're done.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/28/2013 5:50 Comments || Top||

#6  History gives you two choices - either you influence events or events influence you. How quickly they forget 9/11.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/28/2013 9:01 Comments || Top||

#7  The left like to "forget" events that contract their narrative.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/28/2013 9:41 Comments || Top||

#8  "On his first day at the job, Hagel reinforced his reputation as a reluctant warrior as he told an auditorium of civilian officials and military officers that America was a powerful country but could not accomplish its goals without forging strong alliances."

"and so, I am establishing military ties to Iran and North Korea, with technology sharing"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/28/2013 9:50 Comments || Top||

#9  "We make mistakes. We've made mistakes. We'll continue to make mistakes. But we are a force for good," he said.

In the Navy, in the Navy.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/28/2013 16:29 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria to Renew Passports, in Apparent Concession
[An Nahar] The Syrian regime has decided to renew the passports of any of nationals in embassies abroad, in an apparent concession to the opposition, according to documents seen by Agence La Belle France Presse.

The interior ministry said in a circular that it has authorized "the renewal for two to four years of passports and travel documents belonging to Syrian citizens abroad".

"Passports will now be renewed regardless of the reasons that had earlier prevented their renewal, and without obtaining the necessary authorizations," said the circular.

The decision was published on Saturday and authorized by Interior Minister Mohammad al-Shaar.

Also reported by pro-regime newspaper Al-Watan, it comes with the regime and opposition facing strong international pressure to engage in talks to end a civil war that has cost at least 70,000 lives.

Last month, opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib had called for the renewal of passports as one of two main conditions for talks with regime officials, along with the release of 160,000 prisoners.

Some 10 million Syrians live abroad, many of them opponents of the Assad regime.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled the country during the spiraling 23-month conflict, many through illegal border crossings.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Erdogan Calls for More Support for Syrian Opposition
[An Nahar] The lack of clear leader among Syria's opposition is no reason to maintain support for the "cruel" regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
, Turkey's prime minister said Wednesday.

"The international community thus far unfortunately has not taken the kind of position it was expected to take," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a U.N. event in Vienna.

"Some countries ask who will replace Assad when he leaves. I always say that major events, major revolutions, bring their own leaders," he said through an interpreter at a news conference.

"Sometimes leaders are instrumental in bringing about major developments or revolutions," he said.

"The struggle of the opposition is important and should be appreciated. Their effort is the way to prepare the ground for a democratic process to take hold for the Syrian people."

Early in the ongoing two-year revolt against Assad's regime, Turkey broke ties with Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
. It led international calls for Assad's ouster, has offered shelter to defectors from the army and hosted opposition meetings.

Turkey will host this weekend a meeting in Istanbul of the main opposition National Coalition aimed at electing a "prime minister" and government to run parts of the rebel-controlled country.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
Nigeria defence hqtrs trail kidnappers of French nationals
[Guardian Ng] FROM the Defence Headquarters came an assurance Wednesday that relevant security agencies were "doing everything possible" to track down the kidnappers of Frenchies and release the victims.

But the defence authorities said that contrary to their official policy of not responding to postings by terror groups, they advised the "hostage takers" to channel their demands through the telephone numbers of the joint task force "which they are conversant with."

Addressing journalists in Abuja, Defence front man, Col. Mohammed Yerima, confirmed that Nigeria had so far fully deployed the over 1,200 officers and men it pledged to the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA).

Yerima also said that the last batch of troops was airlifted to Mali Wednesday by Nigerian Air Force C-130 transport Hercules.

He added that the C-130 aircraft provided by the British government would also airlift support equipment to the operation, "side by side our own (Nigerian) C-130."

Besides, the French involvement in flushing out the rebels from northern Mali may be leading to discussion on the future of AFISMA as the authorities of heads of state and government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) began yesterday in Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire, their 42nd ordinary session.

In his welcome address, the president of the ECOWAS Commission Kadre Desire Ouedraogo told the gathering of leaders of all 15-member nations which constitute the regional group, that it was important now for them to start "thinking about the process of transforming AFISMA into a United Nations
...When talk is your weapon it's hard to make yourself heard over the artillery...
Peacekeeping Mission based on specific modalities."

Ouedraogo's submission was interpreted yesterday as one means of ensuring that in the future, a foreign power does not seize the initiative of restoring situations as was the case in Mali, to normality. He warned that "the political dimension of the crisis should not be overlooked."

Following his submission, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for West Africa Said Djinnit, gave a rousing speech which was intermittently interrupted by ovation especially when he charged West African leaders to "get involved now in Mali", noting that "The enemies are not waiting."

La Belle France intends to pull out of the Malian operation by the end of March 2013.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Salafists attack Sidi Bouzid police station
[MAGHAREBIA] Tunisian salafists on Tuesday (February 26th) attacked the Sidi Bouzid cop shoppe to reclaim a seized cycle of violence, Tunisie Numerique reported. Police used tear gas to disperse the assailants. Army units were also deployed to restore calm.

In related news, Nafta and Tozeur suspects were placed in durance vile
Please don't kill me!
in connection with the deadly February 21st Sidi Bouzid shootout between armed salafists and National Guard forces.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Government
Champ: Woodward will regret it
Bob Woodward said this evening on CNN that a "very senior person" at the White House warned him in an email that he would "regret doing this," the same day he has continued to slam President Barack Obama over the looming forced cuts known as the sequester.
Bob: just pretend he's Nixon if that makes it easier for you...
"I think they're confused," Woodward said of the White House's pushback on his reporting.
No, I think they're worried. Bob is pointing out how under-dressed Champ is...
Earlier today on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Woodward ripped into Obama in what has become an ongoing feud between the veteran Washington Post journalist and the White House. Woodward said Obama was showing a "kind of madness I haven't seen in a long time" for a decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf because of budget concerns.

"Can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there and saying, 'Oh, by the way, I can't do this because of some budget document?'" Woodward said on MSNBC.

"Or George W. Bush saying, 'You know, I'm not going to invade Iraq because I can't get the aircraft carriers I need?'" Or even Bill Clinton saying, 'You know, I'm not going to attack Saddam Hussein's intelligence headquarters,' ... because of some budget document?"

Woodward began stirring controversy last weekend, when he called out Obama for what he said was "moving the goal posts" on the sequester by requesting that revenue be part of a deal to avert it.
It's a measure of how deep in the tank the media is that even Woodward can't move them to start looking at Obama with anything than abject adulation. Then again, it may be a generational difference in that the younger journalists are happy to go along with Champ since they believe what he believes. Ace points out the third possibility: that Woodward can get away with this since he's the hero of Watergate and has a lifetime job at the Post, whereas the young journalists have to make a living and can't afford to get a negative reference from the folks at the White House.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336086 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A fine example of how Obama is a President for Everyman. Whether you yearn for the ruthless days of Nixon or the hapless malaise of Jimmuh Carter, the Obamination has something for *you*.

But if I were Bob Woodward, I'd stay away from stairwells and elevator shafts.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/28/2013 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  And small planes.

And parks.

And bathtubs.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/28/2013 0:33 Comments || Top||

#3  So go after him, Bob. Because, believe me, he's coming after you...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/28/2013 0:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Iff US Politicos are going to keep expanding US Debt levels + Welfare-Nanny State, then by definition its N-O-T a $$$ or Budget prob that will keep USN Nuclear Carriers, etc. away from the Persian Gulf andor NE Asia, now is it!?

BY THE DEMOLEFT'S OWN ARGUMENT, DEEP DEEP D-E-EP PERENNIALLY NEGATIVE DEFICITS + DEBT BURDENS = THE US IS N-O-T BROKE. IIRC THE BAMMER HIMSELF SAID AS MUCH SEVERAL MONTHS AGO.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/28/2013 1:22 Comments || Top||

#5  So publish the e-mail. Let us expose these punks for who and what they are!

As far as the politics, thought processes, and decision making abilities of young people, we're reaping the multi-culture and affirmative action crop we've sown. They have been instructed at an early age that to not attend college is a sure path to failure. As planned by liberal academia, our youth have been shuttled through the liberal feeding troughs and have been fully indoctrinated. The anti-establishment attitudes of the 1960's [anyone over 30 cannot be trusted and should be put to death] are alive and well, they've just adopted a new more progressive cause De jure.

The idea that any unflattering comment, thought, or failure to vote for a person of colour has at it's base racism and evil have become universally accepted. A free-pass is issued without a second thought. The revealing jingle "It's not your father's Oldsmobile" possesses a meaning and inference that is not limited to automobiles.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 2:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Inline commentary nails it in the last bit. On so many levels, this is all about protecting income streams in the face of potential fury by the administration.

Younger leftist journalists (but I repeat myself) will lose their guaranteed income stream if they actually report on the negative things Obama and the clown posse are doing. While there are no doubt true believers amongst them who really think that the policies of this administration are the right thing, I'm guessing that most journalists are largely doing what they do, and not doing the reporting that they should, so as not to kill the gig. They will give lip service to whatever philosophies and policies they can to keep their salaries at their cushy jobs from disappearing. Reminds me of the amoral old man in Catch 22.

While Besoeker is right about the corrosive effect of Gramscian multi-culti indoctrination, there is a more powerful and simple force at play here.

Blame also lies on the demand end of things. Millions of people, including folks in their 40's, 50's, and older, watch/read/listen to NPR, PBS, MSNBC, Colbert, Stewart, NYT, etc. because they know they will never be exposed to any data which will give cause to doubt the leaders and policies that they have chosen to believe in. None of those "news" venues ever present any facts which might give cause to see the administration and its policies in a negative light on any issue of substance. They simply excise any data points and refuse to report them if they might reflect on the administration in any negative way. This is what the reporters want, of course, but it is also precisely what the core audience of these venues want, as well. They never have to deal with the anxiety and shame of seeing their cherished ideas fail, and they can claim plausible deniability when presented with the facts from other information streams.

"The administration put the screws to Gibson Guitars? I don't believe you. I didn't hear it on NPR or Colbert, and if they didn't report it, then it must not have happened. Faux News probably made it up. Obama is the best president ever and hasn't made any mistakes, and I'm also perfect because I support him."

You get the idea.

These "news" organizations are serving a market. If the people who frequent them started hearing any stories critical of the dear leader and the results of his policies, they would start casting about for some other news to watch or read that did not. So to keep their ratings NPR, MSNBC, NYT et al continue to feed them the pablum they whine for and need to maintain their precious illusory narrative. "Codependent dysfunction" would cover this relationship.

So would "damn lies".



Posted by: no mo uro || 02/28/2013 6:25 Comments || Top||

#7  "Hello, Mr. Woodward? This is the Internal Revenue Service, calling to schedule your audit for the last three years of filed tax returns..."
Posted by: Raj || 02/28/2013 7:40 Comments || Top||

#8  "What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric?" - Henry II [oft reported as "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"]

Those seeking favor of the King, did then kill Thomas Becket. Watch, at least, the character assassination of Mr. Woodward now unfold.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/28/2013 7:52 Comments || Top||

#9  Woodward stepped out when Nixon was President and he survived a vindictive President. Most likely, he will survive this vindictive President also. He will probably sell even more books. Woodward is an interesting character. He never wanted to be a journalist. He studied history and English at Yale on an NROTC scholarship and served as an officer in the Navy for 5 years. Had service off the coast of Vietnam prior to taking a job with WAPO in 1970. His website has an interview that gives some background: Interview. An excerpt: I had no real journalism experience, but they gave me a two week tryout in August of 1970. I wrote about fourteen stories, none of which were very good. The metropolitan editor, Harry Rosenfeld, who I worked for on Watergate two years later, called me in and said, “You don’t know how to do this.”
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/28/2013 8:02 Comments || Top||

#10  As I read things, it looked like Woodward was being overdramatic - that it wasn't a threat so much as a warning - saying he was wrong and eventually that would come out and he would regret having made such reckless statements. Not a threat of retaliation, though probably intended to be intimidating.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/28/2013 8:05 Comments || Top||

#11  that little pasty-faced Gene Sperling was the hatchet man, supposedly
Posted by: Frank G || 02/28/2013 8:18 Comments || Top||

#12  Mr. Spurling, Mr. Gene Spurling to the white courtesy phone please. Your bus is waiting.

IN OTHER NEWS: DHS official retires after immigrants are freed.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 8:46 Comments || Top||

#13  Now Lanny Davis has come out and said that he also was threatened for critiquing the administration.

Either this is the dam breaking OR....

This is a setup to position Hillary Clinton as being different from Obama in advance of her running in 2016.

Plots within plots, and all that.
Posted by: no mo uro || 02/28/2013 8:53 Comments || Top||

#14  Please add former White House press secretary the usually loathsome Robert Gibbs to the shut the **** up or else list.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 8:57 Comments || Top||

#15  Teapot tempest. Read the e-mails. Ambiguous at worst. What is interesting is that Woodward chose the less flattering interpretation. In a certain sense, that choice is far more threatening to Champ than the revelation that there are thugs in this Chicago White House. 0 is loosing his cheerleaders.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/28/2013 9:29 Comments || Top||

#16 

This has the finger prints of the Chicago way of doing business: "Youse wouldn't want something should happen to your family, would yez?"
That puts the email threat squarely on Valerie Jarrett or David Axelrod.
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 02/28/2013 10:27 Comments || Top||

#17  Here's the email exchange - found here

"From Gene Sperling to Bob Woodward on Feb. 22, 2013

Bob:

I apologize for raising my voice in our conversation today. My bad. I do understand your problems with a couple of our statements in the fall — but feel on the other hand that you focus on a few specific trees that gives a very wrong perception of the forest. But perhaps we will just not see eye to eye here.

But I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim. The idea that the sequester was to force both sides to go back to try at a big or grand barain with a mix of entitlements and revenues (even if there were serious disagreements on composition) was part of the DNA of the thing from the start. It was an accepted part of the understanding — from the start. Really. It was assumed by the Rs on the Supercommittee that came right after: it was assumed in the November-December 2012 negotiations. There may have been big disagreements over rates and ratios — but that it was supposed to be replaced by entitlements and revenues of some form is not controversial. (Indeed, the discretionary savings amount from the Boehner-Obama negotiations were locked in in BCA: the sequester was just designed to force all back to table on entitlements and revenues.)

I agree there are more than one side to our first disagreement, but again think this latter issue is diffferent. Not out to argue and argue on this latter point. Just my sincere advice. Your call obviously.

My apologies again for raising my voice on the call with you. Feel bad about that and truly apologize.

Gene

From Woodward to Sperling on Feb. 23, 2013

Gene: You do not ever have to apologize to me. You get wound up because you are making your points and you believe them. This is all part of a serious discussion. I for one welcome a little heat; there should more given the importance. I also welcome your personal advice. I am listening. I know you lived all this. My partial advantage is that I talked extensively with all involved. I am traveling and will try to reach you after 3 pm today. Best, Bob"


Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 02/28/2013 10:39 Comments || Top||

#18  Capone: I want you to get this fuck where he breathes! I want you to find this nancy-boy Eliot Ness, I want him DEAD! I want his family DEAD! I want his house burned to the GROUND! I wanna go there in the middle of the night and I wanna PISS ON HIS ASHES!
-- The Untouchables
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/28/2013 11:28 Comments || Top||

#19  I wonder what this 'controversy' is distracting us from....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/28/2013 12:57 Comments || Top||

#20  Bingo, CF.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/28/2013 13:23 Comments || Top||

#21  #19 I wonder what this 'controversy' is distracting us from....

Bengazi. and the NO ANSWERS therin.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 13:48 Comments || Top||

#22  It's not about the e-mail, it's about Sperling screeching to him on the phone. The email is an apology wrapped in a mini-max gun skill list.

Ima lern something today.

Posted by: Shipman || 02/28/2013 16:28 Comments || Top||

#23  "I wonder what this 'controversy' is distracting us from...."

'Continuing' Budget Resolutions signed by O on September 28, 2012 that applies fiscal year 2012 budget appropriations through March 27, 2013, when these little jewels expire. The Chicago folks are trying to softening the populace up as a prelude to the real fight.

If you think the 'woe is us' and 'evul murdering rethugulans' BS over the sequesters was intense, just wait a few weeks for the real fireworks.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 02/28/2013 21:05 Comments || Top||

#24  that applies fiscal year 2012 budget appropriations through March 27, 2013, when these little jewels expire

Surely it couldn't be that Speaker Boehner played the wily Pres. O?
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/28/2013 21:50 Comments || Top||

#25  TW: I cannot help but think that real Republicans locked Boner the CaveMan in a broom closet somewhere so he couldn't grovel at Bambi's feet.
I trust Boner to hold the line about as far as I expect the sun to rise in the west.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/28/2013 22:01 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt Says Intercepted Arms Shipment To Gaza
[Ynet] Egyptian security sources said Wednesday that they have intercepted two trucks attempted to smuggle 60 anti-tank missiles to Gazoo Strip.

The shipment was stopped while crossing the Libya-Egypt border.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336094 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Could be the only reason the shipment was intercepted is because the Egyptians were afraid the weapons would be turned on them.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/28/2013 19:44 Comments || Top||

#2  That does seem to be the reason they flooded Gaza's tunnels with sewage, Deacon Blues.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/28/2013 21:24 Comments || Top||


Tunis 'Harlem Shake' dancers fend off extremists
[MAGHAREBIA] Tunisian Islamic fascisti tried to prevent a performance of internet dance craze "Harlem Shake" on Wednesday (February 27th), AFP reported.

When the dozen or so salafists, including women in veils and a man carrying a Molotov cocktail, showed up at the Bourguiba Language Institute in the El Khadra neighbourhood, students shouted "Get out, get out!"

The assailants were driven off after coming to blows with students.

On Monday, Education Minister Abdellatif Abid said a probe had been ordered into another Tunis "Harlem Shake" video made by students in the Menzah 6 neighbourhood. He said there could be expulsions of students or the sacking of educational staff.

In response, the ministry's website was hacked and a call went out on social media for the staging of a mass "Harlem Shake" in front of the ministry on Friday.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: Salafists

#1  I'm not sure what a harlem shake is, but they have more guts than those hollywood twits who cancelled their concerts.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/28/2013 11:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Background on the Harlem Shake.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/28/2013 13:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Sounds a like the Blind Staggers
Posted by: Shipman || 02/28/2013 16:09 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Jamaat indeed involved
[Bangla Daily Star] Leaders of eight Islamic parties and law enforcers have strongly claimed that Jamaat-Shibir men were there during Friday's countrywide demonstration demanding punishment to "atheist" bloggers of Shahbagh protest.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday they said Jamaat-Shibir activists blending in with leaders and activists of the eight Islamist parties, which had organised Friday's demonstration, carried out attacks on law enforcers and journalists, especially that took place in front of the capital's Baitul Mokarram mosque.

On Friday, the agitators burned the national flag and vandalised Shaheed minars at several places in the country to counter the mass movement demanding capital punishment to the war criminals of 1971.

This drew huge flak for Jamaat and Shibir, which had extended open support to the Islamist parties' agitation against the Shahbagh movement.

Most of the mainstream electronic and print media blamed Jamaat-Shibir for attacking law enforcers and acting in disguise under the banner of the eight Islamist parties.

Jamaat, a key component of the BNP-led 18-party alliance, refuted the allegation.

Since September last year, Jamaat-Shibir men have been applying new strategies, including hit-and-run tactics on law enforcers, and vandalising and torching public vehicles, demanding the International Crimes Tribunal to be made void and release of its leaders facing war crimes charges at the tribunals.

Although Jamaat has been saying that they were not with the recent movement of eight Islamist parties', a number of leaders of the Islamist parties yesterday claimed that Jamaat-Shibir men had intruded into their Friday's protest across the country and were involved in provocative activities.

Footage of a private television channel on Friday's protest at the national mosque shows a Jamaat assistant secretary general coming out of the mosque with protestors immediately after the Juma prayers.

Well informed sources identified him as Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Mujibur Rahman, who had been tossed in the calaboose
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
in January and was out on bail. Law enforcers arrested him again on Friday.

A staff of Jamaat central office, however, denied the fact.

International Affairs Secretary of Bangladesh Khelafat Andolon Abu Kasim Kasimi told The Daily Star, "What can we do if Jamaat-Shibir men intrude in our movement and carry out subversive activities to realise their demand?"

Newly-elected Chairman of Islami Oikya Jote
... a political party in Bangladesh. In the 2001 elections the party won 2 out of 300 elected members in an alliance with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It has a focus on building an islamic state, and has used the madrassas to gain support...
Abdul Latif Nejami also echoed Kasimi and added that a large number of people took part in the protest in front of Baitul Mokarram and Jamaat-Shibir men were likely to blend in with them.

Ahmadullah Ashraf, ameer of Bangladesh Khelafat Andolon which is leading the eight Islamic parties, on Tuesday told this correspondent that Jamaat men might have been involved in Friday's mayhem across the country including torching the national flag and vandalising Shaheed Minars.

Apart from the three leaders, some other leaders of the eight Islamist parties wishing anonymity also spoke of Jamaat-Shibir the same way.

On Friday, Deputy Commissioner (Motijheel zone) Nazmul Alam of Dhaka Metropolitan Police told news hounds that Jamaat-Shibir activists posing as general devotees had attacked police and committed other destructive activities around the national mosque.

Yesterday, he said that in primary investigation they had got the evidence that Jamaat-Shibir men had been there during Friday's violence in the capital.

"We have arrested more than 172 people in connection with Friday's anarchy in the city and according to our primary findings, some of the arrestees are linked with Jamaat-Shibir," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Arabia
Saleh Fingers Iran over Separatism
[An Nahar] Former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
affirmed his support on Wednesday for Yemen's unity in the face of calls by southerners for secession, which he said are backed by Iran.

"No to secession... Our people in the south are with unity," Saleh said in a rare public appearance in Sanaa's Sabiin Square before thousands of supporters.

"A small minority which supports secession is funded from abroad... Those who receive money from Iran know that their days are numbered," he said, affirming his "support to President (Abdrabuh Mansour) Hadi in preserving Yemen's security and stability."

Saleh was alluding to the exiled Ali Salem Baid, who heads a hardline faction of the Southern Movement that insists on secession and has refused to join a national dialogue set to begin on March 18.

Baid was vice-president of South Yemen, which was briefly independent after it broke away in 1994, sparking a civil war that it lost.

In October, Saleh's successor and interim President Abdrabuh Hadi accused Iran of backing Baid's faction in a bid to secede violently.

And national security chief Ali Hassan al-Ahmedi accused Iran last month of "supporting separatists and trying to fuel the conflict to undermine the Gulf Initiative," which led to Saleh's departure.

Saleh, who ruled for 33 years before resigning last year under the U.N.-backed deal, is still head of the General People's Congress party.

He organized Wednesday's rally to mark the anniversary of his handing over power to Hadi.

Retaining the loyalty of some army elements and owning a television station, he is accused by his opponents of impeding the political process in Yemen.

The U.N. Security Council warned him this month that he could face sanctions for undermining the transition.

Saleh dismissed such accusations last week and accused the powerful Islamist Al-Islah (Reform) party of circulating them.

His opponents have been calling for his ouster as head of the GPC and for him to be kept out of politics ahead of the dialogue that has been delayed from November.

The talks will aim to draft a new constitution and electoral law ahead of parliamentary and presidential polls next year.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Southeast Asia
Thailand set to start peace talks
Thailand is ready to begin peace talks with Muslim insurgent groups active in the south, a senior security official said on Wednesday, signaling a possible breakthrough in the conflict.

Paradorn Pattanathabutr, secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC), said, "This is the first step. The start of a peace dialogue with representatives from Muslim rebel groups."

An agreement on preliminary talks is to be signed on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur ahead of a meeting between Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak.

Malaysia, which helped broker a peace deal between the Philippine government and Muslim insurgents in October, appears to have brought the Thai rebels to the table. Previous attempts at talks have gone nowhere and analysts said it was not even certain the participants in those talks were the legitimate leaders of the insurgency.

Before his trip to Malaysia, Paradorn had said Thailand would seek Malaysia's help to determine which rebel groups were operating in the Thai south and then facilitate talks with the groups. He said, "There has been dialogue with insurgent groups on and off for many months but not as often as we would like."

Thai officials say the attacks in the south are organized by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Coordinate, an offshoot of the Patani Malay National Revolutionary Front set up in the 1960s to seek greater autonomy. Another group, the Patani United Liberation Front, publicly calls for a separate state.

The insurgents have never clearly stated their demands since the violence flared up in 2004 but they are thought to want more autonomy or a separate state in a region that was part of a Malay sultanate until annexed by Thailand in 1909.
Posted by: ryuge || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336086 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Africa North
Ex-Gadhafi PM Critical after Torture in Libya
[An Nahar] Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, the last premier of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy
...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland...
, is at death's door after being tortured in a Libyan prison, his Tunisian lawyer said on Wednesday.

Mahmudi "is at death's door as a result of the torture he has suffered," said Mabrouk Kourchid, adding that "he could die".

The lawyer did not provide any further details nor reveal his sources for fear they could suffer reprisals.

Mahmoudi fled to neighboring Tunisia in September 2011, shortly after rebels seized 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...
and effectively put an end to more than four decades of Qadaffy's iron-fisted rule.

He was incarcerated
Please don't kill me!
there and extradited to Libya last June, despite warnings from rights groups that he could face the death penalty.

He went on trial in November for what the prosecutor general's front man said were "prejudicial acts against the security of the state and financial crimes."

In July, Mahmudi protested his innocence to journalists visiting his prison.

"I am not guilty, not guilty, not guilty," he told news hounds during a visit organized by the authorities in an apparent bid to quash rumors he had been tortured.

A physician by training, Mahmoudi was loyal to Qadaffy until the end, serving as premier from 2006 up to the final days of his regime.

Along with Seif al-Islam, the toppled dictator's most high-profile son who is also on trial, Mahmoudi is one of the few remaining keepers of the many state secrets under Qadaffy, who was captured and killed by rebels in October 2011.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  I love the Moslem concept of jurisprudence...but be careful not to step in it and get it on your shoes.

"at death's door"? That is so expressive. But what it doesn't give us is all the fine and clinical details.

Torture is a vast field with a long history. Would it be possible to give your readers some more details of the "torture"? Is it left to an amature team or is there a Michaelangelo in charge who really knows a thorax from a fibula and has his own cabinet of customized tools ? In Iraq ( if I remember) they used power tools...Moslems have a reputation to uphold, after all.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 02/28/2013 8:05 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Japan Robot Suit Gets Global Safety Certificate
[An Nahar] A robot suit that can help the elderly or disabled get around was given its global safety certificate in Japan on Wednesday, paving the way for its worldwide rollout.

The Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL, is a power-assisted pair of legs developed by Japanese robot maker Cyberdyne, which has also developed similar robot arms.

A quality assurance body issued the certificate based on a draft version of an international safety standard for personal robots that is expected to be approved later this year, the ministry for the economy, trade and industry said.

The metal-and-plastic exoskeleton has become the first nursing-care robot certified under the draft standard, a ministry official said.

Battery-powered HAL, which detects muscle impulses to anticipate and support the user's body movements, is designed to help the elderly with mobility or help hospital or nursing carers to lift patients.

Cyberdyne, based in Tsukuba, northeast of Tokyo, has so far leased some 330 suits to 150 hospitals, welfare and other facilities in Japan since 2010, at 178,000 yen ($1,950) per suit per year.

"It is very significant that Japan has obtained this certification before others in the world," said Yoshiyuki Sankai, the head of Cyberdyne.

The company is unrelated to the firm of the same name responsible for the cyborg assassin played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1984 film "The Terminator".

"This is a first step forward for Japan, the great robot nation, to send our message to the world about robots of the future," said Sankai, who is also a professor at Tsukuba University.

A different version of HAL -- coincidentally the name of the evil supercomputer in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" -- has been developed for workers who need to wear heavy radiation protection as part of the clean-up at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah-h-h riiight, dats what dey ALL say!

lol.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/28/2013 1:34 Comments || Top||

#2  And a SUPER Army suit.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 9:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Cyberdyne, eh?
Either someone is really funny, or not the least bit funny at all.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/28/2013 9:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Joint venture with the UK's milsat comms system?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/28/2013 9:43 Comments || Top||

#5  They should call the suit for Fukashima the HEV suit...

http://sectorw.wikia.com/wiki/HEV_Suit
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/28/2013 9:45 Comments || Top||

#6  "Whadda ya mean, no built-in machine guns? What kind of cheap-jack super-suit is this?"
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/28/2013 11:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Piece of crap.
I want the one with super-duper neodymium magnets that can leap over a tall building....etc, etc, etc.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/28/2013 12:57 Comments || Top||

#8  I wonder how well it would work for people who are crippled? I have a buddy who lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle accident. I wonder if it would help him?
Posted by: Secret Master || 02/28/2013 16:39 Comments || Top||

#9  The hell with a suit like that.

Where are my Elementals?!?!?!?

Posted by: DarthVader || 02/28/2013 18:42 Comments || Top||

#10  Unfortunately, a look at the picture makes me doubt that, SM. It looks more like a leg brace - I expect you'd need the use of your legs for it to work.

But that's just a guess.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/28/2013 18:48 Comments || Top||

#11  I think you're right Barbara. Too bad. It would be great to see my friend walk again - and a hell of a lot of other people as well. Maybe in a few years, who can say?
Posted by: Secret Master || 02/28/2013 21:36 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
PM reassures religion-based parties
[Bangla Daily Star] The government is working on to single out Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
from other religion-based political parties on the grounds that there is nothing wrong with religion-based parties and that Jamaat has been harbouring the war criminals of 1971.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide...
has personally talked to the top leaders of half a dozen religion-based political parties and assured them of taking all necessary measures to stop discrediting Islam and Hazrat Muhammad (SM).

Meanwhile,
...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind...
a new anti-Jamaat alliance of Islamist parties named as Iman O Desh Rokkhar Andolon has been formed. It will hold a rally in front of Baitul Mokarram Mosque on March 8. The alliance has already declared not to support Jamaat's hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
today.

Some ministers and leaders of Awami League's different associate bodies have also talked with the leaders of some religion-based parties to this effect, said party insiders.

The talks began on Sunday, two days after the countrywide violence instigated by, what police and intelligence agencies say, Jamaat and student body Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
centring the alleged anti-Islam content in social networks.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336086 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Europe
Algerian In 'Jihad Jane' Case Pleads Guilty To Irish Charge
[Ynet] An Algerian at the center of the so-called Jihad Jane conspiracy unexpectedly pleaded guilty during an Irish proceeding on Wednesday that may hasten his extradition to the United States on terrorism charges, a court official said.

Ali Damache, who has lived in Ireland for a decade, pleaded guilty in court to a single count of sending a menacing message by telephone to an American Moslem activist, according to a court official in Waterford, Ireland.
This article starring:
Ali Damache
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
Somali Islamists Threaten Kenyan Voters ahead of Polls
[An Nahar] Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab on Wednesday issued a stark warning to Kenyan voters ahead of next week's general elections, threatening them with a "long, gruesome war".

The Islamist group argued Kenya was safer when it ruled bordering southern Somalia but stopped short of saying who Kenyan voters should choose in the March 4 polls.

Kenyan troops, who have since become part of the 17,000-strong African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
force fighting the Shabaab, invaded southern Somalia in October 2011 to attack the bad turbans' bases after a string of killings and kidnappings inside Kenya.

"If you put a government in place, then be willing to endure the consequences of your actions, for you will bear the full brunt of its follies," the Shabaab said in a statement.

Kenya holds presidential, parliamentary, gubernatorial, senatorial and local elections on March 4. None of the leading candidates have hinted they would pull troops out of Somalia.

"The changing political climate in your country may now hold the key to a better future, a future that involves less bloodshed," they continued, warning they would "do whatever it takes to defend our lands from invasion."

Since Kenya's invasion attackers have set off bombs and hurled grenades in the capital Nairobi, while gunnies have killed both security officials and civilians along Kenya's restive border with Somalia.

The attacks are regularly blamed on Shabaab gunnies or their sympathizers, although the beturbanned goons do not specifically claim the killings.

"Remember, we are mujahedeen who celebrate the martyrdom of our loved ones; you are a public that laments the loss of your loved ones," the Shabaab added.

"We are men who have nothing to lose and everything to gain by fighting against you."
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


India-Pakistan
India finances trouble in Pakistan: Hagel
[Dawn] India has over the years financed problems for Pakistain from across the border in Afghanistan, says Senator Chuck Hagel, US President Barack Obama
Because I won...
's nominee for secretary of defence.

Mr Hagel, who faces a confirmation vote in the US Senate on Tuesday night or Wednesday, made these remarks in a talk at the Cameron University in Oklahoma in 2011. The video of his speech reappeared on a website of the Washington Free Beacon, an American news portal that publishes associated content from a US conservative perspective.

The video gave more fuel to his opponents who were already trying to block his nomination because of the alleged anti-Israeli statements he had made in the past.

Mr Hagel's "comments on India's role in Afghanistan during a speech in 2011 provide yet another indication that he is poorly qualified to lead the US Department of Defence", said Lisa Curtis, a South Asia expert at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think-tank.

In his talk on Afghanistan, Mr Hagel reportedly said that India had been using Afghanistan as a second front against Pakistain. "India has over the years financed problems for Pakistain on that side of the border, and you can carry that into many dimensions."

He noted that India took advantage of tensions between Kabul and Islamabad for fomenting troubles in the areas that border Afghanistan. "The point being [that] the tense, fragmented relationship between Pakistain and Afghanistan has been there for many, many years," he said.

Mr Hagel is not the only American to suggest that India has been using Afghanistan for stirring troubles in Pakistain. C. Christine Fair, an assistant professor at Georgetown University, made similar suggestion during a congressional hearing on Afghanistan in 2011 but was later forced to clarify her position following protests from Indian lobbies.

Our Correspondent in New Delhi adds: US defence secretary nominee Chuck Hagel has riled Indians after his comments from a 2011 speech in which he accused New Delhi of financing problems for Pakistain through Afghanistan.

The remarks sparked a strong reaction from India which said such comments were "contrary to the reality" of its unbounded dedication to the welfare of Afghans.

A Times of India report quoted the Indian Embassy in Washington as seeking to play down its importance.

"Such comments attributed to Senator Hagel, who has been a longstanding friend of India and a prominent votary of close India-US relations, are contrary to the reality of India's unbounded dedication to the welfare of Afghan people," the embassy said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is this supposed to bother me? Because it doesn't.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/28/2013 0:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Uninformed bovine bloviating.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 3:20 Comments || Top||

#3  this should be an epic era of stupid at the DOD. Great job, Oblahblah.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/28/2013 9:47 Comments || Top||

#4  These next few years will make 1980 look like a dinner party.

Hell, they'll probably make the first half of 1942 look like a diner party.
Posted by: charger || 02/28/2013 11:32 Comments || Top||

#5  The Hammering Yammering of The Buffoon Elites

It is getting harder and harder to write anything worthwhile about the domestic and international political scenes. Everywhere one looks, one sees mountebanks, liars, fools, evil doers, and just plain dopes at work--and all aided by a grotesquely incompetent, lazy, and leftist mass media.

The Diplomad
Posted by: Willy || 02/28/2013 15:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Thanks for the Dip link Willy:

This Dip commenter just bloody NAILS it!

D BarnumFebruary 23, 2013 at 9:59 PM
Hub and I are still working in our 70s...trying to hang on to our very small business of 2. We tried to warn folks that O wasn't the nice young man the media portrayed the first time around. We thought surely he could be beaten second time around. Were the people that blind and stupid? Thanks to the MSM, yes. And, thanks to the Rs with their collective heads in a gopher hole or some other dark place. They still prefer to be wussies save a few. Read about 'pathological narcissists.' He sure does fit the profile. Carter was inept. But, O knows exactly what he is doing and he told us what he would do! How can intelligent people not understand what he is doing. He and his minions. Hub and I are just average people and we can see it. And, he will turn on the press given the chance. He might have a D after his name but he's not an ordinary liberal Dem. He's not even far left. Progressive doesn't describe him either. I prefer pathological narcissist. God help us but I will continue to email and call our senators and congressmen, as well as, friends and family. I won't go into the good night quietly. We can't give up people. Our country is at stake. Our Constitution. My dad fought in WWII flying planes off carriers for our freedom. My hub fought in Nam for same. We have young friends putting their lives on the line today in foreign lands.

Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 16:14 Comments || Top||


Karachi Korpse Kount
[Dawn] At least four persons bit the dust in different incidents of violence in various area of Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
on Wednesday whereas an officer of the Pakistain Navy was injured in a gun firing incident, DawnNews reported.

An activist of a religious organization was killed in a gunfriung incident in Surjani Town's block L-1 area of Karachi.

Two other persons died of gunshot wounds suffered in Karachi's Nagan Chowrangi and North Karachi areas respectively.

A body was found on Hub River road near Raees Goth area. The body bore marks of torture and the victim was shot to death, according to police sources.

Naval officer injured

An officer of the Pakistain Navy suffered gun shot injuries near Karachi Port area early on Wednesday. The maimed officer was rushed to the PNS Shifa hospital where he underwent surgery. He was shifted to the Intensive Care Ubit after the operation where his condition was reported as stable.

The officer's vehicle was shot at four times according to police sources whereas a statement by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) dispelled the impression that the officer was targeted in the incident.

According to the ISPR statement the officer's vehicle was struck by bullets as it came in the line of fire. Further details over the incident were not available till the filing of this report.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:


Government
Homeland Security official resigns after release of illegal immigrants
[DAILYCALLER] The News Agency that Dare Not be Named has learned that the Homeland Security Department official in charge of the agency's immigration enforcement and removal operations has resigned after hundreds of undocumented Democrats were released from jails because of government spending cuts.

In an email obtained Wednesday by the AP, Gary Mead told coworkers that he was leaving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the end of April. Mead is the head of enforcement and removal operations at ICE.

Mead had told co-workers of his resignation in the email sent Tuesday, hours after U.S. officials had confirmed that a few hundred undocumented Democrats facing deportation had been released from immigration jails due to budget cuts.

President Barack Obama
I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody...
's front man said Wednesday the White House was never consulted but described the immigrants as "low-risk, non-criminal detainees."
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So...does somebody actually have principles, or is he the fall guy?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/28/2013 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Appears someone pushed the 'sky is falling' envelope a bit too far.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 2:21 Comments || Top||

#3  There seems to be the usual Washington doublespeak surrounding Mead's resignation; can't get a straight answer from anyone. Same old, same old. Mixed messages.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/28/2013 7:32 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm going with fall guy; Obama always takes credit, never takes blame...
Posted by: Raj || 02/28/2013 7:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Mead had told co-workers of his resignation in the email sent Tuesday, hours after U.S. officials had confirmed that a few hundred undocumented Democrats facing deportation had been released from immigration jails due to budget cuts.

Appears Gary got the White House call on Monday night or Tuesday morning. :-)
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 8:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Mr. Carney, Mr. Carney! Did the White House have any involvement in this decision, or has the DHS begun operating without any oversight?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/28/2013 12:18 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Mali suicide bomber targets troops in Kidal
[MAGHAREBIA] Seven Malians were killed and 11 injured on Tuesday (February 26th) when a jacket wallah drove an exploding car into a checkpoint in the northern Malian city of Kidal, AFP reported.

"The suicide kaboom targeted the checkpoint on the eastern side of Kidal which is manned by the MNLA," a French official said in Gao.

The secular Touareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) support the military offensive against armed Islamist groups and their al-Qaeda allies.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Down Under
Muslim activists lose free speech case
[News24] Australia's highest court on Wednesday narrowly rejected the case of two Mohammedan activists who argued they had a constitutional free-speech right to send offensive letters to families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

Iranian-born Man Horan Monis, a Sydney holy man also known as Sheik Haron, was charged with 12 counts of using a postal service in an offensive way and one count of using a postal service in a harassing way over three years until 2009.

Amirah Droudis was charged with aiding and abetting the offences.

They face potential maximum prison sentences of 26 years and 16 years respectively if convicted.

The six judges of the High Court split on whether the charges were compatible with Australians' right to free speech.

When the nation's highest court is tied, an appeal is dismissed and the lower court decision stands.

That sends the charges to a lower court where they will be heard on a date to be set.

Monis allegedly wrote letters critical of Australia's military involvement in Afghanistan and condemning the dead soldiers.

He also allegedly wrote to the mother of an Australian official killed in a terrorist kaboom in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2009 and blamed Australian government foreign policy for the tragedy.

His lawyer, David Bennett, argued in the High Court last year that the letters were "purely political". He argued the charges were invalid because they infringed on Australians' right to freedom of political communication.

The Australian Constitution doesn't include an equivalent of the US First Amendment.

But the High Court has held for decades that the constitution contains an implied right to free speech because such political communication is essential to democracy.

This right is not as extensive as that guaranteed by the US Constitution.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336086 views] Top|| File under: Salafists

#1  who argued they had a constitutional free-speech right to send offensive letters to families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Reads like a story about the Westboro Baptist Church in the U.S.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/28/2013 8:28 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Kazakhstan bans Tablighi Jamaat
Posted by: ryuge || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Rapist-killer, girlfriend unmask each other
[Dawn] The man who last week confessed to murdering an 11-year-old girl, after raping her, has confessed to murdering the daughter of a senior police officer the same way in November that the family did not report to police.

Police say that the man's girlfriend, whose interrogation had led to his arrest, knew about his earlier crime too. She is a common link to the two crimes as she was tutor to the little girl and a classmate of the man's earlier victim in a private university of Islamabad.

A police officer described to Dawn the man, a landlord from Lala Musa in his late 20s, as a habitual rapist and his girlfriend as one who procured unsuspecting girls for him in return for sexual and other favours.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Islamabad...which sort of explains a lot.

But then it could have been Hollywood as well... they are into things like that. Or even Washington DC when things get slow in the Senate.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 02/28/2013 8:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Serial Child murderers always seem to be a man and women "team".
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/28/2013 9:54 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Malaysian security forces brace for confrontation
Malaysian security forces are bracing for confrontation with the armed followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III after they defied a deadline set by Malaysia for them to leave the territory.

The sultan’s brother Raja Muda Azzimudie Kiram said they were ready to face an attack. He said, “We are fine. We expect the Malaysian forces to attack today (Tuesday). We are ready to defend ourselves, we are not afraid. We are not afraid because we know we are right.

"This is our land. We are prepared, we are waiting. We will not attack (but) we will defend ourselves.”

On Tuesday, Philippine president Aquino made a televised appeal for Kiram and his followers to end their “foolhardy act” and come back to the Philippines.

Malaysian security forces are reportedly in position around Lahad Datu. Malaysia’s Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said, “We are set to end the standoff."

Meanwhile, Azzimudie admitted the food blockade is taking its toll on the sultan’s followers. He said, “We are already running out of food because of the blockade but we are not leaving. We will survive because we can eat leaves that animals eat. This is our homeland and we will live here."

Meanwhile, Phillipine foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario said yesterday he had sent to Malaysia Tuesday night the government’s request for an extension of deadline for the sultan's followers in Lahad Datu to leave the area. He said, “I put through a request for another deadline. I said we should be given more time, precisely for processing that information and to give the Kirams a chance to think about what the President had said. I asked for several days. I did not specify.”

Del Rosario also asked the Malaysian government to permit a humanitarian ship to dock in Lahad Datu to bring food to the Filipinos and fetch those who want to go back to their families in the Philippines.
Posted by: ryuge || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Settlements block Jerusalem as capital 
of two states: EU
Picked right up on that, did they?
JERUSALEM — Israel’s settlement construction in annexed east Jerusalem is part of a strategy aimed at preventing the holy city from becoming the capital of two states, an internal EU report found on Wednesday. In its Jerusalem Report 2012, a copy of which was seen by AFP, the European Union said Jewish settlement construction posed “the biggest single threat to the two-state solution.”

Describing Israel’s settlement construction in east Jerusalem as “systematic, deliberate and provocative” the report accused the Jewish state of making deliberate political choices that threatened to render the two-state solution impossible.
I think that's the whole point...
Relations between Israel and the EU have been tense, with Europe voicing increasing discontent over a raft of Israeli plans to build more than 5,000 new settler homes in and around annexed east Jerusalem. The standoff has sparked Israeli concerns the 27-member bloc, its largest import and export market, could move to implement a series of punitive trade sanctions.
Then again if Israel moves smartly to develop the natural gas fields just off shore the EU will come begging...
Authoured by EU heads of mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah,
There's a great job, a Euro diplomat in Ramallah. Wonder how many times a month he has to go visit Arafat's grave and pay respects...
the report flagged construction in three southern areas — Har Homa, Gilo and Givat HaMatos — as being the “most significant and problematic plans”.

“The construction of these three settlements is part of a political strategy aiming at making it impossible for Jerusalem to become the capital of two states,” it warned. “If the current pace of settlement activity on Jerusalem’s southern flank persists, an effective buffer between east Jerusalem and Bethlehem may be in place by the end of 2013, thus making the realisation of a viable two-state solution inordinately more difficult, if not impossible.”

In 2012, tenders were issued for 2,366 new units which was “more than twice” the total number issued over the preceding three years which stood at 1,145, the report said. Most of them were for construction in Har Homa, thereby “significantly expanding the existing footprint of the settlement’s built-up area.”

Israel occupied east Jerusalem during the 1967 war and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. It considers all of Jerusalem its “eternal, undivided” capital and does not see construction in the eastern sector as settlement building.

But the Palestinians want east Jerusalem for the capital of their promised state,
The interim capital for the interim state until they kill all the Joooz and take the rest of the land, of course...
and they — along with the international community — consider settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank as a violation of international law. “If the implementation of the current Israeli policy regarding the city continues, particularly settlement activity, the prospect of Jerusalem as a future capital of two states — Israel and Palestine — becomes practically unworkable,” the executive summary said.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Israel’s settlement construction in annexed east Jerusalem is part of a strategy aimed at preventing the holy city from becoming the capital of two states, an internal EU report found on Wednesday.

Yeah? Well so is the Jew's continued existence to the arab... so fucking whaaaaa.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/28/2013 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Heck an living, breathing, Jew anywhere on the planet blocks the two state solution according to the Palieos....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/28/2013 0:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Another European attempt to solve "the Jewish Problem" fails---one'd assume they learned by now.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/28/2013 2:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Interesting is it now, how a "two state solution" was so totally rejected in our own American experience? How proud we are today of the outcome of that great struggle, yet we insist upon it for Israel. An astonishing American political hypocrisy and one I do not share.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/28/2013 3:08 Comments || Top||

#5  ...but, but the same party that promoted a two state solution 150 years ago is backing this one today as well.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/28/2013 11:02 Comments || Top||

#6  SO,? They haven't learned in 150 years, then they won't, Unleash the nukes.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/28/2013 14:17 Comments || Top||

#7  RJ, they got most of the nukes, that's why the Yankees closed down the Titan fields, it was all a long term vision. Srsly.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/28/2013 16:15 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
African Union, Somali Troops Capture Islamist-Held Town
[An Nahar] Somali government troops and African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
forces seized the formerly Islamist-held town of Burhakaba on Wednesday, the latest loss for the al-Qaeda linked Shabaab fighters, commanders said.

Soldiers backed by tanks stormed the town from three directions but the hardline Shabaab had already fled before the assault
Soldiers backed by tanks stormed the town from three directions but the hardline Shabaab had already fled before the assault, said Somalia's deputy army commander Abdikarin Yusuf Dhegobadan.

"Our forces took control of Burhakaba without a fight, and we are clearing any bombs that might have been planted," he told news hounds.

The capture of Burhakaba marks a key stage in efforts to open up the main highway from the capital Mogadishu running northwest to Baidoa, a major town wrested from the Shabaab by Æthiopian troops last year.

Burhakaba lies some 160 kilometers (100 miles) northwest from Mogadishu, leaving some 60 kilometers (40 miles) until AU troops can reach Baidoa by road.

"The situation is calm and the government and AU troops are now patrolling in the streets," Mohamed Nurow, a resident, told Agence La Belle France Presse by phone.

Mahamet Saleh Annadif, AU representative for Somalia, said the capture of the town marked the "determination" of the 17,000-strong AU force "to support the people of Somalia".

The town is the latest in a string of Shabaab bases to fall to AU and Somali forces in recent months, with Æthiopian troops also battling the gunnies from the west.

However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them...
the Shabaab remain a potent threat, still controlling rural areas as well as carrying out guerrilla attacks in areas apparently under government control.

Some, retreating ahead of AU-led assaults, have relocated to the northern Golis mountains in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
region.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
FSA Says Not Seeking to Fight Hizbullah but Will Respond if Attacked
[An Nahar] The rebel Free Syrian Army stated on Wednesday that it is not seeking to start a military confrontation with Hizbullah on the Lebanese border, stressing however, that it will respond to any attack by the party.

"I have personally asked President 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...
to intervene and prevent Hizbullah from bombing our locations," FSA chief of staff General Selim Idriss revealed during an interview on Future television.

He expressed: "We are at war with a criminal regime backed by Iran and Russia and we do not want to fight Hizbullah".

"We urged our fighters near (the border village of) Qusayr to refrain from confronting the party," he revealed, noting that "they will however respond with all force if attacked".

"You will be exposed to proof that Hizbullah is actually targeting FSA locations from Leb," he announced.

The FSA threatened on February 20, 2013, to shell HA military bases in Leb after accusing it of firing across the border into territory it controls.

General Idriss had told Agence La Belle France Presse that Hizbullah had shelled villages around Qusayr, which is located in the central Syrian province of Homs, from the border village of Zeita, a stronghold of the party in the Bekaa valley of Leb.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pound, the little lost dog backed into the corner and showed its teeth. And what big teeth they were!...
Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour denied reports saying that HA fighters are engaged in border battles, noting that the residents of those towns are "defending" themselves against attacks launched by armed gangs.

The FSA chief denied that the unit which kidnapped the Lebanese pilgrims in Syria's Aazaz is a part of the FSA, or that it follows its commands.

Eleven Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria's Aleppo province in May 2012 as they were making their way back to Leb by land from pilgrimage in Iran.

Two of them have since been released, while the rest remain held in Aazaz.

The families of the pilgrims had frequently held Turkey, Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
, and Qatar responsible for their ongoing abduction, while saying that the government had not exerted enough efforts to ensure their release.

Addressing the Lebanese people, Idriss vowed not to meddle in the country's internal politics in the future.

"We ask the Lebanese to neutralize themselves from Syria's conflict if they are not willing to help the rebels," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Afghanistan
Taliban kill 17 at Afghan police checkpoint
[Dawn] Taliban beturbanned goons poisoned and then shot to death 17 people in an overnight attack on a government-backed militia post in eastern Afghanistan, an Afghan official said Wednesday.

The cut-throats somehow poisoned those inside the outpost, incapacitating them, before gunning them down Tuesday night, said Abdul Jamhe Jamhe, a leader of the Ghazni provincial government.

The method of poisoning was unclear, he added.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Today's Idiot
NEW CASTLE, Ind. (WISH) - A New Castle man's hunger for a cheeseburger landed him in the Gray-Bar Hotel.
"I can has cheezburger?"
"You can has prison fare."

Fifty two-year-old Gregory Jackson Sr. was so hungry this past Friday night, he called 911 to get it. Not just once, but according to the New Castle Police incident report, nine times in about a 90 minute span.

Instead of sending him a cheeseburger, however, New Castle police sent an officer to Jackson's apartment and read him his rights.

Friday night, New Castle 911 emergency dispatchers got a llamada de teléfono, as the Spanish say, from Gregory Jackson Sr. The 911 calls obtained by 24-Hour News 8 show at first, the dispatcher didn't know it was him.

Dispatcher: Do you have an emergency sir, because you dialed 911.
Gregory: I dialed 911.
Dispatcher: Yeah you dialed 911.

Much of what Jackson said was incomprehensible.

Dispatcher: I don't, I am not understanding a word your saying sir.
Gregory: (unintelligible)
Dispatcher: OK, what did you need?

The dispatcher worked to try and comprehend this guy.

Dispatcher: OK, so why did you call 911 for, what do you need.
Dispatcher: Do you have an emergency?
Gregory: A cheeseburger.
Dispatcher: Have a good day.
"What was that?"
"Probably a prank call."

But Gregory didn't give up. He called back again.

Dispatcher: 911, Your emergency.
Greg: Yes, I just spoke with you. You hung up on me.
Dispatcher: Well I asked if you had an emergency. You said no, you needed a cheeseburger. So we don't take cheeseburger orders.

Once more, with feeling.

Dispatcher: You know if you give me some information maybe we can try and help you out.
Greg: Can I also have a sense of proportion, please? I seem to have lost mine.
Eventually, the dispatcher found out the man on the phone was very familiar to the New Castle Police Dept.

Gregory Jackson Sr. is a beauzeau with a long criminal history, mostly C2H5OH related. Jackson did serve time in prison for making off with what ain't his, dealing a controlled substance and criminal recklessness. The dispatcher was afraid Jackson hadn't had anything to eat in a long time, so they sent an officer to his apartment.

Dispatcher: You hear them knocking?
Greg: Yes.
"...rapping, rapping at my chamber door."
Jackson has an extensive arrest and conviction record. It turns out, he was wanted on a warrant for failing to appear at a court hearing issued two days before making the emergency cheeseburger calls.

Now, he is being held in the Henry County Jail, awaiting an appearance scheduled for Wednesday. Police didn't immediately jug Jackson on any preliminary charges related to the 911 calls.
Posted by: Korora || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Go answer the door. They've got a prize for you."
"A cheeseburger!!?"
"No, a nice pair of bracelets."
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 02/28/2013 11:23 Comments || Top||

#2  I do so love the rare Korora Post.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/28/2013 16:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Looks like he got New Castle and White Castle mixed up, doodz.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/28/2013 16:23 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Libya to close 5 Misrata prisons
[MAGHAREBIA] Libyan authorities will close five prisons in Misrata, PANA reported on Tuesday (February 26th). The inmates will be transferred to the new Remand Centre later this year.

According to Libyan justice officials, the move aims at improving detention conditions and ending the violation of prisoners' rights.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa Subsaharan
Peacekeeper Shot as DR Congo Militia Battles Troops
[An Nahar] Battles between a militia and government forces in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo or Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
on Wednesday left one civilian dead and a U.N. peacekeeper among 10 maimed, a U.N. front man said.

The battles have heightened fears over renewed tensions in mineral-rich North Kivu province which has seen major conflict over the past year.

Deputy U.N. front man Eduardo del Buey said there had been "heavy fighting" between DR Congo troops and fighters from the Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo, better known under its French acronym APCLS.

The fighting erupted near a small U.N. peacekeeping base at Kitchanga in the Masisi district of the province.

Del Buey said one civilian was killed, nine were maimed and a peacekeeper was shot in the arm and was now in "stable" condition. The front man said 400 people had taken shelter in the U.N. base and "the situation remains tense".

DR Congo forces and U.N. peacekeepers are trying to contain a number of rebels and militias in North Kivu, most notably the M23 group which briefly held the lovely provincial capital of Goma in November.

Fighting between rival M23 factions has also been reported this week.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Tunisia ruling Islamists to give up key ministries
[Bangla Daily Star] Tunisia's ruling Islamists yesterday said they have agreed to give up key ministries to independents, a key concession that could speed up the formation of a new government and end a political crisis.

"We confirm the 'neutralistion' of the four sovereign ministries," Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the ruling Ennahda party, said on Radio Kalima, referring to the interior, justice, foreign and defence portfolios.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Al-Azhar cracks down scholars forging credentials
[Egypt Independent] Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb said Wednesday that the religious institution is cracking down on teachers guilty of forging Al-Azhar accreditation and contracts.

According to an ongoing investigation, 350 teachers have been found guilty of faking documents to get employment within Al-Azhar or its educational institutes so far.

After questioning, the teachers were referred to Public Prosecution to be charged formally.

Some of the fraudulent contracts were not stamped or signed, while others had provided fake documentation of their past work and accreditation or had dodged military service.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Journalist gunned down in Miranshah
[Dawn] A senior local journalist working for a Pak newspaper and TV news channel was shot down Wednesday by unknown gunnies in restive North Wazoo agency, family members said.

According to family members, Malik Mumtaz, a correspondent for The News and Geo News, was rubbed out Wednesday in his home town of Miranshah
... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas...
in the militancy hit tribal region.

Mumtaz was president of the local press club and had reported on the area for more than 20 years.

Mehboob Afridi, the secretary general of the Tribal Union of Journalists, confirmed the Mumtaz had been rubbed out and condemned the killing.

"Mumtaz was traveling towards Chashma bridge when the attackers fired on his vehicle," said Afridi.

Local media men said Mumtaz may have been killed by bully boyz as he had been receiving threats. However,
some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves...
a front man for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) condemned the killing and denied any involvement in the attack.

"He was a good news hound and was serving tribal people, we condemn his killing and salute his services for tribal people," TTP front man Ehsanullah Ehsan said by telephone from some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location.

Mumtaz is survived by his wife, two sons and one daughter.

According to the press campaign group Reporters Without Borders, Pakistain was the third deadliest country for journalists last year, behind Syria and Somalia, with 10 killed in connection with their work.
Posted by: Fred || 02/28/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336088 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan



Who's in the News
36[untagged]
6Arab Spring
6Jamaat-e-Islami
5Govt of Syria
4Salafists
2Govt of Iran
2al-Shabaab
2Hezbollah
2al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Taliban
1Thai Insurgency
1Boko Haram
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Hamas

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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2013-02-28
  Syrian Rebels Say They Killed Hezbollah Deputy Chief
Wed 2013-02-27
  Syria Rebels Push into Police Academy as Jets Strike
Tue 2013-02-26
  Over 50 killed in battle for Syria police academy
Mon 2013-02-25
  Taliban suicide bombers hit Afghan cities, Kabul attack foiled
Sun 2013-02-24
  Karzai orders US special forces out of Afghan province
Sat 2013-02-23
  Syrian Rebels Claim To Seize Nuclear Facility
Fri 2013-02-22
  Boko Haram Denies Ceasefire, Pastes Threat Posters In Borno
Thu 2013-02-21
  Bombing in Indian Hyderabad, at least 11 killed
Wed 2013-02-20
  French nationals kidnapped in northern Cameroon
Tue 2013-02-19
  Mortars land near Syrian presidential palace
Mon 2013-02-18
  Five killed in attack at government office in Peshawar
Sun 2013-02-17
  Egyptian police publicly beat to death man suspected of killing officer
Sat 2013-02-16
  Bomb kills at least 20 in Pakistani city
Fri 2013-02-15
  Meteorite Hits Urals, Up to 500 Injured
Thu 2013-02-14
  Pakistan asks Taliban to announce 30-day cease-fire for talks

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