A JetBlue captain raced inside an airliner screaming obscenities and shouting about threats from al-Qaida and bombs aboard the aircraft, forcing an emergency landing Tuesday in Amarillo, passengers said.
A half-dozen to 10 passengers jumped atop the pilot and pinned him to the floor, passengers said. Flight 191 landed at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport at 10:11 a.m., JetBlue said in a statement. The aircraft was carrying people bound from New York to Las Vegas, Nev., for a security convention, passengers said. The pilot went to a restroom, then emerged, shouting, Iraq, al-Qaida, terrorism, were all going down."
"It seemed like he went crazy, said Gabriel Schonzeit, of New York City, who was seated in the third row and traveling to the security convention. JetBlue and Transportation Security Administration officials described the pilot as having a medical condition.
The planes co-pilot became concerned that the captain exhibited erratic behavior, according to a preliminary investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The captain had exited the cockpit during the flight, after which the co-pilot locked the door, agency spokeswoman Brie N. Sachse said. When the captain attempted to enter the locked cockpit, he was subdued by passengers. Lynn Lunsford, an FAA spokeswoman, said the agency does not release the names of pilots in incidents, particularly while an investigation is ongoing.
He was transported to Northwest Texas Hospital, officials said. He has not been identified. The crew kicked the pilot out of the cockpit, and he turned unruly, attempting to use the intercom system, which had been disabled, said Josh Redick, 41, of New York. The pilot later attempted to re-enter the cockpit, but his security code appeared to have been changed, Schonzeit said.
When the pilot began pounding on the cockpit door, a former prison security guard grabbed him by the neck and choked the captain until he collapsed, Schonzeit said. We all knew in the front rows if he got back in the cockpit, we were going down, Schonzeit said. The captain started pounding on the door when another passenger, a former prison security guard, grabbed the pilot by the neck and choked him until he collapsed.
The pilot was a very large man, bigger than me, said Schonzeit, who stands 6 feet, 3 inches and weighs 250 pounds. A flight attendant was elbowed in the ribs during the struggle to keep the captain subdued, Schonzeit said. The passengers tried to bind the captains wrists behind his back with a zip tie, but he broke it, Schonzeit said. I couldnt have broken those, Schonzeit said.
Passengers handed over their belts to bind the pilots arms, Schonzeit said. Another Captain, traveling off duty on Flight 191, entered the flight deck prior to landing at Amarillo, and took over the duties of the ill crewmember once on the ground, JetBlues statement said. The Airbus A320 jet departed at 7:28 a.m. from New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport Airport, JetBlue said.
Passengers deplaned and went through security checks with their carry-on luggage. During the check, authorities brought in a drug dog to search a passenger's bags. JetBlue said the passengers will continue their trip on another plane. Federal airport officials are directing all inquiries to JetBlue, TSA spokesman Luis Casanova said. The FBI is investigating. It seems to be more of a medical issue than a security issue at this point, he said.
#1
OK, so I can understand about the re-screening ( but even that seems a stretch) but why a drug dog for the PAX bags when it was Capt Kirk that went Gonzo???
And what sort of protocol is there that lets some guy who says he is an off duty pilot jump in the seat? that seems like a ready made take over. unless some of the flight crew personnaly knew this guy, this also seems a bit strange.
Guy in pilot costume: Here, Miss, let me fly this thing since you seem to be short a pilot.
Miss: Are you a pilot?
Guy: No, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once.....
#2
JetBlue's not that big - somebody on the crew (other than the nutcase) probably knew him, USN.
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/27/2012 21:49
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#3
Huh, why does He think there are bomb thingys aboard his aircraft - did this Pilot know somebody whom knew somebody whom knew somebody whom ........???
#1
I reserve judgement on STREEP as I haven't seen her performance or movie yet either in theater or on TV - as for Ex-"HANOI" = now "FLOTUS" JANE, this I gotta see to believe.
D *** NG IT, ITS FOR THE SECOND US CIVIL WAR IN 2015!
Vancouver's Jenna Talackova was everything Miss Universe Canada was looking for when she was selected among 65 finalists for the 2012 competition, to be held in Toronto in May.
But the Donald Trump--owned beauty pageant confirmed Friday that the 23-year-old has been disqualified from the competition.
The reason, Talackova claims, is she was born male.
"She did not meet the requirements to compete despite having stated otherwise on her entry form," stated a Miss Universe Canada release issued on Friday.
"We do, however, respect her goals, determination and wish her the best," it concludes, without specifying what requirements she did not meet.
A top legal analyst predicted Tuesday that the Obama administration's healthcare reform legislation seemed likely to be struck down by the Supreme Court.
Jeffrey Toobin, a lawyer and legal analyst, who writes about legal topics for The New Yorker said the law looked to be in "trouble." He called it a "trainwreck for the Obama administration."
"This law looks like it's going to be struck down. I'm telling you, all of the predictions, including mine, that the justices would not have a problem with this law were wrong," Toobin said Tuesday on CNN. "I think this law is in grave, grave trouble."
Toobin's observation came on the second day of oral arguments at the Supreme Court over the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
Earlier that day, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who could be the deciding vote on whether to uphold the law, told Solicitor General Donald Verrilli that there appeared to be a "very heavy burden of justification" on aspects of the law, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Toobin described Kennedy as "enormously skeptical" during the arguments Tuesday.
#3
The law SHOULD be in grave Constitutional trouble, but I have had a lot of concern about the fundamental 'literacy' of the Court for years.
Regardless, I believe the law was never intended to actually work, or even pass court approval - it was made in order to shift the pivot point to where true National Health Care was the probable result of the failure of ACA. It is clear the system we had was doomed; I am sadly confident this is doomed, and even more sure that National Health Care will be worse, but nobody wants to address the core issues. IMO we face rationing - either by price or by edict, unless we increase supply of medical practitioners & services, because demand is only going up. The other component needed is reduction of costs by tort reform and documentation efficiencies; lawyers block the former, and very rational fears of both hacking and abuse hamper the latter.
#4
Something to ponder is whether Champ will abide by the decision if it strikes down the law. Last year he was talking about not being able to wait for Congress because what he wanted to do was just too urgent. You would think he would apply the same "logic" to the Supreme Court.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/27/2012 20:43
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#5
Justice Kennedy's comments and what took place today may explain the lack of the administration "celebration" with regard to the recent two year anniversary.
#6
the fact that it is even questionable as unconstitutional is a joke. All the MFM treat the liberal judges voting for it as "jurisprudence". Conservative or fence-sitters questioning it? Partisanship as journalism
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2012 21:08
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#7
Since when does the SCOTUS hear two opposite legal arguments for the same law?
Would you not knock that off the table to start with?
Just because Social Security was bamboozled to the court does not mean that the precedent was correct and even in this case, no precedent supports this law. It initially blows a hole through the Constitution by the "Necessary and proper" clause which means nothing here, and the "Interstate Commerce" clause (or non-commerce if it were). Both clauses would be destroyed by the very precedent set by verifying this very law alone.
This means that even if it were allowed to become operative before even a legal claim was filed for it, would that not even violate it's overstep of the Law in the first place? Chicken and egg shit. I do not know.
This is all very dangerous stuff.
Approve this, the republic is over - over night.
= No limits federal mandate.
#8
The tone in various left leaning newspapers today sounded concerned; couldn't even put a racist/ teabag spin on the goings on. but i still don't know, i think Kennedy is the key.
it would be real nice if they would put a youtube of the 2010 State of the Union up where Bambi is dissing the Supremes. just before handing down the decision.....
Re: Matt's commet about abiding by the decision: wouldn't the Court issue an immedieate injuction of an EO were released, ignoring the decision?
#11
D *** NG IT, doesn't the SCOTUS realize its for OWG-NWO + the Regional, TransRegional, + OWG Global Federal Union that no American = Amerikan of the OWG Mighty USSA = OWG Weak USRoA SSR has yet voted for, nor been asked to???
#12
As I have ranted several times on this blog. I have been an RN for 30 years now. And one thing I know, is that for people who have lost their jobs and don't have insurance- rationalized health care is better than no health care at all. Yeah the Brits have seemed to have fucked up their health care system. But our current system is broke and needs to get fixed. However being told that I MUST buy insurance seems unconstitutional.
Researchers at Symantec say they possess part of the worm which causes it to load on a computer after it restarts.
Researchers at the US computer security firm Symantec say they have obtained a new version of an Internet worm that has been linked to the Stuxnet virus.
Stuxnet is the name of a computer virus that was detected in 2010, which reportedly caused significant damage to Iran's uranium enrichment program.
It targeted Siemens supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, used by Iran to enrich uranium through spinning centrifuges. Foreign media reports speculated that Israel or the US, or both, were behind the attack.
Five months ago, Symantec detected a computer worm, Duqu, which sends back information on systems that would help attackers prepare a future strike.
Duqu "must either have been created by the same group that authored Stuxnet, or by a group that somehow managed to obtain Stuxnet's source code," Symantec said following the discovery.
Now, Symantec said, part of a new version of Duqu has been found.
Researchers at the firm said they came to possess a part of the worm which causes it to load on a computer after it restarts.
"The compile date on the Duqu component is February 23, 2012, so this new version has not been in the wild for very long," a post on Symantec's blog said. "We can see the authors have changed just enough of the threat to evade some security product detection."
Last year, Symantec concluded that the mysterious authors behind Stuxnet, described as the most sophisticated cyber weapon on the planet, appear to be planning another strike, and have updated their advanced spy program designed to search out weaknesses.
The Duqu worm was believed to have infected systems in countries from Vietnam to La Belle France, including Iran.
In recent days, another cyber security company, Kaspersky Lab, reported that Duqu had been written in "pure C," an old programming language "long since discarded by most programmers in favor of newer versions," ABC News reported.
Quoting Kaspersky researchers, ABC said that the old language was used "to make sure that the worm could infect just about everything it touched."
#2
Linux is still written in "C". Lots of stuff is. c++ can even be exported as "c" with the proper compiler option. What is this ancient language argument. Fortran, PL1, Cobol, Pascal, BAL, Snobol etch qualify as old. Ancient? Maybe something Ada could have used programming her dad mythical steam difference engines?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
03/27/2012 9:04
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A major terrorist plot targeting Afghan soldiers was revealed Monday at the Ministry of Defense headquarters in Kabul. An official at the ministry, who asked not to be identified, said that 11 suicide vests were found in three rooms in the area surrounding a parking lot at the Ministry.
The investigation is still in its early stages but it is known that 11 buses were scheduled to leave the parking lot carrying Afghan army personnel. The working theory among investigators so far is that a bomber was meant to get on each of those buses and stage a spectacular simultaneous attack.
Six Afghan soldiers were arrested immediately and it is believed they were ready to carry out a suicide attack. The BBC reports that 12 additional arrests have been made.
The Afghan government has not yet confirmed the plot, but CBS News has learned that Afghanistan's defense minister has been called to the presidential palace to give a full briefing on the details of the investigation. The palace itself is less than a mile away from where the vests were found.
#3
Well, first the positive --someone found these vests which were located in three separate rooms. Someone was in the ball. On the other side, the security levels to get to the DOD HQ looks lke an Afghan version of Get Smart. Why have one guard when you can have 7? Lastly the targets were ANA by other ANA (proportedly). A properly worked media spin by the govt to underline what bastards these terrorists are -- ie the plotted massive deaths of Afghans might be strategically useful. I doubt that it will happen though, just more whining and handwringing about recent USA involved incidents - and thus reinforcing the negative media spin. Watch and shoot. Or listen for the bombs.
Syrian troops entered north Lebanon on Tuesday, destroying farm buildings and clashing with Syrian rebels who had taken refuge there, according to local residents.
Abu Ahmed, 63, a resident of the rural mountain area of al-Qaa, said, "More than 35 Syrian soldiers came across the border and started to destroy houses."
Another resident said that the soldiers, some moving in armored personnel vehicles, fired rocket-propelled grenades and exchanged heavy machinegun fire with rebels.
#4
Please let them chase rebels into a Hezbollah Minefield. Or let them hit a Weapons Cache. Would be glorious
Posted by: Charles ||
03/27/2012 12:24
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Glorious idea Charles.
Anyway for the Juice to get the Hezzies fighting the Syrians? (Pssst, you know those rebels you're looking for? They're right over there with the Hezzies, wink, wink, nudge, nudge)
#1
""All this violence must stop," he said in Gaza. "I would urge the Palestinians from Gaza: they must stop firing rockets on the Israeli side... this killing of civilians is not acceptable."
Gaza gunmen broke a weeks long lull in violence after Ban's arrival in the region on Wednesday, firing a volley of mortar shells into southern Israel."
Well, he sure has a lot of influence, doesn't he.
On the other hand, I don't pay attention to his sorry ass, either.
Posted by: Barbara ||
03/27/2012 20:09
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Malians marched in Bamako Monday to protest against the junta while Tuareg rebels threatened to capture a key northern city, piling political and military pressure on the coup leaders.
More than 1,000 people gathered in front of the stock exchange for a rally organised by a united political front against the soldiers who seized power on March 22, calling the junta a group of "thugs".
"We demand a return to constitutional order," and "Down with the putschists, long live democracy, long live Mali," read banners held up by the protesters who began their rally by singing the national anthem, some raising their fists.
There was little sympathy for the soldiers among men, women and kiddies who see them as a band of hoodlums looting the state when they should be fighting off a Tuareg rebellion in the north.
"Bloody malingerers!"
The march fell on a national holiday celebrating the country's previous coup on March 26, 1991 when President Amadou Toumani Toure led a band of soldiers to overthow the 23-year-old dictatorship of Moussa Traore after a crackdown on a public uprising against the leader.
Having led the country to its first democratic polls a year later, Toure was considered a hero and later democratically elected in 2002. He was due to step down after serving two terms following elections scheduled for April 29.
"In memory of our deaders, let's fight for these soldiers to return to their barracks," one leader shouted.
Life returned to normal in the capital Bamako where shops re-opened and people ventured out to do their shopping after several tense days following the mutiny in which renegade soldiers shot their way to the presidency.
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(Sh.M.Network) -- As tension mounts high in Lower Jubba region near the border towns, Kenya has closed the border to avoid further insecurity acts and attacks into its soil, reports said on Monday.
Sources said the tension followed after Kenyan military have incarcerated several brass hats of government troops in Lower Jubba region, south west ofSomalia, sparking a growing tense of fighting between bothSomaliaandKenyaforces.
Mohammed Amin, Somalia MP told Shabelle Media that Kenyan military have taken into custody on Monday at least three senior army officers of TFG forces in Qoqani village near Afmadow town. The motive of the arrest is yet unclear.
BothSomaliaandKenyaofficials have not commented on the issue so far, but locals say they are too scared over the growing tensions between the two sides.Kenyais the key ally of TFG forces battling against Al-shabab.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2012
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#1
Why can't we do the same thing to our Southern border?
[Dawn] A meeting of Hindu community representatives has expressed serious concern over the plight of the minority communities in Pakistain and demanded the implementation of the existing laws and enactment of more laws to ensure their protection against kidnapping, harassment, forced conversion and discrimination.
The meeting was organised by the Pakistain Hindu Council in the backdrop of "growing incidents of kidnapping and forced conversion of Hindu girls in the country".
A resolution passed unanimously by over 500 community representatives from across the country at the meeting held here on Sunday called for specific and more stringent laws in this regard.
Referring to the recent events of some Hindu girls' conversion and marriages with Mohammedans, the resolution noted that the attitude of the police and lower courts was unfavourable towards the complainants -- the parents and relatives of the girls -- alleging that the girls were not only produced in courts under pressure but also not handed over to their parents.
Similar was the case of several kidnapping for ransom cases involving Hindu community members, it said, adding that the Hindus felt insecure and wanted protection to their life, property and honour. If this was not ensured, a mass migration of the Hindus from the country would be inevitable, it warned.
The meeting strongly recommended that "once an FIR is lodged after the disappearance of a Hindu girl, the victim should be handed over to her parents immediately after her recovery; and she should be allowed to stay with them for a couple of months before a court of law records her statement. The matter should then be decided according to her will".
It urged the community to launch a concerted struggle for its rights.
A committee formed at the meeting was entrusted with the task of organising gatherings at the divisional and district levels to mobilise the community and formulate a strategy to cope with the situation.
Lawmakers criticised
Earlier, speaking at the forum most of the representatives strongly criticised the politicians representing the Hindu community in the elected houses for "not properly taking up the issue with the authorities concerned". "They are not the community's true
representatives; and many of them have got themselves elected on the reserved seats of the minorities on the basis of their wealth or connections with the politicians," one of the speakers remarked.
Some other speakers called for preparing a list of "forcibly converted and married (Hindu) girls" and suggested that the relatives and other community members should set up protest camps to keep the issue alive for the "rescue and recovery of the victims".
PHC chief Dr Ramesh Vankwani pointed out that despite a Supreme Court order for the recovery of three missing Hindu girls, Asha was yet to be recovered. He urged all Hindu politicians to raise the issue in the elected houses.
He said the community was making efforts to get the subject of religion included in the syllabus so that Hindu children could study their religion in educational institutions. He observed that Hindu businessmen and traders were subjected to extortion, kidnapping for ransom and harassment and this had become a major issue that must be tackled on a priority basis. He recalled that some Hindus were killed in Chak a few months back but the culprits were not tossed in the slammer yet despite their identification in the FIR.
Haresh Tulreja from Pano Aqil said the constitution envisaged equal rights for the minorities but they were being discriminated against in every field. Even the police would not provide security to the life and property of a Hindu citizen, he alleged.
Gobind Ram from Khipro demanded that the scheduled caste should be given an equal status by the community.
Dr Chandiram from Hyderabad urged community members to join political parties of their choice and seek their support as and when needed. He was of the view that the issue of recent conversion of Hindu girls was being highlighted only because the girls involved came from well-off families. In support of his claim, he referred to the kidnapping of 10 Hindu teachers in Thar, and complained nobody took up the issue with the authorities concerned. Most people even did not know about the incident, he moaned.
One of the speakers told the meeting that two Hindus -- Ajeet Kumar and his sister Prigati Bai -- were kidnapped three years back in Jacobabad and the boy was eventually recovered after Pir Pagara's help was sought. While he returned home from Bharchundi Shareef, his sister still remained unaccounted for, he said.
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03/27/2012
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[An Nahar] The Israeli foreign ministry decided on Monday to cut contact with the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... Human Rights Council after it said last week it would investigate Israeli settlements, a front man said.
"There was a decision by the foreign ministry to sever work contacts with the organization," ministry front man Yigal Palmor told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that Israel had yet to formally inform the council of its decision.
"There won't be working relations with them, conversations, passing papers, making visits, exchanging information, consulting one another, attending meetings," he added. "That's work, and it will not take place."
Council head Laura Dupuy said the Israeli move was "most regrettable."
"I have no doubt that it is in the interest of Israel to cooperate with the Human Rights Council on this investigative mission, not least so that it can explain its own policies and actions to the independent commissioners once they are appointed," she said.
The Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement in the Gazoo Strip slammed the Israeli decision, with front man Fawzi Barhoum calling it a "Zionist attempt to blackmail" international institutions that criticize Israel.
"This is proof of the vulnerability of the Zionists in front of rights organizations and the U.N., and will generate a wide international consensus on the oppression of the Paleostinian people and the justice of their cause," he said in a statement.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday called publicly for a boycott of the council, which last Thursday passed a resolution ordering the first investigation into how Israeli settlements may be infringing on the rights of the Paleostinians.
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03/27/2012
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Ethiopian forces on Monday seized the main base of the Al Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab ... successor to the Islamic Courts... hard boyz in central Somalia, the latest stronghold the snuffies have lost in recent months, witnesses said.
Ethiopian troops and fighters from the pro-government militia Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa seized El Bur town, some 150 kilometres south of the Ethiopian border, after a brief exchange of fire.
"Ethiopian troops have taken positions inside and outside the town, but most of the residents decamped before they arrived," said Abdukadir Sahal, a resident.
The loss of the town tightens the net on the hardline Al-Shabaab, who are facing attacks on multiple fronts by regional armies.
"There was brief exchange of gunfire on the outskirts of town but Al-Shabaab decamped... there are Ethiopian troops with armoured trucks, pulling heavy artillery weapons," Sahal added.
"There was no fighting inside El Bur, but Al-Shabaab fighters are not far away," said Ahmednur Fodade, another resident.
Ethiopian soldiers in battle trucks began the advance on El Bur at the weekend, bolstering allied fighters from Ahlu Sunna at the central Somali town of Dhusamareb, before pushing on some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south.
El Bur is the fourth Al-Shabaab stronghold to be seized by the Ethiopian forces, who deployed into lawless Somalia in November, after Kenya also sent troops into southern Somalia to battle the ruthless militia.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2012
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Another 36 elements of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) armed Marxist drug dealing gang have been killed in continuing Columbian armed forces operations, according to Spanish language news reports.
The guerillas died from a Columbian Air Force bombing raid in Vista Hermosa municipality, roughly 30 kilometers southwest of Puerto Lleras.
The air raid was part of an ongoing Columbian Army operation launched five days ago in the wake of an ambush which killed 11 Columbian Army soldiers in Arauca municipality in the eastern border area with Venezuela ten days ago.
Since those killings. Columbian Army troops have killed 36 FARC guerrillas during the night of March 20th-21st. The total dead for FARC now stands at 72. The losses have been termed a major blow by Columbian defense minister Juan Carlos Pinzon.
The most recent ground operation has captured three unidentified FARC leaders and led to the seizure of weapons including 17 AK-47 rifles, 11 Galil 5.56mm rifles, eight AR-15 rifles, seven M-16 rifles, one FAL 7.62mm rifle, a machine gun, grenades, pistols and weapons magazines.
An upcoming hostage exchange of hostages from FARC, facilitated using Brazilian helicopters, is expected to take place between April 2nd and 4th near an airfield near Villavicencio. However, reports now say that exchange has been delayed for "logistical reasons."
#1
An upcoming hostage exchange has been delayed
While it's tough on current hostages, this approach to 'hostage exchange' is far better for the future.
The Islamist gunman whose murder spree shocked La Belle France will be buried in his ancestral homeland Algeria, his father told AFP Monday, adding that he planned to sue La Belle France over his son's death.
"[God willing], I have decided to bury my son in Algeria," Mohamed Benalel Merah said, referring to his son Mohamed Merah, 23, who was rubbed out by French police on Thursday in Toulouse at the end of a stand-off after his shooting attacks that killed seven.
"Mohamed has an Algerian passport and has been listed with the [Algerian] consulate in Toulouse since his birth," the elder Merah said.
He also hit out against La Belle France for having shot his son instead of taking him alive at the end of a 32-hour siege at his apartment in Toulouse.
"La Belle France is a big country that had the means to take my son alive. They could have knocked him out with gas and taken him in," he said. "They preferred to kill him."
"I will hire the biggest named lawyers and work for the rest of my life to pay (their) costs. I will sue La Belle France for having killing my son."
#4
Unbelievable. Apparently, the POS Mohamed didn't fall far from the tree. The type of people that kill in the name of "honor" seem to have very little of it to lose.
Clashes between rival militias in southern Libya have killed 20 people, a doctor at a regional hospital said, highlighting the challenge the government faces in imposing its authority months after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, Al Jazeera reported.
A local doctor, Ibrahim Misbah, said on Monday that 20 fighters died of gunshot wounds and more than 40 people were wounded.
Local council member Ahmed Abdelkadir said clashes first broke out on Sunday between former rebel fighters from Sabha, Libya's fourth largest city, and gunmen from the Tibu tribe after a Sabha man was killed in a dispute over a car. He said the militias opened fire at each other on the outskirts of Sabha.
"The numbers are from the Sabha side only. The Tibu wounded are being taken to a different hospital," Misbah said by phone.
Sabha fighter Oweidat al-Hifnawi said the fighting centered around the airport road and that at one point Tibu fighters controlled the entrance of the airport.
"The airport is now under our control but it is not functioning at the moment," Hifnawi said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/27/2012
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[Yemen Post] Militant groups believed to be linked with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) clashed with government forces on Sunday in the southern restive province of Abyan, local sources said.
The thug groups of Ansar al-Sharia ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... , AQAP offshoot in the country, were involved Sunday morning in fighting among themselves, leaving some of them maimed, according to the local sources.
Local media reported on Sunday that two faceless myrmidons were maimed when the various groups of Ansar al-Sharia were setting a checkpoint in Moudia district of Abyan.
Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing has expanded its foothold in the southern and southeastern restive provinces of the country, taking an advantage of the distracted government.
In unrelated incident on Saturday evening, AQAP faceless myrmidons managed to assassinate a senior intelligence commander in the southern restive province of Lahj.
Major Kamal al-Shwal was killed when al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons in Lahj ambushed his convoy, a security source told Yemen Post on condition of anonymity.
After killing him, they clashed with army forces in downtown Lahj city, the source said, adding that the group attempted to seize control of the city, but when it found firm resistance, they bravely ran away.
AQAP has stepped up its liquidations and attacks on security and army officials as of late, and so far it managed to assassinate at least dozens of high-ranking commanders of the security and army institutions, especially from intelligence departments.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2012
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[Tripoli Post] A doctor at the main hospital in the southern Libyan city of Sabha says at least 20 people have been killed in tribal festivities there on Monday.
Surgeon Ahmed Ali al-Hefnawi told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named most of the fighters died from gunshot wounds.
The deadly clash underlined the fragile nature of Libya and the central government has failed to impose its authority.
The latest festivities erupted after a man from the Tabu tribe allegedly killed a member of the Abu Seif tribe.
According to Hassan Moussa, a commander of the Tabu tribe in Sabha, his people were supposed to meet the Abu Seif tribe for reconciliation when they came under attack Monday.
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[Bangla Daily Star] At least 30 people were maimed and 15 vehicles vandalised yesterday during a clash between activists of the ruling Awami League and the opposition BNP over who would be at the National Memorial first.
Seriously? Throw 'em all in jail for a while to ponder the stupidity.
Spurred by an earlier clash between two factions of the BNP, the half-an-hour-long incident also caused damage to a petrol station and a canteen before law enforcers could bring the situation under control.
The injured, mostly BNP activists, received medical treatment in local clinics.
At 6:15am, two factions of the BNP around 150 yards away from the entrance to the memorial in Savar got involved in a clash over who would get to welcome BNP chief Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... when she arrived to pay respects to the deaders of the Liberation War.
Law enforcers rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control and calm down the two factions, led by former Savar BNP politician Dewan Salahuddin Babu and upazila BNP president Haji Refayetullah.
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#1
30 people hurt in a fracus as to who would greet her first? Wow. I wonder what would have happened if Madonna was in town? Or Paris Hilton? or the bisexual who was kicked out of Donald Trump's T and A contest.Oh trouble there.
[An Nahar] NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... will announce the completion of the first stage of a controversial missile defense shield at a May summit that will not include Russian leader Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... , its chief said Monday.
NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Western military bloc intended to announce the deployment of the first "interim" phase of a missile defense shield for Europe at the summit in Chicago.
The US-backed system has been bitterly opposed by Russia and has remained one of the main stumbling blocks in Moscow's recent relations with Washington.
"I can confirm that it is our intention to declare what we call an interim capability of the NATO system. That is part of the first phase of the development of the NATO missile defense system," Rasmussen said in a video conference with Moscow news hounds.
However he confirmed that Putin is expected to miss the May 20-21 meeting when he pays his first visit to the United States since his March 4 election to a third term as president.
Rasmussen said he and Putin had agreed by telephone that their summit was unlikely to go ahead in Chicago "due to the very busy domestic schedule in Russia."
He stressed that he was still planning to meet Putin soon after his May 7 Kremlin inauguration. Putin is still scheduled to visit the United States in May for the G8 summit in Camp David.
"The relationship between NATO and Russia is not dependent on a single meeting in Chicago or elsewhere," commented Rasmussen.
Yet Rasmussen also poured scorn on Russia's plans to unleash a massive nuclear warhead and missile development program that is a part of Putin's 23-trillion-ruble ($793-billion) military spending plan through 2020.
"I can honestly say ... that would be a complete waste of money," he said.
Washington and NATO argue that the missile shield is meant to protect Western nations against missile attacks from potential future nuclear powers such as North Korea and Iran.
Moscow fears the shield could make its own nuclear capabilities less effective and has sought to build a joint system in which it has an equal say.
NATO has dismissed the idea and sought to assure Russia that its nuclear deterrence would remain unaffected.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2012
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#1
Until after the US elections; then it will be politically practical to close it down, per recent live mike episode with President Zero.
#2
Until after the the US elections when a new President takes office. Obama just wanted to be left alone until he was out of office. Crisis are so complicated and he's just not that good at them.
#5
We should have brought the Russians in long ago and let them see fake systems. Either super-primitive to make them feel secure or so futuristic they'd die to figure out how it worked. Meanwhile we build the real thing unimpeded.
#6
I've always thought it would be hilarious if the US made a huge push at the UN to ban antimatter, gravitational and meson weapons while refusing to comment on any details or existence thereof.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
03/27/2012 17:22
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#7
Poland almost got heat stroke after the "Prez" started speaking Pidgin Russian.
[Dawn] Chief of his own faction of 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... Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... has warned that hasty decision will have serious consequences for the government if supply of goods to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces in Afghanistan is restored without a consensus resolution of the parliament.
"We will block all routes if government permits resumption of NATO supplies," he told a rally of party workers here on Sunday.
He said that unseen forces had settled all important issues with America when Parliamentary Committee on National Security was in session.
"Major issues with America have already been decided. Now they have been passing the buck to parliament," he said. He added that parliament had already passed two joint resolutions and All Parties Conference also approved some recommendations.
Unfortunately the resolutions and recommendations had been put into cold storage, Mr Rehman said, adding his party would not accept a resolution if it was passed from the parliament with majority.
The rally titled "Islam Zindabad Conference" was held near Beautiful Downtown Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway. A portion of the Ring Road was closed to traffic owing to security reasons.
Around 5,000 baton wielding volunteers of the party and anti-terrorism squad of police were deployed on the venue while roads were blocked with barbed wire. The organisers had claimed that over one million people would attend the rally.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... despite extensive campaign and arrangements the show was not impressive although JUI has considerable street power in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... and tribal areas. The workers and seminary students affiliated with JUI were brought from all 25 districts of the province and Fata.
Mr Rehman said that some powers were trying to sabotage reconciliation process in Afghanistan by sending fresh consignments of weapons to the war-torn country.
"Afghan government is ready for talks with Taliban. US President Barack Obama This is a teachable moment... has stated that Taliban are not forces of Evil and started peace talks with them in Qatar. Then why containers loaded with weapons are transported to Afghanistan via Pakistain," he questioned.
The JUI chief said that head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council Sibghatullah Mujadidi ... the only ex-president of Afghanistan who has not yet been assassinated...
had told him that Afghan government had declared Taliban as opposition and they were not terrorists.
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03/27/2012
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* BREAKING NEWS > FUKUSHIMA DIARY: JAPANESE PUSHED TO THE CORNER OF REVOLT.
Ordinary Japanese are tired of the Nation's 20-year-n-counting recession, + Okinawa is the alleged "last haven" of anti-Radiation, safety in all Japan???
#2
DAILY TIMES.PK > PAKISTAN REJECTS US OFFER OF CONCESSIONS ON DRONE STRIKES. Pak Military repor wants return to 1980's "Reagan Rules".
and
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAKISTAN'S NUCLEAR ARSENAL IS THE MOST VULNERABLE IN THE WORLD | [Rediff] WHY THE WORLD MUST WORRY ABOUT PAKISTAN'S NUCLEAR ARSENAL.
'Tis notsomuch the "Bang" but the How-n-Why of its development + utility, e.g. "PAK'S NUKES BELONGS TO ALL ISLAM = MUSLIMS/UMMAH, NOT PAKISTAN"???
"Most troubling were responses to the question -- 'My senior leaders maintain high standards of honesty and integrity.'"
Just 44 percent of ATF employees said that their leaders maintained such standards last year, according to the Partnership for Public Service, the non-profit that administers the annual survey to government employees.
#1
Wonder what its like over at DoD? Would you expect politically appointed generals are more interested in their careers than the lives of your line buddies?
#4
Every agency, institution and even the military is infected at the highest levels with Leftist scum.
Our entire society and its governing mechanisms are corrupted and infected with these vermin. There is no way back to Constitutional governance and some reasonable expectation of ethics and honesty without a full purge.
It will need to be 'necessarily' bloody, and repeated often.
#6
There is no way back to Constitutional governance and some reasonable expectation of ethics and honesty without a full purge. It will need to be 'necessarily' bloody, and repeated often.
You may be right about the bloody purge, but where do you get your 'reasonable expectation of ethics & honesty'? There is no historical relation between the two, unless you consider cemeteries as prime examples of ethics & honesty. Dead bodies are at least honest. How they became dead is an ethical question.
WASHINGTON: The United States said on Monday it would suspend some aid to Mali following last week's coup, saying it estimated $60 million to $70 million may be affected but it would continue to give food and humanitarian assistance.
"We have now taken a decision to suspend our assistance to the government of Mali pending a resolution of the situation on the ground," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. "A little more than half of our $140 million (in aid to Mali) is food assistance, so I am expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of $60-$70 million in assistance will be suspended but we'll have better numbers for you later on."
They'll give it to Egypt instead...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/27/2012
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#1
Time for Mali to take a few dozen US NGO hostages.
[Yemen Post] Former Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Saleh Basura threatened to join those calling for the separation of South Yemen from the North due to lack of dialogue.
"If we could not discuss the problems of Yemen through understanding, I will call for secession to get rid of the lawlessness you live" Basura said in a seminar held Sunday in Sana'a about the GCC-drawn power transfer deal.
The comments of the minister were faced with dissatisfaction and sharp criticisms among the participators. One southern activist and chairman of a civil society organization, Intisar Al-Hodali, vividly slammed Basura.
She dubbed him dubbing as a traitor of the southern case, pointing out that he sided with Saleh when he was repressing peaceful protests.
A working paper presented by Ahmed Al-Sofi, the media assistant of the former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , was faced with discontent of the participators.
Al-Sofi said that the success of the GCC imitative relies on removing protesters camped for months in change and freedom squares.
Basura described, during the seminar, the GCC deal as a lifeboat for Yemen, calling all sides to commit to it and its scheduled implementations techniques.
He pointed out that some points of the GCC deal were not implemented so far, urging the interim government to fulfill them.
"If you want Yemen to stay unified and stable and that a civil state is created, the GCC deal must be implemented" he added. "If you want the solution of Yemen's impasses, you should head to national dialogue."
Working papers were presented by Yemen's different factions including the General People Congress, the Joint Meeting Parties, the Houtih group and the Southern Movement.
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03/27/2012
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Clashes have broken out between the armed forces of Sudan and South Sudan in several disputed border regions, both sides said, Al Jazeera reported.
South Sudan's army, the SPLA, said the Sudanese air force had attacked the disputed areas of Jau and Pan Akuach. The SPLA had also repelled an attack by Sudanese forces in the area of Teshwin inside South Sudan, SPLA spokesperson Philip Arguer said on Monday.
Sudan's army spokesperson Sawarmi Khalid Saad confirmed the fighting in the border area of Sudan's South Kordofan state and the southern Unity state, without giving the exact locations. He did not say who had started the fighting.
"I think due to this attack, the government now is changing its strategy to deal with the southern government," Rabie Abdul Atti, an advisor to Sudan's minister of information, told Al Jazeera.
The fighting has forced President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to suspend plans to visit South Sudan on April 3, Sudan's state radio reported. Bashir had been due to hold talks with his southern counterpart Salva Kiir during his visit to the southern capital Juba to resolve tensions that have surged since South Sudan seceded from Sudan last year.
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03/27/2012
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#1
Sudan didn't do very well when fighting a ragtag rebel army. I don't give much for their chances now South Sudan has the resources of a state.
[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... praised on Monday the Syrian Moslem Brüderbund's statement on the developments in their country, saying that it reflected the Sunni population's openness to regional changes.
He said: "The Moslem Brüderbund demonstrated moderation, diversity, and equality."
He made his remarks in Turkey where he took part in the Socialist International conference in Istanbul.
"This same openness has been demonstrated in the Moslem Brüderbund in Tunisia and Egypt, so why are there growing fears of Islamist movements?" wondered Jumblat.
Addressing Russia's position on the Syrian crisis, he wondered: "Shouldn't pleasing the Arab world, which has a Sunni majority, reflect positively on the former Soviet states that have a majority of Sunnis?"
"It is time to stop the statements of some Russian strategic analysts who have defended the Syrian regime at any cost," added the PSP leader.
"Are Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's warnings over a civil war in Syria a way of making the Syrians choose between a settlement with the ruling regime or a potential war?" he asked.
"Is this the most Russia can do?" he wondered.
"It is strange how the Arab initiative on Syria, which called for ending the violence, releasing political prisoners, and withdrawing the army from the streets, has developed into demanding a two-hour ceasefire per day," noted the Druze chief.
"Is this the most that the international community can do?" he continued.
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[Tripoli Post] Senegal's ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... President Abdoulaye Wade Another octogenarian wannabe president-for-life... ...if he's made it to octogenarian then he's no longer a wannabe...
Though he does seem to have failed at the "for life" bit.
conceded defeat to challenger Macky Sall late Sunday as initial results in the presidential run-off election showed the opposition candidate with a commanding lead.
As thousands of his supporters began celebrating in the streets of the capital, Dakar, particularly in front of his headquarters soon as the results came in, Macky Sall, said the poll marks a "new era" for the country, stressing that the people were the main winners in the poll.
Although official results from Sunday's election are not expected before Tuesday, people danced and sang for joy, honking their horns, with thousands more descending on Independence Square to celebrate.
The Senegalese Press Agency said 85-year-old Wade, "phoned his rival Macky Sall at 23.30 (CET) to congratulate him after the first results showed him to be the winner of a presidential run-off" vote. It helped ease fears that Wade, who had controversially changed the constitution to allow himself a third term, would try to stay in office or challenge the victory of Sall, his former protege.
Wade, who has ruled the West African nation for 12 years, lost in a number of key voting areas including in his home precinct in Dakar.
Thijs Berman, the head of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... observer mission to Senegal, said the results were very clear - about 65% for Mr Sall and 35% for Mr Wade so "there is no hesitation as to who is the winner".
The election comes just days after a military coup in neighbouring Mali.
Mr Wade brought in a two-term limit for presidential office, but argued that the limit should not apply to his first term which came in before the constitution was changed. His argument was upheld by the constitutional court in January, prompting widespread protests in which six people died.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Though he does seem to have failed at the "for life" bit.
Well, that honorific title, for an octogenarian, can still be achieved before the inauguration of the new President.
[An Nahar] Norway said Monday it was closing its embassy in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... for security reasons, following other countries that have done the same for safety concerns or to protest against the regime's crackdown.
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For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
One unidentified individual was wounded in three separate grenade attacks in Matamoros and Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas Sunday night and Monday morning, according to Mexican news and Twitter reports.
Originally, those reports said five had been hurt, but an announcement by the Tamaulipas state Procuraduria General de Justicia or attorney general posted on the state website Monday night said only one had been wounded.
Sunday night's attack took place near the Televisa television studios in Matamoros. That attack took place around 2200 hrs EDT near the intersection of avenidas Manuel Cavazos Lerma and Fresnos in Paseo Residencial colony. The detonation caused no injuries or damage.
In Ciudad Victoria, one grenade was detonated in a vacant lot near the intersection of calles 9th and Coahuila in San José colony at around 0950 hrs. No damage or persons wounded were reported in that attack.
A second grenade attack took place at a car dealership near the intersection of calles 9th and Berriozabal, presumably near Zona Centro. One individual was wounded in that attack. Some unspecified damage has been reported.
The attack took place at about 1020 hrs EDT. The attorney general report said that explosions accompanied the detonation of the grenade, which usually means small arms fire.
Several attacks using grenades and small arms fire were initiated over the last two weeks in Ciudad Victoria. The most serious, on March 14th took the lives of four individuals.
News reports say the Tamaulipas state Secretaria de Seguridad Pública and Procuraduria General de Justicia revealed those March 14th attacks were part of an intergang gunfight between rival criminal groups.
At least seven grenade and small arms attacks have been made in Ciudad Victoria alone since March 14th, nearly all of them between rival criminal groups. At least five have been killed and many more have been wounded in these encounters.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
(Sh.M.Network) The pro-Somali government forces of Ahlu Sunna Waljam'a (ASWJ) backed by Ethiopian troops have taken full control of a strategic town in central Somalia after Al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... fighters vacated the town following no heavy battles, an official confirmed.
Heavily armed Ethiopian troops along with Ahlu Sunna soldiers chased away hundreds of Al-Shabaab fighters from El-Bur town in Galgadud region, centralsomalia, and seized the town late on Monday afternoon.
Sheik Ahmed (Ilka-ase), the deputy chairman of executive council for Ahlu Sunna, told Shabelle Media by phone while he was in El-Bur that Al-Shabaab fighters abandoned the town without any bloody festivities on Monday as columns of Ethiopian and Somali forces advanced.
He added that Ahlu Sunna fighters supporting by Ethiopian troops are in full control of the town and will restore it the law and order as soon as possible.
It was impossible to reach Al-shabab forces of Evil linked with Al-Qaeda for comments about the Ahlu Sunna Walajama'a fighters claim.
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03/27/2012
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[An Nahar] A U.S. delegation walked out of a regional conference in Tajikistan Monday after Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad lambasted U.S. policy on Afghanistan as the source of all the country's troubles.
Ahmadinejad launched his new tirade against Washington at a conference in the Tajik capital Dushanbe attended by leaders of Afghanistan's neighbors as well as a U.S. delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake.
"The cause of all the ills in Afghanistan is the presence on Afghan soil of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... forces and above all those of the United States," the Iranian president told the Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA).
As the firebrand ...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments... Iranian president was giving his speech, Blake pointedly led the U.S. delegation out of the conference hall.
Encounters -- even at multinational regional conferences -- between the United States and Iran are extremely rare.
The two countries cut diplomatic relations in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and ties have remained severed ever since. Tensions are rising again over Iran's nuclear program and Washington has never ruled out military action.
Ahmadinejad, whose country shares a huge border with Afghanistan, said that U.S. forces had gone into the country with the aim of encircling the whole strategic region.
"They went into Afghanistan using the pretext of the fight against terror and now under the same slogan they are surrounding Russia, India and China," Ahmadinejad said.
"We want foreign troops to leave Afghanistan in the shortest time," he added.
The conference -- which is also being attended by Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid 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... and Pak counterpart Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... -- is the fifth such meeting since 2005 and aims to boost cooperation in rebuilding Afghanistan.
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#1
Iran would help until they did not. They built the IED's. Feed Iran to China again. Besides, Pakistan will take it on anyways.
[Yemen Post] Iran Foreign Minister Assistant for Arab and African Affairs Amir Abdu-Alahian denied comments made by Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu-Baker al-Qiribi that Iran is interfering in his country's internal affairs.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Iranian official dismissed Al-Qiribi's comments as baseless and bare of truth, urging the Yemeni government to heed the demands of its people instead of falsely accusing and placing the blame on others.
He clearly noted that Tehran stands by the Yemeni people side and their rightful demands, stressing that the upcoming national dialogue is the only and best solution to exit from the current bad situation in Yemen.
He said that Iran is interested in the stability and peace of the region, showing his confidence that the Yemeni people would not allow any one to hijack their revolution.
The relations between Sana'a and Tehran has been sharply downgraded as of 2007, when the former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... accused Iran of supporting the Shiite Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates.... insurgency in the north of his country.
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03/27/2012
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[Dawn] President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... said on Monday that influential Qatar-based Sunni Moslemholy man Yusuf al-Qaradawi ...crackpot Egyptian Islamist theologian. He is best known for his program Shariah and Life on Al Jizz, with an estimated audience of 60 million kindred souls worldwide. He is also well-known for IslamOnline, which occasionally advocates things like slavery and thumping the old lady with a rod no thicker than an inch, and has published more than 120 books, including Islam: The Future Civilization. Joe has long had a prominent role within the intellectual leadership of the Moslem Brüderbund. Some of his views have been controversial in the West, though less so among the rubes of the Mysterious East, and he was refused entry to the United Kingdom in 2008. In 2004, 2,500 Moslem academics from Soddy Arabia, Iraq and from the Palestinian territories condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving Islam a bad name.... was not welcome in La Belle France.
Egyptian-born Qaradawi, 86, has been invited to visit next month by the Union of Islamic Organisations in La Belle France.
"I told the emir of Qatar himself that this gentleman was not welcome in the territory of the French Republic," Sarkozy told La Belle France Info radio.
Qaradawi, who hosts a popular show on Al-Jazeera satellite television, backed Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and has launched a fund-raising effort for the Syrian opposition.
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[Yemen Post] The newly-appointed Governor of Aden Waheed Rashid has said that security forces have managed to foil attempts of Somalis to infiltrate to Aden, pointing out that the infiltrators are suspected of connection to Al-Qaeda.
Aden witnesses a state of fear after insecurity escalated and emergence of unidentified gunnies inside the strategic port city.
He pointed out that big numbers of Somalis were incarcerated while trying to arrive Abyan, referring that they were being investigated.
According to a report released by media outlets, about 30 masked gunnies caring gun machines and RPG are positioning inside a building at Al-Mukla street and others roaming at areas close to an important port in Aden.
The report said that the fears of locals have lately increased, particularly when festivities between security forces and gunnies broke out inside the city last Thursday.
The governor underestimated the security fears, stressing that the gang, attributing the sources of fears to the fragility of the state.
He affirmed that all concerns and insatiably will be ended if the state weakness was tackled.
He said that the sides that are behind the gunnies are still unknown, pointing out that the security file in Aden is complicated as a result of long-term Accumulations.
Security forces in Aden accuse sabotage sides of provoking turbulence and chaos through recruiting unemployed men, distribution of arms and funds, and formation of armed gangs.
The problems will be resolved through implementation of the GCC power transfer deal and put and end to all likely risks Rashid added.
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[Bangla Daily Star] General Asad Durrani, former chief of Pak intelligence agency ISI, has outright denied funding BNP before the 1991 parliamentary polls of Bangladesh.
In an exclusive interview with BBC Bangla Service on Saturday, the former ISI boss termed the allegation totally baseless and fabricated Tut tut! Made up out of whole cloth, I assure you, including the pictures!
Durrani also told the BBC that he never spoke about ISI's providing money to BNP, the main opposition party in Bangladesh, in his statement to the Pakistain Supreme Court.
"To my knowledge there was no reference to Bangladesh during the Supreme Court hearing and whatever I had said before the court is available there," he said.
"I, therefore, can say that nobody in the court spoke on providing such money [to BNP]."
Some local newspaper reports recently quoted the Dubai-based daily Khaleej Times as saying Asad Durrani in a court statement said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... received 50 million rupees from the Inter-Services Intelligence before the 1991 elections.
The ruling Awami League and BNP have locked horns over the issue since publishing of the reports.
Ruling party leaders, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, opened a barrage of attacks against Khaleda Zia for the reported ISI link. The opposition at the very beginning rejected the claim.
Threatening legal action, senior BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday asked Hasina to apologise to the people for bringing "false" accusation against BNP of receiving money from the ISI.
Asked over the phone whether ISI had funded any other leaders of BNP other than Khaleda Zia, Durrani said "I don't remember. I believe none has done that."
The former spy boss of Pakistain also said the ISI does not maintain any links with any Bangladeshi political party. "There is also no approach from their part [Bangladesh] to communicate with us."
Durrani termed the media reports on the issue false, saying those were against the ethics of journalism.
He, however, refused to comment as to what motivated the newspapers to publish such "false news".
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[Dawn] For the last one month I have not seen my daughter. What kind of justice is this which does not allow a mother to meet her daughter?
This was stated by Salchani Bai, the mother of Rinkal Kumari who was allegedly kidnapped from Dherki in Sindh over a month back.
Speaking at a presser along with her lawyer here, she added: "The kidnapers are threatening us that if the court handed over the girl to her family they will kill us all. I just want to meet my daughter."
Advocate Qadir Khan Mandokhel alleged that at 4pm on February 24 Mian Aslam, Hassam Kalhore, Naveed Shah, Mehfooz Shah and three other persons kidnapped the 17-year-old girl from her house at gunpoint. He said an application was filed with the Mirpur Mathelo police but they refused to register a case.
Later, when the FIR was registered the police did not nominate Mian Aslam, who is son of Mian Abdul Haq alias Mian Mitthu, a PPP MNA.
Mr Mandokhel said on February 25, Ms Kumari was produced in the court of civil judge Hasan Kalhore, where she said she wanted to go with her mother. However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... the judge handed her over to the police instead of sending her to the Darul Amaan.
On February 27, the police once again brought her to the court but her lawyers and family members were not allowed to enter the court and later the 'kidnapers' stated that Ms Kumari had converted to Islam and named as Faryal Bibi, adding she cannot live with her family members. She was shifted to a religious place at Bhar Chundi, he added.
"Section 144 was imposed during the hearing so we don't know what happened in the court. Article 36 of the law allows minorities to live without any fear but forced conversions are taking place in Dherki and other areas of Sindh. After Supreme Court's suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... notice, the girl has been brought to Islamabad but we want that a judicial commission should be constituted to probe the matter. Seven millions Hindus have been living in Sindh for centuries but some elements now want to start riots there," he said.
Former federal minister Amar Lal said when the case was shifted to Sindh High Court, Ms Kumari was brought to Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Press Club where once again she said she had been kidnapped.
During the last nine years, 2,700 girls have been converted from Hinduism to Islam, he claimed.
When Ms Kumari was sent on judicial custody by the SHC, a deputy superintendent of police shifted her somewhere else and refused to arrange her meeting with her mother. I called President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... who assured us that he would not allow any forced conversion but during the last few months 47 boys have been forced to convert to Islam. Army should be sent to Dherki because people have been
threatening the Hindu community," he said.
Chairman Jiye Sindh Party Riaz Chandio said Hindus had been living in those areas for the last 5,000 years. They are sons of the soil and should be allowed to live without any interference.
They said Ms Kumari would be produced before the Supreme Court on Monday (today). Advocate Noor Naz Agha, Rasheed A. Rizvi and Akram Sheikh will defend the case, they said.
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[An Nahar] Syrian troops shelled Khaldiyeh district in the flashpoint city of Homs early Monday after a night of nationwide protests against the regime, activists and monitors said.
Khaldiyeh, targeted in a week-long campaign to flush out regime opponents, was hit by mortar rounds that set alight houses in the neighborhood, said the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) activist group.
Five people were seriously maimed in the onslaught on the district, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based monitoring group.
In the eastern hot spot of Deir al-Zour, security forces carried out dawn raids in which 16 people were placed in long-term storage, the LCC said in a statement received by Agence La Belle France Presse.
Gunshots were heard as they conducted a similar operation in the town of Saraqeb, in the northwestern province of Idlib, according to activists on the ground.
Raids were also staged in villages of southern Daraa province, cradle of a year-old popular uprising against the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... which has spread across the country.
Monitors say that more than 9,100 people have been killed since the revolt broke out in mid-March last year.
The latest security operations came after a night of protests against the Assad regime.
In the central city of Hama, many marched through several neighborhoods late Sunday night to denounce the raids carried out during the day by troops in search of regime opponents, activists reported.
In the countryside, the military shelled the Hama provincial town of Qalaat al-Madiq, with numerous residents taking flight from the assault as well as a worsening humanitarian situation.
Demonstrations were also held in and around Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... and Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , Syria's second largest city, in support of the rebel Free Syrian Army and demanding the fall of the Assad regime.
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[Dawn] The Supreme Court on Monday allowed two Moslem convert girls to stay at a shelter house in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... for a period of three weeks enabling them to take a decision for their future independently and in a free atmosphere.
A three-Judge comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez also ordered the coppers to escort both girls back to Bloody Karachi in safe custody.
The bench in its order observed that though undoubtedly both girls, Faryal Bibi (Rinkle Kumari) and Hafsa bibi (Dr Lata), had performed Nikah and joined their husbands but there were allegations of forced conversion.
It said that apparently there was a lot of pressure upon both girls by the parents and the courts, so after recording their statements in camera, they were of the opinion that they required time, free from pressures and take a decision for their future.
The bench allowed both girls to stay for three-weeks in shelter house named 'Panah' owned by Majeeda Rizvi, a senior lawyer.
The bench was hearing a constitutional petition moved by Pakistain Hindu Council.
During course of proceedings, the bench allowed applications of all parties for hearing.
The chief justice told Malik Qamar Afzal and Mujeeb Pirzada counsels for Syed Naveed Shah, husband of Faryal Bibi and Dr Khalid Ranjha, counsel for Nadir Baig, husband of Hafsa bibi, that these girls might require some time to think over their future in a free atmosphere.
He opined that under the charged atmosphere and pressure from parents, court and husbands, they would not be able to do so.
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#1
And after three weeks in a "free atmosphere" they end up where . . ?
Pakistani courts treading dangerously close to logic here.
[Dawn] Four persons including two brothers were killed while another sustained serious injuries when person or persons unknown opened firing on their car on Charsadda Road here on Sunday.
The victims were gur traders and were on their way to market in a taxicab early in the morning when the assassins ambushed them. Two real brothers -- Jan Mohammad and Akhtar Munir -- were among the killed persons, sources said.
The other killed persons were identified as Jan Zeb and Ikram. All of the dear departed belonged to Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency but they were presently living in Shero Jangai area on Charsadda Road. The driver of the car, Shehzad Ali, was maimed in the incident.
According to officials of Khazana cop shoppe, the family of Jan Mohammad and Akhtar Munir had enmity with another family in Mohmand Agency. Police said that a bomb planted outside the house of Jan Mohammad was defused by bomb disposal squad about one month ago.
The relatives of the killed persons have not nominated anyone in the FIR registered with Khazana cop shoppe.
Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings... a constable was injured and van of Matani police damaged in a remote controlled kaboom near Arbab Tapu checkpost. Additional SHO Gohar Khan and coppers were patrolling in the van when a roadside kaboomwent kaboom!. A constable was injured while other coppers remained unhurt in the blast.
In Batkhela, a boy and his sister were killed while his other brother received injuries when kaboom went off at their residence in Wather area of Dargai tehsil on Sunday.
Official sources said that the owner of the house, Shafiq Akbar, was a miner and used to keep kaboom for drilling of mountains. He had kept some of the kaboom at his residence that went off when he and his wife were away. His 16-year-old daughter Uzma and 13-year-old son Hassan Akbar were killed in the blast. His other son, Khaista Akbar, received serious injuries.
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TUNIS: The moderate Islamist Ennahda party, which leads Tunisias government, said on Monday it would oppose naming Islamic law, or sharia, in the new constitution, an issue that has threatened to derail the countrys transition to democracy.
For now. Must not feel completely confident of their ruling status...
A constituent assembly, elected in October, is hashing out a new constitution after popular protests ousted Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali last year, sparking the Arab Spring uprisings.
Religious conservatives, including the third largest party in the constituent assembly, have called in recent weeks for the constitution to include sharia as the key source of legislation. Secularists oppose the move, which they say will open the way for the religious right to impose its values on what had been one of the Arab worlds most secular countries.
Rachid Al-Ghannouchi, Ennahdas co-founder and leader, said the group would instead be satisfied with retaining the existing first clause of the constitution, which identifies Islam as the religion of state but makes no mention of the role of sharia.
The first paragraph being all that they need...
We saw that Tunisians were divided over the issue of sharia. We dont want Tunisian society to be split because the revolution can only succeed with national unity, Ghannouchi told a news conference at the partys headquarters in Tunis.
The Tunisian people are united over Islam and we dont want to include another term that will divide the Tunisian people.
"Until we re-educate them."
Ennahda occupies more than 40 percent of the seats in Tunisias constituent assembly and its position in the sharia debate will have a huge impact on the wording of the document, which could take a year to debate, draft, revise and approve.
The rules specify that each clause of the constitution wins at least 50 percent approval in the assembly and the document as a whole wins two-thirds approval in no more than two readings. If it fails to win a big enough majority, it goes to referendum.
With its secular coalition partners, Ettakatol and the Conference for a Republic, Ennahda could secure close to the necessary majority. It is likely to be joined by the secular opposition parties that have fiercely criticized Ennahda but have little hope of removing any reference to Islam, as some had initially suggested, after faring poorly in the elections.
Ennahdas position is likely, however, to meet enormous opposition from more conservative Salafi Islamists who are not properly represented by any bloc in the assembly but have stepped up street protests demanding an Islamic state.
As they always do when they don't have control of the state, they make faces in the street. When they do have control, they execute the ones who oppose them.
Secularists fear that Ennahda has been too soft on Salafis who have become more assertive since the revolution and have attacked or threatened theaters, cinemas and journalists, and most recently Tunisias tiny Jewish community.
Ghannouchi said on Monday that there were some within Ennahdas ranks who had opposed the decision, taken by ballot at an assembly of the partys most senior committee this weekend. He said 53 senior Ennahda officials voted in favor of the motion to keep sharia out of the constitution, about a dozen opposed the motion and seven or eight abstained.
However, Ghannouchi said that Ennahda was looking for consensus over the constitution and would not seek to impose the view of a small majority of people in such an important document. Nor would it ignore the protests of Tunisias secular elites by going straight to a referendum on the issue.
He said sharia had become associated in the minds of some secular Tunisians with violence and terrorism and had been besmirched by the actions of groups such as Afghanistans Taleban.
Gee, wonder how anyone could think that...
For Ennahda, Islam and sharia were inseparable and the mention of Islam in the constitution was enough.
Again, he's telegraphing his message right there. Sharia is in, whether stated or not.
Constitutions that last are not based on 51 percent... They are based on consensus, or ijmaa in Islamic language, or at least near consensus. Sharia so far does not represent consensus for Tunisians. Islam does represent consensus so we will build our constitution on Islam, he said.
The Tunisian elite is an important section of society that must be reassured by Islam. Today it is reassured and that is good and we dont want to come with new debates that will divide Tunisian society.
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[An Nahar] Syria has responded afresh to U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... on his six-point proposals to end the crisis in the country, the former U.N. chief's front man said Monday.
"The Syrian government has formally responded to the Joint Special Envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan's 6-point plan, as endorsed by the U.N. Security Council," he said in a statement. "Mr. Annan is studying it and will respond very shortly."
Annan's plan calls for a U.N.-supervised halt to fighting with the government pulling troops and heavy weapons out of protest cities, a daily two-hour humanitarian pause to hostilities and access to all areas affected by the fighting.
The special envoy also sought the release of people jugged over the past year of the uprising against Assad in which monitors say more than 9,100 people have been killed.
Syrian authorities had already given a first round of response to his proposals in mid-March, but the special envoy had sought more information from Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
The latest response came after a team dispatched by Annan to Syria returned after three days of discussions with Syrian authorities.
Annan, who secured backing from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for his mediation efforts in their meeting Sunday, is due to visit Beijing Tuesday to brief leaders about his proposals.
In Moscow, Annan said only Syrians could determine President Bashar-al-Assad's fate and called for the rival sides to negotiate an end to the conflict.
"I think only Syrians should decide the issue of Assad's resignation," Annan told Russian news agencies in remarks translated into Russian.
"It's important to sit all Syrians behind a negotiating table," he said a day after meeting Medvedev.
The envoy added that it was "incorrect to give any deadlines" for ending the violence in Syria.
Medvedev warned Sunday that Annan represented the last chance for avoiding a civil war in Syria and promised him Russia's full support.
China and Russia have previously drawn criticism for blocking U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning Syria's protracted and deadly crackdown on protests, and their support is crucial for Annan's plan to move forward.
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(Sh.M.Nework)- At least two people were killed and eight others injured after mortar bombardment near Somalia's presidential palace in the heart of Mogadishu, residents said on Monday.
Residents at squalid settlement, in Mogadishu's Wardhiglay district confirmed to Shabelle Media that some mortars hit inside Villa Somalia, the presidential palace while other missed their target and slammed into nearby an IDP camp, killing two displaced, a son and his father.
Residents at the IDP camp have expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over the shells and reported heavy gunfire in the area overnight but could not confirm the exact casualties.
This is the second attempt to strike at the heart of the embattled Somali government palace in less than two week. TFG officials remained silence to talk about the barrage.
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[Dawn] The health department is launching a three-day emergency anti-polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... vaccination campaign in Jalozai camp and nearby villages to immunise the internally displaced children from highly-endemic Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, according to officials.
"The emergency vaccination drive, to get underway from Monday, has been planned in the wake of red alert issued by the World Health Organisation last week to prevent transmission of the virus to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar and other surrounding areas," they said.
Normally children below five years are administered anti-polio drops but during the emergency campaign vaccine will be administered to people up to 15 years of age in line with the protocol followed during the international health emergency to do away with the risk of any child serving as a carrier for the spread of the crippling poliovirus.
Officials said that the decision to enhance the age limit of target children had worked in Somalia, Chad and Mali where similar step was taken to contain reemergence of poliovirus after those countries were declared polio-free.
The government decided to hold an emergency meeting following a letter from WHO to provincial chief secretary, requesting him to make a plan for the children taking refuge in Jalozai camp owing to military operation in Khyber Agency.
"We are also setting up emergency transit polio checkposts on all routes leading to Bara in response to WHO`s fears that polio situation is getting out of control in Peshawar in particular and the province in general owing to shifting of people from Bara to Jalozai camp," officials added.
They said that the campaign in Jalozai for Bara IDPs had also been suggested to the chief secretary by members of Technical Advisory Group of global polio initiative in a meeting held last month.
"We have recorded 38 polio cases in Bara since 2010. It is a matter of grave concern as it poses serious threat to the worldwide polio eradication efforts," officials said.
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Pennsylvania State Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Philadelphia, picked up the political hand grenade that is the state's ultrasound bill today when she wondered aloud at a Capitol rally if Republican women who had co-sponsored the bill are "men with breasts."
Josephs' remarks came at a political rally sponsored by the Lancaster County Democratic Committee, in which she accused Republicans in control of the state Senate and state House of turning Pennsylvania into a "laboratory for the right-wing. They're trying all these experiments on us."
Then, she took specific aim at women lawmakers who co-sponsored the ultrasound bill, asking rhetorically, "I do not understand how a woman in this Legislature can say to herself: 'I'm not capable of making my own health decisions... but I can get elected and make them for somebody else.'
"What is wrong with these women? What are they thinking about?" Josephs continued. "Are they women? Or are they men with breasts."
Ironically, the Pennsylvania ultrasound bill has been shelved indefinitely by House leaders, in part because of outcries by more moderate GOP lawmakers who don't want to deal with it in their election year.
Coming two weeks after Gov. Tom Corbett was flogged in the national media echo chamber for his own "you just have to close your eyes" comment about the ultrasound bill, which he said he could support, the bill's supporters seized on Josephs' remarks as insensitive to those who consider abortion murder.
"I think it's sad, and certainly disrespectful, to have to describe opponents to your opinion of a bill by attacking and throwing names around," the bill's prime sponsor, Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren County, said in an interview.
Rep. RoseMarie Swanger, R-North Lebanon Twp. and a co-sponsor, called the comments a low blow. "I am a woman, and just because I disagree with her on certain women's issues doesn't make me a man," Swanger said. "We can have different points of view, but we don't have to insult each other."
Corbett's press secretary Kevin Harley, who has argued that his boss's remarks on the topic were taken out of context by Democratic candidates for office, called Josephs' remarks "intolerant, insulting and idiotic."
In fact, a recent Quinnipiac University poll has suggested that women are evenly divided on the ultrasound requirement.
Josephs stood by her words after the rally, arguing that the women lawmakers on the bill are acting like some women do only in the sense "that they are doing what the men tell them."
Organizers of the rally stood by Josephs' remarks and her right to say them.
"That's her way of questioning the bill, and we support Babette," said Sally Lyall, chair of the Lancaster Democrats. "We don't move ahead if we don't get people's attention. If this gets people thinking, that's the point of a rally like this."
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Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/27/2012 7:23
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#3
Hateful Lib Troll
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2012 8:36
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#4
Increasing clarity in ultrasounds is cutting down on the number of abortions. That is the story between the lines here. Liberal lawmakers need to keep women on the plantation and abortion is all they have so they've jinned up this war on women and rabid attacks on the ultrasound bill.
#5
Creating live births to people who will probably have trouble affording a child (and thus vote to get OPM) will probably assist state authoritarian parties at the expense of redistribution opposing parties.
#6
she accused Republicans in control of the state Senate and state House of turning Pennsylvania into a "laboratory for the right-wing. They're trying all these experiments on us."
"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
#7
Clue #1 for the pro-abortion people: for the most part, the ultrasound proposed is routinely done as part of the abortion process, to locate the human life for destruction during the abortion. All the law changes is that the mother be shown the results prior to the destruction of the human life she is carrying.
#10
Old Spook, what you say about trans-vag ultrasound makes sense to me, but how 'standard' is the practice? I'd like to float that argument against my progressive 'friends' but need to be sure I'm on sound footings.
For a map, click here. For a map of Chihuahua state, click here Updating the story for new facts including the dead count, identity of eight of the dead and arms seized.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Eleven unidentified individuals were found dead in the Sierras of western Chihuahua state Monday, the aftermath of a gunfight between rival criminal groups, according to Mexican news accounts.
The gunfight which killed the ten took place between Sunday night and Monday morning.
A group of Chihuahua state police and ministerial agents Monday had been dispatched to an area called La Guitarra in Temosachi municipality, when it came under small arms fire from an armed group of unknown size waiting in the hills.
The group which fired on the police apparently withdrew when the agents returned fire. Neither the police nor their attackers had been wounded by gunfire in the incident. Police agents were unable to initiate pursuit of their attackers.
In the location agents found 11 dead, all apparently members of a criminal group.
The dead were identified as Hermes Yañez Gamezm 39, AKA El Choco, Jose Olivas Gamez, 35, Jose Juan Bojorquez Soto, 22, Ruelas Moncerrat Castle, 29, Arturo Tello Salinas 36 all from Cuauhtémoc municipality.
Also identified were Gil Noe Varela Gonzalez, 39, Efrain Marquez Perez, 53, Jesus Tello Mendoza, 25, all from Temosachi.
Security forces also seized one .22 caliber rifle, one AR-15 rifle, one grenade and nine ballistic vests.
A Mexican Army unit was subsequently dispatched to the area to provide additional security.
Temosachi municipality is between Madera municipality and Ciudad Cuauhtemoc, about 200 kilometers west of Chihuahua city.
Temosachi is also in the area of Mexico known as the Tarahumara Sierras, which is populated by indigenous Indians, some of whom are direct ascendants of the Aztecs. Criminal groups have in the past forced indigenous communities in Chihuahua and Durango state to grow drugs for sale, acting as feudal lords when those communities refused by torching residences.
The area is also undergoing a food crisis termed as a structural famine due to drought and extreme low temperatures, due to the fact that many Indian farmers in the region are subsistence farmers.
Last month the Catholic Bishop of the Tarahumara diocese, Rafael Sandoval Sandoval told a religious group in Puebla that Tarahumara Indians are forced to grow drugs to survive because of the drought conditions.
Chris Covert write Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Elizabeth Mitchell aka Erica Evans in "V (TV 2009 )" aka Julia 'Jules' Sullivan in "Frequency (2000)" aka Principal Carol Newman in "The Santa Clause 2 (2002) & The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006) aka Edele in "Running Scared (2006)" aka Juliet Burke in "Lost (TV 20042010)" aka Dr. Karen Winterman in "Double Bang (2001)" (age 42)
(Sh.M.Network)- Witnesses say at least four people were maimed after a land mine blast was targeted on a checkpoint controlling by soldiers underSomaliagovernment in the capitalMogadishu, witnesses said Monday.
The blast went off early Monday morning at Fagah junction in Yaqshid district where witnesses said two soldiers were among the maimed people in the kaboom that could be heard parts inMogadishu.
"I saw two civilians and soldiers being evacuated from the site of the blast at Fagah intersection. Shortly after the incident many soldiers mounting with pick ups have arrived at the scene and started search operations to find out the attackers," a witness told Shabelle Media by phone.
No one has immediately claimed the responsibility of the blast yet.
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[Dawn] A gunny bag containing the body of a young man was found on Sunday shortly after his younger brother, who went out in his search, was rubbed out in North Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , said police.
The victims were not affiliated with any religious or political party, said the police, suspecting that both the brothers were killed over personal enmity.
Twenty-seven-year-old Qasim Ilyas had gone missing on Saturday, said an official at the Khwaja Ajmair Nagri cop shoppe.
When he did not return home till Sunday morning, his family became worried and subsequently his brother, Ayaz Ilyas, 25, went out to find him, the official said.
Quoting eyewitness accounts, the police said Ayaz was targeted by gunnies riding a cycle of violence in Sector 5-C/1 of North Bloody Karachi.
Following the shooting, residents shifted the victim to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where he died during treatment, the police said.
Shortly afterwards, they added, a gunny bag containing the body of the victim's elder brother, Qasim, was found in the same sector.
Qasim had a meat shop in the area and his younger brother, Ayaz, was a photographer, said Ajmair Nagri SHO Illyas Shah.
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(Sh.M.Network) -- Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... betweenSomaliagovernment soldiers and Al-shabab gunnies took place overnight some parts in south of the chaoticMogadishu, security officials said.
The festivities erupted early hours on Sunday night after Al-shabab elements attacked with mortars Somali military base at Ex-control Afgoye checkpoint, south of Mogadishu where is largely controlled by TFG soldiers, causing an unconfirmed casualty, soldiers or civilians.
"The battle was extremely fierce and spread many neighborhoods,including Hoosh village in Dharkenlay district. We managed to ward off the gunnies from the area and now our soldiers maintain the full control," Ahmed Abdullah yare, a TFG military commander at Ex-control Afgoye checkpoint told Shabelle Media.
The situation remains calm this morning as TFG soldiers conducting security operation at the area which located a main road linksMogadishuto Lower Shabelle region of southernSomalia.
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#1
Practicing for a soccer match with the Egyptions.
DUBAI: An Iranian bulk carrier of Brazilian sugar was hijacked in the eastern Indian Ocean early on Monday with 23 crew on board, international shipping monitors said.
The Eglantine, which according to Reuters shipping data loaded in Rio de Janeiro in late February, was hijacked off India's southwest coast by suspected Somali pirates, NATO's counter-piracy mission said.
Attacks as far away from Somalia as Monday's hijacking are rare. Although NATO, EU and Iranian naval forces are trying to protect merchant shipping, the Indian Ocean is too big for them to effectively patrol all of it.
The U.S. has identified the vessel as being operated by Iranian government shipping companies blacklisted by Washington. The vessel was carrying over 63,000 tonnes of cargo when it left Brazil, the world's biggest sugar exporter, according to shipping data.
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#9
The use of Mother ships (also hijacked)and the expansion of organized crime (and their ability to organize - hence their name)has meant a massive expansion of the area of ops for the pirates.
The last pirates taken by the US (remember the thankful Iranians) have now been handed over to the Seychelles for trial. Interesting the two countries with the largest jurisdictional interest (Iran due to the victims) and USA (due to conrol of the captured pirates)couldn t seem to sort it out who gets to try these block heads. I am sure the Seychelles are getting some money for their effort.
The Iranian "sugar boat" makes for some new twists. The money is in the possible ransom for the crew, not for the goods. Not sure Iran is in the ransom game. So poor move for the Pirates. As a blacklisted ship not to many countries will want to touch this one - opps another poor move for the pirates. There is also the possiblity of fuel issues if one wants to steam this sugar boat back to Somalia. Opps again. This ship just might end up being sunk "as a warning" to others.
[An Nahar] Turkey's former army chief Ilker Basbug went on trial Monday on charges of leading a terrorist group accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government, local media said.
Basbug, who was chief of staff from 2008 to 2010, has been in jug since January and risks life in prison if convicted in a case that has inflamed tensions between the government and the powerful military.
He is the most senior officer to be implicated in a massive probe into the so-called Ergenekon network, accused of plotting to topple Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Basbug, 68, branded the charges against him as "tragi-comic" when he was locked away in January.
At the start of the hearing in a court in Silivri, outside Istanbul, Basbug's lawyer called for his client to be tried by the supreme court but the demand was rejected, the Anatolia news agency reported.
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Turkey's former armed forces chief General Ilker Basbug said on Tuesday he would not defend himself against terrorism charges, describing the allegations against him as a "comedy" and calling for his trial to be heard by the supreme court.
Basbug, accused of involvement in a plot to overthrow the government, told the court he had no respect for the indictment, saying the allegations were against the Turkish armed forces and were a serious insult to the state.
[An Nahar] Syrian forces clashed Monday with a group of "terrorists" seeking to enter the restive northwestern province of Idlib from Turkey, killing and wounding a number of them, official media reported.
"The authorities today foiled an attempt by a group of armed cut-throats to enter Syria from Turkey, in an area between the towns of Darkush and Salqin," the official SANA news agency reported.
Syrian border guards clashed with the group, a number of whom were killed and maimed, while others decamped to Turkey, according to the report.
"Turkish medical teams evacuated the dead and maimed," SANA said, adding that the authorities "seized weapons that the cut-throats had left when they decamped, like guns, RPG rockets, modern communication devices and explosives."
Syrian officials frequently blame cut-throats for attacks carried out against the security forces.
The Local Coordination Committees activist group, which organizes protests on the ground, also mentioned festivities in Darkush, but said they were between regular soldiers and deserters fighting for the rebel Free Syrian Army.
Monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the festivities had left six regime troops maimed, while the LCC said army bombardments had caused several houses to catch fire in the area.
Turkey on Monday became the latest country to close its embassy in Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... A Turkish diplomatic source said the mission was closed because of deteriorating security conditions in Syria and that all diplomatic personnel had left Damascus.
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[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... on Monday stressed Pakistain's commitment to Afghan peace, development and prosperity, calling for trans-border cooperation, which he said would not only transform the region's economic landscape, but would also be an effective bulwark against extremism and militancy.
"We believe that the crusade against poverty and deprivation must be waged in tandem with the war against terrorism. Pakistain's consistent position is that more than military might, it is a battle for hearts and minds," said the president.
The president was addressing the inaugural session of the two-day fifth Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA-V) being hosted by Tajikistan and attended by delegations from around 70 countries and international organizations.
Zardari also said that Pakistain believed that an economically strong and politically stable Afghanistan would be a catalyst for peace and prosperity in the region, adding, on the other hand, regional cooperation that optimizes Afghanistan's strategic location would be a vital ingredient for the country's development.
The President said, "When I support development for Afghanistan, I am in essence supporting development for Pakistain."
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[Yemen Post] Al-Qaeda announced on Saturday that it has taken control of the coastal town of Radum, in the Yemeni southeastern province of Shabwa.
In a statement released today, and confirmed by a security official, Ansar al-Sharia ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... , a group affiliated with al-Qaeda, had taken control today of the Radum town.
The Islamic fascistimoved from Azan and other areas of Shabwa to Radum, according to the official, who indicated that the Islamic fascistitook control of town gradually.
Yemen based al-Qaeda wing, which is according to the US administration the most dangerous offshoot of the terror network, has stepped its attacks on military institutions and personnel, taking an advantage of a distracted government.
A Swiss women, working as an English teacher, was kidnapped two a week ago by the Islamic fascistiand she is believed to have been moved to Shabwa, the hometown of the US-Yemeni holy man Anwar al-Wlaqi, who was assassinated by US drone last year.
Early this year, al-Qaeda briefly seized control of Rada, the main town in the southeastern province of Al-Bytha.
Last year in May, the terror network took control of Zinjubar, the bustling provincial capital of Abyan, which has been the scene of almost daily festivities between AQAP and army forces.
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
#1
As per TOPIX + WORLD NEWS, AQ is repor becom
"perilously" close to turning Yemen into another "Afghanistan" on the Saudi Peninsula???
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.
Researchers at Symantec say they possess part of the worm which causes it to load on a computer after it restarts.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Malians marched in Bamako Monday to protest against the junta while Tuareg rebels threatened to capture a key northern city, piling political and military pressure on the coup leaders.
A meeting of Hindu community representatives has expressed serious concern over the plight of the minority communities in Pakistain and demanded the implementation of the existing laws and enactment of more laws to ensure their protection against kidnapping, harassment, forced conversion and discrimination.
The Islamist gunman whose murder spree shocked 
[Yemen Post] Militant groups believed to be linked with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) clashed with government forces on Sunday in the southern restive province of Abyan, local sources said.
[Bangla Daily Star] At least 30 people 
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A gunny bag containing the body of a young man was found on Sunday shortly after his younger brother, who went out in his search, was 
[An Nahar] Turkey's former army chief Ilker Basbug went on trial Monday on charges of leading a terrorist group accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government, local media said.
ist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends...
