#1
Probably bad for illicit copies used by regimes that didn't pay for legit programs running on their systems. Of course with an embargo, it's pretty much most of what certain regimes rely upon.
#6
As per DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS + Kaspersky Lab, looks like "Flame" has been secretly downloading secret AUTOCAD-based designs in Iran, + was doing so for several years.
#1
Having read the article, it appears to be about... something. I dunno, maybe his point is the Middle East is screwed up. Yeah, big news. Your dog could have told you that.
#2
yeah, but your dog is not willfully ignorant, and I don't like it when your dog gets a beatdown. Fisk is....different. Or something :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/04/2012 18:23
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#3
Dealing with the Afghans has been awfully frustrating, but we should never forget the debt of gratitude we owe them for beating this goober within an inch of his life.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/04/2012 20:06
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#4
Yeah, isn't Fiskie about due for another savage beatdown by the locals?
The Yemeni army geared up for a push to try to take a southern coastal town from al Qaeda-linked fighters on Monday, residents said, part of a U.S.-backed offensive in a country Washington sees as a frontline of its war against the Islamist militants.
Soldiers versus terrorists? Soldiers usually win, even if they aren't the best soldiers in the world.
The United States and its Gulf allies are alarmed by the deteriorating security in Yemen, where al Qaeda's Arabian Peninsula wing (AQAP) took advantage of a split in the military during an uprising against then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh and seized territory in the south province of Abyan last year.
Shi'ite rebels known as Houthis also exploited the political upheaval and carved out their own state within a state in the rugged northern province of Saada, on the border with Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter.
The United States, which helped engineer Saleh's replacement by his deputy in February, is backing an offensive in the south and has stepped up its campaign of drone strike assassinations of alleged al Qaeda members it says plot attacks from Yemen.
It has also sent dozens of military trainers and stepped up aid to Yemen where it wants President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to reunify the military and focus it against AQAP.
A group of disgruntled militiamen took over the country's main airport on Monday, storming it with heavy machine guns and armored vehicles and forcing airport authorities to divert flights, a security official said.
Mohammed el-Gharyani of Tripoli Security Committee said militiamen from the city of Tarhouna occupied the airport runway. Flights were diverted to Metiga air base in the city's center.
He said the militiamen were angry over arrest of their commander, Abu Elija, on Sunday.
Tarhouna in central Libya was widely seen as a favorite of deposed ruler Moammar Gadhafi. Its dominant tribe, also called Tarhouna, held many positions in the Libyan military under Gadhafi. The city's residents are viewed with suspicion by former rebels.
Tribal rivalries have swept Libya since Gadhafi was overthrown last year. Much of the fighting has pitted militias that fought Gadhafi against those who remained loyal to his regime.
North Korea's military Monday threatened rocket attacks on the Seoul offices of South Korean media outlets for their critical coverage of a mass children's event in Pyongyang.
The military general staff, in an unusual move, listed the coordinates of some of the offices and said missile units and other forces had already targeted the buildings.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/04/2012
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#1
Either they are bluffing their asses off and hoping the media caves as fast as the US ilk, or they are suicidal.
Israeli scientists have cultivated a cannabis plant that doesn't get people stoned in a development that may help those smoking marijuana for medical purposes, a newspaper said on Wednesday.
According to the Maariv daily, the new cannabis looks, smells and even tastes the same, but does not induce any of the feelings normally associated with smoking marijuana that are brought on by the substance THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. no comment
#1
I thought it was called "ditch weed" and was around until massive spraying.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
06/04/2012 10:14
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#2
Pot Lite? Blunt-less? No-stone? The new Down-low? Doubt it will catch on--'strapless' Mary Janes won't sell well and kill jobs in the med marijuana field.
#4
On the positive side, most of the current "medical" marijuana users will be miraculously cured of their glaucoma as soon as the drug stops getting them high.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/04/2012 12:50
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#5
Still, I'd like to think the legitimate ones, the guys with cancer and such, could get a little high once in awhile.
#6
My grandmother had glacoma and a prescription to get Federal cannabis. I think it drove my hippie uncle nuts that she never used the prescription (or allowed it to be misused by others).
#7
Marinol (Dronabinol) is in a class of medications called cannabinoids. It works by affecting the area of the brain that controls nausea, vomiting, and appetite. It is legally used for chemotherapy patients to curb nausea and vomiting. It is also used to treat excessive weight loss. However, a friend of mine who underwent chemo said he did much care for Marinol and it didn't provide the high that weed did.
#8
Pot without the buzz, curly lightbulbs with the luminous intensity of a kerosene lamp, and dishwashing detergent that isn't. Man, the future is looking dim. And where's my flying car?
#9
Like non alcoholic beer or decaf coffee, what the hell good is that for?
I smoked it on chemo. Know what it got me? A decent night's sleep. No waking up to heave every two hours. It's actually what got me over the hump.
Canada has formally withdraw from the United Nations World Tourism Office (UNWTO), a move it said was formalized this week over the agency's recognition of Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe as being representative of international tourism.
Another smart move by our neighbors to the north.
The UNWTO announced that it gave an Open Letter on Travel and Tourism to the presidents of Zimbabwe and Zambia on May 29, in recognition of a tripartite agreement with both countries on the hosting of the 20th Session of the UN General Assembly in Victoria Falls, which straddles the borders of both countries.
Yet, the recognition of Mugabe at a UN event was enough for Baird, who called it the "last straw" for Canada's participation in the UNWTO.
US Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, commenting on the UNWTO's action said, "The UN has hit a new low with the naming of Mugabe as a UN tourism envoy, as if North Korea chairing the Conference on Disarmament and Cuba serving as vice president of the Human Rights Council had not been enough...The UN's legitimization of brutal dictators is a disgrace. Mugabe's terrible human rights record and intentionally-ruinous economic policies have made him the subject of US and EU sanctions--including a travel ban. This UN honor for Mugabe comes just days after the newly reappointed, anti-Israel, anti-Western UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the lifting of international sanctions on Zimbabwe. The continued rewards the UN bestows upon the world's dictators has reached the point of being absurd.
Despite Canada's political strength in promptly and publicly criticizing Mugabe for any UN recognition and in withdrawing from the UNWTO and Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen's strong statement, there was understandably no similar criticism expressed by the Obama Administration.
A Danish court found four men guilty of plotting to kill a large number of people at a newspaper to retaliate for its publication in 2005 of cartoons of Mohammed. The men, three Swedish citizens and a Tunisian, had pleaded not guilty to the charges though one of them had pleaded guilty to illegal possession of weapons.
The men, who were nabbed in a joint Danish-Swedish police operation at the end of 2010, were found guilty on the primary charge of terrorism but were acquitted on two charges of weapons possession on technicalities. Judge Katrine Eriksen said, "The accused...are guilty of terrorism, (They) agreed and prepared acts to kill people."
The men convicted were Mounir Ben Mohamed Dhahri, a Tunisian citizen, Munir Sven Awad a Swedish citizen born in Lebanon, Omar Lars Abdalla Aboelazm, a Swedish citizen born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Egyptian father, and Sahbi Eric Ben Mohamed Zalouti, a Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin.
"There is unanimity that the male apostate must be put to death."
Liberal talk show host Tawfiq Okasha recently appeared on "Egypt Today," airing a video of Muslims slicing off a young man's head off for the crime of apostasy -- in this instance, the crime of converting to Christianity and refusing to renounce it. The video--be warned, it is immensely graphic--can be seen here (the actual execution appears from minute 1:13-4:00). For those who prefer not to view it, a summary follows:
A young man appears held down by masked men. His head is pulled back, with a knife to his throat. He does not struggle and appears resigned to his fate. Speaking in Arabic, the background speaker, or "narrator," chants a number of Muslim prayers and supplications, mostly condemning Christianity, which, because of the Trinity, is referred to as a polytheistic faith: "Let Allah be avenged on the polytheist apostate"; "Allah empower your religion, make it victorious against the polytheists"; "Allah, defeat the infidels at the hands of the Muslims," and "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."
Then, to cries of "Allahu Akbar!"-- Allah is greater!"--the masked man holding the knife to the apostate's throat begins to slice away, severing the head completely after approximately one minute of graphic knife-carving, as the victim drowns in blood. Finally, the severed head is held aloft to more Islamic slogans of victory.
Visibly distraught, Tawfiq Okasha, the host, asks: "Is this Islam? Does Islam call for this? How is Islam related to this matter?...These are the images that are disseminated throughout the electronic media in Europe and America.... Can you imagine?" Then, in reference to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis, whose political influence has grown tremendously, he asks, "How are such people supposed to govern?"
The question the Arab Spring countries will have to decide in the near future, which is why their Christians have been decamping with as much of their household goods as can be accomplished,
Only the other day, a prominent Egyptian Salafi leader -- referring to the canonical hadiths, including Muhammad's command, "Whoever leaves his religion, kill him" -- openly stated that no Muslim has the right to apostatize, or leave Islam.
Any number of Islamic legal manuals make explicitly clear that apostasy is a capital crime, punishable by death. The first "righteous caliph," a model of Muslim piety, had tens of thousands of former Muslims slaughtered--including by burning, beheading, and crucifixion--simply because they tried to break away from Islam. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the most authoritative reference work on Islam in the English language, "there is unanimity that the male apostate must be put to death."
Finally, a word on the "prayers" or supplications to Allah made by the Muslim executioners in the video: these are standard and formulaic. In other words, these are not just masked, anonymous butchers who pray to Allah as they engage in acts of cutting throats and holding up heads, these are top-ranking Muslim leaders, who appear regularly on TV, who invoke such hate-filled prayers. See here for examples of Muslims supplicating Allah to strike infidels with cancer and disease "till they pray for death and do not receive it;" there are even formalized prayers in Mecca, blasted on megaphones as Muslims honor their obligation to go on a pilgrimage at least once in their lives, supplicating Allah to make the lives of Christians and Jews "hostage to misery; drape them with endless despair, unrelenting pain and unremitting ailment; fill their lives with sorrow and pain and end their lives in humiliation and oppression."
"Is this Islam?" You decide.
Raymond Ibrahim is an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
#2
I've sent a copy of the link to MEMRI so that it can be translated and widely disseminated, especially to those idiots who say all religion are equal.
#3
In Liberated Afghanistan what these islamofascists did would not only be legal, it would be mandatory because, in Liberated Afghanistan apostasy carries the death penalty.
Apostasy carries the death penalty in Liberated Afghanistan because this is the wish of the people of Afghanistan, no, the NOBLE people of Afghanistan.
Pastor Terry Jones however, is not a noble man because he occasionally burns Korans in order to draw attention to the persecution of Christians in the islamic world.
#5
More of a feature than a bug: any Muslim wanting to get rid of a fellow Muslim, simply tags the intended victim with the label 'apostate' or 'blasphemer' (you know the routine) and OTHER Muslims will do the killing.
#8
He is speaking out the truth. Faithfully. To make people realize their heads are in danger of being seperated from their necks.
Just as this young man died with faith in Christ as strong as ever.
Just as death on crosses 2000 years ago failed to put fear in Christians, this young mans faith at the point of his beheading will also inspire Christians world wide.
The protracted drama has seen Prime Minister Nuri al-Malikis deputy revert to decrying him as a dictator and the leader of the autonomous Kurdish region call for him to go on one side, while the premier insists he has sufficient backing to stay on the other. The political crisis has reached its highest level since its beginning, but it is still running within the framework of the democratic game, Iraqi political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari said.
The country is paralyzed on all levels; there is a clear political paralysis paralleled by governmental negligence and a failure of the legislative authority, while the people are disappointed and afraid of the security consequences, Shammari said. The trouble began in earnest in mid-December, when the secular Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc began a boycott of parliament and the cabinet over what it said was Malikis centralisation of power.
For his part, Maliki sought to sack Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak, an Iraqiya member who had labelled the premier worse than Saddam Hussein. That month, an arrest warrant was issued for Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, also of Iraqiya, for allegedly running a death squad.
Hashemi fled to the autonomous Kurdistan region in north Iraq, which declined to hand him over to Baghdad and then permitted him to leave on a regional tour that took him to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. He is now being tried in absentia in Iraq. Kurdistan further entered the fray when its chief, Massud Barzani, launched a series of attacks against Maliki.
In April, the region stopped oil exports, claiming Baghdad has allegedly withheld more than $1.5 billion (1.2 billion euros) that Kurdish officials say is owed to foreign oil companies working in the region.
And powerful Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose parliamentary bloc is part of the national unity government along with Iraqiya and the Kurdish alliance, referred to the premier as a dictator hungry for acclaim, and accused him of wanting to postpone or cancel elections. But Maliki opponents have now moved from merely criticizing the premier to talk of actually removing him from office.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, dogged by widespread speculation about his health, appeared chipper and energetic in a television appearance over the weekend.
"What a lovely breeze, what lovely weather," Chavez said Saturday as he opened a meeting with a delegation from Belarus several weeks before President Alexander Lukashenko's scheduled visit to the South American nation.
State-run VTV showed Chavez walking down a long hall with the Belarusian delegation before delivering a speech on the front steps of the palace.
Facing a row of cameras, the Venezuelan president spoke effusively about his Bolivarian revolution, football, friends and the weather.
Live television appearances have long been common for the Venezuelan president, but have dwindled in recent months as he undergoes cancer treatment.
On Tuesday, the Venezuelan president spoke for several hours, making no mention of his health, during a cabinet meeting that was broadcast live.
Eleven months after Chavez first announced his cancer diagnosis, Venezuelan officials have released few details about his treatment. Neither Chavez nor anyone in his government have publicly discussed what kind of cancer he has or provided a detailed prognosis for the 57-year-old leader.
In May, Chavez said he had successfully completed his latest cycle of radiation therapy. Congratulations.
"This week I have been holed up, working, rigorously following the doctor's orders to recuperate as soon as possible from the effects of the radiation therapy. And I am recuperating gradually," he said in a May 18 telephone interview with VTV.
But speculation has continued to swirl about the president's political future, and for months many have turned to media accounts for information on Chavez's health.
Last week, a report from veteran U.S. television journalist Dan Rather described Chavez's health situation as "dire," citing an unidentified source's assessment that the Venezuelan president may not see the final results of the October elections due to the progression of his cancer.
"This reporter has been told that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive cancer that has 'entered the end stage,'" Rather said on the website for his HDNet show "Dan Rather Reports."
Rather, a longtime CBS News anchor and "60 Minutes" correspondent, said the information came from a "highly respected source close to Chavez and who is in a position to know his medical condition and history." Fidel, you're altzheimer's is starting to make problems.
However, Rather said that "there is only one source for identifying the cancer and the prognosis quoted in the first part of the story."
He did not disclose the source of his report, which has not been confirmed by CNN.
The report -- which also referred to Chavez as a "dictator" -- drew swift ire from the Venezuelan government. The next day, the nation's information ministry distributed an editorial from close Chavez ally Eva Golinger titled, "Shame on You, Dan Rather."
"Dan Rather has always emphasized the necessity of 'courage' in reporting, yet he shows cowardice and sloppy ambition by racing to publish unconfirmed reports on President Chavez's health, and by touting slanderous epithets to describe the Venezuelan head of state," Golinger wrote. I'll withhold judgment until you die of metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma, then we'll see what you have to say.
Golinger said Chavez was "a far cry from being on his 'death bed,' as Rather implies."
"Chavez has cancer, and he is fighting it hard, with the same strength he has used to propel his nation forward, often against the toughest obstacles," she wrote.
Chavez, who has ruled oil-rich Venezuela since 1999, is a controversial figure with outspoken, antagonistic views toward the United States. Ruled? How Obamaesque.
His pro-Cuban, socialist policies are also controversial domestically and have increasingly polarized the nation and national media, according to the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which provided election monitors in the nation's 2006 presidential elections. Don't vote for him, I said. He's a socialist, I said. Never worked before, I said. He'll loot you for all you and your children are worth and retire behind his army, I said. You gotta be kiddin' me, you're a bunch of flaming IDIOTS, I said.
Recent polls have offered different assessments of how Chavez's health could impact Venezuelan voters when they cast their ballots on October 7. Their vote may actually count again for the first time since '99?
According to the Datanalisis polling firm, Chavez's popularity stood at about 49% last year. The pro-government GIS XXI reports that 86% of the population admires how he has handled his illness and 45.7% said Chavez's health hadn't affected the national political situation. Not a bit. They're both gonna die.
CNN affiliate Globovision TV reported that polling firm Varianzas, which claims to be independent and has no international affiliation, puts Chavez at a 51.3% percent lead in the latest polls ahead of his opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski, who registered a 46.5%.
Varianzas President Rafael Delgado told reporters in May that the October presidential elections will be very close, and trends could quickly change depending on campaigning styles and economic trends. Hint, hint .... Oh, who am I trying to kid. Socialists stick together.
But nobody thought it was a big deal. That's because politicians then weren't as "sophisticated" as they are these days. Or perhaps the electorate wasn't as "sophisticated".
Recently unearthed photographs taken by Danish explorers in the 1930s show glaciers in Greenland retreating faster than they are today, according to researchers.
The photos in question were taken by the seventh Thule Expedition to Greenland led by Dr Knud Rasmussen in 1932. The explorers were equipped with a seaplane, which they used to take aerial snaps of glaciers along the Arctic island's coasts.
After the expedition returned the photographs were used to make maps and charts of the area, then placed in archives in Denmark where they lay forgotten for decades. Then, in recent years, international researchers trying to find information on the history of the Greenland glaciers stumbled across them.
Taken together the pictures show clearly that glaciers in the region were melting even faster in the 1930s than they are today, according to Professor Jason Box, who works at the Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University.
There's much scientific interest in the Greenland ice sheet, as unlike most of the Arctic ice cap it sits on land: thus if it were to melt, serious sea level rises could occur (though the latest research says that this doesn't appear to be on the cards).
It's difficult to know exactly what's happening to the Greenland ice in total and very different estimates have been produced in recent times. However Professor Box says that many glaciers along the coasts have started retreating in the past decade. Meaning we may well understand again why it was named "Greenland" in the first place?
It now appears that the glaciers were retreating even faster eighty years ago: but nobody worried about it, and the ice subsequently came back again. Box theorises that this is likely to be because of sulphur pollution released into the atmosphere by humans, especially by burning coal and fuel oils. This is known to have a cooling effect. Uh oh, global cooling alert. Quick! We need tax incentives to buy cars from Cuba! Of course, that means we'll have a bunch of bumper stickers to vote for Castro all over the place, which nearly half the voters will take seriously.
Unfortunately atmospheric sulphur emissions also cause other things such as acid rain, and as a result rich Western nations cracked down on sulphates in the 1960s. Prof Box believes that this led to warming from the 1970s onward, which has now led to the glaciers retreating since around 2000. My, how quickly mother earth reacts to the tiniest inputs.
Other scientists have said recently that late-20th-century temperature rises in the Arctic may result largely from clean-air legislation intended to deal with acid rain: some have even gone so far as to suggest that rapid coal- and diesel-fuelled industrialisation in China is serving to prevent further warming right now. Had to deal with this glaring hole in their logic somehow, I guess.
Still other scientists, differing with Prof Box, offer another picture altogether of Arctic temperatures, in which there were peaks both in the 1930s and 1950s and cooling until the 1990s: and in which the warming trend which resulted in the melting seen by Rasmussen's expedition actually started as early as 1840, before the industrial revolution and human-driven carbon emission had even got rolling. In that scenario, variations in the Sun seem to have much more weight than is generally accepted by today's climatologists.
At any rate, the new information from the old Danish pictures adds some more data to the subject. The new study by Box and his co-authors is published by Nature Geoscience.
#3
TOPIX, FREEREPUBLIC > IN CEDEAR TREES, JAPANESE SCIENTISTS FIND EIGHTH-CENTURY [774-775 AD] COSMIC MYSTERY | MYSTERIOUS RADIATION BURST RECORDED IN TREE RINGS.
Earth bombarded in Year 774-775 AD wid cosmic rays from unknown source most likely NOT the Sun.
versus
* RENSE > [Green Real Blog] SUPER-SOLAR STORM TO HIT EARTH IN 2013 "CARRINGTON EFFECT", 400 NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS MAY [suddenly] SHUT DOWN OR EXPLODE.
* SAME > YAMAMOTO: IFF ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE HAPPENS, IT WILL BE THE END OF THE COUNTRY [Japan].
[Iran Press TV] An Iranian politician says in case of civil war in Syria, the ensuing crisis will not remain limited to Syrian borders and will spread to its neighbors including Israel.
Referring to the recent escalation of terrorist operations in Syria, Seyyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini noted that such operations are guided by Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad.
"The Syrians are angry with the blood that has been spilt thus far and blame the Zionist regime [of Israel] as the main cause. Therefore, it will not take long before they will disturb security of the occupied territories," he said on Sunday.
Pointing to the recent measure by some Western countries in expelling Syrian diplomats in reaction to the massacre in Houla, the Iranian politician said the move aims to distract international attention from foreign intervention in Syria.
"If foreign intervention in Syria continues in the current manner, the situation in this country will become more critical and people's distrust of West's policies will grow," he noted.
Criticizing UN observers in Syria for their inaction toward the aggravating situation in the country, the Iranian politician said although observers witness flow of forces, arms and money into Syria, they don't do anything to stop it.
On May 25, deadly festivities broke out between Syrian forces and gangs in Houla, located in the central province of Homs. According to head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Major General Robert Mood, 108 people were killed in the festivities, including 49 children and 34 women.
A few days later, on May 30, governments of the United States, La Belle France, Britannia, Spain, Germany, Italia, Canada, Australia, and Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... announced the expulsion of Syrian ambassadors to their countries.
Some Western governments blame Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... for the massacre, but a Syrian government investigation into the deadly incident has shown that anti-Damascus gangs had carried out the killings to "bring foreign military intervention against the country in any form and way."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012
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#1
Iran wants in its Navy in the Med + Atlantic + East Asia, + its not taking "no" for an answer.
[USA Today] Yemeni military officials say 21 al-Qaeda Islamic fascistihave been killed in a southern province where the Islamists took advantage of the country's political turmoil last year to seize entire cities.
Officials say 13 al-Qaeda gunnies were killed in festivities with troops outside the city of Jaar.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, say six more died fighting troops 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... 's capital of Zinjibar Sunday. The military has not yet fully reclaimed the city in its offensive.
Two other Islamic fascistiwere killed in al-Code when troops shelled their car.
Also, the U.S. Embassy in Yemen says Washington is providing another $6.5 million in aid to the impoverished Arab country, bringing the total of U.S. humanitarian assistance to Yemen to $80 million this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I, too, marked Khomeini's passing in the best way I could - with bacon. And not just a side order. This was a veritable Bacon-Fest. We're talking rivers of swine, as if Heaven were a Carolina roadside barbecue joint. May the misery you inflicted on earth be returned to you in the hereafter 444-fold. Amen.
#3
The Beast and her wondering bull want so much to be co-presidents again. I certainly hope Ed Klein is not experiencing any lingering bouts of writers block and can begin work on "The Amateur-II" very soon.
#4
I enjoyed this article. The writer does have a handle on the complexity for this area of the world. Putin has his hands full. Now with the Olympics coming in 1214 and 10 billion spent already, a prime target looms ahead. We know how Stalin or Kruschev would have handled things.
[Ynet] West Bank residents say finding jobs in Israel is getting harder as employers opt to hire cheaper day-laborers
Paleostinians who receive work permits in Israel expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over the growing number of African work-migrants and infiltrators, who they say are quickly taking their place in the workforce.
The issue of work permits in Israel is one many Paleostinians take personally. As such, they are well aware of the growing debate within the Israeli society regarding the migrant problem.
"The Sudanese are a problem for us," Ahmed Shubaqi, from Ramallah, told Ynet. "They are willing to work for next-to-nothing and places that used to hire us are now hiring them, because it costs them less."
Unemployment rates in the West Bank are on the rise, but while there is work to be found in construction within the Paleostinian Authority, the majority of Paleostinian say the pay offered -- about NIS 50 a day (roughly $13) -- is simply too low. The result is a growing demand for work permits in Israel.
One Paleostinian explained that hiring Paleostinians is in both parties' interest: "Both sides prefer hiring Paleostinians over infiltrators. We come in, do the work and go home. It's better that the money stays here -- in Israel and the West Bank. Besides, the Paleostinians do a better job."
According to official data 51,500 Paleostinians received work permits in 2011, with 28,000 working in Israel and 23,500 working in the greater West Bank area.
So far, in 2012 54,600 Paleostinian -- or 16% of the Paleostinian workforce -- received work permits. A Paleostinian day-laborer working in Israel makes over twice as much as his Paleostinian counterpart.
It is estimated that illegal Paleostinian aliens make up 4% of the Paleostinian workforce.
The defense establishment sees granting Paleostinians work permits in Israel as a mitigation meant to assist the Paleostinian population -- which coincides with Israel's interests.
#1
"The Sudanese are a problem for us," Ahmed Shubaqi, from Ramallah, told Ynet. "They are willing to work for next-to-nothing and places that used to hire us are now hiring them, because it costs them less."
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] South Sudan has shut down more than 20 private universities that it said were operating illegally, placing the future of higher education on the spot in a country where public universities are only partially operational.
The minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology, Peter Adwok Nyaba, said the institutions were illegal for they have been operating on letters of no objection that were meant to only enable them acquire and develop land.
"The 'no objection letter' does not mean that you go and operate. You have to come back for guidelines and curriculum," Dr Adwok said on Sunday.
"You can't run a university without an act of parliament. These so called private universities don't have an act of parliament. They don't have the senate. They are not chartered. Their certificates will not be recognised," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Mandating them to provide free contraception services would have softened the headlines and achieved similar results.
#2
These universities were under the misapprehension that they could function without handing out copious amounts of baksheesh. Looks like South Sudan is turning into yet another sub-Saharan paradise.
(Sh.M.Network)- Kenyan troops were integrated into 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... 's peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), with Kenya's defence minister signing an agreement at AU headquarters Saturday.
"We conclude the process of establishing a formal, legal framework for the integration of the Kenyan defence forces into AMISOM," Defence Minister Yusuf Haji said at the signing in Addis Ababa, the Æthiopian capital.
Kenyan tanks and troops rolled intoSomaliain October following a series of kidnappings and attacks on Kenyan soil believed to have been carried out by Shebab beturbanned goons linked to Al-Qaeda.
In December, the AU said it backed the integration of Kenyan troops into its peacekeeping mission.
AU peace and security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra welcomed the official integration and said it marked progress towards defeating Shebab cut-throats inSomalia.
"We are really opening a new chapter -- a chapter that will take us closer to... the completion of the mission inSomalia," he said.
Haji said the Kenyan contingent in AMISOM would number 4,631, boosting the force now made up of some 11,000 Burundians and Ugandans.
The re-hatting of Kenyan troops comes three days after they took the Shebab-controlled town ofAfmadow, a long-term target ever since they entered Somalia.
Haji said they were inching closer to capturing the strategic port city of Kismayo, but he did not specify a timeline.
"We are not very far from Kismayo, but we can't say when we are taking over," he said, adding that although the rebels still posed a threat, they had lost strength.
"They have been diminished and also their command structure has been destroyed on the ground, but you can never rule out a few remnants of al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... here and there. But we are very hopeful that at the end of the day AMISOM will end the war inSomalia," he said.
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[Al Ahram] At least 38 people injured in a clashes between neo-Nazi demonstrators and far-left counter-protesters overnight in the northern German port city of Hamburg
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#1
I hope those seven hundred are the sum total of Neo-Nazis--there's trouble in Flußtadt (=River City) if they're gaining popularity.
[Dawn] The United States has rejected majority of the demands pressed by Pakistain with respect to the coalition support fund claiming them to be unrealistic, DawnNews reported.
The US is not only adamant in its refusal to apologise for the Salala border checkpost incident that had resulted in the killings of 24 Pak soldiers in November last year but also cornering Pakistain as punishment for the apology demand.
Sources claimed that Pakistain's federal government has decided to pass the burden of the US punishment onto the public and the price of compressed natural gas (CNG) has been increased by 15 to 20 per cent to deal with the impasse. The price hike would be affective from 1st July.
US military authorities rejected Pakistain's request seeking USD 2.8 billion in respect of the coalition support fund stating the request as 'unrealistic'.
Both the countries have held more than half a dozen meetings related to the disbursement of the support fund's amount but the issue remains unresolved in face of the rejection by the US.
Pak-US relations went into freefall last year.
There were hit when a CIA contractor rubbed out two Paks and dented further by an American raid that killed al Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden ... who sleeps with the fishes... and by US air strikes in November that killed 24 Pak soldiers.
After the air strikes, Pakistain shut its Afghan border to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supplies and ordered US staff out of an air base reportedly used as a hub for drones.
Seven US drone strikes have been reported since May's Chicago summit, which failed to secure a deal on resuming the supply lines.
In March, Pakistain's parliament agreed to reset US relations on condition that Washington apologise for the troops' deaths and end drone attacks on its soil.
Pakistain has been incensed by Washington's refusal to apologise for the November air strikes and US officials have so far rejected Pak proposals to charge several thousand dollars for each alliance truck crossing the border.
Islamabad, which is understood to have given its tacit approval for attacks on al Qaeda and Taliban targets in the past, has become increasingly vocal in its opposition to the perceived violation of national illusory sovereignty.
Despite Pak criticism US officials are believed to consider the drone attacks too useful to stop them altogether. They have argued that drone strikes are a valuable weapon in the war against Islamist cut-thoats.
According to an AFP tally, 45 US missile strikes were reported in Pakistain's tribal belt in 2009, the year US President Barack Obama Because I won... took office, 101 in 2010 and 64 in 2011.
The New America Foundation think-tank in Washington says drone strikes have killed between 1,715 and 2,680 people in Pakistain in the past eight years.
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#1
Apparently, it has changed ....
* DEFENCE.PK.FORUMS > US AGREES TO PAY [reimburse] US$1.18BILYUHN OF CSF ARREARS, or approxi 75% of claims to Pakistan.
However, DPK POSTERS = argue that Pakistan is claiming or owed another US$1.5Bilyuhn in claims for domestically fighting MilTerrs at behest of the US-NATO inside + along the Pak-Afghan border, hence the so-called "75%" is actually only "42%" of what Pak is due from the US.
versus
* SAME > PAKISTAN [strongly] CONDEMNS [new rise = surge] IN "ILLEGAL" US DRONE STRIKES.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > US DRONES ATTACK PAKISTAN TARGETS FOR THIRD SUCCESSIVE DAY.
* SAME > [IBN]US DRONE ATTACKS IN PAKISTAN TURNING INTO VIRTUAL BLITZ [-krieg], espec in NW Pakistan.
* SAME > PAKISTAN [now] SEEKS US$2000 TRANSIT
[US$1800.0 - 2000.0] FOR EACH NATO CONTAINER [Truck] + TANKER.
versus
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > NATO STRIKES DEAL WID CENTRAL ASIAN NATIONS FOR WITHDRAWAL OF EQUIPMENT FROM AFGHANISTAN TO COMPLETELY BYPASS PAKISTAN.
* RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > NATO STRIKES ALTERNATE SUPPLY ROUTES DEAL THROUGH CENTRAL ASIA, namely Uzbekistan + Kyrgyzstan + Kazakhistan.
Looks like POTUS Bammer may yet be able to avoid ground war wid IRAN going into November 2012, save for other MSM-Net News this AM as per Muslims being killed by Buddhist reactionaries oer in Myanmar, + more Shia Muslims being killed by alleged Sunnis in Quetta.
#2
Jordans king understood well that the Islamic movements demand for democratization is a veneer for its desire to take over the country via elections.
Unfortunately the Obama administration either cannot quite grasp this reality, or simply embraces it.
#8
Doesn't he have the best claim to be the "New Caliph"? Somehow I tend to think some bump-headed preacher will be found more "suitable", but you never know, they might pull a switcheroo and start using logic. The Shia will raise hell over that, of course, but they always do.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... has dismissed accusations his government had any role in the brutal Houla massacre, as he charged forces outside Syria of plotting to destroy the country.
In a rare televised address to parliament, Mr Assad, dressed in a smart suit and tie, said even "monsters" were incapable of carrying out massacres such as last month's killings near the town of Houla in central Syria.
At least 108 people, including 49 children and 34 women, were slaughtered in the massacre which started on May 25 and spilled into the next day, triggering international outrage.
Assad's defiant speech came as Arab leaders called on the United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... to act to stop bloodshed in Syria, and La Belle France raised the prospect of military action against Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... under a UN mandate.
"What happened in Houla and elsewhere are brutal massacres which even monsters would not have carried out," the Syrian leader said.
"The masks have fallen and the international role in the Syrian events is now obvious," he said in his first address to the assembly since a May 7 parliamentary election, adding the polls were the perfect response "to the criminal killers and those who finance them".
Assad also paid tribute to civilian and military "deaders" of the violence in Syria, saying their blood was not shed in vain.
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[An Nahar] Egypt's ex-strongman Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... was issued regulation blue prison uniform on Sunday a day after being sentenced to life and taken to a jail that once housed his opponents, official media reported.
The state news agency MENA reported that guards in the Cairo Tora prison took his official jail photograph and supplied him with his prisoner number.
Prison authorities turned down his request to continue receiving treatment from doctors at a military hospital where he was tossed in the clink But I'm sick, honest I am! I'm sick of being held prisoner! while on trial for involvement in the killings of protesters during last year's uprising.
The 84-year-old, who reportedly has a heart condition, is being kept in the prison's medical wing.
Security officials and state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
had reported on Saturday that Mubarak suffered a "health crisis" on arrival by helicopter at the prison after sentencing, and that he was revived with oxygen.
The former strongman broke down in tears and initially refused to leave the helicopter at the facility that once housed opponents of his regime, many of whom were freed after the uprising that toppled him in February 2011.
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[An Nahar] Seven Paleostinians were maimed in a series of Israeli Arclight airstrikes on the Gazoo Strip early Sunday morning, two days after fire exchanges that left three dead from both sides.
According to emergency medical sources in Gazoo, the seven were maimed in four Arclight airstrikes, two carried out at targets east of Khan Yunis, in the southern part of the Paleostinian territory, and two that hit Beit Layiha in the northern section of the Strip.
The Israeli army confirmed that its planes had carried out attacks, and said they were retribution for a Death Eater attack from Gazoo that had resulted in an Israeli fatality.
"Israeli aircraft targeted three weapon manufacturing facilities and the central Gazoo Strip, as well as two terror tunnels in the northern and southern Gazoo Strip," a statement from the military read.
"Direct hits were confirmed."
"This is in response to the infiltration on Friday morning, in which Staff Sergeant Nitnel Moshiashvilli was killed by terrorist fire adjacent to the security fence," said the statement.
Military sources said that the sites that had been targeted belonged to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, which rules the territory, and the radical Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Mohammedan Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... group.
The Friday morning infiltration was executed by Ahmed Nasser, a member of the Islamic Jihad, who was killed by Israeli soldiers.
An Israeli Arclight airstrike later that day at Paleostinians on a cycle of violence east of Khan Yunis resulted in the death of a member of the Popular Resistance Committees, who according to the army was part of a squad that had fired a rocket at Israeli soldiers.
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[An Nahar] Syrian authorities on Sunday released two Lebanese citizens kidnapped by Syrian forces on Wednesday from the northern border town of al-Abboudiyeh.
The abduction led to an uproar in the region and prompted residents to block the international highway.
A statement issued by the Army Command on Sunday said "as a result of the exerted efforts, citizens Mohammed Yassine al-Merehbi and Mahdi Hamdan were freed this afternoon, after they were incarcerated Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! on May 30, 2012 by Syrian forces in the al-Abboudiyeh area on the northern border."
"The joint cooperation and coordination bureau of the Lebanese and Syrian armies handed them over to the (Lebanese army's) Intelligence Directorate at the al-Masnaa border crossing, and they were released following the necessary legal measures," the army's statement added.
For his part, Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council Secretary-General Nasri Khouri told state-run National News Agency that he handed over the abductees to the military bureau.
NNA said the Akkar region was preparing to celebrate the return of the two men.
Arab Democratic Party Secretary-General Rifaat Eid said Saturday the abductees would be released shortly.
"Mohammed Yassine al-Merehbi and Mahdi Hamdan will be in Leb in the next few hours," he said after his party mediated for their release.
On Thursday, President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... urged the Syrian authorities to release the two farmers.
The Syrian army also kidnapped Yehya Mohammed Fleiti in the border town of Arsal on Thursday afternoon.
"The rise in the rate of kidnappings and killings along the Lebanese-Syrian border is rejected," Suleiman said.
He urged the Lebanese and Syrian authorities to carry out the necessary investigations regarding the issue to "halt any recurrence."
"Respecting Leb and Syria's illusory sovereignty falls in the best interest of the security and peace of both countries," Suleiman said.
The two men, who were cultivating a grove, were "kidnapped by five gunnies who crossed into Leb from across the Syrian border," NNA reported.
In a statement on Wednesday, the opposition Syrian National Council accused the Syrian regime of "escalating its breaches of the Lebanese borders (and of) increasing its armed attacks targeting Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees."
The SNC also accused the Syrian regime of "kidnapping Syrian maimed patients from hospitals" in northern Leb, while also accusing "the regime's mercenaries of setting up checkpoints inside Lebanese territory."
The statement called for "people kidnapped on Lebanese territory by mercenaries of the Syrian regime to be set free."
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[Tolo News] At least 50 armed beturbanned goons were killed or nabbed Please don't kill me! in Kandahar province military operations in the past week, local officials said.
Security chief of southern Kandahar province Colonel Rahmatullah Atrafi said during the past week more than 50 beturbanned goons had been killed or set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! during the police forces operations across Kandahar province.
During these operations 31 bad turbans, including four suicide kaboomers, were killed. Another fourteen beturbanned goons were tossed in the slammer Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! and five were maimed, he added.
In an operation in the Spin Boldak district of the province, an operation saw four beturbanned goons incarcerated Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! and four kilograms of drugs sized by security forces, he added.
He said that the beturbanned goons confessed that they are involved in the insurgency in Kandahar province and had learned combat training in Pakistain.
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#1
Kill those who survived before they get escaped from a very porous jail.
#2
Spin Boldak is the origination point for Afghan Highway-4 (safest road in Afghanistan) to Khandahar and is a major border crossing and Taliban infiltration point between Chaman Pakistan and Afghanistan. On the Afghan side, the Afghan Border Police (ABP) control the action under the leadership of General Abdul Raziq. Raziq is a very wealthy Achaksai tribal leader, as was his father who was killed by the Taliban. President Karzai pulled Raziq up to Khandahar last year to be the Chief of Police. Many believe Raziq is being groomed as a follow-on to Karzai. Raziq's wealth is, yes you have it, derived from his tribal position and power at the district border crossing.
The long standing competition between the Afghan National Police (ANP) and the ABP is just one of the challenges in the border regions. Whilst the Achaksai control Spin Boldak, the ANP have a much larger, cross-tribal responsibility. Therein lies the the rub, or at least one rub.
General Raziq maintains a firm grip on Spin Boldak through an extensive intelligence reporting network. He has survived a number of assassination attempts by the Taliban. Taking prisoners and turning them over to ISAF is not one of General Raziq's strong points.
[Dawn] A security man sustained injuries in a roadside blast while five forces of Evil were tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! in two separate incidents in Tank district on Saturday.
Sources said that a four-vehicle convoy of security forces, on way from Tank to South Wazoo tribal region, was targeted by a landmine near Kharkai post.
One security man received injuries and a vehicle was partially damaged in the attack. Security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation after the incident.
The inured security man was taken to a military hospital at Tank Manzai area.
Also, security forces tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! five suspected forces of Evil during a search operation in Teng area. The tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! persons were shifted to undisclosed location for interrogation.
Security forces also recovered huge cache of weapons during the operation.
In Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... , a primitive was killed when he stepped on a landmine in Shaheedan Dand area near the Afghan border on Saturday.
Locals said that the landmine was planted at a dirt track. The primitive was killed on the spot when he stepped on the landmine. Political authorities started the paperwork but haven't done much else against unidentified persons.
In Nowshera, security forces tossed in the clink You have the right to remain silent... a commander of banned thug outfit Lashkar-e-Islam during an operation at Jalozai camp on Saturday.
Officials said that the operation was conducted on a tip-off about presence of forces of Evil in the camp. "Some important documents have also been recovered during the search operation," they said. The jugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! person was identified as Idrees Afridi alias Fidayi Commander, a resident of Bara in Khyber Agency.
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Osama bin Laden led an austere life, spending his personal fortune on attacks against the West and serving his guests good food, according Ayman al-Zawahiri. In a new video posted online called "Days with the Imam, Part Two" a bespectacled Zawahiri fondly recalled his predecessor's meager comforts.
Zawahiri said, "When you entered his house you would be surprised. It was a very simple house, with some wooden beds and plastic coverings and very little furniture. If the Sheikh invited us to his house, he would give us what he had in the way of bread, vegetables, rice - whatever was available he would give us."
He added, "He spent all his money on jihad," saying bin Laden had given $50,000 to help finance the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. At the time, he had no more than $55,000 to his name.
Zawahiri chuckled occasionally as he recounted his memories of bin Laden, whom he said had urged his fellow mujahideen to shun electricity to prepare for the hardships of life as on the run.
Zawahiri said that despite his frugal way of life, bin Laden was a generous host and once bought a whole herd of sheep to feed his frequent visitors in Afghanistan. He said, "He was known for his generosity with guests. He would slaughter livestock for them and give them tasty food."
#7
Zawahiri is the supposed successor, but he lacks both charisma and influence. Hence his trying to tie himself to Osama (like somebody else is doing...).
[Yemen Post] President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... has ordered the Yemeni army to cleanse Zinjibar of Al-Qaeda Islamic fascistiwithin days and send military reinforcement to the battle ground, an Emeriti newspaper, Al-Khaleej said .
Hadi had vowed to several times to defeat Al-Qaeda and send back the internally displaced persons to their homes. Thousands persons of 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... were displaced as a result of violent festivities between the army and the myrmidons.
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes... about 13 al-Qaeda Islamic fascistiwere killed and several others were maimed in festivities between the army and Ansar Alsharia, an Al-Qaeda-linked group after the Islamic fascistitried to storm the branch of the Central Bank of Yemen in Zinjibar, local sources said.
According to 26 September Newspaper six Al-Qaeda Islamic fascistiand one soldier were killed in the early hours of Sunday.
It made it clear that the festivities between the two sides lasted for two days in the morning of Sunday, and that the Islamic fascisticould escape after the troops strongly responded. Military sources said that army is controlling most of Zinjibar's outskirts, a town that was overran by Al-Qaeda Islamic fascistiover a year ago, pointing out that the Islamic fascististill take control over the centre of thewon.
They further said the troops try to control the entrances of the town to cut it off from Jaar and Shaqra," 35 kilometers east of the city and which Islamic fascisticontrol since June 2011.The Yemeni army has been carrying out an offensive against Al-Qaeda strongholds in some towns of Abyan since May 12. It aimed at reclaiming Zinjibar and other localities in Abyan lost to Al-Qaeda during the past year.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Five of the six security chiefs tried with ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... over the deaths of protesters will be released on Sunday a day after their acquittal, the official MENA agency reported.
But the head of the now-dissolved state security apparatus, Hassan Abdel Rahman, will remain in prison pending investigation into another case in which he is accused of destroying state security documents, it said.
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[Dawn] At least six people, including a policeman, were killed in Quetta when unidentified gunniesshot up a shop at Sarki road, DawnNews reported.
The attackers riding on two cycle of violences opened fire on people sitting in a shop in Sarki area of Quetta, senior police officer Jahangir Shah told AFP.
"They entered a welding shop when workers were having their lunch and killed five people," he said, adding that the dead included four members of the Shiite Hazara community and one passer-by. Before fleeing they also opened fire on a police patrol, killing one policeman and wounding a police official, Shah said.
Four people was struck down in his prime while the other two gave up the ghost during treatment at Quetta's civil hospital.
The other shopkeepers left their shops and ran to save their lives, as the wave of panic prevailed in the market, sources said.
No one immediately grabbed credit for the attack.
The attack of assassination happened just before Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... 's arrival in Quetta.
The prime minister was coming on a two-day visit of the province to discuss the law and order situation of the province.
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[Yemen Post] The US on Sunday announced $6,5 million in additional humanitarian aid to Yemen, with the sum bringing the total of the US humanitarian aid to the country so far this year to $80 million, the US embassy in Sanaa said in a blurb.
The statement coincided with an order by the UAE president, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to donate $500 million Dirham in urgent humanitarian aid to the country.
Yemen is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, and more recently international agencies said the country needs at least $1 billion to cover emergency humanitarian needs at the moment.
So once again Uncle Sugar rushes in. We'll not receive a bit of thanks for this...
The 2011 events including the mass anti-regime protests have largely aggravated the situation in the country, where a person lives on about two US dollars a day. There are more than ten million Yemeni people facing famine and many children below five suffering from malnutrition.
The US embassy said the additional aid will target 55o,ooo displaced people in areas which have been largely affected by conflicts as well as about 215,000 African refugees.
There are about 500,000 IDPs due to conflicts in the south and the north and recently the authorities said Yemen is hosting about 2 million African refugees, mostly Somalis.
The USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg said the additional US aid will be allocated to provide safe drinking water, sanitary, educational and healthcare services as well as urgent foodstuffs and medications for Yemeni affected people. She called on the international community to provide urgent support to help Yemen cope with humanitarian challenges, according to the statement.
"About half the Yemeni population don't have enough food and there are about million children under five suffering from malnutrition to be most vulnerable to diseases," she said.
"Just at the moment, the international community needs to help this country through a long-term development support which can in turn help create a more stable, democratic and prosperous Yemen".
Lindborg was among the members of a multiple international mission which visited Yemen during June 1-3 to evaluate the humanitarian situation.
According to the embassy's statement, the US provided about $115 million in aid to Yemen and plans to provide $118 million this year.
Last month, the UN said it rallied $450 million, which could meet about 40% of Yemen's emergency humanitarian needs at the moment.
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#1
Area of interest also because of Iran's attempt to encircle Saudi Arabia or possibly restrict oil flow in Red Sea. Iran wants choke points and trouble for the Saudis.
#2
I recently had contact with an old friend who is assisting with a rather large NGO Humanitarian Aid package to Afghanistani school children. After succesfully operating in the region for many years, he is of late, experiencing great difficulty with the USG over shipments. At this point the difficulty and frustration can only be characterized as political obstructionism. I suppose none of this should come as any great surprise.
[Tolo News] The Taliban's attacks on Afghan and foreign security forces have decreased since last year, the top Isaf commander in the north said Sunday.
Major General Erich Pfeffer said that while improvised bombs (IEDs) are still a major challenge for peace and stability in Afghanistan, he stressed that the Taliban had lost their capability to fight the Afghan cops. What proportion of the Afghan cops in the north are Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara?
"With all challenges and problems, we are looking forward to major progress in strengthening the Afghan military forces," Pfeffer said.
"They have already had remarkable progress in the past, and we will continue supporting them."
He also emphasised that Afghan cops should properly trained and fully equipped to take security responsibilities by the end of 2014.
The security transition is underway with the first and second phases accomplished, and the third underway. Plans for the fourth phase are in progress. With the completion of the third phase, more than 75% of the country will be under the full control of the Afghan cops.
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[Jerusalem Post] French police searching for 10 suspects of North African origin who beat victims in Villeurbanne with hammers, iron bars.
Three Jews wearing kipot were attacked by 10 people in Villeurbanne, La Belle France, near Lyon, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls was quoted as saying on Sunday by the European Jewish Press.
Two of the victims were hospitalized. One victim sustained an open wound to the head, and another suffered a neck injury.
The attackers were described as being of North-African origin, and beat their Jewish victims with hammers and iron bars, an act denounced as "extremely serious" by French authorities. The attack occurred on Saturday.
Accordingly, Valls mobilized the police to search out and arrest those behind the attack.
The incident came after a March attack in Toulouse ...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France... La Belle France, in which Mohamed Merah killed three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi.
Merah admitted anti-Semetic motivations for his attack during a 30-hour gunbattle with police who besieged his Toulouse apartment.
La Belle France is home to western Europe's largest Jewish community, estimated at about 500,000 people, and has intermittently faced bouts of violent anti-Semitism.
[Tolo News] Chief of the Pakistain Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... 's paramilitary troops claimed Saturday that there are more than 30 forces of Evil training camps in Afghanistan which are launching bad turban activity in Balochistan.
If only our supplies were getting through Pakistan at affordable rates -- but without them, there's really nothing we can do.
Speaking to the local media, General Obaidullah Khan Khattak said that about 550 bad turban activities have occurred in Balochistan over the course of this year, of which different bad turban groups have grabbed credit for 258 incidents.
"Over 30 forces of Evil training camps have been set up across the border in Afghanistan to launch terrorist and anti-state activities," he said.
He also added that teachers, doctors and many civilians have been targeted by the snuffies with over 100,000 people migrating to other parts of the country because of increasing violence.
Deputy front man for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security Shafiqullah Taheri said that Pak military officials are trying to bamboozle the civilian government in Pakistain in order to hide their intervention in Afghanistan.
"Our investigations show that Pakistain's intelligence agency is trying to propagate wrong and untrue information in order to deceive the civilian government of Pakistain in order to hide their intervention in Afghanistan," Taheri said.
"We strongly reject such information and propaganda," he added.
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#1
The Afghans are rumored to be hosting training camps for Baloch nationalist rebels.
Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov has angrily accused the United States of lecturing him on human rights and demanding that Chechens "march" to its orders. He said, "The U.S. is trying to lecture the whole world. They are trying to turn all countries and people into formations of marching soldiers, dictating to each and everyone how to live and what to do and not do."
He was reacting to the State Department's recently released annual human rights report, which accused him of continued violation of fundamental freedoms and of fostering "an overall atmosphere of fear and intimidation."
Kadyrov said the report did not reflect how human rights are respected in Chechnya or Russia as a whole. He said, "In Chechnya, human rights are observed more than anywhere else."
He added, "100,000 people have their own centuries-old principles. You cannot destroy them by pressing them into American standards."
The State Department report details the case of Umar Israilov, a Chechen refugee and former bodyguard of Kadyrov who was gunned down in Vienna in 2010. An Austrian court last year convicted three Chechens of organizing the murder. A fourth suspect, Letscha Bogatirov, accused of pulling the trigger, "was promoted by the Kadyrov government following the killing as a reward for his actions," according to the U.S. report.
[Dawn] Two former activists of the Pakistain People's Party were killed in a gun attack outside their apartment building in Gulistan-e-Jauhar on Saturday, police and party sources said.
They said that gunnies on a cycle of violence pulled up outside Afnan Arcade in Block 15 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar where Ghulam Shabbir and Aftab Magsi were having a chat.
One of the riders, the police said, got off the motorbike, took out a pistol and fired several shots targeting the two friends.
"The two men sustained multiple wounds and was struck down in his prime," said Shakil Awan, the area's sub-divisional police officer (SDPO). "The attackers left the scene in a flash after executing the job. Both the victims were in their 30s and residents of the same area."
The bodies were taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities. The incident sparked off tension in the area, where traders pulled down their shutters and traffic gradually turned thin.
The police Sherlocks claimed that the victims were once associated with the PPP, but actively not engaged with any political activity these days.
They said both youngsters had been living in the city for the past several years with their families and originally hailed from Shahdadkot.
The motive for the killings remained unclear, but the Sherlocks believed it might be linked with victims' recent history of political activism.
Teenager killed in clash
In Bhains Colony, a teenage boy was killed and three others sustain bullet wounds when two groups exchanged gunfire over the issue of cycle of violence parking, police said.They said the dispute between two neighbours in a Katchi Abadi near the Bhains Colony Mor turned ugly when one of them objected to the parking of the cycle of violence by guests of the other side.
The dispute that initiated with arguments finally led to firing from both sides.
"During the firing 13-year-old boy Asif died from wounds and three others sustained minor wounds," said Inspector Sarfaraz Ali Kakazai, the SHO of the Sukkun cop shoppe.
"The victims have been taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment where they are said to be stable. There is an old dispute between the two sides and they have a history of fighting over petty issues."
He said the police had nabbed Book 'im, Mahmoud! several people from both sides and were further investigating the incident to discover the people behind the tragic episode.
Youth found rubbed out
In the early hours of Saturday, a young man was found rubbed out in Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... off Ahmed Shah Bukhari road.
"The victim has been identified as 24-year-old Saqib," said a police official. "He was meat seller, who had a shop in a Nazimabad area. The victim was a resident of Garden West from where he might have been kidnapped a few hours before his body was found."
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[Dawn] EVEN after several attempts in the last few decades, Pakistain has been waiting for its own version of the Arab spring.
The Arab spring in the Middle East is itself in transition and it is difficult to predict the course it will take. The Islamist forces there have not only become part of the mainstream but have also gained a substantial stake in power. Many wonder if the Islamists in Pakistain can go down the same road.
The Islamists in the two scenarios operate in contexts that are poles apart. In the Arab world, Islamist forces suffered for long under very harsh dictatorships, while their namesakes in Pakistain enjoyed perks and power as supporters of almost all governments; here, they have influenced the policy discourse.
The lessons the Islamists learned in the Arab world persuaded them to modify their approach and this has contributed towards their successful entrance into the corridors of power. They have also succeeded where others failed, leaving the West no option but to recognise their mandate -- which was not the case when the Islamic Salvation Front scored an electoral victory in Algeria or Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, in Paleostine. The West may simply have learned that pressure on liberal democracies may be counterproductive but credit is also due to the Islamists whose accommodative, persistent and flexible attitude paved the way for 'Islamist democracies'.
Constitutionally, Pakistain is already an Islamic republic -- a status which has eluded most of the Islamic world so far.
Making comparisons in two important aspects would be worthwhile; first, the level of anger and frustration among Mohammedan youth, and secondly, what they want to achieve. In Pakistain, the anger against the ruling elite is rising. The major contributing factors identified are political, economic and ideological.
By contrast, in the Arab world, demands for freedom of expression and better economic conditions were the triggers for the spring. On that stage, the constitutional legitimacy of Islam was not the protesters' destination. The Islamists are trying to develop good governance models and trying not to disturb the social contract which their societies have had for a long time.
That has been the key to their success.
In Pakistain, whenever the Islamists have got the opportunity to taste power, whether through democratic means or by allying with military dictators, they have influenced the constitutional sphere to push through their narrow agendas. This has created resentment against them among the urban classes.
From Mufti Mehmud's government in the then NWFP in the 1970s to Gen Ziaul Haq's Majlis-e-Shura and the Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal's provincial governments in the western border provinces, the Islamists have tried to build legal fortifications around the fort of Islam of their interpretation.
Despite the contrasts, the Arab world has remained a source of inspiration for Islamists in Pakistain. Different religious parties in the country have maintained links with the governments and Islamist elements in the Arab world, although often these links have only remained confined to groups with a shared sectarian identity. It seems that the religious political parties in Pakistain have failed to make use of the anxiety prevailing among the masses to start a meaningful movement aimed at realising the change they seek.
The 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), which has considerable links with Islamist movements abroad (mainly with likeminded Brotherhood movements in the Arab world) has failed to mobilise its supporters. Some analysts argue that Paks appear least concerned about the sea change in the Arab world on account of internal political, economic and security crises. This may not be the case after all, as religious publications have certainly focused on the changes in the Arab world -- yet unfortunately along sectarian lines. The Arab spring is indeed influencing the Pak youth and Islamists in certain ways.
As Pakistain's young are largely confused in their ideological and political vision, the thinking patterns in Pakistain are
dominated by an ideologically strong national state vision with a good governance model. In the peripheries, ethnic identity and secular tendencies have taken on growing importance. Islamist forces were used to force peripheral tendencies through the 'mainstream' vision, but now it seems that divergent trends are also emerging.
The prevailing trends offer space for new political forces that can satisfy both tendencies. The Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... is trying to exploit mainstream tendencies and Islamists have the potential to manipulate a favourable outcome in other areas.
But the political landscape in Pakistain is diverse, competitive and complex. It would be a harder task to generate a change on the pattern of the Arab spring.
The Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... (Fazl) (JUI-F) seems to believe that it has correctly assessed the changing scenario, is taking a more pronounced anti-establishment stance and trying to gain ground in the political mainstream. However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... the party is beset by a conformist support base and deficient organizational structure. Although the madrassahs have increased their influence in Pakistain, their students and teachers come mainly from the peripheries and lack the capacity to influence the local political discourse.
For mobilising the required wave of change, a good organizational network and likeminded people among the leadership are needed -- and the JUI-F lacks both. The JI qualifies on both counts but it is persisting with its traditional political path despite recent changes.
Pakistain has received some negative influences from the changes in the Arab world, too. Each school of sectarian thought is trying to interpret those changes through a sectarian prism. During the unrest in Bahrain, Pakistain's religious parties held street demonstrations in support of their faith-fellows. Even the Jamaat-ud-Daawa was quite active in supporting 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... . Investigators connected attacks on the Saudi consulate in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and the killing of a diplomat with the events in the Gulf. As tensions increase in the Gulf, the sectarian divide increases in Pakistain.
The current trends show that the Arab spring may not trigger the same wave in Pakistain but its influence over the religious discourse may continue to have a negative effect, at least until the fate of the change in the Arab world itself takes definite shape.
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[Dawn] The Inspector General of Frontier Corps (FC), Major General, Obaidullah Khan Khattak, said on Saturday the turmoil in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... was crying out for a political solution since a number of countries were aiding anti-state elements, claiming that 20 foreign intelligence agencies were active in the province.
In addition, 50 "farari (runaway) camps" were training fighters to destabilise Balochistan, he told a presser.
"We are determined to foil all conspiracies hatched by anti-Pakistain elements, but efforts should be made to find a political solution because use of force has never succeeded in resolving any issue," the FC chief said.
He said the FC always took action on directives of the provincial government, but it was bound to work under the federal government because it was a federal force.
A high-level meeting on Balochistan last week had vested Chief Minister Aslam Raisani with powers to call out FC in the province.
He said a campaign had been launched under a conspiracy by certain elements in Balochistan against state institutions, including the FC and intelligence agencies, to undermine the writ of the government and shake the nation's confidence in security forces.
Gen Khattak said despite suffering heavy losses, the Frontier Corps and other forces were determined to protect the country's frontiers and ready to lay down their lives.
"Our morale is high and it cannot be weakened through such conspiracies."
The FC chief said 'individuals and institutions' should respect the soldiers and officials who had put their lives in the line of fire for preserving the country's integrity.
In reply to a question, he said that Frontier Corps had all respect for the judiciary and political institutions, recalling that he had appeared before the Supreme Court four times and was ready to appear again.
Gen Khattak said his force would not hesitate to render any sacrifice to nip the designs of elements working for Balochistan secession from the country.
"We will not tolerate those who are talking about separating Balochistan from Pakistain."
Gen Khattak said it was unfortunate that the media were painting as heroes those who were up in arms against the state while those who were fighting these elements were being vilified as criminals.
"One should come out with courage and say no to militancy and killings of innocent people in Balochistan," he said, adding that over 100,000 people had been forced to leave Quetta and other areas of the province.
The FC chief said that out of the 575 incidents of violence that had taken place this year in Balochistan, 258 had been owned by outlawed bad boy groups, but they were neither facing any case in a court nor anyone was willing to hold them responsible for unrest in the province.
"The FC has been physically and psychologically targeted for quite some time," Gen Khattak bemoaned.
He regretted that although his force had handed over 129 cut-throats to police, only four of them had been convicted so far while 50 had been released by courts due to lack of evidence. "The conviction rate is only three per cent and we have to plug loopholes in the law of evidence."
In reply to a question, the IG of FC said it was difficult to stop infiltration through the 1,200-km border with Afghanistan.
He said arms and ammunition illegally entered Balochistan through the porous Afghan border, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... and even through Sindh and sea routes.
In reply to a question, he said although "farari camps" had been dismantled during operations carried out from 2004 to 2007, cut-throats who had escaped returned and re-established the camps in mountains of Dera Bugti, Kohlu, Turbat and Sibi.
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BAGHDAD Despite sectarian bombings and political gridlock, Iraqs crude oil production is soaring, providing a singular bright spot for the nations future and relief for global oil markets as the West tightens sanctions on Iranian exports.
The increased flow and vital port improvements have produced a 20 percent jump in exports this year to nearly 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, making Iraq one of the premier producers in OPEC for the first time in decades.
Energy analysts say that the Iraqi boom coupled with increased production in Saudi Arabia and the near total recovery of Libyas oil industry should cushion oil markets from price spikes and give the international community additional leverage over Iran when new sanctions take effect in July.
Iraq helps enormously, said David L. Goldwyn, the former State Department coordinator for international energy affairs in the Obama administration. Even if Iraq increased its oil exports by only half of what it is projecting by next year, he said, You would be replacing nearly half of the future Iranian supply potentially displaced by tighter sanctions.
For Iraq, the resurgence of oil, which it is already pumping at rates seen only once and briefly since Saddam Hussein took power in 1979, is vital to its postwar success. Oil provides more than 95 percent of the governments revenues, has enabled the building of roads and the expansion of social services, and has greatly strengthened the Shiite-led governments hand in this ethnically divided country.
Oil has also brought its share of pitfalls for the fledgling democracy, fostering corruption and patronage, and aggravating tensions with the Kurdish minority in the north over the division of profits, a festering issue that could end up fracturing the country.
The Iraqi government says it can add an additional 400,000 barrels a day of production by next year, and it has announced a goal of producing 10 million barrels a day by 2017, which would put it in a league with Saudi Arabia.
Few independent analysts say they believe the larger goal is realistic, but oil company executives have been impressed by Iraqs progress and ambition.
What the government is embarking on and the increase in production they are looking for under all of these contracts is unique in the world, said Michael Townshend, president of BP Iraq. But, he cautioned, Nobody has yet managed to increase oil production in their country to the extent Iraq is planning to. Its hugely ambitious, and it will take a lot of things to work correctly.
The countrys improving oil fortunes are well timed to compensate for Irans declining oil output, which according to OPEC fell by 12 percent in the first three months of the year as India, China and other Asian nations have gradually cut purchases under pressure from the United States and Europe.
Iraqs role in ameliorating the effects of those sanctions in the oil market could create tensions with Iran, a strong backer and ally of the Iraqi government. But oil experts say exports are too valuable for Iraq to allow its relationship with Iran to impede production.
The recovery of Iraqs oil industry after decades of wars, sanctions and neglect began in 2009 and 2010 as security improved and Baghdad signed a series of technical service contracts with foreign companies like Exxon Mobil, BP, China National Petroleum Corporation and ENI of Italy. The companies brought in modern seismic equipment and modern well recovery techniques to resuscitate old fields.
The deals have been only modestly profitable for the foreign companies, but foreign executives express cautious optimism that Iraq can eventually produce oil in amounts that could put it in an elite group of exporters with Saudi Arabia and Russia sometime in the 2020s.
Iraq produces around three million barrels a day, and few analysts believe it can reach its goal of 10 million barrels a day by 2017, a target Baghdad recently reduced from a previous estimate of 12 million barrels a day by that year. But Hans Nijkamp, Royal Dutch Shells Iraq country chairman, estimates that Iraq could produce 6 million to 10 million barrels a day by early next decade, which is really substantial.
International oil executives say the government bureaucracy is still slow and poorly coordinated in building new port and pipeline infrastructure to get oil to the tankers from the fields. The political battle over divvying up profits has prevented the enactment of a national oil law, meaning that the companies need to follow myriad regulations, some of which date back to the Ottoman Empire. Electrical shortages are forcing politicians to choose between serving the oil companies or restive civilian populations that want more reliable utility service.
To increase output, the country will need to develop a huge water project to filter and pump seawater into old oil fields to increase the pressure required to coax crude out of the ground. Planning has begun, but the project is progressing slowly.
Iraq will also need to negotiate a sizable export quota within OPEC to accommodate its increasing potential, a nettlesome process that could produce tensions with Saudi Arabia and Iran. Why should Iraq join OPEC?
Some of the problems were on display at last weeks oil and gas auction, the countrys fourth postwar bidding round, where only 3 contracts were awarded out of 12 up for bid.
The auction, in an auditorium at the Ministry of Oil, had the trappings of a militarized movie premiere, with red carpets, velvet ropes, hordes of photographers and a white-uniformed honor guard carrying Kalashnikov rifles fixed with bayonets. The proceedings were carried live on state television. An elevator-music rendition of Lionel Richies Hello played over and over. The room was packed with diplomats, politicians and foreign oil executives, but few actual bidders.
There are three minutes left and it seems like no one wants to bid, Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, the ministry official overseeing the auction, said at one point.
The disappointing auction was less a reflection of lack of interest in Iraqs energy sector than of the tough terms demanded by the government, the location of some of the fields in dangerous and remote regions of the country, and the fact that many of the blocks up for bid were for natural gas, which is less attractive to foreign companies than oil.
Iraq also used the auction to slap Exxon Mobils hand for signing production sharing contracts for 850,000 acres in the Kurdistan region without getting permission from the central government, denying the company the right to bid. But at the same time, Iraq has not touched Exxon Mobils oil contracts in the south, a sign of pragmatism, or perhaps paralysis, international oil analysts said.
Exxon Mobil has by far the largest stake of any American company in Iraq, but most of the major players are European and Asian, like Lukoil and Gazprom from Russia, and Chinese companies like China National Petroleum and China National Offshore Oil Corporation. So it's easy to see how we went to war for oil...
Despite the uncertainties, the foreign companies say they are staying.
We are in Iraq because we think there is big potential, huge production growth, said Claudio Descalzi, chief operating officer for exploration and production at ENI, the Italian oil giant. In the future, things can only get better.
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[An Nahar] A Saudi princess was caught trying to leave the Shangri-La hotel in Gay Paree without settling a six million euro ($7.4 million) bill for her rooms, police said Saturday, confirming a report in the daily Le Gay Pareeien. Times are tough all over...
Maha al-Sudani, the former wife of 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... n Crown Prince Nayef ben Abdel Aziz, tried to walk out on 3:30 am Thursday without paying for her suite and those of her 60-strong entourage, prompting staff to call in police, Le Gay Pareeien reported.
The Saudi Arabian ambassador was also contacted during the incident, added Le Gay Pareeien, which noted that Sudani enjoys diplomatic immunity.
When contacted by Agence La Belle France Presse, the luxury hotel's director Alain Borgers said that there are "no problems" with its clients and "no unpaid bills" at the moment.
The princess has already had previous run-ins over unpaid bills. In 2009, fashion chain Key Largo went to court to obtain 89,000 euros owed by the princess.
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#1
Huh. I've always been told that debts are a civil case.
For a map, click here For a map of Nuevo Leon state, click here For a map of Monterrey, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of three armed suspects were killed in a shootout with Nuevo Leon state police agents Saturday in Montemorelos municipality, according to Mexican news accounts.
According to a post on the website of Milenio news daily, the armed group was gunned down around 2020 hrs at a hotel near the village of Bugambilias. The suspects had been ordered to surrender, but instead opened fired on police agents with the Nuevo Leon Agencia Estatal de Investigaciones (AEI) as the agents attempted to detain them.
The AEI unit involved in the shootout was an anti-kidnapping unit which had been investigating abductions in the area for several weeks. AEI agents found that a local taxi driver was being used to transport the suspects and their victim.
The gang numbered ten total, and presumably the other seven were either not present during the shootout or had escaped AEI agents.
Execution in San Nicolas de los Garza
In an unrelated shooting, four individuals were shot to death in an encounter with another armed group in San Nicolas de los Garza, Nuevo Leon Friday night, according to a separate report posted on Milenio news daily website.
The four suspects were travelling aboard a Nissan X-Terra SUV near the intersection of calles Corregidora and Hercule in Hacienda los Morales colony, when they were intercepted by several armed suspects travelling aboard Ford Crown Victoria and Volkswagen Jetta sedans.
A pursuit was initiated which ended minutes later when the victims in the SUV decided to dismount and make their escape on foot. Three of the victims died at the scene while a fourth died while receiving medical attention.
According to a late report by Milenio writers Sandra Gonzalez and Nestor Hernandez, two of the shooting victims were the sons of Jose Santos Ornelas Almaraz, a former Secretaria Seguridad Publica (SSP) for Guadalupe municipality during the term of Cristina Diaz Salazar.
The victims were identified as Hector Almaraz Salvatore Daniel, 19, Diego Huerta, 20, Serna Jesus Ivan Gonzalez, 25, and Adam Zapata Mireles, 21.
Milenio reported that Jose Santos Ornelas Almaraz had been detained by the Mexican Army in June 2009 after his name was found on a list in Zuazua municipality of SSP and other officials who allegedly provided protection for local criminal gangs. The list was found at a Zuazua safe house maintained by a local cartel affiliated gang. Jose Santos Ornelas Almaraz was later released and apparently exonerated for the crime.
Despite that, the records found in the safe house said that several SSP officials had been paid MX $4,500 (US $314.24) every two weeks. Two police commanders and 37 other police agents were detained, then sent to prison for their connection to organized crime.
The mayor of Guadalupe, Cristina Diaz Salazar, went on to become a deputy in both the Nuevo Leon and national Chamber of Deputies, eventually winding up as general secretary to Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). She has served as interim president of PRI since the resignation of disgraced PRI president Humberto Moreira Valdes last December.
Coppers bust five safe houses
A total of five safe houses used by a local cartel gang were found and dismantled by Escobedo municipal and Nuevo Leon state police agents Friday.
According to a report published in Milenio news daily website, Escobedo municipal police officers detained three suspects at a traffic stop near the corner of avenidas Camino Real and Las Torres in Santa Martha colony. A police patrol had observed the three suspects travelling aboard a taxi cab which ran a red light, initiating a pursuit.
Police at the scene also seized two pistols from the suspects, who were identified as Fernando Vela Carlos Carranza, 24, and Joseph Alexander Rosales Tovar, 18.
Information provided by the suspects led police to five different safe houses used by a local criminal group in Escobedo, San Nicolas de los Garza and El Carmen municipalities.
A safe house near the intersection of calles Campollines and Acosia in Rincon del Carmen colony had been used by the group for kidnapping. At that location police found marijuana, explosives, Molotov cocktails, and cash.
In San Nicolas de los Garza three more safe houses were found in Paraje, San José and Balcones colonies. In total police seized firearms, two detonators for explosives, drugs, two vehicles and a payroll for lookouts.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Yemen Post] Yemen's security services have tightened security measures at the entrances of the capital Sana'a, an online website of the Interior Ministry stated on Sunday.
The ministry added that it tightened security measures to prevent the infiltration of bully boyz to the capital and arrest the wanted by security authorities.
It further said that it circulated a list of the wanted to security forces positioned at the security belt of Sana'a, stressing that vehicles coming to Sana'a are inspected thoroughly.
It further stated that security teams continuously conduct field visits to evaluate the level of performances and security measures taken to avoid any security breaches.
Killings and other criminal acts have remarkably increased in Sana'a due to Dire Revenge™ and armed disputes as gunnies exploited insecurity in Sana'a to carry out killings and tribal Dire Revenge™.
After a year of pro-democracy protests that swept the country and after formation of an interim government, Sana'a witnesses a state of loose security as crimes and weapon carrying increased.
The Interior Ministry has declared a ban on weapons carrying inside cities, but gunnies are still seen roaming with AK-47 assault rifles, hunting rifles and pistols inside Sana'a streets.
Though Yemenis live on less than two dollars a day, Yemen has the second most heavily armed population in the world, unofficial statistics say.
An average civilian casualty rate of about 4000 people per year due to gun violence, the statics say.
Yemen's interior ministry estimates there are about 60 million firearms in Yemen, or about three for every citizen. Government efforts to take weapons out of peoples' hands have been unsuccessful.
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[Al Ahram] Eliminated presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabbahi, Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh and Khaled Ali will hold a joint presser Monday morning to present a united stance on this month's scheduled presidential runoff vote.
The conference was first scheduled for Sunday evening, following a meeting between the three candidates earlier in the afternoon. However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... when the meeting lasted longer than expected, the conference was pushed to Monday at 11am at the Sabbahi campaign's Cairo headquarters.
Abul-Fotouh's campaign released a statement Sunday evening announcing that the candidates have also reached three points of agreement: Mubarak and his aides should receive urgent and fair retrials; the recently approved Political Disenfranchisement Law must be implemented (meaning disqualification for Mubarak's last PM and runoff contender, Ahmed Shafiq); and that a proposed presidential council, which emerged in Tahrir Square, should be respected and taken into consideration.
The meeting between the three candidates comes amid mass protests in Tahrir Square against Saturday's verdict that handed Mubarak and his interior minister a life sentence but surprisingly acquitted senior police chiefs on charges of participating in the crime of killing protesters during the January 25 Revolution.
Protesters largely denounce the presence of Ahmed Shafiq in Egypt's first genuine multi-candidate presidential elections, as he served as Mubarak's last PM during the infamous Battle of the Camel on 2 February 2011.
Runoffs set for 16 and 17 June will pitt Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi against Shafiq.
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[Iran Press TV] US Senator John Maverick McCain ... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution... has accused the White House of leaking details of a cyber attack and other secret operations against Iran in order to increase his chances in the upcoming elections.
"Again we see these leaks to the media about ongoing operations, which is incredibly disturbing. Doesn't this give some benefit to our adversaries?" McCain told news hounds in Singapore on Saturday.
The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported on Friday that Obama secretly ordered a cyber attack with the Stuxnet computer virus against Iran to sabotage the country's nuclear energy program "from his first months in office."
"Mr. Obama decided to accelerate the attacks - begun in the Bush administration and code-named Olympic Games - even after an element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error," the report added.
"We know the leaks have to come from the administration. And so we're at the point where perhaps we need an investigation," said McCain, who was defeated by Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
"So this is kind of a pattern in order to hype the national security credentials of the president and every administration does it. But I think this administration has taken it to a new level."
In July 2010, media reports claimed that Stuxnet had targeted industrial computers around the globe, with Iran being the main target of the attack. They said the country's Bushehr nuclear power plant was at the center of the cyber attack.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... Iranian experts detected the virus in time, averting any damage to the country's industrial sites and resources.
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#1
Lefty Glen Greenwald has something similar on Salon where he accuses Obama of prosecuting leaks while also orchestrating them.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/04/2012 1:08
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#3
you can only kill Bin Laden once, Champ, now you personally pushed the virus on their computers? Gonna hurt your arm patting yourself on the back while spiking the ootball
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/04/2012 9:31
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#4
"US Navy Seals removed one threat to the Security of America. It is now up to the American Voter to remove the other."
#7
Although he denies being present, I saw a photo of Axelrod in the National Security Council meeting--Congressman accusing Axelrod as the conduit to the NYSlimes. Awaiting video of a good brawl while the popcorn is in the microwave...
#8
I agree with you Darth.
Sometimes he really gets it - like here "So this is kind of a pattern in order to hype the national security credentials of the president and every administration does it. But I think this administration has taken it to a new level."
We lose assets and element of surprise every time Obama opens his cake hole.
#9
I'll give Obama credit for no energy or immigration policy (other than a leaky border), a p!ss poor economy, companies the Feds invested in that went bust, Fast and Furious, no transparency, for being the most divisive President in history, dishonest, being a narcissist who can't stay out of the limelight at the cost of leaking secrets,...did I miss anything?
#10
IF YOU DON'T LIKE MITT, HERE'S SOMETHING TO CONSIDER
Columnist Andrew McCarthy gives us what probably is the most important question regarding the upcoming presidential election .
Mitt wins the nomination, I will nthusiastically support his candidacy. For my friends who have hesitation on that score, Id just ask you to keep four things in mind:
1.. Justice Scalia just turned 78
2.. Justice Kennedy will turn 78 later this year
3.. Justice Breyer will be 76 in August
4.. Justice Ginsburg turned 81 about a week ago.
We wish them all well, of course, but the brute fact is that whoever we elect as president in November is almost certainly going to choose at least one and maybe more new members of the Supreme Court in addition to hundreds of other life-tenured federal judges, all of whom will be making momentous decisions about our lives for decades to come.
If you dont think it matters whether the guy making those calls is Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, I think youre smokin something weird
So for anybody who is thinking of not voting because your favorite didnt get nominated, or writing in a candidate who can't win...
#11
The Bammer is still points ahead of Romney this week, + despite MSM-Net News Repors about various DemoLefty BigWigs "jumping ship" vee Obama in 2012.
[Al Ahram] After arrest of Naoko Kikuchi, only one fugitive and former member of the Japanese cult that murdered 13 by nerve gas in 1995 remains at large
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012
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#1
Wow, that's her! I remember going to Japan in 2002 and seeing her (and two others') wanted posters everywhere. They were faded, but still prominently displayed. It was a surprise to me as the attack was in 1994. I thought they'd never get her, but turns out she was in Japan all along.
[Jerusalem Post] Analysis: IDF beefing up defenses along border by laying new minefields, fortifying security fence.
When considering the potential fallout from Bashir al-Assad's downfall, at the top of Israel's list of concerns is the possibility that Syria's chemical weapons will fall into rogue hands, possibly al-Qaeda or even Hezbollah.
That is why -- depending on developments in Syria -- the day may come soon when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will need to make a critical decision if presented with intelligence that the weapons are on the verge of proliferating.
Started in the mid-1970s, Syria's chemical weapons program is run by the Scientific Studies and Research Center and includes the industrial production of Sarin and VX nerve agents as well as mustard gas, all deployable in warheads that can be carried by its operational Scud missiles.
As a result, it is likely that Israel, like other Western countries, is considering its options to stop the potential proliferation.
One possibility could potentially be to attack convoys of chemical weapons or bases where the weapons are stored from the air. While this would be seen as an act of aggression by Israel, if done in the twilight of Assad's regime, the chances that it would spark an all-out war would be slim.
This dilemma was articulated last week by OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan, who said in a speech at Bar-Ilan University that the government would need to consider attacking convoys carrying sophisticated and advanced Syrian weaponry if they are detected ahead of time.
"Would it be wise to intercept such a transfer or would this be nonsense?" Golan asked, presenting the dilemma.
Israel's options vary. One possibility could potentially be to attack convoys of chemical weapons or bases where the weapons are stored from the air. While this would be seen as an act of aggression by Israel, if done in the twilight of Assad's regime, the chances that it would spark an all-out war would be slim.
Israel is however not the only country that is likely considering such scenarios.
The United States has reportedly been leading talks with a number of countries to prepare for the day after Assad falls.
Earlier this month, the US and Jordan held a large multinational military exercise, which reportedly included drills aimed at preparing forces for such operations. The Washington Post recently revealed that the US was looking into the possibility of establishing permanent bases in Jordan for small units of Marines or special operations troops who could be deployed rapidly throughout the region, including to Syria.
"This is a major concern for the IDF which is seriously looking at the threat and considering a variety of scenarios," a senior defense official explained.
Concern is also growing within Israel over the possibility that Syrian nationals will rush the border in the Golan Heights in an attempt to escape Assad's continued violent crackdown.
Israel is concerned with two scenarios -- firstly that Syrian civilians from cities like Hama or Houla, which have seen some of the worst fighting in recent weeks, would rush the border. The other scenario is that following Assad's downfall, his former loyalists -- mostly of Alawite origin -- will also try fleeing to Israel to escape possible retaliation.
A senior IDF officer said over the weekend that the military has obtained video recordings of the violence in Syria from villages and cities "close to the border with Israel."
Over the past year, the IDF has beefed up its defenses along the border, laying new minefields and fortifying the security fence separating both sides of the Golan. In addition, there are increased IDF patrols to prevent infiltrations as well as possible terror attacks against Israel.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/04/2012
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#1
But, but, but Bush was WRONG, WRONG I tell you! Saddam had no WMD (bugs and gas). There were no Russian Spetnaz convoys to Syria. There is no quid pro quo strategic security agreements between "Super Powers" regarding the WMD of Syria and Pakistan. [snark off]
#3
The Israelis are retards. This is a perfect opportunity to OPEN the border between Syria and occupied Syria, and set up humanitarian NGOs to serve the diaspora.
Remember, the Golan is only important to keep the Syrian military out, not for much else. Filling it up with refugee camps and lefty watering holes will only help the cause of Israel.
[Al Ahram] The second US drone attack in as many days killed 10 people in northwest Pakistain on Sunday, intelligence officials said, an incident likely to raise tensions in the standoff between Washington and Islamabad over NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... supply routes to Afghanistan.
The remotely-piloted aircraft fired four missiles at a suspected Islamist jihad boy hideout in the Birmal area of the South Wazoo tribal region near the Afghanistan border, officials said.
A drone strike in the same area killed two suspected forces of Evil on Saturday.
The United States and Pakistain are locked in difficult negotiations to re-open overland supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan, with no signs of a breakthrough.
Islamabad blocked the routes last November to protest the death of 24 Pak soldiers by cross-border friendly fire from NATO aircraft. The supply lines through Pakistain are considered vital to the planned withdrawal of most foreign combat troops from Afghanistan before the end of 2014.
The CIA drone campaign fuels anti-US sentiment in Pakistain and is counterproductive because of collateral damage, Pak officials say. But US officials say such strikes are highly effective against jihad boys.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
Per Bill Roggio:
US drones targeted a group of local Taliban fighters and "foreigners" who were gathering to mourn the death of a commander who was killed in another strike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan just one day ago.
[Dawn] Unidentified armed persons blew up a high power transmission line in Jar area of 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... on Saturday, disrupting supply of electricity to the entire agency.
Electricity is unislamic, according to those with the power to enforce their opinion.
Ten gunnies planted explosives at a tower of 66,000KV power transmission line near the Jar area, locals said.
The explosives went off in the small hours of Saturday and destroyed the tower completely. The kaboom was heard in far off areas.
Officials said that administration had launched investigation into the incident.
"Someone blew it up with malice aforethought, Watson."
"Holmes, how do you do it?!"
Locals said that the tower was located outside the village, where a post of Levies Force was established recently. The Levies personnel opened firing after the blast, they added.
Officials said that the administration had decided to beef up security of the high power transmission line in the agency. "For this purpose, more Levies personnel will be deployed at the towers along the power line," they added.
The local administration and security forces launched a search operation in Jar and its surrounding areas and tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! several persons.
An official told journalists that at least 20 people, majority of them locals, were set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! during the crackdown.
An official of Tesco said that a technical team was called for repair of the tower. He said that the power supply to the agency would remain suspended for the next 36 hours.
This was the second attack on the high power transmission line during the past one week in the region. No group has grabbed credit for the attack.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... a government school was destroyed when forces of Evil fired rockets at Michni area of Shabqadar tehsil in Charsadda district on Saturday morning.
Local sources said that forces of Evil fried rockets at government girls primary school at Aisha Koroona near the FC Centre. The school building was destroyed in the attack, they added.
They claimed that actual target of the attack was FC Centre but the rockets missed it and fell on the school.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012
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Top|| File under: TTP
[Dawn] Flagging the twin deficits -- budget deficit at 7.4 per cent and current account deficit at 1.7 per cent of GDP this year -- as top challenges, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh did not rule out on Saturday the possibility of seeking a fresh bailout package from the International Monetary Fund in six months.
Addressing a post-budget briefing, he said "we are constantly in touch with the IMF", adding the purpose of creating the IMF was to help its member countries in difficult balance-of-payments position so that they could stand on their own feet.
Asked if Pakistain was going to seek a fresh IMF programme in six months, Mr Sheikh said his official position required him to speak carefully because his words could be interpreted by different people in different manners.
In his written statement, the minister said that 'containing current account and budget deficits' was on top of the five challenges which in his view confronted Pakistain at present. Others included acceleration of growth and creation of jobs, overcoming energy shortages, increasing investments and reducing public debt.
The statement put the current account deficit for the outgoing fiscal year at $4 billion or 1.7 per cent of GDP and overall fiscal deficit for the current year at about Rs1.5 trillion or 7.4 per cent of GDP, including Rs391 billion for power sector subsidies and debt consolidation and current account deficit.
The current account deficit for the next year has been projected at $4.8 billion or 1.9 per cent of GDP and budget deficit at Rs1.105 trillion or 4.8 per cent of GDP.
Mr Sheikh explained that when the previous IMF programme was acquired in 2008 to support the balance of payments, Pakistain was in the crisis situation, facing current account and fiscal deficits and high international oil prices. The exchange rate had increased from Rs60 to Rs80 and inflation was high. Pakistain, he said, had repaid $1.2 billion to the IMF this year under an agreed schedule.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012
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#1
The Pakistani government has embraced sharia finance & is littered with Islamic banks, but when they want real money, they seek interest-based financing from the IMF.
Posted by: American Delight ||
06/04/2012 6:46
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#2
but when they want real money, they seek interest-based financing from the IMF.
Posted by American Delight
Finance interest is easily offset by US foreign aid payments. It's a wash, no real deviation from sharia.
[Dawn] Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Sunday termed a news telecast by private news channels regarding killing of four women of Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... totally wrong and baseless.
The Information Minister said that he had talked to the DCO Kohistan, the DIG Hazara and Home Secretary who had termed the reports about the incident baseless.
However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... he said that the DCO Kohistan had been directed to reinvestigate the reports and send an investigation team to the area to further probe the matter.
He urged the media to confirm news from the authorities concerned before releasing or telecasting them.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Compare wid DAILY TIMES.PK > [Pakistan] FORCED MARRIAGE REPLACE RAPE AS WORST CRIME AGZ WOMEN.
The sad part is that many Pak Politicos + Groups, despite recognizing the many many serious or violent abuses that occur agz women, are themselves not willing to change or reform anything due to the tenets/premises of Sharia.
SHARIA = ISLAMIC LAW, + PRESERVATION OF TRADITIONAL FAMILY INSTITUTIONS, ETC. MATTERS MORE THAN PERSONAL SAFETY.
IOW, the abuse + violence agz women will continue, + perpetrators will continue to go [mostly] unpunished or even not arrested. Iff anything, the Fed-Local Govts will help the Perps escape any kind of litigation, punishment, or public-media association wid abusive or violent acts.
[SGT.SCHULTZ here].
versus
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [Video] CHILD BROTHELS IN BHARAT [India].
[Iran Press TV] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... has warned that Syria has become the target of a foreign conspiracy.
In an address to the new parliament in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... on Sunday, Assad said Syria was facing a real war from outside.
"We are not facing a political problem but a project to destroy the country," Assad said.
He added that the government has made every attempt to end the months-long unrest and implemented the promised reforms.
The Syrian president insisted that the reforms have managed to fend off part of the regional and international attacks on the country.
Assad also criticized opposition parties for boycotting the May 7 parliamentary elections, saying they have in fact boycotted the people not the government.
He called for a national dialog to end the violence and invited all parties to put aside their differences for the interest of the country.
Syria has been the scene of unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including security forces, have bit the dust in the violence.
The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing the protesters. But Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, stating that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
The Syrian president also described last week's Houla massacre as an "ugly crime."
On May 25, deadly festivities broke out between Syrian forces and gangs in Houla, leaving 108 people killed, including 49 children and 34 women.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... a Syrian government investigation into the massacre states that anti-Damascus gangs were responsible for the massacre.
The head of the inquiry, Brigadier General Qassem Jamal Suleiman, said on Thursday that between 600 and 800 armed hard boyz used heavy machinery to carry out the attacks.
Suleiman also said that there was no evidence to indicate that artillery bombing by Syrian forces had led to the bloodshed, and blamed the gangs for the massive loss of life as part of a plan to "eliminate the presence of the government [in the area] totally and turn it into a region out of government control."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012
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[Tolo News] The Taliban are against peace and stability in the country and are trying to increase their krazed killer activities together with the terrorist groups in Pakistain, NDS officials said Sunday.
Spokesman for the National Directorate of Security Sahfiqullah Taheri said that as the international community is putting more pressure on Pakistain to combat terrorism honestly, the cut-throats are trying to increase violence in Afghanistan through the Taliban and other Pak terrorist networks.
"The Taliban don't want peace in Afghanistan, they want to overrun the recent political achievements in the country, in coordination with terrorist groups in Pakistain, they are trying to escalate violence,"Taheri told news hounds in a press briefing.
He also said that several people were incarcerated Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! recently while involved in krazed killer activity with documents and ID cards of Pakistain.
"We have proof. They were born in Pakistain, trained in Pak Madarasas and terrorist training camps," he told news hounds, adding that members of five terrorist groups were killed or tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... recently in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , Ghazni and Kabul with Pak nationals among them.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2012
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Canada has formally withdraw from the United Nations World Tourism Office (UNWTO), a move it said was formalized this week over the agency's recognition of Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe as being representative of international tourism.
A Danish court found four men guilty of plotting to kill a large number of people at a newspaper to retaliate for its publication in 2005 of cartoons of Mohammed. The men, three Swedish citizens and a Tunisian, had pleaded not guilty to the charges though one of them had pleaded guilty to illegal possession of weapons.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, dogged by widespread speculation about his health, appeared chipper and energetic in a television appearance over the weekend.
But nobody thought it was a big deal.
[Iran Press TV] An Iranian 
Yemeni military officials say 21 al-Qaeda 
South Sudan has shut down more than 20 private universities that it said were operating illegally, placing the future of higher education on the spot in a country where public universities are only partially operational.
(Sh.M.Network)- Kenyan troops were integrated into the 
[Al Ahram] At least 38 people injured in a clashes between neo-Nazi demonstrators and far-left counter-protesters overnight in the northern German port city of Hamburg
The United States has rejected majority of the demands pressed by Pakistain with respect to the coalition support fund claiming them to be unrealistic, DawnNews reported.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Tolo News] At least 50 armed 
Wazoo
Kurram Agency
President 
Five of the six security chiefs tried with ousted president 
At least six people, including a policeman, were killed in Quetta when unidentified 
[Yemen Post] The US on Sunday announced $6,5 million in additional humanitarian aid to Yemen, with the sum bringing the total of the US humanitarian aid to the country so far this year to $80 million, the US embassy in Sanaa said in a 
The Taliban's attacks on Afghan and foreign security forces have decreased since last year, the top Isaf commander in the north said Sunday.
Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov has angrily accused the United States of lecturing him on human rights and demanding that Chechens "march" to its orders. He said, "The U.S. is trying to lecture the whole world. They are trying to turn all countries and people into formations of marching soldiers, dictating to each and everyone how to live and what to do and not do."
Two former activists of the Pakistain People's Party were killed in a gun attack outside their apartment building in Gulistan-e-Jauhar on Saturday, police and party sources said.
[Dawn] EVEN after several attempts in the last few decades, Pakistain has been waiting for its own version of the Arab spring.
The lessons the Islamists learned in the Arab world persuaded them to modify their approach and this has contributed towards their successful entrance into the corridors of power. They have also succeeded where others failed, leaving the West no option but to recognise their mandate -- which was not the case when the Islamic Salvation Front scored an electoral victory in Algeria or 
By contrast, in the Arab world, demands for freedom of expression and better economic conditions were the triggers for the spring. On that stage, the constitutional legitimacy of Islam was not the protesters' destination. The Islamists are trying to develop good governance models and trying not to disturb the social contract which their societies have had for a long time.
Despite the contrasts, the Arab world has remained a source of inspiration for Islamists in Pakistain. Different religious parties in the country have maintained links with the governments and Islamist elements in the Arab world, although often these links have only remained confined to groups with a shared sectarian identity. It seems that the religious political parties in Pakistain have failed to make use of the anxiety prevailing among the masses to start a meaningful movement aimed at realising the change they seek.
As Pakistain's young are largely confused in their ideological and political vision, the thinking patterns in Pakistain are
The Inspector General of Frontier Corps (FC), Major General, Obaidullah Khan Khattak, said on Saturday the turmoil in 
[Yemen Post] Yemen's security services have tightened security measures at the entrances of the capital Sana'a, an online website of the Interior Ministry stated on Sunday. 
John 
...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...
Flagging the twin deficits -- budget deficit at 7.4 per cent and current account deficit at 1.7 per cent of GDP this year -- as top challenges, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh did not rule out on Saturday the possibility of seeking a fresh bailout package from the International Monetary Fund in six months.
Syrian 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The Taliban are against peace and stability in the country and are trying to increase their
