#1
>Climate data obtained from limestone caves in Oman prove that there was a terrible drought in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula in the middle of the 6th century.
#2
Interesting read from a purely Historical standpoint. Religious standpoint though it makes one wonder exactly HOW Islam gained a foothold with both Judaism and Christianity already in the Region and strong.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/21/2012 21:02
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Silly Charles.
By killing lots of people, of course.
What - did you think they used reason and verbal persuasion?
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/21/2012 22:50
Comments ||
Top||
A United Nations helicopter has crashed in eastern South Sudan, killing all four crew members onboard, the world body's peacekeeping operation in the country reported today.
"The helicopter was not carrying any passengers," the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) added in a news statement. "The Mission extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of the crew."
UNMISS has begun an investigation to establish the circumstances around the crash, which occurred near the settlement of Likuangole, the state of Jonglei, in the country's east. Unrelated Sudan: US Upgrades South Sudan's Preferential Trade Status
US President Barack Obama is to nominate John Kerry to be his next secretary of state, US media report.
Mr Kerry would replace Hillary Clinton at the head of the state department, the media quoted senior administration officials as saying.
Mr Kerry ran as Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 and is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
His nomination comes after the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, withdrew from consideration last week.
Republicans had fiercely criticised her role in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in September.
They had threatened to block her nomination despite the president's strong defence of her actions.
Mr Kerry himself had spoken up for Ms Rice, saying: "I've defended her publicly and wouldn't hesitate to do so again because I know her character and I know her commitment. She's an extraordinarily capable and dedicated public servant."
#4
Mr Kerry himself had spoken up for Ms Rice, saying: "I've defended her publicly and wouldn't hesitate to do so again because I know her character and I know her commitment. She's an extraordinarily capable and dedicated public servant."
And you're happy to believe the lies she tells, and you want us to believe them too.
#10
I don't know, elected Senator should probably get a free pass through the confirmation process. Most appointments in the Executive branch should be treated lightly, and the ones to the judicial branch should get super scrutiny.
Ten bodyguards of Iraq's Sunni finance minister are under arrest on terrorism-related charges, an Iraqi judicial official said Friday, in a case certain to inflame Iraq's political and sectarian tensions.
Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar told The Associated Press that the chief of Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi's protection force was arrested on Wednesday on the strength of confessions made by some suspects. Bayrkdar said the chief confessed that he took part in terrorist attacks.
He added that nine other bodyguards were arrested and under investigation. He did not provide the men's names or give further details.
In the year since the last U.S. troops left Iraq, the country has been wracked by sectarian violence and political stalemate. Iraq's Sunni vice president is on the run after being convicted in absentia and sentenced to death on terror charges, and bloody attacks by Sunni extremists against Shiites still happen frequently.
This week's arrests are a concern for Washington. American officials have been engaged with Iraqi political leaders since hearing about the detentions and have urged the Iraqi government to uphold commitments to due process and the rule of law, according to a U.S. Embassy official.
A top State Department official acknowledged Thursday that cables warning of serious security concerns at the U.S. compound in Benghazi went to department headquarters and possibly to the Secretary of States office in the months leading up to the deadly Sept. 11 attack.
Deputy Secretary of State Williams Burns, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the cables would have been reviewed up through the assistant secretary level, and it may be that some of my colleagues on the seventh floor saw them as well. The seventh floor refers to Hillary Clintons office. Further, Burns confirmed there were certainly memos that came to Clintons office describing some of the dozens of security incidents in the region before the attack.
Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides and Burns told the committee that the State Department had already begun to fix the serious, systemic problems identified in a blistering report that pointed to gross mismanagement at the State Department over their handling of the Benghazi incident. Burns and Nides testified in place of Clinton, who is recovering from a stomach virus and concussion. Clinton had been scheduled to testify Thursday but canceled.
Italian Premier Mario Monti says the impending end of his technical government "was not the fault of the Mayan prophecy."
Monti made the quip following a Christmas Mass with staff on Friday that came as the lower house of Parliament was debating a budget law, the last action to be taken by Monti's year-old government. The Senate approved it Thursday.
Monti pledged to resign as soon as the budget is passed after Silvio Berlusconi yanked support for his government, accelerating national elections now expected in February. The passage could come as early as Friday the last day of the Mayan calendar prompting doomsday predictions.
Monti will give his year-end news conference Sunday, when he is expected to announce whether he will participate in the election campaign.
#1
So if they get all pissed off and go typical Islam, will the California Highway Patrol show up at Bigelow's house to slap the bracelets on her like they did to that poor bastard the last time?
I didn't want to post about this, because frankly, it is exhausting. I've been having this exact same argument for my entire adult life. It is not an exaggeration when I say that I know pretty much exactly every single thing an anti-gun person can say. I've heard it over and over, the same old tired stuff, trotted out every single time there is a tragedy on the news that can be milked. Yet, I got sucked in, and I've spent the last few days arguing with people who either mean well but are uninformed about gun laws and how guns actually work (who I don't mind at all), or the willfully ignorant (who I do mind), or the obnoxiously stupid who are completely incapable of any critical thinking deeper than a Facebook meme (them, I can't stand).
Today's blog post is going to be aimed at the first group. I am going to try to go through everything I've heard over the last few days, and try to break it down from my perspective. My goal tonight is to write something that my regular readers will be able to share with their friends who may not be as familiar with how mass shootings or gun control laws work.
The Army presented two two-star generals and three intelligence specialists Thursday to defend its $2.5 billion battlefield intelligence processor, which has failed operational tests and has been criticized by soldiers as being too slow to analyze the enemy and help find buried bombs in Afghanistan.
In a news conference at the Pentagon, the Army specialists lauded the Defense Common Ground System, an array of computers, servers and programs that is the Armys principal processor of huge amounts of battlefield data.
The Washington Times first reported in July about an internal battle within the Army. Commanders and intelligence officers in Afghanistan complained in messages to Army headquarters about the Defense Common Ground System.
Some asked for permission to buy Palantir, an off-the-shelf software platform that specializes in linking disparate bits of information to form a clear picture of the battlefield.
In some cases, Army officials involved in shielding the Defense Common Ground System from possible budget cuts viewed Palantir as a competitor and worked to shut off the requests.
I doubt there is an intelligence person beyond the grade of Specialist or buck sergeant who knows how to operate DCGS effectively. Each of the various software programs, such as the old Analyst Notebook (AnB), Query Tree, ARCGIS, and others have specific uses which permit the analyst to produce effective products.
The Digital Common Ground System (DCGS) developers have attempted to take the capabilities of numerous systems (tools) and integrate them into one proprietary, legacy mega tool. DCGS is not user friendly, nor is it cross-system, or cross-service friendly. It is also costly and contractor heavy. Yes, it comes with it's own data storage "brain", but the data is already out there on the cloud anyway. The DCGS "brain" does not share unless you access it thru the DCGS portal.
Palantir on the other hand, can be taught to a lower ranking soldier in an afternoon. It will permit him or her to "word tag" and search thousands of pieces of message traffic and built investigations which create outstanding link-analysis products.
An auto mechanic cannot repair everything on your car with a pair of pliers. Specific tools are required to perform various functions. The Army leadership is wrong about DCGS, but they are too invested in it to back out. Talk to the Marines, or SOF community, or any intelligence analyst. Don't talk to a Colonel or General about a software tool.
The Egyptian newspaper Al-Wafd reported Thursday that Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will have to undergo brain surgery, in the coming weeks, to remove a life-threatening tumor.
The report has not been corroborated by any other source and was denied by the Presidential Palace.
#8
Well, there are three places where he can get good treatment: London, Jerusalem, and Havana. Well, the last would be not-so-good. I wonder where he will go.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
12/21/2012 21:28
Comments ||
Top||
Three suspected terrorists militants were killed in a shootout in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia.
Two of those killed were identified by the state officials as the leaders of separate influential criminal gangs: Ayub Khaladov and Movsar Katsiyev. The third one was Katsiyevs subordinate, Khamzat Pugoyev, who was involved into attacks on law enforcement officials in Ingushetia and North Ossetia, according to Russias National Antiterrorism Committee. One officer of the local Federal Security Service was wounded in the shootout.
Khaladov was one of the organizers of a major attack on the native village of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov in 2010. He was involved in plotting suicide bombings, including one at the border between Ingushetia and North Ossetia in October.
[Al Ahram] Presidential front man Yasser Ali said the regime is open to dialogue about the constitution regardless of the outcome, in a presser on Thursday.
Regardless of whether people vote yes or no in the referendum, we will be open to dialogue, Ali said during the conference, which took place at the presidential palace.
He added that Egypts economy is going through a critical phase that requires all of Egypts forces to work together. We are all aware of the rules of democracy, the most important of which is the peaceful transfer of power, Ali said. Dialogue is the only solution for those who want a democracy.
The second phase of the referendum will take place on 22 December.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[An Nahar] Egypt's chief public prosecutor on Thursday retracted his resignation, days after offering to step down following protests by prosecutors and judges against his appointment by President Mohammed Morsi.
Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah, who offered his resignation earlier this week, asked to be allowed to remain on in his position, the official MENA news agency reported.
The justice minister is considering his request.
Morsi appointed Abdallah last month in one of number of decisions that sidelined judges, sparking a judicial strike and mass rallies by the Islamist president's opponents.
One of those decisions was to sack previous prosecutor general Abdel Meguid Mahmud. It followed criticisms the previous month by the president's supporters over Mahmud's failure to secure convictions of more members of the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
Morsi appointed Abdallah to replace Mahmud, who issued a brief statement on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
pledging to "work day and night to achieve the goals of the revolution."
Morsi's actions triggered a nationwide outcry, with opposition forces calling it a "coup" and the judges saying it was a direct attack on the independence of the judiciary.
Under pressure, the president on December 8 revoked the decree granting him sweeping powers but kept Abdallah on as his new prosecutor general.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Yemen Post] Head of the presidency office, Nasr Taha Mustafa, has said the restructuring of the Yemeni armed forces meant the defense minister can be a military commander a civilian competent official.
"The decrees to restructure the army which were issued by President Abdrabu Mansour Hadi on Wednesday included the possibility that a civilian can be selected as the defense minister," Mustafa said on his facebook page.
"Such a policy just comes like other democratic states do," he said, adding the minister will have four assistants.
The restructuring also requires one deputy for the chief of staff who will be responsible for all military units except the presidency protection and missile forces that shall be under the commander-in-chief, Mustafa continued.
According to the decrees, the Yemeni army was divided into the ground, marine, air and border forces and new units such as the special operations and the missile forces have been added to the structure of the Yemeni forces.
The elite republican guard and the first armored division are no longer exist in the army.
Hadi fired key military and security chiefs loyal to the former president including the elder son of the former president Ahmed Saleh who was the commander of the elite elite republican guard.
There have been no reaction from anybody, but analysts said silence never means military commanders, especially relatives and loyalists of the former president, will not try to resist the decrees.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Dawn] From mid-August to late September, the Pak military, the US-led International Security Assistance Force and the Afghan military have conducted a number of complementary operations in the border areas, says a Pentagon report.
The report, which is sent to the US Congress under the National Defence Authorisation Act, states that complementary operations were conducted in the border areas of Nuristan, Kunar, Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. , Paktiya, Khost, and Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... in Afghanistan.
In Pakistain, similar trilateral operations were conducted in Chitral, Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... , Mohmand, Khyber, Kurrum, North Wazoo and South Waziristan.
The report assesses US efforts for stabilising Afghanistan and also defines the role Kabuls neighbours, particularly Pakistain and India, can play in achieving this target.
But the US Department of Defence makes it clear that Pakistain remains a key strategic state in its own right and not just in reference to Afghanistan.
Pakistains centrality to US interests is evidenced by its status as a nuclear power, its shared border with Afghanistan and India, its integral role in the fight against Al Qaeda, and its potential role in promoting stability in Afghanistan, the Pentagon tells Congress.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Ma'an] Israel charged a Palestinian citizen of Israel on Wednesday over a bomb explosion on a Tel Aviv bus during Israel's November military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Justice Ministry said.
The bus was driving close to Israel's defense ministry complex when the bomb went off on Nov. 21, wounding 15 people.
Mohammed Mafarja, 18, is accused of planting the bomb on behalf of Hamas, the Islamist group which rules Gaza, to boost their cause during the conflict with Israel.
Hamas praised the bombing but did not claim responsibility.
Israel launched an offensive against Hamas and other Gaza militant factions on Nov. 14 with the declared aim of stopping their rocket fire into its territory. Some 170 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed in the fighting that lasted eight days.
Three Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank were arrested along with Mafarja last month and are still in custody, a police spokesman said. They are suspected of recruiting the teenager to carry out the bombing.
Mafarja, according to the charges, notified his handlers when the bomb was in place on the commuter bus and they then detonated the device with a mobile phone.
No trial date was set and Mafarja's lawyer asked for three weeks to study the charge sheet. He said that the defendant may not have intended to blow up the bus.
"It appears that he did not know that the content of the bag would lead to such a result," lawyer Ihab Jaljouli told reporters at the Tel Aviv District Court.
When a radical French Muslim cleric was arrested in Mali last month on his way to join Islamist jihadis rebels in the north, he was carrying fake Senegalese identity papers. It heightened the worst fears of Mali's neighbor to the west: the threat of terrorism spreading across the border into one of Africa's most peaceful countries.
Senegal and other neighbors may have to confront their fears soon. The UN Security Council voted on Thursday to approve a military intervention in Mali, led by African forces and backed by Western military trainers.
This intervention could have unintended consequences, including the possible spread of violence in the region. The Islamists in northern Mali have already threatened to bomb the capitals of any African nation that contributes troops to the planned military force.
The radicals in northern Mali could easily move across the porous frontiers. Some Senegalese men have joined one of the leading Islamist groups, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. And AQIM has reportedly used Senegal for some of its money-laundering operations.
The fear of spreading terrorism is a main reason for the Security Council's decision to approve the force of 3,300 troops, which is likely to enter Mali next year. The force will attempt to push back the jihadis before they can cross borders into other countries.
Mali's authorities are convinced that the Islamists will target neighboring countries. Fadiala Sidibe, police commissioner in Mopti, near the rebel-controlled territory said, "Their target is Western civilization. They will try to take Europeans hostage. They will bomb vehicles. They want to impose Islamic sharia law all over West Africa."
[An Nahar] Thousands of Paleostinians returned on Thursday to a refugee camp in Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... that has become a battle ground, as U.N. Sherlocks warned of an openly sectarian conflict that threatens whole communities.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... denied propping up Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... and stressed that Moscow was only seeking to avert a perpetual civil war in its long-time ally.
Four days on from a first air strike on Yarmuk refugee camp, "thousands of Paleostinians walked across army checkpoints at the entrance to the camp to return home, rather than sleep outside in the cold and under the rain," an aid worker in the camp said.
According to one resident and amateur video posted online, refugees sang traditional Paleostinian songs, and chanted: "We are returning to Yarmuk camp".
Another resident said most the fighters of the rebel Free Syrian Army that had been deployed in their thousands days earlier had pulled out of Yarmuk.
"There are a couple of fighters in each alley way, but they're drinking tea and smoking the nargileh (water-pipe)," the resident told AFP.
In Geneva, the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... Relief and Works Agency for Paleostine refugees (UNRWA) said as many as 100,000 Paleostinians may have fled Yarmuk in the past few days.
The dramatic turn of events in Damascus in recent days was followed by U.N. findings that Syria's conflict has become overtly sectarian.
"As battles between government forces and anti-government gangs approach the end of their second year, the conflict has become overtly sectarian in nature," the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria said in a report published on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Four days on from a first air strike on Yarmuk refugee camp, "thousands of Paleostinians walked across army checkpoints at the entrance to the camp to return home, rather than sleep outside in the cold and under the rain," an aid worker in the camp said.
Hmmmmm...sounds like the UNRWA is falling down on the job.
You might figure they'd be pretty good at, seeing how they've had about 65 years of practice, but I guess not...
More than 40 Paleostinians hospitalized after having contracted H1N1 virus, Paleostinian Authority reports
Soon to be seen in Egypt, no doubt, along with other diseases of a collapsing society. Get all your shots and wash your hands often, O Israelis!
Reports in the Paleostinian Authority said that a pregnant woman died of swine flu on Thursday.
Three Paleostinians have died of the H1N1 virus and over 40 were hospitalized after having contracted the flu since the beginning of the winter, PA officials said.
Paleostinian Health Ministry front man Tarif Ashur said that the majority of the patients have been discharged.
Health Ministry official Dr. Asad Ramlawi stressed that Paleostinian health officials are experienced in diagnosing and treating the condition. He added that the Health Ministry has a sufficient amount of medicine including the Tamiflu antiviral drug to treat the virus.
Anyone who contracted the virus is exempt of paying medical insurance, Ramlawi added.
#3
A while back, in Egypt, they killed all the pigs to prevent swine flu. Unfortunately, the pigs had played a major role in getting rid of garbage. With the pigs gone, the garbage built up, leading to more problems.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/21/2012 9:06
Comments ||
Top||
#4
A couple of years ago there was an outbreak of swine flu in Israel, of all places. It was along the border with Syria. Followups with the CDC placed the vector in Alawite swineherds, which I would've thought was a contradiction, but evidently not.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/21/2012 10:24
Comments ||
Top||
A security analyst has warned that Muslims returning to Australia after fighting in Syria could pose a national security risk. Tobias Feakin of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) says he understands about 100 Australian men are in or have been to Syria to fight for or support the anti-government rebels.
In an article on ASPI's blog Feakin said, "There are obvious security issues for Australia as those individuals return. Those individuals who gain frontline combat experience in Syria and the ideological extremes and motivations that they bring back with them, are likely to concern Australian authorities. The bottom line is that while governments are busy downgrading the terrorist agenda, new spheres of influence and radical messaging emerge."
Feakin said while some of the Australians fighting in Syria have been named through media reports many more remain unidentified and presumably unmonitored.
Senior government ministers have warned leaders in the Lebanese and Syrian community that it is not legal for Australians to take part in the Syrian uprising. The Australian Federal Police distributed flyers to Muslim communities across Australia last month, notifying that fighting for either side would breach an arms embargo and could incur hefty penalties, including jail time.
[Magharebia] More than 200 Tunisian lawyers filed a formal complaint against the imam of the Sidi Lakhmi mosque in Sfax, Tunisie Numerique reported on Wednesday (December 19th).
According to the representative of the group of lawyers, the action is not directed at imam Ridha Jaouadi but rather at his December 7th sermon, during which he called on followers to kill and die in a "holy war" against anyone opposed to the Islamist government.
In related news Wednesday, Tunisian activists accused a holy man of inciting hatred against Jews during a November sermon aired by private network Hannibal TV.
"We have lodged a complaint with the court of the first instance in Ben Arous against the imam of Rades mosque, Sheikh Ahmed S'hili, for inciting hatred," attorney Kais Baltagi told AFP.
The complaint is based on legislation that allows anyone who uses media to "incite hatred between races, religions and people" to be placed in durance vile Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
for up to three years.
Hannibal TV was not included in the complaint, because it aired the imam's remarks live and was unaware in advance of the nature of his comments, Baltagi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Salafists
[Ma'an] The Paleostinian ambassador to Washington DC said Thursday that a congressional petition to shut down their delegation's office could harm American interests in the Middle East.
The letter, calling on US President Barack Obama The campaign's over, John... to "respond strongly" to the PLO's successful effort to upgrade its status at the UN, was circulated to members of the House of Representatives this week for co-signatures.
The letter asks Obama to close the PLO office in Washington, recall the US consul-general in Jerusalem and reaffirm the US' commitment to withdraw funds from any international organizations that Paleostine joins as a member.
It is sponsored by the current Republican leader of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
...who has been on top of this kind of thing since President Obama came to town...
her successor Edward Royce, as well as the leading Democrat committee member Howard Berman and his successor Eliot Engel.
Paleostine's pursuit of the UN vote on Nov. 29 "violated both the letter and spirit of the Oslo Accords, and it opened the door for expanded Paleostinian efforts to attack, isolate, and delegitimize Israel in a variety of international forums," the politicians wrote.
Paleostinian leaders argue that Israeli settlement expansion also violates the 1993 Oslo Accords which established interim Paleostinian self-government. In total 138 states voted to admit Paleostine a non-member state at the UN. Israel, the US, and seven others voted against the upgrade.
PLO envoy in Washington Maen Areikat told Ma'an on Thursday that the politicians' petition to Obama is an "attempt by Congress to undermine the US administration in any possible role it is planning to play in Paleostinian affairs."
"Trying to actually sever ties with the PLO delegation in Washington will definitely affect open channels and communications between the US and the Paleostinian people," he said.
Closing the PLO office would "harm US credibility and standing in the Middle East at this crucial time during transitions in the area ... (and) impact the regional role of the US in the future," Areikat continued.
The letter is supported by AIPAC, an influential pro-Israel lobby group, while American Jewish groups J Street and Americans for Peace Now have come out against the effort and urged representatives not to sign it.
Areikat says he understands that "the number of signatures is piling, and it will increase with AIPAC endorsement." However he noted that the US Congress is currently focused on America's economic situation during its short "lame duck" session.
"The real fight will be early next year, this is just a rehearsal," he told Ma'an.
"It is a political decision, a decision on the part of the Israeli government to escalate things against the Paleostinian people at home and here ... the US is their other front," he said.
Areikat continued: "Punitive measures won't pay off. If they were effective we would have already changed our mind."
Congress stripped a provision Tuesday from a defense bill that aimed to shield Americans from the possibility of being imprisoned indefinitely without trial by the military. The provision was replaced with a passage that appears to give citizens little protection from indefinite detention.
The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 was added by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), but there was no similar language in the version of the bill that passed the House, and it was dumped from the final bill released Tuesday after a conference committee from both chambers worked out a unified measure.
It declared that "An authorization to use military force, a declaration of war, or any similar authority shall not authorize the detention without charge or trial of a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States apprehended in the United States, unless an Act of Congress expressly authorizes such detention."
#1
it's really hard to be a voice of reason inside the USA - when Congress does stupid stuff like this. what are Americans supposed to think - if the Gov't passes laws authorizing indefinite detention without trial???
#3
BP, the Constitution? Oh, you mean that old piece of paper in the National Archives.
It's not really that important these days. When the Supreme Court gets the case, Justice
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/21/2012 14:46
Comments ||
Top||
#4
(hit submit too soon)
Roberts will just declare it a tax or something.
Besides, Obama doesn't need the law - he can do it by executive order.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/21/2012 14:48
Comments ||
Top||
#6
The complete abandonment of the constitution by all branches of our government has made me lose all faith in the governmental process in this country. The Republic is pretty much dead. The Empire is alive. Execute order 66.
[An Nahar] Representatives of Afghanistan's warring factions met here Thursday for two days of landmark talks that diplomats hope will bolster a fledgling grinding of the peace processor in the war-torn country.
For the first time since a U.S.-led bombing campaign drove the Taliban from power in 2001, senior figures in the Islamist movement sat down with officials from the government and other opposition forces for a round table discussion on the country's future that was brokered by a French think tank.
The organizers, the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), confirmed the closed-door talks had got underway at Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location near Gay Paree but would not divulge the agenda or other details for fear of compromising a potentially significant confidence-building exercise.
The talks come against a background of accelerating efforts to draw the Taliban and other opponents of President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... into negotiations on how Afghanistan will be run after Western troops withdraw at the end of 2014.
The alternative, diplomats fear, is a multi-sided civil war that will make more than a decade of Western intervention in the country look like a colossal waste of human life and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Karzai's government has drawn up a road-map for peace which involves persuading the Taliban and other cut-thoat groups to agree a ceasefire as a prelude to becoming peaceful players in the country's nascent democracy.
As a first step in that direction, Karzai's administration has been attempting to secure the release of top Taliban prisoners held by neighboring Pakistain.
Progress on the prisoner issue is seen as vital if the Taliban is to be drawn into direct negotiations with the government. Karzai's roadmap envisages these taking place in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... next year with both Pak and U.S. involvement.
To date the Taliban has refused to negotiate with the government, which it regards as a puppet of the United States, and initial discussions with American officials were suspended in March.
But the presence here of senior figures Shahabuddin Dilawar and Naeem Wardak has been seen as a sign that the Islamist group is contemplating going beyond exploratory discussions.
Dilawar is a former deputy head of the Taliban's Supreme Court who had to be granted a U.N. special exemption to come to La Belle France because he is usually subject to a travel ban under international sanctions on the organization.
Karzai's roadmap for peace explicitly envisages Taliban leaders being brought into a power-sharing government and/or being appointed to posts such as provincial governors in their ethnic Pashtun strongholds in the south and east of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
A new fatwa by the prestigious Islamic seminary Darul Uloom, Deoband, has said that making videos at any ceremony or function is wrong in the eyes of sharia and should be avoided.
So much for the pre-suicide and snuff videos so popular among the jihadi set...
The religious decree was issued in response to a query by a Pakistani a few days ago. The questioner wanted to know if making a video of a ceremony and deriving income from such videography is proper by Islamic standards.
The clerics of the seminary called it 'un-Islamic' and said it must be avoided. They said the income derived from doing so was also wrong. Senior cleric Maulana Mufti Arif Quasmi said, "According to Islam, pictures and photographs are improper and hence any income from them will also be improper."
However, he made it clear that pasting photographs on passports and other documents is permitted.
[Magharebia] Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan on Wednesday (December 19th) said that investigations into the September 11th assault on the US consulate in Benghazi were "proceeding well".
"A date will be set for the trial," he said in 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...
Speaking at the same presser, Justice Minister Salah Marghani said that the ministry had started implementing a strategic plan to eliminate illegal prisons and detention centres.
"The plan is based on providing fair trials for all defendants," the minister said, adding that "civilians would no longer be tried before military courts".
"Trying civilians before regular courts guarantees fair trials," Marghani said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
Note the apparent lack of interest, collaboration, requests for extradition, or casual mention in passing or in congressional testimony by DoJ or the State Dept.
[Al Ahram] Having seen its star wane in Iraq, Al-Qaeda has staged a comeback in neighbouring Syria, posing a dilemma for the opposition fighting to remove Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... and making the West balk at military backing for the revolt.
The rise of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front, which the United States designated a terrorist organization last week, could usher in a long and deadly confrontation with the West, and perhaps Israel.
Inside Syria, the group is exploiting a widening sectarian rift to recruit Sunnis who saw themselves as disenfranchised by Assad's Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that dominates Syria's power and security structures.
Al-Nusra appears to have gained popularity in a country that has turned more religious as the uprising, mainly among Sunni Mohammedans, has been met with increasing force by authorities.
It has grabbed credit for spectacular and deadly bombings in Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... and Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , and its fighters have joined other rebel brigades in attacks on Assad's forces.
According to Site Intelligence group, Nusra grabbed credit in one day alone last month for 45 attacks in Damascus, Deraa, Hama and Homs provinces that reportedly killed dozens, including 60 in a single suicide kaboom.
"In 18 communiqués issued on jihadist forums ... most of which contain pictures of the attacks, the al-Nusra Front claimed ambushes, liquidations, bombings and raids against Syrian security forces and 'shabbiha', pro-Bashir al-Assad thugs," Site said.
REVIVING THE CALIPHATE
Members of the group interviewed by Rooters say al-Nusra aims to revive the Islamic Caliphate, which dates back to the Prophet Mohammad's seventh century companions, forerunners of the large empire that once stretched into Europe.
That prospect alarms many in Syria, from minority Christians, Alawites and Shi'ites to traditionally conservative but tolerant Sunni Mohammedans who are concerned that al-Nusra would try to impose Taliban-style rule.
Fear of religion-based repression has already prompted Kurds to barricade their quarter of Aleppo city and was behind fierce festivities between Kurdish and al-Nusra fighters in the border town of Ras al Ain in November.
The ideas of al-Nusra are also at odds with a new Syrian opposition coalition that was recognised last week by dozens of countries as an alternative to Assad and is committed to establishing a democratic alternative to Assad's rule.
Omar, a 25-year-old university graduate and former army conscript, said he deserted and joined al-Nusra in reaction to repression he experienced as a Sunni from Alawite officers who all but monopolise the army's higher echelons.
Prior to the revolt, Omar said he had sympathised quietly with Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic international party with a vision for the restoration of the Islamic caliphate abolished by the secular Turkish strongman Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1924.
"Prayer in the army is banned, and if they suspected that you pray they would send you to the most remote posts," Omar said by phone from a rural area near Aleppo city.
"Our aim is to depose Assad, defend our people against the military crackdown and build the caliphate. Many in the Free Syrian Army have ideas like us and want an Islamic state."
"We and other Islamists have gained a reputation as being able to hold our own in battle. Lots of people want to join Nusra, but we do not have enough weapons to supply all of them."
But a female teacher, who lives in the central Mogambo district of Aleppo, said Nusra's thinking was abhorrent.
"Al-Nusra thinks that by shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) they can justify anything they do. We did not rise up to move from the humiliation from being under Assad to the humiliation of being under Al-Qaeda," she said.
NUSRA ATTACKS
Opposition sources said many Syrians who facilitated the transfer of jihadis from Syria to Al-Qaeda in Iraq at the height of its campaign against U.S. forces there were now fighting for Nusra, while jihadists in Iraq had reversed their roles, arranging for transfer of personnel and bomb-making know-how into Syria.
The source of Nusra funding is unclear, though that, too, may come from Iraq.
Ibrahim, another young Nusra member in Idlib province, said he was imprisoned in the notorious Sednaya prison north of Damascus, where 170 mainly Islamist prisoners were killed after the army put down a mutiny in 2007. "We want Dire Revenge™," he said.
Asked about a U.S. statement that Nusra operations were killing many civilians, Ibrahim said it was an exaggeration.
"A bomb goes off in front of a security compound with four cars full of shabbiha in civilian clothes guarding it. The shabbiha die and state media says they were civilian. Only their clothes are civilian," he said.
Several videos have appeared on the Internet in recent weeks purportedly showing al-Nusra-linked rebels shooting and in some instances beheading captured Assad soldiers.
But al-Nusra still appears to have wide support. Video footage on Friday showed crowds in southern Syria, the birthplace of the revolt, denouncing the U.S. designation of the group as gun-hung tough guys and shouting "al-Nusra front protects us".
Farouk Tayfour, deputy head of the Moslem Brüderbund, who fought against Assad's father in the 1980s, said it was too early to categorise opposition fighters. Some, he said, joined Nusra to defend their homes without subscribing to its ideology.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: al-Nusra
#1
it will be a miracle if these guys (Al-Nusra) don't lay their hands on chemical weapons from inside Assad's depots & bunkers.
[Al Ahram] Riots that rocked the South Sudanese town of Wau killed at least 12 people, a hospital doctor said Thursday, revising the previous day's toll of four dead.
"They were 12, those were the ones reported to the area hospitals," with bodies showing "various injuries", Marial Khoc, a doctor at Wau's military hospital told AFP.
A front man for the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said thousands of people were still sheltering at their base a day after the deadly unrest.
"We still have thousands of civilians at our base being provided safety," said UNMISS front man Liam McDowall.
The UN on Wednesday said patrols had "observed a number of fires, as well as groups of youths up to 300-strong, some of whom possessed sticks, spears and machetes".
South Sudan government front man Marial Benjamin told news hounds that the government was bringing in reinforcements from Rumbek, the capital of the neighbouring Lake State.
"The government has contained the situation by bringing in more police from Rumbek," Benjamin told news hounds in Juba on Thursday.
The town has been rocked by violence and protests that began last week after officials said they would move the seat of local government out of Wau to the smaller settlement of Bagare nearby.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] The U.N. Security Council on Thursday unanimously approved sending an African-led intervention force to help Mali's army reconquer much of the country from Islamist thugs.
The 15-member council gave the force an initial one year mandate to use "all necessary measures" to help the Mali government take back the northern half of the country from "terrorist, turban and gangs."
West African nations say they have 3,300 troops ready to go to Mali to help rebuild the country's army and support a military operation which planners say cannot be launched before September of next year.
Tuareg rebels and other separatists and al-Qaeda linked thug groups took advantage of a coup in Mali in March to seize control of a vast chunk of territory where the Islamists have since imposed a brutal form of Islamic law.
La Belle France drew up the resolution after weeks of talks with the United States, which expressed doubts the troops from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) would be ready for a desert battle against the thugs.
In parallel to political efforts to draw the Tuareg rebels into a coalition against the turban groups, European nations and the international force, to be known as the African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA), will first train Mali's army.
The resolution sets down benchmarks for political progress and military preparations that will have to be met before a final onslaught against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its allies is approved.
The resolution emphasized that "military planning will need to be further refined before the commencement of the offensive operation."
It said that U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... , ECOWAS, the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... and other states involved will have to secure "the council's satisfaction with the planned military offensive operation."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Ansar Dine
#1
Send forth the loud, martial parade of fools, accompanied by fanfare of international idiots and underscored by a bombastic bureaucracy.
[Al Ahram] A number of Islamist groups are calling for a rally "to defend scholars and mosques" in front of the Qaed Ibrahim mosque in Alexandria on Friday.
The protest comes after iconic Alexandria sheikh Ahmed El-Mahalawy was trapped inside the mosque for 14 hours on Friday, 14 December by worshippers angry at his sermon, which called for a 'Yes' vote in the national constitutional referendum.
According to a statement released on the Moslem Brüderbunds Facebook page on Tuesday, the groups who plan to participate include the Brotherhood and its political arm the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Salafist Calling and its political arm Nour Party, Asala Party, Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, and Building and Development Party.
The Islamist forces blamed the liberal Constitution Party, headed by Mohamed ElBaradei Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Sorosâ Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organizationâs Executive Committee. , and the opposition group Egyptian Popular Current, led by former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi, for spearheading the attacks on the mosque.
The Brotherhood statement said that the rally will be in response to the attacks by the militias of the Popular Current and the Constitution Party on the Qaed Ibrahim mosque, siege of Sheikh El-Mahalawy for more than 14 hours inside the mosque, and attempt to assault more than 100 worshippers, including women and kiddies.
Anas El-Kady, the official spokesperson of the Brotherhoods Alexandria branch, said the rally will be against the thuggery of the two opposition groups.
It began with attacking the (Brotherhoods) headquarters, then with the assaulting of Brotherhood leaders' homes and houses of worship and Islamic preachers, El-Kady said.
Several Brotherhood headquarters were torched by protesters, following President Mohamed Morsis controversial 22 November constitutional decree, in which he placed himself above judicial review.
El-Kady added that the siege of El-Mahalawy showed the ugly face of Egypt's "secular groups" hostile to Islam.
Yet, the Egyptian people are religious by nature. Egyptians are protective of Islam and will not accept this kind of behavior, he said.
He also accused the leaders of Egypts opposition groups of forcing the Islamists to resort to violence.
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... Islamist leaders were able to exercise self-control. They managed to maintain their non-violent ideology and their belief in dialogue and peaceful work, El-Kady said. This is different than the secular groups, who prefer violence than dialogue and democracy.
The Preachers Syndicate has also released a statement on their official website, announcing their planned participation in Fridays rally after what they called a savage attack by seculars, liberals, and members of the old regime, which culminated in the attack on the Qaed Ibrahim mosque, an icon of the revolution, and the siege of El-Mahalawy, a revolutionary preacher.
The syndicate accused these forces of trying to drag Egypt into a civil war after they failed attempt Curses! Foiled again! to destroy the legitimacy of the regime and obstruct the path of the revolution.
The syndicate also urged the Egyptian people to protect places of worship. It asked the Ministry of Interior to protect houses of worship and arrest and punish all those responsible for this heinous act.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
SCAN protects NY Jewish community: Law enforcement professional says threats against American Jewish institutions on the rise. Community's own nerve center helps identify threats
Since the September 11 attacks, homeland security has been a principal concern in New York City. In 2004, the Jewish community decided to get into the game, establishing their own nerve center to help identify threats.
It's called the Secure Community Network -- SCAN for short.
From its command center in Lower Manhattan, SCAN is hosting a teleconference with synagogues and Jewish community organizations around the country.
Experts from federal law enforcement agencies are on the line, briefing callers about the threat of cyber-attacks.
At the helm of this operation, former law enforcement professional Paul Goldenberg. He says that threats against the US Jewish community are on the rise.
"This past decade we have seen an unprecedented number of attacks against American Jewish institutions from both the extreme right or the ultra right wing, and also from those that want to threaten and harm and/or kill those from the Jewish faith, the Jewish religion, in the name of religious fundamentalism and extremism."
Responding to that threat, Jewish leaders in the US came together to build SCAN to watch for dangerous activity but also train community members in ways to keep themselves and their facilities safe.
"SCAN acts as the homeland security effort for the organized Jewish communities," says Goldenberg.
His small team operates from a Manhattan office building, but he also took us to their back-up site in suburban New Jersey -- and asked us not to disclose the exact location.
Biggest concern: Lone-wolf attacker
Mindful of incidents in Jewish communities around the world, Goldenberg says global events unrelated to the United States can often have an impact here.
"Quite candidly, the events in Gazoo inspired some here and abroad to make a decision to attack Jewish institutions here in the United States. We've seen some very serious cyber attacks on dozens of synagogues, Israeli advocacy groups, and other Jewish agencies, some of which have absolutely no connection to the state of Israel or to geopolitical events in the Middle East."
SCAN partners with local, state, and federal officials to prepare for lone shooters, bombs, and even natural disasters.
David Leonardis of New Jersey's Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness says SCAN is a model for other religious communities to follow.
"It's a good situation, it's a good relationship. We have a good partnership. We provide information to them to get it out to the Jewish community, and they do a great job at doing that. So when we offer training they'll be able to share that training or other resources to the entire Jewish community. And it's very comprehensive."
During the cyber security call, law enforcement encourages callers to reach out to the police or federal officials if they suspect criminal activity.
Goldenberg says SCAN is not a substitute for law enforcement, but rather a supplement.
"Law enforcement is a responsive agency. They are not there 24/7. The law enforcement community does not have eyes everywhere. The most precious natural resource in countering terrorism, in countering crime, is an educated public."
Experts say their biggest concern is a lone-wolf attacker. Someone coming in and committing a crime in a Jewish community center or synagogue, but they hope that an increased level of vigilance spurred by organizations like this will help prevent those kinds of threats from happening.
Right on schedule, the Jerusalem Post and Ynet report on just such an incident:
A Los Angeles man has been arrested and charged with making a phony bomb threat against a Jewish temple and a police car that was parked nearby.
Wan Ryung Song's arrest on Wednesday comes a day after the threat sparked street closures around the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Koreatown as the bomb squad searched for explosives.
He was also charged with vandalizing it earlier this month.
Several bomb threats against the Wilshire Boulevard Temple were called in to the Los Angeles Police Department Tuesday morning. One call said that there was a bomb planted in a car at an intersection near the synagogue.
Police investigated the threats and blew up a suspicious package left in a car adjacent to the synagogue, but the package was found not to contain explosives.
[Al Ahram] Time magazine on Wednesday named the recently re-elected US President Barack Obama I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody... as its person of the year for 2012 -- the second time it has accorded him this honor.
Obama now not only has a reelection as America's first black president and a Nobel peace prize under his belt, but he beat fancied runners-up, including brave Pak girls' rights activist Malala Yousafzai, to be enshrined again as Time's dominant personality of the year.
The venerable American news magazine put Obama on its cover, striking a thoughtful, statuesque pose, and said he deserved the accolade as "the symbol and in some ways the architect of this new America."
The magazine lauded Obama's campaigning prowess, noting he was the first president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to win more than 50 percent of the vote in two straight elections and the first president since 1940 to be re-elected despite a jobless rate above 7.5 percent.
Obama beat Republican Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, the Publican nominee for president in 2012. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals.... soundly in November's election to win a second four year term, despite presiding over a chronic economic slump.
"In 2012, he found and forged a new majority, turned weakness into opportunity and sought, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union," said Time, which had named Obama person of the year back in 2008 when he became America's first black president.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He deserves it.
The first time he got it for managing to be elected POTUS despite being a virtual unknown. This time, he managed to be elected POTUS despite being very well known.
#2
first president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to win more than 50 percent of the vote in two straight elections
Not counting Eisenhower and Reagan.
#4
I'm back somewhat worse for wear, nose is plugged with stuffing and slight bleeding, but I'm still here.
Not dead yet.
Thanks all.
I seem to be banned from the "O" club.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/21/2012 16:43
Comments ||
Top||
#5
There, there, RJ - we love you. Welcome back, and our sympathies on the bleeding, which should shop shortly. (I hope.) ;-p
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/21/2012 17:17
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Thank you Barbra.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/21/2012 18:32
Comments ||
Top||
#7
I'm sure the O Club was an accident, Redneck Jim. Send Fred an email about it using the link in the yellow box in the right margin of Page 1.
[An Nahar] Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... on Thursday denied propping up Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... and stressed that Moscow was only seeking to avert a perpetual civil war.
"We are not concerned about (Bashir al-Assad's fate. We understand that the family has been in power for 40 years and there is a need for change," Putin told a major Moscow press briefing.
But he made no call on Assad to step down and said it remained up to the Syrian people themselves to decide their future through peaceful talks.
"What is our position? Not to leave Assad's regime in power at any price, but to first (let the Syrians) agree among themselves how they should live next," Putin said.
"Only then should we start looking at ways to change the existing order."
Russia has remained Syria's main major ally throughout 21 months of violence that an opposition monitoring group said on Thursday has killed 44,000 people.
It scuttled three rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Assad for his crackdown and condemned Washington for recognizing the Syrian opposition as the legitimate voice of the country's citizens.
That position has frustrated Western attempts to end the bloodshed by forcing Assad from power. It has also condemned Moscow's continued military ties with Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... Putin on Thursday argued that Russia's call for dialogue was meant to avert "an endless civil war" between the armed rebels and government forces who still control most of the capital Damascus.
"We want to avoid (Syrian) disintegration," said Putin.
Putin's comments came less than a week after Russia's chief Middle East envoy said it appeared that Assad would not be able to fend off the rebels much longer.
The foreign ministry later denied an official shift in Russia's position and noted that Moscow still recognized the Assad regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
the story reported in Debka.com - but confirmed nowhere else - is really profound if it's true. NATO has stationed Patriot missiles in Turkey. Has Russia really stationed Iskander cruise missiles inside Syria (probably with Russian operators)? This situation is very close to going into a major Middle East war.
[Al Ahram] Two members of the 'Hazemoun' movement supporters of Salafist leader Hazem Abu-Ismail were tossed in the clink Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! by police on Tuesday in the wake of Saturday's attack on the liberal Wafd Party headquarters, according Ahmed Samir, a leading member of the movement.
Samir told Al-Ahram's Arabic website that the arrest of Ahmed Arafa and Sherif El-Hosari had almost led to a rash reaction by the movement. However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... Abu-Ismail, a disqualified presidential candidate, gave his followers orders not to respond to the arrests.
News of Ahmed Arafa's arrest circulated around social networking sites on Wednesday, claiming he had been "kidnapped" by plainclothes coppers late on Tuesday.
A video posted on a Facebook page used by Abu-Ismail supporters showed Arafa's mother saying that around six people broke into her house at 2am, searched Arafa's bedroom and took him. The video also shows Arafa's ransacked bedroom.
Renowned human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... activist Mona Seif said via Twitter that Arafa was at Cairo's Heliopolis Court accompanied by his lawyer on Wednesday afternoon.
Samir said other groups, such as the Egyptian Popular Current, April 6 and remnants of the Mubarak regime carry out acts of violence that are then falsely attributed to Hazemoun.
Abu-Ismail vehemently denied that his supporters were behind Saturday's attacks on the headquarters on the Wafd Party and the Egyptian Popular Current. The managing editor of the Al-Wafd news website held Hazemoun responsible for the attack, but Abu-Ismail shrugged off the accusation.
The Egyptian Popular Current issued a statement condemning Arafa's arrest and the raid on his house.
"In spite of our clear political differences, we reject any raids or arrests carried out in that way. Our principles are different, but we demand a country based on law," read the statement.
Meanwhile, ...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last. They discussed the officers's efficiency rating system... human rights lawyers Gamal Eid took a swipe at the police via Twitter.
"It would have been better if the president [Mohamed Morsi] had started by reforming the Ministry of Interior, so it wouldn't go back to its criminal methods [which we reject] against Ahmed Arafa or anyone else," said Eid.
The Islamic Renaissance and Reform Movement condemned Arafa's arrest as the return of the "visitors of dawn," a title frequently given to Mubarak-era state security forces known for arbitrarily arresting activists in the middle of the night.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Salafists
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan has said the Kashmir issue cannot be resolved through military means or through militancy, adding that the problem can only be solved politically.
Though if terrorism works...
A delay in resolution of the long-running dispute has kept the people of India and Pakistan hostage and it is proving to be a big hurdle to progress and prosperity in the region, Khan said while speaking at a joint Press conference with leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) here.
The 7-member APHC delegation, led by APHC Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, is currently on a week-long visit to Pakistan. Its other members are Professor Abdul Ghani Butt, Maulana Abbas Ansari, Agha Syed Hassan Al Moosvi, Bilal Ghani Lone, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza and Musaddiq Adil.
Imran expressed concern over prevailing conditions and blood-letting in Kashmir. We support withdrawal of Indian forces from Kashmir and a political solution to the problem, he said.
Khan said his party was opposed to military solution to political problems, adding that the present leadership in both India and Pakistan were not capable of taking big decisions like the Kashmir dispute. After coming to power, the PTI would take solid steps to resolve it in accordance with the wishes of people of Kashmiri, he added.
Khan said the subcontinent was among the most poverty-stricken regions in the world and this problem could be tackled only if there was peace in the region. But, he said, peace could not be restored without resolving the Kashmir dispute.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said Kashmiris should be included in India-Pakistan dialogue. We are not against India-Pakistan talks and better relations between them, but Kashmiri leaders should be included in the dialogue.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
President Francois Hollande refused to apologize for France's colonial past in Algeria, saying instead that Paris wanted to move forward on an equal footing and boost trade with the north African nation. Speaking on his first state visit since his election in May, Hollande said the two had agreed on a friendship declaration and a five-year strategic pact over economic, cultural, agricultural and defense ties.
After meeting Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Hollande told a news conference, "I want to define with Algeria a strategic partnership on an equal-to-equal basis. I am not here to repent or apologize, I am here to tell the truth."
The body of a Malaysian terrorist militant who was gunned down in Davao, Philippines on Friday was buried in Benut yesterday morning.
The remains of Mohd Noor Fikrie Abd Kahar, 26, were attended by almost 100 relatives and friends during a light drizzle. Mohd Noor Fikrie's father, Abd Kahar Sirun, thanked the Malaysian government for having made arrangements to bring back the body of his eldest son.
The media has reported that Mohd Noor Fikrie was gunned down by Philippine police at a hotel in Davao last Friday, after a struggle with policemen who wanted to check the sling bag containing a home-made bomb carried by his wife.
Well done, Mr. Policeman!
Meanwhile, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein reminded Malaysians that recruitment to join terrorist militant groups can be carried out in various ways including through the internet especially on websites or blogs.
Say it ain't so!
In a statement, he said, "Malaysians are reminded to be wary always and to find out about the movements of members of their family so that they will not be influenced or duped by any militant ideology to support violence. We must take the incident that struck Mohd Noor Fikrie and his family as a lesson so that it will not happen to individuals whom we love."
[An Nahar] General Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi received on Thursday the FBI report on the liquidation of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan, various media outlets reported.
Hasan was killed in a massive boom-mobile in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district on October 19.
An FBI team had gathered evidence at the scene of the bombing that killed Hasan along with two others.
Madi had explained in October that the team was tasked with providing Lebanese security agencies with technical assistance only in the probe into Hasan's liquidation.
The team will not interfere in the investigations, he stressed.
The March 14-led opposition and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... widely blamed Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... for Hasan's murder, as they did in 2005 when former premier Rafik Hariri was killed in a huge Beirut blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
Korea on Wednesday elected a woman president for the first time. Park Geun-hye of the conservative Saenuri Party won by absolute majority. Park is the daughter of former strongman Park Chung-hee, and her win also marks the first time that the child of a former president has been chosen for the same job. Ah, dynastic politix. It's so much better than hereditary monarchy...
Park was ahead with 51.6 percent or 15.77 million votes, while her rival Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party trailed behind with 48.02 percent and 14.69 million votes.
Park is the first president of Korea to win by absolute majority in the 41 years since her father took the 1971 election with 53.2 percent against challenger Kim Dae-jung. Park Geun-hye is also the first conservative candidate since 1987 to garner a double-digit lead of 10.4 percent in the traditional progressive stronghold of South Jeolla Province.
At a late-night event in Gwanghwamun Plaza, Park said her win marks the "victory of the hopes of the public to overcome crisis and revive the economy." She added, "I will be a president of the people who keeps her promises and opens an era in which the people are happy."
Park has had a lead in opinion polls over the last five years but suffered a slump when software tycoon Ahn Cheol-soo declared his independent bid for the presidency earlier this year. It was only when Ahn pulled out of the race that her fortunes revived.
Some opinion polls put Moon ahead among younger voters, but her strategy of targeting voters in their 40s and focusing her canvassing in the Seoul metropolitan area paid off handsomely. Park fared better than expected in the capital, garnering 48.18 percent of the votes in Seoul against Moon's 51.42 percent. She also trounced her rival in the central Chungcheong region.
It is the second presidential win in a row for the Saenuri Party, which despite the declining popularity of the Lee Myung-bak administration won both the April general election and the presidential election.
The DUP managed to regain some of its clout with voters after a dismal slump but is now going to have to look for a new strategy.
Park was in the lead shortly after vote counting started at 6 p.m. on Wednesday and her victory became clear at around 8:40 p.m. Voter turnout stood at a substantial 75.8 percent, the highest since the 1997 presidential election which saw a turnout of 80.7 percent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
In Korea Nepotism is normal.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/21/2012 17:00
Comments ||
Top||
[Magharebia] Tunisians will soon have the opportunity to buy the possessions of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his family, Babnet reported on Wednesday (December 19th).
Starting Sunday in Gammarth, works of art, jewellery, clothing, carpets, ceramics, furniture, electronics and other items seized from Ben Ali and 114 of his relatives will be available for purchase.
The highlight of the month-long sale is expected to be the former president's automobile collection, AFP reported. Ben Ali's cars include a Lamborghini Gallardo LP 460, a Bentley Continental sports car, an armoured Cadillac and a Maybach 62.
Seized property valued at less than 10,000 dinars (5,000 euros) will be sold at a fixed price, with more expensive items open for bidding, acting finance minister Slim Besbes said.
The government hopes to raise at least 10 million euros from the sale.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[An Nahar] A roadside kaboom targeting a police pickup truck killed two coppers and five civilians in southwestern Afghanistan Thursday, provincial authorities said.
The vehicle was blown up in the city of Zaranj, the capital of Nimroz province, said acting provincial police chief Mohammad Rahim Chakhansori.
Provincial governor Sarwar Sobat confirmed the corpse count to AFP, saying a policewoman was maimed in the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[Ma'an] Paleostinian government employees in the West Bank began a two-day general strike on Wednesday to protest against a delay in the payment of their wages because of Israeli economic sanctions.
Israel is withholding some $100 million in monthly customs revenues it collects on the Paleostinians' behalf as punishment for their successful bid at the UN General Assembly last month to gain de-facto statehood recognition.
The Paleostinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, was experiencing a deep financial crisis even before the move, and its 153,000 public sector workers have seen their salaries repeatedly issued late this year.
Around 50,000 workers took part in Wednesday's stoppage. West Bank security forces, a pillar of security and cooperation with Israel, and staff in the Gazoo Strip did not participate.
"This strike is against Israel's piracy," said Bassam Zakarneh, chief of the government employees' union said.
"The situation is very grave, and the services to the people are much reduced by the strike," he said. "(People) can't even afford transportation to their workplaces."
Government workers last received salaries for October, which were paid belatedly at the end of last month. There was no word on when November or December wages might be handed over.
Israel said the Paleostinian UN initiative contravened their peace accords and has threatened to withhold tax returns for four months to cover outstanding Paleostinian debts with Israeli utility firms.
Strikes and protests over austerity measures turned violent in September. Demonstrators pelted security forces with rocks and called for the ousting of Paleostinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad ...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either... and President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... Wednesday's action appeared much more subdued and there were no public protests, with Paleostinians blaming Israel rather than their own government for their current economic woes.
"This puts about a million citizens in Paleostine in the cycle of poverty," said Fayyad, speaking of the Israeli sanctions. "We're talking about doubling the rate of poverty in Paleostine during a maximum period of two months from today if the situation continues as it is," he told Rooters on Monday.
Arab countries have yet to fulfill pledges to offset the Israeli measures with cash donations
Seven convicted people were hanged in Iran's Esfahan prison on Wednesday night, Kayhan newspaper reported.
The prosecutor of Esfahan province said that six people of those seven were accused of distribution of drugs, kidnapping and illegal entry. Another man, according to the prosecutor, was accused of illegal entry and rape.
The prosecutor added that all of the hanged men were aged from 25 to 45 years.
The problem, of course, is that for all we know they all may have been political dissidents. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Int'l haven't yet commented.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a witness can under certain circumstances wear a niqab while giving testimony in court. In a split decision, the court affirmed both an accused persons right to a fair trial and the right to religious freedom.
The controversial issue has reared its head in recent years, leading to a new law in Quebec for public sector workers and new federal immigration rules that ban face coverings while taking the oath of citizenship.
In this latest case, a Muslim woman wanted to wear a niqab while testifying against two men she claims sexually assaulted her when she was a child. The two accused claim the Charter of Rights and Freedoms allows them to confront their accuser and observe her facial expressions while she testifies.
But the womans lawyers say facial expressions can be misleading, and add that Islamic sexual assault victims will be hesitant to go to the police if theyre barred from wearing a niqab while testifying.
During an appeal hearing last year, the womans lawyer faced tough questions from the high court justices.
Justice Morris Fish was among the judges who said there isnt a single defense lawyer who would agree to allow a witness to testify against their client without their face being clearly visible.
Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said there is no half-way measure that would reconcile the right to an accused to a fair trial and the right to cover one's face during a trial. She asked, Do you wear half a veil? Do you put a screen up? It is very hard to reconcile values that are oppositional.
Muslim community leaders and scholars are divided as to whether the niqab is truly required by the faith. Tyler Hodgson, a lawyer for the Muslim Canadian Congress, said, There should be no legal presumption that a witness that wears a niqab in a courtroom is doing so for a religious reason.
A reporter lucky enough to be called on at Vladimir Putin's news conference on Thursday wasn't so fortunate for her newspaper. The newspaper, Kadyrov's Path, was promptly shut down by local officials in Chechnya for illegally naming itself in honor of assassinated Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov.
The decision was approved by Kadyrov's son, Chechnya's current leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who said the publication had not asked for his family's permission to use the family name. "It is not ethical in this sense," he said.
He also said the reporter had asked questions of a "provocative character" without elaborating. The journalist, Balkhas Dudayeva, in her question, called Chechnya a "zone of peace and stability" and asked Putin what he would do about "negative events moving to the neighboring republics."
The newspaper, launched last year to commemorate what would have been Akhmad Kadyrov's 60th birthday, was not unknown to local officials. Chechnya's official news agency praised the newspaper on its launch for its decision to adopt Kadyrov's name.
An attempt to hunt and kill Buddhist officials in Narathiwat province on Thursday has sparked fears that terrorists insurgents are now shifting their target from teachers to government officials. Seven armed men stormed into the Bacho Tambon Administration Organisation (TAO) office and burned it down around noon on Thursday after failing to find any Buddhist employees to kill.
Abdulwaha Dulayapinij, the office manager, told the police he and seven other employees were just leaving for lunch. He said, "One of them fired a gun into the air and ordered everyone to stay put in Yawi (a Malay dialect spoken by Muslims in the region) and then asked if there were any Buddhist Thais working here. I told him there were none, and the outlaw was upset and said I had lied to him."
Mr Abdulwaha told them there was a female Buddhist official identified as Suchada sae Li working at the TAO as a community development officer, but she was on leave on Thursday.
So gallant!
Upset with the answer, two of the gunmen emptied a five-liter container of gasoline into the archive and equipment storage rooms, set fire to it and then fled. Villagers, office staff and a local disaster relief team tried to put out the fire, but the blaze quickly spread and destroyed the entire building.
Mr Abdulwaha said it seemed the assailants wanted to kill the only Buddhist official at the office, and had planned to use the gasoline to burn her body. He said the attack left him and the other staff in fear for their own safety and that they would not likely return to work until the office was rebuilt.
"By the time they rebuild the office, my fear should be all gone."
This latest incident took place three days after a vehicle transporting government officials was ambushed by terrorists insurgents in Cho Airong district in the same province. On Monday, two officials from the Agricultural Extension Office in Sungai Padi district were killed in the attack. Five others, including a female teacher, were wounded.
Security sources in the deep South said that terrorists insurgents now were looking for government officials after focusing on teachers over the past few weeks. Changing their target is part of their strategy, they added.
Teachers in the southernmost provinces continue to worry about their safety but decided to reopen schools last Monday after Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra guaranteed them better protection measures and welfare.
Panu Uthairat, a deputy permanent secretary for interior, said the Education Ministry has set up a hotline phone number to help local teachers and also encouraged them to stay at official residences provided for them in school compounds with protection from security forces. He added that keeping them on school premises would reduce their chances of being targeted by terrorists insurgents.
[An Nahar] The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to rebuke Syria, Iran and North Korea for human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... abuses.
With Syria's conflict worsening by the day, a resolution condemning the Syrian government and its allied militias came as a diplomatic blow for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
The 193-state assembly passed the resolution slamming "grave" and "systematic" abuses with 135 votes in favor, 12 against, including Russia and China, and 36 abstentions.
A similar resolution last year gained 122 votes against Syria.
The Assad government has been accused of detaining thousands of opponents, often in secret, torturing many. The government has refused to allow a U.N. human rights council investigation into the country.
The U.N. called for an end to all "violations" of human rights and for all sides to end the 21-month old conflict in which activists say more than 44,000 people have died.
A Syrian diplomat at the vote hit out at Qatar, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... and Morocco, accusing them of causing "an escalation" in the conflict. "Their backing for bully boyz has caused the death of thousands of Syrians," the diplomat said.
A vote against Iran was passed with 86 votes in favor, the same as last year, 32 against and 65 abstentions. India, Leb, Sudan and North Korea were among countries voting against. Many oppose the resolutions because they are against U.N. attacks on individual countries.
The resolution condemned the use of torture in Iran and the use of the death penalty without recognized "international guarantees" on the justice system. It also condemned Iran's practice of executing minors.
The U.N. motion attacked the growing targeting of journalists and human rights defenders in Iran and called for the release of people held for taking part in "peaceful" protests.
Iran's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Khazaee, called the vote an "abusive exploitation" of the General Assembly's powers and said it did not reflect conditions in Iran. Khazaee particularly criticized Canada and the United States, which have been major backers of the annual vote.
A resolution against North Korea was adopted by consensus for the first time.
A North Korean diplomat called the vote "political propaganda," which "escalates the confrontation" between his country and the international community.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
U.N. Hits Out at Syria, Iran, North Korea over Rights
Worthless, will be ignored.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/21/2012 18:59
Comments ||
Top||
[Dawn] Violence in the Syria conflict has become openly sectarian and threatens whole communities, UN Sherlocks reported Thursday following a visit to the region.
As battles between government forces and anti-government gangs approach the end of their second year, the conflict has become overtly sectarian in nature, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said in a report.
After 21 months of the conflict, which activists say has killed more than 43,000 people, the dangers are evident, it continued. It cited in particular tensions between Sunni and Shia Moslems.
Entire communities are at risk of being forced out of the country or of being killed inside the country, it said, stressing that with communities believing not without cause that they face an existential threat, the need for a negotiated settlement is more urgent than ever.
Minority groups such as the Armenians, Christians, Druze, Paleostinians, Kurds and Turkmen had also been drawn into the conflict, the report said.
Caught up in the cycle of attacks and reprisals, they were being forced to choose sides and allow themselves to be armed by the warring parties.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... the sectarian lines fall most sharply between Syrias Alawite community, from which most of the governments senior political and military figures hail, and the countrys majority Sunni community, who are broadly in support of the anti-government gangs.
The commission said it had received credible reports of anti-government groups attacking Alawites; and one account of how rebels who had captured government troops took the Sunnis hostage but executed the Alawites.
Another interviewee in Bosra had told the commission how Shia militia members had said they would kill all Sunnis in the region.
The UN commission, which includes former war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte, was set up in August 2011, but has yet to actually gain access to Syria.
It did however travel to Jordan and Egypt earlier this month to review the situation, and had previously conducted more than 1,000 interviews. They talked not just to victims of the conflict but to people who admitted to having taken part in the violence.
Those interviews led the commission to conclude last August that both the regime and rebel forces appeared to be committing war crimes.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] Sudan's war-torn South Kordofan state is to be divided, giving separate status to the western part dominated by nomadic Arab Misseriya rustics, the government said on Thursday.
Vice President Ali Osman Taha "announces the establishment of West Kordofan state," the official SUNA news agency said in a brief dispatch.
The move recreates the state of West Kordofan which was eliminated in 2005 following a peace agreement between Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement that ended a 23-year civil war.
At that time Khartoum agreed to unite West and South Kordofan in line with calls from the SPLM, which was supported by ethnic fighters based in the Nuba Mountains that straddle South and West Kordofan.
The boundary between the two states fell just west of Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan where Nuba rebels formerly allied to the southern snuffies have been fighting since June last year, shortly before the South separated after an overwhelming "yes" vote in a referendum.
The rebellion by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North -- which Khartoum alleges is backed by South Sudan -- is concentrated in the eastern half of the state.
West Kordofan is home to most of cash-strapped Sudan's oilfields as well as to the territory of Abyei, whose final status was the most sensitive issue left unresolved when South Sudan became independent.
Sudan and South Sudan failed to settle the Abyei issue by a December 5 African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... deadline.
The AU has proposed that a referendum be held next October on whether the territory joins Sudan or South Sudan.
Under that plan, members of the Dinka, a dominant South Sudanese tribe who live in the Abyei area, would have the right to vote along with Sudanese with "permanent abode".
The Misseriya, who regularly graze their animals and move through Abyei, strongly object to the plan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
Of course. And that formerly handsome Imran Khan will walk on water to do it, too.
[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... on Thursday said that once in power, he and his party would recover the country's 'looted wealth', DawnNews reported.
Speaking at a PTI meeting in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , Khan said the people should not vote for politicians whose assets and properties were outside Pakistain.
The PTI chief added that he would dissociate Pakistain from the 'war on terror'.
He invited Pakistain Mohammedan League -- Nawaz (PML-N) chief 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... and leaders of other political parties to take the opportunists in the PTI to their own respective parties.
Khan said the PTI was an ideological party, adding that, in the war between ideology and money, ideology would win.
The PTI chief said the PTI would defeat so-called political heavyweights with the help of the youth, adding that, the PTI's tsunami would sweep away the corrupt system and would establish a system of justice in the country.
He further said that a PTI government would promote the local government system across the country, including in the tribal areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] MAKE no mistake. Though it is receiving far less attention, this is no less, if not more, a shameful tragedy for Pakistain, than the attack on Malala Yousafzai. The facts speak for themselves: eight polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... workers killed and several injured in the last three days in a chilling succession of attacks. One rubbed out on Monday, with little sign of the carnage that was to come in the following days; five rubbed out within a chillingly short span of time on Tuesday in seemingly coordinated incidents; a string of attacks yesterday, killing a worker and her driver, carried out by undeterred imitators or co-conspirators. The reported ages of those killed in these incidents vary, but a number of them were teenagers, and most were women. Their crime? Administering free medication to children at risk of polio, a crippling disease that no child in the world should have to suffer in 2012. These were not security forces engaged in a war against myrmidons. They were not the officials of a government perceived to be Americas stooge. They were simply harmless citizens carrying out a service for their countrymen for a pittance and despite the threats to their safety.
How did politicians react? In Sindh, the president distributed awards at a ceremony in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , the scene of many of the attacks, and the Awami Tehrik and supporters of MQM chief Altaf Hussain held rallies in support of their respective political causes. From other parties, too, including the ANP, the party in power in the province where the remaining attacks took place, there was relative silence on the issue. True, there was condemnation of the attacks in both houses of parliament, but was this enough? In the face of an incident that should have brought business-as-usual to a halt, those in power went about focusing on their planned tasks instead of calling off all events and registering strong public outrage and determination against the unjustifiable evil that Pakistain has become home to.
Perhaps the biggest tragedy of all is that Pakistain, one of only three nations where polio is still endemic, was beginning to see a slowdown in the spread of the virus. Down from 173 cases detected by this time last year, only 56 cases have been registered in 2012, a 68 per cent decline. The commitment of international donors, the WHO and the provincial and federal governments had begun to pay off. But the attack against a local polio worker and his WHO colleague in Bloody Karachi in July should have led to the establishment of a system in which no polio team goes out unprotected.
In the coming days, the authorities owe Paks answers to several glaring questions. How did the security lapses take place; does the polio campaign have to do a better job of ensuring security, or do the police have to do a better job of providing it? Why are these attacks taking place now, even though polio vaccination has long been opposed by certain groups within Pakistain? Who was responsible? Were these coordinated or copycat attacks? And perhaps most important of all: what next? The WHO has asked for the campaign to be suspended in Pakistain, and until more dependable protection is put in place, that is the wisest course for both international donors and local administrations to take. But failing to resume the campaign as soon as possible will hand victory to those bent upon Pakistains destruction.
Three things must be done immediately. Those responsible should be found and punished. Second, a foolproof system to protect polio workers has to be devised and implemented. And third, if there was ever a moment that called for a coordinated response from holy mans and politicians and the launching of a high-profile national awareness campaign in support of polio and against the worldview of those who violently oppose it, this is that moment. It is deeply unfortunate that the nation has barely recovered from the Malala incident when we have a new tragedy on our hands. But all Pakistain can do with these moments is capture them to try to turn the ship around.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
How do the folks at Dawn avoid becoming targets?
[Dawn] Two suspects were killed in what police described as a shoot-out with them during a siege and search operation following the Tuesday gun attacks on polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... worker s in the city.
During the operation in Sohrab Goth police rounded up 25 suspects, seized arms and ammunition, snatched or stolen cycle of violences and a car in the area.
About 300 coppers, including those from the Rapid Response Force, accompanied by two armoured personnel carriers took part in the operation launched at Asma Apartments, behind Al-Asif Square.
The police claimed they were shot at when they had laid a siege to the apartment building.
Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes... around six suspects escaped the building into the adjacent shanty localities. However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... the police followed them into Qayyumabad, Sona Gali and Junejo Colony. When the police entered the lanes of Malik Agha Hotel and Decent Plaza, they faced resistance. During the ensuing shootout, two suspects were maimed. The police seized a repeater and .30-bore pistol from the two maimed suspects.
The maimed died before they could be taken to hospital, according to the police.
One of the suspects was identified as Abdul Sattar, an Afghan national wanted in several murder cases. The other man was Agha, said DIG-East Shahid Hayat.
The two suspects were associated with the Taliban, the DIG said.
Although some junior police officer present at the scene told the media that a letter was found in the possession of Sattar in which he had been directed by his Amir to disrupt the polio campaign, the DIG said he had not seen such a letter, adding that the SP concerned had informed him about a letter found on one of the suspects.
The incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! suspects will be questioned and if found innocent, they will be released, said the area DSP.
The police said Wednesdays operation was conducted on information obtained from some suspects picked up during the Gulshan-e-Buner operation on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Muslim leaders in the UK have attacked proposed legislation to allow gay marriage as utterly discriminatory because it explicitly bans the Church of England from blessing same-sex unions but puts no such interdict on Islam. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said on Tuesday it was appalled by the legislation proposed by the government last week.
The British government has proposed that faith groups would be allowed to opt in to legislation if they wish to conduct gay marriages. However, the officially established Church of England and its sister the Church in Wales would be explicitly banned from doing so under the legislation. The MCB is looking for the same amount of legal protection.
MCB secretary-general Farooq Murad said that he was seeking an urgent meeting with Culture Secretary Maria Miller to show her the strength of feeling among Muslims. He said, No one in their right mind should accept such a discriminatory law. It should be amended to give exactly the same exemption to all the religions.
[Dawn] Investigators probing the assassination of four polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... workers in the city on Tuesday are waiting for the forensic reports of the spent bullet casings recovered from three scenes of crime to establish whether the incidents are linked, it emerged on Wednesday.
Four polio workers Fahmida, Madiha, Kaneez Fatima and Naseem were killed in three attacks in Landhis Gulshan-e-Buner, Orangi Town and Ittehad Town on Tuesday.
The Sherlocks suspected that the attacks in Orangi Town and Ittehad Town that fell within the west zone of the police organizational structure might have been carried out by the same assailants, since both areas were close to each other.
We are waiting for the forensic reports to see if there is any link between the west zone and Gulshan-e-Buner killings, said DIG-East Shahid Hayat.
The Sherlocks said that 9mm pistols were used in the killing of the four polio workers. The spent bullet casings had been dispatched for a forensic examination to match them with the available database, they added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed his guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread... a case (FIR 218/2012) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistain Penal Code on a complaint of Sadiq, son of the slain polio worker Naseem, against person or persons unknown at the Iqbal Market cop shoppe.
Naseem was rubbed out and her co-worker Mohammad Israr was maimed in Raja Taveer Colony close to Toori Bangash Colony in Orangi Town on Tuesday.
The second FIR (632/2012) was lodged under the anti-terror law. Wounded polio worker Rashid lodged the FIR under Sections 302 and 34 of the PPC read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 against unidentified suspects at the Mochko cop shoppe. Polio worker Kaneez Fatima was killed in the attack in Mohammad Khan Colony, Ittehad Town on Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday night, a case (FIR 651/2012) was registered under Sections 302 and 34 of the PPC in connection with the killing of two polio workers, Fahmida and Madiha, at the Quaidabad cop shoppe on a complaint of Fahmidas husband Mohammad Riaz.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Al Ahram] Two nephews of Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Sharaa have been tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! along with five of their friends over their support for political change, a monitoring group said on Thursday.
"University professor Zaydun Zohbi, 38, and his brother Suhaib, who are nephews of Faruq al-Sharaa, and five of their friends, activists in favour of peaceful change in Syria, were arrested at a cafe on December 15 by members of the military intelligence," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory, which depends on a large network of activists and doctors across Syria for its information, demanded their "immediate" release and that of "all civilian and military prisoners".
The arrests come after the vice president said in comments published on Monday that he favours a negotiated solution to Syria's bloody uprising, a position at odds with Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... Sharaa, the most prominent Sunni Mohammedan official in the Alawite minority dominated regime of Assad, also told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar that a clear winner was unlikely to emerge from the conflict.
The Centre for Documentation of Violations in Syria, which is close to the opposition, says there are nearly 35,000 people held in jails across the war-torn country by the Assad regime.
Sharaa, 74, has served the regime for decades, both under Assad and his father and predecessor Hafez, but has been seen in public only a few times since the uprising erupted in March 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
A member of the Iranian Parliament has expressed his disapproval of the immodest attire of Russian women working at the Bushehr nuclear plant.
According to the parliament member, the women were getting extra payment to dress in accordance with Islamic laws, specifically to the demand that women's heads be covered in a hijab. Despite the additional pay, the Iranian official stated, the women were seen around town improperly dressed and uncovered.
Iranian legislator Mehdi Mousavi Nezhad said, "We've formed a special camp for the Russians, bet recently they've been spotted in Bushehr markets, usually with their heads uncovered."
He stressed that the Russian employees at the nuclear facility must follow the laws of the nation and be considerate of the "values of Iranian and Islamic culture."
[Dawn] 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) chief Altaf Hussain has said the Kashmire dispute should be resolved according to wishes and aspirations of the people of Kashmire.
He was talking via telephone to the Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq during his visit to Nine Zero on Thursday, said a statement issued by the MQM.
Altaf Hussain said that Kashmiri people should also be represented in all dialogues for finding a solution of the dispute.
The MQM chief also offered to extend his unconditional support to the cause.
He said that unity and leadership were the basic ingredients for success of any movement where opponent is powerful and has access to unlimited resources.
Altaf Hussain said, If MQM comes in power it would solve the Kashmire dispute according to aspirations of the people of Kashmire ..whether they would want to live with Pakistain or as an independent country, it would be entirely up to the Kashmiri people.
Speaking on the occasion, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq thanked the MQM chief for the warm welcome he received at Nine Zero.
He said that positive progress should be made for solving the Kashmire dispute along with restoration of the bus service, improvement in trade relations and other steps.
Farooq agreed with the views of Altaf Hussain for finding a solution of the dispute through dialogues. People of Kashmire also want the violence to end, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Yemen Post] Southern factions will participate in Yemen's comprehensive dialogue conference expected early next year, said Muhammad Ali Ahmed after the few-day national conference for the south people.
Ahmed is a southern leader who returned from exile this year and had arranged for the conference.
He said at a news conference on Wednesday all the southern factions, which participated in the south conference, will take part in Yemen's dialogue as he criticized some southern factions receiving financial support from abroad.
"We will participate in the dialogue in a way that satisfies our people and address their demands and rights fairly. The participation will be based on the document and view of the south people that have been submitted to the international community," he said.
"Dialogue is a civilized way to defend our rights. The people have confidence in the southern leaders and politicians; hence, we should have fair representation that can serve the ambitions of the south people".
Ahmed criticized southern factions and leaders receiving external financial support and factions being controlled or administered by the political security and the national security. "The financiers of such factions are just wine and drugs smugglers and traders," he said.
On Tuesday, Ahmed exposed Iranian plots to spread chaos and affect the south cause including attracting and financing southern leaders and planning to recruit southern youths for Iranian goals.
The factions, which participated in the south conference, represented all southern political bodies and parties as well as the members who signed the code of ethics announced at the end of the conference, he said.
"The southern people have a cause and they should defend it in the right way," he said, criticizing some factions which he said are seeking to distort the cause.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Magharebia] A Benghazi military court on Wednesday (December 19th) withdrew its jurisdiction over the Abdel Fattah Younes case.
Younes, who served as Moamer Qadaffy's interior minister before switching sides and joining the rebels, was rubbed out on July 28th, 2011, while returning to Benghazi from Brega.
The armed forces commander had been summoned from the front lines by former National Transitional Council (TNC) chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil. He was killed while on his way to the meeting.
The military court was taken off the case "because of the turn taken by the investigation into Mustafa Abdel Jalil", presiding judge Colonel Abdullah al-Saiti told AFP.
Al-Saiti said that the file was sent to the High Authority of Military Justice to appoint a new tribunal.
He did not give details on the reasons that led the court to make such a decision.
Speaking to the press on Thursday, Justice Minister Salah al-Mirghani discussed pending legislation to try civilians in regular courts. He was asked whether the measure was related to the charges against Abdel Jalil.
"We do not comment on cases before the court. But Mr. Abdel Jalil is a civilian and if this bill is passed, his judgment will be transferred to the civilian courts," the minister said.
Abdel Jalil was charged in December with "abuse of power" and undermining national unity. He was allowed to go free on bail and a travel ban was issued until his February 20th military court appearance.
General Younes was the highest-ranking military officer to have joined the rebellion against the Qadaffy regime.
The charge against Abdel Jalil generated considerable controversy. People erupted into the streets after accusing the court of "bias", particularly after the release on social networks of a video showing Colonel al-Saiti making a victory sign after calling Abdel Jalil for questioning.
Ali al-Tajouri, an employee, said that the main road at Tajoura was closed off in protest. "They have to start with the other terrorist criminals," he noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Magharebia] Libyan military planes have begun conducting sweeps over the southern border, Libya Herald reported on Wednesday (December 19th). On Tuesday, a Libyan Arclight airstrike destroyed a suspected smugglers camp close to the border with Chad and Sudan, not far from Kufra.
According to the military commander in Kufra, warplanes are monitoring the area from Chad to Al-Uwaynat and Jabal Al-Malik on the Egyptian border.
The air operations aim to prevent illegal entry into Libya, Colonel Miftah Al-Abdali added.
Libyan politicians on Sunday ordered the closure of the country's borders with Chad, Niger, Sudan and Algeria. The National Congress also declared martial law in the desert south.
Libya plans to establish one authorised border crossing with each of its four neighbours, army front man Ali al-Sheikhi told AFP. "Any person who enters or exits at other points will be considered an infiltrator," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Narcos
#1
Any person who enters or exits at other points will be considered an infiltrator," he added.
If you see an infiltrator entering or exiting, he's had to infiltrate before he could exit. Don't take any chances, shoot him anyway.
[Yemen Post] A massive massive demonstration was staged on Thursday in Yemen's capital Sanaa to bless the decress issued last night by President Abdrabu Mansour Hadi to restructure the armed forces.
The decrees shaped the main structure of the Yemeni armed forces and have been described just as the right decision on the right time to put an end to the more-than-a-year division of the army.
Hadi fired key military and security chiefs including the elder son of the former president Ahmed Saleh who was the commander of the elite elite republican guard.
The demonstrators walked on many streets to the residence of president Hadi where they rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud and carried placards welcoming the restructuring decrees.
The bell rings, no to Ahmed no to the elite republican guard; oh Hadi walk, we follow your path toward change, they chanted.
Hadi's decrees have been blessed domestically and externally, especially the countries sponsoring the power-transfer deal which was reached after the 2011 unrest.
Observers said the timing of the restructuring indicated they were issued to convince the Yemeni factions demanding it ahead of dialogue.
Analysts also s said the decrees to restructure the Yemeni forces comes to resist the plots of loyalists of the former president to obstruct the political transition.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Dawn] A local journalist and two other people were rubbed out in Bolan district late on Thursday night.
Levies sources said a group of gunnies intercepted a bus coming from Quetta on its way to Punjab on Quetta-Sukkur highway in the Machh area of Bolan district and kidnapped six passengers.
The sources said that three of them were later bumped off when they tried to escape.
The gunnies took the three other passengers with them, Levies Tehsildar for Mach Mir Zubair Kurd said.
A truck driver passing through the area got injured when the gunnies opened fire on the three passengers, he added.
The Levies force took the bodies and the injured driver to civil hospital in Machh.
The Levies sources said that one of the dear departed was identified as Jamshed Kharal, who had been working for a newspaper in Quetta, and others as Mohammad Kashif and Mohammad Siddique.
The names of the three passengers who were taken away could not be ascertained. The bus was going to Sadiqabad.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
US President Barack Obama is to nominate John Kerry to be his next secretary of state, US media report.
Ten bodyguards of Iraq's Sunni finance minister are under arrest on terrorism-related charges, an Iraqi judicial official said Friday, in a case certain to inflame Iraq's political and sectarian tensions.
Three suspected 
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
Wazoo
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Inside Syria, the group is exploiting a widening sectarian rift to recruit Sunnis who saw themselves as disenfranchised by Assad's Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that dominates Syria's power and security structures.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[Al Ahram] A number of Islamist groups are calling for a rally "to defend scholars and mosques" in front of the Qaed Ibrahim mosque in Alexandria on Friday.
[Al Ahram] Time magazine on Wednesday named the recently re-elected US President 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
President Francois Hollande refused to apologize for France's colonial past in Algeria, saying instead that Paris wanted to move forward on an equal footing and boost trade with the north African nation. Speaking on his first state visit since his election in May, Hollande said the two had agreed on a friendship declaration and a five-year strategic pact over economic, cultural, agricultural and defense ties.
The body of a Malaysian 
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...
A reporter lucky enough to be called on at Vladimir Putin's news conference on Thursday wasn't so fortunate for her newspaper. The newspaper, Kadyrov's Path, was promptly shut down by local officials in Chechnya for illegally naming itself in honor of assassinated Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] Sudan's war-torn South Kordofan state is to be divided, giving separate status to the western part dominated by nomadic Arab Misseriya 
Nawaz Sharif
[Dawn] MAKE no mistake. Though it is receiving far less attention, this is no less, if not more, a shameful tragedy for Pakistain, than the attack on Malala Yousafzai. The facts speak for themselves: eight 
How did politicians react? In Sindh, the president distributed awards at a ceremony in 
[Dawn] Two suspects were killed in what police described as a shoot-out with them during a siege and search operation following the Tuesday gun attacks on 
[Dawn] Investigators probing the 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
A member of the Iranian Parliament has expressed his disapproval of the immodest attire of Russian women working at the Bushehr nuclear plant. 
[Dawn] 
[Yemen Post] Southern factions will participate in Yemen's comprehensive dialogue conference expected early next year, said Muhammad Ali Ahmed after the few-day national conference for the south people.
