The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent until 2014. The official unemployment rate excludes those individuals who would like to work but have not searched for a job in the past four weeks as well as those who are working part-time but would prefer full-time work; if those people were counted among the unemployed, the unemployment rate in January 2012 would have been about 15 percent. Compounding the problem of high unemployment, the share of unemployed people looking for work for more than six monthsreferred to as the long-term unemployedtopped 40 percent in December 2009 for the first time since 1948, when such data began to be collected; it has remained above that level ever since.
Wow. Just... wow. I still wonder how people actually think things are getting better.
The United States Department of Treasury will reach the the statutory limit it is allowed to borrow money before election day, according to a new study by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio., former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
Following the contentious debt ceiling last August, President Obama promised that he would take action to address the countrys fiscal crisis. He has failed to do that," Portman said. "In fact, his new budget increases spending and projects that Washington will be hitting the debt ceiling again in mid-October burning through a $2.1 trillion debt limit increase in just over 14 months."
Portman's office notes that according to Obama's budget, total debt subject to the statutory debt will reach limit will reach $16.334 trillion by September 30, 2012. This is just $60 billion below the 16,394,000,000 debt limit. Since the federal government is adding to the national debt at a rate of $132 billion a month, the debt ceiling is on schedule to be reached by October 15, 2012.
" This is an unfortunate but clear signal to the American people that Washington is spending too much, borrowing too much, and putting our nations fiscal stability at risk," Portman said.
Talk about the major issue being brought to the forfront right during the home stretch. If the Republicans had any brains, they would be planning a major media blitz on this and their plans to fix it.
Hazam al-Thahb, Yemeni tribal chief from the southeastern Yemeni town of Rada, which was briefly taken over by al-Qaeda militants, killed his younger brother, Tariq al-Thahb, a high-profile leader in AQAP.
Hazam broke on Wednesday evening into a mosque, where his brother and some of al-Qaeda militants were living, and killed his Tariq and some of his followers, tribal dignitary from the area told Yemen Post on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
"He has killed his younger brother after he repeatedly warned him not to align himself with the islamists, however his brother was obstinate and did not pay heed to his warnings and advice. That's why he had to kill him before he is killed by the authorities, said the tribal dignitary.
"Al-Qaeda militants have quickly avenged their leader loss as they have launched some attacks on Hazam's, the older brother and tribal chief, house, shelling it with Rocket Propellant Grenades and mortars,"
Furthermore, the younger brother followers (al-Qaeda militants) have also planted some mines around the brother home, leaving Hazam and a number of his guards killed on Thursday morning, the local tribal source added.
Tribal Yemeni customs and traditions make it obligatory for a brother to stand by his brother even if he was on the wrong, and that it's very shameful not to avenge your brother murder regardless of what he was killed for.
Realizing one day his brother Tariq would be killed by either Yemeni government or by US drone, Hazam tried to make his brother disassociate himself with al-Qaeda. When Tariq refused to listen to his elder and wiser brother, Hazem preferred to kill his brother by his own in order not to have to take revenge against any one involved in his murder, according to tribal sources close to al-Thahb.
An Iraqi-born cleric pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of making death threats against politicians and encouraging suicide bombings.
Prosecutors said Mullah Krekar, a 55-year-old Islamist who came to Norway as a refugee in 1991, faces several years in prison if found guilty by Oslo District Court.
Since his arrival, Krekar has made frequent trips to Iraq where in 2001 he founded the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam, a group suspected of organizing suicide bombings against coalition forces in Iraq, and listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and other nations.
In 2005, a Norwegian court declared Krekar a national security threat and ordered him deported, but later postponed the move because of concerns he could face execution or torture in Iraq.
In June 2010, Krekar said at a news conference organized by the foreign press club in Oslo that if he were deported to Iraq and killed, Norwegian officials would "pay with their lives," according to a transcript included in the indictment presented in court.
"If I die it will be the beginning of killings," he said, according to the transcript.
Prosecutor Marit Bakkevig said Krekar had violated Norwegian terror laws by "threatening to commit murder for the purpose of creating fear in the society," which carries a maximum 12-year sentence. "The statements appear as persistent threats," she told the court.
Krekar is also charged with trying to force a reversal of the deportation order by threatening officials, or obstructing the government from performing its duties, with a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.
In addition, he has allegedly threatened several people on various websites, including three Kurds living in Norway, the prosecution said.
FEW sovereigns have shown more diplomatic ambition this year than the emir of Qatar. Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani has brokered a peace deal between the Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, acted as linchpin in Americas negotiations with the Taliban, spurred Libyas resurrection and led the international charge to oust the Syrian regime.
No wonder the 60-year-old is dubbed the Arab Kissinger. He says he strives to be friendly with everyone. A thick wallet seems to help, though his pragmatism at times offends allies. American Congressmen say he is a friend on Monday and sends money to extremists on Tuesday.
With Qatar holding the rotating presidency of the Arab League, the emir has played a leading role in the regions response to the Arab spring, spurring the once toothless body into action. He was the first Arab leader to shut an embassy in Damascus, the Syrian capital, and called on the president to go. Controversially, he raised the possibility of intervening militarily in Syria.
The emir, who attended Britains Sandhurst military academy and ousted his own father in 1995, armed Libyan rebels last year. He is determined to transform Doha, his capital, and will host a Taliban liaison office as well as the 2022 football world cup. Great gas wealth has allowed the rotund leader of the al-Thani dynasty, Qatars rulers for two centuries, to amass extraordinary clout.
Id like to make a statement about the growing crisis in the Americas. Its time for justice. Its time for liberty. Its time to end the ludicrous and archaic commitment to colonialist ideology. Its time Sean Penn handed his Malibu estate back to the Mexicans
#2
Well,with the demise of USA midget power, we Canucks would have to step up the plate. We're all for peace... through superior firepower.
(A group of Canucks (some are of Hindu origin) works on a weapon code-named Garuda Puncher. It's totally quiet -- bare the buzz created by high voltage [have to end it there for top secret reasons]. It punches a clean surgical precision hole of a size of Canuck Loonie into anything. The only problem to resolve is to make it stop at some point--for example, if you lined up all the Pakis in a column, one push of a button would make them "holed", and consequently "demised"--make it three-four pushes of a button, to cover differing tallness of the Paki induhviduals. We are also working on audio recognition--if someone utters an Islamic call to prayer or shahada, the Garuda Puncher would zoom on the subject and automatically punch, going six inches above the vocal box)
#6
Mods, you shouldn't remove the troll's post, now my reply seems out of place.
'Twas I, Twobyfour. Nothing you have ever posted is out of place, my dear. I love your idea. Do let us know when it becomes useful -- that sad little Canadian keyboard jihadi could use a spanking. A quick google reveals he's been doing this to other sites since last September or so.
A group of Iranians detained after accidentally setting off explosives in Bangkok planned to target two Israeli diplomats, Thailand's national police chief confirmed on Thursday.
The men were specifically targeting Israel diplomats and planned to plant "sticky" bombs on their vehicles, the same method used in attack on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi and a foiled plot in Tibilisi on Monday.
Police General Prewpan Dhamapong said Thai authorities "know for certain that [the intended target] was Israeli diplomats. The issue was about individuals and the targets were specific. This was something personal."
Thailand is to seek the extradition from Malaysia of an Iranian man who was part of the plot.
Immigration authorities in Kuala Lumpur arrested the man Masoud Sedaghat Zadeh, 31, on unspecified charges on Wednesday as he tried to board a flight to Iran.
The man had fled neighbouring Thailand after two Iranian accomplices were caught when an accidental blast at their bomb factory at a house they rented in a quiet residential area of Bangkok alerted Thai police.
We are under a slow motion spam attack by an idiot from Canada who fancies himself a keyboard jihadi...only he doesn't seem capable of more than pasting his all-caps spew into a comment box and hitting submit. Pretty pathetic, but the skilled jihadis have pretty much all gotten themselves killed off since 9/11.
If you feel the need to laugh yourself silly over what he considers Dawa cleverness, take a look in the Sinktrap -- we kept his first attempt for the amusement value.
#4
Poof! It has been yet again evaporated. How sad for him that he is loosing to a little Midwestern housewife known for her complete lack of computer skillz.
both Cut & Paste and the CAPSLOCK key are Western infidel inventions.
Not to mention electricity, the Internet, computers, English, email addresses (in what strikes me as an unwise move, Mr. wamiq sheikh gave his as CANADIANPEACE_DREAM_OF_A_MOMAN@YAHOO.CA, and his organization as CANADIAN MOJAHIDEEN-E-PAKISTAN. When he gets back from his holiday, Fred can add that to our watch list. If our Canadian members would be good enough to look up CMeP, I would be grateful.)
#10
Holy Cow! What kind of mild altering substances is this fellow on? I have seen more intelligent comments from a radio teletype hitting letters randomly in an electrical storm.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/16/2012 19:07
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#11
You people are too easily trolled. Responses are what they crave.
#12
tw, could you and the mods do people like me, who don't get to look at Rantburg until after work, a favor? Could you blank out the comment when moving it to the sink trap, rather than removing it? It gets confusing when I get home from work and see people having a conversation about something that doesn't even show up.
It gets confusing after a hard day's work when someone says 'cleanup on aisle 2', and comment #2 is some innocent comment, or something that refers to what was in comment #2.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/16/2012 21:03
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#13
Rambler, I understand that it makes understanding the thrust of the thread difficult, but the Idiot hit us with about twenty-something of the exact same thing long comment over the course of two hours or so. I left one example for those who wanted to see what it was all about, but I was on deck all by myself battling the bogie (did I get that right?) until badanov got home from work and blocked the IP.
gromky, I have not had a good day. Propose a doable solution within my nonexistent abilities or, please, shut up. You are making me cry.
#15
We appreciate your efforts, tw. I know from experience how annoying dealing with these infestations can be.
Yeah, deleting stuff can make the thread confusing, but that's life, eh?
Engaging trolls in extended debate is silly and pointless. But it is fun to chew on them a bit. And to reflect on the contributions the Islamic world has made to our modern era - which is basically squat. OK, I'll give them fatwas and piles of corpses. And shawarmas.
gromky, I apologise for my sharp words, but today I really, really needed an afternoon nap instead of that JUSTICE wannabe.
SteveS, had he been arguing instead of repasting the same nastiness repeatedly, I promise I would have left him for y,all to play with. But those mostly seem to have gone the way of the competent jihadis, leaving Satan and his little satanettes to have all the fun.
#17
Make no mistake, I'm all for the wholesale deletion of this pitiful spamming. It doesn't even rise to the level of trolling. I do like the symbolic mockery of leaving a copy in the sink trap for reference. But even that is more than they deserve.
Four Taliban faceless myrmidons were killed in joint Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... operation in northern Kunduz province on Wednesday night, the media office of the 303 Pamir Corps based in northern Afghanistan said on Thursday.
The operation, to clear the area of beturbanned goons, was conducted in the Khan Abad district of the province, the media office said.
The beturbanned goons, from Pakistain, had carried out attacks against the government, it added.
No Afghan or NATO soldiers, nor any civilians, were harmed during the operation.
Khan Abad district is considered an insecure area within the province and faceless myrmidons frequently engage in violent activities including attacks on Afghan National Police checkpoints.
Four Taliban insurgents were killed in joint Afghan and Nato operation in northern Kunduz province on Wednesday night, the media office of the 303 Pamir Corps based in northern Afghanistan said on Thursday.
The operation, to clear the area of insurgents, was conducted in the Khan Abad district of the province, the media office said.
The insurgents, from Pakistan, had carried out attacks against the government, it added.
No Afghan or Nato soldiers, nor any civilians, were harmed during the operation.
Khan Abad district is considered an insecure area within the province and insurgents frequently engage in violent activities including attacks on Afghan National Police checkpoints.
A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because the school told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious.
The girls turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the person who was inspecting all lunch boxes in the More at Four classroom that day.
The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs - including in-home day care centers - to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.
When home-packed lunches do not include all of the required items, child care providers must supplement them with the missing ones.
The girl's mother - who said she wishes to remain anonymous to protect her daughter from retaliation - said she received a note from the school stating that students who did not bring a "healthy lunch" would be offered the missing portions, which could result in a fee from the cafeteria, in her case $1.25.
"I don't feel that I should pay for a cafeteria lunch when I provide lunch for her from home," the mother wrote in a complaint to her state representative, Republican G.L. Pridgen of Robeson County.
The girl's grandmother, who sometimes helps pack her lunch, told Carolina Journal that she is a petite, picky 4-year-old who eats white whole wheat bread and is not big on vegetables.
"What got me so mad is, number one, don't tell my kid I'm not packing her lunch box properly," the girl's mother told CJ. "I pack her lunchbox according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never consists of a vegetable. She eats vegetables at home because I have to watch her because she doesn't really care for vegetables."
When the girl came home with her lunch untouched, her mother wanted to know what she ate instead. Three chicken nuggets, the girl answered. Everything else on her cafeteria tray went to waste.
"She came home with her whole sandwich I had packed, because she chose to eat the nuggets on the lunch tray, because they put it in front of her," her mother said. "You're telling a 4-year-old. 'oh. your lunch isn't right,' and she's thinking there's something wrong with her food."
While the mother and grandmother thought the potato chips and lack of vegetable were what disqualified the lunch, a spokeswoman for the Division of Child Development said that should not have been a problem.
"With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain, and if it had cheese on it, that's the dairy," said Jani Kozlowski, the fiscal and statutory policy manager for the division. "It sounds like the lunch itself would've met all of the standard." The lunch has to include a fruit or vegetable, but not both, she said.
There are no clear restrictions about what additional items - like potato chips - can be included in preschoolers' lunch boxes.
"If a parent sends their child with a Coke and a Twinkie, the child care provider is going to need to provide a balanced lunch for the child," Kozlowski said.
Ultimately, the child care provider can't take the Coke and Twinkie away from the child, but Kozlowski said she "would think the Pre-K provider would talk with the parent about that not being a healthy choice for their child."
It is unclear whether the school was allowed to charge for the cafeteria lunches they gave to every preschooler in the class that day.
The state regulation reads:
"Sites must provide breakfast and/or snacks and lunch meeting USDA requirements during the regular school day. The partial/full cost of meals may be charged when families do not qualify for free/reduced price meals.
"When children bring their own food for meals and snacks to the center, if the food does not meet the specified nutritional requirements, the center must provide additional food necessary to meet those requirements."
Still, Kozlowski said, the parents shouldn't have been charged.
"The school may have interpreted [the rule] to mean they felt like the lunch wasn't meeting the nutritional requirements and so they wanted the child to have the school lunch and then charged the parent," she said. "It sounds like maybe a technical assistance need for that school."
The school principal, Jackie Samuels, said he didn't "know anything about" parents being charged for the meals that day. "I know they eat in the cafeteria. Whether they pay or not, they eat in the cafeteria."
Pridgen's office is looking into the issue.
Sara Burrows is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.
Editor's note, Feb. 15: The first two paragraphs of this story were updated. Neither DHHS nor school officials would identify the person who inspected the homemade lunches and decided they did not meet USDA guidelines. CJ has made multiple requests to DHHS for clarification. In an email to CJ, department spokeswoman Lori Walston said: "As mentioned in the statement from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) issued last night, this agency is currently working to determine the specifics of this case."
h/t Gates of Vienna
Despite plummeting temperatures, Rita Young only puts her central heating on twice a day. Instead, the 76-year-old widow from Peterborough, a town about 150 kilometers north of London, says she "tries to keep busy and warm."
Young survives on her UK state pension - one of the least generous in Europe - and is classed as being in fuel poverty. That's when more than 10 percent of a household income is spent heating and lighting the home.
As recently as 2008 - before the financial crisis and subsequent deep recession hit - an estimated 3 million British households were classed as being in fuel poverty. Since then, with incomes squeezed and salaries frozen, the figure has nearly doubled. Well, you gotta have your priorities straight
#1
There is a frustratingly easy solution for a lot of this, with mass production of thin sheet aerogel insulation. They have tried weaving it into extreme cold weather clothing but it insulates so well that in near Arctic conditions, wearers are too hot.
Lining a refrigerator, it would use only a fraction of its energy to keep food cold. Lining an oven, the same, but keeping food hot. Line a building with it and human body heat will turn it into a sauna.
The key is mass production to drive the price down.
#2
Britain used to get its energy from a source other than windmills. I'm told it was common in Wales and in the southwest. You could send men under the ground to bring it out.
Too bad they can't use that instead of windmills.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2012 9:32
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#3
10% of household income is spent on heating and lighting? Many people in the U.S. would being living in fuel poverty by that standard.
I seem to recall that hearth burning in London for heat/cooking was banned many years ago because of smog.
So far in our area, using wood, oil burners and fireplaces are not against the law.
#4
Although Britain has one of the most competitive markets for home energy in the 27-member European Union, Young claims the big fuel companies act like a "cartel," deliberately working together to keep prices high.
Uh oh, we have a turd in the punchbowl!
Somebody shut this guy up! He's giving away industry secrets!
this is Europe we're speaking of. The cartel exists as part of the EU it's the gov't. that causes and enforces these conditions for their own greater good.
#6
Moose - do you have sources for the info on aerogel clothing? I've never heard of any clothing insulation rendering the wearers 'too hot' under Artic conditions. The human body generates about 100W of heat, and that makes it very hard to imagine any such scenario for a body that continues to breathe out some of its hot air and take in some Artic type air, even if heat loss through skin were zero.
Retro-engineering dilapidated and obsolete housing for proper insulation does tend to be uneconomic. I must say I have met many elderly individuals who complain bitterly about cold temps and utterly refuse to wear knit caps, sweaters & other such appropriate indoor wear even though it might solve their problem.
#2
How many chances do you get? Two World Wars dragging America into a fight in Europe from which their ancestors either left or were thrown out, followed by an unending expense of military welfare for first world countries.
Justinian squandered the resources of the Eastern Roman Empire to reconstruct the Western Roman Empire. That weakening only helped to have his lands overrun by the original Islamic Conquest.
#3
The role of NATOand Americas participation in itis now more critical than ever, both to protect a relatively disarmed and insolvent Europe from foreign pressuresbut, even more importantly, to help protect twenty-first-century Europeans from themselves.
I dunno, I'm not inclined to save Europe right now. The southern Euros need an object lesson in the consequences of failure (much as Prof. Hanson notes the object lesson Germany did not receive after World War I). Germany may fly high now but when the default comes they'll suddenly feel, economically, more like East Germans.
The history of the 20th century can be seen, in part, as the failure of Europe to take responsibility for itself. I'm not eager to continue to enable them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2012 9:42
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#4
POLICE INTRODUCE PERSUASIVE FLASH ( TRAP ) REHMAN. WAMIQ SHEIKHS POLITICAL STANZA DESTINATION 2012
CIAS CRIMINALS CRIMES ITS HARD TO SWALLOW BUT EASY TO VOMIT USAS SUPPORTED UNOS CRIMINALS CRIMESWORLD WIDE CONTROL, SUPERVISE & SCRUTINIZED INTENTIONAL PLANS BLOODSHED CRIMES AN RROW TWO BIRDS JEWISH ALONG WITH MUSLIMS GENOCIDE THE USAGE OF RELIGION AS AN UGLY WEAPON BY THE WHITE HOUSE 666 CRIMINALS.
MUSLIMS GENOCIDE ALONG WITH (AN ARROW TWO BIRDS) ANOTHER COMING JEWISH BLOODSHED CLOCKWISE LIKEWISE 6 MILLIONS JEWISH HOLOCAUST
1. TAME THE UNTAMED USA MIDGET POWER
2. USAGE OF RELIGION AS AN UGLY WEAPON
3. USA EARTH MIDGET POWER
4. 9 / 11 CRIMINALS RUN BABY RUN BUSH BUSHES
5. MOJAHID HANEEFUN
6. DETECTIVE KOSOVO REFUGEES
7. MOMAN VERSES MAMMON
8. MOMAN VERSES MORMON
9. USAGE OF RELIGION AS AN UGLY WEAPON
10. UNOS CRIMINALS BLOODSHED
11. CIAS CRIMINALS BLOODSHED
12. 6000 YEARS OLD MODERNISM
13. 6000 YEARS OLD GREEKS DEMONS SWEETISH DEMOCRACY
14. 6000 YEARS OLD DEMONS SWEETISH DEMOCRACYS WORLD SOPHISTICATED SLAVERY BLOODSHED
15. cia (international criminals agency / alliance comitting crimes wiorldwide) cia
16. AN RROW TWO BIRDS JEWISH ALONG WITH MUSLIMS GENOCIDE THE USAGE OF RELIGION AS AN UGLY WEAPON BY THE WHITE HOUSE CRIMINALS
17. USAS SUPPORTED UNOS CRIMINALS WORLD WIDE CONTROL ,SUPERVISE SCRUTINIZED INTENTIONAL BLOODSHED
18. THUGBURG (IN JUG-IN PRISON & DECEASED-MEANS KILLED BY CIAS CRIMINALS WORLDWIDE) RANTBURG
19. 9/11 CRIMINLS MUS STAND ON TRIAL WITH NO ECAPE GOAT VISIONARY
20. WHITE HOUSE NARCISSISM APPOINTED CRIMINALS NATIONAL SECURITY AGENTS COMMITTING CRIMES OPEN NAKED VISIONARY NUDISM HARASSING SCARING INSULTING THE WHOLE HUMANITY BIGOT WRITER WAMIQ
20. AN RROW TWO BIRDS JEWISH ALONG WITH MUSLIMS GENOCIDE THE USAGE OF RELIGION AS AN UGLY WEAPON BY THE WHITE HOUSE CRIMINALS
21. WHITE HOUSE 666 CRIMINALS WORLDWIDE BLOODSHED
22. BIGOT WRITER WAMIQ O CHILDREN OF ADAM & EVE BE UNITED WHRE AMONG NO DIFFERENCES TO DO THE BEST TO THE BEST DEEDS TO SAVE THE WHOLE HUMANITY FROM THE WHITE HOUSE 666 CRIMINALS BLOODSHED
23. HANEEFUN
24. CANADIAN WORLDWIDE PEACE ADDICTION CAMPAIGN APPEAL
25. CANADIAN MOJAHIDEEN-E-PAKISTAN SOCIAL WELFARE WORLD CORRECTIONAL ISLAMIC POLITICAL{Under Sharia Laws}PARTY FOR WORLD PEACE
CANADIAN WORLDWIDE PEACE ADDICTION CAMPAIGN APPEAL: PLEASE TYPE EACH ITEM IN GOOGLE.CA BAR AND ENTER I AM FEELING LUCKY. WEB. SEARCH RESPECTIVELY, stroll page up and down AND PARTICIPATE IN CANADIAN PEACE ADDICTTED CAMPAIGN AND TO DO THE BEST TO THE BEST DEEDS LIKE A TEAM WORK IN ORDER TO SAVE ONES LIFE; SAVE THE WHOLE HUMANITIY FROM 666 CRIMINALS BLOODSHED
*CANADIAN MOJAHIDEEN-E-PAKISTAN SOCIAL WELFARE WORLD CORRECTIONAL ISLAMIC POLITICAL{Under Sharia Laws}PARTY FOR WORLD PEACE
Philippine troops searching for a kidnapped Australian adventurer clashed with Abu Sayyaf terrorists militants in the southern province of Basilan. Reports said the fighting erupted in the town of Sumisip, an area where Warren Rodwell, 52, is believed being held captive by Abu Sayyaf.
Rodwell was kidnapped by five gunmen disguised as policemen in December from his home in the seaside town of Ipil and brought by boat to Basilan.
There were no reports of casualties in twenty minutes of fighting, but troops recovered bomb materials, binocular and a motorcycle left behind by fleeing gunmen led by Ustadz Muads.
Army Colonel Ricardo Visaya, commander of military forces in Basilan,said, "There is an ongoing operation against the Abu Sayyaf and we are tracking down the terrorists."
A man and his wife were gunned down as they left home to gather forest products in Pattani province on Tuesday morning. Anan sae Iew and his wife Lakkhana sae Iew were shot by two men who followed them on a motorcycle as they left their home. The assailants also stole their motorcycle.
In Narathiwat province, police searched a rubber plantation for explosives and other bomb-making materials. They were led to the site by Ibromae Dona, a supporter of the RKK terrorist separatist group who yesterday surrendered to authorities. Two plastic buckets containing 10kg and 5kg of urea fertiliser, two steel boxes which could be used to house improvised bombs, and steel rods cut into small pieces were found.
A village leader was killed in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat province on Tuesday evening. Police received a report about the shooting at 6:30 p.m. They found the body of Madawee Mayawka, 48, village chief of Ban Kujing Ruapa, behind the steering wheel of his pickup truck.
Madawee was driving his truck on a rural road in his village after attending a meeting at the provincial district office when a gunman on a pickup truck opened fire on him with an M16 assault rifle. The victim was hit several times in the chest and died on the spot. Police blamed separatist terrorists militants.
At least five insurgents were killed in a US drone strike in northwest of Pakistani on Thursday, local officials said.
The strike took place in Miranshah near Afghan border, Pakistani security officials said.
A security official said that two missiles were fired by a US drone on a compound used by militants in Spalga town near Miranshah in which five militants were killed.
Miranshah is the main town in North Waziristan region, known as stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaeda linked of militants.
Pakistan, after a Nato air strike on 26 Nov. 2011 on two Pakistani checkpoints near Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani troops, blocked the Nato supply route into Afghanistan and asked US officials to vacate Shamsi airbase which was used for US drone operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
US resumed drone operations on January 10.
Recently many insurgents have been killed in US drone strikes in Pakistan.
US officials recently said that eight of al-Qaeda's top 20 leaders were eliminated in the past year, mostly in US drone strikes.
At least five Orcs and similar vermin were killed in a US drone strike in northwest of Pak on Thursday, local officials said.
The strike took place in Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... near Afghan border, Pak security officials said.
A security official said that two missiles were fired by a US drone on a compound used by Death Eaters in Spalga town near Miranshah in which five Death Eaters were killed.
Miranshah is the main town in North Wazoo region, known as stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaeda linked of Death Eaters.
Pakistain, after a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... air strike on 26 Nov. 2011 on two Pak checkpoints near Afghan border that killed 24 Pak troops, blocked the NATO supply route into Afghanistan and asked US officials to vacate Shamsi airbase which was used for US drone operations in Afghanistan and Pakistain.
US resumed drone operations on January 10.
Recently many Orcs and similar vermin have been killed in US drone strikes in Pakistain.
US officials recently said that eight of al-Qaeda's top 20 leaders were eliminated in the past year, mostly in US drone strikes.
"Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and traditional orchestral arrangements. He has won two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, four National Film Awards, fifteen Filmfare Awards, thirteen Filmfare Awards South in addition to numerous other awards and nominations.
"Working in India's various film industries, international cinema and theatre, Rahman has sold more than 300 million records worldwide of his film scores and soundtracks as of 2009 for over 100 film scores worldwide, making him one of the world's all-time top selling recording artists."
#8
"Choral music is often devoted to religious themes. ... This is not a case where the school is endorsing or promoting any particular religion...The song was chosen because its rhythms and other qualities would provide an opportunity to exhibit the musical talent and skills of the group in competition, not because of its religious message..."
-well, if you were hell-bent on doing some middle-eastern sounding shit why not just go all out and do "kashmir" by Led Zeppelin...idiot dhimmis...Good for this kid to drop that choir.
Baroness Warsi has hit out at "secular fundamentalists" as she met the Pope and concluded an historic visit of British ministers to the Vatican.
The Cabinet Office minister and chairman of the Conservative Party gave Benedict XVI a personal gift during a 20-minute private audience -- a gold-plated cube that opens up to reveal 99 tiny cubes, each inscribed with a reference to Allah.
In keeping with the theme of interfaith dialogue, she also gave him a copy of the Koran which was translated by an East European Jew who converted to Islam and helped write Pakistan's constitution.
"They were personal gifts from me," Baroness Warsi, the first female Muslim cabinet minister, told The Daily Telegraph at the Vatican on Wednesday.
She also presented the pontiff with a letter from David Cameron, the Prime Minister, a message from the Queen and a copy of the King James Bible.
Baroness Warsi expanded on a speech she gave in Rome on Tuesday, and an article she wrote for The Daily Telegraph, that British society was under threat from a rising tide of "militant secularisation" and that Europe needs to be "more confident in its Christianity".
Speaking after her meeting with the Pope, she said: "Secular fundamentalists are saying that people of faith shouldn't have a voice in the public sphere. I'm saying faith should be one of many voices, it should be part of the debate."
According to a study carried out for Richard Dawkins's aggressive atheist
think tank, most people in Britain who identify themselves as Christian are "overwhelmingly secular in their attitudes on issues ranging from gay rights to religion in public life".
Almost three-quarters of people interviewed agreed that religion should not influence public policy, while only 12 per cent thought it should.
#1
In a just world (and in keeping with the theme of interfaith dialogue), His Holiness would have presented the good Baroness with a copy of Madden's "The Real History of the Crusades".
BEIJING - China's far western Xinjiang region has launched a campaign to stamp out rising religious extremism, state media said on Wednesday, after several violent attacks blamed on separatist Islamic fundamentalists.
Xinjiang is home to the mainly Mohammedan Turkic-speaking Uighur people, many of whom chafe at Chinese government controls on their culture and religion.
Provincial authorities aim via "public lectures" throughout Xinjiang to "rally mass support for the government's religious policies and to discourage illegal religious activities," the official Xinhua news agency reported.
#3
If they did, they probably already used it. The Chinese share the "reactive" model, of "oppress gradually, react as needed to resistance". The trouble is that this technique has some flaws.
And these flaws are a lot worse when both sides are using the technique. In this case, it is also the way Islam functions.
MOSCOW - Russian security forces have killed a leader of an Islamist rebel group in the North Caucasus who was accused of plotting a botched suicide kaboom in Moscow and calling for more bombings.
Ibragimkhalil Daudov was found dead in a forest on Tuesday after being maimed at the weekend in a shootout when police stormed a nearby house where he was hiding in the mainly Moslem region of Dagestan, Kommersant newspaper reported.
Daudov beat feet after the shootout, in which four gunnies were killed, but lost a lot of blood and froze to death, Kommersant quoted security officers as saying.
Russia's Anti-Terrorism Committee confirmed Daudov's death and said it had seized videos calling on fellow villagers to leave their families and undertake jihad, or Islamic holy war.
Perhaps "wary of" more than "fears". Israel concern homes in on recent reports that Assad is using nerve gas against the new opposition.
Concern is mounting within the IDF over the possibility that Syria will attack Israel as pressure mounts on Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... to step down. The move is seen as part of a potential effort by Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... to deter Arab countries from dispatching military support to opposition forces.
The concern is still under the surface, but the IDF's Northern Command has drawn up a number of operational responses to a range of scenarios that could evolve along the northern front.
Nevertheless, Israel fears that Assad, under pressure, could turn the military force -- that he has been using in an attempt to quell the ongoing uprising against his regime -- against Israel.
That is likely why the IDF Spokesman's Office sent out pictures taken on Tuesday of OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan and commander of the Northern Corps Maj.-Gen. Gershon Hacohen touring Mount Hermon and looking toward Syria -- showing that the IDF is preparing for attacks along the border.
Israel's concern hones in on recent reports that Assad is using nerve gas against the opposition. This has led Israel to reassess the possibility that Syria is might now be more willing to use chemical weapons against Israeli targets.
Syria is believed to have one of the most extensive chemical weapon arsenals in the world that reportedly includes Sarin, VX and Mustard Gas.
Israel's is also considering the possibility that Syria's arsenal of chemical weapons will fall into terrorist hands.
This stems from intelligence obtained by the West which indicates that advanced conventional military platforms have already been moved out of Syria by Hezbullies.
Concern over the stability of Syria's chemical arsenal comes at a time when only about 60 percent of Israelis are in possession of gas masks. The IDF is currently lacking NIS 1.2 billion to complete the production and distribution of gas masks to the rest of the public.
The Home Front Command and Defense Ministry are in talks with the Treasury in an effort to obtain the remaining required budget. Earlier this month, The Jerusalem Post reported that the distribution of the gas masks will be suspended in March due to the shortage in funds.
#2
It seems to me that with defections and desertions, the Syrian Army is seriously challenged right now. A serious gas attack would force IDF to glass Damascus.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/16/2012 0:31
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#3
If Obama punted on the Keystone pipeline so as not to lose part of his core constituency, I can't imagine him getting involved in a war that would alienate an even large chunk of his base.
#4
If Obama punted on the Keystone pipeline so as not to lose part of his core constituency, I can't imagine him getting involved in a war that would alienate an even large chunk of his base.
We worry about him getting involved on the Syrian side.
North Korea and China finally reached an agreement at the end of last year to jointly develop the Rajin-Sonbong special economic zone in the far northeastern edge of the isolated country, it emerged on Wednesday. The zone is seven times larger than the Kaesong Industrial Complex (65.7 sq.km), the site of inter-Korean economic cooperation.
The agreement entitles China to develop three new piers and grants it the right to use them for 50 years. According to the source in China's Jilin Province, the deal was inked in the second half of last year. China will reportedly invest US$3 billion to build infrastructure there such as railroads, power plants and other facilities by 2020.
"It is uncertain just how much Chinese companies will be interested in the special economic zone at this moment due to the poor infrastructure there," said Yoon Seung-hyun, a professor at China's Yanbian University. "However, once construction begins following an influx of Chinese investment, investors from Hong Kong will probably head there in search of cheap labor."
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Build a pier, that you CAN use (Sometines) sounds like a stupid idea.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2012 2:16
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Find Genghis Kahns tomb first. I'm sure there's some artifact there for the Chinese Communists to conquer the world with. Oh wait, Indiana Jones V plot revealed!
Posted by: Charles ||
02/16/2012 19:41
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CHINA DAILY FORUM > VIETNAM PROTESTS CHINA'S EAST SEA FISHING BAN, from China'S East Sea aka Gulf of Tonkin/Sea of Vietnam, to the disputed Paracel Islands [ China = Xishas].
China asserting its "sovereignty rights" as per its declared East-South China Sea EEZ + "Continental Shelf" DIplomacy.
* TELEGRAPH.UK > US MUST RESPECT CHINA'S INTERESTS, XI JINPING WARNS IN WASHINGTON SPEECH.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > $110.0 YUAN [US$17.50] FOR A GLASS OF MILK IN CHINA [Hainan Island trourist restaurant].
* SAME > CHINA BUYS UP SAUDI, RUSSIAN OIL TO SQUEEZE IRAN, i.e. influence Sino-Iranian negotiations for discounted = cheaper Iran oil.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > CHINA DEFENCE BUDGET SET TO DOUBLE BY 2015 [2011-2015], i.e. Regionally more than 2X that of all ASEAN States + Japan according to Jane's US-based IHS Global Research Group.
I never thought I would say this, but those of us on the Israeli Right owe a debt of gratitude to the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... By forging a unity agreement with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, earlier this month in Doha, Qatar, the Paleostinian Authority president has inadvertently corroborated one of the central tenets of our political philosophy: the Paleostinians cannot and must not be granted a state.
Ever since the signing of the Oslo Accords in September 1993, we have warned against the establishment of a Paleostinian entity alongside Israel. Historical, military and geopolitical arguments have been made, numerous articles and papers have been written, and countless rallies and protests were organized, all with the aim of demonstrating just how foolhardy such a step would be.
The tiny Gulf state has played a significant part over the past year in helping to strengthen various Islamist forces throughout the region, from the Moslem Brüderbund in Egypt to the Islamist Party Ennahda which came to power in Tunisia. The Qataris are now obviously trying to shepherd Hamas to power as well in order to further their own interests, and they will surely make a concerted effort to see that come to pass.
Repeatedly, we have pleaded with the public to recognize the dangers inherent in dividing the land of Israel and placing the heart of the country within our foes' artillery range. Time after time, we have insisted that an independent Paleostine would be swept up by the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism and become an outpost for Iranian-style extremism.
It has often been an uphill battle, as much of the media and the international community has prodded and pressed to give the Paleostinians a state of their own, seemingly without regard for the consequences.
But earlier this month, Abbas delivered decisive and irrefutable corroboration of everything the Right has been saying for nearly 20 years.
When he sat down with Hamas thug Khaled Mashaal and Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani on February 6, smiled for the cameras and then formally agreed to joint Fatah-Hamas rule, Abbas validated the worst fears of every Israeli.
He embraced a terrorist movement committed to Israel's destruction, legitimized them by welcoming Hamas into the Paleostinian political mainstream, and laid the groundwork for their possible takeover of the Paleostinian Authority. Under the terms of the deal, Abbas will head a unity government that will oversee Paleostinian presidential and parliamentary elections in Judea, Samaria and Gazoo later this year.
And so, in one fell swoop, he has breathed new life into the Paleostinian jihadist movement, raising their hopes to eventually seize the reins of power in Ramallah, just as they did in Gazoo City. From a security point of view, this is a nightmare in the making.
And so, in one fell swoop, he has breathed new life into the Paleostinian jihadist movement, raising their hopes to eventually seize the reins of power in Ramallah, just as they did in Gazoo City. From a security point of view, this is a nightmare in the making.
Should Hamas prevail, it would mean that the same organization that has been busy firing rockets into southern Israel would suddenly gain a political and institutional foothold just 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem. And Hamas' Iranian backers would enjoy a clear and unmistakable boost by further tightening their ring of encirclement around the Jewish state.
Lest anyone doubt the significance that Hamas attaches to the deal, they should consider what Mashaal declared its primary goal as being: "to resist the enemy [Israel] and achieve our national goal."
Qatar's role in forging the Paleostinian unity deal should not be underestimated.
The tiny Gulf state has played a significant part over the past year in helping to strengthen various Islamist forces throughout the region, from the Moslem Brüderbund in Egypt to the Islamist Party Ennahda which came to power in Tunisia. The Qataris are now obviously trying to shepherd Hamas to power as well in order to further their own interests, and they will surely make a concerted effort to see that come to pass.
However dangerous this development might be on the ground, it does present a significant opportunity in terms of Israel's public diplomacy. Simply put, Abbas's embrace of Hamas should be used to make a strong case against the prevailing notion that a "two-state solution" can bring about peace.
After all, the mirage of moderation surrounding Fatah and the Paleostinian Authority is now unambiguously on display as little more than a figment of the Left's imagination.
We must make the case that this is the end of Paleostine, the death knell of the delusion that the Paleostinian leadership was interested in reconciliation, compromise and peace. For if Abbas and his cohorts truly wished to see an end to the conflict, they would not have joined hands with those who advocate endless confrontation. By affixing his signature to the unity deal, Abbas has therefore settled the argument once and for all.
Faced with a choice, he discarded the possibility of an armistice with Israel, thereby closing the door on any chance of a resolution. Abbas chose Hamas over harmony. Now we must make sure he pays a price for doing so.
#2
I'm not so sure about that. When the Arab pseudo stakes recover from the Arab spring many will be looking for ways to distract their people from the starvation, death, and poverty, with an outward enemy. Israel shames them by her success and will always be the top of the list.
#4
Israel really missed a bet with the collapse of the Mubarak regime by not expelling as many Gazans as possible into Egypt, permanently.
Since Israel could again assert control over the border crossing, make it a one-way arrangement.
It would be worth it to *pay* any Gazan willing to leave for good.
For just $20b, 1/10th of the Israeli annual GDP, they could pay every Gazan man, woman, and child the equivalent of three years of the average pay of an Egyptian. A family of five would get 15 years full pay, instantly making them middle class by Egyptian standards. And the money would be paid directly to them, not their corrupt leaders.
Egypt would benefit from the big influx of wealth, even if it meant they got Paleos with it.
High Court agrees to hear appeal for Khader Adnan's release.
Two border coppers and 20 Paleostinians protesters were lightly injured during festivities on Wednesday afternoon, near Ofer Prison just outside Ramallah.
Some 150 protesters rallied there to call on the defense minister to release Paleostinian prisoner Khader Adnan, 33.
The father of two from Arrabe, near Jenin, has been on a hunger strike for 61 days to protest his administrative detention. He was in the prison until he was transferred to the Galilee Medical Faculty in Safed.
The IDF placed in long-term storage him in his home on December 17, but has not charged him with anything.
There have been media reports that Adnan belonged to the 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... , but the Shin Bet (Israel Security Service) and the IDF have not confirmed that.
Although his detention order is for four months, Adnan fears it will be extended indefinitely, said Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, who is a front man for the Paleostinian grassroots organization the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee.
As his medical situation becomes critical, activist support on his behalf has increased.
Wednesday's protest was the third such rally this week outside Ofer Prison. The border coppers shot tear gas and rubber bullets at the protesters, according to Pollak.
An IDF front man said the officers responded with tear gas and riot dispersal means after protesters threw stones at them.
A small protest by Israeli activists was also held outside the hospital in Safed.
On Friday, a demonstration will be held in solidarity with Adnan in the West Bank village of Bil'in, near Modi'in Illit. Pollack said it was possible an additional protest would be held on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the High Court of Justice agreed to hear a petition for release submitted by Adnan's attorney, but it has yet to set a date for the hearing. The appeal relied in part on medical information provided by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
The organization said that one of its doctors had examined Adnan five times this week. The doctor has determined that he is in "immediate danger of death," the organization said in a release it sent to the media. When queried, it would not release the name of the physician.
Adnan is receiving an infusion of liquids, salts, glucose and vitamins, the doctor said in the blurb. He has lost 30 kilograms, the doctor said. His condition is weak and he is permanently connected to a heart monitor.
After 50 days of fasting, the muscles can decompose. As a result the heart can fail and the immune system can collapse, the doctor said.
Be strong, Mr, Adnan. Destroy your health permanently for the cause.
It is not possible to survive a hunger strike of longer than 70 days, the doctor added.
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, officials in the Gazoo Strip accused Israel of encouraging the drug trade in the coastal enclave, the Paleostinian Ma'an news agency reported Wednesday.
Director of the anti-drugs police in northern Gazoo Ashraf al-Bayari said Israel deliberately sends large quantities of drugs to the Gazoo Strip "in order to blackmail youths and trick them into becoming collaborators with Israeli intelligence," the agency said.
According to Ma'an, Hamas copperstossed in the calaboose a drug pusher on Sunday evening in the refugee camp of Jabalya in the northern Gazoo Strip who was in possession of 1,000 ecstasy pills.
The pills were smuggled into the Gazoo Strip from Israel via the Erez crossing, the Hamas authorities claimed.
(Naharnet) - African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... -backed Somali government forces attacked Islamist Shebab rebel posts on the outskirts of the war-torn capital Mogadishu with tanks and artillery Tuesday, officials and witness said.
Burundian troops with the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) launched a pre-dawn attack against holdout positions of the al-Qaeda-allied Shebab, to secure a key road leading from anarchic Mogadishu to the rebel-held town of Afgoye.
"Somalia's army and AMISOM troops advanced on new locations in the Afgoye corridor, they have taken bases there and will continue moving towards Afgoye," said Mohamed Alole, a Somali security official.
"The al-Qaeda gun-hung tough guys started to fight back, but they were defeated and bravely ran away after a brief exchange of gunfire."
On Sunday, AMISOM deputy commander Audace Nduwumunsi told Agence La Belle France Presse that the force would soon attack Afgoye, some 30 kilometers northwest of Mogadishu, which is home to around 400,000 displaced people.
Hardline Shebab fighters abandoned fixed positions in most of Mogadishu last August but continue to control small pockets on the outskirts of the city.
The fighters have instead largely switched to guerrilla tactics in Mogadishu, launching a string of attacks including roadside kabooms and grenade kabooms against the Western-backed government and AU troops.
"The road was closed at dawn with tanks and hundreds of soldiers ... fighting is going on and people there are worried," said Ahmednur Ali, a resident in Mogadishu's K13 area, 13 kilometers from the city center.
"I saw at least three tanks and other armored vehicles moving towards the area, civilian transport was stopped," said Dahir Bare, another witness.
A Shebab commander who spoke to AFP confirmed the festivities but declined to give details, but AMISOM said their attacks had been a success.
"Operations are ongoing to expand the zone of security in Mogadishu," Nduwumunsi said in a statement.
"AMISOM's Burundian contingent took Al Janal hill, which oversees the southern approaches to the Mogadishu International Airport, as well as the Masla building, which sits on the road to Afgoye," the statement said.
Extremist Shebab gunnies have been fighting to topple the Western-backed Somali government in Mogadishu, where the administration survives under the protection of the 10,000-strong AU force.
Regional countries have recently increased pressure on the Shebab, with Kenyan troops battling the rebels in southern Somalia since October.
Ethiopia also sent forces to southwestern Somalia in November, the second such incursion in less than three years.
Boilerplate follows...
Somalia has lacked an effective central government since president Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, unleashing cycles of bloody conflict that have defied countless peace initiatives.
North Korea has apparently ordered people studying or working abroad to return home by Thursday to mark the birthday of dead leader Kim Jong-il. The Daily NK, a website specializing in news about the isolated country, on Tuesday said the regime told North Koreans in China to come back.
The Daily NK quoted a North Korean working in Shenyang, China as saying, "Some North Koreans including students in China have already headed home. Those who can't afford to go back plan at least to send gifts or flowers."
According to the worker, the North is now ordering people home because fewer people than expected came back to attend Kims funeral late last year. The regime is apparently giving North Koreans abroad one more chance to demonstrate their allegiance, promising to waive any punishment for failing to come back for Kims funeral and pledging not to confiscate their belongings.
But experts believe the North is trying to collect cash from expatriates. The North Korean worker in Shenyang told the Daily NK, "Because it isn't clear whether the order came from the Worker's Party or from Kim Jong-un, high-ranking officials in Pyongyang may be trying to pad their pockets by recalling students and workers living overseas."
Posted by: Steve White ||
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You'd be an Idiot to return.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2012 0:14
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#2
Is this aimed at defectors, or North Korean expatriate workers? (Such a thing does exist) It doesn't say.
(Naharnet) - Sacked South Sudanese members of the Sudanese military pelted motorists and police with stones and blocked traffic on Wednesday to protest delays in their severance pay, witnesses said.
About 100 protesters gathered on Africa Road, a major artery in the Sudanese capital, shouting "We want our rights!"
Witnesses said the demonstrators were seeking compensation and marched to the multi-lane thoroughfare from a nearby office of the Sudan Armed Forces.
Stones thrown by the demonstrators shattered windows of some passing cars, an Agence La Belle France Presse news hound witnessed.
Riot police wielding batons dispersed the protesters, and there were no apparent arrests or injuries.
The Khartoum government fired ethnic southern members of its civil service last year prior to the July separation of South Sudan, which voted overwhelmingly for independence after decades of conflict with the north that left some two million people dead.
Up to 700,000 ethnic southerners are estimated to remain in Sudan ahead of an April deadline for them to either go south or normalize their status with the Khartoum authorities.
On Sunday, Khartoum and Juba agreed to cooperate in the transfer of ethnic southerners to the new nation, the official SUNA news agency said.
Khartoum's Social Welfare Minister, Amira al-Fadel Mohamed, signed a memorandum of understanding on the issue with South Sudan's Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Joseph Lual Achwel, SUNA said, adding the agreement covers road, air and river transport.
Despite the deal, the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. have said it is logistically impossible for all southerners in Sudan to either move south or obtain official status in the north before the April 8 deadline.
ANKARA - A former head of Turkey's armed forces is to go on trial after judges agreed on Wednesday there were sufficient grounds to prosecute him on charges of attempting to overthrow the government.
The trial of General Ilker Basbug, military chief of staff from 2008 to 2010, is one of a series of prosecutions and judicial inquiries that have engulfed the former secular establishment, but have also now touched on figures close to the government, suggesting a power struggle within the state.
Basbug, held in a high-security prison, is the most senior officer among hundreds of secularists charged with conspiring to topple Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government because of its roots in political Islam.
'Post' obtains letter in which leading House Republicans express concern with "record-low support" for Israeli missile defense.
Two leading Republicans chastised US President Barack Obama B.O.... for cutting missile defense funding to Israel in the 2013 budget, in a letter released on Wednesday.
"We are deeply concerned that at a time of rising threats to our strongest ally in the Middle East, the administration is requesting record-low support for this vital defense cooperation program," wrote Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Buck McKeon of Caliphornia, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
The new White House budget request reduces funding in this area from $106 million for this year to $99m. in 2013. The authors noted that Congress ended up more than doubling the 2012 administration request to $215m.
Democratic Hill sources have told the Post that they anticipate a similar congressional increase in funding for 2013, wiping out any reduction.
The White House did not immediately react to the letter, but referred the Post to a White House website post by Jarrod Bernstein, director of Jewish outreach, in which he wrote, "Informed by our ongoing high-level security dialogue with key Israeli defense and intelligence officials, the president has requested unprecedented support for Israel, even in a challenging fiscal climate." Obama's budget includes a record-high $3.1 billion in military assistance to Israel in addition to the missile defense spending.
"The fact is that the president submitted to Congress on Monday the largest White House budget request for foreign military assistance for Israel ever," said National Jewish Democratic Council President David Harris. "But it's not just the largest for Israel. It's the largest foreign military assistance request for any country in history."
Harris described the White House request and the anticipated congressional boosting for missile defense as consistent with the practice of former president George W. Bush, a Republican.
"I'm aware that there's a $6m. piece of pain," Harris said, but added, "This is only the first step in the process and I'm confident that President B.O. will ensure that Israel gets every dollar it needs for missile defense."
OSLO, Norway: An Iraqi-born cleric pleaded not guilty in a Norwegian court Wednesday to charges of making death threats against politicians and encouraging suicide bombings.
Prosecutors said Mullah Krekar, a 55-year-old Islamist who came to Norway as a refugee in 1991, faces several years in prison if found guilty.
But don't deport him, because he couldn't possibly receive a fair trial anywhere else...
Since his arrival, Krekar has made frequent trips to Iraq where he founded the Kurdish Ansar Al-Islam, listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and other nations. It is suspected of organizing suicide bombings against coalition forces in Iraq.
In 2005, a Norwegian court declared him a national security threat and ordered him deported, but later postponed the move because of concerns he could face execution or torture in Iraq.
See?
Prosecutor Marit Bakkevig told the court Wednesday that Krekar had violated Norwegian terror laws by making threats that were meant to cause fear in society and force officials to halt the deportation order. The statements appear as persistent threats, she said.
Two years ago, Krekar told foreign reporters in Oslo that if he were deported to Iraq and killed, Norwegian officials would pay with their lives, according to a transcript included in the indictment presented in court.
Perhaps, but he certainly would have paid with his...
Charges also include comments Krekar made on NBCs news program The Wanted in 2009. He said America deserved the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and condoned suicide bombings against Americans in Iraq. He is also charged with making death threats on various websites against others.
Krekars lawyer, Brynjar Meling, said his client stands by what he said, but he had not broken the law.
It should not be looked upon as threats, Meling told The Associated Press on the eve of the trial, adding that it would be a test case for drawing the line between Norwegian terror laws and freedom of speech.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.
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THE HAGUE Eight lawyers representing the four Hezbollah members due to be tried in absentia for the 2005 murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri have been sworn in, a UN-backed tribunal said Wednesday.
All the defence counsel signed a declaration that they will exercise their duties with integrity and diligence, honourably, freely, expeditiously and conscientiously, Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) said in a statement.
The Hague-based STL announced early this month that Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Anaissi and Assad Sabra will be tried in absentia for the massive February 14, 2005, car bombing in Beirut that killed Hariri and 22 others, including a suicide bomber.
The STL sent arrest warrants for Ayyash and the three others to Lebanese authorities in June, and Interpol issued a red notice in July. But the authorities in Lebanon, where the government is dominated by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah militant group, have failed to arrest them.
They'll do so five minutes after Pencilneck is deposed and killed...
Ayyash, 48 and Badreddine, 50, face charges of committing a terrorist act by means of an explosive device and homicide, while Anaissi, 37, and Sabra, 35, face charges of conspiring to commit the same acts.
Created by a 2007 United Nations Security Council resolution at Lebanons request, the STL opened its doors in 2009 and is tasked with trying those suspected of responsibility for Hariris assassination. Hezbollah has denied involvement.
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SEOUL -- Senior diplomats from South Korea and China are scheduled to hold talks later this month to address outstanding issues between the two nations, including North Korean defectors detained in China, a diplomatic source said Thursday.
The talks come as Seoul has urged Beijing not to send back a group of North Koreans detained in China as they hope for South Korean intervention to avoid repatriation to their communist homeland.
During the talks, South Korea will "emphasize again that China should not repatriate North Korean defectors against their will but should handle the issue from a humanitarian standpoint," the source said on condition of anonymity. No date for the planned talks has been fixed but the two sides are finalizing a schedule, according to the source.
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Govt ordered to begin talks with US, Afghanistan to bring inmates back home
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday directed the government to begin negotiations with US and Afghan governments for the return of seven Pakistani detainees in Bagram.
Bagram -- say, that's in Afghanistan, isn't it. What were the hard boyz doing in Afghanistan?
Hearing a petition challenging the alleged abduction of the seven Pakistanis, Justice Khalid Mehmood found there to be no serious allegations against the detainees.
Of course he didn't...
He said a Foreign Ministry's report -- submitted to the court earlier -- showed that the government had done nothing to ensure its citizens rights and freedoms as guaranteed by the constitution. The Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a non-profit law firm, has moved the court for the release of the detainees. The court also observed that it is the government of Pakistan that should be fighting for the rights of its citizens considering that it is in a position to raise this issue at the highest governmental level.
"In these circumstances, respondents are directed to commence negotiations with the government of Afghanistan as well as the government of USA for bringing these detainees in Pakistan for their trial, if any, according to law. The respondents will submit a report within two months from today," the judge observed.
The court scheduled the hearing for March 21 when the ministry is expected to submit a report on the government's talks with US and Afghan governments to secure the release of the detainees.
The JPP's Barrister Sarah Belal welcomed the development, and said, "It is time that institutions of the country begin to stand up for the rights of their citizens...You cannot begin to imagine what it means for the families of the detainees, who wait endlessly for someone, anyone, to pay heed to their plight."
They were simple shepherds. Pious, simple shepherds. Heavily-armed, pious, simple shepherds.
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#1
Troll is leaving droppings everywhere. Because Garuda Puncher isn't ready yet, nuke the troll, by all means.
BEIRUT As Syrian forces stepped up their assault Wednesday on rebellious cities, President Bashar Assad ordered a referendum on a new constitution that would create a multiparty system in a country that has been ruled by his autocratic family dynasty for 40 years.
Once again a constitution is changed, and once again it just so happens that all the changes favor the strong-man who happens to be in charge. Coincidences abound...
Such a change would have been unheard of a year ago, and Assads regime is touting the new constitution as the centerpiece of reforms aimed at calming Syrias upheaval. But after 11 months of bloodshed, with well over 5,000 dead in the regimes crackdown on protesters and rebels, Assads opponents say the referendum and reforms are not enough and that the countrys strongman must go.
The people in the street today have demands, and one of these demands is the departure of this regime, said Khalaf Dahowd, a member of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, an umbrella for several opposition groups in Syria and in exile.
The White House also dismissed the referendum. Press secretary Jay Carney called the move laughable in light of ongoing brutality by the Syrian military and said it makes a mockery of the uprising.
Like a stopped clock, Mr. Carney occasionally gets one right...
Assads call for a referendum, set for Feb. 26, also raises the question of how a nationwide vote could be held at a time when many areas see daily battles between Syrian troops and rebel soldiers.
Only in secured neighborhoods, of course. See how that works?
Amendments to the constitution once were a key demand by the opposition at the start of Syrias uprising, when protesters first launched demonstrations calling for change. Assad has also talked of holding parliament elections after the referendum. But after months of the regimes fearsome crackdown, the opposition dismisses any talk of reform, saying that they dont believe Assad will really loosen his iron grip on power and that his ouster is the only solution.
Russia, a top Syrian ally, has presented Assads reform promises as an alternative way to resolve Syrias bloodshed.
And who would know more about constitutional reform than the Russians?
The current Syrian constitution enshrines Assads Baath Party as the leader of the state. But according to the new draft, the states political system is based on political pluralism and power is practiced democratically through voting.
There will be the Syrian Baath Party, the Baath Party of Syria, the Popular Baath Party, the Baath Populist Party...
The draft also says the president can hold office only for a maximum of two seven-year terms. Assad, who inherited power from his father, has been in power for nearly 12 years. His father, Hafez, ruled for 30 years.
And in fourteen years, there would be a popular demand to write another constitution...
The Syrian constitution has been amended in the past most crucially, to allow Assad to take power in 2000. After his fathers death, Parliament quickly lowered the presidential age requirement from 40 to 34 so that the ruling Baath party could nominate Bashar Assad. His appointment was sealed by a nationwide referendum, in which he was the only candidate.
The new draft reinstates the requirement of 40 and mandates that any presidential candidate must have lived continuously in Syria for at least a decade. That would to rule out the candidacy of Syrian dissidents who have lived in exile out of fear for their lives.
It creates a certain problem for the dissidents: come to Syria and live in fear for their lives, or stay away and subsequently be scorned, after the revolution, as one who didn't share the pain.
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#1
In the cases of dictators, the ballot should have one checkbox: Dictator to the gallows...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/16/2012 11:17
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(Naharnet) - Jordan has given assurances to Britannia that Islamist holy man Abu Qatada, once dubbed an aide to the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer has to waste time and energy breathing... , will get a "fair" trial if London extradites him to the kingdom, a government official said on Wednesday.
"Jordan has reassured British Home Office Minister James Brokenshire that it is committed to protecting the legal rights of Jordanian citizen Abu Qatada," the official told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"If Britannia extradites Abu Qatada to Jordan, he will receive a fair and transparent trial."
Brokenshire was meeting on Wednesday with Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh following talks Tuesday with Legislative Affairs Minister Ayman Odeh to "discuss the possibility of extraditing Abu Qatada," the official added.
The British minister flew to Amman 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 ... spoke with Jordan's King Abdullah II last week about finding an "effective solution" to the case.
One of Abu Qatada's brothers told AFP that the Islamist holy man had asked his family "to avoid giving statements in order not to affect the procedures."
Britannia has been trying to extradite Abu Qatada to Jordan for the past six years, claiming he is a serious risk to national security, but its efforts have been thwarted on human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. grounds.
Abu Qatada, 51, was released from a British prison on Monday on extremely tight bail conditions after spending most of the last six years in jail without charge during London's bid to deport him.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled last month that Britannia cannot deport the Jordanian to his homeland because evidence used against him in any trial there may have been obtained through torture.
Abu Qatada, once labeled late al-Qaeda chief bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe by a Spanish judge, was convicted in Jordan in his absence of involvement in terror attacks in 1998.
LANDIKOTAL: One person was killed and five others injured in a bomb blast in Wazir Dhand area of Jamrud tehsil on Wednesday.
According to the areas local administration, the bomb, planted in a motorcycle, went off in a local market, injuring six persons and damaging many shops. The injured were rushed to Jamrud Civil Hospital and Peshawar Hospital, where one of them succumbed to his injuries.
Khasadar Force personnel rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. The local administration officials said two vehicles and ten shops were damaged in the incident. So far, nobody has claimed responsibility for the blast, the officials added.
Meanwhile, Jamrud administration recovered three kidnapped persons from Ghundi area of the town.
Separately, Khasadar Force at Begyari checkpost recovered a kidnapped person from a car and arrested the driver, local sources said.
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(Naharnet) - Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... on Wednesday declared the death of the Taef Agreement which ended the 1975-1990 civil war in Leb, calling on Syria's ruling Baath Party to leave power.
At a seminar organized by the Friends of Kamal Jumblat Association on the topic of "The Rise of Islamists and Fundamentalism to Power in the Arab Countries", Jumblat reassured that "the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya -- which were liberated from the chains of the regime -- are not in danger."
"But we fear for Syria, where we heard about a miracle today, which was the issuing of a new constitution and abolishing Article 8" of the old constitution, which stipulates that the ruling Baath Party is the "leader of the state and society."
"The Baath Party is replicating itself and the best thing for it to do is to step down," Jumblat added.
Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... has decreed to hold a referendum later this month for a new constitution that would effectively end nearly 50 years of single party rule, state media said Wednesday.
"President Bashir al-Assad issued today a decree setting Sunday, February 26, as the date for the referendum on the proposed constitution," the official SANA news agency reported.
Assad has said the constitution would usher in a "new era" for Syria, the agency reported.
Under the new charter, freedom is "a sacred right" and "the people will govern the people" in a multi-party democratic system based on Islamic law, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
Criticizing Russia and China, which have recently used a rare double veto at the U.N. Security Council to block a resolution condemning Assad's brutal crackdown on dissent, Jumblat said the two countries want Assad to remain in power in order to preserve their interests.
"They have refused any Yemen-style settlement and the situation will become worse should the bloodshed persist," he added.
Addressing the Lebanese situation, Jumblat said: "The Taef Accord is dead, we need a 'new Taef' between the Sunnis and the Shiites, hence a new settlement."
However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... he reassured: "We don't fear a civil war and we don't foresee a civil war and there is dialogue among the Lebanese."
Jumblat's remarks come one day after ex-PM Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. reiterated adherence to the 1989 Taef Accord during the rally held by the March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... forces to mark the seventh anniversary of the liquidation of ex-PM Rafik Hariri.
Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat -- The latest session of the trial of the 85-member terrorist cell accused of being responsible for the 2003 Riyadh Compound Bombings took place in Riyadh on Tuesday. The Special Criminal Court in Riyadh, which specializes in overseeing terrorism and national security cases, heard the confessions of 6 defendants who are accused of being members of the Al Qaeda organization and traveling to Afghanistan, in addition to possessing arms and explosives and attempting to murder security officers.
One of the defendants in the Riyadh Compound Bombing trial denied the charges made against him by the Saudi Public Prosecutor, including allegations that he had met with known terrorist figures in Afghanistan. The defendant also claimed that there was no truth to the allegations that he was in possession of false passports and a large amount of money when incarcerated. He also claimed that he had not been incarcerated, but had rather handed himself over to the authorities. This is contrary to the Saudi Public Prosecution's allegations that the defendant was given up by his father.
In addition to this, the six defendants explained that they had travelled to Afghanistan after being inspired by religious fatwas issued by Saudi holy mans.
This trial is part of the trial of the Turki al-Dandani terrorist cell which was responsible for the 2003 Riyadh Compound Bombings, resulting in 35 people being killed, and 160 injured. The defendants being tried on Tuesday were defendants' number 8, 12, 16, 17, 28 and 36 of the al-Dandani cell.
The 6 defendants being tried, out of 85 defendants who are being tried as part of the al-Dandani terror cell, were granted additional time by the presiding judge to read their replies and confessions. The 6 defendants are facing a total of 117 charges.
The Saud Public Prosecutor, responding to some of the defendants denials, stressed the evidence of their guilt, as well as the defendants own confessions.
As for the defendants' claims that these confessions were taken under duress, the prosecutor called on the defendants to provide evidence to back up their claims.
Asharq Al-Awsat published information in 2010 that the Riyadh Compound Bombings had sought to replicate the 9/11 attacks in terms of coordinating the timings of the attack, and targeting more than one target.
A Saudi Human Rights Commission representative, in addition to local media, was present at the hearing on Tuesday.
In a previous Riyadh Compound Bombings trial last year, Defendant number 1 -- of 85 -- pled guilty to all charges against him. The defendant, a senior bad boy, described the late Osama bin Laden ... who is currently taking a long nap in the dirt... urm... water... as a martyr and wished his successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... , success. The defendant said that he expected to be given the death penalty.
#3
In addition to this, the six defendants explained that they had travelled to Afghanistan after being inspired by religious fatwas issued by Saudi clerics.
SANAA A Yemeni journalist who was close to slain US-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi and was jailed for five years last year for promoting Al-Qaeda is on hunger strike, Reporters Without Borders said on Wednesday.
Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae... has been on hunger strike since 12 February. He has stopped eating and drinking in an attempt to pressure the authorities to release him, said the media rights watchdog (Reporteurs Sans Frontieres, RSF) in a statement.
Time for a nasogastric tube. A fat one. Lubrication is optional...
Yemens President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who will officially step down on February 21, ordered the freeing of Shae a year ago. But he was kept in detention as a result of direct pressure from the White House that began the day after the decree, when President Obama voiced concern about his possible release because of his supposedly close ties to Al-Qaeda, RSF said.
No one else in the world listens to Obama. Why would anyone in Yemen?
RSF urged the Yemeni authorities to free Shae and deplored the interference by the Unites States, which it said does not hesitate to violate freedom of expression in order to pursue its war on terror and secure the cooperation of other countries.
On January 18, 2011 the court specialising in terrorism cases convicted Shae, 34, of working in the media for the benefit of Al-Qaeda, taking pictures of security buildings, embassies and foreign interests in Sanaa, and inciting Al-Qaeda to attack them.
After serving his five year prison sentence, Shae, employed by the official news agency Saba and held in jail since August 16, is due to be placed under house arrest for two years.
The journalist said in July 2010 that security agents had kidnapped and beaten him.
His health is deteriorating rapidly, RSF said on Wednesday.
His choice...
A group of 146 journalists and activists also issued a statement received by AFP on Wednesday calling for Shaes release.
We warn that this decision (to go on strike) threatens his life, it said. We launch this campaign to call for saving his life and releasing him.
Haydars analyses have refuted much of the lies promoted by the media, thus embarrassing both the American and the Yemeni governments, said the statement, referring to attacks on Al-Qaeda hide-outs in Yemen.
Most victims of these attacks were innocent women and children who have nothing to do with Al-Qaeda. The decision came to silence (Shae) after he unveiled most of these crimes, the statement added.
We urge all local, regional and international rights groups and political parties to take up their duty towards this case, it said.
Shae, who specialises in terrorism, is considered one of Yemens most knowledgeable journalists on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula the networks local affiliate. He is also known for his close ties to Awlaqi, the jihadist preacher said by Washington to have been linked to a failed 2009 attack on a US-bound airliner, who was killed on September 30 in an air strike in Yemen.
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#1
let him starve. Save the food
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2012 8:12
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(Naharnet) - Syrian troops on Wednesday launched an assault on the central city of Hama, as ongoing violence killed 29 people across the country, a rights group said.
Loud blasts could be heard in the Hama's Hamidiyeh and other neighborhoods, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Britannia-based monitoring group, said ongoing festivities had killed 20 people, including nine civilians, in Al-Atareb, northwestern 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... province.
A kaboom killed three people in Jisr al-Shughour, a 16-year-old schoolgirl was rubbed out in southern Daraa province and gunfire and kabooms rocked the northern city of Idlib, said the Observatory.
Five soldiers died when a bomb attached to their armored vehicle by army deserters went kaboom! in the town of Sermin, Idlib province, it added.
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... , dozens of pro-regime young Syrians gathered in front of the Russian embassy to thank Moscow and Beijing for their support, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
"We are here to thank Russia and China," said one woman who urged Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... to deploy the army across Syria and to strike what she called gangs "with an iron fist."
As diplomats said they would seek a condemnation of the violence at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, China called for an "inclusive dialogue" between the government and opposition protesters.
China and Russia have faced a barrage of criticism for blocking a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Assad regime.
Rights groups say more than 6,000 people have been killed since regime forces launched the crackdown on protests calling for democracy, which were launched 11 months ago to the day.
The man fingered by South Korean authorities as being responsible for the torpedo attack against the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan, has been promoted from lieutenant general to general, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported on Wednesday.
In the first high-level military reshuffle conducted by North Korean leader Suet Face Kim Jong-un following the death in December of his father, Kim Jong-il, Gen. Kim Yong-chol, head of the policy department of North Korea's National Defense Commission, was granted the new title.
The department is also known as the General Reconnaissance Bureau, the headquarters of the regime's anti-South Korean operations.
The latest promotions came ahead of the elder Kim's birthday on Thursday. A total of 23 military officials have been promoted, including Kim Jong-gak (62), first deputy director of Army's General Political Bureau.
Kim Yong-chol is suspected of orchestrating all of the major provocations committed against South Korea since 2009, including the July 2009 DDoS computer virus attacks on major South Korean and U.S. government agencies. He is also believed to have dispatched a hit team in November of 2009 to assassinate Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranking North Korean to defect to the South, and to have orchestrated the sinking of the Cheonan in March of 2010, which the North denies being responsible for. Kim may also have played a key role in organizing a hacking attack against South Korean lender Nonghyup in April last year.
Government sources said that if the North had sacked -- rather than rewarded -- Kim Yong-chol, it would have been construed as a genuine move to mend ties with the South, as well as a demonstration of the power and reach of its new leader.
But Fat Boy Kim Jong-un has shown that he has no such intentions. Ryu Dong-ryeol, a researcher at the Police Science Institute, said, "Provocations against the South led by Kim Yong-chol could become more intense this year, especially as general and presidential elections are on the calendar [in South Korea]."
Kim Jong-gak, who was promoted to vice marshal in the latest reshuffle, is close to the reclusive nation's new leader. He is in charge of monitoring all North Korean military officers and played a key role in helping his new boss solidify his grip on power over the military. Kim was one of seven officials who escorted Kim Jong-il's funeral hearse last year. He also read a eulogy to the dead leader on behalf of the military.
Meanwhile, the North Korean regime on Tuesday decided to bestow on Kim Jong-il the title of "Generalissimo" for his feats, which apparently include elevating the country's status to that of a nuclear power, and building and putting into orbit a satellite. Until now, only Kim Il-sung, the late founder of North Korea, held the title, which was bestowed upon him two days before his 80th birthday in 1992.
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BANGKOK: Thai investigators believe they have found a link between this weeks bomb blasts in Bangkok and New Delhi, a security official said on Wednesday, two of three attacks Israel has blamed on Iran.
The individual was in possession of the same magnets and we are currently examining the source of the magnet, National Security Council Secretary Wichian Podphosri said.
A man carrying an Iranian passport lost a leg when a bomb he was carrying in Bangkok went off on Tuesday after an earlier explosion, apparently accidental, at a house he was renting. His other leg had to be amputated. The suspect, identified as Saeid Moradi, was in stable condition in a Bangkok hospital, although he remained unconscious after 10 hours of surgery, said hospital surgeon Suparung Preechayuth.
Police said he had been charged with illegal possession of explosives, causing explosions, attempted murder and assaulting a police officer.
Two other men shared the rented house with him. One was arrested at Bangkoks international airport on Tuesday but he has not yet been charged. The other was arrested on Wednesday afternoon at Kuala Lumpur airport as he tried to board a plane to Tehran, Malaysian police said. The suspect, in his 30s, had evaded authorities at Bangkok airport and flown to Malaysia.
Police Inspector General Ismail Omar said he was arrested on intelligence from Thai authorities and was being investigated for terrorism activities related to the Bangkok bombings.
In the Bangkok attack, one bomb went off in the bombers home. Another was thrown at a taxi that wouldnt take one of the men who left the house. The third blew off the mans leg when he tried to throw it at police and it either went off before he could throw it or it hit something and ricocheted back at him.
The American, British and Australian embassies in Bangkok told their citizens to be vigilant in light of the explosions but did not advise against travel to the capital.
A day earlier in the Indian capital, a bomb wrecked a car taking an Israeli embassy official to pick up her children from school, police said. The woman was in stable condition on Wednesday after surgery to her spine and liver. Her driver and two passers-by suffered lesser injuries in the attack.
On the same day, an attempt to bomb an Israeli embassy car in Tbilisi failed and the device was defused, Israeli and Georgian officials said.
Israels ambassador to Thailand said the bombings in Bangkok, New Delhi and Tiblisi bore similarities.
If you put together all the details that we have until now, including the disclosure of the explosives, they are very similar, if not the same as that were used against our diplomats and our people in India and Georgia, he told Thai TV.
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Yoshihiko Noda tells defense minister that military action would be dangerous and could escalate standoff between Iran, West.
Not to mention cutting off Japan's oil supply.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda warned Defense Minister Ehud Barak against attacking Iran in a meeting held in Tokyo Wednesday.
Barak visited Japan following a week-long tour of Asia, including stops in Singapore and Thailand.
During the meeting, Noda told Barak that military action would be dangerous and could escalate the stand-off between Iran and the West, a Japanese news agency reported.
Silly man! Japan is in the Far East, Israel is in the Middle East. Do they not teach geography in Japan anymore?
Barak asked Noda to step up Japan's efforts to reduce oil imports from Iran.
"Iran ordered the execution over the past few days of a series of terrorist attacks that again demonstrate the danger this regime poses to global stability," Barak said.
Barak will remain in Japan until Sunday. The consequences of unilateral attack are still fresh in the minds of many older Japanese. They probably mean it as a friendly caution, although the tone is somewhat condescending. I reckon we should just take it for what it's worth.
#6
90% of Japanese oil and gas flows out of the gulf. A disruption, even of a couple days would be very difficult on them.
Can't say I really blame their tactic here either. However, if Obama was using "Smart Diplomacy", he could arrange for the oil and gas to come from other sources, including the US for our allies so disruptions would be minimal before attacking.
#7
A disruption, even of a couple days would be very difficult on them
Yes. Based on personal observation andother sources, the Japanese have long cultivated a relationship with the Iranians to ensure that the oil shipments are unimpeded, including favors such as using Japanese-flagged hulls.
QUETTA: The Functional Committee of Senate on Human Rights on Wednesday expressed its serious concerns over violation of human rights in Balochistan and suggested laws to curb the powers of intelligence agencies. The committee also expressed its concern over the recovery of mutilated bodies of missing persons, target killings of labourers, doctors, teachers and increasing incidents of kidnapping for ransom in the province.
The committee, which met under Afrasiab Khattak, said laws should be made to curtail the power and influence of security agencies and bring them under the democratic control of parliament.
Because that's what Pakistain needs, more laws on human rights. They can enshrine the new laws right next to the old ones...
Addressing a news conference, Afrasiab Khattak said the committee had met in Quetta to assess the prevailing security situation in the province. Human rights condition is deteriorating here, particularly with the recovery of mutilated bodies of political leaders and increasing incidents of kidnappings, he said.
This act is giving a message that state and its institutions do not consider them [the victims of target killings] their own people. It is common perception here that that secret agencies are involved in enforced disappearances and dumping the mutilated bodies. If it is true, the government should control its institutions since this act is badly damaging the sovereignty of the country.
Khattak said some militant groups are also targeting labourers and teachers. The violence in every shape is wrong and unjustified. Those who are involved in these killings are also not well-wisher of Balochistan, he said.
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A U.S. embassy employee was released after being held for questioning in Pakistain on Tuesday when airport security officials discovered bullets in his luggage, police said.
The American was about to fly from the northwestern city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar to the capital Islamabad when he was taken into police custody, said Tahir Ayub, a senior police superintendent.
He was released after four hours when officials from the U.S. consulate in Peshawar produced documents to show the man worked at the consulate.
"He's been released to the consulate," a U.S. official in Islamabad said. "He's at the consulate now."
The American is an embassy employee usually based in Islamabad but was temporarily assigned to the Peshawar consulate, the official said.
Police officers had earlier said they would hold the man until his identity had been verified by the foreign office in Islamabad and a U.S. official in the capital had said the embassy was looking into the details of the reports.
"He has diplomatic status," the official said. "We're in contact with Pak authorities on the details on the case."
Ayub said a pistol and 12 magazine rounds had been recovered from the man's luggage, while another police officer said security officials had only found bullets.
#1
Last year, my dad let me borrow a bag of his because I had too much stuff.
After arriving in China and unpacking, I found two .38 special cartridges. I would have been totally fucked had they been discovered in America. I'm talking federal crime, arrested, boom. Even if the judge accepted my story as true, which it was, I would have still been looking at serious penalties.
God forbid the Chinese side had discovered them. Thanks a lot, Dad.
Israeli Air Force locates targets in northern, southern Gazoo Strip; IDF identifies direct hits, holds Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, responsible for rocket attacks; strikes come after rocket attacks hit southern communities.
The IDF struck targets in the Gazoo Strip Wednesday night, after five rockets fired from the Strip pounded farming regions in southern Israel.
The Israel Air Force attacked "centers of terror activity in the northern and southern Gazoo Strip," the IDF Spokesman's Office announced in a statement, identifying direct hits.
"The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli citizens or IDF soldiers, and will continue to act against any terrorist activity against the State of Israel," the IDF said. "Hamas is a terrorist organization, and bears all responsibility."
Paleostinian reports of the attack did not mention any casualties.
The IDF said Wednesday night's strikes were a response to rocket fire targeting southern communities in Israel bordering the Strip.
Two rockets went kaboom! in the Sdot Negev Regional Council, two more fell in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, and a fifth fell in the Eshkol Regional Council.
No injuries or damage were reported in the attacks.
"We can't accept this drizzle of rockets," Yair Farjun, head of the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council said following the attacks. "We live in a bizarre reality" Farjun told The Jerusalem Post. "We switch from emergency and then back to routine. We've lived like this for many years."
Farjun recounted a rocket attack last Friday evening in which a projectile smashed into an area between two homes in a kibbutz, "shattering the tranquility of the Sabbath. And tonight, we heard a massive boom again."
He added that Israel "can't tolerate such a continuing situation, where our calm is shattered. It must be made clear to them that there is a price to this."
On Friday, a Kassam rocket went kaboom! in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, causing light damage to buildings in the blast radius. The attack prompted a response from the Israel Air Force, which struck four terror targets on Saturday night.
Hospital officials in Gazoo said that the air strike killed a Paleostinian civilian, a guard in his 50s or 60s at an animal farm east of Gazoo City. His caravan was hit by a missile and his adult son was maimed, the officials said.
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Amanda Holden (British) aka Judge on "Britain's Got Talent (2007present)" aka Lizzie in "Big Top (TV Series 2009)" aka Sarah Trevanion in "Wild at Heart (TV Series 2006 )" aka Mia Bevan in "Cutting It (TV Series 2002 )" (age 42)
#6
WAS the hawt would be the operative word. Hasn't aged well. See mud fence.
I'm willing to cut her plenty of slack on this score since she just turned 67. The genetic staying power of Lauren Bacall and Julie Christie is a rare thing.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
02/16/2012 23:34
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(Naharnet) - India will next month test a new long-range nuclear-capable missile which can strike targets more than 5,000 kilometers away, a defense research front man said on Wednesday.
The announcement came three months after India successfully tested its Agni-IV missile, which was previously the longest range missile possessed by the armed forces capable of travelling 3,500 kilometers.
"The trial of Agni-V is planned for March and its individual technologies and sub-systems have been tested and everything is fine," a front man for the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"Agni-V is a highly accurate and state-of-art missile system which can carry nuclear weapons," the official said, declining to disclose the size of the warhead it could carry.
Agni means fire in Sanskrit language.
The DRDO front man said India, which carried out a string of nuclear detonations in 1998, was developing an array of ballistic missiles as a "deterrence" and the move should not be seen as a threat to any country.
"Our strategic missiles are for deterrence and are not country-specific. They are meant to ensure peace," the front man said.
The Agni series is being developed by the DRDO under an Integrated Guided Missile Development Program launched in 1983.
India is among the world's top 10 military spenders. It plans to splurge $50 billion by 2015 to upgrade its million-plus military.
India, which will soon clinch a deal for 126 warplanes that can carry nuclear-tipped bombs, has fought three wars with historical rival Pakistain since their independence in 1947.
It also fought a brief but bloody conflict with uneasy neighbor China in 1962 over their border dispute, which remains unresolved despite several rounds of high-level negotiations.
(Naharnet) - Syria's Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... has decreed to hold a referendum for a new constitution on February 26, the official SANA state news agency reported on Wednesday.
Don't we have a Supreme Court justice we can lend out for the effort?
"President Bashir al-Assad issued today a decree setting Sunday, February 26, as the date for the referendum on the draft constitution," SANA reported.
Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said the new constitution would allow the "people to govern the people" under a new multi-party democratic system.
It said that under the proposed text, freedom is "a sacred right" and that any violation of personal freedom is considered a crime punishable by law.
On Sunday, a commission tasked with drawing up a new constitution submitted a draft charter to Assad, SANA reported, adding he would review it and send it to the People's Assembly before a vote.
In January, Assad said a new constitution was being drawn up by a committee set up in October to replace the current one, which enshrines his Baath party's dominant role.
At the time, he said it could be put to a popular vote as early as March, although that date for the ballot has now been brought forward.
Syria's government lifted a state of emergency in April last year and in July adopted a law allowing a multi-party political system.
OTTAWA -- The Harper government's controversial bill to end the long-gun registry has passed the House of Commons, marking the end of a long political battle over one of the most controversial law enforcement measures in recent memory.
The bill passed easily, by a margin of 159 to 130, as the Conservatives used their majority in the House secure passage of the bill, which now goes to the Senate where the Conservatives also have a majority.
This should make it easier for the Government to block efforts by the environmental lobby to prevent building the oil pipeline.
The Senate hearings are expected to take several weeks before the bill is passed into law.
#1
The Canadian Government will now impose a "Stupid People" registry; liberals are forming up queues to comply.
Posted by: Steven ||
02/16/2012 0:19
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#2
This liberal fantasy of a control-over-the-masses registry wasted a huge amount of money, and accomplished nothing. And they pulled it off with the same b.s. arguments the gun controllers in the US used.
Hopefully, the conservatives will lose their embarrassment 'aboot' doing the right thing, which by their statements they do seem to be embarrassed 'aboot'; and look South to the United States to see what we have done, with its universally positive effects.
#4
I second that, Twobyfour, and hope that the rest of the stupid gun laws will also be killed . . . someday.
Over the years I have made some donations to the CPC with the result that they call me for money about once a month. Lately I've been telling them "Not one more penny until the long gun registry is dead". It's not dead until the Senate has passed it, Royal assent has been granted and the registry erased completely. Then and only then does my wallet get opened.
MIAMI: US prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals filed charges on Tuesday against a Pakistani who grew up outside Baltimore, alleging he plotted with al Qaeda to attack US targets and assassinate former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf.
The charges against defendant Majid Khan allege that in 2002, he donned an explosives vest and sat in a mosque in Karachi, where Musharraf was expected. He planned to blow himself up and kill Musharraf, but the plot was foiled when the president failed to show up, the charges said.
Prosecutors allege Khan, 31, was an al Qaeda operative who reported directly to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the self-described mastermind of the September 11 attacks. Khan is accused of plotting with Khalid Sheikh to blow up underground gasoline storage tanks in the US attacks that were apparently not carried out. Khan is also accused of conspiring with al Qaeda operatives in Indonesia to bomb bars, cafes and nightclubs frequented by Westerners.
Khan, a Pakistani with legal US residence, moved with his family to Baltimore in 1996 and graduated from high school there three years later.
Shouldn't he be in Guantanamo?
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SANAA Outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ordered his pictures to be replaced by those of his vice president, who is due to take his place later this month, state news agency Saba reported Wednesday.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ordered all authorities and institutions public and private, across the country, to take down his pictures from public squares, streets, buildings and offices and raise those of Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, Saba reported.
Referendum-like elections will be held in Yemen on Tuesday to approve Hadi, the sole candidate, as a consensus president for a two-year term, as per a Gulf-brokered deal which Saleh signed in November after months of pressure. Under the deal, which came in response to an uprising that began in January 2011, Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for three decades, will hand power to Hadi, a southerner, in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution.
But while most members of the opposition welcome the election, members of the Southern Movement, who say it fails to meet their aspirations for autonomy or southern independence, have been campaigning for a boycott of the poll. The more extreme factions led by Yemen Socialist Partys former leader Ali Salem al-Baidh have openly called for preventing the poll from taking place at all.
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(Naharnet) - Iran announced new strides in its nuclear program on Wednesday, in a defiant blow to U.S. and EU pressure to rein in its atomic activities and amid signs of an increasingly vicious covert war with Israel over the issue.
President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad unveiled on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
what was described as Iran's first domestically produced, 20-percent enriched nuclear fuel for Tehran's research reactor.
He also said 3,000 more centrifuges had been added to his country's uranium enrichment effort.
And Ahmadinejad said that uranium exploration in Iran had been stepped up and a new yellowcake processing factory would be "pre-launched" next month.
Officials said new-generation centrifuges had been installed at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility that are able to produce three times more enriched uranium than previous models.
Bomb them now. Friday before the start of the Sabbath would be nice, for the sake of the Orthodox missiliers.
The developments underlined Tehran's determination to forge ahead with nuclear activities despite tough sanctions from the West -- and despite speculation that Israel or the United States could be months from launching military strikes against Iran.
Iran portrayed the advances as evidence it was only interested in peaceful nuclear goals, under the slogan "nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for none."
#5
I think some of the libs in Foggy Bottom running our Middle Eastern policy would rather eat glow in the dark caviar than eat anything raised or grown in Israel.
It seems to me that the only thing keeping all of the Iranian nuke sites from being glow in the dark smoking craters is the US heel dragging and sniveling around espousing a "diplomatic solution."
The libs and most diplomats never learn you cannot negotiate a treaty with someone who will either not negotiate or has no intention of honoring the treaty once the ink is dry.
We could have put an end to this crap in Iran years ago.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/16/2012 12:23
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#5 - or, per Spengler's rule #1: A man or a nation at the brink of death does not have a "rational self-interest
#7
NEWSMAX > {USDNI Director LTG Ronald Burgess] US INTEL CHIEF: IRAN UNLIKELY TO START [any]CONFLICT, unless it is attacked or provoked first.
* Also from NEWSMAX > PANETTA: ISRAEL SHOULDN'T ACT ALONE ON IRAN. US SecDef Leon + German DM Thomas De Maiziere'.
Various Perts + Bloggers around the MSM-Net feel similarly, i.e. believe Israel can't + shouldn't attack Iran by itself.
* SAME > [Sky News] FEAR IRAN HELPING ["core" = Ayman] AL-QAIDA FOR SPECTACULAR ATTACK, agz the US-West, e.g. 2012 London Olympics, in retaliation for any US or Israel milstrike on Iran or revenge for the successful US SEAL-led raid on Osama Bin Laden at Abbottabad.
Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat -- The latest session of the trial of the 85-member terrorist cell accused of being responsible for the 2003 Riyadh Compound Bombings took place in Riyadh on Tuesday. The Special Criminal Court in Riyadh, which specializes in overseeing terrorism and national security cases, heard the confessions of 6 defendants who are accused of being members of the Al Qaeda organization and traveling to Afghanistan, in addition to possessing arms and explosives and attempting to murder security officers.
One of the defendants in the Riyadh Compound Bombing trial denied the charges made against him by the Saudi Public Prosecutor, including allegations that he had met with known terrorist figures in Afghanistan. The defendant also claimed that there was no truth to the allegations that he was in possession of false passports and a large amount of money when arrested. He also claimed that he had not been arrested, but had rather handed himself over to the authorities. This is contrary to the Saudi Public Prosecution's allegations that the defendant was given up by his father.
In addition to this, the six defendants explained that they had travelled to Afghanistan after being inspired by religious fatwas issued by Saudi clerics.
This trial is part of the trial of the Turki al-Dandani terrorist cell which was responsible for the 2003 Riyadh Compound Bombings, resulting in 35 people being killed, and 160 injured. The defendants being tried on Tuesday were defendants' number 8, 12, 16, 17, 28 and 36 of the al-Dandani cell.
The 6 defendants being tried, out of 85 defendants who are being tried as part of the al-Dandani terror cell, were granted additional time by the presiding judge to read their replies and confessions. The 6 defendants are facing a total of 117 charges.
The Saud Public Prosecutor, responding to some of the defendants denials, stressed the evidence of their guilt, as well as the defendants own confessions.
As for the defendants' claims that these confessions were taken under duress, the prosecutor called on the defendants to provide evidence to back up their claims.
Asharq Al-Awsat published information in 2010 that the Riyadh Compound Bombings had sought to replicate the 9/11 attacks in terms of coordinating the timings of the attack, and targeting more than one target.
A Saudi Human Rights Commission representative, in addition to local media, was present at the hearing on Tuesday.
In a previous Riyadh Compound Bombings trial last year, Defendant number 1 -- of 85 -- pled guilty to all charges against him. The defendant, a senior militant, described Osama Bin Laden as a martyr and wished his successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, success. The defendant said that he expected to be given the death penalty.
Might be a New Biplobi communist, might be an Old Biplobi communist...
Might even be one of those jihadi organizations, though one rarely sees those.
was killed in an `encounter`
Not quite a 'cross-fire' but it will do, it will do...
No,no, it's the same thing. They changed the name after the Rab was called before a judge for cross-firing too many people whose friends and relations claimed they were innocent and without blemish.
with RAB at Padamdi village in Shailkupa upazila in Jhenaidah district on Monday night.
We have no idea where that is.
But a fine-grained enough map, say 1:1, would likely reveal it to an examiner with very sharp eyesight and a 10x loupe...
Without naming the deceased
William? George? Bruce?
and the outlawed party that he belonged to,
Perhaps he was a Purba Banglar communist?
Mahfuzul Haque, Commander of Kushtia RAB camp 12, said they were secretly informed
Hat-tip to Mahmoud the Weasel...
Good old MtW -- the kids have been educated and married off, some of the lads set up in business for themselves, and the grandkiddies are heading off to university now. If only he weren't addicted to the adrenaline rush as he waits for the phone to ring, he'd retire.
that 7/8 members
Not quite a whole member...
That'd be Hadji 'Hafling' Mostafa. He was never quite the same after that chainsaw-juggling accident.
of an outlawed party gathered at the house of one Motiar Rahman to sit for a clandestine meeting tonight.
But don't tell anyone because it's clandestine...
Accordingly RAB 6
So a handoff from RAB 12 to RAB 6...
conducted a leisurely drive
With a truck containing the remains of the bad boy, all trussed and ready to dump...
at the village to arrest the alleged terrorists from the house at 9 pm, he stated.
Awfully early in the evening. Maybe RAB Team 6 had other encounters booked?
Sensing presence of RAB
"Hark! My spider-sense is tingling! Cheez, it's the RAB!"
the `terrorists` opened random, aimless fire on the elite force
Without hitting anyone of course...
provoking retaliation
They had to...
Of course. Rab sergeants are rightfully proud of the training their men get in the finer points of gunplay etiquette.
resulting an unidentified terrorist killed in line of fire
The line from the pistol to the back of his head just behind the ear
while the rest managed to escape
As if they were never there in the first place
leaving behind huge firearms, he added.
"We're talking HUGE firearms, boys!"
"But Sarge, ours are bigger, right?"
"Of course, lad. Ours are always bigger. Allah himself has arranged the universe that this be so forever."
Following the encounter the RAB team conducted a search and found the bullet-hit body of an unidentified `terrorist` lying in a room of the house
Right where they left him...
'terrorist' - sounds like someone once worked for Reuters.
and they also recovered seven firearms and 22 rounds of ammunitions from the house.
Apparently the deader didn't even rate a date with Dr. Quincy at the local medical school morgue...
RAB cordoned the house for several hours soon after the gunfight died down.
So that they could party in peace and quiet...
The gun fires sent a panic wave in the village.
"Oh! Oh! GUNS in our village! Why we never!"
RAB said they recovered two shot guns, one shutter gun, 2 LG, one 9 mm pistol,
Hey! That's only six! Where's the seventh firearm recovered?
two live bombs and 22 bullets of rifle and other guns.
Early in the evening or not, it was a good encounter and so RAB Team 6 earned the coveted placement of a shutter gun at the side of the victim perpetrator. After collecting the usual trophy photographs, the shutter gun was cleaned, put back into its velvet-lined case and returned to the RAB headquarters.
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#1
wamiq sheikh troll talks thusly: "USA EARTH MIDGET POWER", and "CANADIAN WORLDWIDE PEACE ADDICTION CAMPAIGN APPEAL", amongst the other feverish islamoid turditude.
Well,with the demise of USA midget power, we Canucks would have to step up the plate. We're all for peace... through superior firepower.
(A group of Canucks (some are of Hindu origin) works on a weapon code-named Garuda Puncher. It's totally quiet -- bare the buzz created by high voltage [have to end it there for top secret reasons]. It punches a clean surgical precision hole of a size of Canuck Loonie into anything. The only problem to resolve is to make it stop at some point--for example, if you lined up all the Pakis in a column, one push of a button would make them "holed", and consequently "demised"--make it three-four pushes of a button, to cover differing tallness of the Paki induhviduals. We are also working on audio recognition--if someone utters an Islamic call to prayer or shahada, the Garuda Puncher would zoom on the subject and automatically punch, going six inches above the vocal box)
#3
TW, Paki nutjobs... which country doesn't have them at this juncture, to their eternal shame. Sad is that a few hundred years back, they were all normal people.
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.
The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent until 2014. The official unemployment rate excludes those individuals who would like to work but have not searched for a job in the past four weeks as well as those who are working part-time but would prefer full-time work; if those people were counted among the unemployed, the unemployment rate in January 2012 would have been about 15 percent. Compounding the problem of high unemployment, the share of unemployed people looking for work for more than six monthsreferred to as the long-term unemployedtopped 40 percent in December 2009 for the first time since 1948, when such data began to be collected; it has remained above that level ever since.
The United States Department of Treasury will reach the the statutory limit it is allowed to borrow money before election day, according to a new study by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio., former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
Hazam al-Thahb, Yemeni tribal chief from the southeastern Yemeni town of Rada, which was briefly taken over by al-Qaeda militants, killed his younger brother, Tariq al-Thahb, a high-profile leader in AQAP.
Four Taliban 
Wazoo
MOSCOW - Russian security forces have killed a leader of an Islamist rebel group in the North Caucasus who was accused of plotting a botched 
(Naharnet) - 
(Naharnet) - Sacked South Sudanese members of the Sudanese military pelted motorists and police with stones and blocked traffic on Wednesday to protest delays in their severance pay, witnesses said.
ANKARA - A former head of Turkey's armed forces is to go on trial after judges agreed on Wednesday there were sufficient grounds to prosecute him on charges of attempting to overthrow the government.
OSLO, Norway: An Iraqi-born cleric pleaded not guilty in a Norwegian court Wednesday to charges of making death threats against politicians and encouraging suicide bombings.
(Naharnet) - Jordan has given assurances to 
David Cameron
Walid 
Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat -- The latest session of the trial of the 85-member terrorist cell accused of being responsible for the 2003 
Zawahiri
SANAA A Yemeni journalist who was close to slain US-born radical cleric 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
QUETTA: The Functional Committee of Senate on Human Rights on Wednesday expressed its serious concerns over violation of human rights in Balochistan and suggested laws to curb the powers of intelligence agencies. The committee also expressed its concern over the recovery of mutilated bodies of missing persons, target killings of labourers, doctors, teachers and increasing incidents of kidnapping for ransom in the province.
A U.S. embassy employee was released after being held for questioning in Pakistain on Tuesday when airport security officials discovered bullets in his luggage, police said.
Israeli Air Force locates targets in northern, southern 
(Naharnet) - India will next month test a new long-range nuclear-capable missile which can strike targets more than 5,000 kilometers away, a defense research 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Mahmoud 
Kushtia - A member of an `extremist` group 
