Afghan President Hamid Karzai "respects the decisions" of France's president-elect Francois Hollande regarding troop withdrawal in Afghanistan, a government statement said on Thursday.
Hollande, who ousted incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy an election Sunday, pledged during his campaign to withdraw France's combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, ahead of an agreed NATO timetable.
In a telephone call, Karzai congratulated Hollande for his election victory, and told him "the Afghan government respects the decisions of the French leadership in regards with Afghanistan", the statement said.
Hollande will outline his withdrawal strategy to NATO at a summit in Chicago on May 20-21, where Afghanistan will be top of the agenda.
France's 3,400 troops are the fifth largest contingent in the 130,000-strong US-led NATO force battling Taliban insurgents, but Kabul has downplayed the effect of their early departure, saying Afghan troops are ready to take over.
An alleged terror plot targeting Kenyan tourist hotels with chemical explosives was financed by Samantha Lewthwaite, the British widow of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay, a senior official has said.
#1
The daughter of a lorry driver and the widow of an ill-educated jacket wallah, now with a third child by a Moroccan man not married to her... where did she get the money to finance anything?
A British undercover agent infiltrated al-Qaeda, volunteered to be a suicide bomber and smuggled out the latest version of the deadly underpants bomb, it can be disclosed. The man, who risked his life to get close to al-Qaeda's master bomb-maker in the Yemen, is of Saudi origin but holds a British passport, sources told the Daily Telegraph.
MI5 recruited the agent for an operation in which the CIA planned to target the bomb-maker with a missile from an unmanned drone. MI6 then worked with the Saudis who have previously infiltrated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP), based in Yemen.
The individual was sent to target Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the ruthless Saudi-born bomb-maker for AQAP. He infiltrated the terrorist group, risking execution if he was discovered, and volunteered to be a suicide bomber.
Two weeks ago, the agent walked away from al-Qaeda with the device he was supposed to use in an attack on US-bound aircraft. He traveled to the United Arab Emirates and then to Saudi Arabia, with the device before handing it over to his British handlers.
He was also able to give information which led to a CIA drone strike on Sunday which killed Fahd al-Quso, AQAP's director of external operations.
However al-Asiri was not there and remains at large, frustrating efforts to kill him. The mission is particularly sensitive because British agents are not supposed to give "targeting information" for lethal operations.
The underpants device was handed to the FBI laboratories in Quantico, Virginia, which examined a similar device used by Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab on a trans-Atlantic airliner to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.
The FBI has discovered that Asiri had refined the prototype he first developed for use by his own brother in a suicide operation three years ago so that it could be detonated in two separate ways.
The British security services are thought to be unhappy that their role has become known, fearing it may jeopardise the recruitment of future agents who are given anonymity even after they die by the service. Whitehall sources refused to comment.
So who authorized the release of the information? And why?
#1
The US-Mexico extradition treaty, for example, lists a number of extraditable offenses, such as:
- Violations of the customs laws
- Offenses against copyright or intellectual property
- Offenses related to international trade and transfers of funds or valuable metals
- Offenses relating to prohibition âunfair transactionsâ
Weâre not exactly talking about violent criminals here; these rules so opaque that just about everyone on the planet is in violation of some offense.
...and sometime it involves conspiracy involving reckless disregard of life and safety and leading to significant death count in that country. You really would deny an extradition request for Mr Holder from Mexico?
I'm not convinced it's a good idea to ban political movements. The ideas can't be banned, after all. Thought cannot be policed. But Germany is already a country that bans totalitarian political parties, so why not add Salafists to the list? Anyone who thinks such a move would be "Islamophobic" should be aware that Tunisia, an Arab country that's 99 percent Muslim, also bans the Salafist party. When these people reach critical mass they're extraordinarily dangerous.
To which I respond:
One indeed cannot and should not ban political movements. I read both Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto in college; neither provoked me into being a socialist. Germany has a certain problem with extremism in the past and could potentially sink into extremism in the future, so banning political movements sets a bad precedent.
However, Germany (and the U.S.) has every right to ban immigrants who come into the country specifically to preach radicalism. A person who comes into a new country with the express intent of radicalizing the local population to overthrow the established order has no rights in that country and indeed is violating the terms of his immigration (to become a new citizen and blend in). He can and should be removed forthwith.
We've been reporting this problem at Rantburg for quite a while: Salafist preachers go to Germany, Britain, France, Australia, the U.S., and so on and start preaching their hatred to the gullible rubes in the local mosques. This is one of the essential links in how the Saudis (our friends) plan to spread Wahabbism and Salafism throughout the world. The local believers need to be indoctrinated and trained, so Salafist preachers are imported from Saudi Arabia or Pakistan to do the preaching.
That's where Germany has every right to fix the problem: expel the foreign preachers. This is not a free speech issue; no country allows foreigners to come to its land to preach sedition and revolution. Citizens have a right within the limits of the political system of a democratic state to believe, speak and spread hatred if they wish, as detestable as it may be to reasonable people, but foreigners do not.
Don't ban the movement. Ban the foreign preachers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2012
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#1
I keep going back and forth on this. Consider, for example, banning racial epithets. Sounds like the decent thing to do, but there are problems. The new words start to take on the meaning of the banned words. Also, you get a slippery slope leading to political correctness (social Marxism). So maybe it isn't such a good idea after all?
Flag burning is another example. Best suggestion, BTW, I have ever heard for this issue: accept the idea that symbolic speech is speech, and give that speech a legal meaning. In this case, define the burning of a US flag as an affirmative statement rescinding your US citizenship.
Anyway, I think Orwell was onto something with Newspeak, but at the same time I wonder if changing words really does change ideas in the long run. Don't know.
Guess what, the non-Salafists in Timbuktu are both scared and unhappy that the jihadi hard boys are walking around town with guns, grabbing the local women for themselves and burning down shrines. Whoever would have guessed?
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Welcome to the aftermath of "smart" diplomacy and the reset button. This was mostly triggered by the actions in Libya.
A few days old but we didn't report on this before. Hat tip to Walter Russell Mead.
May 5 - Malian fighters from the Ansar Dine Islamist group attacked and burned the tomb of one of the town's saints, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, residents and a regional official said on Saturday.
The militants broke off doors, windows and wooden gates from the grave and burned them, they said, in the first reported attack on a shrine in Mali.
El Hadj Baba Haidara, an elected member of parliament from Timbuktu told Reuters some young people were discussing how to react despite being unarmed. "There is a risk the people may revolt because this is something that affects their dignity. This tomb is sacred, it is too difficult to bear," Haidara said.
Ansar Dine, along with Tuareg rebels and other armed groups, swept through northern Mali in March and April, seizing the northern half of the country and its ancient towns of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal after the government collapsed in a March 22 coup.
While the rebel MNLA has declared an independent state in the north, al Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine - led by veteran Tuareg leader Iyad Ag Ghaly - has rejected that idea and said the group's objective was to impose Islamic law in Mali.
Of course that's their goal. The goal of the holy warrior is always to subdue those who live in the world of war, converting them to the world of Islam or putting them to the sword.
In 2001, the Taliban dynamited and destroyed two 6th century statues of Buddha measuring 55 and 37 metres (180 and 121 feet) high, carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan.
Timbuktu Muslims on their way to Friday worship at the tomb of Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar and those of other saints were stopped and threatened by armed men from Ansar Dine, one resident said.
"What you are doing is haram! (forbidden). Ask God directly rather than the dead," one of the armed men told the residents, according to Ahmed Ibrahim, a resident who witnessed the scene.
MostMany Some Islamists view shrines as idolatry but traditional Muslims, especially Sufis, see shrines as part of accepted Islamic custom. Salafists have attacked several Sufi shrines in Egypt and Libya in the past year.
"After uttering those words, three of them (armed men) entered the mausoleum, ripped and burnt pieces of white clothing that surrounded the tomb of the saint in front of everyone," Ibrahim said.
Haidara told Reuters the act by the Islamist group could spark a violent reaction from the population, and that he had urged the U.N. body to help protect Timbuktu's heritage sites.
"They attacked the grave, broke doors, windows and wooden gates that protect it. They brought it outside and burn it, because to build a tomb is contrary to the principles of Islam," he said. The men said they would return to destroy other tombs.
No one at UNESCO was immediately available to comment.
Did you look under their beds?
"We have learned with indignation of the desecration of tombs perpetrated by lawless individuals. The government condemns in the strongest terms this unspeakable act in the name of Islam, a religion of tolerance and respect for human dignity," Mali's government said in a statement read on national television.
Timbuktu has 333 tombs of holy saints among which 16 are classified as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including that of Sidi Mahamoud Ben Amar, a learned scholar considered the most sacred in Timbuktu, Haidara said.
The town has been a World Heritage Site since 1988 and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova in April appealed to the rebels to spare its "outstanding earthen architectural wonders".
These include the Sankore, Sidi Yahia and Djingarei-ber mosques - the latter Timbuktu's oldest, built from mud bricks and wood in 1325 - the famous manuscript libraries and the 16 mausoleums of Timbuktu.
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Via Meadia is glad the press doesnt hate Obama as much as it hated Bush; otherwise the papers would be full every day with stories about the unintended, tragic consequences of the humanitarian intervention gone awry in Libya and about the policy failures and miscalculations that landed us in this mess. There would be eloquent lamentations and beautifully choreographed hand wringings by our professional moralists and the custodians of the collective conscience at our better universities and more prestigious magazines. There would be telling comparisons of the destruction of the tombs in Timbuktu with the looting of the Baghdad museums. There would be impassioned denunciations of the hubris that led the ideological zealots to promote the holy war, and scathing, mocking reminders of the promises they made about how nice things would be if we took their advice.
The leadership of South Korea's largest Buddhist order resigned en masse Thursday after video footage emerged of junior monks playing poker with thousands of dollars at stake.
Prosecutors launched a probe after the footage came to light this week of eight monks from the Jogye Order gambling at a hotel room in southern Jangseong County.
Gambling is illegal in South Korea, except for in special areas such as casinos for foreign tourists, and is also a breach of the Buddhist order's code of discipline.
The gambling, which took place last month, was filmed by another monk and the video footage was given as evidence to police. The eight monks were also allegedly drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes in breach of Buddhist rules.
"All the six members of the executive committee of the Jogye Order have tendered their resignations, holding themselves responsible for the incident," a Jogye Order spokesman told AFP.
Jaseung, head of the order, said the monks would face tough punishment and the order is expected to make an apology to the nation as early as Friday, Yonhap news agency said.
The gambling controversy is the latest incident in a long-running feud between supporters of the Jogye Order's current administration and its opponents, as the footage was secretly recorded by an opponent and then made public.
On Wednesday, one of the opponents, known by his Buddhist name Seongho, sued his eight fellow monks for gambling and betting "hundreds of millions of won."
#1
Whenever I have to fill out a form that asks my ethnicity I tell them I'm a Martian. I'm sure they know that really means I'm a cantankerous old white guy but I can still hope that it goofs up their database.
A British man accused of links to Somalia's Islamist terrorists militants will go on trial in Kenya for allegedly plotting a bomb attack.
Jermaine Grant, 29, made his first appearance in court on Thursday, amid chaotic scenes in Mombasa. He was arrested last December and denies allegations that he possessed explosive material. He had already been jailed for being in Kenya illegally.
A Kenyan government lawyer said the case failed to start Wednesday because Grant's criminal file was incomplete.
Police say that when they raided the house Grant was staying in last year, they found material needed to make a bomb: hydrogen peroxide and ammonium nitrate, batteries, and electrical switches. The prosecution will allege that Grant was, together with three Kenyan co-defendants, planning to target civilians with their explosives.
A recent report by a security think-tank claimed Britons accounted for about a quarter of the estimated 200 foreigners fighting with al-Shabab.
Grant was first detained in Kenya near the Somali border in 2008, but escaped police custody. He is said to have been sprung from a police station by a group of al-Shabab terrorists militants.
Forty people were killed and 170 others were wounded in two successive powerful explosions that shook the Syrian capital early on Thursday, the state reported, as both the government and the opposition traded blames over the cause of the bombings.
The state television said the two terrorist attacks killed and wounded dozens on the freeway in the south of Damascus. The television added that the blasts occurred as people were heading to work and children to school.
It showed footage of the blasts with mangled bodies lay in the street amid the carcasses of shouldering vehicles.
Major General Robert Mood, chief of a U.N. observer mission in Syria, visited the site to survey the aftermath, Al Arabiya correspondent reported
Haitham al-Maleh, of the opposition Syrian National Council, accused the regime in Damascus of masterminding the bombings, while London-based Syrian activist and journalist Bassam Jaara described the bombings as the regimes response to the U.N. condemnation of its acts.
Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani, a Shiite cleric based in the holy Iranian city of Qom, has issued a death sentence against rap artist Shahin Najafi for apostasy, the Persian-language Al Arabiya website reported on Wednesday.
The sentence was issued after Najafi released a controversial song called Naqi.
The song sparked a furor among protesters who believe it to be offensive to Imam Naqi, the tenth Imam in Shiite Islam.
News website Asr Iran, which is closely tied to the regime in Tehran, launched an online campaign calling for the hanging of Najafi. The website stated that the aim of the campaign was to have Najafi condemned for apostasy, a crime that carries the death penalty in Iran.
The campaign organizers have called on all Shiites and Muslims in general to find and kill Najafi and send him to hell, according to the website.
Najafi, 31, was an underground artist during his time in Iran, and was banned by the authorities from performing in the country. He moved to Germany in recent years where he joined a group called Tapesh 2012 which performs politically-motivated songs in Persian.
In 1989 a novel by British author Salman Rushdie created a similar response from Iran, when a fatwa (religious edict) was issued by Irans highest authority, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling for his killing for what was considered a disrespectful depiction of Prophet Muhammad.
#1
"Austerity" has been redefined. It means "not increasing spending as much as the best & brightest think ought to happen." It definitely does NOT mean cutting government spending back to a level below that of the previous 12 months.
From the article: No less than the very sovereignty and liberty of free peoples everywhere depends on rejection of the international order that has evolved since the end of World War II. The central banking cartel and their willing political accomplices are pushing us into an international tyranny run on debt. Author does have a point. However, changing that order will be very painful, even AUSTERE. And that's not popular anywhere. The people are rejecting the rotting corpse of the established order. Only a few, very few at that.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
05/10/2012 5:17
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#5
The only way out is one proposed by Charles Murray years ago.
Either cut the number of government employees by 40% or keep them all but cut all of their paychecks by 40% and to hell with the consequences to their standard of living. If they riot, incarcerate them or do whatever else is necessary to keep the peace.
America will be saved when the boomtown suburbs of D.C. fouled as they are with lawyers, lobbyists, and regulators, are reduced to impoverished ghost towns.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/10/2012 7:59
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#6
We are not immune here in the U.S. In fact, we are leading the movement. From Tea Party in 2009 and 2010 to Occupy in 2011 to May 8s overwhelming defeat of a senior establishment figure like Richard Lugar in Indiana, the people are rejecting the rotting corpse of the established order.
Amen and amen! I noted Lugar's bitter comments on the teevee last evening. Evidently 40+ years supping at the public trough wasn't enough for the greedy bastard!
#7
I would have labeled Lugar a "superannuated political figure" rather than a "senior establishment figure." He's been long past his "sell by" date.
"Rotting corpses" are still getting plenty of support. Cases in point:
Traverse City, Michigan -- City firefighters washed the city's budget hearing with yellow-clad supporters, some of whom called for tax increases to save the jobs of Traverse City's emergency responders threatened by budget cuts..."I'm a retired teacher,"... said Mary Anderson... "I will pay whatever you need to help pay for it." ...said Carol Tompkins-Parker, whose father was a city firefighter. "I will support the Traverse City Fire Department any way I can, I will pay more taxes," she said.
Whistles, whoops and honking cars marked unionized labor's picketingof Milpitas City Hall Tuesday evening. Paul Mullett, a union representative for public works employees, said his group gathered 700 signatures from the public in support of preserving their jobs instead of contracting to less expensive workers.
"I would say 99 percent do not want us to outsource the parks or the streets," Mullett said.
Anyone can find dozens of news items like these on any given day. When items like these stop being reported with a straight face, it might be a sign people are rejecting the status quo.
A roadside bomb hit a Syrian military truck on Wednesday, just seconds after the head of the United Nations observer team drove by in a convoy, and demonstrated the fragility of the international plan to end the countrys bloodshed.
The attack, which the government said wounded 10 Syrian soldiers, also emphasized the limits of the international communitys plan to use unarmed observers to monitor a cease-fire between government troops and rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
The team of 70 military observers now in Syria is expected to grow to more than 100 in the coming days, but it is unclear when the full team of 300 will arrive. They are to oversee an internationally brokered cease-fire agreement that was intended to allow for talks on a political solution to the conflict but began fraying shortly after it was scheduled to take effect on April 12.
[Ynet] A senior Shas official said that the possibility of significantly increasing the number of yeshiva students who would enlist with the IDF is in negotiations.
"We are negotiating the possibility with senior Coalition members," he said. According to the official, the haredim understand that the current arrangement cannot go on, but expect the secular sector to realize that the mass recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox must be done gradually.
(Sh.M.Network)- Sri Lankan fishermen have rescued four Somali men who were drifting in a small boat off the island's coast -- where pirates from the African nation are known to be active -- police said on Tuesday.
A Sri Lankan trawler found the men last Wednesday in international waters in the Indian Ocean, thousands of kilometres from Somalia, a police official said.
"The (Somali) men were handed over to us today," police front man Ajith Rohana said. "What we gathered from the fishermen is that the Somalis were not armed at the time of the rescue. But, we can't say if they are pirates or not."
In January last year, Somali pirates operating in theIndian Oceanregion killed two Sri Lankan fishermen and seized three men along with their trawler.
A Bolivian-flagged vessel seized by Somali pirates in Maldivian waters two months ago was later freed with its Iran-bound sugar cargo.
Two decades of lawlessness have carved upSomaliainto mini-fiefdoms ruled by gunnies and militia, encouraging rampant piracy.
At least 40 vessels and more than 400 hostages were still being held in or just offSomaliaat the end of last year, according to the Ecoterra International group which monitors piracy in the region.
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Ismail Belghar is thought to be the first Muslim in Australia to be granted a judge-only trial on the grounds that a jury may be biased because of his religion.
This decision can be revealed after Belghar, 36, yesterday pleaded guilty to detaining and assaulting his sister-in-law after she "dared" to bring his wife to the beach without his permission. The court heard Belghar felt it "abhorrent" that his wife, Hanife Kokden, had been to the beach where she "displayed her body".
In March, the judge had granted Belghar a trial before a solitary judge after saying he may not receive a fair trial with a jury. Judge Solomon said, "The attitude of (Belghar) ... is based on a religious or cultural basis. In light of the fact there has been adverse publicity regarding people who hold extreme Muslim faith beliefs in the community, I am of the view that the apprehension by (Belghar) that he may not receive a fair trial is a reasonable apprehension."
The Moroccan immigrant had originally been charged with the attempted murder of his wife's younger sister, Canan Kokden, 25.
The Crown appealed the judge's ruling arguing that, were the judge correct, every Muslim would be entitled to a judge-only trial. Last week the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the ruling and ordered Belghar be tried by a jury.
The trial was due to start yesterday when Belghar pleaded guilty to detaining Kokden for advantage to intimidate and assault. He denied attempted murder and that charge was dropped.
So faced with a jury, he plea-bargained...
The court had heard Belghar, who has been married to his wife for 11 years, learned she had been to the beach because her shoulders were slightly sunburned. He called his sister-in-law and said, "You slut, how dare you take my wife to the beach."
Just before Christmas, in the same year, Kokden came face to face with Belghar while out shopping with her brother. Belghar slapped her across the face then carried her to the railing around the car park where he held her out over it. She was freed when her brother tackled Belghar.
Friendly family. Must be a real joy in the late afternoon hours of Ramadan...
#3
Assuming no serious injury occurred to his victim, the guy needs to be sentenced to a lifetime of wearing the burka while outdoors, subject to random spot checks.
(Sh. M. Network)-The leader of Somali Religious Council in Mogadishu Sheik Ahmed Dhi'isow says the current new draft constitution for Somalia is absolutely against the Islam.
"Every elder at the ongoing so called Somali traditional elders in Mogadishu supposed to select the constituent assembly that will adopt the draft constitution and choose a parliament is the enemy of Allah and the Islamic region," he added.
Sheik Dhi'isow also, mentioned that the draft constitution is worst than the former Berlin conference which was divided the nationhood of Somalia country, because of it will weaken some of most sacred points for the nation and its people including the religion and the illusory sovereignty of its borders.
This remarks followed as theSomalia's traditional elders are holding a major conference inMogadishuin the fifth-day to select National Constituent Assembly of 825 clan-based members that will adopt the draft constitution as well as a new parliament of Somalia.
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(Sh. M. Network) -- Fighters of Al shabaab jihad boy group linked with Al Qaeda on Wednesday apprehended nearly 100 elders in three locations in central Somalia, a politician confirmed to Shabelle Media.
Dahir Sheik Amiin Jesow, a Somali MP said the arrests took place today at three areas called Buqda-Aqable, El-Ali, Mukeyle located in Hiran, Lower Middle Shabelle regions of south and central Somalia.
The Arrested elders were said to have been accused of planning to travel to Mogadishu as to join the continuing Somalia Traditional elders convenes in the capital which is intended to select a national constituent assembly that will adopt the draft constitution and the upcoming Somali parliament.
Al shabab has already declared its stiff stance against Mogadishu meeting, saying he who attends it will be out of Islam, according to Sheik Ali Dhere, the front man of the group.
Locals 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... the group's move against the elders and some residents demanded for immediate safe release. But fighters loyal to the group have captured and tossed in the slammer You have the right to remain silent... .
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[TOLOnews] - Five education officials were killed and six others were maimed in a bad turban ambush in southeast Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... province Tuesday afternoon, a statement from the Ministry of Education said Wednesday.
The incident happened at around 11:30 am local time as a delegation of education ministry were visiting schools in the Urgun district of Paktika province, the statement said.
This comes as five police and four Farah provincial education directors were killed in kaboom late Tuesday, a regional police official said Wednesday.
Investigation suggest the bomb was under the vehicle when it exploded by remote-control.
Afghan Ministry of Education strongly condemned the act calling on provincial security forces to find and arrest those who committed such attacks.
[Dawn] Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... on Wednesday said Pakistain and the United Kingdom were partners in the fight against terrorism and extremism and his country remains committed to fight the scourge till its elimination.
Addressing a reception here at the House of Commons to meet with British Parliamentarians, on the invitation of High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Gilani said the democratic government has created national ownership to the campaign against terrorism and has brought all stakeholders on board.
Gilani said the Parliament has recently reaffirmed Pakistain's commitment to the elimination of terrorism and was combating extremism in pursuance of Pakistain's national interest.
"We have also repeatedly said that we would not allow our territory to be used for any kind of attacks on other countries Then his lips fell off.
and we expect that the soil of other countries would not be used against Pakistain," said the premier.
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#1
He needs to tell the British born pakis the same thing.
(Ma'an) -- Egyptian authorities found the body of an army officer who had been rubbed out in the northern Sinai late Monday, officials said.
Military officials identified the victim as 35-year-old officer Abdullah Abdul-Minem. His body was found with a bullet wound in the head in Sheikh Zuweid city near El-Arish.
Separately, another police officer was shot by unidentified gunnies on Monday on his return home to El-Arish. The man was found in a pool of blood after having been shot several times in the abdomen, and was evacuated by helicopter to a military hospital in Cairo.
Early Monday, Egyptian security forces made a sweep of arrests in the northern Sinai, detaining 38 suspects in El-Arish, a security official told Ma'an.
Separately, families in the Egyptian border city Rafah turned in to the authorities two men suspected of planning a kaboom on the central security headquarters in the city.
Egyptian security are battling for control of the peninsula since the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... last year loosened the grip of state security in the isolated Sinai.
Military officials also warned that Jihadi groups want to oust state forces and have launched a number of deadly attacks on security officers.
A group called Creative Community for Peace is fighting back against the cultural boycott of Israel in the music industry. Made up of 30 leading music executives, talent agents and entertainment lawyers, the CCFP includes music powerhouses who represent luminaries like Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Aerosmith, Jennifer Lopez and Justin Timberlake. In recent days, artists as prominent as Elvis Costello, Carlos Santana, Roger Waters, the alternative rock band The Pixies, jazz singer Cassandra Wilson, alt rocker Cat Power and UK-based electronic artist Joker have all canceled appearances in Israel in order to boycott the Jewish state.
[Yemen Post] The second conference of the 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... has recommended helping Yemen face the humanitarian situation, which has been affecting the lives of millions for more than a year.
The conference on relief for the Yemeni people, held in association with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Humanitarian Forum, also recommended the international community, especially the countries which have pledged to help Yemen, to pay more attention to the humanitarian crisis in one of the poorest countries in the world.
It urged countries to work together to accelerate the release of aid and stressed the necessity to have a long-term strategy to tackle basic reasons behind poverty and deprivation.
Furthermore, the conference said alleviating the humanitarian suffering is essential to restore stability and to avoid more deterioration in Yemen since poverty and famine are key reasons for conflicts.
Earlier, the Yemeni government said there are about eight million people suffering from food insecurity and hunger.
Yemen is one of the regional countries hit by mass protests within the Arab spring, which started in early 2011.
The turmoil has aggravated its problems and the international community has started practical steps to help the country overcome the humanitarian crisis.
In addition to the turmoil, armed conflicts including the battles against Al-Qaeda bully boyz and 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.... Group have displaced hundreds of thousands of people in the north and the south. Most of the displaced are in urgent need for foodstuff, health care and shelter support.
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#1
They need more water and fewer people. At the rate they're going, they will soon accomplish the second, at which point the first will no longer be necessary.
[An Nahar] A 70-year-old Lebanese woman was killed on Wednesday in a cross-border fire in eastern Leb's al-Qaa village, the National News Agency reported.
Halima Suleiman Krombi was shot in the head and taken to Hermel state hospital, NNA said. But she later died from her wounds.
While the agency did not name the side that opened fire on the woman, other media reports said Syrian troops were behind the cross-border fire that also injured her daughter.
Last month, al-Jadeed TV cameraman Ali Shaaban was killed by gunfire from Syrian troops across the border in the northern Wadi Khaled area.
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[An Nahar] Bomb attacks like the one near a U.N. convoy in Syria on Wednesday cast doubt on the future of the ceasefire monitoring mission in the country, U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said.
There was no immediate evidence that U.N. monitors in the convoy were the target of Wednesday's attack, Ban said through a front man. But he expressed deep concern at the growing use of roadside and other improvised bombs across Syria.
"Such incidents, in addition to the continued violence reported in many cities in Syria, call into question the commitment of the parties to the cessation of violence and may have a direct impact on the future of the (U.N.) mission," Ban said in a statement released by U.N. front man Martin Nesirky.
The roadside blast at a military checkpoint near the protest city of Daraa injured 10 Syrian troops escorting U.N. observers, according to the statement.
"We have no evidence to believe that the kaboom was intended to target the UNSMIS convoy; however, this incident demonstrates the difficult and challenging conditions under which our United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... observers are operating," said Ban.
"It also demonstrates the volatile and dangerous situation in which the Syrian people have been living for months."
Ban "strongly condemns this attack and calls on all parties to adhere to the cessation of violence and to cooperate with, support and protect the UNSMIS observers."
Ban reaffirmed that the U.N. mission and efforts of 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... "are possibly the only remaining chance to stabilize the country and avert a civil war," said the statement.
U.N. officials say there are now 70 military observers and 43 civilian staff in the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), which was set up by the U.N. Security Council to monitor a shaky cessation of hostilities started on April 12.
The U.N. says well over 9,000 people have been killed in Syria since an uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... started in March last year.
Reacting to the roadside blast, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said "it is further evidence that the ceasefire is not holding and we really have to continue to pressure the Assad regime and all actors.
"And this is further to why we've got to get the monitors into as many places as we can so we have eyes on the streets and the opportunity to protect the Syrian people," Nuland said in Washington.
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[Ynet]- Two Southwest Airlines flights with ties to Phoenix and Orange County's John Wayne Airport were grounded Tuesday night following a threatening phone call, authorities said. Both planes were cleared later in the evening.
The threat was made while Flight 1184 was en route to Phoenix from Orange County, Southwest spokeswoman Ashley Dillon said. The plane was taken to an isolation pad after it landed in Phoenix.
[Ynet] Catholics and Jews have gathered outside the Colosseum in Rome in a candlelit vigil to decry attacks on Christians in the world.
Italia's minister for international cooperation, Andrea Riccardi, contended Wednesday night that there is practically "religious purification" being waged in places against Christians. Joining Catholic figures were Italian Jewish leaders in a show of solidarity.
[Jpost] - Sudanese army troops have pushed out rebels who had seized control of a town in the western Darfur region, a state-linked media website said on Wednesday, the latest violent incident in the troubled area.
The two Darfur rebel factions -- the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) factions led by Minni Minnawi and Abdelwahid Nour -- had captured Girayda in southern Darfur on Tuesday as part of their campaign to topple President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government.
"The armed forces were able to defeat remnants of Minnawi's forces from the area of Girayda in South Darfur province after they stormed it yesterday with the purpose of stealing, looting and terrorizing people," the Sudanese Media Center said.
It quoted the front man for South Darfur province, Ahmed el-Tayeb, as saying nine Sudanese army soldiers has been killed and that combing operations were still going on to "cleanse the area". The Sudanese army front manwas not immediately available for comment. "I can say no more!" to confirm the deaths.
The two rebel factions had formed an alliance, known as the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, with other fighters in Sudan's southern border states last year.
(Sh. M. Network) --Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) says it will soon clean Al shabab and its allied Al Qaeda from all the rebel-held regions in the war-torn nation.
The Minister of Defense Hussein Arab Isse promised to continue the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) ofSomalia's fight against Al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... and Al Qaeda in south and central Somalia.
The Minister told news hounds on Tuesday that the coalition forces working in southern Somalia have made much progress in fighting the terrorist organization.
Minister Isse explained the TFG's objective is to eradicate Al-Shabaab from southern Somalia in order to build peace in the region. He stated, "Although they (Al-Shabaab) have left Mogadishu it does not mean we can snooze, our troops will continue to fight Al-Shabaab in
"After Al shabab fighters were defeated in the battle in Mogadishu they shifted their tactics and begun to melt into the population as to carry out deadly attacks against civilians so that I urge to Somalis to work with TFG forces from preventing the threat so we can stabilize and promote peace in the region," he added.
The coalition of forces fighting Al-Shabaab includes Æthiopian, Kenyan, and AMISOM troops who have recently been effective in forcing Al-Shabaab cut-throats to withdraw from several strategic areas in the country's south and central region.
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[An Nahar] A roadside blast hit troops escorting U.N. observers in Syria's south on Wednesday, a day after 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... warned that his peace plan could be the last chance to avoid civil war, while several people were killed or maimed in violence across the country.
The bomb, apparently planted underground, maimed six Syrian soldiers escorting the convoy as it entered the city of Daraa, cradle of a 14-month uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... 's regime.
Major General Robert Mood, the head of the 70-strong U.N. mission, was in the four-vehicle convoy but escaped unharmed along with 11 other observers and his front man, Neeraj Singh, said an Agence La Belle France Presse photographer traveling with them.
The Norwegian general said the attack was "a graphic example of violence that the Syrian people" were suffering on a daily basis.
"It is imperative that violence in all its forms must stop," Mood was quoted as saying by Singh, who added: "We remain focused on our task."
The opposition Syrian National Council accused the regime of being behind the blast, the latest breach of a month-old ceasefire agreement brokered by 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 Annan.
"We believe the regime is using these tactics to try to push the observers out amid popular demands to increase their numbers," SNC executive committee member Samir Nashar told AFP.
"(Anti-regime) demonstrators want the observers, because they provide a safety guarantee. In their presence, people can express themselves through peaceful protests," said Nashar.
"We are used to the regime's tactics of claims that there is terrorism and fundamentalism in Syria, which is not the case."
La Belle France strongly condemned the bombing.
"We hold the Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... regime responsible for the observers' security," said foreign ministry front man Bernard Valero.
In other violence, troops pounded rebels hiding out in Douma near Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
In the village of Manshiya, near Daraa, several soldiers were killed and maimed when an kaboom targeted their vehicle.
Clashes between regime forces and rebel groups killed one soldier in the village of Marata, northwestern Idlib province, said the watchdog.
Two security forces members were killed in eastern Deir Ezzor, the scene of heavy shooting and kabooms, and a pro-regime gunman was killed in 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 city in the north.
One civilian was killed and three maimed in heavy machinegun fire by regime forces in Tell Ain al-Hamra, northwestern Idlib province, it said, adding a woman died in the central city of Hama from injuries suffered two days.
Security forces carried out arrest raids in Harasta, outside Damascus, and the villages of al-Safira and al-Hisan in Deir Ezzor province, the watchdog added.
In neighboring Leb, cross-border gunfire from Syrian forces killed an elderly woman and maimed her daughter on Tuesday, an official said, a month after Lebanese al-Jadeed TV cameraman Ali Shaaban was killed in a similar shooting.
On Tuesday, Annan told the U.N. Security Council the priority in Syria was "to stop the killing," and 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... that torture, mass arrests and other human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... violations were intensifying.
Regime forces "continue to press against the population," despite a putative truce that started on April 12, but attacks are more discreet because of the presence of the U.N. military observers, diplomats quoted him as saying.
"The biggest priority, first of all we need to stop the killing," Annan told news hounds in Geneva.
Annan briefed the council on his efforts to get Assad to implement the plan, which he said was possibly "the last chance to avoid civil war."
He stressed, however, that the peace bid was not an "open-ended" opportunity for Assad, diplomats who attended the briefing said.
Annan plans to visit Damascus for a second time in the coming weeks, his front man said, though this depended on events on the ground.
U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice said Washington's goal was still the removal of Assad.
"The United States remains focused on increasing the pressure on the Assad regime and on Assad himself to step down," Rice said.
Annan updated the U.N. body on the status of his six-point plan after U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... warned world powers were racing against time to prevent all-out civil war.
The current observers on the ground "have had a calming effect" and the deployment by the end of the month of a 300-strong team would see a "much greater impact," said the envoy.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, urged the U.N. to bolster its mission to as many as 3,000 -- well past the 300 authorized under a Security Council resolution.
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[Jpost] - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was drowning in waves of arrests of military officers accused of coup conspiracies and called for the investigations, which his government has backed, to be wrapped up more quickly.
Around 50 retired and serving officers, some very senior, have been held over the last month in raids linked to the 1997 toppling of Turkey's first Islamist-led government. The arrests run parallel to trials of hundreds of officers, businessmen and academics accused of involvement in other alleged coup plots.
"These (waves of police raids) disturb the social peace. We too are seriously uneasy about this," Erdogan told news hounds on Tuesday night on his return from a visit to Italia.
"The necessary steps should be taken and finished before moving on. But when these waves come one after the other, the country is drowned in those waves. I don't think this business should be dragged out this much," he added.
[Dawn] Former chief of Pakistain Army, Gen. (retd) Mirza Aslam Baig has denied any involvement in or knowledge of dishing out money to politicians in the 90s, laying the blame of the illegal distribution on Lt-Gen. (retd) Asad Durrani, who was the intelligence chief at the time.
On Wednesday, the former military head submitted his statement in the Supreme Court during a hearing of a petition filed by Air Martial (retd) Asghar Khan, a former chief of the Pakistain Air Force (PAF).
Khan had filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 1996, accusing the ISI of illegally financing several politicians during the 1990 elections to create the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and prevent Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... 's PPP from winning. The case, after a few hearings, had been postponed indefinitely, but was recently picked up again after more than a decade. A bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, is hearing the case.
Khan's petition was based on the affidavit of former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Asad Durrani. In the affidavit, the former ISI chief had alleged that Rs.140 million had been distributed among politicians on the directives of then Army chief Aslam Baig.
In the statement submitted Wednesday, Baig has maintained the stance that the alleged funds were transferred into the ISI's accounts, and not the Army's accounts. Baig has claimed that he neither had any knowledge of orders to distribute the funds by then president of Pakistain Ghulam Ishaq, nor was he aware of any illicit activity concerning the funds.
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#1
Aslam Baig and Hamid Gul have too much authority with the religious right we are fighting in Afghanistan.
RAMALLAH, West Bank: Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Tuesday the Palestinians may have lost the argument on the international stage for an independent state but cautioned that continued Israeli occupation was unsustainable.
In an interview with Reuters, Fayyad struck a note of discord with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by calling for elections that have long been delayed because of deep political divisions between the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. He also warned his administrations future was clouded by severe financial strains and said the Palestinians had failed to galvanize a distracted world behind their cause.
Fayyad is the technocrat who is supposed to 'run' the PA government, and it's taken him until now to realize that it can't be done...
I think we are losing the argument, if we have not already lost the argument. But that doesnt make our position wrong, said the former World Bank economist, a political independent who has had strong support amongst Western powers.
Arab unrest, the US presidential elections and financial crises in Europe had combined to knock the Palestinian issue off the global agenda more than 18 months after peace talks with Israel broke down in a dispute over Jewish settlement building.
What is the biggest obstacle we face? The state of marginalization. It is unprecedented, he said. The Israelis have managed to successfully trivialize our side of the argument, he added, alluding to the Palestinian demands for a halt to settlement building before negotiations can resume.
Perhaps because your side was trivial to start...
Israel says talks should continue without preconditions and has continued to build housing in blocs that dot the West Bank on land the United Nations deems illegally occupied.
Speaking from his offices in Ramallah with the red, black, green and white national flag behind him, Fayyad said Palestinians must get their own house in order before they could hope for long-cherished independence, which most world powers continue to support in principle.
I do not believe we will be able to get a state unless we are able to reunify our country, he said of the political divide that has split the West Bank from the coastal enclave of Gaza, governed since 2007 by the Islamist group Hamas.
He means this on his terms, not those of Hamas...
Attempts by Abbas, who rules in the West Bank, to bridge this divide over the past year have failed amid mutual recriminations and plans to hold long-awaited elections this month across the Palestinian territories were shelved.
The reconciliation process is in the deep freeze. Lets face it, Fayyad said, adding that the Palestinians should forge ahead with election plans regardless of opposition from Hamas in order to re-engage with a disillusioned populace.
A basic right of our people is being violated. The right of being able to chose our leadership, he said.
The last presidential and parliamentary elections were held in 2006 and many Palestinians, including Abbas and the Hamas leadership, have said a fresh vote can happen only if both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are involved.
Strains have been reported in relations between Abbas and Fayyad since the prime minister refused to hand over a letter from the president to Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu laying out Palestinian grievances over the failure of talks. Fayyad disagreed with the initiative last month but said the episode was now behind them and confirmed the two were working on the formation of a new government, where he will remain prime minister but will likely lose the finance portfolio.
Given the task of building institutions in readiness for statehood, Fayyad said his job was being imperilled by a lack of resources, with Arab nations failing to hand over promised aid.
There is an issue of survivability of the Palestinian Authority given the acute financial crisis we are going through, he said, adding his government needed a few hundred million dollars to keep afloat.
The Palestinian Authority - which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank - depends on donor aid from the United States, the European Union and Arab states to pay the salaries of public workers, including teachers and security personnel.
The Palestinians had planned for foreign aid of about $1.1 billion in 2011, but received just under $750 million and are lagging again in donations this year. No reason has been given for the failure of some Arab allies to honor their pledges.
They're Arabs. You need a reason?
Despite the many challenges facing the Palestinians and the lengthy breakdown in peace negotiations, Fayyad said he was convinced that independence would be achieved within 10 years.
Occupation is not only a major political failure, but given its oppressive nature it is also a moral failure for Israel. It is not something that can be sustained, he said. Walls have gone down elsewhere. Why should here be an exception?
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Palestinians...short of funds
Aha, they were stolen!
Amazing! How do you do it, Legume?
[Dawn] IS the current Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... in Pakistain? "We believe" he is, said Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Woman to Call at 3 a.m. and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another William Jennings Bryan ... . The certitude in her voice was alarming, though it would have been better had she not gone public with her views. True, the Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... raid has weakened the credibility of the Pak Foreign Office's rejoinder. Since the days of Gen Musharraf, Islamabad has insisted that it knew nothing about the whereabouts of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones... . If, therefore, Islamabad implies that Ayman al-Zawahiri is not in Pakistain or dismisses Ms Clinton's assertion as conjecture, it should not be surprised if the world is sceptical. On May 2 last year, American Navy SEALs humiliated Pakistain's intelligence establishment the way nothing else has. Moreover, given the capture of senior Al Qaeda operatives -- with the help of Pak intelligence -- allegations of Ayman al-Zawahiri's presence on Pak soil cannot be dismissed altogether.
Nevertheless, on Monday the American secretary of state chose the wrong time and place to level familiar charges against Pakistain. Speaking in Kolkata, Ms Clinton renewed America's determination to go after Al Qaeda leaders, some of whom were "on the run", and indicated that it was in Pakistain's interest to apprehend terrorist leaders inside the country. Must the secretary of state have chosen the soil of a country, with which Pakistain has had a long history of rivalry, to say the things she did? Equally unfortunate was the timing of her disparaging remarks, for they came at a time when negotiations between the US and Pakistain to reset ties are at a crucial stage. In fact, on Monday a State Department front man said that matters were not at a "standstill" between the two countries and the negotiators were trying to lay down "the groundwork for new cooperation". Ms Clinton's ill-advised words go against this spirit. As Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said, if the US has any information that the Al Qaeda chief is hiding in Pakistain, it should share it with Islamabad instead of making speculative statements. Indeed, Ms Clinton should put her faith in quiet diplomacy rather than make sensitive statements through the media.
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#1
India = Indjuh is still reminding the US "D ***ng it, We told You so"! as per Osama being in Pakistan.
#1
HOMER + SEXY SLINKY KELLY "THE HELL YOU SAY" BUNDY ARE UNSTOPPABLE ...
lol.
* WAFF > [Memri] EMERGING AL-QAEDA STRATGEY AIMS AT DAMAGING THE PAKISTAN ARMY [+ PAK as Nation, Govt-Society] IN MUSLIM'S EYES, ASSASSINATE ITS OFFICERS, ANNIHILATE IT AFTER THE US DRAWDOWN IN AFGHANISTAN AFTER 2014.
versus
* ISRAELI MILITARY FORUM > OBAMA'S DEAL WID KARZAI BANS RAIDS ON AL-QAIDA BASES [+ Leaders, Fighters] IN PAKISTAN.
* TOPIX, SAME > THE ENDGAME: OBAMA IS [intentionally] UNDERMINING US TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN TO PUT THE TALIBAN IN POWER, PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS SPENT THE LAST THREE YEARS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO TURNOVER AGHANISTAN TO THE TALIBAN WIDOUT TAKING THE POLITICAL HEAT FOR IT.
ARTIC = Bammer + Admin feel that Radical Islam = Taliban, etal. won't hate or attack the US-West anymore iff they have some kind of Govt. to divert their attention???
* Also from TOPIX > AN AFGHAN "OKINAWA": THERE WILL BE NO US TROOPS WITHDRAWAL AFTER 2014.
[TOLOnews] - Taliban who are willing to negotiate with the Afghan government are facing serious threats from other Taliban, Afghanistan's Presidential front man Aimal Faizi said Wednesday.
Most Taliban capos who have talked about negotiating with the Afghan government have either been tossed in the calaboose Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! or killed, President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... 's front man told TOLOnews.
"Unfortunately, those Taliban capos who have had contact with the Afghan government are faced with detention or killed by other Taliban members," Faizi said.
He reiterated the government line that the only way to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan involved negotiation with the armed Islamic fascistiand the government is committed to continue with this despite major challenges.
Faizi said the Afghan government supported the release of the Taliban detainees held at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
"The position of Afghan government has always been clear in this regard - we want the release of our citizens held at the Guantanamo Bay Detention center," he said.
"The final decision should be made by the US Congress but, as far as I am aware, they haven't made their decision yet."
The Taliban officially denies having ever been in talks with the Afghan government, and in March suspended all negotiations with the US government. But rumours of talks between some Taliban capos and the Afghan government have persisted.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pool hall, Peoria Slim had found another sucker... Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Sunday that it is forming a joint commission with Pakistain and the US to protect those Taliban willing to negotiate from the threats of other Taliban or beturbanned goon groups.
[An Nahar] Al-Qaeda gunnies killed two Yemeni soldiers Wednesday when they shelled their camp with two mortars in the southern town of Loader which the turban group has been trying to take over, an army officer said.
Another soldier was maimed in the assault to which the army responded by shelling al-Qaeda hideouts on the outskirts of Loder, the officer added.
Loder residents told Agence La Belle France Presse that the faceless myrmidons also shelled the town and burned down a mosque and a house.
"The (al-Qaeda) network is trying to forcefully enter Loder," a tribal source said.
Loder and Mudia are the only towns in Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province which are still out of the control of the Islamic fascistiwho overran the scenic provincial capital Zinjibar in May.
Fierce battles between the army and residents on one side and the Islamic fascistion the other for the control of both towns left more than 200 people dead early in April.
Residents of these towns have formed anti-Qaeda militias -- known as Popular Resistance Committees -- which fight alongside the army to keep out the jihadists who have renamed themselves as Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law).
On Monday, al-Qaeda gunnies launched spectacular attacks on two army posts outside of Zinjibar, killing at least 22 soldiers, to avenge the death of a top turban in an air raid.
The attacks came after Yemeni al-Qaeda leader Fahd al-Quso, who was wanted in connection with the deadly 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, was killed in an air strike in eastern Yemen on Sunday.
U.S. media reported on Tuesday that Quso's killing came after information provided by a man who was a double agent. The man had infiltrated the turban group and was ordered by al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner.
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J'lem, Cairo involved in intensive negotiations to secure release of Israeli Beduin jailed for a decade for alleged espionage.
Jerusalem and Cairo are involved in intensive negotiations to secure the release of Ouda Tarabin, the Israeli Beduin locked away Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! in Egypt for over a decade for espionage, Egyptian media reported Wednesday.
Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported that Tarabin and several other Israelis convicted of spying would be exchanged for 65 Egyptians held in Israeli jails.
The daily reported that Egyptian authorities have also been in contact with their Israeli counterparts in order to ascertain the conditions of Egyptian prisoners who last month joined hundreds of Paleostinian prisoners in an indefinite hunger strike.
Tarabin, 31, has been held in Egypt since 1999, when he was sentenced in absentia under the country's Emergency Law to 15 years in prison for espionage.
The Tarabin Beduin are a large tribe spread across the Negev and Sinai. In the Negev, the Tarabins' territory is concentrated around Beersheba, while in Sinai, their lands are situated along the Israeli border south of the resort of El- Arish as well as on the Gulf of Suez and on the Red Sea around Nuweiba.
Since the mid-1990s the tribe has been heavily involved in smuggling, both across the Egypt-Israel border and to the Gazoo Strip. Still, the Israeli government and Tarabin's family have rejected accusations of espionage as baseless, and the prisoner's brother maintains he had crossed into Egypt merely to visit their sister in El-Arish.
Speculation over Tarabin's release began during last year's US-mediated Egyptian-Israeli negotiations for the release of Ilan Grapel, an Israeli-American law student held for nearly five months on charges of spying for Israel. Grapel was freed last October year in exchange for 25 Egyptian security prisoners.
At the time, Druse MK Ayoub Kara (Likud) unsuccessfully lobbied US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro to include Tarabin in the deal.
In 1996 Azzam Azzam, an Israeli Druse textile worker, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor after being convicted of espionage, a charge both he and the Israeli government firmly denied. Following the intervention of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Azzam was released in 2004 in exchange for six Egyptians convicted of planning terror attacks. Tarabin now occupies the same cell in a Cairo jail where Azzam was once held.
A group of hardline Islamists has warned it will not let Lady Gaga set foot in Indonesia, challenging an army of fans awaiting a concert in the nation with the world's largest Muslim population.
The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) has vowed to mobilise 30,000 demonstrators to protest her scheduled performance in Jakarta on June 3 and to intercept her at the airport.
FPI Jakarta chairman Salim Alatas said, "We will stop her from setting foot on our land. She had better not dare spread her satanic faith in this country. Her style is vulgar, her sexual and indecent clothes will destroy our children's sense of morality. She's very dangerous."
But the FPI, infamous for making threats and then often failing to follow through, will face opposition from 40,000 fans planning to attend the sold-out show in Indonesia. Little Monsters - as Gaga's fans call themselves - tweeted their determination to see the pop idol perform in Indonesia.
"Little Monsters Indonesia vs FPI. I'm ready to fight," Bentaniokevin tweeted to the LadyGagaIndo Twitter account.
Lady Gaga may not be isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, even by pop star standards, but it's refreshing to some of her fans understand that free speech is worth fighting for. And who the real enemies of liberty are.
A page on Facebook, which is wildly popular in Indonesia, sought dancers for a Lady Gaga flashmob. The Lady Gaga Indonesia FB page has more than 42,000 "likes".
Hartoyo, a leader of gay rights group OurVoice said, "Lady Gaga is not an ordinary human being. She uses her popularity to defend minority groups, especially gays and lesbians. I would die for her."
Brave to say in a country where a number of people would like to make that a reality.
#2
Is it strength or weakness that the indonesian muslims pick a pop star as their target. I can see both sides but mostly it seems like a test. and if they fail such a visual test they'd look rather impotent. I suspect something bad will come out of this as a result.
(Sh.M.Network)-The Royal Navy no longer has enough warships to dedicate one to fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia all year round, it was reported.
Cuts mean that the UK has had to scale back its commitments in the region, despite David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... making the fight against the multi-billion dollar piracy problem there a foreign policy priority.
While the US,La Belle France,Italia,Denmark and other countries still send frigates,Britanniahas quietly withdrawn its ships, according to a newspaper.
The UK can now only deploy two frigates for contingency operations east of the Suez canal, with neither able to be committed to piracy full time, it was reported.
The Navy's fuel and supply ship, the Fort Victoria, has been supporting the counter-piracy fleet in the region since last year but it is unclear whether this will continue beyond the summer.
Four frigates had been dedicated to Somalia, deployed on rotation to give year-round support. But four frigates were scrapped in Ministry of Defence cuts.
Difficulties have been compounded by the need to commit ships and personnel to the Olympic security effort this summer.
A senior Whitehall source told the Guardian: "Counter piracy is getting very difficult for the UK. We have two frigates that are supposed to look after contingencies in the Falklands, the Gulf and piracy."
"Fort Victoria is a good platform but we cannot commit frigates to Somalia. They go in and out when they can, but reassurance work in the Gulf is more of a priority now.
"Many of the people who are good at counter-piracy are now involved in the Olympics, so they are not available either, and won't be until the autumn at the earliest."
Piracy cost the world economy $7 billion (£4.3 billion) last year and figures show that pirates raised almost $160 million from hostage ransoms, but 24 captives died. Among the victims were British businessman David Tebbutt -- whose wife Judith was held for six months before being released in June.
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#1
IIRC, the UK's on-site Commander during the first Falkland's War had basically claimed that the RN = MoD as budgeted only has enough to cross the Channel + invade France for a day - anything more its screwed???
#2
The great nations should play tag-team on Somalia patrols. Its gotta be good practice for the various crews, nations should want their navy involved. There really is no political downside, everyone should get the chance.
#3
"Great" Britain is no more. The welfare/Nanny state EU has killed it off good and proper. The best the UK can hope for is to attain the status of a Sweden or Switzerland. Cultured, reasonably well off but not powerful.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Marina Vlady (French) aka Yolande in "Quelques jours de repit (A Few Days of Respite)(2011)" aka Juliette Jeanson in "2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (2 or 3 Things I Know About Her)(1967)" aka Kate Percy in "Campanadas a medianoche (Chimes at Midnight)(1965)" aka Regina in "L'ape regina (The Conjugal Bed)(1963) " aka Chantal Duvivier in "Splendor (1989)" aka Jacqueline in "The Lady from Boston (1951)" (age 74)
[Iran Press TV] Greece's leftist SYRIZA coalition and Socialist PASOK party have failed to agree on the formation of a coalition government.
Alexis Tsipras, the head of Coalition of the Radical Left, SYRIZA, said in Athens on Wednesday evening that he had abandoned his efforts to form a coalition government after the pro-austerity parties of Panhellenic Socialist Movement, known as PASOK, and the conservative New Democracy, declined to join an anti-bailout plan, Rooters reported.
PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos confirmed the failure after holding talks with Tsipras.
The New Democracy, SYRIZA, and PASOK respectively finished first, second, and third in parliamentary election on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Well, they're certainly off to a good start, aren't they?
To paraphrase Monty Python, Greeks throwing tantrums is no basis for forming a government.
(Ma'an) -- Senior Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, official Mahmoud Zahhar said Tuesday that the movement does not pin much hope on contacts with Western countries, Jordanian media reported.
Zahhar told Jordanian newspaper al-Dustour: "We don't count on ongoing contacts, we just talk to who wants to listen."
Party officials told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named last week that Hamas recently held secret talks with five European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... member states. Zahhar played down the significance of the meetings to al-Dustour, saying "we don't pin serious hopes on western countries."
He hit back at reports Hamas will stop military resistance activities. Groups making such allegations "must read recent Paleostinian history, especially 2006 and 2008 when there were wars on Hamas," he told the newspaper.
[Dawn] The bullet-riddled bodies of two suspected gun-hung tough guys were found in Bara while two more gun-hung tough guys were killed when rival groups clashed in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Tuesday.
Officials said that bodies of Taj Mohammad and Haider were found at Niazi Market early on Tuesday morning. The unidentified killers had left a chit with the bodies, warning locals that anyone found assisting or harbouring activists of proscribed bully boy organization Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) would meet the same fate.
Local sources said that both the dear departed went missing on Monday when they were leaving their homes after local administration served notices on Shalobar rustics to vacate the area.
Though nobody grabbed credit for the killing of the two persons belonging to Shalobar and Sipah tribes, Hussain Afridi, a front man for LI in Bara, told local journalists by telephone that they were killed by the relatives of Hazrat Khan, one of their dissidents.
Hazrat Khan was publicly beheaded in Spin Qabar Chowk a month ago after he was kidnapped along with his relatives. He had rebelled against LI some two months ago and was reportedly assisting security forces in their operation against the bully boy organization in Bara.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, the radioactive tadpoles grown into frogs. Really big frogs, in fact... two members of a banned bully boy group were killed and four other injured when they clashed with the rival group in the remote Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Tuesday.
Sources said that festivities took place between Ansarul Islam and Lashkar-e-Islam in Toor Zangal area when both groups tried to capture each other's positions. It was learnt that both sides used heavy weapons against each other that resulted in killing of two members of Ansarul Islam and injuries to four others.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Outgoing French leader 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... 's cabinet met for a last session Thursday as president-elect Francois Hollande ...the impending Socialist president of La Belle France... began talks with EU leaders on his plans to refocus European policy on growth.
Hollande also met with senior figures in his Socialist party to gear up for next month's parliamentary vote in which he hopes to win a majority of seats to help him push through his reforms.
He also hunkered down with aides on forming a government and preparing for his first foreign visit, to Berlin, where he is expected to get a frosty reception over his plans to renegotiate the European fiscal austerity pact.
Sarkozy's cabinet meeting was "emotional", participants said, with ministers giving the outgoing president a standing ovation after he told them he wished Hollande "good luck" following his election win on Sunday.
"Nicolas Sarkozy's main commitment in 2007, to put La Belle France on the move, has been met," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said after the session.
"We did this with a number of reforms that no one else managed, and we did it during a climate of crisis."
Government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said Fillon would tender the cabinet's resignation on Thursday and that it would take effect when Hollande is inaugurated on May 15.
Hollande meanwhile met with senior party officials at his campaign headquarters, where talks focused on securing the Socialists a majority in the two-round parliamentary vote on June 10 and 17.
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[An Nahar] Soldiers in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri killed a suspected member of the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Islamist sect and maimed two others on Wednesday after repelling an attack, the army said.
"The JTF (Joint Task Force)... at about 11:15 hours (1015 GMT) today... successfully repelled a suspected Boko Haram attack on one of its locations," an army front man said in a statement.
"One Boko Haram terrorist was killed, two injured, two tossed in the clink Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! ," he said.
No soldier or civilian was killed or injured in the encounter that lasted less than five minutes, he said, without giving further details.
Soldiers in Nigeria's largest northern city of Kano on Sunday killed four suspected members of the sect in a raid on their hideout, the army said.
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05/10/2012
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Sudanese war planes have launched renewed air strikes against South Sudan, violating a UN Security Council resolution to end weeks of a bitter border conflict, the South's army said Wednesday.
"The Republic of Sudan has been randomly bombarding civilian areas," said Southern army front man Kella Kueth, who said the air strikes hit the border states of Upper Nile, Unity and Western Bahr el-Ghazal on Monday and Tuesday.
It was not possible to independently confirm the reports of bombing, and Sudan has repeatedly denied it has bombed the South.
"The people of Khartoum, they just deny," Kueth said, adding that both fighter jets and Antonov airplanes carried the air raids.
Both sides say they are complying with a United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... Security Council resolution which ordered them to stop fighting from last Friday, after international concern the rivals could return to all out war.
A border war with South Sudan began in late March, escalating with waves of Sudanese air strikes against South Sudanese territory and the South's 10-day seizure of the Heglig oil field from Khartoum's army.
The South's army confirmed it had pulled back 10 kilometres (six miles) south of the contested border line, in accordance with the UN deadline Wednesday to do so. However the border is undemarcated.
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05/10/2012
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[AFP] - Thousands erupted into the streets of the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil on Tuesday as a rally to demand swift punishment for a magazine editor who ran a story decried as "against Islam" turned violent.
Demonstrators gathered in front of the Kurdish parliament building in Arbil to protest the article published in the latest issue of Al-Hamsa (The Whisper), a monthly magazine published in Kurdish and Arabic in the regional capital.
The article relays a conversation between the author of the piece and God, and was deemed offensive to Islam by regional religious leaders, with Kurdish prime minister Nechirvan Barzani meeting with Islamic groups on Monday, the same day the publication's editor Hayman Ari was jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! On Tuesday, protesters gathered opposite Arbil's parliament compound and began throwing rocks and water bottles at security forces and clashing with riot police, an AFP journalist at the scene reported.
Groups of demonstrators attempted to scale the concrete walls surrounding the compound, while others attacked nearby stores selling alcohol and other buildings.
"The government are allowing others to abuse Islam and abuse the Koran, and we do not accept this," said Karwan Salim, 19.
Ahmed Ali, 52, added angrily: "We are Mohammedans, we do not accept such humiliations published by magazines and newspapers. We do not accept any sentence against him (Ari) -- he must be handed over to us so we can execute him ourselves."
Provincial governor Nawzad Hadi said several protesters had been jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! and multiple police had been injured during the demonstration and ensuing violence, but he did not give details.
#1
Yeah, you use the islam thing for power too. It's un-governable. Predominately because the Shariah and Hadith may be used an way any man wants to use them. You will also disagree with eachother to the point of death so you must embrace the Caliphate that says freedom of religion is paramount to get anywhere.
Congolese army deserters led by ex-general Bosco Ntaganda were in a shootout with soldiers in the eastern DR Congo town of Kimbumba overnight, an army captain said Tuesday.
"We started fighting around midnight (2200 GMT Monday)," he told AFP.
"General Bosco Ntaganda was in the ranks" of the mutineers, who are former members of rebel group the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).
"After a heavy shootout lasting four hours in Kibumba, we were backed by heavy weapons fire," said the captain, himself a former member of the CNDP who integrated into the army under a 2009 peace deal with Kinshasa.
The captain did not give a casualty toll. Hundreds of former CNDP members mutinied last month, complaining of inhumane treatment in the regular army.
Fierce festivities have broken out between deserters and loyalists, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes.
"The mutineers dispersed ... into the woods behind Kibumba, which they crossed last night," the captain said, adding that they were "numerous" and were headed to Virunga, a nature reserve on the border with Rwanda famous for its mountain gorillas.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I hope--against hope--that these clowns can tell the guerillas from the gorillas and from the civilians.
Ah, who am I kidding?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
05/10/2012 9:25
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And so it goes:
When will we learn the lesson which apparently has already been learned by a perceptive Kenyan -- the lesson that disparate ethnic groups and races, when they are forced by politics to live in the same society, do not unite -- they fight.
HAMBURG: Syria is importing significant volumes of grain via Lebanon to work around western sanctions and secure vital supplies, European traders told Reuters.
The trade is not illegal because food imports are not included in sanctions imposed by the European Union, the United States and other Western countries on President Bashar Assads government over his crackdown on a revolt. But the measures have blocked access to trade finance for Syria in the same way as similar penalties imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.
Growing numbers of Syrians are struggling to obtain food, with prices of staples more than doubling after more than a year of conflict that has cost more than 10,000 lives.
Some people in the capital Damascus, long spared the violence but now shaken by explosions overnight, say they are stocking up with at least a months supplies.
Syrian grain imports are being transacted in large volumes using offices in Lebanon to handle the paperwork and act as initial buyer, one trader said. The deal is then re-booked in Lebanon, and ships are then later diverted to Syrian ports.
Some trade sources said hundreds of thousands of tons were involved, while deals in smaller volumes are also being booked via dealers based in Dubai.
Food imports themselves are not stopped by the sanctions, but it is the impact of the banking sanctions which is disrupting imports, a second trader said.
Syrian imports booked in the past two months include wheat for food as well as barley and corn for animal feed. The Black Sea region, including Ukraine and Russia, has been the main grain source, dealers said.
Russia never misses a chance, does it...
Posted by: Steve White ||
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LONDON: A radical preacher accused of giving inspiration to one of the 9/11 hijackers lost a legal bid in the European courts yesterday to challenge Britain's long-running attempts to deport him to Jordan to stand trial on terrorism charges.
About time, though given the Euro system he may have nine more layers of appeals before he's finally shipped...
Abu Qatada, once described by a Spanish judge as "Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe," had asked the European Court of Human Rights to refer his case to a panel of its most senior judges. The court said it turned down his request, paving the way for Britain to send him back to Jordan after a decade of legal wrangling over his fate. It gave no reasons for its refusal.
Qatada's lawyers had argued that he risked being tortured in Jordan or being convicted using evidence extracted from others using torture. Britain reached an agreement with Jordan in 2005 to try to ensure Qatada is not mistreated if he is returned to Jordan.
"I am pleased by the European court's decision," said British Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May. "The Qatada case will now go through the British courts. "I am confident the assurances we have from Jordan mean we can put Qatada on a plane and get him out of Britain."
However, in an embarrassment for the British government, the judges confirmed that Qatada had lodged his appeal request in time, contradicting May's original claims that he had been too late.
His case has been a headache for successive British governments, accused by critics of not doing enough to deport Qatada. Twice convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement in terrorism plots, the preacher is still a national security risk, Britain says, and should be deported before London hosts the Olympic Games in July and August.
Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman, has been in and out of jail since he was first detained without charge under British anti-terrorism laws in 2002. Britain says videotapes of his sermons were found in a German apartment used by three of the people who carried out Al-Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
here's hoping his fears of torture are well-founded. "pliars and blowtorch, pleeeeze"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2012 8:09
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[Iran Press TV] Gunmen have killed two people in an attack on a market in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri in the latest act of aggression blamed on the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... thugs.
Witnesses said that on Wednesday, the attackers stormed the market, shot two traders dead, and fled, while shooting wildly into the air, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported.
Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, a Nigerian Army front man, accused the snuffies of the attack and said that the military had killed one suspected member of the group and locked away Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! two others, while repelling a Wednesday attack on a military post in the city, the thugs' home base.
Last week, gunnies killed seven people, including two police guards, in two separate attacks blamed on the turban group.
The group has taken responsibility for a number of deadly gun and kabooms in several parts of Nigeria since 2009.
Human rights groups report that violent actions by Boko Haram since mid-2009 have claimed more than 1,000 lives, including over 300 this year alone.
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[Dawn] Three persons, including an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... , were rubbed out in the city on Tuesday, police said.
They said that the first incident took place within the remit of the Orangi Town cop shoppe.
Mirza Sarfaraz, 38, was going to open his general store in Orangi Town's Sector 12-L from his Liaquatabad residence and when he reached near Chamcha Hotel two gunnies riding a cycle of violence targeted him. He suffered seven bullet wounds and was struck down in his prime. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... the assailants escaped, the police said.
The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities. Scores of MQM workers also reached the health facility after hearing the news of the killing.
Area DSP Tariq Malik said the victim was an active worker of the unit 119 of the MQM's organizational structure and a resident of Al-Azam Square in Liaquatabad. He was unmarried.
He said as the victim belonged to the Shia community, the police were unsure about the motive of the murder, which could be either political or sectarian.
The police found seven spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol at the scene.
The body was later taken to Shah-e-Karbala Imambargah in Rizvia Society, where tension gripped surrounding areas and all shops and markets were closed. The victim was buried in Wadi-e-Hussain graveyard.
Till late in the night, no case was registered at the Orangi Town cop shoppe regarding the killing.
In another incident, a man was rubbed out in an Orangi Town locality within the remit of the Pirabad cop shoppe on Tuesday.
Police said the incident took place near Iqra Medical Centre in Qasba Colony, where Naseeb Ullah, 39, was sitting when two gunnies came on a cycle of violence, opened fire on him and rode away. He suffered two bullet wounds on the head and neck and was struck down in his prime.
The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.
DSP Tariq Malik said that victim was a watchman of a factory and was employed there for the past seven years. He lived in Qasba Colony, but originally hailed from Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... The area DSP said personal enmity could be a likely motive behind the incident.
No case was registered till late in the night.
Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him... an unidentified young man was found rubbed out in a street in the Gurumandir area early Tuesday morning, police said.
They said the victim, aged around 24, was rubbed out on the same place from where his body was found. His hands were tied with a plastic rope used in packaging. The police said that it was not clear how the victim was brought to the place.
Wearing jeans and shirt, the victim was shot thrice to the head.
The police found three spent bullet casings of a 9mm pistol from the crime-scene.
A duty officer at the Soldier Bazaar cop shoppe said the body was found in a Gurumandir street close to the KMC Masjid.
"The man was shot on the spot...his legs were not tied but hands were tied," said the duty officer.
The police shifted the body to the Civil Hospital 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 medico-legal formalities. Later, the body was taken to the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth for want of identification.
A case (FIR 152/2012) was registered under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistain Penal Code against unknown persons on behalf of the state at the Soldier Bazaar cop shoppe.
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[TOLOnews] - At least five Afghan coppers were killed when a roadside mine went kaboom! in western Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province on Tuesday evening, local officials said Wednesday.
The incident happened in Posht-Rod district of Herat province yesterday, when their vehicle struck a roadside mine, a front man for police in western Afghanistan Abdul Raouf Ahmadi told TOLOnews.
No group, including the Taliban, has grabbed credit for the blast.
Ahmadi said that the mine was planted by gun-hung tough guys to target Afghan cops.
Posht-Rod district has been considered insecure in the province because gun-hung tough guys have frequently targeted Afghan police with violence.
[An Nahar] The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... said bodies lay in the battle-damaged town of Girayda on Wednesday, after a brief occupation by rebel troops in the war-plagued Darfur region of western Sudan.
Sudan's army regained control of Girayda town and the surrounding area but nine government soldiers died in the effort, reported the Sudanese Media Center (SMC), which is close to the security apparatus.
Foreign peacekeepers observed the aftermath when they resumed patrolling the area on Wednesday, said Christopher Cycmanick, a front man for the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... -United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID).
"There were a number of dead and there was considerable damage to the town infrastructure," he said. "Fuel had been stolen and some places had been looted."
UNAMID has a base just outside Girayda, and the area is also home to a camp for Darfur residents displaced by the conflict which is nearly a decade old.
Rebels said on Tuesday they had seized control of the town from government troops, the latest in a reported upsurge of fighting in Darfur.
The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)-Minni Minnawi faction said it carried out the attack with rebels of another SLA faction headed by Abdelwahid Nur.
SMC quoted a front man for the South Darfur state government, which includes Girayda, as saying an operation to retake the area began Tuesday night and "continued for many hours" to expel the rebels to the edge of a surrounding district.
The rebels suffered "heavy losses," the government front man said, without giving figures. He added that troop reinforcements have been sent to the region.
Girayda is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Nyala, the South Darfur state capital.
In April, the head of UNAMID 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... that rebels in Darfur were exploiting tensions between Sudan and South Sudan along their disputed frontier.
The U.N. estimates that at least 300,000 people have died as a result of the Darfur conflict, which began in 2003 when rebels from non-Arab tribes in Sudan's far west rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime.
In response, the government unleashed state-backed Janjaweed militia in a conflict that shocked the world and led to allegations of genocide. Since then, much of the violence in the vast region has degenerated into banditry.
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Paleostinians would see funding withheld if they made any agreement with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, didn't actively work to end incitement.
[Jpost] -- A congressional subcommittee approved a foreign aid budget tightening control over money to Egypt and the Paleostinians Wednesday following some members' concern over developments in the region.
The House foreign operations appropriations subcommittee passed by voice vote the $40.1 billion foreign operations budget for 2013, which includes fully funding the $3.1b. US commitment to Israeli military assistance as part of the 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries.
However, you can observe a lot just by watching... the legislation cut funding for UNESCO, after the UN body voted to recognize Paleostine as a member state. The B.O. regime has been seeking a way to restore funding to the organization, though the law in its current format prohibits American contributions to any UN group that unilaterally recognizes the Paleostinians.
The bill, which should be voted on by the entire appropriations committee next week, also maintains $1.3b. in military aid to Egypt as an ongoing commitment stemming from the Camp David Accords.
But following the Egyptian revolution and questions about its new government that will take power, Congress imposed more conditions on the military aid and $250m. in economic assistance.
Should Egypt break its treaty with Israel, as some emerging political voices have threatened, the assistance would automatically be cut. In addition, the US secretary of state would need to certify that upcoming elections are free and policies respecting civil rights are being implemented.
Though the secretary would have the ability to waive the restriction based on the elections if providing the aid to Egypt was declared in the national security interests of the United States, there is no waiver provision if the peace treaty ruptures.
The limitations stem in part from a desire by Congress to tighten control of allocations after US President Barack Obama Why can't I just eat my waffle?... used a waiver to override a member's hold on funds to the Paleostinian Authority last month, according to Capitol Hill sources.
Congress has also been upset by the detention of American pro-democracy NGO workers in Egypt, and has threatened aid to Egypt on this account as well.
The Paleostinians would see their funding withheld if they made any agreement with Hamas and did not actively work to end incitement, a tightening of the current language ruling out aid under a unity government between Fatah and Hamas.
The bill cuts $2b. off last year's budget and billions more from Obama's proposal unveiled in February.
#1
At long last the concept that he who pays the piper calls the tune is taking over from the idiotic concept of "humanitarian and compassion" and never mind the consequences.
[Iran Press TV] US police have tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! five Occupy protesters who attempted to swarm the Bank of America headquarters in North Carolina during its annual shareholders' meeting.
Some 500 people gathered outside the bank's headquarters in Charlotte on Wednesday, to protest the bank's role in the US housing crisis and foreclosures, as well as other practices it deems unfair to average citizens.
Protesters say the bank continues its practice of foreclosing on loan customers despite posting huge profit following the massive taxpayer bailout it received from the US government.
Sister Barbara Bush, an activist who works with disturbed homeowners, said that Bank of America is the hardest and most frustrating to work with.
"We find that we have no one to talk to because no one calls us back," Bush said.
The protesters represent members of the Occupy Wall Street movement, homeowners, students, immigrants, environmentalists, workers, women's rights organizations and peace activists.
The Occupy protesters have been repeating the slogan, "We are the 99 percent" to distinguish themselves from the one percent of Americans that are in possession of the nation's greatest wealth.
The Occupy Wall Street movement began when a group of demonstrators gathered in New York's financial district on September 17, 2011 to protest against corruption, the unjust distribution of wealth in the country and the excessive influence of big corporations on US policies.
More than 7,000 arrests have been made in 114 cities across the country since the start of the movement.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2012
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A British undercover agent infiltrated al-Qaeda, volunteered to be a suicide bomber and smuggled out the latest version of the deadly underpants bomb, it can be disclosed. The man, who risked his life to get close to al-Qaeda's master bomb-maker in the Yemen, is of Saudi origin but holds a British passport, sources told the Daily Telegraph.
Somali pirates
[Dawn] Prime Minister 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
...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...
[Jpost] - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was drowning in waves of arrests of military officers accused of coup conspiracies and called for the investigations, which his government has backed, to be wrapped up more quickly.
Former chief of Pakistain Army, Gen. (retd) Mirza Aslam Baig has denied any involvement in or knowledge of dishing out money to politicians in the 90s, laying the blame of the illegal distribution on Lt-Gen. (retd) Asad Durrani, who was the intelligence chief at the time.
Zawahiri
Hillary Clinton
A group of hardline Islamists has warned it will not let Lady Gaga set foot in Indonesia, challenging an army of fans awaiting a concert in the nation with the world's largest Muslim population.
David Cameron
Greece's leftist SYRIZA coalition and Socialist PASOK party have failed to agree on the formation of a coalition government.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Outgoing French leader 
Congolese army deserters led by ex-general Bosco Ntaganda were in a 
LONDON: A radical preacher accused of giving inspiration to one of the 9/11 hijackers lost a legal bid in the European courts yesterday to challenge Britain's long-running attempts to deport him to Jordan to stand trial on terrorism charges.
Three persons, including an activist of the 
[Iran Press TV] US police have 
