President Obamas reboot flopped Thursday, so here comes a desperation play. According to the AP, the president is getting set to stop all deportations of a certain group of young illegal aliens. Instead of deportation, the president will begin offering them work permits, allowing them not only to remain in the United States against the law, but to take jobs here.
The administrations decision will affect as many as 800,000 immigrants. Two senior administration officials described the plan on condition of anonymity ahead of its expected announcement Friday.
Illegal immigrants will avoid deportation and be eligible for work permits if they arrived in the U.S. before age 16, are younger than 30, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, have no criminal history, graduated from a U.S. high school or earned a GED, or served in the military.
The unemployment rate among young Americans stands well above the national average of 8.2%. Unemployment among black Americans stands officially at about 16%. The presidents policy plays one constituency that he sorely needs, Hispanic voters, against another that supported him in 2008 but has soured on him since, younger voters, and may hurt black voters looking for work as well.
Add to that, the lawlessness of the president deciding not to enforce standing US law by fiat. The Department of Homeland Security is announcing the policy change shortly. The policy change will raise many questions in Congress, which has not been consulted, and will raise questions regarding how DHS will handle the parents of these young illegal aliens.
More: From the AP
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was to announce the new policy Friday, one week before President Barack Obama plans to address the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials annual conference in Orlando, Fla. Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney is scheduled to speak to the group on Thursday.
Obama planned to discuss the new policy Friday afternoon from the White House Rose Garden.
They also can apply for a work permit that will be good for two years with no limits on how many times it can be renewed. The officials who described the plan spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it in advance of the official announcement.
The policy will not lead toward citizenship but will remove the threat of deportation and grant the ability to work legally, leaving eligible immigrants able to remain in the United States for extended periods. It tracks closely to a proposal offered by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida as an alternative to the DREAM Act.
The presidents play is clever. By appropriating Rubios plan he may blunt some criticism of it. By playing up the plight of illegal aliens brought here as children through no fault of their own and who only know America as their home, he plays on the most sympathetic of illegal aliens.
But the fact remains that Congress has been bypassed by presidential fiat. An additional fact remains that in a time of high unemployment especially among young American citizens, the optics of granting work permits to 800,000 illegal aliens may not be what the president ultimately wants.
More: A word of advice to Romney and the Republicans. Obama has two intentions with this policy. One, shore up support among Hispanic voters on the left dissatisfied by his lack of attention to them (not all Hispanic voters support amnesty or border lawlessness; many Hispanics oppose and/or are victims of these policies). Two, spur heated anti-illegal rhetoric among Republicans, which the Democrats can use to paint Republicans as intolerant, anti-Hispanic, and so forth. Every word that Mitt Romney or any Republican says about this policy is sure to turn up in ads, especially in Spanish media. So keep the rhetoric cool and focused on the president. He is acting outside his authority. He is waging political warfare and using young people as his proxies. He is going to make the difficult jobs situation in America worse by encouraging more illegal immigration.
Obama is hoping to use this policy to set traps for his opponents. Dont let him.
Update: I called Sen. Marco Rubios DC office to get their reaction. His media staff told me that the senator is still reviewing the policy and will have an announcement later.
The King Obama is trying everything to bring his numbers back up. The problem with the left is it is too wonky a coalition each demanding things at the top of their voice. Obama can no longer give one what they want without pissing off another leftist group.
#6
Time for states to start issuing treason warrants under their own laws. Arrest Federal agents and everyone else feddie they can reach. Put them in pink undies in Sheriff Joe's tent city and feed them white bread with bologna sandwiches and kool aide.
#8
Do I sense a desperate Obama? The Obama Girl wasn't available so NBC put together an Obama Boy video featuring a gay activist. Pandering for the gay vote? Now he has tried to do an end-around since the Dream Act didn't pass by having a decree issued. Pandering for the Hispanic vote. Next he will provide amnesty for all those students who owe on their student loans. Next, I wouldn't be surprised if he gave amnesty to prisoners so long as they promised to vote for him. Pandering for those who have lost their voting rights? He will legalize pot to try to get the stoner vote. Then he will forgive underwater home mortgages for some. Lordy, lordy we need to vote this megalomaniac out of office ASAP before he takes the country down. All House members and 1/3 of the 100 Senate members (23 Donk Senators) are up for re-election. They are going to pay the price for Obama's desire to do anything to get re-elected.
#9
This and the gay support are intended to shore up the youth vote and gay money. Although both decisions are not something the black community likes they are not going anywhere. Unfortunately for Obama that doesn't mean they'll actually turn out for him on election day either.
#10
This is a presidential pardon from the outgoing president.
Posted by: regular joe ||
06/15/2012 15:06
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#11
Calculating and whimpy: the easiest and most sympathetic level of immunity he can get away with. If I were the Hispanic community I'd be vaguely offended, actually.
#12
Illegal aliens, gay marriage and now Rahm Emanuel is decriminalizing marijuana in Chicago. You can do whatever you want as long as you vote for The One.
#13
Did someone ask dear reader if this means the aggressive prosecution and boot of those who do not meet the qualifications of High School or military?
#14
If you couple pot letalization with drug tests to get welfare and/or unemployment id have no problem. I dont want to subsidize the grasshoppers drug habit though.
#17
I habe to agree wid the Bammer on this one - iff the GOP-DEM Congress doesn't have the John-Wayne Gumption or Gonads to be truly serious about solving the leaky borders or illegal immigration in general, then it should have the John-Wayne Gumption or Goands to offer law-abiding illegals a de fact path to Citizenship + legal Residency.
OR DOESN'T THE CONGRESS HAVE THAT EITHER???
AFAIK the powers that be still desire to set up OWG North American Union = NAU as early as 2015, so the same will be in need of New Workers.
Read, CHEAP WORKERS; Sub-read, FOREIGN = NOT PAID PER THE US WAGE-PAY SCALE.
IMO America's working-class + mainstream WILL be upset, but thats what we get for routinely electing + re-electing Hyper-Correct Pols whom in the end need to have bullets fired at them before they sudden remember their obligations or duty to America.
[The Hill] President Obama will sign an executive order Friday to significantly alter U.S. immigration policy to reduce deportations of illegal immigrants who came to the country at a young age. Still ruling by decree...
The politically charged decision comes as Obama faces a tough reelection fight against Republican Mitt Romney, with Hispanic voters in swing states seen as a key bloc.
The executive order could allow as many as 800,000 immigrants who came to the United States illegally not only to remain in the country without fear of being deported, but to work legally, according to The Associated Press.
Obama is set to make a statement about the order at 1:15 p.m. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the new policy Friday morning.
"Our nation's immigration laws must be enforced in a firm and sensible manner," Napolitano said in a statement. "But they are not designed to be blindly enforced without consideration given to the individual circumstances of each case. Nor are they designed to remove productive young people to countries where they may not have lived or even speak the language. Discretion, which is used in so many other areas, is especially justified here."
The new policy will not grant citizenship to children who came to the United States as illegal immigrants, but will remove the threat of deportation and grant them the right to work in the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
11:24 ||
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#1
This should be good news to the unemployed and underemployed whites, blacks, legal Hispanics....
Romney could make this work against Obama pretty easily. I'd start by telling what the U-6 is now if those illegals are included in the available workforce
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/15/2012 14:51
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#2
It's going to be a tough balancing act for Romney, if he is to gain enough Latino votes to win several western swing states.
The WaPo did a softening-up article earlier this week on a local girl who was to be deported just after high school graduation. Expect the MSM to flood the airwaves and papers with sentimental stories like this.
I do think it could maybe fracture the black vote, especially since it's clear that Obama is taking them for granted while going for the larger/faster growing Latino vote.
If he plays on that, and also manages to reach the Hispanics here legally with the jobs issue, maybe this can be turned against Obama effectively.
#3
--the wheels are coming off the bus, and BHO is getting desperate...Obama doesn't stand a chance come Nov o6/2012. As a matter of fact he's losing some states.
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at a high school commencement ceremony in Virginia on Thursday, called the Arab Spring a democratic movement--on the same day that the Egyptian high court nullified the Islamist majority parliament and the Egyptian military assumed control of the legislature.
The democratic movement that swept across the Middle East, the so called Arab Spring, began when a lowly fruit vendor set himself ablaze to protest a corrupt government, igniting a confrontation magnified by social media that literally set off a revolution that was waiting to happen for well over 200 years, Biden said in his speech at Tallwood High School in Virginia Beach, Va.
In Cairo on Thursday, the Egyptian high court determined that the regulatory laws for parliamentary elections are invalid, meaning by law the current parliament is nullified and obligated to dissolve.
According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the Egyptian parliament was dominated by Islamists.
"On January 23, the Peoples Assembly held its inaugural session following what many international observers have deemed to be a somewhat successful, though not perfect, election for the lower house of parliament known as the Peoples Assembly," the CRS reported.
"Of the 498 elected seats, Islamists of varying sorts control nearly 70%, with the Muslim Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice Party (FJP)-led Democratic Alliance controlling the most at 47% (235 total)," said CRS. "The Islamist Alliance-list led by the Salafist Nour Party came second with 25% (125 seats), followed by the Wafd at 8% and the liberal Egyptian bloc party list at 6.8%. The SCAF appointed 10 seats (mostly women and Coptic Christians). With an overwhelming majority of seats, most analysts anticipate that many legislative issues will be subject primarily to intra-Islamist competition between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists."
According to Egyptian state media, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has held central power in Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak resigned in February 2011, has reportedly assumed legislative authority in place of parliament.
It is not clear if the ruling, which reportedly approved the right of Ahmed Shafiq, Mubaraks last prime minister, to run for president, will throw a wrench in the presidential election runoff, set to take place Saturday and Sunday. Shafiq is pitted against the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammed Morsi.
Received in Company Email this morning. Sorry if this is off-topic but just had to post this for comment. This must be that big HUGE savings and credit we were promised. BTW: $40 of $125 is about 32% tax rate. (note - there is no linked article)
Important notice from RETRACTED Payroll
In April, you received a one-time, $125 credit in your pay toward your 2012 health care contributions as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. (If your contributions were less than $125 as of April 2, 2012, your credit was equal to your contributions.)
Under IRS rules, your credit is subject to tax withholding, and in order to comply with those rules, the Company will be withholding about $40 in additional taxes from your last pay in June. (If your credit was less than $125, the additional withholding will also be less.) In addition, your taxable gross income on that check will be increased to reflect the credit.
No action is required on your part. Your credit remains the same. The Company will be adjusting your withholding as required by the IRS.
So in other words they are giving me a $125 'credit' toward ObumbleCare but then taking back $40 for taxes on it leaving me with a whole $85 in exchange for surrendering control over my own health care (and the health care of my family).
#2
Does this mean that if you were a lazy bum had not job or income, you will be eligable for the entire $125. credit or payment (as in "Earned Income Tax Credit")?
Two years ago, the corporate-backed Tea Party didn't just win an election. It won the argument. Conservatives defined the agenda that we've had to fight against ever since.
This year, to save the nation, progressives must get back on offense and drive the agenda. We have to win not only in November ... but also in December.
The first step to victory: Join us at the June 18-20 "Take Back the American Dream" conference.
At Take Back the American Dream, Van Jones, Paul Krugman, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ai-jen Poo, Sandra Fluke, Gov. Howard Dean, Melissa Harris-Perry, Chris Hayes, Katrina vanden Heuvel and many more will share ideas and forge the strategy to make sure that the 99% is heard.
We'll also have leading activists from Rebuild the Dream, MoveOn.org, Occupy, 99% Spring, labor unions, civil rights and women's rights groups who know how to win on the ground.
It's About November -- and December
In November, we have to win the White House -- and win a big progressive majority in Congress. It won't be easy, but the American majority is coming together.
Then in December, watch out.
The extreme right is already promising to hold the country hostage once more over raising the debt ceiling in order to force a "grand bargain" -- gut Social Security and Medicare, cripple everything from food stamps to food safety, and accept mass unemployment as a grotesque "new normal."
How do we stop this? Drive the debate. Mobilize our grassroots army. Make us impossible to ignore.
We will demand a "jobs first" strategy for recovery.
We will send the bill to those on Wall Street whose excesses made the mess we're cleaning up.
We won't ask working people to sacrifice when they've already swallowed needless cuts. We will insist on sacrifice from the multinationals still gaming the system, and the military still spending almost as much as the rest of the world.
We need you to bring the vision. You will shape the plan. And all of us will get it done.
Join us at the June 18-20 Take Back the American Dream conference to make victory possible.
We are the 99%. If we organize, if we force the debate, we can win not only the election but the argument. Not only November, but December.
#5
Wonder if they will sing The International before the 1st plenary session.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/15/2012 16:49
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..many more will share ideas and forge the strategy to make sure that the 99% is heard.
The only one your leader is listening to is the 1%. Check the list of fund raisers and who he pays attention to. It's the friggin 1%. Bunch of useful idiots.
In the Salta Province of Argentina, rugby is a popular sport. Knowing their audience, beer brand Cerveza Salta partnered with Ogilvy Argentina to create the Rugbeer, a beer vending machine that you tackle to get a beer. Insert money and then slam the machine to receive your Salta beer. In the commercial, you will learn that the machine is equipped with a Pussy Meter and that the surrounding floor has Grass with Dew.
If you use gMail on your PC or smartphone, or any of the other Google apps, keep this in mind. The Obama campaign is extensively mining data about voters. The combination of Google's data mining expertise and your personal information is a powerful campaign contribution to re-electing the present POTUS.
Although it's an annoying limitation on my own smartphone use, I refuse to send my email and calendar through Google apps to my phone for this reason and I turn off GPS location tracking on the phone nearly all the time.
#1
Google should concentrate on fixing their search engine. Their bread and butter. Seems now the thing produces pages and pages of tangental results. Where once they were awesome in their accuracy now they lead only because other search engines are unknown or lame.
#2
1984 is not a myth, if we don't get this election done, it will be 1984 everywhere.
I think we need some privacy laws about data mining.
I am personally ill over this.
I refuse to use Google because of their political posturing.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/15/2012 10:28
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One question,
Which came first, the decision to track user data or the decision for the Obama administration to data mine.
Seems to me the two go hand in glove together and Google and the other left coast techies are deeply in bed with the Dems...perhaps in the useful idiot role of being handsomely rewarded for the technology to create oppression and totalitarianism? They support an agenda for which they have not thought about the consequences. It is as if they think no one but Democrats will ever be elected POTUS and the Republicans whom they loathe and dismise will have access to this stuff when they are elected.
Shallow, vain thinking about the realities of society and culture will lead to the logical and absurd end of limited freedom and despair.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/15/2012 10:48
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#4
I don't even trust "cloud". If you are an IT person, keep your data the same way you should keep your gold. Close.
Posted by: Pearl Clith3338 ||
06/15/2012 10:51
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#5
...however, if its important data, you need an offsite alternate storage in case of disaster, natural or man-made.
#6
The time may have come for another search engine. I used to like Lycos in the early days. I just checked and it seems they are still in business. Never cared much for Yahoo. There was a lot of competition back in the 90's but Google eventually crushed them all. Raising the money for a viable start up to challenge them now could be a daunting task but competition is always good.
#7
Pearl and P2K are both right. Storage these days is getting cheaper and more efficient all the time. I believe that solid state disk drives are the way to go. In essence, they are non-volatile memory with no moving parts. To query a database, then, is more like reading memory than a disk drive. Therefore, you no longer have to worry about striping the data across the shallow end of multiple spinning disks to avoid the performance hit of reading deep into the disk. That means all those terabytes that you buy are used far more efficiently with far less waste. Back up your data as many ways as you can to tape and other storage devices and, if you can afford it, replicate it to a spare server offsite for smooth disaster recovery.
Further, as much as it galls me to promote Microsoft, when you use Word or Excel you know where your files are and you don't have to worry about some goon at some disk farm across the continent looking at them. But then, there are open source office suites that you could run on Linux too.
To back up your PC, you can buy USB thumb drives these days that will hold up to 32GB. That figure, of course, is probably obsolete as I write this rant and you will soon see thumb drives that will take 64GB. A lot of small businesses could run their entire database on a device like that.
You don't need no stinkin' cloud. I know will guarantee that nothing will go wrong with the cloud and that they will never lose your data. But they said the Titanic wouldn't sink too. That guarantee will be meaningless when they do lose your data. Sooner or later, to somebody somewhere, it will happen. They could never replace your business.
#8
Hard drives are pretty cheap. I have found them more reliable that solid state memory devices or home-burned optical media. I have a dozen around here which I use to back up my working disc drives. Off site storage: safe deposit box.
No mention of encryption as a possible way to safeguard items stored in the Cloud.
#10
Bing is pretty good and rapidly getting better as it learns from user feedback. And Microsoft is, unlike Google, pretty pro-American, willing to show the flag yesterday on Flag Day etc.
#11
Ebbang Uluque6305, problem with Word and Excel is they embed all sorts of information into the documents that get transfered over to pdf unless you know what you're doing. They need that turned off as a default if you ask me.
#12
What does Siri use to do a search? The move to smart phones might change the paradagm and allow a decent search to sneak in in a way that couldn't happen on the desktop.
#13
The decision to track data is the whole reason these things are invented, down to your statistical preference in farmville. Sure they make some money on ads, but info is gold.
Its why I don't do that.
I have a nice little fire-resistant locking safe I keep backups in, any more data storage is so easy.
#14
I started using Bing a couple of years ago (over Google's willingness to celebrate Picasso's birthday, etc., but not American patriotic holidays).
I've been pleased. A couple of times, I just couldn't find what I needed on Bing, and tried on Google. Guess what? They didn't have it either. I don't think I've been on Google in over a year. Don't intend to ever go back.
Posted by: Barbara ||
06/15/2012 18:06
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#15
You might try startpage.com, which uses google but doesn't pass through your IP or allow tracking coookies.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it has removed two food products from shelves in China after regulators found they contained banned chemicals.
The Beijing food safety regulator said it found excessive benzopyrene in sesame oil and high levels of cadmium in squid supplied by Chinese producers.
Wal-Mart said Friday the products were removed from shelves after the report. It said the company had received appropriate regulatory documents from suppliers. Appropriate my @$$. Get a rope.
The products were among seven food items cited by the agency for excessive chemicals and sold in the Chinese capital. Aside from Wal-Mart, the other outlets were Chinese.
The action came during China's official food safety week, a period when the government typically announces a series of enforcement actions to reassure the public. I wouldn't buy food outside that week then.
#2
Typical. Foreign company gets swarmed by inspectors, and *surprise* the inspectors find problems. Forged regulatory documents are a dime a dozen. Anyone need some? I can get 'em. Inevitably, they foreign company is blamed as "bad" while nobody notices the elephant in the room, the Chinese suppliers who did the crime in the first place.
#7
Last time I went to my local supermarket, not a Wal-Mart, they were selling fish from China. I wonder who buys that stuff.
If it was fillets or pre-cleaned fish, it was probably caught here and processed in China. How is it cheaper to process it in China? Cost per refrigerated container is 10 cents a pound each way, whereas Chinese wages are 1/8 US wages. I know of a guy who owns plants here and in China. He said the Chinese do a better job, but for high-end seafood, he pays the vig and does the processing stateside because of the freshness factor.
#8
It was the whole fish. Tilapia. Head, tail, scales and everything. Little eyeballs looking at you. Not very big. Not very appetizing in appearance. Not what I'd take home for dinner.
Another 1000 page monstrosity. Business as usual. Both sides of Congress only work together when it involves voting to spend other people's money on each other. Throw the bums out. They will never learn.
It is my understanding from other sources that very little of this bill is actually useful. The rest goes to buy buy votes. Why on earth would they put food stamps under this bill? Who do they think they're fooling?
Do catfish deserve a separate inspection service at a cost to taxpayers of $30 million? This and other fishy amendments to the $969 billion farm bill drew the ire of Sen. John McCain today.
More than 100 amendments have been filed to the bill that weighs in at a whopping 1,010 pages. At a cost of $969 billion over 10 years, that's about $1 billion per page of legislation, a 60 percent increase from the previous far bill which passed in 2008.
McCain, the king of busting pork barrel spending, took to the Senate floor this morning to highlight -- ie: mock-- the most egregious additions in the bill.
"A farm bill being 1,000 pages long is filled with special deals for special interests," McCain said today. "When we examine the bill, we find more and more of these kinds of special interest, unnecessary spending and programs that either are protectionist in nature, programs that have been inserted sometimes in the past in the middle of the night."
McCain debuted a "Top Ten" list of the worst offenders in the farm bill, which he deemed "ugly."
Atop the list, the farm bill creates a new USDA office to inspect catfish. The price tag is hefty: $30 million to create the office and $14 million each year thereafter -- for an office, McCain notes, to inspect catfish, which are already inspected by the FDA.
"Catfish farmers have tried to argue that we need a catfish inspection office to ensure Americans are eating safe and healthy catfish," McCain said. "I wholeheartedly agree that catfish should be safe for consumers. The problem is, FDA already inspects catfish, just as it does all seafood, screening it for biological and chemical hazards."
Also leading the list, the inclusion in the bill of a carve-out for popcorn subsidies.
"Under the farm bill, popcorn will be subsidized to the tune of $91 million over ten years," McCain said. "There isn't a kernel of evidence that they need this subsidy." Oh man. That one deserves some kind of award.
Beans and peas attracted McCain's wrath. The bill calls for $25 million to study the health benefits of peas, lentils and garbanzo beans.
"I know that mothers all over America that have advocated for their children to eat their peas will be pleased to know that there's a study that's going to cost them $25 million to study the health benefits of peas, lentils and garbanzo beans," McCain said.
Other worst offenders noted by McCain: $200 million for the value-added grant program which gives grants to novelty producers like small wineries and cheese makers and $40 million in grants from the Department of Agriculture to encourage private landowners to use their land for bird watching or hunting.
It should be noted that McCain himself has a "non-germane" amendment to the farm bill which would require the administration to report by August on the full effects of the $500 billion in automatic defense cuts slated to take effect starting next year. Heh heh.
Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has noted that "this isn't your father's farm bill." This was directed at the fact that the bill, notorious for being weighed down with pork barrel spending in years past, actually cuts $23.6 billion this time around over the same period. This fact was not lost on Mr. McCain
"I acknowledge the senate bill generates $23 billion in savings and that's a notable economy -- accomplishment," McCain said, "unfortunately, it seems that Congress's idea of a farm bill reform is to eliminate one subsidy program only to invent a new one to take its place."
#1
"Catfish farmers have tried to argue that we need a catfish inspection office to ensure Americans are eating safe and healthy catfish,"
The REAL reason Catfish "farmers" need a USDA link is for the free boodle! Getting paid for NOT farming fishing. [See Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) the decades old USDA "Land Bank" soil retirement swindle]
#2
Parallel Universe or insult to injury category, you decide:
Recently visited with an old friend who's wife still works at a USDA office as a clerk processing farmer CRP claims. She mentioned the irony of client small talk in her office centering around the price of Texas Sweet Crude [oil lease royalty checks], as opposed to the CRP [money for not farming] entitlement program.
The battleship where the young tourists roam became flooded over the weekend. Staff arrived Saturday and immediately noticed something was wrong with the ship that fought in World Wars I and II and has served since 1948 as a memorial and museum to those who sacrificed their lives.
The vessel was sitting awkwardly in its slip. She was lower in the water and listing to the left.
"We got down to the lower portions of the ship and discovered that we had taken on more water than usual in areas that we normally don't," ship manager Andy Smith said. "They started pumping throughout the day Saturday, and it got progressively worse."
The situation was so dire by Sunday that the ship's caretaker, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, had to find more pumps to help remove the water. Smith said the news got worse on Monday. Rest at link.
#1
..Keep in mind that the Lone Star Battlewagon has just turned 100. The state wants to build a concrete drydock for her, but they're dawdling - let me urge our Texan 'Burgers to please jump all over their elected representatives to get the job done, and quickly - unlike the other BB museums, Texas is too old and fragile to be towed anywhere for permanent repairs and they will have to hold off until the drydock is done.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/15/2012 5:55
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#2
The "Alabama" is moored in Mobile, actually she's resting on the bottom, and probably not floating, yep she's old too.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/15/2012 8:48
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#3
Ship featured prominently in "The Ayes of Texas" by Daniel DaCruz...
My mom's older brother, my Uncle Pete, was on the USS NEVADA on 12/7/1941 - he has since passed on. IIRC my father's father Mariano served aboard the USS NEW YORK in WW1, when the ship was wid the Atlantic Fleet.
You'd think this guy should know better than to join forces with these kinds of folks.
Michael Barone is correct, Obama really needs to stop taking advice from wealthy, limousine liberals. But they work out about as well as the rest of his other appointments.
If you were looking for advice on how tell a story that would impact millions upon millions of people, would you go to a director whose last four films were "War Horse," "The Adventures of Tintin," Indiana Jones 4," and "Munich?"
Nope.
But Team Obama did, and what they got in return was a continuation of the ongoing Spielberg flop-streak:
At DreamWorks Studios, Steven Spielberg spent three hours explaining how to capture an audiences attention and offered a number of ideas that will be rolled out before Election Day. An early example of Spielbergs influence is RomneyEconomics.com, a website designed by the Obama team to tell the story a horror story, by their reckoning of Mitt Romneys career at Bain Capital. Afterward, Spielberg insisted that Messina sit down with the DreamWorks marketing team. Hollywood movie studios are expert, as presidential campaigns also must be, at spending huge sums over a few weeks to reach and motivate millions of Americans.
Obama campaign advisor Jim Messina took the meeting and is adamant the Bain attacks worked, but then I'd like to know why the Bain attacks have stopped cold?
If something works, you keep doing it, correct? Not if you're a liberal.
What I find especially funny is that the film business, including, obviously, the failing venture that is DreamWorks, has been a quivering tower of risky financing, corporate welfare, and shady investment for decades now.
Spielberg's indignation over Bain Capital is like water's indignation over wet.
#5
I just don't understand how a guy that made "Schindler's List" "Saving Private Ryan," and "Band of Brothers" can even sit down at a table with one of Bambi's minions.
Apparently, the lefties in the entertainment industry are bigger whores than I ever thought before.
How can a man who went through, supposedly, a personal catharsis during the making of "Schindler's List" cozy up to a regime that is so anti-Israeli?
I guess Dreamworks is off my list of movie makers to watch. I may be a spit in the ocean but my paltry spendings on movies will speak as best they can.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/15/2012 10:56
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#6
No surprise here. Conservatives don't get love in Hollywood.
#7
Liberals don't hate WW2, they just hate every other war. After all Hitler turned against Stalin so he's a legitimate enemy of the People in their minds.
#8
Funny, since the only movie of his I saw recently was Tintin, and that was on a DVD rental. The computer CGI was amazing along with the cinematography. The story was a great big pile of flaming ass.
#9
I would like you to review the cast and key conversation scenes, also try skipping the fight scenes, and reconsider what you think about saving ryans privates.
Ambrose is so strong, the spielberg/hanks wondertwin powers could not even scratch it.
IJ4 is aweful. I only saw the end because I accidentally tuned in early for the next show.
Which leaves obama two choices: crawl into a lead lined refrigerator or team up with George Lucas.
If hollywood could to better than sneeze turds, they would remake Longest Day, but base it off of Abrose's literature D-Day. Use the cast from Greatest Raid, they did just fine...or actual soldiers as IMHO Act of Valor pulled off.
#11
Spielberg insisted that Messina sit down with the DreamWorks marketing team.
You mean the guys who put all the product placements in movies? Or design all those lame toys they put in happy meals? Or who change the villains from Muslim terrorists to Christian arms makers to make it sell overseas?
Yeah, that's why Hollywood can't make good movies.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/16/2012 0:14
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Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov says militant emissary Akhmed Zakayev wants to return from the UK to Chechnya, but he depends on foreign special services and on self-exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky.
According to Kadyrov, Zakayev, who currently lives in London, had sought a telephone conversation through different channels. The Chechen governments website quoted Kadyrov as saying, During our conversation he kept saying that he was thrilled about changes in Chechnya and tearfully begged to help him return to Russia.
However, Zakayev is competely under the control of special services and cannot travel anywhere without their knowledge, Kadyrov stated. He added, Apparently, he would like to return home, but his masters shouted and he was left speechless."
In addition, the Chechen fugitive depends on Russian tycoon Berezovsky, who has also found shelter in the UK. Kadyrov contended, "This is a widely known fact. Zakayev cannot make a single step without [Berezovskys] knowledge."
Kadyrov called Zakayev a coward and a hypocrite. The Chechen leader said, During our phone conversation he called me brother. He said he wanted to become my friend and ally. Behind my back, though, he makes completely different statements."
Zakayev and his family live in clover in London, getting good support from his sponsors.
And yet he has the cheek to call on the Chechen people to take up arms and come out against the legitimate power, Kadyrov observed.
Akhmed Zakayev is the Chechen militant envoy and the former self-proclaimed prime minister of Independent Chechnya-Ichkeria. He was granted asylum in Britain in 2003.
In Russia he is accused in a number of serious crimes including terrorism and murder. Moscow has sought his extradition for over a decade now, but the UK has repeatedly refused the request.
This is what happens when you don't take action to save what you can of your entitlements. But that could never happen here. We're special somehow. Everything will magically continue forward even when we get to the point that we cannot pay our debts. Forward to the insolvency then the Revolution! It's worked so well for everyone else.
Greece's rundown state hospitals are cutting off vital drugs,
Check. Already happening in the U.S.
limiting non-urgent operations and rationing even basic medical materials for exhausted doctors as a combination of economic crisis and political stalemate strangle health funding.
With Greece now in its fifth year of deep recession, trapped under Europe's biggest public debt burden and dependent on international help to keep paying its bills, the effects are starting to bite deeply into vital services.
"It's a matter of life and death for us," said Persefoni Mitta, head of the Cancer Patients' Association, recounting the dozens of calls she gets a day from Greeks needing pricey, hard-to-find cancer drugs. "Why are they depriving us of life?"
We could ask the same question, probably about the same drugs, here in the U.S. Obamacare is already having an impact.
Greece, a member of the euro zone that groups some of the richest nations on earth, has descended so far that drugmakers are even working on emergency plans to keep medicines flowing into the country should it crash out of the currency bloc.
The emergency has grown out of a tangle of unpaid bills, with pharmacists and doctors complaining of being unable to pay suppliers until competing health insurers clear a growing backlog of unfilled state payments.
Check.
Greece imports nearly all its medicines and relies heavily on patented rather than cheaper generic drugs, making it vulnerable to a funding squeeze that would grow sharply worse if it were forced out of the euro after elections on Sunday.
Long queues have been forming outside a handful of pharmacies that still provide medication on credit - the rest are demanding cash upfront until the government pays up a subsidy backlog of 762 million euros, or nearly $1 billion.
"We're not talking about painkillers here - we've learned to live with physical pain - we need drugs to keep us alive," Mitta, a petite former marathon runner and herself a cancer survivor, said in a voice shaky with emotion.
Greeks have long had to give medical staff cash "gifts" to ensure good treatment. Nevertheless the health system was considered "relatively efficient" before the crisis despite a variety of problems including a fragmented organization and excess bureaucracy, according to a 2009 report for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
But it has been unable to respond to the growing crisis. The European Union and International Monetary Fund, which provided a 130 billion euro lifeline to Greece in March, have demanded big cuts to the system as part of a wider package of austerity measures.
But powerful medical lobbies and unions have resisted fiercely. Caretaker Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos, in office until a new government is formed after the elections, has pleaded for a solution but been powerless to force a change.
"It is imperative that this matter is resolved immediately in order to prevent putting people's lives at risk," Pikrammenos said last week.
BED SHEETS
Outside one of the 133 state hospitals - whose managers have sometimes been appointed as supporters of whichever political party was in power at the time - a banner put up by protesting staff reads "Hospitals Belong to the People". Inside, its gloomy labyrinth of corridors tell a different story.
A doctor at the university hospital in the northwestern Athens suburb of Chaidari cites a lack of basic examining room supplies in her own department, such as cotton wool, catheters, gloves and paper used to cover the examining table.
The shortage of paper, which is thrown out after each patient has used it, means corners have to be cut on hygiene.
"Sometimes we take a bed sheet instead and use it for several patients," said Kiki Kiale, a radiologist specializing in cancer screening. "It's tragic but there's no other solution."
Kiale, 52, said staff cutbacks and a lack of crucial equipment - including a digital mammography machine - meant some doctors were seeing 40 patients during a shift but many patients were still unable to get treatment.
In the chaos, patients can slip through the cracks or turn up for treatment again only when their illness has progressed too far for them to be saved.
"Some incidents are lost completely, others manage to return after a year but it's too late," said Kiale, who spent five years working in Britain's National Health Service (NHS), adding that the lack of stable government made the problem worse.
If Dr. Kiale worked for the NHS, he must be exquisitely familiar with that particular problem.
"Everyone is hiding behind the elections, behind political uncertainty. Everyone is hiding behind the crisis."
Elections last month produced a stalemate, with no party achieving a parliamentary majority or able to form a coalition.
Greeks vote again on Sunday to try to break the deadlock, with pro-bailout conservatives neck-and-neck with a radical leftist party SYRIZA which rejects the EU and IMF's austerity demands. This has raised the possibility that the lenders will cut off the financial lifeline and Greece will have to leave the euro zone if SYRIZA wins and manages to form a coalition.
Pharmaceutical industry sources say drugmakers have already discussed with European authorities how to keep Greece supplied with medicines should it have only new, radically devalued drachmas to pay for them.
They have been looking closely at the experience of Argentina's collapse in 2002, when some firms agreed to continue to supply medicines without payment for a while.
Greece's wider crisis, which has deprived it of a stable administration for months and absorbed official attention, has made it impossible to push through deep health reform and forced the government to resort to sticking-plaster measures.
The Health Ministry says the reports of shortages have been exaggerated and has promised to pay health suppliers 600 million euros from its own budget and that of finance ministry. However, this covers only existing arrears to March, leaving the period to June uncovered.
The IMF has said Greece needs to keep public health spending below 6 percent of GDP, down from around 10 percent at present and must sharply cut spending on pharmaceuticals which has surged over the past decade.
An aging, childless population will do that. Demographics is economy as well as destiny, it seems.
It says Athens must cut such spending by at least 2 billion euros from 2010 levels, a step that would bring the average public expenditure on outpatient pharmaceuticals to 1 percent of GDP by the end of this year.
"LITTLE ENVELOPES"
What effect such cuts will have on patient care is likely to be dramatic, especially without a wider reform of healthcare.
Even before the crisis, public hospitals were under strain and the notorious cash-filled "fakelaki" or "little envelope" which patients have had to hand over to get good treatment have become a byword for the corruption in the system.
Or we could look at it as an informal co-pay, claimed to reduce frivolous use of the medical system by forcing consumers to make each doctor visit a cost/benefit analysis.
As the crisis has bitten, ever more Greeks can no longer afford to pay. Rocketing unemployment has meant many have fallen behind with insurance contributions or have trouble paying the 10-25 percent of prescription costs not covered by the system.
"The health system has shut its door in their face," said Katerina Avloniti, a 27-year-old psychologist at a free medical clinic in Athens whose patients are no longer eligible to get a blood test, a cardiogram or a simple check up.
You are a charity, dear. You don't get to offer gold-plated Cadillac care, unless you can find a rich patron to foot the bill.
Housed on one floor of the Athens Medical Association, the clinic is staffed by volunteer cardiologists, general practitioners, dentists and physiotherapists who see about 60 people a day, relying on unused drugs donated by other patients.
"Most are on the verge of depression, others are thinking of suicide. Many are ashamed because until recently, they had a job," she said, adding that many of the patients are 25 to 30-year-olds who have not been able to find work.
Make work, then. Sell apples in the street, shine shoes, hawk Grandma's moussaka door to door -- everyone loves Grandma's moussaka. Or set up as a laundry for surgical bed sheets, clearly a new area of opportunity.
Avloniti said the crisis risked spiraling into a wider health emergency if treatment levels continued to fall. "Some people are walking timebombs - they could have a disease that is highly transmittable. We shouldn't close the door on them."
#4
Anguper, I think you're gonna get the mods after you for that picture being too big. I suppose the message is that those kids were poor. Maybe the message is that's the way we're gonna be again. But at least those kids were U.S. citizens at a time when that really meant something.
I've edited the links to resize two overly-big photos inserted in photos today, including the one above.
Dear readers: if you are inserting links to pictures, please check that the img code includes a width= phrase. If the width is not specified or is greater than 300, please add the following within the angle brackets: width=300 . You'll know you're in the right place if you insert this after phrases like valign=top or align=right etc.
The mods are busy and don't always have time to fix things. Deleting an overly large picture is much quicker for us than editing things, so please take time to do this yourself.
#7
"Sometimes we take a bed sheet instead and use it for several patients," said Kiki Kiale, a radiologist specializing in cancer screening. "It's tragic but there's no other solution."
Tragic? A sheet instead of paper? Try getting a little perspective, doc.
People dying is tragic. People sharing a sheet for an exam table is inconvenient.
Idiot.
Posted by: Barbara ||
06/15/2012 22:15
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President Hugo Chavez has revealed that Venezuela has made its first drone in partnership with Iran, Russia and China, and said Caracas plans to start exporting it soon. Iran, Russia and China. Where have I heard that before?
"It is one of the three planes that we have manufactured here, and we are continuing to make them... not just for military use, (as) much of its equipment is for civilian use," Chavez said Wednesday during a meeting with top military and defense officials. Drones? Civilian use? Must be a banana republic.
The drones were developed in cooperation with "Russia, China, Iran and other allied countries," he said in remarks broadcast on radio and television. More like Axis countries.
Designed as a surveillance tool, the machine "does not carry arms" and has a 100-kilometer (60 mile) sweep. It can fly solo for some 90 minutes and reach an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,000 feet)," said General Julio Morales, president of the state-run Venezuelan Military Industrial Company Cavim.
Chavez is a left-wing firebrand who often criticizes the United States, which has closely monitored for any signs of Iranian influence in Venezuela.
The United States -- which has controversially waged drone strikes remotely against suspected militants in Pakistan and Yemen -- expressed caution about Chavez's announcement.
"The Venezuelans make lots of extravagant claims. So do the Iranians," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Thursday in Washington.
"Our concern, obviously, would be with any breaking of international sanctions on Iran. And we will be most vigilant in watching how this goes forward," she said. Any breaking of sanctions? Really? What about a guy who carries around a stack of waivers to hand out whenever someone asks for one?
Another official in Venezuela said that the drone was assembled from parts made locally and built by engineers trained in Iran. And maybe Iran kicked in a few spare parts they had hanging around in ziplock baggies.
Measuring four meters (13 feet) long by three meters (10 feet) wide, the drone can transmit real time photographs and video, officials said. It is currently being modified so it can also carry out night flights. Probably an Iranian modification. As well as being able to fly underwater at super sonic speeds.
Cavim is also developing guns such as the AK103 in partnership with Russia, grenades and munitions, as well as more pilotless planes.
"Of course we are developing a powder factory... a drone factory, of course we are doing it. We have the right, we wouldn't have it if we were a colony, but we are a free and independent nation," Chavez said. If you say so. Who's going to argue with you?
A former military man, Chavez has been developing cooperation with several countries to boost the Venezuelan army. For use against ... ?
#3
ION DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > [Russia-led/suppor] NICARAGUAN CANAL PROJECT STEPS UP TO RIVAL PANAMA.
"PANAMA CANAL II" = Is it just me, or is anyone else getting the feeling POTUS Teddy Roosevelt = USA is going to have to once again finish what other nations started???
and
* TOPIX > NEW ["Pacific"]ALLIANCE: MEXICO, COLUMBIA, PERU, + CHILE. Breakaway from the PANAM/OPAS to form "China/Asia"-looking Econ Bloc of States.
Eastern [+ Mahico] versus Western SOUTH AMERICA [Mercusor Bloc]???
Former spokesperson of the Moro rebels, Eid Kabalu has made a complete turnaround to become a "peace consultant" of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Kabalu was the mouthpiece of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for more than 10 years and was the most accessible rebel official whenever major clashes between the rebel group and the military occurred, including the "all-out war" declared in 2000 by then President Joseph Estrada.
Kabulu said, "My joining the AFP was of my own volition. I'm here on a mission of peace, and I believe working to attain that elusive peace in Mindanao is an individual responsibility."
The military hunted down Kabalu and other top MILF leaders in the aftermath of rebel attacks on civilian communities in 2008 after the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a proposed Bangsamoro homeland deal to end the MILF rebellion.
The MILF Central Committee suspended Kabalu for his alleged involvement in the 2010 general elections. He resigned from the MILF last year before its top leaders could expel him for talking to local politicians about his desire to be a nominee for acting chair of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. President Benigno Aquino eventually appointed another man to the post.
Major General Rey Ardo, commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said Kabalu volunteered to help the military in its peace efforts. Colonel Roy Galido, commander of the Army's 40th Infantry Battalion, said the former rebel spokesperson "can be an effective reconciliatory asset for the AFP."
Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu said, "He could be an effective helping hand in resolving rido (feuds) among Moro clans, some of whom happen to be MILF members involved in political and land ownership squabbles."
While Kabalu's act was praised by the government side, the MILF downplayed his decision to work with the military. It does "not augur well with his personality," said Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF political affairs chief. But then, Jaafar said he hoped Kabalu could help the situation in Mindanao.
Kabalu said he did not turn his back on the Moro struggle. He said, "Now, working as a mainstream peace missionary, my position would be no armed confrontation or violence. I am for a peaceful resolution of the decades-old Mindanao conflict."
#3
F-18 Super-Hornets repor will be able to carry + launch Drones.
The day is coming where, in addition to displaying their differentiated Bomb or Weapon loads, both Recce + TacAir, etc. will display internal, RC mini-Drones capable of launching AAMS or AGMS. DRONES WILL CARRY + LAUNCH DRONES WHICH WILL CARRY + LAUNCH DRONES.
[Bangla Daily Star] The Myanmar government has conveyed its anxiety to the Bangladesh mission there that 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... had been helping the Rohingya groups in Bangladesh with arms to incite sectarian festivities in Myanmar.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said this in a statement in parliament yesterday.
"For the sake of its national security, Bangladesh will not allow any more Rohingya in," she said.
Referring to appeals from different human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... bodies and non-government organizations to allow the Rohingyas to enter Bangladesh, Dipu Moni said Dhaka was not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol.
"Therefore, under no convention or protocol are we obliged to shelter the Rohingyas.
"Although we are not bound by any international laws, considering our experience of the 1971 [Liberation War], we have been sheltering the Rohingyas on humanitarian grounds," she told the House.
Remembering Bangladesh refugees taking shelter in India during the Liberation War, she said, "We have never forgotten it and that's why Bangladesh always extends its helping hands when such incidents take place."
"In 1971, there was a war going on in Bangladesh. There was mass killing, looting and rape taking place.... We are grateful that the Indira Gandhi government and the people of India stood beside the Bangladesh refugees."
But Myanmar's situation is not similar to that of Bangladesh in 1971, she added.
"The situation is not as if the Rohingya people have no place to go. We ourselves face many problems. We have allowed many Rohingyas to live in our country and we do not want to add to our problems by allowing more of them in.
"The country [Myanmar] is not forcing its citizens to leave the country. This is a sectarian clash in which the state is not involved. The Myanmar government is rather working to resolve the problem," she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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(Sh. M. Network)-Unknown gang has assassinated on Wednesday night a district commissioner for Somalia government in Mogadishu,Somalia capital, witnesses and officials said.
Abdirahman Jowle Jim'ale, the dear departed was bumped off as he walked near his home after performing evening prayer insideMogadishu's Shibis district by person or persons unknown armed with pistols who later managed to escape from the shooting site.
Yabarow Haruur, former Shibis commissioner for TFG, confirmed to Shabelle Media the death of Mr. Jim'ale, saying that security forces are launching investigation to arrest those committed the murder.
Locals expressed shock and concern over the killing and urged Somali government to beef up the overall security to protect such acts from happening in the district.
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
US President Barack Obama spoke to Saudi King Abdullah on Thursday, as regional diplomacy intensifies over Syria's escalating civil war and Iran's nuclear programme. The White House declined to give details of the conversation, or to say exactly which issues Obama and Abdullah discussed.
"The two leaders reaffirmed the strong and enduring bilateral relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia," said a statement issued by Obama's press secretary Jay Carney.
And how useful it would be if the Saudis kept oil prices down between now and the election, perhaps.
The two leaders also discussed "a range of issues of mutual interest as part of their ongoing consultations," a White House statement said.
Well, the House of Saud's salafists don't like Syria or Iran, so that's one common interest. And then there's the mutual dislike of Israel to keep things collegial...
Saudi Arabia has said that regional states should provide the means for Syria's opposition forces to defend themselves against the onslaught from President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
And to be positioned to block Iran in any coming conflict? I am skeptical that the Arabs would risk their own lives, but on the other hand the opportunity to position troops to block both Iran and the Shiite Iraqis might be sufficiently tempting.
Washington is reluctant to send in arms, citing the uncertain motives and organisation of disparate Syrian opposition groups, but has been providing communications equipment and medical aid to the rebels.
Iran has criticised Saudi Arabia for increasing its oil output this year to make up for a shortfall in Iranian crude resulting from US and European Union sanctions to punish Tehran for its nuclear program.
So the Chinese may be sufficiently happy to stay out of things for a while?
The call between Obama and the king took place ahead of the next round of nuclear talks between Iran and international powers in Moscow next week.
Ties between the Obama administration and the Saudi government were strained during the height of Arab spring protests last year, but senior US officials say they have since recovered, as the allies confront a common challenge from Iran.
Well, that and the fact that Netanyahu is getting antsy.
#1
Unlike some other 'leaders', Netanyahu does not have the luxury of kicking the can down the road. Sooner or later, he has to choose between worse and worser.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > SENIOR SHIA CLERIC WARNING SAUDI AUTHORITIES AGZ ABUSE/HARASSMENT OF IRANIAN [Hajj/Haj] PILGRIMS.
* SAME > IRANIAN LAWMAKERS TERM EXECUTION OF CITIZENS [fish boat sailors] A "CRIMINAL ACT", to which the KSA will be held unilaterally + wholly responsible.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > SAUDI ENVOY SUMMONED OVER EXECUTED IRANIANS, IRAN OFFCIAL ACCUSES KINGDOM OF VIOLATING HUMAN RIGHTS [+ Sailors' Diplomatic Rights] + ISLAMIC TRADITION.
* SAME > IRAN WARNS SUAID ARABIA OF HARASSING SHIA PILGRIMS.
* SAME > PAKISTANI PILGRIMS FACING PROBLEMS IN SAUDI ARABIA.
[Dawn] Amnesia Amnesty International on Thursday accused Syria of committing crimes against humanity to punish communities supporting rebels, as monitors reported a spate of car booms and festivities which killed dozens more people.
The London-based rights group called for an international response after claiming it had fresh evidence that victims, including children, had been dragged from their homes and rubbed out by soldiers, who in some cases then set the remains on fire.
"This disturbing new evidence of an organised pattern of grave abuses highlights the pressing need for decisive international action," said Amnesty's Donatella Rovera on the release of the 70-page report entitled Deadly Reprisals.
The advocacy group interviewed people in 23 towns and villages across Syria and concluded that government forces and militias were guilty of "grave human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
If the US would have been involved this would have been said over a year ago
[Dawn] At least six gun-hung tough guys were killed by Pak forces, in an act of retaliation, at the Pak-Afghan border on Thursday, DawnNews reported.
Pak forces opened their fire after they were attacked by the gun-hung tough guys from the other side of the border.
The incident took place in the mountain region of upper Dir area.
Meanwhile in Orakzai agency's Mamuzai area, jet-bombing of the Pak forces killed at least nine gun-hung tough guys and their hideouts were also demolished.
According to the sub-collector Hameed Khan, "Jet-bombing of the Pak security forces on suspected bully boy hideouts, at least nine gun-hung tough guys were killed and six hideouts were destroyed in Mamuzai area of Orakzai."
"Ninety two percent of Orakzai area is not under the control of the bully boys, " security sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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Top|| File under: TTP
[Al Ahram] Thousands of Shiite pilgrims headed on foot to a north Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... shrine on Thursday to commemorate the death of a revered Shiite imam, undaunted by waves of attacks that killed 72 people a day earlier.
Routes leading to Kadhimiyah neighbourhood, site of the shrine of Imam Musa Kadhim, the seventh of 12 Shiite imams who died in 799, were closed to all traffic except emergency vehicles, AFP journalists said.
Pilgrims wound under a blistering sun through the streets in their thousands, repeating religious chants, some beating their chests in a sign of mourning for the imam.
Tents along the way provided the pilgrims with free food and water.
In the Utayfiyah area of north Storied Baghdad, long lines of pilgrims, many wearing green headbands and some carrying green flags, the colour of Islam, were seen marching toward the shrine.
Vast crowds of chanting pilgrims were also seen walking through Karrada in central Storied Baghdad, where a bomb on Wednesday blasted the pilgrims' food tents, killing 16 people, damaging cars and scattering human remains across the street.
Another car boomwent kaboom! on the outskirts of Kadhimiyah on Wednesday, killing seven people, leaving a hole two metres (yards) deep in a street, damaging cars and destroying a number of makeshift houses.
"This is the sixth year I have come ... I left home around 2:00 am and I feel so good now," said Hussein Murawih, 17, who walked from Suwayrah, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of Storied Baghdad.
"We just came to tell the bully boyz that we are against you. We are not afraid of the kabooms or of terrorism. Visiting Imam Kadhim is a great thing because we want to express condolences to the imam."
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[Iran Press TV] Police have clashed with thousands of angry demonstrators in Togo's capital city, Lome, in the third day of protests against electoral reforms.
On Thursday, violent festivities between security forces and demonstrators continued in Lome, during which stones were thrown and tear gas was fired.
Some 40 people have been injured during the three-day unrest, which began earlier in the week ahead of forthcoming parliamentary elections.
Protesters backing the 'Save Togo' movement want an end to the system allowing unlimited presidential terms.
They say recent electoral reforms favor President Faure Gnassingbe's ruling party.
Demonstrators want a return to the Togo 1992 constitution which limits the mandate of a sitting head of state to two terms.
Legislative polls are expected to be held in October but no precise date has been set.
The small West African nation has been run by the same family for more than four decades. Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005 after the death of his father, the country's former President.
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[Al Ahram] Moslem Brüderbund presidential candidate Mohamed Mursi gave a presser confirming his running for the presidential elections and emphasising that the revolution will continue
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[Al Ahram] Presidential finalist and Mubarak-era PM Ahmed Shafiq hails 'historical' court verdict allowing him to contest presidency, urges Egyptians to vote without fear
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[An Nahar] At least 60 people were killed on Thursday in violence across Syria, including 10 in the central province of Homs, and as car booms went kaboom! in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... and the northwest city of Idlib, monitors reported.
The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said regime forces killed 60 people across the country, among them four children, two women and a rebel Free Syrian Army commander.
Nineteen people were killed in the Damascus suburbs of Douma, Zamalka and Hammouriyeh, 19 in Homs, nine in Daraa, five in Idlib, three in Deir Ezzor, two in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , two in Hama and one in Latakia, the LCC said.
A jacket wallah detonated an explosives-packed vehicle in a suburb of the capital, wounding 14 people and damaging one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, state media and witnesses reported.
State news agency SANA said the vehicle went kaboom! in a garage 50 meters (yards) from the Sayyida Zeinab shrine. There was "substantial damage in the area of the blast," and "the terrorist who carried out the operation was killed."
The Observatory reported widespread raids by troops later in the capital.
A car boom in Idlib city targeted a military checkpoint, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that a number of soldiers were killed or maimed.
Eight people, including three opposition fighters, were killed during festivities between troops and rebels in the central city of Homs, it said, while also reporting renewed regime shelling of Rastan in the province of the same name and of Daraa in southern Syria.
Two opposition fighters, including Ahmed Bahbouh -- head of the rebel military office in Rastan and a leading dissident -- were killed at the entrances of the rebel-held town, which the regime has been trying to overrun for months.
Troops bombarded Rastan "using helicopters and mortars, killing and wounding a large number of rebel fighters," the watchdog reported.
The Observatory accused the U.N. observers of "silence," saying that they "do not move until after a city is defeated by regime troops, as happened in al-Haffe."
That was a reference to a town in Latakia province that was bombarded for eight days before troops moved in.
In the city of Daraa, five people were killed before dawn in the neighborhood of Tareek al-Sad, which was heavily shelled, the Britannia-based Observatory said.
"Government forces have surrounded the neighborhood of Tareek al-Sad in preparation to storm the area," it said.
Six people were killed in the central province of Hama, including three soldiers, two officers and a girl, while another civilian was killed in Damascus province, according to the Observatory.
At least 77 people were killed across Syria on Wednesday, including 49 civilians, 21 soldiers and seven rebels, the watchdog said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Nineteen people were killed in the Damascus suburbs of Douma, Zamalka and Hammouriyeh, 19 in Homs, nine in Daraa, five in Idlib, three in Deir Ezzor, two in Aleppo, two in Hama and one in Latakia, the LCC said.
C'mon Latakia! Slackers.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/15/2012 9:39
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[Iran Press TV] Separate kabooms have killed three people and injured 13 others in northern and eastern Afghanistan, officials say.
Early on Thursday, a kaboom in Sheberghan, the capital of the northern province of Jowzjan, injured a tribal elder, his two children, and eight other people, provincial police chief Abdul Aziz Ghairat told DPA.
Later in the day, two bombers struck a military base in the Nari district in the eastern province of Kunar in an attack, which also killed an Afghan security guard and injured two other security forces, provincial police chief Ewaz Mohammad Naziri said.
Thursday's attacks come as an international conference, attended by representatives from 30 countries and delegates from international organizations, is underway in the capital Kabul. The conference addresses security, combating terrorism, and drug trafficking.
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06/15/2012
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[Al Ahram] Former Salafist presidential contender warns of possible ramifications of Thursday's controversial constitutional court verdicts, describing them as de facto 'military coup'
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06/15/2012
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#1
See also INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > [Egyptian Supreme Court] RULING TO DISSOLVE PARLIAMENT SPARKS OUTRAGE.
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood = warns that EGYPT IS HEADING INTO DARK DAYS MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE LAST DAYS OF MUBARAK REGIME.
versus
* TOPIX > IRAN'S DESIRE FOR POST-ARAB SPRING INFLUENCE FRUSTRATED IN EGYPT.
Contrary to the Artic, methinks its more correct to say that Iran has not yet begun to fight???
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Fars News Agency = FNA] NEW [Saudi = domestic] OPPOSITION MOVEMENT URGES RAPID OVERTHROW OF AL-SAUD MONARCHY.
* TOPIX > NEW BATTLES EMERGE IN BAHRAIN FROM WRECKAGE OF SHIITE MOSQUES.
The Italian police have tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! ten people believed to have criminal masterminded a series of kabooms in Italia and other European countries, Press TV reports.
The operation was part of a joint police blitz in Italia, Germany and Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... on Wednesday against two anarchic and insurrectionist organizations known as FAI (Informal Anarchist Federation) and FRI (International Revolutionary Front) which led to the arrest of ten people.
The tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! members are accused of subversion as well as planning and executing bombings in a university in Milan in 2009 and another state-run center near the northern Italian town of Gorizia in 2011.
They have also been held responsible for the attacks against the Equitalia taxing agency in Rome, the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and the Greek embassy in Gay Paree.
"Eight out of ten of the arrests were issued against people who were already in prison serving sentences for previous crimes. It is beyond speak that they are some of the criminal masterminds of the terrorist groups, those who genuinely orchestrate the strategies. FAI is a well-organized group which operates in networks all over Europe," Valeria Lupidi a sociologist and criminologist told Press TV.
It is not yet clear if the tossed in the clink Please don't kill me! people have been directly connected with the most recent terrorist attack in Italia in which a senior executive of the aerospace and defense company, Finmeccanica, was kneecapped in Genoa last month.
Given the recent spate of worrying and often conflicting reports of new terror threats targeting Italian and European cities, the chorus of alarm has left people a little confused about the political nature of FAI.
"Amid a time of economic struggle and deep uncertainty, people's resentment has to be expected and in a society this resentment can at times be expressed through anger and violence. Some media keep referring to FAI as a leftwing organization. This assumption is unacceptable. On what basis do they make this assumption?" Lupidi argued.
In a recent message posted on a website, FAI has threatened to disrupt the upcoming London Olympics with terrorist attacks in order to hurt Britannia's national image and paralyze the British economy.
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06/15/2012
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#1
Anarchists? Is that still a thing?
Posted by: American Delight ||
06/15/2012 21:24
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(Sh. M. Network)-A powerful blast has on Thursday rocked across Somalia's central town of Beledweyne, the latest series of attacks against Somali and Æthiopian troops in the town since Al shabab quit Dec 31, 2011, last year, witnesses said.
Thursday's kaboom hit convoy of military vehicles carrying Æthiopian forces traveling on the outskirts of Beledweyne town, which lies just 350 kilometers north of Mogadishu, Somalia capital, causing unidentified casualties on the soldiers, according a TFG official.
"The Blast was used a remote-controlled landmine that struck Æthiopian troops at a remote village located on the suburbs of Beledweyne town and the casualties are yet to be confirmed," said, Mohammed Ibrahim, a TFG official in Beledweyne.
Witnesses said Æthiopian troops cordoned off the blast site and conducted heavy search operation to find out the criminal mastermind of the attack, but no arrests were made. The suation is reportedly tense and locals gripped in fear.
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06/15/2012
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[Iran Press TV] The US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... have launched a war on Syria by funding and training the gun-hung tough guys who commit Houla-style massacres in the Arab country, an analyst tells Press TV.
"This is a war of aggression. It is not necessarily using the instruments of conventional theater wars, which is to come in with artillery and air force and so on, but allied Special Forces on the ground," said Michel Chossudovsky, a professor at the Center for Research of Globalization, Montreal.
He added that the US-backed coalition is staging a "massive casualty-producing event" in Syria, namely the killing of civilians and blaming it on the enemy.
The historical origins of the "massive casualty-producing event" go back to "Operation Northwoods," an infamous 1962 Pentagon Plan, consisting of killing civilians in the Miami Cuban community, with a view to justifying a war on Cuba.
"The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro," abcnews.com reported on May 1, 2001.
On May 25, 108 people were killed in a massacre in the town of Houla, in the volatile central province of Homs in Syria.
Less than two weeks later, a second massacre took place in the central village of al-Qubeir in the Hama Province.
Chossudovsky added that it is not coincidental that the US is threatening China in the South China Sea and is also threatening Russia on its European borders.
"These threats are there in a sense to convince the Russians and the Chinese that they should toe the line; it's a blackmailing process," he said.
"But I should emphasize that if any kind of broader military action were to take place against Syria this could lead to escalation and become a regional war, which would extend from the Eastern Mediterranean right through to Central Asia and the Western Frontier," Chossudovsky concluded.
This article starring:
Center for Research of Globalization, Montreal
Michel Chossudovsky
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06/15/2012
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(Sh.M.Network)- Dutch parliament has agreed to expand involvement in theNATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... operation Ocean Shield, targeting piracy in Somali waters. But ships wanting to hire private security forces to give them extra protection will not be allowed to do so.
The Netherlands will send extra personnel, two Cougar helicopters and an unmanned plane to the region. Meeting a NATO request, the Netherlands will also send a submarine to join the mission in the second half of 2012.
The additional involvement aims for intelligence-gathering and will cost 13 million euros.
The Dutch government says the aim is to help detect piracy early on and prevent the escalation of violence. The pirates are well organized, have substantial financial backing and operate from well-equipped mother ships supplied from camps along the Somali coast.
Their main targets are merchant ships and aid convoys (food and otherwise). At least 59 merchant ships were attacked last year; 13 of them were actually hijacked.
Private security forces
On Tuesday, Dutch insurance companies backed an earlier appeal by ship owners to allow merchant ships to hire private protection forces. They claim the Dutch naval forces are underequipped to protect all ships passing through theGulf of Adenand have previously declined requests for protection.
They add that even if the Dutch navy is able to provide protection, it would cost twice as much. Dutch merchant ships have already resorted to sailing under the flag of foreign countries that do allow private security forces, according to the insurance companies.
Minister of defence Hans Hillen acknowledged the high cost of protection, but said there was little he could do. According to him: "All armed organizations have to fall under the state's responsibility to ensure accuracy and proportional measures.
Therefore, the ministry of defence cannot allow private armed security forces to operate in the area. The high cost of naval protection is mainly the result of high fuel costs, due to the elevated speed of most vessels.
We could cut down on the costs if we moved at a slower pace, but that would also mean we're an easier target."
The minister announced that naval protection would increase from 50 cases to 175 in 2013.
Defence, diplomacy and development
Although all parties backed the proposal, Dutch Democratic Party D66 and green left party Groen Links stressed that military intervention was mainly a treatment of the symptoms, not a cure for the problem itself.
"Defence is only one of the 3 Ds. In order to find a long-term solution, we will need to invest in diplomacy and development as well," remarked Arjan El Fassed of the Green Party.
Minister of foreign affairs Uri Rosenthal said the Netherlands is contributing to the stabilisation of the area, notably by investing in the reconstruction of the rule of law and detention capacity.
Atalanta controversial
The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... counter-piracy mission Operation Atalanta has been declared "controversial" by the Dutch parliament and will only be discussed after parliamentary elections in September.
Operation Atalanta would have allowed Dutch troops to attack logistical camps along the coastline from sea or air.OperationOceanShield does not have that mandate.
This mission is being led by Dutch commodore Ben Bekkering, who assumed command last week from Turkish rear admiral Sinan Azmi Tosun.
The issue of private security forces will be discussed further in a separate debate later this week.
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06/15/2012
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#1
You know, as a live-fire FTX, fighting pirates ain't too bad. Least you'll know who freaks out and who keeps his head. Move them around accordingly.
I gather Rumsfeld encouraged NATO to send their specops guys to Astan for the experience of it.
So, all in all, maybe NATO is getting just a touch of experience.
#2
I'm all for attaking pirates and think every nation should send a boat or two for live fire practice but realistically we're gonna need to smash some stuff along the shore to really end the pirates.
[Al Ahram] Tunisia's interior ministry on Thursday banned demonstrations, in the face of several calls for protests to uphold sacred values after Friday prayers, ministry spokesman Khaled Tarrouche told AFP. "No march has been authorised by the ministry of the interior," Tarrouche said, adding that "the law will be applied against all acts of violence".
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(Sh.M.Network) -- An Eritrean ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age. ... man pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to illegally giving funds and receiving military training from the al Qaeda-linked bully boy group 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... Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, 38, was tossed in the calaboose Please don't kill me! in Nigeriain November 2009 and brought to Manhattan federal court to face U.S.terrorism charges in March 2010. He is an Eritrean national and a permanent resident of Sweden.
Now he will be a temporary, long term resident of the American penal system, which is not like the Swedish one.
Ahmed on Wednesday pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization and one count of conspiracy to receive military-type training from a terrorist group. Both offenses took place in 2009.
Prosecutors, in a plea agreement with Ahmed, recommended Judge Kevin Castel sentence him to 10 years in prison.
"The government would prove that the defendant handed over an AK-47 to an al-Shabaab commander as he was leavingSomalia," Manhattan federal prosecutor Benjamin Naftalis said at Wednesday's plea hearing.
The U.S.government considers al-Shabaab to be al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state. The U.S. State Department lists it as a foreign terrorist organization.
The 10-year prison term was significantly less than what Ahmed could have faced had he been convicted at trial on all five counts he faced. One of the counts, a gun possession charge, carried a mandatory minimum 30-year prison term.
In court papers last month, prosecutors said Ahmed had attended an Islamist bully boy training camp inAfghanistan in the 1990s.
In January 2009, prosecutors said, Ahmed traveled to Somalia fromSwedento join al-Shabaab. He eventually spent six weeks in the bully boy group's company and was later tossed in the calaboose Please don't kill me! by Nigerian authorities, the prosecutors said.
Defense lawyers for Ahmed at marathon court hearings in December sought to show that his arrest, detention and interrogation by Nigerian andU.S.authorities was improper.
In last month's court papers, prosecutors also identified a person only as "CW-2," a cooperating witness against Ahmed. The witness was described as a former al-Shabaab military commander who met Ahmed in Somalia.
The person fits the profile of Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, a suspected Somali bully boy who was captured in waters betweenYemen and Somalia in April 2011. Warsame is inU.S.custody and is awaiting trial in U.S. District Court inManhattan.
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[Yemen Post] Thousands of Yemeni people poured onto the streets of the capital Sanaa, in a demonstration which marked a new era of the popular uprising amid ongoing demolition of the protest camps across the republic.
For the first time since the uprising erupted in early 2011, the demonstration passed through areas including the presidential zone and other places which have been very dangerous since loyalists of the ex-regime have been stationed there to crack down on revolutionaries.
The people gathered on Taiz Street and walked passing through many streets chanting 'freedom and dignity slogans'.
They carried the flags of Yemen and Syria
Why Syria?
and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud: the people want to prosecute the serial killer, referring to the ex-leader, Saleh; and 'the people want to build a new Yemen'.
They also rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud in solidarity with the Syrian people, who have been struggling to oust the Assad regime for more than one year.
Yes, but the Egyptians have been struggling to...whatever it is. Surely they deserve sympathetic hollered slogans as well.
The Yemeni parties signed in November a West-backed power-transfer deal, which saw Saleh relinquish power after 33 years in office and after almost nine months of protests against his rule.
Saleh signed the deal in return for full immunity from prosecution over administrative and financial corruption and his aides were given immunity from prosecution, but not from terrorism-related issues.
Locals in some areas warmly welcomed the protesters and poured waters and sweets over them, chanting together: corrupt officials must go out and free people must build a new Yemen.
The protesters held a sit-in at the republican palace in downtown Sanaa, not far from the change square, and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud blessing the victory of the forces against Al-Qaeda beturbanned goons in Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province.
The Yemeni army on Tuesday waged fierce battles against Al-Qaeda beturbanned goons forcing them from their last strongholds in Abyan after months of a US-backed offensive.
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has failed in his bid to reopen his appeal against extradition to Sweden where he faces sex crime allegations.
The announcement was made today by the Supreme Court. It is understood that Assange's legal team now has 14 days to apply to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to hear his case.
Dinah Rose QC, appearing for Assange, applied to the Supreme Court justices for permission to make further submissions, but they unanimously dismissed the application, saying it was "without merit".
On May 30, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-2 majority that Assange's extradition was lawful and could go ahead.
The Swedish authorities want Assange, 40, to answer accusations of raping one woman and sexually molesting and coercing another in Stockholm in August 2010 while on a visit to give a lecture.
The majority of Supreme Court justices rejected his argument that the European arrest warrant (EAW) issued against him by Sweden was "invalid and unenforceable".
Assange's lawyers now have until June 28 to ask Strasbourg to consider his case on the basis that he has not had a fair hearing from the UK courts.
It will then be for the European Court to decide whether or not to postpone extradition while another hearing goes ahead
The court has the power to issue a direction to the UK Government that he should not be surrendered to Sweden if it decides to consider his claim.
It is understood that, if Strasbourg does not intervene and no other legal process is set in train, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) will proceed with Assange's extradition.
[Bangla Daily Star] A popular Indian guru facing a series of assault and sexual abuse charges was in police custody yesterday after he turned himself in to court authorities.
Police ordered Swami Nithyananda, 35, to be placed in long-term storage Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! for questioning after five women accused him of abusing them at his Hindu religious retreat in the southern state of Karnataka.
Nithyananda, wearing flowing saffron robes, surrendered on Wednesday to a court in Ramanagar, 35 kilometres from the state capital Bangalore, before he was taken into custody.
Last week Nithyananda held an unruly presser after which some of his followers were charged with assaulting a television journalist when allegations of sexual abuse at his ashram were raised.
Nithyananda, one of many gurus in India who attract groups of devoted followers, was held in jail for 53 days in 2010 over a sex video scandal. He said the video was fake and was eventually freed on bail.
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[An Nahar] Syrian opposition groups are to meet in a bid to settle their differences, as the violence in their country threatens to descend into civil war, sources among the groups said Thursday.
Senior members of the main opposition, Syrian National Council (SNC), Kurdish National Council, and smaller groups such as one led by tribal chief Nawaf al-Bashir will meet in Istanbul Friday and Saturday, they said.
"It is kind of a last call to join us," a SNC source said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered...
The bid to iron out their differences comes ahead of a major conference organized by opposition groups in Cairo under the auspices of the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... , at a date to be announced.
The newly elect head of SNC, Kurdish activist Abdel Basset Sayda, said as he took office last Sunday that his priority was to unify the opposition.
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[Iran Press TV] The number of murder cases in the American city of Chicago has reached a record high of 228 murders in just six months, showing a 35-percent increase compared to last year, Press TV reports.
The number of murders in the city is reportedly twice as many as the number of Americans lost on the battlefields of Afghanistan over the past six months.
"People are scared to come out of their doors. They are scared for their kids who sit on the porches and play in the playground. There is total fear," Pastor Robin Hood living in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood told Press TV.
Across Chicago, the murder rate is now at two a day with Chicago Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy believing that most of the violent crime in the city is gang-related.
"We are trying to get a handle on in the cities and in internal disputes in one of our gangs, which is the largest gang in the city. They have an internal dispute where they are fighting and shooting at each other," McCarthy told Press TV.
According to the report, Chicago has the largest gang population in the US, with approximately 100,000 members who commit 75-80 percent of the city's homicides.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Sounds like Obambi "organized " orcs are doing well.
Posted by: Steven ||
06/15/2012 1:03
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#2
I blame economics, lower than annual average percipitation, and the man.
#16
Same places every weekend too.
But while this "war" rages on 100-200 CPD are being used to provide a security corridor around Valerie Jarrets daughters wedding in Barack's old toney neighborhood. Very nice zip code that is a little less than a mile from the "shooting gallery".
Rahm's out of town with his family this weekend, too, (Him and Val not being all chummy chummy from the WH days) and the temps are going to reach 93. The over/under last time I checked is 43 shootings/ 18 fatalities in the "land of no weapons needed or allowed"
The U.S. Forces Korea has proposed keeping an artillery brigade just north of Seoul to respond swiftly to North Korean batteries lined up along the border, despite an original plan to pull forces back south of the capital.
"The USFK has offered to keep the 210th Fires Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division at its present base" in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province rather than move it south to a new base in Pyeongtaek with the rest of the USFK, a government source said Thursday. It was to move by 2016.
The source said the USFK now feels it would be difficult to respond swiftly to a North Korean artillery attack on Seoul from the border if the brigade is moved.
Equipped with 30 multiple launch rocket systems, the brigade is tasked with attacking North Koreas long-range artillery and mechanized units in case of an emergency. If it stays in Dongducheon, only the combat and aviation brigades of the 2nd Infantry Division will move south to Pyeongtaek.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2012
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#1
Perhaps the Arty Tubes are facing the wrong direction ....
To wit,
* DAILY TIMES.PK > RUSSIA LESS PEACEFUL THAT NORTH KOREA: REPORT [Australia-based IEP study].
[Tripoli Post] Libya's Supreme Court on Thursday nullified a law passed at the start of May that banned glorification former dictator leader Muammar Qadaffy ... the like of whose wardrobe will never be seen again. At least that's what we hope... who was ousted from power and killed in an uprising last year after more than four decades in power.
In a brief hearing, the head of the Libyan court's constitutional chamber announced "In the name of the people, the court has decided on the unconstitutionality of Law No 37,"
It followed an appeal lodged with the court by a Libyan human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... group against the May 2 law adopted by Libya's ruling National Transitional Council, NTC, that drew criticism from international watchdogs over freedom of expression.
The text of the law had read: "Praising or glorifying Muammar Qadaffy, his regime, his ideas or his sons... is punishable by a prison sentence." Though not specified, under Libya's penal code, the jail terms could range from three to 15 years
The law had also criminalised spreading rumours or information that could hamper military activities, spread terror, or weaken the morale of citizens.
It had prescribed prison sentences for the glorification of Qadaffy as well as publishing any news "harming the February 17 revolution."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Hopefully, this ruling is about granting the same freedoms that the US enshrined in the First Amendment.
[Yemen Post] Yemen's President Abdrabu Mansour Hadi has given the security systems a 72-hour deadline to release all people who have been locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! in connection with the popular uprising and all extrajudicial detainees, Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper reported on Thursday.
The Military Committee said Wednesday suitable measures have been taken over the issue of the detainees in connection with the popular uprising, which erupted in early 2011, but it did not give details.
Rights organizations have criticized the slowness of the authorities the extrajudicial detention in the country, and demanded the authorities to act over the issue of all detainees quickly and effectively.
In his report submitted to the UN Security Council recently, the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, urged to release the detainees in connection with the latest developments in Yemen.
In its latest resolution for Yemen on Tuesday, the UN Security Council urged the government to release the detainees without delay.
The resolution has been hailed by the international community since it came to back the democratic transition under a West-backed power-transfer deal reached in November.
The youth-led protesters, who have refused to leave the change and freedom squares across Yemen until the revolution goals were met, have staged many demonstrations to demand the release the detainees.
They claimed youth activists and others disappeared during mass protests against the former regime last year, accusing security systems loyal to the regime and some tribal sheikhs.
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As the population of the Land of the Pure continues to work on its population issues...
Despite the law enforcement measures by the government, assassinations continued 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 at least five people were killed in the metropolis, DawnNews reported.
A man was rubbed out near Tibet centre at M A Jinnah road, one of the busiest roads of the city. The dear departed, Sohail, was a shopkeeper.A man was also injured by the firing incident.
After the incident, the shopkeepers of the area closed their businesses and came out on roads in protest causing the worst traffic jam on M A Jinnah road.
Two political activists, Shabbir and Kamran, were targeted in the area of Garden. Kamran departed this vale of tears and passed away. Shabbir told the media representatives that 'gang war people' opened fire on them in front of the police.
Three people were rubbed out in the areas of Ram Swami, Machar Colony and Khadda market by the unidentified people.
A political activist was rubbed out in Lyari's Agra Taj area.
Two people received bullet wounds in the area of Lee market.
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[Yemen Post] The newly-appointed Central Security Forces (CSF) commander Gen. Fadhal al-Qawsi vowed that al-Qaeda will not be able to infiltrate the army lines and carry out suicide kabooms again, revealing his intentions to revamp and improve the CSF performance.
In an interview published on Thursday with the state-run 26 Sep Newspaper, he said that Infiltrating the security forces lines by al-Qaeda in al-Sabeen deadly suicide kaboom which left more than 100 soldiers killed was a major setback but stressed, "that does not mean that they will be able to infiltrate our forces again."
Al-Qawsi revealed that he has a program aimed at improving the CSF performance in accordance with regional and international standards and that he seeks to obtain helicopters for his key military unit.
He pointed out that he is going to conduct a comprehensive, evaluative study of the CSF performance in order to find out the measures which should be taken in order to overcome its weaknesses and improve it.
Asked how he will deal with protests, he replied, "I will fulfill my duty and never take sides. The era of affiliation is over. I'm only affiliated with, and owe allegiance to Yemen."
Speaking about al-Sabeen suicide kaboom, al-Qawsi said that the investigation is still underway and that it will not stop unit the perpetrators are declared and brought to justice.
He concluded with hailing the politicianship led by President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... , saying he takes pride in the current leadership and receives full support from it.
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(Sh.M.Network)- The frequent CIA drone attacks on terrorist safe havens in countries like Paks widely opposed around the world but not in India, US and UK, according to a recent survey on America's image abroad.
In the vast majority of nations polled, there is considerable opposition to theUS drone campaign against beturbanned goon leaders and organizations.
In 17 of 20 countries, more than half disapprove of theUSconducting drone missile strikes to target Orcs and similar vermin in places such as Pakistain,Yemen and Somalia.
The policy is unpopular in majority Mohammedan nations, but also in Europeand other regions as well.
Indeed, at least three-in-four hold this view in a diverse set of countries: Greece(90 per cent),Egypt (89),Jordan(85),Turkey(81),Spain(76),Brazil(76) and Japan(75). The three outliers on this issue are India,Britannia, and theUSitself.
Indians who have an opinion tend to support American drone strikes (32 per cent approve, 21 disapprove), but nearly half (47) do not offer a view on this question.
Meanwhile, ...back at the sea battle, the Terror of the Baltic's career had come to an abrupt and watery end... the British are almost evenly divided (44 per cent approve, 47 disapprove), the survey said.
Americans largely support the drone attacks: 62 per cent approve; just 28 disapprove.
Across much of the EU, there is a significant ideological gap on this question. For example, a majority (56 per cent) of those who describe themselves as being on the political right in Britannia favor US drone strikes against beturbanned goons, but just 31 on the left agree, the survey said.
A similar gap emerges inLa Belle France, where about half of those on the right (49 per cent) approve of the drone attacks, compared with about one-quarter (26) among people on the left. Double-digit differences are also found inItalia, the Czech Republic and Germany.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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[Al Ahram] The Head of the Egypt's Constitutional Court Farouk Sultan said that Thursday's court rulings have been issued in the state's Official Journal and are thus enforceable.
However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... Sultan said that the Constitutional court does not have the authority to implement its verdicts, in case parliament does not suspend its activities in response, and that implementation is within the powers of the executive authorities, which are currently at the command of SCAF.
Egypt's High Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that the Political Disenfranchisement Law, which had been referred to it by the Presidential Elections Commission, was unconstitutional. In the same session, the court found the election of one third of parliamentary seats, reserved for individual candidates, unconstitutional.
On the other hand, Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Salafist Al-Nour party figure Ashraf Thabet said that parliament will hold its Tuesday plenary as normal, denying that parliament will hold an emergency session upon the ruling.
He further said that parliament will be discussing its legal options following the ruling since it only concerns one third of its members.
As though unfazed by the ruling, the parliamentary secretariat distributed the periodical agenda of the parliamentary committees' activities, which start on 18 June.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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[Al Ahram] Parliament dissolved, disenfranchisement law ruled unconstitutional, constituent assembly's status uncertain -- legal experts and activists condemn Thursday's court rulings
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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#1
The magnitude of the legal decisions that Parliment were planning to enact were both un-governable and un-enforceable by the Supreme Court - and the Military also knows this.
They do not want the country split apart by violent religious tensions that are built by a contradicting Surah and Hadith.
Moreover, it makes the cops more corrupt, thats why they just take bribes. Why get caught between many more than a few Families, clans, tribes, Government business interests, Military "Interests" and all that. Take a buck and walk away.
Un-Governable.
There was already a Constitution in 1976, Therefore, there still is a Constitution.
Govern under that. Egypt has been one of the more tame Countries in the Middle East.
Mubarak was more of a Pinochet type figure. I Am not angry at either, really. A Stable country is golden, and they are all messed up but much fewer die and many more are fed in such a state too.
I think those Supreme Justices' chose Wisdom over letting the street crowd go bat shit crazy burning every book in the Courthouse, implanting feces on the wall, and then leaving.
Then they never are able to decide what is correct or in-correct, nor seeing what worked in the past and keeping it; instead of starting from scratch every time with dreamers, fools, and brutal tyrants that always arise in such conditions.
LONDON - Prime Minister David Cameron warned Argentina on Thursday that London stood "ready and willing" to defend the Falkland Islands, 30 years after Britain recaptured the South Atlantic archipelago whose sovereignty remains a hotly contested issue.
In a speech to commemorate the 1982 British victory over Argentina, Cameron accused Argentina's government of "aggression" and said there would be "absolutely no negotiation" over sovereignty of the tiny islands, about 300 miles off the Argentine coast.
Tensions between the two countries have escalated in recent months, especially since British companies started to carry out offshore oil exploration. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has reasserted claims to the scattered islands, known in Spanish as Las Malvinas.
"My message to the government of Argentina is this. The UK has no aggressive intentions towards you," Cameron told an audience including British veterans of the two-month war to retake the Falklands which resulted in the deaths of 255 British and about 650 Argentine soldiers. "But do not underestimate our resolve. Threats will not work. Attempts to intimidate the islanders will not succeed. Because Britain stands ready and willing to stand up for the Falkland Islanders at any time."
Britain says there could be talks on sovereignty only if the islanders wanted them. The islands' government said on Tuesday it would hold a referendum, probably next year, of its 3,000 inhabitants to see if they wanted to stay part of Britain's self-governing overseas territories.
Argentine Defense Minister Arturo Puricelli dismissed the idea of a referendum. "It's a paradox to ask the usurpers to debate whether or not they want to continue usurping," he said in a speech on Thursday marking the end of the war.
"Argentina has historic, legal and geographic arguments in favor of our sovereignty over the Malvinas," he said.
Gavin Short, chairman of the Falklands Legislative Assembly, said he was certain the residents would back a continued link with London and Cameron said this would clarify the position "beyond any doubt".
"Britain's excuses for not negotiating are unfounded," Alicia Castro, the Argentine ambassador to London, wrote in an article for the Independent newspaper. "They cannot hide behind the so-called self-determination of the islanders when no UN resolution has recognized such a right."
They don't need a UN resolution. The right to self-determination is older than the UN...
Cameron said he wanted a sensible relationship with Buenos Aires and a partnership over issues such as fishing.
"There is only one shadow on the horizon. And that is the aggression from over the water," Cameron said. "We've seen the (Argentine) president trying to restrict the movement of Falklands vessels, banning charter flights to and from Argentina and today, escalating the debate at the U.N."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2012
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#1
"Alicia Castro" > HMMMMMM, HMMMMMM, I wonder iff its the same Alicia from the "Milwaukee Brigade".
[Dawn] A senior US politician said on Wednesday that apologising to Pakistain over the Salala incident would improve Washington's relations with a key ally.
"National security of the US will be better served with a positive relationship with Pakistain," Senator Dianne Feinstein told a Senate hearing on budget priorities for 2013.
The Senator, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, observed that both sides made mistakes in handling the Nov 26 incident, which caused the death of 24 Pak soldiers in a US air raid.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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#1
"we're sorry your forces fired on us"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/15/2012 9:52
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#2
Any questions why our foreign policy under the Democrats is so screwed up?
I think I am going to puke.
She obviously knows nothing of the mindset over there.
What she needs to think about is how she would enjoy life wearing a hijab or a burkah.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/15/2012 10:25
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What she needs to think about is how she would enjoy life wearing a hijab or a burkah
She wouldn't. She'd be an elite there, just as she is here.
#5
I wouldn't mind seeing a reverse apology tour. I agree with Ebbang Uluque on that one. Lets see how some face saving cultures respond when they are forced to publicly apologize or risk their relationship with the US.
[Bangla Daily Star] Ten people were killed in fighting between al-Qaeda gunnies and the army for control of the jihadists' stronghold town of Shuqra in southern Yemen's Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province, a local official said yesterday.
"Clashes using machineguns between al-Qaeda gunnies and the army, backed by local militiamen, left two soldiers dead and 11 maimed," the official in Shuqra told AFP.
He said eight jihadists were also killed in the fighting late on Wednesday.
Fierce festivities between the gunnies and troops trying to retake Shuqra -- the only Abyan town besides Mahfad which cut-throats still hold -- broke out earlier the same day.
On Tuesday, the military drove the jihadists out of the the scenic provincial capital Zinjibar and Jaar, another town. Al-Qaeda gunnies are believed to have fled east to Shuqra.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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[Iran Press TV] Pakistain renews call on the United States to apologize for the US-led forces' killing of 24 Pak soldiers last year.
Speaking to news hounds in the Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday, Pak Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said Islamabad will not consider reopening the border crossings used to transfer supplies to the US-led forces deployed in Afghanistan, Rooters reported.
From October 2001 to November 2011, Pak routes used to serve as the main passageways for the transfer of supplies to the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... forces.
Islamabad closed the border crossings after the Pak soldiers were killed in the US-led aerial assaults on two checkpoints on the Afghan border on November 26.
Khar said the country will keep the crossings closed unless the US makes an unconditional apology for the attacks and reassures Pakistain that such incidents will never happen again.
She also denied reports that the closure of the supply routes are due to haggling over transportation fees with the US.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > [News Tribe] US VIOLATES PAKISTAN COAST, USS ENTERPRISE DOCKED NEAR GAWADAR, BALOCHISTAN | US VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL LAWS, MOVES USS ENTERPRISE [CVN-65]INTO PAKISTANI WATERS NEAR BALOCHISTAN.
* RELATED PAKISTAN TODAY > US DEPLOYS ITS BIGGEST AIRCRAFT CARRIER NEAR GAWADAR | US MOVES USS ENTERPRISE INTO PAKISTANI WATERS.
HHHMMMMM, HMMMMMM, so besides Pakistan, the "Big E" is incidentally where IRAN also wants US CVNS + Amphibs, etc. to be???
* TOPIX > PAKISTAN DEMANDS UNCONDITIONAL APOLOGY FROM US BEFORE SUPPLY ROUTES ARE REOPENED.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAKISTAN NOT "GOUGING" US OVER AFGHAN SUPPLY ROUTES: KHAR | PAKISTAN NOT "GOUGING" OVER NATO SUPPLY ROUTES: KHAR.
* SAME > REHMAN: LACK OF US APOLOGY DELAYS OPENING OF SUPPLY ROUTES.
* SAME > [PressTV] PAKISTANI PRESIDENT [Zardari] TELLS US [CoDel] OF PAKISTANIS' ANGER [frustration, disgust] OVER DRONE STRIKES.
* SAME > ELEMENTS OTHER THAT APOLOGY KEEPS GLOCS CLOSED: PANETTA [to US Senate Sub-Committee]. US HAS ALREADY APOLOGIZED [expressed Regrets] FOR SALALA INCIDENT.
IIUC, Islamabad + Soldiers' families want US compensation = $$$.
[An Nahar] Sectarian bloodshed has displaced tens of thousands of people in Myanmar, left dozens dead and many homes destroyed in western Rakhine state, a bigwig said Thursday.
Twenty-nine people -- 16 Moslems and 13 Buddhists -- have been killed since Friday, with scores more maimed and nearly 2,600 homes burned, said Htein Lin, security and border affairs minister for Rakhine.
The toll does not include 10 Moslems beaten to death on June 3 by a Buddhist mob in apparent Dire Revenge™ for the rape and murder of a woman, which sparked the violence.
Nearly 31,900 people from both sides are being housed in 37 camps across Rakhine, Htein Lin said at the first presser by officials in the state capital Sittwe since widespread rioting began on Friday.
Hla Thein, Rakhine state chief justice, said that "nobody won, nobody benefited" from the violence.
"What we got was refugees," he added. "Everyone has a duty to prevent this happening again... but it's very difficult to talk about peace when both sides don't really trust each other."
The Buddhist Rakhine and Moslem Rohingya have accused each other of violent attacks, and in recent days local residents have been seen on the streets wielding knives, swords and sticks.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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North Korea appointed Lt. Gen. Kim Rak-gyom as head of its Strategic Rocket Force ahead of a Workers Party meeting in April, it was revealed Thursday. The Strategic Rocket Force oversees all of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile facilities.
"According to a source, North Korea revamped its Strategic Rocket Force and appointed Kim Rak-gyom as its head, replacing Choi Sang-ryo, said Chung Sung-jang of the Sejong Institute.
Kim was the only lieutenant general to be elected to the party's Central Military Commission in April, a move which appears to reflect the importance of the command within the armed forces. North Korean leader Suet Face Kim Jong-un in a speech on April 15 addressed the "bold soldiers of the People's Army, Navy, Air Force and Strategic Rocket Force."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2012
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Has anyone seen him alive since that launch failure a while back? Wonder if maybe they decided to use him for artillery practice.
[Iran Press TV] The Lebanese Hezbollah has condemned recent deadly kabooms in Iraq which claimed the lives of 80 people and maimed over 300 across the country, Press TV reports.
"The terrorist machine brought about a bloody day in the streets of Iraqi cities. It planted death and destruction, leaving many innocent civilians killed as they were in their homes, at their work or on a visit to the holy sites," Hezbollah said in a statement released on Thursday.
The Lebanese resistance movement added that the massacres "committed by the enemies of the Iraqi people" were aimed at toppling the Iraqi government and escalating sectarian tensions among the Iraqi people and "breaking up the Iraqi entity in order to serve the Western and Israeli schemes."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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#1
Amazing mental gymnastics at the end.
A strong democratic government in Iraq and economic/political stability are in the best interests of the US and Israel.
Memo to the State Department:
please note the perception filters on those that oppose the best interests of the US in the region, playing nice doesn't change their brainwashed perception of Israel and the US. A rational person would pose that Israel offers more stability in the region than that festering fever swamp of nuttiness in the Gaza and West Bank.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/15/2012 11:02
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[Iran Press TV] Spain will take its dispute with Britain over the sovereignty of the Gibraltar Rock to the United Nations, Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs says, after the provocative projection of British Queen's giant image on the Rock earlier this week.
The image of the Queen was projected on the northern face of the rock next to Britain's flag on Tuesday night as the youngest son of the Queen and his wife visited the disputed Overseas British Territory as part of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
Reports said the image could be seen from miles across the border from Spain, where the Gibraltar Rock is located.
Spain said on Monday that Madrid considers the royals' visit with "disagreement and unease."
Now, in the wake of Gibraltar's provocative move, a spokesman at Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Spain's Ambassador to the UN will refer the sovereignty dispute to the UN Decolonization Committee on Friday to call for negotiations with Britain on the future of the roughly seven square-kilometer area.
"Spain will reiterate its position and talk about the how the situation has been developing in recent months," the spokesman told The Daily Telegrah.
"We will ask the UK to engage in conversation over sovereignty."
This comes as a source at the ministry also underlined Spain's outrage about the Queen's image move.
"We don't approve of what was obviously a symbolic show of sovereignty during a time when we should be working towards solving problems," the source said.
Britain invaded and captured Gibraltar in 1704 and Spain ceded its sovereignty to Britain nine years later as part of the treaty of Utrecht, yet the details of the treaty are a point of contention for both sides.
The UN Special Committee on Decolonization lists the name of the area alongside other British colonies, including Las Malvinas (Falklands) that should be decolonized.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2012
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#1
I'm completely at a loss why any country would fund the U.N.?
#2
I wouldn't worry about it. The UK has veto power in the Security Council. The General Assembly can pass all the resolutions they want, but the only ones with "teeth" come from the Security Council.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/15/2012 7:55
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Of course the UK could sponsor similar actions to champion the aboriginal rights of the Basques, citing their own actions with Scotland as a model for Madrid.
#6
Glad that all of Spain's other issues and problems have been cleared up so they can pick this fight
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/15/2012 11:50
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Spain picks this fight because it hurts their national pride. And they don't have much left of it at this point. It is the only thing they can do to make themselves feel better about themselves.
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.
President Obamas reboot flopped Thursday, so here comes a desperation play. According to the AP, the president is getting set to stop all deportations of a certain group of young illegal aliens. Instead of deportation, the president will begin offering them work permits, allowing them not only to remain in the United States against the law, but to take jobs here.
President Obama will sign an executive order Friday to significantly alter U.S. immigration policy to reduce deportations of illegal immigrants who came to the country at a young age.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it has removed two food products from shelves in China after regulators found they contained banned chemicals.
The battleship where the young tourists roam became flooded over the weekend. Staff arrived Saturday and immediately noticed something was wrong with the ship that fought in World Wars I and II and has served since 1948 as a memorial and museum to those who sacrificed their lives.
President Hugo Chavez has revealed that Venezuela has made its first drone in partnership with Iran, Russia and China, and said Caracas plans to start exporting it soon.
(Sh. M. Network)-Unknown 
US President Barack Obama spoke to Saudi King Abdullah on Thursday, as regional diplomacy intensifies over Syria's escalating civil war and Iran's nuclear programme. The White House declined to give details of the conversation, or to say exactly which issues Obama and Abdullah discussed.
At least 60 people were killed on Thursday in violence across Syria, including 10 in the central province of Homs, and as 
[Iran Press TV] Separate 
(Sh. M. Network)-A powerful blast has on Thursday rocked across Somalia's central town of Beledweyne, the latest series of attacks against Somali and Æthiopian troops in the town since Al shabab quit Dec 31, 2011, last year, witnesses said.
The US and 
(Sh.M.Network)- Dutch parliament has agreed to expand involvement in the
[Yemen Post] Thousands of Yemeni people poured onto the streets of the capital Sanaa, in a demonstration which marked a new era of the popular uprising amid ongoing demolition of the protest camps across the republic. 
A popular Indian guru facing a series of assault and sexual abuse charges was in police custody yesterday after he turned himself in to court authorities.
The number of murder cases in the American city of Chicago has reached a record high of 228 murders in just six months, showing a 35-percent increase compared to last year, Press TV reports.
The U.S. Forces Korea has proposed keeping an artillery brigade just north of Seoul to respond swiftly to North Korean batteries lined up along the border, despite an original plan to pull forces back south of the capital. 
Libya's Supreme Court on Thursday nullified a law passed at the start of May that banned glorification former dictator leader 
[Yemen Post] Yemen's President Abdrabu Mansour Hadi has given the security systems a 72-hour deadline to release all people who have been 
The newly-appointed Central Security Forces (CSF) commander Gen. Fadhal al-Qawsi vowed that al-Qaeda will not be able to infiltrate the army lines and carry out 
Ten people were killed in fighting between al-Qaeda 
Pakistain renews call on the United States to apologize for the US-led forces' killing of 24 Pak soldiers last year.
The Lebanese Hezbollah has condemned recent deadly 
