Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/24/2012 18:45
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#2
" Yesterdays revised GDP figures, showing that the country is even deeper in recession than we thought, would appear to support the mocking tone in which Krugman condemns the idea of expansionary austerity. But where is this austerity? In fact, one of the few positive contributors to output in the last quarter was government spending,"
A simpleton may actually think it creates actual GDP. Yet it removes money from where actually works and converts it into debt or worse, devalues the entire currency.
Government is probably 70% net loss if you include all the productivity lost by the market to comply with government shit.
Iran's navy said Thursday it saved an American-flagged cargo ship that was being attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Oman.
An Iranian warship responded to a distress signal from the US-flagged Maersk Texas, a cargo ship of 150 metres (500 feet) and 14,000 tonnes, which was besieged by "several pirate boats," the navy said in a statement reported by the official IRNA news agency.
The cargo vessel "was saved by the navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran" on Wednesday, IRNA added.
The pirates "fled the scene as soon as they spotted the presence" of the warship. Maersk Texas "thanked the Iranian navy and sailed towards its destination safely," it added.
It was the first time the Iranian navy protected a US ship from pirates.
Maersk Line told AFP that its vessel, Maersk Texas, had "thwarted an attack by multiple pirate skiffs at noon local while transiting the Gulf of Oman, northeast of Fujairah" but denied it had been helped by the Iranian navy.
"Maersk Texas heard from the Iranian navy over radio to the initial distress call, but our vessel received no assistance from the Iranian navy," spokesman Kevin Steers said in an email sent to AFP in Washington.
"All hands onboard are safe and unharmed, and the vessel is proceeding on its voyage," he added.
Not to mention all the money the unions don't have to spend on President Obama's reelection, having spent it on this failed attempt to keep Gov. Walker from succeeding.
#1
Not a 'done deal' yet. Lots of union and other leftist 'helpers' (from both in and out of state) organizing and delivering inner-city folks and university students to 'early polling' locations throughout major metro areas. Hard to say at this point if the vans stop at more than one polling place with their 'cargo'. Based on the makeup of the government poll workers (AFSCME) at these locations, checking to see if a person lives a their supposed address or has voted previously will not be a major concern.
Voter ID requirements (which Wisconsin had briefly until a liberal judge placed a restraining order keeping it on hold until after the recall election) would be a deterrent to these shenanigans.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/24/2012 14:38
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#2
LOTS of absentee ballots in this election. Many, no doubt, to be voted by a small group dedicated to properly representing the dead, comatose and mentally incapacitated - in other words, Democrats.
#4
The results of the 'recall primary' were very good for Walker. He got more votes running unopposed than the two major Dems did combined in a hard fought and well financed primary.
At least some of the funds that Walker is raising will be used for spot monitoring of voting. While some vote fraud is certain to take place, it is very doubtful that it would amount to more than a few thousand votes at most statewide. This is because there are relatively few people motivated enough to put themselves on the line. What is more important than vote fraud itself is the intimidation (e.g., tires slashed in pro-Walker neighborhoods) and assisted votes (e.g., voting in assisted living institution where an 'advisor' helped the voter).
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/24/2012 18:44
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#5
You forgot the imaginary friends Glenmore - please imagine that they are very pissed off about it :).
Talks between world powers and Iran on its nuclear program have stalled over Iran's reluctance to advance without sanctions concessions.
The talks Wednesday in Baghdad between Iran and Russia, the United States, China, Britain France and Germany ended inconclusively, multiple media reports said, because Iran wanted a hold on major European oil sanctions set to kick in July 1 in exchange for staying at the table.
Western powers have emphasized that sanctions would remain in place until Iran provably made its program more transparent and suspended some enrichment of uranium -- a key demand of Israel, which has expressed concern that Iran is buying time with the talks.
It was not clear when talks would resume; they could be delayed until next month, according to various media.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Western experts say evidence increasingly suggests that Iran is close to a capability to build a nuclear weapon.
Yemeni troops killed 35 Al-Qaeda militants in overnight battles in the restive southern Abyan province, a military official said Thursday as the army pressed ahead with a 13-day offensive to retake extremist strongholds.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said "Al-Qaeda fighters launched an attack" on the army in the region of Wadi Bani, west of the city of Jaar that has been under militant control since last year.
The assault sparked fierce clashes that left "more than 35 militants" dead, the official said.
He said though the army was making progress in its advance on Jaar, "it was facing resistance" from the militants.
Another military official meanwhile said clashes continued in nearby Zinjibar, the provincial capital which fell to Al-Qaeda militants last May.
"Sporadic clashes have continued," he said adding that Al-Qaeda snipers are targeting troops that have managed to take control of several buildings on the outskirts of the city.
He said two soldiers were killed and at least six others were wounded in the battle to retake Zinjibar on Thursday. Medics confirmed on the toll.
Why can't our officials keep their mouths shut?
In a rare public admission of the covert cyber war against extremists, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says cyber experts based at the State Department hacked Yemeni tribal websites, replacing Al Qaeda propaganda that bragged about killing Americans.
#6
I must've dreamed it - I can't find any confirmation
The famous fog of news, Bobby -- first reports are often mistaken in the details. Glenmore's article says:
"Within 48 hours, our team plastered the same sites with altered versions of the ads that showed the toll Al Qaeda attacks have taken on the Yemeni people," Clinton said Wednesday.
In response, "Extremists are publicly venting their frustration and asking supporters not to believe everything they read on the Internet," she said.
#8
This is NOT good, and represents yet another instance of the White House and administration leaking our Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP). I can nearly hear General Kieth Alexander screaming from front porch.
#9
Rare Public admission? Why can't our officials keep their mouths shut?
It's all about the glorious pat on the back, see what I did, or more like see how good it is on my watch
Even at the detriment of so many and putting good peoples lives in more danger
I have no respect for this WH group of clowns
We can't afford any more "rare admissions" for cripes sake
#10
Rare Public admission?
Why can't our officials keep their mouths shut?
It's all about the glorious pat on the back, see what I did, or more like see how good it is on my watch
Even at the detriment of so many and putting good peoples lives in more danger
I have no respect for this WH group of clowns
We can't afford any more "rare admissions" for cripes sake
Posted by: Jan ||
05/24/2012 15:52
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MIRANSHAH: At least ten people were killed when a US drone targeted a house in North Waziristan on Thursday morning, Geo News reported.
According to sources, the unmanned aircraft fired two missiles on a house in Mir Ali area of Miranshah, as a result ten people were killed. The house was completely destroyed in the attack.
It was the second such strike after the Chicago conference.
Short version: It is as bad if not worse than you thought it was. Reclassified as Non-Wot and moved to Opinion. Added link to original column.
The typical American household would have paid nearly all of its income in taxes last year to balance the budget if the government used standard accounting rules to compute the deficit, a USA TODAY analysis finds.
Under those accounting practices, the government ran red ink last year equal to $42,054 per household -- nearly four times the official number reported under unique rules set by Congress.
A U.S. household's median income is $49,445, the Census reports.
The big difference between the official deficit and standard accounting: Congress exempts itself from including the cost of promised retirement benefits. Yet companies, states and local governments must include retirement commitments in financial statements, as required by federal law and private boards that set accounting rules.
The deficit was $5 trillion last year under those rules. The official number was $1.3 trillion. Liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other retirement programs rose by $3.7 trillion in 2011, according to government actuaries, but the amount was not registered on the government's books.
Deficits are a major issue in this year's presidential campaign, but USA TODAY has calculated federal finances under accounting rules since 2004 and found no correlation between fluctuations in the deficit and which party ran Congress or the White House.
Key findings:
Social Security had the biggest financial slide. The government would need $22.2 trillion today, set aside and earning interest, to cover benefits promised to current workers and retirees beyond what taxes will cover. That's $9.5 trillion more than was needed in 2004.
Deficits from 2004 to 2011 would be six times the official total of $5.6 trillion reported.
Federal debt and retiree commitments equal $561,254 per household. By contrast, an average household owes a combined $116,057 for mortgages, car loans and other debts.
"By law, the federal government can't tell the truth," says accountant Sheila Weinberg of the Chicago-based Institute for Truth in Accounting.
Jim Horney, a former Senate budget staff expert now at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, says retirement programs should not count as part of the deficit because, unlike a business, Congress can change what it owes by cutting benefits or lifting taxes.
"It's not easy, but it can be done. Retirement programs are not legal obligations," he says.
A gunman with ties to Al-Qaeda was arrested Thursday in Beirut after an hours-long standoff with Lebanese soldiers that also claimed the lives of two men, security sources said Thursday.
The apprehended gunman, Hani Ash-Shanti who holds a Lebanese passport, is part of a 13-member group affiliated with Al-Qaeda and is said to have been linked to the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the sources said.
The early morning standoff was sparked after two gunmen at an aprtment in Caracas began firing at members of the police who had been dispatched to the area following the sound of gunfire.
In response, the Lebanese Army, backed by Armed Personnel Carriers, was called in and the military cordoned off the area.
Taking up positions around the building, the army ordered the gunmen to surrender themselves.
After refusing to heed the armys calls, the gunmen began shooting and hurling hand grenades at soldiers.
At 6:15 a.m., an army team stormed the apartment and traded fire with the gunmen, killing one of the men and wounding the other.
Four Lebanese soldiers, including an officer, were also wounded in the exchange of fire.
Upon inspecting the apartment, the army also discovered the body of a dead man, who security sources said had been killed during a dispute at the apartment over a Syrian woman, Gharam al-Hussein.
Growing up in Africa, he used to hunt buffalo, a passion that still serves Geneva-based lawyer Enrico Monfrini well. His dogged pursuit of ill-gotten assets has made him the scourge of many of the world's dictators and kleptocrats.
An affable man with a sharp wit and a ready smile, the 67-year-old blends easily into a city of sprucely-dressed asset managers, bankers and lawyers, though his chosen calling would likely surprise many of them.
Working from an austere legal practice in central Geneva which belies its global reach, Monfrini has made his mark as a bounty hunter. In light of the Arab Spring, the available bounty may just have got a whole lot bigger.
Monfrini told Reuters in an interview he was already working on finding the assets of Tunisia's former ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali: "We're on a good track for finding some of the money."
Tunisian justice minister Nourredine Bouheiri said this week Ben Ali and his entourage were believed to have stashed billions of dollars in accounts around the world.
Since the start of the Arab Spring, Switzerland, the United States, Britain and others, have frozen several billion dollars belonging to regional strongmen and former leaders.
Like Irving Picard, the lawyer seeking fraudster Bernard Madoff's hidden assets, Monfrini is officially appointed to track down assets seized by former dictators like Haiti's Babydoc Duvalier and their cronies.
#2
The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) entered into force in December 2005 and pushed signatory nations to set up legal frameworks identifying and outlawing corruption, and guidelines for international cooperation and asset recovery
Oh, restitution by a Geneva-based lawyer to the UN kleptocrats--I almost got excited over the thought of the missing trillions being recovered to the people.
#6
I'd luv to see DOG THE BOUNTY HOUNTER + BABE, BOYZ going into a major Geneva bank dressed, armed as they do + demanding to see a suspect's finance records.
DOD Officials Disclosed to Filmmakers Identity of SEAL Team Six Operator and Commander; Ask Film Director to Withhold Operator's Name, 'because he shouldn't be talking out of school.'
#2
These documents show that politically-connected film makers were giving extraordinary and secret access to bin Laden raid information, including the identity of a Seal Team Six leader,
The Seals did the raid? I thought Obummer did it single-handedly.
#3
The only thing I would enjoy seeing him to "single-handedly" is lose the White House as a primary residence. If he and Moochelle pull a HUD and strip out copper wiring and all the fixtures on their way out, no problem, we've cut our loses.
Pakistan's problematic relationship with the US plunged to new depths as Senators warned of aid cuts after the jailing of the surgeon who helped the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden.
Shakeel Afridi was found guilty of treason, sentenced to 33 years in prison and fined 320,000 rupees (£2,200) under an archaic tribal justice system that has governed Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt since British rule. Afridi was not entitled to a lawyer but was given a chance to defend himself and has a right to appeal the verdict, officials said.
Gosh, all those brave Pakistani supreme court justices and Afridi didn't even have a mouthpiece?
Critics said he should not have been tried under tribal law for an alleged crime that took place outside the tribal belt, in the town of Abbottabad where he ran a fake vaccination programme designed to collect bin Laden family DNA.
Ooooh that's clever! Thanks MSM for outing the news...
The US government said Pakistan had no basis to hold Afridi, who is reportedly in poor health and being kept away from other prisoners to avoid any danger to his life.
Time to stage another rescue mission. And offer sanctuary to Afridi and his family...
"Anyone who supported the United States in finding Osama bin Laden was not working against Pakistan, they were working against al-Qaeda," Pentagon press secretary George Little said.
Well my fellow commissioners, it would appear that or Dr. Afridi was the cause of all of this unpleasantness, and he has been jugged! Any reports on his illness? Little more for us to discuss, lets have some chai, shall we?
#3
Update
US cuts $33 million in aid to Pakistan over Osama bin Laden doctor sentence
The US is to cut $33 million from the aid it sends Pakistan over the jailing of the doctor who helped the CIA hunt for Osama bin Laden, in a fresh blow to the battered relations between the two states.
When Jon Corzine took the reins of MF Global in 2010, the Wall Street brokerage was a deeply troubled firm. Revenues weren't covering expenses, money was being lost, and rating agencies were threatening a downgrade.
Reversing the tailspin would not be easy, but if anyone was up to the task, it seemed to be Corzine. At age 47, the former U.S. Marine became the youngest CEO in Goldman Sachs history. In 2000, New Jersey voters elected him to the Senate and six years later, they elected him governor. When Barack Obama won the White House in 2008, Corzine was rumored to be on the shortlist for Treasury secretary.
At MF Global, his strategy was simple: "We are transforming from sort of an old-like brokerage firm into an investment bank," Corzine told CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. Key to his plan was a massive bet on European government bonds -- a bet that would swell to more than $6 billion, and ultimately lead to MF Global's collapse.
At the same time, Corzine was using a finance strategy known as "internal repo."* In essence, MF Global was borrowing money from the firm's own accounts and using it to fund trading in another part of the firm. During the summer of 2011, however, just months before MF Global filed for bankruptcy, internal repo was a strategy regulators were hoping to do away with.
Internal repo was allowed in the London markets but not in New York, so coincidentally MF Global was running all their accounts through London. If you were an American and signed up with MF Global to manage your commodities account, one of the clauses in four-point type in the contract gave MF Global the right to transfer your account to their London office if they wished. Shazaam, instant internal repo...
As shown in the above excerpt from tonight's film Six Billion Dollar Bet, internal repo transactions were so important to Corzine that he met with officials at the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) on three occasions to lobby for their preservation.
As CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton told FRONTLINE:
Sen. Corzine was one of the more prominent individuals who came in and told us what a drastic mistake it would be to curtail the use of these internal repurchasing agreements ... And when he told me that we were making a big mistake, it certainly put some doubt into my mind for a little bit there as whether or not we were going down the right course. But certainly somebody that had his stature ... added respect, in my view.
Video at link
LA CROSSE A La Crosse man recorded himself on a stolen video camera taunting police, who didn't have much trouble identifying him after he introduced himself. Now he's in the clink, and the video is on YouTube.
"This is my house, yes, and a stolen camera that I stole," he says. "But it's OK, the cops won't figure it out."
He continues: "Oh yeah, to introduce you, my name is Houaka Yang, so yeah. How do you do?"
Authorities said Yang, 20, left behind a trail of videos of himself on the camera he allegedly unlawfully removed late May 11 from an unlocked car outside the home of Republican state Senate candidate Bill Feehan.
Chris Rochester is Feehan's spokesman and the camera's owner. He got his camera back last week but didn't find the suspect's home movies until after he filmed Gov. Scott Walker's visit to La Crosse on Monday.
As Rochester looked for video he shot of the governor's appearance, he found 20 other segments the suspect apparently recorded.
Most were uneventful, until there was a 79-second segment of the suspect talking about stealing the camera and panning around a home, pointing out the kitchen and the bathroom.
Then, he turned the camera to reveal his face and said with a smile, "And this is me. Hi."
Yang was scheduled to make an initial appearance Wednesday on two charges of being party to the crime of misdemeanor theft and one misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon. The charges carry a maximum penalty of two years and three months in jail and a $30,000 fine.
Rochester said he didn't think Feehan was targeted for political reasons. Police had investigated a number of thefts reported in the area.
Security videos at Feehan's home showed two suspects rifling through the car in his driveway. Investigators showed the footage to officials at a local high school, who identified one suspect, La Crosse police Sgt. Randy Rank said. The 14-year-old in turn identified Yang, he said.
The two admitted breaking into Feehan's car. They turned over an array of stolen items, including the video camera. Both now face theft charges. Yang also faces a bail jumping charge because he was out on bond for making off with items from cars.
Rochester said he almost disregarded the videos on his camera, thinking maybe he had accidentally hit the "record" button.
"Then it hit me pretty quickly as to what it was," he said. "I was astounded. I was like, 'Wow, I can't believe this.'"
Yang was already in custody, but Rochester decided to have fun with the video by sharing it with friends. So he uploaded it to YouTube under the title "Confessions of a stupid criminal: Thief is sure he won't get caught."
Rank said police weren't concerned that Rochester uploaded the video while Yang's case is still pending.
"It's his recorder, those are his images on there," Rank said. "I don't see an issue with it."
In a desperate bid to generate funds for terrorism, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) outlaws have robbed Karachi banks of US $18m (Rs. 1.6 billion) since 2009, police told Central Asia Online May 21. Were these non-Islamic banks, that charged interest? That would justify the robberies...
Several activists of TTP ... have confessed confessed, or 'confessed'?
to police that they have committed bank robberies to provide money to the organisation, said Khurram Bari, superintendent of the Karachi Polices Special Interrogation Unit (SIU), which interrogates suspects linked to terrorism or terror-financing cases.
Police accuse militants of involvement in at least 28 robberies since 2009, including 18 of the 39 bank heists in 2010-2011. In 2011, Taliban militants robbed Karachi banks of about Rs. 500m (US $5.5m), according to a Karachi police internal report. That total included Karachis biggest bank robbery of the year, a heist of more than Rs. 90m (US $990,000) from a Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) branch, police said.
Pro-Taliban elements have infiltrated private security agencies meant to protect the banks, according to police.
Police have struck back, arresting 42 TTP activists in 2010 and 2011 in connection with various robberies, Bari said. In those two years, the police recovered Rs. 110m (US $1.2m) and various weapons from the suspects, who face trial in different Karachi courts, he said. Recovered something like 20% of the loot (presumably in addition to the amounts set aside for the hands of various police and government officials) - not to bad a solution rate; I wonder if 'confessions' helped.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/24/2012 11:10
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#4
Germany should start demanding land in exchange for loans. A few greek island isn't a lot to ask. Make it Greek Cypress and you solve an international crisis at the same time.
Hopes began to fade Wednesday that a fresh round of talks with Iran would help ease tensions over Tehrans disputed nuclear program after Iran slammed a new package of proposals by Western powers as inadequate.
The package contained what U.S. officials said were confidence-building measures that Iran would need to take to show that its nuclear program is not aimed at producing a weapon, including a reduction in the degree to which the country is enriching uranium, from 20 percent to 5 percent.
....
Iran countered the proposal with a five-point package, which included broadening the focus of the talks to incorporate the escalating conflict in Syria, which is emerging as a battleground for influence between the United States and its regional allies and Tehran, which is closely aligned to the regime in Damascus.
U.S. officials said they rejected the inclusion of any issue other than Irans nuclear program in this round of talks.
#1
Wotta surprise! You could knock me over with a 2x4. There is no way you could have predicted this. Unless you were, like, paying attention and stuff.
Four more men will go on trial for organizing riots in central Moscow that wounded 32 people. The violent clash between soccer fans and North Caucasus natives took place in December 2010.
The demonstration was a response to the murder of a football fan who had been involved in a street fight. Infuriated by what they saw as police indifference to the case, thousands of young people took to the streets first to pay tribute to Egor Sviridov, then to brawl with police and immigrants in the area. They gave Nazi salutes and threw flares at the policemen.
Sviridovs killer was recently given 20 years in jail. The five other defendants in the trial were all found guilty of the lesser charges of hooliganism and assault. Five organizers and participants of the rally were jailed as well.
#2
Not everybody loved "Papa Joe" Stalin. During its conquest of Europe, Germany had conscripted "volunteers" to form Ostruppen battalions from France, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Asian Russia, North Africa, Russia, Ukraine, and even India.
[Dawn] Twelve bully boyz were reportedly killed when fighter jets bombed turban hideouts in parts of northwest Pakistain's 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... , DawnNews reported on Wednesday.
An unspecified number of bully boyz was also reported maimed in the assault that destroyed four hideouts in the tribal region, security sources told DawnNews.
The hideouts were situated in Orakzai's Mamozai, Sama bazaar and Manzar Taap areas.
The casualty figures from the reported action could not be independently verified.
Security sources say over 92 per cent of Orakzai has been cleared of bully boyz in the ongoing military operation in the region.
The sources say 507 bully boyz have been killed in the operation during which 36 security forces' personnel have also bit the dust.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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[Al Ahram] Three Kurdish rebels were killed Tuesday in a gunbattle with security forces in southeastern Turkey, Turkish media said Wednesday.
The firefight erupted Tuesday around 1605 GMT in a rural area near the town of Ovacik in Tunceli province, Anatolia news agency cited the provincial governor's office as saying.
The three members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed when they refused to surrender to security force, the governor's office said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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#1
Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Lilli Palmer [German] aka Esther Lieberman in "The Boys from Brazil (1978)" aka Dutchy in "The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965)" aka Peg Born in "Body and Soul (1947)" aka Sra. Fourneau in "The House That Screamed (1969)" aka Lygia da Silva in "Torpedo Bay (1963) " aka Lilli in "Secret Agent (1936)" (Died in 1986 at age 71)
[Al Ahram] Doctors Without Borders describes the situation in Sudan's Darfur as 'critical', as the government blocked shipments of medicines to a violence-plagued part of the turbulent region without giving clear reasons.
Sheer meanness makes sense to me...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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[Bangla Daily Star] The Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court in Dhaka too rejected yesterday the bail petitions of BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and 32 other top opposition leaders who are in jail since May 16.
On May 16, a metropolitan magistrate sent the leaders to jail, turning down their bail prayers in the case filed for torching a bus near the Prime Minister's Office during hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... on April 29.
Apparently frustrated, the petitioner's counsels who include some senior jurists hinted that they would appeal to the High Court against the sessions court order.
Yesterday, Judge Mohammad Zahurul Haque of the sessions court rejected the 15 bail petitions of the 33 accused leaders.
The same court on May 17 rejected the bail petition of BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi who also is in jail in the same case.
BNP leaders yesterday reiterated the allegation that the government is conspiring to keep the top opposition leaders away from participating in the next general election by convicting them under the Speedy Trial Act.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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[Tolo News] At least 12 jihad boys, including their commander, were killed in an Afghan cops operation in eastern Laghman province on Tuesday night, local officials said.
Six others Orcs and similar vermin were maimed in the operation, which is ongoing.
The operation was launched in Alingar district of Laghman province to clear the area of jihad boys, a front man of the Selab 201 military corps in eastern Afghanistan Noman Atifi said.
During the operation, the local jihad boy commander Baryalai was killed and the Afghan forces seized many weapons, he said.
There were no Afghan and civilians casualties during the operation, Atifi added.
Alingar district borders with Nuristan province where Orcs and similar vermin have been actively targeting Afghan and coalition forces.
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(Sh. M. Network)- The dead body of a young suspected Al shabab fighter was today put on display in Mogadishu by Somali police force, officials and witnesses said.
Abdullahi Hassan Barise, Somali police front man told news hounds in Bakaro market, the busiest and biggest market in Somalia that the bow was shot to death overnight as he was carrying hand grenades and also wanted to place on the ground a landmine in the market.
"He was one of the brains washed youths by Al shabab and our police forces killed him last night in the market after they were informed by locals. We call upon the boys in Al shabab to repent from what they are committing in the country, Barrise added.
The killing followed as a huge operation is under way in the market that Somali police are trying to demolish the illegal business centers along the high streets.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Speculation was rife on Wednesday among Syrian anti-regime activists over the alleged "killing" of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Despoiler of Deraa... brother-in-law who is also Syria's deputy defense minister.
Assef Shawkat, former head of military intelligence, was poisoned, according to anti-regime activists. The authorities in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... could not be reached for comment and have not responded publicly to the claim.
According to anti-regime activists, Shawkat was being buried on Wednesday in his hometown, which they identified as Madhale, near the Mediterranean coastal city of Tartous.
Several activists quoted by Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television said black flags were flying in Madhale in mourning.
On their Syrian Revolution Facebook page, online anti-regime activists wrote that: "Assef Shawkat is being buried right now in his home town Madhale ... God curse him. He was poisoned."
They said Shawkat's body was transported to a hospital near his hometown that was emptied of patients on Tuesday evening.
Speculation over Shawkat's fate first emerged on May 20 when Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... and Al-Arabiya television broadcast an amateur video showing a man claiming responsibility on behalf of a rebel group for killing six regime stalwarts.
They included Shawkat, Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar, Defense Minister Daoud Rajha, national security chief Hisham Bakhtiar and Hassan Turkmeni, assistant to the vice president.
Turkmeni appeared on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
this week to dismiss the reports, while Shaar denied them in a telephone interview, accusing Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya of "lies and slander."
But Shawkat has not made any public appearance or personally denied the reports, though he rarely makes public statements.
According to Peter Harling, an expert on Syria with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, the reports are "essentially unconfirmed for now.
"What is interesting is this story's success, regardless of its factual grounding," Harling told Agence La Belle France Presse. "A month ago, Syrians would not have believed, conveyed, invested in such news and it would not have spread.
"The regime then appeared particularly strong. Now there is a sense that the armed opposition is on the offensive."
A member of the inner circle of former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar, Shawkat rose quickly through the ranks of power after he married the late leader's only daughter, Bushra, in the 1990s.
But Shawkat's relations with the Assad clan were not always smooth. Bashar's powerful brother Maher Assad allegedly shot him in the stomach in 1999.
The two men were named in leaked version of a preliminary U.N. report as possible suspects in the 2005 liquidation of Lebanese ex-premier Rafik Hariri.
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05/24/2012
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#1
But Shawkat's relations with the Assad clan were not always smooth. He was poisoned.
[Dawn] Pak authorities have sentenced a doctor accused of helping the CIA find the late Osama bin Laden ... who doesn't live anywhere anymore... to 33 years in jail on charges of treason, officials said, a move almost certain to further strain ties between Washington and Islamabad.
Shakil Afridi was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign, in which he collected DNA samples, that is believed to have helped the American intelligence agency track down bin Laden in a Pak town.
The al Qaeda chieftain was killed in a unilateral US special forces raid in the town of Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... in May last year.
"Dr Shakil has been sentenced to 33 years imprisonment and a fine of 320,000 Pak rupees," said Mohammad Nasir, a government official in the northwestern city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, where the jail term will be served. He gave no further details.
Soon after his conviction, Afridi was sent to the Central Prison in Peshawar.
The court was headed by a deputy administrator responsible for Bara region.
Afridi was charged under the British-time Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) that unlike the Pakistain Criminal Code (CPRC), does not carry death penalty for high treason.
Afridi is the first person to be sentenced by Pak authorities in the bin Laden case.
US officials were strongly critical of the sentencing.
The US State Department said it saw no reason for Pakistain to detain or charge Afridi who has been accused of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden.
"We continue to see no basis for these charges, for him being held, for any of it," Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told news hounds, declining specific comment on the 33-year sentence given to Shakil Afridi on charges of treason.
Key US senators demanded that Pakistain pardon Afridi, warning that the decision could put US assistance at risk.
Carl Levin and John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... , the top senators from the two major US parties on the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a joint statement called Afridi's sentence "shocking and outrageous.""What Dr. Afridi did is the furthest thing from treason.
It was a courageous, heroic and patriotic act which helped to locate the most wanted terrorist in the world -- a mass murderer who had the blood of many innocent Paks on his hands," the two senators said.
McCain and Levin urged Pakistain to pardon and free Afridi "immediately." "Dr. Afridi's continuing imprisonment and treatment as a criminal will only do further harm to US-Pak relations, including diminishing Congress's willingness to provide financial assistance to Pakistain," they said.
"Without commenting on specific individuals, anyone who helped the United States find bin Laden was working against al Qaeda and not against Pakistain," said Pentagon front man George Little.
Bin Laden's long presence in Pakistain -- he was believed to have stayed there for years -- despite the worldwide manhunt for him raised suspicions in Washington that Pak intelligence officials may have sheltered him.
Pak officials deny this and say an intelligence gap enabled bin Laden to live here undetected.
No one has yet been charged for helping the al Qaeda leader take refuge in Pakistain.
A government commission tasked with investigating how he managed to evade capture by Pak authorities for so long is widely accused of being ineffective.
Afridi's imprisonment will almost certainly anger ally Washington at a sensitive time, with both sides engaged in difficult talks over re-opening NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... supply routes to US-led troops in Afghanistan.
Senior US officials had made public appeals for Pakistain, a recipient of billions of dollars in American aid, to release Afridi, tossed in the slammer Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! within weeks of the raid that killed bin Laden and strained ties with Islamabad.
In January, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... said in a television interview that Afridi and his team had been key in finding bin Laden, describing him as helpful and insisting the doctor had not committed treason or harmed Pakistain.
US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher introduced legislation in February calling for Afridi to be granted American citizenship and said it was "shameful and unforgivable that our supposed allies" charged him.
VIOLATION OF SOVEREIGNTY
The US raid that killed bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad, just a few hours drive from the capital Islamabad, humiliated Pakistain's powerful military, which described the move as a violation of illusory sovereignty.
Intelligence cooperation between the United States and Pakistain, vital for the fight against militancy, has subsequently been cut drastically.
Afridi's prison term could complicate efforts to break a deadlock in talks over the re-opening of land routes through Pakistain to US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan, which are crucial for supplies.
Pakistain closed the supply routes, also seen as vital to the planned withdrawal of most foreign troops from Afghanistan before the end of 2014, in protest against last November's killing of 24 Pak soldiers in a NATO air attack along the Afghan border.
Afridi's case highlighted severe tensions between Pakistain and the United States.
He was placed in long-term storage Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! soon after bin Laden was killed, and has not been publicly heard of since. Seventeen health workers who worked with Afridi on the vaccination drive were fired in March, according to termination letters seen by Rooters, which described them as having acted "against the national interest".
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05/24/2012
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[Yemen Post] Yemen is on the brink of a catastrophic food crisis, seven aid agencies said today (23 May 2012) with 10 million people -- 44 percent of the population -- without enough food to eat. The aid agencies warned that malnutrition rates recorded by the UN in some parts of the country were alarming, with one in three children severely malnourished.
Ministers from the UK, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... and other countries are set to meet at the Friends of Yemen conference in Riyadh today. The agencies - CARE, International Medical Corps, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Mercy Corps, Oxfam and Save the Children -- called on those attending the meeting to scale up efforts to tackle the crisis. The UN humanitarian appeal for the country is just 43 percent funded -- a $262 million shortfall.
Penny Lawrence, Oxfam's International Director, who is visiting Yemen, said:
"Yemeni families are at the brink and have exhausted their ways of coping with this crisis. A quarter of the population has fallen into debt trying to feed their families. Mothers are taking their children out of school to beg on the streets to get money to survive. Donors are focused on politics and security, but failure to respond adequately to the humanitarian needs now will put more lives at risk, further entrench poverty and could undermine political transition in the country."
Yemen's political crisis last year increased hunger in the country as food and fuel prices surged. Hunger has doubled since 2009. A quarter of the hungry -- some 5 million people -- are in need of urgent emergency aid. In Hodeidah and Hajjah, child malnutrition rates are double the emergency level. The UN estimates that 267,000 Yemeni children are facing life threatening levels of malnutrition.
Conflict in the north and south the country is also exacerbating the crisis. Over the last two months, nearly 95,000 people have been forced to leave their homes as a result of conflicts, bringing the number of people displaced in the country to close to half a million.
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05/24/2012
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(Sh.M.Network)- The African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces have made significant progress in the last 24 hours towards Afgoye town.
Afgoye has been for a long time a stronghold of the Al-Qaeda backed Al-Shabaab ... the successor to the Islamic Courts... faceless myrmidons and is a strategic junction for routes to the north, west and south ofSomalia.
"Operation Free Shabelle" started yesterday with the objective of bringing security to the400,000 people of the Afgoye corridor, and area north-west of Mogadishu with the largest concentration of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in the world.
A senior Al- Shabaab commander yet to be identified and his escort were killed yesterday during the fighting. His two escort vehicles and a saloon car in which he was travelling were also destroyed.
In public announcements to the displaced people in the north-west of the city, AMISOM has been encouraging them to stay in their current places of residence and not to stray from their homes. The AMISOM troops have been specifically avoiding entering the built up areas and
Camps around the main road to Afgoye. The Deputy Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (Deputy SRCC) for Somalia, Honorable Wafula Wamunyinyi said; "We are encouraging the inhabitants near Afgoye to remain where they are for the time being.
Soon, once the security situation has stabilized, we hope to see that people will have the opportunity to return to their homes inMogadishuand humanitarian services, provided by the international community, will be available to them."
AMISOM forces also pushed from their positions in Maslah capturing Al Fitr town 5 kilometers to the north of the capital. Ongoing operations of the African Union Mission inSomaliaseek to push Al-Shabaab forces further from the capital, supporting the Somali drive towards peace and recovery of the country.
The Force Commander of AMISOM Forces Lieutenant General Andrew Gutti, said: "The Operation continues to make strong progress.
Al-Shabaab cut-throats are on the run. They know they are losing ground, and losing friends around Somalia. We encourage the people of Afgoye town to expel the foreign elements that lurk in their midst. They too can share in the trading and construction revival that Mogadishu has been enjoying."
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05/24/2012
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Afghanistan's poppy crop - the source of most of the world's illicit opiates - appears to have suffered a devastating failure this year, according to US and Afghan officials, in a development that is likely to affect the course of the war as US-led forces withdraw.
US commanders and Afghan officials, who ascribe the poor harvest to blight, expect the Taliban to reel as opium revenues dry up in coming months.
"It's a blow to the insurgency," Kandahar Provincial Governor Tooryalai Wesa said.
The provincial government of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , which accounts for half of the country's opium cultivation, has hailed the blight as a "divine decree" by Allah himself.
The small crop, however, is also certain to bankrupt thousands of ordinary farmers, possibly pushing them to join the insurgency. Already, three farmers have did away with himself in Helmand because of the failed poppy harvest, local officials say.
Opium prices, meanwhile, have soared. A kilogram of dry opium now sells at the farm gate for more than $300, up from some $200 in March, and just $80 or so in 2009, according to United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... surveys.
Such a high price is "scary," as it is likely to lead to increased opium cultivation next year, while also bringing a windfall to large-scale dealers who hoarded last year's stocks, cautioned Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the Afghanistan representative for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
"This is definitely not good news at all ... Those who already are hedging will definitely gain," Lemahieu said. "Who will lose out on this? The poor farmers, who often have engaged in expensive loans against the opium to be harvested.
I understand that's how farmers do things in the developed world, but do Afghan farmers have similar access to loans?
If you think security and stability, you can see the frustration and the anger building up."
Whether a blessing or a disaster, the poppy blight injects another complication to the US-led coalition's plans to transfer security responsibility to Afghan forces and withdraw most of their own troops by 2014, a transition discussed Sunday at the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... summit in Chicago.
Afghanistan was virtually poppy-free in 2001, the year when the country's Taliban rulers eradicated opium cultivation in a failed bid to win international recognition, and the UN disputes American assertions that the Taliban are the main beneficiaries of the Afghan narcotics trade.
"The narrative of the Taliban as the major player is something I do not take," Lemahieu said. "The narcos are not on the side of the Taliban, they are in collusion with the Taliban."
#3
Agreed B.P. After years of supporting the "War on Drugs", I look back and see the wake of devastation it has caused and tremble. Let's take about 2/3rds of the laws/regulations off the American people and see what a really free society can do.
#5
I'm sure we could develope a blight, probably a fungus. We could weaponize this current blight and spray it on their fields, like we do with Roundup to coca in South America.
We COULD, the question to me is: Why have we not already?
My little brother went to A-stan and came back very disillusioned. They would go out on patrol and walk through fields of poppies, but no coalition forces were allowed to destroy a single poppy. Reconcile that with the knowledge that those poppies are going to be the main source of funding for your enemy. But they would gladly courtmartial you if you chopped them down and lit them on fire.
I think I'd start to wonder just why the f*ck I was there too.
#6
Much more subtle breeding a hog for conditions and them just popping up out of nowhere, with incredible metabolism and appetite and quick breeding cycle, a previously undiscovered swine which must have been a cave dweller, chased out by the insurgents using the caves. Real wrath of allan stuff. If they could oink in an English accent could be the ghosts of Khyber back for revenge.
#7
Yeah, you weaponize a blight and go spraying it in places like Afghanistan and then people are gonna wonder why the American corn crop gets the blight.
I don't pretend to know who gets the money from the Afghan poppy crop but it is kinda funny how after the Americans invaded the place it became the world's leading producer of opium. From everything I'd heard before, the world's leading opium producing region was the Golden Triangle in southeast Asia. Whatever happened to that?
But then, it would be interesting to know where all that dope goes. Europe? America? Russia? China? Iran? You talk about biological warfare...a fertile imagination can come up with all kinds of conspiracy theories.
And as for a "really free society" where the people can smoke all the opium they want, just ask the Chinese how that worked for them. Maybe it's just as well if all the idiots smoke themselves to death. That's just Darwinism, right? I mean, think of all the people who can't quit cigarettes and then imagine them with opium or heroin. We won't have to worry about paying for their Social Security.
As for the War on Drugs being a failure, ask yourself: Is there anything our government does right? Anything at all? Somebody gets the money and the drugs keep flowing. Hell, we send guns to the Mexican drug cartels and they send us dope. That's a funny kind of a war.
#9
If we were going to have a war on drugs we should have developed sterile versions of the various crops long ago and found a way to cross-breed them to eliminate those crops. It would be a lot better than the war on drug use.
[Yemen Post] A Yemeni newspaper close to the former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... stated on Tuesday that the jacket wallah of Al-Sabeen Square bombing in which hundreds of troops were killed and maimed was an Al-Qaeda prisoner.
Alyaman Alyawam Newspaper (Yemen Today) in which the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh wrote an article, said that the name of the bomber is Ameen-Addin Ali Al-Wirafi and that he is originally form Ibb governorate.
The newspaper said that Al-Warafi was imprisoned on charges of connection to Al-Qaeda.
Nashwan News, a Yemeni online newspaper, said that Al-wrafi was sentenced to five years in prison in 2007 after he was convicted of affiliation to Al-Qaeda, and preparation to carry out suicide kabooms against government facilities in Marib and Hadhramout in 2006.
Nashwan News wondered how Al-Wirafi was recruited in the Central Security while he was an Al-Qaeda suspect.
About 96 soldiers were killed and 300 others were maimed at a military parade rehearsal on Monday.
Most of the casualties were from the Central Security Organization - a paramilitary force commanded by Yahya Saleh, a nephew of former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Minister of Defense Mohammad Nasser Ahmed and Chief of General Staff Ahmed Ali Al-Ashwal who were present escaped uninjured.
Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen grabbed credit for the bombing, saying that the suicide kaboom was intended to avenge a U.S.-backed offensive against al-Qaeda in southern towns seized by the krazed killer movement last year.
The UN Security Council has condemned "in the strongest terms" the suicide kaboom, described the attack as a "heinous act" and vowed to combat "all forms of terrorism".
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05/24/2012
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[Bangla Daily Star] Saudi's defence ministry signed a $3 billion deal with Britannia to buy trainer jets for the kingdom's air force, SPA state news agency reported yesterday.
The deal also includes simulators, ground and training equipment and spare parts, SPA said, quoting a defence ministry official.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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#1
The Brits still make jets?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/24/2012 6:45
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I enjoy checking out the Guardian website from time to time. It's like spending a few minutes on a planet where the sky is green. Recently the Guardian's editorial crew directed their attention to a really pressing issue: an excess of World War II memorials.
This summer another second world war memorial, this time to Bomber Command, will be unveiled in central London. Even if this were an uncontentious subject of scintillating design, 2012 is far too late to be building memorials to those involved in a war that ended nearly 70 years ago. OK, so those young British aircrews suffered roughly a 40% KIA rate: what have the survivors done for us lately? Bunch of geezers, they are.
The war is reduced to being another chapter in Our Island Story, England alone, the last bastion of freedom. It is becoming Britain's foundation myth, and the way it is remembered is as important as the fact of remembrance. The aggrandising of conflict misrepresents and diminishes the truth. It's almost ... patriotic!
Their memorial, surely, is the NHS, social welfare and free education. I can see it now, the Seventh Armored Division Memorial Dole Queue. And a commenter chips in with this:
I agree with this editorial. WWII is well and truly over.
While we're at it, can we say enough is enough regarding Holocaust memorials? No, you jerk, we can't. But I do suspect that the Guardian could find the willpower to support a tasteful memorial to the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/24/2012
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#1
"QUENTIN CRISP" WAR MEMORIAL ...
versus
* NEWS KERALA > UK DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER [Nick Clegg] DECLARES SNOBBERY ["class attitudes"] AS NATIONAL RELIGION OWING TO [types/kinds of upper-paying] JOBS DENIED TO THE POOR.
[QUADROPHENIA, HOW THE IRISH [repeatedly] SAVED BRITAIN here].
#4
I recently purchased Aldon F. Ferguson's brilliantly done book entitled the Royal Air Forces Burtonwood. From the forward:
Burtonwood was probably the largest military base in Europe during World War Two, processing over 11,5000 aircraft between 1941 and 1945 alone, but beyond that it was responsible for the support of initially the 8th Air Force, then additionally the 9th and ultimately the 12th and 15th Air Forces as well. Over 35,000 men were under the direct control of Burtonwood with 18,500 on the base itself. Nothing was too big or small, from rebuilding battle damaged bombers to manufacturing valve springs for aero engines, manufacturing timber packing cases or converting gliders into powered aircraft.
[An Nahar] Regime forces Wednesday pounded rebel bastion Rastan, in central Syria, at an average rate of "one shell a minute," said a monitoring group, adding that six people were killed across the country.
Besieged by regime forces, Rastan is home to a large number of rebel fighters, according to opposition sources.
Most of Rastan's residents have fled after months of fighting, but regime forces have been unable to regain control of the town. On May 14, 23 regular troops were killed in fighting during a failed assault.
In the southern province of Daraa, one civilian was rubbed out near an army checkpoint at Inkhel, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
In nearby Sheikh Meskin, several youths were placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! , according to the Britannia-based watchdog.
Another civilian was killed by regime forces in the northern city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , while in Qusayr in the central Homs province, a third civilian was rubbed out by a sniper, the monitoring group added.
In the suburbs of Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , a blast killed three people on the international airport road, the Observatory said, without specifying whether they were civilians or soldiers.
A loud kaboom was heard in the capital Damascus, the Observatory said, without providing any further details on the blast.
Other blasts were heard in several Syrian provinces during the night, including in Harasta and Douma, two suburbs of the capital that have seen fierce fighting between regime and rebel forces in the past few days.
A total of 26 people, including 14 civilians and 12 soldiers, were killed in violence on Tuesday, the Observatory said.
Fighting has grown increasingly violent around Damascus, Aleppo and northwest Idlib, despite the presence of some 270 U.N. truce monitors on the ground.
More than 12,000 people have been killed in Syria since a revolt broke out in March last year, prompting the regime to launch a fierce crackdown on dissent.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Supporters of Mali's coup leader have dealt a fresh blow to a return to democratic rule by saying they have chosen him to head an interim government, defying a deal mediated by regional leaders at the weekend.
The party of former parliamentary speaker Dioncounde Traore, who was named in the deal to lead the transition -- sparking angry protests in which he was beaten -- brushed off the statement by a pro-putsch coalition as "ridiculous".
The pro-coup Committee of Malian Patriotic Organisations (COPAM) said it had decided Tuesday at a meeting "to institute Captain Amadou Sanogo as president of the transition" in the west African nation.
On Sunday the junta had signed an accord mediated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that 70-year-old Traore would lead the 12-month transition back to democratic rule.
But thousands of people who supported the March ouster of president Amadou Toumani Toure then erupted into the streets to protest the appointment of a former member of his government.
Scores of protesters besieged Traore's offices and physically attacked him on Monday, prompting widespread condemnation and calls for calm in what was considered one of the region's stable democracies before the crisis.
Sanogo and a group of low-ranking officers ousted the government on March 22, saying it was incompetent in handling a rebellion by armed Tuaregs in the north which broke out in January.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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#1
I hope they get right - iff our future OWG-NWO + USDOD desire both "defensive" + "offensive" Global Strike, Spacestrike, Global + Space Recce/SSIGINT, etc., THE NT DIRIGIBLE WILL FILL VARIOUS VITAL HAL NODES UNTIL MOON BASES + DEEP SPACE STATIONS, ETC. BECOM ROUTINE.
[Yemen Post] The Yemeni forces further advanced on Al-Qaeda cut-throats 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 on Wednesday and they are expected to retake control of Zinjibar, the capital, very soon, Alsahwa reported.
Al-Qaeda seized key towns in Abyan in mid-2011 including Zinjibar and the army has recently expanded the military operations against the cut-throats to recapture the towns.
The forces are now in the middle of Zinjibar and they have been stationed in key parts in the city, a move which came after some brigades could close the road between Azzan in the nearby province of Shabwa and Jaar, the most notorious stronghold of the cut-throats in Abyan, it said.
"The forces have controlled the only road where supplies for the cut-throats pass," it said.
The forces have made more gains in the past two days amid the plans to retake Zinjibar and other strongholds of the cut-throats including Jaar, which were seized last year, it continued.
Earlier today, Arclight airstrikes targeted several positions of the cut-throats causing Al-Qaeda big losses, it said.
With direct support from the US and tribal fighters, the Yemeni forces have recently stepped up the war on the cut-throats in southern and southeastern regions, mainly in Abyan, killing and injuring hundreds of them including big shots.
They have cleared cut-throats from some towns and areas in Abyan.
Meantime, observers said Al-Qaeda is trying to draw the attention from the blows it has received there through carrying suicide kabooms in far parts including the capital Sanaa.
On Monday, Al-Qaeda grabbed credit for a suicide kaboom on a military parade rehearsal on Monday, which killed more than one hundred central security forces and maimed hundreds others.
The group said the bombing was as a payback for the battles in Abyan, mainly the US role in them.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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[Al Ahram] A Tunisian military prosecutor requests a death penalty for ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who was tried in absentia as he sought exile in Saudi Arabia since last January
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[Tripoli Post] A rocket-propelled grenade overnight Tuesday reportedly hit the offices of the International Committee of the Red Thingy in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, leaving a small hole in the side of the building, with an ICRC spokeswoman however saying it caused no casualties.
Soaade Messoudi told "i"Rooters: "The offices in Benghazi were hit by an RPG rocket overnight. They were empty... and no one was harmed."
The building where 35 international and local staff members normally work is located in the western part of the city. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
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05/24/2012
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[Tolo News] Two Taliban leaders, including the Taliban's shadow deputy provincial governor, were killed in a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... Arclight airstrike in Afghanistan's eastern Nuristan province Wednesday, local officials said. Sheikh Jamil, Taliban's Nuristan shadow deputy provincial governor, and Abdul Hakim, a Taliban capo, were killed in the NATO Arclight airstrike in the Wigal district of the province, Nuristan police chief Ghulamullah Khan said today.
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05/24/2012
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Industrialized nations step up plans to help countries swept up in Arab Spring rebuild their economies through more access to international credit markets, investment
According to Rooters, as of last October, the Arab Spring had cost the countries involved over $55 billion.
Brilliant. Give a bunch of failed countries 'easier access' to credit markets so that they can run up a lot of new debt. What could possibly go wrong?
This is the kind of thinking that gave us Greece, Zimbabwe and Pakistain. Brilliant.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/24/2012
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#1
"Step up plans for aid" > Datsagood for the G-8 as a collective, as while the Bammer may want to up $$$ "Stimulus/QE"? spending for post-Arab Spring ME States, AFAIK US CONGRESSCRITTERS ARE NOT - DEY BE IN A SERIOUS FOREIGN AID CUTTING MOOD.
[Dawn] Resorting to violence once again, lawyers on Tuesday thrashed yet another policeman on the Lahore High Court premises and manhandled a judge's reader at the civil courts.
This time the victim was an assistant sub-inspector from Gujranwala, who had come to the court to appear before Justice Anwarul Haq in connection with a habeas corpus petition.
As ASI Khalid left the courtroom after the judge concluded the proceedings, advocates Rafique and Shahid Iqbal, accompanied by dozens of other lawyers, attacked him.
The ASI was kicked and punched by the lawyers who also tore his uniform. The lawyers were reportedly annoyed by the statement the ASI gave in the court.
LHC security personnel dared to rescue the policeman by getting hold of aggressive lawyers.
As the incident was brought to the notice of Justice Haq, he summoned Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) representatives.
Bar president Shehram Sarwar appeared before the judge and condemned the incident. He said the bar would not tolerate such elements and take action against them.
Advocate General Punjab Ashtar Ausaf also undertook to take disciplinary action against the accused lawyers. Both the lawyers and the victim submitted applications at Old Anarkali cop shoppe for registration of cases against each other.
In another incident at Civil Courts (Aiwan-e-Adl), Advocate Farhan Gilani and some other lawyers manhandled Mahmood Butt, the reader of Civil Judge Mubashar Nadeem, allegedly over appointment of local commission in a case.
In protest against the incident, the entire civil courts staff abandoned their work and went on a strike. They gathered outside the chamber of the Lahore sessions judge and protested lawyers' attitude.
After half an hour protest, the court staff resumed their work as the sessions judge assured them that their grievance would be redressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
ANY lawyer Mis-handling a Judge should be instantly Disbarred.
Or are the Judges THAT biased?
Posted by: Recneck Jim ||
05/24/2012 0:33
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Top||
#2
As to the term 'lawyers' in these cases, I have come to the conclusion that the word does not translate to what we consider to be lawyers. Taliban were defined as 'students'. Might this be another lost in translation thing? Maybe more like advocates/gladiators/thugs at law?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/24/2012 6:11
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#3
WM, thugs-at-law? Lawyers? Distinction without a difference?
[Dawn] Police and security forces tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! 10 forces of Evil in a joint search operation in different areas of the district on Tuesday, sources said.
The operation was conducted in Sawaldher, Chora, Jabbar, Dubai Adda, Guli Bagh, Umarabad, Shakar Tangai, Bashkhali and Surpul areas from 4am to 5:30pm.
They said that a daylong curfew was imposed in those areas. Officials claimed that several hideouts of forces of Evil were also destroyed in the operation.
The roads leading to these areas were closed to traffic and residents of the localities were strictly instructed to stay indoors. Sources said that more than 70 suspects were tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! during the house-to-house search operation but later all of them except 10 forces of Evil were released after interrogation.
It is pertinent to mention here that these areas were already declared sensitive by the law enforcement agencies.
Few weeks ago, six coppers including the SHO of Rustam cop shoppewere maimed when their van was targeted with a remote controlled bomb.
In Nowshera, unidentified forces of Evil blew up a primary school for girls in the small hours of Tuesday.
Officials said that two bombs were planted at the building of Government Community Girls Primary School in Afrido Kallay, Risalpur that went off around 3:30am.
Officials of Bomb Disposal Squad said that three to four kilograms of explosives were used in the blasts that destroyed two classrooms, veranda, room of watchman, boundary wall and store of the school.
Risalpur police tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! the watchman of the school identified as Mir Baz Khan for investigation and lodged an FIR against unidentified jihad boys.
In Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... , security forces destroyed houses of four alleged forces of Evil and recovered arms and ammunition during a search operation in Chamarkand tehsil on Tuesday.
Sources said that an operation was launched in the border areas of Chamarkand. "The action in these areas was launched with the help of local rustics and houses of four forces of Evil were destroyed," said an official.
Sources said that the jihad boys, whose houses were destroyed, were involved in killing of pro-government tribal elders.
Security forces also recovered weapons and explosives from the houses during the operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: TTP
[Yemen Post] The former endowment minister Hamoud Al-Hitar has called the Yemeni government to engage in dialogue with Al-Qaeda bully boyz who are currently fighting the Yemeni army 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... He further urged the government to not allow foreign military interventions in Yemen, pointing out that they US attacks strengthen radicalization.
Al-Hitar ,who served as the head of a dialogue committee tasked with conducting dialogue with Al-Qaeda bully boyz from 2002 to 2006, issued a fatwa against suicide kabooms.
He condemned the suicide kaboom that killed about 100 soldiers and maimed hundreds others in Sana'a, stressing that the bomber committed a crime that Islam and all other regions forbid.
He urged Yemenis raise awareness about the risks of terrorism and immunize youth against fundamental ideologies. Al-Hitar managed to persuade Al-Qaeda bully boyz to give up violence in the period from 2002 to 2005
In an interview with the state-run Al-Jumhoria newspaper last month, he attributed the expansion of Al-Qaeda in Yemenm to the lack to a serious political approach to combat the terrorism, insecurity Yemen has lately witnessed
Al-Hitar who resigned in protest at crimes committed against peaceful protests in 2011 said that Al-Qaeda was propped up with the aim of distorting the image of the peaceful struggle in the South and the peaceful uprising that broke out in 2011.
He accused some military and security leaders of cooperating with Al-Qaeda, stressing that they provided the organization with weapons and ordnance in Rada of Baida and Zinjibar and Jaar of Abyan. "Ansar Al-Shariah (supporters of the Islamic Law) is a mixture comprised of Al-Qaeda krazed killers, elements of the armed Southern Movement and supporters of the former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh" ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] European shares have dived and the euro hit a 22-month low before an informal EU summit and after former Greek prime minister warning that Greece might leave the eurozone.
There was tension after Germany reasserted its stance against eurobonds -- whereby strong and weak eurozone countries would pool their ability to borrow -- despite calls from other members and the IMF to consider this option.
In afternoon trading, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index dove 1.97 per cent to 5,296.69 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 recoiled 1.90 per cent to 6,313.41 points and in Paris the CAC 40 shed 2.70 per cent to 3,00.87 points.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under:
#1
Wehell, any + all EZ Nations have been advised to prepare potential national contingency plans for the "DAY OF THE GREXIT"!
["DRAGNET" Theme, "DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS" = Truck Jingle here].
#4
They just need to leave and the EU needs to collapse so the healthier economies can heal faster. It is like a cancer, the longer you leave those countries in, the worse it will get.
[An Nahar] Russia is ready to host direct talks between the Syrian regime and rebel representatives, a top official said Wednesday, in a bid to end 14 months of bloodshed that has claimed over 10,000 lives.
Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said peace mediator 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... 's deputy was trying to secure agreement with the fractured foreign-based Syrian opposition on who could meet Bashir al-Assad's Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa.
"Russia has proposed starting this dialogue in Moscow, considering the opposition's fear of coming to Syria and the authorities' refusal to hold a meeting in Cairo under the auspices of the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... ," Bogdanov said in comments posted by the foreign ministry.
The Syrian strongman appointed Sharaa as his official negotiator last year. But the rebels had previously rejected negotiations because of the raging violence and the regime's refusal to offer real power to Assad's foes.
Moscow has hosted several more moderate Syrian groups in the past year who do not represent the main Syrian National Council opposition movement.
Bogdanov did not say how or whether either Assad or the Syrian opposition has responded to Russia's offer.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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[Al Ahram] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... will give its impoverished neighbour Yemen aid worth $3.25 billion, the kingdom's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a meeting in Riyadh Wednesday, urging other nations to take similar steps.
"To ensure Yemen's security and stability, the kingdom will provide $3.25 billion to support development projects there which will be agreed upon with the Yemeni side," he said at the opening of the Friends of Yemen meeting.
"The Yemeni government is exerting courageous efforts, but without the help of its brothers and friends, Yemen will not be able to solve the crises it is facing," said Prince Saud.
Yemeni Prime Minister Mohammed Basindawa pleaded at the meeting for aid for Yemen which was rocked by an uprising last year that forced former strongman 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 step down in February.
"The hope is in the political and economic support needed to overcome the transitional period and put an end to the budget deficit," Basindawa said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
Don't believe it till you see it, Yemen.
Posted by: American Delight ||
05/24/2012 6:51
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[Tolo News] Five possible suicide kaboomers travelling together in a bomb-laden minivan were placed in long-term storage Book 'im, Mahmoud! in Kabul Wednesday, Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) said in a statement.
NDS officials captured a group of Islamic fascistiwho appear to have been intending to detonate the vehicle on Kabul Airport avenue. They were stopped and locked away ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... while still in the minivan full of bombs, the NDS said.
"In a rapid response, the NDS officials tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! five Islamic fascistiwith a gray color minivan loaded with 560 kg of explosives devices in Kabul Wednesday afternoon," the statement added.
This comes as the NDS said Tuesday that they placed in long-term storage Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! twelve possible jacket wallahs who were planning attacks in Afghanistan during the days of the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... summit in Chicago.
Those incarcerated You have the right to remain silent... were all members of either the Haqqani network or the lesser known Mullah Dadullah Front, NDS front man Lotfullah Mashal said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: Taliban
[Bangla Daily Star] African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... and Somali government troops have made "strong progress" in a push towards an Islamist al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... stronghold, site of the world's largest displaced people's camp, officials yesterday said.
Hundreds of civilians have fled as long columns of Somali and AU troops backed by tanks advanced for a second day, moving from the capital Mogadishu towards Afgoye, a strategic town and a key base of the al-Qaeda-linked Shebab fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
Border Guard troops at the Hawara checkpoint in the West Bank set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! on Wednesday a young Paleostinian man carrying six improvised bombs and a knife.
The troops scrambled the bomb squad, who were working to disable the devices. The suspect was taken in for interrogation.
[Bangla Daily Star] Three people were killed and 18 others maimed in attacks in Iraq yesterday, security officials said, as Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... hosted key nuclear talks in its latest effort to emerge from decades of isolation.
Three people were killed and 14 others maimed in a shooting and three roadside kaboomings in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, a police lieutenant colonel and Dr Ahmed Ibrahim of Baquba General Hospital said.
And despite heightened security measures in and around the Iraqi capital, four people were maimed by a roadside kaboom near a Sunni mosque in Al-Yarmuk, west Storied Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
[Yemen Post] Yemen's air fighters blasted on Wednesday Al-Qaeda weapon stocks and hideouts close to Jaar town, military sources affirmed.
The sources said that the Yemeni army could recapture a number of positions that was controlled by Ansar Al-Sharaia in Zinjibar.
The army have been trying for two weeks to enter Zinjibar and Jaar and eliminate Al-Qaeda Death Eaters.
Clashes were resumed after two days of an uneasy calm due to the suicide kaboom that killed about 96 soldiers and maimed hundreds others in Sana'a.
Military sources told Yemen Post that the army could recapture the strategic Altabah Al-Hamra, an area nearby Zinjibar, pointing out that two troops were killed and four others were maimed.
They also said thon the lam numbers of the faceless myrmidons were killed in the west of Zinjibar.
The sources anticipated that the army might cleanse the forces of Evil form Zinjibar within two days.
Other sources said that at least seven soldiers were killed in Al-Jablian, an area close to Jaar, as the army sought to advance to Jaar.
Local sources said that air forces raided the coastal city of Shaqra and some areas of Wadi Jar, an area close to Lawdar district.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) grabbed credit for the attack and said it targeted "the defense minister and other leaders of the US war" on the southern 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.
A jacket wallah, who was a soldier in the Yemen army, detonated a bomb in Al Sabeen Square in Sanaa during a military parade rehearsal on Monday that killed the troops and injured 300 more.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
[Dawn] Difa-e-Pakistain Council (DPC), an alliance of religious and political parties, has announced to postpone its long march scheduled from May 27 against reopening of the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... supply routes to Afghanistan.
This was announced by Liaquat Baloch, Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... (JI) and chairman steering committee of the DPC in a presser here at JI headquarters on Wednesday night.
DPC leaders Maulana Amir Hamza, Allama Tahir Ashrafi, Amirul Azim, Maulana Abdul Malik, Maulana Abdur Rauf Farooqi, Allama Shamsur Rahman, Qari Mansoor Ahmed and others were also present.
Baloch said that the long march was postponed as Pakistain did not announce the restoration of NATO supplies during the Chicago summit. He added that the organising committee has decided to continue the protests across the country against the NATO and the US.
Baloch said that the heads of DPC would meet in JI 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... office on May 26 and a convention of Ulema, students and labourers would be held near Quaid's mausoleum to press for stoppage of NATO supplies.
He also condemned the killing of innocent people in Bloody Karachi.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
[Tolo News] Two foreign doctors and their three Afghan colleagues were kidnapped in a remote area of northern Afghanistan Tuesday evening, local officials said.
The group, who work for non-government organization Medair, were stopped by a group of gunnies while travelling on horseback between the Yaftali and Ragh districts of the country's furthest north-eastern province of Badakhshan, provincial front man Abdul Maroof Rasekh told TOLOnews on Wednesday.
The incident was reported as a kidnapping by the humanitarian organization, which has not released the names of those believed to be kidnapped, Rasekh said.
According to a security report, five Medair staff members - two international females and three Afghan males - along with two hired guides were stopped as they left a village in the Yaftali Sufla District by five or six gunnies believed to be members of an "armed opposition group" from Shahri Buzorg district.
The report released by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) said the gunnies sent away the two hired horsemen and then moved with the five staff members towards the Dawang area of Shahri Buzorg district.
ANSO said the incident was "an exceptionally strong outlier" for the district, province, and region.
Local police have started a search operation in the two districts, Rasekh said.
No group, including the Taliban, has grabbed credit for the kidnapping.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Gosh, how did armed men know that the doctors were foreign? Were they profiled on the basis of race/ethnicity, gasp?! The Taliban is racially profiling people in their country. Surely we wouldn't negotiate with an organization that racially profiles--a behavior which we are told is one of the greatest crimes anybody can commit.
Posted by: American Delight ||
05/24/2012 6:50
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[Al Ahram] Three Iranian truck drivers have been kidnapped by "armed opposition groups" in Syria, according to Iran's charge d'affaires in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... quoted by media Wednesday. Abbas Golrou said the drivers, identified as Morteza Adeli, Hossein Alinejad and Esmaeel Mohammad Zeinali, were taking unspecified cargo from Iran to Syria when they were kidnapped on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Republican 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... has said he is "greatly disturbed" that President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... 's administration has granted a visitor's visa to the daughter of Cuban President Compañero Raul Castro. ...Fidel's little brother... Mariela Castro, a sexologist who supports gay rights, was granted the visa to attend the annual conference of the Latin American Studies Association on May 23-26 in San Francisco.
"We shouldn't be extending an open hand to a regime engaged in the systematic and flagrant denial of basic human rights," ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... Republican presidential hopeful Romney said in a statement.
The B.O. regime defended its decision on May 18. "We don't link visa policy in cases like this to our larger political and economic and human rights relationship with countries," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: Commies
#1
C'mon, Sarah...Figure out a way how to jump back in this thing.
Pharaoh and his MSM demons, will slice and dice Mittens. Heaven help us all.
#2
Obama's evolution to gay, coupled with ads equating Obama to Castro, seems to have put Romney up by about 6 percentage points in Florida. Also appears to be playing very well with Cuban/Latino/Hispanics in New York and New Jersey.
#3
Win-win-win. Jab Obama and Hillary's DOS for sucking up to Communist killer regimes, highlighting this bitch's rhetoric and the awful leftists that invited her and support Cuba/Castro. Oh...and if it helps win Florida, that's OK too :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/24/2012 9:29
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Top||
#4
#2 Obama's evolution to gay, coupled with ads equating Obama to Castro Junkiron
Will soon learn that Obama has a brother who is also a Cuban Army general?
[Al Ahram] The Free Syrian Army, which is seeking the overthrow of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... 's regime, on Wednesday denied abducting a group of Shiite Lebanese pilgrims inside Syria.
"The FSA is not at all responsible for the operation," Mustafa al-Sheikh, a high-ranking FSA officer, told AFP by telephone from Istanbul.
"This is an attempt to distort the image of the FSA. The FSA does not believe in this methodology," said Sheikh, the head of the group's military council.
Leb's state news agency on Tuesday reported that the FSA had kidnapped 13 pilgrims in Syria's northern Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... province.
Syrian state media too blamed the FSA for the abductions, which were feared to heighten sectarian tensions in Leb over the revolt in neighbouring Syria.
Sheikh said the Syrian regime "treats the FSA as a scapegoat. We condemn this abduction, which does not represent the values of the (Syrian) revolution."
The kidnapping "is no doubt the work of the regime, which wants to sow chaos in the region," Sheikh added.
Syria's main opposition coalition issued a statement Wednesday calling for the prompt release of the group, adding that it too believed the Syrian regime could be involved in the kidnapping.
The Syrian National Council "does not think it is impossible that the regime is involved in this operation," in order to sow "disorder" in neighbouring Leb, the group said.
The group was reportedly kidnapped as they headed home to Leb from a pilgrimage in Iran.
The news prompted their families and thousands of supporters to pour out into the streets of Beirut's mainly Shiite suburbs to demand their release.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/24/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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.
Orakzai Agency
Three Kurdish rebels were killed Tuesday in a gunbattle with security forces in southeastern Turkey, Turkish media said Wednesday.
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means 
[Dawn] Pak authorities have sentenced a doctor accused of helping the CIA find 
Yemen is on the brink of a catastrophic food crisis, seven aid agencies said today (23 May 2012) with 10 million people -- 44 percent of the population -- without enough food to eat. The aid agencies warned that malnutrition rates recorded by the UN in some parts of the country were alarming, with one in three children severely malnourished.
A Yemeni newspaper close to the former president 
Saudi's defence ministry signed a $3 billion deal with 
[An Nahar] Regime forces Wednesday pounded rebel bastion Rastan, in central Syria, at an average rate of "one shell a minute," said a monitoring group, adding that six people were killed across the country.
The Yemeni forces further advanced on Al-Qaeda 
[Tolo News] Two Taliban leaders, including the Taliban's shadow deputy provincial governor, were killed in a 
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
The former endowment minister Hamoud Al-Hitar has called the Yemeni government to engage in dialogue with Al-Qaeda 
...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...
[Yemen Post] Yemen's air fighters blasted on Wednesday Al-Qaeda weapon stocks and hideouts close to Jaar town, military sources affirmed. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
