A mob of Islamic hard-liners threw stones and bags of urine at the HKBP Filadelphia congreagation of the Batak Christian Protestant Church in Bekasi, on the outskirts of Jakarta, at an Ascension Day service on Thursday. Police tried to stop the mob of some 300 people, but were also attacked, according to reports.
They assaulted the congregation members, Rev. Palti Panjaitan told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday. Police tried to talk to them, but the mob passed through police and showered us with urine and dirty water. Others threw stones at us.
The mob reportedly attacked the congregation as the service started, and also shouted profanity and threats.
Even after the service, which lasted one-and-a-half hours, the mob chased after us, Rev. Palti said. Thank God the police escorted us to a safe area.
HKBP Filadelphia submitted an application for a building permit in 2007, but church leaders say that despite meeting all the requirements, including the agreement of their neighbors, a permit was never issued.
The two men, both of whom are in their 30s, were arrested in Skåne in southern Sweden on Tuesday.
They are suspected of involvement in the February 22nd shooting of Obydkhon Sobitkhony Nazarov, who had served as an imam in Strömsund, where he has lived since coming to Sweden in 2006 as a political refugee from Uzbekistan.
According to prosecutor Krister Petersson, both suspects also hail from Uzbekistan.
One speaks English proficiently, as well as some Swedish, while the other speaks only Uzbek and Russian.
On Wednesday, they were transported from Skåne to Östersund in northern Sweden where investigators continue their efforts to figure out who was behind the shooting of Nazarov.
Nazarov is a known critic of the regime in Uzbekistan and came to Sweden along with scores of other political refugees after a 2005 crackdown by Uzbek government troops in Andijan in which hundreds of protesters were killed, although the exact number of casualties remains in dispute.
At the time of the incident, known as the Andijan massacre, the Uzbek government claimed the demonstrations were organized by Islamic radicals.
In the wake of the influx of Uzbek refugees, Strömsund, a town of just over 4,000 residents, has seen a rise in hate crimes ranging from racist graffiti to the burning down of a mosque in the city in 2008.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that he is eager to attend the Olympic Games in London to support Iranian athletes but that Britain doesn't want to host him.
He could stay in France and take the Chunnel over...
Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying he would like to be ``beside Iranian athletes'' during the games but that the British are reluctant to have him.
``I would like to be next to our young athletes at the 2012 Olympics but the host has a problem with this,'' said Ahmadinejad during a meeting with Iranian athletes who have qualified for the Olympics.
Ahmadinejad did not specify whether he has officially requested to attend the games or say if Britain has refused him entry.
There was no immediate comment from the International Olympic Committee.
Note the CYA headline at the link....
The island nation of Kiribati is one of the countries most threatened by rising sea levels.
If that ever happens, they mean...
However, many of the floods it has seen may be due to a mix of natural variability and human activities, complicating the picture of how rising sea levels are endangering Kiribati and other island nations.
There is always the possibility, unadmitted by our MSNBC journalist, that the seas aren't rising at all. But do go on, dear.
[L]and reclamation at Tarawa -- which involved filling in areas behind sea walls -- increased land in some locations but aggravated erosion and flooding in others, such as the atoll's airport.
Ah, 'man-made' land erosion?
Mining barrier reefs and beaches for construction material can also make the shoreline vulnerable to extreme tides and storms. You don't say.
Moreover, the building of causeways between islets has altered how these small islands evolve, diverting sediment to some while eroding it away from others. For instance, the loss of the lagoon islet of Bikeman, a once-popular resting spot for fisherman near Betio, is due primarily to the construction of the Betio-Bairiki causeway, and not rising sea levels.
Donner wants to avoid the false impression that Tarawa is subject to constant flooding because of sea-level rise. If he does, he's the only one....
"When scientists or environmentalists use a photo of a flooded village in Kiribati as evidence of sea-level rise, they open the door for critics of climate science knee-jerk stupidity,"
Donner said. "We can't attribute an individual flooding event on sea level rise any more than we can attribute an individual heat wave to global warming." Has anyone told the Goracle, et al.?
Donner detailed these findings April 24 in the journal Eos. Never heard of it. An "honest" journal, or a crack in the armor? We report, you deride.
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/17/2012
09:38 ||
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Mods, feel free to add appropriate graphics - I can't see them from my work computer (which blocks a lot of stuff).
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/17/2012 9:52
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I gave you an earthquake, Barbara. Poor Al Gore doesn't rate anymore.
#3
Simon Donner, a climate scientist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, recommended a nice hike across the Rocky Mountains this winter. "We could call it a party," Donner said.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/17/2012 11:40
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Lord Garth for snark of the day!
Posted by: Water Modem ||
05/17/2012 11:56
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Is the ocean rising or is the continental plate sinking. Plates aren't static.
Most likely this is all about the rising and falling levels of research grants....
* ION FREEREPUBLIC > [Rush Limbaugh.com]ENVIRO-IDIOTS: TWO EARTHS NEEDED BY 2030.
versus
* PRAVDA > HUMANS [read, USA = Americans] DESTROY A THIRD A EARTH'S BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES IN 40 YEARS.
IIRC, as measured for between the Years 1968 -2008 - in addition, actually up to FIVE PLANETS may be needed for the rest of the World to par wid US-specific consumption rates.
HMMMMM, HMMMMM, well, I am reminded of personal dreams/visions from childhood where I "saw" one close Planet in the Skies oer Central-Southern Guam, + another Purplish-colored Planet oer GUAM-WESTPAC REGION.
As per the NET + YOUTUBE, the Purple Planet thingy may be the incoming NIBIRU = PLANET X???
or JUPITER???
* WORLD NEWS > SOLAR MINIMUM MAY CAUSE ABRUPT CLIMATE CONDITIONS. Sudden changes.
#2
He has followers. The followers extort money from Sunni shopkeepers and give it to the Sheik. Maybe the Sheik visits the shopkeepers sometimes and gives them some morale support by reminding them their money is being used for Allah.
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/17/2012 20:32
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UNITED NATIONS - Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential report on Iran sanctions-busting seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
The new report, submitted by a panel of sanctions-monitoring experts to the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee, said the panel investigated three large illegal shipments of Iranian weapons over the past year.
"Iran has continued to defy the international community through illegal arms shipments," it stated. "Two of these cases involved (Syria), as were the majority of cases inspected by the Panel during its previous mandate, underscoring that Syria continues to be the central party to illicit Iranian arms transfers."
The third shipment involved rockets that Britain said last year were headed for Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
"The Panel recommends the designation (blacklisting) of two entities related to these interdictions," it said. "The report also takes note of information concerning arms shipments by Iran to other destinations."
The kinds of arms that Iran was attempting to send to Syria before the shipments were seized by Turkish authorities included assault rifles, machine guns, explosives, detonators, 60mm and 120mm mortal shells and other items, the panel said.
The most recent incident described in the report was an arms shipment discovered in a truck that Turkey seized on its border with Syria in February. Turkey announced last year that it was imposing an arms embargo on Syria.
Diplomats told Reuters that the panel's draft report may be changed by the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee before it is submitted to the council itself for consideration. It was unclear how long it would take the committee to pass the report to the Security Council. Last year's expert panel report on Iran was never made public because Russia blocked its publication.
There you have your answer...
The report also discusses Iran's attempts to circumvent sanctions on its nuclear program but notes that the four rounds of punitive measures the 15-nation Security Council imposed on Iran between 2006 and 2010 are having an impact. Among the items Iran has attempted to procure for its nuclear program, the panel said, were nuclear-grade graphite, high-strength aluminum, aluminum, powder, specialized alloys, maraging steel, carbon fiber, magnets, vacuum pumps, turbines, electrical switchboards and helium gas detectors.
"The Panel identifies the acquisition of high-grade carbon fiber as one of a number of critical items Iran requires for the development of more advanced centrifuges," the report said, adding that nations should be on alert for illicit attempts to acquire such critical items.
The report talked at length about Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, known as IRISL. While IRISL itself is not formally under U.N. sanctions,
Why not?
three of its subsidiaries are, and the council has warned U.N. member states to be vigilant regarding potential sanctions violations by IRISL. The panel report said that Irano Hind Shipping Company, one of the IRISL subsidiaries subject to sanctions, continues to operate vessels. IRISL is a difficult company to monitor because it is constantly changing the ownership, names and national flags of its ships, the report said.
The panel said that IRISL, as Reuters has previously reported, has set up what appear to be front companies intended to operate vessels and obscure its ownership. Currently IRISL's more than 130 ships are owned by some 75 different companies, which the panel said was unusual for a major shipping line.
IRISL and its related companies have also been changing the names of their ships to get the word "Iran" out of them. Before the council passed resolution 1803 in March 2008, which warned all U.N. member states to be "vigilant" about IRISL, most of its vessels' names contained the word "Iran." Now fewer than 10 do, the panel said.
Almost as if it's a dirty word, and in a way, it is...
Since March 2008, IRISL and its related companies have carried out more than 220 changes in ownership of vessels, the report said.
Turning to Iran's ballistic missile program, the report said it "continues to develop with additional launches, which are prohibited under resolution 1929," adopted in June 2010. The two North Korean companies linked to Iran's missile program are the Green Pine Associated Corp and the Korea Heungjin Trading Company. The council's North Korea sanctions committee blacklisted them on May 2.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/17/2012
09:11 ||
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"I blow my nose at you, sons of a silly person!"
Opponents of a U.S. law they claim may subject them to indefinite military detention for activities including news reporting and political activism persuaded a federal judge to temporarily block the measure.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan yesterday ruled in favor of a group of writers and activists who sued President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Defense Department, claiming a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law Dec. 31, puts them in fear that they could be arrested and held by U.S. armed forces.
The complaint was filed Jan. 13 by a group including former New York Times reporter Christopher Hedges. The plaintiffs contend a section of the law allows for detention of citizens and permanent residents taken into custody in the U.S. on "suspicion of providing substantial support" to people engaged in hostilities against the U.S., such as al-Qaeda.
Whyever would the government be suspicious that a New York Times reporter might be providing substantial support to a jihad organization?
"The statute at issue places the public at undue risk of having their speech chilled for the purported protection from al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and 'associated forces' - i.e., 'foreign terrorist organizations,'" Forrest said in an opinion yesterday. "The vagueness of Section 1021 does not allow the average citizen, or even the government itself, to understand with the type of definiteness to which our citizens are entitled, or what conduct comes within its scope."
Forrest's order prevents enforcement of the provision of the statute pending further order of the court or an amendment to the statute by Congress.
Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan, declined to comment on the ruling.
The plaintiffs claim Section 1021 is vague and can be read to authorize their detention based on speech and associations that are protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Hedges and two other plaintiffs testified in a hearing before Forrest in March, the judge said. A fourth plaintiff submitted a sworn declaration. The government put on no evidence, Forrest said.
Almost as if they don't want to enforce the law...
Forrest, an Obama appointee who has served on the Manhattan federal court since October, rejected the government's arguments that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue over the law and that it merely reaffirmed provisions in an earlier law, the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which was passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In her opinion, Forrest said the government declined to say that the activities of Hedges and the other defendants don't fall under the provision. Forrest held a hearing in March at which government lawyers didn't call any witnesses or present evidence, according to the judge. The government did cross- examine the plaintiffs who testified and submitted legal arguments.
"The government was given a number of opportunities at the hearing and in its briefs to state unambiguously that the type of expressive and associational activities engaged in by plaintiffs -- or others -- are not within Section 1021," Forrest said. "It did not. This court therefore must credit the chilling impact on First Amendment rights as reasonable -- and real."
Hedges, who testified he has been a foreign news correspondent for 20 years, said he has reported on 17 groups that are on a State Department list of terrorist groups. Hedges testified that after the law was passed, he changed his dealings with groups he had reported on, Forrest said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/17/2012
09:08 ||
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..that it merely reaffirmed provisions in an earlier law, the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which was passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
...which if you were honest about it [that excludes a good number of federal judges with agendas] constitutes the invocation of a state of war [see - cite para (b)(1)]. Then such acts would fall under Article III, Section 3
Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
In which case the penalty would entail as following the aforementioned -
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
The Arab-speaking media was in a quandary after the appointment of Jean-Marc Ayrault as France's new prime minster on Tuesday -- about how to mention the head of the French government without causing offense.
Transcribed into Arabic from the French pronounciation of his name, "Ayrault" refers to the male sexual organ in several Arabic dialects.
The problem lasted for hours after French President Francois Hollande named the head of the Socialist bloc in parliament as his prime minister, with Arab journalists trying different possible pronunciations of his name.
Some newspapers referred to him as "Aro," others prefixed his name with an "H," while some chose to spell out the last two silent letters.
The conundrum was finally resolved by the French foreign ministry, which issued an official edict on subject permitting his name to be transcribed as written, and saving the blushes of many an Arabic editor.
Turkey's military says two of its warplanes chased an Israeli aircraft that allegedly violated the airspace of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state, where Turkey is exploring for oil and gas.
A military statement late Wednesday said the Israeli plane violated the airspace five times Monday until the two Turkish F-16 jets forced it to leave the area over the Turkish Cypriot north of the divided island.
The statement didn't identify the type of Israeli aircraft, and there was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.
Ties between Turkey and Israel have been strained by Israel's treatment of Palestinians and the discovery by Israel and Cyprus of huge offshore natural gas deposits.
Turkey opposes any energy search by Greek Cypriots, has dismissed a Cypriot-Israeli deal demarcating their maritime borders, and retaliated by signing exploration deals with the Turkish Cypriot
#2
The part of the island Turkey illegally invaded and set up a puppet regime in. Oh and didn't pay for infinite UN presence in... That half of an island?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
05/17/2012 11:12
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5 times before it was forced to leave? Sounds like they were testing response time for worse-case scenarios. And that the response times were laughable.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/17/2012 19:38
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The Greeks need to enter a joint venture with the Germans for offshore drilling, and set the national boundary and base the servicing activity in the port at Kastellorizo. That will shift the Turks' attention from Cyprus and help the Greeks reduce some debt.
An unlikely coalition of lawmakers and activists came together in Britain on Wednesday to urge people to "feel free to insult me" in a campaign for the repeal of a law banning public insults.
Groups including the Christian Institute, the National Secular Society and a noted gay rights campaigner, led by a lawmaker from the ruling Conservative Party, called for the relevant section of the Public Order Act to be scrapped.
They said it has been used to arrest a teenage boy who held a placard reading "Scientology is a dangerous cult" and a student who joked that a police officer's horse was "gay," though both were eventually released without charge.
The wording, which bars people from using "insulting words or behaviour" in the hearing of someone likely "to be caused harassment, alarm or distress," has also been used against protesters and street preachers.
Conservative lawmaker David Davis said the ban, known as Section 5, was having a "terrible, chilling effect on democracy," while a poll commissioned by the campaign said 62 percent of lawmakers would support its repeal.
But 17 percent thought repealing it would undermine the ability of the police to protect the public, and one in five thought it would penalise minorities.
"We've sunk our differences to defend free speech," gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell wrote in the Times newspaper. He said he was arrested and charged under Section 5 in 1994 when he protested against the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
"Members of this Islamist group had endorsed the killing of Jews, gays, apostates and women who have sex outside marriage," he wrote.
"I displayed placards that documented the persecution of gay people by Islamist fanatics...
"I fought the charges and won, but not before spending many hours in police cells and standing trial."
He added that great thinkers such as Galileo and Darwin had caused "great offence and distress in their time."
The Public Order Act became law in 1986 in the wake of the miners' strikes across Britain, a key standoff between trade unions and authorities.
The campaigners said Wednesday that separate British laws protect people against discrimination, incitement and violence.
Three Chinese fishing boats were apparently hijacked in Chinese waters and then taken to North Korean waters. They hijackers were "armed men in blue hats and uniforms". Chinese officials said they were aware of it and "considered it a matter for the fisheries industry" according to the source article.
#6
Is Beijing certain whom did it - the MSM-Net Artics from yestiddy afternoon seemed to allude Beijing believed these "Pirates" were working on behalf of the NORTH KOREAN STATE = Jong-un + his Pyongyang Boyz???
* CHINA DAILY FORUM > NORTH KOREA ASKS RANSOM FOR CAPTURED CHINESE FISHING BOATS.
* TOPIX > NORTH KOREA SEIZES CHINESE BOATS FOR RANSOM, "GLOBAL TIMES" SAYS.
* SAME > NORTH KOREA ASKS RANSOM FOR CAPTURED BOATS.
#3
The success of the US Military is due to the model developed by the Prussian Army under Rood.
Pushing responsibility and authority to the lowest level possible and then relying on the initiative of the small unit commander are the decisive differences between the US military and most Armies/unwashed mobs that we fight.
We'll be successful as long as we keep that model functional, the ROE in Afghanistan violate that paradigm and we pay dearly for REMF's second guessing fire missions and requests for air cover. In the battle field environment, provide the resources and the objective and get the heck out of the way.
I had one Bn CO that said, LT, I want to eat lunch on a LZ at this location noon tomorrow and here are the resources...then I got his replacement would would tell me everything except when to take a leak and my casualty rate went through the roof. After a while we all decided the new Bn Co was a REMF in wolf's clothing and all of us Company Commanders pretty much ignored his crap in the field. He got a medal because we ignored his crap.
Same today.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
05/17/2012 14:37
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the ROE in Afghanistan violate that paradigm and we pay dearly for REMF's second guessing fire missions and requests for air cover
While it went away for a short while, this been around for decades. The only bright spot, if you want to call it that, is that the second-guessing has been pushed down to the REMFs instead of going through the higher echelons.
[Dawn] The United States is expected to pay Pakistain close to one million dollars a day, once the transportation of supplies to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... forces in Afghanistan is reopened, a report said on Wednesday.
The two allies in the war on terror are close to signing an agreement on the resumption of supplies after a six-month period of impasse. According to a Christian Science Monitor report, the US will pay Pakistain $1,500 to $1,800 for each truck that transports supplies to its troops across the border.
The CSM report says "NATO traffic in and out of Afghanistan through Pakistain is anticipated to be as many as 600 trucks a day between now and the end of next year."
The report sources the information to unnamed "officials familiar with negotiations."
"Officials in Washington said they didn't know how much of the new cost the United States would bear. As the United States contributes more than two-thirds of the 130,000-strong international force, which operates under the command of NATO, it's expected that Washington will pay most of the new fee," the report says.
Pakistain put a stop to the supplies late last year, after 24 Pak soldiers were killed in an attack on a check-post by NATO forces. The two countries have been in talks over the improvement of ties but have been unsuccessful.
On Tuesday, however, in a meeting of Pakistain's cabinet ministers, it was agreed to reopen the supplies.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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#1
Fuck'it. Looks like something out of the "Soprano's"
#3
I suspect we will soon see a corresponding spike in Taliban funding for weapons and explosives. The 24 Pak soldiers that we killed died as a result of their firing on US helicopters.
#4
This is nothing but tribute paid to a bunch of liars and thieves. We need to rethink this way of coping and how it affects the big picture of the war. This war has been going on for over 10 years. How much longer will it go without any decisive victory?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/17/2012 13:31
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#5
Treat it like what it is - extortion. Put trackers in the cash. Send a greeting when it stops moving.
#6
Ah, this tradition of taxing trade routes goes back to Marco Polo, its really the only way Mohamland has earned an income other than oil and pillage.
KUCINICH/FLARG:CONQUEROR OF MEEPZOR-2016
Rep. Dennis Kucinich has decided against running for Congress in Washington State. Maybe when Alpha Centuri becomes a state...
"After careful consideration and discussions with Elizabeth and my closest friends, I have decided that, at this time, I can best serve from outside the Congress," the congressman announced in a statement Wednesday. When I lost Shirley MacLaine and all the voices in her head, I knew it was time...
Kucinich, 65, thanked his supporters who had encouraged him to run for an open Congressional seat in Washington State, but said he could "best serve from outside the Congress." Like...you oughta run, man, because, like...you oughta run, man!
"My commitments to peace, to workers' rights and to social and economic justice are constant and are not dependent upon holding an office. They are dependent upon my continuing to stand up, to speak out, to organize, to motivate and to inspire our nation as to its deeper potential. This I promise I will do with great energy and heart," Kucinich said. ...and that'll be easy to do with a six figure pension and solid gold free health care.
Back in March, the Cleveland congressman lost to Rep. Marcy Kaptur in the primary battle for the new 9th District. Redistricting eliminated the 10th Congressional District, held by Kucinich since 1996. Otherwise known as "The Battle of the Non Titans"...
The near 16-year U.S. House representative said he would complete his service in January "with the same passion and devotion to duty" with which he began it in January of 1997. Live long and prosper, little tiny man...
#1
He will receive about $130k/yr per my estimate unless he takes the spousal annuity option. This would reduce his annuity but insure that his wife gets an annuity (somewhat reduced) if he should die before her. This would make actuarial sense since he is 65 and his wife is about 35.
Of course Kucinich could almost certainly get a gig on MSNBC or Current and make a few bucks that way.
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/17/2012 1:08
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...if one considers MSNBC to be another planet. Maybe a Mother Jones editorial position? He could move to San Francisco if he did... which would be fitting somehow.
#8
Hmmm...maybe he's not as barking moonbat crazy as I always thought he was. "Lessee...my first option is carpetbag into a state and district I've never lived in, thereby upsetting the local party establishment..my second option's taking my nice fat pension and livin' large with a nice lady who looks like Julianne Moore's kid sister."
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
05/17/2012 11:40
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#12
so i went and clicked the pic; agree she's hot, but then again aIhad a Ford Torino GT with a 302-2 barrel under the hood, looked fast, but couldn't get out of its own way, maybe she is just a dead under her hood....(stuck on loser that is)
[Dawn] The law and order situation of the city further deteriorated on Wednesday as incidents of murders claimed 11 lives and left several maimed, DawnNews reported.
The recent killings have brought the number of 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... (MQM) activists killed in the last 24 hours to five.
Two men were killed near Nazimabad Board office.
A man was rubbed out in Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... in the area of Dariya abad. Another man was rubbed out near Banaras flyover.
The tortured dead body of a woman was found from New 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... sector 5-F.
A man was shot at Burns road; later he departed this vale of tears.
A three day old dead body was found from house in Ghaziaabad, Manghopir.
Earlier in the evening assailants opened fire on a mini-bus, near Sachal Goth Gulistan-e-Johar, leaving three passengers injured.
Two brothers, Asif and Yasin, were rubbed out in Baldia Town's Gulshan-e-Mazdoor area by unidentified gunnies, while another man also lost his life as gunnies open fire on him elsewhere in Baldia Town.
Meanwhile, ...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind... unknown assailants shot and killed one person, also affiliated with a political party, in Orangi Town's Bangla bazaar area. The incident led to tensions in the neighbourhood where business activities were subsequently suspended.
Earlier today, a former union councillor belonging to the MQM, Muhammad Khursheed, was rubbed out in Saudabad, Malir area. According to police, two gunnies on a bike opened indiscriminate firing on Khursheed, who was also riding a cycle of violence. Nine bullets hit him, four in head and five in chest, resulting in his instant death.
Moreover, two people were maimed in incidents of firing near the Karimabad bridge and near Sea View.
Separately, one person was killed and five were maimed in a hand-grenade attack that targeted a hotel near the Quaidabad bridge in the city's Shah Latif Town.
Earlier on Tuesday, at least seven people, including three Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers, were rubbed out in different parts of the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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[An Nahar] Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet... confirmed during Wednesday's parliamentary meeting a list of politicians and figures targeted by beturbanned goon groups, describing the threat as serious and dangerous.
According to NBN, Berri called on security agencies to follow up the issue.
Local newspapers reported on Wednesday that international countries warned Lebanese officials that a terrorist group - linked to an beturbanned goon organization, has infiltrated the country recently to carry out "sabotage" operations.
According to As Safir newspaper, the information coincided with similar data obtained by Lebanese security agencies.
Speaker Nabih Berri and several other senior Lebanese officials might be the target of a security threat by the terrorist group.
Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... leader Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... escaped an liquidation attempt on April 4.
In January, security agencies urged Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... to take precautions as they might be the target of an liquidation plot.
On Tuesday, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported that the security agencies succeeded in the past few days in uncovering a terrorist network with local, Arab, and European links.
It said that the confessions of one of the detainees led to the arrest of Sunni Islamist Shadi al-Mawlawi, a development which sparked armed festivities in the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... over the weekend.
The General Security tossed in the calaboose You have the right to remain silent... in Tripoli last week Hamza Mahmoud Tarbey whose confessions led to al-Mawlawi's arrest, according to the daily.
The six-member network includes three Lebanese individuals and a national from each of Qatar, Paleostine, and Jordan.
Military Tribunal Judge Saqr Saqr had charged on Monday al-Mawlawi and the five other network members with forming an armed terrorist group and undermining the authority of the state, as well as having links to the al-Qaeda.
He later issued an arrest warrant against al-Mawlawi.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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#1
Looks like 2012 is turning out to be another banner year for Left Field + sexy slinky Kelly
"The Hell You Say" Bundy!
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Convicted Liberian warlord Charles Taylor The former President-for-Life of Liberia, of whom the best that could be said was that he wasn't quite as horrible as Prince Johnson, at least not usually. has accused UN prosecutors of paying witnesses to testify against him as he addressed a war crimes court in The Hague.
Taylor, 64, was found guilty by the UN-backed court last month for aiding and abetting war crimes.
"Witnesses were paid, coerced and in many cases threatened with prosecution if they did not give statements," the former Liberian president told the Special Court for Sierra Leone at a hearing ahead of his sentencing on May 30.
Dressed in a light grey suit, white shirt and blue tie, Taylor addressed the court for 30 minutes from the witness box -- his last chance to state his case before judges pronounce a sentence, expected to be delivered in two weeks' time.
Mr Taylor insisted that he "pushed hard for peace" in the neighbouring country. "I was convinced that unless peace came to Sierra Leone, Liberia could not go forward."
And he expressed his "sadness and deepest sympathies at the crimes suffered by victims and their families in Sierra Leone."
Once one of the most powerful men in west Africa, Taylor was found guilty last month of arming and aiding rebels who killed and mutilated thousands of people in Sierra Leone during a decade-long civil war that killed 120,000.
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05/17/2012
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[An Nahar] A person was killed and at least 10 others were maimed on Wednesday as festivities renewed in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... despite the presence of Interior Minister Marwan Charbel in the northern city, the scene of three days of deadly festivities which ended by a ceasefire on Tuesday.
A security official speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... told Agence La Belle France Presse the shooting broke out after soldiers tried to remove barricades in the city's Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood.
For its part, Radio Voice of Leb (93.3) reported that a soldier was maimed as a dispute between the army and young men in Bab al-Tabbaneh over the removal of barricades erupted into an armed clash.
The security official said residents opened fire on the soldiers, one of whom was maimed, and the troops responded.
The festivities then escalated with residents of Jabal Mohsen, which sits opposite Bab al-Tabbaneh, also opening fire.
The radio station later reported that festivities had abated after a person was killed and more than 10 were maimed.
It also said that a soldier was maimed as an army patrol came under gunfire from Jabal Mohsen. But Jabal Mohsen sources denied to al-Manar television any link to the incident, saying the army was the side that shot up Bab al-Tabbaneh gunnies.
State-run National News Agency said gunfire targeted all the hotspots in Tripoli: Bab al-Tabbaneh, Jabal Mohsen, al-Omari uphill, Starco, al-Mallouleh and al-Mankoubin.
NNA said the army closed roads leading to Bab al-Tabbaneh from al-Beddawi, al-Qobbeh, al-Mallouleh and al-Ayrouniyeh, amid a severe traffic jam caused by the fleeing of residents.
For its part, al-Jadeed television said festivities spread to the districts of al-Baqqar, the vegetable market, al-Zahriyeh, Starco and Baal al-Darawish.
And as MTV reported that the army had pulled out of Bab al-Tabbaneh, sources denied to Radio Voice of Leb (100.3-100.5) the withdrawal of any soldier from any Tripoli area the army had deployed at since yesterday morning.
Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... Radio Voice of Leb (93.3) said gunnies transporting a number of maimed people fired gunshots in al-Mitein Street in a bid to make their way through traffic.
Army troops deployed Tuesday morning in Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen and other sectors of Tripoli in a bid to calm the northern city after three days of sectarian fighting that killed nine people and maimed more than 90.
Troops deployed in Syria Street, the frontline of fighting between the majority Sunni Mohammedan district of Bab al-Tabbaneh, and Jabal Mohsen, whose residents are mostly Alawite.
Battles first erupted on Saturday between residents of the rival neighborhoods when General Security agents placed in long-term storage Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! Shadi al-Mawlawi, a Salafist, on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization. Mawlawi's supporters say he was targeted because of his help for Syrian refugees fleeing to Leb.
Also on Tuesday, a separate incident shook the fragile truce when a fierce armed clash erupted between the families of al-Nashar, Hrash and al-Naanai in al-Rifaiyeh in central Tripoli, leaving three people maimed and raising tensions in the city.
The army quickly managed to contain the clash, which involved the use of machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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For a map, click here. For a map of Zacatecas state, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A Mexican Policia Federal (PF) patrol killed two armed suspects and wounded two others in an exchange of gunfire in Guadalupe municipality in Zacatecas state Tuesday evening.
According to accounts posted on the websites of El Sol de Zacatecas and El Sol de Mexico, the PF patrol observed armed suspects travelling aboard a Volkswagen Jetta sedan on calle Olvido in Margaritas colony near Unidad Academica de Odontologia at 1900 hrs, and signalled the driver to stop.
Instead, the occupants opened fire on the unit, so police agents returned fire, killing two and wounding two. Two PF agents were wounded in the encounter. Police agents found metal stars in the vehicle which are used to puncture tires.
El Sol de Zacatecas also reported that a Ford Lobo (F-150) was found in San Ramon colony late Tuesday night with a dead suspect inside.
In other news, armed suspects attacked the police headquarters of Jerez municipality Wednesday morning. Armed suspects aboard a pickup truck fired their weapons against the facade of the building.
El Sol de Zacatecas reported in that incident one municipal police agent was wounded in the attack and another individual was kidnapped.
A subsequent Policia Estatal Preventiva (PEP) operation encountered a nine vehicle convoy on the Jerez-Zacatecas road following the attack. Apparently all but three vehicles of the convoy escaped, leaving one unidentified female detained.
In a possibly related incident, the Zacatecas state Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP) and the director of the state Policia Estatal Preventiva were injured when the helicopter they were riding in crashed near Zacatecas city Wednesday morning.
Generals Jesus Pinto Ortiz (SSP) and Victor Manuel Bosque (PEP) are reportedly out of danger. The helicopter was being dispatched to Jerez when a mechanical failure forced the bird down.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
#3
In Spanish, diacritical marks are used with vowels and the N. Some browsers cannot recognize the diacritical marks and uses this symbol in its place
Posted by: try this ||
05/17/2012 7:47
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#4
One of the nice things about Rantburg is that there's always someone who knows the answer. Thank you for explaining, try this. :-)
#5
What is this symbol? �
Normally I have seen it when the article is submitted in an unusual character set, say 'Cyrillic (ISO-8859-5)', and the browser gets confused.
My Firefox is set on 'Western (ISO-8859-1)" and it doesn't like the "Ae" character... IIRC, I switched to this setting some time ago when some Rantburg articles on the Mexican Drug War looked like cypher-text...
[Dawn] Criminal investigation department (CID) cooled for a few years You have the right to remain silent... an alleged 'terrorist' associated with banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... (LJ) and recovered large quantity of arms and explosives, DawnNews reported.
Senior Superintendent (SSP) CID Fayyaz Khan told that the alleged 'terrorist' named Nawaz Khan alias Shah was cooled for a few years You have the right to remain silent... from Sohrab Goth area.
Five kilograms of kaboom, three detonators and seven meters of detonating wire have been recovered from Shah, SSP told.
"Shah had come to Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... with intention of terrorist attack in the city," SSP said, adding that "Shah was involved in various attacks on the security forces and he is associated with the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangi."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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[Dawn] Pakistain said Wednesday it had ordered officials to finalise an agreement as quickly as possible on lifting a six-month blockade on overland NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... supplies into war-torn Afghanistan.
Islamabad has stopped short of announcing when the transit lines will reopen, but has signalled President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... will attend key talks on Afghanistan in Chicago on May 20-21, after a last-minute invitation from NATO.
The country shut its Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies on November 26 after US air strikes killed 24 Pak soldiers.
As a result, Pak-US relations -- already frayed by the US raid that killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who sleeps with the fishes... -- plunged into their worst crisis since Islamabad joined the United States in the war on al Qaeda after 9/11.
Now Pak and US officials are locked in talks to finalise a deal on again allowing thousands of trucks and oil tankers to carry non-lethal supplies from the southern port city of 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... to landlocked Afghanistan.
Asked if there was any deadline for the talks, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said: "There is no deadline. All departments have been asked to conclude their negotiations in the quickest possible time." The cabinet on Wednesday welcomed NATO's invitation to Zardari, clearing the way for him to travel to the May 20-21 summit, and it is thought unlikely he would be willing to risk the wrath of Western leaders if the supply lines have not been restored.
By going to Chicago, Pakistain hopes to ease its international isolation and boost its leverage over the future of Afghanistan, as Western countries pull out their combat forces by 2014.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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#1
I would refuse politely and tell the Pakis to stick it where the sun don't shine.
2 faced double dealing Pakis need to be taught a lesson.
[An Nahar] Presumptive Republican nominee Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the presumptive Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field. On the plus side, he isn't President B.O... won primary ballots in Oregon and Nebraska on Tuesday, partial results showed, moving him a step closer to winning his party's formal White House nomination.
Romney won 73 percent of the vote in Oregon against 12.2 percent for Ron Paul, who suspended active campaigning this week, and 5.7 percent for Newt Gingrich ...former Speaker of the House, author of the Contract with America. Gingrich gave the country welfare reform and a balanced budget and the Publicans a landslide House victory in 1994. On the downside, he has a roving eye and a loose fly, he's opinionated, and he's abrasive despite his ability to work with the other side of the political aisle... , according to results from nearly two thirds of precincts.
In Nebraska the former Massachusetts governor had some 70.9 percent of votes compared to 9.9 percent for Paul and 5.2 percent for former House Speaker Gingrich, according to nearly complete results.
Even if he won all of Oregon's 25 delegates and Nebraska's 32 -- from a non-binding poll -- he would not be able to reach the 1,144 needed to clinch the Republican nomination.
Before Tuesday's two latest primaries -- which have become mostly academic since the other main candidates dropped out of the race -- Romney had 963 delegates, 181 short of the winning tally, CBS reported.
Romney has turned his fire onto President Barack Obama On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today... , his rival for the White House in November elections, since his main rival conservative Catholic Rick Santorum ...unsuccessful candidate for president and former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. He was a lawyer before becoming the Representative for suburban Pittsburgh in 1991. He lost his Senate seat in 2006 to Bob Casey, a Democrat machine politician and political dynast. Santorum is a social conservative who thinks the rest of the country is, too... withdrew from the race in April.
Earlier Tuesday Romney won the backing -- albeit in unorthodox fashion -- of former president George W. Bush to be White House nominee, to be chosen by Republicans at their August convention in Tampa, Florida.
"I'm for Mitt Romney," Bush said, as elevator doors were closing on him, according to an ABC television blog report. Bush is not due to campaign for Romney, ABC said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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#1
With no one else campaigning, this hardly seems like news.
#2
The way we run the presidential primaries in this country is dysfunctional. The money and the media attention all go to whoever wins the first few primaries. The rest of us are disenfranchised. Maybe the people of Oregon and Nebraska would vote the same as the people in New Hampshire but then maybe they wouldn't. And by the time we get to vote in California it's all over. I understand all you California haters think that's funny but I'm telling you it isn't fair. This is the state with more voters and more delegates than any other but our votes don't count. And so now we have Mitt Romney as the nominee. Great.
[An Nahar] Seven people were killed and more than 20 maimed as gunnies raided the oasis town of Ghadames on the border with Algeria on Wednesday, Libya's government front man said.
"There were festivities in the city of Ghadames," Nasser al-Manaa said.
"The number of people killed is seven," Manaa said, adding that more than 20 people were maimed in festivities that erupted in the early morning and centered on the airport.
Six of the raiders were killed along with a resident of Ghadames, which lies 600 kilometers (373 miles) southwest of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... That toll was confirmed by a local medical official.
Manaa, who did not identify the assailants, said military forces had entered the city and brought the situation under control. The health ministry, for its part, was providing emergency assistance.
Ghadames officials said the attackers belonged to the Tuareg community.
Saraj al-Din Bubaker, head of the local council, told Agence La Belle France Presse that "a Tuareg group shelled the city with rocket-propelled grenades, forcing some families to flee."
The Tuareg are dark-skinned Libyans violently displaced from several towns, including Ghadames, after the fall of strongman Muammar Qadaffy ...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse... in an uprising last year with whose forces they were accused of having sided.
Racism coupled with the belief that Qadaffy recruited sub-Saharan mercenaries have made them a focal point of Dire Revenge attacks, rights group say.
Another local official said tensions have been high after Tuareg rustics were expelled by other residents of Ghadames.
The official said residents "set fire to two houses and four vehicles" in a predominantly Tuareg neighborhood following the day's unrest.
Ghadames, which is also known as the "Pearl of the Desert," is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to Roman ruins close to Libya's borders with Algeria and Tunisia.
The Tuareg have historically roamed over vast tracts of the southern Sahara and control smuggling routes criss-crossing the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
A senior military official excluded the possibility of foreigners entering the country and stirring up the unrest.
"We are not aware of the entry of any external party," army front man Ali al-Sheikhi told AFP, pointing to regular air patrols over the area.
He added that a reconciliation committee had begun to reach out to the communities concerned in the hope of calming the situation.
The desert cities of southern Libya have been particularly vulnerable to tribal conflicts in recent months.
Ethnic tensions play into pie fights to control lucrative smuggling routes that cut across mostly non-existent borders.
The latest violence comes as the country prepares to hold elections for a constituent assembly in June.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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[An Nahar] An all-out army offensive against Al-Qaeda in south Yemen raged into a fifth straight day on Wednesday with battles around the restive town of Loder leaving another 13 people dead, most of them jihadists, sources said.
Wednesday's fighting saw the army backed by local hard boyz taking on Al-Qaeda forces of Evil in an area surrounding Mount Yasuf, overlooking Loder 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 until it was overrun on Tuesday had been an Al-Qaeda stronghold, witnesses said.
A member of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militia formed by local residents, told AFP that Al-Qaeda bully boyz had at dawn fired artillery shells at troops and hard boyz stationed atop Mount Yasuf, killing two armed residents and wounding four.
The army responded and in a fierce counter-attack killed 11 jihadists, tribal sources said. The area then fell quiet, they added.
The Defense Ministry's news website 26sep.net reported that the jihadists had suffered major defeats around Loder on Tuesday.
The army and militiamen, it said, "dealt heavy blows to the bully boyz in Loder and managed to cleanse many positions they were stationed in, including Mount Yasuf... which was completely cleansed after all their strongholds were destroyed."
The jihadists, who last year took control of the Abyan capital Zinjibar and a string of other southern towns and cities, have been trying to overrun Loder for months but have been repulsed by the militia, backed by the army.
Residents of Zinjibar and the adjacent Al-Qaeda stronghold of Jaar said that the situation was relatively quiet in both towns later on Wednesday.
Troops on Saturday launched a multi-pronged assault aimed at recapturing Qaeda-held towns and cities across Abyan, including Zinjibar.
Since then at least 128 people -- 82 jihadists, 20 soldiers, 16 civilians, and 10 hard boyz -- have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on reports by officials and tribal leaders.
The offensive is supported by U.S. drones which on Saturday launched two air strikes in eastern Yemen killing a total of 11 suspected Al-Qaeda jihadists.
On May 6, air strikes by U.S. drones in eastern Yemen killed jihadist network leader Fahd al-Quso, wanted by Washington in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
Quso's name figured on an FBI list of most wanted terrorists, along with a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.
Al-Qaeda bully boyz exploited the decline in central government control that accompanied Arab Spring-inspired protests that eventually forced President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... to cede power in February.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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Former government attorneys and defense experts fear that foreign terrorists could capitalize on a new House proposal that would afford them full protection under the U.S. legal system, potentially spurring a domestic influx of would-be terrorists who may seek to exploit the legal loophole.
The amendment, spearheaded by Reps. Justin Amash (R., Mich.)
primary challenge, anyone?
and Adam Smith (D., Wash), would implement an unprecedented reversal in longstanding U.S. policy by requiring that terrorists be prosecuted in civilian courtsa shift that would also allow them to be housed among general inmates in American prisons.
The amendment would prevent the president from effectively fighting the war on terror, thereby posing a serious threat to the countrys national security, experts warn.
In order to be able to successfully fight and win this war, we need to support the notion that this is a real war, said David Rivkin, who provided legal counsel in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Anything that delegitimizes the laws of war is a horrible thing symbolically in terms of undermining a fragile consensus.
Smith and Amash, Rivkin said, are unraveling a delicate legal balance that permits the president to effectively fight and win the war on terror.
#1
The amendment, spearheaded by Reps. Justin Amash (R., Mich.)
If he thinks it's so safe, Just put him with them in jail, He'll change his mind shortly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/17/2012 15:38
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#2
It's kind of weird how these Arab Christians (like Amash) come here to escape from Muslim persecution and then become the biggest boosters of foreign Arab Muslim terrorists. This is another reason I have no problem with Assad's campaign to crush the Sunni insurrection. We don't need any more Arab refugees in this country. And Arab refugees there will be in the millions, if the Sunni Arabs win and give rein to their genocidal tendencies.
(Sh.M.Network)-Gunmen detonated grenades outside a night club in the Kenyan city of Mombasa on Tuesday, killing one person and wounding several others in the latest attack since Kenya sent troops into Somalia to crush Islamist krazed killers.
Nairobihas said al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... krazed killers, who merged with al-Qaeda earlier this year, are behind a surge in violence and kidnappings threatening tourism in eastAfrica's biggest economy.
Police said the target of the attack was Bella Vista sports bar in a street known for its nightlife inMombasa, a popular holiday destination for Kenyans and foreigners.
A pool of blood marked the entrance to the club, and spent cartridges and grenade shells were strewn near its gate. Some cars nearby were riddled with shrapnel marks.
Police said the attackers tried to force their way into the club, but were barred at the gate by guards. They then shot at random and hurled the bombs.
Two of the guards were among those injured, and police said one of them, a woman, died of her wounds in hospital.
The Kenya Red Thingy said on its Twitter feed that the woman had died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Police could not immediately confirm the cause of death.
"There is one dead and five others injured. We believe the dead person, a lady, was one of the guards at the gate," Ambrose Munyasia, the region's top criminal investigation officer who was at the scene told Rooters.
"From the evidence so far, we believe there were three grenade kabooms."
He could not say who was behind the attack and no group immediately grabbed credit.
Police recovered a pistol at the scene believed to have been dropped by the attackers, Munyasia said.
More than 10 people have been killed in a series of attacks inNairobi and Mombasa since Kenyan troops launched their incursion into southern Somalia.
Earlier on Tuesday, a suspected remote-controlled bomb went off inKenya's Dadaab refugee complex near the Somali border, killing a police officer and wounding three.
The country is already forecasting earnings from tourism -- one of its big three hard currency sources -- will fall this year, in part because of travel warnings over the threat from Somali krazed killers.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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#1
Roland searched the continent for the man who'd done him in
He found him in Mombassa in a barroom drinking gin
Roland aimed his Thompson gun - he didn't say a word
But he blew Van Owen's body from there to Johannesburg
Roland the headless Thompson gunner...
did the killer's description perhaps seem a little...odd?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/17/2012 9:32
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(Sh. M. Network)-Unknown masked gunnies have assassinated on Tuesday night an official in TFG in Somalia's southern town ofBaidoa, witnesses said.
Locals said Aden Heydar, the commissioner of Bardale village was bumped off at around 7.30pm of Tuesday night as he walked his house in eastern Baidoa town, 256 kilometers (159 mi) by road northwest of the capital Mogadishu.
The killers escaped before Somali soldiers arrived at the scene. There has been a surge in attacks in Somalia's war-ravaged Baidoa since the Æthiopian troops backing the hapless Somali government captured from the hardline Shabaab movement.
No group has said it was behind the murder so far.
Also in Mogadishu,Somalia capital a man was killed last night by gunnies at Jamhuriyah village in Mogadishu's Karan district, according to locals who spoke with Shabelle Media by phone.
Witnesses said the killing followed after the man refused to hand over his cell-phone forcibly to the gunnies and then they shot him killed instantly.
The administration of Karan district for Somali government was unavailable to reach on the line for comment.
The Al-Qaeda inspired Al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... fighters have been carrying out coordinated attacks and liquidations in the capital in recent months however as pro-government troops and AMISOM have successfully taken over several key positions out of the capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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[An Nahar] An agreement was reached on Wednesday between Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, Islamic committees and the committee following up on the case of Islamist detainees, under which Salafist activist Shadi al-Mawlawi will be re-interrogated on Thursday under the supervision of Judge Saqr Saqr and in the presence of Mawlawi's lawyers.
Following the agreement, Islamist protesters reopened roads leading to Tripoli's ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... al-Nour Square but decided to maintain their sit-in until Thursday afternoon.
Charbel later arrived at the square and met with the protesters.
The agreement was reached at the office of North Governor Nassif Qaloush in the presence of Moslemholy mans Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal, Zakariya al-Masri, Salem al-Rafehi, Bilal Baroudi, Mohammed Sayyed, Ali Hajar, Nabil Rahim, Kamal al-Rafehi, and lawyers Sheikh Raed Sulti and Sheikh Ahmed Shaarani.
State-run National News Agency said Mawlawi's case faces three possibilities: "He might be freed if proven innocent, released on bail if he is involved in offences, or kept in jug over substantial charges that do not allow his release on bail."
Mawlawi's arrest on Saturday in the northern city of Tripoli by General Security agents had infuriated the city's Islamists and sparked three days of deadly festivities that left nine people dead and more than 90 maimed. Clashes renewed for several hours on Wednesday in the city, leaving one person dead and at least 10 maimed.
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05/17/2012
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[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... Chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... said on Wednesday that he was contacting other political parties for the opposition campaign against expected re-opening of the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supply routes to Afghanistan, DawnNews reported.
Talking to media representatives at the presser at Zaman Paark in Lahore, Khan criticised the parliament for its inability to implement the resolution regarding future rules of engagement with the United States.
He asked why Pakistain was compromising on its stand of not allowing the NATO supplies through its land-routes, when the US drone attacks have not been stopped and the US has not seek for an apology over the raid on Salala check-post that killed 24 soldiers.
The PTI chairman warned that Pakistain will have to bear financial loss and loss of human lives, if it allows reopening of the NATO supply routes.
Speaking about election commission of Pakistain (ECP), Khan said that if Pakistain People's Party and Pakistain Moslem League- Nawaz appoints their cronies in the commission then PTI would oppose that.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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#1
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > TALIBAN NOW HAS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF FIGHTERS: GEN. KHALIB RABB | US MAKING PAKISTAN A "SCAPEGOAT" FOR FAILURE TO DEFEAT AFGHAN INSURGENCY: GEN. KHALID.
and
* SAME > PAKISTAN CHRISTIANS CALL FOR SEPARATE PROVINCE | IGNORING [PCC = PAK Christian Congress]DEMAND OF SEPARATE CHRISTIAN PROVINCE [by PPP, PML(N), MQM] SHALL ENDANGER SOVEREIGNTY + INTEGRITY OF PAKISTAN. PCC Leader Dr. Nazir S. Bhatti.
[Yemen Post] The ambassadors of the ten states sponsoring the GCC power transfer deal are set to discuss with the Elite Republican Guards Chief, Ahmed President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , who is also former President's eldest son, the current situation in the country. Riyadh daily newspaper reported on Tuesday citing diplomats that the GCC deal sponsoring states seek to press Ahmed and other former President's allies into listening to the republican decrees issued by President Abdu Rabu Hadi and into committing to the accord. Abdul-Hameed Maquala-- a military leader who is a relative of Saleh-- is refusing to obey the orders of the newly-appointed chief of the Third Brigade which belongs to the Elite Republican Guards, the best equipped and trained military troops in Yemen. Many Yemenis think they the elite republican guard troops are more loyal to their commander than to their homeland as they played a major part in the crackdown on the peaceful protesters and in helping Saleh endure a year of continued popular protests. Although Saleh's nephew Tariq Mohammed Saleh who was dismissed by Hadi announced that he would abide by Hadi's decrees in the presence of the UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar, he still refuses until now to hand over the command of the Third Brigade to his successor, the sources told the paper.
Also, the diplomatic sources stressed that the US is going to take decisive actions against the sides hindering the implementation of the GCC-brokered accord in the few coming days and pointed out that taking actions against those derailing the transitional process is much easier to Washington than it's to the EU. Yemen is currently plagued by various crises such as a war with the terrorists, and the increasingly powerful secessionist rebellion in the south, and Shiite insurgency in the far north.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] A west African Al-Qaeda splinter group has threatened to kill a Spanish hostage kidnapped in western Algeria last year if their demands are not met, a front man said.
"Spain is postponing every round of negotiations to answer our demands, and this is going to put the life of hostage Enrico Gonyalons to an end," said Adnan Abu Walid Sahraoui, front man for the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO.
MUJAO first emerged last December, presenting themselves as an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, when they claimed the kidnap three months earlier of three aid workers, two Spanish and one Italian, from Tindouf, Algeria.
The group is demanding the release of prisoners from Mauritania as well as 30 million euros ($40 million).
"Spain must understand our message... Spain will carry all responsibility" for whatever happens, the front man said in a written message to AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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#1
Thirty million euros is a ridiculous amount being demanded for one person. I think that would be the highest ransom demand ever, anywhere.
Posted by: American Delight ||
05/17/2012 7:11
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[Dawn] GIVEN the possible consequences, it would be facetious to suggest there is anything amusing about the latest terrorist plot blamed on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The entity's focus on fundamental garments is nonetheless bizarre.On Christmas Day in 2009, a Nigerian identified as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab evidently attempted to detonate an underwear bomb on a flight to Detroit. Fortunately, the detonator did not work and he was taken into custody.
The explosives sewn into Abdulmutallab's underpants are said to have been the handiwork of Ibrahim Al Asiri, who, undeterred by the failure, apparently endeavoured to finesse the concept, and is alleged to have come up with a device equipped with more than one detonator.
He failed again, this time because the person entrusted with delivering the deadly shock happened to be a mole rather than a dupe.
A couple of years ago, Al Asiri is claimed to have gone even deeper in an attempt to assassinate Saudi security chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. The bomb-maker's brother, posing as a repentant jihadi, is said to have sought an interview with the prince while equipped with explosives concealed within an orifice proximate to his underpants.
A seriously delicate locution, no doubt resurrected from the writer's Victorian great-grandmama's letters.
The detonator worked, the target survived.
This time the purported bomb -- reportedly devoid of metallic elements and therefore potentially undetectable by most airport scanning devices -- has ended up in the hands of the FBI. At the same time, the scanty revelations
The writer is having a little too much fun with the subject...
have stirred up something of a storm within the intelligence community, with a variety of former CIA operatives suggesting that absolute secrecy would have been the ideal option.
That's not an altogether illogical opinion: it can certainly be argued that it would have been wiser to leave AQAP wondering about what had become of its latest underwear bomber than to make it clear that he was an infiltrator. Just a couple of a months ago, the terrorist organization released a video that culminated in the execution of a purported Saudi spy. Last week's news reports are bound to enhance its paranoia, thereby reducing the likelihood of successful infiltrations in the future.
At the same time, concerns about revealing the extent of collaboration between Saudi, American and British intelligence agencies is surely overblown. That they share information and at least occasionally act in concert could hardly come as a surprise to anyone. The mole, whose identity remains secret, was initially said to be a Saudi citizen, but subsequent reports indicated he was a British passport-holder of Yemeni provenance.
The UK passport meant he could travel to the US without a visa, which is believed to have increased his value in AQAP's eyes. Presumably it must also have meant he emerged unscathed from a thorough vetting procedure. Whether that would have sufficed for AQAP to simply hand him Al Asiri's latest innovation and ask him to don it on any flight he chose to take to the US must surely be open to doubt. Such a lax, laissez-faire approach hardly conforms with the image of AQAP as the deadliest Al Qaeda affiliate on earth.
A suggestive thought, that.
Which is a reminder that the leaks so vociferously decried by sections of the intelligence community have been decidedly selective. The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, the initial conduit for the information, apparently sat on it for a few days at the request of the White House, with the latter worried that premature publicity could compromise the targeted liquidation of Fahd Al Quso, an AQAP leader said to have been wanted in connection with the USS Cole bombing of 2000.
It has been suggested that he was also involved in the most recent plot, and that intelligence from the mole was crucial in pinpointing his whereabouts.
The latter factor is also said to account in part for MI6's reticence about the affair, given that British intelligence agencies have been forbidden for 50 years from taking part in plots involving liquidations.
What, altogether? Or just of politicians and innocent bystanders?
No one suggests they have abided by this rule, but the British reputation for reserve comes in handy in such circumstances, and even the suggestion that Anglo spooks must be furious with their transatlantic cousins has come from American sources.
The Americans, on the other hand, have abandoned all qualms about playing judge, jury and executioner anywhere on earth, with parts of Yemen serving as the second busiest area of drone operations, after Pakistain's border regions.
We go where the targets are. Y'all take control of your border regions, and we won't have to.
Those behind these acts of war will no doubt have drawn some comfort from documents found in the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer exists... 's last lair suggesting that the Al Qaeda figurehead was deeply concerned about the Predator and Reaper raids in Wazoo.
Yes, indeed. Thank you for reminding us.
It's hardly remarkable, incidentally, that during his recent visit to Britannia Pakistain's prime minister ascribed Bin Laden's long-undetected presence in his country to "an intelligence failure from all over the world", even as Islamabad has vociferously been denying American suggestions that 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... is -- at least for the moment -- safely ensconced somewhere in Pakistain.
That's not a particularly convincing stance in the light of the Bin Laden experience, and Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... hinted as much when he pleaded ignorance in London, saying: "If there is any credible information please share it with us, so we can be quick and achieve our targets."
Would those targets be arresting or protecting the individuals in question?
"Achieving targets" is a curious notion in this context, although it may find resonance in the US, where faith in drone strikes -- notwithstanding their moral dubiousness and the rather obvious parallel with terrorist actions
Goodness. The deliberate moral obtuseness of that statement is breathtaking.
-- is considerably stronger than support for a continued military presence in Afghanistan.
"If the Bush administration didn't like somebody," Noam Chomsky ...intellectual and political theorist of a socialist persuasion. He is noted for being so far out in left field he can't see the shortstop on every issue he pushes... told Democracy Now on Monday, "they'd kidnap them and send them to torture chambers. If the B.O. regime decides they don't like somebody, they murder them."
Barack Obama This is a teachable moment... may have positioned himself on the right side of history in terms of gay marriage, but, notwithstanding occasional ostensible successes, his administration's approach towards combating terrorism remains almost as excremental on the moral plane as the intentions of would-be underwear bombers.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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#1
So... if the airlines required everybody to fly nude... (sandpaper my eyes please) ... would it be halal for Muslims to fly?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
05/17/2012 11:24
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[Bangla Daily Star] The BNP, which had been threatening to launch tough anti-government movements, suddenly finds itself in deep trouble as a record number of big shots of the party and its associated bodies have been put behind bars in an arson case.
Leaders of all tiers of the party got "puzzled and panicky" when 33 top leaders of the BNP-led 18-party alliance, including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, were sent to jail yesterday.
Talking to The Daily Star, party insiders termed the incident "unprecedented" in the country's political history and feared that the government's "hard line" against the opposition may put democracy in jeopardy.
"There is no example of sending so many opposition leaders to jail in any democratic country in the world," Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, an adviser to the BNP chairperson, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Khandaker Mahbub, also a former president of Supreme Court Bar Association, said he had witnessed the rule of Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan and also the last 40 years of independent Bangladesh, but never before did he see such mass detentions. "It did not happen even in any military rule."
Perhaps y'all might want to give up that whole hartal thingy, guys. It doesn't seem to be working well. But there's nothing to be done now about past corruption or what happened during the war. Sorry.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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[An Nahar] At least two people were killed and 39 maimed in Colombia's capital Tuesday when a bomb went kaboom! in what President Juan Manuel Santos said was an liquidation attempt against a former interior minister.
"I've just learned that an attempt was made on the life of Mr. Fernando Londono. He was in his armored car," said Santos, who canceled a planned trip to Cartagena and summoned a meeting of the National Security Council.
"Fortunately, Londono is stable condition in the hospital," Santos said, adding Londono's driver and a police guard were among the dead.
The Colombian Red Thingy initially said the blast killed five and maimed 17, but police and the prosecutor's office insisted late Tuesday that the official toll was two dead, 39 maimed. "Other deaths have not been confirmed at this time," a police source told AFP.
Bogota's mayor Gustavo Petro said via Twitter that a suspect had been cooled for a few years Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! and that there is surveillance video of the scene of the crime.
"The entire city should stay alert," he warned in his message.
No one immediately grabbed credit for the attack, which occurred just after 11:00 am (1600 GMT) on Bogota's busy Calle 74 and Avenida Caracas, a bustling intersection in the northwest of the city filled with foot traffic from businesses and students from nearby universities.
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05/17/2012
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[Bangla Daily Star] Agitated leaders and workers of BNP-led 18-party alliance vandalised around 200 vehicles and dozens of establishments across the country yesterday, ahead of today's nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal. ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... Scores were also injured in festivities between the alliance activists and law enforcers. The activists had blockaded roads and brought out processions protesting the court order that sent opposition leaders to jail.
A Dhaka court yesterday sent 33 leaders of 18-party alliance, including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, to jail rejecting their bail petition in a case filed in connection with torching a vehicle near the Prime Minister's Office during April 29 shutdown.
Since yesterday afternoon, at least 13 vehicles were torched in Dhaka. Of them, four buses were set ablaze in Mirpur, one in Rajarbagh, one in Karwan Bazar, one on Panthapath, two pick-up trucks in Rampura, a taxi on Elephant Road and two buses and a car in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital.
Several people including pro-BNP lawyers and 18-party leaders and workers, and journalists sustained injuries in the capital when agitated activists clashed with law enforcers in and around the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's court.
In Thakurgaon town, BNP activists vandalised several banks and business establishments and at least 100 vehicles, including police vans, buses, microbuses, cars and cycle of violences, reports our correspondent.
An hour after the violence, when police took position at Thakurgaon Chourasta (intersection), BNP activists engaged in a clash with the law enforcers. Twelve people, including three coppers, were maimed in the clash.
Law enforcers had to lob 30 to 40 teargas canisters and shoot rubber bullets to calm the situation down, said Thakurgaon police.
The activists also snatched the camera of Partha Sarothi, district correspondent of Mohona Television, while he was shooting the violence.
Police locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! 11 people until 5:15pm, said acting superintendent of police Belayet Hossain.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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#1
Thought this would be France.............my bad ;^)
#2
"Since yesterday afternoon...Law enforcers had to lob 30 to 40 teargas canisters and shoot rubber bullets to calm the situation down..."
Too early for the RAB to show up with the #7 Vice-Grips and velvet-cased stutter gun for some serious riot-quelling.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Mozambique has said joint efforts with neighbouring countries to fight piracy in its waters are paying off.
Regional powerhouse South Africa last year deployed an anti-piracy frigate to the Mozambican waters in a bid to ward off threats from Somali pirates.
"At the moment we see a trend downwards. We hope this trend continues but if it grows we want to be able to improve the quality of our reaction," Mozambican Defence Minister Filipe Nyusi told AFP.
Military representatives from Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania met in Maputo on Wednesday to work on details of an agreement signed in Dar es Salaam last February.
They aim to pool their resources to secure the coastlines of Mozambique, India and the Horn of Africa.
"We are using what each country has. Some ships from South Africa, some of our own and some from Tanzania. We are also involving the air force," said Nyusi.
Mozambican navy does not have a warship equipped to combat pirates in the deep ocean. South Africa's supply vessel, the SS Drakensberg currently patrols the Mozambican channel.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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#1
Seems like something some sonically triggered limpet mines and a few divers could solve. Simply attach the mines to all the boats in the harbor capable of being pirate vessels and when one approaches a ship, activate the sonic trigger. Boom. No more pirate boat.
It really doesn't seem like getting rid of these pirates would be all that difficult if we were really trying.
[Dawn] Nine hard boyz were killed when security forces pounded their hideouts in Mamozai area of Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... on Tuesday, sources said.
They said that security forces targeted bad turban positions with artillery shelling in Jan Bazi Kallay of Mamozai area. They said that nine hard boyz were killed when a shell hit their bunker.
Three of the dead hard boyz were residents of Parachinar, Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... and the remaining six belonged to Mamozai area of Orakzai Agency, sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] Several Western embassies in Islamabad received letters on Wednesday containing suspicious powder and threats to poison supplies for NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... soldiers in Afghanistan, officials said.
Islamabad police chief Bani Amin told AFP that at least three embassies had received small packets containing black powder, which had been sent for laboratory analysis.
The letters said the powder was a sample of "poison" that would be hidden in NATO supplies if Pakistain lifts a nearly six-month blockade on convoys carrying supplies for troops fighting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Senior Pak security officials told AFP that the French embassy and the Australian and British High Commissions had received suspicious packages for certain, and other diplomatic missions had probably also been targeted.
"Embassies have received one sachet each. The problem is that it is in a meagre quantity and difficult even to test. It seems somebody has committed some mischief. We are sending it to a laboratory," Amin told AFP.
A diplomat at one of the embassies said the accompanying handwritten letter was in broken English and threatened to avenge cut-throats killed in Afghanistan by poisoning food supplies in the convoys.
"We received a letter containing greyish powder in a sealed plastic sachet, which we didn't open," the diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered...
There was no risk of anyone being contaminated as the powder did not get out of the sealed bag, the diplomat said, adding that it had been sent to police for analysis.
Pakistain closed its borders to NATO convoys supplying the war effort in Afghanistan in November after a US air strike inadvertently killed 24 Pak soldiers at a border post.
But talks with the US have been under way for weeks to lift the blockade and on Wednesday Pakistain said it had ordered officials to finalise an agreement as quickly as possible.
A date for the reopening has not been announced but Islamabad has signalled President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... will attend key talks on Afghanistan in Chicago on May 20-21 after a last-minute invitation from NATO.
Reopening the supply lines is likely to trigger an angry backlash from opposition, right-wing and religious parties keen to exploit rampant anti-American sentiment in an election year.
In February it emerged that an envelope containing anthrax had been sent to the office of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... in October.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] At least three people were killed and four were maimed on Wednesday when unknown assailants opened fire on a 'jirga' in Kohat, DawnNews reported.
The 'jirga' took place in the area of Sheikhan, headed by Awami National Party's district president Syed Saeed Shah Bukhari.
ANP's MNA Khursheed Begum was present there but fortunately she remained unhurt.
Bukhari received bullet wounds; he has been shifted to Lady Reading hospital in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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The ringleader of the "Makhachkala militant gang", Gussein Mamaev, who had been wanted for organizing a terrorist attack in the Dagestani capital, has been wiped out in Makhachkala.
On Tuesday night, the terrorist militant was sealed off in a house in Makhachkala. Refusing to surrender, Mamaev put up a stiff resistance and was killed by return fire.
On May 3, a suicide bomber blew up a car near a police post on the outskirts of the city, with a second blast coming soon after. As a result, 13 people were killed and over 100 wounded.
[Dawn] Fiver persons were maimed when eight rockets landed in different parts of the posh Hayatabad Township on Tuesday evening.
A police source said that few of the rockets fell in Phase-VI near Bangash Market. He said that Adnan, Dr Ali, Tehsinullah, Mrs Syed Kamaluddin and an unidentified woman were among the injured.
The injured were rushed to Hayatabad Medial Complex by the workers Rescue 1122. Some of the injured were stated to be at death's door.
Sajjad, a resident of Hayatabad, told Dawn that rockets were fired from tribal area on the township every night, causing panic among the residents. He said that people were unable to come out of the houses at night owing to fear of rocket attacks.
"During the past few days, at least one dozen rockets have landed in Hayatabad," said an official and added that police could do nothing because the rockets were fired from the tribal area.
Also, unidentified persons rubbed out a prayer leader in SLearned Elders of Islamnkhel area on the suburbs of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar on Monday night.
Siaq Khan, a brother of slain prayer leader Qari Siar, told police that his brother was also running a shop in the area and used to sleep in the shop at night. On Tuesday morning his body was found at a nearby graveyard, he added.
"We have no enmity," he said, adding that he did not know as to who was behind the murder of his brother. The prayer leader, he said, used to stay at the shop alone.
Paperwork was started but nothing else was done at Badhber cop shoppe against unidentified accused.
Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... a boy was injured when a bomb went kaboom! near the residence of a tribal elder in New City Home locality in Peshawar on Tuesday.
Officials of Chamkani cop shoppe said that the blast took place outside the residence of Haji Ihsanullah, a resident of Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency. The elder, police said, was living in Yakatoot area and had recently constructed the new house.
He told police that he had no enmity and never received threats from any proscribed organization.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... another police source said that a group of beturbanned goons had sent him a threatening letter, demanding huge money from him but he didn't pay the amount. A case against unidentified bully boyz was registered at Chamkani cop shoppe.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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[An Nahar] Regime troops rubbed out at least five people in a new assault on the flashpoint town of Khan Sheikhun and opened fire on a refugee camp in southern Syria on Wednesday, monitors said.
A child, another civilian and three armed beturbanned goons were killed by machinegun fire in Khan Sheikhun, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Four others died of wounds suffered on Tuesday when regime troops "massacred" 20 people during a funeral procession in the town, according to the Britannia-based group.
During the funeral, a convoy of U.N. truce observers came under kaboom in Khan Sheikhun, damaging three vehicles but causing no casualties, the United Nations ...An organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... said.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, three civilians including a child were killed as troops fired on a refugee camp in southern Daraa province for Paleostinians and Syrians displaced from the Israeli-annexed Golan, the Observatory said.
Regime forces also killed a young man in a raid on Mleiha al-Aatsh village of Daraa province, the watchdog said.
And in the central province of Homs, a civilian was killed in the rebel-held town of Rastan, which was under regime bombardment, according to the Syrian Observatory.
The watchdog updated its toll of people killed in Syria on Tuesday to 64, including two rebel fighters and 11 regular army soldiers.
The bloodshed comes despite a truce 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 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... as part of a six-point plan aimed at ending violence that has swept Syria since March 2011, when the uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... began.
The United Nations has accused both sides to the conflict of violating an April 12 ceasefire and warned that the country is edging closer to full-blown civil war.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/17/2012
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#1
and the ammo for those attacks probably comes from Russia with financing from Iran
why doesn't Obama or Hillary say so (other than the pretense of 'diplomatic considerations')
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/17/2012 0:43
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The Spanish government Wednesday has insisted Basque separatist group ETA ETA or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (English: Basque Homeland and Freedom) is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization that has been around since 1959. It demands independence from Spain and La Belle France for the Greater Basque Country. The group is proscribed as a terrorist organization by most civilized countries. More than 700 members of the organization are incarcerated in prisons in Spain, La Belle Fränce, and other countries, though members do seem to find ready hospitality in Venezuela. must disband unconditionally, rebuffing its pressure for direct talks with Spain and La Belle France.
ETA announced in a statement released in La Belle France that it had set up a delegation for direct negotiations between its leaders and the French and Spanish governments.
ETA said it had ended its armed independence struggle last October, but has failed to convince Madrid and Gay Paree to meet with what the governments still regard as a terrorist organization.
"The only news we are waiting for is the unconditional disbandment" of ETA, Spain's Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said in parliament, reiterating Spain's long-held stance.
"There has not been, nor will there be, any political negotiations," the minister added, ruling out amnesties or mass regrouping for cooled for a few years ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... ETA members, some of whom are held in prisons far from the Basque Country.
ETA is blamed for 829 killings during a four-decade armed campaign for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southern La Belle France.
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05/17/2012
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#1
ION NOT-SPAIN-OR-ETA, CHINA DAILY FORUM > IRELAND + BRITAIN THINKING OF LEAVING EU FOR GOOD:VOICE OF RUSSIA [VOR] | IRELAND + BRITAIN PONDER MEMBERSHIP IN CRISIS-HIT EU.
and
* SAME > EUROPE FACES POTENTIAL BREAKUP OF SINGLE-CURRENCY UNLESS IT TAKES URGENT ACTION TO DEAL WID EURO [Eurodollar] CRISIS: UK PM DAVE CAMERON.
* SAME > GERMANS CAN'T FATHOM [mainstream + popular]US AVERSION TO OBAMA'S [universal]HEALTHCARE REFORM.
----------------
Meanwhile, not to be outdone by the White Devils as per Ultimata ...
* TOPIX > [The Age = Australia] CHINESE OFFICIAL: ITS US OR AMERICA,
ARTIC = In LR, AUS must choose China or the US, one but not the other or both, to be its "Godfather" in geopol = world affairs; AUS = MUST BE EITHER A "SON OF THE US", OR A "SON OF CHINA".
Methinks the Chinese Official meant "Godson", not "Son"???
As likely due to ...
* TOPIX > CHINESE ANGER AT [new permanent?] US BASE IN AUSTRALIA. US Marines in Darwin.
AFAIK the Aussies have said there will be no permanent, "sole" US, or large US Mil presence allowed in their country, BUT CHINA APPARENTLY THINKS OTHERWISE???
* FYI TOPIX > BEIJING USING "SOFT STICK" APPROACH AGZ MANILA IN CHINA SEA DISPUTE.
Aka "Soft Escalation", ee soft-but-firm.
* SAME > [PHIL Foreign Ministry] PREPARE TO MAKE SACRIFICES, FILIPINOS ARE TOLD.
* SAME > [People's Army Daily] CHINA CANNOT TOLERATE PHILIPPINES ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES IN CHINESE TERRITORY.
* SAME > CHINA'S FIRST DEEP-WATER, LNG PIPE-LAYER SETS SAIL.
* SAME > XAYABUR DAM [Laos] MAY LEAVE MEKONG REGION [Govts-Nations] BOILING OVER. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, + Vietnam.
* SAME, INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > US SUBMARINE [Nuclear SSN] ARRIVES NEAR SCARBOROUGH SHOAL | NUCLEAR-POWERED FAST ATTACK US SUBMARINE DOCKS IN SUBIC.
"VIRGINIA"-class SSN USS "NORTH CAROLINA", aka SNN #777.
ALL IN ALL, SCS SIGNS STILL TELLS ME THAT CHINA IS INDEED SLOWLY BUT STEADILY ESCALATING FOR WAR AGZ MANILA, OR AT LEAST A MAJOR MIL INCIDENT, + GETTING READY TO "POLITELY" SINK THE PHIL COAST GUARD OR WHATEVER MANILA THINKS IT HAS TO THROW AT IT.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] A Mauritanian court has upheld a death sentence handed to an Al-Qaeda assassin found guilty of gunning down an American in 2009.
Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Hmednah, sentenced to death in March 2011 for killing Christopher Legget in Nouakchott, had appealed the sentence.
"The court upheld the verdict as well as the death sentence against main accused Mohamed Abdellahi Ould Hmednah and prison sentences for his two accomplices," said the judicial source on condition of anonymity.
Two men charged alongside Hmednah received 12 and three year prison terms respectively.
On June 23, 2011, Legget was shot three times in the head in central Nouakchott by gunnies as he got out of his car in front of his office.
Witnesses said the attackers tried to kidnap him, but he strongly resisted and they killed him.
AQIM, the regional branch of the late the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now among the dear departed, though not among the dearest... 's terrorist network, grabbed credit for the killing.
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
New emails obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform show a direct link between the Department of Energy's controversial green energy loan program and the White House, Republicans on the committee said Wednesday.
The White House and Energy Department have long held there was no political influence in the decision-making process that awarded billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees to renewable energy companies. However, emails disclosed at the hearing reference to communications with the White House.
House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said the emails are the first in the committee's more than yearlong investigation that show a direct link between the White House and the decision to award the loan guarantees.
#1
I am awaiting news of the connection between Jeremiah Wright going silent during the last presidential election and construction of his multi-million dollar retirement villa in Tinley Park. Sort of a John Edwards moment, without Reille Hunter.
[Dawn] Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... on Wednesday took the leadership of Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) to task for undermining the sanctity of the office of the country's chief executive.
"While I was abroad, some politicians tried to undermine the sanctity of the office of the prime minister and urged their party workers to stage protest rallies, but they miserably failed due to the people's commitment to democracy," said the prime minister while chairing the federal cabinet meeting.
He said such politicians could not interpret the court judgments according to their "own whims" and asked them to avoid influencing the courts by their own interpretation.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[An Nahar] Syrians showed in elections this month that they support the government's policy of reform and a majority back the regime, Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... said in an interview broadcast Wednesday.
The results of the May 7 legislative poll showed that the Syrian people "are until now supporting the policy of reform" and "support the institutions of the state", Assad told Russia's Rossia-24 state news channel.
Assad, whose regime has been engaged in a bloody standoff with opposition rebels, lashed out at "threats of terrorists" which he said were aimed at preventing the elections from taking place.
"The Syrian people are not scared of the threats of beturbanned goons who have tried to wreck the elections or even prevent us from holding them," he added.
Voter turnout was 51.26 percent, Syrian officials have said. However only limited results have been released.
Assad described the elections as a "very important step" and "part of the reform that we started around a year ago".
"The polling stations show the opinion of the people. It is a serious message for everyone both inside the country and also beyond its borders," he added.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
(Sh. M. Network)-Kenyan military operating inSomalia's southern regions have reportedly killed two local businessmen and injured another one in Lower Jubba region, south Somalia, reports said.
Witnesses confirmed to Shabelle Media that the killings came after the Kenyan army based a camp on the outskirts of Taabta area have opened fire on people over Al shabab suspicion and killed instantly the two traders.
Locals have expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... and anxiety over the brutal killings of Somali businessmen by the Kenyan military inside their soil.
"We condemn the killing of our beloved brothers without meaning and we call upon Kenyan government to investigate into the incident soon and bring those committed the killings into justice," residents said.
Somalis Split over Kenyan Military Intervention into their country which Nairobi says it pursues Al shabab gun-hung tough guys after series of border cross attacks and blasts in Kenya for the past few years.
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#3
Who violated a curfew. Whereupon the Kenyans made examples of them. The interesting thing is that we never imposed dusk-to-dawn curfews in Iraq, and my guess is that we paid the price in thousands of dead. The oft-quoted Malayan emergency repeatedly used by the Brits as a prop to demonstrate their superior guerrilla-fighting skills featured dusk-to-dawn curfews over the course of a decade. The Kenyans seem to have taken the lessons from that relatively low-tech 50's era conflict to heart and implemented the necessary administrative measures to keep the insurgency on the brink of starvation and on the run. Unlike the US in Iraq, Kenya doesn't have $100B a year to spend fighting al Shabab. Better hungry Somalis than dead Kenyans.
[Dawn] Opposing the possible restoration of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supply, Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... chief Munawar Hasan said on Tuesday that it would be aimed at helping enemies and amounted to committing political suicide and hinted at launching a campaign against the move.
The JI chief demanded that the government implement in letter and spirit the resolutions unanimously adopted by parliament.
The United States had threatened Pakistain by not inviting it to the Chicago summit, he said, but added that without Pakistain, neither peace could be established in Afghanistan nor would the summit be meaningful.
Extremism and terrorism were the outcome of the situation created by the US intervention, the JI chief said.
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
(ICRC) -- Over the past few days, an escalation in fighting has resulted in scores of civilian casualties in Ja'ar, 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... governorate. "We are extremely concerned about the increasing number of casualties and about allegations of air strikes in civilian locations," said Eric Marclay, the head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen.
The ICRC calls upon all parties involved in the fighting to distinguish at all times between civilians and fighters and to take all feasible precautions to spare civilian lives. Medical staff and facilities must also be protected and respected. "We ask the parties involved to protect civilians and allow health-care workers to do their job safely," said Mr Marclay. "We also ask that injured persons be allowed to seek medical attention in safety."
Within the past three months, the ICRC has distributed food and other items to around 100,000 internally displaced people and residents in Abyan governorate. It has also provided medical treatment for people maimed in the fighting and medical supplies for health-care facilities, in addition to completing a water project supplying clean water to more than 100,000 people. It stands ready to further scale up its humanitarian assistance in the area and to support medical facilities providing treatment for war-maimed patients.
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
[Yemen Post] The military committee will start Thursday supervising the removal of the tents which were pitched last year by the loyalists of Yemen's ex-president in a reaction to the popular uprising against the former regime, Saba reported.
The tents were pitched in some areas in downtown the capital Sanaa including the Althawra stadium, the Sabeen and Tahreer Squares and Asser area.
Last week, the General People's Congress, chaired by ex-president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , decided to remove the tents. The party signed a power-transfer deal in November for half of the opposition-led power-sharing government.
The committee, formed under the power-transfer deal brokered by the GCC and backed by the UN, discussed in its meeting today ways to start Thursday overseeing in coordination with the GPC the removal of the tents, Saba said.
It formed a panel to reopen the Marib-Sanaa road and to remove all checkpoints, forces and tribal groups from on it, in a move which comes within its duties to restore stability and security in main cities, the agency said.
Furthermore, a panel was formed to visit the southern military area to inspect the situation and tackle all security disorders, Saba continued.
When the popular uprising erupted in January last year, Saleh brought many of his loyalists, mostly rustics, to pitch tents in downtown the capital in the face of the mass protests against his regime and the tents pitched by the youth-led protesters in other parts of Sanaa.
Though they accepted to participate in a comprehensive national dialogue expected in months on condition the dialogue should ensure meeting the goals of the uprising, the youth-led protesters have refused to leave their tents inside the change and freedom squares.
They argued the squares will remain until they see the goals of the uprising are practically achieved.
Prime minister, Basindwa, also assured the protesters during a speech in Taiz that no one can remove the squares and the youths remain the first and best tool of change in the country.
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
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.
UNITED NATIONS - Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential report on Iran sanctions-busting seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
The United States is expected to pay Pakistain close to one million dollars a day, once the transportation of supplies to 
The law and order situation of the city further deteriorated on Wednesday as incidents of 
cycle of violence
Samir Geagea
Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
Charles Taylor
[Dawn] Criminal investigation department (CID) 
Asif Ali 
[Yemen Post] The ambassadors of the ten states sponsoring the GCC power transfer deal are set to discuss with the 
Wazoo
Zawahiri
Somali pirates
Orakzai Agency
[Dawn] Several Western embassies in Islamabad received letters on Wednesday containing suspicious powder and threats to poison supplies for 
[Dawn] At least three people were killed and four 
The ringleader of the "Makhachkala militant gang", Gussein Mamaev, who had been wanted for organizing a terrorist attack in the Dagestani capital, has been wiped out in Makhachkala.
Mohmand
...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...
Basque separatist group ETA
A Mauritanian court has upheld a death sentence handed to an Al-Qaeda assassin found guilty of gunning down an American in 2009.
New emails obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform show a direct link between the Department of Energy's controversial green energy loan program and the White House, Republicans on the committee said Wednesday.
[Dawn] Prime Minister 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
(ICRC) -- Over the past few days, an escalation in fighting has resulted in scores of civilian casualties in Ja'ar, 
