SEOUL, Feb. 12 -- North Korea will start its massive dance and gymnastics extravaganza in April to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the nation's founder and new leader Kim Jong-un's grandfather, a U.S.-based travel agency said Sunday.
According to New Tours Korea, the U.S.-based travel agency that specializes in guided tours to North Korea, the Arirang Mass Game will be held from April 10 to May 1 and from August 1 until Sept. 15.
So get your tickets early! You don't want to be outside when the big show starts...
The performance, named after a famous Korean folk song, has been held almost annually since 2002, when it debuted to celebrate the 90th birthday of Kim Il-sung. It features tens of thousands of young gymnasts performing synchronized acrobatics, dances and flip-card mosaic animations in what is believed to be the largest gymnastics show in the world.
The mass event usually opens in August and this will be the first time in five years it will be held in April. April 15th is the 100th anniversary of the anniversary of the birth of national founder Kim Il-sung.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2012
21:00 ||
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#1
I think there is a problem in Gadsden. I seem to recall another jihadi incident there in the last year or two.
Gadsden is right next door to Anniston, AL, home of former Fort McClellan, that had both the Military Police and Chemical Corps headquarters, as well as being a basic training post.
Its Chemical Corps HQ hosted a lot of foreign officers taking courses in chemical weapons defense, many of whom were from Muslim countries.
Back in the 1980s, a quiet agreement was reached with Saudi Arabia to buy a home in Anniston for use by these Muslim officers as a mosque and meeting area. Scheduling was hard because of the different cultures and rituals.
Though Ft. McClellan is closed, there are now Muslim centers in both Anniston and Gadsden. I suspect at least one of them has been radicalized.
#2
I designed the base Wine and Liquor store at Fort Mclellen back in 1983. Did a lot of work on the hospital, too. Anniston is where the M1 tanks are refurbished. Gadsden is not a very big city.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/12/2012 13:40
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That's Anniston Army Depot, still in operation, but separate from Fort McClellan.
New migrants should get taxpayer subsidies to visit overseas relatives, an Islamic group has told the Federal Government. Can it be one way?
The Islamic Women's Welfare Association also says Muslims prefer to live close to their own people and Australia should consider how to "facilitate the purchase of homes for new migrants". I'd love to see a western goverment announce that it was going to apply the same rules on immigrants that their country of origin does. We're not any better than them, right? What better way to show it?
In a submission to a federal multicultural inquiry, the association has urged the Government to give tax deductions to newly arrived migrants so they can visit relatives in their homelands. More idiocy at the link, I snipped it because I'm not sure how news.com.au likes cites handled and, well, it's pretty much your standard idiocy we've all come to love.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
02/12/2012
19:04 ||
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Story Link. Apparently I did it wrong above, sorry.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
02/12/2012 19:14
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...Our children do not read; they only surf. They do not write; they only text. They do not plan and strategize in games; they react to visual and aural stimuli while inflicting simulated mayhem. They do not follow a plot: they cut among disjoined images in the style of rap videos. And when they fail to concentrate, we give them Adderall and Ritalin.
#1
Spengler has some good points, but he paints with too broad a brush & ignores key aspects of American culture. Learning how to learn is the point of education. That's an ideal, but very seldom happens. Many people have acquired habits that prevent them from learning specific things, key point would be to change those habits. Some possess erroneous information which also prevents them from learning - they need to be informed. The point of US primary & secondary education is to keep the teachers & administrators employed, ultimately to be pensioned off, and to keep most children off the streets & out of trouble. The usual recommendation to improve basic education is to spend more money. Waldorf schools require parents to promise to forbid television to their children in any form through elementary school. That would be a help if there happened to be an alternative to TV everywhere, but in the vast majority of homes, that's no longer true.
#3
I grew up without a television, Anguper Hupomosing9418, in exactly the kind of enriched environment the developmental psychologists recommend. While I found it wonderful, as a result I am not really connected to the popular culture of my age mates, and my outlook is bit eccentric.
So Mr. Wife and I made a point of watching some television with the trailing daughters, even getting recordings of popular children's shows for the tds when we lived abroad, in addition to the enriching. They have definite opinions now about popular culture, but it is enough part of them that they never feel foreign, though they feel at home wherever in the world they might find themselves.
#3
Unfortunately for both PRO-, ANTI-AGW/GWCC ARGUMENTS, THE CURRENT + [near]FUTURE OWG-NWO CONSENSUS IS THAT THERE IS NO CONSENSUS.
Just in my Lifetime, the SIRIUS + QUEBEC EVENTS were real, the SOLAR FLARES visibly seen by Me are real, + 1960's = 1980's-Pres MADONNA is real - THE PERTS PROFESSIONAL DUTY/UTILITY IS TO ANALYZE USING RELIABLE COMPLEX OR SCIENTIFIC METHODS + CLEAR UP THE FOG, N-O-T TO LEAVE THE FOG IN PLACE.
Iff this were the pre-WW2 USSR, STALIN could, + did, have many Perts shot or gulagged or both for dereliction of duty.
#4
ION RENSE > LOS ALAMOS PLANS TO NUKE INCOMING ASTEROIDS | [DailyMail.UK]PLAN TO AVERT A REAL ARMAGEDDON:SCIENTISTS SAY NUCLEAR BOMB CAN SAVE EARTH FROM [small] ASTEROID COLLISIONS [ + DON'T WORRY, THERE WON'T BE A NEED TO SEND BRUCE WILLIS INTO ORBIT].
Nice, but-t-t as affected by ...
> The ongoing Govts, Perts Global Consensus that there is no Govts, Perts, Global Consensus = Unity, Leadership, etc. [e.g. as per AGW].
> IIRC, NO MISSLE OR NUKE, ETC. SEEN TO STOP "KAMALEN" VEE GUAM-WESTPAC, NOW OR IN FUTURE. The Rock can be delayed iff God's Madonna Fans requests it + God approves, but may not be stopped.
> Lest we fergit, COMET APOPHIS + GUAM, EARTH-VISBLE MOON EXPLOSIONS = Year 2030.
> 1990's SHOEMAKER-LEVY NINE COMET BREAKUP > JUPITER 'EARTH-SIZED" OR BIGGER MASS IMPACTS =
NASA-JPL, etc. still hasn't answered the question iff the breakup + impact blew large chunks of Jupiter into space, potentially in the direction of Terra Forma/Gaiea = aka Earth???
> Ditto VATICAN'S "THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA" > "RIDERLESS WINGED HORSE" = RUNAWAY/
UNCONTROLLED PLANET(S) due to Orbit destabilization due to the Sun.
Besides "PEAK OIL/FOOD/RESOURCES/EVERYTHING", these are the Maha-Rushian Questionnes that out desired future OWG-NWO that no American = Amerikan has yet voted for nor been asked to MUST ASK + ANSWER.
OWG-NWO = you know, desired future SPACE GOVT-ORDER, including but not limited to SUCCESSFUL SPACE COLONIZATION + EFFECTIVE SPACE-PLANET DEFENSE???
D *** NG IT, MUST, MUST - spelled M-U-S-S - MUST! ASK + ANSWER!
According to family members, by the end of his life Osama bin Laden was telling his family to Go to Europe and America and get a good education. I guess that explains why we finally realized we knew where he was and went and killed him.
Or maybe why the Paks let us.
But what about the obligation to take up the cause of jihad and violence and crush the evil doers in the West?
Never mind about all that, Osama supposedly told his children and grandchildren. Do not follow me down the road to jihad, he said. You have to study and live in peace and dont do what I am doing or what I have done.
His kids should have no trouble following his advice to study in America, by the way. Just think of the essays they will be able to write on their college applications. Some pieces self-snark.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/12/2012 16:45
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I'm not surprised. Bin Laden hoped he was the Hand of God, and speculated (while speaking in the tones of someone certain of this - what John Keegan call the Mask of Command) that Uncle Sam was the Great Satan and God would help him strike down the Great Satan. When no help from God materialized and men who had believed in bin Laden died in the tens of thousands, he realized that he had been wrong and wrong in a big way. If he did indeed say these words to his children, I'm guessing that his foundational beliefs including his belief in his mission, and perhaps in Islam, had been shaken to the core.
#5
Hope he's enjoying his time in Hell anyway, ZF.
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/12/2012 18:53
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What sayeth AYMAN + MULLAH OMAR, etal. to this???
And even iff presum that this Artic is true, why OBL to have + raise a Son to be the "CROWN PRINCE OF TERROR", i.e. as his Successor to AQ Chieftaincy.
Also, where one Sonny-boy is, IMO Osama prob had several others to follow + support in Jihad.
Many diplomats--up to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--have cited Turkey's cooperation on Syria as evidence of the strong Turkish-American partnership. What the Turkish government often says--and what Turkish officials do, however, are often very different things.
That's been true for a few centuries. They learned it from their ancestors on the steppes, and they had plenty of reinforcement in their experiences with the Byzantine Empire. Few people do wheels-within-wheels better than the Turks.
Word has come from Turkey that a Turkish intelligence agent was instrumental in returning to Syria--by force--Hussein Harmush, a Syrian colonel who fled to Turkey after refusing to fire on Syrian civilians and became the first high-level Syrian officer to declare publicly his opposition to the Assad regime. The Turkish agent removed Harmush from the refugee camp and handed him over to Syrian officials. Harmush was subsequently executed by the Syrian regime.
The Turkish intelligence official is being probed by the Turkish government but, as in Iran, Turkey has often dismissed actions as rogue in order to maintain plausible deniability for its actions. The fact remains that Prime Minister Erdoğan once embraced Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad as a close friend, and instructed his subordinates to treat the Syrian regime likewise.
Alas, while the Obama administration continues to embrace Turkey for its promises, it continues to turn a blind eye toward Turkey's double game or the fact that its positions are based more on opportunism than on any shared vision.
#1
If this is true, that's a good thing. I never quite figured out how it was in Turkey's (or anybody else's) interests for the Arab world to consist of one solid Sunni Arab Islamist block. It would also mean that Erdogan is less radical than he appears, and his Islamist rhetoric is merely that - a sermon for the troglodyte Muslim masses rather than an action plan.
#2
"The Turkish intelligence official is being probed by the Turkish government"
After what he did, hope it's painful.
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/12/2012 18:36
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I have to suspect that Turkey isn't nearly as clever as they think they are. Look at how the whole Gaza Flotilla thingie turned out, for instance, and the fall-out therefrom.
NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... said on Friday that it is still considering an Israeli request to contribute missile ships to a naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea, despite opposition by Turkey.
NATO's announcement came in response to an exclusive Jerusalem Post report that Turkish opposition had torpedoed an Israeli plan to contribute a missile ship to Active Endeavor, an operation launched after 9/11 to patrol the Mediterranean and share information concerning terrorism and suspicious ships.
The Post revealed that Turkey decided to oppose Israel's participation in the operation following the Israel Navy raid on a Gazoo-bound flotilla in 2010 during which nine Turkish nationals were killed.
According to Today's Zaman, NATO said that Israel's offer was still being evaluated. The paper also quoted a Turkish Foreign Ministry official who confirmed that Turkey had succeeded in preventing Israel from participating in the mission.
#1
A number of Israeli Netters/Bloggers are hoping that, iff approved, this small step will lead to Israel formally joining NATO-EU one day, preferably ASAP.
#2
NATO, unlikely, JosephM, and never on the EU. They have too much invested in hating the Jewish Entity for surviving -- just look at how they have refused to accept Israel into their working groups at the UN, after the Middle East and Africa groups refused to accept her. There are an awful lot of hopeful people in Israel, although. It's of them have given up hoping that the Palestinians will be ready for peace within the next two generations.
Islamist militants in southern Yemen executed early on Sunday three men they accused of giving the United States information used to carry out drone strikes in the area, a spokesman for the group said in a text message. Residents of the towns of Jaar and Azzan said two Saudis and one Yemeni were beheaded at dawn by militant group Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law).
Sorry guys, you executed the wrong three. It's three other guys, all deeply buried in your organization. You'd better do a mole hunt. Trust no one, especially your cousins...
Weakened by months of protests against outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's government has lost control of whole chunks of the country, giving Islamist militants room to tighten their grip in the south, notably in Abyan province.
The United States, a prime target of al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, which tried to blow up an airliner over Detroit in 2009, has been launching drone strikes against militants in the south. Last month, at least 12 people were killed in one such attack.
Security forces intercept weapons cache in northern Sinai believed to be slated for smuggling into Strip.
Egyptian security forces seized a weapons cache in the Sinai Peninsula that was suspected of being prepared for smuggling into the Gazoo Strip, Paleostinian news agency Ma'an quoted officials as saying on Saturday.
A number of anti-aircraft missiles and several tons of TNT were among the weapons seized in the operation in northern Sinai, according to the report.
The Jerusalem Post reported in December that Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, had established forward bases and rocket production facilities in Sinai in an effort to protect them from Israeli air strikes.
Israel has called on Cairo to increase its efforts to restore order in Sinai and to prevent attacks, but the Egyptian military has held back from dismantling the Hamas infrastructure in the Peninsula.
More than a dozen Egyptian army battalions allowed into Sinai with Israel's permission (required because of limits placed on Egyptian forces there under the Camp David peace treaty) are still operating there, although with limited success in stopping terrorist activity and arms smuggling to the Gazoo Strip.
Recent arms smuggled into Gazoo have included advanced weaponry stolen from Libyan military storehouses such as Russian- made shoulder-to-air missiles.
Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned Palestinian movement Hamas against any compromise in its fight against Tehrans nemesis Israel, his official website reported.
Always be wary of infiltration by compromisers in a resistance organisation, which will gradually weaken it, Khamenei told the visiting Hamas Gaza prime minister Ismail Haniya, according to the leader.ir website.
We have no doubt about your resistance and that of many of your brothers, and the people only have this expectation of you, said Khamenei, reaffirming that Iran will always be alongside the Palestinian resistance.
Khameneis comments come as divisions within Hamas have emerged on a possible overhaul of the organisations strategy. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal signed an agreement with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas earlier this month placing Abbas at the head of an interim government charged with organising elections later this year.
The agreement struck by Meshaals foreign-based leadership with Abbas Fatah faction has run into serious opposition from Hamas members inside the Gaza Strip, which the movement has controlled since ousting the presidents loyalists in 2007.
* OTOH TOPIX > ARAB LEAGUE WANTS UN FORCE IN SYRIA.
Once again, an underlying premise of so-called "Islamic Union" was ARAB-MUSLIM SPECIFIC NON-RELIANCE OR NON-DEPENDENCY ON THE NON-MUSLIM JUDEOCHRISTIAN US-NATO/WEST, ESPEC AS PER UN-APPROVED "POLICE ACTIONS/PEACEKEEPING" INVOL MUSLIM STATES.
Syria now appears to be another in the long line of post-Mubarak = "Arab Spring", "dropped balls" by the AL.
Iff I'm wrong as per AL = Arab-Muslim "unilateralism", I do not see it in the MSM-Net.
London Times claims Mossad agent in Azerbaijan confirmed existence of intelligence agency's base near Iran; says Baku is 'ground zero for intelligence work'
#1
Because he was told to. I doubt MOSSAD would have any tolerance for bad CIA agent-type antics like blabbing to the press.
Remember what happened to Mordechai Vanunu (nuclear engineer who talked about the Israeli nuclear weapons program).
So the reason for doing this could be any of a number of things, such as anger at Azerbaijan, or calling al-Quds to come play, or counter-threatening Iran with non-linear attacks, or plans 'D' through 'ZZ'.
It's going to get worse as there are fewer goodies to spread around, given the worsening economy plus America's reduced need to pay jizya to transport supplies to troops no longer in Afghanistan...
Saraiki identity is stretching the imagination of political actors and may become an issue that could determine the results of the next elections, certainly in Punjab. A large number of people (about 70 percent of the population) living in areas stretching from the border of Central and South Punjab to the border of Sindh and South Punjab expect a new entity to be created called Saraikistan or perhaps South Punjab. Some may ask what lies in a name as long as power is transferred from the Central Punjabi stronghold in Lahore to some other place closer to 'home'. Indeed, this is an argument that was made by the Saraiki politician Sherbaz Mazari and is currently being made by politicians like Yusuf Raza Gillani. From the ruling PPP's perspective, bankrolling the Saraiki movement is a plan B to secure at least part of Punjab if the larger province cannot be secured and lured away from PML-N. Such a plan needn't annoy the Punjabis or Mohajirs settled in South Punjab who may otherwise feel insecure at the idea of a new province in the South. So, the powerful establishment launched clients like the former information minister Mehmood Durrani to raise the issue of the restoration of Bahawalpur province to checkmate the Saraiki province movement. Pakistain's establishment, dominated by the military and civil bureaucracy, is traditionally uncomfortable with the multiple identity discourse.
...It's also due to this emotional insecurity that it has become almost impossible to re-draw internal political boundaries. The formation of a Saraiki province is quite difficult also because it would include not just a major chunk of Punjab but bits of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... as well, particularly the district DI Khan. And that may not be welcomed by the KPK politicians. But there is also the question of whether the Saraiki political class is ready to take the identity issue to a higher level of contestation. Despite the rising echo of the demand for a Saraiki province, the project is nowhere close to completion. One of the reasons for this is the dominance of the Punjabi and Mohajir in the politics of Saraiki areas.
These nuggets are culled from the Urdu press. They are summarised here without comment. Absurd or ridiculous, tft takes no responsibility for them
Sudan goes crazy over nikah?
Reported in Mashriq a Sudanese scholar had rashly announced that a Moslem woman could become a witness in the solemnisation of nikah in her own right. He also decreed that women could take part in funeral prayers or janaza. He also added that women lining up behind a ma holy man during namaz was also a mere custom and not according to Islam. Truly Islamic Pakistain does none of these things.
Wajid Shamsul Hasan a burden on exchequer
Daily Mashriq reported that Pakistain's High Commissioner in London who is a PPP appointee, Wajid Shamsul Hasan had become a terrible burden on the national exchequer of a poverty-stricken Pakistain as he was living in a luxurious rented residence for which 25 lakh pounds were being paid. He was also constantly ill for which the charges were being defrayed by Pakistain.
Bashir Riaz on secret agencies
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir commented that Bashir Riaz had revealed facts about Pak agencies who stalk politicians all over the world but are found sleeping when the Americans violating our air space come in helicopters to invade Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... Prime Minister breaks loose?
Writing in Jang Saleem Safi stated that Prime Minister Gilani did not consult with President Zardari before dismissing the Defence Secretary, General Lodhi from his job. This was apparent because the president was himself shocked that the PM did this, which also proved that he was merely acting when meeting with the Army chief together with the president. It was learned that wrong kind of people had joined the PM's camp and were advising him to take on the Army.
Freebies in the Cricket Board
Daily Jinnah reported that a number of people were doing nothing at the Cricket Board of Pakistain but drawing big salaries. Among those who were drawing several lakh rupees per month were: Shafqat Rana, Waseem Bari, Abdul Qadir and Javed Miandad.
Rename the bloody thing the Locust Board and be done.
Benazir and her spying servants
Hamid Mir revealed in Jang that According to Bashir Riaz while Benazir was living in Dubai she was so suspicious of local servants that she imported specially loyal ones from Larkana but soon enough they were taking money in their special accounts and passing on all information to the agencies. They were found to be receiving up to 10,000 dirhams for this snooping.
'Supreme Court wrong on NRO'
Daily Mashriq reported lawyer leader Asma Jahangir as saying that she did not like the NRO but was convinced that the Supreme Court's view of the NRO was wrong. She said the Court should not have moved against lawyer Babar Awan but let the Bar Association take action against him. Now the Court was scared after suspending his licence.
A 'doctor' TV anchor traps Benazir
Further revealing facts in Jang Hamid Mir stated that Bashir Riaz memoir talked of a Dr Something TV anchor who arrived in Dubai and tried to show Benazir sitting at a table while a wine bottle sat next to her. Benazir was not aware what the Doctor Anchor was up to till a dancing girl also swung into view, after which she angrily walked out of the interview which the anchor was relaying to his spy masters on cell phone. She told him she knew who he was and for whom he was working. Later Zardari gave a lucrative job to the Doctor Anchor at PTV after the death of Benazir.
PPP tells PMLN elections in October
Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt PP government had told PMLN leader Ch Nisar Ali Khan that it was ready to hold elections in Sept-Oct 2012 which meant that Senate election will proceed in early March and the budget for 2012-13 would be presented by the PPP government before elections.
Musharraf acts like a dictator!
Right hand man of Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... , Fawwad Chaudhry told Nawa-e-Waqt that his leader Pervez Musharraf while abroad was acting like a dictator within his party All Pakistain Moslem League and therefore he was thinking of quitting it. He said Musharraf's close adviser Dr Mujtaba was involved in sectarian conflict and was making Musharraf ignore other party members. Daily Express reported that Ch Fawwad might join Tehrik Insaf.
The sacred ring of the Prophet PBUH
Famous columnist Haroon Rasheed wrote in Jang that the ring (khatam) of the Holy Prophet PTUI!)'>(PTUI!) was a kind of stamp which was lost after his demise because it fell into a well during the rule of Hazrat Usman the Pious Caliph. Despite much effort at filtering water and sand, it could not be found.
Benazir prayed for Zardari
According to Jang in Hamid Mir column Benazir was in the habit of ringing Zardari and praying over the phone and then breathing the prayer into the phone to bless Zardari and save him from all adverse happenings. This showed how loyal she was to him and appreciated him as her companion.
It could possibly be that she was religious. I'm not sure how high a probability to assign it, though.
Pakistan falls in 'democracy index'
Daily Jang reported that Pakistain had fallen from 114th position to 115th in the world democracy rating while India had climbed from 40th to 39th position. This was published by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Goodbye, Nawaz Sharif and Zardari!
Writing in Jang Haroon Rasheed stated that the truth was that Pakistain Army was the target of America and that generals Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... and Pasha were in the firing line of Washington but no one was sincere in standing with them. 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... was not honest in his claims and had been disloyal to the nation. Now three people have to leave (rukhsat): Gilani, Zardari and Nawaz Sharif.
Imran needs six months more of PPP
Daily Express reported Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... as saying if the PPP government stayed in power for another six months it would be good for his party. He said if the elections were held before September his party can face problems. He needed more time to consolidate his position while his relations were good (maaqul) with the Army and the game of the PPP government was up (khail khatam).
Commission advises disciplining of ISI
Columnist Dr Tauseef Ahmad Khan wrote in Express that the Saleem Shahzad Commission had examined the evidence brought before it and had opined that Saleem Shahzad may have been the victim of his relations with the terrorist including Ilyas Kashmiri. The Commission had taken note of the evidence against the ISI and had recommended that it be made better answerable and brought under better discipline.
Saudi pupils convert American teacher
Jihadi publication al Qalam reported that in Soddy Arabia a class of Moslem pupils learning from an American teacher had persuaded him to change his religion to Islam. He found the pupils so sincere in their presentation of Islam that he quit Christianity and embraced Islam.
But will he remain Muslim once he returns home?
Bashir Riaz a PPP loyalist
Columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang that Bashir Riaz was such a loyalist of the PPP that Benazir in her last testament asked Zardari to look after the man who was her front man since 1987 and was the organiser of the event of her wedding with Zardari. After her death however he was looked after by Zardari but he chose to return to his home in Lahore and write his memoirs of the Benazir legacy.
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#1
was a kind of stamp which was lost after his demise because it fell into a well during the rule of Hazrat Usman the Pious Caliph. Despite much effort at filtering water and sand, it could not be found.
Probably under the protection of the 12th Imam.
Those Cracker Jack® rings never did last long, though. Too bad, it could have been worth something.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/12/2012 12:36
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#1
Interesting, at least to this old fart, that in all the comments there is no mention of the how and who got us allied with Egypt. It's like the cold war and Soviet pressure (aka Nasser) and the Israeli situation never existed.
#2
Wikileaks in Open Source media showed that cables from the US Embassy a year before the Arab-ding, reveled the US Embassy believed that the Salalfists held the strongest opposition to Mubarak, so is the US really surprised?....please, not a US-cent to Islamic Republicans, OK?
Posted by: jack salami ||
02/12/2012 9:54
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#3
if we want to defund Egypt, the media needs to begin calling the MB and Salafists 'right wing' or 'ultraconservative'
then get some posts on insurgent lefty websites saying 'why are we funding right wingers'
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/12/2012 10:25
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#1
The pro-illegal immigrant crowd are once again having shrieking hysteria about this.
A good indicator of the philosophy involved is seen by the state senate creators of the bill, the "Senate Border Security, Federalism and States Sovereignty Committee" (insert rebel yell here).
#5
Texas has a State Guard, including 2 air wings and a maritime regiment. They current have a number of active operations per their web site, among them "Operation Border Star".
#8
D *** NG IT, ONLY THE FEDERAL GOVT. = WASHINGTON DC CAN SOLVE THESE COMPLEX IMMIGRATION ISSUES, which of course SSSSSHHHHHHHHHH ....CCCCCCCCCC we actually don't want to be solved.
In a recent radio interview, newly elected former army general and now Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said that in an unnamed future meeting of Central American leaders, his proposal will include the decriminalization and regulation of the transportation of drugs through the region.
He said he will bring the subject up with Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes when Funes visits Monday.
The War on Drugs has become increasingly violent in Guatemala, as the Zetas and the Sinaloa drug cartels are running and processing drugs in Guatemala and may be competing for territory, especially in the province of Peten near the border with Mexico. The World Economic Forum will take place in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in mid-April, so it is likely that, or a preliminary meeting by regional leaders he is talking about.
Malaysian authorities have deported a Saudi newspaper columnist accused of insulting Mohammed in a tweet. Police have confirmed that Hamza Kashgari was sent back to Saudi Arabia on Sunday despite protests from human rights groups. Kashgari's controversial tweet last week caused more than 30,000 responses and several death threats.
Kashgari, 23, fled Saudi Arabia last week and was detained upon his arrival in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. He had tweeted of doubts about Mohammed on the prophet's birthday last week. Saudi clerics condemned his remarks as blasphemous. Kashgari apologized and deleted the tweet, but when the threats continued, he left for Malaysia.
Mr Kashgari's lawyer had obtained an injunction on Sunday to permit him to stay in Malaysia until his case was heard, but it was too late.
Malaysia's home ministry made a statement saying, "The nature of the charges against the individual in this case are a matter for the Saudi Arabian authorities."
Amnesty International has warned that Kashgari could be executed if he is found guilty of apostasy. Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty's Middle East division said, "If the Malaysian authorities hand over Hamza Kashgari to Saudi Arabia, they could end up complicit in any violations he suffers."
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2012 12:37
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#2
He will be tried, found guilty and executed by the Saudis. The criminality of the Wahabbi Islam. The day is coming where destroying it (and the house of Saud) will need to be done.
#3
The day is coming where destroying it (and the house of Saud) will need to be done.
It has needed destroying for a long time. The final recognition and acceptance of that fact is what is coming. Soon I hope.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
02/12/2012 17:22
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#4
He will be tried, found guilty and executed by the Saudis. The criminality of the Wahabbi Islam. The day is coming where destroying it (and the house of Saud) will need to be done.
The Sauds are actually the moderates in the country named after them. The population of the country they rule is the real problem, and nothing short of a Muhammad-in-reverse type of coercive effort (i.e. renounce or die), coupled with the execution of all Islamic holy men will resolve that. Note that the Mongols (no stranger to atrocity and the massacre of entire cities) who conquered parts of the Middle East had to convert to Islam in order to have a quiet life.
#1
90 Tons is allot of weight. I wonder how much they are willing to invest in this adventure. This airfield must be long enough and built well enough to support this activity. I don't know myself. There is allot of interest in Africa these days.
#1
A legal strategy pioneered by His Excellency Mayor Bloomberg. This action does say that Indians are incapable of self control and adult responsibility and the whole effort smack of paternalistic nannyism for the poor creatures that simply mimics 18th and 19th Century attitudes of the 'white mans culture'.
#2
The stores sold nearly 5 million cans of beer in 2010. Only about 10 people live in the town. How many people live on the reservation?
tribe members have suffered from high poverty and alcoholism rates. The nanny reservation? Seems to work about as well as inner-city projects where drugs usage and crime are high. Ah, the compassionate liberal solution for nearly everything--keeping people on one plantation or another.
#4
The reservation system is terrible. It's a mess. It keeps people down. That was the original intent, of course.
There is no need for it anymore. Abolish it and have the feds compensate native Americans properly for the value of the land, etc. Heck, if we are to throw money around for a 'stimulus', this is a situation where the money really would help. The native Americans then can live wherever they want.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2012 11:02
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#5
As for keeping the reservations, as long as States look hungrily at them for assets and sources of revenue to support their spending habits, it's best to treat them like national parks or reserves to keep the despoiling claim jumpers off.
#6
Question. Does the reservation allow folks to drive on and buy beer and avoid taxation or anything (like a PX). If so that might explain the high sales numbers vs low population on the reservation.
#7
The largest liquor store in the world is just across the state and reservation border in Nebraska from the reservation. South Dakota and the Sioux have trouble regulating that. I remember Russell Means brother explaining the problem in detail to a bunch of us in late 70s when asking us not to drink at some events co-sponsored by the Sioux.
Fetal alcohol syndrome is endemic on the reservation. The very best thing that could happen to the Indians would be to disband the Bureau of Indian Affairs and let the tribes live their own lives as citizens. BIA is too intrusive and controlling.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/12/2012 12:24
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#8
In the new FEMA region nation to come, the great White Black Father will provide Agency Store coupons.
#10
Have worked with schools on Indian reservations. In the norther Arizona Apache reservation schools, saw 1st graders, in school, drunk.
The return rate of young adults back to the reservation, after entering the "real world," remains high. They come back to the reservation because they can't handle the "real world." Too different for them.
#11
Mexican press last month quoted a local Catholic mission in western Chihuahua who said that Tarahumara Indians suffered an alcoholism rate of 67 percent.
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/12/2012 18:30
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Native Americans are free to live wherever they want in the USA - that was not always the case. At times in the 19th century they needed permission from a federal official to leave a reservation.
The following, from the Aberdeen News, is necessary to begin to grasp the Sioux situation: Land was never for sale
The dispute is more than 130 years old.
In an 1868 treaty, the U.S. government agreed that a huge area west of the Missouri River would be set aside for use by the Sioux. After gold was discovered in the Black Hills, miners and other fortune-seekers flocked to western South Dakota. That led to military battles that culminated in George Custers defeat at the Little Big Horn in 1876.
When the Sioux refused to ratify a new treaty giving up the Black Hills, Congress passed a law taking the land in 1877.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1980 upheld a lower court ruling that awarded eight Sioux tribes $106 million in compensation, the 1877 value of $17.5 million plus interest. The nations highest court said the government had to pay for taking the tribal property, and Piersol said that award has now grown to $650 million or more.
All the Sioux tribes have refused to take the money, with tribal officials and others saying the Black Hills are not for sale.
Individual remedy
The lawsuit by the individual tribal members also sought distribution of a smaller amount of money awarded for land taken in the 1868 treaty. Filed two years ago, the lawsuit argued that because the court system cannot return the land to the Sioux, the only remedy is to distribute money to individuals.
Piersol said federal law provides that no money from the Black Hills case can be distributed until Congress appropriates funds and federal officials agree with the tribes on a distribution plan. Congress has not provided money and all eight tribes have passed resolutions opposing distribution of the money.
The return of any land is up to Congress, the judge said.
The fact remains that resolution by the courts is at an end. If there is to be any result other than the current stalemate, then it must come from tribal government and the Congress of the United States, Piersol wrote.
The eight tribes listed in the lawsuit were the Crow Creek Sioux, Cheyenne River Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Lower Brule Sioux, Rosebud Sioux, Oglala Sioux, Fort Peck Sioux and Santee Sioux.
That land was stolen from the Sioux in violation of an existing treaty, and the USSC partially ratified compensation for this theft, which nowadays is a piddling $600 million, a small fraction of what that land is worth and in comparison to what has been extracted from it. They want their land back. They don't want the money, and money would not help them. They ain't gonna get the land.
#17
I've worked near reservations for Navajo, various Pueblo peoples, Yankton Sioux & even at Pine Ridge. The personality types common among the Pine Ridge people were so different from those of the other tribes I knew, they have to stem from the old culture. Pine Ridge people were to Navajos the way, say, the Irish were to the Germans. One PHS doctor insulted someone at the Pine Ridge IHS hospital & received a nighttime visit from a Sioux carrying a rifle. He left his position immediately & never returned.
In the eight-minute video, entitled "Onwards, Lions of Syria" and posted on an Islamist website, the Egyptian-born Zawahri also urged Muslims in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan to come to the aid of Syrian rebels confronting Assad's forces. Death to Alawite misbelievers!
[An Nahar] Syria has asked Tunisia and Libya to close their embassies in Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... in a tit-for-tat move after they both expelled Syria's envoys, a foreign ministry front man said on Saturday.
"Syrian authorities have asked Libya and Tunisia to close their embassies in Damascus in a reciprocal move," Jihad Makdisi told news hounds.
The decision comes days after similar moves by Tunisia and Libya -- where veteran strongmen have been ousted by popular uprisings -- in protest at the Damascus regime's lethal crackdown on democracy protests.
Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) closed the Syrian embassy in October and two days ago it ordered Syrian diplomats still in the country to leave within 72 hours.
That decision comes less than a week after the opposition Syrian National Council -- which has already been recognized by the NTC -- took control of the country's embassy in Tripoli.
And earlier this month the Tunisian presidency said it had started a procedure to expel the Syrian ambassador in protest at the rising corpse count of civilians killed by regime forces over the past 11 months.
Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, whose government was brought in by elections that followed the Arab Spring's first uprising, this month also called on all nations to expel their Syrian ambassadors.
Jebali last week said that in the absence of strong U.N. action, countries should take their own action by cutting all diplomatic ties with Damascus, as Tunisia has already done.
"We have to expel Syrian ambassadors from Arab and other countries," the premier said.
His remarks came after Syrian activists and rights groups reported that more than 230 civilians died under bombardment by Syrian forces in the city of Homs on a single day last week.
And earlier this week Gulf monarchies said they would also withdraw their envoys from Syria, joining mounting international pressure on Damascus over the killings of civilians.
"State members have decided to withdraw their ambassadors from Syria and ask at the same time for all the ambassadors of the Syrian regime to leave immediately," the six Gulf Cooperation Council states said on February 7.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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That may be the unexpurgated and barely edited headline of the year.
[Daily Mail] A man died after falling off a bucket of mayonnaise and stabbing himself in the heart with an electric drill. Ayup. Y'don't see that'n every day...
Araz Saleh, 23, was balancing on the industrial-sized bucket while drilling a hole in a wall when he slipped, accidentally driving the power tool into his chest. "You ain't got a ladder for me to stand on?"
"Nope."
"A step stool?"
"Nope."
"Whaddya got?"
"A bucket of mayonnaise."
"That ain't big enough!"
"It's a giant bucket of mayonnaise!"
An inquest at Oxford Coroner's Court heard the 23-year-old was fixing metal panels to the side of a friend's fast food kiosk when he lost his footing. "My footing! I've lost it! I'm fallingggggggggg!
He had been balancing with one foot on the bucket and the other on a table. "Araz! Are you sure that's safe?"
"I'm balancing with one foot on a giant bucket of mayo and the other on a table with wheels for feet. What could go wrong?"
As he fell his left shoulder hit a wall [BUMP!] "My shoulder!"
and the drill, "rrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRR!"
which was in his hand, was pressed into his chest. "My chest! Aaaiiieee! The pain!"
His friend Salam Kiras said: 'Then I saw blood gushing out.' "Hey! Watch it! That stuff's getting in the couscous!"
He told how he tried desperately to stem the blood flow before running to a nearby kebab shop to get help. "Lemme try to stem the blood flow! How about this thing?... Whoa! Popped it right out!... How about the end of the mop handle?... Hmpf! Tilted right over! Maybe I should push it in a little further?"
"Aaaiiieee!"
"Don't go nowhere! I'm gonna get help!"
"Where?"
"At the kabob shop, where else?"
Staff in the kebab shop raised the alarm "ALARM! ALARM!"
with paramedics who rushed to the scene, in Gloucester Green, Oxford. "We're trained medical professionals! Who needs help?"
"The guy on the floor, with the mop handle in his chest!"
Mr Saleh, of Greater Leys, Oxford, was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital where he died the following day, December 1, 2010. "He's dead, Jim!"
Detective Inspector Suzette Allcorn told the inquest at Oxford: 'It was an incredibly unusual injury. But there was no evidence of any foul play, and the police conclusion was that this was a stoopid tragic accident.'
Coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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#2
Wonder if he's in the running for a Darwin award?
BTW, great in-line, Fred.
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/12/2012 8:55
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#3
Reads like this happened in GB. For all their governmental work rules, this accident is a cluster &^%$. I looked at an accident in the U.S. where a worker was providing OJT for another worker. He instructed the newby to not stick his arm in the machine "like this" and proceeded to demonstrate by sticking his arm in the panel opening--where I might add there were rotating and moving parts. He lost his arm.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/12/2012 13:26
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#10
"pay no attention to the drill shavings in the Mayo"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2012 14:17
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#11
Guns don't kill people, condiments do.
(Someone had to say it.)
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/12/2012 14:55
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#12
I once worked Maintenance for Goodyear, they assigned me to Build a rack hanging from the ceiling, and were amazed when I used a Vise Grip to hold on, (There was NOTHING to hold on to)I guess it never occurred to them that I might fall.
Workwd fine.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/12/2012 23:37
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[An Nahar] Arab recognition of the opposition Syrian National Council is imminent, SNC member Ahmed Ramadan said in Qatar on Saturday, ahead of key talks in the Egyptian capital on the crisis.
"We have confirmations of an Arab recognition (of the SNC) that will soon take place, though not necessarily on Sunday," when 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... holds a ministerial meeting on Syria in Cairo, Ahmed Ramadan told AFP.
"But there will be strong signals on Sunday, especially from Gulf Cooperation Council states," whose foreign ministers will also meet in Cairo before joining the vaporous Arab League meeting, Ramadan said.
Ramadan's comments come a day after two other SNC figures said they expected recognition of their coalition of major opposition parties, grouping Islamists -- including the Moslem Brüderbund -- liberals and nationalists.
On Friday, Imad Hussari, a front man for the group and leader of the "Local Coordination Committees" which mobilizes protests inside Syria, said "there should be an official recognition of the SNC by several Gulf countries."
Another SNC figure, Istanbul-based Khaled Khoja, confirmed he expects recognition "by several Arab states in the coming days."
The opposition members did not specify the extent of recognition they expected from Arab states.
Currently, only Libya's post-revolutionary interim government recognizes the SNC and does so as its sole legitimate Syrian interlocutor.
The Gulf states decided on Monday to expel Syrian ambassadors from their capitals and have said they are mulling further moves.
Since arriving on Thursday, members of the SNC executive committee have held a series of meetings in Qatar, a key member of the GCC, which also groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudia Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Qatar has been at the forefront of efforts to impose sanctions against the Syrian regime's lethal crackdown on anti-regime protesters in which activists say more than 6,000 people have been killed since March last year.
On Saturday, four SNC members travelled to Cairo to discuss with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi a French proposal to form a "Friends of Syria" group, Ramadan said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... proposed creating the group after Moscow and China vetoed on February 4 a draft U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the crackdown by Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... 's forces.
King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah ... Fifth out of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz to ascend to the throne. He is, after his half-brothers Bandar and Musa'id, the third eldest of the living sons of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Abdullah's mother is from the Rashid clan, longtime rivals of the Saud. He has 6 sons and 15 daughters and about $20 billion. His youngest son is just seven years old... said on Friday that world confidence in the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... had been shaken after the world body failed to adopt the resolution.
"We all used to take pride in the United Nations which used to bring us together and not divide us ... but what took place does not augur well as world confidence in the United Nations has undoubtedly been shaken," he said.
On Tuesday, the GCC states decided to expel Syrian envoys and withdraw their own over the "mass slaughter" of civilians.
Ramadan had said that the opposition will "begin documenting the regime's crimes, in cooperation with international human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... groups, and will present these (documents) to the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... ."
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02/12/2012
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[An Nahar] A top U.S. diplomat Saturday ruled out snap elections to defuse a political crisis in the Maldives as its new president agreed to probe allegations that a military-backed coup vaulted him to power.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs Robert Blake said there should "breathing space" from this week's violence and a vote could be held after strengthening the elections commission and police.
"I don't think anyone believes that elections can be properly held right now," Blake said after talks with President Mohammed Waheed, his predecessor Mohammed Nasheed and civil society representatives.
The new president has also ruled out an election before his term ends in November 2013.
Nasheed, who claims a military-backed coup forced him to step down last Tuesday, had insisted snap polls were crucial to end the political crisis.
There was no immediate comment from the ex-president on Blake's statements.
"In a situation like this everyone must compromise," said Blake, who was on a lightning 12-hour visit to the luxury resort archipelago. "In the days ahead, everyone should look for ways to bridge the differences."
Any more instability could jeopardize the Indian Ocean country's lucrative tourist trade, where hundreds of thousands of high-end travellers and honeymooners visit its pristine islands each year.
Waheed told news hounds separately that he had informed Blake of his agreement to probe the circumstances that led to his rise after serving Nasheed as his vice president since the country's first democratic vote in 2008.
"I am fully committed to an independent investigation," Waheed said.
Nasheed has accused Waheed of being part of the plot to turn him out of office.
Waheed said the international community "had not questioned the legality" of his presidency "but there are questions about the circumstances and I am prepared to have them investigated."
Washington on Thursday recognized Waheed's administration but then stepped back from the declaration, saying "circumstances surrounding the transfer of power need to be clarified."
Nasheed's exit from office followed months of protests over high prices and calls for more religiously conservative policies in the nation of Sunni Moslems.
Rioting erupted across the country Wednesday when Nasheed said he was the victim of a military-backed coup and his party's senior members were beaten during a rally in Male. Dozens were maimed, but there were no deaths.
Blake said Nasheed's MDP party was responsible for the violent demonstration and added the police and the Maldivian Defense Force were also responsible for unleashing violence in the southern atolls.
At least 18 cop shoppes were torched and dozens of vehicles, court houses and government buildings were destroyed in remote islets of the archipelago, police said.
Police confirmed they were carrying out mass arrests of troublemakers while Nasheed said 350 people linked to his administration had been jugged within three days of his resignation.
Waheed said he would form a national unity government "in a day or two" and leave several positions open for former president Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
Waheed acknowledged Nasheed was a "celebrity and popular on the streets," but urged him to restrain his supporters.
Nasheed had become an environmental star for urging global action to tackle climate change that he said threatened to submerge his island nation.
There is a warrant for Nasheed's arrest but Waheed insisted he would not be taken into custody. There has been intense diplomatic pressure on the government not to detain Nasheed and escalate unrest.
A U.N. special envoy, Assistant Secretary General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, arrived in the Maldives Friday and met both sides.
A delegation from neighboring India was also visiting while an EU mission was headed for the tropical nation.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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#1
Fear not, America = Amerika, INDJUH [India] has a contingency mil intervention plan in place iff the the Maldives' new Prez requests it.
#3
If state is concerning themselves with pin prick sized island nations - perhaps they should be arranging a takeover of the Caymans that lets in FBI and IRS auditors?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/12/2012 12:35
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#4
Because congress critters have some of their stash there, H2O?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/12/2012 13:51
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#5
If state is concerning themselves with pin prick sized island nations
[Dawn] A roadside kaboom hit a police vehicle on patrol in southern Afghanistan, leaving five coppers dead and one maimed, a senior police official said Saturday.
The bomb hit the pickup truck in Trin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, late on Friday, senior provincial police officer Gulab Khan told AFP.
"Five coppers were killed and one maimed," he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but roadside kabooms are frequently planted by Taliban beturbanned goons fighting a decade-long war against NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... -led foreign troops and Afghan government forces.
Afghan police are particular targets for the jihad boys, as the country prepares to take over full responsibility for security from some 130,000 foreign troops by 2014.
On Friday afternoon, a car was also hit by a roadside kaboom in the Khinjak area of the lovely provincial capital of Uruzgan province, killing one person and wounding two others, according to police front man Farid Ail.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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[IOL News.za] Agovernment minister in Zim-bob-we says work has stopped on new reservoirs because workers have been scared off by mermaids, a report has said. "Yeah! Mermaids! Big 'uns!"
According to orangenews.com, Minister of Water Resources Samuel Sipepa Nkomo reportedly told a parliamentary committee that terrified workers were refusing to return to the sites, near the towns of Gokwe and Mutare. "I thought mermaids were supposed to be good-looking?"
"They are! But they smell like fish!"
He said the only way to solve the problem was to brew traditional beer and carry out rites to appease the spirits. "See? First I get 'em liquored up! Then you show up with the deodorant!"
"All the officers I have sent have vowed not to go back there," Zim-bob-we's state-approved Herald newspaper quoted him as saying. "I mean, they can't get rid of the smell by taking a bath, can they?"
The senior politician allegedly said mermaids were also present in other reservoirs around the country. "Yeah. You can smell 'em a mile away on a hot day!"
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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#1
He said the only way to solve the problem was to brew traditional beer and carry out rites to appease the spirits.
[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) vice chairman Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi on Saturday said that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... should either apologise to the Supreme Court or resign, DawnNews reported.
Talking to the media representatives upon his arrival at the Jinnah International airport 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... , Qureshi said that premier should make an apology to the SC and write the letter to the Swiss authorities to resolve the issue once and for all.
On the issue of the interim government setup, the PTI leader said that his party shared the stance of with Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) of taking all parties on board.
"Many parliamentarians are in contact with PTI on the care-taker issue," the former foreign minister said.
"PTI wants transparent elections in the country and believes that this demand is the right of every Pak citizen" he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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[Yemen Post] Violent festivities flared up on Friday, breaking a fragile ceasefire brokered by tribal mediation to end the sectarian fighting, between Shiite Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates.... fighters and Sunni rustics in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah.
What a surprise.
"Fierce festivities took place in Aham district between al-Houthi rebels and local rustics on Friday, leaving at least 18killed and scores others maimed from the two sides," local tribal dignitary told Yemen Post, requesting anonymity.
Two maimedrustics are in a very critical condition, said the local source.
"Al-Houthis have breached the briefed ceasefire agreement, which was signed on Thursday by representatives from the two parties, by attacking some posts of the Sunni Tribal alliance." The source added.
Local media quoted, Abdullah Wahban, a member of the tribal mediation committee, as saying" efforts are ongoing to stop the festivities and apply the ceasefire agreement,"
Wahban called on al-Houthis to stop their obstinacy and retreat to their hometown of Saddah as stated in the agreement, the local media reported.
Sectarian festivities broke out in the far northern Yemeni provinces of Hajjah and Sadaa when al-Houthis sought to expand their authority to adjacent areas.
Shiite minority in Yemen have called for boycotting the forthcoming presidential elections, describing it a sham as it has only a sole candidate.
Al-Houthis supported and participated in the uprising against the 33-rule-year rule of 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... , who signed a deal under which he relinquished power to Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the consensus candidate for the upcoming presidential elections due to take place on February 21, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Soddy Arabia have voiced their gravest concerns over Shiite control of some areas in Yemen, and called the National Unity Government to regain control of Sadaa.
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[Iran Press TV] Israel says it has "successfully" tested an upgraded anti-ballistic missile system in conjunction with the United States over the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel declared a Friday test of its Arrow weapon system a "major milestone" in the development of a system to defend against medium range missiles that could be fired from countries like Iran.
The Arrow missile defense system tracked a projectile called "Blue Sparrow" that was fired by an Israeli war plane, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
"The test was conducted on Friday in conjunction with the US Missile Defense Agency," said Yair Ramati, an Israeli military official.
The ministry's statement added that the test demonstrated that the Arrow Weapon System and the US Ballistic Missile Defense System could work together.
The Arrow missile system, the development of which is jointly funded by the US and Israel, was launched in 1988.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > USN FIFTH FLEET COMMANDER: FORCE READY FOR IRAN | US NAVY COMMANDER: "IRAN CAN DEFINITELY STRIKE A BLOW" AGZ THE US NAVY, but is confident his USN Boyz can deal wid anything Iran + IRGC tries to throw at 'em.
* SAME > [US SecDef Leon Panetta] US WILL "ABSOLUTELY" CONTINUE DRONE WAR ON IRAN.
versus
* TOPIX > [People's Daily] IRAN TO FULLY LAUNCH FORDO NUCLEAR ENRICHMENT FACILITY "SOON": LOCAL MEDIA.
* SAME > ARMENIAN EXPERT: RUSSIA'S PASSIVITY ON IRAN IS TEMPORARY. Mama Russia likely to unilaterally make strong regional mil moves iff it ever senses the US-Israel-NATO are about to strike.
* SAME > [Same Pert] AZERBAIJAN [will be] IS A TOOL FOR [US, UK = NATO?] FIGHT ON IRAN. Staging bases.
MALE, Maldives: The new president of the Maldives said Saturday that he was ready to face an independent investigation into the transfer of power in the Indian Ocean nation that his predecessor alleges was a coup.
President Mohammed Waheed Hassan said he had given an assurance to visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake that he was willing to submit to a probe by an independent body as questions had arisen about his takeover of power.
Blake flew into the Maldives early Saturday and also met with Nasheed, who resigned Tuesday after police joined months of street protests against his rule and soldiers defected. He was replaced by Hassan, his vice president.
Nasheed later said he was ousted in a coup, and there is an arrest warrant against him. The new government denies the coup claims and insists Nasheed stepped down voluntarily. It has made no move to arrest Nasheed, who is living openly in his home in the capital, Male.
Soon after the meeting with Blake, Hassan told journalists that he wanted an independent investigation into the circumstances that led to Nasheed's removal.
"There are constitutional mechanisms to do that," Hassan said.
He insisted that no one had questioned the legality of his assuming office. However, "there are some questions as to what preceded my assumption of office. This is why we are saying we are completely open to an independent investigation," Hassan said.
Hassan urged political leaders to eschew violence, alleging Nasheed's supporters had torched police stations and a court house in the southernmost atoll, Addu, on Wednesday.
The region was now calm, Hassan said.
Hassan has announced his intention to form a coalition to help restore stability ahead of presidential elections due next year. He said Saturday there wasn't a need for "a snap election," saying that "the country is deeply divided and the political landscape has many potholes." However, Nasheed is calling for early elections, insisting his party would emerge victorious.
Nasheed said he told Blake that he was not willing to working with the current government. "Only an early election will stabilize the country," Nasheed told journalists.
The United States initially recognized the new Maldives government on Friday. It later backtracked, saying the situation was unclear and called for an investigation into the transfer of power.
Nasheed, a former human rights activist, came to power after elections in 2008 ended 30 years of autocratic rule by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Nasheed has said his ouster was engineered by rogue elements of the police and supporters of the country's former autocratic leader. Others have blamed Islamic extremists.
Over the past year, the Maldives witnessed demands for more religiously conservative policies and widespread protests over soaring prices. Last month, Nasheed's government arrested the nation's top criminal court judge for freeing a government critic and refused to release him as protests grew.
Male remained peaceful Saturday. There were no signs of extra security on the streets and people went about their normal lives.
Tourism is the main industry in the Maldives, a chain of nearly 1,200 islands off southern India blessed with sandy beaches and coral. Most resorts are located near the beaches and remained mostly untouched by the protests in Male and Addu.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2012
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[An Nahar] Jihadists are moving from Iraq to Syria, as are weapons being sent to opponents of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's The Scourge of Hama... regime, Iraq's deputy interior minister told Agence La Belle France Presse on Saturday.
Thus they reap what they have sown. Lock the border tight once they've left, O Iraqi border guards!
Assad has been carrying out a bloody crackdown on an uprising against his rule since March 2011, in which over 6,000 people have been killed.
"We have intelligence information that a number of Iraqi jihadists went to Syria," Adnan al-Assadi said in an interview with AFP, adding that "weapons smuggling is still ongoing" from Iraq to Syria.
"The weapons are transported from Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... to Nineveh (province), and the prices of weapons in djinn-infested Mosul (the province's capital) are higher now because they are being sent to the opposition in Syria," Assadi said.
He said that the price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle has risen from between $100 and $200 to between $1000 and $1500.
"The weapons are being smuggled from djinn-infested Mosul through the Rabia crossing to Syria, as members of the same families live on both sides of the border," he said.
And "there is some smuggling through a crossing near Abu Kamal," he said, referring to a Syrian city.
There are large numbers of weapons in Iraq after three decades marked by multiple wars and a violent insurgency following the 2003 overthrow of now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
Assadi said some Arab jihadists have returned home to participate in revolutions there.
"In the past, Syrians were fighting in Iraq, and now they are fighting in Syria, and also the Egyptians are fighting in Egypt, the Yemenis in Yemen, and the Libyans in Libya."
Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... "used to send jihadists to Iraq and financed them to fight in Iraq, and (ousted Libyan leader Muammar) Qadaffy used to have many organizations fighting in Iraq," he said.
Go out in the fields with your sickles, ye men,
Sharp sickles of blood-darkened iron,
Go harvest the barley, the hops and the yeast,
The Fates have a beer to brew!
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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#1
Thats a big price jump. Given the millions of weapons in Iraq that means an awful lot are heading to Syria.
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/12/2012 8:42
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#4
my son spent nearly a year at a COP next to Rabia crossing. He's very pleased with the "karma's a bitch" turnabout news here :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2012 13:08
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*sigh*. It was an "as you sow so shall ye reap" poem, but it doesn't seem to have worked. Even the trailing daughters didn't see the connection between the words and the images in my head.
ISLAMABAD: Security officials say the Pakistani army has started court martial proceedings against a brigadier and four other officers over suspected ties to a banned extremist group that has called for ousting the US-backed government.
Sounds like the usual office politics in Pak-land...
Brig. Ali Khan and four other officers were detained in May, 2011 for suspected links to the Hizb-ut-Tahrir group. Khan was working at the army's headquarters near the capital Islamabad at the time of his arrest. Khan's family has denied the allegations against him.
Two senior security officials said the military trial started recently but did not provide any other details. It was also not clear yet where the trial is taking place and what punishment the officers face, if convicted.
Sent to the International Criminal Court to listen to Carla del Ponte?
Hizb-ut-Tahrir is banned in Pakistan because of its extremist propaganda. The group also works to re-establish the Islamic caliphate and campaigns in Pakistan against the country's alliance with the Unites States in the war on terror.
Western officials have long suspected some Pakistani military officials of having ties to Islamist groups.
No, really? Where'd they get those crazy ideas?
Khan's lawyer, retired Col. Inam Rahim, said after the arrest that his client was detained for demanding that someone within the military be held accountable for the covert US Navy SEALs raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2012
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#1
ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAKISTAN
CONSIDERING [mulls] HIGHER PRICES FOR REOPENING OF ISAF LAND SUPPLY ROUTE.
Toll Roads-Bridges.
* SAME > FRANCE SAYS UZBEKISTAN [CAR = Central Asian Region]CHARGING HIGHER FEES FOR NATO TRANSIT [2014 pullout/withdrawal].
* ARTIC > FRENCH DM Gerard Languet = US is curren paying the CAR US$500.0Milyuhn per year to move non-lethal cargo, Roughly 75% of NATO Supplies into Afghanistan now goes oer the cost-prohibitive NDN;; NATO CORRIDOR ACROSS PAKISTAN IS PREFERRED.
* SAME > [US is] STOKING BALOCHISTAN'S FIRE, of Separatism.
BLOGGERS > US = China = India = all would like to see a Balochistan/Baluchistan formed from Pakistan + Iran as per WARM-WATER TRADE, NAVAL PORTS.
> US, India = to counter Rising China + PLAN access to GWADAR,PAKISTAN [other Pak?].
> China = to counter India at CHABAHAR [Iran].
> India = to counter Pak Navy; + China at both Gwadar + Chabahar.
> Iran > fears Pak will allow US, Indjuh access to Gwadar.
OOOOOOOOO, you just know RUSSIA'S NAVY is in there somewhere.
[An Nahar] "An armed terrorist group" bumped off a Syrian general in 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... on Saturday, the official SANA news agency reported, saying he was in charge of a military hospital in the capital.
"An armed terrorist group this morning assassinated brigadier general and doctor, Issa al-Khawli, the director of Hamish hospital, outside his home in the district of Ruknaddin," in northwest Damascus, SANA said.
"Three gunnies had watched General Khawli leave his house and shot him," the news agency said, adding that he was a father of four, including three daughters.
State television showed footage of what it said was the general lying in a pool of blood outside his home, his head pixelated.
The report could not be independently verified. But if confirmed, it would be one of the most brazen attacks on a ranking officer in the Syrian capital since an uprising erupted in March last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2012 11:58
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#4
Makes you wonder how top heavy the Syrian forces are. Sadaam's force seemed to have more generals than majors. The guy might have been in charge of vending machine replenishment.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/12/2012 14:46
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#5
"#2 Same guy as the story yesterday, right?"
Yeah, apparently they killed him yesterday and then shot him again today. Assad called and said "Are you sure he's dead?", and then a shot rang out and the answer came back "Yes, sir, he's dead".
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/12/2012 11:43
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Maybe he's worried about Assad's longevity. The Sunni population of Syria, at about 15m, is 6x the Shiite population of Lebanon (and 3x the entire population). If the Muslim Brotherhood takes power in Syria, Hezbollah is in big trouble, given that Syrians have generally viewed Lebanon much the way Iraqis view Kuwait - as a province unfairly pried away by a European power. I would expect hordes of Sunni Arabs from Syria to swamp the Shiite areas of Lebanon. Hezbollah would then be looking to Israel to protect them from the Ikhwan, since Hezbollah has nugatory military capability compared to Syria, and its civilian human shield military tactics aren't going to faze fellow Arabs, for whom killing heretics and apostates, civilians or not, is a benefit rather than something to be avoided.
[An Nahar] A rocket fired by Paleostinian snuffies from the Gazoo Strip hit southern Israel on Saturday night causing no casualties or damage, an Israeli police front man said.
"A rocket was fired from the Gazoo Strip at the Eshkol region. It landed in an open area without causing any damage or injuries," Micky Rosenfeld told Agence La Belle France Presse.
On Friday night, a rocket struck between two houses near the southern port city of Ashkelon, causing no casualties but damaging the houses and an electricity pylon.
There was no immediate claim for the Friday attack from any Death Eater group in Gazoo.
But a member of the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , was maimed early on Saturday in a blast in Beit Lahiya near Gazoo City, witnesses said.
A security official for the Islamist Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement which rules Gazoo told AFP that the kaboom was the result of an Israeli air strike.
But an Israeli armed forces spokeswoman said she had no knowledge of any military activity in Gazoo early on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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[Iran Press TV] Britannia's ambassador to the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... has warned Argentina that UK would "robustly" defend Malvinas Islands if necessary, insisting UK would hold talks with Buenos Aires on any issue except the islands' illusory sovereignty.
Mark Lyall Grant pointed out the British government's controversial stand over the disputed islands after Argentina's Foreign Minister Hector Timerman paid a visit to UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... and the president of the UN Security Council to call on the UK to stop militarizing the region.
"We are not looking to increase the war of words, but clearly if there is an attempt to take advantage of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war by Argentina, then we will obviously defend our position and defend it robustly," Lyall Grant said.
His comments came only a day after Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... announced he would defend the archipelago "properly."
The war rhetoric between London and Buenos Aires over the oil-rich islands have heightened as the 30th anniversary of the Malvinas (Falklands) war approaches.
Argentine condemned the constant military threats of the UK government and made a formal complaint to the UN to voice its opposition against the dispatch of an heir to throne, the Duke of Cambridge, to the islands along with the deployment of destroyer HMS Dauntless and an advanced nuclear submarine.
The British envoy neither admitted nor rejected reports that UK was sending its most sophisticated nuclear-armed submarine to protect the islands from Argentine's possible counter-move.
"We do not comment on the disposition of nuclear weapons, submarines, et cetera. But it is well known that ... as part of our overall defensive posture, there are submarines on patrol all around the world at any time. So it's not a question of anything new in what he (Timerman) is suggesting," Lyall Grant said.
While Ban Ki-moon called on the two nations to resolve the problem through dialogue, Lyall Grant ruled out the possibility of getting involved in further negotiations.
"We have always been open to dialogue with Argentina. ... We had a dialogue with Argentina and they broke it off. we are not going to discuss illusory sovereignty," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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#1
Argentina nationalized private pensions so they need more money, another revenue source. Yeah, start another war. That will be a success like last time. Think about what happened to the General Belgrano before you go off half cocked.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/12/2012 13:43
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#2
Met a lady from Port Stanley at Hotel Kandahar. She says it's just a matter of time till the Argies try it again. It's the oil this time around.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2012 14:20
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#4
CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [BBC News = Alan Little]FALKLANDS ISLANDS: A SHORTAGE OF EGGS [ + Veggies], due to Christina's blockade by Air + Sea. | FALKLAND ISLANDS FACING SHORTAGES OF FOOD DUE TO ARGENTINA'S BLOCKADE.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has undergone a second surgery on his digestive system, TRT Haber TV Channel reported on Saturday. The operation lasted 30 minutes. The Prime Minister is in good health.
Mr Erdogan underwent the first operation at the İstanbul Marmara University Hospital last year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2012
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#1
Too bad he's not in for a brain transplant.
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/12/2012 8:52
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#2
I think they're still rummaging around his lower system looking for the old brain.
[Iran Press TV] People in Soddy Arabia's Eastern Province have staged fresh anti-regime protest rallies to show their anger with the ruling Al Saud family.
People erupted into the streets in the cities of Qatif, Awamiyah and Safwa on Saturday, calling for an immediate regime change.
Saudi forces reportedly opened fire on peaceful demonstrators, who also condemned the monarchy's deadly crackdown on peaceful protests.
The mass rallies came one day after a protester was killed and many more were maimed as regime forces attacked a large crowd of protesters in the oil-rich Eastern Province.
According to human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. groups, the crackdown has claimed several lives since November.
Rights groups have slammed Riyadh for its persecution of protesters and called for an investigation into the killings.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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[An Nahar] A ceasefire was announced on Saturday between the rival Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen under the army's sponsorship after fierce festivities killed and maimed a number of civilians and troops.
The Lebanese army is deployed on the outskirts of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh, namely near Syria Street which separates the rival neighborhoods.
Tripoli MPs confirmed, after meeting at MP Mohammed Kabbara's residence, the commitment to the ceasefire and handing the army the responsibility of restoring order in the city.
The gatherers denounced any security breach in Tripoli, stressing on the importance of coexistence and safeguarding the civil peace and rejecting sedition.
They announced their "full cooperation" with the army, which is the only side qualified to maintain peace in the area.
The meeting was held in the presence of State Minister Ahmed Karami, MPs: Samir al-Jisr, Moein al-Merehbi and representatives from the army and the security services and religious leaders.
Gun battles erupted on Friday shortly after Friday prayers in the northern city between the dominant Alawite Tripoli neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and mainly Sunni neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh.
Voice of Leb radio reported that four people were maimed during the festivities on Saturday.
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... a security official told Agence La Belle France Presse that three died and 23 were maimed, adding that seven soldiers were among those maimed in the fighting.
A 17-year-old girl died of her wounds later.
Ten soldiers were among those maimed in the fighting, among them a sergeant whose wounds were critical.
The two sides were firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other in the bloodiest festivities since last June when six people were killed in the wake of demonstrations against the Syrian government.
In a statement, the Lebanese army said that it will reinforce its security measures in the area, vowing to confront those who are meddling with security "regardless of the party they belong to."
"The army conducted raids in places where festivities erupted and set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock a number of gunnies, and confiscated weapons they carried," the statement added.
It stressed that the "delicate situation that the country is passing through will not provide cover to those who are tampering with the country's stability and security."
The army said one soldier was at death's door.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel meanwhile, voiced fears that the festivities may be the beginning of strife in Leb as one form of the repercussions the unrest in Syria will have on the country.
"This situation requires decisive positions from the president and various politicians," he stressed.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features. If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!... the National News Agency reported that a rally was staged near Tripoli Serail calling for "Arms-Free Tripoli."
The protesters condemned the festivities that erupted in the city, demanding the cabinet and the parliament to support the army to take the necessary measures to halt the riots and shootouts.
The Sunni-majority coastal city has in the past few years been the scene of intense festivities between Sunni supporters of the anti-Syrian opposition and Alawite Moslems loyal to a Hizbullah-led alliance backed by Iran and Syria.
Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , who is fighting an unprecedented revolt against his regime, hails from the Alawite community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Long look at the bomb-builder of the Bali terrorist attack. Worth noting the connections to Abbottabad and his proximity to bin Laden for a time.
JAKARTA, Indonesia: An Indonesian militant charged in the 2002 Bali terrorist attacks told interrogators he spent weeks holed up in a rented house, painstakingly building a half-ton bomb using household items including a rice ladle, a grocer's scale and plastic bags.
A transcript of the Umar Patek's interrogation obtained by The Associated Press offers extraordinary detail of the Bali plot just days before Patek -- a radical once Southeast Asia's most-wanted bomb-making suspect -- goes on trial in Jakarta for his alleged role in the nightclub attack that killed 202 people.
Patek, known as "Demolition Man" for his expertise with explosives, says he and other conspirators stashed the 1,540-pound (700-kilogram) bomb in four filing cabinets, loaded them in a Mitsubishi L300 van along with a TNT vest bomb. The van was detonated outside two nightclubs on Bali's famous Kuta beach on Oct. 12, 2002. Most of those killed were foreign tourists.
Although homemade bombs are easily assembled by militants all over the world, making such powerful devices as those used in Bali -- and using such unsophisticated equipment -- would have taken enormous amount of care and expertise.
Patek, 45, goes on trial Monday following a nine-year flight from justice that took him from Indonesia to the Philippines to Pakistan, reportedly in pursuit of more terrorism opportunities. He was finally caught in January 2011 in the same Pakistani town where US Navy Seals would kill Osama Bin Laden just a few months later.
Boy howdy, what a coincidence. Wonder if he and Binny shared the community pool?
Patek was hiding out in a second-floor room of a house in Abbottabad, a $1 million bounty on his head, when Pakistani security forces, acting on a tip from the CIA, burst in. After a firefight that left Patek wounded, he was captured and extradited to Indonesia.
Should have been extradited to Diego Garcia...
His capture was seen as a yardstick of the successes that Asian security forces, with US help, have achieved against Jemaah Islamiyah, the Al-Qaeda-linked regional terror group blamed for the Bali bombings and several other attacks in Indonesia. All its other leaders have been executed, killed by security forces, or are on death row.
Patek is charged with premeditated murder, hiding information about terrorism, illegal possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit terrorism, and now faces a possible death sentence as well. The indictment also accuses Patek of providing explosives for a string of Christmas Eve attacks on churches in 2000 that claimed 19 lives.
Interviews with intelligence officials in Indonesia and the Philippines, the interrogation report and other documents obtained by the AP reveal the peripatetic life Patek led after the Bali attacks as he ranged widely and freely, often without passing through immigration checks, while allegedly passing along his bomb-making skills to other terrorists.
Patek, whose real name is Hisyam bin Alizein, is the son of a goat meat trader. He went to computer school and learned English before being recruited into Jemaah Islamiyah by Dulmatin, a fellow militant who was gunned down by Indonesian police in March 2010.
After his arrest, Patek told his interrogators that he learned to make bombs during a 1991-1994 stint at a militant academy in Pakistan's Sadda province, and later in Turkhom, Afghanistan, where bomb-making courses ranged "from basic to very difficult."
He said he was living in Solo, Indonesia, when mastermind Imam Samudra approached him to make a bomb in Bali. He agreed and flew to Denpasar, Bali's capital, and was taken to a rented house.
"In one room of the house, I began to mix the explosive ingredients, which were already in the rental house," he said. "For about three weeks, I made the explosive ingredients into black powder with the assistance of Sawad (a co-conspirator). For tools used in the mixing of the ingredients, I used (a) scale that will usually be used in a food store, rice ladle and plastic bags as containers."
Dulmatin separately worked on the electronic circuits, which were later attached as detonators to the bombs packed into the filing cabinets.
"When we were lifting the filing cabinets into the white L300 van, an explosion occurred which was caused by friction of the filing cabinet with the floor of the room, because the floor still had some leftover black powder on it," he said.
Patek left Bali a few days before the attacks were carried out.
Afterward, officials said, Patek and Dulmatin went to the Philippines and allegedly joined forces with the local extremist group Abu Sayyaf, spending the next several years training militants and plotting attacks, including against US troops in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Imam Samudra and two other masterminds of the Bali attacks -- brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron -- were caught, tried and executed.
Patek returned to Indonesia in June 2009, living in various rented houses in Jakarta. He held several meetings with radicals and aspiring militants at home and held assault rifle and bomb-making training sessions at a beach in Banten near Jakarta.
But Patek's heart was set on going to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taleban or other extremist groups, said Ansyaad Mbai, Indonesia's anti-terrorism chief. He told the AP that Patek intended to continue his fight in a more defined battleground with a larger radical group, and refused Dulmatin's offer to become an instructor in a new militant camp in Indonesia's Aceh province.
"He wanted to fight with a larger extremist group, and Afghanistan was the ideal battleground for him," Mbai said.
But to reach Afghanistan, he would have to go to Pakistan first. A police investigator said that a 37-year-old Pakistani in Indonesia, Nadeem Akhtar, helped Patek get a Pakistani visa from his embassy in Jakarta.
Why not just print up a fresh one?
After Patek arrived in Lahore, a courier with links to Al-Qaeda then brought him to Abbottabad, possibly to meet with Bin Laden.
Mbai did not rule out the possibility that Patek went to Abbottabad to not only gain a foothold into Afghanistan but also to obtain funds for setting up a militant training camp in Jolo in southern Philippines. But before he could make much progress or meet Bin Laden, he was caught.
Patek's trial not only seeks justice for the Bali bombings, but also is a coup for intelligence officials. He is believed to have valuable information about Al-Qaeda and its links with Jemaah Islamiyah, which was founded by Indonesian exiles in Malaysia in the early 1990s.
The Bali bombing remains JI's most spectacular attack. Though there have been several others since, but none as deadly. Analysts credit a crackdown that has netted more than 700 militants since 2000, including the death of several key leaders in police action.
Continued on Page 49
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[An Nahar] Four gunnies intercepted on Saturday a car that entered Leb through the border and kidnapped three Syrian nationals in the Bekaa town of Taanayel, according to the National News Agency.
The Syrian nationals were traveling in a Jeep Mazda holding a Syrian license plate when four masked, gunnies forcibly removed them from the car and kidnapped them to an unknown area.
The abductors decamped to an unknown location.
The NNA reported that the Internal Security Forces and the Lebanese army cordoned off the area.
Investigations were launched to track down the kidnappers.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] Three people died and 23 were maimed during fierce festivities on Saturday between Lebanese Sunni Moslems hostile to Syria's regime and Alawites who support it, a Lebanese security official said.
"A Sunni and an Alawite were killed and 23 people were maimed in festivities that continued since Friday between people from the neighbourhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh" in the northern city of Tripoli, the official told AFP.
A 17-year-old girl died of her wounds later.
Ten soldiers were among those maimed in the fighting, among them a sergeant whose wounds were critical, the official added.
The two sides fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other in the bloodiest festivities since last June when six people were killed in the wake of demonstrations against the Syrian government.
Sunni-majority Tripoli has in the past few years been the scene of intense festivities between Sunni supporters of the anti-Syrian opposition and Alawite Moslems loyal to a Hezbullies-led alliance backed by Iran and Syria.
Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... , who is fighting an unprecedented revolt against his regime, is from the Alawite community, an offshoot of Shia Islam.
The Lebanese army is deployed on the outskirts of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh, namely near Syria Street which separates the rival neighbourhoods.
Some residents have decamped the area while those who stayed behind -- both Sunnis and Alawites -- said they are afraid that festivities will erupt anew while blaming the other side for the fighting.
"I am paying the price of a war which is not mine," said Zeinab Yaghi, a 55-year-old Sunni Moslem mother of five whose house was hit in the crossfire.
"I know nothing about politics but supporters of the Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... regime are causing problems here," she said after fleeing her home with her children.
One Sunni man who declined to be identified said "rockets have been raining down on us since yesterday (Friday)." "They are constantly provoking us and waving pictures of Bashir al-Assad," he said of his Alawite neighbours, adding however that he was not against the Alawites.
Some Alawites also expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... , saying they were afraid for their lives.
"We are afraid because there is a sectarian spin to things," said Khaled al-Ali, a taxi driver.
"Since the crisis began in Syria we have been treated like foreigners. They provoke us all day long by staging anti-Alawite rallies," he said.
"The imams in the mosques are setting the (Sunnis) against us in their sermons and we constantly receive threats saying we would be expelled from Tripoli if the regime in Syria falls," he added.
The fighting erupted on Friday but subsided by Saturday afternoon after the army negotiated a truce between the two communities, officials said.
"I could not care less what happens in Syria," said Mohammed Khaldiye, an Alawite.
"I just want to live in peace with my neighbours, in my city" of Tripoli.
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A Haqqani network leader was captured in a joint operation by Afghan and Coalition troops in eastern Khost province ... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name... on Friday, Isaf said.
"An Afghan led and coalition supported security force captured a Haqqani Network leader during an operation yesterday," Isaf said in a statement.
The leader operated a bomb-making cell in Mandozai district and planned attacks against coalition forces throughout the province, it said.
During the operation, the security force seized multiple AK-47 assault rifles, shotguns, a chest rack, ammunition and bomb-making materials, it added.
Several suspected Islamic fascistiwere also jugged for further questioning, Isaf said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control... the statement said an Afghan and Coalition security force captured a Taliban leader during an operation in Nad Ali district of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province on Friday.
The leader used specialised weapons to conduct direct-fire and roadside kabooms against Afghan cops throughout Marja district.
One additional suspected jihad boy was jugged during the operation.
The president of the United States has decided to go Henry VIII on the Church's medieval ass. Whatever religious institutions might profess to believe in the matter of "women's health," their pre-eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, and immunities are now subordinate to a one-and-only supreme head on earth determined to repress, redress, restrain, and amend their heresies. One wouldn't wish to overextend the analogy: For one thing, the Catholic Church in America has been pathetically accommodating of Beltway bigwigs' ravenous appetite for marital annulments in a way that Pope Clement VII was disinclined to be vis-à-vis the English king and Catherine of Aragon. But where'd all the pandering get them? In essence President Obama has embarked on the same usurpation of church authority as Henry VIII: As his Friday morning faux-compromise confirms, the continued existence of a "faith-based institution" depends on submission to the doctrinal supremacy of the state.
KABUL, Afghanistan: The push by Afghanistans president to nationalize legions of private security guards before the end of March is encouraging corruption and jeopardizing multibillion-dollar aid projects, according to companies trying to make the switch.
President Hamid Karzai has railed for years against the large number of guns-for-hire in Afghanistan, saying private security companies skirt the law and risk becoming militias. He ordered them abolished in 2009 and eventually set March 20 of this year as the deadline for everyone except NATO and diplomatic missions to switch to government-provided security.
Afghan officials are rushing to meet the cutoff with the help of NATO advisers. But with fewer than six weeks to go, its likely that many components will still be missing on March 20. And even once everything falls into place, higher costs and issues of authority over the government guards will remain.
The change imperils billions of dollars of aid flowing into Afghanistan, particularly from the United States. In a country beset by insurgent attacks and suicide bombings, the private development companies that implement most of the US aid agencys programs employ private guards to protect compounds, serve as armed escorts and guard construction sites.
On March 21, approximately 11,000 guards now working for private security firms will become government employees as members of the Afghan Public Protection Force, or APPF. They will still be working in the same place with the same job. Except now theyll answer to the Interior Ministry.
It's sorta like working for the Taliban, except you don't get beheaded. Yet.
We dont want to have security gaps. This is really important to our customers and to us, said the head of the APPF, Deputy Minister Jamal Abdul Naser Sidiqi. It will happen, he says, because the presidential order says it has to.
Officially, everyone is optimistic.
The APPF is now open for business, a US embassy official said, speaking anonymously to discuss private agency contracts.
But many are still worried that the entire plan could fall apart. Development contractors for the US Agency for International Development told The Associated Press they were explicitly told not to discuss the changeover with reporters because media attention could endanger the delicate process. Everyone critical of APPF insisted on speaking anonymously for this article.
Last week the chairman of the House subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing concern that the APPF may not be ready to take over security for aid projects.
Even so, no one expects that there will be a visible problem on March 21.
The guys who guard our gates today wear a certain baseball hat, and on the 21st of March theyll come wearing a different uniform. It should be pretty seamless, said Bill Haight, head of an infrastructure-building project run by Louis Berger Group and Black and Veach. He said his projects are nearly finished and so he doesnt expect many problems.
But companies with long-running projects are worried. New contracts and operating rules will probably still be in the works when the deadline hits.
The APPF has yet to sign a contract to provide security for any of the approximately 75 companies expected to switch over to government guards in March, according to Noorkhan Haidari, the APPF business manager.
And international firms that are expected to act as middlemen managing the guards are having trouble getting licensed. Though about 20 companies have said they plan to register as so-called Risk Management Companies, or RMCs, only one license has been issued reportedly after a wait of about two months. Others trying to get licensed say the required documents change every day.
Meanwhile, the Afghan Foreign Ministry has also denied visas to foreign workers for at least three security companies that are trying to get registered as RMCs or are working on one of the exempt contracts, according to a security adviser for a major development contractor. These firms have been told they have to wait for new procedures under the new APPF system. But given that they dont have much time to get everything in line, theyre increasingly looking at what bribes they can pay to make it happen, the same person said.
Firms dont have to hire RMCs, but they add a level of management and oversight that meets the standards of international organizations.
Companies have long hired private guards precisely because they dont trust the Afghan police to protect them in a crisis.
Can't imagine why...
The United Nations used Afghan police to guard its staff housing until an 2009 attack on a residential hotel in which Taleban assailants quickly made it past police guards and killed five UN staffers.
Made it past or just joined up with their brothers...
The UN has since increased its security to include foreign guards.
Afghans working with APPF have gone so far as to urge the business licensing agency to stop stalling the process, according to a letter sent to US government officials by a development company and obtained by the AP.
Sidiqi said the complaints of delays were overblown, noting that there is a standard three-day licensing process. If there are delays, he said it is because the would-be RMCs are dragging it out.
We need the RMCs, Sidiqi said. They have the experience.
He dismissed the possibility of bribery. This is a legal government organization, so corruption is not going to be possible, Sidiqi said.
Not in Afghanistan, anyway. You never see corruption in government organizations there...
But with so much undecided, some development organizations are opting to hunker down inside their compounds until the details are worked out.
A manager with one US government development contractor said the company expects to delay visits to projects in dangerous places until all documents are finalized. Going forward, the development company manager worried about recruiting for projects in places like the insurgent-heavy south. Some employees have already said they wont sign on to projects if their only security is going to be APPF guards.
But even once the RMCs are licensed and in-country, it is unclear that they will provide an easy transition. These companies will not be able to directly control the guards that they manage. They can only give advice to an Afghan supervisor. If theres a dispute between the two, it will have to be taken to a government-run arbitration panel.
The arbitration panels work just as well as the anti-corruption panels do...
And as budgets for aid projects are decreasing, the APPF program is likely to increase security costs substantially.
An APPF guard will cost at least $770 a month, according to an AP analysis of official government figures, while private security providers contacted for this story say they usually charge $510-$630 a month per guard. To avoid pay cuts for guards, individual companies will have to supplement salaries. And any costs for RMC managers will be on top of this. Once these expenses are figured in, security costs could easily double under the APPF.
It is still not clear what these changes will mean for existing USAID contracts.
Sure it does. Everything will cost more and take longer to get done, so less will get done. They need me to explain this?
The aid agency has given no overarching guidance for how it will deal with delays or higher costs, though it has urged its partners to review their individual contracts to decide what their obligations and rights will be, the US embassy official said.
Meanwhile, the Afghan government wont officially have all the APPF guards trained forever more than a year. By March 20, about 1,840 of the existing guard force will have gone through the formal training program, which graduates about 220 people every three weeks, according to a NATO official who spoke anonymously to discuss an Afghan government program.
The hope is that on-the-job training will be enough in the near term, especially since most private security guards will probably agree to join the APPF. But like much with the APPF right now, it is just a hope.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2012
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#1
I wonder how capable are the Afghan forces (police, APPF, and military)? A few years ago under Bush, I heard optimistic predictions for these forces--today not so optimistic for a stable Afghanistan.
#3
The basic principle for western policymakers has never been stated more clearly: After breaking a regime in the Middle-East you have to face the population and they, the people, are much more dangerous than the old regime.
This applies to the 'Arab spring', Iraq, Afghanistan, and soon to be, Syria.
[An Nahar] Two days of fresh fighting in Sudan's Blue Nile state have left "heavy losses" among rebel troops, the army said on Saturday, without giving casualty figures for either side.
The combat occurred west of Dindiro, some 100 kilometers southwest of the state capital of Ed Damazin, said Sudanese army front man Sawarmi Khaled Saad.
"There are heavy losses among the SPLM troops, people killed and equipment destroyed," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in Blue Nile could not be immediately reached for comment. Too busy dying?
Access to the state is restricted, making independent verification difficult.
Fighting began months ago in Blue Nile and nearby South Kordofan state between the government and ethnic minority hard boyz who fought alongside the former rebels now ruling South Sudan.
On Thursday the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... humanitarian agency (OCHA) said fighting had continued in parts of Blue Nile and South Kordofan during the first days of February.
More than 140,000 Sudanese refugees have decamped to South Sudan or Ethiopia since fighting erupted last June in South Kordofan, followed by Blue Nile in September, OCHA said.
The United Nations has backed statements by the United States that there could be a famine unless urgent aid is allowed to enter the two states, where Sudan has severely restricted the work of foreign relief agencies.
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[Yemen Post] The opposition Joint Meeting Parties and the ruling General People Congress agreed on Saturday to form joint committees to run the early elections set for Feb. 21.
The Yemeni News Agency, Saba, has said that both sides prepared a guideline for the joint tasks, cooperation and coordination for holding the elections successfully.
The agreement included issuing directions to the election committees and approving an executive progrmme to carry out election rallies and taking actions to overcome any challenges or difficulties.
Saba said the agreement was signed by deputy chair of the General People Congress Abdul-Karim Al-Iriani and the he chair of the opposition Joint Meeting Parties Abdul-Wahab Al-Anisis.
Yemen's opposition and some ruling party officials see that these elections would lead to radical changes in Yemen.
During a United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... conference entitled "Reform and Transitions to Democracy," held in Beirut last month, the Yemeni veteran politician Al-Eryani said that Yemen will radically change after February 21 when early presidential elections will be held.
Spokesman of JMP Abdul Al-Odaini said that Yemen's presidential elections to would be a major shift in democratic, political and social fields.
The GCC states, the United States and other western countries acutely seeks for the success of the elections that are considered the major step to peaceful power transfer.
Under the GCC deal, Hadi is the consensus candidate of major parties in a presidential elections scheduled for February, while Saleh remains as a figurehead president for 90 days after he was forced to sign the deal.
After the elections, as GCC deal states, Hadi will oversee national dialogue to consider proposals for constitutional reforms that include replacing the presidential system with a multi-party parliamentary system.
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[Iran Press TV] Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad has announced the unveiling of "major nuclear accomplishments" in the next few days despite increasing Western pressure over the country's nuclear program.
"In the nuclear field, major achievements have been made by the Medes and the Persians in recent years," Ahmadinejad said in a Saturday speech, marking the 33rd anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Iranian president said the world has witnessed hegemonic powers use every means to prevent the Islamic Theocratic Republic from attaining nuclear progress.
"Today, not only has this (Iranian) nation become[a] nuclear [capable nation], but it has also succeeded in meeting a large portion of its needs in this field," Ahmadinejad added.
The US and the EU have recently increased pressure on the Islamic Theocratic Republic by imposing unprecedented sanctions against the country's oil industry and Central Bank.
The Western sanctions and frequent threats of a military strike against Iran are intended to force Iran to halt its nuclear program, which the US and its allies claim has a covert military aspect.
Iran, however, has repeatedly refuted the allegations and said as a member of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a signatory to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) it is entitled to use nuclear technology for civilian purposes.
In line with its confidence-building policy, the Islamic Theocratic Republic has repeatedly opened up its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspectors, who have found no evidence of a deviation in the country's nuclear program.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Based on the "plural" ... how many a-bombs will they be blowing off?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/12/2012 3:01
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#2
The Saudis have said they will go nukulaar themselves widin a time span of "weeks" iff Iran ever devs a Bomb.
Pragmatically, iff Iran ever did declare it has a few Nukes or "Dirty Bombs", ee "Tacnukes", at this time 2012-2015 the two latter can only be used half-half agz either a US-led ground invasion force [defensive], or by Iran's proxies for select international nuclear terror [offensive], until such time that Iran can quickly mass produce 'em.
[Iran Press TV] A terrorist group has assassinated the head of a hospital in Syria's capital Damascus, ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... Brigadier General Issa al-Kholi, the Syrian state media say.
Al-Kholi was killed in front of his house in Rukn Eddin neighborhood in the capital on Saturday, SANA news agency reported.
Three gunnies ambushed and shot him outside his home, according to SANA.
The liquidation comes one day after two powerful kabooms left at least 28 people dead and scores more injured in the northern city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... The rebel Free Syrian Army has grabbed credit for the attacks that targeted security headquarters.
Terrorist groups fighting against the government of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... have attacked several security and military sites.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011.
While the opposition blames the government for the violence, Damascus says ''outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups'' are responsible and that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
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[Yemen Post] Southern Movement followers expelled on Saturday some committees tasked with organizing and running the upcoming early presidential elections from polling centers in some of the Yemeni southern provinces.
Local sources told Yemen Post that some Separation supporters have forced committees out of some schools that are used as polling centers in Al-Mansoura district of the southern port city of Aden.
The gunnies threatened the committees of killing if they insist on resuming their duties and get back to their polls, the local sources said.
The Movement said the south must not take part in the upcoming presidential elections, considering it a domestic affair of the north Yemen.
Southern Movement, otherwise known as Separation Movement, calls for an independent south Yemen state.
There are major divisions among the SM's leaders; while some call for federal governance like the former south Yemen's leader, Ali Nasser Mohamed, others insist on complete separation of the north, including former south Yemen's president Ali Sallem al-Biyath, who has signed the unity accord with 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... in 1990.
Some southerners complain that they have been marginalized by the government since the reunifications in 1990. Joint Meeting Parties, the main opposition bloc in the country, has suggested appointing a president form the south as apart of an effort to preserve unity.
Even though Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the sole candidate for the upcoming presidential elections set to be held on February 21 in line with the GCC-brokered deal signed in Soddy Arabia, is from the south, SM announced its rejection of the elections, and called for boycotting it.
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CAIRO: Egypts military rulers have warned that the country faces conspiracies that seek to topple the state and spread chaos, in a message intended to undermine activists who plan to mark the anniversary of President Hosni Mubaraks overthrow with anti-army protests.
Fridays statement from the council of generals who took power when Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, 2011, came on the eve of a planned general strike aimed at pressuring the military to give up power.
Protest groups have grown harshly critical of the militarys handling of Egypts transition to democracy, accusing the army of trying to protect its power and committing human rights violations that rival those of Mubaraks regime. Thousands rallied outside the defense ministry Friday to call for the immediate transition of power to a civilian authority.
In a statement read on state TV Friday, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said it would not bow to pressures to accelerate the transition.
Never will we bow to threats, nor succumb to pressures, nor accept ultimatums, it said.
The message said the army had played an essential role in Egypts transition and warned of plots that seek to strike a mortal blow to the revolution by sewing discord between the army and the people.
Without naming any culprits, it said Egypt was facing great threats.
We face conspiracies hatched against the homeland, whose goal is to undermine the institutions of the Egyptian state and whose aim is to topple the state itself so that chaos reigns and destruction spreads, it said.
Egyptian officials and military leaders have often blamed unnamed actors and foreign hands for fomenting unrest.
In the statement, the generals said they remained bound by the plan to pass executive power to an elected president before June 30.
The generals and the military-backed Cabinet have been critical of the strike call, casting it as another example of foreign attempts to weaken Egypt. The state media and a Facebook page affiliated with the ruling generals accused the US of using local institutions to agitate for the strike.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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...Amazing how it's always somebody else's fault.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/12/2012 10:33
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[An Nahar] A Belgian court refused Friday to ban the sale of "Tintin in the Congo," rejecting arguments by a Congolese man that the iconic comic book was filled with racist stereotypes about Africans.
The Brussels court ruled that Belgian anti-racism laws only apply when there is a willful intention to discriminate against someone, said an attorney for Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, the man who tried to get the strip off bookshelves.
The court argued that given the historical context -- the book was written during the colonial era in 1931 -- the author, Herge, "could not have been motivated by the desire" to discriminate, the lawyer, Ahmed L'Hedim, told AFP.
For the past four years, Mbutu Mondondo had sought to get the book banned or at least force stores to place a warning label on the cover or add a preface explaining that it was written in a different era, as English versions do.
"It is a racist comic book that celebrates colonialism and the supremacy of the white race over the black race," he said last year.
Both of his requests were rejected but Mbutu's lawyers said he would appeal the decision on Monday.
A representative for French publishing house Casterman and Belgian firm Moulinsart, which holds the rights to the Tintin franchise, welcomed the decision with "great satisfaction."
"This decision is very sound. You have to take the work in its context and compare it with the information and clichés of its time," said Alain Berenboom, who had warned that a ban would amount to censorship.
Herge, real name Georges Remi (1907-1983), justified the book by saying it was merely a reflection of the naive views of the time. Some of the scenes were revised for later editions.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Uh, uh, RIN-TIN-TIN + RUSTY HAD A "CONGO/ AFRICA" EPISODE???
#2
The court argued that given the historical context -- the book was written during the colonial era in 1931 -- the author, Herge, "could not have been motivated by the desire" to discriminate, the lawyer, Ahmed L'Hedim, told AFP.
So Racism is an invention of the post-colonial period?
#4
The horror! The horror!
/channeling Joseph Conrad
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/12/2012 13:29
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#5
Can we get the un-censored original versions of Tom Sawyers and Huckleberry Finn back?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/12/2012 13:51
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#6
don't be looking for Disney's "Songs of the South". It's been pulled
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2012 14:20
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As I recall, the three big tourist purchases in
Brussels were chocolates, lace, and Tintin. He even has his own shop, just off the Grand Place. No judge is going to rule against such a traditional cash cow, not in the city whose mascot is the statue of a peeing toddler whose wardrobe probably by now rival's that of the queen of England, and especially not now that times are so difficult.
[Dawn] Protesters blocked a main highway in restive Indian administered Kashmire on Saturday after a young man was rubbed out by the army in what military officials described as an "accidental" shooting.
Ashiq Hussain Rather, 22, was killed late on Friday when a soldier accidentally fired his rifle as security forces combed the area for Death Eaters, the army said.
The killing occurred in the Baramulla district of the scenic Kashmire valley.
"It was a case of the accidental discharge of a single bullet by a soldier which led to the unfortunate incident," Lieutenant General S.A. Hasnain told the Press Trust of India.
"The dear departed was innocent. Inquiries have been ordered," he added.
Police used baton charges and teargas to disperse the protesters who were blocking traffic along the main Kupwara-Baramulla highway in Indian administered Kashmire, according to media reports.
There are nearly a dozen Kashmire Death Eater groups fighting for the divided Mohammedan-majority region to become part of Pakistain and over 47,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of the separatist insurgency in Kashmire in 1989.
But Death Eater violence has dropped sharply in Kashmire since India and Pakistain, which each hold part of the Himalayan region and claim it in full, started a grinding of the peace processor in 2004.
The chief minister of Jammu and Kashmire State, Omar Abdullah, said the government would investigate the death.
"We will ascertain the facts and any action will follow after that," Abdullah told India's NDTV channel.
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Two corpses allegedly belonging to Hizbullah members were reportedly entered to Leb from Syria on Friday, said al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... daily on Saturday.
The corpses were transferred to a hospital in the southern city of Tyre where forensics experts sought to inspect them, but they were later prevented by Hizbullah, whose members cordoned off the building before entering it, sources from the city told the daily.
The Hizbullah members removed the corpses, which were allegedly brutally murdered, to an unknown location.
The identity of the dead remains unknown, reported al-Mustaqbal.
Informed sources told Future News that the individuals were likely killed in Syria.
They added that the party secretly buries its dead who were killed in Syria, requesting officials in the area from disclosing its activity, reported the news channel.
On Friday, Hizbullah issued a statement denying the reports.
In January, British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... accused Hizbullah and its main regional ally Iran of supporting the Syrian regime's violent crackdown on the country's uprising.
In August, Hizbullah denied a French media report accusing the party of being involved in the killing of Syrian soldiers who had refused to shoot at anti-regime protesters.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
that will endear Hezbollah to the Syrians after Assad falls. I hope they died slowly and painfully
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2012 12:00
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[Tripoli Post] Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi says the Medes and the Persians and the government are united and will not give in to any Western pressure over its peaceful nuclear programme, Press TV reports.
And so it would, if they were indeed united. Oh well.
"You see when the people and the government are one and the same and they are not two different entities and when you cannot differentiate between people and the government what does pressure mean?," Salehi said on Saturday.
Talking to Press TV while attending the rallies marking the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran, Salehi said the high public turnout in the nationwide rallies is an indication of the Iranian nation's commitment to the values of the Islamic revolution.
"Today's rally is a testimony to the fact that the Medes and the Persians stands firmly behind its revolution," because its revolution stems from human values and the Islamic tenets, he added.
The Iranian foreign minister said the Western pressure on the Islamic Theocratic Republic to abandon its civilian nuclear programme will lead to nowhere.
"I think this (high public turnouts in the rallies) is a good enough message for others to understand that this nation will never ever yield to pressures from outside," Salehi said.
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[Magharebia] Stepped-up military operations and intelligence penetrations have sown panic among al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) leaders, security analysts say.
In less than a month, Mohamed Ghadir (aka Abdelhamid Abou Zeid), the "Tariq ibn Ziyad" katibat boss, killed 30 Mauritanian members of the battalion, Ennahar reported on January 26th. The terrorist, who is sentenced to death in Algeria, suspected them of working for Mauritanian intelligence.
This is even more satisfying than reading of drone kills.
The "merciless and barbaric" act prompted "a sense of repulsion among young men working under him", according to the Algerian paper.
"Many Mauritanian young men, members of the terrorist group, have recently abandoned their ideas of engaging in terrorist operations against their country," Ennahar quoted analyst Zain Al-Abidin as saying. "However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... the fear of ending up in jail, on the one hand, and the temptation of receiving financial bonuses, on the other, still prevent them from fleeing the desert."
According to Al-Abidin, international religious moderation seminars that featured Mauritanian Mohammedan figures are among the factors that spur young people to "seek a way out and rejoin their communities and households".
"Terrorist leaders no longer trust even their closest partners," Ennahar editorialised. "They constantly fear someone would blow the whistle on them, especially after some took part in planning to annihilate the 'grey matter' of the clique, by supplying security authorities with the necessary information on the movements of certain members, which led them right into the hands of the police."
Whee! Well done, somebody!
For their part, Mauritanian observers viewed the information published by Ennahar as "proof of the success of successive military operations led by the Mauritanian army and its endeavours to besiege the group by shutting down many exists," analyst Mokhtar Salem said.
"It is also a sign showing the group is growing weak," he added.
Salem said, "The developments and the successive actions of field states only foreshadow continued pressure on the terrorist group, through the recent agreement by foreign ministers of field states in Nouakchott to allocate a budget in order to maintain intelligence consistency, being an effective tool in combatting terrorism and countering the recurrent problem of kidnapping foreign nationals."
"Since October, Mauritanian Intelligence has embarked on mobilising enormous potential to recruit local and foreign resources, so as to provide Mauritanian security authorities with information on the plans of al-Qaeda and its channels of communication within the country. Recruited agents are given fancy cars and hefty amounts of money," analyst Mohamed Ould Zein told Magharebia.
Security authorities passed their agents off as "traders, developers, smugglers and sometimes even jihadists, so they could convey a clear picture of what was going on in areas in the Sahara outside the reach of governments", according to Ould Zein.
He added that foreign detectives were also trained and dispatched to northern Mali.
Some of the recruits, however, may "play as double agents", analyst Mohamed Ould Al-Akel said.
They "will offer al-Qaeda information," he said. "Others, however, only give them information to prove their allegiance and ward off suspicions."
AQIM managed to penetrate Mauritanian territories a number of times, the latest of which was the abduction of a Mauritanian gendarme at the end of last year.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Zim-bob-we's President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... will be barred from contesting in future polls if the draft constitution is adopted.
The draft constitution bars candidates above 70 years or those who have served two terms from vying for seats in elections, a provision widely seen as targeted at President Mugabe.
The Constitution Select Committee on Friday said it had completed the first draft of the supreme law, which is now being reviewed by a team of technical experts.
But the clause which says "a person is disqualified for elections as President if he or she has already held office as President for one or more periods, whether continuous or not, amounting to 10 years" has already sparked a heated debate.
The state-owned Herald newspaper said the clause appeared targeted at President Mugabe, who has ruled Zim-bob-we since independence in 1980. He is turning 88 on February 21 but has been endorsed by his Zanu PF as its candidate for elections he wants held this year.
"It is clear this is a Mugabe constitution," the Herald quoted an unnamed political analyst. "Here is a constitution that is being drafted by three political parties seeking to disqualify the leader of one of the political parties."
A decade ago, another attempt to re-write Zim-bob-we's constitution failed after the drafters ignored people's views regarding presidential term limits.
A coalition of opposition parties and civic groups successfully campaigned for a 'No' vote at a referendum on the new constitution in 2000 and delivered a crushing defeat against President Mugabe.
According to the Herald newspaper, which usually reflects the thinking in Zanu PF, the experts described the new draft constitution as "an originally flawed regime change document that does not reflect the view of the people."
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[An Nahar] Seven people including a tribal chief were killed on Saturday in attacks west of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... and in the capital itself, police and medics said.
A roadside kaboom at Amariyat al-Fallujah in Anbar province killed Sheikh Najem Mustafa al-Hafez, head of the Aweissat tribe, along with his brother, his wife and their two-year-old son, police lieutenant Jabbar Hamad said.
Hamad said Hafez was well-known for his hostility to Orcs and similar vermin and his loyalty to the police and army.
A doctor at Fallujah hospital 60 kilometers west of Storied Baghdad confirmed that the facility had received four bodies after the incident.
The hospital also received the remains of two people killed when a magnetic bomb attached to their car in the city went kaboom!.
In the capital, an interior ministry employee named as Haidar Shamki was killed when unidentified gunnies opened fire on his car in east Storied Baghdad, a ministry official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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#1
The lethality of magnetic bombs in the Middle East just goes to prove that "many Muslims are made of magnetic media." A charming alliteration.
Life in the hysteresis(*) loop that is Islam.
(*) an ancient Greek word meaning "deficiency" or "lagging behind". Applies equally well to magnetic media and Muslims.
Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Saturday that the US has always sought sabotage in Iran in a bid to dishearten the people from the Islamic Revolution, IRNA reported.
It's working, too...
Operation Lemony Snickett.
Addressing a ceremony marking the 33rd victory anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, he said that the Iranian nation withstood the enemies in the past 33 years through vigilance and resistance.
'The eight-year US-backed Iraqi-imposed war, economic sanctions and terror acts were all among the plots hatched by the US but the more they mounted pressure, the Iranian nation stood stronger,' Mehmanparast said.
The arrogant powers are trying to dishearten the people from the Islamic Revolution and create discord in the country, he said, adding that today the people showed that they are still loyal to the Islamic Revolution and Imam Khomeini's ideals through massive turnout.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2012
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#1
Of course seizing one's embassy and holding the diplomatic personnel as hostages has been considered an act of war by most historical standards up until the Carter Era.
I would hope. It seems there are fair number of people in Iran who don't agree with the Islamic Revolution. Obama seemed to be against these people before he was for them or was it the other way around? I forget after all the flip flops, flop flips, and walk backs.
The Mexican independant left has for years trying to get a non-leftist pelt in th form of one of its politicians. Last September a virtually unknown law firm in Miami filed a lawsuit agains former president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de leon over his alleged role in the massacre of 45 members of a religious sect near Acteal, Chiapas in 1997. That law suit asks for unspedicfied damages, now said to be $10 million.
The lack of a nexus between the firm that filed the suit and any part of Mexico is a vexing mystery. It is almost as if, somone at the first walked in and pitched an idead to make a bundle sueing for human rights violations.
Last November a hman rights group cenetred around the Unievrsidad Nacional Automoma de Mexico travelled to the Hague to submit a petition with 133,000 signatures requesting the Internation CCriinal Court to investigate Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa for human rigth abuses during his war on the drug cartels.
Since that time US press has been ruminating on the possibility that Calderon may seek refuge outside of Mexico, if it is fund the new government can';t cover for him against human right charges.
Mewxico is a signatory to the trayety that created the ICC, and the US is not. Soe larin American heads of state have sought reguge in the US against civil suits, and some,schn as Zewdillo have found that their troubles can follow them to America.
The Zedillo suit rests now on the legal concept of sovoereign immunity, one with a string of decisions stretching back more than a century. A decision obn sovereign iimmunity is expected this month. A decisin that Zedillo enjoys immunity in court for his actrions as a head of state will end the lawsuit, and created yet another precedent reinforcing those already on the books.
That said, since 911, the US federal coruts system has many times abdicated its role in the war on terror, first by grinting to allaged terror suspects held at Guantanamo judicial review for charges against them even though those alleged crimes were not committed in any US jurisdiction.
For Calderon, as for Zedillo, his refuge against lawsuits by fame and rent seeking leftists worldwide may not hold up anywhere but the US.
The petition subitted was done so by a number of individuals who represent a loose coalition of academics, leftist politicans and others who have constantly railed against Calderon and his efforts to deal with the drug cartels for hyman right abuses committed priarily by the military.
The Mexican military has been to date the most effective bulwark against the pweor of the drug cartels, and human rights acitstss beiung the sociietally destructive elements they have, will have noe of that.
The Mexican military has consistently defended its human rights recordby pointing out, and by being backed by by more than the sentimental boilerp;late human rigths actists spew forth almost by command, that huma right abuses -- mainly inthe fiorm of accidental shootings -- are anecdotal in nature.
That sae UNAM group came out with an incredibly weak and obnoxious "research" that showed, not surprisingly, that whenever the Mexican military is in an area, shootings increase.
Without saying so,the report wound up proving the military's point, that accidental shpoting are anecdotatal in nature, aswell as shwoign that the ions share, 90 percent by this writer's ewstimate are performed by drug caretls and their their operatives. The Mexican Human Rights Commission recently challenged the Mexican miloitary to "prove" that shootings are done by drug cartels.
Sweet challenge, to be sure. Te Meican miloitary is by law not permitted to do any intelligence work on its own behalf using the media. They are only allowed to review domestic intelligence submitted to them.
Helluva racket for the UNAM leftist group. Leftists love silent opponents.
For all the stumbling about by the group, they may have hit upon a means of ensnaring Calderon.
Thye petition gathering as it turns out was no accident. There was no gathering of UNAM leftists or politicians crying over dea gang bangers, hand wringing over the demise of criminal elements caught by the Meican military.
One judge on the ICC panel, a Mexican jurist named Bernardo Sepulveda Amor, may have tipped his hand that the petition submitted last November was nothing more than typical Mexican leftist bareknuckle politics.
[Yemen Post] The Saada-based Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates.... group has strongly slammed the US ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein after he expressed sorrow at the Iranian intervention in Yemen.
The rebel group further criticized statements of Freiestein about the reconstruction of the military and security services, saying that his statements are unacceptable.
In a statement, Houthis called for boycotting the presidential elections due to be held on February 21, dubbing them as an American plan to undermine the Yemeni revolution.
Feierstein had expressed sorrow at foreign intervention in Yemen, pointing out that Iran interfere in Yemen's affairs through supporting Houthis.
In an interview with a Yemeni state-run TV on Thursday night, Feierstein had voiced concern about Iran's efforts to raise security and political troubles in Yemen.
He stressed in another interview with the military-run newspaper, the importance of reconstructing the security and military services under the deal, pointing out that this process would start following the elections.
"The International community follows up preparations to the elections and we are optimistic that they will be successful," he added.
He made reference that the Yemeni government will face challenges following elections, affirming that the US wants to have active partnership with Yemenis in all fields.
He reiterated that the US and other countries discussed the issues that should be taken for the success of the elations , secure poll centers, and guarantee the delivery of electoral supplies to these centers.
"We are responsible for absolutely applying the GCC deal to ease unrest and consolidate security and military forces, and these steps should be implemented before the elections" the ambassador added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] White House hopeful Mitt Romney ...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field... has promised to unite Republicans and defeat President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... in the "battle for the soul of America" as officials in Maine prepared to unveil the results of party caucuses on Saturday.
Romney and his main rivals for the nomination, former House speaker Newt Gingrich ...former Speaker of the House, author of the Contract with America. Gingrich gave the country welfare reform and a balanced budget and the Publicans a landslide House victory in 1994. On the downside, he has a roving eye and a loose fly, he's opinionated, and he's abrasive despite his ability to work with the other side of the political aisle... and religious conservative Rick Santorum ...candidate for president and former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. He was a lawyer before becoming the Representative for suburban Pittsburgh in 1991. He lost his Senate seat in 2006 to Bob Casey, a Democrat machine politician and political dynast. Santorum is a social conservative whose primary attraction is seemingly that he is neither Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich... , all made the pilgrimage to the Conservative Political Action Conference here to court the Republican base and lay out their plan to oust Obama in November.
"This country we love is in jeopardy," Romney told a CPAC crowd of thousands Friday.
"I am convinced that if we do our job, if we lead with conviction and integrity, that history will record the Obama presidency as the last gasp of liberalism's great failure and a turning point for a new conservative era."
The upcoming November election, he said, "really is a battle for the soul of America."
Romney's bid to be the party's 2012 standard-bearer has been rattled by concern he cannot close the deal with core conservatives, a charge that was highlighted this week when he lost three nominating contests to Santorum.
But former Massachusetts governor Romney sought to put aside once and for all the lingering doubts about his credentials, saying "I was a severely conservative Republican governor" who cut taxes, balanced the budget and slashed costly government programmes.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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#1
Really? How about my Bucket politician re-regurgitation list is just some outlier to be grasped at AFTER "you" Won? Huh?
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/12/2012 8:51
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I was a severely conservative Republican governor
He will have trouble with debating ObamaCare since RomneyCare isn't so different. What does that leave him to debate Obama as a "severely" conservative candidate?
He was a Pub governor in a blue state with a blue legislature. I wonder how he pulled that off and got anything done? Must have been a high wire balancing act.
It sickens me to think that Mitt is probably the best we can get. You're right, he didn't do much and seemed to have no goal but personal power. That's why he was so much the "go along to get along" stooge he seemed to be.
The one thing I can say positively is that he never seemed to be corrupt.
#14
Thought experiment, based on the comments above: given what Mitt Romney did/did not accomplish as a Republican governor in a strongly Blue state with liberal Democratic control of both house of the state legislature, how is he likely to act as a Republican president with Tea Party Republicans setting the tone in both houses of Congress? We already know the answer for Mr. Obama...
#15
The objective here isn't to re-elect Ronald Reagan -- that's just not on the menu this year. The objective is to un-elect Barack Obama before he does more damage. So all I want to know about any Republican candidate is: Can he beat Obama? And the guy with the highest probability of doing that sure looks like Romney.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/12/2012 10:54
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#16
We need a picture of someone selling the Brooklin Bridge.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/12/2012 10:58
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Glenmore, given the press that we have here in MA I think that it would have been very obvious if Mitt was seriously corrupt.
But, he is a politician and a wink and a nod to a friend in need or to the friend of a needed ally in the legislature is not beyond belief. By and large though I believe that he was not corrupt.
My biggist problem with Mitt is that he always seemed to be a believer in "Gov't can fix everything", aka big government. Whether that was a result of the politics in this state, bluer than blue, I don't know.
My hope is that if he gets elected he continues to go along to get along and TW's idea of a Tea Party controlled congress holds true.
#18
he always seemed to be a believer in "Gov't can fix everything"
I think that belief applies to pretty much anyone in government these days. Some (Obama) more than others, but of the remaining candidates only Ron Paul is a 'misfit' (but then he misfits in everything.)
#19
I'm with Matt. You got to war with the guy that you have, not what you wish you had. It IS a war. If you think Obama was an arrogant radical socialist before, wait til he doesn't have to worry about re-election. How many Supreme Court justices will he get to appoint? How many Fed judges? If Mittens wins the primary, and it increasingly looks like he will, then I'm pulling the lever for Mittens and pushing him to be more conservative. Make him promise positions that we can hold him to
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2012 12:44
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Actually all 3 of the GOP candidate are fans of Big Government depending on what Big Government is doing for their favorite causes. Santorum's voting record reveals a lot of that, and Gingrich & Romney both favor the Individual Mandate. Romney's record in Mass is not that good, and Gingrich's couch trip with Pelosi shows his tendency to weathervane around to very bad ideas.
So its all a matter of which one do you think can beat Obama and still be "fixable" in office in terms of court appointments, veto of pork bills, and rolling back Obama care and all the Czars and bad executive policy Obama has made.
(not counting Ron Paul, his foreign policy and conspiracy mongering mark him as a loony on anything other than smaller government and parts of economic policy)
#23
Anyway, how many of you who voted for McCain would consider Romney more conservative? I do, not by much, but I think he is. So its an improvement from 08, going from "worse" to "bad" from a conservative/libertarian viewpoint.
Most important is, win or lose, whoever the candidate is, he must NOT hurt the down ticket. The GOP has an opportunity to put some more real conservatives into the Senate (maybe enough to take control), and to keep control of the House.
I wonder how we would now feel looking back at 4 years of the President (Fred) Thompson administration's work?
#28
This coming from the guy who's flip-flopped so many times, I bet his wife is wondering if the wedding vows were serious.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/12/2012 18:11
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#29
Newt's wedding vows certainly were not. You know its bad when he has kids from his first wife (who he cheated on with wife #2) trying to discredit the second wife (who he cheated on with wife #3) for criticizing the third wife.
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/12/2012 18:37
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Mitt can't win. Just like McCain and Dole couldn't win. Republican turnout is already down in the primaries. He's a Schlapschwanz with no base. And if he can't motivate Republicans, how will he motivate independents?
[Dawn] Two Western aid workers kidnapped in Pakistain in January are being held by the Pak Taliban near the border with Afghanistan, told a senior turban commander on Saturday.
"The two NGO (non-governmental organization) workers who were kidnapped in Multan nearly a month ago are in our custody near the border. We haven't made any demands yet," a senior commander of the Pakistain Taliban said.
"They are in good health."
A German and an Italian citizen were kidnapped from their house in Multan in southern Punjab province on Jan 19, according to local officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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"We haven't made any demands yet."
Ie, we have to do a market analysis on how much the governments of Italy and Germany have secretly been willing to pay to release kidnap victims, then we'll invoice them accordingly.
Posted by: American Delight ||
02/12/2012 11:03
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[Tripoli Post] Libya's interim government has called on Niger to extradite Muammar Qadaffy's ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... third eldest son Saadi after he called on Libyans to prepare for a "coming uprising".
In a telephone interview with Al Arabiya television late on Friday, Saadi said that he was in regular contact with people in Libya who were unhappy with the authorities who took over the leadership in the country after the ousting of his father after 42 years of dictatorial rule, and the eventual capture and killing of his father.
National Transitional Council front man Mohammed al-Harizy said in a statement on behalf of the NTC, that following his comments, Libya's National Transitional Council is demanding that Niger, should extradite Saadi and those who are with him as soon as possible in order to maintain the relationship with the Libyan people." Niger is currently giving a safe haven to Saadi, who said he has the money to led an uprising in Libya.
Mr Harizy went on to say: "They (Niger authorities) should follow the Algerian government that prevented Qadaffy's daughter (Ayesha) from making statements or causing any trouble from their land." he said.
He added that NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil had called on Niger's President to discuss Saadi.
Mr Harizy said that the NTC confirms that there was not and there will not be any communication or negotiation with Saadi or anyone from the former regime.
"We assure the Libyan people that neither Saadi nor anyone else can raise the Qadaffy flag on Libyan soil ... Let Saadi know and whoever is standing behind him that the February 17 revolutionaries have not put down their weapons yet and they are ready to face any foolish attempt with force," he said.
In response, Niger pledged to tighten house surveillance of Saadi, but it reiterated that Saadi could not be handed over to a state where he could face execution.
Saadi, a former footballer, who analysts say did not even have the ability to lead a football team, let alone lead a "coup", decamped south to the West African state of Niger in September as Libyan rebels gained the upper hand over Qadaffy's forces.
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02/12/2012
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[Dawn] The Pakistani army has started court martial proceedings against a brigadier and four other officers over suspected ties to a banned extremist group that has called for ousting the US-backed government, security officials said Saturday.
Brig Ali Khan and the other four officers were detained in May, 2011 for suspected links to the Hizb-ut-Tehrir group. Khan was working at the army's headquarters near the capital Islamabad at the time of his arrest. Khan's family has denied the allegations against him.
Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the military trial started recently but did not provide any other details. It was also not clear yet where the trial is taking place and what punishment the officers might face, if convicted.
Hizb is banned in Pakistan because of its extremist propaganda. The group also campaigns in Pakistan against the country's alliance with the Unites States in the war on terror.
The group insists it has rejected violence, although observers say it promotes an intolerant mindset that can ultimately lead some followers to embrace militancy.
Khan's lawyer, retired Col Inam Rahim, said after the arrest that his client had claimed he was detained for demanding that someone within the military be held accountable for the covert US Navy SEALs raid that killed bin Laden in Abbottabad.
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02/12/2012
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Two kabooms went off on Friday outside a customs building in Nigeria's flashpoint city of Maiduguri, the base of Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... Islamists blamed for a series of attacks, residents have said.
The spokesperson for a special military squad established to crack down on Boko Haram in the area confirmed the kabooms with AFP
"We have deployed our field men to the scene of the blast, and I will have to wait for the briefing before I can say anything," said Hassam Mohammed, front man for the Joint Task Force in Maiduguri.
The kabooms went off near a station where locals board rickshaw taxis, located outside the customs building, witnesses said.
Witnesses said that the first bomb was planted at the foot of the wall of the customs office when commuters were waiting for rickshaws, while the second one, went off some metres away. The whole area was cordoned off by soldiers and it was very difficult for one to determine the number of casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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Two Palestinians were moderately injured late Saturday in four Israeli airstrikes on targets belonging to militant groups in eastern and southern Gaza Strip, medics and witnesses said, dpa reported.
"Gadzooks! I have been moderately injured!"
Witnesses said Israeli mlitary jets flew over the coastal salient ruled by Islamic Hamas movement and fired on targets in eastern Gaza City and the southern towns of Rafah and Khan Younis. Security officials said the airstrikes were in retaliation for homemade rockets attacks fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel early Saturday.
The Gaza injuries occurred in the Israeli strike on militants southeast of Gaza City, where paramedics said that at least two Palestinians were injured and were taken to Shiffa Hospital in the city.
The other Israel strikes hit an empty area east of Gaza city, where an underground tunnel used as a weapons cache was destroyed, and destroyed an empty building in Rafah and a tunnel east of Khan Younis. No injuries were reported from those strikes, witnesses said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/12/2012
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#1
heh, AOS. I lol'd
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2012 11:49
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ADDIS ABABA: Sudan and South Sudan on Friday signed a security agreement which aims to defuse tensions over oil payments which officials had warned could spark a war between the two countries.
Landlocked South Sudan took three-quarters of Sudan's oil production the lifeline of both economies but needs to sell its crude through northern export facilities. Both countries have failed to agree on a transit pipeline fee. Juba shut down last month its entire oil output after Khartoum started seizing southern oil as compensation for what it calls unpaid fees.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been trying to mediate an end to the tensions, said the deal was a "non-aggression pact" aimed at avoiding any armed conflict.
The security agreement, brokered by the African Union in Addis Ababa, said the two sides agree to "respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs, rejection of the use of force, equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence.
And sets aside a border region for the unicorn preserve...
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[An Nahar] The U.S. military's top general met Egypt's ruling field marshal on Saturday amid a row between the allies over impending trials of American freedom fighters.
The meeting in Cairo had been "long planned," according to General Martin Dempsey's front man, but officials were hoping Dempsey would persuade Cairo to back off the planned trials.
Colonel Dave Lapan said the general discussed with Tantawi and his Egyptian counterpart Sami Enan "a wide range of issues related to the long-standing security relationship between our two countries, including the issue involving U.S. NGOs."
But he said he would not "further describe the contents and nature of their private discussions," in a statement emailed to Agence La Belle France Presse.
Dempsey had planned to hold a round-table discussion with journalists after the meetings, but it was called off with no reason given to news hounds.
Egyptian judicial officials have announced plans to put dozens of freedom fighters, including 19 Americans, on trial over alleged illegal funding to foreign aid groups.
The move has shaken the Egypt-U.S. alliance that has anchored America's Middle East policy for a generation and helped keep the peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Outraged at the charges, some senior U.S. politicians have warned that Washington's aid to Egypt could be jeopardised if the prosecution goes ahead.
The United States currently provides about $1.3 billion a year in aid to Egypt, one of the biggest packages offered to any nation.
Egyptian judges on Wednesday accused domestic and foreign groups, including American ones, of illegally meddling in the country's politics.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
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[Dawn] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... has said that corrupt politicians of the ruling parties could not stop his `tsunami` because they have given the masses nothing except the burden of new taxes and inflation in the last four years.
Addressing a big public meeting at Shewa playground here on Friday, Mr Khan said that the PTI`s massive rallies in Lahore and 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... had unnerved the ruling politicians because they had nothing show to the masses.
"We want to make our country economically stable and politically mature," he said.
Mr Khan said that his party would introduce great changes in the system for the benefit of masses. He alleged that that the government devoured billions of rupees in corrupt practices during the last four years and the rulers still continued to accumulate wealth through illegal means.
He said that due to corruption the country faced economic crisis and the entire burden had been shifted to the masses.
"The imposition of taxes on the people is an utter failure of the government on the economic front," he said.
He came down hard on President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... , Azam Khan Hoti and Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... , saying that they indulged in massive corruption. He alleged that Mr Fazl had been deceiving the people in the name of Islam. He said that 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... was also an equal partner in the government`s corrupt practices by giving it support while sitting in opposition.
"Nawaz Sharif raised the slogan of `Go Zardari Go`, but when he was ready to go he used the tactics to stop him. In fact, they are partners of each other," he said. Mr Khan said that both Sharif and Zardari were united for the 18th amendment and now embraced each other for the 20th amendment."
He said that his party would support the Afghans, but the Americans would never be backed in the war-ravaged country.
The PTI chairman vowed to introduce reforms, conduct accountability of the corrupt politicians, bring economic revolution by broadening tax base, develop the education sector, stop drone attacks and uphold the supremacy of the judiciary to make Pakistain a strong country.
Javid Hashmi and other leaders of the party also spoke on the occasion.
The ground where the public meeting was held was jammed-packed, while roads leading to the venue and the Shewa bridge remained blocked due to rush of people.
Asad Qaisar and Khawaja Mohammad Hoti were prominent among those sitting on the stage with Mr Khan. On this occasion, several local leaders of other political parties announced to join the PTI.
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02/12/2012
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] An Uzbek man living in the United States pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in the southern state of Alabama to planning to kill US President Barack Obama. On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today... Ulugbek Kodirov, 22, was nabbed in an undercover operation while trying to obtain explosives and guns, the US Justice Department said in a statement.
US Attorney Joyce White Vance, who worked on the case, expressed "appreciation to the Mohammedan community of Birmingham, which was instrumental in helping law enforcement shut down this threat."
Kodirov pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to terrorist activity, one count of threatening to kill the president and one count of possession of a firearm by an illegal alien.
As part of his plea agreement, Kodirov admitted he had communicated "with an individual whom he believed to be a member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)," and that he "interpreted these conversations to mean that he should kill President B.O.."
The US State Department considers the group a terrorist organization.
Kodirov also admitted to discussing with another person his desire to kill Obama and strategies for carrying out the liquidation.
The other person -- who the Justice Department did not identify -- introduced Kodirov to an undercover US agent from whom the Uzbek man planned to purchase weapons.
They met in July 2011 at a motel in Leeds, Alabama. The agent showed Kodirov an M15-A1 machine gun, a sniper rifle with a telescopic lens and four disassembled hand grenades.
Kodirov chose the machine gun and hand grenades, but was nabbed before he could leave the motel.
Kodirov entered the United States from Uzbekistan on a student visa in June 2009. His visa was revoked in 2010 when he failed to enroll in school, and he was living in an extended-stay Alabama motel when police nabbed him.
Kodirov faces up to 30 years in prison on the charges.
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#1
" ...visa was revoked in 2010 when he failed to enroll in school, and he was living in an extended-stay Alabama motel when police nabbed him."
Couldn't decide between ITT and The School of Culinary Arts. Delayed his final decision pending achieving Craft Master status for his Magician on Runescape and pending completion of the next season of Game of Thrones. Decided to kill the president in his spare time.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/12/2012 14:55
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#2
I'm sorry, I can't resist reposting this _again_.
[Yemen Post] The Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates.... Group in northern Yemen called on Friday on the Yemeni people to boycott the upcoming presidential elections, scheduled for February 21, considering it a part of USA devised proposal aimed to derail and fail the Yemeni revolution.
The statement came only a day following the US ambassador Gerald Feierstein has expected the elections to be a success in an interview with the state-owned 26 September.
"Since the elections has only a sole candidate why then wasting the public funds and hold elections, whose outcome is already known, " local media sources quoted al-Houthi front man as saying.
They called the elections a sham and a mockery of Yemeni people mentality, calling on their followers and what they called free citizens to abstain from participation.
Shiite and Sunni festivities have erupted in the last couple of months between al-Houthis and Sunni rustics in the northern provinces of Hajjah and Saddah, leaving scores killed, displacing more than 1000 families and aggravating an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Houthis have fought six wars against government forces since 2004, leaving thousands killed from the two sides.
Yemeni government has directly accused Iran of backing Shiite sect of al-Houthis in 2008 and the relationships between the two countries have ever since downgraded.
Iran backs Shiites Moslems worldwide and the converse is true when it comes to Soddy Arabia, which supports Sunnis.
Following months of delaying tactics and political maneuvering, 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 transferred power to Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the consensus candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections, in exchange for immunity from power.
Hadi, a military general, is going to lead Yemen in the two-year transitional period, in which a new constitution will be drafted, in line with Gulf Cooperation Council-brokered deal signed in November in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2012
00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Houthis
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.
SEOUL, Feb. 12 -- North Korea will start its massive dance and gymnastics extravaganza in April to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the nation's founder and new leader Kim Jong-un's grandfather, a U.S.-based travel agency said Sunday.
Many diplomats--up to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--have cited Turkey's cooperation on Syria as evidence of the strong Turkish-American partnership. What the Turkish government often says--and what Turkish officials do, however, are often very different things.
These nuggets are culled from the Urdu press. They are summarised here without comment. Absurd or ridiculous, tft takes no responsibility for them
Pervez 
Nawaz Sharif
Malaysian authorities have deported a Saudi newspaper columnist accused of insulting Mohammed in a tweet. Police have confirmed that Hamza Kashgari was sent back to Saudi Arabia on Sunday despite protests from human rights groups. Kashgari's controversial tweet last week caused more than 30,000 responses and several death threats.
King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah
[An Nahar] A top U.S. diplomat Saturday ruled out snap elections to defuse a political crisis in the Maldives as its new president agreed to probe allegations that a military-backed coup vaulted him to power.
[Dawn] A 
[IOL News.za] Agovernment minister in Zim-bob-we says work has stopped on new reservoirs because workers have been scared off by mermaids, a report has said.
Mehmood 
Violent 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
David Cameron
[Iran Press TV] People in 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
A Haqqani network leader was captured in a joint operation by Afghan and Coalition troops in eastern 
[Yemen Post] The opposition Joint Meeting Parties and the ruling General People Congress agreed on Saturday to form joint committees to run the early elections set for Feb. 21. 
Mahmoud 
[Iran Press TV] A terrorist group has assassinated the head of a hospital in Syria's capital 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Southern Movement followers expelled on Saturday some committees tasked with organizing and running the upcoming early presidential elections from polling centers in some of the Yemeni southern provinces.
CAIRO: Egypts military rulers have warned that the country faces conspiracies that seek to topple the state and spread chaos, in a message intended to undermine activists who plan to mark the anniversary of President Hosni Mubaraks overthrow with anti-army protests.
Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi says 
[Magharebia] Stepped-up military operations and intelligence penetrations have sown panic among al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) leaders, security analysts say.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Zim-bob-we's President 
Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Saturday that the US has always sought sabotage in Iran in a bid to dishearten the people from the Islamic Revolution, IRNA reported.
The Saada-based 
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] White House hopeful 
[Tripoli Post] Libya's interim government has called on Niger to extradite 
The Pakistani army has started court martial proceedings against a brigadier and four other officers over suspected ties to a banned extremist group that has called for ousting the US-backed government, security officials said Saturday.
Two 
Asif Ali 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
