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Scuds pummel Syrian rebel positions
Today's Headlines
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Home Front: WoT
Global Counterterrorism: A Progress Report
Posted by: newc || 12/22/2012 14:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rise of Christian + Hindu = Non-Muslim/Islamic tehwoorism by 2030, which IMO strongly infers that Radical Islam may had "won" the GWOT, NOT LOST IT???

Despite "incidents", I don't see any such non-Muslim movement, etc. rising except to oppose victorious Radical Islam, or Communism-Globalism.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/22/2012 20:52 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
How Iran and Libya smuggle weapons into Gaza.
Interesting photo at the link. Note the trigger discipline, coupled with the camouflage uniform and black ski mask.
Posted by: newc || 12/22/2012 12:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Three Men Appear in Court in Mysterious Terror Case
Three men appeared in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Friday on charges that they had trained to be suicide bombers with a Somali terrorist group.

The defendants, Ali Yasin Ahmed, 27, Mahdi Hashi, 23, and Mohamed Yusuf, 29, were arrested in August by authorities in Africa while going to Yemen. They are accused of participating in weapons and explosives training with Al Shabab, a United States-designated terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda, during a four-year period beginning in 2008. Court documents show no connection between the alleged crimes and the United States.

Much of the case is shrouded in mystery. For four months, the case remained under seal, and the court documents unsealed on Friday contained little elaboration on the crimes or any indication of why the case was brought in New York. Even the nationalities of the men were unclear. They appeared in court with the aid of a Swedish interpreter.
This article starring:
Ali Yasin Ahmed
Mahdi Hashi
Mohamed Yusuf
Posted by: tipper || 12/22/2012 12:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
France: Neighborhood Is Torn Over a Killer’s Legacy
Posted by: tipper || 12/22/2012 11:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "just a rambunctious yout. We deplore his killing of people, but of course they were not innocent. Again, we deplore him, but to us, he was a hero"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/22/2012 15:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Normal people would say, "We understand his anger, but one just doesn't go around killing people."
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/22/2012 17:06 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Russia tells S. Sudan to find UN chopper gunmen
Russia urged South Sudan on Saturday to punish those responsible for shooting down a UN peacekeeping helicopter and killing all four Russian crew members aboard, in an attack condemned by the international community.

"We call on the government of South Sudan to carry out the necessary investigation, punish the guilty and take every measure to guarantee that this never happens again," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website after Friday's incident.

A South Sudan military spokesman said troops fired anti-aircraft guns at the Russian Mi-8 believing it was a rebel helicopter carrying weapons to anti-government forces in the world's newest country.

The United Nations said the aircraft was hit while on a "reconnaissance flight" over the Likuangole district of the eastern Jonglei state.

"The tragic event in this African country raises with new urgency the question of the security of UN peacekeeping missions," the Russian ministry said, attributing the helicopter downing to "blunders."

"The governments of countries that accept missions and carry the main responsibility for the security of UN peacekeepers must approach this problem with all seriousness and recognise all the possible consequences of blunders," it said.
Posted by: tipper || 12/22/2012 10:51 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Punish the guilty." An increasingly quaint concept...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/22/2012 16:04 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
PJ Media proposal on actions that might actually help gun crime
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 10:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The NRA recommended that there be armed officers at all the schools. That is probably not feasible from a cost standpoint. However, the schools in our city did have a police officer in middle and high schools. We had had a number of incidents over the last 10-12 years. At some point (fairly recently) during this administration (O's), the funds were cut and many of these officers were removed.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/22/2012 14:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Why not by subscription? Schools have various 'drives' for bands and sports, why not security? Maybe because some a'hole will whine those in the poorer districts couldn't afford one, so all must be at risk?
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/22/2012 16:51 Comments || Top||

#3  "because some a'hole will whine those in the poorer districts couldn't afford one, so all must be at risk?"

Well, yeah, P2.

Just like in Sweden (?) where the school authority wanted a lunch lady to stop making home-made food in one school because the others didn't have it. (Only more serious.) :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/22/2012 18:15 Comments || Top||

#4  They want to ban assault weapons based on aesthetics, i.e. how a weapon looks or appears, NOT on whether it fires on full automatic, semi, or single-shot. Even so-called "high-capacity" magazines are tertiary to this, iff not irrelevant to the argument.

By most accounts the Founding Fathers desired a small but potent standing army - they also desired an armed and "well-regulated Militia" whose firearms were [roughly] par wid that of the either the US Military or Foreign Armies, IN ORDER TO DETER EITHER THE RISE OF STRONG DICTATORIAL/TYRANNICAL US GOVT AS WELL AS INVASION BY ENEMY foreign ARMIES FEARFUL OF resistance by A SIMILARLY POWERFULLY ARMED US CIVILIAN POPULATION.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/22/2012 21:03 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Bombing at political rally kills 8 in Pakistan
Pakistani police say a suicide bomber attacked a political rally in the country's northwest, killing eight people.

Police officer Arfan Khan says the bombing Saturday in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, also wounded more than 20 people.

Khan says the rally was being held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Taliban. A provincial Cabinet minister from the party, Bashir Balour, was wounded in the attack.
It appears the minister is the brother of thr Railways Minister who put a bounty on the head of the filmmaker who made Innocence Of Muslims.
Posted by: tipper || 12/22/2012 10:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  update
Bomb kills Pakistan ANP party leader
Posted by: tipper || 12/22/2012 11:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Link goes to crappy advertising.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/22/2012 23:25 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Destroyed Hezbollah Weapons Depot Reportedly Held Chemical Missiles
Two days after a mysterious explosion at a Hezbollah weapons depot in southern Lebanon, the Kuwaiti website Al Jarida is reporting that Israel bombed the site because Syria had transferred missiles there that were capable of being equipped with chemical warheads.
Where are the warheads?
The missiles had been moved into Lebanon from Syria in the last several months and were being held inside warehouses owned by farmers in the area.

The report also claimed that Hezbollah has many additional warehouses across Lebanon that are used for the same purpose. In October another weapons storage facility in the town of Baalbek was destroyed after an explosion. The AFP said that four Syrians were killed in the blast.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/22/2012 09:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Farmers: When they're not plowing their fields at night planting IEDs in Iraq, they're warehousing missiles in Lebanon. Agrarian economy indeed...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/22/2012 11:05 Comments || Top||

#2  10 important daily minerals, + not the Flintstone or One-a-Day variety either.

Meanwhile, not to be outdone by Israel, as per FREEREPUBLIC Russia has seemingly taken control of a large number of Syrian WMDS.

DID THE BAMMER KNOW???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/22/2012 20:42 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Netanyahu: I will ignore UN censure over J'lem construction
Prime minister says Israel will continue to build in east Jerusalem despite condemnation from UN, international community, adds: "The capital of the Jewish state, for 3,000 years, has been Jerusalem. I want to say it clearly."
At least one of the condemners is carefully covering all the angles:
British PM appoints Israel tech envoy

Cameron appoints Saul Klein, a former venture capitalist who founded Seedcamp in 2007, as UK's first-ever tech representative in Jewish state
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/22/2012 08:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  British PM appoints Israel tech envoy

The more things change
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/22/2012 9:25 Comments || Top||

#2  And if you Censure me again I will ignore you a second time.
Thanks to Monty Python.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/22/2012 12:14 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Iranian Bomb Suspects In Bangkok Claim Innocence
Trial for two Iranians tossed in the slammer
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
for plotting botched attack on Israelis begins; lawyers says defendants had no prior knowledge of explosives stashed at their home

Two Iranians arrested after a botched bomb plot that allegedly targeted Israeli diplomats say they're innocent and were stunned to discover explosives stashed in a cabinet in their rented Bangkok home, a lawyer said Friday.
"Wudn't us."
Both men appeared in court Friday, 10 months after the explosives blew apart their home in a residential Bangkok neighborhood on Valentine's Day. The kaboom uncovered a plot that Thai authorities say was aimed at Israeli envoys and that Israel says was part of an Iranian-backed network of terror.

Authorities hope the trial, expected to end in March, will help explain who was behind the alleged plot that backfired when the explosives cache accidentally ignited.

Investigators say that bombs found at the home had round, coin-like magnets on them -- similar to "sticky" bombs used against Israeli diplomats in foiled attacks a day earlier in India and the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Defense attorney Kittipong Kiattanapoom told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named the two Iranians will testify that "they did not have any prior knowledge of the bombs before they discovered them in the house they had rented."

One of the men is 28-year-old Saied Moradi, who fled the home carrying explosives that blew off his legs in another botched blast. He entered the courtroom in a wheelchair.
Next time make him crawl.
Moradi, a 28-year-old former soldier, "opened a cabinet in the house and saw four bombs there" and immediately told his two Iranian housemates to run for safety, the lawyer said.

Mohammad Kharzei, 42, was arrested that night at Bangkok's airport trying to board a flight to Iran.
Well, he was told to 'run for safety'...
Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, 31, was locked away
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
the next day in Malaysia and is currently appealing an extradition order to Thailand.

Moradi claims he was trying to dispose of two of the bombs by throwing them into a nearby canal when he collapsed in exhaustion while running from the home, triggering an kaboom that ripped off his legs.

"He denies throwing any of the bombs," Kittipong said.

Witnesses gave a dramatically different account.

A closed circuit video camera installed on the street outside the home showed the three Iranians emerge, one by one. Moradi was the last man out, wearing a black backpack and baseball cap, with blood dripping from his face, holding what looked like portable radios in each hand.

Food vendor Nayaree Ayong told the court he saw Moradi exit his home carrying "black boxes with green wires sticking out."
What happened to the red wires?
Another witness, Nayotrum Pratityung, said he followed Moradi and watched as he tried to hail a taxi but then crouched down and placed one of his black boxes in the middle of a two-lane street.

"About 30 seconds later a taxi came by," he told the court. "Then the taxi blew up." The taxi driver was among four people maimed.

Other witnesses at the time said Moradi threw an explosive at a taxi after its driver refused to stop for him.

Next, Moradi turned onto a main road as police began moving in, at which point the Iranian pulled a rectangular-shaped box from his backpack and threw it toward the officers, police said at the time. But Moradi's bomb got caught on something and hit the ground next to him and went kaboom!, instantly shredding both his legs at the knee.
So there is justice in Thailand...
Moradi and Kharzei both face up to 27 years in prison on charges of possession of unlawful explosives and causing kabooms that damaged property.

Moradi faces two additional charges, including attempted murder of a policeman, which carries the death penalty.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/22/2012 08:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Report: 5 Palestinians hurt by IDF gunfire in Gaza
The Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, journal al-Risala reported that five Paleostinian farmers sustained moderate injuries from IDF gunfire in the north of the Gazoo Strip.

The IDF said in response that soldiers used means of crowd control to disperse protesters near the security fence. When they refused to leave, the troops fired at the legs of protesters who seemed to be stirring up the others.
They've gone native, or something.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/22/2012 08:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Stirring up the others? Aim higher. Pour encourager les autres
Posted by: Frank G || 12/22/2012 14:44 Comments || Top||

#2  They've gone native, or something.

:)
Juices be leveraging Mutual of Gaza for maximum shareholder value.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/22/2012 22:47 Comments || Top||


Report: Palestinians Break Into Army Base, Injure Soldier
Israel's army said Friday that two Paleostinians breached the security fence of an army base north of Jerusalem and lightly injured a soldier after assaulting him.

Israel's Ynet news site reported that assailants sprayed him with pepper spray, overpowered him and stole his weapon. He sustained mild injuries and was treated by army medics, Ynet said.

The report quoted army sources describing a "serious security failure," and said though the motive was believed to be criminal it was being investigated as an "attempted terror attack."
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/22/2012 08:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wonder if their Commanders do like they did to us? On guard duty with no ammo? Or a loaded magazine in the ammo pouch?
Posted by: tipover || 12/22/2012 20:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
US: Congress completes $633B defense bill
The Senate overwhelmingly backed a $633 billion US defense bill for next year that would tighten penalties on Iran to thwart its nuclear ambitions and bulk up security at diplomatic missions worldwide after the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya.

The vote Friday was 81-14 for the sweeping policy measure that covers the cost of ships, aircraft, weapons and military personnel. The White House has threatened a veto, but it remains unclear whether President Barack Obama
In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed...
will reject the solidly bipartisan legislation.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/22/2012 08:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Of course, not widely known is that this bill includes a provision for detaining US citizens indefinitely for "terrorism" - without due process.

Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/22/2012 13:30 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Man accused of desecrating Koran burned alive by Pak mob
An angry mob broke into a Pakistani police station and burned alive a man accused of desecrating the Koran, police said Saturday.

According to Maulvi Memon, the imam in the village of Seeta in Sindh province, the man was a traveler and had spent Thursday night at the mosque. The charred remains of the Koran were found the next morning. Memon said, "He was alone in the mosque during the night. There was no one else there to do this terrible thing."

Villagers assaulted the man then handed him over to police. A few hours later, a mob of around 200 people stormed the police station, dragged the man out and set him on fire.

Usman Ghani, the senior superintendent of police in Dadu district, said around 30 people had been arrested for the crime and seven policemen detained for negligence.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/22/2012 04:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  An interesting primeval country, and one which we support with buttloads of foreign aid.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 6:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Pakistan.The country of the pure bs.
Posted by: Uniting Wholuting5018 || 12/22/2012 9:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Wouldn't put it past the Iman to have burned the crayon himself.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/22/2012 9:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Why spend the night in a mosque, set fire to a Koran, and then hang around to see what happens to you?

My guess would be that a real God caused it to spontaneously combust.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 11:01 Comments || Top||

#5  this country is an armpit.
Posted by: Raider || 12/22/2012 14:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Real God, the McCoy, the Ace of Aces, the Big Guy, King Holy Mother of Everything that is Around has a sense of houmor, maybe he/er did fire up the holry Kram. I mean the d00d did make the whales for sprots? Amirite?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/22/2012 22:45 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Buffalo: Somali Muslim gets 25 years for beating 10-year old stepson to death with rolling pin
Posted by: tipper || 12/22/2012 04:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More people are murdered with rolling pins and other blunt instruments than with rifles, assault or otherwise. Ban rolling pins! And save lives by getting rid of pie at the same time. Bloomberg will love it.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/22/2012 9:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Prestone, the silent killer. I blame NAPA.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 9:08 Comments || Top||

#3  This is funny?
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/22/2012 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Of course it's not funny. I regret such insinuation. Just frustrated at getting beaten up (metaphorically) over Sandy Hook because of my NRA membership, I guess.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/22/2012 10:35 Comments || Top||

#5  You have a NRA membership, Good.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/22/2012 23:13 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Brother of Osama Bin Laden to Produce $1 Billion Movie on Prophet Mohammed
Gulf media are reporting that a Doha-based company owned by a brother of Osama Bin Laden is producing a $1 billion dollar movie on the life and teachings of the Prophet Mohammad. According to the Gulf News report, Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi is serving as an advisor to the film:

Posted by: tipper || 12/22/2012 04:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To be shot in BombaRam processed by ZamZam Labs. Featuring an unscripted walk-on by Charlton Heston and a suitcase nuke.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/22/2012 5:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Who will be playing Mohammad?
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 12/22/2012 6:57 Comments || Top||

#3  ..I think it'll be produced like a first person shooter beheader to get around that little nuance.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/22/2012 8:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Who will be playing the nine year old girl?
Posted by: Matt || 12/22/2012 9:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Who will be playing Mohammad?
Hanky Poo is rumored to be the first choice.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/22/2012 11:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Will infidels rise up and riot when the movie comes out? I didn't think so.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/22/2012 12:22 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm thinkrn some early "satire" trailers oughtta make the insurance costs soar...
Posted by: Frank G || 12/22/2012 15:33 Comments || Top||

#8  ..and fatwas for Youtube to skyrocket.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/22/2012 16:56 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Argentina looting spreads to Buenos Aires province
Two people have been killed in Argentina's third city, Rosario, as a wave of looting spreads.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to stop hundreds of people attacking a supermarket on the outskirts of the capital, Buenos Aires.

There have been other incidents in the central city of Rosario and in the northern province of Chaco. The looting began in the south on Thursday.

The government says trade unions linked to the opposition are to blame.
I thought the Kirchners and the trade unions were inseparable...
Argentine television showed images of people - many of them with their faces covered - throwing stones at the police and trying to break into shops and supermarkets.

The attacks stir memories of the violence witnessed during Argentina's economic crisis in 2001 when unemployed people stormed supermarkets.

But National Security Secretary, Sergio Berni, said the looters this time had been taking plasma televisions and stereos, not food and had not been driven by poverty.

"There is a part of Argentina that wants to drive the country into chaos and violence," Mr Berni said. "But this Argentina is not the same of 2001."
Posted by: tipper || 12/22/2012 03:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah, the excitements of socialism! Coming to theater* near you.

*theater in military sense, not cinema.
Posted by: twobyfour || 12/22/2012 5:50 Comments || Top||

#2  "There is a part of Argentina that wants to drive the country into chaos and violence," Mr Berni said.

We refer to them as the 47 percenters.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 6:23 Comments || Top||

#3  I think they may be more than 47 percent in Argentina.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/22/2012 8:45 Comments || Top||

#4  "There is a part of Argentina that wants to drive the country into chaos and violence," Mr Berni said.

Here we call them the government.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/22/2012 10:25 Comments || Top||

#5  I assume RAF Mount Pleasant is paying attention.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/22/2012 11:39 Comments || Top||

#6  during Argentina's economic crisis in 2001

Which, for some reason, was pretty much the same as all of Argentina's previous economic crises. To steal a line from famous Argie writer Borges, "... only the time, place and one or two proper names were changed."
Posted by: SteveS || 12/22/2012 11:55 Comments || Top||

#7  "Recover Las Malvinas!"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/22/2012 15:53 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
3 Hoosiers arrested for murders, arson and insurance scam plot
From Besoeker in the other post on this one:Yep, here it is Frank. They increased coverage on the structure and contents to $21,400,000 just last month. Looks like we've solved another one.
Indianapolis -- A devastating explosion that killed two neighbors and destroyed dozens of homes in the Richmond Hill neighborhood last month was the culmination of a tangled tale of greed, debt, desperation and deceit.
Three people were arrested and charged with murder in what Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry called a "thoroughly senseless act."

Monserrate Shirley, 47, her boyfriend Mark Leonard, 43, and his half-brother Robert "Bob" Leonard, Jr., 54, were charged with murder and multiple other felony counts for what investigators described as having essentially turned Shirley's home into a bomb.

Investigators say the blast was a plan hatched by the Leonards, two men characterized by others as practiced con men -- half brothers with a history of suckering people and insurance companies out of cash. Detectives believe that the suspects tried to blow up the home the weekend before the explosion. The gas, however, failed to detonate.

Just the day before the actual blast. Mark and Bob Leonard spoke with a gas company employee at a Southside business about the differences between natural gas and propane. They asked him about how valves work and "how much gas would it take to fill a house."

The employee told detectives that he said "a house is like a balloon which would fill until it popped."

The employee said he didn't think anything of the conversation at the time, but arson investigators say that information helped the brothers formulate a plan that would turn their home into a bomb. They say Shirley's gas fireplace was rigged so it would pour out natural gas and that they set a microwave oven's timer to trigger the blast.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/22/2012 00:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
NRA blames media, music and more for culture of violence
[NBC Politics.NBC News] National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre blamed Hollywood, video games music, the courts and more on Friday for creating a culture of violence in the United States.
Everybody's pretty much forgotten the pair of dorks that showed up at Columbine dressed like they were in The Matrix a few years ago. That was back in prehistory, of course. The people they killed are fossilized by now.
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," he said at a Washington press event, adding, "With all the money in the federal budget can't we afford to put a police officer in every single school?"
I'm not sure where the solution is, but fifty years ago when I was in school we didn't need armed guards. But that was a more innocent age... Oh. Wait. Our parents fought the Second World War. What've we done different since they were around?
LaPierre made his lengthy statement to the press one week after the shooting that killed 20 children and six adults at a school in Newtown, Conn. Protesters twice interrupted LaPierre, who will appear this Sunday exclusively on NBC's "Meet the Press," holding signs reading "NRA KILLING OUR KIDS," and screaming that the gun rights group has "blood on its hands."
The deaths have nothing to do with kids that are reared playing video games where they're walking around behind guns and potting everything that moves. They have nothing to do with movies in which thousands of rounds are expended, dozens of explosion destroy everything in sight, and there are no observable consequences. It has nothing to do with music -- with an entire culture -- that glorifies cold-bloodedness. "Good" kids aren't cool. Better to pretend you're a reptile. It's the NRA that's killing little kids by teaching people how to handle weapons without blasting the people around them, and of gun shows, which are the most gang banger free areas in the nation.
He said that elected officials had no authority to deny Americans the right and the ability to protect themselves and their families from harm.
And they really can't stand that fact.
And he noted that there are millions of active and retired police officers, military veterans, and private security guards -- "an extraordinary corps of patriotic, trained, qualified citizens" -- who should devise a protection plan for every school.
Even though they shouldn't have to. Charles Cora is chuckling in his unmarked grave.
"I call on Congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Going after video games is stupid. It's just book burning in a different medium. Also one of the few things that people like even more than guns.
NRA is looking for a scapegoat, which is exactly what Champ and the media are doing.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/22/2012 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  A bit of doggerel about Gods of the Marketplace:
--When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/22/2012 0:49 Comments || Top||

#3  NRA blames media, music and more for culture of violence

BULLSHIT
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/22/2012 2:23 Comments || Top||

#4  I fully support the Second Amendment and the consequences this has but this wasn't the brightest statement the NRA has ever made.
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/22/2012 3:08 Comments || Top||

#5  I believe at least a portion of the answer may lie in an a close and thoughtful examination of places and cultures across the globe, which do NOT have a culture of violence. We can't all pack up and move to Orania, but might learn something from those communities.

One aspect that I feel should be examined is our propensity to be in constant armed conflict with someone, nearly since the end of WWII. This business of "drone zapping" is another. The consolidation of school districts which took place in the 1950's is yet another.

While I respect and admire Redneck Jim greatly, we do part company on his comments regarding wat now passes for media, music, and the like.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 6:19 Comments || Top||

#6  There was a time when people didn't lock their doors. We talk about "simpler times"...and we had different values. We can't go back to "Lassie" and "Leave it to Beaver" or "Dr. Welby", can we?

We can't go back to President Johnson speaking to us tonite "with a heavy heart"....as he described the latest bombing of the North and the "setbacks" of Tet.

And Haight Ashbury and spitting on the vets when they came through trying to go home. And "Communes" and healthy free sex and "love" and tie dye and lavender glasses?

And who goes to Church anymore? Why bother ? Let's go down to the Mall and hang out and text each other on our cool cell phones.

Tell me how to breakdown and clean a Glock 23. How many safeties does it have? What is the mag capacity ? What is the grain load of the 9mm round it carries? How much does a Glock sell for nowadays. Price of a box of ammo?

Name the manufacturer of the shoulder holster you are wearing. Is it nylon or leather? Show me your concealed carry permit, please? And don't f--k with me. I am polite and I expect you to be polite as well.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/22/2012 7:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Disassembly.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 7:51 Comments || Top||

#8  Oh. Wait. Our parents fought the Second World War. What've we done different since they were around?

Discipline was different before the Age of Lawyers, Professional Educators, and Family Life Bureaucrats. It was that oppressive time of the patriarchs in which fathers were authoritarians and fundamental to family units [see - Wait till your father gets home]. Today our brilliant ruling class deems such creatures irrelevant.

BTW parents - there's a rating system on those video games (see at 2:02)*, use it. Do we really need to handle the stuff like alcohol and put teeth into the process like providing the crap to underage minors because you want to be their friends rather than their parents? This about others wanting everyone else to be their kids parents.

*dated 11/21/12
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/22/2012 8:43 Comments || Top||

#9  The culture of violence in the media, including video games, is desensitizing our young people. If we are not going to change gun regulations (and we shouldn't), what's your answer to the people who want to "fix" this?
Posted by: KBK || 12/22/2012 8:57 Comments || Top||

#10  ..you know if you 'fix' them like the cat and dog, then they won't have kids who they use as justification to take rights away from other adults.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/22/2012 9:19 Comments || Top||

#11  You can have my XBox when you pry it from my cold, dead thumbs.
Posted by: Mercutio || 12/22/2012 10:44 Comments || Top||

#12  These mass murder/suicides were well planned. Ones meditations, regardless of the environment they are in, is everything.
Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with evil or stand in the way that sinners take ...
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night... whatever they do prospers.

(A little verse of great wisdom from a Book cherished by fewer and fewer Americans. Can I get an Amen!?)
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 12/22/2012 10:57 Comments || Top||

#13  #12

Amen
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 12/22/2012 11:24 Comments || Top||

#14  No more players of video games or lovers of violent films act out in real life than owners of guns. Sane people distinguish between fantasy and acceptable real life behaviour. It must be remembered how many mass killers turn out to be schizophrenic... and take a closer look at the insanity statistics of those who stop after killing only their own parents.

The below was posted on Facebook by a friend of mine with with son recently diagnosed as schizophrenic. She calls herself, with no humour at all, The Keeper of the Knives. She is also the keeper of the matches, as he has a fondness of burning paper, and no understanding why this upsets the family.

Did Nancy Lanza live in fear? Why many mothers of the mentally ill do.

We need to bring back locked mental institutions, and the ability to involuntarily commit those who need it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/22/2012 11:39 Comments || Top||

#15  As an aside, I loathe violent films and video games and songs -- even imaginary violence gives me nightmares. But Mr. Wife and the trailing daughters love them, which has never caused me to be concerned that they might either murder me in my bed or, after acquiring weaponry beyond the staffs and nunchucks they use in their martial arts training, run amok shooting up the populace.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/22/2012 11:49 Comments || Top||

#16  That's because they are afeared of you TW.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/22/2012 11:57 Comments || Top||

#17  It has been noted before that most mass murders and most people carrying out firearm violence are males from homes with an absent or abusive Father.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/22/2012 12:26 Comments || Top||

#18  Personally I blame Bread. All mass murderers have, at one time or another eaten bread. BAN BREAD!

Seriously though I think violent video games (and I've played more than my fair share of them) are ok and most (repeat most) people can discern reality from fantasy. It's the few who can't make the distinction that are the problem.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/22/2012 13:02 Comments || Top||

#19  Re: #16: Shipman, if this were Facebook, I would definitely like that comment. :-)
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/22/2012 13:39 Comments || Top||

#20  #14 TW: We need to bring back locked mental institutions, and the ability to involuntarily commit those who need it.

There was a movement in mental health before and around the 1970s that advocated shutting these institutions, moving away from a "medical model" in mental health, and shutting these large institutions. Dr. Thomas Szasz was one of the people who believed that psychiatry was so much quackery and that this model needed to be examined closely as to its effectiveness. There was the belief then as today that psychiatry tended to stigmatize people with problems. Some of these problems were situational and resolved themselves. Others were long-term and chronic and were not likely to improve. The naive belief was that communities would absorb and take care of these individuals and that that would be more caring and humanitarian. That didn't happen as envisioned. Many of the people turned out of institutions became homeless, ended up in jails for lack of any other place to send them, or at home to be taken care of as best could be. At about the same time the concept of "mainstreaming" in the public schools became extant with the notion that everyone should be in public school despite problems. Society has come to experience some of the problems that have fallen out as the result of the movements--not that they were all that bad. There was some good to them. Many of the large mental institutions had become warehouses for the mentally ill. For some, institutionalization was appropriate as it is today. IMO that the movement towards "community-based mental health" was not so much humanitarian as it was that large institutions were becoming extremely costly to run and maintain.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/22/2012 14:09 Comments || Top||

#21  "the movement towards "community-based mental health" was not so much humanitarian as it was that large institutions were becoming extremely costly to run and maintain"

Ding-ding-ding!

We have a winnah! :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/22/2012 14:14 Comments || Top||

#22  I read about a prescription connection with all of these kids. That is the first thing that should be investigated.

Posted by: rjschwarz || 12/22/2012 15:14 Comments || Top||

#23  We need to bring back locked mental institutions, and the ability to involuntarily commit those who need it. Posted by: trailing wife

Will you come visit me TW ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 15:33 Comments || Top||

#24  he's attempting to focus back on the media. I was sickened by the killings, but we could do nothing afterwards. Instead, the media, Fox(!) among them, rolled around in it like a dog on the lawn in shit. Disgusting their sanctimony as they made that little puke famous, just like in Co., just like in SC, just like in.... giving them EXACTLY what they want - a moment of fame and power. Instead, they should expose the pathetic weak existence of these "anti-heroes". Lanza sounds like a real mental case, but we will never be able to understand his thoughts. As a rational human with decent instincts, you can't get what he was thinking. All the better for you
Posted by: Frank G || 12/22/2012 16:06 Comments || Top||

#25  I read about a prescription connection with all of these kids. That is the first thing that should be investigated.

I'd talk about the drug connection to this shit until I was blue in the face for a long while here, and was not believed. That was before the latest round, where Loughner (who repeatedly abused Salvia) and the guy in Colorado (who was a biochem grad student, and very likely probably had the ability to fabricate those drugs for himself). I have been avoiding the news of the latest mess, because they're not going to look into the real cause, and if they find it accidentally they're not going to report it.

Because the piece of fermented pig-dog hybrid shit in the media _want_ these catastrophes to happen, it helps give their masters in the new american mandarinate more power.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/22/2012 16:17 Comments || Top||

#26  Frank, right. That article from Larry Correia yesterday was the best I'd ever seen encompassing the whole subj. I agree -- don't give these psycho losers any limelight. The MSM is a charade backed by the vulture class.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 12/22/2012 16:19 Comments || Top||

#27  BH6 - I'm reading Larry's Monster Hunter books - they're a hoot. Halfway thru the second, and he's a smart dude who respects guns as tools only
Posted by: Frank G || 12/22/2012 17:11 Comments || Top||

#28  Ditto on Larry Correia. The left has an agenda of disarming America no matter that it hasn't worked in other places and is a prescription for violence here. Disarming citizens is the road to tyranny by a corrupted government. The 2nd Amendment was put in the Constitution for a reason and it was not duck hunting.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/22/2012 17:16 Comments || Top||

#29  As long as we're going after the First Amendment instead of the Second Amendment I blame Diane Sawyer and her ilk for giving so much publicity to the whackos who commit these atrocities. That way whenever somebody feels ignored and/or abused they know they can get all the attention their little hearts desire by shooting up a school or a theater or a shopping mall. STFU, Diane.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/22/2012 17:47 Comments || Top||

#30  I don't think that following in the footsteps of Tipper Gore and the PMRC is going to be very helpful against psychotics with easy access to unsecured firearms.

IMHO, the media does spin these things up in order to push a deeply fascistic agenda, and the are not called on it.
Posted by: Free Radical || 12/22/2012 20:06 Comments || Top||

#31  FYI CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [SalafiTalk]SLAVERY IS LIBERATION AND PURIFICATION ... ACCORDING TO THE SALAFISTS.

The Demoleft + aligned special interests covertly don't want to strengthen or seal the Borders, or stop illegal guns from ending up in the hands of dedicated Criminals, etc, because it justifies ever-Bigger Govt, Deficit Spending, + Welfare-Nanny State.

IT WILL BE THE SAME AS PER NAU IN 2015, TRANS-REGIONAL, OR HIGHER OWG = GG/GGU, ONLY BIGGER-N-WORSER.

OWG NAU + NAFTA, ETC. = THERE ARE NO CLOSED BORDERS OR SUCH A THING AS "ILLEGAL" IMMIGRATION" ANYMORE, ONLY "UN-PROCESSED WORKERS".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/22/2012 21:20 Comments || Top||

#32  Under NORAM FTA, Radical Islam is to be just one of the many -ISMS the now-Globalist USA will have to tolerate under NAU-N-HIGHER.

* 1990's CLINTONISM > THE US-N-ONLY-THE-US IS THE ONE THAT HAS TO "ABSORB" A MAJOR TERROR ATTACK, + NOT RESPOND WID OVERWHELMING MILITARY FORCE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/22/2012 21:25 Comments || Top||

#33  Joe I think Israel also is expected to absorb a major terror attack (or three) and not respond.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/22/2012 21:43 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Norks Arrest U.S. Citizen
North Korea says it has arrested a U.S. citizen for committing crimes against the state after he entered the reclusive communist country as a tourist.
And all he wanted to do was to see the Tower of the Juche Idea...
The official Korean Central News Agency said Friday the man, identified as Bae Jun-ho, has confessed to unspecified crimes that it said were "proven through evidence."
"Yes! Yes! I took a picture of the Tower of the Juche Idea! Please! Stop doing that!"
It said legal actions are being taken against Bae "in line with criminal procedure law," suggesting he will be tried in court. Under North Korean law, the punishment for hostile action against the state is five to 10 years of hard labor.
Hard time for just viewing a tower...
VOA's Korean Service says it has learned Bae was a tour guide operating his own company. Sources familiar with the matter told VOA Bae was detained for possessing photos of hungry North Korean children begging for food.
They were standing in front of the Juche Tower. What, he was supposed to shoo them away?
The sources said Bae had taken pictures of the children during his travels.

Yoon Hee-do, an official with a South Korean human rights group (Citizen's Coalition for the Human Rights for North Korean Refugees) said that Bae also did charity work for North Korean orphans.

"His charity work is pretty substantial. He apparently provided assistance to an orphanage that houses children and to a big bakery in the Rason Special Economic Zone," he said.

Yoon Hee-do denied that Bae committed a crime, saying he would have known to be very careful while operating in the North. "He [Bae] has enough experience to know that the local authorities can blow even a little misdeed out of proportion. So I doubt he has done anything that is harmful to the North Korean regime," he said.
Other than take pictures of hungry kids, which is almost a capital offense...
North Korean state media said Bae was detained on Nov. 3 as he entered the northeastern port city of Rason, which lies in a special economic zone near the border with Russia and China. KCNA says officials from the Swedish Embassy met with Bae on Friday. Sweden often acts on behalf of the United States, since Washington does not have diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.

North Korea has detained several Americans in recent years, mostly journalists or Christians accused of proselytizing. In 2009, two television journalists were detained and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after crossing into the North from China. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton later traveled to North Korea to win their release.
Warm up the jet, Bill's gonna take it on the road again...
In 2010, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter negotiated the release of U.S. national Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who was sentenced to eight years of hard labor.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pack yo backs Jimmah! It's time to go visit old friends.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 9:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe Lurch could go; you know to get his 'bowing and groveling to dictators' OJT signed off.....( sort of like a prerequisite for a run for el presidente, or something)
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 12/22/2012 11:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Tour guide in North Korea? Not exactly a winning business model...
Posted by: Raj || 12/22/2012 11:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Might need Bill Clinton to break out his knee pads again.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/22/2012 12:42 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Govt bound to pay wergeld in Tirah bombing case: court
[Dawn] A 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.
High Court bench on Thursday observed that the federal government was bound to pay diyyat (blood money) to legal heirs of over 60 people killed in the 2010 Pakistain Air Force bombing of Tirah Valley, Khyber Agency.

However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth gave more time to the counsel for the federal government and the political agent of Khyber Agency for consultation with the relevant authorities on the matter.

The chief justice observed that the killing of the innocent citizens amounted to unintentional murder and under Section 320 of Pakistain Penal Code, the state was to pay diyyat, which totaled over one million rupees at that time.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by Qabal Shah and several other inhabitants of the said area, who said PAF jetfighters had bombed Sra Vella village in Tirah Valley on April 10, 2010, killing 61 people and damaging public property.

The petitioner said the government had announced the payment of proper compensation to the legal heirs of bombing victims and to the injured but instead gave them a small amount of money.

The counsel appearing for the political agent of Khyber Agency said the PAF air strikes were carried out against krazed killer hideouts but mistakenly, non-combatants were hit.

He said in light of the report submitted by a six-member committee, the federal government had paid Rs18 million compensation, while the political agent had paid Rs100,000 for each killed person and Rs50,000 each to the injured.

The chief justice observed that none of the laws in the country was superior to Koran and Sunnah and the amount of diyyat and circumstances in which it should be paid were clearly described in the Holy Koran. He asked when Raymond Davis could pay diyyat for his release, then why the government couldn't pay the same for the killing of innocent people.

The counsel for federal government and that of the political administration requested the bench for some time for consultation with their respective clients on the issue.

The bench allowed them more time with the direction that they should come up with clear stance on the issue so that the court should pass an appropriate order.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
Iraq's Sunni leaders accuse PM of crackdown
[Al Ahram] Iraq's Sunni leaders accused Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki of a political crackdown after troops raided the finance minister's office and home, threatening to reignite a crisis a year after the last American troops left.

The raids and detention of the Sunni minister's staff came hours after President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who often mediated among the fractious Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish blocs, left for Germany after suffering a stroke that could end his moderating influence in Iraqi politics.

Politicians and authorities gave conflicting accounts of the incident, but it was reminiscent of a year ago when Iraqi authorities sought the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and his bodyguards, accusing them of running death squads just as U.S. troops packed up.

Finance Minister Rafie al-Esawi, a member of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, said late on Thursday that more than 100 bodyguards and staff were snatched illegally by militias, and blamed Maliki for orchestrating the raids to target opponents.

Maliki's office said only six bodyguards were incarcerated
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
under counter terrorism laws.

The Hashemi case plunged the fragile power-sharing deal among Shi'ite and Sunni Moslems and Kurds into turmoil, with Sunni politicians boycotting parliament. Hashemi later fled to Turkey and was sentenced to death in absentia.

"This confirms there is continued systematic targeting of the Sunni symbols and leaders participating in the political process," Iraqiya leaders said in a statement.

They called on their supporters to protest peacefully after Friday prayers. Esawi said politicians would seek a vote of no confidence in Maliki.

A U.S. embassy front man said: "Any actions from any party that subverts the rule of law or provokes ethnic or sectarian tension risks undermining the significant progress Iraq has made toward peace and stability."

Ali al-Moussawi, Maliki's media advisor, said the judiciary had issued arrest warrants for six of the minister's bodyguards and accused rival politicians of trying to stir tensions by linking the case to the premier.

"The law and judiciary for them have no value, they see only political differences," Moussawi said. "They blame Maliki for everything."
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


India-Pakistan
Banker killed in 'sectarian' attack
[Dawn] A banker was rubbed out in a 'sectarian' attack in Lines Area within the remit of the Brigade cop shoppe on Thursday morning, officials said.

Only a few days earlier, an over-30-hour sit-in organised by several Shia organizations at the Numaish intersection to protest against sectarian killings ended on the governor assurance that credible steps would be taken to stop sectarian killings in the city.

Ashiq Abbas, 50, was heading to his bank branch in an auto-rickshaw when he was targeted near Thanvi Masjid, said an official at the Brigade cop shoppe.

While the attackers just sped away after firing at the victim, the latter was rushed to the Civil Hospital 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...
where he died during treatment.

The police quoted hospital sources as saying that the victim had been hit by two bullets.

Following the medico-legal formalities, the body was taken to the Mehfil Shah-e-Khurasan for funeral and later to the Wadi-e-Hussain graveyard for burial.

The officials said the victim, father of two, was a resident of Lines Area Sector 1-A.

Following the killing, Majlis Wahdat-e-Mohammedaneen workers staged a protest on the arterial M.A. Jinnah Road raising slogans against the unabated sectarian killings taking place in the city.

Earlier, MWM deputy secretary general Allama Aftab Haider Jafri and his associate Shahid Ali Mirza, both bankers, had been killed in a sectarian attack within the remit of the Brigade cop shoppe on Nov 6.

Young man rubbed out in Rizvia

A young man was rubbed out in Rizvia Society on Thursday night, police said.

They added that the victim, who appeared to be in his 30s, was on foot when gunnies riding a cycle of violence shot at him in front of Imam Zainul Abideen Hospital, situated in Society, within the remit of the Rizvia cop shoppe.

The officials said the victim, identified as Rehan Rasheed, was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in a police van. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital, the police said.

The victim had sustained two gunshot wounds in the head and chest, hospital sources said.

PPP activist attacked

An activist of the Pakistain People's Party was seriously maimed in a gun attack in Orangi Town on Thursday, police said.

They added that Ajaz Younus, 50, was shot at and maimed within the remit of the Pakistain Bazaar cop shoppe.

The victim was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he was admitted for treatment in a serious condition, the officials said.

Policeman maimed

A policeman sustained three gunshot wounds while trying to overpower bandidos near the Frere police lines area, officials said.

They added police constable Noorul Amin, 30, was hit by bullets when he tried to overpower one of the bandidos who were depriving women travelling in an auto-rickshaw of their cash and valuables.

The bandidos fired multiple shots at him and fled.

The police constable, who sustained gunshot wounds to his abdomen and hands, was rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where he was admitted for treatment.

Five hurt in cracker attack

Five people, mainly employees of a roadside restaurant, were maimed in what police described as a cracker attack on Mauripur Road on Thursday.

The police said that attackers riding a cycle of violence hurled a cracker at Dua Hotel, situated on the main Mauripur Road, and sped away.

Five people suffered injuries. They were taken to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi for medical treatment. All were said to be stable, according to hospital sources. While police suspected that the attack could be related to extortion, the restaurant owner told the police he had not received any threat for extortion.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Pudgy Squanders $1 Billion on Showy Projects
One year into his rule, new North Korean leader Suet Face Kim Jong-un has largely reverted to third-world type, squandering money on the personality cult surrounding his family and ill-conceived prestige projects while the economy languishes.
This surprises no one, I hope...
In April, the regime spent US$10 million on statues of nation founder Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il in Mansudae west of the Taedong River, which runs east to west in Pyongyang. It also built prestige structures like an eight-story theater, 20 to 45-story high-rise apartment complexes, and a children's hospital under the benevolent gaze of the statues on a main street in Pyongyang.

Two new hotels are being built to accommodate an imaginary stream of visitors.
Who will then be arrested for taking pictures of hungry children...
Supposedly at Kim Jong-un's orders, the regime is also building a large swimming pool, and a massive amusement park with a dolphin show aquarium. Several rides and outdoor swimming pool have been completed. Some remodeling work including on a huge hotel in central Pyongyang has also resumed.
All in Pyongyang. This is also no surprise, since that's where most of the apparatchiks live, and Pudgy has to keep them sweet on him.
The cost for these "Pyongyang renaissance" projects is estimated at more than $1 billion, one sixth of the North's annual budget.

"Even senior North Korean officials are complaining that they had high hopes of Kim Jong-un, but life is actually harder than in Kim Jong-il's time because Kim junior is paying more attention to showy projects than to improving people's livelihoods," an informed source in China said.
Not that Pops did a lot of the latter, mind you...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Still more productive than Cash for Clunkers.
Posted by: Perfesser || 12/22/2012 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Dolphins don't work for bark.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/22/2012 5:15 Comments || Top||

#3  I never become too concerned until streets, boulevards, and city names are changed.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 6:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Lovely. Perhaps he can complete the Ryugyong Hotel this time.

It's a delightful edifice showing all the virtues of Central Planning.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/22/2012 8:32 Comments || Top||

#5  That's where the "Some remodeling work including on a huge hotel in central Pyongyang" comes in.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/22/2012 12:31 Comments || Top||

#6  probably the best element keeping them from being a REAL pain in the ass
Posted by: Frank G || 12/22/2012 15:41 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Tehran slams UN resolution on human rights situation in Iran
Iran has strongly condemned a recent resolution by the UN General Assembly on the situation of human rights in the country, saying it has been adopted by the world's major rights violators, Press TV reported.

"Unfortunately and in line with a trend established over the past few years, a number of Western countries led by Canada and the United States have passed a resolution against Iran with political objectives and under the delusional pretext of human rights violations (in the Islamic Republic)," Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast stated on Friday.

The fact that the anti-Iran measure was sponsored by countries which are themselves major violators of human rights proves the inefficiency of the UN human rights mechanisms and the Western states' double standards toward the issue of human rights, Mehmanparast said.

He added that Iran has always been committed to supporting and promoting respect for its citizens under the Islamic laws and the principles of its Constitution.
You just have to parse that sentence carefully...
Iran believes that the issue of human rights should not be misused to turn countries and civilizations against each other, Mehmanparast noted, saying that human rights must instead pave the ground for cooperation among nations and the exchange of experiences through mutual talks and respect.

The UN General Assembly on Thursday voted on a Canadian-sponsored resolution on alleged human rights violations in Iran. The 193-member body passed the measure 86-32 with 65 abstentions.

Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaei lambasted the resolution in his address to the General Assembly on Thursday, saying it fails to reflect realities. Khazaei denounced the hostile stances that certain countries have adopted on the human rights situation in Iran and warned that politicization of the issue can deal a blow to the concept.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
More than 3.5 million Pakistani children miss polio vaccine: WHO
[Dawn] More than 3.5 million Pak children missed out 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...
vaccination this week in a campaign overshadowed by the deaths of nine immunisation workers, a UN official said Friday.

The Mohammedan-majority nation of 180 million people is one of only three in the world where the highly infectious, crippling disease remains endemic and infections shot up from a low of 28 in 2005 to almost 200 last year.

Nine people working on the UN-backed programme were rubbed out in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
and the northwest this week, murdered for trying to protect children from a cruel disease that can leave limbs flaccid and useless in a matter of hours.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  block Pak visas and immigration
Posted by: Frank G || 12/22/2012 14:23 Comments || Top||


11 killed on Pak-Iran border
[Dawn] Eleven undocumented Democrats were reportedly killed on Friday in a firing incident in Pothan area, near Pakistain-Iran border and some 80km northwest of Gwadar.

Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
Home Secretary told Dawn that special teams had been dispatched for confirmation of the incident.

Reports suggested that the undocumented Democrats included Tajiks, Uzbeks and Paks, and they wanted to cross the border through illegal channels when they were fired upon by unknown persons.

Earlier this year, 11 such immigrants were killed by unknown gunnies while they wanted to cross the Iranian border through illegal channels.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Scuds pummel Syrian rebel positions
[Beirut Daily Star] Syria's rebels stepped up attacks on strategic sites including a sprawling military complex in the country's north Friday, while reports emerged that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Terror of Aleppo's
...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...
...

forces fired scud missiles at rebel areas for the second time.

Also Friday, 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...
told European leaders Russia did not seek to protect Assad but that only a negotiated solution could end the conflict and prevent chaos -- an outcome that is looking increasingly unlikely.

NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Syrian army's use of Scud-type missiles against rebels was a sign that the regime was approaching collapse.

"I can confirm that we have detected the launch of Scud-type missiles; we strongly regret that act," Rasmussen said. "I consider it an act of a desperate regime approaching collapse."

The latest launches were detected Thursday, a source close to NATO said. One of the Scuds apparently hit the rebel town of Marea, near Aleppo.

It was the second reported use of Scuds, 21 months into an anti-government uprising that opposition monitors say has claimed more than 44,000 lives.

U.S. and NATO officials first reported Syria's use of Scud missiles one week ago, prompting a swift denial from the Syrian government.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  fired scud missiles at rebel areas

Use 'em up while you can. Jus keep 'em inside Syria, and out of Israel.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/22/2012 8:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Have a LOT of "Misfires" preferably fatal.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/22/2012 23:29 Comments || Top||


Africa North
32 injured in Alexandria festivities
[Al Ahram] Thirty-two people were maimed in the festivities that broke out at Alexandria's Qaed Ibrahim Mosque on Friday, announced Ahmed Omar, the health ministry spokesperson.

Omar stated that all injured were transported to Rass El-Tin Hospital.

"The ministry provided 12 ambulances in front of Qaed Ibrahim Mosque for today's protests," he said.

Clashes erupted shortly after several thousand demonstrators gathered at Alexandria's Qaed Ibrahim Mosque Friday to "defend [Islamic] scholars and mosques," and to call for Sharia (Islamic law).

The rally, which was initially peaceful after Friday noon prayers, turned violent when festivities broke out between Islamist demonstrators and rival opposition group.

According to media reports, festivities seem to have been kicked off after opposition protesters picked a fight with one of the Islamist demonstrators.

Rounds of teargas were fired into the crowds, forcing people onto the Corniche near the mosque. After two hours of street battles, the area surrounding the mosque was mostly cleared.

The protest comes after iconic Alexandria Sheikh Ahmed El-Mahalawy was held captive inside the mosque for 14 hours last Friday by worshippers angered by the overt Islamist rhetoric in his sermon. mEl-Mahalawy demanded worshippers seek the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law) ahead of the referendum's first round, which was regarded as a call to vote 'Yes' for the constitution.

Over 20 people were maimed last Friday in the ensuing confrontations and a few vehicles were set alight.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Girl Shot by Taliban Asks That Pak College Not Bear Her Name
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Hong Kong to supply fishing vessels to Turkmenistan
There's just one, small problem...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Transport to the Black Sea, then truck or rail overland to the Caspian.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/22/2012 17:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Lt. Trapp from the Austrian School will provide necessary training and deh yodelering.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/22/2012 22:52 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Algerian colonel killed in clash with Islamists
[Al Ahram] An Algerian army colonel has been killed in a shootout between troops and Islamists in the Bouira region, 125 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of Algiers, local media reported on Friday.

The clash broke out on Wednesday evening during a search operation for a "terrorist group" in the mountainous region, El Watan said, citing security sources, and employing the term officials use for Islamist turbans.

A member of the communal guard, civilian auxiliaries who were assisting in the operation, was maimed in the violence, which erupted in Ahnif, east of Bouira, where the Islamist group appeared earlier this month.

The slain officer was an army colonel, according to the report, which did not give his name and could not be independently verified.

A senior member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the Algerian-based global terror network's north African franchise, was incarcerated
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
in the same region earlier this week, according to security sources.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


India-Pakistan
UK judges block legal action over US drone attacks in Pakistan
[Dawn] Judges on Friday blocked a legal action brought by a Pak man against Britannia over allegations that British intelligence has been used in US drone attacks on Pakistain.

Lawyers for Noor Khan, 27, who lives in Pakistain, launched the action at the High Court in London in March after the death of his father Malik Daud Khan last year in a drone strike in North Wazoo.

They sought to challenge the lawfulness of the help Britannia's intelligence gathering agency GCHQ reportedly provides to the CIA, such as information targeting beturbanned goons, which is then used in deadly drone strikes.

However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds...
lawyers for British Foreign Secretary William Hague had urged the court to block the legal proceedings, saying the case was unarguable.

They said it raised issues relating to sovereign foreign states that cannot be determined by English courts, adding that any ruling would have a "significant" impact on British relations with the United States and Pakistain.

Lord Justice Alan Moses refused Khan permission to bring the legal challenge at the High Court on Friday.

"The real aim is to persuade this court to make a public pronouncement designed to condemn the activities of the United States in North Waziristan, as a step in persuading them to halt such activity," he said.

The judge said lawyer Martin Chamberlain, who represented Khan in court, "knows he could not obtain permission overtly for such a purpose".

He added: "His stimulating arguments have been an attempt to shroud that purpose in a more acceptable veil."
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Drone attack kills four in North Waziristan: sources
[Dawn] Four suspected bully boyz were killed in a US drone strike Friday afternoon in North Wazoo regions, one of Pakistain's restive northwestern tribal agencies near the Afghan border, intelligence and government sources said.

Although military and political administration officials refuse to comment on such strikes in the tribal areas, intelligence sources said the drone targeted a suspected Death Eater facility located in the Hisukhel area of Mir Ali, about 25 kilometres east of Miranshah
... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas...
, the main town in North Waziristan agency.

The drones fired two missiles, destroying the house and killing four bully boyz inside, said the sources on condition of anonymity. The identities of the dead and their affiliation to a Death Eater group were unclear, they added.

Some sources said some foreigners were also among the dead but their nationalities could not be ascertained.

North Waziristan is one of seven regions in Pakistain's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) governed by tribal laws. An bad turban insurgency led by the Pak Taliban (TTP) plagues the region, while the area is known to be infested with Death Eaters, including the al Qaeda and other armed bad turban organizations.

US drones frequently attack Death Eater hideouts in Pakistain's tribal regions, targeting suspected Taliban and al Qaeda Death Eaters.

Reliable casualty figures are difficult to acquire in the tribal areas, which are largely off-limits to news hounds, because of security worries and government restrictions.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Africa Horn
South Sudan admits shooting down UN chopper
South Sudan's army shot down a UN helicopter, killing all four crew on board, after it mistook the craft for an enemy plane, military spokesman Philip Aguer said Friday.

"The artillery unit unfortunately fired on the plane knowing that this is an enemy plane because there was no prior information from the UN about this plane being in the area," Aguer told AFP. "Unfortunately the plane was shot by friendly fire ... that hit it, and it crashed. After 15 minutes of shooting at the plane, we heard that the UN had sent a plane," he said.

Aguer said the army used anti-aircraft weapons to down the aircraft as it flew over Jonglei, a state in the east of the world's newest nation that has long been the theatre of ethnic conflicts, with particularly bloody clashes reported over the past year.

The helicopter was hit on a reconnaissance flight over Jonglei. The South Sudanese government has already tried to stop the United Nations, and rights groups investigating allegations of massacres and other abuses in that region.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Brooke Nevin [Canuck][Filmography](age 30)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/22/2012 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  3 Shopping Days til Christmas

Copy & Paste this:

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ4JIkt9-mckLZ7NAr4hc9FVvOClcCmx1N4eLry_-mE2REXTy_h


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/22/2012 1:52 Comments || Top||

#3  3 Shopping Days til Christmas are apparently forbidden.
Posted by: twobyfour || 12/22/2012 5:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Nollaig Shona Dhuit
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/22/2012 8:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Whew! The world did not end yesterday! Well, I suppose it did for some people.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/22/2012 10:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Of course it ended yesterday. Don't you notice the difference?
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 10:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Some things never change.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/22/2012 12:54 Comments || Top||


Europe
Catalonia re-elects pro-independence chief
Regional parliament legislators in Catalonia have voted back into office a president who has promised to stage a hugely controversial referendum on independence from Spain. Artur Mas, head of the Convergence and Union group, was re-elected president Friday in a 71-63 vote.

Mas called early elections in November having proposed the referendum after Spain rejected demands to grant the region special fiscal powers. But his party did worse than expected in the election and was left needing a provisional partnership agreement with Catalonia’s pro-independence Republican Left.

Spain’s national government says any referendum proposing a change in the region’s status within Spain would be illegal and unconstitutional.

Polls show Catalan residents are evenly divided over independence, but a majority opposes it if it means exiting the European Union.
Europe was mostly united under Rome. Then it fell apart and spent the next fifteen hundred years, more or less, coming kinda sorta back together. Now it's going the way of Rome. Again.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Lurid Crime Tales-
UPS employee caught red-handed stealing Christmas gift
[KHOU]
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  WataMoron! Send UPS a COPY of the tape along with a kindly worded memo from your lawyer, then stand back for the discreet settlement.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 7:01 Comments || Top||

#2  The company said he was a seasonal worker who was hired just to deliver packages during the holidays

Odd. The chances of a seasonal worker being a driver is rather small; seasonals are usually employed as 'runners' while the driver sits in the package car.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/22/2012 17:55 Comments || Top||

#3  UPS already replace the product, B. (iPad or some such, I think.)
Posted by: Barbara || 12/22/2012 18:18 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Support for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Erodes in an Islamist Bastion
[NY Times] Mohamed Salamah used to vote with the Moslem Brüderbund. But in Saturday's referendum on the Islamist-backed constitution, Mr. Salamah says he is voting against it, mainly because he no longer trusts the movement.

"They aren't even doing anything very Islamic," said Mr. Salamah, a 24-year-old waiter in a cafe in Al Talbeya, a working-class neighborhood in Giza across the Nile from Cairo that was an Islamist stronghold in previous votes. "They are just doing things that aren't very competent."

Throughout the neighborhood, both loyal supporters and critics of the Brotherhood described a deep erosion in the group's street-level support. That was evident, they said, even before the low turnout and narrow margin in last weekend's first round of voting on what residents here call "the Brotherhood constitution."

The results so far appear to have surprised leaders of the Brotherhood and their opposition. And even if the draft constitution is approved, as expected, on Saturday in the second half of the vote, the new questions about the charter's popularity and the Brotherhood's mandate could prolong Egypt's political turbulence and, as a result, defer badly needed economic reforms as well.

Residents here and around Cairo say the damage to the Brotherhood's popularity is unrelated to its religious ideology. It reflects a consistent trio of complaints: confusing economic policies of the Brotherhood-led government, a near-monopoly on power and civilian supporters' use of force against opponents in a street battle two weeks ago. Even so, many say the Brotherhood remains the most potent political force, in part because of the incoherence of the opposition, which has often focused on accusing the Brotherhood of imposing religious rule.

But for now economists say the battle for power is jeopardizing progress on the bread-and-butter issues that are paramount across the ideological spectrum. "What the economy needs are decisions that are politically courageous and credible, and no government can do that now," said Ragui Assaad, an economist at the University of Minnesota with an office in Cairo.

A critical loan of more than $4 billion from the International Monetary Fund, expected to be signed this month, has been delayed until the political situation settles. The Egyptian pound is slipping against the dollar. And the most obvious step to improve the growth and fairness of the economy requires a government with credibility and political skill. Attempts at overhauling Egypt's vast subsidies to energy prices have in the past set off riots.

"What we have now is a government that lacks legitimacy but also economic competence," Mr. Assaad said. "I don't see anything better coming out of this government."

Brotherhood leaders have acknowledged the emergence of hostility against them. Mobs attacked more than three dozen Brotherhood offices, including its headquarters, in the prelude to the first round of voting on the constitution. "I am telling everyone, do not hate the Moslem Brüderbund so much that you forget Egypt's best interest," said Mohamed Badie, the group's spiritual leader. "You can be angry at us and hate us as much as you want; we cannot control affection. But I say to you, be rational. Protect Egypt. Its unity cannot survive what is happening."

For many in Al Talbeya, the defining moment of the prelude to the referendum was the night of Dec. 5, when the Brotherhood called its supporters to defend President Mohamed Morsi against protesters outside his office. Ten died in the fight. And although the Brotherhood has claimed all those killed were its members, seemingly everyone in Al Talbeya still blamed the group for the violence.

"People don't like the Moslem Brüderbund as much as they used to, because they saw how they tried to control everything and how they beat people up," said Emad Mohamed Yosri, 37, a tailor who still counts himself a supporter of the group.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Alexandria 'rioters' seek to disrupt referendum, says preacher El-Mahalawy
[Al Ahram] Ahmed El-Mahalawy, an ultra-orthodox Islamist and a staunch supporter of President Mohamed Morsi, said Friday’s fresh violent confrontations aimed at disrupting the ongoing constitution referendum.
Egypt’s health ministry said 32 people were maimed after festivities erupted between Islamists, who had staged a rally to condemn what they describe as attack on mosques, and unknown opponents in front of Alexandria’s Qaed Ibrahim Mosque after Friday’s prayer.

“What is happening in front of the mosque is aimed at halting the referendum. I hope the referendum will go ahead peacefully,” El-Mahalawy told Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS...
television.

“I hope people would move out of the mosque’s vicinity. They should not damage the properties of their country.”

The protest comes after iconic Alexandria Sheikh Ahmed El-Mahalawy was held captive inside the mosque for 14 hours last Friday by worshippers angered by the overt Islamist rhetoric in his sermon.

El-Mahalawy demanded worshippers last Friday seek the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law) ahead of the referendum's first round, which was regarded as a call to vote 'Yes' for the constitution.

Over 20 people were maimed last Friday in the ensuing confrontations and a few vehicles were set alight

The National Salvation Front, led by ex-presidential candidates Mohamed ELBaradei, Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ...
and Hamdeen Sabbahi, called on the president to postpone the referendum for two weeks until a national consensus is reached over the constitution, which was drafted by an Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


India-Pakistan
Taliban 'commander' among four killed in blast
[Dawn] Four jihad boys, a key Taliban 'commander' among them, were killed and six others injured in a blast in Rustam bazaar of South Wazoo on Friday.

Maulvi Abbas, the Taliban capo, his son and two guards were killed when an IED (improvised bomb) said to have been planted in his office by his rivals, went off. Six people were maimed and were taken to agency headquarters' hospital in Wana and a private clinic.

Dr Akbar Khan told Dawn at the hospital that one of the injured had been referred DHQ hospital in Dera Ismail Khan
... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ...
at death's door.

Maulvi Abbas was one of four Taliban capos who supported Uzbek and other foreign Orcs and similar vermin when Maulvi Nazir group and local Ahmedzai Wazir tribe launched an operation in 2007 and asked foreign Orcs and similar vermin to leave South Waziristan, blaming them for creating law and order problems in the region.

The other three commanders Maulvi Noorul Islam, Javed Wazir and Omar Wazir, took refuge in areas controlled by Hakeemullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman in North Waziristan after operation Rahe Nijat was launched by security forces. Omar Wazir was later killed in a drone attack in Machikhel area of North Waziristan.

However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat...
Abbas, Noorul Islam and Javed Wazir moved back to Wana after striking a secret deal with Maulvi Nazir group and Ahmedzai elders about a year ago.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  Can I have some more please? Let's get a good Omar-Mohammed feud going.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/22/2012 8:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Only 4? Better luck next time.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/22/2012 8:31 Comments || Top||

#3  But who dunnit? The Barzinis or the Tataglias?

Or does it matter?
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 11:04 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Man's gas blamed for creating "intolerable" workplace
A federal employee was formally reprimanded this month for excessive workplace flatulence, a sanction that was delivered to him in a five-page letter that actually included a log of representative dates and times when he was recorded "releasing the awful and unpleasant odor" in his Baltimore office.

In a December 10 letter accusing him of "conduct unbecoming a federal officer," the Social Security Administration employee was informed that his "uncontrollable flatulence" had created an "intolerable" and "hostile" environment for coworkers, several of whom have lodged complaints with supervisors.

The worker, a 38-year-old Maryland resident, reportedly submitted evidence that he suffered from "some medical conditions" that, at times, caused him to be unable to work full days. But a SSA manager noted in the reprimand letter that, "nothing that you have submitted has indicated that you would have uncontrollable flatulence. It is my belief that you can control this condition."

A redacted copy of the letter was recently circulated among officers of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union that represents the SSA worker. Contacted today at his office, the employee said, "I can't talk to you about this, I'm sorry."
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What he should have said was, "Pull my finger."
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/22/2012 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  There is a lot of bad gas in the Washington area.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/22/2012 10:52 Comments || Top||

#3  There's always some intolerable as#%ole in every office.

That said, I'm impressed the SSA told him to can it, rather than put him on disability.
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 12/22/2012 15:56 Comments || Top||

#4  "and...about your beer, cabbage and refried beans diet"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/22/2012 16:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Was it in in CHORUS = MAKING MUSIC???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/22/2012 20:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Frank..... Brussel Sprouts and Mushrooms in the Sorority Salad.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/22/2012 22:53 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Israel complains to UN about rearming by Hezbollah
[Al Ahram] Israel's U.N. envoy urged the Security Council on Thursday to condemn what he described as significant rearming by Hezbollah, saying the Lebanese bully boy group now possessed an arsenal of tens of thousands of missiles capable of hitting Israel.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor said in a letter to the 15-nation council that the buildup was in clear violation of a U.N. arms embargo. Prosor said an kaboom in the southern Lebanese town of Tair Harfa on Monday was at a weapons depot. "This kaboom offers yet another reminder to the world about the grave danger before our eyes in Leb," he wrote.

"In flagrant breach of (Security Council) resolution 1701, Hezbollah has built its arsenal to unprecedented levels, amassing 50,000 deadly missiles in Leb - more missiles than many NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
members have in their possession," he said. "These missiles can reach all of Israel and well beyond."

A Lebanese security source said Monday's blast was caused by a rocket that had been fired into Leb during Hezbollah's 2006 war with Israel but which did not detonate on impact. Israel has long complained that the U.N. arms embargo on Leb has been unsuccessful.

"I call on the Security Council and all responsible members of the international community to send a clear signal that Hezbollah's rapid rearmament will not be tolerated - backed by concrete steps on the ground," he said. "A logical first step is to ensure that Hezbollah is placed on relevant terrorism watchlists in all corners of the globe, including in the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
," Prosor said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Time for Hezbolah to be eliminated, permanently.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/22/2012 2:41 Comments || Top||

#2  It's digging its roots deeper into Leb all the time.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 11:11 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Obama Names Kerry to Follow Clinton as Secretary of State
[NY Times] With a patrician bearing, nearly three decades of service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a highly decorated combat career in the Vietnam War, even a father who was a diplomat, John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, the Senate's current foreign policy expert, filling the vacated wingtips of Joe Biden...
is the very picture of a secretary of state.

"In a sense, John's entire life has prepared him for this role," President B.O. said on Friday at the White House, as he nominated Mr. Kerry to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton
... sometimes described as America's Blond Eminence and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Henry Kissinger ...
, the first step in filling out a national security team for his second term.

Mr. Obama praised Mr. Kerry, 69, a Massachusetts Democrat, for having been immersed in "every major foreign-policy debate for nearly 30 years."

But though Mr. Kerry would bring even deeper experience to the job than Mrs. Clinton did, his appointment is likely to further centralize policy decisions in the White House, where for the past four years the president and a small circle of advisers have kept a tight grip on issues like Iran's nuclear program, China, Pakistain, and the winding down of the war in Afghanistan.

"There's every reason to believe that we're going to have a very White House-centric foreign policy," said David J. Rothkopf, the chief executive of the Foreign Policy Group. "Kerry is going to have to show his loyalty and willingness to work within the Obama system."

In contrast to Mrs. Clinton, whom Mr. Obama named to his cabinet after they competed against each other in the 2008 presidential primaries, Mr. Kerry has been a loyal supporter of the B.O. regime, guiding an arms-reduction treaty with Russia to ratification in the Senate and playing diplomatic troubleshooter for the White House in Afghanistan, Pakistain and Sudan.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Be sure to take care of all your wealthy friends, it's the Chicago way.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 6:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey, what could go wrong ?

He's a Left wing opportunist and he's from Massachusetts, and that botox face is so..so...jzuz.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/22/2012 6:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Party loyalty > Competency

Surely a way to effective government.
What could go wrong?
/sarc off
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/22/2012 8:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Confirmation that "bad things happen in threes."
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/22/2012 10:51 Comments || Top||

#5  O calls Kerry with the news."You rang?" sez Kerry.
Posted by: Grunter || 12/22/2012 10:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Things could be worse. JFK was originally slated to be Sec of Defense.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 12/22/2012 12:31 Comments || Top||

#7  "Kerry is going to have to show his loyalty and willingness to work within the Obama system"

He's been doing that - his excusing Madame Secretary from appearing due to 'concussion' is the latest example.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/22/2012 12:33 Comments || Top||

#8  JFK was originally slated to be Sec of Defense

Strictly a pre SecState political maneuver.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/22/2012 12:34 Comments || Top||

#9  Rich, white male.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/22/2012 13:17 Comments || Top||

#10  "Rich, white male."

Which is what Bambi wishes he were, NS. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/22/2012 14:12 Comments || Top||

#11  Yokay, I'll bite, I know for a fact Kerry's
"entire life" was to prepare him to be POTUS???

SON, AHZ EZ CONFUSED - AGIN.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/22/2012 20:46 Comments || Top||

#12  Yokay, I'll bite, I know for a fact Kerry's
"entire life" was to prepare him to be POTUS???

But he lost badly to that Bush fellow, JosephM, and returned to the Senate, where they appreciate him properly. Besides, being president is hard work, which leaves very little time to be lionized at those swanky parties Terayza married him for.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/22/2012 23:41 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
U.N. helicopter shot down in South Sudan; 4 dead
[USA Today] The United Nations
...Parkinson's Law on an international scale...
said South Sudan's armed forces shot down a U.N. helicopter on Friday killing all four crew members on board -- but South Sudan's military front man blamed rebel fighters.

U.N. deputy front man Eduardo del Buey said the helicopter from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan was on a reconnaissance mission when it was shot down. The mission, known as UNMISS, said the helicopter was not carrying any passengers.

"In subsequent communications between the mission and the South Sudanese Armed Forces, the SPLA told the mission that it has shot down the helicopter in the Likuangole area in Jonglei state," del Buey said. The SPLA is South Sudan's army.

Pibor County in Jonglei State, where the helicopter was shot down, has been the scene of recent festivities between rebel militia fighters led by David Yauyau and South Sudanese forces. A former member of the South Sudanese Army, Yauyau launched his rebellion after failing to win a parliamentary seat in the Sudanese general elections in April 2010. South Sudan accuses Sudan of arming Yauyau.

South Sudan military front man Kella Kueth denied that his military shot down the U.N. helicopter and told AP: "It was the forces of Yauyau. Yauyau's forces are working with Khartoum for the downfall of South Sudan."
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Kenya Red Cross: 30 People Killed In Clashes
[NPR.org] At least 30 people were killed when farmers raided a village of herders in southeastern Kenya early Friday in renewed fighting between two communities with a history of violent animosity, the Kenya Red Thingy said.
"Them nesters is encroachin' on our land! It's gonna be... Range War!"
Five children and five women were among the dead, the Red Thingy said. Forty-five houses were set on fire during the attack, Red Thingy spokeswoman Nelly Muluka said.
"Buck! The ranch house!"
"Fergit the ranch house! See to the wimmin and kiddies!"
"Buck! They're..."
"I'm gonna git me a nester fer thet! A whole slew o' nesters!"

Anthony Kamitu, who is leading police operations to prevent attacks in the region, said that the Pokomo tribe of farmers raided a village of the Orma herding community at dawn in the Tana River Delta. He said the raiders were armed with spears and AK-47 rifles.
"Monty! Oil up yer .45!"
At least 110 people were killed in festivities between the Pokomo and Orma in September and October. The tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year's general elections, the U.N. Humanitarian coordinator for Kenya, Aeneas C. Chuma, said in September. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds...
on the surface the violence seems driven by competition for water, pasture and other resources, he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Britain pays out £14m for Iraqi abuses
Britain has paid out £14 million ($22.7 million) to Iraqis who accuse British troops of illegally detaining and torturing them following the 2003 invasion, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

The ministry confirmed a report in the Guardian newspaper which revealed that the government had paid compensation to 205 complainants over the last five years, with more than 700 claims expected to be lodged next year. Some £8.3 million was paid to 162 Iraqis this year with the average settlement being almost £70,000 plus costs.

The claims stem back to the five-year occupation of the south-east of the country and have mostly been brought by male civilians who claim they were beaten, threatened and deprived of sleep before being interrogated by British troops.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
82 dead in Syria fighting
[Beirut Daily Star] Violence raged in flashpoints again across Syria Friday, with at least 82 people killed, according to a preliminary count from the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights opposition group.

Syrian rebels attacked an air defense base protecting a military industrial compound in Al-Safira in the country's north, as anti-government forces pushed forward in efforts to capture wider areas near the border with Turkey, an activist group said.

The Observatory said seven rebels were killed in the attack.

The town is home to a complex of military factories and lies just south of the city of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
The rebels tried to storm the base but were pushed back, only to later shell some of the military factories, Observatory chief Rami Abdulrahman said.

The Observatory and other activists said rebels launched a wave of attacks on military checkpoints and posts in the central province of Hama.

An amateur video posted online by activists showed rebels tearing down Syrian and Paleostinian flags from a checkpoint in the strategic village of Morek, along the Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
-Aleppo highway. Regime troops usually raise the Paleostinian flag on their posts. Abdulrahman said the military plants in Al-Safira are surrounded by army bases and posts to protect them. He said Friday's festivities came three days after rebels captured a military warehouse in the area. It was later bombed by Syrian warplanes, killing nearly two dozen rebels.

In Aleppo, Syrian rebels fired warning shots at an airliner preparing to take off from Aleppo airport in the first direct attack on a civilian flight, a rebel commander said, warning that all civilian flights would now be considered targets. The commander, who gave his name only as Khaldoun, told Rooters by Skype that snipers from his brigade had hit the wheels of Syrian Airways flight RB201 Thursday.

"Those were warning shots," he said. "We wanted to send a message to the regime that all their planes -- military and civilian -- are within our reach."

Rebels accuse the government of using civilian aircraft to transport weapons and Iranian fighters they say are helping Assad's forces. Insurgents have cut off many of the road links to Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Pakistan drone crashes in South Waziristan
[Dawn] A Pak reconnaissance drone has crashed in a restive northwestern tribal region after developing a technical fault, security officials said on Friday.

The unmanned military aircraft was on a surveillance mission when it came down on Thursday night in Azam Warsak area, west of Wana, the main town of the South Wazoo tribal region, a security bigshot told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, it was reported that a drone suspected to be a US unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) had crashed in the Kaza Panga area of South Waziristan, however, it was unclear whether it belonged to Pakistain or the US, which regularly conducts drone strikes in tribal agencies.

Another official told AFP the crash and said that Talibs surrounded the site and later took possession of the wreckage.

However,
there's more than one way to stuff a chicken...
Pak intelligence officials speaking to Dawn.com said the wreckage of the three-camera surveillance drone, which had a Pak flag painted on it, was in possession of Pak security personnel.

Pakistain manufactures its own small drones which the army, navy and air force use for reconnaissance and do not have the lethal capability of US drones which target jihad boy hideouts in the country's tribal regions.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
New clashes in Damascus Palestinian camp
Palestinians continue to win friends and influence people...
BEIRUT - New clashes between pro- and anti-Damascus fighters erupted in a Palestinian camp in south Damascus on Friday, hours after the return of thousands of people who fled earlier violence, a monitoring group said.

“The fresh battles pitted fighters from the pro-regime popular committees against Syrian and Palestinian rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad,” said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  New clashes between pro- and anti-Damascus fighters erupted in a Palestinian camp in south Damascus on Friday

It don't get better than this kids.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/22/2012 22:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Ima rooting for massive foot gunshot injuries. Shorting Nike shoes (105.10+6.10‎ (6.16%‎)), on Monday
Posted by: Frank G || 12/22/2012 23:09 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tear gas fired as clashes erupt in Alexandria
Riot police fired tear gas to separate clashing protesters in Egypt's second city of Alexandria on Friday, AFP correspondents reported, as tensions rose over a new constitution. Lines of black-clad officers kept apart thousands of Islamists on one side and hundreds of anti-constitution protesters on the other. Dozens of rival protesters pelted each other with rocks in running battles.

The violence broke out on the eve of the final round of a referendum on the draft charter, which is backed by President Mohamed Mursi and his Islamist supporters.

Alexandria, which voted in the first round of the referendum last weekend, has seen several clashes between pro- and anti-Mursi protesters.

On December 14, opposition protesters besieged a mosque in the Mediterranean city, prompting running battles between rock-throwing groups of men, some of whom brandished swords.

Islamists organised Friday's rally to protest last week's siege of the mosque, sparked by a cleric's call for people to vote yes in the constitution.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Iraq
Brit Army doctor banned over Iraqi's death
A British army doctor who confirmed the death of an Iraqi detainee in 2003 was on Friday banned from practising after a tribunal found he lied about the injuries the civilian had suffered in a beating by British soldiers.

Derek Keilloh was struck off the medical register after the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) found him guilty on Sunday of dishonest conduct over the death of 26-year-old hotel receptionist Baha Mousa.

Keilloh, 38, had supervised a failed resuscitation attempt to save Mousa, who had been hooded and severely beaten by British soldiers after his arrest in September 2003 along with nine other suspects in Basra.

Mousa, a father of two, died 36 hours after his arrest having sustained 93 separate injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose, an inquiry last year heard.

Keilloh, then a captain and regimental medical officer, claimed during a later interview, court martial and public inquiry that he had only seen dried blood around Mousa's nose. But the MPTS found that the doctor had been aware of the Iraqi's other injuries from his own observations and from information by other medical staff.
Doctors aren't supposed to participate in torture, aren't supposed to facilitate torture, and aren't supposed to lie about what they see and do.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Take it somewhere else.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/22/2012 6:55 Comments || Top||

#2  I take it RD is a new troll? :-(
Posted by: barbara || 12/22/2012 8:27 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Putin says Russia does not want to see 'chaos' in Syria
[Al Ahram] 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...
said on Friday that Russia does not want "chaos" in Syria and that it looked forward to seeing a democratic regime in the war-torn nation.
"We will try to pursue the public order in Syria and look forward to a democratic regime in Syria because this country is close to our borders," he said at a news conference closing an EU-Russia summit, according to an English translation of his words. "We wouldn't like chaos in that country," he added. "Everyone is interested in stopping the violence and the bloodshed."

Putin for the second time in two days denied propping up the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
and appeared to acknowledge the possibility of change, saying: "We do not advocate the government of Syria."

He insisted however that a solution must be found between all parties at the negotiating table to take into account the views "of all the citizens."

In Moscow the previous day Putin said Russia was not concerned about Assad's fate but "we understand that the family has been in power for 40 years and there is a need for change."
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Maybe Medvedev is looking for a change of scenery.
Posted by: Perfesser || 12/22/2012 1:10 Comments || Top||


Paleos continue return to Yarmouk
[Beirut Daily Star] Paleostinians who fled their homes in the Yarmouk refugee camp after much of it was captured by rebels continued returning home Friday. The refugees first began going back Thursday, after festivities between the army and the rebels subsided and a deal was reached for opposition forces to withdraw from the camp.

Fighting continued in the Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
neighborhoods of Hajar Aswad and Tadamon, just outside Yarmouk, the Observatory said. Rebels also attacked army positions in the southern suburbs, including Mleiha and Chebaa, the group added. The areas are close to the Damascus International Airport and have witnessed heavy festivities over the past weeks.

An attack by Syrian rebels on an electricity pylon caused a power outage in several areas of Damascus, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said, blaming "terrorists."

The state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
reported that "many gunnies" were killed in the suburb of Daraya, which has been subjected to shelling and attacks by government troops for weeks.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Erdogan: Assad regime will go down sooner or later
Erdogan has mastered the fine progressive art of saying things as if saying things will actually accomplish anything...
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that it was impossible for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to remain in power, Anadolu Agency reported.

"He will go, sooner or later. You cannot hold on to power if your people do not accept you, believe in you. It is the case both in democratic and anti-democratic systems," Erdogan told a televised interview on Turkish private news channel NTV.

"Forces loyal to the Assad regime has no foothold left in ground war and opposition forces are in control of the field," he said.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nothing goes past him.
Posted by: twobyfour || 12/22/2012 5:58 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India Vows Action Following Brutal Gang Rape
[VOA News] Indian officials are vowing to take measures to better protect women following the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in the capital.

Police have so far placed in durance vile
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
five people in connection with Sunday's attack and said Friday that they are searching for a sixth assailant. The suspects are accused of rape and attempted murder, with police seeking life imprisonment for the perpetrators.

The woman was attacked after she and a male friend were given a ride on a chartered bus in New Delhi. Officials say a group of men raped her and beat both of the victims with an iron rod, later stripping them and dumping them on the road. The woman remains hospitalized with severe internal injuries.

Indian Home Secretary R.K. Singh on Friday announced a series of measures to prevent such violence. He said bus drivers' licenses will be thoroughly checked, tinted or otherwise covered bus windows will be banned, and plainclothes coppers will be deployed on buses. Authorities will also crack down on drunk driving and those who drink and loiter in New Delhi.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wine tasting, Greasy Thumb reached for his rod!...
hundreds of protesters in the Indian capital marched to the presidential mansion on Friday, demanding strong action against those accused in the attack and better protection for women against violence and harassment.

More than 600 cases of rape have been reported in New Delhi so far this year, one of the highest rates in the country.
Posted by: Fred || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rapists should be castrated.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/22/2012 2:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Rapists should be castrated....with dull rusty pruning shears.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/22/2012 8:52 Comments || Top||

#3  ... and right below the chin.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/22/2012 9:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters in the Indian capital marched...

My wife says it is thousands of protesters, and they are protesting in every major city. For several days. Rape is a VERY big problem in India.

Indians are incensed that the police spend most of their time protecting VIP's and the average Indian is preyed upon by miscreants.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 12/22/2012 13:44 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Former Marine out of Mexican prison
A former U.S. Marine who languished for more than four months in a Mexican prison on a questionable gun charge was on his way to spending Christmas with his family Friday after U.S. politicians intervened for his release.

Jon Hammar, 27, was released from a facility in the border town of Matamoros, just across from Brownsville, Texas, said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. He was back in the United States by Friday night.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/22/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  good.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/22/2012 2:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Next time, ask an ATF agent in Arizona to help you ship that old .410 down south.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/22/2012 6:27 Comments || Top||

#3  As a Mexican friend told me, always pay mexican policemen their bribes quickly and without haggling. If you wind up at the station, you're going to need to bribe more people and spend alot more money.

One thing you do NOT want to do is wind up in Mexican court. (or Mexican prison).
Posted by: Frozen Al || 12/22/2012 12:38 Comments || Top||

#4  " If you wind up at the station, you're going to need to bribe more people and spend alot more money."

HAHAHAHA!!!!!
That is so much the third world ... and not just Mexico either. Should go down as one of the Quotes Of The Year for 2012.
Posted by: Raider || 12/22/2012 14:23 Comments || Top||

#5  La mordida on the street is always lower

/youthful indiscretion in San Felipe, Baja
Posted by: Frank G || 12/22/2012 15:54 Comments || Top||

#6  That is so much the third world ... and not just Mexico either

You're paying one way or the other, whether in bribes, or through the more 'civilized' union contract. Considering that some law enforcement officials in California will pick up six-figure retirements, I wonder if $50 handed out now and then wouldn't be cheaper in the long run.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/22/2012 18:08 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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3Govt of Pakistan
3Arab Spring
3al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Salafists
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Govt of Iraq
1Hezbollah

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2012-12-22
  Scuds pummel Syrian rebel positions
Fri 2012-12-21
  U.N. Security Council Approves Mali Intervention Force
Thu 2012-12-20
  Yemeni President Restructures Army, Removes Saleh Cronies
Wed 2012-12-19
  Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan; eight dead in 48 hours
Tue 2012-12-18
  Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp
Mon 2012-12-17
  Rebel Offensive In Hama
Sun 2012-12-16
  Rockets Fired on Peshawar Airport, Five Dead, Dozens Injured
Sat 2012-12-15
  Tunisian Salafists attack bar, call drinkers 'infidels'
Fri 2012-12-14
  Coca-Cola resumes its production in Somalia
Thu 2012-12-13
  'Friends of Syria' Recognize Syrian Opposition
Wed 2012-12-12
  Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
Tue 2012-12-11
  North Korea 'launches long-range rocket'
Mon 2012-12-10
  Rebels Seize Chunk of Aleppo Base as Fighting Rages across Syria
Sun 2012-12-09
  Mohammad Ahmed Almansoor Drone-zapped in North Wazoo
Sat 2012-12-08
  Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Drone-zapped During Breakfast

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