Quick note at 22:15 CT: we're rolling over several of the Egypt stories into July 4th. So if a post you're looking at suddenly disappears for an hour, that's why.
Wouldn't want to give the rebels a bad name
A Catholic priest was not among three men graphically filmed being beheaded in Syria last week a friar overseeing the Franciscans in the Middle East has told CNN.
Father Francois Mourad, a Syrian originally named as victim of a merciless mob, was instead shot eight times on June 23 when a group of rebels stormed his monastery, said Friar Pierbattista Pizzaballa, head of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. He was buried that same day.
[Al Ahram] An Egyptian appeals court endorsed on Monday a verdict relieving Prime Minister Hisham Qandil of his duties and sentencing him to one year in prison for not executing a court ruling.
The appeals court's endorsement of the verdict against Qandil comes amid unconfirmed reports that President Mohamed Morsi, who appointed the premier, will be tossed within a few hours.
Qandil was convicted for failing to execute a verdict ordering the reinstatement of employees at Tanta Flax and Oil Company and for annulling the company's sale to a Saudi businessman.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2013
18:26 ||
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[Al Ahram] The Muslim Brotherhood-owned television channel Misr 25 went off air along with several other Islamist-run channels, including the controversial Hafez and Al-Nas, shortly after the military statement announcing the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi. Everybody's gonna be cheesed when they miss the Sura of the Cow Comedy Hour.
Police forces went to the Media Production City in Cairo's 6 October, where the offices and studios of these channels are located, and evacuated them, according to Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news portal.
The police also arrested some of the personnel working for these channels.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2013
18:26 ||
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#1
Has anyone thought about how nice it would be if we could do this to NBC, MSNBC, PMSNBC, CNN, and CBS?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
07/03/2013 18:45
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[Al Ahram] Egypt's Armed Forces is stepping up its presence in the capital and across provincial towns as Egyptians await a planned military statement.
The two-day deadline given by Egypt's army for feuding politicians to forge a power-sharing consensus ended almost three hours ago. Egypt is on edge, waiting to see how the situation will unfold.
Military sources have told Ahram Online that a meeting between leaders of the armed forces and representatives of political, religious and national groups has finished and a statement will be released shortly.
A large number of armoured military vehicles have been positioned around the presidential palace, the Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque, and the iconic Tahrir Square, where rival mass rallies are being staged, a military source told Ahram Arabic news website.
Tens of armoured personnel carriers headed towards Cairo University where thousands of Morsi supporters are rallying to defend the president's "legitimacy."
The army has also erected barbed wire and barriers around the Presidential Guard barracks where embattled President Morsi is working, eyewitnesses told Rooters.
In the canal city of Suez, twenty armoured vehicles and soldiers carriers have been deployed in the vicinity of a local mosque where Morsi's supporters are rallying.
The number of military helicopters hovering above the city and over the Suez Canal has also soared.
Dozens of armoured personnel carriers have filled streets of the Giza province, Ahram Arabic added.
In an official statement, the army said that such measures are meant to secure the citizenry and denied reports that it was attacking Morsi's supporters, saying "The Egyptian army belongs to all Egyptians" and "The deployments are intended to protect all citizens without bias."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2013
18:18 ||
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[Al Ahram] Ex-president Mohamed Morsi issued a statement on his official Facebook page saying that the Wednesday military announcement amounts to a coup.
"The procedures announced by the general command of the armed forces represents a full coup d'etat that is completely unacceptable," the statement asserted.
In spite of the military's Wednesday presser, which announced that the head of the High Constitutional Court will take over power until early presidential elections are held, Morsi's statement stressed that he remains the head of state and the supreme commander of the armed forces.
Morsi further called on all "all civil and military citizens to abide by the constitution and the law and to not respond to this coup, which drives Egypt backward." He also demanded that citizens remain peaceful and avoid bloodshed.
On late Wednesday, Minister of Defence Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi announced the finalisation of a road map created in collaboration with the opposition which includes the ousting of president Mohamed Morsi and the scheduling of early presidential elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2013
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h/t Instapundit
At the turn of the century, Teddy Roosevelt famously advised statesmen to speak softly and carry a big stick. Roosevelt assumed that the antithesis of his adviceloud threats without commensurate consequencesmight be more attractive for politically-minded leaders than often unpopular and difficult action. Also implicit in Roosevelts advice was the presumption that if bluster or impotence could be dangerous for a leader, each multiplied the other in combination.
Russian Islamist rebel leaders urged their fighters on Wednesday to use "maximum force" to prevent President Vladimir Putin staging the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
In an online video recorded in a forest, Doku Umarov said an order not to attack Russian targets outside the North Caucasus had been cancelled and likened holding the Games in the Black Sea city to performing "Satanic dances" on the graves of Muslims killed fighting Russian forces there in the 19th century.
Umarov sat wearing camouflage fatigues and a cap in front of a black jihadist flag, flanked by two fighters who, like him, were bearded. As he spoke, birds could be heard singing in the forest around him.
Sochi, which is due to host the Games next February, is a few hundred kilometers (miles) from the volatile and mountainous North Caucasus region in southern Russia where there is almost daily violence. It was the homeland of ethnic Circassians until they were expelled in the 19th century
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/03/2013 13:59
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So, there's always a "Crisis in Egypt"
Seems so RJ And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. - Genesis 41:55.
CAIRO With millions of Egyptians in the streets for a third straight day demanding his resignation, a defiant President Mohammed Morsi took to Egypts airwaves early Wednesday morning and vowed to fight to remain in office, even if the price is my blood.
In a 40-minute call to arms to his supporters, Morsi angrily declared his right to serve out his term as the first democratically elected president in Egypts long history.
I am the president of Egypt, he shouted at one point. There is no substitute for legitimacy, no alternative.
Strange use of the word 'legitimacy' there...
The speech seemed to augur the likelihood of violence when a 48-hour deadline issued by the military calling for Morsi and his opponents to find a solution to their impasse expires at 4:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. EDT).
The price can be my life, he said.
There are plenty who will collect that, and I think he knows it, so this is just rhetoric. There's a comfortable dacha villa waiting for him in Riyadh...
The speech was likely to be read as a call to arms by thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members whove been forming their own security force, armed with sticks, helmets and Molotov cocktails, even as police and the countrys military seemed to be withdrawing their support from Morsi.
Keeping their distance from anti-Morsi protests that have brought millions into the streets, Brotherhood forces have been preparing for days, chanting, lining up in formation, and hoisting sticks, chair legs and two-by-fours in mock combat drills.
If the Army comes down against the Brøderbünd chair legs aren't going to help much...
Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who leads the largest opposition group, the National Salvation Front, was reported to be negotiating with the Morsi government. But whatever, if anything, emerges from that effort is unlikely to satisfy everyone, portending, under the best of circumstances, even more instability.
If ElBaradei becomes the next leader Egypt is even more screwed then it is now...
Elsewhere in Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood seemed determined to secure Morsis legitimate place as Egypts leader with its illegitimate security force.
Strength, determination, faith, Morsis men are everywhere! they screamed while stomping their feet and doing air punches in the air. Overweight men in beards then dropped down and began doing pushups.
The tension was high as they waved their sticks in the air and stomped their feet in front of the presidential palace. Their numbers had clearly grown from Friday, when theyd formed up in squad-size units of 15 to 20; on Tuesday, they were organized in platoons, 50 or 60 men to a unit.
It's downright .. paramilitary. They just need to borrow the yellow flags and the palm-down salutes from Hezbollah...
One group donned blue construction helmets and orange life vests to serve as protection from rubber bullets.
Life vests .. they'll save your life...
Another wore red and silver motorcycle helmets; its members carried green pipes. They vowed to battle to the death.
So they're sorta like a deviant, Islamicist "Hell's Angels"...
Some had written martyr on their knuckles orange vests. Others carried signs that read: Martyr Project.
I am prepared to be martyred, one man told another.
If they succeed in defending Morsis hold on the presidency, its unclear what Morsi would control.
That the Brotherhood is ostensibly forming a militia reinforces the fact that Morsi has no control over the police and is increasingly the titular head of a failed state, said Eric Trager, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2013
11:25 ||
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Obama's been selling Morsi to the world since day one. You think he'll go stand shoulder to shoulder with his bro' on the front lines?
h/t Instapundit
Embattled IRS official Lois Lerner will not testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee unless she's given immunity from prosecution, her lawyer told POLITICO Tuesday. Now it's beginning to move---unless, of course, we see some (chi style) accident happening to her. What stops her from taking immunity and then claiming that she knows nothing?
#2
So this means that her lawyer agrees that she blabbed her fifth amendment rights away and behaved illegally. Strange behavior given that the only people who could prosceute her is Holder's Justice Department.
What stops her from taking immunity and then claiming that she knows nothing?
#4
Rita Lavelle (EPA) was indicted for lying to Congress; convicted; sentenced to 6 months in prison, 5 years probation thereafter, and a fine of $10,000. Holder has also been held in criminal and civil contempt of Congress. So far, he continues on.
A Saudi man and a woman have died from the MERS virus, raising the death toll from the SARS-like infection in the kingdom to 36, the health ministry said on Wednesday. Three others infected with the same virus, two in Eastern Province and one in Riyadh, have been treated, the ministry said on its website.
Like SARS, MERS appears to cause a lung infection, with patients suffering from fever, coughing and breathing difficulties. But it differs in that it also causes rapid kidney failure. Ramadan begins in about a week.
The Hajj begins in mid Oct.
While most of the cases have been concentrated in Saudi Arabia, the MERS virus has also spread to neighboring Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Cases have also been found in France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia and Britain, although most of these patients had been transferred for care from the Middle East or had travelled to the Middle East and become ill after they returned, the World Health Organisation said.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/03/2013
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the 80% male infection stat may be based on the fact that males get out of the house more and are thus exposed to bat dung dust or whatever
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/03/2013 18:22
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It's believed there is an unknown animal vector between bats and people, but the only other mammal known to carry the virus are pigs and not many of them in SA. Also Arabs are not big on pets.
A more likely scenario IMO, is a low virulence strain is widespread and just produces cold like symptoms. This strain occasionally mutates into a high virulence strain. Whether the high virulence strain can spread P2P is unknown.
At least 17 people were killed and two others injured in a US drone attack which targeted a house in the North Waziristan tribal region late on Tuesday night.
Sources told Dawn.com that the drone fired four missiles on the house near Miramshah bazaar in Sirai Darpakhel area, targeting the Haqqani residential compound and a car. The head commander Haji Shahrifullah of Haqqani, a militant network, is said to be safe, whereas 17 people were killed and two others injured in the attack. So we missed the target and killed 17 innocent women and children? I guess we need more practice. They might have been 17 subordinates and camp-followers...
Intelligence sources confirmed the death toll.
The drone attack was the biggest launched this year and the second since Nawaz Sharif took office as prime minister following his victory in the May 11 elections.
#5
Lex, I was just reporting the news as it will be reported later. Maybe it won't be women and children, but goats and fluffy bunnies; that's always how it ends up reported, so I just cut out the intermediate step.
#7
Lex, I'm curious, since I confess I have been reading RB for years and may have missed your prior visits that you made mention of some time back. You seem to have made it a mission to offer an alternative to many of the voices here I have come to respect and enjoy on an array of topics. Perhaps some CV, anonymous of course, to suggest your experential basis for some of your assertions? Sarcasm and innuendo have power when based on knowledge and experience, but seem shrill and shallow when clueless. I'm sure a number of us would like to know, since you seem to enjoy extensive oratory....
Pro-socialized medicine, anti-illegal immigration/swamping our low-end labor market with an imported underclass, pro-war on terror ruthlessly prosecuted in the shadows and from the skies. Pro-strong gov't, both at home to protect the weak and abroad, to protect liberal democracy from the likes of the ChiComs and Norks, the Islamists, Putin, the shitty little Latin American caudillos etc.
Me, I don't understand the paranoid hatred of a president who is ruthlessly taking the W oT to the Islamists. Never thought I'd see national security types imitating Chomsky and Mikey Moore. Weird. Also troubling.
#9
The problem is simply that Obama LIES, anything and everything is suspect, we don't know where his lies end, Soo anything he says is a lie until proven otherwise.
Now how can you believe what he says, Or can you.
I CAN'T.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/03/2013 13:56
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Lex, have you any insight into the spot price of AK-47s in Peshawar?
#11
Why does the Pak army never try to invade North Waziristan the way they did in South Waziristan?
Too many Pak army/ISI assets there?
Posted by: Paul D ||
07/03/2013 15:12
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Me, I don't understand the paranoid hatred of a president who is ruthlessly taking the W oT to the Islamists. Never thought I'd see national security types imitating Chomsky and Mikey Moore. Weird. Also troubling.
No, not following you around, just making the rounds. My dislike for the man, well that random appearance on the football game was obnoxious, but the pooch on Greensburg. See, I watched that thing form and my department was the first on scene. Yeah, so what, he just read the prompter and someone didn't care to get the number right, whatever. Now it took then Governor Sebilius three days to even acknowledge the disaster, and when she did it was a totally scripted party line, and I can get into that if you want - shorthand she blamed Bush for having the KANG overseas and when that unit returned she skipped it for a rainy parade in Lawrence. But the KANG was there within hours - the then Adjutant General of the KANG supposedly grabbed his gear and left the second he heard about it. She flat out lied.
Sebilius made her career in Kansas as the Insurance Commissioner. She also tried to funnel money around Congress by executive order. With the defeat of HillaryCare! and control of Congress by the Democrats it was pretty easy to deduce that some sort of major push on health insurance was going to happen. When Sebilius was put on Team Obama as HHS, plus the shitpot of czars - and yes I had disagreements about Bush's czar - I knew what kind of people were being put in charge.
No, what I really dislike was the total flip by my peers who spent 8 years Bush-whacking me were now high-fiving things Obama was doing x2 what Bush did. After his typical racist Kansan deal, suddenly me peers found my discussion racist, so I could see where this was going.
Drone theory is ok in my book, hopefully we are hitting the bad guys. I didn't like his breakfast kill list, mostly because he has made it clear his values and mine are very different. I didn't like waking up to find cruise missiles landing in Libya with a president which had to be shamed into making a comment about it, breaking up his va-cay. I don't like his Attorney General threatening my state. As for the paranoids I know, I don't like that they are saying, "Told ya so." as the NYTs reports that yes, they are scanning our mail.
*fun fact about Sebilius: she was the keynote speaker at the Greensburg graduation. Their mascot used to be The Rangers. Her crescendo was "Rangers lead the way!" with a fist pump. So ridiculous the news who had been breathless reporting this event failed to mention that she was even there.
Everywhere he went in Africa, President Barack Obama was competing with history. There was the heroic leadership of former South African President Nelson Mandela, whose deteriorating health has captured the world's attention; the legacy in Africa of Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, who created a widely praised program to fight HIV and AIDS on the continent; and never forget the history surrounding Obama himself, America's first black president and the son of a Kenyan man.
Against that backdrop, the initiatives Obama promoted on food security, improved health care and expanded access to electricity appeared to pale in comparison. "I know that millet and maize and fertilizer and arugula doesn't always make for sexy copy," Obama said during an event in Dakar, Senegal, last week. "If the American people knew the kind of work that was being done as a consequence of their generosity and their efforts, I think they'd be really proud." Is that the half who pay taxes, or should the takers be proud of sending my money there, too?
The president at times seemed to be trying to will the traveling press corps and the American public back home to grasp the importance of the ventures. He took jabs at the U.S. media for only covering poverty or war in Africa and made a rare on-the-record appearance before reporters on Air Force One to give an extra boost to his program for reducing hunger. Don't you people love him anymore? You tellin' me the thrill is gone?
The president's frustration underscored the challenges he faced during his three-country trip, which wrapped up Tuesday in Tanzania. While his Africa policies have the potential to improve the lives of millions of people on the continent, he lacks a signature initiative like Bush's anti-AIDS program, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. [PEPFAR] But with deep family ties to the continent and inevitable comparisons to Mandela's racial barrier-breaking, the expectations for him among Africans remain exceedingly high. Yeah. Obama breaking down the barriers. Sure. Dudes with clubs at polling places come to mind. "Your success is our success. Your failure, whether you like it or not, is our failure," Archbishop Desmond Tutu told Obama during his weekend stop in South Africa. But it's not racial unless a white dud - or dudette - says that.
Despite his policy differences with Bush, Obama courageously and heroically repeatedly praised the former president's work combating HIV and AIDS, while also reminding audiences that his administration has increased the number of people benefitting from the PEPFAR program. During a news conference in Tanzania, Obama said Bush deserved "enormous credit" for saving lives in Africa and called PEPFAR one of the former president's "crowning achievements." While also saying Obama made it better.
Obama also announced during the trip an ambitious new venture, dubbed "Power Africa," aimed at doubling access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. In an effort to try to shore up the sustainability of the programs, Obama focused on pressing African leaders to make government reforms and stem corruption. "Sustainable" usually means "green", or wind-or-solar-powered. My irony meter is twitching...
It's a component of his Africa policy inspired in part by his father, who abandoned his son when he returned to Kenya when Obama was a young child, only to butt heads with higher-ranking government officials over patronage schemes that eventually cost him his job. My poor irony meter just vaporized.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/03/2013
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Given that his message to the average Joe and Jane in Africa boils down to "Dogs, the world will perish if you refuse to know your betters"...
#1
DEBKA: The army to shortly announce sacking of President Morsi, appoint a provisional council
Egyptian army chiefs are preparing to announce the dismissal of President Mohamed Morsi and install a provisional ruling council to prepare a new constitution and early elections when their ultimatum to the government runs out Wednesday afternoon, July 3. The generals have taken over the state television newsroom in Cairo and are monitoring content. Defense minister Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi spent the afternoon conferring with leading politicians and clerics at a military council crisis meeting. Muslim Brotherhood leaders refused to attend.
Tuesday night, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi rejected the Defense Ministers demand that he quit to avert a bloodbath. He said he stood by his constitutional dignity and demanded the armys withdrawal of its ultimatum.
DEBKAfile: The general acted after Interior Minister Gen. Muhammad Ibrahim offered to place all police, internal security and intelligence forces at the disposal of the army because they no longer defer to the authority of the president or the Muslim Brotherhood government. This virtual coup enabled the army to jump the gun by 24 hours on its ultimatum to Morsi.
This military's action was not quite a coup, but it snatched away the Muslim Brotherhood governments buttress of organized security forces, leaving only loyal adherents as a last prop.
The army thus jumped the gun by 24 hours on its ultimatum to the president to heed the will of the people - or else.
[Ynet] IDF forces tossed in the calaboose I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! overnight the Paleostinian parliament member for Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, Mohamed Abu-Tir in his home in the Aqab village between Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Abu-Tir was banished from Jerusalem's municipal borders in 2010 after his Israeli citizenship was revoked.
[Pak Daily Times] Pakistan Tuesday rejected as completely baseless the comments and ideas attributed to it by Afghan officials relating to alleged power-sharing formula with the Taliban or attempting to bring fiefdoms to Afghanistan.
"This is a fabrication as no such notions have been expressed by any Pakistani official," Foreign Office said in a statement here.
"We are playing a constructive and positive role to facilitate an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process," added the statement.
In his telephone conversations with President Karzai since taking office last month, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to support the efforts for peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region, it said.
"The negative statements from Afghan leadership and officials tend to vitiate the atmosphere and constrain development of close and cooperative ties between the two countries. We hope that Afghanistan will reciprocate our constructive efforts, refrain from attributing misleading ideas to us and work together for sustainable peace and stability that is so vitally important for progress and prosperity of the two countries and the region," said the FO statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2013
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[An Nahar] An earthquake Tuesday killed six children and left 14 others trapped when a mosque collapsed during a Koran reading session in Indonesia's Aceh province, bringing the confirmed corpse count from the disaster to 11.
The strong 6.1-magnitude quake left hundreds more injured as it rocked a region that was devastated by the quake-triggered tsunami of 2004.
The earthquake reduced houses in parts of Aceh to rubble, set off several landslides and badly damaged roads.
Rescuers were struggling late Tuesday to find the children still trapped after the mosque collapse in Blang Mancung village, Central Aceh district.
"Our search and rescue teams are struggling to evacuate an estimated 14 children still trapped under the rubble," Subhan Sahara, the head of the local disaster management agency, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"I hope they can be found alive but the chances are very slim," he added, explaining they were reading the Koran together when the quake struck.
Posted by: Fred ||
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the Koran itself says that the merciful and compassionate Allah will make bad things happen to people who recite the Koran incorrectly
[Al Ahram] Contradicting a court appeal denial, the head of Egypt's Judges' Club, Ahmed El-Zend declares Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud as the 'legitimate' prosecutor-general on Tuesday afternoon.
In a televised presser held at the Judges Club, El-Zend, seated next to Mahmoud, said the finding that Mahmoud is the "legitimate prosecutor-general" is a "victory" and "historic moment," although the appeal court -- whose rulings are final - had rejected Mahmoud's request to be reinstated.
Brotherhood-fielded President Mohamed Morsi tried to reshuffle Mahmoud in October and in the next month went on to appoint Talaat Abdullah via a highly-controversial constitutional declaration. Ever since this position has been a source of political and legal wrangling.
A Cairo appeal court on Tuesday morning upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss prosecutor-general Abdullah and dismissed Mahmoud from his position in the same breath. Assistant Prosecutor-General Hassan Yassin was tapped to temporarily fill the position.
Mahmoud announced in the Judges' Club presser that he is "making the necessary moves to find a legal context that will permit me to rightly return to the prosecutor-general position."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Go ahead, guess what the first rule of Judge's Club is...
[Al Ahram] A Bahraini court sentenced seven Shia men to 15 years in prison on Tuesday for the attempted murder of a police officer in August 2012, a judicial source said.
An eighth Shia was sentenced to three years in prison while two others, on trial over the same case, were acquitted, the source said.
The group were also accused of setting a cop shoppe ablaze in the Shia village of Sitra using petrol bombs and of taking part in an "unauthorised gathering," according to the charge sheet.
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[An Nahar] A top Muslim Brotherhood leader urged Egyptians to stand ready to sacrifice their lives to prevent a coup, after the army gave Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and his opponents until Wednesday to resolve their differences or face intervention. "Seeking martyrdom to prevent this coup is what we can offer to the previous martyrs of the revolution," Mohamed al-Beltagui said in a statement on Tuesday.
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[Pak Daily Times] A drone strike in Danday Darpakhel area near North Wazoo tribal region's Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... area killed two persons early on Wednesday. Media sources said that the drone fired two missiles at a residential compound killing at least two persons. Drone stirkes have been a contentious issue between Pakistain and the US. Paksitan terms them violative of its illusory sovereignty, while the US says the strikes have helped kill several high profile krazed killers. Civlian casualties from the attacks have also been one of the main points of contention.
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LA PAZ, Bolivia -- The plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales home from Russia was rerouted to Austria on Tuesday after France and Portugal refused to let it cross their airspace because of suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board, the country's foreign minister said.
Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca denied that Snowden was on the plane, which landed in Vienna, and said France and Portugal would have to explain why they canceled authorization for the plane.
"We don't know who invented this lie. We want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales," Choquehuanca said from La Paz. Morales had earlier met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit of major gas exporters in the Kremlin.
Maybe Vlad was yanking your chain...
In an interview with Russia Today television, Morales said that his South American country would be willing to consider granting asylum to Snowden.
Hence the suspicion about the plane...
He is believed to be in a Moscow airport transit area, seeking asylum from one of more than a dozen countries.
"This is a hostile act by the United States State Department which has used various European governments," said Bolivian Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra, who was on the flight.
Oh sure, as if Champ could use a European government right now. Maybe he had the NSA contact them. Ha.
Choquehuanca said in a statement that after France and Portugal canceled authorization for the flight, Spain's government allowed the plane to be refueled in its territory. From there the plane flew on to Vienna.
So after refueling the plane that was to go on to Bolivia went .. east? That doesn't make a bit of sense...
He said the decision by France and Portugal "put at risk the life of the president."
Morales was in the Vienna airport early Wednesday meeting with the plane's crew to reprogram his return to Bolivia, the defense minister Saavedra said.
A diplomat with Bolivia's Embassy in Vienna told The Associated Press that the Bolivian president was in the airport's VIP lounge. She said she did not know whether Snowden was with Morales.
She didn't want to know, either...
Snowden has applied for asylum in Venezuela, Bolivia and 18 other countries, according to WikiLeaks, a secret spilling website that has been advising him. Many European countries on the list including Austria, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland said he would have to make his request on their soil.
Which isn't happening, so it's a polite way to punt...
One of Snowden's best chances of finding refuge outside the United States may hinge on the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, who was also in Russia on Tuesday. Maduro told Russian reporters that his country has not received an application for asylum from Snowden and dodged the question of whether he would take him with him when he left.
So maybe the skinny little creep can stow away in the plane's wheel well...
In Venezuela, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua condemned the decision by France and Portugal. He said the need to refuel in Spain put the president's life at risk.
"All the countries that have denied permission for the flight of our brother president, Evo Morales, must be held responsible for his life and his dignity as president."
Because Evo has so much dignity, you see...
Portuguese officials could not be reached to comment early Wednesday morning because officials did not answer telephones at the Foreign Ministry and National Civil Aviation Authority.
An official with the French Foreign Ministry said he had no information about such a decision to refuse entry to France.
Another possible landing spot for Snowden is Ecuador, where Wikileaks founder and publisher Julian Assange has been seeking asylum.
"We are disposed to analyze Mr. Snowden's request for asylum and this position has not changed," said Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino on Tuesday. "What we have said is that we will be able to analyze the request when Mr. Snowden is in Ecuadorean territory or in an Ecuadorean mission."
Patino said Ecuador was not working to help Snowden reach its territory.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Interesting. So there's not a single sovereign government on the planet that considers stealing and exposing state secrets to be a brave, noble, heroic blah blah act.
Why did (and still do) so many fools in this country think Snowden is a hero?
#8
#2, +1. Snowden would have been a hero if he had stayed away from Julian Assange, the a**hole egotist of the century. I'm beginning to suspect that Assange put him on the payroll to go to work for the NSA-subs as a hacker. Getting hired as a hacker is the only way he would have ever gotten "blessed" for a clearance.
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi must "hear" popular demands, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday, after the defiant president snubbed an ultimatum to step down.
"When there is such a mass of problems and such a mass of people expressing what is not than just unease but censure and distress, the Egyptian government must listen to the people... President Morsi must hear what is taking place," he said on the i-Tele network.
"France wants a dialogue," he said. "The economic situation has worsened a lot and that explains the 15 million people" in the streets.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] The Pakistain Mohammedan League-Nawaz (PML-N) is in a fix over reaching out to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), particularly after the latest spiral of violence by snuffies and subsequent claims of involvement.
According to sources, the latest episode of terror acts has badly hampered the government's resolve to contact snuffies and put them in a quandary as how to proceed ahead in the given circumstances.
PML-N remained a supporter of negotiations with snuffies operating under the umbrella of TPP and during its stint as opposition in the center, it repeatedly called for holding dialogues with them.
Immediately after winning the historic May 11 polls, PML-N hinted at entering into dialogue with snuffies and even approached JUI-F Maulana Fazalur Rahman and JUI-S head Maulana Samiullah Haq to act as a bridge between the government and the TTP krazed killers.
Soon after taking over the helm of affairs, PML-N government faced the wrath of snuffies who carried out terrorism activities at a massive scale especially the incident of Nanga Parbat in which many foreign tourists were slain, has really put a serious question mark on any chance for holding talks with TTP.
Sources said the latest lethal wave of terrorism had badly hampered the stance of PML-N government to hold dialogue as civil society is also opposing the negotiations with krazed killers.
The insiders revealed to the Daily Times that PML-N government had been constantly in touch with people who have krazed killer links and asked them to convince to bring to halt barbaric activities to enter into dialogue.
"The government has clearly conveyed to them dialogues could only be held once they accept the Constitution and law of the country, sources disclosed and added that government had also made it clear to snuffies to behave like obedient citizens and abide by the law.
Regarding the demands of krazed killers, sources said government would consider their conditions once they show a gesture of dialogue by stopping their activities.
Also, government is also seriously working on identifying the supply routes of arms and ammunitions to these krazed killer from foreign countries because the indications are such that they are getting the supplies from foreign destinations.
"The sophisticated weapons used by snuffies against security forces is a sheer proof of their connections with foreign countries," sources added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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met on Wednesday to discuss political alternatives for Egypt to avoid further violence amid ongoing nationwide protests against President Mohamed Morsi.
The Cabinet authorised Prime Minister Hisham Qandil to raise the proposals of the cabinet to the president to help find political solutions to resolve the current crisis, within the boundaries of the constitutional legitimacy.
The prime minister discussed the situation in the country, stressing the importance of keeping the grounds won during the January 25 Revolution and protecting the lives of Egyptian citizens.
He asserted that the government is bearing its responsibility to the nation without discrimination at such difficult times, calling every Egyptian to put effort in building and avoid destructive calls.
Qandil also expressed the Cabinet's condolences to the families of slain protesters over the past two days and wished for recovery to those injured.
On Monday, the ministers of parliamentary affairs, tourism, environment and communication tendered their resignations to Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, a cabinet official said. The prime minister is yet to respond to the move.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2013
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[Pak Daily Times] KARACHI: Two people including a political activist were rubbed out in separate acts of targeted attacks across the city, while a body was also recovered, here on Tuesday. Worker of Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) was rubbed out while two bystanders were maimed in Sector-11, Orangi Town within the remits of Iqbal Market cop shoppe. Police identified the dear departed as Shahzad, 25, and injured as Shakeel and Adnan.
Police informed that deceased was standing at bus stop, where armed riders resorted indiscriminate firing on him. Resultantly, Shahzad and two bystanders sustained bullet injuries and were taken to hospital, where doctor pronounced death of Shahzad while admitted others for treatment. The body was handed over to heirs after autopsy. A vegetable vender was bumped off in Gulistan-e-Jauhar within the limits of Shahra-e-Faisal cop shoppe. Police said that victim Jawaid, 30, was standing at his vegetable stall, when unidentified culprits targeted him, killing him on the spot. His body was handed over to his family after autopsy. Police suspected that motive behind Jawaid's killing was personal dispute. Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, the partisans of Honorius went for their knives and the partisans of Stilicho went for the doors... Jackson police found a shot-dead tortured dead body near ICI Bridge. The body was shifted to morgue for identification after autopsy.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg joined more than 700 of the leading social network's employees to march in a euphoric the Socialist paradise of San Francisco ...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964... gay Pride Parade that drew more than a million people.
Zuckerberg and others in the Facebook contingent used ink pads and rubber stamps to temporarily brand 'like' onto people's skin as the 250 official parade entries made their way through the heart of San Francisco on Sunday.
More than 1,500 photos from the parade were on display at Zuckerberg's Facebook page.
This is the third year that Facebook has taken part in the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade.
The typically festive event was infused with additional energy due to a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court which cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Doesn't look like the GOP's going to win many under-40 votes by opposing gay marriage. Thank God there's the pro-life movement- oh, wait...
#2
Lots of 20th Century tyrants stuffed perfunctory ballot boxes. The other bookend to Jefferson's "consent of the governed" is Lincoln's recognition of giving one's "last full measure of devotion". I doubt many in this land are willing to do the latter for most vocal causes shoved in their faces. The governing caste just has to convince enough people by their actions that its not worth defending anymore. That last point was made in Moscow in my lifetime.
#6
gaymarriage will be the law of the land by 2025.
Quite possibly, Lex. But like you, most people don't care one way or the other, so those willing to shout about it will win. One thing is certain, though -- those children not reared by a pair of committed, heterosexual genetic parents will statistically do less well. That they might do better than any other group of less than ideally-parented children is utterly beside the point.
[Al Ahram] A number of roadmaps and initiatives were proposed over the last few days as a way out of the current crisis in Egypt, several of which came following massive opposition protests on Sunday and an ultimatum by the military that sparked celebration among anti-Morsi protestors and anger among the president's supporters.
All opposition roadmaps propose early presidential elections and temporary state management through the head of Egypt's High Constitutional Court and a technocrat cabinet, with none of these leaders to run for the presidency.
The call for 30 June rallies started with the Tamarod ('Rebel') campaign, which since May has been collecting signatures from Egyptians nationwide requesting that Morsi step down.
The campaign claims to have collected over 22 million signatures, as per the campaign's latest update on 29 June, which significantly outnumbers the 13 million voters who cast ballots for Morsi in presidential elections one year ago.
The call for the formation of the '30 June Front,' included, together with the Rebel campaign, most of the organised non-Islamist political forces who oppose the Muslim Brotherhood. It includes activists and the National Salvation Front (NSF) opposition umbrella group.
The roadmap they proposed includes the following points:
Delegating presidential power to the head of Egypt's High Constitutional Court
Appointing an independent prime minister to take over (on condition of not running for president)
Appointing a technocrat government
Dissolving the Shura Council
Presidential elections in six months
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Ahram] The Jordanian government said on Tuesday that it had blocked 254 unlicensed news websites, 16 of them in the previous two days, using powers under a 2012 law criticised as a threat to freedom of expression.
Fayez Shawabkeh, head of the Press and Publication Department said: "16 local news websites were blocked in the past two days after carefully examining their situation.
"This brings the total number of sites the PPD blocked recently to 254, while 111 sites have obtained licences."
On June 3, authorities said they would block nearly 300 out of 400 local news websites "for failing to obtain the necessary licensing," under last year's controversial legislation.
The law gave the government powers to regulate "electronic publications," requiring them to register with the PPD and obtain a licence.
It stipulates that the chief editors of news websites must be members of the Jordan Press Association, giving the government the right to censor content and hold journalists liable for comments posted on webpages.
The PPD has insisted "the decision does not seek to restrict freedoms," and that "the objective is to organise the work of these websites."
"I call on all local news websites to correct their status in line with the law. Operating outside the law, which we will continue to apply, will not be in their interest," Shawabkeh warned.
Journalists accuse the government of seeking to control who can publish news.
One of the sites blocked in the past two days is 7iber, Arabic for "ink".
Its editor, Lina Ejeilat, told AFP 7iber was an interactive website that published reports and features from contributors, and said it should not be covered by the legialation.
"We are a blog and definitely not a news website," she said.
Shawabkeh disagreed, saying that "7iber is registered at the trade and industry ministry as a news website and posts news and political analyses about Jordan, which means that the law applies to it."
The PPD's decision drew renewed criticism of Jordan from international human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... watchdogs, as well as from journalists, activists and the main opposition group, the Moslem Brüderbund, who saw it as an attempt to impose censorship.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... slammed on Tuesday the international community's ongoing failure to properly address the Syrian crisis, noting its disregard of the developments in the city of Homs, which he predicted would be critical in determining the fate of the crisis.
He added: "The destruction of real-estate records in city and their replacement with others of different sects is an attempt to alter the political and sectarian identity of the regions stretching from Damascus to the Syrian coast."
He made his remarks in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website.
Moreover, he noted the "massacres in al-Bayda, Banias, and other regions that are aimed at creating a new demographic reality."
"The Syrian regime is seeking to transform the minority of the population in those regions into a majority through murder and displacement," stated the MP.
On this note, Jumblat questioned "the international community's silence over the developments in Syria and inaction over the daily violations of human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... that it has long claimed to protect and uphold."
He questioned its silence "over the strenuous efforts that are aimed at fragmenting Syria, which will have major repercussions on the Middle East and entire Arab world."
"Syria's fragmentation will pave the way for regional chaos and wars and sectarian conflicts," warned the PSP leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[FOXNEWS] A new study released ahead of the Fourth of July holiday sheds more light on the tangle of paperwork facing America's veterans -- showing they're up against as many as 613 forms across 18 agencies as they seek services. The study by the American Action Forum also found the paperwork -- in part the result of roughly 31 million Veterans Affairs claims alone each year -- takes federal employees roughly 43.3 million hours to process.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
An federal agency headed by the same retired general officer who while still on active duty, brought the army the distinctive, Chinese manufactured [first batch anyway], black beret.
#2
Oh, joy, just think what Obamacare will bring to the rest of America. Let everyone enjoy the game of federal bureaucracy. Maybe someone can make a RPG or MMOG to prep people for the hundreds of hours they're going to spend 'playing the game'.
#3
What are you smoking, Procopius? The exchanges are state, not federal. The process is quick, simple and affordable. It's the OPPOSITE of the ridiculously convoluted, capricious and predatory private insurance system we have now.
#4
Was going to just comment that the VA hospitals are a national disgrace, but the troll offers an opening to make a larger point.
Bleeteth the Left:
Corporations = bad
Government = good
Well, they are both just people. The main difference is that corporations have to persuade you to buy something. Governments just force you. I don't get why some people prefer to be forced, but it's clear that they do. Willing and eager to be caged and fed. I pity them.
#5
Yes, the corporate health insurance companies that for years denied insurance entirely to my family and a million or so other Americans were giving me "choice." Riiiight.
#6
Yes, the corporate health insurance companies that for years denied insurance entirely to my family and a million or so other Americans were giving me "choice." Riiiight.
Okay Lex, I can see where you're coming from now. I don't blame you for your hostility to the present system at all. I assume no private company was willing to pick up your liability? That's a bitch, been there. It's difficult making an insurance company pick up a liability, it looks bad on the books. One way one around that is rationing. Another way is a universal levy. But I suspect you know this. Care to let us in on wtf happened?
#7
Sounds like your established local regulators are not very good at their job, but I'm sure they will excel at a larger, more complicated mission this time for sure you betchya.
And the shilling against what is called a heavily subsidized industry, well how true that is aside, then they would have to at least pretend to make a profit. Government doesn't have to do that.
To add to lblis, there is also a culture involved in those entities. And it seems that rather than let the fat and old dinosaurs fail and be replaced by younger and more energetic mammals, these politicians give bailouts and prevent start-ups. So that means government is the problem, and since supposedly your government is by your consent, its you and your people who are failing to regulate the regulators.
Since you fail to regulate the regulators, you would rather have the regulators regulate themselves?
I don't smoke unlike, apparently you. I deal with history. The government has had amble opportunity to make an efficient workable system from the VA to Medicare. The answer to failing to accomplish that is to go even bigger. That you have sold your soul for promises for access to other people's resources doesn't mean the rest of us have to.
[An Nahar] Georgia on Tuesday said it had revoked visa-free entry for Iranians amid concerns that Tehran might be using its booming business ties with the small ex-Soviet state to skirt international sanctions.
"Georgia has unilaterally revoked visa-free travel regime with Iran," Irakli Vekua, Georgia's foreign ministry front man, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"As of July 1, Iranian citizens have to obtain a visa to enter the Georgian territory," he said, declining to provide further information on the decision.
Georgia and Iran agreed visa-free travel for short visits in 2010, in a move that saw the number of Iranians flocking to Georgia grow fourfold and trade flourish.
Analysts said at the time that staunch U.S.-ally President Mikheil Saakashvili was stepping up relations with the Islamist state to counter-balance arch-foe Russia -- with which Georgia fought a brief war in 2008 -- as American interest toward the Caucasus nation cooled under President Barack Obama I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody...
Saakashvili's party lost out at parliamentary elections in October to a coalition headed by now-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, rendering the president a lameduck until he is forced to step down later this year at the end of his second term.
Ivanishvili has made improving relations with Russia his foreign policy priority but has also pledged to maintain Saakashvili's pro-Western trajectory.
In recent months two delegations from the U.S. Treasury have visited Georgia to discuss escalating fears that Iran may be using its growing business links with Georgia to circumnavigate sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported last month, citing U.S. and Georgian officials.
Georgia's Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani responded that the country has "strict control" over Iranian businesses operating in the country but would investigate the claims.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I blame Jimmuh Carter.
oh. wrong Georgia
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/03/2013 10:28
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[LATIMES] The nation's largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group Inc., is leaving California's individual health insurance market, the second major company to exit in advance of major changes under the Affordable Care Act.
UnitedHealth said it had notified state regulators that it would leave the state's individual market at year-end and force about 8,000 customers to find new coverage. Last month, Aetna Inc., the nation's third-largest health insurer, made a similar move affecting about 50,000 existing policyholders.
Both companies will keep a major presence in California, focusing instead on large and small employers.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
They suspended the employer mandate on groups 50+.
#4
The amendments made by this section shall apply to months beginning after December 31, 2013, concludes Section 1513.
That is strange and unusual phrasing. Weasel-word sleight of hand. It does not say "shall take effect on January 1, 2014." Nor does it specify to *which* months after Dec. 31, 2013 the amendments shall apply. Perhaps the first and sixth months, or the seventeenth and all subsequent months. Or perhaps every other month, or only months falling within a leap year.
A creative lawyer might argue that the start date is clearly left to the discretion of the executive, with a good chance of winning. Seems to me this wiggle room was intentionally built in, because the drafters knew it would be impossible to implement it all on such a short timeline.
#6
So long, parasites. Here's hoping you go out of business in EVERY state, not just CA.
UnitedHealth = poster child for sh!tty corporate governance, corrupt practices and predatory pricing. They and their pals' greed and corruption are the biggest reason that insurance rates in CA have soared 170% over the last decade.
The ACA's going to stop this insanity, thank God.
CA's ACA exchanges are not only delivering affordable and high-quality plans - FINALLY - but it's about to get even better for us. There will be a ballot inititiative in 2014 that will finally rein in the for-profit health insurance mafia and subject them to normal insurance regulation of the kind that has kept auto and home insurance rates at a reasonable level in CA for a quarter century. Details here: http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-76246802/
#7
In his SEC settlement, the CEO of UnitedHealth, with the connivance of a corrupt board of directors packed with ex-politicians, admitted to stealing half a BILLION dollars ($468m to be exact). The company also settled with the AMA and with plan members to pay back $350m it ripped off from them by overbilling. Separately UnitedHealth was convicted of ripping off providers in NY state. The SEC is continuing to investigate the company, its board and disgraced former CEO Bill McGuire for other securities law violations.
And the cherry on the cake: CEO McGuire was given by his corrupt board a golden parachute equaling -get this - $1.1 BILLION. Yes, that's billion with a B.
This is the picture of the sick, rotten, ridiculously wasteful for-profit health insurance "system" (racket is more like it) that the ACA will finally, thank God, do away with. Good riddance.
Again, the for-profit health insurance racket has tripled our rates since 2000.
Meanwhile, effective insurance regulation in other areas has kept auto and property insurance rates at reasonable, affordable levels - for EVERYONE in California, not just a privileged few who have access to heavily-subsidized golden plans.
The solution is simple, obvious and well-established in every other major industrialized democracy: eliminate for-profit health insurance.
Private insurance options are fine - so long as they're non-profit entities that are tightly regulated to eliminate the possibility of colossal, multiple-billion dollar sinkholes of corruption like UnitedHealth.
#12
Steve - do you work for UnitedHealth? Why on earth would any patient or doctor defend these vultures?
UH's reasons for bashing healthcare reform are obvious.
But the opposition of so many ordinary Americans to the move away from our absurdly wasteful, ruinously expensive and casually cruel botch job of a non-system can only be explained by Americans' ignorance of other systems.
Clue: they all tightly restrict or eliminate altogether the PROFIT element in private insurance plans.
This is what UnitedHealth and the other predatory for-profit insurers cannot accept. Why anyone would cheer them on is beyond reason.
#13
So, Lex, taxpayer subsidized health insurance is better somehow? What happens when there a're not enough taxpayers?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/03/2013 10:20
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#14
Net or Gross? I mean, do they at least break even, or who will replace them will balance right there on that knife edge? I bow to the expert which will also explain why such cannibals had not been properly dealt with state-wise already, and then why is your failure to deal with such a easily solved problem now suddenly a multi-billion federal problem. Need help from Kansas, sound like kinda a loser.
#15
And the cherry on the cake: CEO McGuire was given by his corrupt board a golden parachute equaling -get this - $1.1 BILLION. Yes, that's billion with a B.
Smell the envy.
And it's the worst, most fecal smelling envy of them all - that envy which pretends to be "concern for social justice" or "fairness" when it's just garden-variety envy.
Ugh. Pass the gas mask.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/03/2013 10:36
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#16
Um, Deacon? You do realize that our current kloodge of a non-system is heavily "taxpayer-supported", don't you?
Here's Republican healthcare analyst Avik Roy on our *existing* taxpayer-supported system:
"Take healthcare... most Republican voters have high-quality health insurance, coverage that is heavily subsidized by the government through the tax code (employer-sponsored insurance, $300 billion a year) or the Social Security Act (Medicare, $700 billion a year). "
#17
Mo - why would anyone envy a convicted criminal? McGuire's been barred from the industry. He was forced to disgorge his gains. Are you on drugs, mo?
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/03/2013 11:01
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#20
You guys are so deluded you think that your existing coverage is not heavily - to the tune of a trillion dollars each year - subsidized by the feds.
Even when UnitedHealth is picking your pocket and cratering this nation's finances, you stand up for them. A perfect definition of "serf."
#22
In order to eliminate cartels you need Competition.
Competition needs profits to attract innovative new entrants.
If you want a producer-captured, expensive and shoddy system of treatment rationing where you're a cost to the system and therefore minimised then go the other way.
#25
The irony is that the government regulations and taxation policies provided most of the impetus for the current system.
Back in the day when marginal tax rates were pushing 90% for individuals employers had no way to pay for performance so they added "benefits" in lieu of $. The government allowed the gaming of the tax system by making employer paid health-insurance non-taxable for the employee.
Hey presto, the birth of employer paid health care and the demise of actually paying your doctor and shopping as an invested consumer. The downward spiral has been going for more than 60 years.
Now you can't buy the amount of healthcare that you think you want and spend your own money on it.
People like Lex and so many others don't understand the difference between capitalism and crony capitalism, aka corporatism, aka fascism.
The Stasi infiltrated almost every aspect of GDR life. In the mid-1980s, a network of IMs began growing in both German states; by the time East Germany collapsed in 1989, the Stasi employed 91,015 employees and 173,081 informants. About one of every 63 East Germans collaborated with the Stasi. By at least one estimate, the Stasi maintained greater surveillance over its own people than any secret police force in history. The Stasi employed one full-time agent for every 166 East Germans. The ratios swelled when informers were factored in: counting part-time informers, the Stasi had one informer per 6.5 people. By comparison, the Gestapo employed one secret policeman per 2,000 people. This comparison led Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal to call the Stasi even more oppressive than the Gestapo. Additionally, Stasi agents infiltrated and undermined West Germany's government and spy agencies.
The Stasi motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Shield and Sword of the Party), that is the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). Several Stasi officials were prosecuted for their crimes after 1990.
#28
Close, Alan C. but no cigar. The genesis of the tax deductibility of health insurance was ruling by the War Labor Board during WWII that such expenses were not subject to wage and price controls. It became a way to give people raises that were otherwise forbidden. Thank FDR. Again.
#29
More shilling for the for-profit health insurance mafia.
Our current system is a Frankenstein kloodged from at least five different elements - gov't-run a la the NHS (the VA system), gov't-paid directly via the SS Act (Medicare), giv't-subsidized via the tax code, directly paid by individuals, and indirectly paid by everyone (the cost of caring for 40m uninsured).
Only the fourth element has anything in common with your fantasy of insurance without government intervention - and there too, we see massive indirect intervention to set rate limits.
Healthcare in the 21st century cannot be delivered effectively or efficiently without massive government intervention. Healthcare is not a normal good. There's never going to be real price transparency and price elasticity to the consumer for most procedures (imagine shopping around for a specialist to treat your heart attack).
There will ALWAYS be heavy state intervention to regulate pricing, care, delivery of all sorts.
The only question is whether those regulations and interventions will result in the best coverage at lowest cost to the citizenry - the ENTIRE citizenry, not just those lucky enough to have access to the trillion dollars in annual subsidies that underwrite care for those on Medicare or private employer plans.
The European systems have fiund a way to balance puic and private olans so as to provide BETTER overall outcomes at FAR LOWER COST than our Franken-kloodge system dies. In France, Germany, Seutzerland, Sweden etc, people supplement their govt-provided insurance with private insurance plans paid out of their own pockets. Here's the deal: all of those countries force the private insurers to be NON-PROFIT COMPANIES.
That's the missing element here, and the cause of most of our system's absurd amount of waste and corruption, as well as its unforgivable cruelties.
#30
The European systems have fiund a way to balance puic and private olans so as to provide BETTER overall outcomes at FAR LOWER COST than our Franken-kloodge system dies.
Right there I can tell you that you are full of shit.
1,200 starved to death in England alone because the nurses were "too busy" to feed them. Canadians come to the US because their waiting times for care are too long and they can't wait.
No... the European model is filled with inefficiencies, waste, corruption and is a far.. far.. FAR cry from offering better care at a lower cost.
As for our sad insurance state. We haven't had real competition in the free market with health insurance for DECADES. Government involvement and regulations have driven up private cost and combined with price fixing by said government, red tape and just outright corruption have made health insurance pretty much unaffordable for most people that don't get it through their work.
We have tried government involvement for a fix. It only made things worse for everyone and clinging to the idiotic and childish belief that the government can fix everything is not helpful for anyone.
#32
Lex seems to think that non-profit insurers would be a solution. Non-profits are notorious offenders when it comes to over-compensation of their executives and staff.
What's needed is competition and the ability to buy out-of-state plans. What's needed is to enforce our criminal codes. What's needed is to add industry regulation forcing publication of each organization's pricing, with no discounts or kickbacks. And suitable regulation and pools to handle pre-existing conditions.
What's not needed is a government takeover of the payment process, with further corruption and inefficiency. What's not needed is further insulation of the providers from market forces.
Once the government takes over, we have another situation where the provider can't regulate itself. And it's very hard to rescind the arrangement, as we see with OCare.
#33
Wait, that's a question, more government and more red tape will create better value? Next we will have to wonder whether turning the batteries around in a flashlight will such darkness out of the room.
I have a paper sitting right fn' here from my insurance provider - a provider which has been sending out obamacare is super! letters for the last three rate increases. It says, due to the increases in rates, I have been grandfathered into my previously agreed rates, but if I change my policy in any way, I get the new ramrod prices, so sorry about that.
And I'm out here where Sebilius got things fixed, see. The head of your single party multiple storefront self regulating ideal tried to boodle $30million on the way out of my great State. I am quite happy with my current State government, but also know that is subject to elections.
So what you are suggesting, is that right now all the right people are in place. To ensure that, those positions must be froze. That includes those in government; is that what you are suggesting?
You really are adept at deflection, aren't you, Lex? The truth is that it is the wealth and not any crime that bothers you.
But then, you're just way smarter and more well informed and more moral and ethical than us subhumans, aren't you?
I'm sure you comfort yourself with the thought that some day soon the government will belong entirely to people who think exactly as you do, and then you can cleanse away those subhumans on the center right once and for all, and get yourYear-Zero paradise for the rest of eternity.
Remember the words of St. Alinsky, mocking and disenfranchising us, and dehumanizing us, those are the first steps.....
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/03/2013 13:41
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#35
It is the worst kind of creationism, like dwarves will spring from the rocks and diligently work the books for free.
Sebilius was so busy tanking that the former governor did not fill the responsibility to submit a budget, and when it came time to pay she tried to use other accounts by circumventing the Kansas Congress.
I like making money. I can pay my employees, pay my house, my insurance..insurance I have now be indentured to pay for 25 year olds who still sit at the kiddie's table and play with the mashed potaters. How about I get to keep my money and then I can hire these children and train them up.
In fact, maybe you need me to handle your health issues.
#36
One of the problems with insurance is that it is somebody else's money. Why do I care about controlling costs, just give me more! Is it covered by insurance? I want it! If it's not, it should be!
A few years back, a survey question asked if I thought aspirin should be covered by health insurance.
I wanted to reach back through the internet and rip out the surveyor's throat.
Whadda you think, Lex? Should aspirin be covered by somebody else's money? Vitamins? Marijuana?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/03/2013 14:38
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#37
Lex what are you thoughts on Euro-style tort reform?
#38
They're not going to allow tort reform until the rest of us have to hit our head on the floor three times while kowtowing. It's part of their way of blackmailing us into signing even more stuff away.
#39
If one is not covered by employer health insurance, the insurance mandated by the ACA would have to be bought from the individual health insurance market, which is what UnitedHealth group is wanting NOT to offer. Lex's heavy ranting about UnitedHEalth's behavior merely supports the fact that UnitedHealth acts as a rational actor, refusing to sacrifice itself to Lex's agenda. Lex conveniently forgets that the ACA also MANDATES that pre-existing conditions be covered. UnitedHealth did the numbers and came to the conclusion NOW that True FreeMarketers came to before the act was passed: this would increase expenses that would have to be balanced by premium increases. The higher the premiums, the bigger the incentive to pay the penalty (or is it a tax?), since that is a fixed amount deliberately set by POLITICIANS, not ACTUARIES, to reduce voter blow-back. No premiums, higher expenses, and no incentives for people to buy individual health insurance.
Pile on top of that additional expenses added on by POLITICIANS for POLITICAL reasons (aka birth control), and one should see that any company thinking they will
UnitedHealth refused Lex's demand to be sheared, and he's popping a blood vessel. Scream Louder Lex: The MAGIC of your words WILL turn the tide!
(/sarc)
I should remind people that the current Insurance Industry collectively celebrated passage of the ACA, believing that the law abiding sheeple of the United States would obey the law and buy health insurance. Heck, shares ROSE on the stock market in that sector.
What's different NOW is that Holder's on-again-off-again I'll-enforce-this-law-but-not-THAT-one-against-THIS-person-not-THAT-person has created a populace with a i'll-obey-THIS-law-but-not-THAT-one attitude.
Is that hypocritical? No: BECAUSE the powers of the US government derive from the powers of the governed, if the US Government believes it has the power to selectively enforce or disobey laws, then it must admit that those powers reside in the people as well.
#40
"Pile on top of that additional expenses added on by POLITICIANS for POLITICAL reasons (aka birth control), and one should see that any company thinking they will"
Argh. forgot to finish that thought: Pile on top of that additional expenses added on by POLITICIANS for POLITICAL reasons (aka birth control), and one should see that any company thinking they will make money, much less break even, under such a program deserve the clipping that Lex desires them to SUFFER so he may be satisfied.
#41
For those that passed this piece of shit law, I will always remember your depravity in treating people like this. You all should be ashamed of yourselves. There will be an account.
#42
You mention politicians. UnitedHealth, like so much of our rapacious for-profit health sector, is a favored golden landing pad for ex-pols of both parties (iirc, Tom Kean (R) of NJ and Donna Shalala (D) ex-HHS are both current or former board members).
The current system is a sinkhole of waste, abuse, and cruel treatment of sick people. Yeah, the system that's supposed to take care of the sick is the one that preys upon them, creating adverse selection nightmares by means of bulkshit notions like "pre-existing conditions."
The current system is broken and is bankrupting the nation. There are any number of European models that would be a huge improvement on it, both in terms of overall solvency, quality of care, and equality of access.
Fortunately, the fools, thieves and shills who defend it are wasting their breath, because it's finished. Good riddance. Oh, and UnitedHealth's days are numbered. F---these parasites.
#43
Ptah- the "numbers" you refer to are EXACTLY the reason that for-profit health insurance is such a stupid and anti-social concept that all of our peers have eliminated it.
We all get sick. We all need coverage. The whole point is to expand the risk pool as much as possible to spread out risk and cost and take care of everyone.
Again, you need to go back to basic economics and get your head around the fact that * healthcare is not a normal good. *
#44
swksvo - welcome to single payer. This btw is why sone 20-25% of the public did not support the ACA: because it isn't going far enough toward the only rational model, which is the largest possible risk pool with the lowest administrative cost.
Single payer (supplemented by private, optional, NON-PROFIT insurance plans) is far and away the PRO-BUSINESS solution.
The simple fact is that sooner or later, hopefully sooner, we will put a stake through all the for-profit insurers and decouple health care entirely from employment.
It's not the employer's responsibility, and employer-sponsored plans should not receive any subsidy at all. It's a public responsibility that should be provided to everyone and paid for by everyone, via generalized taxes like a VAT.
Imagine the boost to American competitiveness and productivity if your company and every other US company did not have to compete with this ridiculous monkey on your back. Join us: the sooner we move from the half-measure of ACA to a rational single-payer system, the better for the nation.
#45
Were you talking about the need to drive private insurers out of business (and probably, in the process, both increasing costs for the policyholders and/or worsening health care) back when the ACA was under discussion? Did you write Congresspeople to say "Don't bother, it's not Single-Payer, and will make things worse in the short term?" Do you even realize that driving up costs/driving companies out of business is making things worse?
Why should we believe you about your Final Goal of Driving Down Costs when everything your side has done thus far has been to increase costs by adding more administrative layers?
You are a fool. I only get angry because if you were allowed to have your vile views inflicted on others it would mean so many of their deaths from shody treatment like that doled out here in the UK.
If you think single payer insurance is a good idea and bigger pools are better, try it in car insurance first!
Health is personal. Health risks change with age, sex, sexual orientation, job.
Extortion funding of "insurance" is not insurance. It's forced subsidisy of risks.
Akin to the Clinton's sub-prime loans disaster this would kill health care in the USA.
#47
A major part of the problem is that 'health care' is three things conflated into one.
1. Catastrophic health insurance, i.e. major medical. Coverage for expenses over, say, 50K. This is real insurance. Everyone should be required to have this. If they can't afford it, see below. For *unexpected* disasters. New knees don't count.
2. Health cost pooling. This is entirely optional. Everyone has health costs, and whether you share them is up to you. If you think yours are higher than average, do you really expect others to pick up the difference? How about a pool to reshingle your roof? Interesting, but required? And everyone has a different opinion about the quality of shingles and how often it needs to be done. Same with knees, lose some weight instead. Or buy a cane.
3. Health care welfare. Yes, there should be a safety net. I'm willing to contribute. But, no knees. Get a damn cane. And no bypass surgery when you're already dying from cancer. The nation clearly can't afford two new knees for everyone or new hearts for 85 year olds who can't fork out for one.
#49
Beavis - with the benefit of your superior training, perhaps you can explain to us all how it is that our Frankenstein keloid he of multiple systems manages to be superior to single payor + supplemental, optional non-profit private insurance when those plans
- are far more efficient than and spend a fraction, in % terms, of our kloodgy non-system that's easily the most wasteful in the advanced world;
- are not only more efficient but alsoore effective, delivering better health outcomes across all categories but a handful of extremely rare, high-end treatments;
- far more equitable and inclusive than our casually cruel system in which private, profit-maximizing companies create armies of chipmunks whose job consists of figuring out ways to deny people benefits and also screw doctors and hospitals.
Give us the benefit of your expertise. How does that work? Why is our system such an abject failure compared to all the major advanced industrial countries' systems?
#50
#37 Shipman: completely favor tort reform. Move us toward a continental model. German, Swiss, French, Swedish: any if these would be a vast improvement on the broken mess we now have, the one that's bankrupting the nation and ruining hundreds of thousands of American families.
Why any pro-business fiscal conservative would favor this current mess is mind-boggling.
The problem is mostly on the medical provider side, not so much the payer side. The single payer will just work out a convenient arrangement between the payer and the providers, and knees will continue to cost 70K, instead of a reasonable 10K, as would hold if market forces prevailed (if you will accept that premise).
#52
Sorry lex, but you didn't deny that the ACA provided a wedge for bureaucrats to dictate mandates that increase the costs to private insurers. The cause of the demise of private insurance companies is not natural, but artificially created (incidentally, by the same people who will "run" "single payer"). A lot of people foresaw this, but it was denied because buy-in from the insurance companies was needed to pass ACA.
And there is no such thing as Single payer. You yourself admit that additional taxes will have to be raised to cover the "extras" that the Politicians can't take back, and to cover EVERYONE. The productive will "pay". What you want is actually "Single Disburser": the government making decisions with money they TOOK from people who were smart enough to make it. It is EASY to TAKE money if you have the guns and the power, much less easy to MAKE it.
#53
Speaking for this pro-business fiscal conservative, I hardly favor the current mess.
OCare, and your solutions, will make it worse, IMHO. The answer lies in appropriately regulated free markets.
And, yes, executive compensation packages are excessive across the board. That's an issue that can be solved with tax policy, here and in the EU. It's the consumer tech products companies that are making 15% net regularly, not the health care organizations.
#54
Single payor only works for the young healthy, it really sucks for the sick. Compare survival rates on breast, colon and prostate cancer. Check wait times for hip and knees. Sorry Lex but I've forgotten more about health care models than you'll ever know.
[An Nahar] A Swedish-Lebanese man denied on Tuesday links to Hizbullah during his trial on charges of breaking Thailand's weapons laws.
Atris Hussein, 48, was locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in Bangkok in January last year and police later found chemicals that can be used to make a bomb at an address he rented.
According to the charges, Hussein and some unidentified accomplices had packed more than six tons of ammonium nitrate into bags.
In March, Thai authorities alleged Atris had connections to Hizbullah.
Giving testimony for the first time Atris -- who was handed Swedish citizenship after claiming asylum -- denied the charges.
"I know Hizbullah in general," he told a court.
"But I don't have any relation -- either directly or indirectly -- with the group," he said, adding the movement is widely known in Leb and is part of the government.
Ammonium nitrate is commonly used in agriculture, but mixed with other substances can make a bomb. Its possession requires a permit in Thailand.
Prior to his arrest, the United States had warned of a "serious" threat of a terrorist attack on tourist areas in Bangkok.
Two Iranians are currently on trial for suspected involvement in a botched bomb plot against Israeli diplomats in Bangkok in February 2012.
This article starring:
Atris Hussein
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Atris Hussein, 48, was locked away
This the same d00d from Myst? Hell won't keep him.
[An Nahar] A wave of attacks in Iraq, mostly targeting Shiite Mohammedans, including a spate of market bombings, killed 46 people on Tuesday, raising fears of a revival of the country's brutal sectarian conflict.
Nationwide unrest is at its worst level since 2008, with the U.N. saying more than 2,500 people died from April through June, as Iraq grapples with a protracted political deadlock and months of protests among its Sunni Arab minority.
No group immediately grabbed credit for the attacks, but most of the violence struck Shiite targets.
Sunni forces of Evil linked to al-Qaeda frequently target Shiites, whom they regard as apostates.
Tuesday's deadliest violence struck the capital, with several boom-mobiles ripping through markets, mostly in Shiite areas of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , where 34 people were killed, security and medical officials said.
Vehicles rigged with explosives went off minutes apart at around 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) in packed shopping districts of the Shuala, Kamaliyah, Shaab, Hurriyah and Abu Tcheer neighborhoods.
"I was watching TV and then I heard a very loud kaboom," said Ahmed Ibrahim, a day laborer whose apartment balcony was completely destroyed by the nearby boom-mobile in Kamaliyah, where pools of blood had formed on the ground.
"Most people expeditiously departed at a goodly pace, they were afraid of a second boom-mobile," he said, referring to a common myrmidon tactic to target those who try to help the maimed in an effort to maximize casualties.
"God will take Dire Revenge™ on those who attacked us," the 31-year-old said. "Those who did this are terrorists, they are not Mohammedans, they are unbelievers."
Car bombs also went off in the predominantly Shiite southern cities of Basra, Amara and Samawa, killing a total of three people and wounding nearly 50 more.
Shootings elsewhere in Storied Baghdad killed four more people, while bombings in the cities of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... Baquba and djinn-infested Mosul, north of the capital, killed five people and maimed 17.
The violence came a day after a series of attacks north of Storied Baghdad left 45 people dead, among them 23 people killed in a suicide kaboom at a funeral in a Shiite religious hall.
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#1
raising fears of a revival of the country's brutal sectarian conflict
Every day there's a terror attack in Iraq, and every day there are fears of a revival of the country's brutal sectarian conflict.
[Pak Daily Times] GILGIT: Security forces on Tuesday claimed to have apprehended another suspect in connection to the killing foreign tourists in Diamer on June 23. His arrest came a day after another suspect, a worker of Water and Power Department, was caught from Chilas. The suspect is member of a 16-memebr terrorist gang allegedly involved in the Diamer attack. He was tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! while he was on duty. Security forces have so far arrested three suspects and all are the locals.
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[An Nahar] Bolivia's President Evo Morales said Tuesday his Latin American country was willing to consider U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden's political asylum request.
"If there were a request, of course we would be willing to debate and consider the idea," Morales told Russia's state-run RT television in comments translated by the channel from Spanish.
Bolivia is one of 21 nations to which the anti-secrecy WikiLeaks website said Snowden had applied for asylum.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Sure. Spend the rest of your life in a landlocked Andean sh!thole. With all the cocaine you can blow, courtesy of Evo's personal stash.
[ABCNEWS.GO] Police have incarcerated Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! a Canadian man and a woman and charged them as terrorist suspects for attempting to leave a suspicious package at British Columbia's provincial legislature on Canada Day.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Asst. Com James Malitzia says John Stewart Nuttall and Amanda Marie Korody were arrested Monday. The pair has been charged with conspiracy, facilitating a terrorist activity and making an bomb.
Malitzia spoke at a news conference Tuesday.
Police said the plot was inspired by al-Qaeda ideology, but called it a domestic threat without international connections. Police said the public was never at risk and the threat was detected early.
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[Pak Daily Times] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Tuesday said that he has directed the law enforcement agencies, including the ISI and Intelligence Bureau, to treat Sunday's bombing in the bustling provincial capital as a test case and catch the culprits.
Addressing a joint presser after a day of meetings with the provincial government and law enforcement agencies in Quetta, the premier said that the acts of violence in the province were not acceptable anymore. "This (attacks) is neither acceptable for the provincial government nor for the federal government." Nawaz said the governor, chief minister, interior minister and heads of security forces, including the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Intelligence Bureau, were present in their meetings.
"The administration here needs to bring improvement in their governance and the authorities in police need to realise their duty." Nawaz said that Quetta was a small city of around 20 lanes and that it should not be too hard to secure it. Assuring Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Chief Minister Abdul Malik all possible support from the federal government, including the best coppers in the country, Nawaz expressed his determination to combat terrorism.
"If we keep fighting them in such a determined manner, we will manage to end terrorism." The prime minister said that he would keep visiting the province to keep an eye on progress being made. He has also constituted a task force to maintain law and order in Balochistan. Addressing a high-level meeting in Quetta on Tuesday, Nawaz directed all the security agencies to ensure close coordination to curb terrorism. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Nawaz arrived in Quetta to discuss the security condition of the city in the aftermath of the attack on the Hazara community.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Abdul Qadir Baloch, Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo accompanied the prime minister on his one-day visit. On reaching Quetta, Nawaz was taken to the Governor's House where he headed the meeting on the law and order situation. The Balochistan governor, chief minister, inspector general of police, FC IG and interior secretary were also present in the meeting.
Nawaz said that his government is determined to bring a marked improvement in the administration, making it more responsive to the needs of society. He said that the faceless myrmidons and people involved in disappearance of citizens would be made accountable. The prime minister said the election of Dr Malik Baloch as Balochistan chief minister had sent a positive message to the people and now the new provincial government will have to show some positive results.
Nawaz praised the role of police and Frontier Corps whose officials laid down their lives while fighting faceless myrmidons and lawbreakers. He expressed the hope that the problem of missing persons would be resolved soon. The premier said he would place best police officials at the disposal of the provincial government if the chief minister demanded. Nawaz said he had talked to the intelligence officials who promised to provide help to the government in maintaining peace and tranquillity in Quetta. The prime minister said that acts of terrorism against the innocent people would not be tolerated.
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[An Nahar] The Ulemas of the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... on Tuesday accused the Lebanese army of collaborating with Hizbullah to target members of the Sunni community and said the judiciary was receiving orders from Iran.
"The military is collaborating with Hizbullah to fight Sunnis," Sheikh Salem al-Rafehi said following a meeting that the Ulemas held hours after Tripoli witnessed tension that left one person dead.
He accused the army of disrespecting itself by asking for the assistance of a "militia" against the Sunni sect.
The Sheikh called on President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... and Caretaker Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn to reveal what he said was the torture and killing of Sunni detainees at the Defense Ministry in Yarze.
"If our Christian partners are turning a blind eye to what's happening to Sunnis, then their turn will come" in the future, he warned.
Al-Rafehi also accused Hizbullah's main backer Iran of dragging Sunni youths to a battle with the army. "Some members of the military are receiving orders from Iran and killing our sons," he said.
The holy man was referring to the latest arrest and alleged abuse of Sunni detainees after a deadly battle between troops and supporters of radical Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in the southern city of Sidon.
There have been claims that the army is committing abuses against people suspected of links to last week's festivities in which around 18 soldiers and more than 20 supporters of al-Asir died.
Last week, the army said it had ordered a "major investigation" into the beating of a suspect.
A video footage created controversy showing the man saying he worked in Asir's mosque, but that he has no weapons and had nothing to do with the fighting.
The video also shows one man in civilian clothing hitting him, then a soldier kicking him and finally several others joining in.
A man is heard ordering those filming with their telephones to stop, and the footage ends abruptly.
The meeting of the Ulemas came against the backdrop of the alleged abuses and tension in Tripoli at dawn Tuesday which left one man dead.
Salim Amin al-Ashqar, 75, died after inhaling smoke from shops that were burned by gunnies to protest the arrest of a suspect who had appeared alongside singer-turned Salafist Fadel Shaker in a video circulated in the wake of the gunbattles in Sidon.
Sheikh Mohammed Imam, who also spoke during the presser of the Ulemas, described Tripoli as a "victim," saying it was being "punished and marginalized."
"Why are arms being used in the streets and no one has an answer?" he asked.
He urged all officials to assume their responsibilities.
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[Bangla Daily Star] An official says India has rejected NSA leaker Edward Snowden's request for political asylum. External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin says India has carefully examined the asylum request and decided to turn it down. He said Tuesday that the government has "concluded that we see no reason to accede to that request."
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Did Snowy apply to North Korea? I'm sure Kimmy III could use another acolyte.
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07/03/2013 5:52
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[Bangla Daily Star] The Washington Times yesterday confirmed publishing an article by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... on January 30, which called upon western leaders to save the country's democracy by putting pressure on the government.
The confirmation came hard on the heels of Khaleda's denial in parliament on June 29 of sending any write-up to the US newspaper.
Contacted by The Daily Star yesterday, The Washington Times Executive Editor David S Jackson in an email said his newspaper did carry an article by Khaleda titled "ZIA: The thankless role in saving democracy in Bangladesh."
"The article that appeared in The Washington Times [The thankless role in saving democracy in Bangladesh] was submitted to us by Mark Pursey, a London-based intermediary acting on behalf of Begum Khaleda Zia," Jackson wrote to this correspondent.
He added: "We have been in touch with Mr. Pursey both before and after the publication of the article and we are confident in its authenticity."
Mark Pursey is Founding Managing Partner of a UK-based communications consultancy firm, BTP Advisers.
Asked to comment on Khaleda's denial, BNP Vice Chairman Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury last night said, "What she [Khaleda Zia] said on the floor of the parliament.....that's the situation."
Shamsher, now on a visit to Thailand, declined to comment further on the issue, which has already stirred a huge political debate in the country.
The January 30 byline write-up, which appeared in the opinion section of The Washington Times, drew huge public attention. At the bottom of the article, Khaleda was identified as former prime minister and current leader of opposition.
There was a reference to GSP in one part of the article.
"They [the US authorities] also must explain to Ms. Hasina that general preferences for trade will be withdrawn if those who support workers' rights and have political views opposed to those of the prime minister are not now allowed to express their beliefs," the article read.
But two days after the US suspended the GSP facility for Bangladesh, Khaleda denied having sent any write-up to the US daily.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. , who was in the House during Khaleda's statement of denial on June 29, showed a copy of the article.
But Khaleda went on saying: "It's not written by me."
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An Iranian ship laden with arms seized by Yemeni authorities in January may also have been bound for Somalia, according to a confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters on Monday. Yemeni forces intercepted the ship, the Jihan 1, off Yemen's coast on January 23. U.S. and Yemeni officials said it was carrying a large cache of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, being smuggled from Iran to insurgents in Yemen.
The confidential U.N. report, by the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, cited Yemeni officials as saying that it was possible diesel carried aboard the ship could have been intended for shipment to Somalia.
The group, which tracks compliance with Security Council sanctions, raised concerns in the report about the flow of weapons to Islamist al-Shabaab militants since the U.N. Security Council eased an arms embargo on Somalia's fragile Western-backed government earlier this year.
The report did not explicitly say that weapons on the ship were headed for Somalia, but one U.N. Security Council diplomat said that if it was true that the diesel was intended for Somalia, it could not be ruled out that other items on the ship, including weapons, might also have been intended for there.
What the Iranians should have done was to allow the ship to be 'hijacked'. Then they would have delivered the weapons and diesel, and gotten world sympathy to boot...
Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran's U.N. mission, rejected the suggestion that Iran could be connected in any way with arms supplies to al-Shabaab.
"These are some baseless allegations and ridiculous fabrications about the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said. "This alleged report by the Monitoring Group on Somalia on arms shipments from Iran carries no basis or the minimum rationality."
"No, no, certainly not!"
A Western diplomat said that the fact that there were 16,716 blocks of C4 explosive on the Jihan 1 suggested a potential connection between Iran and al-Shabaab in Somalia, as Huthi rebels, unlike al-Shabaab, were not known to use C4.
The U.N. experts wrote that according to Yemeni security officials, the arms and ammunition were well-packed in small containers concealed inside several large compartments filled with diesel fuel.
"Yemeni officials indicated that this arms consignment was to be delivered to the Huthi rebellion in north Yemen," the report to the Security Council's sanctions committee said. "However the Monitoring Group investigated if some of the Jihan 1 cargo could have been intended for delivery in Somalia."
"When asked about this, security officials confirmed that the diesel could have been bound for Somalia," the report said. "Members of the crew have also divulged to a diplomatic source who interviewed them in Aden that the diesel was bound for Somalia."
The potential Somalia connection was not raised in a recent report by the U.N. Panel of Experts on Iran that monitors compliance with the U.N. sanctions regime against Tehran. That report said five of the Iran panel's eight members found that all available information clearly placed Tehran at the center of the Jihan arms smuggling operation. But three panel members - who U.N. diplomats said were from Russia, China and Nigeria - said the Jihan incident was a "probable", not definite, violation of the U.N. ban on Iranian arms exports.
Thus allowing them to close their eyes to the whole situation.
The latest experts' report said Yemen was the top source of arms in Somalia.
The group wrote that authorities in Puntland - a semi-autonomous region of Somalia which has a fractious relationship with Mogadishu - had said that one reason they had passed a law banning Yemeni petroleum imports the ease with which arms were smuggled in diesel containers like the ones on the Jihan 1.
So everyone except the U.N. knows how the scam works. Typical...
"Additional evidence indicates the involvement of an individual entity based in Djibouti as part of a network that supplies arms and ammunition to al-Shabaab in Somalia," it said.
The monitoring group said it was concerned about the possible export from Somalia of know-how in the manufacture of suicide vests and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to Kenya and Uganda. It said it had analyzed a suicide vest discovered in Kenya in March, which was similar to ones used by al-Shabaab.
This, the group said, "suggests a transfer of know-how between al-Shabaab in Somalia and al-Shabaab members or its sympathizers operating in Kenya."
Although piracy off Somalia's coast had decreased, it said some of the demobilized pirates were providing private security services to unlicensed fishing vessels off Somalia's coast.
"Puntland officials estimate that tens of thousands of metric tons (1 metric ton = 1.1023 tons) of illegal catch has been fished from Puntland's coastline between 2012 and 2013 by hundreds of illegal fishing vessels," the report said.
"The vessels are predominantly Iranian and Yemeni owned and all use Somali armed security," it said.
The Monitoring Group said it was investigating reports that illegal fishing vessels were also being used to smuggle weapons. While the reports were unconfirmed, the group had established "other connections between the illegal fishing networks and networks involved in the arms trade and connected to al-Shabaab in northeastern Somalia," the report said.
The Monitoring Group said Puntland officials estimated that as many as 180 illegal Iranian and 300 illegal Yemeni vessels were fishing in Somali waters, along with a small number of Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and European-owned vessels.
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[An Nahar] Chaotic scenes marred Tunisia's first parliamentary debate on a new post-Arab Spring constitution on Monday, as tensions flared between the ruling Islamists and their opponents over the long-delayed draft.
The North African country's political stability remains fragile, two and a half years after the revolution that ousted veteran strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, adding urgency to the need for the new charter.
But the debate was suspended after less than 30 minutes when the presentation by the head of the drafting committee, Islamist MP Habib Kheder, was interrupted by opposition MPs who accuse him of introducing controversial articles in a discretionary manner.
Those articles exempt laws adopted under ruling Islamist party Ennahda from constitutional control for three years, and extend indefinitely the legislative powers of the assembly while failing to draw up a timetable for elections to replace it with a new parliament.
When Khoder finally returned to the podium to resume his presentation at around 6 pm (1700 GMT), he was again drowned out by heckling from opposition MPs who shouted slogans and sang the national anthem.
Before the session was interrupted, a handful of secular opposition MPs issued a statement criticizing the "fraudulent process that has affected the workings of the constituent committees."
Speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar, said the disruption to the debate had "damaged the assembly's credibility and legitimacy."
But he announced the formation of a committee to try to broker a compromise between the two sides as the assembly adjourned until Tuesday.
Beyond the controversial clauses introduced, some civil society and opposition activists have raised concerns that the text does not sufficiently guarantee basic liberties.
Amnesia Amnesty International said it undermined the principles of international human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... law by giving greater legal value to the constitution than to international treaties ratified by Tunis.
But a relatively wide consensus appears to have been forged on the division of executive powers between the president and the prime minister, which was at the center of a major political tussle.
Ennahda had previously insisted on a pure parliamentary system before allowing the head of state to retain important powers, notably in the areas of defense and diplomacy. The Islamists also agreed to abandon having the Koran inscribed as a source of law.
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[Al Ahram] The spokesmen for the Egyptian presidency and the cabinet quit on Tuesday, the latest in a string of resignations from the administration of President Mohamed Morsi, who is facing massive public pressure to step down.
Presidential front man Ehab Fahmy - who was seconded to the presidency from the foreign ministry - has tendered his resignation, a foreign ministry official told AFP.
Cabinet front man Alaa El-Hadidi told the official MENA news agency he had also given his notice to Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.
Five Egyptian ministers have resigned since Sunday's mass nationwide protests demanding the president's removal.
On Monday, eight members of the Islamist-dominated Shura Council stepped down in protest at the simmering political stand-off in the country.
Former armed forces chief-of-staff Sami Anan also stood down as a presidential advisor on the same day, in solidarity with the opposition's demands.
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[An Nahar] Al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... parliamentary bloc stated on Tuesday that Hizbullah is the "only party to be held responsible for what Leb is going through" because of its involvement in the Syrian conflict.
"Hizbullah, its weapons and its militia's involvement in the Syrian war are responsible for what Leb is going through," the politicians said in a released statement after their weekly meeting at the Center House.
They questioned Hizbullah's role in last month's festivities of the southern city of Sidon, accusing the party of encouraging strife in the country.
"Has Hizbullah's role transformed into moving its Shabiha between (the Syrian border town of) al-Qusayr, Beirut and Sidon?," the MPs asked.
"We demand answers regarding the party's involvement in Sidon through a transparent probe."
Restating its support for the army in its mission of preserving security, the bloc, however, criticized the military institution's statements of "threats and preaching."
"What were the measures and punishments adopted against those who assaulted (Salafist holy man Ahmed al-Asir's supporter) Nader al-Bayoumy? What is the truth behind the behavior of the head of the army intelligence's office and the military police officials in the South before and after the festivities?"
On Thursday, the army handed over to the military police soldiers suspected of humiliating and beating a man suspected of ties to Asir.
The body was identified as Nader al-Bayoumy, whom the Association of Mohammedan Scholars said had "handed himself in" after the Abra clash.
The statement stressed: "The bloc and the Lebanese people demand honest and quick answers to these questions as well as holding parties accountable."
"We reject the army's unacceptable statements of threats and preaching."
Al-Mustaqbal also criticized the military institution for "preventing journalists from doing their job" in Sidon.
The politicians assured that they abide by the articles of the memo submitted by Sidon MPs Bahia Hariri and Fouad Saniora to President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too...
"We are still waiting for a security plan to transform Sidon into a city free of arms and party slogans," they noted.
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Once or twice. Pretty piggy. Her looks do not compensate for her general pigginess. Two thumbs down. No matter what she is or isn't wearing.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/03/2013 13:47
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#7
Great place to open up the Ferrari.
Or the Country Squire
Roll, roll, roll on Beeeg Momma!
I had one, actually a low rent counter-part, the Country Sedan, slapped on rain tires and let the poor Windosr breathe and I won class at the local Gymncana, course weren't many entries in that particular class.
[reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... Tribune] Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn intends to take action today on legislation that would allow guns to be carried in public, and he's widely expected to insert changes to the bill to try to put in place stricter regulations.
This is the bill Illinois was ordered to do by the Circuit Court of Appeals, which said that Illinois' previous prohibition of concealed carry was an unconstitutional infringement on the 2nd amendment. Much as Chicago has been trying to get around the USSC decisions of Heller and MacDonald, Illinois, the Dems and Quinn in particular are trying to get around this one. It isn't going to work but it might get Quinn past the 2014 election, and that's really all he cares about. He's a Chicago pol, remember...
While Quinn would not say Monday what he plans to do with the concealed carry measure, sponsoring Rep. Brandon Phelps said the governor's office told him that Quinn would rewrite the proposal using his amendatory veto powers.
Quinn is a staunch gun-control advocate who has decried the federal appellate court decision that struck down Illinois' long-standing concealed carry ban. The ruling forced politicians to strike a compromise to set up rules on who can carry guns and where before a court-ordered deadline expired and left a lack of regulation on the books.
But the legislation politicians approved did not include a number of restrictions pushed by Quinn, including a statewide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. It's unclear what changes Quinn plans to make, but Phelps said he believed limiting the number of rounds that could be carried in a gun is at the top of the governor's list.
Phelps blasted Quinn's decision to make changes in a bill that was delicately negotiated and supported by politicians on both sides of the gun debate. He accused the governor of making changes for political reasons in an effort to pander to Chicago voters who are predominantly anti-gun rights as Quinn prepares for what is expected to be a tough re-election bid.
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Doc, Quinn may be a Chicago pol, but he has no clout. He is being challenged in the Dem primary so far by Bill Daley, who has raised a ton of money, and likely Lisa Madigan. Gun control is his windmill to tilt at. Stick a fork in him, he's done.
#2
Quinn has all the political cover he would need to just sign this and move on. That's not the issue. Quinn's problem is that once he signs gun crime will go down, and that is something the Dems can't allow.
[USNEWS] In what sounds like a science-fiction novel come to life, one scientist says he is close to being able to affix one person's head to another human body. I seen dat movie. It sucked.
Italian scientist Sergio Canavero believes he has come up with an outline to successfully complete the first human head transplant in history, which could lead to solutions for those suffering from muscular dystrophy or tetraplegics with widespread organ failure.
Head transplants have been attempted since the 1950s, when Russian scientist Vladimir Demikhov experimented with dogs. Twenty years later, American neurosurgeon Robert White conducted a successful head transplant by moving the head of one monkey to the body of another. The monkey lived for several days, but because White could not connect the two spinal cords, the monkey eventually died.
Canavero describes in a recent paper a step to connect donor and recipient spinal cords -- the one component that was missing from previous procedures because the technology to do so was not yet available.
"Tomorrow is today," Canavero said in an interview. "What was impossible can happen now."
But completing a head transplant is incredibly tedious, and the spinal cord fusion hasn't been tested.
Though the procedure's name suggests otherwise, the recipient would be receiving a new body, not a new head. Both the body-recipient and the body-donor's heads are severed before the recipient's is attached to a new body.
To be transplanted, the head would have to be cooled to between 55 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, the two heads must be cut at exactly the same time and in the same operating room. Surgeons then have one hour to connect the head to the donor body, which is also cooled and placed under cardiac arrest.
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07/03/2013
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As Dr. Reynolds commented, isn't it really a BODY transplant? I find this a significant point of order. If there is someone else's noggin on my corpse, I don't think it's really ME anymore!
[An Nahar] The Army Command announced on Tuesday that the man placed in durance vile Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! for appearing in a video alongside former singer Fadel Shaker had confessed to smuggling weapons into Leb.
It said in a statement that Ghali Haddara confessed to smuggling arms and ammunition into the so-called security zone in Abra in the southern city of Sidon.
He revealed that some of the weapons were smuggled into Abra two days before the eruption of the two-day festivities with the army on June 22, it added.
Haddara who was arrested in a tourist resort on June 28 was found possessing equipment to make explosives, announced the Army Command.
Eighteen soldiers were killed and 50 were maimed in festivities in Sidon between the army and armed supporters of Salafist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir on June 22 and 23.
More than 20 of al-Asir's supporters were killed, according to a security official.
Dozens of them were also arrested, but there was no sign of the holy man.
On Monday, unrest erupted in the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... in light of Haddara's arrest.
He was arrested for interrogation after he appeared alongside singer-turned-Islamist Death Eater Fadel Shaker in a video circulated in the wake of the Abra battle.
Shaker is now on the run with fellow runaway al-Asir.
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[An Nahar] Salafist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir was plotting to target several areas across Leb in an attempt to provoke strife under the auspices of a "prominent" security agency and funded by well-known businessmen, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.
A security source told As Safir newspaper that reputable businessmen granted al-Asir financial funds and apartments, who in turn used the funding to buy arms and explosives, aiming to bomb several areas across the country to create a sectarian strife.
The source also told the newspaper that a truck loaded with arms crossed al-Awali army checkpoint two days before the festivities with the army in the southern town of Abra, near the port city of Sidon.
According to the source, the truck made its way to Abra through a "prominent" security agency.
The truck was located near al-Asir's complex in the southern town with the arms.
The fighting, which was sparked last Sunday when al-Asir's supporters opened fire on an army checkpoint, left around 18 soldiers and more than 20 gunnies dead.
The gunbattles concentrated in the area of Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque and nearby buildings.
Al-Asir, a 45-year-old holy man who supports the overwhelmingly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... , is no where to be found along with singer-turned Salafist Fadel Shaker.
On Monday, State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr asked for the DNA samples of al-Asir's mother and the brother of Shaker.
Al-Asir teamed up with him when around two years ago he began agitating for Hizbullah to disarm.
The results of the tests will be compared with the DNAs of two burned bodies found by the army after taking control of the complex of al-Asir.
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[An Nahar] At least 14 people were killed in army shelling on a rebel village near the Syrian capital on Tuesday, as violence raged in flashpoint areas of Damascus and in the central city of Homs, a watchdog said.
The shelling comes a day after a powerful boom-mobile rocked the district of Kafr Sousa in southwest Damascus.
The blast killed an unknown number of members of the security forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said that at least 14 people died in Tuesday's shelling.
"The number of people killed in Kafr Batna has risen to 14, including three women and three children, after regime troops shelled" the village, said the Observatory.
Kafr Batna is located in the Eastern Ghouta area east of Damascus, home to several rebel bastions.
In late spring, the army launched an unprecedentedly fierce onslaught on the area, aimed at cutting off rebel supply lines into Damascus.
The army has meanwhile kept up a bid to crush Death Eaters already operating in the capital.
On Tuesday, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said the army has "restored security and stability in most of Jubar" in eastern Damascus.
The district has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks, and according to the Observatory, the army renewed shelling on the neighborhood on Tuesday.
Troops also shelled Qaboon in northeastern Damascus and Barzeh in the north, the group added.
In central Syria, rebels in besieged districts of Homs city held out, four days into an army assault in which Hizbullah is also taking part, said the Observatory.
The army shelled the rebel neighborhood of Khaldiyeh while festivities raged in Bab Hud, the Observatory said, adding that an unknown number of fighters on both sides were maimed.
More than 100,000 people have died in Syria's raging war, which broke out more than 27 months ago when a peaceful movement for change morphed into an insurgency after the army unleashed a brutal crackdown on dissent.
Millions have been displaced as a result of the war, and poverty has ravaged the country.
Since March 2011, Syria's public sector has registered losses of $7.5 billion, according to the country's local administration minister Omar Ghalawanji.
Direct losses due to material damage and other tangible destruction caused by the conflict accounted for $1.25 billion alone, Ghalawanji said.
More than 9,000 public buildings have been "partly or completely destroyed" during the conflict, according to Syria's Committee for Reconstruction, which was established to evaluate war damage and calculate compensation.
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[Pak Daily Times] The Capital Police has reduced the strength of security personnel deployed around the residence of former president Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... . Media reports said that 200 police officials in five check posts were deployed outside the farmhouse of former president. He is under a house arrest in Chak Shehzad owing to security concerns. Reducing the strength of his security on Tuesday, police authorities deployed 20 police personnel and maintained only two check posts outside his farmhouse. The former president is being tried in the cases of Akbar Bugti murder, Benazir liquidation and judges' detention case.
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#1
watch that latch on the limo moonroof, Mushy
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/03/2013 10:27
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[Al Ahram] Egyptian artists gathered once again outside the culture ministry in Cairo's Tamale district, later walking towards Tahrir Square to join a massive crowd gathered there. Protesters' demanded that President Mohamed Morsi step down and that the Moslem Brüderbund be removed from power.
Tuesday's march comes only two days after artists and intellectuals staged the largest protest march since the January 2011 revolution.
Though this time smaller in size, the march still counted several hundreds and was met with cheers by passers-by as the crowd walked through 26 July Street, through Saray El-Gezira Street along the Nile towards Qasr El-Nil Bridge from where it entered Tahrir Square.
The march included artists of all generations and fields: filmmakers, theatre makers, musicians and visual artists, among others. The protesters were led by a car with speakers, as artists sang patriotic songs and stopped occasionally to sing the Egyptian national anthem.
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[Pak Daily Times] HANGU: The police have recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition during various raids in different areas of the city and tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! 31 proclaimed offenders wanted in various cases of heinous nature. Talking to journalists on Tuesday, District Police Officer (DPO) Sajjad Khan said the operations were conducted in Sarkanda, Bakto, Kando Kelly, Mero Bak Banda, Lakhti Banda, Spin Khawary, Warasta, Duaba and Thall areas that led to recovery of 35 Kalashnikovs, 27 rifles, 29 guns, 71 pistols, two HMG, seven RPGs, three hand grenades and 4322 cartridges from the possession of outlaws. The DPO said 23 kilograms hashish was also seized. During the cleanup operation, he said 31 proclaimed offenders including five faceless myrmidons and 190 suspects were arrested.
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#1
You guys sure it was only 23 kilos of primo Afghan Brown? It looked like more...
In a case that has hogged the headlines for months, those who plotted against the UAE and its institutions have got what they deserved Four months and 13 sessions later, the Federal Supreme Court sentenced 69 Emiratis to jail for five to 15 years on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.
The court sentenced 56 of the 94 defendants to 10 years in prison each. Five defendants were jailed for seven years each while eight tried in absentia were sentenced to 15 years each. A total of 25 people were acquitted including all 13 women arrested in the crackdown and who had been on bail since the start of the trial on March 4.
Prosecutors said the accused were linked to Al Islah group, which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Their trial was the largest in the history of the UAE. The defendants, among them lawyers, university professors and students, were arrested between March and December 2012 for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government.
In February, UAE Attorney-General Salem Kobaish said the defendants were being tried for having created and led a movement aimed at opposing the basic foundations on which the states political system is built and at seizing power.
The group had formed a secret organisation which was in contact with individuals and organisations abroad, including the Brotherhood, and had also created or invested in real estate firms to finance their organisation, he said.
The verdict cannot be appealed.
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MOGADISHU - Somalia's federal government has called for calm on Mogadishu streets after protesters took to the streets demanding the release of terrorist chief Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, Garowe Online reports.
"Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is in good health and is currently in the custody of the Somali Federal Government," Somali Interior and National Security Minister Abdikarim Hussein Guled told a Tuesday press conference in Mogadishu, adding: "Sheikh Aweys will not be transferred over to any foreign government and we call upon the Mogadishu public to calm down".
Minister Guled warned against "some groups who are inciting the public with false information, and public incitement is a threat to peace, stability and governance".
On Monday, hundreds of people protested in Mogadishu between Banadir and Tarabunka junctions, with protestors shutting down local businesses, chanting anti-government slogans and demanding the release of Sheikh Aweys from prison.
Interior Minister Guled apologized for the violent incident on June 29, when Sheikh Aweys was transported by plane from Adado town in Galgadud region of central Somalia to Mogadishu by a group of parliamentarians, elders and warlords.
Somali security forces at the Mogadishu airport reportedly "used force" to arrest Aweys upon landing at the airport, while the group of parliamentarians, elders and warlords who accompanied Aweys to Mogadishu were "beaten up and arrested" by the security forces, but everyone was released except Aweys.
"This was an unfortunate and unplanned incident, and we apologize to the affected individuals," said Minister Guled.
Aweys escaped to his native region of Galgadud in late June 2013, after Al Shabaab death squads were sent to assassinate senior members of Al Shabaab militant group in Barawe coastal town of Lower Shabelle region, in southern Somalia. Al Shabaab death squads sent by Godane reportedly assassinated other senior Al Shabaab members, including Ibrahim Afghani and Moallim Burhan.
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[An Nahar] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday vowed to continue the fragile grinding of the peace processor between the government and the country's Kurdish minority which looked threatened by a weekend of rallies sparked by the death of a young protester.
"This problem didn't start yesterday and it will need a lot of work and patience," he said at a weekly meeting of his deputies from the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).
"Everyone needs to stay calm and be patient," he said, vowing that "nothing" would stop him from completing a full reconciliation with Turkey's estimated 15 million Kurds. "The grinding of the peace processor will continue," he said.
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[An Nahar] U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... on Tuesday expressed fear for 2,500 "trapped" civilians as Syrian government forces press a campaign to take the city of Homs, a front man said.
Ban renewed a call for a halt to arms supplies to both sides in the conflict as he expressed "grave concern" about the fighting in Homs, said U.N. deputy front man Eduardo del Buey.
"An estimated 2,500 civilians remain trapped in Homs," said the front man.
Ban called on "the warring sides to do their utmost to avoid civilian casualties and to allow immediate humanitarian access, as well as opportunities for trapped civilians to leave without fear of persecution."
The U.N. secretary general also expressed "his concern over threats to seize two Shiite villages in the northern province of Aleppo."
Ban "calls again for stopping the supply of arms to all sides and appeals to the parties in Syria and their supporters to focus instead on the search for a political solution that remains the only way out of this tragedy."
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[Al Ahram] 22:00 Ahram's Arabic website reports that numbers are increasing at the Qobba presidential palace in Heliopolis. At a nearby underground metro station, crowds are so large the station workers have opened the metro barriers to allow people to exit more easily. Groups of people wearing high-visibility jackets are spreading out securing the rally, reports Ahram.
Qobba only became a major location for protests this weekend; previously, anti-Morsi marches headed to Tahrir Square or to Ittihadiya presidential palace (also in Heliopolis), where the president's office is officially based. On 30 June, however, the president moved his office to Qobba, and as a result the palace is becoming a popular destination for rallies and marches.
21:45 More festivities in Upper Egypt. Violence broke out between pro- and anti-Morsi supporters in the city of Minya after a number of Morsi supporters reportedly fired at anti-Morsi protesters during rival protests, according to Ahram Arabic.
Thousands of Morsi supporters had gathered in front Al-Rahman mosque, known in the city as an Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya spot, in a march towards the city's Palace Square where hundreds of anti-Morsi protesters had been staging a sit-in against the recently-appointed Islamist affiliated governor, when a number of people from the pro-Morsi protest reportedly fired at protesters in front of the governorate building.
An account of injuries has not yet been provided.
Police fired rounds of teargas in the perimeter of the governorate headquarters to disperse the two camps.
21:40 Clashes erupt in Luxor in front of the governorate headquarters after pro-Morsi demonstrators attacked an anti-Morsi protest, reports Ahram Arabic. Several have been reported injured, although the official number is still unconfirmed. Security forces apparently intervened to contain festivities.
In Beni Suef, pro-Morsi demonstrators retreated from the main square after anti-Morsi demonstrators approached.
21:30 Ministry of health announces one dead in festivities in Giza that took place between opponents and supporters of President Morsi. In total, 72 have been injured during the Tuesday festivities over nine different governorates.
21:05 We should stress that the injuries and deaths that are being reported are happening at the margins, not in the main protest sites. Tahrir Square, Ittihadiya, and Qobba are all so far free of any festivities, as is the main Islamist rally in Rabaa Al-Adawiya.
The festivities have been occurring in locations where smaller numbers and marches are taking place. The two reported deaths were in Kit Kat in Giza, which is located on the western side of the Nile river, opposite Cairo.
21:00 The Minister of Health Mostafa Hamed has announced that 39 people have been injured in festivities in seven governorates: Cairo, Alexandria, Qalioubiya, Giza, Daqahliya, Damietta and Fayoum, which saw the highest number of injuries per governorate at 21.
Hamed said that 17 out of the 39 injured have been discharged from hospitals. The two deaths in Giza have yet to be confirmed officially.
20:50 Thousands of anti-Morsi demonstrators are gathered in El-Horreya Square in the city of Damietta, reports Ahram Arabic. Earlier on Tuesday evening, hundreds of Morsi supporters had gathered near the square to demonstrate but retreated when scuffles broke out with residents. Police forces are still deployed around the square to form a buffer between the two camps.
20:45 There have been a number of political resignations today, including six ministers, a cabinet spokesperson, and a number of others.
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#1
Appears there was a bit more to it than a small Gezi Park protest. The presidential Africa tour appears to have become lost in the news.
[An Nahar] Mali's elections will go ahead as planned on July 28, the government said on Tuesday, amid doubts over the conflict-scarred nation's ability to organize a free and fair nationwide vote in just four weeks.
The caretaker government announced presidential elections just over a month ago, raising urgent questions over the possibility of inclusive polls in a nation recovering from a coup that paved the way for Salafist tough guys to seize control of the north.
"The presidential election will be held on July 28. The Malian government has never set two dates. The Ministry of Territorial Administration has never had any doubts," said Moussa Sinko Coulibaly, who holds the portfolio, after a meeting with diplomats and Mali's financial backers in the capital Bamako.
Mali's election commission, which is organizing the vote alongside the government, has said however that the distribution of polling cards was seriously behind schedule and that it would be "extremely difficult" to get nearly eight million cards out in a country where 500,000 people have been displaced by conflict.
It has also highlighted ongoing instability in the northeastern desert town of Kidal, which is occupied by Tuareg separatists and still has no army presence despite a ceasefire between the transitional government and the rebels signed on June 18 in Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
The decision to hold the first round on July 28, possibly followed by a second round on August 11, was taken by the Malian government under pressure from the international community, and especially former colonial power La Belle France.
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NAIROBI - Money at the Central Bank of Somalia is not used to run government institutions in the war-torn Horn of Africa country, with an average 80 percent of withdrawals made for private purposes, according to a U.N. report seen by Reuters on Monday.
No! Say it isn't so!
The confidential report by the U.N. Group of Experts to the Security Council's Somalia and Eritrea sanctions committee blamed a patronage system - dubbed the "khaki envelope" practice after the color of the stationery carried to the Ministry of Finance - for preventing the creation of state institutions.
"In this context, the fiduciary agency managed by PricewaterhouseCoopers was reduced to a transfer agent that could not ensure accountability of funds once they reached the Somali government," the report said.
"Indeed of $16.9 million transferred by PWC to the Central Bank, $12 million could not be traced," it said. "Key to these irregularities has been the current governor of the Central Bank, Abdusalam Omer."
You might be able to carve up the boodle without the governor of the Central Bank on board, but it sure is easier if he is...
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Omer and the Somalia U.N. mission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Omer, 59, is a dual Somali-U.S. national who left Somalia at age 16 and returned in January to become governor of the Central Bank in a country with a shattered economy and broken financial system.
The U.N. report said all bank decisions were made by Omer because there were no board members in place
...and I bet Omer likes it that way...
and the bank does not operate as a government body subject to policy decisions or oversight from integrity institutions and parliament.
"On average, some 80 percent of withdrawals from the Central Bank are made for private purposes and not for the running of government, representing a patronage system and a set of social relations that defy institutionalization of the state," it said.
The parasite really does seem to be sucking about all of the blood from the host...
The experts said Somali Finance Minister Mohamud Hassan Suleiman had tried to reduce the scale of the patronage system, but "it is so pervasive as to be beyond his control without a fundamental restructuring of the system."
Under the patronage system, a person can ask Somali leaders for a private payment "that cannot be resisted for personal or other reasons," the U.N. report said. A senior politician signs a note authorizing the payment, which is honored either directly at the Ministry of Finance or the Central Bank, the report said.
"This custom is also called the 'khaki envelope' procedure on account of the color of the envelopes seen carried to the Ministry of Finance," it said. "Since banks in Somalia, including the Central Bank, cannot make electronic transfers internally or externally, all transactions are made in cash."
The report found that between September, when the new government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud came to power, and April, almost three-quarters of withdrawals from the Central Bank were made for private individuals.
"Such statistics indicate that the CBS has effectively functioned as a 'slush fund' for the (patronage) system rather than as a financing mechanism for government expenditures," the U.N. experts said.
The report noted that Mohamud's government "cannot necessarily be faulted for the continuing patterns of corruption per se, but it can be held responsible for the appointment of individuals involved in past or present corruption."
According to Central Bank accounts, a cashier at the Ministry of Finance, Ahir Axmed Jumcaale, was responsible for withdrawing the greatest amount of funds.
It helps that he knows how much is there...
The report said that between 2010 and 2013 Jumcaale withdrew $20.5 million in his name, which was then used for individual payments under the patronage system by successive finance ministers or finance officials.
I'm sure he kicked a fair bit of that both up and down...
An individual named Colonel Abdiqaadir Moalin Nuur took out $4.7 million between 2010 and 2013, the second largest amount of money, according to the report, which said there was no explanation for his withdrawals.
The International Monetary Fund officially recognized the Somali government in April, ending a 22-year hiatus, and last week offered technical support and advice, a first step in efforts to secure debt relief for the country.
Also last month, the Central Bank of Somalia published its first annual report since civil war erupted in 1991, putting the total debt at $3.2 billion. To win debt relief offered to poor nations, it has to draw up a financial management plan.
That should be humorous...
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[Al Ahram] The Moslem Brüderbund issued a statement on Tuesday warning of attacks planned against anti-Morsi protesters at Tahrir square and Ittihadiya presidential palace.
The Islamist group said the attacks will take place in an attempt to frame the Moslem Brüderbund and incite violence against them, "spreading strife in the country."
"The Moslem Brüderbund is condemning such plans and actions if they occur, for it is concerned with the blood of Egyptians -- of all Egyptians," added the statement, which went on to assert that the group is working in the interest of the country by way of democratic procedures and not "violence, terrorism and killing."
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#1
Is violence really the only path that muslims understand? I SPIT on the their stupid black stone.
Posted by: Herb Tojo1930 ||
07/03/2013 15:41
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[IsraelTimes] A US jury has convicted a couple of defrauding the government in a scheme that prosecutors allege also violated a trade embargo with Iran. Dr. Hossein Lahiji and his wife, Najmeh, were also convicted of conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
Prosecutors said the couple gave more than $1.8 million to the Oregon branch of an Iranian children's charity that sent the money on to Iran. Prosecutors say the transactions violated the US trade embargo against Iran. Their donations were used to make investments in Iran that they retained control over, according to the indictment.
The indictment described an alleged scheme in which the couple got tax exemptions for their donations to the Child Foundation charity. The charity is not named in the indictment, and none of its officers has been indicted.
The head of the charity, Mehrdad Yasrebi, allegedly funneled money that was meant for food and other assistance to his cousin and to a bank controlled by the Iranian government. Yasrebi was identified as a coconspirator in the indictment but was not charged.
The money eventually landed in Bank Melli, an arm of the Iranian government, federal prosecutors alleged.
According to the indictment, Yasrebi and the Child Foundation transferred a total of $5.4 million between April 2001 and April 2005 to Refah Kudak through a bank account in Switzerland. Some of that money came from Lahiji.
[Bangla Daily Star] Activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... blasted a cocktail on Satmasjid Road in the capital on Tuesday on the eve of tomorrow's countrywide daylong hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... (shutdown).
Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... , has called the hartal demanding the release of its leaders and activists including central president Delwar Hossain.
Witnesses said around 20 to 25 Shibir men brought out a procession on Satmasjid Road around 1:00pm in favour of the hartal.
As the procession reached the Government Graphics Arts Institute, the pro-hartal activists torched several tyres on the street and blasted the cocktail before leaving the place, they said.
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[Al Ahram] President Mohamed Morsi on Tuesday met with Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to discuss recent political developments.
The presidency's official Facebook page published a photo of the meeting. It also published a photo of a meeting between the three on Monday, making this the second meeting in the past 24 hours.
Five cabinet ministers have submitted their resignations in protest at President Morsi's failure to respond to Sunday's nationwide demonstrations against his rule.
In addition, the spokesmen for the presidency and the cabinet quit on Tuesday.
On Monday, the Egyptian Armed Forces issued a televised statement giving Egyptian political forces 48 hours to "fulfil the people's demands," otherwise it would present a political "roadmap" for the country that would include all political currents.
Amid speculation that the army will stage a coup against the president, the armed forces released a later statement saying that its doctrine does not permit military coups.
Many opposition political forces hailed the army's statement and repeated their demand for early presidential elections.
Mass demonstrations are expected to continue across the country by both supporters and opponents of Morsi.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Al Ahram] An Egyptian appeals court endorsed on Monday a verdict relieving Prime Minister Hisham Qandil of his duties and sentencing him to one year in prison for not executing a court ruling.
[Al Ahram] The Muslim Brotherhood-owned television channel Misr 25 went off air along with several other Islamist-run channels, including the controversial Hafez and Al-Nas, shortly after the military statement announcing the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi.
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Armed Forces is stepping up its presence in the capital and across provincial towns as Egyptians await a planned military statement.
[Al Ahram] Ex-president Mohamed Morsi issued a statement on his official Facebook page saying that the Wednesday military announcement amounts to a coup.
Russian Islamist rebel leaders urged their fighters on Wednesday to use "maximum force" to prevent President Vladimir Putin staging the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
Everywhere he went in Africa, President Barack Obama was competing with history. There was the heroic leadership of former South African President Nelson Mandela, whose deteriorating health has captured the world's attention; the legacy in Africa of Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, who created a widely praised program to fight HIV and AIDS on the continent; and 
"Your success is our success. Your failure, whether you like it or not, is our failure," Archbishop Desmond Tutu told Obama during his weekend stop in South Africa.
[Al Ahram] Contradicting a court appeal denial, the head of Egypt's Judges' Club, Ahmed El-Zend declares Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud as the 'legitimate' prosecutor-general on Tuesday afternoon.
[Al Ahram] A Bahraini court sentenced seven Shia men to 15 years in prison on Tuesday for the attempted murder of a police officer in August 2012, a judicial source said.
Wazoo
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi must "hear" popular demands, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday, after the defiant president snubbed an ultimatum to step down.
[Pak Daily Times] The Pakistain 
[Al Ahram] The Egyptian Cabinet 
[An Nahar] Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg joined more than 700 of the leading social network's employees to march in a euphoric 
[Al Ahram] A number of roadmaps and initiatives were proposed over the last few days as a way out of the current crisis in Egypt, several of which came following massive opposition protests on Sunday and an ultimatum by the military that sparked celebration among anti-Morsi protestors and anger among the president's supporters.
[Al Ahram] The Jordanian government said on Tuesday that it had blocked 254 unlicensed news websites, 16 of them in the previous two days, using powers under a 2012 law criticised as a threat to freedom of expression.
Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
[An Nahar] A Swedish-Lebanese man denied on Tuesday links to Hizbullah during his trial on charges of breaking Thailand's weapons laws.
[ABCNEWS.GO] Police have 
Nawaz Sharif
Khaleda Zia
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
[Al Ahram] The spokesmen for the Egyptian presidency and the cabinet quit on Tuesday, the latest in a string of resignations from the administration of President Mohamed Morsi, who is facing massive public pressure to step down.
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[USNEWS] In what sounds like a science-fiction novel come to life, one scientist says he is close to being able to affix one person's head to another human body.
[An Nahar] Salafist 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] At least 14 people were killed in army shelling on a rebel village near the Syrian capital on Tuesday, as violence raged in flashpoint areas of Damascus and in the central city of Homs, a watchdog said.
Pervez 
[Al Ahram] Egyptian artists gathered once again outside the culture ministry in Cairo's Tamale district, later walking towards Tahrir Square to join a massive crowd gathered there. Protesters' demanded that President Mohamed Morsi step down and that the 
MOGADISHU - Somalia's federal government has called for calm on Mogadishu streets after protesters took to the streets demanding the release of terrorist chief Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, Garowe Online reports.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
NAIROBI - Money at the Central Bank of Somalia is not used to run government institutions in the war-torn Horn of Africa country, with an average 80 percent of withdrawals made for private purposes, according to a U.N. report seen by Reuters on Monday.
[Al Ahram] President Mohamed Morsi on Tuesday met with Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to discuss recent political developments.
