In reaction to several accidents involving Russian-built passenger planes in Iran, the Islamic Republic sets a two-month deadline for Russian pilots to leave the country.
"Upon an order from President [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad], the Road and Transport Ministry has set a two-month deadline, after which all Russian pilots must leave the country," Fars News Agency quoted Minister of Roads and Transportation Hamid Behbahani as saying on Saturday.
"When our country itself has plenty of competent and skilled pilots, there is no need for hiring pilots from abroad to operate our flights," he added.
Iran has suffered a string of aviation disasters over the past decade, most involving private airlines using Russian-made planes and crew.
Officials have blamed the incidents on a ban on the sale of airplane parts to Iran, forcing it to purchase the parts from Russia and other former Soviet states.
In the worst plane crash in Iran, a Tupolev-154M, crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran en route to the Armenian capital of Yerevan on July 15, 2009, leaving all 168 passengers onboard dead.
#1
"we are fully capable of neglecting maintenance on our own"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/06/2010 21:32
Comments ||
Top||
#2
How much you want to bet that the Russian pilots were complaining of the maintenance (or lack thereof) and were threatening to leave. So Dinner Jacket says "you can't quit, you're fired".
A deadly clash between Taliban and Hezb-e Islami fighters has left scores of militants dead in northern Afghanistan
At least 25 militants from both sides have been killed and more than 40 others wounded in a half-day long gun-battle in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan, a local police official said.
It is still unclear why the Taliban insurgents turned against their strategic ally group, Hezb-e Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, in Baghlan-e Markazi district of the province.
Baghlan-e Markazi, a Hezb-e Islami stronghold in northern Afghanistan, is a restive district in the region and a large number of Taliban and Hezb-e Islami fighters are believed to be stationed there.
"The clash between the Taliban and Hezb-e Islami fighters is on-going in Qaisar Khail, a village 9km north of the district centre, " said a spokesman for regional police command, Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai.
The police official said the Taliban have arrested 15 fighters of Hezb-e Islami during the battle.
The local police have not taken any action to curb the clash, but have surrounded the area and will move in after making sure that civilians will not be harmed in the battle, Ahmadzai further said.
It's the deadliest clash between Afghanistan's two major insurgent groups for many years and the dispute led to the gun-battle is to be known.
Neither the Taliban nor the Hezb-e Islami group have made an immediate comment over the fighting.
Hezb-e Islami led by Hekmatyar and the Taliban have a similar standing against the Kabul government and both of the groups have preconditioned the withdrawal of foreign troops to any peace talks.
Infighting between militant groups claims over a dozen lives in N. Afghanistan: official
KABUL, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Over a dozen people have been killed as infighting erupted between two groups of anti-government militants in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province on Saturday, provincial governor Hajji Akbar Barikzai said.
"The clash erupted between Taliban and Hekmatyar-led Islamic party Hizb-e-Islami in Kokchinar area of Baghlan-e-Markazi district early morning and so far some 20 people from both sides have been killed," Barikzai told Xinhua.
Neither Taliban nor Hizb-e-Islami outfit has made comment.
Meantime, a villager who refused to be named said that at least six people from both sides had been killed and several others sustained injuries.
The police chief of Baghlan-e-Markazi district Mohammad Amin Mangal in talks with Xinhua confirmed the clash, adding the infighting is still continuing in the area. He also said that the local administration is monitoring the situation.
The reason for the clash, according to Mangal, is rivalry on extending power and collecting taxes from agricultural products in the area.
Baghlan-e-Markazi has been the scene of increasing insurgency over the past several months. This is the first time that anti- government militants have been fighting each other in the northern region of the post-Taliban country.
#2
Hezb-e Islami (Hekmatyar) has said he wants to negotiate w/ Kabul. I'll give odds the "taliban" is Haqqani's boyz (ISI stooges) who where given orders by the Paks to stop this talk of laying down arms.
Posted by: ed ||
03/06/2010 23:25
Comments ||
Top||
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that the arrest of terrorist ring leader Abdulmalek Rigi has humiliated the intelligent services of the US, Britain and the Zionist regime.
President Ahmadinejad made the remark in a meeting with minister of information, ministry staff and top security officials.
Iran's intelligence forces have the most transparent performance in the world, said the Iranian president.
He advised the ministry to adopt more coordinated and powerful stands in dealing with classified issues.
Liberal democracy and global hegemony led by the US are bent on fighting the Islamic Revolution, he said.
They have committed the most inhuman crimes and atrocities worldwide under the guise of human rights, he said.
The Islamic Revolution has challenged materialistic schools of thought while Marxism has disappeared in the world, said the Iranian president, adding that the capitalism is on the verge of collapse.
US aggression and NATO;s military operations in the region are aimed at saving liberal democracy and capitalism school of thought, he said.
The September 11 attack on the US and collapse of twin towers were parts of complicated intelligence move to give enough excuses for them to prepare the ground for invasion of Afghanistan under pretext of fighting terrorism, he said.
Ramallah Ma'an Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a Fatah leader's car on Friday, in the western Gaza City district of Tel Al-Hawa, while it was parked opposite the home of a Fatah Revolutionary Council member, a party statement said. Hello, Mutual of Gaza? I'm a member of the Revolutionary Council. Do I get a discount on my car insurance?
Ummmmmmm...I don't think so, sir. Perhaps you should call Progressive...
According to Fatah, at 10 pm, Sulaiman Ar-Rawwagh was visiting Revolutionary Council member Abu Juda An-Nahhal in his home, when "heavy gunfire was heard around the house". Uh-oh...where'd you park, Sully?
Shit!
When both leaders went out to check, they found Ar-Rawwagh's car riddled with bullets." Dammit! I just had it waxed!
The statement added that shots were fired at the home, and not just at the car, with no injuries reported. They know that because they didn't hit the house...
Witnesses said the shots were fired by a Skoda and two motorcycles which fled immediately after the assault. Mahmoud! Unleash the Cycles of Violence!
"This assault is part of the security chaos in the Gaza Strip, perpetrated by suspected groups attempting to arouse tension in the Palestinian territories, while Egypt exerts considerable efforts so achieve reconciliation and end rivalry," the statement added. Myself, I think they work for the auto body guys...
The criminal case against a 10-year-old miniature Dachshund that bit a Lafayette veterinarian technician should be dismissed because the city's vicious animal ordinance is flawed and state law should prevail, a defense attorney argued Friday.
Municipal Court Judge Roger Buchholz said he would rule next week on whether to drop the charge against the dog, Spork, or allow the case to proceed. Violating Lafayette's vicious animal law can draw punishment up to a lifetime in a kennel or euthanization.
Defense attorney Jay Swearingen, who specializes in animal law, said he's never heard of a Colorado case where an animal care worker has been bit by an otherwise non-violent dog and pressed charges -- namely because state law exempts it.
"We know dogs bark and bite," he said during a hearing Friday. "The professionals who go into this business know there is some risk."
Prosecutor Ralph Josephsohn, however, said that the 2006 city law prohibits "vicious animals," defined as those that attack or bite without being provoked, approach someone in a terrorizing way or have been trained as a fighting animal.
"We've adopted an ordinance to protect public safety," he said. "... There's not a safe haven or immunity for those involved in animal care."
Spork's case has generated passionate pleas to spare the dog. A "Save Spork" page on Facebook has gained more than 20,000 fans.
In August, Spork's owners took him to Lafayette's Jasper Animal Hospital to have a bad tooth extracted. Owner Kelly Walker said she was holding the 17-pound dog in her arms while the technician attached a hospital band, then took out scissors to cut off the excess.
The dog bit the technician in the face when she reached out to take Spork from Walker. Walker said her dog was simply scared -- so scared he defecated on her arm -- and in pain, not vicious.
The technician, Allyson Stone, lost small pieces of her lips and was treated at Boulder Community Hospital and by a plastic surgeon.
Stone told police that Spork showed no signs he was going to bite, adding that she felt the attack was unprovoked, according to the police report.
She told police she wanted to press charges because she was concerned that Spork would bite his owner or someone else and she wanted to prevent another attack.
Colorado law excludes those who work with animals in veterinarian offices from pressing charges in animal bite cases. But Lafayette's local laws include a vicious animal law that doesn't have a similar exclusion. Lafayette also doesn't allow jury trials in vicious animal cases.
#1
Unprovoked like hell.
The article states the dog had an infected tooth, an the Vet was cutting "Tissue" with a pair of scisors, not a word about anesthetic.
I'd hurt the person too that was hurting me.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/06/2010 12:03
Comments ||
Top||
#2
"When Sporks Attack"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/06/2010 12:36
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Redneck Jim --- while the technician attached a hospital band, then took out scissors to cut off the excess.
I don't think that hospital band is "tissue." I could be wrong, but I think that refers to the ID bracelet placed on any hospital patience, human or animal.
But I do agree -- that dog was in pain, and not vicious.
#1
Lengthy, but easy to read - and fun. The conclusion: The lingering question is whether the collapse of the climate campaign is also a sign of a broader collapse in public enthusiasm for environmentalism in general. Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, two of the more thoughtful and independent-minded figures in the environmental movement, have been warning their green friends that the public has reached the point of apocalypse fatigue. Theyve been met with denunciations from the climate campaign enforcers for their heresy. The climate campaign has no idea that it is on the cusp of becoming as ludicrous and forlorn as the World -Esperanto Association.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/06/2010 15:33
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The 'climate campaign' has been the worst environmental disaster of my lifetime. Nothing else comes close to the sheer scale of of it.
ISLAMABAD -- A top Pakistani Taliban commander close to al-Qaida is believed to have been killed in an army airstrike, officials said Saturday, in the latest apparent blow to insurgents who have attacked Pakistan and threatened U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
Maulvi Faqir Mohammed was believed to be among a number of insurgents killed Friday at a sprawling compound in the northwest Mohmand tribal region, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. He said authorities had not identified the bodies of Mohammed or his fellow commander Qari Ziaur Rehman, but all the militants hiding at the site were killed after the helicopter gunships were dispatched on "real-time" intelligence.
"If Faqir Mohammed and Qari Ziaur Rehman are alive, then I will be surprised," he told Pakistan's Express news channel after receiving a briefing from the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
Mohammed was a deputy commander in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan -- Pakistan's Taliban Movement -- leading the network's operations in the Bajur and Mohmand tribal regions. He also was close to al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri, who along with Osama bin Laden is suspected of using Pakistan's tribal badlands as a hide-out.
Two intelligence officials also said that Mohammed was believed dead and that about two dozen insurgents had died in Friday's airstrike. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said they were confident of their information, but warned that the remote, dangerous nature of the region made it nearly impossible to offer a definitive confirmation at this stage.
Over the past two months, Pakistan has captured several Afghan Taliban leaders hiding on its soil, intelligence officials have said. Among them is Mullah Baradar, the top deputy to Mullah Omar, the Afghan Taliban's supreme chief.
The U.S. has relied heavily on missile strikes to take out targets in the tribal areas, often aiming for al-Qaida operatives, but also broadening its targets to include Pakistani Taliban leaders. A January U.S. missile strike is believed to have killed Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud. The Taliban have denied that, but have not provided any evidence to prove he is still alive.
Last year, after then-Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was reported killed in an August U.S. missile strike, Mohammed declared that he was taking over the group on a temporary basis. There were suggestions, however, that the move rankled others in the Pakistani Taliban, making Mohammed's final status in the network somewhat murky after Hakimullah Mehsud was selected as the heir to Baitullah.
Kesha Rogers called for the impeachment of President Barack Obama as the centerpiece of her campaign for Congress, and on Tuesday she won the nomination of her party.
The Democratic Party.
It was no stealth campaign. Rogers shouted it from a sound truck that cruised the four-county 22nd Congressional District. She posted an 18-foot banner emblazoned with the message Save NASA. Impeach Obama' on street corners. Her Web site is filled with videos and periodic policy statements documenting her stand.
During the campaign, Rogers denounced warnings of global warming as imperialist genocide, proclaimed that London banking interests are bent on ruining America's economy and accused Obama of pissing on the legacy of President John F. Kennedy' in proposing to end NASA's Constellation program. I can't believe that most people who voted for her knew that she wants to' impeach Obama, losing candidate Doug Blatt states on his Web site. I do believe that most of them didn't do any research about the candidates before voting.'
One Democratic blogger already has posted instructions on how to de-select Rogers from a straight party ticket vote.
When a spokesman for Republican incumbent Pete Olson was asked for reaction, he barely suppressed his mirth.You never take an election for granted,' said Chris Homan, but you, perhaps, wonder whether the Democrats in this district have profoundly changed their views on the president. She didn't hide her position.'
LaRouche organizer
Rogers, 33, of Stafford, is a volunteer organizer for the LaRouche Youth Movement. Oh. Okay. Nice knowing you...
Lyndon LaRouche, 87, is an economist and frequent candidate for president who runs as a Democrat. Detractors call him a conspiracy theorist and cult leader. Supporters see him as a visionary willing to buck the establishment. He has run for president eight times since 1976, including a 1992 campaign from prison while serving five years of a 15-year mail fraud sentence. ...and is batshit crazy.
The threat of impeachment is leverage to push for an end to Wall Street bailouts and restore funding for manned space travel, Rogers explained. If anybody's serious about saving NASA or addressing this economic crisis, they're going to have to put this impeachment question on the table,' she said.
Rogers has been pushing for Democratic Party reform since at least 2006, when she was unsuccessful in a bid to become the state party chair at its convention. One of the things the LaRouchites are able to do is to engage young people,' said Gerry Birnberg, chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party. If she can turn out young people to vote for Democrats, all the better.' ...and what are you smoking these days, Gerry?
Birnberg said Rogers has much to commend her. He said his main objection to her candidacy is her association with LaRouche, and that if she instead held many of the same views but belonged to a group called LBJ Democrats,' her ideas would appear much more mainstream.
Birnberg and Rogers both said much of LaRouche's economic thinking is in line with Franklin D. Roosevelt's, including investment in public works, separating commercial from investment banking and opposition to corporatism. Rogers won a majority of the Democratic vote Tuesday against Blatt, a development analyst, and ordained minister Freddie John Wieder Jr.
Her Web site trumpets her victory with the headline: The message is clear: Barack Obama has to go.'
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/06/2010 21:09
Comments ||
Top||
#10
"I can't believe that most people who voted for her knew that she wants to" impeach Obama, losing candidate Doug Blatt states on his Web site. "I do believe that most of them didn't do any research about the candidates before voting."
Memphis - Chaos erupted at a Family Dollar store when a man with a knife chased customers and was shot dead.
Witnesses at the store near Delano and North Watkins say the attacker picked the wrong victim.
"He got what he deserved," says one woman. "It's as simple as that."
Police say a man with a knife raced through the parking lot just after 3:00 p.m.. Witnesses say the man chased a delivery driver and others, but was killed when he tried to lunge his knife at one driver leaving the parking lot. The driver pulled a gun and killed his attacker on the spot.
"I just seen him shoot down. I thought he was just shooting in the ground. Obviously, he was shooting the gentleman with the knife," says Byron Cook who watched the ordeal from start to finish, along with his three year-old grandson.
Witnesses say two little girls were inside the car when the attacker lunged at the driver.
"He had his two step-daughters in the car with him. So, he really was trying to look out for them when he shot him," says Brandon Jones, who says the girls appeared to be younger than ten. "Yeah, they saw everything that happened. One of them was real shaken."
Jones heard roughly six shots, then saw the man on the ground with the butcher knife still in hand. Witnesses can't make sense of the attacker's motive, but they're certain the shooting was self-defense.
"He did the right thing by taking care of his business," says Jones. "The girls are safe."
"You've got to protect yourself," says Cook. "He had his two kids in the car and they were terrified."
"Self defense," says one woman. "That's what I would have done, the same thing."
Witnesses say the shooter was stabbed, but appeared to be okay. Police have not released the name of the attacker.
#10
The stress of combat will do that to you. If you're lucky.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/06/2010 15:02
Comments ||
Top||
#11
The whacko might have been on meth; in which case it might have taken several shots to stop him. Or simply because he was crazy might have given him an adrenalin rush. I have heard of cases where a 9mm was emptied on a crazy before the guy was stopped. This might also suggest moving up to a higher caliber such as a 40 or 45 cal with some good man-stopper ammo.
#15
He might still be in trouble for excessive shooting since he appears to have fired until empty.
I dunno, if it works for the police, it ought to work for the average Joe on the street. I say blast him until you can't blast him any more, then stand ready to pistol whip the guy in case he gets up again.
'I absolutely know that in anybody's eyes I was a traitor," says Mosab Hassan Yousef. "To my family, to my nation, to my God. I crossed all the red lines in my society. I didn't leave one that I didn't cross."
Now 32, Mosab is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founder and leader of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Throughout the last decade, from the second Intifada to the current stalemate, he worked alongside his father in the West Bank. During that time the younger Mr. Yousef also secretly embraced Christianity. And as he reveals in his book "Son of Hamas," out this week, he became one of the top spies for Israel's internal security arm, the Shin Bet.
The news of this double conversion has sent ripples through the Middle East. One of Mr. Yousef's handlers at the Shin Bet confirmed his account to the Israeli daily Haaretz. Hamas--already reeling from the assassination of a senior military chief in Dubai in January--calls his claims Zionist propaganda. From the Israeli prison he has occupied since 2005, Sheikh Yousef on Monday issued a statement that he and his family "have completely disowned the man who was our oldest son and who is called Mosab."
Continued on Page 49
#2
He won't survive in this world. He knows that you don't get out of this messed up world alive. The worst thing that can happen is not to know life in the next one. God bless Hassan.
The United States apparently has reached the point where it must either accept that Iran will develop nuclear weapons at some point if it wishes, or take military action to prevent this. There is a third strategy, however: Washington can seek to redefine the Iranian question.
Or Israel can decide not to wait any longer for America to do nothing, and handle it themselves, as they have done before.
As we have no idea what leaders on either side are thinking, exploring this represents an exercise in geopolitical theory. Let's begin with the two apparent stark choices.
The diplomatic approach consists of creating a broad coalition prepared to impose what have been called crippling sanctions on Iran. Effective sanctions must be so painful that they compel the target to change its behavior. In Tehran's case, this could only consist of blocking Iran's imports of gasoline. Iran imports 35 percent of the gasoline it consumes. It is not clear that a gasoline embargo would be crippling, but it is the only embargo that might work. All other forms of sanctions against Iran would be mere gestures designed to give the impression that something is being done.
Continued on Page 49
#1
And fifth, attacks must do more than simply set back Iran's program a few months or even years: If the risk of a nuclear Iran is great enough to justify the risks of war, the outcome must be decisive.
Nonsense. Just setting back Iran's program changes their calculations of future risk considerably. Saddam Hussein never even tried to rebuild Osirak, for a recent example. And Israel, having done it once, will find it easier to do a second time, just as they went back into Lebanon twice, and may yet go back into Gaza... especially given the mindset of the current Prime Minister and popular support of Mossad.
If the events of the past week are any indication, our policymakers have to be delusional to harbour any hope of a meaningful dialogue with India on Kashmir or on the incrementally desperate water dispute. As if the cold shoulder given to Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir by his Indian counterpart, Nirupama Rao, was not enough, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recently concluded visit to Saudi Arabia was the mea culpa.
It has become abundantly clear that we might consider Kashmir to be the core issue to be discussed with New Delhi, the Indian leadership considers "Pakistan-based Islamic terrorists" its core concern. The resumption of composite dialogue has been predicated with "Islamabad's response over combating terrorism."
Washington's pressure on New Delhi to resume a meaningful dialogue with Islamabad, stalled since the Mumbai attack in November 2008, has been cleverly deflected by the Indian prime minister's recent sojourn to Riyadh, the first by an Indian leader since 1982. Manmohan Singh sweet-talked his way in his meeting with King Abdullah. While addressing Saudi Arabia's quasi-parliament, the Shura Council, he made the right noises about ties with Pakistan, with the caveat that Islamabad acted decisively against terrorism.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
03/06/2010
07:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[21 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
urged the Pakistani leaders to forge unity amongst themselves to thwart the menace of terrorism
"endeavor to persevere"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/06/2010 8:10
Comments ||
Top||
Foreign policy commentators in New Delhi and the Generals and strategic establishment in Rawalpindi-Islamabad are working on the same assumption: That the American withdrawal from Afghanistan is inevitable, inescapable and imminent. The Pakistani Generals have been quick on the draw. They have begun the scramble for a post-withdrawal Kabul even before the Americans have actually begun their retreat.
In the short term, the Pakistani Afghan strategy has three components. First, drive the Indians out of Afghan- istan. Second, weaken President Hamid Karzai. Third, play factional politics within the Afghan Taliban so that the Haqqani militia, considered closest to the Inter-Services Intelligence, emerges victorious.
February's attacks on Indian targets in Kabul were a pointer in this direction. They were believed to have been executed by the Haqqani faction to further the ISI mission of scaring away Indian economic assistance and capacity-building efforts.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
03/06/2010
07:24 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[26 views]
Top|| File under:
A group calling itself "al-Qaida in Aceh" claimed Saturday to be the target of a police crackdown in the Indonesian province, where authorities have arrested and charged suspected militants with planning terrorist attacks.
In a statement posted on the blog hosting site WordPress.com, the group said it had survived the police crackdown and pledged to continue its jihad against "Zionist Jews and Christians and apostates." Later Saturday, WordPress blocked access to the blog for violating its terms of service. It was not possible to authenticate the statement. Police spokesman Maj. Gen. Edward Aritonang said the statement was under investigation, and could yet prove to be a hoax.
Police have arrested 16 suspected militants in a series of raids in the deeply conservative province of Aceh since Feb. 22, the latest two on Saturday. Police suspect the group is linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian offshoot of al-Qaida that has been blamed for twin bombings last year on hotels in Jakarta, and 2002 bombings on the island of Bali.
"As of the 10th day of the pursuit against us, we survive to continue jihad although some of our brothers were captured and martyred," the statement said. "We hereby assure Muslims that we will uphold our pledge to jihad against the Zionist Jews and Christians and apostates until God awards us victory, or we become martyrs in the way of Allah," it added.
Sidney Jones, Jakarta-based senior adviser for the International Crisis Group think tank, said she had never heard of the group and could not say whether the statement spoke for the militants in Aceh. She said militants in the province appeared to comprise several movements, including Jemaah Islamiyah.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Friday that the group, which he did not name, had set up in Aceh believing that Indonesian security forces had lost interest in the province since a violent separatist movement ended there in 2005. He said members of the separatist movement were not part of the new group.
Police say 14 of the suspects confessed to undergoing paramilitary training, including weapons use and hand-to-hand combat. They say the militants were preparing for a terrorist attack against an undisclosed target. They face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
On Saturday, two more suspected militants were arrested in Aceh but have yet to be charged, Aritonang said. He declined to detail the circumstances of those arrests.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer has apologized for using chyron text that seemed to question the loyalties of the Department of Justice.
On Thursday, CNN broadcast text that read "HAPPENING NOW, DEPARTMENT OF JIHAD?" and "Are Justice Department Lawyers Disloyal?" as part of its coverage of an ad by Liz Cheney that suggests that because the DOJ hired lawyers who have represented accused terrorists, the department is sympathetic to terrorists. On Friday, Blitzer apologized for the graphic and called DOJ lawyers "patriotic."
"CNN had no intention of suggesting that the Justice Department supports terrorism. Lawyers at the Justice Department are patriotic Americans and we certainly regret any confusion that may have been caused by our graphic."
#4
Glad you noticed Wolf but why apologize? DOJ AG and lawyers are suspect. How about some hard-hitting honest to God reporting? That would be unique and novel and would boost your ratings. Most people have bailed out of watching CNN, MSNBC, and whatever the other networks are because they don't trust them to tell the truth about anything.
H/t Instapundit
Somehow the tables have turned. For all the smears of big money funding the "deniers", the numbers reveal that the sceptics are actually the true grassroots campaigners, while Greenpeace defends Wall St. How times have changed.
Sceptics are fighting a billion dollar industry aligned with a trillion dollar trading scheme. Big Oil's supposed evil influence has been vastly outdone by Big Government, and even those taxpayer billions are trumped by Big-Banking.
Not only is Nevada Sen. Harry Reid (D) polling below 50% support right now, but his Republican opponents are now both polling at 50% or more, according to a new Rasmussen survey (March 3, 500 LV, MoE +/- 4.5%). The results fall right in line with a Mason-Dixon survey out at the beginning of the week.
Lowden 51 (+6 vs. last poll, Feb. 2)
Reid 38 (-1)
Und 3 (-5)
Tarkanian 50 (+3)
Reid 37 (-2)
Und 4 (-2)
Angle 46 (+2)
Reid 38 (-2)
Und 5 (-3)
President Obama receives a 44% job approval rating, with 57% disapproving. Just 37% approve of Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) job performance.
A top Taliban leader has been arrested in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, a senior Pakistani military official told CNN. The official did not say when or how Agha Jan Motasim was detained. He asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Motasim had been missing for the past two weeks, according to two Taliban sources. They did not know whether he had been arrested. Motasim was the finance minister for the Taliban government in Afghanistan before it was overthrown following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
His arrest is significant blow to the Taliban, said Muhammad Amir Rana, head of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, a think tank that monitors militant activity. Motasim was very close to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, he said. "He was in his inner court," Rana said.
Motassim is a member of the Taliban's Quetta Shura, a group of senior Afghan Taliban leaders based in Karachi Quetta, Pakistan. The group oversees and directs the Taliban's fight against U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, according to Rana.
#1
A few months ago the Afghan government offerred to negotiate with the Taliban. I wonder if the recently retained leaders are now hoping the offer still is open?
Twenty-eight suspected pirates were taken into custody Friday by the European Union Naval Force after a handful of failed attacks on fishing vessels in the Indian Ocean, the EU mission said.
In the first incident, the mission intercepted the a mother ship and two skiffs early Friday in the southern Indian Ocean between the Seycelles and Mombasa, Kenya. The mission said the suspected pirates were in an area where an earlier attack had occurred.
A helicopter from the French warship FS Nivose then tracked the vessels and saw the suspects throwing things overboard, the mission said.
When a French team arrived at the scene, it found 11 suspected pirates and "pirate paraphernalia" in the skiffs: a rocket launcher, grappling hooks and several fuel barrels. The forces destroyed the pirate ship and a skiff and took the suspected pirates into custody. The fate of the second skiff was not immediately known.
Soon after, pirates tried to attack a French fishing vessel near two other fishing boats, said Cmdr. John Harbour, spokesman for the EU Naval Force. The French fishing vessel collided with the suspected pirates' vessel and sank it, Harbour said. Six suspected pirates were picked out of the water by the EU force, he said. It was not immediately clear if they had been transported to the FS Nivose, although that had been planned, he said.
Later, pirates tried to attack a Spanish fishing vessel, Harbour said. The boat alerted the EU Naval Force, and air and naval units intervened, he said. Eleven suspected pirates were taken into custody and were on board the Nivose, Harbour said.
Harbour said an increase in pirate attacks was likely over the next few weeks as the monsoon season was ending and the ocean was becoming calmer, he said.
"The pirates have been preparing for it. ... We are prepared as well," he said.
On Thursday, pirates on two skiffs in the Indian Ocean attacked the Spanish fishing vessel Albacan, the EU Naval Force said. The pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade, which exploded on the Albacan's deck and burst into flames, force said. The deck or the grenade?
Armed guards on the Albacan fired shots at the skiffs and repelled the attack, it said. No crew members were injured, and the small fire was extinguished.
#2
European fishing boats have a long history of illegal fishing (and overfishing) Somalian waters - which they could do since Somalia has no coast guard or fish & wildlife agency. I have heard it said that a lot of the Somali pirates are just fishermen without any fish to catch. Interesting that the French warships were concentrating their anti-pirate activities on pirates who were threatening European fishing boats rather than the bigger and more international shipping traffic.
#3
The theory that the Somali's were acting as impromptu "coasties" may have been valid 10 years ago. Now they are just prowling for new "mother ships".
French Warship ... destroyed the pirate ship and a skiff and took the suspected pirates into custody. Action get results, not "diplomatic efforts and appeasement".
" European fishing boats have a long history of illegal fishing (and overfishing) Somalian waters " = Utter Bullsh!t
Show me proof of that happening.
Credible news source.
Vessels from all countries are permitted to fish in international waters.
The pirates are claiming violations of Somali waters to justify their piracy actions.
Note that almost all acts of piracy against vessels from all countries are occurring in international waters. If ships were illegally fishing in Somali waters why haven't they been attacked and held? They would be a much easier catch since they would be so close to Somali land.
Do you also believe in "3am wedding parties in the desert" and cruise missiles only hitting aspirin and baby formula factories too??
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
03/06/2010 12:33
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Mike, most countries maintain a 200 mile economic zone in the waters off their coasts. Within that zone activities such as fishing are indeed regulated. I've read elsewhere (no link, sorry) that Euro (and especially Taiwanese) fishing boats do indeed poach this limit off Somalia. The furriners are way more efficient than the Somalians so fishing stocks have been some depleted. That's the ostensible complaint.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010 14:13
Comments ||
Top||
#8
It is true that - particularly European - illegal and over-fishing is a serious problem around much of the African coast, it takes place on the non-Muslim West coast without being used as an excuse for the locals to participate in the piracy business. To defend the Somali pirates is analogous to saying that it's OK for a pizza delivery boy to rob passing cars at gunpoint because someone siphoned the petrol(/gas) out of his moped.
#9
damn, glenmore youpissed in mike hunts cornflakes didn't you
Posted by: chris ||
03/06/2010 19:27
Comments ||
Top||
#10
chris, I guess I failed to make myself clear. I was not actually defending piracy - I'd just sink their boats with them on 'em, period. I just found it 'interesting' that the actions taken by the Euronavy seemed to only be in defense of Eurofishermen, who historically had the least justification to be defended.
#11
i didn't think you where defending piracy, just thought it was funny he got so upset
Posted by: chris ||
03/06/2010 21:38
Comments ||
Top||
#12
You'd think the haul from one pirate expedition would pay for the fishing activities of every pirate out there for more than their lifetimes. Maybe the Euros could give them a few boatloads of fish and the problem would be solved?
Mossad chief Meir Dagan's tenure at the Mossad is up for renewal at the end of the year.
Defenders of Dagan point to the long list of Mossad achievements in the war on terrorism and the campaign against Iran's nuclear program, and argue that his tenure at the intelligency agency should be extended for an unprecedented fourth time. They insist that his knowledge of the Iranian theater is unmatched, and that as the clock reaches zero hour on the Iranian nuclear threat, his input will be invaluable -- and not only for Israel.
Under Dagan, the Mossad has had just two priorities: delaying Iran's nuclear program and counter-terrorism.
Continued on Page 49
#4
One thing I wondered about is this. If Iran gets to the point where Israel has to do something, i.e. take out their nuclear capability given that most likely no one else will do it, what capability do they have? Do they have long-range bombers with bunker buster bombs? Long range missiles? In 1981 they had to outfit their planes so the range was extended in order to bomb Iraq's nuclear facility.
It is a widely believed fact that increasing numbers of North Koreans have starved to death in the wake of the currency reform that took place Nov. 30.
Monk Beopryun, chairperson of Good Friends, a leading North Korean human rights movement non-governmental organization, said during a lecture held in Korus House, culture center of the South Korean Embassy in Washington D.C. on Mar. 4, "After the currency reform, a number of people have starved to death since mid-January." It is known that the price of foods have risen 45 times compared to that before the currency reform.
Monk Beopryun said, "The aim of currency reform was to restore the system of a planned economy, however, most supplies to the country have been stopped, because the distribution system of the planned economy has not worked well, while circulation at the marketplace has been banned." He added, "If no specific countermeasures are taken in response to this situation, starvation will become an even more serious threat by March or April." He emphasized the need to send humanitarian food aid to North Korea.
Continued on Page 49
A bomb on board a U.S. Christmas Day flight would have failed to bring the plane down even if it had been detonated successfully, a new test explosion suggests.
A controlled blast on a Boeing 747, using the same explosives that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is accused of smuggling on board, failed to burst the fuselage. A bomb on board a U.S. Christmas Day flight would have failed to bring the plane down even if it had been detonated successfully, a new test explosion suggests.
A controlled blast on a Boeing 747, using the same explosives that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is accused of smuggling on board, failed to burst the fuselage. It means, had the bomb exploded on December 25, Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit would have successfully landed.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Just a little give in the fuselage can do this. Fortunately, emergency landing could be executed in minutes reducing the time the remainder of the structure was subject to stress.
#2
They don't mention whether the AC was pressurized to the equivalent altitude. That makes a HUGE difference. Example: An under inflated balloon is anti-climatic when poked; fully inflated they explode when pricked.
#5
So. This is what passes as investigation at the BBC? Cuz it looks to me like the door is open so unpressurized, and the windows sealed with metal, and the cabin empty (correct me if wrong, but the total volume occupied by the passengers and baggage would make the bomb more effective).
#8
BBC should have used an identical aircraft in their test; IIRC the a/c involved was an Airbus A 319 or 320, not a B-747. Different build details and different interior volume to absorb the shock.
Regarding the Aloha flight; that strucutral failure was due to several things, key being cyclic fatigue of the structure due to the pressurization / depressurization requirements of the flight (constant exposure to the salty air environment didn't help any). That accident led to the FAA's Aging Aircraft Inspection Program, and uncovered many more like it.
#9
would be nice if the BBC had put at least that much effort in verifying the Climate Change claims. Kinda like the Dubai assassination investigation where they seem to have spent a couple year's budget on one dead asshole. I guess the budget matches desired outcome. Go figure
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/06/2010 19:50
Comments ||
Top||
DIALA / Aswat al-Iraq: Unidentified gunmen blew up a ballot station in a village of Jabara suburb, Diala, on Friday while security forces arrested two suspects in the village, a local security source said. Norwegians? Samoans? Ruritanians? Esquimaux? The Mossad, surely. After all, they're everywhere else.
"The gunmen blew up a school serving as a ballot center in the village of Ashoukani, Jabara suburb, (35 km) southwest of Kifri district," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
"Security forces arrested two suspects inside the village," he said, not giving further details.
Kifri belongs to Diala province, 57 km northeast of Baghdad, but the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region has issued a decision two years ago to set up the province-like Kermian administration to run the districts of Khanaqin, Kifri, Klar and Jamjamal.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
LONDON - Iran is building a new rocket launch site a short distance from an existing complex in the north of the country, and seems to be working with North Korea, information group IHS Jane's said Friday.
Construction visible from satellite imagery of the new site, near the city of Semnan east of Tehran, seems to suggest that Tehran has been collaborating with Pyongyang, said the London-based defence intelligence group.
Iran unveiled the Simorgh space-launch vehicle (SLV) on February 3, but had not yet publicly revealed the location of the rocket's launch complex, it reported.
But Jane's said it had observed a new launch pad four kilometres (6.5 miles) northeast of the existing Semnan site on a satellite image dated February 6, which it said could ultimately launch Tehran's next-generation Simorgh rocket. The site includes a gantry tower which is 13 metres (43 feet) wide, approximately 18-20 metres tall and has a cliff-side flame bucket nearly as high as the tower itself.
It appears midway towards completion,' it said, adding that the launch pad could easily accommodate the 27-metre (89 foot) Simorgh if the gantry were to be extended by an additional 10 metres (33 feet).
And it added: The development of the Semnan facility and the Simorgh SLV both demonstrate the likelihood of collaboration with North Korea in Iran's missile programme.
The platforms seen on the new gantry tower resemble those seen on the gantry tower at North Korea's new launch pad at Tongchang. A drainage pit 170 metres directly in front of the pad also mirrors one at Pyongyang's new west-coast launch site. Similarly, the first stage of the Simorgh strongly resembles the North Korean Unha-2, with four clustered engines and nearly the same dimensions.'
The respected information group concluded that Iran appears to be forging ahead with developing its missile and rocket capabilities despite US-led diplomatic pressure including threats of new UN sanctions.
Given these investments in its missile infrastructure, and despite the United States attempting to garner support for further sanctions against Iran for its nuclear programme, Tehran appears determined to continue developing its missile and rocket capabilities in the foreseeable future,' it said. The Mad Mullahs are going full speed ahead on enriching uranium, on building the infrastructure to build bombs, on building rockets to deliver nuclear warheads, and on preparing their people for the use of those warheads. Sounds like we need a revised NIE.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[21 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Norks and the Iranians are passing the hot potato back and forth hoping to avoid the full brunt of international action. At the rate things are going, it might work.
5 March 2010 TEHRAN - Iran's long-delayed Bushehr nuclear plant will be launched within a few months, an Iranian energy official said on Friday.
This plant will be launched according to schedule at the end of the spring and will run the same as the other nuclear plants in the world,' Ali Akbar Saleh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said in quotes carried by news agency ILNA.
Russia said in January it would finish building a 1,000 megawatt nuclear power plant this year that it agreed to build 15 years ago. Delays have haunted the $1 billion project and diplomats say Moscow has used it as a lever in relations with Tehran.
Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has been disappointed by Tehran's refusal to agree to a compromise plan for Iran to enrich uranium in Russia and could back new sanctions Washington is seeking. Supposedly ...
Russia says the Bushehr plant is purely civilian and cannot be used for any weapons programme as it will come under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision. Supposedly ...
Iran will have to return all spent fuel rods to Russia. Supposedly ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
[Iran Press TV Latest] Dubai's police chief has vowed to resign if DNA tests on Israeli suspects prove that they have not been behind the killing of a Hamas commander in his hotel room in January.
What Israeli suspects?
The Irish ones ...
Police Chief Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim said on Friday that Israel should allow the Emirates to conduct DNA tests on Israelis that Dubai identifies as suspects in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Identifies them how? Do they plan to run their state-of-the-art facial recognition software on every single Israeli resident plus non-resident Israelis around the world in order to find the people they claim are the perpetrators? That would certainly keep their people busy for a couple of years.
"I call on Israel to bring the suspects for DNA tests, so it can be compared to DNA found at the scene," Khalfan said. "If it turns out that the results do not match, I will resign. You can lie about anything, but not about DNA," he added.
We trust the disinterestedness of Dubai lab techs, do we?
Khalfan said the investigators have collected crime scene DNA samples and fingerprints of some of the suspects.
"There are samples from a number of them (suspects) which they left behind. We have these samples, and when they are arrested ... the fingerprints and DNA samples will be used," the police chief told Al-jazeera.
Dubai authorities have accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of being behind the murder, and have identified at least 26 suspects of a hit squad that traveled to Dubai on fake identities and forged European and Australian passports to kill al-Mabhouh in January.
But Hamas says Mr. al-Mabhouh was betrayed from within. And Hamas has accused Jordan and Egypt of colluding in the murder. Was the entire Middle East, excepting only the Dubai police, united against this one man?
Israel has so far refused to confirm or deny involvement in the assassination of the Hamas commander.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Police Chief Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim said on Friday that Israel should allow the Emirates to conduct DNA tests on Israelis that Dubai identifies as suspects in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Well, since there's about as much a chance of that happening as me hitting Powerball, I'd say chiefy's job is quite safe for the foreseeable future.
At least 27 Democratic members of the House of Representatives have sent to charities $378,000 in campaign donations from scandal-plagued Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., since Feb. 28. And not a dime to our tipjar. Bastids ...
Starting last November, The Examiner's "Dirty Money Watch" has highlighted 39 senators and representatives and asked whether they planned to keep campaign donations from Rangel.
The Examiner has found $378,000 of Rangel's contributions that have been donated by 27 recipients to charity.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
WASHINGTON - Al-Qaeda in Iraq on Friday declared a country-wide "curfew" in a bid to stop Sunday's elections from going ahead, the SITE monitoring agency said.
"The Islamic state declares for the time a curfew on election day... from six in the morning until six pm, throughout Iraq and especially in Sunni areas," the group said in a message posted on its website, according to SITE. "For the safety of our people, any of those who learn of this, report it to those who do not know and supply yourself with needs for the curfew."
The Islamic state of Iraq, the Al-Qaeda front in the country, added in the statement that anyone who defies the curfew will "unfortunately expose himself to the anger of Allah and then to all kinds of weapons of the mujahedeen."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[22 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What? Are the AQI folks going to come out from under their beds and walk around in uniform to enforce the curfew or something?
[Iran Press TV Latest] Greek police have clashed with protesters angered by tough new austerity measures, while European heavyweight Germany rebuffs Athens need for a financial assistance.
Key Germans, in various reports, have advised Greece to raise money by selling uninhabited islands and spare bits of ancient statuary, and the Greek people to become more productive by getting up earlier in the morning. Aesop's tale of the ant and the grasshopper comes to mind, and this kind of nonsense is not helping the Greek reputation for fecklessness.
A demonstration by several thousand protesters was marred by clashes after the head of Greece's main union, Yiannis Panagopoulos, was beaten by unknown assailants as he delivered a speech.
Five people were arrested in Athens and a handful of shops and banks along with a ministry building had their front windows smashed, police said. Around a dozen protesters and police were injured, according to reports.
Meanwhile, Parliament approved a third round of austerity measures aimed at reining in the country's gaping budget deficit and restoring trust in its solvency on financial markets.
Wake me when they raise the retirement age in Greece to 62 ...
But government hopes to secure more tangible European backing for its 4.8-billion-euro belt-tightening package were dashed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"Greece has not asked for financial assistance," she said after talks in Berlin with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.
Europe's biggest economy, Germany is widely seen as the most likely candidate to help prevent a Greek default, which would be disastrous for the eurozone. But there is huge opposition in Germany against such a move, with angry editorials slamming alleged Greek corruption and wasteful spending.
Germans would rather their government spend the money on their own feckless and spendthrift ways ...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
Too good not to post here. Self-explanatory, and the referring blog, WattsUpWithThat, has the pdf files.
Climate scientist delivers false statement in parliament enquiry
It has come to our attention, that last Monday (March 1), Dr. Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (CRU), in a hearing with the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee made a statement in regards to the alleged non-availability for disclosure of Swedish climate data.
Dr. Jones asserted that the weather services of several countries, including Sweden, Canada and Poland, had refused to allow their data to be released, to explain his reluctance to comply with Freedom of Information requests.
This statement is false and misleading in regards to the Swedish data.
All Swedish climate data are available in the public domain. As is demonstrated in the attached correspondence between SMHI (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute), the UK Met Office and Dr. Jones (the last correspondence dated yesterday March 4), this has been clearly explained to Dr. Jones. What is also clear is that SMHI is reluctant to be connected to data that has undergone "processing" by the East Anglia research unit.
STOCKHOLM INITIATIVE
Göran Ahlgren, secretary general
Kungsgatan 82
12 27 Stockholm, Swede
Pwned!
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
Tuesday night's meltdown by MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan (while interviewing Mark Williams of the Tea Party Express) has become a viral sensation for news & political junkies.
And now MSNBC's Ratigan has announced on his Facebook page that he's taking the next few days off. MSNBC's Ed Schultz is filling in for Ratigan.
A video clip of the meltdown posted on YouTube earned 13 Honors from around the world, and became the #1-Most VIewed News/Politics video of the day and was the 26th Most Viewed clip overall on YouTube. Ratigan's ranting and raving wasn't just a viral Internet hit, the segment was served up for fodder by Fox News Channel's Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld. Gutfeld found great joy poking his competitors over at MSNBC:
Mark Williams said the experience was overall a positive one:
"As a talk radio host I learned long ago that when you've got a crazy person who is about to make themselves and their movement look foolish, you let them have all the rope they need to do it.
"If this is the best those who oppose the tea party movement can come up with, then I submit that the tea party movement may have already won the day in the battle of ideas.
"And as for Mr. Ratigan, I suggest a Beer Summit."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#8
Well.......this did take place on MSNBC. I wouldn't expect anything different. They're a bunch of far left freaks who are running scared because it's all slipping away barely a year removed from seizing power. They know that this years elections are going to be a blood bath for them and they're becoming unhinged. I love it!
Posted by: Jefferson ||
03/06/2010 12:33
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Dear Mr Ratigan please consider taking the rest of the year off, because what the kid says is right.
Get it through your heads, people - pretty much anyone who is left of center politically in this country in 2010, be they a radical like this Ratagan guy or Pres. Obama or Michael Moore or Pelosi and Reid - or less obvious like the soft-spoken English professor on your street who has NPR on his radio all day or most of the librarians in your public library or the AFSCME or SEIU members at your town hall or county courthouse - have already made up their minds that anyone who believes in free enterprise, Christianity, small government, firearm freedom, or American exceptionalism is literally a Nazi and a member of the KKK.
Not "like" those groups, literally one of them.
They MUST maintain the fiction that this is true, and they MUST maintain the notion that people who believe those things pose an existential threat to the universe, because if it isn't true that all of us on the center/right are nazis, then their entire narrative is for shit, and for the postmodern left the narrative is all.
When someone on that side looks at you or me, they see Hitler or a Grand Wizard 100% of the time. Do not be fooled when they say "Well, I'm tolerant of moderate conservatives". It's BS. They still look at you and see a Nazi, just a slightly less dangerous one. Ratigan's rant is prima facie evidence of this.
Was Ratigan's rage equal when dangerous and overt communists joined protests against the Iraq war? Did he demand that the organizers of the protest call shame on those evil radicals? He didn't and they didn't. Again, proof that violent radicalism isn't the problem, guys like Ratigan are just fine with violent radicalism as long as it is left of center in ideology.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/06/2010 17:05
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Again, proof that violent radicalism isn't the problem, guys like Ratigan are just fine with violent radicalism as long as it is left of center in ideology.
Works for me.
Ratigan was behind a camera and a lot of thugs hired as bodyguards. He'll be a pliant as as pussycat in the real world or he'll be dodging roundhouses.
And the great thing in America is he gets to choose.
Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has urged the top nuclear body to switch its focus from Syria's atomic work to Israel's nuclear arsenal as the main cause for concern. "Hey look! Over there! It's William Shatner! ..."
Ali Asghar Soltanieh read out a statement in the Thursday meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors on the implementation of the Safeguards Agreements in Syria.
In the statement, Soltanieh said that Iran was "deeply concerned" about the IAEA's verification measures which, he said have shifted focus from Israel's nuclear work as the main source of problem to "secondary technical" issues.
"The core problem is, in fact, the Zionist regime of Israel's offensive against Syria which is a blatant violation of the UN Charter and the international law including the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency," Fars News Agency quoted Soltanieh as saying on Thursday.
In September 2007, Israeli warplanes destroyed Syria's al-Kibar military site blaming the country for harboring a nuclear reactor there, a claim rejected by Syria.
Soltanieh then accused Israel and its allies of having engaged the IAEA in a made-up scenario by raising "false claims" against Syria.
"Meanwhile, those member states who cry foul over Syria ['s nuclear work] have turned a blind eye to the Israeli regime's nuclear arsenal, which poses a serious threat to both regional and global peace and security," he said.
An IAEA report by Director General Yukiya Amano said in February that uranium particles found at the Syrian complex suggest the possibility of covert nuclear activity at the site.
In response to the report, Syria said that unlike Israel, it was "committed to the non-proliferation agreement," reiterating that its nuclear work is totally peaceful.
Israel, the world's sixth largest nuclear weapons power, maintains a policy known as "nuclear ambiguity" and continues to remain outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Syria is a signatory to the NPT and is thus subject to IAEA inspections. Israel is not.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/06/2010 7:29
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Unlike Iran, Israel does not advocate eliminating other sovereign nations from the face of the earth. Just sayin'.
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat editor Tariq Alhomayed wrote: "Whilst U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that her country has asked the Syrians to distance themselves from Iran, the Syrian president [welcomed] his Iranian counterpart to Damascus, celebrating the occasion of Mawlid [the birth of the Prophet Mohammed]. [The two presidents] signed an agreement to cancel [the need for] travel visas between the two countries. Was this [a case of] Syria challenging the U.S. -- or just public embarrassment [for the U.S.] in response to Secretary Clinton embarrassing Damascus, especially as Assad's comments about Clinton were clearly sarcastic...
"But if Damascus is the one that determines how things go, and believes that its interest lies in consolidating its ties with Tehran, then why is Syria openly asking the Americans to intervene in negotiations with Israel[?]... If Damascus agrees with Ahmadinejad... that the 'Zionist entity is on its way to disappearing,' and 'will be confronted by all nations in the region, especially Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq,' then why is Syria cooperating with the Americans on security issues and with acknowledgement from Washington, as the number of foreign [jihad] fighters heading to Iraq [via its borders] has decreased?...
"...If the Syrians want to normalize relations with the U.S. and want the U.S. to mediate between Syria and Israel, then how can they fight on Ahmadinejad's side and agree with him on eliminating Israel?... If the idea of Syria negotiating with Israel is accepted by Iran, then why does Tehran denounce others as traitors?...
"...[W]ho is deceiving whom? There is something not right about the Damascus-Tehran relationship today. The loud voice suggests that one side is nervous whilst the other is portraying something contrary to what is on the inside. Let us wait and see!"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[19 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
Al-Quds Al-Arabi editor 'Abd Al-Bari 'Atwan wrote: "The [February 25] tripartite meeting in Damascus of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, his Iranian guest Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, was a 'war council,' [at which the three] outlined future courses of action and assigned tasks and roles in case of an Israeli attack on one of the sides, or on all three at once...
"Also [noteworthy was] the expanded meeting between Ahmadinejad and the commanders of the Palestinian [resistance] factions... The timing [of this meeting], the manner in which it was held, and the press conference that followed it indicate that a strategic alliance is coalescing and a new front is forming, to serve as a spearhead against the U.S.-Israel alliance and the Arab governments that will join it, openly or covertly, should war break out. The Iranian president assessed that this war will break out... within a few months...
"We are witnessing a new language, an unprecedented [level of] confidence, and a readiness [to endorse] reactions the likes of which we have never seen -- especially on the part of the Arab regimes -- since [the adoption of] the peace option... embodied by the Arab peace initiative, which was carefully concocted in the American kitchen by expert chefs...
"It seems that the Syrian leadership has determined its position: It has decided to shut the door on America's cheap and pathetic attempts to court it, and [has resolved instead] to strengthen its strategic alliance with Iran. This was its clear response to the advice of U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who demanded that Syria distance itself from Iran, the regional troublemaker...
"It seems that the imminence of conflict [in the region] has prompted [Syria] to abandon the course of quiet diplomacy and half-open doors to [rapprochement with] the West, and to begin preparing for the possibility of 'the mother of all wars."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[19 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki held the ministries of interior and defense responsible that thousands of security and military men did not cast their ballots on the special voting day on Thursday (March 4).
Thousands of security elements' names were not included in the electoral records,' Maliki said in a press conference on Friday.
Maliki criticized an attempt made by a political figure to visit a voting center yesterday after the special voting ended. He said that although blasts have occurred, the election security plan will not be changed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
The administration is not going to block the vote. The Hildebeast is going to lobby congressional leaders to head off a vote. That's different.
Turkey has already pulled their ambassador in Washington, proclaiming this a matter of "honour". Prime Minister Erdogan really is enjoying throwing his weight around. He's been waiting for an opportunity, and had Congressional committee not done this, something else would have served as an excuse to openly realign Turkey from the eastern end of the West to -- he hopes -- regain Turkey's role as the center of the Muslim Middle East.
#1
From what I understand the rest of the Muddled East has no desire for Turkey to regain the center of power in the Arab world. Most of the corruption in the Muddled East was learned from Turkey, with little love lost. The Turks are great fighters, but their leaders have ALWAYS been corrupt to one degree or another.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/06/2010 20:43
Comments ||
Top||
Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the Israeli crackdown on Palestinian demonstrators describing it as an act 'aimed at damaging the chances to resume the peace process.'
"We started it, which makes it Israel's fault." Although, to be fair, it was really Hamas, not the PA.
On Friday, Israeli troops surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque since the early morning hours raided the compound of the holy site in the occupied East Jerusalem (Al-Quds) and cordoned off the premises to push out the Palestinian worshippers who had gathered for the weekly Friday prayers.
The move triggered protests that quickly turned violent after Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades at demonstrators, leaving 60 Palestinians injured.
"Today's events were aimed at damaging the chances of resuming the peace process and Israel is crossing all the red lines -- after the Arab League's monitoring committee recommended that the negotiations between the sides be resumed," said a statement by Abbas' office in Ramallah.
The Western-backed Fatah leader also called on Washington to "stop the adventure which may ignite a religious war in the region" and urged the international community to "take responsibility and stop the Israeli recklessness, which may have serious implications on the entire region and on peace and security in the entire world."
On Wednesday, the Arab League foreign ministers meeting in the Egyptian capital of Cairo expressed their support for a US proposal regarding indirect Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.
Members of the Arab League said they would review the results of the negotiations after four months, and insisted that direct talks could not begin until Israel completely halted all settlement constructions beyond the 1967 borders, including those in East Al-Quds.
Despite it being a Palestinian issue, Abbas had said he would adhere to any decision made by the Arab League ministerial committee.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
Psychologists call that "Projection"
Posted by: abu do you love ||
03/06/2010 2:38
Comments ||
Top||
#2
As they say "A predator is not looking for a fight---it's looking for a meal."
#3
On the day the Israelis blow up a pizza joint solely because of the religion of the patrons, get back to me and we'll talk about them igniting a religious war in the ME.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Islamist insurgency in Russia's North Caucasus region appears to be mutating from a grassroots separatist movement towards global jihad or holy war, whose goals, propaganda and patronage point abroad.
In February Russia's most wanted guerrilla, Chechen-born Doku Umarov, vowed on Islamist websites to spread his attacks from the Muslim-dominated North Caucasus into the nation's heartland, wreaking havoc through jihad.
His pledge follows escalating violence in the form of shootings and suicide bombs targeting authorities over the last year in the mountainous North Caucasus, particularly Chechnya, site of two separatist wars since the mid-1990s, and the provinces flanking it, Ingushetia and Dagestan.
Regional Muslim leaders and rebels revile each other as blasphemous and criminal. But after years of the Soviet Union suppressing religion, both welcome a Muslim revival that has brought elaborate new mosques, government-sponsored hajj trips to Mecca and a bubbling interest in Arabic.
Alexander Cherkasov, who has closely followed the North Caucasus for 15 years for rights group Memorial, said whereas in the past rebels wanted freedom from Russia, a struggle that dates back over 200 years, now they are influenced by jihadism, a global fight against alleged enemies of Islam.
"Part of it is homegrown. Corruption leads many to seek out what they call true Islam, but political Islam, by way of foreign financing and insurgents, is certainly playing a role," he told Reuters.
Al-Qaeda links?
Al-Qaeda operative and Egyptian militant Makhmoud Mokhammed Shaaban in Dagestan, who the FSB security service said had masterminded several bombings.
A myriad of web sites that have come to characterize the insurgency show videos of "martyrs", something unheard of in the region five years ago. They feature mostly local men, framed by Caucasus flags, chanting in Arabic ahead of suicide missions.
Over the last year, public statements of support for Doku Umarov and other Caucasus rebel leaders have come from a leading al-Qaeda mentor, Jordanian Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi.
U.S. intelligence officials say Maqdisi is a major jihadi mentor who wields more influence over Islamist ideology than leading militants such as Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri.
In an open letter to Umarov last year, which was posted on unofficial Islamist websites, Maqdisi said "it is my great pleasure to express my alignment with, patronage for, and support to the Mujahideen of the Caucasus."
Rebel leader Alexander Tikhomirov, an accomplished cleric who renamed himself Said Buryatsky after his native East Siberian Buryatia region, trained for jihad in Egypt for many years, where he learned fluent Arabic, political analysts say.
Buryatsky took responsibility for the deadliest attack in the North Caucasus in four years last August when a suicide bomber killed at least 20 and injured 138 at a police headquarters in Ingushetia.
Christopher Langton of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London told Reuters that "jihadism" in the North Caucasus is "energized" partly by links to Afghanistan and the Middle East composed of a mixture of smuggling, trade, Islamic non-governmental organizations and charities.
The FSB, successor to the KGB, has long said the insurgency has links to al Qaeda although regional leaders reject that.
"We have identified enormous financial influence from Afghanistan and Pakistan," said Sergei Goncharov, head of a group of veterans of an elite KGB force.
Isolation tactic
But Kremlin critics say the government blames al-Qaeda to cover up its share of responsibility for the region's poverty and endemic corruption, which also inspires youths to turn to extremism.
"Moscow wants to conceptualize the North Caucasus, they are interested in isolating it from the rest of Russia," Glen Howard, President of the Washington-based think tank Jamestown Foundation, told Reuters.
Regional leaders often play down the insurgency as a whole. Moscow-backed hardline Chechen boss Ramzan Kadyrov says there are fewer than 30 insurgents left in his republic. He has also accused the West of financing the Islamist insurgency, as well as plotting to seize the entire Caucasus region.
Ingushetia's leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov maintains that deep poverty alone fuels discontent.
Over the last two years, deaths due to violent incidents have shot up dramatically in the North Caucasus, from just over 40 in January 2008 to 140 in August 2009, according to a study by Washington's Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
There is now alarm that Islamist extremism could spread to other parts of Russia, home to around 20 million Muslims, more than half of whom live outside the North Caucasus.
Paul Quinn-Judge, from the International Crisis Group, warned that the violence could indeed spread: "The guerrillas are trying to extend the war to Russia proper."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Versus
WMF > NRO MEDIA: SURVEY SHOWS TWO-THIRDS OF AMERICANS BELIEVE THE US WILL NO LONGER BE THE WORLD'S SOLE OR NUMBER ONE MILITARY SUPERPOWER BY 2030.
* SAME > CURRENT "INTERNATIONAL LAW OF THE SEA" CONVENTION IMPRISONS CHINA TO ITS EAST ASIA COASTS AND BLOCKS FULL OCEAN ACCESS TO ITS DESIRED FIRST, SECOND ISLAND CHAINS, THUS OBSTRUCTING CHINA FROM DEV A TRUE "BLUE WATER NAVY".
* SAME > CHINA'S ONLY ACCESS TO THE OPEN PACIFIC IS THROUGH OKINAWA AND OGASAWARA ISLANDS. [Okinoroti]. SEA DENIAL THRU SAME IS A VALID CAUSE FOR WAR AGZ US, JAPAN.
* SAME > CHINA INCREASINGLY ISOLATED IN ASIA BY RUSSIA'S DEFECTION TOWARDS FRANCE, GERMANY, AND NATO. NEW VENTURES FOR INCREASED CHIN INVESTMENT IN FORMER CHINESE TERRITORY OF MONGOLIA [Pro-Russia] AGZ RUSSIA.
Venezuela should combat the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) because they represent a threat on that country, Colombia and the whole region, an official of the US Department of Defense said on Thursday and criticized Venezuela's poor cooperation in fighting the rebels.
Frank Mora, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere, hailed Ecuador's recent cooperation with Colombia, but complained of the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the strongest critic of the United States in Latin America, Reuters reported.
"Venezuela should combat this scourge," Mora said during a press conference in reference to the FARC, regarded by the US government as a terrorist group. Hugo didn't create FARC but he's been happy to do business with them. That isn't going to change.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Arabiya Latest] A suicide bomber attacked a convoy of civilians guarded by security forces in Pakistan's northwest on Friday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 30, police said.
The bomb triggered a large fire in the town of Tul, part of the northwestern district of Hangu, which is known for sectarian violence. It is near Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, which Washington calls a "headquarters" for al-Qaeda.
The blast which occurred near a petrol station in a market, district police chief Abdur Rashid Khan told AFP.
The convoy was under security escort. Officials say the Pakistani army had started protecting Shiite vehicles following sectarian tensions in the area.
Local lawmaker Mufti Janan Ahmed said it was a sectarian attack. The 20-vehicle convoy was carrying Shiite travellers coming from the northwestern towns of Parachinar to Kohat, he said.
The bomber ploughed his vehicle into the middle of the convoy, and the victims appeared to be mostly Shiites, the lawmaker said. "We have found the engine of the vehicle which was used in the attack," said police official Islamuddin Khattak.
The blast destroyed five vehicles in the convoy. Police were battling to extinguish the fire caused by the explosion, he said.
Sectarian violence
Sectarian violence between majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims has killed more than 4,000 people in Pakistan since the late 1980s. Shiites account for about 20 percent of the country's 167 million people.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since July 2007, a deadly campaign blamed on Islamist militants opposed to the government's alliance with the United States.
But after a significant rise in bloodshed in late 2009, there has been a marked decline in attacks so far this year.
Pakistani officials have equated the trend to the widely suspected death, although still not confirmed, of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud and military offensives that have disrupted militant networks.
There have been no mass civilian losses or bombings in major cities since a bombing at a volleyball match killed 101 people on New Year's Day. That was around two weeks before the U.S. drone attack that possibly killed Mehsud.
Attacks targeting Shiite Muslims killed 76 people in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, in late December and early February.
Pakistan is under huge U.S. pressure to eliminate Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants who pose a domestic threat and who infiltrate Afghanistan to attack Western forces.
Pakistan's military claims to have made strong gains against Taliban and al-Qaeda strongholds over the past year, launching major offensives in the northwestern district of Swat and the tribal region of South Waziristan.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
In the event that Venezuela will pull out of the Organization of American States (OAS), as threatened by President Hugo Chávez, Venezuelans will be increasingly unprotected, Santiago Cantón, Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), said on Friday.
"We hope that they will not walk out of he system. As a protection agency, the more involvement by States, the more assurances for advocacy of human rights," Cantón told reporters. "Leaving the system means increasing lack of protection for the inhabitants of outgoing countries," he added.
Chávez threatened to pull out Venezuela of the IACHR as the OAS independent agency released last week a report attesting to weakening democracy and human rights restrictions in Venezuela, AFP quoted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Heh. I'll bet that's a real heavy lifting job, eh, Santiago?
ABU DHABI/ DUBAI -- The first day of polling by Iraqi expatriates in the UAE saw nearly 5000 Iraqi voters cast votes peacefully, in contrast to the atmosphere in their home country where Al Qaeda-linked attacks have sought to derail the process.
The Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq (IHCEI) is geared to receive 75,000 Iraqis from across the UAE to choose from 6,000 candidates for the 365-member Iraqi parliament, IHCEI Bureau Director Odai Al Taie told Khaleej Times.
The voting shall remain open till Sunday from 8am to 6pm at the Iraqi embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Dubai International Airport Exhibition Centre. The commission expects to send by Thursday the ballot boxes to Baghdad. A similar procedure is being followed in other countries too.
An estimated 1.4 million Iraqis from the war-wracked nation's large diaspora are located in 80 cities of 16 countries.
Brigadier Khalil Ibrhaim Al Mansouri, Director of General Department of Criminal invesitgation, said that the Dubai Police had put in place a foolproof seucurity plan to ensure smooth conduct and safety. The General Deparment of Emergency had assigned 20 police hard-task and riots team to stand in readiness. Nothing untoward was reported.
Security outside the centres were tight with police keeping a close watch on the voters. Some eager youngsters were seen waving flags, while others posed for the camera with their ink-stained fingers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
I would have sent a Jesuit myself ... Nobody woulda stood for it. They're too... ummm... Jesuitical.
Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez would meet on Friday night with his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe, acting as mediator to improve relations between Colombia and Venezuela, a source from Colombia's President Office reported.
Fernandez will hold a private meeting with Uribe in Bogota. The Dominican President is scheduled to leave on Saturday, AFP reported. Colombian media said that after the meeting with Uribe, Fernandez will meet with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas.
President Chavez froze diplomatic and commercial relations with Colombia in July 2009, in retaliation for a military agreement between Washington and Bogota that Chavez considers a "threat" to his country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
Senior government officials of North Korea and Russia held talks in Moscow to discuss issues regarding the resumption of the stalled six-party nuclear talks.
During a bilateral meeting on Thursday, visiting North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Goong Seok-woong and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin exchanged views on issues of mutual concern, with particular attention on Pyongyang's nuclear program.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said the two officials also focused on improving bilateral ties as well as expanding political and economic exchanges.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
RUSSIA = VLADVEDEV is also repor finding itself serously outmaneuvered by CHINA in AFRICA - everywhere in everyting???
#2
ION WMF > JAPAN PUZZLED: THE TWO TRUE INTENTIONS OF THE NAVAL MOVEMENTS OF CHINA'S ARMED FRORCES THROUGH THE RYUKYUS ISLANDS.
* SAME > CHINA SHOULD LEASE FROM RUSSIA THE FOUR FORMER ISLANDS OF JAPAN IN KURILES; + CHINA-JAPAN'S PROPOSED NEW STRATEGIC UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE WILL REACH THE WESTERN PACIFIC.
IMO read, will one day reach, recce GUAM-WESTPAC + incoming USN Aircraft Carriers.
* SAME > CHINA SURPRISED: RUSSIA ENGAGING IN UNPRECEDENTED POST-SOVIET/COLD WAR MILITARY BUILDUP.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israeli police and Palestinians clashed near Jerusalem's flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque on Friday and about 30 people were injured, Israeli police and Palestinian medical workers said
Israeli police stormed al-Aqsa Mosque compound, after protesters threw stones following the main weekly prayers, police and witnesses said.
Police fired tear gas and threw stun grenades in an attempt to disperse the protesters.
Palestinian medical workers said at least 30 Palestinians were injured by tear gas and rubber-coated bullets, one seriously. About a dozen police officers were also lightly hurt in the clashes, a police spokesman said.
Following the clashes, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Israel for trying to stymie efforts to restart peace talks.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina slammed "the escalation of Israeli violence in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank aimed at sabotaging American efforts to re-launch (Israeli-Palestinian peace talks)."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraqis living abroad began casting ballots in their homeland's crucial parliamentary elections Friday, a constituency Iraq's Sunni Arab minority hope will boost their showing.
Thousands stood in lines at polling stations in Syria and Jordan, home to the largest Iraqi expatriate communities. Voting was also being held in more than a dozen other countries around the world, from Australia to the United States.
The United Nations refugee agency estimates that around 2 million Iraqis are living abroad -- the majority of whom fled violence following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
A large proportion of those -- particularly in Jordan and Syria -- are Sunni Arabs who fled the fierce wave of sectarian killings at the height of the Iraq war.
That has made their votes a major focus of attention for Sunni leaders in Iraq, who are hoping a strong turnout among their community will counterbalance a strong vote among the Shiite majority for their own religious parties.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Arabiya Latest] United States Ambassador Susan Rice warned Thursday that recent fighting and "the blatant disregard" of a U.N. arms embargo in Darfur are undermining peace efforts in the region.
We are shocked. Shocked!
Heavy fighting between government forces and the Sudan Liberation Army erupted last week in central Darfur, according to rebel and U.N. officials, sending thousands of people fleeing from their homes and sorely testing the cease-fire signed days earlier between the government and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement.
If the reports of a government military offensive are true, Rice said, it would "not suggest a new willingness on the part of Sudan to fully engage in the peace process."
Rice called for a halt to the fighting and urged all rebel groups to cease military activity and sign on to the peace agreement.
The U.S. envoy made her comments following a closed-door Security Council briefing on the implementation of sanctions against Sudan.
In November, a U.N. panel of experts monitoring sanctions reported that the Sudanese government and rebel groups in Darfur refuse to abandon the military option and are increasingly violating the arms embargo.
Rice said that she criticized Security Council members during the closed-door session for failing to take action on any of the panel's recommendations.
"We want this committee to be active and engaged and to shine a spotlight on sanctions violations" by working with the government, the parties to the conflict and governments in the region "to end what have been cavalier violations of this sanctions regime." Rice said.
This would improve conditions on the ground, limit the flow of arms into Darfur "and do much to protect civilians who remain at grave risk," she said.
The 15-member Security Council -- and the sanctions committee which includes all members -- are deeply divided on the issue of sanctions against Sudan.
Sudan's allies Russia and China, both veto-wielding council members, are reluctant to impose or enforce sanctions against Sudan.
The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum, claiming discrimination and neglect. Khartoum is accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic Arab tribes and unleashing militias known as the Janjaweed on civilian populations -- a charge the government denies.
U.N. officials say at least 300,000 people have lost their lives from violence, disease and displacement, and 2.7 million have been driven from their homes.
The Security Council initially imposed an arms embargo on rebels and the Janjaweed in Darfur and in March 2005 extended the embargo to include Sudan's government.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
[Iran Press TV Latest] Three strong aftershocks have spread new fears among Chileans as visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon pledges 10 million dollars in emergency aid to the devastated country.
Gaia doesn't like the nice man from the UN?
A first 6.2-magnitude aftershock jolted people awake at 6:20 a.m. (0920 GMT) Friday, just six days after a 8.8 magnitude quake which along with a tsunami, left more than 800 people dead and some two million homeless.
That was followed by a 6.8-magnitude tremor -- one of the strongest of more than 200 to rattle Chile since the weekend -- and another measuring 6.6.
Some damaged buildings in Concepcion, the country's second city, collapsed, but the national emergency services said the aftershocks caused no injuries or serious damage.
That's a comfort for a beleaguered people.
Meanwhile, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon arrived in the capital Santiago on Friday to assess the damage and meet with Chilean authorities.
Ban pledged 10 million dollars in immediate help from the UN, in a news conference in the Chilean capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
prolly 10 million of our dollars
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/06/2010 7:32
Comments ||
Top||
#2
We should all be glad that Al Gore didn't write a book on how stable the Earth is and earthquakes are thing of the past
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi diplomats of the embassy in Tehran were not allowed to vote, the Iraqi ambassador to Iran said on Friday. That doesn't make a bit of sense ...
Iraq's election office in Tehran prevented the diplomats from casting their votes although they carried diplomatic passports, have legal residency in Iran and work at the Iraqi embassy in Tehran,' Mohammed Majeed al-Sheikh, the Iraqi ambassador to Iran, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
He said that his embassy will write a memo about this issue to the Iraqi Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
KIRKUK / Aswat al-Iraq: Seven persons were wounded by gunmen's random fire in southern Kirkuk city on Friday, according to a senior security official.
Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a number of civilian pedestrians on the Baghdad Road area, near a cotton gin in southern Kirkuk, wounding seven of them,' Col. Ghazi Ali, the al-Muqdad police chief in Kirkuk, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The attacking gunmen were boarding a Nissan vehicle,' Ali said, not giving further details.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
PESHAWAR: The Taliban on Friday responded to the military's allegations that the militants were being backed by India and Israel by distributing pamphlets that described the Pakistan Army as an "impure force" working at the behest of the CIA and FBI.
They're so cute when they get mad at each other!
The local Taliban distributed the pamphlets at mosques after Friday prayers in Miranshah and other areas of the Waziristan tribal region, local residents said.
The pamphlets described the Pakistan Army as a "napak fouj" (impure force) that worked at the behest of the CIA and FBI.
They said the army derived its strength from the "terrorists" of private security contractor Blackwater, US drones, CIA, FBI, India's RAW intelligence agency and Israel's Mossad spy service.
The pamphlets also said the Pakistan Army was funded by the US, NATO and the UN.
Children standing at the main gates of mosques distributed the two-page pamphlets to people, local residents said.
On March 2, Pakistani planes had dropped pamphlets in North Waziristan that claimed India, Israel and al-Qaida were funding Taliban fighters in the region.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[23 views]
Top|| File under:
Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will hold a meeting on Friday in Caracas with Venezuelan Head of State Hugo Chavez, said Rasel Tomé, an assistant of deposed Honduran leader.
The meeting will take place at Miraflores presidential palace during "the course of the day," said Tomé, after a press conference to be held in a Caracas hotel on Friday morning was cancelled. Zelaya's assistant did not provide further details on the agenda of the former Central American president, Efe reported. Mel's gonna tell Oogo that exile ain't so bad ...
Tomé said that the visit of Zelaya is part of a tour undertaken by the former Honduran President of a number of countries in the region.
According to several local newspapers, Zelaya arrived in Maiquetía airport on Thursday morning. There was an event to which the media was not invited. Then, he had a private meeting with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the Spanish Minister of the Interior, has demanded the Venezuelan government on Friday to cooperate with the Spanish Judiciary in an investigation into alleged links between the Basque separatist group ETA and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), a guerrilla organization, because "terrorism is a serious issue." Demand away. How are you going to make them cooperate? You may not have noticed since you're a European and all, but Hugo doesn't really respond to 'soft power' ...
"We must request the Venezuelan government to cooperate with the Judiciary. They have to collaborate with the Spanish Judiciary system," Rubalcaba said in statements released on Friday by the state-run TV network Televisión Española (TVE), as reported by Efe.
The Minister of the Interior was referring to evidence of cooperation between President Hugo Chavez's government with the Basque terrorist group ETA and the Colombian guerrilla, according to an indictment released by Judge Eloy Velasco of the Spanish National Court.
Pérez Rubalcaba recalled that "there has been some cooperation" between both terrorist groups, which has been already proved. However, the Spanish minister said that he was not sure that "the word 'permissive' was adequate to describe Venezuela's involvement in the case."
Pérez Rubalcaba said that, in the past, the Venezuelan government refused to extradite several ETA members, at the request of Spain. He added that the Spanish government had to intervene to prevent some terrorist members from obtaining Venezuelan citizenship.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Arabiya Latest] Somalia's al-Shabaab rebels have banned English and science studies in schools in the southern Afmadow town after the education centers there ignored thegroup's call for fighters, residents and teachers say.
Residents of the town near the border with Kenya said three schools had been given one month to comply with the order by Shabaab rebels and switch the curriculum to accommodate Arabic and Islamic studies. "They asked us to contribute students to their militia so that they can fight for them, but we rejected their proposal," said one teacher who wanted to remain anonymous.
Shabaab, which Washington says is al-Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state, wants to topple Somalia's U.N.-backed government and impose its own strict version of Shariah, Islamic law.
The heavily armed group controls much of the south and parts of the capital Mogadishu, and courts run by its clerics have ordered executions, floggings and amputations.
It has also banned movies, dancing at wedding ceremonies and playing or watching soccer in the areas under its control.
Elders said the Shabaab militia shut down Waamo, Dhoobaale and Osman Mohamud schools briefly on Sunday, before slapping the ban on English, which they called a "spy language."
Language of spies
"The Islamic administration closed education centers and ordered them to stop teaching English which they said is a western language," Ali Mowlid Mohamud, clan elder in Afmadow, told Reuters by phone. "They told schools, 'We know everyone who is going to be a spy for western governments learns this language.'"
Schools reopened on Tuesday after elders and schools accepted Shabaab's decree.
The order also forced 23 instructors that did not have an Arabic education background, out of their jobs.
Safiya Ali, a mother at one of the affected schools, said she sent her children to the Koranic schools earlier in their life so they would later pursue some western education to enable them to join higher education institutions elsewhere. "We had already taught our children Islamic principles and religion. I don't know how the new curriculum will fit the education needs of our children," she told Reuters.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[20 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
ION SOMALIA, TOPIX > HIZBUL OFFCIAL ACCUSES COLLEAGUES OF WEAKENING ISLAMISTS. HIZBUL Big Sheikey accuses fellow comrade Big Sheikeys of supporting FOREIGN-BACKED AGENDAS AS AGZ GROUP + ISLAMIST MOVEMENT.
* SAME > NIGERIA: CLO CONDEMNS AL QAEDA MILITARY ASSISTANCE TO NIGERIAN MILITANTS | AL QAEDA'S STRATEGY IS TO CREATE AND EXPLOIT EXPANDING ZONES OF SOCIAL DISINTEGRATION IN COUNTRIES, REGIONS WID WEAK GOVTS, ECONOMNIES.
As opposed to head-on full-scale mil confrontation agz US-Allies which AL QAEDA + ALIGNED KNOWS IT WILL LOSE.
IOW, COLD WAR SOVIET "HITTING/STRIKING WHERE THE US-NATO ARE NOT" + "HUGGING THE WAIST/BELT" TACTICS.
* SAME > WEST AFRICA: LAND DISPUTE RISING OVER GHANA'S OIL FIELDS [Ghana v. Ivory Coast]; + NOGERIA:NIGERIAN MILITANTS RESUME ATTACKS, ORDER INTERNATIONAL OIL COMPANIES [IOC's] TO LEAVE.
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon should consider blocking a potential $1 billion contract with the company formerly known as Blackwater to train Afghan police because of questions about its conduct in Afghanistan, a top U.S. senator said.
In letters to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Attorney General Eric Holder, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said there was evidence of misconduct in a previous subcontract awarded to a Blackwater affiliate to conduct weapons training for the Afghan National Army. Levin, of course. Too bad he doesn't have enough to do in saving GM and Chrysler ...
There was evidence, the Democratic senator wrote, that Blackwater may have used a front company for the contract, made false official statements and misled Department of Defense officials in its proposal documents. There was also evidence Blackwater may have misappropriated government weapons, carried weapons without authorization and hired unqualified personnel with backgrounds that included assault and battery, as well as drug and alcohol abuse, Levin said in the letter dated Feb. 25.
Blackwater Worldwide has since changed its name to Xe.
Levin said the Pentagon should consider Blackwater's past "deficiencies" in deciding whether to award the new contract worth as much as $1 billion to the company to provide Afghan national police training. This is just another attack by the progressive Left on private security forces that contract with our military. The Left understands that they can't attack our military directly -- average Americans won't stand for it -- so they're using 'Blackwater' as a surrogate.
The Pentagon had no immediate comment on the contracts involved.
"The department is required to follow the law with a certain degree of transparency with respect to awarding contracts," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. But he said: "I don't know of of any prohibitions with respect that particular company (being) banned from being able to compete for U.S. government contracts."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I have long foreseen that Blackwater needs to set up a HQ outside CONUS, for its own protection. The Democrats are abundantly clear that they want to destroy it, and the only thing stopping them are current contracts. As soon as those contracts have expired, all bets are off.
This is why a French Foreign Legion solution is best for them. Keep administrative offices in the US, and put operations on a Caribbean island.
And thinking about it, they might even buy one of the uninhabited Greek islands, to provide similar services to the EU. Right now, they could probably get close to full sovereignty, and maybe subcontract parts of the island to other corporations.
#2
Well, Senator Levin, how is the cut off of funds working with ACORN? Oh, they found a sympathetic judge to declare it a 'bill of attainder' and you and yours have dropped the issue. Seems like you're singling out this organization as well. Wonder if the ACORN judicial ruling is a precedent.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Morocco's secular-minded establishment wants to squeeze the country's biggest Islamist party out of the political mainstream, a step that risks strengthening religious extremists.
Morocco has earned a reputation as a stable, moderate reformer during the first decade of King Mohammed's rule, leading to a tourism boom and improved access to markets and financial aid from neighbouring Europe.
In that time, the moderate opposition Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) has embedded itself in the north African country's political landscape and has become the third largest opposition group in the parliament.
But the Makhzen -- a group of powerful business and political figures who dominate the ruling royal establishment -- has vowed to take the wind out of the PJD's sails and drag the kingdom in a secular direction.
The moderate Islamists say that could lead to a resurgence in the kind of radical sentiment that contributed to coordinated suicide bombings in Casablanca in 2003 that killed 45 people.
"If you shut the door of participation in the face of moderates, you reinforce the current of violence," said PJD deputy chief Abdallah Baha. "Those Islamists who might join the PJD would look to other alternatives including bad ones."
Abderrahim Bahsen, a political analyst, said moderate Islamists appeal to Moroccans who want Western-style democracy with an Islamic cultural reference.
"Disagreement with reform-minded Islamists ... does not justify their isolation, which would only bolster extremists," he said.
The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) -- the brainchild of Fouad Ali el-Himma, a friend of the king and the country's former security chief -- is being used by the secular-minded elite to marginalise the moderate Islamists.
"The Makhzen aims to kill two birds with one stone: bring political parties together against a common enemy and enhance its credibility as a fighter of Islamic fundamentalism in the West's eyes," said Ahmed Reda Benchemsi, editor of liberal current affairs magazine Telquel.
The move against the PJD suggests a change of strategy because previously it was embraced as a mainstream opposition party with popular support, albeit staunchly loyal to the king who remains all-powerful as head of state.
Now PAM leaders are branding the PJD an "obscurantist party" trying to turn Morocco into a purist Islamic state by stealth.
"We are ready to work with all parties, but not the PJD because it is different," said senior PAM official Hassan Benaddi.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[Iran Press TV Latest] A Marshall Island-flagged chemical tanker traveling off the coast of Madagascar has been hijacked by Somali pirates.
According to the ship's Norwegian owner Broevigtank, the vessel named UBT Ocean was traveling from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam.
Meanwhile, the director of the company Svenn Pedersen said that contact with the tanker was lost soon after the ship's captain called to say pirates were aboard the ship.
The official added that the 9,000 tonnage ship, carrying fuel oil, had come under attack although it was sailing further south of the zone where pirates usually operate.
The tanker, with 21 crew members onboard, now appeared northbound towards Somalia, Pedersen said.
However, crews are reportedly successfully repelling more attacks, making it harder for pirates to hijack ships and earn multi-million dollar ransoms.
March and April are the most dangerous months of the year for ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. Nearly half the 47 ships hijacked off Somali waters last year were hijacked in these two months.
In one incident on Friday, six pirates attacked a French fishing boat although a French military detachment onboard fired warning shots at them. The ship then approached the skiff and collided with it, sinking the skiff and throwing the pirates into the water. Four were rescued, but two others went missing.
In a separate attack, again on a French vessel, eleven pirates were taken into custody by the EU Naval Force.
In a third and fourth attack, pirates assaulted two Spanish tuna fishing boats off the coast of Kenya. A Spanish navy plane intercepted and repelled the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
Another report has the ship off the coast Mozambique, which would put it in the Mozambique Channel, several thousand kilometers off a direct route.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said on Wednesday that her government would very much like to have a positive relationship with Venezuela, but she added that there are many things which concern us "about what is happening in Venezuela today."
No duh.
"President (Hugo) Chavez is trying to stifle the press in Venezuela. If you say any negative about him, he tries to shut you down. That is not the way a democracy operates," Clinton said in an interview with Brazil's Globo network. Occasionally Hilde gets one right. Then again, she just may be jealous ...
US Secretary of State said that the Venezuelan President "is taking over companies and taking their assets and, unfortunately now, we see the results of those economic policies. There are electricity shortages in Venezuela, a country with oil. It makes no sense." Our country is following down that same path. Consider what Oogo is doing as a warning ...
However, the top diplomat confirmed the US desire to have a positive relationship with Venezuela. She said that US President Barack Obama had acted accordingly. "I'm sure some of you remember when President Obama went to the Summit of the Americas, he shook hands with Hugo Chavez. He exchanged words with him. We want to have a positive relationship, but it's difficult under the current circumstances." It would be impossible with any other American as president ...
Clinton was asked about the alleged unsuccessful attempts of President Obama to reach out to the Muslim countries, to Iran, China, Chavez. She replied: "I don't agree with that. I think that it's working in many, many places, but it's also exposing those governments and leaders who have a different agenda."
Meanwhile, President Chavez responded to the US Secretary of State by saying that Hillary Clinton came to Latin America "to sow discord" within the region. He compared Clinton with her predecessor Condoleezza Rice, but with the difference that "she is white." That Oogo, nothing gets past him ...
President Chavez rejected on Thursday night in a mandatory nationwide radio and TV broadcast the statements made by the US State Secretary in Brazil: "Mrs. Clinton said (some things) in front of (Brazilian Foreign Minister) Celso Amorim, who is a great friend (of Venezuela) ... She was disrespectful to Brazil, to Latin America... She came to sow discord, to stir up trouble, by saying that Venezuela continues to erode democracy and other stories."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm not seeing to much 'try' in it. He pretty much does it.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
03/06/2010 2:40
Comments ||
Top||
#2
As the current administration has created a domestic policy akin to a house on fire, so is it doing the same to foreign policy.
Two British plane-spotters have been fined 25,000 rupees each (£365) by an Indian court after admitting illegally monitoring aircraft.
Stephen Hampton, 46, and Steven Ayres, 56, both from Bristol, appeared before magistrates in Delhi charged with intercepting communications. The pair, who had faced a jail term, were told they could return to the UK.
They had sparked suspicion after asking a Delhi hotel for a room overlooking Indira Gandhi International Airport. They were carrying an air traffic control scanner, a laptop, binoculars and cameras.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
03/06/2010
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[22 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
would be rather interested to know some of the background here
Posted by: abu do you love ||
03/06/2010 2:49
Comments ||
Top||
#2
would be rather interested to know some of the background here
The Indians were intrigued, too, suspecting some kind of James Bond type scheming. Sadly they're just men who spend their spare time watching planes - the high flying cousins of train spotters. You probably don't want to know much more than that.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
ISLAMABAD -- A top Pakistani Taliban commander close to al-Qaida is believed to have been killed in an army airstrike, officials said Saturday, in the latest apparent blow to insurgents who have attacked Pakistan and threatened U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
Two intelligence officials also said that Mohammed was believed dead and that about two dozen insurgents had died in Friday's airstrike. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said they were confident of their information, but warned that the remote, dangerous nature of the region made it nearly impossible to offer a definitive confirmation at this stage.
The United States apparently has reached the point where it must either accept that Iran will develop nuclear weapons at some point if it wishes, or take military action to prevent this. There is a third strategy, however: Washington can seek to redefine the Iranian question.
A top Taliban leader has been arrested in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, a senior Pakistani military official told CNN. The official did not say when or how 
It is a widely believed fact that increasing numbers of North Koreans have starved to death in the wake of the currency reform that took place Nov. 30.
LONDON - Iran is building a new rocket launch site a short distance from an existing complex in the north of the country, and seems to be working with North Korea, information group IHS Jane's said Friday.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Dubai's police chief has vowed to resign if DNA tests on Israeli suspects prove that they have not been behind the killing of a Hamas commander in his hotel room in January. 
At least 27 Democratic members of the House of Representatives have sent to charities $378,000 in campaign donations from scandal-plagued Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., since Feb. 28.
WASHINGTON - Al-Qaeda in Iraq on Friday declared a country-wide "curfew" in a bid to stop Sunday's elections from going ahead, the SITE monitoring agency said.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Greek police have clashed with protesters angered by tough new austerity measures, while European heavyweight Germany rebuffs Athens need for a financial assistance. 
Tuesday night's meltdown by MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan (while interviewing Mark Williams of the Tea Party Express) has become a viral sensation for news & political junkies. 
Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the Israeli crackdown on Palestinian demonstrators describing it as an act 'aimed at damaging the chances to resume the peace process.' 
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Islamist insurgency in Russia's North Caucasus region appears to be mutating from a grassroots separatist movement towards global jihad or holy war, whose goals, propaganda and patronage point abroad. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] A suicide bomber attacked a convoy of civilians guarded by security forces in Pakistan's northwest on Friday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 30, police said.
ABU DHABI/ DUBAI -- The first day of polling by Iraqi expatriates in the UAE saw nearly 5000 Iraqi voters cast votes peacefully, in contrast to the atmosphere in their home country where Al Qaeda-linked attacks have sought to derail the process.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israeli police and Palestinians clashed near Jerusalem's flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque on Friday and about 30 people were injured, Israeli police and Palestinian medical workers said
[Iran Press TV Latest] Three strong aftershocks have spread new fears among Chileans as visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon pledges 10 million dollars in emergency aid to the devastated country. 
KIRKUK / Aswat al-Iraq: Seven persons were wounded by gunmen's random fire in southern Kirkuk city on Friday, according to a senior security official.
PESHAWAR: The Taliban on Friday responded to the military's allegations that the militants were being backed by India and Israel by distributing pamphlets that described the Pakistan Army as an "impure force" working at the behest of the CIA and FBI.
Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will hold a meeting on Friday in Caracas with Venezuelan Head of State Hugo Chavez, said Rasel Tomé, an assistant of deposed Honduran leader.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A Marshall Island-flagged chemical tanker traveling off the coast of Madagascar has been hijacked by Somali pirates. 
