#1
[Michigan Governor Rick] Snyder would not identify the top candidate to run Detroit or say whether the person was from Michigan. Some residents and restructuring experts have said he should name an African-American to manage the city, which is 83 percent black.
There's a former Congressman (D-IL) who became available recently...
#2
Put the whole mess up for sale on craigslist and eBay. Bulldoze the rest.
"It don't take a genius to know what this is all about," said Lewis, who is black. "They want our money and our land. No one cares about us. And we're the ones who stuck around. Not the white folks."
Dude, you guys don't have any money and your land is 'invested' in vacant lots, abandoned houses and derelict factories. The operative word here is 'bankrupt'.
#4
The emergency manager will eventually have strong powers to develop a financial plan, revise or reject city budgets, consolidate departments, reduce or eliminate the salaries of elected officials, sell eligible assets, lay off workers and renegotiate labor contracts.
#5
Must be of the same stock of white folk who didn't stick around Europe before it decided to implode and burn
Wasn't just the (raciss!) white folks, although they left when the gittin' was good. They were followed by a large cohort of middle class blacks who were accused of "not giving back to the community" (because black folks can't be racist. and don't ask me to explain this. the answer will make your head hurt)
A graphic video that was posted on YouTube Friday is showing more than 100 Syrian rebels shot and killed execution style in a waterway south of Aleppo in Syria.
The men who were in their 20s the 30s were shot in the head from close range with their hands bound on Tuesday. Also included in the massacre are reportedly women, children and the elderly who were targeted due to their collaboration with Syrian rebels.
Al Jazeera quoted Capt. Abu Sada saying that all of them had been "executed by the regime." However the Syrian government is blaming what they say are "terrorist gangs" for the killings.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/01/2013 18:10
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Damn it R Jim, you HAVE to keep asking these questions. Bammer forbids questions from the likes of you (and me and Bob Woodward and congress men.........)
Once they turned hijacked airplanes into missiles. Now al-Qaida is encouraging jihadist wannabes to set your car on fire and blow out your tires on the highway.
Thats the advice from the DIY jihad section in the latest issue of al-Qaidas English-language web magazine, Inspire. The new Open Source Jihad (.pdf) is all about vehicular vandalism.
One suggestion, penned by Ibnul Irhab in the new issue of Inspire, is to run up on parked cars with gas cans and a matchstick. How safe will the West feel when parking their cars, knowing theyre up for a TORCHING, Irhab writes. His helpful tips: avoid CCTV cameras; hide the gas in an apple juice bottle; and, importantly, dont get petrol on yourself. This is what Open Source Jihad bills as Americas worst nightmare.
Nor is it safe to drive to the store or the office. Inspire encourages the inspired to smear lubricative oil on roadways right before sharp blind turns to cause a traffic accident. (Demolition Derby Style, it promises.) If that doesnt sound terrorist-y enough, another tip is to hammer nails into a pegboard painted black so oncoming cars blow out their tires. Theres even a chart explaining the physics behind car crashes for Inspires slower readers.
* MEMRI.ORG > [Aka AQIY] RELEASES ISSUE "X' OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MAGAZINE "INSPIRE", CALLING TO ASSASSINATE TOP US, BRITISH, + FEENCH HEADS OF STATE + POLITICIANS, plus for experienced Doctors to use their knowledge to produce Poisons + Anthrax.
High-profile US Personages-Targets include
- Dubya.
- Bill Clinton.
- Colin Powell.
- Condi Rice.
- Tony Blair.
- Nicholas Sarkozy.
* WORLD NEWS > [PR Newswire] REPORT WARNS OF AL-QAEDA LAUNCHING PAD CLOSER TO US, EUROPEAN SHORES
IN NORTH AFRICAN "ARC OF INSTABILITY" [Sahara/Sahel regions].
Iff "sequestration" = means or infers that the US = POTUS Bammer can't effec confront either China andor Iran, iff only for a time, DITTO AS PER VIOLENT JIHAD = MILTERROPS DIRECTLY TARGETING CONUS???
AN al-Qaeda magazine encouraging terrorism has revealed its most-wanted list of Islam critics to kill - and it includes British author Salman Rushdie.
The shocking article reads: "Wanted: Dead or alive for crimes against Islam."
Alongside the images is the slogan: "Yes we can. A bullet a day keeps the infidel away."
The list includes Molly Norris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Flemming Rose, Morris Swadiq, Salman Rushdie, Girt Wilders [sic], Lars Vilks, Stephane Charbonnie, Carsten Luste, Terry Jones, and Kurt Westergaard.
The article also states: "Defend Prophet Muhammad. Peace be upon him."
The banned extremist web magazine is published by the Middle East Media Research Institute based in Washington D.C.
No, it's not published by MEMRI, it was noted and covered by MEMRI.
It is used to target Western governments by encouraging terrorism from home-grown jihadist groups.
Last September Muslim extremists ramped up the price on Mr Rushdie's head.
A fatwa -- death sentence -- was issued by Iran's late leader Ayotollah Khomeini in 1989 over passages in the British writer's book The Satanic Verses. Iran's Khordad Foundation has raised the reward offered for his killing by £500,000 to £2.5million.
The hardliners upped the ante in the midst of protests over an offensive anti-Islam American movie which alleged insulted the Prophet Mohammad.
The United States government has petitioned the Irish High Court to extradite an Algerian man living in Ireland on terrorism charges relating to a plot to assassinate a Swedish artist, officials said Thursday. The United States alleges that the man, Ali Charaf Damache,
From the clan Damache...
planned to set up terrorist training camps and kill several Europeans, including a Swedish artist, Lars Vilks, whose sketch of the Prophet Muhammad's head on a dog, published in 2007, had enraged the Islamic world.
On Wednesday, Mr. Damache pleaded guilty in the Waterford Circuit Court to making a menacing phone call to an American peace activist, a charge for which he was arrested and detained in 2010. The judge sentenced him to time served and released him, but Mr. Damache was immediately rearrested on the American extradition warrant. Mr. Damache arrived in Ireland in 2000 and married an Irish woman in 2002. The relationship ended in 2008 and he then married an American citizen, Jamie Paulin Ramirez. Ms. Ramirez has pleaded guilty in the United States to charges of conspiring with Colleen LaRose, also known as Jihad Jane, to support and train terrorists.
[Chicago Tribune] On the eve of a $1-per-pack Cook County cigarette tax increase, County Board President Toni Preckwinkle stood in the glow of X-rays showing damaged lungs, surrounded by some of Stroger Hospital's top pulmonary specialists as she discussed how smoking shortens people's lives.
The setting and talking points made clear the message Preckwinkle wanted to convey Thursday: This is a public health problem, one she plans to fight by giving smokers an incentive to quit and teens a reason not to start.
But the county's tax increase is more than just a campaign to protect people from emphysema and lung cancer. Preckwinkle is counting on $25.6 million this year from the move to help balance the budget. The history of cigarette tax increases suggests the county will be lucky to get that much in 2013 and should expect diminishing returns in the years ahead.
Smokes are a financial well that public officials have gone to repeatedly to shore up shaky finances at the local and state level. When the county tax increase takes effect Friday, a pack of cigarettes purchased in Chicago will come with $6.67 tacked on by the city, county and state. That's just behind New York City's nation-leading $6.86 in taxes per pack. It will also push the cost of a pack of cigarettes in Chicago to as much as $11.
Recent cigarette tax increases have had only a short-term benefit to the government bottom line. Some people quit, while others buy cigarettes online or outside the county or state.
When the county last raised the cigarette tax -- by $1 per pack in 2006 -- collections initially shot up by $46.5 million, hitting $203.7 million, county records show. But by 2009, the county collected $20.4 million less than it had in 2005.
Mayor Richard M. Daley bumped up the city of Chicago's share of the cigarette tax by 32 cents in 2005 and another 20 cents in 2006, to 68 cents per pack. He saw collections rise from $15.6 million in 2004 to $32.9 million in 2006, according to a city report. But city cigarette tax revenue fell to $28.4 million in 2007, and continued dropping to $18.7 million by 2011, records show. (Disclaimer: I smoked like a leaky furnace for 45 years, cigarettes and later a pipe. And I enjoyed it. I quit when my Doc told me I had emphysema and the pulmonary lab proved it to me. That was 6 1/2 years ago.)
This is where it all started. Smoking has bad effects on your health. This is not a new discovery. When I was a little kid, back in the Upper Pleistocene, my grandmother used to take me to the zoo to get me out of my poor old mother's hair. I had to ask her about the meaning of one of the signs: "Please do not throw cancer sticks to the monkeys."
Back in those days everybody smoked. Rich folks used cigarette holders, tough guys smoked filterless Camels or Lucky Strikes, manly men smoked Marlboros or Winstons. Ladies smoked skinny Eves. Blacks, for some reason I've never fathomed, smoked Salems or Kools. As far as I know, people weren't dropping like flies from lung cancer, though I admit that the rate of deaths from lung cancer has gone down--according to published reports--since the smoking Nazis got their jackboot in the door.
But the death rate's beside the point. Did the government have any right to kill off the tobacco industry? If you concede that they did, then you have to concede that they do for all the subsequent campaigns against whatever some Puritan doesn't like or thinks is bad for you. Permissible blood alcohol levels have been lower, so you can be convicted of DUI after three drinks. You're too fat, so the government can tell you what not to put in your mouth. Nanny Bloomberg can tell the entire city of New York what they can have with a pizza delivery, and is looking closely at the very idea of pizza.
It comes back to that idea of free speech and defending to the death someone else's right to say something you don't agree with. Included among the penumbrae and emanations is the idea of being left the hell alone.
Not that many people smoke anymore. More and more taxes are heaped upon those who do, the idea being to tax the habit out of existence. The individual states have sued the tobacco companies and split that boodle among themselves, the money going to "treat smoking related disease." The combination of taxes, indoctrination, ostracization, and pictures of tarry lungs has reduced the smoking population dramatically. Who says social engineering doesn't work?
The people who're still smoking tend to be the people who can't afford to spend anywhere from $5 to $10 a pack for gaspers. So there goes the grocery money, or the money for shoes for the kids.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
11:26 ||
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#1
If you concede that they did, then you have to concede that they do for all the subsequent campaigns against whatever some Puritan doesn't like or thinks is bad for you.
Like crippling taxes on ammo or requiring unbelievable amounts of liability insurance to own a gun.
#2
Did the government have any right to kill off the tobacco industry?
Interesting question really. Does the government have the right to outlaw cocaine, heroin and marijuana? How about crystal meth? Oh, here's a new one: Oxycontin. Can you tell young men under the age of 21 they can't have a beer but they can fight, kill and die in places like Afghanistan? Where do you draw the line? My own personal opinion is this country is toast if we all start smoking pot. But then, if we as a nation decide to do that, it's a matter of personal choice that should not be denied to us, right?
As far as health consequences are concerned, I don't see much difference between tobacco, marijuana, heroin or cocaine. If you're going to outlaw one the logical thing to do would be to outlaw all of them. Tobacco just got kind of grandfathered in there is all.
#5
Smoking rates are just under 20% now for our country, down from about 33% twenty years ago.
I'm a lung doc -- you can guess what I think of smoking.
Raise the tax to $20 a pack. You get less of what you tax.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2013 13:43
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#6
Steve White
How very arrogant to decide what's in the best interests of your patients against their wishes. You're just an adviser to your customers, not their ruler. Don't forget your place.
It would be better to attach a healthcare voucher to ciggies. Buy smokes keep the voucher, buy insurance.
#7
As usual, higher taxes simply creates black markets. Death by smoking, death by drugs, death by alcohol, death by diet, etc. It's a zero sum game, one big pie chart. Move the divide from one casual factor simply expands another casual factor tagged as the culprit which results in more 'taxes' for more prevention programs.
#10
60 years ago, not everybody smoked. It just seemed that way. It was very difficult to avoid cigarette smoke, and those who smoked lit up everywhere, even around gasoline pumps. "And I enjoyed it" - what other reason could there have been for smoking?
One real advantage for promoting cigarette use is to decrease the demographic that lives long enough to collect Social Security and Medicare. Dead men collect no entitlements.
#14
what other reason could there have been for smoking?
A cigarette is the world's best delivery system for nicotine. Nicotine hits the brain faster and with more sustained effect via inhalation than via gum or patch.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2013 16:55
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#15
Grom: thanks for that laugh. I could use it today!
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2013 16:59
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#16
A cigarette is the world's best delivery system for nicotine. Nicotine hits the brain faster and with more sustained effect via inhalation than via gum or patch.
A scientific description of the term "And I enjoyed it" 8-)
#17
A county taxing through the nose for cigarettes will get little tax revenue. It is not that far to get cheaper smokes by a bit of a drive or internet.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/01/2013 17:24
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#18
I miss it.
I can say no more.
It was fun while it lasted.
#19
The only reason government cares about smoking is they decided to pay for your health care. Why should they care? They do not care about children dying from abortion, poor behavior that leads to aids, and many other poor decisions that lead to hospital stays. Tax the hell out of sports equipment, mountain climbing gear, stripper poles...... it is a slippery slope we are sliding on.
#20
Steve: I agree with your assessment completely. Much of the reason isn't actual health-risks, it's the social and financial costs that have reduced smoking to the level it is now. Another 5 years and Smokers will be worth less than a crack-addicted hooker in societies eyes.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/01/2013 19:35
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#21
"Another 5 years and Smokers will be worth less than a crack-addicted hooker in societies eyes."
Gawd, I hope not, Charles.
I've got tobacco stock in my retirement account.
No, I never smoked. Couldn't figure out why anyone did, and couldn't figure out how they afforded it. Still can't.
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/01/2013 20:04
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#22
Bottle of Johnnie Walker Red, fresh pack of Marlboro Reds and a clean ash tray. The Best. Left it behind ten years ago. Still have that urge.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
03/01/2013 21:13
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#23
Lots of hand-wringing and oh-noes over the evils of smoking, but if everyone stopped the states would be out 17 billion in tax revenue.
John Kerry, the new U.S. Secretary of State, sat down with Syrian opposition chief Moaz AlKhatib on Thursday and announced that Washington will begin supporting those elements of Syrias rebel opposition it deems palatable.
First off, arming fighters battling against Bashar al-Assads regime is not on the cards. Flak jackets, training and, apparently, ready-made dinners, however, are. Where this will take place what border country is willing to host the Americans is still unclear, though an American presence has been in place in Jordan since last summer while to the north, rebels have more-or-less free reign over Syrias border with Turkey.
So whats about to change? In all likelihood, very little.
Washington, more specifically the White House, has refused to back rebel groups even when the State Department and the Pentagon privately pushed for such a move last summer. As a result, it would be unwise to expect the floodgates to open even after this new departure.
Its more likely President Barack Obama has realized that Mr. Assads days are numbered, and has been convinced its better to have a modicum of political leverage with the government that comes after Mr. Assad than to have none. (Lets not kid ourselves into thinking Washington and other world capitals want to get involved in Syria to prevent a humanitarian disaster).
#1
Very sad to say, but "humanitarian disaster" as used in this context is a both a short and long-term dividend. The only reason we're not wading fully in is the bear, and I quietly wonder if perhaps we are not in discreet communication and agreement with him.
#2
I think that since the Saudis are purchasing weapons somewhere and sending them through Jordan, the US really doesn't need to do anything about that part of it.
With respect to providing nonlethal help, well that won't make us many friends in the rebel ranks but we wouldn't have many friends anyway.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/01/2013 14:42
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#3
As per VARIOUS, the Syrian Rebs say they need Guns, N-O-T Butter from the US = POTUS Bammer.
As President Barack Obama and his administration wake up to sequester drama, they can revel in some news in the world's fight against terrorism. According to a Mar. 1 Reuters report, one of the most powerful commanders of al Qaeda's north Africa wing (AQIM) Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, a former smuggler turned "jihadist" is dead.
Do we have a severed head? If not 48 hour rule applies...
Abou Zeid was the chief rival to Mokhtar Belmokhtar for the title of Sheikh of the Burning Sands.
Algeria's Ennahar television reported that the former commander was killed in an operation against Islamist fighters in Mali. He was reportedly among 40 militants killed earlier this week near the Algerian border, where French and Chadian troops have been trying to dislodge them.
Sounds like the French successfully dislodged Abou's head from his shoulders...
Neither French, nor Malian, Algerian or Chadian officials have confirmed Abou Zeid's death, but a French army official confirmed that about 40 Islamists where killed over the last week.
According to the New York Times, however, an American official said that the "reports that Mr. Abou Zeid had been killed appeared to be credible and that Washington would view his death as a serious blow to the Al Qaeda wing."
#9
LUCIANNE > [BBC] OBAMA SIGNS SWEEPING US BUDGET CUTS INTO EFFECT.
versus
* SAME > [Daily Mail.UK]PRESIDENT OBAMA SAYS US$85.0BILYUHN IN SPENDING CUTS WILL KICK IN FRIDAY AS [US GOP-DEM] LEADERS FAIL TO TO COMPROMISE ON REPLACEMENT PLAN.
* STARS-N-STRIPES > MILITARY SAYS CONGRESS MUST END SEQUESTER.
* SAME > [Panetta] "SEQUESTER IMPACT NOT IMMEDIATE". [USDOD] SERVICES SAY TRAINING WILL BE REDUCED , MAINTENANCE DELAYED.
* SAME > PACIFIC GIRDS FOR SEQUESTRATION IMPACT, LEADERS IN JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA WARN OF CHANGES IFF CUTS GO THROUGH.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US BUDGET CUTS COULD HURT PRESIDENT OBAMA'S "PIVOT" TO ASIA [Asia-Pacific] - THE ECONOMIC TIMES [IndIa Times].
versus
* WAFF > AMERICANS FEAR US WILL END UP LIKE GREECE | [Time.com] ASK THE EXPERT; WHEN WILL FEDERAL DEBT CRISIS CAUSE A GREECE-LIKE CRISIS IN THE US!?
ADVANTAGE = Rising China [vs Japan in NE Asia], + Nuke-wannabe Rising Iran + Hard/Burqua Boyz.
JAPAN + other US Allies in East Asia must be twiddling their thumbs over whether the US = POTUS Bammer + USDOD will be there to back them up.
US Govt. Spending Authority will suppos end in late March 2013 - I could be wrong, BUT I DON'T FORESEE ANY GOP-DEM COMPROMISE ON
"SEQUESTRATION" THEN EITHER???
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/01/2013 11:48
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#3
Reached out to the NYT because they'd already demonstrated they had no concerns about publishing classified information during time of war.
BTW, this is a military court. IF the feds wanted to prosecute on related, not specific, charges under the Espionage Act et al in the civilian system, they can.
He even LOOKS like a doofus.
As was his immediate chain of command who saw he was having personal emotional problems yet let him continue to have access to classified material and systems. Their short term rationale that they were short handed in personnel got big paybacks in the consequences which (as usual) they did not include in their subjective calculation.
Thought about using the title: "Harridians Dominate Court," but thought better of it. This article is not so much about the issue before SCOTUS as it is about current make-up and dynamics of the court. If the article is credible, the newest appointees are a reflection of the appointer. The conservative majority is still intact depending upon the issue. However, the article underscores the importance of who is elected as POTUS and his/her ideological make-up.
For a quarter-century, Antonin Scalia has been the reigning bully
No editorializing here, fortunately, from the Post...
It's an opinion piece by Dana Milbank, whose legal expertise is on a par with Tom Friedman's wordsmithing
My bad, I should have guessed...
of the Supreme Court, but finally a couple of justices are willing to face him down. As it happens, the two manning up to take on Nino the Terrible are women: the court's newest members, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
The acerbic Scalia, the court's longest-serving justice, got his latest comeuppance Wednesday morning, as he tried to make the absurd argument that Congress's renewal of the Voting Rights Act in 2006 by votes of 98 to 0 in the Senate and 390 to 33 in the House did not mean that Congress actually supported the act. Scalia, assuming powers of clairvoyance, argued that the lawmakers were secretly afraid to vote against this "perpetuation of racial entitlement."
Kagan wasn't about to let him get away with that. In a breach of decorum, she interrupted his questioning of counsel to argue with him directly. "Well, that sounds like a good argument to me, Justice Scalia," she said. "It was clear to 98 senators, including every senator from a covered state, who decided that there was a continuing need for this piece of legislation."
Scalia replied to Kagan, "Or decided that perhaps they'd better not vote against it, that there's nothing, that there's no -- none of their interests in voting against it."
Justice Stephen Breyer defused the tension. "I don't know what they're thinking exactly," he said, changing the subject.
The styles of the two Obama appointees are different. Sotomayor is blunt and caustic, repeatedly interrupting. In an opinion this week, she harshly criticized a Texas prosecutor for a racist line of questioning. She has been on the interview circuit publicizing her memoir.
Kagan is choosier about when to interject herself, but she's sardonic and sharp-witted. ("Well, that's a big, new power that you are giving us," she said, mockingly, when a lawyer tried to argue that the justices should overrule Congress's discrimination findings.)
Both are more forceful than the Clinton appointees, the amiable Breyer and the frail Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The two new justices are sending a message to the court's conservative majority: You may have the votes, but you're going to have a fight.
Wednesday's voting rights case was typical. Surprisingly, the five conservative justices seemed willing to strike down a landmark civil rights law (the provision that gives extra scrutiny to states with past discrimination) that was renewed with near-unanimous votes in Congress. Conservative jurists usually claim deference to the elected branches, but in this case they look an awful lot like activist judges legislating from the bench.
Sotomayor allowed the lawyer for the Alabama county seeking to overturn the law to get just four sentences into his argument before interrupting him. "Assuming I accept your premise -- and there's some question about that -- that some portions of the South have changed, your county pretty much hasn't," she charged. "Why would we vote in favor of a county whose record is the epitome of what caused the passage of this law to start with?"
Moments later, Kagan pointed out that "Alabama has no black statewide elected officials" and has one of the worst records of voting rights violations.
Scalia and Justice Samuel Alito tried to assist the Alabama county's lawyer by offering some friendly hypotheticals, but Sotomayor wasn't interested in hearing that. "The problem with those hypotheticals is obvious," she said, because "it's a real record as to what Alabama has done to earn its place on the list."
Sotomayor continued questioning as if she were the only jurist in the room. "Discrimination is discrimination," she informed him, "and what Congress said is it continues."
At one point, Justice Anthony Kennedy tried to quiet her. "I would like to hear the answer to the question," he said. The lawyer got out a few more sentences -- and then Kagan broke in.
Debate is good. Debate is good. However, of late, rudeness is rampant in Washington and it has replaced debate. Maybe it's always been that way (it just doesn't seem that way.) Civility and respect have disappeared--in Congress, SCOTUS, with POTUS, and towards Americans. One would think that the newest members think their opinions are the most important in the room. The SCOTUS back and forth on the Voting Rights issue sounds like some of the debates (?) viewed on Fox, there is little debate and much over-shouting to dominate the time. For example, recently Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), appeared on Sean Hannity. The debate, if it can be called that was a complete waste of time for Hannity as well as viewers as Ellison used the leftwing attack strategy of shouting over the other person. Power, domination, and strong-arm tactics are the rule of the day.
Sotomayor continued to pipe up, even when Solicitor General Donald Verrilli was defending the Voting Rights Act -- at one point breaking in as Alito was attempting to speak. Chief Justice John Roberts overruled her. "Justice Alito," he directed.
Scalia was not about to surrender his title of worst-behaved justice. Nope, no editorializing at all...
He mocked the civil rights law as he questioned the government lawyer. "Even the name of it is wonderful," he said. "The Voting Rights Act: Who is going to vote against that?" (Verrilli cautioned him not to ignore actual votes of Congress in favor of "motive analysis.")
But Scalia's mouth was no longer the loudest in the room. When the Alabama county's lawyer returned for his rebuttal, he managed to utter only five words -- "Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice" -- before Sotomayor broke in.
Usually returns after a lot of blood and death upon the ground. Then people rediscover civility and hearing. It's the ability to hear the phrase "are you prepared to die on that hill?" with literal implications. It spirals downward again, slowly or quickly, depending upon the distance the generation is from the last great spilling. Unfortunate, but it is human behavior.
[Egypt Independent] According to the Constitution, the Supreme Constitutional Court does not have the right to review amendments to the new Parliamentary Elections Law, Shura Council MP Taher Abdel Mohsen declared on Thursday.
The law governs the upcoming House of Representatives elections slated to begin on 22 April.
The recently ratified Constitution stipulates that the SCC may not review laws after the Shura Council has amended them, argued Abdel Mohsen, the head of the council's Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee.
The SCC had objected to several articles in the draft versino of the law and submitted a report to the Shura Council. The council approved the court's recommendations and then passed the law.
Since then, controversy around the law has grown, as some have claimed the council did not accurately include the SCC's recommendations, and accused the law of being unconstitutional.
Abdel Mohsen insisted that the Constitution does not force the Shura Council to adhere exactly to the SCC's resolutions. The SCC only has the right to study and make recommendations on laws pertaining to presidential elections, political rights, parliamentary elections and local council elections before they are issued, while any other laws are subject to review after they are issued. No law may be reviewed both before and after being passed, Abdel Mohsen said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
00:00 ||
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[MAGHAREBIA] Tunisian security forces on Thursday (February 28th) launched a manhunt in Kef for the suspected killer of opposition leader Chokri Belaid. The search operation is focused on the mountainous region near Touiref.
In related news Thursday, the judge charged with the investigation into the politician's February 6th killing took a deposition from President Moncef Marzouki.
"President Moncef Marzouki received this morning the judge of the Tunis first instance tribunal, who heard his testimony as a witness in the liquidation of Chokri Belaid," a brief statement from Marzouki's office said.
Tunisia has nabbed You have the right to remain silent... four Belaid murder suspects -- all of them salafists under age 35 -- Prime Minister-designate Ali Larayedh said on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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For a map, click here. For a map of Zacatecas state, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of 11 individuals have been killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in Zacatecas state since Tuesday, according to Mexican news accounts.
A news report posted on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily said that six individuals were found shot to death between the municipalities of Vetagrande and Morelos Thurday morning.
Locals reported the find to authorities after shots were heard around 0200 hrs. The dead included four women, one man and one youth. A number of the dead had also been tortured.
According to a news item posted on yancuic.com, the youth was identified as Jorge Armando Moreno, 13. According to the news report one of the females killed was Armando Moreno's mother, but that has not been confirmed and the identity of the others has not been disclosed.
Armando Moreno was detained and had allegedly confessed to three murders last February 4th, of the ten which were alleged. He was released only hours later. Mexican law dictates youths under the age of 14 must be released.
Armando Moreno was detained by Policia Federal operatives February 3rd along with 14 others including eight from Guatemala.
Elsewhere in Zacatecas one unidentified state ministerial police agent and one civilian were shot to death in an attack Tuesday night in Zacatecas municipality, the state capital of Zacatecas.
The victim was traveling with another police agent aboard an SUV around 2000 hrs on Bulevar Adolfo Lopez Mateos near the El Chaparral dance hall, when armed suspects intercepted the vehicle and opened fire. Another unidentified civilian was shot to death in the crossfire.
The other police agent and another civilian were also wounded in the attack.
Three others were killed in drug and gang violence in Zacatecas.
Monday evening, one municipal police agent was kidnapped and killed at a stakeout operation in Fresnillo muncipality. The agent, identified as Rodrigo Monsivais Sandoval, 27, was one of four police agents involved in the police operation in Zona CECYTEZ when armed suspects opened fire. Rodrigo Monsivais Sandoval was kidnapped but almost immediately shot to death and left aboard a Toyota Tundra pickup truck. Four other municipal police agents attempted to intervene. Despite AK-47 rifle fire, none of the agents were wounded. Apparently the armed group escaped aboard another vehicle.
Wednesday morning a taxi cab driver and a female fare were shot to death in Zacatecas municipality. The incident took place on Avenida Garcia Salinas.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[An Nahar] Somalia's president has offered an amnesty to young pirates in a bid to end attacks off the Horn of Africa nation's coast as he seeks to rebuild the war-torn country, he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"We have been negotiating with the pirates indirectly through the elders," said President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. "Piracy has to end."
Mohamud, elected by politicians six months ago, said that he wanted to offer an "alternative means of earning a living" to young Somalis who have taken up the gun to join pirate gangs.
However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... Mohamud said that the amnesty was not open to pirate kingpins -- those who take the vast majority of the profits from the attacks -- some of whom are wanted by Interpol.
"We are not giving them amnesty, the amnesty is for the boys," he said, speaking on Wednesday in an interview at Villa Somalia, the Italian colonial art-deco palace in war-ravaged capital Mogadishu.
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[An Nahar] Libya's prime minister denied on Thursday reports that Muammar Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... 's imprisoned last premier is in a critical condition after being tortured in jail, saying al-Baghdadi al-Mahmudi is in "good health."
"Al-Baghdadi is in good health... and is being treated humanely," Prime Minister Ali Zeidan told a new conference.
For a given definition of humane that takes into account the native Arab culture...
The claim has also been dismissed by the commander of the national guard, which runs the Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... prison where Mahmudi is being held.
"Baghdadi al-Mahmudi has not been subjected to any ill-treatment and has been granted his full rights guaranteed by international law and the principles of human rights," ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... Khaled al-Sherif told Agence La Belle France Presse on Wednesday.
A lawyer of Mahmudi, who is on trial in Libya accused of killing civilians and of financial crimes, charged on Wednesday that the last premier of deposed and slain Qadaffy had been tortured in prison.
Mahmudi "is at death's door as a result of the torture he has suffered," said Tunisian lawyer Mabrouk Kourchid, warning that "he could die".
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[An Nahar] A 17-year-old youth who is being tried in a juvenile court over the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi was formally charged with murder on Thursday, legal sources said.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was accused of playing a key role in the murder, rape and robbery of a 23-year-old medical student last December in the Indian capital.
Five adults are also being tried in a separate fast-track court.
Two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... due to a wideranging gagging order, said the minor was present before the judge when the charges were framed.
"The minor has been charged with rape, murder, criminal conspiracy and unnatural sex by the court and he has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." ," one person closely involved in the case told Agence La Belle France Presse.
A second legal source confirmed that the charges had been put to the teenager on Thursday morning and that he had entered a not guilty plea.
Under Indian law, the youth faces a maximum of three years in a detention facility if convicted -- a sentence limit that has caused widespread anger.
The victim's family has been among those calling for the juvenile to be tried alongside the five other accused, who face the possibility of being hanged if found guilty of murder.
But the Juvenile Justice Board accepted the school records of the teenage suspect, which states that he was born on June 4, 1995, making him 17.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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#1
3 years could be a life sentence - if you play it right
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2013 9:55
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#2
The juvenile is reportedly the attacker who violated the victim with an iron bar. The victim died from these injuries.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/01/2013 10:12
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#3
17 is old enough to know right and wrong. Hell, 12 would be in this case. Perhaps even 8.
String the bastard up if he's truly guilty.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/01/2013 19:25
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[An Nahar] Sudan is sending hundreds of troop reinforcements to the troubled Blue Nile region, state-linked media said on Thursday, after reports of fighting in a strategic border town.
Battalion 191 has arrived in the Blue Nile state capital Ed Damazin and two more battalions are expected, reported the Sudanese Media Center which is close to the security apparatus.
It said the move aims to "improve the security in Blue Nile... to clean the state of rebels."
Witnesses also reported fighter planes and helicopters active in the area.
Sources told Agence La Belle France Presse earlier this week that there has been fighting in El Kurmuk, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of Damazin.
Rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) claimed last Sunday to have pushed into Kurmuk's southwest but since then have made virtually no comment except to claim fighting continues in the town.
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[An Nahar] A U.S. court on Wednesday convicted five Somali men of piracy over a 2010 attack on a U.S. naval ship in the corsair-infested waters off the Horn of Africa.
The five men were on a skiff that fired an AK-47 at the USS Ashland, a dock-landing vessel, which fired back with a 25mm machine gun, setting the pirates' ship on fire and killing one of its crew members.
And the survivors go to prison for a decade for piracy? Score!
The U.S. vessel then deployed inflatable boats to rescue the others. There was no damage to the U.S. ship and none of its crew were maimed.
Three of the men were alleged to have previously gone to sea on a separate raid in February 2010 before being intercepted by Britannia's Royal Navy.
In November 2010 a Virginia court sentenced the alleged ringleader of the group to 30 years in a plea bargain under which he admitted to having attacked the Ashland using a firearm.
The five men convicted on Wednesday are to be sentenced July 1-2 on a range of charges that carry maximum punishments of 10 years to life in prison.
"These men were pirates -- plain and simple,' said U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia. "They attacked a ship hoping to hold it ransom for millions of dollars. Few crimes are older than piracy on the high seas, and today's verdict shows that the United States takes it very seriously."
Assuming the Ninth Circuit lets us...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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#1
our first mistake was in rescuing the survivors. Fish and sharks've gotta eat too
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2013 9:32
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Gotta "Question" them.
There should be at least ONE survivor, to spread the word.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/01/2013 9:52
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Ship is named after my hometown here in Kansas.
[An Nahar] President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... on Thursday gave U.S.-led foreign forces three months to transfer control over armed Afghan militias to his government, following allegations of abuses by the militiamen.
The move appeared to be a further sign of Kabul's determination to take control of the 11-year war against the Taliban, and in particular of militias reportedly trained by the Americans and operating without Kabul's control.
With the bulk of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... 's 100,000 combat soldiers due to leave next year, Karzai has several times sought to set the pace of the transition to full Afghan government control, scheduled by the end of 2014.
A presidential order released by the Afghan council of ministers said Karzai had appointed a delegation assigned "to ask coalition forces to hand over within three months the mentioned gangs to Afghan security institutions".
It said security chiefs decided on February 17 "to identify and merge those gangs which have been established by international coalition forces and are operating out of the structure of Afghanistan's national security institutions".
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
And the local villages that ARE the militia are gong to say what? Especially the non-Pushtu tribes?
[Bangla Daily Star] At least 33 people, including four coppers, were killed and scores were maimed in a spasm of violence in parts of the country yesterday after Jamaat-Shibir activists clashed with law enforcers to protest against a death penalty to Delwar Hossain Sayeedi ...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami... Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... claimed that 20 of the dead were their members. The violence also left a college teacher and two Jubo League ... the youth wing of the Bangla Awami League... activists dead.
After the verdict, the angry protesters attacked a police outpost in Gaibandha killing three coppers on the spot and knifed to death a constable in Chittagong -- the deadliest day since the first verdict was delivered on January 21.
In scenes that bring to mind the Liberation War rampage in 1971, the attackers set fire to a temple and houses of the Hindu community in Noakhali.
Even before the verdict was delivered, Jamaat-Shibir men were out on the streets to enforce a daylong shutdown to strike fears into the hearts of people, who expressed solidarity with the Shahbagh movement calling for capital punishment to war criminals.
In Dhaka, unknown groups unleashed a reign of terror by exploding a series of bombs in the residential neighbourhoods of Mirpur-1, Kafrul, Mohammadpur, Motijheel, Abdullahpur, Uttara and Khilgaon.
They also clashed with police and damaged many vehicles. The attacks and anarchy left the people in a severe panic.
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[An Nahar] Rebels seized control of the historic Umayyad Mosque in Syria's second city of Aleppo on Thursday after several days of fierce festivities that damaged the building, a watchdog reported.
State news agency SANA, meanwhile, said a boom-mobilewent kaboom! in a regime-held suburb of the central city of Homs, killing one person and wounding 24 others.
In Aleppo, regime troops were forced to withdraw from the mosque at dawn, taking up positions in buildings around the landmark structure, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The mosque's museum caught fire during the battle, causing its ceiling to collapse, adding to damage done in October when one of its intricately sculpted colonnades was charred in festivities.
Aleppo's director of Islamic endowments said the mosque's library, which contains "valuable Islamic relics and Koranic manuscripts dating back to pre-Mamluk times", had been ransacked and destroyed.
"Armed terrorist groups have looted and completely destroyed the Islamic library, which is one of the most valuable in the region with an estimated value of hundreds of thousands of Syrian pounds," Abdel Qader al-Shihabi told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The site has been a place of worship since the 8th century, but the original building was razed by the Mongols in the 13th century, from when the current structure dates.
Elsewhere in Aleppo's UNESCO-listed Old City, fighting raged around the Justice Palace.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said that if the rebels gain control of the palace, they would be able to cut off army reinforcements to Aleppo's regime-held citadel.
While rebels have taken over large swathes of territory and a number of key military garrisons in Aleppo province, fighting in the city has been at stalemate for months.
In Homs, "snuffies detonated a boom-mobile laden with large amounts of explosives in the Akrama Jadideh neighborhood, killing one civilian and wounding 24 others and causing serious material damage," SANA reported.
The Syrian Observatory said the blast took place near a public swimming pool in government-controlled Akrama.
To the north of Aleppo, air strikes targeted rebel positions around Menegh military airbase, which has been under protracted siege as the opposition battles for control of northern airports.
Warplanes also carried out several raids in Raqa province.
And fierce festivities erupted in Damascus ...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy... on the outskirts of rebel-held Jobar district in the east and near the Paleostinian refugee camp of Yarmuk in the south, said the Observatory.
The watchdog, which gathers its information from a network of activists and medics, said 157 people were killed nationwide on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"The Syrian Observatory said the blast took place near a public swimming pool in government-controlled Akrama."
In-door or out-door pool?
Even in Syria I can't imagine using an out-door pool on March 1.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
03/01/2013 12:31
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#2
With, or without Feces and Urine, would be a better question.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/01/2013 18:21
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[An Nahar] The Free Syrian Army accused Hizbullah on Thursday of occupying eight border villages in the neighboring country, vowing "to regain control of these towns".
"We will take back these villages at any cost," FSA media official Fahd al-Masri told the Turkish state-run Anadolu agency.
Addressing Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, al-Masri said: "These towns are Syrians".
He elaborated: "Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites and Christians reside in them and there is Lebanese presence in only two Shiite villages".
"The party has a plan to evacuate border regions of Sunnis," he expressed.
"Hizbullah is deeply involved in Syria's bloodshed", the FSA official said, adding that "most of the killing is taking place in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... ' countryside.
He revealed that a HA members was killed on Wednesday in the Aqraba area of Damascus' countryside, after the FSA had spied on the conversations he made with party officials.
Nasrallah had denied reports on Wednesday saying Hizbullah is trying to take over Sunni border towns, expressing that these are "lies and baseless accusations."
"Lebanese residents, predominantly Shiite and some of them belong to Hizbullah, have not managed until the moment -- and they have no such plans -- to seize control of any Sunni village."
"What happened is that the armed opposition seized control of villages inhabited by Lebanese Shiites and displaced the residents. That happened in the town of Umm al-Damamel," he explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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#1
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IRAQ SHELLS FSA POSITIONS IN SYRIA | IRAQI ARMY HELPING SYRIAN GOVT. RETAKE BORDER CJECKPOINIT - REPORTS? RUSSIA TODAY [RT] NEWS.
and
* RELATED SAME > IRAQ BOLSTERS SECURITY ALONG SYRIAN BORDER.
[Egypt Independent] Egypt's churches have called for more accurate representation of the Coptic population in the census.
"Statistics in Egypt are inaccurate," said Evangelical Church spokesperson Ikram Lamei. "Officials often use figures to serve political or security purposes."
The last census, conducted in the 1980s, counted 2.8 million Copts.
"The church objected to it at the time, and said Copts constitute 8 to 10 percent of the population," Lamei noted.
Father Salib Matta of the Mar Girgis Church in Shubra called on the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) to be more precise. "They like to reduce the size of the Coptic population, though everyone knows the true percentage," he said. Roman Catholic Bishop Adel Zaki agreed with Matta's statement.
A CAPMAS report on Wednesday said the country's population would reach 92 million by March, without specifying the ratio of Coptic Christians to Moslems.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Don't want your religion attacked? Behead a few attackers. It doesn't take many -- most of them are cowards and poseurs, and will shut up at the least hint of risk. Hey, don't blame me. I didn't set up this incentive system.
There is also a good case to be made that the US along with Saudi Arabia has been one of the main enablers of Wahhabism or Salafism in the world today, due to what Sun Tzu would say not knowing their true enemy.
#2
Smaller denominations being the exception, in most cases collector value has yet to realize original face value. Unlike our current script however, confederate dollars are gradually trending upward in value.
#4
At one time paper money was backed by an equivalent in gold. Currently, the price of gold is $1586. One can see how much the dollar has been devalued compared to gold.
#5
The gov't created 70 (+ or -) year tenure of the Ponzi scheme of borrowing, inflation, and devaluation will only survive until the host [The Forgotten Man] collapses and dies, or we finally come to our senses.
[Egypt Independent] French forces in Mali have killed Abdelhamid Abu Zeid, a leading field commander of Al-Qaeda's North Africa wing AQIM, Algerian Ennahar television reported on Thursday.
The station said 40 Islamic fascistiincluding Abu Zeid were killed in the region of Tigargara in northern Mali three days ago. A French Defense Ministry official declined to comment on the report. Algeria did not confirm the killing.
La Belle France launched a whirlwind assault to retake Mali's vast northern desert region from AQIM and other Salafist tough guys on 11 January after a plea from Mali's caretaker government. The military intervention dislodged the rebels from several main towns they had occupied and drove them back into desert wilds.
AQIM, which stands for Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, has earned tens of millions of dollars in ransom payments for Western hostages taken to its strongholds in northern Mali.
Abu Zeid has been regarded as one of AQIM's most ruthless operators. He is believed to have executed British national Edwin Dyer in 2009 and a 78-year-old Frenchie, Michel Germaneau, in 2010.
Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler, in an account of his kidnapping by another Islamist cell in the Sahara, recounted how Abou Zeid refused to give medication to two hostages suffering from dysentery, one of whom had been stung by a scorpion.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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[Bangla Daily Star] Lashing a déjà vu of 1971, Jamaat-Shibir fanatics yesterday wrecked havoc on the Hindu community across the country.
They damaged at least six temples, including one of Buddhists, and torched houses and business establishments of Hindu people in Noakhali, Gaibandha, Chittagong, Rangpur, Sylhet, Chapainawabganj and elsewhere in the country.
In Rajganj of Noakhali, Jamaat-Shibir men set ablaze a temple and eight houses of the Hindu community.
They also traded bullets with law enforcers in Datterhat under Sadar Police Station and in Rajganj under Begumganj Police Station, leaving two people killed. The dear departed were identified as Khokon, 17, a pickup van assistant, and Liton (28), a fish monger, reports our Noakhali correspondent.
The Jamaat-Shibir men also looted a jewellery shop owned by one Biplob Sarkar at Chandraganj Purbo Bazar in Begumganj.
Witnesses and police said hours after top Jamaat leaders Delwar Hossain Sayeedi ...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami... had been sentenced to death, the marauding activists equipped with firearms, iron rods and kerosene set fire to Harishiva temple in Rajganj market area at 3:30pm.
"They returned an hour later. This time we were left with no choice but to flee the area, as they started torching our houses with kerosene," schoolteacher Shankar Chandra, who lost his house in the attack, told The Daily Star over the phone.
Some 50 Hindu people used to live in the houses burnt down, he said, adding that all but a few people had managed to escape to safety. Those left behind had been beaten up and kicked out of their houses by the Jamaat-Shibir attackers.
"We ran for our lives leaving everything behind. I was only seven during the Liberation War in 1971, but it didn't feel this insecure even then," said Shankar Chandra.
During the attack, the Jamaat-Shibir men also threatened newsmen to keep from covering the incident and took away cameras of photojournalists. They also forcefully picked up television crew Mohtasim Billah Sabuj. Locals later rescued Sabuj and took him to safety.
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[An Nahar] A judicial source with access to the murder file told AFP the suspected assassin was Kamel Gathgathi, from the northwestern Jendouba region, who had lived in America.
Watched too much television while he was here, or one of those who went into shock upon immersion in the West, and turned to extremism in response?
Speaking from Jendouba, Gathgathi's father Taieb confirmed that his son had studied in America and now lived in Tunis, while insisting he was innocent.
"From what I know of my son, I can say he is incapable of hurting a fly," he told private radio station Mosaique FM.
"He is a good type, an angel on earth, but if he has committed a crime then I pray to God that justice is done."
Taieb Gathgathi said his son's studies in America had been paid for by the Tunisian state and that he had subsequently been offered a job at Tunisia's interior ministry, without giving further details.
"I have seen him rarely since I separated from his mother. I've seen him maybe once since he's been in Tunis," Gathgathi added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The head of Syrian Air on Thursday invited foreign airlines to resume flights to Damascus, offering discounts and giving assurances that security has been restored on the airport road.
Big opportunity for Air Ukraine here...
"I call on airlines to resume their flights and operations through Damascus International Airport, as well as Latakia airport (western Syria) and Qamishli airport (in the east)," Ghaida Abdel Latif told AFP.
"Companies which take the initiative to restore flights will be entitled to 25 percent rebates on ground services. Depending on the volume of operations, companies may receive additional discounts," she said.
"The airport road is safe and the security of passengers guaranteed," she said. "The airport continues to function and Syrian Air flights are running on schedule" to Arab capitals, Moscow, Tehran and Yerevan.
Yerevan?
Not to mention Tehran, which last I looked was in the land of the Medes and the Persians -- peoples with millennia of experience being civilized, unlike those barbarian Arabs...
In the midst of the Syrian conflict which has cost tens of thousands of lives in the past two years, several airlines have suspended flights to Damascus because of security concerns.
The airport lies 27 kilometres (16 miles) southeast of the capital and runs through Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus where military operations including air strikes have been carried out against rebel forces in past months.
The European Union has banned member-nation companies from operating flights to Syria and Syrian Air from landing in European territory as part of sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[An Nahar] The Army Command announced on Thursday that it had locked away Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! a suspect who confessed to tossing explosives in the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
It said in a statement that it had arrested Ahmed Bassam al-Jajatiyeh, who confessed to being tasked by Z.S. to toss hand grenades and dynamite sticks in the neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh in order to create tensions.
He, along with others, were also tasked with tossing the explosives between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen in order to create strife between them.
He confessed to being paid LL20,000 per day by Z.S.
Jajatiyeh said that he carried out his actions on his cycle of violence or by throwing the grenades off building rooftops.
Investigations are underway with suspect to uncover his accomplices.
The Army Command urged the people to cooperate with officers deployed in Tripoli in order to help them apprehend any individual attempting to destabilize the city.
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[Dawn] President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... on Thursday reiterated the commitment of the government to curb militancy and sectarianism with an iron hand and would bring to justice the killers of innocent people in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... "The fight against the bad boy and sectarian mindset may be hard and long, but we will not rest until we have defeated this enemy of the state," the president said.
Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar said that Zardari held a series of meetings in Quetta on return from his visit to Iran, with parliamentarians, religious leaders and elders of the Hazara community, during which he called upon them to augment the efforts of the government.
The first meeting in the series was held with parliamentarians of Balochistan belonging to various political parties.
During the meeting, the president reiterated the commitment of the government to make Pakistain and particularly Balochistan prosperous.
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[An Nahar] A dispute between men from the southern city of Tyre and the town of Bazourieh to its east turned into a shootout, terrorizing the residents, the state-run National News Agency reported Thursday. "Go fer yer guns, Chuck!"
NNA said that the "personal dispute" started between two men at midnight Wednesday but later expanded to include their relatives and friends. [KERBLAM!]
"Take that, yew varmint!"
"Aaaiiieee! Hey, Rube!"
The gunnies from both sides clashed with handguns and Kalashnikov rifles in Tyre's Jumblat roundabout. The fighting did not cause any casualties, it said. [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
"Mahmoud, I think there's somethin' wrong with this here gun! They hain't fallin' down!"
The residents of Tyre, who were terrorized by the fighting, contacted security forces, "Operator! Get me the security forces!"
which along with an army patrol arrived swiftly to the area. [SCREECH!]
But the gunnies escaped before their deployment, the agency said. "Outen of mah way, yew varmint!"
"Smile when you... Oh, hell! Curly-toed slippers, don't fail me now!"
It added that the security forces and the military launched an investigation to identify the suspects.
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday described Zionism as a crime against humanity on par with anti-Semitism and fascism.
Speaking in Vienna at a United Nations event devoted to dialogue between the West and Islam, Erdogan decried rising racism in Europe and the fact that many Muslims who live in countries other than their own often face harsh discrimination.
We should be striving to better understand the culture and beliefs of others, but instead we see that people act based on prejudice and exclude others and despise them, Erdogan said, according to a simultaneous translation provided by the UN. And that is why it is necessary that we must consider just like Zionism or anti-Semitism or fascism Islamophobia as a crime against humanity.
Note the comparison of Zionism to fascism.
The Turkish leaders comments, made at the official opening of the fifth UN Alliance of Civilizations Global Forum, drew harsh criticism from UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog group monitoring anti-Israel bias and human rights abuses at the organization.
Erdogans misuse of this global podium to incite hatred, and his resort to Ahmadinejad-style pronouncements appealing to the lowest common denominator in the Muslim world, will only strengthen the belief that his government is hewing to a confrontational stance, and fundamentally unwilling to end its four-year-old feud with Israel, UN Watch said in a statement.
The group also criticized UN chief Ban Ki-moon who was present on the stage yet stayed silent for not condemning Erdogans remarks.
Of course he stayed silent. That's his job...
We remind Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that his predecessor Kofi Annan recognized that the UNs 1975 Zionism-is-racism resolution was an expression of anti-Semitism, and he welcomed its repeal, the statement said.
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#1
Israel should start mentioning the rights of the Kurdish people to self determination and turkish genocides...
[Dawn] Pakistain's government should take immediate steps to initiate peace talks with Talibs, says a declaration by the All Parties Conference (APC) called to discuss ways to restore peace in the country's militancy-hit tribal areas.
The APC, summoned by the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... -Fazl (JUI-F) and attended by major political parties and tribal leaders, also agreed on using the platform of a grand tribal jirga for peace negotiations with the Pak Talibs.
The declaration also agreed on expanding the membership of the grand jirga to include stakeholders representing all schools of thought.
The APC statement also emphasised on taking steps towards peace, keeping in consideration the law and the writ of the government.
The main ruling Pakistain People Party (PPP) and the leading opposition party, the Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N), assured their complete support for steps taken for the establishment of peace in the country.
Addressing the conference, PML-N President Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... urged all political parties to play their due role in meeting challenges faced by the country.
Sharif said that the offer of dialogue by the Pak Taliban should be taken seriously. He said that today not only Pakistain, but the entire region was plagued by terrorism.
He congratulated the JUI-F for convening the APC, adding: "We should keep aside our political differences and play our due role in maintaining peace in the country."
PPP President Makhdoom Amin Faheem said that his party would support every step taken for peace in accordance with the Constitution.
Speaking earlier at the inaugural address of the APC, the JUI-F chief said that talks with Pak Talibs would be useless without taking the military into confidence. Fazl also stressed that peace in Pakistain's tribal region is closely linked to peace in neighbouring Afghanistan.
"Peace in the tribal areas is linked to peace in Afghanistan. We should put the past behind us and move forward towards peace talks," said Rehman.
Pakistain Moslem League-Quaid Secretary General Mushahid Hussain asked that if dialogue with India could be pursued, then why not with the Taliban.
The moot was also attended by Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... (JI) chief Syed Munawar Hassan ... The funny-looking Amir of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He joined the National Students Federation (NSF), a lefty student body, and was elected its President in 1959. He came into contact with the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) Pakistan and studied the writings of Mawlana Syed Abul Ala Maududi, The Great Apostasizer. As a result, he joined IJT in 1960 and soon he was elected as President of its University of Karachi Unit and member of the Central Executive Council. He was Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistain in 1992-93, and became Secretary General in 1993. After years of holding Qazi's camel he was named Amir when the old man stepped down in 2009... , MQM Deputy Convener Dr Farooq Sattar, PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Chief Minister Akram Durrani, Mehmood Achakzai of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP), tribal elders and other leaders.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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Allah sends yet another sign to the followers of the mad Mullahs.
An earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale jolted a region in the neighborhood of Northern Khorasan province and Terkmenistan on Thursday, IRNA reported.
According to a report by seismological center of Tehran University Geophysics Institute, the epicenter of the quake was located in an area at 38.10 degrees latitude and 57.58 degrees longitude.
There is no immediate report on possible damage or casualty.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2013
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#1
Mmmm, Where's Meccah located.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/01/2013 9:36
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#2
I blame the Halliburton - Schlumberger cabal and beyond earth core fracking.
[An Nahar] A Chinese boss ordered nine employees to do his 12-year-old daughter's homework, a report said, as office tyranny meshed with a parent's desire to see his child score well in the competitive school system.
"The leader said, 'Do some homework, it will be like practising'," one of the suffering subordinates told the Qianjiang Evening News.
The boss in the eastern city of Jinhua, whose name and organisation were not given, regularly asked workers to do maths problems and build small models, typically requiring two people to work overtime to finish the assignments.
But over the Chinese New Year holiday, an assignment to show changes in one's home town required nine people to paint pictures, take photos, produce a video and write an essay.
The employees said they tried to imitate the work of an elementary school student, making the quality lower than if adults had done it.
One of them, a 35-year-old man surnamed Wang, said he put himself in the mind of a young girl to write the essay. "I forced myself into an imaginary state," he said.
The report did not mention any repercussions for the child or her father. But one teacher told the newspaper: "This has completely deviated from the original intent (of the assignment)."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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Over the past weeks, POTUS has been running around the country like Chicken Little an ass spreading horse hockey about the sequester, all in the hopes of blaming a 2% budget cut (which he proposed and signed into law) for an anemic economy that might be headed into a double-dip recession. Simply put, the White House and its media are pushing this fabricated Narrative in the hopes of shifting blame away from Champ's failed economic policies and onto the GOP and a lack of government largess.
If our economy crashes, Champ wants to blame sequester on Joe Shit the Ragman, hell...anybody; he wants to argue that our economic woes are caused by a government that isn't big enough, and that he needs a Democrat-controlled House to correct that. It's an audaciously dishonest plot, and it almost worked. The monkeys in the wrench, though, have been little things called facts, a Republican Party refusing to blink, and one brave and honest reporter.
#1
Despite the Woodward thing, the leftist press will now be unrelenting in their attempts to aid Obama in blaming conservatives of all stripes for this, even though he proposed it and signed it into law. Every iota of perceived suffering and deprivation that happens in the U.S. for any reason will, for the foreseeable future, be blamed on the sequester and believers in limited government, by the usual goon squad at NPR, PBS, the alphabet networks, NYT, etc. They will go full court press with this from now until forever.
The administration has always known that a double dip recession followed by high inflation, and an ultimate need to cut the size of the federal workforce, was in the cards and now they think they have something they can use to blame all of that entirely on the Republicans. Every LIV and pseudointellectual in the country will swallow that notion whole because they tune in to information streams run by reporters and editors who will carve out the facts before they go to copy. Every public sector employee and rent-seeker and grant recipient will now experience the one thing they thought they could avoid by taking a public functionary or NGO job - anxiety - and because of the personality type they predominantly represent by being in those industries in the first place they will freak out, and be pushed into voting Dem (if they don't already) despite whatever other ideas they have on issues.
This has, therefore, been a gamble by the Repubs, too. If that number of individuals is large enough they will lose the House in 2014. It may be that the fear machine this administration is running, abetted by a sycophant (outside of a few brave souls) press, will unlimately work in the Dems favor for the 2014 elections. The fearmongering ultimately ran out of steam in the '90's when the Clinton administration lied and continuously ran on the idea that the center/right would kill children and starve old people and bring back Jim Crow if they got their way. That propaganda strategy ultimately didn't work because times were good economically and a Republican house eventually was able to get things like welfare reform and international labor market reform and a more reasonable, almost balanced budget. Times are tough now, though, and vast swaths of people will vote on one issue and one issue only; keep the magic government checks coming no matter the ultimate collateral damage to the country, to avoid the anxiety of the dreaded private sector. This applies also to foundations and "charities" and the like who subsist on government grant largess. The private donations are drying up and the bolt-hole of the public sector monies is now threatened, and the howling has only just begun.
The truth is that America will recover and be on the right path again when the wealthy suburbs around D.C., filled with people making high five-figure and six-figure salaries as functionaries, bureaucrats, regulators, lawyers, and lobbyists, gotten by stealing tax money from productive private businesses, are reduced to impoverished ghost towns, and that money is back out circulating in private industry. The administration and their backers aren't really interested in the nation as a whole doing better, they are merely interested in making sure the fantasy of perfect income stream security backed by the power of the state continues for their constituent base of public workers, private unions, NGO's, and welfare recipients.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/01/2013 5:59
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#2
Spot on NMU. The irony appears to be, we have the pen of our very own master of obfuscation, the unfailingly odious Barack Hussein Obama to soon thank for a miniscule reduction in the rate of government spending.
The first question I now ask when any of these beltway scandals beset someone like Mr. Woodward; is he by chance writing a book ?
One dark night the skeletons that they had carefully hidden in an obscure closet appeared, grabbed them around the throat, and strangled them.
¯ Ben Carson, Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence
#5
Maybe this is the beginning of a media rebellion. Obama or his proxies have given veiled threats to Lanny Davis, Bob Woodward, and Ron Fournier. The few times Obama has had a press conference, they are saccharine affairs, which are a complete waste of time. If a reporter does have the audacity to ask a real question of substance, Obama flashes anger and dismisses and puts down the questioner.
#6
Good article Deacon. However I think the center of the ObamaUniverse is none other than the lightbringer - Obama himself. Public Spending is simply the live-giving sunlight which the shining one blesses us with - and the Evil Republicans are the clouds which threaten to block that sunlight and starve children and force the elderly to eat dried catfood.
As for the media - the vast majority will back the president, echo his outright lies as the one truth forever and ever, and never report anything 'bad' - except to blame it on the evil repubicans.
#7
Obama looked constipated when he was speaking this last week and the press has just had a major bowel movement over Woodward's commentary on the President's performance as President and on the economy.
Anyone with 1/8,1/4,1/2 of a functioning brain sees that this administration runs on lies, fabrications, misinformation, in short horse shit.
Very few thinking people are buying the administrations latest brand of hallucinations regarding the economy after sequestration goes in effect.
A definition: A hallucination is a perception in the absence of a stimulus which has qualities of real perception.
Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented.
Unfortunately, the administration still has 46 months to go, and more narratives to invent.
Posted by: Your Name Here ||
03/01/2013 8:52
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#8
The truth is that America will recover...
..when it finally comes to rest in the Big Crash. The ruling class is unable if not just unwilling to acknowledge that the engine of the American economy is the middle class. No amount of 'pumping', 'priming', or manipulation can move it. Those actions by government can guide it or hinder it, but never make it run. As long as the middle class perceives that any effort it makes will just be wasted away, stolen, or rendered useless, it sees no value in altering the current economic stasis situation. This is a class of Americans who can plan a future beyond the immediacies of the next welfare or government check or issue of food stamps, that other 49 percent. They're going to hold on to their assets as long as possible. That means they're only going to buy, spend, or invest what is necessary. The ruling class problem is that they can convince the takers to vote for them, but they can't force the makers to produce. Remember, a slave only works hard enough to avoid punishment. And the masters up in the plantation house can complain, moan, and curse as much as they want. It's not going to change the situation other than drive the lot of us deeper into the hole from which we have to climb back out of.
#9
Look at it this way, Oblahblah IS NOT getting it HIS WAY so he's pissed.
Well good, about time he's pissed and can't do squat.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/01/2013 9:34
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#10
Very true P2k. Another hopeful sign is the continued growth and successes now taking place among American firms in the global market. Berkshire-Hathaway's recent $ 72.50 per share offer for Heinz (HNZ) is a good example. Warren doesn't chase dogs. I can only imagine the economic recovery we could be realizing if it were not for current regime.
#12
There is very little real growth in the country. Unemployment is still about what it was during the past four years ~ 8%. The real (uncooked) unemployment rate is much higher. I still see many companies that are stagnant and a number of others that are still laying off. The stock market is propped up by the Fed, hedge funders, institutional investors, and speculators. The average person (the middle class as P2K says) is staying away from the market after the 2007-2008 crash. There is no trust by the average person for the stock market. Maybe, I'm a doom-merchant, but it seems like the stock market is just another bubble to break. It is a bubble to break just as was the real-estate sub-prime loan fiasco that robbed so many middle class people of their wealth.
#18
We could actually have a really good 2014. Off year election usually goes against the party in power. Throw in growing Obama fatigue. Finally, we won't have a RINO at the top of the ticket suppressing turnout.
#19
If we have a good 2014, but Boehner stays Speaker, there will be real, not imagined, threats of "Civil War" in the GOP. I'll also be shocked if he doesn't face a primary challenge.
Note McConnell is getting threatened, but Boehner? Well useful idiots need to be kept.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/01/2013 19:39
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The MSM is historically on the side of the DemoLeft - as a general rule, however imperfectly the GOP-Right will always be held or deemed at fault no matter the issue.
The GOP-Right will be blamed for the deficits + sequester, just as it will be blamed iff Israel attacks Iran or a China-Japan shooting war breaks out in NE Asia, just as it will be blamed iff the Bammer decides at the last moment NOT to militarily back Israel or intervene on the side of Iran.
A STRONG AMERICA IS NOT IMPORTANT TO THE DEMOLEFT AS EXPANDING THE DEBT + PROTECTING THE US WELFARE-NANNY STATE [read, free $$$], SOON TO BE THE US GLOBAL WELFARE-NANNY STATE.
[Dawn] Ismatullah holds an AK-47 and checks vehicles on the road. "Enough is enough. We have no trust in the security forces any more and we'll protect our community ourselves," says the teenage Shia student.
Extremist bombers killed nearly 200 people in Pakistain's southwestern city of Quetta in the two worst kabooms to strike Shia Mohammedans from the minority Hazara community, just weeks apart on January 10 and February 16.
After each attack, thousands of Hazaras, including women and kiddies, camped out in the bitter cold demanding that the army step in to protect them.
The government brokered an end to the protests, but refused to mobilise the troops.
Outlawed Death Eater group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... (LeJ) grabbed credit and has threatened to exterminate all Shias. Few believe that dozens of men rounded up after the kabooms will ever be brought to justice.
Pakistain's Supreme Court and rights groups accuse the authorities of failing to protect Hazaras and now young men like 18-year-old Ismatullah are taking up arms to defend themselves and their families.
Ismatullah's best friend was rubbed out last June near Hazara Town. He lost more friends when jacket wallahs flattened a snooker hall on January 10 and a massive bomb hidden in a water tanker destroyed a market on February 16.
"I couldn't control myself when I saw scattered pieces of so many children and women of our community," said the first year college student.
"Our community is only interested in education and business, but Islamic fascistihave forced us to take up whatever arms we have and take to the streets for our own security."
At the moment they operate as volunteers under the name, Syed-ul-Shohada Scouts, registered as part of the Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Scouts Association, an affiliate of the worldwide scouting movement.
For years, young men like Ismatullah have volunteered to protect sensitive events, such as religious processions during the holy month of Muharram.
But their chairman says the threat is now so great that they should be paid full time as an auxiliary to government security forces.
"We have around 200 young men who perform security duties on specific occasions, but most of them are students and workers, and can't work full-time," said Syed Zaman, chairman of the Hazara Scouts.
"We are trying to make a system to start their salaries for permanent deployment and also coordinate with the security agencies. Hopefully, we will be able to form a regular force... and salaries in a month," he said.
Scouts president Ghulam Haider said it was a mistake to rely on government security when the first of two suicide bombers struck at the snooker hall in the Alamdar Road neighbourhood.
"It resulted in another kaboom minutes after the first one and we lost many more people," Haider told AFP.
"We didn't want that to happen again, so immediately after the blast on February 16, we armed our youth to man the streets and entry points, which helped to prevent the chances of a second attack," he claimed.
Hazara Town, where the market was bombed, is very exposed, in the shadow of the Chiltan mountains and near the bypass which links the Afghan border town of Chaman to Pakistain's financial capital Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... While paramilitary Frontier Corps and police patrol the main approaches, they are not visible inside the neighbourhood.
"Security agencies can't protect us. They don't know the area because most of them come from outside Quetta. So we're planning to set up our own permanent posts inside our areas," said Haider.
The police, however, have their doubts.
"If we start private policing by arming one particular community, it will set the wrong precedent," said Fiaz Ahmed Sunbal, head of Quetta police operations.
He claimed police were planning to close entrances to Hazara Town, and would recruit 200 young Hazaras to patrol their own areas.
Haider says closing off roads will isolate the community but welcomed the recruitment of Hazara Scouts as a long-term solution.
And that, my dears, is how the Jewish ghettos were formed in Europe.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
See also BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Tenran Times] MASSACRE OF SHIAS MEANT TO SULLY IMAGE OF ISLAM.
* SAME > [NOW.MMedia] IRAN CALLING THE SHOTS IN SYRIA.
More specifically, the IRGC includ Quds Force, whom more + more is seens as engaging in milactions = direct combat agz anti-Assad Rebels - domestics + foreign - in lieu of Baby Assad's main Syrian Army???
[Dawn] A roadside kaboom on Thursday killed at least ten people including eight coppers in the north-eastern Afghan province of Kunar, officials said.
The blast in Dangam district in the troubled province bordering Pakistain hit a vehicle carrying four coppers who earlier escaped a separate roadside kaboom and were being transported for treatment for wounds sustained in that attack, Dangam district Governor Hamish Gulab Shinwari told AFP.
"The four maimedcoppers were put on a passing civilian vehicle by colleagues to get to a nearby clinic, but the vehicle struck another landmine laid by the Taliban," Shinwari said.
Eight coppers and two civilians inside the vehicle were killed, he said.
The incident and toll was confirmed by provincial Governor Fazlullah Wahidi, who said a woman on the vehicle was also seriously injured in the blast.
"Unfortunately eight of our coppers and two civilian have been martyred and one woman critically injured in the incident," Wahidi told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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Those Palestinians, making friends and influencing people wherever they go.
[Egypt Independent] The Interior Ministry is searching for 500 Paleostinian citizens who are allegedly Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, members, and who are accused of illegally entering the country in between 14 and 24 February, security sources said.
Three of the individuals are suspected of terrorist activities, said the sources, who requested anonymity.
The ministry allegedly received intelligence that Paleostinians were staying in apartments and hotels in Cairo's Azbakeya district, but left two days ago after being tipped off prior to a police raid.
Police found four weapons in the apartments and two Paleostinian passports, one of which allegedly belonged to an individual who had previously been jugged Please don't kill me! for ties to a Lebanese terrorist cell.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
why are the Egyptians so hard on the "freedom fighters"?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2013 9:38
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'Cause they ain't freedom fighters when they're blowing up *your* stuff?
My guess is the recent crackdown on the tunnels has more to do with stemming mischief than the (ever-present) need for funds.
For a map, click here. For a map of Durango state, click here. For a map of Coahuila state, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Four individuals, both armed suspects and civilians, were killed Wednesday and Thursday in several incidents in the La Laguna region of Mexico as Mexican Army units filtered into the region Wednesday night, according to Mexican news accounts.
According to a news account posted on yacuinac.com Thursday, one armed suspect was killed and another unidentified youth was detained Wednesday evening when a Mexican Army road patrol attempted a traffic stop of a driver and passenger aboard a Nissan Versa SUV.
The incident took place on Bulevar Ejercito Mexicano in Chapala colony in Gomez Palacio, Durango where the military patrol intercepted the vehicle. According to the translation, one of the two suspects opened fire on the unit, prompting a pursuit which ended on Calle Geminis in Morelos colony.
The driver was identified as Raul Jimenez De La Torre, 21, who died at the scene. The other detainee was said to be a youth, but his age was not disclosed in press reports.
In Torreon, according to a news account posted on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily, the offices of El Siglo de Torreon newspaper has been attacked three times in the last three days, the last costing the life of one individual.
The first attack was a small arms attack that took place Monday near the intersection of Calle Rodriguez and Avenida Allende against a Policia Federal unit assigned to protect the newspaper offices, No one was reported hurt in the incident.
The second attack took place a day later and late at night near the intersection of Avenida Matamoros and Calle Acuña, when armed suspects shot at the building and hit it 30 times. Apparently no security unit was present in Tuesday night's attack.
The third and most deadly attack took place Thursday afternoon against a Policia Federal unit tasked to guard the newspaper offices. That incident took place near the intersection of calles Rodriguez and Acuña. One man identified as Geraldo T. Carrera, 37, was shot to death. A second victim, a pregnant female was evacuated from the area, but was not wounded in the incident.
In a separate incident this time in Torreon Coahuila, two unidentified construction workers were shot to death Thursday evening.
A Facebook posting by Codigo Rojo de Laguna said the incident took place near the intersection of calles Mexico and Emilio Carranza in Aviacion colony.
The Aviacion colony incident was possibly the result of extortion and theft attempts by organized crime groups against construction companies in Durango, including in La Laguna.
According to a report posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango, Durango state Comunicaciones y Obras Publicas del Estado (SECOPE) Guillermo Rodriguez Salazar said organized crime has been focused on stealing bagged concrete and fuel as well as other construction materiel.
The translation said that companies involved in public works construction projects have been targeted so far.
According to a separate news account posted on the website of yancuic.com, the Mexican Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA) has moved 700 troops into the region with half to be deployed in Gomez Palacio and the rest in Torreon. The reinforcement was made pursuant to a request early in February in security meetings between Coahuila and Durango state officials and federal government officials, or around the time Operativo Laguna formally began.
The reinforcement is equivalent to an entire Mexican Military Zone or a rifle regiment. Since the security operation began earlier in February, Mexican Army as well as Mexican Naval Infantry units have been involved in security operations in La Laguna, but in unknown strength.
The previous SEDENA, General Guillermo Galvin Galvin preferred a system of constant troop rotation from every corner of Mexico as a security precaution, sometimes moving troops into troubled areas such as La Laguna from as far away as Chiapas, and rotating other units back out for reassignment or rest. It is unclear from either news accounts or official announcements whether these new troops are an actual reinforcement or are part of a troop rotation.
Meanwhile presumed organized crime groups have been adding their own unique take on the security situation in La Laguna by putting up narcopintas or blankets painted with messages charging Durango Governor Jorge Herrera Caldera and Policia Federal troops for trying to deliver La Laguna to organized crime.
According to a news account posted on the website of Milenio news daily, narcopintas have appeared in Gomez Palacio where the violence and fighting has been the worst since the start of the year.
Narcopintas are a nearly constant feature in Mexico's drug war, and sometimes mean very little. Local drug gangs are known to put up narcopintas as a false flag operation, or claiming to be from one group when they have been put up by another. In a few instances local police have been known to put up false narcopintas.
The narcopintas were quickly taken down by local officials.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Dawn] Eight bully boyz were killed and 12 others injured in an air strike by the Pak security agencies in Orakzai agency while a mortar blast killed two people including a child in Mohmand agency on Thursday.
Both areas are part of Pakistain's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions in the northwest, where Pak Taliban and al Qaeda-linked bully boyz are said to have carved out strongholds.
Assistant political agent Upper Orakzai Rafiq Mohmand has confirmed the reports of at least eight bad turbans' deaths and said that 12 others were maimed when the military jets targeted their hideouts in Mamozai area.
He said at least three hideouts of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) backed bully boyz were destroyed in the strikes along with their ammunition depots.
Security officials claim that up to 92 per cent of the Orakzai agency has been cleared of the bad turbans, however, the border area between Tirrah valley and Kurram agency is still being held by them, which is being targeted now.
In a separate incident, a mortar shell kaboom has left two people including a child dead in Safi Tehsil of Mohmand agency.
According to officials, the boy and the youngster overstepped a mortar shell near their house which went kaboom!, resulting in the death of the two on the spot.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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[An Nahar] Bombings in and around the Iraqi capital, including two boom-mobiles near a football field, killed at least 23 people and maimed more than 60 on Thursday, security and medical officials said.
With the latest violence, more than 200 people have been killed and over 550 maimed in attacks in February, according to an Agence La Belle France Presse toll based on security and medical sources.
An interior ministry official said one boom-mobilewent kaboom! near a football field in the Shuala area of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , followed by a second after security forces arrived at the scene.
The blasts killed at least 19 people and maimed at least 30, medical officials said.
In Mahmudiyah, south of Storied Baghdad, a cut-thoat detonated a hand grenade when people attempted to arrest him, and five bombs went kaboom! nearby, killing at least two people and wounding at least seven, security and medical officials said.
Two roadside kabooms also went kaboom! in the Shurta al-Rabea area of south Storied Baghdad, killing one person and wounding seven, while a boom-mobile in Aziziyah, southeast of Storied Baghdad, killed one person and maimed 17, officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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[Bangla Daily Star] "Uncle, don't worry, nothing will happen," a junior counsel told Sayedee after the tribunal sentenced him to death.
"Everything will be changed with the change of the government," said another.
The junior counsels for Sayedee wanted to show him a ray of hope when he was being taken to the Central Jail from the tribunal yesterday.
Sayedee's chief counsel Abdur Razzaq said they would lodge an appeal with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court "to seek justice".
"The verdict was delivered to satisfy some third party," Masud Bin Sayedee, son of Sayedee, reacted immediately after the verdict. He, however, did not elaborate on the third party.
When the tribunal completed reading out the verdict at 1:45pm, Sayedee stood up on the dock and began to say something.
"Honourable tribunal, I think, you didn't try (me) being accountable to your conscious and oath. You delivered the verdict being instigated by some atheists of Shahbagh...," Sayedee could not complete his words.
The prosecution and some observers present at the courtroom sharply reacted to his comment, saying "You Razakar, you have been proved as Razakar. Shut up." The judges, however, left the courtroom.
Then, police took Sayedee away from the dock and kept him at the tribunal's jail where Sayedee offered his prayers.
As Sayedee was being taken to the Central Jail, he kissed Masud on the forehead, while one of his junior counsels said, "Uncle, nothing will happen."
"Everything will be changed with the change of the government," said another.
After bidding farewell to his father, Masud expressed his reaction to the newsmen in front of the tribunal.
"He [Sayedee] is okay. He asked the countrymen to keep him in their prayers," said Masud.
He also said, "We didn't get justice here [in the tribunal]. We must lodge appeal against the verdict. We believe, we will get it [justice] there [Appellate Division]."
The tribunal mentioned that his father was not involved with any political party in 1971, and he was a common people, Masud said.
"So, as a common people, it was not possible for him [Sayedee] to control Peace Committee and Razakar Bahini [two anti-liberation forces] in entire Pirojpur district (during the war)," he claimed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
#1
Hang Him, and be done with it.
I don't know a single criminal that thinks being caught is anything but a Mistake.
NOT his mistake.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/01/2013 11:46
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[An Nahar] Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem ... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... stressed on Thursday that the Shiite sect had played the most important role in reassuring Christians over their presence in Leb. Guess that wasn't him that got killed.
He said: "We have undoubtedly presented them with the most reassurances after they had once been fearful of us."
"We reassure them more than any other side in Leb because we are honest in our dealings," he explained.
He added however that the resistance "does not represent one dominant sect in Leb."
"We reject the idea of having one dominant sect in the country because Leb belongs to all powers and we are all equal under the law," Qassem declared.
"Hizbullah's political strength stems from its popular support," he added.
"We have decided to separate the resistance path from the political one," he added.
The resistance's achievements have not been employed for political gain, he continued.
Qassem wondered however: "What have the others done in protecting the border and kicking out the occupiers?"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Telling Christians "we'll kill you last?"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/01/2013 12:00
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#2
*knock knock*
Hello? You again?
Yes, just making sure you are in your home and safe.
But this is the eighth time just today?!
Yes. Yes it is. Please remember to answer to door for us; it would be..unfortunate..if we thought you had been hurt.
Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik said today that Iran and Paklistan will establish four security stations on the borders between the two countries.
Malik also said that Iran's Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar will soon be visiting Pakistan to sign the joint agreement. Pakistani official also said that a free trade zone between the countries will be established near the security posts at the border.
And here's the bonus:
Speaking on other issues, the minister noted that starting from March 8th, no one would be able to cross Afghan-Pakistani border without visa.
"Despite numerous requests from Pakistan, Afghanistan did not set control over the illegal border crossing from its side," Malik said. "Thus the Pakistani government has decided to take it under precise control to stop the drug smuggling into the country."
Because we all know the biggest problem Pakistain faces is drug smuggling from Afghanistan...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2013
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[Yemen Post] Sylvia Abrahat, a Swiss national who was kidnapped in March 2012 in the western province of Hodeidah has been freed and has now been flown to Doha in Qatar.
The 35-year old woman who was working as a teacher in a local language institute was kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants in broad day light and immediately transferred to one of the terror group stronghold in Abyan - southern province of Yemen -
A few months within her abduction - July 2012 - Sylvia made a video appearance, very similar to that of Dominik Neubauer - 23.02.2013 - on YouTube asking for a ransom to be paid against her immediate release.
Subsequent reports stressed Sylvia was suffering from deep depression and was having great difficulties coping with the situation altogether.
While Yemeni officials remained tight-lipped on Sylvia's mediation operation, having enlisted the help of local tribal leaders to act as mediators with the terror group, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi always insisted he was not at liberty to discuss any details relating to her case due to the sensitivity of the matter.
As it turned out it was Qatar intervention which successfully led to Sylvia's release.
She departed Yemen late on Wednesday on a place bound for Doha - Qatar - where the Qatari foreign minister and the Swiss ambassador in Doha were waiting to greet her.
Upon her arrival on Thursday morning, Sylvia expressed a deep gratitude and happiness to have been set free from her abductors after almost a year of anguish waiting.
"I thank the Qatari negotiating team, which had worked for months in silence, patience and wisdom until we reached this result," said Ali bin Fahd al-Hajeri, a Qatari official.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
#1
One year ago, make sure she's not Pregnant.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/01/2013 18:17
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[MAGHAREBIA] Moroccan parliamentarians sitting on the Justice Committee in the Chamber of Representatives on Tuesday (February 26th) adopted a draft law which makes the financing of terrorism a criminal offence.
The law aims to bring Moroccan legislation into line with international law, Interior Minister Mohand Laenser said, adding that the country has made great efforts in the legal field to tackle terrorism and money laundering.
"One point was raised by the international financial task force, which recommends that Morocco include provisions making the financing of terrorism a criminal offence," he said.
The law would make it a criminal offence to provide funds in the knowledge that they will be partly or wholly used to commit a terrorist act or will be used by a terrorist or a terrorist organization.
It would also regard the financing of terrorism as a crime even where terrorist acts are perpetrated outside Morocco or do not take place at all.
The law defines income as "all types of assets are tangible or intangible, movable or immovable, severally or jointly, as well as acts or legal documents", aufaitmaroc.com reported.
Morocco is in a sensitive region, MP Mohamed Benabdessadek said in a speech.
"We are very much affected by terrorism. On one hand, in geographical terms, Morocco is not far from the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... , which is experiencing tensions and very violent acts of terrorism," he said.
"On the other hand, our country needs foreign funds. And international investors seek stability. Moroccan citizens also have the right to live in safety," he added.
To achieve the desired goals, terrorism must be clamped down on while respecting rights and freedoms, Benabdessadek said.
MP Hassan Tarik agreed with Benabdessadek's message.
Terrorism is a great danger to security, the economy, politics and society and that it must therefore be tackled while making sure that civil rights are maintained, he said.
MPs warned against accusing innocent people who have engaged in financial transactions without having any intention of financing terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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[An Nahar] Battles between the army and a militia in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo or Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... have left at least 36 people dead and thousands have sought refuge at a U.N. base, a front man said Thursday.
People descended on the small U.N. peacekeeping base at Kitchanga in mineral-rich North Kivu province as new gunfire was heard across the region, U.N. deputy front man Eduardo del Buey told news hounds.
Clashes between the DR Congo army and the the Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo, better known under its French acronym APCLS, erupted in the region on Wednesday.
Del Buey said at least 36 people, including 10 civilians, have been reported killed in the battles. One peacekeeper from the U.N. force, MONUSCO, has also been maimed.
"This morning MONUSCO reported gunshots in the area. The mission says that between 3,000 and 4,000 Congolese have now taken refuge around its base in Kitchanga," the front man said.
"MONUSCO is closely monitoring the area, including with its combat helicopter," del Buey said.
The APCLS is a longstanding militia in the region which made its name battling the late dictator Sese Seko Mobuto in the 1990s when widespread wars in DR Congo and neighboring countries left millions dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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[Egypt Independent] The Finance Ministry's recent proposal to rent out the country's key monuments, including the pyramids in Giza, to fund the current deficit in state budget has outraged archaeologists, cultural activists and the Ministry of State of Antiquities.
Adel Abdel Sattar, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in an interview on Wednesday with the privately owned ONTV channel that he often gets proposals for overseas exhibits, where selected objects are loaned under specific guidelines. "But is it possible that we rent our monuments? ... This is our heritage, our roots."
He explained that earlier this month he received a request from the Finance Ministry to study a proposal to rent out monuments, such as the Giza pyramids, the Sphinx, the Abu Simbel Temple and the temples of Luxor, to international tourism companies as part of a usufruct arrangement from three to five years. The request stated that this could generate up to US$200 billion in revenue for the state.
The proposal letter, which Egypt Independent obtained a copy of, verifies that the religious website "Al-Ketab al-Mounir" (The Enlightened Book) emailed the Finance Ministry the proposition made by one of its intellectuals named Abdallah Mahfouz as a "quick solution to the current financial crisis our beloved Egypt is undergoing."
The proposal did not indicate a specific country or company behind the offer, and mentioned no details of what the usufruct agreement might entail, apart from specifying the heritage sites and monuments of interest and the lucrative amount of US$200 billion.
Despite his objection to the proposal, Abdel Sattar opted to get official legal consultancy from the Ministry of State of Antiquities. Based on that, he called for a meeting with the council's board. The legal advice from the ministry suggested that heritage sites are owned by the state, and profits from them are public funds that may not be exploited through a usufruct arrangement.
The board unanimously refused the offer and sent their response to the Finance Ministry on 26 February.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
The legal advice from the ministry suggested that heritage sites are owned by the state, and profits from them are public funds that may not be exploited through a usufruct arrangement.
from Late Latin ûsûfrûctus, from Latin ûsus use + frûctus enjoyment - u·su·fruct (yz-frkt, -s-)
n.
The right to use and enjoy the profits and advantages of something belonging to another as long as the property is not damaged or altered in any way.
I had never seen nor heard the word usufruct, so I'd like to pass on the above information along for those like me.
Good Day.
Posted by: Your Name Here ||
03/01/2013 9:07
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#2
Thanks for another Rantburg U. session.
"But is it possible that we rent our monuments? ... This is our heritage, our roots."
It's a more palatable option than the one your religious fanatics will offer.
#6
Renting them means that more icky infidels would be in Egypt, both to view the monuments and to service/protect them. Plus the rent money would disappear to be seen again only in a Swiss or Cayman bank.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2013 17:03
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#7
If the Copts were both devious and smart, they'd quietly move from Cairo and Alexandria, where they live for the most part, into the northern Sinai. It'd take a while but they could establish themselves. Do it without raising much suspicion. Then when they have enough of their people there, they make a grab for independence and invite the Israelis in for protection -- a 'mutual defense' treaty or some such.
The Muslim world would holler and squeal but so what? The Copts would have a homeland -- not much of one in the beginning but I suspect they're as industrious as the Joooz, so in time the Sinai would bloom. Boot the Arabs, let the Bedouin wonder about so long as they're peaceful, and build a country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2013 17:06
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#8
Who's to say they aren't already trying that? For all we know they're now in contact with South Sudan, looking for advice.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/01/2013 19:24
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[Egypt Independent] Tunisian students and Salafis have faced off in renewed scuffles over the "Harlem Shake" dance craze in the cities of Sidi Bouzid and Tunis, witnesses said on Thursday.
In Sidi Bouzid, birthplace of Tunisia's 2011 revolution, Regueb school students tried to film their version of the "Harlem Shake" on Wednesday on the premises but were denied permission.
School officials said the students erupted into the streets outside where they were set up upon by about 20 Salafis, who warned them against "this Western dance of misbelievers."
The same assailants returned on Thursday and attacked the students, they said.
At Manouba University in a suburb of Tunis, a regular scene of incidents between secular students and Salafis, Islamists clashed on Thursday with youths also trying to film the "Harlem Shake," a school caretaker told AFP.
Police intervened to separate the two sides, restoring calm.
A number of social media sites run by Salafis and other Islamist groups have denounced the "Harlem Shake" as indecent, with participants smoking, dancing wildly and simulating sexual acts.
Defiant youth activists have put out a call for a mega "Harlem Shake" to be staged on Friday in front of the education ministry in Tunis.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2013
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Top|| File under: Salafists
#1
And I can sum it all up in just one word: courage, dedication, daring, pride, pluck, spirit, grit, mettle, and G-U-T-S, *guts*. Why, The Harlem Shakers' got more guts in their little finger than Hollywood has in their large intestines, including their colons!
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.
As President Barack Obama and his administration wake up to sequester drama, they can revel in some news in the world's fight against terrorism. According to a Mar. 1 Reuters report, one of the most powerful commanders of al Qaeda's north Africa wing (AQIM) 
[Egypt Independent] According to the Constitution, the Supreme Constitutional Court does not have the right to review amendments to the new Parliamentary Elections Law, Shura Council MP Taher Abdel Mohsen declared on Thursday.
[MAGHAREBIA] Tunisian security forces on Thursday (February 28th) launched a manhunt in Kef for the suspected killer of opposition leader Chokri Belaid. The search operation is focused on the mountainous region near Touiref.
[An Nahar] Somalia's president has offered an amnesty to young pirates in a bid to end attacks off the Horn of Africa nation's coast as he seeks to rebuild the war-torn country, he told Agence 
[An Nahar] A 17-year-old youth who is being tried in a juvenile court over the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi was formally charged with murder on Thursday, legal sources said.
[An Nahar] Sudan is sending hundreds of troop reinforcements to the troubled Blue Nile region, state-linked media said on Thursday, after reports of fighting in a strategic border town.
[An Nahar] A U.S. court on Wednesday convicted five Somali men of piracy over a 2010 attack on a U.S. naval ship in the corsair-infested waters off the Horn of Africa.
[An Nahar] President 
[An Nahar] Rebels seized control of the historic Umayyad Mosque in Syria's second city of Aleppo on Thursday after several days of fierce 
President Asif Ali 
[An Nahar] A dispute between men from the southern city of Tyre and the town of Bazourieh to its east turned into a 
Nawaz Sharif
Syed Munawar Hassan
An earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale jolted a region in the neighborhood of Northern Khorasan province and Terkmenistan on Thursday, IRNA reported. 
[Dawn] A 
[Egypt Independent] The Interior Ministry is searching for 500 Paleostinian citizens who are allegedly 
[Bangla Daily Star] "Uncle, don't worry, nothing will happen," a junior counsel told Sayedee after the tribunal sentenced him to death.
[Yemen Post] Sylvia Abrahat, a Swiss national who was kidnapped in March 2012 in the western province of Hodeidah has been freed and has now been flown to Doha in Qatar.
[An Nahar] Battles between the army and a militia in eastern 
[Egypt Independent] The Finance Ministry's recent proposal to rent out the country's key monuments, including the pyramids in Giza, to fund the current deficit in state budget has outraged archaeologists, cultural activists and the Ministry of State of Antiquities.
[Egypt Independent] Tunisian students and Salafis have faced off in renewed scuffles over the "Harlem Shake" dance craze in the cities of Sidi Bouzid and Tunis, witnesses said on Thursday.
