Moroccos King Mohammed has issued pardons to several leading Islamists, signalling a less hardline approach after moderate Islamists came to power in an election last year. The prisoners covered by the pardon included leading figures in Salafia Jihadia, an Islamist group authorities say helped orchestrate a wave of suicide bombings in Casablanca in 2003, which killed 45 people.
International human rights groups say after those attacks, hundreds of Islamists were jailed on fabricated charges, sometimes after being tortured.
Moroccos King Mohammed has issued pardons to several leading Islamists, signalling a less hardline approach after moderate Islamists came to power in an election last year. The prisoners covered by the pardon included leading figures in Salafia Jihadia, an Islamist group authorities say helped orchestrate a wave of suicide bombings in Casablanca in 2003, which killed 45 people.
International human rights groups say after those attacks, hundreds of Islamists were jailed on fabricated charges, sometimes after being tortured.
Broken bones in humans and animals are painful and often take months to heal. Studies conducted in part by University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center researchers show promise to significantly shorten the healing time and revolutionize the course of fracture treatment.
"Complex fractures are a major cause of amputation of limbs for U.S. military men and women," said Steve Stice, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, animal and dairy scientist in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and director of the UGA Regenerative Bioscience Center.
"For many young soldiers, their mental health becomes a real issue when they are confined to a bed for three to six months after an injury," he said. "This discovery may allow them to be up and moving as fast as days afterward."
To start the bone regeneration process, the RBC used adult stem cells that produce a protein involved in bone healing and generation. They then incorporated them into a gel, combining the healing properties into something Stice calls "fracture putty."
"The next step is to show that we can rapidly and consistently heal fractures in a large animal, then to convert it to clinical cases in the UGA [College of Veterinary Medicine] clinics where clinicians treat animals with complex fractures all the time."
Once they have something that works for animals, it will be passed over to the DOD for human use.
"Our approach is biological with the putty," Stice said. "Other groups are looking at polymers and engineering approaches like implants and replacements which may eventually be combined with our approach. We are looking at other applications, too, using this gel, or putty, to improve spinal fusion outcomes."
One of the best hopes for the fracture putty is in possible facial cranial replacements, an injury often seen on the battlefield.
#1
Simple solution. When a girl child is born in Europe, inform her parents that if the government later discovers that she has had her genitals mutilated, unless her parents have reported the criminal act to the police, they will be held criminally liable for aggravated assault.
Their daughter will be taken from their custody, and both the mother and father will spend a minimum of 1 year in prison, each.
It does not matter matter where, or under what circumstances, the mutilation occurred. That she is mutilated is all the evidence needed.
#1
I strongly suspect that the Chinese are going to regret their involvement in Africa, as have many more who have gone their before, seeking a quick buck.
The South African government has wasted R600 million on sustaining the failed Cuban state, including what government has called a "solidarity grant". This follows a R1.4 billion Cuban bailout that President Zuma authorised in December 2010.
When the Parliamentary session reconvenes, the Democratic Alliance (DA) will request that the Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, appear before Parliament to explain what economic objectives are achieved by this decision. We want to know how this cash injection for Cuba will help the millions of South Africans who live below the breadline.
Cuba has a tiny economy and little to offer South Africa by way of trade. Our trade with Cuba is unlikely to ever exceed R100 million per year. And at the same time, we have our own massive domestic problems in housing, energy, infrastructure, unemployment and a host of other areas. It is difficult to justify giving the Cuban regime R2 billion in handouts when our own people are suffering daily.
The R600 million Minister Davies handed out on Friday consisted of credit write-offs, new credit lines and some cash payments. It also includes a R100 million "solidarity grant", which will not need to be paid back to South Africa.
The Cuban regime has a long track record of failing to pay back our loans. In 2010, South Africa had to write off R1.1 billion in bad Cuban debt, and on Friday we wrote off another R250 million in bad debt.
It is a tragic irony that a portion of the Cuban handout is earmarked to promote food security in Cuba, when our own food security is under threat here at home. We have recently been forced to import maize at a very high price, affecting millions of South Africans who rely on maize-based products as staple food.
The time has come for South Africa to invest in strategic partnerships that deliver prosperity for our people. Maintaining symbolic friendships at enormous costs do not help the South African people.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/06/2012
16:15 ||
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#1
Like minded comrades all pitching in to prop up communism. Move along now, nothing to see here.
#2
We have recently been forced to import maize at a very high price, affecting millions of South Africans who rely on maize-based products as staple food.
South Africa has to import corn? Talk about slouching towards Zimbabwe.
The State Department on Monday pulled out its remaining staff from the U.S. embassy in Syria, following reports last week that the closing was likely unless President Bashar al-Assad promised further protection for American diplomats.
"Ambassador Ford has left Damascus but he remains the United States Ambassador to Syria and its people," a State Department spokeswoman said in a statement. "As the Presidents representative, he will continue his work and engagement with the Syrian people as head of our Syria team in Washington. Together with other senior U.S. officials, Ambassador Ford will maintain contacts with the Syrian opposition and continue our efforts to support the peaceful political transition which the Syrian people have so bravely sought."
Before the closing, a State Department official had told National Journal that the rapidly deteriorating security situation across Syria demonstrates further that Assad is losing control of the country and reinforces our point that Assad has lost all legitimacy.
Ford, had largely remained in the country during the months of violent clashes between protesters and Syria's military and security forcesdespite attacks on him and the embassy itself carried out by Assads supporters. As journalists encountered difficulties entering Syria, Ford became a visible face and often lone voice tweeting from inside the country about the crisis. Ford was temporarily recalled to Washington in late October for consultations, as the U.S. accused Syrian state-run media of inciting violence against the diplomat.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/06/2012
16:14 ||
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Starting this month, some troops will begin receiving less Imminent Danger Pay when a new policy takes effect that will prorate the standard $225 monthly IDP stipend.
Under the new policy, troops will be paid only for the actual days they spend in the danger pay location, defense officials said Thursday. Under the previous policy, troops who spent any portion of the month in a danger pay location received danger pay for the entire month.
The proration amounts to $7.50 per day. So, for example, if a service member spends only 7 days of the month in Afghanistan, he or she will have only $52.50 in Imminent Danger Pay added to their paycheck. Exceptions will be made for troops who are "exposed to a hostile fire incident", regardless of location. They will receive the full monthly amount of $225.
The change was mandated by Congress as a part of the 2012 budget, and the Pentagon announced the implementation of the new rules on Thursday.
H/T Gateway Pundit: Obama to seek 0.5% pay raise for federal employees
President Obama plans to propose lifting the pay freeze on civilian federal workers in the budget he submits to Congress next month. An official with the Office of Management and Budget confirms a Washington Post report that the Administration will use the 2013 fiscal year budget to call for a modest 0.5 percent pay hike for civilian federal employees.
For a federal worker making $50,000 a year, that would amount to a $250 pay raise.
Following are excerpts from a debate on the "invasion" of Israeli products into Sinai, which aired on Egyptian Dream2 TV on February 1, 2012:
Muhammad Al-Mane'i, Sinai Bedouin: There was a time when they would bring us jeans. These pants used to have belts. If you looked at these belts from the front, you'd find a secret compartment, and when you opened it, you would find a magnet inside. When we asked what these magnets were, we were told that they cause sterility.
Interviewer: In other words, it causes infertility.
Muhammad Al-Mane'i: Exactly.
Interviewer: There was a time when these jeans with belts would invade us from Israel, and we used to take the magnets out and chuck them away.
[ ]
Interviewer: Israeli products contain lethal poison. You might not feel this poison now, but you will in the future. Israel will remain an enemy lying in wait for Egypt, no matter what happens and regardless of the agreements, because Israel has its eye set on Egypt.
#1
Apparently not enough tinfoil supplies (most likely due to the neverending embargo by the eeevil Jooos) to provide hats for everyone, so we take to the local 'Dream' TV station.
Unfortunately the indoctrinated will believe.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/06/2012 13:37
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#2
How many impossible things to believe before breakfast.... Truly an imaginative people.
#4
"so we removed the belts and our pants fell down...
then we thought 'I bet the Jooos want us to have pants that fall down' so we quit wearing pants"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2012 14:29
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#5
It was the international Communist Jewish conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
Hat tip Dry Bones
A year ago, Ali was enjoying university in Damascus, looking forward to a career in dentistry and paying little heed to politics in a country controlled by a single family for over 40 years. That all changed, not so much when other Syrians took to the streets to demand President Bashar al-Assad step down, but when a mysterious message popped up on his Facebook page; it told him to get out of town, or die because he was the wrong religion.
You Alawite, read a text on the social networking site, widely hailed by pro-democracy activists for enabling the Arab Spring uprisings. We dont want to see your face in Barzeh.
Now, long dormant religious bigotries have thrust politics on Ali, who was born into the minority Alawite sect and still lives in the Damascus suburb of Barzeh, where most of his neighbours are Sunni Muslims. The 25-year-old student is now a firm supporter of Assad, not from any admiration for the wealthy elite that has run the country with an iron and often bloody fist for four decades, but because they too are Alawites.
They sent me the threat just because I am an Alawite living in Barzeh, Ali said during a series of interviews Reuters conducted in the Syrian capital last week with a variety of Alawite residents who asked that their identities be concealed.
If Assad falls, they fear a bloodbath for fellow Alawites, outnumbered six to one by the Sunnis in a Syrian population of 23 million, which also includes large minorities of Christians and ethic Kurds. The facts that MSM considers too confusing for you simple peasants
Typical of such tales is that of Ali, the dental student. He said he took the threat on Facebook seriously because one of his uncles had been killed. His body parts were delivered in a bag to his home village in the Alawites' western mountain heartland.
Mahmoud, who hails originally from Rabia in rural Hama province, said 39 people from his village had been killed since March: "If someone leaves the village, is stopped at a checkpoint and they know he is an Alawite, they kill him."
If this is indeed what Assad intends, the eviction of the Sunni community from Syria would be the first time in recent memory since the creation of Israel that Sunnis have been forced out in large numbers from the lands they conquered many centuries ago. Prior to Israel's creation, the last time something like this happened in the Mediterranean region was during the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, when large numbers of Sunnis fled the Christian majority Ottoman territories that became Serbia, Greece, Wallachia, Moldavia and Montenegro.
A recently published "lexicon" distributed to thousands of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) targets citizens concerned about their Second Amendment rights and the steady encroachment of the federal government, categorizing such as "militia extremists."
The "lexicon," marked Unclassified/For Official Use Only (FOUO), is dated November 10, 2011, and was sent out by email to law enforcement and homeland security agencies on November 14 by LaJuan E. Washington of the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis.
We have exclusively posted the DHS "lexicon" here.
Its definition of "militia extremists" states:
(U//FOUO) Groups or individuals who facilitate or engage in acts of violence directed at federal, state, or local government officials or infrastructure in response to their belief that the government deliberately is stripping Americans of their freedoms and is attempting to establish a totalitarian regime. These individuals consequently oppose many federal and state authorities' laws and regulations, (particularly those related to firearms ownership), and often belong to armed paramilitary groups. They often conduct paramilitary training designed to violently resist perceived government oppression or to violently overthrow the US Government. (Page 2 of 3, emphasis added)
#7
g(r)omgoru is correct, and more so. "Acts of violence" are no longer inclusive to physical acts, but have been redefined as not only "hate crimes", but "thought crimes" and "conspiracy" as well.
Evidence of this may consist of reading materials, websites visited, public forum postings, ownership of common supplies and materials that could *theoretically* be used to create a bomb or other weapon.
Even agreeing with an inflammatory statement made by a police informant, or failure to report such a statement to the police may be considered acts of violence.
In other words, it has been "defined down" to being a subjective accusation, with evidence compiled after the fact.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/06/2012 19:30
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The part that pisses me off is that it casts a net of suspicion so broad and generalized as to ensnare huge amounts of good citizens - that is, it includes so many people that its useless as a standard. This so-called standard was concocted by morons - blanket folders who have never done any REAL field ops or analysis. University types who got where they are by political pull, not success in the Intelligence community or military operations community.
DHS should be disbanded, the function should be placed under FBI control, and the qualifications should be much higher. I had my doubts back then but I am sure of it now: George Bush was an idiot for going along with the establishment of this agency.
#10
Requiring Religious organizations to support abortion which goes against religious teachings is a "soft" act of tyranny in regards to the current Federal Government authorities (Executive Brabch Democrats) and more "extremist" Presidential fiats that are coming down the pipe in regards to blatantly intrude on the constitutional right to bear arms requires these people to start grooming law enforcement to act against the expected back lash. The disbanding of our military is in full motion. The disarming of the citizens is now important. It is a race against the clock. Over the next few months you will see some extreme dictates from Obama. And you can be sure the master planners have this all mapped out with an agressive time line.
#11
The extremists are not American citizens. The extremists are the most Liberal American President in the history of the United States and his administration.
#12
Disagreement, the newest form of violence.
Some day you will have to pass a brain scan lie detector to prove your allegiance to the party. Or you won't be allowed on the bus.
#1
very cool....ever since I saw James Bond fly one as a kid, I wanted one. Looks like this one uses ducted fan. I would have like some stats on flight time, range and lift capability...nice
#2
Call me a cynic; i have looed at that video a number of times and it sure looks like slicj CGI to me.
maybe when we see something that speaks about the FAA certification and such, but it looks too much like a pipe dream right now. its cool and all that, but doesn't pass my smell test/
Sunday, May 29, 2011: Christchurch, New Zealand ‐ The future of Jetpack travel is a step closer after the latest record‐breaking test in the Martin Jetpack. The Jetpack shot into the sky over the Canterbury Plains at a climb rate of 800ft per minute, reaching an altitude of 5,000ft (previous record 100ft/min & 50ft altitude) before safely deploying the first ballistic jetpack parachute.
Captured on video by TVNZs SUNDAY programme, this incredible flight high above Pudding Hill in Canterbury, New Zealand is a major step towards commercial production of the worlds first practical Jetpack being developed by New Zealands Martin Aircraft Company. This successful test brings the future another step closer, said the Jetpacks Inventor, Glenn Martin.
#5
I still like fanwing technology better. The trouble is that the patents for centrifugal fan aircraft are owned by a British company more interested in toys than aircraft, who develop at a glacial pace.
It has better lift, simpler engine, is more stable, and quieter than a helicopter. A basic flying design would look much like a swamp boat with fans instead of pontoons, including a vertical fan for impulse.
#1
Don't know much about the individual aircraft but it kind of "smells" when one of two competitors is dropped without a stated reason (hint of Chicago politics?).
#2
It's woth remembering that this is a re-visit of a similiar competition for primary Air Force Trainers. And Hawker Beechcraft was declared 'ineligible' by the current administration. the winner? Embraer.
Coincidence?
once is happenstance
twice is coincidence
third time is enemy action
#3
Look for a link to a rich beneficiary who gives money to Obama. Soros perhaps, since it is Brazil, like Soros' investment in offshore drilling in Brazil that Obama has repeatedly helped.
#4
Or the Tucano is a developed and proven light attack aircraft and the AT-6 is not. It's not worth sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into development for 2 or 3 dozen AT-6 then turn around and give them away to the Afghans. Let the Brazilians have the headache of dealing with them.
#6
Also look to the fact that since it was political, the quality of product, professionalism, and competence shall be non-existant at all. It's expected to fail.
#7
The Air Force was asking for problems when Hawker Beechcraft was declared "ineligible" with no reason given nor a warning of possible problems. That insures a quick trip to the courts.
China has "banned" all airlines in the country from joining the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) aimed at cutting carbon emissions. The authorities have also barred the airlines from increasing their fares or adding new charges for the scheme.
The scheme has come in for severe criticism not just from China but also from other countries such as the US and Canada.
The move by the Chinese authorities is likely to complicate the issue as the EU will have to decide on what measures it will take from here on.
"It is going to be very tricky. You have to wait and see how the EU will react," Siva Govindasamy of Flightglobal told the BBC. "They would be able to stop the Chinese airlines from flying to the EU, but that could see retaliatory action by China which will not be good for either side."
Analysts said that given the differences between the various parties involved, the matter may have to be resolved by an international body.
"It could potentially end up on the desk of the World Trade Organization as the countries who are against it have said it is an unfair trade practice," said Frost & Sullivan's Mr Lavigne. "Both sides have claimed that this is either fair or unfair, so it is very difficult to see how this is going to shape up."
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/06/2012
09:01 ||
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#1
Good for the Chinese.
Posted by: kelly ||
02/06/2012 9:13
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#5
This reminds me of the Rita Rudner skit about the dead pony at the birthday party with the kids taking rids by dragging the dead animal around the yard.
The libs and the true believers are going to ride the dead horse of global warming for all its worth inspite of all of the science that has refuted it...including the scientist that says we ended the warming cycle five years ago and are headed for another cooling cycle.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/06/2012 11:02
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#6
Change you can beleive in.
Posted by: jack salami ||
02/06/2012 11:33
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#7
I'd like to see them ban Chinese planes from their airports. Really, I think that would be very interesting.
Iranian naval ships docked on Saturday in the Saudi port city of Jeddah on a mission to project the Islamic republic's "power on the open seas," the Fars news agency reported. The supply ship Kharg and Shaid Qandi, a destroyer, docked in the Red Sea port in line with orders from Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, it quoted navy commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari as saying.
"This mission aims to show the power of the Islamic republic of Iran on the open seas and to confront Iranophobia," he said, adding that the mission started several days ago and would last 70 to 80 days. The commander did not give other destinations.
Iran's navy has been boosting its presence in international waters since last year, deploying vessels in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden on missions to protect Iranian ships from Somali pirates.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/06/2012
08:04 ||
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January 28 -- Over the last few days, four former commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps passed away without the usual condolences to their families from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Moreover, Guard chief Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari and former IRGC chief Major General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, now senior military adviser to Khamenei, did not bother to attend their colleagues' memorials either.
It didn't go unnoticed, however, that Khamenei then conveyed his condolences to Ali Fadavi, commander of the IRGC naval forces, whose father recently died.
The four who had apparently fallen from the good graces of the Supreme Leader were Mansoor Torkan, Dr. Vafa Ghaffarian, Ahmad Sayyafzadeh, and Abbas Mohri.
Torkan, 50, chief operating officer of Yadman-e Sazeh Company, affiliated with the Tehran municipality, died on January 20 of an apparent stroke. He and his brothers fought in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. Two were killed in combat. Another brother, Akbar Torkan, has served in several administrations since the 1979 Revolution.
Ghaffarian, 52, board chairman of the Telecommunications Company of Iran, passed away on January 21. After graduating with a degree in electronics, Ghaffarian joined the IRGC and played an important role in its electronic warfare during the war with Iraq. He was also deputy minister of defense for research and development in 2004-5, and also taught at Malek-e Ashtar University which is controlled by the IRGC, after receiving a Ph.D. in industrial engineering.
Sayyafzadeh, 55, a senior IRGC commander during the war, died on January 23. During the war, he was the operational commander of the IRGC in Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan, which is in southwest Iran, and later the operational commander of the IRGC in Khuzestan. He was also in charge of planning and operation of the Najaf and Karbala military bases. He took part in some of the most important operations during the war, and was injured repeatedly during the war, particularly as a result of Iraq using chemical bombs and ammunition.
Mohri, 52, a senior IRGC commander during the war, died on January 24. No cause of death was given. At the time of his death, Mohri was deputy Dean of Faculty of Culture in Emam Hossein University, where many hardliners have studied and received their degrees.
Hossein Alaei, the first commander of the IRGC naval forces, who wrote a scathing article in Ettela'at newspaper two weeks ago implicitly criticizing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, paid tribute to Sayyafzadeh. "He participated in all the important operations against the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hossein," he wrote. After his controversial article in Ettela'at angered the hardliners, including 12 IRGC commanders, Alaei published another article, this time in Jomhoori Eslami newspaper, emphasizing once again that "all dictators will be toppled." He also said he wondered whether "we will witness the overthrow of another dictator by next February [of 2013]." A group of families of IRGC officers and commanders who have been killed in the past, have written a letter to Alaei, declaring their support for him.
Sayyafzadeh and Mohri were very important IRGC commanders during the war. Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani did send his condolences to the families of the two men.
Over the past 15 months, four other IRGC commanders, past and present, have also died. In April 2011, three IRGC officers, including Colonel Seyyed Ali Shadmehr, who was an IRGC commander during the war with Iraq, were killed in a car crash.
Earlier, in November 2010, Brigadier General Seyyed Mohammad Ali Mousavi Shushtari, 47, deputy commander of the IRGC ground forces for intelligence, passed away. ISNA, the Iranian Students News Agency, reported that he had been ill, but did not specify the cause of his death.
On January 9, 2009, an aircraft carrying 11 IRGC officers crashed and killed all of them: eight brigadier generals, one lieutenant brigadier general, and one colonel. The senior IRGC commanders among them included Brigadier General Ahmad Kazemi [he was promoted to Major General posthumously]; commander of the IRGC ground forces and deputy chief of the IRGC; Brigadier General Saeed Moatamedi, commander of the mechanized Mohammad Rasoolallah Division; and Brigadier General Saeed Soleimani, deputy commander of the IRGC ground forces for operations.
Kazemi was a very important IRGC commander during the war with Iraq, and his death sparked intense speculations. The air crash was shrouded in secrecy. Brigadier General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, IRGC chief at that time, said that the cause of the crash was "an explosion inside the aircraft," but did not divulge more details. Earlier, the IRGC said that the crash had been caused by "mechanical problems." Rahim-Safavi never mentioned the explosion ever again.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/06/2012
07:50 ||
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#1
Relatively young men. Mainly (maybe entirely) not 'natural' deaths. Someone doing coup-preventative maintainence?
#6
Sounds like a Night of Long Knives. Near the end of his life, Brezhnev conducted a military command purge, from the most hard liners to the least, that had pestered him from before the time he took office, after they had deposed Khrushchev.
He had spent all his years in office getting ready for that purge, which with his death, knocked the Soviet military out of dominance and elevated the KGB, which has effectively ruled since, with the exception of Yeltsin.
#7
On a practical note, I wonder if all of these guys were with the "Mullah faction", or the "Nutjob faction", or a "third faction"? I seem to recall that Nutjob replaced a lot of commanders with his fellow cultists, loyal only to him and their cult.
The trouble is that such loyalties only become obvious to outsiders long after the fact.
Posted by: The MOSSAD ||
02/06/2012 20:56
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#9
It's been said that Stalin's prewar purge of the officer corps--I don't recall the numbers but I recall being astonished--was one of the reasons the Red Army did so poorly early in the war. Mostly--not always, agreed--if we don't have the best man for the job in the job, we probably have one of the best three of those who might logically have it. Knock those guys off, and you have the regimental commander who scared Stalin least jumped up to command the division--for example. Without the necessary time, experience, staff schools, evaluations. Even if he were going to be a good division commander in, say, three years, he's not good now.
So it depends on whether you intend to use the tool whose upper ranks you are purging. Stalin was, and barely got away with it. Khamanei....this is the IRGC. Can he do without it?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/06/2012 21:22
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The Iranian government, through a website proxy, has laid out the legal and religious justification for the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of its people.
The doctrine includes wiping out Israeli assets and Jewish people worldwide.
Calling Israel a danger to Islam, the conservative website Alef, with ties to Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the opportunity must not be lost to remove this corrupting material. It is a jurisprudential justification to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel, and in that, the Islamic government of Iran must take the helm.
The article, written by Alireza Forghani, a conservative analyst and a strategy specialist in Khameneis camp, now is being run on most state-owned conservative sites, including the Revolutionary Guards Fars News Agency, showing that the regime endorses this doctrine.
#5
Suppose in addition that the loud mouth is trying to fumble bullets into a revolver while doing his threatening...
Posted by: James ||
02/06/2012 14:06
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#6
LUCIANNE > [Telegraph.UK] BRITAIN HAD TO PLEAD WID US TO BE PART OF IRAN FLOTILLA, as the US felt that the UK had little or nothing to contribute.
Ouchies.
and
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > HAMAS CHIEF: "ISLAMIC SPRING"; MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD CHIEF: "CALIPHATE SOON"; WESTERN MEDIA: ISLAMISTS [are] MODERATE, ISRAEL BAD.
* WORLD NEWS > IRANIAN OFFICIAL CALLS FOR PREEMPTIVE STRIKE ON ISRAEL, espec before EOY.
An attempt by pirates to hijack an Iranian oil tanker in the strait connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden was foiled after an Iranian fleet of warships present in the region rushed to the scene. Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Seyed Mahmoud Moussavi said that the Iranian oil tanker came under attack by 35 Somali pirate speedboats near the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. Moussavi said that the Iranian naval forces' swift action forced the pirates to flee the scene.
No injuries were reported among the crews of the Iranian ships.
#1
35 speedboats, huh? My, the Iranian navy is manly, and not at all making shit up to puff their chests and prove they're not a bunch of useless turds who can't protect their own shipping.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/06/2012 8:41
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#2
Thirteen Iranians--or at least somebodies hired by Iran's shippers--got a tour of a CVN. Wonder what they'll be telling their buddies when they get home.
Hey.... Wonder if they'll actually get home. You know, taxi from the airport takes a wrong turn.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/06/2012 21:28
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h/t Gates of Vienna
In yet another outrageous piece of social engineering from our coalition government, pensioners will be encouraged to downsize to smaller properties allowing local councils to rent their homes out as council houses and manage the tenancy.
Local authorities will help older people move from their homes into more suitable accommodation. Grant Schapps, the Housing Minister, who is a conservative member of parliament claims the scheme will solve a so-called housing crisis as well as creating a system that will permit access to various sources of wealth that are currently not being used to pay for care.
#2
Sorry, BP, but I'm reminded of the scene in Dr. Zhivago where the local commissars moved thirteen families into the Doctor's house because they arbitrarily determined that there was enough room for that.
This stinks.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/06/2012 6:13
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#3
Too many welfare immigrants = too few houses and a skint nation.Thanks Labour.
Posted by: Paul D ||
02/06/2012 6:19
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#4
Perhaps the pensioners want their children to inherit the property. Oh, wait; these are council houses.
They aren't holding singles events for the 65+ crowd, are they?
How undignified. At least when Henry VIII confiscated the wealth of the monasteries, the places were wealthy.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/06/2012 6:47
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#5
I'd prefer it if it (pensioners moving themselves to affordable locations) was done using market forces i.e. housing was efficiently allocated using high land taxes (an economically positive tax) and no taxes on incomes.
#6
I think the key word here is "encourage". The government's definition might not be the one you use.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/06/2012 7:31
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#7
The term the 'authorities' are avoiding is 'warehousing'. Facilities Housing to be built next to the newly erect processing plants of the Soylent Corporation.
#8
I'm confused, are these pensioners in their own houses, or is this government-owned property?
Back in the Fifties and Sixties, Robert Moses et al pulled this crap in places like the Bronx and the Lower East Side, called it "urban renewal" and used eminent domain to clear out old ethnics in healthy slums, in order to build his brutalist, dysfunctional vertical slums. I'd hope that you couldn't get away with that crap today in the US, but England's a different environment, one I'm not really familiar with to be honest.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/06/2012 9:07
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#9
"Social engineering from our coalition government" says it all. Next if you are over fifty please report to nearest relocation faclity.
For security please leave your valuables with the TSA representative for proper safe keeping. You will be provided will all that you will require at your new location. Free housing, free healthcare, free food requirements, free transportation and the knowledge you are helping your local authorities and your country. :(
#10
Maybe one of those extera bedrooms could be made available for drunken sailors returning from Liberty. might have to install floor drains, however. and BIG room numbers.
In the 50's and sixties UK built many vertical slums to house the poor.Alot of these became breeding grounds for crime and joblessness.They are now being pulled town and replaced with modern housing but the vermin remain the same!
Posted by: Paul D ||
02/06/2012 9:28
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#12
NMU's invocation of the commissars from Dr. Zhivago is actually right on the mark. Money quote from the article:
Thethinking behind this initiative was provided from a report, Hoarding of Housing undertaken by a newly created charity, The Intergenerational Foundation (IF), a left leaning, research-based think-tank which promotes fairness between generations as they state on their website.
Just the title of this gang's study ought to make your blood run cold. "Hoarding of housing" could also (and probably does to that crew) mean "hoarding of financial assets" or "hoarding" of ANY private property.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
02/06/2012 9:41
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#13
Luke 20:47
They devour widows houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.
#14
#1 I don't see exactly what the problem is here.
Because the government is making the decisions for you. If people want to have an extra bedroom, that ought to be their decision--not the governments. Such decisions are an erosion of personal freedom.
#16
Ebbaique - I looked that up and its part of a larger context:
Luke 22:45 And while all the people were listening, He said to the disciples, 46 Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, 47 who devour widows houses, and for appearances sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.
Hmm.... I can think of a few people which fit that....
#18
This Indirectly happens in the states when locals jack up the property taxes and force the elderly to move. Why do you
think everyone in Florida has a new York accent.
A former defense volunteer in the southern Thai border province of Narathiwat was gunned down while riding his motorcycle home after a terrorist gunman blocked the road with a fallen tree.
According to the preliminary investigation, Ruplee Ahsee, 33, was returning home at 5:30 a.m. and found a large tree blocking the road close to his house. He stopped his motorcycle to clear the log and the terrorist gunman, hidden in nearby foliage, walked toward him and used a .357 pistol to shoot the victim twice in the head. The terrorist attacker then fled the scene.
Mr Rulee was a local resident who worked as a motorcycle taxi driver. He formerly worked as a defense volunteer.
President Barack Obama said on Sunday there were important risks to consider before any military strike against Iran and made clear he does not want to see more conflict in the oil-producing Gulf region.
In a television interview, Obama also said he did not believe Tehran had the "intentions or capabilities" to attack the United States, playing down the threats from Tehran and saying he wanted a diplomatic end to the nuclear standoff.
"Any kind of additional military activity inside the Gulf is disruptive and has a big effect on us. It could have a big effect on oil prices. We've still got troops in Afghanistan, which borders Iran. And so our preferred solution here is diplomatic," Obama said.
His comments echoed concerns expressed by earlier by Iran's neighbor Turkey that an attack on Iran would be disastrous.
Obama, who is up for re-election in November, has ended the U.S. war in Iraq and is winding down combat in Afghanistan amid growing public discontent about American war spending at a time when the economy remains shaky.
He said Israel had not yet decided what to do in response to the escalating tension but was "rightly" concerned about Tehran's plans.
"My number one priority continues to be the security of the United States, but also the security of Israel, and we are going to make sure that we work in lockstep as we proceed to try to solve this, hopefully diplomatically," he told NBC.
#7
Right right, blah blah. Everyone knows this is what TOTUS is programmed to say, and the market has already priced it in, so to speak. If you won't make a decision, the decisions will be made for you. Really wish B.O. would grasp this, and save us the CO2.
[An Nahar] An Energa-type rifle-launched grenade was fired on Sunday at an area located between the rival Tripoli neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh, state-run National News Agency reported.
Only minutes later person or persons unknown tossed a hand grenade at the stream of the nearby Abu Ali River, NNA said.
The two incidents did not cause any casualties or damage, according to the news agency.
The two neighborhoods have in the past been the scene of deadly sectarian festivities between Sunnis and Alawites and tensions remain high in the area.
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02/06/2012
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#1
Arab culture haven't quite adapted to firearms yet.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Sheikh Abdulkadir Mumin, a senior officer in Al-Shabaab, ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... the radical Islamist group opposing the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia has criticised the role of Turkey in Somalia.
The holy man made the hostile remarks on Saturday via the movement's broadcasting system, al-Andalus. Sheikh Mumin stated that the humanitarian foods and medicines brought to Somalia by Turkish agencies are expired. He added that the Turkish intention was to 'poison' the people in this country.
"They (the Turkish organizations) brought expired foods and medicines," said Sheikh Mumin.
"We warn the people from taking the stuffs."
The sheikh added that Turkey was engaged in a 'campaign to assist Somalis' just as a mission to advance its interests.
"Its assistance is phony and driven by neocolonial intentions," remarked Sheikh Mumin.
Probably. And perhaps the Brave Lions of Islam would allow their captive audience a little outside care and feeding were the donors Arab -- they clearly won't from anyone else.
Turkey is one of the first countries that responded to the plea to help the needy people in Somalia that were affected by the worst drought in 60 years.
The country delivered the largest humanitarian goods in terms of foods, medicines, sheltering materials.
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[Dawn] Two people were killed and four others, including a cameraman of a private television channel, injured in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... 's Bakhtiarabad town on Saturday when security forces opened fire on people protesting against the killing of wife, daughter and driver of MPA Bakhtiar Domki 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... earlier this week.
A strike was also observed in parts of the province on the third consecutive day in protest against the killing.
Balochistan Chief Minister Aslam Raisani has ordered a judicial inquiry into the shooting.
Eyewitnesses said a large number of people belonging to the Domki tribe blocked the Quetta-Sukkur National Highway near Bakhtiarabad, in Sibi district.
The call for the wheel-jam strike was given by the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) and it was supported by the National Party (NP) and Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M).
A Sibi-bound convoy of Frontier Corps coming from Dera Murad Jamali was stopped by the demonstrators.
The FC officials asked the protesters to allow them a passage, but the protesters refused and raised slogans against security forces.
They condemned the killing of granddaughter of Nawab Akbar Bugti and sister of BRP chief Brahmdag Bugti.
Personnel of the Frontier Corps opened fire after they exchanged words with the enraged crowd.
The protesters claimed that it was straight firing that caused death of two civilians and injuries to four people. The FC sources in Quetta, however, said that personnel opened fire in the air to disperse the crowd as the situation was getting out of hand.
The dead and the injured were taken to a hospital in Sibi. Doctors said all the injured were out of danger.
The dear departed were identified as Bando Khan Domki and Miandad Khan Domki. The injured included Ahmad Khan Domki and Afzal Ahmad, a cameraman of Aaj television channel.
The inquiry into the incident would be conducted by a tribunal to be headed by a senior judge of the Balochistan High Court. A district session judge will be a member of the tribunal.
Shopkeepers put down the shutters and streets gave a deserted look in Khuzdar, Kalat, Mastung, Gwadar, Turbat and other towns of the province.
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[An Nahar] Turkey's deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc criticized Iran on Sunday for the country's silence over Syria's violent crackdown on protests.
"I am addressing the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Islam: I do not know if you are worthy of being called Islamic," Arinc said, according to the Anatolia news agency.
"Have you said a single thing about what is happening in Syria?"
Arinc was speaking at a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) party in Bursa, in Turkey's northwest.
Iran is Syria's main ally in the region and detractors have accused Tehran of helping Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Light of the Alawites... violent suppression of protests that have swept the country since March 2011.
About 6,000 people are thought to have been killed in the clampdown.
Arinc condemned as a "massacre" Friday's killings in Homs, a center of protest were more than 200 people were killed.
Turkey, once a close ally of neighboring Syria, has been at the forefront of international criticism against the Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... regime and has also become a haven for many Syrian opposition activists.
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#1
Turkey and Syria sparring over human rights reminds me of how the Republican primaries are going.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/06/2012 23:30
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[An Nahar] Turkey on Sunday criticized the Lebanese government, saying it has not voiced "a single word" to condemn the Syrian regime's deadly crackdown on dissent.
"Has Leb voiced a single word to express its solidarity with our Mohammedan brothers who are being slaughtered? No, only Turkey has raised its voice," Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.
He also slammed Iran, Syria's key regional ally, over its silence concerning the lethal repression.
Arinc was speaking at a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) party in Bursa, in Turkey's northwest.
Leb's government, which is led by Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hizbullah and its allies, has sidestepped taking a firm stand on the Syria crisis in what observers say is a bid to avoid potential sanctions or a spillover of the violence.
The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... estimates more than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since March as al-Assad's regime cracks down on a popular revolt.
Thousands of Syrian refugees have decamped to Leb but many say they do not feel safe in the neighboring country.
Syria controlled Leb from 1976-2005 and the two countries have yet to agree on an official demarcation of the 330-kilometer common border.
Despite the departure of Syrian troops from Leb under international and popular pressure in 2005, Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... maintains a strong influence in Leb.
Turkey, once a close ally of neighboring Syria, has been at the forefront of international criticism against the Damascus regime and has also become a haven for many Syrian opposition activists.
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[Dawn] Seven people were killed Sunday in a suicide car kaboom on police headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a bastion of Taliban militancy, the interior ministry said.
Three coppers and four civilians died in the blast in the car park, the ministry said in a statement, while nine other people were maimed.
"At around noon today (0730 GMT), a suicide car boomer detonated his explosive-packed car in district one of Kandahar that killed seven, including three police and four civilians and maimed nine others", the ministry statement said.
Kandahar governor Tooryalai Weesa also said there were seven deaths, but said five of those were police and gave a maimed toll of 19, including 13 women and kiddies.
Blood-splattered items from nearby market stalls lay scattered on the ground after the attack, which destroyed four police cars and damaged nearby buildings, according to an AFP correspondent.
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An intoxicated sailor who walked into the wrong apartment in Bremerton, urinated on the floor and then climbed into bed with an 80-year-old woman probably won't face criminal charges, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office.
The 21-year-old, identified as Dalton C. Pierson, was drinking and playing video games at a friend's apartment in 7600 block of Vineyards Lane Northeast early Sunday when he left and mistakenly walked into a neighbor's home, according to the Sheriff's Office. Good work, Sparky. Your inspiring story's probably going viral right now. And thanks to this little thing called the interwebs, your daring deed is immortalized for all time.
Evelyn Whitney said she had been fast asleep when the stranger climbed into bed with her. She screamed and asked him what he was doing, according to the sheriff's report. Pierson answered, "passing out." Gotta give our hero a speck of credit for having THAT much presence of mind. Guess it was dark enough that he couldn't see his bedmate, though...
Scott Wilson, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said the sailor was released to his friends. Pierson is stationed at Naval Base Kitsap -- Bangor. The incident report has been forwarded to the Kitsap County Prosecutor's Office, but Wilson said it's unlikely Pierson would face criminal charges.
The apartment that Pierson had been visiting and Whitney's apartment look alike and Whitney's door was unlocked, he said. The young man's actions were "drunken stupidity," but they don't appear to meet the elements of a crime, Wilson said. Between increased strictness on alcohol/drug related shenanigans and the upcoming wave of RIFs, our hero has enough to worry about from Sam's Canoe Club. Even in the Navy, it's rare to LITERALLY p!$$ away one's career.
#7
Now that was a good story. P2k that was a favorite video of mine also. 21, yup thats something someone trashed drunk might do and forget all about it.
Pierson apologized and promised to pay the cleaning bill when he returned to the apartment with his supervising officer, they said.
Jaeger said he was pleased to see that "the kid was totally humiliated, as he should be," and to learn that the Navy intended to discipline him.
Whitney, meanwhile, said she was very impressed because Pierson's supervising officer "made him sit down and listen while I scolded him," she said. "After that, I felt much better."
#13
Oh, heck - I was actually present when something even more embarrassing than this happened: at Sondrestrom AB, Greenland. They were renovating the building which housed the military women and the mid-rank NCOs, and so moved us all into a long, long, two-story all-ranks barrack building which also was the Temp-housing facility. There was a male latrine, and a female latrine side by side, about every twenty rooms... and one evening, there were three of us in the female latrine, performing our late evening ablutions, when one of male NCOs opened the door, staggered past two of us at the sinks, unzipped trou and performed an act of nature against a blank tiled wall - which in the mens latrine contained the urinals - before either one of us had a chance to point out that he had the wrong latrine. He zipped up and staggered out again while the two of us (and the girl who was taking a shower) could do anything but stand there. (Eh - we'd all been married, it wasn't like we saw anything we hadn't seen before ... just not against a blank wall.)
Ten minutes later, I finished my shower and went down the hallway again, and saw him in the hallway talking to a couple of friends, and I said, "Hey ____, have you figured out the main difference between the mens and the womens latrines, yet?"
I have never, ever seen a human being turn so red in the face. It was all over Sondrestrom in 24 hours - even the Base Commander hunted me down at Commander's call to confirm if it was true. That guy never heard the end of it: he was the Golden Spike Winner for that month (an award for having made yourself the biggest a-hole on base).
Yep, young Pierson will never, ever hear the last of this, either. With luck, he will live it down ... eventually.
Our gas and oil reserves grow; Chinas and Japans shrink. If I move to China, as a Scandinavian-looking white guy I will never be accepted as fully Chinese; if a Chinese moves here, hes liable to run a companyor become president. Barack Obama and most of us would never make it as a president or prime minister in Japan or South Korea, or for that matter France.
Mr. President, sermonize to others abroad, not to us at home, about judging people on the basis of how they look. In India or Brazil, Obama, as most of us, would be relegated to a caste. Yes, I am worried at the present desire to run up trillions of dollars in debt and redistribute income while ignoring the sources of traditional American material wealth. Yet I still see no reason to lead from behind. I accept no post-American anythingand am quite tired after three years of being lectured that I am supposed to.
Espec when too many of our mighty FearLess Leaders don't ask or teach or explain, etc. anything; or at best give out only minimal information - you know, LEADERSHIP!
JOHN WAYNE = WAS AN ANT-ZILLA? D **** NG , I KNEW IT!
[An Nahar] Leb must not hesitate in supporting the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... , because backing it has major "strategic and fateful" repercussions, sources close to Hizbullah told the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper in remarks published on Sunday.
They said: "Hizbullah will not allow the fall of the Assad regime even if it means launching a war with Israel."
This position echoed Israeli fears that a war with the party may be ignited in order to divert attention from the current developments in Syria, said the newspaper.
The Israeli leadership is mulling "the need to issue an open threat to Hizbullah as part of a wider strategy adopted by the Israeli government."
"This strategy aims at deterring Hizbullah and Iran from carrying out any attack against Israeli targets," stated several sources, including the Jerusalem Post.
The Hizbullah sources did not rule out the possibility of "surprises emerging, aimed at turning attention away from the Syrian crisis."
"Should such a surprise take place, it would shift the international community's priorities in the region," they stressed.
On January 14, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah said that Leb should disavow itself from developments in Syria as the crisis will have negative repercussions on the situation locally.
"We call on the Syrian opposition to abide by Assad's demands to engage in dialogue and cooperate with him to introduce reform that would resolve the country's problems," he stated.
During a speech in December, he voiced his support for the Syrian regime, while saying that his party backs reform and efforts to eradicate corruption in the neighboring country.
Nasrallah stressed, however, that "some people want to destroy Syria," they reject dialogue, and they seek to "compensate their loss in Iraq."
The Hizbullah chief accused the West of seeking to bring a new regime in Syria that would be disloyal to Arabs.
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[An Nahar] Syrian security forces killed 36 people across the country on Sunday, most of them in the central protest hub of Homs, activists said, after nine regime troops were killed overnight at the hands of rebels according to a rights group.
The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed 22 people in Homs, six in the flashpoint northwestern province of Idlib, five in the restive countryside around Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , two in the southern province of Daraa and one in the northern province 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...
Among the dead were five children and two women, the LCC said.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, meanwhile, said 14 regime troops were killed in Idlib, seven in Homs, four in Daraa and three in Zabadani near Damascus.
It reported earlier on Sunday that nine Syrian soldiers died and 21 were maimed in festivities overnight with armed rebels in Idlib.
The Observatory said Idlib's army casualties occurred in three separate festivities at Jebel al-Zawiya, which borders Turkey.
The Turkey-based Free Syrian Army, which comprises army deserters and armed volunteers, regularly attacks the security forces in a bid to halt their brutal crackdown on dissent which rights groups say has killed more than 6,000 people since mid-March.
Intense gunfire rang out overnight at the Syria-Turkey frontier as Damascus moved to root out the opposition in a Syrian border village, a local source said Sunday.
According to a Turk living in a border village in southern Turkey's Hatay province, machinegun fire rattled late into Saturday night in the regime-led operation against the opposition in the Ain al-Beida village.
"We were very scared, the shots damaged our satellite dishes," said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Turkish television station NTV quoted other villagers saying that another Syrian village, Khirbet al-Joz, had also been targeted by Syrian forces.
According to press agency Anatolie, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has telephoned the governor of Hatay to obtain details about the situation on the ground.
Some 7,500 Syrians have decamped violent repression to Turkey since anti-government protests began in March. Most are living in camps in Hatay.
Once a close ally of Syria, Turkey has since been at the forefront of international criticism over the Damascus regime's crackdown on protests.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also urged his once close friend, Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad, Despoiler of Deraa... to quit.
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Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Congrats to the NY Giants for winning the Super Bowl. Having already won the big game before AND the delecible Gisele, Tom Brady has earned enough accolades already to let this one pass.
Mamie Van Doren aka Silver Morgan in "Girls Town (1959)" aka Saxie Symbol in "3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964)" aka Peggy DeFore in "Teacher's Pet (1958)" aka Cpl. Bunky Hilstrom in "Francis Joins the WACS (1954)" aka Nora Hall in "The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966)" aka Moana in "Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968)" aka Lilith, Harem Slave in "Yankee Pasha (1954)" (age 81)
[Dawn] An investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed that the CIA's drone campaign in Pakistain has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to rescue victims or were attending funerals.
The report was published days after US President Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... claimed that the drones had "not caused a huge number of civilian casualties" in Pakistain.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... according to research by the Bureau, it was stated that since Obama took office three years ago, between 282 and 535 civilians have been credibly reported as killed including more than 60 children. The report claims that: "A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 non-combatants were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts."
The first confirmed attack on rescuers took place in North Wazoo on May 16, 2009. According to Mushtaq Yusufzai, a local journalist, Talibs had gathered in the village of Khaisor and at least 29 people died in total.
The Bureau reports that along with Talibs, locals said that six ordinary villagers also died that day. They were identified by Bureau field researchers as Sabir, Ikram, Mohib, Zahid, Mashal and Syed Noor.
Interestingly, the reports also reveal that often when the US attacks gunnies in Pakistain, the Taliban seal off the site to retrieve the dead. However, a woman is only as old as she admits... "an examination of thousands of credible reports relating to CIA drone strikes also shows frequent references to civilian rescuers. Mosques often exhort villagers to come forward and help, for example -- particularly following attacks that mistakenly kill civilians."
Quoting Christof Heyns, a South African law professor who is United Nations ...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least... Special Rapporteur on Extra- judicial Executions, the report states that "Allegations of repeat strikes coming back after half an hour when medical personnel are on the ground are very worrying. To target civilians would be crimes of war." Heyns is calling for an investigation into the Bureau's findings.
The Bureau's report also states that according to Peter Singer, director of the 21st Century Initiative at the Brookings Institution, the US now has 7,000 drones operating and 12,000 more on the ground.
Aside from Pakistain, there is also debate over the use of drones in Yemen, Somalia and Libya. The Bureau's report in the Sunday Times claims that three US citizens were also killed by missiles fired from drones in Yemen last September.
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#1
Kinda like Muzzies using two suicide boomers---the second activating when rescuers reach the scene?
#2
Exactly like that. Except in this case, the primary targets are specific bad guys instead of random infidels, and the secondary targets are likely their fellow miscreants-in-arms.
If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas...and maybe a Hellfire upside the head.
[An Nahar] The Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... will continue working to end political violence in Syria to stave off foreign military intervention after Russia and China blocked a U.N. resolution condemning Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... , league chief Nabil al-Arabi said on Sunday.
Arabi said the 22-member organization would continue working with the Syrian regime and opposition for a "political solution" to Damascus' deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
Arab nations had proposed the resolution which Russia and China vetoed at the U.N. Security Council on Saturday, and which backed an Arab League plan to end Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... 's crackdown.
Vetoing the resolution "does not negate that there is clear international support for the vaporous Arab League's decisions," Arabi said in a statement.
The league "will continue its efforts with the Syrian government and opposition, in coordination with concerned parties, to achieve its uppermost goal to stop all acts of violence and killing, and to protect civilians."
The bloc will work to "find a political solution that will achieve reforms and the process of change demanded by the Syrian people, which would preserve it from ... any foreign military intervention," he said.
Arab leaders and officials attacked the U.N. on Sunday after Russia and China blocked a resolution condemning the Damascus regime, as Tunisia urged the world to cut diplomatic ties with Syria.
Russia and China on Saturday used their diplomatic muscle for the second time in four months to block a resolution condemning the violence. The other 13 countries in the 15-member council voted for the resolution.
Rights groups say the Syrian regime's crackdown has killed more than 6,000 people since democracy protests broke out in March last year.
The Arab League which suspended an observer mission in Syria due to an upsurge in violence, is due to meet in Cairo on February 11 to review the mission.
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#1
LOL
Anyone else find it ironic that the tyrants of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are lecturing Syria about human rights and democracy?
Reminds me of Simon Cowell lecturing contestants about their dress sense.
[An Nahar] Hundreds of protesters demonstrated Saturday in New York and pacifist groups erupted into the streets in dozens of other U.S. and Canadian cities in a "Day of Mass Action" against a possible war with Iran.
About 500 protesters gathered in Manhattan's Times Square and marched to the headquarters of the U.S. mission to the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... and to the Israeli consulate.
"No war, no sanctions, no intervention, no liquidations," read a banner leading the march.
The demonstrations came as Europe and the United States slapped tough new sanctions on Iran, and Israel this week launched new threats of military intervention if the Islamic republic fails to rein in its suspected nuclear development program.
There is heightened speculation that Israel is contemplating air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, fueled in part by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... 's comments to the Washington Post in which he said he believes there is a "strong possibility" that Israel will launch such air strikes this spring.
Iran admits it has a nuclear program but insists it is for peaceful purposes like generating electricity.
"The actions of the Iranian government in no way justify a U.S. war on Iran," Debra Sweet, director of the organization "The World Can't Wait," told AFP at the New York march.
The protest joined efforts from a coalition of about 60 pacifist and human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. organizations.
A leaflet distributed at the New York demonstration said "in many ways, US war on Iran has already begun," citing as examples "harsh economic sanctions" against Tehran, "killing Iranian scientists in car boomings" and that " U.S. aircraft carriers are right off Iran's shore."
"I don't know what (U.S. President Barack) Obama will do but I do know what he has done, which is very hard sanctions that only will hurt ordinary people," Sweet said.
In Los Angeles, activists dressed themselves in orange prison jumpsuits and wore black hoods similar to Guantanamo detainees as part of the anti-war protest there.
Other peace marches were held Saturday in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington, and other U.S. cities, according to organizers.
In Canada protests were staged in Calgary and Vancouver, and events were also planned in Britannia, Ireland, and India.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2012
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#1
If they are protesting a possible war, does that make them possifists?
#3
If Obama is true to form with other Democrat presidents, he will order the federal police to step on these dumbasses like insects, no matter how unlawful it is. Only Republican presidents tolerate such dissent.
[Yemen Post] Clashes continued on Saturday evening between the army troops and al-Qaeda cut-throats in the southern Yemen province of Abyan, leaving at least 4 cut-throats killed.
The army bombarded heavily al-Qaeda posts in Zinjubar, the bustling provincial capital of Abyan, and Jaar, al-Qaeda stronghold, using heavy artileray and rockets, leaving at least 4 cut-throats killed and 10 others maimed, local military source told Yemen Post.
The bombardment, which hit al-Modia, Bajdar, Bashara, and center of Zinjibar areas, left many vehicles and houses demolished.
Al-Qaeda has strenthened its foothold in the southern provinces of the country, apparantly taking advantage of the distracted and undermined government.
Soddy Arabia and USA have repeatedly expressed their gravest concerns over the terrorist organization's activities, leading US to step us its drone raids on al-Qaeda hideouts and convoys in Yemen.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... Parliment members in the province have formed a committee to broker a deal between the islamists and the army.
PMs said their efforts are still ongoing and that they hope a ceasefire would be struck soon.
Al-Qaeda has set some conditions to stop its offensives and leave including, pulling out the army personnel and vehicles to barracks and establishing a local rule in the province base on Islami teachings and Sharia.However, a woman is only as old as she admits... the army sees such conditions are unachievable and would only prolong conflict.
Massive popular protests calling for President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... 's ouster combined with al-Qaeda anarchy in the south, Shiite insurgency in the far north and increasing calls for the separation of the south has shaken Yemen to the bone, leaving thousands killed, bringing the state to its knees, pushing the econmy to the brink of collapse and triggering a catastrophic humanitaian crisis.
Under enormous pressure from within and abroad, Saleh has signed a deal under which he transfered power to Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the consensus candidate for the forthcoming election set to be held on Feburaury 21, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
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02/06/2012
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[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... has said that both Zardari and Nawaz together will face defeat at the hands of his party.
Speaking to the students of LUMS here on Saturday, he said it was in the interest of Zardari and Nawaz that a third political force remained out of power.
He said the PTI's tsunami could not be stopped as the people were disappointed with the rulers who failed to take any step to control inflation and price hike. He said the youth wanted change in the country which was inevitable.
Talking to journalists Mr Khan said the Sharif brothers were now demanding early elections while they had supported President Zardari for the last three years or so.
He held the Punjab government responsible for deaths of cardiac patients. "Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... had filed a petition with the apex court to expose memo scandal characters but where is he (Nawaz)," Mr Khan asked.
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02/06/2012
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#1
ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Dawn.com] US CONGRESSIONAL HEARING [on Balochistan = sovereignty from Islamabad?] MAY SPELL TROUBLE FOR PAKISTAN.
Oh, methinks there's more Regional States than just Pakistan, i.e. Pak BFF Iran + China.
PIPELINES + PORTS.
Espec given ...
* SAME, TOPIX > IRAN, PAKISTAN TIES IMROVE CONSIDERABLY.
[Yemen Post] Yemen's Planning and International Minister Mohammad Al-Saadi met on Saturday with a team of the World Bank, the European Commission and the UN Development Programme tasked with considering Yemen's needs in the upcoming stage.
In the meeting, both sides discussed technical details, evolution studies of Yemen's priorities as well as tackling economic consequences resulted by the political crisis Yemen witnessed in the past eleven months.
Meanwhile, ...back at the mall, Clarissa spent the day shopping for new underwear. Tonight was going to be a special occasion... the Kuwaiti Information Minister Hamad Jabir Al-Sabah said that Kuwait would take part in constructing Yemen, pointing out that studies are currently considered to fund development projects in Yemen.
In remarks to the Kuwaiti News Agency, he highly appreciated the Yemeni laborers, saying that they constructively participated in the Kuwaiti development and construction.
Yemen Prime Minister Mohammad Salem Basidiwa has said during his trip to the Gulf Cooperation Council states last month that they would step up assistance to Yemen, pointing out that they expressed their willingness to sustain projects of infrastructure and services in Yemen.
He made clear that Yemen needs billions of dollars in aid, indicating that GCC states would offer financial assistance to Yemen following political turbulences the state.
Yemeni economists have recently demanded the donor states to remit all Yemen's debts that have been borrowed in the reign of the outgoing President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , citing that the donor conference on Yemen to be held in March in Riyadh, would enable the government overcome economic challenges.
Yemen's external debts amounted to more than $5,328,000 billion until the late of last Jane.
According to a report released by the Central Bank of Yemen, Yemen's debts owed to the member states of the Gay Paree Club are about $1,746,000 billion, including $1,181,000 billion to Russia.
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02/06/2012
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[An Nahar] A judge has called for parliament to lift the immunity of an MP with the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, the deputy and a judicial front man said Sunday, at a time of crisis with Iraq's Shiite-led government.
Two other MPs who are opponents of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party.... also face arrest warrants and requests for their immunity to be lifted. Parliament is to vote on the three cases "soon", according to a parliamentary source.
"I received a request on Thursday to have my immunity lifted," MP Haidar al-Mullah, front man for the bloc, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"I am accused of offending the judiciary and saying that the judicial system is politicized," Mullah said. "This is a new attack against Iraqiya and part of the continuous attacks against us."
Iraqiya began a boycott of parliament and the cabinet in December in protest at Maliki's alleged centralization of power. The parliament boycott was ended last week.
It has called for Maliki to either respect a power-sharing deal or quit.
Maliki, a Shiite, has said he wants his Sunni deputy sacked after the latter said he was "worse than Saddam Hussein," while the country's Sunni vice president has been charged with running a death squad and has been hiding out in the autonomous Kurdish region of north Iraq.
Abdul Sattar Birakdar, front man of the Higher Judicial Council, said Mullah was accused of having offended Judge Saad al-Lami in a late November interview.
Lami filed a complaint, after which a court "studied the case and then issued an arrest warrant against him and sent a request to parliament to lift his immunity in order to prosecute him," Birakdar said.
Mullah said Lami was "influenced by Maliki."
Another deputy in the case, independent MP Sabah al-Saadi said it was not the first time that he risked losing his immunity.
"Five months ago, there was a request to lift my immunity. I had been accused of offending the government, but nothing happened, and I do not know if there is a new request," he said.
"We know that the Iraqi judicial system is not completely independent, and I think that offending the government is not a crime, but rather a part of the political process," he said.
Saadi has criticized Maliki, including charging that he was acting like the late dictator Saddam Hussein.
Birakdar said his case was based on a request filed by the premier.
According to local media reports, MP Salim al-Juburi of the Iraqiya bloc also faces having his immunity lifted. He has been charged with terrorism, a charge he denies.
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[An Nahar] Rival Paleostinian factions Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Fatah agreed at a meeting in the Qatari capital on Sunday that presidential and legislative elections must be held "quickly," a top official told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal met to explore the formation of an interim Paleostinian government to oversee the preparations for the polls and discuss the implementation of a reconciliation deal.
"We agreed on the importance of holding the elections quickly ... and removing any obstacles that might delay the polls," said Fatah front man Azzam al-Ahmed, who is accompanying Abbas in Doha.
He said the talks, which are being hosted by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, were "positive" and that both sides reached "agreement on all the major issues" regarding the reconciliation agreement, including the formation of a transitional government made up of independents.
According to a statement released on Qatar's official QNA news agency, the two parties also discussed the stalled peace talks with Israel.
Ahmed said the Hamas and Fatah leaders would resume their talks later on Sunday.
Speaking to AFP earlier this week, Ahmed said Sunday's discussions would also address a planned Cairo meeting bringing together all Paleostinian leaders, which had originally been set for February 2 but was delayed indefinitely.
Ismail Haniya, who heads the Hamas government in Gazoo, was in Qatar earlier this week and is currently in Bahrain on the second leg of a Gulf tour that will also take him to Iran.
Meshaal has decided not to run again this summer for the leadership of Hamas amid signs of strain within the Islamist movement that rules the Gazoo Strip.
Under the terms of a reconciliation deal signed by Hamas and Abbas' secular Fatah movement in April 2011, parliamentary and presidential elections are to be held by May.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... implementation of the deal has been delayed on several occasions despite repeated meetings between the parties involved.
The last Paleostinian elections were held in 2006.
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#1
Fatah, Hamas Agree to Hold Elections 'Quickly'
once
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/06/2012 8:42
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[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another William H. Seward ... vowed Sunday to bolster existing sanctions against the Syrian regime and seek further ones to block funding and arms shipments to Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... Seeking other ways to turn the screws on Assad a day after Russia and China vetoed a resolution on Syria, Clinton said Washington will also work with Syria's friends worldwide to support the peaceful aims of the opposition.
"What happened yesterday at the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... was a travesty," Clinton said during a visit to Bulgaria following her failed talks in Munich with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"Those countries that refused to support the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... plan bear full responsibility for protecting the brutal regime in Damascus," a forceful Clinton told a presser with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
She said the 13 of the 15 Security Council members who backed the resolution sought to start a "process for political engagement that would lead to a transition" to a new democratic Syria.
"We feared that failure to do so would actually increase the chances for a brutal civil war," she said, recalling that Syrians were beginning to arm themselves against the crackdown.
"Faced with a neutered Security Council we have to redouble our efforts outside of the U.N. with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people's right to have a better future," Clinton said.
"We have to increase diplomatic pressure on the Assad regime and work to convince those people around President Assad that he must go and that there has to be a recognition of that and a new start," she said.
"We will work to seek regional and national sanctions against Syria and strengthen the ones we have," she said.
"They will be implemented to the fullest to dry up the sources of funding and the arms shipments that are keeping the regime's war machine going," she said.
"We will work to expose those who are still funding the regime and sending it weapons that are used against defenseless Syrians including women and kiddies," she said.
The veto came hours after the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) reported a "massacre" overnight Friday in the central flashpoint city of Homs.
Activists and residents said more than 230 civilian, including women and kiddies, were killed during an assault by regime forces.
"We will work with the friends of a democratic Syria around the world to support the opposition's peaceful political plans for change," Clinton said without naming them.
They are likely to include Turkey, Arab countries and Western European nations.
On Sunday, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said the bloc would press on with mediation efforts to find a political solution in Syria to avoid foreign intervention in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2012
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#1
So... new Muslim Brotherhood governments in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt aren't enough? We have to make sure that we get one in Syria too, eh?
Posted by: American Delight ||
02/06/2012 7:11
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#2
Dry up?
Heck we should increase arms shipments. Cash on the barrel head.
I hope both sides win big.
Posted by: kelly ||
02/06/2012 19:55
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#3
How does she expect our sanctions to discourage the flow of weapons from Iran to Syria?
Also if Russia and China vetoed the passage of a "strongly worded" resolution in the UN, what leads her to believe that either will honor sanctions?
The Russians may be providing technical advice on how to level your own cities. The Chinese could also provide some know-how on how to lubricate your tank treads with the bodies of your own citizens.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/06/2012 23:41
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[Yemen Post] Yemeni Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi met on Saturday with representatives of the main opposition bloc in the country, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), which were part of the GCC-brokered deal signed in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in November last year.
During the meeting, they reviewed the latest developments in the Yemeni political arena and evaluated what has been implemented in terms of the GCC-crafted power transfer deal for it represents the only viable exit of the current stifling crisis the country is experiencing.
The preparations for the early forthcoming elections, set to be held on February 21, were also touched upon in the meeting in details.
For his part, Hadi, the consensus candidate for the upcoming elections, has stressed the importance of implementing the GCC-brokered deal to the letter, and holding the elections on its scheduled time.
Under enormous pressure from within and out, Yemeni outgoing President, President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... has signed a deal under which he relinquished power to his long time deputy and Vice President, Hadi, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Saleh has left Yemen for USA to receive further medical treatment for wounds and burns inflicted on an liquidation attempt in June last year, and he is most likely, according to political analysts, won't come back.
Massive popular protests calling for an end to the autocratic rule of President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... , combined by al-Qaeda insurgency in the south, Shiite rebellion in the far north and increasing calls of separation of the south, has shaken Yemen to the bone, leaving thousands killed, pushing the economy to the brink of collapse, undermining security and triggering a catastrophic humanitarian disaster.
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[Dawn] An American soldier shot and killed an Afghan guard at a base in the country's north, apparently because the American thought the guard was about to attack him, Afghan police said on Sunday.
There have been a growing number of attacks by Afghan soldiers against international forces in Afghanistan in recent years, some the result of arguments and others by bully boy infiltrators. Last month, an Afghan soldier shot and killed four unarmed French troops last month at a base in eastern Afghanistan.
Friday's shooting in Sari Pul province in northern Afghanistan resulted from an unfortunate misunderstanding, said Sayed Jahangir, the deputy police chief for the province.
Afghans guard the outside perimeter of the base and Americans guard inside. Jahangir said that the Afghan guard _ a man named Abdul Rahim _ wanted to go into the base and started arguing with the American at the door. Rahim did not raise his weapon, but the American thought he was about to do so and fired, Jahangir said.
"Our initial reports show that the American thought he was acting in self defense," Jahangir said. Rahim was a private guard, not an Afghan soldier or policeman, Jahangir said.
US forces were "aware of an incident in northern Afghanistan" and were investigating, said US military front man Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings. He declined to provide further details.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2012
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#1
'Guess the "arguing" Afghans should familiarize themselves with the "why?" behind Robert Heinlein's famous assertion: "An armed society is a polite society."
You want to "argue"? - here, meet my "peacemaker."
Sort of like how door breaching munitions are called "master keys."
[Yemen Post] Shiite Houthi leader, Abdulmalek al-Houthi, in Yemen called on Saturday for establishing a civil state that lives up to the people of Yemen, who took to streets demanding change.
In a speech he delivered in front of tens of thousands of his supporters, who gathered to commemorate the prophetic cradle anniversary in the northern Yemeni province of Saddah, al-Houthi called on political forces to respect the will and choice of Yemeni people.
A panel of qualified Yemeni experts should be formed to draft a new constitution, the Military Committee quickly restructures the army, and Security and Political intelligent Security should be dissolved, he demanded.
His followers have reportedly closed all routes from and to Saddah and forced the residents to use excessive fireworks, leaving at least one killed and two injured, local media reported.
"Such ceremony of this magnitude in Yemen to celebrate the prophetic birth anniversary is the fruit of the revolution, which brought down the head of the regime," al-Houthis said.
Al-Houthis rebels have been for weeks fighting with Sunni tribal alliance in Saddah and Hajjah provinces, leaving scores killed and hundreds others maimed.
The Shiite militias hold complete control over Saddah province since the outbreak of the revolution in February.
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[Yemen Post] Yemeni air Force personnel continued their sit-in protest in front of Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi's house demanding that their commander, Mohammed al-Hmar, who is outgoing President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh's ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... half brother, is removed.
On Sunday, they staged a parade in their sit-in area, in which they reiterated their demand for dismissal of their alleged corrupt boss, al-Hmar, and called on media outlets to shed light on their civil and peaceful protests, warning Hadi and Military Committee of the severe consequence of not meeting their rightful demand quickly.
"Air Force personal set an example for the whole world of how to demand your rights in a civil and peaceful manner, although they can take up arms, "said a high-ranking officer, who requested to remain anonymous.
"We will not call off our strike or lift our camping sit-in until our chief demand is met and we would not settle for anything short of our demand." He added.
Al-Hmar refused to quit, saying he would not get out of al-Dilami air base except dead and that he would fight to the last gasp to keep his job, local media reported.
Saleh' relatives still in control of key military institutions, including Elite Republican Guards, Special Forces, Central Security Forces, Counterterrorism Unit, National Security and Air Force.
Under enormous pressure from within and out, Saleh has signed a deal under which he relinquished power to his long time deputy and Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the consensus candidate for the forthcoming presidential election set to take place on February 21, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
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[Yemen Post] Armed men headed by Abdul-Karim Shaif, deputy governor of Aden, stormed on Sunday the office of the governor of Aden Ahmad Qatabi.
Local sources told Yemen Post that Shaif raided the office, expelled the assistants of the governor, confiscated the official stamps and ordered the Central Bank of Yemen not to deal with the Governor's signature.
This came a day after Shaif and some of the General People Congress officials boycotted a meeting of the security commission chaired by governor on Saturday.
The sources said that Shaif sees Qatabi as not the legal governor, saying that Shaif rejected the return of Qatabi under the pretext that his resignation was accepted by the outgoing President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi last week issued a decree of re-appointing Qatabi as governor of Aden.
Qaatabi resigned from his position and declared joining to the anti-regime revolution in March,15 days after his appointment as a governor of Aden.
He resigned in protest at killing and wounding hundreds of Yemenis by forces loyal to Saleh on March 18.
The sources said Shaif hinted to disturb the presidential elections due to be held on February 21 in Aden.
The alliance of Yemen's opposition parties, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), has cautioned against attempts of officials affiliated to Saleh to disturb the elections.
Yemeni analysts said that some aides of Saleh plan to break down the elections with the aim of halting the GCC-brokered power transfer deal that Saleh was forced to sign in lately November.
Gunmen loyal to Saleh have recently surrounded and attacked some state newspaper and media institutions in protest at commuting their publication policies.
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[An Nahar] Iran on Sunday welcomed the Russian and Chinese veto on a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning its ally Syria for its crackdown on dissent, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"By vetoing the proposed sanctions China and Russia have been just," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said.
"The Security Council has become a tool for the West's bullying ... of other nations, and this time Russia and China stood up against it," the Islamic republic's top diplomat said.
"The Security Council ... wanted to take a path in deciding a head of state, while it is not within the functions of this council to interfere in other nations' internal affairs," he said.
Russia and China on Saturday blocked a Security Council resolution condemning Syria for its crackdown on protests, drawing condemnation from other global powers and the Syrian opposition.
The other 13 countries in the 15-member council voted for the resolution, proposed by European and Arab nations to give strong backing to an Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... plan calling for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... to hand over to his deputy.
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02/06/2012
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#1
OOOOOOOOOOO, you just know Moscow + Beijing will have a glorious fit iff Iran's future overseas Navy, Air Force turns out to be bigger or better than theirs???
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Tension remains high in the Democratic Republic of Congo's city of Goma after rumours of an attempted revolt went public.
A military attempt against local authorities by disgruntled politicians was planned for Sunday, according to Mr Ernest Kyaviro, the front man of the governor of North Kivu province.
Two coppers and two bodyguards were killed in an operation to thwart the mutiny at the home of a member of the outgoing National Assembly.
Mr Bakungu Mitondeke residence was among those searched for firearms.
Police allegedly recovered some automatic machine guns, ammunitions and military uniforms from Mr Mitondeke's residence.
"The Intelligence Services knew that the MP was involved in militia activities and arms concealments," Mr Kyaviro told news hounds on Friday.
According to reliable sources, some high ranking military officers were also involved in the conspiracy.
However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... the identity of the officers alleged to have been involved in the plot has not been made public.
But it was the province governor himself, Mr Julien Paluku, who initiated the police operation to neutralise the threat.
A radio journalist told the Nation that some seized Islamic fascisticlaimed that the cities of Goma and Butembo were to be attacked simultaneously.
Denied knowledge
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... Gen Vainqueur Mayala, the military chief commander of the province, has denied knowledge of any such attempt in the province.
Mr Bakungu has been transferred to Kinshasa where he is expected to appear before a court.
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[Dawn] It continued raining and snowing heavily in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's central and southern districts and adjoining tribal areas, especially Kurram and Khyber agencies, for the second day on Saturday blocking roads in hilly areas of Malakand and Hazara divisions.
The Met Office forecast more rains and snowfall in the next 24 hours.
Also in the day, a boy, Abdur Rehman, died in Batkhela area of Malakand Agency after a mud wall collapsed due to rains where he was standing.
Reports said snow blanketed Swat Valley, Kalam, Behrain, Miandam, Malam Jaba, Marghazar and Shangla Top blocking roads, while chilly weather lowered temperature in Kalam to minus eight degree Celsius.
The army sent heavy machinery to Kalam and Malam Jaba to clear snow from roads.
In Bajaur, heavy showers and snowfall disrupted life and shut down all roads linked with Afghanistan's Kunar province.
Heavy snowfall was also reported in some parts of Mamound, Salarzi and Nawagi tehsils. Some urban parts of the agency also received snow.
Four to five feet snowfall have been recorded so for in the hilly parts of Pak-Afghan border area of Ghakhi pass and Nawa pass by which roads linked to Afghan Kunnnar province from Bajaur has been closed and the road link between Bajaur and Kunar was also suspended.
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[An Nahar] Jordanian Islamists on Sunday called on Moslems and Arabs to boycott Russian and Chinese products after the two countries vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria's regime over bloodshed.
"By vetoing the resolution, Russia and China have shown that they are taking part in the killing of Syrian people," Hammam Saeed, the leader of the powerful Moslem Brüderbund, said on the group's website.
"All Moslems and Arabs should boycott Russian and Chinese products in order to support the Syrian people, who demand freedom and dignity. The vetoes were against all Arabs and Moslems."
Saeed described the crackdown, which rights groups say has killed more than 6,000 people since democracy protests broke out in March last year, as "almost the worst in recent history."
Russia and China on Saturday used their diplomatic muscle for the second time in four months to block a resolution condemning the violence.
The other 13 countries in the 15-member council voted for the resolution, proposed by European and Arab nations to give strong backing to an Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... plan to end the crackdown.
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02/06/2012
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[Dawn] In the last six years, the prosecution in the Nishtar Park blast case has presented for examination only one witness before an anti-terrorism court in one of the major acts of terrorism that claimed the lives of over 50 people, including the top leadership of the Sunni Tehrik. ...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... This inordinate delay in the disposal of the case is a clear violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 as its Section 19 (7) says that the court shall, on taking cognizance of a case, proceed with the trial on a day-to-day basis and shall decide it within seven days, failing which an application may be made to the administrative judge of the high court concerned for appropriate directions for an expeditious disposal of the case.
Three accused said to be associated with the proscribed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... -- Sultan Mahmood alias Saifullah, Mufti Zakir Hussain Siddiqui and Rehmatullah -- have been charged with plotting the kaboom on an Eid Milad-un-Nabi (peas be upon him) congregation at Nishtar Park in April 2006.
Currently, the case is pending before the Anti-Terrorism Court-I, which recorded the evidence of the first prosecution witness, a policeman who carried out legal formalities under Section 174 of the criminal procedure code, around 10 days ago and now the case is fixed for further evidence for Feb 7.
Initially, the case was sent to the ATC-V, 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... for trial, but the home department was tardy in issuing a notification for jail trial and in 2008 the ATC-V was shifted to Badin and the Nishtar Park bombing case was transferred to the ATC-II.
The then judge of the ATC-II, Abdul Ghafoor Memon, had on May 4, 2009 indicted four accused, including Mohammad Amin alias Khalid Shaheen, who denied the charges and opted to contest the case.
The judge had directed the prosecution to produce its witnesses in court. But the prosecution did not examine any witness till August 2009 when accused Amin moved an acquittal application under Section 265-K (power of court to acquit accused at any stage) of the CrPC. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court allowed the plea and acquitted the accused for want of evidence on Aug 19, 2009.
Following the acquittal of Mohammad Amin, the court framed amended charges against the remaining three accused on Sept 1, 2009. The accused again denied the charges and the court summoned the witnesses for the prosecution. But no evidence was recorded till Nov 20, 2009 when the contract of the trial judge expired.
The trial of the present case remained pending before the non-functional ATC-II for over 15 months. Finally, the case was transferred to the ATC-I for trial in March 2011.
Legal experts express grave concerns over an inordinate delay in the disposal of the case and suggest that the court hear the case on a day-to-day basis for its early disposal.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... court sources fear that the trial may take many years to conclude as there are over 100 prosecution witnesses in the case.
Though the government appointed a special public prosecutor for this case, a lack of interest on the part of prosecuting and investigating agencies as well as the complainant party is one of the many reasons behind the delay in the disposal of the case, they add.
According to the prosecution, a massive kaboom took place near the stage when participants in the 12th Rabi-ul-Awwal congregation were offering Maghrib prayers at Nishtar Park on April 11, 2006. Over 50 people, including Sunni Tehrik leaders Abbas Qadri and Iftikhar Bhatti, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal leader Hafiz Taqi and others, were killed while over 100 others maimed in the bombing.
The accused were tossed in the calaboose a couple of months after the terrorist attack and accused Sultan recorded his confessional statement before the court of a judicial magistrate and also implicated his accomplices in the offence.
The prosecution added that the jacket wallah, who was identified as Siddiq, used to live with the accused before the attack and they were also seen near the crime-scene at the time of the blast.
A case (FIR 71/06) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 109 (punishment of abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment), 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistain Penal Code and Sections 3, 4 of the Explosive Substance Act read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Soldier Bazaar cop shoppe on a complaint of Mohammad Altaf Qadri.
[Dawn] A homemade bomb went kaboom! next to a Pak military vehicle in the Alizai area of the northwestern Kurram tribal region, near the Afghanistan border, killing one soldier, security officials said.
Government official, Jamil Khan says beturbanned goons opened fire on the troops after the blast Sunday in the Kurram tribal area. Twelve soldiers were maimed.
Khan said the convoy had been dispatched to provide reinforcements to the Sheendand area of Kurram, where beturbanned goons had set up a hide-out. It is unclear whether any beturbanned goons were maimed or killed in the fighting.
The Pak Taliban have killed thousands of troops and other security officials throughout the country in the past few years.
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[Dawn] Turkey and Qatar urged the West on Sunday not to attack Iran to solve a nuclear row, but to make greater efforts to negotiate an end to the dispute.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, a gathering of security officials and diplomats, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said an attack would be a "disaster" and the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme could be ended very rapidly.
"If there is strong political will and mutual confidence being established, this issue could be resolved in a few days," he said. "The technical disputes are not so big. The problem is mutual confidence and strong political will."
Turkey was the venue of the last talks between Western powers and Iran a year ago which ended in stalemate because participants could not even agree on an agenda.
The West has since imposed much tougher sanctions on Iran, which it suspects of seeking nuclear weapons capability. Iran says its nuclear work is purely civilian and peaceful.
Davutoglu added: "A military option will create a disaster in our region. So before that disaster, everybody must be serious in negotiations. We hope soon both sides will meet again but this time there will be a complete result."
In Tehran, the deputy head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards told the semi-official Fars news agency Iran would attack any country whose territory is used by "enemies" of the Islamic state to launch a military strike against its soil.
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#1
No, Turkey and Qatar. What you are proposing was five years ago. Iran has done nothing since but push nuclear weapons production into high gear, while b.s.'ing simple minded western leaders.
Five years ago, it was 1933, and everyone screwed around, trying to appease the Nazis. Now it is 1938, and too late.
...Who no longer live in the Palestinian Territories.
(Ma'an) -- Israeli policies have arbitrarily denied thousands of Paleostinians the right to live in or travel to and from the West Bank and Gazoo, an international rights group said Sunday.
"Israel's control over the population registry has significantly reduced the registered Paleostinian population in the West Bank and Gazoo, probably by hundreds of thousands of people," the report by Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... said.
Somewhat closer to reality, then. Remember when it was revealed that Palestinian population numbers were off by about a million actual people?
"This reduction has occurred while Israel has simultaneously increased the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, in violation of international humanitarian law on transferring one's population to occupied territory."
There are consequences for not accepting peace offers, and for making the stronger side believe you never will. One day y'all might figure it out.
Israel's 1967 census of Paleostinians in the West Bank and Gazoo census excluded at least 270,000 Paleostinians who were not present in the aftermath of the war in which Israel seized the territories, the group said.
Shocking.
Israel later removed from the registry Paleostinians who traveled abroad for significant periods, including some 130,000 West Bank Paleostinians between 1967 and 1994, the report noted.
Since 2000, Israel stopped processing residency applications by unregistered Paleostinians who live or have family and work ties to the West Bank and Gazoo.
Israel received an estimated 120,000 such applications that it did not process between 2000 and 2005, the report said.
The second Palestinian Intifada lasted from September, 2000 to...officially it ended with the Sharm el Sheikh hudna in February, 2005, but rocket attacks have continued at a slower pace to this day. What motivation have y'all given Israel to let more of you in?
Meanwhile Paleostinians registered in Gazoo were forbidden from traveling to the West Bank or changing their registered address despite living in the West Bank.
Quid pro quo, my dears. One you created.
"Around 35,000 of these 'Gazooks' had entered and resided in the West Bank using temporary permits that have expired," Human Rights Watch said.
Around 12,000 unregistered Paleostinians live in Gazoo, and are forbidden by Egyptian authorities from traveling through its Rafah crossing out of the coastal strip, according to the report.
Have you noticed that Egypt really doesn't like its rabid Palestinian brothers?
Citing a political gesture to the Paleostinian Authority, Israel processed 33,000 registration applications between 2007 and 2009, and allowed around 2,800 Paleostinians registered in Gazoo to change their address to the West Bank.
"Israel should allow Paleostinians to live in their homes with their families, and to travel freely, not treat its control over where Paleostinians can live as a political bargaining chip," Middle East director at Human Rights Watch Sarah Leah Whitson said.
"These steps have not cleared the backlog," the report added, noting that the indiscriminate policy towards registration does not screen individuals for security threats.
"Israel has never put forth any concrete security rationale for blanket policies that have made life a nightmare for Paleostinians whom it considers unlawful residents in their own homes," Whitson said.
"The current policies leave families divided and people trapped on the wrong side of the border in Gazoo and the West Bank. Israel should revise these policies and process requests for families to reunite, so that Paleostinians can live with their families where they want."
#1
it was revealed that Palestinian population numbers were off by about a million actual people?
Let me know when they start acting like actual people. Perhaps I'll care. Have you noticed that Egypt really doesn't like its rabid Palestinian brothers?
It's not just an Aegyptian thing. The Paleos have been kicked out of every country they've been in. Hell, they even kicked some out of Gaza.
[Dawn] Eid Milad Al-Nabi (PTUI!) was celebrated with religious zeal and enthusiasm on Sunday 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... like other parts of the country.
A number of big and small Milad rallies were taken out by various religious organizations including Jammat Ahle-Sunnat, Sunni Tehrik, ...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... Dawat-e-Islami and New Memon Masjid Trust from different areas to celebrate the occasion.
All the processions and rallies converged into a big public meeting at Nishtar Park which was addressed by various Ulema and Mashaikh. The speakers highlighted the various aspects of the life of the Holy Prophet (PTUI!)'>(PTUI!)) and called the followers to follow his teachings and the Sunnah.
Sunni Tehrik took out a rally from Liaquatabad which was participated by people including children in a large number. It was calumniated at Nighter park after passing through different routes.
Naat Night congregation was organized at main Liaquatabad Road on 12 Rabi-ul- Awwal in which noted Naat Khwan recited Naat.
Besides, a large number of Milad programmes and conferences were held acrose the city to mark the sacred day where prominent Learned Elders of Islam delivered speeches on the life and teaching of the Holy Prophet (PTUI!)'>(PTUI!))
Different political and religious organizations set up reception camps along the routes of rallies to facilitate the participants. The KESC had suspended scheduled power outages for two days in order to allow the followers to celebrate Eid-e-Milad.
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Investigators who interviewed the only witness to the assassination of the wife, daughter and driver of 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... provincial assembly member Mir Muhammad Bakhtiar Khan Domki, a young maid employed by the family, feel certain that the killings were carried out to convey a message to Brahmadagh Bugti, the grandson of the slain Nawab Akbar Bugti.
Mr Domki's wife was Brahmadagh Bugti's sister.
The maid had narrated the incident to senior law-enforcement officers before she was handed over to the bereaved family hours after the attack.
During the early hours of Jan 31, at around 1:30 am, assailants killed Jhumar, 32, and her daughter Janna, 13, and their driver at a deserted street close to the Gizri bridge within the
remit of the Clifton cop shoppe.
Apart from the young maid, there is no other witness to the gory killings. The fact that the girl was spared suggests that it was not a random, but very selective assassination, the Sherlocks remarked.
Requesting anonymity they told Dawn that the girl saw three men come out of a car that intercepted their vehicle and first kill the driver. The men separated the maid from the rest and then killed Janna.
Upon this, Janna's mother became hysterical, asking the attackers what they would do next. They replied that they were going to kill her, and proceeded to do just that, the Sherlocks quoting the young maid told Dawn.
The murders were committed with two AK-47 rifles fired at point-blank range. An empty magazine and several dozen spent bullet casings were recovered from the crime-scene by the police.
According to the Sherlocks, it appeared that the attackers were following their target and chose a deserted street for the killing.
Although the make of the car used in the attack is not yet clear, the Sherlocks said that as per the maid's account, it was a small black car.
The use of an assault rifle in such a murder is a question that Sherlocks are still pondering over.
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Josefina Vazquez Mota has won the nationwide internal primary for Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), according to a late Sunday Tweet by PAN president Gustavo Madero Munoz.
The race came down to Maestra Vazquez Mota, former treasury secretary under Felipe Calderon Ernesto Cordero and Chihuahua senator Santigo Creel.
With 89 percent of the vote counted, Vazquez Mota won handily with 237,154 votes or 54.6 percent of the total. Cordero, who was backed by Calderon, came in second with 166,995. Creel came in a distant third with 26,225 votes.
"We already have a candidate," tweeted Madero Sunday night.
Vazquez Mota has been the frontrunner for the PAN nomination since she announced her intention to run for president of the republic last fall. She is a former federal deputy for Nuevo Leon state and has been something of a political fixer for Calderon. She has served in both the Vicente Fox and Calderon administrations. She is an economist by trade.
The PAN vote is strictly internal. The PAN leadership in the form of Madero and internal governing bodies, are expected to confer about the result and decide on the candidate who will register in March.
If Vazquez Mota is selected as the PAN candidate, she will be the first female to run for president in Mexico's history.
Despite her apparent popularity, current polls have her behind the likely frontrunner for Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) candidate Enrique Pena Nieto by almost two to one in the latest poll. Partido Revolucion Democratica, Mexico's leftist mainstream party candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is a close third.
Mexican presidential elections are very difficult to handicap. In 2006, both Calderon and Lope Obrador were second to PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo, but went on to end the race each within less than one percentage point of the other.
The PAN and PRI candidates are weak politicians. While Pena Nieto has experience as governor of Mexico state, he is widely considered a telegenic fool and an empty suit given to gaffes. For example, when asked last fall about the price of a kilogram of tortillas, he guessed incorrectly, then compounded his error by saying his wife, telenovella actress Angelica Rivera does the shopping for the family. Pena Nieto did not know the price of a ride on Mexico City's metro line as well.
The problem is that Vazquez Mota also did not know the answer to either question, nor did Lopoz Obrador.
While Lopez Obrador holds the mantle of a modern Mexican leftist he is nonetheless as much a yuppie as his rivals.
[Dawn] DESPITE the fact that madressah reforms have been on the national agenda for a number of years, it is clear that on the state level these are going nowhere. As reported in this newspaper, the federal interior minister recently told a cabinet meeting he was 'holding talks' with the relevant quarters regarding the establishment of a madressah regulatory authority. Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. claimed it was difficult getting different schools of thought on a single platform in this respect. The minister had initially been tasked in November 2009 with setting up the authority. Over two years have passed but there has been no progress on this front. What is more, a spokesperson for the Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat Madaris, an umbrella body that groups together five different madressah boards, has contested Mr Malik's claims, saying that the state has made no effort to set up the authority.
In this regard, one important argument is that de-radicalisation should not be limited to madressahs, but should be a societal endeavour, considering we have become a highly intolerant society. For example, it is said the curriculum taught in public schools is perhaps more effective in breeding intolerance than what seminaries teach. Also, it is fair to say that a significant number of college and university students in this country share the narrow worldview of their more radical madressah counterparts. It is also wrong to assume all madressahs preach violence. Yet the fact remains that some seminaries are indeed teaching their students beturbanned goon ideologies. Hence it is essential that madressahs be regulated, especially where the curriculum is concerned.
As we have stated before, madressah reform is a subject the interior ministry is incapable of handling. It is an educational matter, not one of law enforcement, hence educationists should be at the forefront of the reform initiative. Since education has been devolved, the respective provincial education departments should be handling madressah reform, with the federal government maintaining a supervisory role to ensure uniformity. Making sure the state knows how many madressahs exist and what they are teaching seems like an entirely achievable endeavour -- if the state has the political will, of course.
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#1
"Reform" is to madrassah as guano is to ice cream.
[An Nahar] The movement against 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... was Sunday preparing new rallies to loosen the Russian strongman's 12-year grip on power after keeping up their challenge with a third mass demonstration in Moscow.
Tens of thousands marched through Moscow Saturday despite bitterly cold weather to protest against Putin's domination, with organizers disputing police claims that a pro-Putin rally elsewhere in the capital was even larger.
Putin is still expected to win March 4 presidential elections where he is seeking a third Kremlin term after his four year stint as premier, but protest organizers emphasized that the polls mark only the start of their challenge.
The march on Bolotnaya Square over the Moscow river from the Kremlin was the third mass rally since fraud-tainted December 4 parliamentary elections sparked demonstrations that smashed the taboo against protests in Putin's Russia.
"We will come again," organizers wrote on their Facebook page Sunday morning under a picture of protestors sending hundreds of balloons into the Moscow winter sky.
One the chief organizers of the anti-Putin movement, politician Vladimir Ryzhkov, said he did not rule out holding a mass rally on February 26, one week before the polls, though most likely it would be a smaller "flash mob" action.
"The big meeting is going to be on March 11 since, as far as I am aware, the extent of the fraud in the presidential elections is going to be huge."
Putin's biggest challenge in the elections is likely to come from Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, who some analysts believe could push him to a second round but is an unpalatable figure for many in the protest movement.
Of the four candidates standing against Putin in the elections, only billionaire tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov attended the protest march and he did not give an address.
Founder of the liberal Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky, who was disqualified from taking part in the elections on procedural grounds, said in a rousing speech at the rally that "life does not end on March 4 or even 5."
"And perhaps our opponents and enemies will soon see and understand -- perhaps -- that everything is only just starting for us and for them it is ending," he said.
"We love our country and we will not give it up to thieves, fascists, Stalinists or other parasites."
Former cabinet minister turned bitter anti-Putin critic Boris Nemtsov hailed the success of the rally but warned three mass meetings were not enough to change the grip on power of Putin's circle.
"We are facing a prolonged, tough struggle with cynical and cruel swindlers and thieves. It is a marathon that we will certainly win," he said.
Anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny, one of the most charismatic of the anti-Putin leaders, vowed on his blog that he would give an address at the next rally.
Police said that 36,000 attended the opposition meeting but Nemtsov and other anti-Putin leaders said over 100,000 had braved frigid winter temperatures of minus 17 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
By contrast, police said that 138,000 people had showed up for a pro-Putin rally in western Moscow, with Moscow deputy mayor Alexander Gorbenko saying the organizers should be fined for exceeding their planned turnout of 15,000.
But the opposition rubbished that turnout estimate and also said numbers were artificially boosted by employees of state companies being offered cash incentives or even being ordered to attend the pro-Putin rally.
In comments Saturday evening, Putin acknowledged that "administrative resources" could have been employed in mobilizing supporters. He offered to personally help pay any fines the organizers might have incurred.
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#1
I'm sure he's shaking in his boots. Especially in this case.
[Dawn] The Sunni Tehrik ...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... (ST), a Barelvi Islamist organization, announced last Sunday that it was converting itself into a political party. To quite a few Paks the ST comes across as being another sectarian outfit triggered by the controversial Islamisation process of the Ziaul Haq dictatorship in the 1980s.
It is true that the ST was a consequence of the legacy of the sectarian mess Zia's divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... policies had created, but it must be emphasised that during the dictator's regime the Sunni sectarian outfits that emerged were almost all ideologically orientated towards either the Deobandi school of thought or the Salafi doctrine. The majority of Pak Moslems belong to the Barelvi school of thought -- an 18th century emergence that fused elements of Sufism with rituals and beliefs of the faith being practised by Moslems of undivided India in the rural areas.
That's why some scholars have also defined Barelvism as a kind of 'folk Islam', that may be riddled with some superstitions but is said to be far more moderate and pluralistic than the faith advocated and interpreted by its Deobandi or Salafi counterparts. According to sociologists like Abdul Qadeer and author Hassan Abbas, it is this perception that made Zia (and his intelligence agencies) concentrate on patronising political and beturbanned goon outfits representing the more puritanical Sunni sects.
It was felt (by the dictatorship) that the Barelvis' theological disposition was not suited to be transformed into the kind of jihadist fervour Zia was funded and directed to ferment (in Afghanistan) by the US and Soddy Arabia in the 1980s. Unlike the majority of Pakistain's Sunni sectarian outfits that emerged during the Zia era, the ST was formed in 1992, four years after the end of the Zia regime.
Its formation was explained as a reaction by Barelvi political-religious organizations to the rising influence of Deobandi and 'Wahabi' outfits that worked closely with the country's military-establishment during the anti-Soviet 'Afghan jihad.' But even though the ST surfaced as the Barelvis' first expression of sectarian militancy, the theological and ritual diversity found within the Barelvi sect has restricted it from turning into the kind of beturbanned goon outfit its Deobandi or Salafi counterparts (such as Sipah Sahaba) have become notorious for.
Analyst Murtaza Haider recently reproduced the doctoral thesis of Syed Ejaz Hussain in Dawn that analysed the religious characteristics of the 2,344 cut-throats set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock between 1990 and 2009 in Pakistain. The sectarian breakdown of the set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lockcut-throats revealed that more than 90 per cent belonged to the Deobandi school, whereas only five per cent were from the Barelvi sect.
It is interesting to note that till the 1990s, whereas religious minded Deobandis had well oiled political parties like the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... (JUI) , and the more urbanised Sunni puritans backed mainstream fundamentalist entities like the Jamat-e-Islami (JI), the majority Barelvi population were hardly ever organised on a cohesive political-religious platform.
The Jamaat Ulema-e-Pakistain was considered to be the prominent Barelvi party, but a majority of Barelvis have (ever since the 1970s) largely been seen to be supporters of 'secular' parties like the PPP (in rural and semi-rural areas of Sindh and southern Punjab) and the MQM (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... ). Political Economist, Boris Rumer, in 'Asia at the end of Transition' suggests that the JUP was strong among religious minded Barelvis in urban Sindh and parts of Punjab, and though it opposed the PPP regime of Z A Bhutto, it did not support the Zia dictatorship, denouncing his Islamisation policies as being pitched against the Barelvis.
With the rising belligerence of Deobandi beturbanned goon organizations during the Zia regime and the state-patronage that these outfits enjoyed during the Afghan war, the JUP disintegrated -- especially when members of its youth wing and some elements of the Barelvi student organization, Anjuman-e-Taleba-e-Islam (ATI), began forming more radical Barelvi outfits.
Many of these outfits came together in 1992 to form the ST. In Bloody Karachi, MQM hard boyz who'd fallen out with the party's leadership (claiming it was too 'secular' and 'pro-Shia'), also began joining the ST.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... in spite of using the Sunni prefix in its name, the ST's programme was geared more towards combating Deobandi and 'Wahabi' beturbanned goon organizations whom it accused of being agents of Arab monarchies, and of being backed by Pakistain's military-establishment. After the tragic 9/11 episode, the ST stood out as the only large religious outfit in Pakistain that openly opposed the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and violent sectarian groups like the Sipah-e-Sahaba.
Drummed up (by the West and Pak liberals) as being the more moderate face of religious radicalism that was openly critical of the violent tactics of jihadi organizations, the ST's comparative charm suddenly collapsed when a Barelvi fanatic rubbed out the former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer in 2011 after accusing him of committing blasphemy. There is evidence to suggest that a number of Deobandi beturbanned goon outfits were funded by puritanical Arab monarchies and had contacts within Pakistain's intelligence agencies.
The ST, on the other hand, has been collecting funds from its followers (especially from Bloody Karachi's trader classes). However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
according to a US report, the ST received $36,000 from the US government for standing up to the Taliban, but further funding was suspended after some members of the ST praised the killing of Taseer. Nevertheless, in spite of the growing militancy and hate crimes surfacing from within the ST, its recently unravelled programme suggests that it plans to continue opposing the Taliban and Deobandi outfits like the Sipah-e-Sahaba/Jamat-ud-Dawa. Little was said in its programme about certain thorny issues (the blasphemy law, the anti-Ahmadi legislation, etc.) whose blatant misuse over the past decades has instigated violence and hate crimes against minorities and liberal Paks. The ST has demanded the release of Governor Taseer's under-trial murderer.
Ironically, such are the issues on which the ST sees itself being on the same page as those it detests.
The Catholic bishop of the Tarahmara, Chihuahua diocese Saturday said the indigenous Tarahumara Indians are resorting to growing drugs to survive, according to Mexican news accounts.
Bishop Rafael Sandoval Sandoval told fellow Catholics at a missionary conference in Puebla state that while no justification exists for growing drugs, the Indians are left with no alternative.
But "no alternative" is a justification. I feel dizzy.
That concern had been noted three weeks ago when Chihuahua state Tarahumara state coordinator, Jesus Velazquez, said the same thing: That some non-subsistence farmers were renting out their land to grow drugs to get by the lack of resources.
But many of the Tarahumara Indians are subsistence farmers, and therefore do not receive a check from the government when crops fail. They simply starve. El Sol de Mexico news daily reported Friday that 80 percent of farming in the Tarahumara Sierras is for consumption, and not for sale.
A news report Friday said that 29 of 33 political entities are experiencing some effect of the drought, while, according to the Mexican leftist weekly Proceso, 1,213 municipalities in 19 states have been affected by the drought, mostly in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas.
Those states are all in the northern and north central regions of Mexico around the Sierras.
Reports are being filed in Mexican press about how the problem is growing. For example in Veracruz, an Organizacion Editorial Mexicano news report said that 800 head of cattle in the last two weeks in Veracruz state have died from dehydration and complications from malnourishment. Temperatures there have been as high as 98 degrees Fahrenheit in the coastal areas of the state.
Milk sales are also down partially because of a perception amongst local consumers that milk being sold is contaminated. Milk prices due to the shortage are much higher, and are a likely culprit in local consumer's reluctance to buy.
Mexican politicians are responding with typically great fanfare. For example, Durango state Governor Jorge Herrera Caldera told Mexican press Saturday that he and his wife help deliver aid to several Durango municipalities affected by the drought including Luz y Esperanza, Morga, Mendez Arceo, Ampliacion Rosas and Luz del Carme.
Governor Herrera Caldera dubbed aid deliveries as Una Gota de Ayuda por Durango or A Drop of Aid to Durango.
The governor also granted titles of houses to 350 families in the region.
The Sierras in Durango are part of what has been dubbed Mexico's Golden Triangle of states where drugs are grown and where some communities are in thrall to drug production. The uneasy nexus between local indigenous farmers and local cartel gangs and their affiliates has erupted over the last two years as drug cartels have imposed penalties on those communities including destruction of whole blocks of homes by arson.
Last week two homes were torched in Mezquital in far southern Durango. And Mezquital has seen drug cartel violence visited on them before, in March 2011; when 10 buildings were torched. To read the Rantburg report on drug cartel governance in the Mexican Sierras, click here and here and follow the links.
Thursday morning Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa and his Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), General Guillermo Galvan Galvan escorted aid deliveries to the Chihuahua Sierras. That visit included President Calderon sporting a military cap while wearing a white short with sleeves rolled up, and photo ops for the press.
Heriberto Felix Guerra, head of Mexico's Secretaria de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL), or Secretary of Social Development told the press Friday that 650 individuals and 140 vehicles -- including helicopters -- from several federal government agencies are "working full time" to oversee aid deliveries to the Sierra Tarahumara region of Mexico.
Feliz Guerra also said his agency will leave the region when he is certain no one is hungry or thirsty.
Partido Revolucion Democratica junior senator Armando Contreras Castillo from Oaxaca state has urged politicians in Mexico City not to politicize the crisis. Armando Contreras Castillo termed the food shortage and drought as a "structural famine."
An APRO -- the wire service for Proceso -- article published Sunday in El Diario de Coahuila news daily tells another side.
According to the article, aid deliveries to date have been very spotty and inefficient. Stories abound in the region of workers selling aid packages for cash. Additionally, Chihuahua state government has slashed its budget for the Tarahumara Sierra region by 24 percent, which is probably a prudent reaction to lower tax revenues due to the drought and crop failures.
The crises brings its own problems other than starvation. A health crisis has begun with an epidemic of hepatitis and scabies among children, mainly due to the shortage of water, among other problems associated with starvation.
Proceso also charges that were it not for the claim by local indigenous peasant leader Ramon Gardea last January that 50 Tarahumara Indians had committed suicide, the government would have never reacted to the crisis as soon as it did.
The charge Gardea uttered in an independent television interview apparently put all three levels of government on notice that a crisis was developing into a calamity.
Proceso also said that farmers and their organizations have been practically screaming for aid since the spring of 2011.
#1
But "no alternative" is a justification. I feel dizzy.
Catholic Liberation Theology - it's a heady brew. I don't think we're supposed to understand. It's like, ineffable and stuff.
#5
I wouldn't go comparing the Tarahumara Indians to the Pashtuns just yet. I'm kinda thinking that if they can't grow corn because of the drought they're gonna have a tough time growing marihuchi as well. I don't see any mention in this article about exactly which kind of drug they are supposedly growing. Opium poppies? Marijuana? Peyote? The peyote buttons come from cactus so they can maybe grow that even in a drought but how much of a market is there for peyote buttons? IIRC you can get pretty sick from ingesting those things if you don't know what you're doing. And, once again, if our government was really serious about securing the border this would not be an issue.
#6
Jesus Velazquez said three weeks ago the main crops were poppies and marijuana.
True both crops need rain and decent temperatures, that is why I s'pect some Tarahumara made a deal with local cartel operatives in exchange for money/food now, in the future their land is available for production.
Some Mexican Inidan tribes already have the right to grow and use some drugs for religious purposes, but dunno of the Tarahumara do.
#9
True both crops need rain and decent temperatures, that is why I s'pect some Tarahumara made a deal with local cartel operatives in exchange for money/food now, in the future their land is available for production.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
China has "banned" all airlines in the country from joining the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) aimed at cutting carbon emissions. The authorities have also barred the airlines from increasing their fares or adding new charges for the scheme.
January 28 -- Over the last few days, four former commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps passed away without the usual condolences to their families from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Moreover, Guard chief Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari and former IRGC chief Major General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, now senior military adviser to Khamenei, did not bother to attend their colleagues' memorials either.
Turkey's deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc criticized Iran on Sunday for the country's silence over Syria's violent crackdown on protests.
Seven people were killed Sunday in a suicide car 
An intoxicated sailor who walked into the wrong apartment in Bremerton, urinated on the floor and then climbed into bed with an 80-year-old woman probably won't face criminal charges, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The Turkey-based Free Syrian Army, which comprises army deserters and armed volunteers, regularly attacks the security forces in a bid to halt their brutal crackdown on dissent which rights groups say has killed more than 6,000 people since mid-March.
Wazoo
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Clashes continued on Saturday evening between the army troops and al-Qaeda 
face defeat at the hands of his party.
Nouri al-Maliki
Hillary Clinton
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[Yemen Post] Armed men headed by Abdul-Karim Shaif, deputy governor of Aden, stormed on Sunday the office of the governor of Aden Ahmad Qatabi.
"By vetoing the proposed sanctions China and Russia have been just," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Tension remains high in the Democratic Republic of Congo's city of Goma after rumours of an attempted revolt went public.
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Three accused said to be associated with the proscribed 
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[Dawn] A homemade bomb 
[Dawn] Turkey and Qatar urged the West on Sunday not to attack Iran to solve a nuclear row, but to make greater efforts to negotiate an end to the dispute.
[Dawn] Eid Milad Al-Nabi (
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